WK61 'Repent!!'

Dear Family and Friends!

Well mission, district, and area wise this week was a little bit of a humbling week. We faced a lot of opposition and weren't able to do all that we had planned. But I know it is just God preparing us for even greater heights. We are going to do all that we can this week to remember what God needs us to so we can continue to see success!

We were able to leave many harvest blessings this week. It was amazing to see God put His children in our path as we always did all we can to speak with everyone. We had the attitude this week to bless everything that moved and because of that God blessed us and put many prepared people in our path!

It truly is amazing to see people countenance change after the Spirit touches them from the blessing. It happens all the time as we give the Lord all we have!

One thing that really hit me this week is how we truly must rely upon the Savior Jesus Christ. I know we say this all the time, but we must truly internalize this and be converted unto it! In our lives we often times put up walls around us that prohibit us from reaching our full potential. When this happens we must repent immediately and allow the Savior to remove those walls and thus we will become who God wants us to become!

I love you all and the work is moving foreword as always! Continue the work in the vineyard where ever you are called to labor, and Christ will labor along side you!

With Love,

Elder Pond

WK60 'The Atonement'

Dear Family and Friends!

Just another week in paradise! As always we were able to work extremely hard and see many mighty miracles! Work Ethic is one of my favorite "Qualifications for a Miracle" and is an expression of our love for the Lord as it says in Preach My Gospel. This week we saw many powerful experiences that as we worked hard and put our trust in God, he performed miracles for us.

There has been this family of four that I have been teaching since I got here. The 79 year old father was harvested before I got here and they weren't planning on going back and teaching him. But I had the strongest impression to go teach him and his family so we did! They have faced many trials as they have been progressing but we were able to help them overcome them. At the beginning of this past week as we were making baptismal plans for our progressing investigators we felt extremely inspired that this family would be baptized Saturday. So we wrote out a plan and executed it as best as we could. Then came Saturday and this family was baptized! It was amazing to see our plans come to life and with the strength of Christ this family now has the infinite gift of the Atonement of Christ! We must always make specific plans, trust in the Spirit, and execute those plans to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man!

Another experience that impacted me this week was with the family that got baptized last Sunday. One of her sons was at his friends house Sunday morning so he wasn't able to be baptized. But what was amazing was immediately following he saw how much baptism impacted his family and he wanted that for himself. So he was baptized Sunday and it was amazing!

Things are amazing though! The Mission, Zone, District, and our Area are doing things that have never been done before every single day! I know as we continue to do what God would have us do, we will see many mighty miracles! God loves all of His children. So we must baptize all of His children so they can fully partake of the Atonement of Christ! Let us press foreword in His work!!

With Love,

Elder Pond

WK59 'The Kingdom of God!!'

Dear Family and Friends!

This week was absolutely amazing!! Our loving Heavenly Father has been granting unto us enormous blessings here in Plantation, in the District, Zone, and Mission! Once again we have been able to have experiences that have converted many unto Christ and helped me become more converted unto Christ!

This week Elder Rondo and I were extremely busy running around doing baptismal interviews for the Sisters in our District. We had a bunch of meetings as well which left us with little time to spend in our area. To put on top of it we had many people who we made specific plans to baptize Sunday and were looking at a big weekend for the area of Plantation. But with not a lot of time in our own area we put our trust in God and knew that He would make all work out. Then Sunday came and when we went to round up all our investigators for church they were all there and ready! At church we were extremely blessed by God to have eleven investigators there to taste of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Then we began to prepare for the stake baptism that we were having and had four Children of God all dressed in white ready to be baptized. One of the baptisms was a lady named Elenis who is one hundred percent blind and exercised a lot of faith in Christ to enter into the waters of baptism. Her family was suppose to be baptized with her but her son and grand-daughter got scared Saturday night and decided to wait till they felt "ready". But we let the Spirit take care of that one! As I was able to baptize Elenis the rest of her family was front and center and you could see it in their faces that they felt the Spirit. So after everyone had been baptized Elder Smoot asked me to pull the plug and I told him to wait, cause we are gonna have two more baptisms! So we went to Elenis' family, recognized the Spirit we felt, stood at the baptismal font and read Alma 7:15, and they both accepted to be baptized right there! We hurried and gave them baptismal clothing they put them on and they were baptized right there! It was amazing to see God bless us for being diligent, and most importantly the Spirit work within them to get them into the waters of baptism "this day" as Alma says!

So the work here in Plantation and the mission is moving along! Time for "Miracle March"!! We were actually able to see a miracle from a recent convert this week! So one of our recent converts that is extremely converted signed up on ldssingles.org immediately following her confirmation. This week we got a call from her and she said, "I'm movin to Tampa!" Apparently she met some guy on ldssingles.org and he got her a job in Tampa and payed for her plane ticket to come live out there. Super crazy! Yesterday I spoke with her and the guy is a very faithful member of the Church and said they are planning on getting married in the temple in a year! I cannot believe it! It is crazy but super cool at the same time.

Well I love ya'll and know this is absolutely God's work. I know as we do all that we can for the Kingdom of God that God will provide the rest!

With Love,

Elder Pond

WK58 'Witness Time!!'

Dear Family and Friends!!

I cannot express the gratitude that I have in my heart for the Lord especially this week. I know even more now how much he truly is laboring along side us every step of the way. Elder Rondo and I saw huge miracles this week and the entire District saw huge miracles as well!
This week we saw a huge witness after the trial of our faith. Lately we have been working extremely hard and doing all that we can but have been seeing trials come up. A huge trial for me was the bike crash last Saturday night. And yes I am completely fine and nothing is wrong so don't worry about me at all! But as I allowed to Atonement to work within me we continued to "press foreword steadfastly with faith in Christ"! Then on Sunday we saw a huge miracle. We had four new investigators come to church for the first time that all have baptismal dates for next Sunday. As well as there is a part-member family where the father of the family was baptized about three years ago but due to problems with the mother of the family the kids have not been baptized even though they attend church every Sunday. We have had several extremely powerful, spiritual experiences with this family and one of the kids got interviewed on Friday to boost her desires even higher! She still was unsure about baptism. But before church on Sunday Elder Rondo and myself were able to testify to her and invite her to be baptized that day. She still expressed doubts about her mother and I had a spiritual impression to invite her for Tuesday. She still was unsure and then the church service started. But what is truly amazing is what happened after church! She walked up to us and exclaimed very clearly that she absolutely will get baptized Tuesday. The Spirit worked within her at church as we did all that we could and testified boldly with love. A huge witness of our faith and now she will be able to receive the Atonement of Christ!
The District is on fire with faith in Christ as well it is truly amazing! I got two brand new missionaries in my District straight from the MTC so it was been amazing to already begin and play an influential role in their conversion process as representatives of Christ. We also broke a record as a mission and had 44 baptisms this week!! The Lord is absolutely laboring along side us every step of the way.

I love the Lord. I know Jesus is the Christ. And I know with faith in Christ, ALL things are possible!

Love ya'll!!

Elder Pond

WK57 'Trust in the Big Man Upstairs!!'

Dear Family and Friends!!

Well first of all, this past transfer has been absolutely amazing! We have seen so many mighty miracles here in Plantation and the District! Now we have a new beginning ahead of us. I am excited to push foreword with faith this next transfer and see huge miracles! With God all things are possible, and this transfer we are always going to trust in God! And this transfer I will be staying here in Plantation and Elder Wardell will be leaving us. It is sad because I truly do love Elder Wardell but I am grateful for the Lord giving me something new to learn and grow from!

This week we definitely saw as we trusted in God, he granted us success. In District Training this week I trained about starting off the week strong to then finish strong! So we all made a commitment to God to not only get eight blessings by Wednesday, but be above average missionaries and get fifteen blessings by Wednesday! So Monday night we set out to harvest and our first couple of blessings were not elect people, we also were facing a lot of adversity with rude people. But we knew as we pushed threw it God would grant us success. That night our fifth and sixth blessing were extremely powerful, they both accepted baptism and church! The Lord gave us a witness of our faith as we put our trust in him. Then as we were walking back to our bikes we contacted this lady on her bike with her dog and got her address to come back the next day. When we came back the next day we left the harvest blessing with her and she began to cry. She exclaimed how she had never felt this kind of peace before in her life. As we testified of baptism and church and how that would bring that kind of peace into her life she readily accepted. God blessed us as we pushed threw adversity, and started off the week strong. I love seeing miracles like this every day and love that here in the FFLM we see them every single day!

But here in Plantation we are a car area but we end up biking a lot because we find amazing finding opportunities while we are on bike. Six of our baptisms last transfer came from contacts on the bike which is amazing!

Always trust in God fellow Brothers and Sisters and I can testify that all will be well. I do need to give a shout out this week to my little Sister Gabbe for her birthday on Saturday! She finna be fourteen and that's crazy!

But I love you all! May God be with you always!

With Love,

Elder Pond

WK56 'Centered in Christ'

Dear Family and Friends!!

This week was another amazing one in the work of the Lord! We had amazing zone conference where Elder Hallik of the seventy went on a mission tour of our mission! President also announced that all of our names will be going in the cornerstone of the Fort Lauderdale Temple and will rest there until the Savior comes again. I felt the Spirit very strongly and learned an incredible amount at this Zone Conference that Elder Wardell and myself have been applying in the work here in Plantation. It has been amazing here I absolutely love it! Here in Plantation I have definitely learned the principle that the Savior taught, "To him that believeth, all things are possible!"Cause generally Plantation has been a tough area to be in, but as we had faith in Christ we have turned that stigma around! We just must have faith centered in the Savior Jesus Christ and all things are possible! I know it!                                      
This past week we worked very hard and saw huge trials of our faith at the end of the week. So we know that God's promises will be fulfilled and this week we will receive a witness of our faith as we continue to press forward with faith! Yesterday we saw huge miracles and got five harvest blessings to start the week out strong. We have a goal to start the week of strong and get fifteen harvest blessings by Wednesday and we know this is possible!
It's amazing to see God lead us to His children that have been prepared, especially when they have been taught by missionaries already. This week we contacted this lady on the street and got her address to go bless her home. When we went over to bless her home we met her Sister and blessed her. She accepted baptism immediately and felt the Spirit of God very strongly. Then when we went back to teach her the next day she expressed how missionaries use to come and visit her. But ever since her family moved she hadn't seen us at all. She knew God sent us back to her and is very excited for baptism!
The district is doing well! We had a little bit of a rough week but are pressing foreword with faith in Christ this week to see miracles! In my district there are fairly young Sisters and no Elder companionship's. Although transfers are coming up next week and I heard through the grapevine that they are opening another Elder area and they will be in my District. So I'm excited! But it's amazing I love my District and am very excited for this next upcoming transfer!

Well I love ya'll back home a lot and continue to press forward in the work back there! A big shout out goes to my Mom for her birthday on Saturday!!

Remember, we must always have our faith centered in Jesus Christ.

With Love,

Elder Pond

WK55 'MIRACLES IN PLANTATION'

Dear Family and Friends!!

This week was another amazing one in the service of our God! I cannot express the gratitude I have for my loving Father in Heaven this week. He gave Elder Wardell and I so many mighty miracles. The biggest one was our baptisms! This week we worked very hard and had huge miracles happen with this Brazilian family. Ten days ago we were biking down a street that we felt inspired to bike down and saw this lady walking out of her house. We contacted her and blessed her home right then. The Spirit was very strong and she told us that was exactly what she needed at that time. Then we testified of Christ and invited her to be baptized and she expressed very little desire to do so. She told us of how she lived in Utah for six years and has many Mormon friends, met with missionaries for a long time and that we wouldn't be able to get her because she's Catholic. But we continued to testify and she committed to come to church. Then the next day when we followed up with her we solidified her coming to church and as we were leaving her cousin Carlos walked out and was leaving but very quickly we invited him to come to church. Then that Sunday they both came to church! After Gospel Principles we testified and set both of them with very soft dates for the next Sunday. But the next time we saw them was Tuesday and Lucia said, "What do we need to do to get baptized on Sunday?" They both had a complete change of heart threw the Spirit of God. They were baptized yesterday and as we put our trust in God, he allowed all to work out.

We also had another family that we were able to baptize and it was a huge miracle as well. We had the 22 year old daughter of a family who was set for baptism but her mom and two brothers were set on going up to Georgia and getting baptized in their home church. But after church on Sunday the mom came up to us and exclaimed that they wanted to be baptized today in God's church! We quickly got her to the interview with President Anderson and got her and the kids dressed in white. While all this was happening I had to bust out all the hymns I could and just play for an hour until the baptism could happen. Cause the mom's daughter who was for sure getting baptized had no idea the rest of her family finna get baptized and was waiting for the baptismal service to start. When her mom and two brothers walked in all dressed in white she began to cry. They were all baptized and it was absolutely amazing! Everyone this work is God's, without a doubt. He is one hundred percent laboring along side us every step of the way! I love my Father in Heaven, President Anderson as my mission father, and my earthly father as well!

The District is seeing huge miracles as well! For two weeks in a row every companionship baptized and we are on pace to do what has never been done before! My district is compiled of Elder Wardell and myselft, two Sisters serving in Davie, and two other Sisters serving in the Stake YSA Branch. They are amazing and I love them a lot!

Continue to press foreword in all that you do!

With Love,

Elder Pond