Dear Family and Friends!!
I love you all so much! I just want to thank everyone for always being amazing examples in my life and helping me get to where I am today! But this week we had zone conference and it is always inspiring to meet as representitives of our Savior Jesus Christ and learn from the Spirit! I love it! Fort Lauderdale South is absolutely amazing! I love it down here and we are finding amazing success. I absolutely love missionary work especially with harvesting! I'll share a few of many miracles that have been happening here in our area!
Elder Hall and I were finishing up harvesting a street that I definetely felt the Lord wanted us to harvest and find some people searching for the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We saw a bunch of people leaving out of this house to go to the beach and my immediate thought was we will come back another time and knock on their door when they aren't so busy. So we passed by their door and kept knocking. But when we knocked on the next door we both felt that we neeeded to go back and right when we went back Joe stepped outside and began talking to us with a beer in his left hand and a cigarrette in his right hand. Immediately Joe opened up to us on how he truly wanted to change his life. We boldly testified that threw our Savior Jesus Christ that is possible, that miracles happen daily! We also testified that Jesus Christ sent us here to help him change his life! We blessed him, the Spirit was undeniably strong, and then immediately invited him to be baptized! He accepted and came to church with his family on Sunday and is extremely excited for their baptism this Sunday! This taught me that we need to follow the Spirit when we harvest and in every aspect of the work. To talk to EVERYONE!! As well that the Spirit leads us to those that are preparing to change their lives, so we must follow the Spirit!
Another miracle that happened was we were knocking this apartment complex and this lady was sitting outside giving us dirty looks the entire time we were there. The second we knocked on her neighbors door she went inside to avoid even talking to us. But Elder Hall and I looked at each other and with faith went to go knock her door. We knocked and she yelled threw the door "We are busy" and I just said that we are just leaving a blessing with people. No answer.. So we kept knocking in faith. But after a little bit she came out again and immediately said "Guys I am not interested at all". We lovingly but boldy testified that this blessing will bring more peace in her life that she needs at this time in her life. And that we know this blessing is from our Savior Jesus Christ. She said alright but hurry up. Before we began praying we asked her if there is anything that she needed in her life and she said, "Actually I just found out that my mom got diagnosed with cancer. Please pray for her". We testified that our loving Father in Heaven will hear this prayer. I offered the blessing and after the blessing she began to cry and thanked us so much. It made my day to see her attitude towards us change in the five minutes that we were with her and that was because the Spirit was there! We were exactly obeident, faith filled, and worthy in order to qualify for the Spirit. The Spirit changed her heart!
This week from the Book of Mormon I learned most that of the message that King Benjamin gives in Mosiah 2:41, "Consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God"! Simply enough when we follow our Father in Heaven we are blessed with happyness, peace, and miracles!
We saw another miracle of doing something that has not been done in our area in as long as I can look back by getting eleven amazing investigators to church this Sunday and eight of them are preparing to be baptized this upcoming Sunday! Our Father in Heaven is a God of miracles and I love it! Because of our faith and obedience I know the Lord is blessing us with the elect.
Elder Hall and I were finishing up harvesting a street that I definetely felt the Lord wanted us to harvest and find some people searching for the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We saw a bunch of people leaving out of this house to go to the beach and my immediate thought was we will come back another time and knock on their door when they aren't so busy. So we passed by their door and kept knocking. But when we knocked on the next door we both felt that we neeeded to go back and right when we went back Joe stepped outside and began talking to us with a beer in his left hand and a cigarrette in his right hand. Immediately Joe opened up to us on how he truly wanted to change his life. We boldly testified that threw our Savior Jesus Christ that is possible, that miracles happen daily! We also testified that Jesus Christ sent us here to help him change his life! We blessed him, the Spirit was undeniably strong, and then immediately invited him to be baptized! He accepted and came to church with his family on Sunday and is extremely excited for their baptism this Sunday! This taught me that we need to follow the Spirit when we harvest and in every aspect of the work. To talk to EVERYONE!! As well that the Spirit leads us to those that are preparing to change their lives, so we must follow the Spirit!
Another miracle that happened was we were knocking this apartment complex and this lady was sitting outside giving us dirty looks the entire time we were there. The second we knocked on her neighbors door she went inside to avoid even talking to us. But Elder Hall and I looked at each other and with faith went to go knock her door. We knocked and she yelled threw the door "We are busy" and I just said that we are just leaving a blessing with people. No answer.. So we kept knocking in faith. But after a little bit she came out again and immediately said "Guys I am not interested at all". We lovingly but boldy testified that this blessing will bring more peace in her life that she needs at this time in her life. And that we know this blessing is from our Savior Jesus Christ. She said alright but hurry up. Before we began praying we asked her if there is anything that she needed in her life and she said, "Actually I just found out that my mom got diagnosed with cancer. Please pray for her". We testified that our loving Father in Heaven will hear this prayer. I offered the blessing and after the blessing she began to cry and thanked us so much. It made my day to see her attitude towards us change in the five minutes that we were with her and that was because the Spirit was there! We were exactly obeident, faith filled, and worthy in order to qualify for the Spirit. The Spirit changed her heart!
This week from the Book of Mormon I learned most that of the message that King Benjamin gives in Mosiah 2:41, "Consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God"! Simply enough when we follow our Father in Heaven we are blessed with happyness, peace, and miracles!
We saw another miracle of doing something that has not been done in our area in as long as I can look back by getting eleven amazing investigators to church this Sunday and eight of them are preparing to be baptized this upcoming Sunday! Our Father in Heaven is a God of miracles and I love it! Because of our faith and obedience I know the Lord is blessing us with the elect.
So as you can see the work is going forth! We are pushing for the miracle of 100 baptisms two months in a row and need a miracle week to accomplish this but once again I know the Lord will provide!! Elder Hall is great we work together really well! I found out today that yesterday one of my old investigators that I baptized his grandma and aunt got baptized! It was amazing to hear! And now we are making Fort Lauderdale South a baptizing area in our baptizing mission! But Elder Hall has been out one transfer less than I have and he got trained in Key West and then came to Fort Laud South. I'm excited that we are getting this area rolling it's alot more ghetto than Wellington but still not as ghetto as most of the mission. Some places are just really run down and then when you get close to the ocean it gets really wealthy so we don't really go over there. I still haven't seen the ocean! But baptizing is much better than seeing the ocean and that's exactly what we are doing here! I love the work and I love the Lord! Hope to hear from ya'll soon!
This work is the Lords work and I love it!
With Christlike Love,
Elder Pond
This work is the Lords work and I love it!
With Christlike Love,
Elder Pond
