Dear Family and Friends!
This week especially I am extremely grateful for the guidance of the Lord and the Spirit! Once again we say many mighty miracles here in Cypress Creek! The Lord blessed us to be able to help four souls access the amazing gift of the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. Baptisms are amazing here too cause the Branch gets very excited and we actually do it in a swimming pool at a members home right off of the intercostal. Because the chapel that we are in isn't a LDS chapel we are renting it so it doesn't have a baptismal font. So yesterday I was able to baptize in a swimming pool so I thought that was pretty cool!
But on Saturday I was exchanges with Elder Torres, our zone leader, so he could do interviews for us. We left the apartment at 10 AM and went straight to work. We were biking everywhere, finding while we teach, teaching while we find, testifying with boldness, and just working as hard as we possibly could! But unfortunately all of our interviews that we had scheduled fell threw. We just knew that the Lord was ready to bless us with something amazing and he did! At 8:15 the Spirit prompted us to go see a family that has been waiting to get baptized for a long time but hasn't been able to (the kids could be baptized whenever but they were determined to wait for their mom to get permission). We knocked on their door and no one answered. I heard the Spirit say very clearly to knock again just louder. So I listened and they all answered the door. Immediately the kids exclaimed, "We need to get baptized tomorrow!" We testified of that's why Christ sent us here, they were interviewed, and baptized yesterday! I learned so much from this experience. First that we must ALWAYS listen to the Spirit because that comes directly from God. And second, that after all we could do and working extremely hard, the Lord provided souls for us to baptize. This work will continue as we trust in the Lord and work hard! That's the same in anything in life as well. If we TRUST in the LORD then all will be well!
We also saw a miracle with the Spirit softening many souls hearts. The first experience that we had in Cypress Creek was last Sunday we were biking up to the top of our area and as we were biking we ran into an investigator that before then had no desire to be baptized and didn't come to church. We started talking and we testified of the amazing Spirit that she missed at church that day. I looked her straight in the eyes and said, "Sister Williams, the Spirit told me very clearly at church that God NEEDS you to be baptized!" The Spirit was extremely strong and she accepted! We saw her every day this past week and every time we came over she felt the Spirit more and more. She came to church yesterday and was baptized after church! Then Sunday night we visited her and she gave us three referrals and said she's gonna go around to her neighbors tomorrow and then bring us over to them to baptize them! The Spirit is by which children of God are converted!
There was also a family that we went and saw and immediately they all started complaining on how God is putting too much on them and they don't feel like he loves them. We started with a prayer and then began testifying of the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. As we began doing so the Spirit got stronger and stronger and the expression on everyones faces completely changed. At the end of the lesson when we invited them to be baptized they readily accepted and were very excited. The Spirit once again worked a mighty change in them and gave them that amazing desire to enter into the waters of baptism!
I love you all from here in Cypress Creek! I are excited for the work to continue to progress in this Branch we continue to see miracles after miracles every single day.
And this week is transfers once again! I truly cannot believe how fast this transfer has flown. They just keep going faster and faster. But once again I am extremely excited for whatever the Lord has in store for me!
Tomorrow is my birthday and I plan for it to be the most successful day of my mission thus far! We won't go anywhere for dinner cause we just work threw dinners here so we can get more done. But I am excited for this to be the most amazing birthday in the world because I will be bringing God's children unto Christ!
I love you all and make sure you always trust in the Lord.
With Christlike Love,
Elder Pond
