WK64 'Inspired Transfer Meeting'

Dear Family and Friends!

First of all, I am very excited for this upcoming transfer! As some of you already know I was transferred up to the amazing area of Stuart as a zone leader with Elder Torres. It is really exciting because Elder Torres and myself have been wanting to be companions for a very long time and finally the Lord gave it to us! It is amazing up here and I am excited to tell ya'll about the many miracles that will be happening! I truly know that this transfer meeting was inspired directly from God and know we will be seeing miracles here in our area and throughout the entire zone!

 

New Companions, Elder Torres & Elder Pond

This week Elder Torres and myself went out and worked very hard in our own area as well throughout the zone! In our area we saw many miracles and found many people who have strong desires to come unto Christ through baptism. The very first day we went out and got to work. We prayed for a place to go harvest, felt inspired to go to a certain area, so we got in the car and drove over there. When we got to the area before we got out of the car we prayed and then started walking. The first people we saw outside we came up to and offered to leave our Saviors peace and blessing. They allowed us to and wanted to be baptized! Then we asked who we could go leave this same prayer with and they sent us to their neighbor who is sick. We left the blessing with her and she wanted to be baptized! Then we asked her who we could leave this blessing with and she sent us to her neighbor as well. When we met her neighbor she broke down in tears and started talking about how badly she has been struggling with everything. We then left a blessing with her and she accepted baptism as well. God blessed us immensely as we were diligent immediately after transfer meeting, and as we asked everyone for referrals!

 

The Zone is doing things that have never been done before as well! Elder Torres and myself had our Zone Training this Friday and it was able to be a huge converting experience for the zone. We set our zone standard for at least 90 NI every single week, which is something that has never been done before. It was amazing to see that as the zone applied the training and kept the fire going we were able to get 118 NI as a zone. The new record! This will fuel us for some huge weeks ahead of baptizing and creating Zion!

Being up here in Stuart is crazy because we drive a lot! The Stuart Zone is huge and even our area is incredibly big. But what was amazing was this Sunday was Stake Conference and I was able to see some of my converts from Wellington. It was really powerful to see how much they have progressed and how amazing they are doing! I do know that this is the Lords work!

Well I gotta go cause we have been working really hard and I am incredibly tired. But ya'll are amazing keep up the work of the Lord!

 

With Love,

Elder Pond

WK63 'Transfer Full of Miracles!!'

Dear Family and Friends!

I feel impressed to start off this email with an immense sense of gratitude for all that my Father in Heaven has done for me recently! I am eternally grateful that I am able to feel of the great and marvelous love that He has for me and all of His children. He has blessed us with so many amazing miracles this past transfer, and feel honored that He trusted us enough to give us the strength to lead ten of his children into the waters of baptism. Last night we received transfer calls and I will be transferred away from the amazing area of Plantation! Off to my fifth area which is super crazy! But I love the area of Plantation with all of my heart and definitely will miss it. But I do know that I must trust in the Lord with all my heart. At the same time I am extremely excited for what he has in store for me as His servant this upcoming transfer. I know through continued humility and diligence in His work I will continue to see miracles from God come to pass.

This week we saw huge miracles with harvesting! While we were introspecting on the past couple of weeks and what we can do even better we felt like our harvesting needed to be more led by the Spirit and powerful. So we set those goals and went out to work hard this week! As we followed the Spirit we were able to meet one person that when we invited her to be baptized she exclaimed, "I have been thinking about getting baptized for the longest time so the other week I prayed for it to happen. I know God sent you here to baptize me!" We also met another that exclaimed she was going through really difficult times and feels an incredible peace whenever she is with us. Then we met a family of five that were all looking for a church and when we invited them to be baptized they all accepted readily. We also were led to someone who said, "Lately I've been going through a really tough time. I wanted someone to pray with me and needed to know what God wanted me to do. So I prayed and a couple days later you guys showed up. When you invited me to be baptized I knew that is what will give me the strength that I need to continue to move foreword." Our loving Heavenly Father blesses us as we give him our all and truly listen to the Spirit.

We also saw a huge miracle this week with an amazing lady that we were helping prepare to be baptized this Sunday. She has had a few dates in the past but something always came up that caused her to get cold feet and not get baptized. This week we were not going to let that happen though! So at the beginning of the week we made a specific baptismal plan for her that involved members like the Relief Society President coming over with us. We went about and executed that plan as flawlessly as possible. But then Sunday came and an hour before her baptism she called us and told us that she doesn't feel ready and to not come over till tomorrow. We were confused but we wouldn't take anything as a reason for this amazing daughter of God to not get baptized. So the next day when we went over there we began by serving her and helping her load things out of and into her truck. Then finally we got to sit down and minister unto her. We began with a humble prayer unto God and then started to testify concerning baptism and how the Spirit of God has told her to come unto Christ through baptism and she needed to listen! Then we asked her the question of how Christ expects her to trust in Him at this time. She said to be baptized. So we testified of Christ once again and said now be baptized this day! She talked about how she had to watch her grandchildren and her car can't fit them. But then we called a member, arranged a ride for all of them, and she was baptized. Huge miracles come from God always! We must always trust in our Savior Jesus Christ!

The District here in Plantation is absolutely amazing! I have grown to love Sisters Dougal, Gordon, Merrill, Stegelmeier, and Elder Rondo a lot. I have seen them grow tremendously for sure! Likewise because of the amazing missionaries they are I have learned an immense amount from them! I am definitely sad to leave them but know that they will continue to see many mighty miracles and become the Children of God that God wants them to become!

Well I truly love and appreciate all of you a lot. But most importantly I truly love and appreciate my loving Heavenly Father. I love Him with my whole heart and soul. I know this work is His. I will continue to submit my will fully unto God. I know this Gospel is true!!

With Love,

Elder Pond

WK62 'Serve Him!!'

Dear Family and Friends!


In the Miracle month of March we did what has never been done before again! My heart is full and my joy is brim that we were able to destroy our baptismal goal of 155 and get 168 as a mission! I know this was possible through our exact obedience, diligence, teaching ability, and conversion to the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. And only through trusting upon the one and only Jesus Christ. This is just evidence of His mighty strength not ours at all. This month I know that as we continue to press foreword with faith in Christ we will once again do what has never been done before!

We saw huge miracles this week!! It was amazing to see the conversion process of someone that we harvested a while back. Elder Wardell and I were biking down a street that we always bike down and the Spirit hit both of us that we needed to stop and knock on this one door. So we listened, locked up our bikes, knocked on the door, and someone answered. We identified ourselves as Representatives of Jesus Christ and he said he wasn't interested and didn't need our prayer. But then we testified!! Most importantly we testified of our Savior Jesus Christ. He then let us pray with him and we specifically were guided to pray for him to find a job. He then accepted baptism, and found two jobs but got extremely busy and had to work Sundays. His family then all got baptized but this past Sunday he got off and came to church. He had a glow about him at church. As he was sitting down in sacrament meeting and we were having testimony meeting he tapped me and asked what was happening. I explained how anyone can go up and  bear testimony and challenged him to go up. He then did! He bore powerful testimony of Christ and what He has done for him in his life. He is now preparing to be baptized once we sort everything out with his probation and it is amazing to already see the change in his life as he has been able to testify of the Atonement of Christ.

This week we also started teaching a professional football player. He plays for the Miami Dolphins and has a super strong desire to follow Christ. The gospel is for all of God's children!!

The District is doing amazing and we are gonna make sure we come in with a lot of fire this week to kick April off strong! I have absolutely enjoyed serving in this amazing District the time that I have so far! Whatever the Lord has in store for me this next transfer is in his hands. But I know whatever does happen, I will continue to serve the Lord with all of my heart!

I love ya'll and next letter will let you know what the Lord has in store for me concerning leaving or staying in Plantation!

With Love,

Elder Pond

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