OH!! That was GOOD!! 06/15/15

Every baptism is speacial, but Dominick's was something else. His whole family came, including his Apostolic aunt, grand mother, and great GREAT grandmother. I was just waiting for a "HALLELUJAH!" to come out of the back row haha They have been waiting many years for this day, and were so excited to see it come to pass. They told us that if we could baptize him, we could baptize any one! I think the most excited one of them all was Dominick... He is usually a way quiet and reserved guy, but as he came up out of the water he shouted, "OHHH!! THAT was GOOD!" We all couldn't help but laugh. That smile of his for the rest of the service was so beautiful! Love this guy!! 

The week itself can be summed up in what went down yesterday. Dominick was confirmed, which was awesome, and Sarah and Janell came to church. Both of there dates for baptism were pushed back, but both are still way excited. Now I come to Sarah. We picked up her daughter Tiffany as a new investigator, and she had some incredible questions. They say that you are sent on a mission to your area because there was someone there that only you could touch. I am usually not a fan of that philosophy, since I sincerely believe God could do it without me, but the night of that lesson, something they said changed all that. The said the feel a special connection with me that they can't explain, and I responded that I could promise that it wasn't me, to which she said, "Doubt it. God is great and I feel you were hear for a reason deeper than you know. When you talk, we feel God strong." I don't think I can possibly receive a better compliment than that. I remember opening my mission call, and thinking "Seriously?", but I thank my God daily that I was called to serve in the Michigan Lansing Mission. There is nothing like being told by an investigator that you were called to an area to find them. 

Sarah Quote of the week:

"I have been watching the funeral of Elder L. Tom Perry (1st off, what investigator does that? haha ). Pretty deep... I can feel the love and the spirit so deeply... I honestly feel that being a Mormon is the way to go! Never felt this way. I have a lot going on lately. Almost didn't go to church, but the Holy Spirit said I must go, and I did. He talked to me through church today." There are no words. 

Janell is still way solid. We had a small anti scare, but she breezed through it. She came to church and out of the blue texted us afterwords saying "Church was great!" She wants to slow things down, but for a good reason. She came to Dominicks baptism and loved it. I look forward to her continued progression and conversion. 

Over the last few weeks, I have had the wonderful opportunity to give multiple blessings, and I wanted to share a couple of the experiences. We administered to a Sister Ware, a less active in the ward who has been plagued with infection, dementia, and addiction, and has been in the hosptial for 5 weeks without many visitors. The sister missionaries preceded the blessing with a beautiful spiritual thought on the Faith to be healed. While giving the blessing however, I felt strongly that I was not to promise healing. Rather I felt to comfort her with the knowledge of her near future freedom from this body and her forthcoming glorified body awaiting at the resurrection. The sisters were very surprised at the blessing, but notified us yesterday that she will probably pass away this week. Please keep her family in your prayers.

Saturday we were called to administer to a new born baby, who had air pockets in both lungs, and had contracted pneumonia, and was in the Neonatal ICU. It was a very sacred experience, in which I did feel impressed to promise healing, and yesterday we recieved word that the blessing worked, and the child was doing great. 

We don't do it enough as men, but I wanted to express my gratitude from the priesthood, and for our Heavenly Fathers incredible trust in giving it unto men. I know that it is real and was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

I really hope my joy in the work does not carry me away unto boasting, for I know that the Lord can do all of this and much much more without me. I am just so thankful and overjoyed that he has chosen to do this portion of the work through me. 

Love you all!

Elder Wheat

Dominick Lassiter Everybody!

6/8/15

I never thought I would have said it 5 months ago, but I love being a zone leader. The love I feel for the missionaries under my stewardship causes much anxiety to my heart, but I strangely love the feeling. I pray that every missionary could learn to love their mission. I pray that every missionary will feel joy and satisfaction in there work. What could I do to help them love what they do, and do it with diligence. Much of my thoughts this week have been spent on how to help the missionaries in my zone. Most of them are doing wonderfully, but there are a few who are very discouraged, and that hurts me. I have been anxious about converts, missionaries, and investigators to the breaking point this week, but I trust that they are in the Lords hands. I just have to trust that he will take care of them. Notwithstanding all these things, I will do what I can cheerfully and leave the rest to the Lord.

Let me tell you about Sarah! If there is anything I am sure of its that the adversary is real. That being said, we have power to overcome. She is being hit hard from everyside and is frustrated that she isn't changing as fast as she wants to. Her family is hard on her for the decisions she is making but she is not letting it stop her. Her significant other is not as enthused as she is, so the marraige has been pushed back, as well as the baptism, but she is just as on fire as ever. In one of our lessons, she needed to vent about everything going on, and we read Mosiah 4:27 with her which reads, "See that all these things are done in wisdom and order, for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize." After the lesson she posted on facebook:

"Had a meeting earlier with some very awesome people ,, I swear you two have something real special . I. Am ever so thankful you have entered my life ... The script you read to. Me has set in.. I keep hearing those words of not running a marathon just sprint ..." Gotta love it :)

This week she brought 3 of her daughters to church, 1 of whom is her 20 year old daughter Tiffany. She was previously against the church totally but now she is very interested. She felt a little lost at church but must have loved the feeling. Last night she told her mom "Ma what if the real reason they came into our life is to bring me to God? For me to believe in God because I have soooo many questions and always have." I swear we did no missionary work on her!! It was all Sarah! We should be picking her up this week as a new investigator :) 

I think I am just going to start a quote of the week from her haha this was my favorite from the week. She posted:

"Went to church then had a meeting with the Elders , they know how to make a person feel sure about themselves and comfortable ... I have made so many changes in my life but the best one is deciding to find the lord And incorporate him into my everyday life ... Amazing what prayer and reading scripts and going to church can do to your life ..."

Dominick will be getting baptized this weekend barring any tragedies. He is so awesome. He doesn't open up to much, so a lot of people are questioning his real intent, but he has such a heart of God. He texts us multiple times to make sure we have a way to get him to church and when he got out of a members car yesterday, he just says, "I am so excited for my baptism." Nuff said :)

Now, let me tell you about the biggest miracle of the week. We picked up a new investigator on Monday named Janell. She is turning 18 this week and just graduated High School last week. She got super into church last year, but became curious about other religions, so she requested herself twice on Mormon.org, because the first time we weren't fast enough. It was probably the best Restoration of my mission, and at the end we put a Book of Mormon in front of her and invited her to read and pray. She said, "I mean.. I'll do it, but I already know it's true... Is that weird?" We asked her how she knew and she put her hand on her chest and said, "When you put the Book in front of me, I just had this feeling that gave me chills, and I know it's truth." Ummm... What? She will be baptized on June 27, and here's the kicker. She asked how the missionary thing worked, and we told her that young women go at 19, and she said, "You mean I have to wait a whole year???" Yea... never in a million years did I think I would commit someone to serve a mission in the first lesson. I love her!!!

You know.. as I read through these emails, I realize that people who read them must think I am insane. I may sound happy and full of joy all the time in my emails, but I must say that missionary work is crazy difficult. Between sending these emails, there is a lot of sweat and tears shed. There are heartbreaks and stressors everyday. It is the most difficult thing I have ever done, but I am thankful that the Lord blessed me to get excited about little things, like a post on facebook from an investigator. No one may feel or see the significance of these small moments, but they mean everything to me. They carry me from day to day. I love the little things, and I am so grateful the Lord helps me see them.

6/1/15

Well... I have the impossible privilege of writing about my week. The night before Elder Jeppson gave me a blessing in which he prophesied that the Lord was allowing the adversary to work on me to prepare me for the great work that was about to take place in Lansing. Let me tell you about how that is coming to fruition.

Now... So much has happened in Sarah's progression, that I cant really tell you the whole story, so I just want to quote some messages she sent us this week.

Her significant other was just rushed to the hospital where he almost died. She spent all night there, but the next day sent us a text saying, "I wanted to say with everything going on in my life lately I wanted you to know I made time to read a chapter from the Book of Mormon. I enjoyed it... You have no clue but you guys may have saved my life. I'm being honest." Her family has expressed opposition at first, but her previously anti-religion mom is now reading the Book of Mormon and is coming to church when she comes to visit. Her mom was so excited she already picked out a dress. Her daughters come with her every week and her son expressed that he would like to come too. 

She isn't married to the man she is living with, and we haven't taught the law of chastity, and so we wanted to try something. Our commitment to her was going to be to have her pray and ask God one thing she can do to help her prepare for baptism, hoping the spirit would teach her the commandment first. The problem was, before we could extend the commitment, she wrote us saying, "I have another question after everything me and " well my spouse " has been proven our love for each other I want to know after I get baptized I want to take the next step to get married ..how and what do I do ?? Or do you know ??" We talked about it in our next lesson and an hour later we got a text from her saying, "My husband said he wants to go ahead and get married... I told him what you guys said and he said lets do it." I swear we are not doing a single thing... I am first hand watching the Lord change a life, and it is spectacular to watch. No word can express, nor tongue explain how she is progressing and how it feels to witness. My testimony has been so strengthened by her. A few minutes ago, she wrote to me, "I ended up reading to chapter 9 last night could not put it down .. I wanted to read father but my eyes started feeling so heavy ... Hahaha" I love my mission!!!!

Dominick isn't far behind. We moved his date back to June 13, which we all feel good about, but he is so excited about the gospel!! I can't even begin to write about everything that has gone on this week. I haven't even written about our miracle new investigator named Corey. Hopefully I can next week when I have more time. Until then, I want to bear you my testimony that this is the Lords work. I feel like I am not doing a single thing to move it forward, but the Lord is showering his blessings. I love my converts and soon to be converts more than anything in this world. I love you all and thank you for your prayers!!

Elder Wheat

That awkward moment when you photo bomb your companions epic nature shot.

Check out this toast Elder Alley made me! What a guy!