Wow, these weeks are flying by! I can't believe it's already time to write another one of these. But you know what they say: time flies when you live in North Dakota!... Except nobody says that. Darn.
We've had an awesome week. Things started out really slow because the first few days of the week were SO rainy. Like ridiculous amounts of rain were just dumping from the sky for like 3 days straight. So we weren't able to do much proselyting done on those days, but we did do some solid planning for Jeremy's baptism (whoa, foreshadowing!) and lay out some lessons on missionary work to teach members of the ward.
We had to teach Jeremy a lot in a really short amount of time for his baptism this weekend (more foreshadowing). We taught him all of the commandments on Monday afternoon, which meant we had to sacrifice a little of our P-day, but it's totally worth it for him. He accepted all of the commandments no problem, which was a big relief. We taught him the last lesson on Thursday. He told us that he'd been really pulled away from the Church the last few days, but he knew exactly who it was that was trying to keep him away and he didn't let it slow him down at all. The Spirit was stronger in that lesson than I've felt in a long time. He was in tears when we explained the purpose of baptism for the dead as he thought about all of his deceased ancestors that he'd be able to bless. It was such a big relief to get all that teaching done in such a short amount of time.
We also met a really cool lady named Alycia this week. Elder Richins met her once when I was on exchanges, but he got transferred before I was ever able to meet her. She was very interested in the Book of Mormon and is really excited to come to Church next Sunday. She's super prepared and I think she'll progress really fast!
We had zone conference on Friday and it was great! We learned so many awesome things that I won't even try to list, but I walked out of there in awe of how spiritual a man President Howell is. It's so great to be around and learn from him. He also took me and my companion to a sushi restaurant after we were done. I was kinda nervous about it but it turned out to actually be super good! I don't know whose idea it was to throw some rice and raw fish onto a piece of seaweed and stick it in their mouth, but I guess it turns out they kinda knew what they were doing.
Okay, crazy twist: Jeremy got baptized on Saturday!!! Man, I bet nobody could've seen that one coming. It was so good! We were able to get lots of ward members to participate, and the Spirit was really strong. It was also his birthday, and one of the members was nice enough to bring a birthday cake for him. I think he felt really welcomed by the ward and had a really great experience. I got the chance to confirm him on Sunday. I don't remember too much of what I said, but I know that the message the Lord delivered to him during that blessing was really special. He felt the Spirit so strongly as he received the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and so did many other people in the ward. Jeremy is a really special soul, and I know the Lord has a great work for him to do.
We also got to watch the Face to Face with Elder Soares and Elder Christensen yesterday. In a really weird way, it almost made me kinda homesick for Brazil! I mean not really, but it brought back memories to hear everybody speaking Portuguese. Elder Soares is so amazing, I'm coming to really love hearing from him a lot. We watched it at a member's house with the sisters, and I was translating for everybody for the first few minutes before they got the broadcast translation going -- which was so, so bad sometimes. We were all kinda cringing through the whole thing as the poor kids tried to stutter through the translation. But it was a really great opportunity to hear from an Apostle and feel of the love he has for all of us.
We put Sam and Elvira on date for October 19 yesterday! We had actually stopped teaching Sam a few weeks ago because he wasn't progressing, but he's changed a lot since his wife got here. She's really helping him to stay on track and he seems to be comprehending things better now. She kept on saying that she needs to learn more before she gets baptized and asked if we could start coming twice a week to teach them. They've got a little ways to go, but I have faith that they'll be able to make it.
Hopefully we're able to get as much done this week as we were the last one, so much good stuff has happened! But anyway, see you guys later!
Elder Hart
1. Us and President at the sushi place
2. We do service at a museum in Medora and I finally remembered to get some pictures with a couple of the displays
3. Just me and my homie the gigantic beef leg chillin in Medora
4. Jeremy's baptism!... I know he kinda looks like an inmate in this but he's actually a really cool guy ;)
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