Called to Serve: September 9

Patience.

Patience, muchacho. Patience.

I need more patience. I need lots more patience. I need more patience for myself. I need more patience for everyone. I need more patience for patience. Hopefully when I come home from my mission, I'll be the most patient person in the whole world. Okay I'm done talking about patience now.

Ok. Funny story time. Sooooo. We had our first baptism(s) this past week! In this email, I've included some pictures from it. It all went pretty well. Moana and Tala are a crack-up though. Moana got baptized first and as he was going into the font, Tala says to him- " Moana! Moana, is it cold? Is the water cold, Moana?" Everyone in the audience starts giggling. Then it comes time for her to go in and the first thing she does is let out a dramatic gasp and say "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! It is so cold! Ahh!" Leave it to Tala to provide the comedic relief at a baptism. Afterwards we were talking with them and I asked Moana if it was cold. He said "It was cold when I first got in, and then after I went under the water and came back up, I felt really warm." I then proceeded to tell him that he was feeling the Holy Ghost.

We officially got dropped by an investigator this week. That was an interesting experience. It made me sad. And it made me wonder if I could have done more- been a better teacher, follow the spirit more, ask better questions.

Something I'm learning- the spirit truly is the converting power in the gospel. It isn't visions. It isn't miracles. It isn't ourselves. It isn't the teacher. It is the spirit. There were plenty of people in the scriptures that saw visions or even had angels personally come to communicate with them and they still didn't believe. Even when Jesus Christ was here on the earth, people didn't believe in Him. Even when He was right there with them. Even when He was performing miracles. Teaching. Serving. People still didn't believe. It is the spirit that converts people. That is why the spirit is key to all things pertaining to the gospel. Otherwise, the gospel is mere information. If the spirit isn't involved in that learning process, people don't experience lasting conversion. It may be good information to them, but they need to feel the spirit to enable them to start on their process of conversion. Also, conversion isn't a single, isolated event. Or at least it shouldn't be. It needs to be a continuous personal conversion. Read Alma Chapter 5 sometime. It's a good self-checker to determine where you are currently at in your conversion journey.

Sorry this letter is short.

But I love you all.

Thanks for your love and support.

Love,

Sister Andelin