Commitments!

From Aug. 31, 2009, email: Sister Thomas and I are having a wonderful time here in Windsor. We just set two baptismal dates this week, one with Dominick and another with Amanda. Dominick wants to change his life & wants to feel the cleansing power of baptism. But he has to start coming to church first. We set up a ride and everything yesterday and he just didn't show up. Ugh. Maybe next week! Amanda is friends with a YW in the ward, Kaylee Rice. They went up to girls camp together and Amanda came back with a desire to be baptized. We taught her and her father about the Restoration on Monday and then just taught Amanda the Plan of Salvation on Saturday. Her father wanted to make sure she knew what she was getting into. But she is ready! She's getting dunked on the 12th of September and then going to do baptisms at the temple the next weekend. Pray that everything works out!

President Pehrson sent out a letter this past week to all the missionaries stating the "15 commitments of a Connecticut Hartford mission." He's really emphasizing our personal worthiness and diligence so we can be more effective missionaries. These commitments include getting up on time, going to bed on time, studying when we should, teaching all 5 lessons each week....things that we should be doing anyway. But then he added a commitment to commit our investigators to baptism on our first lesson. I thought he was crazy at first, but he sure does know what he's talking about! It weeds out those who aren't interested in joining. And we've seen some great things happen this week because of our effort to be exactly obedient to those commitments.

Last night we had a fireside for the Bloomfield Ward. We had a pretty good turnout which is good! We Sisters talked about "the triangle of power" with missionaries, members, and the Lord making up the sides. The triangle will be strong only when each side is equal. Then the Elders did a cool visual of Alma 50, which we have to build up barriers around us to keep the "arrows" of the adversary from penetrating us. As members of the church we have so many pickets, walls, towers, etc. that keep us safe. But those without the gospel are helpless. That really helped me to understand why this gospel is so important.