Miracles: Part III

Elder Thibaudeau

Elder Gonzalez

Dear President Winn,

I feel like my faith is growing. We felt during our weekly planning that we should prepare a baptism for the following week, even though we had nobody scheduled to be baptized on that day. We thought of all the people that could get baptized, and then were left to wonder, since it seemed unlikely. We prayed though, and had a confirmation that we should make our goal one baptism and get ready for it, without knowing who it would be.

We planned to contact and prepare everyone that could be baptized, or to do all we could before Sunday, but still nobody seemed to be accepting. We also gave time and attention to all the other investigators, too. In fact, during the week we were promised by President Winn that if we would bring the spirit to our lessons and invite people to be baptized, that we would put people on date for baptism that night. Elder Gonzales was like a warrior, inviting and testifying with lots of power and authority. The spirit was strong during the week as we did that, and we had many accept the invitation to be baptized, including someone who has been investigating for years, and has been really tough.

But still, nobody was on date for this weekend. We kept faith, and didn't doubt that feeling that we had. We knew that somewhere, someone was being prepared to be baptized this weekend, so Friday night we prayed and committed ourselves to finding that person the next day and baptizing them. We worked starting at 10:00 am and didn't take lunch. We went to all the people who we knew could have been baptized this weekend, and invited. We worked all day. Many times during the day I had to pray and recommit that I would be believing and not worry about the fact that the day was going by with no visible results. That was probably the hardest thing, to see time going by and remaining calm at heart and quiet in my mind.

As we ate dinner with a family, we told them what was going on, the state of our search and that there were no results yet. Then we both looked at them and told them, "We are having a baptism tonight because God told us we needed to prepare it, and He doesn't lie or flake out." With that determination, we brought an investigator to attend a baptism. She was planning on being baptized the next week. In the car, we began to discuss whether it would be wise, while we were attending the baptism, to invite her to be baptized that night. She needed an interview with a member of the mission presidency, so I called President Alba, and asked if he would come to the baptism and interview her there. He must have felt the spirit, because he had to cancel some other plans to get there, but he did. He interviewed her, and when they came out of the interview, he said, "She is good to go!" We had both been praying for her, and then, with the spirit urging us, we invited her to be baptized that night.

She thought for a bit, and then with her only stipulation being that she wanted her friend to be there, she said, "Yes!" She called her friend, and her friend left work in the instant, and came over to the church. She was baptized that night, and confirmed the next day, and was so excited and happy! She went around introducing herself to everyone at church and had the biggest smile on!

We are positive that God follows through, if we don't doubt. He has a lot that can be done, but if we start to freak out and stress out when we can't see the results of our correct choices, then we either don't see the hand of the Lord at work and miss the miracle, or we block out inspiration and revelations on the matter by our unbelief. We had confirmed to us that God loves His children and is preparing them for His blessings.

Elder Thibaudeau