This week on Saturday we have a baptism! Her name is Gustina and she is...aww she is just wonderful! We started teaching her the Sunday Sister Smith got here. She is the niece to a member. This member and her family (husband and children) are just so great! They bring Gustina to church weekly, they hold family prayer and scripture study, and they are just wonderfully active member missionaries. We can tell that their home is a place where the spirit resides every time we walk in. Basically, we thought Gustina was already baptized. She knows EVERYTHING. It's very rare for us to go teach her anything that she hasn't heard before--especially of the commandments. And there hasn't been a single thing that we have taught her that she isn't doing or isn't completely willing to do. I have no words to describe how wonderful she is.
Also in that family, but on the father's side are 3 wonderful young women. Coleen is one of them. She wants to be baptized. We are trying to help her do so. She is also shining with the Spirit. We love them! Their whole family glows!
One cool thing I don't know if I've mentioned, but we have an investigator who still has her boyfriend back on the Marshall Islands and we sent him as a referral! Did you know that missionaries can submit referrals to anywhere in the world? We send them to our mission office and then they get sent off until they get to the correct place. ISN'T THAT AMAZING?!
Another thing: has anyone heard of Public Affairs Representatives? Let me just say that I hadn't and now I feel foolish. If I mentioned this before I'm sorry, but they are like the Superheroes of missionary work! Everyone--ESPECIALLY MISSIONARIES--should talk to their Public Affairs Representative. I seriously now consider the 3 first people a missionary should meet in an area are 1) the Bishop, 2) Ward Mission Leader, and 3) the Public Affairs Representative. They are amazing! They have the presentation "The Mormon Next Door" which explains the church in a more statistical way (great for people who want to know about the church itself), they have their ears out for public events that missionaries can participate in (and they make the publicity for the work missionaries do go to public good-will), they get missionaries in the paper (especially for doing service--service they can suggest I'd bet even), they get missionary work on good terms with political higher-ups and also other religions (our Public Affairs Representative said that we can organize like firesides with preachers of another faith on topics in which they and the church share similar views). The ideas are many and Public Affairs Representatives are the ones who make a large-scale goodwill attitude of the public to missionaries. They are the unsung precursor to missionary work. The idea to missionary work now is "We are One" and Public Affairs Representatives are a really big part of that. PS: the Public Affairs Representative that came to talk with us is names Sister Wheeler and she is amazing!
Well, I think that's all for today!
Love you all!
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