Monday, April 21, 2014

Clinton NJ Week 15, week 39 mission

Such a good week. The sisters in my district had a baptism this last Monday (a week ago) which was a good. It has been since about October when the last one had happened in Clinton. So this was BIG!!!! Ha it went super well. As a district leader I got to interview the man being baptized. His name was Taylor and he was 19 and graduated the same year I did. He had such a strong Spirit in the interview. Soooo prepared. I was amazed. Neither of his parents are members but they both came to the baptism and were pretty supportive. It was a good start to this week.
I got to go on exchange this past week with the Filipino in my district, Elder Ragma. He is the most humble person ever and is so fun to be around. He is still learning English but speaks it super well. He is an awesome teacher too. We taught one of their investigators who was really prepared by the Lord. He works at a gas station by day and a Tattoo artist at night. He has crazy tattoos all up his arms. So at first sight it seems like he is on the wrong page in life, but he is the most sincere guy. Everything he does is for his wife and his 2 year old son. We taught him the Restoration and his wife was secretly listening in the kitchen so we started asking her questions too and she got pretty involved. She said, pointing to the Book of Mormon, " All  I wanted to know is what that book is." So we explained all about the Book of Mormon and how it is the key to knowing that Joseph Smith was a prophet. They are the greatest family and progressing along quite well.
We have been finding tons of new people this last week. So many people just handed to us. I swear in every apartment here there is at least two families or one family and like three other random guys that live there. So whenever we teach an investigator, it is pretty easy to invite their friends into the lesson as well. Last night we taught one of our investigators, Ul---. He had his friend staying with him that day so we invited him to the lesson and really taught to him and his needs. He became super interested in the Book of Mormon which we testified super strongly of. We now have a return appointment with them both this week. So many miracles.
We have been searching everywhere lately for more people to teach! We honestly just walk roads to see if there are any other Spanish areas in our working area. We ask everyone if they know where any people that speak Spanish live and they always refer us to the two places that we already know about and spend most of our time. We street contact the most out of anything to find new people. There are tons more Hispanics out here but its probably like 1 house for every 50 American houses. So door knocking is not super effective. We tried focusing on members a little more. We only have a few members in our area, like 3 families so we don't get a ton of referrals from them. So we street contact a ton!!! Its the best. We just get to walk up to everyone, literally every singly Hispanic and many times Caucasians too. We are working super hard to talk to everyone the lord puts in our path.
Elder L Tom Perry came yesterday to our mission!!!!!! It was so cool to see an Apostle of the Lord as a missionary. He came yesterday at about 1:00 and talked for about an hour of the history of the Priesthood and the importance that we have in now. He talked all about the keys of the Priesthood and about some church in Denmark that has that statue of Christ we have in our our house and how in that church they have statues of the original 12 Apostles and Peter is only keys representing the Priesthood keys. He talked a lot about the importance of the order of the 12. He is 2nd in line after President Packer to be prophet. he is 92 and got called to be an Apostle at 51. Crazy 40 years as an Apostle. He talked a lot about prayer too. The best place to receive revelation is when you are in a quiet place kneeling and praying. He was super funny too and a super tall man. Probably like 6' 6 or something. It was truly a blessing to have him come.
Love you,
Elder Sumsion

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