Wow, what an incredible week! We had a sweet evening of work last P-day, and we had a couple incredible lessons. Our first was with this random teenager we OYM-ed and he said we could come over (his name's Rafael). We had a way good first lesson and he definitely accepted a baptismal date for a couple weeks in the future. So we were pretty excited and then decided to go visit this name we found in our records. So that evening we were supposed to be on splits, so the night before we were kind of making separate plans for who we were going to stop by. As we were planning my companion said we should definitely stop by this name Mirna that we found in the records, and I said yeah it was already in my plans (we knew something was up with this name - we needed to visit). So after that lesson with Rafael we went and stopped by this name. We found these 2 girls outside and found out that Mirna was actually sick and in Mexico...but these were her daughters (about 20-ish or so) and we started to talk to them. I was kind of skeptical at first because they looked kind of sketchy but we need to talk to everyone, so we started telling them who we are and what we do. One of them, her name is Belinda, got way excited and invited us in. She said it was crazy that we were there because she had just been praying to God asking for guidance and truth - she had been really confused with everything. We then had probably the coolest lesson of my entire mission...she soaked everything in, and described how amazing she felt as she had been talking with us. She said she knew after I said that opening prayer, that we had what she needed. She said she could simply never believe certain things about other churches, and just never felt comfortable. But as she listened she said that she felt an incredible peace, she felt relieved, and just happy. We talked to her about baptism and accepted a date for next weekend! She was so excited about it and kept bringing it up! She knew more than anything that it's what she needs to do. And when we talked about the Book of Mormon she said that it's funny because she was just talking to her sister about how she felt like she needed to read a book. So we said we knew of a good one... I don't know if I've hardly ever seen someone prepared to this degree - it was an incredible experience.
And then another sweet lesson resulted in a couple baptisms this weekend! So Maria Fernandez, who we just randomly met on the street one day, is getting baptized this Saturday along with her granddaughter. Apparently she had been listening to missionaries in California but had never felt the need to get baptized. We had a super solid lesson where we testified about baptism, how ready she was, and how much she needed it. She simply said we were right and that she felt something - the spirit testified to her and she just knew she needed to do it. So they've been coming to church and activities and I'm excited - they're way cool.
We've been kind of noticing some things, and I'm pretty sure that as we improve and better ourselves, the Lord trusts us with more of His prepared children. I feel like we qualify to find them and then He puts them in our path. As we've been going through these trainings on the Fundamentals of Preach My Gospel, we've been applying these trainings and noticing miracles. People are keeping commitments more, and we have more people progressing toward baptism. The branch members are coming out with us every single evening to our lessons. I feel like I'm so much more effective as a missionary and that the Lord has trusted us with these people. Especially considering we've met almost all our solid ones on the streets! As people see us have success from our own efforts, they want to be a part of it and are more willing to talk to their friends about it. So things are looking up here in Yuma :) it's a process.
We had our first meeting with the stake president this last week and we definitely think there's a lot more potential here in Yuma than people think. It's a matter of doing things the Lord's way and everyone fulfilling their callings! Ward council is key, and member missionary work is where success lies. So I'm excited - the missionaries here are all studs and we're looking forward to a very solid July.
It's getting warm here in Yuma! Well into the 100's! So thanks for everything and I love you all!
~ Elder Carlson
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