Aug. 4 update

7/14/09
So.. on to the missionary work....Miracle Michael called us with some amazing news! We still are not meeting with him because of his hectic schedule, but he calls us every now and then to check in. We also give him assignments to do while we don't see him. But one night as he called us we were talking and i asked him why he wanted to be baptized into our church (that is a question we asked him to think about a while ago) and he said because he knows that the church is true! And he wants all those he loves and knows to become a part of it as well. That was so amazing and so then i asked him what he thought about Joseph Smith (I was a little nervous about that) but he said "What do I think about Joseph Smith? I know.. Joseph Smith IS a prophet! God has revealed that to me and there is nothing or anyone who can take that away from me!" Once again Michael left me speechless.. All I could do was smile really big and say thank you. That next thing we have to do is try to teach him again! Sister Urquijo and I found that we have taught him at least once a month since she has been here and he's totally being taught by the spirit himself. One thing we will have to help him gain a testimony of is the importance of authority because he said being baptized didn't really mean anything to him. And he's been baptized 4 or 5 times already so I can see why, but hopefully if he knows joseph smith was a prophet, he will not have a huge problem with the apostasy.


So have I told you how amazing and how inspired God was to send me to this mission? I have been having some foot problems, (i think i told you that) but the podiatrist told me that I needed to get new shoes because the ones i have are too heavy, and I needed to get them quick so he can give me new orthotics. So Sister Eyre had told me before that if i needed new shoes she would go with me to get them. So I called her and told her that i needed them, and she asked if she could pay for them, because i was going to have her call you and have to put some of my money into my checking so i could get them, but she said no she would pay for them. She had one of the Senior sisters go with me and told her not to let me get cheap ones just because of the money, So i was able to get some good Clarks that were kind of expensive but SO GOOD for my feet. The are 100 % better already and i don't even have the orthotics in them yet. I didn't even know what to say, but she was just so amazing!

7/20/09
Oh, so let me tell you about this cool guy here! So we get a call from one of the elders in another area and they told us to call this guy brian who was invited to church by a MEMBER!! He went for two weeks and wanted to learn more. He was in our area so they called us and told us that we needed to call him! That night Sister Eyre was coming out with us for the night and one of our appointments didn't go through.. (story of our lives) so we got the thought that maybe we could stop by and just meet him for a little bit and set another time to come and teach him. We called, he said sure, and we went. When we got there he was waiting outside for us and as I walked up to greet him I said 'hi! i'm sister kamalu!" he looked at me and said 'oh you're the one I talked to one the phone. I thought you were black.." haha (that was just pretty funny since ALOT of people here are from Africa and tell me Kamalu is an African name) So anyway, he let us in he just started telling us how the member that invited him to church was just someone he met at one of the malls close by. This member also gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and Plan of Salvation pamphlet. After a little more talking (which we have come to find out he likes to do.. alot:) he told us that he read the book and liked it. I asked him if he read what part he read and he told us he read the WHOLE THING! He had only had the book for at least two weeks so we asked him how long it took him to read it...... ready?... it took him 2 DAYS, 5 HOURS, 23 MINS, and 6 SECs!! I couldn't believe it! (He was also a math teacher and is kind of a huge perfectionist and times everything) I didn't know what to say. It was amazing! He does want to be baptized as well. The next time we went over we found out that after being a math teacher he went and got a doctrite in theology and knows the bible inside and out and has pretty much the whole thing memorized, so he likes to use his knowledge and his head a lot. I kind of think he doesn't know what do with what we have to say because it is so simple, that he has to put in all his knowledge even though it has nothing to do with the lesson. But he is still amazing, and doesn't like to bash but just really wants to know answers to the questions he has. OH!!!! i didn't even tell you the COOLEST PART!!! So when we first got there after I told him my name, he stared at the tag for a little while and said Kamala, i said Kamal-U, he then said.. 'no, my last name is KAMALA!!" weird huh!!! i still can't get over it. so i just said.. 'wow we were destined to find you! haha..

It's so funny that you can work hours and hours in one area trying to find someone, then in two seconds you can have a prepared person GIVEN to you in a completely different area. So maybe even though we feel inspired to work in an unfruitful area, the lord is just making sure we want to work for the prepared people..

7/27/09
MOM!!!!! Miracle MICHAEL is back and being baptized!!!!! so heres the story.... We have only seen him in person once every month for the last 4 months or so.. and have talked to him on the phone alot. and EVERY time we talk to him on the phone he tells us some miracle that happened to him that helped find another part of the gospel true.. ( one night he called us and told us he knew the church was true and the Joseph Smith was a prophet and NO ONE could take that away from him. Just the last month he was telling us he didn't want to hear the name of Jospeh Smith ever again, and remember we haven't been seeing him all this time.) So these kinds of things just keep happening and then just yesterday.. Sunday, he walks into church with his clothes and everything ready to be baptized! He told us that the lord told him the he needed to be baptized today and he wasn't going to leave the church until he was. Well we had one more lesson to teach him which it all the commandments that he hadn't even heard of so we told him about the order of things and he accepted that. So we set it up so that we could teach him everything he needed to know that night and maybe be interviewed and baptized next week. He accepted that pretty well, which is also unusual, and told us that the lord also told him that even though he's already been baptized 4 or 5 times, that none of those mattered. That THIS baptism was the only one that mattered.. THE LAST PIECE OF THE PUZZLE!! oh my.. We were so happy, because that was something that he also didn't really understand. So anyway, we taught him for about 2 hours and he accepted and loved everything and is going to be interviewed tomorrow. We were SO excited! The Lord truly does bless and provide when you do all you can to bring other to him.

8/4/09

Well...... let me just tell you that MICHAEL GOT BAPTIZED!!!! I don't think I have ever seen a happier man in my whole life! We called him everyday last week just to make sure that darn adversary wasn't getting in his way, but I don't even think an army could have gotten in his way this week. He even called us Friday evening and said that he had a doctor's appointment on sunday that he forgot about but not to despair because he cancelled it. On sat. night I was talking to him on the phone and telling him about another investigator (mr. Kamala) who is also very hard headed like michael was and about his Doctorite in Theology and all, and michael told me " ya know, i didn't even show you all of MY certificates.. but ya know, NONE of those matter anymore.. because NOW it will all be done with right authority!" I was smiling so big I didn't even know what to do. I was just so happy. So then comes sunday.. he showed up an hour early for church.. "Sisters, do you really think this is the right thing to do?" "OF COURSE MICHAEL!!!" So he went and got a blessing from the elders who said it was a very spiritual experience. And then his baptism.. The minute he was baptized he got out of the water, slapped the water and shouted with glee! haha, he pretty much had to be pushed out of the water (i think he would have stayed in to swim around a bit to make it last a little longer) but as he was getting out we could hear him say "Hallelujah!" and "praise jesus!" in the bathroom.. also lots and lots of laughing.. it was so good. He just smiles all the time now. Positively the best day of my mission.. (well besides the other two as well :)