I Will Go and Do : Week 71: 50 Baptisms Goal

Another week has past and gone so quickly. Elder Warner and I were able to do so much great work and we are having a fantastic time together.

We started off this week by seeing a huge miracle! A couple of weeks ago when Elder Lewis was here I contacted this lady named Jackie. We were leaving an apartment building after a lesson and I saw her sitting on the stairs of the building next to us. We walked up to her and had a very short interaction. She said that she would be interested in hearing a message about Jesus Christ and we got her phone number. Finally we were able to meet with Jackie Monday night and it was such a powerful lesson. Her fiance, Michael, joined us in the lesson and we thought for sure he was going to "Bible Bash" us the entire time. But surprisingly after we explained to him our purpose and answered all his questions, he began to listen to our message. Jackie then told us that she had been struggling for a while and that she had been praying for a long time that God would send her the truth. She said that when we contacted her she knew God had sent us and that we truly had the truth. As we began to share the account of the first vision with her, she cried. It was awesome! Then as we gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon she anxiously took it from us and held it close to her chest and smiled. It was such a great lesson and Michael's heart had definitely been softened. We are hoping to see them again tonight.

Tuesday was such a great day. I got to go on an exchange with Elder Warner (a different one), our District Leader. Elder Warner is such a fun missionary and we had a great time together. He has been on his mission for about 5 months and is from American Fork, UT. During our day together, we had some great discussions about how he can better help the district and I was also able to train him a lot on planning. We were able to pick up one new investigator. It was a great exchange.

Wednesday we were able to drive all the way up to Weston, MA for our Mission Leadership Council meeting. I always love being around President and Sister Miller and we received some great trainings. One of the highlights of the meeting was when President Miller extended a goal to have 50 baptisms across the mission in the month of November. I am very, very excited about this goal. When our mission is unified in a common goal, there is almost nothing that is impossible. We are hoping to see great things this month in the MBM!

The rest of the week went by very quickly and it was very productive. Elder Warner and I have recently been going through the entire ward list trying to find those that are trying to come back to the gospel and also trying to find part-member families to teach. We've seen some success already and we can't wait to see what else the Lord has in store for us here in Bridgeport.

By far the highlight of this week though was when Patrick, our most recent convert, bore his testimony in sacrament meeting. Alma 36:25 says, "The Lord doth give me exceedingly great joy in the fruit of my labors." I know what Alma was talking about when he said this to his son. As Patrick bore his testimony, I was smiling ear to ear the entire time and I really couldn't be happier. He started off his testimony by saying, "I know that the church is true and that the Book of Mormon is true." There really is nothing that could make a missionary happier than hearing one of his converts say those words. Patrick is such an amazing young man and he has such exceedingly great faith. I know that he will forever be close to the Lord.

It really was a great week! Thank you to everyone that supports me. This world is a crazy place and it keeps getting worse, but I know that there is real and lasting peace that is available to all of us and that it can only be found through faith in Jesus Christ. I know that He lives and has a plan for each of us. Turn to God in prayer each and every day and I know that He will direct you where you need to go. I love you all!!!

Love,
Elder Gutierrez