Surprise Baptism & Happy 4th!!! 🎇

 Hey everybody! Happy late birthday Americaaa

Let me start with the amazing miracle from this week: our friend Raul Velasco was baptized! I'm going to add a specific section in my email explaining his story!

Other than that, we had MLC on Wednesday and it was great! The Spirit's always so strong in those meetings.

The 4th of July was fun!! Our ward had a barbeque by the beach so we got to go to that with some of the friends we're teaching!

On Saturday, when Hermana Van Brocklin and I were teaching English class, President and Hermana Rodriguez walked in and joined us for a little bit. I was so intimidated haha since their first language is Spanish. But it was so fun to have them and they really helped encourage our Spanish-speaking friends that it's possible to learn English!

RAUL'S STORY:

Raul has been taught by missionaries since the beginning of this year. When I came into this area, Hermana Van Brocklin explained to me that he had been taught everything and had been invited to be baptized so many times by missionaries, but always said he wasn't ready and he didn't know why. At that point, we were kind of leaving the decision to move forward up to him.

Over this past transfer, we've had lessons with him, testified, and felt the Spirit so strong, but he always went back to the same answer when we talked about baptism. He wasn't ready and he didn't know why. This same response every time kind of left Hermana Van Brocklin and me feeling hopeless with his progress.

One day, about 2 weeks ago, Hermana Van Brocklin told me that she wanted us to pray with lots of faith that Raul could be baptized this transfer. We prayed and felt like he could be baptized by July 6. But as July 6 got closer, his mind didn't seem to change. We kept praying with faith, and sometimes when I didn't know if I really had the faith he could be baptized by the 6th, I would just pray to gain that faith.

The week before July 6, we had a lesson with Raul and invited him to be baptized that Saturday. He said he wouldn't be ready. Even with this disappointing answer, we knew we'd done our part, even though he didn't accept. However, later that week, a member in our ward texted us and asked if she could join us in a lesson with him. We said yes, had a powerful lesson, and again invited him to be baptized. And again, he said no.

Two days before July 6 (the 4th of July!!) Raul reached out to us. He said he was scared but he was going to take the leap of faith and be baptized on Saturday! We were SO excited to hear that he was ready to make that choice!

Saturday, he had his baptism! It was amazing to see the joy that it brought him. On Sunday, he shared his testimony during church and explained that he knew he needed to be baptized and he was so glad he'd made the choice!

This experience taught me so many things. It was a testament to me that we ARE making an impact, even when we don't always see the end result. So many missionaries before me had really helped Raul gain his testimony. I just happened to get to be there when he finally decided to be baptized. I also learned that if I don't feel like I can pray with enough faith, I can at LEAST always pray to have more faith! And God will give us the faith we need.

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

This thought also goes right along with faith and Raul's baptism! One of the most important lessons I learned from that experience is that we should never give up on our faith, even when we don't feel like our faith is bringing results!

In the case of Raul, he really was ready to be baptized by the 6th, but we had to keep trusting that God would help him make that choice, up until 2 days before the baptism. In other cases, we may pray for something with LOTS of faith, and the result still doesn't fit with what we hoped.

I know that whether or not the miracles that we hope for happen, the real miracle is our faith. Sometimes Heavenly Father really can give us the exact result we're hoping for! And sometimes, He won't give us that result because He has a better one in mind for us.

Either way, He expects us to continually grow our faith in Him.

My invitation for you all is to pray in faith for something, believing that God will answer your prayers in the way you expect OR in a better way. I know He will!

I love you all!

-Hermana DeMordaunt