Hey everyone! hope everyone is having a good Christmas break. Things are going really well here. I am loving my new area Santa Cruz. The branch is small, but I know that wont be that way for long. I have truly seen the Lords hand here already, and I know that He is in charge of things. We are currently teaching some pretty cool people, and we should see some baptisms really soon. This past week, I have learned a very valuable lesson on relying on the Lord/humility. On Thursday or Friday, we taught two different people at different times. In each lesson, the investigators had different concerns which rooted in fears that they had. One investigator thought they could not be ready for baptism in a month, and one investigator did not think they could be baptized again because they were already baptized in a different church. My companion and I would try to prove our points to them, but they would not budge, no matter how hard we tried. Eventually, in both of the different lessons, I felt an impression to invite the investigators then and there to kneel down in prayer and to ask if what we taught them was true. For one investigator we asked her to pray and ask if she could be ready for baptism. For the other investigator we asked him to pray and ask if he needed to be baptized again. We then told them to pause and pay attention to how they felt as they closed their prayers. In both cases God answered their prayers through the Spirit. It was incredible. As they prayed I could feel the Spirit and they could feel the Spirit. Their concerns were then resolved. The Lord is in charge of His work. No matter how much we previously tried to convince them with our own efforts, they would not move. Then, as they turned to the Lord in prayer He was able to answer the concerns and questions they had. It was a very awesome and humbling experience. This has happened several times as ive been on my mission. And each time the Lord has answered my investigators prayers. I know this Church is true. I know that God lives and that He does answer sincere prayer. I love you all

 

Elder Nugent