Selah

Selah Sproul is the wife of a member that we started working with in August. In September, she left for Las Vegas to care for her dying aunt, who had served as her mother for most of her childhood. Her aunt passed away in the beginning of October, and she spent the next three weeks caring for her, so it had been a minute since we'd seem them. When she got back, she asked us to go over and help her with some projects that she had. Then she invited us to come share a message with them on Friday. We came, and planned on discussing the Plan of Salvation and inviting them to be baptized. 

The beginning of the lesson was a little hectic as she struggled to understand the difference between the Holy Ghost, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Priesthood authority. After struggling to help her understand, it came time to wrap up the lesson, but then she asked us to wait. She said her real question was this: what about her aunt, who had lived an incredible life, but had never been religious, and has never been baptized. We hadn't taught about the Spirit World yet, so with smiles on our faces, we explained that God has a plan for the redemption of the dead. She started crying. Then we said that she would be able to go to the temple and perform the work for her aunt. She was so excited. She asked if that meant she had to be baptized in our church. We showed her the white Christmas video (a video made by our mission with pictures of baptisms that happened last Christmas time) and before the video finished, she said, through tears, "what do I have to do." When we explained that she only had to read the Book of Mormon, come to church, and keep the commandments, she exclaimed, "that's it!" That is it. We invited her and 3 of her kids to be baptized. They all agreed. She has two other kids, and one of them has a fiance, that we should be able to teach in the future as well. 

Then, she said that she might be unable to go to church because she has shingles and doesn't want to spread it to the un-vaccinated children. We asked if she wanted a priesthood blessing. She said that she did. After the blessing, she was still somehow crying, and she said, "it wasn't you speaking was it?" A little confused we explained that the words said were the words of the Lord. She said that everything said in that blessing came as an answer to something she'd been dealing with for the past month. It was a rather long blessing too. It was really powerful. 

I love y'all!
Elder Stephen Watts

Men in Black costumes for the Ward Halloween Party

A bunch of us at the zoo earlier today