This email was sent by Sister Welker on December 11th.  We received it on December 10th.

Week 70: Unexpected Surprise

Well, we had a baptism this week.  Whahoo!! I can't really take any credit though, because I've only been here a week and so I didn't really help teach this investigator, but she's super, super cute.  I don't think I've ever meet someone who cares so much about their relationship with God.  Kirsty (name changed) has been brought up in another faith and has even served missions for that faith in some part of Europe.  Though the religion she was brought up with was all she ever knew, she had a couple friends from the Mormon faith that introduced her to missionaries.  She started taking the discussions and was hesitant at first.  All she knew was the Bible to be the word of God, so when the missionaries showed her the Book of Mormon, she wasn't very keen.  But after time, prayers, and studying, she came to notice a difference in her life.  She felt more at peace than she ever had before.  More peace than what she felt when she was serving her own mission.  So she looked at her situation and tried to decide what matters most in her life.  And in the end, she felt that her relationship with God was what mattered most.  So despite her fears of loosing life long friends from her childhood faith, she listened to her heart and got baptized this last weekend.

The other investigator we are working with is an investigator I'll call Shakira.  Shakira is from India and was brought up Hindu, but in recent years, she's come to believe that there's a God and that Christ was His son.  She hasn't been studying with us long, but has been to church twice now.  We went to go visit her this weekend and found her partner home.  The partner told us that Shakira had a migrane and wasn't feeling up for a visit.  We thanked her and told her to send our love and was about to walk away when our member that was with us asked if the partner was interested in learning what Shakira was learning.  To my surprise she invited us in, let us stay for an hour, and even let us share a message with her, and pray before we left.  Thinking that would be the last time we'd meet with the partner, we were walking down her driveway back to our car when the partner called out to us and asked if we could come again the following weekend!! That just goes to show that you really don't have any idea who is and who is not ready to hear the gospel.

Thanks again for all your love.  Hope you all have a great week.

Sister Mandy Welker

"Dealing with the challenges in life is not about ignoring reality, but rather where we choose to focus and the foundation upon which we choose."

~ Bishop W. Christoper Waddell