This week was great! Charles’ baptism was on Wednesday and it was seriously the best. Tim Nixon, the guy who came home early from his mission in Taiwan because he broke both wrists, ended up being able to baptize him. He helped us a lot with teaching Charles in Chinese. Anyway, we ended up moving Charles’ baptism up to increase the chances of Tim being able to come because he didn’t know yet when he would be heading back to Taiwan. It ended up that he got the call the day of the baptism that he would be leaving the next day at 5 am. It was definitely inspired and was a really great experience.
It was very stressful right before the baptism. He ended up being really late, people on the program weren’t showing up, there was just all kinds of distractions leading up to it but it ended up great. Charles bore his testimony at the end and it was very humbling to hear it. He said that he was at a point where he wondered why he was going through the trials he had and that he had lots of questions that had never been answered. It was really humbling, because it took me back to the time we met him on campus. I asked him if there were questions that he had that didn’t make sense. I asked him if he wondered what the point of everything is. It was so cool to see that though I felt like I wasn’t doing anything special, or didn’t feel like the way I contacted him was all that inspired, it was exactly the questions I needed to ask. Another great part about this story is that I was having a horrible day on campus. I seriously just did not want to talk to anyone any more. My companion was off talking to someone else and I was standing in the middle of campus just looking around and being miserable! Then I saw Charles, and I just wanted to talk to him. Since then we see Charles on campus all the time, but never where we first contacted him. Later on he told us that he never walks that way and that he took the wrong turn. I was hit at the baptism with a realization of how inspired all of this has been. Now, after 4 weeks Charles is baptized! A guy who didn’t even believe in God 4 weeks ago! So great.
Nicki’s baptism on Saturday was great as well. She bore a powerful testimony at the end as well. She talked about how the gospel filled “last piece of her puzzle.” She said that she had just stopped going to her church because she felt that something was missing. Her baptism went great!
I got to sing at the mission president’s fireside last night. Elder Spragg and I sang a duet of “I Will Not Be Still”. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but we absolutely nailed it. It was a great experience. It was really great to sing again.
I’ve been studying a lot about faith recently. What is faith? I love Matthew 4: 18-20 because it is an account of true faith.
18 And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.
19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
20 And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.
God’s whole goal, His work and His glory, is for us to become like Him. Faith is a belief that with Christ’s help, we actually CAN change; that it’s actually possible. If we have that belief it will lead us to act. The disciples in this story literally believed that if they followed, they would change to become “fishers of men”. They believed that with His help, they could become more like Him. Having this belief led them to act. Action brings change, or repentance. A change to become more like Him. I know that if we have faith enough to act, if we believe that we can Change with his help to become more like Him, then no matter our weaknesses or infirmities, we can bring about this change. We can accomplish His goal for us. As long as we trust Him enough, to follow Him. Love you all! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Steed
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