It was wonderful once again to hear from all of you! This past week has been amazing. Probably one of the best on the mission thus far. So many lessons learned, such a strong spirit felt, and so many miracles experience, and many memories made. So much so, it will be difficult to sum it all up into an email. Nevertheless I will try.
The week was started off with the usual P-day festivities of shopping, cleaning, and emailing. Nothing unusual. Tuesday we had an MLC meeting with all the zone leaders, sister training leaders, and President and Sister Jordan. I felt the meeting didn't stay on point for the entire duration but it was productive. Many things were learned and goals were set for the month of August. As a mission we set a goal to have 50 baptisms. A number that we have yet to hit under the direction of the Jordan's. The mission seems very unified in this.
The day following MLC we celebrated Elder Torres's 21st birthday by doing the same thing we do every day... Missionary work! It was actually a very great day. As some of you may have seen, we had breakfast with the bishop and his family which was nice. The rest of the day we worked and later in the evening we put together a BBQ grill for Caren our investigator and had a BBQ with her and her family. Pictures will follow.
On Thursday we had our Zone meeting. We normally hold it in Ilford but we felt like we should have it in Basildon this go around. Really we needed a computer so we could show our district leaders some of the new tools they had. Later we were given a wonderful surprise by a special guest that we weren't planning for. Elder Herbertson's (an area seventy that lives in our ward) son had just returned off his mission and needed to be released. They were doing that while we were having our meeting. We saw them come into the building and while the missionaries were practicing we went and talked with them. We invited both Elder Herbertson and his son to bear their testimonies in the meeting. It brought a great spirit to the meeting. Later in the meeting we gave a training on sacrificing their natural man tendencies in order to become consecrated to the Lord and his work. It was a powerful training and everyone left there with a renewed desire to serve with everything they had. Naturally as all the missionaries took this challenge to purify themselves, the miracles began to flow. People who were prepared for the gospel began falling into our laps. Members began giving referrals out of no where, and the baptismal dates began to climb. All within a 48 hour period. We asked the missionaries to call us with their miracles and our phones were constantly buzzing. Sacrifice does bring forth the blessings of heaven.
I'll share one of our miracles that Elder Torres and I experienced. We have been teaching a recent convert's sister who wants some direction in her life. Her name is Tony. Tony has been very open to our message and has felt the spirit many times since we have met with her. We came to a bit of a bump in the road though. Her boyfriend of 5 years heard about her desires to be baptised and threatened to break up with her if she joined. His only view of the church has been shaped by what he has seen on south park so naturally it is negative. This was a stumbling block for her. The day after our meeting and after we began our purification process we had a powerful lesson with her and committed her to pray to know if she should be baptised before the end of August. She cried as she agreed. Later that evening we were talking with some of the missionaries of our zone hearing of their miracles when we received a phone call from the young man that lives in the same flat as the recent convert(Monique) and Tony. He told us how Tony had made her decision and had broken up with her boyfriend and had gotten work off long enough on Sundays to come to church! To add to it, the other sister Tiffany (who was present for the last lesson) expressed her desire to be baptised the same day. Tiffany was taught by missionaries in the past and knows and lives everything. We were elated to hear this news! Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven.
The remainder of the week we have been floating on a cloud with all the amazing blessings the zone has been receiving. Heavenly Father is mindful of his children and the Lords work that is occurring here on earth. It is such a wonderful blessing to be a part of it. We all can be a part of it and feel that same joy that Alma the younger felt when he was forgiven of his sins; " Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. Yea, and now behold, O my son, the Lord doth give me exceedingly great joy in the fruit of my labors." This is the work of the Lord and His one true church upon the face of the earth and it is a wonderful blessing to be a part of the growth of it!
Love,
Elder Dalton
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