Yesterday ........ got baptized! It was kind of crazy the things Satan threw at her this week but it was nothing for her faith.
Wednesday we had her interview and everything went good and we had an awesome lesson about how Baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost and the Sacrament all work together. It was so great. During that lesson she told us an experience she had the night before. One of her friends for a long time came over to her house and talked with her for 5 hours trying to convince her not to get baptized. She brought all this anti mormon information and just kept talking forever. But she was stronger than that. She did exactly what us as missionaries did. She just said that she had learned and she knows that it is true. She told her friend that if she wanted to know the truth she had to read the Book of Mormon too. She invited her friend to her baptism and to church so her friend could see for herself. It was a pretty intense experience, but it's fun to see that Satan had tried a bunch of little things, and he couldn't think of anything else so he just sent someone to throw a wave at her and she already had her foundation on Christ instead of on the sand, so there was not even a budge that would make her fall. I love how converted she is. There is no way she is going to fall away. It is already like she is a member. Sister Burton, General Relief Society President, is coming to Indonesia on the 15th and Bogor is doing the Choir. Saturday morning me and Sister Rowntree had to go to the church to fill up the font. It overall took 5 HOURS!! Goodness that was crazy. And at the end it started to look greenish and on Sunday we were kind of scared because it looked way gross and dirty, but Brother Denny who baptized her said it was just a chemical in the water so we got less stressed. haha baptisms are awesome but so stressful of all the stuff you have to do before hand. Her baptism on Sunday was so great! She invited ......... to come and they came at 10:00 and stayed for all 3 hours of church and then the baptism. They loved Gospel Principles with Sister Rowntree teaching because she is so expressive and fun. There was a strong spirit at church and I really loved seeing that. I hope they opened their hearts to receive the Holy Ghost and a testimony of their own that our church is doing something great. They usually like baptisms right after church so that all the members can go, and pretty much all of the members stayed. It was so awesome. As with other investigators, we have ........ who has a baptismal date for 3 weeks from now. Her situation is kind of weird because she lives in Bogor but on Saturdays and Sundays she lives over an hour away. So she is planning on buying a little apartment that she can stay in on the weekends. So we don't really know how the whole baptism thing is going to work with her interview and if we will even be able to go, but hopefully we will! This week I spent a lot of my studying on Conference talks. I have almost read all of the Liahona from this last conference. But the talk that really stuck to me this past week was from David A Bednar. It's really cool that your stake president gets to spend time with him so you can learn from him as well, because every time I hear his words I always learn so much. From May of last year about "Always Retain a Remission of your Sins" He talks about the importance of the first 3 ordinances of the gospel, Baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and the Sacrament. Before that I knew that they were important. I knew baptism is a commandment and we have to make a covenant and we are free from sin and that the sacrament is a renewal of our covenant and that we have the Holy Ghost with us. I got all that, but I didn't really know WHY. Elder Bednar explains it so well and it has brought a whole knew meaning to the doctrine of Christ for me. He talks about how Baptism after we have had faith and repented, is the initial cleansing of sin. After that cleansing of sin, we are then clean enough and worthy enough to have the Holy Ghost with us. The Holy Ghost is a great gift that leads and comforts us, but way more than that, we have to have the Holy Ghost with us because he is the one that cleans and sanctifies us as we partake of the sacrament. We repent and partake of the sacrament so we are worthy to have the Holy Ghost with us so he can cleanse us from sin. With out the cleansing from the Holy Ghost every week, we are not clean and cannot enter the presence of God. Through out faith and repentance, we are worthy to have the Holy Ghost with us that will continue to cleanse us that will make us worthy to enter again into the Celestial Kingdom. The first principles and ordinances of the gospel aren't just rules God set in place so we would obey them, but they are laws that follow the laws of the universe, that through them we can use the atonement of Jesus Christ to make us clean and worthy to enter into the Celestial Kingdom. I also read the talk "The Doctrine of Christ" in this last conference and I learned even more about it. I invite you all to continue to learn about the doctrine of Christ, because that knowledge will help us more in this life and in the next life than anything else. Wow this is a long email! I hope you endured to the end and got to this point. haha I love you all! I know the gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and that His atonement is real for all of us. I hope every week we can learn and become more like Him. Love, Sister Davis
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Sister Jacqueline DavisSister Davis is currently serving as a missionary in the Indonesia Jakarta Mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. ContactMission Address: Sister Jacqueline Davis Indonesia Jakarta Mission Jalan Senopati 115 Kebayoran Baru Jakarta 12190 INDONESIA Email: [email protected] Prepare to Serve Link: http://preparetoserve.com/indonesia-jakarta-mission Learn more about the LDS Church:www.lds.org
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August 2017
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