Growing in Gracias

Dear Family and friends,

It has been a week of the highest of highs and the lowest of lows! I am so thankful for the gospel that can apply to any situation! We have ran into a lot of success finding new people to teach and put for baptismal dates. We received a reference this week from our mission leader in the branch and we had a visit with him. In the first lesson he told us that he wanted to be baptized and we put a date for him! In my entire mission that has been a very rare thing for me and he seemed very sincere in his desires to follow the Lord. We will continue to help him progress by teaching and helping him connect with members.

This week we also were able to have a baptism! She is the niece of the branch president. She went to her house this week for vacation and when she goes to her house her family always talks bad things about the church and Joseph Smith, so when she got back we didn't know if she was going to get baptized or not. She told us that she doesn't know if the church is true and she wanted to postpone her baptism. We asked her a few simple questions, then felt prompted to talk about the Book of Mormon. We asked how she felt about it. She said that she felt good every time she reads it. We told her that was the spirit, and that she should have that feeling as the foundation of her testimony. We then branched out and asked her if the Book of Mormon is true, then what does that mean about Joseph Smith, the Church, etc. Something clicked were her and we invited her again to be baptized and she accepted! It was a great experience to listen to the spirit tell us what she needed, and I feel like we were able to help her in her search for the truth. 

On Saturday night President Bush and his wife came to see our baptism and the sisters baptisms too. There were 2 other people getting baptized and I did their baptismal interviews. Afterward they chose me to baptize them! I was honored, but I felt like i was stealing the show a little bit because I ended up doing all 3 baptism! Oh well, the next one my companion will do ha ha.. but after church on Sunday we drove with president to a place called Gracias. It is a city about an hour from Santa Rosa and is the same size. There we had a little sacrament meeting with a few members that just happened to live there, there is no church there. It was an amazing spirit to be there and feel how badly these people wanted there to be a church there. I felt blessed to be a part of that historic moment. It wasn't the first sacrament meeting ever, but the first organized one in about 10 years. I am the middle man so I will be checking in on that place and with one of the members, weekly. 

I have felt the Lord´s hand in my life many times this week as he has comforted me. I feel that He is constantly giving me promptings and I am the one who needs to chose to follow it or not. I am so thankful for the gift of the Holy Ghost that I received when I was 8. I know that the gift of the Holy Ghost is the key to revelation for those who are worthy of divine guidance. I love you guys and miss you so much!! I hope you guys have a great week and be safe!

Love

Elder Dowell