May 28, 2012

Beatriz baptism May 26, 2012

Eldste Johnson, Beatriz, Eldste Godfrey on May 26, 2012

Chie Ting from Taiwan

Hey family how are you all doing?  So many things have happened since last week.  First and foremost, Beatriz got baptized!!!  I baptized her and it was an amazing experience and I'll never forget it.  That was my first time ever performing a baptism.  When we got into the water i was pretty nervous and i wasn't sure where i was supposed to put her hands so someone came and explained it ha ha.  The spirit was so strong and Beatriz was so happy.  I forgot to bring an extra pair of garments... so yes i wore wet garments afterwards ha ha.  A very interesting thing happened that morning before the baptismal meeting.  Satan did not want that baptism to happen and i felt really down that morning.  I felt weighed down by Satan and his followers.  I continued to pray but i knew that it wouldn't leave me until the baptism was performed.  After the baptism, i felt a lot of peace and i knew God was happy with Beatriz and her decision to get baptized. 

This experience of feeling weighed down is very interesting to me because President Johansen told us about an experience that happened to a seventy.  He was in Las Vegas one time and he wanted to get to this cheap grocery store.  Well... the only way to get there was to walk through a casino.  As he did this the veil was removed from his eyes and he saw six evil spirits at every slot machine.  President then carried on saying that Satan and his followers are real.  He told us he wouldn't be surprised if there is over 20 or more evil spirits with us on our mission trying to make us fall.  The more righteous you are the more Satan is going to send to try and tear you down.  By doing three things in our lives we will be able to overcome Satan and his followers.  I mentioned these three things to Jake and Justin in their e-mails.  1) Pray everyday (morning and night) 2) Study the scriptures everyday and 3) go to church.  By doing those three things we will be given strength to take down our enemies.  Satan will not stop, he has already lost and he will do anything he can to take down others with him.  The youth of the church is the future of the church and if they don't gain a testimony they will fall. 

I have seen to many youth here in Norway fall because of this.  There is so much corruption and evil things in the world and we need to be aware of this to stand up against it.  By being a leader in the mission you hear about a lot of apostate things that are going on.  It blows my mind away and Satan is working as hard as he can and really stepping up his game.  We must hold on the iron rod which will bring us true happiness and eternal life with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  I love my mission and I'm so grateful for this time to focus on overcoming my weaknesses and becoming a saint through the atonement of Christ. This has been the best year of my life.  I had a nightmare last night that i got sent home because i had to get surgery but they promised that i would come back to Norway after the surgery to finish my mission.  Come to find out that they wouldn't let me come back to finish my mission and i was so mad ha ha.  All i wanted to do was go back to Norway and serve the Lord.  I don't want my mission to end!

Elder Johnson and i have about three investigators that are in the zone for baptism and two of them have dates. The Lord is really blessing us!  The Oslo missionaries right now are on fire.  Between the sisters, other elders and us we had over 130 lessons in one week.  Most districts that have three companionship's have about 50 teaches a week.  We are really excited about the work here and now its up to Eldste Johnson and I to get everyone else excited about missionary work in the Zone. 

We are going to be visiting a district meeting this week and try to give them a boost.  We had a specialized training meeting on Wednesday that President Johansen and us were in charge of.  It went really well!  Eldste Johnson and i talked about teaching skills.  Yesterday we ate with one of my favorite member in Oslo ha ha.  His name is Chie Ting from Taiwan.  He is so funny!  He was a convert to the church and he attended BYU Provo for 7 years.  He works at the university of Oslo teaching Mandarin and just won teacher of the year award.  He made us delicious chinese food and taught us some chinese as well ha ha.  That was the first chinese food I've had on my mission and man was it good!

I love you all and i look forward to hearing from you next week.  Have a great week!

Eldste Godfrey