Pace 8:2

"I look like an oompa loompa" (I have no idea why this quote today??)

Two of our friends were baptized yesterday!!! Gigi and Devon. We had to do them at different times though so Gigis family could come. She speaks English and Spanish, but her family speaks more Spanish than English and our friend who baptized her speaks Spanish as well so he did it in Spanish. Then I had the opportunity to baptize Devon later. Devons family mostly speaks Swahili and so do I! Miracle! So both our baptisms were done in a different language! Just kidding, I only speak English so Devons was normal. We are preparing for this next week, we have 2 more friends preparing for baptism. One of them I met my second day here in the Bronx and ever since then he has been awesome!

Since I got into the mission field our baptisms have increased alot because of President Holmes. It has been really cool to see. When I came we were baptizing around 50 friends as a mission each month. Last month as a mission we baptized 148 friends! Each month we set a new mission record they have been making stickers. I took some pictures of them and it's cool to see the growth of our mission. So with the increase in friends being baptized we are really focusing in our mission on helping our friends being baptized continue on with conversion and become solid life-long members. We are trying to get them to the temple and receive the priesthood asap. Yesterday after church Gigi got her temple recommend and Devon will receive the priesthood next Sunday! Also a cool change from the leaders in the church recently is that missionaries are able to go to the temple with friends they have taught and baptized if it is their first time to the temple. So we are planning to go to the temple with Gigi and Devon and hopefully some other friends in a couple weeks!

I listened to an awesome talk the other day (Mom can you attach the talk) It's called Promptings of the Spirit. He uses basic principles, but it helped me to see the promptings of the Spirit in a different way and understand better how the spirit speaks. He also spoke on the promptings of the devil and I really enjoyed what he said. One thing I had never thought about was that he said the promptings of the devil oftentimes come in the first person. The devil wants us to think his promptings are just our thoughts so that we are more likely to follow them. Oh he's sneaky! The real way we are able to tell if the prompting is from God or the devil is if the thought entices us to do good then it's from God, it's that simple. It reminded me of the scripture Moroni 7:12-13

12 Wherefore, all things which are good cometh of God; and that which is evil cometh of the devil; for the devil is an enemy unto God, and fighteth against him continually, and inviteth and enticeth to sin, and to do that which is evil continually.

13 But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God.

So anyways I'm just going to do better at acting on any good thoughts that come to me because it's not me, but a prompting of the Spirit. He used an awesome slogan in the talk. "A positive thought to say something or do something is a prompting from God until proven otherwise"

LISTEN TO THE TALK! (Link should be at the top of this email)

Picky pic time