Week 67 Cowboy Songs & Child's Of God

Yooo what's good!! How yall doin? It's yalls favorite Elder back at it again with another BANGER this week! So let's get er done!! 

this week we had the opportunity to put my boy Greg on  date for baptism!! this man is elect and has the opportunity to join us on the 16th of December and the best part is that my son Elder Attridge that was his first experience with putting someone on date! so here is the story! a year a half ago Greg met with the elders in ohio and at the time it was him and his wife and their family. the missionaries were able to give Greg a book of Mormon and he has read it a few times and then while he was in Ohio he lost his wife so he decided to move back down with family to South Carolina here in Conway! Then the missionaries that were up there sent us what we call a missionary referral where they sent his name, his number and all the notes that the missionaries up there had on Greg! A little while after that Elder Hicks and Elder Attridge got in contact with greg in September and had a prompting to teach Greg the POS (Plan of Salvation). He loved the lesson and ate up the lesson like wildfire! and then after the lesson was over they tried texting and calling Greg and would go on to lose contact with him for over a month! Then on my second day back we pulled up at this man's house after Elder Attridge had a bing to knock and Greg was home and when he saw us at the door he told oh hey guys I remember yall! yall where the ones that told me i can see my wife again!! That was all it took for us to realize that god has been preparing this man all along! so we went in and we teach the Restoration and he loves it we talked long and hard about the priesthood authority and wanted to ask him there to be baptised but we felt very good about the commitment we left with him which was to pray and ask his wife and god if the message that we have shared with him is true because earlier in the lesson he told us that whenever he cant sleep at night for whatever reason he goes outside on the porch of his house and he has a star in the sky that he says is his wife's star and so when he prays he prays to God and his wife! so I testified and asked him if he would be willing to pray at that time when he is up in the night and ask his wife if our message was true! he told us he would and we also invited him to read the resto pamphlet we left him! Then we let a week or so go bye and we tried to see if he was home and he wasn't all gods timing so know we are here in the story where it was yesterday Sunday we had a good time at church! our recent converts are staying active and coming to church when they can which is good! then after we went home and got a better idea of the plan that we committed to do that morning and we starting going and it was nothing we had 2 lessons with our recent converts that didn't come to church fall through and we were making contact after contact and it was no success! then Elder Attridge he had another bing and he says we need to go to Gregs so i punched in his address in maps and off we went! we pulled up and knocked on his door and his sister in law answered and told us he was home!! so we went inside and he told us oh hey guys how are y'all doing! also just to let yall know i did do what yall told me to do and pray about what y'all taught last time! i didn't get a chance to read but i did get a chance to pray and the message that i got in my heart was that it's TRUE!!!!! After he told us that we then proceeded to reteach the first half of the POS and we got to the atonement of christ and we shared the scripture in Mosiah 3:7-11 and he knew exactly what a pore was and he told us that christ must of been really going through the ringer for him to covered in blood from head to toe! then after that Elder Attridge starting to talk about how the atonement covers both spiritual and physical death and during that i got the prompting to ask him to be baptised so i flipped in my scriptures to Alma 7:14-15 which reads "14 Now I say unto you that ye must arepent, and be born again; for the Spirit saith if ye are not born again ye cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven; therefore come and be baptized unto repentance, that ye may be washed from your sins, that ye may have faith on the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, who is mighty to save and to cleanse from all unrighteousness.

15 Yea, I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth abeset you, which doth bind you down to destruction, yea, come and go forth, and show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments, and witness it unto him this day by going into the waters of baptism" after we read this together we asked him if he wanted to follow the example of jesus christ and be baptised and before i could even finish he said yes that he would love to!! then after that we invited him and gave him a card and took a pic with him which ill put down below!! as we were getting ready to leave we said and prayer and he told us that he was going to tell everyone he saw that he was going to join our church and that he wanted us to call him! then after we got back in the car my son Elder Attridge turned to me and said Elder i think i'm gonna cry! and we did together and shared a very tender moment in which i will have with me for the rest of eternity! Elder Attridge has been so good to be with! he loves to play sports and we came up with a game that we do in the morning when we play basketball to help me make sure that he gets trained its pretty lit! he is committed to being a great missionary and im so excited to have him be my comp! 

this week we've had a lot of ups and downs. We had some other friends of ours that we were teaching tell us that the BOM is not true and the we are not the church that was established when christ was on the earth! luckily for them after my testimony of the BOM we wont be going back anytime soon! it just goes to show y'all that these weeks on my mission may seem fun but at the same time they are so hard! after that i went got a blessing and in their the lord gave me very specific instructions on what i need to do to make sure that we don't make it doesnt happen twice but he also told me that i did what his son would of done which was teach testify and challenge any other belief that stood in the way of truth! it made me reflect on the temple covenants which i have made on how that they will be a protection against the fiery darts of the adversary! it also made me reflect on just how far i've grown in my mission and just what i need to do to ensure that i keep growing! i've had my heart ripped out and stomped on and i've had my mind and my heart tell me that we needed to put our boy greg on date for baptism! welcome to the life of being called to serve! 

i also had exchanges this week with the ZLs and that was great as well we saw a lot of cool miracles and was able to find some new people to teach as well! i love this work after we got home from that lesson we have a picture of christ hanging on our wall and I stopped for a min and looked at it and i had this thought come to my mind he who has a desire to serve god he is called to the work for behold many are called but few are chosen and my son you are one of those that i've chosen! Remember that these experiences i've already been through and that these times on your mission i have chosen for you to go through so you become the Man that i've already created you to be! 

my dear friends god is real he knows every single one of us and he loves and wants all to come and follow him! he endured and suffered more pain than man can suffer! he has sent his gospel into the world to reform the world and to challenge and to stand up to some of the boldest of clams! For example, families can be together forever and that we can live with those that have passed on in the celestial kingdom and that we can have the chance to learn and grow just as he has! This week is why I came back from the dead! in my interview with my mission president he told me that i've had an increase in power since i've been back so he gave me the bold correction and invitation to DROP the HAMMER DOWN and show these members and the missionaries in our zone how to boldy invite our friends and even ourselves to come to christ! I am grateful for the testimony the lord has given me and how he shows me that I can grow it everyday because as each day goes by there is always something new that i've learned and how I can apply it! so my invitation to yall is to take it day by day and to find a way to grow your testimony and strengthen your relationship with Christ! Then when the time is right ill be able to meet God on the Shores of Eternity! love yall!! 

TILL NEXT TIME THIS IS YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD UTE FAN SAYING GO

UTES AND ILL SEE YALL IN THE NEXT ONE PEACE