Sister Brianne Watson: BWE (again!)

I only have six P-Days left after this one...gross. More miracles happened this week that I am so excited to talk about! Most of them happened yesterday at church though, so we'll start there. A few days ago while we were having a facetime lesson with our investigator Rachel, I felt prompted to ask her if she would bear her testimony in church the following Sunday since it was fast and testimony meeting. (Note: Rachel is very shy and nervous around people because of events in her past. She calls herself the "church mouse" and isn't used to speaking in front of people at all). But, every time we facetime her and read out of the Book of Mormon, she's always telling us her feelings and how much the book of mormon has blessed her. We actually just finished the entire book of mormon with her in the span of 12 weeks! She's on FIRE. She's come to church every single Sunday for the past couple of months and is now considered a part of the branch. She's not baptized because of some things that we have to work with through the First Presidency but HOPEFULLY someday in the future she will have the opportunity to partake of the beautiful blessings of baptism. Anyway, so a few days ago I randomly said,

"Rachel, i have a favor to ask of you. Will you bear your testimony to the branch this sunday?" ........................

*silence*

........................

"Pleeeeease?"

And then...after some persistence on my part, she agreed! The next day she said she was practicing and she also wanted us to come over the day before church to practice with her so that she had it just right :) she's too cute!

Finally Sunday came and she walked right up and bore a touching testimony about the Book of Mormon. She compared it to a pie. Before finding this church, she had other bibles and she said that was the filling of the pie. She had different ideas and perspectives that started her testimony of Christ. Then she found the Book of Mormon and after reading it, she compared it to the crust. It's the foundation of this religion and it keeps everything else together..it's the "missing piece". I learn so much from my investigators and i just love it :)

IT GETS BETTER! As we were sitting in the chapel waiting for church to start, in walks Richard. I won't go into that whole situation but just know that it's a dang miracle that he showed up!! I'll go more into detail when I get home because I'm getting lazy. But he CAME! We ended up having....drum roll.....SIX INVESTIGATORS IN SACRAMENT MEETING!!!! That is by far the most i have had my entire mission. I'm pretty sure it actually triples anything we've ever had.

It gets even better. Remember Leon from last week? He came to church again with Brother James. He came up to us after gospel principles and apologized for having to miss our appointment during the week. We took the opportunity and scheduled an appointment with him right after church and luckily he was available! We taught him the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ with the branch president's wife and Brother James in a tiny room in the church building. The spirit was so strong and we even extended a baptismal date of November 26....HE ACCEPTED! We told him to pray to know if the message we shared with him was true and he said, "I already know it's all true. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet even though lots of people i know don't."

We warned him that the time between now and November 26 will be hard and the adversary will be doing its best to stop his progress but he assured us he will be ready by that date :) Amazing things happening here in D-Scotta! I'm pretty sure that was the happiest day of my mission. I felt so much love and joy and happiness and gratitude. When we pulled into our apartment after church, I asked Sister MacDonald if i could quickly say a gratitude prayer before we got out because we were just in awe at the miracles we were blessed with that day. I felt like Ammon in the scriptures with the joy exceeding my strength!

I remember a few months ago Jessica sent me an email and asked me if i had a goal for myself for the end of my mission. I took that question to heart and I pondered it for a while before coming to the decision that I'd like one more baptism before I go home. That goal is pretty high considering the slow baptismal rate this mission has, but I was determined to pray and rely on faith to help me reach that goal. At first I was a bit doubtful, and as the weeks slipped by without any investigators getting any closer, I thought I was out of luck. Then, a week ago, Leon randomly walks up to us and basically drops to his knees begging to be baptized!! JUST IN TIME...a few weeks before I go home. The Lord is so good.

This is HIS work, and as long as I do my part with faith and diligence, He will make up for everything else. I love being a missionary. I love representing my Savior in this miraculous work. I love the New Hampshire Manchester mission and I love all the crazy New Englanders. I love the joy that this gospel brings.

Enjoy my pictures and have a great week!

Love, Sister Watson