Obviously He Was a Man of Religion

There is this lady in Pakistan that I've been teaching on Facebook that is super awesome! She is Christian and receives a lot of bullying for her beliefs and she reached out to me on facebook because she saw that I talk of Jesus Christ. As we've talked she's downloaded the book of mormon on her computer and is making great headway. Every day we have awesome conversations about what she's read and how it is helping her. All her family is Catholic and they are treating her very badly for her decision to read the Book of Mormon and talk with an LDS missionary on facebook but she doesn't care because she is fascinated with what she is learning. Hopefully this week she can meet with local church members!

So much happened this week! There is a family that we have been teaching and the two girls were baptized this week. They are an awesome example to their Mom and are really the pioneers in the family. It's incredible to see the faith of these two girls as they lead as examples in their family.

There's a man that we've been teaching for several weeks now that I will call "Ben". Ben first met Elder Karl and Elder Hyer at Walmart over 6 months ago. They found him in an aisle with his hands in the air looking around at cans of chunky soup saying with a loud voice, "Praise God for all this food!" Obviously he was a man of religion and didn't mind people knowing it! He got into a conversation with Elder Karl and Hyer and while people would walk past he would raise his voice and say, "all these people need to appreciate what God has given them and repent!!!" Very unusual kind of guy :) He is very spiritual and very opinionated. His most common words are, "Praise God" and "God Bless". Whenever he says these he takes a moment to look up into the heavens before continuing on with what he was saying. Ben is such a great guy and even though he's going through some financial difficulty he's a very giving person and took some food out to a man who lives an hour away who was penniless. During our first lesson with him (after the missionaries met him in Walmart and got his contact information, he slipped through the cracks and recently came back up) he told us he already believes Joseph Smith is a prophet and was eager to come to church. He's been coming for the last 3 weeks and is preparing for baptism this next Saturday! I'll be sure to send pictures of the baptism and I'll include one from this morning right after he passed his baptismal interview.

I'm having the best mission ever! This was an amazing week filled with miracles! Earlier this week our Spanish Elders got a call from the bishop informing them a girl that had been baptized when she was 8 had never been confirmed and since it had been so long they needed to do the baptism again and confirm her. This was a big miracle for them! It's amazing this transfer to see the miracles that are happening for missionaries as they exercise faith in President Toone's promise that every companionship can have a baptism.

Love Elder Janis

This is a picture from this morning with a new missionary Elder Naeata, Elder Miller, Me, "Ben", and Elder Hyer. Ben is Jewish by the way! My goal of baptizing a Jew will happen this Saturday!!!!!!!!!!! ;)