Scattered Israel

WHAT A WEEK!!  

We had MLC with Elder Allen D. Haynie and it was a super uplifting experience for us.  We discussed the term "Scattered Israel".  These are people in our areas whom the Lord has prepared and is ready to receive.  They have a magnetic pull to the message of the gospel and will not be able to resist or deny the truthfulness of this church.   I'll give you two examples:

This is Charline!.  One Sunday she just mysteriously showed up to sacrament meeting.  Since I was new in the ward I just started talking to everybody and building relationships.  I had a conversation with her after sacrament meeting and I just assumed she was a member but she informed me that she had not yet been baptized!  She is a 2 year investigator from Zambales and she has been investigating the church ever since. The only thing that held her back from being baptized in the province was obtaining permission from her parents.  They weren’t exactly on board with the idea of her being baptized into the church. She made a deal with her parents that if she passed her board exam in October here in Manila to become an accountant they would allow her to be baptized.  We brought her along to the mission home the night that she told us that to attend a fireside with President Fermanis. They had a conversation and long story short, she wanted to be baptized regardless of what came after. We extended a baptismal date to her and continued to teach her to prepare her for that date.  We invited her to fast with us to help overcome the trials that came before her baptism and we received a text a few days afterwards that her parents had accepted her desire to be baptized and allowed it. SWEET!! The Lord will do everything in His power to help us if we do everything in our power to serve Him. So Charline was baptized and the ward absolutely loves her.  She’s been studying the gospel for the last two years and very familiar with the church already so she’s basically already been a member, the only thing missing was the baptism hahaha. She’s a huge blessing to us we are so grateful to have had the chance to witness her conversion.

This is Jay-pee!  His story is similar to Charline’s in regards to parents not being on board with the whole idea of joining a different church.  He’s been investigating for years as well and his girlfriend in Ilocos is a member. He’s studying here in Manila and that’s why he’s currently in our ward.  He has also been studying the doctrine of the church in the meantime of waiting for his parents to approve his baptism so he was very prepared by the time we found him.  Again, we invited him to fast with us to help pave the way for his baptism and the Lord came through once again. He's really open to learning more about the gospel and has a strong testimony of the fact that our families can be together forever. He believes that one day his family will also have the opportunity to receive the gospel just as he did.

WOW the Lord is so amazing. Blessing us openly just like He said he would. I don't have much more time to email but I would just like to bear my testimony that we truly do have a loving Heavenly Father who knows what we need. He's there to pick us up when we are down and we can turn to Him for anything. I can also testify of the power of the Book of Mormon and the role that it has on keeping us converted. Elder Haynie mentioned 2 things that every member can do to keep from going less-active:

1) Read the Book of Mormon DAILY

2) Pay tithing

If you are not currently doing these 2 things then WHAT ARE YOU WATING FOR?  I would highly suggest you do so.  Make God happy and I promise He will do the same to you, only in ways you would never see possible.  

Love you guys have an awesome week!!!  

Elder Burdeos