It has been a great week this week. Bro. Lamar Ronque Horne, the boyfriend of the Morgantown YSA Relief Society President was baptised today. She invited him to church, we were able to contact him and had wonderful lessons throughout the 4 weeks of teaching to prepare him for his baptism. After the baptism Ron bore a powerful testimony of the Savior and his love for the Book of Mormon. All in attendance were edified and lifted by his powerful testimony. I have never before seen so many people at a baptism before. Alot of investigators as well as recent converts who participated in the meeting and shared powerful testimony once again of the Savior and the Book of Mormon. This week, and after reading your email, it was confirmed to me that I often get so caught up in the application of things that I forget to talk and speak of Jesus Christ. I talk of alot of things that have to do with him but not particularly about him. This week I tried really hard to make sure in every opportunity I had to take the time to specifically testify of the Savior and his matchless love and my gratitude for the atonement. It was so neat to watch the spirit that came into the room as I made that a priority. It truly softens peoples hearts that I thought would be hard, it really has brought an added measure of the spirit, when I share my love for the Son of God. We had a bit of a heartbreak this week. The Smith family, we met with on Monday, We had a wonderful lesson with them, we taught the commandment of prayer, scripture study, and the Word of Wisdom. We invited and they gladly and whole heartedly committed to keeping those commandments. At the end of the lesson we invited Sis. Smith to say the closing prayer. She did and it was a very emotional and spiritual experience. Sis. Smith has had many spiritual experiences as she had progressed and prepared for baptism. She had a sister who she wanted to share the Gospel with who she was deeply concerned for. She prayed that she could be blessed as she had been. And during one of our lessons Elders showed up on her Sister doorstep in Texas. She kept making comments like, they noticed the change in me and my husband it is incredible. There is less contention in our home, and has been so much more pleasant since we have been meeting with you. As they attended church they said they felt as if everything was directed to them. They were very involved in the Church they previously attended and after the meetings last Sunday they went to their car and prayed and asked the Lord if this is where their family should be. They both had an overwhelming feeling and cut the ties with their previous Church. The Lord has truly blessed this family with many more spiritual experiences. This Tuesday Sister Smith called, she was overwhelmed and crying. Said that her neighbors, the friend shippers were doing to much. She would bring over stacks upon stacks of movies and books and Pamphlets and Cd's. She would come over and say "What homework did the Elders leave you?" and read it aloud for her. Sister Smith told us that this sister would stay most nights till 1 or 2 in the morning. She said she didn't have time to do her laundry and she felt her family was falling apart. We called the Sister. We told her that we felt that Sis Smith needed to have spiritual experiences on her own and that we were grateful for all she had done but that we should all just give them their space and have their own spiritual experiences. Well, we had an appointment scheduled Wednesday with the Smiths, as well as Thursday for dinner and a lesson. We went over Wednesday and she said, I hope you all will not be mad at us if we decide not to become Mormon. Our hearts were broken, and we were speechless. We had the lesson and her and her Husband had 4 concerns that they both had marked in their bible (1)No other books (2)Tea (3)Sealing in the Temple (4)Saved by grace alone. My self and Elder Smart noticed and felt these to be smoke screens. So we really didn't address them we just asked about their spiritual experience and if they knew if the Book of Mormon was true. We asked where they got this material. They said they had studied it out last night. We asked them to once again pray about the Book of Mormon and the Prophet Joseph Smith and we will come back tomorrow. Well, the Lord blessed us with tomorrow to be Thursday, our Training day. I went fasting, pleading with the Lord to help us overcome the smoke screens and find the true concerns. We had a great meeting on teaching people, not lessons and asking inspired questions. We went to the Smith's that evening, we sat down and told them that we felt their concerns weren't really their concerns, they asked us to share what we felt the real concerns were and we did, then we asked them to share how they really felt and she just said she is really overwhelmed. Well, we thought she meant by the neighbor. She said she felt that the spirit was telling her to just stand still. We invited her to come to a baptism this weekend and promised her that she would know whether or not she was to be baptised if they came. They did not show and we were saddened they didn't attend church either. A sister who lives on the street with a bunch of Chaplin's came up and said Elders, I am just sickened and I have to tell you a story. The story is, that a woman from the ward goes walking with a woman whose husband is a Chaplin. The Chaplin's have an organization called PWOC which is a group for Protestant Army wives to come and study the scriptures and be edified as they talk of Christ. The woman who was walking with our member said that she was upset about what had been said at PWOC the past few weeks and that she had to talk to her about it. They would just talk badly about the Mormon church and just really talk poorly on the Mormon faith. Which is sad and really isn't aloud because in the Military we are categorized as a Protestant religion. The woman walking with our member continued to say that she received an email that asked all the women who attended PWOC to pray for her because she was going to do something she had never done before and confront Sis. Smith about the Mormon faith and meet with her once a week to have a Bible Study to encourage her not to join the Mormon faith or meet with the Missionaries. The truth came out and it ended up being, that they met on Tuesday night previous to our meeting Wednesday and the woman from PWOC had marked all these scriptures for them and Sis. Smith was overwhelmed, she was just being pulled in both directions. We haven't given up, the ward has a wonderful plan to ask the current friend shippers to cool out and to slowly invite them to the Ward Camp out and to Family Home Evening and just try to help them feel of the spirit again. Sis Smith called us to let us know that they are still living the word of Wisdom (which they struggled with tea) they are still having personal and family scripture study and prayer. We are kind of lost, But we still pray and we know miracles can happen and with the aid of the Fort Bragg members they will have a desire to be baptised again. They even had Elder and Sister Burris (military relations couple) over this weekend to show them how to have a Family Home Evening. The Church is True, Jesus is the Christ and we still have alot of great work going on in Fort Bragg with the Addie Family and the Keime Family. We are truly seeing miracles everyday. That is something I learned at trainers meeting as well. A good indicator to see where you are at, is to ask yourself when was the last miracle I saw. They truly are happening all the time. We just have to have the faith to allow them to happen. But yeah that is the News this week. Really pray hard for me it has been a tough week. I kind of had a day where I just wasn't sure why I was here. I felt as if I was wasting my time. I am doing alot better. But I know this is true, what I have to offer and I know it could bless the Smith's life tremendously! I pray for them and know the Saviour loves them so much! I love you all, and appreciate all that you do, and hope you have a great week. And by the way I did get the ACT stuff and when you apply for me you should apply for LDSBC as well! It would be cool to live by the Prophet. I love you all and hope you have a great week! Love and Respect, Elder Taylor Petersen
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