"The First Fruits of Repentence is Baptism."

Hi!

Sorry about the skipped email last week. Too busy. Anyway, this first few days in this week have been a mad house and super packed with miracles. So last Friday, we go to a certain apartment complex to look up former investigators. As we were parking I felt really good about tracting a certain building. We start knocking doors and we tract into this YSA girl who says that we could come back. The next day we show up to her apartment and she says that she forgot about us coming but still lets us in. We start teaching a first and baptism comes up and we ask her why she thinks baptism is important. She says she has no idea why. But we start teaching her about baptism and at the end she wants to get baptized. Skip ahead a few days. At our next appointment she says that she read all the scriptures we marked, the pamphlet and the scriptures in it and she feels really good about the whole thing. She says that she was planning on cancelling on us when we set up our first appointment but she spaced that we were coming. She says that she is so grateful that God let her forget about the appointment because she believes that this is true. After our first appointment, she had talked to her Sister-in-law's mother who is an active member of the church and she told her about eternal families. This investigator was so memorized by that because she is really close with her family and wants that for hers. She said, that is a huge reason she wants to learn more. We are doing a church tour with her on Friday and she is bringing people too.

So me and Sister Sorensen went to Leadership training this past week and I learned a huge lesson about the importance of baptism. So you know the five principles of the gospel-faith, repentance, baptism, HG and endure to the end? Well, it hit me this week that no one can feel true repentance or forgiveness UNLESS they are baptized by proper authority and given the HG. In PMG pg 2 it says "Although they (nonmembers) may not know why, they need relief from feelings of guilt that come from mistakes and sins. They need to experience the joy of redemption by receiving forgiveness of their sins...

Moro 8:25- "The the first fruits of repentance is baptism..."
Baptism is a step in repentance or for those that have been baptized- the sacrament. So a nonmember who seeks forgiveness from God can pray for forgiveness and change his life but the burden and guilt will still be there. His garments are still spotted with sin until baptism and receiving the HG. So millions of people are wandering the world with loads of guilt from sin and transgression and we have the relief that we need. So please keep that in mind when you think of non-member friends and sharing the gospel.

Love Sister Sumsion

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

500 to 1: It's game time!!

Hi!

So this was a jammed pack week filled with the spirit. We had zone conference and a mission conference with....Elder Russel M. Nelson! He is the funniest cutiest old man, besides Grandpa Sumsion;) Anyway, I just wanted to share some thoughts from both conferences and hopefully you can learn something from it too.

At zone conference, we focused all about baptism. We first talked about mentality and what we should focus. It brought back the memories of my high school basketball career. My coach would always tell us that an hour before the game we needed to focus our minds and thoughts and nothing else but basketball. I had another coach that said to think about shooting and playing the game while trying to fall asleep the night before. Sports is all about the mentality. If you think you are going to lose, you probably will. But if you think you are going to win, you probably will. So I stood up and shared my ideas and thoughts with the zone and I told them that everytime they walk out the door to go proselyte for the day, it is game time. So as a missionary, you must eat, sleep, dream, think about baptizing. If you think you won't baptize or that this person isn't ready, then it won't happen. But if you have the mentality that you can do anything with God on your side (and He wants His children to have the gospel) then you have a much higher chance. Don't forget agency though. But God knows their thoughts and feelings and can help you discern them and overcome any doubts or concerns so that they will accept the gospel. Best ever!

Then Elder Nelson talked about Gideon in Judges 7 and how the Lord minimized his army to 300 people. The enemy had 150,000 people. Talk about bad odds. That makes it 500 to 1. Then Elder Nelson talked about the numbers today. There are 14 million members and 6.6 billion people in the world. And it almost equals out to 500 to 1. Interesting.... He then talked about how the Lord has the unexpected to do the impossible. If you trust in the Lord and rely upon His strength and power then you can do impossible things. We will always be outnumbered by worldly standards. But I would rather but outnumbered and on God's side then on the side that might look bigger with worldly eyes.

The church is true!

Love, Sister Sumsion