18 Apr 2011

Hello,

This was a pretty good week. Our teaching pool has grown a bit. We have definitely utilized the part member list and we also asked for a list with all the unbaptized youth in the ward. We call it a UBY list. Those definitely are good places to start and it always seems to be pleasing to the bishop when he finds out you are working with some of those families.

Well one cool story we had this week was with a man named Jerome. Jerome is a long time investigator who lives in the Newport news area. Well about 8 months ago, he starting attending the Hampton ward and this is while I was in Hampton. I while I was in Hampton he came every week to church. He never wanted missionaries to come teach him because we definitely asked him if we could come by but he said no. And at the time it would have been hard because we were serving in Hampton and he lived in the Newport news 2nd ward boundaries. But anyway, if you fast forward to now, after Jerome coming to church every week for 8 months and us and Bro S*ly talking to him as much as possible at church, I remembered when I got here that he lives in this area. So I was oh we are definitely going to stop by Jerome. So we did. And we talked with him for awhile and we read from the book of Mormon.

Then I was just thinking to myself, Jerome has such a strong testimony, he comes to church every sunday, he reads the Book of mormon daily too, there is absolutley no reason that he should not be baptized. And as I thought that the scripture Mosiah 18:8-10 came to my mind so we read that and verse 10 is a question-what have you against being baptized? And there was a long pause. and no one said anything. And finally he said that you know that I want to be baptized but its the smoking thing. And then he talked about how bad he wants to quit. And he had a sincere desire. And so we taught him as President Perry has taught us, that once people repent and sincerely decide with their whole heart to stop breaking the commandment, that at that point they can be baptized. And furthermore, they will then be armed with the Holy Ghost to help that person continue to obey. But there is no time requirement. So when we taught that to Jerome he got so happy, almost starting crying, and said that that brings him alot of hope. It was awesome.

We continued to talk and we set a date for him to be baptized on May 7! So that is great news. But there is an obstacle. You may be wondering why Jerome attends Hampton. Well besides the fact the Hampton is the greatest place in the world, Jerome had some incidents with some members with the NN2 ward and bishop addressed that and when he did Jerome got offended. So when we were with Jerome we explained to him that it would be best if he could work things out and end up going to the NN2 ward. He said he would pray about. Well he went to Hampton again this past sunday and told the elder phillips and his new companion that he is getting baptized May 7th, which is awesome to hear him say that. But we also talked to Bishop M*annis who is our bishop about ......... I am sure that the Savior would want and invite Jerome to be baptized. So anyway, we will see what happens but either way I am so happy for Jerome and believe that he will get baptized soon!
Well Elder Jones and I are having a blast together. We have alot of fun and get along great. Elder Jones is a very outgoing talkative fun person. He justs loves to have fun which is great. Sometimes I have to tell him to be more serious or more reverent cause he loves to just laugh and laugh. We have alot of fun though. He likes baspketball. he is from Salt Lake city. Well I love you and I am doing good. See you next week.
Love,
Elder Larson