7 December 2014
Dear Bryant,
Happy Birthday on Tuesday! What special plans do you have to celebrate? We were so happy to hear that you will be
baptized on Saturday. Now everyone in
your family will be a baptized member of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. Please send us an
email about your baptism and how you felt.
I had a special experience at our Zone
Meeting where the elders were having a “practicar” which means they were
practicing how they would invite an investigator to be baptized. I was the investigator and they were talking
to me in Spanish. I am working on
learning Spanish, but I couldn’t quite get what they were saying. Elder Webster kept saying this one word that
I didn’t know what it meant. He kept
saying “limpio”. I kept thinking, “What
is limpio?” “What does that mean?” And then he asked me to read a
scripture. He asked me to find Tercer Nefi, capítulo veintesiete y versículo diez y nueve
(3 Nephi 27:19, 20, 21). So those words I
understood, and I opened my English BoM and found the scripture and read, “And
no unclean thing can enter into his kingdom….
And then it came to me that “limpio”
meant “clean”. We have to be clean to
enter into his kingdom!!
Then he had me read what Jesus said in
verse 20, “…come unto me and be baptized in my name, THAT YE MAY BE SANCTIFIED
by the reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand spotless before me at the
last day… For that which ye have seen me do even that shall ye do.”
Well, since I was an “investigator”, I
told Elder Webster and Elder Pava that “Yes, I would be baptized so I could
become clean. So I could receive the Holy Ghost.” I really wanted to become holy – without
spot. Just like the chrome on your
bathroom faucet. It is best to keep it
clean – without spots.
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Bryant off high dive
|
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| Clean Byant |
I like these pictures of you.
Just so you know, our camera rests on a support
piece called the “diving board”.
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| "Diving Board" for Camera |
We have to always keep our images in focus. That is what the Holy Ghost does – he keeps you in focus.
Our little speaker hooked to our
computer that informs us we have taken a picture had to be a different sound
from the Smith’s camera so we wouldn’t turn a page thinking we had taken a
picture when we hadn’t . Their sound
when they take a picture is called “soft click” – ours is called “Space
Invaders”!! It sorta sounds like cla-da-da-da!! The Holy Ghost speaks to us with what we need.
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| Digital Speaker |
Now last Wednesday
we had District Meeting and Elder Pava
is our DL. He had each Companionship come up and report
on
the progress of
their investigators. Elder Solorzano and
Elder
Gardel have many
investigators and five with baptism dates so far.
At the end of
our meeting, we all got on our knees to pray.
It was
hard and cold on
the floor. Elder Pava prayed for each
investigator
individually by name
– and there were many of them and he asked
in his prayer
for many things.
From your missionary brother,
Elder Heflin’s emails,
I see that he
also is spending much time on his knees on behalf of
others.
I remember that one time when your Mom was little she would
bless the food. And we all had our eyes
closed and your Mom
would say, “And
bless the chicken – pause
– and bless the
potatoes – pause – and bless the gravy….I looked up and noticed
she was looking
around the table to see what to bless…
BUT Elder Pava
took a long time - I'm sure he wasn’t looking up
at the board to
see the names BUT he was earnestly praying and
thinking about
each one and their needs. When he said Amen,
I
looked up and saw
that he was kneeling down low – kind of sitting
back. I knew by the Holy Ghost that he loved those investigators
and he was
pleading for help - for them to be prepared for baptism
and receiving
the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Remember, as
you are about to enter that
gate and start the path to
return back to Heavenly Father, remember how
important it is to
pray earnestly to him and to read your scrips
faithfully.
I have a story
about how the Holy Ghost helped me.
One
day we were at Cementerio N1 where we take pictures of the
records. We had a book that needed
to be re-shot. It had almost
1100 pages
and we worked all day
on it. I looked over on the shelf
and
noticed something sticking out of
a book that had already been
taken. I
looked at what was sticking out and
it did not belong in
that book. I checked on the shelf and in the “back”
room trying to
find the book where those pages belonged, but no luck.
Meanwhile, we finished the re-take, and Sis
Smith said that we had
3 less images
(photos) than had been taken the first time. I looked
at that re-take
book we had just finished taking, AND it was the
right book for those extra 3
pages. They belonged in that book – so
we took pictures of those 3 pages
too, and were able to put the
correct number of shots on the hard drive to send
to Salt Lake.
Now those three individuals
on those 3 pages may have a
chance to
receive their ordinances if their family searches them out.
The Holy Ghost helped
me to find something important at the right
time. Your Grandpa and I are
thankful for the constant gift we have
been given of the Holy Ghost with
the promise given in the prayer
at the
Sacrament Table, that He will always
be with us if we keep
the commandments. We
want to do this. We love you,
Bryant.
Love, Grandpa
and Grandma Gibson
