Another Juan Bites the Dust!

Alright! Who's got a great start to the new year?! WE DO!!!!!!

I will do my best to make this email shorter than the last couple weeks have been haha. But suffice it to say that this week has been jam-packed with awesome things. 

So, Friday. We had an AMAZING DAY! We went to Walmart to "shop," but really we would just go around the store pretending to put things in our cart as we talked to people about Jesus Christ. It was so fun! We met so many crazy Walmart people. One of them was a pastor of another church haha and she said that she had already been saved for 23 years! Another lady told us a CRAZY experience she had that was kind of creepy. It started out great with her telling us about how she found Jesus, but then she started talking about this dark spirit leaving her, and how then one time she was speaking in tongues and didn't know what she was saying.... We don't know what to think about crazy things like that.

 Anyways, so we went on having an AWESOME day, and then we had like 20 mins left before we needed to go sync our ipads. So we prayed and asked Heavenly Father where He wanted us to go, and then we just started driving. It was some AWESOME comp unity when we started turning through this neighborhood to where the spirit guided us. Then, Sister Hale said to stop, and we went up to house number 366 and knocked. We found a GREAT family that let us come in and talk to them. So that was a miracle. 

Then we got back to the library to use the wifi to sync our areabooks. So we parked across like 5 handicapped spaces because its 9 at night and no one is around. But then this cop pulls up, and we are like aw flip. So we run over to the cop, and explain it to him and that we are just poor missionaries using the wifi. Well finding out that we were missionaries completely changed everything, and we had a 15 minute conversation about what we do and the church and everything. We left officer Nick with a Book of Mormon, and an invitation to come to church and learn more. WE ARE GOING TO BAPTIZE A POPO!!!!!!! Yeah buddy!!!!!!!

Ok, so that was totally the highlight of my week. Also, there is this lady that is apparently from out of town and no one really knows who she is and she isn't staying for very long. Well she has come to church the past couple of weeks, but she rolls around this little cart thing, and last Sunday she had two big buckets with hamsters in them that she wheeled around the chapel, and this week she had a little dog chillin on the cart learning about the gospel... Our recent convert was REAL confused about what was going on... and for once, we were kind of glad we didn't have brand new investigators there to ask questions about it...

 We also picked up trash along the streets this week, and we found a lot of drugs.... WOOHOO!!!! Party time!! Just kidding... But man, New Jersey can be really filthy sometimes, and boy did our trash bags smell bad!

Alright... now to be serious for two minutos. The first Presidency has really been stressing making the Sabbath a delight. As a missionary, sometimes that is hard to do, because Sundays, and especially at church, we are generally the busiest, and it can feel so crazy sometimes. But as I have pondered about how I can make the sacrament more meaningful, and how we can strengthen the ward as well, it came to my mind that the Sacrament is the center of it all. As Sister Hale and I discuss it, and have been talking to more and more members about the Sacrament, the spirit has taught me more and more about it. What if Jesus Christ were to be in your Sacrament meeting this Sunday? You walk into the Chapel, and He is sitting up on the stand to observe how the ordinance of His sacrifice is performed. How would you prepare? What would you do differently during that ten minutes while the Sacrament is being passed? As covenant members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we have the privilege each week of inviting Christ to be with us each week when we take the sacrament. We have that promise that we will always have His spirit to be with us. 

The sacrament is a rehearsal. It is a sacred practice of how it will be when Jesus Christ really does come again. How we take the Sacrament each week is a reflection of how we will receive Him. Think of the parable of the 10 virgins. Elder Bednar has said that the 5 wise ones were prepared because they had the oil of conversion in their lamps, and were ready to meet the BrideGroom. We take the Sacrament each week for ourselves, and no one can take it for us. No one can force us to have the Spirit with us, and be one with Christ. Only we can be FILLED (3 Nephi 18) with the oil of conversion if we make the sacrament meaningful each week. It is a sacred time when we align our will with the will of the Father. Just like in the talk "What Lack I Yet?" He says that the sacrament is a perfect time to ask what we can do to better become converted. 

I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father for the Sacrament. It is truly a sacred time between us and the Lord individually. I can testify as a representative of Jesus Christ that partaking of the bread of life and living waters worthily and inviting Christ to spend those 10 minutes with you will fill you. It will Make the Sabbath a delight, and you will be prepared to meet Him with joy when He comes. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Sister Baine :)