New Companion!

Photo Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/QuW5JQQJL6emqhb68 This week was transfers and I got a new companion but I am staying in Johnstown. This is going to be my third transfer in Johnstown and I'm actually so excited and relieved that I didn't get transferred because I love this area and the people inside of it. Even though Johnstown is known for its unaccountability, this ward is amazing and I love the missionary work out here. My new companion is Elder Ashby and he is an awesome guy. It feels so weird not to have Elder Kress as my companion. Elder Ashby is from Rexburg Idaho and is a very knowledgeable and smart guy concerning the scriptures. He is only one transfer ahead of me and so we are both very young missionaries, but I'm excited to learn from him. I'm assuming that this will be my last transfer in Johnstown, but hopefully I'll get to train next to answer because I actually just want to train so badly. I also get the opportunity to lead out the area of Johnstown which is a weird feeling, I am responsible to keep the ball rolling inside this area. I'm already loving leading out this area and being able to use the things that I learned from Elder Kress in action. Our friends Lisa and Jay both came to church this sunday. Lisa had not been to church since the beginning of this year and has not made it to church every single Sunday since. She has shown a strong desire to grow in her faith and be baptized. She thought she was condemned because she didn't take the chance to be baptized the first time and receive the holy ghost. We had a gospel principles lesson where Jay and Lisa both were in the lesson in a small room of only around six of us and the lesson was about baptism coincidentally. Lisa spoke up and started crying because of the fact she didn't get baptized the first time and then the lesson was just so Spirit-filled and Jay even pitched in a few times and we read Moroni chapter 6 and focused on the requirements of baptism and the things that should be in your thoughts as you're going into it. Jay has been doing good, we had an amazing couple lessons this week specifically focusing on temples and Celestial marriage as well with the law of Chastity and a law of tithing. He explained that the temples are very interesting to him and he even watched a talk from president Nelson about Celestial marriage and loved it. Lisa and Jay are both two of our most progressing friends right now and hopefully can be baptized in the future. The other day we stopped by a random person who had not been contacted in a while and we walked in and he was just really cool black guy named david. He explained that other missionaries had talked with him and his friends in the past. As we're talking with him, then walks his friend and he grabs a beer from the fridge and starts talking to us. We definitely stayed there for way too long and It kind of turned into a Bash. He started saying that we just don't have proof because we were not there at those events in the Bible and also in the Book of Mormon. I explained that it's all faith and that I received a spiritual Witness of its truthfulness and also the fact that the Bible literally proves our church and of its truthfulness. He started pouring out a shot and offering us alcohol to kind of be disrespectful and started talking about the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Ark of the Covenant. He also just wouldn't let me get my point across and So eventually we just got up and left. It's definitely not the smartest idea to talk to people who are under the influence of something. We stopped by Rose again for a lesson and as well as a meal. She ordered pizza and then talked about how she was babysitting her daughter's dog who was in need of a bath. She has MS and explained that she couldn't do it that effectively. She asked us if we could wash the dog and let's just say that this was the funniest thing ever. The opportunity to wash a dog as an act of service is so funny. Elder Ashby even recorded the whole thing while I washed the dog by myself in the shower. The dog was actually just so well-trained and just submitted to all of it. I got pretty wet but it was all worth it for the memories. We then had a pretty good lesson with rose talking about Abinadi and his sermon he gave to King Noah. As mortals, we have a limited view of the past and present and can only guess what will happen in the future. This is not so for God. He knows “the end from the beginning.” God’s omniscience, his knowledge of all things, makes the plan of salvation possible. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught, “The great Jehovah contemplated the whole of the events connected with the earth, pertaining to the plan of salvation, before it rolled into existence … ; the past, the present, and the future were and are, with Him, one eternal ‘now’; … He comprehended the Fall of man, and his redemption; He knew the plan of salvation and pointed it out; He was acquainted with the situation of all nations and with their destiny; He ordered all things according to the counsel of His own will; He knows the situation of both the living and the dead, and has made ample provision for their redemption, according to their several circumstances, and the laws of the kingdom of God, whether in this world, or in the world to come.” God our Father has ears with which to hear our prayers. He has eyes with which to see our actions. He has a mouth with which to speak to us. He has a heart with which to feel compassion and love. He is real. He is living. We are his children, made in his image. We look like him, and he looks like us. Come to trust the Lord’s love and light. As you allow it, the Savior’s love can come to others through you. And when you feel His love, you will come to recognize and receive personal revelation. You will discover what is meant to “walk in the light of his love. With Love, Elder Batman