Fulfilling our purpose...

Hiya everyone!
I hope everyone had a great week last week, I know I did! :)

To start off the email I would like to talk about yesterday, Sunday. David got baptised!!!! I was blessed to dress up in my "whites" and baptise him! His wife Gaynor came to church and the baptism. At the beginning of church, they spoke to the Bishop. I'm guessing everything went well because David got baptised haha Gaynor was having some difficulty just accepting the change that has happened within David and sorta is using it as the excuse of why their marriage is shaky at the moment (even though this was the case when we started teaching them). Well, I believe Bishop sorted it all out; helping Gaynor understand what baptism means to David, following the commandments, paying tithing, and I suppose what the future holds for David. His baptismal service was brilliant. Many people where there and I'm sure Gaynor felt the spirit. One thing that was funny was that Bro. Meegheny, who filled up the baptismal font, forgot to turn off the hot water so that the water was spa temperature! hahaha It was nice for me, but probably not for David since he had to be fully immersed in it! haha He in actuality didn't mind, he just laughed as well and went along with it. I felt the spirit so strongly. As I was saying the words to baptise David, I felt the power of the Holy Ghost upon me and truly felt like I was fulfilling my purpose as a missionary. It's the best feeling in the world. Words cannot explain. As David and I were getting changed, he turned to me and said thank you and shook my hand. Oh boy did that make me feel good! I love missionary work.

Things with Anthony are going well! He had his interview with our mission president to check on his repentance progress and just to chat with him. We were surprised when President Ogden asked if he could do the baptismal interview as well! He did so and Anthony passed!!!! :) He is set to be baptised in a couple weeks on the 23rd of July. Anthony is pushing stronger than ever and is solid in his decision to be baptised! His mother is still planning on coming so that is a great blessing. We are continually praying for her that she will have her heart softened by the Lord. I believe that this thing is possible, if we have faith. It is going to take a lot of spiritual effort because of the bad relationship Anthony has with her right now according to events that occurred in the past. But, if it is the will of the Lord, it will happen!

Zone Conference was bomb! We traveled to a couple of different church historical places that were smashing! First, we went to the Benbow Farm. Pretty much in a few words, Wilford Woodruff went preaching to this family, the Benbows, as a result of previous work in Manchester and by a spiritual prompting. He traveled to the south end of Worcestershire and found a tiny liberal Christian group called the United Brethren. Elder Woodruff taught many of their members in this farm and converted about 1200 persons in the area. One of the leaders of the United Brethren was John Benbow. After his conversion, he sold his farm and paid for his family and about 40 others to travel to Salt Lake. He also contributed to the fund for the first printing of the Book of Mormon in the British Isles. Lots of history, but a super good story so look it up! The second place we went to was British Camp. British Camp is this high mountain where Wilford Woodruff went about 3 times to meditate and ponder on the work. He, as well with Brigham Young and Willard Richards, dedicated the surrounding areas to missionary work. The spirit on top of this mount was pretty powerful. The third place we went to was the Gadfield Elm chapel, the oldest chapel in the history of the church. It was pretty cool to hold our Zone Conference in this historic building! Good times. I learned a lot about the history of the church on this country which helped me have more love for the people here. It was awesome.

So that's pretty much the highlights of my week!! :) Pretty cool eh?
Well time for a spiritual thought before I go...So I was reading about the Atonement on the True To The Faith book the other day and a certain scripture reference caught my eye. Its in John 16:33 Jesus Christ bears testimony on the purpose of life. We are to have peace. We are to have joy. He says that its inevitable that we will experience difficult times in our live because through tribulation we become stronger. Then He states that through all of our trials, we should have peace because He has overcome the world. I felt the spirit so strongly when I read that verse of scripture. I imagined my Saviour saying that to me. No matter what I may struggle with, He can help me because He has overcome everything and anything. May we all find peace through the Atonement of Jesus Christ as we remember him each day.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful week!
God bless.

-Elder Jaquish