Abish was a rock star member missionary!

Wow! It has been such a crazy awesome week! Can I just say...(I know you are surprised to hear this one, but)...I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!!! Santoria's baptism was sooooo amazing! We sang Love One Another with the duet part that I remembered from Achievement days--"These words of my Savior...". I really wish I had the music, but I just went from memory. It was pretty good. The whole Whitehurst clan was crying. It is one of Santoria's favorite primary songs, so it worked well. Then Brea's baptism was great as well! It was a huge relief to have her finally baptized and confirmed! She walked into Sacrament Meeting right as they announced her name...talk about giving the missionaries a heart attack! But her Step Grandpa confirmed her. It was quite possibly one of the most beautiful blessings I have ever heard! It was a choice experience to be present for that. I am attaching pictures of the baptisms. The small black girl is Santoria and the cute 12 year old is Brea! After Brea's baptism, a young woman from the ward introduced us to a friend of hers. She asked us for a Book of Mormon. We got a call from her yesterday wanting to set up an appointment to meet with us. Apparently she went home and told her mom that she wants to be baptized!! So we are teaching her in the Deaver's home on Thursday! We are pretty excited! :) We are also teaching a woman this Saturday who has come to church a couple times with a member. We are teaching her in his home! We are sooooooo excited!! It is amazing to see the blessings of missionary work when members are the finders and we are the teachers!

Sis. Moss, Bro. Umphlett (our ward mission leader), and I spoke on Sunday about the importance of members in the work! Sis. Moss pointed out that Abish (Alma 19), saw an opportunity to show everyone the hand of God and went house to house inviting all to come and see. Not all accepted, but many were converted. What would have happened if Abish didn't go find them? She didn't have to teach them...she just brought them to see the blessings of the gospel. We need members to be the finders. That is the Lord's way to do missionary work! In our district meeting last week, our district leader bore powerful testimony that we have been commanded to double baptisms and that the only way that can happen is through helping the members of the church invite their friends to be taught! So will you invite someone into your home to be taught by the missionaries? I know that if we want to help this work move forward we have to be helping Christ's children find Him!

Ok, I'm off my soap box...

Oh something else sooooo exciting happened this week! We have been teaching this man who we were having a hard time discerning if he was really interested. So we taught him baptism and confirmation and extended the VRM invitation to be baptized and he accepted! Now he is working towards being baptized on June 21!!! We are so excited for him! And we are excited because we are teaching him in a member's home this Friday night!

Stacy and Gabe are being baptized and confirmed next weekend too!! She keeps saying that it is a two for one special! She is sooooo funny! I love being a missionary!

Well, I have to run! Take care! I love you!

Love,
Sister Abbott