Dear Family,
HE GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Brother Marlin Jefferson is officially a member of the church and has the priesthood!!!! I wish that you all could have been there to witness that mans baptism. To see an ex gang member have tears in his eyes for an entire hour straight is a very humbling experience. I hope you can see in my face the joy that I felt as I was there! I have never felt the spirit so strongly in my entire life. I as able to baptize him and he was so awesome! I had to wear a jump suit for a few reasons. One they were afraid that my pants wouldn't stay up when they got wet because I have lost probably another 2 or so inches around the waist and my white pants don't fit anymore. But the main reason was that Marlin wanted me to wear one too because he was still a little uncomfortable in his because of his tattoos on his arms. So when we baptized him he knelt on the ground in the font and we did it face forward. It was very different from what we normally do but at the same time it made it very very special! When he came up out of the water he just kept kneeling there and kept his eyes closed! I didn't know what to do so I just asked him if he was ok. I was afraid that we had hurt his back.. He said hold on elder, Let me enjoy this feeling for a little bit. Tears were flowing down his face as he knelt there. His mouth was moving a little bit and I asked him about that later. He said that he would have felt so ungrateful if he had not thanked his Father in Heaven right then and there. We then left the water and stood and watched as his step son baptized his step daughter! As I was standing there I had the coolest feeling! I realized that I was basically standing next to an angel! Marlin at that point was 100% perfect! He was cleaner than any other person on this earth. After she was baptized we were going to go change and Marlin just gave him a huge hug and said Elder Shelley you have changed my life and the life of my family forever! You will never know how happy I am and how much I owe you for coming to my house and challenging me to baptism. He told me that he had told over 6 sets of Elders no over the years but for some reason when I asked him and challenged him for some reason he was not able to say no. He said that he knew that it was his time to make that huge change and to stop smoking. He is talking to doctors to get all of his tattoos removed and to start a new life with his family! November 3 2013 I will be walking through the doors of the temple with him and his family to witness their sealing! He gave me all of his info and told me that he wants to be life long friends and that he wants to spend time with me after I have served my mission! I have never been so touch in my entire life. I will never be the same again. The area here has not been doing well at all, but I will be able to look back at this day and just feel that same spirit. Nothing will be able to make me forget this amazing day when Marlin Jefferson began his new life!!!
I have really been working with Elder Makaya a lot lately. We are trying to get his English better and to get him to work a little bit more affective. President has asked me to really work hard with him and to basically re train him on a few aspects of the missionary work. It is so hard to be put in a leadership position and not have the support of your companion. I have been trying to work with our ward mission leader and get him to support me in a few things that I am trying to do to help out also and he has told me that I don't have the right to change anything that he has done. I tried to tell him that I am not trying to change anything that I am just trying to try some of the things that we have done in the past and in past areas to help this area get more successful. He chewed me our in front of the entire ward mission and I felt so belittled that I don't even know what to do. Basically every member came up to me and told me to just blow it off that they support me and are so thankful that we are trying to get the work to move forward. I have made myself sick the last day or so with stress and with trying to start to help my companion and this area so that it doesn't completely die out.. I have seen the hand of the Lord more in my mission than I have ever seen it before. I know that the Lord expects a lot out of me and that he knows that I can do it so it is going to be something that I am really going to have to just keep working hard and do my best! I don't want to let the Lord or president down and so I am really going to work hard and never give up! I know who I am and I know who I represent. That is all that matters. I answer to the Lord and then to the mission president and through both of them I know that I will be supported and be lifted up to reach the potential that both of them see in me. Please keep me in your prayers because they help sooo much! Please continue to learn and to grow in this amazing gospel! I can't tell you how amazing it is to have the spirit directing every aspect of your life and guiding you through things that you could never do without him there. I am so blessed to be a missionary. I strive not to think about the future. I realized that the beginning of this next transfer I would have been out a year if I had never gotten sent home and when I thought about that it was pretty hard to think that I lost an extra three months with everyone and an extra Christmas too. But as I have asked the Lord for support I have felt his hand pick me up and guide me through the hard times! It will all work out in the end and I will be able to over come yet another trial in my mission. I was laughing the other day thinking one of these days I am going to have an easy transfer! I am going to have a transfer where I don't have to struggle where I can just enjoy it! But then I realized all the things I have learned because of those trials and I know that it will all be ok! Thanks again and I love you so much!!!!
Love,
Elder Shelley
pictures: 1.Marlin Jefferson's Baptism-Hayward, California (with step-daughter)
2.Marlin's baptism with Elder Roberts
3. Marlin's family
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