Revolutionizing Visitors Center Teaching and Another Baptism!

Sister Shkapich and I with programs for Gabriel Dias' Baptism!

Tuesday: We had interviews with the mission president :) He was impressed because my companion, Sister Shkapich, always asks me what my ‘Rose’ and ‘Thorn’ for the day was and I tell her I don't think anything really bad happened. I guess he likes my positive outlook. xD Then at district meetings we all gave talks on certain subjects pertaining to the spirit and I loved it! Before we started our shift at the Visitors Center a mother and her kids asked us to play “God's Plan” for them and then we took them around for a tour afterwards. The mother seemed very interested and was thinking about filling out a referral card but she wanted to read our literature before she did. So we gave her 2 of the pamphlets we give to investigators and “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.” What was so cute though is she taught her little two year old to do ‘Praises’ meaning he'll raise his hands in the air xD What's cool is one of my prayers was answered! I prayed to find someone today who would become part of our 400 baptism goal or a different mission's baptism goal and while on teaching center there was a referral request for a Bible from a girl who is 18 but she's been interested in our church since she was 9 however her parent's wouldn't approve so I offered to teach her online :) And Sister Madsen always gets weird chats on Mormon.org. She seems to attract them xD Exchanges start tonight!!

Wednesday: EXCHANGES!! Sister Brinton and I had an AMAZING day full of Miracles! I had to lead the area today while on exchanges and both Sister Brinton and I wanted to work on recognizing the spirit's promptings etc… and today I didn't feel nervous at all driving the car or talking to people when we were contacting people at a park. We also knocked on doors down a few streets nearby and we got a few potential investigators!! What's funny is one lady that we talked to at the park and got her info ended up being one of the doors we knocked on so we wrote down her address as we walked away ;) After that, we had dinner at the Thornton's!!! 

The Thornton's had us over for dinner!

Then we had a lesson with a less active member and read Alma 32 with him and talked about the importance of continuously growing our faith :) We had a funny experience where we knocked on a door and the old lady (who tried to be stylish but let’s be honest, my Grandma's are the most stylish ;) ) opened the door very dramatically and said "Evangelical!" before we could say anything. Then we talked to her and she said she wasn't interested. As we were turning to walk away and as she was closing the door, she noticed our shoes and said they were very cute and asked where we got them xD  

A beautiful rainbow over the Oakland Temple Visitor's Center!

Thursday: AMAZING VISITORS CENTER TRAINING!!!!!!!!!! We had some people from Salt Lake come and give us a 2 day training to improve our teaching, etc… and it literally revolutionized and changed our teaching! We talked about the importance of sharing short powerful statements which allow the Spirit to confirm the truth to the person we are talking to and also talked about not letting the exhibits teach. One major thing that we learned was about invitations is that we help people to recognize and be guided by the Spirit on what they can change in their lives or who comes to mind that they can help or share the gospel with and we're there to help them. The whole point is to change the mindset of members that all the missionaries want from them are referrals. Instead we are there to help the members do missionary work and give them links and ideas to help support them in their efforts. One of the guys from Salt Lake said something came to mind for our companionship and it was about our Bishop and to find ways that we can help our Bishop and not be a burden to him. Then we ate dinner at a less active member’s house! She is Indian but came from Fiji and she fed us really yummy Curry!! While we were there, I learned how to cook the bread! We also met her daughter's friend who is from Afghanistan :) And I got a letter from my best friend in a neighboring California mission!! 

Picture of the Oakland Temple from the parking lot.

Friday: This was our last Visitors Center training day :( I totally wish it went on longer... what's amazing is when he has us roleplay. He told us to just be ourselves and had us role play together as a companionship the things he taught us about yesterday. This allowed us to receive revelation for ourselves on who we need to reach out to :) During the training we heard a quote by Elder Holland and I love it! He said: "God is so easy to please but very hard to satisfy." This is because our Heavenly Father is happy when we have learned something or progressed but He expects us to continue to grow and progress for our benefit. EVERYTHING GOD DOES IS FOR OUR BENEFIT!!!!! I feel like we forget this so often. God LOVES you! He does everything He can to help you return to his presence. Today we got 3 referrals at the Visitors Center! One was for a man names Angelo from Africa and he talked about how he literally grew up in "the bush" and how Christ was everything to him. He gained his testimony of Christ when during a war in Africa in his village he was by a bomb and it was supposed to explode but didn't until he left. I'm almost out of time but another awesome experience with a member is there was a lady and her mom (who just recently moved here from Peru) came to the Visitors Center. Her mom doesn't speak much English but the experience I had shows that it doesn't matter what language you speak, the Spirit is the same. We showed them our new exhibit “The Life of Christ” which is composed of still shots taken from the Bible videos the Church has commissioned. The pictures range from the birth of Jesus to His crucifixion and resurrection. After the exhibit, the mother left with tears in her eyes and bore her testimony to us in Spanish.  

Sunday: We had a Baptist choir come sing for our inter-faith group at the Visitors Center and they were AMAZING!! Their group is called ‘Citadel of Praise.’ That's one of the things that I LOVE about being at the Oakland Temple Visitors Center!!! We get to talk to people of all faiths and backgrounds and cultures! GABRIEL GOT BAPTIZED!!! He was an investigator that Sister Heath and I me during Christmas. We were on our outside tour shift at the Visitors Center during Christmas and it was FREEZING. We were out for the whole hour and got 4 referrals. However, one of them was Gabriel and he just got baptized today!!! YAY!!!! 

Gabriel with the Sisters who taught him the Gospel.