rainy days

So it was raining all week here in Ostrava so that was pretty awesome, I just love the rain!  anyway the rest of the week went well, at the start of the week one of the investigators from my last area decided to get baptized!! so we'll have another baptism on saturday! and then church was really good yesterday.  We had a family come in from Bountiful whose daughter came here on a mission.  So that was way cool and we had two Polish people show up and a member from Olomouc! it was a good day!

but the rest of the week was just same old same old, savin people's souls and what not.  we had some pretty good lessons with a girl who came to our last baptism and she is just so ready and excited to progress towards baptism, she's just turning her whole life around, it's so cool! she's just like, "what do i need to do to be baptized? no drugs no sex? k done. what's next?"  she's pretty awesome!!

but baptisms are so cool and so spiritual, if you haven't been to one in a while you should go to one sometime. They really, even if they're not your own, open your eyes to why this all matters. and they are just so spiritual! and also the confirmation (the next day in church for us) is just so so cool! but really, hit one up sometime, because it's so peaceful and nice.  The one thing about baptisms is that all of the people who we teach as missionaries don't see baptism as a beginning, as a way to come closer to God; they just see it as a huge deadline or final cut, and that's not how it is at all. not at all. baptism is only the beginning, it's just the third step in the gospel (ok well actually faith is the beginning but...) without baptism we as people can only get so close to God, we could follow all of the commandments, read, and pray daily but if we didn't eventually make a promise with God, then we cannot go further. We cannot, because God wont let us; because if He wants to bless us, and He does, He does so badly, then He hast to put us in a higher position of accountability, a position which can only be reached through covenants, the first one being baptism. So if you find yourself in any kind of spiritual low, first of all ask yourself, "Am I in a spiritual low, or have I just gotten to the point of no growth?"  (and if you've been baptized there isn't that point to attain.) then ask yourself if you are following all the laws and statutes pertaining to your covenants with God, and if you have made none, then, if you're following all of the commandments.

Then, if you feel like you're doing everything you should but you can't feel God's presence in your life, ask Him to make Himself and His works known unto you.  Because He truly "giveth to men liberally and upbraideth not," to those who ask of Him. I know that this simple promise from Jakub 1:5 is true.  I've seen it work in my life, and in the life of the people I've taught on my mission. I  know it will work for you all as well.  If there is ever a question, or a spiritual decision to be made, God will direct you and He will help you in every aspect of your life and make you strong enough to carry the hardships that sometimes come along with following His way.  He will bless you.  He will bless you with an immeasurable amount of blessings that will help you in your life. I know it. I tell you these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Elder Spencer Edman Petersen