Elder Brock DeLuca: Service and More Miracles

As you know, Monday was a special day with a visit from some very special people and the rest of our week was great!

Tuesday, we did some service at Sister Hughes again. We mow her lawn every week for her and it is really fun. I love it! That evening, I had the opportunity to interview a 9-year-old named Tyson for his baptism this past weekend. I have never met a 9 year old so humble but yet so anxious to be baptized. He really knew why he was doing it and most 8- or 9-year-old's don't have that understanding. After that, we went to an address of a less active member family in our ward and it turns out that they have moved, but we found a new investigator from it! We talked to this guy named Billy about the restoration for a while and then we scheduled a return appointment later in the week! Yes please. :)

Wednesday, we helped the Johnson's move a big pile of dirt in their front yard and we got a pretty good workout! That evening, we had a lesson planned with Rick and Corban and we were planning on meeting at their house, but they were planning on meeting at the church! I don't know where the confusion came from, but it surely came! So we ended up driving to the church and we got there 10 'til 7 and Corban was planning on going to young men's, so that put a damper on things. We ended up having a lesson in Brother Rittman's car with them when we took Corban to the activity! It was sweet. We talked about temples and family history with them and then dropped Corban off and continued talking with Rick! They are so solid. Rick explained that his work was calling him in on the weekend so he was not going to be able to attend church with us. However, he looked up the church address in Galveston and he went there!! How sick is that!?!

We had planned to give a blessing with Brother Rittman Wednesday night, but it fell through so we did that with him on Thursday!

Friday, we had interviews with President Mortensen and it was a little different this time. He gave a 30-45 minute training and then after that he had the zone leaders working with the companion of whoever was being interviewed and we just went through their area books with them and also showed them the baptismal tracker that has the names of everyone who has committed to be baptized. It was different, but really sweet! We met with Orian that night and told him about Tyson's baptism that was on Saturday to make sure he could go, and he could!

Saturday morning we had to get up early to go and finish interviews with President. We have the biggest zone so he wanted to split up interviews into two days. After interviews were completed, we went back over to see Billy! He was there and it turns out he is the caretaker of this assisted living home. We went in to meet with him and he introduced us to a less active member that lives there and so we invited him to sit in with us during the lesson. Well a couple minutes after that another man named Daunte came and asked if he could join as well! Then a man named Angel came after that! After Angel was there for a few minutes, a man named Weldon came too! You guys, it was crazy cool. Then right towards the end of the lesson a lady named Cynthia came to join as well. They were like mosquitoes attacking us, however this time I didn't shew them away! :) It was so sweet. After the lesson I explained to Cynthia what the Book of Mormon was and she really wanted to have one so she could start reading as soon as she could! We asked them who wanted to come to church and they all wanted to! We were thinking to ourselves, "How in the world are we going to get them all to church!?!?!" Billy explained that he would have to stay to take care of the rest of the people there but Cynthia, Angel, and Daunte said that they wanted to come for sure so we told them that we would get them a ride! After that we had dinner and then met Brother Ure at Orian's house to go to the baptism at the stake center. We went and it was great for him to witness what it would be like for him. He was a lot less nervous after he got to see what it would be like. Brother Ure also found someone to pick up our investigators for church the next morning!

Sunday was sweet! Brother Beacham was kind enough to pick them up and bring them to church! Cynthia, Angel, and Daunte all came!! Angel actually told us that he was baptized when he was 8 in California, but we ran his records and could not find them. We will check again. Anyways, they all really enjoyed church and we invited them to the Mission President Fireside that night and Cynthia and Angel said they wanted to go but Daunte had to get up early so he couldn't. Brother Ure Sr. was able to meet us at the Shell station and then we went and picked them up and headed to the Spring stake center that was 20 miles away! We all talked about the fireside when we got back in the car and we all could testify that we felt the Spirit while we attended. I actually felt it most in the last song that the missionary choir sang. It was truly beautiful. It was the :Sisters in Zion/We'll Bring the World His Truth" EFY song. I actually sang it when I was part of the choir back in February, but I did not feel what I felt last night. I knew the Lord was telling me at this particular time that what I feeling was right. I cannot adequately explain how I felt. The chills went through my entire body. This made me think of the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 25:12, "The song of the righteous is a prayer unto me." It is so true.

I love you all and thank you for your prayers!

Love,

Elder DeLuca