Rejection, a Miracle and Very Big News

Hey everyone! I'm alive! I feel great and I appreciate all the prayers. I certainly made a fast recovery and I'm grateful for that. 

This past week I wasn't supposed to leave the house at all to work, but the doctor cleared me on Friday to work. Yay! Unfortunately this means I only had 3 days to write about but they sure have been interesting. 

Noteworthy items: 

1. My first zone conference!

2. I ate mole for the first time! 

3. My companion accidentally flooded the apartment with an inch of water, luckily we are on the first floor haha. 

4. Stake conference! 

Some details on some of my favorite experiences this week. 

My first day working we had appointments with 4 different family's/people. And we had 1 cancel and the others weren't home. Soo we walked about 2 miles up the hill to a park where there's normally a lot of people. I thought it would be a good place to contact. When we got there it was pouring rain, and for some reason I guess people don't like to be at the park in the cold rain here. Soo we made our way down the hill in the rain talking to everyone we saw. I ended up doing all the talking, my companion wasn't too pleased about the scenic route we took haha. I got rejected a lot (I didn't count, probably good that I didn't), but you know what I was happy because I was doing my part to give people their chance to hear our message. 

Finally dripping wet we made it to the bottom of the hill. We went into the church where we had an appointment with one of our investigators.  We read some verses in 3 Nephi 11 (Christ visits ancient America after his resurrection and teaches about Baptism). We bore our testimony and invited her once again to be baptized. She was a little hesitant and wanted to pray about it. On Sunday we ready Mosiah 18! We talked about how we can receive blessings through our faith. She felt that it was the right decision and agreed to be baptized. It makes me so happy because I know that the ordinance of baptism is essential to returning to live with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  

As we were walking out (of the Friday appointment) this guy was walking into the Church. My companion got super excited and told me to come with him. We talked to him for a bit and put an appointment to visit with him the following morning. As we were walking home my companion explained that the guy we had just talked to, listened to all the lessons, attended church more then 5 times, and was going to church institute. He and his previous companion had a baptismal date for him and everything, but the day of the baptism, he didn't show up. He full on pulled a Houdini.

Sooo long story short the next morning our visit with him we just read 3 verses about the importance of baptism and invited him to baptized! He said yes! He has a date for October 12.  Please pray for Jonathon that he will know in his heart that he is making the right decision and to have the courage to follow through.

I am so grateful that this miracle happened. Since getting here to the field it's been pretty difficult (ya I know a mission's hard haha). Anyways I've been working hard, being bold, and talking with everyone but not having any "success" as far as people progressing or people wanting to listen to us. It was a hard trial but we were blessed with this miracle. God knows what you need and will reward you for your work. 

Final cosa! The Puebla Temple ground breaking ceremony date was announced! It will be November 20! President Acala (Mission President) told us it is likely that the elders will be invited to participate in the ceremony! So cool and I'm so excited for construction to start. 

We now have 5 days till General Conference! I am so excited to hear the words of the prophet and apostles this coming weekend. It's an awesome time and everyone is invited to listen!  We are blessed to have a modern day prophet who is the Lord's mouthpiece to us on the earth.  For those who want to know more about this, it will be broadcast on tv.  Ask my mom for details on how to listen to God's prophet.

(All you need to do is respond to the email)

I love you all! Hope all is well back home! Thank the Lord for all you have! 

Love, 

Elder Sandberg 

camden.sandberg@missionary.org 

Photos:

1. Will you be baptized? 

2. The boyz after stake conference 

3. Happy Birthday to Sergio! 

4. What the Puebla Temple will look like when completed!