We had beautiful white Christmas here in Capalaba. THIS BEAUTIFUL NEW MEMBER was baptized on Christmas Day after a miraculous conversion. She had met with previous missionaries in the past but was never too interested. After the missionaries recently visited her and offered her service, her heart was softened enough to hear the message of the Restoration. She said that she had felt something she had never felt before. After a ward service project at her home, she felt kinship and love from the ward. She decided to attend church and has enjoyed it ever since. As the missionaries continued to teach her and as she continued to come to church, the missionaries challenged her to be baptized. She promptly turned them down because she had already been baptized and she wouldn't give up drinking coffee. However, we still continued to visit her. As December rolled around, my companion, Elder Fusitu'a, and I, were wondering what we could do to bring about a white Christmas. Our first personal study of the transfer brought the answer. As I was reading the Book of Mormon a subtle thought came to mind: this wonderful lady needs to be baptized on Christmas Day. I dismissed the thought and continued to read. Then during our companionship study, Elder Fusitu'a started sharing his insights from his study. He said that he had the unmistakable revelation that she needed to be baptized. As he wrestled with this question, he again recieved the thought that she needed to be baptized. He thought "she can't be baptized, she won't stop drinking her coffee!" But the Spirit came again and told him that she would be baptized, this time on the 25th of December. As he shared this experience with me, I knew that the Lord inspired our minds to help Maria progress towards baptism. We set a goal to set the date with her the very next time we saw her. We did, but she had one concern about tithing. We also learned that she had miraculously given up coffee on her own. We had not asked her to quit, but somehow the Lord miraculously removed any desire for coffee. She threw all of her mugs, coffee machines, and everything else pertaining to coffee out the window. Over the next few visits, we resolved her tithing concern and she was baptized on the 25th of December, Christmas day. She is now a faithful tithe payer, who is sharing her testimony with others.
Elder Fusitu'a and Madson
It is truly great to see the Ward and Stake meetinghouses. In 1957+ President McKay was concerned and a building program was started, but there were no Stakes in Australia until about March 1960
ReplyDelete