Letter #18 (Dec 7th, 2011)

Hey all...
So we are doing awesome here in Loon! So about my week. Lots of lessons and lots of success. This Saturday we have 3 convert baptisms... Yay! and a child of record baptism as well... 4 in total! We have been finding so many less-actives this week and as we have done so come into contact with people who are being prepared to hear the message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I have a story for the blog as well...
There is one family who has been less-active in the church for a long time now... they come to church maybe once every 4 months or so (so im told), and we have been visiting with them and teaching them. last week we visited with them and taught them about prayer. They all fish for a living in the family and each night at 4 they go out to fish and return in the morning to the market with all their fish to sell to get money to live off. The last few time we had visited with them they said they hadnt been catching much at all, only 2 or 3 fish. So after teaching about prayer we committed them to pray as a family before going out to fish each night, and to ask God or Heavenly Father to bless them with a greater catch. We then proceeded to promise them in the name of Jesus Christ, as we are representatives of Jesus Christ as we serve this mission, that if they did so, that they would have an increased catch and would be blessed to be able to obtain the money the needed for all their needs for food and water. So we returned on Mon this week and they proceed to tell this amazing story. They were intrigued by our promise and decided to try such. They prayed as a family and headed out to fish at sea. They said as they went out it was just the same as another other night, but as they began to fish that the sea began to be filled with fish. They said it was amazing how many fish there were there and they were able to catch heaps of fish. They said they stopped to give thanks to Heavenly Father right then and there for the wonderful blessing that had occurred. They told us how other nights they didnt pray and their catch was the small 2-5 fish which couldnt provide much for their needs but when they prayed as a family before going out they were able to catch so much more and there was so much more fish in the sea. What a wonderful testimony to the power of prayer in our lives.
To those unbelievers who read this and say "It was just a coincidence..." I say to you "Try my words now and pray to your Father in Heaven to feel his love in your life. Pray to know that he is really there and that he cares for you." I testify that God does exist and he is our loving Heavenly Father. He cares for each and everyone of us and knows our individual needs. I know that through prayer we have a means to communicate with him and he will listen to our every word. I know that there is power in our prayers.
Thats me for this week.
I love it here but still miss you all,
Nahigugma ko kaninyo,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox

************************************************************************************************************

Terri here: Just a short email this week.