Malena's Baptism!!!! And Eric is GOLDEN!!!

 What a week!  First of all cute little Malena got baptized!  Luke and Elder have had a great time teaching Malena.  Luke said she has such a good memory, she remembered so much of what they have taught her.  Luke said Elder Packer has such a gift for teaching children and has made things so fun and memorable.  Like when they talked about the Law of Chastity they would pretend to put on a wedding ring as a reminder that she needs to be married before having children.  When they were reviewing she put on her fake little wedding ring to show she remembered.  What a sweet girl!  She is the Elders Quorum president's son's girlfriend's daughter :)  Does that make sense???  But she's more like a granddaughter to him and is at his house often.  What a neat baptism.  

And her mom used to act very turned off when it came to the church but she was there at the baptism and even shed a tear as the Primary President gave her talk on baptism.  So they are hoping to start teaching her mom and help the Elder Quorum's son to come back to church.  

The other exciting news from the week was the progress that Luke's friend Eric made this week.  He is GOLDEN!!!!  Luke met him while they were walking down the street and he and his mom and grandmother were sitting outside.  They started talking to them and now they are teaching Eric.  Eric is 24 and is a pharmacist.  He had already been to institute with a member from the ward, and he is on fire!  This week they had one discussion with Eric but then he had many other opportunities....

• He went to a YSA Convention where there was an Area Seventy there visiting.  The cool thing is while the Area Seventy was speaking he mentioned the scripture Alma 32:28.  That really hit home to Eric because the missionaries had asked him to read Alma 32 and he really loved verse 28.  So it really touched him when the Area Seventy used that particular scripture.  And then I guess the Area Seventy had met Eric beforehand and then asked him to bear his testimony during the meeting!
• Then Eric went to institute this week with his friend from the ward
• Then he went to Luke's multi-zone conference.  Eric also bore his testimony there and Luke was so excited because the Spirit was so strong and he told the missionaries that what they are doing is so important and worth it.  Luke was excited because right now there are so many missionaries that are lacking motivation and wanting to go home.  So to hear Eric remind them that what they are doing is impactful and important was awesome!
• Then he attended Malena's baptism!  
• Then he went to church
• And then he also went to the YM/YW World Wide devotional last night.  

So he has had a lot of opportunities to feel the Spirit this week.  It is so cool because the Elders asked his to read Alma 32 and Moroni 10:5 and he came back to them and said he read it and felt the Spirit and knows it is true!  He has a baptismal date of Feb. 11th, although he wants to get baptized earlier, but they want to make sure he has had all the lessons and is ready.  In one of their lessons this week Luke felt prompted to record his testimony and he posted it to Facebook.  So amazing to have someone so hungry for knowledge and ready to follow the promptings he is receiving and get baptized!

Victor's taxi - Luke got to see Victor when he was transporting missionaries.

Elder McArthur from Texas.  Luke said he is a new missionary and is hilarious!  

Luke and Elder Packer have really been focusing on working with the members and using them more.  They have a goal to have a member at every lesson they give.  They listened to a training by Elder Uchtdorf and he told the missionaries to go and teach the Restoration in members home in 7 minutes.  So they have been visiting the members with short little visits and sharing the Restoration.  They had a neat experience with it as they shared it with the Bishop in his home.  The Bishop was in tears and the Spirit was so strong.  He was so grateful to be reminded of this miraculous event that started the ball rolling in the beginning of the church.  After the lesson the Bishop asked Luke and Elder Packer for a blessing for some of the things he had been struggling with.  What an amazing experience.  The Bishop actually shared this experience at the baptism and bore testimony that these missionaries are called of God and that he felt the Spirit so strong as they were in his home.  What a tender mercy!

Luke and Elder Packer have been watching some of the mission training videos in preparation for the training they had to give at their Multi-Zone Conference.  As they were watching "The District" they loved how bold and courageous one of the missionaries was.  He would invite people to be baptized sometimes in their first meeting.  Luke and Elder Packer realized their zone was struggling because they only had 3 people on date for baptism.  So they decided the challenge they were going to give to their zone was so invite people to be baptized right away.  So leading up to this challenge they did a little skit where they were food vendors and they came up to a man that was very hungry.  They had some chocolate and he was interested in buying the chocolate.  But first they had a little side conversation where they two vendors were talking amongst themselves and said "Well we have this chocolate, do we give it to him now or should we wait because this is only our first visit with the man.  Maybe if we give him the chocolate now he won't be hungry enough for the rest of what we have to offer him."  The skit was so show them "Why wait - why do we fear to put them on date right away if they desire this in their life!"  I thought this was so clever!  They went on to challenge the missionaries to go and ask all the friends they were meeting with this week to be baptized.  Some of their jaws dropped and then they went on to promise them that if they did this they would have the Spirit and be happier on their missions.  It must have helped some because they went from 3 people on date for baptism to 15 people!!!!  What a miracle!  I loved hearing of Luke's creative way to train the missionaries!  He is such a great leader and missionary!

What a great week!  So happy things are going well and that Luke is loving the work!  We talked for about 3 hours and it was amazing!  Love that boy!