Week 82: Let us all press on! Another week in Brampton!‏

This week was full of sweet experiences!

We had a powerful lesson with an investigator named Mandeep. He is from India, and his whole life, he has been educated and taught that "God is one," or that all religions are correct and there is no one way back to God. Recently, the Spirit has helped him change. We gave an instruction in the last meeting about reminding investigators of previous spiritual experiences to help create a climate filled with the Spirit that will help the investigator accept the invitation to be baptized. In the lesson, we applied this by reminding Mandeep of the time last week we walked into the entrance of the temple. As he described this sacred experience, he said, "I feel something in there that I cannot feel in other places." We asked him about his previous experiences with coming to church, and he feels the same way during the 5 minute silence when the sacrament is being passed. With the Spirit touching his heart, he finally accepted to be baptized on June 19th! We are praying that he makes that date!

We met with investigator Joy, a Chinese high school student who goes to church every Sunday and even attends BYC, but is waiting to talk with her parents about baptism when she goes back to China this summer. She is awesome though! Reminds me a lot of Yiwen, our recent convert in Bayview.

Some crazy guy walked in the church during the munch and mingle after church. Apparently he has been a member his whole life, but started talking to me on and on about how he works as a spy for the UN, speaks 22 different languages, travels all over the world, and started arguing something about the Pearl of Great Price... and he brought a friend who I'm pretty sure was on drugs. It was very interesting, haha.

Last night we had the privilege of President and Sister Clayton coming out teaching with us! I love the powerful experiences they share together, which helps others see how the gospel can change their lives. Together, we met with a Chinese returning member named Brian Shen. His 12 year old daughter is not baptized, and his less-active wife is very mean to him. President Clayton was able to share when he was in the stake presidency, he met a lady who said she hated her husband. He invited her to give a sincere compliment to her husband everyday for the next 365 days. While tough at first, she came back a year later saying she loved her husband with all her heart. This story touched Brian, and in the closing prayer, he expressed that he now felt hope for his family and marriage. Even though the prayer was in Chinese, President Clayton said he also felt a powerful spirit during that sincere prayer.

We are blessed to be working in both the YSA and Mississauga wards! We go to the Mississauga mandarin sacrament meeting in the morning on Sundays, and then book it on over to Etobicoke for the YSA church service. It's lots of fun! Since we are working in both, we've had a lot of success getting Chinese YSA in Mississauga to come to YSA activities, which has helped them a lot!

Many other spiritual experiences! Too many to share all of them! Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Holt
洪长老