Saving Gotham one baptism at a time 11-4-2024

Monday we just played basketball and went shopping on the military base and I got a beanie with an Elders military Id. They had some cool stuff there. Wow Tuesday was a doozy we had Zone accountability at the U.S Marines Corps memorial which was pretty sweet and we talked a lot about Baptism and our zone is set-up for some miracles this transfer our district is really fun we got the Chinese Elders from China and Elder Mitchel (he is friends with Kade Hatch) and we got another Elder Williams he is super chill. Now speaking of the doozy, it started off with some crazy traffic the main road that literally everyone takes in Northern Virginia called route 1 was blocked off right by our apartment and where we had 3 lessons set up and we got stuck in heavy traffic. When we finally got to our lesson's they ended up falling through, but we witnessed an ambulance show up and carry a passed out mom on a stretcher and the kids just lost it. They start crying and running after the ambulance and just bawlled for ten minutes straight it was the saddest thing I have ever seen. My comp and I just stopped and prayed for their family it broke our hearts. Later not knowing where to go due to roadblocks and backups falling through we prayed where to go and we went to this random neighborhood we don't go to often and after about an hour we find the coolest guy ever and just gave us his address phone number and said he would come to church and he has met missionaries years ago and wanted to read the Book of Mormon and said he would come to our friends baptism Afterwards we traveled to our distric leaders area to pick them up for our friends baptism interview since they got their car taken away and both us and our friend got stuck in heavy traffic for over an hour and barely was able to get an interview set up. With all said in done we prayed things would work out through the chaos and it did!! She's getting baptized on November 2nd!! Her faith has grown like crazy and she is so ready not a single thing went to schedule but everything happend in the Lords timing and in his way. What a wednesday what a wednesday we started off the morning with a text from our friend at 6:58 in the morning saying she doesn't know if she is ready for baptism yet and we have been unable to contact here throughout the whole day it has been mad stressful. What makes it most stressful is the whole ward is planning full force a baptismal program and sending emails getting the ward out and our friend has been unresponsive The real problem is the spirit confirmed to some 4 missionaries after her interview that she is ready. We know it, God knows it and so does the adversary. The adversary has been drilling her nonstop We did have a baller lesson with a less active who is reactivating her faith and meeting with us frequently and we taught her more of the plan of salvation and temples and as of now we started temple class lessons with her and are preparing to get her endowed On a side note the entire day my companion and I have felt and opposing force from the adversary every we go. Driving home and walking around that night after all that has happened we realized how truly wicked the world is getting and how crazy everything is with the election going on and the societal unrest. My companion and I just straight up pretended we were batman fighting an unseen force in Gotham with all of that being Said keep in tune and continue to pray. Prayer is what has gotten us through Tuesday wednesday and every other future day. Can't belive Thursday was Halloween holy what a day who would have known sharing the Gospel on Halloween in Hood would be a wild experience? Right off the bat we had to get an oil change so we went to Starbucks to do some comp Study and there was straight up women just walking around in underwear we later went to visit and older lady in our ward in a nursing home cause everyone was rejecting us that Day and he wad a lesson. In the background straight up the most raunchy Halloween movie was in both of our vision from where we were teaching the lesson and I mean like bad bad people were just being wild the whole day and we felt the spirit leave so many times just walking around certain people. Needless to say our friend Dominique has yet to hit us up throughout the day and we were stressing until....We called randomly in the middle of Book Of Mormon class and she answerd and said she was ready to be baptized and she is ready In other words there was much rejoicing and a great way to finish off Halloween after a weird kind of sucky day but we are satisfied We both have prayed mightily many times that we might here from Dominique and the spirit prompted us to call her at the most random time. Always trust God even when things are stressful especially then Wow Friday was much needed we basically just did coordination with ward leaders and stuff all day trying to figure out a baptism program all day scrambling things together we had all our lessons fall through again one guy we were planning to put on date for baptism his sister had a stroke and the opposition has been crazy. We got the keys to the font from bishop and checked it out and it was mustyyy. We had to clean it out and then put together a program with her later that night and we were finally set. The amount of stress the amount of anxiety prayers and hard work is all worth it to see a child of God learn to walk in the light and come to know their savior and take that step of faith to be baptized and covenant with him is all worth it and I get to take part in that. D&C 18: 13 And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth! 14 Wherefore, you are called to cry repentance unto this people. 15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father! Saturday Saturday Saturday what a morning to be alive!! My companion and I got to wake up and go to the church at 7 in the morning to fill up the font as we say and see our friend Dominique make covenants with God by baptism with proper authority. I got the special privilege to baptize her and the joy it brings is like none other even though she had like 3 middle names that were complicated to say lol. The heavens were open Seeing someone draw closer to God and learn his commandments and walk in his ways is truly a miracle and a privilege. God bless America Later that Saturday we had a hard time finding people but consecrated our efforts and found! We also had a lesson with long time friend Marquis and my home dawg is really considering getting baptized after we taught the doctrine of it after being against baptism and wants to pray about it!! First things first we gotta get him outta the hood though fr Wow Sunday was crazy ill tell you what a little back story this ward I am serving in has had 3 unaccountable people baptized in the last year that were straight up crazy and are do not contacts in our area books Needless to say some people in our ward was like antsy when we had a baptism cause the last three were females and we just baptized a female and our bishop was slightly paranoid due to previous patterns plus he didn't know her very well. Basically Sunday comes and our friend confirms for church and we relay that to ward council no biggie. Half an hour before church she cancels and got stuck babysitting her cousins from the looks of it from the wards perspective we just baptized another unaccountable person bishop didn't even talk to us at church let alone look at us it was so weird and stressful I have been in this ward for 3 full months and every morning he would say what up and shake our hands and ask us how we were doing except today my companion and I were so pressed we could like feel the tension and needless to say it wasn't a super happy Sunday I still love bishop and he loves us I think but there was just unnecessary tension for the time being buttt thank goodness for the sacrament as soon as I took that bread and water I felt the lord speak to my mind saying "lo I am with the even unto the ends of the earth" I felt so at peace it was crazy considering the tension and stress. The spirit was able to confirm to me that everything that happend this week was meant to happen and that our recent convert will be fine and the ward will be fine and I will be fine. Something crazy is I had deja vu every single day this past week, every single day, including the baptism and conversing with members at church. Each time it was a testimant to me that I am where I need to be and I am aligned with God's plan and in his work God also gave us people in out life's that week that helped us counciled us and mourned with us and comforted us throughout this crazy week and I never felt alone I had the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost and the lords servants on the earth being instruments in his hand comforting me. Mathew 28:18-20 18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 ¶ Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Hit me up and I'll love you forever "Stay sweet"---Elder Williams