December 31, 2018 - Haitian Baptism

Hello everybody! Over the past few weeks, we have been meeting with Marcaisse. Well this past Saturday was his baptism and it was awesome! The spirit there was very powerful as we sang hymns together and witnessed the special ordinance of baptism. Marcaisse is from Haiti so he’s just a little guy but he has been prepared over time and throughout his life experiences. It has been amazing to see him progress in the gospel even though there is a slight language barrier. He is picking up English quickly and now we can have a conversation very slowly haha. I am grateful for the Lord and him preparing the hearts of the people in these latter days. This truly is Christ’s true church and there is a prophet who lives on this earth once again after many centuries of the people being in spiritual darkness. I'm grateful for this gospel. Due to the holiday season, people are so busy and have no time to let us come and teach them. We have been able to find many new people to teach with the amount of time we have to go finding throughout the week. Hopefully some more of them will turn into baptisms! The Lord is hastening his work till he soon comes so we need to be prepared. I believe that is why there are so many changes happening in the church right now especially with there now only being two hours of church. The responsibility is on us to learn and come closer to our Savior. We must gain our own testimony of this gospel and no longer rely on others.

As I was studying and pondering in the scriptures the other day, I came upon a verse in the first book of Nephi that says this, "26 And because of the righteousness of his people, Satan has no power; wherefore, he cannot be loosed for the space of many years; for he hath no power over the hearts of the people, for they dwell in righteousness, and the Holy One of Israel reigneth." As I pondered about this scripture, it dawned on me that the world is sufficiently wicked for Christ to come but us as saints and disciples of Jesus Christ are not yet prepared for Christ to come again. He is waiting for us to become more righteous so that Satan will not have power to tempt us above that which we can handle in the last days. I have a sure testimony of this and the way to gain that testimony is through the diligent prayer and scripture study. We must have true intent and set goals and plans to act on the things we learn from the scriptures. We must become like Christ and serve as he did then he will come again to redeem all from temporal and spiritual death. Jesus is the way.

I also wanted to share one quote that I loved from this past general conference "May I share with you some words of wisdom that were found on the wall of an orphanage in Calcutta, India: “If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight. Build anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough. Give the world the best you’ve got anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God … anyway.”" I love this and I love you all!

-Elder Robbins