Spanish Town - 22

This past week was great! We had 4 investigators at church, but 2 of them came after the sacrament. Shawn Ross is a new investigator who attended church with us. Shawn is a 25 year old data analyst for the St. Catherine Parish Council. He's a smart, quirky man. Very great, sincere man. We had our first lesson with him earlier this week. After getting to know each other and introducing the message briefly, we intended to start teaching the message of the Restoration. The first section in the pamphlet is "God is Your Loving Heavenly Father." As we were going over this, Elder Wilson asked the inspired question, "Shawn, who is God to you?" Shawn began to give some generic answer and then went quiet, ".... I don't know how to answer that." From that we knew that we needed for him to have and recognize a spiritual experience.

We began to teach about the Holy Ghost, specifically how to recognize the Spirit. He's been attending a Pentacostal church his whole life, so when we asked if he's ever felt the Spirit he said 'no.' It's always been awkward for him when everyone around him starts speaking in 'tongues' and he just doesn't 'get it.' We went over Galatians 5 and D&C 6 with him to describe the Spirit, and that it will more often than not, come in the form of peace, rather than speaking in tongues. We also introduced the Book of Mormon to him and committed him to read it. At the end of the lesson we invited him to be baptized, and he responded, "I have already been baptized in my other church... (we kept silent).... but yes I'll be baptized." Shawn loved church. He was taking notes the whole time in Gospel Principles and Elders Quorum. He said church was a very "enlightening experience" and that he wanted to read as much as the Book of Mormon before we came by again. We're very excited to continue to work with him. As I said earlier, we also had 3 others at church, and many others that are doing well. The work is working here in Spanish Town!

Veron (our convert of ~6 weeks) is doing GREAT! She lives wayyyy up in the bush of our area in Windsor Heights, but yet we see at the church fairly often for Relief Society or Self-Reliance activities. She is really embracing herself in "the Mormon." When at a Self-Reliance meeting at the church, she approached us quickly, "Elders, Elders! See that man? He's not a member, go talk to him!" "Elders! That man doesn't go to church. Go talk to him!" She is also the lifeblood of our Gospel Principles class answering every question and making it a very welcoming atmosphere for investigators.

Earlier this week I had the privilege of interviewing another man for baptism. After the interview I asked him to give the closing prayer, and he said some of the greatest things I've heard.

"Heavenly Father, today is Brother Ritchie day. Likkle does he know, that I am just as good as he is. Maybe more. But not less....."

Hahaha! He's a great man! He's in his 70s and has been attending church consistently for 2-3 years. It appears that everyone thought he was a member until about a month ago, so he was taught the lessons by his missionaries and  was baptized yesterday!

Likkle more,

Elder Ritchie

pics 1/4 - more pics from last week's PDay caving in Linstead

pics 2/3 - way up in the bush of our area - Sligoville