The Big Turn-Around

September 27th, 2010

A birthday reminder to all of you: WATCH GENERAL CONFERENCE! I haven't even thought about my birthday this past week, which is weird for me. I might even forget on my birthday that it is my birthday. For some reason my birthday isn't really important to me this year. I guess that means that I'm just focused; it's a weird feeling.

This past week we baptized Josh Carson. He is the guy that I told you about a couple of weeks ago. He had a stroke and is paralyzed on his left side. He had brain surgery and while he was in a morphine coma, he saw the river of filth in Lehi's dream. He asked us for a Book of Mormon one time while we were teaching his cousin and so we gave him one and then lost contact with us. He then contacted us through his drug counselor friend in Winnemucca and asked for a new BoM because he lost his. He LOVES the Book of Mormon. We gave him a new one and we started teaching him from then on. He immediately knew that JS was a prophet because he knew that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. He wanted to be baptized after our first lesson with him. He asked me to baptize him which was kind of a scary favor to ask from me. He is tall, pretty big, and partially paralyzed (in the way that Chris is partially paralyzed, he can still operate but it takes a lot of concentration and effort) on his left side. I'm short and scrawny and barely have any muscles on my bones. He insisted though. It's the first time on my mission that I had been given that opportunity. Very humbling. Well, when he was baptized, his left leg siezed up and his knee popped out of the water but the second time went ok. His Mom was there. She is extremely nice and very supportive even though she is very strong Catholic. He even called me yesterday and asked where she could buy him his own set of scriptures. What a great Mom! Hopefully he will be a good example to her and we will be able to teach her. She came to the confirmation too. Cool lady.

We also got a new investigator yesterday. He is 16 and has been coming to Church off and on for months. Yesterday was one of the best testimony meetings I have ever been to and he went up and bore his testimony about how he loved coming to Church and how peaceful his life is when he goes. A lesson for us all. When I was his age, I wouldn't have described my church experience that way. I would have said that it was kinda boring. He has had a pretty rough life. His Mom just died this year. He almost went to jail. His Dad is in jail. His Grandpa almost didn't get custody and he would have been in the custody of the state. Lots of trials, but he is very sensitive to the Spirit coming out of all of it. We went after Church with the YM Pres. to his Grandpa's house where he lives. The YM Pres. is a really good role model for him. We had a great lesson. Awesome kid.

Last night we went to a lesson with one of our investigators that we haven't seen in a few weeks. She is still doing good. We taught about Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End. We committed her to be baptized on the 30th of October. It was a really great lesson, to say the least.

Oh, and we had another leadership training last week. It was good, but it is kind of an afterthought on my mind right now. The past couple of days have been awesome. It's times like now that coming on a mission is worth all the struggle. It's great. I love it. I had felt a turn around coming for a few months and it has finally begun. Hopefully it will carry through for the rest of my mission. And about these leadership trainings. They are reteaching us how to teach. I have seen some remarkable progress in my teaching since we started. I finally feel like I am reaching my potential as a missionary. I'm pretty stoked right now.


-Elder Blakemore