Marriage Master

Man, I feel like I'm less of a missionary and more of a counselor. Every day we teach several lessons where we don't really actually teach. We just listen to people tell us about there problems. That's the problem with being a missionary. Everyone thinks that because you have a plaque you're some magical being that can solve any problem that is thrown at them. We're dealing with some pretty crazy stuff, and as you might guess from the title, a lot of this crazy stuff is marriage. We have about fifteen investigators that have a desire to be baptised or are at least really potential, and eleven of those are blocked because of marriage problems. So that's my life right now. 

It's killing me. Hamuera and Sefina are so close for baptism and marriage, but they won't pick a date. I talked last week about how they got the number fifteen. Well, this week they got another vision where they saw a big piece of paper and someone rwriting on it. A...O...U...T. Noooooo! They want to get baptised August 15th. Well, we talked some more, and they think they want to do it sooner, but they still haven't chosen a date. So far Hamuera has fasted a second time, and Sefina fasted too. And she's stopped smoking now, too. They are so spiritual and they rely on the Lord for everything. It's so cool to see that. I know that they will be powerful members.

We've been kind of teaching this guy whose wife is a member. He's never taken seriously the lessons and we don't even do them very often. We did this lesson and shared Alma 34:33. That kind of scared him, so I gave him Alma 5:38, 39 to go with it. He was really freaked out, and as a result he started reading the LdM. We've started dong somewhat more regular visits and he's actually progressing now. I guess some people need different forms of motivation. I certainly don't want to be a son of the devil.

There was an inactive that we visited this week. It's been a while since we last came and we just talked and it ended with her asking us to bless her house. So we invited her nonmember copain to come over. She was hesitant to invite him because he usually wants nothing to do with our church but he was really nice and loved that we wanted to bless there house. I did the blessing, That was the first time that I ever blessed a house. You would think it would be easy, but it was definitely a weird experience. At the end, her copain asked when we would come back. Sweet! So we'll start teaching them together.

There are two little kids about to turn nine who have baptisms fixed for the twentieth. It's a long story but we haven't even taught them, but a member has been teaching them and set up their baptsim. That's for the 20th of April, so that'll be exciting. Those kids are pretty cute!

We taught the person that said why not to baptism. This time it was with his copine. They want to get baptised, but after she gives birth. In august. We're trying to push for earlier with them too. But at least they have the desire.

So, a lot of stuff is happening. We have a lot of people that are progressing, we just need to help them take that leap of faith and get on the path that leads to Eternal Life. I'm pretty excited. Oh, and by the way, I'm not taking credit for being the Marriage Master. It's definitely God who is softening the hearts of these people and helping them realise that the family is sacred and the man and woman have very important roles. Marriage is ordained of God. I was just an instrument, a messager proclaiming God's message. I was actually really impressed with some of this counsel that I've given people. I have no experience with this stuff, yet somehow I manage to help people with their complicated problems. It's definitely not thanks to me that these people are changing. That's right, God's a Marriage Master. 

Orometua Lewis