This week went by way too fast! I had a great time though. Everything went well for the most part and I'm still enjoying my time here a lot. The biggest thing that happened this week was that I got to teach the class at Fort Jackson this week. We all rotate on teaching it and it ended up being my turn to teach it. After Sacrament meeting we have two classes at the front of the chapel. The Restoration class and the Gospel of Jesus Christ class for those who have just started coming to church and are interested to know more. I taught the Restoration class and there were a lot of people there. Some of them were members of the church, but for the most part I didn't know if they weren't members or not. There were about 30 soldiers there and so I actually was a little nervous teaching it at first, but it turned out really well. I only had about 15 minutes to explain the whole lesson so I had to go quickly through it, but at the end a member in the class piped up and helped me out and talked about how the Gospel has effected his life and how they can find it to be true too. Then I shared my experiences about really studying the message and how through prayer and having an intent to know the truth, I was able to find out for myself too. For some reason I felt prompted to share my testimony at the end when we were out of time and It felt a lot more powerful and sincere than it has before. The way I worded how I felt came out really smoothly and I could tell that it impacted some of the soldiers listening so I was really grateful I was able to teach them right and with effect. At the end of the class I invited everyone in the class to talk to me afterwards if they felt like this message may be true so that I can talk with them and invite them to be baptized. Everyone had to leave and so I didn't get to really talk with anyone because they have to board their bus the second it gets there, but Pvt. Zimmermann came up to me and talked with me for a minute. I talked with him and he said he would keep praying and reading so that he can find out if what I was teaching was true, and so I'm going to talk with him next week to see how that goes. Teaching the class was way cool and I feel like a lot of people were listening intently. Fort Jackson was a great experience again this week and I'm always so happy that I get to be part of it every week. We had 2 more baptisms this week too! Pvt. Thomas and Pvt. Johnson were baptized!! Pvt. Johnson was the one I taught last week and I was so glad to hear that he was still ready to go after our lesson together, and I had found Pvt. Thomas the first week I was here and taught him the Restoration and he was so glad to be baptized! It was a great week this week.
Otherwise not too much else happened this week. I gave my training on prayer and talked about my idea for the prayer book and everyone liked it so hopefully they'll do it and it can help them. I've been keeping mindful of it all week and it's been awesome. Throughout the week I write things down in my planner so that I can add it to my prayer book too. Like whenever I'm talking with a member or an investigator and they talk about something that they're struggling with or something personal I write down to pray for them every night for a week so that I can help them out through prayer. I figured it would build up a lot so I guess a week would be long enough for the most part for God to hear about who needs help haha. My prayers have been a lot more meaningful and it's helped me out a lot. I feel closer to God all the time because of it and it makes my days better and better.
Also: We all went to the fair today and I ran into Sister McDonald from Allen there! Her family is from South Carolina and they were everywhere at the fair haha. It was awesome to see a familiar face. Her brother is a member in the Lexington ward I think? I forget haha.
Janet and Logan were supposed to come to church but they didn't show. We have to move her baptism back because she hasn't been coming to church or keeping other commitments. Hopefully this week things will go better with them, but there's still plenty of time for us to work with them!
Anyway, this week was great and this next week should be good too. We get to go to Family night at Fort Jackson for all of the member and convert soldiers that are graduating and we get to meet their families and hang out with them for a couple of hours pretty much. I'm excited for that.
I hope that your week was good too.
Love
Elder Bills