The Power of the Fulness of the Gospel

Seriously a great week! I could not have asked for a better one! It was awesome! We had a ton of awesome miracles happen this week. 

Ponderize scripture of the week: Ether 4:11-12

11 But he that believeth these things which I have spoken, him will I visit with the manifestations of my Spirit, and he shall know and bear record for because of my Spirit he shall know that these things are true; for it persuadeth men to do good.

12 And whatsoever thing persuadeth to do good is of me; for good cometh of none save it be of me. I am the same that leadeth men to all good; he that will not believe my words will not believe me-that I am; and he that will not believe me will not believe the Father who sent me. For behold, I am the Father. I am the light, and the life, and the truth of the world. 

A very cool promise from Christ about the Book of Mormon. This was a great scripture for me this week because it helped me a lot. There were a couple things that happened this week and I was able to take comfort knowing that I know these things are true and that they were made known to me by the Spirit of God and now by some figment of imagination or anything else.

Monday was super fun. We had our soiree with President Danielson canceled and also our appointment with Krystalline fell through. We were able to swing by Willie and his wife though and teach them. They are way cool and I am way excited for them.

Tuesday we had a great day! We were able to teach a ton of people. We taught Francisca and she is doing great! She is on date for the end of May. She's awesome. Already goes to Institute. Way cool. Mahala and Alvine are doing great! We got a plan set up for them to get them moving on getting off of smoking. They aren't down or sad anymore but they are determined to get baptized. And they will. Clorette talked to us though and she didn't want to wait for them and wanted to get baptized on the 30th. So we got that all set up. We went and visited a less active Melchizidek Preisthood holder, Mampionona, and he was in bad shape. He has Asthma pretty bad and was like curled up in the corner of his house when we got there. Doesn't have any money for treatment or anything. We gave him a blessing and invited his wife to learn with us. They actually aren't married but they technically are. We are going to work on them and it's going to be great. 

Wednesday we had a decent day. We had Ruffin teach us the rest of the Plan of Salvation. He's way cool and is on track to get baptized here soon. We tracted into some way cool college kids that night too and had an awesome lesson with them. Elder Jensen and I tried a new teaching approach that was in a talk that I found and it was way cool and worked out great! We also got invited this night to go to a class for potential Elders to teach about the Priesthood. It was a way good meeting. 

Thursday we had a way good district Meeting. I gave the vatsim-panahy about trials and how our trials though hard, push us to a better place, a promised land if you will (Ether 6). We had a great lesson with Pierrot this day. We connected things with him and told him that he should seek for something that is full and not something that is only bits and pieces (that is the Book of Mormon and Bible together and not just the Bible by itself) and it really clicked for him and he is very willing to try and see if our church is a better path for him and his life. It was an awesome lesson. We also taught some way cool investigators that were taught before. We had a great lesson with them and will continue to teach them. We are hoping to get them to progress with us. Oh and we contacted a French guy that has PTSD. He was in the military before. He spoke English to us and it was kinda weird.

Friday morning President dropped by the house at 7 and did interviews with us. It was awesome. I love President. He is great. He loved the picture that I sent him of Mount Carmel Junction. He said it made him homesick haha. We talked about it a little bit. I went on a split in Elder Koplin's area while his companion did the baptismal interview for CLorette. She passed though! I went to a soiree in their area and I got a ton of rice. Seriously a mountain. And I finished it. The little victories.  

Saturday we had a meeting with President Dimby before English class and it was great! We had a good time at English and got some good contacting in in a new are that we hadn't tried yet. Then we had our baptism! There were so many people there! It was an awesome baptismal service and then at the end a sister in the branch opened her mission call and she's going here! She leaves the beginning of June to go to the MTC and then gets here the day I go home... Kinda weird. But we had  a great time that night with Lanto and Dorothe. That morning we met a lady from Fort Worth and she was way nice. 

Sunday was awesome. Nothing else can describe how it went. It was an awesome fast and testimony meeting. Awesome testimonies. Two confirmations. I got to pass the sacrament too! That was kinda fun I haven't done that in awhile! And we had 24 investigators at church... Seriously so awesome! We taught a bunch of cool lessons yesterday too! One guy just like got up and left though during our lesson which was kinda weird. We had an encounter with a French guy too. I said hi to him in French as we were walking past and ended up talking to the guy for a little bit. He was pretty good at English. Well within the first 60 seconds he said that religion is "Stupidity" and that we are wasting our time and our money here because God doesn't exist. I felt very bad for the man. He doesn't even realize. It strengthened my testimony that I know for a surety because He has spoken to me and reached out to me as I have reached out searching for Him. It made me sad to see that one of God's children would deny him without so much as trying to reach out to see if He really is there. It was nice to know that he really is there. We had an interesting lesson that night with those same college students and they had a friend over. She had seen us before and was telling us how hard it is for her to believe that we could have a living prophet. It was a good thing we had prepared to teach them about the Book of Mormon. It was awesome. It was more of a witness to me of the truthfulness of everything that we teach.

Today we went to a lemur park with President and his family called Nahimpoana. It was super cool! I got a ton of pictures and I am trying to upload them all but there might be too many. 

This week I really felt the manifestations of the Spirit that my ponderize scripture spoke of. I saw the power of the fullness of the gospel this week. I know that this work is true and that it changes lives. It's changed mine and it will continue to change all of us. I love this work and I can't believe it is coming to a close. I am so glad I was able to dedicate this part of my life to sharing this gospel. 

Have a great week! 

Elder Coleman

I asked Austin what he has learned about God's love for us..... This was his answer......

I've learned a lot about the love of God for us. It has been the subject of my personal study more then once. I have tried to see them more through God's eyes and have had more of a desire to help them and serve them and bring them the gospel. They are God's children. Christ died for them just as much as he died for you and me. The things they do are very frustrating sometimes. But they need this gospel just as much as we do. If not more.