Mom,
hey hows the tricks at home? The great tennessee knoxville
mission carries on quite well! We got to hear from Elder Dallin H. Oaks
yesterday and boy was that a spiritual experience! I wrote down like 6
questions that i had prayed about and wanted to be answered during the special
stake conference, and all of them were answered as well as a few I had in my
heart that God new I wanted to hear but I didn’t really write down. such a
special spirit there. Also I shook his hand like 9 or 10 times, We had 6 investigators
at church and I made it a point to take him to meet everyone of them as they
arrived. He is a really really nice guy and he talked to each of them and most
of them had answered prayers there too. Maria is one of our investigators that
has a testimony but has a hard time committing to come to church and also is
having trouble overcoming her smoking addiction. Our ward mission leader picked
her up for the meeting and she was in tears almost the whole time. She talked
to him after the meeting and told him she felt it was taylor-made for her and
she really loved it. boy was that an answered prayer. She is really strong! We
also got together as a whole mission to hear from him after stake conference
was over. And the coolest part of the whole experience which had me literally
in tears (which as y'all know doesn’t happen too often) is before the meeting
he went around and met almost everyone in the building and when he got up to
speak he said there are two types of talks he does, the first is a general
conference address which he takes about 20 drafts to complete and the other is
a stake conference talk which he doesn’t prepare for at all. He just meets as
many people as he can and lets the spirit tell him what to say to everyone. And
what he spoke about for about 85% of his talk was specifically for our
investigators! He essentially testified of the first two lessons (restoration
and plan of salvation) and told them what was up. he even mentioned elder
christensen and I in his address! haha so cool! One of our newer investigators
(Josh T) who we will be committing for baptism tomorrow night, over heard
him telling president how good of a job he thought elder christensen and I were
doing here as missionaries! I really can’t even remember ever being happier
than I was feeling yesterday! Alma 29:10 puts it perfectly "And behold,
when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their
God, then is my soul filled been with joy;..." I've been reading the book
of mormon jack sent me for christmas and I don’t go anywhere with out it, and
Alma 29 is just destroyed haha it's become one of my very favorite chapters in
the book of mormon. Jeanne and Mekenzie are finally really going to be baptized
this saturday and boy are we excited.
Well there has never been a better time to be a missionary. I love it
and am excited to move forward! Love you all!
Love
Elder bakker