I like to look for rainbows

Monday, June 5

Well, Mary was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday! It was super exciting! We were a little concerned because just a couple hours before the service it started pouring rain! And in Ghana when it rains the whole country shuts down. When the time for the service came and it still didn't let up we were worried we would have to postpone the baptism. But luckily our candidate and our presiding authority showed up anyway and we carried out the baptism in the pouring rain. (The font is outside.) All I could think of was that primary song about looking for rainbows after rain. It actually made the baptism a pretty special experience. Mary was determined to not let anything postpone her baptism.

The training is going really well! Elder Smith is a solid, well prepared missionary and I'm really happy to be working with him. Like seriously, some of my strongest spiritual experiences have occurred in lessons that we have had together just in the past week. For some reason we ended up sharing a lot of lessons about the Temple and the Plan of Salvation this week and as a result we both grew a lot! Along with the investigators we were sharing with. Between the four Elders in our district we had 11 investigators at church this Sunday totaling about a quarter of the congregation. It was powerful!

Also, I want to send a shout out to Sister Braun for your call to Tokyo! Say hi to Elder Kaiser for me!

So one of the things I've noticed people struggle the most with in sincerity in their prayers. Not just sincerity but being specific. Thanks to the influence and false teachings spread by the great and abominable church #whoreofalltheearth many people simply don't understand the purpose behind, or the vitality of a sincere prayer. We had an experience where we were teaching Josephine (an investigator we found this week) who was refusing to pray in front of us, wasn't receiving answers to her personal prayers, and was getting confused by the doctrine of the Plan of Salvation. After going through things and trying to explain it more simply she still wasn't getting it. Soon my mind turned to 2 Nephi 32 that tells us if we don't understand something it is because we aren't asking God in prayer. I decided to share this with Josephine. After some explanation she agreed to pray in front of us and to make her prayers more sincere and less repetitious. Ever since her understanding has totally expanded. It's been powerful. #thepowerofprayer

So let it be said. If your testimony is being held back by a lack of understanding... maybe you should revisit 2 Nephi 32 and think about making your prayers more sincere. Also see D&C 9. Conversion cannot come without understanding. Understanding cannot come without prayer. Much love to you all!

Elder Henderson