Ryan's Miracle!!!

Basingstoke!

Hello all you wonderful people! 

Elder Schulthies!...11th floor in Basingstoke!

So we had another successful and amazing week, capped off by yet, another miracle baptism! I'll tell a little more about Ryan later in the email but conference is this weekend and oh my... it is going to be the greatest thing ever! 3 new Apostles... what? I cannot wait to learn so much from the Lord's Prophet and His Apostles! There are just so many questions that I have and I encourage you to discover some for yourself so you can receive the personal revelation the Lord has in store for you to receive this weekend!

Tuesday: September 22nd, 2015
We had exchanges again and I got to go up to Reading to work with Elder Baum and we knocked some 200+ houses and only like 4 actually gave us 5 minutes to talk. There was one house we knocked on and this

Elder Baum, "Is it Easter yet"?

old guy answered the door and was talking with us and then his wife
walked up and was like, "nope, we don't need it! Close the door honey." He proceeded not to close it and then she force slammed it and it ended up hitting the corner of her husbands head as it closed. It was pretty sad... but I guess closing the door on your husband to make a point for us as missionaries is totally okay? I don't know...

Wednesday: September 23rd, 2015
We had a brilliant district meeting today in Reading and then we had a lot of time to travel and do some things and prepare things for Ryan's interview on Thursday and that was about it for the day. Couple of teaches here and there but nothing to crazy.

Thursday: September 24th, 2015
Oh man! Today was just amazing. We had to travel about 4 hours back and forth to take the Sister Training Leaders on exchanges so that took a lot of time but, we made up for it by having some great lessons with Michael and Tracey! Both of them are progressing a little slower than what we would hope, but progression is progression. They have 2 weeks each until their baptism so we are just working around all the little kinks they have and then helping them prepare for that day. Ryan's baptismal interview went super well, he told us after his interview that he was just so happy and couldn't wait for Saturday!

Ryan's Baptism

Friday: September 25th, 2015
Round 2 exchanges with the Basingstoke Elders! We drove around for about 40 minutes trying to find parking which ate up a lot of our time before the exchange and that was a bummer... but again, we made up for the wasted time and had some great street lessons with some people and then had a couple of teaches with a less active member and than a part member family and then finished up our night with a nice steak dinner with a Jamaican Member Brother Powell! Coolest guy ever, ah man... his accent was totally the way I ever imagined it would be and it was just fun to talk with him. He's been a convert as well for a while now and he is just the coolest.

Saturday: September 26th, 2015
The day of Ryan's baptism!!! So here is the story of Ryan! So his best friends are the Bakers (we baptized them on the 12th of September) long story short here, he was super against everything we were teaching them and would always make negative and crude humorous jokes about the lessons and basically said it was all a load of rubbish. However, when

The Lucky Rub

the time for the baptism to take place came around, still hard hearted, he came to support them and as he watched each of his friends
go in and out of the water, the Spirit completely flipped his world. He became super emotional and just felt everything and gained a
testimony of everything we taught and what he witnessed at that moment and knew it to be true. He then called us and wanted to ask us a
couple of questions and when we met him (along with the Bakers) on Monday, he asked us what he felt and what it meant. He explained

The whole Baker family and Ryan
 (he's pretty much a baker)

everything to us and he got emotional again and we just smiled and started to testify right there and then he asked if he could be baptized. So 2 weeks of teaching later, splash! Ryan is such a great guy and you could really see the countenance change by just witnessing and feeling what he did. We did nothing on this one... this was all the Spirit and the Lord. We just did what was asked of us after that. Truly... this is one of the greatest miracles and things I have
personally seen and it has really opened my eyes to so many things and I just know God lives and he truly wants each of us to feel as Ryan did, but first, we have to just have an open mind and try something new in order for the Lord to then confirm it for us!



Sunday: September 27th, 2015
Confirmation of Ryan took place and then the typical Sunday routine! We had dinner with Norman after church and then we headed out to Reading to prepare for accounting and the rest of the night was just accounting and then we slept over again in Reading (thats like the 10th time already...) but that was about it!

England....Mercy please!

At the request of my sister Sabrina, I will be sharing a verse a week from the Book for Mormon that stood out to me during my study. (there are a lot that stick out to me every day but I will do the one that I feel I must share the most)

This week comes from:
Alma 33:23

"And now, my brethren, I desire that ye shall plant this word in your hearts, and as it beginneth to swell even so nourish it by your faith. And behold, it will become a tree springing up in you unto everlasting life. And then may God grant unto you that your burdens may be light, through the joy of his Son. And even all this can ye do if ye will. Amen."

The England Sunrise!

I love you all and pray for daily! Thank you for all the support and the emails! Truly blessed for all of you!

Love,
Elder Rivera