Special occasion

On Sunday of our 4 day weekend, we had the special opportunity to see our neighbor get baptized.  We were grateful to be just a small part of her conversion.  We know God was already preparing her for this and for her husband to come back to church.  We found out in October that he was already a member of the church, but had not been to church in a long time.  We invited him and his wife to the primary program (where the kids sing and have speaking parts in sacrament meeting), and they came.  They came again the next Sunday, kept coming back to church every week and taking the missionary lessons.  We were able to have a couple of the lessons in our home.  That was such a neat thing to have the missionaries teaching in our home.  I love seeing the gospel work in people's lives, and my testimony is strengthened by listening to the missionaries teach as well.  We learned later that he had been thinking about coming back to church already.  It was his little sign from God when we invited them to church.  I know we were prompted to extend an invitation, and that was all it took to get them going.  (Small efforts by us and then the work was up to them.)  We are proud of them for their efforts and changes in their lives to get ready for baptism.  He was able to baptize his wife - what a special thing to see!  I also was honored to be asked to speak at her baptism, to talk about the Holy Ghost.  Of course I couldn't keep the tears from coming, but I got through it.  

I felt like I was supposed to share some of my personal experiences with feeling the spirit of God in my life, particularly about our move from Oklahoma to California.  We had such a hard process in our decision to move, much of which can be found here.  One of the difficult things was not knowing for sure if we were making the right decision at first, but we got small promptings and thoughts that led us here.  I remember getting the thoughts "you have some growing to do" and "take advantage of the opportunity."  We felt like it was time to move forward in faith.  And then we got here and have since felt comforted in different ways to know we're in the right place for now.  We also experienced a small miracle in being able to buy our house, which our neighbors happened to be a part of.  They saw us come look at the place and had a good first impression then.  They were part of persuading the previous owner of our home that she needed to sell to a family.  We weren't the top offer, but she sold it to us.  I can't help but see the Lord's guiding hand in all of this.  Little did we know that the Lord was already preparing our neighbors to have the blessings of the gospel in their life.  And if we were supposed to move to CA just for the purpose of being here to extend that invitation to our neighbors, it was worth it.  (But moving here 8.5 months pregnant...I could have done without out that timing... ha ha.)  Anyway, we were a very small part of our neighbors conversion, but we are grateful to have been in the right place at the right time.  We look forward to seeing them grow in the gospel.  I know each of us has a different journey, filled with different obstacles and trials of faith, but God's love for each of us never fails to amaze me.  He blesses us in so many ways.