Battle Creek, MI, FABRICIO, baby blessings, and family

PS>  An elder here is Elder Fletcher and he lived in Battle Creek! He said the Torrance's told him to look out for me! That was cool to talk back and forth about everything with him. He went to BC Central and lives behind KCC. Hahah small world eh? 

Once again here we are again. Soooooo many things happened this week I
don't even know where to begin. I'll briefly cover the important
things then my voice recording will go into details and have other
things as well. Let's goooooo
 
We have this awesome investigator named Willie. Willie is Dominican.
For those who are familiar with the Dominicans, they kinda live in
their own world and don't care about many things. Aaaaand don't like
commitments. Anyways, Willie never has time for us to me. Willie
always says he'll come to English but Willie never comes. Willie also
loves helping friends. Willie cuts hair. So I called Willie. I told
Willie that my companion needed a haircut. Willie told me to come over
asap. So I told elder wright he was about to get a free haircut. So we
went to Willies and Willie cut my comps hair. Willie is funny. We
taught Willie the restoration. Willie liked it. Willie said he wants
to read and pray. We are excited for Willie.
 
Wednesday we had a lesson that a member set up with her friend, which
was an absolute miracle. Her friend is also Dominican lol. But she was
super excited to meet with us! We taught the restoration a lot and
Elder Wright started saying the first vision and choked. He restarted
and choked again. We don't know what happened but he completely forgot
the first vision. After five minutes of struggling he managed to get
the major points in. I say this, because this was a vital point in the
lesson. During those five minutes of struggling, the Spirit was so
incredibly strong. You could just tell God was raining down His Spirit
through the mouth of this poor guy. I felt so bad for him, but the
spirit was so strong. This girl said an amazing prayer as we all knelt
at the end of the lesson. She asked God if these things were true and
if this his path for her. We sat in silence for a few minutes after
and the member friend started crying and bearing her testimony. It was
one of the most incredible feelings I've ever been apart of. The roll
of members in this work is so so important. absolutely vital. When a
member bears testimony about their experience with the Church, the
Spirit is undeniable. Absolutely awesome experience. Needless to say,
we got some bread (elder wright loves Spanish bread) after the lesson
to cheer him up because he was down on himself. But bread always
works(:
 
Okay yesterday was awesome! We got to the church and we were saying hi
to the few members who actually showed up early. Then I look in the
chapel and guess who was there?! FABRICIO! He stood up and waved at me
and I literally sprinted across the chapel and gave him the biggest
hug in the world. With tears in my eyes I asked him what he was doing
here. He said he came to see his baby be blessed. He was only there
for a few hours and drove like six hours just to be there for it. He
said "elder Gearig, sit down." So I sat down next to him. His wife and
aunt came over and then he said, "elder Gearig, I want you to give my
baby the blessing." I was without words. I got tears again and managed
to say that I would be honored to give the blessing.
   I sat there in silence and just started crying. This guy
disappeared a week before his baptism, we've been in contact every
other day for almost a month, then he randomly comes and asks me to
bless his baby. It was a roller coaster and one of the most humbling
experiences of my life. I sat there thinking "how in the world can I
give a baby a blessing? I've never done this and probably won't for
like 5 more years." Then I got this feeling that it'd be fine and to
not worry about it. So I stopped worrying about. Elder wright and I
put our hands on the baby and he rest is history because I don't
remember what I said. All I remember was how strong the spirit was and
how much God helped me in that moment. Tears didn't really stop coming
out for a long time. Then Fabricio left like thirty minutes later. I'm
kicking myself for not getting a picture with him but I called him
later and he promised me that we'd see each other again. I know I
won't see him baptized but it feels good knowing I helped him a little
bit.
 
Okay last one!mim so sorry this is so long but I want to explain these
things as best I can because of how incredible they were. There's this
less active/partial member family we visit once a week. The dad is
anti-Mormon and doesn't let his wife go to church or do anything with
the church for that matter. He won't let the 9 year old son be
baptized and the 13 year old has followed his example and wants
nothing anymore. So we had a little lesson with the mom and Angel of a
nine year old. Did an activity about the Holy Ghost then I asked him
to pick his favorite song to sing. He said "I only like one song so
I'll pick it." Guess what it was? Families Can Be Together Forever.
Again with the tears. All this little 9 year old wants is for his
family to be happy and to be together but it isn't possible right now.
It was one of the most sweetest moments I've been apart of. As we sang
I got choked up because I just couldn't handle it. With time and a lot
of prayer, we know the dad will come around.
 
 
Well there's so much more but I'll put it on the recording. Such an
awesome week!
 
 My decently good friend Andrew Gray wrote home last week about
families and how lucky he was to have such a great family even though
he didn't give them much of his time. I'm in the same boat. Elder
Reese also talked about how lucky he was to be raised with such a good
family and friends. I too feel extremely lucky to have been raised in
a home where the gospel was a priority. My dad has always been an
amazing example of a worthy priesthood holder and my mother is the
sweetest woman in the world. I may not have given them all my time,
but the mission really opens people's eyes. Im grateful for this
church and the chance we have to be with our families for eternity. Be
grateful for what you have! But don't be content. There's always
something to improve on. Go read President Eyrings talk on Eternal
Families! Such a good talk.
 
Sorry again for the lengthy email. Love you all and have a good week!
 
Family Searchin,
Elder Gearig