Sister Avery Miyahara: Satan Hates Baptisms...... 8/19/2013

…But the Lord always, always, ALWAYS wins and He sure did this weekend! We were so blessed to have 4 precious souls receive a remission of their sins through baptism and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost! But let me tell you, we fought the enemy all week long! As I strive to strengthen my relationship with my Savior, I’m also coming to better understand the subtle and evil work of the devil. Satan hates baptism. Period. He doesn’t want anyone to feel the cleansing power of the Savior's atonement, certainly not to the degree of baptism. However, he sucks and he looses. God is victorious yet again!

Anita and Johnson family are pretty remarkable. Their stories are inspiring. I believe God’s timing is immaculate. The gospel is for everyone but within the timeline of the Master, of course.

The Johnson family has been BFFs with the Brown family for 10 years…they’ve known/admired the church for 10 years but when they moved away from their friends (the Browns) and into our ward and were in need of some help, they knew who they could rely on…the Mormons! Our ward jumped on the opportunity to serve them and they said the day they came to the first church activity (‘summer sounds’ we had a month or so ago) they knew they found where they belonged. Their journey for truth ended this weekend and now their journey to eternal life with each other has begun. The gospel blesses families and I couldn’t be more overjoyed for the Johnson’s.

Anita and her family have been meeting with the missionaries since 2009. TWO THOUSAND AND NINE!!!! She is in the neighboring Kennesaw Mountain ward and I met her a month ago and we had such a connection. She is from India! And has to be the most humble, kind, Christ like person, ever. The elders serving in her ward continued to struggle to see progression and prayed about it then randomly asked us if we would be willing to teach Anita. I didn’t know that was an option but I rejoiced in the opportunity to teach sweet Anita. After many miracles she was baptized this Saturday. Satan worked extra hard on her, because she is an extra ordinary person but he lost and she had the most glorious of days! I’m so humbled to be out here in Georgia. God is a God of miracles and He sure is working His miracles here in the Lost Mountain Ward! Happy day, all is well!!

In other news, I’ve been having trouble sleeping. Like real bad. And (un)fortunately I don’t have the option to lay in bed and have my laptop on my stomach playing netflix while I scroll through blogs and my iphone to scroll through insta/twitter posts…so I sit at my desk and READ. Can you believe it? I sure can’t. My late night book of choice has been Jesus the Christ. I recommend it! If you can’t sleep, I challenge you to resist the techno and do some quality reading. My dreams are way cooler on my mission too :)

I just loving being a missionary!

Have a blessed day, y’all – Sister Miyahara