Elder Lofton Q Bean : Baptism! - God Desires Our Happiness

Hey fam!

This week we had Ritchielle´s baptism!!! It was incredible. A really special experience for her, her family, us, and everyone in the ward at church. Her boyfriend got to baptize her and it was great! The Spirit was super strong during the whole service. A great guy named Marcelo who was being taught by the other missionaries in our ward was baptized as well. There was a ton of support at the baptism and everyone could feel the strong spirit there. Some other missionaries visited from other areas and we sang the primary song "Quando Eu For Batizado". The Spirit was very strong!!

Marcos, Ritchielle´s dad, said the closing prayer and he was overcome with gratitude and emotions. It was great to see how happy this family was and that they are now preparing together to go to the temple and be sealed as an eternal family. Incredible!!

We had an entire family and one other man show up to church that we have been teaching and it was awesome!! They have been inactive and haven’t attended church for a long long time. Seeing them come was great!! It is awesome being able to visit the less and in - actives and bring the Spirit into their home and help them remember those spiritual feelings and experiences they have had, and when they come back to church it is incredible!!

Jesus is the Christ, and God our Father loves us so much. I have learned here that God has such a great and unique love for each and every one of us. He loves us all and knows us each personally.

Grandma Bean sent me a quote that said. "If you want to see a true measure of a man, watch how he treats his inferiors, not his equals." -------J.K. Rowling. That quote really hit me. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are from. We should treat others the way our Savior has taught us "Love thy neighbor as thyself." We are all children of an Eternal loving God who wants the best for each and every one of us. We all are here on this "path" here on earth which takes us back to His presence. We all have our own individual trials and challenges along the way. When we have faith in our Savior during our trials, we will come back stronger than before and our faith and love in Him will increase and grow. We will become more like Him and come to know Him for who He is - The Son of God and Savior of the World. When we truly love our Savior, we will obey His commandments and choose the right. Heavenly Father loves us all so much and has given us His beloved Son, that through the redeeming and enabling power of the Atonement, we can become cleansed from our sins and errors and change our hearts and become more like Him and have true happiness in this life. God desires our happiness. He has told us how we can have it. It’s our duty to act and use our agency to CHOOSE to follow Him and to have true happiness.

I hope everything is going great with y’all back home!!!

Have a great week!!!

with love,

Elder Bean