Michael's Testimony

The branch is doing really well. We are all very missionary minded right now. The entire branch decided to fast this past Sunday for the purpose of having more baptisms. The Lord answered our prayers yesterday when we had a handful of investigators at church. Yesterday's sacrament meeting was awesome. It was such a good testimony meeting. Michael bore the greatest testimony ever. Yesterday was his first fast and testimony meeting as a member of the church. We were sitting together listening to the other members bear their testimonies, then he leans over to me and asks, "Elder Bray, can I go up there and speak?" I was like "yeah man, of course". So then he jumped up and practically ran to the pulpit. He bore a powerful testimony about the word of wisdom. He talked about an experience he had last week in which was at his friend’s house with a bunch of kids all drinking and smoking. He said some of his friends were pressuring him to drink with them he turned them down and went to sleep some other room all by himself. Prior to that day he played basketball for a few hours and ended up getting some bad blisters on the bottom of his feet. He talked about how this has always been a problem of his while growing up. Every time he played bball in the past he would get blisters that would stay there for at least 3 weeks. He said that before he went to sleep he prayed that he would be blessed for leaving all of his friends and choosing the right by not drinking with them. He went on by explaining the very next morning he woke up and the blisters on his feet were all gone. He said he didn’t feel sore in the slightest. This is something that has never happened before because he said in the past his blisters would always irritate him for at least a month. He bore his testimony on the power of keeping the word of wisdom. He said he knows God blessed him for not giving into the peer pressure of his friends. He talked about how the promises of keep that commandment are true (will walk and not be weary, will have more strength and better health). It was so amazing to see Michael get up there and bear his testimony. Michael concluded his testimony by saying "zhihuiyu zhende shi hen lihai" which would translate to "the word of wisdom is so awesome!" Right after sacrament meeting we went into president Byer's office and gave Michael the Aaronic priesthood and ordain him to the office of Priest. It was so cool seeing Michael receive the priesthood. Brother Ying gave a powerful blessing as usual. That man knows how to give a blessing. However, he accidently ordained him to the office of deacon... luckily Ben, Kyle, and I picked up on that so we had to do it over again and ordain him to priest. Right after he was ordained, Michael said in English, "yes, I’m a priest!" I just laughed and thought about how amazing it has been to play a role in his conversion. 3 months ago I would have never thought Michael would be a priest. Miracles do occur and people can change. Michael is the perfect example of that!