Monday, June 9, 2014

"Ahh, What a beautiful, rewarding week it has been (: "

"The Lord has really blessed me and my companion this week. We have seen more miracles than we could count. Although numbers are definitely not the most important thing as a missionary, we have been blessed with very high numbers this week (I've come to learn that numbers are a blessing and a privilege, not what missionary work is all about). They looked AMAZING. The Lord has blessed us with people to teach, whether they are totally solid or not, and in the eternal perspective, maybe it just wasn't their time to learn- nevertheless, we have been able to share that piece of the gospel with them that hopefully they will remember and carry."

"Update on the 'gators...We have been blessed with two new this week! Our recent convert calls them her "daughters" but they aren't related. They come from a really broken family... probably moving back for good to Georgia this summer. She is totally heart-broken, but she figures the best thing she can give them is the Gospel, and eternal happiness that comes with it. The girls came to church and actually witnessed a baptism. We might be teaching one of her best friends who says he's pagan...oh boy. He's a way nice guy though! We're teaching a very prepared sister. She is leagally blind, but can still get around. She loves the gospel, the church, and the people in it."

"We had a really interesting miracle happen this week. We got a note in the mail from the mission office saying that a lady wanted to learn about the gospel. We called her because she didn't have a physical address, just a PO box number. She said she's still interested and we decide that we have the time to go see her that night. So we drive 20 minutes out, and into Maybeury. My GPS just happens to have this tiny little street programmed in. We get to this house, and turns out this lady is a less active from Cincinatti, OH. She wanted to "come home" to the gospel that she was baptized into so many years previous. She had a long road and experimented with so many different religions, but realized that it all came back to the gospel of Jesus Christ...that's what made her the happiest. Her, her non member husband and her stepson all want the lessons. They want to come to church. So we called the zone leaders because we weren't entirely sure that these folks were in our area...and turns out they aren't...they are just over the McDowell county line. They are part of the Welch branch. So we call welch. Turns out these elders have been struggling in their area, and I'm sure they had been praying for people to teach and visit. We were an answer to their prayers (: and although at first I was upset that we weren't going to get to teach them, I was happy that I had been the answer to a young greenie's prayers."

"This week my testimony of forever families (well, more like this whole transfer) has just exploded. I am so excited to have an eternal family of my own. That's really what this plan is, and what missions are about are uniting families. The plaque on the mantel says it loud and proud (A missionary leaves her family for 18 months so that the people she teaches can be with their family forever)...that's why I'm out here, is to unite families. Yesterday in church, I got to teach singing time. I taught them the 2nd verse of "The family is of God" which is part of the sharing time theme this year. The whole thing went really well and I had a lot of fun getting my teacher pants on again."

"Laughter is the best medicine. I felt like sacrament meeting went all revival on us yesterday when this dear sweet older sister in our ward (bless her heart, she has fathers and brothers who are preachers) got up and was supposed to "speak" on enduring to the end. She rather yelled about Obama not holding the priesthood, teens taking responsibility for themselves, and her neighbors arguing over property lines and who's trash was who's on trash day. As I tried so hard to hold back my giggle fits (even the bishop and his counselor were cracking up on the stand), I looked over at our recent convert, who had her hand over her mouth and her eyes were huge. She was trying so hard not to die laughing either. I said, "you know it's not normally like this, right?" and she said yeah, and later we told her "daughters" that as well, and hopefully our baptist-preacher sacrament meeting didn't completely scare them off. "All I care about" the speaker announced as she raised her arm and pointed to the ceiling, "is what the big man upstairs thinks of me!" We all thought, good, cause if you cared about what the bishop and the democrats in the room thought, you would probably be Less Active next week. I told her afterwards that I honestly enjoyed her talk, and she said "I didn't read a word off my notes". I thought, 'oh really?'...Bless her heart haha (: Maybe I don't need to go to another church to enjoy the diversity of the Bible belt. I love Southern people!"

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