Sweet Home Alabama: I love how the Spirit works

Hello everyone!!! WOWEE ANOTHER WEEK HAS GONE BY!!!! Goodness. I'm seriously obsessed with missionary work. This week was full of ups and downs, but God's hand is in it all. I have learned more about God's will and how the only gift we can truly give back to God is to align our will with His. I tried doing that this week.

Cynthia has not been keeping her commitments and always cancels on us which can be really frustrating!!! It has made me realize that we need to just find those people who are hungering for this gospel; those who truly want to learn more and are willing to have us over. Betty has fallen off the face of this earth. We haven't been able to contact her at all and I really am worried about her. She was so prepared and even wanted to be baptized. Ah. Oh well. Faith in God includes faith in His timing, right?

The Elders brought this man named Bill to church yesterday. He is hilarious and wants to be baptized. We are going over to his house this week to talk with his wife who is paralyzed and give her the discussions as well. During fast and testimony meeting, Bill sat in his chair and raised his hand and said, "I have something to say! I have something to say!!! My preacher in the other church should just move to Birmingham because I don't like him and I don't feel anything when he preaches. These missionaries showed up at my doorstep and now I wanna get baptized! Hallelujah!!!" SOOOOOOOOOOOO FUNNY OH MY GOODNESS THE ELDERS WERE DYING AND SO WERE WE. He is our favorite. Oh Bill.

We were able to meet with this sweet lady, Misty Mims who is inactive and gave her a spiritual message. As we were about to leave, the spirit was really strong in the room and she said, "I want my fiancé to have this. I want him to learn from y'all. Could you get him a Book of Mormon?" UHHH YEAAAA OF COURSE WE WILL. best. thing. ever. We went over the next day and taught her fiancé, Dwayne. He can't read too well. He hasn't really read from the Bible and wants to know God better. We taught him the restoration and OH MY. SO SPIRITUAL. He just had the biggest smile on his face and he told us that he felt "tingly" and "warm". So precious. It made me realize that it doesn't matter if someone can't fully understand the scriptures or understand what certain things mean, he still was able to feel the spirit and he even told us that he wanted to get baptized!! He beat us to the question of baptism!! Misty was so excited and said that they would start reading the scriptures together. Wanna know something else great about him?? He doesn't drink and believes in the law of chastity. So that makes things easier. Although we have to work with both of them to stop smoking!!! They said that they would love to come to church this next Sunday!! Misty also invited us over to her house on Sunday to talk with her whole family (full of preachers) about the restoration... ha we will see how that goes!!! :)

We are also working with this new investigator named Kameron!!! We have taught her the first 3 lessons and she LOVES having us over. We asked her if she was reading the Book of Mormon and she said, "Yes!!! I've been reading 14 chapters so far!!!" We started to freak out as missionaries and asked her which part she read. She replied saying, "The one part where John the Baptist's head gets chopped off." Uhhh... yeah she was reading in the Bible. We then explained that it was great she was reading from the Bible, but invited her to read the Book of Mormon. She is still praying about baptism, but she says she will get baptized once she gets the answer. I asked her if she has ever prayed on her knees and then listened after praying. She looked at me in amazement and said, "NO! I've never tried that!!! I'll do it!!!!!" So, the next time we saw her which was on Saturday, the first thing she told to us was, "I prayed on my knees!!!!" haha The only major problem with her is that she is transgender and has told us how she has lived with it her whole life and that she didn't even find out until she reached puberty, but she is technically a boy. We had a really good discussion with her about how God loves her and how Christ knows what she is going through. I really did look at her with a deep love for her and I could feel Heavenly Fathers love for her. She has gone through so much and just wants to follow Christ. Her parents don't support her in any way and she is scared to come to our church because she feels comfortable at her church because everyone knows of her situation, but she agreed to trying it out this coming Sunday. I hope all goes well with that!! :)

We met a cute girl named Courtney yesterday while tracting!! She let us right in! She is in her 20's and said she was looking for a church to go to that she knew was right. We gave her the first lesson and she loved it!!! She said she would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it! WAHOO!!! She has a very busy work schedule, so it was definitely God preparing her for us to see her because she said she just got off work. Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways. Her whole trailer was DECKED OUT in Alabama Roll Tide décor. Even her cars were red!! Shower curtain, bed spread, walls, carpet, etc. you name it. All ROLL TIDE.

Wanna know some awkward things that happened this week? We gave the car to the Elders one day and Sister Gustafson started to ride our bikes. Sister G's bike started to not work so we just began to walk everywhere. We decided to go to walmart and experiment with finding new investigators. We bought some REALLY GOOD COOKIES and tried to hand them out with Mormon.org cards with our number on the back. NO ONE TOOK OUR COOKIES. Everyone just gave us a dirty look. I swear we weren't even creepily doing it either. Ugh. FAIL. but that's alright, we ended up laughing about it later and just handed some out to the Elders. Wanna know something else awkward that happened? We were at a dinner appointment with the Lutz family. Love them. Brother Lutz asked me to hand him the Ranch and so I did. He then said, "You know. If I was 30 years younger, I'd marry you." What am I supposed to say to something like that? I don't even know. I just laughed. I love the Lutz though. Brother Lutz is hilarious and has dementia and often calls us to check up on us every day. hahaha

Oh my. So last night, we went to Rena and Nick's home and had ice cream with them. When we first got there, Nick brought out the sprite and gave them to us. He is so funny. He just loves having us over and always gives us sprite because he knows we like it. Rena invited us to have Thanksgiving dinner with them!!! do you know how big of a miracle that is??? It's big!!! The first day I met Rena (she's inactive) She DID NOT want to talk with us!! But now, they love us!!!!!! We text Nick a scripture every day to look up!!!

I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve people here. I love just helping people. It feels good just to put a shopping cart away or smiling at someone or giving someone a hug or praying for someone. I can at least help people out and so can y'all. I encourage you to try to look for little ways to serve. It could be as simple as calling someone and telling them that you have been thinking about them and that you love them or complimenting someone on their shirt or smile. I have learned to just not judge anyone and to love everyone no matter what. Being on this mission has made me become a better listener.

May we all strive to trust in God's will and align our will with his. Sometimes, life can seriously be the worst and sometimes we really are stuck in a huge hole, but if you truly align your life to God's will, all will be well. I love y'all so much!!! So grateful for my amazing family. I seriously pray every night for y'all and thank God for the amazing family I have.

God is so good!!!! :)