I am obsessed with this place. I love Alabama so much. The leaves are fixin to change colors and the weather is getting cold!!! I wore tights yesterday! wahooOOooOOoOOOoo
Ah. This work is incredible. I am so happy and so blessed to be here!!!! Heavenly Father is helping us SO much and He is the source of all miracles that happen each and every day!!!
AH. I am serving now with cute Sister Moore!!!!!! We served in the same district when I was serving in West Point. She is from St. George, UT and we have mutual friends from there. She is SUPER tiny hahahha I love her so much. She is so fun to be with! She has such a good heart and excitement about the work. So grateful for her! :)
This past week has been wonderful. So many tender mercies.
We started off the week with basically no investigators.... The cute family that we had high hopes for dropped us through a text. The girl Krista who I talked about last week no longer answers her door. And another investigator we found doesn't keep her commitments.... Missionary work is basically like a dating relationship or something.
Sister Moore and I decided to fast this past Friday for success in finding those that were ready. Our mission has a goal of getting a total of 500 baptisms for the whole year and there is A LOT of work that needs to be done. President Hanks has encouraged us to find a lot this past week. After much fasting and prayer, the Lord blessed us!
As Sister Moore and I were biking, we saw two guys walking home from school. We stopped them and invited them to be baptized right then and there! We said, "Hey! We are representatives of Jesus Christ and we are inviting people to be baptized!!!! Have y'all ever been baptized before???" One of the guys looked at us with a big smile on his face and said, "no, but I have been thinking about how I need to do it." He then invited us into his home and we taught him and his sister!!! His name is Marquarius and his sisters name is diamond. THEY ARE SO PRECIOUS and they have been keeping their commitments :) They have a baptismal date set for the 6th of December. I love them so much :) We taught Marquarius how to pray and he said the sweetest prayer ever. I have said it before and I will say it again. My favorite part of being a missionary is teaching people how to pray and then hearing them say a powerful and sincere prayer out loud. It's a beautiful thing and I just smile from ear to ear during the whole prayer. He said something along the lines of: "Dear Heavenly Father. Please let me know that what these lovely ladies are saying is true. I want to know you better and I think they can help me. In Jesus name I pray. Amen." SO CUTE.
They were supposed to come to church yesterday, but they got confused about the time and thought it was later. so sad! BUT they really wanted to come and said they would come next week for sure :)
We had a really good lesson with Marquarius and Diamond last night and their 14 year old cousin Ladaesha was there as well. We taught the Plan of Salvation and it was definitely the spirit who taught it. Ladaesha broke down in tears as we talked about our purpose here on this earth as she explained to us that she was abandoned by her parents and now lives with her grandma. We were able to bear strong testimony to her and shared the story in Mosiah 24 with her about how the Lord can ease the burdens placed upon our shoulders. I told her to put her name into the scripture and apply it to her life. She then started to read: "Ladaesha, I will ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions. And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Ladaesha and her brethren were made light...." SHE LOVED IT. Her face was beaming and it was so great to see!!!! After the lesson, Diamond looked at us and said, "The next time y'all come over, we will bring all our friends so they can see how cool y'all are." hahahhaah LIFE=MADE.
Ladaesha told us that she LOVES basketball and plays in the wing position cause she loves shooting 3's. We are planning on having a shooting competition sometime this week at the church. So excited :)
Also, during our fast, NICOLE (the one who we were teaching, but moved randomly to florida) texted us and said, "hey sisters! I'm back in Leeds!!! can y'all come see me tonight???" uh WHAT? SO COOL. So we went over to her place and had an awesome lesson with her :) She told us how she was staying in Florida and tried to find missionaries there so she could get baptized, but couldn't find any. She then started to tell us that she was praying one night about what she needed to do with her life and she felt very strongly that she needed to move back to Leeds and meet with us again. She told us that she still doesn't completely understand what God wants her to do, but she is just trying to do her best. Then, I had the craziest experience with using the scriptures.
I flipped to a random page as she was talking and the first page I flipped to was a scripture that PERFECTLY explained what she was going through. It's in Words of Mormon 1:7 which says: "And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will." After reading the scripture to her, she replied by saying, "whoa. That was really creepy how perfect that scripture is for me." hahahahhahaha. It was super random and weird. So grateful for the spirit.
We set a baptismal date with her for November 22nd :) It's so crazy that she is back now because I thought I would never see her again!! I love her so much :) She unfortunately couldn't come to church yesterday because she was visiting her dad in Calera who she hasn't seen in 10 years. She texted us yesterday morning and said, "Hey sisters! ugh. I couldn't find a church here in Calera to go to and now I am stuck at a baptist church and feel super uncomfortable." hahahah too good. She is so solid!!!!!
Brother Mack is such a stud and holy cow, he is SO perfect!!!!!!!!! We always feel the spirit 10x stronger in his home than in any other home I've been in. The feeling of his home reminds me a lot of Tom's. I know the spirit is strong in his home because he has changed his life completely around AND because his daughter Nicole has special needs. Nicole is amazing. I love her so much. She is ALWAYS dressed up in Alabama football gear and is always watching football on TV when we are there. hahaha Sister Madsen and I made a photo album of Brother Mack and Nicole at his baptism and I gave it to him on sunday. Oh, how I wish y'all could see the face he made when he looked at the photos! It WAS PRICELESS. I don't think he has any current photos of him and her so it was perfect. He was brought to tears as he said, "Hey! That's my baby Nicole!!!!" Yesterday, during fast and testimony meeting, a less active man who hasn't been back in a while, went up to the pulpit and bore such a powerful testimony of how sister missionaries found and baptized him. I glanced over at Brother Mack and looked at his face that was wet with tears. The man at the pulpit then said, "I used to be a baptist preacher and NOW I'm a mormon." I looked back at Brother Mack and he started to laugh with everyone else in the congregation. THIS is what the gospel is ALL about. PEOPLE CHANGING. I wish y'all could've seen Brother Mack when we first met him. He would never smile and was always super serious. Now, he is the happiest man you could ever meet! He always tells me to "have a blessed day". psh. he NEVER did that before y'all!!!!! THE ATONEMENT OF JESUS CHRIST IS REAL. The devil won't get him down :) He is making the devil upset! (refer to the title of my email).
Last night was way too fun. Sister Moore and I had 40 minutes left of the night before 9:00. Sundays are ALWAYS hard to find people to teach; especially at night. We decided to go to the walmart parking lot (yes. I think I have been to walmarks a good 938789374891738 times). It was a good 45 degrees outside so we decided to help people with their groceries and put all the carts away. We also walked up to people in the parking lot and invited them to be baptized. SO FUNNY. We looked like the biggest stalkers in the world! We literally would see someone walking towards their car and just head straight towards them. With 5 minutes left of the night, we quickly looked over our planner and reviewed our goals. We needed one more baptismal invite to reach our goal for the week and no one was left outside in the parking lot. We decided to embrace the awkwardness and knocked on a car window that a couple was in eating their sonic food. I love being uncomfortable because it means that we are STRETCHING ourselves even more. We invited the couple to be baptized and they flat out said no. hahahahhaha. I know the Lord will reward us for our diligence!!!!!!!
Ah. So first off, I LOVE all the CUTE outfits that my nieces and nephews wore for halloween :) way too fun!!!!!! (braydon, annie, and jenna... you still need to send me photos of y'alls cute kids). Speaking of Halloween. Halloween was GREAT here. It was quite ridiculous actually. The neighborhood we live in is CRAZY during Halloween. They had to have police cars direct traffic. So ridiculous. We avoided the craziness and went to a different neighborhood and handed out homemade sugar cookies. SO FUNNY. I love being a missionary!!!!!! We saw a guy on his lawn mower and yelled and asked him if he wanted a sugar cookie. He wouldn't stop the lawn mower and wouldn't take his headphones off. So classic. We started to approach him even closer and he beckoned us to go away and motioned for us to knock on the door across the street. So we did! An old lady answered and she was very hard of hearing. We held out our tray of cookies and asked her if she wanted one. She clearly could not hear us and just smiled as she started to grab gobs of candy and place it on our tray of cookies. All we could do was laugh and say thanks. ahhahahah poor lady. All we wanted to do was give her some cookies and she gave us candy in return. Sister Moore and I concluded that we made her night by knocking on her door because she was so excited to give us candy. :)
I cannot BELIEVE that it has been a year since dad passed away. Holy cow. I have felt him so many times on my mission y'all. He is SO NEAR to each of us. I'm so grateful for him. I have had so many dreams about him and I know that he is doing a marvelous work and wonder on the other side. I know that he has been in the room with the people that we are teaching. I know it. This year has flown by so quickly. I can't even wrap my mind around it. I'm grateful that Heavenly Father has kept me strong throughout everything. He has supported me every single day. I can't thank Him ENOUGH. Jesus Christ is more real to me than ever before. He is ACTUALLY there. He ACTUALLY lives. He's not just some guy we read about in the Bible. He is so real. The Holy Ghost is ACTUALLY there for us as well. I can't deny His presence. I really can't. I can't deny it because I KNOW I feel him during the lessons we have every day. I know I can feel him when we are out biking and as I gaze upon the beauty all around me. The people here that I meet wouldn't be able to change if it wasn't for all three of them. I know we couldn't change as well!!!!!!
I can still remember the moment like it was yesterday when I found out about dad. Mom called me as soon as we pulled into the church parking lot. Heavenly Father couldn't of put me in a better situation when I found out. I remember the immediate peace that followed after I hung up the phone. I still remember how it felt when President Hanks came over that night and looked at Sister Gustafson and the Elders as he said to them, "Don't look" as he then proceeded to give me the biggest hug ever. I am so grateful for him. I am grateful for the Priesthood blessing that he gave me that night. SO MUCH COMFORT AND PEACE. The circumstances couldn't have been more perfect. I was with the perfect companion at that time too!!!! (another shout out to Sister G-unit).
Heavenly Father has such a perfect plan :) GAH. It makes me so so so happy!!!!!!!
In other news....
--Another update on Tom: He is making homemade christmas presents for EVERYONE in the ward. Including children. He also asked the sisters for a current ward roster with the less active names highlighted so he can go through and call all of them and ask them why they aren't coming to church!!! hahahha AND he is reading The Book of Mormon again and is currently in 4th Nephi!!!!!!!! SO CRAZY. I MISS HIM SO MUCH. Can't wait to see him again. :)
---We decided to ask inspired questions during our door approaches... We asked people what they think happens to people after this life who have never heard of Jesus Christ. 80% of the people told us that they think they are going straight to hell. The other 20% had no idea what was going to happen to them. #peoplereallyNEEDthisgospel!!! #theyjustdon'tknow #sosad
---Currently reading the war chapters in the BOM. SO INTENSE. Why hasn't anyone made a movie about this? #itwouldprobablyberatedR.
--"We are already going to a church and are firm in our beliefs" ---everyone we meet. "well great!!! When would be a good time to see you?" ----us. #thesouth
--Once it hits 60 degrees... Everyone and their dog wears a huge coat with ear muffs here. love it.
-How cool is it that I am living in Alabama right now? Sometimes, I still can't believe it. It makes me SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love y'all so much!!! Have a wonderful week ahead!!!!! SMILE! LAUGH. ENJOY LIFE. SEE THE GOOD ALL AROUND YOU. SAY TO PEOPLE "HAVE A BLESSED DAY!!!" and see what their reactions are. It will make me happy to know y'all say that because everyone says it here. Heavenly Father is our literal Father in Heaven. Let Him know what you are thinking. Let Him know how you feel. Tell Him about your day. He wants to know EVERYTHING!!!!! I KNOW THAT FOR A FACT.
MYKY,
SiStEr PlAtT
No comments:
Post a Comment