Hola mi familia!!!! :)
I love you all so much. THANK YOU for your emails and letters and packages. You are the best.
This has been an awesome week.
On Tuesday I woke up and we had a day of tracting ahead of us. I was determined to make the best of tracting that day. I knew that I needed to overcome my fear of it and just figure out what I need to do to not dread it so much. haha So I was determined to face it with a good attitude. And guess what? It was actually fun!!! I made it a point to keep a conversation going with Sister Kerr between houses and just focus on how amazing and special the gospel is. It's not an annoying thing us knocking on their door, we are offering them the greatest joy that they could possibly have in their lives!!! We actually had success too!! Within the hour we had two people who said we could come back and we set up appointments with!!! We knocked on a door and a man answered, and we let him know who we are and the gospel has been restored and then he told us to hold on and walked away and left the door open, then a lady comes back and we tell her the same thing and ask if we could come back and teach her more, and she said yes!!! It was so exciting. The other door we knocked on we did the same thing, and she said she didn't have time right now but that she is interested and gave us a time to come back. Anyway, it was just so awesome to see some success tracting.
And then we got back in the car.
And we realized we had just tracted a street right outside our area.
Ugh.
So we gave the names to the Elders in the area next to ours and they expressed their gratitude because they had been praying for new investigators. haha
So anyway, at least it was a fun, successful tracting day! I really didn't think that was possible to have. haha
In return though, the Elders in our ward gave us two names of ladies they found tracting. One is named Tina and the others name is Marie. My name!!! That was random and funny I thought. We haven't met with them yet since the Elders gave us the wrong apt # for Tina and Marie was sick when we went over. But we will see them both this week. That same day we went and tried to contact them, it was the rainiest day and all of our appointments feel through (literally ALL) and we tracted and tried contacting all day and nobody would let us in and we were soaked and cold.
It was such a typical missionary day I felt like haha.On Wednesday night we got to go to the temple. I can't even begin to express my gratitude for being able to go. We didn't get to do a session or anything, we just went to a sealing of some people in Sister Kerr's old area she had worked with. I was so grateful I got to go along. The temple feels like home. It gives me strength. I am so grateful for the temple. I had such a special experience there. I am so grateful. Sister Acosta, a lady in our ward, drove us. She is our friend :) We love her so much! She has the cutest little boy names Jonas and one on the way here pretty soon. After the temple she took us to get frozen yogurt and it felt like I was a normal person again and it was just so nice.
On Thursday morning we met with Heidi. We taught her the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Tithing. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. We were a little worried about how she would receive the Word of Wisdom. She has had awful experiences in the past and so had already given up a lot of those things in her life, so the only issue she had was coffee and tea. We taught her about this and laughing she exclaimed, "Why couldn't you have taught me this tonight!??? Or tomorrow!???" haha It was so funny! But she seriously just soaks everything we teach her up and her attitude towards it was completely "now that I know it's wrong I won't do it anymore." She told us, "you need to help me get rid of everything right now." We helped her get rid of her entire coffee maker and all of her tea. When I say "she got rid of it" I mean she threw every bit of it away. We walked out to the dumpsters and did it right then. I have never seen such great faith. She has been struggling a lot financially, but she wouldn't sell the coffee maker or any of it because she told us, "I can't even sell it because then I would be supporting someone else sinning!" She literally has such great faith that the gospel is going to change her life for the better and she is totally willing to give everything up completely that she needs to. She is willing to do everything Heavenly Father is asking her to do. Because she has been struggling financially, we knew that tithing might be hard for her as well. We bore testimony of the blessings that will come from this law as described all throughout the scriptures. She committed to paying it even though she expressed how she didn't know how she would be able to pay rent and buy gas, etc... But as we bore testimony to her that the Lord would provide a way, she told us she knows He will too. Later that day she called to tell us her miracle. She had been trying to sell something on KSL and had received no offers so the thought came to her to go look at the ad, just to see why it would be that no one was responding to it. She saw that she had put her phone# down wrong! So she changed it and a few minutes later someone called her and she sold it. She called to tell us that "the Lord provided her the money to pay her tithing before she even paid it!" It was amazing. It was incredible also that she recognized that this was from the Lord. She is so amazing.
Later that day we took Juana, an investigator we got from the Spanish Elders, to the Visitors Center!! Sister Acosta drove us. It was so amazing. The Portland Temple has an atrium that anyone can go in. So you can walk in the temple with your investigators and off the lobby you can go in the atrium. Just being that far into the temple, you can feel the difference of being in the temple versus the world. The Spirit is so strong as you walk through those doors. Juana soaked it all up. She loved it.
The next day we took Heidi! Sister Reid drove us. Being in the atrium, she soaked it all up as well. Heidi and Juana both could feel that distinct difference. That the temple was something special. When we came out of the temple Heidi said to us, "I want to go buy skirts for church." She has just been wearing normal clothes because she says that she didn't think the Lord cares what she wears. But she said being in the temple she realized that we don't dress up because the Lord cares what we are wearing, but she wants to dress up so that she can honor the Lord. The next day she went to DI and bought two new skirts. :) It was amazing. It was especially incredible to me that she realized that all on her own and while she was in the atrium of the temple. Another special thing about the temple that day was while we were walking on the grounds Heidi and I were able to talk just her and I and I was able to share with her my testimony of the temple. I told her in a year Sister Kerr and I would come back and go there with her. Baptism is the first step, and then she can go do baptisms for the dead! And I told her to keep her eye on a year from now when she can go through the temple. I can't wait to come back for that!!!
On Friday night we went to the Browns house for dinner. It was yummy and fun to see Kelly again. It is still so funny that I am serving in her ward. haha
On Saturday we went tracting again and made sure that the street was for sure for sure in our ward boundaries haha. We knocked on the door of this one lady and she had an adorable little boy. She said that she wasn't interested and I asked if we could leave her a Book of Mormon and bore testimony of it and she said, "I already have one." She had gotten it in high school a few years ago from some friends. I asked if we could come back and discuss any questions she had about it and she said that she was busy most of the time with her little boy. We asked for her number and she said no but that we could give her our number and she would let us know if she had any questions. So we left our card. After an hour of no success, I was joking with Sister Kerr about Daddy's favorite movie, The Best Two Years. We were talking about that part where Elder Calhoun gives his information to that guy, and his companion is bummed and like oh well, he isn't going to call, that is that. But then how Elder Calhoun prays he will call and he calls while they are praying. hahaha So funny. So I told Sister Kerr that we are definitely praying when we get home, because my Dad would love it if that happened to us! :) haha An hour later, right before walking into dinner, Janelle texts us. haha We were freaking out!!!!!!! We were so excited. She said, "Hi, I'm that girl you just met on the doorstep with the little boy. I do have some questions for you." She doesn't want us to come by, but we are going to talk to her on the phone. So we don't have a real appointment YET, but we are hopeful. :) That's our little Best Two Years story. :)
Saturday night we got a call from the Bishopric asking us to speak in church the next day. We of course said yes :) The Elders and us both spoke. I spoke on the Plan of Salvation. It was such a good day at church yesterday. Sister Kerr and I had 4 investigators in sacrament meeting!!! And one less active who we love so much came too!!! It was so so awesome. Juana's kids, Alex and Olivia, came and they loved primary! Also, after church I was talking to Noah (Heidi's 11 year old son who the Elders just started teaching) and he couldn't stop smiling. He was trying so hard not to smile. He never smiles and is the most mellow kid ever. haha But he loved church so much!!! He even told his mom that he was sad Sunday was over! Also, a cute story from last week at church that Heidi told us, when Heidi got up and bore her testimony in fast and testimony meeting she said that when she sat back down Noah patted her leg and said, "Nice speech mom." haha So cute.
It was a really awesome week. We taught Claudia last night. She turns 18 on the 17th, so she wanted to get baptized on the 16th and confirmed on the 17th, but her dad wouldn't sign the papers for one day early. :( So she has to wait until the 30th now since her Uncle can't come to baptize her until then if she doesn't do it this Saturday. But Heidi and Juana both had their interviews yesterday and are good to go so we have two baptisms this weekend!!! Yay!!! :)
I know the Lord lives and this truly is His gospel. I have a testimony of the Book of Mormon. I have never felt more connected to the missionaries we read about in the Book of Mormon than I do now, being a missionary. I love the hour in the morning of personal study, where I can feel that personal connection as I read of their accounts of missionary work. I love this gospel. This truly is the Lords work. I admire the strength of Alma, and Ammon, and Mormon and Moroni and the many others we learn from in the scriptures who were filled with the "love of God" and endured many afflictions and trials to bring the joy of the gospel to others. I read about the "incomprehensible joy" talked about in reference to missionary work all throughout the Book of Mormon, and I am grateful to have the opportunity of tasting of this joy. With that comes times of heartache and trial, but those moments of joy outweigh the hard times. True joy comes in selfless service. I am grateful for this time to learn how to lose myself in the service of my brothers and sisters. I know without a doubt that we have a Father and Heaven who knows each of us and loves us. We lived with Him before we came to this earth and He truly does have a plan for each of us. I can't begin to express how deeply I love the gospel. I pray that everyone can taste of the peace and pure joy the gospel brings.
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