Hello!!!
I love you all! thank you for your kind e-mails and letters!
i love getting them, so keep them coming! This week has been AMAZING. I keep
waiting for a day that is awful, haha but every day has been wonderful! It was
SO fun to have some visitors last wednesday (The WALDRENS) at the Trail Center!
ahhh it made my day to see familiar faces! i hope they were able to give you
hugs from me. I love them. Mom - THANK YOU! thank you for your package! it
seriously brightened my day so much to get some mail, especially such a fun
package! i love you so much. You always know the perfect thing to send :) I am
so glad that you got my post card and letter for anne :) Dad - your email and
talk were amazing. You are incredible. No surprise to me that they asked you to
speak on Easter, because you have such a love for the savior. You are such a
great example to me. i love you so much. Spen and Mcken!! - ward
missionaries?!?! AHHH that is AWESOME! i am so happy they have that calling.
now as a missionary i am SO grateful for those ward missionaries. you guys will
be amazing. ok. MATTHEW!!! - CORNELL??!?! i am not surprised at ALL. But
seriously that is AMAZING!! You are awesome. Ah i am so happy for you and min!
i will be praying for you in the move out there.. how exciting! and... you
should stop on by Omaha on your way ... just sayin :) i love you guys. anne - i
love you cheese ball. keep wearing my clothes - they look cute on you ;) hahah
This week has been incredible. i dont even know where to
start! The Church is true. Every single day i get a reaffirmation of that. I
get to see miracles happen every single day, it is amazing and i feel so
incredibly blessed. Here are a few of the experiences i had this week:
The Lakes - oh my goodness. This family is so incredible. I
told you a little bit about them, but let me tell you more! So they are from
Jamaica, and sister Lake is absolutely hilarious. She grew up penecostal, and
went to school to study the bible so she is SO well versed in it. i love it.
She has taught me a lot about the Bible which is great. So she was baptized
about ten years ago, and has been less active for the past few years. She is
now coming back to church, and her daughter Daniele is GETTING BAPTIZED in a
week!!! SO AWESOME! K so Sis Lake makes me laugh so hard, she says
"AMEN" and "Hallelujah" or "Praise Jesus" after
everything that we say in a lesson. While we are praying she says amen at least
15 times haha i have to bight my tongue so i dont laugh (which for me, is
impossible haha). So the Lakes came to church on easter sunday and two girls
sang the song Because he lives (the same one clark and i sang together!) and it
was BEAUTIFUL. the spirit was so strong. right after they sang the room was
silent because of the spirit. well, of course. Sister Lake, with her loud voice
does a "AAAAAAMMEEENNNNN" right after they finish! hahaha i was
crying because i was laughing so hard. it was awesome. I love her.
Sister Webb - i cant remember if i told you about Sister
Webb, but she is incredible. She is a less active and hasnt been to church in
atleast 15 years. But since we have been teaching her, she has decided to give
up smoking and drinking, and has made some amazing progress. We had committed
her to coming to church two sunday's ago, but she made up some excuse the
morning of which was heartbreaking. but we had a lesson with her this last
friday that was amazing. I felt prompted to share why i decided to come on a
mission, and how i had received that personal revelation from God, and that she
could also receive revelation. We talked about some of her concerns and why she
was nervous about coming to church. She sat there for a while after, and
finally said "well, i guess i have to start somewhere... id need a ride
though". Sister Whittaker and i almost fell out of our seats. so, she KEPT
her commitment and came to church on easter!! it was amazing. she commented in
sunday school, signed up to bring something to a relief society meeting this
week, and really had a great experience. i cant wait to talk to her this week
about it more. The church is true. such a wonderful miracle.
We decided to go tracting one of the days this week which
was so fun! hahaha i hadnt been knocking yet, so i was so excited to experience
it. We had so much rejection it was kind of hilarious. I was thinking about you
dad and how you would count how many doors got slammed in your face. it was fun
to do the same thing :) well, one experience that was great was we met this big
black guy who was walking down the street. my first instinct was to just keep
walking, but of course sister whittaker is so friendly and starts talking to
him. he is awesome. he is super religious, but wanted to come to the trail center
to learn more. we busted up when he was talking to us because this is what he
said "you know, we gotta work togetha! C'mon yo, let's bring the church to
the streets and the streets to the church!" haha it was so great. That is
sister whittaker's and my motto now. Hopefully he comes to the Trail center
this week!
So while we were knocking doors this week, we were about to
cross a street when we met a boy on a skateboard. We didnt really get to talk
to him at all, just said hi and bye basically. Well, because we were short on
miles, we had to eat out somewhere in our area for dinner. Sister Whittaker and
i are the same person, which is great except that we cannot make decisions!
haha so we drove around looking for something to eat and could not come to a conlusion
as to where we should go. Finally, i decided to write down 3 places that we
could go, ripped them into pieces, and had her pick out of my hands. pathetic,
i know. haha so she picked this place called the garden. We walk into the
restaurant and guess who is our waiter. the guy on the skateboard! no
coincidence. We were able to give him a pass along card and talk to him about
the gospel. This was such a small experience, but a HUGE one as well. The Lord
is in the very details of our lives, and He is preparing those of His children
to hear the gospel! as i told you, we picked out of a hat, totally by
"chance" where we should eat. But the Lord knew that we needed to eat
at this restaurant so we could meet that boy again. Absolutely amazing. The
Lord is so good to us.
I am almost out of time, but i wanted to share one more
experience. So at the Trail center we have an exhibit downstairs of all the
paintings of christ by Liz Lemon Swindle. They are phenomenal. It was amazing
because on Easter Sunday, we had a TON of visitors who came in just wanting to
see the paintings. I was able to give tours down there, and the spirit was
incredible. its amazing because no one tells the visitors to whisper down in
the gallery, but everyone does because of the spirit of those paintings. I gave
a tour to a young couple and their daughter that i will forever remember. We
were both in tears by the end, and i could really feel of God's love for this
couple. Although i did not say much, the Lord was speaking with us and it was
amazing. Sitting down there looking at the paintings on Easter Sunday, and
being able to bear testimony of the savior to everyone who came was such a
blessing and converting experience for me. I am so blessed, and so grateful i
am on a mission. definitely the best decision i have ever made.
i am so incredible happy. I love the Lord. i love this
church. It is the only true church on earth, for it is the same exact church
the Jesus Christ set up when He was hear. I love my savior. He is the
Christ.
Thank you for your prayers - you have no idea how much it
means to me to know that so many people are praying for me. Thank you. i can
feel them. We had an experience the other night where the other sisters we live
with forgot to close the garage door all day. We live in kind of a janky area
and so we were nervous to go inside our house haha. we are such girls. But i
can tell you that we were completely protected, and i know that it is because
of all of your prayers and protection from the Lord.
I love you all and miss you each day. keep being
missionaries. when we are truly converted to the gospel, that is when we want
to share it! Thank you for being my examples in this way.
Love you all! Let's do this!
Sister Lauren :)
Fun Fact:
I am allergic to cats. hahah. (mom we are the same person) i
just discovered this this week since everyone owns atleast 2 cats and i kept
leaving appointments with itchy eyes and a stuffy nose. ha thank goodness for
benadryl!
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