Family and friends!
Sorry for the cheesy subject title, haha but i am looking outside of the Trail Center window and there are tulips sprouting out of the snow! it brightened my day to see the new life coming out of the cold snow! yay for spring! i am just going to jump right in and say that this week was absolutely incredible. SO much happened, and it was amazing. The theme that kind of enveloped this week was faith. I really felt like not only were my investigators faith tested, but mine was as well. Don't get me wrong, it has been an amazing week, but different than any other i have had. I am so incredibly grateful to be here and more than ever am i grateful to have the scriptures. I finished the Book of Mormon this week, and decided to take Moroni's challenge once again to ask and see if the book was true. Let me testify to you that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. there is no doubt in my mind. In order to keep the faith, we need to each be reading the book of mormon every single day. Especially in the world that we are living in, the book of mormon will be our strength! i love it.
So, this week was insane! AH SO busy but so incredible. Planning for a baptism is extremely stressful as a missionary haha. i thought it would be the best day of my mission to have a baptism, but leading up to the actual baptism was crazy. Never before have i felt the influence of satan so much in trying to thwart this baptism. On saturday morning, i woke up and just felt "off". i plugged in my hair dryer into a wall socket, and it blew the fuse and sparks went every where. my hand was burned and so the day started off just crazy. We then were driving to a lunch appointment, and we got a call from Sister Lake, crying and yelling saying that she just was so upset because Danielle was not treating her with respect, and that we needed to help her. We were able to give her a lesson over the phone and pray with her, and kind of calm her down. We also called Danielle, and she was super upset, so we taught her a lesson over the phone as well and calmed her down. haha NOT what i thought would happen the morning of her baptism! but. even though it was crazy. I will NEVER forget the baptism. Sister Whittaker and I stood at the side of the font while Danielle was in the font. The spirit that i felt looking down at her and having her smile and look up at us before she was baptized was priceless. It is moments like that that make every second of the mission worth it. It gives me chills even thinking about it. It was incredible.
I just looked at the time and i have zero time! yikes! so let me just give you a couple of highlights from the week. i apologize already for the short e-mail!
We taught danielle the law of chastity the day before her baptism, and i dont think i have laughed harder. I thought she would take it a lot easier, but she was so embarrassed! ha she sat there with her hands over her eyes and ears and wouldnt look at us the whole time we read the for strength of youth pamphlet on the law of chastity. when we asked her if she would keep the law of chastity she said "i will do ANYTHING if i dont have to hear that again!" haha.
Sister Webb- she called one night this week sobbing and needed us to come over. she suffers from depression, and she was having an extremely rough day. i love being a missionary because more than anything, we are strengthening and helping other people feel of God's love. As we sat there and talked with her, i was overcome with this enormous amount of love for her from God. it was incredible to be able to share that love with her, and truly testify to her that God loves her. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ we are blessed to be able to feel that love for others, and i LOVE it. probably my favorite part of missionary work. We left her house with her feeling happy and grateful for Heavenly Father. She came to church on sunday by herself which is HUGE. she is amazing. i love this work.
We got to go to the temple this week and do a session! it felt like home. i loved every second of it. The winter quarters temple is stunning, and i really could feel the pioneers spirits there. it was amazing.
One last story:
there is a less active family in our ward that we have been working with the past few weeks. The wife has started coming back to church, but the husband has been pretty hesitant. Sister Whittaker and I had left our meal calendar at the church, and so the wife asked her husband, Cliff, if he would be willing to drive it over to us. By no coincidence, both Sister Whittaker and I were not on tour and were able to greet him at the door. We asked if he had time to go on a tour, and he said he had a few minutes to see our favorite places in the gallery. It was incredible because throughout the tour we were able to answer some underlying questions he has had about the gospel that have been holding him back. While we were sitting in front of the big map, we started talking to him about the Book of Mormon. It was amazing to really have the spirit speaking through me, and to bear testimony of the Book of Mormon to him. He had never read the entire thing before, and this was one of the main issues he was having with coming to church. We were able to commit him to reading the Book of Mormon every day, and he was excited and ready to make that commitment. During this conversation he said to us, “I am so grateful that I came today. The Lord knew I needed to talk with you sisters, even when I didn’t realize that I needed to.”
Sorry for the cheesy subject title, haha but i am looking outside of the Trail Center window and there are tulips sprouting out of the snow! it brightened my day to see the new life coming out of the cold snow! yay for spring! i am just going to jump right in and say that this week was absolutely incredible. SO much happened, and it was amazing. The theme that kind of enveloped this week was faith. I really felt like not only were my investigators faith tested, but mine was as well. Don't get me wrong, it has been an amazing week, but different than any other i have had. I am so incredibly grateful to be here and more than ever am i grateful to have the scriptures. I finished the Book of Mormon this week, and decided to take Moroni's challenge once again to ask and see if the book was true. Let me testify to you that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. there is no doubt in my mind. In order to keep the faith, we need to each be reading the book of mormon every single day. Especially in the world that we are living in, the book of mormon will be our strength! i love it.
So, this week was insane! AH SO busy but so incredible. Planning for a baptism is extremely stressful as a missionary haha. i thought it would be the best day of my mission to have a baptism, but leading up to the actual baptism was crazy. Never before have i felt the influence of satan so much in trying to thwart this baptism. On saturday morning, i woke up and just felt "off". i plugged in my hair dryer into a wall socket, and it blew the fuse and sparks went every where. my hand was burned and so the day started off just crazy. We then were driving to a lunch appointment, and we got a call from Sister Lake, crying and yelling saying that she just was so upset because Danielle was not treating her with respect, and that we needed to help her. We were able to give her a lesson over the phone and pray with her, and kind of calm her down. We also called Danielle, and she was super upset, so we taught her a lesson over the phone as well and calmed her down. haha NOT what i thought would happen the morning of her baptism! but. even though it was crazy. I will NEVER forget the baptism. Sister Whittaker and I stood at the side of the font while Danielle was in the font. The spirit that i felt looking down at her and having her smile and look up at us before she was baptized was priceless. It is moments like that that make every second of the mission worth it. It gives me chills even thinking about it. It was incredible.
I just looked at the time and i have zero time! yikes! so let me just give you a couple of highlights from the week. i apologize already for the short e-mail!
We taught danielle the law of chastity the day before her baptism, and i dont think i have laughed harder. I thought she would take it a lot easier, but she was so embarrassed! ha she sat there with her hands over her eyes and ears and wouldnt look at us the whole time we read the for strength of youth pamphlet on the law of chastity. when we asked her if she would keep the law of chastity she said "i will do ANYTHING if i dont have to hear that again!" haha.
Sister Webb- she called one night this week sobbing and needed us to come over. she suffers from depression, and she was having an extremely rough day. i love being a missionary because more than anything, we are strengthening and helping other people feel of God's love. As we sat there and talked with her, i was overcome with this enormous amount of love for her from God. it was incredible to be able to share that love with her, and truly testify to her that God loves her. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ we are blessed to be able to feel that love for others, and i LOVE it. probably my favorite part of missionary work. We left her house with her feeling happy and grateful for Heavenly Father. She came to church on sunday by herself which is HUGE. she is amazing. i love this work.
We got to go to the temple this week and do a session! it felt like home. i loved every second of it. The winter quarters temple is stunning, and i really could feel the pioneers spirits there. it was amazing.
One last story:
there is a less active family in our ward that we have been working with the past few weeks. The wife has started coming back to church, but the husband has been pretty hesitant. Sister Whittaker and I had left our meal calendar at the church, and so the wife asked her husband, Cliff, if he would be willing to drive it over to us. By no coincidence, both Sister Whittaker and I were not on tour and were able to greet him at the door. We asked if he had time to go on a tour, and he said he had a few minutes to see our favorite places in the gallery. It was incredible because throughout the tour we were able to answer some underlying questions he has had about the gospel that have been holding him back. While we were sitting in front of the big map, we started talking to him about the Book of Mormon. It was amazing to really have the spirit speaking through me, and to bear testimony of the Book of Mormon to him. He had never read the entire thing before, and this was one of the main issues he was having with coming to church. We were able to commit him to reading the Book of Mormon every day, and he was excited and ready to make that commitment. During this conversation he said to us, “I am so grateful that I came today. The Lord knew I needed to talk with you sisters, even when I didn’t realize that I needed to.”
There
is no doubt in my mind that the Lord had sent him to the trail center so that
we could have a lesson with him. Come to find out, he had gotten lost a few
times trying to find our apartment, and that is why he decided to just come to
the trail center in hopes that we would be there. The Lord truly is guiding our
paths and leads those who are in need to us as missionaries. It is incredibly
humbling knowing that the Lord really does trust in us to teach His children.
incredible.
I
love this work. Every single day is a miracle, and i am so grateful to be here.
Thank you for your prayers. I love you all!
Sister
Lauren :)
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