March 7, 2011

Hey everyone! I hope all is well and that you're doing good. I'm doing great! We had such a good week this week! I was sick and such last week and it was just miserable but this week was the complete. Opposite. Man it was a good week. The weather was fantastic ( 50s, which is really like 70s ) and the Lord was truly merciful to us. We found people to teach EVERYWHERE. It was one of the best weeks number-wise since I've been here because the Lord continually put people in our path as we prayed for them and tried to make ourselves better. We taught people on the street, in grocery stores, clerks at the gas station.. It was awesome! We crushed our weekly goals and it felt so so good.

   We've been teaching this lady naaaammmeeedddd... We'll call her Sheila. Baha. We've been teaching "Sheila" for about 3 months and she's been accepting everything well and hasn't really had a problem with anything we've taught, but she just wasn't gaining a testimony and we really didn't know why or how else to help her. She keeps the commitments we leave her well though, and in our last lesson we talked about a baptismal date and such and she expressed the feelings that she just wasn't ready. ( Not true of course ) Before we left we left her the commitment to read 3 Nephi 11. I'm the one who actually left the commitment and I didn't really know why I did cause that's normally not the scripture we would have left; but it felt right so, with Elder Praters approval, we did. She spent a week in California after that lesson and got back this weekend. When we went over to see her we coud both tell right away something had changed. Turns out as she was reading 3 Nephi the Spirit touched her heart and manifested the truthfulness of what we've been teaching to her and she recognized it! ( Long story short ) It came in such a gentle, loving way it was just what she needed. She's on date for baptism now and is so so ready. It blew me away! What if I hadn't left that particular scripture? What if we hadn't talked about the very things we did before she left? BAAAHHH! What if what if. I testify that as we listen for the spirit and not question it when it comes but follow with exactness, humility and sobriety we will be guided for our own welfare and for the welfare of others. "All things will work together for our good." I have the opportunity to witness it every day! I cannot express enough my testimony and feelings about this. The Lord wants ALL of his children back. He is trying his hardest to provide EVERY opportunity for us and to help us. The greatest of these is the Spirit. To be guided and taught by our Father in Heaven continually is about the greatest gift we can obtain here in this life. The root problem of pride, for example, is that it doesn't allow us to communicate with God. That's one of our ultimate goals here. To develop Christ-like attributes that allow Heavenly father to communicate with us. I bear testimony of that. I testify that Christ lives! He does! He is aware of each and every single one of us. I know it and bear witness of it in the name of Jesus Christ.

Love yall!