Long Post Today!

February 8, 2015

It was another amazing amazing week. Yesterday in church Sister Sommer and I wanted to pass out with happiness and gratitude--everything is going right and we are seeing so many blessings in our area! I love these people more every day.

Our excited faces! We love good weeks!

We had a couple of exchanges this week :) Both were awesome adventures! Tuesday I got to stay in our area and be with Sister Neilson--who happens to be the coolest human ever! She's just about 4 feet 8 inches tall, and is so full of fire and love for the gospel! She taught me so much about loving the people I work with. The exchange we had was literally perfect for both of us!

Sister Neilson

We got to teach our investigator D.--she is doing so well. Also, D.'s sister K., who we haven't been able to teach for a couple weeks, randomly came walking down the street as we were having our lesson outside! God's timing is perfect. I was able to talk to K., and she still wants to learn and come to church! While I was talking to K., Sister Neilson talked to D. about why she wants to be baptized and basically committed her to pray about a baptism date! YESSSS.

That night, our wonderful sisters in Centralia got in a car accident. They called us, slightly panicked and very shook up, and we got to drive down that night to Centralia to be with them! It was a neat experience for Sister Neilson I think, we got to comfort them and do some hardcore stress-relief coloring in my coloring book I got from A. :) :) It was just some great quality time with the sisters, and I really grew to love them even more! I'm so grateful I get these opportunities to serve and "comfort those that stand in need of comfort."

Columbia, IL sisters!

The next morning we got to rush back to Glen Carbon to teach our YSA investigator M.. It was so perfect! We had a couple minutes of small talk, opened with a prayer, and then M. stopped us. "Before you start your lesson, I should probably let you know that I got my answer that the church is true and I need to be baptized." AHH. She just casually dropped that bomb! Needless to say we were pretty excited!! So we set a baptism date with her for May! M. is pretty awesome, her dad is a Methodist preacher and her mom is anti-Mormon. She expects a pretty harsh reaction to her decision to join the church, so she has to wait until May to be baptized, because that's when she's moving out of her parents house. Prayers for her and her family would be much appreciated! All that aside, I LOVE MAGGIE. She's so cool! I thought it was so neat how she described getting her answer that she needed to be baptized. She said she basically had a moment of realization that she had been gradually gaining a testimony this whole time! It wasn't a lightbulb moment of testimony, more like a gradually unfolding testimony that she suddenly realized was there. It was cool to reflect on how God answers our prayers. Sometimes it's so gradual, we hardly recognize it until it's right in front of our face! I think we can always trust that we know more than we think we do.

Thursday we got to teach L., our 9-year-old investigator. She is so sweet. We love her! We got to talk with her mom, and officially set her baptism date for February 21st! I love when we get to work with families and help them come to the gospel all together :) Speaking of, I just heard from R. H. in O'Fallon, and apparently their family has come to church every Sunday since I got transferred! YES!!!!

Friday and Saturday I got to go to Sikeston, MO with Sister Mainord! She is the cutest human ever. She is so happy and bubbly, and super musical! We got along great, and she did a great job leading out the area. Sikeston got me all nostalgic, because it reminded me so much of Danville!! Sometimes I miss that amazing place and the things I learned there :) I just love each on of my areas/companions/sisters. I have such a testimony that we are where we are for a reason!

Sister Mainord

Sikeston Exchanges

Saturday I got to meet our investigator C., who has been out of town. It was pretty much a life-changing experience, because C. is one of the coolest ladies I have ever met! Her son and daughter are both members of the church, and her son recently got back from his mission. She basically knows the gospel is true, and talked about baptism like she knew she was eventually getting baptized! She just needs to do it in her own time. So we are helping her read and gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon :). How she was found by the missionaries was an undeniable miracle, we know it and she knows it. Sister Dunn, a missionary that served here not long before I did, randomly met a friend of C. in a hospital in Utah, right before she left on her mission. This friend gave Sister Dunn C.'s address in Glen Carbon, saying that she should go see her sometime if she ever served in that area. So Sister Dunn gets out on her mission, and completely forgets about C. Then, believe it or not, she gets transferred to Glen Carbon for only 6 weeks, for her very last transfer before she goes home! She remembers that random referral, shows up to C's house, and the sisters have been teaching her ever since! SO COOL. How things work out literally blows my mind.

Sunday was amazing, because D., L., and C. all showed up to church! Testimony meeting was amazing, both Sister Sommer and I bore our testimonies and it was a neat experience :) Also, a recent convert we have been working with, S., came to the YSA branch for the first time, loved it, and is going to start coming there! YES. Next time, I will tell you about S., cuz she is awesome and one of our best friends!

I am so excited for this next week! We plan to blow it out of the water for Sister Sommer's last couple of weeks :) I love being a missionary! It makes me happier than anything!

We built a fort to weekly plan in!