The Lord needs us to trust him

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUNTER AND WELCOME HOME COLLIE!!!

 

Oh my goodness, I love you all so much! Seeing the pictures of you and hearing from you has been so nice! I can't even put into words the gratitude i have towards Heavenly Father for you all...I am way too blessed!  Thank you for being my family and being who you are! You are all my greatest hero's and I can't wait to spend eternity with you!

 

Sunday (Easter) I was able to speak in sacrament meeting and I spoke on Faith in Jesus Christ. We had many investigators there and many who us missionaries are trying to help lead to baptism, but they are just lacking faith in our Savior...It was a great reminder for me that we NEED faith in Jesus Christ...A story from the bible i shared, was when the Savior and His apostles were on the boat and the storm began, with waves all around...The apostles went running to the Savior to wake him up and ask if he was going to let them perish...he just responded with, "oh ye of little faith", rebuked the sea, and the waves were made still. Often we may go running to the Lord thinking, "look at everything going on?!?!? are you going to do anything?" when really....all we need is Faith in Jesus Christ during whatever we are experiencing. The Lord knows our storms, and he is well aware of them. He has power to control them, but he needs us to have Faith in Him during these times. The minute doubt or disbelief comes up, our faith goes down...we need to repent of that. The Lord needs us to trust him, He loves us and will help us through anything we are faced with! I know it!

 

Our investigators are going well and please continue to pray for Paulo (his family in Brazil doesn't want him to be baptized) Paola, and Allana (she is still trying to build her faith, she feels that she has none). Yesterday after a FHE I was able to talk to Allana a bit more casually about how she really is feeling about everything...she began with her feelings of doubt/that she has no faith and then an elder overheard and asked her how she has felt as she comes to church...she started listing some good things and her smile began to get bigger and bigger:) Just before she went to start into her doubts i had to stop her, grab her hand, and tell her with so much happiness, "Allana you DO have faith! And it IS growing! Heavenly Father has helped you so much! Over a month ago you were telling us that you have NO faith, and look at you now!!!". She kept smiling and was like,
"I guess you're right." I am so grateful because I have been praying SO HARD for her because she is so close! She is 19, so pretty much my age and so I feel like she is my best friend and sister- SHE WILL GET BAPTIZED BEFORE I LEAVE THIS AREA!!! I will do everything within me to help her! I love her, and I love all those we teach. Many of them kill me with frustration when they don't keep certain commitments, but then it just reminds me to have more faith and also to teach better so they have a better understanding!

 

This week while on exchanges with Sister Kanee we saw some amazing miracles! It was cool to be with an old companion, especially her...i just love her so much it was the best! We were driving and I saw this girl and the thought came to me, "relief society" (like that's right where she needs to be), be we passed her...seconds later i turned the car around and sister Kanee and I went and contacted her! (Ps; its so cool to see how Sister Kanee works now, and how much she has improved! She loves contacting and is way good at it) but ya we were able to go right into her house, teach her the restoration and commit her to be baptized! Because she is a younger adult it meant so much to hear that she is LITERALLY a daughter of God! That seriously is such a comforting thing to hear and know...I'm so grateful I am one too:) The spirit also helped us contact a family awkwardly on the side of the road while in the car, half on the curb, and unable to get out of the car because of the traffic around. but we knew we needed to talk to them to we pulled over and talked to them through the window. It was a mom, dad and daughter from Colombia (so yes I used my smooth Spanish ;)) and they are amazing! They are excited to learn and come to church! You know I'm obsessed with Spanish and Spanish people...so it was a great tender mercy! That night after English class after everyone was packing up to go we excitedly said to everyone, "Who wants to learn about Jesus Christ?!?!" Every single one of them stayed. and we were able to teach 12+ people about our Heavenly Father, and Savior Jesus Christ (whom them had never learnt about) and were able to teach them how to pray to them...I felt to humbled that Heavenly Father allowed us to teach so many of them about the importance of prayer and the blessing it is! Those three experiences were not even all the great ones we had that day, and that was only one day out of the week! I'm telling you...being a missionary is the best! I love serving and I can't wait for Hunter to be able to experience the same things!

 

This week we have had to prepare so many trainings for the sisters and the zone holy cow...but I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father has helped us see their needs as well as a solution to them. I love not only being able to serve the members and non members here in this area, but also the missionaries! They are becoming my life long friends and it's just the best!

 

I have to go, but I love you guys so much! Thanks for all your prayers:) You all mean so much to me xoxoox!