1 year left...that isn't real...

WOW! Good morning! What a great day to be a missionary! haha Okay every day is.. but for some reason, I am just really happy this morning! Just to know that I know that the church is true... then I am able to share that with the people here is the most amazing thing ever! I don't think anyone really can explain what it’s like... I think it can only be experienced! Anyways, we had a great week! A really great week! The Lord blessed us emensly! (lets get real... I don't know how to even spell that word...)

Monday: So after our amazing shopping day... haha and everything we had planned a Family Home Evening for the Single Sisters of the ward! So we were able to do that! Hardly anyone showed up... but it was good! We plan on doing it every Monday and hopefully it will be an environment that people can bring their friends to and it will get bigger over time! Lots of missionaries have done this and have seen lots of success! So that was great! :)

Tuesday: This day was pretty slow... but I think I had one of the best miracles on my mission yet!! :) So we had allll of our appts cancel on us that morning... so we were like "GREAT! What do we do??" So right as we were thinking of that we get a Referral from the Church of a person that lives in Tappan, NY. Now we were planning on going the other direction of that but we decided... okay no lets go over there since everything isn't working. So we get in the car and start driving and we realize that the address that the referral had for us was wrong! All it said was the city... and there wasn't a number! :( So we just decided okay... maybe the Lord wants us in Tappan for some reason. So we just headed over there, with no plan really... But I told Sister Gaihe that we weren't leaving till we find what the Lord wants us to find! :) ha so we just parked the car in the middle of the town and started knocking! We knocked and knocked and nothing. Nothing at all! People did not want to listen or weren't home. So after we made it around the block and back to our car we decided to go look at some Formers and Less Actives and none of them were home either! :( So it was getting time that we had to head back to our house... and I was looking over our lists and I realized that there is a Part Member Family that lives in the next town over and I have been wanting to see them since I got here and we were just never over in that area! So I said... okay lets go there! The mom is Less Active but her daughter isn't a member... Sister Gaihe had been there before to see her mom and nothing good came out of it.... but for some reason I had a good feeling about the daughter. I knew I wanted to see her! So we just decided to go there! And sure enough her daughter was home! She is 15 years old and awesome! She said the missionaries taught her before... and her mom wants her to be baptized and stuff... but she just isn't! How cool is that? So we set up a time for later in the week to come back and see her! :) It was so amazing!!!!!! The Lord does place us where He wants us. Then He wants us to prove that we are willing to work. Prove our faith. Prove that we want this!! THEN and only THEN will HE bring forth the blessings! :) Great Faith builder on my part! :)

Wednesday: We had a wonderful day on Wednesday! It was packed with appointments! We had district meeting in the morning. Then we were able to meet with a Less Active! That was great! Then we met with an investigator! He is a funny little duck... I don't remember if I told you but he has a problem with smoking and I told him that I would buy him a big mac from McDonalds if he stopped smoking and drinking coffee... haha welll... probably not the best motivator... but he is doing it!!! :) He is stopping! And he told us on Wednesday that he has been thinking about Baptism and he decided he really wants to be baptized and change his life! :) So we will see where that takes us! :) We also met with another Less Active member! And had dinner at a member’s house! Then we had a lesson with our baptismal candidate!! She is the best and we had almost taught her everything and she was just kind of waiting to see if she got an answer to know if it is true!!! and on Wednesday we planned this whole lesson around her receiving an answer and she starts out the lesson "I got an answer.. It's really hard to explain... but I felt it in my heart... and I just know it's true!" Hearing those words come out of a 15 year old girl’s mouth was amazing! :) She really wants to change her life! She is so sweet! So she will be getting baptized next SUNDAY!!! :)

Thursday: Day of planning and then in the middle we met with the baptism girl again and talked to her a little more about the commandments and she says she has never had rules before... but she likes them! She likes the fact of having boundries! It was cool... and not that the commandments are rules... but that’s what humans want/need! We need the commandments in our life to guide us and to help us stay on the right path! :) Amazing! We also had Young Women’s that night and that was great! :)

Friday: Anther wonderful day! :) We met with some Less Actives and a recent convert! We also met with an investigator who we never have the chance to meet with and she just talked with us... about how hard of time she is having in life... :( It's sad but it was really good for us to be there for her! After that we had an appt with another investigator :) We were so excited and before we had challenged her to read the intro to the BOM and she said she would! Sooo we got there and she was like... "Sorry I only read the intro one time.... I wanted to read it more than once but I didn't get to..." We were shocked! haha usually people would say... yeah I didn't even read the first line!! So we were really excited to see that she read it! :) And we taught her the restoration and she really liked it! She really wants to find out if this is the TRUE church! So we committed her to pray about the BOM then she will know! :) But it was a great lesson!!!

Saturday: It was a slow day... but we were able to meet with a member who is struggling... actually all our appt were with members... but it was good! Our dinner was an herbal life shake again... but I have a confession... we went and got Chinese food before we went there because we knew we needed to eat something else! :) haha but we were also able to meet with a member about the family mission plan again! :) That was nice! But that was our day!

SUNDAY!! BEST DAY OF THE WHOLE WEEK! We were able to go to church! And the Lord really blessed us! There were sooo many non members at church this week! It was amazing! The girl getting baptized and the one who read the intro to the BOM came! :) Also a recent convert brought his friend! And then also another recent convert brought his whole family! We were able to talk with them all and get appts with them too! :) Thats the best thing ever is member work... its the most successful! :) Sister Gaihe gave an amazing talk on the atonement in Sacrament meeting and I taught Gospel Principles on the Sacrament! :) It was a great Sunday! After we were able to meet with our baptismal candidate again and talk more with her about her baptism and get all things set up for next Sunday! I am soo excited for her! :) We also had another great meeting with one of our investigators! We watched the restoration movie and it was kind of distracting but we talked more about her getting an answer! She said she loved church though and in her prayer at the end she thanked Heavenly Father for sending the Sisters to her so that she could understand which church is true! :) AMAZING!

Ya see? We have been so blessed this week! My heart is filled with so much gratitude for my Father in Heaven and my Savior Jesus Christ that they allowed us to see so much success! I have really noticed the importance of prayer this week... how powerful it is... we had been praying for the girl getting baptized to get an answer... and she did! We have been praying for the man to have a desire to change his habits... and he does! We have been praying for new investigators and people to be led to... and we found the girl :) So amazing! I am so lucky to be a part of this wonderful work! :) The Church is true! :)

(Click on photos to enlarge)

 I love fall!