Caught in Rain = New Clothes!

We visited with a lot of members this week.  I love the members in our area.  They are fantastic!  A couple weeks ago, we got caught in the rain.  We ended up getting soaked and we stopped at a member's house to ask for some towels.  The member brought out some really cute skirts and blouses for us to wear.  We finally got around to her house yesterday to return them, and she told us she wanted us to keep them!  Other than the fact we baptized, it made my day!  :D

Busy, Busy, Busy!

This week flew by.  It seems like last P-Day was just yesterday and already we are starting another week on the mission.  This week we have been sooooooo busy!  We were running low on miles which means we were on bikes everyday.  I think I've lost at least 5 pounds this week alone!  We've had a pretty full schedule almost every day.  I like that because it makes nightly planning go faster and we aren't left in the middle of the day wondering what to do next --- I really hate that feeling.

Moroni Said...

Moroni 6:4 - 5 says:

"And after they had been received unto baptism, and were wrought upon and cleansed by the power of the Holy Ghost, they were numbered among the people of the of Christ; and their names were taken, that they might be remembered and nourished by the good word of God, to keep them in the right way, to keep them continually watchful unto prayer, relying alone upon the merits of Christ, who was the author and the finisher of their faith. And the church did meet together oft, to fast and to pray, and to speak one with another concerning the welfare of their souls."

So, this Sunday, when all y'all are at church, go look for someone who you don't know and talk to them!  Also if you are in a leadership position, go visit less actives that you are over.  It goes a loooooooong way!

Members Have Power!

This past week, we were at a less-active family's house.  We have been working with this family forever, and we were kind of at a standstill.  But,  this time when we were there, the Young Men - for an activity - came and visited their 14 year old son.  This made the mom so happy that she started thinking about coming back to church.  She was even encouraging her son to go to Young Men's next week! :) 

Moral of the story:  Members have power!  Many times even more than missionaries!  Members can do things that missionaries can't - like make people feel wanted and welcome at church.  Church is so important for so many reasons.  One of the reasons is we can look out for and fellowship one another.

Our Texas Spider, Carlota!

This is the story that I know all y'all have been waiting to here!  My encounter with a  TEXAS SPIDER!!!!!!

 

So, it all started Wednesday morning.  my companion and I went out for our daily morning run.  It was still dark, and the full moon was out - hope you're getting the picture in your mind.  We ran down the street and then came back to the house to stretch before setting out for our long run.  We got back.  I walked through the grass under the tree that is in our front yard. My companion walked on the cement over toward the cars. 

 

While we were stretching, I started thinking about that one time a few years ago when we all decided to go tubing down the creek at Grandma and Grandpa's house and how there were spiders in the trees.  The thought came to me - what if there is a spider in this tree?  I shook off that beyond creepy thought and continued stretching.

 

Then - something caught my eye.  There was this long string not too far away hanging from the tree.  My first thought was silly string, but then I remembered spiders like to hide in trees.  I slowly and carefully walked around the string to see the biggest spider web EVER!  And right in the center was the biggest spider I've seen since being in Texas!  It was hanging from the lowest branch of a tree that is big enough for me to walk under and extended all the way down to the ground.  On top of that, it was in a spot that I almost walked in to while crossing the grass.  I probably walked within inches of that spider!!!

 

I screamed and ran over to my companion.  It scared me so bad.  We started our run after that.  We were super careful not to go near any trees.  When we came back, it was gone - web and all!  That night, though, it was back in the same spot.  So we had fun taking pictures of it.  We decided it was going to be our pet.  We named it Carlota (It's Charlotte in Spanish)

Baptismo!

This week, our absolutely wonderful investigator was baptized!!!!!  We have honestly had the best time teaching her!  It's been so much fun! We were talking last night about the very first day we met her and her sister, who is also scheduled to be baptized.  It was the week the mini missionaries were here and we were contacting a former investigator when she yelled from across the street: "Hey! Are y'all from the church?"  We went over to talk with her.  Little did we know, just 6 weeks later, she'd be baptized!!! We are so happy for her!

 

The baptism was wonderful.  The Spirit was very strong.  She came out smiling and happy and gave us a big hug! :) This was our area's first baptism in a year! 

 

I think the experience teaching her has taught me a lot about faith.  While teaching her, we grew to love her family so much and we were willing to do anything to help her get to baptism because we know it's an important step for salvation.  However, there were several times when we had to rely a lot on faith because as we prayed about how to best help her, the answers we received were completely contrary to how we normally would have proceeded in her teaching.  We had to have a lot of faith and trust in the answers we received through prayer and through our leaders to get her to baptism.  It was well worth it.  The Spirit at her baptism was incredibly strong!

Planking Underwater?!

This week was amazing!  We've been so blessed and we're so grateful for all the success we've been given.  We've also had some funny moments this week and my companion and I have been keeping track of the best quotes we've heard throughout this week!  

Here is my favorite:  "Do you know what planking is?  Is baptism like planking underwater?" - by our wonderful investigator

Sisters!

Sunday was just as fantastic!  Our young teenage friend came to church and brought her sister along with her.  We had kind of taught her sister and even had set a baptism date with her, but she never really seemed interested.  The sister thought church was okay, but she surprised us when she asked if she could join us in the lesson we were going to have with her sister at a member's house.  The lesson was fantastic!  The member family and the sister really connected.  As we were walking back to the teenager's house, the sister asked if she was going to be baptized with her sister.  We told her no since she hadn't come to church at least three times.  "Well, when's the soonest I can be baptized?  Can you start teaching me too?"  We were super excited!!!!  We set another baptismal date with her :)

Baptism? Why, Yes!

We stopped by another potential who we found a loooong time ago.  After sitting with her for over an hour, we felt very strongly like we needed to invite her to be baptized.  However, she had already told us that she had already been baptized as a baby.  During our visit, she had to step out of the room for a few minutes, so we quickly said a prayer, asked for courage, then when she came back, we just invited her.  Her response surprised us!  She said that she had been thinking a lot about baptism and wanted to ask us about it, but she wasn't quite sure how to bring it  up.  She readily agreed to a baptism date and to do all she could to prepare.  It was an incredible experience!

Pessimistic? No, Optimistic!

The week did not start out so great.  We had setbacks with an investigator, and things looked pretty bleak.  Our District Leader wisely told us not to give up (And we are so happy we took his advice!). When Friday (our weekly planning and goal setting day) rolled around, we had a pretty pessimistic outlook on life and we set lower goals than I've set since being here.  After we left our house that day, we headed over to visit two young single adults we met a few days before.  We had a super fun lesson with them - they are sooooo funny!  And one thing led to another and to our surprise, they both agreed to be baptized!  We left their lesson a bit more optimistic than we had come.

Incredible Week!

This week was incredible!   I cannot believe how blessed we've been and the miracle we've seen!  This week, we set --- wait for it --- four baptismal dates in 3 days!!!!  And they are pretty solid! 

Creating a Clear Vision

I am super excited about the way this area is blooming!  My companion and I  realized our area hasn't baptized in almost a year!  But we know we're going to change that :)  We have been incredibly blessed as we've been working to improve every day.  It's super hard at times and sometimes we feel like we're constantly fighting an uphill battle, but we've seen incredible miracles.  We are working on creating a clear vision for where we want this area at the end of the transfer.  We know that if we work hard everyday, we'll be able to achieve all of our goals.

Enthusiastically Excited!

We have been working with a teenage girl who is preparing to be baptized.  She is super excited.  She went to Young Women's last week and made lots of friends!  We're still working on trying to get her mom involved.  They are so fun to work with.  The young girl has such an enthusiasm for what we teach her.  She wants to come tracting with us and she has even introduced us to her neighbor so we could teach him.  We're praying hard that she'll keep up with this excitement so when her baptismal date arrives, she'll be ready!

She is Official!

This week, we found the membership records of a lady who I met when I first got to this area.  Her husband was outside when we walked by, so we started talking to him.  That day, we met his wife who told us she was baptized when she was 10, but hadn't been to church in a loooong time.  We started teaching them, but their schedules got to busy, we lost contact, etc.  Just a couple weeks ago, we were able to contact them again, she came to church last Sunday with her two boys, and - long story short - she is now an official member of the ward! :)

Get Job? Get Baptized!

We've also been working with this lady who was baptized when she was a child, but hasn't been to church for a very long time.  The first time we met her, her husband was out of work.  He told us that if we prayed and he got a job, he would become Mormon.  Well, the next day he found employment.  We hadn't been able to get a hold of them for a few weeks, but we finally did last week, and they came to church!  They are honestly one of the most fun families I have ever met!