The Spirit Teaches

Hey Everyone,


Thanks for all the emails. I'm sorry you've been so sick Erin, that's rough. I hope that school is going well for all of you. Thanks for everyone who is praying for me, haha and Rach tell Karen hi for me and thanks for standing up for me, I'm sure the extra prayers have helped. Ab, I hope school is going well for you, haha, I know how it feels to be in the dorms, the food gets old that's why its so great to finally get your own apartment, hope you get my letter soon, I gave you some ideas of how to mix it up a little bit. Tell everyone hi for me. This is a shout out to Katie Matthews and Steph Brinton, thanks for your letters. Sorry I can't write back too fast but I love getting your emails, letters are coming soon. Katie your email made me laugh, I would suggest making a list to pass around to make sure that none of your students are allergic to anything else. Good luck with school, I'm sure the kids love you.

Well things are pretty good here. It's been extremely rainy as you can imagine. But no other hurricanes which is really good. We have been having a sort of rough week because we don't have tons of people to teach but we were able to find a few new people this week and we are starting to work more with less active members. We have so many amazing less active members and I know that maybe the reason we don't have investigators is so that we can focus on trying to find them and help them come back to church. The one investigator we do have is amazing! Nicole is the golden investigator of golden investigators. As she requested we talked about baptism on Saturday. The sister in our ward that met nicole at the church offices came with us. Wow, such an amazing lesson. Nicole told us that when she was at the baptism she felt the spirit so strong and when she heard the words in the confirmation "confirm you a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" she knew that that was her answer, she told us that she knew that "this is where I need to be". Nicole accepted a baptism date for October 30 its about two months away but we have to have time to teach her because she is only here on weekends because she goes to school during the week in an area where there are no missions right now. The most interesting and humbling thing happened. We prepared very well for the lesson but that day I don't know what was up but I was not teaching well. Every word that came out of my mouth came out wrong, I asked confusing questions, it was really weird. I was like wow, what is wrong with me today? When I got to that point I asked Hermana Colon to share her testimony or to share some experience. It's amazing how the spirit works. Because that day, nicole didn't need to hear my teach she needed to hear Hermana Colon. Hermana Colon shared the most amazing testimony and explained things that Nicole needed, and Hermana Colon didn't know but the spirit really guided her. It was a very humbling experience for me. The worst lesson I have probably taught on my mission, ended up being so amazing because the spirit was so strong, because we had a member there and because Nicole is truly prepared and had already decided that she wants to be baptized.

The next day we went to visit a member, and her son who is our age was baptized but is visiting another church right now. He was sort of argueing with his mom about doctrine when we came. He had a lot of doubts and he was in the mood to argue. But we ended up having an really amazing discussion in which we explained several basic doctrines. I know that the spirit was putting words in my mouth because I was saying things that I hadn't planned to say, in complete contrast to the day before my mind was clear and the words just came out. The spirit was really strong and he really stopped argueing and listened and I know that he felt the spirit. It really goes to show that we as missionaries really don't do that much. It isn't us that does the teaching its the spirit. There was a reason that I felt like everything came out all wrong when I opened my mouth on saturday and on sunday it all came out right. It was a very humbling experience.

Its awesome because Nicole called us Saturday afternoon a few hours after we left her house she was worried because she was looking at the calendar and saw that the 30th was a saturday and since the baptism she saw was on a sunday she wanted to call and double check to make sure it was on sunday. She's so awesome. Well her mom doesn't really like the idea that she is getting baptized since nicole has only been to church three times but Nicole is determined that she is going to do it. I've never seen anyone so excited to get baptized before. It's awesome. Sometimes the mission is hard. a lot of times the mission is hard. Even though we don't have a lot of people that we are teaching but thats okay. it really goes to show that there really are people that are prepared that are ready to hear the gospel.

Well just so you know, next week is transfers, who knows what will happen but there is a chance that p-day will be moved to monday or tuesday, just so you know.

Love you all. Have a great week!