It's really really hot in Georgia!!!

Hi Everyone!

 

Well, country life has led me to a new habit that I have picked up: sunflower seeds. There's something about spitting sunflower seeds that's quite relaxing. But this week I also saw a baby goat! It was the cutest thing ever. Except his daddy was this huge scary billy goat. It was the size of a small cow. Freaky.

 

Anyway, some truly amazing things happened this week. I had the opportunity to speak in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday, and its the first time I've spoken in church since my farewell talk. It was pretty exciting, and I'm amazed at how the Lord blesses missionaries with an outpouring of the spirit. I was asked to speak on Elder Holland's talk, and I learned that pure Christlike love is the main characteristic of a disciple. And that "pure Christlike love, flowing from the true righteousness, will change the world." How neat is that? And I also talked about how to "defend our beliefs with courtesy and compassion, but defend them." The simplest way to do that is talk  about how the gospel has blessed your life and your family. People want to know how to be happy and have peace, and when we show how the gospel makes us happy, people will want to learn more!

 

And another part about speaking in church that is awesome is that we unexpectedly had 4 investigators at church! One of them was a man named Juan. We gave him a Spanish Book of Mormon and we taught him twice last week, and he actually came to church! It was awesome! You never know how powerful inviting someone to church can be.

 

Then I need to share 2 other amazing miracles:

 

Kaylin. We found her last week, and she said she wasn't raised in a religion, but she believed in God and Jesus Christ. So we taught her a very in depth Restoration lesson, mostly focusing on the nature of the Godhead and Christ's mortal ministry. But when we taught her Joseph Smith's First Vision, her eyebrows went up and she looked like she was truly touched. She said, "wow, I think it's amazing how his first vocal prayer was answered. I want to pray vocally." The spirit was SO STRONG in her little apartment. We both bore testimony of the Book of Mormon and gave her a copy. She was so excited to start reading it, and she said "I feel so good! This is not what I was expecting, and I really like it!" We are so excited to keep teaching her.

 

Vicky. Y'all, it is getting so freaking hot here in Georgia, and I've been told "this isn't the worst of it yet". Oh dear. So we were knocking this street with absolutely no success, and we were so hot and sweaty. Literally I thought we were going to melt into puddles. But we went up this one lady's driveway, and the AC van also came up the driveway. AWKWARD. So we stood in the driveway and the lady walks out of the door, seeing us instead of the AC guy. "Hi, sorry this is kind of awkward, but we wanted to know if we could pray with you today." Lady: "You want to PRAY with me?" "Yeah!" "Ok, give me a second to get him (AC guy) situated." Ok.

 

So we waited patiently, feeling so awkward, and then she came back and I said, "Is there anything specific we can mention in the prayer?" And that's when she opened up. She had this awful, stress filled job (wow, I can totally relate) and she had just applied for another job, and she also had mental health issues that were elevating the stress. After we finished the prayer, she said, "Wow. I have been praying all day. I even got off the phone with my brother telling him I needed the church to pray for me, and here you guys show up, from a church, offering to pray for me. You couldn't have come at a better time!" Then she saw our Book of Mormons and said "I've been meaning to get my hands on a copy of that. I have a friend who is Mormon and it seems like nothing ever gets him down." When we told her we give away copies of the Book of Mormon she was like "are you serious?" and she was so grateful to get the Book of Mormon and she could hardly wait for us to come back and study with her again. She gave us both hugs, even though we were such sweaty puddles. She's like, "wow, I feel so happy! I feel like the Lord will make everything work out the way it needs to." I said, "that's probably the Spirit, and I feel so good too!" and then Vicky said, "Oh good, I'm glad I'm not the only crazy person who feels this way!" :)

 

Essentially, what I learned from that is the Lord is truly mindful of the sacrifices we are making. We are promised in 2 Nephi 2:2 that the Lord will consecrate our afflictions for our gain. So even though we were both sweating like pigs, the Lord blessed us with an amazing person who wants to learn more about the gospel.

 

I love you all so much! I hope you have a great week!

 

Sister Laser

go-cart fun after working on the chicken coop (in the background)