2/2/15

Hi family this week has been incredible! I do not know where to begin. I think I am just going to take it day by day again. haha :)

Tuesday: Exchanges

I was able to go on my first Exchange and I was exchanged all the way to Mississippi! What a fun experience. I was given a new Companion and her name is Sister Allred. She is such an amazing teacher and she has been to 18 baptisms while on her mission. Holy smokes, that's a lot! While on my exchange, we were able to teach two families. One family had three kids And we taught them the plan of salvation by using chalk and the kids got to draw it out on the side walk while we explained each step. They had a ton of fun. Afterwards, we gave Alauna (Who is turning 8) some cookies for her birthday. She totally wants to be baptized and I am so happy for her. 

The other family also had three kids and we taught them a little bit about repentance. We decided to have Jonah, Who was 8 and getting ready to be baptize, wear a backpack that was empty. We explained that he could probably hold the back pack on his shoulders for a while without getting tired because how light it was. However, as he sins the backpack gets heavier and heavier. (We used books to weigh the backpack down and to represent sin). Eventually, the guilt from sin gets so heavy and becomes too much of a burden that we could no longer hold ourselves up. Jonah was no longer able to hold himself up without falling down because of how heavy the back back was getting. Thankfully, through Jesus Christ and his Atonement, we can repent, and our guilt and sin is taken away. Which then we proceeded to take the books out and the backpack got lighter and lighter as he repented. 

It was so cute because the two other children wanted to try also, so we gave them a chance. I think it was a cute little object lesson for them.  They learned a lot. 

Other than those two lessons, nothing else really went on during exchanges. It was just relly cool to go to Mississippi and learn new things from Sister Allred. :)

Wednesday: New investigators!

On Wednesday we had the coolest experience as we met two people named Andy and Ashley. 

After dinner, we had about 30 minutes to tract and so we decided to knock on a few apartment doors around our own. The first door we knocked no one answered unforunately. But after that, the spirit told me "Knock the one next door!" I was like, Okay :) 

I am so thankful I did because we knocked and a really cute young girl Named Ashley answered and immediately let us come in before letting us introduce ourselves which was really not normal. Haha.

Anyway, we went in and she introduced us to her Husband named Andy and then we were able to introduce ourselves and tell them a little about the Book of Mormon.  They were totally interested! 

Andy and Ashley just got married in November and Andy's back story is just amazing. 

I guess he was a really big drug/alcohol addict when he was 18 and he got in trouble twice with the law as he was selling stuff illegally. I think after he was charged with 2 felonies he turned himself in and moved to Seattle where his mom lived. In Seattle he joined this church program that eventually made him sober and he believes that God gave him a second chance in life.

 Mainly because, after he changed his life, his two felonies were completely dropped and he has never turned to drugs or alcohol ever again. He believes that God heard how much he wanted to change and how sorry and guilty he was and because of this, God was able to forgive him and drop his two felonies. He was so grateful to Heavenly Father for everything and is way faithful to this day. Him and his wife go to church every week at a local Baptist Church and read the bible everyday. Super faithful people. 

The cool thing about this whole visit was when Andy told us "We let you guys come into our home because we felt like God sent y'all to us. There must be a message that he wants us to hear. If so, y'all are welcome to come over anytime and we will be willing to hear the things you share."

When me and Sister Merriam heard this our Jaws dropped and we were overcome with Joy. We have really high hopes for this couple and I seriously think they could get baptized and sealed in the temple. 

Thursday: The best day out of the week! 3 new investigators and a Miracle

On Thursday, we got to teach Amanda. If you go back a little, Amanda was the one that we extended a baptisimal invite to last week and she accepted! :) Well, we were able to go over again and have a porch lesson about the restoration. We focused mainly on teaching her about Joseph Smith and his Account of the Vision. We really wanted to emphasize what set our church apart from other churches and how our church is restored to full on this earth. I thought it was going great and everything especially when she let us know that she believed our church was true and told us she knew that because the spirit made it manifest unto her! Yay! I was so happy! :) SHE KNOWS THIS CHURCH IS TRUE! 

The only thing that we had to do next was set a baptism date (Feb 28th by the way) and have her come to church with us this week. When we asked her if she would come to church with us she said no.... and we were all like what? Why? 

She proceeded to tell us that she was fixin to go to the baptist church with her friend which then we continued to ask her "What about the true church? I thought you believed our church was true?"

She replied "I know y'alls church is true. I know it. But I also know that this other church is true. I think every church is true just as long as they worship Christ." 

So yeah... We went from yes! She knows our church is true! To man... Now she thinks all Churches are true. What are we going to do. 

I think we will talk more about the priesthood next time and pray that she will understand more about the Full restored church. 

After Amanda's lesson, we tracted around her neighborhood and found this old man in his 80's raking leaves. Seeing that he might have needed help, we offered to rake the leaves for him. He turned to us and politely rejected our invitation because he would rather us spread the word of Jesus around to his neighbors instead. haha :) what a funny man. He was so polite as well and he thanked us for the sacrifice we were making to share the message of Christ to everyone we could. However, after he was done talking, he wanted to say a prayer with us and wanted us to go to his two neighbors homes where they would accept our message. So, we said a prayer with him, gave him our number, and said goodbye to him and his well behaved dog.  

I am so thankful that he gave us those two referrals because they are now our investigators. 

One of them is Maryssa and she has a husband and two kids. She is totally up to having us come back to teach her and her kids about our church. She believes that it would be a great blessing for her family. 

 

The other family was just down the street. There names are April, Randal, Elijah, and baby Zoe who is going to be born in May. What a cute family! They are so humble and thank Heavenly Father for everything they have. We talked to them for about 30 minutes and even invited us to come back to teach them more about the Book of Mormon. Yay! :) I am excited. 

That night, a miracle happened. 

Me and Sister Merriam wanted to go visit a less active but for some reason the GPS took us to the wrong address. The house we arrived at was in this side neighborhood that was really creepy and scary. (It was also night time, cold, and really dark outside) We decided to pray to know if the neighborhood was safe to tract around in but the spirit told me, "You have to get out of here. It is not safe. Get out now. " We found ourselves really obedient in this moment despite the fact that I didn't even get out of the car to back out sister merriam. I was way to scared to do so. haha. 

We thanked Heavenly Father for the warning and after that the spirit told Sis. Merriam that we had to go to food land. We didn't even know where foodloand was! haha :) This was the crazy part. But she totally relied on the spirit. She felt like we needed to turn on this one street to knock at this one specific house. So, we parked the car, said a prayer, and started to get out. Perfect timing, too, because as we got out, a truck pulled up into the driveway of the house we were going to knock at. We went up to the two men who immediately told us not to worry about sharing them a message because they were atheists and they didn't believe their was a god. They also began to tell us how they grew up knowing their was a God however they never really experienced a feeling that God was actually there and how the earth was just built upon science and "The whole big bang theory". They were even saying that night that, "Until God shows himself to us and tells us that he is real I will not believe in him. However, if he does show himself to me and my brother, we will embrace it with all of our hearts and know that he lives."

That right there was a miracle. Me and Sister Merriam were able to testify to them that God literally directed us to them. We were completely blind in the direction that we were going and we just had this overwhelming feeling to go talk them. We were able to testify to them that God loves them. Especially because in that moment, I was physically trembling with the amount of love I had for them. I even had to stick my hands in my jacket pocket because of how much it was shaking. I KNEW, in that moment, that Heavenly Father was expressing to me how much Love he has for them and how much he cared for them. I do not think I have ever felt that much love in my life for a single person that I didn't even know. and I know that it was not just my love, it was his profound love that he has for each of his children here on earth. We were able to testify, with tears in our eyes, that God was looking out for them and that he planned for us to meet. 

 

The two men were speechless. They even accepted to read the Book of Mormon. What a MARVELOUS experience. I am overjoyed to know that they embraced that feeling that night. They now know that there is a God who would do anything for them.

 

I just think its crazy because the love I had for them was not mine. It was Heavenly Fathers. What a cool experience. 

 

The COOLEST thing though is that after we said goodbye to them, we got in our car and drove to the stop sign where to the right, we saw in big letters the grocery store "FOODLAND!"

SO AMAZING!!!! 

 

Sunday: Another miracle happened 

 

Me and Sister Merriam were driving to Family Home Evening this night but it was POURING!  When we started to drive, it was barely even sprinkling so we thought it would be okay and safe. But about a quarter of they way there, it starting to pour! It poured so much that we could not even see the road! We were seriously driving blind and the wind kept blowing us off the road. We were so scared and so I felt like I needed to pray. I prayed that we would be able to see the road, and that we would be able to get to the Nebekers safely. I prayed for protection and the ability for us to be okay. The miracle happened immediately after I said amen, for the rain just ceased. 

 

I didn't even pray for the rain to stop, but holy smokes the Lord is amazing and he heard our prayer! He stopped the rain and we were able to drive the rest of the 10 miles with safety. I cannot even express how scary that was and how thankful I am. The lord really does protect his children. 

I don't really have anything else to say. I mean I do, but if I were to do so I would take another 2 hours. But those were the highlights of my week. 

 

I hope y'all enjoyed it. 

 

I love everyone of you and hope life is great. And hopefully Bo hasn't forgotten me already. haha :) He better of not forgotten me.

I will talk to y'all next week and I am thankful for all your letters. They are great!!!!

Southern Missionary, (Still in Training)

Sister Ralph