We have had an abundance of Sunshine today and it has been wonderful! The weather here finally matches up with the winter weather in Gilbert. Still a tid bit chili but not warm yet.
****We had the most wonderful opportunity to go over to Sister Bryant's home to visit with her and uplift her. She is such an angel let me tell ya. While at Sister Bryant's we were able to go on her Facebook and find the missionaries who baptized her. So wonderful! Since we were not allowed to type anything on Facebook or do anything on it, we had to tell Sister Bryant where to click and what to type in :) haha. It took a little longer than if we were to just do it our selves, however, she was tremendously happy that we had actually found them,. She kept looking at their profile pictures and repeated over and over, "I cannot believe we found them. I am so glad we found them!" She proceeded to send one of her missionaries a message reminding them of who she was and how much she missed them and loves them. She then told us all the details of how she ran into the missionaries, the stories that they shared, and the impact they had on their (Her and her families) lives. This moment was so special and I am happy to know that missionaries have the capability to change the lives of precious children of our Heavenly Father. What a blessing it is to be serving on a mission. I also got a picture of me and Sister Bryant :) That itself is a miracle, for she never wants to take pictures! Score! :)
Tuesday March 10th (Leah and Jacob, Ami and Kayla)
**** We had an AWESOME visit with Leah and Jacob this day. Every time we go visit them, it feels like we are visiting members of the church instead of investigators. The only reason why they have not been baptized yet is because Leah has been having a really difficult time quitting smoking. She is continuously pressured and influenced by the adversary and finds it hard to deal with most times. We went to go see Leah when I first entered into the field, but ever since that visit, she felt WAY too much pressure to stop smoking and began to ignore us completely. This unfortunately meant that she would ignore our texts, calls, and even her mother (who is a member of the church). Today however, she answered our text about seeing her 8 year old granddaughter Mikale that lived with her!!!!!! Yay! After a long while, she was finally able to let us come over. :)
While teaching the granddaughter and preparing her for Baptism, Leah told us that she was ready to get out the rut she was in and that we were an answer to her prayers that day. I am so happy that she is willing to get help from the Lord and is ready to move along. We made a ton of progress with her.
While at her home, we taught her granddaughter and two other grand children the restoration and they LOVED it! They sat in a little circle, each said an opening prayer, and listened intently to the things we taught. They are too cute! It's fun to teach children :) Mikale was a little nervous for her baptism but we practiced how it was done and let her know what would happen on her baptism day. We also showed her a video of when Jesus was baptized and then she calmed down a bit. She is adorable and very intelligent :)
**** Also on Tuesday, we went to go teach Ami and her friend Kayla. We decided to reteach them the restoration with the use of puzzles. :) To begin, the investigators would help put both of the puzzles together. Welllllll......... While Kayla was putting the puzzle together, her one year old daughter wanted to "Help" but ended up mixing the two puzzles together. oops. haha :) I had to keep her daughter distracted and engaged in other things but she wanted me to pick her up the whole time. What an awkward situation, especially because we are not allowed to hold babies. :( Since I could not hold her she would cry and fuss, and it was even harder to keep her away from the puzzle. oh boy. When the puzzle was finished though, Kayla asked me to hand her daughter over and I become instantly hesitant. I did not know if I was allowed to do that and I quickly glanced over at Sister Merriam for approval. She nodded that it would be okay. So, (Since I technically had permission) I picked her up and passed her over. I wasn't really holding her, rather lifting her over the table to her mother, but it was the best feeling ever getting to kind of hold a baby again! It was short but way awesome!
Wednesday March 11th (Young Women's)
***** We went to the Young Women's New beginnings this night and I am so excited about the theme this year. The theme is "Embark" and I absolutely love it. We were given a CD with awesome church music on it and Sister Merriam and I listen to it a bunch. :)
The theme reminds me of a scripture that we include in our daily recitations in companionship study.
"Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men.
Therefore, O ye that EMBARK in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind, and strength, that you may stand blameless before God at the last day" (Doctrine and Covenants 4:2)
Super Cool!
Thursday March 12th (Morning Side)
**** On this day, we got to sing and play piano at Morning side, the place that we visited Sandy at and committed to do some volunteering there. The elderly loved all the hymns, singing solos, and piano solos we played! I am glad that we were given the opportunity to share our testimonies through the powerful sound of hymns and music. Many of them were just so quiet and peaceful as we sang, "I know that my Redeemer Lives", "Savior Redeemer of my Soul", and other hymn arrangements. You could tell that the room was illuminated and completely filled with the peaceful presence of the Holy Spirit. Many hearts, including mine and Sister Merriam's, were touched.
My favorite thing though was when we had finished up and I got the most wonderful compliment from an old woman. She told me, "You have a great voice and such a beautiful face!" haha :) why thank you!
We also got a few questions about "If the SEAGULL story actually happened in Utah and Why so many Mormons live in Utah." fun times.
Most of the compliments went to Sister Merriam though haha :) she has a BEAUTIFUL Voice and I was so happy that she got the opportunity to use it to bless the lives of others.
Friday March 13th (Friday the 13th!)
Friday we had Zone Training and one of the topics the Zone leaders talked about was health and fitness. They told us that President Hanks is now requiring everyone to do P90X every morning and needs us to send a weekly report of what we ate to him. It is a new program that our mission is starting to help us be healthier. Especially with all this southern food. haha
PSYCH! Just kidding!
They mixed up Friday the 13th with April Fools day and decided to pull that prank on us! hahahahaahh :) SO MANY people believed them! :) meanies
Saturday March 14th
**** PIE DAY! YEAH! 3.14.15 :) The Elders bought some pie and insisted that we eat a piece of pie at Correlation (A meeting with the Ward Mission President). We had a ton of fun and the pie was delicious! :D
Sunday March 15th
**** I played the piano in Sacrament today. I did not know how to play the organ, soooo I played the piano instead and I was way nervous! It all turned out okay though.
Also, AMI CAME TO CHURCH TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She could now get baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited! :)
Puppies/Dogs
**** These past two weeks I have had quite interesting stories about dogs.
1) Micha's dog: Micha ended up dropping us and no longer wants us to teach her :'( The last time we taught her though, she had just gotten an 8 week old puppy who was really cute but was majorly teething! He wouldn't stop chewing on things and most of her attention was on her dog. man...
2) A recent convert was dog sitting a 5 week old black and white puppy who reminded me of Bo :) He slept on my lap the whole lesson! Super cute!!!! :)
3) This one is the scary one. While visiting a Mexican Potential Investigator last night, we had taken a member who spoke Spanish to help us translate. While we were walking towards his door, a dog was barking rapidly! He ended up charging at us and was going to attack us! ahhhhhhhhh!!! Not a friendly, I repeat! Not a friendly! Thankfully, he was on a chain and we were saved from this very vicious Labrador Retriever. YIKES!
4) While knocking an another Potential Investigators door, the 4 year old daughter answered and accidentally let her 8 week old puppy out of the door. Well, the puppy was about to run away, so I went and chased it. As I picked up the puppy, it did what all excited puppies do.... It peed all over me! Gross! The person we wanted to go meet was having morning sickness so we left to go home so I could change. Yuck!
5) Our bishop now wants me to go visit their home so I could train their dog. haha! :)
6) This one is not about dogs, but, while tracting, SO many cats came to our direction wanting us to pet them.
Other then that. this week has been way good and very busy. The work is picking back up again and I am excited!
I love y'all and enjoy all the emails and pictures that are sent. They uplift me in so many ways and gives me the fuel I need each week!
Y'all are awesome! Have fun and don't die!
Sister Ralph
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