May 27th (Memorial Day)

I’m doing super good! It seems like last p-day was an eternity ago. So much has happened! So many miracles, I don’t even know where to start.

I’ll start with Betty! Last Monday we got a media referral for Betty. She had gotten on Mormon.org and requested missionaries to go and see her. We were so excited! We got there and started to get to know her. So apparently she had submitted that referral the Saturday before we received it, and she went to church that Sunday!! All by herself! Before we’d even met her!! She went to a different ward, so we didn’t meet her until our appointment on Wednesday, but HOW AWESOME IS THAT?! She really liked it and was excited to learn more. She told us the story of how she decided to contact us. A few months ago Sister Ott and Sister Heward (the sister here before me) actually street contacted her. They left her a pamphlet on the Restoration, but didn’t set up a return appointment or anything. Betty said that the pamphlet was on her mind all the time and she didn’t forget about it. She had been feeling like she was missing something in her life. She found a pass along card on her door one day. She kept it, but didn’t do anything with it. One day she was praying earnestly for guidance in her life. She went and opened the door and there was a Mormon.org card. :) :) Apparently the Tongan ward Elders AND the Spanish Elders tracted her street within a couple of weeks. Coincidence? I THINK NOT! :) So she got on Mormon.org and requested missionaries. She was crying as she told us that story. She is so awesome and so prepared. That Wednesday we left her a Book of Mormon and asked her to read and pray about the introduction. When we went back for our next appointment on Saturday we asked if she’d read, and she said, “Yes I have, but I wasn’t able to get very far. I’m only on chapter twelve.” HOLY COW! WHO IS THIS LADY?? That’s what I was thinking. :) She pulled out a little study journal, and she’d been marking scriptures too! Sheesh. She’s awesome! We asked her to be baptized later that lesson and she said, “I really want to be sure about this. I don’t want to be ashamed. You know, like in, what’s his name, Lehi? Yeah, Lehi’s dream and there were people who ate the fruit and then they were ashamed. I don’t want to be like that.” She’s already relating scriptures to her life!! We’ll work on the baptism part. :) Yeah so, she’s great.

We also got to meet with Ann again! Remember her? She’s also amazing. We taught her the Plan of Salvation, and she was really receptive. She loved how families are supposed to be together forever. She went to church on Sunday (a different ward…long story) but she called us after and said she had an amazing experience, and that she’s recognizing the Spirit!! :) I like this thing called missionary work. She’s committed to work towards getting baptized on June 29^th! :) :)

Another miracle that happened this week involves weekly planning. Funny, right? So every week we set goals for next week. We also set a goal for the number of baptisms we feel is right for a weekend four weeks out. Well, at weekly planning we felt very strongly that we are going to find a family to teach. So we set a pretty high goal…which was a little scary. But guess what! On Saturday we tracted into a family that’s interested in learning more… :) We’ll see how it goes!

Within this past week we’ve found more investigators than Sister Ott says that she and Sister Heward found in a single month before! The ward is being prepared and getting more excited, as are we. :) There is so much potential here, we are really humbled, and grateful. We’re relying a lot on the Lord because technically both of us are greenies. Sometimes we feel like we don’t know what we’re doing.  Haha but that’s okay! It makes us rely on the Lord.

The ward here is awesome. They are strong people. There are many women here whose husbands aren’t members, but they are determined and have such strong testimonies. They’re a huge example to me.

One of the biggest things I’ve realized since I’ve been out here is how blessed our family is. We meet people all of the time who haven’t heard of Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon. Some people talk about hard things they’re going through, themselves or with family, and you can see how the Gospel would completely fix the problem if they lived it. With all that we’ve been blessed we have a responsibility. Read the scriptures every day. Personally and as a family. I’ve always been grateful for the scriptures, but now I can see how God will hold us accountable for what we do with what we have, and we have so much. Pray every day, multiple times a day, as a family and personally! So many people I’ve met don’t’ really know how to pray. So do your best with what you have!