Another AWESOME Week!

It sure has been a wonderful week!

I hope everyone's has been great as well. :)

Last monday for prep day I guess we didn't do anything really that neat because I have no memory of what we did last monday.

On Tuesday we visited with Trisha. She had been reading and praying and keeping all of her commitments. I think one of my favorite things about sharing the gospel with people is to see how much their countenances change from one visit to the next. Trisha's has totally changed since we started meeting with her. We shared with her about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a great lesson. However, the next day, we recieved a call from Trisha informing us that she had prayed to know the truth and if she should be baptized and all of that good stuff and she said that God had told her she needed to wait. So, we are trying to work out her concerns. It kind of breaks my heart when that happens, but it was still a good day. We went tracting in the evening because our other appointments fell through. We were enjoying the cooler evening air and came upon a well-kept trailer house. We walked up to the front porch and noticed there was something sitting there on the porch. As we got closer, we realized that it was a snake! Sis. Joseph and I debated about what we should do for a bit and then after staring at the snake for a bit I decided that it was a fake. Sis. Joseph didn't think it was. I pulled out a pass along card and poked the snake and quickly ran away. It didn't move. Then, we poked it again and what do you know? It was fake! We visted with Norma and Cindy (who are both friends). We decided to teach them both the word of wisdom. Teaching two investigators like that wasn't such a great idea. They did not like the lesson at all. They told us the didn't believe any of it. Oh well.

Wednesday was district meeting. It was a good meeting about having faith and being obedient. Sis. Joseph is the queen of rules. I always want to be a rebel now, but I was definitely humbled after learning about the blessings of obedience at district meeting. Sometimes I think we need to be reminded of what we think we already know. We went and visited with Jose on Wednesday too. Jose told us he had this incredible dream about a man dressed in white who told him that he was doing the right thing and then the man came and put his hands on Jose's head; like he was giving him a blessing. Jose said that he could definitely feel a difference in his life ever since he had started reading the Book of Mormon. He's been going to town with that! We usually leave him a chapter or two, but he's done all of that and he's read through all of 1 Nephi and part of 2 Nephi as well. We shared with Jose about revelation in Alma 5:45--46 and it was a lesson that I hold near and dear to my heart. We also met with Norma. Norma is such a sweet lady. She'll talk your ear off! We had a nice followup discussion about the importance of eating a well balanced diet and why smoking and drinking coffee and tea isn't good for you. Norma is still a little undecided about the whole thing, but I thought it was funny to see that she had made the effort to remove all of the ashtrays from her house, replace the empty space with flowers and such things and to open the windows. I think she is trying to quit without letting us know. She is funny lady.

Thursday was the blessed day of weekly planning and the never ending calling list. We went and visited with some of the branch members after we finished...mostly. It's so much fun to get members excited to do missionary work. Getting girls to come on exchanges is hard though. I am going to sign up for exchanges all the time when I get home.

Friday we did a lot of tracting again. We had a really neat experience with a man named Phillip. We were walking down the street and he saw us, waved and then came down off his porch and asked if he could see our book [the Book of Mormon]. We let him look at the one we were carrying. He then commenced to tell us that he had been taking the lessons from the Elders in Clayton, NC. He said he really liked everything about the church and we told him a little bit more. He asked if he could keep the Book of Mormon to take to the beach with him that day because he had left his at his home in Clayton. We let him have it. It was awesome! In the evening we went and visited with a lady named Melinda that we met last week. She is a sweet gal. She is Hindu and also a vegetarian. It was pretty funny when we went over there on friday because she told us we would have to stay outside because she had been burning incents all day and had accidentally smoked out her house. I could smell it outside and it was pretty strong. We had a good lesson with her. She really liked learning about the fall of Adam and Eve.

Saturday, we woke up to rain! Sis. Joseph and I went on a really good run through the puddles and it was so much fun! I love running in the rain! We went and visted Cindy again and like Norma, she had removed most of the ash trays from her house. We shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with her and read from Alma 38. That is such a good chapter. Go and read it. We ended up getting drenched on the way out from Cindy's lesson and spent the rest of the day looking something like drowned rats as it dumped buckets of water. Cindy gave us a bunch of clothes from her son (we still don't know why she gave them to us) and we didn't know where to take them so we went to the Free Will Baptist Press and asked them. It was quite the site to see to LDS missionaries walking into their store.

Sunday was wonderful! we have been working with a girl named Talia in the branch. She wants to be baptized and she is just the sweetest girl you'll ever meet. We taught her during sunday school and asked her to specifically pray to know if the chruch was true, etc. She did and recieved her answer right then. The spirit that we could feel in the room was incredible. We shared from D&C 9 about knowing when you have made a good decision. It was so exciting to see her recieve an answer. Probably the highlight of the week...acutally, it definteily was.

I hope y'all are doing well!

This church is completely true. I am thankful for my knowledge of that.

love you!

love,

sis j