Aloha!
This week has been wonderful. We were able so see miracle after miracle and felt that God truly was using us as instruments in His hands to do His work. Elder Dodd has a week left of his mission and it is admirable to see that he is trying to give all he has to the work before he heads home. I pray that I may follow his example and give the Lord all I have when that time comes.
Anna came to church on Sunday! We met with her on Friday night at the church with John Woodbury (best member missionary on this planet, he is a YSA), and her daughter who we are all trying to work on (including Anna). We watched the Restoration DVD and Anna was crying half the time. She felt the Spirit very strong and we committed her to come to church again so she could take the sacrament and prepare to renew her covenants when she gets baptized. Well she ended up coming to sacrament meeting with Sister Woodbury (John's mom) and she was crying half the meeting! It was the father's day program and it was just perfect for her. She knows now that this is where she needs to be and she can feel the Spirit when she comes to church. She is making progress on smoking a little each day. She has almost completely quit coffee (fist pump!). We are predicting she will be baptized in about 2 months from now.
A Miracle we had this week:
For the past several weeks, when we have appointments set up with new investigators and bring a member out with us, the investigator never is there or doesn't answer the door. So we take the member with us to several potentials and hope we can teach with them so it isn't a waste of time for them to come out. Well this week we took a youth in our ward (Jake Johnson) who just sent in his mission papers out with us to teach a new investigator who, of coarse, didn't answer. So we started to take him to a list a potentials to hopefully teach and while we were on our way to on of our potentials I looked over at a another potentials house who I thought wasn't super solid and his door was open and his trucks were in the drive way, so we decided to give it a shot and try him first.
This week has been wonderful. We were able so see miracle after miracle and felt that God truly was using us as instruments in His hands to do His work. Elder Dodd has a week left of his mission and it is admirable to see that he is trying to give all he has to the work before he heads home. I pray that I may follow his example and give the Lord all I have when that time comes.
Anna came to church on Sunday! We met with her on Friday night at the church with John Woodbury (best member missionary on this planet, he is a YSA), and her daughter who we are all trying to work on (including Anna). We watched the Restoration DVD and Anna was crying half the time. She felt the Spirit very strong and we committed her to come to church again so she could take the sacrament and prepare to renew her covenants when she gets baptized. Well she ended up coming to sacrament meeting with Sister Woodbury (John's mom) and she was crying half the meeting! It was the father's day program and it was just perfect for her. She knows now that this is where she needs to be and she can feel the Spirit when she comes to church. She is making progress on smoking a little each day. She has almost completely quit coffee (fist pump!). We are predicting she will be baptized in about 2 months from now.
A Miracle we had this week:
For the past several weeks, when we have appointments set up with new investigators and bring a member out with us, the investigator never is there or doesn't answer the door. So we take the member with us to several potentials and hope we can teach with them so it isn't a waste of time for them to come out. Well this week we took a youth in our ward (Jake Johnson) who just sent in his mission papers out with us to teach a new investigator who, of coarse, didn't answer. So we started to take him to a list a potentials to hopefully teach and while we were on our way to on of our potentials I looked over at a another potentials house who I thought wasn't super solid and his door was open and his trucks were in the drive way, so we decided to give it a shot and try him first.
Well he came outside to talk to us and we ended up chatting with him for about 50 minutes (about 35 of those minutes we just listen to him tell us about the chaos that was going on in his life). Turns out he had been sent home from work for the next 6 weeks due to anxiety attacks that he was having. He had never had it before so he was really distraught about it. He is one of those guys who is never not moving and working so he expressed to us that he felt that God had allowed this to happen to send him an important message. Well as we talked and taught him he told us that he felt that God had sent us to him to tell him what he needed to hear and agreed to be baptized and learn more. He told us to come back whenever cause he has six weeks at home. It was great because Jake was able to bear his testimony a couple of times and see an awesome miracle in his own community.
If you could all keep Crystal Smith in your prayers this week that would be much appreciated. She is having heart problems right now and is pretty down. She is suppose to be going to the temple with us this Saturday, so we are praying the doctors can get her well enough that she can go.
On Friday night I received a text from her saying the following: "I'm not sure what y'all's rules are, but I know I seriously need to talk to you in person. I have prayed about this and this is the second time God has said I need to turn to you for help... I don't feel that I can get baptized Saturday before I talk to you." So on Saturday we went up and talked with her and it turns out that she was just having anxiety about some doctrine she was confused about, and she needed to understand some things.
So we talked to her and the coolest thing happened. As we taught her some of the doctrine, it finally clicked with her and she said she now felt that it all made sense. She told us that for too long she had been ignorant and just listened to what the missionaries had to say because she felt that God had sent them to her but never really put in the effort to learn for herself. Those past few days she decided to really study and search for herself and in response to that she felt her prayers answered. She is ready to go now and is bearing her testimony with vigor.
I am a witness that there are certain people that God puts in our path to help. I have been given weaknesses so that I can relate to individuals on a more intimate level. God loves His children and if we can be faithful to Him and listen to His promptings, He can use us to do His work. God led Elder Dodd and I in that meeting with Amanda. He was there speaking through us to her and it was a memory that will be burned in my mind forever. Glory be to God, for He is creator of all things and the Father of our Spirits. I know He lives and loves us. Christ is His Son and has given us life. He hasn't left us alone. He uses each one of us to help each other and lift them.
Well I love you all so much! Thank you for your love and support.
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