May Sparkles fly high in the sky of heaven ✨️ 🕊☁️

 MONDAY: We met this guy named Scott and had a good lesson with him. He's cool and seemed pretty interested in learning more! We left him with a Book of Mormon, pamphlet about the restoration, our church and contact information, and the gospel library app downloaded on his phone. So that was awesome! 

TUESDAY: We had a lesson with Fernando, did some service, had dinner with a member and her whole extended family, and went to young women’s. Our lesson with Fernando was good, he started off by telling us how he had a dream that someone was telling him to get baptized except then he continued to tell us it was a nightmare. We tried to explain that God may have been trying to speak to him and he didn’t want to believe it because he's already been baptized in 2 other churches…. Pray Fernando can grow faith in the proper authority/priesthood from God. We did a bunch of service for a member who was feeding us that night, but it was fun service! And then we had a fun Young Women’s activity. We got to learn Chinese from a foreign exchange student. I love and miss young womens so much!!

WEDNESDAY: We got to do service at Salvation Army. They made the elders move pallets of food and do all the heavy lifting while me and sister Atkins got to decorate the place with balloons! 

THURSDAY: We met and had a lesson with Lori. She's super sweet and loves to visit. She also doesn’t believe she needs to be baptized again, but she has read the Book of Mormon all the way through 3 times… pray she can find peace in the priesthood and authority. After the visit she gave us these super stale and old cupcakes. It's the thought that counts! 

FRIDAY: EXCHANGES! We had exchanges with our STLs this day and it was such a good day. I got to hang out with Hermana Wallace and learn tons from her! I love her so much and learned a little Spanish too!

SATURDAY: This was such a great day! Terry, one of the members, took us out to lunch in this hole in the wall restaurant. We got pizza and ice cream. It was so yum! We then had a lesson with Fernando and taught him more about the importance of the Book of Mormon and told him to read it right when we left and HE DID! WaHoo!!! We met a cute African woman and invited her to church and she said she would come. And then we had an awesome dinner with the cutest family in our ward. 

SUNDAY: Church was fun because they did a special meeting for the seniors who are graduating and we got to help sing in their program. Fernando came to gospel principles and learned more about prophets. He said he doesn't believe YET but he was going to go home and study!!! What! Yes Fernando! We gave him a restoration pamphlet to study and he was excited to do so! We later had a quick lesson with our 9 year old friend Elayla and she told us she wanted to be baptized! She doesn't seem too excited to have to take the lessons tho… pray she can find the desire to take the lessons. Also send any ideas to teach kids and make it fun!

Fun/Funny Moments:

♡ apparently I sound like a Yankee 

♡ Lots of treats!

♡ Sister Murphree and Elder Lusk are employed and don't you dare forget it! 

♡ My STLs fought over who got to sit on the bad chair.

♡ Me and Sister Atkins accidentally went for a 5 mile walk

♡ We had a cute little BDay party for a sister in my zone and got to eat cake. 

♡ We made smores at the STLs apartment. 

♡ I learned how to spell love in Chinese, except I actually didn't because she was drawing arrows the whole time.

♡ I forgot to put on my tag for the first time and had to run home to grab it. 

♡ Ethan (a little boy in our ward) likes the Elders more than us:(

♡ I said the Prayer for the PMG call for the whole mission. 

♡ We attended a funeral for our 9 year old friends bird (Sparkles). Elayla came up to us and the elders after sacrament saying she needed us there to say the prayers and help with the service. She had me read a poem she wrote and Sister Atkins said the prayer. 

Sister Atkins may have prayed for Sparkles to be able to fly high in the sky of heaven… the whole room busted out laughing. 

God is so good! Have the best week ever♡

🌼🌸🌻🌺🌷🏵

 

There really wasn't much that happened this week. We had a couple good lessons and spent most of our time towards finding people. 

We had Zone Conference which was awesome! Sister Terry gave a great training on hope. Sister Terry trained about how hope is to have confident expectations. So if we have hope that good things are to come we have confident expectations that good things will come. 

We had interviews with our mission President which is always awesome! He was telling us how there's a ton of sisters who will be coming out on the next 2 transfers. 

Fun/Funny moments: 

♡ We got yelled at by a member

♡ I'm a volleyball master 

♡ knocking doors in the Rain

♡ Tearesa made me and Sister Atkins friendship bracelets 

♡ We gave out flowers for mothers day! 

Spiritual Thought: 

12 And Alma and his people did not raise their voices to the Lord their God, but did pour out their hearts to him; and he did know the thoughts of their hearts.

13 And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.

14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.

I love these verses because as we pour out our hearts and raise our voices unto the Lord he will help us through our burdens and make them feel light. This is your reminder to pray always!! 

Aligning my will with His

 MONDAY: We played pickleball and went thrifting with our district which was way fun!

TUESDAY: This day was awesome. We had a member reach out and tell us she wanted to show us her piano piece (that she has been practicing, all semester long, in college). Wow, is she talented! We shared a little message from the Conference talk: Tune Your Heart to Jesus Christ: The Sacred Gift of Primary Music by Sister Tracy Y. Browning. This talk tells all about primary music and how it ingrains testimony and the spirit into our hearts from a young age. The part we shared talked about the song as I Walk with Jesus. Once we started reading the lyrics she jumped up with excitement, pulled the hymn up on her phone and immediately started playing it on her piano. She gestured for us to start singing, so we sang as she played the song and the spirit quickly and strongly filled the room. Later that night we also met our friend Ashlyn who we have been trying to get in contact with for the past couple weeks. We got to know more about her and her situation. Her and her daughter Aminah are so sweet and cute, pray that God will open up new opportunities for them♡

WEDNESDAY: We had a lesson with a member in our ward and the message we prepared perfectly aligned with a hard situation she has been facing! She said that the message was perfect and so personal to her! We had a lesson with our friend Don and invited him to change his life, pray he will have the courage to do so. We met another sweet member of our congregation and got to know her family a little more. And then we had a yummy dinner to end off the night with an astrophysicist professor in our ward! She was so cool and we got to learn more about space and her conversion story! God is so good! 

THURSDAY: ummmm, ya we woke up to a flat tire so we started our day off by going to get that fixed. After that we went to have a lesson with our friend in his apartment complex. The information we had didn't have his room number so we spent about an hour knocking the building (we never found him). But we ended off the night with a yummy member meal so it's all good! 

FRIDAY: We did some service which ended up being me and Sister Atkins moving some 100 pound blocks around someone's yard. But might as well get a workout in while serving Heavenly Fathers Children I guess! We met David who is a really sweet man and said he would read the Book of Mormon! Pray he will get the guidance he needs as he reads. We also met a super sweet girl Alexis who said that it was meant to be that we talked to her because it was her late grandfather's birthday that day. We talked about ancestry and she wants to learn more about it and said she would go to our family history center! We then had a lesson with our sweet, old lady, member, friend, Beverly! She is the cutest and absolutely adores the growing faith videos on the gospel library. Pray that she can follow Jesus Christ's example and find forgiveness and kindness towards others. 

SATURDAY: We had a lesson with Fernando and talked about church and the restored gospel, pray he can find peace knowing that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. We had a ton of knocking today! We met Judi, with an I! She is the sweetest old lady and we talked all about her late husband and the spirit world. We also talked about ancestry with her and she loved it! As we kept knocking it seemed like no one was home (which is abnormal for a Saturday!) We prayed to know what area to go to since we weren't having any luck where we were at. Me and sister Atkins were driving to a new area when we saw a ton of people and bouncy houses at this elementary school! We immediately parked and went over to this event. Apparently it was an annual fair the county holds. The entire town must have been there, there was so many people! We walked around and talked to everyone we could. And we found our new friend Jacob!! He said he would be interested in learning more about Jesus Christ and will come to church on Sunday! Pray that he will continue to have that desire to learn more! God is so good. 

SUNDAY: Our friend Fernando came to church! We got sneak attacked with service we didn’t know we were doing, and we got fed enchiladas.

Fun/Funny moments: 

♡ We got to celebrate Sister Atkins Birthday and got lots of treats! 

♡ Terry has a custom missionary mat.

♡ We are independent women and don't need the elders help when we get a flat tire!!!

♡ We ate out at Cane’s while we were getting our car fixed 

♡Sister Atkins almost rolled her ankle 4 times in one day

Spiritual Thought: 

John 6:38

38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.

Aligning Our Will With His by Elder Ulysses Soares 

“During our sojourn in mortality, we often wrestle with what we think we know, what we think is best, and what we assume works for us, as opposed to comprehending what Heavenly Father actually knows, what is eternally best, and what absolutely works for children within His plan. This great wrestle can become very complex, especially considering the prophecies contained in the scriptures for our day: “This know also, that in the last days … men shall be lovers of their own selves, … lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.””

I have been studying and thinking a lot about God's will and how He would have me do His work. I was not sent on a mission to preach the gospel however I wanted, I was sent here to do it the way God intended it to be done.

I hope you all have the best week ever! 

God is so good♡