Another beautiful week here in paradise! One of
the elders says "Another beautiful day in paradise!" nearly every time
we see him, so I think I'll adopt and adapt that today.
This week, I learned a lot about seeing and loving children more as
Heavenly Father does. We had a lot of sweet experiences with coming to
understand people's needs and meeting them where they are to invite them
to come to Christ starting at whatever place they are at in their life.
We
finally met our sweet referral Nancy, who ordered a free Bible and Book
of Mormon. She has a strong desire to come to church, read the
scriptures, pray, stop her bad habits, and be baptized! Even though we
were just sitting on the grass, covered in cigarette butts, outside of
her trailer, the Spirit was so powerful and I felt strongly the love
that Heavenly Father has for her and I could sense her great potential
as His daughter. It was incredible!
On Wednesday
morning after our run, we came back to find that we were locked out. We
knocked on the door of the maintenance man for our apartment complex
(thankfully he lives next door), but no one answered. So we said a
prayer, started walking, and within seconds he appeared around the
corner and unlocked our door for us. Prayer is awesome and it works!
We
finally got to see Carol again! We hadn't seen her and Justin for a
couple weeks, but we stopped Justin on the street one day and set up an
appointment for Saturday.
Carol just poured out all of her current struggles and fears to us. I
felt so much love for her as we listened, and we sought direction from
the Spirit to know what to say. Brother Atris was with us, and as we all
spoke, we didn't solve any of her problems, but we promised her the
blessings of living the gospel and relying on Jesus Christ for strength
through our challenges. She seemed visibly better, happier, and with
more hope by the time we left. This is such a message of hope!
Friday
was the ward Trunk or Treat! Sister Trawick and I helped the kids make
ghost suckers with tissues and string, and also brought oreos for people
to play the minute to win it game where you try to get the oreo from
your forehead to your mouth just by using your face. :) It's a favorite
of mine. Then we went outside, put up our decorations on the trunk, and
passed out candy. So many people followed through on the invitation we
gave them to invite their friends and neighbors!!!! It was awesome! We
were able to meet a lot of them, too. Yay for keeping commitments!
Tonight we have to be in early, so we'll do some letter writing and such. Also, transfers are this Wednesday-
Sister Trawick and I are staying here, but the first ward sisters are
moving in with us because an additional set of elders is coming to the
area and will be living in the sisters' old apartment. Lots of changes-
change is good! :) Love you all! Have a blessed week!
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