Half Way     7-28-14

For some reason I have had so many people this week point out to me that I am half way done and how excited I must be. Done is the wrong word to use. It is a pleasure, honor, privilege to be out here and I am so happy that I still have 9 months left! How exciting to still have time left to serve the Lord full time, it goes by too fast! Anyways, just needed to get that out....  :)

This week, I had the hardest day of my mission as well as the best. I often wonder at the miracles the prophet sees, and how that means also seeing some truly heartbreaking experiences.
We have seen a lot of lives destroyed because of hard drugs and truly heartbreaking family situations. But we keep hope in helping everyone, no matter how far they have fallen, and God clearly leads us each day.

Here are some miracles that were proof of God's power to me this week:

1. We had 3 lessons set up one night in members homes, but they all canceled last min. We didn't give up and started making calls again, and within 5 min we had set up 2 lessons with members and new investigators. As I was about to make 1 more call for our last hour a member called us to tell us her friend would be over at her house that night and asked if we could come over the exact time we were free. Within 7 minutes God filled up our night again. The best part is that all 3 of these people asked us if they could be baptized :)

2. We were about to leave a member's home to try some investigators when the member's neighbors pulled up. He told us, "wait a minute" and went over to ask if they would be willing to listen to a brief message from the missionaries. His neighbor had been praying to get back in touch with God and find a church! We are now teaching him and his girlfriend.

3. It had started to rain and we became soaked as we waited for a less active member to open their door. Their neighbor across the street came outside and yelled something....we came closer to hear and all he was actually saying was "knock louder!" hahaha Anyways, we talked with him and he is very prepared! Who comes out in the rain to yell at someone knocking on their neighbor's home to knock louder?? haha God truly led that person to us!

4. The last 15 min of the rainy day we were soaked and decided to go walking. We said a prayer to God to help us find someone ready for baptism. I felt prompted to drive over one street and park. We got out and heard some kids screaming and we went over and found a grandma dropping her grandchildren off. She looked at us and said, "I've met missionaries in the rain before! I couldn't believe they were even outside!" she shared how much that meant to her and we will be visiting her later this week.

5. We had an appointment fall through so we instead shared a message with the person we brought with us. It was exactly what he needed at that time and God knew we needed to talk with him more. At the end we asked for referrals and he mentioned a man named Steve the elders taught a year ago, that we had also met and taught, and stopped teaching a few months ago. As we drove past Steve's home that day he was outside and waved to us! *side note....sister bleyl and I have talked a lot about really not working to be the type of people that the spirit needs to prompt 3 times to do something....we want to be just the 1 time people....* So...after seeing him wave sister Bleyl turned to me and said, "do you need a third sign!?" haha So we went back. He was on his way to a funeral in 10 min. We taught him the plan of salvation (what happens after death) But the neat part is we both felt SO strongly we were not there to teach him, so we challenged him to give away a pamphlet at the funeral to someone who needed it. God guided us to someone who would be able to be a missionary also! We loved it!

Lots more, not enough time! Love you all