Who thinks we needed more of these kind of updates throughout the mission?

 

Spiritual Overflow

 First, I just want to thank everyone for your prayers! We had a lesson with our friend Dale who has been taught for over a year. In that lesson, we talked about the gift of the Holy Ghost and how we receive that after we're baptized. Dale said he's not ready for baptism and is waiting until the Spirit tells him he's ready. While he was saying that, he was getting a little emotional. The Spirit was definitely confirming to him that this is something he needs to do. He recognized that and said, "baptism is coming, I feel it." Not even a few hours later he texted us saying he's ready for baptism! We called him and talked over a few things and he asked us when the soonest date is he can be baptized. He set his own baptismal date for may 18th! It's such a blessing to see God soften hearts and im grateful for all the missionaries who taught him in the past!

We had a lesson with Pat Paige the other day and we told her our purpose is to help her be baptized with proper authority. She was talking about baptism and how she knows God will help her with that. When we invited her to be baptized she was like, "that's what I was talking about! Of course I'll be baptized" haha!! We have a member who joins our lessons with her and they are best friends!! She told us God led her to this church and He's telling her to be baptized! 

Angel came to church and brought his two sons! He's been progressing well! We actually discovered he met with missionaries in Arizona before he moved here and they were talking about baptism with him! So exciting! 

We had an apostle come to our mission and speak to us!! Elder Renlund is amazing! We got to shake his hand and tell him our name and where we're from. He and his wife gave  us lots of tips for missionary work and answered our questions. Something I took away from him was making Jesus real in our lives and helping others do the same. We can do this by studying his words and actions in the scriptures. So I invited all of yall to intentionally take time and study the scriptures, seeking Jesus. 

We've been focusing on bringing members to all of our lessons with those we're teaching. We seriously could not do this work with out them! Their testimonies and friendships are game changers! We've seen a lot of our friends coming to church and feeling welcomed!

Please pray for 

Dale 

Pat Paige 

Willie 

Rainey 

Robbie 

Pictures

--> We were way out in the furthest part of our area and we drove past a house that had EMUs! I told Sister Austin to pull over because we were going to knock on their door and ask for a picture with their emus.

 --> Sister Austin was stood on an ant hill and they were all over her shoes!! 

Robbie's Baptism 🌊🤍

 We had such a busy and amazing week!! 

We had a mini zone conference/training by the APs and that was fun. I had my last interview with President Hamblin which was insane! He gives great advice! 

God has been blessing us! He's been preparing so many people that they are reaching out to us! We've had like 10 people request to meet with us and come to church! Normally people don't remember making the request, but almost all of them remember and were eager to learn more!! Angel requested to meet with us. We gave him a tour of the church and showed him the baptism font, the paintings, and said prayer at the end. He was emotional and said he really enjoyed it. He came to church on Sunday! He even made friends with one of the members. Paige is also someone we're meeting with. We've met with her twice now. Last time she told us she really wants to come to church, she just needs a ride. She explained that God told her she needs to go to church. She came to church on Sunday and told us this is where God needs her!! 

We did lots of service this week! I love being outside and working! We helped work food donations and did yard work! 💪

Robbie was baptized!! He's been taught by missionaries for a long time but recently passed over to us and we had to teach him all of the lessons again. So we taught him everything in a week and we also only had a week to plan his whole baptism. This is also Sister Austin's first baptism and I don't know most of the ward members so that was fun. Everything pulled together though, and it was wonderful! 

In one of our lessons with him, I felt prompted to ask if he ever thought of serving a mission. He lit up and enthusiastically said, "yes!" Earlier this week during zone conference, one of the missionaries shared his testimony. He is a convert to the church, he didn't grow up in the gospel. He shared how he met the missionaries and how they helped him and that's why he wanted to serve a mission. It was so heartwarming to see so many fruits of missionary work! 

I love witnessing people making covenants at baptism! Since a covenant is a two way promise between us and God, I like to think of baptism is the way we show our promise to God and when we receive the Holy Ghost (the second part of baptism) is how God shows His promise to us. 

Hope yall have an amazing week!!

Please pray for 

Paige 

Dale

Angel

Dionna 

Pictures: 

Giving her all for the work

 

Transfers pt 12

 This week has been great! Remember Anmar? We had a lesson with him this week and he told us the other half of the miracle we witnessed the previous week! He told us he was driving to Savannah when something told him to pull over and look up not just any church but the church of Jesus Christ. So he did! When he drove to the church building that's where he found us watching general conference! When we met this week he told us he's been listening to the book of morning on the gospel library app and that he'll watch general conference. The only down side is he lives in the pooler area.

Which brings us here to another miracle --> transfer news!! I've been transferred to Pooler, Georgia!!🫢 I was really really sad to leave Sister bruce and west chatham! I'm excited for a new adventure though with Sister Austin!! She's from eagle mountain Utah and she's been on her mission for a little over 4 months. I already love her and excited to keep working! 

Our friend Robbie is being baptized this coming Saturday! He's been taught for about 4 years by different missionaries but he's ready now! I'm so excited for him to be baptized!! 

I can't think of anything else that happened this week so this is just going to be a short email! 

Please pray for 

Robbie

Anmar

For us to find new people to teach

Pictures! 

Tracting👣

 General conference was amazing!! We had a couple of general conference miracles! The first one was we had a friend join us for a session! We watched at the church building with bishops family and a few other members, including a returning member! Our friend Cintel reached out to us to ask what time church was this weekend and was more than happy to watch conference, yay! Another miracle was one of our conference plans fell through. We were going to watch it with a family we are teaching but they canceled 10 min before we were supposed to be there! While we were watching in one of the church rooms, we heard a knock on the outside door. We open it and a guy is asking what time church starts! Anmar now wants to meet with missionaries and learn more about the gospel of Jesus Christ! 

Went to MLC on Tuesday and learned a lot! Sister Hamblin spoke about THIS mission. This is a present word and the only time I get to call my mission this mission is foe a short time. It was great to appreciate the things I've learned this mission and to remember the blessing it is to still be able to call it this mission! 

After MLC we had to run an errand and we happened to be really close to the temple so we stopped by and took some pictures! I love to see the temple! 

We lost contact with our friend destiny and I'm devastated about that! It's a hard thing watching someone who is so excited about learning and progressing drift away. Her number changed and she lives in a gated community we can't get into. I know missionaries will be placed in her path again though! 

We've been getting quite a few media referrals! They will cancel sometimes or tell us they're not interested right now but we found Kory this week! He requested to meet with us so we went to his address and discovered we needed a lot number🤦‍♀️ this happens to often. It was going to be one of 5 doors so I suggested we go tracting and knock all of them! First door someone answered but they didn't know Kory and they weren't interested. That one was a little rough, but it's okay, that was just a warm up! It wasn't until the last door that we found Kory! He was so excited to see us and is looking forward to coming to church this next weekend! 

Please pray for 

Robert 

Kory 

Cintel

Pictures 

Pday activities: hiked (walked) skidaway Island, bowling with the district, explored bass pro shop

Found a baby turtle! 

Someone parked wayyyy too close

Twinning with Sister Bruce

HAPPY EASTER!! ✝️🌱🌷

 Hope yall had an amazing Easter! I appreciated taking extra time to focus on our Savior, His life, and His sacrifice for me. This is the special message that we share, He lives! These are the main events in the scriptures. In the Bible, Christ taught that He will be resurrected and even though they didn't fully understand what that meant, He visited them after His Resurrection so that they may have a personal witness and testimony. In the Book of Mormon, the crowning event is when the resurrected Christ visited the Americas. I am so grateful for the gift of life Christ granted to each and every one of us!

These last two weeks hold a lot of miracles and I'll share a few of them! On our way back to the car after no one answering their door, I saw the house across the street and thought we should knock on their door. Donna answered the door, noticed we were with the Church of Jesus Christ and she turns around and says to a lady in the living room, "Sherry! You really set me up??" Turns out Sherry is a member who lives a few aways away who was visiting for the weekend! Sherry said, "I didn't send them the Spirit did." Donna wasn't interested but that was an amazing miracle! 

We could not get away from our member meal to leave for a lesson! Our lesson was 20 min away and planned for 7:30. We didn't leave dinner until 7:30! We rushed to meet with this family - the parents are members, Amber is a returning member, her husband is a recent member of less than a year [mike], and we are teaching their daughter [Chesley]. We texted them that we were on our way but about 15 min out. Amber texted and said she was so happy to hear that we were coming! She said Mike's boss sent over missionaries from his church and they were trying to argue with them! She was praying that they would just leave when we texted her we were on our way! We arrived when they said their closing prayer and we walked in as they were walking out! Mike and Amber talked through what happened and we were able to help them through any questions they had. Then we read the book of Mormon with their family! It was amazing to see God's timing in all of that! 

Last Sunday in Relief Society, or the women's class, a sister shared an amazing story. She shared that her parents weren't the best parents, however she went to the temple to be sealed to them! By giving her parents the opportunity to accept and keep a covenant to be honorable parents, all of her anger from the past vanished and she was full of joy and happiness! That is a restoration of families!

We received an online request from Destiny who wanted to learn more about baptism!! She actually remembers making the request, most people don't. We've already been able to talk with her and teach about the covenant that baptism is! So exciting! 

While we attempted to visit a media referral, we needed help with directions. We asked these guys where is was and they pointed down the road a little bit to a run trailer. We had to get through a dog, 5 giant carpenter bees, and 16 cats to knock on the door! An old lady answered and said our media referral, Carlin, lives behind her trailer in a tent. I asked how she knows him and she said, "I don't know, he just lives back there in a tent." So odd! We walked around the trailer and sure enough there's a camp site in the woods! We contemplated for a second if we would go over there but we decided not to! 

We taught our friend Robert about prophets and priesthood authority and he was so excited to hear we have a prophet today! It really is exciting! Hope yall enjoy general conference next weekend! 

Please pray for 

Anna + Tristan 

Truman 

Donovan 

Robert 

Destiny 

Pictures

Bonaventure cemetery

Easter treats

Sister Smiths birthday

Saw an alligator!