The Spirit of God Like a Fire!

Dear Familia!

Oh boy! Was this week just sensational? Yes! My soul is just filled with delight, I have no idea how this works! But I do know it is the Spirit and that this is the Lord's work! How beautiful are the mountains we get to walk on? That probably made no sense because there aren't mountains here. Anyways! Lets start with an update on the wonderful people we are working with. We met with Barbara again this week. She is doing so well. She is reading the Book of Mormon and loves it. We haven't taught her the Word of Wisdom yet but she said as soon as she started reading she lost the desire to drink and she has been declining any alcohol given to her because she feels she just doesn't need it anymore. Okay. Without us even asking or talking about it she has already tried invited some friends and family to her baptism. Okay. It's so great! I don't even know what to do! Just teach her what she needs to know and help her be baptized! She had the flu on Sunday so she couldn't come to church but she is progressing so well!

Tina! This woman is so wonderful! She told us she knows God wants her to be baptized. She has been studying and marking up scriptures about baptism and prophets. We talked to her about General Conference, prophets, apostles, priesthood. I love it because she is the first person I have taught that understands that we have that authority, that Christ's church would have his authority and it is as the scriptures say "One lord, one faith and one baptism" It is so neat. We were worried this week because we had church at a different stake center because the other stake needed our bigger building. But she came! And it wasn't a problem! And she loved it! She brought a notebook and took notes in Sunday School! Isn't she just beautiful! The ward already assigned her home teachers and is working on visiting teachers. This gospel is changing her. She is so much more confident in herself and happy because she has been reading the Book of Mormon and being edified by her. It is definitely the power of God!

And this isn't where the great stuff ends! This Saturday we had a very special event! Our whole mission gathered together for a mission conference so we could hear special servants of the Lord speak. We had Elder Craig C. Christensen from the presidency of the seventy and Elder Daniel L. Johnson from the first quorum of the seventy come and speak to us with our area authority, Elder Jack Ward. It was so good! First off! Guess who I saw! Literally everyone! Sister Morales! That was an exciting moment! I gave her a special hug for you mom! It will be only a week old hug! I saw all of my old companions, all my old districts! It was almost a sensory overload! So many missionaries! It was so beautiful though! It was an empowering experience. President and Sister Cutler bore their testimonies than Elder Christiensen talked! He is definitely a special witness of Christ. The words he said were meant specifically for our mission, specifically for me (as well as everyone else). He talked about how there are four pillars of the atonement.

1. Christ overcoming death, we will all rise again. 

2. Christ helping us overcoming spiritual death, through faith and repentance we are all made clean.

The other 2 were r3ally good, and I have never categorized like this before.

3. Christ suffered all our pains and trials so he could heal us. As he said when he healed those during his ministry "By your faith, ye are made whole" Through him all wounds can be healed, physically, spiritually and mentally.

4. Grace, the the enabling power of the atonement that allows us to do things we could not do on our own. 

He then went through a question and answer session with him and all others there and it was a sacred experience. I am sure it was personal for all there. As I listened I had just a wonderful feeling of the absolute possibility that we can be steadfast and immovable in Christ. That we can make it home again. As we put Faith above all else miracles will happen. I am so grateful for my mission! It has put me on a path that I have no idea how I could have got on without it, nor do I want to know how I would have had to get here. I know that my Savior is therefor me. I know I can always have perfect hope in His promises because He will fulfill His word. I know that those God has called are all there for a reason to fulfill God's work and to bear witness of Him.

I just love you guys so much! It sounds like you had a fun week celebrating birthdays! I hope you all continue to be safe! I love you dearly!

I love you more than I love our car!

Anne

A week of miracles!

Dear Family! 

I can't even begin to express my feelings for the multitude of tender mercies Heavenly Father is pouring down! I am just going to start by tell you the story of Barbara and how the Lord has prepared her. 

So Barbara has been looking for a church for years. She has been baptized Lutheran and that one is the one she kept going back to but bad stuff just kept happening. In 1996 she requested a copy of the Book of Mormon from Salt Lake. She got the Book of Mormon in the mail along with a letter asking her to read the introduction, 3 Nephi 11 and Moroni 10:3-5. It also said two Elders would come, but they never came. Her best friend of 35 years was baptized in 2000 but left the church. She ended up coming back to church 9 years ago and has been sharing the gospel with Barbara ever since. 8 years ago Barbara has had several unexpected deaths in her family. Her friend, Karen, shared with her the importance of temples. Barabara has always been a little hesitant to learn from people other than her friend so it never went farther then their discussions as friends. Now 3 weeks ago the Elders had this strong impression to knock this neighborhood. They did not like this neighborhood. Everyone rejected them without fail. All they did was give away one passalong card to Barbara who was on the phone so she didn't talk to them at all. They had no idea what they did! She decided it was time! She requested the movie on the card and we brought it to her! We also gave her another Book of Mormon and gave her an assignment to read the introduction and 3 Nephi 11 and we read Moroni 10 with her and promised she could know these things were true. We came back the next week and she showed us that letter and we had given her the exact same thing to read. We also showed up and she had her member friend there. We taught the Plan of Salvation and oh boy! Karen's testimony made it so powerful because she knew exactly what Barbara needed to hear! Barbara also said she had been reading the Book of Mormon everyday! She was hugging and told us how comfortable she feels reading it! She love it! We felt the prompting to invite her to be baptized and she accepted a date for April 25th! Right after she accepted her friend said, "I knew you gonna get baptized! I already asked to give the talk on the Holy Ghost!" So we aren't going to have a hard time planning :) She also came to church this week and loved it! She is so amazing! You can just see God's love for her! 

Also Tina is doing incredible! She finished the Book of Mormon! She is just progressing beautifully, the gospel is changing her. She smiles more and you can see a light in her eyes, hope! We had a lesson on the Word of Wisdom this week! Her only hold up was coffee and she cut down this week from 1 pot to 1 cup which is so good! We had another lesson and went over Mosiah 18 and what baptism is about. She is so excited! She said a beautiful prayer about her baptism. It was probably one of the best moments I have had as a missionary so far. She has a testimony and she expresses it! She also is still coming to church and loves it! She said next week she wants to take notes! We are encouraging her to read some general conference talks and get excited about it coming up! We are so excited for her! She is excited! She gave us girl scout cookies too! What more could you want? 

I also got a pluthera of packages this week! That was exciting I couldn't believe it! Every sibling sent a package and I got a card from Valine! I can't believe I am 20 though. That isn't cool. Not cool.

I was 27 this week and looking for Faith. I think the people of Ammon had more than Faith they had hope. They had hope in the Savior. They KNEW he died for them and they KNEW that all would be well and made up to them. They followed Him with all their heart, all their souls.  

 28 And they did look upon shedding the blood of their brethren with the greatest abhorrence; and they never could be prevailed upon totake up arms against their brethren; and they never did look upon death with any degree of terror, for their hope and views of Christ andthe resurrection; therefore, death was swallowed up to them by the victory of Christ over it. 

 29 Therefore, they would suffer death in the most aggravating and distressing manner which could be inflicted by their brethren, beforethey would take the sword or cimeter to smite them. 

 30 And thus they were a zealous and beloved people, a highly favored people of the Lord.
These are just some of the most beautiful verses to me. I've read and read them but if you read along with True to Faith's definition on Hope it just gets so much more personal. I have been thinking a lot about what that kind of dedication would be. How we get to that. That is where I want to be. Nothing wavering. With such a trust in Christ that they would give their all. I love it. 

I hope you guys have fun celebrating together! Be safe! Be happy! I love you so much! 

I love you more than all the birthday packages in the world! 

Anne

Prayer Works!

Dear Family!

This was a week of miracles! Crazy, crazy stuff! So we were visiting someone and missed a phone call and we listen to the voice mail and it was this man that the Sisters found a while back. One of the Sisters was Sister Wu from China and they had found this other man from China and gave him a Chinese Book of Mormon. So he called saying he read the whole thing and had a few questions and wanted us to come answer them. Yes! So we are going there this week! I am pretty excited! We will see how it goes. We are trying to invite a member who also speaks Mandarin. 

Then later that day we get a headquarters referral. They are typically from mormon.org. Most frequently we get free bible requests then Book of Mormon and maybe missionary visits. This time it was my first ever one from a pass-along card for the Finding Faith in Christ dvd. That never happens! We hand out a bajillion but I have never seen anything come from it. So we went and contacted her! Her name is Barbara. Miracle! So the Elders had tracted into her a week ago and she was on the phone and couldn't talk so they just gave her a card and left. She actually called the number on the card! You want to know why? Because her best friend of 35 years is Mormon and has been trying to get her to investigate for years and she decided the time was now. I don't know how I controlled myself in the situation because she is inviting her member friend to her next lesson, so she already has her fellow shipper taken care of. She said she read the New Testament every night but committed herself to read the Book of Mormon instead! And she really wants to come to church. Just incredible. I can hear angels singing in the background. Just an absolute miracle!

We also when on exchanges this week. Sister Askerland came here, I replaced her actually so it was really helpful to have her here. She is just my hero. The greatest missionary I have ever worked with. She really inspired me just to be a better missionary. We had an awesome prayer experience. We were just all over the place that night and we got home and we couldn't find our phone. It's terrible for a missionary to loose their phone because there is so much on it! So we said a prayer and when we finished we got out of the car and this guy was getting in his car next to us and let us borrow his phone to call ours. The phone was gone. So we both felt like we should go back to one of the places we had been that night. We pull up and the phone just lights up on the side of the road. There was nothing on it, it shouldn't have lit up but it did! It was so neat! It reminded me of something a woman said in Relief Society a few weeks ago, she said she hope she was always humble enough to pray for the little things like finding something. That was a great experience. 

Saturday we went and taught Tina! She is SO amazing! I just love her! Her Book of Mormon is just all marked up and beautiful! She is so getting baptized. We taught her about prophets and the commandments which was pretty funny because all the sacrament meeting talks were on prophets! I told her we had no idea. We brought a member and she seemed to warm up to her just fine! We also set her baptismal date for April 11th and we are praying with her a lot about it and talking about it a lot so she can get excited and work towards it. 1 month! 

Also daylight savings is not a missionaries friend. I will just leave it at Sunday we were miserably tired :)

I about freaked out when it dawned on me my 20th birthday is this week. Ahh! I can't handle that. Can I just be a kid forever. It will be interesting. 

I hope you guys just a have a fabulous week! You are so wonderful! I don't have to feel jealous about your regional conference with Elder Perry because he may be the apostle coming next week to our mission! It is so warm today though! The snow is starting to melt! I love it! It is weird though because the last time I felt weather like this I was in Sun Prairie. So weird. I love you all a ton! Keep up the great work! You are just great! I love you so so much!

I love you more than I love this weather!

Anne

S'Wonderful!

My dear Family!

Can you say just marvelous? Because that is what this Sunday was. Wow! It was probably my best Sunday as a missionary. First of all the long and awaited Tina came to church! We were able to find out one of her setbacks in coming to church because the Spirit! She has some struggles with anxiety and we were able to figure out the 3 hours scared her and we set a goal to just come to the first hour. We had no idea that was holding her back but wow, the Spirit works. We also had a member of the bishopric give her a priesthood blessing to help and it was so perfect. She felt the Spirit and she drew power from it to come to church. During that visit we found out she had come across anti and anti people. She defended the church! She told us she knew what they said wasn't true and went and looked it up on lds.org. No way! So she came and we sat down with her in the back and so many people came in! Almost every less active we have been visiting regularly came. They just kept filing in and my eyes got wider and wider. Then! Trish and Callieblue walked in too! Trish also defended the church as well, she seems a little more wary about being a member but her daughter loves it. Her heart will continue to soften. We had 3 investigators at church! Then the Elders had 3 as well! It was a great Sunday! And Fasting is just great too! If I was capable I would totally do a 40 day fast because I can't imagine the blessings you would receive and power from the atonement. Anyways, after sacrament meeting I asked Tina if she had any questions and she asked "Was it okay for me to take the sacrament before my baptism?" Yes! All I focused on that was her talking about her baptism! So good! She is just doing incredible. 

I just want to end there! I guess I shouldn't have started with that but too late. In my district we have 3 Elders going home at the end of the transfer. So they are all just working hard and doing their best. We had a really, I wouldn't say heated, passionate maybe, discussion on how we can help the members with missionary work. We hashed a lot of things out and now we have a plan to go to every house on our ward list, talk about it and personally invite them to a fireside in April. It's going to be a lot but if we do it right I know we will see lots of blessings.

Our whole Zone is working hard to prepare for the apostle to come. We are working hard. Our Stake President set a goal of 70 baptisms this year so our mission president is really pushing us. It's so weird to be in Milwaukee in the center of all the mission stuff. The mission office is in our area which is strange. If we ever need Book of Mormons we just go and pick them up.

We had a crazy Friday and Saturday. Appointment after appointment. We were running from place to place. We met with our neighbor Vitahlese. He and his wife are from Africa. He taught us more than we taught him. He just went through the bible and kept asking do you believe this? Do you believe this? He basically pulled the law of chastity out of some verses and asked if we believed in that too. Yes, yes we do. It was crazy, he said he didn't study the Bible a lot but he was pulling stuff out right and left. They invited us over for lunch next Sunday and we will see how he accepts the Book of Mormon, because if he does he would be the most rock solid member ever. 

I can't even tell you how inspired your letters were this week! They were just what I needed! I just love you guys so much! This week I was reading the story of Abinadi and I realized how harsh his message would have been taken by the people of King Noah. He had quite the task given to him. But he did it! 100%! I think it is so neat that God could trust him enough to not shrink at the task he had to do. I hope I can live in that way. As our Zone Leaders said to us, #zoneofAbinadis :)

​Surprise! It's official!

I hope you all have a fantabulous week and stay warm! March is here!

I love you more than all the hot chocolate in the world!