God Is So Good!

Hello!

This week has been another major blessing from the Lord! I love every single minute that I have to serve Him and labour in His vineyard.

Last Monday, we got to see one of our investigators with a baptismal date, Kim, and talk to him about our beloved prophet and the importance of following him. Kim really is so knowledgeable already about the Gospel. Whenever we teach him he always reads whatever material we give him the time before in preparation for lesson so he basically teaches us when we go over! It's really refreshing to teach someone who just GETS it, and he gets it because he has been prepared. His heart has been softened over a period of 65 years to receive this message! That's something I have definitely been thinking about lately; the difference between people who have been prepared, and those who aren't ready. Sometimes, no matter what we do as missionaries, no matter how well we teach and extend commitments and plan and testify, people will still not get the message, for now. 

We also got to go to new missionary follow-up training for Sister Sherksnas! I love going to trainings. Although I know that I am here to minister and not be ministered unto, I really do enjoy getting to hear the powerful motivation, instruction, and testimony given by President Patterson and the assistants, oh and of course Sister Patterson :) I felt that I need to focus more on planning sufficiently to make stuff happen! We plan every day and we do a pretty good job, but there is a difference between good and great! This last weekly planning we took the advice of the assistants and made thorough plans every day to help people come to church. I hope next Sunday we get to see the fruits of our labours, but even if we don't right away, we keep having faith that exact obedience brings miracles! Faith does indeed precede the miracle!

We also got to meet with another one of our investigators with a baptismal date, Karie. She is a really sweet lady. She wants so baldy to change and we (us and Heavenly Father) are going to do all we can to make sure that she can! We have already set goals and made plans with her to help her quit smoking, and set a goal to meet with her at least twice a week to give her strength and continue to help her learn and progress. I really do love her a lot. I love all my investigators in a way I never thought I would. It is truly a humbling experience to get to see their potential through God's eyes.

We also have been meeting with Gabriel almost every day! He has made a pretty fantastic transformation from when we first met with him. He is working so hard to humble himself and put off the natural man. I am so proud of him and his accomplishments, and I know God is too. He accepts God's will without question, just seeking to follow him. I can't wait to see what he does in his lifetime.

God is so good! I can testify that he is preparing people in every country, in every mission, in every area, on every street in the world. God is working with them in their time. He knows exactly who will receive the Gospel and when they will receive it and who will bring it to them. It's up to us to find out how we plan into that and to ACT!

Gabriel's sister is a member, her name is Maria, and she made us the most delicious taquitos! I have never had homemade taquitos, they were soooo good!!! Maria also showed us a really awesome video, a broadcast from an Area Seventy called Christ's Church Blueprint or something??* It was suuuuuper good. I think the guys name was Tad Callister or something? Anyway, try and look it up, it’s the bomb.

On Friday we also felt impressed to go to a specific area where we proselyte and visit some potentials and do some street contacting. As we were doing this we found a young man named Thomas! It was such a blessing to be able to receive revelation from the Lord and to find someone who was being prepared by him. We met with him the day after with Brother Fitzpatrick, a member of our Bishopric, and we discussed the purpose of life! He ended up being 27 so we passed him off to the YSA elders (sadface). I am just so grateful for the plan our Heavenly Father has given us so that we can return to be with Him again! This time on earth is the time for us to prepare to meet God! (no pressure)

So all week long we had been visiting people and texting them reminders about Church, we even saw a bunch of them Saturday night and they all said they would come and we were so excited, and then Sunday came and...nothing. We even called some of them in the morning to wake them up and remind them and still no one came. I was pretty disappointed and I sat in Sacrament meeting thinking, what more could I have done? As Bishop Ravsten bore his testimony of how "faith precedes the miracle" I received my answer. It's not about what more I needed to do (in this particular circumstance). It was about what God could do. I needed to have Faith in His power and His ability. After all we can do, people still get to choose, even though that's super frustrating sometimes!

Sunday evening we had a stake missionary fireside and it was so amazing! The spirit was so strong and we did have an investigator, Karie, come to that! Our zone even sang a song at the end, and it wasn't too shabby if I do say so myself! All in all a great week :)

Love you dearly,

Sister Holt

*Link to Elder Tad R. Callister's talk, What is the Blueprint of Christ's Church?
What is the Blueprint of Christ's Church?

Let's see, we've got a picture of a lizard,a dude getting arrested and this sketch hotel we were teaching someone at... the moon :) the sunset :) oh and also it got to 35 degrees this week!  So that was sweet!