Family and Friends!!!
HOLY COW!!!! SO much happened this week that it's insane!!! I hope I have time to cover it all in my email!!!
Tuesday I got to go to Mena on an exchange. It was so good! We met a lady named Charity and she is just so ready for the gospel! It was our first time meeting her. She is friends with a member of the branch in Mena and she has some praying to do but I think with time she will just be so open to being baptized! The work down there is going so well! They had a hard week this week but they are just being prepared for something better!
Wednesday was the best day in the world! At first we thought it wasn't going to be so good but it was fantastic! We had District Training Meeting in the morning and then Sis. Whatcott and Sis. Merkley had lunch prepared for all of us. Sis. Whatcott took us home and we did a little bit of planning. We were meeting with Katie that day......we've been trying to meet with her for a while. Her mom and brother are less active, her dad and her are not members. So we've been trying to teach her for a long time. Like since we got to the area. SO, she had agreed to meet with us at the church. We felt really prompted to give her a baptism date. We felt like November 6th was right. The Elders are having a baptism that day so we could just do a double baptism. So we prepared a MAP to baptism which is basically a calendar with events on it until their baptism, and prayed about the date. We felt pretty good about it. When we get to the lesson, we talked for a little bit and then we said a prayer. Katie didn't even say "Amen" before she threw her arms out and said, "Okay, now don't get all giddy, but I've decided I want to become a member!" We were sitting there all like not knowing what to do and I said, "How can we not get giddy with a comment like that????" So then, we got giddy. :) It was just so cool to see how the Spirit really was speaking to us as we were planning. Had we not been prepared with a baptism date and a MAP, we would have been scrambling in the lesson and trying to figure things out then. Instead, we were able to say, "Great! We already have a date picked out and a MAP for you!" IT WAS SO GREAT!!!!!!! So then we were supposed to meet with the Hobbs after so we went to go find them. We introduced Katie to Sis. Hobbs and Katie told her she was getting baptized. Sis. Hobbs started jumping up and down and screaming because she was so excited! Sis. Hobbs is the cutest little woman!!! I love her to death! She couldn't be more excited for her own baptism and now she's excited for Katie's as well!! Then Bishop walked into the church with Bro. Lynch and Lexus so we went to go tell him about Katie and then Lexus came up to me and said, "Remember Sister Pahl!".....I couldn't remember what I was supposed to remember....so I said, "What am I supposed to remember?" Lexus just stared at me in disappointment, then she whispered in my ear, "I'm getting baptized on the 6th, too, before you leave." I was just absolutely astonished! Lexus was TOTALLY not interested in getting baptized on Sunday when we had taught her last, now all of a sudden she's telling me that she's getting baptized that day too. SO we are going to have a TRIPLE baptism on the 6th! My last day in the mission field!!!!! How cool is that? The Elders have someone getting baptized and then Lexus and Katie are getting baptized!!! We are so excited!!! Now, we just have to work our little hearts out to make sure they get all the lessons taught to them! Lexus will be especially hard since she has a major ADHD issue going on. She doesn't really want to take the lessons but she does understand why we get baptized. We had a lesson with her Wednesday night about it and she doesn understand that. She might not understand all the things we teach her, but she will learn more as she gets older.
Friday we did another exchange. This time Sis. Huskey who is serving in Van Buren and waiting for a Visa to go to Brazil came to Charleston with me. She is a great missionary and it was so great to be with her for a day! I feel like we taught really well together! She's going to be a great asset in Brazil. But she's super lucky because she got to come to the BEST mission in the world first and serve here for a little bit. :) We went to Booneville and tried teaching Lexus again. She just is different everyday. We did the cup display with her so we could teach the Restoration and she liked the part where we knocked down the cups, but she wanted to keep knocking it down! Oh goodness. :) We also met with Katie again at the church. Her mom even joined us for the last part of the lesson. So that was good! :) They are just so great!
Saturday we went to Ft. Smith and played soccer with some other missionaries, investigators, and less active members. It was a lot of fun but I am so out of shape that it is unreal!!!! That will have to change when I come home... :) After we did some service at the Riley's. We're still working on getting their house up to shape. We painted the dining room. That was fun! It is so cool to see the progress that their house is making! It's great!
Sunday was a good day as well! We ended up teaching the Gospel Principles class because the teacher couldn't come. After church we had our weekly lunch with the Merkley family who recently moved here from Kaysville, Utah. They are so great! I love them so much! We are going over there to day to paint our toenails with the girls! Hahah It's Melanie's birthday as well so there will be cake involved! :)
On Sunday we also watched the Testaments with the Hobbs. It just reaffirmed to me that Bro. Hobbs will be baptized someday. He knows that the church is true. What was funny is that we asked Sis. Hobbs who she wants to speak at her baptism. She said that she wanted Bro. Hobbs two siblings to do it. One of them is an inactive member and the other is semi-active. So Bro. Hobbs called them up and TOLD them, not asked, told, them that they are giving the talks! They both agreed! One put up a little fight but she finally agreed! It's so cool! I think it will really help their family a lot!!!
Well, more happened, but I don't have enough time!!!
Thanks so much for all the support I receive!
Love you all!!
See you soon then!!
Love, Sister Pahl
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