Hello!
This week has been pretty great! We had transfer calls on Saturday and......I'm staying in Bella Vista with Sister Knutson!!!! We are so happy we are both staying and staying together! There are a couple people we just did not want to leave! So we are happy that Heavenly Father still wants us both here in Bella Vista!
We have had some crazy rainstorms the past couple of days! It's good though because we have been in a huge drought! Usually everything here is green but it now is all brown because there is no water at all! So now the southern storms have come out and there are trees all over the place because of the wind. Yesterday there was even a stake wide fast for rain. So we really needed it! We heard that 50% of the counties in the US have been declared to be in a natural disaster because of the drought. Crazy stuff!
We had a pretty excellent week this week and ended it off with a fabulous fireside given by none other than our fabulous mission president! We were hoping for a bigger outcome, but what can you do? You can't take away peoples agency, you can only invite them to do things. :) So there are a few things that I want to talk about from what President Shumway said. It was probably one of the best firesides ever! I wish you all could have been there! First there was a BEAUTIFUL musical number. There is a girl named Madi in the branch. She actually goes to BYU but she lives out here in the summer with her family. So her, a girl from Bella Vista, and two guys sang "I Believe in Christ" a capella. I wish I could sing like Madi! She has the best voice ever! So they sang that in a special rendition to fit their voices. I started crying because it was so beautiful so the spirit was really strong!
So then Sister Shumway talked and she said some things that I really liked. "Everything you need to know to get back to your Father in Heaven, you learned in Primary." It's really true! Unless you didn't grow up in the church, everything we need to know we learned in primary! She also said, "The Gospel is simple. Simple enough for a 3 year old to understand." I thought of Keira and knew that Sister Shumway was right. I feel like Keira knows her Heavenly Father and knows what the Gospel is without really knowing. So that was great!
Then President Shumway spoke. Let me tell you, this man...is AMAZING! I feel so blessed to have him as my mission president! He told a story about one of his kids. His boy was in teeball and he was a coach. One game his son hit the ball and was running and his dad was the "third base coach" where they tell them to stop or keep going. He was telling him to stop but his son didn't stop....make sense so far?....so his boy noticed that the catcher already had the ball so he leaped in the air to slide for the base. He hit the ground and rolled until he came to a stop about 10 feet from the plate....he was all tangled up and Pres. Shumway was sure he was unconscious. So he walked up to him and slowly turned him over and his son was covered in the red sand stuff with big wide white eyes and he says, " Dad, that was like a carnival ride!" So in the fireside, President Shumway related this story and asked why we don't like life like a carnival ride. We fall all the time and we mess up. We need to live life like a carnival ride! So I challenge all of you to live you life like a carnival ride! It will be fun, right? :) He also talked about how there are 32,000 different Christian religions, none of them believing the same thing and none of them besides our has the authoritative right to say, "Thus saith the Lord..." Another thing he said was a story about a little girl who was talking about the First Vision and somebody asked if it was true and she said, "Well, why don't you ask God? He was there!" It's so true! Heavenly Father was there in the First Vision with Joseph Smith so if you are having doubts about that experience being true, why don't you ask God? He was there! :) I know he was! Another thing he talked about was his great x3 or 4 grandpa and his conversion story and how he met Joseph Smith. His grandpa said, in relation to the Book of Mormon, "No bad man could have written that book and no good man could have without the power of God." I KNOW the Book of Mormon is true. If I didn't, I wouldn't be out here on my mission. This gospel is super important to me. Again, if it wasn't, I wouldn't be out here. If you don't know it's true, or are having doubts, ask God. He would know and he WILL tell you.
So now to the work that we are doing....
We met with a 12 year old girl, O, and her less-active mom, Sister K, this week. They are just great! O loves to play soccer so we are going to be best friends! :) They have had the missionaries over to teach them before. We taught the Plan of Salvation last week and O just soaked it all up. She said that it made sense now, she didn't really understand it when missionaries had taught it before. She totally accepted it. We were telling them how we can explain it and say that it's true and how it's God's plan but they have to ask for themselves. O said in response to that, "I totally believe it. Who wouldn't believe that?" It was really great! And Sister K really understands that she needs to be sealed to her husband in the temple if she is going to be with her family forever in the Celestial Kingdom. We are hoping to get in with them twice again this week! We just love them!
A few lessons ago with the J, we just met with Sister J because Bro. J was out of town. We asked her where she thought her testimony was at and she said that she didn't even know if she knew there was a god. So we invited her to pray about it. Start at step one and go from there. So this week we met with them and she told us a story of how she had her prayers answered! So she now knows that we have a Heavenly Father and he knows and loves her. It was a great experience to have her share that and then Sister Knutson and I each shared how we know that we have a Father in Heaven. It was a fantastic lesson!
M is another one we've been working with! He is less active. For about the last month he has been coming to church every week! He even stayed for the whole fireside yesterday! We are so excited for him and happy that he is coming back to church. He is happy to be there and he has an amazing home teacher that is taking real good care of him! That's always nice to have help from the ward and it's not all on us. That's how it should always be!
We met with a 12 year old girl, O, and her less-active mom, Sister K, this week. They are just great! O loves to play soccer so we are going to be best friends! :) They have had the missionaries over to teach them before. We taught the Plan of Salvation last week and O just soaked it all up. She said that it made sense now, she didn't really understand it when missionaries had taught it before. She totally accepted it. We were telling them how we can explain it and say that it's true and how it's God's plan but they have to ask for themselves. O said in response to that, "I totally believe it. Who wouldn't believe that?" It was really great! And Sister K really understands that she needs to be sealed to her husband in the temple if she is going to be with her family forever in the Celestial Kingdom. We are hoping to get in with them twice again this week! We just love them!
A few lessons ago with the J, we just met with Sister J because Bro. J was out of town. We asked her where she thought her testimony was at and she said that she didn't even know if she knew there was a god. So we invited her to pray about it. Start at step one and go from there. So this week we met with them and she told us a story of how she had her prayers answered! So she now knows that we have a Heavenly Father and he knows and loves her. It was a great experience to have her share that and then Sister Knutson and I each shared how we know that we have a Father in Heaven. It was a fantastic lesson!
M is another one we've been working with! He is less active. For about the last month he has been coming to church every week! He even stayed for the whole fireside yesterday! We are so excited for him and happy that he is coming back to church. He is happy to be there and he has an amazing home teacher that is taking real good care of him! That's always nice to have help from the ward and it's not all on us. That's how it should always be!
There are lots more to say but I think I'll stop with that. :)
I love you all. Thanks for everything you do for me and for all you love and prayers! I can feel them every day!
See you soon then!
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