Miracles!!

Dearest family and friends!

 

This week has been so pack full of miracles that it's not even funny!

 

First off, I thought I'd give you an update on the chiggers!! The bite I got, still there, still itches. No fun! :) But it's getting smaller and I think it will probably get better this week. I'm tired of the itching on my back!!! It's in the worst place too - one that I can't reach it. Oh well.

 

So like I said, this week was SOOO great!!!

 

I'll start with the Jackson family. They are great! We went to see them last Monday and we were able to just share a little thought. Sister Ficklin bore a great testimony about how we are supposed to be there teaching them. We truly think we are here partly for their family. Sister Jackson really wants to know if the church is true for herself. It is so amazing! We are excited to teach them more. We were supposed to have a lesson with them Wednesday night but it didn't work out. We are going to see them tonight!

 

Tuesday was Mission Tour with Elder Stanley G. Ellis and his wife. I honestly think it was better than last year's Mission Tour. The most fun thing was that I got to see all the companions that I've had that are still in the mission field! It was pretty sweet. The way that it worked out is that we were all in the same area of the mission. There were three different meetings for the Mission Tour. Each meeting had three different zones in it. So it was good! My favorite thing that was said was, "The way we grow our faith is to do things that require faith." I loved it because that's always been my question on my mission, "How can I grow my faith?" There's my answer! I'll be able to remember it for the rest of my life! The Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders got to have a special meeting with Elder Ellis. It was good. He talked about how we could double or even triple the number of baptisms we have a month. I'm excited to see how the mission grows from this meeting!

 

I went on an exchange after Mission Tour with Sister Stockhoff to Muskogee!!! I always love going back there. It was a good exchange. We had a dinner appointment with the Fergusons - we had dinner with them last time I was with Sister Stockhoff - and they also fed us like the Tuesday before I got transferred from Muskogee! So it's fun getting to see them a lot. We also met with a girl who got baptized later that week. She's really great! It is amazing how the Lord prepares people. When Sister Hatch and I were there, she obviously wasn't prepared because we didn't find her. Sisters Stockhoff and Wise were meant to teach her. It's amazing!!

 

On Wednesday night we dropped by the Statons. We hadn't been able to see them for a while and so it was good that we stopped by! We went in and just talked for a little while. Then we were able to talk with them about taking the lessons. We pretty much begged them to just listen to our message. We did "How to Begin Teaching" basically. Sister Ficklin and I have gained a strong testimony of How to Begin Teaching. It really opens us up to the investigator about what our purpose is. So, on Friday night, I was on and exchange with Sister Boll in Charleston. We went and had an AMAZING first lesson with the Statons! Sister Boll has only been out for 2 weeks but she did great! These younger missionaries are so prepared to teach the gospel!! I love working with them and learning from them. Anyway, the Statons really felt the Spirit! I'm not sure how serious they are, but they said that they would read and pray about the Book of Mormon. We go see them again tonight so it should be good!

 

Like I said before, on Friday, Sister Boll came to Charleston for an exchange. We did a little bit of tracting and we came upon this guy that gave us a pretty hard time and was telling us all these things that he didn't believe in. I just stayed calm and tried to resolve his concerns but it just wasn't worth it because he had already made up his mind. Later Sister Boll and I were talking about it and she quoted President Shumway and I really liked what he said and I thought it was kind of funny. He said, "Remember, they're wrong and one day they'll be dead...." dramatic pause, "....and they'll know the truth!" So I liked that and found comfort that one day that these people that reject us will know the truth, whether they accept it or not.

 

One super miracle we had this week was with Bro. Lynch!!! Let's just say that he has a date for September 21st! We are so excited!!! He came to church last week and really liked it. We had an appointment with him on Thursday night but he texted us and told us that his brother was in a bad accident and that he had to go to Mississippi to be with him in the ICU. So on Saturday, it was the last day of the month so we were getting a little worried about miles. We had just got out of an appointment with a less active member and our next appointment was with Bro. Lynch. We didn't know if we were going to have enough miles to go to the appointment so we sat there doing some calculations and we decided that prayer was needed. We decided to pray because the calculations said we had enough but we just wanted to feel comfortable with going. After we prayed, the Spirit said, "Go!" So we did. We got there and we sat outside at a table outside of his apartment. We went over the Restoration with him  and then we challenged him to be baptized. He said, "Yes!" So we gave him the date of September 21st. He accepted it. In our planning, we decided that if he accepted the date that we would need to teach the Word of Wisdom so that he COULD be baptized on that date (they have to be living the Word of Wisdom for a certain amount of time before they're baptized). He drinks tea so we were worried about how he would take it. Side note: he had a cup of tea with him that he was drinking. Okay so, once we said that we don't drink tea, he took his cup of tea and hid it behind him. He said that he gets mad without his tea. After thinking about it for a little bit, he told us that he actually has been getting sick of tea. We told him it was a great time to stop drinking it! He could replace it with lemonade or Kool-Aid. He said that was a good idea. He committed to live the Word of Wisdom and at the end of the lesson, he let me dump out his cup of tea!!! It was so great!!! :) Such a great experience! We're excited!

 

At Mission Tour, there was a story told about a missionary who just had a baptism that included a whole family. He went up to his mission president and said, "President, it's amazing! We prayed for a family to baptize and the Lord provided one!" The Mission President said, "Great, Elder! Why didn't you ask for two?" After that story, I committed to praying for families to teach every day! Well, every day, I see a different family that we've been given to teach!!! On Sunday, we were in a town called Lavaca. The Hobbs are a nonmember family but are on our records because they had all their children blessed. They've been taught the lessons before so we decided to go over there. We asked them about their experience and Sis. Hobbs said that she'd prayed about it already and decided it's not for her. I asked how long ago that was. She said it had been about 7 years. A little later we were talking more about it and I told them that we felt that we had been sent to teach them. Sis. Hobbs agreed! She said that they aren't doing very good and that they need something more in her life. We asked them to take the lessons again and they said they would like that! I told her that she should pray again because sometimes we aren't prepared for the gospel but later we could be. She said that she would pray again! Such a miracle!!!

 

There were so many more miracles this week but I don't have enough time to talk about all of them! I wish I had more time! :)

 

Thank you so much for everything you all do!

 

Love you all!!

 

See you soon then!

 

Love, Sister Pahl :):)