This Week Was Better After Receiving A Blessing

May 18, 2015

After a long session of planning/mapping out where to go and who to see :)    

My Dearest Familia & Friends,

That's so cool that Austinio gave his mission report. I can just imagine him there, hashing out everything, black and white, just like he never fails to do! What a boss.

This week was better. After receiving a blessing from Brother Gardner, I felt much more comforted and had the re-affirming confirmation from the Spirit that the Lord needs me here.

It has been HOT (humid more so) but nice. Yesterday we and the other three sets of elders had a dinner appointment at the same place and we all walked the 20 minutes in the dripping heat, I think I left a nice puddle on the members' couch. But it was still nice to get to know everybody and Sister Senior was sweet and gave us a ride to our next appointment :)

After receiving a bit of chastisement in emails from President about how this ward NEEDS focus on retention and re-activation, I re-evaluated my goals of just solely baptism and really want to help the members here. This week I have found how many members are in true need of the gospel and the love of God. After I made the mistake of testifying of the truth of "The Family: A Proc to the World" with a less-active Emily, who is pro-gay marriage (along with a lot of members in the ward), she was moved by Moroni 7 and the peace that it brought to her and the new life she is bringing into the world. She has been struggling with her faith after 4 miscarriages, but I think she is beginning to understand that God does not make bad things happen to good people. She came with us to a lesson with Lun Cheng, who is preparing to be baptized on July 4th, and I think it was very good for her to bear her testimony once more.

The more member lessons we have been able to set have shown great miracles as well. A couple members have felt comfortable asking us questions that others have asked them, in which they have questioned their faith. I admire how much Sister Schlosser shows love to each member and an understanding of the trials they are going through. I hope to continue to develop that same love and understanding as well. The people here are very dedicated to finding truth, but need the rock-solid testimony that will help them STAY saints of the Church of Jesus Christ.

We were so happy when Kendall came to Julia's lesson and bore powerful testimony about the Holy Ghost and baptism. We look forward to seeing her work towards baptism on July 11th.

Sorry this is so short! I will take more pics, too! I love you all and thank you so much for your prayers and hope that the work continues to progress in your neck of the woods!

Don't know if you've had the opportunity to see this Mormon Message yet, but it is a new one that just came out called "Lift" where 50 men keep their baptismal covenants through helping 1 woman:

Stay wonderful family of mine!

-Sister Weaver-