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| Making booklets for the Book of Mormon Challenge at Sis. Tyler's house |
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| With Rachel Tyler |
So I have come to the conclusion that dry heat is much better than heat with humidity. Yesterday was super hot, like our car was saying 114 for most of the day, but I wasn't dying! I just felt like I was constantly getting a sunburn, but I survived! Man you guys are just living in insanity right now hahaha! I keep praying that Heavenly Father will lead you to the place you are supposed to be in. I don't believe you all would have felt so prompted to sell the house for no reason and then to find a perfect family to sell it to... things like that don't just happen on accident. I know Heavenly Father is preparing a safe haven for all of you :) How fun Abby and David got to go to camp! And that Papa got to go with David for a day! And awwww I loved hearing about your little get away with papa :) that makes me happy :D It makes me feel at peace knowing that even though there are quite a few stressful things going on right now, you guys are still happy. That is the most important thing to me. All of you! I will for sure be keeping Grandma Lynne in my prayers!!!! I know this surgery will be so good for her. Oh how cool for Christopher!! I hope he gets the job! I think that would be good for him. Let me know when you find out! And tell Christopher to email me back!! And also tell him I am in Alma :) haha
Anyways so this week.... it has been absolutely crazy!! family time is just flying by!!! today we spent a few hours finishing getting all of Sister Avila's stuff packed. It definitely inspired me to get rid of stuff haha She goes into the mission home today at 3 :( I am going to miss her!! We had soo much fun together! But I will see her again soon enough :) So we got transfer news on Saturday night and I am training again! Yay! I love training :) But this time I am training a VC sister so I am super excited to get to show her what the VC is all about and how to do presentations and just tell her everything that is amazing about the visitors center!! yayyyy!! I will find out Wednesday which sister it is so I will tell you next week. I am staying in my area, but guess what.. I will only have ONE ward!!!! Just YSA! Can you even believe it?! In the past 9 months I have NEVER only had one ward before. CRAZY. Family I just want to tell you for one sec how much I absolutely LOVE being a missionary. I just can't even describe it. There is just so much purpose and meaning in everything you do. Nothing is ever about yourself- it's so refreshing!! It breaks my heart to see people go home and I can't even imagine how heart broken I will be when that day comes. I know I said I will go home in February, but I want to try to extend to April. I just love this work! I love the visitors center and I love what I get to be a part of each and every day. I LOVE the sisters I serve with sooo much!! I love our leaders, everything. Love it. President and Sister Ellsworth go home in just like 3 weeks! I can't believe it! I will miss them, but I am excited to meet President Jenkins :)
So anyways onto the good stuff. Let me tell you some stories...
Numero uno: Jesus Avila. So we were walking down this big main road trying to contact a referral we received when this guy on a bike rides past us. We ended up turning around cus we discovered that the address didn't exist :( when all the sudden the guy on the bike comes back up to us and stops us. He goes, "hey you guys go to church right?" We told him yes we do and that we are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He told us he has been struggling with things in his life and he wants to find God. You can imagine our excitement. We testified of the Savior and His ability to heal us and help to overcome our trials. We then took down his information and we are excited to start teaching him. yay miracle!!
dos:
So this is just a cool little story about God hearing and answering our prayers- even the little ones. So one night this past week week we were eating with this sweet girl in the ysa ward named keiko (she is full navajo! so cool!). She is working on her mission papers, but with the navajo health insurance thing that they have it could take months to actually get in and see a doctor/dentist. She has already been waiting for a few months and she was starting to become a bit discouraged. Well we shared a thought with her before we left and then said a prayer asking that Heavenly Father would help Keiko get in to see the doctor soon so she could finish her papers. Well the next time we saw Keiko was yesterday at fast and testimony meeting. Keiko got up and bore her testimony about prayers being answered and we were surprised when she brought up the night that we had eaten at her house. She shared with the congregation how just an hour after we left she got a call from her mom saying that a doctor said they could take her in. She was worried though because with the navajo insurance it would be free so she asked her mom how much it would cost and her mom told her the doctor was a friend and that he would see her free of charge. MIRACLE!! Keiko then went on to say that even though we may not have known that our prayer for her would have been answered that instantaneously, but she went on to say that when we pray with faith on behalf of ourselves or others God will answer us. Such a sweet experience! I was just crying like the whole time she was talking! I was so humbled in once again recognizing that Heavenly Father truly does answer our prayers. As missionaries we pray for everyone and their dog 100+ times a day and sometimes it feels like a lot of those prayers don't get answered. But I know that all things are according to God's will and timing. We just have to show our faith and trust in God. Nothing but good will come into our lives as we are striving to follow the Saviors righteous pattern of living. I truly have gained such a strong testimony of prayer. I was reading earlier this week in the book of Mosiah towards the end when the angel appears to him. It is in behalf of the faithful prayers of his father. Prayer is real! It is a gift and power that Heavenly Father has given to all of us.
Anyways fam that's all for this week! I love you all soooo much and you are all in my prayers!!
Love,
Sister Hamstead