"Lord Jesus Saves Life"

Hello hello hello! Happy (late) Father's Day to all you daddies out there. I had quite the interesting week so I'm going to jump right into it. I also have no idea how to start these things even after almost a year sooo here we go..

We taught our investigator Sandra on Tuesday and we talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end). She received it very well and it all was making sense to her and we had two members there with us to testify of it also. We are seeing such great progress with Sandra and it's the greatest miracle :) that night she even came to the Enrichment Night relief society activity with lots of sisters in the ward and she told us she loved it.

A few days later, some members scheduled to feed us dinner and we had the great idea of having them call and invite Sandra and her family to eat with us as well. They did, and she accepted! Sister Brown and I couldn't be more excited to see the members fellowship her. Sandra is from a part member family so her husband and 2 sons are members, but she isn't. She's been firm in a different religion her whole life and she's been too stubborn to seek out a different church until just recently. She still says "ya know ladies, I won't baptize into your church. I hope you know that.." but we see the spirit working with her each time we visit and she's making those small changes in her life SOO we will see about that :)

Then...there's Wednesday. The biggest question mark of my life. I seriously don't even know what to think about it but I ended up learning quite a bit! The day started out with district meeting which was great, I love meeting with other missionaries..its my favorite! Then afterwards we planned on tracting a street by the church and trying to find new people to teach. The first house, a man said "oh you're back?" thinking that we were the Jehovah's Witnesses that apparently came by earlier that day. We told him who we were, he rejected us, and we moved on. 

The next 2 houses had the same experience-them thinking we were back again that same day as jehova's witnesses. NO. Sister Brown and I then had a mutual feeling that we weren't supposed to be there on that street. We both felt impressed that we needed to leave and work in a different town in our area called Essex, so we followed the prompting and left. On the way there, we were SO excited to see who we were being led to and what great miracles the Lord had in store for us. We would say things like "Heavenly Father is SO excited to bless us right now.." and "Here comes a new investigator!" Joke's on us.

We tried less actives, we tried contacting potentials from the area book, we tried tracting, we tried sitting in our car and praying for guidance on where to go and what to do...nothing. We talked to MAYBE two people. One being an angry atheist and one that wanted us off his porch as soon as he opened the door and saw our name-tags. Cool. After a few hours of what felt like pure failure, I started feeling discouraged. I was so angry and confused at Heavenly Father and I couldn't see any blessings and I didn't understand why. Thats when Alma 8:10-11, 14-15 came into my mind.
"10) Nevertheless, [Sisters Watson and Brown] labored much in the spirit, wrestling with God in mighty prayer, that he would pour out his Spirit upon the people who were in [Essex]; that he would also grant that he might baptize them unto repentance.

11) Nevertheless, they hardened their hearts, saying unto [them]: Behold, we know that thou art [missionaries]; and we know that thou art [missionaries] over the church which thou hast established in many parts of the land, according to your tradition; and we are not of thy church, and we do not believe in such foolish traditions.

14) And it came to pass that while [they were] journeying thither, being weighed down with sorrow, wading through much tribulation and anguish of soul, because of the wickedness of the people who were in the city of [Essex], it came to pass while [the sisters] were thus weighed down with sorrow, behold an angel of the Lord appeared unto [them], saying:

15 Blessed art thou, [Sisters Watson and Brown], therefore, lift up thy head and rejoice, for thou hast great cause to rejoice; for thou hast been faithful in keeping the commandments of God...."
We have great cause to rejoice! We are the Lord's missionaries and I know we were sent to Essex that day for a reason. Maybe we were being led away from danger and someone was going to hurt us on that street by our church? Maybe he needed us to feel that some days are harder than others? There are so many options as to why we were asked to leave but I know that the Lord is happy with us, and that's all that matters. 

Yesterday was Father's Day and I was so sad that I couldn't talk to my dad that day BUT I just want everyone to know that I love him so much and I couldn't thank him enough for the sacrifices he makes in providing for his family. I'm so thankful that he makes a Christ centered home his priority. I love his humor and his love for my mom and his family and his desire to make life FUN. I am thankful for his strong testimony and his love for missionary work and the gospel. I miss him like crazy and I can't wait to see him again and hug him to death. LOVE YOU DAD!!!

Also, it's their 25 anniversary today!!!! Woo! Make sure you all go out of your way today to wish them a happy anniversary :)

Have a great week!!!

Welcome to Ipswich, everybody. 😂

We treated ourselves to ice cream in honor of "Transfer-Call Day" 

Here we are on Wednesday in Essex smiling through the pain on the porch of yet ANOTHER person who wasn't home 😂

Last of all, my favorite picture in the world. One of President Stoker's counselors, President Hawkes, is a children's book illustrator and he painted this. He showed it to us at zone conference last week as part of his talk and I immediately fell in love with it. Somehow, one of the elders I'm serving with got it on his iPad and I almost cried with joy. It's his version of the Tree of Life and it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I hope to one day get it blown up and hung in my own home. ❤️