natalie ann: week 31: we are the message

Monday, May 30th, 2016

SHALOM. thanks everyone for all the emails!! I wish every week was birthday week.

Monday we got a call from President Sweeney saying that Dave got approved for BAPTISM!! He gave us a letter that the Prophet and his counselors signed!! Like legit they are signed in different colored ink! Pretty cool eh? Dave has waited so long to be baptized so it's really exciting for him. But it's neat to think that the Prophet approved our investigator for baptism!! Lisann (Dave's wife) texted us saying that she is more excited than she was on her wedding day, she is so cute. He is getting baptized THIS Saturday! The day after my birthday! Whoop whoop. That night we saw an investigator named Marine. She really opened up. The gospel would be so good for her. She moved Thursday so we helped her pack and clean this last week. We then saw Brylee (our 9 year old investigator). We had a lesson at her aunt and uncles (the Wiltbanks). It went really well. We gave her a children's Book of Mormon and she is so excited to read it. She made a "church box" and puts in all the things we give her in it. It's the cutest hint ever. So sad thing is she is living with her mom for the summer. We aren't sure yet if her mom will let us teach her. We are praying she will!! It sounds like her mother is not the best mother. We are really worried for Brylee.

Tuesday was good. We just tried to see a lot of less-actives. No one was home. That night during prime time (mom prime time is a new thing our mission is doing for an hour each night to go out and find people!) Catherine (a laurel) came out with us. We found some less-actives! Their last name is Nelson! They are really nice and let us in to share a message. We asked them who we could go visit and they said to see his uncle. His name is Jerry and was very nice and let us in. He has all these cool wood carvings. I shared a Mormon message that I was prompted to share with him called "the will of God". This grown mad started crying and told us similar experiences to the video. He knows he needs to get back to church but he got offended a year ago and hasn't been since. It is really sad how someone's unforgiving heart and pride can get in the way. It shows to me how powerful Satan is. We then saw Daryl. We pretty much just laugh the whole time we are there. They are awesome.

Wednesday was a weird day cause sister Ballew got hurt...baha on the wall so her head started bleeding. So we stayed inside for a bit. We had a lesson with Jessica about spiritual gifts and it went really well. She wasn't at church on Sunday though...she got her temple recommend this week! We then saw the Bigalows (LA) for the first time! Their son is 8 and hasn't been baptized! He says he wants to be baptized so that's cool. That night we got to go to the high school graduation because our investigator Donna was graduating! It was a small class, just over a hundred. They had it in the dome and it was so big and cool. It was weird hearing worldly music...I secretly like it though. Sister Ballew and I only listen to MOTAB. Their graduation was way cute and they did a flash mob at the end. I love small towns!

Thursday we had a lesson with Cyndie in the morning and read the Book of Mormon with her. We went to Nurtioso with the Hamblins and had dinner with them. They then took us to see some less-active over there. They are great Ward mission leaders and also good cooks.

Friday we had ZONE CONFERENCE in St. John's! It was the Sweeney's last one and it was SO good! They did their trainings on the trainings they got from Elder Holland. So let's just say it was really good. We talked about the second coming and how the Book of Mormon is a sign of the second coming. "The sign" is when the Book of Mormon came forth on March 30, 1830. We looked at so many parallels in the Book of Mormon to prophets, revelation & life. We have the word and the truth and we need to be a voice of thunder. We then had a training on how to prepare for the new president. We then went into a room with chairs in a circle. We got to ask the Sweeneys any question. Since we won't have departing interviews or dinner with them it was like marriage talk. It was cute cause they gave us advice and how they knew each other was the one. We then all got to share a minute of our testimony of the Savior. It was really special and spiritual. I love ASM. I'm really going to miss the Sweeneys. They have showed me what real love and sacrifice looks like. Zone conference was fun cause we got to see everyone who is in the mountains. We then had a mini missionary for the weekend, Macy! She is Daryl's daughter. We had a lesson with Sheila. And then Sister Smith and Peterson came that night for Chelsea's endowment in the morning! So it was a crazy fun night.

Saturday we drove down with Paula to Snowflake temple for the endowment! It was so good and Chelsea was beaming!! We went to celebrations for lunch. The rest of the day was fun cause we had Macy with us but we were SO tired. We had a lesson with the Armijos and the Ericksons that night. It was good. We taught both of them tithing. Recent converts have a hard time with that. It was such a crazy weekend.

Sunday was good, Macy went with me to 3rd Ward. I hate how our wards are at the same time! But whatever. We Skype Dave to get some lessons in cause we need to finish up the lessons before Saturday! He and his family are in the valley for the weekend. We asked him what enduring to the end means to him "to be in the depths of hell and still believe in God." Haha I love Dave.

I read a talk this week that I liked called "Repent...That I May Heal You" by Elder Anderson. He says "sometimes in our repentance in our daily efforts to become more Christlike, we find ourselves repeatedly struggling with the same difficulties. As if we were climbing a tree-covered mountain, at times we don't see our progress until we get closer to the top and look back from the high ridges. Don't be discouraged. If you are striving and working to repent, you are in the process of repenting." I love this. Don't be discouraged if you are making the same mistake again, the enabling power of the Atonement will strengthen you as you continue to repent and strive to be better. Often times we don't see how far we have come until we have looked back.

I'm so grateful for the Atonement and gospel and Jesus Christ in my life. This is His church and I am the messenger. I love being a missionary!

Have a great week & don't forget to celebrate my birthday! ;)