Whew! What a week, what a week. This week we saw a ton of miracles!
On Monday, of course, it was time to say goodbye to Hermana Beamer. We all signed each other's transfer journals - one sister I'm especially going to miss is Sister Olsen, one of the Sister Training Leaders. She's so funny! She has surprised me over and over with her words of wisdom - the Lord truly does qualify those he calls!
On Tuesday, I met my greenie, Hermana Bishop!! SHE CAN DRIVE!
(Goodbye bikes) She's from American Fork, Utah, and she is an only child. She likes sculpting and playing softball, and she's so awesome! We went to the Relief society activity and were able to also attend the Primary activity and help them practice for the Primary program. One of the kids invited us into her personal parlor and insisted on doing our hair for free while we waited to see the bishop. And, a less-active member we hadn't seen in forever, Cynthia, was there!
Our interview with the Bishop went well! We talked about the ward mission plan and how we could best contribute to the work in the ward.
On Wednesday, we had the busiest day I've seen in 3 months! We went to the baptismal interview for our investigator, Eulalia, and she passed! It was a miracle, because she has a problem where it's hard for her to retain information. But she was able to answer truthfully all the questions and was found worthy of being baptized! Unfortunately she couldn't get baptized on Saturday because her friend was in the hospital, but for sure next week!
We then visited an investigator named Claudia. She shared with us that her mother had passed away about a month ago. Hermana Bishop was able to testify powerfully of the Plan of Salvation.
We then went to see a less-active family I'd not seen for the longest time, the Castanedas. They have tiny little kids, so as we shared 2 Nephi 25:26, we instructed them to clap every time they heard the name Christ. We set up a family home evening with them that I am really looking forward to!
We had dinner with an awesome family, the Martinez's. The Hermana's brother is inactive. We talked about how to help him and his wife, who is a recent convert. It felt like we were in a correlation meeting. :)
We then went to see our investigators Ronnie and Marcela. Ronnie's 58 and a retired veteran, and his wife is about 4 feet tall. Bless his heart, he'd been reading a lot in revelations, and was convinced the world was going to end this past Saturday. We tried to ease his mind on the subject, but he was sorely depressed. We'll see how it goes this next Wednesday!
We ended the night with Joe, a young investigator with a TON of doctrinal questions. We answered as best we could and were exhausted by the end of the day. It was wonderful!
On Thursday, we had Hermana Bishop's first weekly planning session! She did great - we talked about the investigators and the less-actives and how to reach them and what to teach them. She had a lot of great input and it got us excited for the next week!
On Friday, we went to Seminary! Yes, it was early, but SO worth it! If you are in Seminary or know someone who is, love it! I honestly wish I could go back and do it again - seminary is awesome! It was a good class - we talked about Laman and Lemuel's attitudes contrasted with Nephi's attitude and how it applies to each of us, especially as missionaries. We then had an awesome District Council, led out by the new District leader, Elder Murri. We did a role play about the Doctrine of Christ, which is basically contained in the fourth article of faith. We had to find a scripture about it, and invite the person to be baptized using that scripture.
Sunday - Hermana Bishop's first Sunday in the ward! The ward members love her - she gave her testimony in Spanish and many ward members commented on how good her Spanish was!
Then, yesterday, we went to the temple, which is why I'm writing you all today. :) The temple was so special, as always. Something I realized as I was sitting in that holy house is that without love, nothing will ever work. With love, everything will work like magic!
Love is the word of the week! So,
Love, love, love,
Hermana Smurthwaite
"If we die, we will be with God; if we live, God will be with us,"
-John Bytheway, speaking about the Stripling Warriors
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