Honkey Dory

This week has been pretty awesome. Sister Coleman's investigator in Hisperia got baptized Monday night. I got to go to the high desert for the first time ever and I absolutely loved it. Everyone that came to it was so nice and sister Coleman got to see all of the people that she taught and the members from her old ward. There were two other sisters in our zone that also taught her so they got to come as well. Missionaries have been working with her for over a year to help get her baptized. She was so close a year ago but messed up with drugs the day before she was scheduled to be baptized. She has worked so long and hard to get to this point so it was really neat to see her finally make it. All of the missionaries that taught her were there to support her. 

Cool story! We totally found a lost less-active and he wants to turn his life around and get back to church again! We found him last week while we were on exchanges. We were just walking around looking for people to talk to. I was headed for someone else and Sister Stringfellow stopped to say hi to him while he was getting his mail. I don't really know how to explain it other than it was awkward and embarrassing because I was about to talk to someone and had already walked up to them and I looked behind me and she was already talking to him haha. He was like " Hey, I'm a mormon"and it kinda caught me off guard for a second. He said that he had just moved from Walnut but I didn't recognize the name. Long story short, we went back out of curiosity and it turns out that he wants to take the lessons and get his life together! He was so excited the first lesson and kept texting us the whole rest of the day to tell us thank you and that he was super excited. He said that his old buddy from his old ward would come to a couple of lessons sometime and that we were all going to party "Holy Ghost style" haha. Apparently he has only been a member for two years and was only active for 6 months after his baptism and then got into a bad relationship and fell away. We are just so happy for him.

 We also have another less active who we found and she hasn't been active since she was a teenager. She too wants to get back to church and expressed how happy she was after our lesson and that she knew that it was all true and so beautiful. We came out of that lesson with smiles from ear to ear. I love it when things like that happen. It's moments like that that make it all worth it! No effort is ever wasted in missionary work. I've been learning that our influence and work often goes way beyond what we ever realize and that I just need to have the faith to keep working even with what seems to be one fail after the other. 

We also had our ward trunk-or-treat thing on Friday. It was a huge success and the Boatmans even came! They all loved it. They are so ready to get baptized and it's driving me crazy. We just need a chance to meet with them. I think that the Lord is teaching me patience though. It's a long and slow process but I know that one day they will accept the gospel. She told us something really cool the other day. She said that her daughter and her boyfriend met the missionaries in Phoenix too and that they are taking the lessons now. Coincidence? I think NOT. Plus, the other day she told us that when we stopped by to give her an invite to the cultural activity she said that her sister who had died popped into her head and that she knew that she was trying to tell her something. Apparently when they were little they saw an add for the church and ordered a Book of Mormon but forgot about it till now. It melted my heart! See, things happen all of the time that we don't even realize. Persistence and faith. 

Well, alas, my time is up. I must bid thee farewell until next time. Love you all. Keep me posted. You all are so amazing and I'm so grateful to have such an awesome family.

Love ya lots,

Sister Prows