Day 83

Hi Family!

So the big news this week is transfers. We got our call this morning, and Sister Cha and I will be staying together at BYU for the next 6 weeks. Hooooraaaaay! Mostly I wanted to stay for Stephanie and Connor; the American food and Sister Cha were just bonuses :)



Our district and our Zone Leaders (Elders Krieger, Elliott, Fry, Frassa, Baisden, Harker, me, Sister Cha)

Last Monday we met with Katia. We'd been to visit her a few times before (I think I mentioned her). We decided to start visiting and teaching her more often. We talked about prayer and the Holy Ghost. She said she was really grateful for what we shared. She's seriously the sweetest lady and I really like her. After the lesson she fed us tacos and rice and fruit. Ermahgersh, soooo goood. I'm moving in with her. I told her daughters that I'm trying to learn 200 words every 6 weeks so they were going around the house pointing at things and asking if I knew what they were. I got like 8 new words that night!

Tuesday we saw Justin and Stephanie! We brought Bro. Adams with us and it was the best. Justin got called into work and that was a major bummer, but it was still good to be with Stephanie. Bro. Adams shared his conversion story, which may or may not have put Sister Cha and me in tears (and by that I mean it did). That guy seriously has the best story and it gets better every time I hear it. I felt like it was something that Stephanie needed to hear, so I'm glad he was able to share his testimony with her. She told us that the night before she'd been with her friend James and his wife and he had said that he felt impressed to tell her she should get baptized on December 14th. Sister Cha and I looked at each other and started crying again (shut up, the gospel does that to us okay?) because we'd been praying about it and felt like Stephanie was getting baptized on that day too! So nuts. Bro. Adams had to leave at that point and after he did, the three of us knelt down and Stephanie offered a prayer asking if she should get baptized December 14th. She told us that she wasn't going to ignore the fact that three different people all had that date on the brain, so I'm really excited to hear how she's been feeling this week about baptism. I love her muchiiiiiisimo.

Thursday I saw four people I knew in the space of like an hour. That's what happens when I'm serving at BYU. Haha I wish I didn't know so many people here. But I saw Jordan Hale, Andy Nelson, Amy's little sister Bri, and Mette Petersen. So that was kind of awesome. Thursday night we tried to contact some people who had previously been investigating the church, but for some reason or another they stopped. Jessie came with us and we visited with this girl Brianna. She made it very clear that she belongs to the Pentecostal church and that she only believes in the Bible. After we talked with her a little bit I shared Joshua 1:9 with her. It's neat how the Spirit tells us what scripture will help people. I don't know what's going on in her life, but I knew that hearing, "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." would help her. Sister Cha and Jessie bore their testimonies too and it was cool. I have a really good feeling about Brianna and I hope she calls us when she gets back from Christmas break.

Friday we had a good lesson with Connor. With him, we've taught everything that needs to be taught before baptism, but he's told us he wants to take things slow and not rush into getting baptized because he wants his dad to be able to be there when it does happen. We were planning to talk about the power and blessings of the Priesthood, but when we got there, Sister Cha and I both felt like that wasn't the way the lesson was going to go. It was awesome though, because he ended up having questions about what he was reading in the Book of Mormon. He had been reading in 1 Nephi 13 which is about Nephi prophesying of things that have happened in our American history. We talked a lot about the Bible and the Book of Mormon and how they testify of each other. He really loved that. Pretty neat. I love that kid.

Saturday was ASHLEY'S BAPTISM! And definitely the best part of my week. She had asked us to say the opening and closing prayers, which made me feel pretty cool. A TON of people were there. Like both rooms were full and people we're lined up against the walls.

Ashley

My favorite part of baptisms is when the person actually goes in the water. I don't know, that's just when I feel the Spirit the strongest. And they always come up with the biggest smile on their face! I like that I get to be apart of that. It's the coolest feeling in the world.

Sunday morning we went to church with Ashley to be at her confirmation. Since it was fast and testimony meeting too, she got up and bore her testimony. I was in tears. She's so happy to be a member of this church and she knows it's true. Her testimony was so pure and simple, but so so powerful. Then we went to Sam's church (he's a recent convert of about 2 months) and got to be there when he was ordained a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood. He was so excited. AHHHHHH I LOVE THE GOSPEL. He made us dinner that night and we watched the First Presidency Christmas devotional. I hope everyone got to see it! It doesn't really feel like Christmas - it's December 3rd and I'm not even wearing a coat (not that I'm complaining) - but that helped it feel a little more like Christmastime.

I don't know what the plan is yet for Christmas, but I'm excited to talk to everyone! 22 days!

Love,

Hermana Munden