Happy 3 Month mark to me! Holy smokes, I look back on what has happened in just that short space of time, everything that I've done, the lessons that have been learned, and it blows my mind.
This week was crazy. Hmm. On Monday Sister Johnson and I spoke at a grave side service for a member that was 104, Annie Watts. She's a member but the rest of her family are not. The scene was pretty much one from the movies; It was gray and raining. Everyone who could fit were under the tent and those who couldn't had their black (kay, maybe not ALL black) umbrellas out. We spoke about the Plan of Salvation, bearing our testimonies that we knew Annie was happy and was going to be with her Father in Heaven again. It was a great experience. The son-in-law, Mr. Elrod, came up to us after and asked "So how do I get baptized into this here church"? We are going to be teaching the family this week the Restoration. I can't believe the miracles that we are seeing here and how much He is blessing us! But OH. After the funeral, everyone was standing around, quietly talking, when all of a sudden we saw a flash of lightning to our right. That's right, a lightning bolt had hit a pole about 15 feet away. We saw the sparks fly and one of them hit Sister Johnson. Adventure? I think yes. That Cemetery was cleared out within 30 seconds.
We had a great lesson with Arlene and Nick, setting another baptismal date for May 30th for both of them. Arlene really wants to get baptized, she just needs to make it to church! She never feels well, but we're trying to tell her that her Heavenly Father wants her to get to church and so if she has faith in that, even if she doesn't feel 100% that day, she needs to get up and try and go anyways because He'll give her added strength. Nick needs to develop a testimony still. **sigh* We're just trying to love them where they're at.
Steve is good. He hasn't been to church in two weeks and we've only seen him once or twice in the past two weeks because of his work schedule that has apparently gotten really crazy. DAW. We don't want to lose him! He's SO promising and has such a desire to build that relationship with Heavenly Father. We fasted for him on Sunday and are planning on seeing him tomorrow. We're choosing to focus up on helping him stop chew right now and two weeks ago he'd limited it down to just one chew a day, but the last time we saw him he was going strong again. I haven't experienced such vast emotions before, varying from disappointment to utter joy before. It's a different thing.
In other words..TONYA IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY. Are we excited?? AAAHH! This will be my first baptism out here. Elder Brotherson (our District Leader) is driving up from Ardmore on Wednesday with a translator in their ward for her Baptismal interview because she get's back on Tuesday from California (they've been there for the past week and a half). We're then going to teach her the last lesson on Thursday (yes, that's allowed to have her interviewed before she has the fifth lesson. We had to double check) and bam. Baptism on Saturday. The Elders are baptizing Bernadine (One of their investigators) at the same time. President Burnett wanted us to have a dual baptism so more of the branch could be present which makes sense. It'll be a struggle because Tonya only speaks Spanish though and so we might have someone give the Baptismal talk in English and then the Holy Ghost in Spanish. Then Sister Johnson and I will sing "I like to look for Rainbows" singing one verse in English then the next in English...bah. We don't know. We'll figure it out though. We are just so blessed. And did I mention excited?
I love you all SO much. It's crazy to think that I'll be seeing you in less than a week. I'm trying to figure out where to even start in telling you about my life out here. It's amazing. Before I go I just want to let you know that Heavenly Father loves me and you. He is extremely aware of everything going on in our lives. He's always there, walking beside us which is frustrating because at times we want him to walk ahead, lighting our way. That's not how it is for the most part though, he doesn't like watching us struggle one bit. He knows that it's the only way that we can progress though, and so there he always is and always will be. Right by our sides, walking next to us and supporting us during hard times. I'm grateful for my Savior.
Love y'all, so. much. See you soon!
Sister Call
Yay!! It's Mother's Day phone call (skype?) time!!! She is writing the best letters!
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