Sweet is the peace the gospel brings (Week 20)

Hallo Familie!

Last week, like the truly exciting human beings we are, we went to Staples for Pday. And today I am hemming the pants of an elder in my district. One of these days we will do something that is cultural and cool.

We had a good week. Elder Nay left, which was sad. The new elder, Elder Pilling, is from Burley, Idaho. He goes home in 4 weeks.

We had some great lessons this week. We met with Leslie finally. She told us she wants a little break from the missionaries right now, which I could see coming. We had a good lesson with her and her husband (who is a member) about the Book of Mormon and read about the 2,000 stripling warriors in Alma 56 and 57. We challenged them to read it as a family and pray together every day. The spirit was stronger than I've ever felt with her. Even though she wants a break, I know that she will get baptized one day. And we are still her friends.

We also got to meet with Frau Byo. She had read 2 Nephi 31 multiple times in the few weeks since we'd seen her. We talked about God's plan for us and why what we do now (have faith, repent, keep the commandments, be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, endure to the end) is  important. When we truly understand where we come from and where we are going, the things we do now matter. After we'd explained everything, we asked if she had any questions and she said, "how long until I can get baptized in your church?" Hopefully she can come to church this week and also talk to her husband to make sure he's okay with it. It was beautiful to see everything click in her heart.

We met a family from our area book, Helen and George. They are from Ghana and have two adorable little boys. We got to meet Helen last week and have another appointment this week. I don't know if I've mentioned Shanna before, but we met with her again this week. Her mom and sister are both members in our ward but she was in Ghana when they joined the church, so she isn't baptized. She is 18, has been here for 3 years and is trying to finish her German school. I love her. We brought the ward missionaries, Schwester Faber and Wendt. They LOVE Schwester Wendt, and it is so cute to see the friendship between this little old super German lady and these super African woman/girls. The gospel truly unites people, because if we are truly trying to serve and love as the Savior did, cultural, ethnic, religious boundaries don't matter. We are all children of God.

On Saturday, we went by on a TON of contacts. We seriously walked around all day long. My allergies have been SUPER bad. (I've probably sneezed a couple hundred times in the last week.) No one was interested or home and we were both super hot. The last woman we planned to go by on was a less active woman that we had been asked to try to meet with. It was our third time trying to meet with her, and we were tired and hot, but we made the walk anyway. She was home, she let us in, and it was a miracle. She has been less active for basically her whole life because of how she was treated by her family, who were all members. She's also made some lifestyle changes that aren't great. She prays every night and she knows God is there. We felt prompted to shared the "mountains to climb" video and she could definitely feel the spirit because then she completely opened up about everything. I don't know all the things she's gone through personally, but Christ does, and He can help. I am so excited to help her come to know Jesus Christ. It'll be a long process, but it is such a blessing to be a part of this work, especially for this woman.

I know that God loves His children. I know that the Savior, Jesus Christ, has shown us the way back to God, and that this will bring us the most happiness.
Love you all. Have a great week.
Sister Simpson

P.S. Sister Fulton loves the Christmas Song "Far far away on Judea's plains." So she sings it a lot and now sings the words of "sweet is the peace the gospel brings" to that tune. We basically only sing Christmas or American patriotic hymns for comp study every morning.

Bilder:

We walk past this building every week for district meeting. So for me, that's 14 times. Sister Fulton noticed it her first week (but I was speed walking and didn't notice her reaction). So she decided to wait and see how long it would take me to notice. 7 weeks later, I noticed. Haha. (This is the quote that President Uchtdorf's quoted in General Conference:) 

Elder Uchtdorf:

As we increase in faith, we also must increase in faithfulness. Earlier I quoted a German author who lamented the destruction of Dresden. He also penned the phrase “Es gibt nichts Gutes, ausser: Man tut es.” For those who do not speak the celestial language, this is translated as “There is nothing good unless you do it.”