Hello - March 16

Hello!!

Last week was the biggest roller coaster...emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. ...and I guess physically. Considering the amount of blueberry muffins and chocolate chip cookies I ate, I lost 1 kg! WOOHOO

Me and Sister Remington

We had a rocky start to the week. On Tuesday, we had trade offs with the travelling sisters, so I was with Sister Remington from South Jordan, Utah. She is the biggest sweetheart ever and I love her!! She and I actually had a great day. We found new investigators, contacted formers, had heaps of good finding. She might be going to BYU after her mission, so I'm excited!!! I learned so much from her. One of the things I really took away from our trade off was "The spirit of the law overrides the letter of the law"...so be obedient, but make sure that we're trusting the spirit more than anyone else in terms of what we do.  The other sisters had quite a rough day with our investigators, especially the Rayments and Jenni. Satan works so hard when people are making the right decisions in their lives. Jenni is facing so much opposition from everyone that she loves and cares about. And the Rayments are really struggling temporally. It's really hard to see people that we love struggle and start making bad decisions again. It's so freaking hard. And it's heart-breaking because you want what's best for them because you love them so much. Sister Weiss and I had a really emotional evening where we feel like every thing was going right and then Satan just came in and attacked. Thankfully, Brother Boeree, our Ward Mission Leader, and his wife are super supportive and can always uplift us. 

We went to Meet the Mormons with basically the whole ward, which was awesome! It was so weird being in a movie theater...we got popcorn and peanut m&m's. The movie was so good!!! My goodness, I got so emotional during the last story about the missionary mom. Watching her son open his call, pack his bags, shop at University Mall at Mr. Mac...it was all so familiar and I just cried and cried and thought to myself, I volunteered to leave my family, what did I do to myself??

Then I checked back in and realised I'm here to do the Lord's work and I'm so grateful that I can do it. He has called me to serve. 

If you haven't seen it, go watch it!! 

Because of our rough night, we knew we were going to be blessed and see miracles the next day. We did some tracting and street contacting and have 5 new awesome investigators! One of them even came to Stake Conference!! She's awesome and is so prepared for the Gospel. She has all the right questions and you can just feel the spirit radiate from her. It's amazing. 

Speaking of Stake Conference, we had amazing meetings! Elder Haleck from the Seventy came. The themes of conference were 'Hastening the Lord's work of salvation' and 'Faith in Jesus Christ'...two amazing themes that have really hit home since being on a mission. These are things that not just missionaries, but everyone can really apply to their lives. Sister Howes read the lyrics to 'Come unto Christ' and they were so powerful. Jesus Christ is our Saviour. He provided a way for us to attain eternal life with our Heavenly Father and our family. We just need to trust Him in all that we do. 

President and Sister Howes came up for Stake Conference, so it was nice to have 'mom & dad' around. Sister Howes felloweshipped for our lesson with Jenni and that was a miracle in itself. Jenni was really able to open up about what's going on and she admitted she wanted to back out at first...then she came to realise that this was right for her, and it didnt' matter what her family thought...she knows she needs the Gospel in her life. The spirit was so strong when she came to that realisation in front of us. My goodness..I can't even express how much joy and tears there were in that lesson. 

Other than that...life is good. The Parkes' and the Metcalf's have been really amazing. Sister Parkes had us over twice this week with our investigators. She made us waffles and they were the best waffles I ever had...actually Dave, her husband did, they were so good. I love being in their home. The spirit is so strong and their efforts in the Lord's work are enormous.  They introduced a new sport to us that we'll have to play at FHE when I get home. Sock Wrestling...two people each have a sock on a foot and you try to get the sock off the other person before they get yours. It's crazy. 

Oh yeah, we also have another investigator, June! She's from the Soloman islands and her bf in Fiji joined the church in November and she just moved to Newcastle and wants to learn more! She's on date for April 4th!

Life is good. and Heavenly Father is blessing us. We need to endure and rely on Christ to give us the strength to do so. If you haven't already read the March 2015 Ensign, do it! It's so good!!! 

Also, don't gossip, especially about missionaries. It just causes unnecessary problems.

I love you heaps and hope you have a great week!!

Sister Lew