Minnesota Minneapolis Mission

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Hello!
Ok, BEAUTIFUL shower! Dear Lizzie to the T. It made me a little homesick looking at that :) you've got a gift, mamacita. Looked great.
Glad all the camping went well this week! We had some pretty crazy storms as well. It went from like high 80's to mid 60's within 20 minutes, and clouds rolled in, and it PACKED down rain... people were driving through RIVERS. And then out of absolutely no where it started HAILING! HUUUUUGE chunks of ice... bigger than quarter size. It was freaky, I thought our windshield was gonna crack. And then the tornado siren went off, I haven't heard that at all since being on my mission, so that scared me a little, but... no tornado. Just bad winds.
This week was again full of miracles. It is amazing what happens when you have faith that the Lord will back you up 100% der der der... It's taken me so long to figure that one out. But we had a really cool miracle that resulted from 'heart-attacking' someones door. (when you cut out paper hearts and write a nice note and tape it all over someone's door) We heart attacked a less active who is struggling. She and her bf live together and the bf's sister lives with them to take care of the la's twin boys. Anyway, this la was pregnant, but she found out this week that she lost the baby. It was super sad. So, that's when we heart attacked their door. And the bf's sister, L.. she is SUPER cute. 
 
Well, we wrote her name along with everybody else's on the note, and I guess that REALLY meant a lot to her. H, the LA said that she about cried because it meant so much... she didn't think we even knew her name.
 
Well, a couple of days later, we went to H to do a teaching evaluation and as we pulled up, she was pulling out saying she forgot we were coming but that she'd be back soon and that we were free to go inside and chat with L.  We've never really talked to her that much before, but we went in and she was with her friend who is currently on probation and is going through a rough time. He is from the Middle East, and his mom in Christian, his dad is Muslim, and he has gained a super strong faith in Christ from being in and out of jail. And his personality was Scooby Dayley.
 
Well, thankfully 'Scooby' was asking about religion right off the bat. Then L started to ask some questions, and we were able to talk a lot about our faith. Once we started talking more in depth, H came back with 3 other guys, and then they sat in and listened! It is always soooo intimidating to teach in front of our peers, but the Spirit was sooo strong and they had legitimate questions and were really interested in the things we were teaching them. They all wanted a Book of Mormon, so we got 5 out of our car to give away.
Then when we had a moment alone with L we asked her what she is hoping to gain from meeting with us and she said, "You both are always just so happy, and I want that. I want to find myself too. I want to know who I am and to be confident in that." So we testified boldly to her that this gospel is where she will find answers to all of her life's questions. She got emotional and afterward said "I had a really big anxiety attack today, and so I wasn't wanting to talk to anybody, in fact, I wasn't even gonna open the door, but I felt like I needed to, and now I feel sooooo much better.'' It was just super cool to see her go from depressed to excited within the time we had to chat with her. AH. The Lord is good.
Another miracle is that Sister Sta (our ward musical master) was wanting to play a flute arrangement of some song, and she was gonna have her son play the piano to accompany her, but last minute he couldn't do it, so she called me and asked if I could accompany her. Ahhhh... It was a tougher piece too, but thankfully I was able to pull it off by Sunday! We were able to have 4 investigators to church and they all LOVED it. Good things are happening... and yes, I totally do think I was part of that experiment of keeping missionaries in an area for a long time... ha, I love it though!
I am so excited that Sister M is going over to eat! That's gonna be great.  She will love you all. You will love her. Tell her how much I love her and am continuing to pray for her.
Ok, horrible email. Sorry. We've just got a thousand things to do today... also.. I get my new companion next week... ahhhhhh... I'm gonna miss Sister L. It's been so fun. She has the laugh of Renee Goodman. So contagious. (her name is Renee too... odd!)
Love you all so much.
-Sister B