"moving into the realm of the miraculous"

OH MY WORD THIS WEEK HAS BEEN INSANE. 

-We started off the week on Tuesday with exchanges.  Sister Douglas came down to Drayton with me, and Sister Whiting went up to Lakewood with Sister Gardner.  Sister Douglas served here in DV before I did, and let me tell you she is one solid missionary.  Seriously.  Sometimes exchanges are bleh but this was a H U G E answer to my prayers.

sometimes I think I have to be a perfect missionary and I get bugged with myself because I'm human and humans are really dumb sometimes, but I learned so much from her.  We got 3 new investigators that day, so I guess you could say it was a success. 

We had a lesson with a family that was baptized a little over a year ago, and we watched the "Temples are A Beacon" video.  The husband is still smoking, so to get to the temple, he has to quit for a year.  We challenged them to pick a date that they want to go to the temple, then work toward it.  TWO DAYS LATER we went out to supper with them and he told us he was quitting by February 14, so that next year, they can be sealed on Valentines Day.  TALK ABOUT BEING ON CLOUD 9!!!  the joy that you feel when the people you love are progressing in the gospel is completely indescribable and I can't even begin to say how grateful I am.  Such a miraculous day. 

Random/awesome/terrible/funny happenings this week

*Mellisa committed to baptism (picking a date after she comes to church this week)

*we had our very first facebook lesson

*Monica dropped us like hot tamales

*We declared major repentance

*6 or 7 less actives we've been working with came to church yesterday

*we found these little weird plastic looking squares in our cupboard (weren't sure what they were, so naturally we put them in the microwave) then they miraculously turned into rice crackers.  #miracle

*we did some hard core spirit tracting and found a pretty promising potential

*I held a minitaure baby pony

*we saw the most beautiful sunset i've ever seen in my whole life

and a whole bunch of other crazy intense things. 

-Backing up bit.... Monica dropped us on Thursday.  We started off our day so gung ho about everything, and went over to her house.  She hadn't been reading from the Book of Mormon consistently like the week before, and she had an issue with "adding to the bible" like it talks about in Revelations.  We attempted to resolve her concern with a bunch of other bible/BoM verses and the spirit, but she wasn't convinced.  She told us it would be her last meeting with us.  *heart shatters*  It's SO HARD when people don't keep their commitments, and because of that, aren't receptive to the spirit.   talk about a rough start to the day.

-BUT GOOD THING HEAVENLY FATHER LOVES US SO MUCH AND DOESN'T LET US GET TOO DOWN!  We had a lesson with our invesigator, Lynn, we taught the Plan of Salvation.  She has been reading the Book of Mormon and said she would continue to meet with us. 

-then we had a lesson with a less active lady who is in a really messy situation in life..lots of sketchy things, but we helped her do her dishes a bit and showed her "The Hope of God's Light" and she cried and cried and loved it so much.  in visiting with her the past 2 weeks, we have already seen an INCREDIBLE change in her countenance.  She came to church yesterday and was SO HAPPY!  When we left her house, I just had this vision of her being totally active and changing her life around.  Needless to say, it was pretty neat. 

-this was the day of the first miracle I mentioned above about this family getting to the temple :)

-then we had a lesson with our investigator, Tyler. and his sister, Raelyn, who are 10 and 8.  We brought Sister Heileger, the primary chorister, with us, and guess what, THEY FINALLY CAME TO CHURCH YESTERADAY!!!  The love I have for these kids is indescribable. 

Sister Whiting and I were talking about the blessing it is to be a missionary, because you just automatically love all these people so much and desire their salvation.  We get to see them as our Father in Heaven sees them.  All the time. 

-and here's our f a c e b o o k m i r a c l e! ! !

Sister Whiting and I were both added by Chaise, whom neither of us knew. He was a mutual friend of a lady who was baptized a little over a year ago (such a killer testimony) so we asked her about him.  We decided to accept his request, then ended up having a little lesson over facebook about the Book of Mormon with him.  He agreed to learn more, so we had a lesson in a member's home with him last night and it the spirit was UNREAL.  We taught him about the restoration, and he accepted it all and said he would read the Book of Mormon and come to church.  So cool.  As we were talking about God and his plan he has for each of us, he was like, "Honestly, I don't even know why I added you on facebook, you were just under the 'suggested friends' section, so I did." then he went on to say that nothing is coincidence and it was SUPER COOL! 

We also get to go to the Serenity House once a week, which is a home for elderly people who have dimensia.  It's sad because they don't remember us when we come back every week, but Lorraine said something super funny I have to share.

we were leaving, so I said, "can we give you a hug?"  Then she goes, "well...I guess.  Where do I go for that?"   super cute and super funny.  Ron also beat Sister Whiting and I both in checkers (he was totally cheating), and he goes, "good game...except ya got BEAT!" They're so great.

I love being a missionary. 

Onward, ever onward.

Sister Jones