Week 20

12/12/16

Hello Everyone!

I hope I saved enough time this week to actually tell you about it.

So first off, we got snow!! Yay!! It was really beautiful when it was falling, but the thing about Oregon is that, when the precipitation is falling, it doesn't stop. So it immediately went from snow to rain, so the snow is long gone. But it was great while it lasted!

So Some miracles from the last couple weeks. We were getting ready to head out for the day when the toilet decided not to flush. We checked it and the chain had gotten rusty and broke. We were really frustrated by that because that meant we were going to have call the maintenance man and come back to the apartment later, taking up proselyting time and miles. As we were getting ready to pray, we got a knock at our door. It was our maintenance man coming to tell us about the last problem he had to fix for us! We were so grateful because he just went into the bathroom and within minutes everything was fixed and he was gone. 

Another miracle this week...we were out proselyting on the coldest day this week, Wednesday, and nobody was out for us to contact and nobody seemed to be home either. We were getting frustrated because it was cold and we just wanted to teach someone!! We have 15 minutes before our lesson with our recent convert so we decided that we were going to pray to know where we should go in that time. We did and Sis. Hartvigsen thought of some town houses we could go see. We got there and she says, "This is going to be our miracle!!" and then the phone starts to ring. It was our Sister Training Leaders and we had to answer their call so we did and by the time we were done with that, we had 5 minutes before we had to be at our lesson. We decided to pray and knock on one door. Sis. Hartvigsen said the prayer and asked very specifically for a new investigator. There were three doors to pick from so I picked the middle one. We knocked and the lady didn't seem too thrilled to see us at first but after a minute she was all smiles and sunshine! She was so nice and told us she has been looking for a church. She wants us to come back and teach her tomorrow!! She has a cute little family and they are all so sweet. MIRACLES HAPPEN!!

We had a great week this week. I was really stressed and so Sis. Hartvigsen and I were able to sit down and talk about what we needed to do and it really helped. After that, the rest of the week seemed like it was full of laughter. We just had tons of fun. I will be sending videos that should prove that.

We got to participate in a Stake Christmas program last night and that was so cool. There was an awesome bell choir and then a really cool, upbeat Spanish song. We were the last number and the coolest thing was that in our practices, we sounded pretty bad, but when we got up and performed, it sounded great!

Okay, so my quote this week is from a talk by Elder Bednar. He is talking to a less active member in the quote, but I think it is really eye opening and I really wanted to share it.

"Let me make sure I understand what has happened to you. Because someone at church offended you, you have not been blessed by the ordinance of the sacrament. You have withdrawn yourself from the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. Because someone at church offended you, you have cut yourself off from priesthood ordinances and the holy temple. You have discontinued your opportunity to serve others and to learn and grow. And you are leaving barriers that will impede the spiritual progress of your children, your children's children, and the generations that will follow."

He really puts into perspective what we would be giving up if we stopped going to church.

I love this church, but more importantly, I love my Savior Jesus Christ! That is something that we can have in common with so many people and that is what can draw us together as our Heavenly Father's children.

I love you all!!!

Sister MacKay