Week 41

5/8/17

On Tuesday, we had the opportunity to pick up a food order for a lady in our ward. It was really cool to be able to offer her that service. I was thinking about how we have limited miles and it was going way out of our way to do this, but it was so worth it! We can walk to make up for those miles that we spent making sure a family got fed. I love service! We got to stop by Dustin and Katie's and read from the Book of Mormon with them. Dustin had to go pick up one of the kids and he was so disappointed that he had to miss out on the rest of the chapter. It is so cool to see the changes in people, to see them "hunger and thirst after righteousness" (3 Nephi 12:6). The kids were also loving it so much! They got so excited when we gave them their own Book of Mormons and then asked us to write down a chapter for them to read. We stopped by to see our recent convert, Hardleigh, but she didn't answer the door so we decided to write quotes on post-it notes and post-it note bomb her. That was fun. On our way home that night, we were driving out of Amity and an opossum ran out in front of us. I slammed the brakes and tiwi (who monitors our driving and usually tells us to "check your speed") got after me and said "aggressive driving," dang it! That's the first time I've gotten that one haha.

On Wednesday, we got to go do service at St. Vincent again. We spent some time sending out scripture texts to people and called a few of our investigators and sang to them haha. We post-it note bombed Nathan and Brooke and it at the perfect time! They pulled up right when we were driving away. It is so much fun doing those little things to brighten someone's day. We had a lesson with Jillian and Grace and Rosie (Adrian's mom) was there, helping us teach! We read from the Book of Mormon with her afterwards. We have had a few great talks with her lately about what she is struggling with and how we can help.

On Thursday we taught Javier one of his new member lessons and invited him to pass the sacrament on Sunday. It was so awesome seeing him do that yesterday! His step brother was passing for the first time with him and it was just so powerful to me to see the change in those boys because of the gospel and because of the opportunity to exceeding their priesthood.

We had a great district meeting on Friday about not wasting our time here. We also had a training on how to help our investigators recognize the Spirit by helping them have spiritual experiences often. One of the couples in our ward have really been praying for missionary opportunities and told us about there friends who started asking them questions about the gospel. They invited one of their friends over for dinner that night (this friend is one that we used to teach) and we had a great discussion afterward. We were all able to bear our testimonies on the Book of Mormon and so she committed to trying to read it every day.

We met with Kelly again and taught her the Word of Wisdom and she was very accepting of it! She has a testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith and has really been enjoying reading the Book of Mormon every day. She is so great! We think she is close to committing to a baptismal date. We also studied the scriptures with Noah and that was really good. He is finding answers to his questions and having a desire to read on his own!

Fast and testimony meeting was so great! Rosie and Katie were there and they really felt the Spirit. They are participating more in the other classes as well, getting more comfortable there. We had a chance to meet with Dustin, Katie and their kids after church and were able to find out some concerns that we have been trying to get out of them haha. Now we think we can really help them more. We read from the Book of Mormon with them as a family, each of the kids has their own book and so we took turns reading verses. It was one of the most powerful experiences we have had with them! Feeling that family unite through the gospel was incredible. Even Dustin, afterwards when we were asking them how reading from the Book of Mormon made them feel, said that he felt that unity and joy with his family! We are so excited for them! They are doing so great and we will be visiting the temple visitors center this Saturday with them!

It was a great week, we have amazing people that we are working with, and we have awesome members who do so great at sharing the gospel and making us feel so loved! I love Amity so much and am praying that on Saturday night, when we get transfer calls, I get told I'm staying another transfer :)

Also, we went hiking today :)

Love, Sister MacKay