The Spirit is One of My Best Friends

          So since we emailed on Wednesday last week, I feel super thrown off about what to write about...so if this becomes a jumbled mess, please excuse my weakness in writing (shout out to The Book of Mormon). For those who are not planning to read the whole email, I am alive, still not trunky, and we are doing lots of missionary things here in New Boston Texas!

       I really hate doing this, but I am going to just go through the week day by day. I know it is boring, but I don't want to forget anything!!

      SO MONDAY!!! We drove to Shreveport Louisiana, for specialized training, it is basically a zone conference except it only for trainers and their trainees. We woke up at 5:30 rushed around to get ready. Drove two hours! Arrived and found out that the zone leaders had forgotten to inform us that we didn't need to be there until ELEVEN!!! We were so mad! So we went out and slept on the couches in the church lobby. It was worth it though, we learned a lot. President told us stories about when he was being trained and the first time he trained a missionary! Which was very interesting. We learned a lot....BUT...what we were excited about was CHEDDARS! It is this kind of restaurant, the closest restaurant was in Shreveport and Sister Conder's older brother told us about it. We were very excited! It seemed fancy because of the super cool fan thing they had in the middle of the restaurant, but it was pretty cheap! But I can tell you that it has some of the best food I have ever had! We both got Monte Cristos and we just about DIED! We then used some of our lunch time and went into Marshalls so Sister Conder could look at Jackets. And this lady who worked their came up to us and asked if we had any pamphlets! We said "Oh yeah we have pamphlets!" "We also have this book called the Book of Mormon!" we explained to her what is about and she was SO EXCITED! She told us she was going to go read it right then! Every time we walked past the dressing room she was reading!  We are still trying to figure out what missionary's area she is in but it was cool how the Lord put us in the right place at the right time! 

     Tuesday we had interviews with the mission president! And he came to New Boston! And we had interviews in our APARTMENT! Thankfully we had cleaning checks that morning so our apartment was spotless! It was a little funny because his wife was sick, so she stayed behind in Jackson. It will probably be the only time I was alone with a man in my apartment while on my mission! We had a great time talking to him and hearing what he wanted us to be doing to help New Boston.

      Wednesday we tried to get a little bit of our p-day in but not too successfully! Thursday we were all over the place! We went and helped some members move....then we drove out to a town called Simms planning on tracting there but then we realized all the houses were about a half mile apart...so we drove to a tiny town called Maud and tracted there. Drove back to Simms for an appointment with a less active! Only to discover that she had just been called into work. Had a super short lesson and drove back to New Boston and tracted there.

      Friday, we had Juan! Juan is one of our most serious investigators right now! We love him! He is in his thirties and has two kids. His wife cheated on his 5 months ago and now she is filing for divorce. One of his best friends just died in a bar fight...he had a blood clot in his lung....*insert a million other tragic things about Juan. Yeah, this guy is humble! We went over planning on teaching the Plan of Salvation and we hadn't even started the lesson and he just started talking, telling us about everything he struggles with and all the hard things that are going on in his life. The whole time basically expressing that he didn't understand how God could allow such horrible things to happen in our lives. We didn't even start the lesson with a prayer because the flow was so perfect! Each thing he said led to the next point in the lesson! He was so moved at the idea that we lived with God before we were born and was so surprised at how much sense our beliefs about agency or free will make. Ashlyn Hurst who is about to leave on her mission, taught about the atonement and how God planned that we would make mistakes. We had been only planning on teaching up to the atonement, but Sister Conder felt like we should keep going. The spirit was so strong as we all testified to each principle and point. He started to cry when we taught about or purpose on earth. BUT the coolest part was at the end, when we taught about the celestial kingdom! I told him about the Jeffery R Holland quote:
"Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ,they come."

And we promised him that all his losses would be made up! That the rewards of the kingdom of God are SO MUCH GREATER than having a life without trial or tribulation. We committed him to pray about baptism and left on a huge spiritual high! We went and saw another less active after that.

       Then we went and saw Rose and Cody! (less actives) Cody walked out and pointed at Sister Conder and said "Thats my girlfriend Sister Conder!" when Sister Conder and I made a face he said "Just kidding, just kidding!" and tried to give Sister Conder a hug! He is 16 years old, but he looks like he is 11 or 12! Right before we started the lesson a boy and a girl showed up listened to the lesson! The girl Katie is awesome! She is convinced we knew each other before we are born (very possible) and told us that Sister Conder and I have a glow! She really likes how she feels around us! 

     Friday! Katie came to Womens conference! She was curious about this Prophet guy we kept talking about, we were hoping that Rose would come because she was coming but Rose flaked last minute. Katie was really touched by the conference and wanted to come to church, but her aunt needed her to help her move! Next step is to get permission from her parents for us to teach her! She is only sixteen!

      Nothing much else happened Sunday or Saturday! But even though lots of plans fell through, the spirit helped us out! I love being a missionary and will  miss being able to talk to people in stores and restaurants, people who I have never met about the Gospel! I love it so much! I asked president about extending but he said no, so I will see y'all in TWO MONTHS!

LOVE Y'ALL!!

Sister White