100 Days Already?

Hello!!  My Lovely Family and Friends!!  :)

100 Day Package from Home

This week I got a package from my family...called the 100 Day Package!!  I didn't know I had been out for 100 Days!  That is pretty cool!!!  I got an awesome letter from my sweet lil sister Taylynne!  That was fun to read!  :)  I will be writing her back today, I wrote everyone else last week so you all should write me back so I have letters to write!  ;)

This week was full of meetings and WOW was it just so wonderful!!  I don't know if I have ever loved meetings so much in my life!  :)

This week has been pretty weird with Monday being the last day with Sister Winn.  We taught L**** who is one of our recent converts.  She was baptized in July right before I got here.  We are doing new member lessons with her, which means we are just reteaching the lessons to help make sure she understands everything.  She is so wonderful and I learn so much from her.  We had dinner with Bishop Atkinson and his family and some family friends.  WE had yummy Cafe Rio type food!  It was divine!!  :)  Then we went and visited Sister A**** and just talked with her.  Her grand kids were gone.  :(  We get to see them today though!!!  They are so wonderful and are the smartest kids!  D**** (6) remembers all the stories we tell him and nothing bests having a child re tell you a Book of Mormon story and wants to play one of the games we have taught him.  It is the greatest!!

Tuesday was Transfers!!  So of course that was interesting.  The church building we go to for transfers is about a half hour away but it took us more than an hour!  Oh my goodness, traffic was so bad!!  It all worked out!!!  Sister Grant and I are companions and it is great!!!  It is so nice to be able to work with her and it is weird not to, well train.  She is so awesome!  Since I already know her I often forget

Transfer meetings are a time to see new and old people and taking family group pictures!!!
Sister Winn - my daughter, Sister Hakins - My Sister, Sister kershaw - my mom and Me

that she doesn't know everyone in this area but she is really good at asking questions so she can know who is who.  We had an appointment with K**** but she was busy doing homework.  :(  We still talked about her reading and shared a scripture from it (Alma 32) which is such a wonderful chapter!  You should go read it! We plan to meet with her on Friday.

http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/32

Before we went to the S****'s for dinner I felt like we should go see K**** who is 17.  We started teaching her my first transfer here but things happened and now we are teaching her again!  WOOT WOOT!!  So after dinner we stopped by and invited her to Young Women's and she said yes!!  We were pretty excited about that!!

Young Women's is a youth group for girls ages 12-18.  They have activities once a week during the week days.

Wednesday we had planned to be such a super rock awesome day!  Sadly all of our appointments but ONE cancelled.  :(  So we got to go tracting instead...it was alright.

We went to the first half of Young Women's and K**** was there!!  :)  YES!!  It was so awesome!  Then we went and taught P**** and that was wonderful!!  It has been said that as we listen to our investigators they will state their concerns and/or needs.  Needless to say we were able to figure out why P**** hasn't received and answer about the Book of Mormon.  As we were talking about prayer he told us how he prayers for everyone else but doesn't really pray for himself.  Well in order to know if the Book of Mormon is true you have to ask God for yourself to know.  So we invited him to do that.  He said he would.  He is such an awesome guy!  It is really cool to watch the spirit work and see God's children come closer to them. You really can see a difference in their eyes and just how they are.

Thursday was Zone Conference which is half the mission!!  It was so awesome!!  Elder Martino came and spoke to us!  He is from the Quorum of the 70.  He is such an amazing man!!  It was a very awesome meeting!!  One of the things that I want to share with you guys is in Alma, I believe starting in Chapter 10.  Alma and Amulek, and why it is so important for Members to be a part of this great work!!  Alma is a missionary, when he first went and taught the people they wouldn't listen.  They didn't trust him but then he met Amulek and asked for his help.  Amulek is a less active and in time he become a strong member of the church.  They taught his family who were not members.  Then they went to the people and Alma started teaching again and this time the people were like dude we already told you to go away.  Then Amulek (a member( testified of what Alma was saying and that it is true and this is when the people started listening! Amulek was the one who made the impact on the people.  This is one reason why member missionary work is SO important!  The missionaries NEED YOUR help!!  I want to invite you to invite someone who is not a member to your home and invite the missionaries over too.  The reason why it is super awesome to invite our friends who are not of our faith to your home is so that you can have a fun night with them and the missionaries can just be a small part of it.  Having that friendship with people is why they will listen to you.  Half the battle is having the courage to invite, and as we invite people they don't always say yes, but as you invite someone to come closer to our loving Savior you are showing Him that you want to help others and show them the joy that this gospel brings.  We are so blessed to know that there is more to life then just being here on earth.  That we are able to live with our families forever!  Through the Atonement we truly can be forgiven for ALL of our sins!  God really does know what we are feeling!! He is here to help us in everything!!

Being on a mission I have been able to feel a small glimpse of what our Savior feels.  I can feel the love for his children, this is why one of the reasons it can be so hard to watch people turn away from this great gospel.  When you know that people know that the gospel is true and they choose not to follow it, it breaks my heart.  I know they are mission out on the blessing that they could receive and the peace.  I know that we are not alone in this crazy world!  The Lord really is here to help us through everything!!  I know that God loves you and wants what is best for you!  He has given us agency to choose.  He is there, but it is up to us to ask for His help.  We must knock and He will open.

It was such a wonderful meeting and Elder Martino called on me to give a talk on Diligence in front of HALF the mission (two stakes) so about 90 missionaries.  We all were told to prepare a talk on Diligence and that any of us would be called up.  Well Elder Martino looked right at me and then called on an Elder so I thought I was good.  Needless to say he then called on me.  I shared a scripture, D&C 107:99-100 and pretty much talked about the Lord having high expectations for us and it is up to us to live up to them.  We need to keep working hard and He will help us! :)  I am getting better at speaking, things are flowing better and I feel like I am making more since.

Friday was planning, we had a quick lesson with K**** and then dinner at a members house.  Then we had exchanges.

Saturday, Sister Kershaw came here which was just weird having her back in the area.  It went really well, I don't have much time but she did tell me that I have grown and I have become more bold.  We got to sing at the Adult Session of Stake Conference which was awesome!

Sunday was Stake Conference!! :)  It was way great!  I just loved it!!

I have got to go but I love you all so much!!  Thank you so much for all of your prayers!!!

Sister Brienholt is dying which means going home

Love,
Sister Amber North :D