1/31/22 India

I LOVE being a missionary. Oh man, we had such a good week!

We have been really praying to find more people to teach and the Lord provided. We got a referral from our Facebook page, which when we do get referrals from facebook they usually were an "accidental sign up" and aren't legitimate. But this time it was real! Her name is Brenda and she really was wanting to become a "church girl" again! She invited us over and we started with a solid How to Begin Teaching moment and then we got her whole life story. This woman can talk hahah! But she shared how she has been really working on becoming smoke free and hasn't had any alcohol for years and she just wants to become clean! *she has been so prepared*. We were wrapping our first visit lesson with some scriptures but I was praying to God as my companion was testifying of the gospel and I asked him what else she needed to know today. After my companion finished Brenda went on and on without taking a breath and I couldn't get a word in. I could feel the spirit bubbling in me and I felt like I was about to overflow and I couldn't keep it in any longer. But she finally took a breath. I still wasn't sure what I was going to say, but when you open your mouth, God fills it, and I opened it and God had us give her a 2 minute Restoration lesson and as we gave the First Vision she sat deep in her chair and you could see her eyes start to water. "That is powerful '' she said and that we could come back on Tuesday and tell her more about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. It was just so special for me. I haven't had the opportunity to give a full restoration lesson in a long time. But I really felt like God was gracious in giving me the opportunity because she was ready to accept and she was open to learning more. God is so good!

We were invited over to our friend Dawn's home in inner city Grand Forks and she has been so excited about the gospel. I had not yet met her but I had heard that she had been prepared! We arrive and this cute woman has been struggling with her battle of brain cancer and as I listened to her every moment in her life has lined up for her to accept the gospel. Back in November the Sisters felt to knock on her door and ask if they could rake her leaves for her. She gave permission and as they didn't accept any payment she was curious about their message and let them in. Isn't that awesome! By the time I have come into the picture, she has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and a strong desire to learn about our faith. We read about The Fall in 2 Nephi 2 and she was so grateful to understand more of Eve's part and Gods understanding of it. She just soaked it all up! I love Dawn and I'm so excited about her progression. Ill keep you all updated!

Funny moments of the week:

- Somehow Sister Martin and Sister Reid got roped into teaching a class of 30 kids in India the restored gospel. So we joined the lesson. It was at 10:30pm CRT/afternoon India time their time and it was HILARIOUS! We were given no context to what the class was for or what they wanted to learn. But we testified of the Plan of Salvation and they laughed at us. Not sure why ahahah. But it was definitely a highlight of my week! Thank heavens for technology! I hope one of those kids thought it was interesting.

- We have Grand Forks Air Force Base in our area and it's under super high security. A a member has to come pick us up at the gate to let us in. They finally agreed to help us get a pass so we could get on base whenever we needed to without asking a member to come get us. We walked into this high security room and we had to give them all this personal information and then took our mugshots and we got a pass! Wild Stuff! Sister Arens was helping us with it and one of the guards said that some of our info needed commander approval and Sister Arens goes "my HUSBAND is the commander they're fine!!" and we got our passes! I love being with our members. Such fun people heheh

A friend showed me this quote from ComeFollowMeDaily and I thought I should share:

I am okay is Eve had everything planned out in her mind before eating the fruit, and I am also ok is she didn't

I feel that either way you look at it, you have to do some mental gymnastics. Conference quotes and even the actual scriptural account of the fall just don't all perfectly match up, no matter how hard you try.

however that moment happened, it doesn't change how much I adore Eve.

Because, to me, that most important thing about Eve is what she did AFTER she partook of the fruit.

AFTER she knew good from evil.

AFTER she was introduced to their savior (this part is made clear in the temple.)

She clung to Jesus and her covenants.

and that, to me, is awe-inspiring.

It's everything I want to do in life.

And that's the biggest reason I honor and respect and love Mother Eve.

Because after transgression came progression

The fall...forward.

I just love being a missionary. It was such an incredible week! Thank you all for tuning in! I hope some part of it was able to lift you in anyway.

Love you all!