Sister Allie King: October 24, 2016

SO, this week had its ups and downs. We get ice cream when we're feeling down and we had to go out for it 4 times. BUT, it ended on a HIGH, so life is still grand :D

We had a lesson with a less active girl. She's 16 and dropped out of HS and is taking classes at the community college. She's had a really hard life but is so carefree and chill we thought it didn’t have much of an impact on her. We taught her the plan of salvation to help prep her for a youth activity involving it and she opened up and said all the reasons why she's been hesitant about church and God. She said it's hard because everyone has "perfect" families and she doesn’t, she doesn’t know much about the gospel since she wasn’t exposed to it much growing up, and she feels like she's never felt the spirit. We were able to testify about God's love for her and her circumstances, about how this is all part of Gods plan and about how when we can focus on the big picture, things will get easier. We challenged her to read the Book of Mormon and testified about how Christ can change us. Her grandma (whom she's living with) texted us after and said that her views on the church and religion did a 180, that she’s excited to read AND to come to church! It’s so cool to see the Spirit working in others’ lives :D

We have been struggling finding people to teach, so Sister Hayes and I pull out a map of our area and say a prayer and pick a street. We felt prompted to go to "Fremantle," so we went and the first few doors we knocked were AWFUL! But we kept going and we ended up meeting this kid who just graduated from high school. Apparently missionaries had talked to him and invited him to church a few months ago and he's been looking for it ever since. He accepted the Restoration really well and is excited to read the Book of Mormon! God delivers for both us AND His son who is seeking the gospel!

On Halloween, our president is having us stay indoors and is giving us 4 articles to read since we have to be in early... Good times... My companion’s birthday is on Saturday and that’s when the ward trunk or treat is, so it should be a BLAST!

On Saturday I got to see some of my favorite people from around town since they had the missionaries usher for a BYU ballroom dance performance in town :D Sadly they didn’t let us stay, so it was short lived... but amazing, I love this place so much!!

We met with our investigator K after church, which was the PRIMARY PROGRAM!! I cried 5 times, there’s just something special about a ton of cute little kids sharing what they learned about the Savior. The spirit was SO strong and no one there could deny that what those kids were saying was true. Our lesson after church was on learning and serving in the church and this couple talked about their callings and how the members have been able to strengthen them in hard times. She had this rare condition where her body was rejecting her own lungs so she had 12% use of them and couldn’t leave the house for 3 years while she waited for a transplant. She talked about how God supported her and helped her through the service of others, and K talked about how much she's been strengthened by taking the sacrament every week. Our next lesson with her is on temples, but she’s already been down to the Visitor’s Center and has read a whole magazine on it, so there won’t be much new information for her haha!

We saw this one member who got baptized in August. She is the epitome of integrity and diligence in gospel living. Her husband was baptized when he was a teenager but still doesn’t have a desire to come back to church, so she comes with her 3 girls every week. She’s been going through a hard time and we shared a video with her about the Savior and how we can keep Him in our lives more often. We shared Isaiah 49:15-16, which says, "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me." It was so cool because I had another amazing reminder about how mindful God is of us. There is nothing we are going through that He doesn’t know and there’s nothing that we need that He isn’t aware of. He's only in our lives to the degree that we allow Him to be, so as we open out hearts and our minds to Him and His will, we can see the endless blessings He has to offer us! Her daughter, who is 12, hasn’t been baptized yet and she agreed to let us teach her more about it to see if it’s something she wants! The Lord is WORKING with that family, we're excited to continue to see miracles!

You know how I told you about the member who has great great grandpa Sjodahl’s Book of Mormon Commentary? WELL, it came up in conversation with one of my favorite families here and the dad goes and grabs an old copy of it he has and opens it up and shows me! He goes "do you have a copy with your great great grandpa’s name?" I say no and he HANDS IT TO ME and tells me to keep it! They said they bought it last year at DI and they thought they got it for themselves but it turns out they "actually got it for me" HOW SWEET IT THAT?! Also, the Sjodahls were sealed in the Manti Temple, and he was the first man ever to be endowed AND sealed there! I really gotta get more into family history when i get back...

I ate pig stomach! The pig itself was good, nice and flavorful and juicy, and the skin was really crunchy like a chip, and the stomach was delicious. And I ate chilies the other day; we are not allowed to play "dare" games, but someone told me to eat 3 chilies, so I just did it…

Watch the video That They Do Always Remember Him, it’s 6 minutes long and is supa cute.

I LOVE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!