July 18,2011 continued...

Another miracle-we have two new investigators both are from Africa. Luchica is from Eitriea, the same place as Merhawi. She is a referral from members in our ward. We went to her house and taught her and we plan on teaching her again this week. Our other new investigator is Selam. She is a member referral as well. She has been coming to church the past couple of weeks. The members that are her friends are awesome. Both are returned missionaries.Selam came to church this Sunday. Out of all are investigators she was the only one that came. It was quite disappointing, especially when we invited so many to come. However, seeing Salem was great and it made me feel happy!!
As I was sitting in sacrament meeting, I kept thinking about all are investigators,(everyone was invited) tears just filled my eyes...this charity and love filled my heart. I won't give up on them. It's just so hard when we know how important church is to their conversion and important to the members. To the renewing our baptismal covenants and to strengthen our faith and our testimonies in Jesus Christ.

TALK TO EVERYONE

...after we tried to visit an inactive, but he wasn't home so as we were walking back out of his driveway, we noticed a man, across the street throwing something away in the garbage can and as he walked back to his house and was almost at his door, I had a brief thought ( as I was considering talking to him ) nah, I will have to call after him to stop him before I could reach him in time to talk with him...but WORDS JUST CAME OUT OF MY MOUTH. I yelled," Hello, how are you?" He stopped and turned to us and we met him and started to talk with him. He said," This is crazy...I've been thinking of going to church the last couple of weeks. My neighbor has been inviting me to go, but I haven't yet." I shared with him a scripture in 3Nephi18 of how Christ told us to go to church, repent and be baptized and pray unto the Father in His name. He asked about prayer.He said," How do you pray?" We taught him how to pray. He mentioned he hasn't been baptized yet," but I am just making baby steps right now." We talked with him about "small and simple things" with him. It was really cool !

P-Day preparation day

These are pictures of us at the BEACH!!! We have been a couple of times.

What's funny is....these are the beaches in WASHINGTON. It is actually the PACIFIC OCEAN. It looks like a lake, ha ha, and with the cold weather and rain it definitely doesn't feel like the California beaches! There were no waves but it was still fun and you can smell the ocean breeze which is nice and it felt a little like home.

July 13, 2011 What a wonderful week it has been...

and so many miracles! Our mission has decided to keep track of the number of people we talk to and invite to read The Book of Mormon to come to church with us. The mission has asked us to contact at least 15 people each day. I thought I was talking to everyone and making the effort to reach out to people even if it required some awkward situations and going out of our way. However, this week I realized that I am literally talking to everyone. This one time I saw someone across this busy street to talk to them and I just ran across, leaving my companion behind. ha ha! Of course my companion could still see me and possibly hear me. We had met some really awesome, prepared people to hear the Restored Gospel and of course some really interesting people. It's always fun!!

Sister Lauren Kimball

with President and Sister Blanchard. He was the Puget Sound Branch President but was released because of their call to serve a mission in New Mexico at the beginning of July. We also lived with them for a couple of weeks when I first came to Lake Forest Park.

Letter dated July 12, 2011

Sunday night we went to what our mission calls," cottage meetings " at our mission home. There are speakers that have recently joined the Church and they share their stories of their conversion. We brought Jessica. It was awesome ! The speakers were wonderful and so full of faith and happiness. The common theme that drew them into the Church was the Churchs' emphasis and importance on eternal families. The teaching of our children correct morales and principles and the knowledge that families can be eternal through ordinances and covenants made in our Temples. Jessica really enjoyed it. We had a lesson with her yesterday and it went so well. She told us that she can now say with conviction. She knows the Book of Mormon is true and that President Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God. The Spirit was so strong as we listened to her and then testified to her over the power of the Atonement. She is moving along beautifully.

FAMILIES ARE FOREVER

I am so grateful for eternal families. I know the Church is true. I know that families can be together FOREVER ! Obedience is true happiness !

4th of July

Later that day Sister Eaton and I went to the bishop's house for dinner. They shot off a few fireworks but nothing too big cuz it was still light out and we (missionaries) had to be in by 6:00 p.m. Around 9:45 p.m we went to our roof and watched fireworks until bedtime! Don't worry, the roof has tables and chairs and such. It was an awesome view, especially since we live in Seattle and everyone was shooting them off right by us! It was cool! I wish pictures could capture it... Well I hope you all had a great fourth of July!! I sure did !! I am so grateful that our nation has the freedom to choose religion. I have been reflecting over and over again this past week about Joseph Smith and just how prepared our nation was for the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through a prophet, Joseph Smith. I know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet and that he was prepared and called of God to restore Christ's Church to the earth once again. I know that we all can gain a witness of this for ourselves through prayer, pondering and reading of The Book of Mormon. I KNOW IT IS TRUE!!!
I came to find out that mostly all fireworks are illegal in Washington, however, there is a huge Indian reservation which the police have no control especially in Marysville and that's where I was last year.

Just a little soccer with our district

Yesterday was a great day! We have been having excellent weather!! We have a high of 75 which was perfect for a day with our district...we played soccer and ate pizza. We had more things planned but everything was closed( 4th of July weekend ).

Oh, more exciting news!

Merhawi, the recent convert in April, passed the sacrament for the first time on Sunday. As I saw him pass the sacrament, I was so happy! Tears just filled my eyes. I thought to myself, if this is the ONLY REASON why I came out on a mission to be a witness to this-----I've fulfilled my purpose!