^^ What Hermana Thornton said when she opened the mailbox on my birthday lol :) (We had decided to send her 20 birthday cards for her 20th birthday... but ended up with 25.)
Savanah (cousin) got her mission call this week! Mexico Puebla North, wahoooooo!!!!! I was so happy to read that, that I actually started crying! haha. Like a tear or two actually rolled down my face! lol. I am so happy that she gets this opportunity to serve the people of Mexico and that we will both be able to speak Spanish! Sorry to everyone else, but Hispanic people are literally the best. I love speaking Spanish and being here!
We went on exchanges this week and I was really nervous because I took over the area! And the STLs speak only English. So I was really nervous to teach on my own because I wasn't sure if I know enough Spanish to be on my own! But I did it! We taught three lessons and we even had a member there for two of them, which was so so helpful! But I learned that I know a lot more Spanish than I thought! The first lesson was with A., a less active lady. Last transfer, the Hermanas were working with her to start reading the Book of Mormon. After not coming for a while, she came to church three weeks ago, so we went to visit her. She told us that SHE WAS UP TO 1 NEPHI 14 in her reading! The Book of Mormon brings about miracles! So she came to church again two weeks ago and so then we went over to see if we could read with her. (This is the exchange visit.) She told us that she was up to 2 NEPHI 2!!! That means she read about 10 chapters in about 5 days!!! I am so, so happy! We read the first 10 verses with her and talked about how Christ is our Redeemer and she actually bore her testimony of the comfort the Book of Mormon brings us! It was so so awesome! And then she came to church a third time in a row yesterday!!! Miracles!!!
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| Taco Try with Sister Minster |
And then we went to visit M again with Hermana Roper with us and that was a good lesson. We read the first chapter of 1 Nephi 1 with M and had her mark all the names of Christ in the chapter. It's really cool to see how much the scriptures talk about Christ, so if you need something to study in the Book of Mormon, I highly recommend that!
The third lesson was with V and her boyfriend. They had so many questions about what are our beliefs about infant baptism, who is Joseph Smith, and what is the Book of Mormon! They are so awesome! Their Spanish is so fast, so it was very good that we had Hermana Roper with us because Sister Minster (who I was on exchanges with) doesn't speak Spanish. But we ended up teaching them for like, an hour and a half! And then at the end, Hermana Roper asked how he thinks he will receive his answer when he prays to ask if the Book of Mormon is true. He told us that he thinks he and V will feel it differently, but he thinks he will just know. Maybe a feeling in his heart! Basically a perfect explanation of the Holy Ghost! I am so excited to go back and teach them again!
One of my goals from exchanges is to ask simpler questions when I'm teaching. Sometimes I get nervous to ask super simple questions because I don't want our investigators to feel like we're treating them like babies, especially if they're significantly older than us. But Sister Minster helped me realize that they don't know a lot so it's important to ask simple questions that they can understand.
M MIRACULOUSLY CAME TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY!!! Hermana Thornton and I could not stop smiling all during church, we were so happy! I love her family so much.
The other day, I was studying in Preach My Gospel, chapter 4 because I am wanting to be better at recognizing exactly when I am feeling a prompting from the Spirit to do something so that I can do that thing right away. I love the sentence on pg. 89 of PMG that says, " He will give you the power to deliver the message and to testify of Christ and His gospel." I was reminded in my study that the Holy Ghost will invite to do good, verses Satan, who will invite to do bad. I also love that PMG tells me exactly what I need to do to have the influence of the Spirit with me all the time. On page 96, it says, "Your task is to live worthily, pray fervently, and learn to recognize and follow courageously the Spirit's guidance." So my takeaway is that when I feel a prompting to do something good, then I need to do it right away because that is the Spirit telling me what to do. This week I am working on doing that and not worrying about whether or not I'm getting a prompting for the Spirit or just a good idea. If the prompting is good, then it is from the Spirit. I also am wanting to work on praying more fervently to have the help of the Spirit with me all the time.
Next week is my first transfer and I get to go to the temple because it was my birthday this month on Monday! I am so excited for that!
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| This is what bike week looks like. :) |
I love you and miss you so much!
Hermana Keller
P.S. In the freezing cold last night. Look really close at the red truck in the background. Some people in the branch, the ones driving the red truck, drove us from where we were teaching back to our apartment at the end of the night. (About a 45 minute bike ride.) They are my new favorite people!!
Another photo from the Taco Try...
