LAST WEEK OF TRANSFER!!

Hey Fam! 

Welp, there went the last week of the transfer... can't believe it. It was a pretty good week. As you could tell by my subject, I was dying. My allergies came out of nowhere! I don't think I have ever had them this bad! I woke up the other morning and thought I was going to die! Ain't nobody got time for that! So I just drugged myself and carried on! Hah!  Not the most productive day, we did did have lessons so that was good! Everything else has been pretty good. 

It is transfer week! It's crazy to think that if I didn't break my foot, I would hopping on that plane tomorrow! But! I'M NOT DEAD YET! I have tons of life left in me. 6 weeks of if! I'm pumped to see all of the incredible mercies Heavenly Father is about to bless us with! He has blessed us so much, but I have a feeling He's just gonna dump it all out. Sister Dee is gonna be killin' me off! We're going to see so many miracles here! I'm excited! 

We did have miracles this week! As usual! He never ceases to amaze me with His handy work! It's so awesome! Gah! I love Him! Anyway.. our miracles were awesome. We were sent on a spiritual scavenger hunt the other day! Those are my favorite! Haha! This is how it went down.. we decided to see Max and Jack, the 2 teenage boys that tracted into and gave them a Book of Mormon. Max was there but Jack wasn't. We talked to him and he went in to get his mom. So she comes out and she's super cool. Turns out that she had met with missionaries a couple years ago. She liked what we taught, but for some reason didn't follow through with it. She told us that she goes to her own little church that she loves. She doesn't drag her kids though, because she wants them to choose for themselves! (Answered prayer right there, everyone! We have to have permission to teach minors) So we shared Prince of Peace with her and she loved it, so did Max! She has a super strong testimony of the Savior, which is amazing! Set a time to come back. Then we were headed to see Kenny, another 'gator we found a couple weeks ago. But it didn't feel right. So we just started driving and the spirit poked me to see Dominic, who we met a couple weeks ago but our appointment with him fell through.. as we were walking up to his door, the spirit poked me super hard to hit their neighbor after. So knocked on Dominic's door and met his buddy Jose! He was super cool but Catholic through and through! Not interested though. So! We went over to the neighbors. It was the coolest thing ever.. This lady answers the door. She was SO NICE! People are never this nice.. haha. We let her know we would like to share a message with her about Jesus Christ. She was super excited about, the only problem was is that it was their dinner time. But she invited us back and IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED! Haha... yes, it's surprising sometimes! But it was one of THE most powerful lessons I have ever had on my mission. I can't even express to you how strong the spirit was and how much love I felt for this lady. It was unreal! But here's kinda what went down. Sorry it won't do it justice, because words never could. It was still pretty cool though.

Julie:
Before we went in, we went to grab restoration pamphlets, since that's what we had planned. But the spirit poked me to grab a Plan of Salvation Pamphlet and a Family Proclamation. So we rolled with it. It was probably the best Plan of Salvation lesson ever! She invited us in and we got to know her. She was baptized in another church and grew up that way, but she said it was way too hard to understand so she just fell away from it. She believes in Christ and a life after death. Her son was murdered a few months ago so she has been going thru a lot. We talked about us having a message of hope and peace that can only be found here. She understood it all very well. She thought it was interesting that there's a spirit world and the kingdoms of glory. It sounded like she believed it was true. We talked about the Atonement and testified of its reality. Promised that He could heal her and has felt EVERY pain she has felt. It was SUCH a powerful moment! The spirit was SO strong! She felt it and started to cry. We talked about temples and family history which was interesting to her. She didn't get a chance to read the intro, but we read with her. Talked about the promise and bore testimony. Again, it was SUPER powerful! Invited her to pray about the Book of Mormon and the Plan. Invited her to read 2 Nephi 29, in prep for the restoration. She is so amazing! It was awesome!

Norman:
We talked about a ton with Norm. we talked about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. Shared Testimony of the Book of Mormon. He thought it was very powerful. He believes that Joseph was sincere and that that the first vision could've happened. He said it was very likely. The things he has concerns about are more deep doctrine. We told him that he just needs to focus on the basics. That's what really matters. He asked a lot of questions about the Spirit. We explained that we feel it differently, but some ways are the same. Followed up about loving God. He said that has been consuming him lately. We asked him if he loves God. He was a little taken back because of the directness of that question. He said he thinks he does. We talked about how that shows true love for God, when we follow Him. Talked about sacrificing things. He expressed some fears: his family's acceptance, his concerns being resolved, giving his time to the church, etc. we told him that those concerns can be resolved as he makes the step of baptism. He asked why he needs to be baptized. We explained the importance of covenants. He understood better. He said he loves the ward and everything. He just wants to pray about Gods will for him. He said  he will come with an answer if it's for him or not next time. Also told him we would remind him to read 3 Nephi and pray everyday. It was a good lesson! He's coming along,slowly but surely.

Family, I'm sorry. This is about all for this week! My iPad is going to die and so is my motivation.. haha! I love y'all though, so I will just finish up with a spiritual thought! For my spiritual thought of the week, I decided to pick one of the things that stuck out to me during Conference. Surprise, surprise. It was so amazing that we get to hear the voice of the Lord through His chosen men and women. Ah! I love it! One of the things that stuck out to me was from Elder Bednar's talk! He said something like this: "Sometimes we try to run so fast, we forget where we're going and why we are running!" That really struck me... The spirit smacked me and told me to stop doing that! Haha. He's right though! What's the point of running if you're completely missing your main purpose! DUH!! *face palm* I need to remember why I'm running. Not JUST to get to the end, but to help people get to THEIR end and be an instrument for Heavenly Father So check yourselves!! Are you running for His purpose or your own? Interesting stuff to think about, huh. That was just one of my many spiritual slaps from Conference! Hopefully it made sense to you because it made sense in my head!

Thank you for the prayers! I have been feeling it big time. Have great week! 

Love,
Sister Hood!