Week 76

Hello Family! I am so excited to see you so soon!

Spiritual experiences.. So this week we had TONS of meetings (I'll get there) and one of the biggest topics was what it means to keep the Sabbath Day holy and the emphasis on the Sacrament.  Side note - ever since I had 6 months on the mission, I've been trying to find different ways to make the Sacrament more meaningful.  For months I don't feel like I was able to do that, until yesterday!  This week in my personal study I just dissected every part of the Sacrament and came to a simple truth: as we take the sacrament, we promise to renew our covenants we have made. As we do this, we are promised two things: the forgiveness of our sins, and the companionship of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is the purifier, and we can only have him with us when we Keep the commandments and keep our covenants! So it's like a perfect circle. There were a lot of other cool things I learned too but I can go into detail when I get home.  But yesterday, I had a completely different perspective on that. I truly did feel renewed and clean.

Investigators! This week was super successful! We were able to get a lot of new investigators and improve our teaching skills a bunch!

Angel and Verónica: so I'm not sure how many of you remember Verónica, but she was an old investigator a while back.  She texted us out of the blue last week and asked if we could come by and help her son, Angel be baptized!  He's 11 years old and super prepared!  They had been taught by missionaries before many times in the past and has a strong desire to be baptized.  We had our first lesson with him on Saturday, and he said the opening prayer, and answered all of our questions super well!  We asked him if he knew that he was a child of God, and he said, "yes, I've always known that".  My heart got happy, because there is no better feeling than knowing you are a literal child of a Heavenly Father.  At the end of the lesson, Hermana Zayas invited him to be baptized on March 24th, and he said yes!  We are super excited for him, and we haven't had anyone on date for a really long time!

Ivan: so, Hermana Zayas and I as we were planning for our lesson last week found a POWERFUL new way to help teach the lessons to Ivan and Surya.  We felt that we could teach the principles of the lessons through reading specific chapters of the Book of Mormon with him, and then the following night, reviewing and then going into the lesson in a little more detail.  It has helped him SO MUCH, and he is so much more active and attentive in the lessons.  We have seen a BIG change in him and Surya and they have come to sacrament meeting for 3 weeks in a ROW.  We are so proud of them and we have such a special bond with them.  They are really special to me.

Rosanna and Martha: a senior couple sent us a text about two weeks ago about a family of old investigators who have taken the lessons many times.  Rosanna is married to an active member of the church and her mom's name is Martha.  We tried contacting them the day after they sent us a text, and we rang the doorbell and they answered through their fancy doorbell and said they couldn't attend us, but that we could come another time.  Which, that usually means that they're not interested. So we left, but we left some pamphlets with them with our number on it.  A DAY later, we received a text from Rosanna telling us when we could come by!  It was a miracle because that NEVER happens. We went by yesterday and discovered that Rosanna's dad died a year ago this Thursday. We testified that families are meant to be together forever, and shared the Book of Mormon with them and some of our favorite scriptures. The future is so bright with them, and we are excited to see where this goes.  Rosanna has a 6 year old daughter who made a drawing of us during the lesson.  I think mine is spot on, I'm on the right.

Alex: we haven't been able to see him this last week.. But we hope to see him this week.
We've also contacted a lot of people this week, and have tried this new thing where we ask them what they desire most in life, and find a scripture in the Book of Mormon to help them meet their needs.  It is a POWERFUL way to contact (that was something we learned in Combined District Meeting) and we've handed out like 5 Books of Mormon that way!  We are excited.-

Tender Mercies:
- We got 4 new investigators this week! Woo!
-We were given $20 each today to pay for our groceries at Wal-Mart by a lady who's daughter is going on a mission this Wednesday.
- Got to be reunited with the old Spanish zone for a meeting we had on Friday. I got to see Hermana Laurie, and she bore her testimony in English.  She's progressed so much!
-We bore our testimonies in Sacrament Meeting yesterday, and a member in our Ward got up, and said that we inspired him to bear his testimony because of our example.
-While trying to call old investigators, someone called us back, told us he had moved and that he is taking lessons with other missionaries and bore his testimony of the restored gospel!

Zone conference was great! I learned so much, and we didn't bear our testimonies.. We think President forgot. Haha. But apparently we are bearing our testimonies at our zone activity on Monday.

I CANNOT BELIEVE I WILL BE IN YOUR ARMS NEXT THURSDAY, MY WONDERFUL FAMILY YOU! I AM SO EXCITED! But I am also STOKED to work as hard as I have EVER worked this last full week I have! Hermana Zayas and I ordered a box of Books of Mormons and we have a plan to hand out ALL of them before I leave. Challenge accepted.

Last week was full of meetings.  Last Wednesday we had Combined District Meeting (zone meeting), and then on Thursday we had zone conference, and then Friday we had a daily dose meeting, a meeting for all the Spanish speaking missionaries. It was so amazing to be reunited with ALL of my good friends I've made. Lots of hugs and smiles.

This week we have a lot of fun things planned! A lot of appointments, and service opportunities. On Thursday I have my last district meeting ever! Saturday all of the Sisters in our Mission are going to be in a meeting pretty much all of Saturday to be trained on how to give the Jordan River open house tours. (Our mission is one of the 4 that gets to help with the Jordan River Temple Open House and the Sisters will be able to give tours of it to the public! I won't be there but I get to go to this meeting to hear about how it works!) Sunday will be my last Sunday in the Mission and it is going to be hard to say goodbye to this Ward and the people I have grown to love so much! I love, love being a Missionary and serving the Lord with all my heart! I'll see the people of Orem soon when I return after my Mission to attend UVU.

Today we had a district activity! We played board games for like 2 hours. Twas great.

Mom and Dad, I love, love, love this spiritual thought! It goes perfectly for this last week! I AM READY TO BAPTIZE ALL of PLEASANT GROVE IN ONE WEEK, haha. Just kidding.

Well family, I'll write to ya next week. AND SEE YOU NEXT WEEK. 😊😊😊

I love you!


-Hermana Kali Rae Green