Pray like everything depends upon the Lord, work as if everything depends upon you!!‏ April 19, 2010

My Sweet Family~

I'm doing very well here in Whitehouse. We had another baptism on Sunday. Her name is Kyara Colonal and she is so awesome. We have been working with her for a while (when i mean a while it has been two weeks for me but for sister Joslin it has been I think four) she is a single Mom like most women here and her daughter is two and so very cute. She had a problem with the word of wisdom and she finally got over that and then was struggling with chastity. She had a fiancé/boyfriend at the time and she didn't understand why it was so bad to sleep with him and we explained it over and over until finally the Lord stepped in and they had a fight and broke-up. That was so exciting for us cause that meant that she could get baptized but we would meet with her and she still said she had a problem with that and didn't know if she could be baptized but we committed her again to be baptized after talking to her almost every day. (We had dropped her twice but felt like we needed to go back and see her each time we dropped her.) She has read everything we gave her to read and she has kept all of her commitments so the only thing holding her back was her. So when we committed her again we brought that to her attention and she finally said yes to keep the law of chastity and be baptized, Sister Joslin and I both started to laugh and cry and were hugging like crazy and smiling through our tears. It was awesome and the spirit was there through the entire thing and told us what to say. It was amazing.

Two days later after Elder Brown interviewed her for her baptism we found out the reason why she felt like she couldn't keep the law of chastity was because she had been sleeping with men for money to pay her rent and food for her daughter. I never in a million years would picture that she of all people could do that. Before her baptism she broke down sobbing because she didn't know if she was good enough for baptism and she didn't know how she was going to pay for last month's rent this month's rent and a late fee on top of it as well as getting enough food for her baby girl. But we promised her that if she would keep the commandments and be baptized and continue doing what God would have her do, she would be blessed, and she was. She talked to the bishop about her situation and the church will help her until she can find a job, the bishop gave us a list of places we could go. We are going job hunting with her on Wednesday because she doesn't have a car and neither do her friends, plus she is a member now so we can drive her. I love her sooo much! I'm so happy for her and can already see a change and a start of a brand new life, pure and clean. I love it!!! Every time i witness a baptism I feel like I'm getting baptized and I feel renewed and clean all over again plus it's on Sunday after church so it's double replenishing for the rest of the week!! I love it!! This makes three baptisms here and one in Kingsland. Four so far and a million more to go! It's so fun!

I'm excited for Elder Pully to be transferred. It's nice to be in an area for so long because it becomes their home and you get to know the ward and the area really well, but it's good to be off to new land and new adventures.

Sister Joslin has been in this area for her entire mission thus far and she loves it here but we think this will be her last transfer here and then I'll stay and train. AHHH~ I don't know if that is true at all but it might be, so I'm preparing for it. Sister Joslin's first name is Marie and she is from California and i love her to death! She is so much fun and we already have plans to see each other after the mission and take a trip to Utah and Idaho together. She is a swimmer and taught before her mission. She has graduated from school as a film director? so you can imagine how much fun we have together! Oh and mom she loves old black and white movies like us and we quote them all the time and no one knows what we are talking about. I love it! We have a movie night planned when we get back. She is 25 and she does not look like it or act like it, in the sense that she is just so fun. I love her. Have I said that enough? I think not...

Our teaching pool is really small right now but this week we will be run tracting like crazy, literally running from door to door so that we have that much more time to find people. It's awesome! But there are 4 soon to be 5 people betting baptized this upcoming weekend, three kids who we have been seeing for awhile but the Mom won't be because she will not get married to the boyfriend she has lived with for six years, and has had four kids with! I don't get it. We also have a mother and daughter that showed up in church on Sunday and said they want to be baptized and we were like" how about next Sunday?" and the daughter said "sure" but the Mom is still thinking about it, so she is the soon to be 5. I'm praying that they all get baptized so badly. I would love to see the entire family get baptized with the three kids but what can we do, people have their own free agency.

I wrote Shanna a letter and sent her some pictures. I love hearing how everyone is doing and I hope my package will get to the family his week. I have to get some things in it before I can send it but soon Mom it will be out. I love you and the whole family so much! This work is nothing short of a miracle and everyday that I go out and work my hardest I see miracle. I love this work more than anything in the world! We had to drop a family the other day because after 7 years of being absent from the family, the Mother shows up and decides that no one is getting baptized because the family is Baptist. I was so angry and hurt. I couldn't believe it! She showed up out of nowhere and the family was so excited to be baptized and she comes and changes everything. I hate how Satan thinks he can change things and do what he wants! AHHH! It is not fun when it happens and I explain the pain as being worse than the worse brake up I have ever had and Mom you know how bad that break-up was, and it's worse than that, because this is for eternity and you are sometimes there only hope or shot at the gospel. It just hurts my heart sometimes, But like I said, people have their own free agency to do whatever they want. but even through all the down i have had thus far, I would do it all over again just to see people feel and look as happy as kyara did when she was baptized. It was so sweet and I almost cried at the baptism. she was soooooo cute!!! I love her!!! I'll have to send you pictures with the package. I love you all so much and am proud of the missionary work you all do.

P.S. I'm excited for Molly and Kaitlyn to get there calls and feel what I feel here. I think they will both go foreign.

I LOVE MY FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!~

~Love your sister missionary~