Week 59: EASTER🐣

Peep my Easter poem at the bottom👀

But hey don't skip all the miracles. 

Odds and Ends

●I GOT TO SEE SISTER CARTER AT MLC! She is the onlyyyyy sister district leader in the mission. We sat by each other the WHOLE TIME! 

●We made chocolate covered strawberries for our zone! 

●Our banana grams tile???

●IT POURED RAIN... holy it was like being underneath the dumping cup at the Mesquite pool in Arizona. 

●We saw a baby koala at the zoooo!

●We made potato soup and are now accomplished cooks 👍

●Got a few doors slammed in our faces 

●Daniel gave us cool whiteboard paper 😁 we put it up on our wall! 

●We knocked on the door of someone we were teaching, and his step-dad answered and said he is in jail....

●A less active member told us "I've had enough of the mormons" while slowly closing the door

●Talking amongst ourselves we kept calling church "Easter church"

●I drove on the scariest muddy road ever and was slipping and skidding. AND it was supposed to be a short cut, but I had to turn around anyways. 

●A guy named Legend told us he had a photographic memory and he'd just memorize the church address. 

●What do y'all think this means? Sister Mickelson outing us hydrated people with this update in areabook 🚽🌴🚽🦈

●We have 4 wards in our building. But instead of our 2 wards lumping together and the elders wards lumping together, we had them mismatched. Poor Sister Bruce had no idea who was it our ward or the elders haha! And we had general conference last week. She'll learn the ward eventually! 

●When we have to pull into someone's wrap around driveway to turn around, Sister Mickelson always says "Wave for damage control" as we drive through their yard as fast as possible and pretend like I never missed the turn. 

●The Zone Leaders talked about buzzing their heads. We thought they were kidding. They weren't. Their heads look like eggs. And now, Aiken Zone is known as the 

Egg-ken Zone. 

Miracles 

★Donna! Holy. She was an online referral. At first when we reached out, she said "It was an accidental. You can omit that. Thank you." Then a few days later we asked if she knew anyone else who might be interested. Then she said "Yeah, me.  I try to get closer to God daily.  Why do you ask?" HUGE MIRACLE! We now have an appointment with her! Good prompting from God right there! 

★We got a member referral, but we definitely got bashed by her. But it was a wonderful opportunity to bear our testimonies! She wasn't very respectful. But we walked out of there feeling like we represented Christ well! Then she gave us some anti that she preprinted for us before we came. She only had 2 because she didn't realize there were 3 of us. It's so sad that her heart was closed off. But one day she'll be ready! 

★We met Steve and Marjorie. Steve let us right in! We talked with Marjorie. Apparently she was the RS president a long time ago, and has since fallen away but still is holding her testimony tight!

★It was pouring buckets... but the work goes on! So we were running around in the rain. We ran up to this guy named Larry's porch and he laughed at us because we were DRIPPING. Theres no point in an umbrella because we'd have to open and close the umbrella so often. Anywho he's giggling, and then CRACK lightning strikes a street over and we all screamed. Hehe! We laughed together and set up an appointment and ran back to our car laughing so hard we almost peed our pants. Anywho, the miracle is we didn't get struck by lightning!

★We met this little older woman who was frantically looking for her keys and she was real stressed we had a little visit. At the end I prayed she would find her keys and she laughed at me during the prayer. Welp. I hope Heavenly Father helps her find them so she can learn the power of prayer! 

★Brandon slipped up due to peer pressure. At first he turned it down, then he caved. He was so disappointed in himself. Belinda came in and bore a super powerful testimony about how Christ can take it all from him and that he needs to rely on Jesus. Belinda then told us and Brandon that she was going to stop drinking coffee and tea and smoking and drinking as her Easter resolution. THAT brought tears to my eyes! She's never been super supportive of his efforts to be baptized until this moment. She was going to work with Brandon for his goal! We prayed with him on our knees to help him regain his strength. He had taken off the WWJD bracelet I gave him, and I told him to go get it and put it on and use it as a reminder of his goal! I know Brandon can get back up on his feet! Now he's been staying strong and has been studying like CRAZY! He started keeping the Word of Wisdom again. He loved the plan of salvation! He saw the Love illustration before we even finished! He also studied ALL DAY with come follow me and past conference talks! Ahhhh he's amazing. He texted us the question "What do you think it would take to make it to the celestial realm?" He is eating up the gospel. He's gonna be out of town visiting his son, and he wants to take his son to church in Maryland! 

★Sister Bruce's first door approach on her own was a HUGE success! Wowzers. She said who we were and who we were looking for, and got us in the door where we met Stefany! She apparently had just been talking about going to church and how she wants to find a good family church. I has a proud mama moment! Sister Bruce is growing so fast!

★I got to use my Spanish a smidge to talk with a mother and her family and offer the gospel. 

★Sister Mickelson is a beast. She found so much scriptural evidence in the Bible about temples for our lesson with Angie and Jodie. It was so cool! 

★My favorite part of Easter church was it was almost entirely music!!! Eee! 

★Little Lydia Nebeker played stickers with me and it made my whole world. 

★Nebekers spontaneously invited us to Easter lunch. It was so kind!

★So last week, we prayed about people who we needed to invite to be baptized. Sister Bruce had the name Justin come to mind. The only Justin's in areabook were members, so we told her that we would have to look for a Justin. We stopped by our friend Josipa's, and we started talking to a boy who was outside. He said she was at work...but we asked him his name. He said "Justin." I had to keep my jaw from dropping. Literally a miracle that we met a Justin at all this week!  He said he was interested in hearing a message but then went inside to ask his mom and she said she wasn't interested so he stayed inside and we left :/ BUT God is aware of that family! We will go back. 

★Mayaa and Shy came all BEDAZZLED to Easter church. They said they plan on coming back!  

Spiritual Thought 

This week I was laughed at twice for things I prayed for. I was kinda thrown off! From a young age, I knew no matter how big or small, I could ask God for something. And even if it was to find lost keys or find a dog within a certain price range, I knew God would hear my prayer. I'm glad I gained that testimony early on in life when I prayed for my lost chapstick. And 2 seconds later, I had the thought to check under my bed and BAM there it was! Sounds like a silly story, but it wasn't silly to God because it was important to me! I invite you all to pray for ANYTHING you need. Because God will hear you. Yes, you need to be submissive to His will and be trusting of whatever answer He gives you. But we first have to get on our knees and tell Him ourselves we are in need. "🎵so when life gets dark and dreary, don't forget to pray🎵"

Alma 34:19-27

"Yea, humble yourselves, and continue in prayer unto him. Cry unto him when ye are in your fields, yea, over all your flocks. Cry unto him in your houses, yea, over all your household, both morning, mid-day, and evening. Yea, cry unto him against the power of your enemies. Yea, cry unto him against the devil, who is an enemy to all righteousness. Cry unto him over the crops of your fields, that ye may prosper in them. Cry over the flocks of your fields, that they may increase. But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness. Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you."

Palm Fronds Risen 

~Written by Sister Brooklyn Palmer 

He is risen, from the dead,

He paid the debt, suffered in my stead.

The drops of blood, the anguish and tears,

He knows my suffering and all my fears.

E'en though that must have been enough,

His hands, they pierced and bound and cuffed.

And drug a cross, both mine and yours, 

Til upon his own, with a crown of thorns.

And from his lips forgiveness came,

Ne'er ending love, Christ still the same. 

His spirit went home for three short moons, 

His body buried, left in a tomb. 

And then He rose, to o'ercome, to save,

He beamed pure light, left behind the grave. 

And all because His love for us,

Made way for wicked to turn righteous.

Through Him comes cleansing, peace, relief,

I hail Him, I raise a palm leaf. 

Because in His name, I've found mine. 

Because of Him, I'll reach divine. 

He is risen, the one true king,

Let my voice forever sing!

Birthdays

None:)

Pictures

Made chocolate covered strawberries 

Our new zone!!!

We became SOAKED. My curly ponytail? Yeah. It was straight.

God's got this!

RAIN jackets activated

Easter fits! We love to be all matchy matchy.

Our Lexington District at the zoo!!!

Sister Carter!