Week 57

hellooo what's up

I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving week.

I literally love you all so much

This was probably one of the most hardworking and successful weeks that I've had my entire mission.

I saw the Lords hand more than I can even count 

so many miracles 

so much love

so much gratitude 

It was Thanksgiving this week. Since I'm in the DR, I didn't think we would celebrate. Only if I attempted to make a turkey and a pie, but that's quite literally impossible in a Dominican oven. 

but 

we have these amazing members in our ward

the Williams 

Hermano Williams is from Georgia and married a Dominican and they both spent most of their life living in the states and decided to retire here. 

They invited us over and we had an American FEAST.

It sounds silly because it's just a meal. It's just a holiday. But it meant so much to us all. I felt like a had a family here. 

My gratitude was so strong. 

90% of the time this week we ended up sprinting home to make it home in time for curfew because the work is just SO fun.

On Friday, we were trying to find new people to teach about this wonderful gosepl. We decided to hike to the top of the mountain. We got up there and found nobody. All we wanted was to find a family. We prayed and on our way down we found two families. TWO FAMILIES! God hears our prayers. He's a God of miracles. 

On Wednesday night at 9:30 the other American Hermana I live with was like "hey wanna make a pie for the lunch tomorrow?" I was like "absolutely yes" so we were up till 11 and had it done. The filling tasted amazing. In the morning we just had to make the crust and take it to cook and make the whipped cream. 

Well, we don't have an electric whisk or even a normal whisk. So what did we do? We used a fork to whisk. It took about an hour of switching off and shoulders burning but it finally started to fluff up.

We got to the Williams house and put the crust in the oven and whipped the cream some more. 

I'm not sure where we went wrong but our pie took a downhill.

We forgot about our crust and literally burned it lol and THEN

we whipped the whipped cream so much WE MADE BUTTER! we are just too strong haha

So our pie failed but did everyone just push through and eat it still? yes hahaha 

Did someone ask if it was a chocolate crust? yes 

We quite literally had a fire week. We worked so hard, I'm not sure how to say the words in english but nos esforzamos SO MUCH this week. Like we put in a lot of effort this week. In every moment and we completed our goals. We found 30 new people and we saw absolute miracles. It was insane.

We have a friend. Her name is Lori. She's about 30 and has two kids. Before I got here the hermanas taught the restoration and they invited her to pray to know if this church is true. When I got here we asked her how her prayer went. She told us she didn't recieve and answer. We felt prompted to read the first part of 3rd Nephi 11 with her. The spirit was so strong. We talked about the spirit and how he testifies to us the truth. 

In that moment I asked her how she felt. She told me "good".  I testified about how I felt the spirit in that moment and that maybe her "good feeling" was the spirit and I told her maybe this was an answer to her prayer and she was about in happy tears. We invited her to finish the chapter. 

We went back on Sunday night and SHE READ!!! She actually read! I'm not sure about in other missions but in the DR that doesn't happen. She had so many amazing questions for us about families and baptism and we testified strongly about the importance of baptism and about how families can be together forever.

Keep her in your prayers. Pray that she will continue to progress and accept a baptism date. 

The kids here are just a different breed. They are all playing baseball in the street with a bottle cap and a stick. I love them.

Also the little babies. I'm obsessed. I'm besties with all of our invesgators children. 

My heart is full of so much gratitude.

I'm so grateful for my amazing family.

for the work

for my incredible life that God has given me

and especially for my Savior and everything he did for me. 

i have 2 spiritual thoughts today. sorry about it

spiritual 1

3 nephi 22: 10

"For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee."

When I read this the part that stuck out to me the most was "the covenant of my peace" covenants are peace. They are promises we make with God. When we make covenants with God He promises to bless us as long as we stay obedient to the covenant we made. 

In this chapter it's talking about the last days. The world is going to get crazier than it already is. Ss the Lord said, the mountains will depart and the hills will be removed but as long as we keep our covenants we will have peace in the crazy world. 

keep your covenants

covenants = power

spiritual 2

4 nephi 1: 3

"And they had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift" 

the thing this people had in common was Jesus 

Jesus is peace 

This reminded me of the talk President Nelson gave in April "peacemakers needed" 

He invited us to get rid of the contention in our life's.

He said "His true disciples build, lift, encourage, persuade, and inspire—no matter how difficult the situation. True disciples of Jesus Christ are peacemakers." 

Life free from contention is a life full of freedom.

We need peacemakers in the world, there is too much hate. Go be a peacemaker! Go show love to others and treat others as Christ would treat them. 

This email was insanely long and I apologise. 

But have a great week! I love you and enjoy the beautiful snow for me! And remember to put God first <3

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