Letter #36: Life is good. :)

This week was the first full week that Sister Stegelmeier and I had being sister training leaders together and it was definitely a lesson in learning to prioritize and balance. We are still trying to figure out how to be able to plan and be organized for our sisters as well as for our area. Unfortunately, this week our area's KIs were not as solid as they have been the past few weeks as we tried to figure out the balance. Luckily, however, Heavenly Father is blessing us with miracles as we give our all to Him in both our callings as missionaries and as sister training leaders. This weekend Jordan was baptized, and he truly was a miracle baptism gift-wrapped and delivered from our Father in Heaven! To be honest, we still don't know exactly where he came from. He just showed up at institute last week and wanted to get baptized. {It was definitely a blessing, especially after working so hard to get Adam baptized.} On Saturday, we actually received a call from Jordan's mom demanding to know who we were and informing us that Jordan had already been baptized in another church. We set up an appointment to visit with her and went to see her. We blessed her home and were able to invoke the Spirit very strongly in her home. We helped her to recognize the Spirit and explained the doctrine of baptism, helping her to understand just how important it was for Jordan to be baptized again in order to truly repent and change his life. We testified and promised blessings for her and her family. She was still a little unsure but decided to attend church with him the next day to see what it was all about.

She and her 10-year-old son LOVED church! She told us she wanted to come back and loved the Sunday school class especially. She watched her son Jordan get baptized and afterwards expressed the desire that maybe one day she should take that step and be baptized again! We let her know that she actually could be baptized on June 9 and she set it as a goal to work towards! She is excited for the missionaries to come by and visit her this week and teach her more. It was so amazing to watch the Spirit soften her heart as we testified of true doctrine and especially as she was able to witness two sacred ordinances (the Sacrament and a baptism).

Also, we are starting to get into the swing of things as STLs...we had exchanges on Wednesday & Friday this week. On Friday I got to exchange in a Spanish area with Sister Daines, whom I just love (she was the only other sister who came into the mission with me!). It was really fun to get to practice my Spanish. I'll be honest, I didn't say a lot in lessons, but I was able to contribute in all of them through sharing scriptures, testifying, etc. and that was nice. :) 

In some ways, I still feel kind of unqualified to be an STL. I mean, I know that "whom the Lord calls he qualifies" and I know that this calling truly comes from Him. But I definitely don't have the answers to everything and I don't always know the best course of action to take to help the sisters. I'm figuring it out, though, and I'm doing my best to gain the sisters' trust and help them be even more effective missionaries.

This next week is going to be REALLY WILD. Oh my. I wish you could look  at our schedule for the week. On Tuesday I'll be exchanging up in Stuart North, my old area! :D Oh boy, I'm excited about it! Then I'll actually be doing a back-to-back exchange on Wednesday in Boynton, but before that Sister Steg & I will meet up again briefly and do a comp study with 2 of the other sets of sisters in the Stuart zone (the northernmost zone). Thursday I'll finally come back home to Nova and we'll do our weekly planning (which also means Sister Steg is taking over Nova for 2 days in a row, which she is just a tad nervous about....but she'll do fine). And then Friday is MLC, mission leadership council, {which used to be just zone leader council and I was always super jealous of the elders because I wanted to go and know what goes on there. And now I get to. Teehee.} 

Life is good. :)

Seriously, though, I am loving life. I don't think I've laughed so much in a looong time. Sister Steg and I basically just laugh all day long. We feel a little bit whelmed (not overwhelmed, mind you, just whelmed) but we are still loving every minute of it.

And miracles are starting to happen amongst the sisters! I love it! :D There is a huge shift happening with the sisters in the mission as they truly tap into the potential that they all have, and the sister training leaders are playing a big role in this! Just this weekend, our northern sisterhood (the 8 companionships we are accountable for + us) baptized one-fifth of the mission's total for the week! In one day, our sisters baptized the same number of people that we baptized in 4 weeks last month! :D These sisters are so amazing and I love getting the chance to work with them.

Luh you!

xoxoxo

sistah d