Letter #24 02/19/15

***I was so excited to hear from Becca today.  I didn't think I would be getting an email this week.  Monday was President's day so the Library was closed so she would have been able to email on Tuesday, but it snowed a whole 4 inches and the whole town shut down.  So grateful that she was able to email today! <3

Weak and simple is my middle name, but hey, that's his way.

THIS WEEK, though.. So much growth, so much love pouring down from Heaven, so many answers to questions and concerns of my heart, so many tender mercies, and SO MUCH SNOW. (Hahah- just kidding.) A dear friend sent me this quote

"The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, the optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty". -Winston Churchill. 

"Currently in the process of starting up the horse branch here in Burkeville"

and, how true is that? It's something that's so remarkable that every single hard thing in our lives can be flipped around to see the absolute beauty and blessing! I've been studying Job as of late- I know, I know.. we are not yet as Job. But he's seriously such a great example of perseverance and absolute faith and trust in The Lord, amidst all the dead camels, wilting crops and boils of our lives. I felt really awful and kind of like throwing up as I typed that, I hope I don't evoke those feelings in others as they read. Haha. 

I feel like it's so easy to feel like the blows just keep coming and coming, and I've been learning so much. I sometimes feel like The Lord has made a mistake in putting me here with so many beautiful people with so much potential that I don't have any idea how to help progress towards baptism and the temple. BUT THEN lightbulb moment moment that just literally sprouted in my mind. He wants me to rely on HIM! No duh I don't know what I'm doing. I feel like so often we learn things and then they just get hidden away by our pride or worry or just the goings on of day to day life, but the Holy Ghost is so good at bringing things to our remembrance! I'm so grateful. 

"I've got the Lord's love and a whole bunch of Valentines candy keeping me warm" #VdayinVA

WE DID, HOWEVER find a few new people to teach. We were going to contact some potentials from the laundromat, and this super gangster young black guy named Jonathan opens the door. He is acting so weird and we're just like.. uhhh.. and he brings out this book called Lost Books of the Bible that he's been reading and, yeah. THEN. His friend Sidney walks up to the porch. and we start talking about the message and all of it. And he is just this SUPER honest seeker of truth. Like, whoa. And he just thought it was CRAZY how they've just been searching to know more about God just in the past month and then we show up.. I just nodded my head. Coincidences don't exist, people. Every single single thing is The Lord's doing. He places people in our paths, we're where we need to be at this time for a reason! Every single human. His plan of happiness is so so so so cool. 

When the whole town's shut down because of snow on pday and cars are grounded, you have no choice but to beg members of the branch to pick you up and drive you to Dollar General and use their washer in exchange for work on their little farm.

ALSO. Okay, I just remembered this miracle! SO this weekend was hard and all that good stuff and I was just PRAYING that we'd have an investigator at church or something cause I just needed something to show me that God was still mindful of us. And as I was studying Sunday morning, we get a text from our investigator Leslie. We meet with her like every other Saturday because she's crazy busy, she has an ex-mormon friend constantly feeding her anti stuff but she just has this beautiful desire to know for herself! In the text she said something along the lines of, I can't come to church today because her son was sick (illness is straight from Satan) but that she will be there next week and she can't wait for our next lesson and that she can just feel God working and she's beginning to see the truth as she's reading.. WHAT IN THE WORLD. I guess you just have to know her to know how random that was, but I screamed, "Hermana!" and ran into the other room and she thought someone had died I'm sure. The only thing that died was the adversary's influence to make me feel stinky. God's love is SO real and trumps all! He is THERE for us. Always. He will answer our prayers of faith. He will guide and comfort us. The atonement is so very real! 

So much love. 

<3 Hermana Yost