No more training!

We have had a pretty good week this week. It was filled with many good lessons and some awesome activities. Last Monday our zone leaders decided that we were going to have a "Nerf war." So we all had to buy Nerf guns last Monday and then we met at a church and played a bunch of games. It was pretty fun, but kinda crazy because you constantly had to stop to pick up ammo! Only Elders would think to do that as a zone activity. Plus we always had to stay with our companions so we had to do everything in teams. But it was still fun to relax and just mess around with our zone.

This week we had zone conference! That means the zone leaders, sister training leaders, and the AP's train us and the mission President and his wife attend. It was a really good meeting and we went over some really good things about goal setting and the standard of excellence and such. Sometimes those meetings can feel like you are never doing enough, but this one was actually really motivating so that was good. 

We had some AWESOME lessons this week. We met with a part member family. The dad has been allowing missionaries into his home for ten years. We go over and always share spiritual messages and sometimes full lessons, but he has heard a lot already and we try to do things that will help the whole family without doing the same lessons all the time. Recently he went to California to a wedding of a family member that got married in the temple. He had TONS of questions about being sealed which allowed us to teach the restoration and talk about the priesthood. I have never had such a good lesson with him and it just went really awesome! Then he even came to church this week! WOO! (The family is also less active). So we felt super happy after that lesson. 

We had street contacted a woman previously, and we finally made it back to her house while she was home. We were able to teach her the restoration and she prayed at the end. We asked her to pray to know if the things we have told her were true and she said, "Well I already know they are!" We were like UHHHH, WHAT!? AWESOME! But she said she needed some time because she didn't want to rush into anything but that she felt God was telling her something by putting us in her path. 

We also have been trying really hard to pair our investigators or potential investigators up with members to fellowship them. We were prompted to take a certain member family to another investigator family we are teaching and they hit it off perfectly! They get along so well and the kids just went off and played and we were kind of able to have a lesson but the children were pretty crazy. But we think this fellowshipping family is going to be absolutely crucial in getting this family to church! 

So, our lessons with one of our other investigators have just been amazing. We were prompted to take a new married couple to his lessons and they just clicked. They think alike and have a little bit of the same attitude towards certain things so it's so awesome. But this guy has progressed SO much. He wants to be in a better environment so he quit his job, he wants to be in a rehab group, and he reads the Book of Mormon! PLUS, he LOVED church this past week. He was so funny. He brought his one year old daughter. We had never seen her before because he is divorced. But he brought her and he was laughing and saying, "Wow, I've got a tie, I've got a kid, I'm already a Mormon! So how do I get baptized?" YES, YES, YES! We have to get over a few things with him, and hopefully he will see that he needs to change and give those things up in order to be baptized, but he really has just changed immensely and it is SO amazing to watch that change come over people. HOLY COW. I just love being a missionary SO much! 

We also had a lesson with a woman not in our area. The relief society president is friends with her and had her and us over for dinner. She has two kids, and she isn't married. She's really young and she just wants to do what is right. We were prompted to teach her parts of the Plan of Salvation and she sobbed the whole lesson. She really felt the spirit. She came to church and we taught her after church as well. We taught the restoration and then we asked her to pray at the end. She cried during her prayer and said that she had just felt really warm and that she felt a hug was around her. We explained God's love for her and the Holy Ghost and it was amazing. 

This week my companion and I also spoke in church! We spoke on "hastening the work." So it was appropriate :) We talked about member missionary work and how they can help and stuff. It went pretty well. The best part of our day though was that we had 7 investigators at church! WHOOOO! We were SO excited. I think all of them had a good experience too. Although it was kind of weird to be "preaching" about missionary work when we had all those investigators there. 

We had some other really great experiences this week and tons of good lessons but just way too many to share! This is kind of a shorter letter, sorry. I just have too much detail to be able to share in a way that you will understand in the short amount of time I have to write! 

We have been told by our leaders to pray for specific miracles and to be obedient so we can qualify ourselves for them. We have been praying for miracles and we don't always get the miracle we want, but the Lord is constantly providing miracles around every corner. It is so amazing. Especially when you are looking for them each day, they become more and more evident. I love being a missionary and I want to share the gospel with everyone because it makes me so happy :) 

Oh, and we had transfer calls and luckily Sister W and I get to stay together!!! We are so excited! So everything will carry on as usual :) Plus, we don't have to go to training meetings anymore! We officially graduated from the training program. Hallelujah! :)