Round 3 for me

Man, I am just cycling through these companions! haha. I'm still here in the 

same place, and I now have my third companion in this area. My new companion

is super sweet and I'm really excited about the transfer. She and Iactually flew here from the MTC together so that is cool. She also is a STL so I nolonger have to fly solo on that one. That's nice!

Anyway this week was really good. We were able to see one of our investigators 

again this week and it went really good. We took a member who has a daughter that is nowserving a mission in Michigan. However, before she left, she worked withthis investigator with us so it worked out really well to have her mom there. We read from theBook of Mormon with her and discussed how the stories can help God speak tous and what we can learn from the scriptures. She said she was intriguedand it made her want to keep reading to see what happened next. Sohopefully she really does read it and we can get back with her soon :) Itwas a really awesome lesson.

Also, for FHE the singles branch is doing "Mormon Idol." SO they have totake songs and make them Mormon basically. So since Hermana R, wouldn't be here for it, we made up a song and posted it on the branchfacebook page. We sang a missionary song to the little mermaid song "Partof Your World." It was kinda funny and everyone loved it. The leaders can'tget over it they loved it so much. haha it was kind of funny.

Our newest convert is doing really good and we had a good review and discussion aboutthe Restoration. She is awesome and they have their sights set on thetemple! She was able to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost this week and itwas awesome. She looked so happy. Also it was so adorable in our lessonbecause they were acting much more lovey dovey and her husband kept saying thingsabout how she is his "beautiful wife" and such. It was cute.

We also taught a family this week! We thought they were going to cancelon us again because we taught them forever ago, and then every other timewe have had an appointment they have cancelled a few hours before. So wethought that would happen again, but it didn't! We went and had a reallygood discussion with them and talked about how this is a serious commitmentand its a big step and such. They said they understood that and that theywant to be baptized on December 20th. They brought it up that we shouldmeet twice a week so that showed us that they were taking this a littlemore seriously. We told them that their son was old enough to be baptizedas well and they wanted that. So we are going to go twice a week and teachthe whole family on one day and focus on the parents another day. So thatis exciting! Hopefully they commit to it and actually do it!

We of course had transfers this week, but we were still  able to teach a few lessonsthat night. We have been focusing on one particular guy, trying to help him gainthat desire and motivation to stop smoking. He wants to be baptized but heis having a hard time wanting to stop smoking. So we have focused a lot onthe Word of Wisdom and following God even when it's hard or we don'tunderstand the reasons. We also saw our mom investigator that night and we had a reallygood lesson with her on tithing. She totally just accepts things, it isamazing. She did tell us that her daughter doesn't want to be baptized anymore.She went to a friends house and when she came back, she had concerns...soshe has been sick and we haven't been able to address her concerns, buthopefully as she sees the blessings and the change in her mom and as shecomes to church, she will also want to be baptized. It was really cool too 

because on Thursday the mom told us she was going to do Nicotine patches 

to quit smoking but that she wouldn't be done with the

patches by the time she got baptized, so she was wondering if that was ok.We told her we didn't know for sure, but probably not, but that we wouldfind out. However, when she came to church on Sunday she told us that shehad been praying about it that morning and told us she was going to come upwith her own program to stop smoking because Nicotine is Nicotine and thatis what is addicting so we shouldn't bother someone by asking if it was ok.She said she had just prayed about it and that was the answer she got! Howawesome! It is so cool to see her doing those things on her own andrecognizing the answers she is receiving. I love her family so much. Theyare amazing.

We taught our little 9 year old two more times this week. He is so stinking cute! We taughtthe Restoration and it all made so much sense to him! Some funny things hesaid this time.... we asked if he knew what a miracle was and he said no.So we explained how Christ healed people that couldn't see. His response,"Woah! Are you kidding me? Woah!" haha. He just understands things so well.We asked him if he could read a page from the Child's Book of Mormon eachnight and he said, "How about I read a chapter?" And he totally did! Heread and explained things he learned to us. He also remembered everythingwe taught last time. He's a genius. Then we taught the Plan of Salvationand when he found out that everyone would get a chance to hear the gospeland there were three kingdoms he said, "Woah! That's a relief! Now I won'thave to worry!" Adorable. He gets so nervous that he is not doing what isright.

Needless to say it has been a good week! We have found a few people that wecan hopefully start teaching actively soon :)

SO my thought for the week...I have been focusing on the talks from GeneralConference and reading one talk each week. Then I make goals and plans totry and incorporate and apply it to my life. Well a few weeks ago I read afew talks on the sacrament and how we can make it a more edifying anduplifting experience and how it can give us the strength that we needthroughout the week. So yesterday I was really focusing on the sacramentand reflecting on my week and thinking about what I could do better andsuch. But I really paid attention to the sacrament prayers and also thesacrament hymn that we sang. It really helped me to be reverent and readyto take the sacrament. I felt the spirit throughout all of sacramentmeeting, and especially as I was praying. Then all of sacrament meetingwent by so fast and I think it is because I was much more involved andinvested and could feel the spirit, that it went really fast. It was reallygood and I truly felt more uplifted and prepared to face the week. Then inSunday School in the branch we were talking about how you grow love. One ofthe people mentioned they had studied it a lot and had found that there arethree things that involve growing love.1. Memory2. Sacrifice3. AppreciationHe went on to say that he didn't know if that was doctrine but it wassomething he had noticed. The teacher replied that it was absolutelydoctrine and it related to the sacrament prayer. When we take the sacramentwe promise to keep Christ in our memory always. We also promise to keep thecommandments and in a way we are sacrificing our sins to do so, as well asdo all those things that a disciple should do and it sometimes requiressacrifice. And he didn't have a direct correlation with appreciation, butwhen we take the sacrament, we should be appreciating all that Christ hasdone for us and appreciate his sacrifice. So I thought that was really cooland that is how we can grow more love for the Savior.

I hope everyone has a great week! I invite all of you to pay more attentionto the sacrament and find ways that you can be more in tune to the spiritand appreciate the sacred ordinance that takes place each week. I love youall! :) Thanks for all your support.