Another week down?!

Wow, it's already been a week?! I feel like I just send out an email
yesterday! The weeks are going by faster and faster, which I can't
believe because I don't think time could go any faster! I need it to
slow down!

This week was AMAZING. We had zone training on Friday and it was the
best zone training I've had so far on my mission! Our zone leaders,
Elder Torrico and Elder Greenburg, were talking about some
housekeeping stuff and then they stopped and bore their testimony of
our zone and said that we were all such amazing missionaries and how
they loved us all so much. They were crying and obviously I was crying
and the spirit was SO strong. That set the spirit for the rest of the
meeting and I learned so much from the spirit.

One of the awesome things I learned, not only can help my
investigators but it can help me and I want to share that! We were
talking about revelation through church attendance and we focused on
the sacrament because the spirit is so strong during the sacrament. We
learned 4 points given by Elder Clarke that can help us focus even
more during the sacrament. The four points are:
1. While the sacrament is being passed, say a prayer of gratitude.
2. After, ask if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is
the true church on the earth
3. Repent of everything
4. Before sacrament meeting, prepare and bring all your problems and
concerns and questions to sacrament and hand them over to the Lord.
I did this yesterday and it made sacrament a whole new experience! The
spirit was so strong and I felt cleansed. I am so grateful for the
sacrament and the spirit that is present. I am grateful for the
atonement of Jesus Christ that allows us to be forgiven of our sins
and cleansed so we can stand in the presence of our Heavenly Father
one day.

We met with the Barton family- a part member family who just moved
into our ward! Brother Barton hasn't been active for a bit, but he
wants to come back! His wife and her three kids aren't members.
They're from the Philippines and have only lived in the US since
December! They're so sweet! We had an awesome lesson and they came to
church and stayed all 3 hours! They loved it!

The Mojica family is awesome as ever! There isn't really anything new
to report on them.. We haven't met with the whole family in a while
though. They each are progressing at their own rate, but I love them
all so much!

Courtney is still struggling, but she wants to be baptized on March
12! She really really wants this, we just gotta get her to work on
word of wisdom. We have met with her a lot and we are trying to get
her in the Book of Mormon every single day. I know that if she does
she will not have the urge to smoke, she just has to experience it
herself. She's such a trooper though. I love the Eastland family and I
am so grateful that I get to work with them.

 I want to talk about one specific investigator. His name is Alex. We
were at a baptism in Olathe do I could play the piano, but we left the
baptism right after because I knew we were supposed to be somewhere
else, so we prayed about where to go, and we both thought of this
investigator named Junior, but he wasn't home. And I remembered (aka
the spirit reminded me) that there was an investigator named Alex who
lives right around the corner. Neither of us had met Alex, but I knew
we needed to go see him. We knocked and he was home!! He said that the
missionaries he met never came back, but he wants to get back into
church. He has had a hard time and doesn't know if God is really
there. I'm so grateful I followed that prompting and I feel he is
really prepared! And he is YSA! We are seeing him tomorrow and I am so
excited!!

Missionary work is so awesome! As I have been reading the Book of
Mormon more diligently, I have been able to see how every single
person strives to share the gospel wherever they go. And everyone has
different experiences. But no matter what, Heavenly Father is always
with us. I'm so grateful for that knowledge! I'm so grateful for the
opportunity that I have to serve a mission! I love you all so much and
I hope you all have a wonderful week and a happy Valentine's Day!

I got to go to President's devotional last night and AUSTIN BORE HIS TESTIMONY!  He's the best!

We met this super sweet lady this week who is converting to Catholicism.  We talked for  2 1/2 hours about the trinity...but we got candles out of it, so it was fun!

My zone did a service project at a senior center.  We sang hymns and primary songs to them and the spirit was so strong!  I love church music and more importantly, I love serving people!