Light the World!

I hope you all had a WONDERFUL thanksgiving! We had such a good day
here. We ate dinner at the Cook's with the Hatch's and it was so much
fun. I love these two families so much, and I just love this ward!
I've met some truly amazing people here and I'm so grateful for all of
them. I'm also so very grateful for my mission. It has helped me so
much to understand who Christ is and how I can become like Him.
Because of my mission, I have been able to come closer to Him and
fully he healed. (Look up 3 Nephi 9: 13-14... one of my favorites!!!)

Kimi was baptized this week! It was probably the coolest baptism I've
been to. Aremondo baptized her and he was baptized in July. And a girl
named Tyler spoke and she was baptized in August. They all met at
school and now they are all members of the church! And they're
continuing to help others come to church! Kimi was SO happy after she
was confirmed and we could just SEE the glow in her. In relief society
we went around saying what we were grateful for and she said she was
grateful for her sister missionaries and gave us big hugs...it was
adorable.

I was also able to go to Independence to see Darlene Sampson be
baptized! That was so cool. I found out that there is no more
Independence 2nd ward, though! It got dissolved into two other wards.
But it was so fun to see some people from 2nd ward and to see the
change that was in Darlene. I know Mac is so happy on the other side
of the veil!

Maddox Bennett is also on date to be baptized! Bishop met with Jesse
(Maddox's dad) to get him ready to baptize her and we are planning on
December 10! That'll be such a good day. The Bennett family is awesome
and I'm so excited for Maddox to finally get baptized! :)

We have really exciting stuff with baptisms going on, but we are
really struggling to find new people to teach. But we are exercising
faith and patience and I know they'll come. I can't believe how fast
time goes and I'm still enjoying every second, even the hard days when
no one talks to us.

On Friday, the #LIGHTtheWORLD initiative went live and I am so excited
about it! I hope you've all been able to see the video, but if not,
make sure to get on Mormon.org and watch it and then share it! And
don't forget about the service in 25 ways over 25 days calendar! It's
so cool how that is included with this initiative. We all get to be
the light this Christmas season as we serve our brothers and sisters
around us. What an honor it is for each and every one of us to act and
serve in Christ's name. Our ward mission leader invited our ward
council to share the video and calendar with 5 people and invite you
all to do the same! To be the light and share this message with 5
people. This is how we will light the world!

               

We love Kimi!

Kimi and Aremondo!

Darlene got baptized!!!  :)

THE FINAL TRANSFER!

First of all, sorry this is coming out a day late! We went to the
temple today! And it was something I definitely needed today! I LOVE
the temple. Something I understood more deeply today is the role of
our savior as our mediator. He is the only way! I love learning new
things at the temple.

I stayed in Platte City for my last transfer! And the craziest thing
of them all...Sister Day is still my companion! This is our FIFTH
transfer together! Who knew that my daughter would kill me?! I am so
happy to be ending my mission in Platte City, though!

I was reading in Moroni chapter 8 this week and verse 3 says " I am
mindful of you always in my prayers, continually praying unto God the
Father in the name of his Holy Child, Jesus, that he, through his
infinite goodness and grace, will keep you through the endurance of
faith on his name to the end." I immediately thought of all of you and
I am so grateful for all of your prayers. I definitely feel
strengthened because of the support I have from loving family and
friends.

This week was another one for the books! Adrath Thomason got baptized!
It was such a good day and her smile said it all! She bore her
testimony the next day at President's Devotional and she ended by
saying, "It felt good. Amen." She is so awesome haha.

We had more lessons with Kimi and she is SO AWESOME. She is what you
would call a golden investigator. She writes down her "homework"
assignments we give her in her notebook and she comes back with
questions from the things she read. She usually reads the chapter 3
times so she can understand everything.

We had a lesson with her and a guy named Timothy from the YSA. He just
got back from his mission about a month ago and his family just moved
to Platte City. It was so cool to see Kimi so interested in learning
more about the truth. She asked Timothy so many questions about the
priesthood and it made me so excited how exciting she found
everything! The gospel is so amazing!

I was studying in Mosiah 2 this week (King Benjamin's sermon are some
of my favorite chapters of the Book of Mormon! A line really stood out
to me this time that I never noticed before. In verse 34 it says, "ye
are eternally indebted to your heavenly Father, to render to him all
that you have and are." The Holy Ghost taught me that who we become is
the greatest gift of thanks we could give to our Heavenly Father. We
will forever be indebted to Him for all He gives us, but if we
remember that who we are on the day of judgment is our gift to Him,
then we will want to become better and more like our Savior.

I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who blesses me way more
than I deserve. I feel like this lesson sums up the past 17 months of
my life... I am learning who I want to be when I stand before my judge
one day. And I know it's only by allowing the atonement to enter into
my heart and change me that I can become that person. But I will put
forth any effort it takes, because I want to thank my Heavenly Father
for all He has given me by giving Him myself.

Happy thanksgiving!!!


         

Windy day at the temple!

We love the Edwards!

Sister Baggett, my BFF completed her mission.  Thank goodness I'll see her soon!

Adrath got baptized!!!  Look at that happy face :)

This is Jacob Squire...he was my brother's zone leader in Italy!  He just came home and lives in Overland Park.  Him and his mom took us to dinner.  Small World!

So many baptisms!

Hello friends and family! This week was so good! Tender mercies are
all around. It was a pretty crazy week, though. We moved out of the
Arendt's and now we are living with the Johnson's! Ave and Kimball are
amazing missionaries and it's been fun living with them so far!

We went to THREE baptisms this weekend! It was so cool to see so many
people enter into the waters of baptism! My testimony definitely
strengthened this week that baptism by water and the spirit is the
gate that puts us on the path back home to our Father in Heaven.

On Friday, we went to Liberty to see GIGI MOJICA GET BAPTIZED!!! It
was so cool to see her get baptized! I taught Gigi back in Overland
Park. She said that something just clicked now and she was just ready
and she's not looking back. I also got to see Leia!!! I love the
Mojica family. They'll forever be a huge part of my mission and my
life.

Saturday morning we saw Ethan Arendt get baptized! It was also his
eighth birthday. What a neat way to celebrate. Saturday evening, we
went Moe's baptism. The elders taught him. He has been investigating
for about a year and he finally made the decision to be baptized!
Heavenly Father definitely prepares individuals for the gospel. It's
been amazing to see so many hearts change.

Adrath is doing amazing! She's been reading and praying everyday! She
got a blessing last Sunday and she said she has been feeling so much
better! Miracle! We went to a relief society activity this week with
her and she had so much fun getting to know the other people in the
ward. Her baptism interview is tomorrow and she will be getting
baptized on Saturday!!

Kimi is progressing so well too. We taught her the word of wisdom and
she said she already believes that! We showed her a talk from general
conference and she was crying. She is so sensitive to the spirit. She
texts us about everyday asking us questions about her studies. I love
seeing miracles! Her baptism is in two weeks! I also got a text today
saying that Darlene from Independence 2nd ward is getting baptized in
two weeks!!!

Last night, we were trying to find people and we knocked on three
doors and the first two weren't interested and the third didn't
answer. So we went to our car to go to another area. We got in the car
and someone from that third house walked out and came and stood in
front of our car so we couldn't drive away. We rolled our window down
and she started yelling at us and asking us what we were doing
knocking on our door. We told her we were missionaries and that we are
just going around sharing a message about Jesus Christ. She got really
angry and told us not to come back. I started crying, not because I
was scared or anything, but because I realized how much missionaries
get to experience what Christ experienced. I thought about how His
WHOLE life, He suffered. He was spit upon, He was yelled at, He was
betrayed. I know now that Christ really does know exactly how we feel.
He can succor us. He is our healer and our master. I love Him and I'm
so grateful for Him.


              

Gigi got baptized!

All the Mojica sisters!

Ethan is 8 AND baptized!

The Arendt family and Moe!

The Johnson's dog, Nike!!! We used to have a dog named Nike, so it's fun to have another one!  :)

Time is going faster and faster....

Another week for the books! It was an incredible week, full of so many
faith building experiences! There definitely were some hard times this
week, too, but the good always outweighs the bad! As always, I am
grateful that even in the hard times, I can find joy through Jesus
Christ.

We had MLC again this week and it was soon! The best part was getting
to see the new Christmas initiative video!!! It's called Light the
World and it will be available for everyone to see on November 25! It
is INCREDIBLE and it's all about serving the people around us just
like Jesus Christ did. During that video, it was the first time that
it hit me that I am going home soon...and I cried for about an hour.
But I'm so excited for this initiative and for everyone to focus on
service and lighting the world through our Savior's love.

I love going to MLC and I love zone training! We trained in Platte
City again which is always fun! It was awesome. One thing that I'm
really focusing on is noticing the spiritual gifts in everyone around
me. So Sister Day and I prayerfully considered everyone in our zone
and wrote down their spiritual gifts and gave them to the
missionaries. It was cool for me to see that Heavenly Father gives
everyone spiritual gifts for the building of His kingdom.

Adrath is progressing super well! She has been in pain this week...she
is 82 years old...so she got another blessing and she loved it. She
has been reading and praying and she is so excited to be baptized! She
is really a miracle!

We also started teaching a girl named Kimmy. She is dating Aremondo,
our YSA recent convert! He has been bringing her to church and she
loves it! We had our first lesson with her on Saturday and she is on
date for November 26! Miracles!!!

That's about it for this week. Things are going well! I love you all
and I'm so grateful for your prayers and support!


     

Platte City Zone

Love my comp! 

We taught Adrath the Plan of Salvation!