Peach My Gospel: 4.18.16 - Monroe Miracles

Hey y'all! Wow! It was an incredible week here filled with tender mercies! It is starting to get hotter and summer is almost here!!

Tuesday morning we dropped by several people but not much luck. Everyone was mainly asleep but it's all good! After lunch we went to the nursing home to see Sister Ratz. She is the sweetest lady and was fast asleep when we got there. So we walked around and talked to several people. We met one lady named Imogene and she was very nice. We talked to her about the Book of Mormon and told her we would come back next week to read it to her. After that we headed to see Emily Bennett who is 16 and she is so cute! We taught her the plan of salvation to see what she remembered. She was baptized a while ago but hasn't been to church in a long time. While we were teaching her sister Taylor came home and sat in to listen. We invited them both to church and they said they would come! We got closer to Emily and the lesson went really well. Next we went to see Montel and went on a walk as always. We went over the Word of Wisdom and talked about the importance of coming to church. He had some questions and we had a really good conversation! He is a great guy and so funny. After that we went to stop by some people and met a members wife who was very nice. We didn't get to talk to her long but shared the Because of Him video and she really liked it! Then we went to dinner at the Carroll's, they are the funnest family and it was delicious! We talked about prayer and scripture study, it was really great! Then their neighbor Josh (but he goes by Gwetto) came over and had some questions for us. We had a good talk with him and he had met with sisters before. He even had read from the BoM and says he knows it's true. We invited him to come to church and he said he would really try to get work off! It was an awesome day!(:

Wednesday was the most wonderful day! That morning we had a great district meeting that was more like a zone meeting because the assistants and zone leaders were there. There was a big focus on getting our investigators to church. It is especially hard in this area to get people to come to church, even if they know it's true they still wanna go to their church. I gave a training on "How do we teach the sacrament to invite people to repent." After district meeting we were supposed to have a lesson with Kaiden but it got cancelled. We were both bummed, but we decided to go check on some people in the area. Some back story to this miracle is that when we first got to the area we met a long lost less active named Connie Canty. The past week or so I would randomly ask Sister Holmgren about the lady we met but I just couldn't remember her name. It was driving me nuts! The name Connie Canty also kept coming to my mind, even though I didn't remember who that was, and I would mention to Sister Homgren that we should go see her soon. Not knowing that these two recurring thoughts were about the same person. To our surprise Connie was one of the people who lived close by and as soon as we pulled up I realized those two thoughts I had been having were about the same person! We got out and started talking to Connie. We found out that she had been through a really hard time recently. She also started telling us about her daughter who lived with her and was also struggling. When we were about to ask if her daughter was home, she came out on the porch. As we introduced ourselves, the very first thing she said was, "Do you know why you're here? Because I do." As tears began to roll down her face, she began to explain that she knew that God had sent us here, and that we were her answer to prayer. She had told us that she had been searching for a church to join for a while, and just the night before had poured out her heart to Heavenly Father asking to know where to go. Amazed at what was happening, we began to teach her the Restoration and parts of the Plan of Salvation. Loving every minute, she continued to cry and say, "thank you Jesus!" Before we could even ask her to be baptized, she asked us what she needed to do to be baptized! It was an incredible experience that still blows our minds. It was such a testimony to me that those thoughts that come to our minds are from the spirit, and that this is Gods work and he's going to help us get it done. I also learned that there is no need to doubt when things fall through. God always has a plan. And it is always a million times better than our plan. She is now on date for May 7th, and is loving this gospel! After that we went to stop by Courtney who we had actually dropped because we couldn't ever get in with her but felt like we should try! She was home and we were able to teach her the restoration! Another incredible miracle! That night we had correlation and then went on exchanges! I went with Sister Merritt to Boganville and we taught Adam. He is the coolest guy and is so smart! He played the guitar for us and we talked about general conference as well as repentance! It was awesome and he should be at church on Sunday!(:

Thursday I spent with Sister Merritt in Loganville and we had lots of fun! That morning we went tracting and met some really great people. We went back and had some lunch and headed to a lesson with Henry. He is the greatest guy and is a fire fighter survivor in 9/11. We taught him the plan of salvation and it went really well! He loved it and the spirit was so strong. Then we went to check on a less active and she is so sweet! Her husband who is not a member came and we talked about the BoM. It was awesome, hopefully we will get to teach them more. We went to visit some people and stopped by the Muehlheauser's and it was perfect timing. They weren't feeling too well but we were able to share some of Elder Holland's talk with them and they loved it! After that we went to the Monroe apartment and made dinner with the sisters to exchange back. It was delicious and so fun to be in a ward with four sisters!(: I had a great time on exchange with Sister Merritt and learned a lot! She is a wonderful missionary and always smiling! That night we went with Sister Swancey to social circle to see some people! She was backing up out of a driveway and got too far over and we got stuck. Like 3 of her wheels were off the ground! The really awkward part was it was a "do not contact" so we couldn't really knock on the
door and ask for help. Sister Holmgren suddenly remembered a less active we had met last week when we were in the area who said if we ever needed anything to call! So we did and he came to the rescue, the neighbors also saw us struggling and they came to help get us out. It was a tender mercy and a great memory to add to the adventure. We went to visit Edward and Glenda who we had met last week. He was a member but hadn't been in years and she knew a lot from him but never really taken the lessons. We had an awesome lesson with them and they are incredible people. He told us his story and bore the most powerful testimony about the BoM as well as the church. It was such a tender mercy that we found them when we were searching for an unknown one day. She is so elect and we are excited to start teaching them! It was a terrific day and I feel so blessed to be apart of the lords work!(:

Friday morning we went to see a less active named Sister Jones and she is the sweetest lady! We read a conference talk with her and talked about the importance of sacrament. We are really hoping she will come to church on Sunday. After that we went to see some people but didn't have much luck! After lunch we went to see the Smiths who are so funny and always have stories to tell us! We showed the "Will of God" Mormon message and they loved it. It is one of my favorite videos and if you haven't seen it, please go watch it! Heavenly Father is in charge and he will shape us into the amazing person he wants us to be if we will let him. Then we went to see Jonathan and met his mom who was outside with her other son. She was a member and was baptized in Miami but has since removed her records. She is the sweetest lady and is hard of hearing so we got to sign for a little bit! It was a really cool experience! Jonathan and his friend Trey came over and we talked about faith. We talked about the Book of Mormon and they are all planning on coming to church next week!(: The mom was very open to us coming back and teaching Jonathan and her 5 year old boy as well. We have a lesson with all of them next week. It was the coolest thing and such a miracle! Then we went to chick fil a with the wrights for dinner and they are the best! One of the daughters pulled us over to meet one of her friends who was a member but hadn't been to church in years. Her husband was not a member but we got there information and will hopefully see them soon!!We got some other awesome referrals from the Wrights and are so excited to go meet them!(: After dinner we went to meet Kieren who was a former investigator but so excited to us. She is seriously the cutest girl and I love her so much. She already has such a strong testimony and knows the church is true. We are going to finish teaching her the lessons and hopefully she will be baptized soon! It was such a wonderful day filled with miracles! I got a box of delicious cookies from my dad this week and decided to bring them with us. We were able to see a couple people I really don't think we would have without saying that we had cookies for them. It was another fantastic tender mercy, cookies soften hearts!(:

Saturday morning we had a lesson with Steve at McDonald's and it went pretty well. We taught him about the restoration and word of wisdom. After that we went to check up on some people and then home to have lunch. We spent the afternoon weekly planning but it actually went really well! It is getting faster and easier every week, so that is awesome! That night Sister Swancey took us to dinner and it was delicious! After dinner we had a lesson with the Jolly family and it was great. We talked about the importance of feeding our spiritual bodies through daily prayer and scripture study. We showed the Mormon message "Daily Bread" it is one of my favorites. I love when it talks about the children of Israel, how they need manna every day. They couldn't store up manna for weeks but God gave them enough for each day. We can't read 10 chapters and say we are good for a week or say one really long prayer. We have to be feeding our spirits daily, they need the substance just as our physical bodies do. Next we headed to the church to have missionary correlation but our ward mission leader didn't show up. So we talked through everyone with the other sisters and called it good! Haha

Sunday was a delightful day! We finally got a ward mission leader and are super excited! Lisa was able to come to church and absolutely loved it! Sacrament meeting was really good and we had a high councilmen come to speak who gave a fantastic talk. I have loved the focus on the atonement this month and it has really strengthened my testimony. You could tell that the talk really touched Lisa's heart and it was so sweet. He talked about laughter being the best medicine as it says in psalms and I have such a testimony of that. There are some great times on the mission but there are also some not so great times. When doors get slammed or plans fall through the best thing to do is laugh about it. The average child laughs 400 times a day while the average adult laughs 15 times a day. Learning to laugh and dance in the rain is so important. When something doesn't go right find a reason to laugh about it and I know it will make your life so much easier. One of the great secrets of missionary work.... When things go wrong, just laugh about it!(: We sang "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" and on my goodness the spirit was so strong! After church we asked Lisa if she had any questions and she said "no, every one that I had got answered in one of the classes." It is so amazing how the spirit works and is constantly teaching us. We had lunch and then went to meet with the Muehlheauser's and they are so great! We got to know them better and had so much fun! That night we went to dinner with the Ta family and they are fantastic! After we went with Michaela and visited a long lost less active. She was super sweet and very funny! We had fun getting to know her and shared the "Because of Him" video then everyone loves! She said she would love to come to a relief society activity soon so that is awesome! Michaela is the cutest girl and we have a lot of fun with her! It was a great ending to a spectacular week!(:

I hope y'all had a wonderful week as well! I am so grateful for each and every one of you! This gospel is amazing and I know it's true with all my heart. I am so grateful for this time I have to be a missionary! I know Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. If you want to talk to him pray and if you want him to talk to you read your scriptures. He loves YOU so very much, and has a perfect plan for you! Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith! I love y'all so much! You are in my prayers!! Have a blessed week!(:

Love, Sister Hosman❤️🍑