The Plan of Hope!

7-11-16

The Plan of Hope!

This week was SO CRAZY as are they all, nothing new I guess. 

We went on a few Blitz's with some sisters in the Zone along with an exchange! And it was so fun!  I absolutely love working with some of the best missionaries in the mission.  All of the sisters in our zone are currently training new sisters! And let me tell you, theses sisters are incredible.  I realized how much of a baby I was when I was in their shoes and they really are teaching me things that I need to learn.  I love it.  I love it. I love it.  

We started off in Bessemer where Sister Mitchell (my trainee from Huntsville!!!) and I visited a less active, D______ who we challenged to increase his already large amount of faith in Jesus Christ by reading the Book of Mormon on his lunch breaks at work!  Next stop was Lorna where we went on a blitz with the Hermanas there (the Lorna branch is one of the 3 spanish branches in the mission)  Where Sister Sheffield and I had an AMAZING lesson with one of their investigators, E______ who is from Honduras.  She is one of the sweetest most open and loving people I have met.  We had a lesson on Faith and how we must act on our faith and experiment upon Gods word.  We invited E________ to be baptized and she accepted!!!! MIRACLES HAPPEN.

That next day we went on Exchanges with Sister Hidalgo and Sister Chavez  in Hoover.  S. Hidalgo and I drove back to Tuscaloosa to work there.  Sister Hidalgo is so AWESOME. We had a BLAST!!!!  She is 22 and has been through alot in her life and never thought serving a mission was for her.  We stayed in Tuscaloosa and I got to show her around the University of Alabama and talked to some elect people! It got up to 111 degrees AND MAN WAS IT HOT. We also taught T___Sabbath Day observance and tithing and Fast offerings. I think I told yall that T___ got bit by a brown recluse spider and gave us a few scares regarding his health haha but he is doing so much better!! SO YAY!  He is still doing wonderful and loves learning more.  He is still really struggling with quitting smoking but doesn't think he has a problem and wants to quit cold turkey this Wednesday. So we are praying for him!

The biggest highlight of the week was R____ baptism!  Another child of God enetered into the waters of baptism, following the example of Jesus Christ. This has been a long wait for his wife V______  who was so excited for R____ to make this step.  They are both such wonderful people, so fun and loving. They are already a part of the ward and have been for the past year (since Vanessa was baptized) so naturally the entire ward showed up for R____ baptism. It was the largest turn out I have ever seen at a baptism!  Everything went so smooth and the spirit was so strong.  R___ even bore his testimony at the end! He talked about his relationship with God and how much it has grown since opening his heart to the gospel and the missionaries. So much happiness was in the room!! I was beaming ear to ear. 

Quick story! Sister Merrill and I were tracting and going through the roster one day when we both felt that we should go see a recent convert in the ward, B_____.  She's an older black lady with some mental problems but is so cute and always at church ready to help.   She told us she had a friend over but that we were more than welcome to come over, so we did.  Turns out her friend is a Jehovah's witness who just earlier that day was watching an anti-mormon show on tv and came over to convince her to leave the church.  This man was so mean, disrespectful, and just awful.  He even called us devil angels!  We did our best to share our testimonies with him and told him that we respect all religions and just invite others to learn more truth by reading and praying. I then asked B_____  how she came to know the gospel is true, she bore the strongest most humble testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it changed the way she thought about her Father in Heaven.  He quickly got angry and you could feel the lack of the spirit in the room. He continued preach at us for a good 20 minutes.  Although I am sure that nothing of what we said meant anything to this man, I know that it was the spirit prompting us to go over and see Barbara at her apartment that day. 

After R_____ baptism we went to try and visit some potentials! We saw this lady sitting on her deck and felt prompted to talk to her. We yelled up to her and asked if we could come up and share a message! Her son let us in and we started to get to know her. Her name is M______, and as it turns out her brother just passed away a few days before. We had the opportunity to share with her the Plan of Salvation. She kept telling us how much hope that gives her. I thought that was fitting- the Plan of Hope. I'm so grateful for the knowledge we have, so that we can have hope for ourselves and for our loved ones who have passed on.

In studying I came across Moroni 7! Verses 40-42 say:

"40 And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope?

 41 And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.

 42 Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope."

The Gospel of Jesus Christ brings a message of hope to our lives.

We are about to leave right quick to take a tour of the University of Alabama Stadium for FREE. holla holla!!  Thanks to a member in our stake who knows some high up people.  So be excited for pictures next week!  Love you all!!! Have a great week!!!

Fun fact of the week! 

University of Alabama's original mascot was "Crimson Tide"  not Big Al the Elephant which is what most people think.  The word "tide" actually means a heard of Elephants and in the 30s after a crazy football game  against Ole Miss a reporter referred to the distant rumble of the football team running onto the field and said "Hold your horses, the elephants are coming." and it stuck!!! That is why Big Al the elephant is now Alabama's mascot!

Love,

Sister Crimson Tide Moline

Steadfast in Christ