Happy Holloween!!! and I love Alabama

October 31, 2016 

Happy Halloween!!!! and I love Alabama

WOW THIS WEEK! So much has happened and I don't even know how to put it into words.

Happy Halloween!!!!  I CANNOT believe October is over...Time is flying and it needs to slow.down.

On Saturday the branch had its annual Halloween/Fall Festival.  We and the other sisters were in charge of decorations and games for the kids and adults.  IT WAS A BLAST.  Total success.  We went kind of above and beyond for it because we were so excited.  We had games for the kids and games for the adults and a trunk or treat at the end and a taco soup/chili lunch.  It was great.  Everyone seemed to have a ball.  And on top of that, we had over 20 investigators that came!! Not all at once but dispersed.  THAT IS A BIG DEAL.  Considering that there were probably about 20 members that came.  A few of our Hispanic investigating families came even though they couldn’t really communicate with everyone.  *** and her daughter and nephews came too!  They had a great time.  Everyone was dressed up and it made us feel good that we could put on something like that for the branch and others.  

Then Sunday was the Primary Program and it was so good! I played the piano for it and it went super good! I didn’t mess up too bad haha.   All the kids were so cute and did so well.  

We had some great lessons with ***  this week! We taught her the Word of Wisdom with some members in the ward who both used to smoke before they joined the church.  *** has smoked for a very long time and has tried to quite.  It went so well and she resolved to quite and wrote out a plan of how she will do it! We are so proud of her!  The next time we saw her, it was an unplanned visit, we just stopped in and she was on the couch highlighting and reading the Book of Mormon!  We also read out of the Book of Mormon with her and during our lesson, her nephew was sitting next to me and started stroking my hair, *** said to him "What are you doing leave the girls hair alone!"  then he says "White people's hair is so soft."  then he covers his mouth and his eyes got so big! he was so embarrassed! hahaha it was so funny because everyone here is black.  Kim got so mad at him and was like "when you say that you just say HER hair is soft or THEY have soft hair.  We all the same okay?!!!" haha it was great I just laughed so hard and said thank you haha

Alot of our other potential investigators have been kinda falling off.  The last 2 weeks we found so many awesome people to teach and then Satan just swoops on in with family deaths, work, and busy lives and other things. So we haven’t been able to meet with alot of them. It is the worst!  But we are not giving up.  We have been working with a Hispanic family that is perfect. *****  y  *******.  They have been here for 9 years and are so cute!! Both grew up Pentecostal but haven’t attended because they have different views about religion now.  We are so excited about them!!

This past week in our District Meeting Sister Danes and I gave a training on Patience.  I think the Lord knew that we both needed this training, especially me.  I learned so much more about how we can be patient with ourselves, with others, and really rely on the Lord and His timing. Patience is the combination of Faith and Hope.  President Hanks said that "Patience is our behavior when we have true faith."   I love that!  We can all work on our patience!!  A few ways we can is 1) by recognizing the moments that we are impatient  and 2) by changing our first initial critical or judgmental, frustrating, or angry feelings or thoughts we initially have in situations. 

Mosiah 5:12 says, "Remember to retain the name written always IN your hearts." Something I am definitely learning out here with my learning and with our teaching of investigators is that the Spirit can bring the message to our hearts, but WE have to be the ones to let it in! Like that sweet picture of Christ knocking on a door without a door handle? He is always knocking BUT we are the ones who have to let him in and KEEP him in. I love the visual and know that when we always remember Him, Christ, in every action, word, and thought, that He will guide us to where we need to go and WHO we need to be!

I am sorry this email seems extra scatterbrained and crazy but I love you all and thank the Lord every day for the awesome support of have from my family!!  

LOVEYALLSOMUCH

Be safe today and watch out for those clowns! Les amo TANTO

BE STEADFAST IN CHRIST

con mucho amor,

Your Alabamian 

ROLLTIDE