Snowed In in INDIANA

This week has been a little bit crazy. Okay really super crazy. We moved!!!! Which took way longer then we expected to get everything out of our old apartment and into our new one... and move the other sisters that lived with us as well. Then we had to deep clean our old apartment (which elders had lived in for YEARS) so that was pretty invovled as well. THEN the snow happened. We thought on Saturday we were just going to get a little bit of snow. No big deal.. right? We ended up snowed in Sunday and Monday. Church was canceled. Luckily we live close to other missionaries, so we got to spend some time with the sisters living close to us and with the senior couple that is also serving in our ward. We decided that we needed to have pretend church on Sunday (since it was just weird not to go to church!!) so we watched The Testaments. I haven't seen that movie since I have been on my mission. It was really neat to think that this is exactly what we teach people about everyday. We share the unique message that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth and that we have a prophet today and the Book of Mormon!! So then Monday we found out we were again grounded. Who knew that missionaries got grounded?!? It was kind of a super lame preparation day because we were stuck inside and started to go a little bit nuts!! THEN we found out that the roads were still super terrible on Tuesday, but we did have permission to go to get groceries and to drive where "necessary". We went out in the 0 degree weather and tried to start our car... but it was so cold that our battery was dead.... so the assistants had to come jump our car. Then today we were finally able to do some normal missionary work again!!! AHHHH it was crazy to just sit and do nothing. Sister Barrett (my new companion) and I were going nuts!!! With all of this craziness going on we still saw several miracles this week!! And of course I want to tell you all about them :)

 We had a lesson scheduled with Ashley in a member’s home. We were super excited to teach her about tithing, but we were a little bit nervous because right now her finances are pretty tight. So Ashley calls us right before the lesson and asks to move it back a half and hour. Then she calls again and asks to move it back even more. So finally an hour and a half after we were suppose to meet she asks if she can just cancel. She was so frustrated that she had to cancel. We finally just asked what was wrong and what we could to do help her. She said that she had some stuff that she had to work out with the bank before it closed that was really stressing her out, but she was also really upset because we couldn't meet and she was looking forward to our lesson. We finally worked out that we would stop by and try to see her later that evening. At this point, we were really confused about what was going on. We wanted to make sure she was okay but weren't sure how our lesson on tithing would go. When we got to Ashley's apartment, she was reading her Book of Mormon waiting for us (best investigator EVER!). She then explained to us that she got paid that day and counted the money and did not have enough for all of her bills that she needed to pay. She was super flustered because she knew that she needed to support her daughter. She was really upset. But she decided that she needed to pray about it. She asked Heavenly Father to help her through this situation. She told us that she knew He probably wouldn't just give her more money, but she knew that He could help. She said as she drove to the bank she was still super anxious and she realized that this meant that she didn't have faith. She knew that she needed to have faith if she wanted her prayer answered. So she let go and she trusted in the Lord and Heavenly Father did answer her prayer!! When she gave the money to the bank teller and she counted it, it was more then enough!! In fact, she even had extra. And Ashley being as awesome as she was said a prayer of gratitude right then and there, out loud in the bank!!! Even though we didn’t get to teach her that day in a member’s home, Heavenly Father had a better plan and prepared her to accept the Law of the Tithe through her experience!!!!!!!!

We are currently teaching 10 year old twins, Collin and Emma, whose family is currently less active! We stopped by to see how their family was doing. We were surprised to see all of the kids outside looking frantically for their dog, Charlie who had ran away. They live at the intersection of a highway and an interstate...so they were really nervous. We were able to go inside with their family and kneel and prayer for their dog’s safe arrival home. We then had a short lesson on prayer and were grateful for the opportunity that we had to see their family. Their dog came home a few short hours later :) so then we were able to meet with them a few days later. Sister Barrett and I had prayed about a baptismal date for Collin and Emma to prepare for. Their family has been working hard to get back to church and we knew that working towards a date would help all of their family. After and awesome lesson on prayer and scripture study and how we can receive revelations (which was super perfect we were able to pray for Charlie to come back just a few days before!) we knelt in prayer with their whole family and prayed for confirmation that Collin and Emma should prepare to be baptized on February 9th. The peace that came into the room was so strong!! When the prayer was over the entire family was grinning!! We are so excited to help Collin and Emma prepare for their baptism!!!

So even though we have had a pretty crazy week and a half or so, Heavenly Father has blessed us with so many miracles!!! And being a missionary, I get a front row seat to the greatest miracle of all, I get to see the effect of the Atonement of Jesus Christ on individuals and on families.

Oh and my new companion is awesome!! Her name is Sister Barrett! She is from Hyrum, Utah. She has been out for about 10 months (so she came out 2 transfers before I did). We are so excited to work so hard together in Carmel and she is pretty fun too!!!