August 4th 2014

We're on our bikes and see this cute little black lady walking a
slowly in the opposite direction. We stop.
Sister Dodini: HIII! HOW ARE YOU??!! We're missionaries--
Lady interrupts without stopping her walk: Oho, I know who y'all are,
I ain't got time for dat, I'm finna go to da bafroom, that's why I'm
walkin FAST.
BAHAHAHAHA

Pretty awesome week. Went up to Gadsden for an exchange. While there,
the sister got a text from Anniston sisters in a neighboring area with
a church HQ referral. We went out to see them and it was AWESOME.
Emily, a 21 yr old, put in the request, we met her, and then another
21 yr old comes to the door, and introduces himself as her husband. He
said that as the head of the household and her husband, he feels
responsible for ensuring his wife's gospel education is accurate. They
have some other friends over, so we all sat down, prayed, and
discussed the gospel. The husband, Dalton had lots of questions. In
the beginning he asked if we were nervous, we responded that we
weren't, and he told us he was a baptist preacher, but just left his
church for some things that were going on. They were really nice
people. He did say he loved the JWs coming over, and would let them in
every time, but by the time he opened up his bible to them, and asked
questions about their doctrine, they couldn't do more than stammer. We
were able to answer all their questions and taught and testified about
the restoration and the Book of Mormon. The spirit was so strong.
Sister Gimmeson and I could both feel of how open their hearts were.
By the end of it, Dalton said, "I do have to tell you that y'all are
the best evangelists that have ever come into my home. The modesty is
appreciated, the manners are appreciated, and I appreciate that you
don't push anything on us, but just invite with conviction because you
seem to really feel this is true, and trust that we can find out for
ourselves."
That's what missionary work should feel like. I'm way excited to see
what happens as the Gadsden sister work with them.

Wednesday we had in interesting experience. We were invited to a
non-denominational bible study. It was interesting, we invited two of
the guests there to come to church, and they came yesterday. :)

Thursday we taught our last bible study at the Leeds summer camp. If
you know the lesson on the atonement when the seminary teacher offered
a donut to each student, but one student had to do 5 or 10 pushups for
his classmate to have a donut--even when they didn't want one--anyway,
we did that with them and it was awesome. Our pictures leading the
bible study with them made the local newspaper with captions that
included our being missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints in there, so that's cool.

We are teaching the neatest girl that Sister Dodini found while I was
in Gadsden. Her name is Kayla, she's 17 and searching for direction.
She loves what we've taught her so far. So excited.
We had our last district meeting of the transfer. Sister Dodini and I
made some fun little awards for the missionaries in our district. It
was way fun. Awards included
Sassy Sister Award
Where is the Love?
Hold your breath
Nicest teeth
Should've been a stunt man
The voice,
I made one for Sister Dodini, it was the LOL award for the joyful
eruptions of laughter, the angelic singing, and perfect balance in all
things.  She made the Insanity award for me for the upside down piano
playing, popping and dancing while we're tracting, the insane
workouts, the beastly biking and the best one liners.
Of course these are all loaded with inside jokes, we have fun in our
district, and we need to or we would all go insane.

Saturday we met and taught some new investigators, and finally taught
a man we've been trying to meet with for a long time. At one point he
said that he wished he were us and that we ma ynot even know what it's
like to NOT have the conviction that we do about the gospel. Before we
even challenged him to read the BOok of Mormon he said, "Well, I guess
what I have to do is get me a Book of Mormon...I can find it at the
library, right?" Gotcha covered. He left for out of town, so we won't
get to teach him in person until next week.
We had some powerful lessons with less active part member families,
and met with a lady we were referred to. She's 72 and has cancer. She
really wants to be a mormon. She said her mom was a 'full-fledged
mormon,' but she herself was never baptized but, oh she wants to be.
She begged us to teach her grandson because "he really needs to be a
mormon." We're excited to work with her.

One of my studies this week, I frustrated myself greatly trying to
find biblical evidence of some things we teach that we are challenged
on occassionally. In regards to dispensations and apostasies, there
were things with the timeline that still don't make much sense to me.
During my whole study I was frustrating, dispelling some fallacies I
had heard people and even missionaries explain that have no scriptural
evidence. I had a passing thought/question of how I can be set apart
as a minister when I know so little.. One of my favorite verses I
found was Alma 4:19. I love the power of 'pure testimony.' I thought,
"I can do that." I can bear pure testimony, because the one thing I
can always fall back on is the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.
There is no way that I could ever deny that book is true, I know it's
true with a greater surety than I know anything. That knowledge means
all the other claims that go with it are true too. I don't have to
understand all of them perfectly. The atonement is real, and the true
and comple gospel helps me to have access to it, and helps me help
others find access to it, and that's all I need.
I so love this gospel.

Sister Dodini is getting transferred along with lots of the sisters in
our zone. I get to train a new Sister Training Leader, so I'm pretty
excited. I'll shoot y'all a brief email on Wednesday when I bring my
new comp back here.

I miss y'all SO much! Reading about everyone, I am amazed at how
involved you are in the work, and the goodness that y'all have. I
can't wait to see y'all in under 6 months now, but I am pretty hooked
on this work here for the time being. Thanks so much for writing me,
praying for me, and for everything y'all do at home.
Love y'all!