March Missionary Madness

March 27, 2019

March Missionary Madness

SHE HAS BEGUN

Hello!!!

First and foremost, a bday s/o to the day 1 homie, grinding down in the deserts of Chile, Elder Barker!! 20 has never looked better. Send some love his way! On the other side of the hemisphere, we had a solid week here on the South Side! Had our MLC, lots of lessons, people progressing towards the font, and are missing dearly the hype of March Madness. Doesn't get much better than that! Let me hop into some of the highlights of the week.

Tiana and Max are doing great! After a crazy hectic week for them, Tiana reached out to us to come stop by. We were able to bring both Kelly and Emily to the lesson and it was so awesome. As we reviewed the Restoration with them, the Spirit was strong as Emily and Kelly shared their conversion stories with Tiana. As we were addressing some concerns of hers, one being smoking, you could tell that she wanted it so bad. But when she said that mid-late April felt like a good time to quit smoking, we were just a little bummed. Why not now?! *insert Spirit of urgency* The next day, we stopped by to drop some things off and she just gave us the best surprise a missionary could ask for. She told us that after talking with the family and after praying, she and Max wanted to be baptized on the 20th of April! She set her own date and everything without us having to push or anything. MIRACLE. She went to Walmart after we left and purchased all the supplies she needed to quit smoking for good and had started her journey. She was feeling so strongly that this was her time. More than ever before. And I am just lucky to tag along for the ride. Missionary work is the bomb. Keep her in your prayers!!

We also had our MLC this week up in Iowa City. Elder Taylor of the Seventy who is also in the Presidency of our area, came and spoke to us. And wowza. After 5 hours of him just up there spitting mad doctrine, all of our heads were literally aching. It means something when President Badger tells you that that was the most spiritual meeting he's ever attended. One thing that Elder Taylor talked about was using the words of Christ. To basically stop thinking we know it all and open up the scriptures because the elect will hear HIS voice, not some 20 year old kids' voice. He said it in a much nicer, more authoritative way but he was so right. Surprise surprise. We've gone from decent lessons to amazing, Spirit filled lessons as we've done this. The people we talk to literally change their entire complexion the second we start reading Christ talking to them. Makes our job a lot easier so I am down.

Was able to swing through Waterloo on our way home from MLC. I was able to try to stop by all of the homies with Elder Richardson (he's up serving there rn) and it was so fun to be back together for a quick hour or two. Sadly, Samuel wasn't home but my man Jimmy was. It was good to catch up and see how he was doing. I started the process with Jimmy, now Richardson is going to finish it. Father-son duo back at it. Bang bang.

Kelly and Emily also went to the temple on Saturday!!! Woooohooooooo! Let's go!!!

Love you all!

SPC