Talking to the family on Christmas--the best!!!
Hello!
What an incredible blessing it has been to spend 2017 serving a full-time mission for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As I have reflected on this last year, I have just been filled with so much gratitude and joy for the experiences and opportunities I have had, the people I have met and grown to love, and the opportunity I have had to grow even closer to my Savior.
Sister Spencer and I ended 2017 with a week FULL OF MIRACLES!! It was truly such an incredible week and absolutely no better way to end this year. As a mission, we have new standards of excellence: One return appointment a day, one new elect investigator a week, one baptism a month, and one extra hour of finding on top of the finding you normally do. We have prayed and prayed and feel like that one extra hour of finding has been needed to be tracting. So, each morning as we are planning, we pray to know where the Lord needs us to find those that are searching for the Restored Gospel, and we have seen miracles upon miracles. We have found some of the most amazing people that are truly searching for the blessing of the Restored Gospel, AND, they have all come during that extra hour! I want to share a little about a few of them:
Picking up Sister Spencer; I love her so much with Elder Ryan (AP) and Pres. Toone
GERARD, such an amazing person:
We were tracting, and he was one of the last doors we knocked on. He was super busy but asked if we could come back the following day at 4:00 p.m. We did and had the most incredible lesson with him. We extended the invitation for him to be baptized, and he said, "YES!" He is preparing to be baptized on the 27th of January. We have had a couple more lessons with him since then, including a lesson on the Word of Wisdom--such a humbling experience. As we were teaching the Word of Wisdom, he mentioned a couple of things that he was struggling with. We promised blessings would come to him if he followed the counsel and asked him what we could do to help. He got up and headed into the kitchen, came back with everything he had that went against the Word of Wisdom counsel, gave it to us, and told us to take it and throw it away. The faith he has is AMAZING! As we were leaving, he picked up the cup of tea he had been drinking before we got there and said, "Oh, I guess I need to get rid of this, too." He got up and dumped it right down the sink. This was truly such a humbling experience watching him as he felt the Spirit testify of the truthfulness of the Gospel, exercised faith, and took those steps to help him prepare for baptism. He was also able to attend a baptism last night. I wish so badly that I could have recorded the happiness that overcame his face as he watched this sweet girl enter the waters of baptism, but it is definitely a certain moment that I will never forget. He turned to us and said, "I am so excited for my baptism in a couple of weeks."
C and K--another tracting miracle:
It was about 8:30 at night. We had tracted a total of 1 hour and 55 minutes, so we had 5 minutes left. The weather was bitter cold and the wind was crazy, but we felt prompted to stop on this road and knock on a couple more doors. We knocked on a few doors, and people were not too happy that we were knocking so late. After a couple of people yelling at us, we decided we would knock on one more and then come back tomorrow. We knocked on that one more door and the father let us right in. We talked with him for about 30 minutes, shared with him the message of the Book of Mormon, and even taught part of the Restoration. At the very end, he asked, "I have one question for you. With all that is going on in the world, do you believe that modern revelation could come again?" My companion and I looked at each other, smiled, and
One more quickly, and then I have to run...I'll update you on everyone else next week:
K and her family:
We had a lesson and dinner with her and her family this week. Let me just say, "I LOVE THEM SO MUCH." You have no idea...she is my long-lost best friend. We met her tracting my very first hour in the area, and after not being able to contact her, we finally have been meeting with her here and there. She has the sweetest family! Her husband is awesome, but usually just jokes with us. Whenever we start talking about the Gospel, he leaves or kinda messes with us in a kind way. We were sitting there this week and were able to teach them about the Restoration. The husband sat there right in front of us the entire time listening so intently and asking questions. At the very end, he asked if he could have his own Book of Mormon. We gave him one, and he spent the rest of the evening with the book in his hands flipping through the pages. He had such a change of heart. It was incredible. We talked about baptism a lot. Please keep them in your prayers that they accept the invitation to be baptized as a family!
I'm so sorry for the crazy, long email, but this doesn't even touch the surface of the miracles we saw this week. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a servant here in the wonderful state of Alaska, in helping bring the amazing message of the Restored Gospel to the people who are searching. The Lord is aware of His children...so very aware. I love this Gospel, and I know that the Church of Jesus Christ has been restored to this earth.
One of my favorite scriptures from Alma 29:
1 And now, these are the words of Ammon to his brethren, which say thus: My brothers and my brethren, behold I say unto you, how great reason have we to rejoice; for could we have supposed when we started from the land of Zarahemla that God would have granted unto us such great blessings?
2 And now, I ask, what great blessings has he bestowed upon us? Can ye tell?
I am so thankful for the blessings all around. I could have never imagined at the beginning of my mission, or this year, the blessings that laid ahead. But, I have so much reason to rejoice, and so do so many others.
Hope you all have a great week and a happy new year!
Love, Sister Lake
The other sister missionaries trying to get me to eat Rudolph (reindeer sausage), and I was not about doing that!
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