Week 36: On miracles, potatoes with chocolate, and broken-down bikes

We eat Lucky Charms because we think they make us lucky. We think.

Happy Wednesday everybody! This week was AWESOME and we saw so many miracles! But first - the snow is starting to melt! It is positive degrees and I can SEE GRASS! Which is honestly a miracle all on its own. I didn't really think that I'd ever see the sun again.

Due to the fact that (1) it's starting to warm up outside and (2) our kilometers are severely limited by the fact that this month we have to drive to Taber, Brooks, Lethbridge twice, and Calgary twice (not that I expect anyone to know where any of those places are!), we decided to bust out our bikes yesterday! This was a whole production because you can't raise or lower the seats on any of the bikes, they all have one functional and one broken brake, and the tires are... a little sketchy from being outside in -40 degrees. We biked a lot in my first area, but I forgot how much slower it is than driving! We went to do one stop-by and not only did it take, like, 40 minutes, AND it was warm out so I was sweating in my coat, but I was DEAD for the rest of the day, haha. We had a meeting with our stake president and the zone leaders that night and I was doing my very very best not to fall asleep. It was moderately successful. 

Exchanges with Sis. Barker in The Middle of Nowhere, Alberta

We have had a crazy week filled with miracles! Like, every single day has been filled with miracles. But we'll start on Friday around 4 pm, because that's when things really started to pick up. Sister Bueno and I were on exchanges and I was up in Brooks, which is an hour+ away, so we met in the middle on Friday afternoon and Sister Bueno and I drove back to Medicine Hat. We were supposed to have an appointment but it fell through (like our appointments have a tendency to do, haha), so we went home and had comp study instead. And we were both dead tired, like, struggling to keep our eyes open. So we decided that because we hadn't taken our full lunch break, we'd just take a quick nap and then head out and get to The Work. Which was an awesome decision. Because:

1. Our first stop was to drop of a children's Book of Mormon to this 10-year-old recent convert named Elizabeth. All of her siblings who live at home are baptized, but her mom works tons and so she's entirely evasive. But right as we pulled up to Elizabeth's house, we saw a lady walking into the house! It turned out to be Elizabeth's mom and we were able to teach her last night.
2. Because we were in the area, we decided to stop by our investigator Randy (#1). We had planned to go by later that night, but he was home at 4:30 and told us he was leaving in half an hour for BC for the whole weekend. He sent us a text that night saying that we always come over at the hardest times and he thinks it's a sign that the Lord Jesus is watching out for him. It is!
3. We found out that there was a nonmember at church on Sunday (even though nobody told us at church?!?). He's a 17-year-old boy living with his friend's mom, who is a member. We stopped by and he told us he loved church because everybody was so welcoming and that he'd tried to steal The Book of Mormon from his friend's mom, so we gave him his own copy and set up a time to come back and teach him more!
4. That night, we were tracting and we hadn't found anyone yet but had a few minutes before our lesson at 8. So Sister Bueno and I prayed and both looked at the map, and she mentioned a street that I had JUST been looking at, so we were like, GO! GO! We HAULED over there and decided to start at the end of the street and we knocked on the first door and the guy was nice but not interested and at the SECOND DOOR we found this nice dad to whom we gave a copy of the Book of Mormon! His family is out of town but we're going to teach them all on Sunday! It was awesome.

And then we had some pretty cool bonus miracles on Monday! We had our second lesson with our friend Jasmine (who actually doesn't live in our ward but wants to be taught by sisters) and we went over the restoration. She has been SO prepared and I think she recognizes that God has been leading her to the gospel! We invited her to be baptized on April 11 and she said she needed some time to think about it, but she texted us that night and asked if we could do a different day so that her boyfriend would be in town! She's getting baptized on April 12 and we're SO excited for her! She's absolutely the sweetest. 

Later that evening we were tracting and we only had a few minutes (which seems to be a pattern with us, haha) and we didn't feel like we were in the right spot so we pulled up our map and headed to a different area. Long story short, we were going around the bend on the street we'd picked and Sister Bueno was like, "stop the car!" So we got out and she was like, let's do these three houses, it's one of these three, and pointed to three different houses on different parts of the street. The third house was this dad named Randy (Randy #2!!!!) who took a Book of Mormon and said he's always been interested in learning more about the Church! And he was wearing a new creature in Christ shirt and had the picture of Jesus holding the lamb on his wall. So we're pretty sure he's elect. 

That night, we had a lesson with our friend Rafael who is ALSO super prepared for the gospel. He showed up to church all by himself last week and we had our third lesson with him on Monday and invited him to be baptized! He said he wanted to pray about it, but he also said that he likes how our church feels different from any other church and he feels safe and at home here. It was awesome. 

We had dinner with this family in our ward and they made potatoes as part of dinner and then for dessert we had granola squares with a chocolate peanut butter sauce on top. One minute we were having a pleasant conversation, and the next we were eating potatoes with chocolate peanut butter sauce and hot sauce on them. It was disgusting. Not my favorite dinner, haha

This week I read 2 Corinthians 12:9, which says "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." It's super interesting to me that Paul sees his weaknesses as an opportunity to draw closer to Christ and draw on His power rather than as setbacks or personal failures. One of the most hopeful things that we get to teach is that the grace and love and power of Jesus Christ are big enough for ALL of us, no matter what mistakes we may have made. There have been so many times on my mission when I've felt like my skill set is insufficient for the tasks at hand, but I've learned over time that I am not asked to serve alone. I'm so grateful for the fact that God is always so willing to help!

I hope everybody is having a great weak, staying healthy, and saying their prayers! Happy March!

Love,

Sister Willis