Sunny Days and Serving the Lord

1 February 2016

Dear family and friends,

Perfect, sunny days are fantastic when serving! For the first half of the week, it was gloomy and cold. Despite that, we were still out serving! :) Heavenly Father saw our need for a cheer-er-up-er, and so He blessed us with a sunny weekend. 

But I know that we have to taste the bitter in order to enjoy the sweet. God gave us weaknesses so that we could learn from them and make them into strengths. He will always help us through the hard times and He will bless us with rays of sunshine as we faithfully endure.

Rays of sunshine this past week:

1. On Tuesday, we met with a sweet widow named Peggy. I think I may have mentioned her before. We found out that she had downloaded the Book of Mormon to her Ipad and she had been reading it over the past week! We had an amazing lesson with her and invited her to Church. Then, this Sunday, guess who we saw? Peggy came to church! We were so thrilled, and she enjoyed it very much. She said that she will pray to know if this is the right church for her. :)

2. We now have three people on date for baptism! Betty J., Pam K., and John D. :) What a great blessing this is to be hastening the work! :) These are all amazing people.

3. On Saturday, we felt like we should visit a less-active couple, the Williams. We had been trying to contact them for a while, but they hadn't answered. But this time, they were home! They welcomed us in with warm smiles, and we were able to visit with them for a bit. As we did, they opened up to us and explained why they hadn't been coming to church. We helped them to resolve their concerns a bit, and we extended the invitation to come back. We also asked them if we could practice teaching the 5 missionary lessons, and they agreed immediately and said we could practice right then! We taught them the Restoration. I felt the Spirit fill the room as we shared with them God's love for them. I could tell that they felt the Spirit touch their hearts as they listened. We left their home feeling lifted up with joy and love for them. We look forward to seeing their progression as they come back to church and renew their covenants.

So, a wonderful week, full of miracles as always! God blesses us with miracles each day. We just have to open our eyes to them.

My invitation to you this week is to start reading the Book of Mormon again. Start from the beginning, and read it with someone in mind. Read it for that person. I testify that you will see miracles from it. New things will show up that you never noticed before. You will be filled with the Spirit and you will feel a stronger connection to the person you are reading for, and to Christ.

You are all so amazing, and I love you very much!

Keep smiling, and have a blessed day.