Strongly and Distinctly

Church sign of the week!
"Fire and life insurance given here"

HA

Another transfer has come and gone! Can you believe it?? So to start off, let's talk about transfer news... Sister Walker is leaving me :( And so is Elder Stilson and Sister Smith and Sister Jeppson :( But I know that they are going to make their new areas simply fabulous!

So every Saturday before transfers, we have a mission-wide conference call where President Cottle speaks to us and the AP's (assistants to the President) name off all of the people that are going to be transferred, and need to make arrangements to be at the transfer meeting the following Tuesday with their companions. Well during this transfer call, President told us that three "experienced sister missionaries" would be coming to our mission from the Salt Lake City Temple Square Mission a day after transfers to finish out their missions here. And I thought to myself, "Wow, that is super awesome! What a great asset to our mission!" And then, who do you think called us about three minutes after the conference call had ended? President, of course. Who told me that Sister Walker and I were to drive our own car to transfer meeting, and I was to pack an overnight bag, because I would be spending Tuesday night at the mission home and getting my new companion from Temple Square the next day. I am over the moon excited. I cannot wait to WORK. I have such a good feeling about this next transfer. And I am so blessed for this opportunity to work with this new sister, whoever she is. I can't wait to meet her! So, super exciting news there :)

But as far as the work this week? Pretty wonderful. Heavenly Father is so awesome. Here are some "miracles moments" from the past week:

The J Girls. So a few weeks ago, we visited a less active family that moved to the area about a year ago. There's the mom, stepdad, and four daughters. The mom is a convert, the stepdad is not a member, and they both work every Sunday. So we offered to help them arrange rides for the girls to go to church, and they were both very happy. So, we find out that the youngest daughter (age 10), has not been baptized and REALLY wants to be. We set up a time to teach her. We had anticipated the whole family being there, but it turned out to be just L, and her older sister who is 12. It was the most amazing lesson. I almost cried the entire time. Those two are two of the brightest, best, most full of righteousness and goodness, most beautiful daughters of God that I have ever had the privilege of meeting. L told us that every night, her and her sister turn to each other and remind each other to pray. And they take "about 10 minutes". Um. Okay. When's the last time you prayed for 10 minutes? That's a long time, my friend! They asked us where they could get scriptures because they had left theirs at the last place they were living. As we were teaching the Restoration lesson, there is a page in the pamphlet that is about the apostasy and I asked L, "If you were Heavenly Father, how would you restore your church to the earth?" And she sat there in thought, hand on her chin and said, 'Heavenly Father can come to earth whenever he wants right?" "Yes," I replied. "Okay, so I would come to earth and come to more men, like before, and set up the church again just like Jesus had it." Um... seriously? From a 10 year-old. Yes, L. That is EXACTLY what He would do. That is exactly what He did do! And that is basically how the whole lesson went. And then we asked her if she'd like to set a date to be baptized and she said "Yes." Guess who already had a date picked out? L did. Of course. As we were leaving, her older sister asked us how many questions they were allowed to ask. The cuteness. And we took them to our car to grab copies of the Book of Mormon, and L says, "Oh good! I want to read this tonight before bed!" I'm sorry, but I just can't. I can't even express how I feel or how much I love these two very very special girls already. Heavenly Father knew that they wanted this and needed this so very badly and sent us to them. How lucky am I to be a part of His work?

Remember J? The adorable 70 year old that I love with all my heart? Well she called us at the beginning of the week and said that while she was on vacation, she went to church with her friend and to a pioneer picnic and that she just loved them. And then, when she got home, she became very sick. Last night, us and the elders were able to go give her a blessing of healing, and it was so a beautiful blessing. She just kept thanking us over and over. And did I mention that one of the families in the ward just moved in next door to her!? So wonderful.

There are about a million other miracles that I could talk about, like almost getting caught in a drug bust with our ward mission leader... but we didn't. Or going on Fort Gordon to attend church with A, which was so great:

Fort Gordon has a military branch that holds meeting every Sunday on post. It was fast and testimony meeting yesterday, and it reminded me a lot of the YSA Branch in Valdosta: small in number, awkward pauses, amazing people. The Spirit was so strong in that building. There is just something so special and different about being in a group of people like that where you know that they SACRIFICED to be there. Sacrificed a few hours of their precious free time, or time away from work, or families, etc. They wanted and worked to be there, every one of them. It's not easy to be LDS and in the military. After one soldier got up and spoke, I got up and started speaking about how you can feel the Spirit even if you don't know what's being said. I had understood almost nothing of what the previous soldier had talked about, with his military jargon and acronyms, but I knew that he had a testimony. And I felt the Spirit just the same. And how absolutely amazing is that? I talked about how when my mom was on her mission in Argentina, and had just gotten there, she attended church and understood almost nothing of the service held in Spanish. But she felt the Spirit strongly and distinctly. I felt similarly today, even though he was speaking English :) It was a wonderful experience.

But I have no more time! I wish I could write forever. But alas, I cannot.

Just know that this is true. This work is amazing. Heavenly Father loves you. And I love being a missionary.

Sister Szilagyi