Man oh man.

 

 Ok. This week has been awesome.

 

Tracy was baptized on Saturday! It was amazing! I have been working with her since I arrived in the area four and a half months ago and she has grown so much. I'm so grateful to have been there from start to finish. Her progression was really a miracle. She hadn't really been keeping commitments, it was a little on and off because there were always a lot of reasons. And then probably about two months ago she was put in the hospital because she had pneumonia. Some part of that experience changed her and she really put the gospel first in her life. She has grown so much. She went from having a small desire to believe in God to really knowing that he is there. She is such a fiercely loyal mother and the gospel has blessed her to be able to help guide her family as well. Ah! Tracy is just the best. Her baptism went really well. She was so excited and she said she felt so clean and so good afterward. I love seeing how people glow after they are baptized. It's amazing. Sister White and I pulled off a never before practiced musical number. It was a baptism miracle.

 

 

Next up. Sherry and JR are THE BEST! Seriously. They are probably one of the biggest miracles of my mission. They are the definition of golden investigators. This past week we met with them probably every other day, well mostly with Sherry. She is cruising along in the Book of Mormon and teaching her friends about the plan of salvation. On Friday, she came and helped the ward with a swap and shop we were doing and she texted us "I love this place so much! I have been here for hours helping out. I love my new family!" I just keep thinking, 'Is this real life?' And it is!!!!! Sister Harding and I are loving all her questions, she is literally thirsting for knowledge. It is amazing. Sunday was an absolute miracle day. Sherry and JR both came to church-- we had two benches full of people (that never happens). It was like sitting at the cool kids table. We had Melba, Tracy and her family, and JR and Sherry. The night before we had taken them to the Liberty Jail. JR felt the spirit at the jail and loved it... but Sherry said she didn't. She was a little frustrated that JR felt something and she didn't because she had been putting in so much work. So later that night she was reading in her scriptures and flipped to three random verses on baptism. She was pretty excited about that and was telling us all about it at church the next day. Then, at the end of Relief Society Sherry was crying and obviously feeling the Spirit. She gets up after the closing prayer and bears her testimony! It was amazing! She talked about how she needed to get to the temple and how she wished so badly she had been raised with the knowledge she is gaining now. She talked about how this will already help her be a better mother! The Spirit was so strong and you could feel how much these things were being impressed upon Sherry's heart. I was just so grateful that God really does answer prayers. As a missionary I promise that witness will come with full confidence, and it always does, and somehow it still surprises me. I wish I could write about all the miracles with this family, but there have been so many!

 

Today I gave a training at a Specialized Mission Conference. It was for half the mission. I love/hate preparing trainings. I love it because it is so neat to receive revelation for other missionaries and then get to present it. I love it. It's totally not me prepping those trainings and it's the best. I hate it because I still get nervous and feel like my stomach will fall out once I get up there. It turned out well though. I just love teaching and I love teaching the gospel!!!! It is seriously the best thing in the world. 

 

The Shoal Creek Valley ward has been so good to me. I love this place and realllllyyyy hope to stay next transfer, but I already know that's reallllyyy wishful thinking. In other news. Next week is my birthday, and transfer day... it's the 12th for those that didn't remember :) I'm all about shameless self promotion, and even 14 months on a mission I still have to work on humility... although I have eliminated "sorry I'm not sorry" from my vocabulary. So that's an improvement.

 

Love you all! Read the Book of Mormon! It's the best. I'm almost finished with it again. I'm going to have it done in a week and a half before transfers. Here's a cool quote from our conference today. The Bible teaches us about Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon teaches us about the Atonement. That was from Elder Christofferson in President Keyes's specialized training. Pretty cool. It's true.