I'm writing a little early this week because I won't have time over the weekend.

A missionary experience from one of our sister missionaries.

💥Inspiration Post💥

This is a super cool/embarrassing story that has helped my companion and I better see God's hand in our lives and better understand our role here to be instruments in His hands.

Okay so this was a few fridays ago and I felt sick all day long. It was about 7:30 PM and we had no other scheduled appointments. Going home and sleeping was a for sure temptation, but we finally decided to suck it up and go tracting. The first house we knocked on was a sweet lady who talked to us for maybe 1 minute about not being religious before I interrupted and said, "IM GOING TO THROW UP! CAN I USE YOUR BATHROOM??" She frantically rushed out of the way to show me the bathroom. (Yup I did throw up. Yep at a random person's house. Yes I was embarrassed.) We went back a few days later to give her cookies and thank her for being so nice and apologize for bursting into her home. This led to an awesome friendship! Now she has stopped drinking alcohol, started taking bible classes, comes to members homes regularly, and is praying for the first time in her life. It has been so neat to see the spirit work in her life and watch her grow. All because of ONE KNOCK and one decision to go tracting when we didnt want to.

Moral of story: Anytime you come to a good/better/best scenario choose the best option! This is the only time in our lives we can completely dedicate ourselves to this work. SO LIVE EVERY DAY TO ITS FULLEST.

Love those little gifts from God

Gotta love those little miracles!
This week I went to get the information to renew a lease in Mena and I couldn't find the folder.  This is a huge problem.  Everything is in that folder, including who I need to call.  I went through both drawers of files carefully.  Not there.  I went through all the closed apartment files.  Not there.  I went through all my files again.  Where could it be?  So I prayed and asked for help finding it or a thought that would lead me to it.  I then opened the top file drawer again to look through all my files again.  I opened it fast and the files went sliding to the back of the drawer.  I could see 2 notebooks that were lying on the bottom of the drawer, underneath the files.  Then I thought, aha, maybe that happened in the other drawer.  So I opened the other drawer where my file should have been, shoved all the files toward the back, and there on the bottom of the drawer was my file for Mena.  Celebration time!  I know that prayers aren't always answered that quickly and easily, but I love it when they are.  It's a sweet reminder that God is there for all of us.  He answers all of our prayers, sometimes the way we want, sometimes in a different way, sometimes quickly, sometimes in a different time frame, but He never forgets like I forget.  That file was pretty small in the whole scheme of things that are going on in the world, but it was a big deal to me.

Missionary's come back and visit every once in awhile.  Here's us with Sister Burton and her mother.  Chris is taking a selfie lesson in one of them.

Here's a funny one.
Our mission secretary, Sister Dodds, is tiny.  She's way shorter than me and she weighs 91 lbs.  I was driving with her the other day and I told her she needed a car that she could raise her seat so she could see over the steering wheel.  She said her seat would raise but she can't because then she can't reach the gas pedal.  What she needs, she says, is to have a car that she can lower the steering wheel. So we were talking about it at the office and Sister Braaten says, "Oh, I bet your steering wheel will lower."  Elder Johnson says, "Of course it will, let's go see."  So we all march out to her car and Elder Johnson lowers the steering wheel for her.  She gets in and boy is she happy.... and ashamed.... that she's had that car quite a few years and never even knew.

Sweet Notes

A tree in our back yard covered in little red berries.