Week 23 - Miracles, Road Trips and Even More Facebook!

 Hello there!

(This ones a long one, but it's worth it. If you're right on time or don't care much, skip the first 4 or 5 paragraphs )

Another week has somehow come and gone in the blink of an eye. Honestly, I'm trying to think of what even happened this week! I mean, last pday was cool I suppose. We hung out and played games as a district which was a party. We also started teaching this cute little boy names Heston! He's almost 8 and is getting baptized in about a month, and his parents asked if we could teach the missionary lessons to him before then. It's so fun!

This week we also got to start talking with........ OUR WARD MEMBERS! Man that's made such a huge difference. Last week was a really weird one floating in that inbetween wards state. Turns out this ward is much much smaller, so we have actually almost contacted everyone already! They have kept my opinion of the people of Dickinson very high. I LOVE Dickinson!!! I could serve the rest of my mission here and be perfectly content. We've had the chance to meet a lot of them over video call, some at member dinner picnics, and even more at church yesterday.

A lot of time this week was also spent making 3 Facebook videos and 2 non video Facebook posts. Yep, I'm sure you're ALL jealous! Look at the page "Church of Jesus Christ in Dickinson ND" Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday to see what we made. We're pretty happy with the.! What we're even happier about though is that we are getting a LOT faster at this whole filming/editing/captioning deal. We can now get a basic video done in 1-2 takes and within about 30 minutes. HALLELUJAH!

It was during the filming of one such video posted last Saturday that we learned that Williston, which is WEST of us, is in central time for some unknown reason. Why did that matter? Well, us in Dickinson are in mountain time and we had to be in Williston (2.25 hours away) by 8:30 am their time. So, instead of leaving at 6 am like we thought, which would have still been early enough to make us a bit annoyed, we had to leave at 5:00 am!!!!! We were absolute exhausted. Got done what we need to though and the drive was at least beautiful!

Alright, alright, I know in the subject of this email I said "miracles" and have talked about nothing but boring same old stuff. Well, it is now miracle time!! We had 4 miracles this week, and their names are Samantha, Ted, Angela, and Denise. On Tuesday we started teaching Samantha, so she's now a new person being taught. The tricky thing with her is that she claims she's too busy to ever meet outside or over video call, so we teach her entirely over Messenger. Turns out that's hard! Still awesome though and we're pumped. The progress is painfully slow, but it is progress all the same!

So, are you ready for some truly amazing miracles? Good! Onto Ted, Angela, and Denise. This is going to be a bit of a long portion, so get comfy but keep reading. I pinky promise it's worth it! So we had texted a member, Brother Johnson, to set up a video lesson or something when he instead said that he was 1) going to feed us BBQ for dinner instead, and 2) that he had a coworker whom he'd be answering questions about the church for who would be coming with his wife and 15 year old granddaughter! Even better, he said that his coworker was super interested in wanting to learn more and would be bringing questions for us to answer. We literally could not ask for anything better! Day of, we got a call from Bro Johnson saying he could no longer make it to dinner, so we of course were said because then we couldn't meet his friend that day, right? WRONG! He said he couldn't make it but his coworker and fam still wanted to meet with us regardless! We were blown away. Well, then right before we were going to head out the door, Ted himself called us because of the weather, which was cold and drizzly. He asked if maybe we could come to his house instead, and when we said we couldn't because of COVID, we though for SURE that this would be the reschedule/canceling point. WRONG AGAIN!! He just replied that they would bring jackets then. We were astonished out how committed and interested they were, so we were even more excited to meet them!

They got there, and we got to know them while eating and man, they were just INCREDIBLE!!! I love all three of them so much. After we had eaten, we asked Ted what questions he had, and he said the Bro Johnson had told him the story of how our church got started, but he didn't know it well enough to tell his wife and granddaughter it well, so he asked us to. We then started on the restoration, and it was phenomenal. It literally could not have gone better. They shared stories about how each of them came to know who God was, how relying on Christ has gotten them through some REALLY hard things, and how they have been searching for a church to be a part of everywhere they've gone for their whole lives. Angela is SOOOO spiritually sensitive that she said that if she walks into a church building and doesn't feel the Spirit immediately, she turns around and walks right out.

When they were talking about their search for a church that had everything they were looking for, that was a PERFECT segway into the story of Joseph Smith and the First Vision. Their faces when we told them about the First Vision were amazing. You could see the Spirit telling them that what we said was true. Getting to bear testimony to them of the reality of the Vision and that Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet was indescribable. They immediately accepted it to be true. Angela said that Christ comes to answer her prayers, so why wouldn't he for Joseph Smith? The concept of having a living prophet made so much sense to them.

After that, we told them about the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ and they were enthralled. They wanted to know EVERYTHING about it. We testified that it was the word of God, and had them read aloud Moroni 10:3-5. We asked them if they had any questions about what they read, and Anglea said, "No. I know it's true." WE WERE FLOORED. I had brought three copies with me, one for each of them, and when I handed Angela hers, she looked at me as if I had handed her the most valuable possession ever and held it to her chest. Denise said she was going to start reading it in the car on the way home!!

They all committed to read the intro to the Book of Mormon, to pray about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, AND to come to church with us on Sunday. Even greater than that, THEY ACTUALLY DID DO ALL THREE!!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness, I cannot describe accurately how special witnessing the Lord work like that was. They are so prepared to accept the gospel.

On top of that, we have around 16 or so people whom we're actively talking with on Facebook who want to meet up with us sometime. It's awesome! We were also coming into our apartment building one of these days and this man stopped us, said "I was meeting with missionaries for a year, and then I got busy but I have more time now. Can I meet with you sometime?" Um, OF COURSE YOU CAN PATRICK!! God is good y'all, that's all I have to say.

One of the people that we found on Facebook was a miracle in and of itself as well. So before my mission, I was working at a Korean BBQ called E-Ga and there I had met this awesome woman named Tracy. We talked all the time, and even talked about religion a lot and she almost came to my mission farewell. I was thinking about her a lot, and wanted to reach out, but I didn't even know her last name. I prayed before going on Facebook that I'd be able to somehow find her, and after looking through SO MANY Tracy's, I was ready to give up. I then checked out a Facebook page in Utah and SHE HAD COMMENTED ON ONE OF THE POSTS!!! The Lord led me to her. I just know it.

Pretty crazy week, huh? It was awesome. I feel like a missionary again!!! Well, until next week!

Sister Balls