Mission Savy : Pop pop pop popcorn

Hey y'all!

This week went by super quick.

On Monday we had some SUPER cool miracles. We met a family that recently moved into our ward. I saw their records pop up but without an exact address and I recognized the last name as a family we helped move out of another ward about 6 months ago. They didn't have a place to move to, so they were going to live at the KOA for a while. Anyway, we still had her number so we texted and asked her if she ended up getting settled into a house. She did and it's in our ward! We stopped by to see her that night and her little grandson came running up and gave me the biggest hug. This family wants to work towards being sealed in the temple. They are so ready for it. We also have a surprise for them this next week. They had zero food in their fridge, so we are surprising them with a turkey dinner and copious amounts of food :) 'tis the season! :)

We also got to meet with Jonette and Saul. We taught the restoration and WOW they know their stuff! The spirit was super strong. They know it's true, they just have a lot of bad influences around them lately. We haven't been able to catch up with them since, so keep them in your prayers.

Tuesday was quite the day. Interviews with El Presidente! Oh how I love the Montana Billings Mission and the wonderful people I've met because of it. During the interview we ended up talking about a blog post on lds.org titled "the perfect lie" if you haven't read it, go read it now.

https://www.lds.org/blog/the-perfect-lie?lang=eng

We had a great talk about how sometime we have a misconception that the more things we do, the more Christlike we become. That it's in the doing of as many things we possibly can that we achieve perfection. WRONGO. That will make us crazy. The way that we should see it is through the equation Me + Christ = More. Through Jesus Christ we can become infinitely more. More of the person that he wants us to be.

We ended up having 2 dinners on Tuesday night. Oh man. Thanksgiving will be the death of me. #5dinners. As Sister Crosland always says, "Go big or go home...or go home big." Hahahahahahahahaha

Wednesday I was on exchanges with Sister Nez in the Missoula YSA ward. We got to teach SO MANY PEOPLE preparing for baptism. It was fun to teach people I've taught before and see their progression. Dakota gets baptized this weekend and it was probably one of my favorite moments ever to see her just light up every time we talked about baptism. We also put Michael on date for baptism! (Yes the sandwich one from last week)

Also, played the piano in district meeting. I haven't played in 7 months. The fact that people could sing along to whatever hymn I played, in and of itself is a miracle. Hahaha

Thursday. Taught the Pepions and I CRIED. Brother Pepion is struggling, but he knows the gospel is true. We talked a lot about blending culture and religion. It's a hard balance, but totally possible. For some reason, I just sort of lost it as I bore testimony of the blessings the gospel brings. I have seen them. It's absolutely and completely evident to me that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to achieve true and lasting joy, peace, and comfort.

Friday was another exchange and I was in Missoula with Sister Cannon! We found some new investigators and just had a whole lot of fun being missionaries. She was such a trooper. Poor girl had a dog pee on her. Welcome to missionary work!

Saturday we had some super sweet member present lessons. We taught Marie again. As we taught the plan of salvation we found out that she's pretty set in her idea of reincarnation...still a little stumped as to help her with that one. But she's reading all the way in Mosiah now!

We also taught Flo, Mary, and Kaylee! Mary and Kaylee really participated in this lesson and we had the Conrads there with us. We taught about prayer because last time it was a struggle to get any of them to say the prayer. This time Flo AND Mary prayed. SO COOL :)

Sunday was wonderful as always. We had a super great Ward council with the new bishopric. We have a goal as a Ward that instead of just giving food to people for thanksgiving that we should invite them to our homes. We met a less active the other day and I felt prompted to invite her to one of the dinners we are going to on thanksgiving. It was kinda scary, because we pretty much invited her to a strangers home, and we had no clue if the member would be okay with it, BUT it's totally going to work out! :)

So many wonderful people and so many wonderful miracles. :) I am so grateful for this time I have to serve in the Montana Billings Mission. I know that God is mindful of each one of us :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!