There is something that you will find in the gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that you will find no where else!

Heya!

So...they do not tell you that when you go on a mission your body decides to rebel..talk about 6 pounds later. I am getting chunky people it is bad!!! HELP..is that an option :p

Do not ever underestimate the power of the spirit...because I did this week and was dead wrong. Saturday night we went to Life Church with our investigator Phillip so that Sunday he would come to our church meeting. We do that a ton here because almost everyone goes to a church. It is a good way to get people to make the sacrifice to miss church to see that we respect where they come from too. Well....life church is life church, the band, the lights, the free lemonade and chips, oh and I almost forgot a bit of Jesus. No but in all reality, Life church is just not what I am personally used to for a Sunday service. It was definitely a ton of fun though.
Sunday morning rolls around and Phillip walks in the meeting at 9:30...on time. I died laughing though because 5 minutes before he got there he sent us a text with some choice words saying "oh "crap" I left my bible and book of Mormon at home". LOVED it. We are all imperfect people here...people :p He came in and sat down and the Sacrament service started. I was so stressed because I kept thinking there is no way that he is going to like this if he is used to life church. The choir then sang and they..well they sounded like the church choir and to top it off the stake patriarch got up and started talking about the Lineage of Joseph and the pearl of great price. I thought for sure it was over. Our ward mission leader looked at me with an "Oooh nooo" face. Hahah it was rough. He ended up staying for Gospel Priniciples and then Priesthood on his own. It feels like your letting the baby birdy out of the nest when the guys stay for Elders Quorum.
Well we were asked to give the Restoration in five minutes at the beginning of the class and so we stayed in Elders Quorum for opening exercises. A man in there was ordained to a Priest and received the Aaronic priesthood, I am sure it was a lot for Phillip to take in. It turned out that after class he sat down with our mission president and had questions and they explained it all to him. Because he is from the Ivory Coast his native language is french and so the first counselor came in and spoke french with him. Even though he understands English well I think it was a huge clarity to hear the story of Joseph Smith (what the lesson was on!!! That was no coincedence) in french. He made the comment that next time he comes he wants to dress nicer!!! It was a miracle. I am pretty sure every single person, give or take a couple, talked with him at church and genuinely made him feel welcome. As missionaries there is nothing better! After church when we were walking him out he had said "That choir was so good, and unlike life church, your church felt more like what church should be. During the music, it was easier to listen to the spirit. I thought "did he really just say that...it clicked for him" So I will say again, do not ever underestimate the power of the spirit. I have a testimony that the organization of our church is of God even when people are not perfect. I am so grateful to be a missionary and experience miracles like this. You never ever know who will be prepared for the gospel. Even when church can be hard and sometimes boring there is something that you will find in the gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that you will find no where else. It is simply Christ's church on the earth today. I feel so lucky.

I know that was one long spiritual blurb but it was the highlight of my week and I wanted to share it with you all. 

Love you tons,

Sister E.

Missionary work so worth it!

Friends.Families.Munchkins.Charlie and Paige,

Let us see well....unfortunately this week I started saying "Y'all" I cannot even fight it anymore. I made it 4 months not saying it.

This week I learned that I do not have enough patience....or humility. Or the Lord just thinks I need more, because MAN, Sister Jones and I are being tested around these parts. We started off the week doing great with 3 appointments set up every day. By the end of the week we ended up teaching 3 appointments in total. Without fail everyone besides those three canceled. We were laughing so hard because it was all we could do but cry and wine and be ridiculously frustrated. Even the ones that you can always count on to pull through canceled this week. I am not quite sure what I did wrong ;) I know that the Lord wants me to learn more endurance but I don't recall making the mistake of praying for patience. This weekend was definitely a little better though and our one incredible appointment with Tafv made it all worth it.

We ended up rescheduling several times with her, so our lesson plan ended up being really good because we studied for her for three days in a row. We were really nervous about teaching her though because she is a single mom, never been married at 21 and has a 4 year old, and we were going to teach her about eternal families. Several months ago she came across some anti Mormon material and so this has been one of those things that is a touchy subject. When we went in and sat down with her the spirit was already so thick in the room that it was easy to teach. She was so touched as we talked about her daughter and in the end we were able to get her to commit to prepare for the temple, which was such a miracle considering the past several months. When I got here she was the hardest teach, but now she is the biggest miracle every week. These are the moments that make missionary work so worth it.

As we taught her I felt impressed to share my experience of the temple and I was very real with her. As we both shared stories and testified she looked at us and so seriously said sometimes I forget you are real people and I am so grateful that you are the missionaries that teach me. I felt so much love for her and learned an important lesson. The most powerful way to show love is to be real with people and let them know they are not alone.

I am so grateful for my Savior, I am grateful that I can fail one hundred times and still have an opportunity to try again. The Atonement is real. Love you all and hope you are doing well!

Make your prayers personal

Hey Everyone,
Hope you enjoyed conference weekend! That was probably the first time that I watched all the sessions and it was an incredible experience for me.
I especially loved the talk from Elder Holland, it was such a powerful testimony of the Savior.
I have such a strong testimony that God is with us even when we feel like we don't deserve it. Yesterday Sister Jones and I (my new companion! She is from South Jordan Utah and is super sweet) went to go check on some people in the city. We found one of the places but not the other one and I was feeling so frustrated because I knew that it was in the same complex but could not remember how to get there. We looked for twenty minutes and couldn't seem to find it. I felt like Heavenly Father was disappointed with me because I was being pessimistic and feeling frustrated but even in the midst of that, last minute I had a thought to turn left and then left again. There is was, right in front of us. If you know me, you know I cannot find my way around ever but that that experience was a sign of my Heavenly Father's love for me, to remind me that He is there after all. When you feel that you don't deserve Heavenly Father's love, get on your knees, tell Him that. Hide nothing and say it how it is. I don't sugar coat my prayers and I really feel like that helps me be closer to God. SO my challenge this week for you all is to make your prayers more personal, even if that means "Heavenly Father, what in the world am I having to go through this for?" He wants to hear from us in GOOD and BAD. He is simply always there.
Til we meet again ;)
With great love,
Sister Engelbrecht