Bring On The Heat!!!

Hello my family!

How are y'all doing?! I think about you guys a lot and pray for you even more. Thank you so much for your emails and support! It sounds like everything is going good at home. Is there anything I can do for you guys? I can't believe Alayna is coming to TEXAS!!!!!!! She is going to LOVE it. Texas is a very proud state and you'll never forget where you're at when you're here cause the people will remind you. :) I wish she was coming to Houston, but if you can will you get her address for me? . I think it will help out a lot. I've been doing good health wise. I think y'alls prayers are helping :)

It is getting HOT! I am getting so nervous for July and August cause that is when people say it is the worst. But luckily we have a car that we can use that has AC. :) We get about 40 miles a day... which may seem like a lot, but they are used up pretty quickly. The goal is to get lots of members to come to lessons with us cause 1. then they can drive us so we save miles and 2. our investigators benefit from a "normal" persons testimony rather than just someone with a name badge. This week we got 9 member present lessons which was pretty good for opening a new area!  :) We were excited. We had a member that came out with us that is our age, her name is Rebekkah Fangupo and she just married a guy that is playing NFL football for the Texans here in Houston!!! Cool huh? And she told us that John Beck, the QB for BYU, is coming down here to play too so he may be in our ward. It's fun to have a NFL player in the ward. He is a solid member missionary. His wife was telling us that He never wanted to serve a mission. He just wanted to play football, and his dream was to play for USC. His mom literally drug him to the bishops office and shut him in. The bishop came out and told her that he had free agency and she couldn't make him serve. So she pulled this one on him, "I promise you if you serve a mission you will play for USC or someone better." So he left on a mission, and within the first 4 months he was converted to missionary work. After his mission he remembered his moms promise and he tried to get in contact with the coach at USC. He was no longer timid after his mission so he jumped the fence to the practice fields, went up to the coach, and said, "coach if you put me on your team I'll be the best player you've ever had." After that they let him practice with them and then he was offered a scholarship. Now he is in the NFL and shares his testimony to his teammates daily. :) I thought that was cool.

Anyways, so this week has been full of ups and downs but mostly just full of miracles... even on the days that were down days. I love the feeling of knowing that I am exactly where the Lord needs me to be. That has happened 4-5 times this week at least. We met 2-3 people (at different times) out on the streets as we were contacting who told us that they had just been praying to have direction in their lives. Throughout the whole lesson they kept saying to us, "I just can't believe this just happened and you showed up like this." Many of those people were brought to tears as we taught about the Restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and it's cool to see the countenances in their faces change. I can't believe the Lord trusts me enough to be an instrument in His hands.... Literally! It's awesome!

We had a lesson with one of our new investigators Heidi who we taught at the church. We taught her in the Chapel and the spirit was soooo strong. She knew it was true immediately, and she told us this has the missing piece that she didn't know was missing in her other church. She just has a hard time thinking about leaving her church where all her friends are. I hope she can take that step of faith to do it! She couldn't stop crying as she felt the spirit confirm the truth to her. She texted us this week and told us she can't wait to meet with us again cause she has something to tell us. We hope it's good news! She also has a son who is 10 and she told us over and over how much she wants for him to stay on a good path, cause she sees the kids at his school who aren't making good choices and she doesn't want him to get into that group. He is going to LOVE primary!

On Saturday we had a Tri-mission conference with the Houston, Houston East, and Houston South missions. Elder Johnson, CES commissioner, came and spoke to us. It was really good! On our way there our GPS wasn't working and we didn' tknow where to go. We quickly said a prayer after 10 minutes of trying to figure it out and not even kidding right when we said Amen it turned on. Prayer works! It just has to be done with Faith!

 Elder Johnson also took the time to shake each one of our hands. He spoke on the difference of the Light of Christ, the Holy Ghost, and the Gift of the Holy Ghost. As we as missionaries use all of those as we teach and testify the truth will be made known to our investigators. He also spoke on the agency of our investigators as we leave commitments for them to complete before we come again to teach them. He said a lot of times you'll feel discouraged, sad, or like you aren't a good missionary as they don't keep commitments, but he told us to remember that God gave each of His children the agency to choose. Like what mom was saying in her email to me. We have the agency to choose right or wrong. We can't make them, and we can't do it for them. I wish I could just read, pray, and come to church for my investigators sometimes cause I don't think I'd get as many cold sores waiting to hear back if they did it for themselves. ;) haha

I was also thinking this week as we had lots of people rescheduling appointments with us. It gets kinda frustrating when you have all your investigators in one day cancel appointments. Cause we know as missionaries that nothing is more important than the lessons we are teaching them. But Christ must have a lot of patience with me and many others because how many times do we "reschedule" the things we should be doing for Him for things of less importance? Nothing is more important than Gods work. DON'T RESCHEDULE YOUR APPOINTMENTS WITH HEAVENLY FATHER! He is a lot more patient than me, so I'm sure he doesn't get frustrated like I do, but I'm sure it makes Him sad for us.

Yesterday all of our plans fell through, but we've been praying for miracles in our area and we are definitely seeing them. We ended up meeting with 2 less active families, and having 2 investigator lessons. It was a miracle!

Things are going great! I love this area. :)

I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOO MUCH! I PRAY FOR YOU DAILY!

Erianne