Hello everyone!
It's great to hear about y'all back home. I know I say that every
week but It's true! Sorry about not emailing yesterday.... we were
moving ALL day. So yes, we are now in a better apartment complex that is
gated, and it's also really nice (even though it's far from all our
investigators) because most of the ward lives in this new area. :) We
are about 15 minutes away from our other place... and I don't know the
address yet, but I will get it to y'all soon. BUT FOR NOW SEND MAIL TO
602 ELDRIDGE ROAD SUGAR LAND, TX 77478. NOT TO 8901 BRASEMONT! I won't
be able to get the mail from the old address anymore cause the church no
longer owns that apartment.
Mom, I bet that is a lot of work with the primary program coming
up! It'll be fun to have it on your birthday though! :) The ward is
preparing for the primary program here too and we've been able to get
some parts for some of our investigators who are primary age. :) It'll
be good! What is your theme? Is there anything I can do to help? I know
i'm a few states away, but I'd love to help in any way that I can.
Also, we were just at the dentist this morning for my companion and
I was talking with the Dentist there who is a member. He told me I
should keep thinking about Dental Hygeine... Now i'm super confused
cause I could see myself doing that too haha But I just wanted to ask
you what you thought it'd take to get into UVU's program? I'm applying
for BYU on the 17th of this month so do you think I should apply for UVU
while I'm at it? I'm stressed thinking about it, but I know I need to
decide soon.
Dad, I hear work is stressful. I'm so sorry! I will keep you in my
prayers. Whatever is supposed to happen will happen. The Lord has the
best plan so if we just have faith and trust there's no need to worry (I
need to learn that lesson too. ;))
So John L and Lorranie leave this week for Africa?! Tell them I said good luck! How long is their mission this time?
I've been doing good! This week was great with the work and we are continuing to see miracles. I will get to that in a minute...
So Billy Vermilyea is completely ready to be baptized. The only
thing holding him back is the bishop, the home teacher, and us all
wanted Brother Vermilyea to baptize him because we really feel like that
would bring the WHOLE family back to church. So we had several
appointments for Brother Vermilyea to meet with the Bishop over these
past several weeks that he ended up canceling last minute because of the
pressure.... AND everytime he said he would come to church he never
came...It was getting really discouraging so we started thinking
of other options, like having the home teacher baptize him since Brother
Vermilyea wasn't quite ready yet. But early last week we get a phone
call from President saying that the mission goal for baptisms for
September was 60 so we were doing a mission wide fast to reach that goal
by the weekend. We fasted, we got phone call after phone call from our
zone leaders, and distric leader trying to push the baptism for last
weekend. BUT Sister Moreno and I didn't feel like we should push it on
the family like that. We went to talk with them and we asked Billy who
he wanted to baptize him, and he said his dad. That was the answer we
needed to hear. Friday night we get a call from Bishop around 10:00
saying he just got out of the vermilyeas home and he was able to meet
with Brother Vermilyea and it went great!!!!! He told us how amazed at
how far that family has progressed the last few months and he told us
that Brother Vermilyea would be able to baptize Billy on the 13th IF he
comes to church the next 2 weeks. So we told the zone leaders and
district leader sorry but we felt it was more important for his dad to
baptize him than to just get a number for the month. After our zone
conference with Elder Ellis and the Relief Society meeting on saturday
talking about Christ being able to move mountains if we exercise our
faith in Him I knelt in prayer before church begging to let this
"mountain" be moved so Brother Vermilyea would attend church and be able
to baptize his son. As we sat in sacrament meeting we saw they weren't
there, I felt like my faith wasn't sufficient, and wondering what I
could have done more to get them there.... but right before the
sacrament started their WHOLE Family came in the doors! I felt like Alma
in the Book of Mormon when he explains his joy of bringing his
bretheren to the Lord. Even thinking about it now I get teary eyed
because THAT WAS A MIRACLE! Brother Vermilyea hasn't been to church in
months, and we've tried over and over and over again to get him there.
But it wasn't us that got him there, it was the Lord. I have seen
miracles on my mission.... everyday, but I have to say that is probably
one of the sweetest miracles to see a whole family come back to church
together. :)
We also met a new investigator this week named Charles. He is from
South Africa and is going through a rough time. We showed him the
restoration DVD in his native language, and when it was finished he said
he knows it is true! He came to church on sunday. :) He asked when he
can be baptized. We are so excited for him as well, but we are turning
him over to the elders to teach him because he is moving into their
area... :( But he'll still be in our ward!
AND I told you about Kristen (the less active who called us last
week to find out where the church was at) last week. We've been meeting
with her and her son who also came to church and her son wants to be
baptized. We talked with the primary president and bishop and they all
think it'd be awesome if we could do Billy and Kye's baptism on the same
day since they are close in age. We just hope we can get all the
lessons done in that time, but he's been to church twice now and LOVES
it!
I love this area! We have some great people that the Lord has
prepared to recieve the gospel. Please keep them in your prayers!
Especially as conference is coming up this weekend, we want all of our
investigators there! What are y'all doing for conference? I'm going to
miss your cinnamon rolls mom! Maybe I'll go buy some store bought ones
;) Wasn't the Relief Society meeting great? I loved how centered it was
on Jesus Christ and His Atonement. That seemed like the theme this year.
I can't wait to go with you next year mom!
On Friday last week we had Elder Ellis from the Quorum of the
Seventy come talk to our mission. It was really good! He focused mostly
on having the spirit with us at all times and constantly receiving and
maintaining revelation from the Lord. I really liked his talk and
Presidents, but the talks that were the answers to my prayers were their
wives... Sister Ashton and Sister Ellis. They both focused on enjoying
life and not letting one moment pass you by. Also, not stressing so much
about being EXACTLY who God needs me to be every moment, but rather
learn the principles along the way. I seem to stress so much about being
exactly on time, being exatly obedient, being completely sober minded,
and I forget that sometimes there are lessons that God is trying to
teach me that I'm pushing aside. Like Charity and Love, being a better
listener, having more Faith in Christs plan, and so much more. I told
sister moreno I was sorry for being so stressed all of the time about
being exact in everything, and she told me a scripture that I needed as
well... Gal 5:22-23 The qualities of the Spirit dont include stress,
impatience, headache, etc. AND THEN I got it reenforced one more time on
Saturday night at the relief society conference where a sister in our
ward was talking with us and she said she had served a mission. She told
us that if she could go back and change on thing it would be the way
she treated her companions and how she was too focused on being exactly
perfect in everything. Christ knows we can't be perfect, but He knows
when we are striving. I've got to work on this.... check up on me next
week and see how I'm doing with it ok?
I love you all so much! I hope your missionary work is going good, I want to hear about your experiences!
Erianne :)
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