Happy Thanksgiving!!

This Thanksgiving will be very different since I'm away from my family, which is one of the things I'm MOST grateful for. But It'll be great to be here serving too. We have plans to spend Thanksgiving with Noo and her son. It'll be a small Thanksgiving, but we'll probably get fed at every other house we visit that day too.... :) haha

 

James is SOOO cute! I was so excited to get the news on Thursday! I can't wait to hold him in person. :) And oh man I can't believe how grown up Dylan and Savannah are. Everyone is changing so much. It'll be fun to talk with everyone in just a few more weeks! When we get info on Christmas calls I'll let you know.

 

How is everyone doing? I hope that everyone is healthy and happy!

 

I'm doing great. This area we're serving in is seeing so many miracles it is incredible! I wish I had all day to write about them, but I'll try to squeeze all I can in.

 

First with Daniel! He is progressing so well. He came with us to a dinner appointment with a member on Friday night and in the lesson he asked us what day it was. We told him and he said, "14 more days!" We asked him till what and he said, "Till my baptism!" haha He is counting down the days till his baptism!!! AND last night we brought him to an investigator fireside with us where 2-3 people speak who just were baptized into the church. Well the first guy that spoke was pretty much telling Daniels life story to a T. I knew that man was asked to speak to help Daniel know this is the right thing to do. After the meeting everyone kept coming up and talking to Daniel and they'd say, "So are you investigating the church right now?" and he said to one man, No I'm pretting much done invesitgating, I'm just counting down the days to be a member!

 

It has seriously been a miracle watching his progress over the last 2 months of knowing him. From the first time we taught him when he was wasted, to now where he has the strongest desire to change his life and start new again. He said something last night that really helped Sister Moreno and I. He told us as he was talking to people in sunday school he was very impressed with how many people we had been visiting. He told us we'd never know the impact we're making on peoples lives here. I really appreciated that!

 

Next is Paula! She is doing so well too! She is the lady from Camaroon Africa that we met while we were going to visit another investigator. She told us that the Holy Ghost knew that we needed to meet her so she was outside at the exact moment we were walking by. From the first day we met her she has been very open, and she has been coming to church for about a month now. She loves all of the people in the ward here! Yesterday as we were sitting in Sacrament meeting we didn't see her and we got really worried cause we had seen her the night before and she said she would be there. As we were sitting in Sunday school she walked in about 30 minutes late and she leaned over to me and said, "I need to talk to you after church." I got really worried, but after church while she explained what happened I could hardly believe this was coming from an investigators mouth.  She explained to me that her car had broken down, she called a cab to pick her up but it never came and she waited for over an hour, so she decided to get on the bus. She told me that she knew that Satan was trying to get her to not go to church so she said I had to prove him wrong, and I am not going to let him get in the way of me getting baptized! Can you believe it?! She is such a strong willed woman! I am so grateful we have the opportunity to share the gospel with someone that has been completely prepared by the Lord.

She also came with us to the investigator fireside last night and she loved it. :) We are just trying to get her 2 young sons (12 and 17) to sit in the lessons with us so they can be baptized as a family. Pray for them if you will!

Oh! One more cool thing with Paula. As she was introducing herself in Relief society again yesterday she said, "I'm Paula and I'll be a member on December 8th!" :) We can't wait for her.

 

The Muslim couple we taught last week with a member of the mission presidency came to church as well! Their names are Gona and Sirvan. They are from Iran and we met them in our apartment complex. They are so nice!!! They loved church and they want to keep coming. After church we went to their apartment to teach them again. We taught the Restoration, but it is VERY VERY different teaching people who don't have a background of Jesus Christ. Can you believe not ever knowing your Savior? As we were teaching them yesterday I just felt so sad for all the people around the world who don't have a knowledge of Christ. But Gona and Sirvan accpeted our lesson and they want us to keep coming back. We got them a Book of Mormon in Persian so they can read it in their language. They don't know English very well yet since they have only been here for 1 month, but we're starting an english class for our investigators this week. :) I hope we can help them understand more.... especially at church.

 

Yesterday at church was sooo crazy busy. Sister Moreno and I had to split up and I sat by Gona and Sirvan in sacrament meeting and she sat back by some of the less actives we've been working with and also Daniel. haha It's fun trying to rest on the Sabbath when you're mind is going 1,000 miles an hour trying to think of everyone you need to talk to and things to do. But the busy sundays are the best sundays.... that's when you know it's good!

 

We also had Zone conference last week! It was good! We didn't end up having a general authority come, but it was still good! President Ashton had all of us missionaries prepare talks on, "Lock your Heart" by President Kimball. I guess there have been some missionaries having problems with that.... But Luckily Sister Moreno or I didn't have to speak. :) Sister Moreno told President that I wanted to go Spanish speaking, and he told her that he is going to talk with me about it.... I'm sooo nervous. It would be good to learn, but I really don't know much spanish. We'll see what happens.

 

The thing that stuck out to me the most at Zone conference was to not be stressed. I stress so much. Just about the small things like being exactly on time, doing things the way we are supposed to exactly, and so much more. So Sister Moreno has taught me a lot about relaxing and enjoying life. haha President said something I really liked, "Can you feel the Spirit when you're stressed?" And no, I can't... so I'm going to work on that!

 

Things are going well!! Please let me know if I can do anything for y'all!

 

I love you!

 

Sister Avery