July 23, 2012

Hello Everyone!! We had an incredible week! I dont know where to begin! We were blessed with a lot of miracles this week... Well first miracle, we found out that the misson gets to go to an Orioles game on august 10th! I guess thats not really a miracle, but it is to me. I love petersburg, but im dying for some civilization. Not to mention I love baseball, so its a huge blessing in my eyes. Im pretty excited. Second, I was able to say a prayer and teach part of a lesson in sign language! I actually dont think i've talked about our deaf investigator in my mass email yet. So we're teaching this really sweet older woman named Reva. Sister Gritis knows a little bit of sign, enough to teach with atleast. Its been kind of a struggle, but were able to understand each other. Sister Gritis has been teaching me signs here and there throughout the day. The Lord has definitely been helping us with that. I always struggled to learn other languages in school, but sign has come a little easier. Its amazing the gifts that God blesses his missionaries with when they need them to teach! We also started teaching a new family who lives on celestial drive. Needless to say, they're pretty golden! Tuesday afternoon after we had stopped at a gas station to see if they had any good maps of the area because we have yet to find one. So while we were looking very confusedly at a map, this guy comes over and asks if we needed directions. We explained we were missionaries an why we needed a map, etc, etc. He was really intrigued by what we do, so we exchanged numbers and he said he'd be interested in meeting with us sometime, but wouldnt committ to a day or time. His name is Trevis btw. He's an emt in the area. So sister gritis and I didnt think too much about the exchange. Lots of people tell us they'd be interested in meeting with us, but they never do. So a few days pass, friday rolls around and as were out driving a huge storm rolls in and it starts dumping rain on us. I couldnt see two feet in front of the car, so we decided to pull over and make some phone calls until the storm cleared up. As we were flipping through our planner seeing who we could call and try to set up appoinments with, sister gritis suggested that we call Trevis. So we did, and amazingly, he picked up his phone and told us he wanted to meet on sunday! So yesterday we taught Trevis, and neither of us expected how prepared he was. Trevis grew up methodist and has attended several churches throughout his life, but he said none of them ever felt right to him. He told us that somewhere in his 20's, he gave up on religion because he was tired searching and finding nothing but a lot of hipocritical preachers. In the last few weeks, lots of things have been happening in his life, lots of miracles he feels he cant ignore. He's felt like for the last little while God has been nudging him to seek for truth again. So after we met trevis and gave him a mormon.org card, he spent some time researching the church. He told us that as he read about joseph smith's experience, he felt like that was just like him. He told us " I felt like there was this little guy on my shoulder and I felt something I hadnt felt in a long time." Ha! obviously he was feeling the spirit, he just wasnt quite sure how to describe it. So on friday, after looking at all this stuff on mormon.org, trevis had pulled out our number and was just about to call us when we called him. Freak rainstorm? Definitely not. The lord had it all planned out. They're arent coincidences in missionary work. Trevis realizes that none of this was coincidence either. But setting all that aside even, It was one of the most powerful lessons Ive ever had. The spirit was so incredibly strong because he was prepared, he was ready to accept it. He wants to be baptized next month. I cant even describe it well enough in words. I just know that the restored gospel is true. After lessons like that, I cant deny it. I love this work! I couldnt ever say enough how much I love being a missionary! I dont know how I became so blessed to have the chance to serve a mission. Have a great week everyone. I love you all! Sister Walker