Well, to all you losers who didn't remember, my birthday was on Saturday, January 30. I am officially 20.
It was actually great! We had so much fun! We originally planned to go to the Temple mission date for Recent Converts, but our recent converts cancelled. We scrambled to find things to do Friday night. We actually visited a woman we talked to about a month ago. She is hard to make an appointment with, so we drop in when her car is home. In our visit this Friday we talked for a long time. We reminded her that she is a daughter of God. She cried. She told us she wanted to come to church so we figured out all the details to help her get there. We offered to take her on a tour of the church on Saturday before. She agreed so we set it up. On Saturday we had the Relief Society president come with us. It was awesome. When the tour was over, we invited her to be baptized and pray about March 12 for that to happen. She accepted/agreed! She seemed so excited! Unfortunately, she couldn't make it to church, but we are still trying (:
For my birthday, Sister Price decorated my study space and the bathroom mirror. Elder Kidd and Thompson called to say Happy birthday and asked if we wanted donuts. There are these amazing donuts made by the large population of Amish folk in Elkhart county. Some people call them "Amish crack donuts". They are to die for! The Oesterle's (the first family we met) had us for homemade pizza and ice cream. Their kids wanted to play party games too, so we did! It was really fun! Then we went the Urednick's home. They totally forgot so we just visited. When we were walking out we mentioned that I am a year older today. Sister Urednick freaked out! She was so upset we hadn't reminded them. So she demanded that we come over for cake and ice cream Sunday night. Of course we did. It was the best white cake I've ever had. It was so much fun too!
Okay, the spiritual message for the week. I was reading a general conference talk by Elder James B Martino. It's from October. It's titled "Turn to Him and Answers Will Come" It's such an amazing talk. READ IT! It talks about his conversion story. I love conversion stories. They are so uplifting and inspiring. The truth is though, we don't have to be a first generation convert to have a conversion story. We all have or can have a conversion story of our own. He talks about how stories in the scriptures show how choices make or break a persons conversion. He says "Their choices allowed them access to potentially faith-building experiences." Our choices are so important. The world is crazy right now, but we have the ability and resources to access the Savior and his power of the Atonement. There is always room to improve and always love from Christ to fix our mistakes. He will never turn away from us. We are so beloved by him and Heavenly Father. Don't waste time trying to figure it out on your own. Rely on the Savior to develop that faith and find the "faith-building experience".
I love you all! Please read this talk! Its so amazing! Thanks for all the birthday wishes! I'm so grateful for a bunch of cool people in my life!
Love,
Sister Mondragon <3
It was actually great! We had so much fun! We originally planned to go to the Temple mission date for Recent Converts, but our recent converts cancelled. We scrambled to find things to do Friday night. We actually visited a woman we talked to about a month ago. She is hard to make an appointment with, so we drop in when her car is home. In our visit this Friday we talked for a long time. We reminded her that she is a daughter of God. She cried. She told us she wanted to come to church so we figured out all the details to help her get there. We offered to take her on a tour of the church on Saturday before. She agreed so we set it up. On Saturday we had the Relief Society president come with us. It was awesome. When the tour was over, we invited her to be baptized and pray about March 12 for that to happen. She accepted/agreed! She seemed so excited! Unfortunately, she couldn't make it to church, but we are still trying (:
For my birthday, Sister Price decorated my study space and the bathroom mirror. Elder Kidd and Thompson called to say Happy birthday and asked if we wanted donuts. There are these amazing donuts made by the large population of Amish folk in Elkhart county. Some people call them "Amish crack donuts". They are to die for! The Oesterle's (the first family we met) had us for homemade pizza and ice cream. Their kids wanted to play party games too, so we did! It was really fun! Then we went the Urednick's home. They totally forgot so we just visited. When we were walking out we mentioned that I am a year older today. Sister Urednick freaked out! She was so upset we hadn't reminded them. So she demanded that we come over for cake and ice cream Sunday night. Of course we did. It was the best white cake I've ever had. It was so much fun too!
Okay, the spiritual message for the week. I was reading a general conference talk by Elder James B Martino. It's from October. It's titled "Turn to Him and Answers Will Come" It's such an amazing talk. READ IT! It talks about his conversion story. I love conversion stories. They are so uplifting and inspiring. The truth is though, we don't have to be a first generation convert to have a conversion story. We all have or can have a conversion story of our own. He talks about how stories in the scriptures show how choices make or break a persons conversion. He says "Their choices allowed them access to potentially faith-building experiences." Our choices are so important. The world is crazy right now, but we have the ability and resources to access the Savior and his power of the Atonement. There is always room to improve and always love from Christ to fix our mistakes. He will never turn away from us. We are so beloved by him and Heavenly Father. Don't waste time trying to figure it out on your own. Rely on the Savior to develop that faith and find the "faith-building experience".
I love you all! Please read this talk! Its so amazing! Thanks for all the birthday wishes! I'm so grateful for a bunch of cool people in my life!
Love,
Sister Mondragon <3