Meanwhile.... in Ames,

1-26-15

Hope all is well with Sundance happening and Ben & Lexi are enjoying their snow. 

Meanwhile in Iowa.....IT'S SO WARM!!!!!!

Spend SO MUCH TIME away from my area this week. 26 hour "vacation" to MLC in Iowa City and then 8 hour trips for three days in a row to all the Zone Trainings we cover. I T WAS THE GREATEST THING EVER! I was so spritually exhausted by the end of the week (remember when Lehi falls onto his bed because his mind was just blown because he saw all the inhabitants of the earth ever?) because the Spirit was just so clear in my head and heart and it was an amazing thing to experience. I could feel how imperfect I am and yet how strongly the Lord wanted to use me as His instrument. So incredible. 

Meanwhile in Ames...NO ONE WAS DOING MISSIONARY WORK! hahahahaha

This week we had like 4 lessons with 2 families. It was nuts to feel like so much had happened since last time we saw them, but that I was so happy seeing them again that I wanted to talk way more! 

F--- was one of those. She is great. We have taught her just about all that she is "required" to know before baptism. She expressed that she wanted to know so much more. It has been cool to watch the Spirit work on her and see her desire to read the Book of Mormon just hit her unceasingly. She has this crave for it and she doesn't really know why. We asked her if she had noticed a difference in her life since started to learn about the church and she said: "Ever since I've started learning, I have felt calmer and less anxious in life." It was a sweet moment. 

Meanwhile in our studies.....WE ARE FREAKING HOW TO KNOW HOW TO HELP HER FEEL MORE CONFIDENT ABOUT IT. hahahaha she is slowly building the confidence about needing to be baptized just from thinking and studying. it's awesome. thank you for the prayer!

The other family we saw was the J----s. Sister J--- had a WAY hard childhood and now is a single mom with kids and grandkids all OVER the place in her house. Her son just got married to a Lutheran and she said she wanted to be baptized before I got here.......but we haven't been able to be consistent with her since. She works Sundays and is way "too busy" to read. We talked after we saw her the first time and basically decided that we couldn't do much to help her if she wouldn't try at all to learn. We went over again Sunday night and had a KILLER lesson about the Tree of Life and everyone was in on the lesson and we were like.......um.......now what?

Meanwhile in the J--- home......MIRACLES ARE HAPPENING. so so so slowly. but they are happening. you just got to LOOK!

Also: happiest tender mercy ever: so the day of J---- baptism he moved to Des Moines with his aunt and grandma. He knew all along that he didn't have the money to move back to ISU for another semester but was trying really hard so he didn't tell us. He told us he would be back last week and still wasn't back so we text him and he told us he would not be able to afford to come back. We were SSSSOOOOOO SAD! He is one of my favorite parts of my whole mission so we were just trying except that he wouldn't be coming back. Then he texts us a few days later saying "just kidding, I'm coming back." Turns out he had been praying HARD CORE because he felt like he needed to be back at ISU but saw no way to make that happen. Then he said he felt inspired to read his scriptures and then to call this one associate of this organization and she realized that his financial aid hadn't gone through and she fixed it. He is now currently paying tithing on those funds and back and running at ISU. He is the most incredible person EVER. SO MUCH FAITH!!!!!!

Meanwhile Sister Barney and Sister Sumsion are SSSSSOOOOOOOOO happy to have him back!

Good week! Lovin' life! Can't wait to see my fam again! Love you guys so much!

-Sister Chloe' Michelle