GRATITUDE November 19, 2018

Wow! It's been a wonderful week! So much has happened it's so great!

It started with Elder Kopischke coming to our mission! We had an AMAZING conference and all of my companions that are still out were there! So that was an awesome bonus. But the things he taught us were so great! He really made me think about what I desire in my own personal mission. I loved it. He was a mission president in Germany which is where he us from and he had so many inspiring stories that he shared with us. We talked about having an island (meaning a dream) to row towards. Without the island we have no purpose, no vision. Something he said going along with this was " Where there is no vision, the people perish" then he flipped it around, "Where there is a vision, people flourish." I thought that was very neat! Because having a vision gives us a purpose and something to work towards. It makes things happen, rather than just floating around wasting time because you dont know where to go. He also did a special MLC with the leaders in the mission and I was very grateful to be a part of that. He said something that really stood out to me. He said, "Missionaries cannot fear doing something wrong, they have the right. But you need to correct them in a loving way." I LOVE this! Because I think a lot of times we do fear failure. It's not something we want to happen. But it is our right to have it. It helps us learn and grow and become better in the future. Now, I dont think he meant go do something wrong because it's your right. Although that is technically true because of our agency. He meant it in a way that if we end up doing something wrong. We should learn from it. We have the right to mess up and improve. So many good things!

A miracle that happened this week was we tried something new and went service tracting. Meaning, we wore our pants and took rakes with us and knocked on doors asking if we could do service for them. We knocked on the first door, no answer. We knocked on the second door and the lady was like, "for free??" And then shes like "go for it!" He husband came out and said he had no words to say. So we started raking the leaves and it was awesome being able to serve. However, it was a bigger task than we expected so we had to ask if we could come by the next day and he said yes. He started to open up and tell us all about his life. This man was in a motorcycle accident not too long ago and was paralyzed from the neck down. He has slowly been able to walk again but can't move his left arm or feel his legs. He called us his little angels who came to help. We had no idea when we first got there. But to see how much this act of service blessed him made us feel so much love. We told him God has a plan for him and that is why he is still here. We are going back tomorrow to start teaching him! It was so amazing to see how serving others softens their hearts, but also to see how the Lord directs us to where we need to be.

JOYCE got baptized this week!! It was a wonderful experience to be there for Joyce. She has been meeting with the sisters for a long time and its been hard to make her baptism date official but it all worked out at the right time. She has had a very hard life with many ups and downs and bad experiences that keep happening, but she has such a strong sweet testimony. She knows that the gospel will bless her and her son so much. It was amazing as well because we had our recent concert baptize her and he also baptized her son a few weeks before. This branch is full of amazing people and we are so close to becoming a ward! Haha

Other fun news, we learned how to make pumpkin rolls, giant service giving out turkeys, waking up from a dream laughing, meeting a girl with green hair, elders took selfies on my phone, talking to a nice man named grumpy, seeing all my wonderful companions and eating bluebell ice cream.

It's been a wonderful week full of many things I am grateful for! I hope you all can stop and think this week about all the blessings and things that Heavenly Father has given you that you are grateful for. Its that time of year!! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! I hope you have a TURKEYTASTIC week! Thank you for all the love and support!