Transfer 4 Week 1

So this sounds really corny, but I think Jordan will appreciate the Sponge Bob song quote (Jordan, sing it for Mom and Dad when they ask) “the best day everrrr!” Man I’m a nerd. But really, this week has been the flippin BEST WEEK EVER!!!!
Ah, before I begin the huge deal stuff—Elder Gamblin, the brownie lesson was actually in relation to lesson 3. I miss quoted myself. For POS we have little paper cut outs and I use analogies like cars or video games or movies and stuff—whatever I can use to relate it to the investigator. But I’ll give you the details on how I applied it to lesson 3!! :o) I would never be brilliant enough to think of this on my own, it just popped in my head, so I’m assuming that the Spirit put it there, because surely I did not. We just take brownie mix and say the following (ish): First what do we need? We need the brownie pan. Because even if we have all the ingredients, nothing will happen. You’ll try to cook the brownies and what happens? It ends up making a huge mess in the oven because the brownie mix didn’t have anything holding it. Just like we cannot do anything if we don’t have faith. So faith is the brownie pan (we use a couple scriptures to explain faith, like Alma 32:21, 2Nephi 26:13, etc etc). What do we need next? We need EGGS!! So eggs are repentance—we need repentance, just like faith. Next comes the brownie mix—because brownies wouldn’t be brownies without the brownie mix!! Brownie mix=baptism. You have nothing, you cannot progress, without baptism. It’s essential—truly. In order for us to progress in our Father’s kingdom, we MUST be baptized. In order for us to make brownies, we MUST have brownie mix. Next is oil and water—that equals the Holy Ghost. You must be baptized by water AND fire. And last but not least is the oven—aka Enduring to the End. We have to wait all 30 minutes of those brownies baking in order for us to get the final product—our Eternal Life in the presence of our Father and Jesus Christ—aka brownies. We have to endure to the end. And then we’d talk about how we repeat each of those steps weekly, if not daily. So that’s it in a nut shell!! Oh, and I sent you a letter today. Get excited!!

On to the BEST WEEK EVER!!!! Like for real, legit, whatevsky. Amazing. Honestly I don’t really remember everything that happened leading up to Saturday, but on that day I was able to witness the most amazing baptism of the existence of the world. Felicia, Sam, and Tyler Nilson all entered the waters of baptism. Talk about dream come true. Everything was absolutely perfect. The day before Felicia surprised us and bought us both new outfits to thank us, and then took us to dinner. She is so amazing. And her SONS!!! I am obsessed with this family like LEGIT!!! They are so amazing it’s ridiculous.
So the baptismal service started at 11:00am in the Stake Center. We set out 75 chairs, just in case. We were only aiming for 50ish to attend, but just in case, we planned for 75. Guess how many we had in there? 87!!!! AND there were 15ish people outside waiting to congratulate Felicia and the boys. This ward truly embraced the efforts of the missionaries and supported this family. We opened the program by singing The Star Spangled Banner (per Sammy’s request—it was the only song he knows in the hymn book well and he wanted us to sing it). There was a great talk by Brother Banks, a scout leader of Sam’s, and then I sang I am a Child of God with Elder Kiaha playing the ukulele. I sat down, super excited for what was happening next. First Felicia, then Tyler, and lastly Sam, were all baptized. It was the most rewarding thing I have ever witnessed. And to know that I was only a tool—only a mouthpiece for the Lord—is so humbling. We do nothing without Him. He is the light and life of this work. The sooner we realize this and embrace it, the better missionaries we will be. But during the baptism I couldn’t stop shaking. This baptism is one I will NEVER forget. I’m super excited because Johnny and Felicia plan on being married in the temple. I only hope and pray that I’ll be somewhere nearby so that if they do so while I’m on my mission I can go, and if they do so after my mission I can go. I wouldn’t miss the event for anything in the whole world. This little family has become my family. And their confirmations went really well. Felicia wanted to make sure that everyone from Volleyball was there in her circle :o). It was really sweet too, because Jared Walker, son of the folks we used to live with, brought the boys some ties from Russia for them to have because in his mission it was tradition for the Elders to give investigators ties. The boys wore their new ties to church on Sunday for the confirmation. Oh, Sister Johnson and I also spoke on Sunday (again) in the Sierra Vista ward. We were planning on just using the talks that we had given just a couple weeks earlier, but then BAM we had cut down our talks. I cut my 30 minute talk down the 10 minutes, but really I was praying real hard and then I changed my talk completely. I used 2 scriptures from my first talk and put 2 new scriptures in, tying in my thoughts just BARELY!!! But I know I was guided by the spirit--I would have NEVER thought of tying those particular scriptures together, but it worked. I was also able to tie in Felicia and her family into the talk, and I saw Felicia cry. It could have been my own tears blurring my vision though, but I'm pretty sure she was joining in on the tear-fest.
This work is truly magnificent. I can’t get over it. I can’t get over that I’m actually HERE serving a mission. A year ago I was fighting it so bad. I didn’t want to go. I had every intention of graduating and moving to New York or LA to pursue whatever career I could in theatre. How selfish was I back then!!!!! I am SO grateful that I’ve had this amazing opportunity to serve, and SO grateful that the Lord called me to serve Him. Every day I learn something new about something, and it’s incredible.
Oh, and both Sister Johnson and I will be staying in this area!! That means I’ll hit my 6 month mark here with her. MAN!!! How time flies!!! Next Monday I’ll have been away from home for 5 months!!! That’s almost ½ a year!!!!! Beyond crazy. Holy cow. Oh, so that means y’all can write me at this address:
9886 Delta Lake Ct
Las Vegas, NV 89148
We know we are staying together because there is still a lot of work for us to do. So far she and I have had 5 baptisms together. SO CRAZY!!! I feel like that's a million because I didn't have a goal. I didn't want a baptismal goal. But I know as long as we work hard, keep the mission rules, and pray, we will be blessed. We just need to turn our potential investigators into REAL investigators, because right now our teaching pool is just a tad bit dry. But we have very strong potentials and just received a couple referrals, so hopefully with the Lord on our side the referrals will recognize us as servants of Him and let us in :o).
Anyway, I love you all and I love this gospel. Stay strong and good and CTR and all that jazz :o)

Love love LOVE LOVE,
Sister Mack
Moroni 7:41