Transfer 13 Week 2

"There can be miracles, when you believe. Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill. Who knows what miracles you can acheive? If you believe, somehow you will........"

That seems corny to type that out, but I'm jammin' to that song inside my mind right now. AND IT'S SO TRUE!!!!

Sooooooooo we're excited!!! Josie's baptism is this Saturday!!! She's such a darling old lady, so concerned about everything. And she's so excited. She broke down last week and cried about how stressed she's been lately because her daughter is homeless and there's nothing she could do except put it in the Lord's hands. She's such an example of faith and love. She truly is so kind. Everytime I think of her I think of how much Christ and Heavenly Father love and cherish her. She's legitamently amazing. And she feels she's still alive so she can bring her great-granddaughters into the gospel. Bless her soul. I also sang in church on Sunday and she came up to me and pointed at me, grinning, and said, "THAT is the song I want you to sing at my baptism." It was really sweet.

Thaddeus!! My heart is broken over him. He went from being 100% completely fully into the idea of baptism and changed completely in 12 hours. He doesn't want to give up smoking. He doesn't want to give up the ladies. He doesn't want to give up anything. He said, "God loves me no matter what." And we agreed with him, 100%. God is our Loving Heavenly Father who has giving us SOOO much. And all He asks is that we show our love back. How? John 14:15-- "If ye love me, keep my commandments." It just so happens that church attendance, prayer, scripture study, baptism, honoring our parents, amongst many others are little ways we can show our love. Thaddeus brought up him being bi-polar and that prohibiting his progress, and it really stumped me for a hot minute. I was thinking and praying, why would Heavenly Father put a burden on someone like being bi-polar or something else that would hinder their eternal progression when they're accountable? And then it hit me one day when we were at a lesson randomly--God (of course) would NEVER set any of us up to fail. He loves us far too much for that and aches to have us back in His arms. So he has provided things to help us to overcome these said obstacles. It is OUR CHOICE whether or not we use and implement these things. Thaddeus knows what's good for him. He knows what he needs to do. He is just choosing not to. And it hurts my heart because I can't make him do anything. I wonder how much our Heavenly Father hurts when we choose not to follow His plan, or choose not to obey. We have the blessings of heaven at our fingertips--all we have to do is reach out. But disobedience causes us to futher the distance between us and those blessings. Thank goodness there is repentance thanks to our Savior, Jesus Christ.

FRANKIE!!! He's doing AMAZING!!! He and his mom and sister read 11 chapters in 1 Nephi. He received an answer to his prayers and he KNOWS the church is true. We wanted to set him with a date last week, but it didn't work out that way. So this Friday we're setting him for October 8th. We also hope to set at least one more of our investigators for October 15. We have a couple in mind, but we have to pray more to make sure it's right. Chad agreed to take the lessons and he and his mom agreed to baptism!!! Their journey will be a little longer with financial bridges they have to cross in order to get to church on Sunday, but they are so genuine and sweet. I'm just beside myself with how lucky we are. Fiona we're also teaching now--she's from China!!! She has such a sweet way of asking questions and showing that she's listening. Maaaaaan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So lucky. She also agreed to baptism. In fact, I would say 6/10 of our investigators have agreed to baptism--so now it's just setting dates all around.

I love you all so much and am so thankful, again, for this time to learn and study the gospel. Last week I studied humility and was a little frightened to pray for it, but I did, and the Lord has provided opportunities to humble myself. I'm thankful for those experiences and I welcome more. Keep on keepin' on, y'all.


love love love,
sister mack