Can we get an AMEN?
We are so excited. First and foremost, Elizabeth is being baptized on Saturday. That's just a few days from now. We've had dinner with them (there's currently snow at their house) for the last time prior to her baptism and we ate DELICIOUS ribs. We meet again with her Thursday to go over to the church building and try on baptism suits. Man, it's been too long since of these!!! The last baptism I've been able to be a part of was February 12. But the Lord has been generous with opportunites to teach and by July we should have 4 baptisms. We haven't found lucky number 4 YET, but he or she definitely out there, waiting to receive the restored truth. We'll find 'em :o)
And it's also May month of Miracles. We've been able to witness so many!!! My comp made a brilliant suggestion that we tt miracles that we've been able to witness daily. That's been a cool thing to do--it helps us to be aware of how much the Lord is involved in this work.
Ps, we got to go to the Reno Temple today. It was absolutely beautiful and the clouds were beautiful. It was awesome. I love the temple and feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to go while I'm a missionary. Everyone is so nice there and they just love the missionaries so much!! It's such a beautiful place.
Calvin is still doing well. He's such an amazing young man. We had an awesome lesson last week where everyone told Calvin how important he was to them. It was hard to keep my emotions under control as I told him how much I cared about him. It's amazing how you just love these people with every fiber of your being. It's a little scary when you first realize how much of your heart you're giving away, but in the end it is more than worth it. This is the most satisfying work, outside raising children probably, that cossibly exist. Mainly because in a way these folks are my children. I love this work so much. Every day that slips by my fingers I wonder if I did my best that day. And as I climb into bed utterly exhausted, I know the Lord has accepted my days work. I know as my time is getting shorter how important it is to give the Lord the heart and a willing mind. Crazy. Only 5 months left.
JACQUI holy night. Can I just tell y'all how amazing this beautiful woman is???? She texts us today asking if we have anymore church movies. "Yes of course, why? Do you want to watch more?" Was my simple response. "Yeah! I went to the Mormon book store today but a lot of the movies were too expensive...and I doubt they have them in redbox :)" WHAT?! She went to the "Mormon Book Store" to look at church movies?! Amazing. BUT IT DOESNT END THERE!!! "I may not have bought any movies, but I did buy a $60 bible!" ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? She has already purchased scriptures??? ALL ON HER OWN INITIATIVE!!! I am soooo stoked she is in our lives!!! I want one more transfer in Reno so I can witness the miracle of her baptism. We're going to talk about a date with her on Saturday when she's feeding us :o). She and her little girl are just so amazing. I never want to leave my mission!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But I know Mom wouldn't be very pleased.... :o)
Allow me to tell y'all now about a sweet old lady who likes us to call her "Oma." She's so fabulous. She's a heavy smoker and loves her coffee, but loves our visits and the thoughts we share with her about the gospel. She was baptized way back when with the dinosaurs (jk) in Salt Lake and loves to tell us stories....including how her 22 year-old cat died. One evening she was trying to call her cat inside, to no avail. "Fine you stubborn fool," she said to the cat, closing him outside for the night and trudging to her bed. Around 2:30am she hears his woeful cries and she decides to resist his calls...until she heard some rustling in her front yard. She decided to check things out...and what does she see when she opens her front door in Reno, NV? A black panther's rear end!! She said, "oh!" and apparently the black panther got spooked, grabbed her old cat in its mouth and took off running. One of our favorite stories she tells us...hahaha. She did say the black panther escaped from Washoe Valley where a man had them as pets. Hahaha...oh man. We also have been weeding her yard a lot lately and some Elders who were helping us found an old horse or really large man's bone. It was hilarious.
I also learned a lot from the weeding experience. Oma's yard was a reflection of her life. It was full of weeds and needed a good effort put forth to remove the weeds. She has fears, addictions, and worries that rule her life in such a way where there isn't really room for joy (which could represent flowers or other nice shrubbery). So we, the missionaries, come over and try to help her pick some weeds. We try to teach her how to pick weeds on her own (by reading scriptures or praying or coming to church). And no matter how many weeds we remove, it is not effective if she doesn't remove some on her own while we're not there. And then she would need to call the ultimate weed killer--the Atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the only one that can permanently remove the weeds from our life. And the best part of the Atonement is that it NEVER runs out! We can always call upon it when another weed pops up in our life. What a beautiful thing it is. But it all has to be our doing--our reaching out to Him.
I'm sorry if that analogy doesn't make sense...but it worked in my mind. I love this gospel so much. I long for my friends and family to really take hold of it and learn of their great potentials. We all have such great things that lie in store for us--if we seek them out.
Love y'all. Be good, do work, and feed a missionary :o)
love love love,
Sister Mack
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