Monday, October 6, 2014

September 22, 2014 -- Grateful in Any Circumstance

Rose is a member of our ward.  She's 89! 
Hello family!!   
Hope you all had a great week!  Happy birthday mom!!  Everyone in my ward knows it was your birthday cause I kept on telling them! 
Well this week was up and down.  
The ups first.  We taught another lesson to Jafet, a young man who's 18, and he did the reading assignment (holla!) and he said there was one verse that stood out to him.  He showed us the verse and it said, "Repent and be baptized".  At this point we had not even mentioned baptism!  Another cool experience has been working with the Christensen family - a less-active couple.  Sister Christensen attended with the ward to the Nashville temple on Saturday, and she is all back into the church now.  She was SO excited about her experience at the temple!  It was great!  One of the hardest things about being here is testifying to people every single day of the blessings of temples, and knowing firsthand of them, yet not having the chance to attend!  It has changed my view on the importance of temples and the appreciation we should have for them! I am SO excited to go to the temple in the future! 
Anywho, remember that guy who payed for our meal when we went out to eat a while ago with one of our investigators? Well on Tuesday we dropped by Wendys to grab some dinner on the go, and he was there again.  We talked for a minute, his name is Jim, and he said he'd be interested in knowing what it is that we teach.  We taught him right there and at the end he prayed in the Wendys, a very spiritual prayer!  So that was the hand of the Lord for sure, hopefully we can bring many people to help fellowship him. 
  We also taught a man and his son, this man Jorge lost his wife years ago, and so we (well, I, Hermana Guevara is still coming on her spanish)...taught him the Plan of Salvation.  Despite our cheesy paper-creation to explain it and my broken spanish, he and his son felt the spirit strongly.  As he talked about being with his family forever, tears started coming to his eyes. It is moments like this that make it all worth it!  
 The Adversary just really doesn't want our ward to baptize, though!  We had Celeste and the elders had a girl named Brianna scheduled for this Sunday, and we were all going to travel to Maryville to use their font.  On Celeste we found out her dad couldn't make it on Sunday so he wanted to reschedule, and on Sunday morning, Brianna's family let the elders know the couldn't make it so both were re-scheduled!!  But we've rescheduled Celeste's for October 1st, a Wednesday...and are praying very hard for it!
We also got the chance this week to help a sister in the ward who just had a new baby, to just go over and scrub her toilets and clean her bathroom.  I am all about service, y'all,.  And the greatest service we can do to anyone is letting them know of the glorious news of the Restoration! 
Yesterday I got to go play violin at the rest home, one of my favorite things because the ladies are so so sweet.  We also had dinner with a wonderful family, and had an amazing deep gospel discussion which always makes me feel so much stronger afterward.  
So anyway despite hard moments I am truly loving every minute here in Sevierville, and being grateful in every circumstance.  It makes me a happier person and missionary.  
I know that Jesus Christ leads this church. I know that we can all be cleansed through Jesus Christ and his Atonement!  I am so grateful for y'all, for the people of Tennessee, for living prophets.  Which reminds me, let the General conference countdown begin!! 
Love, Hermana Collier 
OK now for the pics explanation...these occurred with   WE ARE BEST FRIENDS.


Rose  has us wear japanese slippers in her house so as to prevent scuffs on her floor.

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