Birthday Week

This week things were good. We had a few amazing miracles! This last Thursday we received three media referrals from Church Headquarters and we went to contact them. We got to the first house and it looked like no one was home. I had just read about media referrals earlier that day in personal study and had remembered that it had said to always knock around. It also mentioned that the Lord has led you to that area for a reason, so we are to ask the entire household/street if they are interested. We knocked on the door and a very small woman answered the door. We asked for the name of the referral, but they were not home. The woman who answered starts crying and she then explains to us that she had been praying to see if God knew who she was and if He was there for her, and when she had ended we knocked on the door! It was amazing! You always hear about these kinds of stories, but I never thought that I would experience a miracle like this. Also get this, we were supposed to have received the media referral two weeks ago, but we got it that day. It is amazing how present the Lord is in our lives. It astounds me that He knows us so well and that He cares enough about us to send us little miracles. Hopefully everything will work out!

Later that day we went to see another media referral. She wasn't home, but as we were walking to our car we say a car full of young college aged guys and one of them got out and yelled "sisters!" We stopped and talked to him, it turns out that he is from Oregon and his two best friends are Mormon.  He is going to school here to play baseball, but he knows a lot of missionaries. He actually gets weekly reading assignments in the Book of Mormon from one of his friend's dad. It was crazy! We asked him why he wasn't a member already and he said that he was "having some fun" right now. We told him when/where church was and we hope that one day he can understand the importance of the gospel.

So we went to PF Chang's for lunch and it was delicious! I also found some great stuff for not so much money at Ross! It was great! Thank you so much for the money that you put into my account! So funny story, Grandma Christensen sent me a money order check for $20 and it was from Wells Fargo, so we had to go there to cash it. It took seriously 30 minutes to get a stupid check cashed. They made me come into the bank and provide two forms of ID and put my finger print on the check and then I had to wait in the branch manager's office where he asked me who I banked with, and why I wasn't banking with Wells, and why they were a good option, blah, blah, blah..... It was so complicated! I can't believe that they get customers, because they were so pushy and ridiculous, it almost wasn't worth it to cash the darn check. I am so glad that I don't have to deal with them anymore.

Anyway, we also had a crazy day at church yesterday. Our entire bishopric was out of town and it was a disaster. We had two five minute talks and then one 30 minute talk. It was probably the worst sacrament meeting I have ever seen. And now I know why we have bishoprics. I also was asked last minute to teach Relief Society and that was intimidating. We hardly had anyone in our ward because of spring break, but it ended up going well.

Thanks for all that you have done for me! I really appreciate it! I love you all! Also I should be sending a few more pictures today. Oh and also I haven't been posting a lot on Facebook because I am trying to start a blog about Jesus and so I haven't had enough time to post on Facebook. 

We have had a lot of experiences this week that were led by the Spirit. It is funny to me that the Spirit speaks so subtly to us, that sometimes we don't realize that it was him until after the fact. That has happened to me a lot this week. It is very reassuring to know that I am being led and guided by the Spirit, I only wish that I could recognize it at the moment it is happening, but I think everyone has (no matter how old) is constantly working on that.

This week we also did a service project on Saturday at the Ft. Caroline national monument. It is this very small French fort, but it was beautiful. While we were picking up trash we saw DOLPHINS in the river!!!! It was awesome! I didn't even know that dolphins could go in rivers. We also had a great time trying to track down the elders who had crossed through a flooded trail to go pick up trash. We went "swimming" in the swamp to go get them, it was gross!

So a few weeks ago I forgot to mention this lesson that we had, had that really humbled me. We went to this house in a trailer park (which is a gated trailer park, gated, really?). The trailer was a disaster. There was cockroaches crawling everywhere and nothing was clean. There was a little black boy who couldn't have been more than two or three who was there with his grandmother. It was so sad to see that this family was living in such terrible circumstances. It made me think of how much we take for granted. People don't realize that there are others out there with nothing. They live in pitiful circumstances and the most heart-wrenching fact is that they don't know any other way of living. All they know is filth and it is so sad. I am so very grateful for the way that I was raised and the fact that my home was clean. I even take that for granted. So thank you mom and dad for giving a a good, healthy, and clean home to live in.

Another Crazy week

 It was so cold here and it was only 47 degrees. I am going to freeze when I get home. 

So this week was again crazy (I need to come up with a better word to describe the madness of the mission). We had president interviews, zone meeting, found a few new investigators (we call them gators), and set a few baptismal dates! It has been a very successful week! We have been working with a family and the Mom and son are looking forward to being baptized on, get this, the 6th of April right after general conference! It will be a great way to start off April! General Conference and a baptism all in one weekend. It has been amazing to see the members of this ward help fellowship them. They have all literally brought them into the ward. They are definitely not joining for the missionaries, but they are joining because of the ward and that is how it should be. It is son nice to finally have a ward who understands the importance of fellow-shipping our investigators.

We also had president interviews this week. It was so nice to go in and have President tell me that I am doing good and that he was very grateful for the work that I had been doing. I really needed to hear that. I sometimes second guess if I am doing all that I can, or that I am making a difference. It is so nice to have a reassurance that I am doing what I am supposed to.  He told me that he and The Lord recognizes that I am doing well and he told me to give myself a pat on the back. It really helped me feel that I am doing what The Lord has asked.

We also had zone meeting this week and the zone leaders told us that President Craig has asked that each of us come up with 16 stones (like the Brother of Jared) to place before The Lord. These stones represent things that we will or will not do that will help is to be more focused and involved in the work. It has been interesting to ponder upon the things that I feel like I need to work on to put before The Lord so that I can be a better instrument in His hands. There have been A TON of miracles already from doing this and I am sure that there are more to come.

Today we are going to downtown Jacksonville! It will be cool, I don't really know what to expect, but there should be some great picture taking opportunities. I am so excited and that I can do fun things on P-day it really helps the week go on a whole lot faster and better!  . Spring is definitely in the air! I love it, everything is finally a pretty green again!