Be Someone Who Is Going Somewhere

Fermin and us at church yesterday!! look!! he's totally wearing a tie!!

Hello family!!!!  I hope you had an amazing Thanksgiving!  We sure did here in Chamblee, Georgia!  So we did have a dinner appointment scheduled but then they realized they signed up on Thanksgiving so we rescheduled with that familia.  but Hermana Bringhurst's mommy supplied us with a very nice Thanksgiving meal!  Thank you momma Bringhurst!  So we ate turkey(precooked from the deli), potatoes and gravy, veggies, rolls, stuffing, cookie salad, spinach con cheese, chips, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and lots of other good stuff im probably missing!!  Just like home, but without the fam.  But we got 2 hours for dinner so we had so much fun cooking together as a companionship and eating together in our little kitchen!  it was so perfect!!! :) what an amazing day!  and we spent the whole dinner going around in a circle telling one another what we are thankful for!  and just like the south there was alot of "amen" and "amen to that" going on!  I have never said amen so much in my life!  its so funny the things you pick up from different cultures!  

ok so much happened this week!!!  ahhhhh one of the best weeks ever!!!  I love being a missionary, especially during the
holidays!  People seem to just be so much nicer its so great!  ok many miracles to share!

First pickle in over 6 months!

Miracles:

1. Hector!!!!!!

Ok i cant remember if i have talked about Hecotor before, but frankly i cant remember anything now day so sorry if i repeat stuff.  So he is the boyfriend of one of our awesome member Zoraida.  I met him when i first got here.  We never really taught him only just spiritual thoughts when we were over eating dinner at Zoraida whenever he was there.  We always taught him how to pray and always invited him but he never would.  then he left out of town for work for lots of months and just recently got back to town.  So we wanted to start teaching him because they are getting married and he has been to church a bunch of times and wants to get baptized the only this is to teach him the lessons.  Anyway so we went and finally had the first lesson with him Monday evening!  We taught him in Zoraida's home.  Can i just tell you all that the members are awesome!  Without them we could not do this work!  Having lessons in members homes are 100x better!  So great!  anyway so after we ate some good food we taught him the Restoration.  We have taught the restoration so many times, but this time was by far the best time we have ever taught!  The spirit was so strong and we had great unity!  Zoraida has such a strong testimony and we used the Book of Mormon so much during the lesson!  using the Book of Mormon is so powerful as well.  Anyway so then we invited him to be baptized for December 12, and he said YES!!!!!!!! oh my gosh!!!!  And then he prayed for the first time in his life!!!!!!  And Zoraida was crying and we were all just feeling the spirit so strongly!!  They are going to be the cutest couple and going to be together for eternity in this wonderful Gospel!!  So amazing!  so he is progressing so great and we are teaching him again tonight!  he has a crazy work schedule, but with the help of the Lord we can do all things!!  So amazing and we are so happy for him and for this decion he has made!!

1.Fermin!!!!  Ok i know that i have talked about him.  He is kind of like the party guy that i met when i first got here.  He friends with some of our members and lives by them but we have never really taught him until this transfer.  So far we have taught him just the Restoration.  We have taught him and invited him to pray alot, but he always said the next time.  He has been to church the past 7 weeks in a row!!!  wow!!  Ok when we were planning Friday we had a really strong feeling that we needed to have a lesson with him this night.  so we called up the Mata familia to see if we could do a lesson in there home and they said yes so We had an appointment with him Friday at 7 pm.  Ok first cool thing about this story.  So recently we as a companionship have been setting a "progressing missionary goal".  We really want to be progressing missionaries because if we want our investigators to progress we have to be progressing as well.  We invite people to do stuff all the time and leave them with commitments.  So we decided if we want our investigators to keep their commitments, then we as a companionship make a commitment to do something before we follow up with our investigators. and obviously they have their own angeny but we can control what we do on our part.  So for Fermin we wanted him to pray and so our commitment last week as a companionship was to contact all the less actives on our list.  So right before we went in to our lesson with Fermin we had just called the last less active on our list.  We ended up reading Alma 32 with Fermin about faith and that he doesn't need to have a perfect knowledge of things.  It was a really great lesson!  and once again all the credit goes to the Lord and the spirit!  it was a really great lesson in the members home and then i asked him to be baptized and guess what he said... YES!!!!!!  Then he said the last prayer!!!  he prayed for the first time in his life!!!!  I strongly believe that if we wouldn't have kept our end of the commitment with Heavenly Father and as a companionship he would not be on date right now and would have not prayed!!!!  Be progressing!!!!  Wow so happy for him.  I have seen this gospel of Jesus Christ change his life.  He is not the man we first new.  This gospel really does bless and change people!! wahoo!!

3.Fasting!

So we went to visit a less active on Saturday and we started a 24 hour fast with her.  We fasted for two things for her to make the necessary decisions and changes in her life and two she wanted to fast for us for us to find a family.  We started the fast at 6pm Saturday night.  We found a family of 5 kids by 7pm Saturday night.  Wow!  fasting is powerful!!  We taught them how to pray and the mom prayed for the first time in her life!!!  Her children are so sweet!  What a powerful little experience and what a huge miracle!!!  We have wanted to find a family is for so long!!!  This gospel blesses families!!!  It has blessed mine and it can bless everyone's!  Every family needs this gospel.  i am so thankful to have been able to fast to help our less active and that she wanted to fast with us to find a family as well!  so amazing!!!

wow i could just go on and on, but time is running so short!! this week was just so amazing!!  Things are happening here in the Chamblee Branch.  I am so happy its ridiculous!  This gospel is so happy!  i have been reading in Alma this week and wow what amazing examples Alma and Ammon are.  They were just great missionaries converting thousands of people with the spirit and the word of God.  I love being a missionary and seeing peoples lives change because of this Gospel.  it is by far my most favorite thing about being a missionary.  I am so happy and i love witnessing miracles every single day.  "i do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and i will rejoice in my God. yea, i know that i am nothing; as to my strength i am weak; therefore i will not boast of myself, but i will boast of my God, for in his strength i can do all things, yea, behold, many miracles we have wrought in this land, for which he will praise his name forever."Alma 26:11-12  Ammon was an amazing missionary!  He is such an example to me!  i love this work!  This is the Lord's work.  And being in the service of my God brings me so much joy.  one more scripture that i just love is alma 27:17-18 "now the joy of Ammon was so great even that he was full; yea, he was swallowed up in the joy of his God, even to the exhausting of his strength; and he fell again to the earth. now was not this exceeding joy? behold, this is joy which none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness."  Wow i just love that.  We have felt the joy of this gospel and that comes from being "true seekers of happiness" This is where happiness and joy is found.  If only people of the world would just open their eyes, they can stop searching because here it is, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I know this church is true.  It brings us true happiness.  Serving others is the best medicine to becoming happier people.  I have figured that out and now i just love it!!  I am thankful for my savior because with out him, we couldn't become what we need to become and for his selfless sacrifice.  We are forever in his debt.  The price has been paid.  He live.  I love my Savior so much.  I love the Book of Mormon so much.  It is so true and so the word of God!  i love y'all so much!!  i hope you have an amazing week!  And May we always strive to be someone who is going somewhere!

All my love and Prayers

Hermana Stewart :)

Thanksgiving Dinner!

Making Mashed Potatoes!