01/09/2016 - miracles on miracles on miracles can i get a hallelujah?

To all my friends and family :) love you so much it hurts

some weeks I have nothing to share and then other weeks I feel like I have everything plus more to share. These are one of those weeks where I feel like I have everything plus more to share.

I've decided to tone it down to 2 crazy cool miracles that happened this week in the life of sister thurgood and sister free.

miracle 1:

So we decided that we needed to show God that we were using every available resource given to us to find those that are ready to hear the truth. we have been working with less actives and potentials and have been seeing some success, but we are in a place where we need to use other ideas. So we decided that we would try out the bus system. We get on the Bus, and its me and sister frees first time and we really dont know what we are doing but we decide hey. Before we got on the bus, we prayed that someone that needed the gospel and was ready for it would be on the bus or we would cross paths and we would be able to have the faith to talk to them. we get on the bus and there is a whopping 5 people on it.. we tried starting conversation with the person next to us but it didnt go very well and he wasnt really interested. we got off the bus and thought dang, i hope this wasnt a waste of our time. When we walked off the bus, one of the ladies on the bus approached me and asked me "I saw you carrying a book when you got on the bus and I heard you talking with that man. could i have a copy of the Book of Mormon?" WHAT? umm yess mamm you can have a book of mormon. We gave her a book  of mormon and she said she has met missionaries before and she wants to see them again. It was so cool. I bore testimony of the book of mormon to her and walked back to my companion who was trying to talk to another person on the bus about the book of mormon. (my companion is so awesome). Something that i realized looking back is that as I was talking to this lady, my companion was talking to another man, because she had the faith that someone on the bus was ready to hear the truth even though she wasn't having much success. Go Sister Free!

Also side note but I know you will get a kick out of it haha when we got off the bus we thought it was a loop.... but it wasnt... and we got stranded at the casino.......  HAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA what is our life. we are miles from home. but hey tender mercy, as we waiting to figure out what to do and who could pick us up, a guy walked out of the casino, sat right next to us and we taught him about the book of mormon and that the gospel has been restored. It was seriously the best day! Its amazing to me that if we just open our mouth and believe there are people ready to receive us. After our lesson with our new friend named Zeb, we walked a mile or 2 back to the middletown library where our favorite old german lady picked us up.

The phone call when I called Sister Van Der Boon to come pick us up was so funny. It went like this.

Me: "sister vanderboon how are youuuu? well you see we have a bit of a favor to ask you?
Her: yes...
Me: well we got stranded at the casino and now we are at the library and need a ride.
Her:  oh my goodness the casino. I dont even know what to say. what were my girls doing at the casino. oh good heavens, i'll be there in 10 minutes

hahahhahahhah

I was laughing the whole time. I kept on saying, sister free what is our life, just two sister missionaries, on the side of the highway just trying to go home hahaha

miracle 2: 

Sister free had to go the bathroom so we were looking around trying to find one. we decided to stop by this grocery store where there was a bathroom. except the bathroom he let us use, was a few buildings over which he gave us a key. As sister free was using the bathroom, i saw these 2 kids trying to stay dry over a balcony. I felt like we should talk to them. Then i used the bathroom and started walking back to our car. sister free starts talking to them, and they tell us that they are having a rough day. We gave them a book of mormon and started talking to them about the gospel. His eyes lit up when we talked about Christ. It ignited something in me and I grew so much love for him. I felt like for a second I saw him in a way Christ would look at Him. As our conversation was starting to end, I felt inspired to give him one of our umbrellas. They wouldn't accept it but I said, we have two please. They accepted the umbrella and that was it.

Pause on that story. Later that week or day (i dont even remember it all goes together) we went to go see a less active. He was there with his friend who was bringing him food. he said he was busy but to come back later. we went to car to figure out what to do next when the friend knocks on our window and ASKS for a book of mormon. AGAIN I SAY WHATTTT???? we are like oh yes please how many do you want. we thought that was a miracle enough. 30 minutes later as we went around the street to knock some doors before our next appointment, the friend drives by and yells at us to come talk to him. he said hey, i think i met you before when you up by my house, i want to be a member of your church. will you come teach me? AGAIN WHATTTT  WHAT IS ME AND SISTER FREES LIFE.  again we said oh yes and told him we would stop by on friday.

Now this is when the story gets crazy.

we stop by on friday and ring the doorbell, and a girl answers the door, we asked for her dad and she said yea...wait i know you guys. we were like uhh really? and she says "you two are the ones that gave me and my brother the umbrella" I felt like I could cry right there. We went in there and met the family. As we talking with the family, he said that his kids had told him two mormon missionaries had given them an umbrella and then we meet him at our less actives house, he felt that it was a sign that he needed to be apart of whatever we were. we taught the restoration to him and his kids and the spirit was so strong. They want to keep on meeting with us until they can come to know its true. I couldn't even believe it. Im still in shock. God fortifies our actions. Who knew that stopping and talking to those kids and giving them an umbrella would be the answer.

moral of the story: always carry 2 umbrellas haha

This week has been such an awesome week so so so busy. We had zone conference and ALSO i almost forgot, our little community we live in got hit so hard with rain and it FLOODED SO BAD. we spent a majority of yesterday helping people with sand bags. there was TONS of rock slides and there were boulders the size of basketballs on the road. CRAZY. but all is good now.

I love being a missionary. In the car me and sister free were talking and I said "wow i just feel like my heart could burst because I'm so happy all the time"

amen amen. there is joy in the gospel. there is joy in him.

all my love

GODSPEED

sister thurgood