if ye will lay hold upon every good thing, ye certainly will be a child of Christ.

Dearest dears,

Hope you know we had a hard time.

I'll start by saying Hermano Fuentes did not get baptized this Saturday. The Elders interviewed him on Tuesday and as it turns out, after a year plus of lessons, no one ever told him he needed to marry his wife. Go figure. Elder Hargiss was so sad to call me because he knew it'd break my heart but I'm ok.

all these things shall give thee experience and shall be for thy good.

Leslie told us she was going to stop meeting with us for now. She said she wishes we could just be friends and hang out all the time but that wouldn't get us anywhere. I felt a profound peace as she spoke but it's just so hard. I've been praying for her everyday.

On Tuesday we had a MLC which is like my favorite time to be with President and Sister Mullen because it's a group of missionaries who get it, who work hard and are obedient. Sister Mullen, in all her general authority inspiredness gave us a training on trusting in the Lord's timing. She said sometimes we just think, "Heavenly Father, this is such a good thing. This is a righteous desire. Can't you make this happen?" It's like she took the words from my heart. She handed out a few attributes of God and had us teach about the nature of our Heavenly Father. God lives. God knows us and loves us. He can see things we can't. He has a body of flesh and bones. As we trust in him, we obtain peace. If He honestly has our welfare at heart, why wouldn't we believe that He will do what is best for us?

It was what I needed but not what I wanted. I know I can trust God and I do, but aligning my will with His has been tough for me this week.

Sister Haynes and I were recognizing that we were a little down so we've set goals to be happier and more grateful this week. We decided to pay attention to all the little miracles that happen each day so that we can see how much the Lord really is there with us. And miracles do take place each day.

We had an awesome training from Elder Whiting about working with members and it has gotten us so excited. He talked about a tool that his stake back home used and that he has used with all his members on his mission. It's simple but incredible. Sometimes as members we are afraid to open our mouths and share something with our friends because we don't want to offend them, we are afraid of rejection, or we think that our friends aren't ready enough for baptism so why try. But the truth is the success is in the invitation. If we are inviting, we are succeeding. We are doing all the Lord asks. And people aren't interested in doctrine immediately. Sometimes we think we don't know enough or won't answer correctly but truly people are interested initially in US. They see how happy we are, how close our families are, how much peace and joy we experience. So we just need to share what it is that brings us that joy. So alls you got to do to bridge your normal conversations into gospel conversations is say,

"that's what I love about my church."

It's that easy. Someone might say, "why don't you work on Sundays?" and then you say "that's what I love about my church! We really try to observe the sabbath day and set it apart as a special day. we do this by going to church. YOU SHOULD COME!"

or maybe you drop off some cookies for a neighbor and they say "these are delicious. where did you get the recipe?" "That's what i love about my church! once a month we get together to learn skills to become better mothers and homemakers. YOU SHOULD COME!"

you could say it for anything. Elder Whiting gave us an extreme to show us an example. say you are on your high school football team and you score a touch down and your team mates are cheering you on. you say, "that's what i love about my church! it makes me want to be the best i can. YOU SHOULD COME check it out sometime."

Totally nonoffensive because they showed the interest in your life first and then you showed them what you love and offered a simple invitation. Try it this week! I promise you'll see miracles.

Welp, Sister Haynes and I keep singing, "bring on the rain" because we've been in a spiritual drought so to speak and it's about time for some miracles. And the neat thing about the Lord is that when it rains, it pours.

I love y'all! Happy days ahead.

Hermana Em

PICTURES:

So this was at our training on Wednesday. the girl taking the picture met Jake at the MTC. I should've gotten a picture with her darn it cause she thought Jake was the cutest (not her words but nearly. she said he was so polite and nice!)

Didn't we look adorable for 4th of July??

I went on exchanges with Sister Rose and we were like wearing the same outfit! she is a violin performance major and loves soundtrack music and so do i so it was like the BTOML. she insisted that we listen to the Pride and Prejudice soundtrack before we fell asleep. I was in heaven. Probably one of my most favorite exchanges ever.