Wow! What a week!!

Family and Friends!!!

     Wow! What a week!! I LOVE conference week, I'm always sad when it is over. But! Here soon we will get the ensign and then I will get to study and re-read the talks until October when conference is here again:) Let's see... where do I even start with this week... I don't even know. I'll start, I guess, with Anthony's lesson. Anthony is an investigator that we have been teaching. He is going to basic here soon, so this was our last lesson with him :( Anyways, it was a ROUGH lesson. One thing Sister Horrocks and I have learned about the Springs is that they are brutally honest sometimes. So we were really bummed after the lesson, and were just frustrated with so much! But, as Sister Horrocks keeps telling me, whenever we have a really bad week it just means that Satan is trying to stop us from achieving something really good. So what was that really good thing? Well we have 2 new investigators!! Both are super solid! Jake is the first one. He doesn't have ANY religious background, but he is really excited to learn about the gospel. In fact, we had to do a transition lesson because the elders started teaching him, but he is in our ward. The elders had taught him half of the first lesson and we had planned to teach him the second half. When Jake got to the lesson, however, he informed us that some OTHER family ward elders had tracted into him and had given him and his roommate the full first lesson. So, we figure the Lord really wants him to learn about this gospel. He watched conference with us on Saturday morning (he even took notes) and we are seeing him later this week. We are super excited!

The other investigator was a member referral and we were super nervous, because we were informed that she had already read the Book of Mormon cover to cover, all of Doctrine and Covenants,  has started the Pearl of Great Price, and is halfway through Jesus the Christ. She has also apparently watched every available Elder Holland talk. So, we were nervous that if she had done all this and hasn't desired to be baptized yet, then we were in for some serious anti questions. This, lucky, was not the case. She read all of this in three weeks! Not only that, but she is a cadet at the academy, so I don't know when she had time to read everything, but she did!! Anyways, the lesson with her went REALLY well! In fact, she has a baptismal date! I'm so grateful for the privilege the Lord had given me to be the missionary that teaches he. I feel like I did nothing. Actually, I didn't. The Lord has been preparing her for this gospel for a long time. She also came and watched both sessions of the Sunday session of conference with us. :)

    Anyways! I've been reading in Alma lately and I LOVE the scripture in Alma 13:28: "But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering." This is one of my favorite scriptures because of the promise that we will not be tempted above that which we are able. However, I didn't notice until recently the condition that God gives us. We, in order to be strong enough to resist all temptations that come to us, must humble ourselves before God and pray to him continually. I can testify to everyone that power of prayer! I know that even just a quick prayer said in the mind holds great power and can help us to resist and overcome all temptations. But not only that, it can help to lighten our burdens and make us more able to carry through and persevere through the storms of life. I love you all and I hope you are doing well!!

Love,