The Miracle of the Restoration

Happy Monday!

Work, work, work. That's what the week has been-yep I love it more and more each week.

We did a lot of finding this week, which if you paid attention to the weather (like I know Mom does) we were pretty wet all week. But don't worry we have great rain jackets and an umbrella :) but we just like the rain. So that was always exciting, I can't remember if I have shared with you but door knocking is a favorite of mine..I know it's not always the most effective way but it's the most exciting by far I think. And this week many miracles happened because of it!

I have such a testimony now of the scripture that is found in Doctrine & Covenants 123:12 that shares about "[those] who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it". There are many many people like that in Georgia. That's what the 'Vision of the South' is all about! Individuals are noticing that there is a lot of corruption in churches today and they don't know what to do about it so they just stop going to church. Well we found some of those individuals this week and were able to boldly testify that Christ's church has been restored to the earth. What a miracle it is that we have that knowledge. It wasn't until this week that that really hit me. We know that God still speaks to prophets. We know that the authority of Jesus Christ is on the earth. We know that the authority to baptize that John the Baptist had is on the earth. We know that with that authority that families and be sealed together forever. How incredible is that!?

A few examples of individuals we met that felt the truthfulness of this glorious message:

Saturday we were out trying to track down some members who hadn't been at church in a while just to see how they were doing. Well of course I am still the designated driver and so I got us lost trying to find the house. But the Lord turns our weaknesses into strengths! We found ourselves in a neighborhood and just decided to make a better use of our time so we parked and we hit the pavement. Well as all mission stories go, it started with no luck at all. For a Saturday morning I was pretty surprised that no one was answering the door. But it's always worth it in the end. We knocked on one door and a guy maybe in his early 30s answered the door. We offered to say a prayer with him and he was pretty grateful for that, said that he needed some guidance. Well the conversation after the prayer was pretty funny, but turned into something amazing. He started off by telling us that he was thinking about starting his own church. He didn't know how to do it because he wasn't a 'preacher' he would keep saying. We then started talking about all the different churches and how they were all different and why that was. He told us that the reason he wanted to open up his own church was because he wanted to get it as close to the original as he could. He admitted that it wouldn't be exactly the same because he was just a man but he wanted to try. Well that led into a perfect opportunity to testify about the restoration and how there was already a church on the earth that had all the truth and authority. His reply: "I knew that must be going on somewhere in the world, I just thought I had given up looking". We just were able to have a great conversation that was completely guided by the spirit! We then invited him to be baptized and he just replied "Ya, of course. What do I need to wear?"

Haha if only every individual could have that response :) He came to church with us this weekend and loved it and we are going back to see him this week.

Another cool miracle that happened that day because we were out trying to find a less active member. Turns out they had moved and so we just decided to go finding in that complex. The first door we knocked on a young mom with two little kids answered the door. We asked if we could pray with her and she too was very open and grateful for the offer. After the prayer we started talking with her about God's greatest gifts He wants each of us to have. 1. Eternal Life 2. Remission of Sins. 3. Gift of the Holy Ghost. This young mom just broke down in tears and we talked. She shared with us that she had been praying and seeking for guidance and she felt like her prayers weren't being answered. She then testified to us that she knew that we were the answer that God was giving her. It was such a tender experience. I love being a missionary for many reasons. But one is because I am able to witness just how much our Father in Heaven loves His children! It's just wonderful.

Missionary Work is just fun! I also was able to serve in a YSA for a day. That was...interesting. I'll admit I'm glad I'm not assigned to serve that full time. We did exchanges this week and a set of sisters in our stake serves in the YSA ward and we went on exchanges with them. It was fun, while I was in their area for the day we did a lot of finding on different college campuses. I didn't realize there were so many colleges around us. We went to Georgia State, Georgia Tech and then some junior colleges in the area. So that was fun. We also had a member feed us...but having a YSA feed you means them having pizza delivered to your apartment haha. The pizza was good though, so I am not complaining :).

Hhmmm what else happened this week that was different than the norm...we had a new Ward Mission Leader called. That's awesome! I am really excited for all that he has planned. I think it will really help with getting the members excited for missionary work!

Oh and one more miracle that I wanted to share. So we are teaching this mom and her 9 year old son. The missionaries have been teaching her since November, so it's been a good amount of time. They are coming to church regularly and basically know everything there is to know, or at least sometimes it feels like that. Anyways, a few weeks ago, probably actually when I first got to the area she shared with us that she now knew that she needed to be baptized, but wasn't willing to set a date of baptism. She wanted to wait a little longer on that one. Well that has been our main focus this week has just been praying so hard that she would know that she needed to set a date or a goal or else she was never going to progress towards it. Well our lesson this week was no small miracle. It was set up a little last minute and we really wanted it to be just a strong lesson and so we hit our knees to pray for guidance. After that literally everything just fell into place. We wanted a member to come with us, but specifically a convert because she has tons of fellowship in the ward but it is all with lifelong members. That happened, we were able to get one of the strongest converts in the ward to come with us :) then we wanted to focus the lesson on the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and we received the prompting to watch the mormon message with her with Elder Holland's testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. If you haven't seen it yet-please go watch it :) Anyways so we started the lesson off with that video and it just invited the spirit right away. You can always count on Elder Holland. She was really touched by his testimony and I think it finally put things into perspective for her. Then we just talked with her about baptism. She admitted she knew that she needed to set a date but committing to something was always hard for her. We had so many members of our ward praying for her the last few weeks and I know that our prayers were answered. We extended the date for the 23rd of May and she pulled out her phone and put it into her calender! She then asked us to make sure he son could be baptized with her :) It was exciting. She even felt a sense of relief, almost like she has been wanted to make that commitment this whole time but was just hesitant and the second she made it she was able to feel that sense of "that was the right thing" that came from the spirit. I am super excited for her and her family. I know that the Lord is watching over them.

Well that's basically my week :) I do have to do a shout out for the birthday brothers this week :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEVIN and COLIN! Don't have too much fun this week!

Love you all!!!

XOXOX

-Sister Fluckiger