Miracles-Aug. 23

Dear Family,

So this week was just full of MIRACLES!! I can't even believe it. Sister Stone and I were feeling a little frustrated because the ward kept pushing less active people on us and we started feeling like we weren't spending our time effectively to FIND people that need the gospel. But the Lord has His purposes. People have just been FALLING into our laps. We received FIVE new investigators this week! FIVE! Yay! I'll tell you how a couple of them came to us...

So the one that really sticks out to me happened on Friday night. Sister Stone and I were coming back from a dinner appointment that had ended pretty poorly. The husband ended up walking out of our lesson on prayer because he doesn't believe that God ever answers his prayers. So we were feeling a little discouraged driving home. We had three new messages on our phone and so I started listening to them. One of them was from a woman named Shelia. I hurried and put it on speaker so Sister Stone could hear what she was saying. All she said in the message was that two beautiful girls had come to her door that afternoon and tried to talk to her about the church but she had shooed them away. In the message she said that they had handed her a phone number before they left and it had been OURS! She said that she wished she hadn't of shooed them away because she was feeling so depressed and she just wanted to know what the truth was. WHAT THE WHAT!? Sister Stone and I started screaming, in the car, for like a minute straight! These stories are only ever told in the MTC, they don't really happen! I still can't even believe that happened. Plus, we have NO idea who it was that gave her our number... it wasn't us. We hadn't been tracking that day, we were in appointments all day. So Sister Stone talked to her that night and hopefully we'll be able to teach her soon.

Another one... So we had a dinner appointment with a lady from the ward. We were running late, and we could NOT find where she was (this is a frequent occurance for us). We drove around for about a hour and were so frustrated that we were just going to give up. I just had this calm feeling though and told Sister Stone that we should drive 5 more minutes and if we still couldn't find her than we would call it off. We ended up finding where she was at and went to a diner to go eat. While there she just bore her whole soul to us. The night before her ex-husband had taken her daughter, and had threatened to put her in jail. She was SO distraught and discouraged and she told us that she had been going to another church because she felt like people would pray for her there. It was amazing that the Lord needed us there. He needed us there to remind her of His love for her. Satan was trying to get us away but ultimatley the spirit promoted us forward. The good news was that she was at church on Sunday and she said that she was finding peace and getting help.

One more. So Sister Stone and I were cruising the streets when we got a call from our Bishop. He said that he had a referral for us! I guess there was this woman named Jackie that ordered a DVD off of mormon.org and in the MTC they make the Elders and Sisters follow-up on the media they send out. So an Elder named "Travis", from the MTC, called Jackie to ask her what she thought about the DVD. I guess she liked him instantly and they have been talking on the phone for the last MONTH! He encouraged her to ask for the missionaries so they could bring her a copy of the Book of Mormon. So she called the Bishop! And he sent us! She is such a sweetheart and SO prepared. She was impressed with the goodness of "Travis"'s life, and it made her interested in hearing more. I just love this work!

Oh I forgot to mention we had a baptism yesterday!!! The Elders in our ward have been teaching a girl named Ally and she is amazing! We were able to teach her a couple times before her baptism yesterday. It was one of the most amazing experiences ever! Sister Stone and I even got to sing at it... reminded me of my own baptism :) I'm so excited for the new life that she has decided to live and her commitment to do so.

Sorry, I feel like these emails are so unreadable and don't make sense but we have such little time to write. I love all of you so much! I think of you and pray for you often!

Love always, Sister Amanda Carter