04/05/10

Hello Family,

This week for transfers went well like it always does. I'm getting use to this routine now. My new companion is Sister Johnson. She and I went on exchanges together for 24 hours a couple of weeks ago and now she's my companion. She's an awesome missionary. She's a really hard worker and is really good with the people. She only has about twelve weeks before she goes home (She leaves the same time my trainer, Sister Larrosa leaves). I've already learned a lot from her so I have a feeling that our time together will go well.

We also have a new Elder/District Leader, Elder Wilms. I mention him because his story is awesome. He was baptised with his family when he was fourteen years old. They all instantly became less-active and through the love and support of good friends and members a long the way he started going back to church when he was nineteen. He left for his mission when he was twenty and he's been out a little over a year. His dad also started to go back to church a year into his mission so his service is blessing the lives of his family. I'm so amazed with eveyone's story. All of the missionaries I've gotten to know have atleast one BIG thing that could've stopped them from being a missionary but with the help of the Lord they were able to overcome it and their testimonies, in return are so solid. It's been such a blessing to be able to associate with them.

We continue to see miracles here. Saturday after the last session of Conference we picked a part of our area and started trackting there. Everyone we talked to wasn't interested and no one really answered thier doors when we knocked. the whole time we just didn't feel like that was the place for us to be but we kept through it trying to be diligent. For about an hour and a half we did this until we both decided to head in the opposite direction.

We walked for about ten minutes and on our way we met a couple (in their late thirty's early forties) named Matt and Nikki who were on their way home after a bike ride. We introduced ourselves and started to talk about the gospel. Matt was interested and accepted our invitation to share more with them. We began with a prayer and we started to teach the restoration. After we finished Matt told us how he had been looking for a church to go to. He told us he studied and looked into lots of different religions to join but wasn't able to find one yet. He also told us that he wondered why we as [Mormons] have another "bible" and one day he picked up a copy of the Book of Mormon and he opened up to 2 Nephi 29; where it talks about why the Lord gives us more scriptures. He said it helped him to understand it better. Talking to him we could see how the Lord prepared him and how his heart was opened to learning more. He told us he knew things happened for a reason. We explained and invited them to General Conference and gave them directions to the church. When Sister Johnson and I got home we retraced our steps and realized that it was nothing short of a miracle being able to meet them when we did. If we would have been a couple minutes off we would've missed seeing them.

.....Okay so this story gets exceptionally better. The next day (Sunday) Sister Johnson and I went to the church with the Elders to watch Conference again. Five minutes before the first session starts Sister Johnson goes in the hallway (where I can still see and hear her:) to call Matt to see if he can make it. She gets his voicemail and leaves him a message. When she's hanging up she hears someone behind her say "Nikki won't be able to make it". It was Matt! He came by himself, dressed very nicely may I add, and he had his Book of Mormon in his hand. It was awesome! The feeling (although I've never experienced this yet) is equivalent to how a parent feels when their child is away from home but still decides to go to church and make good choices. It was nice.

Throughout the session I kept looking at him through my peripheral vision and he never took his eyes off the screen. I also loved that President Monson spoke during the first session because he got to see and hear from a living prophet. We were able to talk to him for a few minutes afterwards and he said he enjoyed it. All of the talks were wonderful and I was so happy that he could hear from the Leaders of out church.

This Easter went well also. We had dinner with the Rodriguez family. They feed us a lot and we ate with them in between Conference sessions. It was my first Texan Easter I've had in a long time. We had brisket as the main meat with a black bean salad, some rice that Sister Rodriguez makes and it's really good, and other little things to go on the side. They have a son on a mission right now so they're really good about making sure we're taken care of especially on the holidays.

That's pretty much all of the news over here. I'll keep you posted on any other changes. Hope you all had a wonderful Easter (it sounds like you did). Love you guys.

Sister Green