12/13/10

Dear Family,

Before I proceed I want to say...Congratulations on your graduation Dad!

This week has been great. I love working with Sister Boyd. She has such a strong desire to please the Lord. Working with her is the equivalent of working with a greenie fresh from the MTC. She's never lost the MTC fire. We've struggled finding people to teach this week but we're hopeful and know that if we continue to be diligent the Lord will bless us. We've met a few people who want us to come see them this week and they seem promising so we'll see what happens.

We had two non-members come to church this week but we're currently not teaching either of them. We've taught them in the past but each of them have different areas where there testimony needs to be strengthened. They're both wonderful and they enjoy coming to church. Robbie is 19 years old and the previous sisters saw his dad working out in the yard and began to teach them. The other is Stephanie. I don't have time to go into too much detail about both of them but Stephanie has a great story I want to tell.

She was raised Baptist and when she was 16 years old she ordered a copy of the Book of Mormon. Her father was a Baptist preacher and when her mom found out she wasn't very happy. A few years ago her dad passed away. Her mother remarried a member of the church and she was baptized in February of this year. Her mother contacted the bishop here and asked him to send the missionaries over to Stephanie so she could also learn about the gospel. The previous Sisters were able to get to know Stephanie and share the gospel with her and her 8 year old son Austin.

Stephanie is also in the military and a couple months ago she found out she had to be to work early in the morning. She didn't have anyone to watch her son and her mom suggested she talk to someone from the church to help and she assured her that someone would be there for her. After talking to the sister missionaries, they asked around the ward and there was a family, the Hernandez's that stepped up and said they would be willing to take care of Austin while Stephanie made her way to work at 4:30 in the morning.
Austin is the same age as one of their boys and everything worked out perfectly.

Sister Rae, Sister Boyd, and I got to spend time with Stephanie and her parents, at the Hernandez's, when they came down a couple weeks ago to visit (they live in Alabama). It was so great to hear the testimony of Stephanie's mother who was also raised Baptist. She said she knew that this is the true church and she wants her family to be a part of it (right now she's the only member). I know the Lord has His hand in this families' life as he does for all of us.

Sister Boyd and I are really excited for this transfer. I want so much to bare my heart to the people here and have the Holy Ghost testify to them of the things I know to be true. I feel like Alma's words are my own when he says "I wish from the inmost part of my heart, yea, with great anxiety even unto pain, that ye would hearken unto my words, and cast off your sins."

I know the gospel of Jesus Christ is true. Nothing in this world will bring as much joy or happiness than accepting our Savior and following Him.

Love you all,

Sister Green