Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July, folks! I love America. To answer your questions, for the 4th we had the night off so we had a BBQ with our RC family and then we went and watched fireworks! It was so amazing. How proud I am to be an American!

Update with our investigator who was recently baptized: She had gallstones and had to get her gallbladder removed. The recovery process has been really tough so she didn't come to church again! So no Holy Ghost :( but her daughter who is less active told her she has to come no excuses and that she will make sure she is home to bring her to church! Which is awesome because the daughter goes out of town every weekend!

So this week has for sure had it's ups and downs - the perk of missionary life! The major up though was wonderful! Sat night we stopped by to see our investigator. We were supposed to go hiking with her that morning but she didn't respond to our messages (and it turned out that her phone stopped working). So we stopped by and chatted with her and told her we were sad that we didn't go hiking and she turns to us and says well why don't we go now! And it's 7:30 pm mind you, but we were like why not YOLO. So she gave us some pants and shoes and we went hiking! It was sooo great! So when we got to the top of the trail, it has the most beautiful lookout ever! So we stopped and had a lesson with her and her daughter. She was the investigator who came to church last week and she had mentioned that she was really touched by the talk that was given on temples and family history work so we had a lesson that and explained more of what we do in the temple! The spirit was soo strong, it was probably one of the most spiritually powerful lessons I have had in a long time. She admitted that she needed to be more committed to search out the BofM and she even teared up during the lesson. It was really amazing. And as we knelt down to pray at the end, I just couldn't deny how powerful and evident the spirit was. Life changing man.

The downs this week have just been some disappointments, like lessons falling through, people not coming to church, and people dropping us. But it happens in missionary work! This week I read Alma 26 and I could relate to the sons of Mosiah. When they desired to preach the gospel unto the Lamanites, they faced sever discouragement and disappointment, but the Lord comforted them and they remained patient and saw success. In this work, we HAVE to rely on the Lord. When we rely on Heavenly Father and His will, things work out the way that He intends. When we have faith and expect miracles, they happen. When I was standing on the cliff looking out over the horizon, I just knew Heavenly Father loved me so much!