This week was a week of miracles. Sister Meredith and I have been praying every day for miracles to happen and we are seeing things happen in this valley. They may not seem big, but they are big to us. First, we have started to go on splits every Tuesday night due to a prompting Sister Meredith had. This way we are able to meet more people and get into more doors since a lot of people feel more comfortable with someone they already know. We did this Tuesday and while we were out I was able to meet a woman here in the valley who we have continuously knocked on her door and she has never answered. She is a member, but travels a lot and is not home very much. We talked to her and she was telling us about how amazing General Conference was. This woman (in her 60's) told us that she was not endowed and that after hearing President Nelson speak, she finally has made the decision to go through the temple! She had the mindset that as long as she was sealed to her parents that she was fine. She told us that she would always joke with one of her friends who is very big into temple work that after she died she had her permission to do her work. Her situation was very similar to the one in President Nelson's talk about one of his close friends who had similar thoughts. I am glad that she was able to hear that talk and has decided to move forward with her work. President Nelson was inspired in his talk as I have seen it open the eyes of many people to what they need to do.
We taught another lesson this week with Tina Carr in Almo. She is progressing and we have plans to meet with her again next week. In our first lesson she did not seem super interested in knowing for herself. This time we read from the Book of Mormon with her and she seemed to be a lot more involved. She told us that she would read and ask us any questions she has. We hope that as she reads this week she will recognize the spirit and her desire to know for herself will grow.
Many other miracles happened this week as we have felt inspired to be in certain places and led on what we needed to do. Many times we did not know why or where we were supposed to go, but we went and now we can look back and see that we were being led the whole time. I am so grateful for Sister Meredith. She is a great example to me and I will be sad to see her go in 3 weeks. Time has flown by out here and I love being out here serving Heavenly Father's children.
We had a very special experience on Friday. This whole week we have been thinking about Casey a lot. We have talked to him before about the gospel and he has already told us that he knows it is true. He has also told us that he knows he will get baptized one day. That "one day" has dwelt on our minds this week. We know that the longer he waits the harder it will be for him to stand up to his family and stand up for what he believes. We have wanted to have a heart to heart with him and get a read on where he stands right now. He comes to church every week and listens intently to the talks and he sits and reads the words of all the Hymns. We have been praying for an opportunity to talk to him. We have seen him every single day, but there has always been something preventing us from talking to him. Friday we were out walking around the loop near his house. This was an hour before our scheduled dinner appointment with a family that also lived nearby him. About 5 minutes into our walking, Sister Meredith told me that she felt like we should cancel dinner. I told her, "then let's do it." I would rather be safe than sorry. We canceled with dinner and literally 2 minutes later we got a text from one of the people we feed cows with asking us if we were free to help. Last week he told us that he was done feeding so we did not plan on it. We thought that was the reason we felt like we needed to cancel our dinner so we told him we would be there in half an hour. We called Emily Loveland to come pick us up and also come with us to feed. She said she was on her way and we continued walking. A little bit down the road we ran into Casey who was riding on his horse. He stopped to talk to us and told us that he was going to move some of his cows up to another pasture. He asked us if we wanted to watch and we of course said yes! While we stood there we saw both his grandparents driving over in their side-by-side. His grandparents are very anti and are completely against the missionaries. We have been yelled at before by them and they do not like us being around Casey. When we saw them coming we started to walk down the road again. We called Emily and told her that we were going to stay with Casey. Then we called and canceled with feeding cows as well since we felt like we really needed to be there instead. We stopped at the top of the road and didn't know what to do. We didn't know if we should go back down or if we should just wait there at the top of the hill. We said a prayer and still felt like we should stay there. So we did. We stayed at the top of that hill and watched him move his cows out onto the road. His grandmother was now standing on the road near us and she kept turning to us and giving us long hard stares. The cows started moving down the road and she started running towards us. We almost started moving again and then Casey called us and told us to stand our ground. So we stayed right where we were and watched the cows all go through the gate next to us. They moved them up onto the mountain and then his grandparents left. They stopped for a little bit at the end of the road and were watching us for what seemed like forever. Finally they turned into their lane and went home. Usually Casey tells us to leave when his grandparents get close, but this time he was not afraid and told us to stay right where we were. We still haven't had the chance to talk to him, but he is making big steps. We have been praying for opportunities to see him and our prayers are being answered.
I have been thinking this week about one of the talks from General Conference. In it, it says that there are some things in this life that are absolutely true. That truth is that this gospel is true and that Jesus Christ is our Savior. I have also been thinking about Jesus Christ and how yes it is absolutely true that he is our Savior, but he is not truly OUR Savior unless we let him. We have to reach out to him in return and use the wonderful gift of the Atonement that we have been given. When we use that gift, that is when he truly becomes OUR SAVIOR. Because this is ABSOLUTELY TRUE we do not EVER have to be afraid to stand up for him and for the gospel. Nothing anyone says or does can change the fact that IT IS TRUE!!! Don't ever forget it and always think about him especially during this special week. He has given us everything in life (even our lives). We can do the simple things to show that we love and recognize his sacrifice for each of us. I know that he is our Savior. He is my Savior and I love being able to show my love for him by serving him in the little town of Albion, Idaho.
I love you all and hope you have an amazing Easter week!
Love,
