Heerree'ss Shorty!!!!!

Good day to you all!

This week has been a lot like the other weeks... but it has also been different because we found an awesome guy named Luis! Our Relief Society president had given us a list of all the sisters in the ward so we could visit them and find the ones who aren't going to church. So we went to this one house of less actives that live in a small house on the side of the highway to see if we could visit with them. It was later in the evening so they said they would call us when there was a better time because they were going to bed early (typical). There were a couple other small buildings that looked like they had people living in them next door though, so we decided to knock them too before we left. We knocked the first one. No answer. We knocked the second one and Luis answered! He is a young dad with a three-year old son, and said that he doesn't usually get visitors since he lives on the side of the highway. We introduced ourselves and talked with him a little about his relationship with Heavenly Father, and left him with a Book of Mormon. We went back a couple days later with a team up, and he had read the introduction and some other stuff, and wrote down notes and questions to discuss with us! At the end of the lesson, we asked him to say the closing prayer, and after he did, he just sat there looking at the ground and smiling. We sat there for a minute, and asked him how he felt, and he said he felt really good! He said that he wants to make this a priority in his life, and that we can come over any time and teach him! THIS IS SUCH A BLESSING!!!! I have an increasing testimony that finding and appreciating the little, buoyant miracles in this crazy sea of life will keep our hope afloat and our spirits lifted.

Another miracle that I have to call attention to is that our friend Christine finally came to the church! She didn't come for the service on Sunday, but she brought her family to a ward Chili Cook Off on Saturday night, and they seemed to really enjoy themselves. That was a big step for her because she is soooo sweet, but also very shy, and coming and meeting ward members was a miracle alone, and the fact that she brought her husband and two of her sons was even better!

We have also been having some movie night activities the past couple of Friday nights, where we play a Gospel movie and have snacks etc. We have been using it as a missionary tool to get our investigators and less actives to the church and to allow other members to invite their friends to come. This last week was great because we showed The Testaments movie, and a lot of our less actives came and one of the young women in the ward invited her friend too. The spirit was really strong at the end of the movie, even though it is kind of cheesy haha.

Sometimes I forget that people have hard lives. A lot of times when we find people and start teaching them I forget that I am only seeing one pretty side of them, and that the other side of their life may be filled with trials and pain and sin. Heavenly Father has been blessing us with a LOT of people to comfort and help lately. It seems like everyone we have been teaching is hurting in serious ways. I am really learning how to comfort and mourn and show love to others even when there isn't always a lot that I can do to physically solve their problems. I can't give everyone a thousand dollars or heal their loved one or give them a better job. But the Lord has called me to bring them closer to Him, and He CAN heal whatever ails them from the inside out. He can heal their hearts and comfort them in their time of suffering when no one else can be there. I am realizing that this calling is SO much more that getting a bunch of baptisms or racking up a bunch of good-looking numbers and statistics. It is about representing the Lord, Jesus Christ, and He doesn't care one bit about our numbers. He cares about the condition of people's hearts, and the QUALITY of our service, not just the quantity. Christ ministers and heals and cares and loves, and I am eternally grateful that I have this time to become more like Him. THIS is why I am on a mission, and it is the part that I love the most! 

I love you all an incredible amount, and I promise you that your Savior can heal WHATEVER may ail you. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

Sister Baine :)

So this license plate is from my recent convert, Chris Harris. He wrecked his car a couple months ago and got a new one with new plates, but earlier Sister Roundy and i told him that he had the coolest license plate because it said CTR on it, and explained what that meant. Well a couple weeks ago he came down to Plainfield to give me one of the CTR license plates so that i could always have a priceless souvenir from NJ, given to me from my recent convert, and remember to choose the right!! Best gift EVER!!!

I wanted to show you the awesome bracelets our mission president gave us! Our mission these is BECOME an instrument in the Lords Hands, so he put BECOME on one side, and hashtag on the other haha which is so cool. I love being a missionary here. 😁

ALSO!!!!!! This is a lady that Sister Roundy and i were teaching
before i left, and now she got baptized!!!! My mama and Sister Hales
mama baptized my former investigator!!! Her name is Ann. Such
miracles!