Happy autumn everyone!

I have never in my life seen a fall season as magnificently beautiful as this one. Honestly, the colors and designs that Heavenly Father has given me to appreciate here are absolutely more breathtaking than my lungs can handle. I'll send you some pictures...

This week has been filled with miracles. Like space jam packed into a pickle jar of peppers that's how awesome it has been. And guess what? It is all because Heavenly Father cares about His children enough to inspire us. So first of all it was late at night and we were driving down the road right? Just cruisin. Then as we are driving, I see this girl walking down the road, and im like... nothing actually I don't even think about it... But then the Holy Ghost starts nagging me and telling me to go back and talk to her, so then I tell Sister Roundy and she thinks I am crazy but she says to turn around anyways. So we turn around and park and then start running after this girl. At night. On the side of a road that isn't even lit. Luckily we ran quietly so she didn't know until we were closer and then we called out to her. We caught up to her and started talking. She said her name was Jasmine and she was just coming home from work. She was like "Now what do you want since you went through all the trouble to park and run after me in the dark? You obviously after somethin probably for some Chruch" And so we said that we had a message for her that would make her happier than she had ever been before in her life. She automatically said "Alright, so your Mormon." WHAT? hahaha it was awesome. We kept talking and gave her a Book of Mormon, and she said she would read it just because we went through the trouble of talking to her!

So right after we got back in our car we went to visit a family we hadn't seen in a while, and the Mom, Fannie, let us in right away! We talked for a long time and she told us that she had been having a really hard time with her family, and especially her son. She said that she felt like Satan was trying to destroy her family through her son, and that the house had a feeling of darkness in it, and especially in his room. Fannie said that even other people commented about it when they would walk into her home. We told her that Christ's power can overcome any darkness, and testified of the principles of the Gospel to her. We said a prayer with her, and then had a crazy experience that I will never forget. While I was praying there was a point in the prayer that I felt something in the room change. I didn't really notice it at first, but after we ended, Fannie started crying, and said that at the beginning of the prayer she felt like this weight or something heavy weighing her shoulders down, but that towards the end she felt it lift off of her and her shoulders literally got lighter. She was still really troubled about it though, and started grabbing her arms and clenching her fists in agitation and crying harder and said "What is happening?! This is so weird, I don't know what is happening!" Then she said that she felt it coming back and she was getting heavier again, and she started crying even more and we could tell she was really scared. So we decided to sing a hymn with her before we left to calm her down and give her peace. We all sang 'Be Still, My Soul' and after that she was herself again. When Sister Roundy and I left, we said a prayer at the edge of her yard. It was the craziest experience I have ever had!!!

Well, we went out a couple days later to go visit some people, and we were driving home, and then I felt the nagging again!! The spirit told me to go back to the street we were just on, so we looped around and went back to the street, and got out of the car. We had no idea what to do so we started walking, but then I looked around, and there was this man standing in his doorway, and I went up to him, but he didn't speak English... I have never wanted to speak Spanish so badly in my life. So we called up the Spanish Sisters!!! We handed him the phone and they set up an appointment. It was weird, but it worked! Then Sis Roundy felt like we should knock on this one house and we practically had a lesson on his porch! His name is Luis and we gave him a Book of Mormon, an invitation to the Primary Program coming up soon, our contact info, and then sang 'I Am a Child of God' with him and his little daughter before we left. It was awesome. Then we met this crazy man who when we asked his name hesitated for like 18 seconds and then said it was "John." He told us that he was Israelite, that the Jews and Jesus were black, and that everyone except them were going to be burned when He comes again. It was one of the weirdest contacts I have ever had haha, also because he thought we were Jehovah's Witnesses at first and started going off about the 144thousand deal... I love Jersey.

ALEXIS IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON WEDNESDAYYYY!!!!!!! She had her interview yesterday and we are all so excited!!! She is literally just an angel. She spent all Saturday night practicing the baptismal questions, and then bought herself a white dress for her baptism! haha she is adorable, and we are so excited. In fact, the mission president's wife, Sister Taggart invited her and us over for lunch yesterday after church. It was awesome, but I was almost scared out of my mind.... but it was good. :)

We went to the Trunk or Treat for a few minutes on Saturday night, and HOLY GOODNESS!!!!! This ward goes all out!!! everyone was dressed up and the trunks were ALL SORTS of decked out!!!! It was the coolest trunk or treat I have ever seen with my eyeballs! Honestly, you have all got to step it up this year with your Halloween parties, because my ward here in NJ has definitely got you all beat!!! I mean our Bishop brought a tow truck!! One of the trunks basically had a pool of water with alligators swimming in it. It was amazing. I wish I could have taken pictures of everything and everyone there, but that would have been weird...

Also, we did a Family History booth at a little street fair thing they do here called Bottle Hill Day. It was really fun and we had a ton of success! We were able to get about 37 packets to deliver to people who want to know more about their Family History! Even though we weren't allowed to proselyte at the booth, we are praying that it will bring just as much talk about Jesus Christ when we deliver them! I am so excited!

I have this theory here on my mission that since I am here on the Lord's time, and since He is the Master Planner, that He has every lesson of every day of every week of my mission planned out perfectly the way that He wants it to go. The way I know if I am doing what He wants me to do is if I see miracles happening, and things working out and the Spirit guiding me where to go, what to do, what to say, and who to talk to. Those things don't necessarily result in success number wise, but they result in a successful missionary. If I am obedient to the promptings of the Spirit, I will find success.  I have even felt this in lessons when I open my mouth and let Him work through me. And I am SO SO SO thankful for that, because there is no protein whey in history that I could find that kind of success by my own power and plans and works. That's why we have a loving Heavenly Father! :)

Anyways, I am sorry I took up like half of your life telling you about all this stuff haha, but thank you so much for all of your prayers and support and attractiveness. Know that I am praying for you too! Love you a TON!!!!

Sister Baine

Hellooooo errybodyyyy!!!!

So I really don't have very long this week at all.... But I do have a
few mins left to email, and I want to tell you of a miracle Alexis had
this week. You know how she was really worried about her family not
supporting her decision to be baptized? Well she met with Bishop last
week, and he counseled her to tell her family. She was really nervous
and prayed super hard, but she did and GUESS WHAT!? Her mom was so
happy for her! She was so glad her daughter was finally finding a
religion and that she would be following Jesus Christ!!!! It was so
amazing!!! Heavenly Father answers prayers!

Chris is having a hard time right now though.... He has had two
scheduled baptismal dates, but hasn't been prepared for it yet, so we
have decided to teach him at a simpler pace instead of cramming it all
at him.... Here is such wisdom in the counsel to teach people, not
lessons...

So a couple of weeks ago we received a referral from someone who went
online and requested a copy of the BOM, so we called him and he said
he had already received a copy, but would be happy to have the
missionaries go by. Well, it turns out that he wanted to meet on a day
when we couldn't do it, so we sent the Spanish sisters to meet with
him instead (partly because his name was Juan Pablo) and GUESS WHAT!?
Two and a half weeks later he is baptized!!! WHAT?! So even though he
got taught by the Spanish sisters and baptized into the Spanish
branch, we are considering him our investigator child that we gave up
for adoption..... There is a pic of him...

Also, it's kind of really lame, but I finally know how to be still.
You know that song "be still my soul?" Well until lately I've never
realized that I have always had is constant noise in my head. Even
when it is quiet I always have loud thoughts or songs or noises going
on in my ears... But I've realized that when I actually control my
thoughts and quiet them down, I can hear the spirit a WHOLE lot
better!

 Anyways, I love you all, and I thought it might be fun if I showed
you my apartment! Stay stellar!!!! 😘

Sorrrrryyy....

PLEASE forgive me for not writing a weekly email last week!!! I said I had an excuse because the library was closed, but honestly, I was just lazy... and that was one of the worst decisions I have ever made. I AM SO SORRYYY!! Please forgive me... I promise it won't ever happen again!!!

So I HAVE to tell you about Alexis! I can't remember if I have ever mentioned her before, but she is just SO awesome! So last week we talked to her and everything, but then one night she texted us saying that she had had a cool experience to tell us about. So we called her and she said that she had really been thinking and praying about our invitation to find a date and be baptized, and that one of the biggest things that she was concerned about was that her family would be really against it and give her a hard time for it. So as she was thinking, a thought "randomly" popped into her head that what if on the way to the appointment we had scheduled with her, she got hit by a car and died? She hoped that if that happened, that we would have enough information about her to do her baptism in the temple afterwards. But then she thought that well if it was important enough for us to do her baptism after she died, then what was the point of waiting, and why didn't she just get baptized now? So she told us that she had prayed about a date, and wants to get baptized on the 28th of this month, because that day has in the past been really hard for her and since baptism is like a rebirth, she wants to give it new meaning. WHAT?! And THEN she got a text from her mom about her going to church and everything that really gave Alexis hope that her mom would be open to the idea of her getting baptized into the LDS church! And THEN we had another lesson with her in which we talked about the Word of Wisdom, and she had some questions about it, and later we found out that she sometimes drinks wine, so we had planned to call her and ask her to pray about the WoW to gain a testimony that it is  a true principle. Well, when we called her, she immediately said that she had already gotten an answer. She said that she had been praying about it and stuff, and that she was packing up her things (because she is moving), and that she saw a picture of Jesus Christ and right next to it was an envelope full of money that she had forgotten about! She had walked past it probably a million times in the last month that it had been sitting there, and was just now noticing it! She immediately took that as her answer, and committed to follow the Wow. WHAT?!

And THEN she texted us the other night and told us that she had to "end a friendship, and tried to be as kind about it as possible, but it was not a pleasant discussion. Afterwards I prayed on my knees and told Heavenly Father that I truly don't know how Christ  would have handled that, but I'd ask in Church and learn so if there's a next time, or even another strong disagreement, I could try to act more like Him." Then she talked to another one of her friends about her decision to get baptized, and he was very supportive. She is just SO BRAVE!!! I'm sorry haha, I have to brag about her because she is the best investigator in the whole wide world. I love her so much! I could go on and on, but I want to share another miracle with you.

So our teaching pool has been getting progressively smaller as we have been weeding people out, and others are on the brink of getting baptized, so we have been working on building it back up and doing more contacting. So one night we were walking back to our car right before we were going home, and we met this young man named Danny. We talked to him for a couple minutes and asked Him what his favorite thing was about Jesus Christ. Usually when we ask that question, people say something like "I dont know," or "He's just the best." But when we asked him, he said that it was because Jesus Christ doesn't judge, and that he loves us all for who we are. It was super powerful some of the things he said, but since we were in a hurry, we didn't spend a long time with him. But we gave him a Book of Mormon, and a card with our number and the address to the chapel on it, and invited him to read, pray, and come to church. Well guess what?! Right in the middle of the Sacrament on Sunday, he walks in! He sits down all by himself and listened to all of the testimonies! After Sacrament meeting a ton of members went up to him and introduced themselves and helped him to feel welcome! He literally had a crowd around him! We talked to him again and he said that he had been reading a little bit of the Book of Mormon! He then stayed for the next two hours of church, and said he would come back again next week, and later we found out that he had WALKED there!! He had probably walked nearly an hour to get to church! It has been such a strong testimony to me that even though some days may be discouraging, Heavenly Father knows where the prepared and elect are in New Jersey. He WILL lead them to us and us to them. We will gravitate towards each other if that is what we are seeking!

Amazing things are happening here, and I am so so so incredibly grateful to be a part of it. Our investigators have SO much faith, and they have to work so hard for it!!! I was thinking that Heavenly Father is so merciful for blessing me to have been born into the Gospel of Jesus Christ and an eternal family, because I don't know if I would have enough faith and strength to have these kinds of miracles I am seeing our beloved sincere inquirers having. I definitely wouldn't be here, physically or spiritually, if I hadn't been taught the Gospel my entire life. My heart is SO filled with gratitude for that blessing of always having Christ as a guide in my life. I am definitely working on my faith though! I like to think that my prayers actually make a difference in helping them and also all of you come closer to Christ. So if they aren't then just don't tell me haha. I am actually super proud that I am getting callouses on my knees from praying so much here!

So you want to hear something funny? We have been doing this thing every morning where we say "I fear no man" in funny voices and in different poses.... Well this morning I was going to say it while I did a dance, but my skirt wasn't stretchy and I was wearing socks on our hardwood floor, so when I kicked one foot out my other foot slipped out from under me and I fell flat on my nalgas! Sis Roundy had a good laugh about that...I guess that is one way to get out of your comfort zone...

Also, my OCD is going CRAZY with all of these crunchy leaves here!! It takes all my willpower not to dance all over the sidewalk stepping on every crunchy leaf in New Jersey.... 

Anyways... I hope that makes up for me not writing you last week... I do love you all and sincerely pray for all of you! Thank you also for your prayers, because God knows I need them!! And always remember that starting off your day right begins on your knees the night before!

Love you!!!

Sis Baine!

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY WONDERFUL, HANDSOME, 13 YEAR-OLD, CAPTAIN MORONI, BROTHER ETHAN!!!!!!!! LOVE YOU!!

This is how I feel exercising in the morning.....

Oh, btw, in Kim B Clark who spoke in conference was my president at
BYU-I when I was there... So I'm pretty much famous now....
 

Not in the mood to write!

Soooo here's my weekly email....

That is SO CUTE HOW JOHNNY IS DOING FOOTBALL!!!!!!!!! He is such a
tough-looking handsome boy!!!!
 
Give Ethan a big birthday hug for me!!!!!

I miss you all so much it hurts. I know I
can't think about that though.... But I keep you in my prayers.

And I'm doing the ponderize challenge too! Mine is 1 Nephi 11:1.
I love it because I am working on making my prayers more meaningful so
that I can have spiritual experiences and revelation like I've never
had before.

I'm not really in the mood to write a weekly email... I love you so
much!!!!! 😘

HEY HEY HEYYY!!!!!

Why hello there everyone.

This week has been mega cray cray! Sooo busy! Sooo good though! It is amazing how God will never let you fail when you are on His errand. AHH I want to tell you everything I have been learning!!! But that would take like 87 years and we all know that when I start talking about what I am learning about the Gospel, I take up a half an hour in my farewell talk.

So George didn't get baptized. But we are still going to be working on him! It probably wasn't very good of us to be cramming everything into him that we had to teach him this week, because I don't think he really had time to gain a testimony of it. We met with him every day to go over the commandments with him, but for whatever reason, he never told us he had a problem with drinking coffee! Even when we were practicing the baptismal questions! That means we probably did something bad on our end because it shows he may not fully trust us... which makes me sad. But we will work on that. So when George came out of the interview, he was kinda bummed, but there is no whey in the protein that we are going to let him give up! He is so amazing, and I just love him so much! Did I mention that He is a WWII vet? Its true! He was in the marine corps and his brother was in the navy! He is just the best.

So Guess WHAT?! A miracle happened! Even though that shouldn't be much of a surprise, it is still just so amazing the things that Heavenly Father sees and plans for His children. So every Thursday is our walking day right? So we basically fast from using our car. Well last Thursday we had an appointment that we thought might not be that far away to walk to, so we started walking... Well it turned out to be WHEY farther than we thought, but there wasn't really much else we could do at that moment but keep walking. So we did. As we were walking, we met this super wonderful woman at a cross-walk named Alexis. We started talking with her a little bit, and she was super open and sweet, and almost one of the first questions she asked was "what is the difference between your temples and your churches?" WHAT? Like the perfect question ever to lead into all sorts of awesome gospel conversations! So we invited her to come to church with us on Sunday! She accepted, and we exchanged numbers so we could keep in contact. We said goodbye, and then we turned around to keep walking and what do we realize? We are right in front of one of the housing complexes that a family in our ward lives in. So we go knock on the door and ask desperately for a ride. Sis Allen (the member mom) says that of course she can give us a ride to our appointment. She said that we had come at exactly the right time because she was just about to take her young (CUTE) son to kindergarten. As we were driving she mentioned to us that she was really grateful that we stopped by because she hadn't been feeling the greatest and really needed to do that service for us. It was such a blessing!!!

Well, Alexis texted us and told us she was sorry that she couldn't come to church with us like she had planned, but then she asked if there was a time that we could set up to meet! WHAT? So we have already taught her two lessons, and she came to the Womens Conference, AND she came to church the next day, AND she is praying about a baptismal date (she told us that she wants to be on the "fast track" for baptism), AND we have another appointment with her this week. WWHHAATTT?!?!?!? MIRACLESSS!!!!!! There are even so many more miracles that I can't even describe... just kidding I'll describe one more. So on our way to our first appointment with Alexis, we got caught in traffic, and we were already running a few minutes late, so we ended up being a HALF AN HOUR LATE to her appointment... we are terrible missionaries. BUT! The member that we had as a team up to go with us got there right on time, and they were able to talk and discuss things until we got there! All the members of our ward are SO NICE!!!! They seriously save us on Sundays because we have so many investigators coming with us to church that its like a mad house, and I my companion and I can't split up! So it is such a blessing that whenever we ditch one investigator to take a different one to class, the members always pick up the slack and talk to them or lead them in the direction of where to go. ALWAYS BE THAT KIND OF MEMBER!!!!!!! ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS!!! Talk to the new people at church and love them and befriend them! If for no other reason but to help the missionaries out! But if you start doing that, the rest will come.

But the Women's Conference though!!!!!! IT WAS MAGNIFICENT!!!! It was honestly just what I needed! Just what all of us sisters needed apparently, because the spirit was SO strong! Everything was just SO inspired! I can't wait to listen to it over and over again and get more and more out of Elder Uchtdorf's parable. I just love the word of the Lord. God is just the best, isn't He?!

Anyways... Umm well I guess something else that you might find interesting is that I got a free pair of Nike tennis shoes. Seriously, a pair of brand- new, white and blue Nike tennis shoes were left in our apartment when we moved in. And I was like, "sweet! If no one claims them and asks for them back I am totally going to wash them and wear them." And so I did! ...I should have taken a picture... I'll send you one next week.

So we are doing a Family History booth this Saturday! Im super excited!!! I will probably be talking all about it in my next email.

I love you all SO SO SO SO much!!!!! I love your letters and emails and especially your prayers. You are all fabulous and PRECIOUS children of Heavenly Father, and He loves you SOOOOO much more than  even your mother could. Not even joking. Keep being such great examples! And remember: Once a member, always a missionary!!! (that's the new slogan we made up for our ward )

LOVE

Sister Baine! :)

 fall is coming to NJ!!!!! this is the view of the yard from our back porch! :)

IM BACK!

EVERYONE! HELLO!

So this week has been kinda weird... and yes I am sorry I am writing so late.... Like I said it has been kind of a weird week... But we have someone on date to be baptized!!! He is a 92 year- old man named George! Actually, almost all of our investigators have accepted a baptismal invitation, but we just have to set a date we can work for! I guess that is the beauty of committing to baptism in the first lesson...

Anyways! Fun fact, we got to help out in a soup kitchen for the first time this week! We will be doing it as a service project every Friday from now on... The homeless people in this fancy part of Jersey are not at all like the homeless people I've ever seen anywhere else though haha. They are pretty nicely kept hobos... Funny story though... so last week on Thursday we were riding the train home from an appointment, and we met a man named Nique at the station and talked to him a little about the Gospel, you know gave him a card and everything. Well he was actually one of the people that came in to the soup kitchen to get food on Friday! It was cool to get to talk to him again... but he barely even remembered us haha, thats ok.

So on Saturday we did a value color run with the Young Women because we had an investigator there named Stephanie, and it was so fun!!! I didn't get as colored as I wanted to, but thats ok, because it was still awesome. I wish I were still in Young Womens sometimes haha. They had some cool Taylor Swift music playing though, and it was SO hard for me not to dance! The funniest part though was that we did the color run in the parking lot of the church right? Well, we didnt know that there was apparently a big huge meeting going on that day with some missionaries and even an area 70 for some service thing!! So while we are all out there covered in colored chalk watching these beehives dance their hearts out, Elders from the mission are walking up in their nice white shirts and suits asking us what was going on haha. We are just glad that the area seventy didn't see us! It was a blast though. 

 

We have still been seeing tons of miracles this week! God is so good, and He loves us so much. I love hearing from all of you!!! Please keep me posted on everything that has been going on! I love you so much! Sorry this letter is kind of short... But I will make it up to you next week haha!

Week of Miracles

THIS HAS BEEN A WEEK OF COMPLETELY NOTHING BUT MIRACLESSSS!!!!!!!!! It has honestly been so amazing. I didn't even know that there could possibly be so many miracles in 1 week. So as I attempt to describe all of the awesome, crazy things that have been happening, you prolly won't have any idea who I am talking about, but I'll do my best to explain.

So on Monday it was almost time to go home for the night, but we had like 15 more minutes, so we walked downtown a couple blocks to do some street contacting. Well right when we came out of our driveway, there was a guy up the street from us taking out his garbage. I wanted to go talk to him, but I had kind of a funny feeling, so we stood there awkwardly in the street debating of whether we should go talk to him or not, but then Sis Roundy said he might be drunk because he was kind of singing to himself and then he went inside. So we decided to just go down to main street and contact. Well, almost right when we walked into town we passed a lady and said hi to her, and then she turned around and asked what organization we were from because she saw our nametags. We found out her name was Melissa, and we talked with her for nearly a half an hour. We attempted to set up an appointment with her, but we had to just leave her with a Book of Mormon and our number. When we walked back we realized that we would have missed her if we hadn't waffled in the street for 5 minutes haha.

Then you'll never guess what happened on Tuesday. We had gotten a call FROM A MEMBER that he wanted us to come over at a certain time so we could go visit his neighbor and teach her. Well we were running a little bit late that day, and went over there and she wasn't home. So we talked for a while with the member and then went back over to try again, and she was there! We didn't get a return appointment, but we definitely had a good discussion with her. We would have missed her completely if we hadn't been running late, because we would have probably missed her again and just gone home. Later that day we visited with a 92 year old man named George and had a WONDERFUL lesson with him about the plan of salvation. The Spirit was so strong, and he was also a member referral with the member present, and he has been really progressing. Then later we met with another one of our investigators named Chris (who was also a former investigator and member referral with the member present for the lesson). One of the first things he said to us was "So you know how last time when we met I said I didn't have any problems for Christ to help me with? Well I got one yesterday." He then told us of a trial that had just popped up that was really serious, and how he had been keeping his commitments to read and pray. We talked with him about what he had been reading, and he took notes through the whole lesson!

On Wednesday we met a young man named Lukas. He had been a former investigator, but had been dropped a year or so ago. Our bishop mentioned him to us and we found him, gave him a call and set a time to meet! The only problem was, we didn't have a member yet to go with us. We called and texted a couple of people, but then literally a half an hour before the appointment a Bother Hockenjos said he could go with us! IT WAS SUCH A BLESSING!!!! The lesson was awesome and Lukas connected with the him so well! Honestly, Brother Hockenjos probably did 3/4ths of our job that day. They just talked and got to know each other and discussed the Gospel and their histories with it and everything, and then us sisters had some time at the end to ask some questions, and committed him to be baptized. WHAT?! Then we had dinner with a member, and at the end she took a picture of us to send to our parents (hopefully you got it Mom).

So Thursday was crazy. We had to schedule in two dinners. One was a member (which was sooooooo good! and she made us the best chocolate cake I have ever had) and then right afterwards we were going to meet at a diner with another member and less active. Well the first dinner wasn't that far away, so we were going to walk, but then it ended up raining alllll dayyy lonnng. But it was ok cuz it was my first NJ rainy day so it was cool. But anyways, Thursday is our walking day where basically the mission has a car fast and can't drive. So she was kind enough to pick us up and then afterwards she was so nice as to drive us to the diner. Which was a miracle, because if we hadn't had dinner with her before, we would have had to walk an hour in the rain to get to the diner which was in a different city. So we get to the diner, and guess what? The less active (which we found out later wasn't really a less active per say) had brought her niece with her who was not a member! We found out that her name was Tracy and she was part of a different church where she really liked it, but mentioned a couple of times that she didn't always feel all the way filled up with the Spirit when she would study the Bible sometimes, like she knew that there was more that she could be experiencing. So (as I ate my dinner appetizer of fried zucchini spears) we had the BEST discussion about the sacrament! the spirit was so strong as we read from the Book of Mormon in 3 Nephi 18 about how the people were filled when they took the sacrament. At the end of the night we had an appointment set up to go and see Tracy again and give her a big Book of Mormon! And her aunt is going to be there!

Friday we had a loooong training meeting that was SO AWESOME!!!! I am learning so much here! And they feed us good lunches at those meetings, so that's good. But then we went to the doctor for Sis Roundy and ended up missing one of our appointments with Chris because they took so long. But the awesome thing is that the member that was going to go with us is named Brother LaConte, and he is a recent convert. He still went to the appointment and got to talk a little bit with Chris even though we weren't there! When we finally got out of the doc, it was too late to meet with Chris, but we did get to go visit a handicapped member with Brother LaConte, and then he took us out to dinner and we got to talk about some gospel principles with him.

Saturday we had the best comp inventory ever! I love having problems come up, because then after being able to work them out Sis Roundy and I are even closer than we were before and have the spirit even stronger! We also had an appointment scheduled with a new investigator named James, but just when we arrived we got a call from a referral we had been trying to contact. So we stayed in the car and talked to him for a minute, and even though he didn't want to meet with us, we got to bear our testimony to him and invite him to keep searching. Right when we were ending the conversation, James pulled up in to his driveway! If we hadn't gotten that call when we did, we probably would have just left when he didn't answer the door! Also, when the member pulled up, we watched her get out of her car and then see her friend from the ward and go talk to her and give her a hug. We didn't get much time with him, but the sister member we brought with us knew James' grandmother who was a member! The spirit was present and we had a great lesson! Then right after that we went over to Chris' house and got to meet his little 3-year old boy named John. He was so cute! We had Brother LaConte with us again, and had felt prompted to center the lesson on Sabbath day observance and then invite him to come to church. The lesson was a little bit rough between John being loud with his toys and going off on random tangents, but it was still good. We discovered another miracle in that lesson though! So Chris told us that he had been a smoker like a week before we had first met, but with the money problems he had been having, he didn't have enough money to buy them, so he had just stopped smoking!!!! Its so amazing that not only did these trials bring Him closer to Christ, but they also helped him stop smoking! WHAT?! After that we went to another RC who lived in a really sketchy hotel, so it was a miracle that we got out of that place alive haha.

Sunday we had ward counsel at 7:30am, then church at 9, then coordination meeting for an hour right after that, we were there for a while, but it was worth it. We also had George and Stephanie (another one of our AWESOME investigators) come to church! Lukas and Chris were supposed to come to, but they didn't show up. But its ok, because the Lord blessed us with two new investigators at church! A mother and her handicapped daughter just SHOWED UP in sacrament meeting! The mom's name is Ann and her daughter is Kristin, and they had apparently been former investigators, but they connected really well with the members, and we have an appointment with them! After all that crazy church, we went home and stuffed ourselves full of top ramen, and then got a call from a member in our family saying that if we didn't have anyone scheduled to feed us that day to come over and eat with them. So we had two lunch/dinners. I have never been so stuffed. But then we went over to Stephanie's house to talk with her about church and teach her about the plan of salvation, and she said that Sis Cummings (a member mom she is close to who gave her a ride to church) said that their family likes to keep the Sabbath Day holy by keeping their church clothes on, and Stephanie really like that. So guess what. She kept her church clothes on all day to keep the Sabbath day and she said she felt really good all day long. She loved church, and when we taught her the POS, she said she felt like she was understanding everything way easier than she had been before. It was AWSOME!

OK!!! Well I'm sorry I practically barfed up my entire week to you all, but it is such a testimony to me that this is the Lord's time that I am borrowing. He perfectly orchestrates everything to help His children. He truly is in the details of our lives and this is His work!!! I love you all so much! Keep being so awesome! and thank you SO MUCH for your prayers!

Sis Baine :)