THE GREATEST FEELING

Hello my peeps! How is life treating y'all right now? Life is being pretty good to me. It's been hard sending Sister Nelson home, but Heavenly Father is helping me through it. Because of all that craziness there is not a whole ton to write about this week. I have been adopted by Sister Smith and Sister Powell, my Sister Training Leaders. They are awesome and have been taking good care of me. My first night with them (Friday, after we dropped Sister Nelson off in Tulsa) Sister Smith pumped up a little air mattress for me with a hand pump. That poor little mattress! There must have been a hole in it or something because I wasn't on it for very long before my back side was chillin on the floor. I was too tired to do anything about it though so I just slept on a flat mattress that night :) Saturday Sister Smith and Sister Powell had a baptism (Hermiko and Skyler. Hermiko is marshallese, and Skyler is her son. He is nine) that we got to go to, so that was cool. Then Sister Powell headed off to go to another baptism in Sullivan and me and Sister Smith had lunch and then taught lessons. We got to teach Skyler the plan of salvation using side walk chalk, so that was cool. We also did a service prank for Sister Powell. We took a bunch of pictures of ourselves and then hid them around the apartment so that Sister Powell would find them at random times and be blessed by the sight of our smiling faces. It was fun. She just found one today that I hid in her closet. We also hid swedish fish all around the apartment, in remembrance of her first area. She had shotgunned Elders out of an area and they had left bowls of gold fish all over the apartment. There were some in the toilet too I think. ...yes, we put swedish fish in the toilet. ;) It was fun. What else has been awesome is that I have gotten to drive! That has been super fun. :) Sunday was interesting. First of all, I didn't have a companion. But I really wanted to be in the YSA ward. So Dannah was my companion in the morning and afternoon until about 3:00pm, and then Eliza became my companion from 3:00pm until 9:00. It was a fun time, but it was hard. They both were so excited to be my companion, and they love missionary work, but they haven't been trained the way I have. Wow. That sounded really pompus of me. I don't meant it like that at all. It's just...I don't know. haha! It's just hard. Plus, they are NOT my companion. It's the weirdest thing, but unless I know that my companion is the person that Heavenly Father wants me to be with, it is just hard for me to be as effective. If that makes sense. Any way, so it was a bit rough, but it was a lot of fun too, and it taught me that I can do this :) The other weird thing about Sunday was that I had the impression that I should try to hit the standard. Now, as you remember the standard of excellence is 20 lessons a week, 60% member present, 2 new investigators and 1 investigator at church. By the time Sunday rolled around we were looking pretty good except for lessons. Member present percentage is never a worry. We had found 2 new investigators on Wednesday (oh yeah, I didn't tell you about them. I will tell you about them in a few lines) and I was sure we would have at least one investigator at church. But, we only had 5 lessons. I really felt like I could hit the standard though, so I prayed to Heavenly Father a lot, on Saturday and Sunday, and then I went to work. I told the ward council in the morning what my hope was: 15 lessons by the end of the day. Bishop was for it all the way! I have an awesome Bishop out here! Any way, I was praying a lot that day and I was able to see some pretty amazing miracles. We had 6 investigators at church, we got a new investigator, Michael, and we were able to teach nine lessons, which is honestly amazing especially for a Sunday. I was so grateful to Heavenly Father! And the neat thing is, I don't think that I had the prompting to hit the standard because Heavenly Father wanted me to teach 20 lessons. He wanted me to work towards that so that I could teach people and lessons that I probably wouldn't have taught otherwise. The one that comes to mind specifically is a lesson that I was able to teach a recent convert, Erick. He is going through a really hard time right now, and I had no idea that he was until we went to visit him and were able to talk with him. I would not have done that if I hadn't been trying to hit 20 lessons. I really think that is what Heavenly Father wanted me to do. It's not often that I am ok with falling short of a goal, but in this case I am because I was able to reach Heavenly Fathers goal for me. I really believe that I did what He wanted me to do :) It's the best feeling ever to come home to the apartment in the evening and know that I did all that I could, and that I did what Heavenly Father wanted me to do. It was a good day yesterday. So, really quick, Ash and Francis are the new investigators we found on Wednesday. Remember Augi, the recent convert? Francis is his sister. Ash is Francis's significant other. And he is from New Zealand so he has a sweet accent. So on Wednesday I went on a brief exchange with Sister Powell (while Sister Smith helped Sister Nelson pack) and we got to meet and start teaching Ash and Francis. It was a really good lesson about the restoration. I always love talking about Joseph Smith and the first vision right at the end, because the spirit comes into the room so strongly. It's awesome! Well, I think that's about all my news. I actually wrote a lot more than I thought I would. You lucky ducks! :) Any way, have an awesome week y'all! OH! What the heck, I almost forgot to tell you about transfer calls! (Drum roll please) I AM STAYING IN SPRINGFIELD YSA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Crazy right?! This is my 5th transfer here. And here is the other exciting part; my new companion is going to be Sister Ratto! :D Remember Elder Ratto who served in our ward with Elder Gibson? Sister Ratto is his sister :) Small world. I have met her a few times and she seems really cool, so I am excited. Ok, now I think that is all my news :) Have an amazing week! I love you all! Sister Cryer