The Work and Privilege

Hey everyone hope your all staying warm and enjoying the snow if your back East :) 

This week has been incredibly busy but it also flew by so fast!

We picked up a new investigator named Randy and he is HILARIOUS! He was a referral from some elders who had taught him. Well, we have been trying to contact him and he never answers the door. One day while we were contacting it was freezing outside and I just screamed "Randy we know your in there, OPEN UP." My companion ended up running to the car while I was on the porch yelling. He didn't end up opening the door… but we went to contact him again one day and we left a note explaining that we had lost his number and had been trying to get in contact with him. Well … Randy called us! My companions were doing something so I was talking to him on the phone and he basically told us that he already knew what he needed to do to get baptized and he was good. I started asking about what was keeping him from meeting with us.. and mid sentence he asks where I'm from.. Come to find out Randy is from Salem, VA and knew where I went to school. We talked  for a while and he asked if he could meet us this week. We met with him this week and he told us he is basically ready to get baptized he is just working on something. We had an awesome lesson with him this week. He kept asking us "Why are we here?" “What are you gonna tell your kids that you were in Caldwell, ID?" It was an awesome opportunity to testify of the importance and privilege of missionary work and the miracles of serving the lord and being a representative of the Savior. 

We also had a HUGE WORLDWIDE missionary broadcast and it was awesome. We were fed spiritually so well and learned so much! One of my favorites things that Elder Neil L. Anderson said was "Speak of the Savior, Speak of the gospel and he will speak of you to the Father"  What an awesome promise. We received training on SOOO many things. The theme was "Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts" which was awesome because as we had the broadcast it clicked that the lord wants his children that we are privileged  to teach to be converted before they enter the waters of baptism and we want repentance and baptism to be evidence of their conversion. We have been working with tons of investigators and our investigator Stacy is getting baptized on Saturday we are so excited for her :) She has been having a hard time lately actually quite a few of our investigators have been. I feel like the theme of the week was trusting in Heavenly Father and Elder Jeffrey R Holland's talk "Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence". It talks about when we have enlighten experiences or when a big change is about to come in our lives and we start to face challenges, but Elder Holland's counsel it  that "The Lord will fight for you" "If it was right when you prayed for it and trusted in it, it is right right now" Don't give up when the pressure mounts, Face your doubts, Master your fears Cast not away your confidence Stay the course, see the beauty of life unfold for you!" I love this advice of course its gonna be hard but the lord will always prepare a way for you if you place your trust in him.

Lastly we went to a middle school basketball game to watch a little boy who we are kinda teaching how to play it was super fun and he did awesome! Also we were super spoiled and went to Olive Garden this week with a member I can't resist those bread sticks and salad… maybe I should be, anyway it was delicious :) We also lost power on Tuesday and were not prepared when we got home but, I had a candle (Thanks Mom!) anyway we survived and the power eventually came back on! 

This has been an awesome week, to sit back and see the hand of the lord. I am always grateful for those moments when I think about the privilege it is to be a missionary. To be able to speak of the Savior and testify of the love he has for his children and the plan for all of us to return to our father in heaven. Each of us have a divine destiny we are children of a heavenly being who of all the names to be called chose "Father" I testify that the blessings he has in store for all his children can be found through the gospel of Jesus Christ that has been restored again upon the earth! 

Have a great week everyone :)

All My Love,

Sister Cleveland