Things are going great here in toasty Arizona!

Hey everyone!  how's it going?  Things are going great here in toasty Arizona!  The past few days it's been quite hot (around 105)!  This morning around 10:30 it was already 95 degrees.  It's going to be a warm warm summer but I'm excited.  I've been blessed so much because it hasn't been too bad yet.  I think that Heavenly Father is blessing me a lot!  So this past week has been really good.  it's been full of lots of ups and downs.  Like I said last week, we were planning on having the baptismal service of Terry this week.  Unfortunately we needed to postpone it a week so he should be getting baptized this week instead.  He thought that it would be a good idea to prove to his friends that he had quit smoking by taking a few puffs and then putting it down.  It is amazing how the adversary makes things like that seem like no big deal when in fact it is a big deal.  When we told him that he couldn't be baptized last we he was not happy at all.  Not in the least bit.  He got really mad.  It was so hard to see him so upset but we all knew that we had done the right thing. 

I had been praying to understand the Lord better and I think that this experience helped me in a way.  The Lord is merciful and just and that is how we had to be.  Luckily we have an amazing ward mission leader.  After we talked to Terry we called him and told him what happened.  He and his family got in the car and went to visit Terry.  It helped a ton.  Terry was able to share with him how he felt and the next morning he called us and apologized for how he acted.  Unfortunately I was the one that shared the bad news with him so he's still not super happy with me, but he's happy with my companions and so that's good.  

As I've thought about that experience, I've thought that things like that are what make missions hard.  It's seeing people you love make bad choices and then having to deal with them.  So we're praying that Terry will stay strong and that he'll be baptized on Thursday.  Satan is working really hard against him, but he can handle it.  The ward is also stepping it up quite a bit to make sure that he is nourished daily by ward members as well.  

President Walker often says, "The adversary is getting in his daily nourishment.  Are you?"  It is so true.  We need to build each other up in order to off-set the adversary. 

We had some really amazing experiences this week.  Nat, our investigator from Thailand is AMAZING!  Every time we visit him he teaches us.  Here are some of the things that he said to us this week:  1.  He read 2 Nephi 1:6.  It says, "There shall none come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord."  My companions and I have talked about this scripture among ourselves and how the Lord prepared him and brought him here so that he could have the Gospel.  It was so cool because in Nat's daily scripture study he came upon this verse and knew that it was talking about him.  He kept saying that it wasn't coincidence that he came to St. David, Arizona to hear about the Gospel and that it was the same year as the temple open house and TCC.  This kid is so amazing.  He always talks about how he'll go back to Thailand and be a missionary to everyone there.  #2.  We were talking about Christ and all that he did for us.  Nat stopped and said, "I think that Christ is so happy.  Just think about when you give people you love great gifts how it makes you feel.  If Christ did that for each one of us he must be so happy."  I had never really thought about that before but it is so so true.  #3.  He prayed after one of our lessons and we all told him that he did a great job.  He told us that with each time you pray, you really come to know God better.  He said that he's gone from not knowing our Heavenly Father to becoming very close to Him in the past few months.  So cool!  #4.   Nat bore his testimony in church yesterday.  He got up and said, "I'm not a member of your church... yet" and proceeded to bear one of the strongest testimonies that I've ever heard about our Heavenly Father and His love for us.  The spirit was so strong.  So those are a few stories from Nat this week.  He is such an amazing kid who has more faith than anyone I know.  Just 3 months ago he was Buddhist and knew nothing about God but now he is so strong.  He is so humble and I think that that is one of the reasons that he is so teachable.  So yeah, there's a bit about Nat. 

Since about the time we got here we've been teaching a girl named Rainee.  She's 20 and the only person in her family not baptized.  Her parents are under the impression that everyone just needs to get baptized and then they'll be saved.  So we've been teaching her for the past few months and nothing was really happening.  They would only let us come once a week if we were lucky and her parents would talk the whole time.  We got back from the temple we decided to have a lesson with just her and just see what she wanted in life.  From that lesson we decided to continue teaching her.  We started teaching just her (minus the parents) at the church everyday.  With each new lesson she changed a little.  Now, she is a completely different person.  On Thursday she was telling us about how at first she wanted nothing to do with us but because of our persistence and the Lord she is different and wants to be better.  Rainee is getting baptized on Saturday!  We're so excited and so is she!  It was so cool because during our lesson on Thursday the stake president walked in and just started to tell her about his conversion story.  He was about her age and he plead with her to keep moving forward.  It was perfect!  The spirit was so strong and she knew what she needed to do.  We're so so happy!
      
As you can see, last week definitely had its ups and downs but it sure was amazing.  I swear a mission is like a roller coaster but I wouldn't have it any other way.  It's like in 2 Nephi 2.  If we don't have hard times we wont have the good times or appreciate them.  I'm thankful for everything that has happened to me on my mission, the good and the bad.  It really has made me the missionary/person that I am today and I'm so thankful. 

Thanks for all of your love and support!  I love you all!  The Gospel is definitely true!  Stay true to it!

Love, Hermana Anderson