What a week it has been here in Port Alberni! I can't even express to you how amazing and miraculous this week has been! So much has happened and we have seen so many miracles it is insane! I will give you a run down of all the week and the miracles the best as i can:
Monday:
Of course it was p-day so we were able to get our apartment all clean from elders living there it wasn't too bad but it took sometime and did get to rest for a bit after a crazy day of cleaning. We then got to see this amazing Less active native family. They shared with us all the similarities between the Book of Mormon and the natives beliefs! It was so cool to see how they are so similar and really strengthened my testimony even more of the Book of Mormon.
Tuesday:
We took our amazing member to our lesson with a mom named Catherine we found and she said when she first met us she had just finished praying to God for strength and a witness of his love and some guidance and 2 minutes later we knocked on her door! She wasn't available due to family being there but wanted to learn more! Then we tried a potential the elders had found and turns out it was actually a woman named Tanja that was searching for the right church and has a family member who is a member and really wants to learn!
Wednesday:
We had to drive to Courtenay for District Meeting (its about an hour and 20 minutes away but we were able to meet an awesome family before we left who needs help painting and wants to learn more about the gospel! After we met with a part member family who has an 8 year old daughter who is getting baptized at the end of the month. We were able to teach her about baptism! Even though she isn't a convert baptism, we still get to be apart of her baptism and help her get ready!
Thursday:
We were suppose to have 6 lessons but all of them fell through but one with a young mom who wants her kids to learn and go to church to be able to know and find out for themselves. We didn't know which member to take and it was last minute so we prayed about it and felt we should take Shelley and turns out they already know each other really well and she teaches the primary class her kids were going to be in! Then a member invited us over for dinner and her inactive grandson heard we were coming and made us a delicious dinner! So nice!
Friday:
Absolutely amazing day! We ended having 7 lessons in one day! It was a miracle how it all worked out! We met with Julia and set a baptismal date with her for the end of September. She needs more time to learn. Then we prayed about where we need to find after our first 3 lessons and both felt we should go to Wallace St. and the only house on the street which we wouldn't have found unless we chased down this woman walking to talk to her was guy named Jimmy. We told him about the Book of Mormon and he wanted us to come back that night and share more with him. So we went to our lesson with Tanja from tuesday and she is so prepared. She is still praying about September 12 as her date but her and her family will get baptized! We felt the spirit super strong and know they are prepared! We went back to see Jimmy and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and invited him to pray about it. Later we got to meet with our investigator Sarah we found a little bit ago! She has had such a hard life and we know how much the gospel will bless her but she isn't quite prepared yet but we will still work with her and help her!
Saturday:
Helped our awesome family paint! It was so fun! i love painting! they are willing to learn after they move into the house they are fixing up and so we are going to keep helping them until they are ready! They are super cool! Then we met a family finding and they put there parrot on my shoulder! We are going back in 2 weeks to see what they thought of the Book of Mormon
Sunday:
No one showed up to church even though we commited 4 people to come! Tanjy and her family had to go to the ER for strep throat so we had a member make her dinner and took it over to her! We just needed one more baptismal date to make our missions standards of excellence. We were trying so hard to find people who were ready but had no one! We prayed so i drove trying to follow the spirit and finally just pulled over to a random street that had a former on it so we were praying before we got our of the car and a guy came to our window letting us know she wasnt home so we prayed again and opened our eyes and there she was we went to talk to her and she wasn't interested but her brother, Stephen was. We pretty much taught him the whole restoration. He took a Book of Mormon and accepted a date for September 12!!!!!! It was such a miracle! God is just too good! We were in shock the rest of the night! We couldn't believe it! Our prayers and his prayers were answered!
I have learned so much in just one week so far! I was reading in Ether 12 this morning and realized the importance of our weaknesses! Even though they are hard to deal with and don't make life any easier, they cause us to rely on the Lord even more than already do so we can make our weaknesses strengths! We can really only do it with His help! That is why faith in Him is so important! Faith brings so many miracles but its only after the trial of our faith! Finding Stephen was such a testimony builder for me and really helped me to understand the importance of faith so much! Faith is important! That is also why it is so important to continue to strengthen it and to never stop, the moment we stop we will slowly start going down and it makes it harder to make it back! I love you all and hope you all have a great week!
Love,
Sister Heaton
Sister Atkinson and me and a bear we found
Port Alberni- just a piece of it
Monday:
Of course it was p-day so we were able to get our apartment all clean from elders living there it wasn't too bad but it took sometime and did get to rest for a bit after a crazy day of cleaning. We then got to see this amazing Less active native family. They shared with us all the similarities between the Book of Mormon and the natives beliefs! It was so cool to see how they are so similar and really strengthened my testimony even more of the Book of Mormon.
Tuesday:
We took our amazing member to our lesson with a mom named Catherine we found and she said when she first met us she had just finished praying to God for strength and a witness of his love and some guidance and 2 minutes later we knocked on her door! She wasn't available due to family being there but wanted to learn more! Then we tried a potential the elders had found and turns out it was actually a woman named Tanja that was searching for the right church and has a family member who is a member and really wants to learn!
Wednesday:
We had to drive to Courtenay for District Meeting (its about an hour and 20 minutes away but we were able to meet an awesome family before we left who needs help painting and wants to learn more about the gospel! After we met with a part member family who has an 8 year old daughter who is getting baptized at the end of the month. We were able to teach her about baptism! Even though she isn't a convert baptism, we still get to be apart of her baptism and help her get ready!
Thursday:
We were suppose to have 6 lessons but all of them fell through but one with a young mom who wants her kids to learn and go to church to be able to know and find out for themselves. We didn't know which member to take and it was last minute so we prayed about it and felt we should take Shelley and turns out they already know each other really well and she teaches the primary class her kids were going to be in! Then a member invited us over for dinner and her inactive grandson heard we were coming and made us a delicious dinner! So nice!
Friday:
Absolutely amazing day! We ended having 7 lessons in one day! It was a miracle how it all worked out! We met with Julia and set a baptismal date with her for the end of September. She needs more time to learn. Then we prayed about where we need to find after our first 3 lessons and both felt we should go to Wallace St. and the only house on the street which we wouldn't have found unless we chased down this woman walking to talk to her was guy named Jimmy. We told him about the Book of Mormon and he wanted us to come back that night and share more with him. So we went to our lesson with Tanja from tuesday and she is so prepared. She is still praying about September 12 as her date but her and her family will get baptized! We felt the spirit super strong and know they are prepared! We went back to see Jimmy and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and invited him to pray about it. Later we got to meet with our investigator Sarah we found a little bit ago! She has had such a hard life and we know how much the gospel will bless her but she isn't quite prepared yet but we will still work with her and help her!
Saturday:
Helped our awesome family paint! It was so fun! i love painting! they are willing to learn after they move into the house they are fixing up and so we are going to keep helping them until they are ready! They are super cool! Then we met a family finding and they put there parrot on my shoulder! We are going back in 2 weeks to see what they thought of the Book of Mormon
Sunday:
No one showed up to church even though we commited 4 people to come! Tanjy and her family had to go to the ER for strep throat so we had a member make her dinner and took it over to her! We just needed one more baptismal date to make our missions standards of excellence. We were trying so hard to find people who were ready but had no one! We prayed so i drove trying to follow the spirit and finally just pulled over to a random street that had a former on it so we were praying before we got our of the car and a guy came to our window letting us know she wasnt home so we prayed again and opened our eyes and there she was we went to talk to her and she wasn't interested but her brother, Stephen was. We pretty much taught him the whole restoration. He took a Book of Mormon and accepted a date for September 12!!!!!! It was such a miracle! God is just too good! We were in shock the rest of the night! We couldn't believe it! Our prayers and his prayers were answered!
I have learned so much in just one week so far! I was reading in Ether 12 this morning and realized the importance of our weaknesses! Even though they are hard to deal with and don't make life any easier, they cause us to rely on the Lord even more than already do so we can make our weaknesses strengths! We can really only do it with His help! That is why faith in Him is so important! Faith brings so many miracles but its only after the trial of our faith! Finding Stephen was such a testimony builder for me and really helped me to understand the importance of faith so much! Faith is important! That is also why it is so important to continue to strengthen it and to never stop, the moment we stop we will slowly start going down and it makes it harder to make it back! I love you all and hope you all have a great week!
Love,
Sister Heaton
Sister Atkinson and me and a bear we found
Port Alberni- just a piece of it