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TCHP-LettersFromTheField

What an overwhelming email I have to send! Haha!  There has been a million and 5 miracles and I don’t even know where to start…

We had a SUPRISE ALL MISSION CONFERENCE LAST SATURDAY!!!!!!! ALL 235 of us gathered to gether to be apart of a powerful meeting and receive instruction from Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder L. Whitney Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy, Elder Edward Dube of the First Quorum of the Seventy and with Elder Michael J. Reall of the Seventy!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I think they all came because we are about to get a new mission president.  To shake the hand of an Apostle of the Lord and then be taught by him was a treasured experience.  I immediately started crying when I saw them all, and when they walked into the room, everything was so intense.  The spirit there was definitely gentle and something to share with your posterity!

Elder Anderson instructed us to put our lives and trust in the Lord as HE knows the end from the beginning.  He knows us better than we know ourselves.  He quoted PMG p 2 and said that as our understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ grows, our desire to share the gospel will increase.  We will become seers of the unseen.  He talked of the merits of Christ being what brought about the Resurrection, His mercy being his love and forgiveness for each of us… (We need to experience it then teach it) and His grace which is the enabling power of the Atonement to do what we cannot do for ourselves.   Don’t be afraid to help someone repent and TESTIFY OF THE REALITY OF JESUS CHRIST.

He was actually really really funny!!  I’m so suprised actually.  They had all of these super comfy chairs set up for the 4 of them to sit on, on a high stage.  and he pointed to them and said, “What’s this?  Please let us sit in the normal chairs!” He asked ME to read something on the Power Point about the atonement.  So I stood up, grabbed the microphone, and started talking in my high pitched voice.  He said, “Now wait…I can tell you are a very cheery person, but I want you to read it….tone your voice a little bit…”  Everyone laughed a little and I tried so hard to have a low voice and be solomn.  He is so nice…. 🙂 So are the others!  I will always always always remember them.  Ah!  Elder Dube is from Zimbabwe and everyone from Des Moines loves him so much too because there are a ton of black converts. 🙂

Now I’ll go back to what happened with our investigators this week….

Alyssa and Christian….WOW!!  I DON’T THINK I CAN HAVE COOLER INVESTIGATORS!!!  We met them playing guitar outside of main street.  I said, “Hey do you know any gospel songs?!  You sound sooo good!”  And that got us talking.  We’ve had 3 lessons with them already and they want to be baptised in May.  It will be a miracle if they can get themselves in line with the commandments by then, but we’ll see! 🙂  Christian is almost 16 and he told us how he was into drugs and thought everything was lost.  He had no one to turn to.  So he grabbed a Bible and started reading.  He bore THE MOST SINCERE AND SWEET testimony I’ve ever heard from a young man.  Sister Cannon and I just cried!  And this lesson was outside…He had no shame to bare his testimony AND PRAY!!  his prayer was so cute.  And Alyssa tried out for America’s Got Talent and just overcame cancer!  Seriously…amazing people!  We’ve read Alma 36 that talked about Alma the younger’s path back to Jesus Christ and they really related to it and totally loved it.  🙂 🙂 🙂 I look forward to seeing them like EVERYDAY!!!

Norma!!  She’s about 70 years old and has the most pure heart I’ve ever known.Sh’es never been married, and lets us work out in her yard.  She had sooo many questions about church.  Sister Jergensen came on an exchange with us this week and talked about it in her talk at the mission conference.  She said when we come to her house, Something else leaves with us… and she never wants that feeling to go away.  We explained that it wasn’t us at all, but the Holy Ghost, and she can have the feeling with her that will never leave if she gets baptised. 🙂  It was a neat night! But she called us the next night and said she’s not sure if she wants to study with us anymore because she feels guilty from things in the past.  We will keep serving her and see if we can change her mind! Haha 😉

Moises!  We met him at the TULIP FESTIVAL.  We started offering people in the booths if we could help set up and take down.  This man started asking us what our nametags were and we told him a little about the Mormons.  Then we offered him a Book of Mormon and he said he only reads in Spanish…  GUESS WHAT??!  WE JUST HAPPENED TO HAVE ONE SPANISH BOOK OF MORMON AT HOME!!! SO WE WENT AND GOT IT.  He asked sooo many questions to me in spanish!  Haha I tried my very best to speak in spanish but I probablly sounded terrible.  Somethings went really well, but some words he just flat out laughed at!! haha I think I was trying to explain the spirit world and I said, “El Mundu de Espirotos” and he about started crying from laughter…I wonder if what I said… hahahaha! 🙂 Then he wanted to know why we were happy, and what made us happy.  We told him the gospel and the teachings from that book.  He totally wants to learn more, and begged for missionaries! He started reading the book immediately and said, “I’ve been waiting so long!” We found out he lives in Chicago…and my best friend is serving there…spanish speaking!! SO i’m praying that she will get to teach him.  We got his address and #.

There’s about 3 other really cool stories but I’m just out of time! But please know that I love this work.  I love it sooo much!  I am sooo very grateful that I chose to come out and forget myself.  I’m so much happier by doing so.

 

 

 

We got a new car…:)  And the tulip festival was going on downtown!  Hope you enjoy the pictures of us “Tip-Toeing through the tulips.”  The festival was cancelled for 2 days because there was a TON of snow randomly…haha!  But it was still wonderful with many people and contacts!! I even ran into a  REALLY NEAT member family from my last area.:) 🙂 🙂

 

 

 

LOVE YOU LONG TIME!!

 

Sister Stephie Tobias

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