Hello Hello hello!!
I have so many exciting things to tell you my fingers are flying off the keyboard!! Guess where I got transferred??! AMES, IOWA!!! Yes! Oh it’s so wonderful. I was just here last week on Exchanges with Sis. England and we had such an amazing time. We laughed all day and worked so hard! So I turned to her and said, “Can you imagine if we were companions?!” And I’m sure Heavenly Father giggled a little bit, because I am now in Ames and we are companions!!! What a sense of humor He has. 😉
She’s so full of charity! I love her. She’s from good ole’ Roy, UT. She was in marching band and has special permission to play to flute here! Right on! She just got called to be a Sister Training Leader and now we are over Fort Dodge and Ames zones. We are working on the Iowa State University campus and are constantly working with the YSA (Young Single Adults) at the institute! I’m so blessed!! The funniest part is that Elder Herrin, my next-door neighbor, spent his last 6 months here! So I’m hearing all kinds of stories about how much everyone loved him from the members and the missionaries. It instantly creates a bond with the members! 😉
We live right behind the train, which comes every 20 minutes! We hear it’s the busiest train in the United States. It’s so exciting because our apartment shakes when it passes by! Teehee! We feel like Alma after the Angel appeared to Him in our companion studies when “the earth did tremble beneath our feet; for the fear of the Lord came upon us.” Sometimes we can’t tell if it’s because we are being really good teachers…or if it’s just the train… 😉
Leaving Pella was awfully hard, but I knew I was going somewhere inspired. Sometimes you never know how much an investigator means to you, or you mean to your investigator when until you have to say goodbye… 🙁 There was a family I know I will keep in contact with forever. I’m so excited to see them baptized, and heading down the road to more happiness soon. 🙂 Sis. Edwards was soo kind to me! She totally spoiled us on my last day. I will be forever changed because of the AMAZING members I’ve been able to live with. Ahhh! Words can’t describe the level of love they have for the Savior. They are willing to do everything and anything for Him. I’ve been so humbled to see how I could’ve lived my life more fully, but I just got to move forward, knowing that I’ve done the best that I can for now… :0)
Anyways!! One super neat/funny/spiritual experience that has happened so far: We got a list of YSA’s to find and visit so we prayed over it to find out whom to visit first. One name totally popped out to both of us! So we went to her house, but a man answered it and immediately invited us in. I looked at Sis. England and was thinking we had found the most golden investigator ever because he was so open to us…but he was a member…. :S He had moved into her house and we both had never met this member before… 😉 But we had a lesson with him and it was so powerful! He is going through an awful hard time and he bore his testimony about how he’s fallen off the path so many times, but always makes it back whenever He can’t do anything on His own. He said he’d be completely drunk, and someone would make fun of the church, but he’d defend it hard core! And then He’d get home and think, “If I love the church so much, and I know it’s true…why am I living like this?” Then his 8 yr. old son asked him if he’d get back into the church so that he could baptize him, and that’s really what turned his life around again!!! WOW! We read Moroni 10:31-32 with him and he and his girlfriend were totally crying. Oh my goodness. I love instantly loving people because of the spirit!!! I am loving this area already!!! I LOVE these people!! I love the atonement!!! I love repentance and change and the hope that Christ gives to us everyday!
Thanks for being my wonderful family. It’s such an honor to be related to you, and to my friends…it’s such an honor to know you!!!
I LOVE YOU all and send you charity from the angels above!!! :): ) 🙂
Sister Tobias 🙂