Called to Serve: I believe in miracles!!!

I believe in miracles!!! This week was such a good one. We worked really hard and saw the tender mercies of the Lord many times this week. So I've been in this area for 3 months now, and there are a lot of less active members and part member families of this ward that I had never met. We were determined to meet them all this week and we made some huge progress! Lots of families that the ward council has never gotten into their homes let us in this week.

There is one family, the L family, who is less active and also a part member family, and we had a great visit with them. They let us in to share a thought and we asked if we could start teaching their family! We are going back this week to start the lessons with them. The nonmember dad said he would sit in on the lessons! I was very excited about that. We also stopped by another less active family, the S family, who has been recently making some efforts to come to church! We've seen them twice in the past month or so. But they have a son who is 9 years old and hasn't been baptized yet. When we saw them this past week they were much more friendly and welcoming towards us! They even expressed their desire to get their son baptized. So we will also be going back to their house this week to begin teaching him and getting him ready for baptism!

We also visited a lot of former investigators and found someone to teach! She is a past investigator, but she told us she would love to learn more. Her daughter is probably more interested than she is, but they both asked us to come back. I am starting to see a lot of progress and potential in this area! We have really put forth all our efforts this week and seen the fruits of our labors. I can tell that we are gonna have some good work ahead of us.

In the past, we have taught this one girl, we'll call her M...she is technically not in our ward boundaries but she did not like being taught by the Elders. She preferred sisters. We've taught her a few times, but she wasn't really progressing. So this weekend, we heard from her friend who is a member soon to go on a mission, and he said that M wanted to meet with us as soon as possible! So the next day, we met with her and began to teach her about the plan of salvation. It was a really good lesson! We began talking about the Holy Ghost and how she can know the truth if she will just ask. We then talked a lot about baptism. It was neat because I could tell she had concerns, so we were super blunt and asked her to be very open with us. She expressed all her concerns and we were able to talk through them and help her a lot. When we were talking about baptism, our lesson was coming to an end and we were inviting her to pray about the decision to be baptized. Her friend was in the lesson with us, and he said, "Why wait? Let's kneel right now and you can ask Heavenly Father if being baptized is the right thing for you to do!" He spoke very powerfully and I could tell he was speaking as inspired by the spirit. The spirit was so strong in the lesson already...so we knelt and M prayed. I've never seen her feel the spirit so strongly. She asked in her prayer and we had a few moments of tender silence afterwards. We all knew that she got her answer. On the ride home, we tried to help her understand the feelings she had. She knows it was true, but she said she still has a lot to think about. I'm hoping she will act on the witness she received! It was such a great experience for all of us. It really testified to me that the spirit speaks through us. The lesson we gave was not the lesson me and my companion planned for her that morning. The spirit took us in a different direction and we were able to tell her exactly what she needed to hear. I am excited to meet with her again!

So, it's been a wonderful week. A cute little boy in our ward asked me to speak at his baptism. I had that opportunity this weekend. It was a neat experience. His dad is not a member and I could tell that the baptism really impacted him. He gave the closing prayer and it was one of the most heartfelt prayers I have ever heard! I loved being a part of the program and witnessing this sweet little boy make commitments with our Heavenly Father.

Missionary work is the best work there is! It is extremely exhausting and I have never worked so hard in my life, but when we see little miracles like we did this week, it is all worth it. I feel so much joy that I don't even remember how tired I am. It's so awesome. And... Colorado is absolutely beautiful. This week I was especially aware of all the beauty of this earth. I love to walk around and see all the beauty that Heavenly Father has given me. Life is so great! I just love where I am and the people I'm around. And I definitely love you all as well.

xoxo

Sister Hoer