Called to Serve: This week I got a new scarf and it is called a live snake!

The wildlife of Colorado ceases to amaze me! I don't know if you'd really consider it wildlife though because these are people's pets...not necessarily wild animals. Last week I hugged a wolf. This week I got a new scarf and it is called a live snake! We were doing service for a less active lady and her son was telling us all about his pet snakes. Then they asked if we wanted to hold them! At first he brought down a baby snake that was not scary at all...maybe the size of a marker around. But then he kept bringing bigger and BIGGER snakes down! It was crazy. And I wanted to be a cool kid, so we all held the giant snakes and put them around our necks. It was quite the experience! These are things that I never expected to happen on my mission...but that's why I love it! I love the unexpected events. They keep life interesting and exciting!

So, I got my new missionary this week! She is so great. Her name is Sister Elama and she is from SAMOA! She's so cool! I absolutely love Samoan people. She gave me a lavalava and she's been teaching me some things in Samoan! English is her second language, so sometimes we struggle to communicate. But, she is wonderful. I am excited to train her and get to know her better! I honestly think I'm learning more as a trainer than I have ever before. It's interesting because my weaknesses have been made very aware to me as I try and be the best example I can for Sis. Elama, but I have also felt an incredible power from above strengthening and enabling me. This past Sunday during sacrament, I really felt the enabling power of the Atonement. I've studied a lot about the atonement lately...about the redeeming power and the enabling power of the Atonement. Elder Bednar made a good point...he said that he feels people are all quite familiar with the redeeming power of the Atonement but we all have much more to learn about the enabling power of the Atonement. I am definitely not claiming to know everything about the enabling power of the Atonement because our mortal brains will never comprehend it all...but I am definitely learning a lot about it and feeling the enabling power of the Atonement working through me in my life as I grow into the missionary our Heavenly Father wants me to be.

We got a flood of potential this week! I have been praying very fervently that we will be guided to someone to teach so that my new missionary can have the experience of teaching. And let me tell you everyone. Heavenly Father answers our prayers! Sometimes I stand back in awe at how He answers every single prayer. Among all my prayers, there was one day in particular that I asked Heavenly Father to bless us with a new investigator that very day. I was putting all my faith on the line and asking for a new investigator. And lo and behold, guess what happened!? We were out visiting people that missionaries in the past have written down as potential investigators. We came across one house and we were expecting to find a man because that's what the previous missionaries had written down. But to our surprise, it was a woman who answered the door! it was freezing outside and I was grateful for the low temperature because she invited us in to get out of the cold! No weather is bad weather on a mission :) so we had the chance to get to know her and teach her a little bit about God and Jesus Christ. We asked her if we could come back another time and teach her more because we had an appointment to go to and she said she would love to learn more! So we set up an appointment and she wrote it on her calendar. We are going back to teach her this week! This was an answer to my prayers! We are so excited to start teaching her.

Things are going great here and we have a lot of potential in this area right now. Hopefully in the next week or so this potential will turn into solid work for us! Life is wonderful and the Lord loves all of us. Have a blessed day!

xoxo

Sister Hoer