Letter 15 - Guess Who's Happy??!

Hello Family and Friends!!

Another wonderful week in Canada :) The weather is great - we had a day where it was only -4 degrees - it was a SAUNA!!! ;)

There is so much I could say and so little time!! haha someday, after this life, we will all sit down together and replay ALL OF OUR EXPERIENCES in life - and we can rewatch everything I am unable to tell you now :)

First off, Sunday was amazing yesterday. K... and L... came today. The spirit was so strong throughout everything. In Relief Society, we had no investigators so we could just relax and enjoy the lesson without stressing in our minds about how C... or D.... or someone else might be taking it haha. The teacher, Sister Radtke, brought in the spirit so strong that I received an answer to a question I have had for a very long time. It was nothing Sister Radtke said specifically, but rather the way she invited the spirit - I can barely even remember what she said, but I came out with a mind FILLED with ideas and peace and power from what the SPIRIT taught me. Such a cool experience.

We received a missionary referral of a man named S... who lives in on the 12th Floor in a giant apartment building. We didn't have his room number so we decided to go tracting! Haha. We prayed to have the Lord take us to where his apartment is, and guess what happened? We felt that he lived on the right side of the hallway so we started knocking on all the doors. Nothing. We get to the last door, and a Chinese YSA girl opens the doors. We introduced ourselves and asked if we could come in and share a message with her and she said YES. haha that never happens. She has never heard of God before, so we taught her a SIMPLE piece of the Plan of Salvation - over and over she kept saying "Is this for REAL?!", "This is a miracle!" - we taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, invited her to be baptized, and she accepted! We prayed with her, and as we said Amen we looked up and she had this look of wonder on her face. We asked her how she felt and she said, "I feel strange. I can't describe this feeling. Is this for real?!" hahahah i KNOW this gospel is true. I KNOW the spirit is real and powerful because Z..., a girl who had never heard about God before just received a confirmation for herself by the Spirit telling her that God was real. Wow.

G... has been doing very well in many ways and the rest of it is mysterious... hard to explain. He, at first, was doing everything to learn more about God, to feel the spirit, to REALLY come to find out if all this was true. And this past week it kind of transferred over to him doing it to please US, and make US happy, and show his gratitude for US.  We are really working on getting him more involved with the people in the church so he has a greater support group than just us. We feel that that will really help. PLEASE keep him in your prayers! G... is so great.

Something we learned this week is the spirit not only can help us know what to say, but it can also change the way we ACT when we teach. We dropped by a less-active, M... N..., a few days ago. We have tried a couple times before and he always says no to the visit. We dropped by again a few days ago, and he said he was sick and couldn't talk to us. Normally, Sister Mendenhall and I act very professional and mature as representatives of Christ - and that changed when we were talking with him. We turned back into our normal 19-year-old girl selves, joking with him, being sarcastic with him. We wouldn't let him close the door. We sang him a song, we testified, every time he denied our visit we kept saying "no" we are staying. Suddenly, he just cracked, he allowed us to pray with him, he told us why he hasn't been coming to church, he told us about his wife, he invited us back again..... After we left, Sister Mendenhall and I, stopped, looked at each other, and just said "what the heck just happened?" It was as if we had no control over how we were acting. The spirit completely took over and helped us act the EXACT way that Brother N... needed us to in order for him to open up. It was SUCH AN AMAZING experience. I still can't help but smile thinking about it. Oh Brother N... :)

We met with A... - the man I talked to while we were emailing last time - and he accepted a baptismal date for March 2!! YAY A...!!!!

We had another Restoration Musical Fireside tonight about the Restoration. The missionaries sang "Hark all Ye nations" together, and I got to sing "Joseph's Smith First Prayer." I LOVE SINGING. Heavenly Father has been blessing me with so many opportunities to use music as a tool for missionary work. Not to mention I get to play the piano every week for every district and zone meeting, sometimes during sacrament meeting, and always during Relief Society. And mommy, the amazing thing is I have been able to play EVERY SINGLE song they have given me without any problem! Sister Mendenhall and I were talking about it, and that is a COMPLETE blessing by the spirit. So grateful.

Exchanges were this week and OH MY GOODNESS!!! SUCH a great experience. I don't have much time left, but let me just say, Sister Stats taught me how to be BOLD. It was as though I am an egg, and Sister Stats  cracked me right open haha. The things she taught me, and the way she exemplified boldness will no doubt effect the rest of my mission.

I KNOW this gospel is true. I LOVE my Heavenly Father. I LOVE His Plan. I LOVE getting to share experiences with my family and friends back at home. Thank you for all that you do. Thank you for your prayers.

Make it a great week and know that prayers are coming your way from Canada!!

Sister Bodine