Letter 4 - Miracles and Exciting Experiences

Hi my family and friends!

I LOVE to hear about all the news and see how things are going. Thank you for keeping me posted! I pray for my family every day :) And Welcome home kyle Chandler! That's exciting that the whole gang is back.

Mom and dad, It sounds like you two truly are missionaries back at home going on splits and helping out the missionaries. Let me tell ya, missionaries are grateful for members. Especially when they go on splits with them! Member testimonies can be so powerful! Just remember that silence is important in a lesson and not a sign of awkwardness. Haha let the spirit work on the hearts of the investigators and don't put in a say too fast! I love silence in lessons :) Alma 19:14, Ammon is a missionary who is NOT afraid of silence hahaha.

So miracles happened this week! God is preparing the people in Canada! This past week our mission had 30 baptisms!!! So happy for those people :)

I got to go on exchanges this week! Our sister training leaders are amazing. I went to Brantford and taught for a day with Sister Griffin. We had the whole day planned, but ended up only teaching one lesson haha. It wasn't a very successful day but I still learned SO MUCH and am so grateful for the experience. In the lesson we taught, things were going well. The investigator told us about what he had been reading in the Book of Mormon, and it was all very profound wonderful insights! But then he continued to talk... He told us about how he knows he is a direct descendant of Jesus Christ and that he has a special mission and special powers. He told us about dreams he has been having lately. And he told us about the real faces he has been seeing on his wall and that he had to scrape them off - he knew it was a sign of what the Lord had in store for him.... Sister Griffin and I had the worst feeling the whole time. And it didn't really help that our member we brought was telling this man that he was crazy and needed special help. Haha we said a prayer, and left and fast as possible. Creepy experience. But hilarious just the same haha.

Mary and Lucy are AMAZING GIRLS!!!! We taught them the Plan of Salvation this week. Lucy got so excited that she went to school the next day, and taught her school teacher the whole Plan of Salvation. Mary has been reading the Book of Mormon. She told us that it feels so real when she reads it. She can feel God speaking to her through the words and that it is so clear to her. She has been sharing her thoughts with her parents, and she actually started reading it with her mom! Every time we go over to teach them, we have another person (family or friend) sit in on the lesson out of curiosity. Lucy planned on coming to church, and she was going to bring a friend with her! They are true missionaries. Blessing everyone with the things they have been learning. They accepted a baptism date for December 15th!

This Sunday was going to be an AMAZING SUNDAY!!!! We had a bunch of investigators coming, and a bunch of less-actives as well! But London had a major snowstorm Saturday night and Sunday morning, and the city pretty much shut everything down and told people they couldn't drive anywhere. Bummer :( So we couldn't make it to our appointments that day and we couldn't go to church, but does that stop the work from moving forward? NO WAY!!!!! Sister Mendenhall and I got on our boots and coats, and started the trek. We walked around and offered to help people shovel their driveway. We talked with literally everyone. And if they didn't want to talk to us, then we would sing them a song haha. After an entire day of being outside, barely anyone was interested. But then we met Jon at 8:30 on our way back to the apartment! We told him about our prophet and the Book of Mormon and he was so interested that we stayed outside in the 5 degree weather and taught him the restoration. I'm so grateful that the spirit gives me a warm feeling inside haha or else I might have frozen to death.

Sister S…., from our district, had appendicitis and had to have surgery. So her companion Sister Green came with us for a couple days! It was a blast. It made contacting SO POWERFUL to have three witnesses. We really hit home on a man trying to argue with us about our beliefs. He yelled a lot and wanted nothing to do with us at first. We have another appointment with him haha.

I have been learning a lot lately how important the scriptures are in proof and testifying. I really have been working on that. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God and it is PROOF that the truths of Christ's Gospel have been restored. So many people we talk to don't want anything to do with us because we are just another church - just like any other church. I KNOW that the apostasy really happened! I KNOW that Christ's gospel has been restored. I KNOW that this is the ONLY way back to live with God again. and I KNOW this is the way to true happiness and eternal life. WHO WOULDN"T WANT THAT?!?!?!  :)

My favorite chapters lately have been Moroni 7, 3 Nephi 11, and 2 Nephi 31. Go and read them, dissect them, apply them to your life, and feel it for yourself :) The Book of Mormon is amazing.

Thank you so much for your support and prayers. I love you all so much. I am so grateful for you. Continue being the great people you are. Have a great week!

Love,
Sister Bodine

Ps.

News for how Sister Mendenhall and I did this week. Our goal for other lessons taught was 2, and we had 8. We have 9 new investigators. We taught 6 less-active members and MANY were planning on coming to church (...snowstorm....) and we had 7 referral present lessons!!! God is blessing us so much. haha we need to bump up our goals with all these miracles happening!