Friends and family;

Helloooo!  This week rocked. OK so I am going to tell you about my top 2 experiences of the week. 

1. There's a recent convert family in the world and they are the best people ever.  So let me just tell you a little about Brad, the dads past- he has struggled with addiction a large part of his life.  He got involved in drugs when he was younger- before and after he had his 2 kids.  At one point he had gotten both his kids taken away from him and he was living in someone else's van in their yard.. Pretty rough situation.  At that point in his life he realized he was at pretty much the lowest he could ever be and he decided he needed to pull his life together.  He didn't really know God, but he prayed more than he ever has in his life and felt Heavenly Fathers love so strongly.  From that he was able to get the motivation to start making changes in his life and pulling it together.  He eventually got his kids back, got a job and this last November him and his 2 kids got baptized.  These last 2 weeks we've been a little nervous because they were cancelling a lot of our appointments and the kids had said that they were kinda slacking on scripture study and the desire to go to church.  On Thursday, we finally got to have a lesson with them and found out that the day before Brads dad had fallen and was in a coma- we had a lesson on how we are all children of God and how the Saviors Atonement can help us with anything that we are facing.  The next day his dad passed away and we were expecting them not to be at church yesterday BUT they were and Brad actually gave a talk!  It was the most powerful talk I have ever heard- his topic was Heavenly Father and he poured his heart out about how much the knowledge of his Heavenly Father's awareness helps in any trial or situation and at the end he talked about how a lot of people had offered to speak in his place but he was so grateful for the opportunity and it helped him a lot.  My story right there does not even do the situation justice at all but just know that the power of this gospel is SO strong. OH! Also- his son Kyler (who is 16) is baptizing one of his best friends on Saturday who he had introduced to the church and that we started teaching a little over a month ago.. so cool!

2. Ok so I don't have time to type the whole other story but a less active dad and daughter started taking the lessons this last monday and he gave the most sincere, heartfelt prayer and his daughter who hasn't really ever believed in God quit drinking cold turkey and has received answers to prayers since we met and its just the coolest thing ever so yes more details to come on that but being a missionary is so funn!

Anyways I love being a missionary so much and also we have transfer calls this next week so hopefully I am staying here!! I love you all very very much and I hope all is going well. Have a good week! xoxox

Love, 

Sister Paul

Family and friends;

     Happy Martin Luther King Day!!  I had no idea that was today until this morning when we drove by the school and there was no people there.. lol time is so weird. Ok so I don't recall that I sent an email out last week which I am unsure of why because last week soo good.  Elder Lynn G Robbins of the seventy came and trained at MLC as well as did a mission tour training for our whole mission and it was the best thing ever.  He talked all about how we are agents unto ourselves and we are responsible for whether or not we are going to be happy and make the best out of our lives.  He talked about how we want choice, but not responsibility and how we so easily go to a "not-responsible" list that includes things like blaming others, self justification, excuses, minimizing sins, procrastinating, anger, murmuring, self pity and other things to avoid being responsible for our choices.  He said "The second you go to this list you will lose control over positive outcomes".  My explanation does not do anything he said justice but I seriously loved that so much!  We have been so blessed with the gift of agency and it really is our choice how we are going to live our lives.  Ahhh I love this gospel.
     Ok so cool experience for the week:  We have this investigator and she is the coolest ever.  She has been having knee problems and actually sent her grandson to chase the missionaries down because she had seen them walking around all the time and she wanted what we have.  Since then she's been super busy all the time and its been hard to meet with her consistently and she hasn't been able to come to church because of her knee.  This last week she texted us and said things have been crazy and so she couldn't meet with us for a while (worst thing ever to hear as a missionary), so we were super bummed and a couple days later we were in the are with a member after a lesson had fallen through and I just really felt like we should go see Donna- we pulled the bathroom excuse and she ended up letting us in and saying that she had a little bit of free time.  It turned out that she had been super stressed and depressed lately and it turned out that the member we had brought with us (who is a convert) has or is going through a lot of the same stuff as Donna and she related to her and bore such a strong testimony of how this gospel will help all of her situations.  Yesterday we went by again and she said that she wanted to start meeting with us at a set time every other day and really getting serious.. such a miracle!  This really strengthened my testimony of how much our Heavenly Father truly does know us and how aware He is of us.  We had absolutely no idea that Sister Susslin had gone through some of the same things as her- but Heavenly Father did.  This pretty much saved Donna and she is now progressing towards February 13th to be baptized! so happy. :)
     Oh also another thing Elder Robbins said that I loved- Would the savior ever go around feeling sorry or himself?  No siree and neither should we.  This was a good reminder for me haha we are soooo blessed and can find happiness no matter our situations.  This church is truuuueee :)
     I love you all. very much.

Love,
Sister Paul

Friends and family-

     Oh my goodness- this week was the best.  Let me just tell you about one of the most powerful experiences that I have had on my mission so far.  So a couple days ago we were out walking to visit someone and there was this guy getting his groceries out of his car and starting to walk to his house.  Sister Beh is awesome and she pretty much ran and chased him down to offer to carry in his groceries and he said no but stopped to talk to us for a second.  He told us he didnt believe in God, but after bearing our testimony a little bit he ended up letting us help him with groceries and come into his home (we had another sister with us so we were being obedient no worries).  Long story short- he ended up opening up to us and saying that hes never really believed in God but the day before he had actually prayed for the first time because he was feeling so lost and confused, he had prayed for Heavenly Father to let him know he was there and we just happened to chase him down that day.  DOES THAT ROCK OR WHAT?  The spirit was so strong and I really had to try hard to keep my emotions in check because it was the best thing ever- AND THEN he came to church yesterday!!!  Literally all of the talks were about prayer and missionary work and applied so specifically to him, afterwards he told us that he was even thinking about getting up there and sharing his experience but then he chickened out.  The moral of the story is that Heavenly Father is SO aware of each and every one of us and He is more than willing to help us out if we just ask.  I am so grateful for prayer.  Heavenly Father is the supreme creator, yet he he commands each and every one of us unworthy humans to pray to him and talk to Him. Ahhh, I love this gospel.  It is the best blessing or gift anyone could ever recieve and I love being a missionary.  I hope that you all had a wonderful New Years and remember to pray always!

Love,

Sister Paul

P.S.  The ladies house that i'm emailing at just came in and gave me a bag of oranges from Mesa :') also our zone is having a nerf battle today.... im so excited

P.S.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JO JO IN TWO DAYS I LOVE YOU!!!

Christmas eve lolol we performed the nativity scene