January 20th Letter - Miracles do happen!

Look how long my hair is getting! Hehe xo
Have a good week!!

Hello lovelies!! (: This week was just BEAUTIFUL!! :D another favorite for many different reasons! I know these new ward boundary changes are inspired. So so very grateful(: We had a lot of service this week! Which a lot of fun! We got to help paint Denise's house with the Weddington elders and the new elders in our area. We found a new investigator!! So excited! She is very sweet! Denise's uncle is a fairly new member and Denise has seen how the church has blessed his life and has seen a lot of service through the elders that she's interested in learning more too! She's had a rough past and feels guilty and ashamed from it and is scared people will judge her. But we were able to bear testimony to her that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ she can and will be forgiven. We also shared with her "Good Things to Come" video off of our iPads(I am loving these things!). Elder Holland is amazing! She loved it! If all y'all haven't seen it yet, I invite you to watch it via Mormon Messages (: she was suppose to come to church Sunday but got sick ): next week though! (: Guess what!! We had two GREAT lessons with Barry last week and one yesterday! He came to church on Sunday and loved it!! So happy and excited for him! Yesterday when we went to see him he was so excited to show off his new tablet he bought (because he wanted to be "cool" like Sister Burrows and I) and how he put the Book of Mormon on it!! It was the best! He's starting to understand the Book of Mormon! This is what he got yesterday, "that if I don't do my part, I will be cut off..now I understand why church is so important" from reading (1Nephi 2:16,20-21). He also, shared some neat analogies with fire and embers from the fire. He related it to church and a congregation-when someone thinks they are "living" or are "faithful" to the gospel they think they do not need to go to church. But that ember can't survive without the complete fire. I really liked it! Ha(: so he'll be coming to church again! Hehe! Yay! We found another new investigator! Her name is Faith. She is from Kenya. She has he cutest little boys! The old elders we served with before the split found her and her husband but never were able to reach them. We found them in our potentials list and they kept sticking out to us!! Now we have a new investigator! Follow those promptings(: Many other great things happened! But I'm running out of time.. And I need to share this!! Well we had a miracle here in Charlotte! One of our investigators, Maria had a baptismal date of January 25th. He husband is a member recently starting to come back to church. How we found her is a miracle in its self! Anywho.. So she is pregnant and has been very sick this past week and so we haven't been able to teach her so we tried via Facebook but she's deleting her Facebook so that didn't work either and she was starting to feel rushed.. And we didn't want that so we all decided we'd sit down and talk about a new date. Also, she drinks sweet tea and coffee and we hadn't been able to teach the word of wisdom so we were thinking we'd have to move the date to February 1st or even the 8th to have two weeks of living the word of wisdom. But secretly I've been praying daily that she won't have a desire to drink any tea or coffee, praying for a miracle. Because I was being selfish and wanted to be able to see her get baptized (transfers are coming up and I've been transferred every two transfers since I've been on my mission and I'm worried I might get transferred). So Sunday we had dinner and a lesson with her and Brother Harwell & WOW.... It was amazing!! The spirit was so strong!! We started out going over the baptismal interview questions to see how much she knew and what else we needed to cover. There were only two things that she was a little confused about and one was the Word of Wisdom and to make a longer story even shorter, she hasn't touched it since she's been having all of this morning sickness!! The thought of it makes her sick!! Sister Burrows and I we over the moon excited! Just to see a prayer answered like that(: but we didn't say anything about the date because we didn't want to rush her. But as we were teaching the restoration more in depth and we watched the Restoration DVD. The spirit was so strong in their home. Brother Harwell was very emotional. Sister Burrows and I shared our testimonies of how we have each personally come to know that the church is true and also how we had seen such a dramatic change in her own family. Then Brother Harwell bore his testimony.. That is where everything changed.. And after him she bore her own testimony and then Brother Harwell said, "so Maria, what are you doing this Saturday?" And she was like, "well, the sisters said we changed the date!" Brother Harwell, "No, they didn't. You did.." Maria, "oh..could we really do it this Saturday?!" Sister Burrows and I, "YES!!(:" It was amazing! Especially because we didn't say anything really... It was all the spirit speaking! Well, and a little of Brother Harwell.. Haha. He's his own little{more like huge} spirit. It was beautiful!! She she will be getting baptized this Saturday!! She just has her baptismal interview with President Craven and we have few more things to go over then she'll be ready!! Our Christmas miracle is complete! (; best thing ever!! I cannot express I grateful and excited I am for this Saturday!!! Brother Harwell is over the moon excited! Sunday night when they gave us a rude home he was calling everyone to invite them! Ha. Maria was just so sick from her pregnancy that she just let him take over.. Haha it was great!! So excited for them! Then they will be able to get sealed in the temple in a year.. And Brother Harwell's vision of her in white will come true.. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true church on the earth! I know that we can be with our families forever! How grateful I am that I get to be part of this amazing gospel bringing people the same happiness and joy that we get everyday! Cherish every moment!! I love you all so so much!!

Xo Love, Sister Knell Xoxo