Saturday, December 21, 2013

Copy and Paste

Aloha to you!
 
I have so much to say. So much to say! I wish I could copy and paste my mind family :) I feel this way each Preparation day and I even feel this way every night before I'm about to write in my journal! Heavenly Father never ceases to bless me with unlimited experiences, lessons learned, people met, and miracles seen or felt that I'm dying to write down for others to read and for me to remember later on in the future. I'll be sitting like Nephi in front of a desk instead of a bolder, with a pen instead of a chisel, a paper journal instead of gold plates, and think to myself, "Where on earth am I going to start??" I never feel I can write fast enough. Can you imagine how Nephi must have felt as he tried to describe his father's dream, or his experiences with Heavenly Father, or the miracles that he witnessed unto golden plates letter by letter with a chisel? Wow, I'm just amazed. You've got to know that Nephi along with all the other prophets knew that what they were chiseling line after line, word after word, letter after letter was true. It was no copy paste. I am continually in awe of the scriptures!
 
I'm kind of going off, sorry about that. What I've been dying to tell you is that, as you know, Sister UV and I have been teaching Quentin. He has known that the gospel is true and even cried as he gave the closing prayer. It was so sweet. We met with him on Friday and he wants to be baptized this Sunday!!! He had his interview a couple days ago and it went great. We couldn't be more excited. What a wonderful Christmas present for Quentin, his family who are members, for me, and for the Savior.
 
Sister UV and I have also been teaching Shantel (age 8), Chanelle (age 8), and Naturelle (age 10) who are adorable recent converts. They have such strong testimonies and have been through so much already in their short little lives. They live with their grandma who is a member and also with their mom, Agnus, who is not a member. We have been trying to teach the girls' mom as we teach them their after baptism lessons, but with no success. She would normally leave or go take care of the baby. Due to certain circumstances, about a week ago, she accepted to start taking the lessons with us! Oh boy we were so excited :) We met with her for the first time on Friday to see where she's at, and to teach her the Restoration. Without hesitation, when we talked to her about baptism, she said "I want to be baptized and I want to baptized on the 22nd." Jaws dropped, hearts attacked, we finally get out, "Of January?"....

So let me stop here and tell you that we have two baptisms this Sunday the 22nd. Ah!! Two! Needless to say, it has already been a pretty crazy week getting everything ready for the both of them. I am so so happy. Nothing can beat seeing the gospel change the lives of people you care about ya. Nothing. It's the best feeling and the best present Heavenly Father could have given me this year.
 
Time is out already, but I also just have to say that I will SEE you on Christmas! Yep, there's this thing called Skype... :) WHOO!! I'm super happy and I can't wait to see you! And Elder Annen is coming home in TWO days!! Wow, that is amazing. Take pictures for me ya? I'm so happy for you all to see him!
 
I love you all so so much! Keep smiling and spreading your sunshine. It hits people. It really does.
 
Aloha!
 
Sister Amen