By small & simple things : I love being a missionary!

Hey every one! :)

Being a missionary is the best thing ever! Gosh, I love it so much. This week was another great one! ) Training has been great! It's been nice having the three of us, so now we can go into our investigators houses without another member! It's been a blast.. it's so important to find joy in this work. We are in the finding phase and focusing on building up our area.. we met a lot of great people and did a whole lot of seed planting. We had some fun experiences.. We spent some time on Haley ST. which is where all the homeless people hang out. I love them. I love them more than wealthy people ;) Humility is everything haha!

Our investigators are doing well! Jim came to church yesterday and the ward is really reaching out to him. We also figured that the best way to help Ben and Natalie at this point is through the ward. Our relief society president (who's awesome and does a lot for us) is really reaching out to her. We met with Paul again! We taught him the Plan of Salvation and he had a lot of questions about the pre-earth.. he's so intelligent, but he does have a lot of faith. We're really focusing on helping our investigators have personal, spiritual experiences. We can try to convince and persuade people all day.. but it comes down to them feeling the spirit manifest to them the truth! .. We had a lot of opportunities to testify of the truth this week.. It's amazing how much my testimony of the restored gospel has grown being in this specific area! There are so many different interpretations of the nature of God and his plan for us.. I've learned how to diligently study here and refine my testimony and to stand firm in what I know to be true.

We had zone meeting this week and we found out that we'll really be focusing on service as a mission and do 10 hours a week. We'll be using an online service called justserve.org.. they're going to talk more about it in zone conference this week, but we're pretty excited about it! Service leads to so many opportunities.

Jimbo only did 8 days! He gave us a call right away! He's making some serious changes in his life and he has come sooo far. It's incredible to see his heart soften by the love of the ward members and the missionaries in this area. He knows he feels the spirit.. he knows this is right, we just have to continue to help him recognize that. He actually said something that touched me in our gospel principles class. We were talking about repentance and he talked about the word "TRY." God doesn't expect perfection.. but he expects that we continually try and do all we can to follow him and utilize the atonement in our lives. He loves us so perfectly and I know we matter to him. I know that if we cleave unto the covenants we have made and remember that we have taken upon ourselves his name.. we will have the desire to make changes and come closer to him. Thanks for the support and prayers! Love you all!

Sister James