Promised blessings!

Happy mother's day every one! I have the most selfless, charitable, loving mother in the world. I love you Mamabon! :) The work is so good!

 

Dee moved back to Hawaii, which we were pretty disappointed about.. Hopefully she will be able to get in contact with the church and missionaries there.. Thankfully, the Lord always compensates. Everytime. We received a referral from a member in Ventura 1st ward. She's a convert to the church and none of her family has ever been interested at all.. Well, her aunt (Lisa) and her cousin (Allie) are very interested. We met with them and before we could ask, Lisa told us ALL the reasons why she wants to join the church.. she just poured out the desires of her heart. She even told us she had already prayed about it and felt that this is what the Lord would have her do. We taught the restoration and invited her to be baptized on a specific date.. we asked her how she felt about June 20th or June 13th.. she thought for a moment and said, "I want to be baptized on June 13th." We are going to be meeting every other day and she is SO eager to learn. It's amazing to see the desire she has.. We're so excited to teach them!

 

We also met with one of our new investigators, Viviana. We met Viviana through Ellie (A potential investigator we met a couple weeks ago) Viviana is Ellie's daughter and they are both so prepared! She's been reading the Book of Mormon and is drawing a lot of peace and strength from it. We've been texting her Book of Mormon verses and we sent her Ether 12:27... she replied and said she had already found it and marked it.. so cool. We taught her The Gospel of Jesus Christ last night with one of our young woman... the spirit was leading the whole lesson. We were so in sync and Viviana gave so much feedback.. The spirit was especially strong when talking about baptism and the gift of The Holy Ghost. When we talked about the precious gift of the holy Ghost, she told us "That is something I want."

 

I had the opportunity to go on exchanges in Ventura with Sister Hiapo.. what an amazing experience! We've been focusing on one of our 5 areas of focus, "We are led by the spirit as we find and teach." We had so many spiritual experiences. We were able to meet with a less-active that I taught my first 3 months of my mission.. it was so special and I realized how much I've learned since the beginning of my mission about following the spirit and RELYING on the spirit. We don't always know what people need, but he does. I love feeling the spirit give me the words to say and seeing the spirit help hearts change. My love for the scriptures is growing immensely as I've been marking in The Book of Mormon "Promised Blessings from the Lord.” The scriptures are so powerful.. I thought I would share just a few of   "Promised Blessings" And "What we must do to receive them" from my reading so far.

 

 

Promised blessings-

 

"The lord is able to do ALL things according to his will" (1 nephi 7:12)

 

"By small means, the Lord can bring about great things" (1 nephi 16:29)

 

"He prepareth a way to accomplish ALL his works among the children of men." (1 nephi 9:6)

 

"We will have the gift and power of the Holy Ghost." (1 nephi 13:37)

 

 What we must do to receive these blessings-

 

"Repent and come unto him"

 

"Inquire of the Lord. Pray oft"

"Hearken unto the word of God.  WILLING to hearken to truth"

"Endure to the end"

"Humble ourselves"

"Rely on this Redeemer"

AND...KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE LORD"

I know that His promises are sure. He always provides a way to accomplish the things which He commands us to do. His desire is to bless us and we will be blesses when we seek Him first in our lives. I love my Savior and His work.

Sister James
5-11-15

Donating a Book of Mormon to the library

 

Sister James has a way with kitty cats!