Two companions!

Maddie with "Mr Fredrickson form "UP" ;)

 

 

Family!

 This past week was great!! I love having two companions.. makes the work EVEN better :) Sister Barnes is sooo sweet and loving. Probably the sweetest person I have ever met! She's helping me learn the importance of teaching simply and with love. Sometimes I get caught up in the details and make sharing the gospel more complicated than it needs to be haha. It's important to remember the basics. Teaching is definitely different! Sister Ashworth and I are so used to teaching together already, so it is a conscious effort to let every one have a word (I like to talk a lot haha) and balance how much we each contribute. It has been super fun though and we've seen many miracles already! We've also been using singing to share the gospel.. gotta love" I am a child of God" :)

 Update on our investigators: We are doing a lot of finding, because most of our investigators are either out of town, dropped, or in jail (Jimbo ha!). Jimbo will be in jail for a couple week for some past tickets (he turned himself in), so there is that! He's actually been progressing well. He's softening to the Book of Mormon.. we read Alma's conversion in Alma 36 and he really enjoyed it. We are definitely seeing the change in him and he WANTS to change. I wish you all could meet him.. he's one of a kind! We've been meeting with our investigator, Carlos. He stopped us about two weeks ago on the street and we taught the plan of salvation. He's AWESOME.. I can't remember if I have mentioned him yet? Any way, we know that he would do a lot better with the Elders because of the language barrier, but he wants to meet with us to improve his English. We've tried to explain that the Elders can help him with his english as well, but he's just tooo stubborn haha. He agreed to meet with us AND the elders this week to help him see that he will better be able to understand the Book of Mormon and the message that we share. He's so genuine and has such a desire to change, but we can't help him because we can't even understand him! So hopefully he changes his mind :)

MIRACLE: A lot of the potentials in our area book only have phone numbers because we meet so many people on the street. Well, towards the beginning of my first transfer in Santa Barbara, Sister Xayadeth and I text/ called all the potentials that had phone numbers. We received a reply just last week and met with this man named Paul. He hasn't met with missionaries for over two years.. (planting seeds) and he is soo great! He's read the Book of Mormon and knows so much already. He's very Intellectual and knows the bible extremely well but, he's sincere and has sincere questions. We taught him the restoration and asked, "What would it mean to you to know that this was true?" He goes.. "Well it means I would become a Mormon?!" Haha! He's great.. We really want to get his family involved as well. He has 3 children ages 8,10, and 12!

 

This transfer I'm focusing on the Christ-like attribute of faith IN Jesus Christ. I've been centering my studies on the life of Christ (the new testament)  and studying his atonement.. I've already seen how much it's changed the way I feel about this work and how I feel about those that we meet. It's so important to have the faith that people can change through the atonement and having the faith, that there are people being prepared to receive the gospel! Christ's mission was US.. He is our advocate and I know that his atonement is so personal. He's felt everything that we have felt.. I know that this work is true and I love it more and more every day! I know that If we align our will with his and follow him because we WANT to.. not because we are supposed to, we will see the hand of the Lord in our lives! Thanks for all the support & prayers. Love you all!

 

Sister James

August 18, 2014