Because He lives!

Hi guys!

What an amazing week!! What better way to spend Easter than listening to Christ's apostles and prophets testify of him?!

Our area is really progressing! I focused a lot of my studies on member-missionary work this past week and have been praying a lot with Sister Scoresby on how we can help our members get excited about this work. A lot of them have lived here for +50 years and feel that they have already tried sharing the gospel with every one they know. We're trying to build their confidence and help them recognize what a missionary experience is. We have made a plan to really focus on inactives and part-member families.. so many of our members tell us that there are so many inactives in this ward, but there is no record of it on the ward list in our area book. We went through our ward list this past week with our ward mission leader and he told us who was active. Almost half the names he was unsure of… so we've been going through and visiting. We've already seen miracles! We met sister Dixon.. she is inactive and hasn't had any sort of visits in years. She was open to having us come back and teach the discussions to her family...We're really looking forward to helping these people come back.. I have developed such a testimony of the importance of our purpose in inviting others to come unto Christ. Not just investigators, but members and inactive members... and helping them come back.

Another neat experience was meeting with Brother Van-fleet. He is less-active.. but has such a strong testimony and love for the gospel. He was offended some years ago, but still comes here and there. We had a lesson centered on the atonement and read in Alma 36 about Alma the younger experiencing the enabling power of the atonement.. the spirit was so strong. We all knelt and brother Vanfleet said the closing prayer. He was very emotional and before we could invite him to do anything.. he told us that he would be at church next week. It was powerful!

Dane is doing awesome! He's progressing really well and this has really been strengthening the Hannington's. He has genuine interest and such powerful questions and insights.

We do service for both Janice and Lys every week and we both felt impressed that we needed to invite them to take the lessons.. Janice said that she isn't quite ready at this time, but she is willing to come to church. Service has really helped soften her and she loves the spirit that we bring. Lys told us that she would pray about it.. they are both open to talking about the gospel while we serve them.

Conference was amazing.. I love our dear prophet, president Monson. He is a man of God. It was interesting how both before and after conference, we were meeting so many people who wanted to bash with us and tear down our beliefs. Heavenly Father gave me a lot of opportunities to defend truth and bear testimony.. I was really thinking about elder Bednar's talk about godly fear vs. Mortal fear. The overall message I received from this general conference was that we really have to decide now who's side we are on. The world is changing SO fast and we have to be anxiously engaged. Our testimonies will dwindle if we do not nourish them every single day! The adversary is attacking the family and the apostles and prophets really emphasized the importance of establishing a home of the spirit, of love, and building our foundation on Jesus Christ. All of my questions that I prepared for general conference were answered in some way or another, but one specific answer really hit home. One of my questions was: "How can I overcome my weaknesses through the atonement and know that I'm truly doing my best?" Elder Renlund's words combined with the spirit answered this question of mine so perfectly. He said, "Evaluate, repent, KEEP TRYING." And that we must be patient with others because they are trying too.. Heavenly Father is so patient with us and knows that we are trying! He cares about who we are becoming and our efforts. He loves us!

I am so excited to apply the things that I learned..  I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity as a missionary to share this message of hope with the world.I have never experienced happiness like this! I know that our savior broke the bands of death, both physical and spiritual. I'm learning more and more about him and his love every day. He is so good to us!

Have a good week :) 

Sister James
4-6-2015

 http://www.mormon.org/easter