November 4

Hello Everyone!

I can't believe I am finishing up my first transfer this week!! Time flies out on the mission, but in a weird way. Your days feel like weeks and your weeks feel like days. It's been wonderful and in just this transfer alone we've had 13 meetings to attend which is very unusual and a lot! I love mission meetings though, President and Sister Craven teach a lot of great things and we've heard from several General Authorities. This weekend the Hickory Stake had stake conference and it was all about hastening the work and wow I was just so pumped and inspired to be a member missionary when I get home! I hope the members were as excited as I am. :) A couple of things I got out of it were that the members are promised an abundance and increase of the Spirit in their lives as they become member missionaries and most of the time being a member missionary doesn't involve some formal process or lesson but simply inviting others to come see how we live so they can feel the Spirit and goodness of the gospel. And there are so many church activities to provide opportunities for that or inviting them to FHE. In conference in the last year, it's been talked about the wave of missionaries, but now with church membership reaching 15 million it's time to combine efforts and start a tsunami effort for the Lord's work.
I extended my first baptismal invitation this week to Christina and she agreed! It was exhilarating and she is very ready for the gospel of Christ in her life and for her two boys. We also have invited two others to baptism and are just constantly trying to adjust and perfect our teaching so that we can be effective missionaries.