Happy Pioneer Day

Shoutout to the wonderful pioneers! To celebrate the holiday, Sister Gifford and I watched "Joseph Smith: the Prophet of the Restoration" before bed on Saturday, and it was a great reminder of the challenges and difficulties that attended the beginning of the church, as well as the miracles and tender mercies of the Lord. A thought that really stuck out to me was that the early Saints were spit on, mocked, degraded, driven out of their homes, and hunted down for their beliefs; if they could go through ALL THAT without their faith wavering,then I can go through an occasional door slam for my beliefs! The persecution of the modern day "mormon missionary" is NOTHING - NOTHING!!!! - compared to what the early Saints and the pioneers suffered - and gained!! I needed that reminder!

Alright so I don't usually ask for things but I'm doing it today... please please PLEASE keep Kayla in your prayers this week!!!!!!!!!!! Specifically that she will receive and recognize her answer about the Book of Mormon being true! Her baptism is scheduled for THIS Saturday, and she is RIGHT on the brink of making the final decision... We went through the baptismal interview questions with her yesterday, and the ONLY thing she is unsure about is Joseph Smith being a prophet. And that was a "maybe"!!!! She's never been this close to knowing the truth before.. this is such an exciting time, but such a critical one as well! She agreed to praying about the Book of Mormon again... please pray for her!!!!!!!

Church miracle! A summer sales guy basically tracted into a YSA girl last week and brought her to church yesterday! I can guarantee that if actual missionaries had knocked on her door, she wouldn't be interested in hanging out some more.... ahh, the flirt to convert strategy!!! Haha!! Her name is Danielle and she's adorable we're excited to teach her:) The power of members bringing friends to church is UNREAL!!!! I just hope she's wanting to learn more for the right reasons... I know she felt the Spirit during Sacrament meeting!!!!

Bailey continues to be... umm... the COOLEST PERSON EVER!!!!!!! Her boyfriend has come to church twice now and is on date to be baptized August 13th!!!!

We had interviews this week and President is JUST lovely :) A wonderful man and the Spirit is strong around him!

I think that's all! Hope you all had a great week too!

Oh wait, there's more---

We had some cool bus experiences this week! I was sitting in the back and praying for someone to come that I could talk to, or for me to be led to someone to talk to, and this cute blonde bespectacled YSA girl sat a couple rows away... I felt the prompting and went and tapped her on the shoulder and we had a wonderful chat about religion and travels and the Book of Mormon and our life stories... you name it! She's heading to Jerusalem in a couple weeks to volunteer at a library... SO COOL!!!!!! So nothing really came of our conversation as far as missionary "success," but I just want to TESTIFY that PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED!!!!!!!!!! 

We also met a cool older lady whose son lives in Utah and was super open to the Book of Mormon and learning more! Happens once in a blue moon so it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!

And that is all!!! :)

xoxo

Sister K.