Chapel Tour Miracle: "God Are You Here?"

Hello! How was everybody's week? In Grandma's letter she said something about ya'll going down to Redding? Did you have a good trip? We had a great week this week. Busy, but good. Going on 3 exchanges a week has been pretty exhausting. I don't know how the Assistants do it. It's tough to juggle our schedules and effectively plan and stuff like that when we don't see each other for 3 days straight. One day I'm gone, then Elder Hirshfeld is gone, then I'm gone again... It'll be the same way this week. Tuesday Elder Hirshfeld will be up in Eldon with the District Leader there while I'm here in St. Robert with his companion, then Wednesday we will be on exchanges with the Assistants (so we basically have to plan 2 days here in St. Robert, since both of us will be here, each with one of the assistants) then Thursday I'll be going to Salem with the District Leader there. So we'll have a couple hours tonight, then we won't do missionary work together again until Friday. :( Things are going great though. We've been working hard and still seeing alot of success. Marcos, Michael, and Tino Rivera are still set for their baptism on March 6, and Tamila Bennett just keeps getting more and more golden every day. It's so amazing to see the difference the gospel can make in people's lives! She's still really excited for her baptism on March 7. She wants her 9 year old son Daniel to be baptized with her, but he's really afraid of water, so we're trying to overcome that right now. We'll see what happens. He'll most definitely get baptized, I just don't know if he'll be ready by the 7th. Danielle still has a date for March 6 as well, but alot of opposition has come up lately and she's been having a few doubts. We're going over tonight to hopefully sort everything out. We got some good news about Noni, but some bad news at the same time. Not necessarily bad, just disappointing. She was set for baptism on February 27, but a couple weeks ago she had to go down to Texas because of the custody battle she's having for her kids. (who are 9 and 8 years old) Last year her drug addict ex husband drove up to Tennessee, stole her kids, and then accused her of child abuse and was immediately granted custody. Well he had absolutely zero evidence, and it's a long story but all the evidence points towards the ex-husband being the culprit and not her. The only problem is that they are from a really small town in Texas and his family is like the richest family in the town, his dad is the chief of police, and his grandpa and the DA are like best friends and they golf together every week. So basically he was able to get the kids because of all the dirty small town politics. His biggest threat against her as far as this custody battle goes has always been "hope your pockets are deep enough." So it's just been a long, drawn out process. She was able to come back here for a week, but she's going back until the end of March. So her baptism had to be moved to mid-April. :( The good thing, though, is that right now it's looking about 95% likely that she will have her kids again when she comes back! So it'll all turn out for the best, it's just tough that everything had to be moved so far back. I hope I'm still here when that happens.

We had another amazing miracle this week, with Gloria Miller! I don't know if I've mentioned her at all before, but she's a woman in her 50's that we've been teaching, we knocked on her door about a month ago. She's been really solid right from the get-go, the only hold-up she's had has been getting work off. Well Thursday we had a chapel tour with her and it went really really well. It was basically a normal chapel tour except that we were able to use it to do a little activity to help answer some of her questions. She had a couple of questions about the Gift of the Holy Ghost so we took her into the cultural hall and played a little game with her. We turned off all the lights, then Elder Hirshfeld and Brother Stribling (who was there with us) silently went to the other end of the gym. It was totally pitch black, and I asked her to go find them. I was hiding a flashlight in my back pocket, and at random times when she was really struggling I pulled it out and shined it at one of them then turned it off again (after which they would move) to point her in the right direction. She had no control of when she could see and when she couldn't, and after awhile she was like "well this just isn't fair!" So then I gave her the flashlight so she could have it on all the time, then she was able to get them. Afterwards, we of course explained that that is what the Holy Ghost is, it's a guide to help us find our way and to find truth. We explained that at this point she was able to feel the influence of the Holy Ghost in her life often, and that she could invite it more often by reading her scriptures, praying, coming to church, and things like that, but after she was baptized and confirmed and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost she would be entitled to have Him as a constant companion, as long as she didn't drive it away. That went really well, she really got it. Then at the very end we were sitting in the room where the font is, talking about baptism, and we asked her if she had any questions. She said "No, but I definitely did have a prayer answered today." Then the Spirit just poured into the roon and she started crying. She went on to say "All my life, every time I walk into a church, I say a little prayer right before I go in and simply ask God 'are You here?'" She said that for the first time EVER, that prayer was answered the minute she walked in to our chapel. She said that the second she walked in she was just totally overwhelmed by the Spirit, and she knew right then that this really is Christ's church. She said "I know this is where I need to be." So we set a baptismal date for April 10! We're going to help her quit smoking this week. The only hold up is that the next day she asked her boss if she could have Sundays off so she could start going to church, and her boss said "No way." So we fasted for her yesterday, and we've been praying super hard, she's going to be talking to her boss about it more today. If everyone could please pray for her, I know that would help so much. Thank you!

So that's what's going on here in St. Robert right now. It's amazing how many people right now are coming to a knowledge of the truth. Everywhere we turn there are more and more miracles. Every day we get to watch the repentance process take place and see God literally changing hearts and healing souls, and it's such an amazing miracle. The atonement is real! The restoration is real! We have a living prophet today! I know without a doubt that my Savior lives and that He loves us. Thank you again Mom and Dad for everything you do to help make it possible for me to share these things with the people of Missouri. I love you!