May 11, 2015
The title of this email goes out to my sister and brother in law for their gender reveal I got to be a part of on skype yesterday! They are pregnant with a baby BOY that is due at the end of OCTOBER! I am so excited to meet my new little nephew this coming January :) I was so excited to be able to talk to my wonderful family yesterday. I love you so much and it was great to be able to share some of the amazing experiences I have had here on my mission in Colorado! :)
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Hermana Tycksen and I were able to call home and
talk to our families on Mother's Day! |
Well... I am excited to announce my new companion... SISTER TYCKSEN <3 She is from ALPINE, UTAH (Yes dad... she knows the Haws and Emery family very well ;) and I love her so much already! We get along GREAT and have so much fun together. She was originally called to Brazil but got reassigned to Colorado as she is waiting to receive her visa. Which, yes, you guessed it... She learned Portuguese in the MTC and not Spanish... SOOOO it has been an interesting week literally teaching her everything from scratch!!! BUT, the Gift of Tongues is SO real and it has been amazing to watch her speak to literally everyone she meets in broken Spanish through the Spirit. UNFORTUNATELY, we just got news this morning that she received her visa so she will be leaving me after one transfer. BUT, it's okay because I love Sister Tycksen so much already and am grateful we get to be together for 6 weeks :) [See above picture for why we're weird.]
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Mother' s Day luncheon the missionaries hosted
for the moms of the Carbondale Branch. |
Wow! Such a week of miracles. I already shared this story with my family on Skype yesterday, but it has impressed me so much that I just have to tell EVERYONE about it! I am so excited and we have seen so many miracles already this week!
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First day of tracting for Hermana Tycksen...
raining and miserable outside! |
So at the beginning of last transfer we found an investigator named Carmen! She originally wanted us to come and teach son. The first lesson we had with Carmen her son wasn't present. Well, we tried all transfer to see them again and just nothing would work out. Long story short, we finally got to see Carmen again on Saturday afternoon. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and she was just eating it up! She said, "So... you're telling me that if I want to know if your church is the only true one... All I have to do is read this book?!" It was so cute and we had a huge break through lesson. After we finished I invited her to come to church and she said she couldn't because of Mother's Day. After practically begging her to come for AT LEAST one hour and bribing her with Sister Tycksen and I's talks during sacrament, she agreed to come for sacrament meeting! :)
After we finished the lesson, Carmen's son (Ivan) came in. He had heard a rumor about our church that we resolved and then HE asked US if we would be able to teach him more about our church. We taught him briefly about prayer and then invited him to join his mother and daughter at church. (His daughter, Annie was present in the lesson we had with Carmen and was eager to learn as well. She's 10.) We finished with another prayer, at Carmen's request, and when I had said Amen, she was bawling. She thanked us so much for coming to her home to teach her and her son.
Well... Sunday came and we dropped by in the morning to take her a cute little Mother's Day card and some home-made donuts. She told us that Ivan had made her breakfast but that they had to hurry because they had to go to church at 12! Well... guess what! THEY CAME! All 3 of them... In dresses and all :) It was so beautiful and they really enjoyed the meeting. After Sacrament, Ivan asked us when we were going to come by and teach him again. We, of course, told him that we could come by whenever he wanted and he asked if we could come that night. We set up an appointment for 7:30.
When 7:30 came, Sister T and I were SO excited for the lesson with Carmen, Ivan, and Annie. We had role-played the whole lesson in the car and knew exactly who would say what and in which language. Haha. Ivan prefers English over Spanish so we were planning to teach Lesson 1 in English to him and Annie and then restate everything in Spanish for Carmen, who only speaks Spanish. Ivan had never heard the Restoration so we decided we would invite all 3 of them to be baptized. (We had invited Carmen in the past and she had said no because she "already liked the current church she was attending") Well... we arrived and they were so excited to receive us. We started by singing "I am a Child of God" and Sister Tycksen did some beautiful harmonizing to make it extra special. They loved it an the spirit was already so strong. We asked how they had liked church that day and Ivan said he loved it. He said it was unlike any other church he had ever attended and that he was planning to come back next week to try out the English ward as well. He also made very interesting comment that he LOVED the way everyone dressed. He said that "THAT is how people should dress when they go to church!" It was amazing to hear that all 3 had absolutely loved sacrament meeting so much.
We began to teach the restoration and Ivan was eating everything up. Every question we would ask, he knew the answer. When we asked him why he thought a restoration of the priesthood was needed, he perfectly stated the definition of the apostasy and how the authority had been taken from the Earth when Christ died. He told us several times as we were teaching that everything we taught just "made sense." When the time in the lesson came to invite him to be baptized he said, "Well... I haven't been baptized yet and of course I want to be baptized by the same authority that Christ was, so of course I will be baptized!"
When Sister Tycksen and I had been talking about the date we wanted to extend to him while driving to the lesson, we had decided to take a leap of faith and ask him to be baptized on May 30th- Less than 3 weeks away. I have personally been praying and fasting since I got to Glenwood to find ONE person that can be baptized in the month of May. In addition, Sister Tycksen and I had fasted THREE times this past week to find one person to baptize in May. We both felt the spirit confirm that Ivan would be THAT one soul. So... I extended the date and Ivan accepted! He was so happy and so excited to learn more. Of course, we told him that he had a lot more to learn before he gets baptized but he just kept saying that we had answered every single one of his questions that no other church could respond to. He said that everything about what we had taught him just "connected" and that he knew he wanted to become a member of THIS church. (When he said that, I couldn't help but blurt out, "It's because it's TRUE! Uhhh... But, of course... we want you to find that out for yourself..." hahaha) We finished the lesson and both Ivan and his daughter Annie were set on date to be baptized on May 30th. It was such a miracle and both Sister Tycksen and I couldn't help but smile from ear to ear.
We also were able to introduce the Book of Mormon to Ivan and explain A LOT about Joseph Smith. He agreed to read the whole introduction and all of the testimonies of the witnesses in the front before our next visit. We then told him that we wanted to come back 2-3 times a week so he could be prepared for his baptism on the 30th. He responded with, "2 times a week? You can come 4 if you want! Even every day!" So... we set up another appointment for the next night. Sister Tycksen and I walked out of their home basically screaming and crying. We KNEW that our prayers had been answered and all of the fasting, and knocking, and praying had paid off. We had been given a miracle from God and we are determined to make sure that Ivan is baptized (along with hopefully Annie and Carmen) on May 30th. I KNOW this church is the ONLY true church and like Ivan said, "It just makes sense!" Everything always connects and comes full circle. "Dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." -Ether 12:6
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Hermana Tycksen lost her name badge so she had to wear one of mine;
she got to be me for a day! |
I hope you all have a great week! I love you so much! Thanks for your constant support and prayers! May God bless, wherever you are!
xoxo
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