Am I a Southern Story Teller Yet?‏

The reason for obedience is the way that God has to work with us in order for us to show our willingness to follow Him. Through obedience we can become like Him. Because we aren't perfectly obedient, we have the Savior, Jesus Christ. But as we strive to become like Him we show that we are comfortable enough to live with Him someday. I have looked at obedience so differently up til this point. It's so simple. God commands us to do or not do. If we love Him we keep His commandments. If we love Him we truly want to live with Him again. Sister Wilson explained it as, "Obedience is the mechanism God has to work with in order to bless us."

This past week God has truly blessed us for being obedient. So rewind back to December. Before I came to Tupelo, Sister Butterfield and Sister Hernandez were "carol tracting". They met a nice lady, but didn't set a return appointment to go back and teach. Fast forward to February. Sister Butterfield and I were at our favorite Tupe' town laundry mat. We meet a lady who has never been to our favorite little wash place. She only went there to wash a huge blanket that wouldn't fit in her washer and dryer. As we start talking to this lady Sister Butterfield realized she had met her before! We ask if we could come back in a few days to visit with her. Because of her busy schedule we were only able to meet with her once before we were both transferred, so we told Sister Wilson and Sister Stahle to go visit her.  .. Now it's April. I'm back in Tupelo. Little did I know, I would be the one teaching her with Sister Wilson. Last night we called her, and she told us to come back later that evening. 

We taught using the "timeline" of the Plan of Salvation. We opened with a prayer, and what some people do in the south is after every phrase you state in a prayer, they will say under their breath, "Thank you Jesus." "Praise the Lord." It's so funny! I love it! Delores has been baptist her whole life, but even the basics we taught about Jesus Christ, the spirit was able to teach her. She had never heard about the Pre-Earth Life and even when we taught about the resurrection of the Savior she said she had never known these things. Sister Wilson, like a BOSS pulled out the Book of Mormon, briefly explains what it is and has her read a scripture about the resurrection of the Savior. The spirit was so strong! And when we told her about the celestial kingdom she acted as though she's always known about it. She didn't say, "Oh I've never heard of this ... My preacher says this.."  I can't even explain it! It was one of the coolest lessons on my mission so far. She said she wants to go to the celestial kingdom! She loves God and Jesus Christ. She truly has a desire to follow them. She told us she wants to start reading the Book of Mormon every day. We showed her mormon.org and and she even asked us to bookmark the website. Everything I've written doesn't even do this experience justice. 

Rewind back again, but just to this last Saturday. The young women and young men had a yard sale/bake sale/car wash to raise money for camp. Of course there were going to be lots of people to meet there so us and the ZL's went! It was one of the funnest days on my mission! The Lord provided for us! I could just cry. We were out of our area on exchanges and in Birmingham for meetings from Tuesday afternoon til Friday afternoon. We should have the highest numbers in our zone being leaders. We shouldn't use the excuse of ... well our numbers are gonna stink because we aren't in our areas all the time. Well God provided! Within 3 hours we gave out a whole box of Books of Mormons, got 12 new investigators, had probably 50 contacts, AND we got to wear "regular clothes". It was so much fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back to Sunday ... Ashley was baptized!!!! Church was amazing!!! Jessica AND Laura who are getting baptized this weekend shared such strong, simple, beautiful testimonies about their conversion of why they believe we have and need the priesthood and why we need a prophet. They were the ones in class openly giving all the comments! Jessica has come such a long way from when Sister Butterfield and I started teaching her. Nathan has changed! He has the priesthood! And next year we're coming back when they are sealed in the temple!!! I love them so much!! It's God! It's the spirit! I mean, with Ashley when I first met her 2 weeks ago, she told us for the first time that she finally felt like God was there and she could talk to Him and He answers. She never had had that before. And now 2 weeks later she's baptized?!!! She's 18. She's such a brave soul. It was heartbreaking because her mom wouldn't support her and come to her baptism, but she knew it was the choice she needed to make. God told her what was right. You can't argue with that! I KNOW the gospel is on the Earth! ALL of it! I just can't contain myself!!!! ... Sister Wilson and I always just yell in car about how true the gospel is! It's hilarious! I'm pretty sure Tiwi (our car babysitter) has cameras in it and people at Church Headquarters are just dying laughing at all the crazy conversations and crazy things missionaries do. I'd like that job! Speaking of being in the car ... funny story .... Caitlin, Liz and Kelsie got me 3 barbies. I wasn't sure why because when I got the package I didn't get a chance to read it for a few days. Well Sister Wilson decided to stick one of them out the window as I'm driving. So I told her to try and stick the head out and close the window so she could get some fresh air ... well her head and arm and leg flew out the window. Yesterday I read the letter. It was Liz. I'm sorry. 

Well I feel like I just talked for an hour straight without breathing. Am I a southern story teller yet?