Be Kind

Guess what everybodayyy??? Belinda will be getting baptized on the 24th of September!!!!!!! I am so excited for her. If you could see her and the changes she has made, you would just be taken back. People in our ward even say she looks different; she 'looks like a Mormon'. I have been thinking about her constantly and praying so hard for her. We've been stepping back a little bit from talking about the smoking, but in a lesson we had with her, we decided it was time to lay down the spirit bomb. On this day we were thinking of teaching her the 10 commandments with an emphasis on number 4 (keep the Sabbath Day Holy). We both felt like maybe we should save that for another day and the spirit told us to have a lesson on prayer.

     We ended up talking about a sacrament prayer and it led to always having the spirit to be with us. We connected her love for her son and her desire for him to have a better life (did I tell you he was taken off her a couple months ago? He is 8 months), to keeping the commandments, always remembering Jesus Christ and taking His name upon her. Something clicked. She realized how much she wants and needs the spirit to always be with her. She decided that she would stop smoking last Friday and she hasn't smoked one since. Because of Stake Conf this Saturday, and Brother Jones (the person she wants to baptize her-our ward mission leader) will be gone the next week, the 24th is the date. She will have William, her son with her by then. It's a miracle.

     Sister Gao and I have been teaching English class to our neighbors this week. All our neighbors are from India, well most of them. It's actually more like me teaching the neighbors and Sister Gao English. It's pretty fun, but it hurts my brain at the same time. It's hard to teach English, let alone learn it, I'm sure! All my English-second-language companions always say how weird English is! Haha. 

    With one of our neighbors, we had her read a book that Sis. Gao got from the MTC. The sentence practice mention Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and God. She reads them and Sister Gao and I just smile at each other. She is Hindu and worships Lord Chrishna.... but has actually come to a few devotionals and English class at the church and thinks the temple is beautiful. She has lots of questions and seems interested in our beliefs.

    In one of our District Meetings, Elder Matuitia taught that:

Hope - a sure knowledge in that Jesus is the Christ and that the Vision for this mission is real.

Faith - our action and our works because of our hope.

Charity - will come as a result. We will be filled with the pure love of Christ.

I bear testimony of the reality of the Savior. I love Jesus Christ with all my heart. 

The things we want to accomplish in our life, the people we want to become, all take hard work. What else will it take? It's gonna take God. God is going to need to take over. We will need to let go and give it all to Him. It will happen with the spirit is our constant companion. It will take a lot of prayer. A lot of prayer and fasting. Yes, faith is a principle of action. But have faith as a principle of POWER!

Be kind. Smile lots. And have fun!

Love yous.

Sister Beardall

Exchanges with Sister Mortensen and Sister Ahlstrom

Sister Browne, a recent convert

Where is a telescope when you need it??

Food from India! One of our "English Student's" wife made us food! Their names are Iqbal (him) and Deep (her). 

Their 2 year old daughter Seerat (pronounced Seedat)

Waiting till week 6 of the transfer to go to the temple is a killer! We made it.