Week 45.. Mandarin 1st Ward

Hey everybody!!! :) 

Funerals and Miracles! 

Well, this week was. . . the most stressful week of my life.   The end. 

BUT IT'S OKAY BECAUSE I SURVIVED!!! IT'S OVER! IT'S DONE! I’M IN ONE PIECE. Barely..     

Alyssa and Sister Chamberlain

Planning funerals are stresssssfullll........ 

Regardless of all the stresses and the sad things... this week was full of miracles. I could focus on everything bad that happened this week. ... Buuuut lets be honest. That's pretty lame. Lets talk about some miracles. 

WWOOOOOOOOOO!!!! MIRACLES ARE FO REAL! 

SO. One day. We were teaching a Facebook lesson in the laundry room of our apartment complex (super classy i know) and this man walks in the laundry room and we start chatting and all the sudden he asks us to tell him what our church is all about! So we did!! It was one of those beautiful moments where the Lord just drops people right in front of your face. Such a tender mercy. 

Then! We were at the church waiting for Jackie’s funeral to start and for her family members to show up and this man walks in and I think it is somebody for the funeral! I go over there and introduce myself. His name was Eric! He came into the church because he had looked up the website familysearch.org and found out that his grandpa was LDS and he wanted to come to church at the same one his grandpa did. WHOA. So cool. he lives in Arlington so we referred him to the missionaries over there! 

AND THEN, On Saturday!! Our key indicators were pretty terrible. Like.. embarrassingly terrible. So I said to myself, "we are going to get 5 other lessons if it kills me!!" This was a mighty goal. It was Sunday night at like 6.. and I prayed my little heart and asked Heavenly Father to provide a way. I didn't let myself doubt!! Well, that night we had 7 lessons. The Lord led us to investigators we hadn't seen in weeks and we had wonderful lessons!! FAITH IS REAL!!! It is so real. It was so cool. Oh my goodness! The Lord is so good to us. So good!!! 

Also, we helped Dixie with her dementia assessment, from a lady from a nursing home. Which was ... informative. And really nice! I'm glad that Dixie will be taken care of :) 

Jackie's funeral was beautiful. The ward members really came together and helped us pull it off! They are truly amazing and I am so blessed to be serving in Mandarin. A lot of her family came and we had such a great service. The spirit was really strong and we shared talks on the plan of salvation and the atonement! I know it touched her family. It was such a good missionary experience! We are hoping the grandma will continue to take Alyssa to church. They are kinda a rough bunch but they have good hearts. Jackie's uncle was interested and impressed with the service. Apparently he had gone through an open house to a temple! So cool. Jackie's boyfriend is now one of the Spanish elders investigators.. he wants to start coming to church! It's so cool how the Lord takes a sad situation and make miracles come out of it! I love it. I am so grateful for Him and for His love for everybody!! 

I have seen the hand of the Lord so much this week. He has truly helped me have faith and the strength that I needed for this week. :) I love you all so much! Thank you for your emails and support :) Prayer is real!

 

THE CHURCH IS SO TRUE! :) 

Love, 

Sister Chamberlain :)

Amen!