December 3rd, 2012

December 3

Hello family, 

It was so good to hear from you! It sounds like there is a lot of things happening back at home with mission calls, weddings, and people having babies. I am so happy for all of the great things that are happening. Sounds like everyone is having fun as well. I sure do miss you all, but I am happy!

To answer your question about the gum. We can chew gum in our homes, but we cannot chew gum when we are out teaching people. I have gum that I chew when I exercise in the mornings and sometimes when we are home. 

Transfers were Saturday and GUESS WHAT?! Sister Davidson and I are staying together for another six weeks in La Canada! We get to spend Christmas together. I am so excited for that. We are moving again to another house so next week when I know that address I will let you all know. It has been a crazy couple of weeks with the housing. I think we will be sticking with this new house when we move next week. I am actually really glad. This home will be much better and much cleaner than the one that we are living in now.

Alright so this week was a good week. We didn't to much teaching this week, but we did visit everyone that we have been seeing plus some. We have been doing a lot of finding and talking to new people. I have had a few spiritual promptings that I would like to share and how it has increased my faith this past week. We have been thinking about an investigator that we have been teaching named Leslie. We haven't been able to teach her because she hasn't been feeling well and has been busy. I felt really strongly that we needed to visit Leslie on night. I told Sister Davidson and she said that she felt the same way. We had talked about what to share with her and we both thought to share with with her "The Lord has not forgotten you." from conference. We got there and visited with her for a little bit and she told us somethings that have been going on and then I had this great impression to share another talk with her. I didn't know what we were going to share so I looked up all the topics and the talk from President Monson "Consider the Blessings" stuck out to me. As I shared it with her the spirit filled the room and she was so touched by the spirit. She teared up and I knew that she needed to hear that talk. I felt really good about listening to the spirit and that I was able to act upon the promoting to visit with her and to read to hear. She really need to hear that and needed to see us. It always makes me feel good when I can make someone else smile and uplift them.

Another similar experience that I had was with a Recent Convert. Her name is Theresa. She just moved and hasn't been feeling to well and has been super busy with work. We were out finding new investigators and then I felt like we needed to go see her. I didn't know why, but I knew it was from the spirit and I followed that promoting. When we showed up her roommate was struggling to move some of her stuff into her house and we jumped out of the car to help her. That was really cool to experience that she needed help. We also were able to help Theresa move some more of her stuff. We also shared a thought and talked about fear and what would life be like with out fear. It was a good lesson and we tied it into the gospel and how without fear we probably wouldn't grow as much. There is a quote that I like it says, "There is not comfort in a growing zone and no growing in a comfort zone." I really like this because it is true and when we over come the fear of things we also grow in our faith too. It was a good lesson for me as well. 

We had an investigator who came to church with us on Sunday to church. Her name is Lindy. She is a sweet lady. She has recently lost her son. Yesterday was a great day for her to come to church. She even got up to bear her testimony about her experience and how the "mormons" has influenced her life. The spirit was so strong there and she was able to connect with a lot of people in the ward. She has great insights and is amazing. I know that she has been touched by the spirit and I hope that we will be able to help her find happiness in her life and bring peace to her to know that she will see her son again. We plan to see her again this week and teach her the Plan of Salvation.

This is about all the highlights of my week. This week I can feel will be a great week.

I just want to close with my testimony. I know that Heavenly Father really does answer our prayers and that He knows exactly what we need. I am so grateful for prayers and for the guidness that I get from the spirit and the peace that I get. I know that Jesus Christ is the living Son of God and that because of him we are able to get through the many trials and challenges that we are faced with in our lives. I am so grateful for the scriptures and know that the Book of Mormon is the true word of God. I know that Joesph Smith was called of God and I am so grateful for his experience and that he took upon the challenge to find out what church is true. I am forever grateful for this gospel and all of the joy it has brought to me. I am so happy to be here in California as a missionary and I am so grateful for eternal families. I know that with whatever we are going through, I know that we will have the strength to overcome that and that we can be happy. 

I love you all so much and I wish the best of luck this week. 

Love Sister Ackley