November 19, 2012

November 19

Hello Family,

Sounds like everyone is having a great time back at home. Are you all excited for the break this week? . I will miss you all, but I know that I will be taken care here. We are going to a families house for Thanksgiving and they are so sweet. We even will have an Investigator there with us so that will be fun. There are so many things that I am grateful for right now and one of them is all of you. I am so blessed to have wonderful people in my life and to have such an awesome family (including you Chels, you are family) I honestly don't know where I would be with out all of you today. You all have been such great examples to me and I am so blessed to be a part of this family. I love you all so much. I am also so grateful for this wonderful gospel and the great love and happiness that it brings to my life. I am so grateful to be a missionary today and to be able to speared this wonderful message to those here in California.

Wow today has flown by so fast. Today we had to move out of the For's home and into another home. It has been a chore and we have been doing lots of cleaning and trying to get ourselves organized again. The reason why we had to move is because the For's daughter is coming home next month from her mission. The move has been great and we haven't moved to far and we are still in La Canada. 

This past week we were able to help on of our investigators Gwen with some service. Every year so does this big Christmas party and so she needed help. She is a sweet lady and it was so good to be able to make her smile when we were there helping her up. We helped her put her Christmas tree up and decorated it for her. It was fun and it made me realize that Christmas is right around the corner. Sister Davidson and I hope to be teaching Gwen soon. Her son got baptized about two years and just got back from a mission. We hope that she will see the influence that the gospel has on her son and will want to learn more.

We have been teaching a lady named Jan and is a great lady. She has been struggling a little bit lately and says that she feels so lonely and that she doesn't feel like God is listening to her prayers. We have been able to help her feel that love and have talked a lot about prayer. She is an older woman and has never been married and she is now realizing how lonely she is. She wishes that she would have gotten married. It is so sad to see her not happy. I want to be able to help you to be happy. I know that if she will listen to us and pay attention to the spirit that she will realize that she can be happy. Ac couple of days ago we had a prompting to stop by and see her. When we got to her house she was so happy to see us and said that she was having a terrible day and need someone to talk too. We were able to uplift her and to make her laugh which she really liked that. I am so grateful that we listened to the spirit. I know that we were meant to be there for her. She is a wonderful lady and we hope that one day she will find that happiness that she is seeking for. 

Robin is another Investigator that we picked up this past week and she is an amazing person. We learn so much from here when we go teach her. She loves having us over and loves listening to us. She is curious about the church and wants to know more, but isn't quite sure if she is interested in joining. She is having a hard time believing that there really is a God. We have been able to build trust with her by doing some service for her as well. Our first lesson was on the Restoration and we mainly only got through the first point about how we have a loving Heavenly Father. She seemed to have liked that a lot, but still wasn't sure if there is a God or not. We plan on teaching her again this week and showing her some scriptures that will hopefully help her a little bit. We are going to invite her to come to church with us on Sunday. Sister Davidson is playing the piano and we think this will be a great way to get people to come to church.

We also met a girl named Kelsey. She is 20 years old and is looking for a religion to join. She is very interested in knowing more about the church and has been studying up on our religion. She even told us that she has been reading from the Book of Mormon a little bit as well. We taught her the Restoration and she really enjoyed it and committed her to read the Book of Mormon and to pray to know if Joesph Smith is a true prophet. The lesson when great and she asked us a lot of the hard question too that people general have about the church. The lesson kind of got intense, but we were able to answer all of her questions and I know that the spirit was there helping us. I couldn't have answered any of them with out the spirit there. The spirit works is the most amazing ways and I am grateful to have him with me always. She was going to come to church with us on Sunday, but didn't come because she said she had lots of homework, but said that she will come this Sunday which will be great. We plan on seeing her again this week.

We met with Hugo and his family. We taught them the gospel of Jesus Christ. We used the Janga blocks and made a pathway to the celestial kingdom. It was a great lesson. We talked about each one and why it is important to have faith, repentance to be baptism, and receive the Holy Ghost to endure to the end. When we got to baptism we really stressed the importance of it and how this is the most important step to be clean so that we can live with our Heavenly Father again. We have been praying for a baptism date for that and invited them to be baptized. Hugo said yes when he felt like he was ready. We tried to set a date with them and he didn't want to set one. He explained to us that he doesn't want to make his kids do it if they didn't want too. He wants them to be able to choose for themselves. He did say that he wants himself and his whole family to keep learning from us and wants this for his whole family, but really wants to make sure that this is for him. We told him we understand and explained the reason why we invite and set a goal. We committed them to read and pray together as family. We hope to teach them again this week.

We have been really blessed this week and it seems like we are finding lots of people because of our faith. I know that my faith is increasing everyday and every time that I am able to share my testimony. I know this gospel so much and I know that I say it a lot, but it really is true. My prayers are always getting answered and I have strength everyday to keep myself going strong and happy. When I feel down or sad I know that I can always talk with my Father in Heaven and He will always be there for me. I love the scriptures and turn to them all the time. I have been learning so many great things from them and they have helped me so much. I know that I can always find answers to my prayers when I read the scriptures. I am so grateful for families and that we have the chance to grow and learn from each other and that we are sealed together forever. 

I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and know that I am thinking about you and so grateful for you all.

Love Sister Ackley