January 21, 2013

January 21

Hello Family, 

First off I just have to thank you CHELLE! That was a HUGE prompting that you got and you followed it. You saved our little brother from getting into lots of trouble. I am so proud of you! Yes, I did cry. I am so glad that you chose to hang out with him that night. The Lord is really watching over us and is keeping us safe. Tyson, I really love you and glad that you never hung out with your friends that night. I would have hated to get that news that you were put away for a while. Thank you for being that great example to your friends and not participating in that activity. I am super sad for those other boys and hope that they will rethink the next time they choose to do something like this. It is so sad to think that Satan is working really hard on all of us. He is a strong person and knows our weakness. Times are getting scary and we need to make sure we are all staying close to the Savior, reading our scriptures and saying our personal and family prayers. When we do this we are casting out the devil and the love and protection of our Heavenly Father is able to be in the home. I am so grateful for all of your protection. I pray each night that you all with be safe and will stay close to the Savior.

Tyson, you made a great choice to stay home and hang out with Chelle. I am proud of you and I know that your Heavenly Father loves you and was watching over you that night. I hope you know how special you are to me and to our Father in Heaven. I love you so much!

This week has been so great. We had lots of little miracles happen this week. We started to notice them after our District Meeting on Thursday. We were taught about Faith in our findings. Faith is so important to have. Without faith we cannot do anything. Faith is super important in missionary work I have found. When we have faith that the Lord will lead us to those who are prepared and for the words that we need to say, we will see the blessings from that. I think sometimes I have been lacking faith and always fearing of what I am going to say to those I talk to or what other people are going to think of me, but after this district meeting something hit me and I decided to put my FULL TRUST in the Lord and to have faith that He will guide me and help me to know of the things to say to people.

Friday was a very good day for Sister Davidson and me. We had a church tour with Loly. We found Loly at the community center that we volunteer at. She is "Golden" and is so open and has a huge heart for her Heavenly Father. The tour was so amazing. When we took her into the Chapel she was so touched by the Spirit and started to cry. We asked her what she was feeling right now and this she said that she loves it in here. It is so peaceful and to feels so protected there. She said that it felt like she had a shield around her so nothing could hurt her. The spirit was so powerful in the Chapel and we were all touched by the spirit. When we took her into the Primary room and should her that font and talked more about baptism, I had this very strong feeling that I needed to ask her to be baptized. She said that she wanted too, but that she wanted to pray about it first because her concern is upsetting her parents. She doesn't want to upset them, but we comforted her and told her that if anything her parents who have passed on would be so proud of her. The tour was such an amazing spirit for her and she is going to read and pray about the  Book of Mormon. She had a smile on her face the entire time. Loly is an amazing lady and will be getting baptized soon. I love helping her understand more about what our Savior Jesus Christ did for us and how the power of the Atonement works. She can feel the love the Heavenly Father has for her.

After the tour we walked and talked to everyone that we saw that day. We were on our way to see Angela, a recent convert and we saw this lady out in her drive way smoking. We almost passed her by, but had this strong feeling to go and talk to her. We followed that feeling. Her name is Rachel. She wasn't very opened and looked really sad. She said that she didn't want to talk to us and that she had her own religion. We didn't leave though. I had this impression that she needed us and that we needed to still talk to her. I opened my mouth and out came a question. I asked her what her beliefs were and she kind of laughed/started to cry. She said "What can I say, sometimes I believe and sometimes I don't." Then she opened up and told us what has been going on in her life. Just recently she has lost a few of her family members. She was sad and hurt and couldn't understand why God would let this happen to good people. We bore testimony that Heavenly Father knows what she is going through and knows how to help her. She was touched by this and really appreciated that we stopped by. We left her our number and told her to call us if she needed anything. Later that not we were reading a talk by Sister Reeves, "The Lord has not Forgotten you." and felt strongly that we needed to drop that talk off to Rachel. We did that yesterday. I don't know what will happen with her, but I know that we were in the right place at the right time. I know that Heavenly Father is watching over all of us children and knows the best way to help and comfort us. 

Something cool that happened was we saw this car parked on the side of the road with the hazard lights on. We stopped to talk to the people that were there and they said that just before we come up to talk to them they were just talking about God. That was pretty cool for us to hear. We talked to them for a little bit and told them what we do and they thanked us for what we do and that they could never go up and talk to people the way that we do. We gave them pass a long cards and invited them to look at the website for more information about us. 

The Lord is always watching over His children. I know with out a shadow of a doubt that this is the one and only true gospel. I know that because of my great faith and my obedience to the commandments and the mission rules that I am getting blessed and that the Lord is proud of me. I want my mission to be a great experience for me and the only way that that can happen is if I put all effort into this work and fully rely on the Lord. I know that I am in this area for a special reason and I know that I am helping many people with my testimony and by being an example of the believers. I know that we can have so much peace in our lives if we follow the commandments, read our scriptures, and pray. I have so much peace in my life knowing that we will again return to our Father in Heaven and to be with our families forever. The more I read and understand the Atonement the more I feel my Saviors love.  I know we can cast our burdens on Him and he will help us and give us strength to overcome trails. I know that if we start to feel down and feel like Satan is tempting us, all we need to do is say a prayer and we will have the power to push him away. I know this is true because I have had to do this a lot and I no more will let Satan get to me. I love my Savior Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father. 

I love you all and I am so glad to hear you are all safe. Take care and remember to stay close to the Lord and read and pray every night as a family. Love you all and wish you luck with everything that you will be doing this week. Until next time.

Love Sister Ackley

P.S. Mom, I hope you are feeling better and that you had a great first day back at school. Love you and good luck with everything and your calling.

Grandma: Thank you for your email last week.