OOOOOOKLAHOMA!

Stillwater Zone! :) I love that we have 6 sisters in our zone!

Hello family and friends!

This week has been amazing. Then again, every week is amazing. Even the weeks that are hard. This last week we had temple conference. I will talk about that in a minute. Last Thursday Sister Nelson, Sister Obena and I wanted to reach all of our goals by the following Thursday (the day before temple conference). Well, our faith was high and we reached our goals by Thursday. It was amazing! :D

Temple conference! Can you say incredible!? President and Sister Taylor talked to us about all the new missionaries coming out in the next six months, especially the new sisters. Currently we have 18 Sisters in our mission and by June we will have 56! I am so excited! President and Sister Taylor told us how as a mission we need to be prepared for what is coming. In order to increase faith as a mission the entire mission is reading/studying the Book of Mormon and Preach My Gospel. We have a schedule we are following and we will be done by the end of March. I am so excited for all the changes coming up. I feel such a weight put on my shoulders to be prepared for all the new sisters. It is a good thing though. Faith is very high right now. :)

President and Sister Taylor. I aboslutely love these two!

We started studying the Book of Mormon and Preach My Gospel on Saturday. I have learned SO MUCH in the last couple days. I was only able to study one chapter of the Book of Mormon and like a page of PMG! I was pondering why all of the sudden I feel a flood of inspiration coming to me. I have read PMG cover to cover before. I have read the Book of Mormon multiple times. I realized that President Taylor has been inspired to have us do this as a mission. As we act on what he has asked us to do we are in essence doing what Heavenly Father wants us to do to strengthen this mission. When we have faith to act we then see many miracles. :)

We taught our new investigator twice this past week. I'll call her A.P. She is fantastic! She is from Georgia and is the most spunky, soulful African American woman I have ever met. She has a strong faith in Christ. She is so kind and loving and I loved her from the first time we talked to her. We taught her about the Restoration. She basically already believes all of the things we have taught. She didn't have any problems with prophets, with priesthood authority or anything. The best part of the lesson was when we have A.P a copy of the Book of Mormon. She made a comment which made me think of 2 Nephi 29:7-9 .

“7 Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth?

8 Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am God, that I remember one nation like unto another? Wherefore, I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another. And when the two nations shall run together the testimony of the two nations shall run together also.

9 And I do this that I may prove unto many that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and that I speak forth my words according to mine own pleasure. And because that I have spoken one word ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another; for my work is not yet finished; neither shall it be until the end of man, neither from that time henceforth and forever. ”

Sister Nelson and Sister Record in an Oklahoma sunset.

I opened up to it and was getting ready to share it. Then Sister Nelson opened her scriptures (she was sitting on the opposite end of the table from me) and as this was happening A.P flipped open the Book of Mormon and started reading. She opened right up to these verses and started reading aloud. She was ready to turn the page again but Sister Nelson stopped her and told her that all three of us had opened up to the same verses. A.P thought that was pretty great. :) (and so did we!) We read the verses and she put the Book of Mormon down, hit the table with her hand and shouted "AMEN!" The next time we went over she made a comment about how the Book of Mormon teaches you "how to fly" so to speak. We are meeting with her again tomorrow. We are excited. :)

On Saturday we were out tracting (unlike Alaska where Elder Record is, it is beautiful here! 60 and 70 degree weather! woohoo!) and I really didn't want to do it for whatever reason. I always know when I feel that way it means I need to be doing that thing I may not want to do. Anyway, I said a prayer that I would be able to have a desire to do what I knew I needed to do. Sister Nelson recognized I was thinking about something so she asked me. I told her and she said, "well, lets go find those people who are prepared." The very first door we knocked on was a single mother. She was open to us praying with her. As Sister Nelson was praying for her the spirit was strong. As we were praying the thought came to me to ask her if she felt any different after the prayer than she did before we prayed with her. After the prayer was over I asked her and she said, "It's funny you should mention that. I was just thinking about how I felt lighter." I was able to testify that feeling she felt was the Holy Ghost telling her that God was listening and that he loved her. It was a great experience. We are going to go back sometime this week to teach her. :) After this experience I was feeling much better and was ready to go share my testimony with everybody in that neighborhood. It is amazing what prayer can do.

While we were in this neighborhood every person who opened the door allowed us to pray for them. We haven't had that happen in a while. It was amazing! :) As we were walking around two kids (probably about 10 years old) asked who we were and what we were doing. We told them we were missionaries and that we go around teaching people about Jesus Christ. Then they rode off on their little scooters.

About 15 minutes later we knocked on a door and were talking to a college age young woman. Before we even started talking to her these two kids were behind us telling us that we should go to their house and they told us where their house was. We told them we would go over to their house next.

Well after we were done talking with that young woman we started walking over to the house of the kids but they found us and told us that they just remembered their parents were not home. So we are going to go back either today or tomorrow to talk to the parents of these kids. I'm pretty excited! I love kids! They are so open to the Spirit. :)

Well, I am so grateful to be a missionary! It is a wonderful opportunity and I love it! There is no place I would rather be than here in Oklahoma serving the Lord. I love the Book of Mormon and I know without a doubt that book is of God. How do I know it is inspired of God?

"And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually." Mosiah 5:2

I know this Book is true because it has wrought a mighty change in my heart. This book has brought me closer to my Savior Jesus Christ than I ever have been in my entire life. Because I know the Book of Mormon is true, I know that this, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the one and only true church. Because I know the Book of Mormon is true I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that we have a living prophet today, President Thomas S Monson.

I love y'all very much! Have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Record