7-25-11

Dear Mom!

Things here are pretty busy! We are so blessed here in Syracuse. The Lord is always with us and guiding us every step of the way. So here are some highlights of this week from my journal:

Tuesday July 19th- Best part about our day today was our lesson with R. I love her, she is so prepared! We invited her to be baptized on August 13th. Which means we could potentially have 3 baptisms that day; M. P. (old Sicilian guy who is very accepting of the gospel, been taught for awhile by missionaries), R., and her 9 year old son, S. We taught, testified, and set the date of her baptism! We contacted R. OYM'ing (contacting) my first day here, so if/when she gets baptized she will techinically be my first baptism since we contacted, taught, and brought to baptism. We have had some other baptisms here, but those were previously contacted and taught by previous missionaries. However, it is still really neat to see the change in their countenances as we have met with them up to their baptism. We had a baptism on Saturday with D. and J.; didn't know them very long but I love them. Especially J., her 12 year old son. He has some learning and mental disabilities and I have a very special love for him and what he has to go through. He was beaming when he got baptized and they both got confirmed yesterday. They are starting a whole new life and I am very excited for them :).

Thursday July 21st- My first Zone Conference! It was most excellent! Took a lot of notes in my study journal. Main topics during ZC:  Repentance and Pride. Talked about the definition of repentance and the difference between the elements of repentance and what it actually is. Repentance is change, it is turning away from sin and aligning our will to God's. My mission president gave a great analogy that reminded me of Grandpa a bit. He talked about how horses are broken, when you break a horse in. At first, the horse does everything in its power to get the rider off its back and he showed us a video of a rodeo. The horse has to get used to having a rider or master, but once it does submit it's will to the masters, then they can work in harmony and the horse can then become a tool in the master, or rider's, hands. We are no different, when we put our will in line with Heavenly Father's, then we are the most profitable servants. When we give our will to God, we see miracles. 

Saturday July 23rd- Was D. and J.'s baptism. D. wanted me to sing a solo at her baptism and I told her I would. Not to mention it was acapella! I have never sung an acapella solo before, and with little to no practice time. I sang I Need Thee Every Hour, and I prayed that the people there would feel the spirit and that angels would be bearing me up as I sang that acapella solo. They did, they truly did! D. loved it and I felt like everyone else did too. I felt like I was shaking the whole time, but the spirit was there and that is all that matters. The baptism went beautifully, and D. overcame her fear of water to get baptized. What an act of faith!

Oh! and there was a cool experience this morning, one of those tender mercies of the Lord!

The first thing we do after we get up and pray on P-day is laundry. Well, we only had seven dollars between the two of us girls and normally we do two loads each so it costs usually 8 dollars, being a dollar/load for washer and dryer. While our laundry was in the washer, we were in our apartment discussing things. We had our front door and back door open because of the beautiful cool air this morning (btw its pouring now, haha, anyways). So a man, probably in his forties or early fifties, knocks on our door and asks if we are the ones doing laundry right now. Yes, we replied..

"Oh I am from the Mac-Gray company (that is the company of the washers and dryers here at the apartments we live in) and just wanted to make sure the laundry was working okay, so I put money in the dryers for you" We thought it was just the one dryer in our buliding but found out it was in all the dryers we used! The Lord really is watching out for us! That may seem small and simple but it meant a lot to us this morning, not having to go get more change for the laundry. It's little experiences like that that can make a big difference. We should have given him some sort of pass along card or something but didn't think of it till later. But I said a prayer of thanks to Heavenly Father this morning for the beautiful day and for the little miracle that happened during laundry this morning!

So that is some of the experiences of this week, there are more but it would take too long to write them all. I know Heavenly Father is watching out for each and everyone of us. 

-All my love,

Sister Gifford