Hey y'all!
Sorry this is coming out so late. There is just so much to write about and not enough time to write it! I will try not to be long winded in my stories of what happened this week but there are a few awesome things that I am excited to share. First things first, how is everyone doing?? We have continued to see so many blessings here in the "Go" and are finding so many prepared people! Heavenly Father hastens His work through His children as we follow His promptings and strive for exact obedience.
One thing I have been thinking about a lot lately is love. Now, don't get the wrong idea because I promise I am not trunks or anything ;) but seriously, love is so important in this work and in our everyday lives. Love, when founded in Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ, is the most powerful motivator for change. We must let love be the driving force behind us being better, more effective disciples of Christ or it will never have any lasting impact on our natures. We will never truly become what Heavenly Father wants us to become until we remove fear or a sense of duty and replace those things with the pure love of Christ. Through the past few weeks, I have had many instances where I have seen people exercise this pure love of Christ in their missionary work and in their life and oh what a difference it makes! So many times I have found myself focused on the wrong things because I wasn't focused on cultivating love. When we allow the love that we have for our Heavenly Father and Savior motivate us to love our fellow men, that is when the power of the Atonement can flow into our hearts and lives and allow us to be a force for good on this Earth. Elder Utchdorf, in his address this last conference, said, "Christ’s love will replace fear with faith! His love will enable us to recognize, trust, and have faith in our Heavenly Father’s goodness, His divine plan, His gospel, and His commandments. Loving God and our fellowmen will turn our obedience to God’s commandments into a blessing rather than a burden. Christ’s love will help us become a little kinder, more forgiving, more caring, and more dedicated to His work." How very grateful I am for a Savior who loves me infinitely and perfectly and who's example I can emulate as I strive to exercise charity in my day to day life. Moroni 7 states it perfectly as well when Moroni says, "But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him." (Vs. 47)
Now for the week. Man, it was quite the eventful one! We started it out with transfers on Tuesday where we picked up sister Stanley and introduced her to the "go", instituting her as the newest Go-Go Gladiator 
. On Wednesday, we did some service and then were all set to teach 9 lessons but then a bunch of them fell through. Luckily, it gave us a chance to go see a less active family who's daughter is being taught. She told us that she wanted to postpone her baptismal date (WE WERE SO SAD) but that she still wants to set it as a goal. So we have a few ideas that we feel really good about to help her to be more excited about her date, one of which includes actually sitting down with her and having her prayerfully select the day herself. We also got to eat with another less active family in our ward and we found out that they love to golf so that was super fun to talk about with them!
This week, we were also able to teach a couple who truly is prepared. We originally found the girlfriend a few months ago (remember the miracle that happened when sister Hoyt and I turned around and there was a lady sitting at the motel crying and needed a hug?) but she wasn't progressing and ended up dropping us. Around the time that she dropped us, we contacted her boyfriend and set up a return appt (they were split up at the time). When we came back for our appt on Wednesday night, this former and new investigator were back together and the girlfriend wanted to start meeting with us again! She said that it was very interesting to her that while she was away, we found her boyfriend and he was actually interested!! We have met with them a few times and have seen such a desire spark in them to really find out if this is the truth. They have been asking lots of questions and as we have helped them turn to the Book of Mormon for their answers, their hesitancy has melted away. She even said to us last night, "I know y'all are sent from God because every question I have, you have an answer to. I know they say the devil can do that too but I don't think it would be as fast as y'all". They were all set to come to church yesterday but she ended up letting someone borrow her car at the last min. But, we have high hopes for them because they are really seeking for truth. We are working on helping them depend more on the Book of Mormon and hope to see them at church this week!
The latest on Brian and Trish is that they are struggling to come to church because it is a lot slower than they are used to. More trials have come into their life lately as well so we have been working hard to keep them afloat. We had a lesson with Trish this week and sister Stanley shared the perfect scripture to lift her spirits (Mosiah 24:14-15). After that, she wanted more so we came back with a list full of comforting scriptures. Brian has been pretty closed off because of all that has been going on but we know that as Trish continues to read him the Book of Mormon, his heart will continue to soften. They asked to know what all the Mormon rules are last week so we are planning on focusing on all the commandments this week. Wish us luck! We got to meet their sweet little kids last night at her sons birthday party and they are just the sweetest! Such a fun time :)
We have also been doing the 15 Step stop smoking lesson with a bunch of people! We are praying that those we have shared it with will really apply it to their lives to help them to overcome addictions and have the Spirit more abundantly. We have also seen miracle potentials come out of the blue when we have prayed for them to be out in our path and then worked hard to find them. This one potential had been hard to contact because we lost his address and his number didn't work so we couldn't teach him and then randomly we bumped into him yesterday and taught him on the street. SO COOL.
We had dinner with a super fun member family and then one of the kids who recently got married came out with us with her husband and they were able to help us teach a lesson in Spanish. It was awesome!! The gospel is so cool and it is amazing when you can sit in a lesson taught in a different lesson and feel the Spirit just the same as if it were in English.
We also got to spend 2 hours this week searching for a lost dog haha. We have been watching over some dogs for service to this lady in the area and apparently her dogs electric fence goes off in the rain. That was a good old time searching for him ;) we did get a potential out of it because a lady ended up finding him for us and bringing him back so she gave us her info so we could stop by. Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways :)
I love you all! Thank you so much for all the love, support, and prayers. The explanation for the subject line is that while we were tracking this week, this sweet man behind a door looked in the peep hole of his door and said "Oh no, I don't think we want any Girl Scout cookies...". That was a hoot and a half for sure ;) have an amazing week! This gospel is true and really is the source of lasting, joy, happiness, and understanding. Hurrah for Israel!
Love,
Sister Dorian 
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