Hello hello!
Another week has come and gone and in 24 hours
I will no longer be a trainee. How did that happen?? It feels like just
yesterday I was on a plane headed to Kentucky and now I am done
training. Time really does fly. So good but oh so fast :)
Speaking of transfers....I am going to....TRAIN!! :) I am gettin' myself a greenie tomorrow 
🏻
my momma chicken is leaving me to go be a sister training leader in her
old zone that she was in for 8 months. While I am nervous to high
heaven, I am so excited. Since I just went through the training process,
I think it will be a whole lot easier to train and show her the ropes.
Plus I had the best trainer out there so I have an amazing example to
follow :)
Alright, now that that is out of the
way, our week was so so amazing! Miracles are so abundant here in
Louisville and in the mission in general and it is just a contagious
feeling of excitement and faith. I love it!
On
Monday, we got a tour around downtown Louisville with our Ward mission
leader so I got to see the Slugger Museum, and some awesome buildings.
After that we went to Abbie's house and got to spend some time with her.
Yes, this is the same Abbie that we meet a few weeks ago who is
prepared as can be. She hangs out with us every P-Day and goes to lunch
with us throughout the week as well. She is beyond excited for her
baptism happening on Saturday.
It has been such a wonderful experience to witness her conversion and
how her faith has grown over the last few weeks and I am so excited to
see where Heavenly Father leads her :) we also go to help at a wedding
that night which was awesome and weird all at once. But it was all good!
On Tuesday/Saturday/Sunday,
we got to teach the Grim's. This is the family that I was telling y'all
about last week who we met while trying to contact their son (still
haven't met the son by the way. The Lord works in mysterious ways that
is for sure!). They are so awesome! We have been helping them to
continue to gain the knowledge for themselves that these things are
true. They are going through some hard things and having this message
has really helped them to gain hope and direction. It is so cool! The
mother has some word of wisdom issues and the father isn't religious so
it will be a little bit longer before we can help the entire family
enter the waters of baptism. Their 9 year old daughter, Sarah Jane, is
right on tract to be baptized by the end of the month/beginning of next
month. She is the sweetest little girl! She came to church with us
yesterday all by herself (rode the bus with us and everything) and had a
blast. I was able to sit and talk with her during sacrament meeting
about Jesus Christ and what he did for us and it was such a special
experience. I truly love this family and can't wait to see their
potential as they progress toward baptism and continue to follow our
Savior.
On Wednesday,
we had to drop some of our investigators who weren't progressing and
hard to contact. We went to their houses and they were honest about not
being ready to commit. It is always hard to experience that with someone
you love and want to progress so badly, but it gives us the
opportunity/time to go and find those who are prepared right now. I have
come to realize with Heavenly Fathers help that the only agency I can
control is my own. I can teach them and invite them and commit them but
if they aren't ready to change, they won't. As long as I do everything
in my power to give them a chance to accept this gospel and come unto
Christ, then I have done my part. As I do my part, Heavenly Father will
do the rest :)
On Thursday,
we had an amazing experience with our neighbor, Blake. We brought him
cookies a week ago and he told us he was pretty lonely and confused
about which direction he should take in life. We asked if we could make
him his favorite treat and he requested pumpkin pie. So I made him
pumpkin pie and we taught him about the plan of salvation while we ate
it. He ended up opening up to us about all the hardships he has gone
through in the last year and it was such a powerful experience to be
able to testify of the healing power of the Atonement and the peace this
gospel can give to him. He committed to read the Book of Mormon and he
is meeting with us again this week. So exciting!
On Friday,
we got to go to Cave Hill cemetery. It has thousands of graves that
date bate to the 1800's and some of them are HUGE. We got to see Colonel
Sanders and Muhammad Ali's graves which was so cool. After that, we
went and taught a sweet girl named Gracie. She wasn't super interested
in our message but she was so so genuine and nice. It was definitely
refreshing to talk with her and I have a strong faith that she will one
day accept this gospel, even if it isn't today.
On Saturday
we got to hear from Elder Gray E. Stevenson! He has been an apostle for
a year now and it was such an amazing experience. He started the
conference by shaking each and every one of our hands (which took about
an hour since there are about 200 of us). Then, Elder Uceda, who was the
seventy who accompanied Elder Stevenson, spoke to us. He talked to us
about how we must be focused on teaching repentance and baptizing
converts who have become disciples, not baptizing to hit a quota. Then,
Elder Stevenson taught us how to invite others to act and how it is
essential to promise blessings and testify of truth. We must give those
we teach a fair chance to accept this gospel, and change their lives
through Christ's Atonement. One thing I loved that he said was that if
we don't promise blessings, our invitations will be much less
meaningful. Like, for example, if D&C 4 stated "Ask, knock, amen"
instead of "Ask and he shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto
you, amen." As we invite others to live a certain way and promise them
the blessings that the Lord is already willing to give them, then they
will feel the Spirit so strong. Another essential part is testifying. We
must always have the Holy Ghost as our third companion in the
companionship. He said that if we don't give the Spirit a chance to
testify in a lesson, then it is as if we brought Elder Holland along for
the day and didn't give him a chance to speak ;) the Spirit is
essential and critical to this work. If you have the Spirit and allow
Him to speak, you are a successful missionary.
Yesterday
was a miracle filled day for sure. Not only did we have Sarah Jane with
us at church, we also had another girl named Angela! We met her
randomly on the street and she told us about how she had a really hard
childhood and has been looking for somewhere to go to church. She said
that she walked in to the church an immediately felt the spirit. That
spirit stayed with her the rest of the service and she was taking notes
and everything! She shared with us that she had actually been given a
Book of Mormon in New Jersey a few years ago and when she started
reading it, she felt the spirit so strong that it brought her to tears.
Unfortunately, she heard some anti from her friends and decided not to
investigate further. Now, she is determined to read the Book of Mormon
to find out if it is true. We taught her after church and she committed
to be baptized on November 19th!
So cool!! She is so prepared. It just goes to show that Heavenly Father
truly is in all the details of this work. We don't know for sure if we
will be the missionaries teaching her since she has an interesting
living situation right now so we will keep y'all posted. :) After
church, we got a text from a UofL freshman student asking to meet with
missionaries because he wants to learn more about the church. Later that
night, we met up with a referral that we received from Utah. His name
is Brian. He is about to move to Florida but wanted to meet with us
since he had been introduced to our church by a man he met while he was
at a conference (this man referred Brian to us). We taught him the plan
of salvation because of some information we got from the referer and he
was very intrigued. He accepted the invitation to read the Book of
Mormon and pray to know if it is true. We are planning on meeting with
him as much as we can before we pass him off to missionaries in Florida.
So awesome! The Lord truly is preparing his children to receive this
message and He is definitely hastening His work.
I
love you all so much and I love this work! I have never been so happy
and so tired in my entire life. I have never done something more
fulfilling. This gospel is oh so true and it brings more happiness than
can be described. As we continue to build on our foundation of Christ,
we continue to be changed and we truly will become like him. Always have
faith, never fear. Choose the right even when it is hard. And never,
ever, ever give up! There is always light at the end of the tunnel.
There is always joy, even in affliction. In Alma 31:38, its states, "And
the Lord provided for them that they should hunger not, neither should
they thirst; yea, and he also gave them strength, that they should
suffer no manner of afflictions, save it were swallowed up in the joy of
Christ. Now this was according to the prayer of Alma; and this because
he prayed in faith." Life is what you make it with Heavenly Father and
the Savior's help.
Have an amazing week! I am so grateful for y'all and all of your support and prayers. Keep being amazing :)
Love always,
Sister Dorian
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