I had a really great title and then I lost it...

ALOHA EVERYBODY!
Holy cowpies this has been a crazy busy week! SO MUCH GOING ON I LOVE IT!! Here's what we did:

MONDAY: We did my favorite thing for P-day: play basketball! It's such a great way to get all your frustration out... I just wish I was better at playing. Oh well. Embarrassment is good for the soul I guess. Then we visited our recent convert, Paula, who is AMAZING and is starting temple prep! She gets to go in March! Her nonmember son was there too and according to Paula our visit sparked a lot of good conversation between them. I love it when we leave the Spirit behind in someone's house :).

TUESDAY: We were going to help someone move today, but they ended up cancelling last minute. So instead we biked a couple of miles in the good ol' Okie heat to visit Sis. Cloud who's a less-active that's a little out there but we love her. That evening we went to see Mimi and Tati, who are sisters. Tati is less active, and Mimi got baptized but never confirmed so now she's our investigator. We brought a sister from the ward, and I guess it was inspiration or something because she totally clicked with them and was able to become like a mother figure (which is what they really need). It was perfect!

WEDNESDAY: We had an AMAZING zone STM about raising our own zone title of liberty. We all set goals about things that we want to improve on in our companionships within the framework of our zone culture. We (sis. Adair and I) also gave a training about personal conversion (as I think I alluded to last week)and people said they liked it. Hopefully they weren't just being nice :). Then we had an awesome lesson with Comesha and Elijah about keeping the Sabbath day holy! They loved it and totally saw how it could bless their lives! Then we had a lesson with two new investigators, Diane and Tim. It was kinda awkward at first because when Sis. Bishop and Sis. Adair first met them Sis. Bishop was all interested in buying essential oils from them. So Diane actually called us to set up the appointment. When she noticed an obvious lack of Sis. Bishop when we walked in, she was kinda like "well why are you here then?". To preach the gospel of course! She didn't really like that but her husband wanted to listen so we just ran with it and by the end when we asked if we could come back SHE was the one who said yes. I LOVE THE SPIRIT!!! Then that evening our appointment cancelled so we ended up going to see Tina instead, who's a member that we're working with because she's got a lot of struggles. While we were waiting for her we ended up chatting with one of her roommates for a while and we decided there was a lot of good potential there :). God always puts us in the places we need to be!

THURSDAY: We had interviews with Pres. W and it was awesome. He gave me exactly the counsel that I needed. What a Christlike and inspired man! We're so lucky to have him here. I also got to go to the chiropractor for free because there's a member in the 3rd ward who sees all the missionaries for free and will help the companion of the missionary that has the appointment. Then we had a lesson with Josie, and it went really well again. We set an official baptismal date of October 3rd, and when we asked if she wanted to be baptized on that day she started screaming and laughing and clapping her hands! It was the most enthusiastic response that I've ever had!

FRIDAY: Exchanges! I brought Sis. Hardester to my area. She's a visa-waiter that came out with me (she actually just got her visa like 2 weeks ago so she's headed to Brazil in Sept.). She's super hard working and has a great attitude so we just went out and worked our fannies off and talked to everyone and had a super amazing lesson with Angie! It was one of those exchanges where you're like "why can't we just be companions??" Angie is doing really well though. She was sick all week, and her phone hasn't been working, but when we were planning on Thursday night we decided to try again and it worked! Huzzah! We taught the plan of salvation, and she LOVED it and wanted to be sure that everyone at church knew that she was going to be baptized on September 6th! She's so prepared. Then we had a lesson with Cassie and Bryon, who are less active. Cassie would be active but she's kind of held back by her husband, who doesn't really take anything about the church seriously. He was on his BEST behavior during the lesson, though, and even agreed to read the chapter we left with his family. We chose 1 Nephi 4 because it's something that would interest him.

SATURDAY: We went to see Comesha and Elijah again and reemphasized the Sabbath day(we really wanted them to come to church!) and showed them the new Mormon message. Sis. Goewey came with us and offered them a ride and someone to sit by which is SO IMPORTANT for getting people to church! That evening nothing really spectacular happened, we just rode around on our bikes and tried a bunch of people who weren't home. It happens.

SUNDAY: THERE WERE SO MANY PEOPLE AT CHURCH! We had Comesha, Elijah, Tieasha, Tieasha's friend, Angie, and Cassie. It was GREAT but also really really stressful because you have to make sure they're all happy and having a good experience. Everyone had a good time, though, and want to keep coming back! One of the biggest challenges with getting people to come to church here is definitely the fact that it starts at 8am. Nobody wants to go that early. After church and ward council and lunch we had a good lesson with Landon. He hadn't read the Book of Mormon, so we spent a lot of time explaining more of the purpose and reading parts of it with him. He doesn't want to start reading until he has a reason to do so, which is a little backwards I think. It's like trying to put the miracle before the faith which is the opposite of how God works. So we're going to have to keep working on that. We spent the evening doing some ward roster cleaning and seeing who was there and who wasn't. Pretty chill.

Well there you have it! Absolute insanity. I don't know how we have time for it all, but somehow God helps us fit it all in and still have some juice at the end of the day to help our sisters. I have definitely learned that the Atonement is what gives me the strength to live day by day and that it covers all the small things, not just the big ones. Because let's be honest, it's the small things that we need the most help with.

I think this a scripture that applies:

Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down atnight lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in themorning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the lastday.

I used to counsel with the Lord only when I had a life-changing decision to make. Now I realize that the Lord is involved in EVERY part of my life and that I need His help in every action I take. If we truly are counseling with the Lord and thinking about what He would do before we act, think, or speak, then we cannot go wrong.

I love you all! Have a FABULOUS week!

Love,

Hermana Bethani Holloway

PS: this is Don Carlos. He's the minivan that we got to drive around for about a week while our Cruze was in the shop. Still having fun time with cars!

Here's the video of the week!