November 11, 2012

well the say a picture is worth a thousand words, i was hoping this might help in my letter writing because its getting harder to write. The short old lady is Kay Baynes she was someone i worked with back in st. Charles. She's the one who called you. You should call her again. She needs to feel the love. That's not good about your knee mom. I'm so sorry. Exercise is so good for it, and strengthening the muscles around it is good too. Maybe you should look into doing water aerobics somewhere? Happy Halloween! We had transfers on Wednesday which is always bitter sweet. Its coming to the point where many of my dear friends are going home. We picked up sister lowe at transfers. She has been staying with us until her new trainee arrives tomorrow, and then they will be returning back to Fredrickstown. We had many tender mercies this week but the miracle that stands out the most happened last night. We had written out a list of people that we wanted to go see and no one was home. This can be a little disconcerting but what can you do but carry on. We had one last home we wanted to try before dinner, she was a women the sisters in the Maryland Heights had taught a long time ago. The elders found her progress record in their storage unit earlier in the week and had just given it to us after church. It was late in getting cold and she opened the door we could see that she had been crying. We introduced ourselves and asked what we could do to help. She recognized us right away as missionaries from the church and welcomed us in offering us some hot cocoa to warm up. She then openly shared everything that was on her mind, how she had fallen into financial problems and wasn't going to make it after 3 months. She then told us that the previous sisters used to come and read inspiring passages from the scriptures and wanted to know if we had anything for her to read. We started out by reading the introduction of the book of Mormon and then proceeded to share scriptures that had brought peace and comfort to us during times of trial. We all bore testimony of the peace that is found when we rely upon our Savior Jesus Christ and how the book of Mormon teaches us how we can do that. It was such a spirit lead lesson, it was amazing. Before we left we hadn't yet invited her to read anything and so i felt the need to extend the chapter Alma 32, we set up a follow up appointment and then closed with a prayer. Another miraculous part of the story came when we were leaving. Sister Luker my companion turned to me and asked me how i knew to give that chapter because that was the chapter she felt she needed to extend as well. We all knew that the the spirit was attending us and was guiding us to say the things we said. Everything that happened that night happened because God knew that Marty needed to feel his love. I know that we were sent to her, and that we came at exactly the right time. Timing is everything, and it has to be in Gods time for it to work. I know that God lives and loves all his children. love you all sister salmon