My beautiful family!
I love you all so much! I don't know if you realize what a help you all are to me, being out here. Thinking of you gives me such a push to more fully put my heart into the Lord's work. Something I learned a lot from Conference this weekend was what a driving force love is. Love is the reason Heavenly Father created the world, why He sent His Son to die for us, why He restored the gospel through Joseph Smith. So we can return to Him, because He loves us and wants to be with us forever!
I hope you enjoyed Conference as much as I did! I don't think I ever looked more forward to Conference. I felt the Spirit so strongly and received such inspiration to live much more like the Savior. It's been a day since the last session, and I have already felt a difference in my life! We are so blessed to have living prophets who give us such counsel. I want to hear what your experiences were with Conference! Write me about it. :)
Momma, I'm sorry you weren't able to catch me online last week! You mentioned that you noticed how long my hair is. That has just been one of many blessings that I know came to me because I am serving the Lord. It actually started back at the MTC. Those little patches you might have noticed (I like to call it Alfalfa hair haha) has started since I entered the MTC. The Lord has blessed me greatly in that way. This week wasn't too eventful. I did have an interview with President Cottle! He and his wife are just wonderful. We are blessed to have them. Sister MacDuff and I have adopted a new habit to give us incentive to remember to ask for referrals. For every person we forget to ask for referrals, we have to do two push-ups. I know it's not much, but we're too weak for any more! It actually has been a good reminder for us. Plus we get buff arms.
Well this week was pretty uneventful. We've really only been teaching K**a. She's right on track for her date on the 19th though, so we're excited! She's a sweet girl. She always prays that we won't stop seeing each other after she's baptized. We have seen A*a once or twice the last week. We're still not 100% sure where were going with her. She's been really sick actually. She got a blessing, but the Elder said it didn't seem like she has a great desire to be baptized right now. We're gonna check on her this week and see what's going on. She may not feel ready right now, but I know it will someday, there's no doubt.
Other than that, we've mostly been seeing less-actives and starting the 5-step with the members. It's been going well! Bishop Stewart thinks it's a great idea. So we've started with the senior missionaries and some of the ward council members. After Conference this weekend, we've actually felt inspired to get some of the less-actives into doing missionary work. We're really excited to see how that goes. I know that as they pray to know who to share the gospel with and bear their testimonies, they will feel that desire to come back to church and grow closer to our Heavenly Father. As we've visited some less-actives, the Spirit has been incredibly strong. Sister Logan's husband is a preacher, so she doesn't come to church anymore. But we visit her often and know that she has a strong testimony. We didn't know why at the time, but we felt like we should visit her a second time this last week, and we found out that the message Heavenly Father told us to share with her was exactly what she needed to hear. It's been really cool to have those spiritual experiences and to serve these people. Sister Laidlaw claims that her husband's inactivity is what keeps her away from church. When he's at home when we're talking with her, they just bicker back and forth the whole time. We finally caught her home alone and almost made a break-through when he got home from work. I guess some people told her that the husband should take the lead in getting his family to church, so she backed off. We shared an article from the Ensign with her about equality in marriage, and we'll check up on her this week to see how she's doing.
I love serving these people! I've been blessed to start seeing them more like Heavenly Father sees them. They are His children, and He sent me here to help them. We also had a cool experience with Edrick this week. We went over to teach him a new member lesson and invited him to have a question to be answered in General Conference. We've talked a lot about missions with him, but we don't want him to feel pressured. He knows it has to be his choice. He's always seemed a little iffy about it, but when we told him to think of a question, he just told us he wanted to know if he should serve a mission! He would be such an awesome missionary. So even though we don't have a lot of people to teach right now, exciting stuff is still happening!
I'm so grateful for the time I've had here. I can't believe it's already the last week of the transfer! Saturday we find out if either of us will be transferred or what's going to happen. I don't really know what I want to happen. I know that whatever happens is because the Lord knows it's what I need at the time and I will learn to adjust and will grow a lot from the experiences I have. I do know that I haven't gotten my visa yet. I spoke with Sister Cottle, and she told us of an Elder who got his visa, so I know that they would tell me when I get mine, even though I wouldn't leave until the end of the transfer. So I'm pretty sure I'm staying in Georgia, but we'll see what the Lord has in store.
Oh, I had my first ground deer yesterday! It actually tasted just like ground beef haha. The people here are big into hunting. Also, Brother Rhoden, the RS president's husband, is always looking out for us Sisters, so he told us there's a tropical storm coming in. It's supposed to just be through tomorrow. But it hasn't actually rained very much yet. We'll see what happens! I have yet to experience a true Georgia rain apparently lol.
Thank you all for your love and support. I am so blessed to have you. I love getting your letters. This week, I especially loved Nani's letter. That was the sweetest thing. I love her!! Also tell Gina I said thank you for her note!! Y'all are too sweet! I love you so much. I pray for you all every day. I hope you are all happy and well. Take care, and write to me soon.
Love always,
Sister Ramsden
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