How are you all?! I love you so much!! I loved getting letters from you all this week, y'all are the best. :) Well, this was definitely a week of growth! First off, our ward grew by one new member, K*** J*****! Woohooo!!! K*** was baptized on Saturday and confirmed as our newest member on Sunday in Sacrament meeting. She was nervous all week, every time we saw her. But when she walked into the church on Saturday, she was so confident. We're so so proud of her. She's going places!
You know you're in Georgia when... there are Waffle Houses EVERYWHERE
Sister MacDuff and I hosted our first church tour! We visited a potential that she met on exchanges named Ed. He has a wife and three daughters. He's a very interesting man. He did ask for a Book of Mormon, but he doesn't seem super into doctrinal kind of stuff... So we offered him a church tour, and he was surprised we do things like that! He said, "So I don't have to go to your services?" Not yet, E**. Not yet... :) Well the Elder texted us that morning and offered to come with us, so we challenged them to invite someone. Five minutes later, they texted us and said they got someone! So the four of us with a couple of members, J*** K*** and her dad, gave E** and his daughter, I****, and M***** a church tour! It was so cool! E** had a lot of good questions, especially about the organization of the church. We haven't heard from him since then, he's really busy with school and work, but we're going to stop by tonight and see if he's been able to read from the Book of Mormon yet.
Well, now that K*** is baptized, we don't have any investigators. We don't have a huge problem finding people who will listen, it's just turning potential investigators into new investigators, and new investigators into progressing investigators. But luckily, we had a zone conference yesterday with... Elder Marcos Aidukaitis of the first quorum of the Seventy and his wife! They are from Brazil, and they are amazing! It was really a blessing to meet them and be uplifted by them. Elder Aidukaitis is super funny, and he totally cracks himself up. But they both have powerful testimonies. Sister Aidukaitis talked about patience. She used me as an example, as I'm waiting for my visa. (Of course, I am not impatient for my visa to come). And at the end of the conference, she assured me that this is where the Lord needs me right now and that I am in good hands with President and Sister Cottle. She also advised me to learn my Portuguese well here, because when I get to Brazil they're going to think I'm a native because I look like one. She is very sweet.
Elder Aidukaitis focused a lot on our weekly planning sessions and how we need to set goals with faith so that we can see the end from the beginning. Something he said that really helped me was about acting on good thoughts that we may not think are promptings. He said that when we act on good thoughts, Heavenly Father knows that we are willing to listen, and He will then bless us with promptings all the time! So Sister MacDuff and I are working on telling each other when we think we got a prompting, then supporting each other in that, and acting on it. We really learned a lot of things we could be doing better, that's for sure! But there's always room for growth. We both went through our notes today and set personal goals for how we can improve, and we're definitely changing some things as a companionship to improve ourselves as missionaries.
Our district leader has committed us to reach the Standard of Excellence by next week! It may seem like a daunting task at times, but I know that if we apply the things that we learned from Elder Aidukaitis and increase our faith, we will see miracles and we will be able to reach the Standard of Excellence! After the conference, Sister Cole, our nurse, surprised us all with the news that we are all required to get our flu shots! So we went to Walgreens and filled out a voucher to get a free flu shot.
Momma, you had asked how the 5-step with the members is going. It's going really well! We've started quite a few families on step 1, and they are super excited about helping us with this. The challenge is to invite someone to the ward Christmas social where we will be having an open house, and to use Preach My Gospel in FHE. We're excited to see how this improves the work in the ward! I just have to say, it sounds like the stake musical was amazing! I wish I could've been there! Someone better have recorded it so I can see it. :) I love you all so so much! Thank you for your love and support. You're the best family in the world!!
All my love,
Sister Ramsden
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