MOM CAN SHE SLEEP OVER

hello everybody!

this week was another week of lots of work! we had a fun start to the week when we had a district activity. sister dexter's birthday was tuesday so she requested to have a barbeque for our district activity. we went to a park with a couple from our ward and our district for lunch. it was so much fun! later that evening we had dinner with a family in our ward called the griffens. they are a riot. there's mom and dad and then 2 boys and 1 girl, 13, 11, and 9. they are so funny! we laughed so hard! sister griffen actually served her mission in our same mission so we were able to share a lot of experiences. 

tuesday was sister dexter's birthday and zone training. i made sister dexter breakfast and then we went to our zone training. it was great. we talked a lot about what it means to be a successful missionary, and how it is truly our commitment to the Lord and our diligence in the work. we had some lessons and a dinner appointment with a recent convert named Mavis. she is awesome! she is going through the temple this summer and we are so excited for her! when we arrived at her house, another member of our ward was there. she had just dropped mavis off from grocery shopping and couldn't find her purse anywhere. we said a prayer with her and then she left to go to where she thought she may have left it. a little while later she came back beaming. her purse was exactly where she thought and no one had touched it. she was so happy that she had picked flowers from the bushes outside for all of us to put in our hair! haha! it was such a nice evening. 

we had several miracles this week as we contacted a media referral we had received. this lady, dianne, had been difficult to get ahold of. she had met with missionaries years ago and read a bit of the book of mormon. she loves the bible and had liked what she had read about in the book of mormon, but she had lost her book of mormon in a move a couple of years ago and didn't know how to get a new one. we tried to stop by but she wasn't available, etc., etc. we called her and she told us we could just leave the book at her door, which we didn't want to do. finally we were able to meet with her yesterday. we had a powerful lesson on the book of mormon and she said she was so excited to read it. she told us she was so happy we were there and talked to her about it and she wanted us to come back this next sunday. she said she remembered talking to the other missionaries about how she can be with her mom again (her mom had passed away) and she is excited to hear about that again. what a miracle!

the other miracle we had was with a less active in our ward. the first week i was here in fallowfield we had a lesson with her where we brought the elders because she wanted a blessing on her house. we were able to have a lesson where we shared a scripture about how we need to center our lives on Christ. she started tearing up and telling us about how she knew she needs to make her life like that again. we hardly knew her and she was opening up to us. since then we have had lessons with her each week and her pure and simple faith has lead to sweet miracles in her life. her testimony is so strong, and she has been coming to church every sunday. her husband is not a member, and it really makes her sad. the last time we met with her she told us about how she had seen ladies in our ward without their husbands and they looked so sad. she started to cry and said she knows Heavenly Father loves her and her husband but her husband isn't interested. this week we were able to have a special fast with her and then she was able to receive a blessing. the power of the priesthood is so real. she was able to receive so much comfort and peace and direction. i am so grateful for the opportunity i have to be here in fallowfield, to witness her faith. to see her and others start from a weak flame of doubt to truly knowing they are a child of our Heavenly Father.  

this past sunday we had stake conference with elder echo hawk from the seventy. it was an amazing meeting about how our prophets and apostles are truly called of God to guide us in these latter days. because the stake center is so far away, we got a ride from the griffen family we had had dinner with on monday. after the morning meeting, they asked if they could kidnap us to feed us lunch. of course, we said, and we had another fun filled meal with them. the two younger kids were fighting about who would sit by us so we ended up sitting in the middle of them. i was sitting next to valerie, who is 9. she stared at me for probably a minute, so i stared back. after staring, she turned to her mom and yelled, "mom, can she sleep over!?!" hahaha after we ate with them all the kids were saying, "can we kidnap the sisterstomorrow, too?" i love the griffen family! we are so blessed to have them in our ward and for all of the things they do for us!

i love you all! i hope you have a great week!

"if God be for us, who can be against us?"

(NO ONE)

love,

sister paine

pictures:

1. sister dexter and the cake i made for her at our bbq

2. me, mavis, and sister dexter with our flowers 

3. valerie and i on the way back from stake conference