This girl is on FIIIIIIRRRRREEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

I noticed today as I thought about what to write that lately most of my letters are just miracle filled! Not saying that’s a bad thing, it’s just that I see a change in myself. I wasn’t too happy with being in Hesperia for a whiiiiiiiiile and it affected the way I saw everything. At the beginning of this transfer, so like start of July, I decided to just be HAPPY. I made the choice to be happy with my situation and to always look for the positive, to look for the brighter side of things and to be content with what the Lord has given me to work with. The difference in this transfer from the last 2 here is day and night. I am thankful Heavenly Father (after a whiiiiiile of workin’ on me :p) was able to humble me and help me see how great it is to be a missionary, even in Hesperia. It’s amazing what happens when we just suck it up, get over ourselves and CHOOSE, make the personal choice, to be happy. This has been a great life lesson for me that I will cherish forever. It’s funny because I’ve actually done a TON of growing here in Hesperia and I see how much I needed the change in order to keep becoming like the Savior.

I forgot to tell you last week since it rained a little here it was humid a few days and I thought I had died and gone to heaven!!! Wooooweee did it make me think of home sweet home <3 Is it weird that I like humidity? Yes? Yes. I thought so. Whoops. Whatever.
Missionary work is an interesting thing I tell ya what. See, we thought that summer would be GREAT since everyone is out of school and on vacation. But then we would run into problems of people not being home because they were out actually having lives (which is hard for missionaries to remember at times lol) and so it has been a little slow. So as we were talking about being excited school is about to start again here, we also thought, hmmmmmmm…not sure if that’s going to be a good or bad thing haha. People always have excuses. Either way, the work shall carry on!!!! NO EXCUSES :p

Random Fact: our car is broken again. The air conditioning isn’t working and wont be till later this week and our car keeps saying it’s in the negatives outside which is a DARN LIE!!!! IT IS SO HOT lol.

Something that has been on my mind a lot this week: In Matthew 18:16 Jesus says 6 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
So, He makes it clear that the way things work are in the mouth of two or three witnesses (hence, why missionaries go out two by two.) This confuses me though. If this is case then why is it so hard for people to accept the Book of Mormon, which simply is just “Another Testament of Jesus Christ”? It reads in 2 Nephi 29:7-8
7 Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth?
 8 Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am God, that I remember one nation like unto another? Wherefore, I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another. And when the two nations shall run together the testimony of the two nations shall run together also.
We have the Book of Mormon not only as evidence that this is, indeed, the true church on earth today, but also to be the 2^nd witness that Jesus is the Christ.  That is and always has been the Lords pattern to have 2 witnesses as a testimony of each other. We HAD to have the BOM in order for Him to keep being a man of His word. We needed it to show He loves ALL of His children, not just some. I love how close I feel to Him as I read the Book of Mormon. For any of you who don’t have a copy and would like one go here and order a free one:  http://www.mormon.org/free-book-of-mormon . To those who have one, regardless of if you have been reading it daily like you should or not, start today. Start right now actually. Take 5 mins to read. I promise you your day will be better and every single day you make the decision to read it you will be happy.

SUPER SWEET (as in awesome) STORY FROM THIS WEEK: Last Sunday the primary kids (church kids age 3-11) gave us a Book of Mormon with their testimonies in it to hand out to someone this week. Well, we had a TON on meetings going on so by the time we remembered we needed to hand out this BOM (since we were going in Sunday to share the story of handing it out) it was Thursday..night. Whoops. See, missionaries mess up too. Well, we started praying at every single prayer we had we would know who to give this very sweet and special BOM too. By Saturday Sister Treadwell and I only really had one person that was coming to mind who lives down the street. We don’t even know her name, but yeah. So we walked down Sat. afternoon and she wasn’t there :( We decided to just keep praying about it, but that we could always come back later that evening to give it to her. Well we head over to a lesson at the Woodys home and before we got out, we said a prayer, like always. In my prayer I said “Heavenly Father, please help open our eyes to who needs this precious BOM that we have and that we might know which child of Thou that we should give it to…..even though I’m pretty sure I just got my answer!” I continued the prayer and after Treadwell goes “are you thinking who I’m thinking?!?” we both said the same name at the same time. We knew who we needed to give it to. It was the Woodys neighbor so after telling them the story they just called her over. We told her the story behind it all, including knowing from prayer that we should give it to her. She started to cry. Cry. She hugged us probably 5 times and told us thank you SO much and that she would read it that night. We left in awe, as always. I have never received such a strong impression as that in my life. It was so neat.

The story continued though Sunday night as we got to watch Heavenly Fathers plans unfold a little in front of us. We were at the Woodys again and at some point it got brought up that he gave his granddaughter a BOM earlier that day after church. (Their family just experienced a death, so he was trying to comfort her). After a few mins it hit me like a ton of brick Heavenly Father was allowing me to see a little bit of how he works. Because we had gone over to their house the day before and given that woman the BOM in front of them, because he was able to see her reaction and how we went about it, because we had been where we needed to be when we needed to be and because we were worthy enough to receive that answer from the Lord, Woody was able to gain the confidence, strength and courage to give his granddaughter one as well. Heavenly Father has more in plan then just us giving her a BOM. He knew the impact it would have on one of His children and how much that one little act would grow into a huge story. I was so thankful for that experience and to recognize it. As always, I love being a missionary.

Fun things from last week:
-We had a “burning” at the Tahauris last Monday. Missionaries will do this as they hit certain marks in their mission (1/2 way, ¾, DONE!) so I burnt a shirt :) Super rejuvenating lol. Plus it was funny because their neighbor came out and thought we were doing a “Mormon burning ritual” hahahha we were like, nope, sadly enough we don’t do those :p

-got to see some of my faaaaaaav missionaries at a missionary meeting. It made my heart happy :)

Sister Ott goes home in 2 weeks..........NOOOOOOOOOOO

Love Sister Ott

-held some really cute baby chicks!!!! I love farms!!
-had interviews with president. It’s always nice getting to meet with him.

As you can see, it was a fantastic week! This work is so important. We should share it with everyone. We shouldn’t deny someone of the blessings we receive because we are too busy to see the opportunities Heavenly Father gives us to share our testimony. Make it a goal this week to share your testimony with SOME one, even the girl taking your order through the McDonalds Drive-Thru ;p LOVE YALL SO SO SO SO SO SO SO MUCH.
-hugs-
Sister Toolan