"Things like this don't happen!" Group E-mail December 9, 2013

Apparently, the group email I sent last week didn't go through. Sorry. The internet connection wasn't very good. And it didn't save either, so I will talk briefly about last week before I talk about this week. But I don't have much time, which is a bummer because I have a lot to say, so we will see how much I get out.

Last week we met this lady name Carmen. She was a referral from some members who are her next door neighbors. She is an 81 year old lady who lives with her daughter who is a convert, but hasn't gone to church in a couple of years because she got really busy with work. They just moved here from Oklahoma. Carmen used to always go to church with her daughter and they fed the missionaries all of the time. She loves the Bible! And we invited her to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and she accepted. She said that she has read part of it before, but she never prayed about it and thought that that was a good idea. She is really great! We went over this week and helped her set up her Christmas tree and taught her the Restoration.

This week was so great! A ton of fun and full of miracles! Here are some highlights:

• We played ultimate Frisbee Saturday morning with the elders and with some guys from the ward. It was so much fun and I did a lot better than I thought I would. Plus, it was a really great workout.
• I ate calamari for the first time. And octopus. And menudo -- which is soup with cow stomach in it. And the biggest piece of pizza of all time. It was giant. There is no way to describe how big it was. And it was delicious!
• And on the topic of food, I'm really starting to like salads.
• A former investigator who dropped us right before I got here, but who still comes to church, gave us a referral for his friend, Jose. We met with them this week and it was really great. and Jose came to church yesterday.
• We got a Mormon.org referral for a lady named Megan. We visited her Thursday night. Her and her family have been watching a video blog of a Mormon guy whose little brother just left on a mission and was talking about how missionaries are away from their families for the holidays. So she wanted to feed us dinner. She has had lots of run ins with members throughout her life; watched the Emma Smith movie recently and really enjoyed it; and they watch the District! And she offered to let us practice teach on them. We went tot dinner with them on Friday. She talked to us about how much modern-day prophets make sense and how she wants an eternal family. And she went from "you can practice teach us" to "will you teach us the lesson". They came to our ward Christmas party on Saturday and all of the kids had good friends from school their. Megan knew a sister in the ward as well, who invited Megan to take the lessons at her house, so we are teaching them the Restoration tonight. We are really excited and it was a huge miracle how prepared Megan is! She is so awesome!
• We went to the temple which is always amazing!

And I don't have anymore time and have to go. But I hope you all have a great week! God is good!

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Sister Sylvester's First Transfer and stuff...November 25, 2013

Well I got transferred. I miss White Oak a ton! I loved it there and it was so great and everyone there was amazing! But, I love being in a new ward and with a new companion. It is exciting and it is nice to move on. I'm serving in Oak Ridge in the Spring zone. I actually live in The Woodlands which is this rich place that has a huge mall with a waterway and boats. Our ward isn't super rich for the most part, but we do have one area that apparently has giant houses, that a couple of less-active members live in.

My new companions name is Sister Liljenquist. She is from Utah and is 19. She has been serving for 3 months. She is hilarious and we have a lot of fun together. We have already had lots of moments when we are laughing so hard that we are crying and our stomachs hurt, which is good. The ward is really great and I got to meet a lot of them at church yesterday. The youth speaker was sick so they asked me to bear my testimony during sacrament. It went really well. There is a ton of work to do in this ward and area and I'm really excited. I feel good and I know this is where I'm supposed to be.

So we have two main investigators right now. The first is Ashlee. We taught her the Plan of Salvation on Saturday and it went really well. She has a sincere desire to find out if the church is true, but is having a hard time with understanding how to figure that out. So we are working on helping her better recognize the Spirit and different things she needs to do to find out if it is true. We set a baptismal date with her for December 21. So we are praying that everything works out. She was supposed to come to church yesterday, but about 20 minutes before church started, right before she was going to leave, her parents randomly showed up at her house. So she ended up not coming to church, but she did come with us to dinner afterward at a member's house. She wasn't able to come until later but it worked out. We read the Book of Mormon with her and it all went really well. The ward is doing great at fellowshipping her.

The second is Kezza. She is from Uganda and came to the United States for school. She is 16 and I just met her yesterday at church. They have been having a hard time meeting with her because she has been so busy, and she hasn't been to church in a couple of weeks, despite the fact that she is living with members. But we texted her in the morning, and she came to church which was great. She is really sweet. She has school off all this week since it is Thanksgiving so we are meeting with her 2 or 3 times, which will be good. And she also got a personal progress book and is really excited to do it.

Anyway, there is that update. I'm really excited to be here and I know this transfer will be great! I love being a missionary! I love this church and gospel and I know that it is true. I love Jesus Christ and I know He is our Savior. I am so grateful for Him and His sacrifice and His love for each and every one of us. And I'm grateful for Heavenly Father and His love and all that He blesses us with. And I'm grateful for my amazing family, who I love so much and don't know what I would ever do without!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! Count your many blessings!

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group Email October 28, 2013 "Unless you want to be teaching marsupials in Madagascar you had better get over there!"

This week was a good week, but again, nothing interesting happened. We visited some less-actives and got in contact with them. We have been having a hard time getting in contact with a couple of our investigators, and we have been working really hard on finding new investigators and coming up with ideas and receiving revelation on how to find new investigators more efficiently in this area. We have gotten some ideas, but we are still working on it. Sister Stepp and I were driving to try and visit a less-active lady and passed a neighborhood that we hadn't seen before. So we have gone tracting there a couple of times now. We really like it. It has a different Spirit about it that we feel really good about. We haven't found a new investigator there yet, but I have no doubt that we will find multiple people who are prepared and ready to receive the gospel, there. 

We had zone conference this week and it was really great, as always. We talked about our mission standards and how to find more new investigators. For some reason I can't think of anything specific from zone conference right now, and I forgot my study journal at the apartment. So I would love to tell you some cool stuff that was said, but I can't remember anything. Oh well.

For zone conference we each were supposed to prepare a short talk on developing one of the Christlike Attributes found in Preach My Gospel. I chose knowledge, but after zone conference I continued thinking about it and I was thinking about how I could develop more charity and love for God's children. I decided that one way I could do that was by trying to better understand the divine nature that each of us had and the potential that we all have as children of God. So I studied a lot about the pre-earth life and life after we die. I read a talk by President Uchtdorf that I believe he gave at the Young Women's General Broadcast this year. The talk is called "Your Wonderful Journey Home". I highly recommend reading it for everyone -- male and female, young and older. It is such a great talk. There are a few things I really like about it. 

1. At the beginning he shares a story about when he was 11 his family was living in East Germany and his father was under suspicion as a political dissenter so they had to flee to West Germany and him and his mom climbed over a mountain and into another country. He literally pulled a "Sound of Music". How cool!

2. He depicts what it might have been like when we were living in the pre-earth life with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ before we came down to this earth. They way he describes it is amazing. It makes it really easy to imagine yourself there. (I kept picturing the movie "Saturday's Warrior" while I was reading this talk, and it was so hard to get out of my head. And whenever I think of that movie I think of when they two missionaries are coming down to earth and the lady says "Unless you want to be teaching marsupials in madagascar you had better get over there!" So that line ran through my head a lot this week. It was pretty terrible :) ).

3. My favorite part of the talk is when he talks about how every single person on this earth was valiant in the premortal life. We each made the difficult and best decision to come down to follow Jesus Christ and come down to this earth and live by faith. Each of us, at one point, had a desire to live with God again and to follow Christ. Sometimes we forget that while we are here on this earth. We need to help those people who have forgotten. Help them feel their Father's love for them. 

I know that each one of us did live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ before we came to live on this earth. No wonder Heavenly Father knows each one of us so well and better then we know ourselves. He walked and talked with us and we each had a relationship with Him. Every. single. person. was brave and valiant in the premortal life. As we remember this, we can each have more confidence in ourselves and our divine nature and individual worth, and better see others as Heavenly Father sees them and see how much potential they have inside of them. 

I know without a doubt that we are each a son or daughter of God. He loves us more than we can comprehend. He knows us and He can and wants to help and bless us. Pray to Him every single day. I'm sure He loves it. My dad emailed me this week and said that Elder Russell M. Nelson was at their stake conference this weekend, and he said that our morning and nightly prayers are like saying good morning and good night to Heavenly Father. We love hearing those words from our family and loved ones. How much more does Heavenly Father love hearing from us every morning and night. God is our Father in Heaven. He knows how much potential we all have to become like Him. We need to remember how much potential is in us, more often.When we do that, we have  stronger desire to follow Christ more fully and truly be one of His disciples.

I hope you all have a great week. I love all of you!

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail November 4, 2013 Mo Tab Miracles at McDonald's

This last week was pretty normal. Not too much exciting happened. I don't know what Heavenly Father is trying to teach us, but all of our solid investigators keep moving. Yesterday, we found out that our last progressing investigator got back together with his ex-wife and moved out of state with her. I told Sister Stepp, "I don't know why this keeps happening, but the only thing I can think of to do is just laugh." But, we keep going along, day by day, trying to find new investigators. Despite, the lack of investigators, the Lord is still blessing us, just in different ways.

But we had one really cool miracle this week and it happened at McDonald's. We have been working with a elderly widow in the ward lately and reteaching her the missionary lessons. One of our favorite people, Tammy Sue, has started coming with us to our appointments with her. After our appointment this week, Tammy Sue was driving us back to her house where our car was, and decided that she was really craving a filet-o-fish from McDonald's and decided to stop there on the way home. So we went inside and while we were standing in line a guy named Sam, who works at McDonald's and had just started his break came up to us and said, "Are you Mormons?" We said yes, to which he excitedly responded, 

"My favorite choir is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! They are the best! I love Christmas time just so I can watch their Christmas Concert!" And told us all about how much he loved the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It was so great.

We ended up sitting down and eating lunch with him. He told us that he really loves Mormons and thinks that we are so disciplined, kind, and happy. "You guys are always smiling!" He also said that he has been wanting to come to our church services for a long time, but has never got up enough courage. Somebody mentioned the word "baptism" while we were talking and he got really excited and said "Can I get baptized int he tabernacle?" We realized that he was talking about the temple. He used to live close to it and loves it. Anyway, it was so great and he is hilarious! We set up a lesson with him and told him about church. It was a miracle that Sister Stepp and I really needed to give us a little boost, since things haven't exactly been working out like we have planned. We were telling our zone leader, who serves in our ward with us, about this miracle, and he told us "good job!" And I said, "Well, thanks, but we didn't really do anything. It was just perfect timing and he came up to us." He responded saying that we deserved a good job because we were being obedient and working hard enough to receive that miracle. That made us feel pretty good. So we learned a few things from this experience: 1. When we are doing what we are supposed to be doing, the Lord will always bless us, even if it isn't right when we want it to happen. 2. We love the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! and 3. Trust Tammy Sue's filet-o-fish cravings.

That was our big miracle of the week. This week we will be spending most of our time finding new investigators and we know that the Lord has prepared people to receive the gospel, and that in one way or another, He will provide, if we are working hard and being obedient.

Something I have thought a lot about this last week is how important it is to live the gospel. This is so important because it builds our faith, people notice something different about us and want to learn more, and it is how we follow Christ and prepare for the day when we will meet Him. There are a few quotes I like that go along with this:

"Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words." (St. Francis of Assisi)

"It is not enough to simply be known as a member of this Church....We must live as true followers of the Christ, with charity toward all, returning good for evil, teaching by example the ways of the Lord, and accomplishing the vast service He has outlined for us." (Gordon B. Hinckley)

"But this I do know: when Christ comes, the members of His Church must be looking and acting like members of His Church are supposed to look and act if we are to be acceptable to Him. We must be doing His work, and we must be living His teachings. He must recognize us quickly and easily as truly being His disciples." (Jeffrey R. Holland)

When we live the gospel and become Christlike by following Christ's example and keeping Hist commandments, we will be so blessed. We will be able to accomplish and achieve all that Heavenly Father has planned for us. Yes it is hard sometimes, but the best part, is that Christ is with us every step of the way. And the more we strive to live the gospel, the more we will feel His love for us and recognize the strength He is giving us. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and I know that He is our Savior. Only through Him can we live with God again. I know that as we follow Him and His teachings we will be blessed in this life and in the life to come.

I hope ya'll have a good week!

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail November 11, 2013

Hello everybody! I hope you all had a great week this week!

Let me tell you about all of the tender mercies of the Lord this week: 

1. We started going to this park by the library a lot this week to go contacting in efforts to find some new investigators. We haven't found a new investigator at the park, yet, however every time we have gone there we have been able to teach at least one brief message to somebody willing to listen. They don't want to hear anymore after our brief message, but at least they listened to that. We talked to one lady about the eternal families and ended up discussing the spirit world a little. She said that the spirit world made a lot of sense and she really liked the idea, but she was good with her church and didn't want to change. It was just nice to be able to add to the knowledge that she already had. 
2. We haven't been able to meet with Samuel, our McDonald's guy, yet because he has been working a lot and his phone completely broke so the only way to get a hold of him is to go to McDonald's, which we did a couple of times this week. He should be buying a new phone this week. Every time he sees us he gets so excited and it makes us feel great. 
3. Tammy Sue, an awesome member in our ward, gave our elders a referral for one of her friends last week. She told them to knock her friend's street and not to mention her name, just to see what happens. Tammy Sue had told her friend about missionaries and how they don't have much money so lots of people feed them dinner. So when the elders knocked on her friend's door, she was excited to see them and gave them a bunch of shampoo, body wash, and shampoo and is having them for dinner tomorrow night. They haven't started teaching her, yet, but hope to this week. Well the day after the Elders knocked on her door, we were at Tammy Sue's during a slow time of our day, to practice teach the Restoration. Right when we were about to start the lesson, this friend knocked on the door. Tammy Sue invited her to sit in as we practice taught the restoration. We felt a little bad for teaching the Elder's potential investigator, but as long as she gets taught, is doesn't matter too much who teaches her. However she thought we were "practice teaching" her, so it won't be awkward for the Elder's to teach it to her again. Anyway, the Spirit was really strong, especially as we shared the First Vision with her and testified of Joseph Smith. It was a great experience and that powerful lesson gave us a little boost to keep going.
4. We got a referral last night from our Bishop for a guy in the singles ward. We called him today and set up an appointment to meet with him on Wednesday. Thank goodness! We are excited to finally have a new investigator!
5. Last week, Tammy Sue and Sister Stepp mentioned to me that I talk with the Spirit. Their comment made me feel really good. This week I prayed a lot to recognized the presence of the Holy Ghost more. I felt the Spirit so strongly this week! It was the best feeling. I also was really able to feel the Spirit speaking through me as we talked to investigators and members. There were multiple times when we were sharing a message and I said something and the Spirit was really strong. And afterwards I would just think "Where did that come from? I've never thought that thought in my life." and then I would remember that the Spirit was really strong as I spoke and that it was probably the Spirit speaking and not me. It has been such an amazing week being able to better recognize the Holy Ghost. The gift of the Holy Ghost truly is one the best gifts Heavenly Father gives us in this life.
6. We visit this elderly widow every week to reteach her the lessons. So we have been visiting her for a couple of months, and she is so cute and we love her so much. Anyway this week when we were leaving her house, she thought I was going to leave without giving her a hug and said "Hey! come her and hug me." I laughed and gave her a hug, during which she told me she loved me. It was so cute! And she had never told us that before so it made us feel really good and appreciated. It pretty much made my whole day.
7. We had specialized training this week with President Pingree. We didn't have ours until Thursday, but on Tuesday there was one being held at our church building. We had just finished contacting at the park and saw a voicemail from President Pingree asking if we could come open the library at the church building for him because he needed a dvd player for the training. We hurried over and opened the library for him. He was SO grateful! President Pingree is so kind and loving. He just kept telling us thank you, the whole day. We were just glad that we had the chance to help him out, even though it was only a small little thing. 
8. And one more tender mercy... Elder Brown and Elder Graham. They are the Elders that we have the wonderful chance to serve with in the White Oak Ward (aka the W.O.W!) Elder Brown is our zone leader and has been out 21 months. He is an amazing missionary! Such a great example of an obedient, hard working, humble missionary who just wants to serve the Lord with all of his heart, might, mind, and strength. He is training Elder Graham, who is also a great missionary and I have no doubt will do great things on his mission. They are so funny! Every time we talk to them, we are cracking up laughing. They are just so fun to be around. We had dinner with them at members homes a few times this week and they always made our whole day. They are so great and I'm so grateful for the chance that we have had to get to serve with them. I have learned so much from their example and laughed so hard talking to them.

Well that about sums up our week. I hope you all have a great week and remember that Heavenly Father loves you. You are children of God. and All is Well!

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail November 18,2013

As of this Friday, I will have officially been out on my mission for 6 months! That is insane! There is no way that I have been out that long. And I have loved all of it!

And I've spent that whole time in the same area. But, tomorrow I am getting transferred. I don't know where yet. We don't find out until tomorrow. I'm really excited, but a bit nervous, too. However, I know that it will be great and that I will love that area just as much as I do this one. I have loved serving in the White Oak and Sam Houston 2nd wards. They are so great and full of amazing members who have been so kind and loving and are great examples of true disciples and followers of Jesus Christ who serve everyone. 

This last week was really great. Sister Stepp and I stayed very busy. We had one day where we had so many people we had to visit -- including 3 new investigators, that popped up out of nowhere -- that we couldn't visit all of them. Of course, that is the best dilemma that we could ever ask for. 

One of the new investigators that we started teaching this week is named Luis. His girlfriend is a member and lives in Kentucky, right now, going to school. He is so sweet and kind and we love him so much. He has such a sincere and genuine desire to find out for himself if the Book of Mormon and Church are true. At the end of our first lesson, he said the prayer, and it was the most sincere prayer I have heard an investigator offer. He loves Christ and wants to follow him and he is already reading the Book of Mormon. He came to church yesterday, and he is going to the YSA's family home evening tonight. 

A few weeks ago, we had zone conference and President Pingree mentioned how the Book of Mormon is a "catalyst of the Spirit." Just reading the Book of Mormon will help us feel the Holy Ghost better and quicker than most things. I have thought a lot about this since he said it and I have gained a strong testimony of the power that the Book of Mormon has. A few days ago, we were visiting one of our investigators, and her brother-in-law was there. His name is Michael and he is currently attending a school of Ministers. He joined us for our lesson. We were planning to talk about faith. When we saw Michael there, we instantly were trying to think of the best way to invite and help them feel the Holy Ghost as quickly as possible. And I thought about what President Pingree said. So we decided to read Alma 32. The Spirit was so strong. There was one point, when I was saying something, that I was so overwhelmed with the Spirit that I couldn't form any words. At the end of the lesson, we invited him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He eagerly accepted the invitation. Sister Stepp and I left and just looked at each other for a minute and then talked about how powerful that lesson had been. It was a big testimony builder of the power of the Book of Mormon. 

The other thing I have grown to love about the Book of Mormon over the last couple of weeks is how simple it is to understand. I think one of the reasons why it is so "plain and simple" is because it is full of stories -- stories of prophets of God and their experiences of living the Gospel of Jesus Christ and keeping His commandments. The prophets are wonderful examples of what we can do to LIVE the Gospel. They don't just spew out a list of things we need to do. They show us what to do, just like Christ did. I love it. I'm so grateful for all of the people that have filled my life that have been examples to me of how to not just preach and study the gospel, but to live it. Please study the Book of Mormon every day. If you do not yet have a testimony of its truthfulness, please read it and pray and ask God if it is true. I know you will receive an answer. All the Book of Mormon tells us to do is to love and follow Jesus Christ and keep His commandments. I know that when we do that, we are so blessed and we can have peace and happiness in this life and in the life to come. 

I love you all so much! Thanks for all that you do. I hope you all have a great week.

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail 10/14/2013

Awhile ago, a girl in the singles ward gave a relief society lesson and in it she shared a quote on a card that her sister had given her. It said something along the lines of "When something not so great happens, just yell "PLOT TWIST!!" and move on." I thought that that was genius and this whole week the words "plot twist" kept popping into my head as a bunch of unexpected things happened. 

 

Last week started off with Sunday night, President Pingree texted the mission and said that transfers are now going to be on Tuesdays, unless you are training, then you still don't get your new companion until Thursday. That threw everybody off. It was a little hectic because nobody was used to it and nobody knew exactly what was going on, but it all worked out in the end.

Because of this twist, we had a sister in a our district, who is our zone's sister training leader, Sister Allred, stay with us for two days. Her companion got transferred on Tuesday, and Sister Allred was training so her new companion didn't come until Thursday. So for Tuesday and Wednesday we were in a trio and it was a lot of fun. Sister Allred is a great missionary and knows way more than Sister Stepp and I do and so we learned a lot over those two days and we are much better missionaries because of it. Plus, Sister Allred is really fun to be around. We got to do a couple of things in her area while she was with us, so we did quite a bit of driving back and forth from one area to the other, trying to keep all of our appointments in both areas. 

We had a really great lesson on the Gospel of Christ with our investigator, Colton, on Wednesday. He really loves the church and the gospel and wants to get baptized so badly. The thing that is holding him back from getting baptized is he is living with his fiance, who is a member, and they want to get married asap, but they didn't know if he was married. He had gotten a marriage license with a girl, but they had never gone through with anything. Well at our powerful lesson, we decided to set a baptismal date to show our faith to Heavenly Father that it will all work out. We set it for the beginning of November. The next day, we found out that Colton is married because they never returned the unauthorized, marriage license to the county office and neither him or the girl know where it is. Texas marriage laws get in the way a lot. That was another twist.

Also on Thursday, we found out that one of our favorite families in the family ward was moving to Georgia the next morning! They were supposed to be moving Thursday night to a different apartment complex that was still in our ward. We showed up Thursday afternoon to help them finish cleaning and packing and the sister said that her husband had showed up to work that morning and they laid him off, so now they were moving back home to Georgia, instead. It was really sad. We will miss them a lot. We took some pictures. 

Then on Friday, we tracted into a preacher who spent a really long time telling us all about his beliefs and then at the end tried to convince us that we could have so much more power if we joined his church. He believed in having the Holy Spirit and that through that you can heal the sick and speak in tongues and stuff. When we told him that we have the gift of the Holy Ghost and that our church also has the priesthood, he was shocked. Then at the end he went on about how we have been very deceived and we are cursed and are going to hell. While he was saying this in my head I was thinking "You know, it is funny. I have never been more sure in my life that I am not going to hell, now that you just told me that I am going there." I was grateful for our knowledge of the Plan of Salvation and the love that Heavenly Father has for all of His children -- enough to give us multiple chances to accept the truth. I was having a really hard time trying not to Bible bash. Sister Stepp said that she could see steam coming out of my ears as I was trying to hold it all in :) Towards the end, Sister Stepp simply bore her testimony about how she knew this was the true church and she has prayed about it and found out for herself. He completely disregarded her testimony and again said that she had been deceived and that her answer was not from God. I bore my testimony in the end and said "I have the gift of the Holy Ghost. (since that was really important to him) I have been endowed with power from on high. I know this is Christ's true church. I know Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and I know Thomas S. Monson is a prophet today. I'm glad you believe in Christ and keep doing what you are doing." He just looked at me and didn't say anything. I think he was a little scared :) And then we walked away before I exploded. I could feel the Spirit and power of God coursing through my veins. It was a great feeling. The Spirit testified to me that this church was true. Sister Stepp said that she could feel the power behind that testimony. It was an interesting experience to say the least.

Then on Sunday, we were sitting in the singles ward sacrament meeting and realized that our investigator, John, who ALWAYS comes to church, wasn't there. He is awesome. We taught him last week and it went so well. He loves our ward and he is so prepared. Before, he would always say that he would never get married and family life wasn't for him. But then when we met with him this week, he said that he has been starting to picture himself Mormon. Randomly he would imagine himself getting married...IN THE TEMPLE! How great is that!? He is so awesome. But he got offered a job in Shreveport, Louisiana and that he would probably be moving there at the end of October at the earliest. Anyway, other people noticed that he wasn't at church too and we were all a little confused. So last night we texted him and just said that we had missed him at church. He texted back and told us that his job actually wanted him asap and so he was in Shreveport already! Seriously?! I looked at Sister Stepp and said "I'm so done with this week :)" We will miss John a lot. But he said that he is going to get in contact with the ward and missionaries there, this week. 

Despite all of the random events of this week, most of them pretty sad, it was a good week. I felt totally at peace and just really, really happy all week long. There was one day where I literally couldn't stop smiling. Being a missionary is the best thing in the whole world! I love it so much! The Lord is hastening His work and this church is Christ's true church restored upon the earth. I love it! 

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail 10/7/13

First of all, our investigators are all doing well. We have had a hard time meeting with a lot of them over the last couple of weeks because they have all been really busy. So it has been a bit slow. We are also having a hard time finding new investigators lately. Our whole district is. At every district meeting the last few weeks, all of the companionships asked for prayers to help them find new investigators. We have quite a few potential investigators that were referred to us, but we only have their address and so we try and go visit often, but they are never home. It is difficult to get in contact with them so that we can start teaching them. 

A lot of you ask what we do in a typical day, so here it is. We wake up and exercise, get ready, do studies and training, and eat lunch. Then for the afternoon we will usually meet with an investigator or visit with some less-actives in the ward. For dinner we almost always eat at a member's house. Our ward is great at keeping us very well fed. After dinner we do power hour. "Power Hour" is something that we have in our mission that is an hour from 6-7 pm every night set aside for finding new investigators. It is a time that our whole mission is unified and doing the same thing and we are all praying at the same time for the same thing. After power hour is over we usually visit one or two more people for the night. Pretty much our days are time between appointments with investigators is filled with visiting less-actives and finding new investigators. The last couple of weeks we have had lots of people stop us thinking that we are Jehovah witnesses, which is totally great because it leads perfectly into a discussion about the gospel. And usually the people just ask for a card and say they will think about it and let us know and then we never hear from them again. But that is okay because we are sharing the gospel with the Spirit and it is up to them what they choose to do with it.

The last couple of weeks have been slow, but we still are feeling good about what we are doing and accomplishing. I believe the Lord is happy with our efforts. Of course we are always trying to improve, but knowing that the Lord is pleased is always comforting. Despite the slowness of things the last little bit, I have had A TON of small moments when the Spirit has testified to me of the truthfulness of this Church and Gospel. With every little thing that has happened or been said, the Spirit would be right there touching my heart. My testimony has grown a lot. And in the end, the most important convert on your mission, and in life, is you, so I am grateful for those times when I feel that my testimony is stronger and my conversion is deeper. 

Well wasn't General Conference fantastic! All of our church leaders are amazing. I liked all of the talks. I don't know what one was my favorite, but I really loved President Uchtdorf's, Elder Bednar's, and Elder Holland's, to name a few. Of course, who doesn't always love their talks :) President Monson said that he would write in his journal that this was one of the most inspiring sessions of conference he has ever been to and he has been to a lot. I think that means that we should all continue to read and study the talks over and over again until the next conference. 

I am so grateful for this Church and Gospel. I know that this is Christ's true church restored upon the earth. I know that President Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet of God and that Jesus Christ is the head of the church. Please work on strengthening your testimony every. single. day. Read the scriptures every day. Pray every day, all day. Go to church every week. These are small things that are so important and that make a huge difference. A critical difference. I liked the story one general authority shared about his grandparents who chose to go on a drive in the country with their family one Sunday instead of going to church and that one, seemingly small decision ultimately led to their inactivity. Do not give up the blessings of keeping our covenants and keeping the commandments. Heavenly Father loves all of us. Abide in His love forever. 

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail 9/30/13

Another one of our investigators got baptized on Saturday! Her name is Thi and she is so awesome! She has been on track and wanting to get baptized ever since we met her. She is the little sister of a recent convert in the singles ward. The baptism was beautiful and the Spirit was really strong. Our ward mission leader in the singles ward said that on his mission the missionaries would always teach a short restoration lesson while the people were changing after the actual baptism was performed. So Sister Stepp and I decided to do that and the Spirit was very strong. I know that this church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is Christ's true church restored upon the earth. It is the exact same church that Christ established when He was on the earth with prophets and apostles leading it through revelation and the priesthood. Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet, as well. We are so excited for General Conference this weekend. It is such a blessing to have a prophet on the earth who can receive revelation for our day. I love the scripture 1 Nephi 19:24. It talks about how we need to listen to the prophets and apply what they are saying to our lives. Please, please listen/watch General Conference this weekend. Take notes. Listen to the Spirit teaching you. And take the things that they say and you learn and apply them into your lives so that you can become more Christlike and and a better disciple of Jesus Christ. 

I have felt the Spirit of Elijah very strongly this week. Sister Stepp and I have had lots of meetings with our ward mission leader and the elders in our ward this week. We are working on putting together a family history workshop for people in the community.So we have talked a lot about our ancestors. I LOVE my ancestors. They are my heroes and I look up to them. There was a time in the MTC when I was questioning why in the world I was on a mission. So one night I prayed and was asking Heavenly Father to comfort me and help me remember why I was there. My ancestors came to my mind. Particularly my pioneer ancestors. I love them so much and I want to help their legacy, and the legacy of all of the early saints, continue and grow stronger. I was reminded that my ancestors are always going to be at my side to help and support me even if I can't see them. I feel their love. All of our ancestors love us so much! It is up to us to learn to love them. As you learn to love your ancestors, you will want to do more family history work and do their temple work and it won't feel like a chore anymore; you will feel their love for you and know that they are there supporting you. The Spirit of Elijah is so real and it can bless every aspect of your life and help you in anyway. I read an article in an Ensign, the other day, that talked about how doing her family history work and learning about her ancestors, helped this girl forgive people who had greatly wronged her. I don't know about you, but I would never associate doing family history with giving us the strength to forgive, but it does! And that is one of the amazing things about the Spirit of Elijah. It can help us with pretty much everything! And family history work isn't just for members. Everyone around the world, members and nonmembers alike, are feeling the Spirit of Elijah (whether they know it or not) and are doing their family history work. Invite everybody to do it. It can bless everyone! I love my ancestors so much and I am so grateful for them! I hope that you will one day gain a love and appreciation for your ancestors, as well. 

I am so grateful to be a member of this church. The Lord is truly hastening His work. I am so grateful to have this chance to serve the people of Houston at this time. I love Houston! It is a beautiful place full of beautiful people! The Gospel of Jesus Christ can help everybody and bring peace to all of our lives!

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-Mail 9/23/13

I just want to start off saying that I love being a missionary! It is a lot of fun and it is so great to be able to serve the Lord 24/7 and always be thinking of Christ. And it is such an honor to see the gospel start to change people's lives and see people progress in the kingdom of God. And Houston is so great! Sister Stepp and I always comment about how nice everyone here is. 

This week was really good. We had a lot of powerful lessons this week. One of the lessons we taught was to a new investigator named John. He just walked into the Singles Ward last Sunday all by himself a and wanted to learn more about the gospel. We taught him the Restoration this week and he said that it made a lot of sense. He is excited to read the Book of Mormon. The Spirit was very strong and you could tell that he was feeling it. After that lesson I thought a lot about how it is very important for us to be converted by the Spirit and feel that it is true and not just be convinced by how much sense it makes. But even though that is the most important, it is still really cool to think about how much sense this church makes. God really is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 

Another powerful lesson this week was with our investigator Colton. We taught him on the covered porch of his trailer. While we were talking he randomly asked us what our favorite spiritual experience was. Sister Stepp shared an experience she had involving prayer and I talked about how I gained a testimony. Right after I finished sharing my experience, Colton said "Did you see that?" 

"No"

"Three hummingbirds just flew in here at the exact same time. That never happens. They felt that Spirit."

Later in the lesson we were talking about prayer. Last time we met with him he said that he refused to pray in front of other people and he was very adamant about it. When we were talking with him this week we asked him why he didn't like it and he just said that it just felt weird to him. We talked about it some more, but eventually moved on, thinking that eventually he will pray in front of others, but it will probably take awhile longer. Then at the end of the lesson, we asked him if we could say a prayer and he said "Yeah, yeah! You got me! I will say it!" Sister Stepp and I just looked at each other and we were both thinking "Well we weren't going to ask you to, but ok!" He gave a beautiful prayer. The Spirit was very strong. It was a testimony builder that the Holy Ghost is really the one who does the talking and the converting. We could never have convinced him to say a prayer in front of us, but the Spirit touched softened his heart so that he would. 

We had a huge thunderstorm on Friday night. Storms in Houston are really cool because it down pours and they are just so big. The streets get flooded and it is a bit scary to drive in. We ended up going home and did training for an hour waiting for it to pass so that we wouldn't have to drive in it. But the rain cooled everything down, so the past few days it has been so nice outside! We even had Sunday School in the YSA ward outside yesterday. 

I hope everyone is doing well! Thank you everyone for their emails and letters. They are very much appreciated! Remember that we are all sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father and He is always there for us.

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail 9/16/13

So the last couple of weeks were ridiculously slow, but this last week was really great! We found three new investigators and the Lord gave us many miracles and blessings. 

Two Fridays ago, we had zone meeting and we talked about finding new investigators, extending more baptismal invitations, and prayer. One of the sisters who just came out a few weeks ago shared 1 Nephi 3:7 and talked about how the Lord has asked us to find one new investigator everyday and because He has asked that of us, He will prepare a way for it to happen, every. day. if we have faith, are obedient, and work hard. That really hit me. That reminded me of a sign in one of my young women's leader's houses that said something like "Faith is not knowing that God can. It is knowing that he will." I realized that lately my faith had switched to "Well the Lord CAN help us get a new investigator every day" more than "The Lord WILL help us find a new investigator every day." So I started last week determined to have faith that we would find a new investigator every day with the Lord's help. We found more investigators than we have ever found before. We got lots of referrals. We tracted into a lady who actually let us inside to share a message with her right then (which had never happened to me before) and a nonmember just walked into the singles ward on Sunday and said he wants to learn more about our church. How awesome is all of that! II know that this was not all just a coincidence. The Lord was telling me that I still needed to keep increasing my faith (we always need to be doing that), but that I was doing good and going in the right direction. The Lord is truly great and blesses us tremendously if we have faith in Him! That is why faith is the very first principle of the gospel. If we have faith in Him, anything is possible. 

And Marcus, our recent convert, received the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday and it was so awesome! We were very proud of him and all that he is doing. It is so great to see people progress in the kingdom of God. 

So lots of people have been asking for more details about the mission, so I thought that I would share those this week.

Sister Stepp and I live in a really nice apartment that is the perfect size. We have a car, even though a lot of the times we wish we had bikes. Don't get me wrong. We are very grateful for our car, but it is easier to talk to more people when you are on a bike. Nobody in Houston is every outside, at least not in the summer because it is so hot and humid. But on those days when it is a little cooler, more people actually come out of there houses. It is starting to cool down a little bit. 

There are a lot of really nice cars in Houston. You do not see very many old, beat up cars on the roads. There are also a LOT of Ford Mustangs in Houston, which I love :) 

All of the members in both of our wards are so awesome and take very good care of us! There are so many members in the family ward who keep telling us to come over whenever we don't have a dinner appointment or just need to share a message with somebody, etc. They keep us very well fed. I eat a ton of mexican food and it is delicious! I am realizing that I really love Mexican food, and I always have. I crave burritos all of the time. 

Anyway, I need to go. Have a good week! Remember that we are all children of our Heavenly Father who loves us!

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail 9/2/13

Well not much happened this week. It was really, really slow with school starting for everyone and Labor Day weekend. But this week will be really good and busy, filled with lots of appointments.

However we do have a baptismal date set for September 28 for a girl named Thi (pronounce like tea) in the Singles ward. She is really awesome! And totally ready to get baptized and she knows it!

Transfers were this week. I am training this transfer. My new companions name is Sister Stepp from West Jordan, Utah and she is 22. She is really sweet and excited to work hard and be obedient which is very important. We are still in the same area and this next transfer is going to be a great one.

Not much to say besides that. I will send more next week. God is good! The Lord will always give us the strength that we need if we follow Him and keep His commandments. All is well!

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail 8/26/13

Well I haven't written a group email for two weeks now. Sorry. The first week it was because their was absolutely nothing to say and the next week it was because we went to the zoo for P-day and we didn't have much time to email. But the zoo was really fun! Some members in the White Oak ward took us and the elders. The Elders in our ward are hilarious and so fun to hang out with! 

But you will never guess what has happened in the last two weeks: we found a new investigator, taught him all the lessons, and...

HE GOT BAPTIZED!!!!

Oh Yeah! Boo-Yah!

Let me explain. First of all the whole thing was a huge miracle!! (obviously). Sister Garlick and I were working really hard and trying our best to do what we were supposed to do and be good missionaries. And the Lord blessed us. At zone meeting this month, we set our goals for the month. Sister Garlick and I set a goal for 1 baptism/confirmation for the month of August even though we had no idea how that would ever happen. But the Lord has His plan. 

In our mission we have this thing called "Power Hour" where from 6-7pm Monday-Friday, we just go finding. It is a full hour set aside for finding new investigators. Sister Garlick and I have done it a few times, but a lot of times other things come up, so we don't do it as much as we should. However, about two weeks ago, we decided that we should do it. Sister Garlick was reading a paper that talked about how power hour works and noticed that it says to start power hour by going to a member's house, sharing a quick message with them, and then having the head of the household say a prayer and specifically ask for us to find those who are prepared to receive the gospel. So that night we went to Happy and Michael's house. Michael said the prayer -- the first time that we have ever heard him say a prayer. We ended up going to visit an inactive recent convert in the singles ward who we have been trying to meet with FOREVER and so we didn't actually go finding that night. However, the Lord still blessed us and answered Michael's prayer. That night while we were planning, some elders from another ward called us with a referral. They told us that their area had just been combined and they were going through the other area's area book and just calling all of the former investigators in there. They called this guy name Marcus. He didn't answer, but called the elders back a few hours later and said that he was glad they called because he has been trying to get baptized since last summer. The elders found out that he lived in our area now, so they handed him off to us. We were really excited and called him right then and set up an appointment for the next day. 

Pretty much what happened last summer was that Marcus met with the missionaries and took all of the lessons. He had a baptismal date, but something else was going on that night and it got cancelled. Then that happened a second time. And then both of the elders got transferred and nobody got in touch with Marcus after that. But he kept reading the Book of Mormon and going to church when he could. He is 18 and his mom lives in our ward. He was in the other ward last summer because he was with his dad. By the time we met him, he had been coming to our ward for a few weeks -- he had actually sat in front of Sister Garlick and I in sacrament meeting the Sunday before. Everybody recognized him and remembered him coming, but we all thought that he was a member. 

So we retaught him all of the lessons and he got baptized on Saturday! He is really awesome and a great kid. He was so excited to get baptized and was beaming at the baptism and on Sunday when he got confirmed! Also, he has a 14 year old sister who has sat in on a couple of lessons and we are going to start formally teaching her the lessons this week. She has already started reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church with Marcus and is really excited to learn more. 

Besides that we have an awesome new investigator in the singes ward and everything is going really well. Sister Garlick and I have a had a great last two weeks. We have been working really hard and have been really dilligent about planning and setting inspired goals and that has made a huge difference. We've been looking forward to transfers this week and wanted to go out with a bang. Transfers happen Thursday. We already know what is happening because we met with President Pingree last week, but I will just wait to tell you until next week after it officially happens, in case anything changes. The Lord is good. His work is rolling forward!  All is Well!

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Sister Sylvester and Sister Garlick's 1st Baptism!

Group E-mail 8/5/13

This week was one of the weirdest weeks of my whole life. So much stuff happened. I wish that I could tell you all of it, but I can't, so I will just tell you the really great stuff and try to help you understand why it was so great. 

First of all, Michael and Happy got married this weekend! They are the couple we have been teaching, that just started coming back to church after being inactive for pretty much forever. They are completely different people since I first met them. They used to be on the Do Not Contact list. But they had diligent home teachers who dropped off a message at their door every month. Eventually they started opening the door for their home teachers. They listened more and more until eventually, a couple of months ago, they started coming back to church. Now they are totally dedicated to the church, the gospel, and most importantly, the Lord. They are doing everything they can to become temple worthy. They were technically married under Texas' Common Law, but they wanted to make it more official to show the Lord, and everyone else, that they were serious about following Him and working towards being sealed in the temple. So the wedding happened on Saturday and it was great. It was really small and didn't take very long, but everyone loved it. Everyone was just so happy that this finally happened and were reminiscing about the long journey that has happened with Happy and Michael. Happy looked beautiful, thanks to my awesome companion, Sister Garlick, who did her hair and makeup. She was so excited and was on cloud nine all day long. We can't wait until they go through the temple!

And then there is Deborah... So last Sunday, Sister Garlick and I decided that it was time to drop Deborah as an investigator. She loves the Book of Mormon and meeting with us and has a testimony of pretty much everything, but she just wouldn't come to church, which was keeping her from progressing. We hoped that by dropping her, it would help her in the end. So Thursday (I think -- all the days blend together) we went to her apartment. A ton of her grandchildren were there, both teenagers and little kids, and there was so much stuff going on with so many people. While everything was calming down, Sister Garlick and I decided that we couldn't drop Deborah that night--not with all of her family there. So we were going to share a short message and then drop her another day. 

We shared a scripture in Mosiah about how God has given us everything and all He asks of us in return is to keep His commandments. Deborah was talking about all of this stuff that she had read in the Book of Mormon, and the whole conversation wasn't really going anywhere. Then Deborah said that she had had a conversation with her daughter, Montrice, a few days earlier. Apparently Montrice has a testimony of our church and knows that it is true. Montrice pointed out all of these things that she had seen Sis Garlick and I do, and all of the things that the church does and said that all of these things were things that Christ would do and how she didn't see any other churches doing it ("Ye shall know them by their fruits" Matt 7:16). Deborah said that this whole conversation made her realize that this was Christ's true church and that everybody else only had bits and pieces of the truth, but we had all of it -- the full truth. She told us that she had been trying to hold on to her Baptist church and beliefs and her old life and hang on to what we were teaching her at the same time, but now she realized that she couldn't hold on to both. She said that she was ready to give up her Baptist church and her old life. And she told us that Montrice said that if Deborah went to our church and joined our church, she would join, too. So we might just have two baptisms on our hands! Anyway, that lesson didn't go at all how we had planned. Deborah said that she would come to church when all of her grandkids leave next week. I really do think she will come. Also, Montrice will hopefully come. 

Sister Garlick walked out of the apartment and just looked at each other and said "What just happened! I'm so confused, right now!" Then we got really excited and freaked out. And we got frosty's from Wendy's to celebrate. So we are continuing to meet with Deborah and we will see what happens from here. The Lord has His plan. 

And we also got two new investigators in the singles ward that we started teaching yesterday. They are 18 year old twin girls and they are really awesome! 

I love this gospel! It is true and everybody can know if for themselves. The Lord knows each of us and our circumstances. He knows what is best for all of us, individually, and if we trust Him, we can have peace in our lives. Christ is the only sure foundation. 

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail 7/22/13

This last week was a really weird week and not much changed since the last email, so I am just going to write about a few things that I have been learning about lately.

I have really gained a strong testimony of how fear and faith can not coexist. On the 4th of July we had a specialized training meeting and our mission president talked about this. Ever since then I have really noticed the truthfulness of this saying. When we have fear, it holds us back from doing the things that the Lord needs us to do -- and the things we KNOW the Lord wants us to do. Fear holds us back from reaching our full potential as children of God. So we have to get rid of fear and have more faith, which is ridiculously hard sometimes, but always possible. 

A week or two ago, I had a dream about the Second Coming. It was not doctrinally correct, at all, but it was a really. cool. dream. Ever since then I have thought a lot about the 2nd Coming and how awesome it will be. It is crazy to think that Christ will walk on the earth again and that we will see Him. However, as great as it seems, it is also a little intimidating and scary to think of everything that will happen and how the wicked will be destroyed. Not that I worry about any of you guys, but I think that it is important to remember that every. single. day. counts. We need to always be trying to become better people. We can't ever think that we can just slack off this one day and not read our scriptures and/or say our prayers. If we give Satan an inch, he will take the whole mile. Pride and wickedness come on little by little. I want everybody to be in the Celestial Kingdom and it is going to take a lot of work to get there, but it will be so worth it! I am just so flipping excited. 

In Relief Society yesterday, our lesson was about how with God, all things are possible. I started rereading the Book of Mormon when I was in the MTC and as I have been reading it this time, I have come across a phrase that I had never notice before: "His MATCHLESS power". This phrase is used over and over again through out the Book of Mormon. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ's power is MATCHLESS! Nothing else could ever even come close to it. They really can do anything and all things are possible with Their strength. Why would we ever want to trust in anything else? Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ always win. Also in our specialized training, we talked about a story in the Old Testament about Gideon fighting the Midianites. Gideon needed to go to war against the Midianites who were a VERY large group of people -- innumerable. Gideon gathered together an army of 32,000 people to fight against them, but the Lord told him that that was TOO MANY people. He needed to make his army smaller. Gideon trusted in the Lord and eventually cut his army down to 300. Then the Lord was satisfied and told Gideon to get a bunch of lanterns and pots for his army. These 300 men surrounded the Midianite army, banged their pots together, and flashed these lanterns. This loud noise and bright lights confused the Midianite army and they ended up fighting and killing each other. The Lord works in mysterious ways. With Him all things are possible. Trust in the Lord and lean on His strength. 

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail 7/15/13

She seems to be doing well. Hasn't complained about the humidity yet.

This week was a really good week! We made lots of progress with people. 

We focused on Deborah this week. Sanderryo had a really rough week and kind of closed us and everybody else, out. But we talked to him yesterday and he is doing a lot better. We committed Deborah to baptism for August 11th. The hardest things will be getting her to church, but it is in the Lord's hands and all we can do is do our best. We went to her house on Thursday and read 2 Nephi 31 with her -- about the Doctrine of Christ. She LOVED IT! And when we finished that chapter she wanted to keep reading. We read all the way t Jacob 4. She kept saying "Let's just read one more." Sister Garlick and I were taking turns reading the chapters and at one point we were switching and Deborah was totally glued to the book. We asked her if she wanted to read another chapter and she said "Oh yeah! But skip the first verse because I've already read that one... Now I'm done with number 2. You got to keep up girls!" It was hilarious! We had companion exchanges on Saturday and I went to another area for the day, but while I was gone Sister Garlick read in 3 Nephi with Deborah because she wanted to keep reading, and they taught her the Word of Wisdom. Deborah totally understood and said that she would live it. When we visited her yesterday, we asked her about it and she told us that she hadn't drank her coffee that day and she hadn't had any headaches that day even though she hadn't taken her medication. It was awesome! She is really progressing!

We also got a new investigator named Cindy. She was a referral from a girl who lives in California who used to be in our YSA ward. Cindy is 20 and is ready to change her life and become a better person. We met with her on Thursday and talked about God's love for her and the Atonement. We gave her a chapter to read in the Book of Mormon and planned to meet with her again on Saturday. Afterwards she texted us and said that she really loved meeting with us and was really excited to talking with us again on Saturday. She also texted her friend who referred her, and the friend told us that she said she thought we were legit and she was really looking forward to meeting with us and changing her life. Unfortunately she ended up having to work on Saturday and so we couldn't meet with her, but we are going to get together this week and we are really excited to teach her!

I just want to say that I know that the Lord has a reason for everything and that His plan is the best plan for us. He loves us so much and he only wants what is best for us. A lot of the time we don't know the reason why we are in a certain situation, but if we put our trust in the Lord and rely on His strength, we will be blessed and we will be able to have inner peace.'

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group Email 7/8/2013

Update on people: 

We focused on Sanderryo this week. He really opened up to us this weekend and really likes us now. We have formed a friendship. One night we were over at Deborah's apartment and she was really exhausted, but she still had to make dinner. So we let her rest and made dinner for them. I think that was a really big deal to Sanderryo and ever since then, he has shared a lot more with us. We invited him to the YSA ward for church. He said yes, if we could get him a ride because he doesn't have a car and he was really excited. We asked a guy in the singles ward who just got off of his mission in May and he was totally excited to pick Sanderryo up for us even though it was kind of out of his way. But when he got there, nobody answered the door. We had been trying to text Sanderryo all morning, but there was a problem between our phones and neither him or us were getting each other's texts (he had been trying to text us, too). And he can't call anybody right now. So we couldn't communicate with him. Zac (the guy from the YSA ward) pounded on his door for a few minutes. So Sanderryo didn't come to church. We were all really bummed. We saw him that night and we think that Zac went to the wrong apartment complex. Apparently there are two right next to each other and most people get them confused. Sanderryo said that he was all ready to go just waiting for Zac to get there, but nobody ever knocked on his door. So next time, he will come :) The Lord works in mysterious ways. 

We got a referral from mormon.org for a lady named Brandy. We called her and found out that she is a member. She was baptized when she was 13 but has been inactive for 18 years. She wants to come back to church, now. She went last week with a friend of hers, but decided that she should come to her own ward. So she came to church yesterday and we met her. She is really nice and we are going to start teaching her this week to help refresh her memory and things. We are excited about that. 

This week, my testimony of Joseph Smith was strengthened. I already have a strong testimony of Joseph Smith and I think that he is awesome! But, this week I went through the Restoration lesson a lot and thought a lot about his life. He was an amazing man who had so much faith and trust in the Lord. When I read through the First Vision this week, I started tearing up a bit. The Spirit was so strong! Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and I know that he restored Christ's church on the earth and that through the power of God, he was able to translate the Book of Mormon. He is such a great example for us to look up to.

I also gained a stronger testimony of trusting in the Lord. He has a plan for all of us and His plan is waaaayyyy better than our plan. Everything that happens to us, is for a reason, and it can help us grow and become more Christ-like. I know that when we trust in Him and in His plan, that we can truly be happy and feel at peace with life. I love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and I love this gospel!

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Some photos of Sheridan's 1st Texan 4th of July: