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:

Group E-mail 7/1/13

Well this week was just one of those weeks that was not very good and not much happened so this email will be pretty short. 

Deborah and Sanderryo didn't come to church this week and are really busy so it is hard to get togther with them. We taught Deborah the Plan of Salvation and her and her other grandkids, who were there, too, loved it! The little kids thought that it was awesome that they could be kings and queens one day. (We shared the Carrie Underwood song "There's a Place for Us" that is at the end of one of the Narnia movie). We gave Deborah one of those Book of Mormon Stories books that have the simplified stories in them with pictures and it is kind of in a comic book format. She LOVED it! And she was really, really excited to read it with her grandchildren. They only have one picture book for them to read, so it was great for them to get a picture book filled with lots of stories for them. 

Happy and Michael are the inactive couple that have recently come back to church and whom we have been teaching. We went to their house a couple of times this week. They are awesome! They are totally different from the first time I met them. They are always in such great moods and they love talking with us. We are going to their house again tonight for family home evening and will teach them the Gospel of Christ. We love going over there just as much as they love having us there! We just found out that they never got married. They are technically married because of Texas' common law marriage rules, but they want to really get married before they get sealed in the temple. And they invited us to the ceremony, whenever it is, so we are excited to go to a wedding! They are working really hard to become temple worthy so that they can live in the Celestial Kingdom (we taught them the Plan of Salvation this week, too). 

Speaking of Temples, my mission is really lucky because the Houston Temple is in our mission, so we get to go once a transfer (or every 6 weeks). So we went on Friday and it was beautiful. It was an amazing experience. I was having rough morning that day and was really anxious and stressed out about a ton of things. There were so many emotions and thoughts in my head that I LITERALLY thought my brain was going to explode! I was on the verge of a mental breakdown, but I didn't want to do it in front of my companion, so I held it in. We went through an endowment session, and the whole first half I was totally unfocused because my brain was reeling. I finally was able to focus and then I finally felt calm and peaceful. It was exactly what I needed. All of my emotions and worries just kind of melted away and I felt the Spirit so strongly. It was an answered prayer. I was sitting in the Celestial room and I thought about how I wish I could just sit in there all day long and never leave and how all the stress and emotions I felt before were worth it to come into the Celestial room. Then I realized that that is totally true about life and the Plan of Salvation. One day I will be able to hang out in the Celestial room forever, but it will be even better because it will be the Celestial Kingdom, and all of the stress and trials that we go through in life will all be worth it once we get there. 

Anyway, this next week hopefully will be better and will pick up more. 

Love,

Sister Sylvester