"Goliath Was the Best Thing To Ever Happen to David" - President Holms

Hello Everyone! Hope y’all had a great week!  

This morning, Sister Gardner informed me that I've started talking in my sleep, Inviting people to be baptized and offering to do things for people. I feel like I've hit an important missionary milestone or something :) 

Last week kicked off on a really incredible note. I had the opportunity to get a Priesthood blessing from E. Gemmell, one of the elders in my district. Sister Gardner was having a hard time health wise, and Sister Houston was a little bit homesick, so they both asked for blessings at the end of our DDM on Tuesday. By the end of their blessings, I got a really strong impression that I needed to ask for one as well, and I needed to have Elder Gemmell do it. I felt really weird asking for one, because I didn’t really need one as much as the other sisters did (so I thought...) but I ended up awkwardly blurting it out. I sat down and received one of the most powerful Priesthood blessings I’ve ever gotten, answering questions that I had been praying about for weeks. I am so grateful for the Priesthood, and for Elders who are worthy to hold that Priesthood. 

We began the week at kind of an awkward spot, missionary-work-wise. All of our investigators lived in this certain project, and Saturday night we had a really powerful spiritual conformation that we WERE NOT to go back to that area, for safety. So, we were limited to phone calls, and desperately needed to find some new people to teach. We knocked and knocked and knocked and knocked. We finally knelt down to pray, because we didn’t know where the Lord wanted us to be. Instantly, we were directed by the Holy Ghost, and found Willie, who goes by Mary. We knocked on her door, and the first thing out of her mouth was “Do you believe in the tree of life?"  

Kind of a weird intro, but we went with it. We showed her the chapter in 1Nephi about Lehi's vision, and taught her the restoration. She was so excited! She told us that she had had a near death experience where she had seen a vision of the tree of life, and she had never had a church believe her story. She's currently on date to be baptized for the 22nd. 

Yesterday, we knocked into this incredible lady named Keisha. She let us right in, and as we sat down, she pulled out a Book of Mormon! I guess a couple of elders had knocked into her years ago, and left a Book of Mormon and never came back. She had put the book on a shelf, and a few weeks ago, she got curious and started to read it! We taught her about Joseph Smith, and she was really excited to read more of the restoration pamphlet we left her. She's also supposed to be baptized on the 22nd... should be a pretty great day :) 

Friday, we had our second Mission Leadership Council, where had the opportunity  to listen to President Holm speak. We talked about inviting people to be baptized "early, often, and bold!" sometimes people think that it’s weird that the Prophet asks us to invite people to be baptized within the first lesson (I know that’s how a good 90 percent of our ward feels...) but It’s really a great thing. The Lord is hastening his missionary work, and we need to find people who are ready to hear the gospel now. It makes me so excited to be a missionary right now! Also, President Holm stopped in the middle of our meeting, turned to us and our zone leaders, and said, "I'm going to call an audible. The Augusta zone needs to have a zone conference, this Tuesday. Will you guys put that together?" So, I get the opportunity to teach zone conference again tomorrow. I think the Lord is trying to teach me not to be so afraid of public speaking, because he's sure throwing a lot of it at me! :) We also get to do a fireside at girls camp next week (which I'm stinkin' excited for! I love camp!) 

Well, I hope ya'll are having a great week, loving tough things, doing tough things first, being finishers, and sharing the gospel with your friends like crazy!

 

Have a blessed day!

 

Sister Bryndee Derrick

 

 

A little P-Day yoga!

For the record...I really like her hair (Bryndee's Mom)!

 

 

More Yoga!

 

 

Bryndee, Sister Gardner, ?, and Sister Houston

 

 

The Harper family aka Mission Grandpa and Grandma

along with Sister Gardner, Bryndee, and Sister Houston

 

Bryndee's mom here...I asked Bryndee to tell me a little about sister Houston and this is what she said...

"I really love Sister Houston... We get along really really well, and I can see us being good friends after our mission. She's 20 and was originally from Peach Tree City, Georgia. Her mom is a fashion merchandiser, and she's the most fashionable person I know. She loves rock climbing, doesn't like to watch movies, and hopes her visa never comes because she loves being able to speak English :)