Bryndee Down South: A Multicultural Testimony Meeting!

No we don’t have I pads yet.... but at MLC this week, I got to see one! President is telling us that by December, we will have permission to long on to our old Facebook account, and use them (after a good scrubbing :)) to share the gospel with the world! We also get our own I pad mini, which will replace our scriptures, area books, planners, and GPS's. It will also be ours to keep after our time serving is up. It’s so cool how the Lord advances technology to bring to pass his work in these High-tech times.

Sunday, we had testimony meeting in church. For those less familiar with Latter-day Saint services, a testimony meeting is when members of the congregation are given time to stand at the pulpit and share what they know to be true. We all get to strengthen one another by sharing experiences and how our faith in Jesus Christ helped us and blessed our lives. First we had a sister from Latin America stand and share her testimony of the blessings of the temple, and making promises with God. Then we had a 7 year old girl stand up and share how she was helping her teacher to understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ, through a daily journal entry she wrote. She would take journal topics like "what are your 3 favorite fall activities?" (Halloween, thanksgiving, and General Conference) and "who is your favorite person?" (Heavenly Father) and share what she knew to be true with her teacher. We then had Brother Turner (one of my favorite members. He's African-American, and has hair like Albert Einstein!) Stand up and share his testimony of modern day prophets. He knew that God loved us, and that there was no way that he would just quit speaking to us. It was neat :) we than had a darling little Asian sister stand, and thank her Heavenly Father for the healing of her husband, who had been in the hospital. She didn't speak a word of English, but she had her daughter come up and translate for her. The final speaker was a sister named Candy, who is a California transplant, and just returning to the church. She stood up and emphatically declared that she was "SO STOKED! I HAVE MY TESTIMONY BACK, DUDES!" it was soooo her, and absolutely perfect :) One thing I really love about this church is that it really is for everyone. No matter your race, creed, or kind, the gospel is for you, and it will improve your quality of life. "It could not be of man, man isn’t That Smart..." -Bishop Mather :)

This week was an interesting one for the Spartanburg sisters. We have really been trying to figure out how to balance the work in both of our areas. In the 2nd ward, the work is rolling forward, almost faster than we can keep up with, which is wonderful. In the 1st ward, not so much. We're having a hard time finding solid investigators in that area. The interesting thing is, when we were setting baptismal goals for our two areas, we had originally set it for 2 in the 2nd ward, and 1 in the first ward. We were all feeling pretty confident in our goals, so we went to go pray about it. we had decided to pray individually, so I knelt down and started letting our father in heaven know what we had decided, when I got a very strong impression that our goals needed to be switched. I was pretty confused. I prayed again. I got the same prompting. Then, when we reconvened, I discovered that both of my companions had felt the same way... I don't know how the Lord is going to make it work, but I have faith that he can, and we've decided to work three times as hard to make it happen :)

We also found out that we have an additional companionship to go on exchanges with this transfer, bringing our exchange total to 8. In a 6 week period. We have 3 exchanges this week, and 3 again next week. So busy! It’s wonderful!!!

So, one of our investigators who is moving to Taylors, SC, gave us a GIANT picture of a zebra to put in our apartment. It was way interesting trying to fit that massive picture in our tiny little Jetta. We ended up putting it in our open trunk, and strapping it down with the strap from my purse. Pictures attached.