August 5th, 2013

Ahhhhhhhh! I'm so filled with joy!

Okay..... so, I have received the biggest blessing this week, and her name is SISTER THOMAS!!! Kind of weird since my first companion was Sister Thompson, but anyway, she is so amazing!! :D Sister Thomas is from Payson, UT. She has 2 little brothers and is the only active member in her family! So amazing right?! Yeah, she has such a fire for the gospel missionary work that, coupled with my still-burning greenie fire (haha), we have been able to work our butts off non-stop! It has been such an amazing week! I feel SO BLESSED!! And on top of it all, we have a lot in common and have become instant buddies :) She is so receptive to everything I have been teaching her about our area and about the work, she just absorbs it all and then turns around and applies it right away. I LOVE IT! Sheesh, Heavenly Father was looking out for me- I got the best one! ^_^

So, I wanted to tell you about the most amazing experience we had this week! Friday night at around 8:40pm, Sister Thomas and I were driving to our last planned visit for the evening and she asked if we could stop really quick to grab a Dr. Pepper. We were right next to a Turkey Hill (really common gas station here) so I said of course, no problem!  So we go in and grab a Dr. Pepper, no big deal and then continue on throughout the night. The next day we get a call from an awesome member in our ward who frequently lets us have lessons in her home. She calls and lets us know that a girl named Ciara posted on the ward facebook page that she was home for the summer, had previously investigated the church off and on, saw the missionaries at the gas station the night before, and took it as a sign that she needed to restart taking the lessons! So practically everyone in the ward responded with our phone number! So exciting right?! So Sister Thomas and I are so stoked to get the news and were anxiously awaiting contact from this girl. We go throughout the day not having heard from her, which wasn't a big deal because it hadn't even been 24 hours since she had received our number. So that evening we felt prompted to go tracting on a random street in Elizabethtown that an older potential investigator lived on. We were tracting for a little over an hour before it was time to head home. One of the homes we tracted, a family was sitting on the couch watching TV with their house door open and just the screen door was separating us from them. As soon as we approached it and made it known who we were, the father immediately said, "We're not interested." So that was that and we continued on our way. We only had success with one really nice guy named Rob, but that was the extent of it. As we headed home and began our planning session, we received a text message from a random number that said, "Hi my name is Ciara, I'm the one who asked for your phone number on the facebook page because I saw you at the gas station. Thank you for trying to come and see me tonight so quickly after me asking for your number, my parents don't know I am investigating the church and that is why my Dad turned you away so quickly! I would love to meet up with you guys sometime this week if that is okay? Ah, I'm a mess! haha"

......Sister Thomas and I about started crying with excitement and gratitude!

We asked Ciara if we could give her a quick call and she agreed. We told her right away how happy we were to hear from her! We also told her that we had no idea where she lived and that it was not intentional for us to come visit her that night. She paused in awe and said, "Oh my gosh that is so amazing.." I felt prompted to tell her that her Heavenly Father loves her dearly and is desperate for her to learn of the plan He has for her. She agreed to meet with us on tuesday at the local park and told us how excited she is to meet us in person.

This increased my faith and testimony that Heavenly Father is so mindful of each of us. I know now with all my heart that the Lord is preparing the heart's of the people in this area and it is our job as missionaries to be in the right place at the right time in order to find them. Obedience and faith bring blessings into our lives and as a missionary it is impossible to do this work without them. I love each and every one of you! 

Love you!!!

Sister Walborn

p.s. The 2 pictures this week: 1 is of Sister Thomas and I being goofballs... I love her! And the other is a panoramic picture of Pittsburgh that I got to take monday night before heading to the Pittsburgh 7th Sisters apartment to sleep. Hope you all are doing wonderful!!