Friday, December 12, 2014

9 Month Mark

Meet me Half way, right on the border line, is where i'm gonna stay for you! Night and Day!" I hit my half way mark! Weird! And guess what happened on our half way mark? I feel awful. We have been getting up at 620 so we would for sure wake up on time, well we thought "Hey lets try 6!" Then guess what... we didn't wake up til 745! We left our phone in the car. So lame! If you want to feel like the worst missionary ever, wake up late. HORRIBLE! So yeah... never ever going to wake up late again. To every missionary out there, never ever forget to set your alarm! Waking up late is the worst!

Okay so what happened this week? It was all amazing! (Except for waking up late on our half way mark) We got a new investigator, Lisa is really thinking about getting baptized, Arlene Lambert came to church for her 1st time in over 45 years!!!! An investigator went to church with her less active friend, and we have been so busy! Being busy is the best. I love it! Yes it can be really hard getting to one appointment after the next, especially because some of the people we meet have the gift of talking but I'm learning patience and the importance of listening from them.  But by far the best thing was seeing Arlene come to church! It was so sweet. We could tell she was nervous but man, we are so proud of her for coming and staying 2 hours! Thats huge!!! For someone who hasn't been to church in over 45 years to stay for two hours it was amazing, and then to hear in Relief Society Sister Rodgers bare her testimony on how her daughters have been praying for Arlene for 8 months to come to church and how thankful they were for their prayers being answered, gosh it was so sweet!  <3 Heavenly Father really does answer prayers and I am so grateful we got to be a part of helping her come back to church. :) Just in the last week Arlene's countenance has become so much brighter and its obvious she is a lot happier! :) Man! I am so happy for her!

We helped Carley paint her upstairs and whoa, it looks good! She also invited us over to help decorate for Christmas! Rebecca taught us how to make candy and we shared He is the Gift with her. That video is amazing. The spirit is so strong. No matter how many times we watch it, the spirit is always there to testify to me that what I'm seeing and feeling is true. I am so grateful for the resources the Church has given us to help further the work.

GUESS WHAT!!!??? I got to see the Winmills yesterday!!!! They drove all the way from Burley to come visit us! When I saw them enter the chapel doors, I had to pinch myself to keep from sobbing right then and there! Haha How I love them! And it was way sweet having them meet some of the people we are working with and meet some of the ward members. Isn't it cool how Heavenly Father puts certain people in your life? ABSOLUTELY LOVE THEM!!!! I can't tell you how happy it made us to see them! <3 <3 <3 

Anyway got to go again but before I do, I studied virtue this morning and realized I need to not let my thoughts dwell, I need to get rid of negative thoughts as soon as they enter. Having virtuous thoughts leads to virtuous actions. :) Have a great week everyone! Sending lots of love!

Sister Coats

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9 Months hahah 
SANTA

Monday, December 1, 2014

I Just Can't Believe We Are Companions!!! WooHOO!!

I just cant believe we're companions! Bahaha! Sister Dax and I have been saying that all week! Because man, its going beyond perfect. :) Sister Dax has brought a lot of spunk and enthusiasm for missionary work to Mackay. Its been so much fun how we have had amazingly strong "comp unity!" We have been totally on the same page. We get each others personalities and dang, we have fun and work hard! BEST OF BOTH WORLDS RIGHT THERE! (we quote SNL together hehe~ Mom, she loves Kristen Wigg the way we do!) I love how she is always up and ready to go. She is great at meeting new people and always sharing a principle of the gospel with everyone we meet. We have had a lot of success, even though our numbers didn't show it.... because we saw people progress! Different doors are opening and peoples hearts are being softened. The thing I have learned most from sister Dax this week is how when you are excited about the work, people can tell that you are, and then they became excited about it too. :) Sister Dax and I have had a blast this week. Missionary work really is so much fun. Seeing people change and grow and getting to be a part of that! Its awesome!
 
Thanksgiving we were invited to more dinners then we could count but because of our lack of miles... since we had to drive to twin falls for exchanges... we had to really plan out where we were going and who we were going to see. Anyway, thanksgiving morning we set up dinner at the women's club for a less active family, helped Lula cook and clean, she also fed us dinner, and she gave us a ton of leftovers which we both felt we should give to one of our investigators, Ron. He is single, lives in a shack, and has no family, so we put together the leftovers and delivered thanksgiving dinner to him. He was sick when we came over but he was so grateful. He even called us that night to tell us how grateful he was for the dinner. :) Rebecca, one of our investigators who we thought was avoiding us, also invited us to dinner, we helped her set up her Christmas tree and set up dinner. It was a blast because she invited a few friends, one who grew up LDS! And the rest nonmembers. We all just hit it off and the entire time we talked all about the gospel, and when we shared the message about "Moments that matter most." The Spirit touched everyone in the room! :D (Seriously though, we basically "rolled" home cuz we were so stuffed!)
 
Btw, we had a miracle with miles! Heavenly Father totally stretched them for us and gave us okay weather to walk around in haha but we have 1300 miles per month which we eat like butter, and our total miles used this month was 1299.5!! Haha .5 to spare! :D
 
We had to give another talk... we spoke in Leslie ward. I was asked to speak about repentance. I was having a hard time preparing my talk but yesterday morning during studies I finished. Well, when I got up to speak... (Sister Dax was so fast I had 30 minutes to cover! YIKES!)... I had this strong prompting to not give the talk I had prepared. So I just stood up there for some of the longest seconds of my life trying to put my thoughts together, I realized I needed to stop thinking about myself and instead think of what He want me to say. Anyway, thoughts flooded to my mind and experiences were brought back to my remembrance in which I had to share. It was pretty sweet. As I spoke and felt the spirit, I was learning from the things I was being prompted to say. I realized that Repentance isn't a negative, its a positive. Its a gift in which we can change, become better, and come to know who our Savior is, because without Him we wouldn't be able to progress. We would be held back, full of guilt, pain, and sorrow but because of the enabling power that comes from His infinite atonement, we can be washed clean and change. When we let His atonement work through us we find out who we really are. I am so grateful that I can repent, change, and be strengthened by Him.
 
I gotta go again... goodness... but last thing, we have been given this new card to hand out and it is called "He is the Gift." Perfect for Christmas! It has a link to a video about how Jesus Christ is the gift. He is our gift from our Father. We have been sharing it like crazy and people who haven't been interested before are now listening to what we have to say.
 
Love,
Sister Coats
 
PS: WE GOT A REAL CHRISTMAS TREE FROM THE SUMMERS :D Mackay is Zion & we got a brand new car! 2015 Subaru legacy, its nice. They see me rollin ;)
 
#ShareTheGift
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