Adjusting to Bountiful this week has been quite the experience! I said goodbye to everyone I knew in Layton on Monday and got to Bountiful on Tuesday afternoon. I am Senior Companion now, which has been really fun, and my companion Sister Juarez is amazing. Meeting with 9 Bishops and Ward mission leaders has been putting my memory to the test, but I'm figuring it out and having a lot of fun meeting all these wonderful people!
My first night here we had 2 dinner appointments back to back! The second one was where a family in our stake invited her friend from work to hear the missionaries, and we taught her about the restoration of the gospel and the Book of Mormon, and she was just so ready to hear it! We've been meeting with her often and she is getting ready to be baptized in May. She told us that she watched General Conference on her own last week and that's what made her so interested in talking to the missionaries!
We also had the baptism of a girl whose family is returning to activity and it was so neat to see her make those covenants and be an example to her family. Sister Holbrook who was here before I was, got to come back and see the baptism too.
I met a Brother Jeffrey at church on Sunday and he said he was from Freeport Illinois, and found out he grew up with my Grandma and knew my whole family! It was so neat to talk to someone who knew my family so well! It's definitely a small world!
Hope you all have a great week!
The Dennings! Used to live in the Rockford stake back home!
April 7, 2014
This morning I found out that for this transfer, I'm leaving Layton and going to Bountiful! That really surprised me but I'm excited for my new companion, Sister Juarez, who I've met before and she's really friendly. She's from California and joined the church less than 2 years ago and then came on a mission! I really admire her for that and am so excited to be her companion. My friend Sister Holbrook who's from the Buffalo Grove Stake in Illinois just finished training her and now I'll be taking her place there. Pretty neat!
This last week in Layton has been so wonderful! We've seen a lot of success, especially with finding new people to teach about the gospel and helping them progress. I had the privilege of attending General Conference at the center in Salt Lake twice, with an investigator and his fiance to Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon with Daxton who was baptized last January and his parents. The messages were so inspired and I really felt like they were just for those people we brought to conference. Sunday morning we went over to the home of a woman we are teaching and she told us she really liked the last few talks, especially Elder Bednar's and President Monson's.
I feel like I'm on a spiritual high after the last 2 weeks, and I've come to really appreciate my testimony and all the experiences that have caused me to rely on faith. President Packer's talk inspired me to write in my journal all the lessons I've learned through each trial, and the things I learned from different people. I've learned from my companions the last two transfers how to take prayer more seriously, how to be patient and kind, how to believe in the potential of those we meet and teach, and to be diligent and hard-working and endure to the end. I cherish the six months I've been able to spend in Layton for all the lessons and virtues I've learned and improved on, and look forward to the new adventures that await me in Bountiful!
March 31, 2014
This week has been so wonderful! We went to the Women's General Meeting at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City with some women that we've been working with and had an amazing experience. There was an issue with having enough tickets because our recent convert invited her sister-in-law but didn't tell us she was bringing her daugther too, and we only had 6 tickets, not 7. We took a step of faith and prayed it'd all work out and went there anyways hoping we'd find a way in. As we lined up at the doors, the group in front of us had an extra ticket they gave to the man at the door, and we asked for it and were all able to get in! It was a miracle and I knew Heavenly Father was watching out for us and placed us there at the right time to be able to see the meeting together.
Also, we found 3 new people to teach this week, because we've been specifically praying to find those ready to hear the gospel. It's amazing as you exercise the faith to find, and show that you truly believe He's placed people in your path, you see the greatest blessings and answers to prayers. The work just keeps hastening and it's so exciting! I love the scripture in Alma 37, vs 46 that says, "Do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way, for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. the way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever." I am so grateful that the gospel is so simple that it applies to every human being, and so great that we can have eternal joy and happiness if we just look up in faith.
I hope you all have a great week!
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