Temple Miracles

September 22, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

It hasn't been long since you have heard from me so there isn't too much to report, but there are ALWAYS miracles in the life of a missionary.

On Friday as Sister Edwards and I were weekly planning we were brainstorming different ideas to help the ward become more united while also introducing our investigators to members and we decided that we are going to start a weekly activity sponsored by the missionaries. Our first one will be this Friday and we are going to play Human Bowling (you set up 2 liter soda bottles and push people on a skateboard into the bottles to knock them over) we are super excited! We were able to talk to our ward mission leader and he thinks it is a great idea, I will let you know next week how it turns out.  Saturday was fun because we were able to help one of the less active's in the ward with her daughters car wash. We were there for almost 4 hours and probably washed about 30 cars, it was fun! Then Sister Quezada took us out to lunch afterwards at a Thai Vegan restaurant; I got a tofu curry and it was delicious. 

That night we had a cool miracle as well. We decided to go get Frozen Yogurt with Sister Price and Sister Redd at a place in our area and as we were eating our ice cream a man in the table next to us just leans over and asks if we are church people. We quickly responded that we were and he immediately started asking questions about our church and about our mission experiences. It was really fun to sit and talk to him and his wife for awhile about what we believe. Yesterday in church we had our Primary Program so we invited him to come and he said he might come, but then he gave us his address and invited us over to have dinner and a lesson. It was so cool! We are really excited to go back on Wednesday and share more about our faith! We have had a lot of experiences like that where God just drops people into our laps! I feel so blessed!

Like I said, yesterday was our Primary Program. It was so cute, I love hearing the testimonies and songs of the little children.  We were combined with the Spanish Branch that also meets in our building so our chapel was packed! It was cool. They had invited a less active couple to give the prayers at church, but when they came in they sat right in the front row and somehow the Bishopric didn't notice they were there. It was really funny to talk to the wife who was supposed to give the opening prayer later because she joked that who knew the best place to hide from the Bishopric was the front row! There have been a lot of less active families coming to church the last couple weeks, it has been cool. Another miracle at church was that as we were sitting waiting for church to start I noticed a lady walk in the the chapel and sit down, at first I didn't remember exactly how I knew her, but then I remembered that she was from Upland 5th ward. Last December I had made tamales with this member at her house and then she just walked right into our chapel! She hasn't been to church in probably months, so it was really exciting to be there when she finally came! Sister Edwards was laughing at me because I was getting so excited. :D

Later on Sunday we had a lesson with a 17 year old less active in the ward. She is so sweet but just never was taught from her childhood the truth about God. Both her parents are members, but they never made church a priority. It feel like we are starting at ground 1 with her and it is sad that she has such a small understanding of her Heavenly Father. It was cool to go to our dinner appointment right after and have the 7 year old son describe Jesus as his hero because it reminded me how powerful it really can be to be brought up with an understanding of Christ and how critical it becomes during your teenage years to know about Him.  It makes me so grateful for my own parents and their wonderful example to me of how to keep Christ the center of a home.

All in all it has been a wonderful couple of days. God is pouring out blessings upon us and I know it is because of all those who are praying for me. Thank you so much for all your prayers, guidance and support, I know it is helping me!

Love,
Sister Cook