Right place, right time.

Dear family and friends,

 

       I hope you all had a Happy Easter! I hope you took the time to remember our Savior, Jesus Christ during this easter season because he is the one that makes it all possible. We are here upon the earth and able to experience mortality only through our loving Savior and His atonement. I'm so grateful for my brother Jesus Christ for making it possible for me to be here and to be cleansed from sin. In 1 John 1:7-8 it helps us to understand that we ALL sin and all fall short of the glory of God. But that is why the Atonement was necessary for us to be able to return with our Heavenly Father again. I have learned a lot of the enabling power of the atonement of Jesus Christ. He ENABLES us to do so much in this life that we wouldn't have otherwise. I just can't express enough how much love and gratitude I have for my Savior.

 

    This last week has been so fun of miracles I don't even know where to begin. Lately Sister Woodford and I have been praying to be in the right place at the right time. We have been striving to put aside the numbers but focusing on all the people that need help at this time. That has made all the difference in our work. We have been striving to really rely on the Holy Ghost to guide us to where we need to be. I can't tell you how many times this week my companion and I looked at eachother and said, "that was exactly where we needed to be." Many times we would plan for someone the night before but when we got to that time the day of we didn't feel like that was who we needed to see. But we prayed to know where we were needed and we would find someone that needed help at that time.

     For instance one experience happened just last night. It was late and the people that we had planned to see just weren't the ones we felt like seeing. But we immediately thought of a lady who is a member that we haven't seen in a while. We had a very good visit with her and really got to know her better. By the end Sister Espinosa said, "thanks so much for coming, I really needed it tonight." That was a moment that we knew God had sent us there for a reason, to uplift her and strengthen her. Something I have realized is that it is not only the non-members that need uplifting but it is often active members as well. We have been focusing on everyone in our area and striving to help everyone to be uplifted.

      Another experience that we had was this last tuesday. There was a less-active lady that we visit who was having surgery this week. And we had asked if she wanted a blessing before she went into surgery. Well that day we had totally forgotten until late that night Sister Woodford had remembered her. So we quickly called the Elders and took them to her house. When we got there Mary was so happy to see us. She had said that she was thinking that we had forgotten all about her and she didn't know what she was going to do. It was at the time she said that we had called and told her that we would come by. I knew that God was answering her prayers and promting us to go to her. It was a great experience. Mary had never had a priesthood blessing before and so that was so powerful. She was very nervous about everything and then after the blessing it was amazing how calm she was and ready to have that surgery.

 

    We had quite a fun easter here in Australia. My companion and I being the dorks we are went and got little bunny ears for easter. That day we went around to all of our investigators houses that were home and gave them a little treat an a message of easter. We even got the elders together and we went and sang some hymns to an old man who is a widower. He was so happy to see us and he said that it really made his day. We went and visited Michelle and her kids and they loved the little bunny ears that we had and we had such a good visit with them. Unfortunately she still wasn't able to come to church this last week because her daughter was in a softball tournament that she had to take her to. But we haven't given up hope on her. Little by little her heart is being softened. She said that she loves us to come over and enjoys our visits but still hasn't decided to take action on the messages that we share.

       But one thing that I have learned a lot about this week is that we can't force anyone to feel the spirit or have the desire to be baptized and come unto Christ. But all we can do is our very best to help them to feel the spirit and strive to plant that seed and then leave it up to the Lord and His timing. At times we get discouraged because someone is not progressing but the Lord knows when the perfect time is for these investigators, we just have to trust in Him and never give up trying to work with these individuals.

 

   Esther is doing well. Unfortunately she went on holidays for this weekend and we weren't able to see her and she wasn't able to come to church but miracles are happening with her. We just found out that one of her close cousins is a YSA girl in Minto (which is really close by) and we know her cousin from this mini MTC that we had here. So she is now in the picture and helping us a lot with the progress of Esther. I think that now Vickie is helping she will really have the desire to come to church because she has a friend to be there and she won't be alone. That is truly the key, everyone needs a friend so that they can progress and be comfortable to make changes in their life.

 

  We also got another investigator this last week. It was a referral from the mission office. I guess this boy named Harrison was looking online and found Mormon.org. At that time we wanted missionaries to come because he was really curious as to what we believed in. He has a strong desire to learn and we are going to be working really closely with him. We are so excited! The work is really progressing in our area and we have so much work that needs to be done. I know that this is the Lord's work.

 

   I encourage you to help the missionaries and reach out to all of those less-actives and those that are not of our faith. Even if they don't have the desire now at least you can plant that seed and you never know when they will come unto Christ and remember that time that someone invited them to an activity. I love you all and I hope that you all have a wonderful week!

 

Love,

    Sister Heidi Sorensen

 

When the traveling Sister came to work with us a few weeks ago.

Our empty flat. :( We spend most of the day cleaning it out. Now we are still staying with some other sister temporarily until we get a new flat.

Our new investigator Jazmine is on the right side on the end. She is a 9 year old girl that has a strong desire to be baptized. Its now up to her mum to let her be baptized. But we enjoy working with her and all her little cousins. Those kids are so cute!

Last p-day we went to this fun park named "Lizard Log" it had such a beautiful view and we had a lot of fun there. They had a few flying fox's (which are zip lines). We loved it!

Our little easter bunny ears. Dorky but very memorable!

Yesterday we had our p-day and it was a zone p-day. We had a lot of fun at a park playing some ultimate frisbee and soccer and all kinds of fun games.