Always Pray First!

Thanksgiving was good! We ate with a family in the Ward and it tasted good. Lots of turkey! I was a bit sad though because I didn't get any pumpkin pie :( but it's ok because we got some later in the week! 

Something I'm working on right now is to show more love for those around me. I'm also trying my very best to keep busy and give it my all since I don't have much time left!

This week was awesome! On Tuesday we went on exchanges with the Silver city sisters. I went with Sister Nuttall, who is friends with Lexi and a lot of my friends from high school, so that was fun! Also we had a really crazy day! We went to go do service for this lady named Carol Smith who they had recently reactivated. Anyways turns out the first time they went over she was not so nice to them and yelled a bit and lit a cigarette to scare them away. Then a few days later, she showed back up at church and has been going ever since. We went to go teach her after helping her move her couch, and we had forgotten to say a prayer which is never a good thing. We tried to teach her about the Restoration starting from the middle, and she just kept arguing with us and saying how all churches have the priesthood authority and complaining about how we use the Book of Mormon too much and how she doesn't think it's the word of God.  I was about to argue with her, and it was not going so well. Anyways just at the right moment Sister Nuttall asked a very inspired question which was basically if she had felt the spirit before and what it felt like. So carol responded and said yes 30 years ago and that it felt peaceful and warm. All of a sudden the spirit was back in the room, we asked if we could start over and say a prayer with her. So we did, and I was able to testify to her about the importance of the Book of Mormon and the Spirit entered into the room stronger than it had in any lesson I had been in before, and we were able to testify to her about the restoration and help clear up some misconceptions she had about the priesthood and the atonement. It was a beautiful lesson. She changed from being super argumentative one moment to being super humble! It's amazing what a simple prayer, our testimonies and the Spirit can do, because in reality the Spirit is the best teacher, not us. I love the verses in D&C 50 that say;

 "13 Wherefore, I the Lord ask you this question--unto what were ye ordained?

14 To preach my gospel by the Spirit, even the Comforter which was sent forth to teach the truth.

15 And then received ye spirits which ye could not understand, and received them to be of God; and in this are ye justified?

16 Behold ye shall answer this question yourselves; nevertheless, I will be merciful unto you; he that is weak among you hereafter shall be made strong.

17 Verily I say unto you, he that is ordained of me and sent forth to preach the word of truth by the Comforter, in the Spirit of truth, doth he preach it by the Spirit of truth or some other way?

18 And if it be by some other way it is not of God.

19 And again, he that receiveth the word of truth, doth he receive it by the Spirit of truth or some other way?

20 If it be some other way it is not of God.

21 Therefore, why is it that ye cannot understand and know, that he that receiveth the word by the Spirit of truth receiveth it as it is preached by the Spirit of truth?

22 Wherefore, he that preacheth and he that receiveth, understand one another, and both are edified and rejoice together."

The Holy Ghost really made the difference in that lesson and I don't think I want to ever take that for granted again!

The rest of our week was pretty good! We had a lot of less active recent convert lessons. We also realized that although most of our branch was gone on Sunday we had all of our recent converts there and that all of them are basically active which is super rare! I have definitely seen lots of miracles here in Deming and hope to see more in these last couple of weeks!

I love you lots!

Love,

Hermana Burgoyne