Thank you for the poem! That's exactly the one I've been wanting :) I think it's so funny, "the prayingest prayer I ever prayed" truly, sometimes prayers are that informal plea, but the Lord hears them just the same, and there is definitely a role of those informal prayers, though they can't overrule the formal ones we pray daily.
I'm glad William was able to be home, and I'm grateful for the emails I've received :) everyone (besides Kylie at this point) has emailed me! Hopefully I'll be able to respond to all of them, but if not, tell them I love them, and that I'll respond when I can! ❤
The Wood family is awesome! They're the Catholic family we had dinner with Friday, which was super good (wow, they're great cooks!) and it was a great experience. After dinner we had a mini talent show on the piano (all the kids take lessons from a local ward member). We joined
in, and played a few hymns and sang them. The spirit was strong, and we eventually got to the point where the two older daughters and us were singing together, various songs from the hymn book. What a fun evening. When it came time for the lesson, we shared the #PRINCEofPEACE video the church has produced for Easter. It's such a good video! If you haven't seen it yet, check it out. Anyway, they loved it. They said they hadn't read from the Book of Mormon yet, but when we re-explained what it was, and why we were asking them to read it, they all recommitted and said they would. Bro Wood even said, "I hadn't thought of it like that before. I will definitely read it." He repeated that a few times before we left, so YAY! We are going back on Wednesday, and they said they'd feed us again :) yum! Anyway, they're super sweet, and I love working with them!
With transfers coming up, I have really mixed emotions. I love the people here, and so don't want to transfer, I just feel like I have so much that I still need to do! However, I know I'll feel that way in every area, so I just have to let go (#typeRED) and trust the Lord and the sisters that come after me. I know it'll be good. Part of the problem is that I really don't have a sense of what is going to happen, in every transfer up to this point, I've been able to pretty much feel what was going to happen, but this time it just feels like anything could happen. If I do get transferred, I trust that that is where the Lord needs me more than Azle, so I'll be fine with that. It'll be hard to leave, whenever that time come though, because I so love the people here. It'll be like leaving all my family again.
The loft and the door sound awesome! I would love to get pictures when you can! It sounds like quite the project y'all have started for yourselves! It cracks me up because both of you wrote about how nice it is to have spring there, and the new blooms and stuff (yay!) then, when Garrett wrote me, he called it "snow". He said it started snowing again in April! So close to spring, yet still so far! We are loving the weather down here. We had some awesome thunder storms recently, and those have been fun to see. I love storms.
Last week we were able to go to the temple! We went on Wednesday with a less active we have been helping to return. I guess she's not less active anymore, but it was so cool to be able to be with her as she went through the temple for the first time! It was amazing, I got to do a session, and the spirit was soooo strong (as always, I guess). In the Celestial room, the sisters of Sister Parr (who was going through for the first time) came up and thanked us so much for helping their sister come back. They said they never thought they'd get to see their sister go through the temple, and were just so thankful for the little bit we had done (there were a lot of missionaries to get Sis Parr to this point) to help their sister. I realized that if this is how happy we all were together here on earth, how much greater will be our joy when we are all in heaven together! Truly, the temple is our goal. It's important that we missionaries don't forget that. Baptism is only the fist step. We have to help our investigators see the temple as their true goal, because ending in the water is not enough. We have to endure all the way.
Well, I think that's it for me this week! I love you all sooooo much! I hope you have a great week. Thanks for all your love and prayers.
All my love,
Sister Erika Marks ❤☀
I'm glad William was able to be home, and I'm grateful for the emails I've received :) everyone (besides Kylie at this point) has emailed me! Hopefully I'll be able to respond to all of them, but if not, tell them I love them, and that I'll respond when I can! ❤
The Wood family is awesome! They're the Catholic family we had dinner with Friday, which was super good (wow, they're great cooks!) and it was a great experience. After dinner we had a mini talent show on the piano (all the kids take lessons from a local ward member). We joined
in, and played a few hymns and sang them. The spirit was strong, and we eventually got to the point where the two older daughters and us were singing together, various songs from the hymn book. What a fun evening. When it came time for the lesson, we shared the #PRINCEofPEACE video the church has produced for Easter. It's such a good video! If you haven't seen it yet, check it out. Anyway, they loved it. They said they hadn't read from the Book of Mormon yet, but when we re-explained what it was, and why we were asking them to read it, they all recommitted and said they would. Bro Wood even said, "I hadn't thought of it like that before. I will definitely read it." He repeated that a few times before we left, so YAY! We are going back on Wednesday, and they said they'd feed us again :) yum! Anyway, they're super sweet, and I love working with them!
With transfers coming up, I have really mixed emotions. I love the people here, and so don't want to transfer, I just feel like I have so much that I still need to do! However, I know I'll feel that way in every area, so I just have to let go (#typeRED) and trust the Lord and the sisters that come after me. I know it'll be good. Part of the problem is that I really don't have a sense of what is going to happen, in every transfer up to this point, I've been able to pretty much feel what was going to happen, but this time it just feels like anything could happen. If I do get transferred, I trust that that is where the Lord needs me more than Azle, so I'll be fine with that. It'll be hard to leave, whenever that time come though, because I so love the people here. It'll be like leaving all my family again.
The loft and the door sound awesome! I would love to get pictures when you can! It sounds like quite the project y'all have started for yourselves! It cracks me up because both of you wrote about how nice it is to have spring there, and the new blooms and stuff (yay!) then, when Garrett wrote me, he called it "snow". He said it started snowing again in April! So close to spring, yet still so far! We are loving the weather down here. We had some awesome thunder storms recently, and those have been fun to see. I love storms.
Last week we were able to go to the temple! We went on Wednesday with a less active we have been helping to return. I guess she's not less active anymore, but it was so cool to be able to be with her as she went through the temple for the first time! It was amazing, I got to do a session, and the spirit was soooo strong (as always, I guess). In the Celestial room, the sisters of Sister Parr (who was going through for the first time) came up and thanked us so much for helping their sister come back. They said they never thought they'd get to see their sister go through the temple, and were just so thankful for the little bit we had done (there were a lot of missionaries to get Sis Parr to this point) to help their sister. I realized that if this is how happy we all were together here on earth, how much greater will be our joy when we are all in heaven together! Truly, the temple is our goal. It's important that we missionaries don't forget that. Baptism is only the fist step. We have to help our investigators see the temple as their true goal, because ending in the water is not enough. We have to endure all the way.
Well, I think that's it for me this week! I love you all sooooo much! I hope you have a great week. Thanks for all your love and prayers.
All my love,
Sister Erika Marks ❤☀