Week 54

Well hello family!!!

Well to tell you the truth, this week has been one of the hardest weeks of my mission. and really, it wasn't that hard :) haha but a lot of crap happened :P But, it was also one of the most sacred weeks of my mission. I do have to tell you that we have AMAZING members of our ward! haha Sister Woolf came last Monday and helped us clean the alexander's pool house and then she came over with bags full of dishes and such and desks! Holy cow!!! :) She is an angel! And the rest of the ward gave us everything we need! they are amazing and so great! Sister Howe is putting together a party to make mixes for the missionaries so we can cook stuff! :) haha I'm stoked! Now both of us our hoping that we don't get transferred! haha Transfer calls are THIS SATURDAY!!! craziness :) I also have to tell you all about Gary! Oh my goodness I love that man so much!!! he's doing so good and getting so close to being baptized!! :) And for some reason he and I just have a connection, haha he made me say both the opening and closing prayers in his lesson this week! :) man, I just feel the spirit so much when we go to his house and I just feel like God is talking to him through me and it's amazing how much I feel that God truly loves Gary so much. And my love for him continues to grow as well! This week I challenged him to finish the Book of Mormon on my birthday!!! haha he only has like 195 pages left so he can totally do it :) I believe in him :) I'll tell you more about his lesson later but I just wanted to add the fact that I love that man so much! :) So Wednesday was my year mark in the WA-TAC. It was a pretty good day we ate a meconies, had a lesson with Axle about the priesthood. But then we went tracting...and we were on Legion street (which I realized afterward that that's the name of the deamon in mark 5! :) ) and on the street there was just a lot of really rude people. One guy wanted us to prove that God was real but he wasn't going to believe unless God showed up on that doorstep with us then another guy just yelled at us for 10 minutes about all of the horrible things that have happened in his life and how he has NO faith. And the list goes on. it was a bad street. Then it gets to be about 6pm and we knock on this door and no one answered so we rang the doorbell and then we hear this giant BOOM that scared the crap out of us and I told Sister H to run and we quickly walked away and as we were walking away I saw the window cracked open and smelled the smell of smoke. Some guy shot a firework at us! no I don't know what's wrong with people. Haha so I called The zone leaders (Elder Genereux and Pierce) and told them about it they were worried sick haha sister H and I were crying and freaking out a little bit. :) So we moved to a different street and continued. That night elder genereux called again to make sure we were ok and made me call president! haha so I called him and told him about it and he asked if we would be ok doing 5-7's still and I told him of course! because I didn't want to get emergency transferred :) haha then I called Genereux back and we asked him for a blessing. Then Thursday was a way awesome day! It was sunny outside and we did weekly planning and then we went and visited this part member family and we are going to start teaching 2 of the kids in the family!!! :) Jordan (17) and Savannah (11) :) I'm so excited! :) and during tracting we found 3 more new investigators and it was way awesome! Happy day! haha but we had to leave 10 minutes early from tracting because sister H got scared. On Friday morning I woke up feeling like crap due to endometriosis and I was actually quite afraid that if I wasn't 100% obedient something bad would happen to us (that firework shook us up a bit :) ) so I had worked myself way too hard. So we called the Zone leaders and asked them for a blessing. But before that we went to the hospital with them and they gave this man named Michael Forrest a blessing. Michael is a Christian and has terminal cancer. And it was one of the most spiritual blessings, afterward Elder Pierce told us that he felt that while he was giving the blessing that he was standing on air. :) It was so cool! And Michael was way nice. We are teaching him now. :) Then we went to the church to have the Elders give us a blessing. We talked for a minute and I just started crying and told them how I was afraid and felt like crap :) haha so Elder Genereux gave me a blessing and it was such a good blessing. I just felt so strongly that my Heavenly Father loves me, and was aware of me and was proud of me. Which made me cry even more! haha And he also told me that God is giving me these trials because He knows that I am strong. And that reminded me of D&C 136:31 which tells us that we must be tried in all things so that we can be prepared for the glory which God has prepared for us. He also told me that Heavenly Father was grateful for the work I am doing. And that when I got through these hard times He wants me to remember Him. And to lean on Christ and remember His sacrifice for me. After that I felt like I was on could 9! I was SO much happier and felt like a giant burden had been lifted off of me. So we went to Gary's house and had such a spiritual lesson about the Priesthood. I told him about our experience with the blessings we had just gotten and how Gary needed to let God help him. And he said that's exactly what he needs. He is working so hard! We talked to him about praying and reading the book of Mormon and he said that he had been slacking in that a little and he felt so bad, so I challenged him to read it by my birthday and then we are going to call him every day and make him a prayer rock so that he will remember! It was a way good lesson. Guys, I just want to bear you my testimony that I know that Joseph smith restored the priesthood; I know that it's 100% real. I know that when we are struggling or when we are sick that we can turn to the men in our lives who let God work through them and God can help us and heal us as long as we have faith sufficient to be whole. I know that it works. And I know that God did not send us down here to be sorrowful, or to hurt, or to be afraid. But He sent us here to learn, to grow, and to come to know happiness. And I tell you right now that it can be hard, it's ok to have bad days. But in those days we keep our Savior close to us and we remember Him and rely on Him. And He will give us strength and help when we feel like no one could help us. He is the truth and the way and He lives and loves us so much! Christ already suffered all of the things that I went through this week and He knew exactly how I felt. And when I turned to Him and asked Him for help he gave it to me instantly. The Priesthood is real. So now that we have that high note another trial came into my life! 20 minutes after Gary's lesson we got hit by a car. haha (aka our car got hit by another car) AGH!!!! I was so mad! Why in the world did Satan have to ruin my day?! I stopped the car and honked for literally 3 seconds and he still ran into me! I was shaken up again and I was just upset. No one was hurt, but I was just like...UGH! haha luckily the person who hit us was a member of the church so he was way nice and we got everything figured out, after that it was dinner time and we didn't have anyone so we just went home and I lay on the floor and just cried to elder Genereux on the phone. haha I was just sick of it. Why in the world was this happening to us?! When was my bad luck going to end?! We went out knocking and I honestly just did not feel motivated, I felt sick. but we went and did anyways. Then we had an appointment with a YSA with the Elders (Genereux and Pierce) and they could tell that we were kinda bummed so Pierce bought us frosties! haha seriously he is the greatest and kindest kid. I love these elders so much! But I literally just wanted to go home and go to bed so I could have a new day :) haha So Elder Genereux talked to me and made sure I was doing ok and I just told him how I felt and he reminded me of the blessing and what it had said and so we left and I really pondered it. The next day we woke up and I was so pumped! Fireside night! We went to church and it was good, I wrote a poem called "It can be hard" and it made me feel a lot better about things, I'll have to send it to you in a letter because I'm running out of time :) But anyways we went to the fireside and it was absolutely amazing. it was exactly what I needed. Some things that were said just hit me right on the nose and told me that you know what God really does love me! :) I tell you all of these unhappy things not to make you stressed or feel bad for me because right now I feel better than ever! I am so happy! I tell you these things because I know that we all have hard times, we all have stressful days and I know that it's not easy. Life just isn't easy sometimes. Satan sucks!!! :) But I want you all to know that I know that God loves you. I know it. He is very aware and mindful of you. He knows your pain. He knows. Part of my poem says "Remember the drop of blood on olive leaves, a man down on his knees in agony. And it's all for me. In these times of test and trial when bad things seem to come in piles, He walks next to us for miles and miles Remember Him." I testify to you all that Jesus Christ is your personal Savior. He knows all that you feel. He knows what you are going through. And I promise you that if you keep Him close during these times of trial the sorrow will only last for a moment and at the end of it you will feel more joy than before. I know that these things make us stronger. I am so grateful to be a missionary. I am so grateful I have the opportunity to bless the lives of others. There is nothing better than the joy I feel in this gospel. It is the best thing that could've ever happened to me. I love it so much. It's not the end if it's not ok because in the end it will all be ok. I testify to you that It will all be alright :) Life is amazing! And there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. The Savior will always be there for you, you just have to let Him in. Be not afraid, only believe. I know that my Heavenly Father loves me and He loves all of you so much. I love all of you and miss you :) And I can't even tell you the joy I feel when I think of the fact that I am a missionary, and I have this opportunity to learn and grow more than ever before. I am so happy! I am so joyful! Because I know that I am a disciple of Christ. I LOVE IT! :) And life will always get better! :) And I love you!

Love always

Sister Wilkins :)

P.s. don't worry about me because I seriously am doing SO great! :) :D Happy as ever! :) Love love love! :)