PRAYING and PRAYING

This week has been another amazing one. The Elders and Sister going to Toronto Canada and India left this morning. Sister Burton, Sister Patterson and myself start Visitor Center training tomorrow. I am SO SO SO SO SO excited! Did I mention that I'm excited? I love church history!

I feel the love of my Heavenly Father so strongly here. I feel like I am learning so much. Everyone says they are so impressed with the fact that I am SO smart for only being a member for three years. I had to inform them that it was all the Lord's doing. I look at it like this: The Lord's atonement makes up for anything we lack if we ask for his help. I have been PRAYING and PRAYING and PRAYING that I would be blessed with understanding and knowledge in the MTC, because... well... it's hard to know as much as people who have 19+ years experience with the church while I have three. But I know the Lord has been with me through it all. I have come to so much understanding about the principles of the doctrine of the gospel. I feel like I'm on fire! He knew that needed 19+ years worth of knowledge to teach the gospel, so he has given me knowledge and understandings that I have been able to keep up with everyone in my class. It's kind of like how missionaries who have only a few weeks to be fluent in a language are given the gift of tounges. This has been my own miracle that I have been blessed with his love and understanding of his gospel. I feel so overwhelmed by love. I'm excited to continue to learn more about the gospel so I can teach effectively and can apply principles and scriptures more clearly.

Yesterday in the referral center I spoke to a man named Rodney. I was calling to confirm if he had recieved his free copy of the Bible. He informed me that he had. I then asked him if he wanted a Book of Mormon and bore my testimony. He said that he had already read it! WHAT? AMAZING! I asked him what he loved about it. He told me that the truths of the atonement changed his life. I bore my testimony about the atonement. I invited him to be baptized... and he said he was already a member! OOPS! The computer messed that one up! Haha! It was really great to talk to Rodney though. He was such a sweet spirit. He gave me a referal for his friend Ross, who is battling cancer. Rodney said that he really felt like Ross could benefit from "learning of the Lord." I thought about the atonement, and how it really is central to our happiness here on Earth. Rodney knew as I knew that the blessing of the Lord can lift life's burdens. Even after this life, even after death, we can experience JOY! I'm so grateful for the atonement. I think I've said that like 100 times in this email already. (Sorry!)

Elder Ballard came this week and spoke at our Tuesday night devotional. He spoke about miracles that happen during missionary work, and the importance of the spirit. He is an amazing man. I will write more on his talk he gave later...

I just wanted to say thank you to all my friends and family at home and elsewhere for sustaining me as a missionary. I cannot tell you how much this opportunity means to me. Teaching people of the happiness in my heart and bringing them unto Christ is truly the greatest thing I can think of doing in my life. I pray that I will be able to serve the Lord throughout my entire life. The selfless acts of charity he has given to the world has really touched my heart. I want to try my best to be like him.

Dream Big. Wish Hard, and Love Always-
Sister Jessica Rose Wathen