So it's California, but it is still getting cold. I have had to use my companion's jacket at night when we walk around. Of course it's nothing compared to Utah, but I am sure St. George isn't that bad.
This week was super cool. We had some amazing things happen.
First off, Thanksgiving. Second holiday on the mission! It was so fun. So Wednesday we spent the whole day making little gifts for all of the members in our area... about 50. We had David Archuleta Christmas music playing and made a ton of chocolate covered pretzels and hand turkeys... They were so cute. Thursday morning we got up super early and went and volunteered at a 5K. It was weird there were so many white people! I am not used to that. We actually had so much fun! I stood on the side and handed out waters to the runners.. It was so cool to see all of the kids that were running and the old people and just everyone! Good for them. I loved doing that. Service for Thanksgiving.. I couldn't ask for more. For Thanksgiving we had 2 lunches and 1 late dinner at a member's house... I was so full. But for the dinner we went to Hermana Companur's house... she is the lady where her whole family still lives here so everyone that you know from church is there and then you realize that they are all related... it was so fun! And I learned a new tradition that I totally want to do with my family! They buy a bunch of Martinelli's (it's a brand of apple cider drinks) and after dinner they poor some for everyone and you have to go around and say what you are thankful for and then you toast and drink your apple cider... it is simple but it is so cute and I loved it so much. Don't worry dad.. I got turkey. Lots. We spent all of Thanksgiving (besides the meals) dropping of our regalitos (little gifts). It was so fun we even found a couple people who just didn't know where the church was or who had gotten lazy and we are going to be able to go visit them and get them involved with the church again. It was such a blessing to be able to go see all of the members and less actives... and we get to do it again in 3 1/2 weeks for Christmas! I am loving the holiday season on a mission... you just feel the spirit and light of Christ so strongly.
We started follow-up teaching Ana. You have to be taught all of the lessons before baptism and after baptism. It is super fun though because she knows it all. We just talk about things like the Plan of Salvation or the Restoration or the Commandments... She is so smart and thank you for your prayers on her behalf. I was able to ask her how her relationship is with her dad and she said that he wishes that he had went to her baptism and that their relationship is stronger than ever. I know that is a blessing from God. She deserves to have a happy family. Everyone does.
So one day we just thought... we should go out for lunch today. After must negotiation with our roommates we decided on Little Caesars. So we went and while we were waiting for our pizza a man came up to us and told us that he was a member and that he and his family had been less active for a long time and that he wanted to come back to church!!! It was a miracle. God put us in his path. His name is Lee and 3 of his children are over 8 and haven't been baptized.. so we are super excited to go and teach them and to reactivate this super cute little familia.
And another crazy miracle! So a few days ago we received a referral. His name is Luis. So we called him and he asked us where the church was.. we told him. Sunday he showed up to church! We were able to talk to him a bit and this is his story. He isn't a member, but 2 years ago he was in a junkyard searching for a car part and he found one of our pass-along cards just sitting in a car window. He liked the picture so he kept it and has had it with him ever since. Now, 2 years later, he pulls it out and sees the number on the back and calls it... and was referred to us. He has had it with him this whole time. We asked him why he decided to call the number after so long and he said, "I don't know. I just don't know, but I did". It was amazing. He said that we could teach him and that he has been looking for the truth for awhile. I love the way Heavenly Father works. He has just been putting people in our path.
I can't believe it is December! Time is flying by so fast. My companion goes home in February. She is almost exactly 1 year ahead of me in her mission. But that means that in 1 transfer, 7 weeks, she goes home and I am 1/3 of the way done... WHAT?? That is impossible. I am hoping that it seems longer... cause that, my friends, is ridiculous.
I have gained such a testimony of the Book of Mormon. It is literally the keystone. If it weren't for the Book of Mormon our religion would be just like everyone else's. We know the fullness of the gospel through the divinity of 1 book. I testify that it is of God.
Elder Holland could not have said it better. In his "Safety for the Soul" talk he said "For 179 years this book has been examined and attacked, denied and deconstructed, targeted and torn apart like perhaps no other book in modern religious history—perhaps like no other book in any religious history. And still it stands. Failed theories about its origins have been born and parroted and have died....... In this I stand with my own great-grandfather, who said simply enough, “No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so.” 10
I testify that one cannot come to full faith in this latter-day work—and thereby find the fullest measure of peace and comfort in these, our times—until he or she embraces the divinity of the Book of Mormon and the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom it testifies. If anyone is foolish enough or misled enough to reject 531 pages of a heretofore unknown text teeming with literary and Semitic complexity without honestly attempting to account for the origin of those pages—especially without accounting for their powerful witness of Jesus Christ and the profound spiritual impact that witness has had on what is now tens of millions of readers—if that is the case, then such a person, elect or otherwise, has been deceived; and if he or she leaves this Church, it must be done by crawling over or under or around the Book of Mormon to make that exit. In that sense the book is what Christ Himself was said to be: “a stone of stumbling, … a rock of offence,” 11 a barrier in the path of one who wishes not to believe in this work. Witnesses, even witnesses who were for a time hostile to Joseph, testified to their death that they had seen an angel and had handled the plates. “They have been shown unto us by the power of God, and not of man,” they declared. “Wherefore we know of a surety that the work is true.""
We invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to ponder in their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true. Those who pursue this course and ask in faith will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost. (See Moroni 10:3–5.)
Those who gain this divine witness from the Holy Spirit will also come to know by the same power that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith is His revelator and prophet in these last days, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s kingdom once again established on the earth, preparatory to the Second Coming of the Messiah.
I invite everyone of you to do as the intro to the Book of Mormon asks and find out for yourselves if the Book of Mormon is the word of God, because if it is, then The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church on the earth. Maybe you aren't okay with some of the things that we teach or some of the things that happen in the temple, but you can come to be okay with them through prayer and through the help of a loving Heavenly Father. Those things come with time and we aren't expected to have perfect testimonies from the start. I love this book. With my whole heart. And I know that it is true.
I hope y'all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you are all stoked to talk to me this Christmas. I definitely am. It is going to be so fun. I love it here and I am having so much fun! We are definitely being blessed.
We are planning on going to the zoo today, so I will let you know next week how that was.
I love you all! I hope your week is good and spirit filled!
Love, Hermana Eardley
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