Week 15: A Great and Marvelous Work

¡Buenos días a todos!

The parks in Tennessee are beautiful, and I’m happy to be able to appreciate them!

To begin, I’d like to wish a happy birthday to the “High School Musical” franchise! That’s right, the Disney Channel Original movie “High School Musical” premiered on this day, January 20, 2006. That means it’s 15 years old! Does that mean we should throw a quinceañera?

It’s also my older brother Adam’s 23rd birthday! Celebrate that in any way you deem appropriate. Now, back to the missionary work.

We had zone conference Tuesday! It was so fun, so edifying. I got called on a lot for some reason? It was such a good time! Here’s the district having a little photo shoot because they’re the best and I love them all dearly.

This week has been absolutely amazing! I sometimes feel like that’s something I could say every week, but seriously. This week? The best! I loved the whole thing, but most of what I want to talk about happened on Sunday, so let’s skip to that!

Hermana Petersen and I had focused on getting better sabbath attendance this week, which basically means that we had been mentioning and encouraging attending sacrament meeting all week, especially since this week was entirely in Spanish, and we’re teaching a lot of Spanish speakers. Lots of people canceled, and it was really disheartening, but we ended up having four people attending church in person! That’s a huge deal! And it was especially amazing seeing our members immediately start fellowshipping them. They’re all the best.

After sacrament meeting, Hermana Petersen and I decided to drive out to some formers. Those are people who have been taught in the past, but for whatever reason, they didn’t continue to be taught by the missionaries. So we were giving them another chance to see if they’d be interested! We dealt with a few people clearly in the house not coming to the door (classic), and had an address that was clearly wrong. After yet another rejection, Hermana Petersen and I were walking along the street, getting ready to get back into the car and go home for dinner, when we saw a Hispanic family walking into their home. I definitely felt some trepidation, but Hermana Petersen grabbed my arm, eyes wide open, and we went up to their door and knocked. The dad answered, and Hermana Petersen told him we had a message about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ we wanted to share, and he gathered the whole family into their living room and we taught the Restoration! Miracles, everybody!

Later that night, we had a lesson with Stacee. We actually met her because she’s friends with another person we’re teaching, JD, and she was at his house on Thursday night when we stopped by for a lesson. We didn’t think too much would happen during the lesson, but we started talking about baptism. Stacee had recently been baptized in another church, and she mentioned that, so we explained priesthood authority and what a huge blessing it is. We also had a member teaching with us, and her testimony was so powerful. As we were wrapping up the lesson, Stacee said, “I think I need to be baptized again!” and we put her on date! It was amazing!

Our quad has a lot of love for each other. That means sitting on Hermana Harris’ bed for Facebook contacting sometimes.

This email is becoming a bit of a novella, but miracles have not ceased, y’all! Some are big, some are small, but they are all such precious gifts from Heavenly Father to us, and the joy that they bring is incomparable. Doctrine and Covenants 6 begins with the promise:

1 A great and marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men.

Guess what? The work is here! And I’m here to do it the best that I can, with the strength of the Lord standing by me. And just so you know, He’s standing by you, too. 

— We’re all in this together,

Hermana Newton