July 30, 2018

Good morning family and friends!

This has been a long and tough week! But the miracles definitely out weight the negative things! We were blessed with so many things, I'm grateful for all the tender mercies Heavenly Father gives to us to keep us going :D

On Thursday, we had a lesson with a refugee family from the Congo. It's been hard to catch each other (since Sister Johnson and I started trying 3 months ago), but we got to have an amazing lesson! Sister Cook knew of a member in her first area that went on a Swahili speaking mission and he got to come with us. Wow! It was so helpful to have him there! When we were first explaining things, Mmambwa (the dad) kept getting off track and was asking off topic questions, and Brother Dick simply said "you have very good questions and we'd love to answer them, but before we do, we'd like to share this message with you, is that alright?" in his native language. The spirit really softened Mmambwa during the lesson and by the end, he said that we would read and pray, and that this was something that he might be able to believe in.

Then yesterday after church, we were in a certain part of town and all our appointments fell through. There was someone we were teaching that we haven't been able to see in a while close by, so we started to go over there and we met Chance. She is in her 70's (she doesn't look like it) and she is so prepared for the gospel!! She has had so many incredible experiences in her life, and she is so in tune with the spirit now. We had a long discussion where she shared her story and we shared some of the plan of salvation. We are so excited to meet with her again!! She was probably the biggest miracle of the week! :)

The theme of this week was one of tolerance. I LOVE this theme!! There were amazing talks given yesterday about it, and we were all spiritually fed. As we seek to be more tolerant, as we correct ourselves when we are intolerant and pray for the Christ-like attribute of charity, we will be able to see the people around us as children of God. We will be able to reach out in love to them and help to edify and uplift them. We will be able to make the world a better place. I want to be able to be more Christ-like and tolerant so I can be an even more effective instrument in my Father's hands!

Have a great week everyone! Love you all! <3

Sister Carlson