Sister Akayla Juliann Ferrara: Such a Great Week 8/17/2015

Hello everyone! Things are really starting to slow down around here it seems like. A lot of the schools here have already started, so the TC is slowing down quite a bit which is really weird. This summer went by so quickly, it's crazy! I am still absolutely loving it in Elmwood and I love the people here! Heavenly Father is just blessing us SO much and literally handing people over for us to teach!

Let's see...so this week was wonderful and we saw so many miracles!

Last Monday we went to Pedestrian Bridge with Sisters Durrant and Slater and then had a waffle party with all the sisters and played some fun games and then had our deep clean at the TC. Always so much fun :)

Tuesday we were at the TC in the morning and then went to Jackson Towers to try to see some people and met Tracy who is now a potential investigator so hopefully we'll get to see her sometime soon! Then we had dinner with my favorite couple in the ward, the Corbitts. They are really young and have only been married for 2 years or so. They're like 21 and 24 so basically our older siblings :) We also saw Brother Powell which was so neat! He doesn't read very well and LOVES to talk all about himself because he didn't have the best childhood so he has a horrible self esteem and thinks that he is the one teaching us rather than us teaching him. So we have decided to read the Book of Mormon with him and that has helped a lot. It has been so cool because every chapter we read with him for each visit his reading has improved. The Book of Mormon changes people! I can promise you that! I have such a strong testimony of that book! And it's actually been humbling him also because he's started to ask us what big words mean instead of making his own meaning for it. He is hilarious.

Wednesday we had a wonderful time at Sister Stutzneggar's house tying Sister Johnson's quilt. Sister Johnson absolutely loves tying quilts and is really good at it, but hasn't been able to do it for a really long time. It was amazing to see the difference in her once we put that fabric together and starting quilting it. We also saw Dusty and taught her the rest of Lesson 5 so she is set for her baptism this Saturday! Ok, so then that night we got a call from a member in the ward. She is actually a returned missionary of about 8 months and her family goes to this ward, so she called us up and told us that her 2nd cousin, Cynthia, was interested in learning about the church so we set up a time to see her the next day. See what I mean about the Lord handing people over for us to teach! AND, built in member present lesson. Miracle!

Thursday we watched Finding Faith in Christ with Gary and Dusty and ate popcorn and cookies with them. They loved it! Then we found out it was Brother Powell's birthday so we got some treats together and made a birthday card for him and brought it to him! He said it really meant a lot to him that we went to see him because none of his family members did anything for him. Told us he was going to put our card up on the wall so he could see it all the time! I am so glad we saw him that day. He obviously really needed it :) That night we saw Cynthia and it was wonderful! First normal person we've ever taught here in Elmwood! Weird! She is adorable. She is 17 and graduating this next year and she is so prepared it's not even funny! She went to SOAR at BYU and loved it and really felt the spirit and then came to church and loved that she could feel the same way that she felt at SOAR. We taught her all about the Restoration and set her for baptism for September 4th. We're so excited!

Friday we just had zone training which was so fun and then served at the TC.

Saturday we weekly planned and then served at the TC. Kinda lame :)

Sunday was great. Went to church which is always good. Lots of people were gone though :/ Had dinner with the Mierzejewskis and then saw Sister Maurel and Cynthia again :) Such a great week! I better get going now though. I love you so much and hope you are all doing well!