A Tornado of a Week! 8-0‏ May 2, 2016

Well, this week sure has been a better one than the previous! I'm getting situated in Elgin and I'm really loving the members here more and more! We are certainly seeing miracles and blessings are being poured out everywhere (literally)! Even with a bug bite from a Buffalo Gnat that swells up to the size of a baseball on your arm and keeps growing! Haha

This past week, we were out riding our bikes and we were able to see a huge miracle! We past a couple who were outside and had a bicycle laying around. We stopped at their driveway and started talking to them about biking as we walked up and if they competed and they did! So we were easily able to talk to them and bring it to why we were biking in skirts and how we are missionaries. After we brought it to a religious conversation, the man, Todd, started asking questions about our "celestial temples", then he asked more questions about Moroni, mentioned that he has read quite a bit of the Book of Mormon and then asked to go get his son who would be interested in meeting us. His 12 year old son, Philip, came out and shared a spiritual experience that he had had recently and so Todd began to explain that God and Jesus appeared to Joseph Smith and that he wrote a book from the gold plates that he had found in a hill and that we were Mormon missionaries and this was a rare opportunity to speak with the Mormon missionaries so if he had questions, we could answer them now! He asked more about Joseph Smith's experience and we were able to teach the Restoration on the driveway, set a return appointment and invite them to church! Unfortunately they didn't come yesterday, but they seem really open and I believe they will progress and have been prepared to hear the gospel message! The parents are completely supportive of Philip and the church he chooses to join (he's looking for a church right now) and will come with him and listen in the lessons with him as well!

As we were out trying to find our members for Oklahoma Initiative last night, we met another family who is letting us come back to teach them more and as we were headed to our car to go home, a former investigator stopped us and asked if we were the "new girls". We were able to set-up a return appointment with her as well and are excited with all of the progress and miracles that are happening here!

I've not necessarily been studying justification, sanctification and purification these past few months but yesterday during Gospel Principles on the Holy Ghost and another day while studying I came across Moses 6:59-60 which hit me. Water= being baptized/taking the sacrament=keeping God's commandments/being justified (Justification meaning the removal of sin and being brought back to living our lives like our Father in Heaven wants us to), Spirit=receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost=being sanctified (Sanctification is the feeling that we are forgiven of our sins and are able to have the guilt removed from our hearts) and Blood= partaking of the atonement= being purified (Purification is what helps us to NOT have the DESIRE to do evil- Gospel Principle book). Maybe I'm a little or far off, but that's the huge lightbulb moment that I've had this week from months of pondering and talking about these principles with Hermana Hilton and Elder Schwartz and a few studies. Am I close? Because it seems right. And has a lot to do with repentance and now I'm going have to go back to President Walkenhorst's repentance papers and those scriptures to study more on the how? of these processes.

So fun/crazy experience from this past week! Well, Tuesday we had a supposedly really bad storm. It wasn't. Our weather contact picked us up for the night though so we could have dinner with her and be ready if we did have a tornado. BUT Thursday got kind of crazy! We were out in Anadarko for District Meeting and then since President Sylvester has asked us sisters to also work in the Elders area and build up Anadarko, we poach (meaning we work in the Elders area and teach people in their area) hardcore out there! I'm not quite sure if it's okay, but that's what President Sylvester has asked from us! So as we were out there, we were going to appointments (all 3 fell through), and as we were talking to one of the ladies we were going to meet with (she had to leave and cancelled when we got there) it started POURING cats and dogs outside and thundering and lightning and oh boy! I was SO grateful that I had my rainboots and umbrella on (and my raincoat in the car)! Well, as we were about to leave we saw and practically went deaf with a HUGE lightning bolt that happened much to close for comfort. But we headed out anyways and huddled to the car under my umbrella. We got in the car and learned from texts and calls that there was a tornado in Elgin happening at that moment and that it was headed straight for us! We are a 30 minute drive away, but still it was kind of scary! So as Hermana Brown was making calls to find a car wash to park our car under from protection of golf ball sized hail, I was driving through the flooding streets (and really wanting to take a video of the Oklahoma storm because they have the best movie scene rainstorms and really they are just the BEST!- but I didn't) to the Elders home because they were saving us a spot under the car wash by their house. We took their spot at the car wash and then hopped in the with the Elders to go to their house that has a garage for their car and 2 tornado shelters. We started to get in one and realized that they don't have ANY flashlights or candles or anything that we could use! So Hermana Brown was like "Could we go knock on some doors for a flashlight?". So we went and knock on their neighbors door, Kevin, and he gave us a Spanish Catholic Jesus candle and a flashlight. It was the best thing ever! About a minute or two later, the rain cleared up and we heard that the tornado had changed paths and was heading to Chickasha instead and we were fine, but it was pretty crazy there for a bit! 

We also got our nice red 2016 Corolla this past Wednesday, and Hermana Hilton and her companion were also there with a couple of other missionaries so I got to hear an update of my Spanish family there in the South which was the best!

One last quote that I wanted to share from testimony meeting this past week "Human beings are at their best, when life is at it's worst." It's in those moments that we either have to rely on our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ and the atonement or fall hard. Well, we have to rely on Them always, but I just really like the quote and wanted to share it!

So you could say that this week was really just wonderful! So many exciting happenings in the Lord's work! Oh! Since Hermana Brown is in her training still, we go to the library for mormon.org time for an hour each week, and I have heard a ton about the addiction recovery program videos. I highly suggest that any of you watch them. They help us appreciate others circumstances and struggles they may face more. If they can apply the atonement and change from something so dramatic, so can we. The atonement covers everything! Change is possible- as long as we never quit trying and keep working to change, the atonement will keep helping us! I love you all and Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers (and future mothers) reading!

Con amor,

Hermana Nachelle Sharon Hunt (: