What's a Missionary's favorite car? A CONVERTIBLE!!!

email 14 July 2015

Wow this week was AMAZING!!! So many fun moments, spiritual moments, and changing moments. 

This week we were able to sing at a baptism! This 8 year old girl we taught got baptized and she asked us to sing. We didn't have an accompanist and it was the day of and an hour before and we just got back together after exchanges so we were scrambling. But guess who came to the rescue? HEAVENLY FATHER!!!!! He guided me to write an arrangement of a Baptism medley with my ukulele. We meshed the primary songs Baptism and When I Am Baptized. And it turned out really great and brought the Spirit in the baptism! 

This past Sunday we spoke and sang in a ward, sang in another, and taught primary in the last. It was an eventful day! Sister Magsayo and I tried not preparing our talks too much to see if we could go fully by the Spirit. We each came prepared with 3 scriptures and that was all. We each had to speak for 20 minutes. So we get up there and it was the most powerful talks I've ever heard come from each of us. It was an amazing feeling to have the Spirit work through us! I love Sister Magsayo's testimony. She testifies so strongly and she knows who she is and her identity as a daughter of God. It was just an amazing experience. 

Sister Jaggi gave an amazing training on the Hymns and Primary songs. It was so fun to study the power of spiritual music! We read the introduction to the hymn book. If you haven't read it, I would invite you to! It talks about what we can use hymns for and the impact it can have on us and not only in a church setting, but in our homes, too! We've made it a point to sing at every lesson and to use music to contact people.

During my interview with President Jaggi, he told me that I would be training soon. Either this transfer or next transfer. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I think it would be good for me to go back to the basics, especially after sending Sister Magsayo home. We shall see what lies ahead for me! 

We had another Sister sleepover with all the sisters in our mission including the Layton sisters that got moved into our mission from the Salt Lake Mission. It was a blast! We got to play a 'get to know you' game where we picked a skittle and depending on the flavor of the skittle, we had to answer a question about ourselves coordinating with that skittle. It was awesome to hear so many embarrassing stories about everyone! Haha. I'm glad I'm not the only one. Then this morning we all went on a beautiful hike and spent time up in the mountains to do our personal studies and shared what we learned. It was very spiritual being in nature with all these beautiful Sisters and Sister Jaggi. 

One thing that the Spirit confirmed to me during a personal study this week was the importance of acting on the promptings we get from the Holy Ghost. We receive commandments from the prophet given to him through revelation. The same revelation that we receive every time the Holy Ghost speaks to us and prompts us to do something! It's like a personal commandment from God. These things aren't optional. But Heavenly Father is commanding us to act on these things. I've been trying harder to act on ALL the promptings that I get. Even if they seem insignificant or dumb. 

Okay. The last thing I want to share this week is probably the most spiritual lesson I've had on my mission. Remember when I said we found this potential investigator when I had to change my mind and decide it was going to be a good contact? Okay it's the same lady. OKAY so here's what happened. So we went to this lady's house that we met last week. She is a potential investigator and her son and husband are less active Church members. But she said she wants to respect her parents, who are Catholic, and not get baptized until they're gone. So we weren't planning on inviting her to be baptized because of that. We felt like we should talk about the Book of Mormon and Moroni's promise. So we were talking about the Spirit and we asked her what experiences she's had with feeling the Spirit. She said when her son got baptized and married in the temple and when she received a priesthood blessing. And she said, "I have these feelings, but I can't seem to make the Spirit last all the time." And the Spirit was just like, "TALK ABOUT BAPTISM!!!" So we did. We talked about receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and we invited her to be baptized on August 1st. She said she really wanted to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and go to church to know for herself first. And we told her that the Spirit was so strong in the room and the less active husband was like, "Yeah. It's really strong right now I can feel it." And we were all crying it was amazing! And I've never really been good at promising specific blessings. But this time one just popped into my head!!! It was crazy! And so we promised her that as she prepared for baptism and read the Book of Mormon that her parents would be fully supportive of her decision. And so we're fasting tomorrow for it. And then her less active son came in he was like, "Mom...you need to go to the temple so you can be baptized for your sister." And it was SO powerful when he said that. And the whole thing was just like AHHHHHHHH! I wish the whole world could've been there to feel what we all felt. Maybe we'll be able to watch it in heaven. But it was so good. My words can't even describe how amazing this experience was. 

The spirit has been guiding us every single step to where we should go and what we should say. I'm grateful to have a companion worthy of that spirit as well. I love this work. I love you all!

Love, 
Sister Sarlls

Bonus link to Sister Sarlls singing Come Unto Christ