Dear Family,

I can't believe today was the first day of school. Deema a senior and Tori a sophomore... so weird. I hope and pray it was a good day for them. It is P day so I can think about them and not feel guilty hahah ;)

So much has happened since we last chatted. haha Last Monday we had dinner at a family members home with Amy and Marian. After, we watched 17 miracles. The both really enjoyed it. The faith of the pioneers is so inspiring. It is kind of neat we get to watch it will investigators. Our mission president said the only reason we are allowed to is because it is the history of our mission.  Amy is doing so well. It was a hard week, but she loved church yesterday. Marian(her mom) told us she was struggling and that she said the other day, "religion doesn't even work or help." That really made me concerned. Sister Fuller and I decided to fast for her. I remembered this talk by sister Jean Stevens that talked about "The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not a check list of things to do; rather, it lives in our hearts. The gospel is not weight; it is wings. It carries us." That is exactly what she needed. What is amazing is even though she was having doubts she continued to read the Book of Mormon and pray. Then, when she was a church one of the songs talked about something she was reading about. She took that as an answer to her prayers. She is for sure set on being baptized Sept 27. I probably won't be here then but I am still so happy she is making that step.

We had Zone Conference this week. It was all about the Book of Mormon. It was so amazing. President Weston encouraged us to buy a Book of Mormon so it is more meaningful and we are all going to read the Book of Mormon by December. Since Sister Fuller leaves in October we are going to read it in 10 weeks. President wants us to highlight references to God, Jesus Christ, The Atonement and the word heart. I am really starting to understand the importance of the Book of Mormon is to change our hearts. Elder Holland said in a general conference talk, "think of the heart as the figurative center of our faith, the poetic location of our loyalties and our values; then consider Jesus's declaration that in the last days 'men's hearts shall fail them.' The encouraging thing, of course, is that our Father in Heaven knows all of these latter-day dangers, these troubles of the heart and soul, and has given counsel and protections regarding The Book of Mormon." So I wanted to invite all of you to read it by the end of my mission! :)

After zone conference we had exchanges. I brought one of the sisters into our area. It was really neat to see how Heavenly Father used her strengths that day. We got this referral from a ward member to visit this family who their daughter committed suicide recently. It has been a couple months and I have been praying really hard to know when the right time was. The sister i went on exchanges with had a friend commit suicide in high school. We went over there and had a really nice chat with them. I was trying to be as sincere and heartfelt as possible. It we really well and they invited us back over. It was such a miracle.

Last night we had the opportunity to have dinner with this new family in the ward. They are a part member family who we have been trying to meet with for so long. They are currently living outside of our area so we couldn't go to their home. We got some member so invite them over for a bbq. It ended up being a bbq with many families in the ward. During the night  had 4 people come up to me and tell me to hang around one of their family members because they are either less active or not a member and they want a good influence on them. It was a little overwhelming but the Lord helped us out a lot. Sister Fuller and I were able to divide and concur. We shared a Mormon message at the end call "the hope of God's light" The spirit was really strong. You should watch it for family night tonight. We were able to talk to the part member family and their son wants to be baptized. The mom who is also not a member is willing to sit in on the lessons. We all know that doctrine taught with the spirit and understood changes behavior so we were super excited about that! This is truly the Lords work.

I love you all have a wonderful week. Be good :)

Love, Sister Page