God Is G O O D !

Man. I just love missionary work. I love that we can expect miracles from the Lord. I love that we get to see people's lives change for the better because of Jesus Christ. I love the Book of Mormon and the peace and power that comes when we read it. I love church. I love the Savior. I love working with other missionaries and being united in this great effort. I love my mission leaders. I just really love this Gospel. 

It brings me joy:) 

This week was "building momentum week"! We had a goal as an entire mission to have 180 friends not of our faith at church on Sunday. And we met that goal! We ended up with 197 friends at church as a mission. Our branch had 15 friends at church! Woot woot! 

It felt so cool to be united with the entire mission. Throughout the week we sent each other ideas of how we can invite our friends to church and cheered each other on. It was so cool! 

Amelia, Blessing and her daughter, Nathaniel "the great" (I'll tell you his story), and Landon (a new friend this week) all came to church. It was so awesome! The spirit was strong and they all had amazing experiences. 

We met blessing a while back when we left a meeting with Elder Bennett. We followed a prompting to go knock someone's door. Afterwords we went to Walmart (we were hosting all the sisters in the zone that night and needed to grab some things) and we ran into blessing at Walmart! She's fantastic. Miracles happen when you follow the spirit!

Then Nathaniel the great. Hehe. This is funny. I was on exchanges with Sister Averett when we ran into him and his friends at the beach. We read the Book of mormon and said a prayer with them. We kinda lost contact cuz he's not from TC, but THEN. Sister Sampson and I went back to the beach on Saturday and they were there AGAIN! Same as before!! So she got to meet them and we invited them to church. Then we gave Nathaniel a church tour that night. And he came to church yesterday! He totally participated and everyone loved him. It was awesome. He's such a character lol.

Landon is awesome! He's proof that the Lord knows His children. Landon's been struggling lately but then Sister Sampson reached out to him over Facebook. The Gospel is what he needs! We taught him the restoration last night and he felt so much  peace. I have high hopes for him!! 

Lisa! Oh my goodness. She's the lady I told you all about last week. She's fantastic! Faith comes easy to her. She loves the book of Mormon but just has a hard time understanding it. She'll ask us what her next "assignment" is all the time. She said she wants to feel the same peace and be grounded like her friends who are members. I love her already!! 

ANOTHER MIRACLE. Sister Sampson and i made a reel for our Instagram account inviting people to church. It took us a while to make it (bc you know, technology). We were kind of frustrated by the time we finished. We prayed that our efforts wouldn't be wasted and some good would come out of it. AND THEN. just a couple hours after we posted it, a lady named Debbie commented on it and asked the difference between our church and her Baptist church. She said she's really loved all of the posts our church has been making. So we told her about the Book of Mormon and sent her a digital copy of it. She started reading and read all of 1 Nephi that night! She was giving us a play by play. Like "I can't believe Nepi's brothers rebelled against him! What were they thinking?!" And "wow this really does go hand in hand with the Bible". 

It was awesome. 

News on my ear:

We went to Detroit on Wednesday for my doctor's appointment. It was a bit of a rollercoaster to be honest. He walked into the room and the first thing he said was "you need surgery. See this grey mass right here in your ear? That's the cholesteatoma regrowth". Then I asked him how he knows its not fluid, and he said he doesn't. So we decided to put a tube in my ear that's supposed to drain the fluid. And then he wants to wait and see how it goes after three months. I noticed an immediate improvement in my hearing when he put the tube in, which is good. So as of right now I'm waiting to see what my home surgeon says after he takes a look at the CT scan.  

Prayers have been answered this week... I'm looking forward to getting more answers and seeing what God has in store. 

We had an amazing devotional about prayer this week. I learned that prayer isn't about getting what I want. It's about aligning my will with the Lord's. 

"Prayer isn't a way to get what a finite mind thinks best, it's a way to learn what an infinite mind knows is best". 

"Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings." (Prayer, Bible Dictionary) 

I'm grateful to know that God knows best. Miracles happen when we align His will with ours. I know whatever is supposed to happen with my ear will be what God needs to happen. And I know that whatever His will is for the people we're teaching will be what's best for them. 

Trust God. He knows us better than we know ourselves and His plan is always greater than our own. 

Love you all! 

Thanks for reading my long email:) 

Have an AWESOME Halloween!!

Sister Ross 

Nathaniel The Great and his friend "Fatboy" 

Us and Lisa! 

Carving pumpkins with the elders 

Other cool pics:)