Hello Everyone!

This week was very sad as far as work in our area goes. We were only able to work for one day! We went to Calbayog with the STL’s, which was a good exchange; it’s just that the travel takes like a full day! But it’s okay, we will hopefully get to stay in our area this week and make some progress there. Elder Santiago had the district do one hour finding in our area last Tuesday so we have a lot of referrals to contact, which is exciting. (:

I had a really cool experience yesterday with bearing my testimony. Normally I don’t like to go up and bear my testimony because I get to bear my testimony every day and so I let the members have the time. But this week, I just had a burning desire to go up! So I got up and bore my testimony about establishing the church through our personal conversion. They talked about establishing it through missionary work and turning branches into wards and then wards into stakes, so it was very fitting. I talked about how the gospel is like a recipe for our happiness. We don’t get to pick and choose which parts of a recipe we will use, and we can’t pick which parts of the gospel that we will live. If we do, of course our recipe isn’t going to taste good, and we’re not going to want to share it with our friends.  We can’t gain that desire if we haven’t received a witness and a testimony that the gospel is true. And we can’t gain that witness if we don’t live it exactly. I talked about how it’s not enough to read the scriptures every day and go to church every week if we don’t apply it. And as soon as we do so, it will be easy to establish the church because we will have that desire. I felt the words flowing out of me from the Holy Ghost. For the first time since I left Cebuano I felt like I didn’t have to worry about the language, and I know that wasn’t from me. As I was speaking, I saw all the members nodding in agreement and I know the Spirit touched their hearts. One lady came and thanked me for my testimony. Most importantly, the Spirit touched MY heart. I love the Spirit, and I have learned just how vital it is. Also, I have gained a lot of optimism about trusting Heavenly Father that if I do my part in my personal conversion, the rest doesn’t matter because I’ve done my part.

I LOVE YOU ALL! 

Sister Sprouse