January 17, 2022: Calories don't count on the Sabbath

 A week of miracles. 

We were desperate to find people to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to. We decided to text all 60 of our formers in area book and ask each of them for referrals. 5 of them responded saying no, and one of them responded in the best way possible! They asked for us to come over that day to share a message with their family. 

I found Amy's Number in my phone contacts 6 months ago and met her kids a couple of times. If you remember the story a while back, her son Ryder was the one who came to a youth activity and was punched in the gut. I'm glad he gave us a second chance haha... we taught them about faith in Jesus Christ and repentance. Then, Amy brought up that Ryder wants to be saved and baptized into our church. Amy went on and on about how we have the best church ever and how she is so impressed with the youth. We were buzzing with excitement and further taught them about baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and about enduring to the end. 

Ryder asked us questions about life after death. We taught him the whole plan of salvation right then too! His mom goes, "That makes so much sense, I can tell how much that plan of happiness clicked for my Son. I loved every bit of it!!". They invited us back the next day and we taught the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

This was the biggest miracle I have seen in my whole mission. Amy, Ryder(12), and Kimberly(23) were so prepared to receive the truth that when Sister Baxter asked them, "Do you think that Joseph Smith saw God the father and Jesus Christ?", they each said "Yes, I do believe that he did". They accepted to read The Book of Mormon as a family everyday. I AM SO EXCITED FOR THEM. 

The Kueser family had recently stepped away from the church. They out their records of membership and moved to Palmer, Alaska! We felt impressed to knock on their door a couple months back, where their grandma, an active member, welcomed us in uneasily, not knowing what the Kuesers would think. She talked to us outside explaining how we cannot talk about anything religious in the home or everything would become chaotic. You could tell the spirit wasn't present in the home and they weren't the most jolly family. But we bonded with the young family with 3 young boys through playing 'go-fish'.

Fast forward 6 months... we feel impressed to go by again! We knock, knowing the grandma wasn't there to keep the peace. The family let us in, played games with us and asked us about our missions and the church. The Dad wouldn't stay in the same room as us but the Mom and kids were glowing with excitement that we had come back! The thought that came to my mind was that the mom had read the Book of Mormon that morning. She seriously was glowing with so much joy and seemed light. I loved to see the change. They invited us back the following week to spend more time with their family. Woohoo!

Tana Kompkoff's house burned down in Valdez last week. She moved in with her friend while she gets back on her feet. She was adopted into a member of our churches family and sealed into the temple with them. She fell away from the church in her young adult years. Lots of dark life experiences later, she gets in contact with us and wants to take the lessons again!! During one of our lessons, I had a not-so-pleasant experience. We walked in and there were two places to sit on the couch. One place had a big stain of dog pee on it. Sister Baxter saves herself and sits on the clean side which left me the pleasant surprise of sitting in on the wet, doggy pee for our 30 minute visit. It was glorious. 

*eats a donut and looks back at us*

"Calories don't count on the sabbath"

-The Jewish Chaplin Crossby

Choose JOY,

Sister Rex

Pics:

40 degrees=picnic!!

Ice maze with the Porras family

Pday in Anchorage