The miracle of Humility and Diligence :)

To : all the beautiful people of the world! Or to the few people who actually read this.

I LOVE EVERYTHING!!! :) What a great world we live in!!! Right now it is 40 DEGREES BELOW ZERO! CRAZY!

Two miracles that stand out to me are from when we were tracting and I had this impression to go to a specific apartment that we pass all the time. We were a little hesitant to be in a locked apartment- but we were able to get in easily so the Lord must have wanted us there. The one door that we knocked on (we didn't have much time) was the one lady who listened to us that day and accepted a return appointment. Those little impressions are so, so subtle. If you don't just DO it- you miss it like THAT. There is ALWAYS FEAR as soon as that impression comes. A second guessing thought that you just have to BARREL THROUGH! When you do it, the most amazing things happen! The biggest miracles come after the biggest opposition :)

Another miracle was made because of good planning and DILIGENCE! Brother D. has been impossible to get to church but he finally came yesterday. In ward council that morning we talked to two men who knew him and asked them to corral him into Sunday School, otherwise he would have left after the Sacrament meeting. He had a great experience! The Sunday School teacher is amazing! If anyone gets the chance to look up Brother Matt Beecher- you should. He's my ward mission leader and Elder Holland made a big deal of him when he was here. Beecher is a GENIUS! We had A. from Egypt come to Brother Beecher's house to have a lesson and I was star struck. They talked about the deepest things and Brother B. Made it sound so simple and spiritual. I can't even explain it. That was another miracle- Getting A. to a member's home to feel the Spirit :)

P. is in Montana right now. We've been trying to get in contact with  him over the last few days but he hasn't gotten back to us. :/ I'm becoming a worried mother. He'll be home Wednesday. He is scheduled to be baptized this Saturday. PRAYERS PLEASE!

I'm doing splendidly. I have been working on one of the Christ-like attributes every week and I've really noticed a difference in my day. This week I'm really emphasizing humility. Every morning during personal study I feel so full of peace and excitement that it carries me through the rest of the day! When I work my hardest, that's when I feel most fulfilled. It's when we don't put all our effort in or give into the little fears that we don't feel as accomplished as missionaries. It's not a good feeling. So we strive to get rid of that! We get better every day.

Transfers are in a week and a half. Hopefully I will know where I'll be by next Monday. Sister E. thinks I'll stay and be a Lead Sister with her-but I really doubt it. I think she'll stay and train the only new sister coming in since she's "the most effective missionary in this mission" (quoting President Clements). I got really lucky being trained with her. I got really lucky to be in Brother Beecher's ward! I got really lucky to live so close to the mission home my first transfer! I AM SO BLESSED AHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I can't stand it!!!!

Ha ha- so I'll stop yelling at you guys and leave you off telling you all that I love you soooo much! I pray for you guys every day and hope you feel just as fulfilled as I do right now! It only comes from doing the Lord's work :) YAY!

President Clements Gets "Gatoraded" when our mission reached it's baptismal goals! He's such a good sport.

Hurrah For Israel!!

LOVE,

Sister Dread Pirate Roberts

A Week of Miracles

FAMILY!!! FRIENDS!!!!

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!!! The Library is closed so I'm at a member's home- which means I can send pictures! YAY! Also, she gave me a hair cut :) -nice and short- just the way I like it :)) ha ha

The Missionaries from our district.

This week was pretty rough- Sister E. and I caught a pretty bad cold for a few days. But there is opposites in all things- and we saw several miracles happen anyway. One of our newer investigators, L.L. whose in a wheel chair without a leg and who might be evicted from her home, was brought to a very low, humble spot in her life and was willing to receive a priesthood blessing from one of the amazing men from our ward. It was a beautiful blessing that was full of the spirit. P. B. was approved to be baptized! YAY! Thank you so much by the way for all the prayers! they have been answered! :) That was a miracle. And a third one was when two of our investigators, R. and T. C., came to church! Especially because R.has a bit of a phobia of coming to church. But our President's council was prime! He told us to have the members who were planning to pick them up stop by personally to confirm the ride. And they came!

One of the families we have been teaching.

During an exchange this week I was able to teach someone that Heavenly Father has a body of Flesh and bone. She had never heard that before! She was so grateful to know that she could hug her father again someday. It was amazing to see that idea dawning on her face- I am so thankful to know that I have a loving heavenly father who is there for me in body and spirit :) YAY! the church is true!! Also- I was able to teach an investigator that day named Jenny. She had a really hard time accepting that there was a prophet. But when we left her she understood that the church of Christ needs to be consistent because God is the same yesterday, today and forever. So the church today needs to be the same as it was in the Bible times- and no other church today is exactly the same! I encourage anyone with this same question to watch the CES devotional recently done by Elder Calister. It is so prime!!!

Bloomington is Awesome!

My cold is gone now- so I'm feeling a lot better. I was really blessed to be part of the President's fireside yesterday- I got to sing a duet with Elder B. He is an amazing singer- but we were both so nervous! Luckily the spirit was very strong in that room and it carried us through. I felt the spirit. We sang "Did you think to pray". When Sister Clements ended her talk she had all the missionaries come up and sing " The Army of Helaman"- I got to play the piano lat the last minute and it was so powerful to listen to all those voices singing that song! What an incredible spirit! It was an incredible night that gave me a lot of motivation. It did not feel good to be stuck in the apartment for those two days being sick. I focused on planning and studying most of the time to keep the lazy feeling at bay.
Sorry My letter isn't longer! Not much time today. I love you all so much!!! Stay strong- we are the "Army of Helaman"!

Hurrah for Israel!!!

Love,

Sister Roberts

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Answers to Prayers

There are 270 Missionaries in the Minnesota Minneapolis Mission :) 70 of them are sisters! That's more than TRIPLE the number at the beginning of 2013. YAY the work of the Lord is going forth!

Having dinner after a training meeting.

I'm so glad Grandma found the key after she prayed. I had a very similar experience this week. We had been knocking on doors all night in an apartment with very little success. We were exhausted and were heading back to our car- but the key had fallen off the ring! We prayed and searched and worried- then we both looked at each other and said "LORI!" We had stopped by a potential investigator named Lori that night and we had completely forgotten about it (tells you how tired we were)- so we retraced our steps and found it really quick :) The Lord tells us things very subtly and if we aren't in tune- we'll miss those cues. I've also noticed that the most powerful impressions of what we need to do comes to both my companion and I at the same time. When we both have a distinct impression to be somewhere, then we know that the Lord is REALLY trying to tell us something.

This week many miracles have occurred. Our zone reached a high of 50 restoration lessons this week despite the lack of time! We came in contact with a lot of new people, but many of our appointments and joint teachers fell through this week, it was unbelievable! So unfortunately, we had to resolve to quite a bit of tracting. Maybe the Lord was giving us that time to really hone our contacting skills, because we've found many ways that we can improve. On Sunday I experienced a tender mercy! We were mourning the fact that we couldn't have sacrament for the third time in a row because of all the cancellations and weather problems- but Saturday night our ZLs called telling us the Mission president was going to have a sacrament meeting in the mission home!! It was such a miracle! We felt much better after that meeting.

Our president sent us his weekly letter telling us to have a firm mind. Yesterday and today my mind has definitely been wandering- thank goodness for inspired leaders. He completely addressed my need to have a firm mind that is dedicated to the work of the Lord. Besides this weekend, and really throughout it, I've felt the light of the Lord in my life and in the lives of others. I've found that when I focus on being humble and diligent and in asking the Lord to direct me in all things, His work runs much more smoothly on my end. When We pray about our goals to Heavenly Father- we always find the enthusiasm to push through being tired and smile despite the rejection we find.

Just some funny!

Our most progressing investigator is still P. B. We continue to see him every week and he is still waiting patiently to be baptized. Thank you for the prayers on behalf of the C. family! Can't remember if I told you that story, but R. hasn't dropped us! She just had a really bad day. REALLY bad. We addressed some concerns and she is still open to learning about the gospel. What a relief. What a blessing!

Thank you so much!
Love,
Sister Roberts

PS

Also-Wanted to let everyone know that it is no longer hitting the ice age here- I am only wearing a sweater today!! YAY! Still struttin' the big boots;the snow is still above my knees.

It's weird how 20-30 degrees feels like California now! In Alaska, walking in 50 degrees was torture! What was wrong with me!? ha ha.

Just another thought :) Love you guys!

SNOW DAY!

Snow Angel

I am writing this letter early because on Monday it will be -15 degrees, and with wind chill it will be NEGATIVE FIFTY DEGREES!!! Needless to say, President Clements has commanded that no missionary is to go outside AT ALL on Monday. (I was gonna get my hair cut too :(  ) Oh well. So I won't be e-mailing on Monday :/ Church has been cancelled AGAIN! I have gone three WEEKS without taking the sacrament! This is getting to be as bad as Alaska! Who knew? It is getting in the way with our investigators who we keep inviting to church. Three people have said they'd come to church, but we've had to tell them not to! How messed up is that?! If it keeps us safe- then I guess it's meant to be.
So on Monday I'll be chilling out, maybe serving the investigators we have in our apartment and knocking on doors here. Who knows? I might even be able to paint my nails! Or RELAX! Crazy right?
Not only has the weather been up and down, this week's success has been pretty varying as well. Sister E. has felt pretty under the weather the past few days, and that has dragged us down quite a bit. I have seen really great miracles though! This week I went on an exchange with Sister D. (from Australia mates :) ) in Burnsville and we went tracting for a very long time. That night we taught not one, not two, but THREE restoration lessons back to back to BACK, which means we taught the people about Christ's ministry, Josephs' first vision, the Book of Mormon, invited them to be baptized, AND said a prayer. Two of them were even outside! They were freezing but it still happened! After the first two doors I was feeling pretty accomplished and since it was about time to  "clock out" I figured we should head back to the car. But Sister D. was more inspired than I and she suggested we just go to one more door, keep the momentum going. Low and Behold, another restoration lesson! The next day we had yet another during a long stretch of tracting. It was really an exchange miracle.

Sister E and I in the Snow

We're wondering how long it usually takes the first presidency to get back to you for investigators who want to be baptized. P. is waiting patiently in white, you might say, and we pray every day that the date will come soon. Otherwise R., T. and K. have yet to progress :( They still like meeting with us but I think they're almost afraid to feel the spirit.

Yesterday we met with R. and K. and they were having a BAD day. R. was mad because her neighbors kept her up all night and her step-kids would be coming soon and it was T's birthday and he was having trouble at work etc. It was crazy. And our joint teacher, the amazing Sister K, had her two little boys so it was chaos, but in the midst of such chaos- there came a beautiful opportunity for me to bear my testimony. I was able to tell R. about the hardship I went through when I was being diagnosed with Crohn's and how no matter what, even at 12 years old, I knew Heavenly Father had my back. and eventually he pulled me through! I testified that if she had faith and prayed for help, Heavenly Father could help R. and her family get through ANYTHING! Not sure she believed me, but I KNOW she felt the Spirit- even if she won't admit it.

I've been doing really well. Sister E. is feeling better and we're ready to start fresh!  I'm getting a lot better at helping plan appointments and keeping track of miles and such, and I feel like I know our (amazing) ward pretty well. Sister E. fills in all the gaps. The closer I feel to Heavenly Father, the happier and more content I am :)

I love you all so much!!!! Stay Warm!! (chuckle from my friends in AZ)
Hurrah for Israel!
Love,
Sister Roberts