Sister Rachel Marie Crofts: Attack of the Dandelions! Orem, Utah Mission, Eagle Mountain, May 8th 2017

As a missionary we offer to help people out a lot, and end up doing a lot of service... which we love to do! Recently we have been doing two things: Painting rooms and pulling dandelions. Apparently in Utah since it's so windy Dandelion seeds just fly everywhere and end up littering everyone's lawns. So I can now say that I am officially an expert Dandelion puller. I'll probably put that on my resume when I get home.

This week has been amazing. Last Monday when I was feeling sick, I was able to get a blessing from our district leader that said I would recover quickly and be able to go to work the rest of the week, and Tuesday morning I was basically completely healed! The power of the Priesthood is absolutely amazing.

The rest of the week came with many more miracles. But first... a story.

There once was a stake President who missionaries were afraid of. Every Elder that came into the area knew he didn't like missionaries and steered clear of him. Then one day, after many many years, Sister Missionaries were transferred in. They had heard tales of the cranky Stake President but refused to believe them. After many attempts they were finally able to meet with him, and told them they were there to help him, and suddenly the cranky Stake President was no more! It was a miracle!

It truly was a miracle, we came into the area and everyone told us that one of our Stake Presidents wouldn't want to work with us, but once we told him we were here to serve him, and started sending him email reports of our lessons, he has turned a new leaf! We even got invited to a bishop training meeting by the Stake President so we could tell them our missionary vision and how they could help! This experience has truly strengthened my testimony of service, and just being kind and understanding with people.

Another miracle happened this week..

As you know, we have been teaching the Giles family; Ayla and Jordan and 9 and 10 years old, and their dad Brother Giles is inactive and hasn't been to church in a while, except for two weeks ago when we spoke in church! The other day, we went over to their house so we could sit down and talk to him about his two kids getting baptized. We told them that we didn't want to just baptize his kids, because without support from home they probably wouldn't end up going to church and would eventually fall away. He agreed, and we got him to open up and he told us he knows the church is true and that he needs to start changing things in his life and going back to church. It was amazing! He has changed so much since we first starting seeing them. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ does bless families, and that he recognized that and was willing to do his best to change.

I love being a missionary. It's truly incredible to see people get from point A to point B and see how much this gospel can change and affect their life. I promise all of you that Jesus Christ's church has been restored today. It is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I promise that this gospel will and can change your life. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. He loves us, He knows us personally because He suffered for us.

I love all of you so much and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Crofts