First off, I want to tell you a story. This story is about a beautiful woman named Sharon Dianne Glenn. Late in the evening on January 14, Sharon was out on her regular walk with her sweet little dog Bella. Minding her own business she saw two young girls approach the gate of her apartment complex. They pulled out a key and tried it in the lock several times, but to no avail. She, out of the pure Christ-like kindness of her heart, walked over to the gate and asked them if they would like to come in. They grinned and heaved great sighs of relief and said, "Oh, yes please!" Quickly she turned the handle and let them in. They repeatedly thanked her for her kindness and then they stopped, looked at her curiously for a moment and said they they were the missionaries in the area, who shared messages about Christ. They invited her to allow them to come back to her home not so late in the evening and share an uplifting message with her. She, being a devoted follower and lover of Christ, quickly agreed. They exchanged information, said their goodbyes and parted ways. On Jan 16 they returned and taught her about God and His glorious pattern of sending prophets to lead His children, how He eventually sent His Son, and how even though countless times people rejected the truth, He continued to send it to them, because there were still some who were honest seekers and earnestly desired to follow Christ. In this magnificent story, Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ came to earth in the modern days and appeared to a boy who was an earnest seeker of truth. He was taught by angels and heavenly messengers and he was the means through whom Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ restored Their church to the earth. Much to her surprise, Sharon was told that there's physical evidence of this in the Book of Mormon! How could this be? How could she know for herself that this message is more than a story, but it is in fact the truth as they were claiming it to be?? These girls, who called themselves sisters, then told her that she could pray about it and know for herself straight from God that this message was true!! There it is! The straightforward and simple answer. Pray and find out! They then invited her to be baptized, to which she responded that she would!
These two sisters continued to visit Sharon, two sometimes three times a week! She shared more messages that helped Sharon feel happy and peaceful. Whenever they came over they helped her know how to strengthen her faith in Christ! She knew what she had to do! On January 31, Sharon got a ride to the church building called a stake center, got dressed in white, and stepped into a font where she made a promise with God that she would continue to love and serve Him with all her might. Then, on February 1, she received a blessing where she was given the gift of the Holy Ghost. She tingled from head to toe and knew that she made the right choice, that the message that they shared with her was true, and that, most importantly, her Heavenly Father was VERY pleased with her decision! Sharon is now beginning her journey to the temple and can't wait to know even more truth for herself! It was a miracle. She was found, taught and baptized in a matter of 16 days. Those two sisters sure do love Sharon with all their hearts.
So Thu and Trinity and the rest of the Martinez family are doing well! We just love their family SO much! I don't remember how much I told you before, but Thu is Viatnamese and her husband Jesse is hispanic so naturally their children are gorgeous! They have 3 beautiful girls, Trinity 9, Jazlene 7, and Evanglene 5 and they are just so precious. They are always matching and they're always in pink! GAH! I just really love them. Ok, enough of that. If you could keep them in your prayers, we'd greatly appreciate it!
Allen is one of the coolest investigators I've ever had. He has his motorcycles and 1800 stitches in his back from them. He also said something really profound in our lesson this last week. He essentially said:
Don't just come to Christ, but be committed to Him.
...Isn't that SO powerful!? Because ultimately that makes the biggest difference. Which way do you face? Are you committed to following Him and ALL that He asks of you? Are you willing to follow Him straight into the unknown because the one thing that you DO know is WHO He is? Anyways, I had to wrap my head around that a few times this week so I wanted to share that with you! Allen's doing well though! He said he'd commit to baptism if he found out our message was true and he'll be at church next week! (it was his birthday AND the superbowl yesterday, otherwise he would've been there. His priorities aren't 100% straight yet, but we'll help him get there! haha) Something really powerful in the lesson, too, was that he said he wants a little girl SO badly, and he and his wife have been trying for a while to have another baby. He told us that he believes he needs to quick smoking (and gradually he'll quit drinking) in order for that to happen. We told him we couldn't agree more and that he needed to tell Heavenly Father that! We haven't had a chance to really follow up with him yet, but we're so excited to see how he's doing!
We went to the temple this week, and it was wonderful. I felt so profoundly at home. I just really love the temple.
Church was AMAZING yesterday! In gospel principles, Bro Reams took the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25 and compared it to the Plan of Salvation. It was incredible. Try doing that this week! A little snippet of what I learned was that it doesn't matter if the person was initially given 5 talents or 2. They were rewarded the exact same! We are rewarded for our efforts and commitment.
It was a wonderful week. I love love love love love the gospel. Happy February everybody!
Love Sis Huber
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