This email was sent by Sister Welker on February 6th.  We received it on February 5th.

Week 26: Best Week Ever!!! :D

I have so much to tell you!!

K, so Monday night we had the BIGGEST miracle.  I know I say that a lot, but I'm serious this time.  We had a less-active member come out and do missionary work with us!!!  I'll use the name Megan for now.  So Megan is a recent convert.  She was baptized in July of 2016.  For the first three months, she was soaring and loving every minute of the gospel.  Unfortunately, her life isn't easy and she's had mountains of trials since then.  Her family has bad drinking habits and often asks her to watch/babysit their youngest children in addition to watching her own son.  This makes it hard for Megan to resist her past drinking habits.  She's a single mom, and is currently working a construction job, which does not have good hours, especially for a mom of one.  She's had heaps of family pass away and has just been overwhelmed by her trials, so she's stopped coming to church.  When we visited her on Monday, Megan was completely stressed.  She told us that "she's done, she's getting baptized into a different church, the church is too much and that she doesn't want to see us again."  By this point, I was in tears and my poor companion was doing her best to hold the lesson together.  I was thinking "That's it!  We've tried so hard to help Megan and now she's done and doesn't want to come back to church.  I've failed!"  Since it sounded as though this would be the last time we would ever see Megan, we decided to share with her the message of the Atonement. We explained to her how Jesus Christ suffered in the garden of Gethsemane and died on the cross for her, and knows exactly how she feels.  Then I had the thought come to my head "invite her to come out and do missionary work with you."  Doubtful me I thought "No way! Megan is crying in my arms, she hasn't been to church in months, she's struggling with her own testimony, she won't have enough petrel.  There's no way."  Luckily, my faithful companion had the same prompting and asked Megan what she had planned for the rest of the night.  Megan started to give us excuses, but we both pleaded and told her that I had felt that same prompting.  After a couple minutes she agreed to come with us.  My mouth dropped open wide.  I was in complete shock.  Megan hurried and made her son a hot dog and we got in our car as she followed us to our investigators.  The whole way there I was praying that she wouldn't all of a sudden flip around and head back home (doubtful Sister Welker).  Megan followed us all the way there, and to our surprise our investigator, Tim (name changed), had prepared us a dinner.  So Megan was immediately blessed for agreeing to do missionary work.  By the end of the lesson, Megan was testifying that she knew this church was true.

It was the COOLEST miracle!! I'm so glad I had a chance to be a part of it, and it was a blessing to know that Megan still had a testimony of the gospel. 

We also had a Worldwide Missionary Training on Wednesday given by Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Elder Neil A. Anderson, and Elder David A. Bednar.  It was amazing and was all focused on going back to the basics and how the gospel of Jesus Christ is all related to each other.  It was awesome. 

We've also had a member show up to Mount Rescues!!  This is exciting, since we don't get hardly any volunteers willing to come to rescue visits in the Mount Ward.

We also had another member come out and do missionary work with us.  Lilly (name changed) was really nervous at first to come out with us, but honestly she was a natural.  She was exactly what those less-active members needed.  It's been really exciting to see Lilly get excited about the gospel.  We've been visiting her and helping her to better understand the scriptures and now the gospel is starting to come to life for her.  It's such a blessing to have her as an honorary member in our Mount Gospel Principles class.

Last thing I promise.  We had three less active members come to church yesterday.  One of the members, Tracy (name changed), has recently had her leg amputated.  We had dinner with both her and her husband (Jim) this week.  Jim (name changed) used to be a temple worker but for some reason has stopped coming to church.  They both came to church and I was so excited to see them there.  Their daughter-in-law, Bailey (name changed), also came to church.  So it was a really good day at church yesterday!!

Sorry for the super long email.  It was just a really good week and I wanted to tell you guys all about it.  I know that there is a God and I know that miracles happen every day!! This gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and it changes lives.  It's exciting as missionaries to be able to be on the front row to witness God's miracles in others lives.

Thank you so much for all your love and support.  Hope you all have a good week.

Sister Mandy Welker