Sister Mandy Welker

This email was sent by Sister Welker on May 29th. We received it on May 28th. This is from the week of Mother's Day, May 14th.

Week 40: Skype, Movie with Maggie, Dinner with Misty

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all those mothers, soon to be mothers and want to be mothers out there!! It was a great day to remember the important women in my life, and I'm grateful I had the chance to personally tell my own mom "Happy Mothers Day," thanks to the wonderful world of technology that allows for me to both see and hear my mommy from all the way across the Pacific!! Skyping definitely had to be my favorite part of the week.

There's a less-active sister, who I'll call Maggie for now, that I have visited once a week ever since I've been in the area (February). We love her to pieces and she loves missionaries and she'll never let us leave without feeding us. Sadly, this sister hadn't been progressing and I had told my companion that if she wasn't willing to progress we would have to stop visiting her. The day we were about to tell her we might have to stop vising her, she told us that she had prayed with her kids on the way to school!! I was so excited, so happy!!! I couldn't believe it--MAGGIE had actually prayed!! I was skipping out of that lesson happy that she finally decided to pray with her family. Later on we watched The Testaments with her. It's a movie based on events found within the Book of Mormon. The best part of the movie is when Christ visits the people in the Americas at the end of the film. By the end of the movie Maggie had wet eyes. She just couldn't stop talking about how cool it would be to have been in America when Christ came. She told us how nothing else would matter. I could tell that she had been deeply touched by the video and had a new desire to find ways she can make changes in her life for when Christ does come again. :D

Lastly, we had dinner with one of our recent converts, who I'll call Misty. We baptized Misty in March and have continued to visit her ever since. She is one of the happiest people I've ever meet and now that she has the gospel she's even happier. This was the first time we had been invited over for a dinner, and sadly we were running a little late. Once we got there she had her small kitchen table FULL of food. There was hardly any room for our plates!! Though dinner was amazing, it was the lesson that had to be my favorite part of the night. We were reviewing the Plan of Salvation with Timothy (name changed), who just got baptized at the beginning of this month. Today, Timothy's cousin was over and he wanted to participate in the lesson as well. To our surprise, Timothy remembered everything we had taught him. By the end of the lesson his cousin Robert, (name changed) was able to put the Plan of Salvation puzzle in perfect order and was making comments like "I want to be baptized like Timothy," and "I want to go to that kingdom," as he pointed to the Celestial Kingdom. I know at the moment that Roberts parents won't let him get baptized, but I hope one day Robert will be baptized. Who knows? Maybe that visit was just a way for us to plant a seed. :D

Hope you all have a good week.

Sister Mandy Welker