I HAVE BEEN IN ERIE FOR A WHOLE MONTH! NOVEMBER 12, 2018

I actually saw a horse and buggy going down the street this week!!

Exchanges

LOOK HOW MUCH SNOW!!

 I'm studying for so many different things as I read! In my normal scriptures, I am marking the gospel of Jesus Christ: faith, Repentance, baptism, the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. In the bottom scriptures, it is dedicated solely to marking references to Christ. It is AWESOME!! It is taking me a long time to read though! :) 

Hello my wonderful friends and family!!!

I hope you all are doing well! I love you guys so much! I talk about all of you a lot, you are the coolest!

IT IS FREEZING HERE PLEASE SEND THE WARMEST CLOTHES YOU CAN FIND

lol okay it isn't that bad but it is freezing and I do need warmer clothes. If you can find good warm tights, those would be good to send. Sweaters are definitely needed. And socks. It snowed here a lot. In one day. It is cold. I do have a great coat and boots though. 

Have you heard at all about this year's Light the World? We missionaries got training on it and we were supposed to bring it up in ward council but no one had heard about it yet, not even the bishop.

I'm glad Mike is coming home for Thanksgiving! That will be fun for you. It'll be weird not being there. We are scheduled to have it at a members home, with her non member family. One of them is her grandson, Ian, who we have on date. Should be good I guess.

Sounds like the family is good. I heard about Marie's news and I cried tears of joy I'm so happy for her!! 

This week was rough, I'm not gonna lie. But that's okay. The rough weeks make you appreciate the good ones, right? 

Tuesday:  We visited with our sweet Betty, the older woman in the senior living center. She is just the cutest! We visit her every week and share a conference talk with her. I love visiting with her. That night we saw Mike! Mike is just the COOLEST!!! We had a lesson about Heavenly Father and the importance of praying, reading scriptures, and coming to church! We asked him why he didn't come to church last Sunday and he said he didn't have anything nice enough to wear.  "Jean's and a tshirt isn't my best. I can do better." He was telling us how he has seen a difference in his life since he started meeting with us and reading the BOM and praying. He has felt a lot of joy at work and has just been happier. Its awesome! He has already finished 2 Nephi. We were talking about prophets and he said it all just makes sense that we would have a prophet again today. He said that before Jospeh Smith restored the church, it was just like a game of telephone, people trying to say the same thing but mixing things up and forgetting things! We were like WOAH YEAH I had never thought about the Apostasy like that before but I am so using that from now on! Anyway, if you had a gospel conversation with him, you wouldn't even know he isn't a member, he just gets everything and is just so prepared! We are always on fire after we meet with him! He couldn't come to church again this Sunday because he got called into work sadly. But pray that he will be able to come this coming Sunday!! He is the BEST! December 8th is the day we are shooting for with him. We are so excited!!!

Wednesday: We had District Council again which is always a good time! I love meeting with other missionaries! We visited with Hope afterwards, and talked about working towards the temple! She is so excited about it. I love her so much, she is just awesome. Seeing someone come back to church and be reactivated is really cool. We also taught Ian that night. He is the other guy we have for a December 8th Baptism. The lesson was good. He really wants to be baptized and he got that answer when he prayed about it! 

Thursday: we did weekly planning, we went with the Relief Society president to try and visit a less active woman, but she wasn't home. And that night we had another lesson  with Ian. We also did our Book of Mormon Facebook live class that night and at the Parco's house again. They are just the cutest little couple, they're both super short, he is from the Philippines, and whenever we come over to do the class, he is either asleep or like over at the table reading so whenever he looks up or wakes up, he is always startled by our presence. It kills me Hahaha I love them.

Friday: we went on exchanges in Warren. Since we only have one STL (sister training leader) over us, we had to do a 2 day exchange over in their area. I only did knocking. All. Day. From 1 PM to 8 PM. In the pouring rain. It was freezing and people were not nice. I got multiple doors slammed in my face. It was hard. I tried to stay positive. It was cold. We got mistaken for amish that day though which was funny. 

Saturday: it was a little better. I was with sister Nemelke. She was nice. She's only been out 1 transfer more than I have. We taught 2 lessons which were okay. And we did knocking the rest of the day. And it was freezing again. But this time it was snowing. Not as bad as the pouring rain though. So yeah we basically just did knocking for 2 days straight. It was tough. Sister Paskett and I drove home early because it was snowing so hard in Erie, we wanted to be safe. And we were! But wowzers it snowed a lot here! It didn't stick in Warren but it sure did here! We came back and still had an hour of our day left so we went to some random houses down the street and shoveled their driveways. It felt good to do anonymous service.

Sunday: I drove in the snow! Luckily they are pretty good about clearing roads here but there were some neighborhood roads that were not as good. But everything was fine. We didn't have any people we were teaching come to church sadly. Oh well, next week there will hopefully be more people and less snow. We had a couple lessons fall through that night. We went to Diana's and helped her clean her house a little bit. 

I love hearing from all of you! I have such a wonderful family!! I love you all so much! I pray for you all all the time! I miss ya but I know I am doing what I am supposed to be doing. Missionary work is hard. But it is great. I still love being a missionary! 

Spiritual thought: Words of Mormon 1:4 "And the things which are upon these plates pleasing me, because of the prophecies of the coming of Christ; and my fathers knowing that many of them have been fulfilled; yea, and I also know that as many things as have been prophesied concerning us down to this day have been fulfilled, and as many as go beyond this day must surely come to pass" I thought this verse was super cool! Just going back and thinking about all the verses that talk about Jesus Christ's ministry on earth, in such great detail (see Mosiah 3:5-10) and that everything that was prophesied, came true! And prophecies in it will still come true! It is just so cool to see. 

I love you all!! If any of you have good stories from your lives about the blessings of paying tithing, or keeping the word of wisdom, or anything like that, let me know! I would love to hear them and use them in lessons! So let me know! Keep me updated on your lives! I love you all SO MUCH!!! ❤ Have a FANTASTIC week!! :)

Sister Bates

I love you!! ❤