August 19th, 2018: AMAZING WEEK!

As you can see above, this week was AMAZING! 

We gave Lina a baptismal date and she is so excited to be baptized next month!! We went to a devotional with all the missionaries in the city with Elder Homer of the Area 70. It was amazing to hear from him and his wife, and President and Sister Lewis as well!

We also got two new investigators from our free English class who are Christian and best friend. They have been searching for a church to join for years and feel like God led them to our church. We were sharing with them about prayer and one of them started to cry and shared a story about how her grandmother was sick and refused to take any medication, so she prayed for her grandmother even when her family opposed it. The next day her grandmother agreed to finally take the medication and she has been slowly recovering. She knew prayer was real and that God had answered her prayer. Then we shared the scripture 3 Nephi 14: 7-8 (Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened) and she pointed to it after and said "Sisters, this book is true. I have always felt this way about prayer but i never knew it was written somewhere. I want this book" *angels singing* it was one of the coolest experiences i have ever had with an investigator and the spirit was so strong. My testimony of God preparing those who are elect has grown immensely! And the power of the Book of Mormon is unbelievable. 

The Book of Mormon is the Gospel Principle I would like to talk about today. Along with the awesome experience with our investigator, I finished the Book of Mormon again this week. Every time i read it i feel like my spiritual knowledge grows and my relationship with my Heavenly Father and Savior is strengthened. There is nothing that brings the spirit more into my life and into each and every day more than reading the Book of Mormon. When President Nelson reemphasized the importance of reading the Book of Mormon every single day. My investigator who read the passage about prayer felt the power and truth from it and was so excited to read more. Like her, we should all be excited to "feast upon the words of Christ" each and every day.

If any of us are feeling like our testimony of the Book of Mormon is dwindling, or we want to know more about it, we should commit to follow Moroni's invitation: "And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."

We should trust in God and believe that because He loves us, He has bestowed upon all of us the opportunity to come unto Hism and our Savior, Jesus Christ, by reading this wonderful gift of the Book of Mormon. I know that the Book of Mormon truly is the word of God and "the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book." (Book of Mormon Introduction).

I love you all and hope you have the best week!!

Sister Bashford

Pictures:

Sister Chan-tung is way cool and she bought me a matching dress (it actually was too short for her so she gave it to me lol) and we wore them for the devotional with Elder Homer.

 

 

Hi mom!! Ya i am pretty sure all i can do when i go home is take fluff classes because i have to wait to get into the nursing program if that is still what i want to do. or decide to do something else. IDK. life is so stressful haha. im getting to the point in my mission now when EVERYONE tells me "Sister jit jop" (which means close to finishing) or jit slap (which means close to death) and its so annoying but exciting.

i really do feel like myself again. getting out of that house and away from sister um was something that needed to happen a while ago but sometimes you just have to grin and bear (bare?, sorry i forget english) things. Sister eckman is so fun and our house is so fun. i do miss sister Stewart though. we were together in that house for 3 transfers (mor time than i have left on the mission) so we were so close. out of everyone on the mission, i have been closest to her and sister jennings. sister jennings emails me every week though so we are still way close. 

i am way excited to go to betty's condo. ive still never been. it looks so nice. also any vacation sounds really nice right now haha. today we are going to the mission home and sister Lewis is making lunch for all the sisters in the city so that should be fun.

did you know i only email you 16 more times??????? then im home..... so crazy!!!! I love you mom and hope you stay safe in mexico and have fun with your friends!! LOVE YOU!!!!