October 27, 2014

The good news is there's a baptism this week! The even better news is that it's in Uganda! One of the first people Sister Layton found during online proselyting was this guy Josh from Uganda. He has been more than prepared. We skype with him sometimes and chat online to keep supporting him as his baptism is this week, but the Ugandan missionaries did most of the teaching which is perfect and how it should be. The week after he started taking the lessons we asked him what his favorite lesson was with the missionaries. He said, "The restoration of the gospel. Man, that is powerful. I realized if I love Jesus Christ, I have no choice but to follow the 2nd commandment - to love my neighbor. and I wouldn't be showing God I loved them if I didn't share that message with them. The missionaries came and taught my sister and my friends today. They are coming back tomorrow to teach them more."

Yeah, close your jaw from hanging wide open, we can hardly believe it either.

We are mostly grateful not only because it's great that he's chosen to be baptized, but how kind it was of Heavenly Father to be willing to work through the means of the digital mission. Kind is the lamest word to describe how generous of a blessing. Josh was so ready that God would have and could have worked through other means - it would not have been hard to have the missionaries find Josh on the street. But God knew that Josh was already on the internet and has blessed the faith of now hundreds of missionaries by having him be found first on there to show that God is behind the work we are doing here and that he knows the digital mission can work. Isn't it amazing that sometimes God goes out of his way to accomplish a simple act so that hundreds of more people can be effected? What a kind, supportive, and loving Heavenly Father we have.

Miracles are happening left and right in North Brookfield too and are just as evident as the miracle of Josh. What miracles are occurring right this very second that are effecting us that we don't even know God is orchestrating? And then you decide to use a phrase like 'how kind'?? Pathetic.

Elder Lawrence of the 70 is coming to visit. For this month's leadership meeting we get to hear from him and he has planned so far to interview all of the leadership that day, wednesday. Ooooo scary. Then we get to listen to him for an investigator fireside on thursday and then zone conference on Friday! What a spiritually fed week this will be!

Hope you have a miracleous week!

Love,
Sister Bell

October 20, 2014

Oh relax, of course I’m staying in North Brookfield! I get to stay with Sister Layton too! The lucky little dog gets to kill me off. This week I feel like a lot more internalized. The more I internalize and understand what it means to be an effective missionary, the more frustrating it is because now I feel like I have to race the clocks. I’m trying to work the hardest and smartest that I can, and even then I know that the glass is still only ¾ of the way full. I feel like I finally know what it means to pray, what it means to teach to someone’s needs, what it means to have effective visits with members, and how to really plan and schedule. There’s a lot I still have to learn and improve upon in each of those categories, but I definitely see the hand of the lord in helping my eyes and ears to be less foggy. I think President Monson accidently left his ‘changing missionary service to 2 years for young women’ talk at home on the printer this past conference.

Mary Jane has officially gone a week living the word of wisdom! We committed her last Monday…well…really she committed herself. When we explained it to her she responded with, “yeah, I know it’s time for me to start. Ok, I’ll start tomorrow.” Uhh…yeah, good choice? By a miracle we had an amazing member attend that said exactly the points we wanted to cover, even the ones we didn’t even tell her about. We couldn’t do it without you members I tell ya. She bore powerful testimony of how reading the Book of Mormon everyday helped her overcome her addictions. In my mind i was like, "Uh, what addictions?" Turns out she had been struggling back into activity and had her feet on the ground only since about March. Woa. We asked MJ what would be helpful for her to be a good support and person to check in with. She said that the hardest time is in the morning when she first wakes up and that we could text her then or some other point in the day. So we’ve been waking up at 5am every morning to send her encouragement right as she wakes up. The example of Mary Jane just goes to show when people put their mind to something, they can really do and overcome anything when using the Atonement.

We had 2 surprisingly amazing lessons with Tara this week. Attending the Joseph Smith fireside turned out to be revolutionary for her. We had a sweet appt planned with a member that rarely comes out with us and so we were really excited. The appt ended up canceling which ended up being the biggest tender mercy of the century! Last minute we were like shoot! We gotta still take this awesome member with us somewhere! What are we going to do?? Hey, Tara said we could come Friday to do a Fireside lesson review but maybe she'll let us come tonight! We called her and she said yyyess! It was a tender mercy to know how the Lord works in weird ways sometimes. If we didnt have that original appt, we wouldn't have thought to bring that member, and we would have never been led to go there that evening with that member and then Tara would have never had the opportunity to ask solid questions about Christ's restored church. Is God's Church on the earth? If so, why is it necessary to be apart of it to receive salvation? What is my purpose in this life? Who can help me fufill that. Shes been taught the answers to these questions - what she is asking is if the church is really Christ's church on the earth and if she should be apart of it. 

Tender mercy #782: We have a few minutes before our dinner appt so we look up this woman on our potentials sheet. Her name is Kim. Knock knock. 

"hi are you kim?"

"yes"

"Great..ladi da introdctions..we saw that you've had contact with our church in the past and wanted to know if you were still interested."

confused look

"I dont think i have actually."

"You're kim?"

"yes."

is she lying like the other 1500 people? 

"Oh, but you know what, the woman before me's name was kim too. I just moved in like 2 weeks ago." 

Bust up laughing.

"Well we share a message with people that brings hope and a deeper relationship with God. Would you be interested?"

"yes. yes, actually, i would. Give me a week or two to unpack."

WOA. 

Tender mercies folks. If you claim you dont got um, it's probably because your hands are over your eyes. Wake up kids. 

Love,
Sister Bell 

Pictures: Be jealous of fall. You haven't even seen the half of it.

October 13, 2014

What a magical day. No, a magical week.

Fireside

TEMPLE TODAY! HOORAY!

AND - got to watch Meet the Mormons today. SO GOOD.

The day was topped off with MJ committing to live the word of wisdom.
I swear, I have the BEST life ever!!

This past friday we had President Packard's Joseph Smith Fireside roll into town. I have been to a ton before because of the Visitors' Center, but it was interesting viewing it in a different lense. The area has spent months prepping for this fireside - getting it out in the community, inviting friends. It was all we talked about. The fireside is a presentation about what answers we have because of the restoration of the gospel and what revelations Joseph Smith received like what happens when I die? What's heaven like? Why do bad things happen to good people? You name it.

Miracle story:

We've been working with this man John. John is my favorite - he's taken the lessons before and knows more about President Benson than 90% of church members. We were fightin to get John to this fireside. We knew itd be a game changer. So we follow up with him - wednesday he says hes coming. Thursday - says hes coming. We get a text Friday afternoon a few hours before the fireside starts that says he woke up at 3am with a fever of 101.3 and that it hasn't broken so he doesn't think he'll be able to make it. Sister Layton and I want to pull our hair out, yet it also made us extremely happy because if the adversary was working this hard..it means something good was in store for him. Instantly, Sister Layton and I drop to our knees. We prayed and talked about what we needed to say to him. We decided that we needed to promise him a number. We need to give him a bar line to hit so that when he hit it, it would be a sign that he was well enough to come. After praying, we looked at each other and both agreed upon '99 degrees'. Fireside started at 7, we knew that if he was at 99 degrees by 6pm, he could come. We call him and the words just flew out. We told him that he knew exactly why he had a fever. He said, "I do?" We said, "yes. this isn't a fever. this is a delusion of Satan. You're not contagious and you're feeling fine. You will break to 99 degrees by 6pm, and if you do, you can know that you're well enough to come. Go take a hot shower, and say the most sincere prayer you've ever said. Tell God what you're intending to do. Then call us back immediately." He agreed. 20 minutes later we get a call. "I took a shower. I feel very enlightened. I think i'll come."

He does come. Just as the firesides about to start he leaned over and said, "It was weird - i checked my temperature right as I was leaving the house - it was exactly 99 degrees." While I was overjoyed, I wasn't exactly shocked. We knew that he would be! I said, "John, we prayed right before we called you because we knew that we needed to tell you a number. We knew that God would break your fever to 99." He was like, "are you serious?!?!" Dont act so surprised John. We told you there was a war going on up there while you were running around trying to decide if you were going to come or not.

I know that God is aware of each one of us - he does care about what we do. He does know if we go to church on sunday or not, and if our heart's in the right place when we are there. He knows exactly when we choose to watch tv before we choose to study his scriptures. He also knows that we have the gift of making our own choices and he will never ever stop us or force us into decision making. However, when we listen closely, are in tune with the spirit, and have the courage to make the right choice, we will be able to see the Lord's hand and his miracles VIVIDLY.

We have been hearing a LOT about prophets lately. it seems every where I turn it's about prophets. Even when we skype taught the man in Uganda, his main question was: "How can I tell between a true prophet and a false prophet?" You are asking the right question my friend. It's amazing that a random man with no context of the church is still spiritually aware of the main topic going around. Are we prepared to follow the prophet at his next command that may require more faith than we currently have? What are we doing now to follow the prophet? What kinds of activities fill our time that will help bring in the right spirit to discern between a false prophet and a true prophet. How lucky we are that we have the promise that our prophets will NEVER lead us astray. What a steady anchor in a shifting world. Who wouldn't want that spiritual security? 
Choose to listen. Choose to follow the prophet. Choose to act on faith before you act on the natural man.

And as the glorious Sister Crane would say - CHOOSE CELESTIAL :)

Love,

Sister Bell

Pictures:

1. S. Laytons B day on general conference!

2. Apple picking with the coolest branch missionary

September 29, 2014

Highlight of the week was an awesome lesson with Mary Jane and Zone Conference. The energy you receive from Zone Conference is almost comparable to the strength you feel after leaving the Temple. Almost because nothing can compare to that, but it is pretty close. You leave more charitable, more focused, more confident, and more excited about the work. The asked the Youngs to drive us to save miles - the coolest members in the world. They were cracking us up the entire way down to Hartford. Brother Young stumbles out of the house with 3 ties around his neck. We said, "Good morning brother young!!! We're so excited!! Our vote is the striped tie." He says, "Oh no, you're bright and cheery this morning. I can't believe we are doing this." He probably repeated I cant believe this is happening like 15 times that morning. It was hilarious. Bless their hearts for spending all day with us. Good thing service brings blessings - keep serving the missionaries around you! :) 

Sister Layton and I felt like the spirit taught us additional ideas of how we can work in the area and how to improve some of our lessons at Zone Conference as well. I also felt like I received guidance to create some personal goals for myself. Sometimes when we feel like we aren't receiving the answers we're looking for it's because we've already been given them. Sometimes its because we're not ready for them. Sometimes it's because we're not doing our part to receive them. As a society we are really good at being busy and it's really easy to feel tired at the end of the day. These are some results we are looking for in feeling validated for our success. I'm grateful for the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost that is our true source of checkpoints to guide the success of our work.
We've been very busy in North Brookfield. And I hope that we haven't just been busy but that we've been productive. I feel like we have, or at least working our way there. I'm gettin more and more in the swing of things - I feel like I have it all - I have the knowledge, we've been trained on the skills, and I have the energy. I just have to review review and do do do. We prayed and set some large goals for the month - not impossible, but definitely a lot of work. We're so excited. Miracles are occurring left and right.

Love you all!

Thanks for the prayers and always the fun fun pictures of the kiddos. Congrats to the newest member- Brayden!! He's adorable!