Sister Ariel Dearden: April 21, 2014

April 21, 2014

Hello everybody! This week has been amazing. It has seriously been so beautful and everyone seems to be happy! Maybe because it was the week before Easter but I think it was because the weather.

Anyways Iona was fantastic and I absolutly love it here. We finally were able to meet our goals this week so we are hoping the work will pick up a little now. It has been really slow finding our way around and meeting new people. But we are working on it.

This last week we had a fantastic baptism of SF. She is 11 and acts like a 21 yr old. I love her to death. She was literally counting down her days till she was baptized and she posted it on facebook i guess. It was awesome. The more awesome part of this whole story is that through out this last week we have been meeting with her and her grandparents. Her grandma Sister S is one of the funniest most down to earth people i know. She is a tough little thing to. I'm scared she might beat me up even thought she is 2 feet shorter than me. Anyways she is inactive but lives the gospel like no other. She is a pain in my neck too because she won't come to church and I have told her that, LOL (For some reason I can hear Ariel telling her that). But the amazing story is is that her husband isn't a member and unfortuanltly has had some hard times with missionaries in the past but he is warming up to us. We get hugs from him and when the missionaries that were at the baptism saw that that knew him freaked out because I guess he has never even spoken a word to them. So we were stoked when we heard that.

So he came to the baptism and it was amazing. I don't know how you wouldnt be able to feel the spirit there. It was so strong and I know that he felt it. So we go about our day and then Sunday we pull up and our other investigator pulled up also so we screamed and were super happy. So we go in and then walks in Brother S with SF and we almost peed our skirts we were so happy. I guess that is the first time ever that he has gone to church. We almost died with the joy we were feeling. It was an amazing Sacrament meeting too and he mentioned after to someone that he needs to get Sister S out to church more. And maybe he will come again. It was a miracle and we were so excited.

So what else happened this week. On exchanges we held a baby goat and chicks. That was pretty fun! Oh we also were able to share the Easter video with a ton of people. It was amazing! If you haven't seen it then you have to. And to those that think it's going to be all about Mormons it's not.It is just an amazing video of Christ and all that he does for us. the website is mormon.org/becauseofhim

So I will just share a short little quote I heard that I thought was perfect for Easter

"Should we scold a toddler for stumbling? No! Neither does our Heavenly Father." Dieter F. Uchtdorf

I loved this because I think it applies to all of us at one point or another.

Anyways I love you all and I miss you!

Sister Dearden