Hello everyone!
I'm super excited to be emailing you all this week because I have some
incredible stories to share!
The first is of Mrs. Lynn Deakins. We have been meeting with Lynn
since I got to this area. She begrudgingly let Elders in her home back
in April and she's been learning about the church and the Book of
Mormon ever since. Lynn is 85 years old and she is a hoot! She sure
keeps us on our toes. This last Saturday, the 22nd, I was able to be
there and watch Lynn be baptized!! Her baptismal service was so
special and the spirit was so strong. Lynn told everyone that would
listen about how we asked her about baptism multiple times and about
how she always said no, but one day she just changed her mind and ever
since she's been changing her life. There are bits of practically
every commandment that she had to change and she did it and hasn't
looked back even once! She told us one day "I don't have any reason
not to believe these things" and to me, that is just the perfect
mindset. We don't need signs and visions in order to know what is good
and true. We just need to believe and act on that belief. We just need
to have faith, which is to "hope for things which are not seen, which
are true. Lynn holds such a special place in my heart. She has taught
me by how she lives just how much the gospel can change your life. I
look back to when I first met her 2 1/2 months ago when she told us
that she DID NOT want sister missionaries and DID NOT want us there,
and now she's baptized and part of Gods Kingdom. Lynn has also taught
me that it's never to late to change. She's 85 years old and she still
had the courage to get into that baptismal font! She's making huge
changes in her life and I would encourage everyone to take a page out
of her book and make the changes necessary to be centered on the path
that Christ has paved for us all.
I also have an incredible miracle story to share! After church yesterday we felt like we needed to stop by the house of a potential investigator named Norma. We had contacted Norma about 8 weeks ago, so it's been a while. We pulled up to her house and she was out sitting on the porch so we ran over to see how she was doing. She poured out her heart to us about how she was diagnosed with cancer and how she just feels so alone. I had a scripture pop into my mind so I pulled out my Book of Mormon and she immediately grabbed my arm and stared up at me. "I need that book." is all she said at first. I didn't know what to say. So I asked her what she said and she again said "I need that book. I don't have that book and I need it." This was my personal copy of the book and was all marked up and used, I showed her and she did ask us to come back with one just for her. We all kind of looked at each other uncomfortably because we all knew that we had just recently cleared out our entire trunk of the car because we had to move things and we had taken out all of our pamphlets and every copy of the Book of Mormon. So again, we didn't know what to do. Then the thought came to my mind to go and look in the trunk of the car. We excused ourselves and I expressed my thought to my companions and we decided to take a look. Sure enough, sitting in the back of our car was two copies of the Book of Mormon!! I know for a fact that they were not in there and that Heavenly Father provided a miracle for his daughter who so desperately wanted his truth. As we gave the book to Norma and talked to her for a few more moments we learned that she had read one of the pamphlets we left with her and once she came upon the Book of Mormon her curiosity was peaked and she knew God wanted her to have it. She invited us to come back and share with her more from the book and as we left she was still sitting on her porch reading from its pages. I am truly so grateful for all of the incredible miracles that I'm able to witness as a missionary! I know that His miracles are present every single day and that as we listen to promptings He will guide us were we need to be to be that answer to someone's prayers!
I'm so grateful for you all! I hope you have a great week!
Love,
Sister Petrick
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