Transfer 11 Week 4 - June 23, 2014

Family,
This was a super cool week for the Vineland area.
We were able to have a fireside for the gum balls for god project that
we were doing with the youth. It was super special. We were able to
have the Carrs, who are the temple site representatives, come and give
a presentation on having spiritual experiences and how our lives can
be much like that of building the temple. It is something that takes a
lot of work and just building the foundation can take forever but
these are necessary things that we must do to be firm in the faith.
They begin with the small things like keeping the commandments, coming
to church, reading, praying, and giving of your service. But through
these we will be able to mold our spirits into the people that God
would have us be. Elder Holland had said to the leaders of the church
to do everything they can to create spiritual experiences for the
youth! That is something that ewe really tried to do. From this
experience the leaders were able to have shared one message on FB
about the gospel, gave away one pass-a-long card, 4 book of Mormons
were given away, and there were 2 invitations extended for friends to
take the missionary discussions. For the young women they were able to
have 3 invitations to teacher appreciation night, 1 invitation to
church prom, 2 pass-a-long cards given away, 2 invitations to church
activity, 3 invitations to church, and 3 Book of Mormon given away.
From the young men they were able to have 4 invitations to teacher
appreciation night, 1 invitation to church prom, 4 pass-a-long cards
given away, 10 Book of Mormon handed given to friends and 1 invitation
for a friend to meet with the missionaries. It was super cool! At the
end of the fireside we had invited the youth that had these
experiences to share their testimonies. I know that you could see how
it strengthened them. Attire it was over there was even one of the
youth that came up and thanked us because she hadn't even planned on
coming until we had previously invited her to share her testimony. She
knew that the spirit she felt there was important!

I was just so grateful for that event. Another cool experience we had
this week was when we were with the stretch family. Before we even
started teaching us that evening, they started asking us bout tattoos
and piercings. We told them that just like some of the prior
commandments we had taught them, our bodies are temples and so we
should keep them holy. That was an awesome moment because it showed
the faith of momma stretch as she pulled out here nose ring right
there and threw it in the trash! It was so cool!
Another great thing was a lesson I had with two ladies, Amy and Julie,
this week. We taught the restoration, and at the end invited them to
be baptized. The spirit was so strong! Amy was crying and said that
she would and her son (who wasn't even there) would be baptized! :) it
was great!
Something else happened, one of our less active sisters this week I
had noticed that she had coffee packets, so I asked her about it. She
said that her doctor recommended it for when she had migraines, and
she only keeps it for emergencies. We know that she knew this
principle, so we figured we would teach her more about it later. She
ended up texting us the next day though and telling us that she had
stopped drinking it, and though it was a challenge she was grateful
that we had helped her to see it wasn't right just by asking her why
she had it! Ahh I love when people are humble enough to let the spirit
work on them and help them change!

Finally, the stretch family was confirmed this Sunday! It was so
beautiful! I think it was great to see that this family has so much in
store for them as they continue to live the gospel. One of my favorite
parts of this experience was when Tristan had invited Noah Cook to do
his confirmation. Noah is in a wheel chair, and was born with a
condition where his bones break so he is super small but is like 22!
This was a spiritual experience for the whole Vineland ward. Noah had
never had the opportunity to have such a privilege before! The spirit
was so strong and not a person in the whole building had a dry eye. I
love my Vineland ward and family. This place truly is amazing and I'm
so grateful for the people here that are choosing to live righteously!

Hope you all had as great of a week as I did! Love you tons!
Sister Beames