Elder Dallin Schipaanboord: Miracles

This week was absolutely amazing!! We saw so many miracles, it was unreal!!

Isaiah, a recent convert of about 9 months, has been going through really hard time in his life and has been super depressed and hasn't been to church in forever, so we have been working pretty closely with him. We got a call from him on Monday, saying he wanted to talk with us, so we met up and he told us that through all of his trials, his faith keeps growing more and more, and he loves being around us, and he got a spiritual witness that he needs to go on the mission!! It was so crazy!! We talked with him about how awesome it is and how much it is going to bless his life and how much he is going to grow, as well as how much it is going to bless his family's life; he loved it and wanted to go even more! He came out on splits with us for a full day and absolutely loved it and he showed up to church as well!!! It is so awesome to see him moving forward and loving the Gospel!

On Tuesday, we went over to the Andersons with Brother Baltimore to have a lesson with Tyler, and some new girl named Amber was there, so she asked some questions and joined in on the lesson. We taught the restoration, and Bro Baltimore bore a powerful testimony of how it had blessed his life tremendously, it brought her to tears!! We invited Tyler and Amber to be baptized, and they both accepted!! Amber is rock solid!! We met with her 2 more times, and talked about how she is a daughter of God and he wants her to come back to her just as she wants her kids to come back to her, she cried again, it was awesome!! She ended up coming to church as well and absolutely loved it!! We later found out that after church she went to smoke a cigarette and had one puff and said she couldn't smoke it, because she felt sick to her stomach!!

On Friday we had nothing to do because all of our plans had fallen through, so we decided to go knock on this door of a super less active members home (he is a retired tattoo artist who is never home), and he answered the door!! We got talking with him and he told us that he and his wife had discussed just 3 days earlier that they need to come back to church, and then a member of the Bishopric called them 2 days after that, and then we showed up, so they knew that they really did need to come back to church, and they ended up coming on Sunday, it was so awesome!! The Lord uses us in the most amazing way, and has a perfect plan for everyone, I love it!!!

Now the last story is amazing. Yesterday, we went over to the Andersons house again, trying to teach Amber but we ended talking with Sister Anderson for quite sometime (with Amber there as well), and she told us that she met with the Bishop and that she is going to the temple in 6 months to be sealed to her husband who had passed away. When she said this, I couldn't help but start to cry! Never in my life did I ever think that I would hear those words come out of her mouth! She has been through so much its amazing! It proves that no one is too far lost to get back on the strait and narrow path! She still has a lot to learn, but she is now on the right track and is making the right decisions to get to the temple! My heart was filled with joy!! I am so thankful that Elder Peck and I were able to go knock on their door, even though everyone told us not to! We have seen so many blessing come from it, its remarkable!!

I truly do love the Gospel and being on the mission, because of experiences like these! Sure it's hard, but these make it all sooo worth it!!

I love you guys and hope you have an awesome week!!