What a great week! We can be the vehicles where by miracles can be preformed

What an exhausting week! We worked hard this week and it felt so good! i fell into bed last night with delightful exhaustion! What a great week!

We started exchanges last week... we go on two a week... Tuesday-Wednesday and Friday-Saturday... sister Hamilton and i hardly see each other it seems. Last Monday night we invited one of our investigators to be baptized... he said no.... which we were totally expecting, but now we know why he doesn't want to be baptized, he wants to make an educated decision before he jumps in to it... which is perfect because the last thing we want to do is have someone baptized that isn't ready! as funny as it might seem, it is a blessing when people tell us "no" when we invite them to do things because they usually will follow up with what their concerns are... and then we can really begin to help them! Tuesday was zone meeting and sister Hamilton and i gave a training. and then after the meeting we exchanged with the roswell sisters. (sister merback is training there and she says HI!!) I came back to johns creek with sister painter and we taught some of our investigators... it was so much fun and sister painter in already a phenomenal missionary and she has only been out three weeks! wow the new missionaries just get better and better each transfer! I learned so much from sister painter! this calling is great, because i get to learn so many different ways of doing things... i really feel like the lucky one here.

Sister Wolfert came to our apartment on Wednesday and told us what all our calling really requires of us... that was nice to be able to finally get some clarification on what exactly we are to be doing. Sister Wolfert is the greatest mission mom ever she really has a genuine care and concern for all the sisters and elders in the mission. I have come to LOVE her so much! 

We had a few fun experiences this week... so last Saturday, we were tracting and we knocked on a door... the man who answered very warmly says "well come on in!!"... he then must have seen the surprised look on both mine and sister hamilton's faces because he then looked at us and said "you aren't here for the party are you?" we admitted that we weren't, and then proceeded to tell him our purpose for being there we told him that we were representatives of Christ... he told us that the party was actually an atheist meeting he then said "ladies you should leave because if i invited you in i don't think it would end well" we thanked him for his time and left... ha ha an atheist party ha ha funniest thing ever. sister hamilton and i had a good laugh with that Then on Wednesday we were tracting again and we had gone to a neighborhood that i had found while on exchange that i really wanted to do some work in.. so the first person we walked up to was loading a construction truck, he was really friendly untill he found out that we were Mormons... ha ha then the real fun started... lol He told us that he didn't think that a church that just rose up out of nowhere in the 1800's had any right to try and change all of Christianity which has been around for thousands of years he then said something about how we didn't believe in the real Jesus Christ and he then told us that we needed to read the bible and make sure we are worshiping the real Christ and then we needed to...are you ready for this... "repent from our Mormonism"... i had to try so hard to keep from laughing at him... i controlled myself, we asked him if we could say a prayer with him and his family and he said "absolutely not!" he continued... and said... "i am going to go pray that you don't go preaching your Mormonism to my neighbors... i don't want them to get sucked in" By this point it is taking all that i have to not laugh... we thanked him for his opinion and told him that we respected his beliefs and we walked on... we didn't really tell him anything because it would have only turned into a bash... which was obviously what he was looking for... so we just went on our way... and went to his neighbors house.. to indoctrinate them with our "evil Mormonism" Ha Ha when we got out of ear shot we both lost it and just laughed! i couldn't believe that just happened! We didn't get his name so we called him Bart the Bashing Builder Ha Ha!! what a good man he was though... he was very passionate about his own religion and Jesus Christ... but most defiantly not open to the restored Gospel... I find it interesting that even people who really do hate us and want nothing but to tell us how wrong we are... that i can still walk away laughing, but thinking how much their heavenly father loves them, and i walk away with a portion of love for them and can still find ways to admire them. I still feel saddened that they don't want to take a chance on something that will make them and their families beyond happy! 

Thursday night was a night of miracles... we had been telling the sisters in our zones to pray for, expect and look for miracles and then to report them to us! and we had heard some pretty neat miracles, but we had also been doing the same thing praying for and looking for miracles and Thursday night we were able to see a pretty neat one! We had found a man a couple of weeks ago and we stopped in to check up on him to see how he was doing... when we got there his entire family was there... and instead of turning us away because his family was there he invited us in to meet his family and he sat us down and they all asked us questions about the church... they were in and out of the conversation because they were having a family BBQ but they would come in and ask and converse then leave again... but Danny the man we met, he stayed in the room the whole time and talked with us... he asked us to read him something fro the bible and he pointed to our books (book of Mormon) so we used that as an opportunity to introduce him to the book of Mormon... we told him about it and then read Moroni"s promise with him and when we read it wa asked him what he thought it meant.. and he told us that he knew God was telling him that he needed to read it and pray about it and that if he asked and really wanted to know... then god would answer him.... we also read my favorite scripture with him Helaman 5:12 and he comprehended it so well i was so impressed with his ability to comprehend... he said he would like to come to church and that he wanted us to come and teach him more! WOW what an incredible guy... he is great! i know that he has a desire to change because he talks often about wanting to better his life and turn a new page and be right with god... i know he can, he just doesn't know where to look! I really hope that we get to teach him more.. i really hope that this is the will of the father at this time... Danny is such a great man and i know that he can become greater once he realizes his potential as a son of god and can unlock that potential by using the power of the atonement to it's fullest! Gosh i love this work!

Friday took me back to lilburn!! yay we had an exchange with the lilburn sisters and both sister hamilton and i felt that the new sister needed an opportunity to take over the area and since sister Cefalo and i had already been companions, i got to go be with sister allred in lilburn! I had fun back in my old area and i learned so much from sister allred and she too is incredible! We had dinner with my favorite family the Hydes! I am really excited for yall to meet them... if we come back for a family vacation we have to see them! 

Saturday was great... we decided that we were going to use a scripture in our contacting that day and so we had 10 people we had to talk and so we said we would use the scripture with at least 4 of them! it made contacting so much more fun! oh and we also met a lady who no longer considered herself a christian... we asked her what religion she was and she kinda got a crazy look in her eye and then in her high pitch voice she says " I'm a witch!!" and closes the door.... Ha ha man i love all the interesting people we meet every day! this is the greatest! 

Sunday was the best i don't think i have ever felt the spirit more strongly in a sacrament meeting on my mission until yesterday... we just had two sisters return home from their mission and they both spoke and they spoke with such power and such conviction the chapel was filled with the most warm and comforting feeling... it was such a powerful sacrament meeting... there is no doubt that those sisters were powerful missionaries and touched many lives where they served! 

Well Family, i hope Yall are still reading with me! I have loved reading the book of Mormon over and over. but this time is really special... this time will be one that i will never forget. Everyday i find a new reason to love the book of Mormon... this book has changed my life and i hope that yall are letting it change yours. I can see such a huge difference in myself from the beginning of my mission to now and i attribute it all to this Gospel! I KNOW that my Savior lives and the he paid the price of my human imperfections in full and i KNOW that our Heavenly Father is a kind, loving and forgiving Father, he gives us chance after chance to change and follow him he will not give up on us, he loves us! I KNOW that Christ's gospel was restored back to the earth with the help of the Prophet Joseph Smith. I KNOW that our Heavenly Father works through us to accomplish his great purposes... we can be the vehicles where by miracles can be preformed, i have seen many times on my mission where the Lord has truly used me as an instrument to help his children find their way in this life, me, he has used weak and shy and insignificant me... to bring about his greatest work "the immortality and eternal life of man" i get to take part in this work and what an honor it is to do so. To wear my Saviors name and represent him has been one of the most fulfilling and rewarding works i have ever done in my life! Of all the people i have helped to bring closer to their savior, there will always be one convert that will be forever grateful that i served a mission... and that convert is me! I can't imagine my life with out having served a mission.

Words will never explain my joy and Grattitude for this gospel and the opportunity Ive had to share it!

Well family i hope yall have a great week ill talk to you soon

love
Sister Dannika Nielsen