Sister Emily Hawkins' Mission: One week left!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Hi Mom,

Well where do I begin to tell you about my week! So much to say but I feel like I don’t want to tell you everything because then I won’t have much to say for my homecoming talk but I will share the highlights of the week! It's been such a busy week that I just can't believe I am down to one week! Super crazy! I have been so blessed to be on a mission serving the Lord and experience so many miracles the last weeks of my mission! Last Monday was supposed to be zone p-day but it got cancelled the last minute because of the crazy rain that we’ve been having! Super crazy! Sister Cochran and I have been wearing our boots so we don’t ruin our church shoes!

The lessons with Hugo have been SUPER AMAZING!! I can't believe how much he is grasping onto this gospel! I love being a missionary and being an instrument for the Lord to help my dear brother come unto Christ and to make those covenants with God this coming Sunday! He is so ready for baptism; he is reading the Book of Mormon and he is loving everything that he is reading and he so often says, “This feels good! It makes sense!” He really wants this for his family because he knows it will bless his family so much! He is just the most Golden Investigator that I have ever had on my mission! It's super cool! :)

Kyra, the little ten year old I told you about last week, is doing good. She is grasping the lessons but not as well as we had planned so we are still going to be working with her this week! We are meeting with her to continue to help her be prepared for baptism on Saturday. She is such a sweet girl! I love her dearly. She gets excited when we come over to teach her! She is a brilliant little girl!

Well mom I don't know if I have told you about the "Hour of Power" that we are doing with our mission. We go to a member’s home and teach them a 10 minute lesson about Faith Unto Miracles! Then we ask the family to kneel in prayer before we leave to go tracting and then us missionaries tract for an hour and go find someone to teach that lives near them so they can have fellowship in the church! Well when I first heard about the new program idea from President Crawford I was a little hesitant about it but I knew I needed to do what President Crawford asked. So Sister Cochran and I were trying so hard to find a member on Thursday night at 5:50 p.m. to go and teach. Well we couldn't find a member that wasn't busy or at home so we texted our dinner appointment to pray for us that hour because she wasn't going to be home till later but that is the time we are all suppose to do it as a mission. Then Sister Cochran and I listened to the song “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and then we said a meaningful prayer, picked a street and went out tracting! We kept knocking but no one was interested but I just kept thinking about what Sister Cochran had said that day when we found Hugo, “There is going to be a miracle today!” So with that in mind, we kept knocking on doors. Then at the second to last door on the street there were kids and a mom who answered the door and we told the mom who we where and what we are doing as missionaries. She looked kind of hesitant to say yes. Then I felt prompted to say that we weren't from around here and that we left our families to come share this message of the Gospel that will bless your life and your family so much! Then she of course asked where we were from and then she looked at her boys and asked, “What do you think?” The boys said, “Yea we want to learn more!” So we said great and we set up a time to go back and teach their family! That was a cool experience to have with the "Hour of Power." I was so excited! It made the night so much more awesome! The reason why we do it on Thursdays at 5:50 p.m. is because the First Presidency is praying for us missionaries then and usually families eat at that time and they pray for missionaries and also all of us are always saying prayers. So our prayer was answered by finding a new investigator to go and teach the gospel too! :) Miracles do happen when you have faith and determination!

Also we had miracles happen this week with meeting two less active families that haven't been to church in a while. One night we were going to go tracting but I had the impression to go see a family and Sister Cochran got the impression to go try the family that we have been trying to see for a while now. And so we went and tried the Price Family! We saw no cars home but decided to give it a try anyways! We knocked on the door and the mom was home! We were so excited! She let us in and got to know us and we got to know her more. She admitted that she has been avoiding us for a bit because she just needed time for herself. We understood and told her we are just here to help her in whatever way she needed and that we loved her and her family even though we just met them! She told us that she likes us and that there is something different about us which was neat to hear! We got talking about the temple and making those small steps to get back to church! It was a great lesson with the Price Family! We are going to try to see them again this week! I'm excited to see them again!

The other miracle was that another family called us! Ever since I have been here in Baytown I have been trying to see the Soldos and never could see them with Sister Hatch or Sister Higley and so we got a call from them and they said they wanted to see us. So we made an appointment with them which they ended up having to cancel but then made a new one! They are such great amazing people but have just gotten out of the habit of church and they want help back! We had a very spiritual lesson with them! The spirit was in their home and we are also going to see them weekly to help them make those small steps to come back to church! These two families are so special and I am so blessed to see a miracle with them and to have the opportunity to go in their home and to help them feel the spirit and to bear my testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that the Gospel will help them in their lives!

This last week has been super cool and even better this weekend to see an apostle of the Lord! That was the best ever! It was a little rough getting to Sugarland because the rain was so horrible. I was the driver and Sister Cochran and the other two Sisters that were with us were very grateful that I was the one driving. It was so cool because before we started our trip I felt like we needed to say a prayer to get there safely and so one of the Sisters said a prayer. On the way the rain was really bad and it was flooding some on the freeway. There was a section where you couldn't tell there was water and so we went into some water that scared us a bit but I stayed calm and I knew the Lord was helping me so much driving that morning! Then a few miles ahead there was a car that had stopped partly on the road as it was going off the exit and I had to hurry and swerve so I wouldn't hit the truck and the Sisters were all scared. All I said was, “It's okay because the Lord is watching over us and we are protected because we said a prayer!” So the Lord was with us driving! It was dark and it was raining so hard that morning but we got there safely to hear an Apostle of the Lord!

Elder Christofferson talked about how important it is to have companionship studies in the morning so that we will be prepared for the day to teach the Gospel. He also talked about our purpose as missionaries! Before the meeting we got to shake his hand and I looked into his eyes and I just felt so much love and peace knowing that the Lord loves me and is proud of me because of the things that I am doing for Him! I had so much fun seeing Elder Christofferson and all the missionaries in our mission! I was able to say goodbye to some of my friends of the mission! So that was a really neat experience! :)

Well that basically was my week; just super busy teaching the Gospel and teaching lessons. I could write about every day and tell you about all the lessons but I would be here for like a week to tell you of all my experiences of being a missionary and seeing peoples testimonies grow and how it's blessing their lives so much! It's super fantastic! I know this last week is going to go by super fast and I am not going to have time to get ready to pack and send stuff home but I know the Lord will provide me a way to get all ready to go home! Mom I will have one more e-mail day next week that will be my last one as a missionary! Just letting you know I will have one more p-day that will be normal and so I will be e-mailing next week!

Oh I want to tell you about a really cool gift that I got from the Galaviz family! They made me a Texas Clock! It's super cool. I will send you a picture so you can see it and also some other pictures that I haven't been able to send of the BattleShip Texas yet and other fun activities that Sister Cochran and have experienced like tracting in the pouring rain! It was super fun! I Love being a missionary! I love it!