Family! It's the big week. There
will officially be TWO Sister Goaslinds in about 32 hours from now! Haley,
you're gonna be great. I'm so excited for you! :) Family, I'll be home in 11.5
months. You can manage that long without us for that long, right? I know I
appreciate all of your support, and if Haley doesn't already, she will. It's
nice to know that you're all excited for us. :) Haley, I am taking it as my
duty to make sure all 6 of us will be there to pick you up in 18 months
ESPECIALLY since half of us siblings won't be there to drop you off.
Dad, thank you for the quick video
of most of the fam. Sawyer is HUGE and ADORABLE! It's weird to think that I've
seen the Forsgrens more recently than the rest of you. Hopefully one day I'll
get to serve up there in Keller. Forsgrens, do you remember Elder Sheeran? He
served up in Keller a few months ago. He's in my district now, and he's
hilarious! He was really excited to hear that sisters are up there now. Did
they split the area? Or did sisters take over the whole thing?
Mom, yes, we do have air
conditioning in our apartment and it works very well! We have it and two
ceiling fans going non-stop. We also work our car A/C very well. :) Thank you
for the concern though. We keep our apartment well stocked with filtered
water--Waco water is NASTY--plus Blue Bell ice cream and Otter Pops.
Anyway, my week was AWESOME! We had
our ups and downs, but it ended on a great note last night. Our Ward Mission
Leader told us earlier this week that his mom was going to be in town for a few
days. She is not a member of the church, but three of her kids are and her
husband was. She attends church every week, sings in the choir, and she said
that her ward has asked her if she'd like a calling. When Brother Rowley, our
WML, mentioned that she was coming into town, he was trying to think of a way
to have us meet and maybe try and teach her. She came to church yesterday
so we were able to meet her there. We went through the rest of our Sunday as we
had planned. We were headed out to an area about 20 minutes away from our
apartment. We were almost there when Sister Bate said she felt like we needed
to try and go see Brother Rowley's mom. I was a little hesitant at first
because I didn't know how we'd go about it, and we were 20 minutes away if we
could even make it work. But, I told her to text him and find out if that was
possible and I'm so glad we did! It was a little awkward at first, but it
turned out to be a really good, spirit-filled lesson! As missionaries, I felt
like we were just the catalyst for the discussion. We were able to teach in a
family members home with four adult family members there to bear testimony to
her, along with the three of us missionaries. There were many important things
said by all of us there, but the most important was the testimony that Brother
Rowley was able to bear to his mom. Baptism was only mentioned once throughout
the time we were there, and it was only in reference to receiving the Holy
Ghost. Brother Rowley shared some personal experiences, and told his mom that
he wanted her to join so that she could feel the full joy of conversion to the
gospel; that he wants to be sealed to her and the rest of their family.
Emotions were high and we all cried, but we know that the Spirit was able to
touch Sister Rowley through her son.
We all learned many things from that
lesson! I definitely learned to validate and allow my companions to follow the
promptings that they receive. Going to meet Sister Rowley was not convenient
for us, but it was exactly where we needed to be! We were able to learn of two
prayers being answered. Sister Rowley said that she had fasted yesterday with
the desire to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. Two of the other family
members had prayed for missionary opportunities. And then us missionaries show
up! As we were discussing this experience last night, I felt like a proud mom
hearing what Sister Bate and Sister Tuck were learning. It is so cool to watch
them have these new experiences and to see them be so excited about them! I'm
excited too, of course, but there have been multiple first time experiences for
Sisters Bate and Tuck this week. I would happily train for the rest of my
mission just to see the excitement of these new missionaries as they get to
share this gospel. I'm SO excited to hear Haley's experiences NEXT WEEK!
We need to get going, but I love you
all! Everybody, give Haley and extra hug from me. Drew, I expect to hear about
Trek next week.
Love,
Sister Mal
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