You Are a Tourist

May 30-June 5th

Man, it seems like P-day came early this week! At sports last week we
played basketball and the elders called me Stephanie Kurry (I don't
know if I spelt that right... Stef Kurry is someone on the Golden
State team). Bottle line I was baller!
Monday evening we went to Axel and Adrianna's house to finish filling
out their baptismal records. When we asked how they felt when they got
the Gift of the Holy Ghost Axel said "I felt like my veins were
popping out and when I stood up I could fight anyone!" And then
Adrianna said "that didn't actually happen..." Haha I love those kids!
While we were at their house I asked if they happened to know the
score of the game. It was sad to hear that OKC lost. When Axel said
that he was a Golden State fan I was like "oh no! He got ahold of
false doctrine! We need to teach him the righteous way of being an OKC
fan" sister Koyle just laughed.

The rest of the week was hot hot hot! The picture of what looks like a
Lego is actually me walking around the streets.

One day we decided that it would be a good idea to drive to Primm. Let
me tell you it was not a good idea to drive to Primm. It's technically
in our area but there is nothing out there besides a couple casinos
and an outlet mall! ("And a couple scary people on drugs" - Koyle) Oh
well now we know.

Wednesday we went to a mutual activity for the youth because they had
all just gotten out of school. It was neat because we had a lot of
investigators there since we've been working hard to find through he
youths friends. We also played gotcha and I testify that the Lord
blesses missionaries because I was draining 3s left and right. No one
would think a sister missionary would be able to shoot in a skirt. It
also helps because now the members know we are so stiff and if we can
connect with the youth and their families then they are more willing
to have us teach their friends.

This weekend we offered to help on of our investigators at a
neighborhood party because she is the HOA president. She was so
grateful for our help and it was a great way to interact with the
people in the neighborhood! It was Luau themed so they had free snow
cones, and cotton candy, and blow up water toys and food and hula
dancers. It was fun helping out at the craft table. Ironically sister
Koyle and I were put on tattoo duty. Some of the non member neighbors
recognized the irony and we were able to testify... and tell them it
come off with soap and water! Haha
As we were leaving our investigator Tommy came by! He has been going
through a lot so we haven't been able to see him frequently. When he
saw us he told us that he was going to text us Sunday morning saying
"Liberty?" Meaning that he was going to ask where the church building
was!! Although it was less of a surprise, sure enough he texted us
Sunday morning and came to church!! He know that when he is reading
the Book of Mormon and is coming to church his life improves. Now we
just need to prepare him for baptism!

Now for the more spiritual side of things. Axel wanted to come out and
knock tract with us. Normally sister Koyle and I don't like going door
to door because we feel like a sales men and it's just not as
effective, but because Axel was there we decided we would show him
what missionaries do. We saw some neat miracles with him. One door we
knocked on was a guy named Carlos who was a pastor for another church
and both his parents had been pastors. He had talked to missionaries
in the past and has some LDS friends. We testified boldly about how
the Book of Mormon is the word of God and how it is another witness of
our Savior Jesus Christ and it show how much God loves all of His
people. He had read the Book of Mormon in the past but wasn't reading
it for the right reason. If you read the Book of Mormon with the
objective to prove it wrong the Holy Ghost can't testify of the truth.
His whole hold up was that he doesn't believe God stills calls
prophets therefore it takes away from "his" Bible. Once we had
testified of the truth of our message for a while we realized he was
too prideful and wasn't prepared to receive it at this time.
Walking away both sister Koyle and I were talking about how we could
have bashed so easily with him because his thought process was
illogical. Like "Of courses you don't believe in prophets, because if
you did then that would prove you were a false prophet, because you
don't have the priesthood like they do! Who gave you your authority?!
Some college?..." We opted out of saying things like that because 1)
Axel was there 2) that would drive the spirit away. However, as we
were walking down the street two kids ran up and gave us each a bottle
of water. We saw that their dad, Carlos, had sent them and knew that
something we said touched his heart in some way.
Bottom line: contention drives the spirit away. (Don't fight with
people who don't know what they are talking about because in their
mind they are winning even if they don't know what's coming out of
their mouth). We know we could have easily won the argument. However,
because of this, our testimonies were strengthened knowing that the
Spirit testifies of truth and can change people's hearts. Axel is
continuing to build his unshakeable testimony in the Book of Mormon.

 Miracles do exist.

Love
Sister Gier