Domanique and her cute mom

her and Hunter--> our reactivated buddy. he was SO excited for her

us her and her boyfriend Jason

Her and our branch president and his wife, the Newsomes

hello!

What a week. We have seen so many huge miracles this week. Our friend Domanique was baptized on Saturday and it was an amazing service. The second she stepped into the door, the room was filled with the Spirit and she began to cry.  Her mom raised her to never open the door to the Mormon missionaries but her mom was so excited for her to be baptized and wanted to be that support to her that she came. and felt the Spirit strongly. She came to church the next day and we gave her a book of Mormon. But It was incredible to see the countenance change with Domanique. She will be such a powerful convert and she is already planning on when she can go on a mission. She asked to give a talk after she was given the Holy Ghost and it was amazing to hear how the Lord had prepared her to find the church through amazing people. 

I will be staying here with Sister Tarullo and "killing" her! (This is her last transfer before she goes home.) I really love the area and we have some awesome plans for this next transfer so it's going to be great! 

Hope everyone is doing well. I've learned a lot this week about charity. in Moroni 7:48 it talks about how if we pray with all our heart to the Lord for this gift, that it will be given to us. God will give us opportunities to express love to others. He can enlarge our cup and give us so much more room in our heart to love. Charity is the pure love of Christ. And Christ suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and He is not puffed up, seeketh not His own, is not easily provoked, He thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, He beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, and He endureth all things. We can too. 

Have a great week!

sister Erickson

Our zone going on a nature walk! There is a giant loop in the middle of the Everglades you can go on and seeee.... Alligators! This one guy was a couple of feet away from us. pretty sweet. It is vibrant green. kinda felt like the mountains. with palm trees haha. 

Sister Smith (my previous companion!) and i on exchanges! it was raining TONS

Hey y'all!

What a week. Lots of action happening in Estero YSA.

 One of our rescues from this week named Hunter felt the Spirit so strong as we shared the Restoration with him to begin his reactivation lessons. He felt touched during the first vision and the Spirit brought to his mind a friend of his that has agreed to take the discussions!! Miracles are everywhere. 

This week we expressed the need for urgency for our investigator Domanique. She has LOVED everything that she has been learning but been a little fearful about baptism. But no worries, she has a date for the 25th! And we are going to go to the temple with her on Wednesday. She is so excited to be baptized so that she can finally pay her tithing that she has been saving up for the last month. 

I've learned a lot about faith this week from the zone training, from Domanique, from my studies, and from exchanges. I know that when we expect miracles, God manifests His hand. When you're being afraid, you're not giving God the opportunity to be powerful.

Yesterday, we went to see a kid named RJ who's mom is a member of the church but his dad is not. He hasn't been very active lately so we went to share a message with him and we ended up sharing it with him and a bunch of his siblings! We watched The Hope of God's Light (AMAZING video. All of you should watch it. https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/the-hope-of-gods-light ) RJ's cousin who is 14 watched and i couldn't help but watch him the whole time. I could tell from his expression that the message provided light and hope to whatever he was going through. Afterwards he was so happy and grateful we had come over. I learned that you never know what others are going through and it is critical to follow promptings we receive because we never know who they could help. 

Our investigator shared a quote with us this week that had a big impact on me. "If you could see the size of the blessing coming, you would understand the magnitude of the of the battle you are fighting." Isn't that great?! There are good things to come. Especially when we choose Christ. 

Other eventful things that happened this week, a truck full of frat boys drove past us as we were walking on the sidewalk. Someone yelled "Love you!" and before we knew it, there was sauce on our legs and a half eaten piece of pizza on the ground. What a waste of pizza.

Love you all. Remember to always keep your head up and don't let the flying pizza get to ya.

Sister Erickson

Exchanges! 

L to R: Sister Smith (one of my former companions!)

Me

Sister Soto- my comp for the day

Sister Tilby