Hey everyone!

Everything is going great! I love Royal Palm Beach. Many mighty miracles are going on here. 

Right now we are teaching 2 16 yr olds named Anthony and Brandon. These boys are so prepared for the gospel. The thing that had a huge impact on me this week was our lesson last night with Brandon. We met with him and were going to go over the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet and talk about the commandments. We got to the first page and talked about agency and he just told us how he wants to only choose right. That he is done with all sin and he is committed to God and his commandments. He taught me how important it is to be obedient. He went on to say that he saw no need to do drugs anymore because he knew it would hurt him and his soul. We testified that God had prepared him for this time so that he could be baptized. (he's 16 by the way.) The Spirit was so strong and so much hope filled his eyes. His dad was recently admitted into the hospital because of organ failure due to drugs and alcohol so he's had a rough week hearing that he will be passing soon. But his hope and faith in Christ is incredible. I am so blessed and so grateful to be here with them and for God's mercy and blessing. I am so grateful.

We are teaching this man from Haiti named Stevens who is a media referral and he was a doctor in Cuba and Thailand. he learned english this whole last year so that he can take his board tests in the US so he can work here. I guess the last time the sisters taught him before i got here he said he wanted to wait to get baptized till after the stress of his tests. But Sister Haws testified that if he were to be baptized and put God first, that God would put him first and that with the Holy Ghost, he would be able to study better. The next time we met with him, he said that when he was praying, he decided he wanted to be baptized on October 7th and we were so shocked!!! So shocked. But we said ok! We are also helping 2 miracle 16 year olds that are getting baptized on the 22nd! 

this morning i was reading Alma 5 and it's the big chapter that has all the soul questions. I decided to answer each of them individually in my journal which in 40 min i got through v. 10! it will take a while. but the whole first 8 questions Alma asks are about our families. And it really made me realize how grateful i should be for having amazing parents and ancestors that are filled with so much faith. I know that my family has a strong testimony in the Priesthood and in miracles. I'm grateful for their example to me. 

I hope you all have a great week full of gratitude, obedience, and miracles that all come through Christ. Love you all.

Sister Erickson

Hey all!

So got the transfer news and I'll be heading to Royal Palm Beach with my awesome mission friend Sister Haws! Really excited for this change, really bittersweet though. I love the people here and have seen so many miracles and so many hearts soften to receive the gospel of Christ. But hey, we live, learn, and move along!

This week was great! We saw a huge miracle happen, the Rio sisters found a YSA named Anthony that came to stake conference. Even though he couldn't fully understand the "why" of temples or family history work, he definitely felt the spirit. During the song "I Love to See the Temple" he circled the words "I'm a child of God, I've learned this truth." There were a lot of other basic principles that stood out to him that he loved. We did a chapel tour with him yesterday and he accepted being baptized on the 8th of October. He loved the members of the branch and the dignity that they held. He told us he's ready to come close to Christ and he has complete trust that we can help him to do that! We're so excited for him! It has been amazing to see an answer to a prayer. We have been praying recently to find someone that was humble, meek, and lowly of heart. And God put Anthony in our path. He hears and He answers. 

I have loved being in this branch. I have loved being in YSA for this time and for chance to help people of a critical age change their lives and come close to Christ. There are so many open and willing hearts and I"m glad I was granted the privilege to work with them to help them receive the restored gospel. Ready to giddy up in Royal Palm Beach!

I've been studying about charity and loving others recently. I've worked hard to look at everyone through God's eyes and see them for their story through their shoes. Abinadi had enough love for them that he tried to help them even up until his last breath. I want to be that kind of instrument for my Father in Heaven.

Love you all!

Sister Erickson

Hey y'all!

How you all doing? This was a great week with a lot of powerful miracles that came simply from heaven. No other explanation. 

Our miracle from this week came as we gave a chapel tour to a guy named Fred that we are teaching. He is pretty funny, he acts like a "Joe Shmo" type of guy but as soon as we pray or start talking about the gospel, he switches moods and just starts acting so tender and touched by the Spirit. The Spirit really has a calming nature with it, it's great. We met with a less active who had been antied by the internet and her friends and we taught her the Restoration and wow. It was incredible. It was probably the most clear and precise lesson i have ever been a part of on my mission. We explained God's pattern for prophets, the pattern of apostasy, and talked a lot about the apostasy which really set the stage for her understanding the Restoration. She admitted to us that she had never had it explained that well to her and she really didn't see the importance of JS because she didn't really understand that the priesthood was completely taken! We read JSH with her where he read in the bible, he saw God, the Father and Jesus Christ, and where it says that other churches profess the the doctrine of man, sprinkled with godliness but they deny the power thereof. She read that verse and the Spirit FLOODED the room. She spoke very loudly saying "This is why I joined this church in the first place. This is the only church that doesn't do that." She then came to church and was so happy the whole time. My heart is so full and I feel the spirit typing it now! We absolutely CANNOT give up on our brothers and sisters. We can't afford it and they can't either.

Elder Cook of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles gave a worldwide devotional last night that was AMAZING. Some things he talked about:

*YOU CAN DO HARD THINGS

*"Enthusiasm is common, Perseverance, is rare."

*We must have goals. It doesn't matter if you change them, but we must always be working diligently towards them. This is an eternal principle of progression that we must develop in our lives. 

Have a great week!

Sister Erickson

My super cute friend Sister Haws

Can't smile in fotos anymore #carselfie