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