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

Woah this week has been slam packed full of miracles. Hope you all have had a good week too! Happy Memorial Day! 

Miracle #1: We were knocking doors on this street, trying to look for traces of college kids. A bull dog had come out of no where and started to follow us. We got a little freaked because a sister in our mission had just gotten attacked by a bull dog so we started walking through people's lawns. This caused us to start knocking on every door instead of just college doors. This was all devinely inspired because... We found Alex!! Alex isn't a college student, but he had told us he went to church many times in Guatemala with his family. He had never become a member though because he moved to the US and couldn't find contact with the church!! We passed him to the Spanish sisters and he is coming to church Sunday! Everything happens for a reason.

Miracle #2: Sister Tarullo was on an exchange with a sister and they were standing outside of a fast food joint. She was waiting for her companion and as she stood there, she began to pray to help someone and to be able to reach someone there. Soon after, a 19 year old boy named Jecoa walked up to the restaurant and she stopped him to talk to him! She told him about the message we have to share and asked if he would be interested in learning and he immediately said yes. When we met him, we taught him the Restoration and his eyes were wide the whole time as we taught him about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appearing to Joseph Smith. He told us that his very Christian dad had given him a picture that looked almost identical to the first vision before he passed away. The only problem was HE DIDN'T KNOW WHO THE OTHER MAN WAS!!! He found it as an answer to his prayers that we told him his name was Joseph Smith. I know that Jecoa has been prepared for the gospel ever since he was a child when his loving father taught him by example of what a follower of Christ were to look like.

Miracle #3: We met with a guy named Hunter who had been in the hospital due to an accident where he fell off a roof and broke his wrist and pelvis in 5 places. He had admitted to us that he had not been living the commandments and he began to see that the accident was an opportunity for him to be humble and to come to Christ again. We met with him and taught him principles of repentance and talked about how important church attendance, scriptures, and prayer are in order to establish a testimony on Christ. The Spirit was so strong as he told us what he wanted to do to come back to Him. I know that repentance and change are real. They are a part of our divine destiny! We are meant to change. True repentance comes by recognizing the remorse we feel from sin. It is then that the Lord takes our humble heart and makes us what He wants us to be. 

This week I was studying about confidence and humility. Humility is recognizing that we are not enough without Christ. That He is the one that knows all and can perform miracles, far more than what our own acts alone can do. One thing I learned came from a talk from a member of the Seventy. He said, "Ironically, both pride and a lack of self-confidence cause us to focus excessively on ourselves and to deny the power of God in our lives." This spoke to me a lot! Another reason I loved this is because I found this in an attempt to help another sister out and provide support for her. It's amazing how we get to learn a lot more when we are helping others. 

I know our Savior lives and that because He lives, we can too. He has saved us from our sins and sorrows. He has walked the unmarked trail before us so that we have guidance. He is the Mediator, the connection to our Father in Heaven. I'm grateful I get to share this with others. Love you all! Have a great week.

Sister Erickson

P.S. My address now is

19120 Miami Blvd

Ft. Myers, FL 33967

eating alligator by the ocean

Hey all!

So I've been transferred to Estero YSA in Naples! And it's amazing. I am with Sister Tarullo who is from Boulder, Colorado so we talk lots about the mountains and how there is none in FL haha.  I love the feel out here and the spirit of missionary work in the area. There are so many miracles and so many faithfilled people here. 

We've started working with Domanique who is dating a kid in the congregation. She has a huge desire to come closer to God, to feel His spirit more thoroughly in her life, and to apply the scriptures to what she is going through! She's taught me a lot about applying the scriptures and letting the Spirit teach us the things that we need to know. And to have an open heart to accept those things! 

I have been learning a lot from Sister Tarullo about following the Spirit. In order to feel the Holy Ghost in our lives, we have to be listening. We have to take time to pause and that is when thoughts of the Spirit will come into our mind. But... We have to follow them! We had an instance this week where Sister Tarullo felt the need to knock on a particular door and looking at the surroundings of the house wouldn't necessarily make you think that young college students would live there. But, we talked with a boy that was 16 that really appreciated us praying with him. I know that that instance will always remain in his heart and it will prepare him to accept the gospel in his life. 

I've finished the Book of Mormon and this last time as I read, i was focusing on the theme of repentance. The thing I have learned the most about repentance is that it is to change us to come closer to Christ. Depending on how willing we are to accept God's hand to change us, we can receive more joyful blessings . Change is around is and it is for everyone! 

Have a great week! Love you all. 

Sister Erickson

Boynton Beach to Naples

Hey everybody! 

Things have been awesome here, just got transfer calls and I will be moving to the west coast over to Naples! I will be working with the Estero YSA with Sister Tarullo. Lots of changes! But I'm pretty excited. It will be really hard to leave the Gateway YSA. I have loved every minute and the many friendships I have made here. 

We saw SO many miracles this week! This last week we started teaching someone by the name of Lukas. He was found by the Portuguese sisters and they gave us his number to call. We had called him and he had told us that he had done some research on the church (read some anti material) and he decided that is wasn't for him, especially because of his atheist past that he had lived a lot of his life. About a week later, we got a phone call from the sisters again about him. We met with him and he told us how he was feeling so much stress and pressure and he was so lost and the only thing that came to mind for him to do was to pray. In the middle of the prayer, he stood up because he felt prompted to call the sisters. We talked to him and he had a COMPLETE change of heart and he felt the Spirit testify to him that The Book of Mormon was true, that the sisters were sent to him for a reason, and he needed to try this out for himself. He came to church and was glowing the whole time. He felt the spirit so strongly and he told us after that he loved it and wants to be as involved as he can. We are so excited for him and his progression! He was definitely prepared by the Lord to accept the truth in his life and to feel the fruits of the spirit.  I have learned a lot from him about faith and hope. Hope is to believe in a better world, to know that there is always something better through God. His plan is perfect and He is the only one with the perfect eyes to see it. I hope that you all can look at your life through God's eyes, through thick and thin. 

Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Sister Erickson