This week was great! Sister Larson and I have been going hard in the paint and giving it all that we've got. We've been constantly introproving (combination of introflect + improving) in every situation we are in and we've seen so many blessings come from our constant desire to do better. She is great, very hard working, exactly obedient, and very charitable. I'm learning a lot from her. 
Things are good! This week i've been studying ion the Book of Mormon about Nephi and his faith. Man, he had tons of it, that's for sure. I was reading in chpt 15 about when they find the Liahona and when Lehi and his other sons read it, they were "fearful" and "trembling" because of the things the Lord was telling them on the Liahona. But when Nephi looked at it, it was uplifting and inspiring to help him find food. We are all on different spiritual journeys and receive divine knowledge at different rates, but we can be like Nephi and be faithfilled and be the example of going out and helping those around us in unbelief. He was led to his meat because of his faithfulness and we can be too :)
This week we met with a member who had been antied a little bit and can i just say that the Spirit was so strong. She didn't come to church this week, but our meeting with her was FILLED with the Spirit and she recognized it too. She was willing and accepting of hearing the missionary discussions again and using us as tools to come back to church. It is never too late. Some members of the ward had given up on her, but I never will. I know that those that are lost can come back. If you feel like you are lost, feeling down or discouraged, or have any doubts, God will reward and help those that have a desire to grow. Elder Holland in the April '16 General Conference talks about how we will get credit for trying. God will help those that have good intentions and the desire. It might take time, but like the Prodigal Son, anything is possible. 
Our miracle that happened this week came from our gator Skylar, she's had a busy week but we were able to teach her about prophets and introduce her to a member. She is going through a lot with her parents not supporting her, but we boldly testified to her that if she were to set a date, that we would show our faith and the Lord would soften their hearts and provide a way for her. She agreed and took that step of faith! Sept. 17th.

I'm so grateful for the Atonement of Christ in my life and for His endless love. If we could just get a tiny glimpse of what it was like when we lived with Him before we were here, we would do everything in our power to get back to Him. He loves us SO much. 

Love you all.

Sister Erickson

this week has been great! We've seen SO many miracles. It has been a couple of really impactful days that have molded and shaped how this transfer will be! One day before we went to a meal appt, we decided to knock just one door at a college complex before we left- we wanted to make the most of our time. The one door we knocked on we found a girl that received us and asked for us to come back! it was really cool to see how we were able to exercise our agency and see the Spirit bring us to the one that needed us there at that time. 

As a finding tool, we have gone through some notes of our of former investigators. Along with that, we have been calling people from the potential list and trying to invite to church and set up appts to see them. Often times with YSA, we will meet someone then we lose contact with them because they have "one" busy week then we'll just move on. That was the case with Zach, one of a couple that accepted a RA when we called! He told us that a year ago when he met the missionaries, he had so many things going on he just couldn't keep up. But then we went and taught the restoration and the next day he came to church and LOVED it. Was so excited to come back!! We are so grateful to be able to work with him, he told us he has been looking for a sign from God for truth. 

Along with that, the Lehigh elders passed us a YSA they had been working with for a while and she has a baptismal date for next weekend! Talk about miracle. We're excited to work with Skyler and get her eased into the YSA programs. 

I went on an exchange with Sister Jones in Cape Coral and she had sprained her ankle pretty good playing soccer. She had to be on crutches and was searching long and hard for a boot. Miraculously a woman that we had gone to do service with found us a boot at a thrift shop for $5! Our dinner that night, we got some tamales from a cute Mexican guy on the side of the road and when he saw that we were missionaries, he gave us tons for free! Bendiciones. 

I have been working really hard to develop more faith and to make boldness be one of the tools to do so. I finished reading BOM this week and I had gone through and highlighted every circumstance that talked about the Atonement. I know that it is real and that Christ knows each of us personally. I'm grateful for the Book of Mormon to help us learn more about what the Atonement is and how we can access it. What a powerful book.

Love you all!

Sister Erickson

Sister Jones, me, Sister Almeida, and Sister Larson

TAMALESSS

This week was a great week! I am with Sister Larson, she is from Riverton, UT. She's been out for about 11 months. I'm so blessed to be here with Sister Larson. I have already learned so much from her. We have set such strong expectations to do all we can all the time. 

To start off our fire, yesterday we got out of a meal appt and pulled into a mall parking lot to figure out where we were going. We were towards the back of the parking lot where there weren't many cars but we saw one car with the driver door open and a Haitian man sitting there on the phone. We got really excited and just decided to go talk to him, even though he didn't look YSA. We invited to share a prayer, he said no, then we asked if he knew of college students that needed a prayer and he said yes! he gave us a number of a family member to call. At that time, he was more receptive to us so he accepted the prayer and said his fam of 5 would come to church! We left and called the number to talk to Myerline. She had been really sick that week and we told her that we would drive to where she was to say a prayer for her. We show up at her house.... and she's 50. but had just gotten a college degree. We prayed but she wasn't interested in learning more.... BUT. We knew that God had sent us here for a reason. So we began to knock. And asking all the neighbors where the YSA were in the neighborhood. We were pointed in the direction of Giberto! he is 20 and paying the bills for his family. We told him of the joy the gospel brings and he accepted the invite to church and to learn more! It was amazing to see what God can do with our will and desire to serve Him- truly through Him we saw the greater miracle. 

James Russell Lowell once said, "Fate loves the fearless." I really really admire this saying and am letting it lead out this new transfer. I know that as we do all we can, as we put all our faith in the Lord and choose to fear Him over anything else, that or fate, or our destiny, will be nothing short of miraculous. He knows so much more than we do. 

Love you all, have a great week!

Sister Erickson

Sister Larson

Sis Tarullo's last day! and Elder Kertamus

Sis Smith's last day! We were comps about a year ago. Weird.

This week in fotos

1: YSA family home evenings= us getting a new investigator haha. #electtrex

2. Sister Tarullo's funeral 

3. Eating leftover cuban food. Tons of rice

4. Our last day with Hunter and his family. His mom made us a cute meal to celebrate Sister Tarullo going home!

This week was a great week. A little bit slow on the finding, but good nonetheless. We know that there are YSA out there to teach for us at this time, but we are secretly excited for the school year to start up again so that all the student housing and neighborhood homes get filled again! This week the motto I adapted was "Let go and let God." Things are out of our control sometimes but we just have to give it to Him and He will provide us with new investigators as long as we do all we can. 

This week was a big learning week. I had been pondering how I could be more in tune with the Spirit. One day I was prompted to read "Always Retain a Remission of their Sins" By David A Bednar and it was EXACTLY what i needed. I was reminded that the Spirit will ALWAYS be with us if we ALWAYS remember Him, take His name upon us, and keep His commandments. So this week I am going to improve my own repentance and think of Him more often. I know that thinking more of the "why" for the work will help me think of Christ more and I will be directed more clearly. 

Our rescue Hunter has been having a bumpy road. He had started smoking cigarettes again and he was just in tears saying that he just wanted to stop. We tried to let the Spirit flow through us to say what he needed, but nothing seemed to be working. I had been praying the whole time to only say what God would have me say. Out of no where I shared my testimony of the BOM and of Captain Moroni and his battle plans to fortify their bases. At that instant we helped him create a battle plan for himself for when he comes across temptation. We included in it tangible goals for his CPR (church, prayer, reading). He felt so accomplished and he hasn't smoked a cigarette this whole week! It really strengthened my testimony of our personal study. I had read that a couple days before and the Spirit was able to draw from my remembrance for him. It was pretty cool. 

Hope you all are doing great! keep up the good work and remember who's in charge! :)

Love Sister Erickson

Went to the beach and stood on a giant fishing dock!

Hey there! How is everyone doing? Things are great here, just living the dream. Here is what happened this week:

Devin was baptized! Satan tried hard to beat him down for sure. He told his parents this week that he was getting baptized and they did not support him at all. But he told us "Satan will do whatever he can and he's working because all of this is true." it was amazing to hear that come from him and to see him stay strong. His parents ended up coming to the baptism which really meant a lot to him. He had a huge countenance change when he received the Holy Ghost. I am so happy for him.

We had an AMAZING MIRACLE happen this week. So we were going on an exchange with some sisters and while me and the sister were coming back, we saw an Eminem lookalike gangster talking to Sister Tarullo. come to find out, he was trying to sell them perfume from his backpack. Sketchy. She said no, but asked him how old he was when he said 27. So she gave him a chapel card and our information. He texted us 10 min later saying he wanted to learn more about our message. We met with him the next day in McDonald's but we had our guard up a bit because we weren't really sure how it was going to go. We began to talk about his desires and Steven explained to us that he has been on and off heroin and meth and in and out of engineering job because of his addiction. He told us he had had enough and he was ready for more of Christ in his life. We told him our purpose and began to teach the restoration. We began by asking him what he saw on the front page. He began to cry and I began to feel a deep warmth in my chest. He explained to us the feelings of the Spirit and we told him to pay attention to those feelings throughout the lesson. By the end he said he would believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet and he gave the closing prayer in which he asked if this was all true and for the Lord to give him a sign and help him recognize the truth. After the prayer, he sat there with his eyes closed for 4 minutes. We began to get a little nervous and were hoping he was breathing!! But we sat and waited. When he opened his eyes, he grabbed his face and said, "What was that?! I have never felt that before. What am I feeling? This is better than any drug I have ever had." He cried again and told us he knew this was true, that he could change, and that he would come to church. What a phenomenal experience!

We got to talk about the Spirit with recent convert Domanique and the many different ways it speaks to us. I invite you all to watch the Light series by David A Bednar on lds.org. it talks about all the ways we can feel heaven close. She told us she was bringing a surprise and showed up with chips and queso haha. she said "Queso's always good for the soul!"

Thanks for the light you all bring to my life. I'm truly grateful for you all. 

Love Sister Erickson

Giant Missionary Meeting

Devin's Baptism!

Sister Exchanges

Hurricane training ;) 

I hope everyone is having a great week :) This week was a week of words. I heard so many impactful things from many people and I just wanted to share them all with you! I hope that they touch your heart. Love you all.

"Don't let others convince you that you are limited in what you can do. Believe in yourself and then live so as to reach your possibilities." - President Monson

"You cannot out-give the Lord. No matter what you give to Him, He always give you more." -Sister Fattic, institute teacher

"Esaw gave away his birthright because he was hungry. Are we giving away our inheritance from God just to satisfy physical and temporal pleasures and demands?" -Brother Rodriguez, temple prep teacher

"Go find the lost sheep- even if it's in yourself." Amanda, Relief Society teacher

"Each of us must go through certain experiences to become more like our Savior. In the school of mortality, the tutor is often pain and tribulation, but the lessons are meant to refine and bless us and strengthen us, not destroy us." Robert D Hales

"He knew that the dark veil of unbelief was being cast away from his mind, and the light which did light up his mind, which was the light of the glory of God, which was a marvelous light of his goodness—yea, this light had infused such joy into his soul, the cloud of darkness having been dispelled, and that the light of everlasting life was lit up in his soul, yea, he knew that this had overcome his natural frame, and he was carried away in God—" Alma 19:6