Hey everybody!

Wow What a wonderful week. I am so grateful to the Lord for His miracles and His hand. And that I get to be apart of it all! This week Maria was baptized and it was so beautiful. She was glowing and was just so filled with peace and serenity. Something that I learned from Maria is how we need to just smile and believe. She constantly has a positive glow and just lives in happiness! No matter what she is going through. I'm grateful to be on this journey with her. 

A sister that I live with named Sister Leslie shared a beautiful thought with me this week that I want to share with you. she said "As long as you have love in your heart and a desire to share the gospel, that's all you need. And God's grace will fill the rest." So true! If we act according to our desires, than that effort will be consecrated and miracles will still happen because it's the Lord's work. It is so important to note that miracles can happen through us and our capacities too. Our glory just needs to go to Him. 

Hope you have a great week! Love you all.

Sister Erickson

Maria with her member friend Arianna her dad

Maria and her mom Kenelva

Got to see my old comps at a conference! Sister Rianda and Sister Larson

 

Hey everyone!

Hope you are all doing great :) Things here are good, it was a tough week but so much growth happened in Sister Haws and I. I felt the Spirit share with me that our development is like a game of basketball. It does a player no good if they are the fastest one down the court but they can't dribble a basketball. if you don't know the play, you won't know the purpose of all the other players. If you don't practice shooting, then you're going to suck as point guard. We can be as diligent as possible but it will do us no good if we don't have faith. We can believe that we'll find and baptize but if we don't have patience, then we won't see the greater plan and we will lose all faith we have. We have to be all around players in this game! We have to practice all Christlike attributes found in Preach My Gospel and use them like Christ would. But the biggest thing that i learned about was about hope. Hope is the underlying factor that plays a role in every attribute. So yeah! That's this week in a life lesson, we're going to apply it this whole week and be patient and believing in Christ and what He can do for us. 

Our miracle came from having people at church this week! We were really nervous about who would come this week but due to checking in and following through with those that said they could come, we saw some miracles and got some potential investigators progressing by getting them to church.

One huge miracle that happened this week was most definitely a tender mercy prepared by the hand of God just for me. I was able to see Anderson, a recent convert of mine and someone i helped to be baptized.My heart was so full. He means the world to me and it was great to see him going to church in the congregation that meets at the other time in our building. I haven't seen him since last year. Just from this small instance, it strengthened my testimony that the Lord knows us personally and answers our prayer. Earlier that morning I had prayed that we would see a miracle happen with someone coming to church. And the Lord definitely came through. 

Love you all, have a great rest of your week!

Sister Erickson

We had an interesting week. So many things have been happening. And yet so many beautiful things. We taught Brandon about the Atonement this week and it was incredible. He began the lesson by looking at a picture of Christ and saying "I wish I could know Him." As we were teaching him, the Spirit in the room distinctly changed and as it did, he had a smile come to his face. He could know Him! And this knowledge brought peace to his soul. It was such a gift from the Lord for me to be there. As he opened his heart and accepted the Atonement and the fact that Christ knows Him perfectly, the feeling in the room switched like someone flipped a switch. I made me think that that's now our Father feels when He sees each of His children accept the eternal sacrifice of His Son. Later on in the week, we taught him about the rest of the Plan of Salvation and he had so many questions about the Spirit world. His dad had been in the hospital and his family was told that he wouldn't make it much longer. Brandon was genuinely concerned about the welfare of his dad's soul if he were to pass. We answered all his questions about the spirit world and gave him relief to know that anyone that passes through this life without an understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ would have the opportunity to know it. A couple days later we get a text from him saying that thursday night following our lesson on the spirit world, his dad passed away. It has been a hard week for him. But he has told us that he has the faith that his dad will choose the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Brandon has taught me what a strong person looks like. Sister Haws and I have been grieving along side him, being sad to see him suffer and to know that their family is different, especially since the rest of them don't understand where their dad is. But us and Brandon have felt the peace that death can have no sting. We are trying our best to help Brandon to feel comfort. No 16 year old kid should have to go through that. But God has a greater plan and knows and loves us.

Conference was sooooo awesome! My favorite talks were Elder Bednar, telling us how to have faith in Christ, but to believe Him and what He can do for us. We were able to share this talk with a less active last night who was sealed in the temple but due to a failed marriage, has felt the need to stray from the church. Her knowledge of the church is strong, but we are helping her see that she needs to believe that Christ can help her. I also loved Elder Rasband's about where we can turn when faith is faltering. One question i asked coming into conference is how me being a missionary can help my less active family and friends back home and the impression was clear, turn back to the night when you received your witness. To think of the moments when the Spirit was strong. I know that this is true and that looking back at those times can help spark the Spirit in us again. God wants to lead and direct us and He has the best tools to do so. Especially His Son Jesus Christ. 

Love you all! Have a good one. 

Sister Erickson

Something I read back on in my journal this week, people used to ask me why I'm out on a mission. And for a while i used to say "Because I love God." But over time that answer has kinda pierced me, it made me seem like i was only here to please him. and i won't lie, there were definitely days that i was only here to please Him! But over time my answer has changed. When people ask me why i served a mission, I want to say "Because God loves me." for some reason, God saw me worthy enough to be His servant and same with you! He has prepared us our whole lives to be where we are now. It may seem like it was our decision to serve, which it was, but God put us in the situations to prepare us to say yes because He needs us in this work. Us specifically. Remember that we can only control 2 things: our attitude and our effort! And when both are great, then we find true joy! 

Sister Erickson

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