Miracle March

Hello,

Hope everyone is doing great. I'm doing well, really enjoying my time here :) This week I've really pondered about the many blessings I've had, especially the ones i didn't necessarily see before my mission. I've felt like i've grown so much and I'm grateful for you all and your influence to me!!

We had a crazy miracle this week. This week our miracle came through patience. An investigator that has been investigating on and off for about 6 months walked up to us on sunday at church and said "Sisters, I'm ready. I don't know what I've been holding back." Gloribel wants to be baptized!! And for the right reasons. She has shown so much intent with us the last week: she's set up her own member present lessons, prayed about a date, asked a member to baptize her, and even argued with her boss about getting sundays off. I know she is feeling the Spirit testify to her that this is what she needs to do because she has never been this ambitious about the church before. She is progressing for the 31st to be baptized in Miracle March :)

This week we had a lesson with our gator Shawn and taught about the word of wisdom. What was pretty cool about it is we had with with some members that have a pretty good name for themselves. We had it in the home of Alan and Chris Hawkshaw. They are from England and Alan was a famous musician and composer. Look him up on google if you want, since most of you can :) haha. but it was a very spiritual lesson and they talked about how they were able to overcome drugs and alcohol that was prevalent in the music industry. 

Hope you all have a great week! Remember to keep smiling, even through the tough. it shows the world and yourself that you trust in God and what He has for you.

Love 

Sister Kylie Erickson 

Sunday foto

Greole--> famous haitian food, fried pork and fried plantains. Haitians love their oil... haha. but it's all good cuz the salad makes up for it, right? haha

Mission Tour

Hey Everybody :)

This last week was really exciting, we had a big training from Elder Dube of the Quorum of the Seventy. I learned a lot about the potential we all have as sons and daughters of God and the importance of the Book of Mormon. He talked about how he was given a copy before he was baptized and he didn't open it up until 2 years later! We practiced and emphasized the importance of application from the scriptures and how the Book of Mormon is for us in these days. 

This week we had a miracle involving a former investigator that we taught a little bit back. After having to drop a couple of our investigators, we got a text yesterday from a 23 yr old that was investigating. The reason we stopped teaching her is because she didn't fully believe in prophets, from the bible or from present time. We told her that the way she would find answers from God and to know if He worked through prophets is by reading the scriptures, including the Book of Mormon, and praying about it, God is the one that gives us answers for ourselves. We lost contact then received this text from her saying she had been reading the Book of Mormon and feels it to be true and that she wants to look into being baptized. I know God supplies and gives us the tools to be happy. 

I know this church is the church of Jesus Christ and that He rules and governs it. I have learned  that when we go through tough times, our problems can be solved by 1 of 4 things (or sometimes more than 1): faith, humility, hope, or charity. When things seem to not be right, I've tried to adjust my views and actions of one of these things and I've seen myself to be happier. 

Have a great week!

Sister Erickson 

Going to the Temple

Hello everyone!

Things are great here. Right now we are working with this 21 yr old named Victoria who was found by sisters in our area knocking doors. Victoria told us that she wasn't going to answer the door for them but then she heard "a still small voice" tell her that she should. She described to us how she just felt so warm and happy as she talked with the sisters and she feels this way every time we meet with her. She is so driven to change her life and give up her natural man. We are excited to see her progress. However, there are often twists that come to a happy story, the day after we first met with her, she got called in to work every single day and unfortunately wasn't able to come to church. but she knows that the adversary is working on her and is driven to overcome challenges that come her way. 

We are also working with a guy named Nico from Haiti that loved meeting with the Elders for the first time! We have taught him about the restoration of the gospel and how the fruit of that is the Book of Mormon. He has so much interest in the book and has accepted to be baptized on the 27th of february. I have loved working with this age group and seeing people give up things of the world for things of God. It's so amazing. 

In the FFLM we are able to go to the temple if we have recent converts going for the first time. Sister Jennings's recent convert Bory was able to go and do baptisms and we were able to go with. I love the Spirit of the Temple and the peace that is felt there. I know it is the house of God and that as we keep our eyes set on it and are diligent to God's commandments so that we can go there, we will continue to draw closer to our Savior. 

Have a great week everyone :) Love you all.

Sister Kylie Erickson 

Mike, me, sis. J and Bory 

Lizbeth, our relief society pres. 

1.25.16

Hello everyone! 

This week has been an amazing week! We had a worldwide mission conference with all the missionaries in the world and I learned a ton. Elder Bednar talked primarily on the Spirit and how as missionaries, we carry the spirit to people's hearts, but their hearts have to be open to accept it. It truly is within the agency of others that the Spirit can thrive. 

In our stake, the group for the Young Single Adults was formed around October/November. The leaders took all the names of anyone in the area within 18-30 and threw them into our branch. There are a lot of less active people here/ people that have moved away so we have been doing a lot of work figuring out who lives where. This week we had plans to drop in and see someone by the name of Karra. We showed up to her house, turns out she has 4 kids, but she was way excited to see us! We shared a message with her and asked her to bear her testimony. She hasn't been to church for a very long time, for years but as she spoke, she referred to "her church" very often. We told her that we would help her to come back, to feel comfortable, and that her kids would be able to create their own testimonies. She has a son that hasn't been baptized and he's 9, so that was a miracle! We told the missionaries that are responsible for her area about her and they are going to work to help her come back to church and prepare her son to be baptized! It was amazing to see that even though we didn't help a "YSA" member, we were able to find her and help her family grow and progress! 

A couple of days later, we went to visit another less active member and after we did so, we began to knock the doors around him. Out of no where, we heart a car alarm and ran to see if it was ours. we left that particular building to check, (turns out it was another car) but when we went to go back to that building, we didn't really feel good about it. Instead, we went to the neighboring building, knocked a couple doors and left. As we were walking out, we stopped to talk to some haitians and gave them a card about the church. As we gave it to them, one of them yelled, "HEY! I've been to this church! I love this church!" turns out he had gone to church a lot over in Wellington! We told him about the church building closer to him and he got way excited to come and to be with people his own age. 

This week i've been reading a talk called "The Other Prodigal" by Jeffrey R Holland. One line i love from it is "Walk peacefully. Walk confidently. Walk without fear and without envy. Be reassured of Heavenly Father's abundance to you always." I know that the Lord loves us perfectly and has a perfect plan for all of us. We aren't here on this earth to compete for eternal life, He has prepared a way for everyone to have it. And i know that through the restored gospel on the earth today, we can get there. I love you all, have a great week!

Love Sister Kylie Erickson 

51 degrees

Well everyone, 

I'm not well equipped for this Florida winter.... It got to 51 degrees this morning and I don't know what to do! haha. the humidity here makes it miserably cold. I can only imagine what it's like in Wyoming. 

This week we had an amazing miracle through the Spirit. We were knocking on the street and as we were heading back to our car, I saw a house behind a house and felt the impression to go there. I thought it was just my brain so I kept walking.  the thought came into my head, "You now know that house is there, and you're just going to walk away?" without saying anything, I turned around and walked to the house. There we met Marcus, someone who hasn't prayed in years because his pastor told him that God didn't hear all of his prayers. When Marcus told him he was leaving that church, the pastor told him that God never would hear him. We prayed with him and he felt the Spirit. We testified that God hears every prayer and that He wants to hear from us. We committed him to pray tonight to God. He didn't commit to baptism, and he said he would come to church depending on how his prayer went, but I know that he needed us that day to share with him his worth and that he was more important to someone greater than us. 

A lot of people we are working with right now are friends of members of the congregation here. The youth are all missionary minded and want to share the goodness that they have. It's amazing to think that because of their examples, others have been curious about what they believe and know to be true, to the point that it starts to influence others too. 

The main message for me this week was that pure joy comes through helping others and seeing how it effects others. I've learned that in order for us to be happy, we have to give of ourselves to the Lord and if we serve those around us, then the Lord will bless us tenfold. Those that lose themselves will find themselves. I pray that some of the words I shared with you today will touch some hearts that needed them. I pray for you and am grateful that you are in my life and have helped me to be where I am today. Always remember to smile, be brave, and let the Lord help you. Because He will! I love my mission and all that it entails. Have a great week!

Love Sister Kylie Erickson 

Sister Pankratz and I- went minigolfing last Pday

bathroom selfies

Florida sunrise

YSA!

Hey everyone! 

Things have been great in Southern Florida :) It has dropped down to 65 degrees and i've been freezing. I was hoping that Wyoming blood with help me out with that, but it hasn't. haha. 

So this week we got our transfer call and I will be transferring to Boynton Beach to be in the YSA branch for our stake! Boynton is about 30 min south of WPB and as YSA missionaries we will be driving around everywhere so i'll be back up in West Palm for sure. I've really come to love West Palm and the people here and i'll miss it. But a lot of new things are coming!

So this last week, we had a random phonecall from a lady named Joann. She had been in the hospital and all she wanted for Christmas was a bible. So we took it to her and introduced her to the Book of Mormon. A week later, she loves the BOM and loves the spirit she feels when she reads it. She has been wanting to be baptized and find a church that will love and accept her and as soon as she's out of the hospital she will be baptized and go to church! Joann is hilarious, she talks so sassy, tells about her former life doing drugs and the dumb decisions she made, and always talks about how she needs to get in the habit of having her "spiritual breakfast, spiritual lunch, spiritual dinner, and spiritual snack." In other words, she want's to get in the habit of praying and reading the scriptures. She is a fireball! but she's so ready for these changes. 

The holidays were fantastic here and it's crazy that it's 2016. May the Lord bless you and keep you this new year! Something I learned this week comes from a talk from Elder Holland. In one of his talks he is explaining his idea of what Christ said to His disciple Peter. "Peter, if i wanted fish, I could get fish. What I need Peter, is disciples." It's really made me ponder how everything is in the Lord's power. But He asks us to do things so we can show Him that we want to serve Him and that we would do anything for Him. I hope everyone this year continues on the road to following our Savior- it is through Him that we find the utmost happiness :)

Have a great week! Love you all.

Sister Kylie Erickson