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

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!