GenCon and a 24oz Steak! - 10/8/18

Yall! hello !!

first: !!!!!!!!!!an apostle is coming to speak to us this friday!!!!!!!!! 1000000 heaven points to the person who emails me back with the right guess ;-)

familysearch: in one of our lessons with morris this week we had the fam history consultant tag along & we set him up with an account and a tree! the spirit of elijah is stinkin real you guys!! he's from liberia and is a convert so we're itchin to start doing some work for the dead. he's still doing so good, still calls us "his sistas" and passed his baptismal interview w flying colors!! we loved watching general conference with him & he is so excited to go to the temple & get the priesthood! baptism this saturday BE THERE !!!

FHE: we went to the Plehn's home on monday evening because their daughter just returned from the atlanta GA mission & is SO RM!!! She prayed us into the ward for the last 6 months of her mission haha & is setting us up with 3 of her friends to meet & teach & dunk. so essentially she is our best friend yall!! they asked us to teach about prayer like how we teach investigators so we taught them the prayer language, basic structure, then we all went around (they have 6 precious kids) & everyone shared an experience they had with prayer. I got to share & felt the sweetest spirit as I realized how grateful I am for the gift of prayer. I shared how I had been challenged to pray for a whole 10 minutes a couple years before leaving on my mission & how I would spend the 10 minutes driving from the gym to my home talking out loud with God. quality time with Him is the only way to create a relationship. In the MTC when my heart ached to talk to my mom & dad, I knelt in prayer & poured out my heart to my Heavenly Father. we could not do one single out here without praying 1st! like my momma says, you are most like the 5 people you spend most of your time with. the more time you spend with Heavenly Father, the more you'll be like Him, the most wonderful being in existence. what a blessing!!!

food: I don't know if any of yall remember the Johnsons who invited us over for a surprise lunch??? yes well that lunch was this past saturday. we walked up & the neighborhood smelled like a smokehouse & the air tasted like beef jerky haha. bro johnson smoked us the hugest most massive pieces of ribeye steaks I have ever beheld !!! I told him about vegan and he laughed for 5 min and welcomed me to texas. haha. well it was really yummy though! I probably ate 1 oz and gave the rest to a brother in the ward we went to see later. haha steak conference ??? 

fitness: runnin 3 miles every morning but now learning my church history @ the same time with the coolest book "saints"! yes I know I'm jumping on that trend! but it is the coooolest book and there is so much detail i'm learning so much!! I'm on chapter 11 if anyone wants to be book buds:-)

funny: we were over at a cutie younger fam's house for one of the sessions & they apologized before because their 5 yr old son got a cap gun & got to shoot it every time he heard the word "christ" hahahahaha lil devil child hahaha !! the parents eventually took it away & instead the kids got chocolate chips each time they heard the keywords & so they would SCREAM "LOVE!!!!!!!!!!" or "COVENANT!!!!!!" haha I am excited to study those talks in quiet solitude when they come out! :-)! we also played telephone at the table & if you have never tried to understand a 3 yr old through a mouthful of hamburger oh geez hahaha

faith: before I get to this weekend I had the most tender experience this week. it has never happened to me before!! I was on my knees before bed thursday night & while I was praying the last name "dunlap" got stuck in my head. I didn't remember seeing it on the map or any of our directories so I went to bed but the next morning during planning I remembered!! I typed it in on my phone and did not believe it when sister dunlap's name showed up on the map! the only info on her was that she was a less active convert working to come back to church. !!!!!. she was out 30 min from our house in a neighborhood we'd never been in, but we planned her into our evening. we showed up at her house & it looked dark n quiet. we knocked on the door & a bunch of dogs started barking (texas doorbell) but no one opened. i started feeling like "what am I doing here" but knocked again & she opened the door & said come in come in sisters!! I'd never seen her before but we sat on her couch n talked for like 3 hours. she lives all alone & has a crazy story & so much to say. she worked 3 jobs but now works 2 & told us she was coming to church next week!! I know God knew that she needed a visit. she needed to be listened to & cared about. I get to be an instrument in His hands how lucky am I ! 

finally: conference. yall. crazy how it lasted 2 weeks when I was little and now it's 20 minutes I swear. but I sure hope yall prayed with questions because I did & could not believe the answers that got major dumped on me! 

2 hr church & a call to address the church by His sacred name??! how exciting the earth is preparing to receive Her King!! 2nd coming is coming yall!

some specific promptings I received were to honor the sabbath day with exactness and to plan my life around the sacred covenants I'll make with God! Elder Holland's message about overcoming pride schwacked me as I'm sure it schwacked many of you. impossible to love God with hate in your heart! Elder Anderson's - the 2000 stripling warriors were ALL wounded, but they ALL lived. Elder Carpenter's - the woman who suffered for 12 years alone with an issue of blood was healed IMMEDIATELY with Christ. Repentance is not the backup plan - it is THE plan! ah! and 12 temples! I got emotional hoping that China will soon have their own!!

conference is better than christmas yall. sorry for writing a novel today but I KNOW and LOVE the truth the light the love that this gospel brings! the Lord directs this church. he has called us to speak, serve, and live as He would! love God & love your neighbor. this church is stinkin true. share the gospel :-) share the good news :-)

all my love,

Sister Newman