Week 66, 1/10/22

 GAINESVILLE IS BACK I repeat EVERYONE IS BACK!!!! 

I'm not gonna lie, the holidays were kind of the worst here in the college town of Gainesville. The streets were empty, the institute building was cold and dark, and only the crazies were left out for us to talk to. So yes it was rough with all of our people gone....but now they're back!! Everyone got back on Monday, classes are back in session and so is the missionary work! For that awkward span during the holidays it was difficult filling our time, but now we're so busy that we don't have enough time to fit everything in. That's always nice as a missionary 😇 

My favorite part of the week:

We met Gary! Gary is such a miracle, he is one of the most elect people I have ever met on my mission. He referred himself over Facebook for a missionary visit, so we got in touch with him and set up a lesson. We taught him the restoration and he just ate everything up about the Book of Mormon. He knows the Bible very well so I was worried that he would try to bash us with Bible verses. But he understands the Bible SO well that he understands how it connects to the Book of Mormon and he is just so excited that there is additional scripture about Jesus Christ. We met with him twice last week and he came to church on Sunday and loved it. We had to get him a ride and they were a bit late, but the ward welcomed him so well so it worked out! 

Other favorite part of the week:

Ally is back! Ally is someone who we've been teaching for a while now but she was out of town for almost a month for Christmas, but we were finally able to have a lesson with her on Sunday. We taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ and extended an invitation for her to be baptized and she accepted it! She's going to pray about a date, but we're so excited for her. She's honestly one of my best friends in the YSA and I just can't wait to see her take the step of baptism and hopefully get married in the temple one day with her boyfriend! (He is how we started teaching her) 

Other favorite parts of my week:

We also went to mission leadership council in Jacksonville, went on campus and handed out a few Book of Mormons, volunteered at a 5k run, did a car wash and met a few people interested in coming to YSA activities. So overall it was a very busy and successful week! I wasn't just excited to see the YSA to be busy again, I genuinely missed them so much. 

The real best part of the week:

Since it's 2022 that means that our mission has a new "vision" for the new year. This new vision has to do primarily with the Book of Mormon. It's our goal to hand out 365 copies of the Book of Mormon in every area in the mission. Since we cover two areas, that's two copies a day! For some odd reason throughout a lot of my mission we haven't really focused on handing out Book of Mormons a whole lot. But we should have! Now that we're focusing on it, I've already seen a difference in the work and I've seen the power that comes when we focus on it. I know that we need the Bible and the Book of Mormon, but the Book of Mormon is special because it's pure and testifies of Christ so powerfully. Last week we handed out 11 copies to nonmembers and to members to hand out to their friends. Everytime we extended the invitation to give it to one of their friends they got so excited! 

Just like how Gary was so excited when he found out that there's more knowledge to be found about the gospel, I know there's more people out there waiting to receive the fulness of the gospel! Go find them! You don't have to I'm not going to force you, but if you prayerfully think about someone you could give a copy of the Book of Mormon too you'll realize the role it's played in your life AND you'll receive eternal blessings (who wouldn't want that). You don't have to hand one out to a random person on the side of the road, give it to someone you already know who you think will benefit from its message. (Everyone will) And if you haven't read it yet, I promise that you'll will find more peace and happiness from its words than from anything else. 

Well I guess that's enough preaching! I love y'all so much and I hope that 2022 has treated you well so far. I know it has for me! Go and make this the best week ever and I'll talk to y'all next week. 😆

Sister Bonny❤