Ballards and Baptisms

23 February 2015

GUESS who came to our MISSION this week!  

Betcha can't. 

OKay i'll tell you.  ELDER BALLARD!!!!! YAYYYYY!!!!

So.... life is crazy cool, and prophets, seers, and revelators are TRULY INSPIRED.  I mean, how many men aged 80+ can stand up in front of a group of teenagers and give a motivational speech without notes and make every single person in the room feel as if God is speaking to them individually?  The church is true folks.  

"the great thing about being a general authority is you have.... general... authority". 

Who begins a talk like that??? Elder Ballard does.  That man rocks.

So that was a highlight.  to say the least. 

Christina was baptized!!!! No, she wouldn't take out her nose ring but ONE thing at a time ;) haha :) She is doing so well!  The funny hiccup:  (there has to be one at every baptism i have determined, no matter HOW well you plan) 

The speaker for the baptism who was stuck in the hospital decided to still give her talk... over the phone.  BUT... (now here's the fun part) she opted for the Holy Ghost talk instead, which she had ORIGINALLY been invited to do.  I was informed of this by someone else, and had the great priviledge of informing the person giving a talk on the Holy Ghost, that they were NOW giving a talk on baptism.... 5 minutes before they were to give it.  Sister Adams is a trouper though and she gave a wonderful last minute talk.  

This alaskan winter is a joke.  Guess who was GOING to go dog mushing AND ice fishing today.... but alaska decided to be costa rica and be warm.  What a joke.   its to WARM for fun.  i never thought i'd be begging for snow in alaska in february. 

other snippets of mission life:

• couch sleeping for days. 
• Gotta love the homeless life
• plowing my way through the end of the valentine's candy, 
• speaking of valentines, my valentine was a mushing dog. 
• met mushers and puppies!  Their website is iditarodmusher.com.  or something like that.  Since i am not actually allowed to check it, i am not sure!  But check it out and let me know if thats the right site!   

Love you!

Sister Galli
 

triumvirate

17 February 2015

Well... we're still a triumvirate!  Trios are the most interesting experience.  Especially when one companion is homeschooled.  and the other is southern.   Its more fun than you can ever imagine.

 

 

 

a smattering of miracles for the week:

 

1.

 

When I first got into the area with Sister Dill, there was a priest in our ward named Miles.  (he's now in another ward boundary)

He is a character. 

 

Once Sister Dill overheard him saying that missions are ridiculous and dumb, and that he is going to make motorcycles instead.

 

She and sister Johnstun took him to some lessons,

we took him too, and

 

we did some lessons about our mission experiences.  We got to know him better and then he moved wards.

 

 

I saw his dad yesterday in Walmart (the missionary central) and he told us that a couple days ago, Miles told him he wanted to go on a

 

 

MISSION.

 

 

I cried. 

 

In Walmart.

 

 

2.

 

CHRISTINA IS GETTING BAPTIZED THIS WEEK 

She is being baptized the 21 on saturday!  we are so excited.  Her best friend moved in with the active family too, she is 18 and has the cutest daughter ever and she is trying to come back to church too!  She and i have a lot in common and its been amazing to see the change in her friend too.  They both have nonmember boyfriends who want to know more about the church!

 

 

3.

 

BARBARA rocks.  we had an INCREDIBLE plan of salvation, and the spirit ROCKED that lesson.  We invited her to be baptized and she said.... YES.  tonight she is telling us the date she picked!!!! when we told her about the resurrection and how everyone who is handicapped and sick gets a new body she started crying and said it was beautiful!  SO cool.  She has had dreams about peope she thinks she knew in the premortal life and she said the spirit world makes perfect sense.  How neat is that?  THATS pretty neat! 

 

 

4. 

 

So you may notice a theme in my mission so far.  The first baptism i got to help with was 18 year old Lindsay. Now 18 year old Christina with her reactivated 18 year old friend.  Now we are teaching 18 year old Barbara and miracle 4 is 18 year old Kora, who is a half sister of a member in Settlers Bay ward who said she'd meet with us!  If you know of any other 18 year old girls in Alaska, you may want to send them our way.  They're apparently all the rage.

 

Off to a lesson with Amanda!  Today should hopefully be a 3 investigator lesson day!  Pray for us!

 

Sister G

the Light of Life

9 February 2015

Remember taco bell girl? 

 

We had an appointment with her Tuesday.  We brought Lindsay out new convert and Bashan the bishop's son (and her boyfriend).  :)

 

When we arrived i felt like it was a first date. Barbara had made a beautiful display on the table, with little cucumber sandwiches, mini oreos, brie and crackers, heck even a burning candle.  Thats a first for me. 

 

We shared the restoration, and the spirit was dancing throughout the room.  Lindsay shared with us the story of her conversion, and it was probably the longest i have ever heard her talk in one continuous moment. 

 

Barbara shared with us one of the coolest stories from my mission yet- 

She had a dream, that she was walking through an LDS chapel.  She was about to leave, and her sister told her to "WAIT!"  She stepped back inside and there was a stuffed purple elephant that told her to listen to the "preacher" so she sat and listened.  Eventually she woke up. 

 

Usually she doesn't remember dreams.  But this one stayed with her.  Whenever she would see Elephants, she was continuously reminded of her dream, and of the mormons.

 

Barbara has been to several churches before in her life, but always had a weird nagging feeling that there was something dark in the corner of the room.  When she would explain that to people they just told her she was paranoid.  After her dream however, she started to notice that several people would have a visible light around their heads.  Whenever she would talk to them more, she discovered they had one thing in common: being mormon.

 

She wasn't supposed to work the shift they day we came in.  In fact, she'd never worked a shift at that time before.  When I walked in with my wonderful companion, she saw... light.  My light is apparently light green.  I appreciated that detail. 

 

But no worries, it gets better.

 

In my setting apart blessing it said people would notice my light, to the point that they'd actually comment on it. I have always been quietly waiting for this to occur. When she talked about it, I knew it was a personal love note from my heavenly father, who knows that sometimes i need a visual to learn a lesson. 

Sister Wright, my companion, had a similarly worded phrase in her blessing. 

 

We will go back on tuesday. Of course there will be updates. 

 

Light is real.  I can feel it sucked out of my heart when it leaves the sky, its more noticable here in Alaska.  I can feel it stir my heart when it comes back into the sky a few minutes at a time.  Light is energy, light is invigorating, light derives directly from Jesus Christ, the light of the world.  "Those who follow him shall not walk in paths of darkness, but shall have the light of life."... even in alaska winters. (paraphrased John 8:12)

 

Sharing light is the way to most effectively and readily notice and feel light,  so thats the goal for you this week.

 

Share your light.  Through testimony, small actions, prayers, songs.  Find out what color your light is :)

 

Love you friends.

 

Sister Galli

everyone in Alaska Knits

2 February 2015

thought you'd enjoy that fun fact for a subject heading. 

The coolest conversation i have had this week:

(sister galli walking up to the taco bell counter)

Sister Galli:  Hello!

worker: Hello, are you from the church of latterday? 

(she is a young lady, maroon hair, nice looking)

Sister Galli:yes we are! 

worker:  do you have some sort of brochure on your church? 

Sister Galli:  Of course!!! 

(the first time i have ever been asked this question.... run to my bag in utter excitement, pulling out a "gospel of jesus christ pamphlet)

Sister Galli: so you must have some sort of connection with the church then? 

Worker: yes!  my co-worker has just spoken so highly of it.  I never have felt really comfortable in a church before so i want to check this one out!

sister Galli:  wow thats awesome!  We teach beginner lessons on what our church believes. Would that be something you'd be interested in? 

Worker:  I would love that!!! 

(asking for her number and name...Barbara gives us her information)

Sister Galli:  could we come by sometime this week? 

Barbara; i am off on tueday

sister galli: how about 7?  

Barbara: sure!!! I can wait! 

Sister Galli:  Do you mind if we bring some members from out congregation? 

Barbara:  The more the merrier!  

GAHHH the church is so beyond true!!! this is one of the MANY miracles we have seen this week!  

I love my heavenly father!  

more to follow :) 

Sister Galli