Sister Olivia Sparks: Week 27

Hello everyone! I have no idea why I've totally gotten out of the grove of sending updates! Hopefully this one will be a bit better!

The biggest highlight of the week is that TWO PEOPLE WERE BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!! It was an AMAZING experience. Adrian (our investigator who just got baptized) asked me to give the baptism talk, and I was so glad he did because I think I understood further the importance of baptism. There is a straight and narrow path that leads back to Heavenly Father. It's not a scary path but one that is BEAUTIFUL! I like to picture a bunch of trees and pretty flowers on this path. There's a gate we enter to get onto this path, and that gate is baptism. When performed by Priesthood authority, we make sacred covenants with God that put us on this beautiful path. Baptism and confirmation seal our repentance and give us the strength and help we need (namely, the Gift of the Holy Ghost) to continue to follow Christ. Sorry if that made little sense! The baptismal service was very nice! Adrian just GLOWED when he came up out of the water. He had a huge smile on his face! AH! I know Heavenly Father is so proud of him.

His confirmation was also a neat experience. He will be a shining example to his family and those around him. He's such a special son of God!

A lot of awesome stuff happened this week, but I want to share just two more highlights!

I think it was Wednesday that we were downtown waiting for our ride to pick us up for dinner, and we waved to this guy walking past. He stopped and pulled out his earphones and talked to us for a while. It turns out he had really been thinking about his relationship with God lately. WHAT!? Okay MIRACLE! We met with him a few days later, and the Spirit just totally worked with him. When we talked to him about Joseph Smith and how God continues to call prophets, he looked at us and said, "Wow." He is now reading the Book of Mormon, and we are excited to see him again and tell him about the perfect plan Heavenly Father has for us--the Plan of Salvation! Amazing, huh?? That was a blessing from straight from Father!

Another miracle happened just before we came to email! We were on the bus, and this girl sat behind us, and I noticed she had the exact same bag as me! Of course, having a missionary mind, my thoughts were, "Okay perfect way to start a conversation!" As we talked, she looked at our name tags, and she asked about what we do. We bore testimony to her about how God loves all of His children, including her, and how we can gain a relationship with Him. She looked at us for a second and said, "You know what? I was thinking yesterday about how I'm not happy and how I need to go to church. I'm not even a religious person, and I felt like I needed to go to church. Now I REALLY feel like I need to go." GOD IS PREPARING PEOPLE EVERY DAY TO HEAR ABOUT THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST! I PROMISE YOU THAT! We will be meeting with her in a few days, and I'm so excited to tell my sister about God's love for her even further!

I'm so so so so grateful to be out here, and I just can't contain my happiness right now! When we feel God's love, it changes us. I truly have come to know that happiness comes from closeness to God. I used to think it came from other sources, but it doesn't. I'm not saying that nothing else makes us happy (trust me, clothes make me happy), but I'm saying LASTING, ETERNAL happiness comes from following God. I know that to be true, and I hope everyone can feel that! I hope you all have a good week!

Love,

Sister Sparks

morning jog