Where to start...

Where to start.... this week was crazy. There are things that I never want to happen again, and yet there are other things that happened that are a missionaries dream!!!

First the things I never want to experience again. We had 2 lessons this week where we taught for maybe 5 minutes and then the whole rest of the hour we were bombarded with questions and them telling us what we believe. It was nuts... Okay so the first lesson we sat down and he told us he had a few questions.... um 5 pages worth... like, "Have you fully repented of your sins?" "How come Brigham Young's doctrine of Adam is deemed no longer doctrine? Doesn't that mean Brigham Young was a false prophet?" "Are the answers you have shared today what your church believes or more just your personal standards?" OK I HOPE THIS IS MAKING SENSE... This is very hard for me to relive this. It was miserable. "Now before you go I want to share 2 more scriptures with you. 2 Corinthians 11:3-4 & 13-14. (he read them out of his bible and it was even more bold than the King James Version) Then he goes, "I love these people and I can't stand for them to not be saved. I want you to know I will stand before God with clean blood that I told you what was true." AHHHHH.... I simply just testified back to what we knew to be true and asked if we could have a closing prayer. We said we can still be friends. We can just agree to disagree. Good luck with everything... yadda yadda yadda. The next days lesson wasn't as bad. We met this lady in Goodwill, but when we went to meet with her she had to leave so we talked to her cousin and her cousins-wife. This family goes to the Luz del Mundo church. They believe very similar to what we believe with a few exceptions- one being they baptized in the name of Jesus Christ only. We baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. He tried to explain to us why we are wrong, and how Matt 28:19 is a mystery to all, and how come none of the apostles baptized others by all 3.... yadda yadda  yadda... skip forward to his next argument 10 minutes later and he was telling us we really need to research and investigate our church and how can we say the Book of Mormon supports the bible if the Book of Mormon says we need to be baptized in the name of all 3. He did agree however to read from the Book of Mormon but if he read anything that was contradictory to the Bible he would be calling us and be expecting an answer. We agreed!! 

We were tested lots this week. I re-read the talk given by Elder Holland last conference- "the cost and blessings of discipleship" to help me remember that ITS ALL WORTH IT. Even though some may tell us we are not Christian, that we are a cult, that there was no Egyptian language so Joseph Smith made up the Book of Mormon, that Adam and Eve were not the first people on earth and we needed to do more research on that,  ITS ALL WORTH IT!  As we all know... after the trails and tribulations... and after the many hours of hard work and faith, then come the miracles, and triumphs!!

Thursday night we decided to go to the hospital because Melinda was not answering her door or our phone calls and we were worried for her. She was checked into the ICU. When we got up there it was about 8:40 pm. Melinda was not in a clear state. She was not there and the doctors told us she had been like that for 2 days now.  She was hallucinating non-stop. The doctors said they had no idea what was going on and that they gave her enough medicine to knock a big-man out and she was still like that. They told us to go in and try talking to her. We went in and started talking with her. She calmed down a little and was answering me, but they were not all the way there answers. As we were leaving the doctors started asking me more questions. It was so hard for me to see Melinda in that kind of a state, however I knew she was being taken care of! They told us to come back tomorrow. Friday we went back around 1 and she was out of the ICU. She was totally coherent and was happy to see us. She had no idea that we came the day before. (Still does't know) She told us that she talked to the doctor the day before and asked if she could be baptized. He said there was no problem in that and so she said she wanted to be baptized. (I can't picture the state she was in on Thursday to ask the doctor if that was okay, but hey, I'm perfectly okay with it!) She said she has been procrastinating and wants to be closer to God. She had forgotten her glasses at her house (she was taken by ambulance to the hospital) and she couldn't read but wanted another Book of Mormon. We gave it to her and set a date for her to be baptized on July 5.The next day we went in there and there was a Hispanic couple in the room. As soon as we walked in Melinda goes, "I told you they would come" She then said, "Iv'e been testifying of this!" She held up her Book of Mormon that we gave her yesterday!! It gets even better!! This couple were former investigators to the Spanish Elders!! The Spanish elders hadn't seen this family in 2 months. The ladies husband was driving in Dardenelle (a connecting city) and the Elders were walking down the street as they see his car drive by. The Elders yelled heyyyyy. He stopped and said that his wife was in the hospital. The elders said they could go and give her a blessing... no less than 30 minutes later after talking to him in Dardenelle the Elders showed up in the hospital room. They came in just 10 minutes after us. NOT A COINCIDENCE. Long story short.... Melinda went through a complete change and is SO excited to be baptized. This couple said they want to come to her baptism on Saturday.(If the wife is out of the hospital) Melinda went home yesterday afternoon! 

I am so grateful to be serving a mission!! Yes, some moments it gets so tiring to prove what I believe, but every time I do, I am reassured how true the gospel is. I would rather have a few unanswered questions.. than live without the priesthood, doctrinal truths, or the sealing power that families can be together forever. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

Have a great week ya'll. Don't celebrate my favorite holiday too much without me!! 

con amor,

Hermana Warner

had a sleepover downstairs last night!!

this couple... is hilarious. I asked for a picture and she asked me.. your not going to give it to the cops are you?