Hermana Emily Barlow: New Preach My Gospel!

San Antonio River Walk

Wow guys lots of amazing/funny stuff happened this week and not enough time! But here's some highlights :)

They came out with a new Preach my Gospel! How crazy is that? They haven't changed the whole thing, but just a lot of little wording, so each missionary has been assigned to compare certain sections. For example, "investigators" are now called "people with interest" so that's interesting!

Allie was made a new person with interest this week! And she came to the Helotes sisters baptism on Saturday even though she hadn't slept for more than 24 hours! She is so great :) so yeah she is a caretaker for Sister Reed in the Helotes ward, and we had another great lesson with them this last week. Allie kept saying the lessons make sense to her and she wishes she found the gospel sooner :)

We also did service for Sister Reed this week with 9 of us missionaries haha. She fed us for lunch and Elder Wiest asked what everyone's favorite day of the year was. Elder Gulso (who is leaving next week) said his birthday haha, and then Sister Shaw was like "Hey that's my birthday too!" And then Sister Reed got excited and asked what year they were born. Turns out it's the same year and we were all freaking out, and then Sister Reed yells "It's destiny! Y'all gotta get this show on the road!" Oh my goodness we all about peed our pants!

San Antonio River Walk

Also, Chinonso came to church yesterday! We've had a few lessons with him but haven't been able to get him to come until now. The members were so great and we had a big group show up at gospel principles!

I'm studying in the book of Alma right now, and in Alma 5: 46-47 Alma shares his experience of how he became converted and came to know the truth about God's plan. I was surprized to learn that it wasn't fully because he first saw an angel, when he initially was seeking to destroy the church and an angel appeared to him to tell him to stop what he was doing. But in these verses it shows that what really converted Alma was the spiritual experiences & revelations he received because of fasting and prayer. And I know that can be the same for all of us! We don't need to have a HUGE spiritual experience, basically seeing an angel, to know that the gospel is true. Rather, the Spirit speaks to us quietly, day by day, giving us little impressions to help us strengthen our faith and & our testimony. And how amazing it is to have the Gift of the Holy Ghost, where the Spirit can be our constant companion and guide us in the little details of our lives! I'm so grateful for the big & small spiritual impressions I receive each day, and how they have helped me to shape my testimony.

Love y'all! Hope y'all have a great 4th of July!