Letter Ten

Hello there friends and family!

Hope everybody had a great week, we sure did here in Oliver!! So, remember how last week we didn't have a new missionary and we weren't training? Ya, trick...we got a call from the Assistants on Tuesday of last week, and we were told we were getting a new missionary when we go to the Zone Conference on Thursday. Well, I was again called to be a trainer and my heart started pounding pretty hard! I have only been out 7 weeks, yikes! But, it gets better. So it turns out, she is from Canada and is waiting for her Visa to be able to go to the states. Which means, she has not even been to the MTC yet! Yikes!! So President pulled me into his office to get interviewed at the Zone Conference and to talk to me a little bit about the responsibility of training a new missionary. Then right before we walked out the door, he said "Sister Biggs, you are the MTC for her". Um really yikes! As if I wasn't inadequate enough to train, how could I possibly teach somebody who just came from home?? This is living proof that the Lord qualifies whom He calls...because otherwise I would NOT have been called to do this. It is such a humbling experience, and she is such an incredible missionary already. I feel like she is the one training me. Her name is Sister Okana, and we will be companions just for this transfer before I get another greenie! So exciting!

Sister Nuttal goes home on Monday...so sad, but exciting for her! What a great missinoary. I am so grateful that I was able to serve with her for her last transfer. And I am certainly grateful for all she taught me as I now go into training somebody new!

So I witnessed a great miracle this week. We were out personal contacting on main street for about an hour one day, and I saw a man who was Mexican just standing on the sidewalk. Immediately I got this overwhelming feeling that I needed to talk to him. So, I turned us around and headed toward him. Turns out, he spoke only Spanish and hardly any words of English. So, after not using my Spanish for months, I introduced us and began talking to him somehow in Spanish! He was a little caught off guard, but very intently listening. I do not know how I said some of the things I did...I introduced the Book of Mormon to him. I have never talked about the Book of Mormon in Spanish before?? Talk about the gift of tongues! So, I talked to him for about 10 minutes while my companion was stopping every person that walked by us giving them cards. Pepe ended up taking the Book of Mormon and giving me his number so that we could teach him about it. I almost cried. It is hard to describe the feelings I felt at that time, but just know that the Lord was certainly working through me. I was able to clearly remember everything that I was taught in Spanish, and also be able to understand everything he was saying to me. I am calling him later today, so I might have a Spanish investigator here soon! Updates to come! :)

We went and visited Maria Sloan again this week. She is the one in the Old Folk's home who cannot talk or communicate with sound. She just uses her hands and head. Well, we did kind of the same things as last time, just singing to her and reading from the Book of Mormon to her. I have not seen a smile as big as hers in a very long time. I wish you all could have been there. She held our hands while we sung about 15 hymns to her. The Spirit felt there was indescribable. The Lord was helping her feel of His love for her through the hymns and scriptures He has given us here on earth. What a blessing it is to be a member of this church!!!

So I just wanted to end talking a little bit about Zone Conference. Ladies and gentlemen, we just had the FIRST Sister's Zone conference! I cannot believe I got to be a part of it!! The first of many, my friends. Sisters Zones will be created in all areas here pretty soon! We currently have a little more than 20 sisters. By the end of the year we will have 90. :) The Zone Conference was absolutely incredible. I attached a picture of the zone here in the email. The first sisters zone and I was here to witness it! What a blessing! So many miracles that will continue to happen as people heed the Prophet's call to serve!!

Well, just a public congratulations to all those who have received calls recently...the ones I have heard from this past week are Alyssa, Makayla, and Misha! 3 of my favorite girls!! What incredible missionaries you will all be. Thank you so much for heeding the prophet's call!!  And big birthdays wishes to Brent Bartel, Kyla and Maggie and Erica.  I know I am forgetting some, but I'm trying to go through my calendar!!

I love you all so much. The work is progressing rapidly here in Oliver, and I could not be more grateful. This work is true. I cannot deny it. PLEASE, anybody who cannot understand how I have this testimony, please email or write me. You can find out for yourself, and you can come to know it is true. I am not spending the next 18 months trying to strengthen my communicating skills and be really good at convincing people to think how I think. No, all we teach are things that the Spirit can testify of. I am terrible at convincing people. But luckily, the Lord testifies of what we teach. Otherwise, this work would have dwindled long ago. No organization can put their full trust into the hands of these young adults unless it is true!! The work would collapse in minutes if it wasn't! So to all of you who know it is true, continue to strengthen your testimony and share it. To those who knew at one point and have fallen away, I would love to hear from you. It pains me to think of anybody not receiving the same joy that I receive everyday from having this Gospel in my life. Remember the testimony you had on your baptism day. Those are feelings that you cannot fake. Satan is alive and well in the world today, doing everything possible to steer our hearts away from the truth, and unfortunately, it works sometimes. And finally, to those who have not yet receive a testimony of this truth, I challenge you to search the Book of Mormon and gain a testimony for yourself. I testify to each of you that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is God's kingdom once again restored on the earth. I cannot, and I will not deny it. A man at his door told me that I better deny the Book of Mormon or he will call the cops and sue us for stepping on his property. Well, luckily he does not have that authority. But I was able to bear powerful testimony through the Holy Ghost of how much I know the Book of Mormon is true. I love this Gospel, and I love serving the Lord every second of every day. Please, stay true, and rise above the temptations that Satan will throw your way. Sorry to end this letter so dramatically, but just like the Sons of Mosiah, it pains me to think that anybody will not receive the highest glory possible after we are judged. I love you all so very much, and please stay strong out there! Have a great week!!

Love,

Sister Biggs

Letter Nine

Hello there! What a week!! It's like I almost don't even want to start telling you guys about the amazing week I have had because there is not enough time to do it justice! But I guess just know that the Lord is incredible and is watching over me and this area. I owe it all to Him and I will continue to put my faith and trust in Him!

I wanted to say THANK YOU SO MUCH mom for the packages! I will thank you again in my personal email, but I wanted to do it here too because I want to thank Troy and Vanessa's family for the awesome letters and pictures! Shake and Bake are growing up so fast! And thank you so much to the Pedersons, those cookies were wonderful! I was surprised they made it here alive. But I am sure glad they did :) Thank you so much!

Well, first things first, I did not end up getting another companion! She had visa problems and is stuck in Taiwan...I hate it when that happens ;) So, I am still with Sister Nuttall. But she goes home in 2 weeks so when she leaves I will be going to help train the new sister in Penticton, until the next transfer in the middle of April where I will be getting a new missionary to train here in Oliver. Lots going on! But I am so glad I have the opportunity to finish Sister Nuttall's mission with her. She is incredible and I learn from her everyday!

Well we spent most of the week in Richmond. We drove to Kelowna on Wednesday (2.5 hours away) and then we took a bus to Abbottsford (4 hours away) and then we drove to Richmond Vancouver area (2 hours away). If you know me, you know I hate traveling and driving around like that...so you can imagine how much fun I was having ;) But it was great! I was able to read a lot from the Book of Mormon. On the bus ride over, a drunk man sat in front of us and began talking to us. We then were able to talk about the Bible, and introduced the Book of Mormon to him. Although he was hesitant, he took the Book and told us he would read it and give us a call with any questions. What a great experience! It is so fascinating how Heavenly Father just places people in our paths to share the Gospel with. It makes me think how many people He brought to me and I have missed?? I repented, and promised myself that I would talk to everybody possible. :)

The training at the transfer meeting was just incredible. I wanted to share some thoughts and things that I learned from it. We had the opportunity to be taught by President and Sister Tilleman, and then by the Assistants. I learned so much, I almost filled up 5 pages in my notebook. I love it! A quote from President Tilleman that I liked was "The Lord's way was not meant to be a vacation." How true that is! People expect life to be so easy if they are doing what is right. Well, although it will be EASIER than if you weren't, it does not exempt us from trials and tribulations. Life is hard. All the more reason to hold fast to the truths of the Gospel!

Sister Tilleman's talk was also wonderful. She is the grandaughter of President Benson and she always tells amazing stories about him. Well, this one really hit home for me, especially being on a mission. She said when President Benson was young, he was the youngest of 7 (at the time), and his mom was pregnant with another. (They ended up with 11 children). At this crazy time in their lives his father was called to serve a mission. Well, as hesitant as he was,  he put his trust in the Lord and told his wife he was going to go. So he left his family and devoted his life to the Lord. He showed his children how important it was to put the Lord first and to always trust in Him. He served a faithful mission and came back to an amazing family. Later, having 11 children, he was still teaching them the ways of the Lord. Long story short, ALL 11 of his children served full-time missions. How incredible is that! He said he did it for his posterity, and for his future children. What an incredible example that is to me. While serving I must remember how many people I have the opportunity to affect. I get to decided if I am going to take advantage of that or not! She also told us something that President Benson would always say to them. "The key to missionary work is WORK". I Could not agree more! There is so much work here in the field. But because of that work, we have the opportunity to see great miracles!!

A couple people have asked about my mission President. I don't think there are words to describe him. What a faithful man who has been the witness of SO many miracles here in Vancouver, one of them being his own life was saved...literally. That is a story for another time. But I guess the best way I can describe him is the last two verses of Words of Mormon. If you read those, you will have a better understanding of who President Tilleman is.

A final thought that Sister Tilleman had was that we are not here on our missions to make people good. We are here to bring them home to their Heavenly Father. I think of how homesick I get sometimes, and then I just turn my thoughts to how homesick these people's spirits must be. How desperately they need the Gospel!!
I could go on and on about the things I learned there. Such a great experience to be taught by the leaders of this mission. They are certainly called here for a purpose and I have truly gained a testimony of that. The Lord does not make mistakes.

Well, we taught Noreen again today. What an incredible experience that was. We spent so much time this morning planning her lesson and going through the scriptures preparing to teach her the Restoration in greater detail. Well, we got there and neither of us felt that that is what we were going to teach as soon as Noreen began talking. I am so grateful for the Spirit to help us understand the needs of our investigators! He knows exactly what they need. We taught her about prayer and about receiving answers to hers prayers, especially in regards to the Book of Mormon. She was feeling the Spirit so strongly. Her eyes softened and we could tell this was exactly what she needed to hear at this time. It just goes to show how important it is to prepare lessons. Although we did not teach her one things that we prepared, we still showed the Lord that we were willing to put in the time to prepare and pray for her. And because of that, He blessed us with the Spirit and the gift of discernment in order to better understand her needs in the moment.

Well, I could go on and on. I am a witness to so many miracles each day. These miracles do not come because of anything I do, however. They come because we put our complete trust in the Lord. If I were out here relying solely on my convincing skills, there would be a great lack of miracles. but because what we are teaching is true, the Lord is with us and He helps those we come in contact with to see the truthfulness of it. How grateful I am to be a part of this amazing work!!

The challenge this week is a strange one, but I cannot express how excited I am to see how you do! The challenge is to go at least 24 hours without television. I know for some of you this will be super easy, others maybe not so easy. But just think. If you have time to watch television, you have time to go study the scriptures, help you neighbor in the yard, talk with your family, or simply ponder and let the Spirit teach you. Think of all the opportunities we could have as we show the Lord that we are willing to devote our time to Him. I promie you that if you seek for opportunities to serve others or to come closer together as a family, that the Lord will bless you for those efforts.

I love you all so much. I cannot say how grateful I am to each of you for the examples you are to me. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true. It is Christ's church here on the earth. I don't think this, I have come to KNOW it. I challenge each of you to strive to come to the same knowledge. I love you, and take care!

Love,

Sister Biggs

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