Happy Thanksgiving!‏

Hey HEy hey!

What a week it has been. Filled with miracles of course! Heavenly Father is so good to us.

I went on 2 exchanges, so wasn't in my area for almost half the week.. but it was great getting to know the other sisters!

I don't have much time so i'll just do the highlights:

Street contacting at night with Sister Defreitas, and got a super strong impression to turn around and knock on a certain door. We don't knock doors unless we feel so inspired, especially when it's late, but this prompting was like..strong. So we knock. A young man named Jared opens the door with the biggest smile I've ever seen. We talk a little and ask if we could come in and share a message about Jesus Christ as well as a blessing in their home. He excitedly said yes of course. He is a foster dad of 3 kids and they were all there with him in the front room, bit smiles, eager to learn. The spirit was so strong, and the 2 older boys said they had been wanting to learn more about God and had actually been to an LDS church before and loved it. We left them with a prayer and testified of how much Heavenly Father knew and loved them. They all wanted to go to church the next day and to continue to learn more. It was incredible. 

We had a similar experience with a young couple named Keith and Brittney. They were so kind and welcoming, and so excited to read the Book of Mormon and learn more about our church. 

We met also left a Book of Mormon on the porch table of the Mavady family's home, after we had knocked on about 10 different potential investigators houses. Our member was in charge of giving out the Book of Mormon, and she was so determined to do so. Sadly, no one we met wanted it, or already had one...However, here's the miracle. We went back a couple days later, with the same member, and Mrs. Mavady was just driving up. She came and greeted us and was so excited to see us! She was thankful for the Book of Mormon and invited us to come back a few days later. They are so  prepared!

This area is seriously just exploding with miracles. There is one street that is literally: member, investigator, member, investigator, member, investigator. It's so awesome. 

We also went to an amazing fireside last week. I had the opportunity to play my fiddle again. What a blessing :) Also, I came up with a new band name....it's like the definition faith... Secret (of) Ambition, but i'll probably shorten it to Secret Ambition. Ohh yeah. 

Love you all and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Sister Kraus

Ｇｏｄ ｏｆ Ｍｉｒａｃｌｅｓ‏

This week was straight up nutso. But it was a great learning experience :)

First off, I just wanted to say once more how much I absolutely love being a missionary. I have never been so happy in my entire life. Honestly, my least happy days are P-days because we have to focus on and worry about ourselves ( and the fact that cleaning,grocery shopping, and doing laundry aren't my favorite). Interesting enough, at the start of my mission this was my favorite day. As I've looked back and thought about why this, I've come to a conclusion. This work isn't about me. Shocking I know. My whole life I spent thinking about what I could do to become better. Often times on the mission, we do the same thing. How can I improve my teaching skills? How can I get more investigators or more baptisms or more people at church? These things are all good, and we should be doing our best to improve ourselves, but life isn't about us..It's about others. When focus on helping others, loving others, and bringing others closer to Christ, then naturally we will come closer to Christ as well. Jesus Christ never went about His life trying to improve Himself. He went to serve and bless others, and because of that, He was the only perfect, selfless person who ever lived or will live. 

Ok. Rant over. I just had to get that off my chest. 

So like I was saying, being a missionary is the best.

This week, Sister Mayfield and I went on a couple exchanges with the sisters in our Zone. I love these sisters! But wow, some of them have hard times. I had a particularly interesting experience where one of the sisters got super sick..right on our members doorstep.... (luckily the member wasn't home and we had time to clean it up before anyone saw).. I'll spare you the details, but yeah, definitely something we hope to never go through again. 

I went on another exchange with a brand new sister who has been out for 3 weeks! She was so excited to work hard, but still a little timid about talking with everyone, but she has an incredible testimony and a deep love for her Savior. Little did I know that she has been struggling with depression/suicidal thoughts for quite sometime now. She never knew her dad, is the only child and the only family she has is her mom and grandparents. She knew she needed to come on a mission to bless the lives of others. I have never realized how many people there are that have serious trials and hard times in their lives. 8 out of the 10 sisters we are over have had major struggles on their missions and back home, but you would never know it. My own sweet companion's parents are going through a divorce back home this very moment. My heart aches just thinking about it. The point of this email isn't to get you all depressed and sad.. the point is to help us all realize how much we need to lift each other. One of my favorite quotes from Richard G. Scott says "There are few things in life that bring as much joy as the joy that comes from assisting another improve his or her life." I know this is true. 

I also know that God is still a God of miracles today and He ALWAYS answers our prayers. 

Quick miracle of the week: Sister Mayfield and I went to Great Harvest Bread Co. for dinner on Wednesday and the restaurant is owned by a member of the church so we always get free food and are treated like royalty. It's amazing. Anyways, so the super cute Mormon looking cashier took our order. As we were waiting for our food, another worker came over to us and said "soo literally five minutes before you sisters walked in, my co worker had just asked me some questions about the church and is sincerely interested in learning more.." What a miracle! We were so excited. We talked to her afterwards and she was so sweet and said she would definitely call us. 

Experiencing these kinds of miracles every day is one of the huge blessings of serving a mission. I have been able to see how God's hand works in our lives more then ever before. 

Well I'm out of time and the elders are here to kick us off so I must be going. Have an incredible week!!

Sisterｋｒａｕｓ

ohhh. also, my dad paid me a visit this week (completely allowed by our new mission president.. fyi). It was the best. :)

9 months.. say what?‏

9 months to go! yikes

Hey hey hey!

Sorry it's been a couple weeks... there is never enough time to adequately express my thoughts/experiences from the week, so sometimes I just don't..but i'll do my best this week!

Soo, Anthem is like the promised  land. We've had so many miracles happen this week I can't even remember them all. Sister Mayfield and I have really felt that Heavenly Father is trusting us and is helping lead us to His elect! 

Our investigator Flora got baptized and confirmed this weekend and wow is she a special woman! The spirit was so so strong at her baptism, and all of her children were able to be there, as well as at church the next day. Speaking of church, 10 people we're teaching came! Sister Mayfield and I about fell out of our seats..it was amazing. And all of the talks were perfect for the people who came. I pretty much just sat there in shock the whole time. We also had a guy named Calvin come to church for the first time, who had actually walked a long ways to get here, and had taken lessons in Georgia for a while, then Paradise, and now here. He came in with his Book of Mormon and a big smile on his face, asking us if he was in the right place. We had to pass him off to the other missionaries, but he's such a cool guy and an incredible example of having a strong desire to find and know the truth, then acting on it. 

We were also able to find a ton of new investigators this week!! A couple of them have already said they want to be baptized and join the church. They are the cutest little newly wed couple ever..(though sitting next to them at church made me a little sick...). But yeah, they know the church is true and can't wait to continue learning more!

So I've started keeping a detailed study journal this week as well.. and oh my goodness..revelation station. If you don't keep a journal while you read scriptures, I highly recommend it! 

A few funny things for the week. We met a guy who told us his name was Dennis the Menace. We had a lesson with a member who started talking about Napoleon Dynamite, then Sister Mayfield and I realized he looked just like Kip, and could hardly contain our laughter, so I had to think of really sad/depressing experiences to keep myself from losing it. Works everytime. 

Ohhh, last week we had a lesson at the Osmonds (nephew of Donny) and also got to play music with a member of Gladdis Knight's choir, so that was awesome! The members here are amazing and so helpful! 

Spiritual note for the day: Jesus Christ was the ultimate example of mercy. He shows everyone compassion and love, no matter what we've done, or how we've acted in our lives. All He asks us to do is love one another as He did :)

Have an amazing week and shock people with your love and kindness!

Sister Kraus

pic: 

Flora's baptism!