And Then There Were 3

Hello everyone!!!

This week has been so amazing and so full of miracles, but we're short on time so I'll just talk on a few of them!

1. Amanda got baptized!! We took her on a 999 tour a couple of weeks ago and she's been completely solid ever since. We are so so happy for her, and her Elders are awesome. We got to watch the entire baptism! We are so proud of her and the choice that she made to follow Jesus Christ, she's definitely a special person that the Lord has certainly been preparing. And what's even better is that her son wants to be baptized as well, so he should be being baptized in a few weeks! Yay!!!! Blessings for everyone!! We really love her, she's going to be someone that I love and know for the rest of my life.

2. I went and spoke in a local ward again! Except this time, I did it in Spanish! Since we don't have as many Spanish speakers, rather than having two sisters teach the restoration to the congregation, just one does... and that was me! I got to talk about the blessings of the restored gospel to these people and invite them to think on how it has blessed their lives and how it could continue to bless the lives of those around them. It was really a special meeting, and I really felt the spirit. At the end of it, we got a lot of referrals from members and one man even came up to me in tears saying that I reminded him of his daughter before her tragic passing. It was definitely a special meeting.

3. There was a change in companionship's due to some special circumstances, and Sister Ioane and I are now in a trio! So Sister Salles is now a part of our companionship! So that's exciting! She is from Brazil and is super nice. It's her last transfer, so she'll be going home soon which is sad, but we're glad to have her with us.

Those were this weeks highlights!! I hope everyone has a great week!! I know that God lives, and that He knows us each by name. I invite you all to really start doing your own personal study of the scriptures. The first vision would not have happened, and this church would not have been restored had a young boy not first started reading the scriptures. From simple things are great things brought to pass. I love you all!!

--Sister Black

Do I Know You?

Hello everyone!!! I hope you're all having a fantastic week! We had a lot of really great experiences this week, and I hope you have all been able to have moments where you've seen your faith grow and have felt the hand of the Lord in your life. Here are some of ours for this week:

1. I met so so many people that I know or kind of know or have known this week! It always throws me off a little because usually everyone just uses my first name and for a moment I have to remember that that's actually me haha. I love seeing all of the friendly faces, and that's definitely a special thing that we get here on Temple Square a lot more than most other missions. But someone we met this week that knew my name was actually someone I've never met before - his name is Ryan! We were on teaching center online, and I got a direct call. That means that someone called my number specifically, not just the mormon.org number where anyone can pick it up. Someone was calling me! So I answered, and this man says "Is this Courtney Black?" Actually, it really freaked me out. I had no idea who this person was, and it wasn't a voice I recognized... I said yes... and he said, I'm Ryan! We just talked a few minutes ago on chat, I just wanted to let you know that I accidentally clicked the one star rating but I didn't mean to! I meant to give you 5 and wanted to make sure that wouldn't affect you so I'm calling you to let you know that! Could I talk to your superior? You really helped me and I feel so much closer to God now. Thank you so much! -- ??????? I had never talked to this person before!! We had literally just sat down - I was looking at my companion while he told us this just asking if she knew him - we really don't! But he knew my full name, and my phone number. Which is strange. Anyways, we started talking to him and realized he's so unbelievably prepared for the gospel - we started teaching him, and he just soaks it all up like a sponge. We sent him to local and the Elders are meeting with him now and they can't believe how prepared he is. I have no idea what happened or who he talked to actually, but I'm grateful he somehow was given to me. Talk about a tender mercy! He's so sweet, and he's excited about his baptism on April 14. :)

2. I announced in Spanish yesterday! It was really fun, and I really enjoy doing it. We ended up taking a tour with a group of people from Venezuela, and we come to find out half way through the tour that this guy is apparently totally famous. People were stopping us during the tour to take pictures with him and everything.. I never really caught exactly what it is that he did since we didn't want that to be the focus of our tour, but from what I gathered he's a comedian and he does shows - he was here in Salt Lake to do a show of some kind. So that was cool! He was super nice, and it was really cool to get to take him to see the Christus statue. He's a very strong Catholic and it was really special to see how even though our faiths are different, the belief is the same. He took a Book of Mormon and promised us he would read it, I know that the truths in the Book of Mormon change lives, and I know they've changed mine. I'm grateful that I get to share that message with the world - be it the homeless man I met on Wednesday named Dwayne, or this famous guy from Venezuela whose name I actually don't remember.. started with an L. I'd never heard his name before, it was exotic. But it was really a great tour.

3. We broke out of our 40 acre mission and took a field trip to Lehi and to other parts of the Salt Lake area this week for different projects and adventures. Nothing super related to that, but it was fun :) It's been snowing a lot this week, but we've also had some sunny days and nothing is really sticking, at least here in the valley. I'm grateful for that because I'm ready for spring!! Spring is so beautiful here, the flowers are all starting to come in and I love them. I feel like I'm walking around in a garden in Europe next to these old gothic architectural style buildings with all the flowers. The Assembly Hall is my favorite, and I'm just really excited for spring. Our Lord certainly did create a beautiful Earth for all of us. I think that's a great expression of His love for us. He didn't have to make the Earth beautiful, but He did!

Well, I love you all and I hope you have a great week! As we get ready for general conference we invite you think about the things that you can do to make it more meaningful. Maybe for you that means rereading the talks from last conference, making a list of questions, or even praying to know if President Nelson and the incoming apostles have really been called of God. We're all able to receive that witness for ourselves. I love you all!

--Sister Black

Happy Spring!

Hello Everyone!!

This week was just fantastic, but all the weeks are kind of running together in my mind, so if I say something that I already said that happened last week... sorry haha.

1. Santiago got baptized!!! Santiago lives in Bolivia, and I have been working with him since December. He had been taught by missionaries before, but they had stopped teaching him for some reason, and he came to mormon.org and said that he was still interested. I soon found out why the local missionaries had stopped teaching him - he has a lot of really intense doctrinal questions about Mosaic Law and the Levitical Law and the Higher Law.... basically all the laws you can think of that exist in the Bible. Anyways, I decided that I wanted to try teaching him, and for the last few months I have really been studying the Bible. We were able to find answers to his questions, and as we invited him to read the Book of Mormon, he began to answer his own. We taught him the first three missionary lessons about the Restoration, God's Plan for His children, and the things we do to be able to live with Him again, as well as some of the commandments. When we felt he was prepared, we called the local missionaries, they weren't super excited about going back over, but they were awesome and they went and met with him and emailed us and told us that he's so prepared and so much more receptive. A month after sending him to local, he got baptized. And that was Saturday!!! We were so excited to see Santiago get baptized, and thanks to the miracle of modern technology, these two Sister missionaries in Utah got to watch a baptism in Bolivia. How cool is that?? (Also, sorry Mom - still waiting on pictures from the Elders)

2. This week we had a media blitz in the teaching center - the teaching center is where we go to teach all of our investigators (like Santiago) living all over the world! The media came and did a little clip on what we do and how online teaching works, we invite all of you to watch it! It's on the front page of lds.org, and it's really cool. I'm not it, but I know everyone who is! Thanks to the media blitz, a member came onto mormon.org and asked for the proselyting missionaries (that's us!) He gave us the contact information of a friend living in Colombia, and we're going to be teaching him! We really encourage all of you members to participate in missionary work, this is the work of salvation and like the scriptures say - some are kept from the truth only because they know not where to find it. Help your friends and family find it!

3. We got to go to a local ward this week and give a talk! Two companionships went, the first two sisters spoke on their own about member missionary work and what we do on Temple Square, and then my companion and I went up together and taught the congregation the first lesson, or the message of the Restoration. The Spirit was so strong, and when my companion shared the first vision and her sweet testimony with all the English she knew how to use, we could see so many people wiping away tears. We also did a musical number, the other two Sisters sang and I played the piano for them. It was a nice arrangement of "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" We got a lot of member referrals that day too :)

So this week was fantastic and those were some of the highlights. I'm excited for this new transfer and for General Conference again at the end of the month. It will certainly be a historic conference with the sustaining of the prophet and the call of two new apostles. 

I love you all! Have a great week!! And don't forget to be a member missionary :) And for those of you receiving this email who aren't familiar with the church or who aren't members, I say what Alma in the Book of Mormon says in Alma 5:62. Come! 

https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/5.62?lang=eng#61

https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormon-missionaries-online-teaching-expansion?cid=HP_TH-7-3-2018_dPAD_fMNWS_xLIDyL2_

--Sister Black

999 Miracles @ MAP

Hello everyone!!

This week was so amazing, and we saw so many miracles.

1. When people come to Square and ask for a tour, it gets texted out to the mission like this:

3ENG@MAP or 6SPA@EF

Which means, 3 English speakers at the Map Desk or 6 Spanish speakers at the Eternal Families Desk and so on for every language and every place they could be. 

We are then able to call West Gate, and take the tour. If no one answers in 5 minutes, it gets texted out again like this:

999 3ENG@MAP

So this week, Sister Ioane and I wanted to work on our willingness to take West Gate tours. Sometimes it's hard to work up the motivation to go take tours, especially since you have no idea if you're running into a member, an anti, a prepared person, a history buff.. you just don't know. But! These people have been brought here by the hand of God and it's our privilege to get to help them.

So we took a lot of tours this week. But we had two in specific that were absolutely amazing. And they were both 999!

2. 999 2ENG@TC

We decided to end dinner a little early and go and take this tour. We met two people named Gary and Amanda! Gary is a member, Amanda is the most prepared person to receive the gospel I've ever met in my life. We took them on a our, and Amanda just cried the whole time. The Spirit was so strong, and she referred. At the end of the tour, she sent us a message and told us that she knew this was where God wanted her to be and she was prepared to do anything she had to in order to be baptized. We taught her the first 2 lessons, sent her to local, taught her the 3rd lesson yesterday with the Elders, set the baptismal date for the 31st, she asked if we could move it up, she's getting baptized the 24th. Amanda is so sweet, and we love her so much.

3. 999 3ENG@MAP

This tour had 2 members on it, and 1 nonmember. A priest age young man who has been going to church with his friends for a while, but didn't know anything about the churches teachings aside from what he'd heard at church. We took him on a tour and spent most of the time explaining who Jesus Christ was and why He is so necessary for us. He has a Buddhist background. Andy is such a sweet kid, and has so many real questions and it's so cool to see things just click in his head as we teach them to him. His mother called us, and gave us permission to teach him so we're really excited. We've been able to teach him the Plan of Salvation already, and he's coming back to Temple Square later this week. It's awesome.

So this week was full of miracles, of course there were ups and downs and we had to let some investigators go who weren't progressing for different reasons, but I know that the Lord prepares specific people for us to teach and that He's mindful of all of His children and their individual needs. The investigators, and the missionaries both. 

With transfers this Wednesday, we found out that we're staying together, staying in the same zone, and will still have Monday Pday. So we'll talk to you all next week!

Love,

Sister Black