ONE MONTH!!! :D

Hello everyone!!

First of all I have to wish Courtney a happy day of birth!! I promise i didnt forget haha. All day Sunday I was thinking about you! So i love you and hope you had a wonderful day sister :) I even started writing you a letter but you wont get it for some time, because 1. im not done with it yet haha and 2. im not sure how long it takes for letters to get from here to you. And a happy early birthday to Erik!! I know you're a leap year baby, so what are you like technically 8 still? Haha im just kidding. But i hope you have a wonderful day!...Also, Aubrey!! You are the cutest little pregnant woman ever!!! I cant wait to see pictures of your little man when he gets here! 

Well lets see this week was interesting! And sorry Im emailing tuesday instead of monday, but the reason being was because we had a Mission Conference yesterday!! Which doesnt usually happen i guess. The last time the PPM was together as a mission was about 5 years ago we were told, so this was exciting and nerve wracking all at the same time because no one knew what it was for. But I LOVED it!! It was incredible! We had two members of the seventy (Elder David F. Evans, and Elder Steven B. Allen) come and speak to us about the new changes that will be happening. We are the first mission to have this meeting, where they announced that they will be changing the system with the IPads, and missionary use of technology, and online proselyting. The last year or so i guess is when they started using IPads for missionary work. And for that time the church has just been testing out how effective the use of technology can be in missionary work. But now they are using a different system. One with more safeguards. Which i am certainly very grateful for. They talked a lot about how technology is suppose to help us in hastening the Lords work, not distracting us from it. Something I loved that Elder Allen mentioned was a quote from president Kimball. He said, (forgive me if this isnt quoted exactly but this is the just of it) "Why do you think the Lord allowed the airplane to be invented? So that his servants could more easily travel throughout the world to share His gospel. Everything else is just a byproduct... Why do you think the Lord allowed the television to be invented? To allow others to hear the message of His gospel throughout the world from where they are. Everything else is just a byproduct." That truly made me realize that the Lord has given us these resources PURELY for the purpose of hastening His glorious work. We are to use these tools for spreading the gospel, not getting distracted. Now I know we are all guilty of letting ourselves get distracted by the use of technology and social media but I challenge everyone to start using these resources for the spreading of the gospel. IM SERIOUS GUYS :) Haha i want everyone to share a scripture or a quote from a talk or something! Something that will help you spread the gospel, and do it every week! Or however often you want! But thats what these things are intended for! So use them for their intended purpose of sharing the gospel :) Now this last part im not going to spend much time talking about but its worth mentioning i think. They also talked to us for 2 hours about the dangers of pornography. Obviously in using technology there are horrible things all over the internet. Its the sad truth. But they talked to us about listening to the spirit, and if you listen to the spirit, He will ALWAYS protect you from those dangers. ALWAYS. Elder Allen shared another story about how he said that he had been at the hotel they were staying at before the conference and he mentioned how he was going to turn on the news, when he heard the spirit say, "no, dont do that." He said it was just a simple simple thought he had. And so he didnt. He said, "I didnt know why...but i didnt need to. It doesnt matter. The spirit said no, so i obeyed."  Also he shared a quote from Elder Packer, he said "No one person will ever make a serious mistake without first being warned by the spirit."...I love that. Because it is so true. The spirit will always warn us of any dangers ahead of us. And so plead with all of you to learn to recognize the spirit so that you can heed to the promptings from Him. Because He will protect you, ALWAYS. One more thing about Mission Conference...they mentioned how these new changes are not only to help you out as a missionary but that they will help you throughout your entire life. I could go on and on about Mission Conference because it was amazing and i learned so much but now on to other things! I have a miracle story and a funny story.

First of all I cant believe Ive already been on my mission for a month!! That is so crazy to think about! The weeks seriously do just fly by. Its crazy. Well first of all Ill tell you about a miracle story... Earlier this week Sister McCuen and I were doing some finding...Its seems like thats all we ever do! Haha but it was great. Anyway, we were both just so tired for some reason and just did not want to find anymore. But in obedience we kept on finding. We went to this nicer neighborhood and started knocking on some doors to which each and every person kindly said "no thank you" and so it was starting to get dark and we were freezing. We got back in the car to warm up a bit and decided to just go home and have dinner. But right then we thought we should just try at least one more house... And so OF COURSE, when Sister McCuen and I had resolved to just give up for the night and go home, we knocked on the last house and this very sweet woman answers the door and without hesitation the first thing she says is, "Come on in!" We didnt even finish saying the name of the church before she invited us in haha. And Sister McCuen and I just looked at each other like "of course it would be the LAST house." And so we went in and saw that she was watching the old 10 Commandments movie because it was Ash Wednesday. So we got to talking with her and found out that she had grown up Lutheran but doesn't practice it. She mentioned how she reads her Bible and prays everyday. Shes a firm believer but she said that every time she goes to a church service they are always good but she just feels like something is missing and she got so emotional when she said it....And when she said that though, everything in me just wanted to shout "WE HAVE WHAT YOURE MISSING!!" but i didnt although I know she felt the spirit, which is the mist important thing. But she was SO sweet. Sister McCuen taught her The Restoration in like 5 minutes and she did it so well! And i helped to teach her a bit of the Plan of Salvation, according to what questions she asked. We just sat there for an hour talking about the church! It was awesome! Her name was Debra btw, and she had so many questions that we were able to answer for her! We then gave her a Book of Mormon and pamphlets and we exchanged numbers, and we will be meeting with her soon! :) IT WAS A MIRACLE!! And very humbling too I might add...Its always the last house haha. 

Then a few days later Sister McCuen and I were out finding again. And as we were driving we passed a house and I said to Sis. M... "turn around theres a house we need to try back there." She said okay and turned around. And for some reason i felt SO good about knocking on the door of this house i dont even know why! But anyway we got out and walked up to the door only to find a sign that said, "DEVILS FANS ONLY! no one else allowed." Sis. M and i looked each-other and just started laughing!! haha. So i knocked on the door and a woman answered the door. I began to explain who we were and before i even finished she said "NO!" and slammed the door in our faces... I was stunned. haha. Seriously, i had felt SO good about knocking on this house. Why would Heavenly Father let me knock on this house if He knew they were going to say no?? I didnt understand! Fast forward to the next day when I was on exchanges. I heard a story to which the point was, the Lord was testing your faithfulness. And so i took that experience and realized that maybe Heavenly Father was just seeing if i would simply be obedient and act on a prompting I had been given.

Alright well i love you all sorry but im out of time! Look for the miracles this week! Until next week!

Love, 

Sister Amy Callaway