WEEK 63 "9er-9er milagros on FIU campus, trolley trips, and our fav Maria Jose"

Hey everyone!! 

our p-days were messed up a bit this week because we went to the temple!

Anyway this week was an adventure. we basically are trying to pump up the zone right now because it seems like all of the missionaries are starting from ground 0 after our crazy miracle march. We are basically just doing a ton of finding right now which I absolutely love!!

This week we did basically two 9er 9ers so we all got out of the house at nine in the morning and found until 9 at night. to say the least it was just the funnest thing in the entire world! I was in YSA for the day and it was a riot. First we had a crazy blitz for three hours with all the other missionaries on FIU campus. It was so fun, I felt like I was on the U of U campus just hanging out with old friends all day sharing messages about Easter. however the only difference is that we could see the ocean almost the whole time. It was absolutely the most stress-free contacting I have done in a while.

Then after our blitz Sister Drecksel and I rode the trolley for another couple of hours because why not!! we rode it all over north Miami beach trying to target YSA. but to our surprise the trolley is very popular among the high school kids. hahah we had some classic conversations with mostly sophomores and it was very fun! We saw some miracles and then decided we should probably move on to another finding technique. wow it was so much harder to find English that are ysa than Latins that already flood the streets of Miami. haha but hey by the end of the whole loop of Miami beach we had made lots of new friends for the elders to visit and of course the kids asked us to get a stellar selfies with them. 

Next we visited Karen's daughter, Maria Jose. We felt inspired to visit her especially because the ysa sisters have been sick all transfer so they haven't been able to go visit her. Long story short we were praying for a miracle all day and during the last two hours of the day we found Maria Jose, taught her a bomb lesson on the divine mission of Jesus Christ and how the gospel allows us to tap into all His promised blessings. Sister Drecksel bore the most powerful testimony of Gods love. She mentioned how Jesus Christ had to carry his Cross, and we too have to carry crosses during this life; however, when we commit to baptism we show Christ we are willing to follow him and enter into this promise.

The promise is that we become one with Him... we take upon His name, remember him and keep His commandments. He in return promises that He will carry our Crosses with us and we will have His spirit to be with us. Maria Jose loved this idea of not fighting her trials alone, receiving extra guidance and choosing to be born again as a true disciple of Jesus Christ. SO long story short Maria and her mom Karen will be baptized on the same day! talk about the biggest miracle of the whole transfer.

I love God. He is so good. As soon as we walked out of that lesson i realized that God was telling us good job because I had two of my favorite things in front of me... the most breath taking sunset and coconut water!!!! wow straight Milagros. (miracles)

The biggest thing that I learned this week is the Grace of God cannot be measured in statistics or numbers. We are told to always make goals and plans and bind our heart to those plans but in the end HE has a perfect plan for each one of us. If we are on the right path He will always give us what we need. that need may come in a trial or it may come in a blessing. But what I have learned is take it good, bad or ugly because we cannot miss a second of being a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Whether we have a missionary name tag on or not each one of us are disciples of Jesus Christ after baptism and we have to live up to the calling and exercise our faith to become what He wants us to become. I love the gospel I love my Savior and I know He lives. 

Dont forget to keep doing the count down to Easter in "Come Follow Me" the scriptures are amazing in there and I promise it will make a difference in your life! LOVE YOU ALL

xo,

Hermana Richards 

low lights:

the elder's car got towed so we had to help them retrieve it for like 5 hours....

but this work is the best!!