Email No. 7

Mamacita & co.!!!!!!!!

BEST WEEK EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For reals though. I will talk about it more later.

But. SISTER JOHNSON IS THE YOUNG WOMEN'S PRESIDENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Most of the young women in the branch

I am legit so excited for her. She is so so amazing. Please please tell her that I am so so excited for her and that I have full faith in her and oh man I just want to give her a hug.

Tommy kills me. I read what he said in his voice. Hahahah I love my little buddy. I just got to say that Emma is a rockstar. Volunteering while recovering from a surgery. You go girl. Nyal is such a good friend to everyone, holy cow. BRENT IS PLAYING THE PIANO. GOOOOOOOOOO BRENTIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEE. You can do it.

Please give a hug to Pile family for me. That makes me sad :(

Hahahha you want to know what I do for exercise? Apartment laps. It is too stinking cold to run outside and there is nothing up here in Milo. We barely have a grocery store. Hahahah I love it. Totally different than Mesa. Hahaha that reminds me.... Everyone here calls me a "city girl" because apparently according to Maine definition, Mesa is a city. Hahahah I love Mainers.

So! This week we taught some of my favorite people. Eddie and Susie. They are an older couple and are just the sweetest things ever. Susie has the most infectious laugh and Eddie is a huge tease. And they have the BIGGEST hearts. For example, one night it was snowing super bad and it was time to go into the apartment and we were getting ready to drive home. To get to their house, we drive on a dirt backroad (this is how my whole area is) and Eddies insisted on following us home to make sure we made it home safe. They said they would "feel so relieved to know we got home safe." So that's them. Man, I love them.

We also taught Toni and Danielle. They solid recent coverts. Danielle is just super super awesome who is absolutely hilarious. She also has a fabulous taste in music. She loves The Offspring, Social Distortion, etc. SO we had a pretty awesome bonding experience. She was actually asked to come down to Newport with us for Zone Interviews to share her conversion story. But more about that later. Toni is her aunt who just craves knowledge. She is so so smart and loves to learn about the doctrine so she always has super deep questions when we teach. And they are just super chill. And actually, Danielle was called as the Young Women's president!!! The girls love her.

Last night was so so awesome. A week ago, the Elders and Sister Dellasilva and I were asked to put on a fireside for the youth. The youth struggle and some of these kids have gone through things I can' even imagine. So we, Elder Gilbert, Elder Wallentine, Sister Dellasilva and I felt inspired to focus on the Savior. SO we started out with the Elders talking about how the prophets foretold of Christ's coming. Then Sister Dellasilva and I said how Christ performed miracles and can still perform miracles in our own lives if we have faith and repent. We then showed a video titled "His Grace". It is a series that mormon channel put out. If you haven't seen them, WATCH THEM. They are amazing. We then both shared personal experiences that we had about Christ performing miracles in our own life and bore testimony of Christ. The Spirit was so so strong. Then we showed the Because of Him video. By then, almost everyone was in tears, the Spirit was so strong. Then the Elders came up and were said, "Before we go to the next part, we want to hand out some doughnuts to everyone." So there was some excitement, and some confusion. So Elder Wallentine went up to the first youth and said, "Would you like a doughnut?" They accepted. And then Elder Wallentine said to Elder Gilbert, "Will you do 10 pushups for the doughnut that (blank) wants?" "Yes I will do the push ups for her.". This happened for a few more times. Each the same for every youth. Then when we came to a youth that did not want a doughnut, Elder Wallentine gave them the doughnut anyways and said, "Elder Gilbert, will you do 10 pushups that (blank) does not want?" "Yes I will do the push ups for the doughnut does not want." This went on til every single person in the room had been offered a doughnut. There were in total 25 people that were offered a doughnut. As time went on for every person, we could tell that Elder Gilbert was in tons of pain and it got hard for people to watch him do the pushups, especially when they did not want the doughnut. Some offered to do the push ups for him, but it was explained that only Elder Gilbert could do the pushups. When the whole thing was done it was asked what this meant? A young man (14) who has autism, who is a convert of 3 months, said, very clearly and simply, "It means that Heavenly Father loves us so much that He gave up His Son as a sacrifice so that we can be able and can repent." We were all stunned. There were many who were crying. There were also 4 non members that were there and one particular young man, we could tell was deeply touched. It was amazing. I loved being a part of it.

Sister Dellasilva, Me, Sister Sneed and Brother Sneed (Our old branch mission leader. they are the ones going out to AZ that will be in contact with you), Elder Gilbert, and Elder Wallentine

Another cool cool story that happened this week happened while we were tracting late one night. It was cold and we knocked on this door and an old lady opened right up and asked us to come on in. We introduced ourselves and invited her to learn more about the restored gospel. Sh said no, but said we could leave a prayer with her and her husband who were there. I offered a prayer and the Spirit was definitely there. We got talking and she said, "You are mormons right? Well I hold a very special place in my heart for mormons." She then told a story about how 54 years ago, she was 9 months pregnant with her first child and while she and her husband were on a road trip, their car broke down and they made the decision to walk to the nearest town. After they had walked for who knows how long, two elders stopped and offered to give them a ride. She said it meant so much to her because she was so sore, but these young men offered to help. She said she would never, ever forget their kindness. Why this meant so much to me was because think about how long ago that was? 54 years. And it still had an incredible impact on her. It probably wasn't much in the elders minds, but it made a lasting impact on her. Never underestimate how much one kind deed can do for a person. Follow the Spirit when serving others. You will always be guided to those in need. We actually got to teach about that in Relief Society yesterday!

We had our first district p day. It was fun. There isn't a whole ton of things you can do in the middle of no where especially in winter. SO we played HORSE for hours in a tiny, carpeted gym in Newport. It was totally fun, but it just confirmed that I have terrible depth perception. Hahahah so every time I made a shot everyone cheered super loud and I would do a big obnoxious bow. Hahah it was so funny because everyone else is amazing at basketball. So that was a blast. I think that counts as a "Grace" story? Let me know if you want another one:)

Zone Conference was amazing. Danielle gave her conversion story and had everyone in stitches laughing, while also keeping the Spirit. I had the opportunity to bear my testimony.  I got to have my first interview with President Stoker. All I have to say is that he was most definitely  100% called by God. He is amazing.

I also got to go on exchange for the first time! Definitely inspired. Loved it. And I was left in our area, which super freaked me out at first, but then I prayed and all was well. It was totally fun. 

We did teach Jackie and she is doing amazing. A few obstacles in her personaly life, but she is an incredible woman so we have full faith in her :)

I did get the mcnasty stuff out of my clothing.... Made me want to hurl though. Yuck.

I did get the package!!!! Holy cow I love my family. Be sure to tell Tommy that I absolutely LOVED his letter!!!! I was showing it to the whole zone. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen. I could not stop smiling. I almost cried it made me so happy. I am NOT exaggerating. And please tell Sister Griffin so much. She is such an amazing example. I am writing a thank you note, but I wanted her to know as soon as possible. Could you possibly text her? Thank you!!!

Go forth with unwearied diligence!!!! 

I love you all!!!!!!

Love Sistah Sewell.