Happy Turkey Day!!

Hello everyone! So this past week has been awesome! My companion and I are on FIRE! We've been able to have 18 lessons a week and a baptism every week.we're really hoping Logan and his family feel better by this Saturday :( they are all sick! 

So I want to tell you about 2 new investigators that made my day. 

Sister Jolley- We met with her and on our 1st visits we just get to know them and share a little gospel here and there. She and her husband were homeless for a while and just got an apt. Her husband is a Vietnam War Veteran and has since then fell away from the church. But! He wants to get active again and she wants God in her life. She already is trying to quit smoking. They are so funny and are so lovey :) he said he wants her to quit so she can be around longer.. he's 14 yrs older than her but I'm rootin for them ha. At the end, we asked her to be baptized in December. She said she wasn't ready. We told her we would get her ready and that we know she can do it. She said if she knows it's true she will! Sweet! 

Sister Hernandez- LOVED. She welcomed us in and explained that she had referred herself by mormon.org. She was close to baptism but was on drugs so she and her husband went to jail. Her family is Catholic but she has always felt like this is the truth. After getting out of jail, she went to a halfway house and would attend church. She received a blessing one day and described it as an experience like nothing else. She motioned upward with her hands by her chest and described it as feeling so " light". We told her it was the Holy Ghost :) we later extended the invite to be baptized and she said YES! Woohoo! We  were  so excited and I thought I was going to fall over and die... We've just been having such a great time. The work is moving! 

Last night we had FHE with an active member family to show them what their son is teaching on his mission. I had the opportunity to share the 1st vision. As I told of Joseph's experience, I was overwhelmed and started to cry. This lesson is amazing. My testimony continues to grow each day. 

Alek's baptism was great! This was a HUGE event for their family. They've had missionaries for 7 years... Brother Ruiz ( father) is really coming around and softening his heart and guess what... He is moving to ARIZONA next week! He's going to work at the Williams Field Airport and is looking at homes in Queen Creek and on Power and Guadeloupe! Mom- he said he will find you but you may need to find him :) so cool right?! 

I've been learning a lot about the family and the Gospel. Without one, you can't have the other. Heavenly Father, with all his wisdom and understanding, see's it fit that a family made up of a woman and man legally married and their posterity is the BEST unit for mankind to have joy. My landlord ( Grandpa Gladwell ) told me of this principle. Joy is the greatest we can achieve. You can have pleasure and happiness and everything else but without a family and the Gospel, you can never reach true joy. 2 nephi 2:25 replace be and are with the word exist. We exist to have joy! The scriptures carry such spiritual truths and they are vital to our joy. 

" make scripture reading a part of your regular routine, and the blessings will follow. There is in the scriptures a voice of warning, but there is also great nourishment... If the language of the scriptures at first seems strange to you, keep reading. Soon you will come to recognize the beauty and power found on those pages." -Elder Packer 

I'm so thankful for my family, the gospel of Jesus Christ, My savior, and the scriptures. I'm grateful for a lot more than that but those are most important. I hope all of you are grateful for our Heavenly Father's wonderful gifts he has given us and to not take them for granted! We have them for a reason and we are extremely blessed. 

Love you all and hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I'll be up at Snow Basin for lunch ( spelling?) with my Grandpa and Grandma Gladwell as well as their family. :) I'll be thinking and missing you!!! 

LOVE, Sister Gietz :)