Our Friend Emily. :o)

Peeps!

I have a story for you  it's called we found a golden investigator! She's been prepared by God and she is ELECT! Her name is Emily! She lives here in Willits up in Brook Trails! She is close to me and my companions age, single, working here as a nurse, new home owner, and she has a really good friend who introduced her to the church! She went to visit the temple in Oakland and felt the spirit so strongly
that she cried and she gets emotional just thinking about it. Her friend requested we go visit her and she has been absorbing everything we've given her. She reads the Book of Mormon so much her eyes get blurry! She was raised in another church and she said she has never felt the same way coming out of her church than she has walking out of an LDS chapel. She recognizes the spirit and before we could even ask,
she's already started talking about baptism. She is progressing very rapidly, even over the course of this week. She said in the three days since she went back to the temple for the second time, she has stopped smoking, watched her language, and felt like she wants to act better. Her friend says he's noticed this difference...even in three days. She loved us the second we came into her home, and she is even going to
feed us dinner on Wednesday! She says she is a great cook! She said its her natural gift. I'm so excited!

She came to church with us yesterday!! Everyone was super welcoming and introduced themselves! In fact, she is so glowy and bright, people kept asking her if she was a new missionary in the ward! They wondered if we had gotten a trio! At first me and my comp were worried about what she would say to that, but Emily loved it! It made her feel so good and she even said she wanted to serve a mission! She was worried
that maybe she was too old. She's still  young enough too  she loved her time at church and she is even going to go to Fast and Testimony meeting with her friend next week, AND she is going to fast. Wow. She makes me want to be a more dedicated to my religion. Haha! She can be the missionary, and I'll learn from her! She already knows where she wants to get baptized and her friend said he would baptize her! So yeah. God is preparing people.

She was so cute. She got a picture with us at church to send to her friend to prove she came to church.  we love her to death. She's so great. I'm so impressed.

The McFaddens are moving to Idaho! They are moving to Hayden, right outside Cour D'Alene! They have a son Lily's age, and I told them how much Lily loves Cour D'Alene and they were like, "*gasp*! Maybe Tyler will marry Lily!" Haha! For future reference, if Lily needs a good man to date, I know a guy.

So yeah. Other than that, I've been learning a lot about faith and the sacrament. Faith is powerful, but I'm still learning. Prepare yourself to learn more about faith next week.

So here are my thoughts on the sacrament! Well, they aren't my thoughts. This is what I've learned over time as well as recently on the mission.

- The sacrament is the only ordinance that we take inside of us. The change starts within.

- The sacrament is the only ordinance we do for ourselves continually. All of the other ones we do once for our self, and then the rest of the time it is for others who have passed on. The sacrament is very personal.

- The sacrament is a sacred time of instruction. During that time that you are taking the bread and the water, the Spirit can help you evaluate the last seven days of your life and see all of the ways the Atonement has helped you, as well as all of the good choices you made. He will also whisper advice and give pointers for things you can improve on. During this time, He also provides instruction and encouragement for the next seven days. This a time to be healed spiritually and prepare yourself for the coming week. Always remember the limitless Atonement. - The sacrament breaks down life into manageable increments of time  as we make covenants with our Heavenly Father to always keep His commandments, we may at times fall behind, or feel like we are not doing well enough, or even feel overwhelmed by all we feel we need to
overcome in this lifetime.  Because of the sacrament, we only have to take life seven days at a time. For seven days, we do our best to keep our covenants and work hard to be closer to Christ. Then we take the sacrament and reflect and heal. We only focus on those last seven days. Then we leave them behind because we have a clean slate, and we focus on the coming seven days. We plan and prepare and find something to improve on. We don't focus on a month from now or a year from now
or a where we need to be 20 years from now, we just focus on the next seven days because that's all that matters most. Week after week we will improve and be able to see our progress, especially if we ask Heavenly Father to open our eyes to it.

- Our life depends on that sacred time we have to take the sacrament. This is the most powerful way (along with a broken heart and contrite spirit) we can access the Atonement which is our lifeline. I am sure that how we utilize the sacrament will have an immense impact on our judgement when we see the Father and the Son again.

Well. Sorry this email is short. I got nothin' else. Have a great
week! I love you!

Sister Julander

Sister Julander, Sister Pett, and Emily