Visit From a Prophet

Dear Family and Friends

Brother Todd Daniels and Elder Sirrine

Elder Fata and Elder Sirrine

Elder Futrell and Elder Sirrine

This week was good here in Sulphur! It was also a crazy busy week!
Let's get to it!

Tuesday we went and found people and taught 8 lessons in a couple of
hours! It was awesome! Then we went and ate dinner at the Wilmores and
then we went and played basketball! We had 8 investigators at
basketball! It was awesome and so much fun! They really enjoyed it and
are all coming tomorrow as well!

Wednesday we went with one of the best members names Todd Daniels who
just reactivated himself 2 weeks ago to visit one of his friends in
the hospital. His friend was told by the doctors he wasn't going to
make it through his surgery. Todd hurried and called us and we drove
up there as fast as we could. His friend asked me to give him a
blessing, I said in the blessing that he would be ok and Heavenly
Father was not done with him here on earth. We all started to cry in
that more in the middle of the blessing. I paused after I said that
and the spirit was so strong. It was one of the most incredible
spiritual experiences I have had on my mission so far. We then left
and we got a call on Friday that he survived the surgery and is
starting to heal very quickly. The doctors were shocked and he is now
doing awesome and should be out of the hospital in the next 2 weeks.
Such an incredible opportunity. Then we went and knocked doors for a
while and didn't have much success. Then we went out and ate dinner
with Bishop Stott who is the new bishop of our ward because the ward
got split this past Sunday. He is a great man and he took us to a
steak house and it was so good.


Nothing on Thursday major happened.

Friday we had district meeting and it was a very good one. We talked
about how to truly listen to your investigator and the spirit. It was
a good discussion. The spirit told me some things I could work on
during that district meeting. Then we went and picked up Todd and took
him to some lessons. We found a man named Walter and he had said he
has been searching for the truth. It was incredible. He went into a
state of psychosis 3 years ago and it lasted for 2 years. He sat Im a
chair and kept his eyes closed and only ate bananas every once in a
while for 2 years. It was one of the craziest stories I have ever
heard. We taught him the Restoration and watched the movie with him!
The spirit was really strong! And he wanted to learn more. The Lord is
always preparing people for us if we do our part. Then we went and
picked up the Lake Charles Elders and drove to Vidor Texas for the
night because we had to be in Downtown Houston at 8am the next morning
really early.

Saturday we woke up at 330am and got ready and drove to downtown
Houston! We walked in the chapel and there was about 800 missionaries
there, we were very confused. President Drake only told our mission
that he was going to speak with us that day. We asked around and
turned out that the Houston mission, Houston South mission and our
mission were all there! We were in shock. Then President Drake got up
and said to all the missionaries, " everyone we have a special guest
today, it is our honor today to hear from President Russel M Nelson,
the President of the quorum of the twelve apostles, he will be here
shortly". Everyone was so excited! The minute President Nelson walked
into the chapel, the whole church was filled with the spirit, it was
unreal. He is an amazing man. He gave us 800 missionaries some great
council. One thing he said that stood out to me was " Christs
atonement is NEVER ENDING for anyone! No matter what". That really hit
me hard. He is a amazing man and we got to shake his hand as well. He
is just full of the spirit. He also shared a story of a vision he had
that he hasn't told anyone about. 2 girls appeared to him and asked to
do their temple ordinances. He then told all of us to go to the temple
and go after your mission as often as you can. I will never forget
that meeting.

Sunday we went to church and they split our ward. We have a new
bishopric for our ward and they are all amazing men led by Bishop
Stott. Then we went with Todd and visited some of our investigators.
Then we went and visited less actives.

All and all this was incredible week and I am very grateful to have
been a part of it! Thanks so much for all your support and love! I
appreciate all the emails. I love you all and have a great week!
Elder Sirrine

World Wide Missionary Training

Dear Family and Friends

Another week gone here in Sulphur, Louisiana! It was a good one! Me
and Elder Fatas first week together was awesome!

Tuesday we went and I introduced him to some members and they all
loved him, which is a good thing! Then we went to Caples and went to
play basketball with a lot of investigators! It was really fun! It is
a great way to find people to teach. Tuesday was a good day!

Wednesday we woke up and drove to the worldwide missionary broadcast!
It was a wonderful broadcast and we received great council on how to
become better missionaries! One of the biggest things I took from it
was Elder Bednar when he said, "You can bring it UNTO the heart of
your investigators, but ONLY the Holy Ghost can bring it INTO the
heart". That really stood out to me. I am grateful for the Holy Ghost
and how we need to stay worthy in order to have it and use it with our
investigators. After the broadcast we went and a taught a member
lesson to a recent convert. It was a really spiritual lesson. We
taught the plan of salvation. Then we went to Brother Kandiks and ate
dinner with him. It was a great day.

Thursday we went and visited an investigator named Charles! We found
him a couple days before and he said to come back and it was one of
the few times where you try back and they are actually interested
haha. We taught him the restoration and asked him to read the Book of
Mormon and pray about it. He said he would and when we went back on
Saturday he had done it! I was so happy! We are teaching him on
Wednesday so hopefully that goes well. He is starting to open up more
and more. Then we went and stayed the night at the Lake Charles elders
apartment because we had to wake up early to drive to zone meeting. I
have to drive everywhere because my comp doesn't have a license so
that sucks.

Friday we went to zone meeting which was awesome and we learned some
great things. Then we came back to lake Charles to drop the elders
back off. Me and Elder Fata felt like we needed to go to stay in lake
Charles for some reason, we hopped on our bikes and starting riding
down a random road in lake Charles. We were going to knock some doors
for the sisters and we saw this woman sitting on a bucket but thought
nothing of it, we started knocking and both kept getting the
impression to go talk to her. We did and she started yelling at us and
saying how she is homeless and is going to jail because it's better
then being homeless and she doesn't know where God was in this. She
blasted us for about 10 minutes and most missionaries would have left
but we stayed and just listened. After she was done yelling we started
to speak to her and I told her that God sent us to her and she started
crying. She said being homeless is terrible and she hates how she lost
everything and life sucks for her. We opened her up and she confessed
to us what she was going through, then we asked if we could pray with
her, elder Fata said a wonderful prayer and she was very comforted and
the spirit was so strong. We changed her life and she came to church
on Sunday!! It was not a coincidence that we picked that street and
was led to there on Friday. She is awesome and we love her already.
The Lord is always preparing people to receive you and for you to have
those experiences. It was an amazing experience. Then we went home and
that was Friday.

Saturday we woke up did studies then drove up to west lake and played
football on the field with about 20 people. It was really fun and we
met some really cool people! Then we went and knocked doors and for
dinner we went to the Sweenys and had pizza. We had a awesome
conversation with him about the gospel. They are an awesome family.

Sunday Bethany came to church! She is the one in the story. It was
awesome to see her there! She really felt the spirit. It was awesome.
After church we went with bro Caple and most of the ward to a family
in the ward, the Crippens. It was a lot of fun and there was some
really good food! Then we went to a Pentecostal church with one of our
investigators! It was interesting. Their music was cool but it was
more like a party form of worship. The preacher got really into it. I
thought it was interesting. This week was crazy!

Thanks for all the support and the emails! I love you all and hope you
have an amazing week!
Elder Sirrine