Sister Kirsten Leslie: Taste the Rainbow!

I just gotta start this before reading anything else, because MIRACLES happened this week all around us!

Starting with Tuesday, we got our other investigator Varney on date to be baptized! He has a lot more desire than we thought he did, which is always AWESOME to find out. He is on date for March 29th, so not too close, and I might not even be here by that point, but it's great! He's so cool! We also got to stop in with Danielle and Anthony and see them. We talked with them about whether or not they still had the desire to be baptized, and they do! So we got that cleared up and made an appointment for Saturday.

Wednesday, the big milestone of my mission happened.....Watch out, everyone, hold on to your seats.........I am now the designated driver! I drive us all around in our Swagger Wagon (the van named Mo. We gotta spice it up a little bit.)! Okay, so yes we've gotten lost a few times, but we are still here. No signs have been downed thanks to me. Yes, yes I know. Thank you everyone for your support. I could join NASCAR when I get home I'm that good (actually, on second thought, probably not. They go too fast.) We met with Jose again on Wednesday, and he is so great! We taught a lot, including the Word of Wisdom, and he is already living the Word of Wisdom! He has no problems with that! It was such a big relief! Man it was awesome! He is so fun to work with! Oh yes, and we got back Tuesday night from the sister's apartment to find our plumbing and hot water pipes had froze, so we had to use the Noels toilets and showers for a few days, which was a bit odd, but we made it work. We could still wash dishes, so that was a blessing. We also visited with Faye again on Wednesday, and she is so great! SO funny! She was tripping over her words at one point and so did like this little Indian noise thing (I don't know how to explain it, obviously), and Sister Jensen and I couldn't handle it, it was so funny! So we just started laughing on her couch! And when I laugh a lot, I tear up, so Faye was worried that I hurt myself or something. But I didn't, she just cracks me up.

Thursday, our plumbing and hot water came back! Glory glory! Actually, the toilet revived Wednesday night when we were both almost asleep. We heard a gurgling sound and were so excited we both jumped up and ran to the toilet and then did a little jig when we saw it was working again. Oh man it was great. It's the little things in life that make the difference! Also on Thursday, I drove through my very first car wash ever. Yeah, it was strange. Mo is a big thing to drive. Soon I'll get a picture with him, then you can too see him. (p.s. know why his name is Mo? It's short for Mohonrimoriancumr (sorry for spelling), a name as long as he (the van) is. haha.) We met with Jose on Thursday also, and finished the Plan of Salvation, and taught 2 big commandments: chastity and tithing. Because his baptismal date is so close, we needed to make sure he was taught everything. And we were a bit worried it would be too much, but he took it in great! He already lives the law of chastity and said he has enough faith to pay tithing! I don't call many investigators golden, but when I do, their name is Jose. Seriously. He is so fun to work with. Of course, though, with his close baptismal date, the adversary was trying to get Sister Jensen and I to doubt. It almost worked. But it didn't! For Jose, I prayed the hardest I ever have in my whole life for another person that he would receive the answer he was expecting. He needed it by Sunday, or preparing for his baptism was going to get very complicated. So we prayed.

Friday, we prayed some more. We had Zone Training Meeting, so our whole zone was here in Minot, which is always fun. Our zone has grown by 2 companionships this transfer, and there are now 3 sets of sisters! 2 in Minot and 1 in Williston. In our zone, there are around 12 companionships. We barely fit in our relief society room! Which is great. And it doesn't take much, our Church building is small. So small, in fact that we are bursting at the seams on Sundays. So we now have a portable classroom for the Young Men and Young Women! It's crazy! Next week, I'll attach a picture. It's great that we have too many people and that we're expanding fast, but they can't build the new building fast enough. It'll probably be at least a year. But it will be a huge help. Then Minot 1st Ward is going to be split! Which makes sense because it is a geographically a HUGE ward, but it'll be weird. I won't be here when that happens, though. ZTM took up most of our day, Salvation Army was fun as always, we got to go through the ward list with the Relief Society president, which is always informative. I did get us lost on the way there (we almost started going towards Bismarck when we needed to go towards Williston, whoops!), but we made it! We met with Karen again, and she committed to come to Church. She is gaining that desire to come back!

Saturday was so great! We got a referral from a member for their next-door neighbor and then when we left, got to contact them because they were outside (tender mercy!), we got to meet with Shakeitha and Justin again, which went very well, and we had a great lesson with Danielle and Anthony! We brought the perfect fellowshippers with us to Danielle and Anthony and we had barely walked into the door when Danielle said "I read Moroni." And we were like, "Like Chapter 10?" And she said "Nope, the whole book! Look, I took notes and wrote down questions so I wouldn't forget them!" She then read us her notes. I about fell over! It was amazing! They have that desire to be baptized and want to work for it! We also found out Danielle's concern, which is so nice because now we can work with it! They are doing great! From there, we went and had dinner with Donna, Faye, and the Jenks family, an active family who is really good friends with them. We watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas and it touched Donna's heart. It was so cool to watch.

Sunday was Sister Jensen's 21st Birthday and it was the best day this week! At Church, Karen came with her kids! Danielle and Anthony were there! They got called into work after Sacrament Meeting, but they were there! It was great!! We were very worried because Jose wasn't there, but he texted us and had gotten called into work. SO we made plans to go with him to the 3pm meeting. (We now have church at 8am. For church being that early, there were a lot of people there! Almost everyone was on time, which is impressive because some people live an hour away or more from the Church building!) After Church, we went and met a potential who wasn't interested, and then met with Alyssa. She is so solid! We love working with her. She said she would absolutely be baptized is she finds out the Church is true, and it was such a great lesson. The couple we had with us was perfect. The only downside is we found out she just moved into a different ward. :( which is always sad, but it's okay. She came with us to the same sacrament meeting the Jose came with us to. The meeting was great! It was fast Sunday due to church being cancelled this week, which was so powerful. I was fasting for lunch (which I'm not supposed to do medically (mom don't get mad), but I wanted Jose to get an answer so bad that this is the true Church!). After Church, we talked with Jose and in the conversation, he said: "I know the good feelings I have when reading the Book of Mormon are my answer that the book is true. Because of that, Joseph Smith has to be a Prophet of God." It was the best feeling in the whole world! We pushed his date back until the 25th, because he has never been able to attend our ward yet and we want to make sure he has good fellowshippers. But he is so solid! He is definitely going to be baptized on the 25th! SO EXCITING!! FOr our dinner appointment, Jose came with us to the Van Bibbers and afterwards we had a lesson in their home. It was so powerful! We went to his apartment so he could follow us there, and he has a super sweet 2014 Mustang (which we didn't know before, we had just seen his work truck), and so it was a bit embarrassing to show up in our minivan (it didn't feel like a Swagger Wagon at that point.)

The Church is true! The work is working! This gospel changes lives! It's changing mine!

I love you all! Be an example of the Believers!

sister leslie.