It has rained SO much this week. I've loved it though because it was starting to get so hot, so it cools things off.

Brandon texted me and said that he got to sit outside the temple! He got to have a lesson with the sisters outside the temple and he loved it. He said that he knows that he will go in some day, he can feel it. He is so excited for the day he gets to go! He gets baptized next Saturday & I am so excited.

We had a lesson with our friend AJ Wednesday night and as we were about to leave Sister Swan realized that she had locked the keys in the car. We were supposed to be inside our apartment soon and we were freaking out. We called the mission office and they said that it will take them 2 hours to get the spare key to us. We had a member join us for the lesson so we got permission from President to go to her place because our lesson was in a sketchy area. I was nervous to go to this members house because she's crazy and just started coming back to church. We ended up having so much fun though. We went to her apartment and danced and went through all her photos from her travels. She is a full blown hippe who did drugs and traveled the world, I ended up loving her so much haha. We ended up getting home at 11 that night it was rough to wake up the next morning.

We were out knocking & this one house had a sign that said beware of the dog. Sis Arrington hit the fence a couple times and the dog didn't come out so we opened the fence door and headed to the front door. Right as we were about to knock I hear Sis Arrington say "Guys there's the dog." It was this MASSIVE pitbull who was growling at us, it had trapped us on the porch. I froze and hid behind Sis Swan. The dog kept jumping at us like it was going to bite us. Sis Arrington distracted it so I ran off the porch and barely made it to the fence before it grabbed me. My companions were both trapped in the front yard with the dog and Sister Swan was screaming at it. They decided to book it and I opened the fence and they made it through before the pitbull grabbed them. We saw that the owner was watching the entire scene!! We were so scared the rest of the day it was so terrifying. Dogs here are SO mean! I am so scared of every single dog I see 

I was talking to a member in the ward here & he was telling me all about the ward. He said they have 800 records in this ward and only 115 attend sacrament meeting. It is SO sad. In this area we are going to focus on doing tons of member work, there are so many inactive and part member families that we can hopefully reactivate. 

Friday we went to Little Rock for Zone Conference! It was so good! Elder Bowen of the 70 and his wife addressed us. I got to meet them- they are very intimidating haha. The conference was so good though. He was the 70 who spoke in this last conference. His talk was called, "Miracles, Angles, and Priesthood Power." He made us study the Abrhamic Covenant, The House of Isreal, and the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood. He explained the entire Old Testament to us and how it ties into these things. He is a very very knowledge man. He told us that before we say yes to marriage to a man he needs to be able to tell us where the Priesthood Oath & Covenant is found in the scriptures and what it means to him. He also told us that if we go home from our missions and "fit back into the world" then shame on you. He was very blunt and bold. 

Sister Bowen shared the sweetest testimony ever! She started out her talk by saying that she wants us to write a book about a group of people and how they till the ground, how they plant, their war strategies, how they built their houses, how their government was ran, their money system, and incorporate all those peoples revelations, include the gospel, and it has to line up in with the Bible along with the timeline that matches up with the Bible, and the book has to be 531 pages and you have to write it in the span of 70 days and you can't erase or edit anything. 

This just made me realize how crazy it is that some people believe that Joseph Smith wrote The Book of Mormon. She told us that the invitations that we extend to the people we teach, we need to be doing ourselves to grow our own testimony of The Book of Mormon.

She also talked about what the angel Moroni said to Joseph Smith, "that my name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tounges, or that it should be both good and evil spoken among all people." 

Then she shared this scripture in Matthew 7: 15 ¶ Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 

16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 

17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 

18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 

20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

She then talked about everything that Joseph Smith restored and all the fruits of his works. He was tarred and feathered & gave up his life to restore the church. She said that Jospeph Smiths fruits were good and that we (members of the church) are the fruits. We are the good fruits who give up our time to help those in need through service, pay tithing and fast offerings to bless others, give up 2/3 years of our lives to help bless others and so forth. 

Elder Bowen shared this story with us:

"As a young missionary going to Chile, I learned a life-changing lesson about the conversion power of the Book of Mormon. Mr. Gonzalez served in a respected position in his church for many years. He had extensive religious training, including a degree in theology. He was quite proud of his biblical expertise. It was obvious to us that he was a religious scholar. He was well aware of the missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as they went about their work in his home city of Lima, Peru. He always wanted to meet with them so that he could school them in the Bible. One day, almost as a gift from heaven, so he thought, two missionaries stopped him in the street and asked if they could come to his home and share the scriptures with him. This was his dream come true! His prayers had been answered. Finally, he could set these misguided young boys straight. He told them that he would be delighted to have them come to his house and discuss the scriptures. He could hardly wait for his appointment. He was ready to use the Bible to disprove their beliefs. He was confident that the Bible would clearly and articulately point out the error of their ways. The appointed night came, and the missionaries knocked on the door. He was giddy. His moment had finally arrived. He opened the door and invited the missionaries into his home. One of the missionaries handed him a blue book and bore a sincere testimony that he knew the book contained the word of God. The second missionary added his powerful testimony of the book, testifying that it had been translated by a modern prophet of God named Joseph Smith and that it taught of Christ. The missionaries excused themselves and left his home. Mr. Gonzalez was so disappointed. But he opened the book, and he started to leaf through its pages. He read the first page. He read page after page after page and didn’t stop until late into the afternoon of the next day. He read the whole book and knew that it was true. He knew what he had to do. He called the missionaries, received the lessons, and gave up the life he had known to become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That good man was my MTC teacher in Provo, Utah. Brother Gonzalez’s conversion story and the power of the Book of Mormon made a great impression on me."

Elder Bednars talk was also SO good. He seemed like the sweetest man ever. It was so weird to see how young he was. It's so cool that his dad is a living apostle. He said that when he tells people his name they all ask "Wait Bednar?" and he says yea he's my uncle's only brother and my kids grandpa. He doesn't like to tell people that his dad is an apostle haha.