Earth has no sorrow heav"n cannot heal

Hello, hello! 

I will try and refrain from freaking out that October is almost over...BUT OH MY GOODNESS!!!! That flew by so fast. WITCH month even is it?? I black CAT even believe it. GHOUL you gotta be kidding me! ORANGE you glad I am so punny??

Anyway, this week was another incredible week. I swear a mission is full of the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. We experienced both this week, but what makes the Gospel so FULL is that the we can see the Savior in both. And this week I surely did! 

Miracles: 

So first off, NONE of our investigators came to church yesterday...and we tried so hard! No Kim, no Robert and Kayla, no Trina, no Christina and Sam :( It was a rough one. BUT miracles still came. Our recent convert family, Perry and Kelsie, came for the first time in quite a few months! And they NEEDED it! We were determined to get them there, so we showed up bright and early yesterday with breakfast in hand. We knocked on the door at 7:45 am determined not to leave until they were in the car on the road. We rolled into sacrament meeting 5 minutes late, but it didn't even matter, because they were there! It was the most incredible meeting. It was as if all of the talks were written just for them! There was one moment where I looked over and Kelsie was in tears. My heart! I know that Heavenly Father knows and LOVES His children. He knows and loves them so much! And things will get better. I have a testimony that this Gospel can heal broken families, and if they do their part, the Savior can and WILL heal them. 

But in other news, we had a really cool miracle last night with our returning member Sister Cleveland! She is now the only active member of her family, and she doesn't really have a testimony of her own yet. She has two children and is currently going through a divorce, but she is trying so hard to do what is right! As we were reading in the Book of Mormon I felt prompted to share what I studied about obedience that morning. So I followed the prompting and testified about how we can be totally obedient to all of the commandments, but still not get anything out of it! How? By withholding our heart! Heavenly Father REQUIRES our heart, and that is when the blessings come, when we give our WHOLE heart to Him. We haven't really gotten anywhere with her yet, but all of the sudden something clicked when I said that, and she stopped us. "That is me!" She said. "That is exactly what I do, I am obedient just to be obedient." We have been praying for weeks to be able to discern her need, and there it was. And it came simply through following a whisper of the spirit. We were able to immediately address it and leave her with a commitment to change, but more importantly, a DESIRE to do it! Ahh it was so powerful. It's incredible how Heavenly Father can guide us to study for others without really even knowing it. The scriptures are the MOST powerful tool in conversion! I am so grateful for my studies. It really is a time I treasure every morning. 

Funnies: 

So we have this older couple in our ward named the Schroeders and they LOVE the missionaries. Like LOVE them. They are converts and they have just adopted all of us as their grandchildren, which is the best thing ever. Anyway, this week we were over there for dinner and they asked us to help with some service so we went outside to help. The Elders showed up just as we were finishing and getting ready to leave and for some reason Texas came up. (That is a DAILY occurrence with Sister Preator. She LOVES her state...) Anyway, one of the Elders asked what the Texas colors were and before Sister Preator could answer Brother Schroeder piped in and said "black and blue!" Sister Preator got all hyped up and said, "No, they are red, white, and blue!!" Then Brother Schroeder was silent for a minute, and quietly came back with, "Huh, no, I think they are black and blue because Oklahoma is beating the heck out of them." Hahahahaha I about fell on the floor laughing and Sister Preator turned bright red. It was so funny. Man Texans sure do love Texas! 

Spiritual Thought: 

Yesterday really was a POWERFUL sacrament meeting, and I just wanted to share a sweet and simple truth that I learned with all y'all while I was there. It came from the musical number that two of the most incredible sisters in the ward sang: "Come, Ye Disconsolate" (#115) This hymn has become my new favorite, and it is all because of the last line of the first verse. "Earth has no sorrow, that heav'n cannot heal." I can testify that that is true. I know that this world is FULL of tribulation, turmoil, distress, heartache, and disaster. But no matter the trouble heaven can and will heal us, we just have to look up. I encourage all of you to look up this week and continue to remember who the Savior really is. He is our healer. He calls to me, and He calls to you. 

I love you and hope you have the best week!! 

xoxo, 

Sister Bengtzen 

Pics: Happy Halloween! Courtesy of Mama Bengtzen's package :)