Sister Hales

Hello Everyone!

Sister Lee and I had a great last week together! It was a little different from our typical weeks with Mission Leadership Council all day Tuesday and Thanksgiving on Thursday and a trip to Rockwood on Friday, but it was wonderful nonetheless. We also go to go to a baptism of the Sharpe kids in the Hardin Valley ward. I met with them while I was in their ward briefly and they have such a great story. They live across the street from Bishop Rambo and their daughters were friends. The Sharpe's knew all the words to "A Child's Prayer" because the Rambo kids would sing it all the time. The Rambos invited the Sharpes to a ward party and Sis Sharpe asked the missionaries if they could teach her about the church if "they weren't busy." Sis Sharpe was quickly baptized afterwards in November of 2013. Her husband took a little longer and was baptized in May of 2014. He didn't want his kids to be baptized until they really undrestood, but really he still wasnt' sure for himself if the Church was better than his old one. But with help of the ward and the missionaries for the last year, Bro Sharpe finally felt his kids were ready and was able to baptize them himself on Saturday. The opening song was "I Love to See the Temple" and when it talked about our families being sealed together, I almost lost it. Now this wonderful family can go to the temple next summer and be sealed for time and all eternity! That's been a wonderful miracle to see :)

We had a great Thanksgiving and had so much fun running a 5k! The members were so kind to let us come to their homes and make us feel at home :) It was a good day!

Yesterday, we went to see a Recent Convert/Less Active-- John who's 17. He's the only member in his family and he has times where he is super active and really loving the gospel and other times when it is a struggle for him. But he's doing pretty good right now. When we were there, his Dad's girlfriend's son, Jalen, was there (also 17) and we taught him the restoration. He felt the spirit so strongly and committed to be baptized on January 3rd! It was so exciting! It's so neat to see people feel the spirit and help them identify what those feelings are! Being a missionary is pretty exciting :)

On Wednesday we are going to be saying goodbye to Sister Lee. It's been hard for her to leave, but I think she's accepted it now and is excited for this next adventure. She is going to do great things! On Wednesday, I'm going to be getting a new companion (I'm pretty sure it'll be Sis Echols) and a brand new missionary that we'll train together! I am so excited and cannot wait!

This will definitely be an exciting week!

I Love you all!