DeJohns arrive

Letter to friends:

Hello all! 

What is gooooooddddd? Party in the hood! (favourite way for my companion to greet every person we ever meet)

Thanks Sister Shigekiyo :)

So how is salt lake?  Warm and beautiful?  Did you see the sun this week?  We saw the sun in England this week.  Haha mission accomplished.

Oh and FYI car horns in England do indeed work.  Even at 2:30 am.  Gotta love living in the city :)

Sis Soulier, Sis Shigakiyo, Emilia

And yet another funeral was held in our district this week.  My poor companion Sister Shigkeiyo.  Apparently President loves to send me dying trainers.  But hey then I get all their vast wisdom from serving a full 18 months!  She is awesome. 

Wonderful thing to happen in this upcoming week...

Emilia's baptism :).  What a prepared soul she is.  So prepared.  All we have to do is fill out the baptismal form and invite members.  The Lord has got the rest covered.  We are very excited for her.  Please keep her in your prayers this week as she prepares to take this step not only for herself, but for her family!! 

The miracles I have been able to witness because of this woman.  She will certainly be a leader in the church one day. 

Other than that, missionary work is kind of the same as always!  It is a lot of planning, coordinating schedules, and trying to recognize the Spirit.  ANd hard work.  Oh boy a lot of hard work.  But that's what makes it so rewarding in the end right? 

Sorry for the short email this week, nothing much has changed that would be important to bring to light to all of you.  Just know the work moves forward and it is an INCREDIBLE work to be involved with. It is a work we are all involved with every single day.

The church is absolutely true and God love us.

Thank you for your prayers and love--hopefully this email is not too confusing.

MISS AND LOVE YOU AND SEE YOU SOON

Sister Soulier

Family letter:

Lea Ward army Sis Shigakiyo, Sis Soulier, DeJohns

Yes the DeJohns!  Wow so crazy!! They are so so so awesome.  OH I love them already.  I am so grateful you were nice to them Dad, so they are already super friendly to me.  I can't believe they will be serving in the same ward.  I am way excited for them.  I am very grateful for them.  On sunday Sister Dejohn came up to me and asked to meet any investigators.  I introduced her to Jenere and Jenika (the mom and daughter we met last week) and immediately she welcomed them and began to chat away.  Also in relief society SIster Shigekiyo was with one of our investigators Mecia (Emila's friend's daughter) and had to translate because she only speaks Portuguese.  I was with a former investigator named Mary who unfortunately is not all the way there in her mind and can't be taught.  THank goodness for Sister DeJohn because she took Jenere and sat with her next to a member and helped her throughout the whole lesson.  We were so grateful for her!! Jenere really needed that one on one help and a loving friend.  That will be a huge key in helping her to be baptized.  So I love the DeJohns.  They are awesome--sometimes too complimentary on our family--but hey, what can you do? 

And are you kidding me Durresso is getting baptized??  NO way.  No way.  THat's crazy!!!!  Yeah I went to elementary junior high and high school with him.  Wow that is crazy.  Good for him and good work!!

Big news for this week...

EMILIA.  Oh she is so amazing.  SO incredible.  I wish you could meet her so bad.  She is amazing.  Literally she is so ready for baptism it is incredible. 

We had her interview this past Saturday and took her to hyde park to be interviewed by President Stevens.  She was really nervous to be interviewed by him but said she wanted to be baptized and if this is the way to do it, then so be it! 

I was able to talk to Emilia for a few minutes alone after her interview and it was something else to hear what she said.  She said that for some reason she couldn't hold anything back.  She said she told President things she had never told missionaries, but just felt that she should tell him!  She tried again and again to describe what she felt in the room.  She said, there was something different but I couldn't put my finger on it.  She said it was more than a feeling of comfort, but that she somehow felt protected.  She said, I don't know if this is right, but I felt like something was in the room with us and that President was surely a man of God. 

I couldn't say anything after she had said all that.  All I can say is SHE IS SO READY.

Emilia is a grand, grand miracle.  You can ask SIster Cummings, but I can't tell you the number of times we stopped by her house or called her or tried to contact her for weeks and weeks.  Do you remember an email I sent a long time ago about meeting Emilia for the first time at Walthamstow tube station?  What a miracle that meeting was because we got in contact with her and she came to church the next day because of it.  Because of that little meeting she will be able to be baptized this weekend.  And the miracle of her deciding whole heartly to be baptized.  She is so commited.  She knows without a doubt that this is for her and she wants to keep progressing afterwards to get to the temple to be sealed with her family for time and all eternity.  It's amazing because honestly it is nothing we have done as missionaries.  She is just a prepared soul to the max.  And she has 7 kids that will be shown the gospel because of it. Her kids don't live at home anymore except for her two sets of twins at age 6 and 3.  We took Nelson and Elijah to church yesterday (the 6 yr olds) and they did not want to go.  However after much much cozxing and pleading they agreed.  After ward they couldn't stop saying how much they love church and how they want to come back tomorrow!  I'll attach a video of them.  Also she has a family friend named Osvaldo and his daughter Mecia staying with her.  Both only speak Portugueses unfortunately.  But let me tell you, nothing is better then a person about to be baptized talking to their closest friends about their baptism.  They will be baptized for sure.  Osvaldo is on date for May 22 and we just met Mecia so we will put her on date this week with her father.  Mecia is 15 years old. 

Please pray for Emilia and Gustoff (elders investigator) and Maria (elders investigator in a different ward) to be baptized on Saturday.  There will be two baptisms in the Lea Valley ward which should be really nice.