Week 32: Surviving the Elements in the Good ol' South

Well friends, I survived a tornado! Safe to say I'm getting the full experience down here in the South. First Hurricane Barry and now a tornado...kind of. Saturday morning we were getting ready for our day per usual and my phone kept giving me tornado watch alerts. A watch means it can happen, its might happen but it's not for sure. A warning means it's coming something's been sighted by radar or in the air. Well, I'm still getting ready and all the sudden I get a tornado warning alert and a minute later we hear the tornado sirens! Sam calls us and tells us that we need to get in the hallway with our mattresses because a tornado was headed our way! Well, we get under the mattresses, and a minute goes by, then 2, then 10 and no tornado. The weather got super crazy but the tornado ended up going past us and not landing anywhere by us! But, I can say I lived through tornado sirens! 

We had a miracle weekend! We had 4 nonmembers at church yesterday and we found 3 new people to teach! It was so awesome! Theres a family we have been teaching and we were getting ready to start a lesson and they stop us before we start because their dad Cornelius invited his mom to join us and learn about the gospel! It was so awesome. All their kids wanted their own copies of The Book of Mormon and a pamphlet and they are loving what they're learning! It's been so awesome to see so many people in this area progressing! Sister Johnson and I are definitely being so blessed. The Lord really does consecrate our efforts!

I had a real cool experience yesterday. We were trying a former investigator and they were running out the door but before they left they asked if we had a message to share. Well we always have a message to share so we told her yes! I pull put my Book of Mormon and start flipping through and Mosiah 2:41 really stood out to me, but I pushed it aside. I kept thinking this lady probably tries to keep the commandments and I kept flipping, but I just figured what the heck. I'll share it. So I read that scripture and she asks why I shared that. Mosiah 2:41 talks about the blessed and happy state of those who keep the commandments of God and I told her it had been on my mind and how the commandments and God are the only way we will find true happiness. Turns out she had been thinking that same thought all week! The Lord is in the details!! If we listen, He makes us the instrument He needs us to be.

I was listening to a talk this week and something they said that stood out to me was "The commandments gave me a great life." I've been thinking about that a lot. The commandments have truly given me a great life and I am happier when I keep them. God is so good. I am so blessed by Him, He seems to always bless us more than we deserve. He always gives us way more than we put in. I think that's pretty darn awesome. I love Heavenly Father! I invite all y'all to see how you can follow a commandment more faithfully and see the blessings and happiness God will bring you! 

I love this gospel! I love Heavenly Father so very much and I love Jesus Christ more than I can express. I love my mission, I love the people here and I love the South (even with the tornados!) Love y'all, have a blessed week!

Love, Sister Crouch