"That book came from the God."

Hello familia!
Prepare yourselves for a novel...

I dunno that I have felt this blessed in a long time!! Wow. I read a talk this week that said, "as we study and ponder, we are entitled to the promptings of the Spirit, and as we grow more attentive to these promptings, we come to recognize each day the workings of the Lord in our lives. We will find Him in the details of our lives." I was pondering this week a question about how intimately the Lord is really involved in all the little things, but He has confirmed again and again to me He truly is in the very details of our lives. It's one of Satan's tricks to make us believe things happen by mere coincidence or our own efforts alone. Yes, efforts on our part are necessary as well, but I feel they'd be wasted without the hand of the Lord shaping our lives day by day as we walk the path of becoming. I want to share some of the miracles and tender mercies of this blessed week that helped witness to me the truthfulness of God's love for each of His children.

Laura. We found her knocking with the sisters on exchanges. She let us show the "Prince of Peace" video to her but after it ended tried to shut us down. She said, "That is nice but we believe in completely different things. We believe in Jesus Christ and saints and the virgin Mary; you believe in something totally different." She looked to me and I began to testify to her in Spanish of Jesus Christ. The moment I opened my mouth, you would not believe how dramatic the Spirit made His entrance ;) He was there and He was there strong! He confirmed what I said as I began to teach about the Book of Mormon and the role it has as another witness of Christ. The Spirit is the best senior companion ever because He knew what she needed and guided it there. After finishing explaining and testifying of the Book of Mormon I offered it to her. She took it quickly and said we could come back to talk about it again. We left that house to carry on with the street as Sister Yu asked me what happened. She told me she couldn't understand what I was saying but that the Spirit was crazy strong the whole time. It was amazing!

Another tender mercy and experience the Lord blessed us with was Friday afternoon with a woman named Mary. Mary and her two massive adorable dogs are traveling "out west" in the hopes of a new job opening. They are currently staying in a dog-friendly hotel and living out of a van. She was looking for a place to let them be outside and came across our chapel (we have lots of grass and shade with a big parking lot). Here is where we found them, chilling under the trees. She was anxious she would be told to leave; of course not! We talked for a few minutes then went inside. After finishing our weekly planning, I felt I wanted to try one more time to get a gospel conversation going with her. We went. We talked for a bit again and the thought repeatedly entered my mind, "pray with her" (Don't put off promptings until the end, okay?? I am still working on this...). She was packing up to leave - as were we - when she said to pray for them that all would be well. She meant later, but we awkwardly asked if she wanted us to pray for/with them now. Oh my goodness, did she (literally) run at that! She told us what she was stressed about and I said I would offer the prayer. I began, addressing our Heavenly Father, and you would not believe... the Spirit hit us like I have never before felt simply offering a prayer. We finished and she could not stop thanking us and crying. We gave her a card and told her if she ever needed anything she could get help there after explaining a bit how the church and missionaries work. We said our goodbyes and just walked away dumbfounded that such a little thing to us as offering a prayer could be that spiritual of an experience for not only her, but us as well.

These two experiences of the week specifically are very cherished to me because I haven't always felt like one who "teaches with power and authority" as the BOM missionaries are described, but in these moments I felt it. It was such a tender mercy and blessing for me to see I had the Spirit with me enough that when I went to testify He was there to confirm my words. When I called on God, He was there. In these situations we were blessed with individuals whose hearts were open, allowing Him to plant those seeds. We never know who is ready or at what stage they are, but if we are always willing and worthy to testify, teach, and serve we will find opportunities to be a witness of Jesus Christ.

I have been on a bit of a "disciple hype" as I call it, reading everything under the sun about what it means to be a true follower of Christ as I try my best to be that. I am grateful for the mercy, love, and patience of my Savior as He teaches me how to be more like Him. One thing He has begun a real endeavor on for me is teaching me humility. This week He gave us a beautiful family to teach who demonstrate this attribute. Hermana Rosario found them street contacting on exchanges. We went for our lesson at the end of the week. The dad wasn't there but the others were. We began the lesson explaining our purpose and that our message is centered on Jesus Christ. We asked what they knew of Him and their answer was simple and humble: "El es nuestro Salvador y debemos creer en El," the mom and aunt testified. That was all they knew. The kids spoke English so we pulled up the "Who Is Jesus?" children's bible video for them. The rest of the lesson was so powerful.

At the end we introduced the Book of Mormon as another witness of Christ. We were comparing it to the Bible when the thought entered my mind that they had never read the Bible. Sure enough, we found they had never read nor touched a Bible. We offered the books to them and they just hugged them. The 8-year-old pointed to the one I was holding and looked at it steadfastly, thinking intently. Then, he turned to me. "That book came from the God," he said. In that moment his simple testimony filled the room with the Spirit as He confirmed the words of this little boy who had never before seen a book of scripture.

We invited them to read the introduction and explained we would talk more about it next time (as well as prophets because the daughter wanted to know who Moses was!). They eagerly agreed. Wrapping up, we asked who would like to say the prayer. The two kids shot their hands up. We decided they could both do it. We all knelt and waited. Hermana Rosario leaned over, "Do you know how to pray?" No, was their simple reply. "Follow me, just say what I say." Hermana Rosario began the prayer. Both kids repeated after her and as we rose and gathered our things we felt little arms around us as each child came bounding forward with hugs --even the little two year old waddled up to us beaming and hugged our legs. It was quite possibly one of the coolest lessons of my entire mission as this family eagerly soaked in every word we said, testifying they knew everything we said was true. Their complete humility and desire to learn invited the Spirit where He was able to bear His witness. We will let you know what happens with them :)

This email is already a novel and it is only through Sunday as of now. But one more short story and we will move along to the rest of this week :)

Marta is on a baptismal date!! As of now it is set for the 15th of July. She also came to church this Sunday and the lesson for Gospel Principles was PERFECT. They answered every single one of her questions and we are hopeful her doubts are gone and she will press forward in faith. We have very high hopes for her.

(I'll write y'all Monday about the rest of the week cause this is ridiculous :) sorry :) love you! Hope it's a good week!!)
Mucho amor,
Hermana Karra Gourley

"I'm so tired that I want to hug my bed" - Hna Rosario

Hello hello :) I had something already started but this phone...not sure where the draft is and I am hard core lacking ganas to write an official email. So. The thoughts that come to mind it is! 😊  (also, new phone is lacking in good emojis so...be creative cause I'm limited.)

Megazone! New phones. Thursday. We are adjusting. It is really different. We all handed in our tablets and it was the saddest thing. Area book is impressively slow and is really teaching me some patience! We just laugh instead of throw the phone across the room.

Knocking. We did a ton of knocking this week but didn't have much success. We gave a workshop in district meeting on finding and something clicked a little bit differently for me that maybe we aren't going to find our investigators knocking, but we are showing the Lord we are willing to work and that we trust Him to give us those who are prepared by being prepared in every moment to teach. Had some opportunities to do that this week #gonnatakework #get'erdone

Clara! We taught her this week. She's new. We opened with a prayer and the first words out of her mouth following it were, "my father passed away...what do you believe happens to the soul then?" My friend, we got an answer for you! We taught the plan of salvation pulling out scriptures, telling stories from the Savior's life, and sharing our own testimonies. It was probably the coolest lesson I've had for several reasons.  We got to one point where my companion was teaching and skipped over a major point we both knew would be important for her when we talked about the lesson. We both knew the Spirit was directing it that way for a reason. We didn't know how it was going to come back where we could teach this point (me especially because it would by my turn to teach it) so we were focused more than ever on her, each other, and the Spirit. I was trying so hard to be in tune and then, He showed us. It just opened all up and it was PERFECT for her, way better than however we would have done it before. It was one of those moments where when we were testifying the Spirit was raging...and it was awesome. So that was cool.  We are seeing her again this Friday. We will see what happens :)

Oh I have a new focus: humility. I am working hard core on that one.  I'm thinking about it all the time trying to change my train of thought by catching it. The Lord has been very patient with me, kinda calling me out on it every once in a while, but the thing is I don't feel frustrated or discouraged after because it motivates me to try even harder. It's funny - lots of people feel repentance is scary but I feel excited to repent, as weird as that sounds haha. It's been cool to see how the Lord works that way. :)

Other than that...not sure what else I've got for ya this week. I got my email from the missionary department to start "my plan".  So there is that... time goes so fast... I love you!! I hope this next week is good. :)

Mucho amor,
Hermana Karra Gourley

PICTURES: 1. Our new phones (which have not-so-great cameras and no editing but black and white...)
2. We tried to go see this castle thing but it is $25 dollars for the tour and we are poor but the little entrance was fancy and as close as we got
3-5. We pass these little bear carvings that are out for sale almost daily and wanted to go look at them and found #missionarybears #anythingin2sisformissionaries
6. Four of our lightbulbs went out. We got new ones at megazone but we have tall ceilings...The only option? I stand on the table and stretch! I had to keep switching arms cause my hands were getting tired. They were in there good! Got it eventually and now we can see xD  (also this phone has dumb emojis so...imagine)
7. First attempted picture with the new phones #needsediting #butcantonthephone #badlighting

Trabajo

Buenas :)

Last Monday with the iPads and then we will all be readjusting to the small screens and baby keyboards #megazone #thursday #whydoeseveryoneneedtomeetwithusondayswehavemeetings??

We got some heat this week touching 90s a couple times and have surprisingly even been without the humidity to an extent where it hasn't been horrible. Because it's getting warmer, everyone is outside! This has made our finding a lot easier and a lot more fun. We were walking one of the streets we work on the way to a lesson and met our priestly friend again. He was alone this time sitting on his phone without his church garb. We were discussing the lesson we were about to have but as we passed I smiled and said "hola", cause we talk to everyone! I didn't hear but Hna Rosario told me we got a "víboras!" again #prayforthosethatpersecuteyou

There was a pretty intense lesson or two with one of our investigators this week. She has to move back to El Salvador and is taking her three girls with her, probably will not be returning. We hope we can get her in touch with the church and missionaries out there because she really needs it. She is planning to leave in the next three weeks. We'll be praying for them!

Something super bien, as they say, that happened is week was being blessed to see the Lord really do His work. After one of our investigators came to church three weeks ago we kind of lost touch with her. She began canceling our lessons and when we passed by to try and find her Saturday after the first week, we found her on the way to church with a catholic friend. We prayed for her day in and day out that whatever was God's will for her would be done. We passed by last Tuesday to try and see her and we caught her home. She was more than willing to visit with us as always. We sat down and got right to it. We asked if she's read and prayed about the Book of Mormon as she committed to do three weeks earlier when we last taught her officially in her home. She said yes. Once. We asked about that experience and she said it was the same week she committed to pray and asked once but said she didn't get her answer. Saturday the same week of her prayer we passed by and the first thing she asked us was when church was the next day, that being the week she came. We reminded her of this and told her part of her answer was that she needed to go to church to see for herself. We asked her how we receive answers to prayer and she taught us: consistent studying, asking, and pondering. We asked her if she felt she'd done that. She said no. We recommitted her to follow this process and promised her she would receive her answer if she did. Friday we got a text from her asking us for the number of the fellowshipper who gave her a ride the first time. She came to church Sunday :) In our visit Tuesday, after committing to try again, she asked us if we had to be married to be baptized. We thought to ourselves, "Uh oh. We gotta cross the chastity bridge?? We thought you were solid on that one!" We told her we would talk about it next time, to which she agreed. We were planning all week for this lesson and how to teach her the right way where she'll understand and feel the Spirit, praying for help to not lose her on this. The Lord did us one better - the sisters know what the lesson was in Relief Society yesterday :) #eternalmarriage Talk about the perfect lesson for preparing our investigator to receive the lesson we'd planned on that very subject in the frame of the plan of salvation--with all the women testifying and teaching about the blessings and purpose of eternal marriage. The Lord is preparing her so much and is making this path for her. We both felt strongly prompted yesterday as well that she's ready to accept the baptismal date we extended before. We will see how everything goes Wednesday when we see her again. But it was a huge blessing to see the Lord's hand in all of this over the last month, to work alongside Him in helping her come along and become converted. I love our job :)

Following that monster of a paragraph, the week has been pretty great! We received a referral por medio de text from a member in Jamaica, Queens. They were referring us a less active who lives in our area. We saw her Friday and she is awesome! She's had it rough the last couple of years but has a strong desire and determination to make things right. After visiting with her and her little three year old son we prepared to leave. We kissed her bye and her son wanted a kiss too. I gave him my hand to first bump and he kissed it instead. 😆 That same night we visited with a sister and helped her prepare for the temple a bit more. When we were leaving, this family was getting out of their car and the kids were looking at us. We waved hello and I asked the boy what his name was. He replied, "I'm four!" I told him congratulations to which he replied, "but hey, what's yo number?" We all were dying.

Speaking of kids, we also taught a sister this week who was taking care of EIGHT kids all under the age of four. It was crazy. Right when we sat down all of the kids that could walk got quiet and walked over to where we were and sat in front of us to listen. It was kinda cool :) goodness, I love kids!

I'm not sure what else happened, we have somehow come to week nine already. This morning I asked my companion if it was the tenth and she said, "no...its the twelfth." Where'd the days go?? I love you very much and hope it has been a good week :)

Happy summer y mucho amor,
Hermana Karra Gourley

Fun moments:
Livin' on a prayer...can't fight a good song #schoolnexttothechurchhavingapartyduringourweeklyplanning

"What are you doing?"
Hna Rosario: "Saludando la pupusaria!"

Comp unity
We both twitched putting on our mascara this morning where we ended with a lunar on the insides of our noses. I did it first and then my companion. She showed me and I said, "hey it's even on the same side," to which she called, "comp unity!!"

PICTURES:
(That awkward moment when you both realize you didn't send any pictures last week)
Ten minute nap in the car during dinner
This car though
When the lighting is HORRIBLE so the pictures only work in black and white
This sign though #onlyonevendays

Flower Uniforms

Buenas!

How are we doing? Is it just me or did last week go terribly fast...? We are sitting here trying to find out where the last SEVEN weeks have gone! Crazy. Last week was pretty great! We found a bunch of new people to teach and got to do some serious knocking. I decided throughout the week when something happened to write down a little note to remember. Here are my little points:

1. Super spoiler
We were on our way to our district meeting and my companion goes, "What...is...THAT?? A super spoiler??" Oh my goodness it was the most hilarious thing, this absolutely massive spoiler on this itty bitty car.

2. I can't eat but I don't know why
End of the month + missionary budget + poor use of money = no food. We didn't have much by the end of last week but I told my companion on Thursday we only had to plan one meal for Sunday so we would make it fine. Saturday comes around and we are on our way to a lesson in Huntington when she laughs to herself. She explains her thought process to me as follows, "Hmm, we don't have much food left...I can't eat tomorrow but I don't know why...OH! Fast Sunday!"

3. Mysterious sunburns
We stopped by the church Thursday and realized we both got a little bit sunburned on our necks and arms. The mystery part is that we were teaching or traveling to appointments all day to that point which means we were out of the sun, yet here were the burns. They are gone now but that was a funny moment.

4. Bug bites
The summer has begun and that means so have the bugs. Yay.

5. Upgraded: senior missionaries
Our bodies are just falling apart over here, haha! My shoulder has been killing me all week, hips are getting stuck, knees and legs are giving out, we are just losing one part at a time #seniormissionaries

6. 99 year old WWII vet
We knocked into this spry little fellow last Wednesday or Thursday; made our day! His nurse let us in to talk with him for a few minutes. We told him happy birthday (he hit 99 two days earlier) and the first thing he said after a thank you was that his wife passed away ten months ago and that they were married for 74 years! #goals He told us all about when he was drafted and how it interrupted their wedding and things but that he  "did four years, then got back home to her!" It was darling.

7. España familia
The Españas from Dyker came out to visit on Saturday! We got to say hello and talk for a few minutes before we had to head out to a lesson, but it was great to see them :)

8. Guns N' Roses, Hotel California, and Stayin Alive
Got to hear a bit of music this week, featuring the above (the Spanish store across the street has great taste)

Also, speaking of that little store, today we went and bought some groceries there and the cashier asked if we were sisters. We explained who we were and what we do as a few other workers gathered around to hear. We ended up talking and teaching for a few minutes with all of them and it was really cool! Right after that we stopped by Target and were going up to pay when a lady passed us and said, "hi sisters!" Totally caught us off guard but kinda made our day too :)

This week we got in touch with a sister we have taught before again so that was awesome. She has such a desire to learn and apply the gospel more to her life, we have so much hope for her! It was really cool teaching a few times this week, her included, where we had something planned but then once we got in there the Lord just took over as He does and guided it perfectly another - much better - way. It is something I will miss very much, being able to see Him use us as His servants so directly. I know He will do that regardless, but this work is something special; this is something different.

I found a talk this week called "What Think Ye of the Book of Mormon?" by Elder McConkie and I love it!! Oh my, I was loving that talk. We were studying a section of Twelve Week called "Revelation Through the Book of Mormon", which meant we got to talk a lot about my favorite book! It was awesome. We also set a goal to use the Book of Mormon more in finding and to try and emphasize it even more in our teaching. We haven't been doing too shabby with it.

We were teaching one of our new investigators last week and had just begun when someone knocked the door. Her friend had come by and our new investigator promptly invited her to join us. By the end of the lesson we had two new investigators both committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon who were excited for us to return next week. #teachwhenyoufind #findwhenyouteach

Yesterday, we had another investigator who also finally was able to come to church! We were beyond excited for her. After having a rather intense lesson earlier that week with her husband, he finally agreed to take her. We drove out to their house the morning of and they followed us to the church where he dropped her off. A few of our members took her right in and even gave her a ride home. We are seeing her tomorrow to talk about how she felt and what she is thinking now.

I feel one of the biggest blessings of this work is the opportunity we have to see people change, ourselves included. Never before did I think this much change was possible. We had a rather intense lesson with one of our less active members this week in a lesson where she changed the subject and began to rage about how she does not agree with the Church's stand on a particular topic. We taught and asked her questions. We came to a point at which she challenged us & we'd testified that with Jesus Christ all things are possible. She seemed to say, almost mockingly, "Do you really believe that?" Instantly the Spirit filled my heart and I knew that yes, I really do believe and know that. Our faith will be tried and tested and challenged but I have learned for myself that when we withstand these trials our faith becomes stronger and more sure and we will find the promise of the scriptures to be true. We might "wax firmer and firmer in the faith," with "the trial of [our] faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ".

Hopefully the next few weeks can be full of people to serve and opportunities to see the Lord's hand all around us. I love you!
Mucho amor,
Hermana Karra Gourley

P.S. The subject line: We were knocking yesterday and both happened to be wearing floral (my dress and Hna Rosario's shirt). We knocked this house and they come running to the door, "Girl Scouts??" ...no. They ask, "Oh are you missionaries!? How cute! And you have a little floral uniform?" .....NO. Ha! So there is the story for that one :)