November 21
President asked for specific stories this week, so I thought I'd forward them to you :)

Every week we have lunch with a less active lady who has a really strong testimony. The only thing keeping her from coming to church is her PTSD and past traumatic experiences that make it difficult for her to be in ANY large group of people. Recent things from her past have come up, and it has been a real struggle for her, and she's asking why these really terrible, awful things keep happening to her. Once she shared everything that has been happening with her, I started with the first thought that came to mind, how Satan really does try his hardest to give us reason to doubt, and for our faith to waver. The story of Job came to mind, I related that to her, and then almost without me being conscious of it I was talking about the premortal existence, how Satan remembers all those who fought so valiantly against him. Then came the overwhelming feeling that this amazing woman was one of those spirits who fought so hard against him in the spirit world. It was such a powerful prompting, and it really touched her. She said, "No one's ever said that to me before." The spirit was so strong.

One of the greatest member miracles I have seen would have to be with Tanya Percy. Tanya has been deaf her whole life. Teaching her was impossible at first, but as we know, nothing is impossible with God. As we persisted, communication came. The real miracle came when she attended church for the first time. We weren't sure how it was going to go with interpreting, because I only knew American Sign Language, and there was one other member who knew ASL as well. But as we began, a member came up and said that he knew Auslan, which is Australian Sign Language. With his help, we were able to communicate more effectively with Tanya. Unrelated to her not being able to hear, she has a bit of a learning disability, and it was difficult to see what she was actually retaining. But as more members became involved with her teaching, she progressed. She had a desire to be friends with these people, and learning about the gospel made her happy. So many members came to witness her baptism, and the miracle is that the fellowship didn't stop there. They had more ideas to help Tanya. A sign language activity was organized to help the rest of the ward learn to communicate with her, and it was so well attended! Since then, so many members have approached us, wanting to know how to talk to her, and taking it upon themselves to fellowship. An amazing miracle.

love you HEAPS