November 5, 2019

Hello everyone!
This week was a crazy one! We went to Montreal and back for MLC and exchanges. MLC was incredible as always. The testimony meeting at the end was extremely powerful, everyone was sobbing. When disciples of Christ gather, Christ is there too.
We had an extremely great lesson with Brian this week. It is so amazing to see how much he has changed. He opened up about why he hasn't been to church yet. He is starting to see so many miracles that are coming into his life because he is acting in faith. There is so much power in that. Acting in faith allows God to bless us. Faith is the act of lighting the match and starting the woodpile and unleashing all of the power within it. Wood won't give us warmth until we light it! And that is what he is doing. I love him a lot and I am proud of his courage to take these steps of growth.
We also picked up another person this week! Her name is Silvia and she's incredible! She had been taught in the past so she is familiar with missionaries and what we do. She also told us that she would talk to all of her friends and invite them to come and talk with us because "everyone needs to hear this!!" It was pretty amazing! So we are finding some really solid people! I love sister Livingstone seriously with all of my heart. We work SO well together! We laugh all the time but we work hard and get things done. It's awesome! I can tell that there is going to be a lot of growth this transfer. 

Another super cool miracle happened on Sunday too! Our friends from Jamaica came to church and they brought this huge box of apples to share with the branch! Everybody really liked them a lot before but, man, after those apples they kind of became celebrities! Haha!

I have been thinking a lot about the book of mormon this week. There have been a lot of things that I have read that have never stood out to me before. That book is seriously infinite. You could read it a million times and never really get everything. It is such a blessing to me that we have the Book of Momon along with the bible to teach what we need to know about doctrine and truth. It truly does hold the answer to every question. Even if it's not written on the page the answers can come with the spirit that accompanies you when you read it. It is truly my favorite book and I am so grateful for it. To all who have never read it, I invite you to try it out. You won't lose anything by doing so and you will gain much more knowledge about Christ than you ever bargained for! And with it, a new light will come into your life.

I love you!! Have a wonderful week!

Love, sister Bates