Faith Brings Surprises… I Mean Miracles!

Good Morning Family and Friends:

Sorry this is a day late, but I have been in bed with the flu for the last few days. I just couldn't drag myself to the computer yesterday. So here is Carlee's letter.

Just want to remind everyone to get their Christmas letter ready for her and send to me as soon a possible or by December 6th. If you missed my email, I am sending Christmas letters to Carlee from family and friends. Just an experience with her, a special thought, and if you would like I am sure she would love to have your testimony. Send them to my email at ladawn79@hotmail.com. I know she would love to hear from all of you.

Hope you are having a great week. Enjoy this weather while it lasts. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday.

Also, if you want to send a Christmas Card or anything to her, the apartment address is:

Sister Carlee Painter
11651 Norborne Drive #216
Cincinnati, OH 45240

As you will read in her letter, they don't want things going to the Mission Home.

Thanks for all your love and support.

LaDawn



Hi Family:

SURPRISE! Martin got baptized on Saturday! Yeah it was a surprise to us too! The Elders were teaching Daniel, another Ghanian friend, who decided to be baptized on Saturday so we invited Martin to come. Well Martin walks into the church before its about to begin and says, “I want to be baptized.” We said, “GREAT! We can arrange that.” Then he said, “No I want to be baptized next… today.” We kind of just looked at him for a second (thinking he was joking because he does that a lot). We had him tell Brother White and realized he was serious. We explained how you had to have an interview first and he asked if we couldn’t just do it after. Uh… no. So we held off Daniel’s baptism for a half hour while the Elders called President and got permission, interviewed him, got him dressed up and baptized. It was crazy! But he had been taught everything, he knew it, he was just waiting until it felt right. I guess when it’s right… it’s right!

It was truly a remarkable experience though. While Martin was getting interviewed I was a little nervous. Was this really the right thing to do? Was he just making an impulsive decision? I asked a quiet prayer to know if this was really okay with the Lord to baptize him right here, right now. I immediately felt a rush of peace and knew the Lord had approved. With the Lord’s approval anything is possible right! ha ha. I can’t even describe to you the feeling of love and joy I had the rest of the day!

Miracles do happen.

I’m so grateful to know we have the Lord on our side! I’m grateful to know we are here to do HIS work! What a privilege and honor that is. Isn’t that exciting! You know that means you too, not just the missionaries.

Here is my Thanksgiving List:
I’m grateful for:
-My Savior who lived as a perfect example for me!
-Heavenly Father who has a plan for each of us! And that is to bestow on us as many blessings as we’ll let him!
-The Book of Mormon! I love it and the power it brings into our lives!
-Joseph Smith and the restoration of all the priesthood keys!
-A prophet on Earth today to lead and guide us!
-My Family who continually inspires me to be better!
-Friends who write me letters! ha ha

Speaking of letters, I have bad news. This is directly from President:
New Post Office Mail policy
Due to new and reinforced postal rules and to a new expensive service that they are promoting (Premium Forwarding Service), the Post Office will no longer forward the mail that is sent to the Mission Office for free. In order for you to receive your mail (letters and packages), your family and friends need to send your mail to you directly to your apartment during the first four weeks of the transfer.
Send mail and packages between these 4 week periods:
November 3 – December 1, 2009
December 15, 2009 – January 12, 2010
January 26 – February 23, 2010
March 9 – April 6, 2010
April 20 – May 18, 2010
June 1 – June 21, 2010
July 13 – August 10, 2010
August 24 – September 21, 2010
October 5 – November 2, 2010
November 16 – December 14, 2010
All mail that is delivered to the Mission Office will be distributed at the following Zone Conference. Please note, that by the time your mail is brought to the Mission Office by the missionaries in the apartment you just left, it could be two or more Zone Conferences before your mail can catch up to you.

Moral of the Story, don’t send mail to the mission home anymore. Will you let everyone know that.

I love you lots! And I love this work!
Sister Painter

PS…
Thank you for the flowers and package! Loved it! I took a few of the flowers to Sister Mastin (she's a less-active that can't leave the house.)She loved them too!

Will you please tell Jaci I have a letter on the way for her, but I would REALLY like her to come and talk to you (Mom). Plus Jaci, my mom probably has better insight about it than I do. She’s amazing. :)

AND will you let Cindy know that she is on my black list for not sending me ANYTHING about this! Big trouble.