Sister Linnae Raleigh Mission Letter

My dear sweet Family and Friends!!! Today is my 8 month mark!!!! It flies by. Thank you for the letters from Thanksgiving that made my day. I cannot even tell you how blessed I have been while being on my mission. This transfer is awesome!!!!!! I am seeing the blessing from being obedient. So many come from being obedient to the rules even if its going to bed or getting up on time. That was a hard thing for me but being a trainer I HAVE TOO!! We have received many new referrals out of nowhere people just call and say oh this person wants to hear the gospel or want to be baptized. Its because of the members here in St George that I am able to have a successful mission. How I love missionary work. How I can look back on the last 8 months of my transfer and see the growth that comes and the blessings and most importantly the MIRACLES I have seen here in St George that only our father in heaven is capable of. They will stick with me forever. I love trainer and I love being in a three some. The unity is amazing. We have 10 people on date for this next transfer from he work that sister moon and I did last transfer. None of this is possible without the help of the Lord. No way!! I love my savior I have seen the power of the atonement in these past couple months and my testimony of the atonement has grown so much. I love being here in St. George for Christmas. It is really crowded on Monday nights for FHE and thanks giving and on the weekends. Hundreds and hundreds of people we are showing Christmas movies now and all the lights are up around the temple it looks beautiful I will send pictures. I don’t think I will be as homesick at all but of course I will miss you all but I will get to talk to you on Christmas. What are you plans? Well we are going caroling at the rest homes in our area and I just found out I am in charge on Christmas eve at the visitor center Well, I’m in charge of all the sisters and we will have about 15 of us on shift. Its going to be crazy but I am so ready I cant wait. We expect hundreds of people I hear its just like a zoo and we play the christus messages over and over again a sister just stands there and hits the button over and over and over and crowds of people come in. I AM SOO EXCITED!! Bring it on St George!! haha Sister Cannon is my new companion she is from Seattle and she is so smart already she has been out for 2 months and Sister Parry my other companion I have come to know her really well since I have been here she is 26 and she is from Monterrey Ca and she is great she goes home in 5 weeks!!! Dad I will read Jeffery R Holland’s talk actually his home ward is in the stake we cover the 5th ward his mom is in the ward and he was at church on sunday sitting by the bishop he is coming back Dec 21 to speak in that ward and we will definately be there. He is a very powerful man. Ill send pictures if he lets me take a picture. Thank you so much for the face lotion. I need it!!!Sister Cannon and parry and I spoke in 3 wards on sunday and it went well. We have some strong member missionaries and great ward mission leaders I have really learned on my mission how to deal and work with WML and bishops relief society pres and so forth. MOst are nice some are pain in the you know what. I just pray for the ones that can drive me nuts some times. We have one who we had released because he never came to the meetings because he was at home playing halo. He is 27 and married! Well I want to challenge all of you to read the book of mormon again this holiday season.I just started a couple days ago. I am in 1 Nephi. I think I will understand it more since I am missionary minded and I have only read it once when i was 19. I am starting at the beginning. The book of mormon is an invitation in partaking of the Lords atonement. The spirit that comes from reading it will bless your life. I have so much to work on and I will have to work on charity and patience for the rest of my life. I have been working on Charity and if you think about it love is like a boomarang, you throw it out there and it always comes back to you. I have seen this lately and I challenge all of you this holiday season to be more charitable but to find people and pray for people that the missionaries can teach. Ya know sometimes in life we just want to give up. Cause its to hard or you just don’t want to live by the rules but there was a great talk by an apostle and he was saying never turn your back on the savior he would never leave you alone. The savior was alone for a time his apostles left him, the people, even his own father. How alone he must have felt. He lives he loves us and the power of the atonement is real. Its there weither we except it or not. At times we feel inadequate in things especially for some with sharing the gospel. I felt like this when I came out on my mission I didnt know alot and I still am learning everyday! Or maybe if we get a new church calling. But think about it.....all we really need is out testimony. Today I woke up to the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen. The sky was orange,purple, blue, yellow and red and it covered the sky. I love the scripture in mosiah 4:9. I love Our God. I have come to realize on my mission that it is not only about getting people to hear the gospel and hoping they will except it but it is about getting them to the temple that is the ultimate goal. Being sealed as families forever I feel so blessed to be a a visitor center with a temple right there. I have the neatest experience I have to share. Back in July a man who has been a member his entire life came in with his fiance and they were in their 50s probably. He had been divorced a couple times. She is from puerto rico I think and he is white she is NOT a member. So i took them on a tour around the visitor center and then I took them into Gods plan for his families which talks about the plan of salvation. At the very end the spirit prompted me to teach this woman about the restoration of the gospel. The spirit at the moment was one of the times i have felt it the strongest on my mission. Then I gave her a hug her name is GINGER and sent her on her way. She is From big bear California. So its hard because at the visitor center we don’t really see the fruits of our labors because all we can do it stay worthy of the spirit and be ready to bear testimony and send the visitors’ on their way and pray that they will get missionaries. So back in July I met her then never talked to her but prayed for her a couple times. Well the other day like 3 days ago I get a call on my cell phone from GINGER. She called the visitor center and asked for my number. I quote exactly what she said;" Sister Raleigh I have been waiting to get a hold of you....I have to tell you that when I met you at the visitor center and everything you told me I know it was true I have never in my entire life felt what I felt when you were talking about the gospel. I will always remember you because you were the first one who really explained the restoration of the gospel to me. Since then I have been having the missionaries’ over at my home in California and because of the things you said to me that day back in July I am going to be baptized on December 13th!!!!!!!!!" what an amazing time I was able to be apart of when the spirit was able to work through me. It wasn’t me it was the spirit who is the true converter. These are the miracles I see on my mission and I am so grateful to be called to the VC cause i wouldn’t of met Ginger. She plans to be sealed in the temple in one year to her husband and invited our entire family to go.!!!! WE ARE GOING!!!!!!!!! I love the gospel. Think about it this is christs church. The CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS. Christs church wouldn’t be called the Seventh Day Adventist or The Church of MAry or the Catholic Church. IT IS JUST AS it should be the church of Jesus Christ. I feel blessed to be about my fathers business everyday. To put on my name tag everyday. I never want to take it off. Everyday of our lives we are called to bear witness of the savior. I want you all to know that my mission is like a being thrown into a refiners fire a mission brings out all of my weaknesses but that is okay I have alot to work on. As I have been able to refine my life so far being a missionary it is my pray and my hope that when the savior comes again and stands in front of me and looks me in the face that he will be able to see his own reflection. We need to always strive to be more like him. Work on those christlike attributes everyday pray for them fast for them. A couple months back I prayed and fasted for greatest faith and I received it and I prayed to be humbled and I was for sure. How grateful I am to have the knowledge of the gospel and to share it. I want to be on a mission forever. I love you I pray for you especially this holiday season. MY ADVICE DONT GET SICK!!! I love you!! love Sister Linnae Raleigh