Sarah Cate: Austin Calling

Hi family and friends,
I am doing well this week. Much better. Thank you for all y'alls prayers. I truly felt them and needed them a lot this past week. I am truly in awe at the power of prayer and the help that I know comes from a loving Heavenly Father.

So, last Monday we received a call from President informing us that we were going to be training at an upcoming leadership meeting. "Don't worry" he said, "you are going to be training on bringing people to church. It will be for 2 1/2  hours. Good luck. You need to leave them feeling inspired."  uuuuhhhhhh whaaaaaaat?!!! --and it was right before we went to bed. Needless to say, sleep was very restless. We were assigned to train with two other sisters so, in theory, it wasn't supposed to be that bad. So the next day we met with the sisters and  planned and had a normal missionary day. I was nervous because the other sisters were...well, timid about everything. I didn't want to overpower or take over everything. I just wanted everyone to be a participant and help us all be awesome. We were fine with our training because we had some good ideas and they were going to be stellar. Well, on Wednesday (we had 2 days of training and we were training on the 2nd day) we had some amazing trainings by President and the assistants and some zone leaders. It was all good except....THEY TRAINED ON  EVERYTHING WE WERE GOING TO SAY-- no joke, down to like the very same role plays and same Scriptures. It was like a punch to the gut but really awesome because we knew that the spirit was inspiring us to talk about these things since all of us came up with similar ideas. So after having some baby heart attacks, we decided to have an emergency meeting with each other the following morning to try to throw something together and use some of the old stuff but tweak it a little. Well, that night when we went out to work, we taught a lesson at a members house. Guess what is sooooo cool about working in a singles ward? Everyone (women included) are return missionaries (so it seems), so it was like having a house full of  missionaries. It was stellar! Well I shared with them that we had this training to give and that we needed ideas. A flood of ideas began to roll and all of a sudden I was suuuper pumped for the next day. We had so many good ideas that I truly believe carried me through the following 24 hours. The next morning, the sisters weren't at the ward. They didn't show till we only had about 20 minutes of planning. In a panic, we throw something together and honestly and truly we had no idea how it was all going to go down or come together. Luckily I have the sweetest and most stellar companion and I just told her that we were going to have to just wing it. I was hopeful because I knew we had the Lord on our side. We had done our part to prepare but due to outside circumstances, we could do little but what we had done. I prayed about every second of the training but guess what........IT WAS PERFECT. It was the most incredible training. We had all the leaders of the mission there and many of them were ....wait for it........CRYING! yeah. The Lord loves us so much. We were so blessed. It's a running inside joke (because of several events on my mission) that I like food...especially cake and donuts. Its was great. I made an analogy with cake that literally blew everyone out of the water! Blessings just flowed. I felt very loved. I got to see Elder Nygaard who was with me down in Del Rio. He is a special friend. He is just so good. Don't worry I am not in love with him. He is my brother. He knows that too.

General Conference changed my life as well. It could not have been better. I am blessed. We had a lesson with Hector. He is getting baptized this Saturday. he shared with us a touching story about his life. He is amazing and he truly wants to be a righteous priesthood holder. He sobbed. I couldn't believe it. He used to be in a gang and now just wants to live to be the best person he can. he wants to be a good father. he is just a changed person.
God is mindful of each and every one of us. He loves us as individuals. He will allow us to grow. He never leaves us during the growing process. He gives us what we need and sometimes what we want. God is love. Love everyone. Don't judge. Just remember that everyone
has a story. We can always improve.
I love y'all with todo mi corazon.
Hermana Sorensen