Sister Ann Elgaaen in Houston, Texas South: June 8, 2020 Prepared By the Hand of God

Hey Family and Friends!

This week has been amazing! Aside from training the best trainee in the world, we were able to experience a MIGHTY miracle!

One day while leaving our apartment, we ran into a woman who greeted us with a big smile. We talked with her for a moment and learned that she would be our new neighbor in the apartment directly below ours. (Guess that means no more jump roping.

) She was super sweet. We would see her throughout the week, and we always made an effort to say hi.

This last Monday, as we were getting home from grocery shopping, we saw our neighbor as she was running out to put her trash in the dumpster. When we parked, she approached us and we got out of the car and began talking with her. She asked us what our name tags meant, and we explained that we were Missionaries. She loved the fact that we dedicated a time of our life to serve the lord. She then told us her story, of how she has seen the hand of the lord in her life. We talked for over an hour, and we ended up sharing a scripture with her in 1 Nephi 21:16 about how the lord will never forget us, because we are graven upon his hands. She loved the scripture, and she was blown away when we offered her the Book of Mormon.

It was Wednesday when we saw her as she was just getting home. We ran out onto the balcony and said hello. We introduced Sister Belnap, and we began talking about faith. Apparently, she had just given a talk at her church about faith, and we decided to share a scripture with her. We were planning on reading it from our balcony, but she told us to come on down so we could talk face to face.

We hurried to slip our shoes on, and raced down to meet her. We shared a scripture in Alma 32 about faith and how it is like a seed. She opened up!! She not only took our idea about planting a seed and caring for it, so it can sprout into a beautiful plant, but she made it her own. She expressed that god would give us challenges, and it would be like dirt that is piled over the seed. We sit in times of "darkness", but it is in that dark that we take root, and continue to sprout. We grow stronger from our "dark" moments of life.

She then told us that when she was 19 she had a very odd dream. She was sitting at the base of a cross, where a man hung, dead. She sobbed at the foot of this cross. She then cried once more as her dream took her to an empty tomb. She asked around frantically for the man who was supposed to be in the tomb. Her dream shifted, and she watched a crowd as they surrounded this man. His words drew her in. She moved past the crowd, trying to get to this man, but he was just out of reach. Finally she got close enough where her fingers hovered over the man's robe. She felt and energy flow inside her. She grew determined to touch the cloak, but every time she almost did, he was just out of reach. She stretched her arm out once more, and just before her fingers could graze his clothes, she woke.

She explained that she had never heard these bible stories before. She woke from this dream, and knew she had to find a church. After attending for a while, the preacher spoke of the scenes from the bible, and she was confused at how he knew her dreams! She was the woman with the issue of blood, she was the woman who waited at the open tomb, she was the woman who cried as Christ was crucified on the cross.

She has relied on god ever sense that moment.

You can probably imagine us three sitting there with our eyes wide and our mouths hitting the floor. This woman isn't just any other person we happen to come across, this is a woman who has been prepared by god!

She told us that if we could give her "more Jesus", she would gladly accept it.

We plan on giving her so much more then just another account of our savior, Jesus Christ. We pray that she will be able to become fully converted to this gospel.

She was our miracle this week!

I am so grateful that I have the chance to serve the lord during this 2020 pandemic. We have received a referral almost daily during this quarantine time. Surprisingly, the people are self referral, and the actually answer the phone!

We are PUMPED for this work!

I love you all, and I hope you have the best week ever!!