"Thankful" - November 22, 2021

 Hello everyone!

We had zone conference this week! It was on Tuesday at the Sissonville Chapel. It was a combined zone conference so the Charleston Zone was also there! We were taught so many wonderful and amazing things by President and Sister Newman, the Assistants, the Zone Leaders and the Sister Training Leaders! Something that really stood out to me was what the Assistants taught about. Elder Stucki and Elder Parker talked about faith. They told the story of Gideon's army in Judges 7. The 300 people who became his army were not the strongest, fastest, most skilled warriors. They were people who had faith that God would help them. The Assistants said that this is how we as missionaries for Jesus Christ need to be. We may not be the most knowledgeable about the scriptures, or have a perfect knowledge of this Gospel but we should have faith that God will help us. We need to be warriors of faith.
We had an unexpected miracle on Wednesday! We had decided to go knock on a few members doors. Well, we put the address for the first person into google maps and began driving! When we arrived at the location it was at the top of a hill next to a church. We were so confused!! We also realized we were in the elders area! The member we were trying to visit lives in our area but somehow we had gone to the wrong place! Sister George felt pretty discouraged because we had just driven 20 minutes in the opposite direction of where we were trying to go! We looked at our map and saw there was a referral close to where we were so we decided we could go visit them. As we drove to their home we began to recognize the area we were in as the same way to the Sadlers home! We knocked the referrals door but they weren't home. We turned to go back to our car and our phone rang! It was Sister Sadler!!! She asked if we were in the area and could come visit. What in the world?! We couldn't believe in! We said yes and drove to their home. We had a great visit with them. Sometimes we don't understand why things happen. But if we follow the promptings we receive we can accomplish God's will, even though we may not understand it in the moment.
On Thursday we had a lesson with David! We wanted to study Alma 34 with him. When we arrived he said he had been reading the Book of Mormon and was currently in Alma 34! It was so amazing! We had no idea that's where he was reading and he had no idea we were going to study that chapter with him! But Heavenly Father knew and He prepared Sister George, David and I. We had a great lesson on Daily Repentance. Although, on Sunday, David came to church and told us his girlfriend wants us to come over less often. He also said he was confused on why he needed to be baptized again. He's already been cleaned once so why does he need to do it again?! We set up a time to meet with him on Tuesday this week so that we could help him understand. Please pray for him everyone! David is so amazing and he loves God and Jesus Christ so much!
At zone conference we learned a lot about working with the members in our ward! So, for most of this week we have been calling members to see if we could meet and share a message with them! We have met with a few of them already! The focus of these meetings is to help the members identify some of their friends that would be interested in learning more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We then want them to reach out and share with them what they have learned and know to be true. People have shared amazing experiences with us about when they were baptized and other spiritual experiences they have had. We want them to share this with their friends! It has been so cool!
Song of the Week: "Thankful" By Shawna Edwards. This song is so beautiful. We all have so many blessings to be thankful for. I love the chorus!
"For every good thing that I have comes from God
Every day, every hour
There are blessings He sends without number or end
If I counted a hundred or a thousand, I'm sure
There would still be more to be thankful for."
I am so thankful for my family. They are one of the greatest blessings in my life, especially as a missionary. I am so thankful for my friends and the examples they are to me. But most importantly I am so thankful for my Savior Jesus Christ. He loves each of us so very much. We may mess up, we may fall short, but Christ loves us still. He came to this earth to suffer, die and live again for us! 
I hope everyone has a wonderful week! Talk to y'all next Monday!
-Sister Francis





Pictures!!!
Beautiful West Virginia
Sister George and I driving on Wednesday
The sunest
Our little beta fish that we gave to our mission president (it's in the container on the counter)
A package I received from my family in Japan!
Some of my favorite japanese treats!
Sister George and I after a really great member lesson

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