35 on the freeway...MERGE, Alice, MERGE!

Yesterday we had probably one of the craziest experiences trying to get an investigator to church... Oh man I have to give the back story though so stay tuned. Well I'm sad to say that I'm heading out of Daytona Beach and will be assigned as a Sister Training Leader in Tuskawilla!! I'm super excited to be so close to College Park again and do service at the same place and I already know the area! So it will feel like home. And I'm excited for the new responsibilities.. a little daunted because I want to be a good example.. but I'm excited to learn and grow from the Sisters.

Highlights for the week:

~ Amanda got baptized!!! She definitely had some opposition from Satan. On Tuesday her bank account just dissapeared, and the bank isn't sure where it went.. so with that.. all her money. She ran out of gas on the way to our lesson and she only had $4 so she filled up what she could. I tried to give her $10 but she has so much faith and believed that the Lord would provide. She drives home and finds $20 in her yard! Crazy!! She also runs a day spa and does manicures and pedicures and she just got booked by this huge group of bikers for their wifes during Bike Week in Daytona. So the Lord rewarded her big time but we're so proud of the faith she displayed. I would not be chill. But she was. 

Her baptism was amazing!! We had quite a few non-members there and they loved it! A family Amanda invited said they never felt a spirit quite like that. After Amanda came out of the font she was just giggling hysterically, she said she'd never been more happy in her life. It was adorable. She's an inspiration to me! I'm so happy I got to experience this miracle right before I left the area. 

~I got to go do temple Baptisms with my convert Alex from Canoe Creek!! He was so excited and it was cool to have their whole family at the temple. They finally felt complete. He was sooo nervous about getting the Aaronic priesthood but that day he decided he wanted to baptize. Not quite sure he understood he'd be the one "baptizing" So he kinda became a deer in the headlights for a minute but they walked him through it and he did great. It was such a surreal moment having someone we helped enter the waters of baptism baptize me for those beyond the veil. It was amazing! I also got to see the lovely Sister Casey who I missed soooo much! We got to catch up on all the things.

~Sister Forbush and I had a super crazy day where we didn't get to do comp study or eat at all so we got icecream and went to a park. Just to take a little break before we got back to the grind. There were a lot of families there. This one guy came up to us and opened up about his recent divorce and raising 3 kids. He ended up wanting to learn more. I keep stickers in my bag so we went around and asked kids if they wanted stickers and they all did and then that prompted their parents to talk to us! So we got like 2 more numbers and passed out a few cards and it was really awesome. Park contacting is the way to go! 

~We went to the LDS bookstore and I saw one of my mom's books!! So I gave it a hug and pretended I was hugging her. Hahaha. I also do that when I see chiropractic stuff for my dad hahaha.

~Ok so the crazy Sunday... We have this person we're teaching named Alice and she's from the Phillipines. We taught her this Saturday and she opens the door and says "I am so drunk" so we're like ok this should be interesting. And her house looks like Mr. Miagi from the Karatee Kid (no idea how to spell that). Any ways.. she's a very animated person.. like most of the time she's yelling and she leaves us very entertaining voicemails. But she's sweet. She said she wanted to come to church and she wanted us to drive to her house so then she could follow in her car. Turns out on Sunday they had a MARATHON on the busiest street of Daytona, and Alice lives one street south of that crazy road. So we made a plan to meet her at McDonalds. So we show up and we can't find her. So we wait for 10 minutes and get a voicemail from her saying she's stuck in traffic. So we knew we were going to be late for church so we start driving towards the highway. Then she calls us and tells us she's at McDonald's so we turn around and go back. Then she's following us but she drives SO SLOW. We're trying to merge on the highway and she gets lost behind me so I slow down as much as I can so she can catch up and I'm going 35 on the highway y'all. This is ridiculous. All the while me and Sister Forbush are screaming directions in our car for her to go faster and to merge. It was quite the picture. I had my stressball out and everything. We finally make it to church 10 minutes late and guess what??? They're already confirming Amanda!! ugh... we texted people and told them to wait but they didn't so we missed half of it... But we got Alice to church. It was insane.

~Also due to the commotion, we forgot we were teaching Primary Sharing time until halfway through relief society. so we dash out and had to make an impromptu lesson about Satan tempting Jesus. But thankfully "Come Follow Me" had amazing ideas so we read over it quick, picked 3 and the kids loved it! They were actually so involved and focused it was amazing! I thoroughly enjoyed teaching them. 

I'm so sad to leave Daytona Beach because I've thoroughly enjoyed my time here. It's been the least stressful of my mission. And I'm really going to miss Sister Forbush too. We get a long so well and work so hard and it just WORKS. But I know that whatever I needed to do here was done I guess. Even if it was just for the Lord to prove that there are golden people in the world still.  I was able to participate in one of the greatest miracles the Atonement offers of watching His grace change people overnight. The Atonement is so real. God is So good. I have been blessed a thousand times over in the amazing things I've seen. This area is so blessed and I will miss it and the people dearly.