Sister Alex Hartvigsen-- January 9, 2012

Dear Family.
This week has been a good week. We have had many miracles. I think the highlight of the week was on Thursday and Friday. A family who I taught back in May went through the temple and we sealed together. ( I taught and baptized the 9 year old daughter and the rest of the family was less active when I first met them.) It was beautiful and the Spirit was so strong. I feel like if I came on my mission for no other reason other than to be able to be a part of this family's experience than my mission has been worth it. ( I know that there are other reasons that I am out here) .Things at the VC have returned to normal. They had the 90 nativities packed up and out of here by the 2nd or so of January. Things are a little crazy right now because the Whites ( the directors of the Visitor's Center ) are preparing to go home this next week. It will be so weird not to see them everyday. Luckily for me, they live in Davis County Utah and so I will still get to see them when I get home. We get the new directors next week I think. There are many changes coming and it will be good and interesting to see how everything works out.
W e were able to have some really good lessons and cool experiences this week.
On Tuesday, we headed off to the Visitor's Center to watch the Joseph Smith Movie with some of our investigators and our former branch president as well as some former investigators that he had invited. President Smith bore his testimony about Joseph Smith and the Restoration. Everyone there enjoyed the movie and the spirit was really strong. When the movie finished, one of our investigators was in tears was in tears. We found out later that she was thinking about all the trials and challenges that Joseph and the early saints went through. She knows that this is true but deep down she is scared that once she makes that decision that even more trials will come and she is not sure how to handle those. We shared with her 1 Cor 10:13 and talked about how we are never alone. We also talked about how we can find peace in sincere prayer. We are working on fellowshipping her and her family into the branch by inviting different auxilary leaders to come with us. One of the members who was with us at the Joseph Smith movie referred our former investigator family at the VC. I called them up and they said that we could come by this week. I am supposed to call her today and set up an appointment to meet with them. On Saturday as we were driving, Sister S had the impression to go over to a less active family's home. We turned around and went over, not knowing why we were there. It turns out that the mom of this family had been praying that someone would come by so that she wouldn't be alone. She has been struggling with health problems and has felt very lonely. Sister S shared 2 Nephi 32 with her and talked about prayer and scripture study and how we can feel the peace as we read and pray. It was really cool. At the end of the lesson, we were invited back to visit with the whole family( it didn't work out though when we returned it was only the mom again but we still had a good visit) .
I hope all of you have a great week. I can't believe how fast the time goes. It sometimes feels like I blink and it is a month later.
I love you all
Love Alex