Called to Serve : Words do not express how I feel about the gospel and this work! It's all so true I know it :)

I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT...... I am not sure whether to laugh or cry....Our friend Mouse has just passed to the other side of the veil on this beautiful Monday morning on the 7th day of the 3rd month of the 2016th year........ I will miss that little guy and his little surprises every morning on our kitchen counter. RIP Mouse.

Wow! This week was absolutely crazy but soo great as well!!!! You are never going to guess what happened. On Saturday, we were going to do a blitz in Dagenham with the zone leaders (Elder Jensen from California and Elder Silva from Brazil), and I had recently found out that Laisvis moved back to Dagenham so I have been on the look out for him every time we are there. Well, Before we started the blitz Elder Silva was going to say a prayer and right before he started I told him to pray that we can find Laisvis.

Well we got finding and I was with Elder Jensen (no worries Elder Silva and Sister Epicoco were close by) and we were talking to this Portuguese lady when out of the corner of my eye I saw him............ I couldn't believe my eyes. My jaw dropped and I looked at Elder Jensen with a shocked look on my face, said "Laisvis", and with my heart pounding, I quickly made my way over to him....... Ahh, once again it broke my heart. He was happy to see me and we just talked for a little bit and I asked him how he was doing.... Then in the middle of the conversation, his "friend" came over and then He started being

Thanks for the Easter Box Mom!

super weird and tried to leave really quickly...... Ahh so yes nothing came of the conversation but man it was just a miracle that we saw him. Once again my heart broke as he acted to be okay and happy but you could just tell that he was miserable inside. I still pray for him every single day. I sure LOVE this kid!!!!!! He will come back one day I am sure of it!

Well after the blitz we went with the zone leaders to meet Rufina and Helder and that was sooooo good! Rufina was so excited to meet Elder Silva because they both speak Portuguese:) we found out that she can no longer meet us during the week because of work and she can only see us Saturday's now..... Well her baptism is on the 26th and we have so much we need to teach her still! But Elder Silva said she is sooo excited for her baptism!!!! Well they left and the member that translates for us came and then we had a 2-hour lesson with them both so we can be able to help them be baptised on the 26th! Ha it was crazy..... I am pretty useless in those lessons because it is all in Portuguese and Sister Epicoco can understand most of it too just can't speak...... But man the love I feel for them is soo great! They are doing so well :)

We had MLC and zone meeting this week also and as a mission, we are really focusing on the sabbath day. That is something we are struggling with.... helping our friends to come to church. Sister Epicoco and I prepared a powerful training about the Sabbath Day for zone meeting. We focused a

lot on us as missionaries becoming more converted to the Sabbath Day. As missionaries, Sunday's sometimes feel like every other day and I realised during MLC that I really need to do something different to make that day special and show God a good sign on the Sabbath.

So as a zone we came up with a goal where every Sunday morning we will wake up a little earlier and study about the atonement, pray, and set goals to prepare to take the sacrament. Wow! That really changed everything about the Sabbath Day for me as I took 30 minutes to study about the atonement. It made it such a sacred time to be able to focus on my relationship with God. I felt his love and strength so much more.

I just wanted to invite you all to think about the sign you are giving to God each Sabbath Day. Do something different to make it more sacred and holy. When we are too casual on the Sabbath we miss out on so many blessings!!!

Words do not express how I feel about the gospel and this work! It's all so true I know it:)

ONWARD AND UPWARD.

Sister Sara Ranck