In The Great Wide Somewhere

This cute young girl in the ward bought us necklaces with her own money.
Such a sweet girl, blew me away.

What. A. Week.

My heart is so full it could explode fourteen times and still be overflowing.

There is literally so much to say but first off I want to say something about God.

God is our LOVING Heavenly Father.

I find it extremely interesting that much of the Christian world pegs God and Jesus out to be very different in personality but very much the same physically in that they are the same being.

God is the ferocious powerful lightning bolt throwing damning wickedness to hell only caring about "God Fearing" people.

Jesus is the kind loving tender one that no matter what you do, He will save you and your works mean nothing because grace man. Peace man. Love man. *HippieVoiceGlory

But as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ we proclaim that God and Jesus Christ are two very separate beings, but their purpose and their perfect attributes are the same.

God loves us, He wants us to live with Him. He provided us a savior, His only begotten in the flesh, to live and die and live again for us forever so that we can live and die and live again with HIM forever.

One in purpose. How we accept their purpose is by applying the atonement and the commandments.

John 17:23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

The first step to eternity is Baptism.

--by immersion in the name of The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost

If we talked to any one of Them, I'm sure they would all agree they are very happy when someone want's to be baptized. If we asked any one of Them a question They would answer with the same goals for us in mind. But.. they are distinctly different beings.

Matt was baptized on Saturday.

I would like to bear testimony right here in writing to the world.

God's work and glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of all His children.

God's purpose^

My purpose as a missionary is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.

(the same thing)

As I narrow my focus and work and reap the blessings I have realized there is no greater work no greater glory than to help God bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of His children.

We are not here just to make it back to Him or just to become like Him.

We are here to do those things, and help others to do them with us.

because of Gods plan for Matt, his preparedness, and accepting the gospel into his heart, so much is in store for this family. His family is making the temple their goal, he plans on baptizing their two seven year olds in December, and they will be sealed as an eternal family as soon as they can.

I thank my Father in Heaven for allowing me to witness this great work everyday, it is a gift to me.

I would serve a mission again and again and take a million slammed doors to the face if I could feel like I felt Saturday to be part of such a spiritually rich ordinance.

To embrace his tearful wife as he stepped out of the font and into eternity.

To hear his testimony a few days before with the words

"we've never been happier"

I would do it all again even if no one else listened.

I realized as I thought and spoke this, that Jesus Christ feels the same about each one of us.

He would perform the atonement even if only one of his brothers or sisters accepted the gift He provided for all of us.

Atonement: the act of love when Christ overcame spiritual and physical death for all mankind.

Missionary: Someone that brings access to that^^ unto mankind so the spirit can bring it into their hearts and lives.

"I want my life to be as clean as Earth right after rain, I want to be the best I can and live with God again."

We can all feel clean like Earth right after rain, when we are baptized and as we partake of the sacrament.

Challenge for everyone and their dog, hand out a Book of Mormon in the next two weeks. I will too ;)

Do it because you love God.

If ye love Him don't just keep His commandments, share them

LOVE YA'LL SO BIG

Make it a great day:)

Sister Saunders <3

..mad because the Floods were moving that day
and I decided to hide in their truck forever-

only not because I have work to do here ;)

I just love this picture of us four because I love these three humans

My awesome companion Sister Pyper :)

Watermelon Shark we helped make:)

SO MUCH COOL STUFF HAPPENING RN

my grammar is going out the window

but the coolest stuff happening is definitely M.....

We had a lesson with him and silly enough it was the Restoration after we have already met with him three other times

God works in mysterious ways and what one of His children needs is much different than the next and for whatever reason, M.... needed to have lessons two and three and part of three again before lesson one

The Restoration

L ... (I have been calling her Sister P.) and her husband M..... just went on a vacation and it was a five hour drive. We found out four of the five hours they drove, they searched and listened to a ton of material on lds.org and cross referenced it to the Book of Mormon. They listened to the first three chapters and all of Joseph Smith History. Including the testimonies and title page of the Book of Mormon with their two kids in the back seat.

Yes. I know they are incredible.

I love love love them.

and after a really powerful restoration lesson (they knew most of it-had already found it themselves) I was able to recite the first vision and the Spirit.. no words. It was so amazing and a testimony builder for me of the divinity of the answer to that humble prayer. At the end, we invited Matt to be baptized.

He said yes.

Then I invited him to be baptized on June 11th.

A WEEK AND TWO DAYS FROM THAT DAY.

He said yes.

(side note- When sister Pyper and I were planning for the week and feeling prompted to extend the commitment to M.... to be baptized, I felt like woah...

June 11th is so soon, their is no way he will go for that. But the next week just didn't feel quite right. When I asked Sister Pyper what she thought she said the 11th.

Well it looks like it's going to happen and I am so excited!

L ... was shocked at that point in the lesson, but when he said yes she said, "I have the chills." and she was beaming so excited and happy for her husband.

GOD IS SO GOOD.

I am on cloud nine my friends and family.

cloud nine.

Okay.. now I need to back up. (So many amazing experiences with the First Vision this week)

Miracle Monday a week ago from today

I found the address of a former investigator in the area that stuck out to me. So when we had some time, we went on an adventure to find her.

We got to the apartment complex and markings weren't clear as to where we were. We were looking for apartment C

but

no markings on the first door.

I even verbally said to Sister Pyper "Do you have any idea what letter this would be?"

"No"

"Let's just knock and ask if it's her or not."

We knocked. And after teaching about half of the restoration on his front porch I looked at the door and saw an obvious "A" on the door.

That's right. The Spirit blinded us because if we would have known it wasn't C we would have kept looking.

but we knocked anyway and met Alex.

Alex is from HONDURAS

My cousin Ben (on his last month of his mission in Honduras) will be so proud

not only that, but Alex remembers vaguely attending an LDS church IN HONDURAS as a child.

"lovely service"

he liked it. But doesn't really remember it.

We taught him about the Book of Mormon, Joseph smith, prophets, and I had the opportunity to recite the first vision right there on the door step and the Spirit was like a tidal wave washing over us.

Again, there is just about nothing like the exact words of Joseph Smith's First Vision

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2009-02-04-the-message-of-the-restoration?category=topics/joseph-smith&lang=eng

"I saw a pillar of light, exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun which descended gradually until it fell upon me. When the light rested upon me, I saw two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description. Standing above me in the air, one of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said pointing to the other:

This Is My Beloved Son. Hear Him."

Joseph Smith saw God the father, and Jesus Christ. He received an answer to his humble prayer and so can you.

I don't know about you, but I have never seen God or Jesus in this life. With my eyes.

But I have felt Them in my heart.

He communicates with us through feelings just as real and just as undeniable if we are willing to act on the answers He gives us.

Do you know that??

Do you show that.

I tell ya'll what. There has been many more great experiences but these were the icing on the cake for me. Perhaps a topping on the cake was when one of the cute Baxter kids came over to us at church yesterday and said

"Sister Missionaries, can my family sit with you today?"

Next thing I know I have a 7 year old on my left and a 4 year old on my right and I am holding a crayon box while they color pictures of minions and cartoon prophets. <3

Have I told you lately, that I have the best job in the world?

Oh... Awkward..

Here:

I have THEE best job in the WORLD

Also inspiration moment of the day:

It is true that God knows exactly what will comfort us.

He knows how to comfort us. He is very capable of comforting us.

But He also knows exactly what will convert us.

He knows how to convert us. But He is only capable of converting us, if we allow Him to.

The truth of the matter is that sometimes being comforted and being converted require the sacrifice of the other.

As God chooses to Convert instead of Comfort

all that's left is our decision to accept, apply, and then FLY

accept the opportunity to be more converted apply the atonement to the situation and then

FLY

not forward not backward diagonal sideways or spiral

but UPWARD

Thank you for all the letters, packages, card hugs, support, smiles, heart ache, prayers, and especially for your love DEAR FRIENDS and FAMILY

dear friends that are family ;)

I love you. I need you, because when our Father in Heaven promised us angels to bear us up he was talking about the unseen angels and the seen as well. Near or far, you are angels to me and

I hope sometimes

I'm a little angelic to you too. *insert angel emoji here and maybe praying hands because those are cute too

;)

Love you all big

Make it a good day

-SISTASAUNDERS

P.S. Pray for M.....

this week Satan is going to do everything in his power to stop him from making the first step to eternal joy before this Saturday. Then he's going to do everything in his power to make M...... think it was a mistake right after, yeah. Speaking from many experiences.

The first step and any other big steps to eternal joy are never met without opposition.

BUT JESUS IS MORE POWERFUL

Boston this is for you

#TeamJesus