"Come buy and eat; yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price" (January 22, 2018)

I'm feeling a little sick so this is gonna be a quick one. 

We had zone conference this week and it was so great! Thanks to the crazy snowstorm last week we got to meet up with the Lakeville Zone and I got to see mi hija Hermana Hanson and it was so fun! We also got to give a training in zone conference about working with members. Originally our zone leaders were supposed to do it all, but one of them is learning English, so his companion asked us to do half of it, and even though we're both rookies at this whole leadership thing we managed to make something up and pretend like we knew what was going on.

Rochester is so different from all my other areas. We go finding in English sometimes because we cover an English and a Spanish area, and wow people are a way less willing to listen to the gospel in English. In Spanish we always just say "Hi we're sharing a message about Jesus Christ," and 99% of the time they let us in. In English, almost every door we've knocked we've gotten rejected. So finding is really different, and we're still learning, but just trying different approaches and trying to make it as fun as we can. 

This week was great. We have been working really hard to go finding and talk to everyone, and we have been trying to listen to the spirit and see miracles and it has been so incredible. On Saturday we were in a little town, Zumbrota, all day long. We had made contact with a lot of less-actives, but hadn't really found anyone we felt needed a message. We were stopping by one last door in an apartment building to try to meet a less active, so we knocked on door 24. No one answered, so we turned around and knocked on the door across the hall, 27. A woman came to the door, and we started sharing a message with her. She invited us in and we started talking, and it was incredible. She is so prepared to receive the gospel. She was telling us how God has helped her overcome addiction, and how she has been looking for answers, and she was so excited to hear about the Book of Mormon. She has been through a lot of hard stuff and is trying to get back on her feet and she is so ready.  We were testifying of the power in our Book of Mormon, and she was so interested. Then when we offered it to her and she kind of tearfully looked at us and said "I don't have any money right now to pay for it" And it was one of the happiest moments of my mission when I was able to say, "We give these away for free! This is the most precious possesion I have and this is why we want to share it with the world." 

And I thought of 2 Nephi 9:50 "Come, my brethren, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come buy and eat; yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price." And I was so happy we could give it to her. I am so excited to start teaching her. The coolest part though was when we got back to the car and looked in our area book, we realized the less active we were looking for actually lived in 22, we had stopped at the wrong door. But I am certain the Holy Ghost clouded our minds just a little bit to help us find the person who needed us that night. 

Thank you all for the love and support!

Hermana Meredith