...and a happy new Year!!!!

Well, probably the biggest miracle of this Christmas is a woman we've been teaching. We found her a few weeks ago when we were trying to follow up on some potential investigators we had. We couldn't find the address, so we started knocking the doors in the neighborhood to see if anyone knew her by name. We knocked on a few doors without any luck. We talked to a couple people and had some quality contacts, but nobody knew the name we were looking for. We were going to go back to the car, but we decided to try one more house or two on the other side of the street. Meanwhile, the woman we were searching for was sitting in her armchair in her front room in a cloud of dark thought. Life had not been very kind to her and she had suffered much. As she sat there in her work clothes, especially tired from a long day of work, she heard a knock at her door. Normally when she would hear the door she would just stay where she was; there wasn't anyone she was interested in talking to. However, this time she felt like someone scooped her out of her chair and set her on her feet as if to say: "Go and see!" So she answered the door, and it was us! We asked her if she knew who the woman we were looking for was and she told us it was not her (she came up with a false name). We asked her if she went to church much and she said it had been years since she had set foot in a church and she sometimes wondered if God had forsaken her. She began to cry as she shared some of the suffering she has gone through in her life. The Spirit was strong as we testified to her that it was no coincidence that we had knocked on her door. We promised her blessings if she would begin to come unto God.

So that was weeks ago. From that point on she has been receiving everything wonderfully!! She wasn't able to come to church for a few weeks, but she wanted to so much that she finally laid the hammer down and told her boss she wouldn't be able to work on Sunday so she could go to church. This last week was exceptionally special! We taught her the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Tithing  back to back. Those are usually the hardest commandments for people to live, but she promised to live both! In fact, they were exactly what she had needed at the moment! She is losing her sight and her feet and face often swell up. The day after we invited her to stop drinking her regular morning coffee she did it and her feet didn't swell up all day! When she told us that the following visit, we promised her it was a heavenly blessing! She then told us that her and her son had been talking that day and were worried about their finances. We were amazed! We had felt that the next thing we should share was tithing! She also felt that this was an opportunity from the Lord to put her finances in His hands!

She is so excited to get baptized on January 11th! She is inviting her entire extended family, and she is starting to bring her kids and grandchildren to the church! It's truly inspiring to see what the restored gospel can make of a broken, aging life!

Until next week!

God Bless Texas! I am Elder Black. Thus I end mine epistle.