To Banff we go!

Hola Familia!

So this week we made it to Banff!! As missionaries we get to go once a year and this week we had these wonderful and sweet members that took us. Jenny and Jamil they are a newly wed couple in our ward. They both served missions and they offered to take Hermana Dean and I because we had never gone. It was probably one of the most beautiful places! We had so much fun!! Hermana Dean took lots of pictures so I will be sending them. We also got to go to MLCs this week, hahahaha always and adventure! But are you ready for the biggest miracle of all? So this week it's been kind of crazy with Esperanza. She has some pretty big trials in her life so us and the bishop have been working with her. I am not sure how it is all going because as missionaries we have to stay out of most of it but, we had a beautiful lesson with her on Friday night. We taught the Plan of Salvation and it was so amazing. She said that she honestly felt something and she had been reading and praying to know if it was true. We were only planning on teaching the first half of the lesson so as we talked about the Atonement and we invited her to be baptized. She hesitated and said she would pray about it. She really likes the church but she lacks the courage. We decided to all pray together and she gave the most beautiful prayer. She started to cry and the end and then after the prayer she looked at Hermana Dean and I and bore her testimony. She said "it is horrible why I had to come to Calgary but the people I have met here have changed my life. I have never seen the Lord's hands so much." It was a gorgeous testimony. Then at church on Sunday it was fast and testimony meeting and the spirit was so strong. After Sacrament she was talking to one of the members while her daughter Halima was talking to another family, and all of the sudden one of the members grabbed me and said "Hermana she is crying." I looked over to see Esperanza in tears. When I went over to comfort her she began to tell me that she had this strong feeling inside of her that she couldn't explain. She sobbed and I just gave her the biggest hug. She said that she had wanted to bare her testimony because she just felt this feeling so strongly. Then she looked at me in the eyes and said "I don't know why I am crying? I am so happy!" I can not describe it! In her eyes I saw the light of Christ I knew with every fiber of my being that she was feeling the spirit. It made me tear up because that morning I had been praying so hard that she would receive a witness that the church was true. I saw her and she knows. That's why I came! For those tender mercies and moments like that! We have a lesson with her this week and we want to invite her to be baptized again. The next lesson is the gospel of Jesus Christ so it is so perfect. I have grown to love her so dearly. I don't think I will ever forget lessons and moments like that. I have seen it with every single one of the recent converts while they were investigating. That moment when they get it, they know and you see Christs light fill there eyes. I can't describe it but it is real! Well pray that all will go well this week and we can extend the baptismal invitation to Esperanza. I love you so much Familia! Have a good week and I will talk to you on Sunday!

Love

Hermana Allphin