Hello hello --

Big thank you to everyone for their prayers and emails this week. I feel your prayers, really truly, and am appreciative of your exceeding faith and kind concern. 

Also, tomorrow I will have been on my mission for 17 months!! Incredible. 

This week..... WAS AWESOME.

Last Sunday Sister Jensen and I had just a few minutes left of our night and didn't quite know where to go. We held still for a minute and the Spirit directed "Drive straight". So we did. Similair impressions led us to a neighborhood that I haven't been in in maybe 12 weeks. We parked the car and got out and met a handful of people. A 15-year old who has bright pink hair, was walking her dog. We spoke with her and she said we could contact her via text to share more of our message. Honestly, we didn't think much of it. It was a very average contact. Two days later I can't shake the feeling that we have forgotten something. In the middle of the morning it comes to me - We need to text her. We message her and apologize for our lateness in contacting her and ask if we can send her a video to watch. The response is almost immediate, "Wow, I'm so glad you texted me. I was starting to get worried that you had taken my number wrong.". Whoa. We quickly learn that she has discussed her meeting us with her parents and has felt very drawn to the LDS Church since she met us. Hayden has experienced a lot in her lifetime and her parents really want her to develop a relationship with God but was unsure about all of that until now. So her parents are fully supportive if this is the direction she wants to come in.  

On Friday morning we traveled to Macon for MLC. It was an incredible meeting. Very.. bittersweet. We spoke a lot about what the culture of our mission is and what we want it to become. I realized something as we counseled : Culture is not a group activity. It is an individual decision and state of being. I remembered when I was transferred from my first area and found that the district of missionaries I had joined had a different culture than the one I had left. I discussed this with President Grayson and he asked me what I hoped the culture of my district could be. As I shared my thoughts with him he said, "Sister Gore, you be and do all those things.". And so I did. There is power in just ONE individual who chooses to be different in righteous and holy ways. Bettering the culture of the Georgia Macon Mission seemed overwhelming until I connected all those dots. I just need to be my best self and do all I can to teach and serve the missionaries around me. Perhaps you desire a change of culture at your work, at school, even in your own home. Decide with the Lord what you will do to be a light to those around you! Be courageous and good. The Lord is on your side. 

I thought that my time in Hebrews had been a fruitless effort but in reality it prepared me to answer Brother M's question from the Bible so that he might understand the Savior's perfect, sinless life. This led into a brief discussion about the Savior's Atonement for our sins and pains and infirmities. Sin must be paid for, either by us or by someone else. Jesus Christ alone, as the Lamb without spot, was able to atone on our behalf and make possible our salvation. Amazing. We taught Brother Martin about when Peter, James, and John gave Joseph Smith the Priesthood. Brother Martin said, "Okay so that would mean that you've had an unbroken line in your Church to the prophet today." EXACTLY. Oh it was so cool that he made that connection all on his own... well, by the Spirit. At the end of the lesson he shared with us his own feelings - that this felt good and more right than anything he had learned before. He expressed to us that he had never felt comfortable discussing religious things before but was comfortable doing so with us. And that he was going to pursue this. Please pray for him! 

I know that God is mindful of His children and has been preparing Brother M to receive the gospel! I actually met him... 18 weeks ago? He expressed 0 desire to learn more and excused himself from the room. But we left her  our phone number. She knew exactly where to find us. Truly, no effort is wasted if we are engaged in the work of salvation!

Saturday evening Sister Jensen and I were involved in a minor accident. We are without a car for now so Heavenly Father has blessed us with bikes!! Haha we are sharing the car with the Elders in our ward and biking some and members have been really gracious in helping us to get to our different appointments and meetings. We are both safe. Minor aches and pains but they've been more than bearable and I know that that is a direct result of your faithful prayers on our behalf! Thank you thank you. And can I just say that attitude is everything? It has been wonderful to work with the members this way and to bike and I'm just happy. And grateful for my mission leaders and also I LOVE BIKING. I just appreciate GA on a whole new level from the seat of a bike. Last night we road down a street at about 7:30pm. The sun was red-orange and the sky was beautiful hues of purple and pink. Pine trees lined one end of the neighborhood. Crepe myrtles and tall cottonwoods, all covered in spanish moss, lined the other side. A cool breeze attended us and we rode past little brick houses with shutters and front porches and  semi-cluttered yards and I did everything I could to make that happy feeling last as long as I could. It almost comes back as I write to you. God is good. Also, I can bike with no hands. ;)

Monday was the very last District Council 4/8 missionaries in our district will attend! Elders Holzer, Hooley, Cameron, and Egan will all head home next Monday so they each gave a training. They were just asked to train about whatever they felt impressed to share. Each training was unique and their personalities and accumulated experiences shone through and brought the Spirit so strong! I have been so blessed to serve around these missionaries the past 12 weeks. We have become so united and I am grateful for their ever-obedient and diligent examples. So bittersweet to think about the 2 years they have spent serving the Lord and laboring in behalf of the people in GA. They will each go on to do incredible things and continue to build God's kingdom! 

I need you to know that I know of the divinity of Jesus Christ. He is the Son of God - our Redeemer - He is the first fruits of them that slept - He lives today, imploring us to come unto Him. I know that God lives! That His work and glory is OUR growth and exaltation and eternal life. I know that Russell M Nelson is a prophet, called of God, for our day and that He leads the Lord's living Church and people. 

 Sister Emma Gore