Sister Mitzi Gates // Week Seventy-Six

Such an amazing week. The Lord has truly blessed us as we labored in

his vineyard this week!!

We set a goal of 20 member presents. We ended up getting 22 for the

week. That is huge!! Like usually people get between 5-7. We got 9

RCLAs & 6 other lessons. That's a total of 37 lessons this week. All I

can say is this ward is pumped on missionary work & the Lord is

preparing and providing people for us to teach. I love Paducah. I love

the people. I love my mission.

With that Bella, our investigator who was progressing turned out to be

a crazy compulsive liar. Like it was pretty crazy. Haha so we dropped

her.

Lucian is a little 9 year old boy we are teaching. We did a little

Easter activity at the church on Sunday before conference started. He

then said, "Can I see the baptism place?" We said yes. We showed it to

him and he randomly said, "I'm going to get baptized at the end of the

month, me and Granny talked about it!" Haha there you have it. We will

have a baptism with Lucian this month. We are so excited! He was too!

I went on exchanges in Foxcroft, Illinois with my old MTC companion

Sister Ellis. I love her so much. I spent about 3 days up there. It's

crazy how different Tennessee is from Kentucky and how different

Kentucky is from Illinois. Illinois is not considered "The South"... I

learned my lesson up there. Everyone is huge Cardinal fans too. Like

decked out porches & cars. But we saw SO many miracles. We shared the

Because He Lives video with so many people. It was so amazing to see

how different we both are now from when we started. Complete change.

We also had Zone Meeting on Tuesday. I gave a training on "Bearing

testimonies frequently". I was the last to give a training. So I'd

been feeling the spirit the whole meeting. Then Elder V gets up and

asks us to take off our tags. Then he gave a training on who we are

and how we can never stop being a missionary. I bawled. I never ever

want to take my tag off. It was really hard for me to. Then I was very

emotional during my training. But I had people come up after and say

they have never felt the spirit so much in a Zone Meeting then when I

gave my training. I had to bear my testimony of bearing testimonies.

It was such an amazing experience.

Everyone was pretty bummed about the UK loss on Saturday.. Haha that's

the big talk wherever we go. Who knew their were so many diehard fans

who really were upset by those 7 points.

Wasn't General Conference the best? It always comes at a time when I

need it most. I loved how much they talked about our Savior! I have

learned that you can listen to conference and think it's good. Or you

can listen to conference, think it's good, and make changes in your

life!! Elder Renlund & Elder Pino both spoke in General conference &

they both have came and visited and spoke in my mission. That was

really cool to see them personally, then in conference. They truly are

called men of God. There is nothing more satisfying to your spirit

than when you hear the words and testimonies of the prophet and

apostles.

Make sure you re read// listen to all the talks. Blessings and

spiritual witnesses will come.

Love you all!!




Sister Gates








Zone Meeting with the Paducah Zone!! Seriously love them all.‏












Exchanges with Sister Ellis in Foxcroft, Illinois!! Yes that's a toilet in the front yard. Yes that's a church pew on someone's front porch. Yes southern Illinois is pretty dang rural... Because they don't consider theirselves "the south"





An amazing couple in Illinois I just loved so fast, for such a short time. Yes it's possible!! Jo & Julie.‏









Some Easter celebrations we did. Decorated doors & did Easter egg hunts with candy & scripture verses!‏







Exchanges with my MTC companion!! Hahah I sure love her. We started together & ended together.‏





Sister Simmons came out with us!! Sure love all these members.‏