Sister Amarae Huffaker: Lousiana...we love our fried food! (Sept 8)

Hello everyone!

I wanted to start off by saying...Humidity will honestly be the death of me. Riding on a bike in 100 degree weather with 100% humidity, up and down hills, rushing to and from all of our appointments to save miles, could be the hardest thing I've done so far. Haha call me a baby, I don't mind!

Now that the negative thought is out of the way...I want to say, tender mercies are a very real thing. I've had the opportunity to have had so many this past week! The Lord really is so kind to us:) Story time!

While tracting just the other day, we knocked on this perfect southern little house with a chair swing on the front porch. We knock on the door and a lady yells, "Who is it?" we yell back, "The missionaries!" A cute 70 year old lady opens the door slighty, just to tell us she won't let us in and she's not interested. I wouldnt give up that easy! So, I asked her about her life, and slowly but surely, she slowly sneaks out the door never to break her sentence. After a good 45 minutes later, we ask if we can say a prayer with her because she doesn't exactly let us teach her much! She said of course and told us before hand, when she feels the Spirit inside her, she cries, and boy did she cry! Her prayer was so touching it wore off on me and made me CRY! It was one of the most heart felt prayers that I have ever heard. She prayed for us and among other things, asked Heavenly Father that she would be able to read some of the Book of Mormon and see if she would feel the Holy Spirit if it were true. She gave me a hug when it was done and invited us into her house. She told us a sweet story about her deceased husband being 12 years older than her, and how after all of the years of being married and every night she would always steal his covers, one day he decided to get his own blue blanket and said "baby, you'll never take this one from me!" After that she collected Linus and his blanket (Charlie Brown Character) sculptures to remind her of him. She had a million of them! That too made me cry...call me a baby AGAIN, I don't mind! Now after a solid hour of being with her she said, "a couple other missionaries knocked on my door a few months ago, and I did the same thing with them as I did with you. Without even looking, I asked who is it and they said Jehovah's Witness and I told them I'm not intesteted and they left. Today, when it happened again and as I heard your voice saying "the missionaries" I felt the Holy Spirit tell me to let you in. That's why I did." We gave her a Book of Mormon to read and she said she would. We gave her a hug and left with a returning appointment.

I promise with everything that I am, that this is Jesus Christ's church. I am simply an instrument in the Lord's hands for these 17 months. I have seen what the Holy Ghost can do to the people who are at first, hesitant or who have "head strong" faces on and seeing the change the Spirit brings to allow us to teach them. My testimony is simple, my knowledge is not great, but though Jesus Christ my efforts are enough to bring some soul unto repentance.

I love you all so much and miss you more than words can say...until next Monday.

Love,

Sister Huffaker