Happy Birthday America!!

I was wondering what the 4th of July would be like here in the mission field, and it was not what I expected, that's for sure!

At 6:30 that morning, Sister Mickelsen and I rolled out of bed, and proceeded to sing the Star Spangled Banner quite loudly, and if you can believe it I am even more off tune right when I wake up! Also, our neighbors probably hated us. But we took cookies to them later that day, so it's all good! Then we went to a ward Breakfast at the church building, where we ate a lot of pancakes, which is always a good thing! And then to top it off, we had an investigator show up, and we were able to give him a chapel tour, which was really cool! He felt the Spirit for sure, and is excited to learn more!

We then had a service day, in which we made cookies and delivered them to people! That is one of the best ways to get into people's hearts, especially less actives! It was fun, delicious, and successful!

We then traveled to our Zone Leaders area for a finding activity! We went to a park, and drew the Plan of Salvation on the sidewalk with Chalk! It was super cool, and we got to show it to a lot of people who came by! Sister Mickelsen and I also got to show off our Hoosier Pride on a tank statue, so that was pretty cool!

That night we went to a BBQ that our investigator invited us too, and we got to meet a ton of new people and share our message with them. Most of them weren't that interested, but it was the first of the seven positive contacts, so that is good! We also committed her to church!

We finished off the day sitting in our room in the dark, singing the Star Spangled Banner again as we watched fireworks out our window.... all in all a very cool day!

Yesterday, our BBQ investigator Shannon came to church!!! As we were sitting there, she turned to me and asked if I would go up and bear my testimony with her. I walked up and sat on the stand with her, and then she had a panic attack. So I went first to giver her an example, and when I sat down she was still too scared. Take note, we are on the stand in front of the whole ward, and she is not a very quite whisperer. But then, as if the Spirit prompted her (which I am sure it did), Sister Mickelsen came up and bore her testimony, which calmed Shannon down enough so she was able to share hers. And it was so simple and powerful, and after church she decided that she was done smoking, and that she wants to be baptized!! YAY! It was way cool :)

Weird Story of the week: Our Filipino investigator always feeds us when we come over, so I have had some interesting dishes over the past couple weeks! But I think Fish Head Soup takes the cake. It actually wasn't half bad, it kind of tasted like Chicken! We even kissed the fish head for good luck!! So be prepared to hear about miracles galore! ;)

And last but not least.....

Steve is ON DATE! He is getting baptized the 8th of August, so keep him in your prayers! :D

I love you all, keep staying strong! Satan is throwing a lot at us right now, but we already know that God has won, we just have to rely on him and it'll all be okay!

Love,

Sister Matthews

Also, I SURVIVED MY FIRST TRANSFER!! :D It FLEW by, and I am so excited for more to come! :D