Sister Kate LeBaron~ Bentonville Arkansas Mission: "It's not chaos, it's coordination"

https://photos.app.goo.gl/V1gka56kjUTcATXt8

HOWDY YALL! This week was sooo good! There have been sooo many miracles especially with the temple dedication this week!

WEDNESDAY: PDAYYY! We went around bentonville square and went and looked at all the stores! We had a lesson with a less active that night and it was awesome! She hadn't prayed in a while, so we were able to testify of the power of prayer. The spirit was super strong and she we could come back and share messages with her🥳

THURSDAY: THE UNELECT👎

We had a church tour/ lesson with a guy we met at the gas station. Despite us being very bold with our purpose he got the wrong idea... he kept going on about his gym routine, modeling school...The spirit was super strong in our lesson but he was more interested in us than our message BIG THUMBS DOWN👎 Hey at least he has a bom now, and has felt the spirit🤷‍♀️

FRIDAY: EXCHANGES! I got to be comps with Sister Ogles for the day, it was a blast! We were in pea ridge, it's super fancy there! We knocked one of the nicest neighborhoods i've seen in a while! We did some store finding, found a ysa! We had dinner at a cute restaurant and were able to find our waiter there((:

SATURDAY: AUSTIN'S BAPTISM! 🏊‍♂️

Austin was able to get baptized this week!!!! It was so amazing! It was absolutely crazy right before though. We weren't able to set up until a few minutes before because there was a baptism happening in a family ward. Our mission president was there, the stake president so no pressure haha! It ended up being amazing, the spirit was so strong!

SUNDAY: THE TEMPLE DEDICATION 🙌

This was one of the most spiritual experiences I've ever had! The talks were amazing here's some things that stood out to me:

- hesed : covenantal love. Covenant connection, you are connected personally to your father in heaven, the Son of God. That power can overcome and overpower all things

- don't be casual or routine about your discipleship.

- this is the greatest season in the history of the restored church. We live in a day when temples dot the earth. Prophets, priests have prayed and looked forward to the day in which we now live

MONDAY: ARE WE IN UTAH OR BENTONVILLE? 🤔

There were sooo many members in town for the byu game and the temple dedication! It was insane! So many of them would stop us and talk to us which was so tender but we had to start hiding from members because they would try to talk to us for like 30 min😂 We low key felt famous this week though!

We had the coolest experience on Monday! We had a zoom lesson with a girl who has family who's members but isn't a member. She's in rehab right now and is looking for some hope. We had an amazing lesson with her and were able to find her and put her on date for baptism😆 #godisgood

TUESDAY: JUST KEEP MOVING!

We were not feeling too hot on Tuesday, I had a super bad migraine and Sister Ellsworth's stomach was killing her. We got in some contacting and then went out and we were able to find someone! It's cool to see the power that comes from our covenants and how they give us greater access to Christ's enabling power. I honestly am not sure how we were able to even go out tracting but Christ was able to give us the strength that we needed!

Spiritual thought❤️‍🔥

During the dedication Elder Bednar talked about the parable of the pearl of great price. He related the box in the parable to to temple, the pearl to the covenants we make in the temple, in baptismal fonts. He talked about how we sometimes put too much emphasis on the box and not enough emphasis on the pearl. Yes, the temple is a beautiful building. But it's so much more than that. The temple would just be another building if it weren't for the covenants we make in the temple. The temple isn't just another building, it's the House of The Lord! It's a house of learning, a house of healing, a house of prayer. We can make our homes a house of the lord as we strive to make it a place where the spirit can abide.

☆Invitation: share the "pearl" with someone this week aka share the blessings that you've received from the covenants you've made in The House of The Lord