Sister Bain in the Big Apple: 2016 09-21 "Hearing the Voice of the Lord"

HELLO❤I miss ya!
Thanks for the prayers! We had a good week! :-)
Remember when I had a meltdown last week? Well I'm over it now so it's all good. Really though, thank you for praying for me. There are angels surrounding us here in CT!

I forgot last week, but I hope Kyle had a fun birthday on the 11th and that sweet Kimberly has a fun birthday this weekend! Doesn't Elder Sirrine turn 20 today?? He's so old. WOW.

Since I'm in Connecticut I was far away from the bombings in the city. We actually didn't even know about it until Tuesday. (The missionary bubble is nice because we don't know anything that goes on in the world) All the missionaries are safe and accounted for! :-)

You're in luck, this week's email will hopefully be a lot happier!
I've been having a good time here. This email will most likely be super random and might not make sense....putting my happiness and excitement into words is kinda a struggle...but I'm over it.

This week included an obscene amount of pizza, ice cream, and tracting miracles!!
We are SO excited for the Hartford Temple open house. As we've tracted, the spirit has prompted us to invite a ton of people. There's something about getting a free tour of an LDS temple that catches people's attention. IT'S PRETTY COOL.

We went to a members house and while we were waiting for everyone to sit down for the prayer, Brother Cole looked at me and said "Sister Bain, are you good at making rice?" After dinner we got in the car and laughed so hard I cried. (You had to be there...)

We got in contact with a potential named Jacquelove. (Pronounced: Jack Love hahahaha) she's been in the US for 4 months- she's from Haiti and speaks French. She's taking English classes and her English is sooooooooooo good. She also has the cutest little French accent. She told me she'd teach me French so we'll see how that goes. (I've also been learning creole and that's hard so....) Jacquelove is so sweet and so prepared. She loves reading the Book of Mormon and she said she wants to meet Joseph Smith. We love her. The first thing she said to me was "Sister Bain, are you from Chinese?" Hahaha

We met Bill who reminds me of Mr. Fredrickson from the movie "Up". He was the nicest Jeohovahs Witness we've met so far in this area.

We got in contact with the Smith family. They met with missionaries for 5 years and they haven't been contacted for 2 years! They're super awesome and we love them. We're just helping them work through some word of wisdom stuff and they're golden! Pray for them!

My studies were real good this week. I was reading the talk "Hearing the Voice of the Lord" (THANK YOU for sending that to me, dad!!) AND I wanted to share some cool things with you that I learned! Elder Lund said, "Life is too complex to provide a rule book for each situation. That's why we have the Holy Ghost."
1. The Holy Ghost and I have become real good friends. I am constantly relying on the spirit for direction. Pretty cool that we get a member of the God head with us 24/7 as long as we live worthy!
2. Doctrine and Covenants 101:16 says, "Be still and know that I am God." Only as we are still can we learn to hear the still small voice. LIFE IS SO CRAZY but we have to slow down long enough to listen and then be willing to act on the answer we get. We have to find our "inner quiet" as Elder Lund puts it. So, how do we find that inner quiet?
▪Read and study the scriptures
▪Pray! Be consistent, focused, and submissive to God's will
▪Personal Reverence. "Reverence brings revelation" (Boyd K. Packer)
▪Take time to ponder and reflect! Even the Prophet Joseph Smith had to do that! JSH 1:12 says, "I reflected on it again and again..." Pondering is key! We have to actually think about what we're studying and what the spirit is telling us!

So, how are you going to find your "inner quiet" this week?

I'm going to reflect more on what I'm reading in my scriptures. We're reading the Book of Mormon in 100 days as a mission and WOW I love love love the Book of Mormon. So follow up with me next week, okay! :-)

I hope you all had a good week! Kell told me gets to go to General Conference next weekend!! That's so exciting!! I AM SO EXCITED FOR CONFERENCE YAY YAY YAY!!! Only 10 more sleeps until Conference!!

I really am so so happy here.
I love you!!
Love always,
Sister Bain