The Standard of Truth...

I want all of you to know that the following words are repeated every morning of every day in companionships in the Washington, Seattle Mission, and probably all over the world.  They are:
         The  Standard of Truth has been erected;  no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing;  persecutions may rage,  mobs may combine, armies may assemble and calamity may defame but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly and independent till it has penetrated every continent, visited every climb, swept every country and sounded in every ear;  till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the Great Jehovah shall say, "The Work is Done"!
These are powerful words!   I love them and have them memorized along with D&C 4.  These remind e and all missionaries why we are here for 18 months and teach us it is possible to do the work we have been set apart to do!
          Saturday evening we attended Tamirat Yirgulem Ayana's baptism.  He is an incredible 21 year old Ethiopian attending Highline Community College.  What a beautiful hour we spent in this service and his testimony that he loved Jesus Christ was very tender and also he was thankful for his new-found family of brothers and sisters in the gospel.
           We are carefully loving Karen N. into coming back to church after a 15 year hiatus because of hurt feelings.  She is such a lovely lady and we pray she will 'let go' of her hurt feelings and the fear of coming back.  She was in the Stake Primary Presidency when she decided not to come to church.
And guess what, we just returned from church....and Karen was there.  It was so good to see her and she liked how she felt.  Many that know her were kind and visited and made her feel good.  It the hall after Sac. meeting she came to us and said, "Please don't stop visiting me just because I came today".
This made my heart so happy!  It was wonderful  to know that she wanted to return and brought herself back!  She had listened to the promptings of the Holy Ghost to be able to do this.
Today Penny G,  Amy C. (mama cracker) and Roberta were also there.  Last week we had 11 less-actives so today the numbers were smaller (daylight savings time probably made a difference) but we were happy with who were there.  Roberta's eyes dripped tears in RS as we sang I am a child of God. She told one of our members that the reason Sister Carter/Sister Frame were sent to Seattle was to find her.  Oh, what Joy!!  All her upper teeth are gone so one of the goals of our mission is to see her with both sets of dentures before coming home.  We are also going to start planting seeds of The Endowment for her.  This will be incredible.
          P-day we took our DL and his companion to Sizzler for dinner.  They are such fine young men and they did appreciate some food.  We can't have them in our apt. so this is the best we can do.
          Tuesday we went to an address we did not recognize until arriving...and it was a dark, uncomfortable feeling mobile home.  We did not want to go but then changed our minds.  The door opened with smoke wafting out the door, no lights on and an older lady cracked the screen.  She said Machelle R was not there.  We did not leave.  Then she said she could not talk because she was in a bad place.  So, we gave her our card with our cell # on it and gladly left.
That evening our phone rang....it was Machelle.  She thanked us for coming by a month ago to give her a Birthday card and said she needed help.  She was in a bad, very bad place and needed us to pray for her.  Would we please come back.   We quickly called the Bishop, he knew her and she had been a member for abt 5 years and had some emotional problems.  He was unable to come with us so the Elders drove their car and followed us.  Upon our arrival, a boy answered the door saying she could not come to the door because she was sick.  We did not leave.  Then he said she was in the shower so she could not come to the door.  We did not leave.  Our DL who is 6'4'walked over to the door so they could see more than women.  Finally Machelle came to the door apologizing.  We invited her outside where it was really quite cold and had her sit on a chair so they could give her a blessing.  She had a black eye.  This is so hard!  She is a Child of God and he loves her.  Why do these things happen?
            I love doing this work for my Heavenly Father!  This week went by quickly.  We did a 4 hour service project for Mah's;  visited 47 people and saw a miracle today.  I know we are doing good things for this Seatac Ward.  When we knock on doors to visit, no on is intimidated or uneasy by these '2 little ole ladies' and we have made some incredible friends.
I know Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers!  I know He wants His children to be happy by making wise