Week of February 22, 2016: Adventures of a trio

The color vibe...PINK 

 



Swamp on University of Louisiana
Campus
(Sister Truchard, Sister Ostergar, Me)

Hey Yall,

  My two new companions are Sister Ostergar (from Logan, UT) and Sister Truchard (from Menifee, CA)! This trio is temporary, but it has been quite the adventure! On Wednesday we were able to finally see Stephanie. Our lesson with her went really well! We shared the talk "Faith is not by Chance, but by Choice" and she loved it. Unfortunately she told us on Sunday that she was going to the Pentecostal church again. It breaks my heart, but we hope to refresh her on the restoration to make sure she understands that the restored gospel is the purest form of the Church of Christ on the earth. I still love her very much and it is always nice to feel the spirit with her.   

   We were finally able to set up a time to have a booth on the UL campus! It won't be for another two weeks, but we are very excited and Sister Swanson is going to be there with us to talk with people on campus! It is going to be a really cool experience. We also had the opportunity to do more service at Salvation Army, just helping around the store. We had dinner at the Bozemans and, like always, it was awesome. They really feel like my second family and I am grateful that the Lord lead me to an amazing family that help me feel at home. Sister Truchard and Greta had a lot of the same interests and they got along super well! We had a lesson on the Book of Mormon, which I was actually nervous about. That morning during personal study I felt prompted by the spirit that this is what we needed to share. The lesson was great and I just felt love from the Savior the whole time we were speaking. I know that this was the right lesson.

   Satan attacks this book so much because he doesn't want anyone to read it and grow closer to Christ. Reading this book is the only way to find out if it's true. My favorite part about missionary work is sharing the Book of Mormon! It has blessed my life and I am confident it will bless others. 

   We also had the opportunity to volunteer at the Color Vibe this week! I was grateful because every year at home my mom and I run in this, so it was cool to be a part of it as a missionary! We threw chalk at people as they ran through our station. It was great! 

 

Josh Jay's baptism!!!

   JOSH GOT BAPTIZED! His Baptism was a really neat experience and it was neat to realize that the Lord had a way for us to find Josh in Lafayette after his move. The Lord's timing is flawless. He knew that Josh was ready for this step and so He sent His servants to lead him towards it! I am very grateful that I could be a small part of helping Josh take this step towards the savior. My heart was full as he received the Holy Ghost and the Priesthood. Brother Watkins at the service talked about how he was making church history by his baptism, it was really cool. Cheryl and Brother Edwards also came to the baptism! Just before we had a lesson with them and Cheryl said that she would get baptized! 

We had a beautiful week. The Lord is blessing His Lafayette Sisters.

I invite yall to watch this amazing video on Christ. He can heal us. 



https://www.lds.org/youth/video/christlike-attributes?cid=HP_FR_2-19-2016_dPFD_fYTH_xLIDyL1-A_&lang=eng 

Love,

Sister Cornia

Color me pink







Week of February 16, 2016: Happy Valentines Day Ya'll

 

Happy Valentine's Day yall! It was a crazy week and I don't have a lot of time to write...but I will be staying in Lafayette for another transfer! I will be in a trio with two other sisters. 

I am so incredibly grateful for the love of our savior. His love covers each and every one of us. As I have felt the influence of charity these past 7 months it has changed my life. 

Josh Jay will be getting baptized this Saturday!! I am grateful to be able to stay here for that :) We had a pretty good lesson with Ashley and talked about receiving revelation, it was nice to keep our lesson with her simple and brief but we still felt the spirit of course. We had a lesson with a recent convert in the ward, Darby. We met at this place that looked exactly like Daybreak lake! It was crazy, the houses around there look like Daybreak as well. Anyways haha, our lesson with her was beautiful. I know that our Heavenly Father loves her so much and it is an incredible experience to feel the love that he has for her as we discuss the recent convert lessons. I admire Darby so much!! She doesn't have any support from home and has an incredible faith to stick with what she knows to be true and she is my age! She is the best :) 

Sorry for the lack of details with week. Just know that I love yall and hope all is well :) Just in case anyone lost my address here it is!

915 S College Rd Apt 223

Lafayette, LA, 70503

>>>>>    Jesus Christ is the perfect example of charity. In His mortal ministry, He always “went about doing good,” teaching the gospel and showing tender compassion for the poor, afflicted, and distressed (see Matthew 4:23; Mark 6:6; Acts 10:38). His crowning expression of charity was His infinite Atonement. He said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). This was the greatest act of long-suffering, kindness, and selflessness that we will ever know.      <<<<<<

Love,

Sister Amanda Cornia

Mardi Gras with the district

Fake Daybreak Lake

Week of February 8, 2016: Happy Mardi Gras Y'All

Mardi Gras Parade!

HAPPY MARDI GRAS YALL

This week we got a lot of Bible referrals! Which is actually a really cool way to find people to teach :) I am so grateful for that. We met a lady named Lisa and her mother Celena. We are going back for another lesson! Oh and also Krista (the lesbian less active we have been working with) broke up with her girlfriend!! She kicked her out and said that she wants to have a family and move to Utah. Only time will tell, but it was crazy! She has been reading her scriptures more as well :) 

We were also able to go all the way out to the edge of our area, to a tiny town called Guedyan! It is about an hour and a half away from Lafayette so luckily we had a member (Arissa) take us! We were able to give some people their bibles and have some lessons out there. It was insanely small and in the middle of no where haha. 

On Friday we had a zone meeting in Baton Rouge and learned about how to be better missionaries. On our way back we went to Breaux Bridge and met Pearlene and Cheryl. We finished the night at the Bozemans! We helped Jill paint rocks for the rock garden at the school that she is Vice President over. It was really awesome. On Saturday we had an incredible lesson with Cheryl Riley and Brother Edwards! We talked more about the Book of Mormon and the power it holds. When Sister Widdison testified that the Book of Mormon was the word of God the spirit was so strong. It was a really neat experience. As missionaries we couldn't do anything without the spirit. The Holy Ghost tells everyone we are teaching that this is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It's incredible. I am grateful to feel the spirit in my every day life and for the gift of the Holy Ghost, it can truly guide us to where we need to be in this life. 

On Sunday Sister Swanson (from Hawaii) got up and bore her testimony on missionaries and how she has felt returning to activity. It was incredible and I felt that it really helped the members in the ward feel the spirit of missionary work. Later on Sunday we had a potluck dinner at the Swansons! They told us that they are getting their endowments at the Baton Rouge Temple on April 16th and they're getting sealed in Hawaii after! We are all so excited for them to make this step to come closer to eternal life. I am so grateful to be part of these experiences. It makes the hard times worth it.

Hope that y'all are doing well! I love and miss every single one of you!! Here is a quote we read in Preach My Gospel, it's pretty awesome! I invite yall to read a talk by our beloved prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, this week. If you kneel down in prayer and ask if he is the true prophet on the earth today, I promise the Holy Ghost will testify to you that he is. 

"The teachings of the living prophets provide an anchor of eternal truth in a world of shifting values"

Love,

Sister Amanda Cornia

District lunch

Guedan

Week of February 1, 2016: I love to see the Temple!

Me and Sister Widdison with the New Iberia Sisters in front of the Baton Rouge Temple! 
(Sister Neilson, Sister Morris, and Sister Castro)

Hello! I hope y'all had a good week and enjoyed that snow (if you're in Utah). The majority of this week was warm so I am very grateful for that :) 

   We met with Kylie again this week and she is so great! We shared the restoration with her and she took it pretty well. The next day we brought by a Book of Mormon and she told us that she had prayed about the message we had shared the night before. She said that she felt a weight being lifted off of her shoulders and that she felt really peaceful. We told her that it was the spirit! It is so remarkable to see the importance of the spirit. We are not the converters, the spirit does all the work! Sadly her mom (Christina) and her didn't make it to Church. We are still really grateful to have had that lesson with Kylie and we will continue to meet with her :) Another investigator that we saw this week was Cheryl. We met her through a member that she is dating! We met them all the way back in November and finally were able to get a hold of them and set up a time for a lesson. We shared the restoration and it went pretty well. We explained that the authority of Christ was taken away from the earth and it needed to be restored. She is catholic so it was probably different than anything she has heard. We got a message a couple days later from her boyfriend and he let us know that Cheryl was studying the pamphlet we gave her and was having good spiritual experiences from it! We can't wait to go by again and hear about them :)

   This week we also had the opportunity to meet Elder Ronald A. Rasband from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He came to our mission conference on Saturday and spoke to us along with and area and member of the seventies (Elder Blooth and Elder Zwick). The spirit was so strong as he spoke, and he spoke with such love to us. We learned a lot. He shared that how much easier serving would be if we did it because we love the Lord. He said a lot of other incredible things. We all got to shake his hand as well and introduce ourselves to him. He told us that our handshakes with him were one away from the Prophet of God on the earth today, President Thomas S. Monson. It was really powerful. Afterwards we got to go to the temple! The Baton Rouge Temple is pretty small, but it is still so beautiful. I was grateful to feel so close to my Heavenly Father. It really is the happiest place on earth. 

   I know that this church is true. There are many experiences I have each day, and if I had time I would share every single one with yall. There is nothing greater than bringing people to the light of Christ and helping them change their lives so that they can feel closer to His presence. I know that Heavenly Father loves each of us and knows us by name. His arms are always extended to us. I know this is Christ's church on the earth today, restored in fulness. I am grateful for this knowledge and I invite yall to pray for an opportunity to share of it.

"How we live our lives increases or diminishes our faith. Prayer, obedience, honesty, purity of thought and deed, and unselfishness increase faith. Without these, faith diminishes. Why did the Savior say to Peter, “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not”? Because there is an adversary who delights in destroying our faith! Be relentless in protecting your faith."

-Elder Neil L. Anderson

 Love,

Sister Amanda Cornia

The Bozemans had us over for boiled crawfish! After you look past the creepiness of them they taste really good :)

Old Companions that are now companions with each other!
(Sister Fristoe and Sister Tomblin)