Week Three: So worth it!

Hello from the beautiful brown wonderland that I live in! This week was really good! We had a lot of lessons with some really solid investigators and we have been prepping K for her baptism on the 22nd of this month! I have learned a lot of new things about the gospel and gained greater knowledge of what it means to have faith in Jesus Christ. We had a zone conference of Wednesday where President Ahlander and his wife gave us trainings of faith and hope. President Ahlander spoke on faith. It became really clear to me that faith and faith in Jesus Christ are to very different things. When you have faith you can have faith in anything and just kind of believe it is true or that something will work out. You can just kinda say yeah hopefully the next door that I knock on will hold a good prospect. When you have faith in Jesus Christ it changes your perspective and mindset of how you think about something especially the gospel. My mindset began to change from yeah I hope that the next door will have someone behind it that could benefit from the gospel to yes because of my faith and knowledge in Jesus Christ and knowing that through him all things can happen I know that knocking on these doors will be worth it. It was an eye opening training and really caused me to think about where I stood with my faith in Jesus Christ. My question to you all is do you have enough faith in Jesus Christ even when the answer is no or not what you wanted it to be?

Another thing that really stood out to me this week was a lesson that we were having with K. We were talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ or about faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost and

enduring to the end. K wasn't quite sure how all the pieces of the atonement were fitting together so we decided to explain it one more time and Sister Huni said something that really changed the mood of the lesson. "Jesus Christ sacrificed himself for each and every one of us. That is why he performed the atonement and we must go through him in order to be whole again because he has literally felt each personal pain and anguish that we do." It might not sound that profound but it really stood out to me and to K because it exemplifies the sacrifice that Jesus Christ personally made for each and every one of us. He is our lifeline back to Heavenly Father. He is the only on that can get us to where we need to be. That is why we must work through him to feel whole again and why he can replace any feelings that we may feel we are missing. Immediately K started crying and then we all started crying cause as many of you know I'm basically the best cryer when others cry or in movies. She then expressed her gratitude towards the atonement and repentance. It was probably the most spiritual lesson I have taught so far. I just want to second her testimony of gratitude. I'm so grateful for the atonement and repentance so that I can live with my Heavenly Father again. I know that because of Jesus Christ we all can be made whole again. It has happened personally in my life and it is can happen in anyone else's life.

The last thing I wanted to say was how thankful I am for the priesthood. Not having a worthy priesthood holder in my home growing up was difficult for me and caused me to never really use the power of the priesthood as much as I should or could have. Ever since I have been on my mission it has become clear that the power of the priesthood is real and that the authority of God is on the earth again. When I was in the mtc I received two blessings. Two blessings in 12 days it was way out of the ordinary for me but it was everything that I never needed. One blessing in particular strengthened my

testimony of the priesthood more than it ever has before. Right before I left for the field I along with the other sisters in my district received blessings. An elder from my district gave me the blessing and he mentioned stuff that he didn't know about me but what struck me the most was when he said "Sister Camilleri I hope you remember some of the things I said because that was the first time I have given a blessing and not remembered anything that I said" it was so clear to me then that Heavenly Father was working through him to bless me and it was literally Heavenly Father himself speaking through him. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. Ever since that I have reflected on that comment. I am so grateful that the priesthood is here on the earth and that God gave this authority to those worthy to receive it to help those on earth and to administer his work. I'm so thankful for the Brother Casper and his willingness to give me blessing when I asked growing up. It has strengthened me so much. I'm so grateful for that elder who was worthy to receive the priesthood and help strengthen my testimony. This gospel becomes better and better the more I learn and teach it. I promise you that as you strengthen your faith in Jesus Christ and his work and that as you effectively and willingly use the power of the atonement that it will literally change lives.

The work here is so great. Las Vegas holds a lot of very kind people that are ready to believe and love this gospel. I'm excited for K's baptism and have learned so much from her example of being excited about this gospel. I hope you all are doing well! I pray about you all always! I love you!

Sister Lauren Camilleri

Ps I almost knocked on a nudist door and he was having a nudist

party...that was gonna be interesting hahahahaha