First of all, thank you all for making my birthday a good day :) The love that I got from all of you was greatly needed and appreciated and I love you all so much.
After emailing on Monday, we did our normal shopping and carwashing and then we went bowling with a bunch of the Elders in our zone!! It was fun to go bowling again and I may or may not have beaten all the Elders ;) Pictures will be coming shortly... Sister Hingano and I also explored an awesome little shop in Elko. It was great fun :)
We had dinner at the Bishop's house, and they made me a cake! That was really nice of them :)
After dinner, we got back in the car and saw that President Chestnut had texted us "Call me ASAP." That was scary, and my first thought was that I'd be shipped to Brazil the next day. It turns out that one of the Sisters in our zone was having a mental breakdown. The President is over 4 hours away, so he left the situation in our hands and the Zone Leaders. We rushed to the Sister's house (about half an hour away) with the ZL's. Sister Hingano and one of the ZL's then took care of the Sister while myself and Elder Johnson helped her companion, Sister Gootee. It was a really heavy night and I'm pretty sure we all cried at some point. As we were leaving, we had the strong impression to stay the night, even though we had nothing with us. So Sister H and I spent Monday night at their house, sleeping on the floor in our church clothes. Needless to say, none of us got much sleep that night. In the morning, President told us that we needed to stay with the Sisters that morning and then drive them to Winnemucca. We went to their District meeting (in the clothes we had slept in) and then set off for Winnemucca, over two hours away. When we got there, we were told that the Sister would be going home, and Sister Gootee would be tripling with me and Sister Hingano. The drive back was truly a miracle from God. I was so exhausted and my eyes definitely closed a couple times, but I knew that I needed to get us back to Elko and God provided safety for us.
Have a tripanionship has definitely required some adjusting, but Sister Gootee is really easy to get along with. She has been through a lot and she is so strong. Trying to cover three wards has definitely been tough. We drive back and forth between her area and ours every other day and try to visit everyone. The wards have been very helpful in coming out with us so we can do splits.
In other news, my permanent retainer broke, so we have spent a lot of time in the dentist and orthodontist this week. I have a new one now, so that's good. Just trying to get used to it still.
Despite the craziness of this week, God still provided ways for us to help His children this week. We saw many miracles and met a ton of amazing people. The Spirit is such an amazing tool and it truly leads us to where we need to be.
I have a gained a knowledge and testimony of the battles that are being fought that we cannot see. There are evil spirits in this world and Satan is real. I have seen his efforts this week more than I ever have in my life. But I know that the Power of God is better. That God always wins. And that He is looking out for all of His Children. He does not leave us to fight evil alone. Prayer, The Book of Mormon, Church, the Spirit. These are all weapons that can destroy the efforts of the devil and keep us safe. I'm so grateful for the influence of the Spirit and for the calm assurance that can come from knowing we are on the right side of this battle with sin.
Keep fighting and don't forget your armor. I love you all and I think about you and pray for you every day. Don't forget your prayers!
All my love,
Sister Doyle
