Opposition in all things

Holy moly jolley coley this week was so GREAT!!!
I hope that I can adequately explain the events of this week, the many miracles, and lessons I learned in a short amount of time! This week was one of the best weeks of my mission, but contained some of the hardest moments in these past 17 months.
We had so many amazing things happen... like meeting most of S's family and teaching a lesson to 15 people at once… that was cray. We called in the group after eating dinner: we had S, her kid and husband, her parents (the cutest old people I have ever met), the member family who introduced us (they have about 6 in the fam) and a senior missionary couple who have become our unofficial grandparents. They all listened intently as we bore our testimony of the savior and how we grow closer to him by reading the Book of Mormon. We gave them all copies of the Book of Mormon and we are waiting for  to tell us a time when we all can meet. So exciting!!
We also found a lot of new people to teach, one I will highlight. K. She is so prepared! We set her for baptism on the 26 of July. She is working on quitting smoking, she came to church on Sunday with her child, and she has such a desire to learn about the gospel. Sister A- who the missionaries have been working with forever, introduced us to her. K is so open to learning it is inspirational. We had two lessons with her, and they were so spiritual. Sister A was the perfect member present, she bore powerful testimony and promised her friend that if she would read the book of Mormon, meet with us, and come to church her life would get better and she would be happier. I was crying. typical.
She didn't even let me finish the whole baptismal invitation... she cut me off with a huge, excited YES after I said baptism. It was so great!
We taught the Ss's this week- expecting to drop them. We have been teaching them every other week since December, and we were hitting a wall with them. They won't commit to be baptized. So we had a very frank and bold discussion with them explaining why we extend invitations and where they see this going. They both said that they have been enlightened by the things we have taught them, and they see themselves being baptized in the near-future. I was in shock. We said baptism probably 50 times. no joke. They don't feel ready enough, but we assured them that they are. They are praying about it. They also came to church this weekend!!!
Lee is doing good... we taught him the word of wisdom and he called us an hour later and said he threw away all of his tobacco. He told us at church that he dug it out of the trash though... so we won't give up! Still don't know how accountable he is. We will see.
We had 5 investigators and their families at church yesterday. It was a miracle. The average for the Chesapeake mission is way less than that.
Although we saw so many miracles this week, we had some intense opposition. Got dropped very rudely and hostilely (I don't think that is a word???) by our investigator E. A less active that I have been working with these past 6 transfers decided that she wanted the elders to teach her son who is 9 instead of us because elders taught her daughter long ago and she wants him to see male figures in his life...  anywho it is not worth listing the speed bumps of this week because they don't matter. What matters is that we overcame the opposition. We faced our day with hope and faith and didn't let the disappointments shape our attitude for the work. Saturday was one of the hardest days of my entire mission. That morning I received a blessing from president baker for comfort and council and I received great help from heavenly Father. One thing stood out to me so profoundly- that I would have confidence and remember and use the literal strengthening power of the Savior. I felt so weak that day. E had just blown up at us and said so many unkind things to us, and I wanted to quit. I'll be honest, the thought of going to our apartment and updating our progress record and area book instead of going out and finding seemed so tempting. I said one of the boldest prayers of my life and pleaded for the literal strength through the atonement-that I would be energized and ready to work my hardest. After a week of so many miracles, of course we needed some opposition. God had given us so much, why would I just quit after seeing some miracles? I Love God and want to show Him that. So we worked. I wish I could say we found 3 families who had prayed for help and we knocked on the door, but most people we tried were not home. But we tried. We were diligent. And we felt better. The sorrow from the previous disappointments were washed away with the strength of the Savior, as we both felt at peace and realized we had and were doing our part. We can not control others agency. But we control ourselves. We have the power to make every circumstance great and monumental.
I have grown to love and appreciate 2 Nephi chapter 2 this week. It has easily become one of my favorite chapters in the book of Mormon and describes perfectly this past week.
Great things are happening. We need to have the spiritual eyes and hears to recognize them.
Love you all!! have a wonderful week.
xoxo
sister snow
OH AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUM SUM SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!! 11... you are SO old.  I'm proud of you and the great missionary you are!

 craziest rain storm ever