I cannot say the smallest part which I feel

This is my last email as a set apart authorized representative of Jesus Christ. I will probably send an email out next week once I get home with a little more of how I feel about my mission coming to an end because this week I just wanted to share a miracle with you all. On Wednesday we had a lesson with the Landes girls, Andrea, Emily, and Melissa. My companions and I woke up that morning with the strongest impression that we needed to invite them to be baptized next weekend. We studied and went about our day and the prompting only increased. So we planned a lesson where our reading from the Book of Mormon would lead to us asking them to be baptized next weekend. During the lesson, after us asking them how they felt about it all they told us over and over again how they weren't sure if they wanted to be baptized and definitely didn't feel ready yet. Sister Zolligner, my newest companion in the most lovingly bold way extended the invitation anyways. She challenged them to pray sincerely and promised them that if God wanted them to be baptized now He would tell them, if not it meant that they were doing the right thing in continuing to learn. They said they would sincerely pray about it. I can't describe the overwhelming feeling that I had that I know matched that of my companions that we would be having a baptism next weekend. Thursday came and we had our weekly planning session where we plan out our week. Sister Zollinger said, "I think because we all know it is going to happen, we should plan the baptism." I thought that was a little extra bold because they hadn't even said yes yet, but upon thinking about it I realized that my companion's idea was a great act of faith, a way to show God that we trusted Him and that we recognized the prompting and feelings that He was giving us for what they were. So that's what we did. We began to plan a baptism. Then Friday came. We had some of our members, the Lowry's, invite us to come do some service and meet their friend Lynda, and 80 year old woman who they had given a Book of Mormon to and had been sharing some of their beliefs with. Lynda was fascinated with everything she had read and the second we got there she asked us to sit down and answer her questions instead of serving her. She would ask a question and then we would read a scripture to turn her to the answer and she kept saying things like, "That fits. I feel peace at that. I knew it was more like that. I always knew that. Why doesn't the rest of the world believe this. That's thrilling. I want that." Those are some of the ways she used to describe the spirit speaking to her after each restored truth that we shared. She brought up how she was reading about baptism by proper authority in Jesus' way and how that idea thrilled her the most. We told her that one day she could be baptized and then we prayed with her, set up a return appointment, and left her house. Once we all left her house we realized the missed opportunity that God had given us. We each had felt prompted to ask her to be baptized, but we had literally just met her. But God knew that, and He knew that as much as we wish they were, the Landes girls aren't ready yet. We all felt deep inside that the baptism we had felt we would have and had planned was going to be Lynda's. So after district council we turned around and went back. We asked if we could serve her more and she again asked us to sit down and teach her. We covered over half of everything that we teach and she just was grinning the brightest smile by the end of it all. We asked her if she would want to be baptised on Saturday next week. She said, "Well yes definitely that is what I want!" I imagined the people in Mosiah 18 where it said "and when they had heard these words they clapped their hands for joy and exclaimed, this is the desire of our hearts." Lynda has been so prepared by God for her whole life. She has helped so many people in her 80 years of teaching, and counseling at prisons, and her greatest desire is to be sealed to her husband Les who passed away 2 years ago. We are meeting with her everyday and during yesterday's lesson after our mini sacrament meeting with her and the Lowry's at the church across from the temple she kept looking out the window at the temple and saying "when can I make my forever promises?" She also kept asking us "how do I get one of those callings so I can use the gifts God gave me? Can I still use them in the next life?" She is going to get baptized on Sunday afternoon because she needs to come to church twice and so we will have a sacrament meeting in the morning and then her baptism a little later. Lynda is one of the greatest miracles and biggest blessings of my mission, I have never met a more angelic of Heavenly woman than her. She has known and been searching for the truths we have her whole life, she just didn't know that there was something that fit perfectly with her innermost inherent feelings that came from knowing who she was and where she came from that she had only forgotten because we have to forget when we come to Earth. That perfect knowledge of our purpose in this life and that the gospel is true endures within each of us, we just need to choose to do the things that awaken it more and more each day. If you feel the need to awaken that spiritual knowing inside of you, I would love to get you in contact with the missionaries near you. That is our purpose and I have loved helping others find that light and watching it grow over the past 18 months more than I've loved anything. Or if you don't quite feel ready for that yet, I would love to give you a call in a week and we can talk more :) I love you all, and I will see you soon! Love, Sister Hardy