Faith Precedes Miracles 🌟

 

Week: 53
Date: February 10, 2025
Location: Springfield, Illinois
Email: leah.kimball@missionary.org
Companion: Sister Roos /Paradise, Utah
Blog: https://livinlavidastlouis.blogspot.com/?m=1

Lexi's Mission Blog: https://iputtheradincolorado.blogspot.com/

IF YOU WANNA SEE DAILY UPDATES JOIN MY PHOTO ALBUM: https://photos.app.goo.gl/UtSgfakxxo46tkbd6   

 Exchanging with Sister Patterson in Litchfield 
Springfield Illinois
February 2025

HEY EVERYONE!!! Seek and expect miracles because they are so real!! This week's letter is kind of long, but we genuinely had the most miraculous week!

This past week, Sister Roos and I have been really trying to find new people to teach and help them get going on the covenant path! We got a Facebook referral named Halen, who is trying to change his life! Halen opened up to us about his past and how he's trying to change for the better. He is legit so prepared!! So right then and there, we invited him to be baptized on March 2nd!!! He accepted the invitation, and now we are preparing for it! Our struggle with Halen is that he lives in Petersburg (40 minutes north) with no car, and no members live there :(. So we have been so nervous about how in the world we will get him to church. HOWEVER, we talked to Halen about it, and he said, “I'll walk if I have to.” This past Sunday, he got his grandparents to drive him all the way down, drop him off, and then pick him up!! It was wild but so worth it! He LOVED church!! We had a lesson with him Sunday night, and he kept going on and on about how blessed he feels to have encountered the true church! LIKE WHAT?!?! HE'S AMAZING!!! He has legit been the HIGHLIGHT of this past week!

We met with Jacob again this past week and really stressed coming to church and keeping the Sabbath day holy! Tuesday night, he asked his boss if he could have Sunday off!! And it happened—he was able to make it to church even though he lives 40 minutes away and has no car, lol!! BECAUSE he brought his friend Jeremiah with him, convincing Jeremiah to drive him! Jeremiah was so interested in the church and basically asked us if he could be baptized with Jacob! So now both of them are working towards February 23rd! I'm so pumped for them!! Throw in some extra prayers for them to get ready for their baptisms!

Us teaching Joshua the word of wisdom lol!!! 
Springfield Illinois
February 2025

HALEN!!!! 
Springfield Illinois
February 2025

Richard's family - Richard:(
Springfield Illinois
February 2025

We had President interviews this past Tuesday, and we talked all about faith! How can we exceed our faith because faith precedes miracles? Well, this brought me back to thinking about what my sister-in-law (Caryn) shared with me 2 weeks ago! Caryn told me that, for fun, she and her companions would pray for a specific name each day and trust that God would put someone in their path. I thought it was a pretty fun idea, so I motivated my whole district to do it! I was praying for 2 names: Noah and Sarah. After a couple of days of praying diligently for Noah and Sarah, no luck. I was feeling pretty bummed. However, my companion and I really had to take a step back and address the demographic of people we talk to. We were looking for Noah and Sarah, but we realized we were running into people more like De'royal, Akeelah, and Jermaine. So, we had to readjust our names for our demographic! We changed the name on Thursday to DeMarcus. Then, I kid you not, we went to an apartment complex that wasn't on our schedule to visit and saw a sign for someone named DeMarcus. We knocked on his door, and we met him! We met DeMarcus, and he said we can come back and start teaching him about Jesus!! HOW COOL!! Faith really does precede miracles!

Exchange w/ Sis Carpenter!
Springfield Illinois
February 2025

 TOOKIA GOT HER PATRIARCHAL BLESSING 
Springfield Illinois
February 2025

I love love the Maughn family so much! 
Springfield Illinois
Feburary 2025

Another timed pic with the Maughns!! 
Springfield Illinois
February 2025

We had two exchanges this past week. The first was with Sister Patterson in Litchfield!! She is a really good missionary, and we talked about some goals we can set to light up their area! I'm excited for them! The second exchange was with Sister Carpenter!! This girl is a total hoot!! She's so funny, and she was so excited for the exchange that she planned each minute, filling it to the brim with just fantastic missionary work!! I have to say, it was definitely one of my favorite exchanges! She was so, SOOO ready to make miracles happen! We even got to invite their friend Terri to get baptized! Both of these exchanges really lit me up to get back to our area!

Organizing the lost and found and we got a little distracted 
Springfield Illinois
February 2025

Juta gave us chocolate from Ghana
Springfield Illinois
February 2025

Jake wore his valentines day tie so we all matched!!
Halen jumped in the pic lol!!
Springfield Illinois
February 2025

We hit the area sooo hard!! We have found the greatest people ever!!! We met our friend Elizabeth and invited her to be baptized on March 15th. We also met Ayinde and invited him for March 23rd!! GOD IS BLESSING THE YSA!!! I just pray these people can continue to progress!!! After some major knocking time yesterday, we knocked into half of the Lincoln Land baseball team!!! They told us they have a member on the team, so they'd be comfortable meeting tonight with the member. So, I kid you not, we are meeting with 16 baseball players and their member friend tonight!! I've been praying for the Spirit all day because this is about to be the most important meeting for these boys, especially for their member friend! 🙏

Literally, God is such a God of miracles!! Like, we were on the FIND GRIND this past week, and we were just so blessed!! Praying this will continue and we can truly help our friends hit their baptismal dates!! This week, our mission president challenged each of us to read Ether 12 for 6 days in a row. He's having us do this for Faith-Filled February! I wanted to share my favorite sequence of verses with y'all because this chapter is truly AMAZING!!

“12. Children of men, God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith. 13. Behold, it was the faith of Alma and Amulek that caused the prison to tumble to the earth. 14. Behold, it was the faith of Nephi and Lehi that wrought the change upon the Lamanites, that they were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost. 15. Behold, it was the faith of Ammon and his brethren which wrought so great a miracle among the Lamanites. 16. Yea, and even all they who wrought miracles wrought them by faith, even those who were before Christ and also those who were after. 17. And it was by faith that the three disciples obtained a promise that they should not taste of death; and they obtained not the promise until after their faith. 18. And neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith; wherefore, they first believed in the Son of God. 20. And behold, we have seen in this record that one of these was the brother of Jared; for so great was his faith in God, that when God put forth his finger, he could not hide it from the sight of the brother of Jared, because of his word which he had spoken unto him, which word he had obtained by faith.”

Obviously, I wish I could just copy and paste the whole chapter because it's truly SOOO GOOD! So, if y'all get the chance to read Ether 12 this next week, that would be awesome!! I truly love verse 12 so much! The brother of Jared’s faith was just so immense that God literally couldn’t hide Himself from the sight of the brother of Jared. This is exactly the way I’m trying to be. I’m trying to have so much faith that God’s miracles are just so prevalent in my life. I just love the ability to have faith in God, and I’m grateful for the opportunities to have trials of faith to help exceed my faith! I am just so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the faith that I have and the faith of my parents! I know that faith precedes miracles!

I hope y’all have a faith-filled week and especially the BEST Valentine's Day! I love Valentine's Day! I love love! I love God, Jesus Christ, and the joy I feel from sharing the gospel!! Y'all are amazing! I love y'all!! GOD IS GOOD! 🩷🩷

– Hermana Kimball 🩷

---

Dad: Keep the Super Bowl tradition alive!! I hope there were sardines!
Mom: HALLMARK YEAR!!! I LOVE THE ATONEMENT!!
Colton: I'm not engaged on my mission...
Caryn: Thank you for defending me against random elders
Taylor: MY FAV CALI COUPLE
Bailey: WHAT?!?! YOU'RE PREGGOS?!
Clay: We need more babysitting content
Lexi: I kept calling my comp Lexi out of habit this week, lol. I don't even know why.
Bella: Happy Play Game Day!
Collins: Sleeping through Keith Urban is crazyyyyy.
Capri: We now have the same hand sanitizer from 5 and Below, lol.
Kash: Last week of being one!
Reese: You legit are the cutest baby!

---