sister hall sister hall and her companion fourth of july
Sep 11: I love primary!!!!!
had an amazing lesson with Jemehl yesterday and another with him thursday. HE IS SO COOL!! I'm so excited that we are working with him! He's in such a good spot and so receptive right now.
I snuck a picture in church because these kids are sooo cute!! And we finally have all our kids back from their summer trips so there's finally full primary again!!
We got to teach both singing and sharing time and it was so fun! The primary chorister had some fun games and activities she let us use and it reminded me of when my mom was the primary chorister when I was there. So fun!!
We got to go to the Yorktown battlefield last pday!! It was so cool!
and this little beach place that was SO CUTE!! I GOT TO WALK ON THE SAND Y'ALL!! OH MY LANTA IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER!! haven't felt that in too long!!
I snuck a picture in church because these kids are sooo cute!! And we finally have all our kids back from their summer trips so there's finally full primary again!!
We got to teach both singing and sharing time and it was so fun! The primary chorister had some fun games and activities she let us use and it reminded me of when my mom was the primary chorister when I was there. So fun!!
We got to go to the Yorktown battlefield last pday!! It was so cool!
and this little beach place that was SO CUTE!! I GOT TO WALK ON THE SAND Y'ALL!! OH MY LANTA IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER!! haven't felt that in too long!!
Jul 17: I know that it is true, and Eternal Truth never changes
This week I was reflecting on my increasing understanding on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I'm understanding more and more what President Erying meant when he said,
"faith has a short shelf life"
We have to make a conscious effort to strengthen our faith every day!! There's so many little things we can do: pray, read scriptures and words of living prophets, partake of the sacrament every week, attend the temple, one of my favorites is writing my "golden list" (ten things I'm grateful for daily) so that I am making a conscious effort to recognize god's hand in everything.
But as we consciously strive to increase in faith, we will be able to remember the Eternal Truths we have come to know. The Book of Mormon is full of that word "remember" and it's a good thing.
It reminded me of a time a man, married to a member but not one himself, in frustration said: "yeah, but most of you missionaries go home and become lax and/or leave the church anyway. Who's to say you won't do the same thing?"
I was totally taken aback but answered "Me. I know that it's all real. I know that all we share is true, and while I will change, my situations, my environments... Eternal Truth will never change. If I were to ever go inactive it would be because I chose to go against what I know, or because I chose to let myself forget the truths that right now I know and love. So I can tell you right now, I'll never fall away."
It was a conversation I learned from in the moment and in retrospect. "Faith is not by chance, but by choice."
I'm understanding more and more what President Erying meant when he said,
"faith has a short shelf life"
We have to make a conscious effort to strengthen our faith every day!! There's so many little things we can do: pray, read scriptures and words of living prophets, partake of the sacrament every week, attend the temple, one of my favorites is writing my "golden list" (ten things I'm grateful for daily) so that I am making a conscious effort to recognize god's hand in everything.
But as we consciously strive to increase in faith, we will be able to remember the Eternal Truths we have come to know. The Book of Mormon is full of that word "remember" and it's a good thing.
It reminded me of a time a man, married to a member but not one himself, in frustration said: "yeah, but most of you missionaries go home and become lax and/or leave the church anyway. Who's to say you won't do the same thing?"
I was totally taken aback but answered "Me. I know that it's all real. I know that all we share is true, and while I will change, my situations, my environments... Eternal Truth will never change. If I were to ever go inactive it would be because I chose to go against what I know, or because I chose to let myself forget the truths that right now I know and love. So I can tell you right now, I'll never fall away."
It was a conversation I learned from in the moment and in retrospect. "Faith is not by chance, but by choice."
Jul 24: "It worked!"
This week we were able to meet with our investigator Melissa again, she's been sick for a couple weeks. She has very little gospel understanding at all yet, she didn't even know who Noah and the ark was, but she was interested in seeing if her faith could actually grow too. We left her with a specific simple commitment to say a prayer to Heavenly Father asking for something that she could recognize so that she could begin to build trust with God. When we returned we had a little small talk and then she almost exploded: "ok! So I gotta tell you. I kept thinking about the prayer thing and said to myself there is just no way. I'm not going to do it... but then I really needed something.. and guess what?! IT WORKED!!"
She went on to tell us that her boyfriend and her had been unable to skype each other at every port his ship had stopped on. and she was so sad. He was coming into port in Israel, of all places, and was doubtful it would work, again. She said a prayer that she would be able to get through and when he came in they tried and it worked!! We asked if she felt like she could trust God a little more and she said Yes! I can't help but just adore her and her efforts to come unto Christ! It's so worth the struggle!!
I love the gospel, I love missions, I love watching people's faith increase.
She went on to tell us that her boyfriend and her had been unable to skype each other at every port his ship had stopped on. and she was so sad. He was coming into port in Israel, of all places, and was doubtful it would work, again. She said a prayer that she would be able to get through and when he came in they tried and it worked!! We asked if she felt like she could trust God a little more and she said Yes! I can't help but just adore her and her efforts to come unto Christ! It's so worth the struggle!!
I love the gospel, I love missions, I love watching people's faith increase.
AUG 7: sister Rosier (like Rozure)
wow, I LOVE my new companion she is so good at striving to act in a Christlike way!! She is such a good example to me! She's also the oldest in her family, also from Utah, has always wanted to serve a mission (how cool is that?? she's been preparing like her how life!!) she looves having fun and we both love to travel so the other night we made stateside and worldwide travel bucket lists haha
The very first full day she was here, we stumbled into a family (the Washingtons) We are so excited for their progression! we found out Shawanda (the mom) is a daughter of a member in our ward and has met several set of missionaries, but hasn't sat down to any of the discussions until now. The mom especially is soaking everything in so much! She loves what she's learning and so willing to rely on the Lord to lead her life.
The second time we went she told us she was really down because of health problems and felt our visit was perfect timing and heaven sent! God is so good!! :)
They are very serious about learning the truth and striving to apply it! and have committed to be baptized on September 23rd after they receive their answer. They have begun reading the Book of Mormon together as a family and we'll hopefully be meeting their college age daughter this week when she comes to visit!!
The very first full day she was here, we stumbled into a family (the Washingtons) We are so excited for their progression! we found out Shawanda (the mom) is a daughter of a member in our ward and has met several set of missionaries, but hasn't sat down to any of the discussions until now. The mom especially is soaking everything in so much! She loves what she's learning and so willing to rely on the Lord to lead her life.
The second time we went she told us she was really down because of health problems and felt our visit was perfect timing and heaven sent! God is so good!! :)
They are very serious about learning the truth and striving to apply it! and have committed to be baptized on September 23rd after they receive their answer. They have begun reading the Book of Mormon together as a family and we'll hopefully be meeting their college age daughter this week when she comes to visit!!
AUG 14: Extra extra!! READ ALL ABOUT IT! PMG pg 8 activity
(one of the study activities in Preach my Gospel is to write a "news article" of the Restoration of the gospel so sister Rosier and I did that yesterday: here you go )
The Truth Restored
Local teenage boy sparks worldwide movement through one inspired question?
Have you ever felt completely conflicted? torn? or one step away from what you thought you knew shattering into a million pieces??
So too was 14 year old Joseph Smith Jr. of Palmyra, New York. The story starts around 1820 as a young farm boy of a 3rd grade education noticed what he called " an unusual excitement on the subject of religion." What started as an observation, turned extremely personal as his family divided and began attending different sects... Visiting many types of meetings Joseph began developing some seriously soul searching questions. It seemed as though all had the goal of returning to God's presence but each sect attended seemed to have a different method or set of requirements for doing so.
His quest began to change and incredibly this 14-year-old began searching for the true path to a "remission of Sins"
We go now to the scene to hear it in his own words:
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2017-01-0100-ask-of-god-joseph-smiths-first-vision?category=topics/apostasy-and-restoration&lang=eng
Joseph Smith's simple question sparked an experience beyond imagination. An experience proving to the world that God knows each individual that ever has and ever will live on this earth... by name. That truly we are children of Him. and that His goal is to bring us back to His presence. Permanently.
The Claim, is that, years after this experience, the Church that Jesus Christ established during His earthly ministry was restored by Christ himself, through this newly called prophet of God, Joseph Smith Jr. a mouthpiece of the Lord. Through this restoration of the Church came the restoration of the knowledge of how to return to God's presence permanently and the plan that enables every soul that has ever lived the opportunity to choose that eternal destination.
Bold as this claim may seem, convincing evidence is found in a book. A book that, along with the Holy Bible, claims to be the word of God. Originally a reformed Egyptian text on an ancient record, it was given to Joseph Smith to translate, which he did so, by the power of God. The invitation is extended to all people world wide:
"We invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to ponder in their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true. Those who pursue this course and ask in faith will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost. (See Moroni 10:3–5.)
Those who gain this divine witness from the Holy Spirit will also come to know by the same power that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith is His revelator and prophet in these last days, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s kingdom once again established on the earth, preparatory to the Second Coming of the Messiah."
Accepting the invitation comes with the promise that
more hope and happiness awaits you then you can ever imagine.
Christ's command: "Peace, Be still" is possible through this understanding of the full gospel of Christ.
Complete access to the sacrifice of Christ is available to those who learn how to access it His way through making and keeping covenants, or promises, with God, himself.
I have personally taken the challenge and found the Book truly to be the word of God. Above all else: it truly is another testament of Christ! and it is therefore evidence of the divinity of Joseph Smith's calling, and this restoration of truth. I stand with millions around the world as we testify that these promises are sure. Christ Lives and leads His flock back home through His organization and order.
Truly all is up to you. Just like young Joseph: One question, to the all knowing source (Our Loving Heavenly Father) is all it takes. so here poses the question: What will you do now?
The Truth Restored
Local teenage boy sparks worldwide movement through one inspired question?
Have you ever felt completely conflicted? torn? or one step away from what you thought you knew shattering into a million pieces??
So too was 14 year old Joseph Smith Jr. of Palmyra, New York. The story starts around 1820 as a young farm boy of a 3rd grade education noticed what he called " an unusual excitement on the subject of religion." What started as an observation, turned extremely personal as his family divided and began attending different sects... Visiting many types of meetings Joseph began developing some seriously soul searching questions. It seemed as though all had the goal of returning to God's presence but each sect attended seemed to have a different method or set of requirements for doing so.
His quest began to change and incredibly this 14-year-old began searching for the true path to a "remission of Sins"
We go now to the scene to hear it in his own words:
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2017-01-0100-ask-of-god-joseph-smiths-first-vision?category=topics/apostasy-and-restoration&lang=eng
Joseph Smith's simple question sparked an experience beyond imagination. An experience proving to the world that God knows each individual that ever has and ever will live on this earth... by name. That truly we are children of Him. and that His goal is to bring us back to His presence. Permanently.
The Claim, is that, years after this experience, the Church that Jesus Christ established during His earthly ministry was restored by Christ himself, through this newly called prophet of God, Joseph Smith Jr. a mouthpiece of the Lord. Through this restoration of the Church came the restoration of the knowledge of how to return to God's presence permanently and the plan that enables every soul that has ever lived the opportunity to choose that eternal destination.
Bold as this claim may seem, convincing evidence is found in a book. A book that, along with the Holy Bible, claims to be the word of God. Originally a reformed Egyptian text on an ancient record, it was given to Joseph Smith to translate, which he did so, by the power of God. The invitation is extended to all people world wide:
"We invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to ponder in their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true. Those who pursue this course and ask in faith will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost. (See Moroni 10:3–5.)
Those who gain this divine witness from the Holy Spirit will also come to know by the same power that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith is His revelator and prophet in these last days, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s kingdom once again established on the earth, preparatory to the Second Coming of the Messiah."
Accepting the invitation comes with the promise that
more hope and happiness awaits you then you can ever imagine.
Christ's command: "Peace, Be still" is possible through this understanding of the full gospel of Christ.
Complete access to the sacrifice of Christ is available to those who learn how to access it His way through making and keeping covenants, or promises, with God, himself.
I have personally taken the challenge and found the Book truly to be the word of God. Above all else: it truly is another testament of Christ! and it is therefore evidence of the divinity of Joseph Smith's calling, and this restoration of truth. I stand with millions around the world as we testify that these promises are sure. Christ Lives and leads His flock back home through His organization and order.
Truly all is up to you. Just like young Joseph: One question, to the all knowing source (Our Loving Heavenly Father) is all it takes. so here poses the question: What will you do now?
Aug 21: catch up a little bit and fun pictures:)
Brother fuller is coming home!!! So this family is the cutest thing everr and their dad has been deployed so we haven't met him yet, but he is coming home today so we get to meet him friday for dinner!! We are so exccited!!!
Elizabeth got baptized!!!!! I can't remember if i already sent this picture, but we LOVE Liz she's like our BFF she started learning about the church from some elders in bayside, but lives over in our ward (in the elders area) and then elder rogers got transferred from our ward to be the presidents assistant so that companionship came too and then the district leader interviewed her so he and his comp were there....
so tons of missionaries know her and there were like 13 missionaries there including pres and sis weed! it's was a blast!
also thanks and special sho ut out to kailey for the cute quotes and the painting that I could hang up above my desk! You're a doll! Love you!
Elizabeth got baptized!!!!! I can't remember if i already sent this picture, but we LOVE Liz she's like our BFF she started learning about the church from some elders in bayside, but lives over in our ward (in the elders area) and then elder rogers got transferred from our ward to be the presidents assistant so that companionship came too and then the district leader interviewed her so he and his comp were there....
so tons of missionaries know her and there were like 13 missionaries there including pres and sis weed! it's was a blast!
also thanks and special sho ut out to kailey for the cute quotes and the painting that I could hang up above my desk! You're a doll! Love you!
Jul 31: Transfers and miracles
MIRACLE
miracle = manifestation of God's power, goodness, love, etc.
We see miracles every day. God is so good! I am so grateful for His blessings! and His many many witnesses of His love. This morning for instance we went to leave and discovered a flat tire on our car! It had apparently been punctured by a screw last night on our way home. Right as we opened the back to put on the spare, two apartment maintenance men rode by on their little golf carts and said "oh let us do that for you!" perfect timing! we were so so grateful for their help, especially because we had no idea what we were doing! haha I am so grateful for the timing of those two men, that's definitely not something they were paid to do, but they were more than happy to! I have no doubt God will bless them for their service.
Transfers
Sister Goulding will be going to the place of my birth!!! (born into the mission ;)
Wilson NC, I could not be more excited for her! She will be in a trio with two sisters that I absolutely adore! I am sending her with the names of a handful of people that got so close to baptism and hopefully they will see miracles and hearts soften!
As for me this is super exciting!! I will be training a new missionary!! Why is this so cool?? Because I will be able to train as my brother is going through training!! this is why this is a tender mercy:
Honestly, I have struggled a couple times the past few weeks as I've started the "preparing to transition to returning home phase" and realizing on of my Best Friends (my brother Spencer) won't be there and not being able to give him a "the mission is the best thing in the entire world pep-talk" before he left (thank goodness for email!!) It's probably kinda selfish but I wanted to be able to feel a part of his "takeoff" ya know?? What a better way then this?! So my last 12 weeks I'll be training a brand new missionary, someone at the same point as my brother as she goes through the 12 week training program. Talk about being a part of "take off!" I don't know if this is making any sense, but I feel like it is another testament that God knows me, loves me and cares about making sure I know it without a shadow of a doubt!
Hopefully, through my companion and our training experience, I will be able to know even better how I can help my brother and hopefully through him I'll know even better how to help my new companion! My goal for helping both is to help them notice the hand of the Lord daily in their lives! In this way their faith and trust in God will increase!
also cool story!! A sweet girl name Katie painted a picture of the temple on my scriptures!!
It's the San diego temple!! (One of my favorites!! and the only temple I've done proxy work for every ordinance in:)
miracle = manifestation of God's power, goodness, love, etc.
We see miracles every day. God is so good! I am so grateful for His blessings! and His many many witnesses of His love. This morning for instance we went to leave and discovered a flat tire on our car! It had apparently been punctured by a screw last night on our way home. Right as we opened the back to put on the spare, two apartment maintenance men rode by on their little golf carts and said "oh let us do that for you!" perfect timing! we were so so grateful for their help, especially because we had no idea what we were doing! haha I am so grateful for the timing of those two men, that's definitely not something they were paid to do, but they were more than happy to! I have no doubt God will bless them for their service.
Transfers
Sister Goulding will be going to the place of my birth!!! (born into the mission ;)
Wilson NC, I could not be more excited for her! She will be in a trio with two sisters that I absolutely adore! I am sending her with the names of a handful of people that got so close to baptism and hopefully they will see miracles and hearts soften!
As for me this is super exciting!! I will be training a new missionary!! Why is this so cool?? Because I will be able to train as my brother is going through training!! this is why this is a tender mercy:
Honestly, I have struggled a couple times the past few weeks as I've started the "preparing to transition to returning home phase" and realizing on of my Best Friends (my brother Spencer) won't be there and not being able to give him a "the mission is the best thing in the entire world pep-talk" before he left (thank goodness for email!!) It's probably kinda selfish but I wanted to be able to feel a part of his "takeoff" ya know?? What a better way then this?! So my last 12 weeks I'll be training a brand new missionary, someone at the same point as my brother as she goes through the 12 week training program. Talk about being a part of "take off!" I don't know if this is making any sense, but I feel like it is another testament that God knows me, loves me and cares about making sure I know it without a shadow of a doubt!
Hopefully, through my companion and our training experience, I will be able to know even better how I can help my brother and hopefully through him I'll know even better how to help my new companion! My goal for helping both is to help them notice the hand of the Lord daily in their lives! In this way their faith and trust in God will increase!
also cool story!! A sweet girl name Katie painted a picture of the temple on my scriptures!!
It's the San diego temple!! (One of my favorites!! and the only temple I've done proxy work for every ordinance in:)
Jun 5: Healing Water
There is a youth song called healing water that I literally listened to on repeat last transfer, I love it so much!
My Healing Process
this is going to seem all over the place for a second, bear with me
I remember sitting on the grass in my fourth grade year and my mom asked me if I would be okay with receiving or would like to receive some counseling. That was the first of multiple times. In my stubborn way as I grew up I continued to think, "no I'm fine, I don't know how much good it'd do me anyway and it's expensive so it'd be a waste of money."
I have always known the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the Lords church, restored by Jesus Christ Himself through a prophet Joseph Smith, It is. the Book of Mormon.. It is the Word of God. I know Joy comes through living the gospel. I know these things and I have never doubted them, but the last couple years the knowledge of these has been in my head only and not in my heart.
Through the last 9 months or so the story kept coming to mind of Peter jumping out of the boat and beginning to walk on water to Christ. That was me coming on a mission. He walked a few steps and then looked around at the waves and the wind, probably thinking about all the fish and water creatures that likely lurked under his feet. and there began a crisis of Faith. Peter started to sink..
I'd been praying all week to know what I should do, I'd talked to my mission president and family and companion and received a priesthood blessing (for the first time as a "blessing of healing the sick and afflicted" for anxiety, instead of a "blessing of comfort and counsel") and now I was just waiting for confirmation to move forward with counseling. (hesitant because I was nervous it would take valuable time away from being able to share the gospel)
Jeffery R Holland gives a talk called like a broken vessel (it's been on my top five favorite talks since the day it was given! I even remember where I was sitting during that session of general conference, it was one of those "wow that talk was for me" moments)
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/like-a-broken-vessel?lang=eng
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2016-06-2001-like-a-broken-vessel?lang=eng
Last sunday the third hour of church was (in both the youth classes and the adult classes) addressing depression and anxiety (Could God speak any louder?:) and this video (link above) of like a broken vessel was shown.
"If you had appendicitis, God would expect you to seek a priesthood blessing and get the best medical care available. So too with emotional disorders. Our Father in Heaven expects us to use all of the marvelous gifts He has provided in this glorious dispensation."
This week I was able to start receiving help from a counselor and I have felt hope for this first time in months!! My faith in Christ and His atoning sacrifice has increased. I am indescribably excited (the first emotion at all that I've felt in a long time) and so grateful for the resources Heavenly Father has provided us to help us to reach our full potential both in this life and the life to come! God is so good! :) It's going to be a long journey, but I am so grateful for the love, support, and prayers that have been offered in my behalf. I have felt them! There have been times I have felt the presence of angels around me. Thank you for your prayers and fasting. They are being answered.
Summary of the Area's Progress:)
I am serving in Bennett creek, I've been here about 4 weeks, I came from literally the ward next door so I still see the same people pretty often and it's super weird but tons of fun!
Nina is getting baptized on June 10th! woohoo!! she is finding hope in the gospel and purpose in life
Larry we taught eternal marriage, it was a very powerful situation, he is missing his wife alot and we didn't know but it is coming up on the anniversary of his wife's death so that is really sad and the day we committed him to be baptized in July15th he started crying and apparently it happened to be ten days after the anniversary of her death. It was really powerful and he said he'd pray about it. we'll see him again tonight
testimony of Family history!! and Eternal marriage through the priesthood. He hasn't understood the priesthood until we taught about marriage for time and all eternity in the temple of God.
Keith (read the entire Book of Mormon in a week!!) we are meeting with him three times this week and he has tons of great questions. we'll present the lessons and help him identify the spirit and then it'll be up to him to choose whether or not to accept it. (I hope he chooses too!!) I know the gospel and living it will bring so much peace into his life, something that as such an active part in the military is really hard for him to find.
Highlighting a missionary in my mission
also kinda cool, a missionary from my mission had an article in this month's New era
https://www.lds.org/new-era/2017/06/my-dads-hands?lang=eng
My Healing Process
this is going to seem all over the place for a second, bear with me
I remember sitting on the grass in my fourth grade year and my mom asked me if I would be okay with receiving or would like to receive some counseling. That was the first of multiple times. In my stubborn way as I grew up I continued to think, "no I'm fine, I don't know how much good it'd do me anyway and it's expensive so it'd be a waste of money."
I have always known the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the Lords church, restored by Jesus Christ Himself through a prophet Joseph Smith, It is. the Book of Mormon.. It is the Word of God. I know Joy comes through living the gospel. I know these things and I have never doubted them, but the last couple years the knowledge of these has been in my head only and not in my heart.
Through the last 9 months or so the story kept coming to mind of Peter jumping out of the boat and beginning to walk on water to Christ. That was me coming on a mission. He walked a few steps and then looked around at the waves and the wind, probably thinking about all the fish and water creatures that likely lurked under his feet. and there began a crisis of Faith. Peter started to sink..
I'd been praying all week to know what I should do, I'd talked to my mission president and family and companion and received a priesthood blessing (for the first time as a "blessing of healing the sick and afflicted" for anxiety, instead of a "blessing of comfort and counsel") and now I was just waiting for confirmation to move forward with counseling. (hesitant because I was nervous it would take valuable time away from being able to share the gospel)
Jeffery R Holland gives a talk called like a broken vessel (it's been on my top five favorite talks since the day it was given! I even remember where I was sitting during that session of general conference, it was one of those "wow that talk was for me" moments)
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/like-a-broken-vessel?lang=eng
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2016-06-2001-like-a-broken-vessel?lang=eng
Last sunday the third hour of church was (in both the youth classes and the adult classes) addressing depression and anxiety (Could God speak any louder?:) and this video (link above) of like a broken vessel was shown.
"If you had appendicitis, God would expect you to seek a priesthood blessing and get the best medical care available. So too with emotional disorders. Our Father in Heaven expects us to use all of the marvelous gifts He has provided in this glorious dispensation."
This week I was able to start receiving help from a counselor and I have felt hope for this first time in months!! My faith in Christ and His atoning sacrifice has increased. I am indescribably excited (the first emotion at all that I've felt in a long time) and so grateful for the resources Heavenly Father has provided us to help us to reach our full potential both in this life and the life to come! God is so good! :) It's going to be a long journey, but I am so grateful for the love, support, and prayers that have been offered in my behalf. I have felt them! There have been times I have felt the presence of angels around me. Thank you for your prayers and fasting. They are being answered.
Summary of the Area's Progress:)
I am serving in Bennett creek, I've been here about 4 weeks, I came from literally the ward next door so I still see the same people pretty often and it's super weird but tons of fun!
Nina is getting baptized on June 10th! woohoo!! she is finding hope in the gospel and purpose in life
Larry we taught eternal marriage, it was a very powerful situation, he is missing his wife alot and we didn't know but it is coming up on the anniversary of his wife's death so that is really sad and the day we committed him to be baptized in July15th he started crying and apparently it happened to be ten days after the anniversary of her death. It was really powerful and he said he'd pray about it. we'll see him again tonight
testimony of Family history!! and Eternal marriage through the priesthood. He hasn't understood the priesthood until we taught about marriage for time and all eternity in the temple of God.
Keith (read the entire Book of Mormon in a week!!) we are meeting with him three times this week and he has tons of great questions. we'll present the lessons and help him identify the spirit and then it'll be up to him to choose whether or not to accept it. (I hope he chooses too!!) I know the gospel and living it will bring so much peace into his life, something that as such an active part in the military is really hard for him to find.
Highlighting a missionary in my mission
also kinda cool, a missionary from my mission had an article in this month's New era
https://www.lds.org/new-era/2017/06/my-dads-hands?lang=eng
Jun 12: Miracle of the paint can
Painting for Sister Iribe
We had a miracle this week! We were helping a woman paint her daughter's bedroom for a surprise for her. We realized, with the top half of two walls left, there was no way we were going to have enough to finish.... she really wanted to surprise her daughter when she came home from school that day and there would not be enough time for her to get more paint... so we said a prayer that there would be enough paint to finish the room.
There is no way on earth that we had enough paint, but we finished! Towards the end I was literally squeezing paint out of brushes we had finished using, but using that, we had enough and the mom and daughter were both so grateful! It was literally a miracle!! and a faith building opportunity for us! God is so good! It reminded me about the moving facing the giants "of course God cares about football, he cares about you!" (except with the word paint instead of football;)
Larry
he almost dropped us this week, but kind of changed his mind a couple days later and came to a fellow-shipping party at the suarez family home to celebrate nina's baptism! It was so good to have him there to meet some of the ward! The bishop, ward mission leader, and relief society president and their families were all there too!
Nina got baptized!!
Yay!! and her family was able to come, the service was beautiful! The members all love her and her family already and she started crying before she went into the font.. aw it was beautiful! She was so so happy. seniya, nina's little girl:) is cute as a button! also I made a new friend on saturday! She is the Suarez couple's grand-daughter and Maria told her I was a ballerina and she got soooo excited and ran as fast as she could to get her brand new dance slippers to show me! She's 9 year old claire weatherspoon;) Elder Curtis and his wife were able to speak with us!! In the back you see also elder pembroke photobombing and elder Heagy in the very back! (I went to high school with him!!!)
We had a miracle this week! We were helping a woman paint her daughter's bedroom for a surprise for her. We realized, with the top half of two walls left, there was no way we were going to have enough to finish.... she really wanted to surprise her daughter when she came home from school that day and there would not be enough time for her to get more paint... so we said a prayer that there would be enough paint to finish the room.
There is no way on earth that we had enough paint, but we finished! Towards the end I was literally squeezing paint out of brushes we had finished using, but using that, we had enough and the mom and daughter were both so grateful! It was literally a miracle!! and a faith building opportunity for us! God is so good! It reminded me about the moving facing the giants "of course God cares about football, he cares about you!" (except with the word paint instead of football;)
Larry
he almost dropped us this week, but kind of changed his mind a couple days later and came to a fellow-shipping party at the suarez family home to celebrate nina's baptism! It was so good to have him there to meet some of the ward! The bishop, ward mission leader, and relief society president and their families were all there too!
Nina got baptized!!
Yay!! and her family was able to come, the service was beautiful! The members all love her and her family already and she started crying before she went into the font.. aw it was beautiful! She was so so happy. seniya, nina's little girl:) is cute as a button! also I made a new friend on saturday! She is the Suarez couple's grand-daughter and Maria told her I was a ballerina and she got soooo excited and ran as fast as she could to get her brand new dance slippers to show me! She's 9 year old claire weatherspoon;) Elder Curtis and his wife were able to speak with us!! In the back you see also elder pembroke photobombing and elder Heagy in the very back! (I went to high school with him!!!)
Jun 19: for the beauty of the earth :)
It is literally beyond beautiful here! it's warm right now, but this is such a pretty time of year! and with the rain the last few days it hasn't been bad at all!
speaking of which we got SOAKED the other day! we had parked and stated walking and maybe 20 minutes later it started pouring buckets!!! This sweet lady ran out and handed us an umbrella, can't wait to bring it back and ask it we can share our message with her:)
Chloe Hobbs is a 12 year old girl here in the Bennetts Creek Ward who the elders have been working with. Because of the timing of her parents divorce she wasn't baptized when she was 8 and complication later forced her to wait till now to be baptized. But she was glowing!! Oh my goodness such a doll! She was so excited to be baptized and it was the most packed baptism I've ever been to! this ward has been waiting and waiting for this!! They were ecstatic! While she was changing they played a mormon message:
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-03-08-testimony-of-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng
It's elder Holland so of course it's super powerful, but it just hit me harder than ever watching it that day and I couldn't help but cry. I testify, it's all real. The church Jesus Christ established when he was on the earth truly has been restored! It was done by Jesus Christ himself through a prophet, living on earth, chosen as His mouthpiece to declare His word and reveal the truths of the ordinances necessary for salvation. This prophet also called to be the instrument through which the power and authority to perform those ordinances from God Himself could be, once again, on the earth.
What a blessing!!!
at the end of the baptism, this 11 year old girl said the closing prayer and expressed her gratitude that Chloe was finally able to fully join the "fold of God," it was one of the most heart felt prayers i have ever heard and she started cryin her cute little eyes out after! It was adorable:)
found this little memorial ground for people that gave their lives for their country.
it was beautiful! then this guy walked out and we thought he'd give us some history or something and the first thing he said is "you'll probably get a tick today from being here so make sure you examine yourself well...." needless to say we had a little freak out. but we were both clear!! :)
he did end up giving us a little history after :) and we were able to thank him for his service in 3 wars!! So wonderful to be around so many people willing to sacrifice for our country! I am so grateful to them and my family members that are part of securing and maintaining our freedoms!
transfer calls came saturday: sister Goulding and i are staying here!
Sister Platz went to NC to be sister training leader and companions with sister Bruneel (my best friend on the mission!!)
sister White is also headed to NC and she will be companions with my MTC companion sister Tietjen!:)
both of my other companions are still in our zone so I get to see them all the time and absolutely LOVE it!
I got to know a couple of the girls in my mission before we came out on missions and sister pence, sister merrill (who came to my farewell, bless her heart!!) and now sister smith too!! are all in my zone! I love it!! we are having a blast! :)
speaking of which we got SOAKED the other day! we had parked and stated walking and maybe 20 minutes later it started pouring buckets!!! This sweet lady ran out and handed us an umbrella, can't wait to bring it back and ask it we can share our message with her:)
Chloe Hobbs is a 12 year old girl here in the Bennetts Creek Ward who the elders have been working with. Because of the timing of her parents divorce she wasn't baptized when she was 8 and complication later forced her to wait till now to be baptized. But she was glowing!! Oh my goodness such a doll! She was so excited to be baptized and it was the most packed baptism I've ever been to! this ward has been waiting and waiting for this!! They were ecstatic! While she was changing they played a mormon message:
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-03-08-testimony-of-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng
It's elder Holland so of course it's super powerful, but it just hit me harder than ever watching it that day and I couldn't help but cry. I testify, it's all real. The church Jesus Christ established when he was on the earth truly has been restored! It was done by Jesus Christ himself through a prophet, living on earth, chosen as His mouthpiece to declare His word and reveal the truths of the ordinances necessary for salvation. This prophet also called to be the instrument through which the power and authority to perform those ordinances from God Himself could be, once again, on the earth.
What a blessing!!!
at the end of the baptism, this 11 year old girl said the closing prayer and expressed her gratitude that Chloe was finally able to fully join the "fold of God," it was one of the most heart felt prayers i have ever heard and she started cryin her cute little eyes out after! It was adorable:)
found this little memorial ground for people that gave their lives for their country.
it was beautiful! then this guy walked out and we thought he'd give us some history or something and the first thing he said is "you'll probably get a tick today from being here so make sure you examine yourself well...." needless to say we had a little freak out. but we were both clear!! :)
he did end up giving us a little history after :) and we were able to thank him for his service in 3 wars!! So wonderful to be around so many people willing to sacrifice for our country! I am so grateful to them and my family members that are part of securing and maintaining our freedoms!
transfer calls came saturday: sister Goulding and i are staying here!
Sister Platz went to NC to be sister training leader and companions with sister Bruneel (my best friend on the mission!!)
sister White is also headed to NC and she will be companions with my MTC companion sister Tietjen!:)
both of my other companions are still in our zone so I get to see them all the time and absolutely LOVE it!
I got to know a couple of the girls in my mission before we came out on missions and sister pence, sister merrill (who came to my farewell, bless her heart!!) and now sister smith too!! are all in my zone! I love it!! we are having a blast! :)
Jun 26: miracle of Lamia
While serving in the Portsmouth ward, a recent convert invited one of his friends to begin taking lessons with the elders. her name was Lamia. She's a sweet girl who latched onto the doctrine of the apostasy and came quickly to realize the truth of the message of the restoration of the gospel. I would get so excited every time I saw her at church! I could see the glow starting to shine in her as she learned!!
I got transferred and am now actually serving in the area that she lives in so one day I got her address and wrote her a note, it took us a couple weeks to be able to drop it off to her, but eventually we did and I was so sad that she wasn't home for me to say hi.
We talked to the elders that are teaching her a few days ago and they said she felt like she had so many road blocks that she was considering no longer investigating the church, but one day she went home and there was a note... and she received the witness, reading it, that she should continue investigating.
I couldn't help but tear up hearing the story. I had no idea why I was writing the note and I don't even remember what it said, I think I was just expressing my love. But God's timing is so perfect and I am so thankful I could be an instrument in his hands and double grateful that he let me hear about it's impact later so that my faith could be strengthened as well! What a glorious gift to be a missionary for the Savior. I never want it to end!!
second miracle, the elders decided since lamia already knows me, now would be a good time to switch her over to Bennetts Creek sisters (us) to begin teaching because it'll be an easier time for her to to make the adjustment to the ward boundaries she should be attending. #blessings!!! now we get to teach her too!! I am so excited!! :)
My companion, sister Goulding's, favorite scripture is :
"I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy."
I got transferred and am now actually serving in the area that she lives in so one day I got her address and wrote her a note, it took us a couple weeks to be able to drop it off to her, but eventually we did and I was so sad that she wasn't home for me to say hi.
We talked to the elders that are teaching her a few days ago and they said she felt like she had so many road blocks that she was considering no longer investigating the church, but one day she went home and there was a note... and she received the witness, reading it, that she should continue investigating.
I couldn't help but tear up hearing the story. I had no idea why I was writing the note and I don't even remember what it said, I think I was just expressing my love. But God's timing is so perfect and I am so thankful I could be an instrument in his hands and double grateful that he let me hear about it's impact later so that my faith could be strengthened as well! What a glorious gift to be a missionary for the Savior. I never want it to end!!
second miracle, the elders decided since lamia already knows me, now would be a good time to switch her over to Bennetts Creek sisters (us) to begin teaching because it'll be an easier time for her to to make the adjustment to the ward boundaries she should be attending. #blessings!!! now we get to teach her too!! I am so excited!! :)
My companion, sister Goulding's, favorite scripture is :
"I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy."
Jul 3: Ask Of God
"I promise you that something in what they say will always highlight a truth of the gospel about which you can bear testimony and about which you can then offer more"~Elder Jeffery R. Holland
Reaffirmed my testimony of the truthfulness of this statement when we were able to take a very not-doctrinally correct concern/belief of a new investigator and testify of Family history! Her concern faded fast and her excitement exploded as we offered help with her personal family history and her kids are excited about it too!! she is very connected with her family and can't wait to help her gain a personal understanding and faith in the doctrine of the plan of salvation and temple work!! :)
now if she continues to have this concern she will be able to have time to help her develop a little bit more of a doctrinal foundation with which to build upon.
Youth in Palmyra
the youth of this stake had the incredible opportunity to go to some of the church history sites for their youth conference! Kirtland Ohio and Palmyra New York being the two main stops. It took me back to when I got to go and visit Palmyra with my mom that was such an incredible experience for me!
When you teach someone the restoration, the spirit is so strong, bearing a confident witness that this message is true. often in the middle of lessons, I'll momentarily pause feeling the confirmation "this is real." (and get, yes, a little distracted, caught in awe.) "I have stood in the exact grove where this experience took place"
It is amazing. Going there about 5 years ago, I knew intellectually that it was the location of the first vision; this was the home he returned to where he specifically and aptly told his mother what had happened; that, over there, is the hill, Cumorah, where the plates were hid and found. But now I know with a surety, in my heart, the significance of those events and the spiritual reality of them.
It's true it's real!
If you don't know, "ask of God"
That is the theme for the youth of the church this year, world wide. Ask of god.
Reaffirmed my testimony of the truthfulness of this statement when we were able to take a very not-doctrinally correct concern/belief of a new investigator and testify of Family history! Her concern faded fast and her excitement exploded as we offered help with her personal family history and her kids are excited about it too!! she is very connected with her family and can't wait to help her gain a personal understanding and faith in the doctrine of the plan of salvation and temple work!! :)
now if she continues to have this concern she will be able to have time to help her develop a little bit more of a doctrinal foundation with which to build upon.
Youth in Palmyra
the youth of this stake had the incredible opportunity to go to some of the church history sites for their youth conference! Kirtland Ohio and Palmyra New York being the two main stops. It took me back to when I got to go and visit Palmyra with my mom that was such an incredible experience for me!
When you teach someone the restoration, the spirit is so strong, bearing a confident witness that this message is true. often in the middle of lessons, I'll momentarily pause feeling the confirmation "this is real." (and get, yes, a little distracted, caught in awe.) "I have stood in the exact grove where this experience took place"
It is amazing. Going there about 5 years ago, I knew intellectually that it was the location of the first vision; this was the home he returned to where he specifically and aptly told his mother what had happened; that, over there, is the hill, Cumorah, where the plates were hid and found. But now I know with a surety, in my heart, the significance of those events and the spiritual reality of them.
It's true it's real!
If you don't know, "ask of God"
That is the theme for the youth of the church this year, world wide. Ask of god.
Jul 10: LIvin the dream July 2017
What a week!!
Fourth of July
We had so much fun with the Christensens!!
Guess what game we played before leaving to see fireworks????
THE GREAT DALMOUTI!!
they have a super fun way of playing because they have HATS that go along with each postion!! It's so funny! We had a blast and are now BFFs with their grandaughters too!! (who are planning to go to Utah State!! woohoo!! in 2020)
do you remember the paint miracle?? Where we prayed there'd be enough paint to finish the room and (after squishing out paint out of the extra brushes, way more then should have fit.. ) there was enough?? that family (the iribes, like ear-i-bays) showed us their karate moves! They are in a bible martial arts program and part of their advancement requirements is memorizing bible verses! cool huh?
also a couple stories I sent to my dad:
I don't know if you remember me talking about Sylvia Moore when I left Wilson (my first area) but the missionaries after I left stopped meeting with her (she had a baptism date, but they couldn't get in contact with her after a surgery) well I just found out she got baptized this last week!!! How cool is that????
We were teaching Lamia earlier this week (Someone I came to just love when she was working with the Portsmouth elders, but now we get to teach!!)
and she has all these cool analogies and she described How she felt like she was walking in a super dark world and couldn't see anything, but then felt a tap on her shoulders and turned to see the missionaries holding a light. They hand her one too and she turns around to keep walking and realizes she was walking on massive spikes, but as she turned, the missionaries helped her find the better path. She said " I bet that hurts you so bad when investigators hand you back the light and decide to just keep walking on the spikes." I almost started crying. She has so much empathy for others it blows my mind!!
That's such a good analogy for missionary work!!
Fourth of July
We had so much fun with the Christensens!!
Guess what game we played before leaving to see fireworks????
THE GREAT DALMOUTI!!
they have a super fun way of playing because they have HATS that go along with each postion!! It's so funny! We had a blast and are now BFFs with their grandaughters too!! (who are planning to go to Utah State!! woohoo!! in 2020)
do you remember the paint miracle?? Where we prayed there'd be enough paint to finish the room and (after squishing out paint out of the extra brushes, way more then should have fit.. ) there was enough?? that family (the iribes, like ear-i-bays) showed us their karate moves! They are in a bible martial arts program and part of their advancement requirements is memorizing bible verses! cool huh?
also a couple stories I sent to my dad:
I don't know if you remember me talking about Sylvia Moore when I left Wilson (my first area) but the missionaries after I left stopped meeting with her (she had a baptism date, but they couldn't get in contact with her after a surgery) well I just found out she got baptized this last week!!! How cool is that????
We were teaching Lamia earlier this week (Someone I came to just love when she was working with the Portsmouth elders, but now we get to teach!!)
and she has all these cool analogies and she described How she felt like she was walking in a super dark world and couldn't see anything, but then felt a tap on her shoulders and turned to see the missionaries holding a light. They hand her one too and she turns around to keep walking and realizes she was walking on massive spikes, but as she turned, the missionaries helped her find the better path. She said " I bet that hurts you so bad when investigators hand you back the light and decide to just keep walking on the spikes." I almost started crying. She has so much empathy for others it blows my mind!!
That's such a good analogy for missionary work!!
APR 24: Tracting
Wow time is ticking fast! I cannot even believe what the date is!!
Obedience question:
if y'all have a second will you send me a short experience of a commandment you've kept and the blessings that came into your life because you did?? thanks:)
Tracting:)
It isn't very often that tracting is the best use of time, but sometimes it is and we saw some cool miracles this week! and had alot of fun! There were people we totally almost missed but happened to show up just in time. I'll be excited to see how many of these people will go from potentials to officially investigating the church! We even met a preacher's wife that said we could come back and share a message!! Crazy right? The spirit literally softened her heart before our eyes it was so cool!
Favorite one-liners from conference??
We've been reviewing conference in district meeting. Normally when I watch I'm looking for "one-liners:" cool phrases that I can memorize and apply in my life. with another focus this conference, I didn't write many of those down. I did really like a couple though:
"let your covenants be paramount and your obedience exact"
"christlike attributes are weapons against the adversary"
"we cannot be part-time disciples"
What were some of your favorite "one-liners" from conference???
(This is one of my favorite - role model missionaries: my sister Training leader sister stacey!)
She is goooals!
Birthday
Ah! Best birthday ever!! actually if you've ever seen errand of angels and they have that rainy day.. that was exactly what it was like hahaha rained all day and all of our appointments canceled, but I love the rain so that was actually fabulous. But I loooved the package y'all sent me!! Thank you to those who wrote me cards!! THat was the best surprise ever!!
my companion is basically adorable and wrapped all these little bitty presents with funny sayings on them it was so sweet!
I am so thankful for her!! Companions are the best. Once an elder told me if you ever have a problem tell you companion and somehow the problem always seems to go away after that! It is so true and sister white has taught me so much about how to be not only a good missionary, but a good person! and she's just getting started!! I can't wait to hear how much more amazing she becomes as her mission goes.
at the conference last week with Elder Cook I got to see all my companions!
PS. Our tracting approaches this week:
these two tracting approaches worked pretty well for us!
1. gave 13 articles of faith cards to kids playing outside (ask if they want a picture of Jesus) and then knocking on the door to " ask the parents if it's okay to give them a picture of Christ" and then ask if you can share a message with their family
2. when they answer the door, saying hi do you want a free king James version of the bible? then if they believe in the bible ask what their favorite verse is. then share john 10:16 other sheep I have and connect it with 3 nephi 15: 16,17, 21 and 24 and ask if we can give them a free BOM too and come back and tell them a little more about it another time. (sometimes you can even give them a restoration pamphlet and have them read in advance)
Obedience question:
if y'all have a second will you send me a short experience of a commandment you've kept and the blessings that came into your life because you did?? thanks:)
Tracting:)
It isn't very often that tracting is the best use of time, but sometimes it is and we saw some cool miracles this week! and had alot of fun! There were people we totally almost missed but happened to show up just in time. I'll be excited to see how many of these people will go from potentials to officially investigating the church! We even met a preacher's wife that said we could come back and share a message!! Crazy right? The spirit literally softened her heart before our eyes it was so cool!
Favorite one-liners from conference??
We've been reviewing conference in district meeting. Normally when I watch I'm looking for "one-liners:" cool phrases that I can memorize and apply in my life. with another focus this conference, I didn't write many of those down. I did really like a couple though:
"let your covenants be paramount and your obedience exact"
"christlike attributes are weapons against the adversary"
"we cannot be part-time disciples"
What were some of your favorite "one-liners" from conference???
(This is one of my favorite - role model missionaries: my sister Training leader sister stacey!)
She is goooals!
Birthday
Ah! Best birthday ever!! actually if you've ever seen errand of angels and they have that rainy day.. that was exactly what it was like hahaha rained all day and all of our appointments canceled, but I love the rain so that was actually fabulous. But I loooved the package y'all sent me!! Thank you to those who wrote me cards!! THat was the best surprise ever!!
my companion is basically adorable and wrapped all these little bitty presents with funny sayings on them it was so sweet!
I am so thankful for her!! Companions are the best. Once an elder told me if you ever have a problem tell you companion and somehow the problem always seems to go away after that! It is so true and sister white has taught me so much about how to be not only a good missionary, but a good person! and she's just getting started!! I can't wait to hear how much more amazing she becomes as her mission goes.
at the conference last week with Elder Cook I got to see all my companions!
PS. Our tracting approaches this week:
these two tracting approaches worked pretty well for us!
1. gave 13 articles of faith cards to kids playing outside (ask if they want a picture of Jesus) and then knocking on the door to " ask the parents if it's okay to give them a picture of Christ" and then ask if you can share a message with their family
2. when they answer the door, saying hi do you want a free king James version of the bible? then if they believe in the bible ask what their favorite verse is. then share john 10:16 other sheep I have and connect it with 3 nephi 15: 16,17, 21 and 24 and ask if we can give them a free BOM too and come back and tell them a little more about it another time. (sometimes you can even give them a restoration pamphlet and have them read in advance)
May 1: miracle may and people of Virginia
Congrats to my brother who recieved his mission call!!! Woohooo!!!
Oklahoma July 12th, here he comes!!!
People of Virginia:
This week we were walking and this man yelled out: it's the missionaries!! We jumped! that never happens... what is going on?! haha we replied, oh have you met missionaries? He said of course!! I'm a member! I'm tio!! We're like oh.... of course, tio.. ??? haha he said well you don't know me, I'm in the Spanish branch in Norfolk, but I joined the church 8 years ago and now there is a temple in Hondurans!!! In the city where I am from!! My brother is now taking the classes from the missionaries, and I just got to be sealed for my parents and have my brother sealed to us!!
but it was so cool to hear such a wonderful success story!!
I love the gospel so much!!! It changes lives because as we live the gospel in it's fullness, we can feel the fullness of the atonement working through us, and with Christ we can become more that we could ever become on our own! reaching our full potential only as well live the full gospel, taking part in the saving ordinances (by the authority of god, in the way He has revealed to living prophets)
miracle may
Our mission is having an emphasis on seeking for and recognized miracles in the month of may, I am so excited to see the wonders of God unfold. Miracles happen every day. The entire plan of salvation is a miracle! And what a glorious one at that!
I've been working on praying for specific people and things instead of doing it so generally and I think this focus is really going to help:) YAY for missions!
I love Jesus
Oklahoma July 12th, here he comes!!!
People of Virginia:
This week we were walking and this man yelled out: it's the missionaries!! We jumped! that never happens... what is going on?! haha we replied, oh have you met missionaries? He said of course!! I'm a member! I'm tio!! We're like oh.... of course, tio.. ??? haha he said well you don't know me, I'm in the Spanish branch in Norfolk, but I joined the church 8 years ago and now there is a temple in Hondurans!!! In the city where I am from!! My brother is now taking the classes from the missionaries, and I just got to be sealed for my parents and have my brother sealed to us!!
but it was so cool to hear such a wonderful success story!!
I love the gospel so much!!! It changes lives because as we live the gospel in it's fullness, we can feel the fullness of the atonement working through us, and with Christ we can become more that we could ever become on our own! reaching our full potential only as well live the full gospel, taking part in the saving ordinances (by the authority of god, in the way He has revealed to living prophets)
miracle may
Our mission is having an emphasis on seeking for and recognized miracles in the month of may, I am so excited to see the wonders of God unfold. Miracles happen every day. The entire plan of salvation is a miracle! And what a glorious one at that!
I've been working on praying for specific people and things instead of doing it so generally and I think this focus is really going to help:) YAY for missions!
I love Jesus
may 8: real time repentance
At a recent conference, Elder Caulderwood of the 70 said, we need to have "real-time repentance" meaning continuous; always working on something! I thought it was a super phrase and wanted to share!
People of Portsmouth
This area is experiencing miracles! People who are prepared to receive the restored gospel have been led to us or we've been led to them, it has been a very faith building experience. One part member family our ward received records for had heard the missionaries many times, but Now was when they were ready to accept it and they are progressing so so quickly! Their 12 year old is soaking in every piece of truth we give her. Their name is the Rafoth family: Zach and Marie and their kids Nat and Malachi, they have another son who lives in Texas with his grandparents named Mason.
I love them so much!!!!!! Nat teaches me all these cute little dance moves and Malachi found these Book of Mormon videos on youtube that he's been watching.
There are two young men who even with just a few meetings have seen that the Lord is directing them this way and are eager to both learn and change. Their names are AJ and Emmanuel. AJ is 22 and when we stopped by the other day to say hi, and met his roommate and were asking if He'd said anything and if she'd want to join in and she said "are you kidding? meeting with you is all AJ every talks about!! yeah I'd like to sit in sometime" YAY!!!! haha he is soaking up the gospel like a sponge. His younger brother Scott has also been listening in and hopefully will jump on board as much as AJ soon! Emmanuel is like 23 and soon to be a dad!! He wants his child to get baptized and was SO excited when we taught the restoration and explained that he could eventually hold the priesthood and baptize his own child! hopefully his girl friend will be able to join in on some of the lessons! sounds like she'd love it too!
Transfers
well, the Portsmouth elders called us (they're the assistance) and elder Snow said, "well, sister Hall I regret to inform you you will be leaving the Celestial ward...... But you're not going too far!! You'll be moving to Bennetts Creek ward!!"
I drew you a little map so you can see how close it is;)
Sister Pence will be coming up here to Portsmouth!! She is one of my best mission friends! We came out at the same time!! and she is going to take such good care of the people here!
This is her, isn't she adorable!!? yep, There is much work to do here and the stage is set for Sister Pence to come in and springboard into success! I am grateful to know Sister White will be in good hands, both of these sweet sisters have taught me so much about how to be a good missionary! One of my favorite things about Sister White is that she makes it so easy to be a good missionary: completely focused on our purpose at all times and in all places. She is someone who makes it easy to live the gospel and draws all around her to Christ as she does. I am so excited about my next assignment with Sister Goulding in Bennetts Creek as well! She and I were talking last p-day and joked around about how We should pray that we become companions.... and now we are!! Crazy right?
also sister Slatter from the mission office lives in the Bennetts Creek ward!!! Her daughter Sara has already come out with us alot so it will be so fun to actually be in their ward!! Sara is also waiting for her mission call so I am super excited to be able to be there!! woohoo!!
water water
Earlier this week we were walking along and I was really feeling some throat irritation from some plant thats blooming haha but I hadn't brought any water from the car.. as we walked I looked up thinking, man I could really use a drink right now... then we walked past this house and a woman comes running out " girls girls!!!! I am so sorry I wasn't interested, I'm still not, but I hope I didn't offend you!" We said "no no you were totally polite about it, we understand" She said, can I get you something to drink???
I looked up at the sky and again and thought "What?! Heavenly Father you totally didn't need to do that, I should not have been complaining" but it was such a tender mercy and a moment when I could feel God's love for me as an individual.... one of 74,000 missionaries and He cares enough to give me water... He has countless children, but He loves each and everyone and knows us by name.
People of Portsmouth
This area is experiencing miracles! People who are prepared to receive the restored gospel have been led to us or we've been led to them, it has been a very faith building experience. One part member family our ward received records for had heard the missionaries many times, but Now was when they were ready to accept it and they are progressing so so quickly! Their 12 year old is soaking in every piece of truth we give her. Their name is the Rafoth family: Zach and Marie and their kids Nat and Malachi, they have another son who lives in Texas with his grandparents named Mason.
I love them so much!!!!!! Nat teaches me all these cute little dance moves and Malachi found these Book of Mormon videos on youtube that he's been watching.
There are two young men who even with just a few meetings have seen that the Lord is directing them this way and are eager to both learn and change. Their names are AJ and Emmanuel. AJ is 22 and when we stopped by the other day to say hi, and met his roommate and were asking if He'd said anything and if she'd want to join in and she said "are you kidding? meeting with you is all AJ every talks about!! yeah I'd like to sit in sometime" YAY!!!! haha he is soaking up the gospel like a sponge. His younger brother Scott has also been listening in and hopefully will jump on board as much as AJ soon! Emmanuel is like 23 and soon to be a dad!! He wants his child to get baptized and was SO excited when we taught the restoration and explained that he could eventually hold the priesthood and baptize his own child! hopefully his girl friend will be able to join in on some of the lessons! sounds like she'd love it too!
Transfers
well, the Portsmouth elders called us (they're the assistance) and elder Snow said, "well, sister Hall I regret to inform you you will be leaving the Celestial ward...... But you're not going too far!! You'll be moving to Bennetts Creek ward!!"
I drew you a little map so you can see how close it is;)
Sister Pence will be coming up here to Portsmouth!! She is one of my best mission friends! We came out at the same time!! and she is going to take such good care of the people here!
This is her, isn't she adorable!!? yep, There is much work to do here and the stage is set for Sister Pence to come in and springboard into success! I am grateful to know Sister White will be in good hands, both of these sweet sisters have taught me so much about how to be a good missionary! One of my favorite things about Sister White is that she makes it so easy to be a good missionary: completely focused on our purpose at all times and in all places. She is someone who makes it easy to live the gospel and draws all around her to Christ as she does. I am so excited about my next assignment with Sister Goulding in Bennetts Creek as well! She and I were talking last p-day and joked around about how We should pray that we become companions.... and now we are!! Crazy right?
also sister Slatter from the mission office lives in the Bennetts Creek ward!!! Her daughter Sara has already come out with us alot so it will be so fun to actually be in their ward!! Sara is also waiting for her mission call so I am super excited to be able to be there!! woohoo!!
water water
Earlier this week we were walking along and I was really feeling some throat irritation from some plant thats blooming haha but I hadn't brought any water from the car.. as we walked I looked up thinking, man I could really use a drink right now... then we walked past this house and a woman comes running out " girls girls!!!! I am so sorry I wasn't interested, I'm still not, but I hope I didn't offend you!" We said "no no you were totally polite about it, we understand" She said, can I get you something to drink???
I looked up at the sky and again and thought "What?! Heavenly Father you totally didn't need to do that, I should not have been complaining" but it was such a tender mercy and a moment when I could feel God's love for me as an individual.... one of 74,000 missionaries and He cares enough to give me water... He has countless children, but He loves each and everyone and knows us by name.
May 15: ryan from High School Musical!
Our mission is doing miracle may this month: making a special emphasis to pray for miracles and the ability to recognize them when they come! We are loving it! Here's a miracle from yesterday:
Miracle May
Yesterday we were waiting for the member, sister McPhearson-cutest lady ever! she teacher Gospel Principles, to get to one of our appointments and right as she pulls up this car full of young men passes us so we wave and they wave and then they get like 300 ft away from us and the car stops and goes in reverse and backs all the way up to us and start asking us questions and we're all yeah can we come share a message? when would be a good time? and they tell us they live in the next apartment building over and 10 minutes would be good... we told them we'd have to schedule another time, BUT our appointment ended up canceling and the door so we walked over and taught them about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. one of them (From San-Diego!) had seen the temple there(MY FAVORITE- it looks like elsa's castle!) and had alot of questions.
They asked about the Book of Mormon and we were able to bear testimony of it being the evidence of the restoration of the gospel, the spirit was so strong and there was a moment of silence and he went... "wow, you're pretty well trained" he paused again and said "well I'm not saying you're right, but that was an honest answer." Apparently his wife (back in san diego, he was just visiting) was against the church so he said he'd read the pamphlet, but not the book of mormon... you could just see in his eyes it was like a "just in case it is true" answer. but the one that lives here keith (Who By the way looks like ryan from high school musical!! the whole time i just wanted to start singing "WE're all in this together!!" 🎵 ) anyway keith said he would read and pray about it and we'll go back to see him on another day!:)
Back in BC (getting fancy with Bennetts creek) 😂
I love this area already!!! We are so excited! Sister Goulding my new companion has only been here for one transfer and the elders are both new too so we are all learning the area together! We've had to rely on each other so much that we are already all best friends and two of us have been in the area less than a week!!
Sister Goulding and I are soo similar! Which is so fun! and we are loving working together! we talked about yesterday how it feels like we've been companions for forever!
spence and kiana remember that primary childrens rap of I hope they call me on a mission "I'm a mini missionary here born and raised and it's just about time I set the world ablaze, cause all I ever wanted to do was get a suit.. pair of shoes.. and leave for two! He might be older than me stronger than me.. but he ain't no better p-day baller than me.. I hoooope they call me ..... on a mission yo!" hahaha sister goulding has that song!! yay!! so funny I love it! It's reminded me of y'all! :)
Out of the mouths of babes
We had testimony meeting yesterday and I got up to talk about Jesus and mentioned I was new from the far away land of portsmouth and little kids the whole rest of the day kept coming up and saying portsmouth isn't far away.. haha it was so cute!! now I have lots of little friends in the ward :)
Joan of Arc Transfer
One member last transfer told us of how she so much admired Joan of Arc. She talked about the significance of the liberation of France because they came to the aid of the colonies when seeking independence, creating the ideal setting for the birthplace of the restoration. She told us of how this young girl was able to liberate France in basically 8 weeks.... My new mission Slogan is "if Joan of Arc can liberate France in 8 weeks... think of what we can do in a transfer!!" Sister Goulding and I have deemed this transfer our Joan of Arc transfer and teamed with miracle may we are excited to see what unfolds! We've set some high goals, but we know, if it be the will of God, we can do all things through Christ. I am so so grateful to be a missionary!!
Miracle May
Yesterday we were waiting for the member, sister McPhearson-cutest lady ever! she teacher Gospel Principles, to get to one of our appointments and right as she pulls up this car full of young men passes us so we wave and they wave and then they get like 300 ft away from us and the car stops and goes in reverse and backs all the way up to us and start asking us questions and we're all yeah can we come share a message? when would be a good time? and they tell us they live in the next apartment building over and 10 minutes would be good... we told them we'd have to schedule another time, BUT our appointment ended up canceling and the door so we walked over and taught them about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. one of them (From San-Diego!) had seen the temple there(MY FAVORITE- it looks like elsa's castle!) and had alot of questions.
They asked about the Book of Mormon and we were able to bear testimony of it being the evidence of the restoration of the gospel, the spirit was so strong and there was a moment of silence and he went... "wow, you're pretty well trained" he paused again and said "well I'm not saying you're right, but that was an honest answer." Apparently his wife (back in san diego, he was just visiting) was against the church so he said he'd read the pamphlet, but not the book of mormon... you could just see in his eyes it was like a "just in case it is true" answer. but the one that lives here keith (Who By the way looks like ryan from high school musical!! the whole time i just wanted to start singing "WE're all in this together!!" 🎵 ) anyway keith said he would read and pray about it and we'll go back to see him on another day!:)
Back in BC (getting fancy with Bennetts creek) 😂
I love this area already!!! We are so excited! Sister Goulding my new companion has only been here for one transfer and the elders are both new too so we are all learning the area together! We've had to rely on each other so much that we are already all best friends and two of us have been in the area less than a week!!
Sister Goulding and I are soo similar! Which is so fun! and we are loving working together! we talked about yesterday how it feels like we've been companions for forever!
spence and kiana remember that primary childrens rap of I hope they call me on a mission "I'm a mini missionary here born and raised and it's just about time I set the world ablaze, cause all I ever wanted to do was get a suit.. pair of shoes.. and leave for two! He might be older than me stronger than me.. but he ain't no better p-day baller than me.. I hoooope they call me ..... on a mission yo!" hahaha sister goulding has that song!! yay!! so funny I love it! It's reminded me of y'all! :)
Out of the mouths of babes
We had testimony meeting yesterday and I got up to talk about Jesus and mentioned I was new from the far away land of portsmouth and little kids the whole rest of the day kept coming up and saying portsmouth isn't far away.. haha it was so cute!! now I have lots of little friends in the ward :)
Joan of Arc Transfer
One member last transfer told us of how she so much admired Joan of Arc. She talked about the significance of the liberation of France because they came to the aid of the colonies when seeking independence, creating the ideal setting for the birthplace of the restoration. She told us of how this young girl was able to liberate France in basically 8 weeks.... My new mission Slogan is "if Joan of Arc can liberate France in 8 weeks... think of what we can do in a transfer!!" Sister Goulding and I have deemed this transfer our Joan of Arc transfer and teamed with miracle may we are excited to see what unfolds! We've set some high goals, but we know, if it be the will of God, we can do all things through Christ. I am so so grateful to be a missionary!!
may 22: The Law of the Celestial Kingdom
"why are we here? to prepare to meet God.
how are we going to do it? Hold to the rod. "
What is the rod? the word of God! given to us by ancient and modern-day prophets!
We are learning a "preach my gospel rap" (video soon to come when we learn it) and this is my favorite part. People all over the world are searching for the answers to these questions and we've known these since primary! We've been listening to a talk by John Bytheway in the car alot recently and it is absolutely amazing. It's called "what are you carrying in your backpack?" half way through it talks about the Plan of Salvation and the significance it plays in people lives when they are learning it for the first time. It's powerful. I cried the first time we listened to it. and that's saying something because I haven't been much of a cryer on my mission...
Most fertile parts of the land
It was announced world wide recently we will no longer do zone meetings anymore. I am really sad about that, I have always LOVED zone meetings! but we get many more zone conferences now (which our mission president attends) so I'm excited about that! I was reminiscing about different things I've learned in past zone meetings and one phrase by an elder came to mind:
"We are here to learn obedience, that is the law of the Celestial Kingdom. if being a consecrated missionary is what it takes, Do it!"
... Similarly in our everyday lives... We are here to learn obedience, that is the law of the Celestial Kingdom, if living the word of wisdom is what it takes... Do it! If keeping the Sabbath day holy every week is what it takes ... Do it! if real-time repentance is what it takes... Do it!
Patriarchal Blessings
We talked about patriarchal blessing in the young womens class we went to yesterday and we were able to talk about how they are our personal liahona. Just like the compass leading Lehi's family in the "most fertile part of the land" Our loving Heavenly father knows the trail: Obedience to God's commandments leads us through life in the best possible route to enable us to reach our full potential; it is up to us to trust and follow his commandments to get us there. If you have a patriarchal blessing can I give you a challenge? Read it every day for a week. I'll do it too:)
We may not understand the "whys" of commandments right now, but We will be blessed for Seeking God's will and Doing God's will. If we choose to live the pattern of the gospel of Christ (faith unto repentance, therefore allowing us to make, keep, and renew covenants and enabling us to choose to receive the holy ghost and then repeat!!) we will receive Celestial Glory and all God desires to give us. In this life we get a little taste of heaven in the temples. Go often for me k, y'all?? I miss the feeling at the temple every day! but as we watch people and prepare them to go to the temple themselves, they are starting the journey of a lifetime where now they can enjoy this too the rest of their life! My sacrifice of 18 short months.. worth it? ABSOLUTELY!
how are we going to do it? Hold to the rod. "
What is the rod? the word of God! given to us by ancient and modern-day prophets!
We are learning a "preach my gospel rap" (video soon to come when we learn it) and this is my favorite part. People all over the world are searching for the answers to these questions and we've known these since primary! We've been listening to a talk by John Bytheway in the car alot recently and it is absolutely amazing. It's called "what are you carrying in your backpack?" half way through it talks about the Plan of Salvation and the significance it plays in people lives when they are learning it for the first time. It's powerful. I cried the first time we listened to it. and that's saying something because I haven't been much of a cryer on my mission...
Most fertile parts of the land
It was announced world wide recently we will no longer do zone meetings anymore. I am really sad about that, I have always LOVED zone meetings! but we get many more zone conferences now (which our mission president attends) so I'm excited about that! I was reminiscing about different things I've learned in past zone meetings and one phrase by an elder came to mind:
"We are here to learn obedience, that is the law of the Celestial Kingdom. if being a consecrated missionary is what it takes, Do it!"
... Similarly in our everyday lives... We are here to learn obedience, that is the law of the Celestial Kingdom, if living the word of wisdom is what it takes... Do it! If keeping the Sabbath day holy every week is what it takes ... Do it! if real-time repentance is what it takes... Do it!
Patriarchal Blessings
We talked about patriarchal blessing in the young womens class we went to yesterday and we were able to talk about how they are our personal liahona. Just like the compass leading Lehi's family in the "most fertile part of the land" Our loving Heavenly father knows the trail: Obedience to God's commandments leads us through life in the best possible route to enable us to reach our full potential; it is up to us to trust and follow his commandments to get us there. If you have a patriarchal blessing can I give you a challenge? Read it every day for a week. I'll do it too:)
We may not understand the "whys" of commandments right now, but We will be blessed for Seeking God's will and Doing God's will. If we choose to live the pattern of the gospel of Christ (faith unto repentance, therefore allowing us to make, keep, and renew covenants and enabling us to choose to receive the holy ghost and then repeat!!) we will receive Celestial Glory and all God desires to give us. In this life we get a little taste of heaven in the temples. Go often for me k, y'all?? I miss the feeling at the temple every day! but as we watch people and prepare them to go to the temple themselves, they are starting the journey of a lifetime where now they can enjoy this too the rest of their life! My sacrifice of 18 short months.. worth it? ABSOLUTELY!
may 30: Tender Mercies abound!!
Ordained an Elder
Yesterday, we were walking down the Halls at church to gospel principles class and a man in our ward said, sisters!! Dallin (pause: that's his son) is getting ordained an elder and we'd like for you to come be there! first: I know the family, but this son had never been home when we'd stopped by so I'd actually just met him before church started and second: Woah! that so does not normally happen. I mean sometimes families might invite the elders to participate because they can help with the ordination, but never have I heard of anyone inviting the sisters in to witness that.
As we walked to the room I thought wow what an honor!! and then I realized My brother Spencer would soon be ordained to an elder too!!! I got really excited because it was almost like Heavenly Father was allowing me to participate in an ordination in place of being unable to be there for Spencer. It was actually a really spiritual and emotional experience as I realized this was a tender mercy. I told the father after how much I appreciated being invited and told him about how my brother would likely be ordained in a week or two.
Today, mom told me that Spencer was ordained an elder yesterday!! exact same day! What a blessing! I love you Spence!! Stay true to that Priesthood. Do not take it lightly, It is the authority to act in the name of God: That power is real! I testify that is it! I promise you if you will continue to live worthy of it, God will bless your life and your family and all those you love.
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-09-005-sanctify-yourselves?lang=eng
Miracle May
we committed a young man, Keith, to read and pray about the Book of Mormon last Sunday. Wednesday we called to confirm our appointment for yesterday and reminded him of the commitment which he had forgotten about but said he would do it. Yesterday we arrived at the appointment to our surprise he said "okay, I finished the book and I have a list of questions" we were in complete shock!! We almost didn't believe him but he said, "so basically, if I have the story right...." and proceeded to tell us a summary of the entire book! His questions were very well thought out and serious. I know that the spirit guides us when people are asking questions that really matter to them. It was a faith building experience for me! We were able to answer some, refer him to resources like specific Book of Mormon chapters and LDS.org for others, etc. We were amazed. He even explained the entire Plan of Salvation to us based on what he learned in the Book of Mormon!
Last night we had the interview for Nina's baptism! She loved meeting our mission president and now he really wants to come to her baptism on June 10th! woohoo! Right before her interview her husband told her "if this is what you want to do I will support you, and I will come to the baptism and the confirmation." she was so happy!! Today they both came to our ward Pig pickin and I got to meet him for the first time! He is a wonderful guy! It seemed like he had a really good time and We did too! Nina is getting more and more excited and tons of members congratulated her today, which meant alot to her! there are also families that are reaching out to her and her husband in fellowship to help him feel more comfortable! what a blessing!
We did family history with Larry, I think last tuesday? and guess what?? someone inhis family must be LDS because someone has already done the temple work for HIS DAD!! HIS DAD!!! how cool is that?! it got him a little excited! :) we committed him last night to I've the Word of Wisdom for a week and read the book of Mormon daily in that time with a promise that if he prays with " a sincere heart and real intent" he will receive an answer about the Book of Mormon by the end of the week! That lesson was so cool!
Updates from Portsmouth:
I got an update from Sister White about a family (The Rafoths!!) we were working with when I was in Portsmouth! The Marie, the mom, was a member as a teenager, but wasn't attending when she got married so none of the rest of the family is. (ps. natalie is there 12 year old daughter)
here's the update:
"NATALIE RAFOTH IS ON FIRE!!!!!
Still haven't been able to come to church, sick again! But apparently Natalie has started having her friends read the Book of Mormon daily (one page front and back everyday) and text her their favorite verse. And she has invited them to pray afterwards and she asked them if they have been noticing a difference and they said yes. Also she taught someone the Plan of Salvation and basically said she wanted one of her friends going through a hard time to take the lessons with her at her house. WHAT?!?!?!"
aw my little missionary! Love her to the moon and back!
Yesterday, we were walking down the Halls at church to gospel principles class and a man in our ward said, sisters!! Dallin (pause: that's his son) is getting ordained an elder and we'd like for you to come be there! first: I know the family, but this son had never been home when we'd stopped by so I'd actually just met him before church started and second: Woah! that so does not normally happen. I mean sometimes families might invite the elders to participate because they can help with the ordination, but never have I heard of anyone inviting the sisters in to witness that.
As we walked to the room I thought wow what an honor!! and then I realized My brother Spencer would soon be ordained to an elder too!!! I got really excited because it was almost like Heavenly Father was allowing me to participate in an ordination in place of being unable to be there for Spencer. It was actually a really spiritual and emotional experience as I realized this was a tender mercy. I told the father after how much I appreciated being invited and told him about how my brother would likely be ordained in a week or two.
Today, mom told me that Spencer was ordained an elder yesterday!! exact same day! What a blessing! I love you Spence!! Stay true to that Priesthood. Do not take it lightly, It is the authority to act in the name of God: That power is real! I testify that is it! I promise you if you will continue to live worthy of it, God will bless your life and your family and all those you love.
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-09-005-sanctify-yourselves?lang=eng
Miracle May
we committed a young man, Keith, to read and pray about the Book of Mormon last Sunday. Wednesday we called to confirm our appointment for yesterday and reminded him of the commitment which he had forgotten about but said he would do it. Yesterday we arrived at the appointment to our surprise he said "okay, I finished the book and I have a list of questions" we were in complete shock!! We almost didn't believe him but he said, "so basically, if I have the story right...." and proceeded to tell us a summary of the entire book! His questions were very well thought out and serious. I know that the spirit guides us when people are asking questions that really matter to them. It was a faith building experience for me! We were able to answer some, refer him to resources like specific Book of Mormon chapters and LDS.org for others, etc. We were amazed. He even explained the entire Plan of Salvation to us based on what he learned in the Book of Mormon!
Last night we had the interview for Nina's baptism! She loved meeting our mission president and now he really wants to come to her baptism on June 10th! woohoo! Right before her interview her husband told her "if this is what you want to do I will support you, and I will come to the baptism and the confirmation." she was so happy!! Today they both came to our ward Pig pickin and I got to meet him for the first time! He is a wonderful guy! It seemed like he had a really good time and We did too! Nina is getting more and more excited and tons of members congratulated her today, which meant alot to her! there are also families that are reaching out to her and her husband in fellowship to help him feel more comfortable! what a blessing!
We did family history with Larry, I think last tuesday? and guess what?? someone inhis family must be LDS because someone has already done the temple work for HIS DAD!! HIS DAD!!! how cool is that?! it got him a little excited! :) we committed him last night to I've the Word of Wisdom for a week and read the book of Mormon daily in that time with a promise that if he prays with " a sincere heart and real intent" he will receive an answer about the Book of Mormon by the end of the week! That lesson was so cool!
Updates from Portsmouth:
I got an update from Sister White about a family (The Rafoths!!) we were working with when I was in Portsmouth! The Marie, the mom, was a member as a teenager, but wasn't attending when she got married so none of the rest of the family is. (ps. natalie is there 12 year old daughter)
here's the update:
"NATALIE RAFOTH IS ON FIRE!!!!!
Still haven't been able to come to church, sick again! But apparently Natalie has started having her friends read the Book of Mormon daily (one page front and back everyday) and text her their favorite verse. And she has invited them to pray afterwards and she asked them if they have been noticing a difference and they said yes. Also she taught someone the Plan of Salvation and basically said she wanted one of her friends going through a hard time to take the lessons with her at her house. WHAT?!?!?!"
aw my little missionary! Love her to the moon and back!
Mar 6: "We are supposed to be remarkably different in happy ways"
Quote of the week: "We are supposed to be remarkably different in happy ways"
the ellis family: Ryan is a member, joined as a teen, but hasn't been active since he joined the navy. His wife Sara is not a member, but is taking the discussions and has been off and on for a while. one day ryan came home and we were already there with sara and their two kids (rory and raina) and raina yells "daddy look these are my friends!!"
another time we went over ryan goes, man, the missionaries know what's up!! They always come the nights we are eating pizza!!! we go yep: its inspiration;)
Pday with keosha
last week we got to spend pday with keosha ( a convert who was baptized about 18 months ago.) she has decided to serve a mission and she's excited and nervous... she doesn't know how her family will respond. so we've been meeting with her alot! we went to lunch at red robin and they had a giant chalk board so I drew a little plan of salvation and then right as I finish we turn around and our mission president, his wife and all the office staff walk in (they had decided to go out to lunch for president Weed's birthday) they came in, looked at the chalk board and then we all just started laughing! It was so fun to run into all of them!
update on the Lindstrom family and rana's family! we were able to get back in touch with BOTH of them and will have lessons with them in the next couple days! We are so excited!! Both have some exposure to members and are willing to learn more..
Thank you for the prayers on their behalf! it's working!!
They are wonderful! Can't wait to send pictures of them all!
sister correll likes to make dresses for dolls that she finds at the thrift store so she made me an olden day flower girl!! So cute!! and I finally get to hold a baby again!!!! haha
the ellis family: Ryan is a member, joined as a teen, but hasn't been active since he joined the navy. His wife Sara is not a member, but is taking the discussions and has been off and on for a while. one day ryan came home and we were already there with sara and their two kids (rory and raina) and raina yells "daddy look these are my friends!!"
another time we went over ryan goes, man, the missionaries know what's up!! They always come the nights we are eating pizza!!! we go yep: its inspiration;)
Pday with keosha
last week we got to spend pday with keosha ( a convert who was baptized about 18 months ago.) she has decided to serve a mission and she's excited and nervous... she doesn't know how her family will respond. so we've been meeting with her alot! we went to lunch at red robin and they had a giant chalk board so I drew a little plan of salvation and then right as I finish we turn around and our mission president, his wife and all the office staff walk in (they had decided to go out to lunch for president Weed's birthday) they came in, looked at the chalk board and then we all just started laughing! It was so fun to run into all of them!
update on the Lindstrom family and rana's family! we were able to get back in touch with BOTH of them and will have lessons with them in the next couple days! We are so excited!! Both have some exposure to members and are willing to learn more..
Thank you for the prayers on their behalf! it's working!!
They are wonderful! Can't wait to send pictures of them all!
sister correll likes to make dresses for dolls that she finds at the thrift store so she made me an olden day flower girl!! So cute!! and I finally get to hold a baby again!!!! haha
Mar 13: this is the life
the church is true! The gospel is restored! the authority of God is on the earth and the windows of revelation for the world are open through a living prophet. what a blessing and a joy! we had a lesson last night listing all the blessings of the gospel and it was incredible! God is so good!!
I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be called by a prophet to represent the Lord in Virginia I definitely don't know everything, but I know that the message of the restoration is true. Our Heavenly father loves us.
Ask the oldies
We had an incredible zone conference where the mission president talked about how because so many missionaries come and go in the summer now we will have 30% change out between may and august which basically means 30% of the missionaries in our mission will be replaced! crazy!!! so they did a "let ask the old missionaries" game show style panel where we got to ask missionaries soon to head home a bunch of questions, advice, suggestions, regrets. (they did four panels so maybe 20-25 missionaries ) everyone was so honest and open. It was amazing. I learned more in that hour than I even though possible! There are so many incredible missionaries in this mission!
We taught a girl named April the plan of salvation with a little twist this week and it was actually extremely effective and helped us focus on the parts that really matter for people first learning. as a missionary who grew up in the church this is the "lesson of restraint" my mission prep teacher used to call it. we know so many details that simply are not essential to know for people first learning this information.
awkward moment... so yeah I love taking pictures. this is an apartment complex that we went to last week and it was barn themed it was so cool. So no one answered the door at the potentials house so we looked to see which of the next doors was closest and I stopped to take a picture.. then the door we had just knocked opened and this man was holding a garbage bag (guess he thought we'd already left) he hurrys and slams the door shut again!! ... we just stood there for a second and then couldn't help but start giggling! it was so funny! we'll try them again later
time goes so insanely fast on a mission!! I'm about 10 months out now!! crazy! a missionary told me it's like a house. the first few months take forever, then it goes a little faster then some missionaries have a little chimney and then the last few months CRUSE. I believe it!!
it all seems like it's going so fast!! sloooow down! haha
I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be called by a prophet to represent the Lord in Virginia I definitely don't know everything, but I know that the message of the restoration is true. Our Heavenly father loves us.
Ask the oldies
We had an incredible zone conference where the mission president talked about how because so many missionaries come and go in the summer now we will have 30% change out between may and august which basically means 30% of the missionaries in our mission will be replaced! crazy!!! so they did a "let ask the old missionaries" game show style panel where we got to ask missionaries soon to head home a bunch of questions, advice, suggestions, regrets. (they did four panels so maybe 20-25 missionaries ) everyone was so honest and open. It was amazing. I learned more in that hour than I even though possible! There are so many incredible missionaries in this mission!
We taught a girl named April the plan of salvation with a little twist this week and it was actually extremely effective and helped us focus on the parts that really matter for people first learning. as a missionary who grew up in the church this is the "lesson of restraint" my mission prep teacher used to call it. we know so many details that simply are not essential to know for people first learning this information.
awkward moment... so yeah I love taking pictures. this is an apartment complex that we went to last week and it was barn themed it was so cool. So no one answered the door at the potentials house so we looked to see which of the next doors was closest and I stopped to take a picture.. then the door we had just knocked opened and this man was holding a garbage bag (guess he thought we'd already left) he hurrys and slams the door shut again!! ... we just stood there for a second and then couldn't help but start giggling! it was so funny! we'll try them again later
time goes so insanely fast on a mission!! I'm about 10 months out now!! crazy! a missionary told me it's like a house. the first few months take forever, then it goes a little faster then some missionaries have a little chimney and then the last few months CRUSE. I believe it!!
it all seems like it's going so fast!! sloooow down! haha
Mar 20: world's oldest ham
last p-day we went to smithfield (known as the ham capital of the world... ps we're talking country ham not like ham ham that you buy at the grocery store:) yep that middle one was "cured" in 1902, but missed the shipment so the factory person kept it to see how long it would last with his method. in 1920 he decided to call it his pet ham and took it to fairs and stuff like that.....
fun fact!! haha but yeah that's irrelevant now onto the good stuff.
WE FOUND A LITTLE FREE LIBRARY! this has been my life goal, I LOVE books!!! so of course we had to take advantage of the missionary opportunity, so kenzie's "elder flat stanley" helped us put a book of mormon in there! He's a good little missionary!
it is seriously beautiful here. you know when sometimes you see something so beautiful and you almost think its a painting or something? you can't believe it's real....
yep that's all the time. it's so pretty!!
Vicki our investigator is too! She is finally all better and has a new date to be baptized: April 6th! she went officially coffee free for the first entire day this last Saturday and she's been able to stay off it since so she's very excited!! she is so committed to this date! We are excited to see a ten year investigation come to an end:)
TEAM
The elders in our ward and us have been putting an extra emphasis on being on the same team lately! We are really striving to work together and keep each other up to date on stuff. Thanks to this effort I've really learned how to council more effectively and work together with people. I really appreciate the lessons I've learned counseling with each other on how to best achieve our goal of missionary work! They developed an idea for moving the work along in our ward through the members and we've jumped on and it's really starting to get moving!! "Our righteous plan is working!!" haha we are loving it and my love for everyone has been increasing!! AH I LOVE THE GOSPEL!!
aaalso I am so excited for Conference!!!! AH!!! It is the beest time of the year! I don't know what my parents did to infuse such excitement over general conference into me, but I look forward to it probably as much as christmas so thanks mom and diddy!!
Lamia is one of the investigators the elders are working with and we invited her to come watch the womens conference with us and she said yes!! we are so excited!! Vicki is also planning on coming and we are hoping to get Sara ellis and April Shae to come as well!
We are also going to ask Smantha lindstrom if she wants to come. We still haven't been able to teach their family, but we are in contact with them over the phone pretty frequently still so that's good!!
fun fact!! haha but yeah that's irrelevant now onto the good stuff.
WE FOUND A LITTLE FREE LIBRARY! this has been my life goal, I LOVE books!!! so of course we had to take advantage of the missionary opportunity, so kenzie's "elder flat stanley" helped us put a book of mormon in there! He's a good little missionary!
it is seriously beautiful here. you know when sometimes you see something so beautiful and you almost think its a painting or something? you can't believe it's real....
yep that's all the time. it's so pretty!!
Vicki our investigator is too! She is finally all better and has a new date to be baptized: April 6th! she went officially coffee free for the first entire day this last Saturday and she's been able to stay off it since so she's very excited!! she is so committed to this date! We are excited to see a ten year investigation come to an end:)
TEAM
The elders in our ward and us have been putting an extra emphasis on being on the same team lately! We are really striving to work together and keep each other up to date on stuff. Thanks to this effort I've really learned how to council more effectively and work together with people. I really appreciate the lessons I've learned counseling with each other on how to best achieve our goal of missionary work! They developed an idea for moving the work along in our ward through the members and we've jumped on and it's really starting to get moving!! "Our righteous plan is working!!" haha we are loving it and my love for everyone has been increasing!! AH I LOVE THE GOSPEL!!
aaalso I am so excited for Conference!!!! AH!!! It is the beest time of the year! I don't know what my parents did to infuse such excitement over general conference into me, but I look forward to it probably as much as christmas so thanks mom and diddy!!
Lamia is one of the investigators the elders are working with and we invited her to come watch the womens conference with us and she said yes!! we are so excited!! Vicki is also planning on coming and we are hoping to get Sara ellis and April Shae to come as well!
We are also going to ask Smantha lindstrom if she wants to come. We still haven't been able to teach their family, but we are in contact with them over the phone pretty frequently still so that's good!!
Mar 27: "You want a free CD??"
people seem to love to offer us free CDs, maybe we're really approachable because we are always trying to be happy? but this week I think was a record breaker of two in the same week! Sometimes their gospel CDs, or folk music, or rapping or I don't even know what else because we don't listen to them.... but I had do laugh when we pulled up to wash our car this morning and the man next to us asked if we'd take a copy of his CD, They are so persistent I can't help but think they'd be great missionaries!! haha and it gives us a great opportunity to "swap" materials and give them a card or a pamphlet or something!
(not endorsing these CDs by the way)😉
ALSO ATTENTION FAMILY: We've started shooting free throws again Mondays after emails so I thought I'd give y'all advance notice and fair warning and a little motivation to keep it up so I don't dominate the revenge games when we reunite😋
Conference!!
Oh I love conference so much!! I look forward to it almost as much as christmas!!! The gerber Family (the bishop's family) has invited us for a couple sessions! They do a "conference bracket" where you guess which speakers will speak when and you have to do it in order!! I don't know how it works yet exactly, but I'm super excited and can't wait to fill out another bracket even if it's not for march madness haha
Because our focus this transfer is Chapter 11 of Preach my gospel (helping others make and keep commitments, our mission president is having us focus on how each speaker helps missionaries to do this! As well as helping our investigators receive their own answers through conference. OH this is so exciting!
another cool story: This week has been monumental for me in how many times I have seen the Lord soften someone's heart right before my eyes! It has been so humbling and so powerful. One very stubborn man, grudgingly decided to sit in with us for a lesson with his member wife. When we extended the invitation to watch a session of conference next weekend he said, "oh you do not understand" making a face that said, there is nothing I want to do less than that in the entire world. He told us, "look, whenever conference is, I'm busy." Both us and his wife couldn't help but laugh, he was so defiant. We offered to help entertain the kids, but still reluctant we simply kept talking. Within 5 minutes his countenance had somehow changed. Observing this, we extended the invitation again. This time, he agreed, set a time (planning for the session with the worst weather predicted so he'd have less distraction or desire to be outside doing something else) and offered to feed us dinner after the session ended..... What?! I don't know what happened, but the Lord must need him to hear something in that session, because I witnessed the hand of God softening his heart right before my eyes! and this is just one example from this week!
Progressing people:
Vicki is still planning on getting baptized on April 6th, she's doing great with keeping all the commitments we've extended to her so far! She has such great questions and so many of them, so we showed her how to use more of the online resources (lds.org, mormonmessages.org, gospel library app) of the church to help her find answers today and that was tons of fun!
Ryan and Sara are going to be in and out of town a lot because he's getting ready to deploy, and their kids are heading to his parents house in Texas for the summer so we said a sad goodbye to them. We'll have just sara for a couple weeks, but that might help her to focus in and keep more commitments so it could be a good thing.
It's been a while since we've met up with them, but we met them around the time we met Cemone, he's the one who had just incredible questions and always having lightbulb moments. Aerin's not super interested so barry wasn't for a while either, but we had a zone meeting where we created a very specific lesson idea for an investigator and for some reason we chose barry. so we did and the role play was pretty good, so we went, but neither of us had brought those notes and it had been a couple weeks because we hadn't been able to get ahold of them but we went anyway and the lesson was SO GOOD!!
It was literally one of those open your mouth and it will be filled lessons it wasn't even us talking and the spirit led the whole lesson, we were learning almost as much as he was! We talked about prayer and Nephi in 1 Nephi 2 and how he prayed to know if leaving Jerusalem was right. we talked about how Nephi had been strolling this path he thought was right when all the sudden the was a huge, unexpected fork in the road(possibly a beautiful opportunity or possibly an illusion.... ) and then compared it to his life where our message could be this beautiful opportunity, or it could be an illusion and he put together the idea that he's got to ask god what he should do.
as we left he asked " has anyone gotten the answer?" We were like yeah!! you want to meet some? the next day we went back and brought Tierre (a recent convert) so they could talk and it was really effective we were able to find a concern he had through their conversation that we didn't even know was there and it was exactly what we'd planned to talk to him about that day!
so cool!
as my MTC district used to always say: "That is how the spirit works"
I love the gospel, I love Jesus and I love the work and Glory of God " to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man!" this truly is the complete, fully restored gospel and we have complete access to the Atonement through revelation and the priesthood.
I love you all, have a splendid week!
(not endorsing these CDs by the way)😉
ALSO ATTENTION FAMILY: We've started shooting free throws again Mondays after emails so I thought I'd give y'all advance notice and fair warning and a little motivation to keep it up so I don't dominate the revenge games when we reunite😋
Conference!!
Oh I love conference so much!! I look forward to it almost as much as christmas!!! The gerber Family (the bishop's family) has invited us for a couple sessions! They do a "conference bracket" where you guess which speakers will speak when and you have to do it in order!! I don't know how it works yet exactly, but I'm super excited and can't wait to fill out another bracket even if it's not for march madness haha
Because our focus this transfer is Chapter 11 of Preach my gospel (helping others make and keep commitments, our mission president is having us focus on how each speaker helps missionaries to do this! As well as helping our investigators receive their own answers through conference. OH this is so exciting!
another cool story: This week has been monumental for me in how many times I have seen the Lord soften someone's heart right before my eyes! It has been so humbling and so powerful. One very stubborn man, grudgingly decided to sit in with us for a lesson with his member wife. When we extended the invitation to watch a session of conference next weekend he said, "oh you do not understand" making a face that said, there is nothing I want to do less than that in the entire world. He told us, "look, whenever conference is, I'm busy." Both us and his wife couldn't help but laugh, he was so defiant. We offered to help entertain the kids, but still reluctant we simply kept talking. Within 5 minutes his countenance had somehow changed. Observing this, we extended the invitation again. This time, he agreed, set a time (planning for the session with the worst weather predicted so he'd have less distraction or desire to be outside doing something else) and offered to feed us dinner after the session ended..... What?! I don't know what happened, but the Lord must need him to hear something in that session, because I witnessed the hand of God softening his heart right before my eyes! and this is just one example from this week!
Progressing people:
Vicki is still planning on getting baptized on April 6th, she's doing great with keeping all the commitments we've extended to her so far! She has such great questions and so many of them, so we showed her how to use more of the online resources (lds.org, mormonmessages.org, gospel library app) of the church to help her find answers today and that was tons of fun!
Ryan and Sara are going to be in and out of town a lot because he's getting ready to deploy, and their kids are heading to his parents house in Texas for the summer so we said a sad goodbye to them. We'll have just sara for a couple weeks, but that might help her to focus in and keep more commitments so it could be a good thing.
It's been a while since we've met up with them, but we met them around the time we met Cemone, he's the one who had just incredible questions and always having lightbulb moments. Aerin's not super interested so barry wasn't for a while either, but we had a zone meeting where we created a very specific lesson idea for an investigator and for some reason we chose barry. so we did and the role play was pretty good, so we went, but neither of us had brought those notes and it had been a couple weeks because we hadn't been able to get ahold of them but we went anyway and the lesson was SO GOOD!!
It was literally one of those open your mouth and it will be filled lessons it wasn't even us talking and the spirit led the whole lesson, we were learning almost as much as he was! We talked about prayer and Nephi in 1 Nephi 2 and how he prayed to know if leaving Jerusalem was right. we talked about how Nephi had been strolling this path he thought was right when all the sudden the was a huge, unexpected fork in the road(possibly a beautiful opportunity or possibly an illusion.... ) and then compared it to his life where our message could be this beautiful opportunity, or it could be an illusion and he put together the idea that he's got to ask god what he should do.
as we left he asked " has anyone gotten the answer?" We were like yeah!! you want to meet some? the next day we went back and brought Tierre (a recent convert) so they could talk and it was really effective we were able to find a concern he had through their conversation that we didn't even know was there and it was exactly what we'd planned to talk to him about that day!
so cool!
as my MTC district used to always say: "That is how the spirit works"
I love the gospel, I love Jesus and I love the work and Glory of God " to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man!" this truly is the complete, fully restored gospel and we have complete access to the Atonement through revelation and the priesthood.
I love you all, have a splendid week!
APR 3: all things yellow!!
there is literally pollen everywhere!! our car has a "yellow dusting" every single morning haha
One day I thought to myself, wow I think i might have allergies... Then i realized: here, everyone probably has allergies and so far it's proved to be pretty true! hahaha
Conference sunshine packages for people who recently got baptized!!:)
Cemone Small prepared her first name for the temple!!!! It is her Grandmother that died when she was little, but her mom adored her and talked about her all the time. She's always wanted to meet her
We found the cutest little park and have been eating there on days when it's not raining. It looks like the mountains of utah and I absolutely LOVE being there! We've been able to meet a couple cute families and hopefully they'll be interested in our message!!
also kinda irrelevant, but chopped off 5 inches!! ahh!!
Kaden lauver (son of a PM family ) drew me a picture during conference.
He also said the funniest things while we were there! It was hilarious!!
One of them, some of the family was putting rice in their chili to make it less spicy, but his dad didn't want any and Kaden goes, "dad, if you want to eat your pie.. you have to eat your rice." it was so cute!!
One day I thought to myself, wow I think i might have allergies... Then i realized: here, everyone probably has allergies and so far it's proved to be pretty true! hahaha
Conference sunshine packages for people who recently got baptized!!:)
Cemone Small prepared her first name for the temple!!!! It is her Grandmother that died when she was little, but her mom adored her and talked about her all the time. She's always wanted to meet her
We found the cutest little park and have been eating there on days when it's not raining. It looks like the mountains of utah and I absolutely LOVE being there! We've been able to meet a couple cute families and hopefully they'll be interested in our message!!
also kinda irrelevant, but chopped off 5 inches!! ahh!!
Kaden lauver (son of a PM family ) drew me a picture during conference.
He also said the funniest things while we were there! It was hilarious!!
One of them, some of the family was putting rice in their chili to make it less spicy, but his dad didn't want any and Kaden goes, "dad, if you want to eat your pie.. you have to eat your rice." it was so cute!!
apr 10: vickie got baptized!!!
I know I shouldn't be focused on anything other than here and now, but the last month or so I've really been missing the temple. When vickie got confirmed (btw: brother hustead gave the confirmation and vickie was on cloud nine because his voice is so cool hahaha )but as I sat striving to recognize the significance of this ordinance, I had this sense of peace inside of me. I realized this is the feeling that I feel in the temple! I wanted that confirmation to never end! How tender that Heavenly Father was aware of me and my desire to feel that peace again, even if only for a brief moment
I love the gospel of Jesus Christ, I love that if we can but point ourselves in the right direction and walk we can feel the joy the gospel brings.
thank you for the cute easter/birthday packages!!!!!! y'all are amazing!!! :)
Deloris, the elders were working with her, but she is the funniest, most gung ho about the church convert I've ever met!! The elders met her 3.5 weeks ago when she ordered a bible, not know anything about the church and she was baptized and confirmed this weekend too!
Wow, I love being a missionary!! The Gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives!! It brings more joy than is describable as we learn how to progress in an eternal way, it brings true hope as we learn to rely on the savior & look forward and works towards that perfect day, and it brings lasting peace as we have our righteous actions confirmed by the Holy Ghost.
We are children of a loving Father in Heaven who loves us and is aware of every detail it this divinely orchestrated life!
Thank you all for your great examples I would not be where I am today without trying to implement the good examples I have seen in each of you! y'all have no idea!!
As I'm out here sharing, the spirit guides in distributing pieces of truth many of which were presented to me by YOU and confirmed true by the Holy Ghost. Thank youu!
I love the gospel of Jesus Christ, I love that if we can but point ourselves in the right direction and walk we can feel the joy the gospel brings.
thank you for the cute easter/birthday packages!!!!!! y'all are amazing!!! :)
Deloris, the elders were working with her, but she is the funniest, most gung ho about the church convert I've ever met!! The elders met her 3.5 weeks ago when she ordered a bible, not know anything about the church and she was baptized and confirmed this weekend too!
Wow, I love being a missionary!! The Gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives!! It brings more joy than is describable as we learn how to progress in an eternal way, it brings true hope as we learn to rely on the savior & look forward and works towards that perfect day, and it brings lasting peace as we have our righteous actions confirmed by the Holy Ghost.
We are children of a loving Father in Heaven who loves us and is aware of every detail it this divinely orchestrated life!
Thank you all for your great examples I would not be where I am today without trying to implement the good examples I have seen in each of you! y'all have no idea!!
As I'm out here sharing, the spirit guides in distributing pieces of truth many of which were presented to me by YOU and confirmed true by the Holy Ghost. Thank youu!
apr 17: Joy Jolts
Once in a mission type experience. Rarely is it encouraged/allowed for all the missionaries in a mission to gather together BUT we had a special opportunity to hear from Elder Quentin L. Cook and His wife and Elder Calderwood of the 70 (who by the way is one of my new favorite speakers!) so all the missionaries gathered for this special event. They talked about making sure we teach repentance to everyone. pre-batism and post-baptism, members and non-members, THAT IS OUR MESSAGE OF HOPE. the gospel of Jesus Christ provides a remission of sins! How wonderful is that?! we don't have to carry a backpack full of "guilt" weights or pull of sled full of pain, sin and sorrow. It is through Jesus Christ we can LET IT GO
and it was so much fun to see all those bright smiling faces, I almost couldn't contain my joy! It was so wonderful to see a bunch of those that I've had the opportunity to work with in the past! I love love being around other missionaries, It gives me so much energy!! Also all my companions that I've ever had were there!! So I got a picture with all of them! I'll send it when I get the picture! It was so good to see all of them! Wow I love them so much! Heavenly Father knows what he is doing I've learned probably more that I even realize now from each and every one of them!
ps. the title for this email came from Pat:
We go to this bible study sometimes that the Slussers run at their apartment and a girl named pat was telling us about how she write in her journal her "joy jolts" moments that she was so thankful for that day that gave her spiritual energy. How cute is that?! So I changed mine from 'golden list' to joy jolts cause that's adorable!
we also got to do a special sisters training with all the sister missionaries I found the link sister Weed pulled some of her presentation from! https://history.lds.org/article/inez-knight-missionary?lang=eng the conference was all about the first sister missionaries! Jennie Brimhall and Inez Knight (Are we related to inez knight??? was that great-grandma Jesse's last name? cause that would be crazy we were related to her and the brimhalls were related to jennie)
3 of their daughters were also there for the easter weekend and all three of them are young women presidents in their ward! So we did a question and answer with them where we could ask them questions and then they asked us. it was really cool!
and it was so much fun to see all those bright smiling faces, I almost couldn't contain my joy! It was so wonderful to see a bunch of those that I've had the opportunity to work with in the past! I love love being around other missionaries, It gives me so much energy!! Also all my companions that I've ever had were there!! So I got a picture with all of them! I'll send it when I get the picture! It was so good to see all of them! Wow I love them so much! Heavenly Father knows what he is doing I've learned probably more that I even realize now from each and every one of them!
ps. the title for this email came from Pat:
We go to this bible study sometimes that the Slussers run at their apartment and a girl named pat was telling us about how she write in her journal her "joy jolts" moments that she was so thankful for that day that gave her spiritual energy. How cute is that?! So I changed mine from 'golden list' to joy jolts cause that's adorable!
we also got to do a special sisters training with all the sister missionaries I found the link sister Weed pulled some of her presentation from! https://history.lds.org/article/inez-knight-missionary?lang=eng the conference was all about the first sister missionaries! Jennie Brimhall and Inez Knight (Are we related to inez knight??? was that great-grandma Jesse's last name? cause that would be crazy we were related to her and the brimhalls were related to jennie)
3 of their daughters were also there for the easter weekend and all three of them are young women presidents in their ward! So we did a question and answer with them where we could ask them questions and then they asked us. it was really cool!
Feb 27: SISTER CORRELL
buffet city
a member took us to buffet city mongolian grill (so good!! #blessed) and the whole time we were there, I was thinking about spencer!! can't wait to see where you get called on your mission!!
For those who don't know, We met elder L Tom Perry at a baptism one time and he asked my brother how long till he left on a mission. my then 7 year old brother said 12 years!! to whick elder Perry replied: "great how does Mongolia sound?"
Flat Stanley
another highlight was receiving a flat stanley!! We'll take it to some fun places for pday today kenze! :)
Sister Correll
oh where to begin?! I love this lady so much! She is so funny and I don't know if our visits benefit her more or us! She is 88 years old and has some health challenges which make it hard for her to attend church, but she has lots of family around that help her out and we go visit lots too cause she lives right by us! She loves sewing outfits for dolls and she showed us a cute flower girl the other day and then said I hope I finish it before you get transferred or you're going to have an unfinished doll! my heart melted!! She was making it for me! what a sweet heart! She also showed us this last time her name tag from when she served a local mission! this woman has prepared 18,000 names for the temple!!!! Can you believe that!?! She's an inspiration!
She said one day she walked in the hall way and heard "do your geneology" and it kinda freaked her out cause she lives alone, then she heard it again! but she thought I don't know how to do that, a few minutes later she heard it a third time " do your geneology!" She looked up and said I don't even have a computer!!!! then her phone rang and her grandson said, "Mema Do you have a computer? I have an extra one" she looked up and said fine I guess I'll do my geneology!
hahaha I love her so much!!
she also gave me a cool old penny we found on her porch!
Potential families!!
I love love love working with families and we found two this week that have potential!! the Lindstroms and a woman named Rana and her kids.
Rana's daughter Jada and I were born one day apart and her best friend is a mormon now attending BYU!! she's actually going out to visit next month! (in my head I'm going yeah we can have her baptized by next month.......haha just kidding... but seriously that would be awesome!!)
Both families are awesome and open to letting us come back to see them!
also the face to face event this weekend we think will be great for them to attend! Our bishop is doing a youth get together at his house to watch it and they said we could invite their families!
If you have room in your prayers, pray their hearts will be softened and that they will be able to recognize as the spirit testifies of truth! We love them already!!
a member took us to buffet city mongolian grill (so good!! #blessed) and the whole time we were there, I was thinking about spencer!! can't wait to see where you get called on your mission!!
For those who don't know, We met elder L Tom Perry at a baptism one time and he asked my brother how long till he left on a mission. my then 7 year old brother said 12 years!! to whick elder Perry replied: "great how does Mongolia sound?"
Flat Stanley
another highlight was receiving a flat stanley!! We'll take it to some fun places for pday today kenze! :)
Sister Correll
oh where to begin?! I love this lady so much! She is so funny and I don't know if our visits benefit her more or us! She is 88 years old and has some health challenges which make it hard for her to attend church, but she has lots of family around that help her out and we go visit lots too cause she lives right by us! She loves sewing outfits for dolls and she showed us a cute flower girl the other day and then said I hope I finish it before you get transferred or you're going to have an unfinished doll! my heart melted!! She was making it for me! what a sweet heart! She also showed us this last time her name tag from when she served a local mission! this woman has prepared 18,000 names for the temple!!!! Can you believe that!?! She's an inspiration!
She said one day she walked in the hall way and heard "do your geneology" and it kinda freaked her out cause she lives alone, then she heard it again! but she thought I don't know how to do that, a few minutes later she heard it a third time " do your geneology!" She looked up and said I don't even have a computer!!!! then her phone rang and her grandson said, "Mema Do you have a computer? I have an extra one" she looked up and said fine I guess I'll do my geneology!
hahaha I love her so much!!
she also gave me a cool old penny we found on her porch!
Potential families!!
I love love love working with families and we found two this week that have potential!! the Lindstroms and a woman named Rana and her kids.
Rana's daughter Jada and I were born one day apart and her best friend is a mormon now attending BYU!! she's actually going out to visit next month! (in my head I'm going yeah we can have her baptized by next month.......haha just kidding... but seriously that would be awesome!!)
Both families are awesome and open to letting us come back to see them!
also the face to face event this weekend we think will be great for them to attend! Our bishop is doing a youth get together at his house to watch it and they said we could invite their families!
If you have room in your prayers, pray their hearts will be softened and that they will be able to recognize as the spirit testifies of truth! We love them already!!
feb 20: well happy day of love last week!! I love valentines day because... chocolate.
well happy day of love last week!! I love valentines day because... chocolate.
also I've definitely hit a mid-mission crisis mode.
Gospel analogy. go!
k, my new favorite car game, if we're not doing anything in the car one of us will say a thing and the other sister has to come up with a way that the item, or thing, or event or what ever links to the gospel. My favorite was fire hydrant. our analogy was that sometimes we look at repentance as a fire hydrant. It's there if our house catches on fire, but hopefully we'll never have to use it!! like a backup plan. In reality though repentance is part of the plan, not the back up plan! we don't have to wait for an emergency to "make a change to become more like God" we can be making little changes all the time and eventually we'll be in the act of becoming our full potential!
Callings
Yesterday was so exciting! Sister Cemone Small was called as the assistant girls camp director and Brother Chad Craycraft was called to be the young mens secretary!! They are going to do so good!! Both of them were so excited and their enthusiasm was contagious!!! Cemone will be working with dailey fly (the girls camp director) and they are already way good friends!! And the two gerber girls are both in Young womens so both of them will go! She's met many of the young woman already as they've come out to lessons with us and they all seem to love her!
Chad spoke in church and was talking about hoping the changes he was making in his life would inspire changes in the navy boys that he is responsible for. He mentioned they look up to him as a leader and he wants to follow the promptings of the holy ghost to know how be an example even more to these young men.... couldn't help but think, wow that calling is PERFECT for him!!
God knows us so well!! :)
Timing
Heavenly father's timing is so perfect. Man he knows our full potential so perfectly and He knows exactly how to help us get there. He truly does prepare and qualify us for every experience we are given. Through His help we really can do all things!
also I've definitely hit a mid-mission crisis mode.
Gospel analogy. go!
k, my new favorite car game, if we're not doing anything in the car one of us will say a thing and the other sister has to come up with a way that the item, or thing, or event or what ever links to the gospel. My favorite was fire hydrant. our analogy was that sometimes we look at repentance as a fire hydrant. It's there if our house catches on fire, but hopefully we'll never have to use it!! like a backup plan. In reality though repentance is part of the plan, not the back up plan! we don't have to wait for an emergency to "make a change to become more like God" we can be making little changes all the time and eventually we'll be in the act of becoming our full potential!
Callings
Yesterday was so exciting! Sister Cemone Small was called as the assistant girls camp director and Brother Chad Craycraft was called to be the young mens secretary!! They are going to do so good!! Both of them were so excited and their enthusiasm was contagious!!! Cemone will be working with dailey fly (the girls camp director) and they are already way good friends!! And the two gerber girls are both in Young womens so both of them will go! She's met many of the young woman already as they've come out to lessons with us and they all seem to love her!
Chad spoke in church and was talking about hoping the changes he was making in his life would inspire changes in the navy boys that he is responsible for. He mentioned they look up to him as a leader and he wants to follow the promptings of the holy ghost to know how be an example even more to these young men.... couldn't help but think, wow that calling is PERFECT for him!!
God knows us so well!! :)
Timing
Heavenly father's timing is so perfect. Man he knows our full potential so perfectly and He knows exactly how to help us get there. He truly does prepare and qualify us for every experience we are given. Through His help we really can do all things!
feb 13: THEIR MISSIONARY FOR ETERNITY
Transfers
l had successfully made it through multiple companion swaps without shedding any tears, but the second we got off the phone with President Weed last week. both of us burst into tears. I am so sad to see sister Platz go! She was an incredible companion and we had so. much. fun! I got to welcome my new companion to the area though and the ward was so welcoming!! Sister White is full of fire. and I'm sure it's going to be a good couple transfers! She is learning the area so fast and loving the work!
also I love love transfers because there's so many missionaries together! I am loving getting to know so many of them!
Mission for life
It's hit me more than ever this week that this calling to serve as missionaries doesn't start and then end 18 months later. When we accept the call to serve, it's a calling for eternity. There will be joy when these individuals, come to church, enter the waters of baptism, when they go to the temple, and then are sealed. but the greatest greatest joy will come when we stand together in the Celestial Kingdom. Not until then is my calling complete.
"And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!" D&C 18:15
l had successfully made it through multiple companion swaps without shedding any tears, but the second we got off the phone with President Weed last week. both of us burst into tears. I am so sad to see sister Platz go! She was an incredible companion and we had so. much. fun! I got to welcome my new companion to the area though and the ward was so welcoming!! Sister White is full of fire. and I'm sure it's going to be a good couple transfers! She is learning the area so fast and loving the work!
also I love love transfers because there's so many missionaries together! I am loving getting to know so many of them!
Mission for life
It's hit me more than ever this week that this calling to serve as missionaries doesn't start and then end 18 months later. When we accept the call to serve, it's a calling for eternity. There will be joy when these individuals, come to church, enter the waters of baptism, when they go to the temple, and then are sealed. but the greatest greatest joy will come when we stand together in the Celestial Kingdom. Not until then is my calling complete.
"And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!" D&C 18:15
feb 6: I KNOW! I'LL MARRY THE SISTER MISSIONARIES!!
So there is an adorable little family here named the palfreymans, oh my goodness I could eat them up they're so cute!! oh! I sent a video of them playing their musical instruments about a month ago. Their youngest son is named Henry and he's five and his mom was having this talk where he suddenly discovered "wait! You mean I could be a daddy one day?!???"
His mom explained all people can grow up to be moms and dads if they want to and she said you'll find a nice girl and she can be the mommy for your kids! then she asked if he had any idea who he was going to marry.... he thought for a minute..
"I know! I'll marry the sister missionaries!!"
Oh let me tell you my heart melted fasted than butter! oh he's a charmer all right, but I'm alittle old so I gonna show him a picture of cute Kamryn (my sister) and see what he thinks;)
Baptism
Cemone got baptized saturday! It could not have gone smoother! She was literally glowing! Oh my goodness so happy! It was so special. Her husband was there and he seemed to really enjoy himself! It was great! Tierre ( a recent convert from 5 or 6 months ago) had reached out to her in friendship and was able to baptize her!! Which made it a big step for both of them!
The elders in our ward right now are so awesome! (They are the presidents assistants so of course their great! haha) but they were able to really reach out to both donald and cemone at the book of mormon classes and stuff which I rally think has helped donald still stay somewhat curious. Cemone was really touched by them too and she asked elder snow to confirm her! He was way excited! And it's really helping all four of us missionaries for this ward feel like we are on the same team! I love it! and I love reaching out and helping their investigators too! One, Lamia thomas, is scheduled to get baptized the end of this month!!
One talk was about the saving ordinances and I realized that Sunday (the fifth) was my one year mark from taking out my endowments! What a special weekend! and now Cemone has the very same special weekend!! On Sunday, Sister Platz planned to share a final testimony in fast in testimony meeting because she is getting transferred and I one about the temple. As the testimonies started, we were gearing ourselves up to have enough courage to go up, when all the sudden Cemone stands to bear her testimony!! So we followed up right after her!
What a wonderful moment to be sitting on the stand right next to our dear dear friend! We love Cemone and I love my companion! so precious!
Zoo
Sister Page is one of the sweetest humans alive! Oh my goodness I love her! She is in charge of our meal calendar and just has such a sweet love for missionaries! She is such a kind giving person too, for example she bought Christmas presents for probably close to 40 kids, some that she babysits, some from the ward who couldn't afford oh my goodness most caring person on earth!
Long story short. She took us to the zoo today!!!!! THE ZOO! You know me oh my goodness I love the zoo so much!! it was the greatest day in the world today!!!
Tender Mercies
wow Heavenly Father loves us so much! He really does. He is aware of us, He knows when we are struggling and he wants us to feel happy. He really really does! if we just look around He is showering blessings on us all the time. He cares and He is aware!! If you don't know that for yourself yet, ask Him! I promise He will tell you! and if you haven't heard His answer yet, lean on my testimony while you're waiting for your own. He loves you!!
We all have challenges, questions, concerns, trials, but cling to the truths you do know! Because Eternal Truth Never Changes!!
And like nephi, this might be the only thing you feel like you've got sometimes, that's okay! He loves us perfectly and that doesn't change.
1 nephi 11:17 " I know that He loveth His children; Nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things"
His mom explained all people can grow up to be moms and dads if they want to and she said you'll find a nice girl and she can be the mommy for your kids! then she asked if he had any idea who he was going to marry.... he thought for a minute..
"I know! I'll marry the sister missionaries!!"
Oh let me tell you my heart melted fasted than butter! oh he's a charmer all right, but I'm alittle old so I gonna show him a picture of cute Kamryn (my sister) and see what he thinks;)
Baptism
Cemone got baptized saturday! It could not have gone smoother! She was literally glowing! Oh my goodness so happy! It was so special. Her husband was there and he seemed to really enjoy himself! It was great! Tierre ( a recent convert from 5 or 6 months ago) had reached out to her in friendship and was able to baptize her!! Which made it a big step for both of them!
The elders in our ward right now are so awesome! (They are the presidents assistants so of course their great! haha) but they were able to really reach out to both donald and cemone at the book of mormon classes and stuff which I rally think has helped donald still stay somewhat curious. Cemone was really touched by them too and she asked elder snow to confirm her! He was way excited! And it's really helping all four of us missionaries for this ward feel like we are on the same team! I love it! and I love reaching out and helping their investigators too! One, Lamia thomas, is scheduled to get baptized the end of this month!!
One talk was about the saving ordinances and I realized that Sunday (the fifth) was my one year mark from taking out my endowments! What a special weekend! and now Cemone has the very same special weekend!! On Sunday, Sister Platz planned to share a final testimony in fast in testimony meeting because she is getting transferred and I one about the temple. As the testimonies started, we were gearing ourselves up to have enough courage to go up, when all the sudden Cemone stands to bear her testimony!! So we followed up right after her!
What a wonderful moment to be sitting on the stand right next to our dear dear friend! We love Cemone and I love my companion! so precious!
Zoo
Sister Page is one of the sweetest humans alive! Oh my goodness I love her! She is in charge of our meal calendar and just has such a sweet love for missionaries! She is such a kind giving person too, for example she bought Christmas presents for probably close to 40 kids, some that she babysits, some from the ward who couldn't afford oh my goodness most caring person on earth!
Long story short. She took us to the zoo today!!!!! THE ZOO! You know me oh my goodness I love the zoo so much!! it was the greatest day in the world today!!!
Tender Mercies
wow Heavenly Father loves us so much! He really does. He is aware of us, He knows when we are struggling and he wants us to feel happy. He really really does! if we just look around He is showering blessings on us all the time. He cares and He is aware!! If you don't know that for yourself yet, ask Him! I promise He will tell you! and if you haven't heard His answer yet, lean on my testimony while you're waiting for your own. He loves you!!
We all have challenges, questions, concerns, trials, but cling to the truths you do know! Because Eternal Truth Never Changes!!
And like nephi, this might be the only thing you feel like you've got sometimes, that's okay! He loves us perfectly and that doesn't change.
1 nephi 11:17 " I know that He loveth His children; Nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things"
jan 31: FORWARD WITH FAITH
Investigators
Guess what y'all?! Cemone Small is getting baptized on February 4th!! Yep this Saturday! It has been incredible to see the hand of the Lord working so quickly in a willing heart! What a testimony builder to me!! If we are willing to change God can mold us into exactly what we need to become!
Barry's family keeps getting bigger and bigger! We love meeting with them they are still learning but really hard to meet up with! Pray that their schedules will line up so we can teach them all!! :) right now it's Barry and his girlfriend Aerin and their baby Lena, Sierra (Barry's sister) and her boyfriend/fiance Chris, and Marlin, and barry's brother that we met for half a second that I cannot spell or pronounce his name.... but they are super curious. We're still trying to find out the real intent, but so grateful to have met them! We love them!! we are going to try to meet with them tonight
Oh and we met this way cool girl named Barbara, she says she doesn't really have any faith, but she wants to!!! it reminds me of this scripture. We are teaching her the Book of Mormon with sister Fly tonight. Alma 32:27 "But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words"
Schedule Change
Many of you probably heard about the new missionary schedule change. We have alot more flexibility with our time now. we have things to accomplish, but it's kind of up to us when we do. Which is cool because it emphasizes agency. It also puts alot of trust in us to use our time wisely. Luckily the whole month of December we were focusing on using out time wisely so we are prepared.
Personally I am so excited about it! I think It will really help missionaries transitioning back into post mission life to keep the same habits because they are already used to having to change it up each time they have a new companion. Plus it's great prep for marriage because every new companionship has to work out how and when they are going to do everything together. So we have to get real good at negotiating if we want joy in our companionship. haha anyway I am super excited!
Also we have transfers coming up soon and based on the comments made to both her and i in interviews last week .. my companion sister platz is probably getting transferred. TEARS. I love her. but this is first area so she'll love a new adventure!!
What I've learned
I've learned truly the most happiness is when we live the gospel of Jesus Christ. Which we hear all the time, but I'm talking the primary lesson of the gospel of Jesus Christ. truly the pattern or faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost, and endure to the end. I've been trying to summarize what I mean so I could tell Spence in a way that makes sense haha. A sister training leader pointed out to me a page in the Missionary Handbook that totally summarized what I was trying to put into words. It is in the Missionary leadership section but It applies to all types of missionaries and actually ALL TYPES OF PEOPLES TOO.
Try reading it, substituting the words "a good leader" with "a disciple of Christ" ..... "which disciple you become as you are baptized into the Fold of god.
A good leader sets an example of gospel living and devoted, selfless service to God and His children. A leader strives to:
•Exercise faith in Jesus Christ. A leader strengthens his or her testimony of the Savior, the plan of happiness, and the message of the Restoration and acts on that testimony. A leader has a vision of the purpose of missionary work and relies on the Lord to achieve worthy goals.
•Repent and become more like the Savior. A leader lives the gospel and maintains a high standard of righteousness. A leader works to overcome weaknesses and shortcomings and to develop his or her attributes and skills as a missionary.
•Keep covenants. A leader is motivated by a firm belief that he or she has made sacred covenants with God and that those covenants include representing the Lord, obeying the commandments (including mission standards), and serving others.
•Receive the Holy Ghost. Having the right to the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost, a leader seeks to be worthy and ready for the gifts of the Spirit (for example, through prayer and scripture study). A leader strives to recognize and follow the promptings of the Spirit.
•Endure to the end. A leader keeps an eye single to the glory of God and works hard throughout his or her mission.
How cool is that! we can apply that in our lives and I promise!! When you do, that is when joy comes!! no matter the situation.
Guess what y'all?! Cemone Small is getting baptized on February 4th!! Yep this Saturday! It has been incredible to see the hand of the Lord working so quickly in a willing heart! What a testimony builder to me!! If we are willing to change God can mold us into exactly what we need to become!
Barry's family keeps getting bigger and bigger! We love meeting with them they are still learning but really hard to meet up with! Pray that their schedules will line up so we can teach them all!! :) right now it's Barry and his girlfriend Aerin and their baby Lena, Sierra (Barry's sister) and her boyfriend/fiance Chris, and Marlin, and barry's brother that we met for half a second that I cannot spell or pronounce his name.... but they are super curious. We're still trying to find out the real intent, but so grateful to have met them! We love them!! we are going to try to meet with them tonight
Oh and we met this way cool girl named Barbara, she says she doesn't really have any faith, but she wants to!!! it reminds me of this scripture. We are teaching her the Book of Mormon with sister Fly tonight. Alma 32:27 "But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words"
Schedule Change
Many of you probably heard about the new missionary schedule change. We have alot more flexibility with our time now. we have things to accomplish, but it's kind of up to us when we do. Which is cool because it emphasizes agency. It also puts alot of trust in us to use our time wisely. Luckily the whole month of December we were focusing on using out time wisely so we are prepared.
Personally I am so excited about it! I think It will really help missionaries transitioning back into post mission life to keep the same habits because they are already used to having to change it up each time they have a new companion. Plus it's great prep for marriage because every new companionship has to work out how and when they are going to do everything together. So we have to get real good at negotiating if we want joy in our companionship. haha anyway I am super excited!
Also we have transfers coming up soon and based on the comments made to both her and i in interviews last week .. my companion sister platz is probably getting transferred. TEARS. I love her. but this is first area so she'll love a new adventure!!
What I've learned
I've learned truly the most happiness is when we live the gospel of Jesus Christ. Which we hear all the time, but I'm talking the primary lesson of the gospel of Jesus Christ. truly the pattern or faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost, and endure to the end. I've been trying to summarize what I mean so I could tell Spence in a way that makes sense haha. A sister training leader pointed out to me a page in the Missionary Handbook that totally summarized what I was trying to put into words. It is in the Missionary leadership section but It applies to all types of missionaries and actually ALL TYPES OF PEOPLES TOO.
Try reading it, substituting the words "a good leader" with "a disciple of Christ" ..... "which disciple you become as you are baptized into the Fold of god.
A good leader sets an example of gospel living and devoted, selfless service to God and His children. A leader strives to:
•Exercise faith in Jesus Christ. A leader strengthens his or her testimony of the Savior, the plan of happiness, and the message of the Restoration and acts on that testimony. A leader has a vision of the purpose of missionary work and relies on the Lord to achieve worthy goals.
•Repent and become more like the Savior. A leader lives the gospel and maintains a high standard of righteousness. A leader works to overcome weaknesses and shortcomings and to develop his or her attributes and skills as a missionary.
•Keep covenants. A leader is motivated by a firm belief that he or she has made sacred covenants with God and that those covenants include representing the Lord, obeying the commandments (including mission standards), and serving others.
•Receive the Holy Ghost. Having the right to the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost, a leader seeks to be worthy and ready for the gifts of the Spirit (for example, through prayer and scripture study). A leader strives to recognize and follow the promptings of the Spirit.
•Endure to the end. A leader keeps an eye single to the glory of God and works hard throughout his or her mission.
How cool is that! we can apply that in our lives and I promise!! When you do, that is when joy comes!! no matter the situation.
jan 23: "FIND THEM THAT WILL RECEIVE YOU"
wow wow wow.
This area is so blessed right now!!
As we were talking to a member the other day I had this realization that I think this area is so blessed because of the members! They are so willing to help and reach out and include and invite others right in!
New investigators
Saturday we met these two thugs lookin kids (Marlin and Barry) who are reacting to our message in the "golden investigator" way so much so That I'd be tempted to think someone is paying them to act this way! It's like the craziest thing ever!!! The first time we met the conversation consisted of them saying " I'm actually just looking for a church right now..." and " I know god will help me with everything I want to accomplish, but really I just want to know what He wants me to accomplish, ya know? What is my real purpose in life?" and then he starts basically quoting these lines from preach my gospel (In a section about how to start teaching someone) TO US. What?!!?! so we gave them the plan of salvation pamphlet and set a time to come see them.
Then the first lesson(we met barry's sister sierra too) we ask how the pamphlets went and Marlin is like "oh I loved it! I actually read it twice to make sure I was understanding it right." Then before we even start Barry is all, " ya know the game of telephone? That's how I feel the bible is... its been translated so many times I just feel like maybe it's not 100% all still the word of God in there anymore" and then goes on to say "I just feel like to get the truth I have to go straight to God sometimes... there's just too many interpretations.... How else do we know what is right?"
.............. jaw drop..... telephone is literally one of these examples they teach us in the Missionary Training center of how to explain that exact concept to people. so we're like "ya know... There's this man Joseph Smith.. He felt the same way!!" Then we showed them the restoration video and talked and at the end of the lesson he's like "Man, I am so glad we met y'all! I just feel so good when I talk about God and stuff! Actually, It's the same feeling I had in that video!!"
Oh my so golden!!! They are so ready! We are so excited and we get to see them again tonight! I just feel so blessed that we get to be there to watch this process! Heavenly Father is so good!
Investigators at Church
Cemone and her husband Donald small are investigating, we met her two weeks ago and we've seen her almost every day since, and she is progressing so fast! Last time we asked she's in 1 Nephi 15 and she is comprehending everything!!! She talked about how she was so grateful that Nephi didn't understand his dad's vision of the tree of life and that he was willing to ask God for clarification because she was really not understanding that until she read over the clarification for Nephi. Which totally shows how much of the book she IS understanding!
She also came to stake conference and Saturday night a member introduced her to the member of the quorum of the 70 that was there and then Sunday we introduced her to our mission president who got to speak! She is soaking it all in and getting to know the members so well! It's incredible!
Also, Vickie Balliet came to church and she has a baptism date now, an official one, March 9th. She is just working to overcome coffee, but she's created a plan to stop and is determined!
lesson learned this week,
Heavenly Father loves us so much and sometimes he just blesses us, even when we don't deserve it.
This area is so blessed right now!!
As we were talking to a member the other day I had this realization that I think this area is so blessed because of the members! They are so willing to help and reach out and include and invite others right in!
New investigators
Saturday we met these two thugs lookin kids (Marlin and Barry) who are reacting to our message in the "golden investigator" way so much so That I'd be tempted to think someone is paying them to act this way! It's like the craziest thing ever!!! The first time we met the conversation consisted of them saying " I'm actually just looking for a church right now..." and " I know god will help me with everything I want to accomplish, but really I just want to know what He wants me to accomplish, ya know? What is my real purpose in life?" and then he starts basically quoting these lines from preach my gospel (In a section about how to start teaching someone) TO US. What?!!?! so we gave them the plan of salvation pamphlet and set a time to come see them.
Then the first lesson(we met barry's sister sierra too) we ask how the pamphlets went and Marlin is like "oh I loved it! I actually read it twice to make sure I was understanding it right." Then before we even start Barry is all, " ya know the game of telephone? That's how I feel the bible is... its been translated so many times I just feel like maybe it's not 100% all still the word of God in there anymore" and then goes on to say "I just feel like to get the truth I have to go straight to God sometimes... there's just too many interpretations.... How else do we know what is right?"
.............. jaw drop..... telephone is literally one of these examples they teach us in the Missionary Training center of how to explain that exact concept to people. so we're like "ya know... There's this man Joseph Smith.. He felt the same way!!" Then we showed them the restoration video and talked and at the end of the lesson he's like "Man, I am so glad we met y'all! I just feel so good when I talk about God and stuff! Actually, It's the same feeling I had in that video!!"
Oh my so golden!!! They are so ready! We are so excited and we get to see them again tonight! I just feel so blessed that we get to be there to watch this process! Heavenly Father is so good!
Investigators at Church
Cemone and her husband Donald small are investigating, we met her two weeks ago and we've seen her almost every day since, and she is progressing so fast! Last time we asked she's in 1 Nephi 15 and she is comprehending everything!!! She talked about how she was so grateful that Nephi didn't understand his dad's vision of the tree of life and that he was willing to ask God for clarification because she was really not understanding that until she read over the clarification for Nephi. Which totally shows how much of the book she IS understanding!
She also came to stake conference and Saturday night a member introduced her to the member of the quorum of the 70 that was there and then Sunday we introduced her to our mission president who got to speak! She is soaking it all in and getting to know the members so well! It's incredible!
Also, Vickie Balliet came to church and she has a baptism date now, an official one, March 9th. She is just working to overcome coffee, but she's created a plan to stop and is determined!
lesson learned this week,
Heavenly Father loves us so much and sometimes he just blesses us, even when we don't deserve it.
Jan 9: when it snows and the city shuts down
"Okay you were right... I was.. less right..." name that movie.
What's up in PTown
everyone tells you here when there's a chance of flurry... the city shuts down. It's not that I didn't believe them.. I just thought they might have been exaggerating a little bit.. hahaha
Nope it's true. so true! except it eventually did snow... and snow and snow and snow OH I love it! These last few days have been so much fun! We are totally enjoying ourselves and this wonderful snow! Feels like Christmas came a few weeks late!
What wonderful experiences we've had. Over the phone lessons with folks too far to walk to, and lessons with some investigators and less actives that live near by. It has been a great opportunity to meet new people who will hopefully become new investigators this week and to make sure all our records were up to date and in order.
Dave and Jody
Okay so a couple weeks ago I got to see dave and jody! When they knocked on the door it literally took everything inside me not to jump right at them through the window by our door! but i did make it all the way through the living room to the front door! No broken glass, no worries! haha we had such a fun dinner at applebees and They got to tell me of their highlights of 2016 (one of which is doing yoga with the president of the united states!! ASk them that story!)
They asked what my high light was and So i've been thinking about that question the last little while. There's so many I don't even know where to start!!!
2016 equaled my mission call in january, going through the temple for the first time in February, my first break up in March haha, finishing year 1 of college in april, missionary training center in May, arriving in the mission field june 1st, new mission president in july, and then it's really all a beautiful blur of teaching, inviting, helping, testifying, promising blessings as representatives of the Lord, Jesus Christ, baptisms, holidays, new friends and more people to call family,
So many good times oh my goodness!!
I think the best is just having the feeling over and over that this is where I need to be right now! I know it. I have felt it over and over and over. It's the coolest thing. Basically as a missionary you never know what you're doing, but at the same time you do because you know you are where He wants you.
What I learned this week
idea from the Sister Training Leaders was to write down our reason why we are serving a mission and hang it somewhere. Saturday during studies as I contemplated I came up with. "I am serving a mission because I love my brothers and sisters here on earth and I want them to be able to partake of the blessings in this life and the next that come from living the pattern of the gospel of Jesus Christ."
this is true, but this morning pondering I realized again (for the six billionth time on my mission) This is not about me. Even if I had no clue as to why I was serving a mission, I know that I was prompted by the spirit to come. I am here because Heavenly Father asked me to come and because I love Him, "I will go and do as He has commanded." (1 nephi 3:7)
I am far from perfect, but I am finally learning to be okay with that!! What matters is our Spiritual Velocity: speed and direction as the Lord wants. and I'm finally getting to the point where I just want His will.
"You can have what you want or you can have something better" - Elder Holland
I testify it really is better His way:)
What's up in PTown
everyone tells you here when there's a chance of flurry... the city shuts down. It's not that I didn't believe them.. I just thought they might have been exaggerating a little bit.. hahaha
Nope it's true. so true! except it eventually did snow... and snow and snow and snow OH I love it! These last few days have been so much fun! We are totally enjoying ourselves and this wonderful snow! Feels like Christmas came a few weeks late!
What wonderful experiences we've had. Over the phone lessons with folks too far to walk to, and lessons with some investigators and less actives that live near by. It has been a great opportunity to meet new people who will hopefully become new investigators this week and to make sure all our records were up to date and in order.
Dave and Jody
Okay so a couple weeks ago I got to see dave and jody! When they knocked on the door it literally took everything inside me not to jump right at them through the window by our door! but i did make it all the way through the living room to the front door! No broken glass, no worries! haha we had such a fun dinner at applebees and They got to tell me of their highlights of 2016 (one of which is doing yoga with the president of the united states!! ASk them that story!)
They asked what my high light was and So i've been thinking about that question the last little while. There's so many I don't even know where to start!!!
2016 equaled my mission call in january, going through the temple for the first time in February, my first break up in March haha, finishing year 1 of college in april, missionary training center in May, arriving in the mission field june 1st, new mission president in july, and then it's really all a beautiful blur of teaching, inviting, helping, testifying, promising blessings as representatives of the Lord, Jesus Christ, baptisms, holidays, new friends and more people to call family,
So many good times oh my goodness!!
I think the best is just having the feeling over and over that this is where I need to be right now! I know it. I have felt it over and over and over. It's the coolest thing. Basically as a missionary you never know what you're doing, but at the same time you do because you know you are where He wants you.
What I learned this week
idea from the Sister Training Leaders was to write down our reason why we are serving a mission and hang it somewhere. Saturday during studies as I contemplated I came up with. "I am serving a mission because I love my brothers and sisters here on earth and I want them to be able to partake of the blessings in this life and the next that come from living the pattern of the gospel of Jesus Christ."
this is true, but this morning pondering I realized again (for the six billionth time on my mission) This is not about me. Even if I had no clue as to why I was serving a mission, I know that I was prompted by the spirit to come. I am here because Heavenly Father asked me to come and because I love Him, "I will go and do as He has commanded." (1 nephi 3:7)
I am far from perfect, but I am finally learning to be okay with that!! What matters is our Spiritual Velocity: speed and direction as the Lord wants. and I'm finally getting to the point where I just want His will.
"You can have what you want or you can have something better" - Elder Holland
I testify it really is better His way:)
Jan 2: Especially For Future Missionaries
This week has been one of lots of questions and lots of reflections!
One that my cute cute family asked over Skype on Christmas was is I had any advice for Spencer (My brother) who is preparing to get his mission call. I am definitely not the perfect example of all of these, but the happiest missionaries seem to live by these principles.
Quick Summary:
This applies to everyone, but especially for future missionaries
One that my cute cute family asked over Skype on Christmas was is I had any advice for Spencer (My brother) who is preparing to get his mission call. I am definitely not the perfect example of all of these, but the happiest missionaries seem to live by these principles.
Quick Summary:
- Penitence
- Be elect to find the elect
- Always show gratitude
- Always Have a load in the Wash
- "How can we help??"
- Pray for miracles
- Keep the Sabbath Special
- Be obedient
- exact isn't perfect
- Learn to recognize and avoid Satan's tools
- Charity never Faileth
- SMILE
This applies to everyone, but especially for future missionaries
- Penitence is humble and repentant. Be willing to learn and willing to change. That is when we progress towards the Savior. (I heard once, blessed are the flexible for they shall not crack under pressure:)
- Alma 27:18 "Now was not this exceeding joy? Behold, this is joy which none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness."
- also a word on Humility. "Humility is not thinking less of yourself.. it is thinking of yourself less" I don't know where that came from, but so true! Heavenly father doesn't want us to be down on ourselves all the time. Humility is like president Hinckley's dad told him "Forget yourself and go to work. Missionary work is not about you. You can become who You want to become by focusing on yourself while on your mission or you can become who God wants you to become by doing it his way... looking outside of yourself: focusing on others.
- There are people that are ready to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. The best way to draw those people to you, to help them find you, is to be elect. Be Consecrated. Choose to be chosen:) All are invited to come unto Christ, those who choose to follow are Chosen. Am I choosing to be chosen? You know if you are if you are willingly and joyfully choosing to do as God asks you to. including following all the rules and listening to your mission leaders.
- Doctrine and covenants 29:7 "And ye are called to bring to pass the gathering of mine elect; for mine elect hear my voice and harden not their hearts;"
- Always always show gratitude. for everything, to everyone. Except help from people graciously. Accept correction from people graciously. Look for blessings everyday. Recognize the hand of the Lord in your life. My suggestion would be to write 5 things you are grateful for every night before you go to bed. Then you always go to bed happy and thankful!
- President Uchtdorf "Gratitude is a catalyst to all Christlike attributes... a Thankful heart is the parent of all virtues" in 8th grade biology I learned a catalyst is something that speeds up a process so any new years resolution, anything you are trying to improve on... the process of development will be faster if you have a thankful heart.
- Adapt an "Always have a load in the wash" attitude. I love this phrase! One of my first Zone leaders told us this. We should always be working on something, this way we are consciously and consistently striving to move forward, to progress.
- 2 Nephi 28:30 "For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have"
- Develop a "How can we help?" attitude. Elder Bennett of the quorum of the 70 came to visit us a couple months ago. Ask everyone. members, investigators, random contacts of people you meet on the street. An invitation is effective as we ask "How can we help you do that?" Lots of times people will brush it off, but don't be afraid to ask again. It may seem pushy, but when you do it with love it shows you truly care. Then even if they answer ask again, "how else can we help you." In this way, you know you've done all you can do to help these people keep their commitments.
- LDS Missionary Purpose: "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end."
- Preach my gospel: "...These commitments prepare people to make and keep sacred covenants."
- Pray for miracles! and pray specifically! In the MTC one of our teachers talked about how they would pray in the mornings to find someone that they could teach a specific thing to. The example he gave was "please put in our path a family that we can teach the plan of Salvation to today." Have the faith to ask the Lord for miracles. I can testify he will give them to you.
- Mormon 9:19 "And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles."
- Keeping the Sabbath Day holy on a mission is an interesting task. Basically all we do every day is talking about Jesus Christ so by Sunday evening it's so easy to forget that it's even Sunday. This is kind of distressing when the Sabbath day isn't special anymore. After inquiring of one members Sabbaths on his mission he said, "On Sundays,The focus of my studies was the Atonement of Jesus Christ." I'm not saying you have to do that, but it has made a big difference for me! Strive to find something to make the Sabbath Day special.
- Exodus 31:13 "Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you."
- Be obedient. obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles. Know what the rules are and follow them. It's recommended to read the Mission Handbook once before entering the Missionary Training Center (MTC), once through while in the MTC, and in my mission we read 3 pages daily.
- 2 Nephi 4:4 "For the Lord God hath said that: Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land; and inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from my presence."
- That being said, exact is not the same thing as perfect. For a while, I was under this impression that the miracles wouldn't start until I was perfectly obedient. Not only did I miss recognizing the hand of the Lord in my life multiple times, but I as so distracted beating myself up I was unable to move forward. that is a huge tool of Satan. Whatever he can distract you with to hault your progress he will.
- Elder Cornish of the 70 said "If you will really try and will not rationalize or rebel—repenting often and pleading for grace—you positively are going to be “good enough.”
- Distraction, discouragement, doubt. Those are three of Satan's biggest tools and along with feelings of inadequacy, I believe they are the most successful tools against member of the church. I plead with you to learn how to recognize quickly and eliminate those influences in your life! just stay focused on the work, don't let the little things get ya down, keep an eternal perspective and keep the faith.
- personally, I feel like faith and fear can coincide, Some things you move forward in faith and you are scared out of your mind... but I know doubt and faith cannot coincide. "Faith is not by Chance, It's by choice" (Elder Anderson) "So doubt your doubts, before you doubt your faith" (president Uchtdorf)
- Sometimes life is overwhelming. The solution I've found is charity never faileth.. If you're lonely, scared, overwhelmed, unhappy, anything. Charity never faileth. Look for ways to show love for others and your perspective will begin to change.
- and smile. it's the only curve that sets everything straight.
- Penitence
- Be elect to find the elect
- Always show gratitude
- Always Have a load in the Wash
- "How can we help??"
- Pray for miracles
- Keep the Sabbath Special
- Be obedient
- exact isn't perfect
- Learn to recognize and avoid Satan's tools
- Charity never Faileth
- SMILE
Dec 26: firetrucks, new apartment, holidays and the Atonement
Quote of the week "That's it I'm calling 911" We moved this week!!! We were cleaning out our old apartment and our wonderful relief society organized some women to come and help us. As one woman was cleaning the stove, the pilot light went off and the apartment started to fill with gas... We all went into a light panic as we had nothing to relight it with and the valve to turn it off below the sink was so corroded that it couldn't even be turned off. We started opening all the doors and windows and Sister Hancock started calling all the people and apartment management was out of town, the office people weren't answering, so she throws up her hands and goes "that's it! I'm calling 911! " So we are expecting a police man or something to come relight it or our backyard was the side of a fire station so maybe a fireman would come around the corner.... nope next thing we know there's sirens and a firetruck pulls into our little parking lot and a couple firemen decked out in air tanks and masks and the whole deal come running into the apartment and we all just stood there in shock...five minutes later ANOTHER fire truck pulls in with another hand full of firemen... oh my goodness talk about embarrassing and hilarious! all to relight a pilot light
This week in a nutshell We had a wonderful Christmas conference Tuesday in which I got to see all the sisters from my MTC group together again for the first time! including sister Bruneel!!! who is one of my favorite people in the world! and my friend Aaron Heagy from High School! (who I hadn't even told I gotten my mission call yet so that was a major surprise for him haha) (Pictures on different tab:) The Christmas conference ended up being like a giant family home evening and we got to know each other alot better! Then we moved this week, we had transfer calls (Sister platz and I are both staying here in P town) We had the holidays and we were just asked sunday to organize a baptism for a youth who was scheduled the week I got here, but had a personal emergency and had to go to Georgia with family. so it's been super busy, but also so much fun!! I love it here!
Christmas Oh my goodness I love Christmas so much its crazy! This ward has just wrapped us up in their arms! We had so many families reach out to invite us over and then people even bought us gifts! It was literally so sweet, we got home last night and I just was so overwhelmed I thought I'd burst into tears. God is so good! It was a magical weekend! Christmas Eve we went to elder and Sister Slusser's home (a senior couple in our mission) and made cookies and then went caroling to some elderly people living in the senior home with them! We invited all we met down to the activity room and sang Christmas carols and watched Mr. Kruger's Christmas. they all loved it and tons of them recognized the mormon Tabernacle choir and started asking us questions about the music and such!
then we slept on the couches by our adorable little tree christmas eve and Christmas day we had a wonderful church service and then went to the Craycrafts for lunch and were able to meet brother craycrafts daughter Shay! then we skyped home (BEST PART OF THE DAY) and then got to go to a few families homes for dinners! We had such a good time!! such a good Christmas!! Not a white Christmas here by the way, we had a lovely 60° day yesterday It was bizarre! haha but so nice I loved it! again thank you thank you thank you for the cards, packages and pictures!! It made my day every time something would come!! I am so thankful for all you supportive and loving friends, family, neighbors, etc. thank you!
What I learned this week Wow this was one of the busiest and most stressful weeks of my mission, but I didn't even realize it until last night! Prone to anxiety, there is no way I should have gotten through this last week without getting sick from nerves and excitement, but somehow I am totally fine! I know that it is because Christ is strengthening me through His atonement. I am so grateful to know that He went through all He did so that he could help us. Not only help us over come sin and death, but also stress, sickness, sorrow, guilt, pains, everything as Alma 7: 11-12 says: "And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people". And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities." He did it so he could know how to help us in all of our struggles! How much He loves us!!
Merry Christmas and Happiest of Holidays as you go into this new year, 2017! It's gonna be a good one! Love y'all so much!
This week in a nutshell We had a wonderful Christmas conference Tuesday in which I got to see all the sisters from my MTC group together again for the first time! including sister Bruneel!!! who is one of my favorite people in the world! and my friend Aaron Heagy from High School! (who I hadn't even told I gotten my mission call yet so that was a major surprise for him haha) (Pictures on different tab:) The Christmas conference ended up being like a giant family home evening and we got to know each other alot better! Then we moved this week, we had transfer calls (Sister platz and I are both staying here in P town) We had the holidays and we were just asked sunday to organize a baptism for a youth who was scheduled the week I got here, but had a personal emergency and had to go to Georgia with family. so it's been super busy, but also so much fun!! I love it here!
Christmas Oh my goodness I love Christmas so much its crazy! This ward has just wrapped us up in their arms! We had so many families reach out to invite us over and then people even bought us gifts! It was literally so sweet, we got home last night and I just was so overwhelmed I thought I'd burst into tears. God is so good! It was a magical weekend! Christmas Eve we went to elder and Sister Slusser's home (a senior couple in our mission) and made cookies and then went caroling to some elderly people living in the senior home with them! We invited all we met down to the activity room and sang Christmas carols and watched Mr. Kruger's Christmas. they all loved it and tons of them recognized the mormon Tabernacle choir and started asking us questions about the music and such!
then we slept on the couches by our adorable little tree christmas eve and Christmas day we had a wonderful church service and then went to the Craycrafts for lunch and were able to meet brother craycrafts daughter Shay! then we skyped home (BEST PART OF THE DAY) and then got to go to a few families homes for dinners! We had such a good time!! such a good Christmas!! Not a white Christmas here by the way, we had a lovely 60° day yesterday It was bizarre! haha but so nice I loved it! again thank you thank you thank you for the cards, packages and pictures!! It made my day every time something would come!! I am so thankful for all you supportive and loving friends, family, neighbors, etc. thank you!
What I learned this week Wow this was one of the busiest and most stressful weeks of my mission, but I didn't even realize it until last night! Prone to anxiety, there is no way I should have gotten through this last week without getting sick from nerves and excitement, but somehow I am totally fine! I know that it is because Christ is strengthening me through His atonement. I am so grateful to know that He went through all He did so that he could help us. Not only help us over come sin and death, but also stress, sickness, sorrow, guilt, pains, everything as Alma 7: 11-12 says: "And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people". And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities." He did it so he could know how to help us in all of our struggles! How much He loves us!!
Merry Christmas and Happiest of Holidays as you go into this new year, 2017! It's gonna be a good one! Love y'all so much!
Dec 19: the best new years resolution ever
Thank you all so much for the letters and packages! It has truly felt like Christmas morning all month!! and special thanks to those who included pictures and announcements!! I have 16 or 17 on the fridge right now and am so so happy every time one comes! Thank you!! They make my day!
(also extra special thanks to the drawings from addie and shelbie! everyone in the mission office asked me to open the candy cane package right there because they were all so curious! Haha loved it!)
Best news ever!
So brother craycraft has been striving to reach out to another family, the Vestals. Brother Vestals has decided to be baptized on new years eve, calling it "the best new years resolution ever!" The elders have been teaching this family and we are so excited for them! Last week brother craycraft received the priesthood and as the elders were telling brother vestal he got all excited and decided to ask brother craycraft to baptize him!!! so he did and now brother craycraft will be baptizing brother Vestal on new years eve!!! How cool is that??
A'ha moment this week:
Today I was contemplating how our testimony grows "line upon line, precept upon precept, here and little and there a little.." when I had this realization. Throughout our lives we come to learn, through a witness of the Holy Ghost, basic eternal truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We also face trials and tribulation or serious questions and concerns that often tend to make it extremely hard to remember or continue to believe the eternal truths we have come to know are true. But my a'ha moment this week was that eternal truth never changes. If it was true once and the spirit confirmed it and we knew it... It will never become untrue. no matter what situation or experiences we have. We may change, our knowledge of other things may change, but eternal truth will always be.
My favorite scripture that I've found on my mission so far i think is 1 nephi 11: 17. In a vision, an angel asks nephi " knowest thou the condescension of God?" and he answers " I knoweth that he loveth his children, nevertheless I do not know the meaning of all things" I LOVE THIS. He has no clue what the angel is talking about, but he holds onto a simple, basic, eternal truth that he does know and humbly states what he does not, showing that he is willing to learn.and the one he picks happens to be the very first thing that we as missionaries strive to help people understand: God is our loving Heavenly Father.
Nephi tends to take an opposite response to confusion or lack of knowledge/understanding than his brothers. While they tend to get stuck and literally halt all their progression towards God over these questions and concerns, Nephi goes to the Lord. He takes the basic eternal truths he does know and asks god to build upon it. What a good example!
Hold on to what you do know! "endless are the mysteries of God" (Jacob 4:8) We wont ever know it all, but as we ask and seek, we will grow and we'll always know enough to face what we need to. He is watching out for us.
I know too that God loveth his children. I may know little else, but, for me, that is enough.
sorry this is all over the place, but love you all so much!
merry merry christmas!! Have a blessed holiday season!!!
(also extra special thanks to the drawings from addie and shelbie! everyone in the mission office asked me to open the candy cane package right there because they were all so curious! Haha loved it!)
Best news ever!
So brother craycraft has been striving to reach out to another family, the Vestals. Brother Vestals has decided to be baptized on new years eve, calling it "the best new years resolution ever!" The elders have been teaching this family and we are so excited for them! Last week brother craycraft received the priesthood and as the elders were telling brother vestal he got all excited and decided to ask brother craycraft to baptize him!!! so he did and now brother craycraft will be baptizing brother Vestal on new years eve!!! How cool is that??
A'ha moment this week:
Today I was contemplating how our testimony grows "line upon line, precept upon precept, here and little and there a little.." when I had this realization. Throughout our lives we come to learn, through a witness of the Holy Ghost, basic eternal truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We also face trials and tribulation or serious questions and concerns that often tend to make it extremely hard to remember or continue to believe the eternal truths we have come to know are true. But my a'ha moment this week was that eternal truth never changes. If it was true once and the spirit confirmed it and we knew it... It will never become untrue. no matter what situation or experiences we have. We may change, our knowledge of other things may change, but eternal truth will always be.
My favorite scripture that I've found on my mission so far i think is 1 nephi 11: 17. In a vision, an angel asks nephi " knowest thou the condescension of God?" and he answers " I knoweth that he loveth his children, nevertheless I do not know the meaning of all things" I LOVE THIS. He has no clue what the angel is talking about, but he holds onto a simple, basic, eternal truth that he does know and humbly states what he does not, showing that he is willing to learn.and the one he picks happens to be the very first thing that we as missionaries strive to help people understand: God is our loving Heavenly Father.
Nephi tends to take an opposite response to confusion or lack of knowledge/understanding than his brothers. While they tend to get stuck and literally halt all their progression towards God over these questions and concerns, Nephi goes to the Lord. He takes the basic eternal truths he does know and asks god to build upon it. What a good example!
Hold on to what you do know! "endless are the mysteries of God" (Jacob 4:8) We wont ever know it all, but as we ask and seek, we will grow and we'll always know enough to face what we need to. He is watching out for us.
I know too that God loveth his children. I may know little else, but, for me, that is enough.
sorry this is all over the place, but love you all so much!
merry merry christmas!! Have a blessed holiday season!!!
Dec 5: WHAT IS A TESTIMONY?
This week we had a lesson with Vickie Balliet (an investigator, which is someone investigating the church to determine if they believe it's true.) and she asked me the exact question that my sister asked me last week over email so I'd been thinking about it for five days when she asked and was able to provide her with a very long thought out answer haha it was so cool to see how the Lord prepared me to answer her concern through my family!
she also asked us what is a testimony? so we gave her some example so I bore my testimony to her like 4 times and it was so cool to share statements of what I've come to know is true in such basic, simple truths that would help her understand, but also reminded me of of what I believe as I felt the Holy Ghost confirm to me the truth of what I was saying to her by intense feelings of peace, joy and surety that they are true. it was a good ten minutes of so of testifying and the spirit is so strong! He is there anytime someone testifies to confirm the truth. It was an incredible experience.
Also we are so exited for Christmas!!!! We have already helped decorate like 6 trees and we found a tiny white one buried away in a closet. Oh it truly is the most wonderful time of the year!
If you haven't already seen it, mormon.org has this cute December service calendar with ideas for service "25 ways in 25 days!" its the #LightTheWorld Campaign.
she also asked us what is a testimony? so we gave her some example so I bore my testimony to her like 4 times and it was so cool to share statements of what I've come to know is true in such basic, simple truths that would help her understand, but also reminded me of of what I believe as I felt the Holy Ghost confirm to me the truth of what I was saying to her by intense feelings of peace, joy and surety that they are true. it was a good ten minutes of so of testifying and the spirit is so strong! He is there anytime someone testifies to confirm the truth. It was an incredible experience.
Also we are so exited for Christmas!!!! We have already helped decorate like 6 trees and we found a tiny white one buried away in a closet. Oh it truly is the most wonderful time of the year!
If you haven't already seen it, mormon.org has this cute December service calendar with ideas for service "25 ways in 25 days!" its the #LightTheWorld Campaign.
nov 28: TURKEY TIME
okay this was the best week ever! sister Platz and I had so much fun!
where to begin?!?!?!
okay funny moment for this week... everyone here just parks on people's grass, grass is effortless here and there are few curbs in the areas I've served so we just park on the grass and it's totally normal. okay so we pull onto this person's grass and the car started tipping a little and I was like "that is so strange... I thought it was pretty flat right here but it must be more slanted guess Ill park somewhere else" so I start turning to go back onto the road and the car... wasn't moving..... so sister platz is all "I'll jump out and see" so she opens the door... and it doesn't even open all the way because we were SO DEEP in the MUD. WHAT?! yes little did we know that while we did studies and our 3 hour weekly planning session, it had been pouring rain. and while in the deserts of utah I'd probably have been okay... we just SUNK here! It was sooo funny!! this little man happened to be walking past right as sister platz jumped our to start pushing and offered to help and somehow managed to get us out in like 37 seconds so that was a miracle!! hahaha oh my goodness it was so funny though!
Thanksgiving
We had such a good thanksgiving!! We were invited over by many many members and were able to teach some great lessons! We enjoyed four thanksgiving meals with four incredible families and it was seriously one of the best days ever!!
Brother Craycraft
Chad was baptized on Saturday and it was one of the coolest things in the world! His wife had been a member for a long time like 20 years, but hadn't been fully active. She talked at his baptism and it was so cool to hear here story of how her testimony was strengthened and renewed as she watched and guided Chad with his conversion. I probably felt the spirit stronger at his baptism than any other! It was such a special day.
There is a saying that missionaries are people that leave their families for a short time so that other can be with their families for eternity. This rang more true to me than ever as I watched this couple and the excitement that just completely covered their faces! they were absolutely giddy with joy! Now they are making plans to go to the temple together! Such a sweet couple with such good good good hearts.
Christmas service!
Okay this is officially my favorite type of service in the world! This weekend we helped vickie Balliet (she is planning to get baptized on January 12th, her birthday) and her sister (sister Cleckner) set up their Christmas tree! then they showed us pictures of their kids and their spouses! and we got to meet their mother! She has a really hard time getting around so this is the first time she's met with the missionaries in a long long time, as far as we know. We had so much fun!!!
where to begin?!?!?!
okay funny moment for this week... everyone here just parks on people's grass, grass is effortless here and there are few curbs in the areas I've served so we just park on the grass and it's totally normal. okay so we pull onto this person's grass and the car started tipping a little and I was like "that is so strange... I thought it was pretty flat right here but it must be more slanted guess Ill park somewhere else" so I start turning to go back onto the road and the car... wasn't moving..... so sister platz is all "I'll jump out and see" so she opens the door... and it doesn't even open all the way because we were SO DEEP in the MUD. WHAT?! yes little did we know that while we did studies and our 3 hour weekly planning session, it had been pouring rain. and while in the deserts of utah I'd probably have been okay... we just SUNK here! It was sooo funny!! this little man happened to be walking past right as sister platz jumped our to start pushing and offered to help and somehow managed to get us out in like 37 seconds so that was a miracle!! hahaha oh my goodness it was so funny though!
Thanksgiving
We had such a good thanksgiving!! We were invited over by many many members and were able to teach some great lessons! We enjoyed four thanksgiving meals with four incredible families and it was seriously one of the best days ever!!
Brother Craycraft
Chad was baptized on Saturday and it was one of the coolest things in the world! His wife had been a member for a long time like 20 years, but hadn't been fully active. She talked at his baptism and it was so cool to hear here story of how her testimony was strengthened and renewed as she watched and guided Chad with his conversion. I probably felt the spirit stronger at his baptism than any other! It was such a special day.
There is a saying that missionaries are people that leave their families for a short time so that other can be with their families for eternity. This rang more true to me than ever as I watched this couple and the excitement that just completely covered their faces! they were absolutely giddy with joy! Now they are making plans to go to the temple together! Such a sweet couple with such good good good hearts.
Christmas service!
Okay this is officially my favorite type of service in the world! This weekend we helped vickie Balliet (she is planning to get baptized on January 12th, her birthday) and her sister (sister Cleckner) set up their Christmas tree! then they showed us pictures of their kids and their spouses! and we got to meet their mother! She has a really hard time getting around so this is the first time she's met with the missionaries in a long long time, as far as we know. We had so much fun!!!
nov 21: woohooo I'm in VA!!!
people of p-town
Guess what?! I'm in Virginia!!! I survived my very first transfer!! I love transfers! It sounds weird but it is so fun getting chucked into a brand new environment full of new new new, new everything! I love it! I am now serving in Portsmouth Virginia(yes that is totally a thing, they really do call it p-town here!!:) and part of Chesapeake is in my area!!!!! I'm literally so close to y'all (Dave and Jody) I am excited all the time! like maybe I'll bump into Jody? ;) It's the greatest thing! There really is the coolest feeling ever here! I seriously feel pumped all the time to be a missionary here! maybe it's because we are closer to other missionaries and I can feed off their energy? maybe it's my sixth sense telling me my aunt and uncle are probably 20 minutes away??;)virginia beach is literally so close!! I don't really know what it is, but I do know I am absolutely LOVING the feelings I am having right now, since crossing the state border I've had this extra energy, enthusiasm, and excitement about the work! I am LOVING being a missionary more than ever! They spirit is so strong it's undeniable! already over and over it's been confirmed this is exactly where god wants me!!
mission office
Portsmouth is also where the mission office is so I get to see the mission president and his wife and all the senior couples all the time! And the assistants to the president are serving in my same ward!! How cool is that?! Sister Plats and I get to learn from them constantly and it has been so much fun! I am seriously so so happy here!!
The ward here is so great! There's a brother Chad Craycraft here getting baptized on Saturday! and He is a party and a half! He is so funny and it has been a ton of fun getting to now him and his family! (lucky me! get to jump right into such a fantastic moment!!)
I love my new companion! She is darling! She is literally merida on Brave! She's relatively new, but she is such a good little missionary!! Oh my goodness she loooves the people with all her heart and she is brave as can be! I love it! I also love love being by the water!! There is water everywhere!! it's so much fun! and SO beautiful!!!
Guess what?! I'm in Virginia!!! I survived my very first transfer!! I love transfers! It sounds weird but it is so fun getting chucked into a brand new environment full of new new new, new everything! I love it! I am now serving in Portsmouth Virginia(yes that is totally a thing, they really do call it p-town here!!:) and part of Chesapeake is in my area!!!!! I'm literally so close to y'all (Dave and Jody) I am excited all the time! like maybe I'll bump into Jody? ;) It's the greatest thing! There really is the coolest feeling ever here! I seriously feel pumped all the time to be a missionary here! maybe it's because we are closer to other missionaries and I can feed off their energy? maybe it's my sixth sense telling me my aunt and uncle are probably 20 minutes away??;)virginia beach is literally so close!! I don't really know what it is, but I do know I am absolutely LOVING the feelings I am having right now, since crossing the state border I've had this extra energy, enthusiasm, and excitement about the work! I am LOVING being a missionary more than ever! They spirit is so strong it's undeniable! already over and over it's been confirmed this is exactly where god wants me!!
mission office
Portsmouth is also where the mission office is so I get to see the mission president and his wife and all the senior couples all the time! And the assistants to the president are serving in my same ward!! How cool is that?! Sister Plats and I get to learn from them constantly and it has been so much fun! I am seriously so so happy here!!
The ward here is so great! There's a brother Chad Craycraft here getting baptized on Saturday! and He is a party and a half! He is so funny and it has been a ton of fun getting to now him and his family! (lucky me! get to jump right into such a fantastic moment!!)
I love my new companion! She is darling! She is literally merida on Brave! She's relatively new, but she is such a good little missionary!! Oh my goodness she loooves the people with all her heart and she is brave as can be! I love it! I also love love being by the water!! There is water everywhere!! it's so much fun! and SO beautiful!!!
nov 17: GOOD WAY TO WRAP IT UP
Wow monday was great! We had so much fun getting all ready for angie to get baptized! The program went beautifully! Her closest friend that she's made in the ward (Angela Stair) spoke on the gospel blessing families and Melissa Strickland (recent convert) spoke on the atonement! Both did a great job and the spirit was strong as Angie entered the water. after she was baptized her little 5 year old Zaye yelled "MY TURN!" everyone giggled, her kids are so cute!
She bore her testimony after and it was so special to hear her testify of the Book of Mormon and her new found testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
She knows she doesn't know everything, but she is excited to begin the journey of learning more and more and more!!
Yesterday she was confirmed in sacrament meeting at which there was also a baby blessing of the sorenson family and the speakers were a newly returned missionary and Brenda (who just got her call to Guatemala) and a young man. It was such a cool sacrament meeting!!
I love this ward so much!!!!!
Transfers
I am headed to Portsmouth (pronounced Portsmith) Virginia on Wednesday!! Woohooo! That area is where our mission office is so I'll be seeing lots and lots of President and sister Weed!! When the assistants to the president called us to tell me i was leaving he said " sister hall! you'll be right by us! and this area is on fire! They are having so much success right now!" I am so pumped! It sounds like a great area! I am excited to see what's in store!
It will be so hard to leave this ward, there were tears yesterday at church, I am so grateful for the time I have been able to spend here. BUT I am so so excited for the opportunity to go to portsmouth!
also my best friend from the MTC (sister bruneel) is in the Virginia Beach area so I will get to see her at the christmas conference next month!!!!! I am so happy I could die! Life is so good!
She bore her testimony after and it was so special to hear her testify of the Book of Mormon and her new found testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
She knows she doesn't know everything, but she is excited to begin the journey of learning more and more and more!!
Yesterday she was confirmed in sacrament meeting at which there was also a baby blessing of the sorenson family and the speakers were a newly returned missionary and Brenda (who just got her call to Guatemala) and a young man. It was such a cool sacrament meeting!!
I love this ward so much!!!!!
Transfers
I am headed to Portsmouth (pronounced Portsmith) Virginia on Wednesday!! Woohooo! That area is where our mission office is so I'll be seeing lots and lots of President and sister Weed!! When the assistants to the president called us to tell me i was leaving he said " sister hall! you'll be right by us! and this area is on fire! They are having so much success right now!" I am so pumped! It sounds like a great area! I am excited to see what's in store!
It will be so hard to leave this ward, there were tears yesterday at church, I am so grateful for the time I have been able to spend here. BUT I am so so excited for the opportunity to go to portsmouth!
also my best friend from the MTC (sister bruneel) is in the Virginia Beach area so I will get to see her at the christmas conference next month!!!!! I am so happy I could die! Life is so good!
Nov 7: GOSPEL VS. FAMILY
so story goes...
we have a new ward mission leader! Great man, Brother Putheri: from India (best food ever!) that picture of the extravagant one year old's birthday party? yeah that was him and his wife and their adorable little boy Aadvik. So the first coordination meeting with him was on Thursday and we drop the "hello welcome to your calling! Ready to plan a baptism???" It was so fun he did a really good job and was so on top of things. Within two days everyone we hoped to participate had been contacted and had confirmed! It was so fast! He sent us a quick version of what the program would be like and as we were reading through we read : sister Stair: short talk (Gospel vs Families)...... hahaha we could not help but bust up laughing as we hurried to call him and clarify that we had thought "gospel blesses families" would be a good talk option... hahaha
annnyways...
first off ANGIE IS GETTING BAPTIZED TONIGHT!!!! woohooo! It's "gonna be the best day of our liiiiiives" 🎶
This week was so fun! Halloween was p-day so we got to go and play with the sisters from our zone and carved pumpkins and played basketball and chatted. It was so fun to see all of them! Sister Kovacs (one of the sister training leaders) is at the end of her 18 months so it was also kindof a goodbye party for her. :( major sad face because she is one of my all time favorite people in the whole world. So we took a "death" picture and the other sister training leader (sister lyons, one of the most hilarious people ever) put pumpkin guts all over her! It was so funny! then we went and saw our sweet member friend sister Schaubhuth (thank you mum and diddy for the package you sent back to NC with her by the way! I LOVE that shirt!!! "adventure is out there!!" ) While we were sitting on her porch a lady came up and said, " oh it's the sisters!" We were all shocked cause she didn't look familiar at all, but she ended up being a less active(Elizabeth Farnsworth) that our ward does not have the records of yet so we are going to go find her house:)
Tuesday we had a super cool opportunity to have a mission Conference with elder Randall K. Bennett (which is sometimes referred to as general conference for missionaries;)
It was the most amazing thing ever! He talked about how to develop a "how can I help?" attitude to hasten the work of the kingdom! It was so cool! He talked about how missionaries are great hopers!! we invite invite invite and followup most of the time, but we are missing a huuuge part of the purpose which is to help them keep the commitments we extend to them! it was really eye opening! and gave us some great ideas of things we can do to repent, change, and improve
The spirit in this meeting was so strong you could almost reach out and touch it! It was incredible.
one of the other things he talked about is "finding the elect" and realizing that we have no idea who is choosing to be elect or who might possibly choose to be elect later, but he gave us some things to look for that might be good indicators. So on Wednesday we went for the first appointment with the Harris family! We found them looking for a headquarter referral that lived on their street but wasn't home. As we talked with them that first lesson sister black and I were absolutely squealing on the inside!! This family is showing every single sign that Elder Bennett talked about. They are seekers of truth, they huger for learning, they are open to new ideas, but sort through what information they'll actually store, ya know? oh my goodness it was so cool!
Funny story we ate dinner this week with a couple... both of who are recent converts in our ward.. that are divorced (from each other) (years ago), but still best friends... It was so funny, it was like chaperoning a date! but I hope they get remarried!! haha anyway.
This week was so good and I am so thankful for the chance I have to serve a mission! I grow more and more every day and get to watch others do the same! I love the gospel so much and there is no greater joy in all the world than the opportunity to share the gospel. I can't imagine the joy that parents feel as they strive to daily share the gospel with their families and I am so thankful for my parents and the wonderful job that they do and did when I was young! They are the biggest influences and my biggest fans And I could not be more thankful to be "born of goodly parents" ;)
Love you all so so much!
Have a wonderful week y'all!
Sister Katelyn Hall
we have a new ward mission leader! Great man, Brother Putheri: from India (best food ever!) that picture of the extravagant one year old's birthday party? yeah that was him and his wife and their adorable little boy Aadvik. So the first coordination meeting with him was on Thursday and we drop the "hello welcome to your calling! Ready to plan a baptism???" It was so fun he did a really good job and was so on top of things. Within two days everyone we hoped to participate had been contacted and had confirmed! It was so fast! He sent us a quick version of what the program would be like and as we were reading through we read : sister Stair: short talk (Gospel vs Families)...... hahaha we could not help but bust up laughing as we hurried to call him and clarify that we had thought "gospel blesses families" would be a good talk option... hahaha
annnyways...
first off ANGIE IS GETTING BAPTIZED TONIGHT!!!! woohooo! It's "gonna be the best day of our liiiiiives" 🎶
This week was so fun! Halloween was p-day so we got to go and play with the sisters from our zone and carved pumpkins and played basketball and chatted. It was so fun to see all of them! Sister Kovacs (one of the sister training leaders) is at the end of her 18 months so it was also kindof a goodbye party for her. :( major sad face because she is one of my all time favorite people in the whole world. So we took a "death" picture and the other sister training leader (sister lyons, one of the most hilarious people ever) put pumpkin guts all over her! It was so funny! then we went and saw our sweet member friend sister Schaubhuth (thank you mum and diddy for the package you sent back to NC with her by the way! I LOVE that shirt!!! "adventure is out there!!" ) While we were sitting on her porch a lady came up and said, " oh it's the sisters!" We were all shocked cause she didn't look familiar at all, but she ended up being a less active(Elizabeth Farnsworth) that our ward does not have the records of yet so we are going to go find her house:)
Tuesday we had a super cool opportunity to have a mission Conference with elder Randall K. Bennett (which is sometimes referred to as general conference for missionaries;)
It was the most amazing thing ever! He talked about how to develop a "how can I help?" attitude to hasten the work of the kingdom! It was so cool! He talked about how missionaries are great hopers!! we invite invite invite and followup most of the time, but we are missing a huuuge part of the purpose which is to help them keep the commitments we extend to them! it was really eye opening! and gave us some great ideas of things we can do to repent, change, and improve
The spirit in this meeting was so strong you could almost reach out and touch it! It was incredible.
one of the other things he talked about is "finding the elect" and realizing that we have no idea who is choosing to be elect or who might possibly choose to be elect later, but he gave us some things to look for that might be good indicators. So on Wednesday we went for the first appointment with the Harris family! We found them looking for a headquarter referral that lived on their street but wasn't home. As we talked with them that first lesson sister black and I were absolutely squealing on the inside!! This family is showing every single sign that Elder Bennett talked about. They are seekers of truth, they huger for learning, they are open to new ideas, but sort through what information they'll actually store, ya know? oh my goodness it was so cool!
Funny story we ate dinner this week with a couple... both of who are recent converts in our ward.. that are divorced (from each other) (years ago), but still best friends... It was so funny, it was like chaperoning a date! but I hope they get remarried!! haha anyway.
This week was so good and I am so thankful for the chance I have to serve a mission! I grow more and more every day and get to watch others do the same! I love the gospel so much and there is no greater joy in all the world than the opportunity to share the gospel. I can't imagine the joy that parents feel as they strive to daily share the gospel with their families and I am so thankful for my parents and the wonderful job that they do and did when I was young! They are the biggest influences and my biggest fans And I could not be more thankful to be "born of goodly parents" ;)
Love you all so so much!
Have a wonderful week y'all!
Sister Katelyn Hall
oct 24: part of the email i forwarded to emma hinckley and harrison haslam
The best thing this week is that we had half of the service time that we'd scheduled all the sudden open up on saturday so we were like okay now what.. because it was hurricane cleanup so we thought we wouldn't need a backup for it.... but crazy thing and then we did and I wasn't quite ready to change back into a skirt yet honestly haha so we went to this members house and were like... um hi ca we serve you (they just moved here from utah couple months ago and the dad was like yes! Oh perfect yes we can put you to work! I am so overwhelmed right now! turned out that the movers had finally brought the rest of their stuff from storage (it was there while they finished looking for a house) and they hadn't been able to start unpacking at all yet, and it was so much they didn't know where to begin! It was so cool to realize that the thought to go see the williams had been a prompting!
yep hahaha! I absolutely love it! I've been in this ward since june 1st! at this point, there's very few active members I don't know very well ;) haha and we've got some greeat less active families that we are working with (one family that was also a partmember came to conference!!!) it's been so much time to build relationships of trust that we are getting so many nimrs!! It is so cool! We have spanish elders too and one of them has been here as long as I have so everyone loooooves the missionaries because they know us so well! haha it's so fun! Oh myy goodness!!! I love UNC! how fun is that!? That means NCS and Duke are relatively close too right?! man That would be so fun to be there in march when everyones going crazy for the NCAA tournament haha but also super distracting.... Good thing i;m over here haha oh that is a huge blessing about being in the middle of nowhere! haha there not a separate YSA ward here so we get to work with them all the time! One of them just opened her mission call last night and is going to Guatemala!! In the exact city spencer and I did the humanitarian trip!
imagine my shock when she opened her call and it said Quetzatenango Guatemala! hahah SOOO COOL!!
yep hahaha! I absolutely love it! I've been in this ward since june 1st! at this point, there's very few active members I don't know very well ;) haha and we've got some greeat less active families that we are working with (one family that was also a partmember came to conference!!!) it's been so much time to build relationships of trust that we are getting so many nimrs!! It is so cool! We have spanish elders too and one of them has been here as long as I have so everyone loooooves the missionaries because they know us so well! haha it's so fun! Oh myy goodness!!! I love UNC! how fun is that!? That means NCS and Duke are relatively close too right?! man That would be so fun to be there in march when everyones going crazy for the NCAA tournament haha but also super distracting.... Good thing i;m over here haha oh that is a huge blessing about being in the middle of nowhere! haha there not a separate YSA ward here so we get to work with them all the time! One of them just opened her mission call last night and is going to Guatemala!! In the exact city spencer and I did the humanitarian trip!
imagine my shock when she opened her call and it said Quetzatenango Guatemala! hahah SOOO COOL!!
Oct 10: LAKE BLALL AND A SLEEPOVER
Quote of this Week:
"Why is Jesus important?" "Because he has the miracle powers!!" Gianna Boyd
"When Matthew is over we'll brace ourselves for Mark, Luke and John" - elders Free and Whipperman
What I relearned this week:
It is all real.
I always knew this was all true. but Saturday morning we had an appointment and ended up at the wrong house.. to paint you a picture, let me explain... at this point it is raining and the wind is 75 miles per hour, it is just before our zone was "grounded" (or sent to our safe house, for protection from the hurricane) so the weather was perty crazay, and we are having this lesson with this cute gal named tiffany on her porch. We started talking about the restoration of the gospel and began describing Joseph Smith.. pause again sorry: When sharing the experience of the first vision with someone, the spirit is there. everytime. without fail. it just is. but this time, when we asked her to look at the picture and then I read, slowly, the experience of Joseph Smith in his own words.. with the wind and rain and all the mess all around
"I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!"
The feeling I felt right at that moment.. in the midst of a hurricane was profound. It is real. Joseph Smith saw our Heavenly Father. He Saw Jesus Christ. They called him by name. They know each and every single one of us... by name. Our Heavenly Father loves me personally as His daughter, He loves each and every one of us His children with an individual and perfect love. I know He does and He has created a plan that enables us to return to live with Him forever. That plan is made possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Because of this, Jesus Christ knows the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. No matter where we fall on the scale he has felt exactly that. He suffered for each of us individually and has a love for each of us individually because he knows us perfectly. Because He knows us perfectly, He knows exactly how to help us. How to help us overcome our fallen state of sorrow, sin, and death, and How to help us become our perfect state, like our Heavenly Father. We have a great potential.
I can't think of a time when I've felt the Holy Ghost testify of anything so strong. It was an answer to a prayer to feel that reassurance that day. I know Heavenly Father hears our prayers even if they are not answered in quite the way we thought they'd be. God knows perfectly and His answer is always always always better.
What's up in Wilson:
we got a little wet this week! i was a little wrong last week: Wilson got a good amount of water from Mr. Matthew the Hurricane. we had a new lake in our back yard! Sister Black and I decided we'd name it lake Blall...... wont tell ya how we came up with that one... haha ;) Definitely an experience to remember! We got to go have a sleepover at the Maltba's house ( a cute couple in our ward ) so We had tons of fun, watched meet the mormons saturday night and did some little games, and then watched the priesthood session of conference sunday, which wow president Uchtdorf's talk was sooo good! I loved it! And i especially loved the way he pronounced ammonihah. I love listening to him speak! He speaks with such power! for those who didn't watch, He talked about how amulek had a mighty change of heart and it was a great encouragement to me in that it's never too late to try to be better. or it's never too late to become an "amulek." He was one of the greatest missionaries of all time and someone I really look up to. He followed the spirit, he was obedient, he was hard working, and he refused to give up.
Mission tour:
well our mission tour has been postponed due to the fact that some missionaries can't actually travel to their church buildings, but we are super excited because elder Randall K. Bennett (of the quorum of the seventy) is coming when we do have it! He's got this cute turtle story in the friend about how one day he lost his pet turtle while playing outside so he prayed to find it... but never did, eventually his mom offered to buy him a new one so she went back to the store, but all the turtles were gone! When she asked someone about it they told her that all the turtles (including the one he'd originally had, had been diagnosed with a disease that was near deadly for humans! Elder Bennett realized that his prayer truly had been answered even though it's not how he thought it would be.
"Why is Jesus important?" "Because he has the miracle powers!!" Gianna Boyd
"When Matthew is over we'll brace ourselves for Mark, Luke and John" - elders Free and Whipperman
What I relearned this week:
It is all real.
I always knew this was all true. but Saturday morning we had an appointment and ended up at the wrong house.. to paint you a picture, let me explain... at this point it is raining and the wind is 75 miles per hour, it is just before our zone was "grounded" (or sent to our safe house, for protection from the hurricane) so the weather was perty crazay, and we are having this lesson with this cute gal named tiffany on her porch. We started talking about the restoration of the gospel and began describing Joseph Smith.. pause again sorry: When sharing the experience of the first vision with someone, the spirit is there. everytime. without fail. it just is. but this time, when we asked her to look at the picture and then I read, slowly, the experience of Joseph Smith in his own words.. with the wind and rain and all the mess all around
"I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!"
The feeling I felt right at that moment.. in the midst of a hurricane was profound. It is real. Joseph Smith saw our Heavenly Father. He Saw Jesus Christ. They called him by name. They know each and every single one of us... by name. Our Heavenly Father loves me personally as His daughter, He loves each and every one of us His children with an individual and perfect love. I know He does and He has created a plan that enables us to return to live with Him forever. That plan is made possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Because of this, Jesus Christ knows the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. No matter where we fall on the scale he has felt exactly that. He suffered for each of us individually and has a love for each of us individually because he knows us perfectly. Because He knows us perfectly, He knows exactly how to help us. How to help us overcome our fallen state of sorrow, sin, and death, and How to help us become our perfect state, like our Heavenly Father. We have a great potential.
I can't think of a time when I've felt the Holy Ghost testify of anything so strong. It was an answer to a prayer to feel that reassurance that day. I know Heavenly Father hears our prayers even if they are not answered in quite the way we thought they'd be. God knows perfectly and His answer is always always always better.
What's up in Wilson:
we got a little wet this week! i was a little wrong last week: Wilson got a good amount of water from Mr. Matthew the Hurricane. we had a new lake in our back yard! Sister Black and I decided we'd name it lake Blall...... wont tell ya how we came up with that one... haha ;) Definitely an experience to remember! We got to go have a sleepover at the Maltba's house ( a cute couple in our ward ) so We had tons of fun, watched meet the mormons saturday night and did some little games, and then watched the priesthood session of conference sunday, which wow president Uchtdorf's talk was sooo good! I loved it! And i especially loved the way he pronounced ammonihah. I love listening to him speak! He speaks with such power! for those who didn't watch, He talked about how amulek had a mighty change of heart and it was a great encouragement to me in that it's never too late to try to be better. or it's never too late to become an "amulek." He was one of the greatest missionaries of all time and someone I really look up to. He followed the spirit, he was obedient, he was hard working, and he refused to give up.
Mission tour:
well our mission tour has been postponed due to the fact that some missionaries can't actually travel to their church buildings, but we are super excited because elder Randall K. Bennett (of the quorum of the seventy) is coming when we do have it! He's got this cute turtle story in the friend about how one day he lost his pet turtle while playing outside so he prayed to find it... but never did, eventually his mom offered to buy him a new one so she went back to the store, but all the turtles were gone! When she asked someone about it they told her that all the turtles (including the one he'd originally had, had been diagnosed with a disease that was near deadly for humans! Elder Bennett realized that his prayer truly had been answered even though it's not how he thought it would be.
oct 3: POTATOES COME FROM FRENCH FRIES
Quote of this week: "I should dip my potatoes in the Ketchup too I bet that would taste good because potatoes are made from french fries" ~ Ava Grey Bennet ( 7 years old)
What I learned this week: On Thursday we were talking to this guy named John Small. He's basically lost everything and is at ground zero. Reminds me of the quote from my all time favorite movie the ultimate gift "I've lost everything two or three times and believe me: it's the perfect place to start!" We were introducing the Book of Mormon to him and started showing and discussing the pictures in the front, we opened to the one of Moroni and started talking about the look on his face. In the picture he is praying over the Book of Mormon just before burying it and you can see in the face how significant this record is to him, how much he truly wants it to be preserved. John stopped for a second and then said. " wow so it's because of this guy that I can read this book?" it took us aback for a second, but yeah... this man literally watched his nation, his people, be destroyed. All while knowing exactly what would save them, and watching them reject it over and over until they "dwindled in unbelief" He knew these words would lead to salvation. john just kept looking at the picture and after a second said "wow, thanks man." He said it so seriously, it was like he was standing face to face with Moroni... and before even having read any of the book, john knew that it was a treasure and appreciated the efforts Moroni went through to get it. It was one of the coolest moments because we could feel the power of the Book of Mormon in the conversation without even reading a single word. I will forever be grateful for John and the realization that came from his comment of Moroni's portrayal of love for each and every one of us in the Latter days. The book is true! and it will lead us safely home, just as the Liahona, if we will follow it's teachings.
What's up in Wilson: first off transfer calls were on saturday and guess what?! Sister Hall gets to go round four in Wilson! YAY! Also the weather is officially cooling down and it feels sooo good! Apparently there's a hurricane coming our direction? So exciting! I'm in the most inland part of our mission so there's approximately a 0% chance we'll be affected too much other than a good rain storm. But I LOVE the rain here so I am so excited! It doesn't rain the same here... the rain drops are like the size of my fist! Okay, that's an exaggeration, but it truly takes all of only two minutes to be completely soaked to the skin! It is the funnest thing!
The Williams are a family that just moved here from Utah. Hannah Williams was 5 weeks away from having her baby when they moved!! but he(baby ezra) is almost three weeks old now and theee cutest little thing you ever saw! They have three other kids and she does our meal calendar so we are getting pretty close with them. I instantly just loved them! they have the familiar "utah" flow and accent.. yes I didn't realize really pre-mission but that's totally a thing. We just helped them move into their new house and it is so pretty! I am super excited for them to get settled, they've been living in a sweet little trailer since the moved out here. I brought over some of the conference goodies and the fruitloop necklace stuff and they loved it! Their kids are adorable! I'll have to send a pic sometime.
Conference!! We've been working with a member named Rachel who joined the church when she lived in New York, than she moved here and just never really came. She totally knows it's true though! Her husband has a legitimate fear of churches and people (He's been to some of the "talking in tongue" churches so prevalent here in the south and he felt really uncomfortable) But We invited them to come to conference Saturday night and Sunday morning She, and her husband Billy and their two sons came! Luckily the Bishop was there and he was able to talk to the boys about scouting, which they've been considering, and they want to come to mutual this week! YAY! Sylvia also came to 3 of the 4 sessions, and the bailey kids came to one of them too! There was a huge emphasis on missionary work! And each of the saturday talks was directly focused on one of the First three lessons that we teach as missionaries! It was so cool to see the emphasis on the doctrine of Christ throughout all of conference! Living the principles and the ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way for our brothers and sister here on earth to make it back to live with our Heavenly Father and older Brother Jesus Christ again. We have a great gift of knowledge so do not be afraid to share it with the world!! :) Challenge: find an opportunity to share the gospel this week and let me know how it goes!!:)
Mucho love, Sister Hall
What I learned this week: On Thursday we were talking to this guy named John Small. He's basically lost everything and is at ground zero. Reminds me of the quote from my all time favorite movie the ultimate gift "I've lost everything two or three times and believe me: it's the perfect place to start!" We were introducing the Book of Mormon to him and started showing and discussing the pictures in the front, we opened to the one of Moroni and started talking about the look on his face. In the picture he is praying over the Book of Mormon just before burying it and you can see in the face how significant this record is to him, how much he truly wants it to be preserved. John stopped for a second and then said. " wow so it's because of this guy that I can read this book?" it took us aback for a second, but yeah... this man literally watched his nation, his people, be destroyed. All while knowing exactly what would save them, and watching them reject it over and over until they "dwindled in unbelief" He knew these words would lead to salvation. john just kept looking at the picture and after a second said "wow, thanks man." He said it so seriously, it was like he was standing face to face with Moroni... and before even having read any of the book, john knew that it was a treasure and appreciated the efforts Moroni went through to get it. It was one of the coolest moments because we could feel the power of the Book of Mormon in the conversation without even reading a single word. I will forever be grateful for John and the realization that came from his comment of Moroni's portrayal of love for each and every one of us in the Latter days. The book is true! and it will lead us safely home, just as the Liahona, if we will follow it's teachings.
What's up in Wilson: first off transfer calls were on saturday and guess what?! Sister Hall gets to go round four in Wilson! YAY! Also the weather is officially cooling down and it feels sooo good! Apparently there's a hurricane coming our direction? So exciting! I'm in the most inland part of our mission so there's approximately a 0% chance we'll be affected too much other than a good rain storm. But I LOVE the rain here so I am so excited! It doesn't rain the same here... the rain drops are like the size of my fist! Okay, that's an exaggeration, but it truly takes all of only two minutes to be completely soaked to the skin! It is the funnest thing!
The Williams are a family that just moved here from Utah. Hannah Williams was 5 weeks away from having her baby when they moved!! but he(baby ezra) is almost three weeks old now and theee cutest little thing you ever saw! They have three other kids and she does our meal calendar so we are getting pretty close with them. I instantly just loved them! they have the familiar "utah" flow and accent.. yes I didn't realize really pre-mission but that's totally a thing. We just helped them move into their new house and it is so pretty! I am super excited for them to get settled, they've been living in a sweet little trailer since the moved out here. I brought over some of the conference goodies and the fruitloop necklace stuff and they loved it! Their kids are adorable! I'll have to send a pic sometime.
Conference!! We've been working with a member named Rachel who joined the church when she lived in New York, than she moved here and just never really came. She totally knows it's true though! Her husband has a legitimate fear of churches and people (He's been to some of the "talking in tongue" churches so prevalent here in the south and he felt really uncomfortable) But We invited them to come to conference Saturday night and Sunday morning She, and her husband Billy and their two sons came! Luckily the Bishop was there and he was able to talk to the boys about scouting, which they've been considering, and they want to come to mutual this week! YAY! Sylvia also came to 3 of the 4 sessions, and the bailey kids came to one of them too! There was a huge emphasis on missionary work! And each of the saturday talks was directly focused on one of the First three lessons that we teach as missionaries! It was so cool to see the emphasis on the doctrine of Christ throughout all of conference! Living the principles and the ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way for our brothers and sister here on earth to make it back to live with our Heavenly Father and older Brother Jesus Christ again. We have a great gift of knowledge so do not be afraid to share it with the world!! :) Challenge: find an opportunity to share the gospel this week and let me know how it goes!!:)
Mucho love, Sister Hall
sep 26: THAT AWKWARD MOMENT WHEN...
That awkward moment when your mission president comes three hours to come to your baptism.... and your baptism was postponed.......... yep that happened.. hahaha we actually had zone conference so he was headed down anyway for Thursday morning, but they decided they would try to come earlier the night before to come because sister Black and I had both talked about him in our letters to the president. how cool that he was willing to come, right! Oh I love me mission president so much! His wife too, she is the epitome of adorable and the sweetest thing you'll ever meet! I was sitting next the the AC in the zone conference meeting and the elders always blast it because they're all wearing suit jackets which is normally 100% okay with me because I loove the ac! but I was teetering on the edge of a cold and unfortunately the next day I was out! We called sister Weed, the mission president's wife, because sister steadmen the mission nurse was out of town (we have to report if we are taking a "sick day":) and she goes "Oh dear! I knew that would happen with that AC blowing on you all during Zone conference! I am so sorry! We should have moved you or something!" oh it was adorable! she is just too sweet. President Weed and his wife are so wonderful! Like parents away from home! No worries momma I am very well taken care of!
Well we picked up a new investigator this week! Her name is sister Sylvia moore and she is absolutely golden! We first taught her tuesday and she's already had 3 lessons (another tonight), she's come to church, and she's read the first at least six chapter of the Book of mormon! Shes this little 50 or 60 something year old black lady with super short hair, a little cane and two adult sons with incredible manners! (we met them the other day) and she is just struggin right now, but as we were trying to explain the holy ghost we said well how do you feel when we are here? and she said well I feel really good... I don't feel all the overload in my mind.. I feel good. In fact I just get so excited when y'all are about to come over! I just want to jump up and get going! and i realized she is standing there at the door waiting for us every single time we pull up! It is so special! She can feel it! She can tell there's something more! It's incredible. We don't have a baptismal date with her yet but she is interested in getting baptized.
We did set a new date with angie (it's october 8th) and this time its real... you can tell in her eyes... also transfers is the wednesday before so I hope hope hope God needs me here one more transfer so I can be there to witness this:) We unfortunately do not have another date scheduled for Timoni so pray we can catch up with him.. it's been a week since we were able to see him! :(
Everyone talks about the "Character of Christ" By Elder David A. Bednar, a video of a Missionary Training Center Devotional given a couple years ago. It is the greatest thing I have ever watched in my life. not even exaggerating because it was in the MTC, it's not available to "the outside world" just those in the MTC, BUT I just found out he gave a very similar talk at a byu devotional so if you do nothing else today look up that talk!:) and watch the video if you can because it is incredible to hear as well
Heavenly Father's love for each of us, as his children, is unconditional. That means without condition. that means nothing we can do will change that love... or make it decrease. You are never out of reach of that love.
Well we picked up a new investigator this week! Her name is sister Sylvia moore and she is absolutely golden! We first taught her tuesday and she's already had 3 lessons (another tonight), she's come to church, and she's read the first at least six chapter of the Book of mormon! Shes this little 50 or 60 something year old black lady with super short hair, a little cane and two adult sons with incredible manners! (we met them the other day) and she is just struggin right now, but as we were trying to explain the holy ghost we said well how do you feel when we are here? and she said well I feel really good... I don't feel all the overload in my mind.. I feel good. In fact I just get so excited when y'all are about to come over! I just want to jump up and get going! and i realized she is standing there at the door waiting for us every single time we pull up! It is so special! She can feel it! She can tell there's something more! It's incredible. We don't have a baptismal date with her yet but she is interested in getting baptized.
We did set a new date with angie (it's october 8th) and this time its real... you can tell in her eyes... also transfers is the wednesday before so I hope hope hope God needs me here one more transfer so I can be there to witness this:) We unfortunately do not have another date scheduled for Timoni so pray we can catch up with him.. it's been a week since we were able to see him! :(
Everyone talks about the "Character of Christ" By Elder David A. Bednar, a video of a Missionary Training Center Devotional given a couple years ago. It is the greatest thing I have ever watched in my life. not even exaggerating because it was in the MTC, it's not available to "the outside world" just those in the MTC, BUT I just found out he gave a very similar talk at a byu devotional so if you do nothing else today look up that talk!:) and watch the video if you can because it is incredible to hear as well
Heavenly Father's love for each of us, as his children, is unconditional. That means without condition. that means nothing we can do will change that love... or make it decrease. You are never out of reach of that love.
sep 26: UPDATE OF WILSON TO SISTER ASHTON
Sister Ashton was Katelyn's first companion, and she was transferred to a new area, so this is a copy of the email Katelyn sent to her to update her on the progress of people they had worked with there in Wilson.
Sister Ashton. this is Wilson in a nutshell since you left:
angie did not show up for her baptism interview!!! It was the most stressful thing ever! she struggled for a couple weeks, but we have officially rescheduled her baptism.. it is now october 8... the saturday after transfers so hopefully I don't get moved:)
Timoni (The boy with the whaley's) got permission to be taught, we started teaching him and he had all the lessons within two weeks, aced his baptism interview;) and then two days before he lost permission from his dad to be baptized:( The family is going through some internal struggles and sister Whaley said her guess is when that dies down, he will have permission to be baptized
We are getting NIMRs like CRAZY! Yazmin olvera referred her friend Justin (the one that went to stk conference) and he's taking the lessons Sister Bailey's kids are now taking the discussions. we've scheduled a lesson with the pennell kids tonight! (Pray that it works out!)_ they are so sweet and I am really hoping to be able to work with them, apparently her son benjamin had taken all the discussions and was preparing to be baptized, but their house caught on fire so they moved short notice and hadn't been too involved in church since then.
you will be sad to know the roommate of sister tant in the nursing home, you remember her? she passed away this last week. poor thing! but I started thinking about the "perfect recollection" comment you made about how our minds will be perfect and we'll remember everything (in reference to never forgetting peoples names in heaven;) but I couldn't help but just be so happy for her, because now she'll have a memory again, ya know?
we are teaching a muslim girl, her name is Ky!!! it has been the coolest experience, we don't know how far we will get with her yet, but we are willing to work sooo hard! We really like her!
David has a baptism date!!! It is scheduled for november 5. He is having a really hard time with the word of wisdom still but we got him an addiction recovery book and we are going to start working with him in that:)
Kayla totally clicked with my new companion sister black, they have a really special connection because of some similar childhood experiences, and Kayla actually said she'll come to church! It was a couple weeks ago and she still hasn't come, but she's getting there! Slowly but surely!
we haven't been able to meet up with Bianca and Kim at all this transfer! Their work schedules are so crazy but we are trying again tonight! :)
We've also had alot of success with Headquarters referrals lately down here in wilson! Sylvia moore is an investigator we picked up about two weeks ago and she's already come to church twice, the womens session of general conference, read through all of first nephi and well into second nephi, AND has a BAPTISM date for october 15th so thats super exciting! Another man had apparently been looking into the church for a long time, through a member he was dating and has already read the entire book of mormon. Sister black was askin all these questions like do you want to go to church? do you want to meet with us again? I just stopped after a second and go.. wait are you interested in officially joining the church? He's all I think so.... well not like tonight, but yeah I think i want to do that! haha we replied " oh of course you dont' have to tonight!! haha it was so awesome! that just barely happened so we'll see how that goes but super excited right!?!
anyway i hope you are loving your new area, sister ashton!! tell sister Clarke Hi for me! :))
Sister Ashton. this is Wilson in a nutshell since you left:
angie did not show up for her baptism interview!!! It was the most stressful thing ever! she struggled for a couple weeks, but we have officially rescheduled her baptism.. it is now october 8... the saturday after transfers so hopefully I don't get moved:)
Timoni (The boy with the whaley's) got permission to be taught, we started teaching him and he had all the lessons within two weeks, aced his baptism interview;) and then two days before he lost permission from his dad to be baptized:( The family is going through some internal struggles and sister Whaley said her guess is when that dies down, he will have permission to be baptized
We are getting NIMRs like CRAZY! Yazmin olvera referred her friend Justin (the one that went to stk conference) and he's taking the lessons Sister Bailey's kids are now taking the discussions. we've scheduled a lesson with the pennell kids tonight! (Pray that it works out!)_ they are so sweet and I am really hoping to be able to work with them, apparently her son benjamin had taken all the discussions and was preparing to be baptized, but their house caught on fire so they moved short notice and hadn't been too involved in church since then.
you will be sad to know the roommate of sister tant in the nursing home, you remember her? she passed away this last week. poor thing! but I started thinking about the "perfect recollection" comment you made about how our minds will be perfect and we'll remember everything (in reference to never forgetting peoples names in heaven;) but I couldn't help but just be so happy for her, because now she'll have a memory again, ya know?
we are teaching a muslim girl, her name is Ky!!! it has been the coolest experience, we don't know how far we will get with her yet, but we are willing to work sooo hard! We really like her!
David has a baptism date!!! It is scheduled for november 5. He is having a really hard time with the word of wisdom still but we got him an addiction recovery book and we are going to start working with him in that:)
Kayla totally clicked with my new companion sister black, they have a really special connection because of some similar childhood experiences, and Kayla actually said she'll come to church! It was a couple weeks ago and she still hasn't come, but she's getting there! Slowly but surely!
we haven't been able to meet up with Bianca and Kim at all this transfer! Their work schedules are so crazy but we are trying again tonight! :)
We've also had alot of success with Headquarters referrals lately down here in wilson! Sylvia moore is an investigator we picked up about two weeks ago and she's already come to church twice, the womens session of general conference, read through all of first nephi and well into second nephi, AND has a BAPTISM date for october 15th so thats super exciting! Another man had apparently been looking into the church for a long time, through a member he was dating and has already read the entire book of mormon. Sister black was askin all these questions like do you want to go to church? do you want to meet with us again? I just stopped after a second and go.. wait are you interested in officially joining the church? He's all I think so.... well not like tonight, but yeah I think i want to do that! haha we replied " oh of course you dont' have to tonight!! haha it was so awesome! that just barely happened so we'll see how that goes but super excited right!?!
anyway i hope you are loving your new area, sister ashton!! tell sister Clarke Hi for me! :))
aug 1: DEATH BY ELDERS REFERRALS
heeyyyyllo!
So in summary, the Duncan family just moved:( we had a mini missionary this week, and the Boyd family (our ward mission leader) they are doing this deep study of the new testament with their two girls and are putting what they learn on a blog and the insights they share with us are SO COOL! Go check it out:) (link doesn't work) in a talk yesterday, the wife in a recently returned couple from a family history mission ... (wow grammar there haha did you get that?) said something that struck my little heart! she said: "I left on this mission thinking the Atonement applied to everyone in the world... but me. However, I come home now knowing, the Atonement includes me too." I've been there. I know what it's like to feel that. Satan works so hard to make us feel that we are not good enough, not significant enough or not loved enough for the atonement to work completely.. on us. The atonement was infinite. It covered everything. If it didn't, then Christ would not have descended bellow all things and therefore the process would mean nothing. It wouldn't have worked. I truly believe Satan's greatest tool is feelings of inadequacy. But no matter what God loves you. You are His child. He created you, He knows exactly how you feel because you are his child. Jesus Christ, He loves you. He knows exactly how you feel because He walked every step you're taking now. He will always be there, He will never leave you. "The Atonement was as individual as it was infinite" and it covers YOU. Because of Him, you can return to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and your entire family forever. Isn't it a glorious gift we have to know this?? This week mostly what stood out to me was the family History emphasis throughout the week! Obadiah 1:21 says: And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s. and saviours has a footnote that says family history!! so cool right! There's these little books called myfamily pamphlets and they have a four generation pedigree chart, but also tones of space to write memories or stories of the people you knew! It is so cool to see the spirit of Elijah work in people! If you can somehow find access to these books, fill one out! even kids have fun doing them!:) they are so fun and I wish I had done one before I left so I could show people here! If youre leaving on a mission soon I would definitely suggest that!!! https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2015-07-01-find-take-teach?lang=eng In this video Elder Cook makes a cool promise to all those who participate in family history! see if you can find it;) I know that doing family history strengthens family relationships with both relatives living, and those dead. As you do family history you will receive "divine protection from the other side" and be able to feel loved ones near. We finally got in touch with Anna (investigator) again, we haven't hear from her in weeks! She knows the BOM is true, but she loves her church (common problem in the south) so we have a lesson with her tomorrow night! We still have tons of investigators and multiple part member families we are working with!! Along with that there's two couples we are supporting in their goal of getting to the temple and two recent convert individuals we are encouraging to get to the temple for baptisms for the dead. The Nigerian family is still working with us but the father has yet to sit in on a lesson. and to explain the subject line of this email: soooo basically the Elders in our ward tract a lot because there's not a ton of Spanish investigators right now that they are teaching and sometimes they send us to the craziest places! hahaha and we get lost all the time, our new longstanding line is "death by elders referral" but pretty much almost all our investigators are elders referrals or are people that we met while looking for an elders referral, or we met them through an elders referral so we are very grateful and termed one Saturday in July "Elder appreciation day" so the duncans are this family from the ward that the mom reminds me so much of my mom and they are just so cool! the dad was the previous bishop and they have a daughter on a mission so they love us and we looove them! haha and three of their kids will be at BYU by the time I head back so that's super cool! We helped condense pictures so we took them out of photo albums! Oh my so fun!! and also spencer (My brother) I swear! is in the background of one of their vacation pictures to Nauvoo in 2002!!! small world right?! so cool! Anyway I am so sad to see them leave! They were the first family we did the "Christ like attribute lesson" (the leaders from the BOM, situation, attribute they showed, then apply lesson) with and their reaction was what inspired us to share it with a few more families! Sister Claire McCrea was our 17 yr old mini missionary and she was a blast to have around! One night while getting ready for bed I asked her what do you think makes a good missionary and one of the things she said was optimism. she said "this moment, right now, is not going to last forever. But Heavenly Father, He has a plan for you... and that plan.. that will last forever." That was something I truly needed to hear right then. she was so full of wisdom! we really kept her busy! the first day with her we had seven lessons! and then had a crazy up-close and personal, encounter with a less active and her family... "struggles." so yeah she definitely got the real deal! We did our very best to give her a good, true missionary experience and hopefully she was able to learn as much as we learned from her! there are these insanely pretty pink blossoms EVERYWHERE right now!
Mucho Love, Sister Hall
So in summary, the Duncan family just moved:( we had a mini missionary this week, and the Boyd family (our ward mission leader) they are doing this deep study of the new testament with their two girls and are putting what they learn on a blog and the insights they share with us are SO COOL! Go check it out:) (link doesn't work) in a talk yesterday, the wife in a recently returned couple from a family history mission ... (wow grammar there haha did you get that?) said something that struck my little heart! she said: "I left on this mission thinking the Atonement applied to everyone in the world... but me. However, I come home now knowing, the Atonement includes me too." I've been there. I know what it's like to feel that. Satan works so hard to make us feel that we are not good enough, not significant enough or not loved enough for the atonement to work completely.. on us. The atonement was infinite. It covered everything. If it didn't, then Christ would not have descended bellow all things and therefore the process would mean nothing. It wouldn't have worked. I truly believe Satan's greatest tool is feelings of inadequacy. But no matter what God loves you. You are His child. He created you, He knows exactly how you feel because you are his child. Jesus Christ, He loves you. He knows exactly how you feel because He walked every step you're taking now. He will always be there, He will never leave you. "The Atonement was as individual as it was infinite" and it covers YOU. Because of Him, you can return to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and your entire family forever. Isn't it a glorious gift we have to know this?? This week mostly what stood out to me was the family History emphasis throughout the week! Obadiah 1:21 says: And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s. and saviours has a footnote that says family history!! so cool right! There's these little books called myfamily pamphlets and they have a four generation pedigree chart, but also tones of space to write memories or stories of the people you knew! It is so cool to see the spirit of Elijah work in people! If you can somehow find access to these books, fill one out! even kids have fun doing them!:) they are so fun and I wish I had done one before I left so I could show people here! If youre leaving on a mission soon I would definitely suggest that!!! https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2015-07-01-find-take-teach?lang=eng In this video Elder Cook makes a cool promise to all those who participate in family history! see if you can find it;) I know that doing family history strengthens family relationships with both relatives living, and those dead. As you do family history you will receive "divine protection from the other side" and be able to feel loved ones near. We finally got in touch with Anna (investigator) again, we haven't hear from her in weeks! She knows the BOM is true, but she loves her church (common problem in the south) so we have a lesson with her tomorrow night! We still have tons of investigators and multiple part member families we are working with!! Along with that there's two couples we are supporting in their goal of getting to the temple and two recent convert individuals we are encouraging to get to the temple for baptisms for the dead. The Nigerian family is still working with us but the father has yet to sit in on a lesson. and to explain the subject line of this email: soooo basically the Elders in our ward tract a lot because there's not a ton of Spanish investigators right now that they are teaching and sometimes they send us to the craziest places! hahaha and we get lost all the time, our new longstanding line is "death by elders referral" but pretty much almost all our investigators are elders referrals or are people that we met while looking for an elders referral, or we met them through an elders referral so we are very grateful and termed one Saturday in July "Elder appreciation day" so the duncans are this family from the ward that the mom reminds me so much of my mom and they are just so cool! the dad was the previous bishop and they have a daughter on a mission so they love us and we looove them! haha and three of their kids will be at BYU by the time I head back so that's super cool! We helped condense pictures so we took them out of photo albums! Oh my so fun!! and also spencer (My brother) I swear! is in the background of one of their vacation pictures to Nauvoo in 2002!!! small world right?! so cool! Anyway I am so sad to see them leave! They were the first family we did the "Christ like attribute lesson" (the leaders from the BOM, situation, attribute they showed, then apply lesson) with and their reaction was what inspired us to share it with a few more families! Sister Claire McCrea was our 17 yr old mini missionary and she was a blast to have around! One night while getting ready for bed I asked her what do you think makes a good missionary and one of the things she said was optimism. she said "this moment, right now, is not going to last forever. But Heavenly Father, He has a plan for you... and that plan.. that will last forever." That was something I truly needed to hear right then. she was so full of wisdom! we really kept her busy! the first day with her we had seven lessons! and then had a crazy up-close and personal, encounter with a less active and her family... "struggles." so yeah she definitely got the real deal! We did our very best to give her a good, true missionary experience and hopefully she was able to learn as much as we learned from her! there are these insanely pretty pink blossoms EVERYWHERE right now!
Mucho Love, Sister Hall
jul 25: IT'S NOT THE END
we got to be real life biking missionaries!!!!! and it was an experience let me tell ya! and also I am A'okay with not having that experience again, because it truly is a struggle in a skirt, but it works haha! It really wasn't too bad.... just a little warm.. and humid;) but also lots and lots of fun! and you can talk to so many more people when you're not in a car!! also it was hilarious because the elders we borrowed bike from are super tall so even after lowering the seats we had to use a curb to get onto the bikes. (yeah i thought i was tall.. :) and falling over was synonymous to stopping haha so that's cool. ;) Tomorrow we get to host a mini missionary!! which means someone is trying it out for a week and they get to try it out with us!! :):) woohoooo! It's going to be so fun! we are so excited and I cannot wait to see what I can learn from her! :)
The week before last I didn't get to tell ya, but we were able to have some super powerful lessons with investigators, some less active families and with a member family! all powerful for different reasons, but all focused on becoming better. It was really cool to be a part of! from that experience I decided my new goal=get people to the temple!!! of course the work doesn't end as soon as they are baptized... but after these lessons, I was extra pumped to helping people set their sights on the temple! We have a few couples that we are going to start working with to help them get to the temple and then also a part member family that we are going to start focusing on the dad! I am so excited! this is what missionary work is all about! opening the Celestial door so that people can live with Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and their families forever!! :)
I have come to a realization that I have a slight soap box on repentance... Repentance is wonderful. It's beautiful and we should be doing it all the time! Repentance is about overcoming and becoming. Though overcoming bad choices and behaviors is a glorious part of repentance, it is not all. Repentance is to turn. which involves turning away from some things... and towards other things. Repentance is about both overcoming and becoming. So we decide to try to increase say.. charity.. more in our life... we are repenting because we are turning towards Christ. If we are striving to learn more about an aspect of the gospel.. again we are repenting. Isn't that like the most wonderful thing in the world?!? For me this week, this means, we can have a rough week and because of the atonement, truly start over. Because of Him I can have a clean slate and no matter how inadequate I am, He is always there to magnify the strengths, qualities and attributes we strive so hard to achieve. This gospel truly is beautiful and I am so grateful for the humbling week last week, but also for the chance I have this week to try again. Because of Him, when I sin or mess up.. It's NOT the end. It's a beautiful day to be a missionary!
love sister hall
The week before last I didn't get to tell ya, but we were able to have some super powerful lessons with investigators, some less active families and with a member family! all powerful for different reasons, but all focused on becoming better. It was really cool to be a part of! from that experience I decided my new goal=get people to the temple!!! of course the work doesn't end as soon as they are baptized... but after these lessons, I was extra pumped to helping people set their sights on the temple! We have a few couples that we are going to start working with to help them get to the temple and then also a part member family that we are going to start focusing on the dad! I am so excited! this is what missionary work is all about! opening the Celestial door so that people can live with Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and their families forever!! :)
I have come to a realization that I have a slight soap box on repentance... Repentance is wonderful. It's beautiful and we should be doing it all the time! Repentance is about overcoming and becoming. Though overcoming bad choices and behaviors is a glorious part of repentance, it is not all. Repentance is to turn. which involves turning away from some things... and towards other things. Repentance is about both overcoming and becoming. So we decide to try to increase say.. charity.. more in our life... we are repenting because we are turning towards Christ. If we are striving to learn more about an aspect of the gospel.. again we are repenting. Isn't that like the most wonderful thing in the world?!? For me this week, this means, we can have a rough week and because of the atonement, truly start over. Because of Him I can have a clean slate and no matter how inadequate I am, He is always there to magnify the strengths, qualities and attributes we strive so hard to achieve. This gospel truly is beautiful and I am so grateful for the humbling week last week, but also for the chance I have this week to try again. Because of Him, when I sin or mess up.. It's NOT the end. It's a beautiful day to be a missionary!
love sister hall
JUN 27: THE ROLLER COASTER WEEK
k this week = CRAZYYYYYYYYY
the new mission president arrives today so we get to meet him at the "meet the president" on Friday and interviews will be a couple weeks later:) or maybe the next week... i don't remember haha We also just got a new ward mission leader in the Wilson ward where I'm serving. Brother Whaley was released which was so incredibly sad! I love him and his family so much! They are so cool! He's a convert but learned about the church through his wife(member) got baptized and they gave him this calling shortly after! they've been called as the YSA activities people so they will be so so good at that! they have the cutest family and the funnest, happiest, most social and "wiling to helpful" personalities ever so I was bummed, but the member they called (Brother Boyd) is SO ROCK SOLID AND GUNGHO! It's going to rock! He reminds me of Bryson: point him one direction and he'll take off running!! Guaranteed he was a "consecrated missionary" (read that talk Spencer.. well and family.. and also read the 4th missionary) he and his wife both served a mission (in las vegas... i think that's where they met) which is way cool cause neither of the whaleys did. Their family is so cutE! four kids: Emily, gianna, rowan and Teddy and they are adorable! (oldest 9 youngest 18 months I think) He literally printed out the hanbook and walked us through who has what responsiblities in the ward and how things should and could be going to make our work more effective.. It was awesome!! I am so excited to see where this goes! It's going to be alot of work upfront, but will 1,000% bless the ward and all the future missionaries so GO BROTHER BOYD!! It's going to rock!
looking back at this week: what the just happened?!!?! saturday-monday literally every single appointment we had with anyone that was not a member fell through.... which happens so oh well.. we had to drop two people... kindof a bummer but again, it happens, my heart is just torn out its probably fine. hah no just kidding, it is really hard to have to drop people when they aren't keeping commitments and not progressing, but there ARE people who are ready to receive us, who the Lord has prepared, we just have to find them. well all the sudden tuesday to thrusday there was this EXPLOSION of opportunities! probably the craziest days I've had since being here! FIRST: cammia committed to baptism!! (actually that is kind of a hilarious story in it of itself, but I'll tell that another day or something cause it'll take alot of time) NEXT: I've been praying and praying for families to be able to teach. and this week we found some! A solid one is this family that moved here from nigeria and they have a super strong faith in God and all said they would be baptized if they " came to know the truth of it for themselves" WOOHOOOOOO they are so cool! Now we just gotta get them praying with questions so they can get the witness from the Holy Ghost. They opened that lesson with a prayer of their own in song and it was so beautiful they like started the prayer.. then sang this song in the middle... then did the praise and thank you part.. then ended it... it was so cool, but when we went to leave they were like oh yeah you can say the prayer what song of praise will you sing? so we're like well our songs a little different... but they were down so we sang I'm a child of god and then prayed it was so cool! and the spirit was so strong! anyway they are golden! and they are excited to read the Book of Mormon and we see them again Wednesday so I am really really excited! God is so so good and this week reminded me of the picture with Jesus and the little girl and he's asking her to give Him her little teddy bear saying "do you trust me?" ... she cant see it, but behind Jesus he has this giant teddy bear. ready to hand her, but only after she shows the faith. Christ has so much in store for us, if we will sacrifice little things, he truly will multiply it 100 fold!!
fun events of this week: we had Christmas frosting that was about to expire so we made a "six months till Christmas eve!!!" cake for district meeting last Friday! we started doing acting our scenes from the book of Mormon sometimes when we visit active member homes or investigator homes with younger kids, and it has been SO FUN! also with families with teenagers we've been doing this hero from the BOM activity where everyone thinks of a favorite hero from the book of Mormon, a situation they were in, and then a Christlike attribute they showed... It's been really cool to hear as they share and might make for a fun FHE activity. in the MTC an elder did it with us using a table with three columns (person, situation, attribute) yeah super cool! then you can work on increasing that attribute in your life. Christ is obviously the perfect example of every Christlike attribute, and it is through Him and because of Him that we can, not only overcome our weaknesses, but also increase our strengths he will help you in these endeavors. I may have put this in the last email, but We talked about increasing faith in the zone meeting and I think it applies to all attributes: ASK in prayer for god's help to know how and to be able to increase them, then ACT on the inspiration you recieve, the TRUST that it will work, then LOOK or evaluate as you go to see whats working and what might help more, then THANK the lord for the Guidance and results.
also funny story: we went to meet with this older man Ronnie yesterday and we started teaching and he kinda seemed like he didn't know who we were even though we set up the appointment with him just two days before. well we get done with the lesson and ask if we can come back and have another lesson ad he's like sure, but I don't live here... this is my dads house, but yeah come by! My name is James and this is my address and number...... yeah we realized we taught the wrong guy! hahahahaha ronnie must be James's brother!! hahaha guess we'll come back and teach Ronnie later and now James too... How we didn't realize it earlier I have no idea, but they looked so similar!!! hahaha they much be twins! I'm convinced.
the new mission president arrives today so we get to meet him at the "meet the president" on Friday and interviews will be a couple weeks later:) or maybe the next week... i don't remember haha We also just got a new ward mission leader in the Wilson ward where I'm serving. Brother Whaley was released which was so incredibly sad! I love him and his family so much! They are so cool! He's a convert but learned about the church through his wife(member) got baptized and they gave him this calling shortly after! they've been called as the YSA activities people so they will be so so good at that! they have the cutest family and the funnest, happiest, most social and "wiling to helpful" personalities ever so I was bummed, but the member they called (Brother Boyd) is SO ROCK SOLID AND GUNGHO! It's going to rock! He reminds me of Bryson: point him one direction and he'll take off running!! Guaranteed he was a "consecrated missionary" (read that talk Spencer.. well and family.. and also read the 4th missionary) he and his wife both served a mission (in las vegas... i think that's where they met) which is way cool cause neither of the whaleys did. Their family is so cutE! four kids: Emily, gianna, rowan and Teddy and they are adorable! (oldest 9 youngest 18 months I think) He literally printed out the hanbook and walked us through who has what responsiblities in the ward and how things should and could be going to make our work more effective.. It was awesome!! I am so excited to see where this goes! It's going to be alot of work upfront, but will 1,000% bless the ward and all the future missionaries so GO BROTHER BOYD!! It's going to rock!
looking back at this week: what the just happened?!!?! saturday-monday literally every single appointment we had with anyone that was not a member fell through.... which happens so oh well.. we had to drop two people... kindof a bummer but again, it happens, my heart is just torn out its probably fine. hah no just kidding, it is really hard to have to drop people when they aren't keeping commitments and not progressing, but there ARE people who are ready to receive us, who the Lord has prepared, we just have to find them. well all the sudden tuesday to thrusday there was this EXPLOSION of opportunities! probably the craziest days I've had since being here! FIRST: cammia committed to baptism!! (actually that is kind of a hilarious story in it of itself, but I'll tell that another day or something cause it'll take alot of time) NEXT: I've been praying and praying for families to be able to teach. and this week we found some! A solid one is this family that moved here from nigeria and they have a super strong faith in God and all said they would be baptized if they " came to know the truth of it for themselves" WOOHOOOOOO they are so cool! Now we just gotta get them praying with questions so they can get the witness from the Holy Ghost. They opened that lesson with a prayer of their own in song and it was so beautiful they like started the prayer.. then sang this song in the middle... then did the praise and thank you part.. then ended it... it was so cool, but when we went to leave they were like oh yeah you can say the prayer what song of praise will you sing? so we're like well our songs a little different... but they were down so we sang I'm a child of god and then prayed it was so cool! and the spirit was so strong! anyway they are golden! and they are excited to read the Book of Mormon and we see them again Wednesday so I am really really excited! God is so so good and this week reminded me of the picture with Jesus and the little girl and he's asking her to give Him her little teddy bear saying "do you trust me?" ... she cant see it, but behind Jesus he has this giant teddy bear. ready to hand her, but only after she shows the faith. Christ has so much in store for us, if we will sacrifice little things, he truly will multiply it 100 fold!!
fun events of this week: we had Christmas frosting that was about to expire so we made a "six months till Christmas eve!!!" cake for district meeting last Friday! we started doing acting our scenes from the book of Mormon sometimes when we visit active member homes or investigator homes with younger kids, and it has been SO FUN! also with families with teenagers we've been doing this hero from the BOM activity where everyone thinks of a favorite hero from the book of Mormon, a situation they were in, and then a Christlike attribute they showed... It's been really cool to hear as they share and might make for a fun FHE activity. in the MTC an elder did it with us using a table with three columns (person, situation, attribute) yeah super cool! then you can work on increasing that attribute in your life. Christ is obviously the perfect example of every Christlike attribute, and it is through Him and because of Him that we can, not only overcome our weaknesses, but also increase our strengths he will help you in these endeavors. I may have put this in the last email, but We talked about increasing faith in the zone meeting and I think it applies to all attributes: ASK in prayer for god's help to know how and to be able to increase them, then ACT on the inspiration you recieve, the TRUST that it will work, then LOOK or evaluate as you go to see whats working and what might help more, then THANK the lord for the Guidance and results.
also funny story: we went to meet with this older man Ronnie yesterday and we started teaching and he kinda seemed like he didn't know who we were even though we set up the appointment with him just two days before. well we get done with the lesson and ask if we can come back and have another lesson ad he's like sure, but I don't live here... this is my dads house, but yeah come by! My name is James and this is my address and number...... yeah we realized we taught the wrong guy! hahahahaha ronnie must be James's brother!! hahaha guess we'll come back and teach Ronnie later and now James too... How we didn't realize it earlier I have no idea, but they looked so similar!!! hahaha they much be twins! I'm convinced.
jun 20: ZEBRA MISSIONARIES
hola Hermanas and Hermanos!
Melissa was baptized saturday and confirmed sunday! it was a very special experience and she is so so so happy! She just kept saying over and over I feel so good, so good, so good! The night before we went over and were talking to her about the next day and she bore her testimony to us about the importance of faith and repentance and how grateful she was for the opportunity, especially after how long she's had to wait (She is healing incredibly fast by the way:) She said she was so ready and excited to move forward and take these next steps of baptism and receiving the holy Ghost. It was wonderful to hear her joy and see the light of Christ just radiate from her face as she spoke of her love for God. Guys she is incredible! God wants to be able to shine through each of us, but we must allow him to do so! and when we do miracles happen as other can be strengthened in their faith in God by how we live. Melissa is a great example of this! I am so blessed to know her!!
you can leave this out of the email, but Funny story: she was introduced to the church through her ex-husband ( a recent convert) and they are still super close friends and we asked him to give the talk on the holy ghost at her baptism and it was the coolest thing!! He's kinda quiet so it was really special to hear his testimony and to watch Melissa as he spoke!
Camia Anne (another investigator, daughter of a less active) is on the verge of committing to baptism! She keeps getting swayed by her cousin but we are meeting with her again tonight and she said she wants to talk about baptism! woohooooo!!!
First exchanges were so much fun! a girl that I came out with went home so our sister training leaders are in a trio with her, therefore i got to be in a trio for a day!!! it was a partay and a 1/2! She's also a spanish speaking missionary so the STLs are becoming spanish missionaries (learning the language, getting hermana name tags and everything) so I got to go to some spanish lessons (one of which my testimony had a little mistranslation: Sister coombs accidentally said instead of "knowing that I will live with my loved ones again" That I was happy "knowing that I will see all my 'lovers' again...." so that was the absolute funniest thing ever!! after much effort in setting it straight to make sure the investigator didn't get the wrong idea.... it became the highlight of my day! SO FUNNY)
I guess since this mission is so new, zebra companionships happen all the time (one companion is an english missionary and one is a spanish) so maybe THATS why I was feeling so strongly I would learn spanish! maybe i'll start! we got tons of spanish materials because the ward we are in hear is part english part spanish ward (also maybe thats the reason... haha) but yeah maybe ill start practicing on pdays.
Zone conference was so cool! It was the bakers last time because our new mission president comes one week from today! this made is SO sad but SO special! I love him and his wife so much! they are incredible and I've learned so much from them even though Ive only been with them for a month! I was conducting/chorustering (idk what it's called. ) the song at the zone meeting and the closing song was God be with you till we meet again and it was the most touching thing to watch tears just stream down the faces of these missionaries as we all sang goodbye to president and sister baker. It's a moment I'll always remember. God puts people into our lives for a reason and sometimes they are people we are meant to learn endless amounts from!
I am so stoked for President and sister weed too though! They sound like they are going to be incredible and I already love them!
I know that when We put our trust in god miracles will happen. Only when we align our will with His will can we reach our full potential. I know it is through Christ that reaching our full potential is even possible: without Him, after sin#1 it would all be over. But because of Him: every choice we make matters. every. single. one. When we put our trust in them our "weak things" will be made strong! I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I love God!
Have an absolutely wonderful week and look for somewhere God touched your life love you all!
Melissa was baptized saturday and confirmed sunday! it was a very special experience and she is so so so happy! She just kept saying over and over I feel so good, so good, so good! The night before we went over and were talking to her about the next day and she bore her testimony to us about the importance of faith and repentance and how grateful she was for the opportunity, especially after how long she's had to wait (She is healing incredibly fast by the way:) She said she was so ready and excited to move forward and take these next steps of baptism and receiving the holy Ghost. It was wonderful to hear her joy and see the light of Christ just radiate from her face as she spoke of her love for God. Guys she is incredible! God wants to be able to shine through each of us, but we must allow him to do so! and when we do miracles happen as other can be strengthened in their faith in God by how we live. Melissa is a great example of this! I am so blessed to know her!!
you can leave this out of the email, but Funny story: she was introduced to the church through her ex-husband ( a recent convert) and they are still super close friends and we asked him to give the talk on the holy ghost at her baptism and it was the coolest thing!! He's kinda quiet so it was really special to hear his testimony and to watch Melissa as he spoke!
Camia Anne (another investigator, daughter of a less active) is on the verge of committing to baptism! She keeps getting swayed by her cousin but we are meeting with her again tonight and she said she wants to talk about baptism! woohooooo!!!
First exchanges were so much fun! a girl that I came out with went home so our sister training leaders are in a trio with her, therefore i got to be in a trio for a day!!! it was a partay and a 1/2! She's also a spanish speaking missionary so the STLs are becoming spanish missionaries (learning the language, getting hermana name tags and everything) so I got to go to some spanish lessons (one of which my testimony had a little mistranslation: Sister coombs accidentally said instead of "knowing that I will live with my loved ones again" That I was happy "knowing that I will see all my 'lovers' again...." so that was the absolute funniest thing ever!! after much effort in setting it straight to make sure the investigator didn't get the wrong idea.... it became the highlight of my day! SO FUNNY)
I guess since this mission is so new, zebra companionships happen all the time (one companion is an english missionary and one is a spanish) so maybe THATS why I was feeling so strongly I would learn spanish! maybe i'll start! we got tons of spanish materials because the ward we are in hear is part english part spanish ward (also maybe thats the reason... haha) but yeah maybe ill start practicing on pdays.
Zone conference was so cool! It was the bakers last time because our new mission president comes one week from today! this made is SO sad but SO special! I love him and his wife so much! they are incredible and I've learned so much from them even though Ive only been with them for a month! I was conducting/chorustering (idk what it's called. ) the song at the zone meeting and the closing song was God be with you till we meet again and it was the most touching thing to watch tears just stream down the faces of these missionaries as we all sang goodbye to president and sister baker. It's a moment I'll always remember. God puts people into our lives for a reason and sometimes they are people we are meant to learn endless amounts from!
I am so stoked for President and sister weed too though! They sound like they are going to be incredible and I already love them!
I know that when We put our trust in god miracles will happen. Only when we align our will with His will can we reach our full potential. I know it is through Christ that reaching our full potential is even possible: without Him, after sin#1 it would all be over. But because of Him: every choice we make matters. every. single. one. When we put our trust in them our "weak things" will be made strong! I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I love God!
Have an absolutely wonderful week and look for somewhere God touched your life love you all!
jun 13: praise Him when we win, Praise Him when we lose
It's been incredible to see that God is truly involved in every teeny tiny detail in our lives! I am truly blown away by it all! Mini miracles happen all the time! We'll be reading something with an investigator or even with members and they'll point out something in a scripture that I'd never thought of before, but it's exactly what I need to hear. Hello! I'm supposed to be helping them! but everyday MY faith is strengthened by these incredible people! It's truly remarkable how God can answer our prayers through other people! Even when they don't realize they are being an instrument in the hands of the Lord!
events of this week: last week on monday we accidentally locked ourselves out of our apartment... keys to the car were inside too so we walked to walmart and got groceries and then just "chilled" In the 90º 90% humidity afternoon for three hours till we could get the copy of the keys hahaha.
Wednesday we met this kid who is convinced that he is somehow God. It was the weirdest thing ever in the whole world. The poor kid was probably 18, he was on house arrest so we just talked to him on the porch, I think he has schizophrenia, but we brought this member named laura with us and she's this darling black girl from Liberia who is seriously the sweetest person in the world (plus she does planning for all our dinners with members ((who yeah we get fed at least five/six nights of the week)) so that makes her even sweeter!) but she also can pull out this black girl attitude so he's being all cocky and Laura just put him right in his place and we shared this whole thing and his sisters and mom were all interested and laura just totally broke all these emotional walls down and had them just really expressing themselves To Each Other there'd been all this emotional turmoil between the family members and I couldn't help it, i just started tearing up because the power was so strong, by the time we left, they weren't mad at each other, they had told each other what they really wanted for each other. We gave them some pamphlets and invited them to church (they didn't come) but we'll check back up on them next week!
To God be the glory: to be honest the first week was rough, literally every single appointment but I think 3 fell through the first 3 or 4 days I was here. Without hard work, satan has much more of an influence on us and I was really missing home and my MTC district, who is absolutely incredible by the way! I love them so much!! but the thought came from the movie facing the giants: We got to praise Him when we win, and Praise him when we lose. as I started to remember to thank god and praise him all the time, miracles started happening, just like in the movie!! It's the coolest thing!!
We taught Gospel principles class yesterday and Melissa (one of our investigators that just had surgery, but is other than that totally ready to be baptized) was there along with her ex-husband who she learned about the church through and then us... yeah that was kinda awkward haha anyway. She shared so much and was testifying left and right! at one point she said I can feel the Holy Spirit so strong right now. She broke down into tears and then at the end of the lesson said I would like to get baptized on Saturday if thats okay.. We were like YEAH BUDDY!! We also just started meeting with this sweet girl named angie. She has three little kids (two girls and a boy) and then one teenage son as well and she's been looking for peace in her life. As we introduced the Book of Mormon to her, she accepted the baptismal commitment with the date July 2nd. but didn't come to church and you have to go three times so we'll have to push that back, but so exciting! The spirit of Elijah is real! In this mission we teach plan of salvation, then temples and family history right after and as we did with an investigator named Bayna (who is literally the epitome of the word sweet) she started getting super excited about temple work and how she can be baptized for her mom and committed to be baptized herself July 9th! ... she needs to get married to her fiance of 15 years before that, but we are super stoked to have a date with her!!
I absolutely loved zone meeting! It was wonderful to meet everyone, see my MTC companion (who is in my district!! how lucky am I?!), and hear the inspiring words of our zone leadership. A couple great take-aways were: our mission (and our life) is not simply to be endured, but enjoyed. He ask so much of us because he wants to bless us more! The second this is How can we increase our faith? Ask for it in prayer, Act take a leap of faith, trust in god and His love for us and desire for us to grow and that he will catch us, Look for evidence that its working, and then Thank the lord as you find yourself progressing! It will come!!
the gospel is true! I know that as our faith in Christ increases, we desire to draw nearer to Him and we become more willing to make changes in our lives that help/enable us to come unto Him. when we receive that witness of truth after acting in faith, truly having faith unto repentance or faith unto action as I like to think of it, our testimony increases and we desire to make covenants with god that allow us to draw even closer to our Heavenly Father and older brother Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost guides us in keeping those promises through promptings, warnings, inspiration, etc. As we keep our end of the deal and promises with god, enduring to the end, we will receive eternal life. AND happiness in this life and the life to come:)
events of this week: last week on monday we accidentally locked ourselves out of our apartment... keys to the car were inside too so we walked to walmart and got groceries and then just "chilled" In the 90º 90% humidity afternoon for three hours till we could get the copy of the keys hahaha.
Wednesday we met this kid who is convinced that he is somehow God. It was the weirdest thing ever in the whole world. The poor kid was probably 18, he was on house arrest so we just talked to him on the porch, I think he has schizophrenia, but we brought this member named laura with us and she's this darling black girl from Liberia who is seriously the sweetest person in the world (plus she does planning for all our dinners with members ((who yeah we get fed at least five/six nights of the week)) so that makes her even sweeter!) but she also can pull out this black girl attitude so he's being all cocky and Laura just put him right in his place and we shared this whole thing and his sisters and mom were all interested and laura just totally broke all these emotional walls down and had them just really expressing themselves To Each Other there'd been all this emotional turmoil between the family members and I couldn't help it, i just started tearing up because the power was so strong, by the time we left, they weren't mad at each other, they had told each other what they really wanted for each other. We gave them some pamphlets and invited them to church (they didn't come) but we'll check back up on them next week!
To God be the glory: to be honest the first week was rough, literally every single appointment but I think 3 fell through the first 3 or 4 days I was here. Without hard work, satan has much more of an influence on us and I was really missing home and my MTC district, who is absolutely incredible by the way! I love them so much!! but the thought came from the movie facing the giants: We got to praise Him when we win, and Praise him when we lose. as I started to remember to thank god and praise him all the time, miracles started happening, just like in the movie!! It's the coolest thing!!
We taught Gospel principles class yesterday and Melissa (one of our investigators that just had surgery, but is other than that totally ready to be baptized) was there along with her ex-husband who she learned about the church through and then us... yeah that was kinda awkward haha anyway. She shared so much and was testifying left and right! at one point she said I can feel the Holy Spirit so strong right now. She broke down into tears and then at the end of the lesson said I would like to get baptized on Saturday if thats okay.. We were like YEAH BUDDY!! We also just started meeting with this sweet girl named angie. She has three little kids (two girls and a boy) and then one teenage son as well and she's been looking for peace in her life. As we introduced the Book of Mormon to her, she accepted the baptismal commitment with the date July 2nd. but didn't come to church and you have to go three times so we'll have to push that back, but so exciting! The spirit of Elijah is real! In this mission we teach plan of salvation, then temples and family history right after and as we did with an investigator named Bayna (who is literally the epitome of the word sweet) she started getting super excited about temple work and how she can be baptized for her mom and committed to be baptized herself July 9th! ... she needs to get married to her fiance of 15 years before that, but we are super stoked to have a date with her!!
I absolutely loved zone meeting! It was wonderful to meet everyone, see my MTC companion (who is in my district!! how lucky am I?!), and hear the inspiring words of our zone leadership. A couple great take-aways were: our mission (and our life) is not simply to be endured, but enjoyed. He ask so much of us because he wants to bless us more! The second this is How can we increase our faith? Ask for it in prayer, Act take a leap of faith, trust in god and His love for us and desire for us to grow and that he will catch us, Look for evidence that its working, and then Thank the lord as you find yourself progressing! It will come!!
the gospel is true! I know that as our faith in Christ increases, we desire to draw nearer to Him and we become more willing to make changes in our lives that help/enable us to come unto Him. when we receive that witness of truth after acting in faith, truly having faith unto repentance or faith unto action as I like to think of it, our testimony increases and we desire to make covenants with god that allow us to draw even closer to our Heavenly Father and older brother Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost guides us in keeping those promises through promptings, warnings, inspiration, etc. As we keep our end of the deal and promises with god, enduring to the end, we will receive eternal life. AND happiness in this life and the life to come:)
may 26: SISTER KATELYN HALL
I'm doing pretty good through the entire time here I've slept really well, eaten three meals (full meals:) a day, I'm running a mile every day, and truly enjoying myself! Today I get to go to the temple! So we are actually just about to leave for that but I still have a little bit of email time when I get back so I'll send more later this afternoon. But I really am doing well! God is watching over me! My stress levels are at bay, I am learning a lot and meeting tons of people I have 4 real investigators and four investigators that are teachers that help us understand how to improve.
I am learnin so much, but especially about Charity. I never thought I could love people this much but I truly do! I've only had 3 -4 lessons with each of my real investigators and I already love them so much!! It's crazy how much I want others to have the happiness and peace that I have.. so crazy it probably scares some people, but I love them so much!!! I'll get back to you in a bit! love ya!
I am learnin so much, but especially about Charity. I never thought I could love people this much but I truly do! I've only had 3 -4 lessons with each of my real investigators and I already love them so much!! It's crazy how much I want others to have the happiness and peace that I have.. so crazy it probably scares some people, but I love them so much!!! I'll get back to you in a bit! love ya!
May 13: I'M ALIVE:)
Hello! I LOVE being a missionary! It's seriously the BEST!!! I have the coolest district ever! Like no joke! even teachers and leaders have made comments about there being a special feeling! I got SO stinkin' lucky!! The spirit is so strong and I already love them all SO much!!! There's four of us sisters going to the Chesapeake Virginia mission then three elders going to Leeds England and 3 going to the Scotland/Ireland mission! They are all wonderful and have the strongest testimonies It's been so fun to hear all their stories and get to know them! Ah I love people!
The most incredible experience so far was the first evening where we got a quick intro to a person and they became an investigator. There was probably about 30 of us new sisters and elders all sitting there with one investigator which was odd but we all taught a lesson which was cool but at the end this cute sister leader said "how many of you can honestly say that you love Nicole?" Every single one of us could raise our hand! Every. single. missionary. It was the most incredible thing in the world! I honestly love her so much. I had thoughts and impressions come to me specifically for her. Even in the beginning, the second she sat down I already felt a deep love for her! It was un-explainable.
I'm not feeling any anxiety at all still, it's incredible. I drank milk and had absolutely no problem with it, it was wonderful. Over and over I keep having it reconfirmed to me that this is exactly where I am supposed to be an exactly what I am supposed to be doing! It's incredible
The Gospel is true, the Lord loves us and is aware of us and each of our needs, and life is awesome. That's all for today! LOVE YALL!!!
The most incredible experience so far was the first evening where we got a quick intro to a person and they became an investigator. There was probably about 30 of us new sisters and elders all sitting there with one investigator which was odd but we all taught a lesson which was cool but at the end this cute sister leader said "how many of you can honestly say that you love Nicole?" Every single one of us could raise our hand! Every. single. missionary. It was the most incredible thing in the world! I honestly love her so much. I had thoughts and impressions come to me specifically for her. Even in the beginning, the second she sat down I already felt a deep love for her! It was un-explainable.
I'm not feeling any anxiety at all still, it's incredible. I drank milk and had absolutely no problem with it, it was wonderful. Over and over I keep having it reconfirmed to me that this is exactly where I am supposed to be an exactly what I am supposed to be doing! It's incredible
The Gospel is true, the Lord loves us and is aware of us and each of our needs, and life is awesome. That's all for today! LOVE YALL!!!