Sep 29...finishing off strong

Well last week was my final full week as a missionary. I really wanted
to finish strong so Sister Hedley and I decided to set some big goals.
We want to get a baptism, which was already on the schedule to happen,
we wanted to get over 40 lessons and stay busy every day. Well we
accomplished it! We got 1 baptism and 42 lessons this week. I love the
Utah Provo Mission! I am super excited to continue seeing growth in
the area even after I leave. I had to say lots of "see you later"'s
and that was some what hard because I think I am so excited to see my
wonderful family. Thank you so much Mom, Dad, Jessalyn, Summer, Jace,
Kade, Zoey, Bradley, Grandma and Grandpa Woolf and Harrison, and all
my other family for supporting me through the past 18 months! I
couldn't have done it with out all of you! Since this is my final
email as a full-time missionary I hope I can express enough how much I
have loved serving the Lord. There is just something special about
coming out and devoting all your time and attention to serving others
and helping them see the gospel light.

Monday night the Elies's took me and Sister Hedley out for dinner
since I was heading home soon. Then we went and had great lessons. We
were able to help a struggling recent convert see her testimony again
and see the importance of the little things. We were also able to
teach a fun lessons about the 10 commandments to B***, I***, A*** and
the H***'s. Then we went and taught an older brother about the
priesthood and got him pumped up to receive the higher priesthood. And
that ended our busy Monday night.

Tuesday we had exchanges. I had Sister Wang come to my area. It was
fun being able to be her companion again for the day. She kept saying
how crazy it was that I was leaving so soon. And it is crazy
especially since I don't know if I will ever see her again. Unless she
comes to BYU like she wants or I make a trip to China. We were able to
have some really good lessons. And it seemed like we were running late
to everything. But we managed to fit everything in.

Wednesday we had DTM and it was focused on being effective and
efficient in using the time the lord has given us. After DTM we went
and ate lunch at Tai Drift and as we were paying for it some one came
up and paid for our whole district! But I have officially decided I am
not a fan of Tai food. The rest of the day was spent teaching lessons
and doing our chapel tour and having our coordination meeting. One of
our lessons was very unique. It was with O*** who we started teaching
last week. She told us that she could feel a difference when we left
her house last time we taught and she wanted that back and so she went
to her knees and prayed and asked Heavenly Father for a confirmation
of what we were teaching. She told us that she definitely knows that
these things are true and she has the desire to be baptized! It was
such a incredible lesson!

Thursday we went to the other districts DTM to help them out and give
them motivation. Afterwards we were hungry and knowing that we didn't
have much at home we decided to use my Little Caesars gift card and
get a pizza. Right now they have a pretzel pizza and my goodness it is
yummy! Then we taught a lesson about the word of wisdom to some one
who has come through so much to be where he is today. Then we had to
go and stop by to see some Sisters because they had been
offended by some stuff that was said in DTM. So we went and helped
them. Then we got to teach the Parramore's who keep asking if I can
come every day before I go home. But I have told them that I really
want to come back when they get sealed in the temple. Our chapel tour
that night was super awesome. The D*** came and
they were able to feel the spirit so strong. By the end G*** wanted to
read the Book of Mormon and V*** wanted to come to sacrament meeting.
Then we had to run and change our 7:00 appointment to 8:00 so that we
could go and see F***. The our 8:00 appointment was awesome. We talked
about how important the Book of Mormon is and A*** seemed excited to
continue reading it so she could continually have that spirit with
her.

Friday we had to run a bunch of different directions. We went to the
family history center to get all of our pictures, videos and notes
from the iPad. And then we had to run to Walmart to get my money off
my card for luggage fees. While we were there this 22ish year old boy
called us over and asked us what we were doing there. We told him why
we were there and it turns out he just got home a week ago from his
mission. He gave me a lot of reassurance that it was going to be okay.
And that the whole flight home the lord will be with me. Then we had
to run up to a meeting with the zone leaders and district leaders up
in Pleasant Grove, because their zone is really struggling with
obedience and working hard. So we helped by giving them ideas of what
to train them on. Then we had our lesson with S*** and we were able
to get her super excited for her baptism the next day. Also in between
all of these things we were able to get weekly planning done. R dinner
that night was super great. We ate with a sister and her non member
husband. As we were sitting waiting for dinner we heard a door open at
the top of the stairs and so we both looked up there and the brother
just came out of the bathroom in only his underwear. It was an awkward
first impression. But the rest of the night turned out great. We were
able to share a message and he sparked interest in learning more and
feeling ready for baptism soon.

Saturday was a special day. We got to witness the baptism of Sophie
Taylor. She is such a light to her family, they were all a little less
active and when she had the desire to be baptized we were able to help
re-activate the family enough that her dad baptized her. After the
baptism we went and ate lunch at the Cornish's and they asked me some
questions about what I learned on my mission. I got a bit teary eyed
but it was cool to look back on. Then we had two amazing lessons and
the people opened up to us and we were late to dinner. Dinner already
had to be short due to the women's conference at 6:00. But it was good
and the family was very understanding. Women's conference was amazing
and I loved all the messages shared and it made me excited for general
conference this weekend!

Sunday was a great day! All of our investigators and less actives
decided it was time to start coming to church! We also had Sophie's
confirmation. We had to slip out early to get to my final interview
with President McCune. It was one of the most amazing conversations I
have had. I felt as if I was talking to the prophet or something. He
gave me some amazing advice and also helped me realize ways that I
have grown out here. After the interview we hurried back so we could
finish up our lesson packed day! It was a wonderful last Sunday on the
mission!

Well only 2 more days!!!!!!!!! I am so excited. Let's just hope I can
make it through the next two days. See you on Thursday!

Sep 22...the end is close, but its really just a beginning

I can not even believe that this has come so fast. The end is so
close, but really it is just a new beginning! At least that is what I
have to keep telling myself as I say good bye to so many people I love
here in Utah. I men I shouldn't worry to much because I am sure I will
be back down here to visit often.

Well this week was busy and kept us running like crazy!
Monday we had. Super fun zone activity and the elders got pretty
creative. We did a live "Clue" game in the chapel. We had to find out
who killed the zone leader, with what weapon, in what room. Super fun.
Then that night we had some great lessons. We are going to get our
investigator A*** caught up to where we are teaching the other girls.
We also made an interesting contact. We were told to contact this less
active lady and when we knocked on her door we introduced ourselves
and then she told us she was good where she was at in her life but
that we could come in. So we went inside and it was super awkward
because we couldn't bring up anything gospel related. I don't know why
she even let us inside.

Tuesday I called the mission office to find out when I would get my
departing papers and they said they were at the mission office if I
wanted to come pick them up. So we did. Then we had our first of 3
exchanges. I was with Sister Andelin who is also going home in
October. We had some really good talks about blessings of our mission.
We also did a lot of contacting because so many of our appointments
fell through. We were going to have a super great lesson with K***
and K***, but hadn't been reading so we got to read with them which
turned out being super awesome. K*** is a recent convert and she did
a lot of baring testimony through out the reading. We were able to
drop by the P***'s and read scriptures with them and then we went
and taught one of our less actives named B***. The fellowshipper we
had with us tried taking over the lesson like she was still on her
mission. It was funny to watch my companions reaction.

Wednesday we exchanged back for a few hours so that we could do DTM
and lunch as a companionship. Then we switched up again and I got to
be with Sister Sovuai from Vanuatu. She is such a funny girl. She was
such a powerful teacher in the lessons. We had a fun interactive
lesson with the W*** family. We are trying to get them better at
reading their scriptures daily and so we did a lesson about the iron
rod. We tied a rope to the basketball hoop and blind folded the had to
try and get there. Having the rope made it easy but when we took that
away it was hard. Reading the scriptures gives us that same power. We
need that daily or we could get lost in the mist of darkness. We had a
huge chapel your that night, I guess a ward decided to do it for
mutual and so we had over 30 people there. I also got a text from a
lady that just moved here from Washington and we have been trying to
teach her and she texted us and told us she was ready! And oh boy is
she. Sister Hedley got to teach her Thursday and she sounds so golden!
Wednesday night we went to our coordination meeting and we are working
really hard with the ward to get our fellowshipping up.

Thursday I went into see Nurse Stewart (our mission nurse), because I
woke up with a huge swollen lip and it wouldn't go down. It was kinda
funny to see myself in the mirror. After our appointment with her we
went to Subway to grab a sandwich before exchange number three. When
we got to the register someone paid for us. It was a tender mercy
because neither one of us had to much money but we also didn't have
much food at home. Exchanges that day were fun. I got to go to Linden
with Sister Bailey. She is a great sister. We had a fun time trying to
find our way around since she is new to the area and so was I. Luckily
we found our way around and made it to almost everything on time. We
had a great lesson with one of their recent converts named K***. He
is 18 and just joined the church not to long ago. He has such a strong
testimony, and he is headed out to military stuff soon. Dinner was
interesting, they hadn't been home all day and so they took us out to
dinner at Kneaders. It was a long wait and so we had to take most of
our food to go and we didn't even have time at all to eat it until we
got home around 9:15.

Friday I finally got to be back with my companion. It is always a
relief being back together. We had a really busy day. We did some
weekly planning. Then we went to lunch at our senior couple's house
(the Loosli's) and had a great time talking to them and getting to
know them better. Then we had a few minutes to do some more weekly
planning before going to teach A***. We taught her about the Book of
Mormon and she has already been reading the Book of Mormon stories.
Then we went and taught S*** about the importance of prayer and
scripture study. She is preparing for baptism next week! My last
baptism before I go home. Then we had dinner with a family and their 2
girls were so cute! The littlest one would get so excited and freeze
up. They also had baby chicks and they had them named for what season
they were going to be eating them in. Super funny. That night we had a
lesson with our new investigator S***. He has lived in Utah his whole
life and has never really found religion. So we were trying to teach
him about our belief in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father and then he
started teaching us about the philosophers he loves to listen to. It
was different. Then we taught some of our returning members who have
such open hearts I love it! They are fun to teach because they really
already have a pretty strong testimony they just need to turn it into
conversion.

Saturday morning when we woke up to go running we were surprised by
our car being decked out in sweet 16 happy birthday decorations. We
were so confused. We didn't know if it was a prank or some one got the
wrong car. We found out later that day that it was a prank by a
returned missionary from our mission. That afternoon we went and had a
meeting with the zone leaders and district leaders to discuss what our
zone needs to work on to reach higher goals. It was really inspiring!
Then we had a lesson with J*** at Wienerschintzel, he works there and
his boss was willing to give him a break so he could meet with us. I
think there a lot of perks for being a missionary in Utah. After his
lesson we headed off to the stake center for S***'s baptismal
interview. The rest of Saturday was spent visiting people. Especially
F***. She is moving which almost made me cry until I realized I was
going to be leaving soon too.

Sunday we got to go to the Ogden, UT temple rededication and it was so
amazing. The spirit was so strong. One of my favorite things that was
said was from President Monson, "We must love the temple, we must
appreciate the temple, and we must attend the temple." I think so many
times people take for granted having a temple near by. At least we
don't have to take a years worth of pay and travel across the globe
just so our families can have that blessing. We had some really
awesome lessons that day too. We were able to get some one excited
about doing indexing in his free time. We also were able to see our
other less active B*** who we have seen in about a month due to his
schedule. Then we were able to teach E*** and A*** the lessons
finally since E*** is now reading during the week when we aren't
there. And then our lesson with the D***'s was so amazing. The spirit
was strong and you could tell that the family was feeling it too.

Well I just can't believe I can say this... See you next week!!!!!!
Love, Sister Kaylynn Harrison

Sep 15...no time to waste

This week was so much fun! I am really loving not getting distracted
by the "going home in two weeks" fact! There is something great about
every week and I just don't want it to end. I don't know if it will
hit me until I am on the plane ride home. Let's hope it never hits me
too hard. Well here is why this week was so great...

Monday was super! We went to the Cornish's and painted the bowls that
we made weeks ago. I can't wait for mine to be done. That night we
went to go teach our investigator F***, but she was unable to meet
with us, we even had a great fellowshipper come, Aubrey from Richland.
Then we went and taught B*** and I*** and we had a surprise there for
us.  A***, B***'s twin now wants to take the lessons and be baptized.
We asked her what changed her mind and she said she noticed when B***
came home from the lessons hat she was happier and she wanted that. It
is so wonderful having the spirit touch someone's heart. After their
lessons we went and taught C***, one of our returning members about
the Ten Commandments and prophets. It is so cool to see how much his
testimony has grown as we have been teaching him.

Tuesday we had MLC. It was a super great meeting. During it we needed
to use the restroom and we headed there and got super distracted by
the huge storm going on. It looked like there was going to be a flash
flood. But it let up after a while and so everything was good. At MLC
we really focused on the importance of constantly making changes in
our lives. Change is hard and sometimes we don't appreciate it, but if
we look at the big picture that is the reason we were sent here to
earth. We wanted to gain experience and understanding. So don't be
afraid of change (that is what I keep telling myself about going
home). After MLC we got to teach lessons.  We ate dinner with one of
ward mission leaders and a family we are teaching. After dinner we
headed into the big music room they have and Sister Bearce played the
organ for us and then her and her daughter played a piano/violin duet.
It was super pretty. Sister Hedley asked if they had a flute and they
actually had one they were getting rid of and so they gave it to her.
So we are practicing a flute/piano duet. Hopefully we can make it
sound somewhat good by the time I got home. The rest of the lessons
went well.

Wednesday we ate lunch super quick so that we could go practice our
duet. The we planned for our ZTM's with the elders. We had a lesson
and we were teaching a returning member the gospel of Jesus Christ. He
had lots of really great questions and so we barely got through part
of the lesson before we had to go. We decided to go and contact a name
of a non member that was given to us by a bishop. We took a different
approach than we normally do and it was cool to see how well it
worked. When he opened the door we introduced our selves and then we
showed him a picture of the "first vision". We asked if he had ever
seen this picture before, when he told us no we decided to explain the
background starting with the fact that when Christ was on the earth he
set up his church and that is the same church we have today because it
was restored to the prophet Joseph Smith. He had this longing in his
eyes to know more as I was able to quote the first vision to him. We
set up a return appointment but sadly we had to hand him off to the
elders because he is a YSA. Our chapel tour that evening went really
well. We had some one we were teaching there and the spirit was so
strong. We were able to teach him a lesson afterwards and he told us
that he is excited for the day he can take the sacrament again. We
then ran over to see if we could meet with F*** before our 8:00
missionary meeting. We were able to teach her about families can be
together forever since that is a huge importance in her life.

Thursday was ZTM number 1. But we had an interesting morning that made
us a bit late. We locked the door handle the night before and normally
we just lock the dead bolt. As we were going out for our morning run I
closed the door behind me and the realized that we never unlocked the
handle. So at 6:30 in the morning we were locked out of our house and
it happened to be a super cold morning and I didn't have a jacket. So
we went for our run and then waited about 20 minutes or so for our
land lord to finally open the door, after ringing and knocking trying
to wake them up. ZTM went really well. After ZTM we decided to do
weekly planning so that on Friday we could go check up on sisters
whose area are kinda struggling. After dinner we had a no show on our
chapel tour which ended up being some what of a blessing because we
over booked ourselves that night. We went to go teach a new family and
they weren't home yet so we went and picked up a young women who is
deciding if a mission is for her. We were able to bring her to the
next two lessons and both lessons were super awesome. The new family
opened up about their desire to come back after having some pretty
hard addictions ruin their lives and the other lesson we got up to
leave and she said "that's all?" So you could tell she really has the
desire to know more.

Friday was ZTM number 2. It went really good as well. It was crazy to
see how different the two ZTM's were. After ZTM we went to Kneaders
with a sister that just got home from serving a mission in Sister
Hedley's home ward. After that we went and helped sisters with weekly
planning. It was really cool because they finally started trusting us
enough and they asked for lots of good help. After that we went and
taught our investigator who is getting baptized on my last Saturday
here. She is getting so ready and excited. After that we went and
contacted a potential investigator and we had a funny experience. As
we pulled up the husband was outside and saw us, as we said a quick
prayer he went around back and turned on the sprinklers. We were
determined not to let a little water stop us, since that path up to
the house was being soaked. So we ran through and then they wouldn't
answer the door. Go figures... It was definitely something we got to
laugh about. For dinner that night we went and the lady had bought us
as a companionship two pizza's. Luckily we were allowed to take them
home instead of pigging out and making ourselves sick. After dinner we
had a lesson with a retuning sister and she was so tired. She hardly
could stay awake and we felt so bad. So we made the lesson quick. Her
son who always makes it a priority to get out of the lessons came to
the door and said "aww you guys are leaving already?" as he opened the
door. I think he was trying to make us think that he likes us but he
kindly showed us the way out, and he is only 7! We were able to stop
by the Watkin's family who we have seen in awhile and it turned out
that it was the perfect time to stop by. Sister W***'s had a really
rough day at work and really needed some spiritual uplifting. Our 8:00
lesson was super interesting, we were talking about forever families
and family history work and they had some experiences where people
have come to them in dreams telling them that they need to do their
temple work. Then all of a sudden, their door knob wiggled and the dad
is in the military and his reaction was crazy. He stood up and ran out
and ran out of the house to figure out what was going on. It turns out
someone was just putting papers on every ones doors about a job
opportunity.

Saturday we went to a baptism in the morning for Sister Hedley's
investigator from a previous area. Then we went to lunch at the
Cornish's. It was super yummy, we had breakfast food for lunch. After
that we ran home to write our talks we thought we had to give that
night for the adult session of stake conference. Then we had a lesson
and got to read the scriptures since he hadn't read that week. Then we
went to go do our hand off lesson with the elders for our investigator
we met on Wednesday. We waited forever for the elders to finally show
up and then when we knocked he wasn't even home. We had dinner with a
super awesome family. It was the first we had met them and when I told
them I was going home in less than 3 weeks they said that they would
be willing to celebrate and throw me a going home party. I might take
them up on it since they brought cake into the idea! Then we got to
head to the adult session. We were freaking out the whole time because
we didn't know if we would be speaking. But it turns out we weren't,
but since the rest of the program went by faster than expected we
ended up getting to bare a short testimony.

Sunday was the big regional conference for all of Utah and Wasatch
county. Something cool that they talked about was the rededication of
the Ogden UT temple. It is next week and we get to go. We got to hear
from Russell M. Nelson and Richard G. Scott. Elder Nelson told us that
over 500,000 people went to the Ogden open house! That is a lot of
people. After conference we had appointments booked for every hour for
the rest of the day. It was sad because most of them cancelled but it
allowed is to be where we needed to when it was the right time. One of
our appointments fell through and we were prompted to go stop by the
Smith's they are almost 2 weeks clean of smoking and it was a good
thing we were prompted to go over there because Sister S*** was
having a really hard time and was working her self really hard so she
wouldn't smoke. We were also able to see other people who we weren't
planning on seeing but it turned out to be a blessing. Something funny
happened durning our lesson at 7:00 with E*** and A***. We were
reading the Book of Mormon and all the light they had in their house
was the light from outside. It started getting dark and so Sister
Hedley started looking around for a light switch to turn on the light
and then E*** stopped and asked if she had just seen a ghost or
something. It was so funny!

Everything is going fantastic. I am happy to be here and I can not
believe that the end is coming so fast. There is no time to be wasted
these last 2 weeks. I am going to work my hardest and try to continue
to build the work up in this area. I do get to look forward to 3
exchanges this week which should be fun... We will see!

Sep 8...only 3 more Mondays.

Well we are down to less than a month and I am trying to mentally
prepare myself for what it is going to be like to not be tired all the
time, to not have to eat food from random people, and what it will be
like to have alone time... Sounds pretty weird at this point. This
week was quite the adventure. We are trying to get exchanges done so
that we can be focused on our area the last few days of my mission. So
here's my week:

Monday evening we went and saw our investigator in treatment and since
no one else wanted appointments with us we ended up staying there and
playing games with her and some of the other girls. It was super fun.

Tuesday we went to the temple and on our way up there we got a call
from the zone leaders who were a bit concerned about some sisters in
their zone. But we tried to forget about it while we enjoyed our time
in the house of The Lord. I love the revelation I get and the spirit I
feel when I am in the temple. Temples have been a big talk for a long
time in our mission since there are two being built in our mission and
one being rededicated near by. We have had so many of the families we
are teaching drive up to Ogden to the open house. Everyone loves it!
After our trip to the temple we stopped by the sisters apartment to
see what was happening and why the zone leaders would need to call us.
It was kinda awkward bringing up the problem but we figured things
out. Then we went on exchanges. I went to American Fork with Sister
Quintana. She is such an awesome missionary. We went and did a lot of
finding but it was kinda fun. Their is a big Spanish initiative going
on in our mission and they use it as a wonderful finding tool. We did
a lot of walking to save some miles but it was the hottest day of the
week. But it was fun. That night we had two dinners. I was so full by
the end of the night!

Wednesday we exchanged back and me and Sister Hedley went to DTM. We
learned about the importance of helping people make and keep
commitments. Then after DTM we ran some orange juice to some sisters
that felt like they were starting to get sick and then we did
exchanges. I stayed in Orem with Sister Sablan. We had such a fun day.
We heart attacked the door of one of our returning members that gave
up smoking this week. We got a text from her later in the day saying
thank you and that she is doing really well with not smoking. We were
able to teach a great lesson to someone who grew up her whole life in
Utah and really doesn't know anything about the LDS church. When we
started talking about baptism she explained that she didn't really
like the way her church did it but they way we do it makes sense. It
was such a powerful lesson. We also talked a lot about how much truth
the Book of Mormon has and she said their must be a lot of power in
the 531 pages in the Book of Mormon, which made her excited to start
reading it. We then helped one of our investigators out by finding her
a ride. We got a message from her that she was stuck at UVU with out a
ride and so we got permission to go with our senior couple to pick her
up. Then we had dinner with an awesome family who is all about
missionary work. Then after dinner we had a church tour and we
actually had some families come. It was great. Then we headed off to
teach one of our returning members about the word of wisdom. It is
something that she has struggled with for many years and wants to
quit. As we showed her the pamphlets ideas of how to quit she was so
excited to be able to try a new way of quitting. Then we had a
training with the stake and ward mission leaders.

Thursday we exchanged back and me and Sister Hedley were able to get
some things done that we needed to do. Then we did our final exchange
for the week. I went to Pleasant Grove with Sister Lutz. It was a fun
day. We did service for about an hour and a half when we first got
there. It was a different kind of service project but we were so happy
to help. We handed out flyers out side of a store for two girls that
have been missing for two months now. We got to talk with their dad
for a little bit and man I can't imagine having your 13 and 15 year
old daughters just disappear. It would be so hard. After the project
we were able to teach some people. Well actually I got to do a lot of
listening since all the lessons were in Spanish. My favorite
appointment of all day had to be the last one... We tracted into this
family and they knew no English. The older lady told me I needed to
learn Spanish since I was in Utah and there are a lot of Spanish
speakers and then throughout the rest of the evening she was making
fun of me in Spanish. I couldn't understand everything but I knew she
wasn't being nice. When we got back to the apartment and did a lot of
talking and the talking didn't stop until 2:00. Then there was a huge
thunder storm that woke me up around 5:00 and I had a hard time going
back to sleep. Man that was a mistake. That is why I don't love 24
hour exchanges. I wish I didn't have to have sleep overs.

Friday we exchanged back and both of us were so exhausted from
exchanges. But we had no time to waste.  We went and talked to one of
our investigators and she is doing a lot better. For awhile her and
her husband were not getting along but she is really relying on
Heavenly Father and it is helping their relationship. Then we went to
lunch with the Cornish's and the food was so yummy. We had a funny mix
up. I had ordered chicken and my companion ordered pork and they only
brought out a few dishes at a time and they didn't tell us what kind
of food it was. So my companion took what she thought was the pork but
it ended up being the chicken because a few minutes later when they
brought out the rest of the food the guy asked who had the pork. But
we ended working everything out after he brought me out some chicken
and we realized Sister Hedley was the one who stole my chicken. It was
a good laugh. After that we did our weekly planning and then we
finished our night with appointments.

Saturday was all sorts of fun and crazy. We went to the baptism of an
8 year old girl whose less active family we are teaching. The stake
baptisms here go so quick but it was still really cool to see how
happy she was when she came out of the water. Then we went home and
finished up our weekly planning. The rest of the day was interesting.
Our 2:00 appointment didn't show up. And so we ran over to drop off a
picture and some quotes to one of our investigators. We stayed for a
little while and played "curses" with them. Then our 3:00 thought we
were coming at 4:00 so we woke him up from his nap. The rest of our
evening was spent with me in the area knocking doors while on splits
and Sister Hedley was up in Lehi and an old investigators baptism. To
be honest it was a hard night to get through.

Sunday was busy. We went to our stake coordination and the came home
and studied for an hour and then went to a ward council and then to a
sacrament meeting and then to another sacrament meeting. The second
sacrament meeting was different. It is a really young ward and so
there was 3 baby blessings and on top of that the bishopric got changed
and there was so many people there that they had to bless the
sacrament twice because they didn't prepare enough at first. So by the
time sacrament was over and it was time for testimonies they only had
15 minutes left. So the old bishopric got to bare their testimonies
and that is it. We then had to run off to appointments for the rest of
the day and it was very rushed. But a lot of them ended up canceling
and so we got a few breathers. But the worst thing happened. We got to
our dinner appointment and they cancelled on us too! There is nothing
worse than when your dinner cancels on a fast Sunday. Luckily our
senior couples are always there to save us! And I am just kidding
about it being the worst thing ever. It wasn't too bad, we were just
hungry. But the appointments the rest of the night were so powerful
and awesome!

So that's my week and this week will be fun and fast too. We have MLC
tomorrow and then two ZTM's, and stake and regional conference. And we
get to speak at the youth/adult session on Saturday night. Luckily no
exchanges this week!

Sep 1...my week

The weeks are getting faster and faster with how busy we have been
staying, which is some what of a good problem to have. Unless you are
ready for the next step in life. But it seems like I blink and then
all of a sudden I am writing my email again.
Since I already told all about Monday in the pictures I will start with Tuesday.

Tuesday it didn't seemed like we had time to do everything we needed
too. We had to go to DTM, we had to wash and vacuum our car at lunch,
we had to fill out progress records, and emails about lessons, we had
to finish a 19 page case study for zone conference, we had to get our
investigator interviewed for her baptism and teach lots of lessons. By
the end of the day we were so exhausted but couldn't believe that it
had flown so fast. Luckily we were able to make it to everything.

Wednesday was Zone Conference and it was a long one! We were there
from 8:30-4:00. We had some really good discussions on what our
mission needs to do different so we can start seeing different
results. During Zone Conference they had a car check. Our car got
cleanest car! Yay for being prepared. The guy in charge of all the
cars the church owns came and told some pretty crazy stories about
what missionaries do with their cars. The church spent almost 16
million dollars in car repairs last year... I guess we should all be
more careful or else everyone will be walking and biking missionaries.
Wednesday nights are crazy now because we only have one hour we can
teach people. We have chapel tour at 6, a lesson at 7, and the stake
coordination at 8. The lesson we had was super great. We read Joseph
Smith History about the experience Joseph had when he decided to pray.
Every time I read anything or hear anything about Joseph Smith my
testimony is strengthened that he really was the Prophet of the
Restoration.

Thursday we had to run to the mission office to get some much needed
supplies and we also went on exchanges. My favorite days to do
exchanges are the days that are full of set teaching appointments.
Which this one was. It ended up being a great day. We were able to get
a new investigator. She grew up catholic here in Utah and now she
wants to know more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. We showed the "Because of Him" video and she was surprised to
find out that we believe in the living Christ as well. We also we able
to find one of our recent converts that just moved and she is still on
our area! We were able to stop in on a ward/neighborhood party. I like
that the wards are starting to call them neighborhood parties because
it gets the less actives and non member to come. They had a dunk tank
there and they wanted us missionaries in there but we told them we
weren't allowed and trust me I checked with the AP's because I thought
it would be fun. Then we finished off the night with some powerful
lessons. Especially the one we had about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We were really able to touch a lot of repentance and how it should be
looked as a happy thing. The fact that we are able to be forgiven for
what ever we have done as long as we are willing to have that change
of heart.

Friday was somewhat tough to get through because I didn't get much
sleep the night before. I always get paranoid when I am on exchanges
and so I don't sleep well. That morning I packed up almost all my
things to send with the Ostler's back home. So don't worry mom you got
most of it now. Then we did weekly planning after stressing out for 45
minutes about not having a girl to come with us to a lesson with just
a single guy and we couldn't find a split for our 2 appointments we
had at 4:00. We finally got a girl and we just made the 4:00 one half
hour lessons so we could get to both. That night we had to do even
more 30-45 minute lessons just to make it to everywhere we had set to
go. I love when work is busy but some times you forget to breathe and
remember that it is fun.

Saturday was a not so typical Saturday for us. We usually aren't very
busy but for some reason this Saturday we were very busy. We had a
chapel tour in the morning for one of our investigators and he
actually never showed, but later he called and felt so bad for
forgetting. And then we had lunch with the Cornish's. Then it was time
for J*** and S***  baptism. The girls were so excited. Their
mom was able to come and watch the girls make this step towards
Heavenly Father and there was lots of tears. They had a lunch in
afterward and we stayed because some other people we are teaching came
and so we talked to them. The family ended up sending us home with
tons of left over sandwiches and chips. It was perfect since it was
the end of the month and we ran out of money so we hardly had anything
to eat. But The Lord blesses those who are in need for sure. We then
had to run off and teach some lessons. Which both were on the Book of
Mormon and it was cool to see how different the lessons were even
though it was the same material. It goes to show that we all have
different needs. That night Sister Hedley went down to a baptism in
Springville with the Cornish's and I stayed to teach lessons with a
sister that got home from her mission this last Wednesday from Chile.
She still had the missionary spirit.

Sunday was fun and crazy all in one. We had our coordination, the
confirmation of J*** and S***, we taught Sunday school and 2
YW/YM classes. The Sunday school classes was weird, it was the 16-17
year olds and they wouldn't say a word and they were on their phones
the whole time we were talking. I am glad the brother that teaches
them has patience because I don't know if I could teach them every
week. The YW/YM classes we fun. We taught about using the internet to
share the gospel. It was fun telling kids that they have a good reason
to get on and use social media. We had a super awesome lesson that
night with one of our investigators. They are a young couple who just
had a baby and so we had some guys from the ward come who are in
similar situations. We were reading 1 Nephi 2 and when it started
talking about the family going into the wilderness the men started
talking about the "wildernesses" we have now a days, like having to
give up long boarding and skiing because you have kids to take care
of. It got a little off topic but we were able to bring back by asking
about who seemed happier, Nephi or Laman and Lemuel. Then we talked
about what we could do to become more like Nephi every day. That night
we had some time left before we could head home and we didn't know who
to go see. We finally were prompted to go see our less active H***
When we got there she welcomed us in and she told us that she was
hoping we would come over. I think it is amazing to see that The Lord
knows what we need and he will send it to us.

My land lord just came down and kindly reminded me that I only have 30
days left! Can't wait to see all of you some what soon!

On Saturday we had a pretty small world moment. We were eating dinner
with this lady and she told me she was from Alberta so I started
talking about Grandma and Grandpa Woolf and she said that her husband
was grandpa's seminary teacher in Hillspring! So she told me some good
stories:) Her name is Laura LeBaron.

Aug 25...week incredible

This week was an incredible week.
Every time some one asks me how long I have been out and I respond
with 17 months they ask the question, "are you getting trunky?" I
happily answer there is no time to get trunky because there is still
way too much to do here in Orem. We are working with some amazing
people right now who I don't ever want to leave. Then as the week goes
on we get new people to work with who will all most likely be getting
baptized after I go home. To think that I only have about 5 weeks left
scares me. I hope that I will be able to feel accomplished and ready
to go. But this transfer is just going to fly way too fast. We have
zone conference, zone training meeting, 8 exchanges, a temple trip
with some reactivated members, baptisms and so much more. I have a
feeling I am going to wake up and it will be time to get on a plane.
So I am going to do my best to serve as best as I can so I don't look
back with any regrets.

This week me any Sister Hedley made the goal of getting up earlier so
we can run all 30 minutes in the morning. We having been running about
2 miles everyday and it feels so good. Hopefully some one at home is
willing to be my running buddy:)

Monday we were all ready a little late to our appointment since we
needed to drop Sister D off in south Orem. Then we got stuck behind an
accident and ended up being about 30 minutes late. It was not a good
first impression on our part. But this new family we will be working
with was very understanding and they were even kind enough to invite
us back. It actually went really well. The wife is a recent convert of
over a year and the husband is a return missionary. Our goal for them
is to get them prepared to go and get sealed in the temple. Also on
Monday night we got the okay to put one of our investigators on date.
She is a foster daughter so we were waiting for approval. She is going
to be baptized on Aug 30th.

Tuesday we spent a lot of the afternoon in the Sunpark area for the
last time! I was able to see Vanessa one last time and I also tried
seeing the 86 year old man that I taught last year.
But he wasn't home. That night we did our normal splits due to the
combined areas. That night we were able to teach with the Cornish's
because there is a family we are teaching that has lots of questions,
so we will be teaching the lessons and the Cornish's will come in and
answer all their questions. We got to put the foster girl on date on
Tuesday and she was so excited because she has been wanting this for
awhile now. We then got to teach one of our less actives about the
plan of salvation. She has a really hard past and doesn't like her
family much. She struggled with the fact families can be together
forever. We assured her that some day her future family will be the
family she wants to be with for eternity.

Wednesday was transfers and it was weird going to transfers knowing
that I was staying with Sister Hedley in Orem. We went to drop Sister
D off, who was way thrilled to be getting a new companion. It was also
weird to be seeing the missionaries going home and I had big wake up
call when my companion reminded me that I would be in that position in
just 6 weeks. O man I almost lost it! After transfer meeting we headed
back to our are to do missionary work. We taught a family about
talents and it was cool helping them realize that talents are more
than just playing a sport or musical instrument. That night we had one
of the best chapel tours we have had in awhile. Usually we only have a
few people there but this time we almost had to split up the groups
there were so many. We had our new investigators appointment fall
through which stunk, we were looking forward to seeing how ready they
are. Then we had coordination meeting.

Thursday we spent all afternoon contacting and then the evening we
were able to teach some people. At our dinner appointment we ate with
a family whose son is less active. At the end of the lesson we shared
a spiritual thought with them and the son asked if we could come back
and teach him the lessons to help him understand the basics. We were
able to see our investigator in Center for Change. She wasn't
expecting us and so surprising her was fun! We also were able to teach
this one less active guy who is so interested in coming back to
church. We had a really good time talking with him after the lesson
and just getting to know him more.

Friday was full of appointments which is unusual since that is usually
weekly planning day. But we were able to teach new people we have
never taught and also some that we just love teaching on a regular
basis. It was a long day with lots of rain. This whole week was rainy.
Even the mountains have snow on them now! Man I sure hope winter waits
to come after I go home!

Saturday was super fun and different. We had DTM that morning and we
focused on working with members more. After DTM we were putting the
chairs away and one of them dropped on my shins really hard, so I have
some pretty cool bruises from that. For lunch we went to Pizza Pie
Cafe and had a buffet. I ate 10 pieces of pizza. I guess I was hungry
and I really wanted to try one of each kind. They had some different
pizzas there. I really enjoyed the BBQ chicken and the spud pizza was
interesting too. After our wonderful training I decided we needed to
meet some of the bishops that I don't know yet. So we made some phone
calls and have appointments. We also just got a new ward mission
leader in one of the wards and he wanted to have us over so he and his
wife could get to know us and so we could make a plan of action for
missionary work in his ward. He just moved here from Ohio so he knows
how to reach out to non members. After dinner we went over to a ward
BBQ so we could meet the bishop. He is so ready to be busy with
missionary work in his ward and so we will be working with him to help
him out. Then we went with a lady from a ward who is so excited to
reach out to her neighbors because so many of them are non members.
Her family owns a peach orchard and so she had boxes of peaches that
we all were going to take to her neighbors. It was so fun. Her
neighbors are from all over. China, Japan, Korea, India, France,
Washington, and lots of other places. We are hoping that we can do
some follow up with these families to see if they would be interested
in taking the discussions. Then to end the night we got to go out with
the Ostler's uncle so he could introduce us to some of his less active
young men. We were able to teach one of them and we will hopefully be
teaching the family a FHE some time soon.

Sunday was fun and busy. We got to do our normal missionary
coordination, we had a ward council, we got to speak and then
appointments. Sundays on a mission are super exhausting! But they are
so worth it. Last night was super stormy again and their was a
beautiful rainbow to make thinks a little brighter.

There is fun stuff ahead for this week!

Love you all!

Aug 18...my week

This weeks letter is probably not going to be very long so I am sorry
in advance. We did how ever have quite a few miracles.

Monday night we had a family home evening with Bre and Izzy. It was
super fun because we talked about missionary work and we made them do
a role play of how they would talk to one of their friends about the
gospel. Then we played scripture pictionary. Those girls are my
favorite and I hope that they will keep in touch enough that I will be
able to be there for their farewell's when they go on missions and for
their weddings some day.

A lot of our week was contacting and I want to tell you about the
amazing people we met.
C***: we were told by the senior couple it would be a good idea
to stop by and see them so we did and we were able to talk to her
about her desire of going to them temple to be sealed in the next few
months which was exciting.

P**: this is the C***s neighbor and we heard that they were
either non member or less active. When she opened the door we had a
good conversation with her and then she invited us in. We got to know
her situation a little better and we were able to take her interest of
rock climbing and hiking and apply the gospel to it. We watched the
youth mormon message " A Secure Anchor". She has been struggling
wanting to do things solo even though she knows it is important to
have God in her life. She has been thinking about getting her grandson
involved with the church and so we invited her to our chapel tour and
she said that it was a great idea.

J***s: we got a call from our ward mission leader telling us about
a family who moved in 2 weeks ago. The parents are not active and they
have 4 kids that are old enough to be baptized and they aren't yet.
Mom wants to get more active and so we are going to be teaching the
family and hopefully getting the kids baptized.

Other exciting news this week:

I finally got to figure out why I was having dizzy spells. I went to a
head doctor and he did a hearing test and nothing, so he sent me in
for a blood test and the test came back and I guess I have a
hypothyroid. So I am going to be put on some medicine to help.

Also this week we got to meet one of our investigator's dad and he was
so awesome. He was talking to us about his conversion and how he hopes
his daughter will be able to see it. He thanked us for all that we
were doing.

We also found out this week that some of our returning members, the
M***, have a temple date set. They are going to the Draper temple
on September 13th and I get to go! They also have gone and done
baptism for the dead and they are getting callings next week! I love
seeing people progress so quickly.

We decided we really like Sonic happy hour and so some days we go and
get slushes when it is to hot outside to handle.

And last but not least I found out this Morning that me and Sister
Hedley are staying as companions here in Orem. The AP tried to trick
me at first and told me I was going out to eastern Utah. Luckily I am
not!
I can't believe I only have 6 weeks left! It seems so unreal and it is
so crazy to see all of these other missionaries coming home. I have
had a few dreams of what it is going to be like stepping off the plane
but right now I am really focusing on helping the people while I still
can! Love you all!:)

Aug 11...training, temples and baptism

Monday was quite the wet adventure. We went up into Provo canyon for a
family home evening for a ward and we got down poured on, I don't know
if I have ever experience that much rain at once, but I am sure
Rexburg knows how we felt. All day it was super warm so we didn't even
think to bring a jacket or anything and it was cold. But the FHE went
super well. Then after a lesson and some contacting we were going back
out to our car and it was raining even harder. We probably ran 10 feet
or so and by the time we got to the car we were drenched! Since it was
the end of the night we decided to have fun in it for a few more
minutes and that ended quickly because of a huge flash of lightning.
It was such a great day!

Tuesday was mission leadership council so we had a big meeting with
President McCune for 7 hours! We learned about letting our faith lead
us in finding people to teach. After the meeting we met up with Sister
D and the rest of the night we spent teaching lessons in both areas. I
went to south Orem with Sister D and Sister Hedley stayed in north
Orem with a split. The time went by so fast.

Wednesday was a slower day. We waited for the zone leaders at the
chapel for 45 minutes. We were all supposed to get together so we
could plan for ZTM. The planning went well and we were all looking
forward to ZTM the next day. The rest of the day we did a lot of
contacting and we were able to teach one lesson that evening. We also
had our chapel tour and only one family came, but it was still good.
That night for dinner was super interesting. We got there and they
were only expecting two of us and so three was a bit of a surprise.
The dinner we had was super fancy. We had shrimp cocktails, baked
potatoes, salad, and steak. The funny part is that Sister Hedley gags
really bad when she eats shrimp but she didn't want to make the people
feel bad by not eating it so as they were looking away I would steal
some of her shrimp so they didn't see. Sister D also doesn't like
shrimp very much and so I took care of a few of hers as well. Since
that was just the appetizer I had already eaten 18 pieces of shrimp
before the full plate of dinner came out, and I was definitely already
full. The rest of night it felt like all that shrimp was swimming
around in my stomach. We laughed about it all week.

Thursday was so crazy! We had both our ZTM's and they were both very
different but they also went very well. I think I learn a lot from
being the one doing the training. The AP's came to our one later that
afternoon which made me super nervous because they know how the
training is supposed to go. But after wards they told us that it was
the best one they had been to all day. The elders in the zone did an
amazing musical number to invite the spirit and it did! That evening
we had a super crazy schedule we had to get Sister D down south and
the we had a chapel tour that no one came to and so after 15 minutes
of waiting we decided to leave and try and contact one of our 2 7:00
appointments. We were able to catch them at home right at 6:50, we
still had some craziness we had to do before we could head to the
other one. We had to pick up a split and also go and pick up Sister D.
Sister D and Hedley went and taught a less active that we just got
referred to us this week and I went contacting with the splits since
we already got her to come with us and we now only had one appointment
at 7:00. We were able to contact someone we have been trying to get
ahold of for 6 weeks or more. Then at 8:00 we got back together to go
to our stake coordination meeting.

Friday was so much fun! We headed off to south Orem to take Sister D
to her ZTM and then Sister Hedley and I ran to catch the front runner
up to Salt Lake. We were a little early so we decided to stop by one
of my favorite members houses. They were home and so I got to talk
with them for a little while. Then we headed off to the front runner.
It was along ride and we were nervous for the first part of it. Then
we got closer to Salt Lake and saw two temples at once while looking
out the window. We got to temple square and didn't know how to get
inside the temple for a sealing. As we were walking in to the
recommend area I totally remember that I didn't grab my recommend. So
I got to talk to a temple worker and he gave me clearance. We were in
such a rush because we thought we were late but we found out the
temple was about an hour behind because they had so many weddings
going on. We also found out that the sealing room we were in was used
one sealing before ours by someone who was sealed by Elder Holland.
But sadly we didn't get to see him. After the temple we were going to
go to the Cheese Cake Factory for lunch but we couldn't because we had
a lesson to run to so someone took us to the little cafe right off of
temple square. We had an adventure coming back on the front runner. We
had missed it by a few minutes so we had to wait 50 minutes for the
next one to come but we got to talk to quite a few people. Then when
we were in between American Fork and Orem the engine stopped working
and so we got stuck. It last for about 10 minutes or so before they
got the engine working again. Friday night we spent contacting and
teaching. For dinner that night our dinner got fancy and took us out
to Taco Time.

Saturday was a awesome day too! We had two baptisms. One for Sister D
and then the other was in our area. The one for Sister D was so cool.
The guy getting baptized had a brother in law and sister in law on a
mission. The sister in law did a lot of the teaching through skype and
she was able to skype in and give a talk on the baptism. And then the
brother in law recorded a video about the Holy Ghost and we watched
that for the talk on the Holy Ghost. It was such a wonderful baptism
and lots of tears were shed. The baptism for Bre in our area was super
awesome too. She had so many friends and family there. She was so
happy to be able to make this step toward following Christ. Afterwards
we went to south Orem and the senior couple down there wanted to talk
to Sister D about something that happened earlier this week and all I
can say is it was interesting. That evening we were able to get a new
investigator, and teach some good lessons.

Sunday was full of meetings. I think if I ever become an auxiliary
leader I will not complain about the hour or two of meetings. We had
coordination, a meeting with the stake president, we went to 3 ward
councils, we taught Sunday school and then went to a 3 hour block of
church for our two confirmations that took place. It was so cool
seeing two friends be confirmed the same day. The rest of the night we
taught lessons and did splits.

This week there was times I felt like a spiritual giant and other days
I felt like a tiny grain of sand. But I have to remind myself, without
trials we can't grow into who are Heavenly Father wants us to be.
Prayer, scripture study, church attendance, temple going, and so many
other things make trials look worth going through. I am loving every minute of my mission!

Aug 4...a trio and 2 areas

So just to explain my heading this week we combined areas due to a
sister going home early for school and not having anyone to replace
her. So I got my 16th companion! We combined with the Orem Sunpark
area... Yes my old area! So we now cover 5 stakes which is 41 wards.
We are running around like crazy trying to keep up with all our
investigators and meetings and mission life. The new area is 2 zones
south of where we are currently serving and so each day we are in the
car quite a bit. Luckily they are allowing us to have some extra
miles.

The blessing of all of this is that the day we got the call from
president was the day we did our final exchange for the transfer! So
we can now just focus on the 2 areas. Our new companion is Sister
Degraffenried. She is from Alaska, she has been out 11 months and she
is a great missionary, we have already learned a lot from her these
past few days. We all have the feeling that these next 2 weeks are
going to be the fastest, busiest, days of our lives. But it will be so
much fun!
Exchanges this week were fun. I was able to go with Sister Neaf for
the day and it was fun talking about wonderful people we both know
from back home. We did a total of 3 exchanges this week which made the
week fly!

We had a lot of miracles happen investigator wise...
One of our investigators told us about the sweet experience she had to
know when she needed to get baptized. We committed her to August 9th
but she wanted to pray about it. She had been praying about it for a
few weeks and this past week she finally got her confirmation that
August 9th was her day. She said she had a dream and in the dream she
felt like she was forgetting something super important and so she went
and looked at her calendar. The whole calendar was blank except for
August 9th. It was circled in red. She said when she woke up she went
and checked her calendar to see if it was a dream or not. There was
nothing on her calendar and so she knew the dream she just had was an
answer to her prayer. I am so grateful that our Heavenly Father
listens to us and answers our prayers. I know He cares about each and
everyone of his children, sometimes all we need to do is be the one to
ask.

We had been trying to contact this one couple for a really long time
and this week we finally did and they are interested in having the
lessons. The husband is a non member and the wife is less active, and
she just had a baby. Not only are they interested, they want to meet
with us basically every other day and the husband accepted to be
baptized in September! I think the Lord knew when the right time would
be. They have such a strong desire to know and they love the blessings
that come from living the gospel.

I know this email isn't too long but with the craziness that has been
happening I haven't had time to wrap my head around things. I am
looking forward to this week that is going to be even busier. We have
missionary leadership council, 2 zone training meetings, a sealing in
Salt Lake and two baptisms. So I have a feeling that it going to zoom
by.
I love you all I am glad you are having such a fun summer and I hope
you are looking forward to October as much as I am!

July 27...exchanges, laughs and lessons

Tuesday we went on exchanges with the American Fork Spanish sisters. I
got to be in their area for the day with Sister Sanchez. We did a lot
of contacting the non members in the area and when people answered
they responded very quickly that they are already catholic. We offered
them English classes and some of them took some interest in that. We
also had an interesting experience that afternoon. The car's breaks
were really squeaky and so we took the car into the shop. They told us
it would only take about 20 minutes, but that 20 minutes turned into 1
hour and 20 minutes. They said they were training someone new. Luckily
it didn't interfere with to much of our work. That night we had a
great lesson with a guy who is here from Chile for a few weeks and he
is staying with his uncle who is a member of the church. We were able
to have some really good lessons. Our last appointment even made us
homemade juice. She made it out of cantaloupes and lime, and it was
surprisingly good.

Wednesday I was happy to come back to my area with my companion for a
few hours until we had to do exchanges again. It was also nice to come
back and seeing that Sister Hedley had a really successful day on
Tuesday. We went to DTM and talk about the importance of our nightly
planning sessions, and ever since I have been companions with Sister
Hedley I have realized what a difference it makes to plan every half
hour and always have plenty of backups. For exchanges I got to stay in
my area with Sister Montanares. I was excited because we had such a
full day planned and one after another almost all of the appointments
cancelled on us. So it gave us plenty of time to contact and find new
people to teach. The evening was fun because we were able to stay
busy. We had our chapel tour and there was a young women's group that
came. We had a lesson with a recent convert and at the end we asked
her to pray and she said she didn't want to because she doesn't know
how to pray in English. We told her she could pray in her language
that they speak in the Congo and she still didn't want to, so Sister
Montanares said it in Norwegian so that Grace would be comfortable
saying it next time. Then we were able to stop by some other recent
converts and share with them the importance of daily scripture study
and prayer. They said they really do try it is just hard sometimes. We
finished our night off with a lesson in the Italian villages.

Thursday was Pioneer Day and here in Utah it is just as big as the 4th
of July. Because it was a holiday we had a lot of people cancel there
appointments or not want to set up appointments in the first place.
That morning we took our car into the shop because it was time for an
oil change and aligning. They said it would be about an hour and it
was lunch time. The only close restaurant was Sonic and so we ate
there. After we got the car back we didn't have to much planned, so we
decided to use our free time to serve people. We made over 8 dozen
cookies and we delivered them to people we felt needed a pick me up or
a thank you. We also delivered them to the sisters in our zone and the
zone leaders. It is so fun to be able to serve people in different
ways. After dinner we taught one of our investigators and they haven't
been reading their Book of Mormon so we read with them.

Friday was weekly planning and it was great this time because we
really kept in mind what people need to help them come closer to
Christ. After weekly planning we went and did some more contacting. We
didn't have much success but it was all good. I was asked by our
investigator if I could give a talk on baptism for her baptism and I
am so excited for it. That evening we went to a ward party for dinner
and they had a dunk tank. They asked if us sisters could go in it, we
asked for permission but they sadly told us no. After the ward party
we had a lesson with a less active family that is coming back to
church. Before the appointment we had a really good laugh. I had to go
to the bathroom so bad but we didn't rally have time. When I told my
companion that I was going to pee my pants I had to go so bad she
assured me it was going to be a problem because I wasn't wearing pants
(since we are in skirts all day). If this doesn't seem to funny to you
it may have been a "you had to be there" moment. The lesson we had
went really well besides the distraction of the kids throwing temper
tantrums.

Saturday right after studies we got to head down to Springville for
another one of Sister Hedley's baptisms. The little girl getting
baptized was so cute and so eager to get baptized. After the baptism
Elder and Sister Cornish took us out to eat at the Olive Garden. While
I was there I ran into a kid I knew from Skyline High School. He was
Jess's age so I asked if he knew her and then got to the fact that I
was her sister and it was just cool what a small world it is here in
Provo. After the baptism we got to go to a lesson and finish teaching
the plan of salvation. The person we taught really needed hope this
week. We are going to try to start seeing her twice a week because we
love teaching her. The rest of the afternoon before dinner we did lots
of contacting. It was some what successful this time. We even got to
teach this former investigator and set up an appointment with a
different former investigator. We are going to try everything to find
more people to teach and everything to help the people we are already
teaching to progress. After dinner we heard that there was going to be
a super awesome ward party and so we decided to go to it. And it was
AWESOME! The ward was so missionary minded. They had 26 non members
show up and we were being introduced to as many as them as we could.
We even got an appointment with a family of non members! We ended the
night teaching the Parramore family about the word of wisdom and we
talked about standing up for what we believe in even if it means we
are standing alone.

Sunday felt like such a long day. We had meetings from 7:30-11:00 and
then we ate lunch and went off to teach people. It was hard to find
people home. We are hoping they were all at church but we have heard
Sunday is the best day to go out and do things if your a non member
here in Utah because there is no lines. I don't believe it but it was
hard to find them at home for sure. Then we went to church, sacrament
meeting was interesting. The topic was about the importance of being
morally clean and the first speaker just took it to a whole new level
that was a little awkward for everyone. He was talking about he
worldly benefits of being morally clean. Sunday school was super
awesome though, they have a class that is all about how to be a member
missionary. That afternoon we taught the other former investigator and
he has a very strong opinion about things. We showed the "Because of
Him" video because he loves Christ. After the lesson we had a few
minutes before we had to head off to another meeting and we were
starving so we stopped in on the Cornish's and grabbed some food.
After dinner I didn't feel very good so we came home and did some
online missionary work before heading back out. We had an appointment
set for 8:00 but we got a text from our investigator's sister telling
us she doesn't want to meet with us anymore. This broke my heart
because this girl has been ready to be baptized for a while now but
her family keeps holding her back. Hopefully we can figure things out
with her.

Today is an exciting and unusual day. Tonight we have a baptism! I
love when some one realizes the importance of following Christ. She
has so much support from the ward and we also got her mom to start
opening up to us too! We are looking forward to it!
I love you all and I am loving my mission so much right now, I really
am sprinting to the end. There is no reason to give up when the finish
line is so close! Only 9 more weeks

July 21...16 months

Well yesterday me and Jessalyn hit 16 months. At the beginning of my mission I never would have thought I would be at this point so soon. 18 months seemed so long but now that it is almost over I can't believe it! Okay this week was more than incredible. There really isn't words to describe it but I will do my best.

Tuesday we had to go to the mission office right after studies to pick up some supplies for the month. Then we went on exchanges. I was able to stay in my area with Sister Banuelos. She has only been out for 5 months, but she is already an amazing missionary. We did a lot of contacting, but I enjoy contacting now because we are finding so many people that are willing to listen to the message we share, all we have to do is find them and invite. One of the less active families we are teaching right now actually gave us the name of their friends that live just upstairs from them and we are now teaching them too.

Wednesday was a great day. I got to be back with my companion. She has taught me to love contacting and so that is what we did the majority of the morning and afternoon. We taught our investigator S*** who is getting ready to be baptized in August. Her parents are being taught by the senior couple in the area which they love, and then we are able to really focus on S***. After the lesson we headed off to President interviews. I was able to have a really good talk with President about the remaining time I have left. He also asked me a question that definitely was inspired. He asked if I could go back to the new missionary I was 16 months ago and give advice to myself what would I say. After interviews we went to dinner and the sister we ate with was from Idaho Falls originally and when her mom and dad got a divorce her dad moved to West Richland. Her little girl who was 2 has diabetes and she was so good about letting her mom poke her to test her blood but as soon as the needle came out to give her medicine she wasn't so happy. After dinner we had 6 lessons. We got to talk to I*** about her baptism and teach her about the important commitment we are making to the lord. The we got to do a chapel tour for one of our less actives. He said he hasn't been in church for a really long time and he could feel the spirit so strong. We then got to teach this girl who a foster daughter in a members home and she is from the Congo. She was baptized about 2 years ago and when we asked why she decided to be baptized she said her family did it so the missionaries would leave them alone. Hopefully we can change her perspective a little bit. Then we were able to teach about the 10 commandments to D*** and talk about the importance of all the commandments God gives us. Then we stopped by the A*** who are recent converts and we were able to share a short message with Sister A*** out on the porch since her husband was sick.

Thursday we did exchanges again and I stayed in the area with Sister McIntire. She is from Spokane and she did ballet growing up so a lot of our car conversations were about dance. We got to teach the P*** girls the 10 commandments and the fun hands signs that go with them. That night we had a pretty good turn out at our chapel tour and then we had a super awesome lesson with the M***. They are trying to get to the temple and so we taught them a lesson from the Gospel Principles book about having a successful family. I think it is so cool. Heavenly Father has given us instruction manuals on how we should raise our families.

Friday we got to go to a baptism in Springville for one of Sister Hedley's investigators. We also got to do weekly planning and set awesome goals for this week. We are so excited to pick things up even more than they already are and we found our source of people to teach. Apartments! There are a lot of different apartment complexes in our area and so we are going to work hard there. It already started showing success Friday night. We have 4 families in the Italian Village that we are always trying to get in contact with and we finally found one at home and we were able to teach her. Then we were walking to contact someone else and this older couple stopped us. We were talking about their ward and they told us that 50% of the apartments were non-members. So me and Sister Hedley are going to be doing some tracting through there.

Saturday we had 2 more baptisms in Springville. The one in the morning was interesting because a member gave us a ride down and then she left. So we were stranded in Springville. Luckily Sister Soper (one of my trainers) now lives in Springville and so she was able to give us a ride home. That night we had a miracle. We weren't sure where to go and so we prayed and we felt like going down to the apartments on 1200 W and we taught a lady on the side of the sidewalk who wasn't a member and now we have a return appointment with her. Sister Hedley and I both felt so prompted to be out walking between the two apartment complexes to contact some specific names. None of them were home but we both know the reason The Lord prompted us to be there specifically was for T*** (the lady we taught) and now we have a return appointment with her. It was awesome! We asked her if there was anything we could do for her and she said that we did exactly what she needed.

Sunday was a crazy day. We spoke in two sacrament meetings about missionary work/virtue. The first one was a little stressful because there was a lot of ward business and so we didn't have much time to talk especially since the high councilor wanted a least 20 minutes to speak. The second one was a lot better. Luckily we got to use the same talk for both meetings. We had a great lesson with our investigator F***  after that and she is progressing so well. All of our appointments for the evening cancelled but something crazy happened instead. More like a miracle. We got a call from one of our investigators (I***, who is 11 years old) Dad and was asking for the baptism to be when his brother was in town since that is who I***  wants to baptize her. They were hoping to do it on like Tuesday since they are all going to California on Wednesday but it was all craziness as she needs an interview and four more lessons. She is definitely really ready though. We ended up working it out that we will be teaching her every day until she leaves and then have her baptism next Monday at 5pm. It is going to be great! I am so impressed with I*** and her two older siblings (who are already baptized). Both of their parents are less active but the kids just have such a strong conviction to follow God and live the gospel. It is really great and amazing to see in them.

I am grateful that I am able to see God's hand in this great work and all he does for His children. He loves us and knows that we are of eternal worth!

Love you all!

P.S. Only 10 more weeks!

July 14...transfer #12

Tuesday we spent a lot of the day packing and Sister Coleman wrote a bunch of letters to people we are teaching. We delivered them and we also taught a super awesome lesson to one of our ward mission leaders foster daughters. They had recently had an FHE on the Plan of Salvation and since that is what we were teaching she already knew a lot. We are waiting for the states clearance on her getting baptized, which she really wants.

Wednesday was transfers but we did things a little different this time. Sister Coleman was going to be going to an endowment that night and her new companion is my new companions old companion, since they had lots of lessons that night and we did to Sister Hedley and Sister Lasson stayed together until 9:00 that night. We were able to find a split for me and a split for Sister Coleman so she could go to the temple and I could stay and teach lessons. That afternoon we had a super awesome lesson with Mercy. She is interesting to teach because she really does believe everything that we believe except that polygamy is no longer. We taught about the Book of Mormon and she had a very strong testimony of that book. That evening I had a really good lessons about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a good lesson because the lady we were teaching knew the gospel blesses us she just was struggling putting that faith into action. She has been doing a lot better lately.

Thursday we did a lot of contacting. Sister Hedley has a list of people her mom knows down here, since she grew up here. One of her friends that live in our area is a non-member and so we decided to go drop by. When she answered the door Sister Hedley told her that she was the daughter of her friend so she let us right in. We talked a lot about memories she had and then I decided to bring up the gospel. She has lived in Utah all her life and isn't a member. She said she had investigated the church when she was younger and never became interested. Our chapel tour was interesting. We spent about 30 minutes setting up for it and then no one showed up. It was a little disappointing but hopefully next week will be better!

Friday morning about 1:30 Sister Hedley woke me up because she had the stomach flu. So I called Sister Stewart (the mission nurse) and she said there was nothing we could really do. The Elders had told us the day before at DTM if we ever needed a blessing of healing in the middle of night they would move mountains to be able to help us out. So we called them to see if they could come and give Sister Hedley a blessing. After the blessing she felt a lot better, the only problem was that we were wide awake and not tired anymore. So we ended up watching the "Prophet of the Restoration" movie until 3:30, and then we were finally tired enough to go to sleep. The nurse called in the morning and told us to rest for the day because she wasn't sure if Sister Hedley was contagious or not. So we did our normal studies, got to know each other a lot more, and we also were able to do weekly planning and get a lot of calls done. That night since we had nothing else to do we played some Mancala and some Skip-Bo. It was fun!

Saturday was such an exciting and busy day. We were able to have quite a few lessons and we made some contacts and set up a ton of lessons for Sunday. In the morning we went to a ward breakfast and our investigators were there which was cool to see. After that we decided to go sticky note the elders door with thank you's for coming to the rescue the night before. After lunch we met with one of our recent converts and he has been talking with his non-member sister about the church and now she wants to meet with the missionaries. She is in Missouri so we talked to him about the different ways he could get missionaries over there. After that we met our new investigator. Her name is F*** and she is awesome. She is from California and right now she is here in Utah at a eating disorder treatment center. But she says she is progressing quickly. In California she was on date to be baptized and so she is very golden. She reads the Book of Mormon all the time, prays and goes to church. That afternoon we got to go down to Spanish Fork for B*** baptism. I taught him for a long time and so it was awesome that I was able to go down. That night our dinner told us about this house that they were pretty sure had non-members in it. I really don't enjoy cold contacting but Sister Hedley was a good missionary and talked me into it. It was an amazing miracle. The lady that answered the door invited us in. She said she had taken the missionary lessons before but never finished them. As we were talking she let us know that she didn't think it was for her. We showed the "Because of Him" video and her whole perspective changed. She wants us to come back and teach her and her family!  

Sunday was a busy day. We went to our coordination meeting and then we went to a ward council. We had to leave the ward council early so we could make it to the primary sharing time that we were teaching. After that we ran to another ward to teach relief society. All the topics were baptism and the covenants we make. It was such a fun lesson to teach about since that is the goal we have for everyone we teach. Our afternoon and evening was filled with lessons and all of them went really well. The sad thing that happened is we basically dropped one of our family of investigators because they just aren't progressing. But they said that if they do it, they want to do it as a family! Which is exactly what we want!

So now a little bit about my new companion. First of all, SHE IS AWESOME! She is from Toronto Canada. She is 21 and she loves to be active. She is such a hard working missionary and we have a fun time working hard. I think I am going to love this transfer! I just hope time doesn't go by to fast!

Love you all!