Jun 16...my my what a week!

Okay I know it usually don't explain Monday's very often but this past Monday was amazing. After p-day we start work again at 6:00. It was such a crazy night we had 7 lessons in just 3 hours. I think we are finally being trusted in is area by the people and by The Lord. We had 2 appointments at 6 so I went to one with a member and Sister Coleman went to another. The lesson I got to teach was awesome! I taught the restoration to two less active members. One has a quite a bit of knowledge about the church, while the other really doesn't know much. But the spirit was so strong and they said there is something about the church that is drawing them to come back. I know the spirit has told them they need to come. We also got a new investigator. He had wanted to be baptized at one point but something happened and so the baptism never did happen. We hope we can get him back on track for baptism. It was a really great night. 

Tuesday was a fun day. I got to do exchanges with Sister Funaki, who is the missionary I trained last October. It was so fun to see how much she has grown over the past 7-8 months. Our first lesson was with this girl from the Philippines. She is catholic and she her father just passed away. That is one thing I love about the message we share. We have the knowledge of an after life that allows us to be with our families forever. After that lesson we headed to the chapel so the
Elders could do an iPad update for us. Then we went to the mission office to pick up a Tagalog Book of Mormon. We then did some finding and setting up appointments and had a lesson right before dinner. We were planning on sharing a video about the atonement but since our iPads were just updated we didn't have any videos downloaded any more. So we found a scripture that talked about it. Dinner was interesting and a little awkward. This lady took us to a Mexican restaurant and when she was going to pay the waiter came back and said her card wasn't working. This was the only form of payment the lady had, so she called the bank and nothing. We offered to pay but she wouldn't let us. So we sat there until she finally decided to call her friend to come help out. After dinner we had some good lessons. We had one that we talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the guy was really struggling with falling back into temptation over and over again. He
said he feels really dumb repenting if he is just going to make the same mistake again. We also taught this little girl who has a super short attention span. Right before we went home we stopped by this apartment of some people that are moving. They literally had a zoo in their apartment. They had 6 birds, 2 dogs, 3 cats, a snake, a lizard,and a hamster. 3 of the birds we parrots and talked a lot, they even would laugh like humans. It was so cool!

Wednesday I finally got back with my companion, at least for a little while. We had DTM in the morning and me and Sister Coleman were in charge of doing the training. We talked about the important role the Book Of Mormon plays in conversion. I think it is key. If you know the Book Of Mormon is true everything else follows. After DTM we attempted to do some service, but no one was home. So we asked the Elders in the Zone north of us, that we cover, if they could let us in to their DTM chapel because we would be doing a chapel tour for their training in a few days and we wanted to get acquainted with the chapel. That chapel ended up being a hard one to tour because their was no pictures, just long hallways of brick. For dinner that night we ate with our investigator family, the K*** . We followed up with them on whether or not they have been praying about baptism and they said they hadn't so we recommitted them. They did tell us though that they had been reading their scriptures together, which is a huge step for them. After dinner we had our weekly Aspen Stake chapel tour. It was a little nerve racking because the stake president was their and he likes the tours done a specific way and so the pressure was on. But, I felt like it ended up being great. That night we were able to teach two new people and they were both non-members. The first was is living with a family that is members and he really didn't seem to interested. The second one was a girl who met us at the church because her roommates are super anti. But that was a really cool lesson. Sadly we had to hand her off to the YSA elders. 

Thursday we did another DTM training on chapel tours and the elders forgot to tell us earlier that the actual chapel where we have sacrament meeting was locked. So we had to stop our tour a little earlier than planned. After that we got to do exchanges again. I went with Sister Andelin who was in the MTC with me. It was a fun day full of lessons and finding. A lot of the lessons were actually a little awkward because there was a lot of awkward silence at the beginning before we would start.

Friday we did our last DTM training on chapel tours, at least for a while. This chapel tour went a lot better than the one the day before. When we got home we ate lunch and then started our weekly planning. All of our appointments were no shows. Which made it a long day. The one thing that did happen that was cool was dinner. We ate dinner with Brother and Sister Skinner and when he asked where we were from he told us his sister lived there. It ended up being Delene Ostler's brother! What a small world. So I have now eaten with Delene's brother from Orem and sister from Provo! 

Saturday turned into a service day for our ward mission leaders. One of the stakes we work with really doesn't have a lot of work right now and so we wanted to gain the mission leaders trust so that they will give us more work. So we wrote all of them notes and made cupcakes. Hopefully this will help. We also spent a lot of time with the senior couple, the Cornish's. They take care of us as if we are their own kids. They are amazing and help us a lot. We tried make some more contacts but the big Orem fest was on Saturday so no one was home.

Sunday was Father's Day. We had a meeting with the stake to discuss missionary work. Then we went home and studied, then went to sacrament meeting. After church we went and helped a ward mission leader deliver a birthday gift to one of the non-members in his ward. She is 16 and she goes to church every Sunday by herself. Her mom works from 3 in the morning until 10:30 at night 7 days a week. She does home health care. I don't ever want to be away from my family for that long! The gift that we gave the girl was a quad with her name printed on it. We are starting the discussions with her next week. Then we got to go teach the K*** again. I love their family. We asked about how the prayers were coming and the kids said they prayed but the mom said she hasn't but she still will. We asked the kids if they felt like they got an answer and they said no. We asked about how they were expecting to get their answer. We found out the boy really felt peaceful and happy when he prayed about it. And really that was his answer he just didn't recognize it. So then we taught about tithing and they thought it was a little strange but they were will to pay it after they get baptized. We also asked them if we could shoot for a specific day and they got a little worried. I hope they didn't feel like we were pushing them. They told us they would pray about it. I really hope everything works out for this family. Dinner was interesting. It was really good thought. We had a fondue dinner, we each had two little sticks that we would put a piece of meat on and then stick it in a boiling pot of broth. It took a long time, it was weird having to wait 5 minutes between each bite. But they family we ate with was awesome. They are actually good friends with the K*** and so we invited them to talk with the kids on how they felt about baptism and also to make sure they come to church every week. 

We have an interesting new investigator this week. She comes from a polygamist family and her dad is actually in the hospital with a broken neck right now. We found out he broke his neck from falling off a carriage he was "driving". I don't know if she really knows the difference between her beliefs and ours so hopefully we can clear some things up.

I am grateful to be a missionary, I love sharing the gospel, and I love seeing lives change!

Love, Sister Harrison 

Jun 9...this week!

This week was so busy, went by so fast, it was a bit exhausting and was so much fun! I am late getting to emails because we went on a hike this morning so that we didn't die of heat this afternoon.
Tuesday we had MLC (mission leader council) from 9-3:30. This is where all the sister training leaders and zone leaders come together and are taught by President McCune. It was a long meeting but it was so helpful. We had to take really good notes because everything that we learn we then have to go and train our zones. Two of the main things that were trained on is how to do a chapel tour and how to teach the Book Of Mormon. Both of the role plays were so powerful and I hope I am teaching my people like that. I was asked to be part of a survey that only 5 sisters from our mission would be part of. They asked a few questions about sister training leaders. It was a little hard answering them because by this point I had only been one for 5 days and had no idea what to expect. Our evening was full of appointments. We had one at 4:30 and we taught the Plan of Salvation. The husband had lots of really good questions and they both opened up about wanting to change habits in their life so they can be sealed. At 5:00 we had dinner with a recent convert and we were able to share a lesson with them after wards. They have been struggling with some stuff health wise and the husband has been out of work, so we shared the Mormon message about good things to come. At 6:30 we went and taught this family who is preparing to go to the temple next month to get sealed. They are so ready! We were a little stumped what we were going to do the rest of the evening but we got a call from a relief society president and we felt like we need to go stop by her house. We started talking to her about a sister in the ward that agreed to the missionary lessons but is moving on Saturday. The RS president called her and we ended up going over there that night to teach her. We taught about the Book Of Mormon. It was a super powerful lesson, she really knew the importance of reading it everyday after teaching about it.

Wednesday was also a busy day. We had an appointment at 10:00 that fell through so we went and dropped by this one guys house to give him some dvd's that he asked for. He has a non-member friend that just found out he has cancer and so the dvd's talked about finding hope through Jesus Christ. After that we had a meeting with the two sets of zone leaders that we work with so that we could decide how to train each of the zones. After that we got to do exchanges. Since we had a lot going on the next few days we ended up only doing like a 7 hour exchange instead of 24 hours. But sometimes you got to make things fit. I went to the Spanish sister's area since I am still new in my own area. We tried doing service but the sister wasn't home. So we did finding instead. I also now have the responsibility to check the iPads and make sure they are being used obediently. The sister I was on exchanges with is from Salt Lake and she went to Murray high school and knows David Archuleta. It was so fun being able to just observe for the day since I can't speak any Spanish.

Thursday was our first of 2 zone training meetings for the week. It went really well. I was so nervous but the elders let us off pretty easy on what they wanted us to teach. We got to be in charge of the chapel tour. Ever since we have been really focusing on these my testimony of church has been strengthened so much. The buildings we have to meet in our so significant. They truly are blessings that we have been given. After ztm we headed to the mission office to do some stuff. The we got to help out with what a stake called the "Alma Academy". There was a bunch of youth that are 17+ that have their mission calls or are thinking about a mission. We got to role play for them and then watch them role play and help them. At the end we did a Q&A session and we were asked some pretty good questions. After dinner we had a chapel tour and only 2 people showed up. That night we had to skip our coordination meeting because we had a lesson with an investigator that was supposed to get baptized on Saturday but she moved it back to the 28th. She had her baptism interview that day anyway. 

Friday we had our second zone training meeting. It was a lot different than the first but it was good also. I really don't remember what else happened on Friday sadly.

Saturday we got to do service for our land lords. After service we went to lunch with the senior missionary couple and coordinated the work in the stake. After dinner we tried really hard to get in some lessons. We said a prayer and told Heavenly Father we had the faith that he could lead us to people to teach. After the prayer we started finding people home and we were able to teach. I am so grateful that God listens and answers are prayers.

Sunday was AMAZING! We had a really good lesson. Our day started at 5:45 in the morning because we had to be to a priesthood leadership meeting at 7. After that we went home and studied, and then we went to an 11:00 church hoping we would see some of our investigators. The ward went on a trek over the weekend and our 13 and 15 year old investigators went! I guess the testimony meeting was super spiritual. During sacrament they had people share their experiences of the trek. Our investigators were there with their whole family! We then went and had a lesson with them right after church and both me and my companion had this super strong feeling that we needed to invite the whole family to be baptized. So we prayed really hard for the courage and faith to do it. So we taught the word of wisdom and then we brought up baptism. We asked the kids first if they have been praying about it. They said they hadn't really so we invited them to do so and then we turned to mom and asked her. I am thinking she had never been asked before because she was a little surprised. She finally agreed that she would pray about it. After the lesson when I got in the car the tears started coming. The spirit was so strong and I know this family needs the gospel. I know the kids want it, I think they are just scared to disappoint mom who is a practicing catholic. After that we were able to make some really good contacts in the evening. We contacted this one family who supposedly comes from a polygamist background and the wife's dad is in the hospital. We asked if we could do anything for them and they asked us if we could pray with them right then. It was so amazing. Then we went and contacted this one lady who the senior couple has been trying to get a hold of for a while and we felt really impressed to go contact her. She was home and she set up an appointment to meet with us! 

I am staying plenty busy with work in the area and being a sister training leader. We are in finding mode right now and we are getting a lot of referrals from members which is so awesome! 

I love being a missionary and I seriously can not believe that I have less that 4 months left!!! I am nervous to come home but I know there are great adventures waiting for me.

Love, Sister Kaylynn Harrison

Jun 2...this week

This week was a little different than most. It is a new adventure, with an awesome companion, in an awesome area. My new companion is Sister Coleman from the Tri-cities. The reactions we get at dinner are funny, and they all wonder if we knew each other before hand. But as one of the senior missionaries said, "we had to travel hundreds of miles to meet each other and become friends." Sister Coleman is so fun, and such a hard working missionary. Something that I already love about her is that she eats healthy and loves running! My area is so much fun. The members here want to help with missionary work, that is so key!

On Monday we actually had a really fun district activity for PDAY and it was Memorial Day. We decided to bike from Provo up to Bridal Vail Falls, we only made it about 7 miles or so and then had to turn around due to time. It was so hot outside and the sun was beaming, so a few of us got sunburnt, me included, but it is all a tan now. The rest of the night was saying goodbyes to families since I got transferred on Wednesday. I first said goodbye to the Petersen's. I am going to do everything I can to come down next year to their sealing. Their family definitely has a special place in my heart. I know that I won't loose connection with them. 

Tuesday was more goodbyes and lessons. We actually had a really full day. We worked at the temple booth. After that we went to this yummy pizza place with one of the Relief Society presidents, it was amazing. Then we had a lesson with J*** and she was sad I was leaving because I had been there the whole time she was having lessons. But we are going to keep in touch over Facebook and she said she is going to invite me when she gets sealed! The good bye I said on Tuesday night was probably the hardest. It was the C***s. The 2 year old little girl would not let go of me. She really didn't want me to leave, and there was lots of tears. After we said our good byes and we started walking down the street she yelled "Harrison" and came and gave me a big bear hug. Her mom eventually had to come and peel her off of me. I ended up crying the rest of the way home.

Wednesday came so fast and we headed to the transfer chapel in the morning. I got my new companion Sister Coleman. As sister training leaders we waited to make sure all of our sisters had all their stuff and had rides to their new areas. I got to my new area, settled in and then we got to work. The stakes that I cover in this area do something so cool. Every week they hold a chapel tour. So members come with less actives and non members so that we can teach all of them about the importance of going to church. We also have a senior couple for each of the stakes we cover. One of the couples, the Cornish's, are like grandparents to us missionaries. They are so willing to help us, feed us, and take care of us when we need it.

Thursday we decided to find more people to teach. A Relief Society President was kind enough to give us a huge list of sisters that are either less active or struggling. So we parked the car and walked around the ward to contact the sisters. We knocked at this one door hoping to find a lady named J***and ended up finding her friend who is a less active, she invited us back to teach her and J*** the lessons. We also had DTM on Thursday, my district is us sister training leaders, the zone leaders, the district leader and his new comp from the MTC and two spanish sister that are going home the same day as me. It's going to be a fun and uplifting transfer. Thursday was the day of big families. So first we ate dinner with this family that has 19 kids! Only 16 kids are still at home and out of the 19 only 2 are biologically theirs.They have fostered over 60 kids and they ended up adopting 17 of them. The 16 that were there were all under the age of 15. You would think it would be a total mad house, but these parents are amazing. The dad is a veteran from the army and the mom is a school teacher so they know about discipline and order. The second big family was a lesson that we taught that night. Granted it was two families but they all live under one roof. We taught the Restoration of the Gospel to 9 kids. It was noisy and everyone had answers. It was fun and definitely different.

Friday was an interesting day. Ever since Wednesday Sister Coleman was telling me that as sister training leaders we don't deal with very much drama. Then Friday we both had an eye opening. We got a call saying that their was some sisters that needed help in their companionship. So we finished up lunch and headed out to go see how we could help. We ended up doing an emergency exchange for a few hours so that we could talk to each of the sisters. It was interesting because I was the one that went back to our area. I almost couldn't get there because I have only been in the area for 2 days. We also got informed about some other sister that we needed to help. 

Saturday was a busy day but not full of teaching appointments. Sometimes this can be discouraging to missionaries, but not me! We got to fill our day with service. We helped a ward to a clean up, the we help the senior missionary couple prepare for their daughters bridal shower, went to a baptism of a part member family, we drove some sisters down to a baptism, and had dinner with the family with 19 kids again. Then we finally got to do some contacting. We were able to find some people home that scheduled with us for later in the week. We also finally did our weekly planning since we had some sister training leader responsibilities on Friday. We set some really good personal and companionship goals that are going to help us become better missionaries.

Sunday seemed like it was never going to end, especially before dinner. This fast Sunday was harder than most, it might be because it is getting hot, or something. At dinner me and Sister Coleman ate so much that it made us sick. We are still paying for it today. It didn't help that the dinner was so super delicious.

I am loving everything about this transfer all ready and I can't believe it is already June! I better start working even harder, because time is getting faster. 

Love you all

Love, Sister Harrison #2

May 26...no time to waste

Every Monday night, for the past few weeks or so, we have been going to the house of this older couple to help them strengthen their testimonies. It has turned in to what we call miracle Monday. We all start off by sharing a miracle that happened that week whether it was big or small. Then we ask what they call a "golden question", basically it is a question that gets them think deep about a gospel principle. For example, how do you know when you are feeling the Holy Ghost, or if you could focus on one Christ like attribute to work on which one would it be. These questions usually turn into sharing experiences and it is so amazing to hear the things they have accomplished in their lives. The sister shared with us something that I am going to hold on to for a long time. She said if youre ever getting a thought to do sometime and you dont know if it is you or the spirit, if it is good, just do it.

Tuesday we had a pretty good time. We were invited to have lunch with this couple since our dinner calendar is already full. They were a super awesome couple, they are really wanting to help out the missionary work in their ward. After lunch we went to the Provo Rehab and Nursing to teach our 94 year old. But I totally spaced that it was Tuesday and that she would be in physical therapy. So we headed out to contact some other people. We got to teach Jessica like we do every Tuesday and there was something about this lesson that was special. Usually she is pretty quiet and reserved but the past few times we have been over there she has opened up a lot more. She now has this glowing countenance that is amazing. She told us earlier that she used to struggle to avoid coffee at work, but she has been working really hard on quitting because she really wants to make it to the temple. She also told us about the reason she came back to the church, it was all because her brother kept loving her. After that we had dinner with a couple that served as mission president and wife in Columbia. And after dinner we got to go teach Malakai, it was his last lesson before his baptism. We were teaching about tithing and we asked him to read the scripture from  Malachi 3:10 and after he finished reading it he said, "and I said that." It was so funny coming from a 9 year old. Later that night we decided to contact one of our less active families we haven't seen for a little while and we actually were able to catch them at home. We then went and contacted a referral that we got from the ward mission leader. On our way home that night we walked past a house and the family was out working in the yard. They were Samoan and were really excited to see sister missionaries. They ran in and got us each a box of cookies and a thing of juice to take home. It felt like such a wonderful day!

Wednesday morning we got to do a service project for the mission. We helped plant bushes and plants at the mission office and put in bark around it. We also got to clean out the rain gutters on the street around the mission office and sweep out the parking lot. It took a good part of our day but it was fun. I am finally starting to have some color to my skin. The weather has been beautiful and I love it. After the service project we had lessons scheduled for the rest of the evening. The first lesson was with this sister who is trying to help her friend learn more about the gospel and so she was to get more active and have a better understanding so she is more helpful. She got really excited when we told her we could Facebook or Skype her friend to get her started with the missionary lessons. Then we got to teach Alan, he is doing so much better, he got a letter that day telling him that now he has been full fellowshipped back into the church he has the full power and duty of a Melchizedek priesthood holder. He also has been reading his scriptures more often and can feel and see the difference in his life. For our lesson with the Petersen's we did something a little different. We decided we wanted to teach about Christ like attributes and so we wrote all of them down from Preach My Gospel on post-it notes and had each of them pick one they wanted to work on. We then talked about each one and read scriptures to go along with it. Something that was quoted was "You are not punished for your sins you are punished by your sin."- Neal A. Maxwell. I really like this quote when it comes to the reason we are obedient. The spirit was so strong in the lesson and it definitely made me want to continue to develop Christ like attributes everyday. When we got home there was a bag of Samoan food sitting at our door. I guess the poly elders were given to much food so they brought some to us.

Thursday was a walking day. We seriously walk all day trying to find people at home and ready to be taught. We had two appointments that both fell through. The first one got stuck in bad traffic on his way home from work and wouldn't make it on time. And the second one was interesting, we were in his house ready to teach but he got a phone call right before we were going to get started and so we had to leave. He helps this boy down the street who is in a wheel chair and he needed help. So we did some more contacting of empty houses. Even our meeting Thursday night was strange. Usually we have at least 2 or 3 ward mission leaders show up. The meeting started at 8:00 and no one was there until 8:20 and he was the only one to show up.

Friday started early because we had a lesson at 10:00 and the DTM at 11:00. The lesson was super interesting. It was with these two Mennonite women, one who was older and one that was a little older than me. The one around my age actually didn't grow up a Mennonite, she was converted when she was in college. They love the Bible. They had a lot of questions about our religion and they always made sure it matched up with the doctrine in the Bible. We got to teach them about the Book of Mormon, and they committed to start reading it so they could find out if it is God's word. They also asked if we had set lessons about the basic doctrine in our church. So we are going to be teaching those, actually we won't be because she doesn't live in our area, but we are going to be handing her off to the other sisters. DTM was fun, we played Preach My Gospel jeopardy. Then we went to Costa Vida as a district and it was so yummy! Friday evening we went and taught a less-active and her girls, and we got to help clean the house. The youngest girl is 3 years old and she had a little boy from her daycare group die this week. What she said was the cutest thing, she said that Tyler is sleeping with Jesus now. I am so grateful for the knowledge we have of the plan of salvation.

Saturday was baptism day! We had a baptism at 11:00 for Malakai, he was so happy and so ready. The talks that were given at his baptism were very spiritual and inspired. After the baptism we went home and ate lunch, then did weekly planning. After weekly planning we tried doing more contacting and we actually went to this one lady's house that we have been trying to contact for awhile and she let us in. We wanted to show her the "Because of Him" video but she didn't want us to. She wanted to know how we knew Jesus, not what we know about him but how we personally know him. She was quite interesting to teach because there was some points where she was trying to convert us to her faith. She is from Africa and she really likes how safe Provo is. After her we had dinner with this couple that has seriously been married for only 2 months, we have been eating with a lot of people like that. After dinner we went down to Springville for one of Sister Lani's investigators baptisms. The was a huge turn out. They had all us missionaries stand up and be recognized and it was super awkward for me since I didn't know her at all. But that is the joy of being a companionship.

Sunday was probably one of the most successful Sunday's we have had in a while. We went to church at 9:00 and one of our less actives was there so we got to sit with her in relief society, and then after she invited us over for lunch. We were able to have a lesson about the importance of centering our homes on Jesus Christ. After her we went and did more contacting, and found a less active at home. We taught her the restoration and she said was an answer to her prayer. She told us that the only things she struggles with in the LDS faith is Joseph Smith's story, so when we got done teaching today she said she really wants to pray about Joseph Smith so that she can have a testimony. After her we had dinner and then a drop by to another less actives home. We had some fellowshippers from the ward come with us and at first we didn't think the family was home, but we knocked again and they answered. We were able to get to know them more and also teach them a short lesson about the Book of Mormon. At the end I felt prompted to ask them if we could go through all the discussions with them and they agreed that it would help them a lot! We then spent the rest of the night contacting more people.

Today we got our transfer list, and here is what is going to happen... I am going to be a sister training leader in North Orem with Sister Coleman, who is from Kennewick! I am going to miss being here in a walking area so much and all the AMAZING people! 

Some things I noticed that I love this week are the following:
- I love the reaction we get when we pull out our iPads to share a spiritual thought. So many return missionaries get jealous.
- I love members that feed us good. I feel pretty lucky to get fed every night and to be honest I haven't eaten anything to weird.
-I love my companion, she is seriously the best. There is not a day that goes by that she
doesn't make me laugh and smile.
- I love that everyday me and my companion coordinate our outfits so we can match.
- I love being honked at, even though it startles me every time. But it is people showing that they love missionaries.
- I love that as a missionary I can go into a strangers house and come out and feel like I just made a best friend.
- I love that we have iPads so that me and my companion can take pictures and videos all the time.
- I LOVE MY MISSION!

may 19...eventful!

Tuesday was full of fun and miracles. We went to the mission office and got to say good bye to Sister Mabey, her and her husband are leaving at the end of this month, and the new mission secretary seems super awesome too. We had some really good lessons. First with Jessica, a less active, she told us she has been going to church and her husband got a calling. They also have been working really close with the bishop to try and go to the temple soon. Then we decided to go and contact a part member family, the mom has been gone for a while but is back and she is actually the one that requested that her and her non-member daughters have the missionaries over. We had been trying contact them for awhile, but on Tuesday we were finally able to, they invited us in and we were able to get to know them and have a lesson. I guess both the girls (who are 18 and 13) had been really close to getting baptized before. As soon as one of them told them missionaries she wasn't quite ready because she still had a lot of questions the missionaries stopped coming. They also have never had girl missionaries and they said that would love to take the lessons from us. After dinner we had a lesson with our 9 year old investigator who is getting baptized be next week and so we set up a baptism interview for Saturday. He is so excited and so ready. After his lesson we went to the stake relief society activity. It was an around the world theme about coming unto Christ no matter where you are from. One of the sisters from the general relief society board was there and she spoke to us, and told some really funny and amazing stories.

Wednesday was a great day. We were able to see our recent convert at the nursing home. She is so fun to go see because she has such a wonderful spirit. Then we went and saw Sonny and Avery. They are always so full of energy. After dinner we were trying to do some contacting in the North Park 3 ward but no one was home. I had a feeling that we needed to visit this one less active the ward mission leader had told me about a while ago. It was definitely a prompting from the holy ghost. She was home and when she opened the door she looked so stressed. We asked her if we could come in and she said she was busy cleaning the house because there was cat hair everywhere. We asked if we could help her. She got all teary eyed and asked if we would really do that for her. She thought we wouldn't talk to her or help her because she is less active and because of her appearance. We were able to go in and help clean for a little while and then we realized that her vacuum was broken and that is why her house has so much cat hair because the past times she has been vacuuming it hasn't been sucking anything up. We then shared a spiritual message with her. She really need us there and God made sure we were there. 

Thursday we had a guy stop us on the street and ask us about the LDS 12 step program. We also almost caused an accident when we were at the temple booth. We were out waving and we had a sign that says I love to see the temple. Some one was waving at us and they didn't notice that the traffic had stopped in front of them so they had to slam on their brakes to avoid anything bad happening. When we work at the temple booth we have a lot of the construction workers walk by and I just felt like we needed to do something for them. So we went to Smith's and bought 4 bags of skittles and 2 bags of pretzels. We then separated them into 90 little bags with a note attached saying how grateful we are that they are helping build up the kingdom of God. After a wonderful dinner with one of my favorite people here in Provo, we were able to teach some one new. His name is JD, he is about 30 and he is less active. The lesson was super awesome. We taught the restoration, which he knew pretty well and then when it got to the part about how he needs to find out for himself by reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it he got interested. I decided to share my story about how I came to know for myself and he asked me lots of questions about it. I can tell he really has the desire to know for himself. 

Friday was such a weird day. We had DTM and it was good. On our way to the temple booth we passed this group of homeless people and one of them asked us if we could come over and pray with the group. To be honest I was so scared to shut my eyes because I didn't know what was going to happen. But I said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father to bless them with the knowledge that they are his children, and that he loves them. As we were at the temple booth we got to hand out a lot of our little bags of goodies. It was so cool to see how happy they were to get some gratitude coming their way.  Also while we were working at the temple booth a guy walked past that was so drunk he couldn't even stand up. He fell over a few times. Me and Sister Lani had a weird feeling so we went inside the temple booth and locked it for a few minutes while he passed by. Towards the end of our turn at the temple booth all the construction workers were getting off work and so we were able to hand out a lot of our little baggies. After dinner we headed to do some contacting with one of the ward mission leaders and everyone we tried contacting wasn't home. So we were walking to the chapel to use the restroom and there was a big group of people across the street. They called us over and told us to join them. So we got to go to a big Poly BBQ. The food was so good! We talked to them a lot about missionary work and we even were able to share a spiritual thought and our phone number just in case they had friends that were ready to hear about the gospel. We had lots of good laughs and some small world moments, their was two of them that had just got home from their mission and they knew my friend from high school. 

Saturday was so hot! Sometimes it feels like we are melting but I much prefer this than the snow so I am not complaining. In the morning we were headed to the chapel for a baptism interview for our investigator and the mail man walked up with a big white envelope and handed it to me. It was what our mission calls "trunky papers". But it is a letter from President McCune that says we have four months left and he wants us to work harder than we have our whole mission. I am so excited to work even harder. The baptism interview went well. The Elder that interviewed him said he knows a lot for only being 9. We are all looking forward to Saturday when he is getting baptized. Then we had temple booth that afternoon and we were planning on going and handing out more of the little bags but then we realized that they don't work on Saturday's. But we had fun standing outside and doing lots of waving. I think my right muscle is getting so strong, actually probably not. After dinner we went to one of our less actives house and she thought she was feeding us and so we got to eat two dinners again, for the second night in a row. 

Sunday was great too. Every day is great when you are serving the Lord. We actually had quite the adventure in the morning. We were planning on going to the 11:00 ward with some of our investigators and I was pretty sure it was at the stake center which is the farthest church from our home. So we left our house quite early so we could be there on time. When we got there we saw the Elder's bikes and so we went in and I guess their Spanish ward meets at 11:00 at the stake center. It was already 10:50 so we borrowed the Elder's bikes in order to get to the right church building by 11:00. After church we went to our investigator's house since they didn't show up to church. They weren't home. So we went and ate lunch and did some other contacting. Then we had a coordination meeting at 4 and then dinner. The people we ate dinner with were so awesome. They had just been reactivated by some elders a little while ago and so the wife had just gone through the temple and they are going to the temple next month to get sealed. After dinner a ward invited us to their "walk and talk",  which is just a bunch of neighbors getting together and talking but there are lots of non-members and less-actives that come. Then we had a lesson at 7 and our less active that we were teaching had some super awesome news for us. He just got re-fellowshipped into the church and was able to take the sacrament for the first time in 20 years! He is doing so great! After the appointment we met up with Vanessa at a church to talk for a little while because her friend died in a car accident that morning and she was really struggling. It was my first time seeing her in about 7 months which was way to long. But she is doing awesome! She is a supervisor at her job and her kids are growing up like crazy! 

I am so grateful for the Lord and allowing me to see so many blessings every day. Transfers are next week and I don't know what is going to happen, but I know the Lord will put me where ever I am needed!:)

May 12...my week

Tuesday we did exchanges with the sister training leaders.  It was so cool how busy we stayed that day. We were able to contact a lot of people and teach a lot of lessons. We also were able to have fellowshippers at every single lesson. I usually really don't like going on exchanges with the sister training leaders but this week it was really fun. We also got to teach a lesson to an active family and it was so amazing how strong the spirit was as we were teaching them. They're really excited to reach out to their friends, family and neighbors and teach them more about the gospel. Our dinner appointment was really interesting, the couple had signed up to feed the missionaries three times and we were the first ones to finally show up. Even though me and Sister Hedley had only been companions for the day we taught really well together.
Wednesday morning we had DTM. Me and Sister Lani got to do the training and teach about the importance of how to begin teaching and do a role play. We had each of the sets of elders teach a sister, it was really cool to see how well they did. In preach my gospel it has certain bullet points we're supposed to use as we teach the first time and each of the missionaries used quite a few. We also finally got to teach one of our investigators has been out of town for three months. She is from Mexico so she doesn't know a lot of English so we are trying to hand her off to the Spanish elders. She is convinced that she knows English really well but she always gives us a blank stare when we teach her about the gospel principles. We also got to teach one of our investigators about eternal families. She loves all the principles that we teach she just doesn't know if Joseph Smith is a prophet or not or if the Book of Mormon is true. She has tried so hard to find out, she prays daily and reads the Book of Mormon all the time, she also goes to church every Sunday. I really hope one day she'll be able to find her answer. This week's dinners were really interesting we were fed a lot of healthy food. Wednesday night we got salad. The weather here in Utah is so bipolar, one minute it is sunny and warm and the next it is windy, cold and rainy. Luckily one of the ladies that we taught that day gave us her umbrella to use in the rain. Because when we left home it was so sunny and warm so I didn't think we would be needing one, but I was wrong.

Thursday was fun. The weather was super bipolar again, and for some reason the work was a bit slower. We were able to teach one lesson to our recent convert and it was her last official lesson with us. We are going to keep stopping by just to make sure she is keeping on the straight and narrow. Both of our appointments that night cancelled and so we were left to contacting. We found a family that was playing football outside and we started talking to them. They told us they moved here from out east and they like it here because of the safety. We asked them if we could share a short message and they said not right now but we were welcome to come back sometime. So we will be following up with them some time this week. As we were walking around finding people, we were walking on the main road and all of a sudden I heard someone yell my first name. It confused me so bad, there was a car that had pulled over and was waving at me. I started walking towards them and they took off. I found out later that it was one of the high councilors from Spanish Fork. I don't know why in the world he called me by my first name. That night we had our regular missionary coordination meeting and only one ward mission leader showed up so it was a really short meeting.

Friday was our Zone Conference and I learned so much. I am seriously so grateful for President and Sister McCune. They have taught me so much and they are amazing! In the middle of the conference we did a split meeting, so the Elders went with Sister McCune and us sisters got to stay with President. He talked a lot about how even if you don't ever get into a leadership position on your mission it doesn't mean you are not a good missionary. I think sister missionaries are really bad when it comes to comparing ourselves to others. This lead in to what Sister McCune taught us all and that was the "4 deadly C's", compete, compare, complain, and critize. But I know all of us missionaries are really good at getting frustrated with our selves when we don't stay away from these things. At the end of Zone Conference we went and talked to President about our living situation and he had the housing couple come take a look. We just don't feel very safe in the area where we live. I am grateful to have an apartment but its been kind of creepy lately. They said we should be okay because if anything does happen the police department is close. But I really think it will be okay. 

Saturday we got to do a service project for a family that is moving. The mom is pregnant and the dad just had knee surgery and they are supposed to be moving by the end of this month. So we got to help do some cleaning and packing. We tackled the walls(scrubbed them with magic erasers) and the kitchen(moved the fridge and stove out and cleaned behind them.) When we got done Sister Lani got to Skype her family, because they are 18 hours ahead of us. It was so cool listening to her speak her language. Saturday night it decided to be winter again. It didn't snow but it was really cold and rainy. I just wish Utah would get the memo that it is supposed to be summer soon.

Sunday was by far the best day! It felt like church was never going to end. I loved the speakers and the lessons but I just couldn't wait to Skype my wonderful family. It was so good seeing everyone and I just can't believe how much everyone has grown. I thought going on a mission would be like going into the Narnia wardrobe where I would come home and nothing would have changed. I guess even though lots of things are changing I am still super happy to be serving. Getting told by Jace that he could drive me home from the airport and be dating... SCARY! And Kade having a beautiful smile and growing like crazy! It was also so good to see Summer, Bradley and Zoey. What a cute family! Also seeing the most supportive parents in the world was wonderful. I can't wait until I can give all of you the biggest hug in the world. 

I am going to keep working my hardest and learning and growing everyday. 

 Love you all!

May 5...enjoying the little things

I have been continuing to look for the miracles in my life everyday and it is making me so much more happy. Even on the days we don't teach anyone and we can't find anyone home I am still completely filled with the joy of knowing that God is in my everyday life. Last P-day was so much fun. We went to "Sacred Gifts" which is the art museum on BYU campus and right now it is an exhibit of all the famous paintings of Christ. We then joined up with our district and went and hiked the "Y". I seriously miss hiking Badger Mountain and all the hikes up in Canada.

Tuesday was so crazy busy. We started with the temple booth and had so much fun waving at lots of people driving by in cars. Then our adventure started. We had 7 scheduled appointments and most of them were in the evening so we had them almost every 30 minutes. Only two of the 7 appointments cancelled which made us happy. We got to teach the less-active couple that referred themselves on Mormon.org. They are so awesome and fun to teach. The wife knows a lot and the husband is excited to learn more so they can someday soon go to the temple. We were teaching the restoration and it was probably one of the best first lessons I have had in a while. It was a missionary dream come true to be busy all day. I wish every day could be like that.

Wednesday was cold and windy. We got to work at the temple booth again and wave. After the temple booth we ran to the post-office and at night we had dinner with a family from Spokane and it was super entertaining. I love when we go to dinner with people and they are super talkative. As we were leaving their house I was walking down the steps to leave and their huge lab came and ran right in between my legs and almost made me fall over. It was so funny. Me and my companion had a good laugh after that one.  We then got to go to the family history center with the Peteresen's. It was so fun and exciting. A lot of it was trying to figure out where all the information went that they put in on Sunday but we eventually got it figured out. 

Thursday we got to make a trip to the dentist in the morning for Sister Lani's root canal. And so the rest of the day was spent letting her recover. We did still have a meeting we had to go to that night but she was feeling good enough to go. She recovered really fast. 

Friday was fun. We had ZTM in the morning and then I  decided to be charitable and buy the whole zone pizza. It was just 5 Buck pizza but it was still yummy. Then me and my companion did a lot of trying to contact with little success. But it's funny because I don't even get discouraged anymore when days like this happen because I know that at least I am trying. We then decided to do some street contacting down university ave and center st it was fun because I guess there was a bunch of different things going on and so there was people every where. We were able to hand out our phone number and we even got some free donuts. 

Saturday was so beautiful outside. We had a lesson set up at 10:30, they weren't home when we went over there and so we decided to go see our 94 year old that lives in the old folks home. She was still sleeping and so we went back a little later and she was still sleeping. We did some contacting and we were able to meet some people that we have been trying to get a hold of for a while. We went to lunch at Roco's and this guy tried paying for us and the lady behind the counter said that's nice of you but we feed them for free. I love Provo! Then we got to go to temple booth again. I love seeing that beautiful temple so often and I love that the progress on it is moving quickly. The rest of Saturday we spent trying to find people at home, and then we went to Gloria's with the district for icecream.

This week was so fun and I learned some really cool stuff from my studies. Alma 26 is amazing because it tells us that there is so much to find joy in. It also teaches us that we should never give up, the Lord is always on our side and is there to help us. In Ether 12 it teaches all about faith, hope and charity. Without those things we can not return to our Heavenly Father. 

I love the Book of Mormon!