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!
Monday, August 18, 2014
Monday, July 28, 2014
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
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.
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.
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!
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!
July 7...celebrate
Monday was a great PDay. We were able to get so much accomplished,
including washing our car that hasn't been washed or vacuumed in weeks. A clean
car is so much more fun to get into. I also got to go see the mission doctor.
Don't worry I am okay! I have been having dizzy spells and really low blood
pressure so they wanted me to come in. I am doing a lot better
now.
Tuesday morning I got to go get an EKG. To see if the dizzy spells was caused by my heart. But I got good news on Wednesday my heart is totally normal. Also on Tuesday we got to do exchanges. I got to go with Sister Wang in her area. It was interesting because they cover two cities that are merged together quite a bit, so it was hard to find addresses. We did a lot of finding and setting up appointments, we also had the chance to do a service project for this young mom who has cancer. I was so shocked when I walked into the house. You could hardly see an inch of their floor. The mom was up in bed and so we got right to work. I wish I could have spent hours at their house organizing and cleaning because they really needed and deserved it. We got to eat dinner at home because they didn't have a dinner appointment set. Cooking dinner was interesting because they have a microwave and a hot plate to cook with and that's it. As I was cleaning up I moved the hot plate with our realizing it was still hot. Luckily my burn went away with in a few hours. That night we switched back for one of our appointments because Sister Naef wanted to see the people they were teaching because it was most likely her last time seeing them. So I got to teach the Parramore's in my area. The twins are too cute. We talked about the plan of salvation and I was so impressed with what they knew. Then we switched back and me and Sister Wang went and contacted this guy who they are trying to work with and he wasn't home but one of his roommates was and she wanted to talk to us. She has really been struggling and she knows that the gospel is what is going to help her. It was such a busy day and it went by so fast.
Wednesday morning I got to do more service. We went to help this lady pack who is moving to Texas in a few weeks. We didn't get to much done before we had to leave so that I could be back with Sister Coleman. Me and Sister Coleman were able to eat lunch together and go to DTM and then we had to switch and go on exchanges with another set of sisters. This time I went to the Spanish sisters area. We also did a lot of driving around like yesterday because the area is big and they only cover the Spanish people in that area. So driving from one place to another usually took a while. All the lessons that were taught were in Spanish so I was no help. At one point in the day we went to this trailer park that made me feel like I was in the middle of Mexico. Not in a bad way at all, it was just a very humble place and all the little kids that were running around were these little Hispanic kids.
Thursday we went to another district DTM and we were able to help with the training. We talked about how to effectively plan everyday so we are using the lords time wisely. After that me and Sister Coleman headed back home to eat some lunch. The rest of the day was spent contacting but we had little success because everyone went out of town for 4th of July. That evening for our dinner appointment they had us come to the ward BBQ. All day was so hot but as soon as the BBQ started this storm cloud rolled in and it got super windy and then started down pouring. Luckily their was a pavilion everyone could get under. We ended the night with a very great training for the ward mission leaders by the stake president.
Friday was such a crazy, fun, exhausting day. I wish I could say its because we had appointments every half hour all day long, but since it was 4th of July that was not the case. We had to wake up at 5:00am just so that we could make it to the mission office by 7:00. And with all the crazy traffic and all the roads closed for the 5K and the parade it took us 45 minutes longer than expected just to find a way to the mission office. We then got carpooled over to the high school where the parade started. The parade was so much fun, just like last year everyone stood up when we came by. You could tell who was mission moms because they were all crying. The parade this year was a little more fun because I saw a lot of people I knew. Holly Taylor and her family, Brett Palmer(who served in the Kennewick mission) Mindy Strong, Kylie Egbert, Nathan Christensen, Copa girls, and a few more. It was so cute. They Taylor girls made me cute little posters and I got a mommy hug from Holly. After the parade we were allowed to walk around for 45 minutes or so and talk to people so me and Sister headed off to see who else we could find. After a while we got super tired of walking and it was so hot out so we headed to the chapel for lunch. During lunch I showed President McCune a picture of all 6 of us Tri-cities sisters. He asked us to send it to him so he could send it to the church news. How crazy would that be if they published something about us! After lunch we headed back to Orem and we dropped by the Cornish's for a little while to talk to them about the parade. At 5:00 we were required to go to a chapel with the district. While we were there we had a member bring us dinner, it was so yummy! And we got to watch "Frozen"! Such a cute movie! I love it! After the movie we finished by playing some volleyball. When we got home we did our planning out on the porch so we could watch some fireworks for a few minutes. We got a bit of a show but there were a lot of trees in the way. It was a fun 4th but I am excited to see what next year will be like.
Saturday we did some contacting and we also had to help some sisters out that weren't getting along. So we didn't have time to do everything that we needed to do but we had time on Sunday. Saturday night we taught some really awesome lessons, they weren't awesome because of the things we said but because the spirit was there and so strong. Sister Coleman felt prompted to go stop by this one couple who she had been working with quite a but last transfer but we haven't really seen this transfer. They usually never let us in their RV (where they live) but A*** told us she was just about to light her cigarette but when she heard us knock she put it down. She invited us in and she told us about the struggles she has been having lately with falling back into addiction. We talked a lot about the atonement and that she can use it to help her. It was such a powerful lesson. She really needed the drop by and I am grateful Heavenly Father led us there.
Sunday was going to be a busy day but then one after another appointments cancelled. We were still able to get in two really great lessons. That morning we also had the opportunity to teach the young men. We talked about getting ready for a mission and what it was going to be like adjusting to the new life. The all had really good questions. After church we finally got to do our weekly planning. We have some pretty big goals set for the month and in order to reach them we need to see more people so this next week will be a busy one.
So transfers... Sister Coleman is being transferred to Springville and I am staying and getting Sister Hedley as my new companion. She is from Canada and at one point was my STL. This is going to be a new adventure and I don't know how okay I am with it all yet but I know The Lord has inspired President McCune with these calls. So yes I am now on my 15th companion. I am freaking out a little, okay a lot because I really don't know this area very well because I have spent all transfer in other sisters areas on exchanges. How in the world do you avoid being stress? AHH!
Love you all! Only two
more transfers!Tuesday morning I got to go get an EKG. To see if the dizzy spells was caused by my heart. But I got good news on Wednesday my heart is totally normal. Also on Tuesday we got to do exchanges. I got to go with Sister Wang in her area. It was interesting because they cover two cities that are merged together quite a bit, so it was hard to find addresses. We did a lot of finding and setting up appointments, we also had the chance to do a service project for this young mom who has cancer. I was so shocked when I walked into the house. You could hardly see an inch of their floor. The mom was up in bed and so we got right to work. I wish I could have spent hours at their house organizing and cleaning because they really needed and deserved it. We got to eat dinner at home because they didn't have a dinner appointment set. Cooking dinner was interesting because they have a microwave and a hot plate to cook with and that's it. As I was cleaning up I moved the hot plate with our realizing it was still hot. Luckily my burn went away with in a few hours. That night we switched back for one of our appointments because Sister Naef wanted to see the people they were teaching because it was most likely her last time seeing them. So I got to teach the Parramore's in my area. The twins are too cute. We talked about the plan of salvation and I was so impressed with what they knew. Then we switched back and me and Sister Wang went and contacted this guy who they are trying to work with and he wasn't home but one of his roommates was and she wanted to talk to us. She has really been struggling and she knows that the gospel is what is going to help her. It was such a busy day and it went by so fast.
Wednesday morning I got to do more service. We went to help this lady pack who is moving to Texas in a few weeks. We didn't get to much done before we had to leave so that I could be back with Sister Coleman. Me and Sister Coleman were able to eat lunch together and go to DTM and then we had to switch and go on exchanges with another set of sisters. This time I went to the Spanish sisters area. We also did a lot of driving around like yesterday because the area is big and they only cover the Spanish people in that area. So driving from one place to another usually took a while. All the lessons that were taught were in Spanish so I was no help. At one point in the day we went to this trailer park that made me feel like I was in the middle of Mexico. Not in a bad way at all, it was just a very humble place and all the little kids that were running around were these little Hispanic kids.
Thursday we went to another district DTM and we were able to help with the training. We talked about how to effectively plan everyday so we are using the lords time wisely. After that me and Sister Coleman headed back home to eat some lunch. The rest of the day was spent contacting but we had little success because everyone went out of town for 4th of July. That evening for our dinner appointment they had us come to the ward BBQ. All day was so hot but as soon as the BBQ started this storm cloud rolled in and it got super windy and then started down pouring. Luckily their was a pavilion everyone could get under. We ended the night with a very great training for the ward mission leaders by the stake president.
Friday was such a crazy, fun, exhausting day. I wish I could say its because we had appointments every half hour all day long, but since it was 4th of July that was not the case. We had to wake up at 5:00am just so that we could make it to the mission office by 7:00. And with all the crazy traffic and all the roads closed for the 5K and the parade it took us 45 minutes longer than expected just to find a way to the mission office. We then got carpooled over to the high school where the parade started. The parade was so much fun, just like last year everyone stood up when we came by. You could tell who was mission moms because they were all crying. The parade this year was a little more fun because I saw a lot of people I knew. Holly Taylor and her family, Brett Palmer(who served in the Kennewick mission) Mindy Strong, Kylie Egbert, Nathan Christensen, Copa girls, and a few more. It was so cute. They Taylor girls made me cute little posters and I got a mommy hug from Holly. After the parade we were allowed to walk around for 45 minutes or so and talk to people so me and Sister headed off to see who else we could find. After a while we got super tired of walking and it was so hot out so we headed to the chapel for lunch. During lunch I showed President McCune a picture of all 6 of us Tri-cities sisters. He asked us to send it to him so he could send it to the church news. How crazy would that be if they published something about us! After lunch we headed back to Orem and we dropped by the Cornish's for a little while to talk to them about the parade. At 5:00 we were required to go to a chapel with the district. While we were there we had a member bring us dinner, it was so yummy! And we got to watch "Frozen"! Such a cute movie! I love it! After the movie we finished by playing some volleyball. When we got home we did our planning out on the porch so we could watch some fireworks for a few minutes. We got a bit of a show but there were a lot of trees in the way. It was a fun 4th but I am excited to see what next year will be like.
Saturday we did some contacting and we also had to help some sisters out that weren't getting along. So we didn't have time to do everything that we needed to do but we had time on Sunday. Saturday night we taught some really awesome lessons, they weren't awesome because of the things we said but because the spirit was there and so strong. Sister Coleman felt prompted to go stop by this one couple who she had been working with quite a but last transfer but we haven't really seen this transfer. They usually never let us in their RV (where they live) but A*** told us she was just about to light her cigarette but when she heard us knock she put it down. She invited us in and she told us about the struggles she has been having lately with falling back into addiction. We talked a lot about the atonement and that she can use it to help her. It was such a powerful lesson. She really needed the drop by and I am grateful Heavenly Father led us there.
Sunday was going to be a busy day but then one after another appointments cancelled. We were still able to get in two really great lessons. That morning we also had the opportunity to teach the young men. We talked about getting ready for a mission and what it was going to be like adjusting to the new life. The all had really good questions. After church we finally got to do our weekly planning. We have some pretty big goals set for the month and in order to reach them we need to see more people so this next week will be a busy one.
So transfers... Sister Coleman is being transferred to Springville and I am staying and getting Sister Hedley as my new companion. She is from Canada and at one point was my STL. This is going to be a new adventure and I don't know how okay I am with it all yet but I know The Lord has inspired President McCune with these calls. So yes I am now on my 15th companion. I am freaking out a little, okay a lot because I really don't know this area very well because I have spent all transfer in other sisters areas on exchanges. How in the world do you avoid being stress? AHH!
Monday, June 30, 2014
Jun 30...weeks are going too fast!
Last Monday was a really good day again lesson wise. We were scheduled to
have an appointment every 30 minutes and we didn't know if we were going to be
able to do it, but we made it through and it went by so fast. The family we ate
dinner with gave us two names of non members to visit.
Tuesday went by super fast too! We had MLC ( mission leadership council ) from 9-3:30. It didn't even seem like that long of a meeting because everything we were talking about was so amazing. Right now are mission is down in baptisms and president wants us to work harder on that. Something he said is that him and the brethren have faith in our mission. They doubled the number of missionaries so the numbers could double too, and they haven been so he set a mission goal of 150 baptisms a month. So we get to help the missionaries work harder and have more faith so that as a mission we can hopefully get to 200 baptisms a month by the end of the year. After MLC we ran to the mission office to grab some stuff for some sisters in our zone and then we headed to the young women's president house to talk to her about some non member girls in her ward that attend some times. She committed to inviting all of them to hear the lessons! Then we headed to dinner. After dinner we decided to do some contacting of the families we were given at Mondays dinner. We were able to catch the mom of one of them home and she said she would set up a time with her son and his non member friend for us to start teaching. Then we went and talked with our investigator that got baptized on Saturday and set up her program for the baptism. We also got the mom to say a prayer, she says she hasn't said a prayer out loud since she was 17. The daughter had never heard her pray so it was a great experience. We went and dropped the program list to the ward mission leader and he told us that his 11 year old foster daughter wants to take the lessons. So we have a new investigator!
Wednesday was a day of miracles. I think The Lord is realizing how hard we want to work and he is letting the people flow in! In the morning we got to do our quarterly temple trip, which was a great experience. I think it would be so amazing to be a temple worker after my mission. Then we had a lesson after that we had to hurry off to before we could get a picture in front of the temple. The lesson was awesome. We taught about the Book of Mormon and it was our second lesson with C***. We read through the introduction even though he had already started reading last week. As we were reading he asked us why in the world we didn't have him start there. I guess he loved how powerful the introduction is. After that we had a meeting with the zone leaders to discuss our zone training meetings, and we planned them out. Then we were supposed to do exchanges but we rescheduled it for next week so that we could plan for ZTM. We contacted a lot of the day but it turned out to be a blessing. Our chapel tour that night had two investigators and some recent converts and less actives. We are going to start teaching both the investigators that were there. One is the ward mission leaders foster daughter and the other is a little girl that the senior couple has been working with who just turned 9 so they have to turn her over to us. The rest of the evening we spent contacting in the condos and we had a hard time finding the right building numbers. We walked the whole thing twice before we found the apartment we were looking for. We knocked the door and the girl who answered it said she was living there with her non member boyfriend. We asked if we could come teach the lessons and she said she would love it. We also talked to another non member who said he would talk to his wife about a good time for us to come over.
Thursday was the first of 2 ZTM's. The training went really well. We talked a lot about setting goals and making plans that were in harmony with our purpose as missionaries. I really hope this training is going to help the missionaries and that we will be able to reach the goal of 150 baptism for the month of July as a mission. I know with faith and diligence the Lord will make it possible. After ZTM we had a meeting to train the District Leaders. And after that we had a lesson that was different than most. It was with an investigator named M***. We have been trying to figure out what kind of background she comes from and we have heard from a few members of the ward that she comes from a polygamist family. Sister Coleman finally came out and just asked. M*** seemed a little shocked that we would ask and I guess she has been afraid to tell us because she was scared we wouldn't want to come back. I guess in the past that is what the missionaries have done. But not me and Sister Coleman. We love her! Her family is pretty active in their church and her grandpa was the prophet of her church. We are just going to be teaching the basic principles and help her feel the spirit so that she can see the difference. That evening we had another really good chapel tour for the other stake. There was a little boy that will be turning 8 soon and so he wanted to see the baptismal font.
Friday we had our second ZTM and it went well also. We talked about the same things that we did in the first one, just with a different group of missionaries. The rest of Friday was pretty uneventful. We did our weekly planning and we also cleaned up our area books on the iPads. There were a lot of people on their that we had no idea who they were. We ran to the mission office to grab some stuff for the sisters in our zone and then made trips to drop it off to them. We also had dinner with this couple whose daughter we are trying to teach. They are an older couple and their daughter is in her 40's. She was supposed to be there but didn't make it because her boyfriend wanted to take her out to dinner.
Saturday was awesome! We had a
baptism in the afternoon for a 12 year old girl named A*** whose family is
very less active. It was so cool to see that the parents were feeling the spirit
during the whole thing. A***was glowing with the happiness of the gospel.
That night was also amazing! I got to spend the evening at the temple watching
people I taught get their endowments and get sealed. The spirit was so strong
and they were so happy. Especially their little girl. She was excited that her
family would be able to be together forever! What a great opportunity we all
have. As we follow God's path we can experience eternal joy!Tuesday went by super fast too! We had MLC ( mission leadership council ) from 9-3:30. It didn't even seem like that long of a meeting because everything we were talking about was so amazing. Right now are mission is down in baptisms and president wants us to work harder on that. Something he said is that him and the brethren have faith in our mission. They doubled the number of missionaries so the numbers could double too, and they haven been so he set a mission goal of 150 baptisms a month. So we get to help the missionaries work harder and have more faith so that as a mission we can hopefully get to 200 baptisms a month by the end of the year. After MLC we ran to the mission office to grab some stuff for some sisters in our zone and then we headed to the young women's president house to talk to her about some non member girls in her ward that attend some times. She committed to inviting all of them to hear the lessons! Then we headed to dinner. After dinner we decided to do some contacting of the families we were given at Mondays dinner. We were able to catch the mom of one of them home and she said she would set up a time with her son and his non member friend for us to start teaching. Then we went and talked with our investigator that got baptized on Saturday and set up her program for the baptism. We also got the mom to say a prayer, she says she hasn't said a prayer out loud since she was 17. The daughter had never heard her pray so it was a great experience. We went and dropped the program list to the ward mission leader and he told us that his 11 year old foster daughter wants to take the lessons. So we have a new investigator!
Wednesday was a day of miracles. I think The Lord is realizing how hard we want to work and he is letting the people flow in! In the morning we got to do our quarterly temple trip, which was a great experience. I think it would be so amazing to be a temple worker after my mission. Then we had a lesson after that we had to hurry off to before we could get a picture in front of the temple. The lesson was awesome. We taught about the Book of Mormon and it was our second lesson with C***. We read through the introduction even though he had already started reading last week. As we were reading he asked us why in the world we didn't have him start there. I guess he loved how powerful the introduction is. After that we had a meeting with the zone leaders to discuss our zone training meetings, and we planned them out. Then we were supposed to do exchanges but we rescheduled it for next week so that we could plan for ZTM. We contacted a lot of the day but it turned out to be a blessing. Our chapel tour that night had two investigators and some recent converts and less actives. We are going to start teaching both the investigators that were there. One is the ward mission leaders foster daughter and the other is a little girl that the senior couple has been working with who just turned 9 so they have to turn her over to us. The rest of the evening we spent contacting in the condos and we had a hard time finding the right building numbers. We walked the whole thing twice before we found the apartment we were looking for. We knocked the door and the girl who answered it said she was living there with her non member boyfriend. We asked if we could come teach the lessons and she said she would love it. We also talked to another non member who said he would talk to his wife about a good time for us to come over.
Thursday was the first of 2 ZTM's. The training went really well. We talked a lot about setting goals and making plans that were in harmony with our purpose as missionaries. I really hope this training is going to help the missionaries and that we will be able to reach the goal of 150 baptism for the month of July as a mission. I know with faith and diligence the Lord will make it possible. After ZTM we had a meeting to train the District Leaders. And after that we had a lesson that was different than most. It was with an investigator named M***. We have been trying to figure out what kind of background she comes from and we have heard from a few members of the ward that she comes from a polygamist family. Sister Coleman finally came out and just asked. M*** seemed a little shocked that we would ask and I guess she has been afraid to tell us because she was scared we wouldn't want to come back. I guess in the past that is what the missionaries have done. But not me and Sister Coleman. We love her! Her family is pretty active in their church and her grandpa was the prophet of her church. We are just going to be teaching the basic principles and help her feel the spirit so that she can see the difference. That evening we had another really good chapel tour for the other stake. There was a little boy that will be turning 8 soon and so he wanted to see the baptismal font.
Friday we had our second ZTM and it went well also. We talked about the same things that we did in the first one, just with a different group of missionaries. The rest of Friday was pretty uneventful. We did our weekly planning and we also cleaned up our area books on the iPads. There were a lot of people on their that we had no idea who they were. We ran to the mission office to grab some stuff for the sisters in our zone and then made trips to drop it off to them. We also had dinner with this couple whose daughter we are trying to teach. They are an older couple and their daughter is in her 40's. She was supposed to be there but didn't make it because her boyfriend wanted to take her out to dinner.
Sister Coleman and Harrison love apples. They attribute that to being from Washington
This missionaries appreciates a chocolate covered cinnamon bear
A family sealed in the temple
A family that helps the missionaries alot!
Jun 23...my week
Happy 15 month mark! I can't believe it! Only 101 more days until I come
home!
Tuesday was such crazy weather, and it happened to be the day I was on exchanges so I didn't have the option of getting warmer clothes. It was below 55 degrees all day, and it was pouring rain! Luckily we did have a few minutes to drive back to my apartment really quick to get a coat. I was crazy and didn't think to grab an umbrella too. So even with my jacket I got drenched. But the lessons we had were super awesome. All of them were about prophets and the Book of Mormon. I love teaching super simple and powerful lessons because it helps my testimony grow stronger each time we teach. I am grateful that God loves us so much that he gives us prophets to receive modern day revelation to bless us and guide us on our path. I also know God loves us because he gave us scripture to study. I know with all my heart that as we read the Book of Mormon we can grow closer to our Heavenly Father.
Wednesday morning we had to exchange back a little earlier than expected because the sister that Sister Coleman was with got sick with the stomach flu and we had a lesson at 11:00. Our lesson was with this guy that just moved here from Georgia and he has been a member his whole life but at the age of 16 he left the church and went down the wrong path. He moved in with his friends here in Orem that are active members of the church and he wants to gain a testimony of the things that our church believes. So we are going to be teaching him the lessons because he really has no memory of anything he was taught as a kid. I think it shows the importance of staying active and studying daily so that we can not only remember what we have been taught, but so that we can gain more knowledge about what we are taught. At DTM that day we talked about how the Book of Mormon answers the questions of the soul. Our district leader had us write down some soul questions and then we split up into teams to find scriptures from the Book of Mormon to answer the questions. It was amazing some of the scriptures we were able to find. Later that night we taught two really good lessons to some less actives. The first one was with the Smith family. We taught the word of wisdom because that is one of the biggest things holding them back from the temple. It was a really powerful lesson and they committed to quit smoking! The next lesson was with this lady who really wants to come back and help her family become more centered on the gospel. So we taught about the Book of Mormon. She was really excited to start reading and we got her a Book of Mormon Stories to read with her kids.
Thursday was exchange day again. This time I got to stay in the area, which was a little stressful because I have been in other areas every other day for the past 3 weeks, so I really don't know my area very well. But this gave me the opportunity to get to know it, especially since we didn't have any set appointments. I got to do a lot of contacting to set up appointments with people I haven't meet but Sister Coleman has. But it ended up being a great day! I was able to set up 3 appointments for later in the week. And 2 of them are new families to start working with. Our teaching pool has been filling up pretty fast lately and it is keeping us happy and busy. We were able to teach one person. We stopped by her house to see how she was doing because it had been a couple weeks since we had seen her, we asked if we could come in and read the scriptures with her. This was actually really cool. We ended up just reading where she was at, it was a war chapter in Alma. It talked about how the armies were as the sand of the sea and how even though there was a lot of destruction the nephites were strengthened because of their faith. Her husband is in the military and so this was a comfort to her. It also made her more excited to go to the temple so they can have those extra blessings and protection. That evening we did our weekly chapel tour and only people from one of the ward councils showed up, but this ended up being a blessing because there was a youth conference thing going on and it ended up getting in the way of our chapel tour. For our coordination meeting we were given some names of people to start teaching. We had about 20 minutes after coordination until we had to be home and so we decided to go stop by one of the families. We were able to find them at home and set up an appointment to start teaching their twin girls who are 8 and half and not baptized.
Friday we traded back to our companions. Our afternoon was spent doing our weekly planning and Sister Coleman was kind of sick so we let her rest. After dinner we got to go to the wedding of a recent convert that Sister Coleman and Sister Nucci worked with. It was a civil wedding but they are planning on getting sealed in the temple next year.
Saturday morning was so much fun! We got to help out with the "strawberry days" parade. By 9:30 it was already hot! We headed out along the parade route 20 minutes before everyone else so we could hand out newspapers about the parade. By the time we made it to the end the parade had caught up to us. The people we helped out were going to car pool is back to the beginning but they only had a small SUV for our whole zone. Sister Coleman and I wanted to see the floats anyways so we walked back up to the beginning. It was such a fun day and made me excited for the 4th of July. After the parade we did our studies, we did them out in the Cornish's back yard, because they have this cute little pavilion out there. The rest of the day was spent contacting. We didn't have much success but we at least were obedient and tried.
Sunday was a busy day! It started at 7:30 and ended at 9:30 and it was non stop go, go, go. First we had coordination and then ward council. Then we went to sacrament meeting to sit with some of our less actives and they didn't show. Then we went to a youth sacrament meeting. This was really interesting. So the stake had youth conference all weekend and they decided to have a testimony meeting on Sunday for all the youth. So instead of going to church with their families they all came to their own sacrament meeting. We went to go listen to their testimonies but the stake president asked us if we would be willing to share our testimonies at the beginning. So we got to share our testimonies about the Book of Mormon. After that we had a lesson with our investigators the K****s and we finally got the kids to commit to baptism. Then the dad got a concerned look on his face so I asked him what was on his mind. He told us that he would have to start going to church and make some changes so he could be the one to baptize them. YAY! This family is progressing so quickly. Then we went and taught a new family. It was a quick lesson about the restoration and we set up a time to come back and teach another one. Then we went to our other stake's youth fireside about missionary work. We got to give talks on when we decided to come out on a mission and why, what we did to prepare, and shared an experience about our mission that has helped our testimony. Then we ran to dinner and the family we ate dinner with had just gotten back about 2 years ago from being mission presidents in Russia. So they told us all about their experiences out there and it made me very grateful to be serving in Utah. The we had a lesson with the 8 and half year old twins. They are talkers. We asked the parents if they were sealed in the temple and they said no but they are working with the bishop to get to that goal. The wife had just taken her endowments out about 3 months ago. We are going to be working with the husband to help him prepare. Then the last appointment was with this 16 year old girl who is so ready to be baptized. She has taken the missionary discussions about 7 times or so. Before now she hasn't felt ready to be baptized but now she does. She had some really deep but good questions and luckily the fellowshippers know a lot more than we did and were able to help.
Tuesday was such crazy weather, and it happened to be the day I was on exchanges so I didn't have the option of getting warmer clothes. It was below 55 degrees all day, and it was pouring rain! Luckily we did have a few minutes to drive back to my apartment really quick to get a coat. I was crazy and didn't think to grab an umbrella too. So even with my jacket I got drenched. But the lessons we had were super awesome. All of them were about prophets and the Book of Mormon. I love teaching super simple and powerful lessons because it helps my testimony grow stronger each time we teach. I am grateful that God loves us so much that he gives us prophets to receive modern day revelation to bless us and guide us on our path. I also know God loves us because he gave us scripture to study. I know with all my heart that as we read the Book of Mormon we can grow closer to our Heavenly Father.
Wednesday morning we had to exchange back a little earlier than expected because the sister that Sister Coleman was with got sick with the stomach flu and we had a lesson at 11:00. Our lesson was with this guy that just moved here from Georgia and he has been a member his whole life but at the age of 16 he left the church and went down the wrong path. He moved in with his friends here in Orem that are active members of the church and he wants to gain a testimony of the things that our church believes. So we are going to be teaching him the lessons because he really has no memory of anything he was taught as a kid. I think it shows the importance of staying active and studying daily so that we can not only remember what we have been taught, but so that we can gain more knowledge about what we are taught. At DTM that day we talked about how the Book of Mormon answers the questions of the soul. Our district leader had us write down some soul questions and then we split up into teams to find scriptures from the Book of Mormon to answer the questions. It was amazing some of the scriptures we were able to find. Later that night we taught two really good lessons to some less actives. The first one was with the Smith family. We taught the word of wisdom because that is one of the biggest things holding them back from the temple. It was a really powerful lesson and they committed to quit smoking! The next lesson was with this lady who really wants to come back and help her family become more centered on the gospel. So we taught about the Book of Mormon. She was really excited to start reading and we got her a Book of Mormon Stories to read with her kids.
Thursday was exchange day again. This time I got to stay in the area, which was a little stressful because I have been in other areas every other day for the past 3 weeks, so I really don't know my area very well. But this gave me the opportunity to get to know it, especially since we didn't have any set appointments. I got to do a lot of contacting to set up appointments with people I haven't meet but Sister Coleman has. But it ended up being a great day! I was able to set up 3 appointments for later in the week. And 2 of them are new families to start working with. Our teaching pool has been filling up pretty fast lately and it is keeping us happy and busy. We were able to teach one person. We stopped by her house to see how she was doing because it had been a couple weeks since we had seen her, we asked if we could come in and read the scriptures with her. This was actually really cool. We ended up just reading where she was at, it was a war chapter in Alma. It talked about how the armies were as the sand of the sea and how even though there was a lot of destruction the nephites were strengthened because of their faith. Her husband is in the military and so this was a comfort to her. It also made her more excited to go to the temple so they can have those extra blessings and protection. That evening we did our weekly chapel tour and only people from one of the ward councils showed up, but this ended up being a blessing because there was a youth conference thing going on and it ended up getting in the way of our chapel tour. For our coordination meeting we were given some names of people to start teaching. We had about 20 minutes after coordination until we had to be home and so we decided to go stop by one of the families. We were able to find them at home and set up an appointment to start teaching their twin girls who are 8 and half and not baptized.
Friday we traded back to our companions. Our afternoon was spent doing our weekly planning and Sister Coleman was kind of sick so we let her rest. After dinner we got to go to the wedding of a recent convert that Sister Coleman and Sister Nucci worked with. It was a civil wedding but they are planning on getting sealed in the temple next year.
Saturday morning was so much fun! We got to help out with the "strawberry days" parade. By 9:30 it was already hot! We headed out along the parade route 20 minutes before everyone else so we could hand out newspapers about the parade. By the time we made it to the end the parade had caught up to us. The people we helped out were going to car pool is back to the beginning but they only had a small SUV for our whole zone. Sister Coleman and I wanted to see the floats anyways so we walked back up to the beginning. It was such a fun day and made me excited for the 4th of July. After the parade we did our studies, we did them out in the Cornish's back yard, because they have this cute little pavilion out there. The rest of the day was spent contacting. We didn't have much success but we at least were obedient and tried.
Sunday was a busy day! It started at 7:30 and ended at 9:30 and it was non stop go, go, go. First we had coordination and then ward council. Then we went to sacrament meeting to sit with some of our less actives and they didn't show. Then we went to a youth sacrament meeting. This was really interesting. So the stake had youth conference all weekend and they decided to have a testimony meeting on Sunday for all the youth. So instead of going to church with their families they all came to their own sacrament meeting. We went to go listen to their testimonies but the stake president asked us if we would be willing to share our testimonies at the beginning. So we got to share our testimonies about the Book of Mormon. After that we had a lesson with our investigators the K****s and we finally got the kids to commit to baptism. Then the dad got a concerned look on his face so I asked him what was on his mind. He told us that he would have to start going to church and make some changes so he could be the one to baptize them. YAY! This family is progressing so quickly. Then we went and taught a new family. It was a quick lesson about the restoration and we set up a time to come back and teach another one. Then we went to our other stake's youth fireside about missionary work. We got to give talks on when we decided to come out on a mission and why, what we did to prepare, and shared an experience about our mission that has helped our testimony. Then we ran to dinner and the family we ate dinner with had just gotten back about 2 years ago from being mission presidents in Russia. So they told us all about their experiences out there and it made me very grateful to be serving in Utah. The we had a lesson with the 8 and half year old twins. They are talkers. We asked the parents if they were sealed in the temple and they said no but they are working with the bishop to get to that goal. The wife had just taken her endowments out about 3 months ago. We are going to be working with the husband to help him prepare. Then the last appointment was with this 16 year old girl who is so ready to be baptized. She has taken the missionary discussions about 7 times or so. Before now she hasn't felt ready to be baptized but now she does. She had some really deep but good questions and luckily the fellowshippers know a lot more than we did and were able to help.
I also found out this week that some of my less-actives from south Orem are
getting sealed in the temple on the 28th of this month and they want me and
Sister Funaki to come! So I get to go to the temple twice this
month!
I love you all and I promise I am working hard and I am not getting
trunky!
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