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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sep 15...no time to waste

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sep 8...only 3 more Mondays.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sep 1...my week

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aug 25...week incredible

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There is fun stuff ahead for this week!

Love you all!

Aug 18...my week

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

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

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

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

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

Other exciting news this week:

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

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

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

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

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

Aug 11...training, temples and baptism

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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