Week 37: Alma, The Mighty Missionary (May 30, 2016)

Week 37:

Monday we had lunch with the hermanas and then we went shopping with
them. It was really fun and I loved spending all day with them. We met
a new investigator named Brandon and sister McKee came with us. It was
a good lesson and the spirit was there. He has been taught by sisters
before and he ended up backing away. It's been awhile since he has
seen missionaries so we are hoping it might be his time.

Tuesday we found out our member we are living with brother church (who
is legally blind) fell off a ladder and cut hit head open. His wife
rushed I'm to the ER and they got him all stitched up. There was blood
everywhere and broken glass by our place. We helped her clean up as
she cried about how her husband won't listen to her or the doctors
about not getting on ladders. I felt so bad for her and we did our
best to comfort her. Then we had a not so great lesson with our
investigator named Henry. Sister McKee and the two of us were kinda
bummed because he had gotten into some aggressive anti stuff. We also
got a Phone call about how one of our ward members we are close with
tired to commit suicide. We quickly made some hearts to heart attack
their door. We were really sad and then we had a lesson with Halden!
So amazing!! First of all he tried to cancel with us but ended up not.
We went over and he was already on Mormon.org looking up a elder
holland video about the Book of Mormon. We sat down  and watched it
with him. The spirit just flooded in and we were able to teach him the
whole restoration and all about the book of mormon. He just soaked it
all in and loved participating. He said we answered so many of his
questions. We all had such a good feeling about him and it defiantly
boosted our spirits. Then we Lesson with shann our new less active we
found while tracking. We got her records so she is officially in our
ward. We also gave her a Book of Mormon last time and asked her if she
wanted a blessing. She said she would think about it. So as we talked
with her she said she had been thinking about the blessing and wanted
one. That is so huge for her because she has such a big phobia of
people especially men from her PTSD. We were so excited. Then she
showed us where she was on the Book of Mormon. She was already at 2
nephi in just a week! We had a bomb lesson with her about the
restoration and the Book of Mormon. She soaked it all in as well. So
many miracles. So blessed.

Wednesday we had  district meeting and I gave the spiritual thought
about the Book of Mormon. It was so fun to talk about this precious
book that I hold so close to my heart. I have watched stories come
alive and have found so much direction, inspiration and revelation. It
has been my constant guide and daily comfort. We are so blessed to
have this second whiteness of Jesus Christ. I have gained such a
stronger testimony of the spirit that it holds and the path it sets
for all of us to make it back to God. I look forward to reading it
everyday. And I love spiritually feasting upon its words. We saw
Heather Hardman today and we talked about the blessing that come when
we follow and obey God. She has been coming to Church for a couple
weeks Ina row now and it has been so awesome to see her there. We also
did some Service for sister brown. We had great one on one time with
and she really opened up which was much needed and a cool experience.
Sister McKee and us (Three musketeers in action) went over for our
sister in the ward that almost lost her husband to suicide. We were
able to sit and chat with her for awhile. There was a sweet sweet
spirit that filled the entire room of his love and awareness for this
precious daughter of his during this trailing time. We talked about
the refiners fire and the plan God has for all of us. It was a
wonderful humbling experience.

Thursday was a packed day of service. We helped a less active clean
her house, which was gross. Mom you would be so proud of me because I
cleaned all her floor boards and I thought of you the whole 10 yards
haha you taught me well. We then did service at the food pantry and
got to hang out with the hermanas some more. We then had dinner with
Rachel (pink haired lady) and we had a great discussion on the Book of
Mormon. She broke down and told us she has never had a testimony of it
because she has never read all the way through it. I can't wait to
show her what it can be like for her because the Book of Mormon is so
addicting haha. We talked about starting with the children's Book of
Mormon to help her set a foundation of the stories and to get her
children involved as well. We are super excited!!!

Friday we did more service and planned and saw a new less active
family named the caulders. We of course took sister McKee and we had a
great lesson with them. They are a super cute family and we just
aren't too sure why they have become less active. He was in the police
force so he and sister McKee just clicked right away. They have a
Ferret that we got to hold. It was my first time holding an animal
like that and it was super awesome!! We are hoping we can start
getting in this home more to spread the spirit and get them involved
in more ward activities. They love scouts and they came to our ward
bowling event so it's just making that effort and loving them back
into the gospel.

Saturday we found out about transfers. Sister Heath and I are both
staying. We whet and saw a less active named Nancy who we have been
trying to boost up so she can make the decision to go to church. The
spirit told us no on the lesson we had planned so we started asking
her questions which led to an awesome lesson and a new way in which we
can help her come to church. We will be going over and getting her
dressed every Sunday morning. What a wonderful service activity we got
ourselves into. We are so happy she opened up and asked for our help.
I am so grateful the spirit directed us and I am so happy we listened
to the promptings. We also saw another less active family named the
Blackburn's. They have been  struggling for awhile but we had a good
lesson with them and committed them to start reading the scriptures as
a family. Family scripture study is SO important!!

Sunday was just a overall wonderful day for me. It was a much needed
day for spiritual revelation and guidance. We had two farewells from
our ward, a sister and an elder. They both gave awesome talks and the
spirit was so strong there. The stake president was also there and
said some  things that I needed to hear and actually answered one of
my prayers. I have been so concerned for this area because it is a
hard and struggling area. This past transfer I have been praying and
fasting to know what we can do as missionaries. He defiantly tested us
but prepared us by doing so to get us spiritually ready for what he
had in store for us. In alma chapter 8 alma is trying to preach to
this wicked city called ammonihah. He tries and then gets kicked out
because the people are so wicked and hard hearted. I have defiantly
seen that in this area. I didn't know if I was staying or not this
transfer but then when we found out we were both staying I was so
nervous because I want to help and push this area but I didn't know
how to. Well alma got called to go back to the same area. He decided
through the spirit to go a different way. The lord has called me again
to this area and he has prepared a different way for me to enter into
the city just like alma had. He has opened our eyes to his revelation
and plan for his area. we sat down last night and had a wonderful
meeting with the he Mckee's on this plan he has presented to us. We
are going to refine it and make it ready to get rolling this week and
hopefully present it to the bishop brick in a couple weeks after we do
a trial run with our ward missionaries. We are so excited and so ready
to work, work, work. I know he is providing the way for us and is
opening up doors to help us teach, strengthen ward members and baptize
converts who have been prepared. We have been spiritually strengthen
and we are prepared with his power to do his work to a much greater
degree. I am so grateful for personal revelation. I know heavenly
fisher never leaves us and he never gives us too much. He prepares us
and gives us line upon line until we see the path he has created for
us. I am so grateful for this gospel and for my savior who loves us
and lives. I hope you all have a fantastic week!!

1. Terry (who needs to get baptized) in his new suit and our ward mission leader
2. Sister heath's birthday
3. My hermanas<3

Week 36: All in All a Good Week (May 23, 2016)

Week 36:

Well this week has gone by so fast! We only have one more week until
transfers and I just can't get over how fast this transfer has gone
by. We defiantly have been working hard, but I also have been looking
at how many people we have met and contacted and for how many people
we have met i just wish we had more people to teach and prepare for
baptism. I also have been looking back at all the miracles we have
been having. There have been more than I can count. Those small
miracles add up and it is so awesome to see where the lord blesses us
in his field. There are defiantly things I have learned and there is
so much I can improve on in my missionary work. I don't know what will
happen to me but I am so grateful I had the opportunity to be out
here.

We really didn't have too many exciting things happen this week so I
will try to be not boring so you don't fall asleep. To give you a bit
of background we have been passing out flyers all week for our ward
activity so we have visited a lot of less actives in hopes they would
come out. So Monday was just that. We found some less actives that
were not interested at all and some investigators that we semi
interested. I was like," common who wouldn't want to go to a free
night of bowling!" No one took the bait. We also helped finish sister
Mckee's fence and for p-day we went to another jette and found tons of
starfish and sea urchins. It was so much fun and so so pretty. Don't
mind my horrible picture, to say the least my hair was not cooperating
with me.

So guess what!? Our only progressing investigator is not even in our
area. It was a sad sad day. So we are back to square zero. But no
worries we are not sad or not giving up! Henry is an awesome man, not
too sure if he believes in God or not. We have started at that level
with him, just like when Ammon taught King lamoni. He has lots of
questions and so we directed him to LDS.org because he was using
Wikipedia as his main source. I mean really who uses that site
anymore! Sorry for all you oldies out there but that source is so out
of date. English teachers don't even count it as a source when you
right a paper. Poor guy...still alittle behind in his time era. He
showed us all his encyclopedias he used to use to research back in his
day. So crazy!! Then we saw terry. He was so cute! He got his first
suit and he was so so excited. Then we met a less active members named
the bakers. They are both from Utah and it is so sad to see such a
young family so far away from the gospel already. They let us come
back and have dinner. They are so nice and I feel like we can catch
them before they grow old and stubborn and like the scriptures say
they drift so far away that they forget all their traditions and fall
away. We also met with our less active we found while tracting. We did
such great detective work and found out her last name and birthday and
we were able to get her records! So fun. We had a great lesson with
her about the plan of salvation and she asked us for a Book of Mormon
in the end. She has a phobia of people so this is a huge step to let
us come in. She even said she would love to go on a walk with us in
the morning sometime. Baby steps!!

On Wednesday we met a new investigator named darla. She owns the home
right next to our crazy pink haired lady named Rachel. Darla has so
many questions about what we believe in. She is super cute and really
into family. Of course she has the usual "why can't non members go
into the temple?" Or "what's this special underwear?" I have learned
that I really don't like talking about my underwear for 30 minutes. I
guess Heavenly Father thinks I need the practice and after making sure
we didn't go into the sacred areas of things we can't talk about she
said it all made sense, so I must be getting better at explaining!! Go
analogies because that's all I use when it comes to sacred things.
Then we met with a less active member named Melissa. We started off
having a really great lesson until her boyfriends dad came in the room
totally drunk and crying telling us he hasn't been treated right. We
felt it was best to close in a prayer and leave before he got violent.

On Thursday we did service with the hermanas and then we went over and
saw Rachel, our pink haired lady. We did some service washing her
dishes nod thrn we had a lesson about testimony while folding her
laundry in her laundry room. She is an odd duck, but is spiritually
starving herself. She loves us coming over because she says she can
feel the spirit so strongly. Now we need her to have her own spiritual
experiences and act upon them so she can keep having them. We had
dinner with a new family that just moved into the are In hopes in
helping their family get back to church. They are so awesome, yet they
are struggling so much just on their own, not including their families
trials weighed on them. They show so much faith and strength and it is
a huge testimony builder for me that trials still come and always will
come (even when you are older) but if we just keep pressing forward we
will be able to endure it joyfully to the end. And that is exactly
what the Anderson's are doing. I am so grateful to have such amazing
ward members being such great examples to me."

Friday we had an amazing lesson with the warn family. They were so
excited to see us and I just love them so much already! We talked
about the restoration and read the introduction to the Book of Mormon.
I was taught just recently on exchanges that you can teach the
restoration by reading the introduction page to the Book of Mormon.
Every paragraph outlines a principle we can teach and testify about
from the restoration. It was so. I have fun to have them interact and
read with us. They were feeling the spirit and having such a good time
with us that when we said it had been an hour and that we need to go
they both looked at their watches and were so surprised how fast time
had gone by. "Time goes fast when you are having fun!" I would have
told you before my mission that I would never put that phrase in
missionary work. I have defiantly have been humbled over these months
because missionary work is so fun and feeling the spirit is way more
fun (and rewarding) then watching tv or doing other worldly things.
There needs to be a moderation in all things for sure, but keeping and
having the spirit can be with you all the time when you are doing
things that keep it there. I am so grateful I get to choose to keep
the spirit in my life by my actions, thoughts and desires. Also on
Friday we went to our ward bowling activity. Although I didn't bowl I
was having a blast socializing with all our less actives that came
out. We had five less active family's there that we teach and some of
them brought non member friends. It was a wonderful night and I
thoroughly enjoyed seeing the members in our ward fellowshipping them
in.

Saturday and Sunday were both kind of the same days we finished our
weekly planning and went out and found some less actives and set up
more lessons. If we are lucky and everything goes as planned we will
have the most lessons this area has seen in quit some time. Sister
Heath and I are really excited. We have worked hard to build these
relationship to get to this point and I personally hope it will keep
going uphill from here! I hope you all have a wonderful week! Thanks
for all the prayers and support you give me. I am eternally blessed
because of it. I am so grateful to have such an amazing family! I know
this gospel has made us who we are and I know we are so blessed
because of it. I see so many broken families because they don't have
the gospel in their lives and I am so grateful to have the perspective
the gospel brings to me. I know that our families can be together
forever, I know that this is Christ church restored back onto the
earth through Joseph smith and I know we have a living modern prophet
today. I know that reading the Book of Mormon can get us closer to our
father in heaven. It states in the introduction that this book was
created through the spirit of prophecy and revelation and I know and
have experienced that we can receive our own revelation because of
that statement. The spirit lives in that book and I am so grateful I
have the chance to read it and know it to be true for myself. I know
it is the word of God and testifies of our savior. He lives and loves
us so very much!

Week 35: In the Strength of the Lord, We Can Do All Things (May 16, 2016)

Week 35:

Monday--we went to this old bunker in our area and we had a nerf gun
war. To say the least it was so much fun!! We played capture the flag
with guns and explored around this bunker for a couple hours just
laughing and having a blast. My legs were really sore after that
because when they created the bunker they didn't believe in a gradual
climb in their stairs, it was more like a 90 degree angle strait up.

Tuesday--we had such an awesome zone meeting today! It was filled with
inspirational messages and trainings. I'll give you a brief run down
of my favorite one which of course was one president Taylor had asked
all the zone leaders to train us on. We read two scriptures: 3 nephi
12: 14-16 "we are the light of the world" and John 8:12 "Christ is the
light of the world" kinda confusing when we says he is the light of
the world then tells us we are the light of the world. Well we talked
about it and then the zone leaders explained what these two scriptures
meant and it was so cool!! In John 1: 6-9 it states and clarifies the
light and there is a really good analogy that enlightens us even
further. So the sun, it's big right? It's huge!! It's the source of
all light. Well Jesus Christ is like the sun and we are like the moon.
The moon dosent create its own light, but it reflects the Suns light
and that's why we can see it. We are reflectors of Christ's light. We
can choose to be a full moon or only a sliver of a crescent when it
come to standing as a whiteness of Christ. We all have the light of
Christ within us, lighting the world. I just loved that analogy and
the concept of how important it is to shine that light!

Wednesday-- on of the office staff came up and took us out to lunch.
It was really fun to see them and to hear all about what's been going
on at the mission office and with their family. Our mission staff
rocks!! Then we had some service building sister Mckee's fence. We are
almost done!!! And then we saw some less actives and had a good day
teaching the doctrine and trying to find more people to baptize!

Thursday-- we did some service and had a lesson with sister Dahl. She
is leaving for Utah for a couple months to take care of her grandma.
She wants to go to the temple so badly but there is a new rule in the
church that you have to be paying full tithing for a full year before
you can go. That is a testimony of how important tithing is. Our
bishop told us he already had a couple people angry at him and wanted
to give up. I guess it is also a big trial of faith and endurance. I
know the temple is that important and we need to obey all of gods
commandments to stay worthy to go into his holy house. We met with a
new less active we trackted into. Her name is shann and she is way
crazy. She moved up here from Las Vegas to follow Jesus. We were
tracking one day and knocked on her door, when she told us that I was
like well you came to the right place because Jesus is here! Jk we had
a good lesson with her and sister McKee came with us. She is an
introvert and won't leave her apartment to even cross the street. I
told our ward mission leader that he and the ward has a goal to get
their numbers up more in church, and it's going to happen at this rate
of we keep knocking into so many unknown less actives. We also got to
FINALLY meet a new convert named John. We have been trying to meet
with him since we got here and we finally did tonight. We had a
wonderful lesson with him and he is a stud. He had a very strong
Catholic background so when he found out we gave the priesthood so
quickly after baptism he kinda shut down as stopped going to church.
We are on the rescue efforts of not pushing him too far but getting
him to come back to church. He said he has missed going to church and
that he has seen a difference in his life so we are on the right
track.

Friday-- we went and saw a new investigator named Henry. He is an
elderly man who is a professional fly maker for fishing. He has a book
and has even created and made up his own flies that have gotten
rewards. He is a really cool person. He has a sincere desire to
understand who God is and what we believe in, in our church. He has
read a lot of the Book of Mormon so far (and it has only been a week)
and he has lots of questions! Oh boy. He has a very mathematical and
scientific brain and it is working overtime for sure. We had a whole
whoppin conversation about how if we laid each golden plate down it
would fill an entire football field. Then we somehow jumped over to
Noah and we talked about how many animals there are in the world and
how much pooped he would have had to scoop out of the boat. I was like
common man who cares. I'm just grateful I didn't have to carry the
heavy gold plates or worry about scooping poop. By the end we had a
good conversation and we committed him to read the story about kind
Lahmoni and Ammon. Hopefully starting their will help him start to
understand who God is and how he works within us.

Saturday--I had the opportunity to go on Exchanges with our sister
trainer leaders. I went to their area while sister Heath stayed in our
area. I had the opportunity to be with Sister McMullin who is leaving
in two weeks. She is a rockstar missionary and I was so grateful and
humbled to have been with her for 24 hours. First off we made the
connection that we both played lacrosse and that we played against
each other many many times, she went to Bingham high school and played
in one of the tournaments I did over a summer in high school. It was
so much fun to talk to her about lacrosse and then on top of it do
missionary work with her. God put me there for a reason and he taught
me so much about myself, where o am at as a missionary and what I can
do to be better. I also go to be a farmer for a couple hours as we
helped out his member around her farm. We had some awesome lessons as
well, some that I will cherish for the rest of my mission. One in
particular was a new investigator named Britney. We were able to teach
her the restoration in a way that I have never before done or felt
before. The spirit was so strong there and there is no doubt she has
been prepared to accept the message we have at this time. She told us
everything made perfect sense and we were able to answer some of her
questions that haven't been able to be answered for a long time. She
of course accepted to be baptized and she told me that I really know
how to explain things and make them understandable. I found that a
great compliment and I knew it was all the spirit. The only thing that
I don't like about exchanges is that I never really am able to see
these people again, but it is a strong testimony that the lords work
keeps going no matter who is there at that time. He really does have
everything figured out.

Sunday--the meetings were just amazing! You just have to love when
Sunday's just hit everything you need to hear or I guess in my case
what my peeps and I need to hear. "Killing two birds with one stone"
We had an awesome lesson in relief society about the Book of Mormon. I
was sitting next to our less active "pink haired lady" named Rachel
(**side note: She was so excited because she went shopping and found
her first dress with sleeves, when she told us I was excited as well
because she is working on getting back to the temple. When she showed
up my jaw dropped. The only thing that was covered was her sleeves ha
I guess I don't need to say any more. It is a slow and steady
progression here and I guess I am grateful I still have things to do
here as a missionary(: warrenton would be so boring if I didn't have
things to do.) SOOO the teacher asked us when we gained a testimony of
the Book of Mormon and she asked us to partner up, so of course I was
with Rachel (**side note: we didn't know what we were going to teach
her this upcoming week). She turned to me and said, " I dont have a
testimony of the Book of Mormon. I have never read it all the way
through." I was like (in my head of course) " oh honey do you know who
you just told that to? Ya.....that's right a missionary and chica you
just backed yourself into a corner!" To say the least I was so excited
because the spirit lead us to what we were going to help her with this
week. In sacrament meeting we had an awesome sister talk about living
as if Jesus Christ has already come to the earth (2nd coming) and how
different we would be, act, feel and do. I challenge y'all this week
to imagine what it would be like if the savior had already come. How
would you act/ be doing differently? Of course that's an overwhelming
thought, but a wonderful way to list some things and work on them one
at a time.  3 nephi 18: 12-13 states we should do nothing more and
nothing less, but we should build our foundation upon a rock, his
rock. I love this because all he has asked us to do is walk in his
path, to come unto him. It's a simple message that was given to us
because he knew we could succeed, but we got to take action to succeed
for ourselves. It's like a fire. It takes action to start this fire
and once started it needs tending to and a constant refueling to keep
burning and soon it grows bigger and bigger. That's like us and our
path to discipleship, testimony finding and building and a lasting
conversion. We need to keep working and growing our spiritual fire
constantly. So an overwhelming thought can be slowly turned into a
source of fuel as we take little by little, day by day throughout our
lives to become like our savior. That's why he gave us time! He knew
we would need all of this time and more to fill his footsteps and
reach the end of his path. He is the man! Keep working, don't give up,
he is on your side and loves you so very much!!