Before I get into my email... IM
TRAINING! In a trio... haha I'm getting Sister Kohler and we are training
together! Super weird.. but I'm excited! Sister Kohler is awesome and I've
actually been wanting to be her companion! So this will be fun! I'm staying in
the Stake, but changing wards. So I'll still get to see my members every once in awhile! It will be awesome!
So I'm trying something new to see
if I can get better at writing my emails because I am honestly so horrible at
it.. I'm going to write something every day to include in my emails! It's
Wednesday right now so I'll be doing a little catch up but that's okay!
Tuesday:
So yesterday we had lunch with our
ward mission leader and his wife (the Tysons)! I don't think I've talked about
them much but I just want to say that I LOVE THEM. They work so hard and they
magnify their callings like no one else I have ever seen. They are converts to
the church and they converted when they were living in Colorado. They have
three cats and I have only seen two of them.. they are little rag doll cats and
they have so much character! So when we go over there to have our meetings or
eat dinner (which we do almost every week) we get some time with the kitties.
This last week was Sister Hazen's birthday so we went there for a birthday
dinner and to work on something the ward is doing called a 40 day fast. We have
been preparing for it for a little while. We have handed out a sheet where
families in the ward sign up to fast for a specific day so there is someone
fasting every day for 40 days for more missionary work in the ward. We have
been making dresses to put the date of when each family is fasting as a
reminder. So we have been making A LOT of dresses. Mama and Papa Tyson are so
great and they do so much for us and the ward. I want to be like them!
Later on Tuesday we went to teach
our investigator Tristan and we read about Alma and the Sons of Mosiah. Tristan
is part of a part member family. His mom, twin sister and little brother got
baptized about a year ago and Tristan hasn't made the decision to join the
church yet. But he comes to church and mutual and loves having the missionaries
over. I know he will get there someday! Something I've always loved and
thought was super funny about Alma the younger is that his dad was so happy
when he was struck dumb! It's the best part! I think about that in our own
lives and how we are "struck dumb" sometimes. I think we have all had
a moment in our lives that we can relate to this story and God rejoices!
We also got to go teach our recent
convert Robert the plan of Salvation! It was awesome! Their little boy Jamison
is probably my favorite person ever. In just the last couple months I've seen
him grow so much and we always talk about him growing up and serving a mission
someday. The gospel is going to be such an amazing blessing in that little boy's life! He also talks now too! He wasn't doing much of that when I first met
him!
Wednesday:
So on Wednesday we had some
amazing miracles! We went to have dinner at the Gomm's house and talked to them
for a bit about their grandson Brayden who wants to get baptized. His dad is
getting married on Friday so it's been hard to catch him but we have been
trying to work things out with his mom. The crazy thing is his mom lives in one
of our wards and his dad lives in the other! So no matter where he's at or whose week it is we can go teach him! That night we were out trying to find a
referral we had gotten but didn't have the right address or phone number so we
just decided to knock every door on the street looking for him and had no
luck.. when we left we were right next to another referral we had gotten and I
had the thought of going over to see if we could finally catch her! In my mind
this was probably going to be the last time we tried. We got there and the
house looked completely dark and there was no car in the driveway. We were
certain she wasn't there. But I remembered that I had received the prompting to
go see her so we were going to follow through with that. And guess who we saw
down the street when we got out of the car! BRAYDEN! We went and knocked on
Jessie's door and of course no answer.. so we started walking down the street
towards Brayden and immediately he started talking to us about his little RC
car that he was playing with. We showed us how it worked, how to charge it, his
extra Ford Raptor body that he could put on it (which was my favorite part).
Then his uncle asked us who we were and we said we were the missionaries from
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. And he said "oh Mormons?
He's one of those! Hey Brayden! They're Mormon!" Then Brayden said "I
go to the Mormon church!" We were so excited that we just ran into him!
Soon after that his dad showed up and got out of his car and yelled "Elder
Sisters! How's it going!?" We talked to him for a minute about his mission
and then he told us to come back in a couple weeks when he comes back from his
mom's. We are so excited to teach that kid!
After when we were walking away
from their house we ran into JESSIE! It was a night of miracles! We thought she
had been avoiding us but she was really just never home. She saw us and said "are
you our new sisters?" And then she just said "come on." And led
us into her house. We talked for a bit and set up an appointment for next
week!
I definitely have a testimony of
following your spiritual promptings! Even if they don't work out the way you
think they will, God has a plan! And it's always perfect!
Thursday:
Well the day started off
fantastic! Our member Brother Manly brought us juice!
For lunch we were able to go out
to eat with the Hunsakers! When I was serving in Heritage YSA we had Bishop
Hunsaker and he was released at the end of my time there. Now his son is in the
ward we are serving in and his wife invited us to go have lunch with her and
Bishop Hunsaker's wife! It was such a blessing to see her and to feel a little
like I was back in Paradise! I miss it there so much! But the Lord will always
call us to where we need to be!
Later on that day we got to go
teach a 9 year old and a 7 year old. Bentley and Carter! They are so sweet! We
taught them the plan of Salvation with some little cutouts that I have and at
the end I mixed them all up and hey put it back together so perfectly! They are
super smart! We have been teaching so many young kids in this ward and I love
them all. It's such a blessing to be around children and their wonderful
spirits.
Then we saw a couple of bears
riding around town on our way to Chick-fil-a for dinner...
Friday:
On Friday we got to see our investigator
Jack! We haven't seen him for a little bit but we were super happy to see him!
He is 9 and really wants to get baptized! We taught him about tithing and
fasting and he got a little worried about fasting.. it was pretty funny because
the look on his face was just shock.. he'll get used to it :)
Sunday:
General conference and saying
goodbye :(
We had to say goodbye today to
everyone because Sister Hazen and I are both leaving.. so we took stake
pictures and district pictures and we got a picture with the Bailios! I love
them so much. I'm going to miss this area and it's always so hard to leave..
but his transfer will be great!
Love you all! Have a great week!
