Monday, April 3, 2017

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!