No Unhallowed Hand Can Stop The Work

This week has been really good. We have had a lot of teaching appointments again!So this week we saw "P" and apparently he had an awesome experience atGeneral Conference last week! He said that during one of the talks he justfelt like he needs to get baptized on the day that we had extended to him originallyinstead of waiting until December! :) Woo! So he is on date for November29. We know he has a few word of wisdom issues so we will have to workthrough those soon.

We were able to meet with our new bishop this week. Haha, we jumped on himright after he was called. So we were able to go over things with him. Heis retired so he will have a lot more time to get to know the recentconverts and be able to help them so we are excited about that.

We also went on exchanges this week. We will have to go on exchanges twicesince I'm the only STL. So this week Hermana G came with me. Wehad a good time. We were able to talk about things she had been feelingrecently and focus on what she felt she needed help with most. We were ableto teach "L". We talked about the Sabbath Day and also "The Law of Chastity".They were all for it, obviously, since they are getting married. :) Speaking of which, 

they are sooo excited for their wedding! "P" thought that they should maybe post 

pone it but "L" said "NO WAY." But at that point we were worried how it was 

going to work because we didn't know if she would have to have a cast or surgery and how that would interfere with the baptism since you can't get a cast wet...but the cool thing is that bothSister R and I had fasted that everything would be ok and thebaptism would still go through, and she found out later in the week thatshe doesn't have to have a cast OR surgery! They just have to let it healon its own and then if it doesn't heal correctly, THEN they have to dosurgery. The power of fasting and prayer is so real! So that was soawesome. What a miracle. The wedding is getting all ready though. We have alady that will decorate and then another lady who will make the cake!"L" and "P" got their clothes and a bunch of other random things that youneed for weddings so we almost have everything in place! They are so cute.She posted on facebook today, "Just 13 more days until our big day!" haha.

"H" is also doing super good! We have had a few more lessons with herthis week. She loves object lessons, so we did a fun "footsteps" lessonfor the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (Faith, repentance, baptism, etc) We have agood time with her. She knows so much so it is interesting to her teach herand hear what she has learned her whole life. The other day she said a lotof this isn't weird to her because she grew up with a lot of theprinciples, but just didn't have the full truth. She texted us on Saturdayat 11 and said, "One week to the hour!" So she is obviously really excitedtoo :) She came to the branch for the first time ever! She usually works onSundays, but that day she didn't have to work till later so she was able tocome for part of it. But another miracle happened, she got work off onSundays! That was the last Sunday she will have to work at that job :)

We also saw "B" and "K" and they picked their own date to getbaptized! They want to be baptized in early December so we picked December6. They believe everything but just need to make the commitment and makethe time for all the things that come along with being a member of thechurch. They are just amazing people though. We will be going to thePhoenix Temple open house with them this week :) "B" is going to makesure she gets out of work so we can go. She was a little hesitant to makethat commitment because of work, but when she found out what day we weregoing, she said we are going for sure! Apparently, that is the day hergrandfather passed away so she wanted to make sure she went to the templethat day. She is so awesome and we are really excited to go through thetemple with them. :)

"G" is also doing well. He got excited about his baptism because hissister is supposed to be in town that weekend. What a special moment thatwill be for him! He is pretty forgetful so we have to remind him of thingsso hopefully these things stick with him. He has a really strong faith inChrist though so it's really awesome to see that. It's amazing to see howpeople's faith in Christ can grow even stronger when they have the fullnessof the Gospel!

I also played at another baptism this week for Hermana G and T to sing 

"Come Unto Christ." So that was good. "L" was able tocome watch the baptism too so that worked out really well. We will have tofigure some special way to baptized her since she can't really move herarm...so who knows what we will do yet! haha.

We had a super fun Sunday this week though! We were finally able to stayfor all of  our home ward because we didn't have a branch meeting right in themiddle of church. But after church we went straight to the Branch. We bothspoke in the branch today. I was asked to speak on Joseph Smith and HermanaR spoke on missionary work. It went well but it's so weird to talkto such a small group of people. It is so tiny. We are also going to besinging in stake conference as a YSA Branch so that will be lovely. hahathey make us join them too. Then we ran to dinner and went straight to theMission President's Devotional right after that! We took "P" and thereweren't any sisters that could drive us, so we had to just get a ton ofguys to take us. (You just have to have odd numbers so it's not like adouble date and such). So we took our branch mission leader, the branch clerk, and RM/Sunday School Teacher, and of course "P". It was super fun! It was so weird to ride up with all of them butit was a blast. It's fun to work with them! Our driver accidentally parked inthe wrong parking garage and it was pouring rain...so walked throughthe rain and were just drenched when we got there. haha it's hilariousbecause the parking garage that we normally park in, is right next to theinstitute building. Ridiculous.

So ya, it was a great week! We had tons of fun and are working to get newinvestigators! We have 6 people on date currently, which is so awesome!I've never had that in my whole mission. So we are hoping we are living upto the blessings that we are receiving.

My thought for the week...I read in 2 Nephi 7:10-11. It says, "Who is amongyou that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, thatwalketh in darkness and hath no light? Behold all ye that kindle fire, thatcompass yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light of your fire and inthe sparks which ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand..." Ilove that because to me it is saying that if we follow the prophets that wewill find light. (Of course we know that Christ is the light of the world,so we will be following Christ is we follow the prophets). Then I thoughtthat a fire could be compared to our testimonies and the sparks, are allthe little experiences that we have, that make up our testimonies. So weneed to continually feed the fire of our testimony by adding more sparks.We need to compass ourselves about with the light that we have and hang onto it. So we need to hang on to our testimonies and if we do this, God willbe there for us! Then it made me think of this quote from Elder Andersonstalk this conference about Joseph Smith. "With faith and real intent, yourtestimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith [or whatever else you want to insertthere] will strengthen. The constant water balloon volleys from thesidelines may occasionally get you wet, but they need never, neverextinguish your burning fire of faith." SO there might be people out therewho try to make you doubt what you know, or who try to throw water on yourtestimony, but as long as we keep strengthening our fires, we don't have toworry about it going out. I love that! It was a cool little insight for methis week but I'm not sure if it made sense when I wrote it all down.Regardless, I liked it :) Thanks for all the love and support! Have anawesome week :)

Investigators Galore!!!

We have had an insanely busy week with meetings and tons of teachingappointments. We are seriously being so blessed right now. We have a lot ofinvestigators, and we just keep getting more. It's like they are just beingplaced right in our laps. I'm not sure how committed all of them are, butwe are so blessed and just trying our best to take care of everyone thatGod has given us.

Last week we had a fun zone activity on Monday. We were supposed to have azone breakfast for lunch and then play games. Haha, it was insane. The zoneleaders were in charge, and we each brought different food items. However,they didn't bring any pans or anything like that so we couldn't cook halfthe food because the church didn't have any! Haha! they improvised thoughand were able to make it work. It was quite the sight to see. They are sofunny and unprepared, yet somehow things always work out! So we had a funtime eating and playing games.

We had interviews this week with President T. It went really well. Ihad to do trainings on both Tuesday and Wednesday, so it was a littlescattered trying to get everything prepared for both of those days, but Ithink they went ok. We also got to watch Meet the Mormons! It was so good!I cried..uh I tried so hard to keep it together, but couldn't help it. Itwas really good, and I think it will help people understand what we reallybelieve or why we do the things we do. Take a friend to it! It was funbecause we popped popcorn and got to watch it with President and SisterT.

We taught "B" and "K" this week and they are doing good. However, theywon't be getting baptized on the 25th anymore. "B" works at a hospitaland it is breast cancer awareness month so she is working insane hours. Soshe won't be able to come to church and they just don't feel prepared. Theywant to be able to come to church more and be more comfortable before theyget baptized. They will no doubt be baptized, we just aren't sure when."K" said the other day, "If I get baptized now, it will be so muchbetter for my future family because I will be able to raise them with thesethings from the beginning." She is so cute and even talks about going on amission. She truly is amazing. I love them.

We also taught "H" this week. This is the first time she has ever had areal missionary discussion. We took a member with us and she wasn't reallyhappy about that. She wants this to be personal so she doesn't really openup about how she really feels when there are others there. To make it evenworse, there were people there waiting for institute...There was a guynamed "M", who is a member, and a guy named "G", who is not. He hadbrought his friend to institute the week before and he liked it, so hebrought him again. They wanted to sit in on the lesson for "G" so he couldsee what it was like. Talk about a rough situation for us. We had to teachthis guy who knew absolutely nothing and at the same time, teach "H" whopretty much already knows everything. It was so crazy. "H" didn't reallyenjoy it so we made it up to her later in the week by just having a lessonwith us. She did like that one and she opened up a lot! She is so amazing.We also were able to set up a return appointment with "G". We taught himlater in the week and he remembered almost nothing that we had talked aboutlast time. So we had to reteach the Restoration. He seems really nice andinterested though. He accepted a baptismal date to work towards in Novemberso that is good!

More investigators continued to fall into our laps this week. The "S"'sare former investigators that are friends with the some members, the "W"s. Apparently the "S"s

they had some huge fallout with the lessons and decided they didn't want to bebaptized anymore and it was a really crazy ordeal. Well they called Sister"W" and said they feel that they need to take the discussions again. So wehad dinner at the "W"s and the "S"s came over. We were able to talkabout the Restoration and ask them if they really were ready to takediscussions and work towards baptism again. They said they were and thatthey would be coming to church that week as well. It went really good andthey seemed really sweet! So hopefully we can help them prepare to makethat step and things will go better this time!

"L" is doing well spiritually...however, on Saturday she was going tocome to a baptism with us, but texted us a couple hours before it startedand said she was in the hospital. She fell off the back of the quad andbroke her shoulder! She also passed out on Sunday and had to go to thehospital again...So we are hoping that everything is ok with her and thatshe will have a speedy recovery. So who knows if the wedding and baptism isstill on. She was super bummed she couldn't come to church and the baptismthough. She is so awesome. But on the bright side, everything is comingtogether really well for her wedding and baptism! She got her dress and aring pillow. We have someone making a cake for her and someone else is going 

to do some simple decorations! "P" also got his tux in the mailthis week, so it's all coming together really nicely! We are excited andhopefully "L" will be ok and we can still have everything go as scheduled.

I "performed" at two baptisms this weekend. I played the piano for SisterG and another girl. They sang "Come Unto Christ." I then sang withSister G at the other baptism. We sang "Nearer My God To Thee."So that was the bulk of our Saturday. Then we also had a movie nighton Saturday and watched, "The Mountain of the Lord." Not very many peoplecame, but a few did. "G" from the YSA came too.

We also had another really good dinner with the "S"s. They were theones that I pretty much invited ourselves over for dinner a while ago. Theyfed us again and we were basically able to teach the Restoration reallycasually and just throughout the conversation. So they didn't feelthreatened or pushed or anything. It went SO good! Better than I hadexpected! I really like them and hopefully these seeds we are planting willgrow someday.

We got a new bishop in the family ward this week so that will be a bigchange. We will hopefully be able to meet with him and get him up to speedon all that is going on. So we will see how all that goes!

So I just wanted to share a little thought that I learned from church thisweek. We were talking about the Isaiah chapters. In Isaiah 52:7 it says,"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth goodtidings that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, thatpublisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!"

So we talked about what this verse means. We came to discuss that it meansmissionary work and spreading the gospel. Then we talked about why they usefeet. Feet require action..it symbolizes moving forward and doingsomething. We then talked about how everyone has feet, so we all need toshare the gospel. We need to get up and do something to help spread thegood tidings of the gospel and preach salvation so that we can help thosearound us come closer to Christ.

I really liked that and it put a whole new meaning to that verse for me. Ilove the scriptures and have gained so many new insights in them as I readthem.

Anyway the gospel is true! Have a good week and don't forget to read yourscriptures :)

Word of Wisdom

Wow this week has gone by so fast! Of course, I think I say that every
week. So I guess it would be safe to say that my mission is going by way
too fast. It's so crazy. I only get one more General Conference before I
come home. That is not very long because I feel like we just had the April
Conference! In fact, at the top of my notes I accidentally titled it April
2014. haha I just noticed that this morning when I was looking back over
them! Crazy.

Anyway, this week was really good and filled with teaching appointments and
meetings. First of all, we got to meet one of our investigators in the
singles branch. It is a young woman and she is so solid. She is pretty much
ready for baptism, but she has never taken the missionary discussions. She
goes to institute and also went to seminary a little bit in high school. She
loves the Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price. She is amazing
and she is only 19. We had dinner with her and our Branch Mission Leader
(who is super awesome by the way. He takes such good care of us and is
willing to do anything for us basically). She basically asked us if she
could be baptized mid-October! So she is now on date for the 25th. We just
have to teach her everything, but I'm pretty sure she already knows it all.
She even stopped drinking tea by herself about a month ago. She was just
drinking it one day and thought, ya I'm not supposed to be drinking this.
So she gave it up! I'm telling you, she is amazing.

So we taught the Word of Wisdom a lot this week. We first taught it to our
soon to be married couple. I thought they smoked, but they don't! So that made it a lot
easier. They do drink tea and coffee but they were so willing to give it
up. They gave us a huge can of unopened coffee to get rid of for them. It
is so awesome to see how willing people are to give up things for God. For
some, it is really easy, and for others, it takes a while for them to see
the importance. But I do not doubt that those who keep the commandments are
always much happier. We also discussed a few more wedding details so we can
get that all set up! I'm not sure if I mentioned this already, but they are
getting married on November 1st. We will have the wedding, a small lunch,
and then the baptism :) It is going to be an awesome day! They also watched
Conference and really enjoyed it. They came to watch it at the
church with us one of the days so that was awesome.

We also taught our mother/daughter investigators the Word of Wisdom. It is going to be a
little bit harder for them to stop, but they are willing to work towards
quitting. The mom smokes and the daughter loves sweet tea, but she was really
willing to give it up. We made sure that they understand they have to be
living the Word of Wisdom in order to be baptized. They didn't get to come
to Conference because they had a funeral to go to this weekend so that was
a bummer. There were so many talks that I felt would have benefited them so
much. Good thing they can go back and watch it :)

We also retaught the Word of Wisdom to M and T (recent converts). M has been
struggling with smoking and she admitted it this time that she was having a
hard time. She gave us her cigarettes to dispose of so hopefully she
doesn't get more. It's going to be really hard for her though because
T's husband smokes so it is always going to be a temptation. Hopefully
we can help her out though.

So we had a lot of fun lessons about keeping our bodies clean like temples!
Which reminds me, I really liked the talk at the General Women's Meeting
about how our bodies are all different on the outside but that we all have
the same spirit as daughters of God on the inside. It was really good.

We also had a really good talk with one of the guys who attends the singles branch.
He comes to church pretty faithfully. He walks like two miles to get to
church every Sunday! I wish everyone was as dedicated as he is. He has been
struggling to get on date for baptism. He knows he needs to, but he doesn't
feel worthy and he is scared that he won't be good enough after his
baptism. So we had a really good lesson with him about that and helped him
feel more assured. He prayed at the end to know if he needed to be baptized
and we all sat there in silence at the end. His first words were, "Dang,
it's like a slap in the face! Come on guy, the Elders have been telling
you! The Sisters have been telling you." haha he is really funny. So he
decided he wants to be baptized in December since that is the month that we
celebrate Christ's birth. We told him we will make sure he is ready by then
:) He is awesome too and he thinks about things differently than anyone I
have ever met. He gets the most interesting things out of the scriptures or
thinks about things completely opposite of what I would have ever noticed
in a scripture. It's really cool.

This Saturday was super awesome because it was #latterdaysaturday! haha we
planned to go to the visitors center this weekend with our singles ward super solid investigator
to watch the Joseph Smith movie. She created the hashtag for the day because we had
General Conference all morning and then left to the temple! So we were
really excited all week for #latterdaysaturday. haha we get to use all the
hip lingo now that we are in the singles branch ;) So our branch
mission leader took all of us. We got permission to go out to eat prior
since it would be night and during our dinner hours by the time we drove
up there and such. So we got to go to the Cheesecake Factory! Yum. The
funniest thing happened too....Joseph Smith was our waiter. No joke! His
name was Joseph Smith but he wasn't a member. So our investigator whipped out a Word
of Wisdom pamphlet that had a picture of Joseph Smith and held it up next
to him and said, "oh ya, I can see it." In the end, she ended up giving the
pamphlet to him! haha so then she had this huge joke that she gave the Word
of Wisdom to Joseph Smith. It was pretty fun. Then we watched the movie at
the temple and she really liked it! She had never seen it before so she
enjoyed seeing more about his life and the life of the saints. We walked
around the temple grounds too. This young woman doesn't open up much, but you can tell
she really likes things and is taking it all in. She jokes around a lot so I
think she has a hard time talking about really serious, spiritual things.
Anyway we hit some traffic on the way home because they were doing
construction so we didn't get home until about 10:30. We had to call
President Toone and tell him of course. So we went straight to bed when we got home.
We were so tired and drained from all the spiritual stuff we did!

Anyway last week was really awesome and we have a lot of good things set up
for this week as well. My favorite part about this week was General
Conference though. We always look so forward to it! It's better than
Christmas pretty much :) We go to the Stake Center to watch Conference. I
really like watching it at the church because everyone pays so much more
attention and I feel like I receive a lot more answers when I'm in the
church, dressed up, and being reverent. I might do that when I get home
too. The Saturday sessions were my favorite even though they were all super
good. Some of the talks that touched me the most right now were Elder
Christofferson's and Elder Klebingat. They talked a lot about taking
responsibility for our actions and being responsible for our own
spirituality. It went a long really well with some things I have been
focusing on in myself lately. I really liked that Elder Klebingat's was all
about how we can have more spiritual confidence. One of my favorite quotes
by Elder Christofferson was, "Divine aid can be ours, no matter where we
are on the path of obedience." We can have help from God as long as we do
our part and work towards becoming better. My favorite part about
conference is coming with a question in mind and always receiving answers.
What an amazing blessing we have to have the restored gospel on the earth
today and to have living prophets and apostles to lead and guide us. I am
so grateful for that.

Conquering Casa Grande

This week was really good. I got to spend a few days with the Spanish
Sisters so that was fun. We actually taught a few lessons in English so
that was nice :) I didn't really have to just sit there for any of them, I
could actually participate. We were able to still teach a few of my investigators
too so that was good. We had a lot of fun together. We all camped out in
the living room since we have to sleep in the same room! haha. Sleepovers!

We had transfers on Thursday and there were BIG changes! They made 4 new
zones! That is so crazy. We now have 14 total. So they have a zone for each
stake. That means that some of the zones are extremely tiny and some are
big, just depending on how many units are in each stake. The Missionary
Department suggested we try it and the Brethren are all looking to us to
try new things because this has a lot of members like Utah, but also has
millions of non members. So that is why we always pilot things and they
always look to us. Anyway so that is really cool.

There is also one district that is just sisters. They live far away from
the rest of the zone, so there was an exception made and they have a sister
district leader so they don't have to drive in for district meeting! So
crazy! haha so that was an interesting surprise :) There were so many changes. We
also did transfers way different. Usually the meeting is about who your
companion is and announcing it in front of everyone and such. But because
of all the new things to take care of, they had us go into the gym and look
at an alphabetical poster. You found your name and the name next to yours
was your companions! haha so that was funny. Mine was Hermana R...I
had heard the name but I wasn't sure who it was, luckily we made eye
contact at the same time as we were looking and were able to find each
other really quickly.

So she is normally a Spanish missionary but has been assigned English this
transfer. So that will be interesting! She has been out for 14 months. Also
since there are so many zones, there is only one sister training leader in
some of the zones so now I am the only STL. Dang....lots of pressure! So
that means we will have to go on exchanges twice this transfer. It will be
really good to have Hermana R to go to the Spanish area though. She
will be able to help the other sisters a lot since she will actually be
able to understand what they are saying :)

Another new change....we also have the Singles Branch now! That is going to be
so weird. So now we cover the entire stake. It is going to be hard to
balance our time because our area is already so huge with just our family
ward. It's like half of the stake geographically. haha. So it is going to
be interesting!

There isn't a ton going on in the YSA Branch and we are the first sisters
they have ever had, so they are extremely excited to have us. I feel like
it is going to be really good once we get going. The President is awesome
and we have a really good ward mission leader too. So I'm excited!

We got N (recent convert) and L(soon to be baptized/married) to go to the Women's

Broadcast with us. They both really liked it. Man it was so good! I loved it

and I'm way excited for General Conference this weekend! I just love hearing

from the prophets. I have grown to just love stuff like that. (scripture study,

general conference,etc). L really liked President Uchtdorf's talk. I did too :) I think it
was definitely something women needed to hear.

So on Sunday we had our Primary Program...however, we had a storm the night
before and knocked out half of our power. SOOO the AC didn't work. We were
all dying. Only in Arizona is it a problem if the AC doesn't work in the
Fall. We got toasty but the Bishop didn't want to cancel church because all
of the kids were so excited. So we had fans plugged in and blowing up to
the front. Half the lights didn't work either. So we had a lovely program
and then they cancelled the rest of church! haha. The primay program was
cute and there were a lot of yell singers so that was entertaining. haha.

So let me just say, it was super weird to be in a singles branch. I felt
like I was back home and I just felt awkward for parts of it really. haha
it is going to be so different! I have worked with kids my own age, but as
the leaders of the branch and such! So we felt a little weird and it made me
nervous for when I have to go back to a singles ward...eh. But it is going
to be a lot of fun once I get used to it :) The problem is, I'm just not
sure how to act! Because I don't want to be stiff and like a missionary
robot, but if you laugh and joke around with them and have a fun
personality, then they will think you are flirting with them! ah!
Struggles. Oh well! Hermana R and I will figure it out together. We
both have never served in a YSA before so it will be a fun, learning
experience.

Our investigators are doing really good though! :) We got to teach B's (investigator)
boys in the last lesson too. We had a lot of fun object lessons so hopefully they liked it :)

L came to church and we got her and P (fiancé) in to talk with the Bishop
about the rules and guidelines of weddings in the church. They got their
date all picked out :) November 1st. Same day as her baptism. So we will do
the wedding and then maybe have a little lunch or something, and then go to
her baptism! Fun! Satan is really working on her though so we have been
helping her through some hard times she has had this last week.

Another downer...we pulled up and M (recent convert) was smoking outside.

She saw us and threw it on the ground so I asked her if it was hers and she straight
up said no. So I told her I had seen her smoking and that it was ok if she
slipped, that we just wanted to help her. She straight up lied again and
said she had seen it on the ground and was going to throw it away but then
dropped it back on the ground. It is so heart breaking to see people fall
away and lie. I don't understand why you would want to be baptized if you
are just going to go back to your own life. We try to visit and get them to
come to church and keep teaching them, but they never follow through. So I
don't know what else to do for them :(

Anyway my little thought for this week is to be humble and open for
correction/change. During the question and answer with Elder
Christofferson, someone asked how to best correct someone especially
dealing with obedience. He said one of the greatest correctors is our
example to others. It will unite us as we obey the rules and stand up for
them just by our own actions. He then said what is even more important is
the openness to being corrected ourselves. He said that we need to take
correction and not resent it, even if it is misguided or not accurate. We
should take anything someone says to make us better if we can. He then said
that Elder Packer (quorum leader) says that if he sees anything in the
twelve apostles that needs correction, that he will give it to them if they
are willing. If he sees any resentment towards being corrected, then he
won't say anything. We must be open and willing to change. We must not make
excuses or blame things on other people or circumstances, that is being
defensive and prideful. We just need to be humble and take full
responsibility for our actions and for who we are and always try to be
changed for the better.

I have really seen growth within myself as I try to be humble and open to
what people say to me. I have prayed a lot that I can be changed to the
person that God wants me to be and that I can let my mission shape me. But
you first have to be willing to change and put your pride aside. Pride is
the root of all sin essentially. That seemed kind of harsh to me at first,
but it is so true! It is because we care more about what people think about
us instead of what God thinks of us. So I invite all of you to look at
yourselves and see if there is anything that you can do to be more open to
correction and changing for the better :) I love you all! Have a good week!