The First of My Lasts

Hey! It's been a great week filled with the spirit and many finding opportunities. We are on the hunt for new investigators and have been trying to clean out the area book as well. We have contacted quit a few people said we could come back so that is good news :) We also got a call from a guy this week who said he was visiting from Utah and wasn't a member but had been taking the discussions. He will be here for two months and wants to continue taking the discussions! So that is cool and we will get to meet him this week :) 

We have really been praying and fasting to find new investigators and work more closely with the ward. So we have finally been receiving names from people to go visit and some people are asking us to do their visiting teaching with them so that is progress! It's coming along well. We teach a lot of recent converts and less actives as well, so we are having lessons, just not as many to non members as we would like. But hey, it doesn't matter who you are helping as long as you are inviting others to come unto Christ :) And as we help those people, then they will want to share it with their friends! So it all works out. The biggest miracle and focus right now has been just working together better. 

This week I also had my last zone conference ever....sad day. It was the worst because President made those of us going home stand up and then bear our testimonies at the end. So I hardly ever cry when I bear testimony or speak anymore (you know I used to all the time) and I feel that that is a blessing that God gave me while I am a missionary so that I wouldn't look like a drowned rat all the time with a puffy face! haha He knew that no one would let me in if I cried everytime I felt the spirit...which is like all the time. SO, he blessed me that I wouldn't cry so much. But the closer I get to the end of my mission, the more I feel that being taken away and it's the worst! haha I hate crying! But it's ok, it's going to happen a lot here in the next few weeks. So zone conference was really good and it was focused on being better teachers and really teaching by the spirit. There is an emphasis on Preach My Gospel. Elders tend to get caught up in a lot of deep doctrine and studying that while they are missionaries, and President feels that is causing us to not be as good of teachers as we should because in general we aren't focused on the basics and fundamentals of the gospel. So it was good to discuss getting back to the basics. I love just studying from the scriptures and doing the exercises in Preach my Gospel. It's something I will continue to do even when I get home :) (well i hope). So that was a really good meeting. We also talked a lot about technology. That is the future of the church and it is crazy to hear all the things that are happening! We are having a meeting this week that will explain more, but technology is the future my friends! So ya, it's been really good. 

We had a good lesson with one of our investigators on temples. He said he had been thinking of November 1st for his baptism, but he wasn't sure because it was so far away. He then said it had to be a special occasion so that he would remember it. I mentioned Easter and he said, "No!" I asked why and his response, "Cause I didn't think of it." haha. what a stubborn old man! I then told him that he would forget I mentioned it and then remember and it would be his idea anyway! haha. Super funny. But he came to church this weekend and stayed for all three hours! The Elders said he seemed to enjoy the lesson this week in priesthood much better than last time so that's really good! He signed up to feed us this week so we are excited for that. He's so adorable. 

Side note: we had dinner at someones house this week and we had hamburgers. We usually eat with the Elders too and one of the elders insisted that hamburgers with peanut butter and jelly is delicious! So we tried it. Peanut butter on one bun, jelly on the other, and then the hamburger patty in the middle! It was actually SUPER good. haha it tasted completely natural! It was crazy! I had never heard of that before, but it was super good :)

Anyway for my spiritual thought this week....I have been studying chapter 5 of PMG a lot this week and it is all about the Book of Mormon. I am also close to finishing the BOM again soon. I love it so much and have learned a lot from it. I get so much out of it, more than I even have before! I also read a talk by Elder Anderson called Trial of your Faith. They worked together really well for me this morning. I read a quote by President Ezra Taft Benson that said, "Every man eventually is backed up to the wall of faith, and there he must make his stand." It had been talking about how the Book of Mormon can overcome any concerns that we or others may have. If we read the Book of Mormon with a sincere heart, we can know that it is true. When we know that is true, we know the church is true, that Christ is real and our Savior, and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the Lord's church restored to the Earth. Then I read the talk about faith and it used that exact same quote. It talked about how we all have different trials and how something easy for one person, is a fiery trial for another. It's all because we have different weaknesses and personalities. So when we are going through hard times, we need to turn to the Book of Mormon to find strength, testimony, faith, and answers. We all are going to reach our breaking point sometime, where we question God or the church or our struggles, but then we have to decide whether we will continue to press forward and endure to the end, or if we will let that trial or question destroy us spiritually. I know how important the Book of Mormon is and I know that it is true with my whole heart. I promise that as you seek to for answers and strength form it's pages, that it can solve any concern or problem you have and help you get through any trial that comes your way.

"Like the intense fire that transforms iron into steel, as we remain faithful during the fiery trial of our faith, we are spiritually refined and strengthened." -Elder Anderson

Faith Leads to Action

Well, it's been another fast week. I seriously can't believe how fast the time is flying. I know, I know. I say that every time! But it really is picking up even more...if that is even possible. This week is a blur to me so forgive this terrible email...plus, I forgot my little sticky note that reminds me of what I did this week! There were a few cool things that I can remember off the top of my head though :) 

So last Monday I had been thinking during my personal study that I need to do better at using the scriptures to solve problems. When people ask me a question I need to do better at saying, "Well, lets look in the scriptures to see what these people did, etc" and help them find the answer for themselves instead of just giving them advice and talking at them. Well I prayed at the end of my studies that I would be able to do that better. Well, we went to a less actives home and were talking to them about the family proclamation and how they can come closer together as a family when they base their home on the teachings of Christ. Well at the end when we were about to leave, the father asked if we had any advice on what they could do in a certain situation with extended family. It wasn't really anything that I could answer as a missionary..it would have been more like advice and just being a good friend. However, I knew immediately that God was giving me an opportunity to practice what I had wanted to get better at and what I had prayed for that morning. Haha God works in mysterious ways! I tried to relate it to the scriptures...not sure what I said or how I did it, but it probably wasn't that great. However, it doesn't matter because I tried and I had an opportunity to apply something that I had wanted to work on :)

On Monday we also had a super fun zone activity. Last week we all made district shirts and we wore them to our activity. We went to a park and had a picnic as well as played party games! It was really fun and a great opportunity to get to know our zone better. I really enjoyed it. Plus our shirts are awesome! They are maroon with gold letters. On the front it says District Three in a Chinese looking font, written Japanese with English words. haha kinda funny. Then on the back it has our names and on a sleeve it has a phoenix. Super fun :) 

This week we have spent quite some time trying to organize our ward party that we will be having to focus on missionary work. However, the bishop doesn't want us to advertise it as a missionary workshop because then people won't come. So we are going to be having a luau! We are going to have dinner and some entertainment and then the workshops. It is going to be really fun hopefully. So we were going over our plans with the ward mission leader on Saturday morning. Every Saturday we go help clean the church, so we were having a quick meeting right after that. So we had a little miracle while we were there! As missionaries we had no idea where we could find entertainment...we have some Samoan families in our ward that we were planning on asking. Well we also were hoping the primary could sing a song to a ukulele to transition to the missionary stuff but we had no idea where or who could play a ukulele either (hence where the ward comes in). Anyway as we were leaving our meeting we look in the gym and there are some girls dancing the hula...haha then the Primary President walks in and says they are doing a performance in a couple weeks and that she is kind of over them and does it with them! Um...perfect!? Then while we are talking to her, in walks a girl with a ukulele! haha miracles! So, it might seem like a silly thing, but as missionaries we have been brainstorming and praying to know how we can make this a good experience and how it can all come together. So when all that worked out, we all just kinda sat with our mouths open...um yes! It was great and we were able to talk to the Primary President and see if that would be possible for them to perform! So slowly things are coming together. We hope the ward gets excited about it and that it all goes well! 

It was super awesome this week too because the lady who gave the lesson in Relief Society this week did it all about missionary work and had us go up to the front and she had everyone raise their hands who had inactive people on their visiting teaching list. Then she basically told all of them that they should be utilizing us and taking us out with them so that we can all be more effective and work together. It was super good. So we are really excited for this missionary training/party that will be coming up! It will be on April 11th, so I won't really be here to see the benefits of it, but I'm really excited for it nonetheless. 

My thought for this week...just have faith! Yup, it's that simple. God is aware of your goals and desires to grow. Just like when I was thinking that I need to be better about answering questions through the scriptures. I prayed that I would be able to get better at that and God gave me an opportunity to exercise my faith and grow. It can be the same with anything! If you want to be a better member missionary, pray for help and an opportunity to practice and become better, and if you have faith in yourself and in God, that he will help you, then you will receive an opportunity and you will grow and become better! The principle can be applied to anything. It just takes action on our part. Which the action comes when we have true faith. Faith leads to action. So, my invitation this week is to pray for a growing experience in whatever capacity that might be for you. Then, have faith that God will help you accomplish it. I know this church is true and that as we apply and live the principles of the gospel we can become more like Jesus Christ and our Father in Heaven. :)  

ps that reminds me...We had a huge lesson with one of our investigators about how he  needs to have faith and take action and pick a day to be baptized because God won't just all the sudden tell him a day to be baptized because that doesn't take faith! So later this week he told us that he was thinking of a day! He had the thought that he should maybe do it on his anniversary! yay!!!!!! He is making progress! He said he is still going to think about it, but even then, that is progress! Plus we are hoping he will actually pick another day, because his anniversary isn't until November...haha but either way he is taking the things we said and starting to apply it! It's the best! :)

Spirit of Love and Service

Happy late Valentine's Day! This week was really good for us. We had a really fun district activity last week. I love my district this transfer. We are all like siblings and it's really fun to work together. Also, our district leader is Japanese, so he can have a hard time understanding sometimes and he says funny things :) we played uno and I played a power card on him. His reply, "ohh. You are so aggressive." Haha or the other day when I said something that "blew his mind" he said, "oh. You shake my brain." Haha it's hilarious and super fun! We went to a store down here and made shirts for our district! Each district made shirts and then we are all going to wear them for our zone activity today. So that should be fun! 

We have still been trying to find people that are really prepared! We had a lady drop us the other day which was really sad because she hadn't even really given it a chance and she really would have loved it and benefited from it if she has just done what we had asked her to. But, people have their agency. 

We did have a little miracle of finding a family this week. We are trying to clean up the area book so we were going to houses all in the same general area. We knocked on a door looking for a particular person. A lady opened the door with her newborn son and was super friendly and made small talk, which is super unusual when knocking on someone's door. Normally people want to know why you are there. Anyway we asked if she was the lady we were looking for and she said no, but we were able to talk to her and found out she had always seen missionaries around, but had never talked with them. I think she had a friend who gave her a Book of Mormon because she has read parts of that too. So we set up a time to go visit with her and family and get to know her better! It was a fun miracle to have happen!!! She seems really awesome. 

We also have spent a lot of time this week trying to think of ways to help the ward get more involved in missionary work. We need referrals because that is how you find prepared people who will remain active in the church! So, as missionaries we consulted with the ward mission leader and decided we want to have a ward activity and have workshops that we teach from the book "The Power of an Everyday Missionary". We are still working out the kinks, but we presented it in PEC and the bishop is behind it. We are trying to think of ways to make it fun so people will come, but we have some good ideas that we are excited to present to the council! It should be really good! Luckily, we were able to fit it into the schedule before I go home :) 

We haven't been able to meet with our church headquarters referral this week :/ We had several appointments set, but then she got out of work late most of those times. She works far away, and then with traffic, she doesn't get home in time. But we were able to stop by for a few minutes last night and explain the Book of Mormon too her. 

Last night, we were actually able to teach our couple investigators about the Book of Mormon as well, and they are super excited to read it. Sad news though, they decided not to get married so soon after all. They want to involve their families more. Anyway we had some powerful lessons on the Book of Mormon last night that I really enjoyed. Antonia's daughter seemed really excited about it :) she is awesome. She actually came to activity days this week and she LOVED it. Plus, while her mom waited for her, she was able to talk to another member sister and they clicked so well, so I think that really helped her :) 

Lastly, we heart attacked people on Saturday and of course made them treats to go with it as well. It was really fun to door bell ditch a few of them and to see the reactions. Especially this one guy. He looked so happy and he shouted into the dark, "hello!?...it looks pretty!" Haha adorable. And the mother/daughters we are trying to teach were having a rough day, and when they got home they were so happy and excited. The daughter said it was the best thing that happened all weekend :) so even though we didn't have any lessons, we felt so good and happy for making others feel loved. It was really fun and the spirit of service always makes you feel good :) 

So my thought for the week... I have been reading the Book of Mormon and also studying its importance in PMG. We also had an emphasis on it in zone meeting this week too. Then we were able to have those powerful lessons his week. So I've just been thinking about how important the Book of Mormon is. I read in 3 Nephi 11:14-15 and it is when Christ appeared to the Nephites and told them to "come unto him and feel the nail prints in his hands and feet so they would know for a surety of who he was" and so forth. So then it made me think of "how can we metaphorically come unto christ and what can we do so that we may know of him with as much surety as those Nephites who actually got to see and touch him?" In verse 15 it tells us that we have to do it "one by one" or in other words, individually. So, what are the things that we can do to better know him individually? You got it, it's those primary answers. Pray, read, and go to church, etc. when we do those things, the spirit is there to touch each of our hearts individually. The most important one I could think of, is to read the Book of Mormon. It is another witness of Jesus Christ. More of his words and more knowledge of him so we can know him better. I am hoping to finish the Book of Mormon now, and read it again once more before I come home because I have recovered so much knowledge and understanding and answers from its pages and I know you can too! Reading the word of God everyday and praying, will bring more peace, answers, direction, and happiness than anything else. Thanks for all you love and support! I love and miss you all.

Grand Theft Auto

Soooo this week has been so, so crazy. As you can tell by the title of this post, you are in for a crazy story. So once upon a time, the Spanish speaking sisters were at the library doing their online proselyting time. One of them had started at a table on her Ipad because there wasn't another computer open. Well when one opened, she left both of their purses on the table behind them....bad news. After they were done, they discovered that their purses were gone. Bummer deal. So then they go outside and find....yup, their car was gone! dun, dun, dun. The keys to the car had been in their purses. So meanwhile, we had just gotten out of a lesson when the zone leaders called us and told us what had happened. They told us not to go into the church for a while because since the man had their keys, he also had the keys to the church! Bad news. A few minutes later, the assistants to the president (APs) call us and tell us that we can't go home either because he also has the key to our apartment. So we were to go home and pack an overnight back and anything that was valuable and find a member's house to stay at. So the zone leaders had been sitting around our apartment guarding it and waiting for us to pack bags. We stowed our bikes at their apartment so that if the guy broke in, he couldn't steal those. We packed our bags and while we were there the other sisters got home to pack as well. Then the Ap's came. We were waiting for the other sisters so we could drive them to their dinner and such but the Ap's told us we could get going to our dinner appointment and they could take them. So off we go to dinner and the hopes of finding a member's house to stay in that night. 

Meanwhile, the Elders hadn't thought that through too well because the other sisters no longer had a key to lock our apartment. So they texted us and asked us to go home after dinner and lock up the place. We weren't TOO worried about someone breaking in because there are a billion apartment complex's here and there is no way he could find OUR one apartment. So, after dinner we went home to lock up, but I wasn't feeling well so I went to use the restroom while we were there. While I was in the restroom, my new companion was just waiting in our room. Our room is directly straight from the front door. So I'm just washing up when I hear a little tapping on my door. I think she is just telling me to hurry so I am about to open the door and tell her I'm coming. However, as I open the door she shushes me and shoves me back into the bathroom. She said, "shhh, he's here!" A million things just start running through my mind and my reaction, "Are you SERIOUS!?" She had heard someone messing with the doorknob and so she saw him walk in, took a quick profile of him, and then locked our bedroom door. Then she had started to tap on the door quietly saying, "Sister! Sister! call the police!" Then she realized she already had the phone. So she got in the bathroom with me and we locked the door. She handed the phone to me and said she couldn't do this, and dropped to her knees in prayer. The police department answers and I tried to quietly explain that someone was in our apartment. However, they couldn't hear me so they hung up. THEY HUNG UP! At this point I'm shaking and extremely nervous, but at the same time,surprisingly calm. I then called the zone leaders. Elder W answered and I said, "Listen, the AP's told us to come back and lock the doors and a man came while we were here. We are locked in the bathroom!" Elder W said, "Wait what?" So I try to quietly explain it to him again. His response, "Wait, slow down and say that all one more time." By this point I'm a little frustrated. I said, "Elder, LISTEN. There is a man in our apartment and we are locked in the bathroom!!!" Finally it clicked and you could hear his breath catch in his throat. "uhhh, ok just hold on! we'll be right there!" Then in the background as they are hanging up you can hear Elder T say, "Why did they go back!?" So I get off the phone and I'm trying to think of what we are going to do when the man finds us. We thought we could hear him in our room going through drawers and our bathroom is in our bedroom, which means he had unlocked our bedroom door. Then we hear him talking to someone. So now I think that he has friends and they are in our house. It was a terrifying thought! I had my bag on me which was pretty heavy that I thought I could probably use to throw him off guard and my companion was planning things too. (By the way, she is a black belt in Taekwondo). So, we are preparing ourselves for the worst, but then we hear banging on our bedroom door and the Elders yelling, "HERMANAS!!! HERRRMANAAASSS!!!" So we go out, and we find the Elders and the member they were with, standing in a defensive pose, and.....Elder C. Elder C is our housing coordinator for this area. He had been told to come lock the door as well! So poor Sister Wright has never met him before and thought he was the burglar. So, it was actually a tender mercy that the police didn't show up, although a little frightening because they didn't even call us back like they usually do to make sure everything is really ok (we have pocket dialed the police before and they always call back). So, it actually turned out to be a pretty funny story! But it must have happened for a reason, because it was way too ironic that it all worked out like that in the 3 minutes we were home. And it turns out, Elder C hadn't been in our bedroom, but had been opening and closing the sliding door which is right outside our bedroom and it only sounded like he was going through drawers. So ya, pretty scary situation. I have never been in a situation like that so I was surprised how calm I was able to be. So we all learned something from the situation. And luckily, the member that had the Elders, wasn't carrying his gun that day either! It just worked out too well in so many ways. So my poor companion went into shock after that. Crazy. 

So ya, they still haven't found the guy, and he unplugged Tiwi (the monitoring system we have to make sure we aren't crazy drivers...and it can also be tracked) like right after he stole the car so they are a little worried that he knew too well what to do. But they re-keyed our apartment the next day so we were good to go home after that! We stayed at a member's house that night and it was very kind of them to let us stay there. So yes! We are all glad that we are safe and everything is ok. I mean mostly. The other sisters had to call their parents and close all their bank cards and stuff and also get a bunch of new stuff like bank cards, car, tiwi card, etc. So that is a very big bummer, but everyone is safe. But I feel so bad for my companion because she is already trying to adjust to missionary life and she's had people tell her that she is going to get murdered, seen a helicopter flying around the church searching for someone, the sister's car got stolen, then we had our little scare, and the Elders told us to still be cautious cause he could still come back. She had a little break down, but I would too! Talk about adjusting to missionary life. None of us have ever experienced anything like this! But hey, it's a funny story now right? Other than that we had a pretty good week. 

We have been doing a lot of finding and knocking on doors. We had a really good lesson with our church referral and her daughters. We taught the Restoration and she seemed to accept it pretty well. We will be going with her ten year old daughter to activity days tomorrow so that should be fun. 

Our male investigator also came to church this week and he stayed for all three hours! Woo! He's never done that. We didn't even have to ask him either. He had a meeting with the bishop this week and he told the bishop he would get baptized when he was ready. I think he is one of those people who wants it to be his own idea, so we are just going to stop talking about baptism for a few times and see what happens. He is making progress on his own so that is good :) Thanks for all the prayers! 

Also, we taught our less active couple about repentance with the Bishop last night and he invited them to get married to help them fully repent. The girl was a little sad about it because she has always wanted a big wedding, but they don't have the money for it, which is why they have been waiting. But Bishop convinced them to have a little wedding just to make it legal, and then have a big celebration and reception when they get sealed in the temple. They agreed and will be getting married on March 8! We are so excited for them :) So it has been really good! 

We helped a man and his family move this week. He is older and disabled and was a church headquarters referral. So we told him we could help and luckily the Elders could come because we did it all by ourselves. Even luckier, Elder M worked for a moving company for a few years so he was able to play "tetris" in the uhaul. So hopefully we can start teaching this man soon. They moved within our area so that is nice. 

So my thought this week is about the Savior. I am reading about when the Savior came to the Earth and when Samuel the Lamanite is giving the signs of his birth and death. I am slow, so I have never made this connection before...but I love the symbolism that goes into the signs. When He is born, there is added light in the world. A night with no darkness and also a new star. Then, when he dies, there is NO light. The light is gone for three days. So to me, that then made me think of the scripture in John 8:12. "...I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." When He was born, the light entered into the world. He IS the light. And when he was crucified, the light was taken from the world for those days while he was dead. It was something new to me and I really liked it! What a beautiful thing. We need to turn to Christ to get rid of the darkness in our lives. The darkness will surround us sometimes, but as we turn to the Savior, he can dispel any darkness that is around us. Thank you for all the love and support that you give me! I am so grateful to be a missionary. It is one of the biggest blessings in and for my life. I've learned a lot and I'm excited to be able to keep growing.

Giving "Birth" in my "old age"

Sooo, we finally got transfer calls last Tuesday night super late. I was called to be a trainer again! So I'm going to have another daughter! I'm assuming that I will just do her full training until I go home, but you never know what might happen. But I'm really excited because she will hopefully help me not get trunky! So she is super cute. She is from Arkansas. She is the youngest of 5 kids. I picked her up on Thursday and sent my mom/trainer, home. That was a sad day though. She has always been here my whole mission! And I thought I would have one more transfer with her here since the beginning, but she went home a transfer early rather than late. So that was hard to say goodbye to her. 

I feel very privileged and trusted to be called to be a trainer at this time. Only 2 English sisters came in this transfer and I was called to be one of them! Sister W was called to be the other trainer too so that was fun for us to be together for that again. It was interested to see how our trainees fit our personalities too. Sister W is outgoing and crazy (of course in a good way) and I'm a little more reserved. We both got trainees that seemed to fit with the way we are too. So I feel privileged, but I'm also nervous and feel the pressure coming from President and of course, the Lord. 

So this week we taught most of our recent converts at the beginning of the week so Sister K could say goodbye to them. I was super nervous about her leaving because everyone loves her, and also I still don't know the area super well. Sister K has a photographic memory so we never had to look at a map or anything! So this weekend we have been using a lot of maps. haha I know the major streets and it uses the grid system mostly, so that is nice, but I still struggle with all the small streets in between sometimes. I'm learning quickly though. Plus, its good for my new companion to have to look at the map and direct me so that she can learn the area too so that when I leave she will be prepared to take over. 

So one of our new convert families taught US the Restoration this week and I was actually really, really impressed. The mom was like a natural missionary. I felt like she had been studying from Preach My Gospel for months and had applied the teaching skills and the patterns that we use to give commitments and promises and such. It was amazing! haha she loved doing it too so that was really good for them to relay the information to us and bear testimony of the truths that they have in their hearts now. They need to be ward missionaries! They are awesome and the gospel really has changed their lives. We also watched "The Testaments" with them for family home evening this week. They LOVED it and watched it a second time after we left. They wanted us to bring all the church movies we had so we got a huge bag of them at transfers. They were so happy. 

This week I also studied chapter 8 of Preach My Gospel (using time wisely) so that we could have an awesome planning session and help my new companion learn how to set goals and such. So I was really excited about our weekly planning, but when we showed up, our area book had been all messed up with the other elders in our ward...so we spent all 2 and a half hours of weekly planning reassigning all the people that were theirs, back to them. We had to do it one by one and there were over 400 of them. It was ridiculous! Sometimes the iPads are a huge blessing, and sometimes they are a huge pain. That was one of the moments they were a huge pain. We didn't get to plan ANYTHING for this week. Not only did we not get to plan anything, but we NEED new investigators. So we did so much finding this weekend. We knocked on a lot of doors and most of the time they didn't answer. So I felt bad for my new companion, but hey, might as well introduce her with realistic things. haha. 

We did have a couple good lessons within the first day though so that was good. So since we needed new investigators, our district goal for the week was for each of us to find one new investigator. We knocked quite a few doors and were able to meet a few people and set appointments to come back, but they weren't there when we came back. However, at the very end of Sunday night, we were trying to contact a referral from church headquarters that we had tried earlier in the week. She was home! When she opened the door and we told her who we were, she was so excited and let us in! We were able to give her a Book of Mormon. She has a friend who recently joined the church and she is going through a hard time so she invited her to have the missionaries over. She accepted and she is sooo solid! She is a single parent and has a 10 and 4 year old, both daughters. They are adorable! We established expectations and set up a time to come back, so she became a new investigator! Miracles! 

We also are going to start teaching a part member family. The wife is a convert and the husband doesn't know anything about the church. We went over the Family Proclamation this week and we set up a time to go back and start teaching him more about the church because they want the gospel in their lives more :)

Lastly, we are hopefully going to start teaching another woman. She is a snowbird. She loves Native Americans/aborigines because her father is part native,so we gave her a Book of Mormon and set up a time to come back and go over more of it with her. She has a cousin who is a member and has loved what she has learned about genealogy from her so I think she will be really solid too! She was very kind to us and said she isn't sure why she is here per say, but I think this is why :) 

Our less active couple is doing good as well! They want to move to Utah eventually so that would probably be good for them. We went over the family proclamation and looking to God to know how to be a good parent. That was one of the things they had wanted to talk about and it went really well. They have been saying family prayer and the husband gave examples of blessings that he has already noticed and been given just from doing that. They are so awesome as well. I love them. So we have a lot of awesome potential being built up! I'm so excited! 

We also taught one of our male investigators this week and tried to uncover his concerns. He has decided he doesn't want to be baptized "yet" or pick a date. It's hard because I know he has been getting answers, he just is too stubborn to recognize them and also forgets about the experiences he has. Hopefully he comes around. He says he doesn't want to get baptized, yet he still reads the Book of Mormon and believes it is true, believes in Joseph Smith "because the Book says he was a prophet", and he was going to come to church but he got the flu and couldn't. So we still have yet to uncover the real reason. He says he still doesn't feel he has received an answer that he wasn't already baptized by the proper authority. 

Anyway, it has been a really good week! I'm really focusing on the fundamentals this past week and trying to be the best trainer I can. I want to get her started on all the right habits now so she can be going strong when I leave! haha this time feels a lot more like parenthood since the last sisters I trained. Probably because that is going to be one of the next big steps in my life. Which is super weird to think about, so I just won't think about it right now. haha. So this week I would say I have learned mostly about the importance of goals. If we don't have goals to work towards, then we aren't progressing. And many times when we aren't progressing, we start to go backwards. We need to continually make goals for ourselves so we can keep growing spiritually. It is so important! So I invite each of you to make a goal for yourselves in an area that you want to work on the most. For example, I am working on studying the Christlike attributes right now and also the fundamentals. Then I make little goals that help me focus on them. Maybe you want to be more outgoing with the gospel and open your mouth, so make a goal to talk to 1 person that week about the gospel, whether you just mention it or invite them to do something, as you prayerfully set a goal and stick to it; God will help you reach your goals if you do everything you can! Just like our new investigator for the week! We didn't reach that goal until the very end of the night on the last day. Yet, we pushed forward in faith and did all that we could, and God helped us with the rest. Blessings and miracles occur when we have set goals prayerfully. Also, setting the time when you want to accomplish the goal is so important as well, or else we will all procrastinate! I hope you all set goals this week to help you keep progressing! :) Thanks for your love and support! Have a great week!

D&C 58:26-27

So this week was pretty good! We went on exchanges and Sister G came to my area with me. It is going to be a sad day when Sis K leaves because she knows where everyone lives and she has a photographic memory. So we never have to look at a map. Well, we had to use a map the whole day. haha. I'm really going to have to learn the area. I know where some stuff is but I tend to get confused here. Sister W left me her gps, but our car charger doesn't work...so it's dead. That's unfortunate. 

So transfers are a mystery because we receive transfer calls tomorrow, but I'm sure I'll be staying in this area. 

We did a lot of work with our older male investigator this week. We had a really good lesson about the Book of Mormon the day we were on exchanges. He believes everything we tell him, because it is in the book. We keep trying to tell him that he needs to get an answer for himself, but he says he has no reason to not believe us. So we really hammered into him that he needs to gain a testimony for himself. He still doesn't think he needs to get baptized because he already was baptized. He understands authority, so we are trying to many different things. We told him to pray about Joseph Smith and to know if this is God's church that night, because we went to the visitors center with him the next day to watch the Restoration movie. His grand daughter took all of us and asked him if he was going to get baptized. She straight up told him that his baptism wasn't valid and it was like her just dunking him in a bathtub. We did the family walk through at the visitors center and she bore testimony that in order for them to be a family, he needs to be baptized. He thinks that he will be with his wife anyway. So we talked about temples and he cried. He is the cutest thing when he cries and he cries all the time. So then we watched them movie and he cried when they restored the priesthood, and when they talked about the Book of Mormon. I know that he received an answer that this is true. He agreed to pray about being baptized on Valentines Day. However, we then took him to a baptism this weekend and when we asked him, he said he's not getting baptized because he has already been, and that he is comfortable being Baptist. AHHH, LEO! Darn it. So we need to figure out what is not working for him and help him have an actual DESIRE to find out for himself. I feel like he's avoiding the answers he is getting because he is scared and he doesn't want to change. He said he wasn't going to get baptized but he still came to church the next day and we are still going over this week. So hopefully we can figure out what he needs and help him understand. It's hard to teach old people. They are so stubborn. But man, I love him. He's the cutest. His birthday was this week and he turned 87. So pray for this man to have his heart softened and for him to understand. 

We had another great opportunity to teach a couple this week. We were so excited because the girl is less active and wants to come back, and her boyfriend thought it would be good to learn more about the church. So when we started we asked a question that somehow led to the boyfriend telling us that he had been baptized when he was 8....what? Darn. haha but it's ok! He wants his daughter to be raised with God, and he is willing to give this a try because he is basically an investigator. He doesn't know really anything about the church. So even though there won't be a baptism, we are so excited to help them become active and gain their own testimonies :) 

So random side story. I was ACTUALLY getting ready one day this week. I put effort into it and was actually curling my hair. Unfortunately as I went to unplug the curling iron, it was a little bit off the counter so my hip bumped it, turned it around, and cause it to rest on along my thumb. It took me a second to realize what happened and then to move the curling iron. Man, I burned myself so good. So good that the burn was white, not red. Needless to say, I have a second degree burn from a curling iron...I have never done that before. Ridiculous. So now my thumb is blistering. No fun. haha luckily Sis K. has some tea tree oil that I have been putting on it, so that has helped. I am such a klutz now. 

Anyway! I had another blessing of being able to go back to my last area this week! One of the young woman I helped teach was baptized and I was able to go. Bishop drove us down because he has family there so that was fun :) He took us out to eat and we had a fun evening. The baptism was super good and I was really excited to see them again. I sure do love them. This young woman is such an amazing girl and I was able to feel of the spirit at the baptism and know that this was the right step for her (obviously), but it's always nice to get that confirmation from the spirit. 

Also, since we were with the Bishop, he asked us to speak tomorrow because the other speakers had a family emergency. Luckily, I had a talk written in the past about listening to the spirit, and the topic is the Godhead. There is only so much you can say about the Godhead in general, so I decided to just use most of that talk and discuss one member of the Godhead and why he is so important. So I didn't have to prepare much. Sis K prepared a little talk on real intent, and when we were going over it in sacrament right before we spoke, we realized our talks go together so perfectly. So she went before I did and talked about real intent and then I talked about how to listen to the Holy Ghost and find answers. It went SO well. There were so many people who came up to us after and thanked us and asked for the references we had used and told us that was just what they needed. The Bishop even said that is exactly what he had been trying to get across to people lately. So that was really cool.

I think that is what stood out to me most this week. God does inspire people and prepares things. I don't know if that talk really helped anyone last time I gave it, hopefully it did, but I think maybe God prepared me to give that talk in this ward at this time. He inspired Sis. K to know what to talk on and we had no idea that it would work together so perfectly. It made me continue to realize that we don't always know why things happen in our lives or sometimes we think we did something for nothing, yet God knows those things and can use them to our advantage. It was very nice to be able to hear that it helped someone, because I felt that it maybe didn't go so well at first, but it did :) So we were grateful for that opportunity.

I am so grateful for the gospel and for God being in the details of our lives. I know that He has a plan for us, and sometimes its hard to find that plan or have the faith to push on and hope that you are making the right choices to be in line with that plan. I was refreshed by the talks I had read a few months ago when I was preparing the talk I gave in church. God doesn't make it easy for us to receive guidance from him or else we wouldn't learn. I think that has been one of the hardest things for me. I just want to do what he wants me to do. However, also as I have been reading the Doctrine and Covenants, many times the Lord tells them that he isn't going to command them in all things. Or he will tell them they need to do something, but he doesn't care how they do it. They have to put the work into it and learn to make wise choices and that can be SO hard sometimes. It is a scary thing for me to do. But if we have faith and do our best to make right choices. I believe God will make it all work out. So I'm grateful for that! I encourage each of you to look through Preach My Gospel chapter 4 and ponder on ways the spirit has spoken to each of you in your lives, because it is different for everyone and it is something we have to learn. It takes practice and action, and as we do those things, we will receive more promptings and answers, and God will know that he can trust us to follow them. I hope you all have a great week! Love you!

Manuia lou aso fanau

Happy Martin Luther King Day Ya'll. Forgive me for misspellings or odd sentences because we are emailing from our iPads today and the auto correct is stupid sometimes. 

So you are probably wondering what the title means....well this week was President's birthday! We had interviews this week and he was coming to our zone on his birthday so we wanted to make it special for him. Sooooo, not too long ago he told us a really cool story about his mission in Samoa and how they were able to establish a church on an island that missionaries had been banned to go to. (The chief said the next missionary to set foot there, would be killed). Long story short, President was able to get past that and ended up building a shack as a church there. Someday I'll tell you the full story. But we were ordering a cake a couple weeks ago from Walmart and we found this awesome beach cake that had a shack on it! So we asked to change it a little bit and add some things he had talked about in his story and we made it HIS shack. So we were really excited about that. We decided to have the theme of how much his mission had affected him and made him who he is, and show our gratitude for the role he plays in our missions and help making us who we are. So we each wrote a little note to him about that and Sister K and I laminated it and made it look all nice. Well, we also know a family that is Samoan so we also wrote a note in Samoan on it and then we learned how to sing happy birthday in Samoan!!! So the title is how you say happy birthday :) It is actually pronounced "mon-o-wee-uh low ah-so fu-now." Haha so we were able to get everything prepared and teach the zone how to sing it. It turned out so good! He wasn't expecting it at all and kept telling us we weren't even supposed to know about his birthday. Also one of the elders had a member make a piñata of  Phoenix for president so that was also fun :) It turned out really good and his wife texted us later and thanked us for putting that together for President. It was fun because he ended his last interview and walked past the kitchen to go make closing remarks. Well, Sister K and I hid in the kitchen and then when he walked past, we wheeled the cake out behind him and followed him in and then started singing. It worked really well :) it was fun to be able to do something for him like that. 

We met with a lot of less actives and recent converts this week so there isn't much news for the week. We met with one of our investigators though. He sure is the cutest old man I've ever seen, he's also a little sassy pants so we get along well :) haha. We went over the restoration with him again because he doesn't understand why he has to pick a church. It's weird though because he understands that Jesus went to John the Baptist because he had the authority to baptize. But somehow it still doesn't click for him when we teach authority. However we finally got him to pray! It went well and he usually says no because he will get embarrassed or something.

I've been reading the war chapters lately and I've learned a lot from them. There is an older lady that we are teaching the lessons to. She has been a member of almost every church, and she is very old, so she gets confused sometimes as to what is true. So we are trying to help her. Well she says it's hard for her to read the scriptures, so I retold one of the stories for her that I had recently read, but I modernized it a bit. So that was fun to help her understand that she can learn from the scriptures and make it so she can understand it too. So anyway, the things I have been thinking about this week are how we need to fortify ourselves. Captain Moroni is continually helping the Nephites fortify their cities and be prepared for when the Lamanites attack them again. So my thoughts have been lately, "How do we fortify ourselves? How can we make those weaknesses we have, strong?" Obviously it is through the gospel and the savior, but sometimes it is hard to apply and know. Because I read my scriptures and pray all the time, but what more could I be doing to fortify myself against the adversary and the natural man? So I invite each of you to pray and ask Heavenly Father what it is you can individually be doing to fortify yourself so that when temptations or trials come, you are spiritually prepared to fight. I love you all and hope you have a great week!