Week 55: Prioritize

"Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which cannot satisfy. Hearken diligently unto me, and remember the words which I have spoken; and come unto the Holy One of Israel, and feast upon that which perisheth not, neither can be corrupted, and let your soul delight in fatness." 2 Nephi 9:51

Hello. ^.^ Meet my new favorite emoticon.

This has been a fantastic week. We've been running around like chickens with our heads cut off. I honestly have no idea how we got so much accomplished--Heavenly Father was just kind of throwing new people at us, and helping us do what and be where we needed to be. It's a testament of how this is His work, not ours. : )

Monday, then. As our first P-day in Minot, we spent most of the day getting supplies, organizing, cleaning, and resting. But we did get time to go with the 2nd Ward Sisters to Sister Nel's home, where we got to write letters and play with her cute dogs. This is Gidget, and she's adorable. 

 

I've never really been a dog person, but... who knows? I may have a dog like this one day.

Tuesday was pretty awesome. We share a car with the other Sisters and they had it this week, so everywhere we went we either had to get a ride from a member or walk. We've been spending every spare moment inside out apartment, thinking and planning. That sounds like it would be nice, except actually you start to go crazy and have to just stop and go walk around and talk with people. So that's what happened on Tuesday, that afternoon we finally got outside and walked several blocks East into our area (we live in the 2nd Ward boundaries for some reason). We decided to try Wendy, an elderly lady from the Area Book. When we got to her home she let us right on in. Her home was covered with doilies, little glass danglies, and was completed with a spoiled gray cat named Bella. We had cocoa and with stale marshmallows and toast, and then we discovered she that's not interested in the Church at ALL, she thinks we don't follow the Bible and refuses to read the Book of Mormon. So we just let her say her schpeel and talk about her children, then we shared some nice scriptures and went back out. It was weird, but still very refreshing to talk with a person, even if said person is "constantly scanning the horizon for the coming of the Savior." She was a little antsy! We'll probably visit for Christmas and Thanksgiving, which I'm looking forward to. : )

That evening Mck picked us up for a lesson at the Church. May I just throw in my thought that I love getting rides from the investigator. ^.^ So we met up with Barbara, a recent convert from Brazil who's preparing to serve a mission this coming year, and we had an awesome discussion about feeling the Spirit, praying, and reading the Book of Mormon. 

Wednesday morning we had an unprecedented Bridge Call with the whole Zone listening in--we worked with the Zone Leaders to explain all the changes that are being made in how this mission is run. We expected an hour minimum would be needed to answer all the questions, but the expected uproar never happened--everyone just took notes and understood and it only took 15 minutes. I was impressed that the missionaries would just take all the changes in so readily without protest. Most of them were very welcome, however, which could be part of it. But then we spent the afternoon helping Dusti, the new investigator who just moved over from Grand Forks, to move into their new apartment. Since her car was full of stuff she had one of her taxi friends come pick us up. Behold! Our first taxi ride ever! On the inside it was really just the same as a car ride. Just more expensive for Dusti.

We ran into a Less-Active sister named Elaina while we were there--which reminds me, we should give her a call. That was pretty cool. She hasn't been in contact with the Church while she's been in North Dakota, but we'll help her get back in the loop. : ) Also, we had an awesome dinner on the Air Force Base with McK. Once again, she gave us a ride over. It took us about half an hour to find the base; fortunately, the visitor's center check-in only took about ten minutes this time, so we were only a little late to dinner. April, one of the security guards we'd invited to the Halloween Carnival, said she had actually been planning on going but had to do an extra training. I'm going to make sure I bring a card for her next time! The Ashs fed us a mean lasagna as requested by Sister Cl, and our message was just having each of them share how the Book of Mormon has helped them gain a testimony of Christ as our Savior. It was great. : ) McK had a good time, I think.

Thursday was Weekly Planning. Stuck. Inside. Planning. Sounds like pinkwashing to me. But we did take a good afternoon break to go walk around our area and try potential investigators and less-active members (within walking distance). And on our way Sister Cl said we should try the referral the Spanish Elders had texted us about the night before, so we walked over and went up to the 15th floor, and Alex was home! We didn't have another lady with us so he just pulled a chair up to the doorway and we had a lesson right there. He said he's not looking to convert, but he's open to learning more. : ) So we're hoping to get him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. He's letting us come back, which is a good sign. The Nels picked us up for dinner, and we had an awesome visit with them. They really enjoyed Sister Cl and I singing for our supper. 

Friday was sweet. We had District Meeting, ate cake for Sister R's birthday (Sister Cl and I didn't even know about it, which was not so awesome, but she frankly forgave. ^.^) Then we had the Sisters drop us off at the University library so we could do media hour and look up videos and talks for lessons. Then we had a nice walk back to our apartment, finally ate lunch at 4:00, planned for an hour, then were picked up for dinner by the Rosks. After an awesome meal they dropped us off at Barbara's home where we watched Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration with her and McK. It was great! 

Saturday morning I had a momentous personal study: right off the bat, when I went to grab my scriptures, they slipped and my pages fell completely out of the binding. The impending doom has finally come! Scripture destruction! Oh the horror! I paused everything and taped a page back in, gave it some thought, and this is what I came up with: I wrapped a fine thread through the pages and around the binding. It ended up being a pretty solid semipermanent binding job. Hopefully it will last for another 5 months....

 

Saturday night we had our first official lesson with Alex. Sister Nels came with us (you know, it seems like we saw her every day this week!), and she was able to help with a lot of his questions. He committed to come to Church. 

Sunday morning rolls around, and at 6:30 he texted Sister Nels to say that he was far too tired to come, but he'd try next week. Well, at least he woke up, right? It was too bad he missed Church this week, though, because we ended up enjoying an amazing Primary program all about the Savior. Sister Cl and I were also able to attend Ward Council, which was great, after which Bishop Jac listened to our request for blessings of comfort and counsel, and it was great. We both cried, of course. Like you do. : ) Bishop Jac is awesome. That afternoon we kicked off our member visits by stopping at the Hal family home and helping them create a family mission plan. We had the car by that point--we switched after Church, and we'll have the car all this week. Hooray! We had an AMAZING dinner with the Ride family, they just moved here from Bismarck about a month ago and they're SO missionary minded. We watched Mountains to Climb and talked about the Atonement and they were very excited to share the Gospel with their neighbors--apparently they're already working with some of them. : ) 

So we ended up getting some good things done this week. We didn't really plan out most of them, but in his mercy Heavenly Father just made everything work out this week. Next week everything should be more settled; we're going on our first exchanges this Friday. 

Thanks for the emails and prayers!
 

Love,

Sister F

 

 

Week 54: 8 Days a Week

"Yea, and if he say unto the earth—Move—it is moved." Helaman 12:13

 Hello everybody!

What a week this has been! What a week! Whew! But here we go. : ) Emotional roller coaster in all the best of ways.

As I mentioned last week, the dreaded transfer call came Monday morning. I had talked myself into denial pretty well--even though Sister R was done training, I thought for sure we'd get one more glorious transfer together. Things in Beulah are just hoppin'! But the Lord had different plans for us. We were comfortable and working super well together, and as they say, "There's no growth in the comfort zone and no comfort in the growth zone." Obviously time for some discomfort! After President Hess called Sister R and I started bawling. I love her so much, and I love Beulah, and I didn't want everything to change. Fortunately we'd already planned with Amanda to go to Bismarck, so we spent the day looking for Winter clothes (for Sister R) and not packing or thinking about being transferred or anything like that. 

 

And then we came back to Beulah and had dinner with Barb, the lady we helped wash windows and rake leaves for, etc. She was the first from Beulah to sign my bye-bye book. : ) We had an awesome dinner and I was surprised I didn't cry when we hugged--I'm glad I didn't, though, because there was a lot of crying still to come.

Tuesday was a whirlwind of saying goodbye to everyone in Beulah and Hazen, snapping pictures, crying or laughing in the Jeep, and writing thank-you notes. There were some cool miracles I jotted down to remember in my planner: first, although it wasn't P-day, I really needed to get pictures printed so I could give Sister R her transfer present. So I decided that we'd just go to Krause's in Hazen and I'd take the blame for it. But Heavenly Father knew that's what needed to happen for my sanity, so while we were there he had Sister Towe stop by on her way back to Center because she just happened to be driving by and her kids just happened to see us walking into the store. To me it felt like a sign from Heavenly Father that that's exactly where we needed to be, and it was okay to take care of all the errands I had. Also, while we were in Beulah we went to the Beulah Beacon newspaper store to buy Beulah-themed postcards. I do that in every area. So I pulled out $1.25-worth of cards, and then when I said I'd be paying with my card since I don't really carry around cash, a friendly neighborhood cop pulled out a couple bucks and said he'd cover it. I was so touched! It was so small, but it just seemed like Beulah was reaching out to say thank you, and also it's the end of the month so every little bit counts. : ) A rough, long day, but good. 

Wednesday morning we woke up to a blustery, snowy day. I got to be with Sister R on her first experience of snow! It's everything I ever dreamed! So glad I got that milestone in. She wore her fancy new snowboots that day. We went to Halliday to say goodbye to the folks up there, and all day I did great, didn't cry with anyone, but then we went to the Thues' home. I have found that it's just inevitable that I will cry when I say thanks to my area's Branch President and his family. So I cried at the Thues', although we did get a good picture. And then we tried to see Faye, but she was sick, so that was that. We parked in front of Tonya's home, thought for a minute about how it was our last dinner appointment, and cried together. It was the end of such a good era. We learned so much and loved so many people. We're best friends and now we have to part ways and we'll never ever again be companions and hang out 24-7 like we did in Beulah. Tonya had actually just gotten back from her trip to visit her sick sister--her feelings were way more tender and dried-up than ours were, but we could all relate with each other and it was a good time. She gave us delicious, fancy raw honey. I don't even like honey but I love hers. : )

Time flies in transfer week! Thursday felt so surreal--each moment felt so precious and sacred. I sound like a cheeseball, but that's really how we felt. We drove to Bismarck, had lunch in the Stake Center, and then I had a glorious reunion with my two trainee daughters and one of my granddaughters (Sister R's new companion Sister Luker).

 

And then I snapped my last picture with Sister R.

And then she climbed in the Jeep with her new trainee and drove off to Beulah.

*sigh*

So, like you do, I squared my shoulders and got a picture with Sister Cl. Isn't she a cutie? Straight from the get-go we're weirdly-similar. We both are absent-minded in specific aspects, we both put oil on our hair, and we both like to smile and talk with everyone. : ) 

So cute! We're new STLs together in a new area. It's an adventure, all right.

Sister A and Sister J are the other sisters serving in Minot. So here are the deets: Minot has three Wards with two sets of missionaries in each Ward. There's an Air Force base here and most people moved up her to work on the Oil Fields, so there's a LOT of people, a lot of transience and moving around, and a lot of people here to make money. We're serving in the 3rd Ward, and it's been a blast already.

Thursday night we unloaded all our stuff out of the minivan once we got to Minot, and then Sister A and Sister J drove two wide-eyed countrified Sister Missionaries to the Air Force base. It took us an hour to get our visitor passes and car checks and everything that goes with security! But we talked with probably eight people, including the military workers, and passed out quite a few invitations to the Ward Trunk-r-Treat party Friday night. When we finally got inside we only had about half an hour to eat dinner with the Sorens before we had to go back to Minot for the other sisters' meeting and for us to go to Walmart for groceries. The Sorens fed us a good spaghetti dinner with apple crisp, and then we peaced out after leaving them with a quick dinner. I felt bad being so in and out, but we had no other options. They were kindly very gracious about us being so pressed for time. : )

We meant to unpack and stuff on Friday, but we only really got an hour to start going through the apartment because we had District Meeting, and then we came back and ate lunch and called Sister Hess and figured out what we're actually supposed to be doing. Turns out we are both Sister Training Leaders (it's kind of like being a Zone Leader except we go on exchanges with the Sisters in the Zone. We only have two other companionships so it shouldn't be too crazy.), which I'm super happy about because I do not like doing crazy things on my own. Also, what about the comp unity? So yes, I'm super happy about that. And then we got into the area book and called people and then Sister Nels came by to pick us up for the Ward Trunk-r-Treat dinner party. Our Ward is awesome!

So we got to chat with a few families and met Brother Wil, our Ward Mission Leader here. I started to realize that a Ward is a lot bigger than a Branch, and I'm also starting to realize that we really will have to work through the Ward Mission Leader here because a Bishop is just too busy to always be working one-on-one with the missionaries.

Saturday ended up just about as crazy. We had a lesson with the Haffs, Brother Haff is a member, his 3 kids are not. We had lunch and tried to see where the kids are at, turns out they're not loving lessons but their dad has them happen ever-other weekend, so we inherited them in this area. It'll be fun though. They're a gaming, artsy family. We then drove ourselves in the minivan over to the Wils' home for Ward Missionary Coordination meeting. I kinda' hijacked it to talk about expectations and see how the Work is progressing here in this Ward instead of just going through the progress record. I've picked up that annoying habit of taking over meetings when I have my own agenda; hopefully I won't always be so controlling and annoying. ​ But hey, Brother Wil seemed excited about the brainstorming session. And I feel like we'll all just run around in circles if we're not all on the same page with the same plan. That's really what Sister Cl and I are focusing on right now--figure out where we're at, where we need to go, and how we're gonna' get there. And then take the time here to make that happen. We got a little bit of time in the apartment, and then we were headed back out to dinner with the Feis'. Oh yeah, it was Halloween! And so after dinner we stopped by Bishop J's home to meet his family and the ward people partying there--he's a young, hip eye doctor with a yoga-master wife. They travel for fun and have a fancy new house in a good trick-or-treating neighborhood. I'm really excited to get to know them. He gave us a couple of names to try soon.

 

Sunday! Fast Sunday, we drove ourselves to Church so we could be there by 8:00 a.m. McK, one of our investigators, met us there and showed us around the Church (role reversal). Dusti came to Church on her own--she just moved here from Grand Forks and was investigating the Church there and wants to get baptized as soon as she is married. Investigators just walking up to us at Church?! She came to the party on her own?! A day in the life, apparently. After Church (McK had stayed to go a second round with her friends the Pelos before she went to work) McK texted us to see if we would do a lesson with her and the Pelos at 3. We got in a few steps of weekly planning, and then McK gave us a ride to her own lesson (we switched the car back to the other Sisters), the Pelos (they're actually in 1st Ward) fed us French Toast, and then we taught her and their friend Lauren, who the Zone Leaders are actually teaching. What a twist! And then we came back, did our transfer vision, and were picked up to go to dinner with the Jacs family. We shared in FHE, met their awesome grandma Christie, then came back, planned for the night, and had a bridge phone call with President Hess about all the changes that are going to be initiated into our mission. 

You see my email title? Well, the first change was that, according to Preach My Gospel, our mission has been counting days in weeks incorrectly, so this week is just going to have 8 days, and then from here on out we'll report our numbers from Monday to Sunday instead of Sunday to Saturday. Here quote Helaman 12:13--it feels a lot like the earth is shifting around us, not only just by pinkwashing in Minot and figuring out STL stuff, but literally our entire mission culture is being realigned to fit with the White Handbook in Preach My Gospel. Today's email from President Hess said it nicely; "The Zone Leaders will in the next couple of days be conducting a Zone call wherein you will be able to discuss these changes. I’m excited that the mission is showing an increased commitment to focusing on PMG and the White Handbook. I can promise those who choose to follow that which is outlined in PMG and the Hand Book will be blessed with great success personally and in their missionary efforts."

So there you have it. A shift in the tectonic plates of my missionary service, for sure. Big changes have happened, big changes are still happening, and although it makes every day feel almost like an 8-day week, I can feel that the foundation is being laid for miracles here. So hold on tight!

 

Thanks for reading. : )

Love,

Sister F

 

 

Week 53: Movers and Shakers

"Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered." 2 Nephi 2:7

Hello everyone!

A wonderful, crazy week!

News update: we got the phone call this morning while doing laundry at the Wielands' home. I'm getting transferred to Minot to be a Sister Training Leader with Sister Clark, and Sister Robinson will be training a new Sister here in Beulah! I honestly broke down crying when we got the call from President Hess--I love Sister Robinson so much, and I don't want to say goodbye to everyone I love in Beulah. : ( But I know it's where I need to be, and I'll soon learn to love everyone in Minot as well. We were just getting comfortable... "No growth in the comfort zone, and no comfort in the growth zone."

Well, Monday. : ) Monday was beautiful! So we had scheduled with Sister Schellenberg to go make an ice cream cake together for P-day. Sister Schellenberg loves us and sharing the Gospel so much that she also invited us over for chicken salad lunch sandwiches, and she invited her next-door neighbor Richard over as well. I found myself being a little annoyed to have to teach a lesson in the middle of P-day, but it went well and looking back it was awesome. I want to be as cool as Sister Schellenberg when I'm post-mission. Our sandwiches were delicious, and we also had a lot of fun making the ice cream cake. Turns out we needed three people to get it to fit in the freezer, so I'm glad we were all there together. We all had a good laugh when I tried to figure out the best way to crush Oreos for the filling--turns out it's a little crazy with a potato masher.

 

The Johnsons had signed up for dinner. McKayla picked us up from our apartment, and then we chatted mission chat--she enters the MTC on the 28th! We had an awesome authentic German/Swedish dinner of rice with anise-spiced meatballs and topped with dill pickles (surprisingly delicious!). And then we sat on the couch while Sister Johnson showed us her new missionary wardrobe, and we oohed and aahed and helped calm their nerves hopefully. It's so surreal to be on the other side of leaving to go on a mission. I remember how scary that was, not  knowing at all what to expect, only know that everything will be different. After we had a nice chat about how great the temple is, we took a family trip to Cenex for icecream. We all sat in a booth, at f'reals, and then eventually we had to go. McKayla took us back home. She's going to be a great missionary. : )

 

Tuesday was awesome! Sister Billman texted us the night before and asked if we'd come with her to visit Becky and Britney, and of course we said yes! I love visits organized and initiated by someone else! So that morning she drove us around and we had a great time, she got to meet those two sisters and now she knows what she can do to help as the Relief Society President. And now we also know more of each of their concerns about Church and testimony and stuff like that. You have to know what's wrong in order to know how to fix it.

I got a nice letter from Camille during lunch (yay! Mail is going well! Keep up the great work! : O ) and we had a good visit with Ashley. We explained the Restoration to her and invited her to really read and pray about the Book of Mormon. And then we had STL call, but when Sister Mansell and Sister Steiner called they said the President and Sister Hess were movin' and shakin' the mission. We heard last week that we won't be using our leadership binders anymore, we're just going to base everything off of PMG and the missionary handbook (as it should be). So what this means is that we no longer text our STL at night to say we made it in, and we don't have a weekly Sister Call. Crazy! But so so good. : )

We had a good visit with Luke, following up on reading the Book of Mormon, and we got to bring Liberty with us to teach Ariel. We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, about how the way we come unto Christ is by having faith in him and His Atonement, repenting, being baptized, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and then enduring to the end. He really understood it well, but, he said, he'd already been baptized as a baby. He didn't think that was good because it hadn't even been his choice, but he didn't understand why that didn't work. So, we had him teach himself--talked about how John the Baptist had the authority to baptize Jesus, and how we all needed to follow that example. And then he read the Resto pamphlet's section on the Great Apostasy, and then we asked him what he'd learned, and he said that his baptism wasn't with the Priesthood. Bingo! Teaching is so awesome! So now all Ariel needs to do (and he'll really be doing it with real intent and a sincere heart now) is read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, and come to Church. Then he'll know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth, complete with the authority to act in God's name. : ) It was great, and I'm glad we finally did a real lesson with Liberty there! 

Our dinner was the Relief Society's Heel Your Sole activity, with a fun skit we got to be in. I practiced afterwards for the surprise musical number for Wednesday's ZTM. Also, we got a phone call right at 8:50 from Sister Cavey in Belle Fourche/Sturgis saying that they'd been locked out of the apartment and didn't remember the code to the garage. Good thing I remembered it! It was fun to hear from her. : ) Also to say hello to the Hanhardts. : ) 

Wednesday morning Sister Lee picked us up and drove us to Bismarck for ZTM. I sat in the back with my journal in the hopes of getting caught back up, but to no avail, her conversation was so interesting to listen to! The musical number for ZTM went well, I did an arrangement of Be Still My Soul and just played the Soprano line in with the accompaniment. Our training was basically a redo of MLC's awesome day on Our Purpose & Planning, so we all recommitted to plan the Preach My Gospel way. We can do it! Sister Lee then took us out to lunch at La Carretta's, which was so nice, and then we were back in Beulah. Of course we'd planned a Halliday day, so we hopped into our car and drove to Faye's house where we had a good lesson on the Gospel and the Atonement, conveniently what we'd just been trained on! We had planned to talk about why we have the Word of Wisdom, but this seemed like a bigger concern to take care of. The Axtells fed us dinner--well, Brother Axtell was still at work, but we had a good visit with Sister Axtell. She always makes several amazing dishes, and usually a few of them are Philippino and they're ALL delicious! It's been fun getting to be good friends with them as we figure out how to work in Beulah together. They're great mission leaders!

And then we also dropped off our old tippy dresser at Amanda's house and swapped for a very heavy upgrade. It took all three of us to carry it into our car. On the drive back home I was pretty nervous about how we were going to get it up to the third floor, but of course we in our Sister pride refused to call anyone for help. We parked the car, opened the back door of the Jeep, and spent 15 minutes just getting the dresser out of the car. It was in a weird cardboard box which left almost no grip. We ended up rolling/pushing it over and over itself almost like a wheel across the parking lot, and then right at the first stairs a friendly neighbor Ryan came out and offered to help us out. Whew! He coulda' been an angel send from heaven! We got it up together (but mostly him) to the top floor, and then he disappeared like a dream in the night. 

Thursday we planned and it was not the most fun thing, but Thursday night was amazing. Sister Schellenberg fed us a last-minute dinner, and when we got there she'd also invited Richard and her friend Tiffany (plus Tiffany's family)! We had an awesome visit with Tiffany and she ended up giving us her number so we could come teach her family, and then Richard stepped in from being outside with the kids and we taught him some more about the Book of Mormon, and then everyone was finally gone and we took a quiet moment to eat the ice cream came from Monday. It was delicious. : ) Sister Schellenberg showed us the cute pictures she'd done recently, and then we headed to the Cranes' home for a lesson. We weren't 100% sure what we were going to teach them, nothing ever came together in studies, but we just went for it. The Scheers were also there--high stakes! Not a solid plan and members coming with! Heavenly Father had a plan for us, though. : ) When we had been in about 10 minutes, who walked in but their friend Dan! He expressed a ton of interest in us as missionaries! He said he's actually walked up to the Elders before and asked them about what they're doing! Every time the conversation got sidetracked, he'd redirect back to missionary work and the Gospel. He is SO interested in learning! So we explained what the Book of Mormon is and how we can know it's true, and then we got his phone number and he said to definitely call in a couple weeks when he's got work off and he'll schedule a time to meet with us. : ) Wahoo! It felt like new investigators were just getting thrown at us! We got home pretty late, but in the parking lot there was someone else we needed to talk with--Tony had just gotten back from being at the bar, and he was super down and he's not even sure if he believes in God anymore. We had an intense visit, and we gave him two pamphlets and a Book of Mormon. I hope he reads them. 

Friday can be explained by this quote from Sister Robinson; "Sometimes you're not supposed to be somewhere--you're supposed to learn something." We spent the whole day running around trying to figure out where we should be, and nothing was working. All our appointments fell through, and to just face it, we were not having a good day. The lesson? At the end, we stopped by Lauri's house and talked about what was going on. Sister Robinson helped me realize that I needed to be honest and recognize that things weren't going well. You can't just grin and bear it, you've got to admit you need help in order to find it. I don't like admitting defeat. It seems pessimistic. But we went for it, and I explained to her that the day HAD been hard, and then the moment I did that, I was flooded with relief and hope. By refusing to admit that nothing was working, I was taking responsibility for that and it was faked optimism. When you refuse to admit that you have "a broken heart and a contrite spirit," you never let the Savior in to heal and lift you. But the minute you acknowledge your absolute need for help, He's there to lift you. I'm learning how to be self-aware! The day didn't work out amazingly after that, but because we both had an open attitude that made all the difference. We did get to have a nice dinner with the Koehlers, and then Luke made it home so our cancelled lesson with him got to happen. We watched Because He Lives from Easter, and now I'm pretty sure Luke and Camren both know that Jesus Christ lives today. That's a good takeaway. : )

Saturday we had a surprise lesson with Kenny--we were in the neighborhood, and he wasn't home when we got there, so we walked around and tried everyone else. It was weird because it felt like we needed to be there, but no one was home. What's up with that? But then right when we were about to pull out, Kenny pulled back in from work and yelled "Sisters!," waving his arms all excited-like. : ) So we closed the doors and walked back over to his trailer and sat at the lawn chairs. We shared Ether 12:27 and gave him a Book of Mormon so he could gain a stronger testimony of Christ, and it was awesome! 

Yeah, no show. We walked around for a few minutes, left them a few voicemails, then decided they weren't gonna' be there. What were we going to do about lunch? Everyone in the Branch was at the temple because youth temple trip and McKayla was getting her Endowments. Tricky tricky! We tried Faye but she was busy, so then we just went to the Youngs' home for an early visit. We found out she's never actually read and prayed about the Book of Mormon--being from Utah, it's easy to coast. So we talked about how awesome it is to know the Book of Mormon is true, and then at the end I felt a strong impression that if I didn't ask for food that was our last chance for lunch that day. So, I humbled myself and did it. I asked for food. *sigh* She was happy to feed us some deep-fried burritos. : ) Being a missionary, though. 

Well, we were pretty sure we were done in Halliday for the day. Driving past Dodge, we thought we'd stop by the Hortons' home. We didn't actually know where they lived, so we just drove to the old school to take pictures with the weird statues. But when we hopped out of the car, I saw a family out on the porch, and I felt like we'd better go talk to them. Sister Robinson wasn't super excited about it, but I knew we needed to go, so she reluctantly agreed and we walked over. Turns out we totally needed to be there! It was a family reunion, in a way--grandma Norma, daugher-in-law Tari, neice Charlotte, then sons (grandsons?) Kendall and Trigg. Tari's husband Kendall was also home. Charlotte is from Montana and she has an LDS friend and went to Church with her once, but she didn't have a Book of Mormon so we gave her one, and then she gave us Costco muffins. Mmm! Haven't had costco since Utah! And then Tari said she wouldn't mind us coming to do service, and then she showed us a video on her phone of a brother (?) grabbing his duck out of a pond. So we're in! 

At Hazen we found Erin, who we're excited to get to know more when she doesn't have the flu. And then we had dinner with the Lees--we were there longer than normal, but Sister Lee's aunt Renee was there, and she's not LDS, so we had an awesome chat. She'd actually just gotten back from Rome, and she showed us all her cool art history pictures. She'd even gotten about 5 feet from the Pope, and got several cool pictures of him kissing and blessing babies. : ) I'm not sure what the Pope does all day but he seems like an amazing man.

 

Sunday was great. : ) Sister Robinson spoke in Sacrament Meeting, I played piano since Sister Phillips (the Branch pianist) was out of town, and McKayla did her farewell speech about the role of women in the Church. : ) She cried and I cried watching and it was amazing. Our appointments for later in the day also fell through, so we just walked around knocking on doors in Beulah and met a few cool people, and then we went to Hazen and the first door we went to was opened by Michael. He's in stage 4 cancer, has an awesome dog named Harley, and he said he's really looking for a foundation. He accepted a Book of Mormon and we're already good friends. It was great to really listen to what he loves and is worried about, and then to share what's helped us in life. I'm so glad Sister Robinson taught me how to be real (or at least how to start that process, I'm sure it will take a lifetime of learning). I'm so glad the weather was nice enough to talk with people outside. 

Dinner with the Scheers was super fun. I love their family, it reminds me of being home. : ) Sister Scheer thinks they're embarrassing but I just love it! And then we did a Pipenger stop-by and we had the best discussion we've ever had (mind you, it's only the second...)! Brother Pipenger talked about all his concerns with finding faith and a Church and also people being awful to others and Sister Robinson shared a spirit-slap example of how she went through the same thing, but once she knew the Book of Mormon was true it all got better. A testimony isn't something you can learn; it's a gift from God, and it only comes when you read the book and pray about it. Seek and find. That's how it goes.

Ahh. I love missionary work. It's the best thing. 

Thanks for reading! 

Love,

Sister F

 

Week 53: Redeemer

"And he cometh into the world that he may save all men if they will hearken unto his voice; for behold, he suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam." 2 Nephi 9:21

Hello everyone!

What an amazing week. : ) It feels like every day is purposely-pieced together by a very grand planner to teach me elaborate, simple, powerful lessons. Whew!

There's a lot that's happened, so I'm just going to say that Monday evening we ended up in probably the weirdest visit I've ever been in--we stopped by Barb's home about 10 minutes before 9:00 to see how she's doing, and we found out that her Mom had just passed away and she had her basically adopted son with her for the funeral. His name is Scot and he is a recently-returned veteran from the Marines with still a lo of social anxiety and PTSD, so he spent an hour showing us all his guns and trying to convince us that we should be carrying guns around with us because "you never know who's behind that door." He was coping the only way he knew how, but I just knew that he really only needed the Gospel in his life, I just didn't know how to make it happen. Whew! What a visit! I felt so purposeless....and there is so much fear and distrust there, when we finally prayed with them so we could leave the Spirit just washed over everything and I hadn't realized how empty it is when the Spirit is chased away. 

So on Tuesday we arose with a vigor to follow the spirit and talk with everyone. We had a great discussion with Ashley about our purpose as missionaries, we read Alma 36:18-20-ish and helped her understand that we want to help her have that experience of peace. She's been through a lot in life and it amazes me how much trust she has in Heavenly Father. I hope she understands the importance of finding truth for herself--we're here to help, Ashley! Then we decided to visit Sister Stils, the widow of the Branch. We had a great time reading Ether 12:27 together, and she had us sing I Stand All Amazed because her husband loves it (sang it last time too). When we were stepping outside we ran into her less-active son-in-law, which was fortunate. He chatted with us about motors and seemed to appreciate our offer to help, although we're both unqualified to piece anything that mechanical back together. We had a good lesson with Luke about tithing, and then it was time to drive out to the freeway for a comp swap! I was super nervous and excited--my first Mission Leadership Conference! I had no idea what to expect, besides "prepare to be uplifted." How do you prepare for that? Well, I hopped in the car with Sister S, and Sister Schu and Sister Sev went with Sister R to spend the day together in Beulah. They had a ton of fun, they're all from the same MTC district. : ) 

So Sister S and I had a nice hour drive to Bismarck catching up on everything that's happened this year, and then we arrived in the temple/church parking lot and talked with arriving missionaries for the hour before we were able to go to the temple. MTC reunion (almost--we missed Sister M).

And then someone who knew what was happening called us over, so we went and had a great night at the temple. : ) I haven't been since July, and it was the most amazing experience! I hadn't realized it, but when we got in who else was there but Bishop Garr from Jamestown! I was so excited to see him I was almost irreverent! And then Brother Brown was there to escort Brother Nels for his first time, and I met Brother Brown's new wife, and we got a picture together because tender mercies need to be recorded. It feels like it's been so long since I've been in Jamestown, but I got to sit by Sister Hailes who's currently serving there, and she gave me all the updates. : ) That night Sister S and I got to stay in the new Mission Home--it's funny, because when we first came out, we were the two sisters who didn't get to stay with the mission presidency. So eventually we got our turn. : ) We went to bed a little late but we were so happy! Sister S also gave me a hair trim, which is much appreciated.

Wednesday morning we all got ready and headed to the Church as quick as possible. They gave us a training that lasted from 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with a quick 30 minute lunch break. Whew! We were exhausted but we were learning so much it was totally worth it! It was all about the effectiveness of our mission--teach them correct principles and they will govern themselves, is the idea. President and Sister Hess have been coming to realize, with the help of support and training from MTC representatives and visiting General Authorities and the like, that our mission's culture is not, unfortunately, of fulfilling our purpose. It's exercise and love and work and obedience and finding and all the things that we do as missionaries. Which are all important, of course, but when you don't remember why you do something, nothing you do is as powerful as it could be. So we talked for several hours about the Gospel and the Atonement, and how the only way to access Christ's redeeming and enabling power is by receiving His restored Gospel through faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. By the end of the meeting I was touched by the Spirit and overwhelmed by the weighty responsibility of making the necessary changes we'd been taught. President Hess asked me to give the closing prayer, which I somehow knew would happen, and I felt the Spirit so strong I started to cry while praying. It was tender and humbling, thankfully Sister Po was there for hugs right afterwards.

Well, we eventually made it back, and I got to hear the update from Beulah. Sister R had had a great time in a trio, and we had dinner with the Axtells and then went back and tried the new planning approach, which ended up being crazier than expected. Our new Mission 2nd Counselor explained it this way--first, fold your arms. Done? Okay, now fold them the other way. It's uncomfortable, right? That's what change is like. So we've got some changes to make, and we know they're for the better but it will be uncomfortable for a while. I feel like this will help me understand a little bit better how hard it is for people to change their lifestyle to live the Gospel, though. Even when you know why it's important, it's still hard to make changes.

 

Thursday we had a good Weekly Planning session. We started out by putting our desks facing each other instead of the wall--that was one of the first things they wanted us to do to switch up planning. It's weird but good there. While we were out running our milk & cot delivery errands (during Area Call--sorry Elder J, but time is short!) the town siren started to go off. After about 5 minutes of it we were all pretty sure that there must be something happening, but then it turned right back off so we think we're good. : ) I think they do random tests on the alarm system every now and then, just to make sure it's still working. 

We'd planned to have a lesson with Laurie, so Sister Ax came to meet with her again. When we got there, however, no one was home. We decided we'd try the referrals from Luv & Paul, their Filipino friends, especially because Sister A is originally from the Philippines. And they were home, and we went in and taught three of them--Grecia, Maria Cress, and Kat--the Restoration! Sister Ax was able to explain in Tagalog when it was confusing, and the Spirit was super strong. They're definitely interested in learning for themselves. : ) Beautiful! We also had a good lesson with Hailee. She still hasn't told her parents she's studying with us--they're members, but she never was baptized. So we recommitted her to read the Book of Mormon every day, and encouraged her to remember that her family really loves and supports her. Hailee is cool.

Friday morning Sister Whit drove us to Dickinson since we're so low on miles. It was super fun to ride with her--she has a fun system where she throws treats back to her kids, which was fun to watch. I feel like we're going to be friends. Elder Jon had a nice District Meeting about how to set expectations, and basically we remember we just gotta' do it. It's hard to be straight-up, honest, bold all the time, but if you beat around the bush no one knows what you're talking about. So I recommitted to be a plain & simple speaker. Sister Whit dropped us off in Hebron, so we were stranded there until our dinner with the Bills. We had a good visit with Gordy--he's 59, we found out, and although he's never had much faith in his life, he really wants it for his boys and really wants us to keep teaching them. Slow progress but sincere heart... The Bill's home is so cute! They fed us dinner, a delicious cake, and then drove us back to Beulah in time for us to drop off our Walmart groceries and drive to Hazen for a final lesson with Brother Was, accompanied by none other than President Thues! We've never brought him to a lesson yet, but it was so amazing we're going to have to bring him to everyone! Although he's actually really busy so we can't actually do that. It's a dream, though. Brother Wasem hasn't had time to read the Book of Mormon more, but he's in Mosiah and he really really does want to know what Church is true. I know he's going to get his answer. : ) And then President Thues got it approved by the Assistants to take us to Dairy Queen and talk about how the Work is going in Beulah while he ate dinner. BFFs forever!

 

Saturday morning we got to help Barb winterize her yard. : ) Everyone was winterizing! Oh, while in Bismarck I had Sister S stop at the Mission Office so we could pick up supplies (it's never fun to be stingy handing out Restoration pamphlets), and while we were there we got our own copies of the one CD that's been approved for our mission by President and Sister Hess (we can also listen to hymns)--Redeemer, by The Nashville Tribute. We've been LOVING it ever since then, and so we brought it with us to Barb's house so that instead of country we could listen to a nice Christian folk/rock/whatever-it-is group. She loved it as well! And when we were leaving she informed us that she'd like to take us out to dinner in Hazen some time, so we scheduled to eat with her next Monday night. 

She had this huge pile for us to bag, and then she was running around on her riding lawn mower scooping up everything else. Featured guest: Sunny, her little golden joy.

I thought we should try Kenny, a potential, and he was actually home when we stopped by. We were about to knock on his door when he threw open his window, yelled "Sisters!," then came out to speak with us. What a reaction! We asked about how life is going and gave him a Restoration pamphlet. Definitely some potential there. : ) Then we had a Halliday day, visited Faye Green, dropped off a Portuguese Book of Mormon for the Leach's friend and a Bible for the Thues' friend, and then we drove back to Hazen for dinner with the Lees. 

At our Thues stop-by we ran into these three girls who shared their gross grapes with us. Brinley and Taylor would eat the insides, then Nikelle would take care of the outside skins. Gotta' love sisters! I also got a cute video of their shed-to-trampoline jump.

​Except when we got there she was still an hour away, so we decided to stop by the Pipps, and they were home! We got to talk for about half an hour, and Sister Pipp said to definitely come back next week! I'm so glad--we were nervous that they didn't want us to come over, but they're really just super busy. And then we finished weekly planning, which was productive, and then we visited with the Lees and Brother Lee is doing well. : ) They've been enjoying a regular Family Home Evening, and he's really seen how that helps his family.

This Sabbath was truly a delight. I've been working on my talk since Thursday morning, and I was able to deliver the same message as our training was for MLC and it worked out super well. One nice thing about being a missionary is that the Lord knows we just don't have time to really think about Sacrament Meeting talks, so they always come together super easy and quick. I enjoyed meeting Brother D Anders from Bismarck--he was the other speaker of the day. And then Sister R and I were part of sharing time, and we also taught the Relief Society lesson on Missionary Work, which was amazing. By the end of Church we were EXHAUSTED! Thank heavens for lunch hour! I had just enough time to almost finish my new planner for the new transfer. Then we headed to the Round's home to practice our musical number for next Sunday, which went super well. I love the Rounds, and we topped the experience off by giving our special three peas in a pod bff necklaces to Liberty (and then one for each of us as well. We saw them in Walmart and just had to get them!). And then we had dinner with the Clems in Hazen, and they are delightful! Brother Clem was baptized just 11 years ago, and they've got quite the story and even though they're amazingly busy doing truck driving, they're still doing missionary work with their neighbors. : ) LOVE them. We will be good friends!

We had a good stop-by at Nate F's home, and then we ended the day at Becky's home, like we do, and it was fantastic. She's going through a lot, but I know that she'll make it through. 

Thank you all for your letters and prayers and support. : )

Love,

Sister F

 

Week 52: With a Sincere Heart

"... And if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost." Moroni 10:4

Hello everyone!

What a week! I know I say this every time, but missionaries learn so much every day. Time goes so quickly, yet every hour is packed with major life lessons, for which I am super grateful. It's amazing to me as well that, with all the teaching Heavenly Father has in store for His missionaries, He also makes everything work out so that the missionary work still progresses every day. Sometimes it seems like He's such an intricate planner!

Well, Monday was great. I got a lovely letter from home, which was fun. : ) We had a good lesson with Luke, we taught him about Tithing and he was so excited that he wanted to give us all the money in his jar! We helped him understand that you just give 10% whenever you get paid--and you don't pay the missionaries! : ) The Notts fed us dinner, and that's always a fave. Sister Nott reminds me of my Mom a lot, so you always feel homesick in a good sort of way when you're at their house. It's kind of like how Faye explained our relationship with flies--they're a nuisance, but she's grateful that they help us remember we're alive. Okay, maybe not a super helpful connection. Either way, I love going to their home. My favorite part of the day was definitely our last appointment with the Rics--we've had a hard time really getting to know Brother Ric, just because he's a guy and we're two Sister Missionaries. Well, we've realize that we just need to bring another father figure along with us, so this time we brought Brother Round and it was a member match made in heaven! We didn't know beforehand, but when they were together it was like peas and carrots (or, as I'd prefer, butter and sugar)--Brother Round just understood all of Brother Ric's life experiences, and by the time we left they were a solid friendship. Woo hoo!

Tuesday morning we got a crazy call from the Assistants to the President saying that, even though I'm technically not in mission leadership right now, I'm supposed to go to next week's Missionary Leadership Council in Bismarck. What a shocker! I haven't ever heard of that happening before. Apparently some special MTC people are coming and they want as much input as possible. I wish Sister R could come. It will be so nice to go to the temple! 

We had a nice couple hours at the Lee home painting their living room. Sister Lee did a couple green walls, and then a couple sand/cream/not-quite-white walls. We had to leave in the middle of the project, but her kids were being super helpful so I'm pretty sure everything went well. : )

Cole and I were working on the confusing wall together, trying to help each other see which spots were painted and which ones weren't. Off-white on white is tricky, you know?

Courtney was super fun to visit--she obviously really loves us because she always has some sort of gift prepared--this time it was a Halloween care package with soap and hand sanitizer and candies. Woot woot! Her fiancee popped in for a minute, and he's had super awkward missionary experiences before so we were super happy when it was just a good, normal conversation. You have to establish a person-to-person relationship with people, I've found, if they're going to trust you to teach them. Anyway, she's going to feed us dinner in a couple weeks. She also showed us her pile of Championship rodeo belt buckles, which were super cool. I should've grabbed a picture!

We were finally able to catch Dale at home--he used to be an investigator in days long past, and now he's pretty set that he knows the church isn't true. Upon questioning, however, we learned that he's never actually read and prayed about the Book of Mormon, so if he can do that we'd love to help him out. : ) That should be fun. The Whits fed us dinner, and then we went back to the Lees' home to meet with Brother Lee. It was super productive so talk about what he feels like would need to happen for him to know that the message of the Restored Gospel is true. It's so easy to get caught up in what we think for people that we can completely skip over what they're thinking and feeling, which is never effective. After all, it is their choice to accept and act on the message we have, and if they really don't understand or believe what we're sharing, they're not going to want it.

Wednesday we had exchanges, and they were lovely! I had a day with Sister M here in Beulah, and Sister R got to go to Bismarck again, this time with Sister S. We both learned a LOT--for me, mostly, it was all about following the Spirit and talking with everyone around us. Even though I've always known that, as missionaries, we should be talking with everyone we see, I've always been too scared to do it. But with Sister M there, we just went and did it and it was so cool! Why do I forget how great people are? Miracles happen when you go talk with everyone--we found like 8 new solid potentially-interested people. And when lessons fell through, looking back there was always someone we found we wouldn't have found otherwise. It turns out it's all about having a sincere heart--Heavenly Father will help us find those who are prepared if we have 1-a sincere heart, 2- we really intend to talk with everyone, and 3-faith in Christ (and not in ourselves). What a life lesson! Hooray for exchanges!

Thursday we had to do rushed Weekly Planning because of swapping companions because of exchanges, but we ended up getting it done in time for our lesson at 6:00 p.m. No members could come with us, so we decided we'd just have to meet outside with Brother Lop again. (Soon it's gonna' be too cold for that option, ahh!) So we drove over to his trailer, and one of his roommates was just by the door, so with our new faith-filled exchange focuses, Sister R and I just talked to him! (This doesn't sound crazy but for some reason it felt that way.) He said Brother Lop had just gotten home from work and was showering, but then we asked if we could talk with him and he said Sure! and voila, we met Ariel! He's so cool! He seems almost more interested in learning about the Gospel than Brother Lopez is! Also, he told us that Brother Lop's name isn't Hombraldo like we'd thought, but Homberto. That makes more sense. : ) He really understood the message of the Restoration, and he's excited to read the Book of Mormon and find out that it's true. What a golden trailer park! We'll be seeing them tonight, so I'm way excited. Dinner with Sister Maup was wonderful--she and her mother Sister Stils took us to the Country Kettle local diner, and it was so fun. After dinner we ran to the Cranes home. We've been hoping to teach Hailee because she was never baptized, so we weren't sure how it was gonna' work out but we knew we needed to talk with her about that. And so we went, and then when we knocked on the door guess what?! Hailee was home by herself, so we had a minute to just talk with her about school and dance and religion, and she wants us to teach her so she can learn about the LDS faith and find out if it's what she wants in life. Yahoo! What a wise lady!

Friday was also lovely. : ) We're just on a following-the-Spirit roll, which is really how it should be every day. Well, I woke up with a sore throat, and I knew I needed to stomp it out real quick so I slept in (annoying but what do you do?), and then we drove to District Meeting in Dickinson. (Did I mention that we're stressing about miles? Yep, that's fun.) I asked for a blessing from our District Leader, and it was awesome--as usual, it was exactly what I needed, a promise of strength to do what I desire. That (new/refueled) desire is to talk with and find everyone who's ready for the Gospel in their life, and I was worried that if I got sick I'd pass someone by (or even if I wasn't that I'd just get too scared), so it was exactly what I needed to hear. We went to Walmart to buy groceries and we were able to talk with our cashier who ended up being an investigator the Sisters in Dickinson are teaching! So cool. : )

The Schells gave us a ride to Hazen for dinner. I LOVE the Schells. This time Sister Schell fed us Naan and Lentil Curry, SO yummy! We had an awesome discussion on Things that Matter Most, and then because we all love everyone so much we had to take a picture.

Saturday we'd planned on going to Halliday, but Heavenly Father had different plans for us. First thing in the morning our scheduled appointments there all fell through, so we weren't sure what the plan was. We went out and visited with Britany, and on our way out her neighbor Ashley was sitting on the porch. So what did we do? We talked with her, and offered to come back and teach her. And she said yes! So we scheduled to come back that same day! Then we had bridge call and lunch (I took a nap), and then we went to try a potential that Sister Mans and I found on exchanges. He wasn't home, but his roommate was. We talked with him and he just moved in from South Carolina to work on the gas plant. He said he wasn't interested in changing religions, but he did accept a pamphlet, and when we were across the street he was totally reading intently. : ) Also, we stopped by Luv and he was home, and we ended up having a lesson on the porch about prayer and our relationship with God. He is super lonely and instigated coming to Church. He didn't make it this week, but I think once we find a friend for him he'll be set. Then we went back and met with Ashley, and that was super inspired and great.

Whew! We fed ourselves dinner, and then it was time to run to the Church to set up the broadcast of the Adult Session of Stake Conference. Sister Lee made it, so we ended up staying the whole time to watch with her.

I had to snap a photo of the projection to record how much President Hess loved this speaker's talk. Look at the sincerity in that smile! He's so happy!

We tried to see Dale again that night. Like we probably could have guessed, he seems to be on the typical rancher schedule of being asleep before 8:45, so no go with him. We did get a good bonding experience with the dog Sheldon, though. 

Sunday was a nice day. We had Stake Conference, so they broadcasted it to our Church building. The visiting General Authorities were Elder and Sister Spackman--I loved Sister Spackman's talk the most. She is an amazing speaker, and I love how honest she is about sharing the Gospel. Also, I really liked this insight from Elder Spackman (an indirect quote); "Most people take at least seven exposures to the Gospel to decide they want to be a part of it. A lot of the time we have awesome missionary experiences, but in the end when the individual doesn't want to be baptized we get down on ourselves thinking we're not good missionaries. But really, we were probably their number one or four or six. Missionary work is more about planting seeds than about reaping harvests." That's something that we see a lot in every mission, I think.

Cool story, last night we had about fifteen minutes until we had to ​be back in for planning, so I felt like we should try Becky. She wasn't home, but her sister from Stanton was! We got to meet her and it was the best! I love it when we go somewhere not knowing exactly why, but then we get there and realize exactly what we needed. So good. : )

Well, it's been a good week. Lots of lessons, lots of love. Thanks for the emails and prayers!

Love,

Sister F