Baptism

This week we put one of our investigators on date to be baptized. so hopefully that will stay and work out. His only concern was whether or not he would have work off, but other than that he is pretty much golden.

It is starting to get cold.  It hasn't rained a whole lot, there were two days that it rained but it wasn't anything too different than in Utah, we got to go street contacting in it and that was actually pretty fun.  

This week, on Saturday, our ward mission leader - Bro Huntsman - his son got baptized and we got to do a little presentation after the baptism, we just did the restoration. His mom and dad are not members and they were there, so that is why he wanted us there I guess. They were nice to us and thanked us and told us they enjoyed our message so hopefully that helps them some.  

Sister LeBaron was pretty sick too, so that slowed us down and our numbers were not so good. but hopefully she continues to recover. It has been a weird off and on thing.

Nothing else too exciting for now.

Adios!

Squirrels

So..last week was major suckage.

This week is major awesome.

It's miracle time :-)

Okay so first off our mission came out with this new vision thing...so we have set some goals for the next 3 months, so in the next 9 days, we are going to find 400 investigators as a mission...stuff like that. And so that is pretty cool.

SO remember Valarie? I think I told you guys about her..if not go to the blog and read back a bit or maybe I'm crazy.. I can't seem to remember what I have told people. ANYWAY. We tracted into her and I thought for SURE she was gonna be mean to us, but she was like super nice and was like Oh hey!! And she gave us hugs. And so after that it was hard to get into contact with her. so last weekend, we were on exchanges and I stayed here and led my area...crazy.. anyway, I wanted to go see her and she didn't answer the door of course so my comp was like leave a note on her door, so I did, and she freaking called!! What the?!?!?!?  so we actually had an appointment with her and it was weird but I was like YESSSSS!!!! 

This past Friday, Sister LeBaron and I decided to make a sacrifice because of a story she heard while on exchanges about a missionary that was like the bomb and then he went to this area and nothing was happening, there was no spirit in that area, so they made a sacrifice and had lots of cool things happen, so we did the same thing. Our commitment was to be happy anyway REGARDLESS of the situation or how we feel. we are GOING to be happy, (maybe that one was more for me...) we were going to be obedient, and be BOLD and talk to EVERYONE we see. so on weekly planning day, which is Friday, we always like to snack and eat, so we fasted instead.  This week we found 5 new investigators, got referrals like crazy, and less actives that wouldn't come to church came (both teaching them and not) , investigators that struggled coming to church came, it was freaking amazing. No joke, I was like I have never in my life seen this congregation so full. It was insane. We were like grinning from ear to ear, we were like HOLY CRAP so and so is here!! Look there is that person! We were like flipping out. BUT WAIT!! THERE'S MORE!  last night, we went tracting, and we only knocked a few doors till we got to this one house, these was this girl sitting outside, and her dad was working on a car and so we said hello, and she was like hi! and she smiled so big at us and came over and started talking to us, her name is Ashley, she is a 15 yr. old girl and we talked to her about religion and stuff obviously....duh....but she said she said she isn't sure if she believes in a god but she believes in a higher being, a lot of the stuff she was saying we were like yeah that is what we believe and she just kept saying she loved how we approached her and that we were so welcoming and open and just like normal people and we weren't trying to shove anything down her throat, and we were "cool" and so we taught her mostly about god and who he is and the characteristics and stuff, and she was saying that she believes in spirituality and energies and things, and so we taught her about the holy ghost and so she was wondering about how we receive answers and stuff and how the spirit talks to you, and so I read her Helaman 5:30 (one of my faves) and I looked up at her after I read it, and she just hesitated and was like...I just got shivers, I feel so good I feel this way and we were like freaking out on the inside and we were like that's the spirit! she kept saying that the whole time while we talked to her, anyway, we gave her a Book Of Mormon, and got a return appointment with her, and invited her to pray to heavenly father to know if the things we taught are true and if she is his child and loves her and all that, and so I was like you know can we say a prayer with you so you can see how we do it? and she was like that would be so cool, so I said a prayer and she was like totally crying and stuff and I was like umm you're gold...get baptized..okay didn't say that to her face, I just told her again that she was feeling the spirit and she was like that is so cool, this is so cool. Then we left and we walked back to the car and I'm crying and sister Lebaron is flipping out and we get back to the apartment and start like screaming and rejoicing and what not… we do this thing where we hug and jump up and down and then we stomp on each other’s toes and then we laugh really hard and anyway...it is stupid but fun hahah so we did that , and then yeah! Cool beans!! Whooooooot!!!

Alicia & Dad - I have converted one of my investigators to the 'okay byeeee!" HE TOTALLY DOES IT!!! hahaha oh man we left the other day from an appointment with him and he shut the door and then opened it again and was like oh! Okay byyeeee!! HAHAHAHAHA LOVE IT!! HE IS CONVERTED!!!!! 

OH!! We ate dinner with this one family, we had breakfast for dinner, ummm she made us waffles, and she puts sour cream and strawberries on it..SO good. Just sayin.

We had a lesson with a less active member we have been teaching and it was awesome, he calls us like 3 or 4 times a day asking what he should read or he will just tell us these random things and we are like uhhhhh..sooo what do you need then? hahahah anyway, we wanted to teach him about personal revelation and how he can do it so hopefully he can find some confidence in himself. the spirit talks to all of us differently so something I give him to read might not touch him the way it did me…so we wanted to teach him that. So we go in and are teaching and sister Lebaron and I just struggled, like we didn't really know what to say but at the same time it wasn't terrible, but we knew we had to teach something else and we didn't know what. But then he started telling us about his wife (the lady we made the card for, go look at the pics- she hates us so bad and it is WAY funny.. anyway) and how she is less active and wants to leave the church. and that bothers him and there is something he shared with us in his patriacrchal blessing and so he was like why isn't this happening, and so we taught him about being an example, and we read alma 17:11 with him and he just stated crying and the spirit was like flooding into that room and so we were like ahh okay. Thank you Heavenly Father we were gonna start to panic, but it is awesome how that just works out, the spirit truly can take what you have prepared to teach and morph it or direct it into what needs to be taught. so cool.

In regards to last week and this week being awesome, sister Lebaron was like it is always darkest before the dawn! She said Satan knows, he knows!  we are supposed to be here, and he knows that we have a great work to do and he is gonna do that, so when you feel like crap and want to give up you just KNOW there are miracles around the corner!  Pretty cool.

I GOTTA HOLD A BABY SQUIRREL GUYS!!! IT was so flippen cute. holy. fetch.

I think that is is for now! okay Byyyeeee!!

Another Week...Another Chicken?

Okay this week has been interesting. We did really well as far as our
numbers go, we got 2 new investigators and I finally got to invite
them both to be baptized. That was cool.  The rest of the week, not
gonna lie has been a huge struggle. This week has been bad. Anyway
here are some pictures.

The highlight of my week - don't ask me why... I got to hold a chicken.
Our investigator has some and I was like I have never touched a live
chicken. So she let me hold one! It's name was Cookie and she was
super soft. Plus she didn't poop on my so that is good!

2 Months

Hello,

So this week our garage sucks. The button won't open it and we were gonna be late. The door has this key thing you put in it but we are dumb and didn't know what to do, so we were like we gotta pray. So we said a prayer to open the door, and lo and behold, second click on it and it opened. So now we just pray that it will open and it does hahah. So great.

This week, well I guess these are feelings more from last week, but I just hate being "the new one" I just feel like people don't trust you, you try to talk and they blow you off and act like you are not there, I was teaching a lesson to what we thought (and still hope to be) a golden investigator, and we brought a member with us, I feel like every time I opened my mouth she would just like chuckle at me like I was saying dumb things or something, but when Sister Lebaron talks she looks at her like she is god. I just get the feeling that no one thinks I am capable, no one trusts me to do a good job or to give them the info they need. Like in Ward Council meetings.  Then I just feel stupid, then I am hard on myself and then I just don't WANT to talk. I'm just like “well Sister Lebaron, they want to talk to you not me. So go for it. YOU can talk about it because even if I tell them something they just turn right to you and ask you all these questions and I get their back turned to me”. So. Fine.

Sister Lebaron says “well you have good things to say and I like what you say”. I told her I just feel totally worthless and insignificant to everyone including her. SHE'S the one that teaches, we still have a problem with her being more dominant, but it has gotten better. She just talks and talks and talks, I mean she teaches really well and she is a good missionary, but usually (at least for what I have seen) one teaches something then they look at their companion, then they teach, well Sister doesn't do that. She doesn't look at me at all.  Ever!  So I'm like okay when do I jump in, where do I pick up the lesson, what the heck do I teach? Who knows.  So yeah. I just feel so unimportant and like I just don't need to be here.

But then in companionship inventory, I think it was the best one yet. I always cry. For me companionship inventory is sometimes like a venting session. I just tell her how I feel and I cry a ton.  I told her that she had it covered and that she doesn't need me and that I just felt worthless and incapable, and not important, I have no part here. but I told her I appreciates that she listens to me and my dumb problems from home because that is what I struggle with the most, and that I liked that she just listens and always has something helpful to say that I feel is genuine. Then she started to cry and was like I listen because I care. Not because I'm your companion or your trainer or because I have to, but because I care about Samantha Morgan. I love you, I care. And so we are both crying and probably looking way dumb but she was like I DO need you, there are times where I have a brain fart, and you jumped in and knew just what to say to keep the lesson going on a door step or something. She said I do need you, you ARE important, and you DO have good things to say. Anyway. I still feel like I don't sometimes but...that too shall pass??? Maybe?

Pssh, then we had the Hermana STLs come and does a comp. study with us. They asked me at the end how training was going and I was like I HATE IT.  Cried through that too. Whoops.

Well anyway, so cool story:  like 2ish weeks ago we were planning on visiting less actives, so we are going to this guy’s house, and we see that there is an older man outside and we are like well...HE was put in our path so we need to talk to him, so we go over and spend like an hour talking to him about family history and stuff, anyway we had to leave to go to another appointment, so we never knocked that less actives door.  So this older man - Darrel, he is considered a potential investigator now because we taught him and said we could come back. so we were really not knowing what to do, we didn't feel good about the plans we had already made so we prayed to know what to do or where to be, Sister LeBaron was like I think we should go see Darrel. So we go and knock on his door and no one answers. So we are walking back to our car like what the heck? Then we see that less actives house....we both look at each other and say "we never saw him like we planned that one time" basically, we had the same thought at like the same time, so we go and knock that door.  Well, that is when we met Jay. The less active that was supposed to be there moved. He was spewing all this golden investigator stuff, like he has been seeking truth his whole life and he didn't like the church he was raised in (protestant.) so we taught him the restoration and he listened, he was very nice but you could tell he wasn't sure or disagreed with some stuff, but anyway, we gave him our card and he said we could come back.  So a few days later we get a text from him saying "hey this is jay do you want to stop by sometime again?" and we were in the church and we just started like flipping out and jumping up and down and totally being...not very reverent....shame on us. But we were so excited. he is one of those people that asks super deep questions, and he thinks there is like a million different ways that one can get to god, and that there are so many truths and stuff, and we are like no. one truth, one way. Well that is our next lesson anyway. So that was cool. I invited him to read the BOM and pray, he said he didn't care to know it was true or not and I was like well then what truth are you seeking? he said well I believe that this is the word of god, but I feel like I want to act out of love verses out of my ego (i know that is confusing but It made sense when he was talking but I can't remember what he said exactly) and I was like well, you said that you believe god IS love, so why would reading his words cause you to act otherwise? Then he was like well the word of god is in all things like the wind and water and stuff...geez. We’ll see how that goes! hahaha but he is way cool and I like teaching him.

Sister Lebaron showed me this cool thing. so in 2013 Christmas thing, Pres. Monson said "let the Christmas spirit be a springboard into the new year, so we always have the spirit of Christ" or something like this. So Sister Lebaron was like I made a springboard journal, So I write down what I learn, and that will be a springboard for the rest of my life. So she writes things like how to be a good member missionary or things she wants to do in her family. That is cool, so I started one. It is super exciting. 

I GOT TO GO TO THE TEMPLE GUYS!!! HOLY!! it was amazing!!!! I LOVE THE TEMPLE.  I was like I'm gonna go crazy, then our zone leader was like we get to go Friday, luckily we found a ride, and went Friday morning. AH the BEST!!!!!! best day of my liiiifee!! That temple is sooo so pretty. It is like in the middle of a forest and then BAM there it is.  So great.

OH, so guess what, this Saturday is exchanges, and guess who gets to stay in rocky butte and lead the area? Yours truly. Yippie skippy. I told sister LeBaron that when she comes back and all our investigators dropped us don't  be surprised. So we will see how THAT goes.

Oh so we met this lady that was like I don't have to pray, I don't have to go to church to be a good person. And I was thinking about it later and was like who said anything about that making you a good person? That isn't what makes you a good person; I mean it surly has an impact and influence. But umm..it is a commandment. Also, she was like all I have to do is believe in god and his grace will save me, not my works. I was like whoa. Hold up. so if god has ONLY asked us to believe (which he has asked us to believe) then why has he given us other commandments, like let’s say the 10 commandments just because usually people know what those are, why would he give us that if all we had to do was believe? Why would he ask us to pray or to go to church or to study the scriptures? Why? No. our works matter, if you follow the commandments, that matters, it you don't that matters. Anyway.  Not saying that is doctrine that is just my opinion...so...yeah.

Also there was this guy we met while tracting, he believes that you have like a gajillion lives and you just keep dying and coming back to earth until you "get it right"  we didn't say too much to him at the time, but I was thinking about that too.  No. we have one life. One truth.  One way to get back to Heavenly Father. That way is through his son. This life is the time to prepare to meet god (Alma 34:32) Christ suffered for all YOUR sins, so that you can be forgiven, so that you can have that clean slate, so you can overcome your weaknesses.  So if we had 1000 lives or whatever, we wouldn't really need the atonement.  The atonement to me is personal. I learned it is a very personal way. I know that the savior truly did suffer for you. He suffered for me. He bled from every pore, he was tortured, mocked, beaten, FOR YOU.  IN YOUR BEHALF.   (D&C 19:17-18)  Can you even imagine how much love he must have for you, to allow that to happen to him? That, the atonement, is the ONLY WAY, you will "get it right" that is the only way you will be able to be found worthy to live in the presence of your Father in Heaven. (2 Ne 31:21)  I personally don't want his suffering to go to waste. I know that the power that the Atonement holds is real. I know the peace it can bring, especially when you feel completely hopeless, that there is no way out. There is a way. There is no place too low, too dark where the savior cannot go, he has already descended below that. Therefore he DOES know how you feel because he suffered that, and he overcame it, so we can too. We have this life, one shot, don't let his suffering go to waste. it is for everyone. We know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love ALL of us, not just SOME of us, ALL of us. You are important to him. Nothing he has to offer is for just someone else. It is for you.

Anyway. love y'all guys. Hope all is well where you are.  OH AND I TURN 2 TOMORROW!! yayaya. 2 months! No one cares! hahahahahaha