Happy Halloween

Okay so this week was good.

I had my first church tour this week. It was so cool.  We gave it to Grace and Naomiyah.  They go to a bible school so it was nice to get them off that campus and into our territory :-P  it just really went so well. We tried to put them on date, but they said no..gosh dang it, but we committed them to pray about a date. So next time...next time.  But it is just so cool, while we were doing the church tour, there was just a certain element of silence. It was just so still.  And we were walking through and just showing them the different rooms and paintings and talking about how the church was organized. We don't have a baptismal font in our building, so we showed them a clip of a baptism.  Then we talked about what baptism is and what promises we make. Then we went to the chapel.  It was even more quiet. When we walked in and got everyone in the room it is like the spirit flooded behind us. And we just stood there for a while and didn't say anything. They just looked around and just smiled and it was so great. AH! it was so awesome! Then we taught about the sacrament and why that is important and they asked all these questions and then we taught them about real intent. THEN we tried to put them on date and they were like oh I don't know I have so many questions and I don't know the truth. Which is fine.  And then they asked us about our backgrounds. They asked us about how we came to know it for us since we were raised in the church.  And I just started talking and telling them about how I wasn't ever really that active in the church and where the turning point was for me and YES I cried...lets' get over it. But then they were just like wow that is so cool, that is so great and then we just shared our testimony. and it was weird. I felt like there was always a bit of awkward tension. And after that I just felt like we had broke a lot of ice.  OH! and it was so cool, before we put them on date I was really not feeling sure about it and I was like praying about it and I was like we planned to put them on date should we ??AHH what do we do?!?!?!? but sister LeBaron did it and I was like oh no!! But it seemed to go over not that bad even though they said no.  But then I was like now what. It is hard to stay on the same page with your comp because obviously I don't read minds...but I was like heavenly father just whatever happens just please give us the same prompting so we know what to do and we are on the same page. Then I committed them to pray about a date. Then after they left. Sister LeBaron was like I'm so glad you committed them to that because I had the exact same feeling and I was like OH MY HECK!! prayer answered!! haha way cool.

We found 4 new investigators this week, Larry, Tiffany, Tonie (former investigator,) and Herb.  

Larry, his wife just passed away, he seems to be catholic but was never active and hasn't read the bible (which I am grateful for because now he can't bible bash hehehe)  he seemed to be way excited when we taught him about the book of Mormon and he was like oh that is so cool so it is just like the bible but here in America! haha I wanted to say yeah but it is the fullness of the gospel, and it was translated perfectly and nothing has been taken out so...better than the bible hehe..but didn't. Anyway we got to know him a bit and the first lesson went pretty good. OH AND HE HAS KITTENS!!! AHHHHH he has like 7 cats and they come and curl up on your lap and I was like AH! this is heaven!! haha tender mercy!! aww the kittens!

Tiffany is a former investigator; she will be an interesting case. She didn't seem too interested but we got a return appt. with her. We’ll see where that goes!

Tonie, she is also a former investigator, but she always tells us how she wants to be baptized, when I first got here we dropped her, and then out of the blue she calls us and was like hey I got fired from my job so I can come to church on Sunday’s oh and I want to be baptized and pick another date for that. So we were like WHAT THE!?? But she seems to have a problem with committing but we are excited nonetheless to see where this goes.

Herb. Well, he is soo cool. He looks like Elvis, sings like Elvis...but not as good...but something cool happened with him.  We went over for our first appointment. When we first met him he seemed to agree with like everything we say and so we were like okay... and he was just soo super nice but he likes to TALK. hahah so we went over and he was like have you been here before? And we were like just on Tuesday! And he was like no way before that? And we were like no. and he was like but I know you. I recognized you from somewhere. I knew you would come. I have been waiting for you this whole time! And we were like...WHOAAA PRE EARTH LIFE YO! haha we didn't tell him that  but we told him the whole god doesn't do random thing. We just didn't want to confuse him. But we taught some principles from the restoration, he has a ton of cool spiritual stories, and he is just incredible...but he likes to talk so we didn't get through the whole lesson. But he was like I really enjoy you, come back and share more with me. So that is waaaaay cool!

We had another investigator - Maria, she just shows up at church yesterday and was talking to one of the members and he comes over and was like hey that lady is looking into the church. So we went and talked to her. Apparently she went to church in Cali, and she always loved the feeling of our church. She was like "so how do I move forward in this?" and we snagged her up and we are gonna teach her...and DUNK HER!! whoooooooT!!!!! 

Our Islamic investigator, well he is a tricky one. He doesn't really seem to understand god or Jesus Christ at ALL.  Plus his English isn't the best and so it is really hard to know what he actually understands.  We are trying to help him know about Christ and gain a testimony of that. We have taught him the restoration but he doesn't get that either but why would he if he doesn't understand god and Jesus Christ?  Anyway we had a TERRIBLE lesson with him on Friday because of the members we chose to take with us. They were SOOOOOO overwhelming and pushy. And they were taking over the lesson and teaching it WAY out of order. It was SO bad. Oh my heck. When we started talking to him he seemed to calm down and relax a bit but then we were always interrupted.  That is the first and LAST time we will take those members with us.  Oh man.

There is a family in our ward that I LOVE TO DEATH. They are trying to encourage their sons to go on missions, and I guess they are having some other struggles and things so the bishop offered to them to meet with us and have the discussions. So now we get to teach them!! I just loooooove them and am excited to get to teach them! So cool.

We are trying to up ourselves. We always get 20 lessons a week, so we are like okay let’s get 23 this week, and then get more and more. Sister LeBaron is all bugged because in Rainier (her first area) they got like 40 lessons a week and all these baptisms and stuff and so she wants to be like that again. So we are pushing for that. Anyway. That is a neat goal to have. 

That's what's up. Hope all is well in Utah. Or where ever you all are :-) 

love ya!

Great Week

AH! Hello!!!

Ok seriously I feel like I need to run.. I have so much happiness and energy and I'm in a gosh dang library and I have to sit still and be quiet and I don't like it!! haha

Ok so this week....what happened this week????

OKAAYY

So first matter of business…Sorry if there are a ton of typos, I can't seem to move my fingers like I want to because I'm so excited and I don't know why and plus I have to hurry AHH!! 

Ok so we are teaching this less active couple, the Pyles.  Weeellll  Sister Pyle HATES US. HATES. US. BUT!!! for some weird reason she has been sitting in with us when we come to teach Brother Pyle, so we have to make sure we include her in a special way so she doesn't flip out on us. SO. we went over and I can't remember what the plan was to teach, but we showed her the Mormon Message called "the Will of God" okay go watch it...I'll wait...........okay so I started bawling and stuff and bore my testimony and stuff and she was like that was so meaningful, I loved that, thank you so much and she hugged us and got a little weepy and Sister LeBaron and I walk out of that lesson and are like jumping for joy and like freaking out with happiness.  THEN she sent us a card in the mail, Sister Pyle is known as the card lady, so she sent us a letter and was like thank you so much you are such good people and all that and Sister Lebaron was like you have to keep that because you were the one that taught that and I was like WE. (she always gets mad at me when I’m like no YOU taught that lesson, because usually she does...) so that was cool. So we go back the next week for a lesson and Sister Pyle is not there. Well we had planned for a lesson with both of them and didn't think of what if she is not there so we are like OH CRAP! WHAT DO WE TEACH?!?!?! And we are scrambling to find something to teach while he is getting us water and we are like oh no no no no!!!! so we prayed our guts and remembered Elder Hollands quote "just listen with love, and our friends will tell us what they need" so we just started asking him questions and SURE ENOUGH!!! He was like I can't forgive myself I can't do this and that...and I was like AH HA!!!!  Story - forgiving oneself by elder...ummm oh dear I don't rememer but it is from march 2007 ensign I think.. Richardson.. Chad Richardson??? look it up..I'll wait.... okay..soo I read the part about W.W.Phelps and how he betrayed Joseph Smith and was the reason he was in liberty jail, WELL he was forgiven by brother Joseph, BUT BUT!! he forgave himself ANNDD he wrote praise to the man! WHAT?! Awesome story. Read it!! SO, we just started taking about forgiveness, and he is totally crying the whole time. I have never seen him cry that hard and it broke my heart into pieces. I just wanted to hug him and be able to take all his pain away and it was sooo sad! I hated it! so I read this part from Elder Uchtdorfs talk "living the Gospel Joyful" about how god loves us, then Brother Pyle ANND sister LeBaron are in tears…whaddya know? I'm the only one NOT crying? What the??? What happened there?  Anyway so, we watched the "Come unto Christ" theme song video, and we all were bawling. and it was the BEST. LESSON. EVER. the church is true every one.  The Spirit is real, the gospel is real, embrace it! Let it into your life, let it change you!! It is the best!!! AH! Go watch that movie. Let me know if you need the link… okay wait it is on my Facebook...go find it.

Okay next item of business...OH MY!! So RIGHT before Brother Pyle’s lesson, we were out walking on the street just talking to people. We met this man named John. John Heath...like the candy bar...anyway, we OYM him and give him a card and he looks at us, looks at the card, looks back at us and is like for real? And we are like....umm yeah...what up? And he was like wow this must be a sign from god you know? And we were like ...yes. And we just talked to him. He is in some REALLLLY bad stuff, but he was just like thank you. Thank you, thank you! Thank you for talking to me and talking the time to talk to me. Thank you so much I trust you both and I feel so good talking to you. So we taught him a bit of the plan of salvation. And he just talked about how bad his life is. No joke EVERY person that walked by he would ask if they kept walking because he was convinced that he was going to die. That someone was going to kill him and he was like are you guys bullet proof?? and I was like uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh what??????? I sure hope so!! haha but it was fine. That’s Portland for ya. Anyway, we got his info, unfortunately he is not in our area, so we can't teach him but we sent the referral in. so cool. Then he called us three times in the middle of the night just to tell us he was alive and to say thank you. So cool!!!!

It is awesome. Being a missionary, you are set apart from the world. as a Representative of JESUS CHRIST. We get to feel just a SNIPPET of that love that he has for each and every one of us. And even that little snippet seems so overwhelming to me. I love the Lord, I love that he is there for us every step of the way. He has not forgotten about you, but sometimes we are the ones that turn our back. We turn our back on him and then get mad and wonder where he is, when really, he is there the whole time, you are just not paying attention. Don’t do that! Always include him in everything you do, and I promise you, I PROMISE you as a representative of Jesus Christ!!! I PROMISE you will be happy. I know it.

We put our Islamic investigator on date to be baptized. He is so funny, whenever we start with a prayer he will say "yes I'm waiting. I'm addict!" hahah with his accent. So funny.  It is really hard to teach him for some reason.  He has no foundation of anything, he wasn't active in his Islamic faith and so we have to teach him about god and Jesus Christ…for some reason that is difficult. Plus the language barrier makes things hard. We don't know if he really understands or not. But it is going good!! COOOOL!

SOO this week was SO GOOD, but it was a struggle too. I don't think I have ever prayed so hard in my life. SO let me tell you this story of awesomeness. It was just a slow build up I guess, I was just feeling all these things and getting all upset, but not because I just don't want to get all bawly and stuff. So well...eventually I blew up. So on Saturday I prayed and prayed and prayed and I was like I DO NOT know what to do to make these feelings go away or to even control them. And I just prayed and prayed and prayed and praaaaayed, and I thought about what my mission pres. told me in my interview. To call him if it starts to build up and call him before I burst. So I was like Noooooooo I'm not gonna waste his time, but I WISH I had asked him for a blessing. So now I'm like should I call him? No. wait should I? No. so I don't. Well anyway.  That was on Saturday, well Sunday came and I decided to do my own little fast. so we got to church and after church, like a half hour after, we are still there just talking to people, because EVERYONE ALWAYS has to talk to you, so it takes us forever to get out of there, well I just turn my head and look at someone walking towards me and LO AND BEHOLD - it's President Taylor. And Sister LeBaron and me are like WHOA what the? Why are you here? And he was like “oh I just had to talk to someone”. Well, a couple days previous I was telling sister LeBaron how I wished I had asked him for a blessing, and I wonder when I will see him again to ask him. And we were like what the. So Sister Lebaron asks him “how long you gonna be here?” And he's like “not long”, and she is like “long enough to give a blessing?” And he was like “probably not”, but then he looks at me hahahah and then back at LeBaron and was like “who needs it?” and I was like “me..” and he just smiled and grabbed my shoulder like "I knew it" and then he is like wait here a second. So anyway, I got a blessing from him and I feel like everything I had thought and prayed for was made clearer and it was just the best thing ever. GOD DOESN'T DO RANDOM.  

No joke, then Sister LeBaron was like I hope you know how NOT random that was. That NEVER happens, he NEVER shows up. Ever!  You never see him outside of missionary functions’ or meetings. Ever! She was like God just went out of his way to send the Mission President to you. And after my blessing, Pres. Taylor said, “I knew I had to come down here for something, but I wasn't sure. I thought it was to talk to Elder --- but I guess I really needed to see you.”

GOD. DOESN'T. DO. RANDOM. He is SO aware of us! holy crud!! It was amazing! Oh man. The best. Love the lord people !! I love him!! He is so good to us, and I love Pres. Taylor. The. best.

Anyway. that is it for now I guess. you should watch the Mormon messages "the Hope of God's Light" and "New year’s: Look Not Behind Thee"

ready go.

Love ya!!

Transfers-NOT

Okay, so I turned three on....Thursday? I think? 

Cool.

So this week was goodish but suckish.

So one of our investigators that we had on date to be baptized dropped us. I was like WHAT? He left a dumb note on the door and left when our appointment was supposed to be. It was like way sad. We had a member with us and she was like trying to be all nice and stuff like… "can I do something for you?”  “This happens all the time I'm sure, It's just the world, it's just how it is" and we were like ticked but trying not to bawl our eyes out and trying to just get back in our car so we could cry hahahah.  She wouldn't leave!! hahaahahah she gave us hugs and we eventually got in the car and drove off and cried. haha. Oh man. It was way sad. It hurts so bad when that happens. He was doing good too, and he said he did his research and he disagrees. The worst part is, that some of the members were taking the matter into their own hands and doing things and telling us what to do and all that. It was annoying. But anyway,That is all sorted out now.

We got to go see “Meet the Mormons”. It was waaay good. Go see it!  It isn't preachy or doctrinal at all, it just shows the organization of the church a little and just stories from LDS people showing that we are just people...like everyone else!  It was funny, inspiring, weepy..really good. 

The day we got dropped we found another investigator. He is realllly cool. He is always trying to meet with us every chance he gets. He says he really wants change and he doesn't like any other church but for "some reason" he is talking to us and likes talking to us because he feels like we are actually helping him

Yesterday, we were like DESPERATE to talk to people. there was like NO ONE on the streets and we only had an hour, and it gets dark REALLY fast, so we can't be out too late, so we were like crap. We have to get at least 10 oyms a day. It is a promise from an apostle that if we do that, our baptisms will double.  I have already seen that blessing. Not necessarily in baptisms, but we always find new investigators when we get the numbers.  I know that numbers are not success, but it does show progress.  And when we can get the goals that are set by the mission pres. we see those blessings. So...we were like running around trying to talk to people. We always ask in our prayers that we will have the courage and faith to talk to people and be bold in our purpose.  Well, usually when people are like across the street we don't really talk to them, or sometimes they cross the street so they don't talk to us, or avoid eye contact and it is super awkward, but we were like you know what? we can't afford it. we cannot afford NOT to talk to people, EVEN if we are ahead in our OYMS (open you mouth) so we were like chasing people down, crossing the street just to talk to them, walking down streets we didn't plan to because there is someone there instead of just walking the planned route. That's what we should do. geez.  I have never felt so good! I just felt all happy and fuzzy in my heart. it was awesome.  Geez why is it so hard to talk to people? It is like the talk "which way do you face?" by Lynn G. Robbins from general conference.  Read it. We are servants of the Lord. We are here to do HIS work. Not to please the people.  I am called of God. I have authority. I have been set apart to preach his word. and that is what I'm gonna do gosh dang it! So starting from now on, I'm making it a goal to be more BOLD.  

Pssh! let me just tell you this random dumb story.  We bought some dove chocolate last P-day...sorry I said I would be good.. hehehe and in the wrappers it has little sayings and quotes. Well the one I opened up it was like RIGHT before bed..I just had one!! Anyway, it said "sleep late tomorrow" I crumpled it up and threw it in the garbage. I hate you, Dove. I hate you. What is sleep? hahahah

TRANSFERS... yes you all have been wanting to know. well guess what. I'm not getting transfered. and Neither is Sister LeBaron. She was SHOCKED. She was SO CERTAIN she was gonna leave and I was like I'm gonna laugh SO hard when you stay here. HA! In her face! I do love her so much, yes she drives me crazy, but I was hoping she would leave so I can take over and learn to be the one in charge!  I told her I wanted my time to shine, mostly because I wanted people to not see me as "the new one" yes I am still refered to as that by the members and I want to PUNCH them. In the mission we were told we CANNOT call people that because we have all been set apart, I can be just a good a missionary as the next guy.  Anyway.  But she was like sorry, I got you all pumped up for me to leave and you were right and I'm staying! So..yeah.  

On Monday we watch a movie together, the Joseph Smith movie. We bawled our eyes out and ate ice cream..yes like you do when you watch a chick flick, but chick flicks are dumb. Anyway. it was funny.  Then in our comp. inventory, we cried our eyes out thinking it was our last one. HA! Oh man. I still have yet to laugh at her. 

Anyway. I think that is it. Oh and we got to have interviews with our mission Pres. this week too. That was fine. Okay NOW that is it.

 Byeee!! 

Slow week

Well hello, yet another week has passed. I get to turn 3 on Thursday! Whoo.

So this week has been kinda boring...well at least it was slow and nothing to crazy or exciting happened...but it was still good.

This week we received a referral of someone that we usually get...and so we are like what the heck, who are you guys talking to that she keeps getting referred?! who the heck is referring her? she is a non-member in our area that does come to church…I guess basically she is a "dry Mormon" except she doesn't want to give up her coffee...which I learned some interesting facts about that I will share with you later.  Anyway well we are like "God Doesn't Do Random" (a famous quote in our mission) and so we are like we need to go see her, but at the same time we had so many different changes in our schedule and we had not the slightest clue as to what we should do. so we pulled over and decided to pray, it was getting towards the end of the night and we had some "priorities" I guess but now we were like okay crud what is more important. so I'm saying this prayer, and I don't know why, but it is weird to pray in the car, so I will bow my head and close my eyes, but occasionally I will look up and look around, I guess I'm just paranoid. but anyway I'm saying a prayer, and I look up and there is this girl walking toward us, and I was just like k whatever, but it was way cool because all of the sudden I was kinda feeling the spirit, and then it was like HOLY FLIP TALK TO THAT GIRL! haha so while I am noticing the spirit getting incredibly strong I'm just sitting there all quiet and then I was like “We have to talk to her!” so I am scrambling to get a card and I role my window down and talk to her, I think I freaked her out, cuz you know nothing more sketchy than someone giving you a card from their car...but she was super nice and anyway nothing else happened. But it was way cool. No joke, the spirit truly does BURN and my heart was like going nuts. It was awesome.  Anyway we went and saw that Non-memeber, we were praying about whether or not to go see her because she told us earlier that "she wasn't ready yet" or didn't want to talk to us so we just blew off the referrals that we had gotten since that time. we went and saw her, she said she really appreciated the visit but she is "fine" whatever. Get baptized.

We got 3 new investigators this week, our mission is doing this big push to get 450 new investigators in like 14ish days. So we have prayed and fasted and all that. We had NO success and so we are like what the flip where are we going to find these people?  Then Boom, we got all 3 in one day. It was cool. We get to go see one of them this week for our return appointment, so I hope she is actually there.

We had a weird lesson with 2 of our progressing investigators this week (we have 3 now, and one on date for baptism...whoot!) it was intense. Naomiyah and Grace. Naomiyah had a question the last time we met with them because we invited them to be baptized, and she was like well I have already been baptized and so why isn't that enough?  And so we talked more about that and the priesthood. Well...they decided to bring a friend along. We were already frazzled about the lesson and how we were gonna teach it or WHAT we were gonna teach, we just taught about Christ and his baptism and how he was baptized by priesthood authority, so we need to be too, because he is the perfect example and etc etc.  we got on talking about john the baptist and this friend..who shall not be named...started to get into this bible bash and was like well in john 1 it says that he is not a prophet and this and that and we were like...yes. He is. I don't remember what Sister Lebaron said but she whipped something out, and we were like AHHHH whyyyyyy?!?!?! why are you here? Geeez.  Then she was like why does he call the churches abominable and all that stuff.. Oh my heck it was the most uncomfortable lesson every. I then decided to dedicate my time to finding scriptural back ups for John the Baptist. I hope that friend of theirs doesn't tell them anything bad. Or...or I'm gonna be real mad! However, they are keeping commitments and they watched some general conference.

But for all you RM's I wouldn't mind some feedback as to HOW to teach about the priesthood. That is like struggle of all struggles for me haha.

Transfers are coming up(Oct. 15) sister LeBaron is certain she will leave, and is getting people to sign her transfer journal, I told her I would laugh SO hard if she ended up staying.

SO... the coffee thing. So I haven't look at the study myself, but this lady in our ward gave a talk about the word of wisdom, and talked a TOOONN about coffee.  She said that even though you wash your coffee cup, there is always a stain that forms around the cup, and it stains your teeth and all that. but we can clean that. and I was like if that builds up even when you clean it…what the heck is building up inside your body?  we can't scrub the insides of our bodies with soap and water... soo...yeah. Don’t drink coffee.

Conference. Conference was...THE BOMB. Okay I don't think I had ever been so excited for it.  But I loved it, and just because I have already written you a novel (kudos to you if you are still reading..) but something I thought was awesome was that there seemed to be a pattern with commandment keeping and Following the Prophet, Joseph Smith and the restoration. Also, Helaman 5:12 was quoted several times.  in the words of Uchtdorf "I think He knows something we don't"  I think okay what have these men been shown, what conversations have they had with the lord that they are telling us these things? Guys, NOW, more than ever, it is crucial that you have your own testimony of the Restored Gospel. I don't care what people have told you, good or bad or what your pre-determined thoughts are of the church, you need to act yourself. "spiritual Questions REQUIRE spiritual answers -- FROM GOD" Don't take MY word for it, don't take your friends word for it, your family, neighbor, etc, whether the church is true or not.  Study the Book of Mormon, Learn more about the Work that Joseph Smith performed. Then PRAY and ask GOD, if it is true or not.  

Another thing I have been thinking about this week is Sacrifice and Salvation. Are we willing to put things before our salvation? As a missionary, that is all we do is fight for people's salvation. This is a literal war. Some people don't want to give up their coffee, their cigarettes, their lustful desires, their lifestyle, anything. Because that means they will have to change, and go to church and be tired in the morning because they didn't have coffee or they have to be a part of an "organized religion" and they have a problem with that, they want to sleep, watch TV, play video games, hang out with their friends, instead of read a verse in the scriptures, go to church or say a prayer.  

well, your salvations on the line my friend.  "Must we Keep ALL of the commandments? My answer to this is Simple: I think God Knows something We Don't" (Uchtdorf, Gen Womens Broadcast ' living the gospel Joyful' )  God has given us a plan. That plan is to bring us happiness and peace, success and ultimately Salvation. Commandments are part of that plan.  Therefore, commandments are not given to us as restrictions; they are given to us to help us make correct choices so we will find more joy in this life.  They were not given to us to pick and choose, we are to keep ALL of them. Yes. ALL.  What are you willing to put before your happiness? What are you willing to put before the lord? What are you willing to put before your ETERNAL happiness?  In my opinion, it is worth it to have a hard time for a little bit, but then live in eternal bliss and happiness. I hope the answer to those questions is nothing.  

I always looked at people that some considered "molly Mormons" or whatever, well, that isn't a bad thing.  The only reason we are here is because of god, so why shouldn't our main focus BE god? what are your priorities?

Alma 22:18 :) 

This week we get to see "Meet The Mormons" then we have interviews.

Anyway. Long rant over…hope y'all have a good week!

Adios