Tuesday, January 26, 2016

This week

Sister Maya and I
 o also his week my AreaBook wasn't syncing because it needed to be updated, and it came up with this message when I tried to do that, so I had to delete the app and it wouldn't redownload, so I didn't have an Area Book for a day, waiting for the technical support to get back. And of course it was when we were trying to weekly plan. Fun times..
So Sister Maya has a new thing, she keeps making this goat noise. Over and over and over.
We made snow angels, also No, no we did not get all of the snow. Other parts of our mission did, my last area, a lot of the East side of our mission got a few feet, but we barely got the storm, we got maybe 3-4 inches.

So about a month ago we had a Zone Conference, at this zone conference the fleet coordinator was inspecting all of the cars. After doing so he came in and told us all that our cars were all super dirty, and he was sick of it, so he was going to do something about it. Well after about a month I figured we were safe... Apparently I was very wrong. So last week we got a call from our fleet coordinator telling us that ours was one of those cars that was really dirty, and that we needed to park our car for 4 days. SO Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week we couldn't drive our car. I learned a lot from this experience, one being the obvious, CLEAN YOUR CAR! Another being, the members are really great in this ward and were SO willing to drive us around. But probably the biggest one was how important it is to get members to the lessons that we are teaching! We are just two 20 year old girls, sharing what we know to be true, which yes can have a great impact on people's lives as long as we are teaching by the spirit, but it's so great when we are able to find people who can relate to these people, who can be their friends even after we go! One cool experience with that, on Tuesday we has a set appointment for 4pm, we had found a team up but she had to cancel, so we were frantically looking for another person because she lives about 5 miles from where we live and there was no way we could walk there in the hour we had! Our awesome Relief society president was able to give us a list of some people to try, and we were able to get Sister Fike to come! There was some serious Divine intervention here, because Sister Fike had just been studying for her primary class in the Book of Mormon where our investigator, Jana, had been reading! She was able to answer some of her questions better than we could! It was so awesome! This week we were also able to watch a Worldwide Broadcast for ALL missionaries! The theme of the broadcast was "Teach repentance, and baptize converts" there was a lot of focus on the basics found in Preach My Gospel such as Teaching by the spirit, leaving commitments, and teaching people not lessons. One thing that really stuck out to me was the importance of always testifying of Jesus Christ!!! We should "always have His name on our lips"! This is His church, His gospel, and we are here to share that. Another thing was how the Holy Ghost is the main teacher, we are just the tools used. It was really amazing, I am so grateful for the inspired words of church leaders! We have also been able to see our investigators, James and Nicole, quite a bit this week! They are doing so well and progressing in the gospel so quickly! One of the best this about being a missionary is to see the change that the gospel can have on SO MANY lives! But the spirit is just so strong every time we teach them, I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to see how the Lord truly does prepare people to receive the gospel! There were a lot of other things as well that happened this week, we went to the Family History center with an Investigator, a Less active member told us he wanted to work on receiving the priesthood, we did service cleaning out someone's storage room and at Goodwill(which we do every week), went to a Relief society activity, made snow angels, heard goat noises from sister Maya, got to partake of the Sacrament, it has been a really good week!

Monday, January 18, 2016

Weekly update!

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Sister Huffaker and I (she is in my district) last Pday :)
 Yup, these are the Elders...
 Sister Maya and I
 Sister Roberts and I on exchanges :) SNOW is here!

 Pitt North zone :)
Cranberry district! 

This week was pretty great! Not to many super exciting things happened, and I was actually sick (yes again) for a few days, but to be honest, the last 2 weeks were kinda rough, so I'm grateful for just a good week :) So last Monday as we were at the store to get groceries there was a member from our ward there at the store who happens to see us as we were checking out and came and bought our groceries for us! So nice! We also went on exchanges this week! I love exchanges! I stayed here in Wexford with Sister Roberts, and Sister Maya and Sister Johnson went to Pittsburgh 3rd. So the one day we are on exchanges there is like a blizzard! Our car is terrible in snow I have discovered. I got stuck 3 times! There are a ton of hills, and they don't plow the roads very well. I'm just grateful my companion from Arizona, who has never experienced snow, wasn't driving. We have an investigator named Melanie who I hadn't actually been able to teach at all in the 9 weeks that I have been in this area, BUT we had a very cold 10 minute lesson with her this week on her porch! We also had zone training this week on planning! I've always loved planning, because I have seen the different between a week were we plan really well, and a week that we have not, quite a difference! But it was great to gain that motivation again to make sure that we are planning well, not only during our weekly planning on Friday, but going through those same steps every day during nightly planning! We also had a zone activity where we were able to bear our testimonies, and I am just so grateful to have a knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! So the Elders were teaching this couple, James and Nicole, and then they moved to our area, so now we are teaching them! They are so great and so prepared! We try to see them as often as we can, and it has been great to see their progress just over this little while we have been teaching them! Nicole, the whole time we have been teaching has known that she wants to get baptized and that this is true. But this week in the middle of our lesson, James said "Well I have been praying about this whole thing, and everything you have been teaching, and the whole thing with Joseph Smith, and I got my answer, it's true!" AHHH! So great! I'm just so excited for those 2! But besides that, some other exciting news, I have another nephew! His name is Jeffery and he is super adorable in the pictures that I have seen :) Hope you all have a wonderful week, don't forget to Pray and Ponder, seek and find! (We also had Ward conference this week and that was the theme!)

Monday, January 11, 2016

Weekly Update

Some pics of our newly cleaned apartment :) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I left for 2 seconds.. This is Elder Hoyt and Rackham
One thing that I hear my mission president say quite often is that he want all of his missionaries to leave with a rock solid testimony. I love that, and I can see that this can truly happen here as we forget ourselves and get to work. I have thought a lot about how far I have come and As I look at what I still lack, and I can honestly say that though I have a long way to go, I know that this Church is true, and that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us more than we can comprehend. I know that he answers prayers. We have a Savior, Jesus Christ who Atoned for us, and for that I will be eternally grateful. I know that by keeping the commandments we can grow closer to the Lord, and be truly happy. I am happier now than I have ever been, even through the trials. We had interviews this week with our mission president and he gave me some advice during interviews, to not coast to the end, but to work even harder, because now I have more of the ability to do so, and I am grateful for that advice! I want everyone around to know of this rock solid testimony that I am continually gaining, that they can also have! (It was a really weird moment when he was telling me that I don't have much longer! I still have 5 months though don't even worry!) This week we were able to see quite a few little miracles! We were out to dinner with a member and Larissa (a waitress) comes up because she saw our name tags and said she wanted to go out with us sometime to teach people about Jesus, so we exchanged information, and when she texted us later, we texted back inviting her to church, and she came!!! The elders also have some super solid investigators, James and Nicole, they just want to dedicate their lives to the Lord, and they moved into our area! There is also a guy named Gene who we tracted into, he was super nice and said we could come back, so we went back his week and found out that he had been baptized when he was like 12, but he wasn't on our records, so we were able to find a lost LA, and he also said he wanted to read the Book of Mormon cover to cover, because he never did! We also had a lesson with an investigator we haven't seen for a while and he is super excited to do some family history!  So it was a pretty good week!

Monday, January 4, 2016

Happy New Year!

Me and Raina :)
 Me and Ashlynn (my mini me)
 Cute New Years at the Bourquins.

Happy New Year 2016!!

This week there was a transfer, but it didn't affect us so Sister Maya and I are both staying in Wexford for another transfer! We were actually able to see some people this week, it was great! A few weeks ago while tracting we met a guy named Jim. He was just about to leave so we told him we would try back, so this week we did! It was pretty cool, as we were testifying of the Book of Mormon he told us "I already know that it testifies of Jesus Christ" so he told us he would read it and pray about it!
We were also finally able to see our investigator Jana! She has a lot of really good questions, I am just so grateful for the guidance of the Holy Ghost! We were able to answer the questions that she had and she also said she would read and pray about the Book of Mormon! There is a lady in our ward who is not able to come to church due to medical conditions, so we go and visit her, but we usually end up just talking to her husband Bill, who is not a member of the church, because she is sleeping. When I first got here to this area he was totally against us sharing anything about the gospel with him, but his heart is being softened! This week we were able to share a video with him which sparked him asking us questions, which ended in him telling us he would read the Boom of Mormon! He said "I promise, and I always keep my promises." The Book of Mormon is so important! As we read in the introduction of the Book of Mormon, we are able to know if Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, if Joseph Smith was really a prophet, and if this, The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is Christ church restored again! Just by knowing that the Book of Mormon is true! So it's so important to gain that witness for ourselves! This week we also were planning to go to the Bourquins for lunch and as we were calling to confirm she told us the wanted to go out with us after! So Thursday she came out with us, and at the end she gave us a referral, and brought us to her friend who she had just referred and we were able to have a lesson with her, which I'm sure we wouldn't have been able to have had we just gone over ourselves! This week for New Years we got to deep clean out apartment! They wanted all the missionaries in by 5:30, so now our whole mission has some really clean apartments!
I also have a great testimony of fasting. I know that I wouldn't be here on my mission had I not gotten an answer through prayer and fasting to come, and I am so grateful every month as I have the opportunity to fast, yesterday as I fasted I was fasting for someone who was really struggling, and I can already see the rewards of that fast! I also hit 13 months on Sunday! Woah! 
Happy New Year!!! Hope you all have a great week, and I love you!!!