Merry Christmas

We have been really blessed with referrals lately!  Sister Osmond wrote on our board "ye receive not because ye ask not."  Apply this to referrals and it is really neat.  We have been praying and the Lord has been answering our prayers.  A really neat referral we received was during our District training meeting.  During our meeting our phone started to ring and it was a number we didn't recognize so we answered it.  My first day here in Sheboygan we went to a playgroup that a member family in the ward arranged and invited a lot of friends.  So we made sure to introduce ourselves to everyone and also we helped prepare for this big pasta dinner they were doing and introduced ourselves to Julie and left our number with her.  Julie was the one that called us!  She called and told us she was just telling everyone about us and that she had a friend, Rene, that really needed help with her house, getting it in order to put up for sale.  So we went over there and helped her clean and told her about the Book of Mormon.  She said she wasn't very religious but that she would read it!  Yay!  Then we also got referrals from the Spanish elders, our zone leaders, and Bro. Jacobs!  Miracles are happening in Sheboygan!

Another really cool Christmas miracle was that I got to see Sister Brandley my trainer this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  :D  It was such a good evening!   She is going home but her parents came to pick her up so they were visiting all the areas she served in!  So she came to Sheboygan and had dinner at Marsha's house.  Marsha is a really awesome recent convert!  When we walked in I was looking around the room for Sister Brandley but didn't see her, then she jumped out from behind the curtains and gave me a big hug!  It was the best and I could just see her light glowing!  It reminded me of Alma 17:2-3.  

Well, Sunday was a beautiful baptism for Ashton, a little girl in the ward!  Sunday was a really great day!  Valerie came to church for the 3rd week in a row!  And Thaina and her brother Bruno came to church too!  Bruno came from Dubei!  This morning we had a lesson with Sister Olmedo.  We watched the "He is the gift" video with her and I really just felt so much joy and gratitude for the Savior!   Christ is the reason for the season!  Thanks mom and dad, for always teaching us that!  I'm so very grateful to finish reading the Book of Mormon this week as a gift to the Savior!  I know that it is true!  He is the gift!  

December 16th, 2014

What a crazy week it has been!  It has felt like a roller coaster this week!  So many exciting things are happening here and we are working hard!  I'm grateful for the strength and renewal that Sundays bring as well as reading the Book of Mormon!  Yesterday we didn't' get our studies done in the morning because of church so we didn't read the Book of Mormon until evening and I could definitely tell the difference! 

We met with Thaina again this week. Our meeting with Thaina was really neat!  We taught her about prayer because she was writing a paper on it for one of her classes and really wanted us to teach her more.  I learned a lot from her as well!  Thaina is a very optimistic and happy person!  At the end we talked to her about praying to know the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.  When I shared with her how I came to know the Book of Mormon was true, I felt an overwhelming feeling again that it was true!  She told us about her brother and how her brother said very strongly that he knew that it was true and how she knows her brother is telling the truth.  We invited her to pray about the Book of Mormon and also talked to her about baptism.  She said she doesn't want one foot here and one foot there, she wants both feet in it if she is going to be baptized.  But when we asked her what her concerns were about baptism or what is holding her back she thought about it and said, "nothing really."  Thaina and her brother are planning on coming to church next week!  Her brother is flying in from India.

Also, we met with Valerie again and taught her the Plan of Salvation, or part of it.  It was a huge miracle that she came to church again this week!  And this time with all of her kids and a cousin!  It was a little chaotic, and her kids kept crying.  Church can be difficult with little kids, but I hope she wasn't overwhelmed and was able to feel the Spirit while she was there.  She said what she did get to listen to she liked. 

The cookie exchange and nativity story for Relief Society was super successful!  Sister Boldt invited our investigator, Linda, and brought her.  We made cookies at a Mexican bakery where one of the members works.  Her name is Rosa.  She has not come to church for awhile but her son is preparing to go on a mission.  Well, we made cookies there with her and she came with us to the cookie exchange!  It was really fun!  Okay dad, you are going to say I told you so but, I wish I would have known a little Spanish so I could communicate better with her and her family. :)  Luckily my companion does.   Also, we knocked on the door of this lady that lives next to the church building and invited her to the cookie exchange and she came!  It was super exciting!  Afterwards she wanted to donate money but we wouldn't accept it.  She seemed kind of embarrassed.  I hope we get to see her again! 

Nicole told us this week she doesn't think this is for her and doesn't want to meet with us anymore.  I wish we could have helped her resolve her concerns, or find out what they were more.  It was very sudden.  But on the bright side, her daughter is a member and is still going to have that example and influence in her life!  I'm so grateful for the gospel and for Book of Mormon!  We read in 3 Nephi this morning, chapters 11-20 and it was fantastic!  What a treasure the Book of Mormon is!  "And he did smile upon them again."  3 Nephi 19:30 :)

Well, I love you!  The church is dazzlingly true!

Sister Prestwich

P.S. Share the gift!

December 9th, 2014

Wow!  It has been such a crazy and great week!  So winter so far has been nothing like Marquette.  The temperature has been staying pretty much in the 30's. 

A lot happened this week but I will try to give you all the highlights. 

On Tuesday we had a very unique lesson with a lady named Joy.  She is a less active member of the church and the Elders told us we should go and see her.  The thing is she only speaks Laotian so we could not communicate with her.  She invited us in and gave us some sticky rice and invited us to sit down.  We sang "I am a child of God" to her and I will never forget that experience.  It just really touched my heart that the spirit really is the most important thing in our lessons.  She didn't understand what the words were, maybe she knew the song.  I don't know but I do know that the spirit touched our hearts and that was a good and familiar thing to her.  The rest of the visit we just pointed to her pictures of her family and she told us their names.  We introduced our names and offered to do her dishes, haha.  It was so exciting to me when we walked into the chapel on Sunday and we saw her and her husband sitting on the chairs and she smiled brightly at us.  It just warmed my heart! 

We also had a neat District meeting where a new convert spoke to us on hope.  We have been trying out these new surveys as a door approach.  We haven't used it a ton yet but are continueing to try it out.  We have also been getting a lot of referrals lately.  One of the memers from Fond du Lac has a sister that lives in Sheboygan so we went and visited with her.  It was so fun and she wants to have lunch with us sometime! 

On Wednesday we made cookies with Sister Boldt and took them to our investigator, Linda, who lives across the street.  It was so good for Linda and Sister Boldt to meet eachother and now LInda has another friend in the ward! 

We had our first lesson with our new investigator family, Valerie and Alex and their kids.  Alex wasn't home but we taught Valerie the restoration and Ebony, a new convert, came with us to help teach and share her testimony.  Ebony was the perfect friend for Valerie!  She could really relate to her and I know that needed to happen that way.  Valerie came to church on Sunday with her two little girls, Adrianna, and Annalise.  They are 1 and 2 years old so sacrament meeting was rough but she stayed all 3 hours and enjoyed it!  We have a giving tree, and she offered to help out and also bring a dish for the potluck Sunday in two weeks!  I loved this past fast Sunday!  I'm grateful for fast and testimony meetings.  I didn't bear my testimony in sacrament meeting but I want you all to know that I'm so grateful to my Heavenly Father for His great love for us!  He loves you and me and all of us!  I'm so grateful for the blessing to give this time to serve Him and others.  I am in no way near perfect but I'm grateful that our Heavenly Father wants to help our weaknesses become strengths through relying on Him.  This was a really neat week and I'm grateful that the Lord watches over us.  It is so neat to see not only His hand in my life but His hand in lives of those we work with and meet everyday.  I love you all! 

Really quick I have to tell James about Thaina and Yu!  I met our investigators Thaina and Yu for the first time this week!  They are so wonderful!  Thaina is from Brazil.  Her brother is a member and she really looks up to him and her mom is not but she wants to send missionaries to meet her mom.  We taught them the plan of Salvation this week.  Yu is her friend and he is from Japan! :D  He said he lived in Utah for awhile as an exchange student so he gets excited to meet anyone from Utah!  We ordered a japanese Book of Mormon for him.  He was excited to here that you served in Japan, James!  James do you have anything I should know for our japanese investigator?  Can you teach me a cool phrase I can say to him?  Well, I have to go now!  Love you!  The church is limitlessly true! 

December 1, 2014

It has been such a wonderful and awesome week!  We are working hard here and I am enjoying it so much!  I love the new "He is the gift" pass-along cards that we have to share with everyone!  If you haven't watched it yet make sure you do!  It is so good!  

It is so neat how you can have one thing planned and even when all your plans and appointments fall through the Lord puts people in your path or leads us to so many amazing people!  On Friday, all of our appointments fell through so we started going to visit some other people we had thought of.  The potential we went to go visit wasn't home but we had a feeling we should try the house next door.  So we did and we talked about Christ with the "He is the gift" Christmas cards and introduced the Book of Mormon.  The girl we met gladly accepted both and said we could come back next week.  Then we were going to leave but we felt we should try this one house across the street so we did and neat conversation with the girl there as well.  We kept trying "ones" that we felt we should and almost everyone that accepted the pass-along cards also accepted a Book of Mormon!  It truly was a miracle!  We also met a guy named Steffeno who is a famous chef in town!  It was really funny because I didn't know anything about him yet but my companion when he opened the door kept saying, "so you're the Steffeno!"  It was cool, haha. 

Well, we were able to meet with Nicole this week and also our other investigators, Eric, Linda, and Arianna.  We extended baptismal dates with Eric and LInda this week.  They didn't quite accept the date but they said they would be baptized if they came to know that it is true.  Pray for them.  I know that the Book of Mormon is true and I love it!  I love all of you!  Time is short today!  Have an awesome week! The church is seriously So true!

Cupstoration

Here is a link to a darling video of Sarah doing the Cupstoration song. It is amazing!

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9ypqUlXbKYXX2ZRRUJ6Z01hVlE/edit

(Here is a teaser of what it looks like, but you have to use the link to actually watch it.)_

November 24, 2014

Wow, what a week!  We have been truly blessed so so much!  I  am just blown away at the many doors or opportunities that have been opened to us just in the last couple of days!  It really has been so amazing!  I love the Sheboygan ward!  The people are wonderful and my companion is so so wonderful!  We are very similar in many ways!  

Some of the people we are working with are Nicole, Emily, Linda and Eric, and Arrianna.  We invited Nicole to be baptized on December 20th this week and she is really excited for baptism!  Her daughter is a recent convert and has a really cool conversion story that I was able to ask her about.  

We have been getting referrals right and left it seems!  We got one from the Oak Creek sisters, which happens to be one of my old companions, Sister Ormsby!  Also, in Fond du Lac, one of the members has a sister that lives in Sheboygan so we are looking forward to meeting her and the members are very open in sharing the with us the people they have been working with.  

We had a neat experience trying this new survey thing too, tracting this week.  As we learn how to use more and helps us know what people are searching for and what their needs are. While we were doing that we met a really sweet 90 year old lady raking her leaves.  We came up to her and asked if we could help her.  At first she said no but we persisted and were happy and she softened and let us help.  By the end she was so grateful and later called the number we left her.  She must have thought it was a number to our leaders because she left the sweetest voicemail!  Afterward we both agreed that doing service just "infuses our souls with light."  

well, I have to get going but Happy Thanksgiving!!!!  I am grateful so so much for all of you and to be on a mission!!!!!!!  The church is brilliantly true!

November 17, 2014

Well, it is certainly getting chilly here!  There was a storm like last week or the beginning of this week that just missed us but we still got some snow and the temperature is dropping.  Funny enough, even though I'm not excited for the cold, the first snow is always really exciting!  It was fun, not fun to drive in though.  And it makes everything look really beautiful. 

It's transfers this week, and I'm getting transferred to Sheboygan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It has been a great 3 transfers with Sister Cosgrove and I am going to miss her a lot and all of the wonderful people here that I've been blessed to be able to work with!  I am staying in the same zone though so I will still get to see her!  My trainer, Sister Brandley, was the one that opened Sheboygan after she trained me, and I've heard that it has really picked up there!  My companion is going to be Sister Osmond.  I have already met her and she is super nice! 

It was definitely a good last week in Fond du Lac.  We met with Nicky, a referral from our bishop.  She needed help moving so we moved her in and unpacked her kitchen for her.  This week we went back and asked her if she was interested in learning more about our church.  She said yes!!!!!!  Not only did she say yes but she also said that she didn't have a church to go to and was looking for one!!!  She is so awesome!!!!!!!!!  I'm glad I can stay in contact with Sister Cosgrove to find out what happens from there. 

We also had another member give us another referral, a girl, he wanted us to go to lunch with.  So we called her and set up the appointment.  We also asked her if she would like to learn more and she also said yes!!!  It was so exciting! 

We had the ward talent show this week!!!  Angel and her whole family, who are not members, came!!!!!!  That was a huge step for them!  Sister Cosgrove and I taught the restoration through singing and building the restoration tower while doing the cup song.  We have been singing it as our opening song in companionship study for a while now.  We actually got it down pretty fast.  It was so fun!  We have been using it to teach the restoration.  It is fun and entertaining and helps people to feel the spirit!  :D  It was so fun and we didn't mess up, haha.
We performed it in our lesson to Cora this week too.  It was such an awesome lesson!  The whole family came in and absolutely loved it!  At the end they begged us to do it again!  The 2 year old was clapping so fast and so hard, you could barely see her hands.  There was a very special spirit about the whole family being gathered around in harmony with each other all focussed on the lesson, and talking about Jesus Christ.  The dad, has never came in for any of our lesson but he came in and I know that he noticed what that did for his family. He said that to us, and even offered to say the closing prayer.  What a miracle!  I hope he continues to see how it brings his family together.

Everyone was so nice to me this weekend!  They found out I was getting transferred and one of the families that we ate with, the Whittun family, made me a cake that said on it "we will miss you Sister Prestwich."  It was so sweet!!!!  I just love all of the people here!

Well, gotta go!  love you!  The church is superly true!

November 10, 2014

It is definitely starting to get a little more chilly here and I am getting out the winter coat again!  We are expecting a storm here but it hasn't hit yet.

We were able to get in with all of our recent converts and with most of the home teachers with us as well, which has been one of our goals.  They really do make a big difference!  Having member present lessons with recent converts and less actives is really important too!  One of Angel's home teachers, Kordel, gave his farewell talk in sacrament meeting yesterday and is leaving to Ghana on Wednesday!  He gave a really good talk and played a musical number with Sister Cropper that made me really happy.  I know the ward here is going to be so blessed for all the missionaries serving.  They haven't had missionaries out for over 5 years and now they will have 3 out! 

We met with Donna this week and she has been reading in the Book of Mormon!  Yay!  She has a lot of questions, mostly about what different words mean.  She has a really hard time understanding it so pray for her.  We are trying to teach very simply to her.  We got back in with Priscilla this week, which was such a tender mercy.

Well, sorry this one is short but I don't have much time today!  Last night we got 3 new investigators by calling people we didn't know on our phone! That was great!  Love you and hope you all have an awesome week!

The church is exceedingly true!

November 3, 2014

What an awesome and super exciting week it has been!  We had a lot of disappointments, like cancelled appointments with a lot of our investigators but, no worries, the good always outweighs the bad! 

We had Zone Conference this week and I accompanied a musical number!  I am just so grateful that I was able to do that!  Another sister in our District, Sister Woods, plays the cello, and I had given her the music a while back for that arrangement of "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" that Aunt Janet helped write.  Well, the zone leaders asked if anyone would like to do the musical number for zone conference and Sister Woods, turned us in.  We actually ended up doing a different arrangement of the song that she had though.  It was so beautiful!!!  I just love accompanying!  Sister Woods is a very talented musician too!  It really brought the Spirit!  What was really neat, was that the last training/talk before the musical number was a very powerful talk about Joseph Smith.  During that talk it hit me that when we decided to do that song we had no idea what the topic of the training would be.  It went perfectly!  I"m so grateful for the atonement and for how much the Book of Mormon teaches us about the nature of Jesus Christ and how we can apply the atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives.  That was one of the things they talked about as well.  Bro. Pountain was the one that talked about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.  He showed us one of the original copies of the Book of Mormon that he had and face sculpture thing of Joseph Smith.  Then he showed us where the bible prophesies of Joseph Smith.  I took some pictures to show you some of these things.  He also told his conversion story and how a 50 cent copy of the Book of Mormon he got at a garage sale was far more precious to him than the $83,000 copy he had in his hand because of the other one was how he first came to know it was true.  Once he had felt that the Book of Mormon was true it took him a long time to find the church.  He called the church building number everyday from Monday to Friday for months before finally a relief society sister answered during one of their enrichment nights.  Then months later to finally meet missionaries.  It was quite the story!  Anyway it was a very special zone conference, one I will never forget.

We have an appointment with someone new. Her name is Nicky and we helped her move in to her new house  Saturday.  Her mom happened to be the friendly cashier lady at the grocery store we shop at each week.  We set a return appointment to help her with a few more things and to find out if she is interested in learning more about our church.  I think she is :) 

Then our other new investigator is Cora.  She comes from a less active family we have been working with for a few weeks.  We talked to them this week about if Cora would like to be baptized.  Cora seems very interested and Sister Zedan as well.  Bro. Zedan wasn't there so we don't know what his feelings are yet.  Cora is awesome though!  We are planning on starting to teach her next week!

Okay, now for the little surprise we had on Sunday...On Sunday, our stake president came and guess what?!!!

*drum roll*

Fond du Lac branch was officially made a WARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D

Yahoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We could hardly contain our excitement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Sister Cosgrove and I actually found out right before they announced it.  When they made the announcement the reaction in the congregation reminded me a little of when the age change was made in General Conference.  It was so wonderful!  The whole branch was just flowing with gratitude!  All of the branch presidents that had served there were present that day too!  So now Pres. Heap is now Bishop Heap.  Not much is that difference but I think this will really motivate the members to get involved more with the missionary work too!  We have a lot of work to do!  I just feel so very grateful that I was able to be here to see Fond du Lac become a ward.  I never thought that would happen while I was here.  I know this church is true with all of my heart.  We had a really neat experience with Bonnie that really touched my heart.  For one it has been so wonderful to see her testimony grow as we teach her the new member lessons.  On Wed. we taught her about temples and eternal families and she told us that she feels a strong desire to go to the temple and do the work for her grandparents.  I love seeing her grow!  She bore her testimony to us on Sunday and told us that she was going to do it in church but she didn't think there was time left.  The Lord has truly been preparing her to receive the gospel her whole life and she recognizes this.  Bonnie is one of the most grateful individuals I have ever met!  She is so christlike and humble!  Well, it has been such a wonderful week. The work continues to move forward!  Well, I have to get going now.  The church is growingly true!  

October 22, 2014

What a week!  We had our zone training meeting this week and we had a movie training where we got to see Meet the Mormons!!!  It was really neat and so fun to see the movie that everyone has been talking about!  Some of our recent converts went to see it to and even brought their daughter who is not a member! 

On Tuesday, we met with Anna.  As we were talking with her she said that right after the missionaries (us)  had stopped to talk to her, she went out to eat with a friend who lives out of state.  That friend then told her that she had just gotten baptized, along with the rest of her family, into a really great church.  Anna asked what church and she said the mormon church!  Anna told her that she had just been talking to the missionaries.  Her friend then told her that she should really listen to what they have to say.  So Anna told us that, that is what she is going to do! 

We also met with Donna this week and taught her the restoration.  It went really well.  It was surprising to me that even though Donna has been to church a lot with her neighbors, that she didn't know that we have a modern prophet.  We might start meeting with Donna at a different members house next week.  I hope the change goes alright. 

We also got an exciting phone call this week!  Nicole, from the hospital where we volunteer, called us and said that she got a new job and has Sunday off and wanted to come to church!  So on Sunday Nicole and her friend,  Branden, both came to church!  They were mainly just coming to see  what it was like but the branch reached out to them more than any other investigators we have brought before, haha!  I hope it wasn't too overwhelming for them.  We stood in the hallway in front of the chapel before it started and explained our meetings to her.  It was kind of funny because everyone that walked by would shake Nicole and Branden's hands almost without even thinking about it.  Nicole and Branden were surprised by how friendly everyone was and by all of the people they didn't even know just shaking their hands.  It was fun.  They aren't interested in meeting with us right now but it was definitely a seed planted!  The church is cheerfully true! Love ya!

October 13, 2014

Well, it was a little bit of a surprise but I will be staying in Fond Du Lac for another transfer!  We had transfers this week and everyone thought I would go but I guess my work in Fond du Lac is not done yet!  I'm excited for another transfer here!  I love Fond Du Lac, it is a very nice place to be and will work hard this transfer. 

We don't do activities too often on P-days because we our district is so spread out but on Monday we went to a marsh and caught frogs!  I will have to send pictures next week!  It was actually pretty fun.  We also played ultimate frisby, which I am getting a lot better at.

 We have been doing a lot of tracting lately, which has been hard but I know that the Lord is blessing us. We don't usually find too many new investigators through tracting.  This week we found 3 new investigators: Courtney, Michael, and Anna.  Anna is awesome and has met sisters before. Michael we met on the street as we were walking and started talking to him about he Book of Mormon.  He quickly accepted a copy and we invited him to read 3 Nephi 11.  He said he would read it and then he would start at the beginning and read the whole thing!

Although, we didn't have a lot of success with investigators this week we did see a lot of miracles with less actives.  We saw the Sister Zedan this week.  She is so nice and really wants to come back to church.  She said that she and her girls were all ready to come last Sunday but her husband wouldn't let them go because he thought it would make him look bad if they went without him.   We usually meet with her in the morning when most of her kids are at school and decided to do it when the whole family is there.  She invited us for dinner this week!  Pray for Bro. Zedan.

Then we also met with Matt this week.  His sister usually sit in on our lessons and is strong in her church so she usually doesn't participate very much. Well, this time she asked for a Book of Mormon so she could follow along while we read and also shared what she liked about the chapter we read too.  Then to top it off she gave us a half referral.  She said she has a friend, Lisa, in the hospital who is going through a hard time and she said that it would be good if we met with her!  She didn't have any contact information for us yet though. 

Sunday was awesome this week!  Emily gave her farewell talk!  It was so so good!  She is going to be an awesome missionary!  She shared some stories about sister missionaries and talked about how the one message she really wants everyone to know is that "your Heavenly Father loves you."  She went on to share some experiences where missionaries were surprised when they were prompted to say or share something that the person they met really needed but that the person never got baptized or started investigating.  They then realized that sometimes Heavenly Father works through us just to comfort His children, and to simply show His love for them.  It was a powerful sacrament meeting and one that Sister Cosgrove and I needed.  Well, Emily left today for the MTC and will soon be serving in Murray Utah!  If you see Sister Prellwitz soon say hi to her for me!  I know that Heavenly Father does know and love each one of us and He wants us to know that!  Missionary work is so much about loving those around us! 

Well, hope you have a great week!  The fall colors are beautiful!   The church is lovingly true!

October 6, 2014

What a week!  First of all, I just have to say how much I love General Conference!  The speakers are inspired servants of the Lord!  I loved all of the messages that they shared and am excited to work hard to apply them.  I really liked the speakers that gave their talks in their native languages.  That was really neat. 

Well, at the beginning of the week we had District Meeting on asking inspired questions which I really want to work on and I think I have a great example to help me.  We were still out of miles so we ended up walking to our dinner appointment and on the way met a lady named Jeanne.  She was really sweet and told us that she is related to the Bengel family in our branch.  We didn't get a return appointment but she said she can always use help with her yard and we are welcome to stop by any time.  So we are definitely going to go back and offer our service to her. 

After talking to her it started to get dark and we were going to be late for our dinner appointment.  We firmly grabbed our bags and jogged down the country road.  It was really hard and we got chased by a couple of dogs (first time we've actually been chased)  but it was an exciting adventure and we were sure glad when we made it!  Surprisingly we were only a few minutes late for our dinner appointment and they were loading hay into their barn.  So we helped them finish with the hay.  Funny enough, there were other members from our branch coming that we could've gotten a ride with, haha.  That's alright, we made it and learned endurance. :)  It was a really neat dinner appointment and one that I won't forget.  At the end we were in a hurry to get out because it was getting late but I remembered that we hadn't said a closing prayer.  I mentioned it and we said one.  I'm really glad that I did because that led to someone getting a priesthood blessing after the prayer.  I don't know if that would've happened if we had just hurried out.  Either way I'm grateful that we were there for it. 

Well, I'm out of time.  I hope you all have a fantastic week!  The church is everlastingly true!  

September 29, 2014

Wow!  What a week!  A lot of crazy things happened but we saw a lot of tender mercies this week!  On Monday and Tuesday my companion and I were sick.  I still wanted to go out and do things but on Tuesday I got a really bad  bloody nose.  Thankfully our district meeting was held at our building in Fond du Lac instead of in Osh Kosh so I didn't have to drive and we were able to just walk to to the church after my bloody nose.  Unfortunately it kept us in most of the day but, perhaps it was a tender mercy.  We were so busy running from appointments and we have had so much traveling to do lately we didn't check how many miles we had left for each day.  When we did we barely had enough to get to district meeting next week.  So we have learned our lesson and are biking and walking to all of our appointments now, haha.  It has been really hard, especially in a skirt and it is hard to balance sometimes with a side bag full of  Book of Mormons but I am actually having a lot of fun with it!  I learned how to tie the shoulder strap of my bag in a way that it will stay on and we have been blessed with good weather!  It is fun to be outside a lot; we've been able to talk to a lot of people too. 

We have been working hard to meet with all of our recent converts and their home teachers to teach them the new member lessons.  So far it is going pretty well.  We had an awesome lesson of the Plan of Salvation to Angel.  Her home teachers are both amazing!  One of them is about to go on a mission to Ghana.  I really felt the spirit and the importance of the plan of salvation during that lesson.  It was really neat.  Bro. Marchant bore a powerful testimony of the importance of the atonement of Jesus Christ.  It really hit me how much the atonement does affect everything we do and how it helps all of us. 

On Friday we biked to our appointment with Pricilla and were able to meet her mom too!  It was awesome that Pricilla started telling her mom about our church and invited her to church.  They both came to church on Sunday, yay!  Then it was just a little further to our next appointment so we just decided to keep going.  Then it was only two miles until our appointment in North Fond du Lac so we biked to that.  Then we realized we were really far away from our apartment and it was going to get dark before we got out of our last appointment in North Fond du Lac.  We didn't have the right gear to bike in the dark and we aren't supposed to do that.  We decided we needed to ask someone for a ride home but couldn't find anyone.  We were in a pretty tough spot but I didn't feel worried.  Then I remembered something about Alyssa Ferguson, a girl preparing to go on a Spanish speaking mission, maybe coming to our appointment with the Valdez family (they only speak Spanish).  She did and offered to give us a ride home!  That was amazing!  Appointments with the Valdez family are always really neat!  We have to have a translator and I just love them!  I had a hard time stomaching the dessert though, haha. 

Then on Saturday we were moving people almost all day!  We saw a really cool miracle with Sister Hiley this week and it just stood out to me so strongly just how much God is aware of each and everyone of us and our needs and situations and hears the cries of our hearts.  He is so willing to help us!  Remind me to tell you that story.  Anyway, we helped her and Sister Damrau move.  It was a lot of work but we did it! And at lunch we got pizza and the pizza delivery man was Eric!  The lost less active we met whose wife was interested.  We lost contact with them so it was so cool that he just happened to deliver our pizza! 

 Well, the church is astoundingly true!

Sister Prestwich

P.S.  The fall is gorgeous here!

September 23, 2014

Well, this week on Tuesday we were able to have interviews with President Culter and we went on exchanges with the Sister Training leaders.  It was awesome!  We always see so many miracles on exchanges.  We went to go to a lesson with an investigator named Pricilla and when we went at first she wasn't home so instead of just leaving we decided to walk down the street to stop by a former investigators house.  As soon as we got to the door, the phone rang.  Pricilla saw our car out front and said she was just getting back from taking her little boy on a walk.  So we went back and taught her a lesson on prayer and talked about the Book of Mormon.  She was a referral from the elders here and we are excited to work with her. 

After Pricilla's lesson we helped a lady who will be moving soon, pack some boxes.  She was very grateful for the help.  Her name is Sister Hiley and she has been coming to back to church!  It is so good to have her there.  Well, after that we decided to do some tracting.  At the first door that we knocked on, a girl peeked through the blinds on the door and then opened it and said, "hi!"  We introduced ourselves and she told us that she had met us about a month ago while we were doing service at loaves and fishes.  We had this loaves and fishes night where instead of getting members to help serve we invited all of the investigators and less actives we were working with to come help.  A girl named Joana, who works for one of the members in the branch, came and brought her friend.  This was the friend that she had brought!  I didn't recognize her so I'm really glad that she recognized us!  We started talking to her about the Book of Mormon and we were able to get a return appointment.  Her name is Danisha.  So that was super exciting and we will hopefully be seeing her again this week! 

Other than that we worked a lot with the recent converts this week on doing new member lessons.  We had a pleasant surprise on Saturday when the members we had dinner with invited one of the recent converts and her family.  That was awesome!  Yesterday was good too.  We had some sad news this week though.  One of the members of the branch passed away.  The funeral was yesterday.  It makes me so grateful for the eternal plan that Heavenly Father has for us.  Death is not the end because of Jesus Christ and His great sacrifice. 
 Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week!  Keep being the awesome missionaries that you are! :)  Love ya! The church is eternally true!

September 15, 2014

What a truly special and amazing week it has been!  I don't know where to start!  We saw so many blessings and answers to prayers.  On Tuesday, we had zone training meeting on becoming consecrated missionaries and on having the right member with us at our lessons.  It was awesome!  They talked about the reason why we do everything we do has to center on our love for God and how sacrifice helps us to become consecrated missionaries, when we give our all to the Lord.  It made me think of Christ's sacrifice and love for us.   I always love feeling the spirit and the added guidance and counsel that we receive at our zone meetings so that was a nice treat to have it on my birthday!  Well, the rest of the day  was great too!  Bonnie had her baptismal interview after our zone training and did wonderful! 

Anyway, I had a great birthday.  Sister Cosgrove made me breakfast and the members we had dinner with surprised me with a cake!  Sister Cosgrove told them on Sunday without me knowing.  I think my favorite part of the day though was when we were at Bonnie's house and were following up on her reading in the Book of Mormon and her praying.  I have been praying very hard for her this past week, of course, but it was such a tender moment when she told us about how she did what we asked her to.  She had been reading the Book of Mormon in 2 Nephi and had been having a hard time with it.  It is not easy to understand.  We told her, as we have before, to pray for help and that prayer really makes a difference.  When we came back she told us that she had done it; she prayed before and said that it makes all the difference!  She flipped open her Book of Mormon and shared a verse of scripture with us that had spoken to her.  She told us that it was Heavenly Father answering her prayer and that He still had His arms open to her.  

Bonnie's baptism was amazing as well!  We had a conflict on Saturday so we held her baptism on Friday evening.  We were worried about the members of the branch coming to support her because it wasn't announced in church on Sunday.  We had nothing to worry about.  There was so many people there!  The Spirit was so strong in that room.  Her daughter and granddaughter came, as well as two other nonmembers!  Bonnie's daughter was really touched by everyone's love for her mom (kind of like how Lamoni's dad was by Ammon).  After the baptism we had a dinner appointment and the members just took us out for pizza.  While we were getting pizza Bonnie's daughter walked in!  I know it wasn't a coincidence that we went to the same place!  We invited her to eat with us but she had to leave.  It was still really neat and I think her heart was softened that night.  

I'm so very grateful for everything I have been so blessed with!  This gospel is true.  Well, I have to get going or I would tell you all more.  Hope you have a great week! love you!

The church is astoundingly true!

Sept 8, 2014

Well, I have a very exciting surprise this week!  Bonnie is getting baptized this week!  Yay! :D  We set her date for Friday because a lot of the branch is going to the temple on Saturday.  I can't believe all that she has done!  She has so much determination and faith.  We talked to her on Saturday and she said she had laid her clothes and everything out for church the next day. That really touched my heart.  Going to church on Sundays is not easy for her, but she has been putting forth the greatest effort to come anyway.  On Sunday morning she was late and came in during the prayer, looking completely lost.  We hadn't seen her yet but the lady who leads the music did and went over and helped her.  Bonnie said that meant a lot to her.  I love Bonnie!  She really is just surrounding herself with everything she can of the gospel.  We downloaded the gospel library app for her and she loves it!  She has already gotten two quads, and her own hymnbook too.  It just amazes me!  Her family doesn't really like anything to do with church but her daughter wants to come to her baptism!  We are so excited!  I hope everything goes well this week and she will be physically and spiritually able to do everything needs to! 

Also, we had a pretty neat surprise on Sunday.  Two former investigators in our area came to church!  One of them came with a friend for sacrament meeting and then left right after so we didn't really get to talk to her.  The other one I had never met before but ended up sitting right next to during sacrament meeting, haha.  That turned out good.  I introduced myself right after.  It was a part member couple.  Apparently, she had wanted to get baptized a long time ago but her husband wouldn't let her.  The husband said next week they are going to the Catholic church.  I really want to start working with them but the branch mission leader made an appointment with them and is taking the elders.  Either way I guess they will be seeing missionaries, which is awesome! :)

I love the Fond du Lac branch it is pretty great here!  We are doing a lot of finding right now but things are looking good.  The hardest part is trying to get back in with people after you meet them for the first time.  We are working on the follow up :)  We are doing missionary Mondays with the seminary class here and it is really fun!  They made plan of salvation t-shirts that had circles on it and said "you are here" on the one for earth one, then they see if anyone asks them what it is.

Well, hope you all have a wonderful week!  Love you! The church is greatly true! 

Sept 2, 2014

What a fun week it has been!  There are so many things I want to say, hopefully I can remember everything, haha.  Well, last p-day it was the last week that one of the missionaries in our district would be here because they were going home so we did a district activity... we milked cows!  One of the members of our branch owns a dairy farm so we went to their farm, and had some fun adventures there.  We stuck our hands in the baby cows mouths, which was kind of gross because they were very slobbery and yes, I milked a cow.  I wasn't very good at it either, haha.  It was fun though.  Their son just got his mission call to Gona!  In fact, there are three people in our branch that got their mission calls.  Emily, who sometimes comes to lessons with us got her mission call to .....*drum roll*........Murray!!!!!  :D  Technically it is called the Salt Lake Central mission but its Murray. She leaves for the MTC on October 15th!  I'm so excited for her!  She will be a great missionary!  Perhaps I will be able to go out with her if she serves in our stake!  She came with us to lessons now perhaps someday I will be able to go with her to lessons, haha. 

Another fun thing we had this week was the branch missionary activity, which this month was a corn roast!  The girl we volunteer with at the hospital came as well!  It was exciting to be able to talk with her again and I was so impressed when a lot of the branch members came up to her and introduced themselves.  She didn't know anyone so she seemed a little bit nervous at first but I think she had fun! 

We had a really cool referral this week!  So a couple of our recent converts, Kelly and Kathy, were talking about the church with a girl named Mika.  Mika showed some interest so they referred her to us.  We went to meet her and  she wanted to come to church and learn more and she said she wanted all of her kids baptized!  Then we were even more surprised when her boyfriend told us that he was a member of our church and didn't know there was a church in Fond du Lac.   They didn't come to church but hopefully they are their for our appointment this Friday.  Also, we got a referral from one of our investigators, Jony.  Her friend just had a friend pass away and so she wants us to go with her to visit her.  So that was neat this week! 

We have been seeing Bonnie a lot and she is doing great!  On Saturday the elders had a baptism and so we invited Bonnie and she came!  And she also came to church as well on Sunday!   That has truly been a miracle!  We love her so much!  She is so positive and sweet!  Well, we are seeing little miracles every day here and I'm excited for another transfer in Fond du lac! It was also so exciting to hear about Karly's mission farewell!  I know that the Lord calls us to where we need to go and helps us to overcome any challenges that we may have.  Challenges are there to help us to learn and grow.  I've learned that Wisconsin is helping me face some of my fears, one being spiders.  Because of all of the mosquitoes there is a lot of spiders here!  Huge ones everywhere!  My companion and I stepped on 20 of them.  But I'm grateful that the Lord helps us have the strength and courage to do things that sometimes are scary, haha.  Well, love you all!  The church is courageously true! :D

August 25, 2014

What a week!  We have been really excited and focusing on the counsel given to us from Elder Martino of the seventy last week and have been working hard with a lot of the less actives in the area and with Bonnie!  Bonnie is doing wonderful!  She is so optimistic and gave up coffee and tea this week when we taught her the word of wisdom.  She now offers us chocolate milk and cranberry juice instead :)  She still has a really hard time coming to church because of her health so continue to pray for her.  She has to come to church for the next couple weeks to make her baptismal date and she is so ready for it she just has to make it to church. 

We got the transfer text and my companion and I are both staying in Fond du Lac! :)  I'm excited for another transfer here!  We have a lot of great work to do.  Some things I was really excited about this week was a visit we had to a less active family named the Zedans. We had never met them before and felt like we should so we decided to stop by.  Sister Zedan answered the door and let us in.  She was a convert to the church and has a desire to come back to church but she just has a few things holding her back.  We are super excited to start working with her and her family!  We also had an awesome visit with Sister Zabinski who has a strong testimony of the gospel but was really hurt by a friend in the branch and is having a hard time overcoming that.  Sister Reigle and Sister Schrauth, two members of the branch came with us and it was such an inspired visit!  Lori, a former investigator also just happened to be there.  Sister Zabinski agreed to come to church the second week of September!  We are really trying to make this a combined effort, working with the branch council to find those that are ready to receive the gospel. 

We saw a lot of miracles this week!  One of the greatest ones I think was just seeing how the Lord has a way of turning people's hearts.

We were in crazy rain storm this week where it was "raining cats and dogs" so bad you couldn't see anything.  I'm so grateful for prayer and that we were protected through the storm!  The rain reminded me of a scripture I read today in Moses 7 about the truth going forth in a flood!  And it will if we keep diligently sharing it! :D

The church is awesomely true! Love you all!

August 18, 2014

What an awesome week!  And I'm even more excited for this next week! On Wednesday we had mission tour where Elder Martino of the seventy and his wife came and spoke to us and it is just what we needed!  It really motivated us and opened our eyes to somethings that we need to be doing more in our missionary work and our finding efforts.  There was a powerful spirit there and I'm so grateful for the blessing it was to be there an receive more guidance for our area.  A sister that just got home from her mission but who hadn't gotten set apart also came and spoke to us and told us that in her mission they had one set of missionaries for just teaching less actives and another set of missionaries for teaching investigators in an area because there was so many less actives and  she said that the missionaries that baptized the most were always the ones working with the less actives!  I thought that was very interesting but I can understand why it is that way.  It stuck out to me that the some of the greatest missionary work that is done is within families.  That we want to help join families together so that they can be together forever.
 Which reminds me, I was able to hear from Sister Ostler this week and John Sowa, Treasa's husband got baptized up in Marquette this week!!!!!!  What joy it is to see what a missionary Treasa is for her family!  She knows it is true and just desires to share it with all of her loved ones!  After John's baptism, Sister Ostler told me that he told his sister that she is next, haha.  Their family is truly being blessed by the gospel! 

Anyway, Elder Martino told the story of Alma and Amulek and how Amulek became a powerful missionary and asked us to focus on bringing the right members with us as we help our ward or branch with the part member families etc.  He also showed us a better way to ask for referrals.  It was so good to see Sister Brandley and Ostler there too!!!!!!!!  I will have to send you pictures soon but I forgot my camera today. 

Also, we saw a lot of wonderful miracles with Bonnie!  We set a baptismal date with Bonnie this week for September 20th!  She has such a sincere desire and also she came to church this week for the first time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  She is the sweetest lady and 84 years old so it was always hard because she would say, I want to but I can't.  I'm grateful that she was blessed to be able to come this week and that she enjoyed it and was able to stay for all 3 hours.  The chapel tour helped a lot.  We also finally got in with Jony this week and a part member family, the Brotzmans.

Well, love you all!  The church is eternally true!

August 1, 2014

So earlier this week we met with Donna.  We usually have our lessons with Donna at a member's house that lives next door to her.  We were a little concerned about having Donna's parents open to her being taught by the missionaries.  Donna always avoids it when we talk about meeting at her house.  So my brilliant companion had the idea to ask if we could go over and see her dog.  Ofcourse Donna said yes!  Everyone loves their pets here!  We got it and were able to meet her dad as well!  That was awesome! 

Also, that day we had a great district meeting and talked about baptismal invites and baptismal dates.  We have been working really hard with our investigators to have a baptismal date.  We have one right now.  But we have definitely seen how important baptismal dates are.  After that we were walking to our car and we saw a man out in his yard.  We starting talking to him about the Book of Mormon.  He had a lot of questions and accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and we gave him a passage to read.  He was really neat and seemed sincerely interested.  I hope we hear from him again. 

I don't have time to tell all that happened this week but one of my favorite nights was having dinner with the Valdez family!  The Valdez family is a part member family that the elders are teaching but they only speak Spanish.  All of the elders investigators speak spanish and they don't so a member has to come and translate.  It was the same with our dinner appointment with them.  They fed us, and fed us, and fed us!!!!!!!!  Spaghetti with sour cream and cheese, and tortillas, chicken, hot, hot salsa, etc.  It was really good!  I was really touched by the sincerity and kindness of these people!  I  don' think I can describe to you the spirit that was felt when hey told about their experiences and love and dedication to certain aspects of the gospel.  They are coming to church now even though they don't understand the language.  It is hard but I admire their faith so much!  They would give anything for those around them!

We had a chapel tour with Corey, and to make a long sad story short.  He says that he can't accept  that we don't believe in the trinity, so he is not investigating anymore.  It broke our hearts but I believe that if he continues to read the Book of Mormon that he will be able to someday have a change of heart and have the desire to be baptized again.  It planted a seed.

Bonnie is awesome! But has a hard time coming to church.  I will have to send you a fun picture of her and Donna next week.  Kelly, our recent convert is doing great!  It makes me so happy to see the light in her continue to grow!  She shared a beautiful testimony of service at church in class. 

 The church is continually true!

August 4, 2014

What a crazy week it has been!  Missions are the best!  I think this area might get Spanish missionaries soon.  We had a Spanish family come to church this week and the elders have a lot of Spanish investigators who want to be baptized.  They are so nice!  We get to have dinner with them this week. 

Well, so I told you about the experience we had on Monday running into the man that works at Wal-mart that told us he was reading the Book of Mormon.  Well, his name is Corey and we got an appointment with him and taught him the restoration this week!  I was on exchanges in West Bend with Sister Eden so I missed it!  But it sounded amazing!  He really wants to come closer to Christ and feels like God is leading him here.  Yesterday we called to follow up on his Book of Mormon and he called us back and right away started telling us about his reading.  He is in 1 Nephi 12 and really wants to come to church next week!  We are doing a chapel tour with him this Wednesday!  Pray for him!  He is amazing and it was a  huge miracle to that he found us!

On exchanges I was able to be with Sister Eden!  It was really fun to be able to go out with her in West Bend.  We taught a girl named Leann and a lot of other people as well.  It is so neat to see how certain people are just placed in your path.  We also were very blessed to have a member offer to drive us to the exchange point.  We really couldn't have done it without her! 

Also, on Tuesday we had a lesson with Carolyn and taught her the restoration and she said that if she comes to know that it is true she will be baptized!  She really wanted to come to church this week but couldn't because she had to watch all her grandchildren.  Hopefully we will be able to help her come this week! 

On Thursday, I biked for the first time in a skirt!  It took a little getting used to and my companion and I were a little sore but we did it! We biked to our appointment with Virginia and she was really sweet.  Just before we left it had rained really hard and hailed!  So Virginia was nervous for us and before we left she said a really sweet prayer for us to travel safely.  In our lesson we talked to her about baptism again and she said a very bold and confident yes that she would be if she came to know it was true.  So we were feeling excited about her but then in our next appointment she wouldn't set a baptismal date with us.  Keep her in your prayers too.  Our next lesson with her we are meeting with her at the church and we are having a chapel tour with Corey.  Wednesday is going to be very packed! 

 I also received exciting news this week from Marquette that one of the girls we were teaching there, Hannah, just got baptized!  She is amazing!  I actually sent her an email last week.  Well, I am so grateful for the gospel and for the little miracles we see everyday! 

The church is pricelessly true! 

July 28, 2014

What an exciting week it has been!  We had a lot of crazy things happen but it is amazing to see the Lord's hand in the details!

Monday, we ran into two former investigators!  One of them came to an activity we had this week and let us come meet with her!  Her situation is a little bit complicated but I hope she recognized that this will help her through the trials she is going through. 

We have a couple new investigators that we are working with now, wahoo!  One of them is named Carolyn and it was so neat because during the lesson at the end she told us that she was going to read the Book of Mormon, come to church, and pray to know if it is true through the Holy Ghost before we even invited her to, haha.  In our lessons with her we always start out by singing a hymn and it is such a neat thing to be able to feel the Spirit come into the room and to see her face as we do sing.  She loves it and says she kind of already knows because of the good she has seen from what we do.   I also loved seeing her excitement when we brought a member with us, she really liked that.  She loves the bible and is very strict with it and at first it was hard to teach her but it is neat to see her softening.  It will still be a long journey ahead but we are excited for her.  We taught her grandchildren to sing "I am a Child of God"  with them as well.

Our other new investigator is Tonya.  We were contacting a house where a potential investigator was and found out that, the potential investigator moved and Tonya had just moved in. But she told us that she had investigated the church about ten years ago and was now just barely searching for a church to go to!  We set a return appointment and taught her the Restoration and it went really well!  

We have still been working with Bonnie and Virginia but having a hard time getting them to church.  Bonnie is so sweet and really wants to go but has health problems that prevent her from coming.  We will be continually praying for her!  We had a super neat district meeting on chapel tours this week and I'm excited to try that out and see if it will help motivate some of our investigators to come to church. 

Other highlights of the week include, getting stuck at a member's house.  The car would not start!  I guess, the car's security system was armed and we couldn't disarm it so we couldn't start the car.  Finally at night we just had the member's take us home.  We planned a full day of walking to all of our appointments.  It was actually a tender mercy because we didn't have hardly any miles left this month.  It was a wake up call.  The next day we got a call from a member that fixed it for us but we still walked all that day to save miles.  It was just what we needed to be guided to walk that day.  We also now have bikes, haha.  We'll see how that goes.

Anyway, one of my favorite things that happened this week was yesterday.  So that girl named Nicole that we volunteer with at the hospital, works with a member of the branch named Emily.  Emily is preparing to go on a mission too and has talked to Nicole a little bit about it.  Well, yesterday Nicole came to dinner at Emily's house and we were able to share a message with her, play a few songs and give her a Book of Mormon!  It was such a neat experience!  She told us that she is Roman Catholic but received the Book of Mormon with joy!  I can't even begin to describe the joy that  I felt as we gave her that Book of Mormon.  I know that the Book of Mormon is true and it changes lives!  I'm so grateful to be a missionary.

The church IS life-changingly true!  Love you!

July 21, 2014

What a crazy week it has been!  But also one of many miracles!

The beginning of the week we were rushing to visit all of our investigators, before Sister Ormsby left on Wednesday. 

It was crazy but we did it. Sister Ormsby went to Milwaukee and is in a trio now!  She will do wonderful things there and I will miss her!  My new companion is Sister Cosgrove!  She is from Orem, Utah and we have had a lot of adventures and fun together this week!  Her companion is now serving in Marquette with Sister Ostler!  It is neat to see the connections!

We had a lesson with Donna at Sister Fesutel's home and it was wonderful.  It really does make a world of difference to have a missionary lesson in a member's home.  Sister Feustel truly shows her love and concern for Donna and knows her so well so she can help her understand things the things that we discuss with her.  It also helps that Sister Feustel is also a convert and knows what it is like to be a young investigator.  It has been difficult to get her to church lately though.  Donna used to come every week and now her mom has started this brunch on Sundays exactly the same time as church so Donna has not been able to come.  So that is sad but we hope that she still continues to want to meet with us.  Donna loves learning Spanish and my companion went to church in a spanish branch so she learned how to say the prayer in spanish there.  Sister Cosgrove said the prayer in Spanish at the end of the lesson for Donna and Donna absolutely loved it!  Donna is trying to teach me a little as well.

On Fridays, we volunteer at the hospital with a girl named Nicole.  She absolutely love playing the piano!  We sometimes get to play together at the hospital.  Anyway, she has had some question about the church as well and it has been neat to have an opportunity to talk about the church while we volunteer.  To our surprise on Friday evening some members took us out to eat at the Eden Grill and that is where Nicole works and also another member of the branch named Emily.  Emily is waiting for her mission call.  Well, she was super excited that we were there and at the end she said "see you next Friday or maybe sooner!"  That made us excited but we will see what happens.  At another lesson with the Lennop family, grandma Charlotte was there and she is a former investigator.  We invited her to church and she was thinking about.  She wants to try to quit smoking.  I think her heart is softening. 

We had a lot of other things happen this week too, like a great lesson with Bonnie.  She says she is starting to understand it better now.  We have a problem with getting our investigators to church though because a lot of the are older and it is hard for them to get out of the house.

I just love the branch here!  Sister Reigel, Sister Schrauth, Bro. and Sister Schmidt, all sacrifice so much for the gospel!  They always ask what days can we come out with you.  Well, we are continually praying for miracles and for a baptism in each area by October General Conference.  Some areas have already seen baptisms so far that haven't had them in over a year.  So miracles are happening.  Sister Cosgrove and I decided to study diligence this week in our studies together and then today we got an email from Pres. Cutler about mission tour in August and we were asked to study diligence, haha.  It is amazing how things like that happen!

One more miracle!  We met the guy that works at Wal-mart again today and he said he has been reading the Book of Mormon and really likes what it teaches about Christ!   We met him a couple of weeks again and told him to read it and said he would.  It is neat to see that he is and that he is thinking about calling the missionaries (us). 

Well, the church is miraculously true! love you!

July 14, 2014

Yep, this week is transfers and.......... my companion, Sister Ormsby, is getting transferred.  I am sad she is leaving, I have definitely learned a lot from her, and she is such a good missionary!  She is getting transferred to the Parkway area in Milwaukee and she will be in a trio.  I know she is going to do great there, and I'm sure my new companion will be great too!

Well, we taught Virginia the Word of Wisdom this week.  She has been doing really well at reading the Book of Mormon pretty regularly now.  I hope she gets to the point where she is reading 10 minutes everyday!  We found out that she drinks a tablespoon of coffee everyday.  I thought that was kind of silly.  She used to drink a lot of coffee and then she cut down everything but that 1 tablespoon, haha.  I hope she can make the decision to quit altogether.  I think from our lesson she will try it out this week.  

We had an amazing lesson with Sister Brummond this week!  She is a less active member of the branch.  Our branch mission leader came with us to the last lesson and told her that the branch needs her and that she should come back.  It was a very bold lesson and so was a lesson this week but she is sincerely thinking about coming  back.  It is hard though.  She has a testimony of the gospel, she loves it and misses it but has had some things in her life that she is just having a hard time overcoming.  I am praying for her.  Although we didn't have any investigators at church this week we did have two less active members come, Sister Hily, and Sister Basty!  The members make such a big difference in that.  

Also, we got a new investigator this week.  His name is George and he used to be next door neighbors with the Warren's.  Bro.  and Sis.  Warren came with us and we talked to him a little bit about the Book of Mormon.  Last we heard he has been reading!  He has 2 kids, a little girl and a  boy.   Bro. and Sis. Warren are branch missionaries and are just so great!  The branch is truly wonderful here.

We also had zone training this week and our mission president has asked us each to pray daily for a baptism in each area of the mission between July and October General conference!  Some of the areas have not had baptisms for over a year but it is so exciting to be a part of this great work, where miracles truly do happen everyday! Well, I have to go now but I love you all and hope that this week goes well! :D  The church is breathtakingly true!

July 7, 2014

Last Thursday we had interviews with President Cutler, and my companion and I got permission to go to the Chicago temple!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D  What a joyous experience it was!!!  But in order to go to the temple we had to move our P-day to Thursday, or the day we were going.  So instead of having p-day on Monday we had a regular proselyting day and we went out to find new investigators!  The first part of the day was pretty hard and my companion had a few discouraging moments but we said a prayer to help us find someone who needed us that day and the Lord did bless us.  In fact, right after our prayer we visited with Kathy, who has been really struggling physically and we were able to say a prayer with her.  Then we went to go contact a referral in an apartment building.  The referral didn't answer the door but as we were walking out we met a lady with a parrot on her shoulder.  We started talking with her and she said, "while I have you two ladies here, how about doing a bible study."  It was so neat because in our planning, Sister Ormsby and I had talked about starting up a scripture study class to help us find but hadn't done it yet.  She told us that she just wants to learn more about the bible right now but perhaps that will be a good way to start teaching her.  Her name is Lydia.

We also got a new investigator, Bonnie.  She is so sweet!  She is an elderly lady, who loves learning about God.  She was Lutheran and then got kicked out of her church so she joined the Baptist church and now isn't currently going to church.  She loves little children, and taught early elementary education for a long time.  She told us that she misses them.  Bonnie has such a desire to serve and to give!  She tried to give us money but we said we can't, so she offered us refreshments, haha.  She is a little concerned with baptism because she has already baptized  twice and thinks that it would just be silly to be baptized again.  We taught her about the importance of being baptized by proper authority and committed her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon.  We were able to meet with her 3 times this week and her reading is going well. 

Anyway, we had a lot of little miracles this week but one of the greatest was that we were able to go to the temple!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D  It was such an amazing experience and one that I will not forget!  I was able to feel the love of those that were with me as well as the love of those I could not see.  What a special place the temple is!  Sister Schrauth, a woman in the branch took us, and also the youth in the branch came.   I will have to send you pictures. 

Well, I am out of time. Love you!  The church is simply true!

June 23, 2014

I can't believe it has already been a week!  The time sure does fly by and I want to use every minute of it to share the gospel!  It is amazing to see how Heavenly Father places people in our paths who have been prepared before.  Just barely we were at Walmart doing our grocery shopping for the week and the elderly man at the check told us that he had ordered a Book of Mormon once after seeing something on TV.  He said that he wants to pick it up and start reading it again.  We were able to give him our number and our simple witness of it.  He seemed touched, hopefully we will be able to see him some time again. 

We have been doing a lot of finding activities lately to expand our teaching pool.  We have 3 new converts we are working with but not a whole lot of investigators right now.  The change in working with new converts from the first presidency will help us so much! Baptism is supposed to be the handing off point of new converts from the missionaries to the members.  Sister Ormsby and I had really felt lately that we needed to be having more contact with the recent converts than we (the home teachers are supposed to teach the new member lessons) and the announcement seemed to be an answer to our prayers. 

Also, Virginia just got back from her trip out west to visit her two sons, who are both lds.  She said she was able to talk a lot about religion with them so maybe that will soften her heart a little more.  She has been visiting with missionaries for awhile now but says she hasn't received an answer that the Book of Mormon is true yet.  I'm excited that she is back though and that we can start teaching her again!

We are truly seeing the Lord's hand in our finding here even though we don't really have any new progressing investigators yet.  Sometimes we will get a feeling to try a certain door and that is the door we are able to get a lesson with.  Our new district leader this transfer has made a lot of really good changes. I know that it will help so much as we keep our commitments and do our part!  Well, love you and hope you have a great week!  The church is awesomely true!  The branch youth just got back from youth conference at Nauvoo.  It was so neat to be able to hear of their testimonies during sacrament yesterday.  I'm grateful for my testimony of the Savior and of this gospel.  I know that it is true and that we have a loving Heavenly Father who sent Jesus Christ to be our Savior and Redeemer!  What a joyful message this is to declare!  I know it is true and it brings peace and happiness! :)

June 9, 2014

What a wonderful week!  This past weekend was Stake Conference weekend here and so we went up to Neenah.  All of the missionaries were asked to sing in the choir, which I enjoyed thoroughly!  I love the power and Spirit that the hymns bring into our meetings!  Elder Rhodes of the seventy spoke.  On Sunday he talked a lot about prayer and explained it as it is defined in the Bible dictionary.  He said that we can measure our conversion through our prayers.  I also really enjoyed Sister Cutler's talk on being a missionary and strengthening our testimonies as well, through studying the Book of Mormon. 

Our investigator Kelly has changed so much through her study of the Book of Mormon.  At our lesson with her the other day she showed us some of her favorite scriptures that she had read this weekend and it was just neat to see her excitement about the scriptures.  We are so excited for her baptism this weekend! :D  She has come so far and is truly changing.  You can see the light in her eyes.  In the beginning she was hesitant to set a baptismal date with us. Now she is really determined to enter into this covenant. 

Well, this week we met again with Skip, the one who told us that the prophet showed him around temple square when he was there, and he also told us that he has met with missionaries before.  It seems every time we talk with him we get a new surprise.  Well, he wants to start meeting with us! Yay!  He has a really bad back injury and is mostly paralyzed because of a fall he had but he is really nice, liked the things that the missionaries taught him, and talks a lot about moving to Utah, haha. 

Anyway, this weekend was also what they call here, walleye weekend.  It is a huge fishing tournament where they have sports, music, shops, kind of like a big fair.  We heard a lot about that but didn't get to go ourselves.  We have a pretty full week ahead of us and a lot of appointments, so that is nice.  It is exciting to see our teaching pool slowly growing.  We are a little concerned for the Enciso family though.  They are strongly Catholic but are interested in the Book of Mormon.  The mother has been struggling a lot lately though.  I sure do love their family though!  They are such a kind and fun family. 

Well, I love you all!!!  The church is gloriously true! :D

June 2, 2014

What a week!  The whole week was a little unusual because everything was moved up a day.  So our p-day was Tuesday, District meeting was Wednesday, and then the next day was weekly planning so the week went by pretty fast.  Well, transfers are this week and...

my companion and I are both staying!  Yay!  I love Fond du Lac and am so excited that my companion and I are here together again for another transfer.  Kelly is really progressing toward her baptismal date on June 14th.  She has come to church almost every week that I have been here and this week she was even on time!  She is now reading in Jacob in the Book of Mormon and I can just see her excitement for baptism every time we talk about it with her.  A funny thing with transfers though, Elder Williams, is one of the Fond du Lac elders and he has been here ever since November and was sure that he would be leaving this transfer.  On Saturday when we got the transfer text his name was not on it.  We were all very surprised but later we found out the assistants just forgot to put his name on the list and he is being transferred.  Also, one of the sisters in our district is being transferred so we will have two new missionaries in our district.

We are also starting to work with a woman named Carolyn and a man named Dave.  Dave has been taught by missionaries before so we will see how it goes. 

Don't have much time today but I will just say I am so grateful for the blessings of the atonement in our lives.  I have so much to learn about still but I do know that the Lord cares a lot about each of us individually.  We called a potential investigator named Karen this week and scheduled an appointment for her on Saturday.  On Friday we felt we should call to confirm the appointment since we had a member coming with us.  When we called we found out that Karen's brother had passed away unexpectedly the day before.  She told us she wouldn't be home for the appointment but that she would like it if we would go see her parents who would be at her house.  When we came for the appointment, Karen was there and we were able to share a few scriptures with her and our testimonies of the Savior.  I know that the Lord knows our situations and cares about each one of us so much!  He knows what we go through and answers our prayers for help. 

The gospel provides so much peace and comfort.

Well, the church is timelessly true!  Love you!