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!