January 19, 2015

It has been  quite the week!  I'm so grateful for our family!  I've been so blessed with a wonderful family who has taught me and been an example to me of love and service and I'm so grateful for the gospel.  So I need to tell you all about the events leading up to when I found out that grandpa had passed away.  The Lord was very aware of us that day and really helped prepare me.  That morning we visited an older couple.  The husband is trying to return to church and the wife is just softening towards missionaries.  We taught them a little lesson and then they started talking about good pancakes.  I immediately thought of grandpa Prestwich's banana pancake recipe.  After that we went tracting and met a lady who let us in and we taught her the plan of salvation.  During that lesson I felt the spirit so much!  The Spirit really impressed on me the truthfulness of it.  She didn't become a new investigator but I don't doubt it gave her some peace. 

Then we went to Lakeland and taught Yu more about the Book of Mormon and the word of wisdom!  He said that he is going to try to go 20 days without drinking any coffee to start!  He told us maybe he needed to stop anyway because he had spilled coffee on his laptop and it ruined it.  He didn't come to church this week though because of some school things that he had to do.  I hope that we can  help him learn that when you make it a priority the other things work out.  He said he will come next week though. 

We then had a lesson with a recent convert named Marsha.  We had planned on starting her family history with her because she wants to go to the temple and take a family name with her for her first time.  Her internet wasn't working though so we decided to teach her the plan of salvation instead.  We were just going to teach the end but in starting I just felt like we should start at the beginning.  We did and part way through she said, "I can't believe this!"  She went on to say that she had been asked to give a short lesson on our life on earth and didn't know what to do so she had prayed that she would have help with her lesson.  Then she said, "and then you two come and teach it to me."  She said it was an answer to her prayers and a great strength to her testimony. 

After that we had an appointment but on our way they called and said they were sick with the flu. So I turned down a different street and realized it was the street of the church and remember that the relief society meeting was just starting.  We hadn't planned on going because of our appointment but we both felt like we needed to go now.  It was on the temple.  We sang "families can be together forever" and enjoyed wonderful little talks about the blessings of the temple and preparing to go.  We have a lot of recent converts who are preparing to go.  Anyway it was so beautiful and a great spiritual boost.  After that we came home to do our nightly planning and President Cutler called and said that grandpa had passed away. 

 Heavenly Father was so aware of me and really strengthened and prepared me for that!  I was reminded of the beautiful plan that Heavenly Father has for us right before and it was so comforting and I had so many opportunities to share it that day!  We also shared it with a couple who is going through cancer right now.  I'm grateful for the plan of salvation. 

Our recent converts are doing so well!  Ebony gets so excited about the Book of Mormon!  She is reading it three times a day and it is truly changing and strengthening her!  It is fun to see her enthusiasm for the gospel.  She is the only one in her family that goes to a church and they sometimes give her a hard time about it but she just says, "yes I am going to church!  I like church!"  Jared and Kathryn, also were so excited to tell us about their Book of Mormon reading this week!  It is so fun to see the fruits of the gospel!  We also had a lady come to church this week who we haven't seen for a long time!  My heart just leaped for joy when we saw her at church!  Last we saw her she didn't want us to visit her anymore but at church she said she would text us. 

I love you all so much and will be praying for grandma Prestwich and the family!  Thank you for your support and prayers!  Miracles come after the trial of your faith! 

The church is everlastingly true!  Love you!

January 12, 2015

Well, I definitely saw so many glorious blessings this week! 

On Tuesday we had zone training again that really motivated my companion and I.  Right after the meeting we quickly left for the long drive back to Sheboygan so that we could go and do what we learned about. :)  In zone training we talked about prepared people and this week we met a lot of prepared people. :)  On Thursday we met with Yu, our Japanese investigator.  It was snowing fairly hard and two of the people that were going to come with for Yu's lesson cancelled on us.  It is a little bit of a drive out to Lakeland where Yu goes to school but we decided we were going to go even with the snow.  I'm so glad we did!   We taught him about the restoration of the gospel.  He had some really great comments about how he has tried to have God more in his life and how the things he has read in the Book of Mormon seem familiar to him! He went to church sometimes as an exchange student in Utah too.  He said he wants to be baptized if he comes to know that this is true and we set a baptismal date with him!  That was really exciting!  We gave him his Japanese Book of Mormon and he was so excited!  He even asked if he could get a picture with us and his Book of Mormon :)  Wow, blessings do come after you push through the storm :) 

We also had interviews with Pres. Cutler.   I'm so grateful for President Cutler!  He gives us so much guidance and helps us to feel of God's love for us.  He asked me what I'm going to study in the Book of Mormon next.  I am going to study charity. :)  You are welcome to join me if you like, in choosing a Christlike attribute you want to work on this year and looking for it in the scriptures.  I'm really excited! 

Anyway, then we had exchanges right after interviews.   We saw many exchange miracles!  Right after dinner there was a girl next door the sisters were working with and we saw her right before she was about to leave!  Perfect timing.  We had ward correlation and only had 30 minutes after that.  We were so blessed for using all of the time we had!  During that 30 minutes we decided to go see a family that is not as active in the church and they had a friend over.  We shared a message and a Book of Mormon with the friend.  At the end of the lesson I felt strongly to ask her if she would like to learn more.  She said yes! 

Today, we found a new investigator!  Michele, at the laundromat, asked us where we worked.  We explained that we were missionaries, a little about what we did.  Then Sister Boldt, peeked out from around the corner and we said, "Hi, Sister Boldt!"  Sister Boldt works at the laundromat so Michelle knows her already.  We started telling her about the Book of Mormon and gave her a copy.  She started crying and said that last night she had prayed for more scripture in her life!  Wow, she was so nice and just glowed!  Pray for her! 

The church is familiarly true!

January 12, 2015

I only have a few minutes so I'll try to be fast!  So I"ll have to tell you the story later but I met our cousin, Alexis Prestwich's best friend Dani and her husband Chris!  She said she was a bridesmaide at Alexis's wedding!  It was so cool!  This week was great!  There was so many blessings!  The work is really picking up and we have been so so busy this week!  It has been so busy that we have just been praying for the strength and energy to do it all, which is a great thing!  And we have definitely been strengthened!  We had a chapel tour and taught the restoration to a cute little family.  They are so awesome!  They really are excited to learn more!  We also have a baptismal date now with Ariana!  Lots of things are happening.  We also met with a really awesome new hispanic family, who have not been to church since they moved here to Sheboygan for a couple of years.  The grandma was really funny, she told us she would see the elders walk by and would yell from inside the house, "elders, elders! And they don't hear me."  Then she said "then there was these two freezing ladies outside my door."  Haha, that was us!  They are great, pray for them.  The baby is sick.  We have zone training again tomorrow and we are really excited!  We had a lot of great miracles this week but I don't have time to write them.  I'll try to get them in my journal so I'll remember.  I'm grateful for how much God knows and loves His children!  Love ya!

The church is gracefully true!

January 5, 2014

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's this week!  Well, we received the transfer text on Saturday and .... Sister Osmond and I are both staying together another transfer!!!!!!!!!!!! :D Yay!  So that was exciting news! It was truly one of the best Christmas experiences I've ever had!  The testimony meeting on Christmas Eve was really special  By the way, last Monday I dropped my toothbrush in something nasty and so I was going to buy a new one but decided I'd just wait and then what a surprise on Christmas, a new toothbrush, haha, mom's know everything! :)  Well, soon after I talked to all of you I got sick too so we ended up cancelling all our appointments on Christmas day because the mission nurse told us to stay inside for 24 hours.  This week has had its ups and downs but still pushing through and recovering.  Funny thing though, we were still blessed with teaching opportunities even though we weren't allowed to leave the apartment.  In fact, we set goals to teach 4 people one day and we still did!  Our next door neighbor knocked on our door to give us chocolates for Christmas and we were able to talk with her, and say a pray with her at our door and also a part member family came and brought us dinner.  It was a fun reverse, so instead of us going and knocking on doors we taught all of the people that knocked on our door, haha!  Then we just made a lot of calls as well and rested.  We have been focusing a lot on teaching restored truths.  That is what our zone training meeting was on.  Later that day we had a lot of opportunities to do that which was such a blessing.  We taught a woman named Judie about the Book of Mormon and some other things she had questions on. 

I'm really excited for the new year.  We have a lot of goals and things we want to accomplish here.  We didn't get to have solid lessons with a lot of our investigators this week and the missionary work in the ward needs some help so we are going to fast this week for the ward.  I'm grateful for the priesthood that has been restored to the earth and for my wonderful family!  You are all so shiningly brilliant!   Thanks for sharing your light with me this Christmas! :D  There is so many things I need to work on so I'm grateful for New Years and to have it right after Christmas and reading the Book of Mormon.  It really gives  you a fresh view of where you're at and vision and desire for where you want to be.  I know that this year we can draw closer to the Savior as individuals and families!  That is something that was talked about it sacrament meeting yesterday and it really stood out to me.  We can all do things that help us deepen our relationship with Jesus Christ, and bring us in line with our Heavenly Father's will for us.  We all have a work to do!   A quote I liked was that "as we draw closer to Christ we draw closer  as a family, and as we draw closer as a family we draw closer to the Christ."  

The Church is  lastingly true!