May 27, 2014

What a week!  We went on exchanges this week with our sister training leaders.  Sister Harris came here to Fond du lac with me while Sister Ormsby went to West Bend with Sister Reese.  I love our sister training leaders!  They work hard and are a lot of fun, plus, Sister Harris knows Fond du Lac really well because she served here before I did.  I was able to talk to her a lot about the area and the people.  We finally were able to set a baptismal date with Kelly for June 14th!!!  Yay!  She is growing so much.  We usually have a couple lessons a week with her and usually have a member with us for the lesson.  This week we had one of the lessons in the Cropper's home.  I love the Cropper's.  Sister Cropper is a returned missionary and has been such a good friend and support to Kelly.  We have focused a lot on reading the Book of Mormon with Kelly and it is so neat to see her testimony of it growing.  Also, on exchanges we did something called loaves and fishes.  It is a dinner for the needy put on by a different church but a different church is in charge of hosting it each week.  This week was our turn, so we were able to help out with that and then we had an awesome lesson with the Lennop family and Bonnel's at one of the member's homes here.  They have a cute little farm with new chicks, which the kids loved seeing!  It is really beautiful here right now!

It is neat to see how we are able to find through service.  We met a man named Skip this week who told us he has seen us at the nursing home before and asked us if we would come and visit him.  We met with him and found out that he has been to Salt Lake City and one time when he was there he went to temple square and the prophet showed him around! 

Well, we have been doing a lot of finding work lately because our teaching pool isn't very big right now.  A lot of them were out of town this week.  I feel like we did a lot of seed planting and there are definitely some strong potentials. We met with a lady named Carolyn this week who has a lot of good questions. 

Yesterday, the branch had a big picnic and we had 2 of our investigators come!  We played ultimate frisby and were able to meet some less actives we have never met before too! So that was good and it was a lot of fun. Right at the end it there was a huge down poor!  Everything got cleaned up pretty fast, haha.

I'm so grateful to be here!  It is so beautiful!  We were talking to a women in her yard one day about the beauty of God's creations and it is so true!  When you see the hills and plants and the beautiful creations all around you can't help but feel close to the Lord. 

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

May 19, 2014

What a week!  Where to start?!  I feel like we saw so many tender mercies of the Lord this week! 

On Wednesday, we went out with our branch mission leader and his wife to an appointment they had with the part member family they home teach.  At the end of the lesson our branch mission leader actually invited the husband to take the missionary discussions.  That was a little twist, the member inviting them instead of us, but they said they would think about it and before we went out the door they told us we are welcome to come by any time.  I think that was a great start with them. 

We also met with a former investigator named Dave that the missionaries taught a little bit a year ago.  He told us he was not interested in converting but is still interested in learning more.  It was a pleasant little surprise on Saturday when he called us and said that he had gone to the church this week to try and find out what time the services were on Sunday and that he wanted to come to church!  The best part is, on Sunday he came to church!  And he promised he would come again and that next time he would stay for Sunday school too!  Yay!  He is a nice man and has been through a lot.  He suffered from a stroke this year and is very smart but is not able to use his right hand.

We have also been reading the Book of Mormon with a girl named Arianna.  Her family is from Mexico and have been strong in the Catholic faith for generations but they are super nice to us and love missionaries!  I just love their family so much and want them to accept the gospel and be sealed together as a family!  They are open to reading the Book of Mormon with us but won't have any part of coming to activities or church on Sunday.  I hope that the Book of Mormon will soften their hearts so we can teach them the restored gospel!   

Also, we met Chai, who is from Thailand, and a new family this week.  We were going to visit a potential and some little girls that were outside in the yard picking flowers started talking to us and giving us flowers.  We were able to talk with their dad about the gospel and have a return appointment with him this week.

Yesterday was pretty neat.  We had a lot of meetings to go to and our dinner appointment went kind of long so we were a little discouraged that we felt our day had just slipped away from us.  We went out with some members to go visit a less active in the ward but had a few calls to make so we let the members go in and meet her and we stayed out in the car.  Heavenly Father answers prayers!  My companion and I had been praying for a street to go to and I know we needed to be on that street, even if it was a little weird how we happened to be there.  After our calls, we went out and started talking to some of the people on that street.  As we were walking down the street, a boy riding a skateboard turned around and said, "hey, are you guys momons?"  We said yes and then he told us he really wanted a Book of Mormon because he had been given one but had lost it.  He said he has never been religious but something had really stuck out to him when he read that book.  Now he wants to start meeting with us!  Tender mercies!  Well, gotta go! Love you!

The church is astonishingly true!

May 11, 2014

       We had an appointment this week with someone at the Rosoland which is a big building in town and so we were waiting outside for them and went up and talked to a man sitting on one of the benches.  He told us that some of his family came from Puerto Rico and we started to talk about family history.  Long story short, we have an appointment with him this week at the library to help him get started on his family history!  Yay!  We had zone conference this week and it was all about families and using family history to find new investigators, so it was neat to have a little experience with that this week. 

      We met with a lot of less active members this week.  There is a lot of single women in the ward that have gone less active and we really tried to reach out to them this week and share a message with them for mothers day.  We went out after we skyped yesterday and it seems like we went to the right people.  A lot of the ones we stopped by didn't have there families with them for mother's day. 

       Kelly our investigator that wants to be baptized bore her testimony on finding her answer to be baptized and the Book of Mormon yesterday in relief society and also two other converts.  It was great.  Angel, one of the very new converts, also told us that she was able to talk to her sister about the gospel!  I love seeing her great desire to share the gospel with those around her!  

 I'm so grateful for Heavenly Father's wonderful plan for families to be together forever!  What a powerful message this is! The church is mightily true!

May 5, 2014

What a week!  The work is moving forward here in Fond du Lac.  I feel that Sister Ormsby and I have a great work to do here!  The branch has such a strong desire to do missionary work and to rescue the lost sheep here.  We go out at least 3 times a week with Sister Schrauth.  On Friday we went out with Sister Schrauth and our branch mission leader and today we are going out with her and the relief society president.  Needless to say, we work a lot with the branch and are working hard to correlate with them.

Well, it sounds like Kelly has made a lot of progress.   She said before she didn't really know if she wanted to be baptized and when she prayed about it she really just didn't know but now she has told us that she wants to be baptized and all she is concerned about now is the date! She really wants her family to be able to be there for the baptism so she is praying about a baptismal date right now.  There is still a lot of trials that she is going through but I think she's starting to see the light out of it.  We met with her probably 3-4 times this week so we having been striving to keep really good contact with her.  We were out contacting one day on foot because it was the last day of the month and we were almost out of miles and she saw us walking and was sweet and texted us.   We arranged to have a little lesson with her at one of the members homes near by.  So she is really open to meeting with us.  We talked with her a little bit about family history work as well and she seems really interested in it. 

Also, an exciting thing this week was that Virginia came to church!  She is another investigator that the sisters here have been working with for a long time.  She has not come to church for the past three months so we were super excited that she came and stayed for all three hours of church!  She is in her 80's and admire her interest in the church.    It would be really hard to grow up your whole life in a different religion and then be willing to learn about something different.  She is praying about baptism. 

We are working a ton with less actives right now and one of them came to church yesterday, which was good. One we met with last night is Mong and can't read English and doesn't understand it very well.  So we will have to be a little creative in teaching her.  We offered to help her with her garden this week so maybe we can start by serving her.  It was kind of an exciting visit.  Her dog attacked my companion but the son came in and took the dog away.  It was just a little tiny dog but very feisty, haha.  My companion is fine.
 I hope we can get in with some more part member families this week.   The family is truly so important our Heavenly Father's plan for us.

April 28, 2014

Well, I officially spent my first week serving in the state of Wisconsin!!!  It has truly been a great week and I feel so grateful for how the Lord has blessed me so much with amazing companions!  My new companion, Sister Ormsby, is a stellar sister missionary and such a good strength and support as a companion.  She is 19 yrs. old and just finished 12 weeks as a new missionary.  She's from Brigham City but went to Snow College for one semester before coming out on her mission.  With my last companion I was a little worried about being adjusting to a new companion but I really don't have any worries anymore.  I love her just like my other companion! It was a little hard this week not knowing the area or the people but I know the Lord strengthened us both.  I am now the designated driver, which has been quite the adventure since I don't know the area.  Thankfully, the sister before left her GPS for us to use and Sister Ormsby has been a great help with directions.  Fond du Lac is pretty small but has a more spread out feel than Marquette did.  It reminds me a lot of northern Utah.

On Tuesday we drove to Fond du lac for transfers and for the rest of the day I was in a trio with Sister Ormsby and her trainer.  Her trainer is now our sister training leader, so that will be fun.  We went and visited Angel, who is a recent convert.  I have already heard so much about Angel because my Sister Ostler used to talk about her all the time.  I hope soon we can start teaching her family as well. 

Then on Wednesday we drove to the transfer point in Osh Kosh and dropped off Sister Harris.  They had a really nice devotional that I found very comforting as I was still a little nervous.  Wednesday went great though and we truly have seen miracles this week!

We have had a lesson almost everyday with our investigator, Kelly.  She went through a really sad thing this week.  We taught her a lesson about faith and hope and she told us that she felt like her faith had really been shaken because of this really hard thing she was facing.  We also told her about priesthood blessings and she said she would like one.  Sister Ormsby said she didn't know who should give her a blessing so we got out the branch list and starting going down the names.   I was scanning down the list when I saw the name of a street named Arndt and remember Sister Orsmby telling me that we had dinner with some members in the branch named Arndt in a few days.  I mentioned this name to her and we both felt that we should call Brother Arndt.  We arranged a time the next and day and he and his wife came out and gave her a Priesthood blessing.  Kelly came to church on Sunday and said that she thinks that her faith is getting stronger.  We had another member present lesson with her last night.  We work very closely with the branch here.  They are very missionary focused.

We also we had an amazing first lesson with a less active this week!  We had only planned on sharing one verse with her from the scriptures about covenants and then talking about it.  We did and she began sobbing and said that she felt the spirit tell her that morning that she needed to have her lamp relit and she said she felt that's why we were there.  She has a desire to come back and definitely felt the spirit very strongly but I think it is still going to be hard for her to take the next steps to coming back.

On Sunday I received a very warm welcome from the branch!  They are very friendly!  One of the sisters here comes out with us and feeds us every Monday and Tuesday!  We usually go out with the ward mission leader and his wife at least once a week too! 

Well, I know with all my heart that the church is refreshingly true!  

April 21, 2014

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!  Wow, where to start?!  This was a very crazy and wonderful week!  I guess I'll start by telling you that we found out about transfers and I'm going to be transferred to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin this week!  I'm also going to be the senior companion!  I'm having a lot of mixed emotions right now but I definitely felt that it is my time to leave.  My companion and I have been thinking about and dreading transfers all week and did feel that I was probably going to leave.  When Saturday came I just felt really calm about it so I thought maybe I wasn't going to get transferred  but after the baptism we went to go have correlation with our ward mission leader and the elders and the first thing that Elder Sommer said was "you're leaving."  So there it is!  I do love Marquette a lot but I have felt more than anything that this is the Lord's work and He calls us to where we are supposed to go.  We will be in the right place at the right time.  I'm definitely going to be stretched a lot this week and will be praying for help through the atonement.  The little miracle is that I'm going to my companion's old area so she will be able to tell me all about it.  I'm very excited to meet and follow up with the recent convert that they baptized while she was there!  Sister Ostler will be staying in Marquette and will be training a new missionary! :D I'm so so excited for her because I know she is going to be SO wonderful and that the new missionary that comes out will be in very good hands!  Also, my old companion, Sister Brandley, is getting transferred to Green Bay to be a sister training leader!  So she is going to be one of the sister training leaders for the Marquette sisters and will get to come back to Marquette on exchanges!  I'm SO happy for her because I know how much she absolutely loves Marquette and she really wanted to serve sometime during her mission in Green Bay.  Anyway, Sister Ostler is telling me all about Fond du Lac and she says it is really an awesome place.

Also, this week we had interviews with President Cutler.  He taught a little lesson on the atonement and compared to free cookies.  Then later that day Sister Cutler came out with us while President Cutler went out with the elders.  What a great day it was!  Sister Cutler is a wonderful missionary and is one of the sweetest and most humble people I have ever met!  I loved having her with us.  We had a dinner appointment and then did some contacting.  We met a couple named Laurie and Jim who didn't even know us but were so sweet to us.  We taught them a little about the Book of Mormon and shared some Easter scriptures with them and then they gave us Easter cookies that they had baked.   We said a prayer for them and afterwards Jim clasped his hands together and closed his eyes and earnestly said a few words in prayer for us.  It kind of took us by surprise.  He didn't end the prayer in amen but he humbly tried praying for us in the only way he knew how. (I guess we"ll have to teach him the restoration next time.)   It was so spur of the moment and sincere.  It really touched my heart that he did that. 

Then on Saturday Treasa was baptized!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D  I don't think I possibly tell you how amazing she is and how happy I am for her!  The font wasn't filled up high enough so they had try to about 5 times with her really bending down her knees for it to work but you could just see each time how earnestly and sincerely she wanted to be baptized!  I don't know many other people that would be as patient as she was!  She just seems to always see the bright side of things!  She didn't say anything bad about it at all in fact, she said that the Spirit just seemed to get stronger each time.  Her husband and some of her extended family that are not members came and watched.  After the baptism her husband said to us"it will take me a little longer than her to get where she's at, but it's pretty much like Catholic."  I took that as someday he will join the church too.  He is Catholic but has been coming to church to support her.  I'm really going to miss Treasa but I look back and wow it was really a tender mercy that I was even able to see her get baptized!  Everything worked out perfectly so she could be baptized this week, even though we originally had her baptism scheduled for next Saturday. 

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

April 14, 2014

My heart is overwhelmed with joy right now for the blessings we have seen!  Yesterday was an absolutely amazing day and we saw a lot of miracles and tender mercies.  We made the long trip out to Munising on Tuesday and visited our investigator Treasa, who is preparing for baptism this weekend! :D  She never ceases to amaze Sister Ostler and I!  She is so filled with love and so close to the Lord.  She also came to church yesterday and sat by us during sacrament meeting.  We had an awesome sacrament meeting all about the atonement.  After the meeting, one of the converts in the ward came up to us and told her to right in her journal the day she gets baptized because she will never forget it and it will be the best decision she ever made.  She told us with tears streaming down her face that she knows the Lord has been leading her here.  She told us she felt joy and then said "wow, wouldn't it be great if everyone could feel this."   It sure would!  She is definitely motivated me to have a greater desire to work hard and make the most of my time here.  We had another lesson with her after church about tithing and fast offerings.  I will never forget her prayer.  It touched my heart so much to hear her humbly pray for the opportunity to share the gospel.  We are so excited for her baptism this Saturday!  What an amazing Easter weekend it is going to be! 

Yesterday, we also stopped by a former investigator that I have great hopes for.  His wife is a less active member and his daughter was baptized but the ward does not have record of it.  It sounds like he really wants to start reading the Book of Mormon again.  I think some of his previous hangups aren't bothering him as much anymore.  His daughter, Audrey, wants to come to young womens this  week.  We did a Book of Mormon reading calender for Craig before and sent him out a scripture reminder text.  He seemed to like it and wants to do that again! Good things are happening. :)

The family we are teaching is still progressing slowly but baby steps are good too, as long as they keep taking them. 

I hope you all have a great Easter and use this wonderful time to reflect upon the Savior this week.  The gospel brings joy, and Christ brings light and joy!  It never ceases to amaze me how much the Lord is mindful of us and is quick to answer our prayers.  I know that Jesus Christ lives!  He is our Savior and Redeemer!  There is not a doubt in my mind that this gospel is true and that this is the Lord's work.  He knows these people and He knows us. 

Well, I hope you all have an amazing Easter!  We woke up to another foot of snow this morning so I'm pretty sure we will be having a white Easter, haha!  It certainly makes things entertaining sometimes.  Transfers are next week and there is a great possibility I will get transferred.  I'm so grateful for my companion she is so amazing and I really hope that we get to be together for one more transfer but I guess we'll see.  Love you all!