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!

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.