March 24, 2014

What a week!  We are definitely starting to see a lot of progression with our investigators in the area!  Aaron is going to be baptized this Saturday and we are so so  excited for him!!  He is such an incredible spirit of our Heavenly Father and has so many good desires.  He and his wife  have been through so so much these past few months and I just admire so much their faith, and humility.  We are really keeping them in our prayers!  His wife has been very ill lately so we are praying that she will be alright for his baptism this weekend. 

The family that we have been working with has a baptismal date!  They are doing well and came to church yesterday!  Our district leader this week committed us to teach our investigators about the sacrament this week and church attendance this week.  He pointed something out to us yesterday that I thought was really neat.  All of the investigators that were taught about the sacrament this week, came to church, and the other investigators didn't come.  It just really stood out to me this week how central the sacrament is to our Sunday worship and what a blessing it is in our lives.  It can be a very sacred time, even for those that are not yet members of the church, as they reflect upon the Savior.  Treasa, our other investigator preparing for baptism talked about that with us yesterday.  She has been so prepared to receive this gospel.  My mind is blown practically every time we meet with her or have a phone lesson with her (she lives really far away so we have only gone out to see her in person once).  The bishop told us at church that he could see the light in her eyes and I completely agree.  She has a light in her countenance, and is so receptive to the spirit. 

We had a missionary homecoming in the ward yesterday and it was really quite an amazing meeting.  The other speaker wasn't at church so the bishop ended up speaking as well. 

Well, we have a crazy and amazing week ahead of us!  I'm so grateful for the blessings of the restored gospel and that one of those blessings is to be able to hear from living prophets every six months!  My companion and I are getting very excited for General Conference this week!  You still can't tell it is March here.  The snow and cold are about the same but we are certainly enjoying more daylight!  One of the ward members said, "here we have winter, deep winter, deep deep winter and road construction." :)  haha. Don't worry we wear lots of layers! 

The church is purely true!  Love you all!

March 17, 2014

What a crazy week!  SO much has happened, I will try to give you the highlights. 

To start with, on Tuesday we had the Relief Society birthday dinner and I got talking to one of the members in the ward, Sister Proffer and her mother, Sister Gabbitass.  My companion and I sat with them a couple of Sundays ago at the church pot luck as well and got know them better.  It was interesting, when I first met Sister Gabbitass, I had a feeling that I have seen her before or known her before.  She is elderly and from Utah.  She told me that I seemed familiar and thought that she knew me.  She talked with me for awhile about her family history and how some of her ancestors helped build the Manti temple.  Then the next day I was thinking about her name and had a feeling to look at my family history tree.  So I did and realized that we have a Gabbitass in the family.  At Relief Society I talked to them about it and we found out that we are related!  It was so awesome!  Sister Proffer sent me some histories about the Gabbitass' family.  Sister Gabbitass said no wonder I seemed familiar, we're family, haha.  I really did have a neat feeling about it though.

Also, this we got another baptismal date!!!!!!  Yay!  One of our very solid investigators Aaron,  was just waiting for a letter back from the first presidency so he could be baptized and it arrived this week!!!!!!  We have the date set for March 29th!  He is so excited and we are soooo excted!  They are going through a lot of hard physical trials though so pray for them!  His wife got a concussion and may have to have surgery.  They are both such good people, and hard workers.  We are praying that Evelyn will recover soon! 

This week was also Stake Conference!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D Elder Deshler from the quorom of the seventy came and spoke too.  It was such a tender mercy that Sister Ostler and I were able to go last minute.  The stake center is 3 hours away from us so we were only alowed to go if we got a ride from a member.  A couple days before we finally found a ride!  There was some crazy stories with that but it was soooo neat!   Our investigator, Sara, had her baptismal interview, and sat by us during the conference.  I was talking with Sara and Elder Deshler came over and talked to her about how she liked investigating the church.  She thought it was amazing that she talked to a General Authority!  She is very excited for General Conference.  Elder Deshler invited everyone there to block out their calenders for conference and do some things before, during, and after conference.  What a spiritual feast it was to be there!  The leaders of the church truly do receive revelation to help the areas they are over; they are men called of God.  Well, I have to go now.  I love you all!  The gospel is so so true and such a sweet gift to share with others! 

March 10, 2014

Well, this week was soooooooo  exciting!!!  In January we received a media referral from a woman named, Treasa who lives in Munising.  That is about an hour drive away from us so we don't usually go out there at all.  Well, when I made the call I failed to notice that she lived in Munising and talked to her about scheduling a time to come visit her.  Usually the media referrals are for us to deliver something, but she said that she didn't really know why she referred herself, just that she felt like she should when she was looking at the church website and was going to hang up because she didn't really want to know more.  I decided quickly to try and just get an appointment with her and tried to keep her talking.  Anyway, there I was trying to schedule an appointment, while my companion is hitting her head next me, making hand gestures not to make an appoinment.  I told Tresa that we would call her back and ended the call.  I felt really bad that I hadn't checked the location of the referral.  We didn't have the miles to go out to Munising that month but my trainer said that we'd have to somehow make it work in a later month.  Well, I told you that long story so you would understand better how exciting this week was.  Saturday we went out to Munising to finally meet Tresa!  I don't think I can possibly describe the miracle it was that everything worked out the way it did!  We weren't sure about going to Munising but decided somehow we were going to make it work.  Sister Maynard, a member of the ward, met us there and we had the most amazing lesson!  Tresa truly was prepared by the Lord for the gospel at this time in her life.  It was a very emotional lesson but what a miracle it was too!  I will never forget the joy in countenance when we invited her to be baptized and she said yes and began sobbing.  She was beaming from ear to ear!  We set a baptismal date for her on April 26th.  She wasn't able to come to church yesterday and we were concerned about how her husband would react but we called her and he is actually very supportive and wants to come to church next week too!  I'm so grateful for the gospel and to be a missionary!  It is truly a joy to serve the Lord and witness such miracles.  It is truly the Lord's work and power. 

Also, it was an exciting surprise to see one of our investigators at church yesterday that said they wouldn't be able to make it.  Well, I have to go but the church is enthusiastically true!

love you all!

Sister Prestwich

March 3, 2014

I'm so grateful for the many things we have been so blessed with!  The gospel is so incredible! 

This week we had 5 investigators at church!  It was so wonderful!  Aaron almost always comes to church but he doesn't usually stay for priesthood meeting.  We have been trying to work on ward fellowship so he feels more comfortable leaving his wife and going with the other men.  This week was wonderful though because he did stay for priesthood meeting and was able to sit by Lonnie (his wife's uncle), who is a less active member of the church and also a potential elder.  It was truly a blessing that Lonnie finally came to church!  Also, Hannah, and the family we have been working with also came and we were able to sit close to all of them!  It felt great! 

Despite the bitter cold this week we've actually had some sunshine!  I am very excited for the signs that spring might be coming, haha.  We went out the other day with the relief society president to visit a less active member of the ward.  They had a very long driveway and Sister Compton tried to back all the way out of it.  To make a long story short, her minivan got very very stuck in a bank of snow!  We spent an hour digging at it with shovels and trying to push it but it wouldn't move.  We ended up running down the street to the next door neighbor's house and they used their truck to pull us out.  We we're truly blessed that the neighbors were able to get us out.  We could have waited a long time for a tow truck!   That was our first time getting really really stuck and it just made my companion and I very very grateful we have a truck to use!

Besides that little adventure we visited a lot of less active members.  The ward is very spread out and we had extra miles this week so decided on Friday to drive a ways out to a less active member we had never met before.  Her name was Sister Anderson.  When we got there the whole doorstep was piled with snow, so we couldn't get to the door to ring the doorbell.  This actually happens to us fairly often.  People just stop shoveling the snow when it reaches a certain height and just go through their garages.  Well, we had driven all the way out there so we weren't about to just leave so we called their house a couple of times and nobody answered.  We prayed and her husband walked out of the garage and invited us in!  He was about to head to work and saw us in the driveway!  I'm so grateful we were able to meet with them.  Sister Anderson is a convert to the church and actually served in the Manila Philippines mission!  After her mission she married a man who was not religious and has gone less active since.  She said she still has tried to teach her children.  We decided to share a mormon message with them.  It was one that showed a family after a fire and ended with turning to the Lord in prayer during hard times of our lives.  The spirit was so sweet in that room.  They told us they had lost everything in a fire a couple years previous.  I don't think her two boys have been baptized members of the church.  She said she always hoped her husband would join the church.  I hope we can start teaching him, I just desire so much for them to be sealed as a family.

The church is warmingly true! :D

February 17, 2014

This week was zone conference and we went on exchanges with the sister training leaders.  I love zone conference!  This time it was all about prayer and the power of prayer. I have seen so much the power of prayer! 

I don't have much time so I will just tell you a few stories from this week.

Yesterday, we were at the college campus trying to contact a few less active members.  We knocked on one of the doors and nobody answered so we were going to leave when the thought came that they use both of the rooms next door to each other.  I suggested that we try the door just to the left.  We did and one of the roommates answered the door.  The less active we were trying to contact was not there but we talked to Molly, the roommate, about the Book of Mormon and invited to her to pray using the restoration pamphlet.  We thought that she wasn't going to or say maybe next time but she agreed and prayed.  The spirit was so strong.  We have an appointment with her again next week and I am so excited! 

Also,  we were out trying to contact another less active.  We knocked on her door and she wasn't home.  Instead of leaving, my companion suggested that we shovel her porch.  We did and as soon as we finished she pulled into the driveway.  We were finally able to meet her and her daughter!!  The Spirit definitely directs this work!  We also found another new investigator when we were tracting and starting talking to a girl who was out playing with her dog.  Missionary work is the best!  It truly is the Lord's work!  Have a great week, I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

February 10, 2014

What a week!  I am seeing more and more how much Heavenly Father's hand is in this work!  This week we had a lot of referrals to contact!  On Tuesday we went to go contact one of the referrals a member gave us and are still unsure if it was the correct person, haha. It was alright anyway though because  the person we did contact was going through a hard time and we were able to pray with them.  It was an old man and he kept telling us that he reads the Book of Mormon everyday but we think he was confused because he thought the book of Corinthians was in the Book of Mormon,haha.  Anyway, we will try to go back and teach him and his wife more.

On Wednesday we went out a ways to go visit some of the people that live in a town further away.  We got lost to our first appointment but they were very patient with us. :)  We also had a feeling to go visit a member of the ward out there that is getting surgery next week.  We visited Sister McComber and found out that Ann, who we thought had moved to Taiwan a month ago, was still around.  We went to visit Ann and turns out that she really needed the visit that day and wasn't leaving for Taiwan until later this month. 
Also, the Young Women had their New Beginnings night and two of our investigators went!!!!!!!!  If was wonderful!  We met with Kara a few days later and she had started working on personal progress, the Faith value experiences, the very next day! 

We also did a lot of tracting this week and have a kind of funny story.  Before we were about to go tracting I needed to change my shoes so we parked by the side of the road and I tried to get my boots on in the truck.  Well, I was really struggling to get them on with all of my layers of socks, so I hopped out of the truck to continue the struggle.  My companion on the other hand was really getting a kick out of the comical scene I was making.  Well, eventually I got my boots on and we went out tracting.  When we finished the streets we had decided to do we headed back to the truck and realized we had not tried the house we were parked by so we knocked on the door.  An elderly woman opened the door and asked sympathetically if I was alright.  She thought that I had been throwing up on the side of the road outside of the truck when I was actually just bending over trying to put my boots on!  Sister Ostler and I had to try really hard not to laugh when she said that!  We managed to hold it in until after we left her house.
We didn't find any new investigators but we found a few potentials.  One of them was named Sarah! She invited us right in and we taught the restoration and she said we could come back!  She didn't really know her schedule though so we didn't get a return appointment but she did give us her contact information.  We hope to see her again soon! 

The church is so terrifically true!  I hope you all have a very HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Love you all!!!!!!!!!!

February 3, 2014

We are braving the cold up here this week! So much has happened!

This week was transfers so on Tuesday we drove all the way down to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin to pick up my new companion, Sister Ostler, and drop off Sister Brandley. It was a fast goodbye but a hard leave for Sister Brandley. I ended up being in the car for 9 hours that day because the zone leaders wanted us to make the trip there and back up to Marquette in one day! It was long but it gave Sister Ostler and I plenty of time to get to know eachother!

I love Sister Ostler, she is wonderful and a very hard worker! She has been out for 4 1/2 months, so we are pretty close in mission age and she is from Ephraim, Utah! She went to Snow College and one semester at BYU before coming out. Some of the things I wanted to improve in are things that she is really good at so she is helping me so much! It just goes to show Heavenly Father helps us with our righteous desires, sometimes through giving you a companion that has those strengths. :)

On Wednesday, we introduced her to the ward council. We were so blessed! It seemed like Heavenly Father just placed the people we needed to see in our path just at the right times! When we went to go see the Relief Society president, Sister Compton, the elders quorum president was stopping by to get eggs from them, and the President Johnson, from the stake presidency was also there! Later that day we were looking through the GPS for a potential we could stop by in between things and we felt like we should go see Emily. (I had met her once when we were volunteering at the museum and she said we could stop by sometime.) She invited us in and we found out that she was having a very bad day and had prayed earlier. She had two little kids and one of them really wanted to show us a music game that they had learned in the music class that day. They got out a bunch of little instruments, drums, spoons, etc., and played a rhythm game. I mentioned that I played the piano. She actually had a piano (which rarely happens here) and asked if I would play her a song. I played her Waterfall and she thanked me and said that was the best thing she had happen all day. We shared a scripture with her and tried to set a return appointment. She said her schedule is really busy right now but that we could call her and set something up.

We had a surprise at church this week. After Relief Society I saw Mr. Jim in the hallway! Mr. Jim is someone that works at the museum we volunteer at. He was there for a scouting meeting. I was still really excited to just to see him there, even if it wasn't to come to church.

Well, I am out of time. I know that the gospel is true and brings so much happiness to our lives! I have enjoyed so much the opportunities to share the hope of the gospel with others! I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The church is superbly true!