September 29, 2014

Wow!  What a week!  A lot of crazy things happened but we saw a lot of tender mercies this week!  On Monday and Tuesday my companion and I were sick.  I still wanted to go out and do things but on Tuesday I got a really bad  bloody nose.  Thankfully our district meeting was held at our building in Fond du Lac instead of in Osh Kosh so I didn't have to drive and we were able to just walk to to the church after my bloody nose.  Unfortunately it kept us in most of the day but, perhaps it was a tender mercy.  We were so busy running from appointments and we have had so much traveling to do lately we didn't check how many miles we had left for each day.  When we did we barely had enough to get to district meeting next week.  So we have learned our lesson and are biking and walking to all of our appointments now, haha.  It has been really hard, especially in a skirt and it is hard to balance sometimes with a side bag full of  Book of Mormons but I am actually having a lot of fun with it!  I learned how to tie the shoulder strap of my bag in a way that it will stay on and we have been blessed with good weather!  It is fun to be outside a lot; we've been able to talk to a lot of people too. 

We have been working hard to meet with all of our recent converts and their home teachers to teach them the new member lessons.  So far it is going pretty well.  We had an awesome lesson of the Plan of Salvation to Angel.  Her home teachers are both amazing!  One of them is about to go on a mission to Ghana.  I really felt the spirit and the importance of the plan of salvation during that lesson.  It was really neat.  Bro. Marchant bore a powerful testimony of the importance of the atonement of Jesus Christ.  It really hit me how much the atonement does affect everything we do and how it helps all of us. 

On Friday we biked to our appointment with Pricilla and were able to meet her mom too!  It was awesome that Pricilla started telling her mom about our church and invited her to church.  They both came to church on Sunday, yay!  Then it was just a little further to our next appointment so we just decided to keep going.  Then it was only two miles until our appointment in North Fond du Lac so we biked to that.  Then we realized we were really far away from our apartment and it was going to get dark before we got out of our last appointment in North Fond du Lac.  We didn't have the right gear to bike in the dark and we aren't supposed to do that.  We decided we needed to ask someone for a ride home but couldn't find anyone.  We were in a pretty tough spot but I didn't feel worried.  Then I remembered something about Alyssa Ferguson, a girl preparing to go on a Spanish speaking mission, maybe coming to our appointment with the Valdez family (they only speak Spanish).  She did and offered to give us a ride home!  That was amazing!  Appointments with the Valdez family are always really neat!  We have to have a translator and I just love them!  I had a hard time stomaching the dessert though, haha. 

Then on Saturday we were moving people almost all day!  We saw a really cool miracle with Sister Hiley this week and it just stood out to me so strongly just how much God is aware of each and everyone of us and our needs and situations and hears the cries of our hearts.  He is so willing to help us!  Remind me to tell you that story.  Anyway, we helped her and Sister Damrau move.  It was a lot of work but we did it! And at lunch we got pizza and the pizza delivery man was Eric!  The lost less active we met whose wife was interested.  We lost contact with them so it was so cool that he just happened to deliver our pizza! 

 Well, the church is astoundingly true!

Sister Prestwich

P.S.  The fall is gorgeous here!

September 23, 2014

Well, this week on Tuesday we were able to have interviews with President Culter and we went on exchanges with the Sister Training leaders.  It was awesome!  We always see so many miracles on exchanges.  We went to go to a lesson with an investigator named Pricilla and when we went at first she wasn't home so instead of just leaving we decided to walk down the street to stop by a former investigators house.  As soon as we got to the door, the phone rang.  Pricilla saw our car out front and said she was just getting back from taking her little boy on a walk.  So we went back and taught her a lesson on prayer and talked about the Book of Mormon.  She was a referral from the elders here and we are excited to work with her. 

After Pricilla's lesson we helped a lady who will be moving soon, pack some boxes.  She was very grateful for the help.  Her name is Sister Hiley and she has been coming to back to church!  It is so good to have her there.  Well, after that we decided to do some tracting.  At the first door that we knocked on, a girl peeked through the blinds on the door and then opened it and said, "hi!"  We introduced ourselves and she told us that she had met us about a month ago while we were doing service at loaves and fishes.  We had this loaves and fishes night where instead of getting members to help serve we invited all of the investigators and less actives we were working with to come help.  A girl named Joana, who works for one of the members in the branch, came and brought her friend.  This was the friend that she had brought!  I didn't recognize her so I'm really glad that she recognized us!  We started talking to her about the Book of Mormon and we were able to get a return appointment.  Her name is Danisha.  So that was super exciting and we will hopefully be seeing her again this week! 

Other than that we worked a lot with the recent converts this week on doing new member lessons.  We had a pleasant surprise on Saturday when the members we had dinner with invited one of the recent converts and her family.  That was awesome!  Yesterday was good too.  We had some sad news this week though.  One of the members of the branch passed away.  The funeral was yesterday.  It makes me so grateful for the eternal plan that Heavenly Father has for us.  Death is not the end because of Jesus Christ and His great sacrifice. 
 Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week!  Keep being the awesome missionaries that you are! :)  Love ya! The church is eternally true!

September 15, 2014

What a truly special and amazing week it has been!  I don't know where to start!  We saw so many blessings and answers to prayers.  On Tuesday, we had zone training meeting on becoming consecrated missionaries and on having the right member with us at our lessons.  It was awesome!  They talked about the reason why we do everything we do has to center on our love for God and how sacrifice helps us to become consecrated missionaries, when we give our all to the Lord.  It made me think of Christ's sacrifice and love for us.   I always love feeling the spirit and the added guidance and counsel that we receive at our zone meetings so that was a nice treat to have it on my birthday!  Well, the rest of the day  was great too!  Bonnie had her baptismal interview after our zone training and did wonderful! 

Anyway, I had a great birthday.  Sister Cosgrove made me breakfast and the members we had dinner with surprised me with a cake!  Sister Cosgrove told them on Sunday without me knowing.  I think my favorite part of the day though was when we were at Bonnie's house and were following up on her reading in the Book of Mormon and her praying.  I have been praying very hard for her this past week, of course, but it was such a tender moment when she told us about how she did what we asked her to.  She had been reading the Book of Mormon in 2 Nephi and had been having a hard time with it.  It is not easy to understand.  We told her, as we have before, to pray for help and that prayer really makes a difference.  When we came back she told us that she had done it; she prayed before and said that it makes all the difference!  She flipped open her Book of Mormon and shared a verse of scripture with us that had spoken to her.  She told us that it was Heavenly Father answering her prayer and that He still had His arms open to her.  

Bonnie's baptism was amazing as well!  We had a conflict on Saturday so we held her baptism on Friday evening.  We were worried about the members of the branch coming to support her because it wasn't announced in church on Sunday.  We had nothing to worry about.  There was so many people there!  The Spirit was so strong in that room.  Her daughter and granddaughter came, as well as two other nonmembers!  Bonnie's daughter was really touched by everyone's love for her mom (kind of like how Lamoni's dad was by Ammon).  After the baptism we had a dinner appointment and the members just took us out for pizza.  While we were getting pizza Bonnie's daughter walked in!  I know it wasn't a coincidence that we went to the same place!  We invited her to eat with us but she had to leave.  It was still really neat and I think her heart was softened that night.  

I'm so very grateful for everything I have been so blessed with!  This gospel is true.  Well, I have to get going or I would tell you all more.  Hope you have a great week! love you!

The church is astoundingly true!

Sept 8, 2014

Well, I have a very exciting surprise this week!  Bonnie is getting baptized this week!  Yay! :D  We set her date for Friday because a lot of the branch is going to the temple on Saturday.  I can't believe all that she has done!  She has so much determination and faith.  We talked to her on Saturday and she said she had laid her clothes and everything out for church the next day. That really touched my heart.  Going to church on Sundays is not easy for her, but she has been putting forth the greatest effort to come anyway.  On Sunday morning she was late and came in during the prayer, looking completely lost.  We hadn't seen her yet but the lady who leads the music did and went over and helped her.  Bonnie said that meant a lot to her.  I love Bonnie!  She really is just surrounding herself with everything she can of the gospel.  We downloaded the gospel library app for her and she loves it!  She has already gotten two quads, and her own hymnbook too.  It just amazes me!  Her family doesn't really like anything to do with church but her daughter wants to come to her baptism!  We are so excited!  I hope everything goes well this week and she will be physically and spiritually able to do everything needs to! 

Also, we had a pretty neat surprise on Sunday.  Two former investigators in our area came to church!  One of them came with a friend for sacrament meeting and then left right after so we didn't really get to talk to her.  The other one I had never met before but ended up sitting right next to during sacrament meeting, haha.  That turned out good.  I introduced myself right after.  It was a part member couple.  Apparently, she had wanted to get baptized a long time ago but her husband wouldn't let her.  The husband said next week they are going to the Catholic church.  I really want to start working with them but the branch mission leader made an appointment with them and is taking the elders.  Either way I guess they will be seeing missionaries, which is awesome! :)

I love the Fond du Lac branch it is pretty great here!  We are doing a lot of finding right now but things are looking good.  The hardest part is trying to get back in with people after you meet them for the first time.  We are working on the follow up :)  We are doing missionary Mondays with the seminary class here and it is really fun!  They made plan of salvation t-shirts that had circles on it and said "you are here" on the one for earth one, then they see if anyone asks them what it is.

Well, hope you all have a wonderful week!  Love you! The church is greatly true! 

Sept 2, 2014

What a fun week it has been!  There are so many things I want to say, hopefully I can remember everything, haha.  Well, last p-day it was the last week that one of the missionaries in our district would be here because they were going home so we did a district activity... we milked cows!  One of the members of our branch owns a dairy farm so we went to their farm, and had some fun adventures there.  We stuck our hands in the baby cows mouths, which was kind of gross because they were very slobbery and yes, I milked a cow.  I wasn't very good at it either, haha.  It was fun though.  Their son just got his mission call to Gona!  In fact, there are three people in our branch that got their mission calls.  Emily, who sometimes comes to lessons with us got her mission call to .....*drum roll*........Murray!!!!!  :D  Technically it is called the Salt Lake Central mission but its Murray. She leaves for the MTC on October 15th!  I'm so excited for her!  She will be a great missionary!  Perhaps I will be able to go out with her if she serves in our stake!  She came with us to lessons now perhaps someday I will be able to go with her to lessons, haha. 

Another fun thing we had this week was the branch missionary activity, which this month was a corn roast!  The girl we volunteer with at the hospital came as well!  It was exciting to be able to talk with her again and I was so impressed when a lot of the branch members came up to her and introduced themselves.  She didn't know anyone so she seemed a little bit nervous at first but I think she had fun! 

We had a really cool referral this week!  So a couple of our recent converts, Kelly and Kathy, were talking about the church with a girl named Mika.  Mika showed some interest so they referred her to us.  We went to meet her and  she wanted to come to church and learn more and she said she wanted all of her kids baptized!  Then we were even more surprised when her boyfriend told us that he was a member of our church and didn't know there was a church in Fond du Lac.   They didn't come to church but hopefully they are their for our appointment this Friday.  Also, we got a referral from one of our investigators, Jony.  Her friend just had a friend pass away and so she wants us to go with her to visit her.  So that was neat this week! 

We have been seeing Bonnie a lot and she is doing great!  On Saturday the elders had a baptism and so we invited Bonnie and she came!  And she also came to church as well on Sunday!   That has truly been a miracle!  We love her so much!  She is so positive and sweet!  Well, we are seeing little miracles every day here and I'm excited for another transfer in Fond du lac! It was also so exciting to hear about Karly's mission farewell!  I know that the Lord calls us to where we need to go and helps us to overcome any challenges that we may have.  Challenges are there to help us to learn and grow.  I've learned that Wisconsin is helping me face some of my fears, one being spiders.  Because of all of the mosquitoes there is a lot of spiders here!  Huge ones everywhere!  My companion and I stepped on 20 of them.  But I'm grateful that the Lord helps us have the strength and courage to do things that sometimes are scary, haha.  Well, love you all!  The church is courageously true! :D

August 25, 2014

What a week!  We have been really excited and focusing on the counsel given to us from Elder Martino of the seventy last week and have been working hard with a lot of the less actives in the area and with Bonnie!  Bonnie is doing wonderful!  She is so optimistic and gave up coffee and tea this week when we taught her the word of wisdom.  She now offers us chocolate milk and cranberry juice instead :)  She still has a really hard time coming to church because of her health so continue to pray for her.  She has to come to church for the next couple weeks to make her baptismal date and she is so ready for it she just has to make it to church. 

We got the transfer text and my companion and I are both staying in Fond du Lac! :)  I'm excited for another transfer here!  We have a lot of great work to do.  Some things I was really excited about this week was a visit we had to a less active family named the Zedans. We had never met them before and felt like we should so we decided to stop by.  Sister Zedan answered the door and let us in.  She was a convert to the church and has a desire to come back to church but she just has a few things holding her back.  We are super excited to start working with her and her family!  We also had an awesome visit with Sister Zabinski who has a strong testimony of the gospel but was really hurt by a friend in the branch and is having a hard time overcoming that.  Sister Reigle and Sister Schrauth, two members of the branch came with us and it was such an inspired visit!  Lori, a former investigator also just happened to be there.  Sister Zabinski agreed to come to church the second week of September!  We are really trying to make this a combined effort, working with the branch council to find those that are ready to receive the gospel. 

We saw a lot of miracles this week!  One of the greatest ones I think was just seeing how the Lord has a way of turning people's hearts.

We were in crazy rain storm this week where it was "raining cats and dogs" so bad you couldn't see anything.  I'm so grateful for prayer and that we were protected through the storm!  The rain reminded me of a scripture I read today in Moses 7 about the truth going forth in a flood!  And it will if we keep diligently sharing it! :D

The church is awesomely true! Love you all!

August 18, 2014

What an awesome week!  And I'm even more excited for this next week! On Wednesday we had mission tour where Elder Martino of the seventy and his wife came and spoke to us and it is just what we needed!  It really motivated us and opened our eyes to somethings that we need to be doing more in our missionary work and our finding efforts.  There was a powerful spirit there and I'm so grateful for the blessing it was to be there an receive more guidance for our area.  A sister that just got home from her mission but who hadn't gotten set apart also came and spoke to us and told us that in her mission they had one set of missionaries for just teaching less actives and another set of missionaries for teaching investigators in an area because there was so many less actives and  she said that the missionaries that baptized the most were always the ones working with the less actives!  I thought that was very interesting but I can understand why it is that way.  It stuck out to me that the some of the greatest missionary work that is done is within families.  That we want to help join families together so that they can be together forever.
 Which reminds me, I was able to hear from Sister Ostler this week and John Sowa, Treasa's husband got baptized up in Marquette this week!!!!!!  What joy it is to see what a missionary Treasa is for her family!  She knows it is true and just desires to share it with all of her loved ones!  After John's baptism, Sister Ostler told me that he told his sister that she is next, haha.  Their family is truly being blessed by the gospel! 

Anyway, Elder Martino told the story of Alma and Amulek and how Amulek became a powerful missionary and asked us to focus on bringing the right members with us as we help our ward or branch with the part member families etc.  He also showed us a better way to ask for referrals.  It was so good to see Sister Brandley and Ostler there too!!!!!!!!  I will have to send you pictures soon but I forgot my camera today. 

Also, we saw a lot of wonderful miracles with Bonnie!  We set a baptismal date with Bonnie this week for September 20th!  She has such a sincere desire and also she came to church this week for the first time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  She is the sweetest lady and 84 years old so it was always hard because she would say, I want to but I can't.  I'm grateful that she was blessed to be able to come this week and that she enjoyed it and was able to stay for all 3 hours.  The chapel tour helped a lot.  We also finally got in with Jony this week and a part member family, the Brotzmans.

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