Week 76

It's been an eye opener training a sister from my home town(ish) She is amazed by all the the things or phrases that we don't have up in north Idaho.  Some of these things are: Goat heads A weed that grows spiky stickers that are known to pop bike tires. They grow everywhere and I constantly have some stuck to the bottom of my shoe.  A monsoon which is a crazy big storm that comes out of nowhere. There usually are buckets of rain coming down that temporarily flood towns & roads. A wash is  like a dry creek bed that drains and all the excess water from the monsoons. It's funny how I now think that everyone has goat heads, monsoons & washes etc...  There is so much work to do in Bloomfield. A happy Missionary is a busy Missionary.
     We are teaching a young mom and here family. They came to church last week! Our first Sunday in Bloomfield and we already had an investigator at church. We taught her again this week and she told us that she is noticing a difference in herself after she started talking with us and coming to church. The children love church and all the church activities through the week.
     A less active woman we were teaching finally came to church! She was baptized a few months ago and has only attended church once after that. We had our ward mission leader and his wife come with us to teach her. He was very bold but loving toward her by asking here "what it was going to take to get her to come to church". She admitted she needed some encouragement. Guess what? She came to church this week!! :0)

As missionaries we get up out of bed before 6:30 on Sunday and meet with our ward mission leader at 7:00. So we somehow get showered and all dressed up in 15 minutes I have to say we are pretty impressed with ourselves.
     Our ward is huge! We always fill up the overflow area and have to seat people in the gym to fit. Our gospel principle class was so full we had to get creative with the seating arrangement so we aren't sitting on each others laps.
     We got to do some service this week. We washed and elderly woman s car for her. It was fun. It feels like summer here so it was nice to get a little wet.
     For district meeting I was asked to give a training and conduct a roll play. I got creative and had all the Elders (we are the only sisters in our district) teach my companion Sister Nicholes If any of you know her you would know that she is a really great actor. We had a shawl and a cane for her to play and elderly woman. I turned the role playing into a game. Each Elder could only say one sentence each. If they said more then they were out. They all got really into it. It was a blast. It taught them to listen to what their companion was saying.
     We met a man who wanted to do a Bible study with us. I thought we were going to study the Bible together but I was mistaken. All he talked about was what his beliefs are and why ours was wrong We didn't take the bait and argue with him but bore simple but powerful testimony that we know this is true and that he can know if the book of Mormon the keystone of our religion is true or false by reading and praying about it. He went on about how we didn't need to pray to know the the book of Mormon is false. I had teh prompting to ask him why he was afraid to pray about it so I did. He physically flinched at my words and denied that we was afraid and said he would pray about the book of Mormon. We saw him the next day and he had cleaned up and shaved his beard off and had his long hair pulled back and his confidence seemed brighter. I asked he had prayed yet. He paused and admitted that he hadn't yet but it made our day to see that the spirit was working on him and that we are making a difference in peoples lives.
some of the people we teach tell us that it is different having sister Missionaries teaching them instead of Elders. I'm curious how the Elders teach.
     We had an amazing experience teaching on the power of prayer and at the end of the lesson invited the father of the family say a kneeling closing prayer. In the middle of the prayer their home teacher came over. Their son got up and answered the door while we were still kneeling until the end of the prayer. Their home teacher was teary eyed and said "There is nothing like a father saying kneeling prayer with is family"
     It's October the month of Halloween. Our ward had a trunk or treat this week and it was so cute to see the kids dressed up. My companion and I like to play around and scare the the other companion sisters that we live with. I got them really good one night when we got home we saw that they were already in their office room planning for the next days lesson. I stood outside in the dark just lurking in the window until one of them looked up. The poor sisters eyes got huge as she screamed and fell over in fear. It was so funny! To get back at us they this porcelain doll that we named Bertha. I've hid it around around the house to scare each other. We once even found Bertha sitting in the back of our car buckled up and starring at us. So you could say we have the Halloween spirit this month.
     Thanks for reading. Hope you have a good week.

Sister Kimberling

Week 75

Transfers Happened!! Wow there is so much to talk about! 

It was a weird feeling having all the things you own all in the truck. Leaving behind your old home to a new one. I stayed the night in Farmington, NM and the next morning I was assigned my new trainee companion. The Sister I was assigned to train is actually from my Stake back in North Idaho. Crazy! Her name is Sister Nicholes if any of you know her. Our schools were rivals in sports and we hung out some in Young Single Adults. Her dad was my Stake President. Its supper neat that Heavenly Father put us together out of all the possibilities.

We live with the Aztec 1 Sister missionaries. We are the only set of sisters living with another set in the whole mission. Mainly because there are not very many of us in the first place. Its weird having roommates that aren't your one companion. Its a really good group of sisters. We all get along and love to come home and tell stories of all the things that have happened in our own areas. We have a lot of good laughs. Its like a sleepover every night. The sisters love to remind me that I'm going home soon. They even made bets on when I will get married. all the bets are under a year... We like to workout in the mornings together by going on morning walks (in the dark). The moon has been supper bright the last few mornings. We are supper excited for Halloween because in the mission we have a rule to be inside for the night by 6pm. We are the only sisters that can hang out that night without having to leave our house! :D we are already planing some fun things to do. 

 So the area we opened up to sisters. We are sharing a ward with a companionship of Elders. We have the west half and they have the East side. They gave us a list of people they were teaching who live on our side of town. There are a lot of investigators. We even have people who are working towards Baptism! We have been going to town with the work here. There is so much to do its fantastic! I am loving it so much! We just invited a family to be baptized and they said yes! They even showed up to church this Sunday. 

The ward is SUPER excited to have sister missionaries. Apparently they haven't had sister missionaries for over 10 years. The Young Women are really excited to meet us and the single women in the ward are all dying to feed us because they could not feed the Elders (or give them hugs). We are the buzz of the ward right now. Everyone is surprised to find out me and my comp are both from CDA Idaho. We have been called the CDA sisters. Haha. 

The Ward is huge! the overflow area is not enough. they have to open up the gym every week for more seating space. The town of Bloomfield is 1/3 Hispanic 1/3 Navajo 1/3 White. Its supper fun. I found out my old Ward Mission Leader form Aztec 2nd ward has moved into the Bloomfield ward :D

 We are given food almost every night so far. Our Aztec sisters are really appreciating it ;) 

There was a stake Relief Society activity this week. I got to see a lot of members form my old area in Aztec 2nd ward. I was so happy to see them again. They all want me to keep in touch and come visit someday. The them of the activity was the parable of the ten virgins and their oil lamps. We made our own oil lamps in remembrance of how we need to always be filling our lamps with few drops every day to prepare to meet the bridegroom. The apart was so strong as they explained the symbolism in this painting. 

I am so grateful to me a missionary. I am grateful for the trust the Lord has in me. I know HE is mindful of me. That I am forever changed by my mission. I know that this is only the beginning of the growth He has in store for me. I know that Heavenly Father is a God of progression and I can keep the testimony I have gained. it will keep on getting stronger. 

Sister Nicholes and I with President and Sister Adams.

Week 74

     Well Transfers were coming up but I didn't think too much was going to change with me going home so soon. Sister Porter Joked that I am going to be training and open up a new area. I thought it was funny because that would be the most extreme possibility. My head would be spinning by the time I would get to the airport. little did we know because 20 min latter I got a call form President Adams asking me to train and open up a new area in Bloomfield.

I'm excited for the adventure! I'm going to be so busy. This will be 4th time I've trained and She will be my 15th companion. (not counting my MTC companion)

      I just found out that we will be living with another companionship of sisters in Aztec but we will drive to Bloomfield every day to work in our area. I'm excited! I have never lived with another companionship of Sister Missionaries before. Let alone live next to any sisters. There are only 37 sisters in our whole mission of 170 missionaries. So we don't bump into each other often. 

     This week we talked to a man who is investigating the church. He is wanted to do some research on our religion and found that a TV show talked about the LDS church... Ancient ALIENS! He went on to inform us that it talked about Joseph Smith and the gold plates. That the angel Moroni was an alien who was from another galaxy or something. So apparently we are an extraterrestrial religion. We had to teach him the Restoration again to really clarify things. We hope we will pray about all of this and not just believe all that he sees on TV. But it made the week interesting :)  

Sister Porter Vs. The Spider

Bailee Got Baptized!

Goodbye Durango.

Week 71

     Well its officially fall. It has been getting cold in the mornings in Durango. We have a good supply of hand warmers and blankets and a working heating system in our home. So we are ready for fall and winter! The mountains are turning all sorts of beautiful colors now. Fall is my favorite time of the year.

     We have been doing service for members this week by helping them pick their apple trees. I love harvesting. Its just like we were going to Carvers Farm in Washington. :D We even got to keep some to eat. 

      Sister Porter and I are having a lot of fun working together. The other day she sneezed and hit her head on the steering wheel and made the horn go off. XD don't worry we were in a parking lot.We make sure to record all our funny moments to look back on for a good laugh.

The stake had a devotional activity for just the women." to be called woman" It was supper organized and the spirit was so strong. There were lady's who were asked to represent women in the scriptures and some woman leaders of our day like Sister Hinkley. The part were a pioneer woman told of her story really touched my heart.

We are working on building a bond and a trust with the members of the ward. One of the families are from Moscow Idaho. we talked about the story of Elijah and It was brought up in sacrament meeting this Sunday. The father was sitting in the front row and made a point to turn around and point at us sister missionaries sitting all the way in the back of the chapel. XD it made us laugh pretty good. 

um there was a few other things that have happened but my time on the computer is limited so maybe next time. I love you all and thank you for taking the time to read this. Have a great week!!! 

I went on exchanges with Faith & Hope Christensens cousin. Small World!

Our District went on a hike

Sister Porter my flower child Companion.

Week 69

My Birthday Dinner

Our District

Exchanges with the Farmington Sisters

We ran through a monsoon it felt like we walked through a shower.

Week 68

This week has been full of great things. To start off because my past comp was ill I was not able to go on exchanges yet with all the sisters in my stewardship. so now we have been doing all six (each 24 hours) exchanges these last few weeks. I have been running around like crazy! but I can handle it. Im not overwhelmed by it all though. My poor new comp, Sister Anderson has only been able to work in Durango for 5 days the rest of the time she is in Cortez wotking woth the comp of the sister that is with me in Durango. She is a trooper. 

 We have been kocking alot. We mostly have been working in the local trailer parks beacuse they are fantastic for finding people to teach there. Most people there dont have alot and are humble and willing to listen to our message of hope and peace. Almsot all the people we talk to or teach are Lateino. I have grown to really love the spanish people! 

Sister Millard (one of my sisters I took on exchanges with) Knows spanish well enusf to hold a conversation and teach the gosple. I dont know any spanish and alot of people there speek only spanish or they somewhat know english. So the language barer is a fun cahllange. Whenever we have that problem we jsut give them a spaish Restoration panphlet so it can do the teaching. Just trying to think outside of the box. Anyways back to sister Millard. She was able to knocking with me and talk to all the people there in spanish. It was so funny to see the supprise on their face when they would hear this tall blond girl speak spanish. Before we would leave we liked to sing them a hymn. It brought the spirit is so strong when we sing. There was a family we sang to on there porch after sharing with them the reatoraion. the Children loved it so much that they begged us to sing another and anthoer. We endred up singing three songs. I know that they love it so much becuse they lilked the feelings the spirit brought. We then had a herd of children following us on the streets helping us with our spanish as we knock on their neeboors doors. then they would go quiet and sit still when they herd us start to sing again. We had a great time. We found several new investrigaots that day. We only need to find a few members that know spanish to be our translator. 

Week 65

     Well the sad news is that my companion Sister Prichard had to go home due to medical problems. So the pattern continues with all my companions being sent home or I'm training them. She is niw the 5th Sister I have sent home. Let me tell you it's not fun. I love that Sister so much! She is going to do a lot of good back home in Georgia. She will forever be an amazing missionary. 

     Because of all that I had an emergency transfer. As I waved goodbye to Sister Prichard in the airport I met up with my new companion Sister Anderson. Who knows what the upcoming transfer will hold for us. Sister Anderson is from Manasa Colorado we were both surprised that she was sent up to the northern part of the mission being that it is close to her home. Church for her this Sunday was just a little too weird for her.

     Sister Anderson is amazing! Together we have been tearing Durango apart. It makes me so happy after being cooped up in the house for over a week. Work, work, work and work is what we have been doing. Sister Anderson taught me a saying " till you die plus one" which means keep going until you drop dead tired then go the extra mile (or door). We have decided to cut our lunch breaks to have more time to work. I take naps in the car for my lunch breaks. We feel good but exhausted. In two days we had 5 lessons with non-members, all by knocking on doors we now have 3 new investigators!

     We helped with a couple of activities this week as well as helped set up and participated in a musical that taught the plan of salvation. The Pagosa springs Sister missionaries put it together with the help of their ward. The stage was the flatbed of a semi truck in the church parking lot. A lot of people came even less active and non-members.

     The next day we went to MTC camp in Bayfield. We taught the priests and laurels how to tech the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ to an investigator. It was a lot of fun roll-playing as people we have known and taught in real life. The future looks bright for future missionary work.

     To sum up this week, it was amazing and eventful. You know you gave the Lord all you've got when you get home so exhausted that you can barley see anything. I love being a missionary! I wouldn't trade this time for anything else. I love working side by side with my savior and readeemer, Jesus Christ.