Week 48

Not a whole lot to write about this week. But one of the best things that has happened this week was during Sacrament meeting. We had fast and testimony meeting that day. One of our recent converts went up an bore his testimony. He talked about how he knows that this is the true church and that he was lead here by God and that you can feel His love here at church from all the wonderful ward members. He has felt the spirit tell him this is true. 

  It just made my day to hear that! I just was beaming from ear to ear to see some of the fruits of our labors.

Week 46

   For Prep Day Sister Chirstopherson wanted to go jogging so we went to the church parking lot and she jogged around there while I sat on the grass writing letters. :P We like to make compromises.

     We had exchanges with the Farmington Young Single Adults Sisters this week. I had the chance to get to know one of the new sisters in the mission, Sister Lusk. She is just a mini me. HA! We are so similar its crazy! She is from a small town in Idaho called Sugar City. She offered to take me on a backpacking trip to hot springs near her home. sounds good to me :)  

     We had an adventure trying to find a specific address. We went up some fun dirt roads and found a hidden neighborhood of houses in the middle of no where and a pack of small dogs chased our jeep. It was funny and random. I had a good time. One of my favorite parts was when we asked a lady if she knew who a certain person was. Her response was " We are like cats up here, We keep to ourselves" I have never herd that expression before. :)

     We were finally able to meet with a family that we wanted to invite to be Baptized. When we finished teaching the lesson and invited them. They said YES! The Husband was so excited he said yes before Sister Christopherson could even finish asking them to follow Jesus Christs example and be baptized. :D Im so excited they want to change so much. They want to be happy and know this is the path they should take to have lasting happiness.

   The main Highlight of the week was a Baptism!!!! A couple we were teaching were baptized and confirmed this week!!! I love them so so much! They have overcome so many trials to get to this point in their life. But they made it through all the challenges the advisary  was throwing at them to keep them from being baptized. They are so strong. The Husband told me that he felt like he was floating, that all his burdens are gone and he feels so light now. :D It was such a spirirtual experince. I even felt the Holy Ghost tell me " you are doing good" "you are helping my children". I felt so much of Gods love fore me and for them! 

     The Aztec second  ward is so great. They helped us set up some nice tables and brought cookies and flowers. They are so loving to these wonderful new members. We didnt have to do much, they just welcomed them into the church with open arms. YES!  

     The Elders helped save the day too because all the people we asked to play the piano were sick (all 5 of them) but luckily some of them know how to play and drove over to help. 

Sister Clark drove back to the mission just to watch the Baptism. It was so neat.

        Now we need to help them get a temple recommend and go to the temple. Im so excited to help them find names to take to the temple!

     We also were given music to sing to one of the seventy who will be visiting the mission soon ! Im so excited!

We baked treats for our investigators on Valentine's Day. 

Week 40

                This has been such a great week. I have been called to train again. I was assigned to train a sister Christophersen! She is already such an amazing missionary. I’m honored to be the one to train her.

                Sister Christophersen is from Wyoming. She is super crafty and loves exercising. She is hitting the ground running. I am learning a lot from her too. It has been a lot of fun watching her learn and get the hang of missionary life.  Just recently she has been learning how to properly answer the phone. She gets so excited to answer calls now.

                We have been doing a lot of tracting this week. While going door-to-door we meet a pastor of another faith. We talked to him and prayed with him. He accepted the book of Mormon that he had just rejected right before the prayer. The Spirit was there and that man’s heart was softened and he is now willing to read another testament of Jesus Christ.

                I had been praying to find people to teach. We have had a couple of referrals from the Church and met people on the street. The power of prayer is real!

                We gave a book of Mormon to a man who had requested one online. He wasn’t interested in talking to us but he was excited to read.  We are ok with that because we know that the prophets of ancient America (like Nephi) can teach him.

                I have been studying the Book of Mormon a lot lately. While reading I got a powerful but quiet feeling that the Book of Mormon is truly the word of God. That it is true. I have never questioned it but now I know with a surety that it is true.  

                Aztec 2^nd ward is the best! There are lots of members who offer to come with us to lessons. What a blessing! I suggest you help the missionaries in your area. They will appreciate it so much.

                There is a lot of muddy country roads here. In some places we only walk so we don’t get stuck. It’s fun to hike through the mud. One time while we were walking we saw a truck drive by with a large German Sheppard chasing it down trying to get at the dog inside the truck. The dog gave up the chase and turned straight to us. We were both afraid. I said a quick prayer in my heart. The dog started coming to us. For some reason I put my hand out for it to smell. The dog came up to me. I began to pet the dog and he became uninterested in us. When he left us Sister Christophersen put down a large rock she had picked up to defend herself. God is definitely watching over us. Missions are so exciting.

                I was reading some old Ensigns and found some article that talk about Blanding Utah! (My first area) They are titled “Sand and Stone” and “Faith to answer the call” in the July 2011 Ensign. I even know some of the people who went on that trek discussed in the article. Crazy Cool!

                Thank you everyone for all of the support. The Church Is True!

My Desk and Sister Christophersen

Trees in Durango

Week 35

Well it has been a while since I have been 

able to update my posts. It has been crazy around here and I was transferred to Aztec New Mexico. It was a bitter sweet move after being in Blanding for such a long time. But I will go where the lord needs me to go. So rread on for the latest of my adventures. 

     We got permission to go to Farmington to shop at the local Walmart on Preparation Day. A real Walmart! It was a treat to be able to go there. :) 

     We also got to check out a really neat Wildlife Museum. It was alot bigger than I was expecting. It just keeped going and going. There were so many animals there, some I have never seen before. Apparently its the largest personal collection in the nation. Sweet! I ended up taking a ton of pictures. There were some man eaters there too. They had a Tiger that the villagers had asked this hunter from America to shot. Her name was Limping Tiger. She had an injury that keeped her form being able to hunt. so she would reach into huts pull people out and eat them instead. 

They also had a man eating alligator. He had a bunch necklaces the married tribal women would were in his belly. Yikes!    ​

     We got to split wood this week. That is always fun. 

     We had a Christmas Devotional before Christmas. President and Sister Adams both talked on the true meaning of Christmas. It was supper spiritual and then we ended it off with watching a few videos and slideshows Sister Adams has made to reflect on the year. We got to go home with mission Stockings that have our mission crest on it. 

     For District meeting we all got stockings form our District leader. He hung them up on the wall drew a fireplace with a little crayon fire. :P After District meeting we went caroling. It was really fun! I love all the different reactions we got. Some people would be do happy they cried. or some people would be frightened that there are a bunch of missionaries on there porch. :) 

     On Christmas Eve we ate at a members house. They have a tradition of eating Fondue on Christmas eve. That was my first time eating it and it was actually really good! (and just fun to eat)

Sister Herrera and I sang Christmas Hymns right before bed. and talked that night about times we have seen miracles and blessings in our lives. I truly felt the love my Heavenly Father has for me. It was the best Christmas ever.

     On Christmas morning we opened our presents shortly after morning exercises. 

     I loved Skyping with my family! It really made my day! I wasn't sad because I know I will see them again.

     I got a white Cgristmas

     The stockings a member made us

     Our Christmas tree

     The Wildlife Museum

Week 29

This has been a crazy busy week this week.  On Tuesday we drove up to Cortez to go on 24 hour exchanges with Sister Brennon and sister Monson (Yes sister Monson is distantly related to the Prophet) it was fun teaching them on how to use Center of Strength in their area and on how to improve door-step approaches.  I called to check up on them recently and they are already finding new people to teach.  It makes me so happy!  I love those two Sisters so much!  They are so diligent and love any opportunity to laugh.  We got back to Blanding Wednesday night.  Then Thursday was district meeting. We also had interviews with President Adams. He is the best, he like my mission dad.  He is always worried about the Sister in the mission.  We all know he loves and cares for us dearly.  Later on that day I had another meeting but this time it was with the Assistants to the President and our zone leaders.  We talked about how we can make our upcoming Mission Leader Council even more effective.  So Thursday was super busy. 

 Friday our sister training leader came to Blanding for Exchanges. Sister Cardon and Sister Neilson are pretty great as well.  We were able to find a lot of potential investigators with their help. I also found out Sister Cardon used to work at Disney world as a make-up artist.  She is a certified cosmetologist. I thought that was pretty neat.  

                Sunday has been our only normal day of the week.  It truly was the day of rest. It felt good to partake of the Sacrament again.  To know that as I renew the promise I’ve made at baptism I can have the companionship of the Holy Ghost in my life.  I could not teach without the help of the Holy Ghost.

That is what I am grateful for. I am also grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ, that he loves me and everyone.  He made it possible for me to be forgiven for my mistakes and be clean so I can live with Heavenly Father again.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Week 28

The highlight of this week has definitely been Sister K's Baptism! Sister Woods and I are blessed to stay in the small town of Blanding Utah to meet her, teach her and watch her progress all the way to Baptism AHHH!!! I love the feeling you feel when a new member is confirmed. The Spirit is so strong. After Sister K was baptized the Young Single Adults put together a glow in the dark volleyball party in celebration of her baptism. They are all so supportive and because of them she feels welcome in the church.

            For a service project we helped tie ribbons on a chain-link fence in the park that spells out “support our troops” It was a fun community project.

We were asked to speak in the Young Single Adult Sacrament meeting on missionary work. It went really well I guess because several members came up to us asking if they could come with us to teach people the Gospel. It’s been a blessing. The youth have such a fire to do missionary work. 

While knocking on some doors we ran into a wonderful family who has been prepared by the Lord to hear the Gospel. The children are so hungry for knowledge and told us they want to be baptized. Wow! Talk about a miracle. 

Heavenly Father has really been there for me. I know that he has answered my prayers in ways that help me the most. He has given me the words He would like me to say to people I talk to. For example while giving my talk I started saying it would be selfish to keep the joy the Gospel brings into our lives to ourselves. I did not plan on saying that and a lot of people sat up in their seats. I know that is what God needed to tell them and I was just the instrument for him. I’m learning that the Spirit can sometimes be a little spontaneous and I just have to go with it. It’s been a wonderful relying on the spirit and working Mighty miracles.

"Yea, I know that I am nothing: as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." Alma 26;12

Sister K got baptized!!

Week 27

                It snowed this week! Oh my goodness I love the snow! Poor Sister Woods had to put up with me singing about it snowing or saying "guess what it's snowing" Sadly it melted the next day but we had a good inch of it.

                One YSA that had signed up to feed us had asked what we wanted for dinner. I jokingly said we wanted rabbit. Little did I know he would actually shoot and cook rabbit.  It really does taste a lot like chicken. I would eat it again.

                We had eaten with the same family several weeks ago. We talked about conference and they told us that there are shirts that say “Pondercise, what’s your verse?” Sister Woods and I thought that was so neat. So when we came over this week they surprised us. They got each of us our own Pondercise shirt. Coolest P-day shirt ever! It was so nice of them to do that.

                The November Ensign finally came! I have been reading and highlighting all the wonderful talks from conference.

                There is an investigator named Sister K. we have been teaching. She was on date to be baptized on November 14^th. She was progressing so well but ran into a hiccup and thought we were going to have to change the date. We talked to her and explained that November 14^th was the date we were inspired to set for her baptism. We decided to kneel and pray for guidance on what we should do and if we should keep November 14^th or do it sometime in December. After the prayer we sat in silence listening closely. I asked her what she felt. She said November 14^th. The crazy thing was Sister Woods and I felt the same impression. I don’t know how we could live without the guidance of the Holy Ghost.

                We had to make some phone calls to continue on with the November 14^th date. One of the people we had to call was President Adams. I was also informed while talking to him that I will be the Cortez Colorado Sisters, Sister training leader; he also made a comment that he doesn’t’ foresee a lot of changes in the next upcoming transfer. It sounds like I might be staying here for Christmas!!  We got permission to keep the November 14^th as the date. Now Sister Woods and I are running around trying t put a baptism together last minute. I can’t wait for her to be baptized and feel the spirit even more in her life.

                We have been walking a lot and knocking on tons of doors. It’s been an adventure wondering who might open the door.  We found a couple of nee investigators. One of them wants to see what happens at a baptism so we will be inviting her to Sister K’s.

                Oh I almost forgot to tell you where Sister L was called to server. She has been called to serve in the Reno Nevada mission! She is so excited and so am I. She is going to do great I just know it. She has been coming with us almost daily. She always asks great questions about being a missionary and how to address certain things. Whoever gets to train her will be one very lucky Sister because she really will be prepared. 

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