Pictures!

Soupchase

So this week was great!!

Tuesday we had a really busy day. We went to go visit a family and it was super hilarious because there was a bunny, and a kid pouring chocolate syrup on himself, and tv and it was crazy.  So we decided to leave.  They were super nice though and gave us food for the road.  Also J's dad listened  in on our lesson with her and he said we inspired him.... that was cool because he scares me!!  

Wednesday we got to visit some people in the nursing home. We saw a rainbow again while door knocking out in the rain.  Also we had a lesson with H and he read way further in the Book of Mormon than we asked him too. That was super cool! 

Thursday was an amazing day.  It started off rough because I was just grumpy, but we ended the day with an amazing lesson with D.  I can't even describe it but it was probably the best moment of my mission so far.  

Friday was COLD. It was also carfast day so we were out in the cold all day, but a member saw us on the side of the road and took us to get hot chocolate.  It was a BLESSING!!  Then it snowed that night and it was sooooo beautiful!!! yay! I love snow and Three Rivers!!

So Saturday was cool because we shared motivational scriptures with D, we wrote out on paper and she said they were all exactly what she needed to hear.  It was great.  Then we helped members deliver doughnuts to people and we went to all three subways in town to get soup...but at the end of the night, we were soupless...sad day.

Sunday Church was super great.  There were great talks that really made me focus on how Christ is the gift of christmas!  So funny story, we were out door knocking and we were leaving somebody's door step and they were watching us and I ran into the mailbox and ripped my coat...it was SO FUNNY!!! But now my coat is ripped and leaks fuzz.  Also we stopped at D and read a scriptures and her friends were there and one says.. "Wait are you LDS because I lived in Murray Utah for 10 years."  It was so cool! What a small world!!  Deb's friends are hilarious. 

Well I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!! Remember why we celebrate!

Fun fact: I'm learning to speak ghetto. 

Drove to Chicago... All things go

It was another good week here in Michigan! 

Monday we went to a nursing home and right when we got there there was a "code brown" I didn't see it...but we did smell it.... ew. Other than that not much happened.

Tuesday we had a great Lesson with Enrique, he tried fasting and he said it worked because guess what...It does! We were also door knocking and we found a super old school playground and we played on it. It was super fun, but it turns out, playing on playgrounds in skirts is tricky....We also had a super nice relief society dinner!  We got served by the men in the ward and it was super fancy. 

Wednesday.  We visited Deb today and she said the funniest thing.  So people here say "finna" which is a slang version of gunna and so she was talking and she said "finna" and she goes "It ain't in the dictionary, its ghetto fab, its my Ebonics."  I laughed SO HARD!  She is so funny. 

Friday we got transfer calls and Sister Edwards and I are staying together!! We are super happy about that because we get to do all our fun Christmas plan! 

Saturday we got to go to the temple IN CHICAGO!!  I love the temple so darn much.  There is such a great feeling there!! We drove through 2 other states so I have been to three states on my mission!! We also went to this cool thing that was like a tour to Bethlehem. It was sweet, they had live camels, and sheep and donkeys.  

Sunday we taught Deb again.  She was confused about why our church has so many rules, but the commandments really do keep us happy.   

Fun fact: PAY YOUR FAST OFFERINGS!!! We paid them last week and we had a dinner every day of the week! IT WAS CRAZY! 

That's all, I love you all! 

Pictures!

HAPPY DECEMBER!

Monday was a great day.  We got to help The D decorate their Christmas tree!! That made my life!! I love Christmas!! They are a super great family!

Tuesday we had a great lesson with E.  We watched The Savior is Born video and he said that it reminded him he was on the right path because there was so many different kinds of people in the video! Also I felt so honored because it was N's last dinner before she left on her mission and she invited us over... I love her!! So sad she is in the MTC now.  Then we went to Ds and she got into a fight with her brother...He was cursing and he asked us who we were and we said missionaries and he said "Ah if I would have known I woudn't have talked like that."  Also D walked us to our car belting Sam Smith songs and she has a great voice.  Haha she is my favorite, it is always an adventure with D. 

Wednesday was a blurr, but we met with a super cool lady who is really interested in the Book of Mormon.

Thursday was weird. It was cold and the only guy who wanted to talk to us was this super old guy who called himself Joker John... He went on for a half hour about Amish Weddings.  Also Josh said I looked like the Elf who wanted to be a dentist with my hat on....

Friday was super great.I We had the ward Christmas party and we had a nativity and sang Christmas songs at the end and it really invited the spirit.  The Christmas Spirit is the spirit of Christ.  

Saturday was a very long day. But I got my package!! The pants and the songs made my whole day!!  It was Car fast and we walked to Debs...but she shined us so we had to walk all the way to the other side of Three Rivers to go sing to the Old People.  Good news! They actually clapped when we were done, and they said they loved us!  It's a Christmas Miracle! I love them. 

E and H both came to Church Yesterday!!! It was fantastic!  E is great, he was running on like no sleep and he still came to church! 

 Fun fact: I met someone who was 107 years old this week.  It was super cool. 

Well that's all. I love you guys!  Remember to always have faith, that has been the theme of my studies recently! Faith is key to everything.

Happy Thanks-goat-mas

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope it was delightful! 

So on Tuesday we had trade-offs, I stayed in Three Rivers though.  We had all of our appointments cancel so I was very concerned but as it turned out, we got to meet with D and E.  They are great! D had just gotten back from hunting goats...so she was stripping a real live beheaded goat right in front of me as I was sharing a scripture lesson with her.  It was a mission experience I will never forget. 

Wednesday was pretty uneventful except we had a good lesson with H and J.  We also made peppermint oreo's for district meeting and the Elders inhaled them...No joke in about two seconds they were gone.

Thursday was Thanksgiving!! The whole mission had two hours of finding from 10-12 so we went to the grocery store and people were actually nice to us!! Yay! Then we went to a member's house and ate.  It was so good!  They gave us left overs and we played games with them so it was delightful.  Also I did wear my turkey hat!

Friday...Carfast...not fun when it's cold.  Luckily we were door knocking by a member's house and they spontaneously let us in for dinner! So we had Pizza and Pie! They are the best.

Saturday was also cold. There was a Christmas Celebration down town that we went to for a while! There were reindeer!! Reindeer are so much cuter than normal deer, no wonder Santa uses them! We then door knocked forever and we were super cold but we stopped by a members and she gave us wonderful Hot chocolate! She is so great!

Yesterday was pretty uneventful.  Except we got a little Christmas tree from members and another member made us cute blankets!! People are so dang generous during the Holiday season!!

Fun fact: Sometimes when you are walking around the Ghetto of Three Rivers, a horse and buggy drives through...Only in Michigan do you get Amish in the ghetto.  I love it.

The Field Is White

This week was a blur, lets see if I can remember what happened. 

Monday we went to get dinner at this delicious place in Three Rivers and they had THE BEST Pumpkin Cheesecake ever.  It was delightful.  

Tuesday we had a really cool lesson with an investigator with Memory problems that we met outside of D's house.  She doesn't remember anything about the church but that she felt like she belonged.  She was so sweet.  Also we got to go to the Chinese Buffet with a family that I love!

Wednesday we went to Kalamazoo for a Zone conference. It was great! I got to see Sister P! Also!! We had planned a lesson with D and we were super freaked out because she is always home and we heard the TV on and she wasn't coming to the door and we called her and she wasn't answering and she had planned to meet with us.  So we kept calling and knocking and we got really worried so we went up to her neighbors who are people we are teaching and we told them and they were worried too. So we were really concerned and then she calls us right then and says sorry, I'm not home I was hunting goats...All that worry over a goat!!  Not even a deer... A goat!! Then we saw a super cool rainbow that night!!

Thursday was pretty uneventful except I got a letter from Elder Renlund!! That was so cool! An apostle  wrote me!!  We found a really cool lake while door knocking today and some deer so that was fun. Oh! Also I got to pet  a horse today...

Friday we ran into a guy who had a lot of questions about Mary and how she had Jesus if she was a virgin.  That was fun! Also we had to chase after someone's dog after we door knocked into them and I caught it! I was proud of myself.  So many Dogs here.  Cool story!! So it was the end of the day at car fast day and we were visiting an old couple in our ward and I was so tired and dreading walking home and I said a prayer that we would find a ride home and they offered to drive us home!! It was great!! 

Saturday was Fantastic!! It snowed!!! It was so pretty!! We helped a member with her kid's birthday party and we got to set up a maze in her basement and I got mom's Christmas CD!  We also had stake conference and a member of the 70 was there!! He did great!!  Sister Edwards and I had a great snowball fight too...she won.  I got a lot of snow in my face.  

Today was stake conference again and Elder Schwitzer gave a great talk on the Book of Mormon and how so many people can relate to it.  The Book of Mormon is the greatest! If you haven't read it...READ IT!  

Fun Fact:  Michigan snow is very wet.  

I love you all!! Keep being awesome!

Pictures!

Faithbook Friends

So this week was amazing.  It was really hard but it was super, crazy awesome.

Monday we ate at the Amish place again... I love it so much, we also tossed at football around with the Elders and stuff.

Tuesday was pretty uneventful.  I did teach the law of chastity for the first time and It wasn't that awkward, it was a little awkward though. 

Wednesday we had a really awesome District meeting.  When we were door knocking today a bird pooped on Sister E's head haha it was funny, it was right at someone's doorstep too.  We have great luck.  Also we were trying to teach a lesson that night and the TV was on and guess what was on... The middle. It was so hard to concentrated because I love that show.

Thursday was so great!  We had the most amazing lesson with D.  (D. is the one who calls us her angels.)  We all cried and the spirit was so strong.  She loves hearing about Joseph Smith because she relates so much to him. It was such a cool lesson.  Also we had a great lesson with our investigator Josh who is on parole right now.  He kept saying how he feels like everyone who is Mormon is born into the church, so we brought a member and he told his conversion story and I could tell it was what he needed to hear. 

Friday was COLD! We had a lesson with J. and he came up with the term "Faithbook Friends" (it sounds like facebook but with a lisp so it makes me laugh.)  Joseph is great.  And then we had a lesson with D., it was crazy! We showed her the Restoration Video (She loved it) and she said I have a video to share, and she said she had no Idea how she got this video or where it came from but she found it and watched it two days before she met us and it was about Christ.  Sister Edwards and I were both thinking wouldn't that be crazy if it was the Finding Faith in Christ video because it is from our church?  And then she pulls out Finding faith in christ!! She has no Idea where it came from or how she got it because she has never met with members of our church before.  It was SO COOL!! We were all blown away!! 

Saturday we had lunch with our cute friend B.! She is leaving to go to Washington so it was our last time to see her for a while and she cried when we left and said she was so glad we came to visit her all the time.  It was great. Also we broke Sister E's record of 20 lessons in a week, so we celebrated with Ben and Jerry's of course!!

Sunday was crazy!!! We had church (I spoke....scary) and after church we were out knocking and we got the feeling that we should go see D. because she said she was going to come to Church and didn't. So we went by and she was not doing well.  She was super bummed and we asked her what was going on and she cried and said she had been meeting with people who were teaching her about their church and they told her all we had been teaching her was wrong. She was so upset, and she was so upset because it hurt her feelings because she believed it was true.  She said she felt so different when we came by and so it hurt her feelings to hear people say that we were leading her astray.  She said she believed it was true and she got so frustrated she almost lit a cigarette, but we told her no and she threw them across the room and told us to burn them and take them away from her!! It was crazy!!   Then she was telling us about how she was worried about food, and that morning I had prayed someone would put food in the missionary bucket at church because we were running low and so we had food in the back of our car to give her!! It was so crazy!  Then as we were walking out to give her the food we ran into her friends and one of them asked what church we were from and we told her and she said "No way! I've been looking for a mormon church! I was meeting with the Mormons in Detroit! I just moved here!"  What are the odds!!! Three Miracles in one day!!!

Fun fact: MIRACLES DO HAPPEN!! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!

I love you all.  Have a good week!

More Pictures

This Place Is a Nuthouse

This week was pretty great! 

Monday was super uneventful.  We decided to do a chill p-day so we did basically nothing and I HATED it.  It was no fun.  

Tuesday was pretty uneventful but we did find a member who just moved in!! It was super cool because we planned to walk to our lesson with E and as we were walking home we walked by a girl and she said "I have to talk to you!"  She was wondering where the church was and stuff.  No one ever says they have to talk to us, so that was cool! 

Wednesday was a looong day.  We had some lessons fall through which is always the worst.  But! Do you remember the story I told a while back about a lady who stopped us while driving because she thought we were beginning drivers and she said we were an answer to her prayer?  Anyway we found her again! Her name is D.,  and she is totally interested in learning about the gospel!! She is so cool! She called us diligent servants and saved our number in her phone as her angels.  She is the coolest. For dinner we had subway and we decided to treat ourselves to chocolate cake from basically the only restaurant in town.  It was delicious.  

Thursday was great!! Our friend B. took us out to lunch today! She is so sweet she is like our grandma and we've only met her twice.  Then we were door knocking and we went down this long road to get to a house at the end and a crazy dog started chasing us!! It was so scary and sooo fast!! I thought it was going to eat me.  Right after that we door knocked into a super drunk guy who kept telling us to come in (which we can't do) and he was to drunk to grab the mormon.org card...(This was at 3 in the afternoon too)  door knocking is always and adventure.  Then we stopped by someones house and they said we were an answer to her prayer.  That is my favorite thing!! 

On Friday some members took us to lunch at Yoders! (The amish grocery store)  I love that place! We got some great cookies.  We taught J. and J. today which went well.  I also got a package!! Yay thanks mom!! 

Saturday was an eventful day.  We had an amazing lesson with Deb! She really wants to come to church and she felt the spirit so strong!  Then we sang at the old folks home today... That is always an adventure.  There was this super grumpy old man who kept saying "Why are you here, I don't want to listen to you!"  he would point at people and say "You're a nut!"  and my favorite was when he said "This place is a nuthouse! Get me out of here!"  It was sooo funny!  Then we went to visit this kid  we wanted to teach.  His parents weren't home so we came back 20 minutes later and there were cop cars outside of his house.  He saw us drive by and ran up to us and said "Sorry, I can't meet today, I'm having problems."  Poor kid.  

Sunday was the primary program!! Yay!!  I always love the primary program!  Awkward story though...so we had to teach our investigator J. today and we had to teach him in a public place so we decided on Mcdonald's.  We had just taught him the Sabbath day and we got there and he bought us shakes...so we had to reexplain that to him...It was nice though!

Today was great too! We have already picked up a new investigator!! Missionary work is great!!

Fun fact:  This week I found out there are such things as dog braces... If some one could send me a picture of that, that would be great! 

Pictures!

I Survived My First Transfer

Hello everybody! It was a great week here in Michigan!  

Monday was great! We walked around Three Rivers with some other missionaries and some members took us out to an all you can eat Chinese Buffet, so that was fun!

Tuesday N. came out with us today, she is great! We taught a great lesson with E. about the Word of Wisdom and he is so prepared it's great! We also had a really good lesson with K. about faith.

Wednesday we had our district meeting which was good. Then we went door knocking and for the first time on my mission someone yelled at me to get off their porch.  It finally happened. I was expecting that but I never expected someone would answer their door with no pants... and no underwear either...That was very unexpected! 

Thursday we had a really great lesson where we read 3 Nephi 17 with our investigator, that is my favorite chapter of the BOM so it went really well.  Then we went to go rake leaves for the cute lady B., but she wasn't home so we left a note and our number and she called us back later and told us we had helped her a lot with the hard time she has been having. That made me feel really good!  We also went to Youders which is the Amish grocery store.  It is wonderful.  Ah awkward story though... So we had planned a great lesson on the atonement for our investigator Josh, and I was so excited because I thought it would be super spiritual, but his stupid dog (Bane, the Bane of my existence...hehe) Was all over me, he was being such a spaz and he was super irreverent.  It did not go as well as i wanted it too. 

Friday was transfer calls....I'm staying surprise! (not really I expected that)  We walked forever because it was car fast day.  It was also the Trunk-or-Treat! That was super fun! We tried to go as minions, that didn't work that well but it was fun anyway!  The ward is great it was so fun!

Saturday was Halloween and because it was the last day of the month, we were out of miles and had to walk everywhere.  So we door knocked in the rain for 4 hours.  Good thing our friend I. let us stop in her store and eat Reese's and warm up.  Then we had to walk 3 miles to the R's  house, but then we got to join them for a Halloween party! It was so fun I love that family!!

Sunday...E. came to church! Yay! He liked how everyone bore their testimonies and there was a great baptism after Church!  Then we had dinner with the bishop's family and the Elders in our ward, one of them is getting transferred which we are sad about.  Then we went over to the Drums for spirit time!  

Also...Feel free to write me letters! I love them!  I'll try to send some pictures from Sister Edwards camera this week. 

Fun fact: I have never seen so much roadkill in my life as I have walking around Three Rivers Michigan

The Secret Life of An Awkward Missionary

Hello friends and family, So this week was full of fun awkward moments for me, I will share them with you.

On Monday we carved pumpkins with our district.  That was really fun, turns out I'm really terrible at carving pumpkins. We carved the Gospel of Jesus Christ into the pumpkins.  I also got my a CD from Haley today and it just made our week super great!  

On Tuesday we got to go door knocking in a trailer park which is always fun! We ran into a guy named M. who gave us all the down low on which of the trailers were meth houses... I love three rivers!  We had some solid lessons with Enrique and Janelle.  

Wednesday we took pictures of our pumpkins at district meeting and then the elders thought it would be fun to punch the pumpkins.  So that was really entertaining to watch.  Oh haha awkward story number one, Sister Edwards and I were knocking doors and we were on someone's door step and I remembered something funny and I yelled "Haha the Bum Joke!!!" really loud and then I felt embarrassed so I said, I hope no one answers, sure enough they did and heard the whole thing. (Awkward moment 1)  We then had a lesson over dinner and it was a challenge because we were eating on their couch and Spongebob was playing while we were trying to have our spiritual thought, which was distracting... and awkward (2)

Awkward moment three happened on Thursday.  While we were doing weekly planning our buzzer rang (which is terrifying) and a guy came to give me my boots (Thanks mom!) and he asked "Are you 12" (which is our apartment number) and I thought he was asking about my age so I said "I'm more than 12"... he gave me a really funny look.  So that was number 3.  Number 4 happened when we were walking and we saw our investigator J. in the back of a cop car while we were walking.  We were worried but he's fine, however his friend M. had to go back to jail though...  Awkward number 5 was that I ended up talking on the phone with a guy who was SUUUPPPERR drunk for about a half hour.  He was telling me about how he used to meet with the missionaries but they said he had to wait to be sober to be baptized.  He said "How was I supposed to do that? I'm always drinkin, I'm drunk right now!!" It was super entertaining.  

Friday was Car fast day! That is always a pleasure!  A member gave us a ride to our lesson with J. (who is great) and then we wanted to door knock farther away because we've door knocked all the closer streets so we had her drop us off in family dollar and we ate our lunch in family dollar which was fun!  We walked A TON that day. Then we had a super great lesson with J., she is still working toward baptism. 

Saturday we got to sing at an old folks home.  It was so funny because we sang two songs and the people in front were like... "Is this all?" and got up and left.  They didn't like our singing... (Awkward number 6). But I felt a little better about myself because an old lady was really shakin her booty when we sang "come thou fount".  Also we met our investigator Enrique's mom at a block party which was fun.  We also got pumpkin blizzards from some members Sister Edwards old area who came to visit her.

Sunday...awkward moment number 7, we went to a priesthood meeting because we thought it was ward council.  That was funny.  We met with this cute old lady B. after Church and she gave us sweet roles!  We got to give her a Book of Mormon.  Also we had a super great lesson with E.! He said our church gives him more peace than any other church! 

Also my camera is broken and I don't know what to do!! So sorry there is no pictures!!

Well life is great! I love being a missionary and I love you all! Stay safe!!

Fun fact:  The last 4 days this week on the last houses we knocked on all 4 of those days were all people who needed a prayer, so we got to say a prayer for 4 people on 4 door steps.  It was so cool, I love doing that as a missionary! 

More Pictures!

Greetings from T-Rivs

Hello everybody!

So on Tuesday I had my first trade-offs.  I went up to the WMU campus and that was interesting! Serving on a college campus is defiantly very different.  We talked to a lot of people and it was kind of awkward sometimes, but still pretty awesome there was some solid people.  

Wednesday we had district meeting and we stopped to get AMISH DONUTS! Amish donuts are definitely the best kind of donuts.  Amish stuff is big here, Amish are everywhere.  We also had a lesson with a recent convert and he was telling us how much tithing has blessed his life.  It is a blessing.  Also we dyed my hair tonight so that was fun! I'm blonder!

We door knocked a lot on Thursday.  We had a few potentials, but we did a lot of walking and knocking today.  The sunset was pretty awesome, it was about to storm so that made it cool.  Then we visited Sister Cox and she told us about her cats and her childhood so that was fun!

Friday was car fast day.  We were really worried about making our way to an appointment and we were planning our day around it since it was far and we didn't have a car, but she rescheduled which was a blessing.  We had a great lesson with Joseph, he said he knew the Book of Mormon was true which was so awesome!! Also we talked to this really cool lady while door knocking who loves Jesus a lot.  She was awesome.  Sister Edwards made us squash which was good.

Saturday was interesting.  The ward had a family history fair that they put a lot of work into and only 4 people showed up.  That was a bummer because we were there for 5 hours.  We went to Sister C's house to do service and that fell through, but the cool thing was is that we only door knocked 2 houses today and only one answered and the one that answered is really interested in learning.  That was really cool because after an unproductive day the lord made the most of our time.  It was amazing.  I then had THE BEST MEAL I'VE HAD SO FAR. This guy M  He made us really good lasagna and THE GREATEST CHEESECAKE I HAVE EVER HAD.  It was delightful.  

Sunday's are great.  Church was awesome and then we had a lesson with E.  He said reading the Book of Mormon made him feel like a weight was lifted off his chest.  He wanted to share it with others. (We also found out he wanted to ask Sister Edwards on a date...haha!)  Any way, We also met this really cute lady whose husband of 60 years died.  She was so cute!!  Also we go over to the Drum's house every week for spirit time on Sunday.  I love it!

Well that's all, this week was pretty uneventful!

Fun fact:  It's supposed to be a terrible winter this year.... Pray for me. 

Pictures

Snake Juice

HELLO FRIENDS AND FAMILY

So on Tuesday a bunch of people bailed on us so we had the privileged of door knocking... forever...but it was great!  We saw a car with a Utah Licence plate, some cute kittens,  some really creepy Halloween decor,  exploding mushrooms, and we door knocked into the man who won the lottery!  He was super suspicious of us, but we didn't know he was a millionaire at that time. Sister Edwards almost got attacked by a dog.  It was funny because she told me to go up to the door, so I did and the dog was totally afraid of me, so she came up and the dog nearly attacked her.  I felt pretty cool because it was scared of me.  Also we had been out forever and we were really hungry so we stopped by a former's house and they gave us peanut butter oreos!!! It was heaven sent!!  Also the lady told us all about her urine, so that was cool....

Wednesday we had district meeting and ate at Culver's after.  They have great shakes.   Then we visited K! I love K!!  We talked about repentance and it was really cool.  Then we visited an investigator and there was a mentally handicapped woman who cried to us about how her friend died and so we prayed with her which was a cool experience. 

 

Thursday is now... CAR FAST DAY!  So we had to figure out how to get rides from people and luckily one member who I love was available to take us too all of our appointments!  It was great, she helped us a lot.  She took us to get ice-cream after which was so nice!  We also had lunch in a big field and listened to the high school band play pirates of the Caribbean which was fun.  Then Sister Edwards and I were door knocking and she told me to pick up a snake that we saw.  I was like, that sounds fun!  So I chased it around and picked it up... IT SNAKEJUICED ON ME!!! Apparently snakes secrete nasty smelling juice to ward of danger so my hand smelled nasty the rest of the day.   Then we had a lesson with J, I love J he's great.  He also brought us Pizza which was great.  

Friday.  I MONTH OUT!! Today we taught J a conference review.  He loved conference! It was so cool! He got mad at me for not going to the conference center because I live in Utah.  We celebrated my month mark by getting shakes also.  

Saturday, the elders had a baptism, so we drove out to support them and it was beautiful.  It was at a lake and it was so pretty.  Then we visited K and when we were pulling out of her driveway, a lady stopped us and asked if Sister Edwards was drunk because I was backing her out.  We explained to here we don't do that and we explained that we were missionaries.  We showed her our name tags and she started bawling.  She said she had prayed the night before that the lord would "quickly send thine appointed servants."  She asked to touch our hands to make sure we were real.  (Then she started speaking in tongues so that was weird) So that was cool! THE SUNSET WAS AMAZING!! I'll try to send pics.

Sunday we fasted to find people and as we were fasting we found 2 potentials out knocking which was soo cool!!

Today we drove to Indiana to visit Amish country!! It was great!!

Fun fact: Amish are everywhere, we see horse and buggy's all the time

Pictures

I'M ALIVE!

I'M ALIVE DON'T WORRY!! My p-day got messed up yesterday because we had to go to Lansing for something...Not having a p-day is weird... Anyway this week was great!

So on Tuesday we had a member of the ward come out with us, she is SO great! She leaves on a mission in a couple months! It was fun because she took us out and we got Ice cream for lunch! And it was Superman ice cream which is a Michigan thing apparently.  Any way we had this super cool lesson with a lady named L, and she said she prayed that morning that if the church wasn't true heavenly father would stop the missionaries from coming by... BUT WE CAME SO THE CHURCH IS TRUE... Anyway that was cool.

So Wednesday we had another cool lesson with a girl we door knocked into.  She got chills!! She has a baptismal date now! I was like Well, that's the spirit.  Also we went to Pizza hut today which was fun, the stars were super awesome that night so we stopped to look at them. 

Thursday I got a PACKAGE!! Thanks mom!! Also Sister E says thanks for the candy.  Also one of our Investigators decided to get baptized which was great! We celebrated with Brownie Blizzards which was fantastic.  We went door knocking tonight and we talked to the cutest old man.  We sat on his porch for about 30 minutes and he told us all about his dog and ice road trucking.  He wasn't interested in the Gospel but that's ok! 

Friday we went up to Battle Creek today for a meeting and I saw Sister Pettet which was fun!  Also we had dinner with a member and they made us fantastic pumpkin bars.  It was great.  Also I had my first bible bashing appointment tonight... Not fun.  

Saturday was CONFERENCE!! Conference is great.  Anyway it was car fast day so we were stuck in Sturgis for most of the day but we got to stop in this place with pumpkins and help a little girl pick out pumpkins so that was fun!  Also conference is great and I'm really grateful for you mom, Elder Hollands talk was great. 

Sunday was conference... funny story, So we were out door knocking in between sessions and this lady came to the door holding her shot gun... we we're like "We are sharing a message about Jesus Christ"  and she said " I'm sure you are" Then shut the door on us.  It was a funny experience.  Door knocking is always an adventure.  I'm ok mom don't worry. 

Fun fact: Battle Creek is the cereal capital of the world and it really does smell like cereal.  It is delightful. 

Monday... I GOT TO SEE SISTER MATHIS!! That was the best I love her!! We had to drive up to Lansing for a conference Sister Edwards had to go to and so I didn't get time to e-mail but I got to go to the mall with other greenies in Lansing.  So that was great!  

Anyway love you alll!! Be safe!! 

Born In Three Rivers

Hello everybody!! I am now officially a real missionary!!  Contrary to popular belief, I am not in Sturgis Michigan.  Our ward is in Sturgis, but we are about a half hour away in a place called Three Rivers.  It is a fantastic area!! Any way here is how my week was

Monday, today we said good bye to the Elders in our district and that was way sad.  They were the best.  Also we handed out all our extra food to missionaries passing by because we didn't want to pack it.

Tuesday was kind of a blur.  It was weird having class with only half of us there.  We were all kind of antsy because we were ready to leave.  I also felt way sick and had to take a nap....OH NO!! But I think it was an inspired nap because after then I felt soo much better and now I am feeling nearly 100% Except I still have a cough.

Wednesday was CRAZY! We woke up at 3:00 to help a sister get to her buss.  Then we met at our buss at 4:30.  So 14 hours and 2 planes later, we landed in Michigan!!  I rode on the plane with a sister who had never been on a plane before and she was SO excited!! haha!  The Lansing airport is very small and we got to meet our mission president and his wife!! I like them a lot, they are both enthusiastic about missionary work!  Sister Jacobsen mentioned that she knows someone who worked with Molly at Sundance, so that was cool!  We had dinner at the mission home, had interviews with the President (I told him my story about "Say Yes! To M!ch!gan" and he laughed and wrote it down)  I was very tired so after that I went to bed.  

Thursday was also crazy!! We had a meeting at the stake center and after the meeting,  trainers lined up in a line and we lined up in a line and they had an envelope with our names in it and then they ran to us!! Then we had another meeting and then we drove out too our area of Three Rivers.  So, we went door knocking that night and some kid named K. followed us around on a bike the whole time.  I felt bad because his parents were not home and so I think he was lonely.  He was giving us lots of info about the neighborhood and his bike though so that was fun! My trainer is also awesome!  One of the teachers in the MTC told me to look out for her and now she's my trainer so that's cool!

Friday was my first full day out in the field!!  We door knocked again and we ran into K. again! He looked so excited to see us.  We gave him a pass-a-long card to give to his parents.  We also ate dinner at an investigators house and it was SO good.  They were vegetarian but the meal was fantastic!!  Then we stopped at a less actives house and they had a movie playing and I felt SO WEIRD because I realized I couldn't do that for a year and a half. 

So Saturdays are car fast days.   We do not use our cars and so we did A LOT of knocking and walking and door knocking is so funny.  There are some strange people here, I love it.  We were out knocking doors and this hippie dude stopped us and we were talking to him and he believed dinosaurs ate raw vegetables and pooped out humans...and he thought our beliefs were strange.  We also ate dinner with a member in a park and we got to go watch the woman's conference at a member's house.  It was SO GREAT!  Stuff like that is such a big deal as a missionary.  Also their daughter is going on a mission so it was fun to talk to her because I was just in that boat.  

Sundays are so fun.  We met the ward and they ward is great and very welcoming.  Lots of them have ties to Holladay suprisingly.  We had a linger longer after church.  We met a man we are teaching who is on parole and he is awesome!! We helped him download gospel library on his phone and I just thought that was so cool!!  We also visited a family that I LOVE last night! They have 5 girls and are so cute! The girls always make us feel so awesome when we come over.  They were talking about how there were rumors of earthquakes in Utah soon... SO PLEASE BE SAFE I LOVE YOU ALL!! 

Fun fact: Squirrels in Michigan are black.  And they are everywhere.  They are like super cool ninja squirrels.

MTC Pictures!

Week 2

  

HELLO FAMILY!! 

Well I'm really surprised because I'm actually a really sad  to leave the MTC! I just really love the people I'm around, but the field will be even better!! I am SO excited to get to Michigan.

On Monday my comp Sister Pettet and I danced in the rain and that was a joyous time.  It was fun! 

On Tuesday we had a devotional by Rosemary Wixom it was so great and at the end we all sung armies of Helaman, that was so cool to hear a room of a thousand missionaries singing that song! After the devotional we went back to the residency and got ice cream out of the vending machines.  We were laughing so hard about something, I don't remember what but we got in bed and Just couldn't stop laughing for about an hour in bed.  

Wednesday...Thanks for the cookies mom!! We had too many so we took them to the brand new missionaries next door to welcome them! It was so fun to see the new missionaries, it's crazy I've only been here a week.  Also at the end of the day, we had the Elders in the district give us blessings and that was such a cool experience because my blessing was just what I needed to hear.

So today we had a really cool lesson with our investigator, I felt like for the first time, I was guided by the spirit when teaching! It was so cool! Also we had a Book of Mormon read with my district and that was amazing.  The spirit is so strong when you just sit and read out loud.  Also they had THE BEST cheesecake this week, it was like smores or something...

The first part of Friday  was a little rough.  We had our in-field orientation and I just felt over whelmed, but class after was amazing and we watched a clip from the district about a family getting sealed and I felt the spirit so strong! That is why I am going on a mission, to bring that joy into peoples lives. 

Saturday was our last lesson with our investigator and that was sad!  I really liked her a lot, also it was our last lesson with our teacher so we took some pictures at the end of class,  I love my district.  Also we had a party with pink mustaches with all the sisters in our residency which was so fun!

Sunday... I love Sundays!   So I had to teach in relief society today which went a lot better than I thought it would!  I felt the spirit in the lesson so I was proud of myself.  Then in sacrament,  they call on random missionaries to speak right then and there so we all have to have talks prepared and guess what... Yep they called on me and I was not expecting it because I was teaching.  But it was a cool experience to just go by the spirit.  I've learned that a lot here... Go by the spirit!!  Also we had a devotional by Lloyd Newell, which if you don't know he does music and the spoken word and is the announcer for general conference.  That was SO good.  Then  we watched a devotional that Elder Bednar gave about how sometimes we might not realize that we are receiving spiritual promptings, but if we are living righteously, they most likely will be.  

Today we woke up at 3 to help our roommates get there stuff to the travel center and it was SSSOOO sad to say good bye to them! I love them!!  Also we went to the temple which is always great!!  Pray for me because I'm feeling a little under the weather. 

Anyway I'm leaving to Michigan Wednesday, so I might be calling then... I'm so excited I love being a missionary.