December 8, 2014

Hey!

So crazy that I am coming home! It is definitely mixed emotions! I am so excited to come home and see everyone, especially Emma Jane! But it's so sad to leave the family that I have here in Nebraska and Iowa! 

We too had quite the week. One of our investigators moved along with a member that we are really close to and we had to help both pack everything, so we packed and cleaned a lot. They had told Sister Allen that they were going to close the Guerreros' house to missionaries, so we had to both pack and clean the apartment. Sister Allen had to pack all of her stuff. Everything was done and then we get the call that they are actually going to keep the Guerreros' house open and missionaries will be staying there next transfer. So then we had to unpack everything. It was a mess and we are both super sore because we were literally cleaning and packing for almost 3 days straight, with everyone we helped pack too.

It was really amazing though. Our investigators had told us as we were helping them (the church helped them with a lot too) that no matter what happened they would all be there at church on Sunday. And they were and they all bore their testimonies and they were participating in all the classes. It was such a miracle and so amazing to see them progress.

Other than that, we have just been saying goodbyes to people in the area.

Well, love you all! See you Wednesday!

December 1, 2014

Hey!

It is so crazy that I am almost done! It honestly seems really unreal that it is coming to an end and that I will be home next week! It is really hard to wrap my head around. It seems like next week will be just another week in the mission field. But we are getting ready for me to go home saying goodbyes etc. And we found out that the sisters will be moving into an apartment next transfer and out of the Guerreros, so that means extra cleaning and more packing for both of us!

This week was really great! It was a little insane but really good. We went on exchanges and we both went to the other sisters' area. We had a lot of fun and it was good to see them and spend more time with the other sisters. It was super weird though. They live with members technically but they have their own house! The members had built a bigger house on the same property and the sisters lived in their little 2 bedroom house. So weird! Not a lot of people were home the night before Thanksgiving, but we did have a great Thanksgiving, probably one of my favorite! We went and helped out at the Senior Center in town and the Salvation Army was putting on a Thanksgiving dinner for anyone that wanted a home cooked meal. We went and helped serve the food. We helped get drinks and we just talked with people. It was really relaxed and a lot of fun and so great to serve a lot of people that have so little. They truly were so grateful for anything and everything. When it was slower, we got to just talk with the people there too. We passed out a lot of "He is the Gift" cards for people to check out the new video and it was also a great opportunity to teach others a little more about the Church. There were two other companionships that were there and helped too. We were even on TV for it! At least that's what some members told us!

We went and had dinner with a family in the ward. They actually had about 60 people there and it was at the church. It was great and we had a lot of fun. Then we went to a former investigator's house for another dinner. They are Hispanic so they had all their family over and everyone was speaking Spanish and we played Mexican Bingo and other games.

Other than that, we have just been working on contacting all the ward list. We have been able to meet a lot of really great people! And we have found a lot of new people that we will start to work with. We have made a lot of progress and we actually started to work on the ward list with the elders. There are enough that it would keep all of us pretty busy!

Thanks, love you!

See you soon!

November 24, 2014

The Lord can and will strengthen you! Being on a mission is the hardest thing that I have ever had to do, but it is so rewarding and there have been so many times that I have been able to see the Lord strengthening me and helping me through it.

The mission tour was really awesome and all the leaders in the mission got to meet with another member of the 70 this weekend. They talked a lot about the new "He is the Gift" initiative. It sounds like a pumped up version of what they did for Easter with the "Because of Him" video. They are taking it to an all new level with a lot more promotions and stuff. We haven't heard a ton about it but we will this week! And it should be really great. I am excited for it!

This week we had a really amazing week. We had 2 of our investigations come to church, Janet and Ashley. They are mother and daughter and they both are progressing so much! They are both so amazing! They have both had a pretty tough life and they are so accepting of the gospel and its teachings. We were a little nervous because they both had said that the Church Services were a make it or break it experience but they loved church! They both studied with a lot of other churches and have tried out a lot of different religions but they said that this is the one that they like the best and feels the best that they have tried. And they are praying about the Book of Mormon and reading it! So amazing!

We had made a goal to meet everyone on the ward roster by the time I leave and meet all the less-actives in the ward. So we are in a ward but it feels like a branch. There are about 200 families in the ward but there are usually 30-50 people in sacrament meeting. So needless to say there are a lot of less-actives in this ward. But that has been going really well. We have been able to meet a lot of new people and find out who actually lives there still.

This week should be interesting with Thanksgiving. Have a great day!!

Love you! Happy Thanksgiving!

November 17, 2014

This week was really amazing. We had a mission tour and Elder Brent Nielsen and his wife came to speak to us. We went to Lincoln for the conference and it was amazing. For the first hour, the sisters had a special meeting with Sister Nielsen and I even got to sit by her. It's crazy how general authorities are like celebrities. We just had a really nice informal meeting in the Relief Society room. She talked to us being kind to ourselves,doing all that we can and letting the Lord take care of the rest. They were serving in the Philippines when the tsunami hit about a year ago and she told us some really amazing stories of some sisters there. We then had the conference with all the missionaries and it was so great! Elder Nielsen talked about the redeeming power of the Atonement and the enabling power of the Atonement and how we can teach our investigators and less-actives about the atonement and help them to use it. Sister Nielsen spoke again about being yourself and how we can help others with the unique talents we all have. It was about a 6 hour long conference but the last 1 1/2 hours were just open questions to Elder Nielsen. It was really amazing and really just what I needed! So so good! I was able to see Sister Harris, who I served with in Red Oak, and Sister Wagher, who I trained in Plattsmouth, there too. It was a great chance to see them! And then after the conference, we all hung out for like an hour taking pictures and the Nielsen's just hung out with us. It was seriously such a cool day!

This week winter hit! We had an Arctic cool and it has been freezing. We have had a couple snow storms and the high this week was high 20's with the wind. I did not miss Nebraska winters! Mostly just the cold cold wind! And boy did it make me grateful for the car full time!

Other than that, we were able to have some great lessons with investigators. We have some really amazing investigators! Two are set for baptism in December, Janet and her daughter Ashley. Our other investigators are really progressing. CJ and Mike are just so open and love the Gospel. They don't have a date yet. They would have to get married first. But they did come to church with their friend that we had met and gave a Book of Mormon to the night before!

Love you all and can't wait to see you!!!

November 10, 2014

Hey,

This week has been a little bit of a roller-coaster, but a good roller-coaster. I am pretty sure Sister Allen has gotten really tired of my phrase: "It's just so different. Everything is just so different here." And it literally is. Like you said, I have kind of been living under a rock! But it's a good change. I am so used to doing missionary work in such small towns. It's so crazy and so weird trying to get used to everything but knowing that it will only be for one transfer. I have really been trying to get to know the area and to get to know the members and such. But knowing that I won't be here for very long at all. It's just really weird but I do love it.

I got to know a lot of the members this last week. They had stake conference last week and they broadcasted it to all the surrounding buildings, which should tell you how big the stake is. So I didn't really get to know a lot of people last week. Also it was really nice. We just got a new ward mission leader. But we had a couple meetings with him and the stake president came up and had a meeting with all of us and it really got everyone really pumped up to do missionary work here!

I have really enjoyed the stores and the food opportunities this week. So nice!

It is also really nice to have like 95% of the ward live in the same city and not have to plan days to try to see every one that lives in the same town.

Big news: we did get a car of our own. It's a sweet van! Haha it was sad though because they took out the Spanish sisters that were in Grand Island and that's who we were in a car share with. So now we have it all to ourselves.

Also the Guerreros are now gone to Arizona for 3 months. But I was really glad to get to have them for the short time that I did. They are so sweet and funny. We are still staying at the house though, which is super nice. We live in an add-on, so there is a door that separates our house from theirs. But we are free to go and use the kitchen (it's a lot bigger than ours) and stuff. It's really nice.

We spent a lot of time this week helping at a member's house. She is going through a really rough time so we have been helping her. But her kids and I really hit it off. They are the cutest things in the world. She has an 11 year old and a 3 and 2 year old and they are my favorites!

Thanks, love you guys!

November 3, 2014

Hey!

As for Halloween, I was actually transferred that day and we mostly just traveled planned and unpacked. Usually the ward will have a Halloween party, but I missed it. Shenandoah's ward party was the day after I got transferred and I think this ward's party already happened.

So, I am now in Grand Island Nebraska. It is about the middle of Nebraska. It is a 100% change from anything that I have ever done as a missionary. It is one of the 4 largest cities in Nebraska and there is so much here and I literally feel like I have been living under a rock for like my whole mission, thus far being out in the country and in small towns. We pretty much cover just the city. I guess the ward boundaries do go pretty far out but we don't really go out because there are very few members that live that far out. There are a ton of missionaries here! In Grand Island, there are 2 wards and a Spanish branch and there are sisters and Elders for each ward/branch. And the Kearny Stake is, I think, the largest stake in the continental US. It covers pretty much everything west of Omaha, so it's crazy big. I am with Sister Allen. She is from St. George, my first Utah companion!

This week was super crazy with transfers and all most of the week had to do with transfers. When I was still in Shenandoah, we went to departing testimonies where they have all the missionaries that are leaving bear their testimonies and invite certain people to go hear them. And we went with Michelle and the Dahls. There were a few sisters going home that had served in Red Oak and I knew all of the other sisters that were leaving. It was amazing and so spiritual. It really helped her testimony I think.

Then we found out about transfers and I frantically packed and said goodbyes to everyone in Shenandoah on Thursday.

Friday was the actual transfer and it took a while to get here. Grand Island is about 2 1/2 hours away from Omaha, so I got to go on the van to take me out here. And I pretty much just unpacked and we planned on Saturday and Sunday. I have just been meeting a lot of people haha. We are in a car share, so we share a car with the Spanish sisters in Grand Island and have the car for 3 to 4 days a week and walk the other days. It is just totally different. I feel like I am like learning to be a missionary again haha. We live with members, the Guerrereos. He is Mexican and she is American. They are in their 80's and so funny. We live in an addition to their house and they are the sweetest people ever. But they are leaving next week for Arizona for the winter. 

So my new address is:

1038 1/2 South Vine

Grand Island, NE 68801

Love you guys!

October 27, 2014

Hey!
We still don't know about transfers. We find out Thursday and will transfer Friday, Halloween. Kinda nice though since we have to be in early for Halloween anyway.

I do feel like time has flown by. I can't believe that it is almost my last transfer either. It is so crazy! I think that the only way to explain the feeling is like from Tangled when she leaves the castle and has like bipolar emotions. It's kind of like that daily. I will get excited to do something but then almost start to cry because I don't want to leave.
Meet the Mormons was incredible and I am so glad that I got the chance to see it. I think that I forgot to say last week but one of the ladies in it is actually from Council Bluffs. And in her story it talks about her moving to Utah and it was our (current) stake president that helped her get out there. He was her bishop at the time and owns a very successful car dealership here. He helped her get a car off of his lot and helped her get to Utah. It is just amazing but watching it in the movie theater was the weirdest experience ever as a missionary. I felt like I was breaking all of the rules! I had to keep reminding myself that the president told us to go and that I wasn't breaking any rules.
This week we were able to go to the temple and it is always so great.
We were able to go on exchanges and the sister that I went on exchanges is actually a good friend from SUU. Neither of us knew that the other went on a mission, let alone that we were in the same mission, until a couple of months ago. And on exchanges we were able to see a huge miracle. The first and only door we knocked on on exchanges was a family. We were only able to talk with the husband but the wife is from Utah...from Cedar City and went to SUU. I guess she has a lot of family that are LDS and the husband accepted a Book of Mormon and invited us back. He said that his wife would love to meet us and we could talk all about SUU and Cedar City. We all were really excited and honestly totally baffled with the huge miracle that we were able to see.
We have been able to see a ton of other miracles this week. We have been able to loan out more copies of the Book of Mormon than we were able to in weeks and we were able to meet a ton of new people and potential investigators.
We were able to see another huge miracle at church on Sunday. A former investigator came to church. We had dropped him a couple weeks ago when his fellow investigators we were also having lessons told us that he was no longer interested. He came to church and we talked to him after sacrament. He told us that he had been having dreams that he thought we could help him with, especially about his wife who passed away. He told us that he thought we forgot about him, and we told him we thought he wasn't interested. He told us that at that time he wasn't but he is now. He stayed for Gospel Principles. He doesn't know really anything about Jesus Christ or Heavenly Father and we just happened to be starting the book over and that's just what the lessons are about. He learned a lot from it and said he was glad that he stayed for it. 

Love you guys!