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!

October 20, 2014

Hey!

The ice cream place is called Ted and Wally's. Every time I have been to that part of Omaha, I request that we go. It is my absolute favorite!

We will find out about transfers next week! It's so crazy. The group [of missionaries] that came out one [transfer] before me is going to be leaving in less than a week! And it will be my last transfer! I cannot believe it! It has gone by so fast and it's just so incredible. I could never ever regret coming on a mission. It has been the best decision that I could ever make in my life! I haven't been able to see some of the success that I would have liked to but I have really realized that it's not about me and what I would like. It's about the Savior and I can say that I fulfilled my purpose as a missionary as best as I could and will continue to for the rest of my mission, no matter what happens.

We did get to see "Meet the Mormons" and it was fantastic. So not what I expected, but it was so great! It was quite an experience trying to get there. The only theater that it was playing at was in Omaha, so it was about an hour and a half drive to get there. But we had a big group from our ward with a couple less-actives and an investigator go up and we all drove up together. It was a lot of fun!
This week we actually had 2 different referrals, both from non-members. But they are both so prepared! Anna and April both are super interested. April said that she is looking for a religion and will read or do anything that we ask her to do so that she can find the church for her. And Anna was studying the Jewish faith and the more we have talked to her, the more she just got excited saying that we pretty much believe all the same things that she does.
We were able to see Helina and she just has the most amazing questions and insights. Sadly, we didn't feel it right to commit her to baptism. She will be leaving for most of the winter to stay with a daughter and will only be here a couple more weeks. But we are going to ask if missionaries can come visit her at her daughter's house.
We also were able to do a ton of service this week, but it was really unusual service. One of the members works at Pizza Hut as a manager and she took some pizzas home and gave them to us. But it was way more than we could eat. So we took it to families in town we knew needed food and it was so cool to see how a pizza could brighten someones day. We also were able to do a lot of service around people's houses that really needed some help. It was so nice to just do those unexpected little acts of service.

Thanks, love you guys!

October 13, 2014

Hey!

Last week we really went to Omaha just to play. We went to Old Market, which is like old downtown Omaha. They have a lot of really cool art stores and fun thrift stores and this really amazing ice cream place with homemade ice cream daily. There is also a store up there that they make these rings that all the sisters in the mission have and Sister Simmons didn't have hers and mine had broken. It was a lot of fun. It just takes forever to get there so we spent most of our preparation day traveling and in Omaha. 

It seems like every week we have so much to do and it's never the same, even though we do the same thing everyday! This week we had interviews with the mission president and it was really good. It's so weird that it was my last interview, with the exception of my departing interview, with him. We did find out that there will be another mission tour next month with a general authority but we don't know who yet. We did a lot of service this past week which was great. We have really been struggling to find service lately but we did service with Deb and also with a less-active just cleaning up and doing some things for winter. We were able to go to Sidney and Hamburg and see a lot of the less-actives there and even meet some that we had never met before. In Sidney there is this couple, the Kolemans. We tried to meet with them before but they were always busy when we were there and this time we were able to have a lesson with them. They are rock stars. They both want to come back to church and they are teaching their daughter who is 6 all about the church even though neither has been for years. We taught the Restoration and she knew about the Priesthood  and understood the authority. It was such a miracle.

Last Sunday was also one of the most powerful fast and testimony meetings that I had ever been to. There was a family in our ward  who got sealed on Saturday. The wife had been less-active for years but came back a few years ago and her husband got baptized like 13 months ago. They are such a strong family now and the wife is related to most of the ward, so most of the ward was able to go to his endowment and their sealing. They have 3 kids and their oldest turned 8 a couple months ago. Their 8 year old bore his testimony and it was one of the most powerful experiences. He bore a sweet testimony about the temple and the sealing power and in the middle he was just overcome with the Spirit and just stood and the microphone for a whole minute and the whole chapel was silent. It was amazing! And really made me reflect on the reason that I am out here to help families hopefully get to this point.

Thanks, love you!

October 6, 2014

Hey!

It's getting more real that I am leaving soon but I just try not to think of it. There are sometimes when I think "oh man I miss listening to this song" or "man I would love to see that movie" and then I remember I will be able to soon. There is no other way than to say that it is just really bitter sweet! 

Conference was great! We watched all the sessions at the church, which was a little odd. But most people either watched it at home or weren't sure what sessions they would be able to watch.
We weren't able to watch Women's Conference with Michelle. We did watch it but with another member. 
Both it and Conference were fantastic. I really loved Elder Robbins talk. I loved the question and the theme of it. It really hit home for me.
This week mostly we did Conference stuff. We were either watching it (or the broadcast) or we were encouraging others to watch it.
We were able to see a large miracle with one of the less-active members that we had previously not been able to get in with. She was not very friendly to us when we did try and see her, and just didn't really care if we stopped by. We felt like we should try to see her at a time we previously hadn't tried before and we were able to see her and her granddaughter, who asks us questions every time we go by. She is a sweetheart. Their family had been dealing with a lot, with the suicide of her grandson that lived with her. We were able to get the Relief Society sisters involved and went to the viewing to show love and support to her and her granddaughter. It was amazing to see how the Lord works. He truly knows our needs and the needs of others way better than we ourselves do!
Sorry this is so short. We are going to Omaha today and need to head out.

September 29, 2014

Hey!

It's really surprising that I am still in Shenandoah. No one thought that I was staying. I have just had the 2 areas, and I have this transfer and one after. So I honestly have no idea what would happen. I could just stay and end my mission here or I could leave and have one transfer somewhere else. Honestly it's rare to be in an area (and to be transferred out of an area your last transfer) but it's also rare to stay for 7 transfers. So... who knows! I am still needed here. 

The weather has been kinda crazy here too. It's been pretty hot for fall! It's been in the 80's like all week but I think that it is going to start cooling down.

We weren't able to watch Women's Conference. They were supposed to set it up at the church and I guess someone forgot and no one ended up setting it up. And we didn't know till about 5 minutes before and we couldn't find anyone that was watching it that lived close. So we didn't get to watch it. But we had already planned on watching it with Michelle at a member's house on Tuesday, so we will get to watch it then! 

Also on Saturday we had Shen Fest, like the city's festival. It actually was really huge! They had a parade that was over an hour long with marching bands from all over Iowa. We were able to see a ton of people that we knew and were able to see some of our investigators and meet some new people. It was awesome! 

The mission president has really been encouraging us to hand out more copies of the Book of Mormon and we  tried a lot this week. Surprisingly, we found that a lot of people already have them or they had a copy and had met with missionaries before. It was so cool to be able to meet them and we were able to make appointments with a lot of them.

And we have been able to see a lot of success with our investigators. We had 3 of them come to church this Sunday. One of the less-actives we have been working with had a friend that wanted to learn more, so he had Leonard (the investigator) come to his lesson. And he came to church and told us at church that he has been reading the Book of Mormon and is looking forward to our appointment this week! 

There also has been a lot going on with the movie "Meet the Mormons". It is coming to Omaha in the next couple of weeks, which is pretty huge! And they are encouraging us to go with our investigators and members!

Other than that, it's pretty much the same here! 

Thanks, love you guys!