"I summon the bike Mormons to the library."

This week. Oh man.  What a rollercoaster it was.  There was rain, chilly days, more rain and BLESSINGS.  Oh yes, lots and lots of blessings!!

We met a kid named Nate on our way home from doing service one day.  We were in pants, so it was a little weird talking to him about the gospel and not being in our full proselyting outfits, but it all worked out.  He had the most interesting train of thought about God and the heavens, but we helped him understand better.  He wouldn't give us his name at first or a phone number or address to talk more, but instead said  "I will get a hold of you.. trust me."  Uh ok?  He told us he sees us around in town all the time and he would just stop us.  Ok, good enough for me.  I didn't want to argue, I was hungry and I wanted to put a skirt back on. It was the last HOT day of the week.  Literally the next day, we got a text from one of our members daughters and she said "my friend Nate is at the library and he wants to talk to y'all." She later told us he posted on Facebook "I summon the bike Mormons to the library. I believe one of your names is Lucinda." Sorry Nate, we don't have facebook, yet! but we do have good members looking out for us! He is a unique character.  Hopefully he will track us down again!

The rest of the week was awesome.  We had a lesson with Sonia, Patsy's mom, and we taught her the Plan of Salvation.  She LOVED IT. She keeps telling us, "I want to know more, I want to know more." Here is your more!! We were also able to teach her about the gospel of Jesus Christ (which is the basic doctrines of having faith in Him, repenting, being baptized, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost & Enduring to the End.) She is concerned with baptism because she doesn't feel like she is close enough to Jesus Christ yet.  It was the perfect opportunity to tell her that baptism is what gets you closer.  The Holy Ghost is what keeps you close.  These are the steps Heavenly Father has put in place for you to strengthen that relationship! She understood what we had to say and agreed to pray about a baptismal date! We are hoping that her and Patsy will be able to be baptized on the same day! :) Mother and Daughter baptism!!

(Speaking of mothers, it is my incredible mothers two year anniversary of being baptized!! congratulations mom!! You have come so far and have grown so much in the gospel! I love you! Keep enduring to the End!!)

Some awesome miracles from this week:

One day on our way back home for lunch, we stopped at a lady who was sitting on her porch. At first, she was very hesitant to anything we had to say, but then completely opened up to us and explained how she was at a spiritual crossroads and was looking for a church here in Somerset. After chatting for a few minutes about her religious background, we shared about the Book of Mormon and ended up teaching her the first lesson on the spot! It was incredibly powerful! The most amazing thing was during the first vision there were absolutely no distractions. That almost never happens! Not a single car drove by and no birds were chirping, it was dead silent and the spirit was so strong! :) She is interested and looking forward to meeting with us when she gets back into town!

Another super cool experience we had this week was with a less active. We were reading the Book of Mormon in the hallway at her retirement home and a man walked by, saw that we were reading some scripture and stopped. He asked "What religion are y'all?" so we responded and invited him to sit in with us as we read. He felt the spirit and set a return appointment with us. We met with him again, taught him the first lesson and his only question was "this book isn't going to convert me is it? When I read it I feel good." I tried so hard not to laugh, because he is so open about his religion, but he knows that there is something missing and he is looking for it.  We told him that and we also told he we wouldn't convert him but that the spirit would. his questions was the greatest question because we were then able to explain to him all about the spirit and church and receiving answers. We invited him to church and he actually came! (Not going to lie, we were NOT expecting him to show up...) We weren't sure if he would come because he doesn't seem as if he is comprehending it all, but he gets it. He can feel the spirit working with him, and he had a good experience at church! This branch has the most amazing members and they fellowship so incredibly well! I love Somerset!

OH MY GOODNESS AND THEN THERE IS THE MOST INCREDIBLE MIRACLE IN SISTER HANNAH's LIFE.

This one goes straight back to Richmond with Sister Jones.  There was a college student named Samantha that we were trying to find.  Her address was EKU's campus address... do you know how many dorms are on EKU? A LOT. A LOT.  So one day we were teaching a lesson (during finals week, so school gets out in a few days at this point) and saw a girl struggling with carrying a case of water.  We helped her carry it up to her dorm, introduced ourselves and she told us that her roommate was Mormon.  Turns out her roommate was SAMANTHA!! The girl we had been looking for for 3 months!!!!! YES!! Ok, so that is miracle #1.  THEN, school ends and everyone leaves.  Richmond is deserted.  Transfers. Sister Hannah comes to Somerset.  When I first got here, I went through all of our records and this name, Samantha, kept popping up.  I was curious if it was her and after asking around, this was the Samantha that we had records of in Richmond.  WAIT WHAT.  YEAH.  OK, so now I am DETERMINED to find this girl!! We went on the hunt and her address on the Somerset records was wrong.. bummer.  Well, luckily for us, her grandma lives three doors down so we went over to say hi, introduce ourselves and ask her about Samantha.  We knock on the door and you will never guess who opened the door.  SAMANTHA!!! My jaw almost hit the floor.  WE FINALLY FOUND HER!! FINALLY!! Oh my goodness. This was the greatest tender mercy for me.  This girl is SO important to Heavenly Father and we finally found her.  We were able to set an appointment with her and came back, taught her, and committed her to read the Book of Mormon.  Seriously, if you say God isn't in the details of our lives, you are missing it! He is there, He is aware, He knows!! These are the tender mercies and miracles we live for! :) I know that God led me to Samantha, to find her and to help her regain activity!

The mission is absolutely incredible. I love every second of everyday.  Even when times get hard or tough, which they do, not going to lie, I just have to push through.  Everything is worth it when we are able to help bring souls back to Jesus Christ!!

So much love from the GKLM,

Sister Hannah

District, Transfer #4

and hopefully more pictures on the blog if they want to send and upload.  Soon I will be a facebook missionary.. soon, so soon!

Fwd: Car Show

Somernites Car Show.  AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL OLD CARS. <3

snakes on a stick

the cutest little boy brought me a dead snake, on a stick. :) the love of little children.

Car Show

Somernites Car Show.  AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL CARS. <3

Trip to India?

One of our investigators, Teresa, dressed us up like Indian women this
week. Sister Crofoot looked real. 😳

District #4, Somerset 😊

Back row: elders scheuning, hicks, Caldwell, Evans, Waite, polson,
Hansen, benham, Martin
Front row: sisters scheuning, hannah, Crofoot, spencer, baker

Happy early 4th!

We found the cutest repurposed palate flag while finding people to teach!

Sister hannah in action

Fwd:

This week Somerset was POPPING! We saw many blessings and there was a lot of work to be done! We found some awesome new people that we will be able to begin teaching hopefully this week and our branch will be growing! That is always so exciting! We had some move ins and as a companionship were able to invite four people to come unto Christ through the waters of baptism! It is going to be an eventful summer! 

We taught an awesome lesson to Patsy, who is soon to be baptized, and she was so engaged. Her husband is a member of the branch, but hasn't come in a while. Together they are preparing to go to he temple! We taught them about following the prophet and she said "why wouldn't we want to follow the prophet? Without him we would all be so lost!" She is well on her way to baptism! We are so excited for her to make this covenant with Heavenly Father! She is ready and excited as well! She really wants to go to the temple! When we focus our investigators on the bigger picture, the temple, they realize that baptism is just another step! Ruby, another investigator who is headed towards baptism as well told us this week that she is willing to do anything to be baptized.  It is so wonderful to me to see these immense changes in people as they bring themselves closer to Christ and develop a relationship with Him.  Christ truly changes lives. I love seeing this firsthand! 

In the middle of the week we had interviews with President Brough. It was so great to get to see him and Sister Brough and talk to them about the triumphs and tribulations I am experiencing.  Some of the greatest counsel I received from President is I am here to baptize.  That is our main goal, just short of the temple. People cannot progress any farther until they are baptized by the proper priesthood authority of God, only found in this church. That is our goal so that they can ultimately go to the temple and make further covenants with God! I know that Heavenly Father is blessing Sister Crofoot and I for the efforts we are putting forth in the Somerset area! 

It is always incredible to me to teach less active members.  They already have a testimony, it just needs to be rekindled.  We have been on the hunt for the majority of our less active members this week because we have over 100 of them. Sister Crofoot likes to say we are better than the FBI when it comes to finding people. I think that is because people trust as as "people of God". People will freely give us information on people we are looking for, it is awesome! We were successful at finding a lot of our less active members this week and extended a lot of invitations to them to come back to church and read in the Book of Mormon. I have such a firm testimony that if they start reading out of the Book of Mormon, the spirit will be felt and they will have a change of heart. One girl in particular, Brittany, recently lost a child. She is so young and has a lot of weight on her shoulders. We were able to share with her he 12 steps to happiness in the Book of Mormon (2 Nephi 5) and you could just see the spirit touch her. We are also still teaching the amazing Cora and she is stoked to go to the temple. She is progressing so well in the gospel and is making such positive strides towards the temple.  This week she decided to get rid of everything that is holding her back from the temple, including her tobacco stash! YES!!! That is what we need! She learned about tithing and immediately wanted to pay her tithing on everything she had made.  She is seriously awesome. The spirit has testified to me many times that she is one reason why I am here in Somerset with sister Crofoot! I cannot wait to see her in the temple!! 

This week we also went all electronic... everything is now on our iPads.  All of our records and schedule is in the data base, but guess who had to enter it. Yep, we did! It is so tedious and it took forever, but it is finally done, for the most part. I had a hard time switching over because I am so used to paper everything, but the iPads are such a blessing! We are able to have everything we need in a flash! Through going completely electronic and transferring all the records in, it became very apparent to me and strengthened my testimony) that the basics of the gospel are what help people progress the most.  It is what is laid out in Preach My Gospel that helps people come closer to Christ. It was interesting to see that when people were taught other things not in PMG, their progression was hindered and a lot of them stopped progressing completely and were dropped by the missionaries.  It strengthened my testimony of the basics, that if we continually read from the Book of Mormon, pray daily and seek to know the will of God for us specifically, we will be edified, we will become closer to Christ and the spirit will be able to guide us more. I know that this is true! I have applied it more in my life as well! Stick to the basics! 

Random happiness:

-our drain was fixed, we no longer have to stand in our own filth when we shower!

-pouring rain every day. every day. Summer rains are the best! 

-we went out for a run and took a shower instead. we got 1/2 mile into it and DOWNPOUR. 6:30am.  (pay attention to the little dry patch right at my armpit... soaked to the bone.

-we were (are still are) eaten alive by who knows what... Bugs, bugs, bugs! hello humidity! 

-thought I had a tick, but thankfully it was just dried blood from a cut I have no idea how I got. Ticks are scary stuff. 

-We came across the most gorgeous country side while searching for less-active members in Nancy, KY. 

-I am no longer called "Sister Hannah" by little kids.  They do not understand that my last name is Hannah and so as we leave it is always "By Sister Crofoot, bye Hannah!" hahha, I will allow it for the youngins. 

Much love from the GKLM, 

Sister Hannah

pictures

I am in somerset! 

but apparently I am at home? 

The gorgeous fields of Nancy, KY

Sent from my iPad

MORE GORGEOUS.

I love the country side. 

downpour

Somerset, Ky 😍

Has it already been three weeks in Somerset?

Wow! I cannot believe how time is flying here in Somerset! This transfer is halfway over and I feel like it has just begun! This week was not a normal week! It was a miracle week! So many things happened! It was a blessing! :)

We started the week off with getting our bikes fixed and it wasn't as eventful as last time, no tires blew up! With our new and improved bikes we were able to see a lot more people and enjoy the heat.. oh yeah, it is now over 85 every day! *Yay!* I don't know how excited I am about that one yet.  Although, it has been more humid in Mission Viejo, so that is a plus! We are still only at 45% humidity... it will go up! Thankful to have a car this transfer! It is a huge blessing! 

Every week we volunteer at God's Food Pantry, a local food bank that feeds people here in Somerset.  This week we bagged carrots.  They got a pallet of 50lbs bags of carrots and we put them into smaller bags.  While we were doing this, a few other women were helping us.  We started talking about the gospel and it was so cool to compare beliefs with them.  One woman showed concern about her new pastor being picked and she didn't like the idea of how they were picking him.  It was the perfect opportunity to testify of the organization of the church! I love how the church is set up and she could see the clarity in it! We are led by a prophet as a whole, but in our congregations we have leadership as well.  It blew her away that none of our leaders are paid! As we were able to testify of the plain and precious truths of the gospel the spirit was so strong! I know that this truly is Christ's church once again on the Earth today!!

This was the lucky week of the transfer because we were blitzed by our sister Training Leaders, Sister Taylor and Sister Ward!! I was with Sister Ward one last time! (she goes home at the end of this transfer!) Blitz is similar to exchanges, but because we are so far south, we double up our area for the day and all four missionaries work it.  IT is AWESOME! I love blitz! Sister Ward and I were able to teach Patsy, our investigator preparing for baptism and went on the hunt for less active members.  It was so awesome! We made a dent in our list.  In the somerset Branch there are over 100 less actives or people who we just don't know.  We are trying to get in contact with all of them! It is a task, but we can do it! I received so much counsel and training from Sister Ward, it was wonderful! We had the best time! I just love her! I told her I will keep her in my suitcase, because she can't leave! That is honestly the saddest part about being on a mission.  You make friends with the other missionaries you serve with and then they are transferred away or they go home! :( The only thing worse than that is when a super solid investigator drops us or people with so much potential don't progress.  Missionary work is hard for many reasons, but those are the hardest things about it! 

We had Zone Meeting this week in Lexington and it was so fun to travel up there and see all of our Zone! We received some incredible counsel about being BOLD with everyone we see.  We can't save them if we are too scared to speak up!  This gospel is their eternal salvation.  Their eternal life is at stake!!! 

Some Miracles from this week! 

-We taught a lady in our branch named Cora.  She is returning back to activity after being gone for a long time.  She finally set a date to quit smoking and is SO EXCITED to go to the temple! She understands the gospel and is strengthening her testimony each and everyday! As we have been helping her come back, my testimony of daily scripture study and prayer has been strengthened even more. I know that when we take that time to work on our relationship with our Heavenly Father, we will be blessed! We will have the spirit with us and we will have a better day! 

-We found and taught Sonia! Ok, so Sonia literally lives out in the middle of nowhere, Science Hill.  You get off the interstate and go 15 miles west... into the most gorgeous part of Kentucky I have ever seen.  As the GPS took us there I had this constant prayer in my heart that we were on the right path and that when we got there she would actually be home.  The power of prayer is real.  She was home and ready to learn.  Sonia is so extremely humble.  We taught her the first lesson and she just sat there contemplating it the entire time.  "I need to know more," she kept saying, and "this just makes sense."  She is so ready to accept the gospel, it is incredible! I look forward to watching her progress! She is the mother of our other investigator, Patsy.  I know that as they explore the gospel together, it will strengthen them as a family! We are working on getting them both to the temple! Patsy is married to a member who is less active, Matt.  We are so excited to help them become an eternal family! They will be there soon! :)

Kentucky continues to amaze me with it's stunning greenery and just breathtaking beauty.  It gets more and more green everyday and the fireflies at night literally make it looks like the firlds are twinkling.  God's creations are marvelous! The gospel is true, God is Good and the book is blue!!

Stay RAD.

Stay righteous! 

Much love from the GKLM,

Sister Hannah

picture links:

Kentucky

Bugs :(

BLITZ

jammin

Fwd: BLITZ

Sister Hannah (me), Sister Ward, Sister Crofoot, Sister Taylor

Car fun

we finally got music in our car and there is nothing greater! 

What I woke up too...

nothing like a fun bug in the tub! 

For the Beauty of the Earth....

Out in Science Hill at Sonia's House

Jesus Loves YOU!

antional donut day

WE FOUND ZION IN KENTUCKY!!

our super cute bikes

expect miracles!

at the wedding!

Let God Be your GPS... motto of the day

official kentuckian!

Fwd: Kentucky continues to amaze me!

Hello friends and family! 

This week is Somerset, things were and are looking up! We saw miracles and tender mercies and prayers answered! It is incredible to me how aware Heavenly Father is about each of us individually! ️ we volunteered at a food pantry and the people there are so incredibly generous and kind.  We are there to serve them, yet they continually ask how they can help us, what we need and if we are doing good.  These amazing people truly are so Christlike!  

A miracle from this week:

Last week we got a referral from HQ and we didn't get to contact it right away.  We called the number and it was disconnected, but we still wanted to try the address.  When we went to go see her, we tried the trailer we thought was hers and no one was home.  We were bummed, but I had the thought to go try all the other houses on the lane.  Sure enough, we walk up to the next house and there is a woman waiting at the door for us.  I was shocked, but she was just waiting! We introduced ourselves and we had our copies of the Book of Mormon in our hands and she immediately recognized the book! As we kept talking, we realized this was the woman who we were looking for! She was so surprised that we hand delivered the Book of Mormon she requested! She thought it was just going to come in the mail! She had seen the restoration video on Mormon.org and wanted to read the actual book! We asked if we could come teach her more and she wasn't interested in us coming to teach her (yet!) but we can tell she is so ready to read and hear the gospel message! The spirit will hit her like a ton of bricks as she reads the Book of Mormon and then she will be dying to learn more! We are looking forward to keeping in touch with her and seeing her progress! 

I am loving Somerset and loving my bike even more! Sometimes I forget we have a car! Sister Crofoot is so awesome with putting up with me and wanting to bike! Heavenly Father sure is a smart guy, putting me in a bike area first and making me fall in love with it! It is so nice to have a car, but we are trying to bike a lot! Because Somerset was previously a bike and car area, we implemented a car and bike rule as a companionship where we bike in the old bike area only and drive when necessary outside.  It has been working really well! Like I said, sister Crofoot is doing so well! We actually get to talk to people because we aren't stuck in a car! That is the only bummer about the car, we can't just pull over and stop everyone!  A funny bike story, more bike problems, shocker! We went to the bike shop to just get a tune up and the guy pumping my tire up BLEW UP MY TIRE, like it EXPLODED!!! It scared the crap out of me and luckily, it was a quick fix.  My bike should now be in complete working order! 

We taught a few other lessons and met with a less active who wants to make changes in her life! On Wednesday we went back to see our less active and taught her the plan of salvation! She was SO EXCITED to hear about the temple! We invited her to come back to church so she can get a current recommend! She told us "you two have something I want.  All the missionaries have had it, the ones who taught me originally and the ones who visited.  I haven't gone to church in a long time, but I know that I am missing something.  The peace and comfort y'all bring comes from the temple and I want that too!" It was touching.  She could feel the incredibly strong spirit that was present and she knew she wanted it! Now to just tackle the word of wisdom!  During this lesson about the plan of salvation and temples, Sister Crofoot promised blessings and bore sweet and simple testimony.  We also explored the pamphlets app and it is awesome! New iPad technology! The app really helped our less active understand the plan of salvation a lot more! Our less active even showed up to church yesterday and it was fast and testimony meeting! So powerful! We are stoked to get to work with her more and help her get to the temple! ️

Some funny moments from this week: 

-my crazy companion threw cans of soup at me (we were putting together baskets at the food pantry) 

-I locked the steering wheel of the car and we were stranded because the car wouldn't start. Thankfully we have a vehicles coordinator who knew what to do.

-it was 80 degrees and 45% humidity when I went on my run at 6:30 this morning. 

Oh how I love Kentucky and the amazing joy of missionary work! This is the place to be! I love the GKLM and I love being a full time missionary for the Lord! 

Much love! 

Sister Hannah

Sorry, pictures are still being lame! The library won't recognize my camera or my card reader... 

Sent from my iPad

Let God be Your GPS

the quote ofthe day... we got lost so much that day

leftovers from Richmond!

Sister Jones and I being dorks! 

Transfer #3/ Lexington Zone

I love the Lexington zone!! 4.5 months in the field! 

Week 2/ Somerset, KY

Sister Hannah's first iPad selfie

The First Week in Somerset!!

Ok, first things first! Somerset is the cutest town ever!!! I love it! :) It is absolutely adorable in every way! I am in a branch and there are about 212 people on the roster with 50-70 attending regularly.  Totally not used to this at all.  This weekend was stake conference and it was broadcast from Lexington, so we watched it in our little building.  When I say little, I mean little! It is about the size of the cultural hall in the Altisima Building.  Yes, the entire building could fit in that gym.  The Chapel is the size of the upstairs of that building and there are no pews, just chairs! It is going to be a wild ride here in Somerset! :) I love it so much already though! 

This week was pretty great.  We had a lot of people to see and a lot of miles to use.  It was great! I deeply missed my bike for the 4 days I didn't have it and the car was kind of a nuisance.  Never thought I would be saying that... ever.  We got lost a lot and had some struggles, but it all ended well.  I am slowly starting to get a hold of the streets here.  I am being patient with WRONG street signs EVERYWHERE and my companion who doesn't quite know the area! Love her to death though! We had some interesting adventures!  I met lots of sweet investigators who are so ready to hear and receive the gospel! The people are humble here and they are also all baptists.  Awesome! 

Some highlights from this week:

-It POURED every single day. 

-We had dinner with the Branch President, he is an incredible man! 

-We made a trip to urgent care for Sister Crofoots back. (No worries, she is perfectly fine!)

-WE GOT iPADS!!!!! YEP YEP WE DID!! :) THE GKLM IS NOW AN iPAD MISSION!! I am pretty stoked to say the least!! 

-I got my bike back from Richmond!

-We had an awesome member, Alex, come out with us to teach!

-It stormed so hard and flooded that we could barley drive... it was a little dangerous but totally worth it.

-We got lost a million times! 

-Stake Conference was wonderful! So much insight received!! 

Not much else to report on! We are working hard to find more investigators and get more people to baptism and ultimately the temple! 

The work is amazing, the area is NEW! Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways! :) 

Stay rad!

stay righteous!!!

so much love from the GKLM,

Sister Hannah