Monday, September 21, 2015

Crazy Wild Ride

So many things to report on and so little time! 

I'm going to jump right in!

On Monday we were privileged to go to the Stettlers home and eat with them. It was awesome! They live in the most beautiful country and the ride is awesome! Their house literally popped out of no where and you have to go "off roading" (drive through a creek) to get there. Pretty adventurous for two sister missionaries in a Chevy Cruze, ok! Dinner waS wonderful and it truly felt like I was home! I love the Stettlers so much! I have definitely adopted them as my Somerset mom and pops! What made the night even better was we were all able to go to Sonia's home and teach her about the priesthood and callings! It was a super powerful lesson! Sonia loves the gospel so much and is so excited for her baptism! She is the cutest! When we extended the invitation to prepare to accept a calling she said "if the Lord calls me, all I can do is try my best! But I want to follow the Lord!" How cute is she? She is amazing. It has been so rewarding to see the change in her countenance since we started teaching her. She is so much happier and energetic. The more she internalizes the gospel, the more she glows! It is beautiful. The change that Jesus Christ can bring to someone! It is absolutely wonderful! :)

Tuesday we went out with sister Syphax. She is so determined to magnify her calling! She is over the YSA in our branch and what a hard calling that is! The YSA here are a struggle. They either don't have a phone number or address or both and are pretty much MIA. She took us to find some of the YSA and we had some success! We were able to find a few lost souls and get some updated information! Sweet! Blessings of the Lord!

Wednesday we bound the Lord! We were determined to find a new investigator and did everything in our power to do so. We had an appointment fall through so we went and tried a potential. Well, this potential, Lois, is the cutest girl ever. She is a young mother of the cutest baby girl and is expecting another boy soon. She let us is and we were able to teach the first lesson and we committed her to baptism! It was awesome! She said "I'm just so confused as to which church is right." And then at the end said "I'm so glad yall have the answers!" It was an extreme tender mercy! :) we found the new investigator and set a baptismal date! Also, we had pie night! It is an annual branch activity put on by sister cooks son, Dylan. The branch members bring their best homemade pie and then the sisters and glam taste test to pick the winner. So much pie. So much. I think there were 14 pies to try. Yeah, it was a lot. The best pies were an extremely tart but sweet razzleberry pie, followed by a peanut butter Oreo cookie crust pie and then in third was a French silk pie. It was a great night and Sonia and billy came and got to know the branch better! :) 

Thursday was also amazing. The tender mercies poured out upon us. We were able to see sweet little brother Alexander and we taught Sonia. Sonia's lesson was crazy hectic, but we managed to get some spirit in. She is seriously progressing so well! Please continue praying for Sonia, that she will continue growing and moving forward! We then went to contact some referrals. A few weeks ago, our iPads loaded all of the referrals from the last 5 years onto our iPads. We are now responsible for contacting them all again! It has been a task, but we have seen miracles from it! We went to contact one lady by the name of Susie J. She lived at an address that when we pulled up was a trailer park. We had no trailer number and there were 10 trailers. I felt impressed to pull up to the very last one and knock on it to see if they knew the woman, Susie, that we were looking for. Well, we knocked and this lady let us in right away. We started to talk to her and she said she had talked to some people from our church before... Come to find out that we are talking to the Susie we were searching for! It was such an incredible tender mercy and we got two referrals from it! SCORE! She was a tad bit on the crazy side and she didn't accept the message we had to share because she believes Christ's church was never lost, but she was freely giving referrals. She even invited us to 'study' with her and her pastors and ministers, she has a few. It was a unique experience to say the least! She told us before we left that she could see Jesus in our souls, so that's good! Haha! 

Friday! Friday's are fun! Normally, we have district meeting but because of special circumstances we didn't have it today. It was a full day of proselyting! I love these days! We taught Sonia about the temple with sister Loesevitz and it was a powerful lesson! I love teaching with members because their testimony adds so much to the spirit present! Sonia got really excited to go to the temple and start working on her genealogy! She is on fire with the gospel! We then ate lunch with sister Loesevitz and it was delicious!  We then, on a whim, were able to teach our newest investigator, Lois! She didn't read from our last appointment, but we were able to see her and help her understand more about the covenant she will be making!  Later in the day we got a call from a member who wanted us to come over right then to teach his buddy. This referral was actually a good one from him! He normally gives us flaky referrals, but today, it was a beautiful one! We ended up teaching Kenny the first lesson and he completely accepted everything we had to teach him. He is prepared for us and he knows that! When we followed up with him, he was excited to meet with us again! 

Saturday! The highlight of the Week!  We had a district service project! It was wild and fun! Brother Syphax has a brother who lives down by lake Cumberland and he put on a service project called "clean Cumberland". Steve invited us to come and participate a few weeks back when we had dinner with sister Syphax. I thought it would be a great idea to get all of the missionaries there. I coordinated with elder Polson and we made it happen! We had a stellar group of 14 missionaries! We worked hard too! We grabbed our gloves and trashbags and went to work! All together we cleaned up 1/2 a mile of shore line and collected 20 black bags of trash! We all had a blast!  We had an awesome district meeting about the zone culture, which is an attitude of love, obedience, diligence and success. I was so tired because the sun took it out of me, but I made it through the meeting! The rest of the day, with what we had left, we taught Kristina and the Dillons, and went to dinner with sister Orantez! It was a great day! 

Sunday:) the beautiful sabbath! It was overcast and a tad bit chilly. A perfect Sunday. Church was awesome and Kristina came! She loved it! She had to leave early because her baby was sick at home, but she came! That is some dedication, especially with a sick baby! We had a wonderful Sunday school lesson On baptism, by brother stettler, and a great relief society lesson on "being aware of pride" by sister Peterson!  We ate lunch at the cooks and then tried a million referrals- all of which have moved and the people who weren't there were not interested... No matter how boldly we testified. We were able to talk to a lot of people walking from house to house and they were all nice, but not interested. It was hard, but we were able to fine tune our contacting skills and bear powerful witness! We tried one last referral and sister Starkey almost got eaten alive by some labs, but she kicked a dog, hard, in the face because it tried to bite her. I am thankful I have an obedient companion who follows the rules, even when she is terrified of dogs and has to back me with 5 labs running wild. She survived and didn't get bit! 

This week was a crazy ride. Looking back, it was bizarre, but all in the plans of our father in heaven. I know He is real. I know He loves me. I know he loves me so much that He sent His only begotten Son to suffer and die for me. I know my Savior lives. I know He is there. There is no doubt that the Father and the Son are intricately involved in this work of saving souls. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that we have a living day prophet, Thomas s. Monson! I know that the plan of salvation is true and that it is Heavenly Fathers plan for us! I love this gospel with all my heart! The church is true, the book is blue!

Much love,
sister Hannah 

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