After Christmas

This week has been incredible! I loved being able to skype home and see all of you, that was definitely the best part of my Christmas! It feels like that was forever ago though. We have had so much go on this week and have had so many miracles. Sister Davidson started teaching a woman on facebook that we had received as a referral from Alex (a recent convert of 2 weeks). She lives in another area in the mission, but the Sisters had not had a chance to contact her yet so we started to teach her online. She committed to read the Book of Mormon and come to church, and then we went home and called the mission office so that the Sisters in her area could get to her that night. We went over to Alex's house soon after calling and when we got there, he was actually talking to her and she told him that she was getting baptized on the 25th of January! I was a little weary of facebook being an effective tool, but now I have a strong testimony of it.

Also SOPHIE got baptized this last Saturday! It was the most amazing experience that I have had since being here. She was so excited! We were also very fortunate to have a lot of her non-member family present and they were all very supportive. Sophie's dad even came with her 14 yr old step-sister. We actually had a great conversation with her after the baptism. I loved being able to see the light just beam out of Sophie's eyes. The Spirit was so strong and it touched everyone's heart. We also received a lot of support from other missionaries in our district, which was great because our district is so big that it meant a lot for them to come. Since us and the elder's have been here we have seen three baptisms which is huge because there had only been 7 in the previous 9 months and only three of them are still active. We have truly been blessed to be able to serve in a great area with such great people. We have also been blessed to teach some of the most elect people. 

I have a funny story that happened this week. So we have been fish sitting for a member in our ward this past week and they brought us their fish and their food last Saturday. Christmas night we came home and one of the fish was laying dead on the bottom of the tank. We were horrified, we were literally just joking about what would happen if one on the fish died. So we called the Elders and asked them if we should just flush it and tell the family or if we should replace it and not tell them. The opted for the flushing it. So we got off the phone and just prayed that by some miracle the fish could be alive. Not ten minutes later the fish was up and swimming and is still alive today. So the moral of that story is that God answers prayers! 

Sophie's Baptism

 The stockings were hung by the fire with hopes...

Our Ornaments

Christmas Eve PJ's

Christmas Week

I am so excited for Christmas I can hardly stand it! So expect a skype call around 12:00 your time, it will be 2:00 my time, so I hope I have the right time difference. I don't know my skype address, but if there is any problem I will call you so that we can figure it out, because I am determined to skype, not call. President told us that the calls should be 40 minutes in length. Anyway, my song went really well, it was in front of the entire mission and I was a little intimidated, but it went well. It sounds like Hannah and Hayden think that Santa has unlimited funding....I hope that they will be okay. I got your package! Sister Davidson and I were both really excited. Also I can't wait to open my jammies! Anyway I want to keep this pretty short so that we still have stuff to talk about on Wednesday, and nothing much really happened this week. I love you, Only TWO DAYS until I get to see y'all! 

Also, please thank everyone for the cards and presents they have sent.  They have made me feel that I have so much support.  It is very fun to get mail!!

Advice for Members of the Millville 2nd Ward on helping the missionaries.

The bishop asked the three families who have missionaries in our ward to talk about our missionary's experiences sharing the gospel.  He also asked if she would include in her email this week some advice for our ward on Missionary Work.  After much pondering and prayer here is what she sent:

Dear members of the Millville 2nd ward,

There are four things that I can think of that you can do that will help the missionaries serving there:

1. Pray for missionary experiences in your personal and family prayers. Pray and ask The Lord to trust you enough to let you help His children come to a knowledge of His gospel. 

2. Talk with everyone! Don't limit their (or your) eternal potential by passing them by. Talk to your neighbors, your friends, your colleges, or even those you meet on the street. Live what you profess to believe, people will notice, and they will ask questions. When I am long gone from this earth I don't want someone to come up to me and say "you knew, you knew about this gospel the whole time, why didn't you tell me?" Everyone needs the gospel, and we are the ones that God has trusted to bring it to them, so open your mouth and let Him fill it with the things you need to say.

3. Purchase the book "The Power of Everyday Missionaries" by Clayton M. Christensen. This book will change the way you view missionary work. It will help you make missionary work apart of your everyday lives. It will become a natural reflex to be an everyday missionary.

Last but most importantly, 

4. Have a family for the missionaries to teach in your own home. We as missionaries love referrals, but the support and fellowship that comes from teaching in a members home leads to a much stronger and easier conversion. 

Amongst all of this it is important to remember agency. Everyone you invite may not say yes, but that is their decision. It is our responsibility as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to share the message of the gospel and then let others decide whether or not to accept it. Let us all heed a prophet's call to share the gospel with everyone. NOW is the time brothers and sisters to spread the gospel upon the face of the whole earth. NOW, not tomorrow, not in three weeks, but now. Let's open our mouths and let the gospel flow forth, and let us "be made instruments in the hands of The Lord unto the salvation of many souls."

I say these things in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

Crazy Week

You know what is crazy, in one week I will be out for 4 months! That is so weird because I feel like I just got here, at the end of this transfer I will have almost been out for a fourth of my mission! It has flown by and the end will be here before I know it. 

So this week has been crazy! We had Alex's baptism and our Bishop's daughter's wedding all in the same day! (Remember her fiance was baptized soon after I arrived here.)  It was a great day, but crazy! We were asked to sing at the baptism by Alex we sang Amazing Grace. Alex's mom was bawling the entire time and you could just see how happy she was that he had made the decision to be baptized. The AP's came because both of them have served in this area and it was great to have them there to support Alex's family!

The wedding was really fun.  There was dancing at the wedding.  We did not dance but enjoyed listening to the music.  (The Motabs are great but I am tired of them because they are all we listen to.)

Thank you so much for all of your prayers for Sophie, Kim, and Gracie! They are doing so great! Sophie is getting baptized on the 28th of this month and we are all so excited. Kim has become so involved for the whole process and when she called her brother to tell him about it she put him on speaker and told him that her kids were making "the plunge" before she was. It was amazing because three months ago she would not have said that about herself taking the plunge. It has been amazing to see their progression as a family! Also they are so kind.  Kim gave me a beautiful dress and I was able to wear it to the baptism this week as well as the wedding. I didn't want to take it but she insisted and she would have been sad if I hadn't. It amazes me how much people care for you as missionaries and how much they want to help provide for you. Their family takes care of us like we are their own. 

My heel is much better. I got some bandages and some neosporin to put on it and it has been much better, it still looks really gross but it feels a whole lot better and it is not infected. 

I will email you next week with details about skyping you! I am so excited! I already warned dad and Hannah, but I will probably bawl my eyes out the whole time so prepare yourself. 

It's Almost Christmas!

So this week has been absolutely AMAZING! As you know we have been working with Sophie, Kim, and Gracie. Well this week we got a text on Tuesday from Kim asking if we could come over for Bible study this week, so we arranged for three appointments (one for each girl and Kim on her own). I was really scared to have a session with Kim because she is a devout Catholic and she wanted to know the timeline for the Book of Mormon. I studied as hard as I could to make sure that I could have the knowledge for the Spirit to bring to my remembrance about the timeline for the Book of Mormon and Bible. We went over on Thursday and as we were getting started we talked a lot about the atonement and what it means to each of us. I bore testimony to her of the reality of the atonement and how it can help us get out of even the darkest hole. In the process of this the Spirit took over and I said something to the effect of "I know that we were supposed to meet and talk and help each other through this phase of our lives...." At that point Kim started bawling and she told us of an experience that she had the day after Thanksgiving. She had been outside praying, asking our Father in Heaven if this was the path that she should take and she looked up and saw a shooting star go by. She then asked Heavenly Father if he was sure and a second shooting star went past. She took that as her answer and said "okay, I'm ready, teach me." We taught the restoration and she just ate it up. She was so excited to learn about the Book of Mormon and she loved that it talked about the people in America and how it went so perfectly with the Bible. At the end I was really nervous but I asked her about Baptism and she replied that she wanted to be baptized! She needed a little time to make sure that she had repented of her sins in her mind and when she is ready she will be baptized! It was seriously an answer to our prayers. We had just set a date for baptism with Sophie and Gracie this week and Kim was the cherry on top. They all came to the ward Christmas party and we were talking about life and Hailey told us that she had thought about it and that she wanted to be baptized as soon as possible, so we are going to have a baptism on the 21st for Hailey! Tonight we are going to pick out the baptism dress she wants to wear and talk about what she wants to have happen in the baptism. I really feel that they are one of the main reasons that Sister Davidson and I are here. 

We also had a trade off this week with our Sister Training Leaders. I stayed here with Sister Eddington while Sister Davidson went to Julington Creek with Sister Beacham. It was great! We tracted into a man named Miguel and he hardly spoke any English but we had a great conversation with him about church. I also randomly had a Spanish Plan of Salvation pamphlet in my bag from the MTC and so I gave it to him and we then gave his contact info to the Spanish Elders and it was great. 

Also this week I tracted so much that I got a HUGE blister on the back of my foot. It was pretty gross, so I am going to attach a picture! Sadly we did not go to the alligator farm this week, I don't know when that will happen, but probably not until things calm down a little bit. We do get the opportunity to go to Atlantic Beach later this transfer with Tracy on a p-day. We still have to get permission to leave the zone, but that shouldn't be too hard. 

This week we have the mission Christmas "party." Sister Davidson and I both got emails from Sister Craig that gave us a piece of music that we get to perform at the party/devotional. I am singing "What Child is This" with another sister who I do not know and Elder Payne from my MTC district and Elder Derr who I went to high school. I think that this is pretty darn hilarious because none of us knew that we were going to be asked to do something and yet I got assigned to do a song with two elders that I know. Sister Davidson will be playing the flute to a Christmas song from the Children's song book. It will be really great! 

We also got word on Sunday that our Bishopric is being reorganized this next Sunday. While we have been here we have seen the Stake Presidency change and now the Bishopric. Our Bishop currently is fantastic. He just loves everyone in the ward and loves missionary work. It will be interesting to see what happens. 

We also got a Christmas tree this week from a member and it is great because it sure doesn't feel like Christmas here.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was sure different here! We actually ate three different dinners with people and we sort of had a "day-off". We got to have fun and talk with lots of members of our ward and we got to eat pumpkin pie! It was so great!

We have had a lot go on this week and it seems like it is just the beginning. We have started teaching a guy named Alex. We have actually known him since we first got here, because he is the son of a less active family that feeds us every Wednesday. (funny story, I actually challenged him to be baptized on night randomly, he declined but I like to think that it finally got him thinking about it). The Elders had a heart to heart with him one night and since then he has not stopped reading the Book of Mormon. He is going to be baptized on the 14th of this month and it is SO exciting! He has asked Sister Davidson and I to do the musical number and also make yummy treats. He has also asked us to start teaching him along with the Elders. I don't know how much the Elders like that idea, but I love it and he will be "our" first baptism. He may not count with our numbers but he counts in our/his heart! To go along with this, Mom I need your recipe for your delicious chocolate chip cookies we are making them for his baptism.

Anyway, we also got to go to the Ocean this past P-day! We couldn't go on the beach, but we did go on a huge pier. It was beautiful! I love the feel of the ocean! We also got to go back to St. Augustine and visit the Lighthouse and it was huge. Next time we are going to go to the Alligator farm! 

So in the next few weeks we have the ward Christmas party, the mission Christmas party, lots of caroling, a baptism, a wedding, and CHRISTMAS! It is so exciting. 

Sis. Williams and Sis. Davidson

Week before Thanksgiving

Thanks for the advice about the members. We actually had a really amazing expirence this last Sunday with working with the members. We were asked to teach the adult Sunday school class for fifteen minutues and the topic was "what can the members of our ward do for the missionaries to help with the work?" Talk about an answer to our prayers! It went so well! We were able to use the talk that M. Russell Ballard gave in this last conference and we talked about our missionary expierences before our missions and I really connected with our ward and the Spirit was so strong. We challenged everyone to have a non member family over for family home evening by January 31and told everyone to expect a call from us checking up on them. The best part was at the end the 2nd counselor in the stake presidency stood up unexpectedly and bascially used his authority to call the members to action. He told them very specific ways that they could be doing to increase the work within our ward and stake. 

This week we had an amazing lesson with Sophie, Kim, and Gracie. They are so precious, and they are progressing so much in the gospel. I love to see their faces each week as the light of Christ shines more and more. This week they wrote us letters telling us how much we meant to them and how much we had impacted their family. They were really nervous that we were getting transfered and they prayed every night that we would stay. When we found out last night that we were staying together for one more transfer we called them and they were so excited! They literally shouted for joy! They are the reason that we are here and they make all of the hard times and hard weeks worth it. I don't know how the rest of my mission will go, but because of them I will feel successful. We are hopfully going to set a date for them all to be baptized this December! What a glorious day that will be! 

Also on a funny note, this week we were out trying to contact in the park and we passed by these two black guys who were speaking another language and I stopped right in front of them and started to ask them about Jesus Christ. We gave them a mormon.org card and invited them to church. It was great because I never do that!

I can't believe that Thanksgiving is this Thursday! It seems like just yesterday I got here! But by the time I speak with you at Christmas (which is less than a month away) I will have been out for FOUR months! Time is seriously flying by! I can't wait to skype you all on Christmas!

For Narnia!

Visit to St. Augustine

So we have continued to have a rough couple of weeks as far as numbers go, we just can't seem to find people to teach and some of our investigators have dropped us which is really frustrating, but, we still keep pressing forward. We actually had a great experience this week with Sophie and her family. We went and had family home evening with them and they we all really excited to have a time set aside to bond as a family. After FHE Kim gave us a ride home and she told us how grateful she was for helping her girls and she talked about the light that she has seen come into Sophie's eyes. We got her cell phone number and sent her a text just to let her get our number and she responded again thanking us for helping her girls as well as herself grow closer to each other by growing closer to God! It was a miracle that she recognized the changes that were going on with her and her daughters. She also invited us back this week for FHE and dinner (She is Italian and from Jersey, so you know it's going to be good!).

Also I had a strange experience last night/this morning, I had a dream that I was trying to give a lesson to a lot of our members and I kept trying to tell them to read Alma 5. They would not listen to me, but I kept insisting, and it was so weird. So during personal study I decided to look up Alma 5 and see what it was all about. In it Alma is talking to members of the church and he is asking them why they think they are going to end up in heaven. Alma tells them that if they do not repent and receive the image of our Savior in their countenances they will not be saved at the last day and they will be forced to see their errors before God. It also goes on to talk about those in the church who were needy and unable to help themselves, but who had received the image of our Savior in their own countenances and their doings were meted unto repentance. It rebukes the members for not helping the less fortunate around them and for not being an example, but instead letting themselves become lifted up in the pride of their hearts and thinking themselves to be better than one another. It was so interesting because that is one thing that we are really struggling with as a ward. Our ward is very competitive and they like to put themselves into classes. They have good intentions, but they do not want to change the way that things are. I don't know exactly what to do about it but something tells me that the answer is in the scriptures. So if you have any suggestions on how to help with ward unity they would be much appreciated. 

So this last week the sisters in our district all went and had fun in St. Augustine. We had a blast and it was so beautiful! All of the walls are made of sea shells and the fort was magnificent! I felt like I was in Narnia the whole time it was great! We also got some cool postcards and a supprise that I am sending home for Christmas! It was so fun and it felt great to be able to have a fun day instead of a stressful one! 

So we also had another Zone conference this week. This one was just a normal one that we have quarterly as a mission. We talked about listening to our investigators to really find out how to help them progress within the gospel. We also talked a lot about inspired goals and planning. Our plans are the blue print for our investigators and without them they will not be able to progress the way that they should.

Nov. 11, 2013

I cannot believe that Christmas is just around the corner, it doesn't feel like
it could be comming anytime soon down here. Florida is the wierdest
state I have ever been in, this week it has gone from freezing cold to
80+ in a day and it does that quite often.

So this week has been the hardest week of my mission! We had basically
zeros on all of our days this week for lessons and investigators and
everything else for that matter! Sister Davidson and I had a little
crying session in the car but we are alright now. Also because this week was so bad we
decided to cut it out of our calander and burn it in the sink last
night. Let me tell you that was one of the most satisfying things that
I have done. We then got to watch the sunrise on our run along the
dock this morning and it was a beautiful start to a much better week

So, in other news, I have started to eat OATMEAL and I actually like
it. Which is so weird because I have hated oatmeal since forever.
Anyway one night this past month Sister Davidson had woken up and she
heard me talking in my sleep and this is what I said "And that's why
you read the Book of Mormon, to know that Joseph Smith is a
prophet..." So I guess I can say that I really am a missionary because
I seem to be giving the first discussion in my sleep :)

One of our investigators, a sweet 9 year old girl, has decided that she
would like to push back her baptismal date until the first of the year, because she feels like
she is not ready. It was kind of a bummer when she told us this, but
she really isn't quite ready to get baptized yet and Sister Davidson
and I realized that we were pushing her a little too hard. But She is
still progressing beautifully! She came to church this last week even
though she had gotten home at 2:00 in the morning and she even paid tithing! It is so amazing to see this sweet 9 year old girl making such big decisions and steps in her own life and it is
really affecting her family. Her mom came to church with her and is
now an investigator and it is all because of the example that she is setting.

I just realized that we only have 44 days days until Christmas! That is so
exciting!

Nov. 4, 2013

But this week has been an crazy week. We have had a lot of ups and downs and inbetweens. We have also walked, a lot. We walked 8 miles on Thursday and about 6 more yesterday. It is hard when no one wants to listen to what you have to say. I wish I could just let them really know what they are missing out on, but I can't and so we just keep walking.

We actually had a surprise zone conference this week and Elder Zwick came and talked with us. It was all about the work and how it is hastening, but it really emphasized member missionary work. It is so hard for missionaries to find people these days purely by tracting. All of the investigators that we are working with are member referrals and let me tell you, it is so much easier to have them progress when they are with members. They understand more and are more comfortable coming to church when they have a friend. They are also more apt to listen to the gospel when it is an invitation from their friends instead of two 19 year old kids.  It is crazy how fast the Lord is hastening his work. Elder Zwick really emphazised that NOW is the time, not tomorrow, not next week, but NOW.  I am starting to realize that my mission will not end when I get home, but will continue for the rest of my life.  There were a lot of other really good messages at the Zone Conference, but a what stood out to me was, "Never limit yourself by what you feel you can do, but rather let the Lord expand your capacity".

We have had a rough week this week with some of our investigators. They are choosing not to progress and it is really hard for me because I want to let them know what they are missing out on and what they could have in their life, but I can't make them do anything. They have their agency and they get to make their own decisions, whether they will make them happy or not. I have learned to have a lot of patience.

Oct. 28, 2013

So this week has been a crazy week of miracles! First off, for the past month we have been praying to find a single mother and three children (random, I know, but that is what we felt like we should pray for). This past week we were able to go and have dinner at a members house and they had invited their step-grandchildren and their biological mother over for dinner as well, we really connected with the two younger daughters and the mom was asking lots of questions. We really didn't think much of it until this past Saturday when they came to the trunk or treat and were really excited to see us and tell us that they were going to come to church the next day. It was then we realized that this was the single mother and three children that we had been praying for! They came to church and the mom was really touched and she wanted us to come back and eat with them and teach them more this next week, and they plan on coming to church again! It has truly been a miracle!

We had some sad news this week, a less active sister that we had been working with passed away. She had been really sick and had kidney failure and cancer in her throat from her smoking habit. We were one of the first people to find out and so it really came as a shock to the rest of the ward. I am so glad that we spent the time with her and showed her that we cared.

So this week was also the trunk-or-treat! Me and Sister Davidson were a hoot! Everybody loved that we dressed up and decorated our car!  Anyway, we had a lot of miracles at the trunk-or-treat we honestly had more less active and nonmembers join us than active members! I hope that the pass along cards we passed out will be great and that we can get some good things from that!

So funny story for the week, we contacted a media referral and she introduced herself as a Pastor. She has just started her own church and has exactly 7 members, but not all of her children have joined yet. She basically wanted us to become missionaries for her church and she wants us to help recruit members for her. It got even better when we were saying the closing prayer and she stared talking and praising the Lord after every sentence I uttered. All of this happened on her doorstep and in the mean time Sister Davidson got two large fire ant bites on her arm, it was quite an entertaining night!

There are so many blessings that come from being here and the biggest is getting to see the light of Christ come to the eyes of those we teach! 

Oct. 21, 2013

I can't believe that Halloween is just around the corner!  So here we have a trunk-or-treat this Saturday and we are going to put suckers on pass along cards! We have a lot of non-members coming and so we felt like it would be a good way to get some good "PR".  We are also dressing up, Sister Davidson is going to be a cheetah and I am going to be a witch, we spent like $5 at the store buying our costumes and we are so excited! I have a cute blue and black hat and some black and green striped tights, I am going to wear them with my black skirt and it should be super cute.

So one really exciting thing that happened this week is that I saved a turtle from being run over! It was great the car had stopped to try and let it pass, but it stopped right in the middle of the road, so I went and picked it up, took a picture, and then put it back in the pond it had come out of.

This has been a really good week! It has actually been our most successful week as far as numbers go. We have had more referrals than ever this week and a few of them are really solid. We are finally establishing trust with our members and the ward absolutely adores us sister missionaries. We actually had some media referrals this week which is a miracle in and of itself. We have been able to contact one and he wanted a Book of Mormon. He wasn't really into talking with us at first, but then the Spirit took over and we talked about the restoration and the plan of salvation for about 15-20 minutes. I have never had an experience like that before, he kept asking questions and I knew all of the right answers and words to say to him. The most amazing thing was that he didn't argue with anything we were saying, he was really interested and he basically agreed with what we taught him. He even asked what the Holy Spirit was like in our minds and we explained exactly what he was thinking (and feeling) the Holy Ghost was. It was absolutely amazing!

So in other news, we have not been able to see our investigator and her family this week because they have been sick with the flu. We also have been temporarily dropped by another investigator. She has been in the hospital for the past few days because of panic attacks and then she was in a car accident and so she isn't ready for us to visit her yet. It is so frustrating to know what we know about the Gospel and its power and then to have our investigators not realize it. Satan is working so hard to keep them from coming to church and is really working on their minds to use "valid" excuses to keep them from progressing.

Thanks for all of your support! Can you believe it has almost been two months already! I will be back before you know it.

P.S. I tried sushi for the first time today, I am not sure if I like it or if I want to throw it back up.

Oct. 16, 2013

It has been a hard week numbers wise, and I needed a little encouragement. I LOVE the picture of Katie in my lab coat! I miss that little cutie so much! I love all of the pictures that you send me of home! I especially love the leaves, everything is green here (which is great) but you don't get any other colors, just light and dark green. 

So things have been going good here! Yesterday was transfer calls and so we didn't have p-day until today. Sister Davidson and I are staying here in Fleming Island.

This week we got to go do service at a horse farm in St. Johns. There were some BEAUTIFUL horses there and there were some really sad looking horses as well. The owner rescues horses and she is an investigator for the St. Johns Elders. She was very nice and she had some cool stories. One of her horses is from Secretariat's line and she was absolutely GORGEOUS!  A lot of the horses that are there are former race horses who were injured. We put up a fence lining and we got to use machetes and other fun stuff! 

We have been seeing a less active woman in our ward. She lives in a nursing home in Green Cove and she is so funny! She tells us stories about how she is the nurses least favorite because she doesn't take any slack from them. She also tells us about a particular nurse she wants to fight with out back. She lived a hard life when she was young and so she feels like she has to defend herself from everyone. She also is very forgetful and she forgot that she was a member of the church and she asked what church we were from several times, but she remembers faces really well. 

Last night we were eating at a members home and the Hibernia Baptist missionaries knocked on the door, it was pretty funny. It's like they knew we were there ;) We also go a couch from Germany yesterday! A family in our ward donated it to us and they bought it when they were stationed in Germany and they shipped it overseas when they retired, and now it is in our living room.

October 7, 2013

So this week has been a bit long. It was actually the longest week I have been here, but it contained the best day of my mission so far. No one has been home this week, it has been absolutely frustrating! Every time we would go to visit someone we would get no answer. Then we went and saw a less active sister (she has multiple personality disorder) and we got her bad personality. It was so weird and you could just feel the tension on the doorstep.

Amidst the terribleness of it all we were able to meet with a great family. We had a lesson on the Plan of Salvation and out of the blue the 9 year old daughter said that she wanted to be BAPTIZED! She is going to be baptized on the 19 of November (her birthday) and hopefully we can have her sister and mom baptized on the same day!

Conference was great this week! It definitely was the spiritual kick in the pants that I needed to move forward with the work. I was so excited that basically all of the Saturday talks were about member missionary work! That is really what is effective, because people don't want to hear about the Gospel from someone on their doorstep. In order for the work to progress we need to be on the same page as the members and they need to be with us. I hope that you at home will try your best to find missionary moments and help others feel our Savior's love. I hope that members here will be able to find people for us to teach in their homes, because it is the greatest feeling to know that you have helped someone accept their Savior and that they have the opportunity for an eternal family.

September 29, 2013

We were able to go on trade-offs this week and I went with Sister Fonoifua. She is actually a temple square missionary who is serving her outbound here (she is also Tongan). Me and her were instant friends! We were able to go and visit this family that we have been seeing and when we got there, their mom was running her daughter out the door to go somewhere, but she asked us to stay a little longer so that we could talk with her because she had some questions. It was crazy, because the last time we came, the Mom wanted nothing to do with us. the nine year old daughter had actually come to church the past Sunday, and she loved it! Anyway, we were able to give her the first lesson (the restoration)  and then we gave her, her own book of Mormon. The look she had on her face was priceless! She cradled the book in her arms like it was her most prized possession! When her Mom got back we started talking with her and we found out that she had not been to confession for three years because of all of this guilt that she felt and she had not partaken of the Eucharist because she did not feel worthy (The mom is catholic). You could just see the pain in her eyes, but we were able to speak with her about the atonement and talk to her about it's cleansing power. She really started to open up to us after that. She talks about having a forever family and you can just see that she wants everything that the gospel has to offer, she just has to take that leap of faith.

We also had a miracle with one investigator. We were actually going to go over and see if she had done the things we had asked of her and if not we were possibly going to drop her because she had not been progressing, but some how the spirit just took over and we had one of the most spiritual discussions ever with her. We then realized that we needed to still teach her and push her because she is right about to jump into the gospel, but we need to make sure it is with the Lord's church that has the fullness of the gospel and not a church that has partial truths, but feels more comfortable. She has been asked by her friend to come to the Baptist church down the road, and she has been supposed to go for the past two weeks, but her friend has had unexpected things come up to make it so that she could not attend. I know that she has not been able to go because the Lord did not want her to, he does not want her to mistake the feeling of comfort for the feeling of his holy Spirit and the truth that it testifies of.  I am so grateful that we have that spirit and that it can teach through us!

To close, I just wanted to tell you about an experience that we had today when we were eating lunch at Whataburger. The woman who was taking our order was this older black woman named Gretta. She was so kind and she just was smiling at us. She commented on how nice we both were and then she said "well of course you are so nice, you got Jesus' name on you!" she later came and brought us our food, commented on how amazing she thought my hair was,  and said "I really hope you touch a lot of souls today, because you have already touched mine." It made me realize that I am a disciple of Christ everywhere I go. People really do notice and they really appreciate the work we are doing. You may never realize the impact you have upon people, even at a fast food restaurant, but they take notice of how you act and especially how you treat them. It made me realize that I should always be kind, and always show that I am a disciple of Christ even when I am not wearing my badge, because I never know who could be watching, or who's life I could change just through my actions.

September 16, 2013

I am so happy to hear that you all are doing good! I am also happy to hear that you have been getting rain, I know we needed it so bad! It rains all the time here. We actually got caught in a terrible lightning/thunderstorm on night this week. We were out tracting and the lightning started and it seemed like it hit right in front of us, we were terrified, and we had this overwhelming feeling like we needed to get back to the car. We made it to the car before anything happened, but we were sure frightened. It was also so intense that we could feel the pressure from the outside in our heads and sinuses (I don't know if that makes any sense, but we had a huge headache on the drive home). 

So this week we almost got into a bible bash with the manager at Dominoes Pizza. He said that he liked our name tags and then he asked what church we were from, we told him The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, He then asked if that was the mormon church and we said yes, he then tells us that we don't read/believe in the real bible, but we told him we read it almost everyday, and then he said "well, you don't believe in Jesus" and we both thought, "come on dude we just told you we represent the church of Jesus Christ, but whatever," we stepped back and went on our merry way, because we were not going to get into that while we were waiting for our food.

We finally have a few investigators!  We have one named Moesha.   I just adore her! She has been through a crazy amount of trials lately and she has told us that she is searching for the truth. She is so elect it is not even funny, but we can't tell her that we are the answer to her prayers, she has to come to that conclusion on her own (which is really frustrating). We are also starting to teach a young 10 yr old boy. He is amazing! His family lives in a tiny trailer and they have very little. His 11 yr old brother teases him because he wants to get baptized, but I have a feeling that he will be converted too. We had a grand old time tossing around a football with him and his bothers while we just got to know them. They are so sweet and he is so prepared to be a member! He really reminds me a lot of Hayden, he just wants to go all the time, but he is so sweet and caring and you can tell he really loves his family and others.

So this week we also visited a less active sister. She is fabulous! She was raised hardcore baptist, and was dirt poor. She told us she didn't even know that there were clothes made for little girls until she was five and started to go to Kentucky to see her rich father, before then she ran around in her underwear. Every summer she would go and live with her dad, who was crazy wealthy and came from the family of Thomas Payne and Henry Clay and so they were well known. Her dad used to drive race cars at Daytona when he was young, but then stopped when he divorced her mom. When she was older she left the Baptist church and became an administrator for the Episcopal church. She raised three children, but never really liked being married (her father was abusive, and she just doesn't put up with anything that a man does, because she is afraid that she will get hurt). She then joined the church when she found that the doctrine at the Episcopal church changed with the times. She said that the hardest thing she has ever done was join the church, but she knows that it is true. She also was once "heart-attacked" by the activity day girls and she keeps the notes in her kitchen and reads them everyday. She truly treasures those notes of encouragement from those young girls. It made me think of Linda, and the time we did that for her. I think stuff like that really means much more to people than we ever realize. 

I love it here! We have definitely had some hard days, but the good days make it so that I can keep going and not think about the hard stuff as much.

P.S. The elders in our ward had a baptism yesterday! That was exciting and it was cool, because it was our Bishop's soon to be son-in-law.

I finally caught a lizard.

Sis Davidson walking down a beautiful southern road.

First week in Garden Cove Springs

Meagan arrived in Florida this week, here are some excerpts from her e-mail:

I love Florida! It is so beautiful here. The town that we are living in is called Green Cove Springs, and it reminds me of Logan, but it is more green. Apparently the Fountain of Youth is located here :) I could do without the bugs, but I guess I can just deal with that. Our apartment is super nice, It is a loft style home, and has a small spiral staircase that leads to the bedroom upstairs. It isn't super large, but we do have a washer and dryer, so we don't have to take time on P-day to find a place to do our laundry, which gives us almost 2 extra hours to do whatever we want. Today we are going to explore the town and go to the park. I feel like I should be in Princess and the Frog with the scenery around here, it is awesome. Missionary work never ceases to surprise me. Every person you talk to is different, and you have to change everything you teach when you start talking to someone else. It is crazy, but the Lord knows everyone and he knows what they need I just have to work on making sure the spirit can speak through me. 

So my companion, Sister Davidson, it pretty much amazing. We get along incredibly well and we are really similar personality wise. I am so thankful that the Lord has blessed me with a good companion, because I don't know if I could handle a bad companion for my first transfer. 

Sister Davidson and I are opening our area and we really have nothing to go on. We found out that there hasn't been any sisters here for over 18 years. We have spent the majority of the last four days compiling our ward roster and creating a map of where people are. We have a wonderful ward mission leader, Brother Barker, and he is super prepared. He gave us everything we needed and more. I don't think I will go hungry anytime soon because we have dinners scheduled almost every night this month. The people here are great, and they all have a beautiful southern drawl when they speak. So we live in this condo that is on the banks of the St. John's river. It is incredibly gorgeous. We are just getting settled and we still don't have bed frames so we just stacked our mattresses on the floor, but hey it works. The lizards here are as numerous as grasshoppers back home, and I have been trying to catch one everyday, but I have had no such luck. I did catch a frog though. Every morning we go jogging to our neighbors pier and we get to watch the sunrise, it is amazing! Also I am driving the car, which is crazy, but the Elders gave us their GPS so that we don't get lost. The poor guys are on bikes, because we don't have enough cars for them. ...

So this week when we stopped by a realty office to sign some papers for the church, the receptionist was like "So you guys are the latter-day saints," he yells back to his boss, "Kathy your saints are here" and then he started smoking on his e-cigarette and kept calling us saints and what not, and it was weird, the end. So that was my first weird reaction to missionaries, but I am sure there will be plenty more to come. ... 

Friday we were privileged to go to a Relief Society fireside and Sister Burton, The Relief Society General President spoke to us.  Sunday our ward had Stake Conference and they were reorganizing the Stake Presidency, so we heard from two members of the Seventy. I am still adjusting to life as a missionary and I am still slightly terrified of talking to people, but I have gotten much better at it and I have even shared a few messages that didn't crash and burn. Sister Davidson is awesome and we get along fantastically, which is a big relief, and she always tells me how good I am doing, which makes me feel so much better. I can't wait until I can be a really good missionary, but I hear that doesn't happen until about 17 months out :)

 Meagan by a tree with spanish moss in their church parking lot.

 View of St. Jon's River

Another view of the St. John's River

Meagan Arrives in Florida

Meagan with President and Sister Craig.

Meagan has been assigned to the Flemming Island area with Sister Davidson. That's all we know at this point.  We are sure looking forward to that first email or letter.  She looks happy to be there.

Here is a link to some info about Flemming Island.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleming_Island,_Florida

Meagan headed for Jacksonville

Meagan left for Jacksonville this morning. Robyn Seivert, who works at the airport, gave Meagan a hug and let her use her phone to call us. She called at 4:30am to tell us she made it to the airport.

There were 51 missionaries headed for Atlanta and 24 of them were going on to Jacksonville with Meagan. 

It just so happens that ark's good friend from high school, Jennifer Schofield,w as traveling for business on the same flight.  Jennifer said that she saw the missionaries getting on the plane and remembered that Mark's daughter was leaving today.  She started to look for a Sister Williams name tag and there she was, sitting one row in front of Jennifer and on the other side of the eisle.  Jennifer snapped this picture and called Mark when they got to Atlanta to let him know Meagan had made it to Atlanta.

What a tender mercy that was for Mark, as he was somewhat worried about Meagan travelling.  We are grateful to Jennifer and especially to the lord for watching over our sweet Meagan.

We haven't heard from Meagan yet but we expect to soon.

MTC - 1st Week

So here is some basic info about my district.  There are three sets of sisters, and three sets of Elders.  Here are their names:
Elder Payne and Elder Curtis
Elder Munsen and Elder Freeman are going to Reno, Nevada
Elder Blanchard and Elder Larsen are going to Reno, Nevada
Sister Hall and Sister Spendlove
Sister Carr and Sister Hipbshman (the b and h are silent, pronounce it Hips-mun)
Sister Yates and Sister Williams
All of the sisters are going to Jacksonville.  It is crazy there are so many going to Jacksonville, there are at least two other districts here that have people going to Jacksonville.   Actually there are 36 missionaries arriving at the Jacksonville, Florida Mission on Sept. 3, 2013

Anyway I am basically always busy and I am up at 6:30 and go to bed at 10:30, except this morning we had a service project and so we were up at 5:30, but the alarm went off at 4:30 so we all woke up until we realized what time it was and then went back to bed, but it still felt the same when we woke up at 5:30. I am actually enjoying the MTC more than I thought I would. The Spirit is amazing here. Yesterday in class we got assignments to teach a new investigator named Wiremu (pronounced Whit-a-moo) today our teachers will act like this person and we will teach them. When we were trying to decide what to plan I thought of your sunbeams and how they really don't know much about the gospel, Wiremu does not believe in God and he does not even know who Jesus is, it is really crazy. But while planning the spirit really testified of how we need to understand him and also that he needs to understand everything we are saying to him. It is crazy here, I never thought that this would be happening, but here it is.

I am actually loving the MTC more than I thought I would.  They keep you really busy here, so there's not much time to be sad.

2nd Week in MTC

So this week has been great! We hardly have any time to do anything but what is in our schedule. We go to class, we go to eat, and then its back to class. Oh also our classroom is in the Matthew Cowley building and it reminded Sister Yates about Matthew Crawley so we now call it Downton Abbey  :) I thought you would appreciate it. We exercise everyday, and sometimes we even get to go to the gym and play hard core volleyball with the elders. We are also on the main MTC campus and that is fun! Hey tell Deb that this past Sunday I saw Michael Swink. We were both singing in the devotional choir and we met up during our break. I think he leaves on Monday and so he has only been speaking Hungarian and we had a cool conversation translated by his companion. Anyway there are six sisters to a room, and our outlets don't work so when we have time to get ready we have to do it in the bathroom.

So this Sunday we had a devotional and Elder Neal L. Anderson talked to us. He talked about Sacrifice and Love. It was exactly what I needed to hear! And then we had a crazy thunder and lightning storm after so we had to stay at the Marriott Center for about 20 min afterward. And we walked home in the pouring rain, I wish I had sister Hibpshman's picture of us soaking wet in our Sunday clothes. I have attached a few pictures, but I can't put subtitles on them so just know that the sister Yates (my companion is the one with just me and her). Also the Elders asked us to wear purple so that we all could match, we have some funny Elders. The picture with less people is of our district and the one with more is our zone.

...And So The Countdown Begins...

26 days until I report to the MTC, yep 26. After having gotten over the shock/excitement of this realization I decided there were a few things that needed to be done. Of course I thought of the usual things: finish reading The Book of Mormon, finish my pre-MTC training, etc...and then I thought of the fun, cute things that *needed* to be done. More cute clothes still needed to be found, pictures needed to be taken, and a blog needed  to be created. I figured that since most missionaries (and their Moms) create a blog before they leave, I should probably make one of my own. And so here it is, my missionary blog. This blog will detail some of the adventures and experiences that I will have on my mission to Jacksonville, Florida :) My Mom will update it with stories and pictures while I am out in the mission field.
Looking back, its been almost three months since I got my call and I still can't believe this is all happening. There are things I think about daily that completely freak me out: what-if I don't teach well, what-if I can't let go of my initial shyness and talk to people, what-if I fail at riding a bike in a skirt and so on...but then I remember my testimony, and those what-ifs seem to just fade away.
I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the one true church. I know that my Heavenly Father and his son, my savior, Jesus Christ are watching over me. With their help, and with the guidance offered by the Holy Spirit, all things are made possible. Through his atonement my faults and weaknesses can be forgiven and can become strengths to me as I preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Florida and Georgia.

 

 "And out of weakness he be made strong, in that day

when my work shall commence among ALL  my people, unto the

restoring thee, O house of Israel, saith the Lord."

2 Nephi 3: 13

 

In the name of  my Savior, even Jesus Christ Amen.