I'm Going to be a Trainer!

HELLO!!! okay so im pretty sure that every week I think its the best week of my life. by sunday I just fall in love with my mission all over again. OKAY BIG NEWS, transfers are this week! and im staying here! BUT MY COMPANION IS LEAVING ME! im going to train. its crazy! I have been here for i think 5 seconds and im trusted to train someone new. i really cant believe it. but i have been thinking a lot about it and im actually really excited. i have learned so much from my trainer and i feel like she really has prepared me well. but theres so much anticipation and i just cant even believe how fast time has gone. but this week i really have been trying to prepare for my new companion. we read this talk on being a consecrated missionary that really changed my view on things. it said truly we have to give everything up and give it to the Lord, and "put it on the altar of sacrifice". there should not be anything left to give at the end of the day because we gave it all, every single day. there was a quote from Parley P. Pratt that i really like that said, "I have all of eternity to enjoy myself". and that's so true! We are here to serve the Lord and only that.

This week we were really smart. and by that i mean really dumb. we found out we were tracting in the wrong area!! hahaha we were trying to save miles so we went to the neighborhood right next to ours. we have been going there for weeks! and we have found so many awesome people to teach in there. and then we ran into this lady and she was like oh yeah the elders come by sometimes! and we were like.. WHO IS IN OUR AREA? then it clicked. so we got to call our zone leaders and tell them this great news. but it has really been working out well! they got a return appointment with two of them! it makes me so happy that it is working out.

what else happened this week. OH. we had an investigator come to church! he's 92. and the most hilarious man. he pretends he is blind when he wants to be. like when we ask him to read something. We were in sunday school and sis jones was holding the scriptures or something in front of him to show him where we were and he was like IM BLIND IN ONE EYE AND CANT SEE OUT OF THE OTHER! and then like a minute later he taps her and goes.. you are very pretty sister jones. and she goes I THOUGHT YOU WERE BLIND! and then he laughed foreeeever.  and the assistants were asking him what we teach when we come over and he was like ummm nothing. and they were like so what do you talk about! he told the assistants that when we come over we only talk about ourselves!  IT WAS RUDE and they laughed at us for hours and got too much enjoyment out of that answer. its whatever. (we taught him the restoration and plan of salvation...PROMISE) it was a fun sunday.

Some of our investigators are really progressing! its so exciting. one of them asked US if we had a spare copy of a book of Mormon. we have never been so happy. its exciting seeing this area really growing and i cant wait to see whats in store for next transfer.

so something i was reading this morning was in Matthew. chapter 8 i think? i cant remember exactly. but it was about a man who's servant was really sick in bed and he asked Christ to heal him. and Christ said yes, i will come heal him. but the man said that he didn't feel worthy enough for Christ to come into his home, and he asked if Christ could just heal him by his words. the scripture said the Christ MARVELED at his faith. i thought that was the coolest thing i have ever read! i imagined what it must have taken to have Christ marvel. and then after that it goes into the story of the disciples on the boat and they were scared when the weather started getting bad. and they ask Christ for help and he asked them why they had so little faith? and then he calmed the tempests and the DISCIPLES marveled. it was so interesting how at first Christ was taken aback by that ONE man's faith, and his disciples didn't have as much at the time. the question i wrote next to it was, what would Christ think of my faith? so that's what I've been thinking about today and it really gave me a new perspective on faith.

ONE LAST STORY.

The assistants worked SO hard not to tell us anything about transfers. but they are bad liars and I wanted to take advantage of that. so we were trying to figure out where we were going and stuff and so we finally got a call from president saying that im staying and training and sis jones is leaving. and I was like I bet you she is going to be a sister leader trainer (girl equivalent of zone leader) and so at dinner that night I planned something great. hahaha so elder Searle was like did you guys get a call? and I was like yeah! SISTER JONES IS A SISTER LEADER TRAINER! (even though I didn't know) and he was like YEAH HOW DO YOU FEEL! and totally admitted it and gave it away. then like 5 min later we were like we didn't know  and it was so funny cause I totally got it out of him and it was the proudest moment of my life and they were on exchanges at the time so later he told his comp and he could NOT stop laughing and it was just so great so they are like we are totally getting you back. so they told president what happened and they planned not to call sis jones and tell her about her new call cause they knew she would freak out and she did  and she would just sit in anticipation and I thought she was going to die! and then yesterday president finally called and told her and it was so funny they were like GOTCHA! but I just sat there and laughed cause it didn't affect me at all and I was the one that played them in the first place. so they got innocent sis jones back and its just so funny to me. anyway that's my story I really love my area and my district has the funniest people ever and every day is just the best day of my life .LOVE YOU

We Live With a Horse!

HELLO! ive been so excited to email all week I don't know why. I feel like I have to much to say. SO. this is the large horse that we live with. hahaha he is so huge and thinks hes small and its funny all the time. also he farts all the time really loud and its really smelly and really great. and by that I mean gross. haha sorry if that's too much I just wanted to share. we love him though.

So this is the psycho weather we've been having! we get flash flood warnings all the time and every door we knocked on this day they were like WHAT ARE YOU DOING? FLASH FLOODS ARE COMING! and were like oh well too bad we're just trying to share the gospel here. hahaha it rained a lot but it wasn't bad where we live. we live on a hill so we feel fine. but I wish I could see the news! we just hear little bits and pieces and it sounds like its crazy every where in boulder and stuff. but its sunny today and I'm happy about it.

Anyway so this week was super interesting. we had SO MANY set appointments with people but they just kept falling through! no one was ever home and they dropped off the edge of the earth. but we kept finding a ton of people! THERE ARE SO MANY OLD PEOPLE IN COLORADO.  I have to tell you about this one guy. he is 92 and his name is harry. or larry. he said he goes by both so we can choose. either one is fantastic. hes been meeting with missionaries forever and he read the book of Mormon a long time ago and says its true. so that's nice. he also has every pamphlet and every video that we own hahaha. it was funny. also he's from England so the accent made every story he told that much more fun to hear. he fought in ww2 and he told us all these stories about how he watched his friend get blown up and how he walked over to him and his legs and arms were detached and also his head. he just found his torso. and how his plane crashed one time and he showed us his knee cap that was just shattered and it was crazy to hear how all his bones broke. but he LOVED to talk about his wife it was really cute actually  he was just so in love with her. and he loved even more to show us pictures. at one point, he took us into his living room but the light didn't work so we were in the dark and he was trying to show us pictures and all of a sudden he whipped out a flashlight and we were like where the heck did you get that  and so he was just showing us his family pictures from like 1000 BC they were so old. with this flashlight and I just couldn't stop laughing because I was like WHERE ARE WE AND WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THIS DARK ROOM. it was strange. but he told us that we were coming back every week to visit him.  I never want to be old and lonely. ever.

I've learned this week that really praying and asking for God's guidance is the most important thing to do. when one of our appts fell through we were just knocking on doors and we were about to leave the neighborhood but I just felt drawn to that place, and felt like we should stay there. but I was like which house do we go to! so we just kept going and every time we were about to leave I was just like NO ONE MORE. and so we did. and then after like 4 houses, this car drove up and this guy got out and IMMEDIATELY i KNEW that was who we were there for. this distinct thought of THAT'S WHY WE'RE HERE just overwhelmed my brain and my heart. so we went and asked to pray with him and he was like yeah! and then he was just so grateful and he tried to double hug us and it was funny and then we asked if we could come back and teach him more about Christ and he just was like yes. it was awesome. and then also that night we were going to contact this referral from a member but as we were walking towards the house i saw this guy smoking outside and i had that distinct thought in my head, THAT'S WHY WE'RE HERE. that's him. and i was like sister jones we have to go over here! and she was so confused cause she didn't even see him haha. but we ended up talking to him and the same thing happened. we are going to see him next week. i absolutely love this work and i just love all of these people that we are finding! i have grown to LOVE the feeling of the Spirit and just the love that i feel from it all the time. because you can DEFINITELY recognize when it's not there. it is like night and day. praying for that guidance is so important! i want so badly just to follow exactly what my Heavenly Father has planned for that day CAUSE I HAVE NO IDEA EVER what to do. 

We have transfers next week so maybe don't send things to my direct address just send it to the mission office on Tufts! because idk how long it takes things to get here. but i don't want to leave this area ahhhh theres so much to be done! and weeks go by so fast there's not enough time to do everything. I love you guys so much and i recognize everyday the blessings ive had in my life. i cant believe it. there is so much love and peace that comes from the gospel and I've just never been so happy. love you guys!

The Best Week of My Life
September 9, 2013

THIS WEEK HAS BEEN THE BEST WEEK OF MY ENTIRE LIFE. well I don't know. maybe. probably. also time goes so fast here I WILL HAVE BEEN IN THE FIELD FOR A MONTH ON THURSDAY. if Thursday is the 12th. I don't have a calendar and I might have made that up.

ANYWAY, so we found out we have been counting our investigators and our lessons wrong! we have been teaching way more than we have been reporting!

WE HAVE 19 NEW INVESTIGATORS THIS WEEK! and our lesson count increased so much! its amazing. seriously. so the goals before I came out were to find 2 new people to teach every week. President Murdock changed it to 6. Everyone freaked out and said that was impossible but I didn't know any different so I felt fine. hahaha but I have honestly seen miracle after miracle. We FULLY rely on prayer to figure out our day and where to go. These people are literally dropping into our hands, we find so many people ready to come closer to Christ every single day. My favorite is when we teach families. We have found so many young families to teach! And yesterday we got to teach one of them and we taught them the Plan of Salvation, and I didn't know how to react because after the lesson they were like sweet! awesome! and they didn't have any questions or concerns and they just listened intently and said we could come back! it was so cool but I also didn't know how to react because normally people have questions or something! I don't know but it was just the best day ever. OH also we had our first investigator come to church! well technically the second one but that's a different story. haha anyway it was awesome! he seemed to listen really intently and he got to see someone get confirmed with the Holy Ghost and it was just a really cool meeting with an awesome musical number. he's the dad of one of the young families and we just feel so blessed and sometimes we just don't understand how Heavenly Father trusts us with all of these people. I want their families to have the same blessings and happiness mine does and I just hope I can do it right!

We are teaching this one guy who is 93 and he is so sweet but it was so funny because he forgets everything he already said, so he told us that he is 93 and we think he was in the marine corps for 10 years but we're still not sure because he only told us 42 times. maybe we will find out the truth next time we see him. haha just kidding but he is so nice! he always prays for us they are some of the most powerful prayers I have ever heard. its awesome.

I love everyone we teach. I just want so much for them and I don't know how to handle it sometimes. I absolutely love this area and I don't want to leave. BUT WE'RE GOING INTO OUR FIFTH WEEK! what is life. the transfer is almost over and I may die. there is so much work to be done here! and so many awesome members. my favorite is when the youth come out with us. tell brayden and sky to try it!

love you guys so much! 

I Never Want to Leave
September 4, 2013

This week was AWESOME! first of all before i forget, i had dinner with brother muir's niece! sister dunn. i forgot her first name but it was so fun to find someone that knew someone at home! so tell him that if you can! but the reason i met her was because we were on exchanges. exchanges were super interesting! because sister gage, the sister i was with for the day actually had set appointments with people every hour and we got to teach LESSONS! hahaha just kidding we teach in our area too just not as much. it was really awesome. but i also learned that i just absolutely love my area. I NEVER WANT TO LEAVE.

i cant believe ive been out for a month already! i got to attend a baptism and it was just amazing. she was just so excited to be baptized with her 9 year old daughter and ive just never seen anyone so happy. she was glowing. it was absolutely amazing.

we're really excited because we might get to teach 4 families this week! ah we've been so blessed. we really are working on relying on the Spirit to find those who the Lord has put in our path that day. my favorite part of the day is when we get to pray with people. you get to know them on such a different level, and its so interesting to hear what people ask us to pray for. this lady the other day was just in tears at the end of the prayer. we had the opportunity to just tell her that she is not alone and our message is one of strengthening. unity. so her family can grow together. she cried more and just hugged us and called us her little darlings. so many people are hurting out there and just to help them feel that love from HEAVEN is the most amazing experience.  look at your life from heaven's eyes!  that was cheesy. but cool if you think about it.

 we had a guy tell us that the fruit of the tree from adam and eve was actually flesh of an animal and he went into grave detail and it was disgusting and i don't know if the word grave makes sense in that sentence but a grave is where i felt like going during that conversation. 

but its really cool because we've been getting to visit some families that haven't come to church in years and the ward cant get contact with them but they came to church on sunday! we wanted to take credit for inviting them but really they just came on their own. when we visited them we forgot to invite them hahaha but they came! she said it was her first sunday off in 2 years. the Lord wants us back so bad! oh my gosh there is the most awesome ward missionary ever. Brother Bud. that's not his last name but he was a Jewish convert and i swear this ward brings more investigators to church than we do! he told his friend that he was speaking in church but really it was just fast sunday  and then he came and told the most awesome conversion story and it just set the tone for the rest of the meeting. i heard some of the most amazing testimonies in the world. and then to top it off, this 10 year old kid gets up at the end and goes, if any of you have any doubts about what was said today, i am here to tell you that i know that it's true. and he just bore the sweetest testimony and it was just such an awesome testimony meeting! i never want to leave my ward its great!

i love you guys and miss you so much! i pray and think about you every single day. but it's what our family has that keeps me wanting to share this gospel with others. i am so thankful that i have had the foundation that i have so i can honestly share how much this gospel has blessed my life and my family. i love it. LOVE YOU!

Alive and Well (almost) in Colorado

So this week was great because I actually got to live the whole missionary schedule without ending at an urgent care! But wow we have been so blessed. We have been praying with a lot of people! It's awesome they call it the prayer approach, and we just ask if we can leave a blessing of peace and comfort and people's homes and families. The Spirit is often just so strong and I love getting to know people that way! so that's how we've found some of the people we are going to teach this week. I'm so excited! We prayed with 3 different families, and one of them we got to kneel down with all 5 of them and have a family prayer! I've never been so happy, and they were the nicest people ever.

I loved going to church. it was our first week at church because we couldn't go last week when I was sick! but wow this ward is awesome. One of the daughters that we're living with spoke and she is great. She's Skyler's age and so awesome. It was funny, the man that spoke said that the reason bishops are called for 5 years is because that's how long it takes them to offend the entire ward. he was proud to say he did it in 4. He spoke all about member missionary work! just how the commonality of religion between people can strengthen relationships. because really our purpose is to invite and to help. I love focusing on the help part. So many times people are scared to speak of religion because they think its awkward or pushy, but really all we want to do is help them if they will accept it. the message of the Atonement of Christ is the most amazing message that could ever be heard. The healing that it does and the EVERLASTING happiness that it brings is the most amazing thing to share with someone. We got to talk to this lady who's husband just died. She was just sitting outside and was really sad and we asked if we could share a message with her. I shared with her a scripture from Alma 40 that really has just given me so much comfort when we lose loved ones. To be able to tell her that she can live with her husband again and have that love was the most spiritual experience in the world. She was so grateful for that message, because she really didn't know if she would see him again. I know she will.

We did some service this week! we sewed labels on blankets for Project Linus. Except I was really bad at it and probably should have just watched. If they knew how bad I was at sewing they would have fired me if that's possible. but its fine. The labels are on there right? Also this is the only picture I took this week!  This is Sister Jones. 

Yesterday was our craziest day! we actually had lessons and we didn't know how to handle it. haha we were running from appt to appt and didn't know how to be on time!  I realized that I have SO MUCH to learn still. People have so many different perceptions of things that I have never thought about, and it's just super interesting to hear.  Everything is going pretty well, we're just praying for more people to teach! I don't really remember what else happened hahaha so i'll keep it at this. love you all!!! Also happy birthday mom!

That's all I have to say. Love you guys so much. I pray for you every night!

Mikilah is serving in the Orchard Ward in the Littleton Stake.  Her companion is Sister Jones from Washington State.  They live with a family in their ward.

Hi, I'm Here at the MTC

HI IM HERE. at the MTC. I HAVE SO MUCH TO TELL YOU! okay so I'll start on my first day. we drove up to the MTC and adrienne greeted me right away! and then I walked like 10 more feet and there was afton who greeted me in tears with some acai berries! I kept walking and saw maddie blake! okay im being that missionary that tells you all about the people that they see and everyone is like okay i dont even care, but sorry im not sorry. It was so joyful and i literally fell in love with the mtc in two seconds. i saw ashlyn at lunch and also dallin OH IM SUPPOSED TO BE SAYING ELDER AND SISTER so i saw elder murphy and also sister modersitzki, a girl from my ward at BYU. anyway, then adrienne walked me to my classroom and elder austin (Nick) was in my district! elder smith(Cameron)  is also in our zone, just not our district. but i was so excited to see him, it was like little pieces of home were everywhere at the MTC! so then I met my companion and she is AWESOME. okay straight up the best thing about her is she has to go to the bathroom ALL THE TIME. JUST LIKE ME. sorry to everyone that is reading this but if you know me then you know that i literally have to go all of the time. its great. anyway. just kidding thats not the best thing about her. she is from a farm in canada, and is HILARIOUS. she is a cross between phoebe from friends and kelsie groot. seriously every second is so great and we get along really well. i love it. oh also i saw elder braun! that was the next day at breakfast. in the span of like 10 hours i saw everyone from my life! our district is really fun. they are mostly 18 year olds right out of high school. they are the biggest characters youve ever met and there is never a dull moment with them. so elder austin and his companion elder rosequist hate me for getting mail all the time so they always lie and hide my mail from me until the end of the night and its very rude. hahaha just kidding its good because then i dont get distracted during the day. mom i love all of your dear elders! seriously i love everything you're saying and it always makes me laugh. its the perfect end to my day. brayden and skyler- thanks for writing me. NOT. THANKS FOR THE 3 SENTENCES YOU SENT ME YOU NOOBS. haha please tell me about your life. skyler. lacrosse. update. help. also dad thanks so much for that letter! it made me so happy okay now im just thanking you and not telling you anything.

so. mom answers to your questions: I slept on the top bunk, but i moved to the bottom bunk last night. hahaha when i would move in the middle of the night poor sister duprey below me would get night terrors that the bunk was falling on her and would wake up and yell. so i moved. ahhaha and i ate with the girls in my district the first day! yeah its definitely cannon center food haha. oh so we tried to instigate "district dinner" the first couple of days and the elders were like.... uhh... i guess..

IT WAS RUDE. but we made them do it and and they all had a good time so now we all eat as a zone and its the best time of everyones life. our district is not very thankful for us but the other district loves us because they dont have any sisters. they always take our trays and its really nice.

ashlyn and maddie blake come to my room and visit me a lot of nights! its great. mom i think ash is sending you pictures.

We already got our travel plans! WE LEAVE IN LESS THAN A WEEK. i cant believe it. i have to pay for my own luggage and i think that i will be reimbursed when i get there. but yeah i just need enough for that!

overall i've learned a lot. i actually got used to the schedule really fast. because we're not learning a language, we are studying the gospel by ourselves for a lot of the day. the mtc is totally not what I expected. I thought you sat in a class with a teacher all day but its really all on you how much you learn and put into it! we wake up at 6:30 and go to bed at 10:30.

sister turner (my companion) and i had a really humbling experience. so the first couple of days we really felt like we knew what we were doing. but on saturday, we taught had our first discussion and it was pretty bad haha. we completely ran out of time, and got nothing out of our discussion. we walked out really confused and felt the need to improve. everyone else seemed so confident in what they were doing, and we just felt so unprepared and it sounded so scary to go out in a week. but what we realized is that we really needed to give everything up that we had and give it to Christ. we learned not only to exactly obey what our Heavenly Father wanted us to do, but we really wanted to try to please Him in everything that we did. we focused on serving the other girls in our district, especially because one of them was sick and the other one was really homesick. we really tried to focus during our study time so we could really OBTAIN the word, not just read it. we prayed a lot together as a companionship, and learned that if we really tried to keep the Spirit of love and the light of Christ with us at ALL times, we would be blessed in many ways. this really showed during our next lesson. we had more confidence in our testimonies, but really learned to rely on the Spirit to teach ourselves and the investigator.

I learned the same thing the next day. it was fast sunday, and we fasted until 430. it was the longest that ive ever fasted before. but when i felt like i couldn't do it anymore, i focused on what i was fasting for. i focused on my family and how much i wanted to be an example to them. I focused on Christ and how He fasted for FORTY DAYS and FORTY NIGHTS for US. if He did that for me, and by following Him i could bless the lives of my family and the people i come in contact with, i realized it was so worth that SMALL sacrifice. i can give these 12 days away. I dont need them for myself. this is when i realized that i needed to just forget myself these next 12 days so i really can work and learn as much as i can. I HAVE SO MUCH TO LEARN. and it never ends. Following Christ is a lifetime PURSUIT. and i realized such a difference! our lessons had so much more power and we were able to feel the Spirit SO STRONGLY. We talked to this one lady Ivelisse, who other sisters also taught and they really struggled. She wasnt listening to them, and she was on her cell phone for half of the lesson. but she really seemed to latch onto our personalities and listen to what we had to say. it was one of the most happy and peaceful settings i have ever been in. I shared with her how the Atonement has healed me. Sister turner shared how it had healed her. Ivelisse loved our message and Sister Turner and we shared with her with tears in our eyes that we know that this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth. everything about it brings so much peace and happiness. As we left she thanked us for the happiness that we brought to her.  We walked out with so much love for her and so much happiness. What I need to learn is how to SHOW people how the Atonement can heal them in our own lives. This is the answer that Sister Turner and I are working towards and that by coming unto Christ, FAMILIES CAN BE FOREVER.

So some people wonder why their prayers are not being answered. they wonder if God really answers them. something I learned about prayer is that prayer is a form of WORK  and it is the appointed means for obtaining the HIGHEST OF ALL BLESSINGS. That is just an amazing promise. but you have to believe in that promise. but the key is we have to pray representing CHRIST'S MIND. That is why we pray in His name at the end! because we need to have that mindset. So i challenge you all to start incorporating that into your prayers. EVERY TIME YOU PRAY, before you start, remember that you are representing Christ's mind. That will bring you more peace of mind and you will RECOGNIZE God's answers and hand in your life. That is something that I promise.

Okay last thing, read Joseph Smith history as a family. The first 26 verses or so. Read it out loud. but before you read it, pray to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. and read it, and then after- seek that witness from the Spirit. Whether its a feeling of peace, or love, or just that it feels right. The Spirit speaks through thoughts. I promise that if you pray with a sincere heart really wanting to know if he is a prophet of God- with no preconceptions, God will tell you that it is true. I did this. I already felt like I knew that Joseph was a prophet. but as I read it again, I realized that it FEELS so real. You have to focus on the feeling that you have. there is no way that you can make an experience like that up. the feeling when you read it is so humbling, and you really feel of His love when you read it. it really is a lesson to everyone. the lesson is if you ask in prayer ,THERE IS NO DOUBT YOU WILL RECEIVE. You just have to know that the answer will come in small ways, through the Spirit. Even a thought that leads you to do good IS FROM GOD.  Prayer is essential to finding out truth. and truth, is things how they really are.

Okay well i love you guys and ill send pictures now! I seriously appreciate all of your support and love through letters. if you haven't received an answer from me yet I am working on it and I promise if you wrote me I will write you back!

Love, Sister Gregerson

MTC Here She Comes!

She's gone!  We took Mikilah to the airport early this morning along with some of her friends and after lots of hugs and tears, she's off to the MTC for 12 whole days!  Gonna miss that girl.