EVERYTHING IS GREAT! 

October 21, 2013

Everything is really great. This week we literally taught a whole high school! and by that I mean we have 5 investigators that are in high school. BUT HEY THAT'S A LOT! this is for everyone in high school reading. just kidding it's for everyone, but seriously YOU make an impact! every single one of these high schoolers knows someone LDS and because of that, they are interested in what their friends believe. and even if they don't know them personally, they know who they are! one of them was so interested in why they weren't interested in promiscuity and why they dressed so modestly! another one just really liked his LDS friends and was interested in what they believe. another one has a Mormon best friend and he brought him to church after we started teaching him! the thing is, WE found these people. that just emphasizes how important what they were saying in conference is about member missionary work! think about how much more meaningful it would have been for these high schoolers to hear their friends' testimonies. how much it would have meant for them to hear of the healing power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how pure their joy can be. how they can find answers to the questions of their SOUL that they've ever thought about- in the Book of Mormon. how much influence that having a prophet in these days can have on families in any and every situation. I know how much this gospel means to me and how much it has truly changed my life, and how happy it has made me. there are people all around who would truly love to hear just a simple message of Jesus Christ. the feeling of the Spirit is impossible to describe perfectly, but I do know that I have felt it the strongest when praying. when learning about Joseph Smith and reading his testimony. when I'm sharing what is close to my heart, and when I hear anyone else bear their testimony. the Spirit is so real and so unique, and I don't realize how lucky we are to really feel that in our lives to much. I just love this gospel! I want everyone to be able to feel of that overpowering love and healing from their Heavenly Father! it is unreal!

So let's see. I guess I haven't said much about my AWESOME COMPANION! She likes to save spiders and I don't. So I come up with ways to secretly kill them in front of her and then tell her later. It's great. She loves me for that.

I can't think of what else happened. Wait yes I can! we finally met our investigator's wife! I guess that's not really excited to the rest of the world. We were really excited though. I'm just constantly amazed at all of the awesome people we get to meet and talk to. seriously every dinner appointment or lesson we walk out of sister Hilton and I just are amazed at how incredible everyone is. I never want to leave this area! except I feel like I am in 2 weeks. That's the end of the transfer! I'VE ALMOST BEEN OUT THREE MONTHS!

Also we just got to have lunch with aunt Jeanette and Ashley! It was so much fun to see family. Seriously. I was so glad that she thought of doing that! They are so nice to me and I'm so blessed to have family like them around. Aunt Jeanette always makes me the best cookies! We enjoy that. I absolutely love my mission. I learn so much. and I'm extremely humbled every single day. I really could not do this alone and I just love this gospel!

THIS WEEK WAS AWESOME!

October 14, 2013

THIS WEEK WAS AWESOME AND FULL OF THE SPIRIT! we finally got back on track this week haha. we got to go tracting with Sister Murdock at the beginning of the week and it was one of the best days. it was so awesome to see how excited she was about the work at every door she just showed how much she was in love with the gospel! we taught one lesson with her and she was just so excited she stood up and knelt down right next to the man and read the book of Mormon introduction with him. it was awesome. she was such an example of what i want to be like! you really could just see the light in her eyes and how strong her testimony was just from talking with her for one minute.

One of my experiences that happened last Thursday is that felt really strongly that we HAD to go visit one of these names on the ward list that no one knew who they were and we went and they weren't home. We decided to walk around a little bit and ahead i saw this lady walking a stroller. In my head i was like.. i should talk to her... and then she started walking by and i was like hi! and she didn't answer cause she had headphones in. so i was like okay that's fine we will talk to someone else. but then i decided that no, i really should talk to her. so i tried to say hi again haha and then she took out her headphones, and i asked her if she wanted to hear a message about Jesus Christ and she was like yeah! and it caught me off guard for a second so i didn't know what to say. but we ended up walking around the neighborhood with her and taught her about the Restoration and the book of Mormon! she was so amazed because she said that she never walks that way but today she decided to, and she felt so blessed. the only sad part was that she wasn't in our area haha. but it just was such a testimony to me of how God really has a hand in this work! and it showed me how important it was to listen to the Spirit. all. the. time.

On Sunday we got to go to a fireside by Matt Holland, Elder Holland's son! it was a really awesome fireside, the way he talks is so similar to his dad. i really liked when he talked about his own testimony of the Book of Mormon. because so many times we are told that a spiritual confirmation of the Book of Mormon happens if you pray, and so many times people don't feel that so they doubt their testimony! he said that happened to him. and he prayed and prayed and read and read and didn't understand why he didn't feel anything. so one day he was hiking outside and was so confused, and the quote "line upon line, precept upon precept" kept coming to his head. he decided to call his dad, and he just poured out his heart to him. his dad's response was- that IS your testimony! the fact that that quote keeps coming into your mind is your answer. he explained that he had the book of Mormon his whole life, he has read it over and over and he has felt the influence of it since he was young. ever since he was young he was building his testimony like that scripture says- line upon line and precept upon precept. he realized that he LOVED the book of Mormon with all of his heart. he realized how much it really had in it and how much it showed the REALITY and POWER and SPIRIT of the Savior Jesus Christ. he knew he had a testimony of the Book of Mormon because he loved sharing it. he absolutely loved sharing it and that right there was the Spirit confirming to him that it was true. The Spirit confirms truth not always in huge ways, but in feelings of peace and happiness, and really anything that edifies and directs one towards good. 

A DAY OF MIRACLES
September 30, 2013

This week. this week this week this week! I don't even know where to start. okay my new companion! is sister Hilton from Temecula California! and she went to BYU and ran track and she is awesome. I attached a picture of her. she is such an awesome missionary and we have a great time! so her first day here was so crazy haha. sister rodriguez (another girl who just arrived) had to stay with us for the day until her companion got here from the other side of the mountain. I was so scared, I was giving them a first impression of a mission! haha oh my gosh and it turned out to be a crazy day. we had 4 set appointments and they all fell through, we tracted for EVER and no one would even talk to us, and they were like uhhhhh, what is this place!? and im really bad at directions so I didn't know where to go half the time (jk it was fine we had a gps). and so at the end of the day we had zeroes all the way down for lessons, investigators, and everything. which had never happened before, but something I learned from sister jones was that you have to have faith in your goals, and you truly can accomplish anything. so for the next day, we planned to find 3 new investigators and we had a few set appointments. and IT WAS A DAY OF MIRACLES. we found three investigators, and I extended the baptismal invite for the first time!!! (sis jones always did it before) and then at night we showed up at a less actives home RIGHT when she needed it. she could not believe that we had come that night and we studied with her and the Spirit was just overwhelming. The love from our Heavenly Father is SO REAL.

So what ive learned this week is the power of prayer. I love Mosiah 27:14? I think its 14, I could be wrong. but its all about how Alma the Younger was trying to destroy the church and he was just rebelling against everything. but in this verse it talks about how much his father (Alma) prayed for him, and how much his father had faith that something would happen. it then says that an angel came down and talked to Alma the younger to tell him that he needed to stop destroying the church! it said that BECAUSE OF HIS FATHERS FAITH, this happened. I could not believe it! this was the strongest testimony of prayer I had ever heard of. Alma's father had SO MUCH faith, that Heavenly Father had to send an ANGEL down to talk to Alma the Younger in order to be heard. OUR PRAYERS ARE HEARD, AND ANSWERED. there is no doubt about it. it is all according to our faith. if we truly believe something can happen, it will. I cant even handle it it makes me so excited! yesterday we had a goal to find one new investigator. we prayed and prayed that we could reach this goal, and we knew from our experiences that week that Heavenly Father would help it happen if we believed it would. we were knocking on doors and we just really weren't getting anywhere, but I really felt like we were in the right place. it was getting late and close to the end of the day, but I looked up and I pointed to a house a little ways down and thought- WE GOTTA GO THERE. the VERY LAST door we knocked on, he let us pray with him and we told him about Christ's restored gospel and how much it meant to us, and how our purpose as missionaries is to just invite people to learn about what we believe- but NOT to take our word for it. we told him that he needed to ask God if it was true, because we sincerely want him to know for himself what is true, and he could ask God because He is the source of all truth. and he was so excited and we are going back tonight! we could not believe how blessed we were. we found 7 investigators this week! these new goals are really stretching us but it is truly possible. every day is so amazing.

Overall Saturday was the best day ever! we had a lesson EVERY HOUR! we were running from appointment to appointment and it made the day go so fast. oh also the weather is super random here so and on saturday I swear the house was like 20 degrees so we dressed up in boots and coats and like snow things while we studied because we were so cold then that day it ended up being like 80 degrees and really hot and every where we went people thought we were weird for being in boots. but its fine haha OH I SAW BONNIE IN THE RELIEF SOCIETY BROADCAST! (Bonnie is a BYU friend of Mikilahs) it made me so happy that's such an awesome experience. Also that broadcast was so good and I cannot wait for conference this weekend! 

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!