Another week has come and gone. My goodness! I don't know where time goes. It seems to just zip right by!

 

We had a wonderful week with many miracles. There are always so many miracles. It is amazing how much the Lord blesses us.

Last week, we decided that vegetables are overpriced. So, we decided to buy a tomato plant. They aren't just any old red tomato though. They're purple! It seemed only appropriate to name him. His name is Professor Plum. :] We are hoping to get a green bell pepper plant  today and plan to name that one Mr. Green. We went on splits with Sis. Clayton in the evening. She is such a nice lady. We visited the Youmans, a part member family. They are nice people. Sis. Youmans has been taught by missionaries for YEARS. I think her heart has become quite hardened for some reason. She didn't want to participate, but we are working on helping Bro. Youmans come back to church.

 

Tuesday was just a funny day. Jan had her baptism interview so the Fayetteville elders came up to Dunn to do the interview. They had a hard time finding the church building and after being lost for 20 minutes they finally called to ask for directions (typical). We decided to go and stand outside to help them see the building. They came up on the corner into the parking lot pretty fast and Elder May burned some rubber. It was so funny! He was so embarassed too. His face was bright red and it was hilarious. Somewhere there was a major miscommunication so we didn't have another male present which meant we couldn't be in the building. So, we pulled some chairs outside and Elder May interviewed Jan under one tree, and Elder Benson, Sis. Tillman and myself sat under another tree unti the interview was done. It was hot. Jan passed her interview! (of course) She was so excited! We had a lesson with her afterwards and experienced some technical difficulties in trying to figure out how to work the TV. We finally gave up. We had a nice lesson about enduring to the end from 2 Nephi 31:19-20. Jan offered the closing prayer and it was the best prayer ever. She expressed so much gratitude to Heavenly Father for how much the gospel has blessed her and for how happy she now is. It was definitely a tender mercy to hear her pray. She is the best.  We also met with a couple of less active sisters in Lillington. We had a great lesson on faith and prayer. Prayer is the first step in exercising our faith (see Alma 34:17). It was a great lesson! We are hoping they will start coming back to church. Work is proving to be a big obstacle....We did some tracting in the evening due to appointment cancellations. The nice thing about summer here is that everyone is outside! We were able to talk to quite a few people, but none expressed much interest. There was a guy who stopped us while we were driving and asked if I worked at a tattoo/piercing shop. I told him I definitely did not pierce his nose.

 

Wedensday we had a great district meeting on revelation through prayer. It was sooo good! We received some great revelation on how to help some of our investigators to have more effective prayers. One thing that I learned..and could do better at myself is taking time to ponder and think about what I have prayed for after I finish praying. It is so easy to jump up and to move onto the next task, but how much more effective our revelation could be if we would just slow down and think for a few moments. Anyways, it was really good. We were able to meet with a media referral after district meeting. His name is Tyler. He is a great guy. He is attending Campbell University (which I just found out like two weeks ago is a baptist college...random trivia for y'all). His dad and brother are both members and his brother is actually serving a mission in SLC. Crazy, right? He was raised by his mother so he had no idea they were members until a few years ago. His brother has been talking to him about the church some so he requested to have the missionaries come. He doesn't beleive in God (ironic since he goes to a baptist college and they begin every class with prayer...I am thinking it is a blessing though). We aren't sure how things are going to work out, but we are going to exercise a lot of faith that the spirit can touch his heart and be softened. He said he would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. So, it's a good start. :)

 

We met with the VanBeck family (members) for dinner on Thursday. We did a lesson with them afterwards about missionary work and it went really well! They are going to invite their neighbors over for dinner and start sharing the gospel with them. It is great to see members getting involved with missionary work. We also stopped by a potential named Kiosha. She wasn't home...again. Her mom has answered the door every time we have gone over there (which is getting up in the double digits now). She told us we must have something good to be this persistant and said she would like to come to our church. We invited her. I think she will eventually open up enough to allow us to teach her. She would be a great member! We received a miracle referral from the Elders in Fayetteville that evening. Heavenly Father really does answer prayers. They have been teaching her. Her name in Yolanda and she lives on the same street as one of our members! We are really excited to begin teaching her.

 

Friday we went on splits with Sis. Gunn (who is preparing to go on a mission). We stopped by a "less active" named Phillip. Turns out it was the wrong Phillip. It was his grandpa! his wife let us in and we got to talk a bit about baptist beliefs and our beliefs and then it turned into a history lesson on Asian population control. I'm still not sure how it happened, but it could be attributed to the fact that he is a professor of Asian studies at Campbell. He gave us the contact information for his grandson and was very kind. They are such a nice couple. We went to waffle house for lunch and visited with less active Rachel who works there. She is busy busy busy! She is a single mom, two kids, working two jobs and going to school. I don't know how she does it. She is great though. She is quitting her job that requires her to work on Sundays and will hopefully be able to start coming back to church. We had a good lesson with Bruce and Margaret in the evening. SIs. Tillman is so inspired. We used what she learned at District Meeting and I really believe it will be a big turning point for Margaret who claims she has received no answer to her prayers. (They have been meeting with missionaries for going on 10 months now...)

 

Jan got baptized on Saturday! It was a great service. Pres. and Sister Cotterell came and spoke. Sis. Tillman and I also spoke. She was so excited! It was hilarious. A miracle happened too! Her daughter came all the way from Carey (which is quite a ways away from Dunn) on her lunch break to support her mom. It made Jan's day. She was so happy. There were many tears of joy. After everything was said and done, I felt like passing out. Sometimes I think I stress out over the most ridiculous things. It turned out perfectly though. We also witnessed another miracle. Our dear investigator, Lewis finally met with Pres. Cotterell after 2-3 years (I can't remember how long for sure) of stalling and he can now prepare for baptism! Yay! The Hudsons also came. Margaret talked with Jan for quite a while afterwards and Pres. Cotterell and Bruce exchanged contact information (yes!). The Cotterells are leaving next week! :\ I don't know how I feel about that really. Our new mission president and wife are from Florida. Their names are the Bernheisels. He speaks Tawainese or Japanese or something like that. It should be fun! But I'd rather the Cotterells just stay. (sigh). Change really is the only constant in life. We had dinner with the Martins and helped them move their furniture around in their living room...only to move it back. Sofas complicate things. Sectionals are so much easier to deal with! Anyways, it was good.

 

On Sunday, Jan was confirmed. I forgot to set up a microphone and such (oops!) So, Bishop Ginn just spoke really loud. Jan was just glowing. She is so happy! Russ (her less active, but coming back boyfriend) seemed greatly humbled by the whole experience. He has made some big changes in his life. Everyone was out of town this week. So, Sis. Tillman and I taught gospel principles on Eternal Marriage. I was panicking the whole time wondering what the Hudsons must be thinking and also Jan because she isn't married. I felt very underqualified to be teaching that lesson. I think it turned out okay though. Lewis text us to tell us he was on his way to the ER and apologized for not coming to church. Poor fellow. I hope he gets to feeling better soon.

 

I read some great scriptures this week! Check out D&C 123:16-17 and James 3:4 and Alma 37:6 and 1 Nephi 16:29. (they all connect to each other.) It was a good reminder that we need to try to do everything in our power and then leave the rest up to the Lord and also that just like a large ship with a small helm, we can do great things. Sometimes we don't always know how much of an impact we make on a person's life, but whatever small service or act we do for them, it can mean a whole lot to them.

The church is true. Remember that testimony and faith are like plants. We need to nourish them with diligent (not just leisurly) scripture study, prayer, and dedicated service to others and the Lord.

 

I love you all. Thank you for your outpouring of love and support. It has helped a tremendous amount. :)

 

With lots of love,

 

Jan's Baptism

Sister J!

Hello from the land of kudzu and trees and BUGS.

I counted 23 mosquito bites from standing outside for a total of maybe...MAYBE five minutes. It should be a fun summer!

The weather has been incredibly mild thus far this summer. It is wonderful! Sis. Tillman says she brought Utah weather with her. I am okay with that. I hope it stays that way. :]

We had a great week this week.

 

Nothing too exciting happened on Monday. It was just very busy. I was still folding laundry at 9:45 pm that night.

 

Tuesday: Happy Birthday Grandpa! We went and did some service for Sis. Arrington. Her little girls love us! They are so cute too. We spent the day trying to contact formers and some potentials. We received a miracle referral from Temple Square! His name is Tyler and he lives in Buies Creek. He wants to know how his family can be togehter forever. (We can answer that!) We called him and set up an appointment with him. I am so excited to go and visit him and his family.

We had dinner with the Anderson family and Sis. Anderson came on exchanges with us to see the Hudsons afterwards. We had a good lesson with them. We read the talk from conference, "To Hold Sacred" by Elder Pieper with them. It went pretty well. Sis. Hudson is concerned about some things that she could resolve if she knew the Book of Mormon was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I know she'll get it eventually. Change is hard though...for some folks.

 

Wednesday: Happy Birthday to me! 23 years. If any of you have some extra canes or walkers lying around, they would be much appreciated ;). Sis. Tillman made it a special day which was so kind of her. She made me breakfast, made a happy birthday sign out of sticky notes, and made me a giant pan of brownies (I LOVE brownies! They are my downfall). I feel like everyone else knew it was my birthday too. We were finally able to meet with a family history referral named June. She invited us over and told us she had some "light" refreshments. the "light" refreshments included carrot cake, german choclolate cake, cheesecake, m&m's and fruit. It was anything but light. She also had happy birthday napkins. She talked for a LONG time. I think that was the longest appointment I have ever been in. Two hours later we finally left. Then, we had dinner with my favorite family...the Swaffords! They had a strawberry cheesecake pie for dessert that was divine. We were also able to meet with Bro. King (old man who lives in front of us). He isn't doing too well. So, we visited with him with Sis. Dale for a bit. He is a great poet! He has some beautiful poetry that he has composed. He recited a few from memory and they were incredible. We were supposed to meet with Lewis that evening, but he bailed on us so we decided to go see Sis. Langdon in the Lillington Nursing home. She told us a crazy story about how she had to bury a horse and that because of rigor mortis, the legs were sticking straight up out of the ground so they just sawed them off. lol. She was one of the first members in teh Dunn area. She has a lot of great stories about when everything first started here.

 

Thursday: Happy Birthday Connie! Happy Flag day too! Thursday we had district meeting. It was so good. We talked about the difference between being obedient and being exactly obedient. Exact obedience is doing something and understanding why. There were also some scriptures referenced including Alma 57:21, and 2 Nephi 5:10-11. Pres. Cotterell came and we had a good lesson about working more effectively with the members. He invited us to schedule appointments with members during the week to help them strengthen their covenants and help them to do missionary work. Sis. Tillman and I role played with the Cotterells. They are going to talk to some of their neighbors this week about the biblevideos.org. :) We had a great opportunity to practice what we learned that evening with the Guymon family. We read 3 Nephi 27:21-22 and talked about what the Savior expects of us and then we invited them to do things to prepare certain individuals to accept an invitation to learn more about the gopsel. We are hoping to meet with one of their friends this friday!

 

Friday: So this was a miracle! We were calling some of the less active members in the ward to schedule times to come and share a message with them. We called one brother whose last name is Kinard. He did not answer, but we noticed that there was another number in our phone for a "brother Kinard". We just assumed it was the same Kinard. We called that number, left a message and left it at that. About two days later this Brother Kinard called back and clarified that he was different Kinard than the one we thought he was. He indicated that he was moving to texas at the end of this month. We offered to help his family with moving or anything. He said that they had everything covered, but asked if we could tend their kids. We explained that we couldn't do that, but told him we could find some YW who might be willing. We called the YW president and she found a couple of girls who are willing to watch them for service. We called him back to let him know and he invited us to come to dinner with his family. We just met with them this week. His wife is from Japan and doesn't know much about the church. Brother Kinard is a convert of only a few years. He has been struggling to stay active and hasn't been in a year or so, but loves the church. We talked to them about reading the Book of Mormon and invited them to church. They came yesterday!  The elders quorum and YM are now getting involved with them moving whether or not they like it. :) It was so good to see them at church!  We also met with Jan and watched speical witnesses of Christ with her and went over the baptism interview questions (this Saturday is her day!). It was so neat to hear her explain what it means to her to know that there is a prophet on the earth today. That was something she really struggled with for a quite a while. She is so well prepared. I love her. :)

 

Saturday: More service! This time for Sis. Fredell. We scrubbed her walls and vacuumed for her and reorganized her food storage! I was also humbled. By the GPS. We were looking for a road called Lipscomb rd and I was totally outsmarted by the GPS! We drove in a circle a few times and then discovered that we were going in a circle. Then, to top it off, we put in our address to go home and I was just cruising along and all of the sudden the road we live on turned into a different road...which wasn't supposed to happen. We discovered that I had been going the wrong direction for about 12.4 miles. This isn't the first time this has happened. (sigh) We eventually made it home about 1/2 hour later. lol. Sis. Tillman was super annoyed. All I could do was just laugh. We met with a different Bro. King later that evening and had a good lesson with him about the 10 commandements.

 

Sunday: Happy Father's Day! I hope you had a great day dad. You are the best father I could ever ever have and I am so lucky to have you. Thank you for teaching me how to be strong and how to work hard and for just being there for me. I love you so much. No one can ever take you place in my heart.

We had a great turnout at church. Lewis, the Hudsons, Jan, and the Kinard family all came to church! It was definitely a blessing and tender mercy from Heavenly Father. The Kinards received a very warm welcome and their kids did really well with primary and all. The talks were a little random for sacrament...they were on modesty. I'm not sure whose plan that was, but I think they must have forgotten it was Father's day. lol.

We had a great evening with Sis. Skinner and her kids. We went and visited some sisters in the nursing home and sang them some hymns. It's a good thing they are mostly deaf. We visited one sister, Sis. Blankenship. She kept telling us how "behooved" she was that we all came to see her and that we had "made her year!" She loved Sis. Skinners kids and kept hugging and kissing them the whole time. Sis. Skinners 11 and 13 year old boys were a little unsure about that, but it sure did make her day...or year I guess. :]

 

The Lord blesses us everyday. Sometimes the things we hope he will bless us with don't come immediately; or sometimes not at all. He does know what we need and what will be best for us though. He will bless us as we strive to follow him more perfectly. Remember that you are a child of God who knows you better than you know yourself and He loves you more than you can comprehend.

 

Have a blessed week! (Everyone says that here...)

 

Lots of Love,

 

Sister J

Another great week in Dunn, NC - June 10, 2012

Dearest family and friends,

 

Here is a quick overview of this past week (my time is far spent!)

 

Monday: Shopping everywhere. Sis. Tillman didn't have any short sleeve shirts. I didn't want her to die of heat stroke. We found some really cute shirts at this amazing outlet store that I didn't even know existed until today. We gave the cashier a pass-along card after she asked about the church. We had a great lesson with the Barney family (less active). We read our favorite scripture and told why. They are starting to come back to church!

 

Tuesday: Lesson with Sis. Jan Saylor about following the prophet (see 3 Nephi 3:19-21) and tithing. She is excited for her baptism and feels very much at peace with her decision. We met with a former investigator, Jimmy. He was nice, but not interested. We met with the Hudsons in the evening and read Alma 36 with them. Bruce shared a lot of experiences that were very dear to him. He was touched by this chapter and really enjoyed it. Margaret didn't say much. She is a tough cookie!

 

Wednesday: We met a "kiddie dipper" victim named John. He isn't the first one I've met. (explanation: the "Kiddie Dippers" are kids who were bribed by some very selfish/prideful Elders in the 60's to be baptized.) He remembered "two guys in suits" who told him they would give him a bag of candy if he went with them. So they loaded him and a bunch of other kids up in a van and took them to the church and baptized all of them. I would hate to be in those Elders' shoes.

We had a miracle lesson that evening. Bro. Dalton in the ward home teaches a family whose nonmember wife speaks spanish. The sisters have tried meeting with her in the past and her husband told them not to come back. Bro. Dalton talked with them and set up an appointment for us to go and see them. When we arrived no one was there, but then Dolores (the wife) showed up with her sister. We talked with her for a bit and then she told us to come back another time. Bro. Dalton pulled up at almost that exact same time and then she said that "actually, you can come in." We invited her to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. They recently lost a baby and it is still really hard for them. Her husband did not come. She wants to talk with him before setting up another appointment, but we were able to have a lesson! and she has the Book of Mormon now!

 

Thursday: We met with Lewis. We went to dinner with his mom (Lettie) and him. Lettie has been a member since 2001 and she is a great lady. She loves sharing the gospel with everyone. We had a lesson afterwards at the church building and talked about how we could invite the spirit into our lives. We used some things from E. Bednars talk, "That we may always ahve his spirit to be with us" about how the Liahona is like the Holy Ghost. It is a really good talk! We also met with a former "do not contact" family. The wife is not a member. She is from Afghanistan and converted from Muslim to Baptist...because it was the closet church to her house. lol. She told us her life story...which was very sad, but was not interested in reading the Book of Mormon. Her husband is basically Atheist now. We were very sad to hear that.

 

Friday: Zone Conference! It was amazing. We read some from 3 Nephi 11. Pres. Cotterell told us this really neat story about how some elders in Mongolia didn't have the Book of Mormon in Mongolian (or whatever language they speak there) So as they were contemplating about how they could help the people they were teaching to know the Book of Mormon was true, they decided to translate a few verses from 3 nephi 11 and have them ponder those scriptures and pray to know they are true. Many people prayed about those verses and joined the church because they knew those verses were true. That chapter is such a powerful chapter of scripture. I love it. I thought it was a really neat story. There is so much power in the words and verses of the Book of Mormon. It really is such a blessing to have those truths restored.

 

Saturday: Sis. Tillman was sick. :( I spent the day going through the massive former investigator book in our apartment and calling a lot of them. It was unsuccessful, but who knows. Maybe something will come of it.

 

Sunday: Jan came to church! She particapted in Gospel Principles and in Relief Society. It is so neat to see her grow and the light and confidence she develops as she learns more about the gospel. We drove all the way out to Godwin (which is a good 30 minute drive) to see Deborah, our new investigator from last week. She called Sis. Ramage to let her know that she wouldn't be able to meet with us that evening. It was disappointing, but we had a good lesson with the Ramages on the restoration. We are going to help Sis. Ramage with her VTing to some less actives who no one knows anything about. I love working with members.

 

In other happy news, I heard from Sis. Welch that Nathan (whom we taught in Deep Run) contacted the sisters in Jacksonville (finally) and asked how he could get baptized. lol. She said he wanted to join the church before he left for basic training in the army and he is going to do it!

I also received a very happy email from Sis. Matthews who recently returned home and she found Matthew (from Greenville) on facebook and he contacted the Sisters in Greenville just recently and wants to start coming back to church!

 

The power of the gospel is amazing. It brings so much peace and comfort into our lives. I love every aspect of the Atonement. It gives us hope and that is something we need in the world today.

 

Have a wonderful week! Thank you for all you love and prayers. They do make a difference. :)

 

Love,

 

Sister J

At the feet of an Apostle (June 4, 2012)

Hello hello hello!

 

It has been a great week here in NC. The weather has even been very pleasant. So last monday was crazy. We went to Bishop Ginns for lunch and I got to play the piano and it was wonderful! We were able to finally meet with a potential that we have been trying and trying to meet with that evening and had a great lesson with his girlfriend, Sasha. She is from Guyana and was raised Hindu. It should be a fun teaching experience with her and Ricardo (her boyfriend).

 

Tuesday we were up before the sun was awake to get ready to go to transfer meeting. We stopped at Sherry's Bakery and got some tasty treats. I wasn't too hungry though. My nerves were getting the best of me. Sister Truelove (who is amazing) took us to Raleigh for transfer meeting. I had to be there by 8:30 for a training meeting. I was the only sister there. I only felt slightly out of place (hint of sarcasm). We reviewed the new 12 week program that they are doing with all the new missionaries now. It is an amazing program. There is so much revelation to receive! I did part of it with Sister Wilson and it was the best thing ever. So, we were singing (trying to anyways) Praise to the Man when all the new missionaries come in to meet their trainers. I was mostly just mouthing the words. I was so nervous! Sister Tillman is great though. I think I worked myself up over nothing....

I heard great news about dear miss Clara we were teaching in Deep Run from Elder Otteson. Clara's boyfriend who was afraid to come out and say so much as "hi" to us and finally came to church the last week we were there has been coming to church every week since then and reads the Book of Mormon more than Clara does and he wants to get baptized and has invited like 3 of his friends to listen to the elders as well! It was probably the most exciting thing I've heard in a long time.

We met with the Hudsons that evening. Dear miss Margaret is still stuck. We are praying for a miracle.

 

Wednesday's district meeting was great! Elder May (whom I served with in the Kinston stake) is our new District Leader. He knows sister Joseph. They are both from the same home town. We had a good district meeting about asking referrals from everyone. That evening, we were able to meet with the illusive Sister Irwin who has been avoiding us for the past six weeks. Her husband doesn't like the church. So, that is why she hasn't been for a long while. She is amazing though. She even spoke at stake conference when she first joined the church. We invited her to read the Book of Mormon.

 

All of our appointments on Thursday were stand-ups. (sigh) And then, all of our backup plans seemed to have moved. Poor Sister T was getting pretty down about it. It started dumping buckets of rain again mid afternoon and the wind made the stop lights go out. I guess there was/is(?) a tropical storm somewhere out there in the Atlantic ocean...

It was definitely a good character building day. :)

 

We had a miracle occur on Friday! We met with Sister Jan and she has decided that she wants to be baptized on the 23 of June! She said she had been praying and praying about it and when she was talking with the Fay 4th elders, she just felt like it was the right day. So, she broke the news to us and we were ecstatic to say the least! She is doing really well. She had a lot of questions about infant baptism and we were able to use Moroni 8 to answer every single one of them. We had an enjoyable evening with the Baysa family. (he's a member, she is not). We met with them last week and his wife has no desire to read the book of Mormon or pray about it or anything, but they invited us back for dinner. So, we went.  It was a feast. Bro. Baysa is polynesian. Enough said. Sis. Baysa is a music major and has some amazing piano skills. We played and sang hymns for a while. She added a southern baptist touch to the hymns. It was pretty entertaining.

 

Saturday we had our mission tour in Apex and got to hear from Elders Giddens, Clayton, and Holland. They were all incredible talks. We got to shake hands with Elder Holland which he told us he insisted upon because that was our interview with him. We all passed! (whew).

Elder Giddens impressed upon our minds the great importance of companion study. It is so true. Comp study makes or breaks your day.

Elder Clayton talked about a whole bunch of things, but the one thing that stood out the most to me was that we should strive to make the church experience for our investigators a place where they won't want to leave. He talked about how we are really good at buidling bigger buildings, but that we need to focus on building bigger buildings that are designed where people cannot leave because they do not want to. I found  a scripture today that kind of talked about that in John 15:16.

Elder Holland told us no matter how important we think this is, it's a lot more important that that. He also said that missionary work is the most important thing we can do in the universe because it contributes to the salvation of a human soul. He told us that we are God's investigators, and that preach my gospel is designed to convert the missionary who can then take that knowledge and share it with others. He told us we darn well better not return and be the same person we left as and that we should be expected to do the same things we invite our investigators to do everyday of our lives. He also said that the church is literally in the hands of "escapees of the Aaronic Priesthood." I thought that was pretty funny. :)

I had the priviledge of giving the closing prayer.

 

I love fast sundays in Dunn. The Kunz's little four year girl always gets up and bears the cutest,sweetest testimony. This time she talked about school and church and prophets. She is a doll. We got to teach the priests during third hour and had a great lesson about why we have commandments. Then we went to the Ramages and had a lesson with their friend, Deborah who wanted to know more about the church. She is very smart and knows a whole lot about the Old Testament. She wants to read the Book of Mormon and we are really looking forward to teaching her!

 

I love you all. I send my love to the Fitch family and also the Bowmans. I know there isn't much I can say that would ease the hurt, but I do know that God knows what you are going through and that He is always there to help us in our trials (See 2 nephi 2:2)

 

I love you all! Have a great week!

 

Love,

Sister J