New Beginnings

Well, I have given some serious contemplation concerning the prognosis of this wonderful old blog and the stupid dark mark that has overtaken it. During my contemplation, I have come to the conclusion that it is time to start over. It seems particularly fitting since it's a new year and all. So, I will not be using this blog any longer, but will be starting a new blog...a continuation of the old one (of course) there's way too much on this blog to just leave it all behind and lost on the world wide web. I'll be sure to have a link on the new one to this one. I still have mixed feelings about starting over, but I would like to have my agency returned in regards to how I manage my blog. So, here's to a new beginning.

http://www.wimp.com/fireworksshow/


The new blog is http://beautyofawall.blogspot.com/
I will explain. Promise. :)

A Dark Mark

Today I thought to myself,  "it would nice to change my blog background." So that's exactly what I did. I was quite pleased with the background I found (It's cute, right?) and felt content that this was going to be the next phase of awesomeness for ambsterdam89.blogspot.com.
I was wrong. Thanks to the website Cutest Blog on the Block, my blog is ruined. Forever! Apparently I no longer have the ability to change my background EVER again simply because I erased some HTML stuff and put some new HTML stuff in it's place. Also, I can't even access this blog without going through the other blog, thedentalhygieneminutes.blogspot.com because the link that would normally allow me to log in is no longer in existence either. Vanished. MIA. Gone.
On a happier note, I guess it was inspiration to start that other blog because I didn't even really need it, but now I can access my shtuff through it. Yay!
Gracious me. I might be overreacting. (nahhh)
I am at an impasse right now in deciding how to respond to this odd (and apparently unheard of) situation.Tyler and I searched the internet to figure out how to undo this cluster cuss of a mess, but alas, I guess no one else has ever had this happen to them.
I can still post on here. I just have no control of what font I want to choose. (sigh)
Should I call it quits on this blog and start afresh?
I feel like Hamlet. "To be or not to be. That is the question."
I don't know.
Oh. If anyone reads, this, please refrain from choosing the background I have. It will be the last choice you ever make in regards to blog templates.
It's like a disease. It slowly takes away your freedom to choose.
It will destroy how you design your blog forever!

There is a dark mark on this blog now. Forever.

Mi Amor

I thought it would be nice to put up a few pictures of Tyler and I. I wish I understood how to use this blogger thing better, but whatever.

Sometimes true love finds you while you are sitting on a stump.

I like the grass in this picture. I really like Tyler the most though. :]

Easy entertainment.

Nerd Day

This was the day that we officially decided we really liked each other and then we kissed each other to seal the deal of liking each other. 

Together Forevs

Tiempo

Fact of the day: The word tiempo means time or season in spanish (or at least, that's what my friend Google Translate tells me).
After I came home from school today I was pondering about time and how much we have of this slippery commodity, but how little of it we use wisely. For instance, I should probably be studying about the zillions of muscles that create facial expressions right now in lieu of an anatomy test tomorrow instead of contemplating about time in a blog entry.

I really want to write about time though....

Nelson Mandela said, "We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right." Nelson Mandela knew what was up. The program I'm in at school right now requires us to do tons of service hours each month. I was feeling a bit discouraged about this at first because time is SO precious as it is and I really felt like I was barely keeping my head above the water as it was. Not to mention I do in fact have a life outside of school. Gee. However, I have found that somehow I have been able to accomplish so much more recently since I have taken the focus off of "What can I do for me?" and I have shifted my focus to, "What can I do for (insert noun [limited to places or people] here)?" Some might say it's just that I've become better at managing my time. I would have to agree to a small degree (that rhymed!), but I also really believe that as we go out of our way to serve others, especially those who come into our lives, the Lord blesses in ways we don't always understand. Maybe I'm crazy, but I really think it seems like a plausible idea.

There is no better time to do service for someone that now. We live in a world that is so focused on me and I that if we don't watch ourselves we can become blind to the world, its joys and the people that occupy it.

I just found this video and I like it a lot (minus the narrators voice)

I want to use my jelly beans wisely. The idea of how quickly time can slip through your fingertips became very profound when my mother passed away two years ago. I had so much time to spend with her and I hardly feel like I spent enough of it with her.

One of the unfortunate things about time is that you can't reverse it. Sometimes I wish I could, but deep down I know that the outcome of things in the past would still be the same because "to every thing there is a season"and "a time to every purpose under heaven."

The fact that time does go on forever is an incredible idea too. It's kind of like numbers in math. They can go on infinitely and so does time. I'm thankful for that knowledge because I know that someday I'll be reunited with my family members and we will be together FOREVER!

I guess I should probably do my homework now, but I hope you found this snippet as a useful part of your day.

Nostalgia Lane

Happy Autumn! The leaves are starting to turn here. It's going to be a lovely fall! I hope to enjoy the weather and not get stuck in my textbooks too much.

It's funny to think that one year ago today I was walking around Raleigh knocking on random people's doors telling them about my belief in Jesus Christ and His love for each of us. Some of those random people may have felt something warm their heart and decided to let us come into their homes to share more. I'm really glad I had the experience of going on a mission. As I mopped the floor this morning, I thought about the many lessons and principles I learned as a missionary. I think one of the primary lessons that I learned was that we can control our outlook on life despite what our circumstances may be.

As President Dieter F. Uchtdorf beautifully presented:

We shouldn’t wait to be happy until we reach some future point, only to discover that happiness was already available—all the time! Life is not meant to be appreciated only in retrospect. “This is the day which the Lord hath made … ,” the Psalmist wrote. “Rejoice and be glad in it.”

Brothers and sisters, no matter our circumstances, no matter our challenges or trials, there is something in each day to embrace and cherish. There is something in each day that can bring gratitude and joy if only we will see and appreciate it.

Perhaps we should be looking less with our eyes and more with our hearts. I love the quote: “One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.”

I suggest reading the entire talk, "Of Regrets and Resolutions". 

I determine my happiness. :)

I'm really excited for October! I found this yummy recipe in my inbox the other day and I'm really excited to make it. Cooking is turning out to be more enjoyable than I ever thought imaginable.

Tyler and I are anticipating the release of the newest album from ARCADE FIRE at the end of October as well. The single from their new album has the best music video ever! if you go to justareflektor.com it should pull up. If you're an apple geek make sure you use google chrome instead of Safari. :)

School is...school. I enjoy it, but also struggle a lot. Last week was a tough one for me, but I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of things and I think once I start to see how everything fits together I'll find it very enjoyable. 

Carpe Diem!

Marriage and Schooling

 My love and I have been married for over a month now. I love it! I highly recommend the institution of marriage. It is very rewarding and fulfilling and strengthening. We live in half of a yellow house, there is a terrifying dog that lives next door to us and we live across the street from the church! It's so convenient. It must be recompense for all the time I spent driving to church in North Carolina...and for being at church for 6-9 hours each sunday. :)

School officially started today. I am studying dental hygiene. So far I feel like it is do-able. One of my classes requires us to keep a blog so, I have started an adjunct blog that I predict will be pretty dry and boring (truth be told) about my clinical experiences. It's called, dentalhygieneminutes@blogspot.com.

I thought this was rather hilarious. I don't really believe it is true, but still. It's pretty funny.

So, thus it begins. Another semester of school, but this time I'm married to my best friend! :)

Never say Never

I have learned a great lesson this year:  Never say never.

It was recently brought to my attention that the above phrase is the name of a Justin Bieber song. We will ignore that fact. :]

Over the past few months there have been some epically huge changes in my life.

One refinement is that I became engaged to my love and main squeeze, Tyler Lewis after being home for only 3 months. The second is that we only dated for two months before coming to the conclusion that we were obviously the most perfect companion for each other and that we would never find a better half.

I know it's crazy. Believe me. I know!

Well, I can tell you right now that this is the last place I expected to be after coming home from the mission. Truth be told, I had something like double negative desire for dating when I came home. I was still feeling very lost and confused about life as I tried to make sense of the events that had taken place over the past year and half. During my release interview, an invitation was extended by my very wise stake president to resist the temptation to be in a "comfort zone" of no dating and to start getting out and dating as soon as possible. I reluctantly agreed. Little did I know that this would be very important agreement for the weeks to follow.

Tyler Lewis and I have been friends since before we can remember. How we were ever introduced is still a mystery, but we presume it was through our mutual friend Jacquelyn when were about 13 or 14 years old. We remained good friends throughout high school, ate our lunches together at the same table in the northwest corner of Davis High's cafeteria, and attended a few of the same parties hosted by friends. When we were seniors in high school Tyler asked me on my first date ever; Homecoming! I was excited and nervous and all sorts of awkward. We danced and had marvelous evening. Not much changed after that because we were in high school and all, but we remained friends throughout the duration of our high school experience.

Tyler left for his mission shortly after we graduated from high school. Our mutual friend, Jacquelyn kept me posted on how he was doing along with several other friends who were serving during the same time. I recently found a half written christmas card addressed to Tyler during the time he was serving as a missionary. Apparently I had intentions of writing him, but failed to complete and deliver that letter. It has since been delivered...three years late :)

My first contact with Tyler after he came home was at the Davis High seminary building. We swapped numbers and within a couple of days he called and asked me on our second "first date." We went golfing and learned that we are equally awful golfers. Then we ate the Pizza Factory. By this point I had decided that I was very fond of Tyler Lewis. Unfortunately, we were both in very different phases of our lives and our second first date remained just that. A second "first date."

Time passed, I decided that I needed to serve a mission, and I set out for that roller-coaster of an adventure. Tyler attended my farewell talk. I am grateful for his loyalty. A lot of people have speculated that Tyler and I must have written back and forth while I was serving. We actually didn't write each other. The only letters I received from the male sex were my father, brother, and my friend's ex-boyfriend (which was kind of awkward...) So, our communication at the farewell talk was the last time I heard from him during that year and a half.

How we ever ended up being reunited after the mission is a bit of a miracle itself. I didn't want to invite anyone to my homecoming because I was feeling unsure of how to handle the circumstances of home life and how stable I would be while giving that talk. I decided to keep the group small and only invite people who contacted me first and asked about it.

When I finally (and reluctantly) decided to start using my phone after being home for a few days, I noticed a number that had called a few times. I ignored it at first, but when it kept popping up in my missed calls I decided to call the mystery person back to see what he or she wanted. To my surprise it was Tyler Lewis! He told me that he had received a text message from a number that he didn't know informing him that I was home. He asked about attending the homecoming address and was able to come. I am grateful things worked out the way they did. That led to a series of very fortunate events. I was without work and I don't exactly remember how everything came together, but somehow Tyler lined me up with a job at J&J Garden and Nursery. The day I came for my interview, I talked with Tyler at the front door of the J&J building. I liked Tyler, but still felt apprehensive about all of this dating business. As we were saying goodbye, Tyler asked if we could go to dinner sometime. I was bursting inside and agreed (of course). I was sooooooo nervous and excited all at the same time! We went on our third "first date" two days later. We had plans to eat at a southern BBQ place that night, but a massive snow storm ruined that plan. Our next plan was to go bowling, but the massive snow storm also ruined that plan. So, we decided to go shovel snow off of people's driveways. We talked as we shoveled driveways and something amazing happened, we clicked. Really well. It was kind of bizarre. A good bizarre though. Tyler asked me on another date for the following day and I readily agreed. By the end of the weekend, we discovered our feelings of liking were mutual and that our relationship was more than "just friends."


On March 22 Tyler proposed to me; and it came as quite the surprise! March 22 started out like any other day. After getting home from work I noticed that no one was home. I thought it was odd, but continued to get ready for the date Tyler had planned that evening. When we were getting ready to leave, I was kind of concerned that no one in my family was home or had made any attempt to contact me concerning their whereabouts. I was especially concerned about my 8 year old sister and where she was. I tried calling dad and after a few attempts, Ashlyn called back on his phone and told me that she was with dad at the emergency room. I talked to dad (who knew what Tyler was planning) and he told me not to worry and that I should go on the date. So, we did. Tyler never actually told me where we were going for dinner or what we were doing, but I just attributed it to the fact that it had been kind of hectic at home. After we had been driving on the freeway for a few minutes Tyler told me that we were going to dinner in Salt Lake at Kneaders. When we got to SLC, we parked by the conference center and walked through Temple Square. As we were passing the Joseph Smith Memorial building Tyler asked if I'd like to stop by and play the piano a little bit before dinner. I readily agreed because I hadn't been there for a few weeks. As we walked up the staircase, the lady who takes your ticket for the Joseph Smith movie was very friendly towards us as she vigorously waved her hand at us. I thought that was kind of odd, but then thought, "she must be a very nice worker lady here." (I later found out she had talked with Tyler earlier that day.) When we got to the room with the piano, Tyler went over to the piano and told me he couldn't remember how to lift up the lid on the piano. I thought that seemed a little silly, but then thought, "Well, I struggle with guitars." I went to lift up the lid and noticed that there was a bouquet of flowers inside. Then I blurted out, "Someone left their flowers inside the piano!" Then I noticed there was a picture of Tyler and I and I said, "with a picture of us!" (I still hadn't caught on to what was happening...I'm kind of slow sometimes) Tyler then asked me to sit down on the piano bench and that's when I realized he was proposing and before he had finished asking me to marry him I was nodding my head to say "Yes!"

 The rest of evening was quite the adventure.

We decided to cut our date short to make sure dad was okay. When we came back home, no one else was home still. I called my brother who told me dad had been life-flighted to the U of U medical center in SLC. I found out that a few days earlier dad had hit his head pretty hard and it resulted in bleeding on the brain. Tyler and I drove back to SLC and fortunately, dad was stable and no surgery was needed. Dad told me he knew Tyler was going to propose and didn't want to postpone him proposing. I'm thankful that dad was okay in the end. I was upset that they hadn't called me about the life-flight, but they said, "we knew what was happening and didn't want to ruin your evening!" (sigh)

So, that is the story of how things came to be.

Never say never. Your plan isn't always what God's plan for you is.

We are getting married on July 10th and I am ready to be done with wedding plans FOREVER.

Life is full of wonderful surprises. I have been greatly blessed in so many ways this year. I'm thankful for the hand of the Lord in everything. It's amazing. I am sure that he is very mindful of us and what we need to experience and learn at various points of our lives.

Our love story won't have a happy ending...because real love stories never have an end! :)

That's all. Hope you made it through this beast of a post without any casualties.

Lots of love!!!

Sneak Preview

 I know I've neglected writing on here much, BUT there is consolation in knowing that I will resume writing a bit more after the semester of death is over.

A whole bunch of wonderful goodness has happened since the last time I posted on here so hold onto your boot straps (or other if you aren't the boot wearing type) and get excited (I hope you are getting excited right about now)!! I'll be posting in the near future!


Here's a sneak preview:

Swept Off My Feet

Hello! I have missed writing on here. Really I've just missed the way things used to be once upon a time. It's hard to accept change sometimes (sigh).
I have been enjoying the quote that says, "The only constant in life is change."
That is a true blue statement!

The weather has most certainly been changing. Utah experienced an ICE STORM a few days ago. Everything is a sheet of ice and it definitely swept me off my feet a few times, haha! (and continues to do so...as everything is still a sheet of ice). Weber State's Science Building staircase is quite a fright to go down when it's a sheet of ice.
I'm not sure I was made to endure this kind of weather. The cold has sunk into my bones. Brrrrrr! The dry weather makes my hands look like sun-dried tomatoes too. If you've ever seen a sun-dried tomato, you know they aren't a pretty sight. Let's just say I am anxiously awaiting spring time. :)

Ashlyn has made it a goal to scare me as many times as she can in a day. Everyday. I think my nerves have had about all they can take. She hides in my closet, behind doors, and on the staircase and jumps up and says, "BOO!" The usual response is, "AHH!" She does a good job sweeping her seeester off her feet. :) I love that kid.

Speaking of things that have swept me off my feet, there is a wonderful, handsome young man who has managed to sweep me clean off my feet. I absolutely adore him and consider myself the luckiest girl around to be with him. We've gone on many an adventure including (but not limited to) snow shoveling service, sledding, ice skating, Harmon's, and we are in the process of becoming songwriters. :) I believe Heavenly Father definitely has had a hand in our lives as we "coincidentally" ended up in the same institute class at Weber State...which starts at 7:30 in the morning (I know it's not early morning seminary, but still. It's tough for us spoiled Utahns!) AAAND we both work at the same place. J&J Nursery. The horticulturists. That's us. We plant, sing, and talk to the flowers.
Yep. I am convinced the Lord is in the details of our lives. (See Pres. Monson's talk: "Consider the Blessings" OCT 2012 Conference)

Changing is hard, but I know it's how we grow spiritually. I know the Lord allows us to experience everything we go through so we can draw closer to Him ultimately. We have to learn to let go of the things we want and things we desire and do what He knows is best for us. Everything starts with humility and becoming like a child who will "submit to His father in all things." I love the hymn, "Nearer Dear Savior to Thee" Here are the lyrics for you to ponder:

Nearer, dear Savior, to thee,
Nearer, nearer to thee—
Ever I’m striving to be
Nearer, yet nearer to thee!
Trusting, in thee I confide;
Hoping, in thee I abide.

[Chorus]
Take, oh, take, and cherish me,
Nearer, dear Savior, to thee.

Nearer, dear Savior, to thee,
Nearer, nearer to thee—
Proved by my trials, I’ll be
Nearer, yet nearer to thee!
Humbly I come to thee now;
Earnest, I prayerfully bow.

[Chorus]

Nearer, dear Savior, to thee,
Nearer, nearer to thee—
Ever my anthem will be
Nearer, yet nearer to thee!
Loving thee, ever I pray,
Aid me thy will to obey.

[Chorus]

Nearer, dear Savior, to thee,
Nearer, nearer to thee—
Let me by holiness be
Nearer, yet nearer to thee!
When all my trials are done,
When my reward I have won

[Chorus]

I love y'all!

Post Mission Life (Derailed!)

Hello from the snowy, icy, frigid land of UTAH!
I can hardly believe I am home. It seems like a dream. I feel like a participant in the movie, "Inception." The mission felt like a dream, and being home feels like a dream. I hope that feeling goes away soon. I feel like a train that has been derailed. It's hard to remember things that happened before the mission sometimes. I feel disoriented and lost a lot of the time; not sure what I should do with myself, etc.
One of my dear mission companions, Sister Sabrina Welch wrote me a letter while I was still out and related the transitions a missionary goes through to the Plan of Salvation. We have a wonderful life with our families before we leave (like the pre-earth life), we are "born" in the mission field (earth life), we serve, things are hard, we face incredible amounts of opposition and stress (agency and opposition in all things), we find the greatest joy we know (learning about Jesus Christ and the power of the Atonement), we "die" in the mission field (mortal death), we fly home on the airplane (kind of like the spirit world), and then we return home to our families (celestial kingdom!).
Being home has been a big transition; but not as earth-shattering as everyone seemed to make it out to be. It was difficult to come home to completely unfamiliar surroundings. It is still hard for me to wrap my head around the hard facts of life. But, I just try to take things one day at a time and that seems to be helpful. :)
Things I miss about being a missionary:
My companion-She had the same goals I did. It was nice to have someone with the same objectives in mind.
Structure
Having something productive to do with my life every hour of the day
Companion study
Teaching
Bearing testimony frequently throughout the day
Going to bed at 10:30
Being safe...practically untouchable from the dating world!
North Carolina-the people, the weather, the everything
Going to church as a missionary
Gospel Principles
Having a purpose that I understand and know how to accomplish.
Having a magic blue card that I could buy food and other essential things with
Being concerned only for the welfare of others. Now I have to worry about myself...

There is a whole plethora of other things I could probably ramble off, but that might take a while (for you to read and me to type) and since we all have time constraints, I will refrain.

I gave my Homecoming address this past Sunday. I was scared out of my skirt! I think it went alright though. It felt so good to be able to bear my testimony, to teach some basic principles of the gospel and tell other people about some of the people I was able to meet and to teach. I felt so good after sacrament meeting was over. Brother Mark Fitch, who just returned home from France spoke with me. It was really neat because we both addressed the same topic, The Doctrine of Christ (Faith, Repentance, Baptism by Immersion, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End).
Coincidence? I think not!

Re-submersion into everyday life has been greeted with resistance. I still don't like listening to the radio (except 89.1, my beloved classical music station). Lance tried to introduce me to some new music. It resulted in tears. I think you see the world through a different lens than the rest of the world as a missionary. One day at a time...

My biggest fear right now is doing something to offend the spirit. I don't want to lose it. Making sure I take time to read from the Book of Mormon everyday and continuing the habits of praying and filling my day with worthwhile activities has been helpful. I have found that being selective about what is okay and what is not okay to see, listen to, participate in, etc has been a challenge. Especially in the entertainment department. Music was my lifeblood before I left. Now, I am finding a clash of standards. The iTunes library has shrunk significantly in some genres.

I want to go and serve someone.

I have talked a lot about how much I miss being a missionary, but it would also be important to note that I absolutely LOVE being home with my family. It is so nice to hold them in my arms again and talk with them and my favorite is snuggling with Ashlyn when she's getting ready for bed. It has been wonderful to be back home with them. Words can't describe the joy I felt when I saw them as I came down the escalator. It was the best thing EVER.

My love and appreciation for the experiences I have had during the past 18 months have definitely deepened since I've been home. Absence really does make the heart grow fonder. I loved being a missionary. It was the best thing I have ever done with my life. I don't regret the decision to serve.

The church is definitely true. If you don't know it yet, you can. Read the Book of Mormon and you will understand God's plan. You will see He has a grand purpose and plan for you. Bigger than you can comprehend. He can see the end from the beginning. You will learn to trust Him more, know Him better and feel His love work through you as you help other people. That's what I do know.

I hope to be a somewhat frequent blogger even though life is about to go insane with school and possibly (hopefully) a job of some sort. Not to mention I have committed myself to President Beard to re-enter the dating world (ugh).

Stay in tune!

Happy New Year (23 hours and 22 minutes late)

Love you all!

My last report as a Missionary.....

Hello dearest family and friends!

I guess this is the last time I will be reporting home as a missionary. That is mind-blowing! It has been a hard fact to accept. Being a missionary has brought more peace and joy into my life than I thought I could ever have; especially given the circumstances of everything that has happened over the past year and a half. I am grateful for the time I have had to serve as a missionary. It has been a "trial of my faith" most definitely and I feel that I have come out on the winning side. :) I have "fought a good fight. I have finished my course, I have kept the faith" as Paul would say. (see 2 Timothy 4:7) Paul is my hero of the New Testament.

A lot of good things happened this week.

We had dinner with the Randall’s, a recent convert family on Monday. They are such a great couple. I love them. We had a good lesson with them about being steadfast and immovable.

On Tuesday we had the best lesson EVER with Jeri. We taught her the restoration and prayed that we could teach it to her in a way that would be meaningful and applicable to her life. It was seriously one of the best lessons ever. She is such a great lady and works hard to overcome her fears and doubts. We invited her to be baptized and she accepted! (yay!) We stopped by several less actives and part member families afterwards. Unfortunately, no one answered the door.

Wednesday was the last zone meeting. It was really good. We were able to do some role plays and I feel like I finally have figured out how to do a good street contact! (better late than never I suppose :] ) We did a role play with the Assistants whose first response to our being assigned to role play together was, "get ready to learn from the best!" No pressure...it went well. (whew!) I love teaching and being able to recognize the spirit. Something we have started to do after role plays is asking the question, "Are there any thoughts that you didn't vocalize?" Those thoughts are usually things the spirit is prompting you to act upon, but we as human beings tend to ignore them sometimes.

We visited with Leah afterwards. She is a tough cookie. We taught her the Plan of Salvation. She had all sorts of crazy questions from her JW background. We told her to read the Book of Mormon. That will answer any question.

We went to the Petty’s afterwards and carolled to their neighbors, Ola Mae and Charles. They are an older couple. Ola Mae can play the piano like nobody's business. She played us some hymns with some baptist-esque overtones. It was fun. We were hoping to set up an appointment with her, but she pulled the "I'll call you" card. Hopefully she'll let the future sisters come back and teach.

We then went carolling to all of our investigators in R2 ward with the ward choir. We stopped by Bro. Ngo who was quick to invite us into his home and we sang him several hymns. The spirit was definitely there and he enjoyed it very much. He sang along with a few of the hymns and it was great! We tried singing to the Wakefields, but they weren't home so we carolled to their neighbors and gave them a Joy to the World DVD. They were a nice young couple. Our last stop was Sister Bogue. We were able to sing to her and she was so grateful we thought of her and stopped by. She was almost in tears.

Thursday was a day of "last time I will ever do this as a missionary" moments. I weekly planned for the last time (hallelujah!) on Thursday. We went to Sister Donaldson's afterwards and showed her the Mormon messages on mormon.org. She has been struggling a little, but the Mormon messages brightened her day! She told us she would be spending a lot more time there now that she knew about it. I went to the last coordination meeting ever as a missionary on Thursday. It must have been "National-be-late-to-coordination-meeting Day" because everyone came around 820 pm. It starts at 8. Despite our late start we were able to accomplish a lot.

We went to the farmer's market with Sister Bogue on Friday. She has CHF so we were able to go and help her go shopping for groceries since she can't do it herself. She likes fresh veggies and fruits a lot. She lined us up with a lot of fresh lettuce, spinach, and kale. I discovered that I really love kale. All of our appointments for the remainder of the day fell through. However, we were able to FINALLY contact a part member family, the Dixon’s. They were running around like crazy trying to get dinner in the crock pot because their niece just had a baby and they were on the way out the door. We helped slice onions and a miracle happened! I didn't cry! Anyway, it was a good ice breaker and they invited us to come back next week.

Saturday we went to lunch with Sister Patrick at this super ritzy Italian restaurant with mediocre food. At least the company was exceptional. :)
We also met with Sister Falco. She is in the Pearl of Great Price now! We invited her to read the Book of Mormon and she has just kept going. It's been great to see her progress.

Sunday was crazy. We went to church, Daisy and Jeri both came! It was a great way to end the week. We had a lesson with the Wakefields who were planning on coming to church, but Bro. Wakefield hasn't been able to kick a cold that is working on him. We then went to Bro. Ngo's and reviewed the restoration with him. He has been reading which is great. He is such a cute little old man. We then taught a mission prep class at the Clay's with a RM, Sister Despain who served in Ogden, UT. She is probably the most energetic missionary I have ever met in my life. It was great!

Well, I know this is the Lord's work and there is nothing more important that sharing the gospel with all of God's children. I love the Book of Mormon with all my heart and I know that Book changes lives. I know it is a gift to us from God. I know it is given to bring us closer to Christ.

See you soon (ahh!)

Love,

Sister Johnson

It has been a great week!!!

Dear Family,

MONDAY
I finally got a haircut! Sister Asay wouldn't let me get a haircut for the LONGEST time. It is nice to have hair that is symmetrical again. :) We had a great experience at Great Clips. The lady that cut my hair was Muslim. She had a lot of misconceptions about the church which I was happy to dispel. Sister Asay's stylist was very interested in what we do as missionaries. She also told Sister Asay that the manager of Great Clips, Angel was having a really bad day because her best friend had gone into a coma after a pretty serious surgery. We were able to talk to Angel and prayed with her. The spirit was definitely there.
We met with Daisy. She is doing wonderfully. We had a great lesson on hope and the spirit was so strong. We also did a mini testimony meeting and she bore her testimony. Hearing her testimony was such a wonderful experience. She has a solid testimony. The Lopez family from the Raleigh 3rd ward invited her and her mom over for dinner yesterday. The spanish elders were able to teach her mom a lesson and we talked to them afterwards and Daisy's mom agreed to have the elders come back so she can learn more! Hopefully Daisy's whole family will be able to benefit from the gospel now.

TUESDAY
We had Christmas Zone Conference! The four of us sisters (Sister Asay, myself, Sister Wilson, and Sister Prestwich) all have the same cardigan so naturally it only made sense for us to wear them and match. :) The Assistants asked me to play the piano for everyone that sang. Luckily a couple of the elders had polished their piano skills and were able to assist in playing as well. Sister Asay sang the First Noel as a solo and I played for a duet (What Child is This) by a couple of elders serving in Apex. We went through the arrangement once during lunch and thankfully it turned out pretty well. I really believe that performing musical numbers in church are a way to gain a solid testimony that the Lord hears and answers prayers.
The Bernhisels are so funny. They came up with a version of "The 12 Days of Christmas" and had us all doing choreography in the gym during lunch. I never thought I would do something like that as a missionary. :)
We went to the office afterwards to drop off a couple of things and saw that Sister Asay's bike had arrived! (Did I mention Sisters are going to start riding bikes after this transfer?)
The Assistants were there and convinced us that they could have her bike ready to go within 10 minutes.

1 hour later we finally left the office. lol. We now have a bike rack on the back of our car and I feel like an Elder.

We had dinner with recent covert family, the Gibsons that night. They are absolutely incredible people. They told us their conversion story and it was incredible. It's amazing what the gospel can do for a person.

WEDNESDAY
 As a result of our service to Jeri last week, she invited us to come back to answer some questions she had. She asked us about the role that women play in the church and how we can know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet and not a false prophet. She had great questions. We were excited to teach her and she was very receptive.
I was supposed to go to the eye doctor to figure out why my eyes are so sensitive to fluorescent lights, but alas, they did not accept our insurance. Apparently the lady I talked to on the phone didn't know what she was talking about, bless her heart. We went on exchanges with Hermana Lopez, a recently returned missionary in the 3rd ward. She gave us a couple of referrals which we were able to forward to their respective areas.

THURSDAY
Happy Birthday to Sister Asay! The Clays came up with this creative idea of hanging paper snowflakes outside our door so Sister Asay could have snow for her birthday (It has snowed every year on her birthday). We tried to make buttermilk pancakes, but they didn't work out quite as we hoped.

FRIDAY
Sister Falco, the returning less active is doing fantastic. She told us that she was able to do tithing settlement and we talked to her about preparing to go back to the temple. That is her next goal and she is working hard to prepare. She is a diligent scripture reader. I admire her diligence.

Sister Asay and I have invited ward members to go caroling with us this week to investigators and less actives. Our ward mission leader in the 2nd ward told the ward council about our plans and everyone is really excited to participate. We are excited to spread some Christmas joy by bringing "glad tidings" of Jesus Christ to as many people as we can this week.

SATURDAY
Great day! We went to a baptism for the elders.

SUNDAY
I have been struggling to know for myself that the work I have tried to do here (especially in Raleigh) is acceptable to the Lord. I have prayed a lot and I finally feel like I received an answer as I was reading about being steadfast and immovable today in my studies. 1 Corinthians 15:58 answered my question and I feel that the Lord is happy with our efforts here. We are going to make sure we work our tails off this week (just like every week :] ).

love yall!

Sister J

December...? WHAT!????

Hi!

Where does time go??! It's already December!

Well, enough panicking. No one ever got anything accomplished by panicking about it. :)

I've been trying to learn to trust in the lord more this week. I was inspired by a young lady from the Raleigh 1st ward who told us she has been trying to follow impressions by writing them down or acting on them. Sister Asay and I had a really neat experience with that this week.

We were able to have a great miracle this past week because we acted on an impression. We had made plans to go by a former investigator one morning. We were able to contact her, but she wasn't interested. As we were walking back to the car I prayed and asked Heavenly Father to help us figure out why we were in this neighborhood. We were walking down the street and saw a man back his car into his driveway. I felt impressed to go talk to him, but didn't want to because it is easy to rationalize why it wouldn't be good to contact him in his car. We were getting closer and I had decided not to talk to him, but then remembered my goal to act on impressions so we quickly turned into his driveway and contacted him as he was getting out of his car. Ton Ngo (pronounced, "no") was his name. He is from Vietnam. We talked to him a little bit about Jesus Christ and asked him if he believed in Jesus Christ. He said that he thinks he has a belief in Jesus Christ. We asked if we could come and teach him about Jesus Christ and how Christ could bless his life and he agreed. We were able to meet with him yesterday and had a good lesson with him. He had a lot of questions and has a desire to believe in Christ. His wife passed away four years ago and we were able to testify some about the plan of salvation. He has a hard time reading small print and in English, but we are going to make sure he can start reading from the Book of Mormon as soon as possible. He is a wonderful man and I know that our paths crossed for a reason.

We had an Alma and Amulek experience this week too. We contacted a potential investigator named Jeri after an appointment we had with our investigator, Leah. Jeri was moving and seemed a bit frazzled and wasn't open to the idea of having us come over and start teaching. We had a member from the Raleigh 1st ward with us (miracles always happen when you are with members). We decided to be like Alma and Amulek and offer service since she wasn't interested in meeting with us. So we offered to come back and help her move since she had no one except her daughter's family coming to help her move. We came back a few days later with the Jacobsens (member family in R1 ward) and the R1 elders and we were able to help Jeri move. We were also able to help her catch her run away dog! She told us it was helpless. We said no way. We started running and probably ran about 1/2 a mile before we were able to sneak up on the dog and catch him. I basically tackled him. It was gross as he was a very sweaty dog. She was happy to have her four-legged friend back. As we were helping her move, we noticed another man that was there helping her move. We recognized him as a member of the Raleigh 2nd ward. He is a less active that has been working his way back for quite some time. We were very surprised to see him there and asked how he knew Jeri. He told us that he had met her a few weeks previously online and that they had started dating. He told us that when he saw she had a Book of Mormon he knew she was a "keeper". It is a testimony to me that the Lord really is in every detail of our lives. Jeri was surprised that we knew Bro. Shearer as well. After we helped Jeri she told us we were welcome to come back anytime and that she wanted to start learning more about the church. We were so excited that we couldn't keep from smiling! We are going back this week to do some more service and have a lesson afterwards.

We taught YW on Sunday. It was one of the most emotional meetings I've been in. I never cry and I was crying for most of the meeting. We were able to teach the YW about the joy missionary work brings and it brought far too many tears to my eyes. It was a wonderful meeting though. Everyone else was crying too.

Well, I have to go, but I hope you all have the most wonderful week ever! Love you.

Love, Sister J

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Dear family, friends, and favorite people,

Happy Thanksgiving!
Turkey day here was great. It was crazy, but it was great all at the same time.. The Clays had like 10 of their grand-kids over. We locked ourselves in our tiny little room upstairs so we could do our weekly planning...and guess what?! We actually finished it all in one day! We took a break for lunch and played tag with some of the grandkids in the backyard. That made their day. Afterwards we went to the Waldorf/Gandolph family's home for dinner and had a delicious thanksgiving dinner. I love little kids. The Waldorf's daughter, Kaylee is the cutest little girl (besides Ashlyn). Sister Asay and I spent about 2 hours after dinner serenading all their family with "The Sound of Music" and select hymns. It was so much fun. Kaylee and their son Tillman also came and sang with us.
There is a lot to be thankful for. I am thankful for my family; they are the best ever. I am thankful for my health, for all of the wonderful companions I have been blessed with, for all the amazing people I have been able to teach, the Book of Mormon (because it is the most amazing book ever), prophets, etc. The list could go on forever. I realized as I was pondering about all the things we are blessed with that it really comes down to remembering to be thankful to our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. We are forever indebted to him. The scriptures from Mosiah 2 have been going through my mind this whole week (see verses 20-25). I am forever grateful for Jesus Christ. I am thankful for the hope that the Atonement brings and that I have had the privilege of being raised in a home where that knowledge was taught and practiced.

Reshell has officially moved to Durham. :( She said she still wants to meet with missionaries there! I hope it works out okay. We had some great miracles this week.

Here are a couple:

Sister Asay felt impressed to go by an active member of the ward. I was somewhat hesitant, but agreed that we could call her and set up a time to visit her. We had a good lesson with her and by the end of the conversation she was telling us about a mother and son that she had invited to live with her until they can find a place to live. They are not members and they came to church last week. We talked to the sister (Sister Boyd) about asking them if they would like to talk with missionaries. She agreed to do that and we are going to see them this week! Sister Boyd also invited them to the Community Christmas Celebration (aka: Creche. Creche is a word from Greek(?) that means nativity)
Sister Asay and I have seen several "tender mercies" which I believe is in part due to our efforts in asking for referrals from everyone and trying to talk with everyone we see. As we were getting ready to leave church yesterday an older brother in the ward came up to us and told us about his son's family that he wants us to work with. They are less active and their daughter has started opening up some about learning more (she's not a member). We are hoping to set something up with them this week.
The Clay family we live with has really caught the missionary fire as well. Their daughter Joy was telling us about another girl in the ward who invited a couple of friends to meet with missionaries. One of them is getting baptized, but the other isn't....yet. She wants to invite her over and have us teach her to see if she would be more receptive to Sisters. It is exciting!

Well, my time is about ready to expire, but I know this is the Lord's work.

Have a wonderful week! Love y'all!

Love, Sister J

We Are "Elderettes"!

Hello!

I hope you are enjoying the snow. It's just windy and cold here. Today is exactly one month until I become a part-time missionary. :] I think Sister Asay is trunky for me. She tells EVERYONE when I am going home.

We had the craziest week this week. It was so much fun and it went by way too fast.

Last Monday we decided to be a little extreme and we cut our preparation day short so we could have a lesson with Daisy. We had the best lesson with her about fasting and living the word of wisdom. We are going to fast with her next sunday. I am excited for her to experience that. Fasting is such a wonderful way to tap into spiritual power. We dinner with the Pixton family. Their son reminds me a lot of Lance. He is ridiculously tall too. Bro. Pixton (the dad) is about 6'7". They are such a wonderful family. Afterwards went to the Coombs household and had a lesson with Sis. Coombs and "Bro. Bill." Bill told us he doesn't really want to have the lessons anymore which was sad. We had such high hopes for him, but at least we planted a seed! I feel like the song "We are Sowing" is the story of my life...which is fine, but discouraging at times.
I found a really great scripture in Ether during my personal study that morning. It's Ether 12:41. It's so good!

Tuesday was insane. We had an appointment with a man named Donovan at 11 that morning so we met a member at the church to take us there for the lesson. Donovan is less active. He had been wanting to come back to church for a while and thought it was interesting that we just happened to show up on his doorstep one evening. We had a good lesson with him. Sister Evans shared a lot of good things with him. She is a convert and has a really powerful testimony. He told us a really neat story about how his son had texted him that same week and told him that he had decided to start attending the "Mormon church" again. So, it's neat to see how the Lord is working in both of their lives. He was supposed to come to church yesterday, but didn't come. (sigh). It is hard to come back to good things when you have strayed away from them.
When we went back to the church transfer meeting was going on. We ate our lunch in the kitchen and by the time we were finishing up, transfer meeting was over. I got to see Sister Welch and Sister Tillman and a few of the other sisters.
GUESS WHAT?!? Sister Welch told me that the Hudsons (from Dunn) finally have decided to get baptized!!! They are going to get baptized in January. I was so excited! Sister Tillman was telling me about Greenville and I guess they are teaching a girl Sister Joseph and I started teaching named Hawa and she has also worked really hard and wants to get baptized. It is exciting to hear about these people. I am happy for them.
Sister Welch was by herself with all of the elders who were going home (she was the only sister going home) So we asked Pres. and Sister Bernhisel if we could "kidnap" her for the day and go on "exchanges" to an appointment that we had with Reshell. They said that would be fine so we did just that. Reshell was sick so we ended up contacting a few people. We talked to a really nice man named Jose. He didn't speak much english, but we asked him if he would like to learn about Jesus Christ and his face lit up and he said, "Yes!" The spanish elders will now have a good referral to go to. :) Our dinner appointment cancelled so when we took Sister Welch back to the mission home the Bernhisels told us to stay for dinner. We had burritos and laughed ourselves sick. Sister Welch is so funny. I love that girl.

Wednesday was district meeting. The new elder in our district is Elder Waniel. He is from the South Pacific somewhere. (I can't really understand him very well). He is a good elder though. We did a fun district meeting where we were each assigned a topic associated with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we taught about how it applies to us as missionaries, to members, and to investigators. It was fun. We sang a hymn to go with each section so I got a lot of piano playing in! It was great! We had a lesson with a less active named Sister Lybarger afterwards and taught the restoration. She really enjoyed the lesson and gave us pumpkin pie afterwards. We went on exchages with the office sisters afterwards and had no success contacting our backup plans (our original appointment cancelled).

Thursday was great! We had dinner with the Petty family. Their daughter just returned from a mission in Brazil. She a great member missionary now. She brought three nonmembers to dinner. We had a really good lesson with them afterwards. Sister Asay sang and I played the piano and it brought the spirit so strongly and then we testified of Jesus Christ and of prophets and apostles and of the Book of Mormon. We are hoping we can meet with their neighbor, Charles again this week..and we're still working on Sister Petty's unofficial boyfriend, Jared. :]

Friday we went to IHOP with Sister Patrick and her daughter Allison for lunch. I like pancakes. We had a good little lesson with them and then we went and contacted a lot of less active members of the ward that lived in that area. We were able to set up some appointments with some of them and it was a productive afternoon. We had dinner with Sister Donaldson afterwards. I think I'm still full from that meal.

Saturday we stayed busy all day and had a lesson with Shaunti and helped her get organized in her new apartment. We then had a lesson with Sister Falco. The most amazing thing has happened with Sister Falco. I always have some reservations about how things will work out when we promise people blessings for keeping commandments and such. Since Sister Falco has been paying her tithing, she has been incredibly blessed. Her son who lives in Fayetteville had previously estranged her basically, but that morning she received a phone-call from his wife and they talked for a long time and they are going to make plans for the holidays! Sister Falco was so happy and it was neat to see that she recognized that it was Heavenly Father blessing her. We dinner with the Willis family who invited a less active named Sister Barbour over for dinner and then we did a little "music party" afterwards. Sister Willis plays the accordian and her and her husband yodeled for us and their kids did the mexican hat dance too. It was fun and it was really good for Sister Barbour to be there.

Sunday was crazy. It was a taste of Greenville again. We went to three sacraments! We went to the third ward because the Clays were performing a musical number and had invited a non-member friend they wanted us to meet. So, we went. We got to hear from a returned Sister missionary. She served in Mesa, AZ. She gave a great talk and it was by far the best sacrament meeting of the day. A less active member came to church in second ward and he referred to us as elderettes. It made my day.

The church is true and I love you all!

Have a great week!

Love, Sister J

Color Explosion!!!

Dear family and friends,


Well, we received the results of black Saturday and you'll never believe it (actually you probably will)....Sister Asay and I are companions still. Transfer #3. That means I will only have had six companions my entire mission. The only person that is even leaving from our district is Elder Lee.

As usual, I don't have much time to write, but a few highlights from this past week include:

Sister Falco: She is the less active lady we have been working with since we first came to Raleigh. She has come to church every week except for the week her car broke down. We called her this week to see how she was doing and as she answered the phone in a sing-song way she explained to us that she had listened to all of conference again this week and that she had found some talks from Carlos Asay and LeGrand Richards. Look up "Simplicity in Christ" by LeGrand Richards. Sister Falco pulled it up for us and we watched it. Elder Richards is so funny. I don't think it was intended to be as funny as it was, but I love the way he talks and how he phrases things. We then watched Elder Holland's "Safety for the Soul" talk. That one will knock your socks off!

The Relief Society in 2nd ward had a dinner/service activity. It was fun to be with the sisters and help them clean up afterwards.

We had a great lesson with Daisy. It turns out she is a guitar pro! She played us some songs and enjoyed listening to her talent. Our lesson was all about fasting. We are going to fast with her at the end of the month. I really think it will be a big turning point for her. There is so much spiritual power that comes from fasting.

I forgot to mention last week, but I want to mention it now because it was my favorite thing that happened last week! The Wakefield family came to church last week! It was the best thing ever! My favorite part was seeing Bro. Wakefield be able to take the sacrament again. We had a great lesson with them afterwards and Sister Wakefield is praying about the Book of Mormon. We are praying for her too.

We met a man who is less active named Bro. Perkins today. He wants to come back to church. He said he had actually been thinking about that and it was really neat to see how the Lord works on people because just a few days after we stopped by initially his son (who is also a less active member) text him and told him that he wants to start going back to the "mormon church." It's great that the Lord prepares His children is so many ways.

Well, my time is pretty much up. I love you all and hope that you enjoy all the snow. Please make a snowman :)

I know that the Lord prepares His children to hear the gospel. See Alma 16:16.

God bless!

Love,

Sister Johnson

Fall is finally here!

Fall is finally here! The air is crisp and the cold goes straight to your bones. I think I will be permanently cold until next summer. (sigh).

Things went really well this week! We had a delicious dinner with the Wade family on Monday night. They made these delicious orange rolls and their little girl Ausha made us laugh. We also got to meet with a part member family, sister Coombs and her husband whom we affectionately refer to as "brother Bill." (He requested that we call him that haha..) We taught them the last half of the Plan of Salvation. Bill really wants to make sure he is doing everything he needs to in order to make it to "Heaven." He is also very stubborn and likes to stand by his catholic beliefs. It is fun teaching him the gospel. Now he just needs to start coming to church!

We met with a less active on tuesday. Her name is sister Drake. I love sister Drake. She is a riot.  She joined the church about 2 years ago and has been struggling as of late. We went over and she asked us a zillion questions. We mostly just listened and told her about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it. Going back to the basics so to say. It will be fun working with her more in the future.
We met with Dennis and Reshell afterwards. They are both doing great! Dennis has been working on quitting smoking. He went and bought a whole bunch of smokeless cigarettes (they use water vapor). Reshell was so happy. I think it is so neat to see how the gospel changes people. One of my favorite things is seeing how reading from the Book of Mormon helps a person gain confidence and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and then, they begin to gain confidence and faith in their own selves because they begin to understand their relationship with God. It is the best!
2 ward had their trunk-or-treat in the evening. It was chaos. Mona came! Also another crazy miracle was that Charmaina's kids all came and as they were walking around, a recent convert (Shaunti) saw Shade (Charmaina's daughter) and said hi to her. We asked Shaunti about it and she told us, "Oh yeah. I've known Charmaina and Shade for years! We used to babysit each others' kids." So, that was providential if I do say so myself!

Happy Halloween! Wednesday was a crazy district meeting. We told Elder Masulonis we wanted to do introductions (now that it is the end of the transfer) so we knew who our district members were a little better. He took it to the extreme and made us answer a bunch of ridiculous questions that were totally gentile! (By gentile we mean that it doesn't have anything to do with the gospel. For example, "Who is your favorite Disney character and why?")
The elders all wore the ugliest ties they had since it was Halloween. They really were ugly.
Afterwards we painted pumpkins with Sister Patrick and her daughter, Allison and shared a message about prayer from the ensign. The Savior sets the perfect example of how we should pray in 3 Nephi 19:19-20,23.

We went on exchanges with Sister Hocking on Thursday and visited the sweetest less active lady named Sister Van Riper. She is the most service-oriented person I think I've ever met. She was so sweet.

Friday was fun! We went to Sister Falco (returning less active) and had a pizza party with her. She told us she had been craving pizza so we went and bought one to share with her. Sister Arkell and Sister Burdick, the office sisters came and we had a great time. We also had a bizarre lesson with her. It definitely didn't go as planned, but ended on a high note. :]

Saturday we had coordination with second ward which is always a trip. We have some funny folks in that ward.
We had lunch with less active sister Nachel and her daughter Jessica and afterwards went to Sister Beck's house to get some music for Sister Asay. (She's singing in sacrament next week! I am playing the piano! Yay!)

Sunday was a day I was quite honestly very nervous about. I wasn't sure if I would be an emotional wreck or not. Surprisingly, I was just fine. I still feel fine right now too. I felt very calm and peaceful and I really believe that it was because mom doesn't want us to be sad. She wants us to find joy in life. I love her and I miss her so much. It still hurts, but when it does, I always am comforted. Especially as I read the Book of Mormon. That Book is true.

I love you all!

Have a wonderful week!

Frankenstorm Arrives!

Hurricane Sandy has apparently acquired a nickname, "Frankenstorm."

Luckily, we haven't been affected hardly at all. Mostly just lots of wind and a "fizzy" rain. It's really not that exciting. It could be that we're pretty far inland though.

We had a good week. Lots of people stood us up this week which was disappointing, but it was still a good week. :)

We went and did some shopping around last Monday. We found a Target in our area! I haven't been to Target in over a year.
We found some good deals which was great!

Our investigator, Candy stood us up on Tuesday so we went and stopped by a less active/recent convert family (the Drakes). They are great! Sis. Drake had actually just been talking with Sis. Swift the day before and was talking about how she wanted us to come by and teach the lessons again and then, we show up on her doorstep! So, that went well. We brought her brownies and she told us we were way better than the elders :]  We were able to finally get up with our investigator, Charmaina afterwards as well. In the evening we went and taught the activity day girls in the 2nd ward the restoration with the cups. They all thought it was the best thing since sliced bread.

Wednesday was District Meeting. We discussed the importance of teaching by the spirit. Our district really is hilarious this transfer. They played a game of "ninja" afterwards which was entertaining to say the least. We were also able to have a lesson with Dennis and Reshell and that went great! Dennis asked us before we could ask him about baptism. He asked us "So, if I wanted to...you know...join myself with the church...what exactly would I have to do?" It was so great. We were able to help him understand what was expected of him we set a date for him and Reshell to get baptized on the 24th of Nov.
We took brownies to the Wakefield family (we just started teaching his wife last week). She talked our ears off for a good 20 minutes and all I have to say is that sugary goodness soften hearts.
We had a really good lesson with the Coombs/Freschette family afterwards. They are also a part member family. We taught the first part of the Plan of Salvation and it went very well. Bro. Freschette asked a lot of questions and was really interested in the whole idea of the pre-earth life.

Thursday was insane! We volunteered to teach early morning seminary for the Bishop's wife in the 2nd ward. We are such brown nosers... Teaching early morning seminary entailed that we wake up at 4:30 in the morning to make it on time by 6 am. I can now say I have experienced "real seminary" and I don't think I would have survived living outside of UT. No one fell asleep so that was good! Those youth are so dedicated. We met with Sis. Donaldson in the afternoon. She is doing really well! We also taught her the Plan of Salvation. She didn't remember anything about it so it was a good review and we definitely all left feeling edified. I love the Plan of Salvation. :]
So remember how I told you about Mona who hasn't been interested in meeting with missionaries forever? We called her this week and she actually let us set up a time to meet. She just cancels before our appointment ever happens, but we do have an appointment set up for friday. We are hoping she won't cancel again.

Friday was just everyone and their dog standing us up. Nothing too exciting to report on. We tracted a lot and planted many seeds!

Sunday was very similar. At least Daisy came to church!

The Plan of Salvation is true

My time is up, but I love you all!

Have a wonderful week.

Love, Sister J

Keepin' Busy

Hello!

Hope y'all had a wonderful week!

So last monday was GREAT! we had a wonderful lesson with little miss Daisy at the Wades' home. The Wades are both return missionaries and love, love, love to do missionary work. They have been wanting to have someone taught in their home for the longest time it finally happened! Sister Wade was so happy she was crying (tears of joy of course) almost the entire lesson. We had the most perfect lesson with Daisy. We taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end). Since there were 5 of us, we assigned everyone a topic and had them used the index to look up a few scriptures that they liked about each of the topics. We gave Daisy the topic of baptism and it was so amazing. She found a scripture in Alma 5:62 that is basically an invitation to repent and be baptized. We talked about the verses and she told us that she felt like that verse was speaking right to her and she wanted to get baptized on the 27th. We were like, "Wahoo!" and then we were like, "uh...that's coming up really fast!" The lesson was so powerful and the spirit was incredible there. We talked with Daisy later this week and she told her mom that she wants to get baptized. Her mom still feels like she needs to make sure she knows more before she makes that decision. So, her baptism is postponed for now. She is a spiritual giant though. It is amazing.

We met with our new investigator, Candy last tuesday. She is a funny lady. She was being taught by the elders, but told them she wanted us to teach her instead (mostly because she felt like she could be more open with us than with the elders). We talked about patience and the Word of Wisdom. She has some real struggles there and wants so badly to be baptized, but is having a really difficult time giving up her coffee. She has the desire to do what's right so she should be a lot of fun to teach. :] 
A less active lady named Mona lives like 5 apartments away from Candy. As we were walking the opposite direction to go back to our car I felt like we really needed to go by Mona. We turned around and walked back down. Her car wasn't there so we decided to just leave her a note to tell her we loved her and missed her. As we were finishing up her note to stick on her door, she pulled up! She came down and talked with us on her porch for about 10 minutes. She was so happy to see us. She started to cry because she was so happy. It was amazing because she told us that just the day before she had been praying for help and had even opened her Book of Mormon again to try and find some direction and felt quite in despair. She told us that it didn't matter who had sent us, but she was grateful that we were there and felt like it was a sign that God was mindful of her and loved her. We told her she was right. She still wasn't willing to set up an appointment for us to meet, but she said that we could call and stop by again and maybe she would let us in to teach a little. Progress!
We also met with Reshell and Dennis and had a great lesson on the restoration and the Word of Wisdom. We were a little unsure about how they would receive the Word of Wisdom, but once they understood why it was important, they both agreed to live it and said they felt like this was the right path for them and that they were making the right decisions. Reshell found out she won't be moving for another two weeks which means we can continue to teach her for 2 more weeks! :D
We had dinner with the Beck family (and I usually only mention dinner if it was aboslutely amazing). We had a feast! It was like thanksgiving. Then we ended it all with apple crisp made with freshly picked apples (2 days old) from the Blue Ridge Mountains...where ever those are. It was the best apple crisp. Fresh apples make all the difference. I feel like I had forgotten what a good apple tastes like. Mmm!

Wednesday's district meeting was great! Our district is really great this transfer. There are several elders in our district who have tasteful senses of humor and make district meetings quite entertaining. My favorite one liner was from Elder Gilespie when we were talking about the difference between being bold and overbearing when making commitments. He said, "You shouldn't be sneaky when you extend invitations. It hurts to get hit with the bold stick a whole lot more when you're not expecting it." haha...I wrote that down in my study journal and so did Sis. Asay. We had our weekly lunch/lesson with Sis. Patrick. She made some yummy soup with rolls. We watched the John Tanner Story movie and talked about sacrifice. It was a really nice lesson. We met with Sis. Donaldson who is still not feeling well. Bless her heart. I hope she gets feeling better soon. She has struggled so much. Sister Bernhisel asked us if we would take a 19 year old girl named Hannah on exchanges with us because she wants to serve a mission. She lives in Durham, but she drove down to Raleigh to come with us. We went to dinner and had some scrumptious lasagna with the Fuller family. Bro. Fuller had made it completely from scratch. He loves the food network. lol. We then went to visit with Sis. Falco and also taught her about sacrifice. She is so solid. Her car starter quit working this week and cost her a huge sum of money. She wasn't sure how things were going to work out, but she went ahead and paid her tithing. She is exercising so much faith. It is great to see.

We spent all of friday tracting (and I mean all of friday) for lack of other things to do. No one would respond to our phone calls. So, we decided to park the car and just go and talk to people. Unfortunately, not many people wanted to talk with us. The weather was nice though and we had an enjoyable time talking with the people who actually did engage in conversation with us.

We spent all of Saturday morning helping a recent convert move. She is not the most organized packer so we helped her get things organized. She was about ready to panic. Good thing the ward was there to help her!

Sunday was stake conference. It was jam packed. There were a lot of good talks. Daisy, Reshell, and Dennis all came to church and loved the conference. We had a lesson with a girl named Brooklynn and her parents after church. Brooklynn has been coming to church for almost a year now and loves the church. She asked her parents about meeting with missionaries and they agreed that we could come over. Her parents didn't have any intentions of changing from their Lutheran background, but want Brooklynn to make her own decisions about religion. It was kind of a weird situation because when we asked about a time that we could come back, they asked us what was normal. We told them we would like to come back in a few days. They didn't like that idea. Her mom said they were thinking more like the end of December (that's forever away!). They want Brooklynn to be "educated" about the religion, but said they won't let her make any decisions about joining the church until she is at least 18. She's 17 right now. At least we got to plant some good seeds! :)

We also met with a part member family, the Wakefields. Elder Pace actually referred them to us when we asked him who he knew we could teach in the Raleigh area (he served in Raleigh almost 2 years ago).  We went by one night and they agreed to have us over. We had a great lesson with them. I was so nervous for some reason. Sister Asay and I both felt like we should teach them about the Plan of Salvation. So, we did. Nothing amazing happened, but I guess Sis. Wakefield just needed to know that. We also talked a little about families and gave them copies of The Family: A Proclamation to the World. They want us to come back...so that's a good sign! I hope things will progress with them. Bro. Wakefield is very nice. He loves the church. Just got out of the habit of going.

I read an ensign article today that talked about the importance of looking up to the Lord to know how we are doing and not looking sideways to see how other people think we are doing in our progress of life. I learned that we aren't supposed to be pleasing other people; we only need to be concerned with pleasing the Lord. If we keep our eyes focused on Him, everything will work together for our good in His time.

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Read the Book of Mormon! It's the best book ever! (seriously!)

Love,
Sister J