Fun with the Missionaries...Goodbye, Firestone!

BailFire Without the Fire

It happened! My companion, Sis Firestone went home to Utah today. I will really, truly miss my best friend. But it's okay I will see her soon enough!

For now, I am in a trio with some sisters in an area near us. I get my new companion, Sis. Oberfield, on Wednesday! She's from Arizona so she is sooo going to prep me to return to the AZ.

This week was soooo phenomenal!!! I couldn't ask for another way to end the transfer.  I will start with Christmas Eve. Sis Firestone had this super great idea to as a Less active to make cookies and write Christmas cards and then we would deliver them to a nursing home. So, Christmas Eve we stopped by a nursing home and gave each of the residents cookies and a Christmas card. One of the little old ladies said to us, "You will have such a blessed Christmas because you are blessing so many others." It was sooo sweet. It felt amazing to be able to do pure, Christ-like service for people we didn't even know.

Christmas, we went to a members home and watch movies and Skyped our families! It was so great to be able to talk to my fam. I just can't even handle how much they have grown and changed. I'm not even sure I will fit in anymore because of how awesome they have become. We also got to watch Frozen. It was super fun! A great Christmas indeed!

So now for the miracles. We had a lesson with our investigators and in our last lesson, we invited them to pray individually and as a family. Well to preface, neither of them were raised with religion and both of them had never really prayed before. So we taught them how to pray and committed them to do it. Well, we had lunch at their house and for another lesson. As we got started, the husband said told us "Having you in my house has changed us and changed the feeling here." H
e also told us that they both had been praying all week and everything worked out this week. The husband even told us that one time when he was praying he has a super uncomfortable weird feeling he never had before, but he liked it, and then he started crying. We were shocked. It was wonderful to see a testimony beginning to grow within them and to promise them that that was the spirit was working with them! It was amazing. Our calling as missionaries is marvelous and we have a certain power and spirit within us that nobody else does. It was amazing too see that that day.

Also, on Sunday, we had a baptism!!!!! Our investigator Edwin got baptized! He was soooo stoked and soooo happy. When he came up out of the water he was beaming and just held his hands to his hand. Its been wonderful to see his journey and his transformation! We are soooo lucky to have the job of  teaching the fullness of the gospel!!

A Festivus for the Rest of Us!

This week was soooo stellar! Luckily we only had one exchange so I got to spend most of the week with my beloved Firestone!

First item of good news! Our investigator passed his interview yesterday and will be baptized this Sunday!! What a great way to end the year and the transfer!

Again we had just a greaaat week! I had a really good friend that went home recently and that served here and recommended that we go visit a former investigator that she taught while she was here. So, while we were trying to find her apartment, we were talking to some people and this girl grabs us and says she knows someone who needs Jesus. Well, when we got to this other woman's apartment we were talking to them both when we realized the girl that grabbed us was super drunk.  Well, I definitely haven't had that happen to me on my mission before. We skidaddled out of there real quickly though. Anyway, we found the former investigator and she is wonderful! She told us she still really wants to get baptized because she knows the church is true, but her work schedule got in the way! We are going back this week to teach her and we picked up her son's friend has an investigator too. I love how the Lord has just placed people in our paths.

I played my cello at our Relief Society party. It was great! But my major spiritually highlight came from the party. They had a member of the temple Presidency speak at our Relief Society party and it was sooo great. They talked all about the temple and its importance in our lives and how it needs to be the center of our lives all year round. She said something that really stood out to me, she said that the temple is the one place we can really get to know the Savior. Later that week, I was studying something my dad sent me and it said that when Christ tells us to be perfect like our Father in Heaven is perfect that he is stating the extent of our potential. The Lord wouldn't tell us to be perfect if we didn't have the capability to do so. The Lord would not set us up to fail. He knows our potential and our potential is to become like our Heavenly Father. I related this to the importance of temple worship. Some people think temple worship is weird and they don't understand why we dedicate so much time to doing it but there is no other way for us to reach our potential than by attending the temple. I love the temple so much and it is such a significant blessing in my life!

An Almost No Show Baptism

It's been a SUPER crazy week. To start off, let me explain this title. I GOT TO GO TO A BAPTISM IN MY LAST AREA! I can't explain the joy I had to be able to go!! I died at being able to see everyone I love so much! Plus, 2 of some of my best friends came and picked me up! So for background info: When I was in Parkway (my 3rd area) we tracted into this guy who said we were an answer to his prayers. We taught him while I was there and then when I got moved to the St Louis YSA, the sisters gave him to us. We taught him for a bit but then we dropped him because he just wasn't serious about what we were teaching and wasn't progressing. For the next month he came to church every Sunday! Finally, we started teaching him again and he had a complete turn around. He dropped all of his bad habits and was humble and ready to be baptized. We set the date and he was baptized yesterday!!! It was so great to see his transformation!

Well, the funniest part of this story is that his baptism was at 2. Well 2:30 rolled around and he hadn't shown up. The sisters tried to call him and call him and nothing. Well they went to Plan B and had the program anyways. But I knew there was something more that could be done. So I took the phone and went into the hall and called him and called a bunch of Parkway people and the missionaries to go check on him. No more then 10 min later he called me back! He had had left out of town the day before and just got back. So he rushed from the airport and we had the baptism! 

Anyway, now for the week! It was sooo great and soo tough. We went on 3 exchanges this week and drove a total of 12 hrs for them. Man I was so tired of driving. But Sis. Firestone was gone all week so it was just me working the area. It was tough and I was stressed but the Lord picked me up and kept me going and we saw so many miracles. For example, we went to a meeting with the Relief Society Presidency and they ended shorter then we expected so we had 30 min to kill. Well we went and contacted formers before our next meeting and we picked up 2 new investigators!! This is miraculous because we had no idea how we would reach our goals because of all of our meetings and driving and stuff. But we did it! Just shows you that this is the Lord'
s work and we are merely his instruments!

So study insight this week! I love the words of Isaiah! One of my favorite scriptures in the world is quoted in 1 Nephi 21:15-16. Its says "can a Woman forget her sucking child?...Yet I will not forget thee...for I have graven thee upon the Palms of my hands." I love this scripture! Its is the best reminder to me that the savior will never forget his children for we are engraven upon is hands. He has a testament to us that He loves us so much and will never leave us alone or comfortless. I have such a powerful testimony of Jesus Christ especially this Christmas. I know He is our Savior and Redeemer and that he loves each one of us so much!

Exchanges, Exchanges, Exchanges and Exhaustion

This week Sis Firestone and I went on 4 EXCHANGES!! Needless to say when we finally got back together on Saturday we were exhausted, emotionally and physically. Plus, we super missed each other.

As for our week it was great! For the first half of the week I was on exchanges in the sisters areas and then the second half of the week I stayed here on exchanges. There are so many things I didn't realize with this calling. One of them being how important we are to the sisters. We give them the opportunity to open up to us and for us to help them and advise them in their areas and in their companionship. It's an honor really. I feel like I wasn't expecting to be so emotionally exhausted but Im grateful the Lord ahs given me this wonderful opportunity to serve and grow.

What's so amazing about this calling as well is how much the Lord makes up the difference for us. Because we go on so many exchanges and have to do so much travelling to exchange, we have limited time to actually work our area. But, the Lord helped us tremendously and totally helped us reach our goals. It's miraculous to see how much the Lord makes up for our weaknesses.

One miracle that happened this week is that we finally got in contact with our investigator who lives with members. As I was getting to know her, she said she's been reading everyday and going to church every week and admitted that she knew that this is Christ's Church. And I asked her why she wasn't baptized and she said she was scared to make a serious decision without knowing everything. I was able to testify to her of the blessings of baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost! It was great! And now she's praying to see if she should be baptized on Dec 27th!

I also had the BEST studies ever this week. I have been trying to read the Book Of Mormon again with the institute manual and I am receiving sooo much revelation its nuts. So I was reading this week about Nephi breaking his bow. In the manual, it talks about  how sometimes it doesn't matter how obedient we are or how righteously we are living trials will still come. But, when they come, it is because the Lord sees it fit for us to continue growing! So when hard times come its not because we are being punished, it is to help us along our path back to our Heavenly Father!

BailFire on the Daily

BailFire is mine and Sis. Firestone's nickname. We answer the phone like that sometimes and its pretty funny. It feels so good to be back with my best friend! Plus, I get to work with a really good friend that I served with this time a year ago! The Lord is blessing me especially because of the withdrawals I am having of St. Louis.

This week just flew by! I cannot even believe it! We had Pres. Interviews Tuesday, a Zone Meeting in Cape Girardeau (which is 3 hrs away so we had to drive 6 hrs that day :/) and then Thanksgiving! I did not expect my life to get this busy!

First, I will update you on my thanksgiving! We went to 2 members homes and it was super fun! It was fun to just celebrate the holiday and relax. No worries though, we paced ourselves so we wouldn't blow up by the end of the night! It was a super fun day that passed by too quickly.

This week was tough. We didn't reach our goals and I seriously feel like we tried sooo hard. But we struckout at every house we went too. It was nuts. Well, I was getting pretty discouraged especially because we fasted on Sunday as a District to see miracles and for our goals and all the other missionaries saw miracles besides us.  As I was reflecting on this, I was thinking to myself, this is why I don't have a testimony of fasting. And then I totally had some far out revelation about the whole thing. I realized that although we didn't reach our goals or see any marvelous miracles, Heavenly Father gave me so many opportunities to bear a powerful testimony this week of our Savior. As many of you have heard, the Church has come out with a Christmas initiative and has put up this new video called "He is the Gift." With the intiative, the church has provided missionaries with 300 specialty pass-along xmas cards to pass out and give to members nad nonmembers and have encouraged us to focus on this new video and on the Savior. As we have participated in this initiative this week I have seen miracles within myself. I have new testimony of fasting because I have seen that through fasting, Heavenly Father gave me the spiritual strength to continue moving forward and to take every opportunity to bear my testimony of the savior!

What a marvelous time it is to be a member of the church! To see gospel roll forward throughout the earth! I am sooo grateful that I get to assist in this work at this time! I have seen that as I have come closer to my Savior that he has helped me sooo much. And how wonderful it is that we get to go around testifying of him and His love! Ah the church is true.

Good Ole Illinois

I'm super excited to be serving in IL because I have served in Indiana and MO but never Illinois. I will have served in 3 states on my mish. Its back to hickville everybody. I have been serving in the city for the last 9 months so this has been quite the adjustment. 

This was was really hard and really wonderful. I didn't realize that leaving my last area would be one of the hardest things I would ever do in my life. It was like leaving home again. Tears were definitely shed. My branch Pres and his wife couldn't hide the tears and neither could I.  They both said the kindest and most encouraging words ever. They have definitely touched my life for the better. Little do people realize the impact they have on missionaries. The people in the YSA saw what I could become and encouraged me and helped me work towards my potential. The Lord has soooo much in store for us and we don't even know it!

But this are has been great so far! I'm only barely realizing how busy and crazy the life of an Sister Training Leader is. Our schedule is full of planning, meetings and exchanges. We already had a 6 hr meeting Friday to discuss the needs of the mission and the upcoming transfer! It was so great to be apart of the bigger picture. The Lord is definitely qualifying me but I feel so honored. Plus, I'm with my best friend Sister Firestone again so the universe is great. 

So miracle. As leaders in the mission, we are expected to reach our goals every week in our numbers! But with transfers and MLC we didn't have a lot of time to meet with people. But the Lord is marvelous and works miracles. One in specific, we saw this PM/LA family that we teach Sat and invited them to church Sunday and they totally came! Sister Firestone said they haven't come at all since she's been here! We also set a baptismal date for Dec 28! Miracles are being wrought folks!