Do Re Mi, A B C, 1 2 3...[July 20, 2015]

This week was crazy full of miracles...and I'll tell you why. It started off with an email from my last companion that just said, Xan's getting baptized this Saturday, do you think you can come? Xanadu is
an investigator we met in Topeka months ago. The elders first knocked on her door and they started teaching her roommate and passed her to us. (The roommate is the girl that ran away awhile back) well after she was gone, Xan was still insistent we stop by to still see her. It's complicated...but we both felt prompted that was the right course of action.
 
Xan is the one that we met in the morning on the day that we were challenged to have someone pray for us that we would have a miracle and after the miracle happened we would report back to them. She prayed  for us and when we called her that night with the miracle, she started with...this better be about a miracle!
 
Well, the rule is that if its within a hundred miles and you have a member ride, you can go to a former investigators baptism and I had everything all figured out when the Zone Leaders told me that it was cleared with the APs that I could go.....as long as we hit standard before then. I had forgotten about that part of it...and it was Wednesday night....and we had nothing! I didn't like it when I was at home and my parents held me against things like that (ie: you can't go unless your room is clean) and now that I'm 22 and have been away from home for 4 years...you can imagine the wrath of Sister Seymour at the moment. But I sucked up my pride, and we called about a million people to set up team-ups and we visited every potential investigator that we could. One might say, we had a true sense of urgency=meeeeeruhcuuuulllls!

Miracle #1- Xan getting baptized
 
Miracle #2- We had the wrong phone number for Sister Clark (our dinner for the next day) so we didn't get the chance to call to confirm dinner until the morning of, which is when she was dying her friend's hair and that started a conversation about who we are and that she was feeding us that night, so she invited her friend, who brought her husband along with another friend and husband. 4 nonmembers and food....nothing can get better.
 
Miracle #3- Indya (our teenage investigator) is going to Girls Camp this week. They are camping in Nauvoo and watching both pageants they're doing there. We just found out yesterday that she decided to go.
 
Miracle #4- We hit standard in 2 days and we made it to the baptism! I walked in and Xan was sitting there and she must have not have seen who I was cuz she gave me a half-hearted hug and then looked at me again and she realized it and then she wouldn't let me go! Such an awesome baptism!
 
Miracle #5- Dinner on Saturday was with a family that had 2 teenage girls and one unexpectedly had her friends over and we asked if they would like to learn the background of the church and we taught lesson 1 and then on Sunday one of them came and also at church another couple invited another couple to church and they stayed all 3 hours, so we got to sit next to her at Relief Society. It was so cool! The
members here are just unbelievable.
Now for stories that are not miraculous, but what keep me going. We were playing apples to apples for FHE last week and one category was cool. Elder Howell was up and as he was deliberating he decided
against chameleons and one of the elders said, but they're cool! They change colors!! Elder Howell replied, well so does Michael Jackson! HE WINS!! As he laid down the card for Michel Jackson.
 
Another story! This ones a long one, cuz it has two parts. Well, this felt like going back to my days as a delivery driver, because the Spanish elders gave us a referral for a guy that lives across from us. Well, this house was like an apartment building, so it has a ton of doors and they didn't give us an apt number. So we went up to the front and I was looking at it and I decided it was probably one of those apartment buildings that have the front door you walk in and
it's really just a hallways with the doors to the apartments.… It wasn't one of those… So I ended up opening the door to someone's house...yeah. They didn't see though so we're all good.

We ended up knocking on the door after I awkwardly close the door and a man answered the door and said that they were going to be out of town but they were interested so we told him we would try back in a couple weeks. Well last week we tried them again and as we were at the door they have a barbecue right next to it and I glanced over and there was a bird dangling from the vent that is in the barbecue. It
looked like it was dead and I pointed it out disgustedly to Sister Duffin and then it started twitching and Sister Duffin was like, "oh we need to save it!" I just stood there looking horrified. Then I guess this is a miracle as well...the bird just flew away right in front of my face almost flying into it. It was the most scariest thing that is ever happened.

Well, that was my week. This week we don't have a car...and the weather says it'll be 110 on Saturday...pray for me!!

The young women sent me
an awesome sunshine care package! 

Xanadu's Baptism

We had a waterballoon fight with
all the missionaries in the Salina Stake
last p-day. I'm the one with the
awesome throwing form to the right...

 I forgot to send pics of
the parade we were in.

This girl is on fire...[July 13, 2015]

So last week we had an issue of finding people to teach, and we were talking to the District Leader. He mentioned that we should street contact together to learn of his ways (not his words, but close enough). Elder Howell is a street contacting guru, because he is very good at small talk and then bringing the Gospel in it. At one point a couple weeks ago we were walking to a pass off lesson and we passed this lady and I said hi and asked if we could give her a pass along card. She said no and went back to what she was doing. Well, the Elders were behind us and when we looked back they were talking to her and when they finish they tell us that they got a return appointment. yeah.
So we scheduled some time that we would go to visit potentials on foot and the Elders would come with us. Well, little did we know that a certain Zone Leader would be there as well on exchanges. He's to put it lightly the most prideful piece of Zone Leader I've come across. He also has been a District Leader's companion in my district before and has been in Elder Howell's district while E. Howell was District Leader. I think I used about every ounce of charity that was in my being that afternoon...and then I ran out. I just have real issue with people telling me I'm doing something wrong, when I know I'm not, but I definitely need to get better at expressing myself. I'm just not someone people can walk over and when they attempt to, it gets rough.
Last week was hard. Ever entry in my journal starts off with...Today was rough..... Lots of plans fell through and at one point that is too complicated to explain, we got stuck in Abilene and ended up late for a dinner appointment which is one of my biggest pet peeves. Sunday, made it worth it though. We tried about 5 or 6 people that we have tried for weeks and they ALL were home. It was fantastic. Overall, number wise we had a pretty good week, but we are having a hard time with all our progressing investigators...they aren't progressing.
We got this area book planner app where we are inputting our area book (yeah, its going to take forever) but we started with our investigators
and they all were so motivated to learn and repent and everything like a few months ago. But over the past month, they have started falling and just getting stuck. Like all of them...it's weird. Elder Howell
helped us by reminding us what we learned with Elder Holland...we just need to bring them to where we are (like Nicodemus and what it means to be born again...or the woman at the well and what the living water is). So we tried it and it went nowhere. I think it's just time we had a teaching pool cleanse.
Something that I always think about is something that a Sister who was about to go home told me. Her last piece of advice was that there are so many different ways to do missionary work and things you can try and she said that there is no "right way" to do it. You just have to figure out what works for you and go with it. Always trying new things. I think that is something I can carry after I get back too.
There is no right way to be a bishop, or young womens president, or just member. You have to figure out what works for you and go with it.

Classy meets corny

Cornstalks on the way to Abilene

District

Jesus take the wheel...This was like a form
from an oil change we found awhile back
and it lists Christ as the driver.

and I would walk 10,000 more...[July 6, 2015]

We have 2 cars for 3 companionships, so we have a no car week every 3 weeks. This week was our turn and thankfully it wasn't too unbearably hot. On Wednesday, we went to this investigator the ward elders are passing off to us, because she's a single woman. My companion's bike tires were flat, so we decided to walk here. It took an hour and 5 minutes, but we made it! She wasn't home...later that day we also had our team-up cancel on us, so we had to cancel our appt because they are too far out. Then at 7:10 the elders called us asking if we were going
to coordination that started at 7....we thought it was canceled because our ward mission leader said he couldnt make it. Luckily a woman in our ward was a saint and drove us there.
We had a lesson with the girl and her mom I mentioned last week. She is so elect! In the middle of the lesson she would just turn to her mom and give her a glare, your coming this week mom, right!? YEEeess.
She didn't come, but the girl did and she even stayed for the break the fast they had afterwards. She is fitting in so well. I asked her after church what they learned about (I went with her last week to her
classes and this week she said she could just go by herself this week) she said ordinances and talked about the sacrament and everything. She doesn't have a baptismal date, because she wants to continue learning more, but when she does, she is going to be ready.
Yesterday in Relief Society we had a lesson about Feed My Sheep. When the Savior visits the Apostles and tells them to go and feed His sheep. There's this famous talk among missionaries by E. Holland who
mentions that the Apostles went back to fishing after the Savior died and when He comes back, He is reminding them the mission He called them on and they can't just go back to what they did before.
When we watched the Bible video yesterday I noticed how incredibly sad the Apostles looked as they were left without the Savior. It reminded me of those hard times you have when you feel a giant hole in your
stomach that you would give anything to fill. I think that's why Peter suggests they go fishing, it was what our modern day ice cream is. When the Savior does call on them I think He knew what the apostles were
going through and instead of rebuking Peter for going back to what he did before, I think it could also be looked at, that this is how Peter is going to fill his hole and how all of us can overcome the lows we
all have in life FEED MY SHEEP!

I've got nothing to fear in this city...[June 29, 2015]

Junction City. Pretty much everyone here is here because of the military or got stuck here because of the military. There is 5 sets of missionaries here. A senior couple that helps with military relations,
2 English sets of elders (one for the branch and on for the ward) a Spanish set of elders and us, sisters who cover the ward and branch.  Yeah, I went to 6 hours of church yesterday, along with a branch
council and ward council meeting. The branch and the ward are the same  size, they just have a branch, so that it can be dissolved quickly if the military gets rid of a lot of people fast or since they probably
need to change the branch president all the time because of the military, it's a lot easier to do.
We share 2 cars between the ward and branch elders. So next week we walk....yay....I was really worried about going into summer and then also going into to a walking/biking area, but recently I learned that its just all about your attitude and it will all work out if you have a good attitude.
Saturday was Sister Duffin's birthday. We jackhammered in the morning for this single sister who has a house in Milford and is trying to get
rid of her driveway. We had dinner with this member and because Sister Duffin couldn't come up with her favorite food, they gave us a smorgasbord to eat from.
The ward and branch here are soooo organized! They had handouts at their councils that had lists of the recent converts and less actives that they are worried about and they have specific people for them to work with. They also came up with members for our investigators that would be good fellowship.
There is just so many names that I can't remember and also this time of year there is soooo many people moving or coming in that it's almost not even worth trying to get everyone's name.
Its interesting how many similarities there are to the military and missionary work. So many acronyms (pcs, etd, tyd, etc) plus you keep getting moved and you are in a unit and it just goes on.
For some reason the sisters had a lot of referrals that were uncontacted. One of them was from the Spanish elders and it was this super nice lady. Her teenage daughter also sat in with part of the
lesson. When we invited her for baptism she was super excited and her daughter was excited to come to church. We got her a ride and she came and I don't know how much she liked it, because she's pretty quiet...but she was excited to go to the other young woman activities happening this week.