A Baptism, Yay!

"I was blessed with my fourth baptism this week (: Our recent convert's nephew got baptized Sunday. It was the sweetest thing. One of our zone leaders, who has the same first name, got to baptize him. He got a little nervous with the water, so he had to be baptized twice cause he let his foot come up. His aunt and I stood at the top of the font and she wrapped her white towel that she used at baptism, around him. It was the cutest thing. She is so proud. In her blessing it talked a little about some of her family accepting the gospel as she shares it with them and she's seeing the fruits of her labors. I have never seen her this happy."

"The two girls are still trying to get permission to be baptized. Their mom and their grandma are pretty hard-hearted towards the Mormons, and so they are being stubborn with giving their consent. We are still praying that the spirit will work on them so that they can be baptized. We're trying for August 3rd now."

"Please pray for the couple that was baptized when I first came to Bluefield. She had a miscarriage this week and they, and her mom are very angry with God right now. Her mom only came for Sacrament meeting yesterday and the couple didn't come at all. We haven't been over there yet because she was worried that the husband would go off on us because we're "god's people" (another nick-name for the missionaries here in the south, lol). We're going to try and go over tonight to see if there's any way we can soften hearts and help them understand."

"Transfers are still up in the air. We have no idea who will be going where. I got a blessing at the beginning of the transfer that said that I still had people here in Bluefield that I needed to find, so I think I will die here (that is how they refer to finishing their mission) and I will get a new companion. But it's so bitter sweet cause me and Sister P keep having all of these awesome experiences and we just want to stay and die together, haha. But we are willing to do whatever God wants us to do."

"I love you all. Look for missionary opportunities this week!!"

Baptisms Next Week

"I have a lot to write. Let me see if I can get it all with the time I have." 

"So our recent convert is doing a lot better. Her 2 nieces and 1 nephew are all getting baptized on Sunday after church. We are so excited!! We are teaching another one of her nieces but it's going to be a slow process with her. Our recent convert had a little bit of a tough week- lots of people trying to convince her not to be a part of the church. She hadn't taken the sacrament the week before because she was ill and couldn't make it to church...which made things a little more difficult for her. She came to church with her nieces and nephew and had an incredible experience. I was asked to play a piano solo in sacrament meeting. I knew that one of her favorites was "Nearer my god to thee". Well, Marvin Goldstein saved the day again, and I had a piano solo arrangement of that song that was perfect. During the sacrament, I was reading the words to kind of prepare me for the kinds of emotions I would put into it as I played. I noticed her sitting next to me, with her eyes closed and head bowed in humble prayer. She had had an incredibly tough week (thank you for the prayers btw), but she was committing to Heavenly father to change and I'm sure she was pleading for peace (she's better now after a perfect week at church). So it was my turn. I was about to put the book back in the slot so I could get ready to go up and play, and she reached for the book. I found the page I was just on for her, and she stuck her finger in it. During my song she followed along with the words. That's a true disciple. Someone who's dedicated to changing despite what the world says."

"Elder Bednar came to Charleston to speak specifically to the youth of West Virginia. The 3 girls got to go hear him speak and shake his hand (: It was incredible!! I never thought that my investigators would get to meet an apostle of whom I just taught them about. Her nephew is so funny...he's 8. His other aunt used to give him a cup of coffee in the morning, and a cup at night when she would drink it. So when we taught him the Word of Wisdom this week, I was not expecting the answer I got.. "WHAT?! Wait a minute. Just wait. Hoollld up. No COFFEE????..." He hasn't had it for a while, and our convert doesn't drink it anymore, so he'll have someone to lean on. He is the cutest little boy!! He's so excited to get baptized!

"So I am out of time. I always try and do 5 things at once on my email. I'm going to print some pictures and send them home with a short letter. We did a couple of really fun things this week!"

4th of July

"Not going to lie, I don't have a whole lot to report this week. But I will share my fourth of July with ya'll (: "

"We had a zone meeting from 9 that morning to about 3 that afternoon. I got to sing the national anthem and apparently it was so good that 2 or three people pulled out cameras and recorded it. I was then told that I needed to try out for the Voice haha...The meeting was really neat, we talked about Form and Essence. The zone leaders told us all about the new mission president. He seems like a good guy, I guess I won't know till tomorrow, when I meet him in Pembroke with the rest of our missionaries for the mission tour. After our meeting, we went up to visit a home bound less active member. Turns out her less active and part member family is all up having a BBQ so they fed us dinner while we were there. Then our recent convert texted and asked if we were around, and she brought us dinner as well. Then we ate dessert at a member's house. Funny story. We were trying to sticky note their door without getting caught, but we totally got caught and they invited us in for dessert. We met their friends, this cute, cute couple who travel and sing gospel songs at revivals and stuff. So we sang hymns for them and they sang "Please let me sing in the choir" and "Over and Over" for us. It was so much fun!"

"Please pray for our recent convert. She is having some hard trials right now, and needs all the prayers and support she can get."

Nap Time, please?

"Not a whole lot to report this week I guess. Tired. REALLY tired. I can feel it all coming at me. I'm slowly crashing..."

"Investigators are doing well. One is still out of town, we really hope she is doing ok. Hoping to teach her and put her on date this week. The kids are doing well too. They have come to church the allotted times they have to come, but obviously we challenge them to come for the rest of their lives. They love Young women's. They go to mutual on Wednesdays, too. We are teaching yet another one of her cute girls.  She's super prepared, reading the Book of Mormon and all. Our recent convert's family is very prepared."

"I'm sure ya'll are dying to hear about our convert's patriarchal blessing. Holy amazing. I cried during a couple of parts, the spirit was so strong. She had some really amazing promises and blessings given to her, and she had a really neat spiritual experience receiving them. She continues to progress. She is awesome (: I fetching love her."

"I've decided I want to go to the home ward when I get home...I'm not ready for the singles ward yet, and probably won't be for a while. I would love to serve in the young womens if God lets me."

"I hope ya'll had and have a great week. Sorry this is so short, and sorry nothing terribly exciting happened this week, especially with sheep haha...I hope to hear from you soon."

T-Minus 79 Days

"...But who's counting, right? haha (: My companion and I have been a little trunky this week...wait, did I just say that?...16 months came fast. I wasn't watching for it at all, it just kind of, slapped me awake yesterday when I realized that I only had 11 weeks left...WOAH. Brain blown."

"...Let's talk missionary- This week was awesome (: Not as great as standard week, we had some trials and our faith tested a little bit. Our miles are running short- I guess that is what happens when you are on the Lord's errand and driving everywhere to teach everyone. So we walked in 80-some odd degree weather, and like 75% humidity. I have some great lookin' tan lines."

"Our investigators are doing awesome! I love the kids we're teaching. They are all so full of faith and eager to learn. We picked up a new one of our convert's nephews this week. He is 8 years old. STOLE my heart right out of me. He is the biggest sweetheart. He's solid too, he loves to learn which makes things so much easier. He's an awesome reader, and we got him a children's Book of Mormon to read with our recent convert each night. She is so awesome- she got the elders 6 new people to teach in the last 2 weeks. She's got a lot of family she's trying to introduce to the gospel between our area and the elders' area."

"So Saturday we did something pretty once-in-a-lifetime. Our bishop has a farm. About 3 weeks ago he invited us to come help him herd, tag, and give shots to his sheep. It was us, the 2 sets of elders and our recent convert tagged along. (she had a total blast) Bishop invited us over again this last Saturday. Same crew. He told us we were castrating his males...we totally thought he was kidding. He was totally serious. So we castrated and gave shots to his sheep. It was really fun actually. It poured in the middle of it. I just gave shots to them, I couldn't do the rest...ugh..."

"So yesterday church was very temple oriented! The DC temple president came and spoke to us in sacrament meeting. Our recent convert and I both loved his talk. One thing that really stuck out was when he said that we came to earth to go to the temple. It was super powerful! Then we talked a little bit more about making and keeping temple covenants. She is so excited to get her endowments out next spring."

Drum Roll Please

"So you will never guess what's happening (: I'm staying in Bluefield, again!! With Sister P! 4 transfers in Bluefield- apparently my work here isn't done. I am so excited!!!!!! I really want to end my mission here, but we will see what the Lord has in store for me."

"So update on everything. Holy heck has this been an amazing week. I have seen so many amazing things, not just as a missionary, but as a person, a daughter in God's kingdom."

"Investigators- we are picking up so many, it's crazy. Most of them are kids that our recent convert is raising, her nieces and nephews, etc. We have two of them on date for baptism on July 13th.We are also teaching her friend and her 2 kids. Man, these southern kids are firecrackers! They are touched by the spirit so deeply, and they have a desire to really know about God and about how a family is really supposed to function...all of these kids come from super broken families."

"So one sister we are teaching is legally blind. She's kind of been putting off reading the book of Mormon, because she has been having a hard time reading. She can't see to read or write well. Sunday morning, she woke up at 5 AM so she could be ready for church. We had a member picking her up around 9:30. She got up at 5 so she could get ready for church, and so she could read the book of Mormon. We got her a large print, and she sat down, adjusted what she could, and diligently read only HALF a page in 2nd Nephi. Talk about prepared. She enjoyed every minute of church, paid her tithing, and told us she knew what we were teaching her was true. It was amazing."

"We had our last specialized training with the Pitts last week. It was one of the hardest meetings I have had to attend. I will probably see the Pitts next time in their home. At the conclusion of the teaching portion of this awesome meeting, we gathered in a large circle in the gym, and each missionary took a turn bearing their testimony of Christ. Then the Pitts gave their departing testimonies, and we all knelt in our final prayer together as a  zone. President bestowed blessings in this prayer upon our spouses, and our children that were being prepared to come to us. It was powerful. Sister P and I bawled. I had never felt so close to my future family in my life. It's like all of our children were in that room, watching us."

"Ahh, What a beautiful, rewarding week it has been (: "

"The Lord has really blessed me and my companion this week. We have seen more miracles than we could count. Although numbers are definitely not the most important thing as a missionary, we have been blessed with very high numbers this week (I've come to learn that numbers are a blessing and a privilege, not what missionary work is all about). They looked AMAZING. The Lord has blessed us with people to teach, whether they are totally solid or not, and in the eternal perspective, maybe it just wasn't their time to learn- nevertheless, we have been able to share that piece of the gospel with them that hopefully they will remember and carry."

"Update on the 'gators...We have been blessed with two new this week! Our recent convert calls them her "daughters" but they aren't related. They come from a really broken family... probably moving back for good to Georgia this summer. She is totally heart-broken, but she figures the best thing she can give them is the Gospel, and eternal happiness that comes with it. The girls came to church and actually witnessed a baptism. We might be teaching one of her best friends who says he's pagan...oh boy. He's a way nice guy though! We're teaching a very prepared sister. She is leagally blind, but can still get around. She loves the gospel, the church, and the people in it."

"We had a really interesting miracle happen this week. We got a note in the mail from the mission office saying that a lady wanted to learn about the gospel. We called her because she didn't have a physical address, just a PO box number. She said she's still interested and we decide that we have the time to go see her that night. So we drive 20 minutes out, and into Maybeury. My GPS just happens to have this tiny little street programmed in. We get to this house, and turns out this lady is a less active from Cincinatti, OH. She wanted to "come home" to the gospel that she was baptized into so many years previous. She had a long road and experimented with so many different religions, but realized that it all came back to the gospel of Jesus Christ...that's what made her the happiest. Her, her non member husband and her stepson all want the lessons. They want to come to church. So we called the zone leaders because we weren't entirely sure that these folks were in our area...and turns out they aren't...they are just over the McDowell county line. They are part of the Welch branch. So we call welch. Turns out these elders have been struggling in their area, and I'm sure they had been praying for people to teach and visit. We were an answer to their prayers (: and although at first I was upset that we weren't going to get to teach them, I was happy that I had been the answer to a young greenie's prayers."

"This week my testimony of forever families (well, more like this whole transfer) has just exploded. I am so excited to have an eternal family of my own. That's really what this plan is, and what missions are about are uniting families. The plaque on the mantel says it loud and proud (A missionary leaves her family for 18 months so that the people she teaches can be with their family forever)...that's why I'm out here, is to unite families. Yesterday in church, I got to teach singing time. I taught them the 2nd verse of "The family is of God" which is part of the sharing time theme this year. The whole thing went really well and I had a lot of fun getting my teacher pants on again."

"Laughter is the best medicine. I felt like sacrament meeting went all revival on us yesterday when this dear sweet older sister in our ward (bless her heart, she has fathers and brothers who are preachers) got up and was supposed to "speak" on enduring to the end. She rather yelled about Obama not holding the priesthood, teens taking responsibility for themselves, and her neighbors arguing over property lines and who's trash was who's on trash day. As I tried so hard to hold back my giggle fits (even the bishop and his counselor were cracking up on the stand), I looked over at our recent convert, who had her hand over her mouth and her eyes were huge. She was trying so hard not to die laughing either. I said, "you know it's not normally like this, right?" and she said yeah, and later we told her "daughters" that as well, and hopefully our baptist-preacher sacrament meeting didn't completely scare them off. "All I care about" the speaker announced as she raised her arm and pointed to the ceiling, "is what the big man upstairs thinks of me!" We all thought, good, cause if you cared about what the bishop and the democrats in the room thought, you would probably be Less Active next week. I told her afterwards that I honestly enjoyed her talk, and she said "I didn't read a word off my notes". I thought, 'oh really?'...Bless her heart haha (: Maybe I don't need to go to another church to enjoy the diversity of the Bible belt. I love Southern people!"