Oh Be Wise, What Can I Say More?

So, this week. It was pretty good! 

On Wednesday we were able to meet with X and Y again! They had been reading and praying, and we're so excited for them! They still haven't been able to come to our ward yet because of this play-thing that they're doing, but it should be done soon and they should be able to come! We taught about Following the Prophet, and they had a lot of questions. They asked a lot about how the Prophet was chosen, and a lot about the Priesthood. Really good questions! We invited them to come to conference, and unfortunately they couldn't so we're going to watch a session with them at our next lesson! 

We also got to teach a few other lessons with a former investigator, a new investigator, and Z! Z is going through a hard time right now, and she's had a hard time keeping her commitments. We're hoping that we'll be able to keep teaching her because the Gospel is exactly what she needs! 

The new investigator that we're working with is part of an Indian religion. She is a referral from a member in our ward, and wants to learn more about all religions. She expressed that she would have a really hard time changing religions, but that she would still like to learn more about what we believe. We're hoping to have a church tour with her this week!

The Former Investigator that we were able to meet with is V. She is so great! She has known Mormons for a very long time, and I know that she's felt the spirit. She has a hard time committing though, and I don't think she's ever truly prayed to know if it's true. We're hoping to help her do that. :) The one thing that is kind of holding things up is that she likes to talk, and it's hard to get to the lesson sometimes. She also has some medical problems, and has a hard time meeting with us often. We're going to try super hard to meet with her again this week, though! 

One of the best parts of the week was meeting with a member yesterday. Her name is G, and she can't come to church sometimes because she takes care of her husband who has a form of dementia. She is so cool though! She was a cartoonist, and she and her husband drove race cars before they had kids! It really breaks her heart that she can't come to all of church when she can come, and so we're going to try and meet with her more often. Anyways we were able to go over and share the Message of the Restoration with her, and it was super powerful. The spirit was so strong. It was good for me to feel that because it gave me a bigger desire to share it with everyone. This is a powerful unique message that everyone needs to hear! 

Something fun this week was that since it was our month mark last week Sister Riley and I celebrated by buying a carton of vanilla ice cream and a tub of cookie dough. Yup, we had our own Cazookies this week and they were amazing! :) 

Funny moment of the week, and the reason for the subject title:

So last Thursday we had dinner at a member's house. We got there and she was running a little late because her oven was acting up. She was making some chicken, pepperoni, onion thingy and it smelt delicious! She pulled them out when she thought they were done and brought two of them ( they were wrapped in tin foil) over to mine and Sister Riley's plates. Sister Riley cut into her's and it was pretty raw. I opened mine up and saw that it was raw too. So she put them back in the oven and went to plan B. Anywho! When we eventually ate dinner I picked up my fork and a little voice in the back of my head say, "Don't you think you should ask for a new fork?" and I said "...Nah. I don't think it even touched the chicken. I should be good." The next day Sister Riley and I were weekly planning, and I was thinking, "Gosh darn it, why am I having such a hard time feeling the spirit??" Then I realized that I really wasn't feeling very good. I told Sister Riley, and she said, "Me too, I really felt like I was going to throw up this morning." You guessed it, we both got food poisoning. :) Don't worry it wasn't bad and it was gone the next day! Could have been a lot worse. :) Moral of the Story: Don't be a dummy, and just listen to the Spirit. :)

Look Unto Me In Every Thought. Doubt Not. Fear Not.

Well, it's been another crazy week! Can you believe that tomorrow is my five month mark? Shoot, I almost have a year left. I'm starting to feel...old. No, just kidding I still feel like I came out yesterday. :)

It was a really good week! We are looking for more people to teach! We were able to meet with X and Y and we had a really good lesson with them. They've had a lot of the lessons, but still feel like they haven't received a definite answer that this is the true church. We were able to teach about the Book of Mormon and how one of it's purposes is to come to know for ourselves that this church is true. If the Book of Mormon is true, then Joseph Smith was a prophet, and this church is God's church. Before I came on my mission I hadn't really thought of that as one of the purposes of the Book of Mormon, but isn't it neat? All we have to do is read from it, ponder it, and pray about it with real sincerity and intent, and then we get an answer. It's brilliant! And we can do it over and over again.The spirit was so strong, and they committed to read and pray every day. We asked them that if they got an answer and knew that this was true if they would get baptized. X answered yes right away, but Y was hesitant and said that she would eventually. Apparently her Grandmother might get offended if she joined the church. We have been praying that X and Y get an answer and that Y's Grandmother's heart will be softened. We're excited for the progress that they're making! And we hope that they can have the faith to move forward and do what is right!

Unfortunately we weren't able to meet with Z this week because she was sick. :( Bummer. We're hoping she gets better soon!

Thank you so much for praying for Sister Winert, and Sister Morones! I heard from Sister Winert, and things are going better. They found out that it's a stage 2 tumor which means that it is slow growing, which is good! I was happy to hear that things are going good!

We started volunteering at the Library this week! I think you might understand how much I enjoy that. :) Sister Riley doesn't like it as much. Haha! They said that they have a hard time getting volunteers there, and I was grumpy because remember how I tried to volunteer at the Springville Library and they said they didn't need any more volunteers? Ha! well now I get my chance! :) We go once a week, and we're hoping to find more people that are interested in learning about the Gospel through this.  

So our good old pal V left yesterday! Guess where he's moving to? Payson! Haha! Sister Riley and I said that we're going to visit him when we both get back from our missions, since he's about two minutes away from home! We were able to have a good lesson with him on Friday, and we made him promise to attend temple prep. class when he got there. We asked if he needed any help getting ready to move, and he said, "Well I've got most of it done. The only thing I can think of is to get the dog washed." So on Saturday we went over and washed his dog named Tibby...that dog had not had a bath for a very, very long time. It was fun. :)

We also got to go to a ward baptism on Saturday! One of the families in our ward thought it would be a good idea if the missionaries came and gave their son the lessons before he got baptized. So for the past couple weeks we've been able to teach him, and then we went to his baptism! Super fun! It was such a sweet baptism. The spirit was definitely there! He's a great little kid, and he's really good at card tricks! He's got a new one for us every time! :)

Mom asked what the 40-day fast was! It's awesome! So our ward is fasting for 40 days. Every day a family has signed up to fast for missionary experiences. We get to meet with them the day before they fast and talk to them about the purpose, and the blessings of it. It's been going well! I've loved how this ward has been willing to step up and reach out of their comfort zone! We were able to find and teach Amanda when the ward did this in Ontario. :) When we meet with them we show them a video called "A Priest's Duty" I think that is what it's called. It's on the Hastening the Work website! They've got some really great videos on there, but I especially like this one. It's about a kid named Hector. You should look it up, and tell me what you think!

Later on Saturday we were able to go to Rancho Cucamonga for the first Sister's Meeting of our Mission! There's about 50 of us, and it was so fun! We met before the Women's broadcast. We had some lunch, and had a guest speaker come. She's a therapist that talked to us about having a good comp. inventory. Ask Spencer what that is. :) Then we had our Sister Training Leaders give us a few trainings which was awesome! They were great! And then we were able to watch the broadcast which was also great! What I got most out of it was that when we keep our covenants we our given spiritual power, and we are safe. Covenants are so, so important. They bind us to our Heavenly Father. When President Monson spoke I just had such a feeling of calm come over me. I know that he is the prophet of the Lord on the earth today. How blessed we are to have a prophet. I'm so grateful.

Yesterday President and Sister Hobbs showed up at our Sacrament Meeting unexpectedly! :) That made me a little (lot of) nervous but it was fun! I like them both an awful lot. I can't wait for you guys to meet them someday. :)

This week I've been learning to rely on the Lord more. Missionary work is really His work, and we can't do it without Him. We can't teach without having His spirit with us. All of the people in the world are His children, and he knows exactly what they need. Realizing that has been so humbling. I'm realizing that I'm not going to understand everything in this life, but there are some things that I do know and that's enough for now. He's there for us when we need Him, He's patient with us, and He always gives us what is best. I know that He's been giving me experiences that I've needed to have in order to learn and grow. We talked about in the Sister's Meeting how going on a Mission really takes all of your weaknesses and lays them out on the table, and one by one you learn how to improve at them. Or all at once sometimes. :) Sometimes this is a hard experience, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. There are things that I've been learning on my Mission that I know I wouldn't have been able to learn any other way. I know that I'm supposed to be here, and I'm so happy and grateful to be here. :)

Welp, that was my week! Also, who's super excited for Conference this weekend?? ME, PICK ME! This is like the Super Bowl for missionaries. :) We're hoping that X, Y, and Z can come and watch at least one session with us. When you really think about it, Conference is a really special experience. All of the members around the whole world get to hear the Prophet and Apostles and other church leaders speak. "How neat is that?"

Come Ye Disconsolate

It was such a good week! On Tuesday we were able to contact a referral that the Spanish Elders gave to us, and now we're teaching her! Her name is X. She has a great desire to learn all that she can, and she wants to do what's right. We were able to have two appointments with her this last week! She's said that if she comes to know that it's true for herself that she'll be baptized. :) We're so excited! She has some things that she needs to work through, but we know she can do it! She has some anxiety problems, so going to church with a whole lot of people she doesn't know kind of scares her. We're hoping that we can bring more members to our lessons so that she can get to know more people. We're really excited for her!

We were also able to meet with some investigators that another ward in our zone was teaching when they found out that they actually live in our ward! Hooray! :) Their names are Y and Z, and they're just great! They're sisters, and I don't know if I've met two kinder ladies. Y is around our age, and Z is in her 30's and we love them so much already! We were able to have a lesson with them on Tuesday, they came to church with us yesterday, and they came to the Musical Fireside that we had last night!!! :) And we have another appointment with them on Wednesday! They are very sincere. They've been church-hopping for quite some time. X really likes the Baptist church that her grandparents go to, but Z said that our church is the church that she's felt most comfortable at. :) We're really trying to help them gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and help them feel the spirit. We're super excited for them! Hopefully we can set a baptism date with them this week.

Speaking of the Musical Fireside, it was the best thing ever! Like I said, X and Z came which was awesome! The biggest surprise was when some of our neighbors that we invited walked in. Pretty sure my jaw was on the floor. :) They're roommates and we helped one of them move in some stuff a couple weeks ago. She told us that she went to USU, and had just moved from Utah. So she knows who we are. :) Haha! A few days later we dropped by to give them an invitation, and goodness we were just so excited when they walked in! No return appointment yet, but we're hoping that we will soon. The Fireside was beautiful in itself! Our Ward Members are so talented! We had a harp number, a few couples sang, and Donny Osmond's son and his wife spoke and sang (They go to the other ward, but hey I'm in the same stake as Donny Osmond's son! :)). It was pretty neat! My favorite number from the night was a song called "Come ye Disconsolate." It's beautiful, you should look it up!

On Saturday the Elders in our ward had a baptism! It was great, and very much last minute. Their story is crazy. So the Missionaries that were in this ward a few transfers back found this lady, and long story short found out that she was a lost member! They put in her name and BAM her records showed up. She was baptized when she was eight, but her family went Less Active shortly afterward, and she'd forgotten that she was a member! They were teaching her, and her family and her ten-year old son got baptized on Saturday. It was last second because she wasn't sure that she would be able to get work off. It truly was an answer to prayer that she was able to, and the Elders threw together the baptism they day before. It was crazy, but awesome!

 We've been able to meet with the members of our ward more often because of the 40-day fast that we're having, and that has been so great. A missionary is happiest when they're teaching! This ward is awesome!

It was hard to say goodbye to Sister Morones. I'm not sure if she told you, but she got a call on Thursday that she was going home on Friday. So yeah, that was crazy. Sister Riley and I miss her, but we're hoping they can get her stomach figured out!

Also, there is some other news concerning companions. I've heard from Sister Winert that they found out she has a brain tumor. They're doing some tests this week, and I just wanted to ask you all to please, please keep her and her family in your prayers. That would mean so much to me.

I feel like I've been learning so much the past couple of weeks. Sometimes things are hard, but I've been learning to be patient, to be humble, and to rely on the Lord. I've been learning that He's very much aware of what we're going through, and that He cares so much. This is His work, and He really does care so, so much. He always sends help, and relief.