4/30/18... Little Thailand and Gastonia

This week has been awesome! So much happened and it felt like it was just go go go. The days go by so fast when you finish one thing and then you're late to the next.  It's been a blast though. We haven't killed each other quite yet in the trio (but we've gotten pretty close.) 😂  No, it's been really fun. I've been loving it so far.  

I guess I'll tell y'all a little about the great peeps we are teaching and then some stories that happened this week. 

Sandra-- I think I talked about her last week, but we were able to teach her a few times this last week. She has a testimony that this is true, but we want to help her have a spiritual experience with the Book of Mormon to help her strengthen her testimony more. She rewrites the pamphlets we give her and sends them to her son who is in jail right now. She is really solid! We also had a miracle this week. She works a lot of Sundays, so it's hard for her to get off.  But this week her boss told her she'd been working too many hours and he gave her Sunday off, so she came to church yesterday! We taught her with sister Thompson this week whose husband grew up in the Tri-Cities!  It was fun to talk to him about that. He is awesome. 

We are also teaching another family I mentioned last week. Some crazy things happened with them this week.  She was in the hospital for a bit so that was hectic. The mom is doing really well.  She has felt the spirit and recognizes that she is feeling the spirit,  which is really important.  And she has really started to repent on her own without us needing to push her much. They came to church for all 3 hours in Sunday too, which really made our week. When our investigators come to church it makes the whole week feel so much more successful.  So that's good!  I think they liked church a lot. They are progressing right now. I love getting to see the spirit work in other people's lives.  You see small changes almost every time you visit them and that makes me so happy as a missionary getting to see that. 

One of the kids in our ward named Aor is from Thailand.  He joined the church about 4 years ago and is leaving on his mission this Wednesday.  So he spoke in church yesterday and had a little farewell get together at his house. We thought it was going to be just a normal little farewell thing. Nope, this was way better! We walked in and not many people were there--just like his family and none of them speak English besides him. We take our shoes off, and all sit criss cross on the ground. Then all of a sudden loads of Asians keep walking through the door haha. The place was full. Then another guy walks in and I guess he was a preacher. But he get ups and they start having like a Sunday service devotional thing idk...(in another language of course.)  It was awesome watching this happen because we had no idea what the heck was going on. Then he puts his hand on Aor and blesses him. Then he finishes and they bring out food and we had a huge feast just right there on the ground. It was seriously awesome just being able to witness a little of their culture and really not know what was going on. I'll send some pics of it! It made me realize Sarah was probably doing this everyday!

Little Thailand 

Friday we got to go to Gastonia to a baptism of a girl that I taught on exchanges in Gastonia.  She asked if I would say the closing prayer. That was a lot of fun, it was an incredible baptism.  The Spirit was very present.  I got to see Elder Zesiger, Destany and the Hickmans.  It was fun seeing them again. Saturday we also got to go to a baptism of a lady named Esmeralda.  I was able to interview her the week earlier and that was awesome.  She found a pass along card and just felt the spirit prompt her strongly to call the number! She was really prepared for this at this time. 

This week is going to be super busy! We have a meeting all day on Tuesday, interviews on Wednesday and then a bunch of stuff to do the rest of the weekend. So I'll probably blink and be writing a letter again next week. 

Love y'all!

Love you momma!

Elder Anderson zonkin out in the car 😂

Qs

Did you make the chocolate chip cookies?  How did they turn out?  I'll put some chocolate chips and stuff in your Amazon Pantry box.  

Ya we made them! They didn't turn out super good lol. Burned one batch and underdid (if that's a word haha) the second. In my defense Elder Hull wouldn't let me touch the baking process, so I'm blaming him 😂

Did you get my little house warming package?

Ya I got it! Thank you so much, you are a life saver!!

Did you get the shirts?  Do they fit?

I haven't gotten them yet! We've checked most days, but nothing yet. 

Have you heard from your coach about housing?  

No I haven't. He will let us know probably. 

Do you know I love you???

Yesh of course!

Is there anything I can do for YOU???

Ummmm have you looked at my classes much yet? We get to Skype next week too, we could talk about that! 

   

 

4/23/18... Elder Anderson, Elder Hull and Elder Morgan--A Week of Miracles and a Service Project at the Rodeo

This week was definitely an interesting week...We did see some great miracles which I am really excited about!  

The trio is a lot of fun.  It's still weird having 3 people.  It's hard to find a balance in teaching with 3 of us. There is never a dull moment though--it's pretty fun most of the time. We gave out a bunch of Gladys Knight gift bags this week again.  We havent gotten a whole of of interest from those people yet, but we still have some people to follow up with...havent given up yet. We are teaching a lady named Sandra. We taught her a couple times this week.  We had just gotten done teaching her when that lady sent you the picture of us. She told us this week that she had been reading and praying about what she should do, and she said she got an answer that she needs to be baptized.  So obviously that was music to our ears and we were really excited for her. She works a lot though on Sundays and so that's been a little road block we have to work around. 

The other family we are teaching pretty regularly is the fam I talked about last week. They are doing pretty good.  They seemed to really understand the restoration when we taught it to them. They haven't kept many commitments yet but they said they want to get baptized and we actually set a date for them for the end of May. They haven't come to church yet.  She works a crazy schedule and works on Sundays. Third shift. I pray I never have to work a 3rd shift... I probably just jinxed myself by saying that but whatevs. 

We are getting to know the ward better, there are some super great people here. The bishop is in his 30s and he's really good.  

Somehow we got a roped into doing some service project this weekend. These people needed out help to park people at a rodeo, so we told her we could help.  We were actually pretty excited at the start to help at a rodeo, then after we got there, we realized that this job could be done with 4 people and we had about 15. So It really ended up being kind of a waste of time which is a bummer. Elder Hull and I got cowboy hats to wear for it too 😂. 

  

This is crazy. Get this... so Elder Hull is he 3rd of 4 kids, he has an older sister...shes 23, an older brother who is 26, and a younger brother who is 17. We literally have the exact same family! haha. He is super fun though.  He went to a semester at Utah State before his mission, so he is 21. Elder Anderson is actually a convert of 4 yrs and is 23. So I've been out the longest and I'm the youngest! It's been a lot of fun with them. 

That is about it for the week.  We found a few other people to teach from last week's family history booth that we did.  We had a lesson with a professor and he had some questions about how we believe the Spirit works and doing baptisms for deceased ancestors. We asked some questions at first and he said he did believe that baptism was essential. So we realized we should first talk about that because in order to understand why we do baptisms for deceased ancestors you need to believe baptism is essential for salvation. Then we talked about the spirit world in 1 Peter 3:19-20 and 4:6. Then 1 Corinthians 15:29 when Paul is teaching about the Resurrection and mentions doing baptisms for the dead. I love teaching with the bible-- it is the same doctrine and same gospel taught in the Book of Mormon.  I have loved being able to see people realize that. I love being a missionary and I really don't want to think about that day when I won't be a missionary. 

Love y'all 

Love you mom u da best! 

Qs

Are you getting acclimated to the new place?  ...to your new comps?  

Ya pretty good so far, still getting to know where everything is.  It is so densely populated here that it is hard to get familiar with all the street signs and stuff. 

How is it going with 3 guys?

It's good, it's almost a little bit harder sometimes but when we are all on top of things we get a lot more done.

What are your favorite memories of Grandma and Grandpa's house?  

When we would camp out back and Grandpa would pop a garbage bag full of popcorn and tell us Okiefanokie Swamp stories. When he would do surgery on us to get all the Pepsi out of us. Or when we would play office upstairs.

Time for an Amazon Pantry in your new place?  

Requests?

Sure!! We found out chilli and Mac and cheese together is incredible. Maybe send some chilli cans and Mac n cheese.

 

  

4/16/18... Transfer to Reedy Creek with Elder Hull AND Elder Anderson

Sooooo hello everyone!!  

This week has been one for the books for sure. Tuesday night around 8:50p, right when we thought we were off the hook, we got a call from President and he told us I was getting transferred. So right now I am in Reedy Creek, and I'm so stoked! This is one of the most coveted areas in the mission!  It has almost all of uptown Charlotte in it and east of Charlotte. It's going to be so much fun.

Saturday we were driving to go see someone and we were in uptown and it was just crazy. The city was packed and on one of the corners was a big Black Israelite stand. I don't know much about them, but I know they hate us... haha They don't like the missionaries.  They were all dressed like they were ready for war and had speakers and a microphone just preaching. But I'm almost 90% sure if we would have gotten out of the car, we could have been shot instantly... haha. It was something you would see on a movie, honestly. 

Tuesday I can't even remember what happened really.  All I remember is that a member took us to Golden Corral and it feels like it was a year ago already. Then Wednesday was pretty busy.  We went to say goodbye to as many people as we could and had a few lessons in the afternoon. Shelby was definitely my hardest area to leave, mostly because I know that I am going into my last area and I'll probably finish here. It just hit me more as I was packing. I will miss a lot of the people from Shelby and I'm so grateful for the experiences that I had and the people I got to meet and be a part of their lives. Shelby is a great place, I'll never forget my time there. I got to say goodbye to the Hickmans and the Simpsons, Tom and Destany and everyone else. Brother Camp drove us down to Charlotte on Thursday.

 This week has been such a blast though.  My new companions--yes, plural--are Elder Hull and Elder Anderson. They are a ton of fun and we have been having a really good time. I think there is a good chance that we will even be together for the rest of my time. After the Gladys Knight event, Reedy Creek got the most referrals. 26! So we have been seriously running around like crazy trying to give the gift bags to them all and teach them more. It's been really busy. We met a family this week who we are really excited about. We got to talking with the mom and she is just really set on getting on the right path with her and her family. She has 3 kids and they started to read the scriptures at night and say family prayer together. We had a ride for them and everything to church, but she ended up getting called into work last minute.  It's always interesting getting to know the members of the ward in a new place. They weren't super welcoming at the start, so we really are hoping to get the member trust up this transfer because it is so key to have a good relationship with the ward. I'm really excited to be here and see what the Lord has in store for us. 

Overall it was a great week, I'm sad to leave Shelby but it'll be a good time to grow and be in a new place.  

Love y'all!

Love you mom 

Here is my new address: 

6022 Apt. D Delta Crossing Lane 

Charlotte, NC 28212 

4/9/18... The Gladys Knight show and splits with the one and only Elder Montandon!

Picture from the Gladys Knight show!
Elder Zesiger, Withers, Dana, Montandon, and Arias and Osborne. The whole district.
The girls are Haley, a recent convert, Ali, who is getting baptized, and Destany.

This week has definitely been eventful! We had the Gladys Knight show this Saturday. So, Gladys goes around and does these shows in chapels.  It's a good way to feel the spirit while listening to some gospel music while she shares her testimony of the restored gospel. It was incredible. The choir was so good. They sang some really good songs that had everyone shouting and clapping which most of y'all know is not like our normal hymns at church! We went to the 4 pm show and the 7:30pm show because we had some people from Shelby come to both. It was so lit tho.  haha. There were some young kids in the choir as well who sang and it blew my mind how good they were. One kid played the ukulele and sang The Lord is my Light.  It was way good--I think it inspired me to bare down and learn how to play the ukulele when I get home.  Before my mission, every time I picked it up, I got frustrated. haha. It was some good music though and so fun-- was almost like we got to go to a concert haha. But on the other hand, she bore a super powerful testimony of the Savior and the gospel. Her husband spoke too and he was hilarious, but he also bore a really powerful testimony of his conversion and the restored gospel! I think we got 6 or 7 referrals from it too, so we are stoked to go follow up with the people.

Also, this week, I got to go on exchanges with the one and only Elder Montandon!! It was super fun being with him again.  He has grown a lot since last time we were companions. It's also been almost a year and a half! We had a really good time. Oh… and idk if I told y'all...he got switched to a Spanish elder! Probably because his trainer didn't do well enough teaching him in English ;)  We taught a lesson in Spanish and I kind of just sat there and talked English to the kids every couple minutes. Sometimes when I was with Elder Johnsen, I would get pretty sleepy in those Spanish lessons lol. Then we taught a girl named Allie at their bishop's house.  It was a really powerful lesson.  She's going to get baptized at the end of this month and she's good friends with Destany and Haley. It's pretty incredible the story that those 3 girls have. Destany had to overcome a lot of opposition and she was able to help Haley overcome her opposition before joining the church now they both are able to help Allie who is getting a lot of opposition as well. The Lord has incredible timing, and it's a blessing to get to witness His hand in this work. 

Monday, we had a really good lesson with a lady named Toni. We went over and she opened up to us a little bit and she talked about how she had a spirit in her house that was kind of tormenting her. We helped her with that and then had a lesson. I'm so grateful that I get to teach people about the restoration and how it's blessed my life. 

Right now, we are playing some basketball for pday and we went and threw earlier. We've been going out in the mornings to throw sometimes which has been a lot of fun. 

Love y'all!

Love you mom!

Saw Amanda again!

This sister said she knows y'all!
She was in the YSA ward in Kennewick or something!
Small world!

Qs

When are transfers?  

They are this week! We find out tomorrow night probably about what's going down. I have no idea what's going to happen tho. It's probably a 50/50 of I stay or if I go. 

Do you need anything??  

I'm pretty good right now thanks!

Have you heard anymore from your coach?  

Ya he sent an email out last week about classes and schedules, pretty much the exact same thing that you got. 

WHAT CLASSES DO YOU WANT TO TAKE??

I really don't know. I need you to send me the options. I know I want to try and take some business and leadership classes.

I am going to call that school counselor, Paul-something?  and get you registered...

Ok thank you, could you send me the options this week so I can think on it a bit.