"Last shall be first"

This is really strange knowing this is the last email I will write as a full-time missionary. But it's not been as hard as I thought that it would. I think it is because I don't view this as an end. "Last shall be first" was intended to mean that this is a last that will also be a first. It marks the beginning of something new and exciting. Even though I won't have a name tag anymore, I intend on doing most of the exact things that I do now. 

Today we had the privilege of having Elder Don R. Clarke of the Seventy (in the Missionary Department) and Brother Donaldson come and give us an iPad training. Our mission is getting iPads next week, so they came to teach us more about them. After seeing just how much it will impact the work, I'm a little envious that I will never get to experience that as a missionary, but that is why I loved the training so much because it wasn't just about how to use the iPads, but it was about conversion. It helped me to think about the way I want to use technology when I go home. Most of all, it was special because the Holy Ghost was the teacher, and we all learned so much from Him.

This week has flown by but has been so great.

We were able to call and teach Richard, and miraculously, he didn't mention anything about going to a seminary to find information. Not sure if that was because he didn't go, but we had a great lesson. We followed up with his commitments which he was been keeping for the most part. He even set aside an hour and a half today to read the Book of Mormon. He has church penciled on his calendar for next Sunday and has asked his lifelong member friend if he could go with him. The missionaries will come visit him today and are planning on teaching from Alma 32 with him. He is still praying about everything we share with him and everything he reads in the Book of Mormon, and feels that Heavenly Father is really guiding him in his life right now.

We found a new investigator named Lexi this week .She is way cool! We met her on chat and she is very adamant about not getting our hopes up. She is Evangelical and her Grandpa is a member and she has always been very curious. But, lately as she has been learning more she has felt truth and has been doubting some of the things she has been taught.

We had an awesome lesson with her last night and she is going to church on Sunday. She really wants to make sure it is right before she goes open about it to her family, and I think that is way cool.

Briee is doing great! She is getting baptized on April 15th and really feels like Heavenly Father has led her here and this is His Restored Gospel.

Our other investigators are doing great and we are praying that we wil lbe able to help them to progress towards baptism and the Temple. I have felt SO blessed to have the opportunity to be involved in teaching them.

As I near this last week as a missionary, Alma really sums up how I feel. And I choose to end with this:

"12 Behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.
13 Behold, how many thousands of our brethren has he loosed from the pains of hell; and they are brought to sing redeeming love, and this because of the power of his word which is in us, therefore have we not great reason to rejoice?
14 Yea, we have reason to praise him forever, for he is the Most High God, and has loosed our brethren from the chains of hell.
15 Yea, they were encircled about with everlasting darkness and destruction; but behold, he has brought them into his everlasting light, yea, into everlasting salvation; and they are encircled about with the matchless bounty of his love; yea, and we have been instruments in his hands of doing this great and marvelous work.
16 Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel.
27 Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.
28 And now behold, we have come, and been forth amongst them; and we have been patient in our sufferings, and we have suffered every privation; yea, we have traveled from house to house, relying upon the mercies of the world—not upon the mercies of the world alone but upon the mercies of God.
29 And we have entered into their houses and taught them, and we have taught them in their streets; yea, and we have taught them upon their hills; and we have also entered into their temples and their synagogues and taught them; and we have been cast out, and mocked, and spit upon, and smote upon our cheeks; and we have been stoned, and taken and bound with strong cords, and cast into prison; and through the power and wisdom of God we have been delivered again.
30 And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some.
31 Now behold, we can look forth and see the fruits of our labors; and are they few? I say unto you, Nay, they are many; yea, and we can witness of their sincerity, because of their love towards their brethren and also towards us
35 Now have we not reason to rejoice? Yea, I say unto you, there never were men that had so great reason to rejoice as we, since the world began; yea, and my joy is carried away, even unto boasting in my God; for he has all power, all wisdom, and all understanding; he comprehendeth all things, and he is a merciful Being, even unto salvation, to those who will repent and believe on his name."

I know this is God's very work. I know Jesus Christ lives and I will serve Him for the rest of my life, and "praise His name forever." I will forever treasure this sacred time I have has as a missionary! The two things I always tell everyone are:

1. Work hard, play harder

2. Always be better today than you were yesterday

It's the key to success.

Thank you for all the prayers and support. I feel them, and they have helped to change my heart. May we all take full advantage of the Atonement so our hearts can be changed to become more like Christ.

Love,

Our unique message: the Restoration

Wow, that was a fast week. But a great week!

Our investigators are doing really well. We're weeding out the ones that are really prepared NOW to receive the Restored Gospel.

One of those is Briee! We taught her all about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon and focused on the 'pray to know' part of the lesson. She is doing so good with that. She said that she feels the spirit and she really understands and likes everything we share with her. She is just so sincere it's almost weird. Haha just kidding. She is just really prepared. She's even been to church twice now and is praying to know when she should be baptized. And the missionaries finally came! They also taught her the restoration so pretty soon she can teach us the Restoration. haha.

Jeanne is another that is super prepared. She's only been learning for about a month, but is getting baptized on the 28th. When the missionaries invited her to be baptized on the 28th she said she felt honored and so grateful that someone would invite her to do that. Sometimes as missionaries or member missionaries, we feel that we are pushing people and being awkward by inviting them to do things, but really you just never know when someone has been prepared. They have been waiting for someone to invite them, and when a person does, the Holy Ghost can confirm that it is right. The Holy Ghost cannot confirm that it it right if we never give them a chance!

Tim is doing really well. His Stake President and Bishop came over and told him they think he is ready to prepare to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood and his Endowments! In March he will have been a member for a year. So that's what he is working on. He is still struggling with his health but hopefully it will improve enough for him to be out and about a little more. He's been having to have the sacrament brought to him recently because he isn't feeling so great in the mornings. So hopefully that will improve!

Richard on the other hand isn't as prepared right now....We knew this week's lesson would be a way to know if he is ready or not. We were following up yesterday with his Book of Mormon reading and he was telling us how it follows the bible and he hasn't found anything he disagrees with. But then he started talking about his Catholic beliefs and how the Catholic church was the original church...We knew it was time to teach the Great Apostasy and Restoration. The Spirit was definitely there and helped us to know what to say. We tried to do it tactfully so it wasn't like us saying, 'actually when we're talking about churches being started without Christ's Authority we're talking about the Catholic church' haha. But he just didn't want to understand it. He said that he wants to have better proof he can back himself up with so before next week when we call he is going to go to a Seminary and talk to people so he can find out where he can show us that his church is the original church and has the authority. Over and over again we emphasized the point that he should ask God for truth and confirmation, and that no man can give us truth. So we'll see how it turns out. Even if he decides to not investigate the church further, it's okay because we did our best to invite him come closer to Christ by helping him to learn correct information for himself. Sometimes people aren't ready and they take more time and more good contacts with the church before they really understand. But we hope that he will depend on our Heavenly Father to answer his prayers!

We have been enjoying serving in the Beehive House. It's been pretty busy (haha get it, busy like bees in the Beehive House haha) but we've met some really great people. It's such a neat place to serve because not only did Brigham Young live there, but Lorenzo Snow and Joseph F. Smith also did, and Joseph F. Smith received the revelation of D&C 138 there. I read the section the other day and it was so cool! It takes the famous chapters in Peter about the Spirit World and expounds them. That's what I love about Modern revelation, things are unfolded and we don't have a big mystery hanging over us. Also, it's cool because we can receive our own personal revelation and be taught more things like the scriptures tell us: "For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round." As Joseph F. Smith was troubled by the passing of family members, he sought to understand more about what happens after we die. We too can seek answers to our questions, and God's mysteries can and will be revealed as we trust Him. That's just another fraction of my testimony of how I know this church has been restored. Of course God hasn't left us alone. We had to be in a period of darkness for a while because of the bad choices of those that persecuted Christ's church. This scripture in Amos prophesied an Apostasy: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:" We had to have that time so the world could be prepared for the Gospel again, but God has always had the same pattern of calling a Prophet to establish His truths. Why would this time be any different? It's so cool to me that we have the same organization that existed in the Primitive church. We can receive personal revelation, and a Prophet can receive revelation for the church. And it's so neat that the Beehive House was worthy for a Prophet to receive revelation! That just means the statement about only a home can be a sacred as a Temple is true.

Anyway, we had some other great lessons, and tours this week also. It's so rewarding to talk to someone who is so closed and has no desire to talk to you but after you try to open your mouth anyway and get to know them, they leave much happier and the spirit has uplifted them! Oftentimes the first sister to contact someone will find that they don't really want to be talked to. But after a good conversation, another set of sisters will come along and talk to the person again, and with every contact they become more friendly and by the time they leave, they have had a great experience. So we can never think to ourselves, 'someone has probably already talked to them,' or 'someone else can talk to them better than I can' because we never know if something we say will be something that specific person needs to hear!

In District Meeting this week, we focused on Revelation through the Book of Mormon. We discussed how important the Book of Mormon is in conversion and why. We watched Elder Holland's Testimony of the Book of Mormon. It's one of my favorite videos! Here's the link so you can watch it:

click here

Well that's about it! Hope you have a great week.

Love,

(No Title)

It's been an eventful week!
We are teaching great people. We've been really blessed.

Sister Weidmann and I have goals of things that we have realized we need to work on. So we have a goal for every day of the week, so on Wednesdays we focus on asking inspired questions, Thursdays inviting everyone, Fridays asking for referrals, etc., so everyday we are trying to turn those weaknesses into strengths. I think it's been working really well because we hold each other accountable and help each other to remember. Also it improves our contacts because we are not just talking to people, but we are trying to help them come closer to Jesus Christ, which is our missionary purpose after all :)

Richard is doing so good! I feel so strongly that that timing was inspired. We talked with him yesterday. The local missionaries came over on Monday and brought him a Book of Mormon and visited with him for about an hour. He said he just felt so fulfilled. He likes the Book of Mormon and was feeling like it agrees with everything he believes. He kept saying things like, 'it fits with my bible' or 'i haven't found anything that differs from my bible' so we told him hey, we want you to know that the Book of Mormon doesn't replace the Bible. We told him how we use them together and he was so relieved. He said, I'm so happy you told me that because that was the impression I had gotten. Now he is excited to read them together to see how they fit together. In Preach my Gospel, it says that we should invite people to be baptized in the first lesson, and no later than the second lesson. I didn't invite int he first lesson because of his past experience with pushy missionaries, but I knew that we needed to on Tuesday. So we invited him to be baptized and he told us about how he didn't like that he was baptized into the Catholic church as an infant because it wasn't his choice, so a couple years ago he went to Jerusalem and was baptized in the River Jordan. He told us all about that experience and how it was life changing and how great it was and said that he has already fulfilled that and doesn't want to again. We taught him about the Gift of the Holy Ghost and how special it is, and how we don't want to take away from the great experience he had, but that we would love for him to be able to add to it. I think he understood that a lot more and that is something he wants to have. The spirit was there and I know he felt it. He said that he is so grateful that we call him because he learns so much and feels like it's what Heavenly Father wants for him. Oh and on the bright side, we cleared up some of the history with missionaries being pushy...he asked us if Jehovah's witnesses were a branch of LDS and told us a story of when they knocked on his door and after the conversation of him saying he was not interested, they shoved their foot in the door so it couldn't close and kept trying to talk to him. He said he hated that and thought they were our missionaries. We just explained that that isn't our religion and not our missionaries. It lightened it up a lot haha and at least now he knows it wasn't us!

We are also teaching a girl named Briee. She had come on chat asking for a Book of Mormon. Her whole family is Baptist, but she has just had this feeling that it's not complete so she started searching. She actually heard about the church through some news story of a Mormon guy that was killed, so it piqued her interest and she was googling it when she came across Mormon.org and that's when she wanted a Book of Mormon. Well we've been calling her and she is learning so fast. She's been reading and praying and really likes it so far. She went to church on Sunday and is wanting the missionaries to come teach her more in her area. We shared the Book of Mormon promise (Mor. 10: 3-5) with her and talked about the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. She said she has felt it before so we encouraged her to look for those same feelings as she reads the Book of Mormon and prays about it. We invited her to be baptized and she said yes. It amazes me how people can be so open-minded. It is really a testimony to me of how the Lord is hastening His work! I'm grateful that people are willing to obey those subtle promptings, even when they don't know they are promptings. It really is a fulfillment of the scripture in D&C 123: "For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it—" We all have to be missionaries to help others know where to find it!

We are also teaching Pascal in Germany. He is doing really well and has a baptismal date. He has some problems with his nasal cavity though so he's been really sick and not able to go to church. We are hoping the elders will come and give him a blessing so he can come to church on Sunday. It's funny because he likes to talk to us after he meets with the elders because they are from America and he can't understand their German so he likes to clarify things with Sister Weidmann haha. But he's an awesome guy. It's cool to see someone who is, once again, open, especially in Germany because most people there do not believe in God and have no desire to do so, but he believes in God and wants to do what's right.

We're also teaching someone named Lyssa who came on chat. She didn't grow up very religious but began praying after her brother passed away. She heard about the Book of Mormon and came on chat to get one. We sent the local missionaries at the beginning of January, and they still haven't gotten there!! Hopefully she will be able to go to church so she can meet them there or at least get the Book....we're not sure why they haven't come yet. We told her about the online version and the free download in the Apple store so she'll use that until she can have a hard copy. Last time we talked we taught her about the Book of Mormon and what she can expect from it, and how she can recognize truth. I think it's all new to her but she really likes it because it gives her peace. Now we just need to invite her to be baptized!

We're teaching more but don't have time to tell you about all of them, unfortunately. But we've had such a great week at the Beehive house and the teaching center and on the Square. We've felt the spirit as we've testified to people. Unfortunately they don't always want to act on that feeling of the Spirit but after all, it does take 7 good contacts on average with the church before someone accepts the Gospel. So we are happy we can be one of those!

We love serving here! Thanks for all your prayers and support.

I attached some pictures from this week in the Beehive House, we open it some days before the guests arrive, so we got to explore a little bit!

8 Months later...

This week has been so busy but so good!

We've been taking lots of tours in the Beehive House and I think we are actually starting to give good tours haha.

It was actually kind of a weird week. I'm not sure how to explain it, I guess it was just one of those weeks. But for example...

Saturday night we were contacting at the Christus when someone ACTUALLY proposed at the feet of Christ. That's so weird to me that someone would propose there! It was pretty awkward. They had blindfolded the girl and walked her all the way up there and all their extended family members were around filming it as they took off the blindfold except that it wouldn't come off at first. Haha it was really funny to watch!

There's so many other weird stories but those don't really matter. We had some great lessons where the spirit was so strong:

Here is one lesson...Some sisters that went home this past transfer contacted me a guy they had recently met named Jordan. Well we met up with him on Thursday for a lesson, and it went...okay. Haha. He is 28 and lives here to teach flying at the SLC Airport. He lives with a Returned Missionary and had been walking on Temple Square when the Sisters contacted him. He grew up Pentecostal but when he got older, it kind of rubbed him the wrong way and he felt like they were staging the 'speaking in tongues.' So he left the church and became Agnostic. He started to drink and smoke and make bad choices and some years later he got turned to AA, which has really helped him. Now he doesn't use those substances and because of the AA program, he has been praying daily. He feels that it helps him from being tempted to drink. In AA, they are taught to pray to a higher power, but not necessarily God. So he prays to God but isn't sure if He exists. We asked why he decided to meet with the sisters and with us and he said he had nothing better to do. We had a long lesson with him doing HTBT (PMG) and teaching about the nature of God and how we can feel His love and how He reveals truth. We shared the First Vision and the spirit was really strong. He would kinda laugh to brush off feeling the spirit, I think he's afraid of finding what he's been looking for. We talked about how he can read and pray about the Book of Mormon to know if it is true and he thinks that is biased and that he will be convincing himself. The experiment mentioned in Alma 32 is perfect for him. It talks about planting a seed and measuring it's efforts. The previous sisters had him read it, but when we mentioned the experiment, he didn't remember reading that. He really liked that idea and said he would read it. Sorry this is all so scrambled, I promise the lesson went better than this haha. But we just told him that all it will come down to is him reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. We told him that we are not here to try to convince him, but we're here to help him find out for himself. We told him that we could be in a room with no windows and tell him that the sky is green, but it would be silly to take our word for it. He would have to go outside and look for himself. That's what we invited him to do is to ask God and trust Him enough to get an answer so he can know that God exists and that He is there. He said that his level of commitment on a scale from 1-10 is a 5. I think he got a lot more than he was thinking when he came that day. But we're not here to be friends or to offer him the Gospel lightly, this is salvation, and he needs this. We're here to harvest. At the end, we asked if we could meet with him again the next week and he said that before he had just been coming because he had nothing better to do, but now he would actually have to pray about it. I was so happy with that answer, that meant that he was serious about it, and that he was thinking. When we followed up with him this week, he hadn't read Alma 32 and said that he wouldn't be back this week but that he was doing his own 'research.' I asked how he was doing his 'research' and he said Google. No way haha the worst. So I g ave him a quote from Elder Anderson in the last General Conference: "Studying the church...through the eyes of its defectors is like interviewing Judas to understand Jesus." I love that quote. I don't think it really phased him but we have so much faith! I know that Heavenly Father will help him. We are praying for him that his desire will be strengthened and his heart softened. We know we can see miracles because this is the Lord's work, and the Lord works miracles. We also put him on a list of people we all pray for as a District. Someday he will totally be baptized.

Another lesson we had was with a guy named Richard. Actually it's such a cool story!

I found him when I left SLC and went to Columbus. He sat next to me on the plane and we talked for a long time about his religious background and about the church, and he actually gave his information to me to learn more. I couldn't call him while I was in Ohio so I tucked away the old planner. Well the Spirit reminded me this week that his number was in my old planner so I called him and it was a great conversation. At first I was a little worried because the very first thing he said is that he volunteers regularly for his catholic church program that he loves. But the Spirit has perfect timing. He lives in Glendale, and the missionaries have come by many times but he said they are always pushy and it rubs him the wrong way, so he would never take a Book of Mormon. After our conversation of establishing expectations and our purpsoe of missionaries and why we wanted to call him and teach him more, he said that if missionaries came right now he would take a Book of Mormon and he would read it. It was way cool. He said that he was hoping I would call and that he knows it is a sign from God. We called him again yesterday and he is going to read the Book of Mormon online until the missionaries come. We're excited!

This week I have been reading 'The Ricciardi Letter' again. I don't know if you've heard about it, but it's a letter of a Returned Missionary, Elder Humphry, talking about his crazy trainer, Elder Ricciardi. It turns out that Elder Ricciardi was about the boldest and most consecrated missionary in the history of all missionaries. It is really inspiring to read as a missionary, but I bet as a Member it would also be inspiring to apply not only to missionary work but trials that we could be going through, so I will attach it. But two things I like and want to share are:

-One, he tells a story of a previous life lesson he learned that applies to missionary work: "When I was in high school, I worked at a golf course. I became friends with the assistant pro and he started to give me free lessons. I quit after about 10 lessons for one simple reason: I was frustrated by the 55 things you have to think about almost simultaneously in order to have a good swing. The club pro finally advised me to stop taking lessons, go play and do one thing for him, just swing, swing, swing. That’s it. Do not give any care as to where the ball goes, just swing. He told me “Danny, you will enjoy golf better by just swinging”. The same applies to missionary work." And then he talked about how we don't have to be perfect. All Jesus Christ expects from us to to open our mouths, and He promises to fill them. We just have to "swing" and talk to everyone.

-Two, he later gets transferred to an area that was really an armpit of the mission. It was really hard and although he was being exactly obedient and working as hard as he could, he couldn't see any results. Finally he went and let out his frustration to the Lord in prayer. He prayed for a very long time, out loud, longer than he had ever prayed before. The answer he got to his prayer changed the mission for him and I think taught him an eternal lesson. The answer was: "Elder Humphrey, I am here. I know who you are. I sent you to those neighborhoods, the very ones where you experienced nothing but rejection. I prompted your changes in direction to even more difficult neighborhoods. I know where each of the elect in your area resides. I know their names. I could send you to those addresses only, and save you the time and sacrifice looking for them. BUT ELDER HUMPHREY, WHAT GOOD WOULD THAT SERVE YOU? The mission experience is to do what you are told, when you are told, to go where you are asked, and know that the blessing comes from enduring what I ask of you. This is not about you; it is about opening your mouth at all times in all places. Doing my will without thought to the end result or consequence… this is what serving a mission is. " It brings me back to that quote, 'don't be so faithless that you have to see the results of your efforts.' This is our life experience too, we can't pick and choose our trials but God has created a meticulous and specific plan for each of us, and every one of those plans leads to joy because that is God's purpose for us.

That's why we don't care that our weeks was full of strange people and strange events because we don't need to see the results of our efforts. We just simply want to be instruments in the Lord's hands. We are so lucky to be missionaries!

Well that's about all we have time for. We'll write more about the other investigators we have next week. Thanks for the prayers, I feel them and they are so appreciated.

Love you!

(No Title)

This has been such a great week! I have never been so tired in my life, which means it's the best!

On Thursday, we covered at the Humanitarian Center, where all day from 10-4 we had no tours!! It was lame. So we called investigators and took chats. We taught one of Sister Weidmann's German investigators named Pascal. He's pretty cool. He has some great questions and is open to learning more. Sister Weidmann was telling me that most Germans and Swiss people are all the same, that they don't believe in God and don't really see a reason for believing in God, so it's rare that Pascal would be so interested. He us a little stubborn though, so we have been praying for his heart to be softened.

We also taught this guy named Santiago, who Sister Weidmann and her previous companion were working with. He goes to Sacrament Meeting every week and meets with missionaries. He is extremely stubborn, and anything we try to say he just automatically disagrees with. He kinda just believes that all paths lead to Heaven, no matter which church you're in. Every time we testify of the restoration and the spirit is strong, he just interrupts. So we have been praying for him that his heart will be softened as well, and that he will be open to understanding baptism in the restored church. So we'll see!

Lauren (the truckdriver) dropped us this week. She said that she's at a point in her life that she just can't be open minded right now and that she needs to focus on her family. Ah I was so sad. But it's okay, because I guess it's just not her time right now. I think it will be good fer her to have a little time without the Gospel in her life, so she can feel an absence. Then, when missionaries find her in the future, they will have a gold mine! :) She is such an awesome girl, I feel so lucky I got to be a part of teaching her, even if it was just for a little while.

We were in the teaching center one day when I really felt like we needed to call Kurk, one of the contacts in my online area book. He was just a typical person that had called in for a free DVD, most times they don't really pan out so we usually don't put them on our high priority list unless they are really interested. We had called him before but he was at work and didn't sound interested. Well we called, and asked if he got the DVD. He said that he had, and that his family had watched it with the missionaries! We started talking about what he thought about it, and started teaching him a little. Well we had a great conversation and he actually wants to learn more. And at the end he said, well I am actually at work right now, and we apologized but he said, oh no don't worry, I'm happy to talk. That was such a learning experience for me to not doubt anything! And to take advantage of any opportunity to ask people if they are interested in learning more because you just never know. We had another appointment with him but he was working and couldn't get off the phone with the vendor, so we'll call him this week.

We also found a new Investigator on chat, Kuixie (originally from China). She had come on for some typical questions, but we wanted to teach her about the Book of Mormon because we know it could help her, since she already believed in the Bible. It was exactly what she needed and she is so excited to read the Book of Mormon now.

On Sunday, we met a member Jaime on chat. She said she was really struggling after returning from a mission, and that she was feeling her testimony slipping away. We asked to call her and she gave her phone number. We called and had the best conversation with her. Really, she taught herself. We didn't teach her a thing. We asked her about the mission, and the times that she felt the spirit the strongest the time when it was the hardest, and what she would tell one of her investigators if they were going through what she is going through. She said she would tell them to hold on, and to not stop doing the little things like going to church and praying and reading the scriptures. She taught herself exactly what she needs to do. She has had a hard life but she is so strong. She was going to come to Temple Square for a lesson, but then we found out she lives 3 hours away! And she was just going to come up anyway. We told her not to because that's so far. So we called her for another lesson. It went really well and the spirit was strong. We talked about the scripture in Luke 22: 31-32: 31 ¶And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:

32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

That's one of my favorite scriptures. The Lord is always praying for us, and wants us to be converted. It's so important. The lesson went so well, and she is planning on being in SLC in the next couple weeks, so she will come to Temple Square! She knows that she needs to be converted, and that's what she is going to do.

Sunday night, we talked to this guy Tom outside the Tabernacle. He had met with missionaries and read parts of the Book of Mormon. We talked for a long time, and I know he felt the spirit. But, he didn't want to continue to learn more. He too felt that all religions are right.

We talked to someone yesterday in the same spot outside the Tabernacle and had almost the same conversation. He works for the church and has heard a lot about it, but is not a member. We had a GREAT conversation with him and he really liked learning about what the Temple is used for, because his family is so important to him. We taught about the Book of Mormon and gave him a free download card. He was so excited! He said it was perfect to read on the plane while he is traveling. He promised to read it. He was here for business and waiting to meet someone that was late. Right as we were inviting him to meet with missionaries and to teach him more, the guy walked up. We tried to ask but he said, I have to go. Ah, the timing of Satan. Gosh it was so hard! But we really know that he will get baptized one day because his heart was touched, knowing that he could be sealed to his family for eternity, regardless of what happens in this life.

Today, we talked to these great guys from Brazil! A father and a son. Their English was pretty scattered but we showed them the Temple Model and talked to them for a long time. They don't really like their Catholic religion, and they liked the things we shared with them. They had seen Temples in Brazil but didn't know what they were for. Family is so important to them, and they loved that they could be sealed to their family. They didn't want to give their address for local missionaries (I can't blame them, if I was a visitor in another country, I wouldn't want to give my address), but they promised that when they see missionaries again, they will let them in and listen to them. I know they will be baptized one day! I can just see them being sealed in white.

It's so great to do missionary work, I love being a missionary here. I know that Temple Square is a start to many, many people's testimonies and I'm so glad I get to be a part of that.

Hope you have a great week, love you!

"Don't be so faithless..."

A new transfer!

This is going to be a good one. My new companion is Sister Weidmann, she's from Switzerland! We will be serving in the Beehive House. That should be interesting since neither of us have served there haha but we're actually really excited. I think it will be a lot of fun! I attached a picture of Sister Ichikawa and I and a picture of Sister Weidmann and I too.

Well we had a great week. It's been filled with pre-transfer things. It's really weird to see these sisters leave because I am so close to a lot of them, and that means that we are the next ones to go. It's a strange feeling. I'm just so grateful I have another transfer I can just focus on missionary work and nothing else!

In one of the Sisters' departing testimonies, she told us something that her mission president outbound had told her. She said: "Don't be so faithless that you have to see the results of your efforts." I think that hit a lot of us hard! Frequently we are told that doing this or that will bring miracles, and so we expect that. We think, if I work my hardest and give it my all, Heavenly Father will reward us. But that's not the case. He has a greater vision for us. On Sunday, I had to give my departing talk (my class is so big we already had to start so we could get to everyone). My topic was about Elder Oaks' 'good, better, best' talk. It was actually really hard to prepare because I felt like I was preaching to the choir. But, it was neat to see how the spirit carried the topic into submitting to and following the Lord's will and how that will lead us to make the best decisions. I believe that we really will be blessed for being obedient and working hard, but it won't always be in the way we want, or even expect.The feeling of peace knowing that I did all I could do is the greatest feeling.

We met a new investigator on chat! I can't remember if we already talked about her. Her name is Brittany. Actually when she came on chat, I was really skeptical. Her name on the chat was Sally Shireman. Poeple never put their first and last name. And when we take chats, we can see what the people are typing as they type it, but they don't know that. So when Brittany was typing, she kept typing and then she would erase it and type something else totally different. Usually, that means the person is just messing around. She said that her friend is a member and when she was asking her questions she told her to come tomormon.org and to talk with missionaries. When we asked if she had ever been to church with her friend, she said, "Well I have considered going to church with her but I am confused about certain beliefs, like the baptism for the dead, why your not allowed to drink caffeine, how can I know that the book of Mormon is true to what God wants" These questions are like typical time-waster questions. Not all the time, but when they're all together like that, it's usually a member who is just messing with us, or missionaries trying to be funny, something like that. Usually when I think it's someone wasting our time I will say something like, these are great questions, could we cal you right now to answer them? And those who are not sincere will always say something like, oh I don't have a phone or, no, I'd rather chat, etc. And when I asked her that, she said, I'm out of minutes on my phone. I knew that was bogus haha. I thought she was a member but we kept responding and trying to do our best to give answers according to the spirit. Eventually the conversation got better and better. I tried to take those questions and take them in a direction where we could teach about baptism. We started talking about eternal families and how her family can be together forever. She said that's what she really wants for her family. We talked about some other things like Prophets and some other principles. She said she was going to have missionaries come over so we just told her that the missionaries will come and share more information with her and that they will invite her to do some things that will build her faith and give her a chance to learn the information for herself. We asked her that when she does that, and she prays about what they share with her and her prayers are answered, will she be baptized? She said she was already baptized. She started asking questions about Adam and Eve, but we didn't want to move on. We asked her, what if you could add to your experience with your baptism? She said it would never hurt to add, but wasn't sure what she could add. We talked about the gift of the Holy Ghost, and how Christ taught that we have to both be baptized by the proper authority AND receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost in order for us to truly be baptized. After we taught about the Priesthood, we explained the Gift of the Holy Ghost and how special it is and what He does, how He can be with us 24/7. She said: "I have felt the holy spirit before, but I know that it's not always there, a big reason I believe it leaves me is because I am a smoker, and I am having trouble giving it up." We talked about how she can overcome that and be worthy of the Holy Ghost. We had to go, and we asked if we could continue to teach her and she said yes, and surprisingly quickly left her number AND said, "also my name is Brittany, I was a little skeptical at first so I used a different name, I don't like to be to trusting over the internet." I think she was honestly seeking, but she was just a little scared. We've been teaching her since, and she really likes the teachings of the church, especially eternal families, she just has some concerns she has to get through. I am still a little skeptical sometimes because it was a little weird using a different name and changing her answers, but I will always give the befit of the doubt because this is important. This is the Gospel, and I want her to have it. I would really regret it if I never talked to her and found out after that she had been sincere. It's taught me a lesson that even if people come online and they change their answers or use a bogus name, I should keep talking with them. You just never know what could happen. I could have lost out on an awesome investigator, a future eternal family.

This brings me to a cool story I wanted to share. Two of the departing Sisters that were in the same zone were previewing the church's FamilySearch Discovery Center exhibit here in the JSMB. It shows your family's ancestry and the converts and how they were converted. Well, these two sisters were checking out their family history. One of them pulled up their 4th Great-Grandfather who was a member of the church and had served a mission. The other pulled up her own 4th Great Grandfather, and as they looked at each other, they realized that the one Sister's 4th Great Grandfather had converted the other. He also helped them come to America. So without him serving a mission, the other wouldn't have been baptized, and the Sister probably wouldn't be in America and certainly wouldn't have come on a mission. I'm sure he didn't think he made that big of an impact but really, we just never know! I think we make bigger impacts than we know as members of the church. You just never know what could happen. That's why we should always open our mouths! Like I said at the beginning, we can't expect to see huge things come from it, but Heavenly Father will reward our efforts in some way, even if it's over generations of time!

So remember that this week and open your mouth because you just never know :)

Love you, have a great week!

Love

Such a good week!

Hi!

This week was great!

The Square has been super quiet but we actually had time to find and teach and we are so happy about that.

I want to tell you about our experiences this week:

First, we talked to Tim. He is doing better. Last week, he wasn't feeling good and had to be rushed to the hospital because his heart was racing at 270 beats per minute. They ran some tests after slowing it down and discovered his calcium and magnesuim levels were at zero, and when that happens, the heart rate fluctuates. He hasn't been able to go to church lately because he's been so sick, so his ward has been bringing him the sacrament. We talked with him about reading the scriptures daily and continuing to pray daily. He also told us that he just got paperwork for him to be put on the transplant list for new kidneys! So that will be really cool when that happens.

On Friday, we were running around trying to open up all the buildings before 9 AM. A set of sisters had asked us to cover a desk assignment for them that day, or so I thought, so after we opened the buildings, we went to that desk. Right after that, this man walked in to get a map. We talked with him for a little bit. His name is Victor, he's from China but lives in Ohio (ah the best!). He was on vacation with his friends and didn't have a lot of time to talk but he wanted to learn more and became a new investigator. Then he had to go to meet his friends. After that, my companion asked why we were there. I said that we were covering for another set of sisters, but realized there were some already there. She reminded me that we were covering on Sunday, not Friday. I guess I messed up with that because we really needed to meet Victor! Haha

On Saturday, we were taking some chats. We accepted one from a lady named Sally. She told us that she had some questions about the church because her friend is a Mormon and had directed her to mormon.org. We began to answer her questions and ask some of our own. She said she is Christian and that she has a young family. We talked about the temple and how we believe we can be with our families forever. She said that's what I want for my family! Then we talked about baptism and she said she was already baptized in another church. We asked her, well what if you could add to the experience you had? We taught her about the Gift of the Holy Ghost and how Christ taught that we must be born of water and of the spirit, and how baptism isn't complete until we get the Holy Ghost, and how much of a blessing that is. She immediately said that that's what she wants. I was starting to feel optimistic because lately it just seems like everyone we chat with is insincere or anti. We asked if we could call her and teach her more and she said yes! I would love that. She gave her phone number and said, actually my name is Brittany. I didn't feel comfortable sharing my information with someone i didn't know. At first I was like what! But then I thought about it. The internet is pretty crazy and I don't blame her. Then I was super grateful because that meant that she felt so comfortable with us that she wanted to give her phone number and her real name. We actually called her today and thankfully she answered. But she said she was picking up her son from school and we set an appointment for tomorrow. We are hoping it will go well! We want to share about the plan of salvation and help her to start her goal of her family being together for eternity.

We also chatted with a guy named Bruce. He had questions about eternal progression. He had a friend who is LDS and was answering his questions and taught him about the Kingdoms of Glory. He was wondering what decides where a person goes. For some reason we felt inspiried to talk about prophets. We asked him if he thought there could be a prophet today and he said yeah, but how would I know if they are really a prophet? So we asked him, how he expected to know, and he brought up the fruits of the spirit, which is exactly what we were going to share! We then gave him the talk "I Will Not Fail Thee, Nor Forsake Thee" by President Monson to read/watch. He said he would gladly do it, and also said we could call him to see how he liked it. We tried to call him last night to see what he thought, but he didn't answer. We're hoping to get a hold of him this week.

We took these three great people from Ohio (ah the best again!) around on a tour. An older couple and their son. They came for a conference. They weren't very open, but we built a really good friendship with them. We took them to the Tabernacle, showed them the Temple Model and ahd a long talk about the Temple, and took them to the Statue of Christ. I know they felt the spirit! They had millions of questions and we did our best to answer them through the Spirit. We also talked about connections with Columbus and the things that they had heard about the church through member friends years ago. We even shared the experience about the Seagulls the early Pioneers had. After testifying of the Savior and one more time testifying of how it's through Christ that we can go to the Temple where we can be sealed with our families for eternity, we asked them if they would like to have a Book of Mormon and learn more. The spirit was there. The dad blatantly said, 'no. I don't care for that at all.' There was no, 'sorry if this offends you,' or 'thanks for the offer,' or 'no thank you' but straight up, 'no I don't care for that at all.' Later upon reflecting on this, I realized that I have changed. At the beginning of the mission, if that had happened I probably would have been annoyed or upset or even mad that not only did they not want to learn more after feeling the spirit, but they were rude about it. But this time, I just felt calm. We just said okay and expressed our gratitude for them coming and that we were able to take them around. Inside, I didn't feel mad, I just felt it was okay, because either he wasn't ready, or he was choosing not to be ready. But the assurance in my heart of knowing we did all we could do reminded me to be like Christ. It was cool for me to look back and see how I would have reacted before and how I reacted this time. It wasn't that I didn't care now, it's that I trust Heavenly Father, and simply want to do His will. I know I have SO much more changing to do, but that's why the Atonement is so great. I'm just so glad that missions don't end when we go home and get released. Because of the Temple, we've all made covenants that will hold us accountable for being lifelong missionaries. I pray that this family will accept the gospel, and hope this was one step closer for them to do so.

We talked to some really great people this week and hopefully planted some seeds that will grow into trees of life for them :)

This week I re-read the article in the January Ensign about President Benson. I've always wanted to learn more about him. I love this article in the ensign! It's such a cool story about how he and his wife worked together in all things. We learn from the scriptures that unity is a huge thing. It's apparent in the Godhead and we know that our goal is to become like God, so we should also be unified, especially with an eternal companion. If you haven't already, you should go read it! Here is a link for it!

We are looking forward to having some solid days of missionary work in the next few days before we have to make the new transfer schedules (pray for me haha just kidding). But I'm so excited this is the last time I have to do it! I love being in this assignment, I really think it's exactly what I needed, but I'm really looking forward to next transfer being able to focus on finding and teaching and that's all!

Well I hope you have the best week ever, love you!

We're so Blessed!

Hi!

This week has been pretty eventful.

We finished making schedules! We're so happy about that. But, we'll have to start new ones next week for the new transfer. So we just won't think about that! haha

We have loved being able to go up on the square this week. We've had some great experiences talking to members and non-members, visitors from around the world.

Unfortunately, we had to drop Paul. We kept receiving Anti-mormon material in the form of "questions" from him, and after attempts to answer his questions and to try to get him to start over with the church, learn from the beginning and stay off the internet, he wasn't willing. His heart is pretty hard so sadly we haven't talked to him since. We really pray for him still, and have faith and hope that he will embrace the Gospel in the future. It's just so sad because he has been so prepared! Heavenly Father has been communicating with him but he isn't willing to listen to Him, he would rather listen to man.

Lauren has been in the hospital with her husband after a bad strain of the flu. We're looking forward to talking with her this week though! We hope her baby is doing okay.

On Saturday, we talked with a Chinese family from New York who came to ski. As soon as I saw them, they were just special to me. They said they had had a tour at the Conference Center and they were told they could get a Book of Mormon so they wanted to come get one. I grabbed them a copy in Mandarin and English and they expressed how excited they are to read it. I didn't want them to leave without them knowing how we feel about the Book of Mormon, so we testified of the truthfulness of it, and how we know it can help them as a family because it helps my family. We talked to them about eternal families and how God loves them and wants them to be together forever. The spirit was so strong. They asked questions and expressed how they have never had a religion before and for that reason, they were looking forward to learn more. They didn't want to give their number but they wanted ours so we wrote it down for them and they left. That part of this mission is hard! But that's a part of any mission. Planting seeds is definitely not as great as harvesting seeds, but in order to harvest a seed, someone had to plant it. So the missionaries that get to harvest that seed of that family in New York are so lucky!

Today I was talking to a couple in the North Visitor's Center. They were visiting from out-of-state and were wondering how they enter the temple. I asked if they were members of the church and they said no. We explained how special the Temple is and why, and how even members of the church have to prepare to enter. The spirit was strong. But their response was unexpectedly rude. They were upset that they could go to big churches in other countries but they can't go to the temple here. They walked away angry. At first I was really sad. Sad that they wouldn't listen to the spirit, and sad that they didn't respect the temple. I still feel sad for them, but after thinking about it more, I feel gratitude. I am so grateful for the Temple, and that we don't let just anyone in. I am so glad we take the preparation to ensure we are worthy to enter the House of the Lord. All of us that have been in the Temple know the joy that comes from being able to make covenants with our Heavenly Father. And we all know what we would feel like if we were inside and not worthy. At least I do, I feel that I would feel awful and would want to leave. That's how it is going to be after we pass from this life. The three kingdoms of glory are designed for us. If we make bad choices, we won't feel good in the Celestial Kingdom. We'd be saying, get me out of here. I think that's why we don't just have 'Heaven or Hell.' Heavenly Father loves us too much. In reality, we are the ones that decide where we end up. Yes, there is a final judgement, but I think we will know pretty well where we are going because of the choices we make according to the knowledge we've received. Just like Heavenly Father wants all of His children back in His presence in the Celestial Kingdom, He also wants all of us in His house, the Temple. And He's given us clear guidelines of what we need to do to enter. They're not that hard. All it comes down to is loving the Lord Jesus Christ. Because like one of the most known scriptures says, if we love Him, we'll keep His commandments. And if we're keeping His commandments (all of them, especially the ones that have been restored), we are not only able to enter the Temple, but we'll be more prepared to enter back into His presence. The Temple really is the best place on earth. I am grateful for the experience that I had this morning because it produced this long train of thought. Haha

I'm so grateful for this Restored Gospel! I feel so happy that Heavenly Father can speak with us, and we can clearly know His plan for us, even if the situations aren't as clear. I LOVE being a missionary!! Choose to be a missionary this week, it's the best feeling in the world.

Have a great week!!



P.s. I forgot to send the picture of us on Christmas. Also, there's a picture of our "family tree" of Temple Square coordinators that hangs in our office. It's just meant to be silly haha.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Can you believe it will be 2015 this week?

This week was pretty packed full!
We started making new schedules for everyone on Friday and before that, we were making Tour Reports. At the end of each month, we make a report for all the tours to show the relations between people that become new investigators from scheduled/unscheduled tours, and some other fun information. Well, None of those reports had been done since September, so we had the fun task of doing October, November, and December all in 2 days haha. Thankfully we got them done and out of the way and were able to start on the schedules Friday. We will hopefully we done with them on Wednesday!

This morning we had a training form the Missionary Department about Meet the Mormons! It will be showing in the Legacy Theater starting on Friday. We Temple Square Sisters will get to open the movie for each showing! So we will be the ones introducing it to the audience and then greeting them afterward to see how they liked it. We're really excited because the movie is geared to non-members, so we are looking forward to using it as a great missionary tool. We will be able to show it in the Visitor's Centers too. A lot of people that come to the Legacy Theater will probably be members, but I think it is a great tool to help with Members' Missionary Work or even to strengthen their testimony.

We talked with Paul on Wednesday to wish him and his family a Merry Christmas. We were preparing to drop him later that week. He sent us a really nice text that said, "By the way I know it is Christmas Eve and you have much more to do that to converse with me, just hope and pray you are doing well! Merry Christmas and God bless you! One of my greatest blessings and joys this past year has been the conversations we have shared over the last couple months. I hope your testimony, and I know mine, has been strengthened and refined by the refiner's fire. It has also strengthened my personal courage. 1 Ne. 20:10 "For behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." It was a really nice message. We wished him and his family a Merry Christmas then asked him what he thinks Heavenly Father expects him to do in regards to the church, after all he has learned and felt? He said he was going to pray and fast, and hold fast to that which is right and true, and that he will know it by the feeling he gets in his heart. So I guess for now we are not dropping him. He went to church on Sunday and loved it. He met the bishop too. Unfortunately he'll have to go to a different ward now because the wards in the building are switching times and he can't go to the earlier one. We have faith that he really will keep up with what he said. We want to invite him to be baptized this week, so he can have a goal. The analogy I like to use is to have them picture being stranded in the middle of the ocean. There are no landmarks anywhere around and they can't see anything but water and sky. Then we tell them that they're probably not going to swim very fast towards anything. But, if there was an island they could see a ways off, they'd probably swim pretty fast towards that island right? Then we like to explain how having a baptismal date is like that island. Not only does it give us something to work towards, but it gives Heavenly Father something to work with. We are hoping that Paul can be "the one" this transfer. I guess we will see!

I read a talk this week that was really profound. It's called His Grace is Sufficient and it's by Brad Wilcox. If you haven't already you should go read it! I love how he explains grace, and how he explains how the debt has already been paid in full by Jesus Christ, we are not paying our way, but we have access to His grace by exercising our faith. We as members of the church are not earning Heaven, but we are learning heaven, and Heaven won't be heaven for those that aren't heavenly. It is a great talk to share with those that are not members of our faith.

Well I hope you had a Merry Christmas and that 2015 starts off great! I'm excited to see what the new year brings. I guess I can say talk to you next year. Haha

Thanks for all the prayers!

Love,

Short

My email will be super short today, sorry about that...

But it's been a great week!

We had Zone Conference which was way good. We as a mission made a macro plan to measure our goals as a mission to continue our success. We has the highest amount of transfer baptisms last transfer in the history of the mission, and also the highest amount of monthly baptisms! President Poulsen is so good at helping us to be better.

We also got to be fed by a family for Christmas. It was really fun! I'll attach a picture. The mom is from Puerto Rico and they have a big fat bunny that we held. Haha

We saw Elder Cook on our way to Zone Conference! We were crossing the street and he was pulling out of his garage in his apt. complex so I was waving as we crossed to say thanks when I realized, that's Elder Cook! So we kept waving and he waved back and said, Hi Sisters!

Then the next night we were walking home and President Uchtdorf was on the Square enjoying the lights with his family! He had a huge hat on so you couldn't really tell, but security gave it away. It was way cool because no one recognized him so he got to enjoy it in peace!

We had some great lessons with a Japanese boy named Takeru. It's really nice when people are sincerely seeking!

We are probably going to drop Paul this week, he is not willing to listen to the spirit unfortunately. But we just know that Heavenly Father just has someone prepared for us.

Lauren is doing good but we didn't get to call her last week. We'll have to call her this week!

Well that's all we have time for but I'll tell you more when I call on Thursday! Talk to you soon! 

Love

Happy 28th Anniversary to my parents!

Well week 1 was a success!

We gave a bunch of trainings and had to do a ton of little things like fixing bugs in schedules, and lots of other things but we have seen a lot of miracles. Sister Ichikawa is an awesome missionary. She is an excellent teacher and is focused on her purpose. Because of that, our goals for the transfer is the same. We want to teach as much as possible, so we have had more time to teach in the past week than we did last transfer. I think it's because we have set it as a priority. We've been able to set goals and make plans together. We have been making time for things, and choosing to delegate other things. I'm not sure if you've heard of the Urgent and Important chart, but if you picture a quad chart kind of like a geno map chart (I don't remember what you call it) from biology where if you stick the A characteristic and B characteristic you get AB, etc. I don't know if this makes sense haha. But if you picture it with Urgent on the top left, Not urgent on the top right, Important on the bottom left, not important on the bottom right, you can kind of map decisions. We can prioritize things according to their urgency and importance. So I think that's what we've been trying to do, focus on the things that urgent and important, get them done, and then go teach as much as possible. Hopefully that made sense!

We had an awesome experience on Friday. I was on a short exchange with Sister Penalba (Panama) because our companions had come back from outbound and had a meeting. It was like 4:30 and Sister Penalba hadn't eaten lunch yet, so we were gonna run down and eat for a couple minutes.We were walking past the Tabernacle where the Standby line for the Christmas Concert had already started to form, when a Senior missionary stopped us and said that there were some nonmembers in line and they had some questions, so he wanted us to go over and answer their questions. We went over and started talking to them. Their names were Jim and Kathy from North Dakota. They are Catholic. They said that we might have wrong expectations, because they were just curious about some points of the church. Well we got to talking and they liked how we don't make people give up what they believe but we invite them to come and get more good things. They asked, "where can we purchase more material we can read about your church?" So we said, we will go get something that will help. We brought them copies of the Book of Mormon and taught them all about it. They were amazed! And the spirit was so strong. They said what can we give you for these? And we of course said nothing. Well, Kathy had been trying to get tickets to the Christmas Concert for 5 years but no luck, so they were the 6th people in line. We told them they had pretty good chances of getting in. We shared with them about us as missionaries, and how we can help them learn more for themselves to know if this could be true and if there is more about Christ they could learn. They were interested and gave their contact information. Well later after we exchanged back, we were walking down to go have dinner and we walked past the Tabernacle. We went over to say hi so I could introduce Sister Ichikawa and a different Senior missionary stopped us and said that he had leanred we had talked with them and that they were interested in the Gospel so he was wondering if he could find 2 tickets to the Conference Center if we would walk them over. We were shocked! The CC was getting full, so they weren't going to let anyone from the standby line in probably, but he went through the trouble of finding two tickets and we waled them over. Kathy had tears in her eyes and they were so thankful. We texted them the next day so they could have our phone number and they said they loved the concert. Then the next day, they texted us and apologized and said that they have serious commitments that are going to make them decline our offer of teaching them more. We are so heart broken! The conversation with them was SO special and the spirit taught all of us. We are hoping we can save it some way. We will keep you updated! They are so prepared for the Gospel, and the Temple!

Paul has been a little tricky this week....We will have to work with him a little bit more to help him progress. Right now he feels like the church is really good but not for him. We hope that the spirit will teach him and he will focus on what Heavenly Father is trying to tell him.

Lauren is doing really good! I always like talking with her. She is really open, even though she has had a really hard past. She has been praying!! She said that she hasn't felt anything, but that she isn't giving up and that she will keep trying. We had a great talk with her about being willing to act on our faith, and give Heavenly Father som3thing he can work with to answer our prayers. We talked about listening and what answers she can expect, and I think it really helped her. The spirit was really strong, and she learned new things she had never learned before. i shared a story about losing keys and praying to find them, and after she said that she was brought up being taught never to pray for little things like that because God doesn't have time for those kind of things. It was so sad! But we were able to teach her that the things that are important to us are important to Him, and He always has time for us, He wants to hear from us and is willing to help with anything. She has committed to reading the Book of Mormon and praying each day so we are excited to follow up on that.

Sister Ichikawa contacted this Japanese guy in the North Visitor's center the other day. He is now a new investigator and hopefully will start to progress! It's cool how things like that just fall into our hands. We were just there for our assignment and a member friend brought him up to her and they just started talking and then he was really interested in the church.

Well that's all that we have time for! We love being companions and we love being able to be here as missionaries. We are so lucky!

Happy Anniversary to my parents on Thursday!

love you!

Love 

p.s. we got to go to the Christmas Concert!

(No Title)

Ah week 1, a new transfer already. My new companion is Sister Ichikawa, she is from Japan! She is serving outbound in Las Vegas right now, but she'll be back on Transfer day which is Wednesday. Ironically I was chosen to pick her up from the airport so that will be fun! I don't really know her, but she is super sweet!!

We have had such a crazy week trying to prepare for transfers. We got the pyramid (transfer information) last week and had to start making schedules all over again. The plus side is now that we've made schedules a million times, we are really fast at it. So we are almost done and it is only Monday!

Well one of the highlights of our week was before we got the transfer information, we took a tour. It was two guys from El Salvador. Gabriel and Umberto. One of them goes to the U, so he has heard a lot about the church. They had lots of questions. We ended up spending 2 hours with them! We taught them a lot. We shared about the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, the Word of Wisdom, and the Temple. It was really cool. They both referred and we're going to keep teaching them! Well, actually I think Sister Asay and her next companion will but we are happy we got to show them around.

Paul is looking up! Yess we are so happy. He has been keeping an open mind and heart and I guess you could say he has seen the light haha. He wants to get baptized and shares about the Book of Mormon with everyone. It's really cool to see how God communicates with His children.

The First Presidency Devotional was SO good. Sister Asay and I got to watch the rebroadcast because we went to it last Christmas. I loved the talks. They were so good. I especially loved how President Eyring pointed out the Spirit and made us all accountable to it.The stories told by Sister Oscarson and Elder Christofferson were so good. I think what I liked most about it is that it can be shown and applies to everyone. It helps us remember how Christmas started, and how we can become more like the Savior. I loved how President Eyring said that the Christmas lights in the Conference Center symbolize our joy, and that the Savior came in to the world with light and lights were sent to represent Him. Jesus Christ really is the light and life of the world!

We got to talk with Lauren a little bit this week, she has been trying to pray!!!! Breakthrough! haha She's super busy with work but she is doing really good.

The Christus assignment is my favorite thing about Christmas. We get to testify to literally hundreds of people in an hour that Jesus Christ lives and that we know it. It is the coolest thing and probably my favorite thing about the mission. I don't care that most of them are already members because no one is ever done with coming closer to Jesus Christ. There's no cap, no point where we can say, I don't think I can get any closer to Jesus Christ. So we hope that our small testimonies and testaments of Christ are manifested by the Holy Ghost as we speak, and that the people who come up to see a statue and get a picture will leave with more than they intended. It's neat to see when you can tell that that has happened, and that people are changed because of the spirit they have felt, and the spirit that has whispered to them.

As I see Sisters going home this week, I can't help but feel grateful that it's not me, but sad because it will be me soon. I know I say it a lot but i am just so grateful for the chance I have to be a missionary here in this mission. I will be eternally grateful for the opportunity that has changed me forever. I really think that if I would not have chosen to come on a mission, it would have taken me 10 years or more to make the progress in these 18 months. It's so cool to me that Heavenly Father lets us come on missions and teach people His perfect Gospel when we are so young. It really is the best thing for us, and helps mold us into His instruments, His people that He needs us to be. I think missions prepare us for just about anything so I am grateful once again to be a missionary. And just because we are not full-time set apart missionaries doesn't mean that we aren't expected to be missionaries, we are! We can bring others to the gospel each day :)

One of my favorite parts of the Christus narration is when He says "Learn of me." He doesn't say learn about me but learn of me. I think we can best do that by trying to become like Him. We become like Him as we follow His teachings and reach beyond ourselves and in turn, acquire His attributes that are what we ultimately need in order to reach our exaltation. As we do this, and act with real intent on His teachings, He has promised us that not only will we become converted to the Gospel but we will bring other souls to Him. Others will notice and will follow, and we will all experience the great joy that's promised in DC 18: "15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father! And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!" And after all, God's whole plan and purpose is that we have eternal joy. It is the Plan of Happiness, not the Plan of misery or frustration or defeat but our Heavenly Father just wants us to be happy.

As we all make that our purpose this week, I know that we will feel ourselves becoming more like the Savior.

I love you!

Love



P.s. The picture is from Staff Meeting yesterday!

Elder Perry's so spry!

Hey!

I hope everyone had great Thanksgivings! We sure did. It was perfect. We love the Duke family! We wish we could come back for Christmas.

On Thanksgiving, the Square was closed from 12-6 so Sister Duke came and picked us up at12:15 and brought us back at 6:30, so we had all day spent with their family! They have 4 sons, and about 15 grandkids. 3 of the sons and about 12 grandkids were there for Thanksgiving. They were all just so nice and way funny, we just felt like part of the family! Sister Duke took our pictures and printed them out so we could have gratitude pages to share with the rest of the family. We wrote what we are thankful for and shared it with everyone. We got to help her prepare dinner and talk with them about their family and their missionary work. They are going to leave on a mission in June. She had so much food prepared! There was everything you could imagine on the table. We got so much food and somehow managed to eat it all (missionaries can't leave anything on their plates!) Then when it was time for dessert, they piled up our dessert plates and I thought I was going to be sick. Really though, I was contemplating making myself throw up I was so full haha but I couldn't do it because it tasted so good! After dinner, they drove us back with a bag full of leftovers! We've been eating them all week. It was such a great Thanksgiving!

The Christmas season has officially started on Temple Square! it's been a little dysfunctional so far haha it seems like no one was ready for Christmas this year or something....The nativity didn't work the first night, and all the crowds were super upset. Then the AV people didn't put a microphone by the Christus so the sisters had to run and get one in the mission office. Plus they have choirs this year on risers with microphones singing in the lobby of the North Visitor's Center with chairs set up for an audience so that combined with the He is the Gift (i will share more later!) things going on, and the line for the Christus, lost kids, and people coming in and out, it is super hard for us to do missionary work, no one can even hear us when we speak. But, Heavenly Father always provides a way! We got to have a shift at the Christus on Saturday, and I really just love that! For that shift, Sister Asay and I were at the bottom with the rope, cutting off the groups as they went up to the Christus. It was way fun to talk with everyone. People would be super upset because they waiting in line and then they would get cut off right before they went up, but then we would just talk with them and get to know them and they'd be happy when it was their time to go up! After all, people are about to go see Jesus, how can they be upset? That's why I love Christmas so much. Even though it's been a little crazy trying to work everything out, it's' all good because it's the season of Jesus Christ. It really is the most wonderful time of the year, especially in the visitor's centers! But it's been super cool to see all the things that the church has done with He is the Gift.

A guy from the Missionary Department came and gave a training about how we can best use He is the Gift.He told us all about what the church is doing to get the word out about it and whoa, it's crazy! The church bought about 6 HUGE billboards in times square in NYC and others in LA. They also bought the front page of YouTube. They fixed up 2 walls in the North Visitor's Center with the He is the Gift red color and nativity scene on the wall and hung a TV to play the video all day. They replaced the New Testament Paintings in the NVC with still shots from the Bible Christmas videos. They also redid a section in the South Visitor's center in the same reddish orange color and picture with he is the gift. Then there's mormon.org and the Ensign for December. We have boxes and boxes of the pass-along cards and he taught us how we should share it with everyone. It's a pretty huge campaign! The coolest thing is that it was all designed by Elder Bednar and Elder Nelson. So inspired!

To be honest, I wasn't super impressed with the video but I liked it the more I watched it. It has a really great message, but I was comparing it to Because of Him, the one that came out in Easter, and I liked that one more. But I really love the message of He is the Gift, and I think it's great for member missionary work and self improvement. It is really cool to show to members and ask them what gift they are going to give to the Savior this year. There are so many reasons why this church is just so cool. Haha.

Well Paul turned a little sour this week :( He texted us on Tuesday, sharing some things he learned on anti-websites and said that he understood why we told him to stay on lds websites because they made him sad. But he didn't stop. He kept going on anti websites and began to text us what he was "learning." He said some pretty bad things about the church and things that we won't go into detail about. But we sent him a really long text reminding him of what he had felt earlier in the week, how the Holy Ghost had testified to him of truth and how he had felt that light of knowledge and truth from God. We told him how God has been speaking to him through the Holy Ghost and how his life has changed since he started learning more from us and through the Book of Mormon. We reminded him that God really loves and knows him, and wouldn't give him that confirmation through the Holy Ghost just to rip it apart days later through new information that brought darkness and confusion into his life. God doesn't work like that. He wants us to be happy but He also wants us to trust him. We told him to pray and ask God for truth and to help him find the light. He didn't really respond but on Sunday he texted us and said that he went to Sacrament meeting with a question in his heart, and it was answered. He really liked the meeting because they talked about serving others, and his question was answered through a scripture I guess, and he was told that he needs to trust God, not man. Which is what he was doing. So he is looking up! I want to share with him sometime today or tomorrow something I've learned. Technology and the internet can crash, books can burn, people can die, but confirmations and feelings from the Holy Ghost are infinite and eternal. He's existed from the beginning of time and will exist for eternity. A true testimony from the Holy Ghost never fails. Sometimes, because we are imperfect beings, we can forget that confirmation, and that's okay. Heavenly Father understands. All He asks is that we ask for that confirmation again, and He is more than willing to give it to us! Just like is says in 3rd Nephi 27: "And verily I say unto you, whatsoever things ye shall ask the Father in my name shall be given unto you.Therefore, ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; for he that asketh, receiveth; and unto him that knocketh, it shall be opened." As we put our lives in harmony with the truth, the Lord increases our light and understanding. It's like a math equation haha but Heavenly Father really loves us. He will always answer our prayers through the Holy Ghost. Just like it says in D&C: "Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God?" Those moments that we get to feel the Holy Ghost are so sacred and we should do all we can to not only act with real intent, but live in a way that we can gain more light and knowledge through the Holy Ghost. That's why this church is so awesome, because it's the only one where we can be baptized by water, AND fire through the Gift of the Holy Ghost!

I got to see Chenwei! I will attach pictures. He is doing so good. He came for Thanksgiving because he got time off of school, and because he is from China, he doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving and so coming to Salt Lake was a perfect vacation for him. He really enjoyed it and it was so good to see him!

A couple days ago when we were opening the square (we open all the buildings), we saw this guy with his huge dog walking on Temple Square. I stopped to tell him he can't have his dog there, but that he could go on the other side, and we all got to talking. His name is Ethan and he was here for a book tour, he write books about something to do with the number 4. Eventually it turned into a Gospel conversation and we were able to give him a Book of Mormon which he was way excited to read. We're gonna teach him more about it and why it is so important.

Later that day, we were stationed on a desk, and this Philipino family walked by. I started talking with them and turns out the dad met with missionaries in the 1980's and read the Book of Mormon but never got baptized. We talked about the Book of Mormon and the LDS church and beliefs, and I guess I was a little too bold for him because he became totally uninterested in the conversation and began to roll his eyes. But his wife became very interested in the conversation. She really wanted to know how she could go to the temple so her family could be together forever. She ended up taking a Book of Mormon back home to San Francisco and she wants us to call her to teach her more! Hopefully her husband;s heart will be softened so they can all learn together! It has been my dream to find a family to teach since the beginning of the mission; I have been thinking about it a lot recently, so it was so cool to have this opportunity!

Oh man I have to tell you about our last Preparation day...it was so crazy. We were dealing with a ton of things all day, phone calls back and forth, trying to arrange things, all while trying to email. Then we went to get some lunch, and I realized I left my missionary debit card in my coat back home. So Sister Asay paid for mine and I decided I would get the groceries after we stopped to pick up my card. Well we got it and I got back in the car and had it in my mouth while I was driving. I realized how gross that is because there must be so many germs on a debit card so I put it in the console in between the seats. I got out of the car when we got to Walmart and then remembered I needed my card so I went to grab it, and after looking for a little while realilzed it fell underneath the little drawer of the console, and fell back way underneath like where the AC is. We realized it was impossible to reach after trying for almost an hour. By this time, our time with the car was up so we only had time to go in and get the bare necessities with other funds. It was such a stressful day we were so bummed! I realized I'd probably have to get another card which would take weeks. Well, the next day, Elder Moore (he and his wife are the mission secretaries) came and helped us. He unscrewed some things, stuck his head in some crevices and used some weird tool and got it out of the abyss! Hallelujah haha we were so happy. Then that day just went super awesome and we had s many miracles. Long story short, sometimes we have to pass through storms to get to the rainbow!

Well I just can't believe this is the last week of the Transfer. It really is just going by so fast.

Today we had to wash the car so we were coming out of the COB garage and while we were stopped at the light, we looked over and Elder Perry was waiting to cross the street in front of us! So we rolled down our windows and said Hi Elder Perry! And as he crossed the street, he waved and said, wow a car full of ya, huh? Well, don't drive too fast! Haha and gave one of his big cheesy smiles. He is so cute!! Crossing the street all spry at 90 years old. Haha.

Okay now that I have written the biggest email ever, it's time to go. Sister Asay and I are going to get cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory for our last week together!

Thanks for all the support and prayers sent my way, I hope you have a great week!

Love,