Week 36

Transfer News: Sister Snyder and I are staying in Union! I guess that President Morgan thinks that we are doing something well, if he wants us to stay together! :) It was a nice surprise. My address for anyone who doesn't know:

114 Delmar

Union, Mo 63084

We had a great lesson with one of our investigators, Larry. He likes to question a lot of things but we watched the restoration dvd with him and i think it really helped answer a lot of his questions. I have seen that video it seems like 100 times but I still feel the spirit every time. 

We also went to visit one of our former investigators. We ended up reading the introduction to the Book of Mormon on his front porch. It is so interesting to read the book of Mormon out in the open where others can see. 

We had our last District meeting with this District and sister Snyder made cupcakes for it Yummy! It was a good last district meeting. We took some fun pictures too. 

Sister Kinnard gave us a referral of one of her neighbors. Her name is Linda and we introduced ourselves and she was excited to see us. She even asked for a Book of Mormon!! Who does that? Haha we set up a return appointment and I hope that it goes well.

Friday we went to see Lisa and Gracie before their baptism the next day but they weren't there. We found out that Lisa's mom was in the hospital. Sister Snyder and I immediately knew that Satan was going to throw more things in their path to keep them from getting baptized. All we could do that night was pray that Heavenly Father would take it into His hands. We had done our part as missionaries and i felt like I could trust that hope in God. The next day we still didn't really hear from them. We knew that they were going to try and make it and so we made the preparations. We went to the chapel and got everything set up. We waited and waited for them to come. We found out that they were in heavy traffic coming from St. Louis. Sister Snyder and I were going crazy. We would look at the clock, out the window then back at the clock and realize it had only been 3 minutes. They ended up making it 15 minutes late. We took them to the back so they could change into their jumpsuits. Gracie was funny. She thought that the zipper went in the back so she put in on backwards and then came out asking her mom to zip her up. Haha :) they looked so great in their white outfits. I liked seeing Elder Beaman in his white too. I will admit that sometimes he can be annoying but seeing him in white reminded me of the importance and the blessing of the Melchizedek priesthood. It was really cool because this was his first baptism. He used to be Catholic and converted about a couple years ago. I'm sure he was nervous and excited to see how far he has come. the program went well. Sister Snyder and I were in the back of the font holding towels for them as they came out. Lisa looked so good!!! as she came out of the water she was grinning from ear to ear. Gracie was excited too. They said it was amazing and they felt so good. I think that I really felt the power of the Holy Spirit of Promise there. It was a deep and comforting feeling. We took them to get changed and sister Snyder and I gave each other a huge hug. We came back out and sister Snyder gave a beautiful talk on the Holy Ghost. then we both sang the song: when i am baptized. i played the ukulele and it was fun! The bishop gave some inspiring words and it was sooo great!!!!!! i loved it. 

Sunday came and Lisa and Gracie were late again. Haha Satan has really been in their way. they have had to deal with so much. And they are going to be evicted from their trailer on Monday. So they have had to not only prepare for baptism but pack in the process. But Satan can't stop the work of God. they were confirmed in Sacrament meeting and I was sooooo happy to see them walk up to the front. Gracie practically ran up there. Again I am soooo grateful for the Priesthood and the blessing it is to have the means to perform ETERNAL ordinances. This church is TRUE. It is REAL. His work is WONDERFUL. 

To seal the deal I saw a full rainbow later that day. I saw the whole thing from end to end. I followed it for several minutes as I was in the car. I know it is silly but I couldn't help but think that Heavenly Father was smiling down upon Lisa and Gracie as they made the decision to get baptized. I know that Heavenly father, without a doubt carried them through this journey. There is no way that we could have done this work without HIM. I feel like i really didn't do anything. I just got a front row seat at seeing the spirit work in the lives of others. 

"The Lord's work is work but it is sweet labor." -Elder Cook

Camera timers are hard to get right!

The Donner's bunny named Caramel

Rainbow!!

The box I made for my mini scriptures!

It's official! The Donner's are baptized!!

The Book of Sister Snyder

The Book of Sister Snyder

The account of Tuesday, including Sisters Madsen and Snyder overcoming adversity within the work of salvation. A "haha" to their superiors. Their many travels in the wilderness along the borders of the ward.  They repent of their wrong-doings and have the Spirit of the Lord to be with them alway.

In the morning of the third day of the sixth month in the two-thousand fifteenth year since the coming of the Messiah among the children of men, Sister Snyder prepared yet again, for, what they prayed would be, a miraculous day.

2)There was much strife among the servants of the Lord, for they feared the wrath of the Chief Judge(He who is referred to as President Morgan) would come upon them if they drove their chariot more miles than was given them.
3)Behold, they feared God more than man but they knowing that the Judge was a man of God, they called the wife of their superior(Bishop's wife) for a ride in her chariot, in hopes that they might still travel to their appointment, without breaking the commandments that the Lord had given to them. #runonsentences

4)Their request was granted and they traveled many miles to reach their appointment. Twas a wonderful meeting of saints and they soon left, their schedules not having sufficient time to tarry longer. 

5)Many disappointments were made known unto the servants of the Lord as they listened to their superior's wife. For she knew not the meaning of their calling and would that they might do the work of the Lord without the help of those under covenant since their baptism in the name of their Lord and their Savior(the members of the ward).

6)Behold the Sisters were angered at her words and desired that they might tell her off. But, having the Spirit of the Lord within them, they knew they could not. For, the workers of iniquity could not have the Spirit to be with them, therefore, knowing of the wickedness that accompanied such feelings was of the devil, they would not transgress the laws of the Lord, that they might have the Spirit to be with them.

7) And it came to pass that their superior's wife had thus forgotten to renew her license plates and was therefore, pulled over to answer the ends of the law. 

8)The Sisters, working to overcome their feelings of resentment, tried within themselves with all their might to have charity. They knew that she was a woman of God as well and that she had not yet been brought to the knowledge of their calling. 

9) And they snickered within themselves with thoughts of karma. And they would that they might, at some future time, bring her to the knowledge of their calling. For this is of great importance to the Lord, their God. 

10) Behold they repented of their snickering, and retained the companionship of the Holy Ghost. 

11) The servants of the Lord gave thanks unto their superior's wife and hoped that she might continue to be their sister in the Lord. 

...To be continued..

Week 35

Well transfer calls will be coming this Saturday! i can't wait to see what changes will happen. I am secretly hoping that sister Snyder and I will stay together. I love her. this is the first companionship that i have had where we have worked so hard at our relationship and I feel like that has blessed our work. there will be 7 new sister and 5 new elders coming in this transfer so we will see. many people think that I will train a new missionary. We will see . . . . 

Lisa and Gracie are doing well. We went to Sister Kinnard's house for dinner and Lisa, Gracie, Autumn, and her boyfriend came. It was great and the spirit was there. We watched Mountain of the Lord. I am very grateful to members who fellowship our investigators. It is a huge blessing. 

We had dinner with the Hervey Family. And they had a Book of Mormon party. They recently finished reading the book of Mormon together as a family. they had yellow paper plates (gold plates), blue jello with 8 grapes in it (the Jaredites traveling over the water in the 8 barges), fruit salad (Fruit of the tree of life) and for dessert they had lemon bars with a flattened marshmallow sticking out of it to look like the sail of a boat (Lehi and his family traveling to the promise land.)

One of my favorite members is Terri Joyce. She lives in an assisted living place and we visit her and read the Book of Mormon with her. She used to be in the Navy and so she loves talking about that. She is so kind and she gives very sweet hugs. 

We found some really great potential investigators this week. Cheyanne and Summer. We were trying to meet a different potential and we ended up finding them. they are young girls and they used to be big into going to church. we invited them to church and they said that they were interested. We will have to follow up with them. I love talking to younger people. they seem so more receptive to the spirit than adults. 

Sunday we had an unplanned lesson with one of our investigators. And it was great. Their next-door neighbors are members and they joined in on the lesson. We taught the plan of salvation with them and it was great. I love the challenges to teach different lessons when you haven't planned for them. 

Lisa and Gracie are still on track to get baptized this Saturday! I am so looking forward to it (**ewww I just smashed a spider with my mouse, gross**). Anyway, I love them so much. It has been so cool to see how they have changed these past few weeks. 

Cool thing this week. We started to see fireflies!! i have never seen them before so that was cool. They look like sparks of a fire floating up. they only light up for a split second, but it's cool to look down the street and see them flicker. 

There have been so many miracles. And I can't wait to see what comes next. 

My favorite scriptures right now:

 2 And, behold, and lo, this is an ensample unto all those who were ordained unto this priesthood, whose mission is appointed unto them to go forth—

 3 And this is the ensample unto them, that they shall speak as they are moved upon by the Holy Ghost.

 4 And whatsoever they shall speak when moved upon by the Holy Ghost shall be scripture, shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation.

 5 Behold, this is the promise of the Lord unto you, O ye my servants.

 6 Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come.

Love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!

Union!

Sharing the gospel to ALL

For our spiritual thought we put together a puzzle of Jesus Christ. Thank you ensign!

The Hervey family at their Book of Mormon dinner party

Week 34

What a great week! We had to do a lot of walking this week since we were getting to the very end of the month and we were low on miles. We walked about 6 miles which wasn't bad and we were able to visit a few people. One lady we visited was Madeline. She lost her husband at the beginning of the year and she opened the door with a tissue in her hand. It seems like every time we see her, she is crying. It is so sad to see her like that and also that she is hesitant for us to teach her. i hope that as we continue to love her that she will open up. 

We ate dinner at a members house and they had a fancy Steinway piano. they let me play that piano and it was great :) I love getting to play so many different pianos on my mission. 

On Friday we had a movie night where we tried to invite a bunch of investigators and members. We watched 17 Miracles. Lisa and Gracie didn't end up coming because of trouble with their car. We did find something interesting though. At the beginning of the movie, it mentions the Donner party and Lisa (our investigator) is actually related to them! Small world. We have been progressing well with Lisa and Gracie but we did finally find a road block - tattoos and piercings. so far they have been accepting all our messages but Lisa really had a hard time when we talked about this. She says she will pray about it. i hope that the Lord will be able to soften her heart and help her understand. Lisa is still meeting with us and we are planning on having her and her daughters over at the Bishop's house for dinner tonight so hopefully all with go well. I knew that there had to be something for us to struggle at. their swift progress seemed just too good to be true. But I won't let it get me down. They still have a baptismal date for the 13th and I know they will get baptized. It will just take more prayer, preparation, and fasting. Lisa did get a priesthood blessing on Sunday morning to help her to stop smoking. She said that she was trying to hold back tears during it. it was a cool moment.

Mission Conference was AMAZING! I can't believe that I have been able to see 3 Apostles in less than 2 months! I am super lucky! I have 5 pages worth of notes and I keep reading them over and over again. One of my favorite things Elder Christofferson taught us was about 2 Nephi 2:13. This is one of my favorite chapters and i loved how he broke down this scripture. He talked about how the world tries to get of misery bu getting rid of the law but if you get rid of law then there is just chaos. the way to get rid of misery is through the Atonement of Christ. It was really cool how he tied it together. Sister Christofferson taught us about 2 Kings 4:1-7. It was really cool too. he bore a beautiful witness and testimony of our calling and blessed us that we will be eloquent as we testify of Jesus Christ. So cool!!!!! I wish I had a hour to talk about all he did. I didn't realize how funny he was though too :). At one point he told us to stand and stretch because we had been sitting for a long time. We all quietly stand and then he started mimicking the head shoulder knees and toes song. 

Some funny quotes from him that day:

"Two apostles, in two months. You are either really good or really bad. Which is it?"

"I look around the 12 and see a couple of oxygen tanks and a wheelchair and think . . . . that's my future."

"Now you can ask some questions . . . . Nothing about the 3 Nephites though. they never call; they never write."

So much other stuff happened I don't know how to summarize it all. Good news: I get to go to the temple next transfer!! yay! i will hit my 8-month mark on Sunday. It has gone by so fast. 

Love you all!!!!!!!!!

Lisa and Gracie!!

Me and my trainer Sister Gunter! Oh how I love her!

I AM STANDING RIGHT BEHIND ELDER CHRISTOFFERSON!!! and president Morgan looks silly with his hands on his knees. :)

We live a block away from a masonic lodge

Our adventures take us to some pretty beautiful places

So pretty

Long day of walking... we are tired.

Sister Synder planking #skills

Week 33

Wow this week has gone by fast!! I am sorry that I wasn't able to send an email yesterday. Because of the holiday, the library was closed where we normal email. And next week I won't email on Monday because WE ARE HAVING ANOTHER MISSION CONFERENCE!!! Since last October, President Morgan thought that we would never get a great opportunity like that again, but we had one with Elder Cook and on June 1st, Elder Christoffersen will be speaking to us. He is going to the Mahomet ward (my previous ward) for their skate conference and he decided to stay an extra day and meet with all us missionaries on Monday!!! that means that I get to meet 3 apostles in less than a month!!! WOW!

We had president interviews this week and it was really great to see him. i found out that I will get to go to the temple next transfer. i am so close to my half way mark can you believe it? It has gone by so fast. 

We also had exchanges this week and there were so many miracles!! Sister Snyder and Sister Koffard were able to pick up 2 new investigators while i was gone! And today we had a lesson with one of them, Larry. He seems really interested and he has agreed to read the Book of Mormon. 

The Donners are doing well. We had a lesson with them and we watched Finding faith in Christ. There were a lot more people over at their house so it was a little crazy but good. Autumn, one of Lisa's daughters joined in as well as her boyfriend. They are not too interested but it is nice that they were able to see their mom involved and to feel of the spirit while we watched the video. We decided to move their baptismal date to the 13th so that they can feel more prepared. I think it will be good. 

We will be having a movie night at our ward this week and we will be watching 17 miracles! i hope that a lot of our investigators will be able to make it. it has been amazing how many people we have been able to find. We currently have 16 people in our teaching pool. We will probably have to drop a few but it is all good.

I hope that all of you had a great Memorial Day!

Thank you for all you love an support. Sorry this email was kind of short. Love you all!!!!!!

Week 32

What a week of miracles! It has been great! We did some service for one of our neighbors this week. She has met with missionaries in the past and we hope to pick her back up as an investigators soon. We went over and helped her clean and organize one of her closets. it was fun but we were so tired afterward. Her name is Rose and she is so sweet. Every time we leave she stands on her porch and watches us walk home so that we can be safe.

We had a wonderful lessons with the Donner family. Lisa is the mom and her daughter Gracie is 9 years old. We read the introduction to the Book of Mormon with them and they understood it well. They accepted an invitation to be baptized! Gracie talked about how she has wanted to go to church and be baptized! She is such a great example to her family!!! How I love them and I have only been here a week. We went back a couple days later to go over a baptismal calendar with them and they were totally on board. We taught them the plan of salvation with a cool visual aid and Gracie had some awesome questions. She had a friend over and her name was Bri. She is 11 years old and she listened quietly on the lesson and by the end, she asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon!!! I loved how this young girl recognized the spirit and was brave enough to ask for a book! We told her that we can teach her if she asks permission from her parents. i hope that she does. :)

We had ZLT this week too (Zone Leader training). They wanted us to prepared to be stronger and more reliable missionaries because in the next few transfers there will be a LOT of new missionaries coming in. I am so glad that our numbers will be picking back up again. the huge wave of missionaries have gone home so it has been sad to see only 1 or 2 missionaries come in each transfer but over the next few months, there will be a need for nearly 45 missionaries to train the new ones. I have no idea if I will be chosen to train but i hope that i can prepare myself if the need arises. 

Sunday was a spirit-filled day!!!! We were praying SO hard for Lisa and Gracie to come to church and THEY DID!!!!!!!! I was so happy. I think this is the first time on my mission that true investigators who have a baptismal date have come to church. it was so wonderful but so exhausting at the same time. it is like watching a baby with their every step. You have to make sure the understand all that is going on and answer their questions and listen at the same time while making sure that they meet members and everything else. When sister Snyder and i got in the car afterwards we just sat for a moment to breathe. Haha but it was wonderful. 

Sunday night we went to visit a less active family who have a daughter who is around the age to be baptized. We called them earlier in the week and it sounded like they wanted us to teach their daughter because they want her to get baptized. But they even invited their neighbor to some take the lessons too!! We went over the restoration and it was great. Who knew that we would pick up a new investigator from a less active family who invited their neighbor to meet us?? Miracles!!!! it goes to show that we can't do all the finding on our own. We need the help of members to find and fellowship their friends. 

thanks everyone for the love and support!!! Love you all!!!!!!!

"Heavenly Father can't create His masterpiece without the color of YOU"

Snapping turtle on the side of the road upside down

Some members of our ward got baptized on Saturday. It was nice to see that their father got to baptize them.

THE ALLANS!!! This family was in my previous area. I love them. I didn't have these pictures to send you so they are late.

Sister Hayden and I on exchanges. It was windy!

Week 31

New Adventures await!!! This week has been so great! There have been a lot of changes but they are good. I am in Union now with Sister Snyder! I love her to death! She is so great and i am really looking forward to serving with her. 

this is my new address:

114 Delmar

Union, MO 63084

send me something! haha :)

transfers went well. Sister Holmes drove us all the way to St. Louis. The transfer meeting was good. it was nice to see all my mission friends. We got 2 new elders and 1 new sister into the mission. :( there should be so much more than that. Hopefully during the summer we will see more missionaries come in. 

This new area is fun. It is pretty close to my first area so there are a lot of things that remind me of it. We live in a little duplex and we have a basement. It is unfinished but it might come in handy if there is a tornado. We have some pretty great people we are working with and so I hope that i can learn the people and the are quick. That I think is always a little overwhelming. To have to learn everything new. But sister Snyder is great!! She is from California in the San Francisco area. We are co-senior companions which should be interesting. She is one transfer behind me which is fun. So far we have seen that we are pretty unified in the work. We have made some pretty great goals for this transfer and one of them includes learning the ukulele together! Someone left a ukulele and so we thought it would be fun to learn together. Mom and dad: i may have a new item to put on my Christmas list :) Anyway, I really love Sister Snyder. We are already really close and trying to find the balance in our work but its going really well. 

I will try and send a bunch of pictures this time. Love you all!!!!!

The St Louis skyline on our way to transfers

Sister Porter. We worked at hobby lobby together!

Tanya Montgomery is in the middle. She is the one who said "I'm ready to get baptized" once she heard elder Bednar speak. The elders are the ones who will be teacher her now. Elder Jamile and Elder Kakiva (they are from Hawaii)

Pretty crazy storms while driving

Sister Snyder playing the uke

The skills of Sister Snyder

Me playing the uke

Some places look like a jungle here

my family!!!! what a fun time to be able to see them and to talk with them! I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!

Sister Nordstrom trying to play the cello

Holmes

Hope

Goodrich

Randall

Minnie Pearson. One of my FAVORITE investigators EVER!!

Ananyee and her daughter Ananalea

Brother and Sister Allan the best ward mission leader EVER

Bundy