April 30, 2012

Family!!!

Guess what?! I just got back from Fishin' with our investigator Thomas! It was soo much fun.... but I didn't catch anything. :( We are going to try again some other P-day. I will have to send you some pictures.

Good news! I get to skype with you on Mothers day!!! So they asked us to get that all set up now. I need your email address you'll be using to skype from. Let me know next week so I have have the members set it up with you. And I hope you can get a better camera than the one we have at home now cause that one isn't very clear. Maybe you can use dads laptop... if not you can use my macbook I just have to remember all my passwords.

It's sure great to hear from y'all and hear how things are back home! I can't believe Chalece and her family are moving. You'll have to send pictures. Congrats on the Job Alli!!! I'm proud of you! Tell Carter I'm still soo proud of him for getting into BYU with a scholarship! That isn't easy. Trust me I've tried getting in... haha

Mom, it sounds like you'll be getting a lot done around the house this summer since you're on break again. That'll be nice. Are you still looking at houses, or are you thinking of building still? Keep me updated.

Dad, Thanks for your testimony and love. I always look forward to your advice. Things here are going great.

This email is going to be scattery because I have SOOO much to tell y'all. This week has been jam packed with everything possible.

Tuesday: We met with Thomas ( The one we went fishing with.... he has been taught for 8-9 months now) and he told us he is finally getting married on June 16th. So we set a Baptismal date with him on June 23! We were going to baptize him on June 17 ;) but he has his honeymoon. WE ARE SOO EXCITED FOR HIM! He is really excited too, yesterday at church he was telling everyone he is getting baptized. Lots of people thought he was already a member cause he comes to church every week. :) I hope I'm still here in south shore so I can be here for his baptism. But I was thinking the other day in the shower how every investigator is like a puzzle. They have missionaries that help put the pieces in, and some investigators have lots of pieces or missionaries that teach them, and others have 2-4 pieces and it doesn't take long to complete the puzzle. We no matter who puts the last piece of the puzzle in every piece counted. :) I'm excited for Thomas, he has a special place in my heart.

Tuesday night we met with a family that was baptized last August and they are preparing to go to the temple to be sealed in August. Terry, the dad, got the Melchezideck Priesthood yesterday at church. But the day before we visited with him he said he had an amazing experience. He was at work and this guy came up to him who he had never before met. The guy said, "You are about to receive a blessing that will change your life forever and your families as well. Use the gift properly." Then the man walked away. Isn't that cool. Terry said he has never seen that guy before or since.

Wednesday: We have been praying so hard for a family to teach and Wednesday we got our answer. We found a part member family, the Martinez family, where the mom has been a member since she was 15, but all 7 of her kids (6 old enough for baptism) haven't been baptized yet. All the kids are soo excited to be baptized. Keep them in your prayers! We also have another family we are teaching, they want to be baptized but the mom wants to read the whole Book of Mormon first. She is reading 4-5 pages a day. :)

Thursday: We had Zone conference with President Saylin! It was soooo good. It was from 8 am till 6 pm. When President and Sister Saylin spoke I had a rock in my throat the whole time cause the spirit was so strong. President looked us all in the eyes and explained to us that we were all foreordained to come here to Houston Texas to bring souls unto Christ. He told us that 60 years ago in Houston there was 1 branch that covered clear to Dallas and San Antonio. Now there are 17 stakes alone in Houston! The church is growing so fast.

Oh so this was kinda embarrassing... so President was talking to us about mormon.org profiles and he asked who all had one. Well I knew I tried setting one up before my mission but I didn't know if it went through so I didn't raise my hand. And then in front of EVERYONE he goes, "Sister Avery, your hand should be up."..... Uhhh haha I turned bright red as he turned on the projector screen to my mormon.org profile page. He had been showing the whole mission my page and I didn't even know I had one completed. Whoopsies.

That night we went on exchanges. Sister Draeger came with me to South Shore and Sister Atterton went to Galveston where she started her mission. Sis. Draeger is such a great missionary! She served in South Shore before I was here so she knew all the people in the ward. We worked so well together. On Friday we had 7 sit down lessons, which is really crazy. We usually get 2-4. And I found out my district leader, who is almost done with his mission, has only ever had 6 sit downs in a day. He was really proud of us. Man we were literally running from lesson to lesson!  One of those lessons wasn't so good. We met with a lady named Kim who me and Sister Atterton had taught last week and she was nice to us then except she turned down our baptismal invitation.... even after we said if God told you to. Anyways, so we go to teach her again and she literally tore me to shreds telling me I was inappropriate asking her to be baptized and I'm brainwashed. She told me I needed to open my gate a little wider and check out other religions. And she was telling us what we believed even though it was completely wrong. She told me she thought it was wrong that I cried talking about Joseph Smith (Explaining the first vision to her our first time over there) and that I didn't cry talking about God. She wouldn't let me say much, but when she did let me talk I told her I wasn't crying because of what Joseph Smith did, but with the experience he had with God and Jesus Christ. Oh man I felt so torn down after that lesson. Sister Draeger got out of there as soon as we could. BUT THEN, one of the members calls us and said, "Did you just meet with Kim? Well she just posted on facebook how nice you mormon girls are and she can't wait for y'all to come back cause you're just so sweet."

I couldn't believe it.... Anyways that was a crazy lesson. We won't be going back there anytime soon. :)

I hope I get to serve with Sister Draeger before she leaves. She is a great missionary! She taught me a lot.

 

Anyways, this week was really good! Tomorrow is my 3 month mark. WAHOOO!!!! It's getting hot here, I hope I'm still alive next week to write you. ;)

Oh and Mom and Dad, the Gardiners (from England) who are members in the ward here want you to come out here after my mission with me so they can meet you! :) They told me there will be sure to have their son here as well...... ;/ oh dear!

I love you!!!!!! I pray for you all daily.

Erianne

April 23, 2012

Hey Family!!!

Sounds like St. George was a blast! I'm glad y'all got to go down and celebrate Grandpa's birthday with him! How is his health and grandma's? How was getting to be with all the fam? I can't wait to have a family reunion with them when I get home! I love my family a lot. :)

I found out my release date is July 9th, 2013.

Mom, I bet that you're excited for a summer break from UVU! Enjoy it! And if you find a house let me know cause I want to see pictures and see the details! That's exciting about the house in AF. :)

Dad, thanks for that quote! I really like it. It can definetly be applied in my everyday life as a missionary. :)

Things here are going good! This week flew by, and we only have 3 more weeks before transfers again. It's crazy! It sure is getting hot down here though... I wish people would stop talking about how bad it gets and let me figure if out on my own cause i'm starting to get really nervous! haha It's been in the 90's and it's only April... :/ I think I might die.

Earlier this last week on Tuesday I got a little taste of what the Holy Ghost must feel like every day of His life.. It seemed like every single lesson we were teaching in there were distractions and I could not focus on what I was teaching. It was soo frustrating. The first lesson we had Sister Shipman (the most spunky stylish 70 year old!) and her Great granddaughter, Ferrah, come out with us to teach this lady LaVon. Well throughout the whole lesson Ferrah was running around, getting candy out of LaVon's treat jar without asking, and coming up and jumping behind me whispering over and over saying, "say the closing prayer so we can go!!!" Oh man, and we were teaching a lesson I am still not very comfortable teaching yet so I didn't even know what I was saying, let alone thinking. The Second lesson was at a members house, the See's. Sis See is an amazing lady, and she has been trying to get us to teach her sister in-law and her family. Well we finally got it set up and we were over at the See's house teaching Cheryl and Amelia. Then half way through the lesson 10-15 people come in and start talking, laughing, eating, etc. and Cheryl was sooo distracted. I couldn't think straight and even worse when Sister Atterton extended a baptismal date they didn't even hear. haha BUT! 1. I learned a great lesson- we need to keep things calm in our lives so we can be receptive of the Holy Ghost because he can't yell over all the loud distractions. and 2. We are now teaching a family! Cheryl's family!! They are great, and everything is really being prepared because they just moved into our ward boundaries. :) I'm excited to see what happens with them.

                  

On Thursday we got to go to the Temple! The Houston temple is sooo pretty! It's a lot smaller than the picture makes it look. I will send pictures so y'all can see. We had to wake up at 5:00 am so that we could be on time for our session. It's about a 2 hour drive from where we live. So we were supposed to go pick up some other sisters in our district at the church building and they weren't there... so we call them and their alarm didn't go off! So we drove to where their apartment is and picked them up. luckily we made it on time, but we were praying super hard! Oh but quick story... on the way to pick up the sisters in the morning we saw this boy, Lonnie, who is a recent convert running to seminary at 5:45 am. I told Sister Atterton and she said, yeah he runs to seminary every morning because he doesn't have a ride. AND his house is about 8 miles from the church building! Can you believe it?! I thought going to seminary was hard and I had it in the afternoon, but here is this 17 year old CONVERT who is running 8 miles at 5:30 in the morning with a huge backpack on his back! That right there is dedication. He is awesome!

But anyways, back to the temple! We had a session with mostly missionaries, and maybe 8 other members. Sister Saylin was in our session as well! It was so cool to be at the temple with a bunch of missionaries from our mission! President Saylin and his wife were there after and we all got to be in a sealing room together and they greeted us. Also, when I walked into the Celestial room I saw a couple in our ward down here that I look up to soo much. They are going through a really hard time right now, and I could see they had been crying. When they saw me walk in they both smiled real big and gave me a hug! That was a tender mercy.:) I have really come to love soo many people down here. They have a special place in my heart.

Sunday was stake conference. We only had 1 investigator come... Thomas. It's hard to be teaching lots of people, and see none of them put forth the effort to receive answers by coming to church. We have dropped lots of our investigators because they aren't progressing. It's hard to do that, but when people won't make commitments and show they are willing to do what it takes that's what has to happen. We have also had lots of our investigators bail on us this week. But we keep on keepin on.

The good thing is We have 3 really solid investigators that will be baptized sometime, but they have to get married first so they are working on that. And now we are teaching Cheryl's family which I think they will progress quickly! Keep them in your prayers if you will!

I love you all soo much and I pray for you daily! Keep me updated on all that goes on!

Erianne :)

It's POURING here!‏

Today the weather is CRAZY! I think there is going to be a hurricane! haha The thunder and lightning is like nothing I've ever heard or seen before. Things rumble when the thunder goes off. Our poor dog that lives with us was going crazy all night long.

Have fun in St. George this weekend! Tell Grandpa and Grandma hello and Grandpa HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Be safe driving there too.

The doctors went ok. It was a 2 hour drive there and 2 hours back and to be honest I kinda felt like it was a waste of time. He was very interesting and very old... I told him all my symptoms and he just said if it gets really bad I can go work in the mission office. But other than that he didn't say much. I asked him what I should do about my headaches and lightheadedness and he said to take multi vitamins. So I went and got some a few days ago. But this week I've been doing good! I took a short nap on Saturday so don't worry I'm handling it good. :)

This past week was good! On Wednesday Sister Atterton had a leadership training in Sugar Land so I got to go out with a brand new sister, Sister Haertel, in Memorial, where I went on exchanges a month ago! I really like that area, and I have a feeling I'll serve there sometime. Sister Haertel and I had a blast!!! I was kinda scared because she had only been out a week and I have only been here for 2 months so we don't have much experience, but we did great and we had fun! AND we didn't get lost driving around. haha I hope I get to serve with Sister Haertel sometime! She is fun. She is from Utah and she knows a few people I know from High school (Katie James and Kylie Pittard). Small world! Anyways while I was there we did service for this lady who has major fatigue problems. We cleaned and organized her room. Then we went out and taught a lesson before we had to go pick up our companions. I thought the lesson turned out great! And she accepted a baptismal date.

When we went back to pick our companions up guess who was at the church?! Amber Lewis... from the 9th ward I think! I played volleyball with her in high school. She got sent here from Spain after she got sick and had to leave! Crazy huh? She only has 8 months left. It was fun to see her!

This week we found 6 new investigators but we quickly dropped 3 of them because either they didn't want to learn more, or they weren't keeping the commitments. President Saylin told us in a training meeting that as we are busy doing missionary work we will begin to see the sifting affect. That is where we will go through lots of investigators to find the elect who are truly prepared to accept the gospel. We have about 4 progressing investigators right now. 3 of which are ready to get baptized we just need to clear up some small things like getting them married since they are living with someone. So not only am I missionary, but I'm also a wedding planner. ;) haha It's fun!

Sad story! We were out contacting people on our bikes the other day and we met this young family who just barely had their first child a week ago. We were telling them how we know that families can be together forever and the husband quickly jumped in and said "No they can't. We will be on our own in Heaven. Marriages don't last in heaven..." and he just kept going on about all this rubbish. I just stood there in awe thinking how the heck could you believe this.... or even try to believe that once you've married the love of your life and had this little girl! He kept reciting all these scriptures off about the man who dies his brother will take his wife.... etc. I just felt so bad for him and it made me soo grateful for the knowledge I have on being able to be with my family forever! I know that we are sent here to earth to be with families for a reason, and we will be with them for eternity too! I hope his heart is softened some day.

This week we've had a lot of prayers with random people we have met! Haha its kinda fun to see how different people pray. One lady we held hands in a circle on her porch, and this guy on the street too. He was crazy though! He kept saying weird things and when we tried to leave he grabbed our hands and started saying a prayer about how his church is the only true one. Oh well!

Last night we met with a very inactive guy and his wife and son who aren't members. A few months ago this guy wouldn't even talk to us, but after being in his apartment complex so much visiting other people so often he finally consented to let us in. Well we went by last night and taught them the restoration. He sat through the whole lesson fine and then when we got to the Book of Mormon he jumped in and said, "Where is the archeological evidence of the Book of Mormon?".... Sister Atterton and I told him we didn't know exactly where they were but we think Angel Moroni took them. He said he couldn't believe anything without seeing it. I told him the story of Thomas the apostle after Christ was resurrected and he didn't believe Christ came, but then when he saw Christ he believed. Then Jesus told Thomas, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed." This Travis guy kinda stumbled and said, "well yeah I know that story.... but.... it's just I need evidence." Ahhhhh.... Faith people! haha Oh well. Some day he'll get it.

Yesterday at Church we had 5 investigators! It was the most that we've had since I've been here. :) We've been working on explaining church in our lessons so our investigators know what to expect and know the importance of coming to church to get answers to their questions, and we are definitely seeing the effects of teaching how important church is. :)

I wish I had more time! But I'll write more next week!

I love you all! I pray for you every day!

Erianne

Allison!!! My little baby sister is growing up! What are you doing for your big day? Don't wreck my car if you start driving it. ;) haha HAVE THE BEST BIRTHDAY!

I hope y'all got my cards this week. I tried to send them off early enough in the week so they would make it there on time. Thank you sooo much for the easter package! I love all that was in it... the "good and the bad" and I shared the popcorn with Erica and Ty! :) THANK YOU! I ended up getting it on saturday and it was funny (kinda) cause me and sister atterton were sooo sick that day so we were home and the package came with all the treats that we wanted to eat but our stomachs couldn't handle. haha We think we got food poisoning the night before from having fish and chips with a member family that is from England... :/ It was not good! . But we had to be better by that night to go out to some appointments. It's not fun being sick in the mission field cause you can't take much time off... But we are better now!

Mom, thanks for all the updates! It's good hearing about people back home.

Dad, you asked if we get many people that request book of mormons or DVD's and we do get about 1-2 Church headquarter referals a week that people request items. So we take those by and try to visit with them. It is CRAZY how much people are starting to have questions about our church because of Mitt Romney. They ask us if we are here to recruit for him but we tell them we don't even know what is going on with that. A lot of people will say they aren't interested in what we have to say but that they are voting for Mitt. Haha

About my health, Mom, I know you are going to worry but don't :) ... I have been Ok for the most part. Don't worry too much about me, but President pulled me in for an interview last week to check in on me cause Sister Atterton told him kinda what's been going on. I'm calling the mission doctor today to go see him. I've just been really lightheaded every time I stand up, headaches throughout the week, and really low energy almost to the point that I feel like I have weights on every part of my body. I think it's really just the stress that us missionaries go through. I'll let you know what the doctor says but until then don't worry too much.

Highlights of my week:

Rachel is an investigator we have been teaching since I got here. Her fiance is a inactive member and she has a son. We gave them a church tour on Saturday with the bishop and talked about them setting a wedding date so that she can get baptized because they live together. They seemed really excited about it and we are looking forward to helping them out with that so Rachel can get baptized!! Well Rachel grew up Baptist and so yesterday in church when they announced a little 8 year old who had been baptized she stood up and started clapping hahaha It was sooo funny! But then her fiancé pulled her down and said we don't clap. Good times!

On Saturday night we met with this guy named Byron who we met out contacting people on the street. We went to the CVS pharmacy to get medicine when we were both sick and he happened to be there. He told us what he knew about the church (which was a lot!) He talked to us about Moroni and Joseph Smith. He wanted us to come by and bring him a Book of Mormon. So we went over to his house and he was sooo open with us. He told us he is catholic but he doesn't believe lots of what the Catholics do. As we were sitting there talking with us I realized that God really does prepare people for us to teach, because all that he was explaining to us of his thoughts on life, were in line with the gospel. We gave him a Book of Mormon and we were just going to ask him to read the introduction but as we gave it to him he said, "Ok I'll read this whole book and pray about it." Wow! So we are hoping that we can get back in and share more with him.

We also met this other girl last Monday named Kayley. We met her while we were out contacting too and she had soo many questions. She was very open to what we had to say and she had heard lots of rumors about our church which were completely not true but she wanted to find out for herself. Those are the people we like to visit with! We are going back this week to visit with her again. She needs to gospel in her life at this time, and she realizes she needs a change. I told her that I knew we came into her life at a time God knew she was ready.

The last is the greatest of the week! So remember that family that I've told you about that is very inactive because of sports on Sundays? Well after everything fell through yesterday for us--literally-- we decided to go stop by there house to visit with them and share an eater message. We gathered together with their whole family and we read 3 Nephi 11 about Christ coming to the America's. We talked about the influence Jesus Christ has on our lives and we got their only active daughter, Bailey, to share her testimony with her family. She was in tears and we could feel her pain of knowing that her family was on the wrong path. I asked the other 3 kids what role Jesus Christ has in their lives and as each one of them shared their testimonies they cried. The spirit was soo strong and the mom (who told us last time she doesn't handle tears and people who cry) was crying herself. We left that house in awe. Although all our plans for the day had fallen through God knew we were to be in that house with them to help them feel the spirit and know that Jesus Christ lives. Bailey texted us after we left and told us THANK YOU! I knew they felt the spirit. Now we just have to go back and get them to realize what they need to do... come back to church.

Anyways, I have sooo much more to share with you but I'm out of time again. :( I wish I had hours.

Please be safe and enjoy Spring break!!!

I love you all!

Hello Everyone!!!

First I'll try to respond to your emails... :) It sounds like you're all doing great! I missed yall this weekend but it was fun being here too! I missed your cinnamon rolls mom.

Dad, you and I must have been thinking the same thing during conference cause as a missionary I feel like every meeting you are in with an investigator my thoughts are, "what are they thinking?" "what are they getting out of this?" "Oh crap.... their asleep..." haha (That happened yesterday for a minute) I hope yall are doing well! I think of you every single day and pray for you!

Conference was great wasn't it? Man it sure is a different experience in the mission though let me tell ya. We run around like mad women before during and after conference trying to get investigators to members to watch it.. and when they bail we are in trouble cause then we have to drive clear over to the church to watch it. There is a rule in the mission that if you don't have an investigator watching conference with you you can't be at a members house... :/ Kinda weird, but oh well. So we spent 2 sessions at members and 2 sessions at the church. And we were late to every session because we were running around so much. It was kinda upsetting that we only got 1 investigator to watch conference because we had 3-4 that said they would and then they bailed last minute. People here don't know how to commit. Although we had 2 investigators watch it on their own at their houses so that is good. Thomas, the investigator that watched conference with us, really enjoyed it. We are hoping some specific talk hit him because he has been receiving the lessons for 8 months now and we are trying soo hard to help him just take the step. He is just stalling because he is living with a girl friend who is Jehovahs Witness... :/ Pray for him if you will.

Speaking of Jehovahs witnesses... last night we were out on our bikes and we met this lady who was jehovahs witness and it was really interesting to talk with her for 30 minutes. She seemed open to hear what we had to say but she also questioned us on things. It was a cool experience because she asked me how you can tell a true christian and without thinking I said, "Love" and then she said and do you know where that is found in the Bible? And without thinking again I said John 14. And she looked at me darn I thought I could stump you. But she seemed impressed! When we rode off I realized that was the spirit. Hopefully she will take that talk and really think about what we taught her. She will be a good mormon some day.

What was your guys favorite talk?! My favorite was E. Hollands or President Monsons. AND when the choir sang Come Thou Fount all us missionaries in the church started tearing up because that is our mission song and the spirit was soo strong. We all knew that was a tender mercy of the Lord since this is our Mission Presidents last conference in the mission. We all just pictured him and his family crying listening to that. :)

Wow! I made it through my first transfer and I'm still alive and kickin'. Haha The new transfer starts today and I'm still with Sister Atterton in South Shore. It'll be a good transfer. Now that I'm starting to get the hang of things a little bit. This past week we worked so hard! We found 6 new investigators and set 4 new baptismal dates! It's going to be a good month. Dad, you asked about the house we are staying in and yes I got very lucky. It's the nicest place in the mission. The area and the neighborhood I'm staying in. We live in a gated community. Oh and the house we are staying in has EXACTLY what mom wants in a house. I wish I could send you the plans! 2 days ago we were riding down our street on our bikes and there are 2 bays and 1 of them had an alligator in it. Not joking!

The weather here is nice. It's heating up quick and I'm already as dark as an Indian. After summer I'll look like an African American. :) Last monday for P-day we got together with our Zone and played flag football for 3 hours! It was soo much fun! I got 2 touchdowns running past the elders and they were pretty embarrased. haha Our zone is really fun!

This week I have learned so much from the members in our ward. We had 3 different dinner appointments from members throughout the week that really changed my perspective on life.

1. Sister See. She is a convert and she has gone through heck throughout her life. She has lost 2 children, one at age 13 and one at age 33. She has overcame cancer, and her husband now has lung cancer. She is the happiest and nicest lady I have ever met. When she was talking about her life I had this big ball in my throat just cause I felt like I needed to cry. Haha She was saying I look at death this way, We are all going to california and my 2 kids just got on the earlier train. Erica was with us at that dinner appointment and she was in tears because of the strength Sister See's has. I need to work on my optimism like she has. She has such a strong testimony of Christ and knowing that He is with us every step of the way throughout life.

2. President and Sister Norman. They started their mission last year in Hong Kong and then sister Norman got sick so they had to come home. They are the PERFECT member missionaries! She comes with us to several appointments a week and our dinner appointment with them was so different than others because they were talking about the people they need us to meet and teach. Anyways they are such great missionaries and I can't wait to be a member missionary like them. Sister Norman teaches early morning seminary here and President Norman is in the stake presidency but they may go back out on their mission after their callings are done. The thing that stuck out to me when we were over there is how great they are.... but they told us of their 4 kids who have all chose to take their names off the records of the church. You could see the sadness and hurt in their eyes. It made me realize that even if parents are so strong in the church their kids still have the agency to choose. It made me reflect on how much sadness and hurt I caused you guys and I hope you'll forgive me for that.

I don't have time to finish the 3rd... but I'll write it in my journal to share with you later! I feel like everyday I am learning something new that needs to be applied in my life for when I'm a mom and have a family. The mission is super duper hard!!!! But in my studies this week it has been re-enforced that the Atonement of Jesus Christ isn't just for the redeeming power, but also for the enabling power. The enabling power of the Atonement strengthens us to do things we could never do on our own. So the Atonement has taken on new meaning for me this week and for my mission cause I'm going to need it every single day. Also the ability to act and not be acted upon. Nephi asked for strength to break the bands, not to have Heavenly Father break them for him. I'm grateful for yall and for your love!

Mom and Dad thank you for the support you give me in paying for my mission! :D I love you!!!

Erianne

ps Sorry my email is so scattered! I have so much to share and so little time.