Monday June 25, 2012

How is my family doing?! I love getting emails from you all and it sounds like you are doing good! Mom and Dad, don't party too hard this week with no one at home! haha

Oh man! So I am super stressed today cause we have been running around like mad women trying to get everything done and we had to sit here and wait for computers at the Library for 2 hours since we didn't come first thing this morning... so I'm trying to relax a little. The Lord is helping me gain patience. I am with a Hermana for 2 days until Transfer meeting because I dropped Sister Draeger off at the mission home this morning. :( It was really sad saying goodbye)

Dad, I did get your email last week! It was something I needed to hear, so thank you for sending it again! I love you!

So It sounds like everyone is doing well back home! I heard about the fires in Utah! I hope y'all are safe and sound! Have you heard about the Hurricane that was headed our way here in Houston and just moved towards Florida? Now instead of the hurricane warnings this week we have heat warnings... :/ It's supposed to be around 105-110. I'm not looking forward to it.

Last week Sister Draeger and I saw the biggest miracle of our transfer. We had been praying soo hard all transfer to have a baptism in our area before Sister Draeger left, and we have a few people that are very close, but didn't quite make their date for last saturday. So we were talking one night about Thomas --the man that I went fishing with in South Shore who has been taught for 9 months now-- and how we were sad that his wedding had been cancelled so we weren't expecting him to get baptized on the 23rd of June like we had set for. Well right as we were talking about that we get a call from the assistants saying, Thomas was getting baptized! His wedding still went through! And it's a pure miracle because 1. Sister Draeger found Thomas when she was in South Shore a year ago. 2. Because she was my companion this transfer we were both able to go to the baptism. (Because we have a rule that you can only go to your investigators baptisms from previous areas if it's within the transfer after you leave.) And I just couldn't believe it because although we didn't get a baptism in our area the Lord still provided because we had been praying so hard for one.

Alyssa was a girl I found last transfer in South Shore with Sister Atterton also got baptized with Thomas! It was great to see how far she had progressed. :) And this 15 year old boy was at the baptism with a friend who is a member and he came up to me and said he wanted to be baptized! It's so cool to see how fast the work is moving along. :)

We have Jonatan' baptism this Saturday and we are sooo excited for him! He is the 8 year old of the recent convert, Christina. We have been teaching him since we got here in this area, and he knows a whole lot more than I knew when I got baptized. :) I'm really excited for him.

Last week I went back to Memorial area again for a day because Sister Draeger had her departing temple trip. That was my 4th time in Memorial. It was fun to see the people there progressing as well.

Sorry if this email is jumping around lots, my brain hasn't had a break all day and I can't think straight.

Another cool experience from this past week was visiting Yeni. She is an investigator who is from Nigeria. She had just found out that her aunt passed away right before we came over so she wasn't herself at all. We shared a conference talk with her on the plan of salvation and then she asked us if we could stay awhile with her because she didn't want to be alone (her husband just passed away 4 months ago and her son is in Utah for the Summer). So we sat with her for a while and then we starting singing hymns to her. The spirit was really strong, and she wept for a while while we sang. I definetly felt like the Savior would have been doing the same thing with her if He were here himself. Sister Draeger and I talked afterwards how grateful we are that the Savior trusts us to use us as his hands. We are lucky to see what we see daily. Not many people get to see all the miracles the Lord provides daily for his children. He loves us all!

Noo is another investigator we have. She has came to church twice and has a baptismal date set for the 21st of July, but we may be moving it up! She is awesome! She is from Thailand, and she was married to a LDS man. But they got divorsed because he cheated on her... :/ We found her when we were out biking one night. She got soo excited when she saw there were sister missionaries haha. She told us the other night when she had us over for dinner that right before we went up to talk to her that night we found her she had said a prayer to have the Lord help her with her son and knowing what to do to get his life on track. She knows the Lord answered her prayers through us. I can't wait to see progress even more!

The work is definetly moving onwards fast. We find people, seek for their intent, and teach those willing to follow our Savior. Unfortunately there are lots who don't have that desire.

Oh! So I told y'all that I've been studying the light of Christ. Well I have another cool analogy. So everyone has been given a lamp, and it's up to us to obtain the oil so it can have light. Well as missionaries we get to carry around a flame (the gospel) and there are lots of people around that don't have the oil in their lamp and we try and try to light their lamp, but they haven't been prepared for the gospel yet because they haven't had the desire. Then there are those who carry around their lamp with a little oil in it that can be lite for a while but then it goes out because they didn't really want it. And then there are the elect who have the lamps and they are full of pure olive oil just waiting for us missionaries to find them and light their lamps so they can be prepared for the Lord to come.

I love you all soo much and pray for you daily! Pray for me as I bring a new companion to our area this week. :)

Erianne

Happy late father's day

Happy late fathers day dad!!!! I hope your day was fabulous! I was sure thinking about you lots and hoping the family enjoyed being together for dinner and stuff! I wish we got to call home on fathers day too... :( But last night we were at a fireside for investigators. They choose 2-3 people who were just baptized and have them share their conversion story and testimony. Man it was powerful! I'm sure there will be lots of baptisms for those investigators who came last night cause you couldn't deny the spirit there. We brought our investigator, Yenni. She is from Nigeria and her husband (who just passed away unexpectedly), and her son were both baptized a few years ago. She has been taught by the missionaries for several years, comes to church, knows the Book of Mormon is true, but is stuck on the priesthood authority. She believes that the pastor that baptized her in Nigeria has the priesthood too.... So we are just trying to go over and read with her and try to soften her heart. It's going to have to be her that tells us she wants to be baptized because she has been asked so many times from the missionaries. Pray for her!

Anyways, so a few months ago when I was on exchanges in Memorial we met and taught this guy and he was also at the fireside! He looked so different... I think because the light of Christ is brighter in his face. It was really cool to see him progressing! Also another family that we taught while I was on that same exchange got baptized last week. The girls told the sister missionaries to tell me they got baptized and they are going to write me a letter to tell me they weren't scared. :) Cute huh? I was really excited to hear that.

Sorry I just jumped right into my week! HOW ARE YOU ALL DOING?! I miss you all a lot, and I think about you a lot too. But today in my scripture studies right after I had prayed for y'all I read D&C 100:1-2. I know the Lord is watching out for all my family and friends back home. :)

Mom, I got a really good idea from the primary president here. It is awesome! So the primary classes will pray for the kids in their classes who don't come to church, and write cards for them and then take it over to their houses once a month to let them know they are missed. I thought that was a great missionary opportunity for the primary classes. You are probably doing something like it already, but I just heard about that on sunday and really liked it.

Also, tell Sister Greenland I've been thinking a lot about her lately! I need to get her address to write her.

Thanks for you letter with those talks in it! I love getting mail from you! :) It's always a highlight of my week!

Dad, how is Vegas? How is work? Are you there for this whole week? If you ever come to Houston for work you'll have to see with my mission president if you can come to our sacrament meeting. Cause we are right in Downtown Houston. :)

So I had an interview with President Saylin this week. It was really good! He told me how great he thought I was and hoped I realized why he sent his daughter to me last week to be trained, because he felt out of all the sisters she could learn a lot from me. He said he was very proud of the missionary I've become in this short amount of time that I've been out. That really meant a lot. I still feel so inadequate and I feel like I still have sooooo much to learn to be a good missionary, but Its good to get that reassurance every once in a while that I'm doing alright. He is a great mission president.

I have so many stories from this week, but I will start with this. In my interview President suggested that I choose one study topic for my personal studies and stick to it for a month so that I can dig deep into it instead of just skimming the tops of lots of subjects. So I've been studying the Light of Christ. It's a cool topic to study, and as I've studied this week I have really been able to see the light of christ in peoples faces better! Especially the missionaries that I'm around. We have also been in many homes this week where people tell us there is a light about our faces. I never notice it about myself, but others can see the Light of Christ in us. I also learned something really cool in my studies. In Matt 25 it talks about the parable of the 10 virgins and their oil lamps. It says specifically about the pure olive oil that needed to be in the lamps for the light to burn. Well in my New Testament class 2 years ago we learned about the olive press in Gethsemane and how the olives go through much heat and pressure to get the oil out of them. And just in that same place was the Garden of Gethsemane where Christ felt that pain and pressure as He suffered through the Atonement. So I made the connection that the reason we need that pure olive oil (or atonement) is because Christ is the only way we can keep our testimonies burning. There is no other oil, or person, that can keep our lamps going. I don't know if that made sense, but it makes sense in my head. :)

This week we were also able to go down to Galveston Island for one of Sister Draegers former investigators baptisms. It was neat to see her and her husband get baptized together as their 3 kids watched them. (all three of their kids are under 8) Ally--the wife that got baptized-- was introduced to the church from the women who got in the bad plane accident and there is a mormon message video called, My New Life, about her story. She sent Ally a book of mormon with her testimony in it because Ally was following her blog. So I just sat there and thought how big of an impact this lady made on Ally's life and she couldn't even be here... and probably doesn't even know that she got baptized. But it was really cool!

Another funny story that happened this week.... We went to try this less active lady named, Sister J.. She was CRAZY! Haha I'm not joking. So we walk in and she has us sit down at her table. She gets us cookies and lemonade. and then she tells us she is 96 years old. I didn't think that was right so I said ,"when were you born?" She said 1950. I was like.....oh ok! haha So She kept offering us more and more cookies and I told her I was ok and she said, "when I offer you something you TAKE IT!" I just looked at Sister Draeger and stuck another cookie on my plate. She did the same thing to Sister Draeger but with her lemonade. Anyways, so when we were walking out she goes, "so are y'all Jehovahs Witnesses?" This was after we shared a message with her! haha Oh man. Lots of crazy things happen here. It's an adventure everyday!

Yesterday morning was a bit rougher day. We have been praying so hard that we can get Anitra and her family to church so they can start progessing towards baptism and they said they would come on Saturday night when we were over teaching them. So I call them Sunday morning and Cheyenne said sorry we can't make it! We won't be ready on time. So we had to call and cancel there ride from a member. Agh! It made me so frustrated. It was a breaking point for me cause I felt like we had done all we could to get them to church. I started crying and said, "I don't think I can do this for 12 more months. sister drager explained to me on the way to church that we only feel a small portion of the hurt Christ feels when we made bad decisions. It made me realize that Christ called me here on a mission to share the gospel with all my heart might mind and strength. He didn't call me to bring others to church, make them read their scriptures, or get baptized (although they need to). He is the one that can make all of those things happen when their hearts are softened. So Sister Draeger helped me a lot! She is an amazing missionary and I'm going to miss her next week!!!!

I have to go email president! I have so much to tell you about, but I'll have many stories for y'all next week!

I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOO MUCH!!!!

Erianne

June 11, 2012

Hello Family!

It sounds like everything is going really well back home.  Thank you soooo much for the package mom! I have been taking those vitamins daily and they seem to help. And the drinks will be helpful as well! I love getting mail from my sweet mom! I love you so much. :) I forgot to tell you this last week, but we went to visit our bishop and his family last week and he is only 29 years old. His wife has to take care of their 3 little kids (all under 4) and get them to church, etc. without much help from her husband. It made me really appreciate you and all that you went through to get us to church every Sunday, and taking care of us as dad was gone in meetings a lot. THANK YOU! Funny story though, Our bishop and his wife met in high school, he left on his mission, and six months before he got home his wife left on her mission. He waited a whole year till she got home then they got married. I thought that was cool! He is now a medical doctor for cancer patients down here, and I'm sure VERY stressed trying to learn a new ward of 700. We are working with him lots to try to help lift his burden.

  

Dad, that missionary meeting sounded fun! Was it for all the priesthood holders in the stake? I love mission meetings! We got to have a few these past few weeks and it helps to boost our motivation. :) Our mission song is Come Thou Fount, and whenever we sing that in meetings the spirit is so strong. Oh! I found out when President Saylins homecoming is.... July 22 in the North Salt Lake Stake Center-- Woodbriar ward. I'm not sure what time though.

This week was really good! Some weeks seem to go by faster than others, and this one seemed to fly by because so much happened. I'll try to write as much as I can about what went on.

We are teaching Anitra (I can't remember if I've told you about her but she was one of our miracle investigators) and her family. They are an African American family. They just love every time we come over and study the gospel with them. Each time we go the light just goes brighter and brighter in their faces, and they notice the spirit that is with us. When we came into their house they all said, "you've got a light about you. Y'all just look so happy." and they also told us they know they've met us before. I know that we met them before we came here to earth cause we just love them so much.

 Well we were over there on Tuesday teaching her mom about the restoration and Sister Draeger was starting to explain the first vision. As she started to say, "I saw a piller of light, exactly over my head.... above the brightness of the son" Anitras mom whispers... "I seen that light, I seen that light..." and Sister Draeger keeps going until she says, " I saw two personages whose brightness and glory defy all description standing above me in the air..." Anitras mom said in awe..." not that light." haha I could barely hold it in cause she was just so amazed. And just the way that she said it with her accent made me smile! Anyways... now I'm looking like an idiot here in a public library smiling so big to myself at the computer screen people are looking at me weird. Oh well!

So we are teaching some really great investigators right now. It's been a sifting process, and will be as we search for the elect!

On Thursday we had a mission sisters conference which was all day! It was soooo good. We have about 30 sisters in the mission and it President set up these sisters conferences every 6 months. I was asked to speak at it and my topic was obedience. When you're given this topic as a missionary you wonder if it’s because President thinks you need to work on it. So Sister Draeger and I made an "alter of sacrifice" earlier in the week and put all our little disobediences on it. We don't have any big ones, but just tightening things up like having breakfast at 7:30 am like it says in the hand book. And also striving to be purpose driven all throughout our days. It's been cool to see the blessings come as we do the little things.

Anyways so the sisters’ conference was good. We were at the mission office for most of the day for talks, trainings, President and Sister Saylin spoke, President did a Q & A session (really cool!) and then we went to the mission home for dinner and a testimony meeting. We didn't get home till 10:15 pm. We were all physically and spiritually exhausted! One thing that I loved about Sister Saylins talk was her introduction. She got pretty emotional and said how although the chapel wasn't full of bodies she knew there were lots of people there. She knew that our angels were there with us and our future generations were there cheering us on. It was really neat. President Saylin spoke on the mysteries of God and how we need to come to know them so that we can understand God and enter the celestial kingdom. He went into some pretty deep doctrine and it was really powerful. He talked about how revelation is very sacred and it needs to be treated like gold. There is no handbook for the temple for a reason. It is so we can learn by the spirit and learn how to apply the revelation we receive there into our lives. He made me feel better about myself when he said, "it's ok if you didn't enjoy the temple the first few times you went.... I had a really hard time too." Just because everyone talks it up to be this great experience (which it is) but, your first time there you won't understand everything. It's line upon line precept upon precept. He is going to be an apostle some day I think.

After sisters conference I had 3-4 sisters who are leaving this transfer come up to me and tell me they think I'm going to be training this next transfer. I about died when they said that because I still need a whole lot of training myself. I don't think it'll happen for a while, but it was a nice complement!

On Friday we got a surprise phone call from President saying Sister Draeger was going to be leaving for the weekend to another area and I'd be training a mini missionary... his daughter Kate for the weekend. Kate is 17 years old and she has been on several mini missions throughout her time here in Texas, but I was so nervous cause I didn't want to mess anything up! She is such a great missionary though and we had fun. On Saturday President and his kids brought us breakfast and checked out our apartment and our area boards. He said he was impressed with our area, so that made me relieved. haha We found a few new investigators and had several sit down lessons which was really good! One of them made me really sick inside though. It was a former member and his wife. They are in their late 20's and he is very smart. He served a mission and worked as an ordinance worker in the Provo temple after his mission but then he said evidence didn't prove our religion to be right. I got pretty upset inside but I bit my tongue and told him about Doubting Thomas the apostle. I was pretty bold, but the spirit was definitely there and his wife was in tears so I know she felt the spirit too. I hope he softens his heart again one day. And I hope his wife will come back to church!

 Our exchanges ended last night. We met at the mission home and I was able to talk with President and Sister Saylin for a bit before Sister Draeger got there. I love their family! I am really going to miss them.

Well I still need to write President and I've only got a few minutes left so I better go! I love you all soooo much!

Erianne :)

Bring On The Heat!!!

Hello my family!

How are y'all doing?! I think about you guys a lot and pray for you even more. Thank you so much for your emails and support! It sounds like everything is going good at home. Is there anything I can do for you guys? I can't believe Alayna is coming to TEXAS!!!!!!! She is going to LOVE it. Texas is a very proud state and you'll never forget where you're at when you're here cause the people will remind you. :) I wish she was coming to Houston, but if you can will you get her address for me? . I think it will help out a lot. I've been doing good health wise. I think y'alls prayers are helping :)

It is getting HOT! I am getting so nervous for July and August cause that is when people say it is the worst. But luckily we have a car that we can use that has AC. :) We get about 40 miles a day... which may seem like a lot, but they are used up pretty quickly. The goal is to get lots of members to come to lessons with us cause 1. then they can drive us so we save miles and 2. our investigators benefit from a "normal" persons testimony rather than just someone with a name badge. This week we got 9 member present lessons which was pretty good for opening a new area!  :) We were excited. We had a member that came out with us that is our age, her name is Rebekkah Fangupo and she just married a guy that is playing NFL football for the Texans here in Houston!!! Cool huh? And she told us that John Beck, the QB for BYU, is coming down here to play too so he may be in our ward. It's fun to have a NFL player in the ward. He is a solid member missionary. His wife was telling us that He never wanted to serve a mission. He just wanted to play football, and his dream was to play for USC. His mom literally drug him to the bishops office and shut him in. The bishop came out and told her that he had free agency and she couldn't make him serve. So she pulled this one on him, "I promise you if you serve a mission you will play for USC or someone better." So he left on a mission, and within the first 4 months he was converted to missionary work. After his mission he remembered his moms promise and he tried to get in contact with the coach at USC. He was no longer timid after his mission so he jumped the fence to the practice fields, went up to the coach, and said, "coach if you put me on your team I'll be the best player you've ever had." After that they let him practice with them and then he was offered a scholarship. Now he is in the NFL and shares his testimony to his teammates daily. :) I thought that was cool.

Anyways, so this week has been full of ups and downs but mostly just full of miracles... even on the days that were down days. I love the feeling of knowing that I am exactly where the Lord needs me to be. That has happened 4-5 times this week at least. We met 2-3 people (at different times) out on the streets as we were contacting who told us that they had just been praying to have direction in their lives. Throughout the whole lesson they kept saying to us, "I just can't believe this just happened and you showed up like this." Many of those people were brought to tears as we taught about the Restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and it's cool to see the countenances in their faces change. I can't believe the Lord trusts me enough to be an instrument in His hands.... Literally! It's awesome!

We had a lesson with one of our new investigators Heidi who we taught at the church. We taught her in the Chapel and the spirit was soooo strong. She knew it was true immediately, and she told us this has the missing piece that she didn't know was missing in her other church. She just has a hard time thinking about leaving her church where all her friends are. I hope she can take that step of faith to do it! She couldn't stop crying as she felt the spirit confirm the truth to her. She texted us this week and told us she can't wait to meet with us again cause she has something to tell us. We hope it's good news! She also has a son who is 10 and she told us over and over how much she wants for him to stay on a good path, cause she sees the kids at his school who aren't making good choices and she doesn't want him to get into that group. He is going to LOVE primary!

On Saturday we had a Tri-mission conference with the Houston, Houston East, and Houston South missions. Elder Johnson, CES commissioner, came and spoke to us. It was really good! On our way there our GPS wasn't working and we didn' tknow where to go. We quickly said a prayer after 10 minutes of trying to figure it out and not even kidding right when we said Amen it turned on. Prayer works! It just has to be done with Faith!

 Elder Johnson also took the time to shake each one of our hands. He spoke on the difference of the Light of Christ, the Holy Ghost, and the Gift of the Holy Ghost. As we as missionaries use all of those as we teach and testify the truth will be made known to our investigators. He also spoke on the agency of our investigators as we leave commitments for them to complete before we come again to teach them. He said a lot of times you'll feel discouraged, sad, or like you aren't a good missionary as they don't keep commitments, but he told us to remember that God gave each of His children the agency to choose. Like what mom was saying in her email to me. We have the agency to choose right or wrong. We can't make them, and we can't do it for them. I wish I could just read, pray, and come to church for my investigators sometimes cause I don't think I'd get as many cold sores waiting to hear back if they did it for themselves. ;) haha

I was also thinking this week as we had lots of people rescheduling appointments with us. It gets kinda frustrating when you have all your investigators in one day cancel appointments. Cause we know as missionaries that nothing is more important than the lessons we are teaching them. But Christ must have a lot of patience with me and many others because how many times do we "reschedule" the things we should be doing for Him for things of less importance? Nothing is more important than Gods work. DON'T RESCHEDULE YOUR APPOINTMENTS WITH HEAVENLY FATHER! He is a lot more patient than me, so I'm sure he doesn't get frustrated like I do, but I'm sure it makes Him sad for us.

Yesterday all of our plans fell through, but we've been praying for miracles in our area and we are definitely seeing them. We ended up meeting with 2 less active families, and having 2 investigator lessons. It was a miracle!

Things are going great! I love this area. :)

I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOO MUCH! I PRAY FOR YOU DAILY!

Erianne

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