Sunday, March 31, 2013
Email from Sister Zolliger - RS Pres. in Eriannes' ward
Hopefully these attachments aren't too large to send. I took the photos on my phone and the lower quality images just looked fuzzy to me. I wanted you to see how wonderful your missionaries looked today. They were pretty fired up after church. We are working hard on some plans to help them stay busy and with all of the new missionary rules they have so many more options that missionaries have not had in the past.
We've designed a system here in our ward that seems to be working quite well and I have communication with our missionaries throughout the week. The weather is perfect here this time of year and our sisters have been blessed to have a car right which is wonderful! That may not always be the case for them but my hope is if we keep them running back and forth enough the mission office will realize how practical it is for them to have that mode of transportation. :-)
It was the fifth Sunday of the month so the Priesthood and Relief Society groups met together today and Bishop taught the lesson on missionary work. Ideas were thrown out from the participants on how we can help our missionaries meet more people now that they no longer go tracting. It was a good class and I think both the elders and the sisters enjoyed the feedback and the level of excitement we are starting to generate on this. We have been so blessed to have them here!
Transfers happen a week from this coming Wednesday... I know it's selfish of me but I'm very much hoping we get to keep all three of our sisters. Sadly I realize the odds are against that but I feel no shame in hoping. They are so dedicated and such an inspiration to me. It's truly been my pleasure to serve with them. I know you'll be getting your typical email tomorrow from them but was hoping these photos would give a little Extra Easter joy for you. I gave all three of them hugs for you. The smiles on their faces I believe are very sincere. They seem to be loving what they are doing. One of our young women in the ward gave her farewell address today. She will soon be serving in California. She's so excited she can hardly stand it and I know she's been going on splits with our now serving missionaries as often as possible the past few weeks and asking for advice from them. As they hugged her today I could see the excitement in all of their eyes. It's truly infectious. God's young army is amazing and their parents have every reason to be so very proud of these children. Thank you for sharing them with us!
Happy Easter from Texas!
-Mindy
P.S. The thumbs up photo was Sister Avery's idea..... it was totally my favorite. So cute! Sister Howard kept giggling and her eyes ended up closed more often then not but this one has all six eyes... all three thumbs and three great smiles. PERFECT!
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Happy Easter!!!
Sorry I didn't write y'all on monday! Our p-day got switched to today
because we decided to go to the temple as a district. It is always great
to be able to go to the temple. Especially when it's with friends! We
also had a girl in our ward who is leaving on her mission to California
in 2 weeks come with us. She is really excited!
It sounds like everything is going well back at home besides with our neighbors. I will pray for the Jarretts. That makes me so sad! Tell them I'll be praying for them. I hope he is in Jail for life!
This past weekend was SOOO BUSY but it was really great! I had to prepare a talk for sacrament meeting on how prayer and revelation help us share the gospel, we had 2 baptisms to prepare for.... Lauren and Gregs, and we had to prepare our talks for that and for a primary presentation the primary presidency wanted us to do on sunday in primary. It was a stressful weekend, but when you're stressed because you're busy it's a good thing as a missionary!
LAUREN AND GREG GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!
Laurens was on Saturday afternoon and she was glowing! Her twin sister came to watch and she kept asking us when it was her turn. We told her she just needed to show the Lord she is ready by doing all that her sister has been doing, coming to church, reading and praying. We got a text from Ashley (Laurens twin) the next morning before church and she told us she didn't know if she wanted to be baptized anymore but that she'd be praying about it. When we talked with her a church she told us that her ex-boyfriend (whose family are all members) told her if she joined the church he wouldn't ever talk with her again. I'm so mad at that kid! Especially since his whole family are members. BUT. We did meet with Ashley again yesterday and she told us she is still praying and she really wants to know for herself. She's in it for the right reasons. It made me think though cause she told us that she feels kinda weird praying to someone she isn't right in front of so she feels awkward. It made me grateful to have that relationship with my Father in Heaven to pray to Him in whatever circumstance. We promised Ashley that if she prayed and asked Heavenly Father to show her a sign of His love for her that He would show one. I can't wait to see how she receives her answer.
Greg was also baptized but his was on Sunday after church! He was so excited and nervous, but after that baptism he just couldn't stop smiling. It's cool to see the power of the Holy Ghost in our Countenances. This baptism was really special since his cousin (who is a member) was the one who introduced him to the church was able to be there. She has cancer and only has 6 months to live so it was a tender mercy. After the baptism they were both talking about all the family names they need to take to the temple. So we went over that night and taught him about family history. He was soooo excited to see the familyseach website only with his family tree. He'll be a great missionary in California with the rest of his family. He left on Tuesday to go back to finish up some stuff there and then he will be moving back here to Houston in a few months.
Last week we had dinner with a member who is from Jamaica. That was fun to hear her accent all throughout dinner and also to have food from there. It's fun to see people from everywhere. This ward isn't as diverse as Maplewood was, but there are still quite a few members from different parts of the world. The next night we had dinner with a family from Mexico and they fed us real mexican food. Oh man! It was good. I hope I can remember some of these food so I can come make them for y'all.
I'm so grateful for my family! Thank you for your love and support! We had a member drive us to the temple today who is 26 years old, She has been a member for 8 years and her family is all catholic. She was telling us that over the weekend her family really hurt her because of their feelings towards the church. She told us it just breaks her heart cause she knows how important it is. I'm grateful that I was blessed with the family that I'm in. You are the BEST!
I love y'all so much! Thanks for all you do.
Sister Avery
It sounds like everything is going well back at home besides with our neighbors. I will pray for the Jarretts. That makes me so sad! Tell them I'll be praying for them. I hope he is in Jail for life!
This past weekend was SOOO BUSY but it was really great! I had to prepare a talk for sacrament meeting on how prayer and revelation help us share the gospel, we had 2 baptisms to prepare for.... Lauren and Gregs, and we had to prepare our talks for that and for a primary presentation the primary presidency wanted us to do on sunday in primary. It was a stressful weekend, but when you're stressed because you're busy it's a good thing as a missionary!
LAUREN AND GREG GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!
Laurens was on Saturday afternoon and she was glowing! Her twin sister came to watch and she kept asking us when it was her turn. We told her she just needed to show the Lord she is ready by doing all that her sister has been doing, coming to church, reading and praying. We got a text from Ashley (Laurens twin) the next morning before church and she told us she didn't know if she wanted to be baptized anymore but that she'd be praying about it. When we talked with her a church she told us that her ex-boyfriend (whose family are all members) told her if she joined the church he wouldn't ever talk with her again. I'm so mad at that kid! Especially since his whole family are members. BUT. We did meet with Ashley again yesterday and she told us she is still praying and she really wants to know for herself. She's in it for the right reasons. It made me think though cause she told us that she feels kinda weird praying to someone she isn't right in front of so she feels awkward. It made me grateful to have that relationship with my Father in Heaven to pray to Him in whatever circumstance. We promised Ashley that if she prayed and asked Heavenly Father to show her a sign of His love for her that He would show one. I can't wait to see how she receives her answer.
Greg was also baptized but his was on Sunday after church! He was so excited and nervous, but after that baptism he just couldn't stop smiling. It's cool to see the power of the Holy Ghost in our Countenances. This baptism was really special since his cousin (who is a member) was the one who introduced him to the church was able to be there. She has cancer and only has 6 months to live so it was a tender mercy. After the baptism they were both talking about all the family names they need to take to the temple. So we went over that night and taught him about family history. He was soooo excited to see the familyseach website only with his family tree. He'll be a great missionary in California with the rest of his family. He left on Tuesday to go back to finish up some stuff there and then he will be moving back here to Houston in a few months.
Last week we had dinner with a member who is from Jamaica. That was fun to hear her accent all throughout dinner and also to have food from there. It's fun to see people from everywhere. This ward isn't as diverse as Maplewood was, but there are still quite a few members from different parts of the world. The next night we had dinner with a family from Mexico and they fed us real mexican food. Oh man! It was good. I hope I can remember some of these food so I can come make them for y'all.
I'm so grateful for my family! Thank you for your love and support! We had a member drive us to the temple today who is 26 years old, She has been a member for 8 years and her family is all catholic. She was telling us that over the weekend her family really hurt her because of their feelings towards the church. She told us it just breaks her heart cause she knows how important it is. I'm grateful that I was blessed with the family that I'm in. You are the BEST!
I love y'all so much! Thanks for all you do.
Sister Avery
Monday, March 18, 2013
Spring break, summer tans, and bike rides!
Hello my family! It sounds like it may be warming up there in Utah? That's nice!
This past week it's been high 70's and we're getting our sun tan on. We even
took our bikes out last week and that was really fun cause I haven't biked in a
while. :) Everyone here was on spring break last week so there were lots of
people (kids especially) outside. Now everyone is back in school. When is y'alls
spring break? Any fun plans?
This week was another great week here in Mission Bend! I really really like this area and this ward. Our area is kinda small so we don't have lots of the ward members in our area so they aren't happy about that. We overheard lots of ladies in relief society yesterday saying, "that really stinks we can't have the sisters over cause the elders never come check on us." haha It made me laugh. That is the fun thing about opening a new area where sisters haven't been in a while because then they really are grateful for us.
We are seeing so many miracles from the Lord! We are working with a Recent converts cousin, Greg, who is here visiting and he really wants to be baptized. He came to a baptism a few weeks ago and ever since he felt the spirit there he wants it himself and he wants to go share the gospel with his family when he goes back to California. His cousin wants to see his baptism cause she has no family near here and she is dying with cancer right now. We brought this situation up in ward council yesterday because he doesn't live here (yet... he is moving here in October) and so the dilemma is whether we should keep teaching him and just have him go get baptized in San Diego when he gets home, or to baptize him here so his cousin can see before she passes away. The bishop is very trusting of us and wants us to follow the Spirit, but several of the members mentioned that missionaries just like to baptize to get numbers. I hate that because I absolutely hate numbers! It's not about how many people I baptize or how many lessons we teach each weeks. We had a zone conference on teaching for eternal life not just for baptisms. That is one thing I've been trying to change as I teach is not just preparing someone to enter into the waters of baptism and make those promises with the Lord, but also helping them to realize the significance of the promises and what they mean for eternity. We gave Greg a pretty intense lesson on Saturday with one of the senior missionaries and I think he now realizes what changes he will be making in his life. We took his cigarretts and threw them out after our lesson! He promised to live the word of wisdom. :) He also came with us last night to the investigator devotional which he loved. Pray for him, and for us so we can discern his needs.
We are also preparing for Laurens baptism this saturday! She is the young women who is 17 and a twin. She went to youth conference last week and LOVED IT! She came back knowing a whole lot more and her testimony was strengthened so much. It made me so grateful for the youth programs I had growing up and for the strength they give us. Lauren is awesome! She definetely has had a hard life, and her twin isn't really supporting her decision to be baptized but she is still one of the most excited people I've seen to be baptized! I can't wait for her. :)
Both Greg and Lauren are member referrals! It's been so cool to see the difference the referrals make in our work. This has been one of my many weaknesses on my mission (asking for referrals). But this transfer we made it a goal as a companionship to get 50 referrals in March! That is about 43-45 more than I've ever got in a month, so it's a big leap of faith but we've been seeing miracles. We are at 25 now so we've got to keep going for 2 more weeks.
This week we visited with a former investigator from a few years ago and she is really struggling. She told us how much she is praying to the Lord for answers and for help and direction, but she wouldn't accept the answer the Lord is giving to her when we explained how the Book of Mormon could help her in all her concerns. It's so sad to see how people will be praying for help and not grab the rope the Lord is handing to them. I hope they realize it sooner than later.
Bad news for the week..... I got a letter that I really didn't want. We checked the mail Saturday afternoon and I got my flight info. I am so mad! I started crying haha and Sister Hinton was wondering what was the matter with me (cause they are both still a little homesick, so home sounds good to them). I didn't think that letter would ever come, but I'm grateful for what President wrote in it to me. He said, "what do I want to accomplish for the Lord while I still am on His errand for a few more months? I have lots I want/need to do.
Sister Howard went on exchanges with some sisters in Alief this past week and she came back grateful to be in the area and to be working with Sister Hinton and I. I guess those sisters didn't work to hard. It makes me sad to see people wasting the Lords time like that, but I'm grateful I've been blessed with hardworking companions and not with Sisters who just want to sit around. Sister Hinton and Howard are awesome! I am learning so much from them.
I'm so grateful to be a missionary! It's the best thing ever to see these people coming to church and changing their lives to be closer to God.
I love y'all so much! I'm praying for you!
Sister Avery
This week was another great week here in Mission Bend! I really really like this area and this ward. Our area is kinda small so we don't have lots of the ward members in our area so they aren't happy about that. We overheard lots of ladies in relief society yesterday saying, "that really stinks we can't have the sisters over cause the elders never come check on us." haha It made me laugh. That is the fun thing about opening a new area where sisters haven't been in a while because then they really are grateful for us.
We are seeing so many miracles from the Lord! We are working with a Recent converts cousin, Greg, who is here visiting and he really wants to be baptized. He came to a baptism a few weeks ago and ever since he felt the spirit there he wants it himself and he wants to go share the gospel with his family when he goes back to California. His cousin wants to see his baptism cause she has no family near here and she is dying with cancer right now. We brought this situation up in ward council yesterday because he doesn't live here (yet... he is moving here in October) and so the dilemma is whether we should keep teaching him and just have him go get baptized in San Diego when he gets home, or to baptize him here so his cousin can see before she passes away. The bishop is very trusting of us and wants us to follow the Spirit, but several of the members mentioned that missionaries just like to baptize to get numbers. I hate that because I absolutely hate numbers! It's not about how many people I baptize or how many lessons we teach each weeks. We had a zone conference on teaching for eternal life not just for baptisms. That is one thing I've been trying to change as I teach is not just preparing someone to enter into the waters of baptism and make those promises with the Lord, but also helping them to realize the significance of the promises and what they mean for eternity. We gave Greg a pretty intense lesson on Saturday with one of the senior missionaries and I think he now realizes what changes he will be making in his life. We took his cigarretts and threw them out after our lesson! He promised to live the word of wisdom. :) He also came with us last night to the investigator devotional which he loved. Pray for him, and for us so we can discern his needs.
We are also preparing for Laurens baptism this saturday! She is the young women who is 17 and a twin. She went to youth conference last week and LOVED IT! She came back knowing a whole lot more and her testimony was strengthened so much. It made me so grateful for the youth programs I had growing up and for the strength they give us. Lauren is awesome! She definetely has had a hard life, and her twin isn't really supporting her decision to be baptized but she is still one of the most excited people I've seen to be baptized! I can't wait for her. :)
Both Greg and Lauren are member referrals! It's been so cool to see the difference the referrals make in our work. This has been one of my many weaknesses on my mission (asking for referrals). But this transfer we made it a goal as a companionship to get 50 referrals in March! That is about 43-45 more than I've ever got in a month, so it's a big leap of faith but we've been seeing miracles. We are at 25 now so we've got to keep going for 2 more weeks.
This week we visited with a former investigator from a few years ago and she is really struggling. She told us how much she is praying to the Lord for answers and for help and direction, but she wouldn't accept the answer the Lord is giving to her when we explained how the Book of Mormon could help her in all her concerns. It's so sad to see how people will be praying for help and not grab the rope the Lord is handing to them. I hope they realize it sooner than later.
Bad news for the week..... I got a letter that I really didn't want. We checked the mail Saturday afternoon and I got my flight info. I am so mad! I started crying haha and Sister Hinton was wondering what was the matter with me (cause they are both still a little homesick, so home sounds good to them). I didn't think that letter would ever come, but I'm grateful for what President wrote in it to me. He said, "what do I want to accomplish for the Lord while I still am on His errand for a few more months? I have lots I want/need to do.
Sister Howard went on exchanges with some sisters in Alief this past week and she came back grateful to be in the area and to be working with Sister Hinton and I. I guess those sisters didn't work to hard. It makes me sad to see people wasting the Lords time like that, but I'm grateful I've been blessed with hardworking companions and not with Sisters who just want to sit around. Sister Hinton and Howard are awesome! I am learning so much from them.
I'm so grateful to be a missionary! It's the best thing ever to see these people coming to church and changing their lives to be closer to God.
I love y'all so much! I'm praying for you!
Sister Avery
Monday, March 11, 2013
I'm glad y'all got to hear from Sister Zollinger! She is an amazing relief
society president and we are excited to work with her to help these sisters in
the ward. The lunch with her and her counselor was DELICIOUS! It was like a
restaurant style meal. :) I hope I can cook one day like that. Mom, I want to
cook for y'all when I get home cause many members have given me recipes from
around the world. It'll be fun!
It sounds like everyone is doing great! I'm always anxious to hear how everyone is doing on Mondays when we come to email. I can't believe that Kailey and Alli only have 3 more months left of school. How does that feel? I'm jealous of everyone here right now cause they are all on spring break, but it means we will have more people to talk with since they are all out of school hopefully. Any fun plans for spring break up in Utah? Hopefully it warms up there for you. We had 78 degree weather this past week, but today it's much colder... 56 degrees. I know.... I'm going to be a whimp when I get back to Utah.
This week was a great week! We met several new investigators and we are getting lots of referrals from members here in the ward. Especially from the youth! It's awesome. (Some members who are in the Elders area want us to teach their friends haha) I feel bad, but it goes both ways. Some people like the elders more than the sisters. Most of our investigators right now are referrals from members, so it's been good to have the members come visiting with us. It helps these people so much! Valencia is one who we are working lots with. She came to church last week on her own, but this week her daughter was in town from college (she plays volleyball too) so they didn't come. But Valencia has such a sincere desire to do good. She says she is much more of a spiritual person than a religious person because she thinks people can get lost in religion, but if they just rely on God they will be better off. We are trying to stress the importance of the Priesthood to her so she can understand the difference of her Baptist church and our church. After a baptism on Saturday that she came with us to she leaned over to us and said, "yeah that is exactly how I was baptized." Agh... haha If only we could fill in that missing link for her. But she'll come around, we just have to keep explaining everything clearly for her.
We also met with another referral of a member, Hector and his mom Maria. Maria told us that she is looking for Christ's church and she is so confused! The whole time she was talking and asking us questions I just wanted to jump up and tell her, "you've found it!!!! don't worry!" haha But the sad thing is she called us a few days later and told us, " I've been talking with my husband and we aren't ready yet." It's discouraging when you know they are ready but people anti them. Hopefully we can meet with them again soon.
So there is this family in our ward named the Johnsons. They had 6 kids, their three oldest are on/have been on missions. Last July they were going with 4 of their kids to go pick up their daughter from her mission in Utah and they got into a really bad car accident. The two youngest girls died and the third youngest is now handicapped. We went over to help Sister Johnson do exercises with their daughter Megan (the handicapped daughter) and I can't believe how strong they are. Sister Johnson gave a talk on the Atonement in Relief Society last week and so many people were helped. We are going to try to help her out every week with her daughter. It was actually a confirmation for me of what I want to go into because the night before I was praying about schools and majors because I have to make a decision in the next few weeks about school, and that next day we went and did rehabilitation exercises to keep her muscles moving. I really enjoy it! I love helping those with disabilities and I feel really good about Occupational Therapy. Sister Johnson tells Megan she now has a new trainer haha.
Last week we had a special zone meeting with President Ashton. It was all about Faith in Christ. Seeing the Johnson family and several other families in this ward with struggles and seeing their faith in Christ helps my testimony to grow so much. We really can move mountains in our lives if we exercise our faith in our Savior.
I had a cool experience happen last week as we took a young women out teaching with us. We only had about an hour with her and it was her first time to come teaching with the missionaries so we wanted to help her to have the best experience. When we knocked on our investigators door she wasn't there. I always get really stressed when we have a member with us and our appointments fall through, but we decided to go try a referral down the street. As we were walking down the street I was praying to Heavenly Father telling Him I wanted this young women to have an opportunity to share her testimony, and as I was praying I saw the lady we were going to try wasn't home. Right when I ended my prayer in my head a lady yells out from her front room window, "hey are y'all the church people?" I thought it was in my head for a second haha but we turned around and went up to her window. She asked us if we could pray with her cause she was really struggling in her life. We ended up teaching her the power of prayer and Kalani (the YW) was able to bare her testimony. It was such a tender mercy. I know that God hears and answers our prayers, we just have to believe He will.
Last week we were also able to go to YW because two of our investigators Ashley and Lauren (they are twins) went. They have developed good relationships with the YW and Lauren is going to San Antonio this weekend with the youth for youth conference! She is set to be baptized the next weekend. It'll be a great experience for her, we are just praying for her sister who is a little more reserved. But when we met with them this past week they had been reading the Book of Mormon and had TONS of questions. Lauren is also going to EARLY MORNING seminary! I couldn't believe it when she told us that. I love working with the youth, they seem to be so much more excited about learning the gospel.
Last night we met with two other youth aged kids, Olivia and Michael. They are investigators and we shared the Restoration DVD with them. After it was over they had millions of questions of things they have heard about Mormons. Olivia's mom wants to learn more too but she was at Bible study, so we are hoping to meet with them all this week. It's so cool to see how the Lord has prepared peoples hearts! We hardly do anything, we just have to follow the Spirit to go where the Lord has prepared people for us.
One last story then I've got to go, we were having a bit of a rough night finding people to teach on Friday (every Friday seems to be that way...) and so Sister Hinton prayed and she felt prompted to try this lady none of us had met. When we got there she had been crying cause it was her 40th wedding anniversary and her husband was sick so he had been asleep all day. She told us we were answers to her prayers. I love being a missionary! The Lord is aware of His Children.
I love you all so much! I pray for you lots and hope everything is going well. I want to hear of your missionary experiences!
Sister Avery :)
It sounds like everyone is doing great! I'm always anxious to hear how everyone is doing on Mondays when we come to email. I can't believe that Kailey and Alli only have 3 more months left of school. How does that feel? I'm jealous of everyone here right now cause they are all on spring break, but it means we will have more people to talk with since they are all out of school hopefully. Any fun plans for spring break up in Utah? Hopefully it warms up there for you. We had 78 degree weather this past week, but today it's much colder... 56 degrees. I know.... I'm going to be a whimp when I get back to Utah.
This week was a great week! We met several new investigators and we are getting lots of referrals from members here in the ward. Especially from the youth! It's awesome. (Some members who are in the Elders area want us to teach their friends haha) I feel bad, but it goes both ways. Some people like the elders more than the sisters. Most of our investigators right now are referrals from members, so it's been good to have the members come visiting with us. It helps these people so much! Valencia is one who we are working lots with. She came to church last week on her own, but this week her daughter was in town from college (she plays volleyball too) so they didn't come. But Valencia has such a sincere desire to do good. She says she is much more of a spiritual person than a religious person because she thinks people can get lost in religion, but if they just rely on God they will be better off. We are trying to stress the importance of the Priesthood to her so she can understand the difference of her Baptist church and our church. After a baptism on Saturday that she came with us to she leaned over to us and said, "yeah that is exactly how I was baptized." Agh... haha If only we could fill in that missing link for her. But she'll come around, we just have to keep explaining everything clearly for her.
We also met with another referral of a member, Hector and his mom Maria. Maria told us that she is looking for Christ's church and she is so confused! The whole time she was talking and asking us questions I just wanted to jump up and tell her, "you've found it!!!! don't worry!" haha But the sad thing is she called us a few days later and told us, " I've been talking with my husband and we aren't ready yet." It's discouraging when you know they are ready but people anti them. Hopefully we can meet with them again soon.
So there is this family in our ward named the Johnsons. They had 6 kids, their three oldest are on/have been on missions. Last July they were going with 4 of their kids to go pick up their daughter from her mission in Utah and they got into a really bad car accident. The two youngest girls died and the third youngest is now handicapped. We went over to help Sister Johnson do exercises with their daughter Megan (the handicapped daughter) and I can't believe how strong they are. Sister Johnson gave a talk on the Atonement in Relief Society last week and so many people were helped. We are going to try to help her out every week with her daughter. It was actually a confirmation for me of what I want to go into because the night before I was praying about schools and majors because I have to make a decision in the next few weeks about school, and that next day we went and did rehabilitation exercises to keep her muscles moving. I really enjoy it! I love helping those with disabilities and I feel really good about Occupational Therapy. Sister Johnson tells Megan she now has a new trainer haha.
Last week we had a special zone meeting with President Ashton. It was all about Faith in Christ. Seeing the Johnson family and several other families in this ward with struggles and seeing their faith in Christ helps my testimony to grow so much. We really can move mountains in our lives if we exercise our faith in our Savior.
I had a cool experience happen last week as we took a young women out teaching with us. We only had about an hour with her and it was her first time to come teaching with the missionaries so we wanted to help her to have the best experience. When we knocked on our investigators door she wasn't there. I always get really stressed when we have a member with us and our appointments fall through, but we decided to go try a referral down the street. As we were walking down the street I was praying to Heavenly Father telling Him I wanted this young women to have an opportunity to share her testimony, and as I was praying I saw the lady we were going to try wasn't home. Right when I ended my prayer in my head a lady yells out from her front room window, "hey are y'all the church people?" I thought it was in my head for a second haha but we turned around and went up to her window. She asked us if we could pray with her cause she was really struggling in her life. We ended up teaching her the power of prayer and Kalani (the YW) was able to bare her testimony. It was such a tender mercy. I know that God hears and answers our prayers, we just have to believe He will.
Last week we were also able to go to YW because two of our investigators Ashley and Lauren (they are twins) went. They have developed good relationships with the YW and Lauren is going to San Antonio this weekend with the youth for youth conference! She is set to be baptized the next weekend. It'll be a great experience for her, we are just praying for her sister who is a little more reserved. But when we met with them this past week they had been reading the Book of Mormon and had TONS of questions. Lauren is also going to EARLY MORNING seminary! I couldn't believe it when she told us that. I love working with the youth, they seem to be so much more excited about learning the gospel.
Last night we met with two other youth aged kids, Olivia and Michael. They are investigators and we shared the Restoration DVD with them. After it was over they had millions of questions of things they have heard about Mormons. Olivia's mom wants to learn more too but she was at Bible study, so we are hoping to meet with them all this week. It's so cool to see how the Lord has prepared peoples hearts! We hardly do anything, we just have to follow the Spirit to go where the Lord has prepared people for us.
One last story then I've got to go, we were having a bit of a rough night finding people to teach on Friday (every Friday seems to be that way...) and so Sister Hinton prayed and she felt prompted to try this lady none of us had met. When we got there she had been crying cause it was her 40th wedding anniversary and her husband was sick so he had been asleep all day. She told us we were answers to her prayers. I love being a missionary! The Lord is aware of His Children.
I love you all so much! I pray for you lots and hope everything is going well. I want to hear of your missionary experiences!
Sister Avery :)
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Mission Bend
I am so sad to hear about Grandma. On thursday afternoon we were in the
mission office and President came out of his office and told me he needed to
talk with me. I told him we had a lesson in 10 minutes, but he said he'd be
quick. He told me about Grandma and I was kind of in shock even though I knew
she wasn't doing well. He offered me a blessing and I came out of his office in
tears. My two new companions were really worried about me. They thought I was
stressed about them or something, but it was hard to get back into the mind set
of teaching 2 minutes later for our lesson. At least she is in a better place
now, and she is away from her pain and sickness. That's the good thing about the
gospel, we know where our loved ones are. It was a tender mercy because
President let me go to the funeral on Saturday for the man in my other ward who
passed away, so that helped at least being able to go support one family even
though I can't support my own.
Man, this week has been sooo crazy! But I really like my new area and my
new companions. On wednesday we had transfer meeting and I am training Sister
Howard from St. Anthony Idaho, and Sister Hinton from Grand Junction Colorado.
Both are 19 years old! It's been fun but challenging too because they are so
different that it's hard to train according to each of their needs. Good thing I
have the Lord on my side trying to balance all of this. We are opening a new
area- Mission Bend East! It's right in Sugar Land and it is probably the safest
area I've been in since South Shore. We have a BRAND NEW car and apartment. It's
scary driving a 2013 car with only 100 miles on it.... But it's fun. It was a
bit stressful Wednesday after transfer meeting cause they didn't even sign the
contract for our apartment yet so we had no where to take all of our stuff. We
just went out to find people to teach haha. We got all moved in at 9:30 pm. It
was stressful, but worth it being here! The ward here is sooooo excited to have
Sister Missionaries. That is why I love opening areas is because the wards just
cling to the sisters. haha several people told us they've been praying for
Sisters. I'm glad the Lord let us come here. We have a very small portion of the
ward compared with the elders because our area is designed to be a bike area, so
we don't have as many people from the ward in our area. But we already have lots
of work to do. I can't believe the Lord trusts me with all of this. I feel so
inadequate. The assistants are the elders in our ward so I feel very intimidated
haha.
This past week we have already found 9 new investigators and 4 of them have
baptismal dates for this month! It was so fun to visit with these people cause
so many of them jumped at the invitation to be baptized. They want it so bad!
One girl named Lauren, who is 17, said "I can do that?! when can we do it!?" She
has a friend in the ward and they are taking her to youth conference so it'll be
fun to see how much she gets along with the youth. I guess she has came from a
rough background so this opportunity will be so great for her. Her twin sister
is also taking the lessons with us but she is a little more standoff-ish. Pray
for them if you will! Lauren came to church yesterday so we are excited about
that :)
We are also teaching this lady named Valencia. She was taught several years
ago by elders and didn't click well with them. When we came in she was excited
to see sisters as well. She came to church yesterday and LOVED it! We are
praying that she'll be baptized this coming month. Her niece and her nieces son
will be baptized in 2 weeks so we're hoping that'll get her excited about it.
And we also are working with a part member family who is less active. The
14 year old daughter was baptized in San Antonio a few years ago but her records
were lost. She wants to be re-baptized but we want to reactivate her family
while in the process. Her dad served a mission but is now pretty much against
the church for some reason and her mom is a non member. Her older brother wants
to baptize her which we were really excited about but he needs to get the
priesthood. Lots of things need to happen for this family but we are excited
about helping them.
I love being able to see how excited these new sisters are about the work.
Even though I'm more tired then I've ever been my whole life it helps me to get
excited about the little things again and helps my energy boost. haha
It'll be a fun transfer being in a trio! We just need to find the balance
of teaching. :)
I hope y'all make it home safely. I'm praying for you and I hope the
funeral went well. I'll be thinking of you all day.
I love you!!!!
Sister Avery
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