Work as hard as you can, then work a little bit harder!

Hello my family!

 I can't believe that it's snowing it Utah today!!! That is crazy. It has been pretty hot and humid here, but last week on transfer day we got a nice rain storm while trying to move everyones stuff into different cars. That was fun. haha It sounds like everything is going well with everyone! I'm glad that school ends for you this week mom, now you can relax a little bit. You need a little break from all the stuff you do. Maybe you and dad should take a vacation?

 Things here are going well! I'm trying not to stress too much cause I really love this new calling, but it keeps me super busy. I miss being able to write in my journal at night because of all the phone calls I get or make, but I'm hoping Heavenly Father will bless me with a good memory so I can write things down later. We've seen miracle after miracle here in mission bend! I love this area. I was only able to be in Alief one day this past week helping Sister Howard and Cordova, but I'll probably be there most of this week, and Memorial on exchanges with other sisters this weekend before Ashleys baptism. It's fun getting to go work with the other sisters! We have some really good sisters in this mission. To answer dads question... Each zone has a "Sister Coordinator" and then the Sister Coordinator comes to Sister Ker and I, who are the Sister Training Leaders and we go straight to President. But Sister Ker and I also cover a zone of sisters. It's kinda confusing, but it helps the Elders to not deal with the sisters problems, and now president isn't getting as many phone calls from people. So he just stays in close contact with us to help the sisters.

 Transfer meeting last week was so cool! I love being in the mission field at this time when the gospel of Jesus Christ is spreading quicker than ever before. It was a HUGE transfer with about 24 incoming missionaries. I love being a part of Gods army! I've been thinking a lot about how He is really preparing the youth of the church now because these are the last days and he needs all he can get. I have never taught so many youth in my mission as I have in this area. We are teaching 4-5 teenage investigators, and our Bishop has also asked us to start doing the missionary lessons with all of the youth in the ward to help them prepare for missions and share the gospel with their friends. It's been really successful as we started last week. They have given us lots of their friends names to go try! The young women in our ward are excited to come teach with us. :)

 Oh!! I didn't even tell y'all about my new companion. Sister Petersen! She is from Tremonton Utah. This is her 2nd transfer so I'm her follow up trainer, but it's cool cause her first trainer is Sister Workinger! So in mission lingo, she is my granddaughter! haha. It's been a fun week with her and Sister Hinton. They will probably get to know each other better than I'll get to know them since I won't be here a lot, but they are both really good missionaries. Both are very shy and timid.

Sister Howard went to Alief which is right next to Mission Bend. They even meet in the same church building as us, but it is a very struggling area. They even had to take a portion of mission bend ward and stick in in Alief because there weren't enough solid leadership positions. I feel really bad for Sister Howard cause she has been stressed out, but I told her to just act as though she's opening a new area like she did with us in mission bend. I hope I can help them this week. It's just hard cause the sisters that were there before never worked.... I don't get why people come on missions if they don't want to do what they've been called to do.... Anyways.

 Cool experience while I was in Alief... We got a call from one of their investigators whose husband had a stroke the night before and was in the hospital. We asked one of the Senior missionaries, Elder Lamb, to come with us to the hospital to give him a blessing. So we went over there and after his blessing we asked the investigator Melissa if she would like one too because she was super emotional and hadn't slept all night. We went down to the Chapel in the hospital and Elder Lamb and another Elder gave her a blessing. After the blessing she was all red, and she explained the spirit exactly. She said, "Have y'all ever had a blessing? It feels so warm, before I was cold but it's like an instant heater in my body. I didn't think I'd be at peace just like that."

We all sat there smiling because she knew now the feeling of the Spirit as the comforter!

Last Friday we had a zone meeting which was really good, and after we had a church tour set up with an investigator family we've been working with all last transfer! Their names are Jessica and Anthony Valascez and they have 3 girls, Danielle, Gabi, and Emma. They are the cutest family ever!!!! We were so excited when they told us they wanted to see our church. We have invited them several times but they haven't been able to come to church so this was a good way to show them what it would be like and know where to go. We ended the church tour at the baptismal font and we bore testimony of the our Savior. I could see in Jessicas eyes through her tears that she knew this was right! Two days later she and the girls came to church!!!! We taught them last night after church and I can't wait to see their family sealed in the Temple! I know it will happen, but it needs to happen in the Lords time.

 

Saturday morning we got to go to a volleyball game of a young women in our ward! It made me so homesick for volleyball, but it was good to go support her and let nonmembers see us missionaries in a non threatening way. That was fun!

Also on Saturday Sister Petersens investigator from Memorial got baptized so we got to go to that! It was also the baptism of Tyson, from memorial who I taught a few times before I got transferred. His mom was the one who came back to church after not being there for 13 years!

Yesterday at church Ashley Casey got up and bore her testimony in Sacrament meeting! It was so cool to see how far she has come. She wasn't going to be able to make it to church yesterday because of some service hours she needed to do for her school, but we fasted for her to come and she made it. She also had her baptismal interview and passed, so her baptism is this Saturday! We are excited. :) Great things are happening here in Texas. Please keep her in your prayers.

How is y'alls Book of Mormon reading? I remember challenging y'all to read it before I come home. Do you think you'll be finished?!? I'm starting it for my last time here soon. I'm in Mormon now, so I've still got another week or two but you should start now and try to finish before July!

 I love you so much and I'm grateful for y'all in my life. I couldn't be the missionary I am without each of you.

 

Sister Avery

Transfers again !?!

Hello my beautiful family! How are y'all doing today?! It sounds like y'all had a fun spring break down in St. George! I'm glad you were safe. :) How is it getting back into school and work again? I hope you'll celebrate Allison's birthday for me tomorrow! Happy Birthday Ally! I can't believe you're already 16!

 

General Conference was so great! I always love it cause I leave feeling very spiritually boosted and ready to work again. Usually on Monday morning I wake up super tired ready to take a nap since it's p-day, but today I felt like going out and working haha. What was y'alls favorite talk? I think mine was either the one by President Uchtdorf on light, or the one by President Monson on Obedience and Truth. We had a less active teenager Arturo come with us on Saturday morning and he loved it! We are trying to work with him to get him excited about preparing for a mission. His dad is a member who even served a mission but is now inactive completely. It's sad. But we are going to have him be a fellow shipper for one of our new investigators who is his age and is preparing for baptism. It'd be cool if Arturo could baptize Alfredo!

Then on Sunday morning we got Laruen's twin sister Ashley to come watch conference. Lauren watched it at a members home, and Ashley wasn't going to come at all, but we talked her into it since she's been looking for lots of direction in her life right now. She LOVED IT! She loved President Monson and his stories. During conference she asked for a piece of paper and by the end of conference she had filled the whole page. She was writing thoughts of how she can help strengthen the youth in the ward. WOW! She isn't even a member yet, but she's excited to serve. After conference finished she leaned over to us and she said, "2 things, First I want to be baptized, and second here is a list of ideas of things I think would help the youth to be more united and come closer to Christ." It made me so excited.

 

It's been so cool to see how working with the youth of the church makes such a big difference. This area seems to be one of the best areas for working with the youth cause everyone seems to be willing to help us with whatever, and it's been fun since several of our investigators are in their youth.

 

Alfredo is a 16 year old who was taught by the Elders back in December. We received his teaching record from some other elders and on it they never had a reason for stopping their visits, but there was a sticky note on the page that said, "Next Appointment 12/14" So one day this week when we were on splits I went over there with a member from our ward and he said that the missionaries never came back by when they were supposed to bring him a Book Of Mormon. I guess after transfers the new missionaries never got the memo. It made me so sad, but grateful that he was still willing to receive us. He is on the hunt for the truth and his family is supportive of him learning. We actually were able to go back the next day and teach him and his mom (who is learning with the Jehovahs Witnesses right now...) His mom seemed genuinely interested! Alfredo accepted a baptismal date for April 27th so we are trying to help his family get to that point too. Pray for them if you will!

 

We also found 2 other investigators last night. After conference we were able to visit several members, but we were having a hard time getting into some investigators homes. We prayed to know where to go and door after door weren't open. It was about 8:35 and I was thinking in my head, "ok this is the last one then we will head back..." But in our prayer before we knocked on a less actives home we prayed to find a new investigator. I thought it was a little strange cause we had never met this guy, but it just came out. So we went up and knocked. this very nice old guy came out and told us we must be looking for his son. He was in bed but he let us come in and visit with him and his wife. They explained that their son got baptized several years ago and they actually went to church with him for several years. They wanted us to come back, and since we didn't have a lot of time to talk we set up another appointment for Tuesday! They are awesome. The Lord answers prayers. I think sometimes we forget to be specific in our prayers, but the power of prayer is real.

 

I got 2 unexpected calls from President Ashton this week. The first was him asking my advice on transfers for some sisters in the mission and the second was him calling and telling me what he was going to do... I feel so inadequate for the assignments he has given me and the ones that are coming. Transfers are this week and we found out that Sister Howard is getting transferred. Sister Hinton will stay here in Mission Bend, and I will be working in both of their areas. Which means one day I'll be here in mission bend and the next day I'll be in Sister Howards area (I'm sworn to secrecy on where that is at till Wednesday.) Both Sister Howard and Sister Hinton will have another companion to work with on the days that I'm not in their area.

Me and 5 other sisters got called into Zone leader council this week and were given new leadership assignments. The missions around the world are implementing sister leadership positions, so we will now have coordinating sisters over each zone, and 2 "Senior Sisters" over the mission. He has asked that Sister Ker (a Spanish sister) and I be the Senior Sisters. We will be coordinating exchanges, dealing with obedience issues, phone calls, and just helping the sisters serve the best they can. Which means not only will I be over two areas, but I'll be going on exchanges at least weekly with different sisters in the mission. I'm excited but also a little nervous. I hope I can do all I'm supposed to.

These next two transfers are going to fly by. I'm so sad how quickly time is going. Lots of my friends are leaving tomorrow, and next transfer several others are going. Some of my best friends are from my mission!

 

Oh! I was going to tell y'all something really cool I learned this week. I had a specific question I went into conference with and so I was taking notes and everything and after the Saturday afternoon session I asked my companions if their question had been answered. They both said yes, and I was thinking to myself... well I hope my answer comes tomorrow cause I sure didn't get mine yet. Anyways, so that night we had to go home and finish our studies, and during my studies I read the scripture in 3 Nephi 17:3 and thought a lot about how much instruction Christ had given to the Nephites and how spiritually drained they must have felt. But He told them to go ponder and pray about the things He had given them and in the morning their minds would be ready to receive more. So I decided to go back through my notes and review the question I had and the things I learned. I realized that in almost every single talk given on Saturday my question had been answered. I gained a new testimony on the power of pondering. I'm always to quick to talk, but I need to work on pondering and praying more.

 

I can't wait to hear y'alls favorite conference talks!

 

I love you so much and I'm grateful for y'alls support! I have the best family in the world!!!!

 

I love you!

 

Sister Avery

April showers bring........floods

Yesterday was great! The only thing I would have changed is the HUGE down pour of rain right after church. It was super hot when we came outside, but 5 minutes later there were sheets of rain and then hail! It was crazy. The members we were going to dinner with had an Easter egg hunt set up outside for us, but we weren't able to do it cause of the rain. Oh well! Maybe next year?

How was y'alls Easter weekend? Mine was great! I'm grateful Sister Zollinger sent y'all the pictures of us. She is such a great Relief Society President. We get texts from her all throughout the week of people to go visit, or asking what we know about a certain sister and how she can help get her to church. I hope I can be like her one day.
 I loved the Easter package I received. :) Mom, you know me too well. I love everything in that package. Thanks for not sending too many sweets... I'm trying to diet haha. My companions aren't much help with that though. It was Sister Howards birthday on Saturday and it seems like wherever we went there was cake...

I'm excited about Kailey and Allison getting to go to Prom together!!! I want to see their pictures. I'm so bummed I won't get to be there for them to help get them all ready, so you better send lots of pictures, ok?

So... this may be a little bit shorter of an email since I just emailed y'all last Wednesday but we'll see how it goes.

Last Thursday one of our investigators (who is a member referral) invited us to her sons baseball game. President Ashton has changed the rules on that kind of stuff so that we can go out and be seen in the community as being normal people too. We still wear our proselyting clothes, but it was fun being at a sporting event again. We got a few weird looks but it was great to support this family! They are totally ready for the gospel, but it's been hard to go teach them cause they are SO busy. But we're supposed to be seeing them tomorrow so wish us luck to get in. Their youngest son has pneumonia so we may have to wait a few more days.

On Friday I went into the mission office to register for my BYU classes.  I thought it was going to be a huge long process since I don't really know what classes I need for Rec Therapy, but they allowed me to call the counselors at BYU in my department and get help! It was soo helpful and definitely an answer to my prayers. The girl that answered is actually in the program so she told me what to take so I'll be on track.
Friday night we had the 2nd counselor of the mission presidency and his wife come to a lesson with us since the Muslims have to be interview before they can be taught by us. We went by his home and he couldn't let us in because of their custom of not allowing another man in the home with his wife. We were bummed cause this man is AWESOME! We met him last week and gave him a Book of Mormon and then coincidentally we ran into him a few days later and he had already read through 2 Nephi. He had some great questions about the Spirit and the God head. We hope we can try again soon to teach him. It's always hard setting up interviews for them, but I'm so grateful I've come to know so many Muslims throughout my mission. They are very very kind people.

On Saturday we went to the family history center with a less active member and I was looking over my family tree and there are several names that need to be taken to the temple that are in the 'ready' status. Y'all should take them!!! It got me excited to do family history. :) And it was really good for Tanya-- the less active-- cause she has cancer and wants to be able to do all her work for her family before she passes on. She told us being in there doing their work was so relaxing so she wants to keep doing it. :) Tanya is Greg's cousin. Speaking of Greg. The missionaries from San Diego called us last night and told us they were going to visit Greg. We are hoping and Praying they got in and were able to help him with everything there. It was kinda surreal to talk to missionaries from another mission. It made us all realize how big the Lords work is. As we were in finishing up our night the missionaries in other parts of the world are still going! I love it!

Sunday we had a joint Priesthood and Relief Society and the Bishop had all 6 of us missionaries come up and we explained that our mission president now wants us to go with the members of the church to their kids activities, sporting events, etc. so that non members can see us more in the community. They were able to brainstorm ideas of having us come with them, or help with service projects! We are really excited to see how it all turns out. I'm hoping we get to stay here... Transfers are next week. :( This transfer went way to fast.

Last night after dinner with the members we had ANOTHER (yes.... the sacrifices we make to teach the gospel... haha)  dinner with an investigator family we've been teaching (another one that has been hard to teach cause of their busy schedule). But when we got there they had neighbors there and also the husband's mother was there from Florida. They were very very standoff-ish when we walked in and seemed to have no intent to talk with us, but as we sat over eating at the table the wife of the family we are teaching asked us a question about our life as a missionary, and then after that all heads turned on us and question after question came! It was so great! They opened up a ton and were amazed at what missionaries do. We taught an Easter message and when we left the neighbor guy said, "I just have to tell yall how courageous I think you are for coming out here not knowing anyone and coming to random people to share this message." They opened up a ton! We are going to go stop by their house again this week and invite them to conference this weekend!
It felt so good coming out of that lessons! Being a missionary is totally worth it. Even when you are super tired! The message is true!

I'm grateful for my Savior and His sacrifice and love for us. He died for us, but He also lives for us! I can't wait for conference this weekend. :)

I'm grateful for y'all! I love you so much and pray for you lots. Stay safe if you're traveling this weekend. PLEASE!

I LOVE YOU!

Sister Avery

Erianne with companions - Easter - 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!