New definition of the term "mini missionary"

Hey Family! It's going to be a short one. They shook up our preparation day AGAIN!! So time is short! The picture is of our bishop's daughters.  They showed up to the dinner table with all our stuff on! They could barely lift the bags :) It was too adorable not to take a picture.

We taught the S. family this week with our bishop and his son. It went really well, and Bishop is all excited about it. His 14-year-old son enjoyed it as well.

K. and R. are amazing. R. found a jar in a closet somewhere and has started her mission savings. She is so adorable! I'm so glad that she feels the Spirit. Kids are amazing! They were out of town on Sunday, but they will be back and we'll visit them on Christmas!

The Zanesville Elders handed over an investigator, P., who they've been teaching for four weeks and who lives in our area. They have him on date for this weekend. We're teaching him today, so we hope that goes well.

Top Moments from the week:
* Bro. B. singing Blue Christmas.
* Introducing the word "snow poop" to N.and H. I don't remember who I got that from but thank you, whoever you are. Zanesville loves it!
* Awesome light show in Cambridge. I love Manheim Steamroller and Transiberian Orchestra! :)
* Cards and packages from all of you! Thank you so much for all the love!

I've got to run! I'm out of time! Love you all! Merry Christmas!!! :)

Tracting in a winter wonderland

Hello everyone! It was an amazing week! Soooo super busy, but amazing!

F. is baptized and confirmed and so excited! The baptism was wonderful; when she came up out of the water she cheered for herself! Her husband came to take pictures. Awesome! We showed the first 10 minutes of "The Restoration". F. bore her testimony at the end of the meeting and her husband was crying! We gave him a chapel tour afterward and then F. fed us dinner, so we were able to talk more. Her husband isn’t a New Investigator yet, but I'm feeling good about this week! :) F. has a huge love for the gospel and for those around her. She will be performing with the ward choir this Sunday and is so excited. Everyone loves her and she is fitting right in.

Ma. is baptized and confirmed as well! Both she and F. were glowing after their confirmation in church on Sunday! I'm so happy that Ma. is baptized and ready to go. Everyone loves her as well!

K., R. and M .came to church yesterday. We had an amazing lesson with them on Saturday right before the baptism. We had two members there that turned out to have crazy similar experiences. It was awesome and the Spirit was so strong.

We taught T. last night and we have another appointment with her Friday. She's introducing us to her boyfriend and his son.

Other highlights:

Christmas Devotional Tuesday. I actually got to talk a lot with Shawn Bradley and I asked him where his daughters by their jeans. Alloy.com or something like that. He said, "Yeah! They have really cute stuff there! Especially jeans!" It was funny how excited he was to share it with me... might have had something to do with how excited I was to find out ;) For the talent show we ended up doing this little skit with chimes and we played “Away in a Manger” at the end. We were both wearing silly hats and I managed to throw in “feliz navidad” and got the mustache in! :) That just had to happen! :)

Our ride was unable to make it to the devotional, so we got a ride there with the Reynoldsburg sisters and basically expected a miracle for our ride home. The Westerville sisters were able to take us to Newark and a member happened to be there picking up her son from a swim meet; she took us the rest of the way. Thank you Heavenly Father!

Wallyball with Bishop's wife on Wednesday; we’ll do it again this week, and she's bringing a friend to introduce to us! :)

We were blessed to find six new investigators this week! Four of those are part of a family of seven (the other family members are too young to count as investigators:) They were a huge miracle and an amazing experience. I had been praying Thursday evening that we could find, teach and baptize all in the same day on Saturday. With the double baptism and other scheduled plans we had about 2 hours of finding time. It was around 6:30 and we'd headed over to a prospective elder’s home to meet/2-2-5 him. It didn't feel right, so we chose a different prospective elder. I accidentally drove past the trailer and had to turn around. I turned left and went to turn left again when I heard a child cry out. It was odd; it was oh so quiet, but also very clear to me. I asked S Richardson if she'd heard it; she hadn't. We turned around and drove up to the prospective E's home, but I felt that there was something to that sound I'd heard and I went to investigate. As we drove up and down the street I felt the impression that we needed to knock this street. So we did. No success, one return appointment for Monday, but most people were unhappy to see us so late at night. Well, we got to the end of the street and it was 8:45. We really needed to start driving home and we'd come to a good stopping point on the street. I felt like we needed to knock one more door. L & T allowed us to come in to share a 2-minute message with them. We got to know them a little bit and they felt the Spirit. They set up a return appointment for today. Oh, and they know our bishops family! I found it interesting how the Spirit guided us that day. Wow! It was a cool experience! Oh, and we found taught, and baptized on the same day! :)

The other two new investigators came from a member referral. We felt inspired to visit the S. family yesterday; Sister S. was excited to see us because she'd been talking about the Church with her brother-in-law and sister-in-law, and they wanted to meet us.  She took us over right away to meet them and we will be going back later this week!

The Lord does the hard work. We just need to listen!

Wow! What a week! I love you all! Have a very Merry Christmas!

I think I'll try defying gravity!

Hey everyone! It was such a great week here, and this week is going to be fantastic too!! :)

Ma. is getting baptized this weekend! We finished teaching her lesson 4 last week.  F. is getting baptized this weekend, too! She decided Friday night that she wants to be baptized December 15th. She's learned the lessons, been coming to church and is keeping commitments, so nothing stopping her! It was funny, because when we gave her a chapel tour she mentioned that the baptismal font was a huge waste of water and that we should baptize loads of people whenever we fill it. When she said she wanted to be baptized on the 15th I chuckled and told her that we would be complying with her request of baptizing multiple people when filling the font! She's so excited. We watched the Testaments with her. She loved it! The adversary was fighting hard to keep it from happening, but in the end, all his distractions ended up being a blessing in disguise. She's awesome and we're excited for her!

Mi. came to church as usual; we also had a lesson with him and a member this week.  We watched the First Presidency Christmas devotional with T.

J.  came to the Christmas party this Saturday. It's fun teaching her. She reminds me of Mom, as Mom joined the Church when she was 15. It's kind of fun! So much happens every day. I love it, and I love teaching.

Other highlights include the Shawn Bradley fireside. Elder Bham, Shawn told me to tell you that he was 6'8" in 8th grade! How crazy is that?!

We have our Christmas devotional this week in Dublin, and a training in Reynoldsburg as well. It's going to be a busy and great week!

I studied discipleship a lot during my personal studies this week. Elder Holland's talk from this past conference makes me want to be even better at finding and teaching his Sheep. He entrusts so much to us, and I know that I'm not using all of my talents/gifts to their full capacity. It takes discipline...thus the term disciple! :) I love the words of the prophets. They lead us to Christ.

Love you all! Keep me posted of your comings and goings! Thanks to all who've already sent Christmas cards! I love them and hang them on my wall! :)

It's December! How crazy is that?

Awesome week here! We had five investigators at church on Sunday!

Ma. is still on date, but for the 15th.  She finished the Book of Mormon and her testimony has changed from "I think it has to be true" to "I know it's true!" Awesome! She is wonderful!

We put J. on date for December 23rd.  She was so excited, then she went home and told her parents. They encouraged her to wait a while before she's baptized. She thinks around March, but I think January. We're going to get her family to the Christmas party this weekend and, once she's been to church and mutual a few more times, I think her parents will be more comfortable. She came to church again yesterday and went to mutual last week. She loves it and is getting more comfortable with the youth and with us.

We had a chapel tour with F. on Saturday and talked about all sorts of things. We were encouraging her to continue praying to Heavenly Father for answers and she told us that she already has her answer – she just needs to make the change. Cool! Thank you Heavenly Father! She is so prepared! She came to church yesterday, fasted, paid her fast offering, and joined the ward choir. She also signed up to feed us next week! :) I'm thinking late December or early January for her baptismal date.

K. is a member referral and awesome! She had a chapel tour on Saturday, and she and her two girls came to church yesterday.

We went to the temple on Thursday. It was wonderful! I haven't been since April, so I was quite rusty, but.... some missionaries don't get to go to the temple at all on the mission. I am so blessed. It was wonderful to enjoy the peace there.

We didn't have a car Saturday because of another "preventable accident" in the mission, but we had 4 member-present lessons, 2 chapel tours and a new investigator anyway that day!

Well, I'm out of time! Hope you all feel up-to-date – everyone have an amazing week! Stay safe!

Three Thanksgiving dinners are better than one!

Thanksgiving was great out here in Zanesville! We ate with the T., B. and G. families -- lots and lots of yummy food, that's for sure! Then we went finding at Dillon Park because it was a really nice day and we figured there would be people there. We actually made a really good contact with a lady who worked with a member in the other ward. So, there you go! You CAN contact people on a holiday! It is always great to be able to reflect on the blessings that the Lord has given to us, especially the blessing to have the Gospel in our lives and the knowledge that our families are eternal. We take this knowledge and peace for granted every day. Since being on the mission I've seen exactly what the world has done to families. Everyone needs the peace that the gospel brings. Please, take time out of your lives to ponder who of your acquaintance, member or nonmember, could use more of this peace. You can be saviors on Mount Zion!

Update on investigators:

Ma: She's working towards December 8th for baptism! We're so excited for her. She came to church yesterday and also came to a baptism in the other ward. She's in Alma right now in the Book of Mormon and she says that, "if the Bible is true than this book is true." We're very excited for her and the ward is as well!

Mi: We set a date last night with him for January 12. He said he'd work out a battle plan with the Lord in his prayers that night. I hope he will give it his all! He was in church today, and loved it!

H: Was in church yesterday and seemed to enjoy! I think she's becoming much more comfortable and is opening up a lot. She's happy that we made it through transfers. She wants us here for Christmas!

J: We found J. by 2-2-5ing an appointment that fell through with D. She's 15 and we had a return appointment on Saturday. She came to church Sunday, went to Bishop's Youth Devotional last night, and is excited for mutual on Wednesday. She is a miracle! She read everything that we asked her to read and even highlighted the things she liked...we didn't tell her to do that. She has a special interest in prophets, especially Joseph Smith. The experience with finding J. super boosted my faith that Heavenly Father uses disappointments (like the appointment that fell through with D.) to achieve His will. We would not have found J. without first trying to contact D. Heavenly Father leads all of us to those who are prepared. He knows who is in need of the gospel.

I love you all! Stay close to the Lord and listen to the promptings of the Spirit. Heavenly Father will always give us opportunities to strengthen those around us!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Transfers are tomorrow!  We'll see if I stay in this area.  Hopefully so -- I would love to be here for Christmas!

We had a super good week.  Very busy!  We had a chapel tour with T. on Saturday and she loved it!  She seems stoked to come to church but wasn't able to make it on Sunday because of some unavoidable circumstances.  She needs to come to church at least three times before she can be baptized, so we will probably have to postpone her date.  She read the whole Strength of Youth pamphlet and had a lot of great questions -- it was amazing.  She is so prepared and has so much faith!

M. did come to church on Sunday, though, and LOVED it!  She was so cute.  Poor B. wanted to come with, but no dogs allowed. I really think M. is planning on being a member of our church!

We found three new investigators this week.  We also tracted near the college, hoping to talk to a lot of people our age, but we contacted more non-college-aged people than students.  No on was interested in us leaving a blessing on their house.

The mission office just called, and the news is in.  We are both staying!  The suspense is over!  I will be here for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years!  And I'm killing Sister R. -- that's a mission term for the fact that I'll be her last companion.  Anywho!  I'm glad to be staying because there are some good things happening!  Love you all!  Happy Thanksgiving!  We all have so much to be thankful for.

Bad beards forever, dude!

Hello everyone!  It's been a chilly week here!  I was sick as a dog, but I'm feeling better now. Just a really bad head cold and sinus infection.  All I have left is the cough now.

J. and L. [recent converts] both got callings on Sunday.  J. was called as the compassionate service leader.  She's really excited and already has a lot of ideas that she wants to implement.  L. was called as the priesthood pianist.  He's stoked and is loving learning the hymns.  The priesthood brethren are also very excited to have a pianist. :)  I was proud to sustain them!

T. has committed to a baptismal date of December 8.  My favorite part of our last lesson was when we asked how she'd felt while and after praying about the Book of Mormon.  She told us that she's been having scary dreams and stuff, and was afraid it was a warning.  We explained that the adversary will attempt to keep us from the truth, and that fear only comes from him.  She was awesome!  She said something like, "Pssshhh!  He's totally trying to keep me from being happy.  No way!  No way he does that to me!"  She was so serious and determined -- it was awesome.

We taught M. on Sunday evening -- the lady we found while tracting last week.  I had felt strongly that we should bring Sister S. with us, even though she doesn't like dogs.  About half way through the lesson, M. told Sister S. that she looked really familiar.  Well, long story short, Sister S. spends a lot of time at the dollar store, and M. worked there for years and years!  Instant connection . . . love it!

The pictures are of Sister R. and myself wearing the beards that T. crocheted for her sons!  They are so cool.  I told T. to look up Lo's monster shop on etsy to get some ideas for future projects. :)

When you're with a sweep, you're in glad company!

It was a good week!  I'm sorry that this will be a short one today.  I will send pictures to make up for it, though! :)

Halloween was good!  We were able to go to the Trunk or Treat for a little bit and made some good contacts.  Sister R. and I dressed up like chimney sweeps, and Brother and Sister B. dressed up like Bert and Mary Poppins!  We didn't plan it -- it was a total coincidence!

It was Sister R's birthday on Friday and the mission gave her the best present -- a mandated "no car day" -- so we spent the day walking.  Sooooo much fun!  We did some special things for her birthday, though, that set it apart from a normal mission day.

We found a new investigator while tracting the other night; her name is M.  She's Baptist but she really liked the book of Mormon.  She is also retired, so I think she'll have lots of time to read.  We have a return appointment tomorrow!  I'm really excited for her to come to church -- I know she'll just love it!

My shoes are holier than thou!

Hey everyone!  It's freezing here!  We had a gorgeous week last week, which we used to do a lot of service.  We raked a lot of leaves, did a lot of yard work and helped the B. family dig up potatoes!  Now it's cold and rainy.  There are three crazy storms heading our way, which are supposed to combine into one mammoth storm.  One from the north, one from the south, and one from the east [Hurricane Sandy].  "That'll be fun!"  Snow this week is the rumor. :)

J. contacted us this week and scheduled an appointment for yesterday, then had to cancel.  She promised to call today, once she has her work schedule for the week.  She has so much faith and is so intelligent and spunky -- I REALLY want to teach her!

Things are definitely getting political here in Ohio.  Historically, a presidential candidate has never won an election without winning Ohio -- swing state to the max.  It's interesting to see the signs on people's lawns.  We saw a lawn with 5 Romney signs on it the other day.  We contacted a referral and had to park in front of a neighboring house with 8 Obama signs/memorabilia, and the car we parked behind had 8 billion Obama bumper stickers on it.  The Obama-car family happened to come out of their house just as we got out of our car.  They were obviously not happy to see us!  As we passed I smiled politely, and the father muttered some unkind things under his breath, but loudly enough that we could hear.  Oh the unexpected "maturity" of grown men and women! :)

The massive increase of missionaries and Romney running for president seem like omens to me.  The Church isn't going to stop being in the public eye whether Romney becomes President or not.  Heavenly Father needs more missionaries out there because people are going to have questions!  Just look at Elder Nelson's talk from conference!

I had a cool insight during studies the other day.  I've been studying faith because in every interview I've had with President, he has emphasized faith.  In 3 Nehi 7:18 it says that it was "not possible that they could disbelieve his [Nephi's] words, for so great was his faith on the Lord Jesus Christ that angels did minister unto him daily."  How awesome!  That is the top rung of the faith ladder, in my opinion.  Nephi's faith was so great that the people could not disbelieve him.  The bottom rung would be along the lines of seeking miracles and having faith that they're from God, but not having enough faith to increase/improve and grow our faith any further.  I'm going to create my own "Faith Ladder" to help myself see where I am in my progress and to figure out how I can grow my faith even more.

On my one-year mark [October 19] I threw away my first pair of mission shoes.  They were so holy!  Tracting will do that to ya.  Elders traditionally burn a tie on their one-year mark, but I figured Dad would be proud of me for being SAFE and avoiding fire.

The cows and chickens are going to the dickens!

Hello everyone!  I've officially been a missionary for an entire year!  Full-time missionary, that is.  We are all missionaries and this past week as been a testimony of that for me.  Our ward relief society president accompanied us to a lesson and said the perfect things.  Go members!

We had a great specialized training this last week in Reynoldsburg.  Let's just say that the Assistants look quite fetching in hula skirts, and that President and Sister Nilsen are superstars!  We learned so much!  The assistants focused on fishing with nets -- not spears.  (Hence the hula skirts; Elder M. was Chief Mac Attack and Elder S. was O'Wise Steggy Weggy.  I love missionaries!  They have so much fun!)  President and Sister Nilsen had just returned from a mission presidents' seminar in Kirtland, so they were on fire!  So good.  It helped to fill our spiritual well, which gets depleted sometimes.

We are going through a trial of faith at the moment.  We've been finding like crazy for the past few weeks but haven't found a lot of new investigators.  We know that, as long as we keep working hard and smart, just as President promised at specialized training, the Lord will be able to accomplish his will and help us find his children who are prepared.  He will even lead them to us if that's what it takes.  So we'll just keep pushing through!

We got a lot of referrals this week -- some from members and some from nonmembers.  We're still trying to contact them all.  I wish everyone was just waiting at home for us to knock on their doors and teach them the gospel!  The truth is that some people are, and those are the ones we need to find -- people who are willing to be committed to the gospel and the Savior.  We'll keep finding!

T., C. ad H. are coming along.  We were able to teach them the Plan of Salvation and it went so well.  Here is something I would like people's input on, especially those who joined the Church at an older age: How were you able to wrap your head around the idea of "one true church?"  A lot of people just can't understand that concept.  I just doesn't register.  We're looking for bold but non-abrasive ways to explain.  If you have any ideas, send me a letter!  We need your help!

"Why cry about bad weather . . . enjoy it!"

It's been so cold here that I started singing that song to myself the other day, and Sister R. started singing along!  She's seen that movie [In Search of the Castaways]!  I have never met another person who's seen it!

The transfer angel passed us by, so we're both still here!  Yay!  L. was confirmed yesterday and will be getting the priesthood next Sunday.  He is soooo happy!  He's fitting in really well and everybody loves him.  We had a great week.

It all started with exchanges with Sister K. [former companion in Powell/Lewis Center].  If was fun being her companion again -- I could see how much I have grown since we were last together 4-1/2 months ago.  I'm positive that trainers grow much more than do trainees!  We did a LOT of tracting because we are working on finding new investigators.  It was just like old times . . . except not in Powell.  We were able to talk to a lot of people!  It was great.

We had a great lesson with B. this week.  We've taught him the Restoration quite a few times and it hasn't sunk in yet, so we finally tried something new (hopefully it was inspired)!  What does he like?  FOOTBALL.  So when we got there, we told him we wanted to talk about football and walked through an analogy with him.  God is the head coach, the prophet is the QB and we are all players on the team, striving for eternal life.  Play book = Book of Mormon and Bible.  He really liked it!  The whole time we were teaching, if anybody got off-topic he got back on AND he set up the return appointment himself!  I'm glad he enjoyed it, and the whole family committed to watch a conference talk.  Awesome!

"I'm getting tired! He says go faster!" [Muppet Treasure Island]

Muppet Treasure Island is one of Sister R.'s favorite movies -- also Support Your Local Sheriff!  She's seen a lot of the good old ones.  Recently a member challenged my level of movie culture, saying that I "couldn't have seen the original Arsenic and Old Lace with Gary Grant."  Psshh --  I set that right!  It doesn't get better than Cary Grant.  Sister R. hasn't seen Muppets from Space, though; that will be remedied soon upon my arrival back home.  Which will be in like 20 years, because I'm definitely not approaching my year mark or anything . . . weird!"

L. was baptized on Friday!  I will send pictures!  It was a wonderful baptism.  Very small, but that was good because he asked me to speak.  I don't like talking in front of people -- I'm shy!  I've gotten used to teaching one-on-one and really enjoy it, but public speaking . . . !  L. will be confirmed this Sunday and he'll receive the priesthood as well.  He's finished the Book of Mormon for the SECOND time!  His favorite BoM prophets are Captain Moroni and Alma the younger.

Conference was amazing!  We had four investigators attend, as well as a less active member.  I'm excited for the conference Ensign to come out.  Favorite addresses:  Elder Ballard -- loved the bee analogy; Elder Bednar -- parable of the Ten Virgins as an illustration of testimony vs. conversion; Pres Uchtdorf -- life is not a race, it's a journey; Elder Holland -- I'm always inspired by his loving rebukes and his knowledge and understanding of the New Testament; Elder Nelson -- has such confidence in us missionaries!  I hope we can help all those people who start asking us for help.

I could tell that a lot of the addresses were directed toward nonmembers.  I wonder how many nonmembers watched or listened and felt the Spirit?

Huge news about changing the age requirement for full-time missionaries!  That is going to be awesome.  I think that more sisters will serve.  I think the announcement is another sign of the Last Days.  The rising generation is going to need to be stronger than ever in order to be parents in the falling world's immorality and chaos.  As a missionary currently serving, it's interesting to think that the sisters coming in can be 19!  But that's the age of our mini-missionaries, so it's not too weird!

Transfers are this week and I'm pretty sure Sister R. will be leaving.  I hope I get another rock-awesome companion!

We go on exchanges today -- my former companion, Sister K., will be coming here!  It should be AWESOME!

We watched Testaments with Jo. and S. this week and it was awesome -- especially for S.  She made the comment that she's heard people say that Jesus died for us, but that she'd never understood that he actually DIED for us.  It touched J. as well.  She loved how the father went to rescue his son, even though he didn't know if the son had chosen right.

We were able to teach Ja. part of the Restoration between sessions on Saturday.  The lesson went really well.  She told us that she'd had an argument with a coworker about us being Christian.  She told the coworker that we are definitely Christian because MOTAB has a Christmas album. :)

Saturday it was super cold and got dark earlier than usual; I was tempted to work on records in our apartment instead of tracting.  Once it's dark, people get upset about us knocking on their door.  Instead I said, "We're finding a new investigator!" and we went knocking at an apartment complex.  We found T. and her son C.  T. is so full of faith that she didn't even question Joseph Smith's story.  She is also excited about living prophets.  We're teaching her the Plan of Salvation per her request TODAY!  Awesome!

Travel Size for Your Convenience

Hello everyone!  I have a new companion!  Her name is Sister R. and she is super hilarious and sooooo fun!  It's actually kind of funny because I saw her at the Crew game a few weeks ago and asked her how long she had left.  She told me and I said, "Oh good!  We still have time to be companions then, yes?"  We spent six months or so in the same exchange group but were never able to exchange with each other, so it's been a running joke that we weren't meant to be together.  Now here we are, testing fate!

We found a new investigator named J.  So cool!  She was a member referral; we contacted her last week and she set up a return appointment for this week.  When we got to her house, she had mini muffins, vegetables, fruit and drinks all ready for us!  She is a sweet lady and is searching for peace, comfort and a feeling of belonging -- basically the Spirit in her life.  Anyways, we're excited.  She great and she loved talking to us.  We're going to teach her the Restoration tomorrow.

We helped at the Coshocton Fair and sat in a booth, talking to people.  We found a cool guy named M. who wanted to know what we believe from the source, not from the media.  Yay!

Wasn't the RS broadcast amazing?  I just want to listen to it over and over again!

Love you all!

I am the dwead piwate Wobewts! Der wiw be no suwvivows!

Hey fam bam!  It's been a good couple of days and I have a lot of updates for y'all!

M. got baptized this weekend!  It was a good baptism.  The Spirit was there and she even bore her testimony at the end and it was awesome!

L. is amazing -- he is already in Helaman and absolutely LOVES the Book of Mormon!  He decided on a baptism date of October 5.  We realized last night that that's conference weekend so he won't be able to be confirmed until the following Sunday, but things will work out.  All we have left to teach him is tithing!  We watched Testaments with him this past week and he loved it.  I can't wait for him to read 3 Nephi 11!

M. came to church again!  The lessons were all perfect for him.

We taught B. again this past Tuesday and it went well.  We'll be teaching him Plan of Salvation tonight.  It's going to be great!  Both of his biological parents have passed away so it's going to be big for him.

The Columbus Crew (soccer) game was Wednesday.  It was a bit slow so we went around and contacted people instead . . . members only.  We weren't allowed to proselyte at the game.  I did see a lot of people from Powell!  I even got a referral from a member, for one of his co-workers who lives here.  I was able to see many old friends -- it was great!

We heard some great news at the game.  While I was in Powell we were helping one of the youth in the ward teach his friend, D, who was later baptized.  Well, this past weekend D. baptized his mom!  How cool is that?  It's great to see the ripples spreading.

Sister S., our former mini-missionary, showed up on Saturday as a surprise and came out with us for the day.  She was able to see M. get baptized!  It was so fun to be with her again.

Sister T. and I (and the Elders) helped judge an Iron Chef competition on Thursday.  The secret ingredient was pumpkin.  There were three teams and each team made an appetizer, a main dish and a dessert.  There was some yummilicious stuff -- pumpkin dip, pumpkin soup, pumpkin tart, twice-baked potato with pumpkin, etc.  We were so full afterward!  You know the saying "Go big or go home" -- here it's just "Go home big!"

My 11-Month Mark Today!

Hello family!  I only have a few minutes today.  I will try to type quickly!  I didn't write on Monday because we have the Columbus Crew game tonight, so that made today our P-day.

Mo. is getting baptized on Saturday and we are soooo excited for her!  She has progressed so much even in the past week.  A while ago I showed her the index at the back of the Book of Mormon, and when we talked about tattoos with her this week, it turns out she'd read about "defiling bodies" in the index and figured it out by herself! She also took her tongue ring out, without us saying anything about it!  "What are you going to do with it?" I asked.  "Chuck it!" she said, and threw it in a big pile of dirt outside the house.  We clapped for her.  She is literally glowing with the Spirit. It's awesome!  Pray for her!

Mo. has been helping us teach her cousin C.  I love it when she teaches C. a principle all on her own, with no prodding from us.  She is so great.  We're glad that she's using the Atonement to better her situation and herself.  She is SO HAPPY and it makes ME happy.  I love missionary work!

L. told his parents that he's investigating the Church.  We fasted for him last week and when we met with him on Thursday, he told us it had gone so well that he was kind of surprised.  The Lord will provide a way!  He prayed about a baptismal date and decided on October 5, but that's conference so we'll have to figure out another date.  When he told us about his talk with his parents he said, "I'm so happy that they are supporting me, because I went into the conversation knowing that no matter what they said, I was going to pursue this anyway.  This feels right."  Wow.  I learn so much from all the people that we teach!  They are so much stronger and more dedicated than I am.  I need to step up!  We also taught him the Word of Wisdom on Sunday and it was wonderful.  He is ready to go!

Jo. got MARRIED last week!  And Ma. has started the process of being re-baptized.  It's going to be so cool when they are able to be sealed!

Our ward mission leader and Bishop are all pumped up about member missionary work, and priesthood session of stake conference got them even more so.  We had a wonderful correlation meeting with both of them and they came up with some great ideas!

We taught H. the Plan of Salvation and are doing a chapel tour with her this weekend.  We are sooo excited!  I love talking with her; she has so many literature-related insights.  Thanks for teaching me about that kind of stuff, Mom!  She asks great questions; this week she asked a lot about fate and predestination.

C. and L. (mother and son) are new investigators that we found through a member referral.  We're excited to see them again this Sunday!

We found Ju. while 2-2-5ing a member's home.  She first heard about the Church when a YM group went to this one restaurant after mutual, and she was so impressed with them that she asked what church they went to.  How cool is that?  She attended church for six months but then she had a stroke and can't remember when it's Sunday.  So we're going to call and remind her.  It's the least we can do, right?

G. came to our Christmas in September and we were able to give her a chapel tour!  Awesome.  She brought two friends with her, and I think one of them might actually have some potential as an investigator.

The senior missionary couple in my district is from the same home ward as the Adairs!  That was fun to discover, especially since I'd just been looking through the reunion pictures that Mom sent me.

Funny story: We were at a member's home and the mom gave her 3-year-old a bag of Raisin Bran and then left the room.  About 30 seconds later, the kid stuck his dirty little foot in the bag, moved it around a bit and then took it out again.  Then the mom came back and started chowing down on the Raisin Bran.  Sister T. and I looked at each other like . . . "Do we say anything?"  We didn't!

I'm out of time!  I love you all.  Stay safe and keep me posted what you're up to.  Thanks for your love, support and letters!

You don't even have a chin! [Phineas & Ferb]

Hello everyone!  It's been a good week out here!  Lots of great progress!  It's going to be a little short today!  I spent too long on my letter to President.  Hopefully I can get all the news out here!

M. came to the CES fireside with us on Sunday.  It was really good for him.  Elder Holland never lets you down!  Anyone who hasn't watched it needs to!  Talk about prophetic.

We watched Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration with L. last night.  The Spirit was so strong and he knows it's true.  I'll keep you posted!

Our newest investigator is a super cool lady named H.  She's an English teacher and reminds me a lot of Mom!! :)  We have a return appointment set up for next Sunday!  She was excited to read the Book of Mormon.

My Star Wars trivia came in handy with a contact this week, and I was very grateful to E. Bham for tutoring me over the years!

Thank you all for your letters of support.  They have been great!  I love hearing from you all!  Stay safe!

Car-less in Ohio

Hello everyone!  It has been a great week!  We didn't have a car for 4-1/2 days -- it was crazy!  We did a lot of walking and got rides from members, but wow . . .it's hard to cover two and a half counties on foot!  I'm much more tired than usual.  We are soooo spoiled to have a car!

J. (our recent convert) is doing well. We had dinner with her on Tuesday and she told us that the adversary has been trying to press doubts into her mind and heart.  I'm glad she's living with her mom and has that great support.  She was at church on Sunday, participating like she's been a member since birth.  She is amazing!

We taught Lo. the nature of God and prayer.  It went really well!  He is progressing so fast.  We taught Plan of Salvation as well, and he loved it!  The only problem I foresee is that he hasn't told his parents yet.  We're going to talk with him about that on Sunday.  He also played his trumpet for us, and showed us his LOTR mouthpiece.  So cool!  It has the inscription from the ring engraved on it!  I'm such a geek!  I also got to play a guitar that Sister K's dad made by hand.  It was cool!

We were able to teach Li. last night!  We taught Plan of Salvation and it went really well.  She's coming to church on Sunday and will have a chapel tour, too.  She also committed to read more of the Book of Mormon and pray about whether it's true, and the Plan as well.  We asked her if she would like to be baptized, and she said she would when she knows it's true.

A girl named H., who has a boyfriend in the next ward, has come to church four times now.  We finally got her number and will be visiting her this week!

The Columbus Crew game (Mormon Night) is coming up, and President gave us permission to call the people from our last area and invite them to come.  I got to talk to quite a few people and it was wonderful!  Most of them bought tickets to the game.  Hopefully I will be able to see them there!

Sister K. and I were helping a youth in Powell invite his friend (D.) to church, and the friend ended up going to scout camp and high adventure.  Sister K. told me last week that D. got baptized a few weeks ago!  How awesome!

We fasted as a stake for the Amish families who were recently baptized here.  It was a huge deal -- groundbreaking in Church history.  It wasn't widely publicized at the time because the families knew they would be shunned in their community.  Well, it was only a matter of time and now they are having some severe trials.  Please pray for them!

Hey Girl Hey!

J. was baptized this weekend.  It was wonderful -- she is so happy!  B. was also baptized in my last area.  What a birthday present! 

Update on investigators:

We reviewed the baptismal interview questions with J. on Monday, watched Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration on Tuesday, and she had her baptismal interview with Elder S. on Wednesday.  The video was wonderful; the Spirit was so strong.  The hardest thing was teaching S. (J.'s daughter) what was going on.  She couldn't understand why the saints kept getting kicked out, and why people hated Joseph Smith so much.  It was a great teaching opportunity, though. J. was so touched that when she closed our lesson with a prayer, she couldn't finish; Ma. had to finish it for her.

We had an appointment with Mi. and a member on Tuesday, but we had zone conference and were running late. We had the member, Brother H., go without us and they had a great discussion.  Mi. and brother H. really get along really well.  It was a huge step for Mi.  Brother H. was on cloud nine, too.  He is loving sharing what he has learned.  Mi. also came to J.'s baptism, which was nice.  He seemed to enjoy it.  On Sunday something funny happened.  We honestly haven't been able to visit Mi. very much the past couple of weeks -- not on purpose, of course.  So he came up to us at church on Sunday and said that he's pretty open this week except for Wednesday, and when would we like to meet with him?  Now look who's setting up appointments at church! :)

L. is our newest investigator.  He is currently dating one of the young women in the ward.  She came bounding up to us at church and told us that she and her boyfriend had had a conversation about the gospel, and that he wants to learn more!  She was ecstatic.  She set up an appointment with us, then came back later to tell us that he's coming and is excited to meet us.  The meeting went well.  He's excited to read the Book of Mormon and we're meeting with him again on Thursday!

I mentioned earlier that we had zone conference this week.  Guess who won the clean car award AND got celestial planner awards!!  This was the first time they've given awards for planners -- I'm sure glad mine was in good shape!

Serve Fest was this weekend, too.  It was awesome!  A bunch of churches got together and cleaned up downtown.  I ended up scraping and repainting a fence and fire escape with a bunch of other people.  P.S. There is no good place to sit while painting a fire escape -- my thighs are super sore!  We were also painting the escape black, so a lot of the people at the baptism had black smudges all over them from Serve Fest.

One other story: I had a crazy allergic reaction on Wednesday.  It had to have been something I ate because I had it all over my body.  They were little boil-hivy things that got so big that they eventually became one giant boil-hivy thing, all up both my arms, on my tummy and behind my knees.  There is an anesthesiologist in the ward who ran to the hospital and got some steroid stuff and gave me a shot, and I was definitely on a lot of Benadryal for a while -- it took two days to clear up!  I still don't know what it was, but I definitely don't want to eat it again!

Transfers are this week!  Pray that the transfer angel passes us by!  I love you all!

My baby is all grown up and savin' China (Ohio)!"

Hello everyone!  Thank you so much for your birthday letters, cards and packages!  They have been wonderful!  I can feel your love even out here in Ohio!  Shout out to Elder Bham who hits his one-year mark on my birthday!

J. is getting baptized this week!  I can't believe it's here.  We taught her about the word of wisdom, tithing, fasting, and fast offerings this week.  Everyone pray for her, that she'll be able to keep the adversary at bay.

B. is getting baptized this week, too, at the same time as J.  It's so exciting!  I'm sad that I won't be able to go. 

Mo. has an amazing ability to feel the Spirit and has already figured out how to apply the scriptures to herself.  She loves the Book of Mormon.  When she reads it, she doesn't want to smoke anymore.  We were finally able to teach her the Restoration.  She is progressing toward her baptism on September 8.  Sister T. and I both hope we're still here -- transfers are next Thursday!

We found a new investigator named K. while tracting.  She's so cool.  She has two young kids and is really excited about the Book of Mormon.  She believes that the Bible has been altered over the years, agreed with the idea of a Great Apostasy, and loved the idea of eternal families.  We'll be visiting her again, later this week.

Our service project this week was helping a family blow up and tie balloons for their son's wedding reception.  They strung each balloon onto fishing wire and hung the wires across the ceiling.  They had the ceiling covered in balloons by the time we were done.  We blew up (with a compressor, luckily) and hand-tied 500+ balloons and helped string most of them, too.  It was definitely an adventure!

Well, I'm out of time!  I love you all and hope that everything is going well!  Happy birthday to Grandpa Morrow, Aubrey Bice, and Aunt Pam!

"She needs to sort our her priorities!" [Harry Potter]

Hello all!  It has been a good week, but next week is going to be even better!  Yeah!

J. is still progressing toward her baptismal date of August 25.  She has it all planned out, including who's speaking, playing the piano, etc.  And she's already making plans to go to the temple.  She is awesome!  J's daughter S. asked us yesterday for a list of scriptures to read.  She can't be baptized for a few more years, but she is doing all of her Personal Progress and scripture study so she'll be prepared.  So cool.

Mi. is still trying.  He enjoyed the 17-points talk.  He has come to church for the past six weeks straight -- he loves church.  I'm optimistic that he' will be back on date soon.

It has been a hard week for Mo.  The adversary is working on her hard core.  Please pray for her.  She had a priesthood blessing last Monday and had a super cool experience.  She said she felt all tingley and felt her load lightened.  She was honestly a little breathless when it happened.  It was wonderful to see her experience the peace that the priesthood can bring into our lives.  We taught her about the Book of Mormon and asked her to read it.  We got this text from her Saturday night: "I started reading the Book of Mormon last night and slept like a baby.  I woke up feeling refreshed and my stomach hasn't hurt all day so far.  I feel calm and at peace for the first time in years."  She told her cousin E. about the Church and how much it has helped her with everything, so now he wants us to teach him, too.  Awesome!

We taught D. the full Restoration lesson this past week and it was so cool.  When we drove up, he was sitting on his front porch reading the Book of Mormon.  He has committed to read two pages a day!  He has many questions about the different denominations and churches that exist in the world.  He is also reading the Koran, sooooo . . . we'll see how that goes!

I got a letter from Sister K. in Powell this week; she says that B. is working towards August 18 for baptism!  That's this weekend!  I hope all goes well there.  So cool to see seeds sown begin to sprout!

The B. family gave us a huge bag of Amish apples.  They are so good!  They don't look like our apples [Jonathan], but they taste like them -- crisp and tart and oh, so delicious!

We got a mini missionary this morning; her name is Sister C.  She'll be with us through Friday and is super cool!  We are excited to go out and have an amazing week!  We are going to teach, find, and find some more!

P.S. Mitt Romney is coming to Zanesville on Tuesday!

"When you're a professional pirate . . . you don't have to wear a suit (dress)."

Hello family!  It has been a fantastic week in the Great OCM!  Here's an update on our investigators:

We showed M. a few video clips this week -- one was the Restoration, the other one was about Wilford Woodruff searching for the true church of Jesus Christ as described in the New Testament.  On our way out the door, Sister T. asked, "Does M. have a DVD player?"  We were tempted to assume that he did, but felt that we shouldn't.  I said, "Let's stop by the church, just in case, and borrow a DVD player from one of the TV carts in the library."  So we did.  When we got to M.'s apartment, we found that neither of his DVD players were working.  Crazy awesome!  Between the Spirit, Sister T. and myself we managed to thwart the adversary!  Hooray!  It was a pretty awesome feeling.

Tuesday we committed M. to make a list of the qualities of Jesus Christ's church as found in the Bible.  He seemed really excited about it.  After he's made his list, we plan to show him a talk about the 17 points of the True Church that Bro. B. (our ward mission leader) found.  It's really good.  It's about five college friends who make a list like I've described, come up with 17 points, and begin a quest to find the church that has all 17 points.  They are split up by WWII and eventually reconnect years later -- only to find that all five of them have joined the LDS Church.  It's the only one with all 17 points.  It's pretty cool!

M.'s car broke down last week, but that didn't stop him from coming to church.  When we called him Saturday to check if he had a ride (having already lined one up for him if he needed it), he told us that he had already borrowed his friend's truck to get to church.  Wow!  I was tickled silly!  Look at him -- he's all grown up and savin' China!

My GPS's favorite thing to do if we're south of town and it doesn't know where our destination is: It sends us to the same gravel pit . . . every time!  It's ridiculous!

It's Practically August -- Crazy!

Hey everyone!  Is it crazy to anyone else that it's practically August?  I can't believe it!  I'm so ready for summer to be over, though.  Mosquitoes die in the winter!  It's a good thing I'm not going to the family reunion near Forks because I think I could give Bella a run for her money -- apparently I taste really, really good!

Our investigator M. gave Sister T. and me each a picture of Christ, which he drew himself.  We had given him the names of some LDS artists some time ago; the sketch in the photo is from one of Simon Dewey's portraits.  M.'s got talent!  I was very touched that he drew a picture for us.  He has such a good heart.  He was also concerned that drawing might be breaking the Sabbath.  We told him that if it was a picture of Christ, it was okay.

We met a hilarious couple this week.  They are stanch Catholic but they love Romney!  They loved us, too, and tried to get us to come to their church.  I told them we would go to theirs if they would come to ours!  They didn't like the sound of that.  The husband says that he doesn't believe in anything past the New Testament, which made me really sad.  I'm so grateful for living prophets.  The husband wouldn't let us teach much, but we got a few things in.  He wouldn't let us talk about the Book of Mormon but his wife asked the perfect question.  Turns out she loves Glenn Beck, and asked why he would leave the Catholic Church for the Mormon Church.  My answer?  "I'm sure that it was because he read the Book of Mormon, prayed to ask God if it's true, and received an answer that it is."  The husband wasn't very happy with my answer, but the wife actually seemed to think about it.

Personal study insight: Priesthood holders get to actually represent the Savior as they pass the sacrament.  How cool is that?  They literally represent the Savior passing the Last Supper to you!

The transfer angel passed us by!

Hey everyone!  The weather has been crazy here the past few days.  We are super low on miles right now (less than 20 a day for an area that takes in 2.5 counties), so we spent yesterday walking all day and it was HOT!  We were knocking on doors and, in the middle of a conversation with an elderly gentleman, I caught sight of myself in his screen door and thought, "Who on earth would want to listen to that crazy sweaty lady??" It was quite disgusting, but hey . . . what can I do?

Ironically enough, the most challenging thing in my life right now is my stupid mosquito bites!  I've tried everything!  I've even eaten whole cloves of garlic because they will apparently leave you alone if you have garlic in your system.  I have bites all over and since I'm allergic or something, they've swollen up so huge that I'm tempted to wear tights, to try to hide the ones on my legs . . . except it's so stinkin' hot!  Today I woke up with one right on the top of my knee cap.  It's so swollen that my knee looks twice as big as normal.  Gross!

J. is progressing towards her date of August 11!  She came with us to a baptism on Saturday in Choshocton and really enjoyed the experience.  She's already planning who's going to speak and all that jazz.  Her mother, Sister H., is already planning the huge celebration party afterward. :)  We're really excited for J.!

We taught M. the Word of Wisdom on Thursday and he "gave" us all of his cigarettes, ash trays, etc.  Wherever an ash tray or pack of cigarettes had been, we put little encouraging signs that I had made.  Jorgensen sisters, you would be proud of my signs -- one of them had "The Llama" on it.  Very awesome!  The OCM has a one week smoking cessation program with specific things that people need to do each day.  Did you know that it takes three weeks on average for the nicotine to leave your system, but if you take vitamin C three times a day, it only takes 4-7 days?  We had a little basket of stuff for him that was specific to the program.  We visited him the next night and he hadn't smoked all day.  He didn't look too good, though . . . We left two conference talks for him to read: President Eyering's "Give Me This Mountain," and President Uchtdorf's "On the Road to Damascus."  M. particularly enjoyed that one.  He came to church again yesterday and looks a lot healthier already!  He thanked us for doing a good thing.

On Friday M. had a doctor's appointment and found out that he has emphysema.  The day AFTER we taught him the Word of Wisdom!  He told the nurse that ironically enough, two girls had come to his apartment the day before and had stolen all of his smoking materials!  As Gandalf said, "I just gave him a little nudge out of the door . . .!"  M. is doing well, though.  He really enjoys church, especially the high priest group.  I think he likes hanging out with the "more experienced brethren" who are around his same age.

I've got to run.  I love you all!  Kyrie -- I'm so glad that you are back and happy!

Two baptisms coming up!

Wow!  What a whirlwind week.  If every week is like this one, my mission is going to fly by!  P.S. . . nine months on Thursday!  How crazy is that?  You all need to enjoy the next nine months because you're not getting rid of me again!  Without breaking the law . . .  or the commandments, anyway.

We had a great week here.  We now have one investigator on date for August 11 and another on conditional date for August 4th.  We are so excited! Watching people progress and gain their own testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel has been so amazing!

We had six member-present lessons this week, two of which were with our bishop.  He is getting excited about missionary work.  He's seen us bringing investigators to church and now he's felt the spirit of missionary work while out teaching with us.  We're excited to keep the work moving along!

Here are a few awesome moments from the week:

1. We caught a bunny!  At home we have seagulls everywhere, in Powell it was geese, here it's bunnies.  They look like the bunnies in the Harry Potter 3 game, when you're performing the Lapiforus charm.  By the way, you know you've been on the mission a long time when you look at HP and it stands for High Priests and not Harry Potter.  I never would have thought that day could come! :)

 2.  We invited G. to the RS activity next month.  She put it on her calendar.  Yesterday she brought us some eggs that she'd gotten from a lady at work.  We also got some fresh milk from the B. family yesterday.  It's yummilicious!  I'm so spoiled here that it will be hard to transfer anywhere else!

3. We served lunch at the senior center, which was fun.  There was a country group singing karaoke, and the old people were really enjoying themselves.  I served the macaroni and potato salad, and did a very good job (if I do say so myself).

4. We found two new investigators, F. and E.  They are originally from Mexico, but they have lived in the U.S. for 15 years now.  We taught them the first two lessons, and Bishop came with us the second time.  He got to brush up on his Spanish.  Mine is extremely rusty, so now I know what it's like for foreign-speaking missionaries, their first day in the field!  It was definitely an adventure.  We're going to be handing them over to the Spanish Elders, though; they need someone who can help them understand the gospel completely.

5. We taught the Plan of Salvation to both M. and J., and both times I used my nifty Plan of Salvation puzzle.

6. M. is really starting to get it!  He says he is "leaning" towards accepting the gospel as true.  The Plan of Salvation really answered a lot of his questions.  We are so excited!  I love seeing the light come into people's eyes as they have that "I get it now" moment.

7. Favorite Sister T. quote of the week: "And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free . . . that's in the hymn book, right?"

The old "run-away-when-they-see-us-coming" trick!

Hello everyone!  We had a super awesome week!  Heavenly Father blesses us so much.  We've been trying so hard to be exactly obedient and are really seeing the blessings. We found a super prepared guy from 2-2-5ing; he had a lot of questions that no one has ever been able to answer.  The Plan of Salvation answered all of them!  That was especially cool because it was on the 4th of July and it was super hot and humid and we didn't think anyone would be home, but we went anyway because we knew we should!

We went to visit one of our investigators and her son-in-law was there.  We taught him on the spot and he agreed to read the Book of Mormon.  He was very excited to hear that there are prophets on the earth today!

We found two other investigators this week through a member referral, and she brought them to church!  This was especially cool because we'd actually visited these particular investigators a few weeks ago and hadn't thought it had gone very well.  We are really excited to teach them again on Tuesday!

M. is officially progressing!  He is a very nice older gentleman.  He really wants to know the truth and is now dedicated enough to read and pray.  We had a chapel tour with him on Saturday with our ward mission leader and his wife, and it went really well.  He came to church yesterday -- YES!  We followed up with him and he said he enjoyed it and wants to have the same conviction that we all have, but he hasn't gotten an answer yet.  We're going to teach him more about the Spirit for our next lesson, and figure out how the Spirit has worked with him in the past.  He is reading and praying, though, which is really exciting.

Sister T. is doing really well.  I am so proud of her.  She's gaining confidence and together we are earning the trust of the ward.  Yesterday the gospel principles teacher was sick and so Sister T. and I taught an impromptu lesson with two investigators.  She did so well!  I have a lot to learn from her!

Sister T. told me last night that I have quiet dignity.  I tried not to laugh out loud!  What do you think of that, family and friends?  I told her you would all find that extremely hilarious!  She may change her views when she meets other sister missionaries, but we shall see.  I have definitely toned it down since coming out here (not too much, though -- don't worry)!

Sister T. loves huevos rancheros!  I finally found a brand of canned beans out here to substitute for the ranch-style beans that they have back home.  (For some reason I expected them to have Western Family brands out here.  Why would they have Western Family in the east?  I suppose that's one official blond moment that's happened lately.)

Well family, I've got to run!  I hope you're staying safe -- I love you!

Nunchuck skills . . . computer hacking skills . . . tree dodging skills . . .

Hey family!  What a week it has been!  Let me tell you a little about it!  First off, the crazy storms out here have been exciting.  On Friday we were downtown visiting a recent convert when we turned onto Luck Avenue.  The name is actually very important!  There are tall trees all along the road there and, as we were driving down it, it started raining like a banshee!  And the wind was worse.  Trees suddenly started blowing over, right and left!  The trunks just snapped -- couldn't take the pressure.

I watched this happening for a split second and then I immediately felt that we needed to get out of there.  I started looking around for the best way out, and a tree fell super close to us in front, blocking the way forward.  Then I looked back and saw a tree fall and block the road behind us.  I honestly felt like Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Rings, when Saruman closes one door after another as he tries to escape!  I saw a side street that we'd already passed and decided to try that route, when I noticed a tree starting to fall right beside us.  I quickly reversed, trying to avoid it -- which was good because if I hadn't, it would have fallen on the windshield and that would have been a lot worse than the small dent on the hood.  We went back to take pictures of the street later in the day, just in case we needed them for insurance or something -- and because it was crazy to see power poles splintered and traffic lights broken on the ground.  I will attach some pictures!  I hope my driving privileges won't be revoked since the accident was beyond my control -- I'll keep you posted on that.  The power in a lot of Ohio is out; some people have gas-powered generators to keep their fridges, etc. running, but most people aren't that fortunate!  Home Depot and Lowes were completely out of generators and almost out of flashlights!  Gas stations are closing down pumps because they're out of gas.  Cool experience, though, right?

Other highlights of the week:

Sacrament meeting at the B's house yesterday.  The church didn't have power so there was a small meeting at the B's for family . . . and the missionaries!  It was really cool to see the sacrament being blessed and passed in the home by worthy priesthood holders who were fathers, husbands and sons.  There was a testimony meeting afterward and it was all about missionary work.  All in the room were either converts or children of converts.  The Spirit was awesome!  All of them were tracted into, by the way.  I think Heavenly Father knows I need a boost with tracting.  Sometimes it seems so painfully less effective.  But if families like the B's are found through tracting, I can definitely keep going!

Found two new investigators.  Technically three, but one dropped us the next day, which was rough because she was super cool!  One was a referral from a member for his boss.  An investigator canceled so we visited the referral.  Talked with the wife and it was a great conversation!  We were able to teach the Restoration as well as about Temples, and a lot about repentance.  We were walking on sunshine that night!  We're going back this week to meet the husband.  Our second investigator was found 2-2-5ing another member referral.  The referral contact didn't go well -- he was not happy to see us.  But we knocked on his neighbors' doors, anyway.  Found a really cool girl a little older than us, and we taught her the Restoration; she agreed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it.  We'll be teaching her the Plan of Salvation this week and we'll definitely bring a member fellowshipper along.  We're excited to see how they all progress!

Lions and Tigers and Bears . . . oh my!

Hello everyone!  It's been a crazy one this week!  I'm just lovin' it out here, though!

Sister T. and I are doing very well; our prospective (mini) missionary, Sister S., went home on Friday, but we had many fantastic times while she was here.  We were able to find two new investigators this week, and both have had member-present lessons!  Yahooo!  Interesting stories from the week:

1. Everyone shoots everything around here!  Seriously -- everyone has a gun and uses it to shoot vermin on their property.  Funny side story: Sister T. told Bishop's family when we were over for dinner that she used to sit on her porch (in Idaho) and shoot raccoons, and then sell their pelts.  Well, the story worked its way through the ward and, by the time ward council came around on Sunday, it had inflated to the point where Sister T. had shot 50 raccoons in one night!  Hilarious!

2. We spoke in church yesterday.  No time to prepare . . . again!  Thank goodness the Spirit helps us out!  We talked about Christlike attributes and they made Sister T. speak last.  She was nervous as all get-out, but she did awesome.  I'm telling you, she came pre-trained!

3.  When you get a moment, look up the news story about Zanesville and the loose wild animals from a while ago.  It put Zanesville on the map.  Some old eccentric guy collected tons of wild animals like Bengal tigers and bears.  Unfortunately he got super depressed and killed himself, but before he did he let the animals loose.  They ended up all over the town!  Can you imagine knocking doors and looking around to see a Bengal tiger walking down the street?  I don't think pepper spray would be too effective there, although it works really well on bears, I hear!

4. One of our new investigators is M, an older gentleman.  On Wednesday night Brother B. came with us to teach him.  He is super passionate about the godhead being separate personages, but he has a hard time with the Book of Mormon.  So read it and pray!  We did tell him that, actually.  And Brother B. was an excellent teacher, sharing his experiences and testimony with a lot of power.  I had forgotten to bring a paperback copy of the Book of Mormon to leave with M., but Sister T. being as amazing as she is didn't miss a beat.  She gave him her quad, told him to begin reading that night, and we would return with a paperback copy soon.  How awesome is she?

5. D. is our other new investigator.  We found her through a nonmember referral.  She allowed us to leave a blessing on her home, and then she said she wanted to come to our church.  We gave her a chapel tour on Saturday and it went really well!  We had a member there and the Spirit was very strong.  We arranged for someone to pick her up for church on Sunday but then she didn't answer the door.  Sad times!  We will contact her again this week and find out what happened.

6. We had interviews with President this week and the first thing he said was that he missed seeing me in Powell!  I told him I missed seeing them, too.  He says with my abilities I should be getting 2-3 referrals a day.  The sad bit is that I had just told him proudly that we'd gotten 3 last week . . . and we lead the zone in referrals!  Looks like I've got some work/improving to do!  He also talked to me a lot about being bold and fearless.  It's weird how I've become less bold about certain things since coming out on the mission.  And it's something I've been working on a lot!  It reminds me of what Elder Zwick said when he was here: "There is no end . . . just endure."  Sometimes it's at such a fast pace, though, that I can barely catch my breath!

7. President told me that B. went to scout camp!  I jumped up and down and was super giddy.  I hope he had a great time.  Apparently he took C. along, as well.  Hoorah!

The people here are wonderful and I'm loving it.  Different challenges than in Powell, but that's just how it is!  Sister T. and I are ready for whatever Zanesville has to throw at us . . . except perhaps Bengal tigers!  Gotta run!

Happy Father's Day!

This is the only Father's Day that I will miss!  Hooray!  I'm beginning to panic a little bit -- tomorrow is my 8 month anniversary.  That's almost half of my mission gone!  Ahhh!  Come back time!  I guess I'll just have to live it up!  In a share-the-gospel kind of way, obviously. . .

It has been a difficult week, but definitely a building one.  This is a new area and we are still figuring out how to best work with the people.  I'm also trying to get used to how big our area is!  It's huge compared to Powell.  Working geographically is as important as ever, and we're still trying to figure out where everybody lives, etc.  BUT we have gotten lost fewer times this week, and I know where I am 75% (50%?) of the time now.  I am appreciating these small miracles.

We found an investigator named H.  He's an older gentleman.  He has a desire to know for himself whether the Book of Mormon is true and is reading and praying about it.  He has an open heart and a lot of good questions.  We're excited to visit him again!

Top moments this week:
We were washing the dishes at a member's house; he is moving and wanted us to help.  The sink was clogged so it kept filling up with water while we worked.  I would periodically empty the sink with a bucket, dumping the water outside.  Well, Sister T. being the genius farm girl that she is said, "How about a siphon?  It's just like IVing a cow!"  We found a small hose, used the same bucket, and voila!  It was such a great moment!

Visited an investigator the Elders left for us, named R.  We visited her twice this week.  The first time we talked for a while, left a blessing on her home, etc.  The second time her daughter was there, too.  We were about to leave when R. told us we couldn't go without saying a blessing.  I guess she really felt the Spirit!  She was very firm that she get another one!  She's adorable, and so well-meaning and open-hearted.

Our ward mission leader is so cool!  His whole family is.  And when I say his whole family, I mean his whole family.  There are so many of them that they have a bus to take them around places.  Well, they also use this bus to pick up investigators for church on Sunday.  The investigator that we went to pick up didn't answer their door, but the front window was open.  I wanted to crawl through it and say cheerily, "Time for church!"  But who knows, maybe something crazy happened that kept her from coming.  Our ward mission leader's dad is in the ward (we call him Grandpa), and apparently when he goes home teaching, he's done things like crawling through open windows!  His philosophy is: We made an appointment and I'm keeping that appointment!  Looks like we need to start taking Grandpa with us on the Sunday morning bus route! :)

Transfer News

Alright family!  It seems that I'm literally in step with Elder Bham -- I was transferred, too!  I'm in farm country!  We've spent a good part of the last couple of days lost because my GPS doesn't do too well on the back roads.

Even bigger news, I'm training a brand spankin' new missionary from the MTC.  Her name is Sister T.  I will attach a picture of the two of us with Sister K. and her new companion, Sister F., who is also straight from the MTC.  There were only two new sisters and we got them both!  So, no worries -- just doubling into an area that I have no idea about and I'm training as well.  I don't need to tell any of you that I'm stressed because you all know me too well!

Sister T. is fantastic, though!  We are both loving it here.  She especially loves the rural aspect because she's from Geneva, Idaho, and grew up on a dairy farm.  In fact, our ward mission leader's wife offered to give us fresh milk from their cow every week -- before she even knew that Sister T. grew up on a dairy farm.  This was very good because Sister T. is not a huge fan of store-bought milk.  I'm kind of excited "to get hooked" on fresh milk myself!

A few notes about my previous area -- it is on fire!  Members have been inviting their friends to church!  The day before I left, a member invited her neighbor to the play group that the women in the ward do together, and it turns out the neighbor is looking for a church . . .!!  Well, the member called to tell us all about it -- she was so excited.  She's a returned missionary and is thrilled to be sharing the gospel again.  We invited her to ask her friend if she'd like a chapel tour.  Turns out she'd been thinking of asking us about a chapel tour, but she wasn't sure if we did that in our mission or not.  Yay for the Spirit!  I also heard that the members found two interested families last week.  I have such mixed feelings about this; I want to be there to see all this happen . . . but I'm just going to have to help it happen here, too!