What about second breakfast?

Good morning from Rainy Ohio!! It has been very, very cold. Now the snow is being washed away by the cold rain. Sister H. feels right at home now....it looks just like Washington. Hope your week has been awesome! Our week has been pretty sweet!

Ho. came to church! We made her breakfast that morning -- blueberry pancakes! Yummmm! She seemed to enjoy it. She says that she wants to keep coming, but she wants to stay nondenominational. I really want to re-teach the Restoration and explain that we are nondenominational! We believe that there shouldn't be any denominations; Christ set up one church and he still leads that one church through a living prophet! :) I'll let you know how that goes! It should be fun!

We found 2 absolutely solid investigators this week!  Be. was a referral from a nonmember (her daughter) who we taught a while ago. I'm so glad that we contacted her because she is amazing! She is excited to read from the Book of Mormon.

Ru. was found tracting and we got a return appointment with her for the weekend. She's met with the elders in the past and already has a Book of Mormon. She's planning on coming to church this week. We'll definitely be making her breakfast!

We had Sisters Specialized Training this week, which was amazing. All the sisters who will be departing before the next one bore their testimony. It was odd, because they asked me to do it as well, but none of the other sisters in my MTC district did....I hope they don't think I'm going home THAT soon! No way jose! There are quite a few things from that meeting that Sister H. and I want to implement into our work.

I have found that the Lord has blessed me with a greater ability to recognize the Spirit and to discern certain things in the past couple weeks. He has blessed me in many areas, but especially that one. I'm currently working on charity, humility and patience in my personal study. I'm also reading through the Book of Mormon and highlighting all the inspired questions, which has been amazing! I think I'll start doing that in the Doctrine and Covenants as well.

One of my favorite moments of the week was when a member that we were visiting said that she and this other member refer to me as the Tall Blond Amazon Warrior. I kind of liked that!! It was hilarious!

The work is progressing! We're refocusing on part-member families this week and I'm trying to help Sister H. meet everyone in the ward in case I get transferred.

The photo is of me and E.S., who was one of our mini-missionaries last summer.  She now has her own mission call to California Carlsbad!

Oi! Pea Brain!

Super short on time...I was contacting in the library during my computer hour...hopefully the blessings will make up for my short email!

Lots of internal struggle and growth this week. We struggled and struggled to find new investigators. We didn't find one until Sunday evening, 2-2-5 ing a prospective elder. We're trying to work even harder with members because that is where a lot of the prepared people are.

I know that this isn't a lot of update, but we are excited about this week. The zone leaders are coming tomorrow to do training with us. We get to choose what they train us on. So many decisions! We also have Sisters Specialized Training! Yay! Sad thing is that it's my last one I think..... :( No good! Not allowed!

The mission is amazing. I'm so glad that it doesn't have to end after the mission. As missionaries we invite others to come unto Christ -- not just nonmembers, but everybody! Missionary work is the best. Sorry about the short one this week. I promise to do better next week!!

Love ya!!

"The deer we need for the . . . uh . . . venison stew!"

Hello all! The reason for the subject line – I did indeed have venison stew this week! It warmed my heart. I will be eating a lot of deer meat over the next few months. Everyone is using the deer that they shot themselves, during the hunt! Fun times. Dad, I promised Brother B. that you would let him take you out when we come back to visit next fall.....be a good sport!

I have been keeping you all in my prayers, especially the Shurleffs as well as the Richardsons. Please keep me updated on how things are going. It is hard to wonder what could be happening! The weather was freezing at the beginning of the week and warm at the end – and now it's cold again. Warm is 50-60 degrees. It's been weird and my sinuses are going crazy!!!!

Crazy long week this week! I forgot how hard the first couple weeks are for a new missionary. We all think we know what is going to be hard about the mission, but it turns out to be completely different than we imagine it to be. The psychological difficulties and discouragement don't come from the expected sources, instead from the unexpected ones. Sister H. is doing really well, though. We had a lot of appointments cancel this week and a lot of other random things happened. But we also saw a lot of miracles. The hard thing about the mission is helping those smaller miracles to overshadow the often outnumbering crazy things that happen! Sister H. has so much desire to share the gospel and to be a successful missionary. I hope I can be successful in helping her at the beginning of the mission. Being a trainer is such a responsibility – it's ridiculous!! :)

Ha. came to game night on Monday, which was great. Her tire blew on the way! The hilarious thing was that she realized exactly what was going on -- she knew it was the adversary! We taught her the Restoration yesterday. She knows it's true, but she also knows that if she admit she knows, she'll be held accountable for that knowledge and has to act. Teaching her is going to be interesting because she already has quite a bit of experience and knowledge about the Church. There are a few important things that she still needs to learn, though. I did broach the subject of baptism straight away. I told her that as missionaries we help to prepare people, so we'd talk about it, but that she should understand that we only want her to be baptized when she has the desire to do so.

We taught A. & T. earlier in the week and watched The Restoration with them. We also taught them on Saturday.

I've been trying to harness the potential of store contacting because people are already out – we don't have to knock on any doors, and depending on where in the store they are, they’re usually just browsing so they're not harried/stressed like they would be at the grocery store, etc. We worked a lot on store contacting this week and had an amazing experience with a lady named D. We found her in the baby department at Kohls. Her daughter had told her to forward a text to a certain amount of people and that she would receive two angels that day. It was great! I think that there's a lot of potential in store contacting; I'm just trying to figure out how to make it productive all the time! This particular experience was great, except this lady lives in Coshocton (out of our area) and was open to us stopping by, but not the Elders. She said she'd read the Book of Mormon though.

We took a recent convert who is waiting for her mission call tracting with us. I prayed so hard for a good experience and we were able to find two new investigators, J. and her daughter H. We taught them the Restoration and have a return appointment set for this Tuesday. The recent convert was so excited and is even more impatient to get her call!

We taught D. last week and invited her to church. She came!! We were so happy. She's coming to game night this Thursday! We were also able to teach Ho. with a member this week. She's been reading the Book of Mormon...yay!! The hard thing is that she's an English teacher and is reading it...like an English teacher. Any suggestions Mom? :)

One of my favorite moments of the week was sitting in gospel essentials with all five of the recent converts who have been baptized in the last five months. It is so amazing to see how their lives have changed since they've been baptized! They are all so wonderful. The gospel changes lives!

I love you all. The gospel is amazing. The most amazing thing that I've noticed is how much the Spirit guides us. I have been emphasizing a lot with Sister H. that we just have to learn how the Spirit talks to us and then follow the Spirit. He helps us to know how and what to teach! It is interesting to me that that is exactly what we teach our investigators. Applying what I teach to investigators has been amazing. We are constantly relearning the Gospel of Jesus Christ over and over in new ways! Everything comes back to the Gospel. Every time! We learn it differently as a missionary, differently as a student, a parent, a child. I guess what I'm trying to say is, “Keep learning the Doctrine of Christ!” Faith, Repentance, Baptism Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Endure to the end! I love you!

New companion

Hello family! What a week it has been in stormy Ohio! A lot of the past week’s snow has melted because it rained yesterday, but there is still a lot of snow left. And ice!! Yikes!

Big news would definitely include that I'm still here in Zanesville. This poor ward is probably on Sister Bham overload. However, they get the refreshing experience of having a brand new missionary as my companion! Sister H. is from Battleground, Washington. It's near Vancouver! Davisons! No pressure training, either . . . President told me that I can't mess it up because the new sisters are going to be training fresh out of training, due to the pink wave that's headed our way! So that's where we're at. I'll try to get a picture attached for you!

I felt I should invite H. to transfer meeting and she came. Then she texted us last night to say that she wants to start taking the lessons!  Hoooraay!!

We found 2 new investigators, K. who we found on Sister H.'s first day and then Ti. who is super awesome. We're giving Ti. a chapel tour on Thursday and we'll see K. tomorrow. To. came to church by himself yesterday because A. was sick. I was astonished!  And pleased! We're teaching them tomorrow, so that will be great!  We're also teaching Je. and H. tomorrow.

We were able to teach Tr. this week, and Jo. (our recent convert) came with us! We committed her to a conditional baptism date and she's coming to a chapel tour on Tuesday.  Yay!

I think I will have A LOT of news next week. I had a card with all the cool stuff I wanted to share, but I left it on my desk.....so lame! Anywho! I love you all and thank you for all you do. Always listen to the Spirit!

Happy New Year!

What a week it was has been! December was a whirlwind finish out here in the Great OCM. As a zone we broke quite a few mission records this month. We're even getting our picture taken to hang in the mission home! It is amazing to be a part of this work. Heavenly Father does the hard part, but we're part of the work nonetheless.

Transfers should be exciting this week!!! I'm pretty sure I won’t get transferred, but I don't want to jinx myself!!! :) Sister R. will be going home this week. I've never "killed" a companion before! I'm excited to attend a transfer meeting though! I haven't been since June! Nothing pumps you up like a good transfer meeting, singing the mission song with a hundred or so missionaries! :) I'm also excited for "the pink wave" to arrive! Four sisters this transfer and eight next transfer! The feminine surge is here!!

The weather has been CRAZY here this past week. The roads are ridiculous because they're so hilly compared to the rest of the mission. But they have amazing snow plow companies out here. They're quite impressive. They use different colored rock salts, too, which makes the world look like a rainbow. Our apartment entrance is right by a little hill and I nearly slide down every time we go in or out of our apartment! We have been able to shovel a bunch of driveways though!! We just keep our shovels in our car.

P. was baptized on Saturday and confirmed Sunday. It was great. The Stake President came down and performed the baptism, which was a huge deal considering the weather, and the assistants were there as well.

 A. and T. came to church on Sunday, and Mi. was back, as well.  C. prayed at P.'s baptism and is doing well.

We shoveled H.’s driveway and reconnected with her; I think we may have a window of opportunity coming up here soon. Should be good!! I'll keep you posted!

Ma. and F. are doing well -- in fact, F. is feeding us tonight!

We found a new investigator named L. while tracting. He loves my Darth Vader gloves. They actually spark up a lot of conversations while we're out tracting! Thanks Mom and Dad! We'll see him this week.

We found J. and H. on Sunday evening. They know members in the other ward and have been to quite a few activities including the trunk or treat in October! They are a cool family and we're excited to go back and teach them again.

The B. family rented out the local skating rink the day after Christmas and invited all their friends to invite all their friends; we had three investigators show up and a few non-members. That was great! We even got special permission to skate for the evening....in a skirt!

This past week I've been focusing on talking with EVERYONE and I've made some progress. It's something I've always had a hard time with. I can be bold in some aspects, but this is one area in which I struggle. I'm going to focus on it this week as well.