A week of great "impact" :)

This last week was full of wonderful and impactful events...in more ways than one. :)

First of all, Saturday morning all four of us sisters were in a minor car accident.  We were blessed that it wasn't any more serious.  We were waiting to turn left, and there were two cars stopped behind us.  All of a sudden there was a loud bang and I felt like a huge wall had just hit me on the back of the head.  It took me a second to realize what had just happened...I was in my first car accident.  A fourth car had hit into the back of the 2nd car behind us, creating a domino affect all the way up to us.  We were so blessed that none of us were hurt.  We had some sore necks and shoulders, and Sister Barrow (who was driving) had some soreness in her back, but other than that we were totally fine.  One man was taken in the ambulance. I think he was in shock, but I hope it wasn't more serious than that.  The bike rack we had on the back of our car is what saved us from getting hit so much worse.  Our trunk and rear bumper do have some dents and a couple of holes, but the trunk still opens and closes and the car still works.  I know there were also unseen hands that day that protected us.  It could have been so much worse, but it wasn't.  Sister Boehula and I were still able to go out and teach some lessons that day, and the other sisters had a baptism that night.

What the accident did do for me was put more things in perspective, and help me learn that no matter what, I want to end happy.  I wasn't in the best of moods when we left the apartment that morning.  I was feeling pretty down and depressed and discouraged.  I thought about how I would have felt if I had been called to go to the other side of the veil at that time...how would I have felt about my passing?  I think I would have been disappointed that I hadn't chose to live that morning a little bit better, a little bit brighter.  The next day in sacrament meeting I was taught something by the spirit:  You must be the happiness in your circumstances; not your circumstances the happiness in you.

That hit me hard.   That impacted me.    I realized that I needed to not just try to find joy in my journey, I needed to make the joy and be the joy.  It is when we chose to be joyful that the spirit can speak to us and help to lift us higher.  I know that the Lord does want us to be happy, even when times are hard.  President Uchtdorf gave a wonderful talk in the last General Conference about how the Lord wants us to be grateful in all of our circumstances, not just when we have good ones.  I know that gratitude and happiness go together, and so does service.  I also learned that I needed to stop focusing on myself - my imperfections and weaknesses and mistakes - in order to be able to help others and be happy.  I've realized that by trying to fix me I was trying to save me.  The Savior did that.  Lose yourself in His work you will find hope and joy.  I know that the Lord wants us to love and serve and give of ourselves.  As the scripture says, "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." (Matt. 16:25)

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe week.  Remember that you will be the happiness in your life as you lose yourself in the Lord's work - regardless of your circumstances.  I love you all!

Love :)

Hello everyone!

I'm going to have to be short today, but it has been a good week of learning and humility and love.  If I could sum up this last week in one word, it would be love.  I have learned a lot about love and how much we need to have it, share it, and show it.  The phrase from the Savior keep coming into my mind, "By this shall all men know ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."

I know that the Lord loves us and wants us to love.  I know that it can be hard to bring ourselves to do sometimes, but it is the only way to feel love and calm within ourselves.  I know this is a gospel of love.  I know that we must have love within our hearts in order to share the gospel with others with power.  Love is the difference between bold and overbearing.

I know the Lord lives.  I know He is our Master and brother and Savior!  He loves us!  I love you all!

A wonderFull week :)

What a wonderful week.  It truly was full, and it truly is a wonder at how we did all that we did!  As you know from last Monday, Gladys Knight came a little over a week ago.  As of two days ago (Saturday) we have received a total of 30 referrals from that event.  We have visited about half of them and have appointments to visit more this week.  We were so focused on trying to contact all of those referrals, plus teach the investigators that we already have, that we ended up not doing any tracting this last week....that was a weird feeling.  I don't remember ever not tracting in a week.  But it was good because it means that there is lots of work to be done and even more so that there are people who are searching for the truth.  My greatest hope is that I will be enough to spread the gospel to all who the Lord needs me to.

Sister Boehula is an awesome companion who supports me in so much.  She knows that she can't help as much as she'd like because of her difficulty with the language and her still being fairly new to the area, but she still does such a great job at helping me laugh, calm down, and remember that everything will be ok - that we can do it.  Each of my companions have been a blessing to me at that time that I was with them.  They have all been such blessings of strength, growth, and comfort.  I love them! :)

[Four of our investigators] were at church yesterday.  [One of them, a man we've been teaching,] has agreed to be baptized on June 8th!  In fact, I think he might be ready sooner, but we'll see :)  He's awesome though, and walked to church again yesterday.  [Another that came, a woman,] is still progressing and working towards her date too - May 25th!  [The other two, the couple we've been teaching,] don't currently have a date, but they are still working on making changes.  They're all doing great and I love them all so much!

I want to share an experience that led to probably the highlight of this last week.  Like I've mentioned before, we were super full with contacting referrals.  Therefore, we would at times forget to plan meals or would pack food with us to eat while we were out and about.  As many of you would guess, I didn't find it a problem to sacrifice some temporal things for the spiritual.  However, the Lord knew better and lovingly taught me the importance of taking care of our physical bodies.  Wednesday night I got super dehydrated to the point that my head hurt, my mouth felt dry, and my stomach felt nauseous.  We were going from lesson to lesson though, so I was just praying that I would make it through.  I did, and when I got back to our apartment I slowly started drinking water and eventually Gatorade.  My loving sisters (Anderson, Barrow, and Boehula) all helped nurse me back to health that night.  I ended up drinking 3 waterbottles and almost 1 Gatorade that night.  The next day I felt a lot better, but was still struggling with feeling a little weak and not quite having my appetite back.  Our zone leaders came by to give us some more referrals and I asked if they had a few minutes that they could give me a blessing.  They of course said yes. :)  They happened to be with two other zone leaders and they asked if I would be ok if they joined in.  I of course said yes :)  As that blessing was given, I could feel the spirit so strong.  I knew that those 4 elders were worthy of the priesthood that they hold and were truly acting by authority of our Savior Jesus Christ.  I knew that I could rely on the promises and guidance given, because I felt the spirit testify to me that they were true and that they were God's will.  I am so thankful for men who value their role as priesthood holders and live worthy at all times to use it.  I know that those Elders will be blessed for their decisions to be representatives of Christ - to follow Him and live as He would live.

I know that the priesthood is a real power and that it can bless our lives if we will live for those blessings.  I know that the Lord wants us to use His power and authority, and to bless the lives of others.  I would invite each of you to listen to or read the talk that was just given in this last Conference by Elder Oaks.  He spoke in the priesthood session of conference about the priesthood.  It is powerful.  I know it is true and that it will help us to understand just what the priesthood is, and what it can do.

I know that the Savior lives.  I know that He loves us.  I hope that each of felt of that love this last week.  I hope that all of you women and mothers felt loved yesterday on Mothers Day.  I know that I am so blessed to have the Mother I do.  I know that the Lord works through Mothers and Fathers who are willing to work together with Him, to bring about much good and to raise righteous families.  How grateful I am that my Mother and Father chose to raise me in the gospel of Jesus Christ with love and understanding and compassion.  My Mom is a hero and friend.  She is an example and guide.  She is a teacher and parent.  Thank you Mom!  And thank you to all of you Mothers and women who have influenced my life!

I hope that you all have a wonderful week!  Remember who you are - a child of God - and that He loves you!  Remember the blessings of the priesthood as we live worthy of them!  May THE force be with you all!

A Week of WOW :)

Wow!  What a week!

Gladys Knight and her choir were amazing!  I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but they did a fantastic job!  I found out that this is actually Gladys' calling in the church - to lead this choir and go around sharing her testimony through song and word.  The choir sang about 6 different songs, some with Gladys singing and some without.  One member shared the reason why they chose to come out and do this.  He was really good at being funny and spiritual.  He basically taught a short intro to the Restoration, talking about how God is our loving Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ's life on earth - including setting up His church, and the apostasy that led to a need for restored truths, prophesied about in the Holy Bible.  Gladys also shared her experience and testimony and was great at talking "the language" of the people here, relating to them, and sharing how this gospel is true.  It was a powerful night and I feel blessed to have been able to see and hear both showings.  I've also fallen in love with southern gospel music.  I will be listening to Gladys Knight and her choir when I go home! :)

Both showings were almost full, and our ward (10 missionaries) received about 75 referrals - 24 of them being for Sister Boehula and I....wow!  So yes!  We are busy!  It is tricky trying to schedule it all, but it is also wonderful and amazing.  We have had great and positive experiences with every one that we've contacted.  I'll let you know how things play out as the weeks go on, but there were definitely many seeds planted and nurtured that night.  Oh yeah, and we were up until about 1 am that night since we helped clean up and sort all of the referrals afterwards.  Haha, that won't happen again :)  But President is kind and allowed us to sleep in the next day to make up for the time we lost.  It was a wonderful event and worth all of the effort that was put into it.

We also did Paint Your Heart Out on Saturday!  We had a lot of service hours this week with prep for Gladys Knight, Paint Your Heart Out, and helping a member prep her home for moving.  Paint Your Heart Out is an annual community service event that our ward decides to help out with each year.  You sign up in teams and each team paints the outside of a house in the area.  All of the missionaries in our ward signed up.  Sister Boehula and I were on a team with 2 other families in the ward, the Bishop, and Elder Adams and Hartwig.  It was a lot of fun and we were there for 6 hours.  I love painting :)  We also got shirts afterwards to remember the service we gave! :)

Many blessings and miracles have happened this week and I just don't have time to share them all.  That's how it usually is every week, but know that good things are happening!  [Our investigator couple] did not get baptized this last weekend like we had originally planned, but they are doing so well.  They are really progressing and have a desire to be baptized.  We are just working on a few changes with them that they need to make first.  Our other investigators are doing well too, and 5 of them came to Gladys Knight.

I want to share one thing that I learned this week.  We need personal scripture study.  We were in a practice where I was a recent convert who was about to move out of state, by myself, to school.  It hit me as the elders taught me that who I need to go with me where ever I go is God, and how I'm going to make sure that happens is through personal daily prayer and scripture study.  I know it's important, and I'm working on making it more important to me.  It hit me again as I was in interviews with President McDonough yesterday, and I know that the Lord is trying to teach me that right now.

I want to invite all of you to evaluate your personal scripture study.  That is your time with the Lord to know Him.  Do you value your time with Him?  Do you want to know what He has for you?  That He loves you?  Search for Him through prayer and scripture study and I know you will find Him.

I love you all and hope that this coming week is one of joy!  Live what you know!  Change!  May the Lord bless you!