Monday, April 28, 2014

Week 24

Dear anyone who reads my blog,
This week was great!! It definitely had its ups and downs but that is okay because the ups always outweigh the downs!!  So Monday we met with a member to pick out a song for me to sing and for Sister Hogenson to accompany with the flute.  We found one that we both really liked then we went out proselyting!  Then on Tuesday we had a miracle!  We went out proselyting to the Capri apartments I like to refer to them as the prison apartments.....i need to come up with a better name because every building (there are six) has a different smell to it.  So we go to the apartment complex to talk with an investigator, but she wasn't home so I turned to my planner where I had written down different names of people in the complex that we could go try to contact before leaving the complex.  Well, one name popped out and she was literally right around the corner, so we went and knocked on the door.  She was home!!  That was a miracle in and of itself! Then we started talking to her, and turns out that it was the daughter of the woman we were trying to see.  But, this girl is also a member, we just didn't have her records in our ward.  So that was a good start.  Then as we get talking to her about why she doesn't come to church and then we talked about her boyfriend that she will be moving in with next month, she said she had some questions for us that her boyfriend had asked the night before.  So we ended up helping her a lot to answer these questions that he has in a simpler way.  It was so cool!  Then we left her with our phone number so that she could contact us the next time her boyfriend was in town so that we could teach him!  It was awesome!!!!!  Then Wednesday the most exciting thing was that our stake hosted Sound Alliance and Vocal Union from BYU-I!  Then Thursday we visited a family that we had dropped but some Elders contacted them in a park and said they were ready....so we went back and we had a good conversation we just need to work on the dad!  Then Friday wasn't too exciting, neither was Saturday.  But Sunday we performed our song that we had practiced throughout the week!  The ward showered us with compliments afterwards and it was just a fun way for the ward to get to know us better!  So it was quite a great week all in all!  I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful week!!

Love,
Sister Zimmerman
 

Monday, April 21, 2014

week 23 - Easter!

This week was AWESOME!!!!  It was so great, I'm in love with missionary work!  That't just the fact of the matter! :)  So on Monday, we were able to teach the Restoration to a family of a mom, dad, and 9-year-old daughter.  We had the lesson at a member's home who actually took them to tour the Gilbert Temple which was awesome!  Then on Tuesday we were invited over to have lunch with a less-active member that I had never met before so we were excited in the fact that she was willing to feed us without knowing us very well!  We had a good time getting to know her better and hope to help her come back to the gospel.  She has an adorable 3-year-old son and so to be sealed together as a family would be a wonderful blessing in her life.  So we will keep visiting with her!  Then on Wednesday night we were able to meet and greet more people at the Mesa Easter Pageant.  For those who don't know, I was able to see my dad's cousin Nicole as we were walking to receive instruction from the sisters in charge and was brought to tears to see a family member!  That was pretty much the most exciting part of the night because we were again unable to stay for the actual pageant.  Then Thursday nothing too exciting happened, but we were able to teach 3 lessons to recent converts and less-active members.  Then Friday we had interviews and inspections and studying and District Meeting.  All went well, it was just a very long day.  Then our personal interviews were a little shorter than others because we were toward the last to interview and there are 24 people in our zone....so ya it was short but it was good!  I absolutely love President Sweeney!  Then that night we were able to actually see the Mesa pageant which was sooo much fun!  I've always heard about it bu have never been able to actually go to it so that was very fun to be able to watch it!  I just felt the spirit so strong and was grateful for my testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ.  I am so beyond amazed at His love for us to sacrifice so much for us.  It is simply amazing.  Then Saturday we were able to attend our ward Easter breakfast which was fun to have food and visit with the ward members!  I just love our ward!  Then we had the adult session for Stake Conference that night and it was very good.  I loved it because it all focused on missionary work which I am a huge fan of now!  President Sweeney gave a talk and during that talk he had an investigator who will be baptized soon come up to answer some questions.  The bottom point was that we as members shouldn't be afraid to approach our friends to tell them about the gospel.  President Sweeney was actually out with the two sisters in that area that night to join in the missionary work when they street contacted this man in his apartment complex.  What I would like all of you to take from this letter is that we need to not be afraid to share the wonderful message of the gospel with everyone that we meet!  I mean, it's made us all happy, so why not try to give someone else that happiness?  Then we had a great follow-up with Stake Conference yesterday.  It was so good and I enjoyed it very much!  It was such a great week and I hope you all enjoyed your Easter!  I hope you all are able to remember the sacrifices that our Savior has made for us so that He can know how best to support us in our trials.  I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!!
Love,
Sister Rachel Zimmerman
 dying Easter eggs with the sisters



 

Monday, April 14, 2014

Week 22

This week was amazing!!!!!  Oh man, it was just so good!  On Monday we received a referral from Mormon.org that we contacted...turns out that a friend must have sent in the referral because he wasn't expecting us and he didn't really want to hear our message, but that's okay because we got a referral!!  We love getting knew potential investigators!!  Then Tuesday we got another referral from Mormon.org that was for his son!  We decided to just call him but the number was wrong turns out so we will probably try to contact him later!  Then we got another referral from our Relief Society president after having a visit with her on how to get our members (specifically the women in our ward) more involved in missionary work!  Then we were able to contact a family that we had received as another referral and they said that we could come back on Saturday so that in itself was so hopeful and they seem like a very nice family!!  Oh and we also had a lesson with a member on Tuesday morning!  It was awesome!  We had a member come with us and she brought her toddler (we only allowed this because the member had been to a lesson to teach her two years ago when the toddler was still in her stomach so it was kind-of fun for her to see the baby!)  and he was soooo fascinated with the investigator's two dogs it was quite entertaining!  Then we were able to teach the message of the Restoration in 15 minutes!  After learning a new way to present the Restoration in 7 minutes using pamphlets that we get, we were truly able to teach it in such a short amount of time!  She wants us to come back tomorrow so we will see how she progresses!  Then Wednesday we had a lesson with a referral that we had already contacted but hadn't had a lesson with yet.  We also taught him the Restoration using the pamphlet.  Unfortunately, he will be busy until May 1, but don't fret, we will be there on May first waiting to teach him!  Then we also received 3!!!! referrals from another member!  It was amazing!!!  Just for all of my friends who are members, referrals from members are like early birthday presents they are GOLDEN!!!  So we started contacting them but it was late so not everyone answered.  Then Thursday we received a text from a member telling us that they had invited a family to hear the restoration like we had asked, and they said absolutely!  Like I said, this week was amazing!!!  :)  Then that night we joined our ward choir which was quite fun!  I've missed being in a choir so this was very exciting to be able to participate in!  On Friday we just did our weekly planning then went to the Mesa Temple to help meet and greet people for the Mesa Easter Pageant Jesus the Christ.  It was very fun and I was able to see Sister Rice from school!  She is serving in the Tempe mission and has only been out about 3 months!  It was very fun to talk with her!  Then Saturday we had a juicing party again to juice oranges and grapefruit that some missionaries had helped pick off of some trees.  This time it took 5 hours to juice all of the fruit!!  So when we finally went out proselyting we weren't able to talk to the Zener's because they weren't home, but that night we were able to attend the High Priest group dinner which was very fun to be involved in.  We were able to get to know even more members better!  Then Sunday was wonderful!!  Sacrament meeting consisted of 5 songs and one speaker. All of it brought the spirit and it was just so fun!  I love Easter!! (we had our easter program this Sunday because next Sunday is our Stake Conference)  And of course the rest of our classes were very good!  Then when we went proselyting, we first went to dinner, then were able to contact Sue.  We were able to talk to her for a while and she invited to come back at the beginning of May as well.  We are excited to work with her!  It has been a wonderful week!!  I hope you all have a wonderful week before Easter Sunday and are able to apply the Atonement in your own lives!  


 5 hours juicing oranges!!! Yea!

Monday, April 7, 2014

Week 21- Great General Conference

This week wasn't too exciting as I only have 4 days to catch up on!  Wednesday night I was able to start an exchange with Sister Heap!!  I was so excited because I've missed her and just really enjoy being with her!  So Thursday was great other than having a nasty migraine during our abbreviated District Meeting!  I learned a lot from Sister Heap about gaining back motivation for my mission!  I've never really been unmotivated, but it's always good to start fresh and get more excited about sharing the Gospel with everyone we meet!  One thing I will be changing is studying for my investigators more and trying to rely on the spirit more during the day.  It can be surprisingly hard sometimes for us missionaries to be fully guided by the spirit.  Sometimes we simply don't consciously give up our will to our Heavenly Father.  One thing I have really learned on my mission is that as missionaries, we work work work to wait for miracles.  None of the miracles come just from our efforts.  Sometimes our hard work proves to our Heavenly Father that we are ready to listen to the spirit and do whatever he asks of us.  I basically feel like a new Greenie despite the fact that I've been out for almost 5 months (someone sped up time way too fast)!  Anyway, after the exchange we then went straight to our Ward Mission Leader's house to talk about the efforts of the ward on behalf of missionary work.  We have been instructed that the ward should be providing 20 lessons a week for us and we should be providing the other 20 for a total of 40 lessons a week!!!  This will be a huge leap for this area as we are teaching on average 7-10 lessons a week!  This of course won't happen over night but I've been waiting for miracles to happen and am still waiting and trying to work hard!  So we had a great meeting with him, then visited other people before going in for the night.  Friday wasn't too exciting, we had to stay in for a while because Sister Hogenson wasn't feeling well, but we were able to visit a couple people that night.  Then Saturday was so good!  I absolutely loved conference!  All of the speakers were so inspired and I am so excited to see our members taking action on what some of the speakers had to say.  Maria did not come to the afternoon session of conference so we will probably be dropping her.  But Sunday was good as well!  We enjoyed conference and are hopeful about this coming week!  I hope you all had a wonderful week and enjoyed Conference as much as we did!  Take what Elder Ballard said to heart and just invite one of your friends to hear the message of the Restoration!  I love you all!

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Week 20

This week was a good one but also a little long!  Tuesday was great!  In the evening we were able to meet a less-active member that I tried seeing back when I was with Sister Heap!  She has been in the ward since June, but hasn't been to church since then.  And she has been less-active for about 15 years.  But she was very friendly and told us that we could come back so we were excited about that!  It was more hopeful than some of the other responses that we get! :) Then Wednesday we were able to have a lesson with Sister Krutsch's grandparents that are less-active who were in town for Spring Training!  So that was exciting and was a very good lesson!  I hope they continue to become re-activated when they return home!  Then Thursday we visited a widow in our ward who has got an amazing missionary spirit to her!  She is amazing!  She has come up with a plan to go out proselyting by herself!  She just makes us happy and lifts us up!  Then on Friday we went to the church building by the mission office to juice 15 bags of orange juice that the sisters in our apartment had picked off of someone's tree!  It was really fun and was a nice break from the monotonous missionary work that we do every day!  Not that I don't love it, it is just always good to have a break and do something different!  Then Saturday we got to go to the temple with Sister Wauneka who was able to receive her own endowment for the first time!  It was so fun and we loved having the opportunity to be there with her!  I also got to see Sister Heap because she was the escort since she had first started talking to Sister Wauneka back in September!  Then we got transfer news and Sister Krutsch would be sent to Paradise Valley with Sister Tucker and I would receive Sister Hogenson!  So that was exciting I guess!  Then Sunday Maria didn't come to church again so we will be hopefully setting another date for her and figuring out what is holding her back.  Then we were able to go to a ward event of Break the Fast that the ward does every other fast Sunday so it was nice to get to know some of the members a little better!  Then Monday we practiced singing because we are going to try a new finding activity tomorrow!  I will explain later!  Then we helped a less-active organize her shelves!  Then Tuesday was transfers, so here is a little on Sister Hogenson:  She is 20 years old and is from Calgary, Alberta Canada.  She is the 9th child of 12 children and has 10 brothers and a sister.  She is an absolute sweetheart and I am very excited for this upcoming transfer!  I love you all and hope you have a fantastic rest of the week!!
 Milk shakes from Chick-fil-A
 Sister Krutsch me with Sister Wauneka taking out her own endowments
New companion Sis Hogenson