Week 33

Hello Everyone!

I'm so sorry that last week's update was so short!  I had too many emails to read and didn't leave enough time to send a long update.  I am doing well though, and am enjoying every minute that I have as a missionary!  These past few days haven't been too exciting.  Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we spent the majority of the day helping the Cluffs move. So we kept very busy packing and cleaning.  Wednesday though we were able to go to a member's house to help her fill chap stick tubes with homemade chap stick and practice our song that we sang on Sunday!  It was really fun!  And on Thursday night we had an appointment with Cazzie where Sister Stevens ended up getting stolen by a resident who wanted to escape from the Rehabilitation center.  It was pretty funny, mostly because I understood her pain ;)  Then we had a lesson with the Rova's and Sister Stevens and I had the privilege of assisting in carrying a dead bear from a truck bed to a shed in the backyard where they had their Taxidermy shop.  They said it probably weighed about 600 pounds.  I thought it was a privilege to be asked to help since men usually take things from our hands if we are lifting something over 2 pounds.  So that was exciting!  Then Saturday was very busy!  We had a couple from the ward take us out to visit different people in the ward.  We first tried to go to a part-member family's home to serve them because they are fixing up a trailer to live in, but they weren't expecting us so we ended up not being able to help them, but Sister Stevens had a fun time talking to their 28 year old daughter who has Down Syndrome.  She was so cute and so excited to see us!  Then we taught some members the 7-minute Restoration presentation, then we dropped a video off to the Skinners then went to dinner.  Dinner was really good!  We had Fry-bread, which is what we Utahns call scones.  We just put sweet stuff on it and they put meat, beans, rice, lettuce, cheese, etc. on them for a meal.  It was very yummy!  Then we had a little correlation meeting with one of our Ward Mission Leaders, and then went home.  Then Sunday was really good!  In both of our wards they had some youth talk about trek and girls camp.  It's so fun to hear the youth talk about how their perspective changed after going to an activity that they really didn't want to go on.  It was very nice.  Then we came home and then went to dinner then walked to a member's home where we saw Shera which was amazing!  She happened to be at her family's house when we went there, so it was so good to see her after we haven't had much contact in about a month!  Then we walked to our lesson with the Rova's and taught them about the Millennium which is just a really cool lesson.  So it's been a very busy weekend, and we are loving it!  I hope you all have a great 4th of July weekend!  I love you all!

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

This me with Belle, one of the Cluff's horses.  We can't ride horses, but we can give them some love!  She is a very good horse!

Sister Stevens and I with the Cluff's after we finally got everything out of the house!  They were worth all of our effort! :)

Week 32

Hello Everyone!

I am sorry, but I only have a few minutes left to email.  Nothing too exciting happened this weekend.  We continue to work with Cazzie and she is doing really well!  We taught her the stop smoking program on Monday, and she was so excited to do it!  We have been SUPER busy this week with lots of service!  We have stopped by Wes almost every day this past week because he has been in the hospital because he let his health slip while he was taking care of his wife.  We sang to him and he wants us to sing at his wife's memorial!  He is such a sweetheart!  We have really enjoyed getting to know him more!  We also were able to serve a less active member who is a huge sweetheart.  We chatted with her and cleaned for about 3 hours.  It's just been an amazing week!  We don't have anymore investigators, but we have a few potentials and I am positive we will be gaining a few new investigators in the future!  I love you all so much!  I'm sorry that this hasn't been the best update, but I am safe and well and am still in Show Low with Sister Stevens, and for that I am very grateful!  Have a wonderful week and if you have time, feel free to read "The Character of Christ" by Elder Bednar.  It's absolutely AMAZING!!

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

Week 31

Hello!

This week has been crazy!  On Tuesday, Sister Knouse and I ended up covering both of our areas because our companions were both needed in White River with some sisters.  So we had a plenty busy day!  We ended up seeing the less active couple with the woman who was close to passing away.  She definitely had the death rattle, so I knew that she would be passing soon, and sure enough she passed away early the next morning.  It was good to be able to visit him and hopefully comfort him during this time in his life.  Then on Wednesday we had a Zone Conference combined with the Snowflake zone.  It was a great conference!  They designed it to where we taught ourselves, instead of our mission president and his wife, and the assistants teaching us.  We talked about how to overcome pride, doubting our faith, and something else that I can't remember right now.  But it was just very helpful for all of us.  Then we had lunch and then did a session in the Snowflake temple.  We had approx. 70 people in that session, and it is a tiny temple, so we filled the entire room!  It was pretty fun!  It was just neat to be in a temple session with so many missionaries!  Then we took pictures and went to dinner before going to a lesson with Steve Price.  We had a great lesson with him, and they surprised us on Sunday by coming to our Show Low 1st ward where they actually belong!  It was so exciting to see them!  Our lesson was even on keeping the Sabbath Day holy!  Then Thursday I was on an exchange with Sister Pew.  She is an amazing missionary and just made me feel so good about myself.  It's been a trying couple of months, but it was good to hear from someone that they were proud of the way I am dealing with everything and am proud of my efforts as a missionary.  Then Friday we had dinner with a less active member and had a great conversation with her, and she is letting us come clean her windows tomorrow so we are excited to be able to serve her!  Then we saw Cazzie and had a great visit with her, and tried to answer her questions about the introduction to the Book of Mormon.  Then on Saturday we saw the Skinners, and set a baptism date for July 5th!  He needs to quit smoking, but we are hoping that he will be ready to be baptized on that day!  And I completely forgot that Steve set a date for November 8th!  I sure hope I'm even here for that!  But we are excited that he finally set a date to be baptized!  Then we saw the Cluffs and were then kidnapped for ice cream that night.  Sunday was good as usual, and we had a surprise investigator come to church with her daughter who was baptized a year or so ago.  It was a great day for people coming to church!  It's been a great week and we hope for an even better week this week!  We find out transfer news this weekend and hope that we get to stay together!  I love you all!

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

 Snowflake Temple

 I know this isn't the best picture, but I had to get a picture with Sister Stevens and Sister Heap, because Sister Heap happened to train both of us!  And it was a crazy windy day up at the temple!

Sister Stevens and I after doing a session at the Snowflake temple! I really struggled keeping my eyes opened....

Week 30

Hello Everyone!

This week has been crazy busy!!!!!  Oh my goodness, it was long, but fast at the same time.  Monday we met with some recent converts that haven't been coming to church, and still didn't come to church this weekend and weren't at his step-brother's wedding.  So we are going to try to get in contact with them, but we are sad that they are pulling away from the church.  Then we saw Cazzie in the Rehab center.  Then Tuesday I was with Hermana Knouse (a sister in my apartment) in her area while our companions who are STLs were doing exchanges with other sisters.  We had a busy day and were able to teach a few lessons.  Hermana Knouse even taught a lesson in spanish, even though she has only been out for about a month.  It was good!  Then Wednesday we were in my area and we taught a lot of people.  My favorite lesson was a surprise lesson with the members who had us over for dinner.  When we got out of the car, the member told us that they had a coworker of her husband's over who has shown interest in learning more about the church!  So I started the dinner conversation off with asking him about what he was interested in, how open he was to learning more, if he had a religious background, etc.  It turned out to be a really neat lesson, and he really enjoyed it!  We gave him a Book of Mormon, the Restoration pamphlet, and the 20 minute Restoration video that we can pass out.  It was really cool!  We just need to set up another appointment with him!  Then that night we saw an investigator whose wife is less active, and we had the Relief Society president with us who got her information so that we could find her records and put her in our ward!  So that was fun!  Then Thursday we saw some members to support them in their trials, then Sister Stevens drove down with Sister Pew to the valley for their meeting they had on Friday.  Then that night Sister Knouse and I tried contacting some referrals, and the one we tried to contact was an apartment address without the apartment number, so we did a little tracting which was fun!  No one was interested in talking to us, but that's okay!  Then Friday we woke up early and left to a city park to help set up for Show Low days!!  It was fun being able to help in the community!  Then one of the staff members who is a member told us that we should take up a free booth and make a proselyting booth!  So we spread out and some missionaries got tables from the Stake center, then we went with the other sisters to get a tent.  We weren't able to be there while people were actually roaming around, because we went instead with a member to go see some less active members.  The wife is on her death bed....I know this more because I've seen it, and she hasn't eaten anything for two weeks.  So we visited with him for a minute then the Relief Society president gathered all of the dirty dishes in some garbage bags to take home to wash then return them Saturday morning.  Then Saturday morning we were privileged to be able to attend a temple sealing at the Snowflake Temple.  It was a very sweet ceremony and such a cute couple!  It was really fun to be able to see a sealing since I haven't been able to attend a sealing before!  Then we went back to the less active members that we visited Friday and I saw that the Relief Society president had left the clean dishes so I went to work putting them all away and trying to tidy things up a little better.  Then we saw James who was well-behaved which was nice!  We hope that he is understanding better the importance of being baptized.  Then we saw Cazzie who just found out that she will never be able to walk again, and will never leave a Rehabilitation center, and she's only 50 years old.  So we sang her some comforting hymns and told her we would be back soon.  It was hard to listen to her tell us this news.  As a missionary, and I'm sure one day as a mom, I just want to take these burdens away from the people we teach.  Then Sunday was full of church and then visiting with one of our Ward Missionary Leaders and then teaching the Rova's who I love so much!  It has been a wonderful week!  And this week I hit my 7 month mark!  I can't believe how fast the time has gone!  I hope you all have a wonderful week!!  I love you all!!

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

 Here is a baby blanket that I finally finished crocheting for a member in Arcadia!  It was a fun blanket to make and is made out of 136 individual squares put together!  ;)

Week 29

Hello Everyone!

This week has been amazing!!!  It's been so busy and I just love it!!  On Monday we went to a Family Home Evening group that some older couples in the ward have put together.  They were so funny and we had a great time!  We also got a little lesson on a talk from the Ensign!  Then we saw Cazzie at a Rehabilitation center and had a great visit with her!  Then Tuesday we helped out at the community garden where Sister Stevens was paired up with a nonmember who has actually talked to some sister missionaries before.  The next time we see her we are going to invite her to hear the missionary lessons!  Then we visited some members that kidnapped us and bought us lunch.  How rude right? ;)  No, we love them and love visiting with them, especially as they are going through some really hard things right now.  Then Wednesday we had District Meeting and I gave a quick training on Obedience.  I'm a little bit of an obedience nerd....but that's okay, because you learn as a missionary that obedience brings blessings, but EXACT obedience brings miracles and I've seen it!  Then Sister Stevens gave a training on how to teach the Restoration in ten minutes using the proselyting pamphlets that we get.  We've been using it recently, but she did a great job at helping us get better at teaching!  Then we had dinner with some Recent Converts which was really fun.  She is from the Philippines and it was really cool to hear her story about coming over to America!  We also talked about them going through the temple as it's been almost a year since they were baptized!  Then we had another great lesson with Steve.  We asked about his plans to be baptized since neither of us were there when he told the sisters that he wanted to be baptized in August.  We found out that he is really ready to be baptized and is really excited as well!  He's been planning it in his head for a while so that was fun to hear!  Then Thursday we went to the garden again in the morning, then went to lunch with a member, then went with that member to do some service for an older widow in the ward.  We washed all of her outside windows then visited with her.  We had a great time!  Then we saw the Skinners for a short message, then we were kidnapped again by the same members that kidnapped us for lunch!  We had a good time serving them a little around the house!  Then Friday we went to that member's house again to help make breakfast for people that were coming to help clean and move things, then we helped them by cleaning out their chicken coup!  It was fun I suppose! ;)  Then we went to the chiropractor to get one of my ribs popped back into place?  I don't know, all I know is that my back sounded really sick when he popped my back.  Then we went to a wedding that was very interesting.  There weren't many people there, but it was nice!  Then we visited the Rova's and had a great visit with them about the Atonement.  We love sharing that message, it just makes us so happy!  Then Saturday we served some more at the garden then served some members and helped clean out their chicken coup as well!  Then we saw Cazzie again, but only were able to have a short lesson.  Then Sunday we had a stop-smoking lesson with Dianne to get her ready for baptism!  She was so ready, she had already stopped smoking that morning and fasted, and received a blessing to help her stop smoking!  She is too good to be true!!!  Then we saw the Rova's and shared a quick message with them.  It was such a great week and I continue to learn so much about having Christ-like love and being self-less!  I hope you all have a great week!  And participate in missionary work at home!  ;)

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

 The Skinners

Top of our church in downtown Show Low