Week 37

Hello Everyone!

This week has been awesome!!  So... I don't have my planner with me so I don't remember all of the details of this week.  But This week we weren't able to meet with Monica which was sad, but we get to see her tonight!  Then we were able to meet with James and Jeremy a few times this week which was fun as usual!  We have a date set for them for August 9th!  They should be ready to be baptized by then!  Then we were able to see Marie and she has committed to taking the stop smoking lesson tomorrow, so we are crossing our fingers that she follows it and is able to finally quit smoking so that she can be baptized!!  We also met with Josiah and committed him to pray about being baptized, and he told us last night that he doesn't feel comfortable committing right now, but that he is open to learning more!  Everyone else is doing well!   Then Friday night we spent a few hours at the stake center to start setting up for a big BBQ that we had with the Eldorado ward.  The goal was to have a get together with the two wards, and have nonmembers attend and receive a tour of the church building so that we could introduce more about our religion.  But it took a lot of time to set up! Friday night we just set up tables and chairs, then Saturday we were at the church from 11 AM until 8:30 at night.  We got there and started decorating, Sister Holman and I put up the streamers, then we also went around making sure that the rooms looked presentable.  The BBQ had a great turnout!!  There were quite a few nonmembers that came with their member friends and they all seemed to have a great time!  The sisters participated in a pie eating contest that ended up in a food fight between them, but it was pretty funny to watch!  Everyone had a great time!  Toward the end we were able to give Josiah a tour and it was so great!  He said that everything made sense and that he really liked it!  Then Sunday was great!  Only James and Jeremy were able to make it to church, but Josiah said he will make it next week he is just still recovering from his shoulder injury.  I love you all and hope that you have a great week!  

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

 24th of July BBQ

So......we needed a place to chill the watermelon until we cut it later in the afternoon

on Saturday so....we filled up the baptismal font with cold water and a few bags of ice..

in our defense it was our Bishop's idea!  Probably a once in a lifetime opportunity!

This is us after chalking!  Sister Moser, Sister Hopkin (our STL they were on exchanges), 

Sister Lords and I!

Week 36

Hello Everyone!

This week has been absolutely amazing!  I love my new area and know for a fact that this is where I need to be right now!  So Monday we basically traveled all day then we got back to the apartment at 5:30 and I started unpacking, then we went to a lesson with a lady named Monica!  On our way over to the lesson, we were on bike of course and it poured!!  So we were soaked, and this was only the second time she has had missionaries to teach her....so we felt bad, but she's super cool!  We had a really good lesson with her and we were just so excited!  She is really open and we are so hopeful that she will join the church and that by doing so she will just be a lot happier!  Then we tried to meet a few other people, then headed home to plan and then I finished unpacking.  Then Tuesday we had a lesson with two boys who want to be baptized, their names are James (11) and Jeremy (9).  They stopped Sister Lords and Sister Taylor while they were walking and asked if they were mormon, they said yes, then they said they were mormon too, but they weren't baptized but they wanted to be baptized.  Turns out that their cousins and grandma just got baptized into the Spanish branch!  So we had a good lesson with them about the Commandments!  They are very rambunctious so we repeat ourselves a lot so that they remember everything we teach them!  Oh, we also had Interviews and inspections that were really good!  My interview was good!  I just absolutely love President Sweeney he is a very understanding and loving man, and I am just very grateful that he is my mission president!  Then we had to finish our P-day chores.  Then Wednesday morning we went out walking at 6 and on our way back to the apartment, we met a man who Sister Lords has met before but hasn't been able to catch him at home to teach him, so we asked if we could stop by later that day and he said sure.  So around 9 we went over to his house and started teaching him, and by the end we asked if he had any questions and he said, "no, it just sounds like I need to read this book (the Book of Mormon) and find out for myself if it is true."  We were a little surprised because we don't get that response ever....so it was really cool!  He told us to come back in 3 weeks so that he could have time to finish reading the Book of Mormon!  I'm really excited to teach him in 3 weeks, he is a very sincere and open man!  He just seems so ready to receive the gospel!  Then we saw Marie who is another one of our investigators, but she can't get baptized quite yet until she quits smoking.  This week we taught her about the importance of the Book of Mormon in hopes that it would help her understand her need to be baptized and also quit smoking.  Then we had a lesson with a man named Josiah. He stopped the sisters while they were out biking, and told them that he wanted to be baptized.  He had taken the missionary lessons in Texas, and wanted to be taught again because he was never baptized!  He is a super nice guy!  It was an awesome lesson!  Then we had a movie night at our ward mission leader's house with some recent converts and less-actives and investigators!  We watched Ephraim's Rescue and it touched me so much!  I love that movie and I love the example that those saints gave us in fighting for this gospel!  Then Thursday we saw James and Jeremy again and taught them about why it's important to be baptized.  It was good!  Then we saw Monica again and invited her to pray about being baptized and she said she would!  In our next lesson we are going to invite her to set a date to be baptized!  She was unable to come to church on Sunday, but said she would come next week!  Then we had a lesson that night with a man named Jack who is a recent convert, and I actually met him about a week after he first met the missionaries!  He is a super neat guy and is definitely converted to the gospel!  That lesson made me so happy!  Then Friday we had a lesson with Matt who is another recent convert.  He is awesome!  I can't really remember what we talked about, it's been a long week!  Then Saturday we went out at 8 and street contacted people and passed out flyers to a BBQ that we are having this coming Saturday for Pioneer day!  Then after studies we went out with Sister Sweeney to Costco to get a Camel pack and help her with some grocery shopping.  It was fun, we love Sister Sweeney!  Then we had another lesson with James and Jeremy and with Josiah.  We also had a lesson with a lady who's daughter was recently baptized into the single's ward, and I actually went to her baptism!  It was super cool!  She is opening up to the idea of joining the church, it was just a really good lesson!  Then Sunday we had church and James and Jeremy rode with us to church, but no one else came, but that's okay!  We have next week!  Then after church we did studies then went out with the other sisters to contact people that the Bishop didn't know, but they weren't home so we taught one of their less-active members.  It's been a wonderful week!  I hope you are all doing well!!  I love you lots!

Love,

Sister Zimmerman 

Week 35

Hello Everyone!

Well, this week has been a little crazy.  First off, I'm being emergency transferred back down to Scottsdale to the same stake but a different ward!  And I will be on a bike and will also be serving with Sister Hogenson again because we split the ward with her and her companion!  Crazy!  I'm really really sad to leave Show Low, I've met some wonderful people here, but I'm planning on coming back here to visit after my mission if I don't get a chance to come back during my last 10 months out here!  So Monday was really cool.  Sister Stevens and I had recommitted ourselves to being exactly obedient this past weekend, and Monday we saw the blessings from striving to be obedient!  We first went to see an investigator who claims she is always busy, but she was home and very open to meeting with us!  Then at the end her daughter started asking us questions about the plan of salvation, which was a miracle because usually she is not interested in talking to the missionaries, so that was awesome!  Then we asked if we could make Monday evenings a regular visit, and she said that would be fine, which was a blessing because like I said, she was always apparently really busy!  Then we went to go see another investigator that I hadn't met yet, and she was home and we set up a return appointment with her so that was a blessing as well!  It was an awesome evening!  And we knew that it was mainly because of our striving to be exactly obedient.  Then Tuesday we went out in the afternoon and first went to the Cluff's to use their computer to finish up a spreadsheet for us to be better able to track our ward's member missionary efforts.  Then we went to the memorial for Barb Sellards.  It was a very short and simple memorial, and I was happy to see a good amount of people to come and support Wes from the ward.  Sister Stevens and I opened and closed the meeting with singing "Lead Kindly Light" and then "Be Still My Soul" A Capella.  After the meeting, everyone came up to us to tell us how beautiful we sounded together, and some people told us that they even cried.  It was pretty cool.  I will miss being able to sing with Sister Stevens, because I get to harmonize and I miss doing that a lot!  Then we went to the Rova's and had a lesson with them.  It was a good lesson and we watched "Treasure in Heaven" and talked about consecration.  It was a very good lesson, and Sister Rova committed to coming to church on Sunday with Dillon!  We were very excited about that!  Then Wednesday we had our Zone Training Meeting which was really good!  I really enjoyed the trainings that we received on how to be better missionaries!  Then we went out to lunch with one of my Aunt's friends who is up in Show Low for a while!  It was very fun to have her take us out to lunch and visit with her!  She has had 3 kids go on missions, so it was fun to talk about her missionaries!  Then that night I was dropped of at the Rubert's to wait until they drove me to Hon Dah to meet some other sisters to do an exchange.  We had to do it this way because we also had a lesson with Steve Price that we had to go to, so we did some splitzies.  Then Thursday I was on an exchange with Sister Evans (who I totally Facebook stalked before the mission!) in Whiteriver!  It was a very interesting day!  We kept plenty busy, and along the way were approached two different times by some drunk men asking for money.  Oh what an adventure!  Then we exchanged back later that night.  Then Friday we didn't do much, then we had another exchange on Saturday and this time I was in my area and Herman White came with me.  We had a really awesome day!  In planning the night before, we had planned to see a potential investigator named Guy, and we were at the Farmer's market doing some contacting around lunch, and we met him there and found out that he is moving into our other ward!  Pretty cool coincidence!  Then we went out to see another investigator who has heard all of the lessons, and he was really happy to see us and we set up a return appointment with him!  Then we stopped by to see Wes and his friends and I told him goodbye since I found out that day that I would be transferred today.  Then we had dinner, then after dinner we decided to go see the Westbrooks to ask them about Jake and try to set up an appointment with him.  It was definitely our lucky day, because Jake was miraculously there!  It was so cool!  We shared a short message with him then set up a return appointment yay!!  Then we exchanged back.  Then Sunday was just sad because I had to say goodbye to everyone.  I've learned a lot up here, but I am also excited for the new adventure down in Scottsdale!  It will be good!  So that has been my crazy week, I hope you are all doing well!  I love and miss you all!  Remember to invite someone to hear our wonderful message quarterly!  

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

 Here are the sweet Gardners!  He was our ward mission leader in our Rainbow Lake ward!  I love them so much!

I'm going to definitely miss my sweet Rovas!  I'll be back to ride horses with them one day!!

Week 34

Hello Everyone!!!

Well, this week has been very busy with lots of service in the beginning of the week.  On Wednesday we found out that Cazzie is going to be in Payson temporarily for a few months, so we had to say goodbye to her, so that was sad.  She was very sad to see us go, because it is pretty unlikely that we will still be here when she gets back.  Then we also had District Meeting Wednesday morning which was really awesome.  Our district leader is Elder Bailey from Riverton, Utah and actually doesn't live very far from me back home!  He is an awesome elder and we had a very good meeting.  We all helped each other with one tricky investigator, because we all tend to have one investigator that we hold on to that isn't progressing because of silly reasons, but there must be a deeper reason.  Then we learned about finding Christ-like attributes in our companions.  Then we had a training on how to get our members more involved in member missionary work which I will touch on later. ;)  Then Thursday we helped at the Cluff's because they are still needing help moving into their trailer.  And we also went out with one of our ward mission leaders to contact a really cool referral that told us that we could come back next Saturday!  We are pretty excited!  Then Friday we ate and ate and ate.....I felt like Violet(?) from Willy Wonka who needed to be rolled out of the room.  Then Saturday we weekly planned and decided to wipe our board clean and start fresh in our area.  We are now down to our two investigators (Diane and Steve) because they are stellar and are going to be baptized it is just a matter of when, and we are working on just a few less-actives.  This week we are going to focus on getting the members involved in member missionary work, because just as the prophet called members to go on missions from the pulpit at general conference in the early days, our prophet President Thomas S. Monson has called members to be missionaries from the pulpit.  So that's what we are going to do.  We know it's going to take a lot of effort because people are scared, but we are going to do it.  Then Sunday church was good, Diane came to both wards which was awesome!  Then that night we went to a fireside at the Show Low high school where the Nashville Tribute band came and performed!  It was awesome!  And at one point they had the sisters come on the stage and sing "Daughters of the Promise" with them and then had the Elders come up and join to sing "I was Born" so it was pretty awesome!  It was such a wonderful day!  We loved the fireside and loved their music because it uplifts us members to participate in the work!  I love you all and hope that you too participate in this wonderful work!  Have a wonderful week!  I love you!

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

 Fourth of July with the Cluffs

 ​The missionaries with the Nashville Tribute Band :)

Me with the Nashville Tribute Band!!!!!  And yes, Katherine Nelson is snuggling me :)