I'm Home!!

Well, my mission came to an end. :(  It will come for all of you too, but don't be scared!!  It is kind-of sad to be home, but this is just the start of my next mission in life!  I wanted to share a few favorite scriptures that have meant a lot to me on my mission, and they sort-of just encompass my testimony!

1- Mosiah 24:13-14 "And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.  And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions." 

     -I know that this scripture is true.  I know that as we face afflictions that we can lift up our heads and be of good comfort because the Lord will ease the burdens that are put upon our shoulders that we cannot feel them.  The Savior is there to lift us if we will let him in!

2- Alma 7:11-12 "And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of ever kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.  And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities." 

     -I love this scripture so much and loved sharing it on my mission with different people.  I learned a lot more about the Atonement on my mission.  I realized that our Savior truly knows exactly how we feel and how, and He truly does know how to succor me.  There were different times on my mission where I felt like there would be no way up, and the moment I knelt down and prayed to my Heavenly Father to use the Savior's Atonement in my life, I was able to be freed from the sorrow that I felt. 

3- 2 Nephi 32:3-5 "Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ.  Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.  Wherefore, now after I have spoken these words, if ye cannot understand them it will be because ye ask not, neither do ye knock; wherefore, ye are not brought into the light, but must perish in the dark.  For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do."

     -One of the favorite things I gained a testimony of was the power of scripture study.  I love this scripture that it tells us that if we feast upon the words of Christ, which are in the scriptures, then we will know all things that we should do.  I've learned a lot about how we can receive so much revelation through studying the scriptures. 

I just want to bear my testimony that I know that this church is the true Church of Jesus Christ.  I know that it was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith and that we have a living prophet guiding His church today.  I know that our Savior lives and that He knows each and everyone of us.  I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that we truly can become closer to our Heavenly Father by reading it daily.  I loved my mission and am so grateful for all that I learned in the last 18 months! 

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

Me with C.H. Packer and his daughter, Caralyn.  I love them so much!!

Me with Aly and Rylee!  These girls are so much fun!!

Me with Brent and Christina!  I'm so grateful I had the opportunity to work with them!

The Holladays!!  Such sweet people!

The blanket I made for President and Sister Sweeney!  I had a lot of fun making it :)

One last picture with Sister Christensen!!  I'm going to miss her!!

Sister Mckellar and I riding to the airport!!!

So, I started off with Sister Wallace in the MTC, then we flew home together!  And Elder Russell wanted to get in the picture too ;)

Leaving Phoenix, Arizona!!!

Arriving in Salt Lake City, Utah!!!!

LAST UPDATE!!!

Hello Everyone!!

Well, I don't know about you, but I absolutely cannot believe that I made it down to my last week on my mission!!  It's been a wonderful journey and I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to serve the Lord!  I will send an email next week when I get home with my testimony and any miracles from my last week! 

So this week has been really good!  It went by really fast, and it felt like we kept very busy!  We were able to visit a lot of less-active members this week so that was good!  We have been working with the Galliens and they are doing really well!  Their son is 12 and we went over the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he was so sweet, he pulled out 2 Nephi 31:13 that has the gospel condensed into it, so it was cool!  Then we read just a couple more verses from that same chapter, and it was just a really cool lesson!  Then on Tuesday we were able to do some Family History with Jeff, then on Wednesday we went to the temple with him, so that was really good!!  Also on Wednesday, we had a cool little miracle.  We were trying to find a house to contact a less-active family, and their neighbor was outside and she said "are you the sister missionaries?" and we said yes, then she told us that she wasn't active but she wanted to start getting back into going to church again!  So we haven't had a return appointment, but we were really excited to meet her.  We've also been working with Taylor and she is doing really well.  She has been opening up to us a lot more so that we can help her out more, and hopefully we can help her get to the temple soon!  Then Friday morning we were able to do some service for the Galliens and we dug up weeds and picked up trash in the backyard.  We honestly had so much fun.  Missions change you :).  Then that evening we visited Sister Mun and she gave us cute little pillows with a sister missionary embroidered on it!  Then we had a good visit and hopefully this week we can share a little message with them.  Then on Saturday we had a cool little miracle, we found a family!!!  Their names are the Houstons and they are a very sweet family.  They have two little kids, 4 and 2.  We had a short little visit with her, and she said that no one has really shared any message about the church with her, and she said that she's open to us coming over to teach her more about our church!!  We have an appointment with them tonight and are excited to see what happens!  It's been a great week and I'm excited to see what this last week of my mission brings!!  Thank you all for all of the support that has been sent my way, it has definitely carried me through some hard times.  I love you all and have a great week!!

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

 my cute pillow from Sis. Mun :D

 Me and Taylor - I love her!

It's the Chees - I love them so much!

Week 77

Hello Everyone!!! 

This week has actually been really great!!  We were able to go to a Family Home Evening with a family in one of our wards and a Recent Convert came and he brought his mom who isn't a member, and it was just a really cool evening!  The lesson ended up being on the Articles of Faith which I honestly haven't taught much on my mission, but I thought it was really cool especially for her since it lays out the basics of what we believe!  Then Tuesday morning was really cool!  We went to a quilting group to visit casually with a lady who isn't a member, but has been contacted by missionaries for 8 years.  When we first contacted them, he talked a lot more than she did, so it was just a really good thing to be able to get to know her better, and the chat we had with the other ladies was about our religion as well, so it was great!!  Oh, and she was embroidering squares for me and Sister Call that she will put on a pillow!  I thought it was so cute and thoughtful!  Anyway, then we went to a luncheon with some more ladies in one of our wards, and they had a neighbor there who isn't a member, and it was cool to chat with her as well and we were able to answer some of her questions about missions!  It was cool too because Sister Call and I are close to finishing, so of course everyone was asking what we are doing after, and how our missions have been.  Anyway, then we saw Taylor and she is doing well, we were able to go over with our Relief Society President, so that was so helpful, we love our members coming out with us!!  Then before dinner, we contacted a young man named Jake.  We found him trying to contact a potential investigator.  He was home with the door open, and his cute 3-yr. old boy greeted us at the door with a lot of handshakes :).  His son has epilepsy so he struggled to speak, but he was just so cute!  We asked him if we could come back to share a message with him and his family, and he said he would talk to his wife and get back to us, hopefully she is open!  So that was our exciting miracle this week, because we LOVE finding families!! :)  Then that evening there was a preparedness dinner for one of our wards and we sat at a table with a couple who aren't members but live up in Pinetop, but it was good to visit with them too!  Then Wednesday we had some good lessons in the afternoon, one of them being with a man, Alfonso, who had dropped the sisters about a month ago.  He said once one of the last sisters left he wouldn't listen to the missionaries, but he was open to us when we stopped to share a message and he even told us that he asked his daughter if she wanted to go to church last week, which I was super excited to hear because that means he must want to go at least a little bit.  Then that evening we had another member come out with us and we taught a less-active couple, and the member happened to know about some program that the couple wants to get into to help them with finances, so it was really cool to have her there to help them.  It really is always a good thing when our members come out with us!!  Then Thursday was good, we were able to see Brent and Christina, and they are doing good, they keep telling us that they're really going to pick up the Book of Mormon and read it, so hopefully next time.  Then we saw Jeff and he came to church on Sunday and he blessed the sacrament AND his mom came to church with him!!  It is just too fun to watch him progress. :)  Then this weekend we had Zone Conference and it was really good, we learned some really cool things including a little training that was given to the General Authorities before conference on the Sabbath Day.  It's amazing how many of us become relaxed with our Sabbath Day observance, but it is really our gift to Heavenly Father to focus our activities toward Him.  Then Saturday we did a lot of service painting, and I was on an exchange with Sister Krutsch who I trained a year ago!!  It was fun to be with her again!  Then we had a great Mother's Day yesterday, and I hope you all had a great day as well, and told your moms how much you appreciate them!  I'm sure grateful for my very special mom, and am so very grateful that she is with us today!!  I love you all and hope you have a great week!!

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

 

 

 And this perfectly showed our companionship!  I thought it was funny :)

 So, a long time ago we made soap.......and we ruined it so this was the result!

So, if you have the cleanest care out of your zone, you get what we call "The Golden Plates".  And if you know me, cleaning is one of my strengths but this was the first time I got the plates, so I was pretty excited! :)

Week 76

Hello Everyone!!

It has been a crazy and good week out here in Taylor, Arizona!! :)  So, we were able to see one less-active family Monday evening and that was great because we had yet to sit down and have a long chat with them, because just a lot of things have been going on with them and we needed to hear the story to know how we can best help them out.  It was a really great visit and we did learn more about how we can better help them to be active in the church and to progress to the temple!  Their 12-yr old boy will be ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood soon so we are hoping to get him ready for that!  Then on Tuesday I was on exchanges with Sister Wallace, who if you remember was my companion from the MTC!!  So that was pretty fun, we had a great day of work!!  We were able to visit with a less-active family in the morning, and we hope to help him get back on his feet.  He was ex-communicated many years ago but he is such a sweet guy and he loves our visits, so we hope to help him to come to church again!  Then we were able to contact some people in the afternoon, one of them being a nonmember couple that has been contacted by missionaries for 8 years.  They are the sweetest people, but they think that they don't want to change.  They have a couple of sons that are members, so they have a lot of influence around them so hopefully we may have a chance with them?  She is a quilter, so we connected there with the crafts, so you never know!  They have only had sisters for the past 5 months, so maybe that's what they need? :)  Then we were able to see Jeff and he is doing well!  He brought his friend who isn't a member to our lesson, so he's doing great!  He wants to share the gospel with everyone, and that's my favorite thing to see in a recent convert! :)  Then we were able to see the Shumway girls and they are doing well also.  Then on Wednesday I went on another exchange with our New Mexico sisters so I got to drive for a total of about 3 hours, so that was fun!  The sisters there are doing great!  They were able to commit a 9-yr. old boy to a baptism date in June, and his mom is taking him to church which is great because she has been less-active!  Then on Thursday we went to the valley, so that was another 6 or so hours of driving.  Then on Friday we were able to attend our Mission Leadership Council meeting and it was a really good meeting!  We learned about some cool doctrine about being persistent with some investigators, and also about the Lord preparing people around us.  Then we came back that evening.  Then on Saturday we were able to do some service with one of our wards in the morning, and at one house that we were helping build a fence, the member sent us over to talk to a less-active lady that was outside at the moment.  So we went to go talk to her and she was really nice!  Her husband isn't a member, and she told us that we could come back to visit with her so we hope to do that soon!  So it's been a really great week and we are looking forward to working hard this week!  I love you all and hope the best for you!

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

 We decided to have a sleepover with the sisters last night!!!  We have fun :)

 Me and Amanda.:)  I love her so much!!!

Me and Kilee at her baptism a couple of weeks ago!!  I love this girl!! :)

Week 75

Hello Everyone!

Well, this week was pretty good and started off pretty busy!!  Monday evening and last night we were able to have some good Family Home Evening lessons with Mel, and that was exciting!  We hope to help him progress, he truly is such an amazing person!  Then on Tuesday I had the chance to go on an exchange with Sister Martinez and it was really fun!!  We got to do service in the morning, and that was fun as usual!  Then we had a really cool lesson that evening with a new investigator that they have in their YSA ward and he is so prepared!  It was really cool to be a part of that lesson.  Then on Wednesday we were able to to see a less-active that was in one of my old wards, but we never got to have a lesson with her before she moved over into one of my new wards!  I still think it's weird how I've followed some of these people over from my old area!  Anyway, she is a really sweet sister and we hope to help her to become active again!  Then we saw Jesse and Jessica, and we love them so much!!  They are less-active, and we were going to go over the lessons again with them, but we ended up talking about the Plan of Salvation which I just LOVE teaching!!  It was really cool and he told us that it really helped to solidify his testimony of the Plan of Salvation!! :)  Then on Thursday we were able to see Brent again and it was a really cool lesson!  We had been trying to see him earlier in the week because we didn't see him at church, but we finally got to him on Thursday, and his daughter was there who is also less-active.  We just taught a simple lesson on feeling of God's love as we read from the scriptures, and afterward his daughter told us that we stopped in at the perfect time to teach them, and that is just about the best thing you can hear on your mission! :)  Then we taught McKinley and she is doing well, she probably won't be able to be baptized for a while because her mom is having a baby in about a week, but she is progressing really well, so she should be really ready for when she gets baptized!  We then taught her cousin who is 10 and that was a good lesson, she's a really sweet girl.  Then we had a lesson with a 12-year old girl in the elder's area who had been referred to us because they requested sisters.  It was a really cool lesson, we asked her when she wanted to be baptized, and she blurted out "May 14th!"  so we are really excited for her!  We did ask again though if they would be okay with elders, and they said yes so the elders will pick up where we left off, but we are still excited for her!  Then we saw Jeff on Friday and he is doing really well!  He told us that he is on track to go to the temple in June so we are really excited for him!  Then this weekend I was sick, so we were in most of the weekend, but I did get out to do some service for a nonmember, although it probably made me worse, but I was happy that we go to do it!  Then on Friday and Saturday we got last minute calls to speak in two of our wards, so....I spoke in 2/3 wards yesterday, and Sister Call got to speak in all three wards because we had a previous assignment for one ward!  So yesterday was exciting and very long.  And of course if you know me, you won't be surprised that I started dosing off during our last sacrament meeting.....oh well people got a laugh out of it! :)  Anyway, it's been a great week and I hope that you all have a great week as well!!

Much love,

Sister Zimmerman

 The Girths!  I love this couple SO MUCH!!!  I got to see them on exchanges and it was so good!

Sister Martinez and I after exchanges!  Love this sister!  Oh, and the Girths gave us these necklaces after we left!  They are so sweet!!

Week 74

Hello Everyone!

So this week has been really good!!  It's been a little crazy, but it's been good!  Monday evening we were able to have a good FHE with Mel and it went really well!  He shared some good videos with us on pushing through the hard times.  We all shared some tears because it was just a really good message!  We saw him later this week as well and talked about overcoming fears and feeling worthless.  Then on Tuesday we saw McKinley and the lesson went well; they didn't come to church on Sunday so hopefully next week they come!  Then we did a few exchanges to cover different appointments and for Sister Flake to say goodbye to people.  But, we were able to see everyone that we needed to see!  Then on Wednesday we got a new investigator, Rylee!  She is 10 and hasn't been baptized yet, so we are excited to work with her!  She wants to be baptized, but wants to wait until her sister turns 8 for them to be baptized together.  But I am very excited to start working with her!  Then I was able to go to a transition lesson with the elders and Ashley, so I was excited about that!  Then we also contacted the Jones' who I taught in 9th ward, but moved over to 1st ward now, so I get to work with them again!  They are a part-member family, and the dad who isn't a member answered the door and he was actually really nice so I was happy about that!  We got to see them yesterday, and we asked their daughter, Braxton if she wanted to have the lessons because she is 9 and not baptized, and she said yes!  So we have another new investigator!  Then on Thursday we had some good lessons with less-actives.  Unfortunately none of them came to church yesterday, but hopefully next week! :)  Then we had a lesson with Nicole and it went well!  We talked about the Book of Mormon, which I love talking about!  The Book of Mormon is SO vital in conversion, so it was really fun to be able to cover the importance of it! Then on Saturday morning we helped out with a funeral all morning, and it turned out pretty well.  I was so happy that we were able to help out!  Then we went to Kilee's baptism in the afternoon!!!  I am so proud of her for making the decision to be baptized!!  She looked so happy and I was so happy to have been a part of her journey to baptism!!  We also stopped into a part-member family, the Toups and had a great visit!  We got in the door by bringing chocolate cookies :).  You learn little tricks like that after a while. ;)  Anyway, then yesterday we also contacted a new non-member family that recently moved in and hopefully we get to go back this week to visit them!  I hope that you all have a great week!!!

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

 This is Ashley, I love her so much!!  I will definitely miss her!

The Fabians!  I love them!! :)

Week 73

Hello Everyone!

Well, this weekend has been pretty good!!  It's been a little hectic getting settled into the new area and helping the missionaries in my old wards to get to know the people that I taught!  So on Thursday we had a lesson with a Recent Convert, Jeff.  He is a really neat guy!  He hits his year mark in May and has had different struggles this past year, but he is really trying to be good, and I'm really excited to get to work with him!  Then on Friday we had a short lesson with a less-active, Brent and that went pretty well.  It was a short stop-in because he got a phone call and had to leave, but he came to church yesterday for the second time in a few decades!!  I'm really excited to work with him as well because he finally has that desire to come back, now we just have to help him on his way! :)  Then we stopped by a former investigator, Alfonso, and he is a pretty cool guy!  I've actually met him a few times before, and he is just such a good guy!  He told Sister Flake that he came to church this past Sunday for her, so hopefully we can keep teaching him, but he says that he isn't too interested.  Then on Saturday I went out for a few hours with the sisters that took 3rd ward and we had a good afternoon!  We saw Brittany again, and they set up a return appointment, so I really hope that those sisters can get into that home!  She just seems like such a sweet lady and has a good family, I hope that they will accept the gospel in their lives!!!  Then yesterday was pretty crazy; my 3 new wards area at 9, 11 and 1 so we are at church almost all day long, it's pretty exciting!  Whoever says that 3 hours is long needs to try out church all day. :)  Anyway, then we visited a lot of people for Sister Flake to say goodbye, everyone has loved having her here because she was here for 9 months, so hopefully we can do a good job at filling her spot!  :)  So it's been a pretty good weekend, nothing too exciting though!  I hope that you all have a great week ahead of you!  I love you all!!

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

 ​Our trio!  Only two more days of this, but it's been a blast!! :)

This is my sweet Sarita, I love her! :)