Week 59

Hello Everyone!

Merry Christmas!  I hope you all had a great week last week!  This week has been pretty good, although it was pretty slow.  On Monday evening we were able to visit a less-active couple, and their granddaughter, who is also less-active was there too!  This granddaughter was someone that we had been looking for for a while, but couldn't find her because the directions we received were "go down this road, and when you pass the end of the pavement go down your last dirt road on the left, and it's at the end on the left."  Well, if you were here you would understand that those are difficult directions considering the fact that everything is a dirt road and on the left could mean 5 houses...... So needless to say, I am grateful that we found her elsewhere. :)  Anyway, that was good!  Then on Wednesday we had an eventful day!  We had breakfast with an older couple in our ward, then we went to District Meeting.  I gave a talk and two other sisters gave some trainings then we went around the room and bore our testimonies.  It was a very neat experience and I'm pretty sure that we all cried a little at one point.  Then we went to a member's home for lunch with the other sisters.  This member is so sweet, she gave us all a present and a stocking of little gifts!  We also got to sing to them at the end!  Then that evening we went with a less-active couple to a family party of theirs in Snowflake!  And at the party, we were given a stocking and were asked to sit on Santa's lap along with everyone else......we refused because we're sisters....so that made for a fun moment for sure!  :)  Then we helped a less-active member wrap presents for her little family!  Then she sent us off with presents too!  My goodness, we were so spoiled this Christmas!!  Anyway, then on Christmas we were able to have breakfast with some sweet members, then we had lunch with another family in one of our wards, and they gave us stockings and presents, then we skyped our families!  So we had a pretty fun Christmas!  Then on Saturday we were able to see a less-active couple that we got referred to us from one of our Bishops, then we saw another referral, and visited more less-active people.  It was nice to end the week with some good visits after not being able to see many people this past week.  But it's been good and I was glad that I was able to be on my mission for a second Christmas, it is definitely a different experience!  I love you all and hope that you have a great week!

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

 The Rogers!  They had us over for breakfast Christmas Eve!  They are so nice to us!

 me and Sister Christensen

 skyping with the fam

 The Stapleys!  They had us over for breakfast on Christmas!

The Fabians!  I love them so much!  

Merry Christmas 2014 !

Hello Everyone!

Merry Christmas!!  I hope that you all have a great day this Thursday and are able to spend some time remembering the Savior and all that He has done for us.  I know that our Savior lives and loves each and every one of us!!  He is truly the greatest gift that has ever been given!  This week has been pretty great!  Travis and Mari are doing great, so that is good!  We love spending time with them, and actually get to spend some time with them on Christmas!  On Tuesday we had a sister join us for the day who served here a few months ago.  So she was able to go visit some people with us that we hadn't been able to contact yet, so that was fun!  One family we went to has been less-active for a long time, but one of their kids is active and he is getting married in the temple in May!  So, we are hoping that this will be a time for them to get motivated to become active so that they can attend their son's wedding!  Anyway, then we were able to go to a Relief Society activity that went really well!  On Wednesday we were able to do a session at the Snowflake temple!!!  We had all of the mountain zones there, which made for about 80 missionaries so some missionaries did other ordinances.  Anyway, it made for a great day!  I love attending the temple and feeling so much peace while in there!  Then Thursday we were gone almost all day again for a meeting with our zone in Heber which is about 45 minutes away.  Then at night we were able to go and see a part-member family and talked to the wife for a while, who isn't a member.  We had a great conversation that ended in her sharing some cool spiritual experiences!  We were really happy, because we have heard that she isn't super open to our message, but enjoys the visits!  Anyway, that was one of our miracles this past week!  Then on Friday we were able to see Ashley again and we taught her the Plan of Salvation.  Well, the cool part was that her mother-in-laws foster child was there and he isn't a member and just turned 8.  Anyway, he was so interested in it and loved it!  So, we are going to start teaching him the lessons every Thursday!  We are so excited to teach him!  Even though it won't necessarily count towards our numbers, we get to teach him while we still have to teach Ashley! :)  So that was cool, then that evening we went caroling to a bunch of different people as a district and got rid of all of our goodies!  YAY! ;)  Then on Saturday we had another great miracle!  We were on exchanges so I was with Sister Flake in my area, and we were able to contact the Shurters again!  We taught them a short lesson on the Book of Mormon and we learned all about them, and in the end he said that he would read from the Book of Mormon before we came back!  So cool!!!  So we got TWO new investigators!!!!!  I don't know that that has happened for a long time in this area!  Anyway, it's been a very good week!  I hope that you again all have a very merry Christmas!  Remember to keep CHRIST in your hearts! :)

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

 We went out to lunch last Monday after emailing and we all sort-of matched!!

 

I got to make two batches of the best pumpkin chocolate chip cookies last P-day!!!  

 Sister Christensen and I at the Snowflake Temple

 Sister Flake and I after our exchange! I love her!

We were sitting penguin style at the temple waiting to take a big group picture!!! :)

Week 57

Hello Everyone!

Well, the past few days have been busy for sure!  On Wednesday after P-day ended, we went to our Taylor 3rd ward Christmas party!  It was pretty fun and they had a pretty good turnout!  We were able to talk to the bishop and he pointed out different people that the sisters had worked with, so that was nice to put names to faces!  Then on Thursday, we just had the best day ever!  By the end of the day, we realized that EVERY door that we knocked, answered and let us in!!  It was so cool!  So we were able to visit with one lady who is the mom of a less-active lady that we were trying to contact!  Well, turns out the mom is also less-active and would love missionaries to come by, and has tried to reach out and get people to come, but no one has come to see her so she has given up.  So we contacted her missionaries and hopefully they will go see her soon!  Then we contacted a referral from one of our Bishops.  They are a sweet older couple that has a son who is paralized.  (Plan of Salvation??)  Anyway, he said that we could come back this week!  Hopefully it goes well!!  Then we saw another couple who is less-active, and they are super open to us and want us to help them go to the temple!  So exciting!  We also saw a sister who is less-active who just had an adorable little baby girl!  Well, she was really open to us and wants us to keep coming back, so hopefully we can get her and her mom active again!  Then we visited a sweet old couple, the wife is on hospice and can't go anywhere, so they really appreciate visits!  They are probably one of the most humble couples I've met!!  Then we taught another older couple this week who hasn't been sealed, so we are teaching them the lessons to prepare them to go to the temple!  They are such a nice couple!  Then Friday we got to see Ashley again and this time we taught her the Restoration!  She knows that the gospel is true, and she knows that she just needs to get the motivation to come to church to be active!  Her husband is also not a member, so hopefully we will be able to soften his heart a little? :)  She's the greatest, we are so happy to get to work with her!  Then Saturday we saw Judy again and shared a quick message, she is hopefully warming up a lot and will come to church soon!  Then we had our Taylor 9th ward Christmas party!  Then yesterday we had meetings and church from 7am till 4pm!  Long day, totally worth it!  Oh, and we got to go caroling to some people yesterday, it was so great!  One man opened the door (we didn't know him) and we sang to him, then we gave him cookies and he gave us some cookies right back!  It was really surprising!  :)  Anyway, things are going GREAT!!!  The people up here in Taylor are amazing and we have so much work to do it's so great!  I love you all, hope you are having a wonderful Chirstmas season!!

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

First gift from 12 days of Christmas. Matching book marks :D

Working in Taylor Arizona!

Hello Everyone!

Well, this week hasn't been as crazy, but maybe it's just been a different kind of crazy!  We have been getting everything sorted out with our new area, and have been able to meet with all of our leadership which has been really nice to get to know where the wards are at so that we can know how to help everyone!  So, we were able to see a few people this week, one of them that stands out is a single mom named Megan.  She has been less-active for a long time, and has two little boys that are so adorable!  So we visited her this last week and we shared a message, then we asked her why she hadn't been to church in a long time, and we actually got the scoop on why she hadn't been for a while.  It was really cool, because while we were talking to her I just felt like she is one that we are going to help soften her heart.  I could be totally wrong, but she did let us help her set up her tree on Monday night and she made us dinner too!  She's a really sweet girl, I hope that we can help her to become active again.  Also, we have been in a trio since Thursday, so that has been interesting!  On Thursday we were with Sister Craig, because Sister Flake had to go down to the valley for a meeting, then didn't come back until late Friday night.  Then Saturday morning Sister Craig went home because she was on a trial mission and leaves for her real mission to Mississippi next Wednesday!  So we have been with Sister Flake since Saturday morning, but then her new companion, who happens to be my old companion Sister Crowther, came in late last night!  So on Sunday we got to go to our 3 wards which was really exhausting, but I sure do love our new wards, I'm so excited to work in this wonderful area!  We also met a really sweet family this last week that has actually been worked with for a long time, but now might just be the time that they are open to our message!  We will find out the beginning of January because they are expecting a baby any day and want us to come once things settle down a little more!  Anyway, it's been a great and a crazy week! I hope you all watch the He is the Gift video and find ways to Share the Gift with your friends and acquaintances!  I love you all!!  

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

 The Sisters in our cute little duplex :D

 Fun times in the car!

How will you #Share the Gift?

Bed bugs, Thanksgiving, and Emergency Transfer to whitewash what???

Hello Everyone!

Well...not too many exciting things happened missionary-work wise, but I think it's safe to say that this has been the craziest week of my mission!  So, I've been getting bites on my arms that have gotten really swollen and they've just been painful and awful.  Well, on Wednesday we decided to move my bed away from the wall and vacuum around my bed to hopefully get rid of the bug that was biting me.  Well, we didn't see any spider webs, so I looked around my mattress and there were weird dark spots and I touched the fabric and one of them moved!  So, we got a jar and caught it then brought it over to a member's home who is an exterminator, and he verified that it was a BED BUG!!!  There's sort-of an infestation of bed bugs around in the valley.....but I was so sure we wouldn't get them.  Anyway, so we went home and started washing all of our clothes and bagging them up to keep them away from the bugs.  Then the next day we went to our Thanksgiving dinners and it was great!  Then we continued to do more laundry and cleaning.  Then Friday morning we did something pretty exciting!  So, I hope you have all heard of the church's initiative called "He is the Gift". They launched a website called christmas.mormon.org on Friday with a short video showing that our Savior was the first gift of Christmas, and that we should discover the gift, embrace the gift, then SHARE the gift!  So, some sisters made posters and we stood in the median of a busy road between a mall and a big park.  We hope good things come of it, it was really fun!  I hope to get some of those pictures soon, if not I'm really sorry I don't have pictures to show for it, but it was super fun!!  Then Friday night I got a call from President Sweeney and he informed me that I needed to be packed and ready to go on a trip with him at 9 the next morning.  I was also told I would be whitewashing with a sister who has been out almost 2 transfers!  So, I am now up in Taylor, Arizona and it's sooo cold!!  But, so far it seems to be a pretty good area.  We don't have any investigators, but we will get there!  Sister Christensen is my new companion, she is so pretty and just an awesome missionary!  We get to be together for Christmas, so I'm pretty excited about that! :)  She is 19 years old, did a semester at BYU-Idaho and is from Cocoa Beach, Florida!  Also, if you have ever watched "The District 2" about missionaries in California, Elder Christensen is her brother! :)  So, this week has been pretty crazy, and this week will be very busy trying to figure everything out, but it's going to be so good!  I love you all and hope that you have a great week!  ALSO, PLEASE share the Gift with everyone that you can!  Remember all that He has done for you, and be kind and share that with others! :)

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

 Sister Christensen and I by a really cool view of Taylor! :)

Taylor Arizona :D

Week 54

Hello everyone!

I hope you have all had a great week!  We had a pretty good week ourselves, which was good!  I was sick with a cold this week, but despite that we were able to get a lot of work done.  On Tuesday we were able to do a few hours of service, which was so great because we don't usually get to do that much service, so I definitely enjoyed that!  On Wednesday we were able to see Sister Batty, who is a less-active that wants to return to activity.  We caught her on her way out to work, but were able to share a quick message.  I'm really excited to help her return to activity, she is a really sweet lady!  We also had a lesson with a former investigator that went well.  We aren't quite sure how interested she is, but she agreed to take the lessons because she wants to know about the faith that her son will grow up in!  And, we are pretty positive that as we teach her truths of the gospel either way, she will slowly open up.  Then on Thursday we had a great Zone Conference and learned about a few different things.  We learned about an initiative that the church is putting out this Christmas season that you will all be learning about by the end of this week hopefully!  The church will be putting out a new video called "He is the Gift" and the initiative is for us as members to share the greatest gift that we have in our lives, which is our Savior.  It will be a neat way to keep us focused on the true meaning of Christmas, and will hopefully open people's hearts so that they will be more interested in our message!  The church has put a lot of time into it, and I hope that you all participate in it!  Then that evening we had a great lesson with a native couple, and we first learned about their traditional beliefs, then we shared the introduction to the Book of Mormon where it talks about how the Book of Mormon talks about the ancestors of the Native Americans.  After we shared that, their interest level went up and it was really neat to see the spirit touch them with the truths that we taught!  So we will start to teach them as well!  Then we had a great lesson with a sweet girl, Carlyn.  She just moved out here from California and we were able to talk about our Sacrament meeting and our other classes, and it was so cool!  She opened up a lot and we could feel the spirit and it was just a really neat lesson!  She said that she would come to church, but wasn't able to yesterday but said she will come this Sunday, so we are looking forward to it!  Then Saturday evening we were able to go to the Visitor's Center with Katie, and we were able to walk through the God's Plan for the Family presentation.  It was really neat, and at the end she shared some good thoughts on eternal families.  We are hoping that she becomes more motivated to have an eternal family of her own.  It's been a good week, and things are going well!  We are excited for Thanksgiving, and I hope that you all have a great Thanksgiving!  I am truly grateful for my Savior and all that he has done and continues to do for me.  I am so grateful for this gospel that leads and guides me in my life so that I can have peace and happiness in this life!  I love you all!

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

 this is Sister McConkie, one of the office staff.  She is so great and will be leaving in a couple of weeks, I will miss her a lot!  She is just so great!

Week 53

Hello Again!

Well, this week has been quite busy to say the least!  It's been really good!  On Monday evening, we were able to go out with the Hobbs to a lesson that fell through, but then miracles happened!  We ended up visiting two less-active families that we haven't been able to visit yet, and it went super well!  I'm convinced that members are our secret weapon. :)  Anyway, then Tuesday was super busy!  We saw Ann Marie, and she is doing well, so that was good.  We are hoping to get her on the track to the temple soon since she has passed her year mark!  Then we saw the Ham's and had lunch with them.  I will include a picture of the shrimp that we ate, it was fresh from Mexico, and it was HUGE!!!  I count that as me getting to experience a little of what Haley's mission is like. :)  Anyway, then we were able to see Sister Knowles, which was a huge blessing!  She is now working from 7am to 9pm, but she happened to be home because she was sick.  We are hoping to help them, but we may have to just be patient until she is free more often.  But, we were able to share a message with her before leaving.  Then we saw Demitri and he is doing so well!  We have been going over the Priesthood with him, and he's understanding it all more and more, so that's been fun!  Then that evening we had soup and pie night with the Relief Society, it was so yummy and so fun!  We have some amazing cooks in this ward, I feel very blessed. :)  Then Wednesday was SO good!  We had a mission tour conference with the missionaries in the valley with Elder Lawrence from the second quorum of the seventy.  His wife spoke to us first, and for two hours she taught us deep doctrine on the gathering of Israel.  I have never been so captivated by a talk in a long time.  It was so good and so interesting.  Later that day, we received a challenge to: read through the Book of Mormon by Dec. 31st.  We are to highlight all references of Jesus Christ, then write our testimony in the book, then give it to one of our investigators.  In doing this challenge thus far, it's been so neat to now have the insight on the gathering of Israel.  I don't know if it would be as cool to those who read this, but if you get a chance, try to learn all you can about the gathering of Israel.  Then when we got back we had a lesson with Carl, but it fell through and all of our other appointments fell through as well, but we have an appointment for tomorrow night!  We also saw Jason and shared a quick message with him, but he dropped us the next day.  But he was very nice about it, so that was good I guess!  Then Thursday we tried to see Carlyn, but she wasn't there so we will keep trying.  Then Friday I wasn't feeling too well with a cold, but we got a couple of referrals, so that was good!  Then Saturday we saw Brenda, who is a former investigator.  And she told us that she told a missionary that she wants to be baptized when she turns 18 and that she then wants to go on a mission!!  She is such a sweet girl, and she comes to church when she can, but her parents won't let her go as much as she wants.  But, we did get her mom to agree to come to Young Women's next week to teach the young women how to make homemade tortillas, so maybe that will be a good start to softening her heart!  Then we saw Jennifer and were able to teach her a short lesson.  Then we saw Barbara, and she is doing well!  I am so excited to see her progress to go to the temple, it would be so great for her, and she is finally in a good place in her life, I really do believe that she could do it in the near future!  Then Sunday was great with the Phoenix Temple dedication.  I have been so blessed in my life to have been to so many temple dedications in the past few years.  I really am so grateful, they are neat experiences!  Then we saw Katie, which was so great because we weren't able to keep an appointment all week long.  Then we saw a few other people that we have been trying to see, and we ended up meeting our goal of 15 less-active and recent convert lessons for the week, it was really amazing!  It's been a good week, sorry this update is so long.  Things are going so well in the area, I'm so happy to be able to be a part of these people's lives!  I love you all, hope you have a great week!!

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

 

 I am so proud of myself for eating this huge shrimp!  And we had two of them!

 On our way to a mission conference :D

Yes, I already have my Christmas decorations up :)

Week 52

Hello Everyone!

This week was CRAZY!!!  Oh my goodness it was such a good week!!  I'll try to squeeze it all in!  So on Tuesday, I went on an exchange with Sister McCashland and it was really good!  We were able to contact a less-active that I have never met, and he said he would come to church but didn't so we will try to see him again this week!  Then we saw Katie and taught her about prayer and scripture study, but Travis didn't come out to say hi to us the whole lesson, so that was a little sad.  But later in the week when we brought over some Diet Pepsi he was nice to us....I guess we know how to get to his heart. :)  Then on Wednesday night we had a member come out with us and we were able to teach Demitri about the Priesthood some more because he received the Melchizedek priesthood during Stake Conference.  Then that night we went to go see Stephanie and Johnny.  We stopped by and they let us in, so that was a good start.  Then we sat and visited with them and the member ended up inviting them over for dinner this week!!  Sister Crowther and I both had a very strong impression from the Spirit that our Heavenly Father has been preparing them for us.  It was a neat feeling, and I'm just really excited to meet with them and see them progress.  Johnny told us on Thursday when we dropped by to confirm the dinner appointment with the member, that Stephanie is worried to convert, but we told them that we won't push her to convert, which is true.  We were able to invite Stephanie to a Relief Society activity tomorrow night where we are going to have soup and pie.  How fun??  Anyway, I hope that she comes, it would be so great!  So then Thursday we had some carrot cake bread with a less-active girl named Gloria that we had met on Tuesday.  Since she is YSA age, we invited the YSA sisters to come, so hopefully she will be a little more open to going to the YSA ward.  We just want her to be active again, but we are going to have lunch with them tomorrow, so that's exciting!  Then we went tracting and had some pretty fun experiences.....oh the people you meet on the streets in Mesa. :)  Anyway, we then saw Carol after dinner, and she became a new investigator.  She was a referral that I contacted with Sister Rudy, but didn't get a return appointment.  Anyway, we were able to share an uplifting scripture, and learn more about her!  Then we saw Carl who has been on our radar, and we set up a return appointment with him and shared a message, so he became a new investigator!  So that made two new investigators on Thursday.  Then Friday right after weekly planning as we were walking to an appointment, we met a guy named Jason.  We started talking to him, learned more about him, shared some principles out of the Restoration pamphlet, then we set up a return appointment with him so he became a new investigator.  Then after dinner we saw Carlyn who was another referral that we had been wanting to meet.  We talked to her while she looked in her car trying to find her credit card, then we shared principles from the Restoration, set up a return appointment, and she became a new investigator.  So then we had two more investigators.  Then Saturday was soooooo good.  So we went to a funeral for a man in our ward that passed away from pancreatic cancer that he had for a year and 5 months.  It was a very sweet service and was so good to hear about him and his life.  Then we were able to go support Don Soule as he received his own endowment!!!  What a sweet experience.  I sat in the Celestial room after, and just thought about all of the hard things that I had gone through in the past year, and remembered that it was all worth it.  Seeing him there at that point in his conversion was so worth it.  As is so many other things that happen in missionary work.  It was just so rewarding to see that and be a part of that experience.  We also got to see him be sealed to his deceased wife.  It was so cool.  Then Sunday was so good.  Our meetings were really good, then after dinner we went to contact a referral that our members gave us, and his name is Alec and he said he would be willing to learn more.  He also said that we were the THIRD set of missionaries to stop by that week.  We aren't sure who those missionaries were, but his heart was softened, we shared a message, and he became a new investigator.  So he made our FIFTH investigator for this week.  I don't think I've ever gotten that many new investigators in a week.  It's been a great week and I just feel so privileged to be able to participate in the Lord's work.  I know that we couldn't do it without him, and I also know that he could do it without us, but he wants us to grow and he loves us enough to let us experience these great things. Anyway, I hope you all are participating in missionary work in your own way.  The joy that comes from it is indescribable!!!

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

 

I thought it would be fun to get a picture of my old companions at the Temple this week:D

 Sister Stevens

 Sister Krutsch

 Sister Lords

 Sister Hogenson

Sister Crowther

Week 51

Hi everyone!

So the past few days have been a little rough, but that's okay!  We were able to street contact 24 people and some of them we gave our phone number to on a Mormon.org card and some said we could come back to visit!  A lot of what we have done in the past few days has been setting up lessons for this week, which is great for this week, but our numbers were pretty low.  On Wednesday we were able to go to the Phoenix temple open house with Travis and Katie, and Irlanda and some of her friends so that was exciting!  Other than the fact that we got home almost at 11....it was super packed and took a while to go through all of the lines!  But, we had a good time and I think those that came had a good time as well!  On Thursday night we were able to meet with Jennifer and she got a comfort blessing from our Elders, and before she got the blessing she was talking to us about how she was hoping to come to church on Sunday and that she wanted to go back to our employment center for some help.  She just opened up a lot with us, and she hasn't been friendly towards the church in a long time, so it was really neat to see her open up and we have a lesson with her tomorrow night!  Also, we did hear from our missing recent convert, we just know that she is okay thus far, no one knows where she is at right now but she did call some of her family members so that was a good thing this weekend!  We were also able to set up a return appointment with a less-active member that we have been meaning to go see for a while, so that was pretty exciting!  Then Friday we went to our ward party which was pretty exciting there were tons of people there!  We had to leave early though, because we got to go do a session at the Mesa temple!!  It was soooo exciting to be able to do almost an extra session on our mission!  It was a great way to end the day!  Then Saturday was a little hard, Travis and Katie didn't show up to our lesson where we were going to teach them the 15-step stop smoking program, so that was a bummer, then Katie said that Travis doesn't think he wants to be baptized anymore.  So, we lost our one investigator, but we are hoping to maybe be able to keep visiting Katie because she still wants to come to church!  We were also able to teach a little boy who is going to be baptized in a couple weeks, so that was a fun lesson to teach!  I love his family, they are great members!  Then Sunday was so good.  We had a state conference that was broadcast from Salt Lake.  Elder Foster, Elder Christofferson, Sister McConkie, and President Uchtdorf all spoke.  They focused on remembering the eternal perspective in all things, especially in the trials that we face.  It was just really good, and we were able to participate in the choir and we sang "Let Us All Press On", the version that was performed in this April's general conference, it was SO fun to participate in that!  Then we were able to contact a less-active that we have been trying to see since I got here and we have a return appointment with her on Wednesday!  It's been a good weekend all in all, it's just been a little hard as well.  I guess I include that to let y'all know that missions are great, but we do go through a lot to stay out here, and it's because we love our Savior, Jesus Christ and believe that our message with bring happiness and joy that they have never experienced before.  I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

Selfie time!  I actually did my hair on Sunday! ;)  And yes, that pink thing on my bag is pepper spray!  I'm ready to protect myself! ;)

Phoenix Temple

Week 50

Hello Everyone!!

This past week and a half has been crazy, so I will start at the beginning.  Monday we had the opportunity to meet at the church building next to our mission office for a Specialized Training for the sisters.  It was so good!!!  I we talked about being happy in the moment.  We sisters need that a lot because we feel guilty about the past and we worry about the future, and never enjoy the in between.  So it was really good.  We also talked about having the courage to talk to people and just to do the scary parts of missionary work.  But, we did say "Here am I, send me."  As sisters, we can say that, because the Elders are already volunteered.  It was just a cool conference, and it was fun to see the sisters serving in the valley.  On Tuesday we were able to visit a lady from our ward whose husband isn't a member, and it was just good.  We are hoping that we will be able to get in with that family and start teaching him, but he has been pretty not interested in the past, but recently has been coming to church almost every week.  Then Tuesday night we were able to go with our Recent converts to the Mesa Temple and we watched them perform proxy baptisms.  One of our converts, Patsy, was able to be baptized for her mom and her mom's mom.  Then another convert was baptized for Patsy's dad and her mom's dad.  It was such a wonderful experience, I was so grateful that I had that opportunity to be there!  Then Wednesday we taught Travis and Katie a review on the Word of Wisdom, and set up a time for tomorrow to teach them the 15-step stop smoking program for them to quit smoking.  So, hopefully all goes well with that!  They weren't able to come to church because they had food poisoning, so that was sad, but they are coming to the temple with us tonight so that should be good!  Then Saturday was super busy.  Saturday morning we were able to participate in a neighborhood day of service project.  We helped scrape grass in between the sidewalk, and were able to help sweep the sidewalks because they mowed just about every lawn on our street.  It was just fun to work with the members to serve our neighborhood!  Then we were able to meet with a recent convert that night after not being able to see her for a while because she had been in the hospital.  She seemed fine, but now she is missing, so we are praying that she is safe and unharmed, because no one knows where she could be.  Anyway, then Sunday we just had church and other meetings, but our sacrament meeting went really well.  We had a couple speak who just returned from their mission in Uruguay!!  They are such a sweet couple and I'm really excited to work with them.  They gave great talks, then Sister Rudy was asked to bear her testimony since she was going to leave on Monday.  She bore a great testimony, it was just a really spiritual meeting.  Then Monday was great.  I was with Sister Walesby who came out with me, went home for medical reasons, then came back out almost three weeks ago!!!!  I was soo happy to hear that she was back and that I was going to work with her.  We were able to meet with the Johnsons and turns out that he has quit smoking and she is on the path to the temple after  her year mark in December!  So that was good news, we just have to make sure that we keep them on that path!  Then we had a really cool street contact which started with me asking a man about the apartment complex because we were going to tract there and needed apartment numbers, but there didn't seem to be any..... But it started there and lead to him asking about missions, then he asked about our beliefs so we taught him a mini lesson on the Restoration, then we gave him our number and he said he would talk to his wife, when his wife drove into their driveway.  She seemed interested, and I am super hopeful that we will be able to work with this family!  At the very least, it was a really good street contact and they now have some answers about our church!  Then yesterday I got my new companion.  Her name is Sister Crowther and she is from Clearfield, Utah.  She is 24 years old and has been serving for 14 months.  She is great and I am very excited to serve with her.  It's been just a great week and a half and I will email again in just a few days!  I hope you all have a great week! 

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

 Sister Rudy - just finished her mission and is heading home :D

 

 

It's my new companion!!  Sister Crowther!!  She's a sweetheart!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 49 - 20th Birthday!!!

Hello Everyone!

This week has been good!  So Monday night we were able to meet with a less-active member and her new roommate who Sister Rudy hasn't seen for a while.  We are going to try to get them on track to the temple, but it may just take a while.  It was an interesting meeting, but it was good and I'm excited to help some members make it to the temple!  Then Tuesday we had a really fun Relief Society activity and we got Katie to come with us so that was exciting!  We learned all about being prepared in an emergency, I learned a lot and hopefully gained motivation to be prepared when I have a family of my own one day!  Then Wednesday was good!  We had our Zone Training meeting and focused it all on the temple.  We talked a lot about how important it is to keep the end in mind, and be sure that all of our efforts are leading those we are teaching to the temple.  It was a good refresher to remember how important our temple covenants are and to remember the blessings that God has in store for all of us if we make those covenants!  Then we went to the Towers and saw Linda and she had hostess cakes and butterfingers for my birthday and Sister Rudy going away.  It was super cute!  We also met with a less-active young woman that just turned 12 in August and we were able to get her to go to Young Women's activity at the native ward which was really cool!  She is in between wards, so we are both going to try to work with her I guess?  I'm not quite sure, but she will be taken care of she is a very sweet girl!  Then Thursday night Sister Rudy told me that we were going to do Family History work with some other sisters because they were struggling and they wanted to sort-of hang out so that they could relax.  Anyway, they ended up getting me over to a member's home because the story was that the one sister couldn't handle being with the other sister and we needed to break them up.  Well, instead they had a surprise party waiting for me!  It was super sweet and it was quite exciting that the only real surprise party that I've had was on my mission!  So we had cupcakes and talked with each other, and took fun pictures it was great!  Then Friday was great.  We stopped by to see Travis and Katie because we had only been able to see Katie that week, but it was his birthday, so we just told him Happy Birthday then Katie stood outside and talked with us for a little bit.  While she was talking with us she told us that Travis had leaned over to her the other night and asked what she thought about them getting married next month!!  I was so excited to hear this!  They were planning on getting married in April!!!!!  The spirit definitely testified to me that this was in our Heavenly Father's plan.  It just felt so good!!  So, we are hopefully going to be seriously preparing him for baptism in the near future!  There isn't a for sure date or anything like that, but at least they aren't set on April anymore!  Then Saturday we were able to tour the Phoenix Temple!  It was a beautiful temple!  We were able to go with a less-active family and Demitri who is a solid recent convert!  So it was a good trip!!  Then Sunday we had our primary program and we had a less-active couple come that I haven't seen at church since I've been here so I was excited to see them!  It's been a great week and this week will be a busy one with Sister Rudy leaving next week!  I hope you all have a great week!  Remember to take the opportunity to share the gospel whenever you can!!

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

Coke a Cola Birthday cake!!!

Mesa Zone - it's been a fun transfer :D

 Phoenix Temple open house

Week 48

Hello everyone!!

Well, another week has gone by...and another month.  I really can't believe that I've been out for 11 months today!  It's weird remembering the things that I was doing just a year ago, and it's just funny.  Anyway, this week really wasn't too exciting, but that's okay because the slow and hard weeks make the amazing weeks that much sweeter!!  So on Monday evening we were able to see a recent convert named Judy and shared a scripture with her.  We also stopped by later this week to teach her about eternal marriage but I'm not quite sure how much she grasped of it.  But she is doing better from the time I met her because she was really offended and mad when I met her so I'm really happy that her heart has softened!  Then we also saw Barbara and taught her the Plan of Salvation.  It was a good lesson and I think she really enjoyed it.  After teaching her we both decided that we think she is ready to progress toward going to the temple.  I really hope that we are able to get her there because I just want her to have those special blessings that we receive in the temple.  Then Tuesday we saw a less-active family and taught them the Plan of Salvation.  We are also trying to get them to return to the temple.  They need to make some changes in their lives to do so, but I'm confident that as we keep meeting with them that they will be able to progress!  Then Wednesday we saw Judy our investigator that I said was so awesome and I was so excited.  Well, we taught her the Restoration and invited her to be baptized and she definitely wasn't up to being baptized but she said we could still meet with her.  Then later in the week she got in a fight with her fellowshipper and so she left her Book of Mormon outside of this member's door.  So she dropped us and I was sad, but I know that Heavenly Father has someone prepared for us to teach!  Then we saw Ann Marie and Demitri and they are both doing well and hopefully on track to enter the temple as well!  Then Thursday we saw Travis and Katie and talked to them about tithing and fast offerings and I think it went well!  Sad part, they weren't able to come to church on Sunday, but he does seem to be progressing still!  We can see that he is gaining a testimony, we just hope that he can recognize it and make changes based on that testimony.  Then just before going to dinner a member called out to us and said that he had a referral for us!  He met a guy that has been starting to attend church at another building but lives in our area!  He gave us his number but the phone number didn't work, so we will try to get in contact with him in another way.  Then Saturday we saw a lady in the ward whose husband is dying of cancer right now and we offered our help to take in groceries then we got to talk to her for a little bit.  Then their son and two grandsons came in and the son asked us a couple of questions about the church but said he wasn't interested in really learning more.  Hey, at least he has some questions!  We also got to talk to a cool guy on the street and he talked to us for a good 15 minutes about the Bible and he had so much knowledge it was crazy!  We finally convinced him to take a Book of Mormon and he said that he would read it!  Then Sunday we were able to go to sacrament meeting at the Towers which is an assisted living, and it was just really fun I enjoyed it!  Then a minister from another religion attended our sacrament meeting so that was neat!  So it's been a good week!  I am also starting to read the Book of Mormon and highlight the Christlike attributes that I find.  It's been really exciting thus far and i feel like I am able study the Book of Mormon better!  I've already seen great examples of obedience, forgiveness and patience.  All things that I strive to improve on.  Anyway, I hope you are all doing well!  I love ad miss you all!!

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

weeding service project :D

Week 47

Hello everyone!

This week was sooo good!  It really was amazing!  So on Tuesday we went up to Scottsdale to watch a screening of "Meet the Mormons" and it was AMAZING!!!!  Everyone who reads this needs to go and bring someone with them or at least invite someone to go and see it on their own time!  The church did an amazing job at showing Mormons from different walks of life!  I just thought it was so good and I definitely cried when it showed the missionary mom and her son leaving on her mission....I'm pretty sure that we were all crying.  But, go see it you won't regret it!  Then that night we were able to teach Travis and Katie.  We were able to teach them about the Word of Wisdom, and they received it really well!  Then Travis was able to go to the Priesthood session on Saturday night and he said that he now has a strong testimony that President Monson is truly a prophet of God.  Katie said that when he got home that night that he was just grinning from ear to ear!!  I was so happy to hear that!!!  He is definitely progressing and it is so fun to be apart of his spiritual journey!  We were also able to watch the Sunday morning session with a member in our ward in their home.  We really hope that they both got something out of that session, I think they were a little tired though.  Then Wednesday we had exchanges and it was such a great day!  So we had our District meeting in the morning and it was good, Sister Rudy gave a great talk on Hope.  Then we had some lunch, then we went to an appointment with a lady in the Assisted Living in our area, who had a friend that wanted to learn more about our church.  Her friend is Judy and she is in her late 70's.  She was so ready to receive our message!  We had a great first meeting with her and our conversation was all centered on the gospel it was great!  I was so excited coming out of that lesson, because she is fully capable of learning and grasping our message and I am pretty certain that she will progress to baptism.  Then Thursday we went by to see her and I was able to introduce her to Sister Rudy and she was so excited to see us!  She said that she was already starting to feel a part of our family!  I was so happy to hear that because that is how we want everyone to feel!  Then we haven't been able to see her since, but we will hopefully get to see her tomorrow!  Then Thursday we had another great day.  We had a lesson with Anne Marie and she is doing well, we just hope to see her at church on a more regular basis!  Then we were able to street contact 11 people through stopping on the street or tracting!  It was so great!  And two of those people said that we could come back to teach them some more!  Then conference this weekend was just great!  I hope that you all enjoyed the messages that we received from our prophets and that you were all as spiritually uplifted as I was!  I enjoyed so many of the talks, especially ones about following the prophet, because I know for myself that as we follow the prophet, that we will find so much joy in this life!  I can't wait to review the talks when they come out!  I hope that you all have a great week!  Remember to go see "Meet the Mormons".

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

 Finished another blanket

So, I totally feel like I'm living with my Soderberg grandparents, and the other day we came in from proselyting and I found this little dish of wedding mints....and grandma Soderberg always had wedding mints at her house in a little dish.  It was just funny so I had to take a picture! 
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Week 46

Hello Everyone!!

This week hasn't been super exciting, so I'm sorry if this is a shorter email.  I also forgot my planner that has what we did each day...woops!  but we were able to visit more with some recent converts that are struggling, but I think most of them came to church on Sunday!  We were also able to visit The Towers which is an assisted living in our area which just makes me sooo happy that we actually have one in our area!  But we visited one of the sweetest ladies there that is a member, and we got to listen to her about her family, which is really a big service to them to know that someone cares about them!  We are actually going to be able to see her again this week because she has a lady that is interested in learning more about our church!  I'm so excited!  Travis is doing okay, but he cancelled his baptism date because they are set on getting married in April, so he won't be able to be baptized until he is married.  But after cancelling some appointments, we saw them on Sunday and they said we were still in good standing, they have just been really busy and tired this weekend.  So I'm really happy about that!  Then the Women's broadcast was super good this week!  I really enjoyed how it was centered on covenants, and that is what we strive to help people make as missionaries!  So it was perfect!  Oh, and we were doing family history in the stake center when we got rained in from a crazy rainstorm! So that was exciting so we just kept doing family history! And on Sunday we did have a nonmember come and she enjoyed it and said she would come next week!  Hopefully she becomes a new investigator this week!    I don't know what else to say, it's been a good week and I'm learning more about how to have patience and be kind to everyone that I am around. I just hope that I continue to be a better disciple of Jesus Christ.  I love you all and hope that you have a great week!!

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

 Here is a picture of me, Sister Lords, Josiah with his two kids Melanie and Victor, and Sister Holman!

 Poor cactus fell down......but it's huge!!!!

 On our trusty steeds! ;)

The Hobbs!!!!  These are the sweet members that we get to live with!  It's like living with my grandparents!  They are fantastic and so helpful and kind! 

 

Week 45

Hello Everyone!!

The past few days have been good!!!  Our P-day was good, it's definitely different living in a member's home but the members that we live with are the biggest sweethearts ever!  We are finally all unpacked with our supplies and our personal stuff so that's exciting!  Wednesday night we just went to dinner with a member and had a good conversation with her, she actually served a mission!  It was really fun to talk to her about her mission experiences!  Then Thursday we had an appointment with Anne Marie who is a recent convert who is also less-active.  We had a good conversation of me getting to know her and she is actually a caregiver at an assisted living so I think we will click!  We also went to see another recent convert who is less active, but she wasn't home, so we visited with the member who she is living with.  When we were about to leave her with a prayer, Barbara showed up with a friend who isn't a member so we ended up introducing her friend to the church and answering some questions that she had!  Then we stopped by another recent convert who is less active and were just able to share a prayer and set up another appointment. Then we went to dinner with the Nicolls who are super cute!  5 of their 6 kids are adopted and are super fun, I really enjoyed getting to know them!  I also found out that she is a convert and was introduced at 14 and brought her whole family in.  I was also able to meet the Relief Society president and our Ward mission leader that night.  It's super helpful to meet these people!  Then Friday wasn't too exciting with lots of planning, then dinner with a recent convert who is amazing and super cute!  I'm super excited to get to know her!  Her name is Patsy and actually took the lessons for a couple of years before she was finally baptized, and she was DEFINITELY worth it! :)  Then Saturday was AMAZING!!!!!  We got to go to a conference with the Mesa Mission where Elder Russell M. Nelson spoke!!!!!  It was sooooo good and we all got to shake his hand and when he shook our hand he said "good morning, Sister Zimmerman" so it was super cool!  He was really funny!  He had two other General Authorities with him who addressed us first, and they were Elder Foster from the 2nd Quorum of the Seventy and Elder Hansen from the 6th Quorum of the Seventy.  Some of Elder Nelson's funny quotes were "the halibut is the ugliest fish I've ever seen"  We can't quite remember how that tied in... then he also said "I know we shouldn't talk about marriage, but let's talk about marriage for a bit!"  Then while talking about that he addressed us sisters and said, "when prince charming kneels down and asks you to be mine, say no.....UNLESS, he is worthy of you and he loves the Lord more than you, because if he loves the Lord more than you, he will have a greater capacity to love you."  Elder Nelson focused on a lot of things like being exactly obedient, and other things that I forgot because I do not have my study journal with me.  But it was a neat experience and I'm happy I was able to be there!  We also extended a baptismal date for our investigator Travis for the 25th of October so we are really excited about that!  Also, on Sunday we had two ladies come to our church and they came halfway through sacrament, then they left right after and I chased them down because I wanted to find out why they were there and if they would be interested in learning more, and they actually came to the rest of the block with us!!!!!  They are so prepared, but they are unfortunately in another ward.  But it was really neat!  I am just enjoying this new area and am so excited to serve here!  I love you all and hope that you are participating in hastening the Lord's work as well!! 

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

 I saw Elder Bartlett from the Mesa Mission - my neighbor from South Jordan :D

 Sister Lords

New Companion Sis. Rudy!

Week 44

Hello Everyone!!!

So, this past week and a half has been great!!  So I was transferred yesterday, which was sad because I only got 9 weeks there, but I am so happy that I got to serve in the Coronado ward for the time that I got to!!  Josiah got baptized last night and it was AMAZING!!!!!  So, he was about 30 minutes late, but he made it!!  The baptism went super well and after I was asked to give a quick talk on the Holy Ghost because Josiah decided that that's my topic that I enjoy to talk about the most :)  I didn't realize that, but I'll take it!  Then afterward there was a musical number by his college football coach's wife who happens to be in our ward!!  Anyway, I looked over and he was crying!!!!  What a wonderful moment to look at my investigator who is crying because of the spirit he has felt.  Then his brother who isn't a member reached his arm around him and that definitely was a tear jerker.  It was just so neat!!  It was a wonderful night and I was so happy that I got to teach him for the time that I did!  He will be a great member!  Then I had to say goodbye to the people I have worked with and that was really sad, but I'm determined to go back to visit them!!  The boys are still doing good and the sisters will continue to work on their parents who definitely have been touched by their example!  It's just been a great week and I've been so happy about the time I had to serve there!  As for my new area, I am now in Mesa right on the border of our mission and the Mesa mission, so I am also just about 5 minutes from the temple!!!!   So that's exciting!  My companion is Sister Rudy and she will be going home at the end of the transfer, which is sad!  But  I am super excited to be her companion!  I have really enjoyed her the past day that we have been together!  We also live with members who are super sweet, but it will be different not living with other sisters!  So that's my new area, I'm really excited about it!  Oh, and this Saturday we are supposed to have a conference from Elder Nelson, but he recently got attacked on an assignment in Africa?  So, if you could all pray for him that would be great!  We really hope this goes through, because we missed out on Elder Holland in January!  I hope you all are doing well!  I love and miss you all!!! 

Love,

Sister Zimmerman

 My sweet boys!!  I'm going to miss them!! 

 The whole family!  Me, James, Tom, Lupe, and Jeremy!  I love them so much!!  And Lupe is from around Morelia where Haley has been serving! :)

 Me, Sister Lord's and Josiah!  I will hopefully get baptism pictures soon.....I didn't have my camera at the baptism from the chaos of moving into my new home. But next week I will hopefully have some!!

 

Another blanket I recently finished that I gave to Melani, Josiah's little girl!  Sorry I have so many pictures!

 Sister Daniel!!!  I LOVE this lady!  Good news!!!  Her boyfriend proposed so she can go to the temple soon!!!!  I'm so excited for her!! 

Us and Sister Bonilla, a super helpful member!  She is also a convert of 5 years!  I absolutely love her!!!