Week 22

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

 5 hours juicing oranges!!! Yea!

Week 21- Great General Conference

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

Week 20

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

 Milk shakes from Chick-fil-A

 Sister Krutsch me with Sister Wauneka taking out her own endowments

New companion Sis Hogenson

Week 19

Hey everyone!  I hope you all had a great week!  This week wasn't all too exciting for us.  On Monday we needed to get a new tire because we had a crack in the wall so that was fun to wait for while writing letters!  Then we tried to see people but didn't have any lessons that night.  Then Tuesday we went to another car shop to get our brakes looked at because they sounded awful.  I don't know cars, but I could tell something was wrong.  So they "adjusted" it for 3 hours then as we left we heard the terrible noise again.  So then Wednesday we had District Meeting that went well, then were able to have two lessons with less-active members in the ward.  Then Thursday we had exchanges and I was able to stay in our area which was fun, but we had to go in to the mission home to find out I had received a speeding ticket, then we talked to Elder Williams about the car, then was told we needed to take it to Toyota.  So then we needed rides from members to dinner then to an art walk in downtown Scottsdale.  So at the Art Walk, we just walked around looking at some of the art and trying to talk to everyone and anyone that would listen to us!  We talked to many different people and one we were able to give a Book of Mormon to.  We were talking to him about the gospel and brought up the Book of Mormon and said "can I have one?" then right after said "I can't believe I just asked for one" haha it was funny.  The spirit talks to everyone!  It's a fact!  ;)  Then we walked home and talked to another man along the way who thinks that the LDS church is a business.  I get such a good laugh out of all of these comments!  Then Friday was AMAZING!!  We were able to meet with Maria because we had seen her Thursday and set up a return appointment.  We brought a member with us who had gone to the first lesson about 4 months ago.  So in the beginning, she said she had decided she wasn't going to be baptized anymore (she has been baptized into 3 different churches).  Then as we listened to her concerns and understood what she wasn't understanding.  So after resolving her concerns, Sister Krutsch was able to invite her to be baptized and she said YES!!!  We were so excited!!  She said "and I'm going to do it the right way this time" because we had explained the priesthood authority. Well, that was all great until she didn't come to church on Sunday so we don't know what will happen....we hope that everything is okay.  Then Saturday we drove an hour and a half up to Payson for a baptism that Sister Krutsch had been a part of teaching.  It was a great baptism and I felt very fortunate to be able to participate in it!  Then Sunday was rough because like I said, Maria didn't come to church and some of our less-actives didin't come either.  But We are still hoping for those miracles to come around the corner!  I hope you all are able to feel daily strength from our Father in Heaven who loves us all so very much!  I hope you all have a great week!

Our Zone

Sister in our Apartment

Week 18

This week wasn't too exciting, but there were some miracles, don't you worry!  Wednesday we had a great Zone Conference!  President Sweeney first talked about not worrying about being a "robot missionary" and that if you really want to be a rebel in this world, be good.  That is sooo true!  Don't worry if you are a "molly mormon" or whatever.  You're going to be more individual being exactly obedient than just going with the flow!  We also talked about not worrying about being in a certain calling in a missionary leadership position.  He said that we all have special callings because we are set apart to be missionaries!  We also took a behavior quiz of sorts that told us what our natural nature was and I am a blue in case you are all wondering.  That means I'm responsible, a listener, etc. I don't remember but it was fun!  Then President and Sister Sweeney talked about how we can use these natural gifts that we have been given to try to contact people on the street which we call TTI which is Teach Testify Invite.  So that was exciting!  I personally gained more motivation to go out proselyting and TTIing and being able to use my strengths to talk to people about the church.  Thursday was a long day of knocking on doors and we also had a Zone Training meeting which was good.  We learned about how to teach simply and it was just really good.  All of it made me just want to get out and teach so many people!  And we're going to get so many poeple-miracles are on the horizon!!  Then Friday we met with Nyla...just please pray for Nyla and Jeff Cramer.  Long story short, they just need some prayers.  So please and thank you!  And we were also able to help a less-active member move some boxes to her truck because she has a bad leg and can't do it all on her own!  We also went out to TTI Friday around 5 and boy....President Sweeney was right about going at 4 because you have to catch them before they get drunk!  But some nice men said hi to us then left once they saw our tags ;)  Saturday we also went out to TTI at an art festival that they were having that day!  We met a couple of members there and also talked to a man who has studied the mormon religion and then talked to his wife and invited them both to the Mesa Easter Pageant!  It was a fun afternoon!  Then Sunday we had a great ward conference on missionary work (my favorite topic ever)  so that was a great Sunday!  And no, no investigators came to church but fun story: A young man walked in after sacrament meeting and walked past us with earphones in and coffee? and dressed really casually.  He ended up talking to some members asking if a congregation met there.  They said no, it had just ended, but there was a Young Single Adult ward that meets at 1 in our building so he could go there!  We are not sure what happened there, but hopefully he went back or comes back next week!  I hope you all catch the wave of missionary work!  It is just so exciting!  I love you all and hope you have a great week and talk to ONE person about the church!  :)

Week 17 - A new companion :)

This week was quite exciting! Surprise I'm training!! Haven't even hit 4 months! :/  So Tuesday we did our studies then we stopped by to see Meiwan to help her pack because she moved on Friday :(  All is well though because she will be baptized soon enough!  then we went to a less-active's house to maybe help her with organizing her kitchen, but instead just visited with her and in the meantime got a call from President Sweeney letting us know that Sister Fairbanks would be going to Mesa to be a co-STL with Sister Cole and that Sister Krutsch (crooch) would be coming here from Payson and I would be training her.  And this all went down Wednesday at 1, so we really didn't have too much of a warning, so we went around to different people that Sister Fairbanks wanted to say goodbye to, which was sad.  Then we came back early to let her pack.  Then Wednesday we were able to go to a session at the Mesa temple.  It was such a great experience!  There were a lot of missionaries that went, including some from the Mesa mission, but it was fun especially because it was my last time with Sister Fairbanks!  Then we stopped by Meiwan's because she wanted to give us notebooks for our missions to write down our addresses for people ;)  Then we went to the mission home to switch companions around.  Once we got home, we unpacked then went out to dinner and to contact people and ended up at the Peterson's because I just love them so much and they always answer the door ;)  Then Thursday we had District Meeting that was really good and we learned more about being more in tune to the Spirit to let us know what exactly to say to our investigators.  Then Friday we saw Heather again which was so exciting!  We talked to her some more about how interested she is in learning more, and she keeps her Book of Mormon out and will read the assignment I gave her a few days ago.  She is having a hard time convincing her husband to listen to us because he wants to find a Christian church to go to......yup.  But she is very open and was interested in going to a relief society activity that we have coming up!  Then we also visited another less-active who has many hurt feelings from a bad divorce that ties into the church, but we had a great visit and were able to start a good relationship with her!  Then Saturday Sister Krutsch wasn't feeling too great so we stayed inside all day while she slept for most of the day!  So I crocheted while listening to the Book of Mormon!  Then Sunday we had meetings and church, which no one came to :( but that's okay because that just means that miracles are on the horizon!  then we saw some less-actives last night, one of them being a 17-year-old young woman that a few months ago was mad at her dad for dragging to church events, but has recently been asking her dad when certain activities were. So we had a great conversation with her!  So this week has been a little crazy!  But I LOVE being a missionary!  I just love being able to share my testimony all day everyday with so many different people!  I hope you are all jumping on board in this wonderful work!  I love you all and hope that you all have a great week!   Oh and those who are curious, my companion is 24 years old, has gone to a couple of years of college, and is from Springville!  I love her to death already and we have known each other for 5 days!  :)

 Rachel and Sister Fairbanks at the Mesa Temple

 Rachel and Sis. Fairbanks with  Meiwan

new companion Sis. Krutsch (crooch)

Week 16

This week has been a little slow, but it has still been a good week!  On Monday we were able to have a lesson with a recent convert that went very well!  Then on Tuesday we brought a member out with us to try to have a lesson with someone, but no one would open their doors, even though we could see them through their windows.  Then we had a lesson with a less-active lady who said at the end that she feels she is almost ready to talk to the bishop which is a huge step from where she was!  She has been hurt by people in the church and has held it against the church, but her heart is slowly softening!  Then we took out a young woman in our ward who wants to serve a mission, and we tried to contact more people without success, so we ended up at the Peterson's who are very reliable!  We had a great lesson with them!  Then Wednesday we had District meeting and we were asked to do a training on how the Book of Mormon supports the Bible!  We had a fun time preparing for that and had a good training in the end!  We had a lot of participation and were able to learn more about how to help our investigators!  Then we saw Meiwan and had a short lesson with her, and she told us again that she doesn't want to meet with any other missionaries, but wants to meet with us at a member's home in our area.  We hope that we will be able to persuade her to open up to the new missionaries in her new home!  Then we had dinner with a new couple in our ward and had a great time getting to know them better, then saw another member and were caught up on different things that we needed to know about recent converts and other members, then we saw a less-active man whose daughter actually went to young woman's that night!  We were excited because she really wanted to go which hasn't been the case for a long time!  Then Thursday I was in bed for 3 hours with a migraine, then got up to go to a lesson with a less-active and her new visiting teacher!  Before we went to the lesson, we picked fresh sweet peas from her garden and put them in a vase to give to the lady we were going to see!  Then we saw Don later that night then came home so I could rest.  Then Friday we saw Nyla and had a good conversation with her!  Then we had dinner and saw another less-active member who was very tired, so we made it short and sweet, then went home.  Then Sunday we were able to go to the Gilbert Temple dedication broadcast at our building!  It was very good and sweet President Monson was so funny as usual!  And before going inside after putting on the mortar, he had 4 children come up to put mortar on the cornerstone!  It was very cute!  Then we came home and I slept again until dinner then a fireside that we had with Stephanie Meyers!  We sang in a missionary choir so we had to be a little early, and I was able to see Sister Heap!  So that was exciting!  And the fireside was very good and Stephanie's testimony was wonderful and it was just a great experience!  So this week has been good!  I love being a missionary during this time!  I hope you are all being wonderful examples in everything you do!

Comfy clothes on P-day !