Woah

Sorry this is the letter from July 15, apparently I drafted it, and didn't post it!!  Sorry!! But enjoy a two for one type day in that case!!  


Hey everyone,

  I want to start out by saying how much I love and appreciate all of you.  I know that it is through all of your prayers that I am able to have such strength. So thank you to everyone for all you do for me.

  Turns out the amount of rain we have received since I've been here is more than they usually get, so people haven't been watering their lawns, gardens, etc this year, I think I've seen 4 sprinklers on...tops.

  This last week has been good. We had a few dinners which was great. Funny story almost all of them were Mexican food.  The meals were all good, but I don't think I've ever eaten so many re-fried beans in one week.  All I have to say is I am so grateful that people are willing to open their homes to us, because it really helps out to not have to make dinner at night.  Right now it is also saving a bit on our mileage so we don't have to run back to Eastgate and then back to our area.

  Turns out President went to the Indiana areas for interviews last week, so ours are to be this week.  I am excited, because every time I get to see President and Sister Porter they are so warm and inviting, and genuinely happy to see us.  There is nothing quite like their presence.

  This last week we have spent quite a bit of time going around meeting members, and less actives, trying to get a feel for the ward and acclimatize ourselves to the area.  I am getting to know my way around a little bit, funnily enough we seem to go down the same roads constantly so I most definitely recognize Muskegon, Ponder, Clough, and Shayler.  Hopefully the rest will come soon.  Also some of these drivers are plain crazy!! But so far we have not died.....I think of my setting apart prayer daily, and how I was promised safety. :) Never fear tho, all is well!  But I'll tell you what we were driving somewhere and these huge rain drops started falling, I was not too impressed, but then they got bigger and faster, much much faster.  I turned on the wipers and they don't go very slow, and there are actually like two settings is all, but I turned them to their highest setting and the window was completely covered before it came back up and down. It was crazy!! So driving in the flash flood was not my favorite. I have never been on the road when so much rain is pouring down continuously, it was like a huge outpouring from the sky.

  One day we tracted in the rain. Not my favorite, and no one let us in, but we had a few quick conversations.....come to think of it we walked around in the rain more than once this week. It is fun, but made me want to start carrying my umbrella for the next time the skies open up and let loose. 

  It was Sister Denison's 22nd Birthday on Tuesday so I wrote her a little note with some of T-Swifty's lyrics, haha I couldn't let that moment pass me by.  What is w/ everyone turning 22 this year anyways?

  So on Wednesday we met this awesome lady named Kari on our way to go visit a member. She was sitting outside her apartment/condo and we taught her a mini restoration and asked if we could come back. She said yes so we set up an appt w/ her on Thursday, I was so excited all day, because I love Kari she is really great, I guess her family had missionaries over when she was younger and she said that she would have her mother come over as well. But anyways we got there on Thursday and she left us a note because she had something come up and she gave us her number to call and set up an another apt. It was so sweet tho, that she left us a note, and she actually just addressed it to me, so maybe she'll be someone that I can really connect to. In any case the note made my day even tho we weren't able to teach her.

  Thursday we taught a lesson to an investigator. She is a Pentecost, and after walking in, I realized it would have been really nice to know what her beliefs were going in. Quite frankly I was frazzled and didn't know where to go, or what to say to her.  We had contacted her a few days ago and found out that her daughter had died so we had left her w/ a PoS pamphlet, hoping that it could help her.  Well her mother lives with her, and she was the hold-off.  Our investigator said that she and her mother had both read the pamphlet and that it was confusing and didn't agree w/ their beliefs.  We asked what some of their concerns were and I was shocked by some of what I learned.  Also as a sidenote it was kind of frustrating, because we would ask our Inves a q, and she would turn and say I don't explain it well mom you tell them. So does she really believe it, or is she still leaning on her mothers belief, ya know?  But they do not believe we were w/ God before we were born, but He breathes our spirits into our bodies and again the whole being born is the act of being baptized, because of the amniotic fluids.  I still don't understand not being w/ God before, bcuz we read they scripture that says "I knew thee and formed thee before the belly"...but yeah, it was interesting.  Needless to say, the dropping was mutual and we are back to one investigator we haven't seen since Wednesday.

  So yesterday we got to meet our Ward Mission Leader, because he has been out of town.  He is very excited and wants to help us as much as possible.  So I think that will be great.  We had our meeting w/ him at 12 since church is at 1. After the meeting we went out to they foyer and the Eastgate Elders and Sisters told us to go out to the parking lot because there was a family there who was asking about the church.  We sat with them during sacrament meeting, and it was such a great meeting.  The spirit was so powerful.  It turns out they are Baptist and they were running late and weren't able to make it to their church so they saw ours and decided to try it, since it was the Lord's day and they wanted to go to church.  We gave the Mom a BoM and our number and hopefully she will give us a call.  She did seem excited about the BoM so I really hope something comes out of it.

 For dinner we headed over to a Sister's house/her parents.  The unfortunate thing is she is moving this week to Cali and I really really like her. She served a mission in Cali a good few years ago so she has been great to us every time we have seen her. One funny thing about her is that her MTC comp was Wendy NewMyer.  What a small world huh?  But after dinner she spent a few hours helping us piece together a map of our area, since we did not have one.  It was so nice for her to help us out that way.  She was also nice enough to give us her GPS, since she is moving out to Cali she will be driving and had decided to get a new one, so it is mine to keep now.  Thank goodness for miracles. We have a GPS right now, but its pretty old and so this will be nice to have so we can have a more updated system.

  So this week was my first Zone Mtg and I loved it!! My ZLs are great and they taught us a bunch of fabulous stuff, like after HF has helped us out offering a prayer of gratitude right in that moment.  Making sure we pay attn to details because they are so important and other stuff like that. I honestly think that I have grown quite a bit spiritually this week.  I am working on my Christlike attributes of Humility and Obedience. They are so intertwined and I love that when we study obedience more we see how it is the first law of heaven and as we are obedient we can be blessed more, and as we recognize those blessings and promptings we will be blessed with more and more.  It is a continuous cycle in which we always come out victor, because the Lord always always always gives us more than He asks from us.  I am so grateful for the small reminders everyday that I receive of His love and awareness of me!

  I want you to know that I thought of you all at the Reunion on Saturday and figured that it was great! I hope that you got to have some fun with everyone. 

I hope you all to have a wonderful week, and you are in my prayers.

Love Julie Ann :)


So turns out I forgot a few things.  My new comp has been out 10 months and she is from Connecticut. Her town is 10 minutes from UConn crazy cool huh? Anyways its Coventry and pronounced a little differently than you would think.

So I love to write on these and this is one of them 

No judgement

We had just got out of the rain okay?