Julie's In Ohio: Busy, Busy, Week!

Oh hey yall!

I bet you all are just taking it super easy this week huh? It's not like anything big is going on this week huh? Hahaha I can't believe that this week is Tyson and Jordan's Birthday, and Colio and Lisa's Wedding!!!! Where on earth has the summer gone?

This last week has been crazy amazing!!! I can't wait to tell you all about it, so buckle up, because it's a fabulous ride!!!

Monday Sister Christianson and I got to be companions for the evening. We really threw everyone off, because of our names, but it was all good. We ended up tracking into a less active on accident, but it was good because we were able to talk with her for a while and then set up an actual appointment for this week. Our weekly conference call was amazing as always....! Who doesn't love to hear from the President once a week? Idk if there is anyone who doesn't love Monday nights? I know that I sure do. We were taught about the importance of being everywhere 5 minutes early. President told us if we are four minutes early, we are one minute late, so that is definitely something for all of us to work on. He also told us how important it is that we follow our morning schedule, because the spirit is strong in the morning and that is when we receive revelation, so that is a good reminder for me to make sure that I am earnestly seeking to receive that revelation.

Tuesday we had a lesson with a potential investigator. And cool story, she invited a friend. They are both awesome and pretty open to learning more, so we went there hoping to get a new investigator, and instead walked out with 2! Isn't the Lord amazing?!? He always leads us exactly where we need to be, and blesses us in ways that we never expect. I am so excited, because we left them both with a BoM and we are going to be giving them a church tour this week (hopefully).

So August 6th was National Night out, Idk if you knew that or not, but it was. So guess who participated in it, yes you probably guessed right, yours truly. Sister Palmberg and I were walking over to Veterans Park and we met a lady who told us she was already saved, but we are more than welcome to come over and try and save her husband. Cool huh? We are going to go by this week...possibly tonight, and we hope that they will both end up being interested.

Wednesday....can you say amazing???? Well I'll tell you what, it was that indeed! We had Zone Meeting, and we actually had to head to Montgomery, which is where the Stake Center is. So I got to drive on the freeway again. Can I tell you what, I have become such an excellent driver, we are no longer experiencing those near death experiences from these crazy cut in and out drivers. But back to the good story. Right now we have 3 Zone Leaders, Elder Moore, Elder Martin and Elder Watkins, and I love them all. They are awesome! But their training was awesome!! They had a do a couple role plays that really invited the spirit, and it was powerful, I am so excited to use BDAW and TTIP even more in my teaching! They had us all go around the room and say what we are going to do to be better and help our mission reach our goal of 222 baptisms this year. So that was really awesome. It was truly a call to action, each of us felt so excited to go forward and do what it was that we were called here to do. Elder Moore always uses these sport analogies that are great, but it always makes me laugh, because it reminds me of some of the things we would talk about in my classes. We got our Standards of Excellence, and I know that they are going to be hard to reach, but if we do we will truly be doing everything we can to rely on the Lord and do our best. One of my favorite quotes, was when Elder Moore said "As we love others and reach out the power of God will come upon us and we will see blessings" I never ever want Zone Meetings to be over, because I learn so much. I feel like whenever the spirit is somewhere so strong time literally flies by. Because it was over before I knew it, and I felt like I had just gotten there. Sister Palmberg and I left the Zone Meeting so excited to go out and accomplish our goals and to help our mission reach the goals that had been set.

Fast forward to Wednesday evening, we were supposed to have a lesson with our investigator that we picked up last week, but she wasn't there. So we had some formers that lived in the next building over, that we decided to go try, but long story short, we never actually got there. This cute lady called us over and we talked with her for a while, but she gave us a referral, that ended up being so awesome! This couple that she sent us to is way cool. The girl is more interested, then the guy, but they both recognized that they were feeling the spirit, and said that they almost didn't open the door, but they were so glad they did and they felt so much better since they did. She loved the First Vision she just kept saying what a cute story that was. And she unfortunately had to work this Sunday or else she would have come to church. As it turns out she just got baptized in November and since then she has told her employer that she doesn't work on Sunday, and so we are really excited, because she said she has gone to our church once before, but it was back when she wasn't too interested in religion, so she said maybe I needed to be at this point in my life to be ready for your church. Isn't that amazing!?! We talked with them on their doorstep for at least 45 minutes, it was so awesome tho, because they felt the spirit, and recognized that it was the spirit they were feeling and everything. We have an appointment with them on Wed. and she told us that she is coming to church with us this Sunday, so that is definitely something to look forward too.

So they gave us a few referrals and we contacted some of them, and they are now potential investigators as well, so Wednesday night we are up to 5....yes you read that right 5 new investigators. We were seriously so happy, well I guess ecstatic is more the word to describe our feelings.

Thursday we had a meeting with Nick and the Elders, it was fantastic. Just like I thought, Elder Barnett and Nick just clicked, I am way excited because I feel like we were able to clear up his questions about grace. Bless Elder Campbell's soul, it was because he had this awesome talk "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox. We read that with him and we are probably going to go to this next lesson with the Elders, and then hand him off completely. But I am glad to know that he is in such great hands, and I know that they will take good care of him.

Friday we went to try this potential and ended up talking to her cousin who lives there and kind of picked her up as a potential. I hope that we can help her, because she has had a bit of hard life, and I know that if she had the Gospel she would be happier than she is now. Not saying that she isn't happy now. So since this week was kind of my week to be in charge Sister Palmberg had me be in charge more when we went to meet people. So Friday night we went back to those apartments that we had been at earlier this week, and as we pulled up I saw these two adults who were over in the corner, so I told Sister P we should go talk to them. Well as we walked over it turns out there were actually 10 but most of them were down on the ground, so they had been out of our sight. I started talking to them, and I could tell right off that they weren't really interested, but I just kept going anyways and we left a card with one of them, and got 2 referrals from the same lady and then headed off to contact our newest referrals. Turns out both of them were out in the parking lot, just in different spots. The one was not interested. But oh well. We saw some guys over a little ways a way and went and talked to them as well. We set up a return appointment w/ one of them, because again the one wasn't interested. Richie is really funny tho...I will get back to him later...I promise. So we contacted the other referral and set up an appointment w/ her as well...again for the next day. We were busy and it was great!

Saturday we had a bunch of plans, but they were just those regular missionary plans. Write someone down, and show up at their house and hope they let you in, sort of day. But the Elders gave us a call and the names of some Less Actives that we should try. Since none of our plans were set in stone we headed to visit one of them, and there was a lady sitting on the steps leading to the apartment building, so we stopped to visit with her. We talked to her a little bit and found out that she is kind of at rock bottom in her life right now, and she is looking to change that around. She really wants to work on being a better person and we didn't have a ton of time with her, because someone was coming to pick her up. But the time we had with her was enough that we were able to teach her a short lesson and ask if she would come to church with us the next day if we could get her a ride. She was so excited and couldn't wait to go to church.
Fast forward to Sunday, with the whole parking lot situation at the Clough Pike building and our congregation meeting at the Montgomery building instead she was not able to come to church, but after we got back from church we went and taught her the Restoration, and answered her questions. She is so ready for the Gospel, it is amazing to see how the Lord blesses us with people who are at the exact place in their life where they need to be to receive the Gospel. Sister Palmberg extended baptism to her and she very eagerly accepted, and we set a specific date with her to reach towards. I am so excited because I know that this is something that will not only bless her life, but it will bless her family's lives as well. I cannot even describe the feelings that come when we truly experience the Savior's love for someone who so desperately wants to come back to Him.

Isn't that awesome? Now, I'm going to back track and tell a few more stories, and let you get on w/ the rest of your day.

After talking with Arlene we got a call from one of our Less actives that is the sweetest old lady, and it turns out she had some time so we went to go visit her. I love this lady! She has been a member her whole life, but she hasn't been active, because her parents got divorced and never took her or her sister to church, so she has been less active her whole life. She doesn't really know a ton about the church, so she actually asked us to give her the lessons. Isn't that cool? We were so excited because I know that this is really going to help her! She is fantastic tho! and we are going back on Sat. to give her the Plan of Salvation.

We went and taught Heather that afternoon and we had our first member present lesson!!!...as a companionship that is. Sister Naumann is a superstar, I am so glad that she was able to come with us. The lesson went surprisingly well for the amount of distractions that were going on. After that we went over to teach Richie, but turns out he was not off work yet, so his cousin told us to come back later that evening. Well we did....after dinner of course. But Richie calls us his church friends, and he said that he was going to come to church with us the next day, but as it turns out, they have been redoing our parking lot and somehow it ended up filled with water, so we could have church there, so they decided to send us to Montgomery and we actually only had to go to Sacrament Meeting. But we told him it was just this week and we understood that he couldn't go, and again set up a return apt w/ him for Sunday evening.

Sunday the Blackhams fed us lunch. So we were one big happy family. We had BLT's which were great. Missy and Brad have been here this whole week, which has been really fun. But anyways lunch was great. The Huffs took us to church which was great, because we need to save miles. We had that awesome lesson with Arlene. Couldn't meet w/ Richie bcuz he ended up having to work but when we called him and he asked who it was, we said your church friends and he just laughed and said oh yeah my church friends. He is a funny guy. One of these days its going to work out for us to actually teach him.

We ended up with 7 new investigators this week, and one on date!! I am so excited and I can't believe how much the Lord is blessing us!!

This week I suggest that you find Elder Bednar's talk "Ask in Faith" because it is amazing!! I haven't even finished it, but it has already shown me ways I can improve my faith and prayers. Also exciting news....Elder Dallin H. Oaks is coming to speak to our mission on August 25th!! I am so excited!!! That is way cool for you all getting to listen to Elder Perry coming up, I'm excited to know what it is for!!!

Tyson I hope that you have a Fantastic Birthday!!! You are absolutely my very favorite brother and I hope that you know how much I love you!!! Nine is an awesome age!

Tell Jordan Happy Birthday as well!

Lisa and Cole Congratulations!! I will definitely be thinking about you! I am glad that I have Zone Conference to look forward to on your wedding day. Otherwise I might be sad that I'm not there with you! But I love you both so much and I wish you tons of happiness on your special day!

I love and miss all of you! Thanks so much for your letters and prayers!

Love,

Sister Julie Ann

Pictures

So I realized that I forgot to tell you that Sister Ward came back on Thursday and I got to spend a little bit more time with her. It was fabulous. Also she told me that she would come to my welcome home, so I know that she still wants to spend more time with me, so that is good huh?

So this picture is me standing in Kentucky with Downtown Cincinnati in the background.

The Purple People Bridge! So don't judge how I look in that last photo, lets just remember that photogency is not one of my talents

Now I am in Ohio taking a picture of Kentucky

Me and one of my favorite people

Cole I hope you love this one. I made my Comp take this picture and I stayed on the road for several minutes...as in I parked at this stop sign for this photo. and we actually use this road several times.