It's me again!

Hello,

So this past week has been good, but it's kinda been an amazingly long week.  I would think back on it, and be surprised to realize that it was still the same week.  I have lots of stories, so lets see how much I can fit in.....Ready, Set.....GO!

  Monday we went and left some donuts for Jamie and Kevin, and along with the donuts we left a multitude of sticky notes. (Oh Colio I want you to know that you are wrong, I most definitely should have brought all 1800 with me, I have already gone thru 2 and donated one to the cause of my companion.  Word of advice to anyone leaving on a mission soon, pack sticky notes.) But anyways it was pretty fun to decorate their mailbox and garage and frontdoor in sticky notes to make sure that they looked in their mailbox to get the donuts we left.  We were kinda/very bummed that they weren't home because we wanted to say bye to Jamie before she left for the next 4 months, but oh well.  We have it on good authority that they got the notes and the donuts so never fear, Monday evening turned out to be a partial success.  The Conference call was super uplifting as always.  I was reminded again of the importance of making it a trio, instead of a 2fer.  We absolutely have to rely on Christ and cannot do any on our own.

  Tuesday we went and had a prayer at a doorstep with this couple that I want to teach so, so badly.  Did I mention I want to teach them?  We had seen them a week ago I think and wrote down their house number so we could go there one time and it fit into our schedule quite well this week.  They are pregnant with their first child which is a little girl and is due in January so that is what we prayed about.  It was awesome, and I really want to teach them!!! But alas to not appear to stalkerish we need to wait a few weeks before we can drop by their house again, but never fear, I will be going back there to talk to them again.  They are so cute, and just think how awesome that would be for them to be able to raise their daughter in the shelter of the Gospel.  Ohhh so Tuesday night we had this crazy awesome experience with the spirit.  We had too much time to go back home and our plans had been shuffled and we were at a loss of what to do and then we ended up going on a goosechase with the spirit.  We kinda played hot and cold and ended up at this random house at like 8:30 and luckily we didn't even have to knock cause their dog barked up a storm when we were walking towards their door.  The lady let us/me teach her an abbreviated version of the Restoration and that was it, but it was a cool experience.

  Wednesday we spent some time in one of the trailer parks.  It was good, we were able to have a member present lesson, so that was super, super exciting.  We went to Old Milford and were part of a Birthday celebration for this awesome 87 year old lady.  She sang us a song when it was just the three of us, and she is just the cutest thing!! 

  Thursday!!!! Talk about a spiritual explosion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I loved it so, so much!! Zone Conference was super fantastic!!! I took 13 pages of notes.  I was so excited to have the spirit there so strong.  We were combined with the other Zone so that was so exciting to see the other Sisters and Elder Barnett again.  I don't know the other people really, but I'm quite certain that they are lovely individuals as well.  President started out by connecting all this scriptures and helping us see how imp it is to be agents, because we need to act, we cannot be acted upon.  We talked about how we are all noble and great ones and that we have been prepared for our missions for so very long.  We were the valiant and faithful in the first war, and know we are here in the 2nd war to do the same thing.  It was so amazing, as I am writing about it to you know I can feel the spirit so strongly reemphazing the point to me now, which is super awesome.  Oh man it was amazing!! We then were grouped up and went around to different rooms for more training.  It was all so inspiring!! I love my Zone Leaders, and the Assistants, and Sister Porter, and the other Zone Leaders.  Basically it was beyond fabulous, and I wish I could write out everything I learned. 

  My interview with President was good.  I think that he thinks I am super shy though.  I mean I am, but I'm not at the same time you know, but I'm pretty certain that he thinks I am sorta mute.  I loved the time I was able to spend with him tho!! He even launched into 3 different role plays with me, and when I got sorta flustered he just laughed.  He gave me some great advice and some pointers on how to be better so that was good.

  Can I just tell you how much I love my mission!!! and the people that I have been privileged to meet! Truly the time I have spent with these amazing people has been so amazing and I can't imagine not having them all in my life :) Not that I don't love all of you, but the experiences I have had out here have helped me grow so much more as a person and I know that they will continue to help me grow.

  Friday we got a call from Elder Moore challenging us to find an investigator and he gave us some advice.  It was great.  Enter in Friday, we did not find someone.  So that was unfortunate, but when we got our call from them that night again it was Elder Moore and he gave us some advice for the next day and challenged us and gave us a promised blessing that was pretty great. 

  This little insert is part of my letter to President:

               
  Saturday was probably one of my favorite days from this transfer.  I realize that Sister Ashby and I are still a little behind where we should be, when it comes to numbers, and more important than that, Children of God.  I was glad that our Zone Leaders care enough to call and check up on us and see how we are doing.  On Friday morning they called and challenged us to find one investigator, unfortunately we were not able to find one, and when they called us again that night to find out how our day went and if we had found someone they gave us several words of advice on how to find someone.  My favorite part of the call was when Elder Moore gave us a promised blessing, he said "Talk to the first 10 people you see and teach them.  Be happy and friendly, Heavenly Father will bless you with the elect, don't let Satan discourage you.''  He said that if we did that he knew that Heavenly Father would bless us and that we would find the elect and we would find the person Heavenly Father had prepared for us. 
  That phone call was really inspiring and I was so, so excited to go out and do it the next day.  Enter Saturday morning.....to our surprise Elder Martin, and Elder Moore came to us, and helped us out.  It was awesome to watch them in action.  I was quite honestly so inspired to see the way they work off of each other and how their conversation flows so naturally from regular conversation to the Gospel.  I walked away from that experience so inspired.  I am so grateful for the Zone Leaders and how they are such examples for me to look up too.  When they had us go and talk to people they were able to give us feedback as well which was great.  I walked away from Saturday morning feeling more confident and better able to fulfill my purpose.

So Friday night I was so excited and I was so ready to go out and do as Elder Moore had challenged.  Saturday when they showed up at our apartment I was so, so excited.  I knew that it was going to be great!! and I'll tell you what, it was better than watching the District.  They are amazing, and I love both of them so much.  I don't think they even realize how helpful it was to both Sister Ashby and I, but it was such a boost to my confidence. I really can't even express it to you.  So they found us an investigator and set up an appointment for us to teach him this week. Good news is we have 2 appointments set up for Tuesday, we got the one on our own, so that is exciting huh? 

  The RS broadcast was fabulous!! I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty sure that is the first one I have ever watched and now I kinda realize that I've missed out a little, but oh well, I can always get better eh?

  Also the other exciting thing about Saturday was that I got to see people from Eastgate and Cherry Grove that I love lots and lots and lots.  That was super super fabulous!! Not going to lie it was one of my highlights of the week.  Unfortunately Sister Blackham wasn't there, but hopefully I'll see her again sometime soonish....one can always hope eh?

  I took what Sister Reeves talked about to heart and in my personal study on Sunday I went and reviewed what I had done this past week and thought about what I needed to repent about and then I came up with a few things that I was going to do better this week.  Not going to lie, it was a super good experience and considering that I got kinda distracted during sacrament meeting I was so glad I had taken the time that morning to really consider on it.  

  Today my personal study was great....scratch that it was phenomenal!! If you haven't read 2 Nephi 25-28 recently I suggest you take time to do so. It was amazing!! I was once again reminded how important it is to not be comfortable.  If we are comfortable, the scriptures go so far as to say Wo, to us. So I was reminded that I will never grow in the comfort zone, so I best get used to pushing myself out of it.

  Back to Sunday President and Sister Porter got to our building as we were leaving so we got to talk to them for a bit, and it was super exciting.  President was so excited for us to have an investigator.  He said Elder Moore said that you two are awesome, so now we know that Saturday could have potentially been prompted by President, or it really could have just been that our ZL's wanted to really help us out, good news is I don't really care, because they experience was amazing.  President and Sister Porter are amazing and I love running into them randomly, it's great.

I love you all so much!! I can't even say how exciting it was to get Karen's package and hear all of your voices!! I love you, and hope that your week is great!! 

My challenge for you this week is to invite someone to have an opportunity to grow closer to God, in any way!!

I hope you all enjoy Conference this week, I am so so excited to have the opportunity to listen to it, even if it is at a different time, weird!!

Dad Happy Birthday on Saturday!! I hope that it is so awesome!!

Colton Happy 19th Birthday today! I hope that you enjoy your day :)

Brianne Happy 23rd Birthday tomorrow!! I hope that you live out your last night as 22 just like Taylor Swift talks about :) Haha

Anyways you are all in my thoughts and prayers!! Love you all to pieces!

Love, Sister Julie Ann

 So this is my zone

So I stole the next six pictures from the Cincinnati Ohio Facebook page, but they have JULIE in them so of course others want to see them too!!  Right?  

Hello

Hey everyone,

   So I don't even know what to tell you all about this last week.  So here comes the weekly roundup!

  Monday we had a good conference call as always.....and I actually wrote you a hand written letter, so that was exciting.

  Tuesday we went to the nursing home to see if they needed help, and nope, so we are going to find service elsewhere.  We tried a few things that didn't really work.  We had an excellent dinner.  Nothing is really sticking out to me.

  Wednesday we had a great District Meeting.  Totally inspiring and I was so excited about doing role plays and using inspired questions and being better at planning and so on.  I had a killer awesome role play experience with Elder Moore, and got some good advice.  We walked around, to save on miles and one of the ward members saw us and we got a honk and a wave, so that was exciting.  Ya don't have to be in Utah to get honks.  I almost rolled my ankle, that was exciting.  We got one of the young women to come out with us, but nothing we had planned actually worked, so that was unfortunate that it was all a big bust.  We had dinner with a really nice family and you would not believe the portions they dished up for us.  So Grandma and Grandpa's big dinner plates with the green flowers on the outside, they had one of those and another plate of the same size, so picture this with me, the biggest dinner plates, filled all the way around with spaghetti, and there were meatballs too.  I ate it all.  How I do not know, but I felt like I had to clean my plate, so basically my portions were outta control large!!!  The spaghetti was good, it was just a lot to take in :)  We had a Zone Conference Call which was really good, and the ZL's inspired us with going and finding the elect and fulfilling our goals.  They are really awesome and I love how supportive they are to all of us.

  Thursday I had a killer awesome personal study time.  I read from the September Ensign and the article about hope is one  that everyone needs to read.  I am so inspired to be a more hopeful person and to fulfill all the goals I set and to be a better person.  I have decided that Helamen 5:12 is my new theme scripture.  I am so excited.  I had a really awesome phone call with Sister Montrose and her and Sister Flanigan gave me some awesome advice on how to be more effective and new ideas on working together.  We went and did service for Sister Snowden and it was so great!!! I was so excited to help her out.  We had a great day.  We had a fabulous dinner and the family we ate with was so fun!! Thursday was a great day. 

  Friday we had dinner with Liz, who is the recent convert in Milford.  She is so Awesome!! and she absolutely glows with the light of the Gospel, which is just fabulous to see!!  I love how much extra happiness it has given her and even though I wasn't apart of her conversion at all, it shows me how amazing it is to be apart of her life now.

  Saturday is a special day, its the day we get ready for Sunday.  We took cookies around to some of our neighbors and had some awesomely awkward experiences!! So we knocked on this one person's door and we here "Come in" we were pretty sure it wasn't for us, so we just kinda waited for a minute and then she said "come in" again so I opened the door and just kinda stepped in a little bit, we said something and then she looked at us and was like ohhh....Aca-Awkward!! Haha it was funny I think that she thought we were crazy.  One of the other neighbors also just kinda looked at us...so our success was limited, but oh well, we did try.  We had correlation meeting and then Brother and Sister Creer were kind enough to feed us.  We dropped by to give Bishop some cookies and he invited us in, and told us that he was watching USU lose and then he gave us some people's names that we should go visit. 

  Sunday we went on exchanges.  Sister Lee and I were in my area and Sister Summers and Sister Ashby were in their area.  We went to a ward council meeting and I am so impressed with the vision they have for their ward. I am excited to be a part of what it is they want to do to increase missionary work and so on.....Church was really great, and I have this awesome quote for you.  A smooth sea never made a skillful sailor.  I really loved the lesson that was taught in RS, they actually had one of the YW leaders teach and had the YW stay in with the RS.  Cool huh?  Dinner was fabulous.  The Bellistons had us over, and I absolutely love them!! They are super awesome.  I got to watch Sister Lee do a good door approach on praying with someone.  We had an appointment with Brother and Sister McAllister from Cherry Grove.  They are leaving on their mission at the end of the month so they are going around teaching their friends before they leave and they invited us to come since their friends live in the Milford ward.  It was really great and I was hoping to pick up at least one investigator from it, but neither one of us wanted to push anything, I'm not sure if we should have or not, but they gave us their phone numbers and I know where one of them lives, so I might have to give them a call and see if they would be interested in having us over once....we shall see.

  It was great to have the exchange with Sister Lee, and also to talk w/ Sister Montrose the other day, I feel like I have a better sense of what I should be doing as a trainer.  I know there are so many things that I need to work on, and I am excited at the new resolve I have to be a better missionary.  Each day is a new chance to get better, which is something I love. 

  We had an awesome Zone call this morning and we set goals that hold us accountable to each other as a zone and to the Lord.  We are going for 32 member present lessons, 28 new investigators, and 15 at church.  They are pretty big goals but as a Zone we are going to work together to bring people to Christ.  I love my Zone so much, and I am so grateful for the chance I have to learn from such awesome people.  We also reported our numbers from this last week and  it was great to get their encouraging words on how to do better this next week.  We had 3 0s and Elder Moore said "you can only go up from there".  He gave us some good advice on focusing on individuals, and even if we can get one of all of them, ones are better than 0s. So I am excited to push past zeros and get some actual numbers.  I know that I am in Milford for a reason, and I really want to find that reason, so my goal for this week is to be the missionary that I need to be in order to do that.  I realize how important it is to be accountable, and to rely on the Lord, so I am going to give it my all, and be successful this week.
 

  Random info for the week.

    Dairy Queen, is my new best friend!!! Their blizzards are beyond amazing, and they can turn a bad day, into something amazing!!!! I would advise you all to get a chocolate  cheesecake blizzard.....

   I got a package from Grandma Donna on Saturday, and that was pretty exciting.  The delivery guy pounded on our door, and scared Sister Ashby and I out of our skins.

  The Milford Elders left us some pretty amazing Peanut butter bars one day, and I enjoyed them so very very much. 

I think the world of all of you and I am so grateful for your prayers.  I hope that you know how much you all mean to me. 

I love you,

Love,

        Sister Julie Ann

We made a few cookies

 Sister Lee!

 The note from the Elders that was on our Pb bars

 Sweet watch huh?

My little ol Zion friends!!

What a Week!

Hey Champs!!

  Time flies eh?  I can't believe that its already the middle of September.  Last week on 9/11 we were reminiscing with the couple that fed us dinner and talking about where we were when we found out, and it was weird for me to think back and say 12 years ago I was in 3rd grade.  I can still remember that day like it just happened.  I am so grateful for the opportunity that we have to look back and to see how things can change our lives and how we can continually be better.  Also as a sidenote, I kinda really love how patriotic people are here.  We drive past lots and lots of American Flags, and that is always nice to see.

  So this last week, it feels like lots happened and yet nothing happened.  Let me think as I start it off.

  Monday we had FHE with a really cute family, and then we tracted a bit. We had our conference call and called it a night. Also I'm glad to hear you got the package, sorry I wasn't able to send anything with it, basically I was going to try and write a bunch of letters, but as you obviously saw, I didn't.

  Tuesday we had a meeting with the Milford Elders and they so kindly loaned us one of their GPS because they both have one, and the one we have wasn't always getting us to our destination.  Point in case we got lost on our way to meet them.  Good news was that we figured out most of who is in our area now, so hopefully we can pick things up a bit.  We had dinner with the RS Pres and she has extended a calling to us.  So we have a formal calling as VTers and we have been asked to really bring ourselves into the ward and actively participate, so thats good to know where they stand on our involvement.  Tuesday evening we had the Zone Leaders give us both a blessing.  It was such a good experience.  I simply love the Spirit, and the feeling that comes when righteous Priesthood holders give blessings.  I almost didn't get one, since I had basically just received a father's blessing but I figured you can never go wrong with getting a blessing, and I am so glad that I got one.  It was just what I needed and I have reflected on it so many times this week.  I wrote down Sister Ashby's and she wrote down mine as well, so I have been able to reread it, and each time I do I can feel the power that was there in the room with us, and I just love it.  Also Tuesday was Sister Summers' Birthday so we stopped by UDF on the way home and picked up some shakes to celebrate her birthday with her. 

  Wednesday we had a District Meeting about how imp Church attendance is, and it was great, but we just need someone to teach that to now. Haha its all good, I'm fully certain we'll find someone.  We tried going around and meeting some members but alas it seemed no one wanted to be home, so we didn't really end up catching anyone.  Dinner was good.  We ate with this really awesome couple, and I am so glad we have such kind people to spend time with.  Oh also our Zone Leaders have decided to start doing weekly conference calls, so this was our first one, and it was good.  We talked about how important members are.  So just know that we as missionaries love you all very dearly! :)

  Thursday we spent some time in one of the trailer parks in our area, and met some members and less actives and such.  I feel like I spent a lot of time in trailer parks this week actually, when we didn't know where else to go that was our fallback.  Also we went out to lunch with the Sisters, bcuz their car had be worked on, and we went to Taco Bell.  I am quite thoroughly convinced that that food is not for me.  I have thus decided to never go back.  It made it to my do not contact list. :) But for reals!  There are some formers that the Hoopers know and so I called Sister Hooper and got the low down on them, and we tried them, but they were not home, so that was unfortunate.

  Friday was weekly planning, and we did it in our allotted time, I think the reason it was so easy was because we don't actually have anyone to really plan for, but thats besides the point.  We got the call that our apartment was being put together, so we got the key to our new place and today we are going to move their, but the 2 of us decided that moving could wait till today.  We did a bit of tracting and had a good experience w/ that.  We met some very nice people and then this one guy said we could come back. He has short term memory loss, so he told us to not get offended if he doesn't remember us, its legit.  He was really nice. We went back and tried the family that they Hoopers know and they were home, but in the middle of dinner so we left a card and they said that they'd get back to us....we shall see I guess.

  Saturday was a bit of a letdown for me, but then I got some Reese's so it got lots and lots better.  We went to go see Arlene, turns out she is not there, so I got permission and called Sister Palmberg and she is going to see if she can't find her so that will be good.  Also the Johnsons dropped by to see us, so that was exciting, they are my most very favorite Senior couple in the mission so its always fabulous to see them.  Sister Johnson is simply the sweetest and she made cookies and brought to us.  We went to a nursing home to visit this lady on the ward list and she isn't 100% there.  Being there reminded me of exactly why I didn't become a CNA and I realized that Nursing Homes truly aren't my things.  We dropped by this members house in the evening and had a nice visit with them, and got to meet their two exchange students and children.  We had a good discussion about prayer, and then we received a miracle.  She gave us a referral, and it was a really great  way to end our day.  I am so grateful when members help us out, because the people they send us to have that tie already.

  Sunday, Sunday, its a great great day!! Ward Council was fab.  I am excited for the vision that they have and how willing they are to help us out.  They are all excited to have both sets of missionaries now, and I think every ward in the stake now has 2 sets of missionaries.  Church was good.  We learned about missionary work and covenants.  Guess who joined the choir this week?  Haha yep your eyes are truly not deceiving you.  It is a pretty small choir and they were looking for more voices and Sister Ashby is musically inclined so we went and sang. Best part about it, the cookies afterwards.  I enjoyed that most of all.  We had popped some cookies into the oven during study and we took them to a less active part member family after church. It was good to see them again.  We met them our first night in the ward but hadn't seen them since, they were happy to see us again and told us we are always welcome back, so thats good.  This nice older couple took pity on us and fed us, after Sister Prince told the Sister that no one was feeding us yesterday, so that was very kind.  We went back and visited our friend we met tracting the other day, but he was in the middle of cooking ribs, so he told us we could come back another time. 

  One of the most exciting things about Sunday though was the fact that we saw President and Sister Porter and Bryan at church.  They had come to the Montgomery ward and we saw and talked to them for a few minutes.  President asked how things were going and we said good, and he said not to worry about the fact that nothing is currently really happening, he said it typically takes 2-3 weeks to pick up when you get doubled in.  I was so glad that he said that, because right now we really don't have anything but it is good to have President's assurance that its okay things will pick up more.  I just love them, and I think that they are simply fabulous!

  On to the random sidenotes of this week:

 On the way to somewhere I ran over a snake this week.  It was really disgusting, and not an experience I really want to repeat.

  My wildlife sightings have gone up recently from just squirrels to a raccoon and possum.  The snake can half count here I guess, but then again since I killed him, I'm not really sure where to place him. 

  My new address is  1202 Queens Drive in Milford Ohio, but I don't know the zip code, so its up to you to figure that part out. 

  Also this last week has started to feel like fall.  It is getting chilly.  I am once again wearing my 3/4 length shirts. 

  I love you all very much and I am so excited for how in my blessing this past week it specifically

 said how your love and prayers are helping me out. Love you tons and tons.

I hope you have a fabulous week!

Love Sister Julie Ann

New week...New Area...New Life.....

Hey yall,

  I'm coming to you live from a new place and I have a new face sitting right to my left. 

So as you all know I'm a trainer...and my trainee is Sister Ashby, from Springville, Utah.  She went to USU for her freshman year, so we have that in common, besides the fact that we are both from the factory.....aka Utah.  She is a really cute, fun Sister, and I am excited that I have the trust of the Lord, and President Porter to teach her all I know, and learn as much as I can from her as well.

  Since the Cincinnati East Zone was fairly large we got split, and now I am still with my first Zone Leaders, and I am actually now in their district too.  So my new zone is pretty small.  We are 2 districts and we have 10 Elders and there are 6 Sisters.. My old District Leader was made into a Zone Leader and now he is over all my familiar Sisters.  But good news I currently live with the Little Miami Sisters because they don't have our apartment yet.  Bad news....its like 15-20 minutes away from our actual area, and since neither I or Sister Ashby know our area, I'm afraid we have spent a fair number of minutes out of our area.....actually I know for certain that we were totally out of our area for quite a bit of the time we have been together. However I am fairly certain that we will eventually figure it out a bit..Hopefully sooner rather than later.

  Story time:  On Wednesday we went to the Blackhams so that I could say bye, and we could give them their house key, and Brother Blackham offered to give me a blessing.  It was simply amazing!!!  It was seriously one of the best blessings I have ever had.  The power that was in the room was amazing, and it made me so glad for the time I was able to spend in their home and the Power that is in the Priesthood.  Blessings are simply outstanding and I would have to say if you ever feel a need to get one, or if anyone ever offers to give you one, take that opportunity, because boy was I glad for the way Brother Blackham was in tune with the spirit.  It definitely gave me some much needed support. 

  Thursday morning was a crazy race to get all the small things done, that pretty much had to be done last minute.  I was sure glad that I was pretty much all packed from leaving the Blackhams, because I definitely enjoyed the time I was able to spend at the Zone activity and I wouldn't have been able to, because I would have been frantically packing all of my stuff so I could get going from Cherry Grove.  Sister Fajen was so kind to take us up to transfers, she is one funny lady that I definitely enjoy spending time with.

  My meeting getting advice to be a trainer was really great.  Wow the spirit is so strong when we all get together, and I love it.  I cannot believe how much we can learn in such a short time frame.  I know that things are most definitely so inspired in this mission and I love how President Porter leads this mission thru the Spirit in such a strong way.  I know how important the spirit is, and I am so grateful to know that I can rely on the fact that every time I go to the meeting it will be led not by a person, but only thru a person....if that makes sense.

  I'm in the Milford Ward, by the way, and again we are the first Sisters in quite a while.  I'm not sure what that means now, that it has happened twice to me, maybe its a sign of some sort, but what that would be, I know not.

  Sister Prinze took us to Montgomery, but first to lunch which was super kind.  But this is where the story truly begins.

  Since there was an influx of new areas, there weren't phones for everyone, and wouldn't you know it, Sister Ashby and I were in the no phone group.  So here we are, dropped off at the Stake Center and we have a GPS, but we plug in the address to get to the Little Miami Sister's apartment, and no luck, the GPS can't find it.  Figures huh?  We try everything to make it find it and still we are at a no go. So here we are just sitting in the parking lot because we don't know what to do, and its not like we can call anyone to ask them where to go, because we gots no phone.  Lo and behold Miracles exist!!! The Zone Leaders show up at the Church because they were meeting the Montgomery Sisters there, and they let us into the building and called the LMS for us.  Now there is a small gathering going on at the church because we were waiting for the LMS to come and show us back to our apartment for the time being.  They get there and we follow them outta the parking lot and we get stopped at a light and they do not, then they make it thru the other light, and we are still stuck at the first one.  Dang we are lost.  So we end up driving around and trying to find South Lebanon, which is our current living place, but all we find is this little podunky town that definitely does not have an apartment complex that Sister Missionaries would be living at.  Ahhh dang!! We ended up just showing up at the Bishops house and they took pity on us, and fed us dinner.  And again it turns out we were part of a mini-missionary party because the Milford Elders showed up.  So when we got put into the Milford ward the poor Elders got demoted to bike status..Stinks for them, but I sure love having a car, so I am pretty grateful to them.  Anyways we had an appointment set up for us by the Elders, because they are kind like that, and we went there had a great time, and happy day it was time to go home, with one problem, we still don't actually know where that is.  We made a quick pit stop at a Kroger borrowed a phone and called Sister Lee, and she was so happy that we were still alive!  Thru  some more trial and error we eventually made it home.  So remember that time earlier when we were stuck in a little podunky town, yeah it was literally 5 minutes away from where we actually wanted to be.  Basically Thursday was a lonnnnnnnng day.  My poor companion didn't really have a stellar start to her new area.  I felt bad about that, and also the fact that we didn't actually make it in till like 10:30...whoops. We were a little late making it to bed, if ya didn't guess..

  We had a fabulous Zone meeting on Friday!!! Gosh I love inspired people, and having the spirit just so strong for long periods of time.  But at the Zone Meeting we each got a BoM and as a Mission we are reading and marking them.  We are going to finish by November, and we are marking anything to do with Christ in red, miracles in yellow, and storyline in purple (or some other color, it doesn't really matter). Pretty cool huh? So far I mostly have purple scriptures.  I am excited to be doing this tho.

  So remember how I told you Arlene moved? Well actually Idk if I told you that or not, but she did, and I am almost positive that she is in my area now.  Pretty cool huh?

  Next story:

    Saturday we tried to find people and nothing was really working, we were at this park and I felt like we should go talk to this guy.........Turns out his name is Gary, and I am a wee bit afraid he took our conversation as more than it was.  The poor guy could definitely benefit from the gospel, and meeting someone who is single, and his own age.  I'm not exactly sure why, but he seemed to take a bit of a liking to me, and it was kind of awkward, esp at the end when he gave me a handshake hug thing.  He did tell us that he would come to church with us, and if not this week, then definitely next week, and since we didn't see him this week, we are wondering if he'll show up next week. 
  All in all its been a pretty eventful week.  I know how important missionary work is and I am grateful for my opportunity to be a part of it in Milford. Hopefully I can fulfill this trust that Heavenly Father has placed in me. Because I want to be the best Disciple that I can be.  I know that this is the Restored Church, and I want to thank you all for your love and support!!

Remember this: God loves everyone, but He does not trust everyone.

Live to the trust God has placed in you!!

Love you all more than words can say!!

Love,

        Sister Julie Ann

Mission Map

Let's go crazy, crazy, crazy, and have some fun!!!!

Hello people near and dear to my heart!
  So there is a lot to say about this week, and not too much time, so I'm going to start off with transfer news.

  We got our call this morning, and Sister Palmberg is staying in Cherry Grove and training, and I am being transferred, and TRAINING!!!!!!!!!

  Say what??

  Try and hold in your shock.  I kinda figured that that was going to happen because there are 42 new missionaries that came with this transfer.  So after tomorrow I'll know where I am going to be.  Also my current Zone is being split, and my District Leader is going to be one of the new Zone Leaders of the area I'm leaving.  Lots and lots of change.  I'm interested to see what happens.......so now the waiting game begins for all of you.  At least for me it gets solved tomorrow, but hopefully I'll find some kind soul to let you all know where I'm going to be.

  Also I am sending home some stuff this week, but since we went and hung out with our Zone, no letters this week besides this very scattered email.  Sorry about that....hopefully I'll make it up to you later.

  Last week we helped Arlene move, it was sad to see her go, but its all good, because she is someone who wants to know truth, and I am positive that she will keep learning more.  We went and visited a less active who told us that she wants to start coming back to church, so I have hope that she will. 

  Wednesday we had a district meeting that was great, and then we were able to go out to eat as a District, and the choice made was Taco Bell...it was my first time at Taco Bell, and honestly I didn't feel as tho my life had been lacking before.  We had a bonfire with Brother Blackham.  That was really fun.  We had S'mores and crescent rolls with cinnamon sugar.  Basically it was fabulous!!  I love my Mama and Papa B, they are the best Surrogate Parents ever!!!

  Thursday we had dinner with a part member family and it was really fun.  Their little daughter drew me two pictures it was so cute she was fun.  We had a busy, busy day on Thursday.  We did a lesson with Amy one of our very favorite Less Actives at Sister Stokes house it went really great.  We had a Church tour right after and that went pretty great as well.  I am really glad that we were able to have Sister Church there with us as well, because she was able to really chime in and help us out.  Sister Palmberg offered for us to sing a song in the Chapel, and even tho I'm not a singer, it still worked out okay.  Sister Hooper was able to take us to our next appointment, but unfortunately our appointment wasn't there.  So we tried a few other things, and then we got to be apart of Mom's Taxi Services and it was pretty fun.  I really like Sister Hooper she is a really awesome refined lady.  She is always fun to go out teaching with.  We had another appointment later that night that went well as well.

  Friday we went and visited the library....I forget what for, but as we were walking out we ended up talking to this lady for 45ish minutes.  I committed her to looking up the Logan Temple because it looks like a castle, and she likes castles.  Unfortunately she wouldn't give us her address or phone number, so she isn't someone we can check back up on, but oh well...  We went and visited a Less Active and that was really great.  Brother and Sister Blackham fed us dinner, and it was great.  I always love eating with them, they truly are the most wonderful people I have met on my mission. 

  Saturday we took the Eastgate Sisters to visit someone because he lives in our area, and they pretty much had no miles left.  The Elder in our ward had a baptism we were able to convince him to come to, so that was really good.  We went and visited one of my favorite Recent Converts in the ward, and we had a really good visit with her.  We had an our best Plan of Salvation lesson with a less active who asked us to teach her the lessons.  So that was exciting.  I took a video on Saturday....actually two, but no judgment okay??  There was a crazy storm....ish.  I thought it was crazy, the clouds were doing this swirly thing in the sky, Idk if you can actually tell that in the video or not but whatever.

  Sunday morning was really good we were able to get a lot done and all before church too.

  Enter Labor day....it was wonderful.  We did a few things that were just super exciting.   Actually we got a bunch of packing done, but we ended up deciding to stay one last night.  But my whole family went out to eat, and it was so fun.  Brother and Sister Blackham took us and the Eastgate Sisters out to eat.  We have all had so much fun being together it was definitely a great ending to our family.  Weirdest thing ever though.  Our waiter was Alex's twin! Not a joke, I almost wanted a picture with him to send home.  He looked just like him. So that was kinda fun.  The only thing that would have made it better was if his name had actually been Alex...but alas....it was Matt.

  Oh also on Monday we (Sis P, and Sister Blackham and I) painted the Blackham's downstairs kitchen yellow. It was pretty fun, but the best part was, I was wearing my wolf shirt, and I was able to not get any paint on it....I thought that was quite an accomplishment.

  Yesterday we finished packing up and we moved out of the Blackhams...that was definitely a bittersweet time for me.  I didn't know what to think knowing that I wouldn't be walking in the door that evening.  But our afternoon was really busy so that was good.  A teaching missionary definitely is a happy missionary.  I really like being able to go out and teach, as opposed to finding.  Teaching is fantastic and it has really made me wish that I would have done some missionary work at home before I came out here, but ohh well I'll always have that chance for when I go home.

  We ended up having 3 member present lessons yesterday which was great.  It is always so much better to have the members involved in the work, and there are some really awesome super willing ward members in Cherry Grove that we always know we can call on.

  We had a lesson set up, but it fell thru because our investigator wasn't feeling well, so we were able to drop in on Nikki and Nate and it turned out super awesome.  Nikki is super into learning lots and she wants to know for herself.  She had read thru the Restoration pamphlet and had wrote down some questions that we were able to answer for her, and these were legitimately good awesome questions, so that was fun to see.  They were super excited when we gave them both a copy of the BoM.  I am so happy for the time I was able to spend teaching them, they are both so awesome.  I also really love how they refer to us as their church friends its pretty fun.

Well sorry I wasn't able to give you many details, but things are going well and you are all in my prayers.  OH guess what!?! I finished the BoM yesterday!! Pretty cool huh? Also today is day 99 for me being gone.

I hope that you are all able to read A Time for Faith not Fear, it was in the July Ensign, and its a great read.

Love you all so much!

Love, Sister Julie Ann

  Also don't you love our matching shirts? Sister Blackham got them for us!

 

So I put together this chair....like a boss!

The mural....I love this so much!

Its on the wall in the kitchen downstairs.

Amy and Abi and Logan

 The Blackhams!

The kitchen that we used downstairs

UDF is good stuff

 

 Ohio Cincinnati Mission Address

Mission Office P.O Box: P.O. Box 11671 Cincinnati, OH 45211