Julie's In Ohio: 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