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?
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