Julie's In Ohio: Another Week Gone Again

Good Morning!!

Hello everyone, so its Monday again. And good news this library doesn't care that it is Columbus day and is still open so I get to come email you!!! Happy day!! I was worried that I wouldn't be able to and that made me sad, actually it made me very very sad. But here I am, so we're all good! :)

Also I forgot to say, but I am staying in Milford for the next transfer, and I am still training Sister Ashby. We are losing Elder Martin, which is so very very sad, but I know that he is going to be great, no matter where he goes. Elder Lemmon is also leaving from our zone, and we are gaining 2 new sets of Elders in the Zone, so we will have 2 wards with 3 sets of Missionaries. Crazy huh? The work is progressing and missionaries are everywhere!!! :)

On Monday we visited a less active that is very sweet. I was really hoping that she would invite us into her house, because it was sorta chilly, but nope that my friends did not happen. So we stood on her porch and had a little visit with her...good times my friends. Note to myself though, I gotta start carrying my cardigan around at least in the car, because the day starts out a little chilly, not too bad tho, and then it is very pleasant, sometimes even hot, and then the evenings are beginning to be chilly so I need to work on my remembering skills I guess. Monday evening we helped this sweet old lady in our complex take some groceries to her apartment. She has a cane and she couldn't carry all of her groceries so she very willingly let us help her, which was fabulous, because sometimes we offer and people just look at us like we are crazy!!! Not a joke. So she was really nice and invited us back anytime, which was a fabulous offer.

Tuesday we had a great member present lesson with our investigator named Judy. She also really seemed to like Sister Marchant, who until Sunday was our Relief Society President. Judy thinks that all religions are good and she doesn't seem to think that there is a need to associate herself with us, and be baptized, but she does like us lots and said that she was getting attached to us, so that is good....at least I hope so. The lesson went pretty well, when we actually got to it, she has a tendency to talk lots so we spent a bit of time off topic, but that's all good. We are building a relationship and trust with her first, so then hopefully it will transition to her wanting to come to church with us. She is a half-way progressing investigator, this week she is going to Tennessee with her sister, so we won't see her till the next week, but its all good. We went and visited the Scotts and I love them, they are awesome!! I really love Sister Scott, she is the nicest lady. She gave us a bag of chocolate which was so very nice, especially since it was Dove! We went to the Hales for dinner and it was fun because one of their daughters was visiting and her kids were cute and funny. And then we met up with Sister Fletcher and Sister Chapa for our exchange. We found out about the exchange on Monday evening, but it was just for the evening, which was good news, because I have no idea how I ever would have planned for 2 days in our area!!! Planning for one day can practically kill me. But the Exchange with Sister Fletcher and Sister Chapa went really well. Sister Chapa and I visited a few members and I was really impressed with her. I think that she is a great missionary. I love Sister Fletcher and it was great to get some advice from her on how to do a few different things. Sister Fletcher is Sister Ward's replacement in being over all the Sister Training Leaders. She is awesome and she left us some really cute notes on Wednesday morning. She is fabulous and so fun.

Wednesday we had district meeting which was great. I learned lots and I loved the inspiration/revelation that I got from everyone else. Especially Elder Martin he did this awesome training on simplifying and intensifying and he did it by his testimony of the BoM. I didn't really explain that very well, but the point is it was good. Lunch was fun. Wendy's is always good. We did service for Sister Johns, and I love her!! She is awesome. We spent some time in the park and met a some nice people, I don't know that anything will come of it, but it's always good to meet new people.

We had an appointment that fell thru, but we ended up heading to a LA family's house and had a good visit with him. We also found out that one person on the list no longer lives at the address listed on the list, but we did make the lady's day by giving her some cookies! We went and met another Less Active, whom I also love! She is awesome, she invited us back anytime. Which is great,it is always lovely when we have an open invitation, much better then when they half smile and say see you later. We also went and visited one of our VTing people that we were assigned, one down two to go.

We had a lesson with Sara, and she was a cute lady, but on Saturday she dropped us. She was very nice about it tho. We spent some time over at Sister Snowden's and we love them, we actually visit them quite frequently. Poor little Daniel, their not quite 2 year old son fractured his Tibia this week, so he is getting his hard cast today. The poor little guy has already broken his ankle, on the same leg. He is a cutie tho.
Saturday was a lovely day! We were so excited all day that we were going to a baptism. We spent some time at the park and met some awesome people, and then we checked the phone and found out that Sara didn't want to go to the baptism anymore. Sad day! We really, really, really wanted to go, so we went and did an impromtu visit with Joanna, and convinced her to come to the baptism. Elder Moore gave a fabulous talk on baptism and Elder Martin baptized Kristen and their bishop baptized Issa. The Spirit was so powerful! It was amazing, we were also able to give her a Chapel Tour afterwards. She liked the building and she thought the baptismal service was nice. She didn't come to church, but she did have a very good experience on Saturday, so hopefully she will want to come and feel that again.

Sunday we had church and actually before church we tried to take breakfast to a few people in hopes of getting them to church, but no luck, no one was home or would answer their phone. So I had tortured us unnecessarily that morning with the smell of cinnamon rolls. but oh well. The Newberry's fed us dinner. Skyline Chili, it was Sister Ashby's first taste....

Oh so at church we had this awesome lesson in SS and it was about the handcart pioneers and other such things, but Brother Talbert pulled in Mosiah 4:16-17 and talked about how we see someone we love stray and they struggle and that is how we may feel, but then you read verses 18-19 and that is what we need to do, because we all have things to repent of and we are called to rescue those that need help. It was pretty powerful, so I had to share it with you!

Today is shaping up to be a lovely day! I hope that you all enjoy your week and that you know how much I truly love you!!!

Read those verses and think about the revelation you yourselves get, because it is good stuff!

I love you all so much!!

Love,

Sister Julie Ann