May 25, 2010
I completely forgot to tell you guys that I'd be emailing on Tuesday this week! I'm sorry I forgot! We had President interviews yesterday, so they moved our P-day to today. I'll probably be emailing on Tuesday next week too since it'll be memorial day and the library will be closed.
I have some AMAZING news that I need to tell all of you!!!! Get excited!!!! Erin Jonas has a baptism date!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) She is scheduled to be baptized on June 26. I am so stinkin excited for her. So this is what happened, our ward is having a 40 day fast for missionary work and I was telling her in our lesson on Sunday how I've been praying and fasting for her mom to sotfen her heart and that some miracle may happen. Then Sister Dewey came in and said that she thinks it'd be a good idea to exercise some faith and set a baptism date at the end of the 40 day fast and we'll all continue to fast and pray for her mom. Erin was totally ok with it! She told us how she is finally ready to just move on and do it. We are really praying hard core for her and praying that she'll be able to be baptized on that day, no matter what happens. Please pray for her too!! She's such a great girl and she deserves to recieve all the blessings the Lord has in store for her. Despite the trials and stumbling blocks she has had to and still has to go through, the Lord is going to seriously pour blessings over her head for going forward and trusting in Him. Yay for Erin!
Now, as for Mario.....we've had a little bit of a crazy thing happen. Last Monday night we met with him and had a great lesson about the plan of salvation and he just soaked it up and loved it! It was great!!! We were scheduled to meet with him on Wednesday, but for some reason he didn't show up. So we called him and left a message, then he called us back at about 10:15 that night explaining why he wasn't able to make it. I guess he's just had a lot of troubles with things going on in his life. He actually told us that he had a court case the next day and might have to go to jail for 6 months. Scary!!!! We've been praying for him a lot this week, but we are afraid that he did have to go to jail. When we call, it goes straight to his voicemail and the elders also stopped by his home to invite him to church and his family said that he wasn't going to be able to make it. Sad huh??? I don't think anything is really sketchy or shady with him. I truly feel like he is sincere in his testimony......he's just having to pay the consequences of things he has done formerly. I hope he is able to join the church later on down the road though!
Some other fun, exciting news......this is more for Krista and Jorge, but we met a lady from Sao Paulo named Giovana the other day and I absolutely fell in love with her!!!! She is soo soo soo cute! hahaha, I talked to her a little bit in Portugese, for as much as I could remember. But she accepted a visit from the missionaries and I can't wait!!! She's married though, so we'll have to pass her on to the elders, but still, she's so stinkin cool. I told her how Jorge is from Brazil and is coming up to the US in about a month and she was excited for him, haha. She said she didn't know any english at all when she first came, but she watched a lot of TV to learn the language, and talked with everyone she could and now she is very fluent. That's the tip she gave for him, funny huh?
It's been a good week! Thanks for all your prayers and support! And mom, thank you for the package!!!!! I got it at just the time I needed it :) And please thank Natalie for the cute candy bowl, I absolutely love it!!!! It's so cute. My companions love it too and we eat the candy out of it all the time. I love you all so stinkin much! Have a wonderful week! And have a fun, happy Memorial Day!
Love, Holly
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Week 56- Week of Miracles
May 17, 2010
Hi my loved ones!
It's been another wonderful week out here in Pennsylvania! We got to see a lot of amazing miracles that I can't wait to tell you all about! But I guess I have to start from the very beginning. Sister Droge went back to temple square on Tuesday.....it was probably the most saddened I have been to be separated from a companion my whole mission! She's seriously been one of my absolute favorites! I'm glad I got the opportunity to serve with her here though. But Sister Dewey is here to replace her and it has been so much fun! Sister Dewey is so full of faith and hope and she is stinkin hilarious so every day is a party for us. Let me tell you some of the miracles we have been able to see. First of all, we had a first appointment with a less-active girl named Heather who accepted us to come back and teach her all the missionary lessons. She's so sweet. So that is miracle #1. Miracle #2 is on Thursday, we had an appointment with Bryan and he accidently locked his keys in his car. So we were all trying to help break into his car with wire hangers and bobby pins and everything (it probably looked a little sketchy to see missionaries trying to break into a car....woops) but this girl named Bridgette who lives close by saw us struggling and came down and offered to call AAA for us to come unlock the car for him. It was so sweet of her. She sat and talked with us until they came and we were able to set up an appointment with her. We had the appointment the very next day and unfortunately she didn't want to learn more, but she said that she wants us to invite her to different activities and everything. So hopefully if we keep inviting her to different church things, she'll become a little more interested. Miracle #3, we got a new chinese investigator named Yandong who is really cool and asks the most perfect questions and is really interested. He even came to see a baptism that was going on yesterday and had tons of questions about that too. They say a certain percentage of people who see baptisms end up being baptized, so we'll see! We are praying for him! Miracle #4, an investigator we worked with a couple months ago randomly showed up to institute on Friday night and we were able to get another appointment with him! Yay! Miracle #5, as we were out contacting on Saturday we talked to this kid named Fred. We introduced ourselves and started talking to him for a little bit, he told us that he was actually swithching from one church to another, but kept walking. So we handed him a pass-along card with the mormon.org website on it and he looked at it and said "hey, this is the church I'm thinking about switching to." haha, cool huh? He knows a member of our ward who invited him to come so we should be seeing him at church next week :) Miracle #6, we contacted another less-active girl that we have been trying to contact for weeks and she invited us right up to talk with her for a little bit and gave us her phone number so we can call her. She's super sweet and probably one of the better first contacts I have ever made with a less-active who hasn't had contact in a really long time. Miracle #7, an older lady that we have been working with, Rose, said that she would pray about being baptized. She worked with sisters years ago but they had to drop her. As we have been visiting her now, she seems a lot more prepared. We taught the plan of salvation and asked her what she thinks of all of it. She said she loves it and loves our church but that she's already been baptized and doesn't want to be again. Easy concern to fix.....Sister Dewey just plainly said, "Rose, I know you love the Lord and will do what He tells us. If he told you to be baptized into this church, would you do it?" And of course she said yes. Yay for progression. Miracle #8 and probably the biggest miracle of the week.........the elders brought a young man, named Mario, to church for us who has read all about the church and is completely soaking it in. Right after sacrament meeting, he plainly just asked us "when can I get baptized?" hahahaha, cooooool! They only had one meeting with him and this is the first time we have even met him. So he is set to be baptized on May 30th. :) I love it, miracles really do come! We've been praying soo soo soo hard, especially this week to see so many miracles and the Lord has blessed us tremendously! We have been fasting a lot, the ward has been fasting in the ward 40 day fast and miracles have abounded. I feel so blessed. Yesterday, we were fasting for gratitute for what the Lord has given us and he blessed us even more! I am forever in debt to all he does. I feel like I should fast for gratitude again, haha. But I know I can't starve myself all the time!
So as you can see, it was a GREAT week. And great things to come too! Please keep praying that we'll be able to help lots of people and see a lot of success. I love this work and am so grateful to be a part of it! I love you guys all so much! Have a fantastic week! Stay strong and work hard! LOVE YA!
Love, Holly
Hi my loved ones!
It's been another wonderful week out here in Pennsylvania! We got to see a lot of amazing miracles that I can't wait to tell you all about! But I guess I have to start from the very beginning. Sister Droge went back to temple square on Tuesday.....it was probably the most saddened I have been to be separated from a companion my whole mission! She's seriously been one of my absolute favorites! I'm glad I got the opportunity to serve with her here though. But Sister Dewey is here to replace her and it has been so much fun! Sister Dewey is so full of faith and hope and she is stinkin hilarious so every day is a party for us. Let me tell you some of the miracles we have been able to see. First of all, we had a first appointment with a less-active girl named Heather who accepted us to come back and teach her all the missionary lessons. She's so sweet. So that is miracle #1. Miracle #2 is on Thursday, we had an appointment with Bryan and he accidently locked his keys in his car. So we were all trying to help break into his car with wire hangers and bobby pins and everything (it probably looked a little sketchy to see missionaries trying to break into a car....woops) but this girl named Bridgette who lives close by saw us struggling and came down and offered to call AAA for us to come unlock the car for him. It was so sweet of her. She sat and talked with us until they came and we were able to set up an appointment with her. We had the appointment the very next day and unfortunately she didn't want to learn more, but she said that she wants us to invite her to different activities and everything. So hopefully if we keep inviting her to different church things, she'll become a little more interested. Miracle #3, we got a new chinese investigator named Yandong who is really cool and asks the most perfect questions and is really interested. He even came to see a baptism that was going on yesterday and had tons of questions about that too. They say a certain percentage of people who see baptisms end up being baptized, so we'll see! We are praying for him! Miracle #4, an investigator we worked with a couple months ago randomly showed up to institute on Friday night and we were able to get another appointment with him! Yay! Miracle #5, as we were out contacting on Saturday we talked to this kid named Fred. We introduced ourselves and started talking to him for a little bit, he told us that he was actually swithching from one church to another, but kept walking. So we handed him a pass-along card with the mormon.org website on it and he looked at it and said "hey, this is the church I'm thinking about switching to." haha, cool huh? He knows a member of our ward who invited him to come so we should be seeing him at church next week :) Miracle #6, we contacted another less-active girl that we have been trying to contact for weeks and she invited us right up to talk with her for a little bit and gave us her phone number so we can call her. She's super sweet and probably one of the better first contacts I have ever made with a less-active who hasn't had contact in a really long time. Miracle #7, an older lady that we have been working with, Rose, said that she would pray about being baptized. She worked with sisters years ago but they had to drop her. As we have been visiting her now, she seems a lot more prepared. We taught the plan of salvation and asked her what she thinks of all of it. She said she loves it and loves our church but that she's already been baptized and doesn't want to be again. Easy concern to fix.....Sister Dewey just plainly said, "Rose, I know you love the Lord and will do what He tells us. If he told you to be baptized into this church, would you do it?" And of course she said yes. Yay for progression. Miracle #8 and probably the biggest miracle of the week.........the elders brought a young man, named Mario, to church for us who has read all about the church and is completely soaking it in. Right after sacrament meeting, he plainly just asked us "when can I get baptized?" hahahaha, cooooool! They only had one meeting with him and this is the first time we have even met him. So he is set to be baptized on May 30th. :) I love it, miracles really do come! We've been praying soo soo soo hard, especially this week to see so many miracles and the Lord has blessed us tremendously! We have been fasting a lot, the ward has been fasting in the ward 40 day fast and miracles have abounded. I feel so blessed. Yesterday, we were fasting for gratitute for what the Lord has given us and he blessed us even more! I am forever in debt to all he does. I feel like I should fast for gratitude again, haha. But I know I can't starve myself all the time!
So as you can see, it was a GREAT week. And great things to come too! Please keep praying that we'll be able to help lots of people and see a lot of success. I love this work and am so grateful to be a part of it! I love you guys all so much! Have a fantastic week! Stay strong and work hard! LOVE YA!
Love, Holly
week 55- 6 days till I talk to you!
May 3, 2010
Hi again!
How is everyone doing? I'm doing pretty well here! This week was not very eventful, more no-show appointments, but again that's missionary work! But we did have a couple of amazing things happen this week, let me tell you ALLLLLL about it! :)
First of all, I don't remember if I told you about Urie. He showed up to church two weeks in a row so we got an appointment with him last week. We met with him on Tuesday and asked how he had heard about the church and what made him want to come. He said he had met sisters about a year ago or so and they gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon. He hadn't really read it, just flipped through some of the pages but he read a lot online. And on good sites too. We asked him what he knew about the restoration and this is basically what he said, "Not a whole lot, but I do know....." and then he went off on Joseph Smith's story and the first vision and the gold plates and how Joseph translated him. He even talked about how he knows about all the anti stuff that the church faces but this is what he said about that "That's what the ingorant people think" hahaha, he is SOOOOO cool! So we set him with a baptism date :) He's getting baptized on May 29. Unfortunately though, he was going to the University of Pitt and they are done for the school year so he's moving home (another part of Pennsylvania) for the summer. But we told him to meet up with the elders there and continue meeting with them. We also called the elders who are in his hometown and gave them an AMAZING REFERREL!!!!!! How often do we get referrels from other missionaries that have baptism dates? Never!!!! So they were pretty stoked. I hope everything works out beautifully and he does get baptized on May 29.
Another cool thing!!!! Erin Jonas came up to me after Relief Society yesterday and had some amazing news!!! She had just talked to her mom, and I guess her mom had been having a bit of a hard day. So Erin shared some scriptures from the Book of Mormon with her mom and she said that she didn't yell at her for that! I guess her mom said, "although I don't agree with those scriptures, thank you anyway" or something to that effect. Cool huh??? Her mom's heart is slowly, very slowly, becoming softened. One small step at a time, but it will happen! :) Erin is so awesome and so strong! She seriously is such an inspiration!
We also had interviews this week. Yay for interviews! We talked a bit about my schooling for when I go home. So I'm still trying to figure all that stuff out. It's stressful and I wish I didn't have to do it. But if I don't, I know I'll never get around to doing it once I'm home. It didn't happen before my mission! haha. Might as well do it while I'm still motivated :) I also mentioned to President how I would absolutely LOVE to serve in Hershey with a sister named Sister Dewey next transfer, haha. It's Sister Dewey's last transfer and I have always wanted to serve with her!!! I love that girl so much, she reminds me of Krista a lot :) So he said he'd consider it. So I may be going to Hershey next transfer??? Who knows, but that would be awesome!!! Eastern Pennsylvania feels like home to me :)
Alrighty, well I'll be done now. I'll save more news for you when I talk to you on SUNDAY!!!!!!!! I can't wait! I love my family!!!!!! Oh, and I'll probably be calling at about 5:30 your time. So be ready to have lots to talk about and good laughs! :) Have a good week and mom, have a happy happy mothers day!!!! Love you all!
Love, Holly
Hi again!
How is everyone doing? I'm doing pretty well here! This week was not very eventful, more no-show appointments, but again that's missionary work! But we did have a couple of amazing things happen this week, let me tell you ALLLLLL about it! :)
First of all, I don't remember if I told you about Urie. He showed up to church two weeks in a row so we got an appointment with him last week. We met with him on Tuesday and asked how he had heard about the church and what made him want to come. He said he had met sisters about a year ago or so and they gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon. He hadn't really read it, just flipped through some of the pages but he read a lot online. And on good sites too. We asked him what he knew about the restoration and this is basically what he said, "Not a whole lot, but I do know....." and then he went off on Joseph Smith's story and the first vision and the gold plates and how Joseph translated him. He even talked about how he knows about all the anti stuff that the church faces but this is what he said about that "That's what the ingorant people think" hahaha, he is SOOOOO cool! So we set him with a baptism date :) He's getting baptized on May 29. Unfortunately though, he was going to the University of Pitt and they are done for the school year so he's moving home (another part of Pennsylvania) for the summer. But we told him to meet up with the elders there and continue meeting with them. We also called the elders who are in his hometown and gave them an AMAZING REFERREL!!!!!! How often do we get referrels from other missionaries that have baptism dates? Never!!!! So they were pretty stoked. I hope everything works out beautifully and he does get baptized on May 29.
Another cool thing!!!! Erin Jonas came up to me after Relief Society yesterday and had some amazing news!!! She had just talked to her mom, and I guess her mom had been having a bit of a hard day. So Erin shared some scriptures from the Book of Mormon with her mom and she said that she didn't yell at her for that! I guess her mom said, "although I don't agree with those scriptures, thank you anyway" or something to that effect. Cool huh??? Her mom's heart is slowly, very slowly, becoming softened. One small step at a time, but it will happen! :) Erin is so awesome and so strong! She seriously is such an inspiration!
We also had interviews this week. Yay for interviews! We talked a bit about my schooling for when I go home. So I'm still trying to figure all that stuff out. It's stressful and I wish I didn't have to do it. But if I don't, I know I'll never get around to doing it once I'm home. It didn't happen before my mission! haha. Might as well do it while I'm still motivated :) I also mentioned to President how I would absolutely LOVE to serve in Hershey with a sister named Sister Dewey next transfer, haha. It's Sister Dewey's last transfer and I have always wanted to serve with her!!! I love that girl so much, she reminds me of Krista a lot :) So he said he'd consider it. So I may be going to Hershey next transfer??? Who knows, but that would be awesome!!! Eastern Pennsylvania feels like home to me :)
Alrighty, well I'll be done now. I'll save more news for you when I talk to you on SUNDAY!!!!!!!! I can't wait! I love my family!!!!!! Oh, and I'll probably be calling at about 5:30 your time. So be ready to have lots to talk about and good laughs! :) Have a good week and mom, have a happy happy mothers day!!!! Love you all!
Love, Holly
Week 54- It's a hard knock life for us.
April 26, 2010
Hellooooo!
How is everyone doing? It's all going pretty good here, but let me tell you about our crazy, crazy week! I think it just gets crazier every week I am here! hahaha. I told you about all those new investigators we found last week, well, none of them came to their appointments this week. We had found a lot of new potential investigators too, but again, they didn't come to their appointments. Kind of depressing! But here is the reason why.....it was finals week. Everybody was super busy and super crazy! It was even hard trying to get members coming to our appointments because they all had to do finals as well. We had to get older women from the family wards to come to our appointments.....which ended up with the investigators not showing up. So it was pretty hard and Sister Anderson hasn't had a week like this yet, so she was like "what the heck is going on? Is the mission always like this???" hahaha, poor girl. She has to experience it sometime I guess. But despite the rough, rough week with almost no appointments, we had an AMAZING Sunday!!! People showed up at church that we were not expecting at all! Just comes to show that when you work hard and remain diligent and faithful throughout the harder times, the Lord blesses you with wonderful things! It's always worth it. So this boy, Urie, randomly came to church. He actually came last week too and Sister Droge talked to him and I guess she thought he was a member who was visiting. But he came again yesterday and this time Sister Anderson talked to him and found out that really, he wasn't a member. So she set up an appointment with him AND invited him to stay all 3 hours of church, and he did. Pretty cool blessing! Plus, a member brought her boyfriend who is interested in learning more and some less-actives came as well. So it was a good way to finish off the week.
Last night, we were also invited to come to one of the counselor in the bishopric's home for dinner and a meeting. He invited us and all the ward missionaries and ward mission leader, as well as the stake president and his wife. We brainstormed and we talked about different-out of the box- finding ideas we could do for the summer. Since the majority of the students are going to be leaving for the summer and there won't be as much to do, he wanted to find a way to keep the missionary work alive. It was so good to get everyone's insights and ideas and even helped the ward missionaries see how important missionary work is and how they need to invite their friends. :) AND, I've had this great idea brewing in my head for a little while that I shared with the stake president. The idea is to get Gladys Knight here to sing and invite tons and tons of members and non members :) Maybe it sounds a little crazy, but he actually really really liked it! So he's going to work on it. I think it takes a while before she'd actually make it here, so I'd probably be out of the area, but still. Someone could benefit! One other cool idea we are doing for the month of may is having a 40 day fast for missionary work within the ward. Every day for 40 days, someone will be fasting, so it will be a continuous thing. Sounds pretty cool, huh? I'm excited to get this rolling, and the ward members seem pretty excited about it.
One last thing, we met with Erin yesterday after church and I decided, well we all decided, that something AMAZING is going to happen. That is why she has to be patient for so long before she can be baptized. I don't know what it is, but something really good. There has to be a huge blessing for her to be so patient! So we'll all have to be patient with her because we have no idea what the Lord has in store for her and her family.
I hope you all have a fabulous week and guess what? I get to talk to you pretty soon! :) Love you and miss you lots! Have a great day!
Love, Holly
Hellooooo!
How is everyone doing? It's all going pretty good here, but let me tell you about our crazy, crazy week! I think it just gets crazier every week I am here! hahaha. I told you about all those new investigators we found last week, well, none of them came to their appointments this week. We had found a lot of new potential investigators too, but again, they didn't come to their appointments. Kind of depressing! But here is the reason why.....it was finals week. Everybody was super busy and super crazy! It was even hard trying to get members coming to our appointments because they all had to do finals as well. We had to get older women from the family wards to come to our appointments.....which ended up with the investigators not showing up. So it was pretty hard and Sister Anderson hasn't had a week like this yet, so she was like "what the heck is going on? Is the mission always like this???" hahaha, poor girl. She has to experience it sometime I guess. But despite the rough, rough week with almost no appointments, we had an AMAZING Sunday!!! People showed up at church that we were not expecting at all! Just comes to show that when you work hard and remain diligent and faithful throughout the harder times, the Lord blesses you with wonderful things! It's always worth it. So this boy, Urie, randomly came to church. He actually came last week too and Sister Droge talked to him and I guess she thought he was a member who was visiting. But he came again yesterday and this time Sister Anderson talked to him and found out that really, he wasn't a member. So she set up an appointment with him AND invited him to stay all 3 hours of church, and he did. Pretty cool blessing! Plus, a member brought her boyfriend who is interested in learning more and some less-actives came as well. So it was a good way to finish off the week.
Last night, we were also invited to come to one of the counselor in the bishopric's home for dinner and a meeting. He invited us and all the ward missionaries and ward mission leader, as well as the stake president and his wife. We brainstormed and we talked about different-out of the box- finding ideas we could do for the summer. Since the majority of the students are going to be leaving for the summer and there won't be as much to do, he wanted to find a way to keep the missionary work alive. It was so good to get everyone's insights and ideas and even helped the ward missionaries see how important missionary work is and how they need to invite their friends. :) AND, I've had this great idea brewing in my head for a little while that I shared with the stake president. The idea is to get Gladys Knight here to sing and invite tons and tons of members and non members :) Maybe it sounds a little crazy, but he actually really really liked it! So he's going to work on it. I think it takes a while before she'd actually make it here, so I'd probably be out of the area, but still. Someone could benefit! One other cool idea we are doing for the month of may is having a 40 day fast for missionary work within the ward. Every day for 40 days, someone will be fasting, so it will be a continuous thing. Sounds pretty cool, huh? I'm excited to get this rolling, and the ward members seem pretty excited about it.
One last thing, we met with Erin yesterday after church and I decided, well we all decided, that something AMAZING is going to happen. That is why she has to be patient for so long before she can be baptized. I don't know what it is, but something really good. There has to be a huge blessing for her to be so patient! So we'll all have to be patient with her because we have no idea what the Lord has in store for her and her family.
I hope you all have a fabulous week and guess what? I get to talk to you pretty soon! :) Love you and miss you lots! Have a great day!
Love, Holly
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