June 28, 2010
Hello to all my favorite people in the world!
What a great, great week! And I'm sure you can guess why. Erin's baptism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) (I think that's 20 !'s, that's how exciting it was) There was such a wonderful spirit there, again, it was just awesome. There were A LOT of people there to support her too. After two years of waiting for this moment, it finally was able to happen, so a lot of people wanted to be there for her and I'm SOOO glad that I got to be a part of it. During her actual baptism, since it's so short, usually I'm just like "yay for them, they are baptized!" But with hers, during the actual ordinance, the spirit was just sooo strong! I felt like I was being lifted and just filled with so much joy. It was so great to see. And then when she came up, she just gave the guy who baptized her the biggest hug! She did it!!! Hooray! I just can't even express to you how great it was, despite me saying it all the time. I wish you could have been here to witness it too. President and Sister Summerhays came too. They have also been very involved in her life over the past 2 years. Whenever they would see her, they'd just give her words of encouragement and sometimes President would call us up randomly and just say "I was thinking about Erin and I think you need to share this with her to share with her mom." It's been cool. Everyone loves this girl. She is going to be such a great instrument in the hands of the Lord! I know that He has special blessings just waiting for her!
Sad news though.......I'm getting transferred tomorrow. I was kind of expecting it and preparing myself for it, but when President actually told me on Saturday night, it became a reality. I'm really leaving Pittsburgh! I was half thinking that I was going to end up dying here (in mission terms). I've really, really, really enjoyed the 6 months I've had here and have just come to love the whole ward I'm serving in. I'll miss them all so much. But I know that good things are coming ahead of me. So I'm excited to see what the next 3 months have in store. It's a bittersweet moment. I'll let you know in my next email where I end up going to and the address of where I'm at. So if you happen to send anything in the next week, send it to the mission office address. Thanks! :)
Just a little update on Sam and David. We had a lesson with Sam on Wednesday and we brought Erin with us to share her testimony and conversion story because he was really wanting to talk to someone who was a convert. Her testimony was so strong and Sam really opened up to her and asked her a whole bunch of questions. The spirit was really strong in that lesson, probably one of the top 5 spiritual lessons I've had on my mission. Then we all bore testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it brings us closer to the Savior. I'll never get to see him again :( But I know that he is in good hands with the Lord and with Sister Anderson. She's an amazing missionary and she will try her hardest to get him baptized too! Same with David. David actually came to Erin's baptism and really liked it. Then he came to church yesterday and stayed for a linger longer the ward had. He's a really social guy and just goes up and talks to everybody so he pretty much made friends with the whole ward. They love him! haha. He's getting more and more serious in his investigation with the church so I am hoping and praying that he recognizes his answer and knows exactly what to do to act on that answer. Again, he's in great hands with Sister Anderson and I can't wait to hear about when he gets baptized! :)
Well that's about all the exciting news of this week. I'm going to miss Pittsburgh. So many great memories and miracles here. I hope you all have a great and wonderful week and I can't wait to hear about all that's happening at home next week! I love you all so so so so so so much!
Love, Holly
Monday, June 28, 2010
Week 61 - And we'll have fun fun fun....
June 21, 2010
Hi again everyone. It was a great week for us. Lately, it's been pretty rough on the weekends with not a lot to do, but this week it totally changed around and it was a little rough in the middle of the week and SOOO much to do on the weekend! Ready for some stories? Good, I knew you would be.
Let's start with David first of all. As we met with him this week, we talked to him about the Word of Wisdom...which was probably a little premature because he's not sure if he has a testimony of the restored gospel yet.....but it truly was inspired because it helped us know what he needs. When we committed him to live the WOW, he said "Probably not" So that led into a whole lot of other stuff. Basically we told him that if he's only meeting with us just to learn and not to progress towards baptism, then we would have to drop him (not that harshly though) and then he got a little worried and was like "well, I want to learn more and I want to really understand this stuff." Oh ya, he also told us that he knows there is truth in the Book of Mormon but as he has prayed he feels he should stay in his church. That's why we talked about dropping him. So, since he got all worried about it and WANTS to progress, we told him to pray about if he should still meet with us, with him completely understanding our purpose. He called us later on in the week and said he really wants to understand and learn more about the foundation of the church and told us that after thinking about it for a while, he will try to live the word of wisdom. hahaha, he's so funny. He KNOWS the church is true, he's just so scared. I hope this can help him get passed it all.
We had a great day at church yesterday too! Our investigator, Sam, came to church and brought one of his best friends, a girl named Jessie. She is so super cute and they both really liked sacrament meeting! Since it was fathers day, they had to leave right after sacrament meeting, but they both said that they liked it and were excited to come back again. Yay, they also both said that they would try to come to FHE tonight to play volleyball with us (we play volleyball every monday night for the activity....I'm getting better! haha). I'm excited for them! And praying that Jessie wants to learn more about the church too. One of our members (Kira) also brought one of her friends to church. Her name is Liz. Kira has been telling us about Liz for a little bit, she's from Rhode Island and here for the summer and wants to make friends. Kira brought her to FHE last week and then Liz volunteered to bring cookies to FHE for this week. Cool! And she came to church yesterday. We are trying to get Kira to be her missionary and invite her to take the lessons. That's what we have been trying to get the members to do, to get brave enough to make the invitations. She hasn't yet, so I don't know if we'll have to step in but Liz is awesome and we want to teach her too. And then Samantha also brought one of her friends to church. Her name is Maria and she is from Pakistan. Maria has been able to see all the changes that Samantha has made throughout her conversion and she always states to her how much happier she is now and how she wants to find out why. So she came to church, enjoyed it, and told her that she wants to come again. Yay!!!! Prayers are being answered!!! I've been praying to teach some more girls, because I feel like we've been teaching so many guys lately. And now there are 3 potentials! Thank you Heavenly Father.
Last little thing I wanted to mention. We had zone conference on Friday and it was probably one of the top 3 I've had so far! In the beginning, President was talking about the last couple days that led up to Joseph Smith's martyrdom and then he sang acapella to "A Poor Wayfairing Man of Grief" Wow, it was wonderful! The spirit was so strong in the room! He gave us all a copy of his talk to us too, so now I can remember it forever! Now here's the final funny thing I'll write about today that happened at zone conference. Every zone conference after lunch, Sister Summerhays does scripture mastery with us. She says a reference, whoever raises their hand first gets to recite it, then the companionship gets a candybar each. I usually get very competitive with this! :) So we had won quite a couple candybars and then the final one came. Sister Summerhays just asked " Who wants to do something amazing?" Sister Dewey raised her hand and said "me and my companions will say the Living Christ proclamation" hahaha. so we all did (we say it every morning in companion study) and after we got done, President got up and gave us $20 and said "Wow, good job! I'm buying you lunch tomorrow!!!!" hahahahahahahaha, Sister Anderson gladly ran up to go get it! It was so funny! Good things come to those who work hard!! :) We also all got another candybar too.
It's been a great week. This next week is Sister Dewey's last week of her mission so we are praying hardcore to have the best week ever for this transfer! If you would like, please pray for us as well. Please pray that we can find 5 new investigators this week and have 5 member present lessons and stay busy all week long! Thanks for all your help. I sure do love all of you! Have a super week yourselves! And keep spreading the gospel to everyone!
Love, Holly
Hi again everyone. It was a great week for us. Lately, it's been pretty rough on the weekends with not a lot to do, but this week it totally changed around and it was a little rough in the middle of the week and SOOO much to do on the weekend! Ready for some stories? Good, I knew you would be.
Let's start with David first of all. As we met with him this week, we talked to him about the Word of Wisdom...which was probably a little premature because he's not sure if he has a testimony of the restored gospel yet.....but it truly was inspired because it helped us know what he needs. When we committed him to live the WOW, he said "Probably not" So that led into a whole lot of other stuff. Basically we told him that if he's only meeting with us just to learn and not to progress towards baptism, then we would have to drop him (not that harshly though) and then he got a little worried and was like "well, I want to learn more and I want to really understand this stuff." Oh ya, he also told us that he knows there is truth in the Book of Mormon but as he has prayed he feels he should stay in his church. That's why we talked about dropping him. So, since he got all worried about it and WANTS to progress, we told him to pray about if he should still meet with us, with him completely understanding our purpose. He called us later on in the week and said he really wants to understand and learn more about the foundation of the church and told us that after thinking about it for a while, he will try to live the word of wisdom. hahaha, he's so funny. He KNOWS the church is true, he's just so scared. I hope this can help him get passed it all.
We had a great day at church yesterday too! Our investigator, Sam, came to church and brought one of his best friends, a girl named Jessie. She is so super cute and they both really liked sacrament meeting! Since it was fathers day, they had to leave right after sacrament meeting, but they both said that they liked it and were excited to come back again. Yay, they also both said that they would try to come to FHE tonight to play volleyball with us (we play volleyball every monday night for the activity....I'm getting better! haha). I'm excited for them! And praying that Jessie wants to learn more about the church too. One of our members (Kira) also brought one of her friends to church. Her name is Liz. Kira has been telling us about Liz for a little bit, she's from Rhode Island and here for the summer and wants to make friends. Kira brought her to FHE last week and then Liz volunteered to bring cookies to FHE for this week. Cool! And she came to church yesterday. We are trying to get Kira to be her missionary and invite her to take the lessons. That's what we have been trying to get the members to do, to get brave enough to make the invitations. She hasn't yet, so I don't know if we'll have to step in but Liz is awesome and we want to teach her too. And then Samantha also brought one of her friends to church. Her name is Maria and she is from Pakistan. Maria has been able to see all the changes that Samantha has made throughout her conversion and she always states to her how much happier she is now and how she wants to find out why. So she came to church, enjoyed it, and told her that she wants to come again. Yay!!!! Prayers are being answered!!! I've been praying to teach some more girls, because I feel like we've been teaching so many guys lately. And now there are 3 potentials! Thank you Heavenly Father.
Last little thing I wanted to mention. We had zone conference on Friday and it was probably one of the top 3 I've had so far! In the beginning, President was talking about the last couple days that led up to Joseph Smith's martyrdom and then he sang acapella to "A Poor Wayfairing Man of Grief" Wow, it was wonderful! The spirit was so strong in the room! He gave us all a copy of his talk to us too, so now I can remember it forever! Now here's the final funny thing I'll write about today that happened at zone conference. Every zone conference after lunch, Sister Summerhays does scripture mastery with us. She says a reference, whoever raises their hand first gets to recite it, then the companionship gets a candybar each. I usually get very competitive with this! :) So we had won quite a couple candybars and then the final one came. Sister Summerhays just asked " Who wants to do something amazing?" Sister Dewey raised her hand and said "me and my companions will say the Living Christ proclamation" hahaha. so we all did (we say it every morning in companion study) and after we got done, President got up and gave us $20 and said "Wow, good job! I'm buying you lunch tomorrow!!!!" hahahahahahahaha, Sister Anderson gladly ran up to go get it! It was so funny! Good things come to those who work hard!! :) We also all got another candybar too.
It's been a great week. This next week is Sister Dewey's last week of her mission so we are praying hardcore to have the best week ever for this transfer! If you would like, please pray for us as well. Please pray that we can find 5 new investigators this week and have 5 member present lessons and stay busy all week long! Thanks for all your help. I sure do love all of you! Have a super week yourselves! And keep spreading the gospel to everyone!
Love, Holly
Week 60 - Fun adventures in PA
June 14, 2o1o
Hi again!
It's your favorite sister missionary! :) I'm excited to tell you all about the crazy week we had!!! Brace yourself. Just kidding. It actually was a bit of a poopy week. Our mondays and tuesdays are usually really really good days, but then the rest of the week just slides down a hill of yuckiness. From Wednesday to Saturday, we pretty much had all of our appointments cancel on us, so we had to be creative in what to do for our backup plans. I'm excited to share two of our backup plans we had, haha, it was actually quite funny. First of all, there is a girl in our ward, Amber, who we haven't been able to see at church or activities for a few weeks. She hasn't answered her phone calls either so we decided to go stop by her house and heart attack her door with cute little messages on pink hearts. (haha, such a girl thing). Unfortunately though, it was raining and her front door doesn't have a porch covering like most front doors do in Pennsylvania. So when we went to tape up the hearts, we noticed that all the messages were fading because of the rain. So I took one off just to see if there was something else we could do and here's where the adventure comes in..........her white door was dyed pink from all the hearts we put on!!! hahahahaha, oh man! We are idiots. Sister Anderson luckily had a Tide-to-go pen in her bag and I ran to all the neighbors houses trying to ask for cleaning supplies. BUT no one was home and the one man who did answer looked at me like a crazy fool and said he didn't have any cleaning supplies. Then, to add to it.....Amber opened her door and we found out that we had woken her up from her sleep because she had worked the night shift that night prior. You can imagine how terrible we felt. The tide-to-go pen worked pretty well though. We are going to go back and take a magic eraser or something to get it all off though. That was our first adventure.
The second was a girl in our ward-Kelda-has kind of a lot of health problems got admitted into the psychiatric hospital. She's doing well but every now and then she has an emotional distruption and needs to go. So she called us and asked us to come visit her. Sooooooo..........I took my first trip to a mental hospital!!!!! Oh wow, it was crazy! We walked in and there are doors and windows that seperate the waiting area and the area where the patients are. When we got in there, there was a women on one side of the window yelling at a lady on the outside. Good first impression, right? To get in, we had to ring a doorbell and tell the people we were visiting Kelda. At first they weren't going to let us because it wasn't during visiting hours, but we told them we were ecclesiastical and they let us in. But first, a nurse had to come out and meet us, we had to put our bags in lockers and we had to be scanned with a metal detector. THEN we were allowed to go in! What a process! But it was quite an adventure for me! haha.
Anyway, let me get back to some good stuff about the work. On Tuesday we met with our investigators, Sam and David. In Sam's appointment, he told us that at first going into the lessons, he just wanted to find out what the differences were from other churches. He said he soon found out though that we are a lot closer to Christ then any other denomination. So that was cool to hear. He still has some troubles knowing for sure if the Book of Mormon is true though. Then for David's appointment, we watched the Restoration DVD and he totally felt the spirit! We asked him afterwards if he knew that it was true and he said yes. haha, then Sister Dewey said, "well, you know what that means, right?" then he got all scared and tried to take it back saying he knew that joseph really thought he saw that vision. Funny kid, he's scared to move forward. He did tell us though, "Man, it's dangerous hanging out wit you three!" hahahaha, he knows it's true, he's just scared to admit it! He's super involved in his church and is scared of what will happen when he admits he knows its true. Everything will be just fine though, we'll help him understand that. And as for Erin, she is in Texas right now visiting her family. Please pray for her and pray that her mom will get along with Erin while she's home and that she'll still be strong to be baptized on the 26th! Well my family, I love you all. Have a super awesome week! Cant' wait to hear all the things going on next week! Keep up the member missionary work over there in Boise! :)
Love, Holly
Hi again!
It's your favorite sister missionary! :) I'm excited to tell you all about the crazy week we had!!! Brace yourself. Just kidding. It actually was a bit of a poopy week. Our mondays and tuesdays are usually really really good days, but then the rest of the week just slides down a hill of yuckiness. From Wednesday to Saturday, we pretty much had all of our appointments cancel on us, so we had to be creative in what to do for our backup plans. I'm excited to share two of our backup plans we had, haha, it was actually quite funny. First of all, there is a girl in our ward, Amber, who we haven't been able to see at church or activities for a few weeks. She hasn't answered her phone calls either so we decided to go stop by her house and heart attack her door with cute little messages on pink hearts. (haha, such a girl thing). Unfortunately though, it was raining and her front door doesn't have a porch covering like most front doors do in Pennsylvania. So when we went to tape up the hearts, we noticed that all the messages were fading because of the rain. So I took one off just to see if there was something else we could do and here's where the adventure comes in..........her white door was dyed pink from all the hearts we put on!!! hahahahaha, oh man! We are idiots. Sister Anderson luckily had a Tide-to-go pen in her bag and I ran to all the neighbors houses trying to ask for cleaning supplies. BUT no one was home and the one man who did answer looked at me like a crazy fool and said he didn't have any cleaning supplies. Then, to add to it.....Amber opened her door and we found out that we had woken her up from her sleep because she had worked the night shift that night prior. You can imagine how terrible we felt. The tide-to-go pen worked pretty well though. We are going to go back and take a magic eraser or something to get it all off though. That was our first adventure.
The second was a girl in our ward-Kelda-has kind of a lot of health problems got admitted into the psychiatric hospital. She's doing well but every now and then she has an emotional distruption and needs to go. So she called us and asked us to come visit her. Sooooooo..........I took my first trip to a mental hospital!!!!! Oh wow, it was crazy! We walked in and there are doors and windows that seperate the waiting area and the area where the patients are. When we got in there, there was a women on one side of the window yelling at a lady on the outside. Good first impression, right? To get in, we had to ring a doorbell and tell the people we were visiting Kelda. At first they weren't going to let us because it wasn't during visiting hours, but we told them we were ecclesiastical and they let us in. But first, a nurse had to come out and meet us, we had to put our bags in lockers and we had to be scanned with a metal detector. THEN we were allowed to go in! What a process! But it was quite an adventure for me! haha.
Anyway, let me get back to some good stuff about the work. On Tuesday we met with our investigators, Sam and David. In Sam's appointment, he told us that at first going into the lessons, he just wanted to find out what the differences were from other churches. He said he soon found out though that we are a lot closer to Christ then any other denomination. So that was cool to hear. He still has some troubles knowing for sure if the Book of Mormon is true though. Then for David's appointment, we watched the Restoration DVD and he totally felt the spirit! We asked him afterwards if he knew that it was true and he said yes. haha, then Sister Dewey said, "well, you know what that means, right?" then he got all scared and tried to take it back saying he knew that joseph really thought he saw that vision. Funny kid, he's scared to move forward. He did tell us though, "Man, it's dangerous hanging out wit you three!" hahahaha, he knows it's true, he's just scared to admit it! He's super involved in his church and is scared of what will happen when he admits he knows its true. Everything will be just fine though, we'll help him understand that. And as for Erin, she is in Texas right now visiting her family. Please pray for her and pray that her mom will get along with Erin while she's home and that she'll still be strong to be baptized on the 26th! Well my family, I love you all. Have a super awesome week! Cant' wait to hear all the things going on next week! Keep up the member missionary work over there in Boise! :)
Love, Holly
Week 59 - From Sun to Showers
June 7, 2010
Hellooo!
I remember that last week I wrote you and told you how hot it was all week long. This week, it was still a little hot, but there were thunderstorms like CRAZY!!!! It was absolutely beautiful!!! I am in love with the thundershowers here. Last monday night, we were in a lesson at the church and it was just pouring down like crazy. After our lesson was over, we were planning on street contacting on the way home, but we had to stay in the church because it was so crazy outside. Tuesday night was decent. Wednesday it poured even more then monday night! Again, we were at the church, waiting for an appointment to come and our appointment, Dave, called us and told us that he was on his way, but the traffic was so bad because of the weather he was going to be half and hour late. So we waited and watched the beautiful rainstorm.....and tried to be productive and made phone calls. Even by the end of his appointment, it was still pouring and thundering. Our zone leaders called us and asked us to stay inside and not go out because I guess there was a tornado warning......someone had seen one touch down somewhere. haha, so how were we going to get home? We were just about to ask permission to have Dave take us home, but luckily our relief society president stopped by the church for something and then was willing to take us home. Such a tender mercy! Thursday was decent, THEN friday was nuts too! We were walking home for dinner and it started pouring. Using an umbrella was not even useful either! I still got soaked. Although it was all crazy, I had the funnest time! hahaha, again, I love the thunderstorms.
Now as for some of the people we are working with, Erin is still looking forward to her baptism on the 26th!! :) I will always stinkin love that girl! (yes Erin, if you read this, You Are Loved) haha. She is going home to Texas next week to visit her family, so please pray that everything will go well for her and that her family will talk to her and be supportive!
Our other investigator, David, is progressing pretty well. It's like he just soaks in everything we tell him and talks about how it all just sounds too good to be true. He told us that he still needs to gain a testimony about the truthfulness of the gospel, but Sister Anderson invited him to be baptized once he knew it was true (the first invite she's done! :) I'm so proud of her!) And he immediately said yes. Cooool! Then for our other investigator, Sam, he is so knowledgeable in the bible and so intune with the spirit! He also said that he's not sure yet if he can trust the Book of Mormon but he's praying about it. He also said once he recieves an answer, he would also be baptized. I just love how the Lord puts all these amazingly cool people into our path! Speaking of amazing people, Joan Downing is moving to Baltimore this week, so we only have one more appointment with her :( I'm so sad to see her go, but also so glad to have her be a part of my life! She has been so great! I don't remember if I've told you, but I've been able to see a complete transformation with her since January. From wearing immodest clothes and a nosering and not really reading her scriptures, to changing her wardrobe and taking out the nosering and reading not only the scriptures but a whole bunch of church books, studying intently the gospel principles manual before Sunday and being just a completely different, happy person. I love hearing her testimony!!!! Seriously, the gospel can change lives for the good and I am so glad to have it a part of my life! Thank you for raising me in the gospel and teaching me how to live it. There is no place I would rather be. Anyway, I love you all, have a fantastic week! Tell Grandma I love her too!
Love, Holly
Hellooo!
I remember that last week I wrote you and told you how hot it was all week long. This week, it was still a little hot, but there were thunderstorms like CRAZY!!!! It was absolutely beautiful!!! I am in love with the thundershowers here. Last monday night, we were in a lesson at the church and it was just pouring down like crazy. After our lesson was over, we were planning on street contacting on the way home, but we had to stay in the church because it was so crazy outside. Tuesday night was decent. Wednesday it poured even more then monday night! Again, we were at the church, waiting for an appointment to come and our appointment, Dave, called us and told us that he was on his way, but the traffic was so bad because of the weather he was going to be half and hour late. So we waited and watched the beautiful rainstorm.....and tried to be productive and made phone calls. Even by the end of his appointment, it was still pouring and thundering. Our zone leaders called us and asked us to stay inside and not go out because I guess there was a tornado warning......someone had seen one touch down somewhere. haha, so how were we going to get home? We were just about to ask permission to have Dave take us home, but luckily our relief society president stopped by the church for something and then was willing to take us home. Such a tender mercy! Thursday was decent, THEN friday was nuts too! We were walking home for dinner and it started pouring. Using an umbrella was not even useful either! I still got soaked. Although it was all crazy, I had the funnest time! hahaha, again, I love the thunderstorms.
Now as for some of the people we are working with, Erin is still looking forward to her baptism on the 26th!! :) I will always stinkin love that girl! (yes Erin, if you read this, You Are Loved) haha. She is going home to Texas next week to visit her family, so please pray that everything will go well for her and that her family will talk to her and be supportive!
Our other investigator, David, is progressing pretty well. It's like he just soaks in everything we tell him and talks about how it all just sounds too good to be true. He told us that he still needs to gain a testimony about the truthfulness of the gospel, but Sister Anderson invited him to be baptized once he knew it was true (the first invite she's done! :) I'm so proud of her!) And he immediately said yes. Cooool! Then for our other investigator, Sam, he is so knowledgeable in the bible and so intune with the spirit! He also said that he's not sure yet if he can trust the Book of Mormon but he's praying about it. He also said once he recieves an answer, he would also be baptized. I just love how the Lord puts all these amazingly cool people into our path! Speaking of amazing people, Joan Downing is moving to Baltimore this week, so we only have one more appointment with her :( I'm so sad to see her go, but also so glad to have her be a part of my life! She has been so great! I don't remember if I've told you, but I've been able to see a complete transformation with her since January. From wearing immodest clothes and a nosering and not really reading her scriptures, to changing her wardrobe and taking out the nosering and reading not only the scriptures but a whole bunch of church books, studying intently the gospel principles manual before Sunday and being just a completely different, happy person. I love hearing her testimony!!!! Seriously, the gospel can change lives for the good and I am so glad to have it a part of my life! Thank you for raising me in the gospel and teaching me how to live it. There is no place I would rather be. Anyway, I love you all, have a fantastic week! Tell Grandma I love her too!
Love, Holly
Week 58 - Hottest Week of my life!
June 6, 2010
As the subject of my email is, I'm pretty sure you can guess that it was a scorcher this week! Oh my goodness!! I've gotten a pretty nice farmers tan though and a pretty nice foot tan from my shoes :) On Saturday and Sunday it was probably 90 something degrees, humid, no wind, no clouds, and we had no appointments so we walked around and talked to people all day. hahaha, I have to be honest, I was miserable! But Sunday night, as I was thinking about what a bad attitude I had that day, I thought to myself......man, Krista's mission was probably like this everyday! Hot sun, humidity, no car to drive in.....Krista, I give you major kudo's!! haha. You are a strong, strong girl! If you could do it for a whole year and a half, I can do it too for a few months.
Well, let me tell you a little bit about what went on last week. It was a good one. We got a new investigator named Sam who is pretty awesome. We met him in downtown Pittsburgh and he was willing to drive all the way up to Oakland where we are and the church is to meet with us. We did something a little bit different with him and it turned out awesome. Since we teach at the church building, we've talked for MONTHS about doing church tours with the first lessons. We've roleplayed it and practiced it, but just have never done it for some reason. But we did it with Sam and it actually turned out really well. It got him familiar with the church building, it gets him introduced to the three hours of church because we walk through it with him and he had a ton of questions. For sure, we are doing that with every lesson now. I don't know why it took us so long, but we've got it down now!
Saturday was a pretty amazing day too. We had Joan come out street contacting with us and each of us took a half an hour with her. She was pretty nervous at first, but who isn't when they've never done it before. I was the lucky one who got to take her first while Sis. Anderson and Sis. Dewey went in another direction. Joan did so good too! The first person we stopped, she shared her testimony about how getting back on the path of the gospel has made her such a happier person. It was soooooooo strong and powerful! There is nothing like a testimony of a member, especially one who has been able to really see the changes in their life because of the gospel. I loved it. I was probably a happy, beaming fool with a silly smile on my face as I listened to her, hahaha. But as we each went out contacting with her, we had a lot of people commit to come to church.....and three of them actually showed up! It's a miracle to have 3 brand new people come.
I can't wait to hear from you ALL next week :) (natalie, thank you for being the only one to write to me!) Have an awesome week, love you guys!!!
Love, Holly
As the subject of my email is, I'm pretty sure you can guess that it was a scorcher this week! Oh my goodness!! I've gotten a pretty nice farmers tan though and a pretty nice foot tan from my shoes :) On Saturday and Sunday it was probably 90 something degrees, humid, no wind, no clouds, and we had no appointments so we walked around and talked to people all day. hahaha, I have to be honest, I was miserable! But Sunday night, as I was thinking about what a bad attitude I had that day, I thought to myself......man, Krista's mission was probably like this everyday! Hot sun, humidity, no car to drive in.....Krista, I give you major kudo's!! haha. You are a strong, strong girl! If you could do it for a whole year and a half, I can do it too for a few months.
Well, let me tell you a little bit about what went on last week. It was a good one. We got a new investigator named Sam who is pretty awesome. We met him in downtown Pittsburgh and he was willing to drive all the way up to Oakland where we are and the church is to meet with us. We did something a little bit different with him and it turned out awesome. Since we teach at the church building, we've talked for MONTHS about doing church tours with the first lessons. We've roleplayed it and practiced it, but just have never done it for some reason. But we did it with Sam and it actually turned out really well. It got him familiar with the church building, it gets him introduced to the three hours of church because we walk through it with him and he had a ton of questions. For sure, we are doing that with every lesson now. I don't know why it took us so long, but we've got it down now!
Saturday was a pretty amazing day too. We had Joan come out street contacting with us and each of us took a half an hour with her. She was pretty nervous at first, but who isn't when they've never done it before. I was the lucky one who got to take her first while Sis. Anderson and Sis. Dewey went in another direction. Joan did so good too! The first person we stopped, she shared her testimony about how getting back on the path of the gospel has made her such a happier person. It was soooooooo strong and powerful! There is nothing like a testimony of a member, especially one who has been able to really see the changes in their life because of the gospel. I loved it. I was probably a happy, beaming fool with a silly smile on my face as I listened to her, hahaha. But as we each went out contacting with her, we had a lot of people commit to come to church.....and three of them actually showed up! It's a miracle to have 3 brand new people come.
I can't wait to hear from you ALL next week :) (natalie, thank you for being the only one to write to me!) Have an awesome week, love you guys!!!
Love, Holly
Sunday, May 30, 2010
week 57- Erin Jonas is my hero
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
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
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
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