Can I punch Satan?!?! 2/21/2022

 We got bashed by a guy. He had a lot of questions about the Book of Mormon (keep in mind we have only met with him once). He started going off about how a black family can go to church and by their 4th time attending they are a white family. It was really weird. We answered all of his questions. Or at least tried to...he kept interrupting us. We eventually told him that the call was getting contentious and that we would call back another time to finish talking to him about the Book of Mormon. We asked if he had read it at all since we saw him back in November, and he said he only read the intro. Then proceeded to tell us we were terrible missionaries because we couldn't convince him that the Book of Mormon was true. 

Our most progressing person, Lynnell, took herself off date and dropped us within 24 hours of having a fire lesson. That was hard for me. We went and knocked on her door to talk to her about it. As soon as she opened the door and saw it was us, she slammed the door. I was crushed. She then ignored all of our calls. She talked about how she thought God would help her overcome this but that Satan won. Never saw that coming. We basically spent the rest of the night recovering from that.

Basically this week was hard because I was emotionally and physically drained. It was rough going through the rest of our week feeling like this. However, Sister Baxter and I still had some fire lessons! And a LOT of laughs

We had a phone call with our friend Timothy and this lesson was a hot mess. I was so exhausted that I quoted a scripture completely wrong which made Sister Baxter just lose it. We were trying to silently laugh but Timothy could still hear us. It got so bad that we had to end the call and tell him we will call him back.

Or last night we had a call with a returning member. I made a weird noise and Sister Baxter again lost it and we couldn't stop laughing. The returning member asked us what was so funny because he started laughing. I just gotta say...I'm getting really good at composing myself in lessons.

Sister Baxter and I were a little bit of a train wreck this week, but I think the highlight for me was a member said that being with me just felt different. I was like huh? We were at your house like 2 weeks ago... what are you talking about? She said "you just feel different...like you've solidified your testimony even more this week." Which is true. I never thought that in the process of getting my heart broken over and over again, my testimony would grow stronger. 

Satan knows how happy we can be with the gospel. Keep fighting! Keep doing your best! God will support you. 

Stupid TIWI 2/14/2022

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY 

We taught Lynnell the Plan of Salvation. She had a ton of questions. We tried answering but that lead to more questions. Eventually we gave her 2 Nephi 2 to read. We met with her later in the week and she said that the chapter just explained everything PERFECTLY!!! And she said she would be at church. Holy cow! After the services we asked her how she felt. And I quote "I belong here. I lost count of how many times I had chills." Basically she is gonna be baptized, and we are SO happy!!!

Sister Baxter is so funny! I just adore her. She is the example of Christ like love. And she has a lot of crazy stories. She's very entertaining!!  I went to tell a joke this week and it came out as "why is Helen Keller a bad job?" We died laughing.   We almost died this week. A lady just took a shot for a left turn and I had to slam on the brakes. I don't know how I didn't get an aggressive from TIWI 

BUT  I can somehow get an aggressive from taking a dip at 20 mph. That was a low blow. We are obviously safe and pulled over because we were freaking out. Just keep your eyes on the road. Please. 

We tried knocking on a friend's door. Little did we know she lived in a really sketchy neighborhood. And multiple kids scared the living daylights out of us. Planning on making 4 left turns to make sure we aren't being followed. Sadly the lady didn't answer the door. 

We moved into a new apartment this week and it is SO nice. We now have another companionship staying with us. It is nice not having the stress of packing on my mind. 

As I go through my reading, I am marking every name of Christ, God or the Spirit. Plus underlining questions, every time it says exhort, remember, and joy/rejoice. It has changed my entire study. It is a lot to keep track of but it keeps you looking. Then when you look back you can see how often it is mentioned. 

Sister Baxter and I.

Our friend Rosemary. (We were on exchanges.)

Carrying a ton of boxes to the trash.

My stuffed animal from Deb.

Sis Olsen, Hna Wells, and Sis Hardman

Spiritual and cold chillz 2/7/2022

There is so much that can happen in a week. From almost having 4 missionaries staying with us to surprise exchanges. No worries I will go over it all.

Pday we got this call from a lady named Lynnell. She was looking for a congregation to join. We called her back and set up weekly calls. We called her and shared the restoration with her. She explained that she had been trying to get ahold of missionaries since May!! But that she was so appreciative of us sharing that with her. She told us she had chills. We all had chills!! We are so lucky to get to teach her.  Keep her in your prayers!!

We are moving into a new apartment on Friday!! And my roommates are Sister Wells and Sister Pearson. So happy I don't have to deal with our crazy upstairs neighbor, and I get to live with Sister Wells again. 

We got snow this week. Never thought I would be saying that. We got a good fall though! The picture I took was only at the beginning. We got orders to stay inside for a 1.5 days. Sadly we had a lot of in person appointments that had to be rescheduled.

Now, you are probably wondering who my new comp is. Her name is Sister Baxter. She is from a really small town in Missouri! She is a Disney-holic and I love her already. I've been asking her questions about her favorite movies. We have both realized how much we love regency movies. It's the best!!

We had surprise exchanges with our Sister version of APs. Talk about stressful!!! I was trying to help Sister Baxter get to know the ward, but having leadership there was not helpful. Luckily I survived!! 

I have been reading "The Continuous Atonement" by Brad Wilcox....still. He has such a way with words. I just finished a whole chapter about how people make God the enemy. It talked a lot about freedom and agency. He goes on to talk about how God is bound to love us. Not only because He is supposed to. He said something that just made me so happy!!

"God loves me just as He loves His living prophets. I am one of the reasons for living prophets. God loves me just as He loves Joseph Smith. I am one of the reasons for the Restoration. God loves me just as He loves Jesus. I am one of the reasons for the Atonement. God loves people of every Era just as He loved the people to whom Christ was sent in the meridian of time."

Basically....I was shook. That quite really hit home for me.

Sister Wells and I with the legend Elder Smith.

SNOW!

Sister Baxter and I

Cleaning the apartment.

The New zone

WRECKED 1/31/2022

Our zone got absolutely wrecked. Hermana Wells is leaving me and going to YSA as an STL. Luckily I will still get to see her because she is my STL!!!!  My new comp is Sister Baxter. This will be her 2nd area and she has only been out for 3 transfers. I am so excited!! 6 months in my 2nd area!!

Funny story. I BIFFED it this week. I somehow managed to not injure myself but gracefully rolled out of it. But it made us laugh like crazy people on the side of the road. 2 teenage boys saw us and I'm sure they were confused.

We have a friend on date!! Sadly he isn't in our area (which seems to be a reoccurring theme). His name is Timothy Brown and he is actually from the FB page. We've been able to see a lot of success from it

Speaking of the page, we had THE weirdest phone call. Hna Wells and I had weird vibes after. This lady went on for about 40 minutes trying to convince us that English was her 1st language, that she was 19 and that she was from New York. Absolute LIES!! She told us her birthday was February 8 of 2000. Haha what? Then we asked where she was from. She said "somewhere dark, like the city." She was speaking in broken English. She would laugh and then ask if we were scared. She also changed the subject multiple times. Talk about CREEPY!!

This week I got to go to the temple. We watched a family of 5 get sealed. It was such an amazing moment!! I love the temple and the many things that we are able to accomplish because of it. And I get to go do baptisms on the 12th!!!

Exchanges....and I got to ride in the SPECIAL red Tacoma 

A Deep Dive 🤿 1/24/2022

We heard from Don this week! He took himself off date, and we think he is feeling guilty about that. Please keep praying for him!!!

For Christmas, my mom sent me a book by Brad Wilcox called "The Continuous Atonement". My mind is literally blown. This book goes in deep, but not to the point where you have no idea what is going on. More like a deep reflection of yourself and where you stand. I wanted to share some lines that really stood out to me:

-"There is one thing that the Lord and Lucifer have in common: they both desire us to become as they are" -quote -from Sheri Dew

-"The ultimate is not seeing Him, but having Him see His countenance in us"

-"The Lord can't perfect [us] without [our] consent"

The Atonement has always been something I have wanted to understand, and this book is making that a reality. It is so profound, and I can't wait to see what the rest of the book is about.

We had a Sister staying with us this week for about 3 days so she could leave for her original assignment. Well, their flight was suuuuper delayed so another sister came with us for the afternoon. Good news is they made it to Chile!

FB MIRACLE

I friended this guy named Marc. A while back we had sent him a 20 sec and 2 minute video. He gave us his number and said that he would love to talk to us. Well....me being the awesome missionary I am....I lost him in my messenger. As we were going through our yellow dots (people that have shown some interest in learning more) his name stood out. I was like Marc....Marc....OHHHHH MARC!!! So we texted him and he immediately called us back. As we talked him, he asked what we wanted to share with him. What was our purpose in talking to him He said that God helps him learn through other people. We had the best talk with him and trailered the restoration with the Book of Mormon. We are meeting with him in person sometime this week to talk more about it!!! It was so cool.

Some highlights

-Hna Wells burnt one of our hot pads....it was really funny in the moment and kind of smells like marshmallows? 

-We had gyros w/ Kevin

-We went thrifting, and I think I found my favorite store

-Got Coldstone for our mental health

-Got an email from my cousin Emma and my mom!!

-We got mochi 

-I got to talk to my seester and she sent me some amazing dancing videos!!! What a queen!!!

P-day games

Blaze Pizza w/ Bro. Coons

(Almost) going to the ER 🚨 1/17/2022

We had a lot going on this week. We helped a lady move some appliances into her new home. It was a great teaching opportunity!!

Speaking of opportunities, sometimes they aren't going to come at a time that is convenient for you. Just make sure that you do your best. Pass the word on if you need to. You never know what it will mean to the person. Service is a great way to soften hearts!!

We taught Renee who is on date for February 5th. Please keep her in your prayers. As we met with her, her son Josiah sat in. He is 7 and we got to teach him about faith. His whole face just brightened up. We hyped him up about primary. They didn't make it yesterday, but we still love them.

The saddest part of my week was Don. He took himself off date this week due to a whole bunch of stuff going on right now. We told him that we would still keep in contact. He still loves talking to us. He just said that baptism is something that he wants to work towards. Just not right now. 

We were able to work on our members this week. Some of them actually let us in and we were able to get to know them. Someone them are wanting to come back to church. That's always nice.

This week started out rough. Having to almost go to the ER was not a nice moment for me. I didn't end up in the ER, but we are working on it. Slowly because health care here SUCKS. But don't worry!!! I am ok :)

Our friend Darian

Power of the Book of Mormon 1/10/2022

We were supposed to start meeting with Patrick again, but he deleted his Facebook account the very next day :( We don't have his phone number, so I am sad.

Highlights:

-Making a mosaic for my momma (see picture below)

-Finally figured out how to jump start a car with our equinox named Nathaniel 

-Robert has been reading the Book of Mormon!! He's in 1 Nephi 7

-Don is still on track for January 22nd. Keep praying for him!

-We got to go to primary yesterday

The Haines elders found a girl named Hunter. She came to church yesterday!! Sister Wells and I sat by her. After church, she just opened up to us and we were able to have a really good talk about faith and church. She said that she had been searching for answers, and had prayed to God to help. Right after, Elder Smith had messaged her. She said that it was perfect timing. We now have the opportunity to start teaching her :)) 

We met with Renee. It was nice getting to meet her in person. We took the first lesson really slow and had pictures so she could understand. Her face lit up when we gave her a children's Book of Mormon. We are planning on stopping by again this week!! She was so excited!!

When had not one but 2 people this week ask us to jump their car. One, who's name is Anthony, is actually really interested in meeting with us. He thought it was really cool that we help people come closer to God. We took advantage of this moment and we were able to give him a Book of Mormon. 

This entire week we had so many opportunities to talk about the Book of Mormon. I was able to restart it this week, and I should be on track to finish by April conference. I'm learning so much.  As I go, I am rewriting all the names of Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and the Spirit in pen so it stands out. Try it. It really helps you see how often They are all brought up! Keep reading. Keep trusting!!

Hanging out in primary.

HAPPY (late) NEW YEAR 1/3/2021

We taught Robert (who used to be on date) the Word of Wisdom. It was a fire lesson. He told us that he knows he needs to follow it to come closer to God. He also told us he is in 1 Nephi 4 and loving the Book of Mormon!! That was the highlight of my week!! We are hoping to put him on date again. Keep him in your prayers :)

We got back in contact with Patrick! He is ready to meet with us again. Ivan also got back to us and wants to be baptized. We just need him the answer the phone. Keep him in your prayers as well. 

We have seen some amazing miracles through Facebook. We were getting ready to call a friend, and I had a feeling to get on Facebook. The first post I saw was of a lady missing her daughter. I messaged her and asked if we could pray together. She immediately said yes. She kept saying that she loved what we were doing. We are happy to report that she found her daughter this week!!!

Our friend Joseph texted us and asked to meet this past week. We had a very long lesson, but it was so good! He took notes and is really invested in learning more. We gave him a Book of Mormon, and he is going to start reading this week!

We met with Rosemary. She is so sweet and really wants to come closer to Christ. We are 99% positive she is going to be baptized!!! She is interested in the idea of prophets. We showed her President Nelson, and her response was "I want to meet him." Me too Rosemary. Me too. 

I made a video of the past 9 months of my mission. A lot of laughing and a lot of amazing memories. I'm excited to see what happens this year!  Some funny moments:

-"Crackfoot? Is that a tribe?" -Karl

-"Let me make some potatoes and hook me up to an IV" -Karl

-"I just want to PIMP SLAP this woman" -Her. Wells

-*I start praying* "dear kind sister" *uncontrollable laughter*

-"I sound like I am Schizophrenic, but I'm not" -our friend Andrew

-"I've been good how about yourself young scripture hustlers" 

Cleaning our disgusting carpet.

Dinner with Kevin.