I LOVE being a missionary!

Well! Good morning all! :) Thank you for all the sweet notes for my birthday! Can you even believe I will be 21 this week... man... I am getting old... that's scary... anyways! Another week in the big NY! Still going strong! The work is great... the ward is still struggling... but I guess you can't have it all!  ha! Here is my week though... and I am hoping next week goes a little better...

Monday: Real quick... last p-day I have to tell you... I did something I have never done before... I bought a green squash (don't worry dad... yours are much better) and a tomato at the store. AND I HAVE BEEN EATING THEM! AND MORE THAN THAT, I LIKE THEM! Something about going on a mission, your taste buds change... I don't know how I feel about it... but maybe it is a blessing because the Lord is allowing me to eat cheap things! :) hah anyways... thought my family would be proud! I am being healthy!

Tuesday: Tuesday we spent most of the day meeting with the Elders and the senior couple planning out our member missionary lesson we were given the opportunity to teach during third hour at Church on Sunday. We put a lot into this... we wanted this to be perfect!!!! We also had the chance to see a less active who really wants to come back to church! :) We set Goals and Plans for her to do that! (and she was there on Sunday!)

Wednesday: This day was a busy day!!! We were able to go and teach quite a few lessons. We had a member of the ward with us and she is awesome and super bold! :) And she knows French so she was teaching me! :) But we were finally able to stop by a Less Active that we have been trying to see for a while. Had a good little lesson with her and that was super good! :) Then we were able to see our investigator, who last week I said had a Word of Wisdom problem and needs help. Well he was super defensive in our last lesson. So we went into this lesson and the Spirit was just telling us to apologize... and we were able to re-teach the Word of Wisdom a better way using D&C 89. (We should of used that first... ahh.. who would of guessed.. missionaries aren't perfect! haha) but after he read that section and could see how important living the Word of Wisdom is, he realized that he can do this! :) It was like a whole change of heart! :) It was cool and we were so grateful for the chance to re-teach this again! Pray for him that he has the strength to overcome this! :)  We were also able to meet with another investigator who really just talked the entire lesson soooo we weren't able to say anything! It's crazy when that happens... ha then we were able to have a great lesson with another Less Active. After all that we ended the night with an awesome blessing! :) We had another lesson with the girl who is the friend of a member and comes to church and her dad wasn't too happy about her being baptized. WELLLL the prayers worked because she had her dad read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and they talked and now her dad is totally fine with the baptism and he said that he will be there when she does get baptized! :) How amazing is that?? I was so excited! We taught her a great lesson about the Plan of Salvation and she loved it! :) So that was our busy but super great Wednesday!

Thursday: We did weekly planning, where we planned out our whole week, then for the first time we didn't really have anyone to see... and it was our walking day... so we spent the rest of the night walking around the little city where we live and we were able to find one lady, she has twins girls and two boys! She said she would like to listen to our message and so we set up a time to go see her tomorrow! :) We are super excited! It's so awesome when the Lord puts you in the right place at the right time! :) Then we met with the Elders and senior couple again to have another run through of our Sunday lesson!

Friday: This day was a good day! :) We were able to meet with another investigator who I think I have talked about  before... he is awesome he just needs some motivation. So we had a really spiritual lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him!! Then we were able to make the packets that we needed to make for the lesson on Sunday then we met with two less active people (who are just awesome!!!) we had really spiritual lessons with them, then we had dinner at a members house that night! :) She was a sweet heart and really just needed to talk to someone! And she speaks French too so she was teaching me as well! (Cade is going to be impressed... haha) after that it was pretty cool, we were on our way home and the GPS couldn't find a signal so we had no idea where to go... it was dark… and so we just said a little prayer and we started driving! Haha. Wellll we just made some random turns and finally we found ourselves on the main road that leads to our house! :) The Lord is so mindful!

Saturday: We had a lesson with another girl. She is one that we found but wants to be taught in Spanish... However, the Elders were sick or something so they asked us to teach so we ran over and just taught her in English! :) She understood very well and it was fun! We also had a lesson with a member that is struggling! :) Then that night we met at the church for the General Relief Society Broadcast!! The ward had planned to meet together early and have dinner with all the Sisters so that was really fun! :) But then the plan was that someone was going to show up to hook up the TV for the broadcast... however it was 7:30 and it started at 8 and no one was there... ahh!! So it was up to us to figure it out! So we couldn't find out how... and everyone kind of lost hope... but I said a little prayer in my heart to figure it out and just before it started the former bishop called and told us what to do and it worked just fine! :) BLESSING! :) But the broad cast was sooo good! :) All about making and keeping those promises with our Heavenly Father! I loved the sweet little Prophets talk as well... I have grown such a testimony of prophets since I have been out here... What would we do without someone like President Monson leading the way??

Sunday: Well the big day came! It was the primary program during sacrament and the little kids did such a good job! :) There are only about 20 kids in the primary (crazy huh mom? there was that many Sunbeams in our ward!!! haha) but it was so cute and had such a sweet spirit! After that it was us... so during the 3rd hour we had a whole program planned about how sharing the gospel isn't inviting someone to be baptized... it's about being a Christian all the time! IT went really great and the ward seemed to really love it! :) The Lord really helped us out with this and we really hope that the work starts to Hasten here in New City! :) The rest of the night we were able to go teach a lesson with a man and lady! :) It was really good... we also had dinner with a member!

But that was our week! :) The work is still progressing and we hope to continue it even more! I LOVE being a missionary. I LOVE learning the things that I am learning. I LOVE seeing all the miracles and answered prayers that my Father in Heaven gives me! :)

(Click on photos to enlarge)

FALL IS HERE!

 My companion and I enjoying NY in the fall!