So This past week has been pretty good.; Lots of funny things have been going on. Sister Richards and I are getting into the 'Funny Missionary' mode. Where we start applying Scriptures (also making up scriptures to apply to ourselves) To everything that we do! It's wonderful, but when you walk up to someone and ask them ‘How art Thou?’. They kinda just look at you funny :)
I have really enjoyed being able to study in the mornings! I never realized how awesome the Ensign is!! I strongly suggest reading the whole thing!! every month! I go through one Magazine a week sooo... I'm running low on things to read because we had June, July, August. The Ensign has really helped me change my perspective on a few things and I am so grateful for the Prophet, his Apostles, and other great Elders and teachers who put stuff in there. Again!!! I Want you all to read from the Ensign this week!! IT WILL change your life! I can promise you that!
I'll hop right into what I did this week:
Monday: Sister Richards and I went and talked with Lucy. Well, she talked to us. We were able to answer a few things. She was super curious about baptism because Shauna announced on Sunday that she was going to be getting baptized on Sept. 14, and Lucy wanted to know how long she had been investigating the church and how she knew that it was the right one. When we told her that Shauna had found out about the church about 4 months ago, she was shocked! "How could anyone know something in four months!! I have known about this church for 45 years and have investigated it for 3 years, and I'm still not even sure!" Well Lucy... you have to read the Book of Mormon, ponder, and pray about it. You have to apply what it teaches you into your life. You can't just look at the Book and think that it is the Mormon’s 'Bible'. It is Another Testament of Jesus Christ, and if you diligently read it and do the things that it says your life will be blessed. It quotes continually throughout the Book of Mormon "Keep my Commandments, and ye shall prosper in the land." But little do people know what the Commandments entail. It is not just the 10 commandments, it is much more. Prayer is a commandment, going to church is a commandment, and there are many more things! Everyone is so hooked on 'living the commandments' that they don't even know what they are trying to live.
We also spoke to Jaylene today. We asked her what was going on and what she didn't believe. She told us that she didn't think she could live the Word of Wisdom. Sister Richards and I knew that it had to be deeper than that, if they know everything else is true they will without a doubt be able to follow the Word of Wisdom. So we dug deeper. We asked her about the Book of Mormon and if she thought it was true. She said "the Book makes me happy as I read it and felt more at peace... but... I didn't know about Prophets... the Bible talks about false prophets and such. How can you know if they aren't a False Prophet?" Ah-ha!! there is the problem! By the Fruits of their labors you may know them, you will be able to detect those that deceive. Those who are False are doing it for Worldly gain, they have no intention on actually bringing you closer to God. We asked her to give the Book of Mormon and honest to good chance, read it, ponder it, and pray about it. Because if that book is True - Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith restored the Gospel to the earth through the power of God, and that this church is the true church restored once again to the earth. Jaylene said that she would read the Book of Mormon and ask to know if it was true. We then told her that in order to know if 'she liked the other church more than our church' she would need to come to our church to see what it was like before she said no. She said that she would come to church this week, and give it an honest try. When we were getting ready to leave, she apologized for lying to us about not knowing about a few things and that she felt pushed to do things and just fell along the way, but she would try her best to find out if it was true. Sunday you will know if she was true to her word or not.
Tuesday: We had District Meeting on this day it was held at the Ashland church building, and let me tell you how awesome our district is!! Well... after this meeting it will only be the Portsmouth elders and us because they will be splitting the district. For this Meeting it was the Russel and the Portsmouth Districts both together, and as a combined District we wanted to set a goal for how many conversions we were going to get this next transfer and how we were going to get there. Sister Boldrin (one of the Ashland Sisters) suggested that we do a personal prayer with our companion to see what we could do in our area (the amount of people we thought we would be able to convert) and then do a group prayer for the whole district. Sister Boldrin is pretty awesome and such a spiritually connected sister! Missionary to the Max she is. Anywho, we prayed about what we needed to do and how many people we thought we would be able to convert to the Lord. The talk we had right before we went out to pray was about Currency. What is the price we are willing to pay to follow the Lord? My mission president put it very well in his current letter to us: “The sacrifice most often required by the Lord is one’s own sins.” Our Currency is our sins. Are we willing to give up our sins to follow the Lord. That is probably one of the most difficult things that I have ever prayed about. Am I willing to give up my Sins to follow the Lord? We all sin, it is what man does best. but it is our desire, and willingness to serve the Lord that helps us with those sins. We will still slip up once in a while but it is our determination to keep pushing forward and knowing that Christ will take up what we cannot. Repentance is an awesome thing. That a lot of us take for granted and when we take it for granted we don't use it as much as we should. Repentance is not just asking for our sins to be forgiven by the Lord. It is a change - we start to align our will with Gods will. We change the way we live so we aren't as likely to commit that sin again. It was an amazing experience to have that opportunity to kneel in prayer as a companionship, and as a District for what we needed to give up to be able to reach the goals that our District would be setting.
After the meeting we went as a District to eat lunch at Panera bread - it kinda reminds me of Zupas and Paradise, Only better. We got to have our last moments of fun together as a combined District. It was fun to be in a group of bright, spiritually powered, Elders and sister. We said our final goodbye and parted ways.
After all of that we drove back, and went to Polly's house to do service for her. Polly is a less active woman... well she never really was active. She was baptized in the church along with 10 of her other siblings, but there wasn't an LDS church building nearby so they all went to the Baptist church. So technically she is a Baptist... that is baptized in the LDS church. She is an interesting lady, not very talkative and doesn't really like accepting help, but she is in her late 70's and just had two heart surgeries in the past year! So we were going to help her out whether she liked it or not! We washed her windows around her house and the curtains that hung in front of them. It was fun, and while we were washing the windows Sister Richards asked as she pointed at something on the screen of the window "Is that on the inside or the outside of the screen" and Polly walked up and flicked it and it was on the inside! she flicked the spider! it was funny how Sister Richards and I kinda just shrunk back - like eww.. it wasn't a small spider either! it was a big orange spider! So she saw how silly and not very brave we were toward large spiders. It was good in the end because she shared where her family lived and we were able to go and talk with them as well! Bo-yah!!
Wednesday: Last time I emailed was the day we had our P-day. It is usually on Mondays. but since Transfers were the next day P-day was held this day. I am still in Wheelersburg, Ohio. I'm just going to say that it was an adventure washing and vacuuming out our car D: haha
Thursday: So I met Meighan today! I didn't think I would ever see her... I didn't know where she lived, or if she even lived in our area, but low and behold her family does. It was interesting because we weren't even planning on going to try and meet her Mom (who wasn't there). Anywho it was cool, but we should have talked more... we kinda rushed out of there and I"m not sure when we will be able to get a hold of their family again.
Later that night we went to Mandy and Michael’s house and taught Michael the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was much more open and talked to us and answered our questions this time so it was great!
Saturday: Sister Richards and I went over to the Sherman’s to re-teach Shauna the Plan of Salvation. We were hoping that it would be a review because her record said that she had already been taught all of it... but she didn't remember any of it so we basically taught her everything again. It was all good. Now This is the day that connects with When you give a sister Missionary a Cookie! Sister Sherman made the best cookies I have had out here (well... it's the only cookies I have had so far haha) When Sister Richards and I were getting ready to leave Sister Sherman gave us a bag of cookies and said when you give a Sister Missionary a Cookie!! they are so happy! the rest of the night - no lie - we added on to it... We'll want a glass of milk. and when we get a glass of milk we will see how white it is and think of heaven. and when we think of heaven we will... yeah so on and so forth. It was great!
Sunday: Jaylene didn't come to church. Not a big surprise because we weren't able to talk to her all week but it was still disappointing still. But Testimony meeting was great! It was better than the last one we had. Everything just went better after that.
We also met Jamey. He is Barb (Polly's Sister) Son. He was an interesting dude. The first thing I thought when he walked out was: Crazy Hippie. He had the Long hair and Goatee thingy going on. But he was literally amazing, and he was so fascinated by the idea of Prophets! So we hope he will go somewhere!
Well Time is up! I love you all and I hope everything is going well! Let me know how your lives are going! Read, Ponder, Pray. are the things the Lord wants you to do.
Have a solid week and be good.
Love yah!
Sister Karen Call
I have really enjoyed being able to study in the mornings! I never realized how awesome the Ensign is!! I strongly suggest reading the whole thing!! every month! I go through one Magazine a week sooo... I'm running low on things to read because we had June, July, August. The Ensign has really helped me change my perspective on a few things and I am so grateful for the Prophet, his Apostles, and other great Elders and teachers who put stuff in there. Again!!! I Want you all to read from the Ensign this week!! IT WILL change your life! I can promise you that!
I'll hop right into what I did this week:
Monday: Sister Richards and I went and talked with Lucy. Well, she talked to us. We were able to answer a few things. She was super curious about baptism because Shauna announced on Sunday that she was going to be getting baptized on Sept. 14, and Lucy wanted to know how long she had been investigating the church and how she knew that it was the right one. When we told her that Shauna had found out about the church about 4 months ago, she was shocked! "How could anyone know something in four months!! I have known about this church for 45 years and have investigated it for 3 years, and I'm still not even sure!" Well Lucy... you have to read the Book of Mormon, ponder, and pray about it. You have to apply what it teaches you into your life. You can't just look at the Book and think that it is the Mormon’s 'Bible'. It is Another Testament of Jesus Christ, and if you diligently read it and do the things that it says your life will be blessed. It quotes continually throughout the Book of Mormon "Keep my Commandments, and ye shall prosper in the land." But little do people know what the Commandments entail. It is not just the 10 commandments, it is much more. Prayer is a commandment, going to church is a commandment, and there are many more things! Everyone is so hooked on 'living the commandments' that they don't even know what they are trying to live.
We also spoke to Jaylene today. We asked her what was going on and what she didn't believe. She told us that she didn't think she could live the Word of Wisdom. Sister Richards and I knew that it had to be deeper than that, if they know everything else is true they will without a doubt be able to follow the Word of Wisdom. So we dug deeper. We asked her about the Book of Mormon and if she thought it was true. She said "the Book makes me happy as I read it and felt more at peace... but... I didn't know about Prophets... the Bible talks about false prophets and such. How can you know if they aren't a False Prophet?" Ah-ha!! there is the problem! By the Fruits of their labors you may know them, you will be able to detect those that deceive. Those who are False are doing it for Worldly gain, they have no intention on actually bringing you closer to God. We asked her to give the Book of Mormon and honest to good chance, read it, ponder it, and pray about it. Because if that book is True - Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith restored the Gospel to the earth through the power of God, and that this church is the true church restored once again to the earth. Jaylene said that she would read the Book of Mormon and ask to know if it was true. We then told her that in order to know if 'she liked the other church more than our church' she would need to come to our church to see what it was like before she said no. She said that she would come to church this week, and give it an honest try. When we were getting ready to leave, she apologized for lying to us about not knowing about a few things and that she felt pushed to do things and just fell along the way, but she would try her best to find out if it was true. Sunday you will know if she was true to her word or not.
Tuesday: We had District Meeting on this day it was held at the Ashland church building, and let me tell you how awesome our district is!! Well... after this meeting it will only be the Portsmouth elders and us because they will be splitting the district. For this Meeting it was the Russel and the Portsmouth Districts both together, and as a combined District we wanted to set a goal for how many conversions we were going to get this next transfer and how we were going to get there. Sister Boldrin (one of the Ashland Sisters) suggested that we do a personal prayer with our companion to see what we could do in our area (the amount of people we thought we would be able to convert) and then do a group prayer for the whole district. Sister Boldrin is pretty awesome and such a spiritually connected sister! Missionary to the Max she is. Anywho, we prayed about what we needed to do and how many people we thought we would be able to convert to the Lord. The talk we had right before we went out to pray was about Currency. What is the price we are willing to pay to follow the Lord? My mission president put it very well in his current letter to us: “The sacrifice most often required by the Lord is one’s own sins.” Our Currency is our sins. Are we willing to give up our sins to follow the Lord. That is probably one of the most difficult things that I have ever prayed about. Am I willing to give up my Sins to follow the Lord? We all sin, it is what man does best. but it is our desire, and willingness to serve the Lord that helps us with those sins. We will still slip up once in a while but it is our determination to keep pushing forward and knowing that Christ will take up what we cannot. Repentance is an awesome thing. That a lot of us take for granted and when we take it for granted we don't use it as much as we should. Repentance is not just asking for our sins to be forgiven by the Lord. It is a change - we start to align our will with Gods will. We change the way we live so we aren't as likely to commit that sin again. It was an amazing experience to have that opportunity to kneel in prayer as a companionship, and as a District for what we needed to give up to be able to reach the goals that our District would be setting.
After the meeting we went as a District to eat lunch at Panera bread - it kinda reminds me of Zupas and Paradise, Only better. We got to have our last moments of fun together as a combined District. It was fun to be in a group of bright, spiritually powered, Elders and sister. We said our final goodbye and parted ways.
After all of that we drove back, and went to Polly's house to do service for her. Polly is a less active woman... well she never really was active. She was baptized in the church along with 10 of her other siblings, but there wasn't an LDS church building nearby so they all went to the Baptist church. So technically she is a Baptist... that is baptized in the LDS church. She is an interesting lady, not very talkative and doesn't really like accepting help, but she is in her late 70's and just had two heart surgeries in the past year! So we were going to help her out whether she liked it or not! We washed her windows around her house and the curtains that hung in front of them. It was fun, and while we were washing the windows Sister Richards asked as she pointed at something on the screen of the window "Is that on the inside or the outside of the screen" and Polly walked up and flicked it and it was on the inside! she flicked the spider! it was funny how Sister Richards and I kinda just shrunk back - like eww.. it wasn't a small spider either! it was a big orange spider! So she saw how silly and not very brave we were toward large spiders. It was good in the end because she shared where her family lived and we were able to go and talk with them as well! Bo-yah!!
Wednesday: Last time I emailed was the day we had our P-day. It is usually on Mondays. but since Transfers were the next day P-day was held this day. I am still in Wheelersburg, Ohio. I'm just going to say that it was an adventure washing and vacuuming out our car D: haha
Thursday: So I met Meighan today! I didn't think I would ever see her... I didn't know where she lived, or if she even lived in our area, but low and behold her family does. It was interesting because we weren't even planning on going to try and meet her Mom (who wasn't there). Anywho it was cool, but we should have talked more... we kinda rushed out of there and I"m not sure when we will be able to get a hold of their family again.
Later that night we went to Mandy and Michael’s house and taught Michael the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was much more open and talked to us and answered our questions this time so it was great!
Saturday: Sister Richards and I went over to the Sherman’s to re-teach Shauna the Plan of Salvation. We were hoping that it would be a review because her record said that she had already been taught all of it... but she didn't remember any of it so we basically taught her everything again. It was all good. Now This is the day that connects with When you give a sister Missionary a Cookie! Sister Sherman made the best cookies I have had out here (well... it's the only cookies I have had so far haha) When Sister Richards and I were getting ready to leave Sister Sherman gave us a bag of cookies and said when you give a Sister Missionary a Cookie!! they are so happy! the rest of the night - no lie - we added on to it... We'll want a glass of milk. and when we get a glass of milk we will see how white it is and think of heaven. and when we think of heaven we will... yeah so on and so forth. It was great!
Sunday: Jaylene didn't come to church. Not a big surprise because we weren't able to talk to her all week but it was still disappointing still. But Testimony meeting was great! It was better than the last one we had. Everything just went better after that.
We also met Jamey. He is Barb (Polly's Sister) Son. He was an interesting dude. The first thing I thought when he walked out was: Crazy Hippie. He had the Long hair and Goatee thingy going on. But he was literally amazing, and he was so fascinated by the idea of Prophets! So we hope he will go somewhere!
Well Time is up! I love you all and I hope everything is going well! Let me know how your lives are going! Read, Ponder, Pray. are the things the Lord wants you to do.
Have a solid week and be good.
Love yah!
Sister Karen Call
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