Week ending Oct 14, 2013 Transfer one-last week

So this week was amazing!!!!! It was the best week Sister Mullins or Myself have ever had!!! So we thought that our week was going slow and we had some unfortunate set backs and then Sat. Rolled around and it was awesome. So here was our week.
Monday: Monday was p-day and we had an eventful start to our week . We had a potential call us and say she needed to get moved out of her house by that afternoon! So we called our ward and worked super quick to try and get them involved. We ended up helping for a short amount of time before choir and it was a disaster! The house was so dark and dirty and there was a lot of inappropriate things in the house! Sister Mullins, Myself, and the ward wanted to help her and let her know we cared but it was not what you would call a “house of the spirit”. So Sister Mullins and I started singing a Child’s prayer that we sing in mission choir, and it didn’t seem as dark anymore. We got through the work and headed to sing. Choir was great as always! The rest of the day was a lot of cleaning grocery shopping, and trying to see people with no success. So our lessons that day were super low!
Tuesday: On Tuesday we decided to go and see a potential named Awate. We went to her house and she wasn’t there… but her family was. We met her brother Jonathan and her Sister Victoria. Jonathan moved from Africa 2 weeks ago and Victoria has been here for 6 years. We got to share an intro to the Book of Mormon and Restoration with them. They were so sweet and we were able to give them Book of Mormons and set up a time to come back. We invited them to church but they unfortunately didn’t come. :/ But we did get to sing with them and share with their sweet spirit. It was a great lesson. After our lesson though we tried to get in our car to go to the next appointment and the car was dead… again! We had to call the vehicle coordinator Elder Allen, and he came rescued us. We got some jumper cables and an appointment for the next day.  We did however get to visit with three RCLA’s which made up for losing tracting time.
Wednesday: On Wednesday we had to go to pepboys to get our battery looked at. Turns out it was dead, and the car is still under warranty so they sent us to the dealer ship. We had to jump start it that  morning and so we knew there was a problem. Luckily the dealership was able to see us without too much of a wait. Although it ended up taking 4 hrs. by the end. We went tracting after we got our new battery and only got two lessons and no potentials. So by this point we were feeling kinda frustrated and thought we were not going to have lessons this week. So Wednesday night was kind of stressful.
Thursday: On Thursday we had weekly planning and we decided to try something new. We decided to put our focus members, inv., and all people we knew we wanted to see directly into our week that day. I really hope that helps improve lessons this week since we are going into the week with the people in mind rather than thinking of them only the night before we visit them. We saw our ward mission leader this day and talked about who we want to focus on currently. We also talked about starting a scripture study class in the ward which we are really excited to invite investigators too. That night we visited a sweet family named the Johnsons. This family is a grandma and her granddaughter that she has guardianship over. Alicia is the granddaughter and she is 9 and has not been baptized. The Grandma wants her to be baptized but wants the decision to be something she comes up with. So we were really allowed to push it. We decided to cover the plan of salvation though and Alicia practically taught the lesson and invited herself to baptism!!!! She is getting baptized Nov. 16^th! And We are so excited.
Friday- On Fridays we visit with a ward member and go over the gospel principle lessons. This week one of her sweet friends that lives next door joined her. His name is Jim and he was so sweet. We discussed how God is our Loving Heavenly Father. We sang Nearer my God to thee and he sang with us!!! So sweet! We contacted quite a few referrals that night and then went to our ward fish fry. This was put on by the high priests and it was delicious. It was great though because we were able to have individual lessons with every single non-member that was invited. We got to visit with one gentleman named Bill. We didn’t know he wasn’t a member but it turns out he cleans the windows of the house we are at and was invited to the party. Sister Mullins had me take the lead and give him a Book of Mormon and invited him to read it and to come to church. It was great because there was a ward member at the table that joined in and helped with the lesson. Bill had some great questions that led into a mini plan of salvation lesson. I am pretty sure we taught the plan of salvation 9 times this week and I loved it! I get new insights each time! We took Bill’s business card and we are planning to see how he is doing this week. We also taught a Woman named lee and a man named Benny, both were so sweet and we got to share a message and sing with both of them. Loved it!!!
Saturday- This is the day where everything started getting really good! I know I know  someone on date and three lessons in one hour is a miracle, but this is the day that Sister Mullins and I realized we could possibly get a perfect week. For once we could reach every goal we had set  for the week even with some of those goals pushing ourselves! We ended up tracting, visiting potentials, investigators, members you name it! We even got a ward member to come with us for 2 hrs of proselyting and it was AMAZING!!!! The spirit we felt and the Dynamic of having three was soooo cool! It was a long cold day full of work and we practically fell into our beds for Sunday.
SUNDAY!!!!!!- So basically my fav. Day of the week. This day is the BEST to see ward members/get them to come with us to appointments. We had 10 lessons this day!!!!! Sister Mullins and I went to see a family right after church and it was so sweet. It is a part member family and we found out from the mom that the dad is warming up to the gospel and sees how it touches his kids lives J After that we weren’t hungry and it was technically lunch time but we really wanted a perfect week so we stayed out and went and saw more part member families, referrals, and members. We went tracting in the evening and it was great!!! We tracted the Hermanas apartments because they can’t and can I say GOLD MINE!!! In one hr we didn’t even finish one building of apartments! So great we got to sing, share scriptures, give out book of mormons, and we met Consuelo. Consuelo is a beautiful Hispanic mother in her 30’s that speaks Spanish. I know Spanish and I have been using lately but only to ask if someone is interested in knowing more about God and a plan he has for them. (A little rusty) but I really felt we needed to stay and speak with this woman… so we did. The spirit that was felt was amazing!!! I worked really hard and struggled and said some things wrong but I was able to give a lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Spanish and she understood! She wanted to know more, she wanted a book of mormon, and she wanted to come to church!!! I bore my testimony in Spanish about the Book of Mormon and how the gospel of Jesus Christ blesses families. Without even knowing what I said Sister Mullins testified of the exact same things in English and then Consuelo told us a sweet story of how she was not supposed to get pregnant. She tried for years and nothing. And then she got pregnant with her sweet son. After that she wanted more kids but the doctors told her again that she can’t get pregnant and they don’t know how she did in the first place. She told us that her son is her miracle and she know that that is because of God and because of that she wants to come closer to him!!! So Golden! So sad we had to give her to the Hermanas but I know that they will be able to touch her life and give her exactly what she is looking for… in her language. We walked out of that appointment literally on cloud nine and then we looked at each other and realized something! We had made so many of our goals without even trying! God blessed us so much this week! Even with 9 hrs of being stranded/getting our car fixed we were able to get 31 lessons!!!! I have never been so elated in my life. We were able to teach people and not lessons in each and everyone and that was because God put people in our path that were ready and waiting! We only fell short on one referral, one church tour, and a baptism!!! WE CAN DO ANYTHING THROUGH GOD!!!!  It finally hit me this week that this is 100% his work.  Because it is his work we can’t wait for it to be done. The message in conference this session seemed to be the same over and over:” The lord is hastening his work” or “The time is far spent”. Not to be dramatic but we are running out of time. I often think that after this life we will have those that we are able to be an example to and teach thank us and hug us, but those we feel like we can’t talk to or approach they come up to us and simply say “why?”. “Why didn’t you just share your light with me? Why didn’t you just try? Why didn’t you think of my family and my salvation” Every single person we teach is a beloved spirit son and daughter of God! He loves each and everyone so much that he created this plan for us to return to him. Don’t you think that if he spent so long to create a perfect plan we can include others in it? Even if it seems daunting. Elder Uctdorf said in conference: “Come and join with us, there is room for you here” I want every single person I learn to see, love, teach, and grow from on my mission to know I did my best to get them to come and join us. I have a deep love for my savior and I am learning to understand and love his plan for us so much better. Death is not something to fear but something to find joy in. We are given this plan so we can become as our Father is “Perfect”. But much like a diamond our perfection will take time, trials, heat, pressure but in the end we can become perfect. I am so thankful for this promise and I am even more profoundly grateful for this gospel. It truly does bless families, and I know that families CAN be together because of this great plan. I know that my Savior lives. I know because I have seen him in my life. He has blessed me with a loving and wonderful family. He has blessed me by creating the earth I get to look at each and every day. He has blessed me by his example to help me know “to what source they may look for a remission of their sins” He has made it possible for me to go home. To return to my father. I know that he loves me and that this mission is his and not mine. I know that as I turn to him I will be blessed with opportunities to serve those around me and to be a tool or instrument in the hands of my savior (Alma 29:9) I know with as much faith as I can muster that God lives, he IS the reason I live that my family lives, and that my faith lives. I say these things in the name of my dear savior, Jesus Christ, Amen. 


I love you all and I have a missionary challenge for you:
This next week please take a moment to make a list of a few names of people that are less active, non members, or someone you know that is going through a difficult time. Please take the time and pray for them BY NAME! you will see your heart is softened and opened and you will KNOW how to help them ! God will let you know how to succor the weak! and to Mourn with those that mourn. Mosiah 18:9 (By serving those around us we are keeping our baptismal convenants) We are all member missionaries and we all have a commision to do our best to bring other to zion by our examples, talents, prayers, voices etc. Find the way you are comfortable helping and get involved!!! Let me know how it goes!

October 6, 2013

This week has been crazy!!! But wonderful! Lesson numbers were not as high for Sister Mullins and I which dissapointed us a lot but... we had a baptism! YAY!!!! Well I will just give a rundown of our week! :)

Monday- P-Day! P-day is always so hard to get lessons on. We try to talk with people as our day goes on but I feel as though we are lucky if we get one of two lessons. :/ but we still work hard and try to get everything else in. I love emailing everyone on P-Day but my favorite part is actually Mission choir. I love it! I love that we are prepping to sing at various upcoming events! After our P-day ended we went to a members house named Alicia Ojeda. She just moved into our ward and is still struggling to get settled so Sister Mullins and I got to eat dinner with them and then we helped them unpack! We got to help them get their kitchen and living room to be finally set up! Their Gospel library was all packed so we unpacked it and placed it front and center in their living room (Sneaky Sister missionaries ;) ) That was Monday

Tuesday- Tuesday was rough!!!! On Sunday our Baptism was changed from Sat. the 5th to Wed. the 2nd ha so what we had a week to plan changed to having two days. So Tuesday we made  A LOT of phone calls. Sister Mullins and I called every single person in our ward and invited them to the baptism. Then we went tracting and tried to visit some part member families in our ward. NO ONE was home! So Tuesday was kind of discouraging. We had District meeting which was great though! Sister Mullins and I both received the same inspiration to revisit a dropped contact. So we did.... and she is still not interested and doesn't need anything. We are unsure why we both felt so strongly why we needed to contact her but we are glad all the same that we did.

Wednesday- BAPTISM DAY!!!!! This was a great, long, and crazy day filled with SO many emotions. We had our interviews withour Mission President in the morning and those were great! I really love the insight my mission president gives me!
Then we headed to try and get ahold of some of our potentials and investigators and invite them to the baptism. All of them were busy :( but we kept our happy faces on and kept going! We got to visit with a Less active in our ward that is becoming more active! She has been to church the last two weeks and it has been great! She had some medical errands she needed done but couldn't get to them because she was sick. So sister Mullins and I went and picked up her medication for her. Her smile when we got back was priceless! Serving people in little ways makes a huge difference!!!
We ended up using our dinner hour to make dinner for us and Latrece and Jeremiah, our Bishop and Ward mission leader (We had to stay at the Stake center while the font filled so we decided to cook and study :) ) It was really fun to eat with all of them before their baptism. Then it was show time. The baptism was great and the spirit was so strong! Latrece and Jeremiah bore their testimonies after and it was so sweet! She talked about her path with Christ being more clear and Jeremiah talked about feeling "Good". To us that was the best testimony any nine year old could ever have. They were both confirmed that night due to conference and the spirit felt in the room was tangible! So beautiful. So many ward members came to welcome them as well! It was great!
The rest of the night was kinda crazy. Sister Mullins got a migraine in the middle of the baptism but thought she was okay. While Latrece and Jeremiah were cleaning up we had the ward write letters to them with their testimonies, and we got Sister Mullins a priesthood blessing. Her Migraine just got worse though. Right after the service we went to the bathroom where she proceeded to lie down on a bench and cry. I have never seen her cry. From there it kinda got worse, Luckily a married couple in our ward are nurses. I ran and grabbed them and they helped her out. Eventually the advil kicked in and her migraine went away. She had really bad chills though (Apparently the tail end result of a migraine) so the ward members drove us home and we got her to bed. So scary but she has been 100% fine since. We both think (Due to her priesthood blessing) that she hasn't been drinking enough fluids. So we are now working on that.

Thursday- Sister Mullins woke up with a residual headache this day so I let her sleep through personal study and I stayed in the room while she slept and studied. When comp. study came her headache was gone and she was ready to work! She is such an inspiration she is seriously one of the most motivated people I know when it comes to missionary work. We had a few lessons and they went great! Then we met with our Ward coordination members and we got to give them a challenge! We challenged them to be a Preach my Gospel ward! Every week at ward coordination now we are going to try and have our spiritual thought come from Preach my gospel. ( It was so cool to listen to conference and have almost every talk quote preach my gospel!)

Friday- On Friday I went on my 24 hr. Exchange with the Sister Training Leaders. This was a fun experience for me. It was very different going from the Normandy park ward to the Tongan ward. Especially since a lot of the people we visited did not speak English at all and I don't speak Tongan ha ha. But it was fun all the same! We got to teach a Woman named Morgan about the word of Wisdom and the Law of chastity. Very spiritually strong lesson but also very interesting. It was fun to see how other companionship work and how other wards work to. I really enjoyed it but I also missed not getting to see my regular Friday appointments with Latrece (New Investigator), Sister Caffaro (New-ish member that also considers herself Messianic Jew), and the Wilcken's (A focus family given to us by our Bishop)

Sat- GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!! Ah I love general conference! It was honestly like I was seeing conference for the first time. Sister Mullins and I kept talking afterwards about how we never saw a conference where each talk had something specifically for us but this conference did! I have so many notes now and I love reading them!!!! It was great to go over them as well and compare and see what insights the other person got or what we missed. A lot of our insights were the same though :) That was my main highlight from this day! Seriously great

Sun- General Conference again, and it was just as powerful.  In between session we got to visit a LA that is moving and we got her new address which was great! We also got to visit with one of our Investigators who we are hoping to get to church this next week. We could tell she was really in need of someone to talk too and we both felt prompted to go at that time. So cool. Finally in the evening we went and visited a LA family named the Salee's. They are such an interesting family. They are inactive due to the children's activities. One of the children (the only daughter: 11) was excepted into the Olympic training program for Gymnastics!!! Wow! The Two boys are also heavily involved in soccer, basketball, football, and karate! So busy and the poor single mom is having to work 4 jobs to support them. Such a sweet family. We are hoping we can help them to see the importance of church attendance. We will see how that goes in the future.
So kinda a low week on numbers but a great week on experiences and helping people's faith grow :)

(In other news:  * My boot is finally off!!! hopefully for good!

Well I will write more next week! Love you ALL!!!!

September 30, 2013

Hello!
I hope you all had another wonderful week! I had a great week in Seattle Washington. It was a wet week but it sure was a good one! We made a lot of progress with our Investigators Latrece and Jeremiah! They are being baptized this Wednesday and I am so happy for them! We only have two lessons left (We need to finish the plan of salvation and the law of chastity with Jeremiah and then we are ready for baptism) They came to church on Sunday and Jeremiah was so funny he told his mom "I'm ready for some baptism" ha ha Sister Mullins and I loved that! Latrece shared her testimony with Sister Mullins and I and it was so sweet. She talked about how she knows that It will be hard on her Pastor and Her mother to leave (She went to the same church as her mom) but she knows that she needs to continue on her relationship with her Heavenly Father and she needs to make her own path. She also talked about how she wants a good influence on Jeremiah and she knows she has found it in our Church. Her back got hurt really bad this week at church and we got to have the Bishop and another brother from our congregation came over and gave her a blessing! It was so sweet and she was bawling. It was really special because the blessing talked a lot about receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and that is something in particular that she is looking forward too. We were all bawling! We have really seen a lot of change in her this week.
I got to go on exchanges with the Hermanas this week and I loved that! It was great to get to use my spanish, but also I really had to think about my choice of words. I am finding that in english I over explain things or make them complicated. When I try to explain them in spanish I simplify them and they still have the same effect! The Gospel is true!!! Loved that witness this week. I also got to do my very own street contact for the first time this week and it was in Spanish as well! After that I have so much more confidence in talking to others in English ha ha. Weird that it took me using a language Learned in school rather than my primary language to be comfortable talking to others. It is great though because one of our investigators Husband is Cuban and spanish is his primary language. I got to invite him to be baptized in Spanish this week. No "Yes" from him yet, but he does seem a lot more willing to talk with us now that I make an effort to use his native language even though we are english speaking missionaries! So cool!!!
I loved the General relief society broadcast this Sat. It was phenomenal and it seemed like it was specifically designed for our investigators. That was really neat.
Sister Mullins and I got to take an investigator to the Family History Center and She loved it! We actually ran into her here at the Library when we first got here working on Family History!!! So neat to see the spirit of Elijah working in her life! I am loving Missionary work!!!
There are hard days though. We have had a few people drop us over the last week and that was hard, but the good days make up for it a thousand times over. Our Ward is great! They are doing a 40 day fast for missionary efforts (one member fasts a day and we call them the night before and the night following. We ask them to fast for specific investigators and then we call back at the end of their fast to share miracles we saw that day) Such a cool effort. Today is day two and I have already seen a difference!
I am loving singing to everyone I see! I am not much of a singer but it makes a huge difference. It feels weird now to leave a lesson without singing a song. It is amazing to see how each hymn is picked by the spirit for each individual person too! I am loving seeing the spirit in my life. I have started carrying a notebook with me to write down all the impressions and times I feel the spirit! Such an amazing thing to be able to sit down and see the Lord's hand in my life that day!
I feel like training is going great! I have felt like a missionary since day one of the MTC but this week I REALLY felt like a missionary!!! For the first time I was willing to take the lead on discussions and I thought of scriptures with no effort that fit the situation. I really felt like I was helping this week! It was an amazing feeling! I know that the training system we have works! It's hard and role plays aren't my favorite thing but I still know they work!
Sister Mullins is sooooo great! She does a great job encouraging me and making me feel like a great missionary. Most recently she has been placing little notes by my bed every once and a while that say something she likes about my missionary work. She really makes me feel like I am doing a good job. I am so thankful that she is my trainer. Cool story I haven't shared yet: The first day I got into the field I was sitting in the sacrament room and the missionaries that were all the trainers came in. When Sister Mullins walked in I looked at her and thought "That's my trainer" Not until later that evening did I found out that she had the same impression when she saw me ! Such an awesome testament that our companions are hand picked by God for us! I Love that our Mission motto is "Have fun with the Spirit" because sister Mullins and I have so much fun with the Spirit! I am loving the work.

So here are some funny stories from my week really quick! So Sister Mullins and I decided to go tracting this week and we did. We saw a beautiful dog outside a house that looked just like frosty!!! (Dog I grew up with) Anyways we went up to say hi and he decided he loved me. I mean LOVED me! (Not in the most appropriate way) and I couldn't get him off of me! Sister Mullins just laughed at me while I yelled at the dog and tried to push him off of me. Ya so that was an interesting time. And at the next house a puppy decided I was his chew toy! ha ha oh dogs.

Okay Spiders.... Sister Mullins and I cannot kill spiders and they are everywhere. Our neighbors probably hate us because we scream soooo loud whenever we see them. oops

 Most recently i tried to get one and it crawled on my hand and Sister Mullins screamed and left me in the dust to fend for myself! (Rude ;) )

Hmmm. Sister Mullins and  I started a Bike repair shop for Jeremiah! We took his bike apart and completely re-built it because the axel to the back tire was broken ha.

So cool stories

This morning I was asked to conduct and instruct ward choir... ME!!! ha so I did, doesn't mean I did it well but I tried my hardest ha ha that was interesting.

Well that is pretty much it for this week. I am so glad you are all doing good! I love you all and I hope to hear from you soon!

September 16, 2013 - 1st pday in the field Normandy Park Washington

I'm in the Field!!!! wow it has been a crazy... but wonderful week! I am sorry you don't get to hear about my last week at the MTC really. Too much to say about this week ha. But I will say that I finally found Kristin Trone and Tyson Wilson! So fun to see people from home :) Okay MTC blurb over lets start from last tuesday....

Tuesday- Such a long day! I got up at 2 AM and headed to the transportation office. We took a Bus, a train, and  metro, and an Airplane to get to Seattle. All of which is 2.5 hrs. from home. ha Ironic. But anyways I got to talk to Mom and Dad at the Airport which was great! So glad Amanda had Lennox!!! Yay for Amanda, Nick, and Khloe :)

Anyways flew to Seattle and was met there by our Mission President: President Choi (Chay). He and his wife seem way nice. We went to the mission home and... wait... we drove from the Airport and it was the scariest 45 min of my life. The elder driving drove a white bullet (get it? Bronze bullet, white bullet ;) ) and he kept slamming on the brakes and changing lanes way close to semi's. Dad I am sorry for ever saying anything about your driving ;) Anyways we got to the mission office and had some interviews. Sister Choi  is super nice and is leading our mission choir. Yup you heard right we had a mission choir! pretty cool. Anyways we got to meet our Comps after that. All the missionaries that were in the field already came filing in and it was hard to explain but I saw my comp and knew she was who I was going to be with. Afterwards we were talking and she had the same feeling! She is awesome!!! Her name is Sister Mullins. Well that was day one.

Wednesday- Forgot to mention I got my boot from mom! Thank you! Foot is slowly healing! Luckily it has been cold enough here I can wear my boot on one foot and my zip up boots on the other and not look too weird...sorta. Anyways.... Day one in the Field. Sis. Mullins and I had some down time and we decided to visit some Less-actives in our Ward. We found one in our area book named Marilyn Dunstan. So cool story we went to visit her and she kept saying things that didn't make sense about our bishop talking to her and such. It turns out our Bishop had decided to get to know her as well and went and saw her two hours before we did! The spirit knew she needed us on that day! so cool! So Sis. Mullins had a woman named Latrece on date (baptism) for the fifth of October before I came. Well on Wednesday I commited her nine year old son Jeremiah to baptism on the same date! He didn't say yes but he gave us a fist bump. We are taking that as a nine year old yes ha ha. I met our Bishop this day and he is super nice. I also met our Ward mission leader. Both great men and will be really easy to work with. So I found out Sis. Mullins cannot cook pizza ha ha she has tried three times and burned each one so I am the designated pizza cooker now ha ha. Everyone asked about my foot so I started telling them I tried to kick Sis. Mullins and failed ha ah (Her Idea)

Thurs- So Sis. Mullins is from Texas/utah (divorced family) and super amazing she is 20 and has been out since april. She is a great trainer and soooo strong in the Gospel. She has already been such a good example to me. She has us do this fun thing where right after we turn the lights off at night we say "choose a number between... and... " then what ever the number corresponds to in our head means we share a story on that family member. Its a fun way to get to know each other.  We went tracting on this day and accidentally parked on a person's grass a little bit and a man walked by and said "real christian of you parking on someones grass" ha ha oops. We had dinner with Latrece and Jeremiah tonight and that was great! Our mission pres. has this rule that we sing at every appointment. I was nervous at first because I don't like my singing voice, but I swear Heavenly Father is making me have a good voice for on my mission only. Sister Mullins and I sound great together! not to sound conceited but... we do and people have said it and asked us to sing in Sacrament meeting. Mission miracle I think so!

Friday- So we had a lesson with a sweet new convert named Linda Caffaro. She is a 75+ something sister with an interesting story. She was raised a messianic Jew. (believes in christ).. so she considers herself to be a messianic mormon jew now. Yup you heard right still a jew, now a mormon jew ;) we meet with her to discuss the Gospel princples book from church. That was fun we talked about the coming of Christ ;) Friday night we taught Latrece and Jeremiah about the word of wisdom. They are what we call golden investigators because they are seriously awesome and prepared and have no issues (other than coming to church!!! She practically runs her church so it's hard for her to leave) Anyways Jeremiah was sooooo cute when we said we don't drink, smoke, do drugs he kept saying "Wow, me either!" Ha he is nine so we hope he doesn't do those things ;)

Sat- This morning was rough. Sis. mullins and I both didn't feel good. Janice would be proud to know my oils are going to good use. Speaking of which (don't judge) I am out of peppermint already ;) anyways Sis. Mullins had a headache so I gave her some peppermint ha ha but she got it too close to her eyes so we had to wash it off because it was burning. Super funny I promise. At lunch we had a surprise we thought we were having lunch with the ward meal corrdinator (don't include: turns out members can still fix meals on weekdays but we can't eat in home without an inv. which prompts them to invite someone over) anyways turns out it wasn't our lunch coordinator. It was Sister Mullins Aunt and Uncle!!! They just showed up. She was shocked and wanted to leave actually ha it turns out her aunt called out bishop and gave her our number! ha so ya not a good surprise entirely but she was still happy. She is so good she got right back to work after and kept her focus. (please don't visit!) P.s. dad my mission song is the Time is Far spent Hymn 166 although Sister Mullins has aggreed to adopt "I come from the land of trees and rain" as our unofficial mission song.

Sun- So church was great I had to introduce myself of course. We got a less active woman named Gloria collins to church. She was so happy to be there. It was great. She also brought her grandbaby and said she will bring her more often since we have nursery :) After church we decided to nap instead of take our lunch hour. Such a good idea! No food but sleep ;) then we hit the roads.... and got stuck in a rainstorm ha ha. We tracted into a woman named robin and she let us in because of the rain and my boot, but she didn't want to talk religion ha. Turns out her Brother in law is the bishop of one of the surrounding wards buts she is luthern. So we sang a hymn instead. Then we went to elderly couple that are less active in our area due to health. Mom you would love their house. It was a summer cottage turned into a house with BEAUTIFUL wood work and a gorgeous front lawn! They had the greatest old time music playing and the strangest assortement of chairs ha ha... of course we tried each one out ;) So fun! Great way to end the night. We taught 19 lessons this week! Good for a transfers week apparently.

Mon.- So this morning is P-day we were supposed to go to ward choir and our car wouldn't start. Dad you would be proud that I lifted the hood and did all I could ha ha my comp. thought we were low on oil so I checked. Oil was fine, belts fine, ha but battery was dead and we were out of gas oops. So we got it jump started and filled the gas. It died again and we took it to les schawb and got it recharged. Sis. Mullins wanted to go to Jiffy lube (sorry for the cuss word ;) ) but I refused. Proud right? Now I am emailing you guys and then headed to write people by hand. I love you guys so much and I will talk to you more next week.

Weird things of Seattle:

Cat on a leash

Hippie vans everywhere

Jenn
Sister Franzen

Cupcakes from Corryn shared with Sister Nudd for her birthday in the MTC!  

Sister Nudd and Sister Franzen

pretending to be NEW Brittish sisters in the MTC!!!  Double Trouble!

MTC District at the Provo temple on Sept 4, 2013.

District sisters at 

the MTC map wall

Old Friends meet again

Sister Farnbach and Sister Franzen meet at the MTC

Sept 4, 2013; 1st p-day at the MTC; first letter home

Mom! and Dad! 
Hey! so Wednesday is my p-day here in the MTC! Things are going really well! 
The first couple of days were so rough! My companion and I had a hard time 
getting along at first but we aredoing so much better now! Her name is Sister Matheney 
and She is from Texas. She turned 21 yesterday and she and I are very similar. We are both
pretty energetic and stubborn people which leads for some fun situations.
Ha but I think this weekend was the final rough patch we had a few
companion inventories and now we seem to get along much better!

She and I were both called as Sister training leaders for our Zone this
last Sunday which is fun but also stressful! We are in charge of all the
new sisters in our zone that come in while we are here. Luckily it is a two
week job ha ha. But we get to welcome the newbies tonight! Kristen Trone
comes in today too! I was in the office and heard them putting info packets
together and I walked in right as they said :"Sister Trone" ha I was like "
I know her!!!!" So that was pretty cool!

Okay Sunday was amazing. The fast and testimony meeting was GREAT!!!! I
have never felt the spirit so strong in any meeting in my life. It was so
cool to be in a room where everyone truly wanted to be! We also got to
watch a talk given by Elder Holland called mission are forever. That is the
best talk I have ever heard in my life! I was so excited afterwards I
wanted to go into the field right then and there. Ha but I still have so
much to learn.

The learning curve here is insane!!! My day two we were teaching
investigators (fake ones but still!!!!) We have a TRC investigator that we
are teaching right now. It is kinda cool because they can be real or not
and we will never know! I have felt so inspired to keep teaching about the
Love of God these last few days and thankfully so has my companion so what
better lesson to teach then the restoration. It covers apostasy, atonement,
love of god, restoration, BOM! Everything!!! P.s. Bryce I taught the plan
of salvation and the cards worked great!!!! My teacher laughed at the
resurrection one and said it was creepy though.

So I fly out early on Tuesday! Crazy how fast time has flown. I don't know
how to fit it all in here. I will have to write you today as well to get it
all in!

One unfortunate thing.... my foot is messed up again. But it's my right
foot. I have a small boot thing they gave me for free to wear until I am in
the field and then I am supposed to have you send me my boot. :( I was so
hopeful these new shoes and inserts would work :( but at least my branch
pres. Is cool with me proselyting in a boot. I told him I taught dance in a
boot and he was like "Okay well then I think you would be okay to just wear
that in the field " ;) so I will.

So Sister Nudd is here and she is awesome! We get along great and joke
around so much! This morning we took our dork dots (dots you get when you
are a new missionary so people help you out) and put them back on our tags
so people would welcome us again today only... we used English accents ! It
was great! so many people believed us. but then we got in trouble so we
took them off ha ha. Oh that was fun! Told you I would use an English
accent though dad ;)

I got to go to the Provo temple this morning! So beautiful!!!! I love it! I
did get pics dad just for you ;) Today Sister Nudd and I are hanging out
and writing people and stuff so we are doing a little comp. Switch. (she
was having probs with her comp. who is an awesome Aussie ;) )

Oh bryce I got Lauren bean a nicaruagua shirt for $8.00 but I don't have
her address. I sent it home will you please give it to her? Thanks!

Oh okay so funny stories:
*one elder in my district ate 10 bananas in one sitting (Disgusted)
*Sister Nudd got her tongue stuck to a popsicle at lunch and ripped it (OW)
Oh p.s. dad the food would be great I am sure but because I have so many
allergies they asked me to get my food in  a special room for gluten free
people usually (They have shellfish out and about so they didn't want to
risk it) So I have a limited amount of food options :/ but it is still good
;)
*Oh during our fireside the computer glitched and everyone except me
noticed so they stopped singing but of course I didn't so I was the only
person left singing in the room awesome!
*Our teacher said we looked tired so she made us run a lap around the
building in skirts and sister Nudd carried me because of my foot ha ha.
Awesome Sister

Spiritual stories:
* One elder shared a story about how he had a dream about a family in
Seattle waiting for us! super awesome
*Fast and testimony meeting
*Teaching experiences are great and scary you finish them and go "what just
happened, I have no idea what we said ha ha"
* spontaneous singing happens everywhere!!!!
*This place is spiritual in general

Small what I wish I knew before the MTC list:
*The learning curve in the MTC is huge!!! you won't be the same person
after 2 hr.s here. You will never be able to prepare enough spiritually but
you have to try!!!! If you are prepping really prep! reading each day isn't
enough! STUDY hard each day!
*The sleep sched. will get you! you will be working 13 + hr days! start the
sched. early
*Get as many pairs of no show socks as you can
*Pack packs are not really allowed in any of the buildings at the MTC make
sure you have a smaller purse or bag to carry things
*2M is the best exercise room! They play church videos and you can use
headphones and listen while you work out!
*Obedience is KEY!!!!! be as obedient as possible. Obedience brings
blessings but exact obedience brings miracles.
*The MTC is hard!!!! you have to use your gym time to unwind or you will go
crazy!
*It goes by so quickly after Sunday! Take lots of pictures!!!
Well that is it for this week I love you guys sooooo much!