G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G

(Sent August 18 | Initials are to protect the identity of Illia's investigators)

G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G
I know GW,
He is a Latter-day Saint,
He's knows most everything
Since we taught him

WOO!

Someday he will be back,
He'll have eternal life
Oh, how I love the missionary work!

M-I-S-S-I-O-N. Mission! Mission! Teach it again!

If any of you know what song I'm parody-izing, props to you for attending girls' camp. This past week, Sister Billings and I reminisced on girls' camp songs from back in the good ol' Young Women days. I created a parody of "Mormon Boy" to G's life just now. Just. Now. Look at how creative and conceited I am!

But, in all #seriousness, for those of you just jumping in on the story, please feel free to refer back to my last two posts. But G is amazing. He really has come a long way. Four months ago, he didn't have a testimony of God. Now, he has a testimony of God, of Christ, of prophets, of personal revelation, of the Holy Spirit...of everything in the gospel! He accepts everything we teach him.

Last week, we taught him once again the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and how Joseph Smith was called as a prophet to bring Christ's church back to Earth. We shared Joseph's experience in his own words:

I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. When the light rested upon me, I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of Them spake unto me, calling me by name, and said, pointing to the other, This is my Beloved Son - Hear Him!

G says that 3 years ago (when he was baptized), he would've thought this was a made-up story. But now, when we explained basically the whole timeline of how the world was prepared for the restoration of Christ's church, G knows it's true.

We are our own prophets.

(Sent August 11)

Met with J! And even though he hasn't been able to come to church, he's still progressing. He's still studying the scriptures and he's even meeting up with the Ms, his former LDS neighbors who introduced him to the gospel, down in Texas! And, just like I said last week, we talked about the gift of the Holy Ghost.

We explained how much more he would get out of studying the scriptures if he just had the gift of the Holy Ghost. And he says he wants it! He really has that desire to have His Spirit by his side! Just not right now. He's still adamant in finishing the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price before baptism. So at least we know the Newlin Meadows ward will always have at least one solid investigator! #thebrightsideofthings

On the other side (of Heaven #classic) of bringing someone closer to Christ is G, who I began talking about last week. When we met with him a couple Saturdays ago, we taught him about the gospel in every dispensation. We taught about how God sends his prophets, or men called by God to act in the name of Christ, to end periods of time where people rejected the gospel (aka. apostasies). Basically a little history lesson of how Adam, Noah, Moses, and Abraham, and all those guys were prophets of God.

Last Wednesday, he said, "You girls missed something big last time."

Uhm. What?

"I have a testimony now."

UHM. WHUT.

Reactivation = Baptism

(Sent August 4)

Something that we've been stressing a lot to the members here in the Parker stake is that bringing someone closer to Christ does not only mean baptisms. It also means bringing someone back to church and back to Christ.

So, today I will talk about G. He was baptized about 3 or 4 years ago and fell away from the church almost immediately after. The missionaries that taught him rushed him into baptism before he even gained a testimony just so they could get 1 baptism in their numbers. By the way, that is not the best way to bring someone unto Christ.

When Sister Billings and I both started meeting with him, he didn't have a testimony of God and His existence. Now, he's getting there. His favorite phrase is: "I'm an atheist and I thank God for it!" He looks around the world and can't help but think there is a higher power out there.

He claimed he never felt the Spirit. We shared scriptures but that didn't help. But we learned that he learns best through examples and analogies. (Makes sense, though, because I guess Jesus taught that way, too.) Both Sister Billings and I grew up in the church, so we had to figure it out ourselves. We both reached a point some time in high school where we had to decided whether this church and this whole gospel thing is true. And where's the best place to go with that in mind? Well, God, of course!

So we both shared our experiences of when we felt the Spirit in our lives and he says he's beginning to believe that God has been directing him throughout his life the whole time so that he could reach this point. He says he's beginning to recognize how the Spirit works.

And when I heard that, my heart leaped! It was the same feeling I had when both K and N accepted the invitation to baptism! I was just so happy for them!

Man, missionary work is fantabulous.

We weren't able to meet with J again this week because of his business traveling. We are planning on talking with him about the gift of the Holy Ghost and how much more he'll learn with that gift. We'll see!

Hope you all have a fantabulous week as well!
Love,
Sister Wen

4 Seasons in a Year?

Nope. It's actually 4 seasons in just one day. Colorado weather. Cray.

But, good week, good week! We put K and N on a baptismal date. K had already accepted the invitation to baptism but N hadn't. So when we asked her if she'd be willing to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by the priesthood authority of God, she looked over to her mom and said, "Can we!?" Her mom said yes. N was SO happy! She's so cute. She takes notes on our lessons and writes down questions she has when she studies the Book of Mormon.

Half-way through the week, we got a call from K and she said that N was devastated because she thought her dad and brother wouldn't be able to attend their baptism because they're not members. But we were like, gurl, naw! Everyone is invited to baptisms! (Maybe not exactly like that, but you catch my drift, yeah?) But she was so relieved. I'm telling ya, she's a cutie!

We also met two little girls, 12 and 13. One of the girls' name has an apostrophe in it. So cool. But they opened the door and Sister H introduced ourselves and asked, "Do you have a belief in Jesus Christ?" One of the girls' eyes opened way wide and was like, "Yeah! Of course!" And we were like, whoa now that's he kind of response we've been praying for! So we said a prayer with them and just before we asked if we could come back to share a message, the other girl asked US to return to say another prayer! Two new investigators! #miracleshappen

Also, Sister H and I decided to adapt the lyrics to Myra's "Miracles Happen" song to the real world: Miracles happen ev-er-y day! When you have faaaaaaaaaaaiiiith!

Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me. Really, though. Don't.

Email #10, sent March 31--new photos up on Facebook

Sister Hoynacki and I think that President Monson will make a huge announcement over the pulpit in General Conference this weekend. We think he'll allow all missionaries to drive convertibles. How ill would that be? (Sorry I used "ill". I'm just trying to stay hip with the trends among the youth today.)

I started this email off with that because this past week has been utterly exhausting. Sister H and I have worked our bee-hives off this week but our numbers don't show it. It's been our ultimate low since we've been in this area. We just caught everyone at bad times so we couldn't teach as many lessons as usual. But numbers aren't everything. It's just that everyone else (namely the ward council) may think we were slacking this week.

Let's start with K. Sister V invited us over for dinner one night with K, her neighbor. We taught K the first lesson and she invited us back this week. And we taught her the Plan of Salvation. She attended church twice these past two weeks and is, therefore, our only progressing investigator. Her 11-year old daughter wants to sit in on the lessons, too! She even attended the General Women's meeting last Saturday night!

(Quick aside from Eden: Illia told me to keep the anonymity of her investigators. She said, "I'm giving a lot of background on this girl so change her name to Sokdfiehrl or something." So for Sokdfiehrl, I did.)

Sokdfiehrl. Sokdfiehrl's 16. She doesn't like going to school so she goes every now and then, very sporadically, because she doesn't understand how to do any of the work she's assigned. Sokdfiehrl is on date for April 26 and she really wants to be baptized. She's been involved with several different things including pot, anti-depressants, drinking, and smoking but she's been 9 months sober from pot and drinking and almost a good 9 months sober from drinking but still working on smoking.

This week, we were walking towards her house when we heard someone behind us say, "Hey guys!" Lo, and behold, it was Sokdfiehrl riding her little sister's bike. We were wondering why she hadn't responded to any of our texts. Turns out, she went to South Dakota for the weekend and she got her phone back (apparently it was taken away from her...?) Anyway, the phone we'd been texting was her boyfriend's. Now ex. But that's another story.

Let Them Eat Pi

Email home #8, sent 3/17/14

I'm here for another transfer! Last Saturday was my first ever "Transfer Doctrine" where the zone gathers round and listens to who's getting transferred. The entire week, Sister Hoynacki and I were thinking that neither of us would be transferred because we both just got here! That was up until we got there and an elder said that a lot of the new missionaries are getting a different follow-up trainer and I started freaking out! I didn't want either me or Sister H to be transferred! So when the zone leaders read out the list of people, my stomach knotted! I was so nervous! But the only sister that ended up transferring out of the zone is actually going to be with my MTC companion, Sister Mills! Crazy! 

Anyway, let me continue onto the best story of the mission, thus far: Monday night, we had 3 appointments set and all 3 of them cancelled that morning. It was crazy how they all cancelled all at once....So Sister H and I were stuck with no appointments for the evening, which is the worst thing in suburbia because no one wants you at their door at 8 o'clock at night...

So Sister H and I decided to visit a member of the ward who is less active. We knock on the door and the sister opens the door, walks out, and closes the door behind her. I say, "Hi! How are you?" and while expecting a simple "good" or "okay," we got, "I'm doing HORRIBLE." Whoa. "So many things have happened in the last few years and-- well, come inside and I'll update you on the past few years." So we got in! Then she said, "I'm truly sorry. This house is a disaster!"

She recounts to us all the things that's happened to her since 2010 including breast cancer, whooping cough, shingles, passing away of her mother, AND one of her daughters even barely survived the Aurora movie theater shooting in 2012. It was crazy. (Side fact: that movie theater is apparently totally deserted now....)

THEN, she says, "OH! And I lost my daughter's pet hedgehog!" Uhm, come again? Okaaay. And let me remind you, this house really was a disaster. She said, "Ever seen that Hoarding show?" when referring to the cleanliness of her house....So when we'd spent a good hour and half (yes, an hour and a half) trying to find this spiky ball of a rodent, Sister H and I tried to think like the hedgehog. We came to the conclusion that he must want to crawl into a dark area, cuddled up somewhere. So I go into one of the bedrooms, close the door, and turn off the light. And I say a prayer. I was desperate. It was getting late and we definitely weren't going to leave without finding this hedgehog. I ask Heavenly Father to please PLEASE show me a sign that this hedgehog is alive...or dead for that matter! And I stand and listen. And I hear rustling sounds. I walk over to it and see an old stereo perched slanted on who knows what. I tell Sister H to come in and listen. She hears nothing and basically thinks I'm crazy. So we lift up the stereo and, yes, there he was. Tuck the hedgehog.

And we were invited to come back two days later. Moral of the story: #prayerworks

Dang, typing all of that out brought back the stress. Oof. But, we also attended a wedding. A 17-year old girl who we met our first week here had twin boys about 7 months ago. And she and her boyfriend decided to get married before he enter the army next Monday. They wanted something really simple like go in, marry, get out. No decorations or anything. But our Relief Society Presidency really wanted to make it special so they completely transformed the RS room into a wedding ceremony! Check it out!

[View pics on Facebook]

But the wedding was just so beautiful! It took the RS presidency a lot of last-minute planning and setting-up but they totally pulled it off and it was just beautiful! Bishop gave great counsel to both the bride and groom AND didn't mess up their names! He's known for messing up people's names REALLY bad. For instance, he called Sister Hoynacki (really pronounced hoy-naw-ski) Sister Hoy-Nazi. Yeah.

We had dinner with the M family whose boys had punny pi shirts on and it triggered in my mind that I almost missed Pi day! I would've been devastated if I didn't acknowledge Pi day ON Pi day. Phew, I was so close! But when I told them I'd memorized 55 digits of pi, one of the boys was pretty much speechless/in awe of my amazingness (I'm pretty sure that was it). They ended up talking about pi and math and school a lot that night and Sister M said they usually never talk about that stuff. I just think they wanted to impress me and my highly intellectual mind.

That night we had home-made grilled pizza (pies) and peach and apple pies. They apologized that the pies were store-bought. Brother M is known for his home-baked pies but he didn't have time to make one. When he took a bite of the pie, he slammed the fork down and said, "THIS IS HORRIBLE!" And it was just regular pie....He refused to eat it. But, understandable, understandable. 

So this past week was crazy but we've had the highest number of lessons this past week of all the weeks we've been here! It just goes to show that attitude is everything! Keepin' it classy.

Love you!
Sister Wen

Livin' la Missionary Life

Email home #7, sent March 10

So last P-day, we went shopping for the rest of the day. And let me tell you something. Shopping as a missionary is the weirdest thing ever. It's probably weirder for other people to see, though. People with black tags roaming around the shopping mall. But it's still weird for me because it was like...normal life.

But I got a cool panda watch. It's beautiful.

It snowed a couple times this week. But the nice thing about Colorado is that even if snow piles up, it melts within hours. It's amazing. One day we went to crossfit at 6 in the morning and our car had a huge pile of snow on it but by the time we left the house again at 10AM, it was all gone. 360 days of sun! #OHYEAH

We had a potential investigator that we met probably our second week here. She was diagnosed with cancer and told us to come back during the weekdays. So we did. We prayed for her and we were so excited to teach her about the gospel because we knew it would help her through this difficult trial. Buuuuuut she ended up rejecting us. She just didn't know how to say no so she felt bad turning us away the first two times we visited her. My heart sank. It was painful to see her turn it down....Then I realized the new lyrics I wrote to that Frozen song had a whole new meaning to me now. Oh man, it was so sad to see her push away the message of the gospel.

An elder in my district said something interesting: the only thing that trumps the Atonement is agency, our own free will to choose to accept or not.

On the bright side, we visited the family with a baptismal date last Saturday. Vince asked, "What do I need to do to get baptized?" It was so amazing hearing that. He thought he needed to fill out some paperwork or something. Heh. But we just explained to him that in order for someone to be baptized, they need to show they're obeying the commandments of God including diligent prayer and scripture study, attending church, obeying the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity, following the prophet...etc. As for the Word of Wisdom, Vince was all in. He said he'd stop drinking coffee and tea, though he doesn't drink that much anyway. As for Kathy, however, she drinks tea at least 3 times/day so she was a little hesitant. But we know that in obeying God's commandments, she will be blessed with the strength to overcome and to add onto the knowledge that our Savior, Jesus Christ, is by our side rooting for us on our journey back to Heavenly Father.

Email home #2

(Sent February 1)

From one of the Sisters

Herro famiry!

I'm finally towards the end of my MTC training! I leave Monday morning at 3:30AM. Ugh. But, it's awesome. I've met almost all the sisters going to Denver (North) with us so it's going to be a missionary party on the plane! hehehe

K, hmm, what to write about. There's seriously so much that goes on in one week I can't remember it all!

We began teaching our TRC investigator (basically an someone who's hired to act as an investigator; sometimes they're real investigators, though; either way, we have to treat them like an actual investigator)! Sister Mills and I began with the Plan of Salvation because our investigator wanted to know the answers to the basic questions of "what is the purpose of life" or "why are we here" or "where on Earth did we come from" (except not really on Earth...see what I did there?). But whenever I teach the Plan of Salvation / the Plan of Happiness I always remember how I've lived such a privileged life because I've grown up with the gospel in my life. I already know the answers to those questions that seem to be the biggest, most profound questions of life simply because I was blessed with the word of God early in my life!

Here's out my first Sunday at the MTC/ on the mission went:
1. Last week, our entire branch (of less than 20 elders and sisters combined) were all asked to prepare a 5-minute talk on baptism and the Holy Ghost. I prepared a couple of bullet points. I had a weird feeling that I would need to be prepared.

Farewell!

This is the farewell talk I gave in my church service last Sunday, January 12. It's not word for word what I said, but I tried to write down the gist of what I did say.

This talk is based on the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants, section 4, verse 6: "Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence" (D&C 4:6).

Good afternoon, brothers and sisters! Thanks to the missionaries for that musical number! But if I'm gonna have to sing like that on my mission I better brush up on my singing....
         
And thanks to Brother Payne for that insightful talk, though I realize now that I shouldn’t have asked him to speak before me because of how insightful he is. All my insights are probably going to sound even more unintelligent.
         
Anyway, this is it! I am the last talk of the day meaning this is supposedly the talk you have all been waiting for. And, as my father said, I will be serving in the Colorado Denver North mission and I enter the Provo Missionary Training Center on January 22.
         
So, I want to talk a little bit about why I am serving a mission. It all began on a chilly, October morning. I was at college so I turned on General Conference on my computer next to me.

President Thomas S. Monson, our current living prophet of God

       
President Monson made an announcement concerning the lowering of the age requirement for boys to serve missions and I was like, whoa, can he do that? Then I figured, yes he can, because he is a prophet of God and all. Then he started talking about sister missionaries. Then, of course, right then, my Internet stopped working and I freaked out. Maybe he was going to lower the age for women? My heart was racing. I clicked refresh and I was freaking out! By the time the video reloaded, he had already made the announcement so I had to rewind a whole 10 seconds back just to hear the part I missed. It was a real first world problem.