Exchanges and Chickens

Hey Hey Everyone :) 

How goes it? I hope you had a great first week of school!! I am in awe that summer is already over. Where is time going?! 

Monday
Sister Donato and I had a pretty good week! After Pday came to an end, we spent our evening at dinner with a member and then we had FHE (Family Home Evening) with a less active and her daughters (who are investigators) at our bishop's home. 

While we were at dinner with the Hansen family, I learned that we have a ton in common! The parents names are Chad and Kathi, they have a daughter named Evelyn (but she goes by Evie) and a daughter named Kailey (just not spelled that way). It was super funny! Great family :) 

Family home evening at the bishop's was great! We taught the 10 commandments, as well as a couple other commandments, and the bishop took over for a game and treats. At first you could tell that nobody really knew each other, and the family that we teach is really shy, but once the ice broke it was awesome! :) I am so thankful for members of the ward (in this case, the bishop) who genuinely reach out and develop friendships with people at church. Nobody is a stranger in the church; you will always have a friend, and you will always be aware of because that's what we do! :)
When that was over, we checked on a few people and went home.

Tuesday was busy! 

After studies we went to get our car washed/vacuumed for zone conference the following day, and baked cookies to give away to a few people. 

One of them being P! The inactive who we visited last week, who was stand-offish for a bit, but then became our friend :) He has his own business working with those inflatable jump house things for parties. He owns a ton, and every day he has to clean X amount of them, so when we pulled up to deliver cookies, that's what he was doing. He was super excited! I really think the poor guy just needs friends. He isn't from Virginia, and he doesn't get out.... Ever... so he is always pretty bored. So whenever we hear of an activity, we shoot him a text to let him know :) we had a good conversation! He gave us some things to take to the D.I. 

And then we went to dinner with a part member family! This is the family that just got their son's mission call right before we knocked on the door last week :) guess where he is going?? The Philippines! Where my companion is from! So guess who is going to help him learn the language?? My companion! Cool, huh? :) we played a game with the restoration after dinner and it was awesome! To show C, the soon to be missionary, how easy teaching the gospel is, we would give a topic such as, "God is our loving Heavenly Father", or, "Prophets", or, "the Book of Mormon", etc. and slid a water bottle across the table. Whoever had it would say something they know about that topic. It was fun because the dad isn't a member, but has had the lessons a lot :) They also had a non member friend over, so it was fun to hear some of the things they came up with :) 

When we came home we prepared for a lesson we were asked to teach at zone conference. Our given topic was on member present lessons.

So we woke up early Wednesday morning and drove to zone conference! 

This is where our whole zone meets with President Huntsman and his wife for about 4ish hours. We receive some training from both President and Sister Huntsman, the A.P's, the zone leaders, the sister training leaders (us), and a couple senior missionaries :) each for about 15-25 minutes. 

it's a revelatory experience every time, but for some reason it was the best zone conference I've ever been to! And it wasn't because we presented ;) the spirit was just super strong the whole day, and it was obvious that everyone else felt it, too! I am so thankful for my zone! Being surrounded by such wonderful missionaries is truly a blessing :) I was also able to get to know the sisters that I have stewardship over a lot better! So that was nice! 

We came home and had studies when that was over, and then went to the women's shelter to help organize again! First she gave us a project to move food storage into a different area, but the place where she wanted it was chaos! So I asked if we could organize and fix that first. She loves us :) haha it was super fun though! and now we will be able to do what she originally asked us to do, so much easier! Thank you, mother, for teaching me how to be tidy :) 

As soon as that was over we headed straight to Centreville because guess who we had dinner with?? C!! :)) she is moving to Texas next week, and Centreville just happens to be within my zone boundaries, so we were able to see her :) it was so great! We had a really good discussion on testimonies and how to develop them. She's a rock star :) the spirit speaks to her in the coolest, most clear ways! Im excited for her and her husband to be sealed next year :)

On Thursday we went to a FARM!! :) 

It was SO fun! I held a chicken :) They're actually quite cuddly once you catch one ;) 

We went with some sisters that live below us because we were going to exchange right after! There is a sister in our ward who owns over 100 acres of farm land, and she has a massive project that our zone is going to help with in a couple weeks, but on Thursday we just helped collect and store the eggs from the chicken coops, feed the chickens, and clean up around the farm. We had a blast :) 

Afterwards we went and had lunch at our members home, and then went home to take a nap because we were wiped! When we woke up we exchanged :) I went to a different area with sister Orr, while sister Palmer went to gainesville with sister Donato. It was awesome! We went to the women's shelter to help there; apparently the lady we organized for has bragged about our organization skills, so the other women working there already have a list of projects for us :) then we went to dinner at Chili's with a member. When we walked outside it started POURING. We haven't had a thunder storm for a long time, so it was fun :) Our evening finished off with one of the most memorable moments of my mission. 

**There is a family that has been less active for 10 years, and had to move across the country for the fathers job. When they got here, they found the bishops number and asked for help to move in! I guess that started their journey back to the gospel because now they have an 8 year old preparing for baptism in a couple weeks :) it was a beautifully humbling experience! We taught about prophets, and how Heavenly Father doesn't leave us alone. The dad- a big, burly guy- just wept, and wept, and wept because of the spirit. He mentioned multiple times that every time the sisters come, the spirit is so overwhelming :) Sister Orr asked them to bear their testimonies, and throughout the lesson, the wife seemed to dodge the questions we asked her. She would say, "dad said it all", or "he said what I was going to say". I asked if she had a testimony of any small part of the gospel such as prayer, scripture reading, the Holy Ghost, etc. and she started to cry out of sorrow. She shook her head and said, "I don't. I don't have a testimony. It's been so long". What a tender mercy and such a humbling experience it is to be a tool in the lords hands, to help others develop that testimony! On our way out the door they said, "We feel like we have known you our whole lives!" And I had only met them an hour before :) Charity is REAL! Heavenly Father's love is REAL! The spirit is REAL! I am so grateful for this gospel :) 

While working with sister Orr, I was able to help her with struggles she is facing as a trainer. It's nice because I was just in her shoes! Although, I'm pretty sure sister jones came pre-trained so I didn't have a rough time :) nonetheless, I was able to share some thoughts and ideas and experiences that helped her. I also helped her figure out how to work with her ward members better! Apparently they don't go out with the sisters, they aren't very fond of having the missionaries in their home to share a message, etc. This drives me nuts. Absolutely nuts! I don't know the reasoning behind why this ward is being weird, but I do know that having the missionaries in your home is a blessing! Not just to feed them, but have them over to help strengthen your testimony/conversion. Without food! So what if you know everything! (You don't) let them in. Work with them. It's a team effort, people! I may or may not feel very passionate about this topic ;) I could write a novel about members and missionaries, but I'll stop now before I get carried away :) Bottom line, I hope with every ounce of my being that you have missionaries in your home, sharing messages with you and your family. I hope you're offering to go to lessons or check on people with them, I hope you make time if they want to get to know you better, and I hope you're showing them your love and appreciation for them. Missions are hard! Remind them how awesome they are when you get a chance :) okay. Rant over, I promise!

We exchanged back Friday morning so that sister Donato and I could go to our weekly zone leadership meeting. It was awesome! We are planning a zone "Finding Fury" where the entire zone will get together at noon, explain the outline of what's happening to everyone, and then get together with a companion that's not your own and go tracting/street contacting for 2 1/2 hours. Then switch with a different companion, and do the same thing for another 2 1/2 hours. We will all meet together for dinner and bear testimonies/share miracles before we split up again and continue that pattern for the rest of the night. This is going to be on the 29th, and we are super excited :) it will be a spiritual, motivating adventure :) We planned other events as well. Our zone leadership rocks! Our meetings are timely, effective, productive, and focused. Not to mention super fun :) 

Sister Donato had to go to lunch with a recent convert of hers from another area, and she took sister Orr with her to meet his parents (non members who happen to be in sister Orr's ward boundaries). I feel like that sounded like we are setting sister Orr up with a recent convert... No. haha we wanted her to meet them to start teaching them if they're interested :) while they did that, sister Palmer stayed with me for lunch! It was like another mini exchange :) she has only been out for 2 weeks now and it was SO cool to see her in this phase of the mission. The phase where you're still stuck in your ways, but trying to change, but it's hard, but you want to be your best self... the adjustment is a process :) I remember being there! A year ago! I remember facing the same challenges that she is facing, and not knowing how to find a balance between normal life and missionary life. I loved being able to talk with her and help her find comfort/peace/reassurance that in time she will figure it out :) it was so great! I love being a sister training leader! :) 

We ended up falling asleep until the sisters came back. Then sister Donato and I did some weekly planning before we went to dinner with a member. Our evening was spent checking on people with an 18 year old sister in our ward. We had a couple lessons and then went to a less active's home for a lesson! Her son is not baptized and turning 9 next week. He is preparing for baptism though, so we are teaching them :) we taught the restoration and he knew a lot! We also gave him a picture Book of Mormon and they loved it! Have you ever seen those?? They're GENIUS!! Whoever came up with that idea deserves a pat on the back; even our adult investigators love it because it helps them understand the Book of Mormon better :) 

The sky was extremely clear that night! Sister Donato and I like to stand still and look up for a good 5 minutes when they sky is like that :) The stars and the moon were gorgeous!! it's not my Idaho sky, but it's better than it was in the city :) speaking of the stars and the moon, when the 8 year old said the closing prayer he thanked Heavenly Father for literally everything. The good bugs, the bad bugs, food and shelter, water... and then we heard him whisper to his mom, "Did he give us the moon?" :) He proceeded to thank Heavenly Father for all of the planets, the moon, sun, and stars :) it was a sweet prayer and reminded me to be grateful for the little things :)

We had our usual Saturday breakfast at our Bishop's house for correlation with him. Pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes :) It was good to update him on our week, and see who he wanted us to check on. The rest of the afternoon was spent weekly planning, and then we went to a recent converts home for dinner! We were stuffed! :) 

Afterwards we met a member at the church and went to see F, an investigator. He's an old guy from Ghana :) we taught the restoration (again; he was taught it once and the sisters gave him a Book of Mormon) to refresh his memory. He said he had been reading the Book of Mormon so we asked him to show us where he was. He's half way through Alma! He loves that book! :) we invited him to be baptized once he knew these things were true, but we didn't give him a day because we want to make sure he really understands what we are talking about before he makes that commitment. He's great :) 

Then sister Donato and I went to check on a less active who is the only member in her family, her dad answered the door and said she was at work, so we taught him the restoration and invited him to read the Book of Mormon. He mentioned that he could only read Spanish; good thing the book comes in a billion different languages! ;) he was pretty welcoming to the idea of us coming back to teach him! So we have a return appointment for tonight :)

Church on Sunday was good. 

We only had one investigator there. What?? We don't know what happened, but we have appointments with all of them this week so we will see :) in second hour we taught 13-14 yr. olds about eternal families and how we use that while teaching people we meet. The rest of the day was good! We had dinner with a member family and learned a lot about the FBI because the dad is an agent; it was pretty cool :) we also learned that sister Donato might be allergic to gluten because she keeps breaking out in hives after she eats, so we are keeping a food log and avoiding gluten starting today to see if that's what it is. If she is allergic to gluten, Heavenly Father is seriously answering my prayers! We already cut sugar out of our diet, and now gluten! My body is on its way to healthy again :) I feel good! 

After dinner we went to take a thank you card and cookies to a member in the ward who does a lot for us, but no answer. On the way to the car we stopped to talk to a man who had just finished doing yard work all day :) as we began, I felt impressed to talk about how the gospel blesses families, including the fact that they can be together forever, and he loved it! He said he wants to talk to his wife about it because they discuss everything together and he'd give us a call :) we got his number, too, and we will stop by again this week. It was awesome :) you could really see that he really wanted that for his family! 

As we continued to let the spirit lead us to where we needed to be, we ended up at a less active's home and were warmly welcomed inside :) we got to know her, found out her husband isn't a member, and shared a message. We have a return appointment for later in the week :)

I'm so grateful for the gospel! I know with my whole being that it's true :)

Today we are going to the Holocaust Museum with sisters that live in our building :) we are so excited! It'll be sad, but it will be good :) I promise to take lots of pictures! 

Have such a wonderful week!! Make good choices. Ponder on your priorities. Be happy :)


Sister Chandler


Pictures:
.dinner with cynthia!! :)