natalie ann: week 14: 3 months down & training

Monday, February 1st, 2016

HELLO PEOPLE! so I finally hit my 3 month mark! I feel like I have been here forever! So transfers were on Friday (they changed it to Fridays so I will always have pday on mondays btw). and guess what! I am training! So I actually already have met my future companion before. She came to the mission about 2 months ago because her mother was visiting scottsdale for a business trip. She came to the mission and was with a sister in my district for the day so I got to meet her at Stake Correlation! Her name is Sister Gulley & she is super cute. She has long blonde hair, all the sisters that serve in these wards have blonde hair...idk why but it's def a thing. She graduated in 2015 and is from Rexburg! I'm super excited!! It's funny though because when I met her someone said that I could be training her and then I said to her "I wouldn't wish that upon yourself" and here I am! lol. So the greenies are flying here today and I am staying at the mission home with the new sisters! I am really excited! Tomorrow is when we "find out" that we are companions. Other missionaries already told me I am training her so it will be no surprise haha. Sister Jones went up to the mountains to Snowflake! It will be weird not having her here. So I am with another Sister for this weekend, Her name is Sister Ho Chee, she is so cool and I love her. She is serving on the indian reservation. She is also training so they put us two together for the weekend.

Tuesday was a long day. Some days as a missionaries you just feel so unsuccessful, but I definitely know we need those days to grow and to feel happiness. We had a lesson with Marilyn Bowser. We hadn't seen her in a while. She is the one that will not leave her catholic faith but she calls herself a dry mormon. She is not willing to change at all so we are going to check up on her in a few months.

Wednesday we had district meeting and then went to Chickfila after. Then we went to contact a referral named Karen. We had Sister Colina with us and she is so scared of dogs. We heard barking. We knocked on the door and a women answered, we asked her if her name was karen. She said no but that Karen lives here. She tells us what has been happening with Karen. She just lost her job and has anxiety which makes her have a lot of health problems. Karen was sleeping so Andrea (her friend who was visiting for a few days to help her) told us to come back in an hour. And then Sister Jones noticed that one of the dogs was missing. We left the gate open...we knock on her door again and Karen wakes up. We could see the dogs a few blocks down. Karen looks very worried so we all get in our cars to chase the dog. It was so exhilarating. We finally got the dog and they were so grateful for us. Karen says she has heard a lot of good things about our church and wants to learn more. We are going to see her this week! We went to the Holdimans and Sister Holdiman prayed!! It was a miracle! She said such a good prayer too! She is so stubborn and never prays for us! We were so happy about that! We then saw the DeBenckendorffs. They are having financial issues but are doing well. They didn't come to church though :(

Thursday we had lunch at Paradise Bakery with Sue. We then went to a service project at someone's house to help pick their citrus fruit! It was way fun! We saw Glenda but she had people over and was kind of rude to us. She was progressing but is not anymore, so we will have to drop her :( We then went to Theresa's to help her pack. She moved on Saturday. She moved into a different ward, so we will not be teaching her anymore. A lot of our people are moving or going to YSA ward!

Friday was transfers. Sister Kerr took us to the mission home where we said goodbye to Sister Jones and hello to Sister Ho Chee for the weekend. I love being with Sister Ho Chee and learning from her! We saw Constance Garcia, we hadn't seen her in a while. She is the one who used to be a member. We had a good lesson with her. She went back to her catholic faith. She is very open with us. She is feeding us dinner this month and is SO kind. also we found a jehovah witness card on our front door that day. lol so funny.

Saturday we went to John Rossi's baptism! He is so awesome!! The Spirit was so strong! So many people were there! We then went to pick up Kaytie (a yw in the ward) and she went out with us for the day! She is so awesome and wants to go on a mission. It was really fun having her there. We had 5 lessons that day so it was successful! There really isn't a dull moment in missionary work. We saw a less-actve ym who got baptized a year ago. We then saw Mike Gonzales, a less-active, the decorations in his house are just so funny. We had a lesson with the Lara's. It went well! They are pretty wishy-washy. We asked her to be baptized and she said she didn't know and needs to ask her mom. We invited her to a baptism but she said her mom said no and wasn't comfortable with it. bummer. We then went to Lavonne's and had a quick lesson with her. I do not know if her heart is softened right now though. She is the one who grew up in the church but never was baptized. We had a really short lesson with her. We then went to the Ellis family home. It went really well! Their dad isn't active and the kids are not baptized. The little 10 year old girl asked why she wasn't baptized and the son told us he was going to come to church. I think it will be best to get the kids interested. I'm excited about it! It's just hard because he only has them every other weekend.

Sunday was good! Larkspur ward is doing so well with missionary work. The ward mission wants every family to make a family mission plan. It will be so good! I'm excited about it! We got a referral for an inactive man who just moved into our ward. His name is Jeremy. We went over and they were so nice an let us in. We had a good discussion with them. His wife is not a member. They have two kids, one is almost 8 and the other is 18 months. He says he doesn't want anything to do with the church but will let us come over to talk about Jesus. Haha we said okay. The 8 year old is friends with a mormon girl in the ward so that will be way good.

Well my week was good and I am so excited to get my new companion! I'm excited to learn a lot as a trainer.

"For behold, angels are declaring it unto many at the time in our land; and this is for the purpose of preparing the hearts of the children of men to receive his word at the time of his coming in his glory. And now we only wait to hear the joyful news declared unto us by the mouths of angels, of his coming; for the time cometh, we know not how soon. Would to God that it might be in my day; but let it be sooner or later, it it I will rejoice." Alma 13:24-25

I love these scriptures and I know that there are people being prepared. We need to find these people! Pray to find and have faith to find! We can be those angels and share with them the good news, the gospel. I love being a missionary!

I love you all!

Sista Fisha

P.S. Sister Ho Chee doesn't have her license so she has been practicing driving. It's a bit scary to say the least. haha. She has to get her license because the sister she is training doesn't have a license either.