natalie ann: week 29: fishers of men

Monday, May 16th, 2016

HELLLO. This week was bom.com. Hope y'all had a fab week. When someone sees my name they always say fishers of men and think they are so funny haha but I love it.

Monday night we had 3 lessons! We taught sister Pulsipher a temple prep lesson and finished up her lessons this week! She is going to the temple on Saturday! We then saw Dave and Haley. We taught them the word of wisdom. We were like "Dave are you drinking coffee?" "Yes" Dave are you chewing tobacco?" "Yes". Dahh DAVE. So we took his coffee and its in our house lol. He said he is quitting tobacco and was done on Friday, they left Friday for Mexico so we will see when he gets back. We saw them again on Thursday and he was doing good on coffee and says he was planning on quitting the next day. Literally everyone here has a tobacco and coffee prob. So that's a problem. We then saw Donna!! I was really excited for her lesson. We asked her to be baptized in July and she was like is it a problem if I am gonna be out of town? Haha we're like yes, and she said she wants to get baptized this Christmas. In our heads we're like that's 7 months away! So longgg. We committed her to pray to get baptized this summer. It went really well and she wasn't awkward about it (I guess she had been in the past). We really feel that she needs to gift of the Holy Ghost before she goes to school at ASU this fall.

Tuesday we saw the Tisdells, ah so cute. I'll have to take a picture of them sometime to show you but you won't be able to see their personalities cause that's the best part. We finally got to see a less-active this week named Dolly. She is wanting to come back to church so we are excited about that! People here just have the craziest stories...we then had a lesson with Jessica, she is going through the temple soon and is so solid! And her daughter Weston has the cutest raspiest voice, love it.

Wednesday we volunteered at the 7 day Adventist church and helped put together food boxes. Some people came from the town to get them. We went to Safires (restaurant) and got it Fo free. Crap so much free food here. Like I don't even need to buy groceries. I didn't buy any today haha. We had Ward correlation with the Hamblins, he is a good Ward mission leader and I am happy about that. We saw Tyric and he said he will meet with bishop to get the priesthood! We then saw Chelsea and taught her and her kids patience. They are so cute. She is going through the temple end of this month and we get to go!

Thursday we had ZTM! It was a way good ZTM. We drove to Show Low for it since we are in the Show Low zone, it's about an hour away. There were a few changes to the mission which will be good. There was a training on the Atonement and it was so good. The Atonement is what carries us and lifts us up. That's what we do as missionaries--help them receive the Atonement. We know the way and how we can get there. This whole thing us missionaries are doing is all about the Atonement. The Jex's (a couple missionary) made us really good lunch. We had a lesson with the Armijos. They are doing well. They struggle a bit, they were really excited to tell us they haven't drank coffee this whole week. We didn't even know they were drinking coffee. We brought our Ward mission leader and his wife the Shelton's and it was so good having them there! They brought the spirit of their testimonies of tithing.

Friday (the 13th) was a weird day, and not just cause it was Friday the 13th. Weekly planning took forever and then all our lessons canceled so we didn't have any lessons. We have been getting the area more organized though and met with our bishops and went over the Ward list! It was super helpful.

Saturday I was on exchange with Sister Kamalu in her area! I love her, she is such a great missionary. We had a lesson in Spanish, oh man I almost fell asleep cause I didn't understand anything. This weekend was stake conference!!! Elder Marvin B Arnold was here with his wife!! He gave a really good talk this past conference about reactivation. Sister Kamalu and I were at the stake center waiting for a member to pick us up and Elder Arnold comes out of the bathroom, and shakes our hands! We just got to talk to him for a bit but we were fan girling like we met Justin Bieber. Stake conference was so good. Definitely the best stake conference I have ever been to! This stake is amazing and the people here are just so good. I love Eagar!

Sunday we went to the youth morningside cause Donna (our investigator) came! It was so good, haha sometimes I miss being a youth. President and Sister Sweeney also came this weekend so that was way good! I love hearing them speak, I'm so sad they are leaving soon. Dave our investigator then met with President Sweeney to be interview for baptism since he is on parole. It went well and President is sending a letter to the first presidency to get him approved for baptism! He is on date for June 25th! Yay!!!! But really I love the Arnold's!!! They are such great speakers and was such an edifying weekend. I love it here and I love the members. They are so chill and funny. There are so many cute families that we eat dinner with and the weather right now is perfect

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We literally only have two investigators right now though...it's a little rough. But the mission is doing a new thing where we have 'prime time' and go out every night for an hour to find. I'm excited for it! This area has so much potential!!

K ready for an awesome quote? I don't know where it's from sister ballew shared it with me oh & also I love my companion (don't tell her I said that though)

"You were in the war in heaven and one day when you are in the spirit world you will be enthralled with those who you associate with. You ask someone in which time they lived in, and you might hear, I was with Moses when he parted the Red Sea or I helped build the Pyramids, or I fought with Captain Moroni. And while you are standing there in amazement someone will turn to you and ask, 'which prophet time did you live in?'. And when you say President Hinckley or President Monson a hush will fall in every hall and corridor in heaven and all in attendance will bow at your presence. You were held back 6,000 years because you were the most talented, most obedient, most courageous and most righteous. Remember who you are!"

Something we learned at ZTM was that Christ was sent to this world because we are the only world that would crucify our Savior, but he was also sent here because we are among some of the most righteous valiant saints. These are the last days and I am proud to be facing the Savior :)

Have a blessed week! I love you ALL