May 4, 2015

Happy Monday! 

This week was great. It's raining today! Which is definitely a plus.

 

I still haven't found my camera cord, but maybe I will someday! It's probably best that I don't send pictures though, since I took like a billion of the sky this week and I wouldn't be able to choose which one to send. 

I've been doing much better at talking to people! The coolest thing was last Monday I printed a talk called "The Supernal Gift of Prayer" because I had written it down to print, but as we were leaving the library I was thinking "Why did I want this talk again?" I couldn't even remember writing it. But I read it the next day and I LOVED it so I definitely recommend reading it. I love this one part talking about the 3 answers you get to your prayers: 

1 - The warm fuzzy peaceful feeling everyone talks about. 

2 - The stupor of thought, which is kind of an uneasy feeling.

3 - Nothing. And the reason you sometimes get no answer is because God is leaving it up to you. He's waiting to see if you will make the right decision without His guidance because He trusts you. And as you act on your decision, THEN you will feel that it's right or wrong.

 

And then that night we had a lesson with Debbie and this talk was totally relevant! And I told her about the 3 answers we get to prayer and you could tell she was really listening. 

And then this other time we were teaching the Humanes and I was actually talking about half the time! I have no idea what I was saying, but I definitely talked. And then the oldest boy was like "How come you never talked when you were with Sister Christensen?" And I was like "Uhhhh because I'm the shyest person on the face of the planet."

One of our recent converts (she's inactive already) decided that she's moving to Guatemala . . . because she somehow thinks it'll be easier to live there than here. I just don't understand her.

Jessi hates us. I don't know what we did, but we invited her to church last week and she said her car was broken, and then another night we asked if we could come over (and she always says yes) but she said she was busy. And then we texted her a few other times throughout the week but she doesn't answer. So that's kind of sad. I'm still hoping she'll come back around. We're gonna keep trying her anyway until she actually tells us that she hates us.

Well, that's about it. This week was fairly uneventful. 

Quote of the week: "If you only do the work when you're motivated, you'll never be consistent enough to improve. The ability to stick to the schedule and do the work - especially when you don't feel like it - is so valuable that it's literally all you need to become better 99% of the time. Stepping up when it's annoying or painful or draining to do so it what makes someone great. Stick to schedule rather than letting life get in the way and remember what's important to you."

~Sister Temp

April 27, 2015

Well, I forgot my camera cord, which is really sad because the sky has been AMAZING this past week. 

Sister Brunner and I get along way too well. We're always quoting things and then getting mad at each other for quoting things we like and then we end up quoting even more stuff while we're chastising the other person for distracting us. Sooooo we fixed that problem by watching The District during meals and getting ready time. I've already watched the whole thing like a billion times and now we know it so well that we mostly just quote that. 

Guess what??? An apostle is coming to stake conference on May 17! Nobody knows who it is yet, except Sister Brunner lived with the stake president in her last area and he told her, so she told me. And he said that he wants to shake every missionary's hand! This is so cool. 

Some people are just so frustrating. We went tracting on this one street and met this 18 year old kid named Jared and we were really surprised that he was interested since everyone else we had already tried pretty much hated us. But he was super interested and told us we could come back the next day! So we went the next day and Sister B and I were so excited to meet with him again and then his dad answered the door. And told us how stupid we were for all we believed and told us never to come back and talk to his kids again, and then he gave back the Book of Mormon we had given Jared. We've been having a lot of problems with that lately. We went tracting another day and at several different houses, kids would answer the door and be super interested and then they would go get their parents and the parents would shut the door in our face. Ugh, some people's moms.

We were having companion study today and during that, one of us accidentally said 3 Nephi 3:7 instead of 1 Nephi 3:7, and if you go look up that scripture, you'll see why that's so hilarious.

We committed 2 of the Humanes kids for baptism! Their parents got baptized this last year but none of the 4 kids old enough for baptism did. They don't feel ready and everyone keeps telling them they're not ready but we had a lesson with 2 of them last week and committed them for June 13! They're still really nervous about it but we're trying to help them realize that it's okay to not be perfect before you're baptized. So if you want something to pray for, there's that.

QOTW: "The best antidote I know for worry is work. The best medicine for despair is service. The best cure for weariness is the challenge of helping someone who is even more tired." ~Gordon B. Hinckley

~Sister Temp

April 20

The sky has been so awesome this week because it's been all stormy and rainy. We actually went under tornado watch a couple-three days ago and I got really excited but it never turned into anything. So dang it.


 

Here's us at district meeting with our matching Easter dresses. Okay fine, I lied, this was at Olive Garden AFTER district meeting. Close enough. Sorry my email this week is so long, I have to cut it in half.

This week was pretty uneventful. Sister Brunner and I had to give talks yesterday in church and we didn't have time to prepare them until about 50 minutes before church started. So that was exciting. I almost decided to just leave. But thank goodness for the Spirit helping. Oh and remember Jessi I talked about last week? We went back and talked with her again during the week and she was just chatting with us and Sister B and I were both thinking "Daaaang it, she's not actually interested, this isn't going to go anywhere." And then we asked if there was anything we could do for her and she was like "Yeah, you can teach me all about your church." That's like the perfect answer every missionary wants! Then later in the week she texted us and asked if we could really help her because she doesn't like where she's at right now and she wants to be better and to be surrounded by other people with good values who are trying to be better too. So she's just perfect. And then yesterday she texted us asking what time church started but she didn't ask until like halfway through church. So we texted her back saying there was a potluck after church and she came! She got along really well with a lot of the members and she likes how most people here haven't grown up in the church. And then while we were eating she told us that the day that we had found her, she and her cousin who she was sitting with outside noticed us walking towards them and they were like "oh nooooo they have matching skirts" and they had decided that they would just pretend they were insane like they always did with missionaries and salesmen but as she started talking to us she changed her mind and she said that if it had been anyone else besides us two, there's no way she would have listened. She's so awesome. 

You know what else is cool? We went to visit this less active man, Rick. He wants to come back to church now, but he's not comfortable walking into church like he never left because he feels like people will judge him. But anyway we went to visit him and we had Amber with us and while we were there he was like "You guys should meet my sister" so we were like suuure and he's like "How about we just go see her now?" And we were like "Sweeeeet we just got a referral!" So he leads us across town to meet his sister and while we're there she's like "You guys should meet my neighbor" So we all go over to meet her neighbor (And there's like 5 of us now) and we go meet her but she didn't give us anyone else to go see. But it was still really cool. Our less active took us on a team up to meet a referral to meet a referral. 

​Here's my companion. This is pretty much what she's like all the time. Her birthday was this Saturday and she just turned 20! She's like super old now. 

#shesayshashtagallthetime #itsbeenrubbingoffonme #whatthehappy

Well, that's about everything.

Quote of the week: 

"Dost thou remember the way to Fairy Queen?" ~Sister Brunner.

Kay now here's the actual quote of the week. It's from a Holland talk that I used in my talk yesterday: 

"In one way or another, great or small, dramatic or incidental, every one of us is going to spend a little time in Liberty Jail—spiritually speaking. We will face things we do not want to face for reasons that may not be our fault. Indeed, we may face difficult circumstances for reasons that were absolutely right and proper, reasons that came because we were trying to keep the commandments of the Lord. We may face persecution, we may endure heartache and separation from loved ones, we may be hungry and cold and forlorn. Yes, before our lives are over we may all be given a little taste of what the prophets faced often in their lives...Whenever these moments of our extremity come, we must not succumb to the fear that God has abandoned us or that He does not hear our prayers. He does hear us. He does see us. He does love us. When we are in dire circumstances and want to cry, “Where art Thou?” it is imperative that we remember He is right there with us—where He has always been! We must continue to believe, continue to have faith, continue to pray and plead with heaven, even if we feel for a time our prayers are not heard and that God has somehow gone away. He is there. Our prayers are heard. And when we weep He and the angels of heaven weep with us."

~Sister Temp

April 14

Helloooo. Well this is awkward because it's Tuesday instead of Monday. The library internet went out yesterday so we weren't able to email for our full hour and I didn't get to send my weekly email or my email to President Weston sooooo now it's Tuesday and I feel like a sinner.

Well. I am now Sister Christensen-less. It's really sad. We had to say goodbye last Monday and then I got to be with Sister Wilson for a couple-three days, which is good because I love Sister Wilson and she just lost her companion too so we could just cry to each other about it the whole time. But it was great, we got to hold bunnies!

Pay no attention to how extra-white I look, it's just the lighting. Probably. I also got to hold a hedgehog! Pretend I got a picture of me holding it and that I put it right here. [ ] 

I just had a really fun week with Sister Wilson in Kearney. The Kearney sisters are over a ward and a young single adult branch, which was really fun because we got to go to family home evening and institute and stuff with them. It was a party. Everyone kept making fun of my name the first day so for the rest of the week whenever I introduced myself I would just say "My name's Sister Temp . . . as in temporary." It was hard to leave because I really felt like I belonged in Kearney so maybe I'll serve there someday. But for now I'm still in York! And I got to sleep in my bed for the first time in over a week. So that was nice. We finally got the carbon monoxide/mold issues all cleared up. Hallelujah. 

My new companion is Sister Brunner! What are the chances? I've actually sent home a picture of me and Sister Brunner before . . . super weird. But here's another in case you forgot what she looks like.

When we went to go see people, everyone kept commenting on how alike we look. One lady was like "Oh my gosh, you're twins!" Uhhhh nope. I really like Sister Brunner. I was afraid it would be awkward but it's not at all. Her name is Erika so we talked about how names usually spelled with c's are so much better with k's. We get along great. I'm so glad we have so much in common and we're both so weird. She convinced me to get some post-its and it took me like 15 minutes to decide what colors I want (don't judge, it's an important decision.) but she was just laughing at me and we found out that we're quicker to laugh at each other than to get irritated so it'll be great, I'm excited to be here in York with her. We went and tried a couple different people that Sister Christensen and I have been trying forever but they were never home, and then we went yesterday and got into both of their houses. So I'm really excited to see who else she's here for. 

I don't remember if I've ever talked about Debbie before but she's a dry Mormon. She comes to church every week and reads the scriptures with her husband and is practically a member, minus the baptism part. We had a really awesome lesson with her and found out her concerns and Sister Brunner told me that she feels like she's here for Debbie and I told her that I felt like that too so we know that we're gonna be the ones to baptize her. 

I had such a cool experience on Sunday! So Sister Brunner was telling me all these experiences she had had with the Spirit and I've been struggling with recognizing promptings from the Spirit since I got on my mission (well, since forever) so I prayed to recognize promptings that morning and it happened TWICE. Sister Brunner and I were visiting a recent convert and then Sister B randomly told her we would sing a hymn for her and I hate singing but I went with it and we got out her hymnbook and as soon as she did I got "Be Still My Soul" stuck in my head and I almost suggested it but I decided I would just let Sister B pick and then she looked at me and said "Be Still My Soul." She didn't even say it like a question. So that was awesome. And then after, we were driving down a street and I was looking out the window and then I started thinking about what if we went tracting down the street and then all of a sudden I realized that that could be the Spirit so I asked Sister B if it would be weird if we tracted down this street and she immediately pulled over and we went from house to house and met a woman named Jenny doing yard work and offered to help and she said we looked too nice to help but if she needed help another time she would call us so we gave her a "Because He Lives" card with our number on it and she seemed really interested. We kept going and saw these 2 girls in their 20's sitting on their porch and felt like we should talk to them and one of them, Jessie, was really talking to us and she does not seem the type cuz she had tattoos and was drinking out of a flask, but we asked some questions and she told us that her family was Christian and she used to go to church and she still believed in Christ and had faith but wouldn't go to church anymore because of hypocrites and idiots. And then she started asking us the questions and asked if we ever felt embarrassed and we told the truth and said of course we always feel awkward and uncomfortable and sometimes get embarrassed to talk to people but we're still willing to do it because this is important to us. She asked us about our family lives too and she really liked how I didn't have a perfect cookie cutter Mormon family and that I had doubted everything and we both told her we still got doubts all the time. She really liked how sincere we were and she told us that we were the most sincere "ministeries" she had ever talked with and we asked if we could come back another time and she said yes!  So that was just really cool and we're excited to go see her again. I love feeling like I can finally recognize the Spirit sometimes.

So that was my week. Here's a quote: Sometimes God lets you hit rock bottom so you can discover that He is the rock at the bottom.

And here's the sky.

~Sister Temp

April 6

Well, this week was very eventful. But I'm gonna start with the less eventful stuff first. My favorite young return missionary couple in the branch, Janelle and Brandon, had us over for dinner because they usually have us over for dinner once a week and apparently her dad sends them a ton of meat all the time because of his job and this time he gave them a huge box of bacon and they know how much I like bacon (who doesn't) so they gave my like 40 pieces. I don't know how I'm going to eat it all but I'll manage. 

With the weather getting nicer, we've been getting different but still interesting bugs in our house. Now we get these giant beetles that kind of look like demented mini lobsters and they like to lay on their backs and play dead, so you never know for sure if they're dead or not. It's great. I hope my next companion isn't afraid of bugs. 

We had another lesson with Cameron and he's totally set for baptism on May 2. Sister C is hoping to come back for that and I really hope she does. That would be awesome! During our lesson, he told us about this cool experience he had one night after reading the Book of Mormon where he felt prompted to go to Mormon.org and he did and was reading through a couple profiles and he felt the Spirit pretty strongly and it helped to get rid of some of his doubts. He's just so prepared. He watched conference with his girlfriend and her parents, which is perfect because there were a couple talks in there that I thought were perfect for him while I was watching it. 

This has been the longest week of my life. I suppose I can get into the fun stuff now. So, Thursday morning at about 3 AM (you can already tell this is gonna be good) Sis C and I woke up to our CO2 detector going off, which is kind of scary when you're half asleep at 3 in the morning. So we had to call the fire department and get out of our house (in our pajamas. We looked super professional.) and we waited for like 10 minutes for somebody to come, and then finally like 7 firetrucks showed up. They went in and checked our detector and they think ours is just faulty but they didn't have their own detector so they couldn't even tell for sure. But they know this one guy in town who has one so the main fireman told us it would probably be fine and he'd send the guy over in the morning at like 9. As they were leaving, we heard one of the firemen say to him, "You're not actually gonna let them stay here are you?" Soooooo we decided to sleep in our car the rest of the night. It was already like 5:30 by then anyway so we only had an hour before we had to get up. And the guy never showed up in the morning, which was great. We had to report all this to the mission office so we did and the housing specialist, Sister Lee, flipped out a bit and told us we weren't allowed to stay there anymore and that she was shutting down the Byer's home to missionaries and we had to pack up everything and go to Kearney for the rest of the week. But it was Sister C's last week so we convinced her to let us stay in a member's home until Monday (today) when Sister C would go to Omaha and I would go to Kearney for a week anyway until I get my new companion on Friday.  So we called around and got to stay at the relief society president's house that night but she wasn't able to let us stay again so we had to find somewhere else. We talked to the Byers and they said they would do anything to not lose the sisters, so they set up a room in their actual house for us to stay and they said if this CO2 problem didn't clear up, that we could just live in their actual house instead. Long story short, we finally figured out our detector was just faulty, but Sister Lee decided that our house had a mold problem instead and she still wanted us out. We told her that the Byers would be willing to house us in their actual house if they had to and she said that would be fine. So this was a long emotional week. It was super scary that one day when I had to start packing and they said sisters wouldn't be staying in York. That was awful. I'm so glad I most likely get to stay in York now, although it's still a bit up in the air.  

So that was my week. Oh! Conference! I loved conference, it was amazing. But I was a bit disappointed that the prophet only spoke once and that Richard G. Scott never spoke. But the talks were so great. I liked when Bednar said something along the lines of "Jesus Christ is the only source of enduring peace." I think that might be my favorite talk. Or the one by L. Whitney Clayton. It was all really great. 

I have a request of all yall who read my emails. Can you give me your favorite talk or quote or insight from conference? Just tell me what you loved about it. Thanks! 

~Sister Temp

My camera's being obnoxious and won't let me upload pictures. Imagine there's a picture here of me and Sister C dying Easter eggs and a couple pictures of the sky. Thanks.

March 30

This week was so amazing! We saw so many miracles. My favorite miracle was probably on Tuesday. Sister C and I had gone through everyone on our list but nobody answered so we tried all our backups too but got the same results. We still had about an hour before we could go home and we were totally stumped. So Sister C was just driving around and I was looking through our entire list of people and I felt like we should see Theresa, an investigator we haven't gone back to see since my very first night in York. It was weird because we had decided to go try her a couple times the past month but every time we just felt like we should see other people. But I really felt like we should try her that night so I told Sister C that we should try her and Sister C said, "Actually I was already driving to her house." So since we both received the same revelation we knew it had to be the Spirit. And then we got there and she told us that after the last time we saw her like 2 months ago she had gotten a job at a book binding place and there was always at least 1 Christian book every day, so she would be able to skim through it and read a paragraph or two, and she thought that was as close to God as she needed to be. But then earlier that morning there hadn't been any Christian books and she thought that was really weird, and then we showed up. So she took that as a sign from God that she needed to listen to us. It was so cool!

Have you all seen the Because He Lives video? It's so good, here's a link so yall can watch it: http://www.mormon.org/easter?cid=HP_FR_3-27-2015_dMIS_fMRMN_xLIDyL1-A_

We also got a new investigator! She's a religion minor and so she knows a ton about different religions but she never learned about Mormons and she was talking about that with her friend who's in our ward, Sister Nygard (who's a return missionary) and Sister Nygard told her a bunch about it and basically taught her the restoration for us, and then told her about missionaries and stuff and said there were some sister missionaries in the area who she could meet with and her friend (Jessie) was really excited and we met with her last week and she's totally prepared to receive the gospel, even if her main reason for meeting with us was to get more knowledge. The Spirit worked through her and she got really excited when we gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she'd read and pray about it (before we even asked her to) and we asked her if she found out that it was true if she would be baptized and she said yes! 

Here's a few random things from this week: we caught 3 mice in the last 4 days (that's what happens when you live on a farm I guess. It's awful.), the Byers got baby turkeys (they're so adorable!), on Wednesday the tornado sirens went off and I had a mini heart attack and then Sister C told me they do siren tests on Wednesdays and if there was actually a tornado, we would definitely know before the sirens went off because it would be stormy outside and the sky would be green (people keep telling me the sky turns green when there's a tornado but I can't even imagine that.), Lead Kindly Light is one of my favorite hymns ever now (along with Come Unto Him. The words are just so comforting. Go read them.), aaand that's all I can think of. Oh, and we almost hit a raccoon this week. That would be so gross. 

Quote of the Week! "I urge all of us who are called to speak in the name of the Lord to dismiss our feelings of self-doubt and inadequacy. We don't have to use soaring language or convey deep insights. Simple words of testimony will do. The Spirit will give you the words for you to speak and will carry them down into the hearts of humble people who are looking for truth from God. If we keep trying to speak for the Lord, we will be surprised someday to learn that we have warned, exhorted, taught, and invited with the help of the Spirit to bless lives, with power far beyond our own."  ~Henry B. Eyring

This quote totally helped me. But it doesn't just apply to missionaries. Find a way for that to apply in your own life because it's applicable to everyone. 

The sky! (Are you surprised?) Sister C said that's kind of what the clouds look like right before a tornado starts to form. 

~Sister Temp

March 23

So to answer a previous question, people can send me emails or snail mail if they want to tell me something, both are fine. But if they want a response they should do snail mail so I have time to write a letter back, because email time is very limited.

To answer another question, we don't do like any tracting. We probably see equal parts investigators and less-active members. Brother Lindsey, the old branch mission leader, was talking to us and the elders yesterday at church about how different missions are nowadays. When he went on a mission, they were out of the house by 8:30 every morning (but now we have studies until 10-11), they tracted like all day (we don't do that much anymore because it's just really not that effective), and they only did service if there was extra time after tracting, which there usually wasn't. But now missionaries are supposed to make time for service every week and we don't tract a ton, we really depend on members to find us people. Next Sunday the missionaries of our branch are teaching a lesson in church about how missionaries are really just full-time teachers and members are supposed to be the full-time finders because nobody likes people knocking on their door asking them to join their church. It's much easier for members to just serve and be social and meet people and members don't even need to talk to people about church all the time, if they just be friends with people and serve and love them and be an example, church topics will come up and then they have the perfect opportunity to talk about the church and possibly refer them to the missionaries. People are just much more receptive to learning about the gospel from their friends, not random missionaries.

Not a ton of updates this week. Sorry this email is so short but the internet actually just went down in the library for a while so that cut my time pretty short. Here's the quote of the week!

"As you walk to the boundary of your understanding into the twilight of uncertainty, exercising faith, you will be led to find solutions you would not obtain otherwise. With even your strongest faith, God will not always reward you immediately according to your desires. Rather, God will respond with what in His eternal plan is best for you, when it will yield the greatest advantage. Be thankful that sometimes God lets you struggle for a long time before that answer comes. That causes your faith to increase and your character to grow." ~Richard G. Scott

 

I love this quote so much because I've definitely found this to be true in my life since I left on a mission. My testimony was pretty shaky in the MTC and I prayed a lot looking for answers but I just never felt like God heard me. But, long story short, He did answer me, even though it took awhile. I couldn't understand why it took so long but then I found this quote in what's now probably one of my favorite talks ever, and the reason is because God wanted me to grow. And it worked. And now I'll never doubt anything God does ever again because ultimately it's all part of the plan and He perfectly knows what's best for each of us. If I had been answered immediately, I wouldn't have needed to exercise any faith and my testimony would not be nearly as strong as it is now. 

I know this church is true! That is all.

~Sister Temp

​Here's a picture of us

​and here's the sky. Again. I hope you love the sky as much as I do or these pictures are probably getting old. I hope you realize how hard it was to only pick one picture of the sky to share, out of like the 100 pictures I've taken of the sky this week.