August 10, 2015

Zone baseball last Monday was the best thing ever! It was so fun, but I took 0 pictures. But it was legit, the members that do this for the missionaries every year got all of us hats that say GI for Grand Island Zone and they spray painted NOM on it for Nebraska Omaha Mission. And I have a picture of that! Here's our hats hanging on our mirror.

We also did this really fun lesson with Jose and Jesus with the armor of God that we made out of cardboard boxes, Shield of Faith, Breastplate of righteousness, Sword of the Spirit, and Helmet of Salvation. It was fantastic. The sword was the best part and it took me forever to make it and it was legit. And here you can see Jose breaking it.

​I stole Sister Brunner's camera to get a picture of zone baseball and this is the only picture she got before her camera died. But if you zoom waaaay in, I'm right in the middle of the picture in my red shirt standing in the outfield.

This week has been kind of lame. Malachi hasn't gotten back to us all week so we didn't get to meet with him and he didn't come to church yesterday. And his friend David who called asking if he could come to church set up a meet with us on Friday (like, he set it up himself, so we thought it would really happen) and then he didn't show up. And he also hasn't gotten back to us all week and didn't come to church yesterday.

On Saturday we went to the York county fair to volunteer and they were so glad we came because like nobody signed up to help in the couple hours we helped and it was like the busiest time of the night. We got to make and serve food and I never want to work in fast food. Ever. Or look at another walking taco. I've never even heard of walking tacos before I came on my mission. Is that just a Nebraska thing? Anyway, they were super awesome and they loved us and they were so appreciative of all we did and how much we helped, and we knew they all would've accepted the gospel, but we didn't get the chance to talk to any of them about it. And we don't even know their names. So now we're just praying we'll run into all of them again someday.

Quote of the week from my mission president's email: "One of my favorite scriptures comes from Proverbs 3:5-6. It says, "Trust in the Lord with ALL thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths." Understanding the Lords will and timing is one of the great quests of our lives. As we humbly and patiently submit to His will, the Lord will unfold both His will and His timing to us. Learning to trust him in one of the key learning opportunities on your mission. Patience has been defined as the capacity to endure delay, trouble, opposition or suffering without becoming angry, frustrated or anxious. It is the ability to do God's will and accept his timing. We simply must do our part, be obedient and then trust in the Lord."

~Sister Temp

Here's the ones from last week, they're being weird and wont send together

August 3, 2015

I don't have a ton of time to email this week because today we're doing . . . *drumroll* zone baseball! It's gonna be super fun. But we already don't have time to do everything on p-day and it takes an hour to drive to Grand Island where we're playing, so this email shall be brief.

Remember Malachi? So his friend kicked him out of their apartment and he became homeless. That was sad. He started staying at this homeless shelter and there was much miscommunication between us. Long story short, we thought he wasn't allowed to meet with us or come to church until he got his own place again (because the shelter is run by a church (a church that doesn't like us)) but we were misinformed and he was confused and he was able to come to church yesterday! And a miracle came with that! So after church Sister Brunner and I were doing our studies and then we get a phone call from one of Malachi's new friends at the shelter (his name is David) and HE ASKED US if he could come to church with us next week! And we asked if we could meet with him this week too and teach him about our church and he was like, "You would do that? Yeah that'd be sweet!" Of course we would do that, that's all we do all day every day. So that was amazing.

And that's about all the exciting news for the week.

Quote of the week: "There is no place for fear among men and women who place their trust in the Almighty." ~Ezra Taft Benson

~Sister Temp

July 27, 2015

​Look what they're doing to my precious York balloon! They're painting it gray or something! What the happy! Why would they make it so boring.

Anyway, last week was ridiculously boring and now this week I have way too much to say. 

On Wednesday we got to go to the youth activity at the park and then this guy named Malachi rides up on his bike and sits at a bench a little distance away from us. The reason we knew his name already was because we ate at Pizza Hut once like 5 weeks ago and he was the cashier and we were nice and talked to him and he seemed like he would accept the gospel, but for some reason we didn't bring it up. And we felt kind of guilty for that. But back to the park, a couple minutes later, he comes up and asks us, "Is this a church group or something?" and we start talking to him about the church and everything and he said he had moved from Lincoln recently and was looking for a church because he wants to turn his life around. And THEN he says, "Yeah, I'm actually looking to be baptized." What? Nobody says that. It was seriously a miracle because we've been struggling with setting people for baptism. We find a lot of people who are curious, but not enough to change their lives for it. So that was awesome. 

We invited Malachi to church on Sunday and he said he would, and I'll be honest, I didn't have a lot of faith because we haven't been able to get any of our investigators to church, even the ones that say they'll come. But he totally came! We had an awesome lesson with him at church and then after church we showed him the Restoration DVD and he's the most solid person I've ever taught. He's totally gonna get baptized. 

Remember Mary and Dean last week? We went back in our service clothes and asked if we could do something for them and they were completely shocked we came back and that we wanted to do work for them. We picked a ton of weeds for them and then Dean was like, "Do you wanna come in and have a prayer or something?" And we were so happy he asked because we were afraid they would just become service investigators. We ended up talking to them for over an hour because they had so many questions for us. They asked about a lot of things we normally don't explain to people but it was really cool and they loved it. And they found out we live on a farm with horses and they have a granddaughter coming next week who is completely obsessed with horses so they're gonna come see all the farm animals and meet the Byers! It'll be perfect.

Random miracle, as I was typing up this email, this guy comes in the library and sits across from us at the computers and he notices our name tags and starts talking to us cuz apparently he's a member who just moved to York from Lincoln. So we got his information and told him where the church is at. Yay! One member closer to a ward!

I was flipping through the conference ensign for my studies and came across this talk by Uchtdorf that I LOVE and I was like, "Man, I totally missed this talk at conference! Where was I? I must have zoned out for this whole talk or something." And then I realized it was from the priesthood session and I was like, "ahh, that explains it." 

Quote of the week from that talk: "Whether your testimony is thriving and healthy or your activity in the Church more closely resembles a Potemkin village, the good news is that you can build on whatever strength you have. Here in the Church of Jesus Christ you can mature spiritually and draw closer to the Savior by applying gospel principles day by day. With patience and persistence, even the smallest act of discipleship or the tiniest ember of belief can become a blazing bonfire of a consecrated life. In fact, that’s how most bonfires begin—as a simple spark. So if you feel small and weak, please simply come unto Christ, who makes weak things strong. The weakest among us, through God’s grace, can become spiritually strong, because God “is no respecter of persons.” He is our “faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments.”

~Sister Temp

July 20, 2015

Well this has been the most boring week ever. So I really have nothing to say. The only cool thing is on Saturday we saw this older couple sitting on their porch (Why they chose to be outside, we don't know. It was like 10000% humid and they were literally the only people outside) so we talked to them and they said they were just chillin enjoying the "nice" weather and we started talking to them and gave them a Book of Mormon and they're totally awesome! The man, Dean, was telling us that he's a scientist so he kind of wants to believe in Christ but doesn't have much faith because it  doesn't make sense scientifically. But his wife, Mary, said she would read it to him so we're really excited to go back.

I think that's literally all that's happened this week.

Oh! Jk. On Thursday we had our first interviews with President Gardner. It was different than President Weston, but still good. He committed me to memorize 3 scriptures a week, which was awkward because I had already started memorizing 6 scriptures a week. But that's okay. Hey, if yall want something to do, you should try memorizing the Living Christ. It only took me 2 weeks to do it, and it's really cool to have all the apostles' testimony of Christ memorized. It strengthens your own testimony of Him. 

Quote of the week:

"Though none of us will ever have to experience the depth of what our Lord suffered, we each will have our own dark and bitter hours—times when our sorrow and grief may appear to be greater than we can bear. There will be times when the weight and remorse of our sins will press mercilessly upon us.

Even so, if we will lift our hearts to the Lord during those times, surely He will know and understand. He who suffered so selflessly for us in the garden and on the cross will not leave us comfortless now. He will strengthen, encourage, and bless us. He will encircle us in His gentle arms. He will be more than an angel to us. He will bring us blessed comfort, healing, hope, and forgiveness. For He is our Redeemer. Our Deliverer. Our merciful Savior and our blessed God." ~Dieter F. Uchtdorf

~Sister Temp

Here's the sky.

​And here's some corn. It's literally EVERYWHERE.

​And here's the sky again.

July 13, 2015

Well. Still in York. 

I feel like I'll never leave. Sister Brunner is still here too.

Here's our cute little district picture from last district meeting before transfers. Even though it's basically staying the exact same this transfer. The only difference is one of the Spanish sisters was transferred and the sister training leaders are in a trio now. They got a 3rd sister in Kearney, but she's not a sister training leader, she's just a regular full-proselyting sister. It's weird. But I guess there has to be a trio somewhere since there's an odd number of sisters in the mission.

Oh, and Sister Brunner passed her sickness to me since we're companions and we have to share everything. So that's been fun. I thought having a sick companion was the worst, but I was wrong. Being the sick companion is the worst.

Remember Stephanie? We found her a while ago and we went and saw her like 2 weeks ago and she was supposed to come to church but didn't? Well, we were really worried to go see her again because it's kind of awkward since she said she was coming to church but didn't, and we thought she probably didn't want to meet with us anymore, but we went and tried her again anyway on Friday. And she let us right in and we taught her the plan of salvation and set her for baptism in August! When we asked what happened last Sunday, she said that she had gotten ready and was waiting on the couch but nobody showed up. (Which is really weird because her ride said they had definitely knocked.) But we were like, "Oh! Well let us get you a new ride for this Sunday then." And she was good with that so we told her we would come back on Saturday night with her ride so she can meet them and she said that would be awesome. So we went back on Saturday with a new person to give her a ride (by we I mean Sister Brunner went with Sister Byers and I stayed home with Sarah because I was sick and dying) and they get there at 7 like we arranged, and nobody was there. And of course when her ride went to pick her up on Sunday, nobody answered. So now we're just really confused by her mixed signals because she's never there when we set up to meet her, but she seems to love it when we come visit and she accepted to be baptized. 

Oh! Cool story. So on fast Sunday I was fasting that we would be able to figure out Debbie's concern because we've been trying to figure it out since I got here in JANUARY and it's really just time for her to get baptized. And we went to see her the next Wednesday and she basically told us everything finally! She said she knows the Book of Mormon is true but she still doesn't have a testimony of Joseph Smith and of modern prophets. AND she doesn't want to be interviewed by our district leader and the thought of being interviewed makes her uncomfortable because she doesn't like to be put on the spot (We already kind of knew about that but this is the first time she's told us herself). AND she feels awkward because everyone else gets baptized when they're 8 but she's a bit older than 8. AND she doesn't want everyone in the branch to make a big deal about it. So it was nice to finally get it all out of her and we worked through a lot of it. She's just SO CLOSE. I'm glad I'm still in York because I need to help her get baptized and I'm not leaving until she does. (Not that I was ever going to leave York anyway. I've accepted that I'm stuck here forever. Apparently President Weston was serious when he joked about keeping me here my whole mission.) 

​

Quote from President Gardner:

"Faith is the power

Obedience is the price

Love is the motive

The Spirit is the key

Christ is the reason." 

~Sister Temp

I never even wrote about the 4th of July! It was awesome, the Byers went and bought fireworks and it was really fun. Apparently it's legal here to buy the fireworks that shoot in the sky, so they got a couple of those. And Brother Byers made pork ribs and potatoes with bacon and green beans with bacon and cabbage with bacon. I love his cooking. 

~Sister Temp

July 6, 2015

​Well, let's just start with the sunset today. 

Hi! This has been the weirdest week ever. Let me back up. 

So on Tuesday we had a mini zone conference with our new mission president (we're so lucky we had 2 in one transfer, I love zone conference) and he is super awesome! His name is President Gardner and he's just perfect. He had almost all of our names memorized and he put a ton of work into his calling before he even got here. He said a lot of things that really helped me and he told us about how when he served a mission in Wisconsin, his mission president made all of the missionaries memorize and pass off 100 scriptures passages before they could drive. And then another 100 before they could be senior companion. And then another 100 before they could be in leadership. He said that he's not gonna make us do that (which is a huge relief) but I'm still gonna memorize 100 scriptures anyway because I think it's a cool idea. He told us that the Spirit can't inspire an empty head, so I better fill mine.

So right after zone conference, we went to Kearney for exchanges and the sisters there were like, "Hey Sister Temp, do you remember Sister so-and-so?" And of course I didn't because I have a terrible memory for people, but they told me that I had gone to see her with Sister Wilson while I was in Kearney for that week after Sister C went home, and apparently Sister so-and-so told them that I had challenged her to read the Book of Mormon every day and normally she hates challenges and won't do them but she said she felt like she should do this one so she's been reading every day ever since. That's pretty sweet. And then the next day on exchanges we went to see these investigators but they weren't home, and then all of a sudden I recognized the house and remembered that I had found these people on my very first exchanges in January. So that's awesome. At least if I'm doing nothing for the people here in York, I somehow make an impact in Kearney. 

Fun story, so on Tuesday night, our district leader sent out a text saying we would be having district meeting on Thursday (which is pretty weird because we had just had zone conference that day and we usually only have 1 meeting in a week) but then he said that he hadn't assigned anyone to give a training yet so be warned. And after I read that, I tossed the phone down and thought, "Psh, he better not ask me on this crazy short notice because there's no way I'm doing that. Especially not this week." (I was having a really rough week.) And so naturally a couple minutes later Sister Brunner handed me the phone. And he said, "Sister Temp, I prayed and the Lord has revealed to me that you need to give a training." I probably deserved that. The Lord likes humbling me. But the training topic was totally perfect for me and I'm really glad he listened to the Lord and asked me. Even though I'm sick of giving a training every transfer. Hopefully this pattern doesn't continue the rest of my mission. (Watch, I bet now I'll give TWO trainings every transfer.)

Anyway, my half birthday was yesterday and I got ZERO letters or gifts. What a rip-off. Haha just kidding, I actually did get a gift from Sister Brunner. Here's another long story. After district meeting on Thursday we were fiiiinally going back to York since we hadn't been in our area for 3 days, except Sister Brunner got really sick. And so we were only able to have 1 lesson before we had to go home. And we've taught 2 lessons since that. Having a sick companion is kind of the worst. Because you're just stuck at home and she's sleeping/dying and you have nothing to do and you feel totally purposeless because you're a missionary and you should be seeing people. We tried to set it up so that I could go with a member and teach people but it just didn't work out. We don't have a ton of options since all the members are so spread out. On Sunday she was still dying, so I went to the church with the Byers and just stuck with Sister Byers the whole time and Sister B just stayed home with Sarah, Sister Byer's daughter. She's still sick today and we're hoping she'll be better tomorrow. Anyway, back to the point, she was so bored that she crocheted me a hat!

I feel like a blue version of Where's Waldo.

Anyway, that was our week. Super boring. 

OH transfers is this week. So don't send me anything until Monday when I tell you where I'm at. I kind of feel like my time is almost up in York. I mean, it's been almost 6 months. That's like a third of my mission. (I can't believe a third of my mission is over. That's ridiculous.) 

"Faith, to be faith, must center around something that is not known. 

Faith, to be faith, must go beyond that for which there is confirming evidence.

Faith, to be faith, must go into the unknown.

Faith, to be faith, must walk to the edge of the light, and then a few steps into the darkness." ~Boyd K. Packer

~Sister Temp

​I finally finished my wall! From the ceiling to the floor. I bet I'll get transferred this week and I'll have to take it all down. That's my luck.

​Here's what Sister Brunner has been doing for the last 5 days. (She made herself a hat too. She made like 4.)

​RAINBOW. :)

June 29, 2015

Here's the sky of course. 

This week was uneventful until Saturday. We helped the Byers put up a fence around their pasture, we helped Amber move into her parents house, and then we helped this random girl pull weeds. So we got to wear service clothes for like half of the day. The random girl, Sarah, goes to the college here and we offered to help her pull weeds because it's too hot to pull weeds by yourself, so we helped her out and talked a bit and we basically told her the entire first lesson. She said she was struggling with her church right now and so we gave her a Book of Mormon and our number and told her to call us if she ever wants more help pulling weeds or something.

We went to try Stephanie, who we tracted into like 3 weeks ago, and we were worried because she had been home when we set up an appointment last time, and she wasn't answering our texts, so we weren't sure if she was even interested. But we tried her house anyway and they let us right in. She just turned 20 and she lives with her fiance and her adorable baby. We taught them about the sealing power and they were super interested in that because family is really important to them. We gave them a book and a Restoration DVD and we invited them to church. They said they would have to work it out to get a car that could make it to Aurora but we told them we could set up a ride for them. So we talked to the Deans and they were totally willing! But sad news: when the Deans went over, they didn't answer. So they didn't come to church yesterday. Soooo we don't actually know what's going on with that. And then Jerry and Edna (who now goes by Mary) said they were gonna come to church too but they didn't either. But we'll work it out.

We've been teaching the Humanes kids all the new member lessons and we've been doing jeopardy games for the first 3 lessons until they got bored of that. So we had to get creative again and we came up with "Commandmentopoly." Sister Brunner had to set it up all by herself because I've never even played Monopoly before so I didn't know how it worked. We're playing it tonight for family home evening, so we'll see how that goes.

We did a lot of tracting this week because we're running low on investigators. And all of that tracting resulted in 0 new investigators. Which is whyyyyyy member missionary work is so important, people. But we got some interesting reactions. This old lady answered and said, "I have company coming right now, so . . . no way." This other guy answered the door in his boxers. Which was super awkward. And then this one lady opened the door and she had the most "done" look on her face and she immediately said (slightly angrily), "Get off. My porch." We thought she was going to murder us. Tracting is always interesting. 

Quote from Sister Weston (I can't believe the Westons are leaving tomorrow): "Every day won't be perfect, but there are perfect moments in every day."

~Sister Temp

​We saw a guy playing the banjo on the side of the highway. Welcome to Nebraska.

​Sister Brunner got bit by a crazy dog at Adopt-a-pet this week. (Don't worry, she's fine.)

And here is me and one of our kind-of-investigators in front of a corn field. I ​say "kind of" because she and her husband aren't actually interested in joining the church at all, they're just really nice people who really like missionaries. But we'll convince them that they actually are interested eventually.