June 22, 2015

​​​Baptism from last week! I'm next to Jose and Jesus, and then there are the 2 8-year-olds who got baptized too.

So, this week has been a little disappointing. Dawn, one of the less active members who got baptized a little over a year ago, told us to stop coming. It's just so sad because her kids love the church so much and they always want us to come over. But I know they'll be able to find the church someday. They're super awesome.

Other sad news, Cameron texted us saying thanks for all we taught him and he really appreciates it and he feels closer to God but he just doesn't feel like this church is for him. 

On a happier note, Maria, Jesus and Jose's sister, used to always run from us (literally run) or pretend to be sleeping when we would come over, but last week she came out and played restoration jeopardy with us! We're totally gonna set her for baptism soon. 

There's this lady that the elders had just started teaching before they left (her name is Edna but she just told us she prefers to go by Mary) and this week we committed her to be baptized! It'll be hard for her because she's basically doing everything you can't do to be baptized (lots of word of wisdom problems and she's living with her boyfriend and doesn't want to get married) but she wants to change. Except, she told us she will ONLY be baptized if she gets baptized in the river. And we tried to reason with her, but she's pretty set on getting baptized "the way Jesus got baptized" in a river. But this last Saturday we took her to a baptism in Grand Island and she seems a tad less set on the river now. Just a little bit, but we'll work with that. 

We learned something cool at zone training last week. For the baptismal covenant, an easy way to remember what we promise is:

T - Take Christ's name

A - Always remember Him

K - Keep His commandments

E - Endure to the end

I hope I haven't already shared this quote. If I have . . . oh well. It's still good.

"Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world. So long as you can sweeten another's pain, life is not in vain." ~Helen Keller

~Sister Temp

​So, funny story. Remember Alonzy the friendly spider? Well, he built a giant egg sack. ​So we had to confiscate that. And by we, I mean we made one of our members that we live with come and get rid of it. I think Alonzy's sad now though, because he hasn't moved much since that. 

​Look how crazy the sky looks! 

​​restoration jeopardy! You gotta be creative as a missionary.

June 15, 2015

Well, a lot has happened this week. We had our last zone conference with President Weston and it was really sad, but still good! President Weston gave a training based on chapter 9 in Preach My Gospel (which is about finding people) except he changed it to be about finding your eternal companion. He went through each of the subtitles and talked about how that applies to finding a spouse. "If you're not married, you're only living with half a brain. Go find your other half." So that was interesting. Sister Brunner and I got to do a musical number and we did an arrangement of "As Zion's Youth in Latter-days" except she changed "Zion's Youth" to "Missionaries" and it was really cool. I got a picture with him and Sister Weston and I would put that here if Sister Brunner hadn't forgotten her camera cord. But I'll send it next week if I remember.

We also had a baptism on Saturday!!! Too bad you can't see the pictures yet, but Jose and Jesus looked so good and I was so happy for them. It was a little stressful to set up because we had to coordinate with the 2 other families with 8 year olds getting baptized, but it all worked out. We asked Jose and Jesus who they wanted to give a talk at their baptism and they got mischievous looks on their faces and were like "Sister Temp. You do it." And I tried to talk them out of it cuz they were only picking me to mess with me (cuz that's the kind of relationship we have) and they know I hate speaking so they wanted to see my reaction. So yeah, I had to give a talk, but at the same time it was touching that they would pick me. I'm just so happy that they finally were able to take this step and I was just smiling so much when they got confirmed at church and Jesus was able to get the priesthood. 

Oh, and at the baptism for the refreshments, someone brought bacon cookies! She had cooked bacon and crumbled it up into the cookie dough. They weren't super delicious cuz you couldn't really taste the bacon, but it's a cool idea.

There's this couple we've been seeing in Central City and they're super awesome, except they're not interested in the gospel. At all. They've known missionaries for forever and see them as friends, but we'll fix that. We're watching Meet the Mormons with them this Wednesday and they're feeding us brinner, so that should be good.

Funny story, we knocked on this house and nobody answered so we started walking away. Then we heard the door open and hear someone say "Yeeees?" And we turn around and barely say "hi--" before she cut us off and said, "Oh, HA yeah-no, I don't think so," And then she shut the door. And we probably shouldn't have laughed but we did. A lot. 

Yesterday was a little too exciting for a Sunday. We almost got stuck in the mud literally in the middle of nowhere, our electricity went out for a while, and we ended up pushing some guy's car for about 6 blocks. It wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been like 100% humid outside. Humidity is the worst. But it's almost firefly season and we saw some in our yard at night! Fireflies are really cool. Also, there's this spider that's been in our mudroom for about a week now, and it's a pretty scary looking spider but neither of us want to kill it so it's just been chilling there for a week. But it hasn't moved from it's web and it's been killing like all the bugs in our mudroom so we decided it could stay. We named it Alonzo the friendly spider. His nickname is Alonzy. We figure as long as he doesn't move from his little web, we don't need to worry about him.

I really wish I could send pictures this week cuz the sky was super amazing-looking. Almost scary-looking, but still no tornadoes. 

"I testify that the Father and the Son live and that they are close, perhaps even closest via the Holy Spirit, when we are experiencing difficult times. I testify that bad days come to an end, that faith always triumphs, and that heavenly promises are always kept. Every experience can become a redemptive experience if we remain bonded to our Father in Heaven. In the cold, lonely hours, let us do all we can and do it cheerfully. And then we can justifiably turn to the Lord, wait upon His mercy, and see His arm revealed in our behalf." ~Jeffrey R. Holland.

~Sister Temp

June 8, 2015

This week is gonna be so awesome! We have our baptisms this Saturday! We're kind of panicking a bit because we have to set everything up, but it's difficult because 2 8-year-olds are also getting baptized that day so we have to coordinate with their parents, except they're all less active and never really answer the door when we knock (ever) so hopefully we can figure all this out. I know we will. I'm not too worried. We're a tad disappointed though because the 2 people we have set for baptism (Jesus and Jose) have a 9 year old brother who used to be super obnoxious and wouldn't sit in for lessons or anything but we were praying that his behavior would change and it totally did and he would participate in lessons and was calm and knew all the answers and then he asked to be baptized with his brothers! So we had him set for about a week but then his mom told him he wasn't ready. Their parents are always telling them it's their choice and they're not going to force them to get baptized and they can be baptized whenever they're ready, except then the parents keep telling them they can't get baptized yet because they know they're not ready. But we managed to get Jose and Jesus ready in their parents eyes and it's just so exciting.

The worst part of the week was probably on Tuesday when I was playing the piano before bed and then my neck itched and I itched it and then I felt like I should go see what it was so I went to the mirror and there was a tick on me! I got it off and threw it on the counter and started panicking and running around and yelling at Sister Brunner to come kill it but she was already in bed and wouldn't come out. So I crushed it with a hairbrush and flushed it down the toilet. Ugh finding a tick on me was one of my worst fears when people told me that was a problem out here. So naturally it happened to me.

Another one of my worst fears is singing. I won't even sing in a choir. But then at district meeting last Thursday, someone gave a training on getting out of your comfort zone and sooooo she decided it would be a good idea if everyone got up one by one and sang a verse of their favorite hymn in front of everyone. I won't even sing in a choir, do you think I can get up and sing by myself, without accompaniment? So yeah, that was awful. I went in the bathroom and had a panic attack after. I don't see how making someone do that is supposed to help with anything. 

We keep finding wolf spiders everywhere. I don't like it. 

Oh and on Saturday, we had to drive back to our house in McCool and pack up some stuff because McCool was flooding and half the town was already evacuated, so that was exciting. It never got to our house cuz it's on the outskirts of town, but we got to go help fill sandbags, so that was cool. And there was a tornado watch, but it never turned into anything.

​I feel like this picture kind of defines Nebraska. Corn hanging in their front yard.

And our branch started doing this Missionary 21 day promise and it's really awesome! I attached a file so yall could see what I'm talking about.

And here's a quote in honor of L. Tom Perry that I really like (and not just because it talks about storms): "We can't predict all the struggles and storms in life, not even the ones just around the corner, but as persons of faith and hope, we know beyond a shadow of any doubt that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and the best is yet to come.

~Sister Temp

Ward Member Missionary 21 Day Promise

Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Twelve, and Elder Robert E. Wells of the First Quorum of the Seventy issued a special promise to all members of the church. Their instructions were to create a list of your non-member and less-active friends and include the list in your morning and evening prayers. As you do this for 21 consecutive days, without missing a single prayer, the Lord promises that at least one of the names on your list, or perhaps someone else will accept an invitation to hear the missionary lessons by the end of the 21 day period. We challenge you to give Heavenly Father’s promise a try, for he has declared: “I the Lord, am bound when you do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, you have no promise.” (D&C 82:10)

Day	AM Prayer	PM Prayer	Suggested Scripture of the day
1			1 Nephi 3: 7
2			1 Nephi 11: 1-6
3			2 Nephi 2: 24-29
4			2 Nephi 31: 10-15
5			2 Nephi 32: 7-9
6			2 Nephi 33: 4,12
7			Enos 1: 1-8
8			Alma 5: 13-16
9			Alma 17: 2-4
10			Alma 34: 18-24
11			Alma 37: 37-40 43-45
12			Helaman 3: 27-30, 35
13			3 Nephi 12: 2-16
14			3 Nephi 13: 7-15
15			3 Nephi 17: 18-25
16			Moroni 6: 1-6
17			Moroni 7: 6-9
18			Moroni 7: 15-19, 26
19			Moroni 7: 44-48
20			Moroni 10: 3-5
21			3 Nephi 18: 18-23

List  of nonmember or less active individuals

Videos to include into family night during the 21 days – The program works best if you start on Monday. (In the video section of LDS.ORG, go to the section titled “Hastening The Work.”)

·         President Thomas S. Monson (under special broadcast)

·         Because I Have Been Given Much

·         Priesthood Duty – Preaching The Gospel

·         I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go

To show the Lord Jesus Christ that you have great faith in Him, you may also want to do the following:

·         Take a few days to become spiritually ready

·         Within the first five days, fast as a family

·         Read from the Book of Mormon every day

“And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.”  ~Ether 12:6

June 1, 2015

Soooo good news! Sister Brunner and I are both still in York! The bad news is they took out the Aurora elders. So the size of our area has now doubled (And they didn't give us any extra miles either). Soooooo that'll be fun. 

Double rainbow! It looks really faint in this picture but both rainbows were super bright in person.

Sister Brunner and I were able to meet the standard of excellence last week (2 weeks ago actually) and we were super excited about that and then we were SUPER cose to getting it for last week too, except we needed 3 investigators at church and we only had 2. But we had 11 less-active members come to church, and we got 4 new investigators (which is probably the most I've gotten in a week) so we met the standard of excellence in our own eyes. 

And we had a miracle last night! We were walking to our car and I looked at this house and jokingly thought about trying it and then I wondered if we actually should try it or not, and Sister Brunner and I had just gotten in the car when I was like, "Wait. I can't tell if it's a prompting or not. Should we go try that house up there?" So we got out and tried the house and joked about how we would be disappointed, but then these 2 sisters in their early 20s answered and they had just moved in recently and we told them about the church and they've actually gone to our church before and one of the girls has already read the whole Book of Mormon and the other said she really wanted to read it and they said they want to come to church next week. So that was definitely a miracle.

Quote of the week. "He loves us because He is filled with an infinite measure of holy, pure, and indescribable love. We are important to God not because of our resume but because we are His children. He loves every one of us, even those who are flawed, rejected, awkward, sorrowful, or broken. God's love is so great that He loves even the proud, the selfish, the arrogant, and the wicked. What this means is that, regardless of our current state, there is hope for us. No matter our distress, no matter our sorrow, no matter our mistakes, our infinitely compassionate Heavenly Father desires that we draw near to Him so that He can draw near to us." ~Dieter F. Uchtdorf.

~Sister Temp

​Sister Brunner's taking a selfie with the goats. Their names are Alma, Aaron, and Abish. Aaron is trying to eat Sister Brunner's hair in this picture.

The Byers have 6 baby turkeys that will follow you allllll around the yard. They're actually kinda cute. I got a video of them following us around the yard and then one of them came up and pecked my camera lens in the video. 

May 26, 2015

I have too much to type and not enough time to type it all. So I'll be quick. 

This week was full of miracles! So, a couple weeks ago we were driving around York and we passed this house with a mustache welcome sign on the front door, and I was like, "Hey! That house has a mustache! We should try it sometime!" And I was mostly just kidding because it's not like the mustache would make that house any more promising than any other house, but Sister Brunner was like "Ugh Sister Temp, stop picking random houses!" (yes, this is a typical thing, me pointing at random houses wanting to try them.) So for a couple weeks we would sometimes write "mustache house" on our list of people to try, and then on Wednesday we finally got around to it. And we were expecting them to tell us to go away like every other house we try, but a girl in her early 20s answered, and she was like "Oh hey! Sorry about my dog, you can come in if you can get around him." And we were like, "whaaat, she's letting us in? She doesn't even know who we are yet!" So then we came in and told her a very abbreviated restoration lesson and she was like, "Wow that sounds awesome! I'm super busy this week because of my sister's graduation, but can you come back next Wednesday and tell me more?" It was ridiculous. So now we're gonna try her tomorrow. 

Mini miracle: So we were gonna go to Texas Roadhouse last Thursday as a district but then that didn't work out and I was disappointed because that's my favorite restaurant and I was really looking forward to eating steak. But then on Sunday the Deans invited us over for dinner and fed us steak. And then yesterday the Byers invited us for dinner and we had steak again. So we actually got steak 2 days in a row. 

Transfers is coming up this Friday so if you're planning on writing me, you should probably hold off until next Monday when I let you know where I'm at. At first, I felt like Sister Brunner and I were definitely staying in York, but now we keep feeling like something's gonna happen this transfers. And then this week, the pedals on the piano at our place stopped working, so I'm kinda hoping I get transferred somewhere with a working piano. (That's a terrible reason to want to be transferred haha). 

We bought Meet the Mormons this week! I love that movie. Yall should go watch it if you get the chance. It's only $8 at Walmart and I think it might be on Netflix. Oh and we got our conference ensigns this week! That was probably the most exciting thing ever. I really loved this last conference and it was awesome to be able to go back and read some of my favorite talks. I really loved Rosemary M. Wixom's talk and Kevin W. Pearson had an awesome talk too. So my quote of the week comes from his talk:

"If you are struggling, confused, or spiritually lost, I urge you to do the one thing I know will get you back on track. Begin again to prayerfully study the Book of Mormon every day, every day, every day. I testify of the profound power in the Book of Mormon that will change your life and strengthen your resolve to follow Christ. The Holy Ghost will change your heart and help you see things as they really are."

I felt the Spirit testifying to me of the truthfulness of that as I was just typing it. The Spirit is so cool when you're able to recognize it all the time. That's one of the greatest blessings to me from coming on a mission. I definitely know the Book of Mormon has that power to clarify your mind if you study it every single day. 

~Sister Temp

May 18, 2015

Sister Brunner let me borrow her card reader, so I have pictures this week!

This is what my wall of notes and quotes and stuff looks like now.

actually that's what it looked like 2 or 3 weeks ago. It's bigger now. 

I don't even know which picture of the sky to send. I've taken so many since I last sent pictures. But here's one from yesterday right before it started raining cats and dogs. There was actually a really awesome double rainbow but when we started driving, the other one kind of vanished. But this is a rainbow going right into McCool Junction, which is pretty sweet.

 Here's the York water tower! Everyone knows the York water tower. You drive right by it on the freeway.

 And this is us at Adopt-A-Pet. You can't tell in this picture, but my left arm is completely coated in mud. It was raining and the dogs attacked me, so I got mud all over me. Sister Brunner is fairly mud-free because she always made me go in first. 

I met Elder Oaks yesterday! He came to the Kearney stake conference and he went through and shook like everybody's hand. Yesterday I felt the Spirit the strongest I've ever felt it. In the 15 minutes before it started while everybody was sitting and chatting, I just felt completely at peace. Which never happens. I wasn't thinking about the past or the future, I was just content and peacefully joyful. I never wanted it to start, I just wanted to stay like that forever. 

Well, I gave a training on Thursday. It feels like that was weeks ago because so much happened between now and then. This training wasn't as bad to prepare, so I think I may be getting the hang of it. But that doesn't mean I like it. Maybe someday. 

This is really cool. So a couple weeks ago, some other missionaries were talking about how God answers specific prayers and they were talking about how they drew a family they wanted to teach, with a dad and a mom and a couple kids, and then they prayed to find the family and they found a family that fit their picture! So Sister Brunner and I thought that was awesome and we wanted to try that. So we drew a family with a 10 year old boy and like a 6 year old boy and like a 2 year old and then a daughter in her early teens. But then we forgot about our picture. And then 2 weeks ago we had an appointment to teach a less active family but we got there and they weren't home. But their neighbors were outside so we decided to go talk to them and the mom's name is Cassie and she didn't seem very interested to me but she said we could come back. We took her cookies on Mother's Day because she seemed pretty stressed and she was really grateful for them and then we went back on Saturday and we started teaching her and she's so awesome! She grew up in a very strict Catholic family and same with her husband (we haven't met him yet) so they don't really have a religion but they call themselves Christian. Which is like the perfect set-up! And then yesterday we were thinking about her and her family and we realized she has all the kids we drew in our picture! She doesn't have a teenage daughter, but she took in her sister's daughter about a month ago so she's been living there with them. How perfect is that. God answers specific prayers!

Quote from Elder Oak's talk yesterday, which he quoted from a little girl talking to him: "I know you are an apostle because you are clean. And your head is shiny."

Actual quote of the week."You don't have to try to be successful for the rest of your life. Just be successful today and then you will be where you want to be."

Just 1 more.

~Sister Temp