Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello and welcome to another week! By the way, happy Thanksgiving! I hope that you all have an awesome Thanksgiving and really do take a moment to remember the things that you are grateful for and the blessings you have received. I know that I certainly have a lot to be grateful for this year! Last Thanksgiving I had just been in the MTC for a week! How crazy is that?

This week we taught Charles a few times, who has been doing pretty good! He even told us yesterday that he was willing to pray with us! So, it was too bad that we had to cancel our appointment with him. But, now that he's fessed up that he's ready there's no getting out of it! Ha, ha. It was pretty cool, we taught him last week and after we finished he said "What's next! Tell me more!" So we were pretty happy about that!

We also met a woman this week named Vivian and her niece. They sent us a message asking if we could come over and we said "Of course! Who are you?" Ha, it turns out that Vivian had been talked to for a few minutes and given a card by Sister Mckendrick and Sister Williams back in July and she was just now calling. So, I guess those little oym's do pay off in the end some times. It was cool to talk with them and hopefully they'll let us come back soon.

We also picked up three other new investigators this week. One was a referral in a trailer park named Tim and the other are two sisters that we tracked into named Ilatia and Sarah, who actually invited us to come spend Thanksgiving with them, so that's awesome! The trailer park that Tim lives in is an interesting place. People just seem to wander around there for no particular reason. And we met a few people there that we are most certainly never talking to again ha ha. We did meet one really cool guy there though named Dennis. He looked at us and said "You go to that church on Hondo Pass right? I want to go there. I want my son to go there too." Apparently he fell in love with a member in Utah who rejected him but, he's kept her picture all of these years and he's always wanted to know more about what was in her life. So, I'll run with that! Flirt to convert, I guess it works sometimes? Still, not recommended though.

Also, holy referrals Batman! We have like 11 referrals this week! So hopefully something good will come out of those! This week we also found Blockbuster! What! Yeah, it still exists, in El Paso at least. Apparently there are 5 here. And, we made a cake because Sister Dummar finished her first week in the mission and I finished my first year (well, only year I guess) so why not right?

This week I have been thinking about gratitude of course, and Mosiah chapter 2, which is all about gratitude and blessings. Verses, 19-24 and 41.It is amazing how all that Heavenly Father asks us to do is to keep His commandments, which he only gives us to make us happy in the first place! And, equivalent exchange is clearly not a things with God. If we do even our smallest little part to try a little harder, we are ridiculously blessed and compensated for our efforts! That is something that I have really come to see on my mission. I feel like if I never received another blessing, I still wouldn't be "even" with God for all of the things that I have done and things that he has given me! Anyway, something to think about.

Well, I hope you all have an amazing Thanksgiving!

Love,

April

welcome to a new transfer!

Hello friends, how are you all? And welcome to a new transfer! This transfer is a little extra crazy because it's only 5 weeks instead of 6 so that the missionaries who are going home can leave in time for Christmas. And then the next transfer is going to be 7 weeks instead of 6 to compensate for the missing week so, crazy stuff. My prediction now that I'm training again is that I'll be down here in Hondo Pass until the February transfer but who knows! I've never been in an area for more than three transfers so it will be interesting to see.

My new companion is pretty great, her name is Sister Dummar and she is from Rexburg, Idaho. And she used to live in Heber, Utah, so naturally everyone she meets knows someone that she knows! It's kind of crazy actually and kind of cool.

This week has been a bit crazy with transfers and training and all of that fun stuff so sadly, we didn't get to teach too many lessons. We also had about three of our investigators break up with us so we are on the lookout for new investigators! If any of you have or know any, please send them this direction! We have a lot of new potentials though so here is hoping that things go well soon.

We were able to pick up one new investigator this week. Her name is Elsa and she's about 70 years old. Our lesson with her was quite the mess but, she agreed to let us come back so we'll have to see what we can do. We've also been meeting with Charles this week and he is doing pretty well! He's been a lot more open with us about what his thoughts are and he is really starting to pray and come closer to Christ, which is fantastic! We also last week had a random lady text us and ask us to come over so, I have no idea who this person is but you had better believe we are going to her house.

I'm starting to get pretty excited for Christmas and Thanksgiving and the like. It's just an awesome time to talk to people about Christ! So, hopefully things go well =D

This week I have been thinking about how often times, we have questions about something in the Gospel or don't understand something or have doubts, not because what we are hearing or learning is untrue or not from God, but just because or understanding of it is wrong. For example, in the intro to the Book of Mormon, it says that it contains the fullness of the Gospel. When I was younger, I thought that meant that every doctrinal truth or principle could be found somewhere in the Book of Mormon. And I was confused when things like baptism for the dead or temple work or something like that weren't in there (or I just don't know where they are). What I later came to realize is that my understanding of the "fullness of the gospel" was incorrect. I thought the gospel of Jesus Christ was just another way of saying all of the doctrine of the church. But, what it really is, is faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. The Book of Mormon teaches us many things, any maybe all of the doctrine really is in there somewhere and I just haven't found it yet, but the "fullness of the gospel" means that it teaches us not only those 5 things, but also teaches about them. How to do them, why they are important, etc. And if you think about the Book of Mormon, doesn't to do just that? How many times and even chapters are there to help us understand faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Tons! Anyway, I hope that makes sense. It's just interesting to see how, what I had learned was always true, it was just my understanding of it that was incorrect. Another example is Helaman 16:15-19. Those hard hearted people were right in their questioning Christ would should show Himself to them, in fact, he would! But they relied on their own knowledge and their understanding of what was being told to them was wrong. If they changed their understanding that would have made all of the difference. Anyway, hope that makes some sense!

Hope you all have a fantastic week!

Love,

April       

I'm staying here in El Paso

Hey friends! This week I prioritized and have more time to write but... I don't have much to say since not a lot happened this week. Go figure right? As far as transfers go, I'm staying here in El Paso and I'm getting a brand new missionary to train. Even though it's only been a few months it feels like I haven't trained in forever! I'll be fun though, I'm excited! I was surprised about not leaving but you know what they say, once you go south, you die south. Unless of course you're Sister Orseth, who came down for one transfer and is now going all the way back up! Ha, maybe I'll be like Elder Olsen. He's finally leaving El Paso County after 15 consecutive months here! Either way, odds are good with the new missionary that I'll be here for at least another 3 months. But, El Paso is a good place to be a missionary so that's fine with me!

Hmm, like I said, not a whole lot of excitement to report on this week. We did meet with Charles a few times this week. We asked him how his prayers were going and he said "my knees have bruises" so that's fantastic! He's still having trouble finding answers to his prayers but he's putting in the effort now, which is a big step for him. He's also really looking forward to the addiction recovery program that's starting later this week so we're hoping that will help a lot too. We also got the chance to see Judy again this week and talk to her about focusing on the simple things, the foundation questions, and worrying about all of the other concerns later. Hopefully she'll do that and start to see the answers to what she is looking for. 

Also, I don't remember if I told you but we got drafted into a Christmas Choir, so we have been doing practices for that. It's going to be a "spontaneous singing" aka a flash mob in the mall. They were telling us to make sure that we look inconspicuous before the thing starts. I'm not really sure how inconspicuous a bunch of missionaries in a mall can really look but I guess we can try!    

This Sunday we had a regional broadcast for stake conference where we heard from Elder Robins, Elder Corbridge, Elder Oaks, and Sister Reeves. One of the things that the Stake President talked about beforehand though was the blessing that come from doing family history. Apparently one of the promised blessings is more freedom from addictions, so that's interesting! They talked about a lot of really good things at the conference, and it was cool that some of the stuff was what we had actually talked to people about earlier this week. My favorite though was Elder Robins talking about simplifying. He referenced Elder Oaks talk "Good, Better, Best" as well as President Uchtdorft's talk from last conference about simplifying. I think it's an important topic we don't think about often. The scriptures often talk about pruning as a metaphor. The reason why you prune a tree is so that the energy and devotion can go to the things that really matter and can create less quantity but more quality fruit rather than more quantity but less quality fruit. The same is true in our own lives. The sooner we realize that we can't do it all, the better off we'll be. Of course there are still many things we need to do and would even like to do, but some good things need to go so that the best things can have quality fruit. Something that his talk reminded me of was a section in PMG that says:

"You will do many things that are not described in the key indicators since as street contacting or personal and companion study. These important activities contribute to one or more of the key indicators. For example, when you teach those you find through your own efforts, you add new investigators to your teaching pool. Also, the quality of your personal and companion study will improve your ability to teach by the Spirit, which will bless your new and progressing investigators. The power of your finding and teaching will influence every key indicator. Evaluate all you do based on whether it adds to the numbers of people in these categories. If you and your companion cannot see how a proselyting activity might help increase the numbers of people in one or more key indicators, you need to question whether the activity is worth your time."

Missionaries have obvious key indicators, they are given to us, but everyone should have their own key indicators as well, the things that really matter or really matter to you in life. If you feel like you are too busy or too stressed out or don't have time for important things like family or God, evaluate your activities. Are they the best things? Do you need to prune your tree of good but not best branches? Is the activity increasing your key indicators of life?

Anyway, just a though. I hope you all have an amazing week!

Love,

April

A Quick Note

Friends! Sorry but I only have about 5 minutes! I know I am the worst prioritizer ever. I promise that next Monday I will write this e-mail first! So, next week is transfers! So everyone start your transfer predictions.

As far as excitement this week goes, we didn't really do much, other than get caught in a flash flood. But, that's sadly pretty typical for El Paso. We picked up an awesome new investigator this week named Chris. He has a member friend who lives in Anthony and another friend who he used to work with in the oil field. He's super smart though and really has a good understanding of the things that we are teaching him. He even went to church on Sunday in Anthony! Which is impressive because it's kind of far away and it's a Spanish branch. So hopefully this Sunday he'll come to our English ward =D

Other than that things are about the same. Sorry again to be so short! But know that I love all of your faces and so does Heavenly Father! Something I did this week was learn a new perspective of the atonement. I don't have time to share it but I'd challenge you to take time to find a new perspective for yourself! There are a lot of them!

Hope you have a good week!

Love,

April  

This week has been quite exciting.

Well friends! This week has been quite exciting. Hopefully I have time to fill you in on all of the details. On Tuesday we had a freak hail storm and was the crazies thing I have ever seen. Seriously, the hail was like the size of moth balls I was honestly a little bit worried that our windows were going to break! And of course since El Paso doesn't believe in drains the streets flooded! So that was exciting!

This week our car also decided to become good and broken. Tuesday night, while we were trying to not die from killer hail our car started acting possessed. The radio would randomly turn on and then turn off and then change channels. The steering wheel would randomly lock up and lights kept turning off and on. Well, weird but not all that dangerous right? So, we figured we'd just chalk it up to the psycho weather and see if anything was actually wrong in the morning. Well... it was. Our car just straight up wouldn't start the next day and, to make things even more exciting. The key got stuck in the ignition. Apparently when your car is super dead, it eats your key, because that's smart.... Anyway, to make a long story short we got it jumped and made an appointment with the dealership to get it fixed but it wasn't until today. So we got to spend all week with a psycho car that randomly stops working. I think we jumped it about 7 times this week. Thankfully, it always died at good spots like at the church or the apartment. So at least our car has a little bit of compassion on us. The most frustrating on though was yesterday when we were trying to go over to the institute to meet our ride to go to the temple (more on the temple trip later) and for the life of us it was not having it. But what can you expect? The worst always seems to happen on your way to the temple right?

Ready for the next adventure? On Wednesday we thought it might be a good idea to go out to Chaparral which I think I've told you about. If you've ever been to Fallon, NV that's a lot what it's like, except full of trailer parks. Ha, ok sorry that's mean to Fallon. Chaparrel is pretty bad though. Coyotes and dirt and apparently hidden mud pits. You’ll never guess how we found out about the mud pits... So, Sister Baker and Sister Orseth are driving down the "road" (a loosly used term in Chappy) when suddenly, the car just stops. Thankfully it didn't die but, it was stuck. So, I got to experience pushing a car out of the mud in a skirt. At least for a few minutes, until I remember that I had service clothes in the trunk! Thankfully, we were rescued by a kind guy with a truck who showed up about 30 seconds after we prayed for some help. Ha, oh after he helped us though I had to back Sister Orseth (she was driving since I was all muddy) all the way down the dirt road so we could get out of there. After about three minutes of wading through a sea of goat heads though I decided there was just a better way to do things so I just sat on the back of the car and directed her that way. So, what do we learn from this? 1) Chappy is the worst 2) keep emergency service clothes with you at all times 3) Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers, even when our need for help is caused by our own idiocy.

  I wish that was all that happened this week but... nope. Remember how Molly was going to get baptized? Well... she didn't. Through various circumstances her interview was scheduled three times this week and each time canceled about 20 minutes before it was supposed to happen. Then Saturday night her mom tells us that she can't get baptized tomorrow because they have to take her brother to the hospital. So thankfully it wasn't postponed because of any kind of worthiness issue and we should be able to reschedule it soon!

Don't worry, the rest of the things that happened this week were good. One of them was that we had a lesson with stubborn old Charles. He likes to listen to us because we are "too young to know real life" and he doesn't like to "formally pray" which means anything other than having a prayer in your heart. This week though, he really opened up to us, and he told us that he prayed "formally" on his own. We talked to him a lot about his relationship with God and watched "Hope of God's Light" with him. And, even though he tried to hide it, I saw him tearing up. Charles still thinks were too young to know life but, he's really starting to come around.

We were also about to see our investigator Judi this week who we hadn't seen in ages. She has really been struggling because the rest of her family is against her being involved in the church. This week though she told us that she tried again to share the Book of Mormon with her husband and they read Alma 32 together. They also started praying together and her son who claims to be a hard core atheist even prayed at one of their meals. She asked her husband if he wanted to meet with the missionaries and he said not yet but still, that is huge! Hopefully this will mean big progress for both of them.

The last exciting thing that we did this week was go to the temple up in Albuquerque. We were able to ride up with the Edwards, the senior couple from the UTEP ward who are amazing! I think one of my life goals is to acquire their awesome qualities one day. We also went up with the West UTEP sisters. We ended up getting to the temple at the perfect time for us to be able to see everyone. Literally I think I saw every missionary that I wanted to. It was really cool. And everyone was running around like crazing trying to do different things, going in or coming out or getting this or that or whatever but every place you looked, there was someone that you knew and someone that you wanted to see and most of the time, it was someone that you weren't expecting to see too. When we walked into the dressing room I went through the doors and was immediate face to face with three of my past companions. It was like they were all just waiting for me to get there or something. Anyway, I don't know what it will be like after this life, or what exactly we will be doing but I kind of imagine that it will be a lot like that. A long trip (it's 4 hours from El Paso to Albuquerque) and people all in different stages and activities, but everyone you want to see, and most often when you don't expect it. I don't know, I guess we'll just have to see.

Oh, one more thing that happened this week, we were "volunteered" into a Christmas concert! So we sang some Christmas music at a practice, so that was fun.

Anyway, hope you all are doing well!

Love,

April   

Molly is getting baptized on Saturday!

Hey friends! How goes life? Today we had to go to the mall to get a new bag for Sister Orseth so you get a short message from me again. I know, you probably prefer it that way right? Ha ha.

The most exciting thing that is going on is that Molly is getting baptized on Saturday! So this week we get to set up all the details and make sure no one forgets that they are giving a talk because that may or may not have happened in the past... We also picked up some awesome new investigators this week, the most interesting of which is Nick. He is friends with one of our members JJ. She invited him to watch conference and he watched both Sunday sessions! We had a little get to know him lesson after he came to church on Sunday and it seems like he is going to progress really well. The only problem for us is... he's only 21. Darn those YSA's they get all the good ones. But I'm excited for him to learn more.

Other than that, things have been about the same. Sorry I don't have really anything fun or exciting to say this week. We went to Chaparral once and it was just as creepy as always. We have a lot of lessons with potential investigators this week so hopefully we'll have some good new people to start meeting with soon. It seems like all of our regular investigators have been out of town or "out of town" recently so hopefully we can turn that around soon.

This morning I read something really interesting in my scriptures. I reminded me that the scriptures always teach us something new, particularly pertaining to our own needs at the time. It's amazing how something different will stand out to us or stand out in a different way that will help to answer a question or resolve a concern or even just to teach us. For example, I was kind of bummed about having to pass off two of our investigators to other missionaries. Of course I was glad that they are being taught, but I guess in a selfish way I wanted someone good to teach. This morning though I read Alma 20, where Ammon and Lamoni go to save Aaron and everyone from prison and run into King Lamoni's dad. Well, long story short, King Lamoni's dad (whose name I don't think they ever  say, weird huh) is impressed by Ammon and asks him to come and visit him and teach him in his kingdom (vs 27). Well the other day I read Alma 22 where Aaron goes to teach King Lamoni's dad and his dad asks "where is Ammon?" and Aaron tells him " the Spirit of the Lord has called him another way; he has gone to the land of Ishmael, to teach the people of Lamoni." Or in other words, he went back to his area to work with the people there. Even though it was Ammon who had this original meeting and kind of picked up King Lamoni's dad as an investigator, and he was a super amazing investigator, he knew it was more important to pass him off or, send him as a referral to the missionaries in his area who would be Aaron. So he did, and went back to his own area and no big deal. So, mind blowing, no not really, but certainly applicable to my current circumstances. And it can be like that every time we read. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is read your scriptures because they apply to you!

Anyway, hope you all have an amazing week!

Love,

April   

oh! I turned 22 this week too! That was fun =)

 Well friends, I'm afraid that due to I don't even know what, I don't seem to have a lot of time left to write today. So sorry if this is a bit brief. The best thing for sure that happened this week is that Molly got a baptism date!! Assuming all goes well, she should be baptized on the 24th! So that was awesome. Other than that, most of our week has been spent in odds and ends to get the new transfer off to a good start and getting things settled from our move. There has been a lot of debate recently about if we are or are not in fact receiving a washer and dryer. Currently we are not and all of my dreams have been crushed but who knows, that might change.

 Other than that this week was transfers and I got a new companion. Her name is Sister Orseth and she is from Paulsbo, Washington. Which is apparently west of Seattle, so who knew that? This is the first time that I've had a companion who has been from the same place as me, so that's kind of cool.

 Conference was this week as well of course! We were able to watch some of it with some of our investigators so that was great. It's interesting to see how many of the apostles have either passed away recently or are just not doing well. I almost feel like Heavenly Father is gearing up a new group of people for something big to go down. Who knows though... If any of the apostles though start planning a trip to Jerusalem in the near future though, it might be time to start freaking out =D

 My favorite talk from Conference was the one by Elder Lawrence about the Holy Ghost and how it will speak to us. I loved how the answers that people received from the Holy Ghost were so personal and so specific. It was more than just "keep the commandments" it was what you needed to do and what would help. I just love how individually we are each known and how much Heavenly Father wants to help us and will help us in detail if we just ask. I've been thinking a bit about agency recently and how it really does play a role in everything! That's the reason why we have to pray for things. Of course Heavenly Father already knows what we want and what we need, but he respects us and our agency enough that he won't give us things that we don't ask for. It's always about us, and what will help us grow and become more independent. I think the ultimate goal of God is not only for them to of course return to live with him, but also for them to become self sufficient in every way. Spiritually, mentally, physically, whatever it is. We have learned and asked and exercised enough that we can rely on ourselves. Not of course that we can do things now without God, that's crazy and prideful suggest, and part of being self sufficient I think is knowing when you need to ask for help and when you're in over your head (because even though you're technically not doing it by yourself, you're getting what you need to done, if that makes sense) but we can eventually become like our Father, perfect and perfectly able to act and do on our own. Hopefully that doesn't sound like we don't need God, but you get what I mean.

 Anyway, that's all I've got! See you next week!

Love,

April

P.S. oh! I turned 22 this week too! That was fun =)