2/28/11- Letter to the World

So....remember the LA woman named Emma that I talked about last week?  Well, it turns out she was never baptized!  We asked her if she'd like to and she said she was going to ask us!  So she's getting baptized on March 13.  She is SO excited.  She just got two part-time jobs and told them she can't work Sundays because she goes to church.  They scheduled her this past Sunday, so she could only come to sacrament.  She told us that she told her boss she wouldn't work on Sunday again because she goes to church and she's preparing for her baptism.  She is so awesome!  She's teaching her neighbor about the Church, too, and sharing passages from the Book of Mormon!  And on Thursday, she asked about having her 6-year-old daughter blessed, so that will be this next Sunday!  Then the next Sunday is the baptism!  How wonderful!

 

Saturday was cool.  We went to Fire and Ice, an event in Mt Joy, to OYM.  There was hardly anyone there, so we decided to tract (which has been an absolute bomb on Saturdays).  We started tracting, though, and got 9 lessons in 1 hour and 20 minutes!  That's like a miracle for us!  Plus two return appointments :D  It was awesome.  It was about the 6th hour of finding this week, too, which is how many hours we're supposed to have a week.  We've not been getting that many and we finally did and were truly blessed!

 

So for just about every P-Day this week, we've been playing basketball (and sometimes volleyball) with the other missionaries after we finish e-mail and shopping. There are 7 Elders and 2 other sisters and it is SO fun!  Who knew basketball could be fun?  lol.  We didn't go today because we went up to Hershey Chocolate World. I think the sisters are trying to plan kickball for an upcoming week, too! 

 

Well, that's about it!

 

BTW--Did I ever mention that Mt Joy and Elizabethtown ALWAYS smell like chocolate?  It smells like everyone in the neighborhood is making brownies!  Mmmmm....

 

Here are some cool quotes!

 

"Miracles are everywhere to be found when priesthood callings are magnified.  When faith replaces doubt, when selfless service eliminates selfish striving, the power of God brings to pass His purposes."

Thomas S. Monson

 

"...think about how children learn to walk.  We as adults give encouragement and praise.  We stretch out our arms and invite them to come to us.  When just learning, children are often a bit fearful and hesitant, but with our continued encouragement, they continue to try.  They may only get one step taken before they fall, but we don't berate them or scold them or give up on them.  We pick them up and help them because we know that they can successfully learn to walk.  We do not love them less because of their stumbling."  Think how much more true that is for our relationship with our Father in Heaven!!

Jan Payne  Feb 2011 Ensign pg 39

 

 

"If we are not preparing for eternal life, we are preparing for something else, perhaps something far less."

M. Russell Ballard

 

"Like thieves in the night, unwelcome thoughts can and do seek entrance to our minds.  But we don't have to throw open the door, serve them tea and crumpets, and then tell them where the silverware is kept!  (You shouldn't be serving tea anyway.)  Throw the rascals out!  Replace lewd thoughts with hopeful images and joyful memories, picture the faces of those who love you and would be shattered if you let them down."

Jeffrey R. Holland

 

2/21/11- Letter to the World

Today is the most beautiful weather in the world--Washington Weather!  It's overcast, a little humid, and coldish!!  I LOVE it.  Thursday was also a beautiful day--60s or 70s--we were just in our skirts and a shirt (rather than 4 layers of pants under the skirt and 2 or 3 layers on top of the shirt) and it was gorgeous!  I wanted to go run in a field or something!

Our investigators pretty much all fell off the face of the earth this week. 

Delsa called us Tuesday and said it was all too much, but we got her to agree to talk to us again in 2 weeks.

Natasha got a full time job and her extended family said that if she's going to start going to church, she should go to theirs.

Del and Karen are just not very committed at all.

We're going to try and keep working with all of them, so keep them in your prayers!!

There's a LA woman who lives in our complex with 2 daughters and a granddaughter.  We've stopped by many times, but never got in so much as a lesson.  This last week, we went and the 24-year old daughter Emma  asked if she could come to church.  Um--YES!!  So she and her mom and her daughter all came!  It was AWESOME!  And it turns out they're really good friends with the other less active family in the complex that we've been working with, so Emma is trying to get the mom of that family out!  Emma is AWESOME!

We discovered a beautiful thing called OYMing this week.  It stands for "Open Your Mouth."  We have 2 college campuses in our area, and we found out that one of them is a public college and TOTALLY fine with us walking around and talking to random students on campus!  College students are so much more receptive and we get to talk to many more people in the same amount of time compared to tracting.  Hopefully this will bring us a lot of success!!

We had a Zone Conference this week.  They're always awesome.   We found out a little bit about our new Mission President--President Topham.  He'll be coming the end of June.  I love President Summerhays--he's AWESOME and I'll miss him a ton.  Those of you in Utah should go see his homecoming talk!  He lives in Draper.  I am excited to see the changes that come with a new Mission President, too!

2/14/11- Letter to the World

Hey all!

We now have THREE people set to be baptized in March!  Woot!

Natasha and Katie We watched the Prophet of the Restoration (the movie they've been playing at Visitor's Centers) with them.  They LOVED it!  About halfway through the movie, Jordan (16) got home and watched it.  About 3/4 of the way through, the dad, Robert, came home.  During the movie, Natasha said, "I think he's my new favorite prophet."  How awesome is that?!  And while he was translating the gold plates, she said to her husband and son, "That's the book I'm reading right now!"  She's in 2 Nephi, by the way!!  And when we talked about temples a little bit, she told her husband he needed to get baptized so they can get married in the Salt Lake Temple :D  She had three teeth pulled this week, so she wasn't able to come to church, which was way sad, but we're working toward next week!  The whole family agreed to come!!!

Delsa
Delsa was a woman we had kept calling and following up with and she kept saying SHE'D call US.  Well, the last time we'd called, she'd been a little sick, so we brought her by some Valentine's Day suckers.  She let us right in and we discussed coming to church and the chili cook-off we had on Saturday.  She agreed to both.  Sister Johnson was prompted to invite her to be baptized--Mar 17 baby!  Wahoo!  She called us Saturday and something had come up that she couldn't talk about right then, so we'll meet with her this week and hopefully get her to church next week.

Del and Karen
These two are still investigating, but said they don't want a date right now.  Del doesn't seem super interested anyway--he doesn't get what the difference is between baptism into our church and baptism in general.  Karen doesn't want to put a date on God.  It's SUPER hard to get them to church.  Karen's dad had a stroke last week, so she was in Philly on Sunday with him.  We just have to keep trying!  They are reading and are eating up the lessons.  We taught the Plan of Salvation, and she loved how we used the bible.  She kept saying that she didn't think you could piece it all together from just reading the bible.  We talked about how a Prophet and a Restoration help us to.  She said it all seemed familiar, which our member pointed out was probably the Holy Ghost.  The member also told Del and Karen that while we were teaching about the Celestial Kingdom, she felt really strongly that they were worthy of it and could live there with their girls and their parents and grandparents and ancestors.

Mandy
She came to the Chili Cookoff, which was AWESOME.  She didn't make it to church, though :(  She hasn't been since she was confirmed.

Patty
Patty is a referral.  She and her husband went to the Mormon Batallion site and were willing to get a BoM, so we brought it by!  As the GPS said "You have reached your destination." I was super confused because there was like nothing around.  Sister Johnson suggested a building up on the hill could be it, but it looked like a church to me.  Lo and behold, these people live in a GIGANTIC house.  It is SO huge and they have a barn for their horses that's the size of a normal house.  There were like 3 cars and an RV there, so we were surprised when no one answered.  As we went to leave, Sis. Johnson pulled her keys out of her pocket and a huge stack of pass along cards fell, too.  Normally they'd just fall to the ground, but it was SUPER windy and the following is now exaggeration.  The cards formed a mini whirlwind and I just laughed and stared as these cards cycloned upward and were airborne for about 30 seconds.  I tried to grab my camera, but didn't get it soon enough.  The cards then started shooting everywhere--the roof, the yard, the porch, the bushes.  We tried to gather as many as we could.  SUPER funny. 

We went back a couple of days later and she was home.  She was very welcoming and we taught a first lesson and parts of others.  She asked many questions and seemed very interested.  She is a WONDERFULLY nice woman.  They have 8 children--4 of which they adopted (2 from China, 1 from Ethiopia, 1 from PA).  We really hope to keep teaching her!

Other
It's amazing to me the horrible situations that so many people are in.  I know, however, that Heavenly Father knows them personally and that we are here to be His hands.  President Kimball said, “God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another mortal that he meets our needs."  President Uchtdorf said, "In the end, the number of prayers we say may contribute to our happiness, but the number of prayers we answer may be of even greater importance."  Keep that in mind this week :D

I love you all!  Be a missionary :D

Sister Denton

Happy Valentine's Day!

2/7/09- Letter to the World

Hello World!!

So, this week I think I'll go day by day :D

MondayP-Day--we played BxB with the sisters and elders.  Way fun.  There was freezing rain that night.

Tueday
More freezing rain.  Schools were closed, so Natasha couldn't meet with us (she wanted her kids at school).  That was convenient because Sister Johnson lost the keys!  We looked everywhere and couldn't find them.  We're not supposed to go out in freezing rain anyway, so we stayed in for a little bit and then walked to our appointment with Delsa, since we didn't have a number to cancel.  She was sick with strep, but we gave her a Book of Mormon and she agreed to read.  We gave a quick Restoration lesson on the sidewalk and then left.  We tracted some more.  That evening there was more freezing rain and we had no access to the car, so we were in for the night. 

WednesdayMore freezing rain.  Because of our lack of a car and the weather, District Meeting was moved to Friday.  Sister Johnson found the keys, so we went tracting.  Natasha canceled again because the kids were home.  We met with Ethan--he was a potential we found tracting.  That night, a member picked us up and brought us to see two less active families.  One we were really excited about because she hadn't come in years and her non-member-fiance had "A lot of questions for us."  Turns out they were all anti questions.  He's really well-read and had a LOT of questions.  It was all done in a very calm way and I really think that Britton (the less-active woman) still has some semblance of a testimony because she asked for a Book of Mormon for her son so he can make the decision.  We went to the Vernons afterward--I love them!

ThursdayWe FINALLY got to meet with Natasha!!  She is wonderful!  She was already in 1 Ne 16 and loving it.  She started talking about some struggles she had in life and that she had asked, "God, where are you?"  I shared Joseph's experience in Liberty jail and read from Section 121.  As I read, "My son, peace be unto thy soul..." and that whole verse, the Spirit was so strong.  She had me write it down and asked for a copy of the Doctrine and Covenants.  She said that "This Joseph Smith guy seems to answer a lot of questions."  She's going to be baptized on March 25 with her daughter (once we start teaching her lol...).  She's awesome!!!

We saw Mandy this evening and gave her her baptism book (a book with pictures and notecards that people wrote on while she was changing).  Keep praying for her.  She told us a couple of days later that as she looked through it and remembered that day, she was crying.  The Spirit is prompting her, she just needs to heed it!  She needs the church!

Friday
We had a meeting with a potential that she canceled because of sickness.  Darn sickness!  We met with the Paynes again and they said they'd be at church (they were!) 

Saturday
We got to see Sister Cue (the 84 yr old from England).  I love her.  She bought us dinner.  Then we went to an AMAZING baptism.  The Spirit was so strong.  Baptisms are the best!  It was the first I've seen where an Elder did the ordinance and it made me think of the work my bros are doing :D  The Priesthood is amazing!  As he raised his hand to the square, I felt that so strongly.

Sunday
Testimony meeting was incredible.  I love the Spirit and the Priesthood!  It is such a blessing to be a member of the restored Church of Jesus Christ!!

Well, that's all I have time for!  The pic is from my brother Cody...I thought it was pretty awesome :D

Invite a friend to church!

Love ya!

Sister Denton