5/16/11- Letter to the World

Sorry...not much time again today!  We went to Gettysburg!  It was really fun.

Sis. Day is doing great.  She wasn't able to make it to church this week, so she can't be baptized the end of May, but their family is still progressing well.  I love them so much!!

Tomy is still meeting with us, but having troubles with Saturday vs. Sunday Sabbath day still.

We got some new investigators through a referral.  I don't know how solid they are yet, but it's a mom, daughter, and friend.

I love the gospel!  It's true :D

Love,

Sister Denton

5/9/11- Letter to the World

Only one minute left!!

The most exciting news this week is Anisha Day.  We "open your mouthed" her as she was going into her house.  She is SO prepared!  We met her Wednesday, saw her Thursday, had a lesson Friday, did service Saturday, and she came to church Sunday!  She's getting baptized May 28.  She has a 16-year-old that the Manchester Elders need to teach, an 8-year-old who also wants to be baptized, and a 5-year-old.  As Sis. Anderson shared the first vision the first night we met her, Sis. Day started crying!  She is so close to the Spirit and so wonderful!!  She enjoyed church, too, and so did her kids!!

Kurt Russell, a less active somewhat recent convert came to church!  That was awesome, too!  So did Sis. Heaton, who we've been working with for awhile.  It was a great day :D

I tried to send pictures, but apparently it was too big for most of you, so I'll have to try again next week!

Love you all!  The church is true!

Sister Denton

5/2/11- Letter to the World

Wow!  What a crazy week!!!!!

Monday

After P-Day, Sister Anderson asked if it was alright if we changed plans and went to tract some apartments at the end of a street we'd already tracted.  We though maybe it was to see some potentials there, but they weren't interested.  We started tracting and saw this guy playing baseball with some kids.  Sister A said we needed to go talk to him, so we did.  As we went toward him, he started shaking his head.  We introduced ourselves and he said he knew what church we were from.  He said, "My family was baptized in March seven years ago.  We are Mormons."  Awesome!!  So we went and talked to him and his wife some more and it turns out everyone EXCEPT him was baptized (and his son who was too young at the time, but is 10 now).  They haven't been to church in awhile, because he had some things that didn't allow him to be baptized and they kind of lost hope, but he still wants to be baptized and he wants to baptize his son!  Super cool!  So we're going to start teaching the Lebaron family!

Tuesday

We did a LOT of finding this day.  In the morning we met Jackson who took a Book of Mormon and set a return appointment (which he later cancelled).  We hope he'll be interested.  We went to follow up with a potential who wasn't home and met Josh, a man who just moved here and is looking for a Presbyterian church.  We told him we didn't know where one was, but said he could come to ours and he agreed--once the new one is finished (mid-June).  Next we went to tract some apartments I've wanted to tract for awhile.  We met Diane, who said we could come back, but wasn't super interested, and then we met Tomy.  He is from Haiti and is a Seventh Day Adventist, but is interested in studying with us!  Super cool!  We got a RA with him.  We also got a return appointment with the Camp family, who didn't have time to talk at the moment.

We called to follow up with John (the Spiritual seeker who agreed to read) and asked if he started reading the Book of Mormon.  He said he started last night and if we give him two days, he should have it finished.  Man, does he know how to make a missionary's jaw drop!! 

Later in the day we called Tyler, the friend of the minister we'd met last week.  He said he'd been reading from the Book of Mormon, too, and that he'd for sure be at church on Sunday!!!!

Wednesday

We had a couple of appointments fall through early on, which led to tracting.  We met this awesome kid named Josh--he's going to be famous one day, so remember that!  He had talked to the sisters before, but had been told that the Book of Mormon teaches different stories than he believes.  He took our meeting him again as a sign and agreed to read!  He's a graphic designer and is trying to take the book of Revelation and make it easier for young adults to understand, so we told him about D&C 77 and he's excited to look it up.  He was home on Spring Break from school in Florida, so we told him to look the missionaries up there.

We had team-ups with Sis Day, a girl who's preparing to serve a mission.  She came with us for like 5 hours!  First we went to teach the Labarons again.  That went well, but getting them to church will be tough.  He knows he has no good reason not to come, but still won't make the jump to come.  Next we went tracting and then we went to teach Anton and Katherine, the couple who went to Bible College.  I think they're interested and just don't know it.  They are still willing to meet with us, they just inform us every time that they have no intent of being baptized.  They really are amazing and we hope to see them progress!  They said they'd like to come to church!

Wednesday night we had another tornado warning.

Thursday

CRAZY storms this morning, found out later that there was another tornado warning out and there were actually two F1s that touched down in Palmyra, PA, which is about an hour NW of us.  We met with Tomy with a member in the ward who speaks some French.  It went well!  The biggest issue is whether the Sabbath is Saturday or Sunday.  We had another amazing dinner at the Smiths--Swedish Meatballs this time and some of the best carrot cake I've ever had!

Also, I don't know if I talked about Sadie last week, but we got a media referral for a CUTE girl we had talked to on the street.  She actually requested a Book of Mormon!!!

Friday

We had Leadership Training in Harrisburg.  I just realized...like just now...that we go to Harrisburg a lot and it's the capital!  Cool!  We watched a PHENOMENAL talk that Elder Holland gave in the MTC in January of this year.  We also found out that our phone's texting capabilities will be turned ON as of Friday!!!  Holla!  That is going to help us connect with so many more investigators and members!!!  We also found out that starting in the August transfer, missionaries who are training will be issued personal DVD players to watch the District movies and other tracting movies.  Also, those companionships will have TWO hours of comp study time for the first two transfers.  Changes are exciting :D

We went to dinner at the Hilliers where we had THE BEST enchiladas I have EVER had in my life.  No joke.  They were phenomenal.

We went to follow up with Sadie, but she wasn't home, so we left it with a guy there who actually used to be LDS!

Saturday

Lots of tracting and finding :D

Sunday

More tracting and finding!  We went to an active member's home for a lightning visit and they invited us back for dinner.  My first time trying Salmon....it was DELICIOUS!!!  Who knew I liked seafood?  Certainly not me!

Today we're going to go to Wilbur's Chocolate Factory and the Pretzel Factory--both in Lititz.  Lititz is actually pretty historical!

Love you all!

Sister Denton

Reminder...The new mission office address is

2600 Boyce Plaza Ste 101

Upper St. Clair, PA 15241

4/25/11- Letter to the World

Hello World!

 

I think I'm going to go day by day today!

 

Super Exciting

Super Funny

Super Spiritual

 

Monday

For P-Day we ended up going to the church to play basketball, as per usual.  Our shirts arrived from the screen printers, so we took double district pictures in our AWESOME mission shirts.  They forgot to order mine, so I took the pics.  After P-Day, we got to have an FHE with the AMAZING Wilson family.  Sister Wilson has one of the most beautiful testimonies I've ever heard.  It was a great experience!  I just love listening to her share her sweet faith.  Last time we were there, she told us about her new calling.  She is a Visiting Teaching Reporter and she was scared to do it the first time, but she did.  The second month, she prayed before calling everyone and got a much better response and even called the coordinator to report.  She just testified that the Lord will help us with our callings.  Almost everything out of her mouth is filled with love and the Spirit.

 

Tuesday

We did lots of finding and following up and it paid off--three new investigators!  Debra and Dale are the sweet couple that let us in last week...they let us in again!  We met Owenna while tracting in Rothsville.  We chatted outside for a bit and then she invited us in and we taught a first lesson.  She invited us back for dinner this coming week so we can get to know her husband, too!  We went to teach the scripture study class, but no one showed up, so we went over to see the Gutierrez family.  They were cooking a late dinner and she said she was making plantains.  Sis. Anderson and I said we'd never had them and she asked if we wanted to try them.  We agreed and she came out with an entire dinner plate of meat, rice, and plantains.  In case you were wondering, plantains are delicious!!

 

Wednesday

We did more finding and had a lesson with two members--Sister Wood and the Riday family.  The Riday family has eight kids and they are AWESOME!!  Ethan, especially, is adorable.  He's going to be 9 soon.  He loves to pray and is so close to the Spirit!  He came up to us at church yesterday and I shook his hand and he had this hurt look and I was like, "Oh ya...I can hug you."  So I gave him the side hug we usually do to younger kids. 

 

Thursday

Tracting again :D  We met this Mennonite woman named Alda.  She was super nice and asked awesome questions!  This week we've met a lot of Mennonites and their two main qualms seem to be "There's nothing more than the bible" and "Prophets replace Jesus Christ."  We talked about both of those, but she still didn't want a Book of Mormon when offered.  Sister Anderson read a verse from it and after she finished, Alda said "Maybe I will take a copy."  AWESOME!! 

 

After service at Luthercare, We drove down for appointment with Morgan.  She wasn't there again, so we went to follow up with Brianne, who wasn't home.  Then it was up to our Ward Mission Leaders home.  We go there every week and have a meeting and then dinner with the other Elders who share the ward.  There's a theme every week and this week was New Orleans.  I was SO scared all week because she told us it'd be shrimp.  Shrimp.  It was my fault, too.  Last week, after having amazing wings and homemade pizza, I told her I didn't think she could make anything I didn't like because she was such a fabulous cook.  She said, "I can make anything?"  And we all emphatically agreed.  And then she dropped the shrimp bomb.  I was seriously sick with worry.  I almost hoped I'd be transferred so I wouldn't have to eat it.  Then I plotted doing exchanges that day, but that'd defeat the purpose of the meeting.  The day of, during lunch, I was laying down and had the thought, "You are going to love shrimp."  I told Sister Anderson I might've had a revelation, but I wouldn't know until dinner lol.  So we went in to dinner and there it was---a big bowl of shrimp.  I took a couple into my bowl and tried it.  And it was FLIPPIN' DELICOUS!!!!  WHY has no one introduced shrimp to me before?!  It was SO good.  I ate a TON of shrimp :D  There was also really good rice and veggies and as always, a phenomenal dessert.  This time it was homemade Chocolate Cream Pie.  Yum.  So...it ended well!

 

Next we went to a new family in the ward--the Hilliers--they are awesome :D

 

Friday

We went to our appointment with Debra and Dale, but they weren't there :(  So negative two investigators.  Charity cancelled her appointment, too.  We went to follow up with some others who also weren't interested.  At the end of the day, we got to see Sis. Tyler and Sis. Heaton--two wonderful women we get to visit a lot!

 

Saturday

My birthday!  There's a cute family in the ward called the Readers with three adorable little girls.  They called me and sang me happy birthday :D  Then the best thing ever---Anderson and Lori....the couple that waved us down while tracting over a month ago...called and asked if they could go to church!!!!!  Um....YES!!!  So that was super awesome.

 

Ahh!  Only a minute left!!

 

We have a lot more potentials that hopefully you'll get to read more about as they continue to study with us!  Anderson and Lori were great, so I hope we get to teach them more too!  The church is true!  Our Savior lives and guides this church today!

 

Love you all!!

 

Sister Denton

4/18/11- Letter to the World

As follows for this whole transfer, last week was full of finding.  We hit 52 other lessons last week.  Looking at the past transfers, the average was 10 or so.  We have been tracting machines and I know that eventually we will find those people who are prepared to hear our message!

Morgan--she cancelled our appointment this week again.  She's still willing to learn, though.  In fact, she's planning on coming to play basketball at the church with us today and we're going to try and teach her about the Word of Wisdom.

Debra and Dale--We were tracting and at the very last house (as is so often the case), Debra answered the door.  Before we even said a word, she said, "Come in!"  I thought we must've tracted into a member.  Sister Anderson and I stood in the entryway as we started sharing our message and they asked us to come sit down!  We talked about prophets and the Book of Mormon and asked what it would mean to them (Dale was in the room, too) if our message was true and Debra said, "Well, it'd mean the world!"  It's not often that people understand the importance of our message!!!!  So Debra and Dale agreed to read and pray and said we could come back!  Hopefully we'll have more to share next week!

Brianne--We did exchanges this week and I got to spend a day with Sister Cahoon from Redmond, WA!  We both went to Horace Mann Elementary and she was at Mitch's wedding!  Crazy!  While tracting, we met Brianne.  She had a lot of questions that we were able to answer with the Book of Mormon!  It was awesome.  Her husband got home and she said, "These ladies are answering the questions we always ask everyone."  She's got two CUTE kids and I really hope we can teach them!!!

Alan--We met Alan on the street.  We gave him a mormon.org pass-a-long card and asked if he'd ever had any of those questions.  He said he wondered what happens when we die.  We opened to Alma 40 and shared the scripture and he was happy!  We talked about eternal marriage (he's engaged and has a 3-yr old) and the Priesthood and Baptism.  He said he'd be baptized May 7!  We went to visit him the next day and he said his fiance isn't interested and they couldn't learn anymore.  We were really downhearted.  He kept being on our minds, so we went back when we knew she was gone and talked to him again.  He said he had good feelings about it and wanted to study, but he wanted his whole family to join a church together.  He said he'd still read and pray.  You can just tell he knows it's true!  We keep praying for Vanessa, his finace, to soften her heart and be open to our message!

Well, that's the news for the week!  I'm in Lititz for another transfer!  There are a lot of Lancaster missionaries leaving again, which is sad, but it's an opportunity to get to know more missionaries!  Two of the Elders leaving doubled into Lancaster when I did, so I'm the last one left in Lancaster from that September 22 bunch!

Love you all!  The church is true :D 

Love,

Sister Denton

PS I attached a presentation that our Mission President sent us.  Enjoy :D (You can view it here.)

4/11/11- Letter to the World

Well, Morgan is now an official investigator and we are no longer teaching Michael.

It's amazing how much things can change in a week's time!  We've been doing increasingly more finding hoping and praying to find people to teach.  Saturday, we found a LOT of potentials who we have appointments with this week, so hopefully I'll be able to share more about them next week!

I know that this is Christ's church upon the earth and it is such a blessing to be able to testify of that on a daily basis.  Heavenly Father loves us so much.  He sent His Son so we can live with Him again.  He and Jesus Christ restored His church to the earth.  They've called prophets and apostles NOW so that we can be more.  They've given us the Priesthood power again--the very power Christ used to create the earth.  We are so blessed. 

There is a new version of the Joseph Smith Movie available for free download online!!!!  It's great :D

Love you all!  Have a great week!

Sister Denton

4/4/11- Letter to the World

This week we have one new investigator--Michael and another that's close--Morgan.

We tracted into Michael.  He's had a pretty crazy life and it's going to take a lot of faith for him to progress!

Morgan is a referral.  She's Catholic, but willing to learn about our faith.  Prayers for both are welcome!!

The rest of the week has been finding finding finding.  I've never tracted so much in my life!  We know that there are people out there who are prepared, it's just a matter of finding them!  If you have friends that might be interested in the gospel, PLEASE refer them to the missionaries!  People who see your example really do want what you have!

Between sessions on Sunday, we went out with the Elders and "blitzed" Lancaster.  We all went "Open your mouthing" at the same time.  We stayed with our companions, but it was cool to see other missionaries on the streets!

Highlights from Conference

First of all, it was so amazing to me to see my questions answered so forcefully and so fully!  I love the gospel!!!  I'll just put some of my favorite points from the conference.  I loved it all!  So many of them I need to read again and again.

Elder Perry
The adversary succeeds when we RELAX (not stop) in following the Savior.
Our youth will be a standard to the nations.
Live in such a way that will bring down the blessings promised us!

Walter F. Gonzalez
The power of covenants is greater than any challenge we face or wil face.

Kent F. Richards
Christ suffered to understand us.  We suffer to understand Him and our eternal purpose.

President Eyring
Turn feelings of sympathy into feelings of action and fulfill covenants
Prepare spiritually for the day of service in your stake

President Packer
Latter-Day Saints are positive and happy and not afraid of life.
Leave it alone

Elder Nelson
Tithing will keep your name enrolled on the rolls of God
It's going to get harder
The future is as bright as your faith

Elder Oaks
Desires-->priorities-->choices-->actions
Am I ready to be judged on my desires?

Elder Ballard
Focus on the flecks, not finding nuggets

President Uchtdorf
Let us be reliable to hear the Spirit
By being the answer to someone's prayers, we often find answers to ours
Preach the gospel at all times.  If necessary, use words.
Blessed are they who haven't seen and still believe.

Paul V. Johnson
The only way to see the view is to make the climb.
Hard times precede the miracle
Don't resent things that make us better

H. David Burton
Decipher between needs and wants and live accordingly

David A. Bednar
If I continue forward I cannot go amiss
If we are obedient, the Lord will direct our steps and guide our utterances

Richard G. Scott
You will receive every blessing you live worthy of

D. Todd Christofferson
If the apostles are always looking to improve, I can too
Thank you for loving me enough to cut me down.

Carl B. Pratt
Tithing from firstlings
Tithing will increase my faith and testimony

Lynn G. Robbins
Make a "to be" list
Possessions don't define you

Love you all!  I'm off to Hershey again today :D  The Lancaster and Ephrata Districts are all going (except the other sisters...they've both been and didn't want to go again).  'Twill be fun!

Sister Denton