I See Dead People (it's my companion)

Hello Family!

Sister Sowa, one of my friends here on the mission, wanted me to say hi to y'all, so here is her shout out.  Transfers happened, and I will be in the Queen Creek for another six weeks--no surprise there since my companion will be returning home tomorrow.  I'm officially "killing" a companion; I wonder if this counts as being able to see dead people?  I'll get my new companion on Wednesday, so I'll be with some other sisters for this evening during the departing missionary festivities and for tomorrow.  It's been a great twelve weeks with Sister Rogers, and it will be fun to see the changes that come.

Exciting news for me this week, I finished reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish!  It was a neat experience, and I felt a lot of peace and happiness upon finishing, and I am definitely a lot more comfortable speaking Spanish than I was before I started.

We had two pretty amazing experiences.  The first was with a less active family that will be moving soon.  Sister Rogers and I had just finished planning for the day when we get a text from one of the ladies in our area asking if we could go help this family move.  We had a pretty busy day planned, and had planned in a lot of people that our bishops had asked us to visit.  We decided to pray about it, and eventually came to the conclusion that we would go help with the moving.  Well, we went to help, and we showed up right when this sister was most stressed out and were able to help her.  She told us after that we had shown up "at the perfect time".  It was a cool lesson of listening to God because He has a lot better idea of what needs to happen.

We also got to take Jacqueline on splits with us a few times.  I went on splits with Jacqueline a lot in Bella Vista, so it was fun to have her come over to Queen Creek.  I'm not sure if I mentioned this before or not, but Jacqueline was baptized a few years ago, and ever since then has just loved to go on splits with the missionaries.  She is even planning on going on her own mission one day.  The day she came with us, we had a lesson, but we assured her that it would be with an active member.  It was with the Wurtz family, who has the sweetest little kids.  We asked Jacqueline to share her testimony/conversion story at the end, and she did wonderfully!  We were inviting the Wurtz to invite a friend to a Family Home Evening, and Jacqueline was able to share how she was first invited because a friend asked her to come to church with her.  It was incredible to have her share her story with those kids.  It's something they will remember for the rest of their lives, I hope.  I'm just lucky that I got to be a part of that lesson.

Well, by Sister Sabey standards, this will be a short email, but I just wanted to finish with something I've learned this week.  I think one of my challenges is that I always try to find a "formula" or a "system" that works every single time.  If I teach the members this and that, or if I say that and this to someone we meet on the street, it will result in such and such.  I think, "this worked in Highland, so it has to work in Queen Creek", and it does, but it's never as effective as I was hoping for.  The thing that I learned this week is that unless it's Jesus Christ and His Atonement, it's not going to work every single time.  Sometimes I get so caught up in the details that I forget to step back and say, "What would Jesus Christ say if He were here?"  It bothered me that I learned that fourteen months into my mission, and I was almost reluctant to change because I'd been trying to find a "formula" for so long.  But especially this week, I've learned that following the Spirit is always the best option because He always testifies of Jesus Christ.  Well, that's my little shpill for this week, Family.  I love you!

Sister Emily

1001 N Burk Street
Gilbert, AZ
85234

Sister Rogers likes to take pictures of EVERYTHING

(which is good because that's how I get most of my pictures each week)

Heart Attacking

It's the back side of the book because I finished

I WANT A HUG!

Hello Family!

It is raining today, and that is just one more added bonus to the awesome week I have already had!  It was also raining last night.  It was so fun to bike in it, and sometimes Sister Rogers and I would have to trek through puddles that would have been up to my ankles had I been standing in it.  I love rain.

I officially have a new question for the soul: What is the hype with fidget spinners???  About a month ago, our friend, Jeff's daughter had extra fidget spinners and decided to give them to Sister Rogers and I.  I gotta admit that it is nice to have when you've been sitting in church for eight or nine hours and still have more meetings left.  But holy cow, every time someone sees my fidget spinner, someone freaks out--whether for good or bad.  Yesterday, I was at church, and I saw this little kid playing with a fidget spinner.  I decided to hold up my fidget spinner just so he could see it.  Well, he did, and immediately, the benches immediately surrounding the little boy were filled with him yelling with so much glee, "SHE HAS THE SAME TOY AS ME!"  which resulted in a few adult members whispering, "The missionary has a fidget spinner" . . . so again, what is the hype with fidget spinners?

Apart from the controversy of the fidget spinner, our week was full of miracles.  It all started with a phone call last Monday.  I was sitting in my room, folding my laundry, when the phone rang.  I answer, and I hear, "Hi Sister Sabey! It's Darrin!  I got this number from the mission office.  Do you have a minute to talk?"  Well, Family, quick recap on Darrin:  he was in Meridian YSA when I served there last summer in Desert Ridge Zone.  He had been less active since returning from his mission, and was struggling to return to activity--he had the desire to, but he was struggling.  I'd seen him a couple of times around the mission since being in Desert Ridge, and he was still the same old Darrin.  Well, let me tell you, the Atonement of Jesus Christ works because the phone call I received was not the same old Darrin.  He called because he wanted to let me know that he was going to church every single week and had finally been able to regain his temple recommend!  I could not stop smiling.  It was one of those moments where everything is worth it.  I was so glad that he called, and it started everything off on the right foot for a killer week.

We had dinner with an awesome family one night this week (and the food was AMAZING), and it was so fun to see how much their kids knew--they actually answered the questions, and they had stellar responses!  It was a lesson that I really enjoyed teaching.  At the end, we were saying goodbye before we headed out, and their nine or ten year old boy, Kingston, yells, "I WANT A HUG!" and next thing I know, I'm caught in the hug of a boy.  I did not know what to do with myself, so I ended up being an awkward missionary and just looking at his dad as if to say, "Help?"  It was also very sweet and made me smile.  It's nice to know you are loved and people want to hug you.

We had Sister Patrick with us again this week, and I think it was definitely inspired that we had her on the exact day that we did.  Sister Rogers and I have been trying to contact all the referrals we have received, as well as anyone who had said we could come back.  The morning we were with Sister Patrick, we went out and contacted some people in 4th Ward.  We get to the house of a person named Michelle.  She wasn't home, so we were about to bike off when Sister Rogers sees a person outside next door.  She goes to talk to him, and we begin having an awesome conversation.

We find out that his name is Erik, that he was baptized a member when he was eight years old, and had since just stopped going--he wasn't on our ward roster, so we didn't realize he was there.  I like to call people that are members, but we don't know it, "Easter Eggs".  Anyway, we start talking to Erik, and we have a pretty good conversation.  And then he asks, "Okay, so what are your thoughts on aliens?" Oh boy . . . anyway, we talk about that, and it is still going pretty good.  Eventually, a man walks out of the house we had just been at (I'm assuming Michelle's husband?), and Erik yells over to them, "HEY! WHY DIDN'T YOU TALK TO THE MISSIONARIES??" and gives him a hard time about it.  The man yells back, "I didn't want to talk to them!" so I guess we can say he is not interested.  It made me laugh, and we went back to talking with Erik.

This conversation goes on, and meanwhile, we are in the beating hot sun, but Erik is still completely content talking to (and sometimes sassing) us.  We are able to share testimony, talk about why the ten commandments are still the same as they have been since Moses, and then Erik asks Sister Patrick (this is the part where it gets really inspired), "How do you know that God loves you?"  Sister Patrick has a pretty amazing story, and her story was just perfect for Erik.  She continued to talk, and he continued to listen.  At the very end, we asked him if he would pull out his own copy of the Book of Mormon and read it.  He said he would.  We then ask, "Can we follow up with you in a week?"  He thinks about it, and then this was the most sincere answer I've received about a follow-up.  He said yes.

We also met Joe and Mike this week.  They were both people that members had suggested we stop by.  Joe is incredibly intelligent and very focused on his family.  We had a really long conversation, and he talked a lot about history (which I thought was fascinating).  Sister Rogers was really good at bringing the conversation back.  We invited him to read the Book of Mormon again (he said he already had once), and he said, "Sure.  Maybe I'll have a different experience this time."  He gave us his number to follow up in a month.

Mike was also very receptive.  It was a miracle because we were on splits with Brinley, and she is still deciding whether she should go on a mission or not. (She should. She's ready.)  Mike answered the door, and we said, "Hi, are you Mike?"

"Yes, how did you know that?"

"Your neighbor said you are pretty cool and said we should come meet you."

"Well, that is true.  Come on in."

What? People never just invite us in.  But Mike did.  He invites us to sit down, offers us water, and then pretty much asks us what we are all about.  We tell him our purpose, introduce our message a little, and invited him and his family to take the lessons. He said he wanted to see what it was like first before bringing his family into it, but he is willing to meet with us and to read the Book of Mormon.  I'm just hoping as he reads that he will feel the Spirit because the desire to learn more and have his family come will follow as he does.

This area is going to see miracles.  I can feel it.  God is preparing people.  At the beginning of July, President Wheeler invited us to read the Book of Mormon in 90 days, and told us to expect miracles.  God keeps His promises.  As I've been reading the Book of Mormon, I've been trying to underline the different promises that God makes, as well as highlight the Doctrine of Christ and circle names for Christ.  I've discovered a lot, and this has been one of my favorites so far: 1 Nephi 21:25 promises, "I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children."

This is when Isaiah is prophesying about nursing kings and queens and whatnot (which has been really cool to learn about thanks to Sister Roger's determination to understand), and he talks about how the children will come back.  As I read this,  I came to the conclusion that God was promising those of the house of Israel that if they will remain faithful, He will take care of everything else--even down to helping their children to come back to the fold.  God does take care of everything we could ever need, and all he asks is for us to remain faithful to Him.  He's got this.  It's amazing to see over and over the main thing our Heavenly Father just wants us to answer is this: "Do you trust me?"  I am grateful that I have the opportunity to learn to trust Him, even though I am far from perfect at doing so.  I know that Heavenly Father has a plan, and just as He promised, everything will work out when we remain faithful to Him and His Son, Jesus Christ.  I love you, Family!

Sister Emily

1001 N Burk Street
Gilbert, AZ
85234

Ball is Life.

Our attempt to capture the moment

RAIN! :D

Just Do It!

Hi Family!

This summer is flying by so much faster than last summer, and I don't know how on earth it got to be the end of July.  The good news is that it is finally MONSOON SEASON!  There's nothing quite like an Arizona Monsoon.

Story time: Last summer, my first Sister Training Leader was a sister named Sister Haymond (let's see how many times I can fit sister into one sentence).  She had been out for fourteen months, and I thought she was so old and looked forward to the day I would be that old.  Well, I did it.  I reached my greenie goal of being as old as Sister Haymond.  I still feel like I should be out maybe a month or two because I'm just learning things about how to be a missionary that I wish I had learned 14 months ago.

We've continued to try to invite people to be baptized.  This week, we got to talk to Craig and Chad, who didn't give us a solid answer, but they both have their own copy of the Book of Mormon and gave us their number.  They don't live in our area, so we are hoping to be able to send missionaries over there.  We also invited Kaden, a rambunctious nine-year-old.  His mom is a member, and his dad is anti-Mormon.  Kaden said ye and even said that his dad mentioned that he might let him be baptized when Kaden is 10.

I also got to go on exchanges with Sister Sprouse!  She is a Sister Training Leader now, as I might have mentioned before.  This is her very last transfer, and literally, my entire mission has been me hoping that I got to go on exchanges with Sister Sprouse.  It was a lot of fun to laugh over all the funny moments from a year ago, but also to see how we have both grown as missionaries.  While we were out working, we met a young man named Abbos.  He has lots of Mormon friends.  While he still leans toward his Muslim upbringing, he also likes to learn what other people believe.  He told us that he had gone to a lot of LDS functions, except going to church, which he really wanted to do.  The day previous, our district had had a training on inviting people to church using the information about church in the back of our pamphlets.  It was so cool to see the training we received be exactly what we needed that day.  Abbos said he couldn't come that Sunday (yesterday), but he would like to at some point.

We also went to the baptisms for the eight-year-olds in our area.  The bishop in one of our wards had asked us to come.  It was really fun, and I think the Frosts and the Redfords, the two families that had kids being baptized, really appreciated it.  The service was incredible and the Spirit was so strong.  We were trying to figure out how to be helpful and effective, and I remembered that President Wheeler had talked about using the time when the people are waiting for the person being baptized to change out of their wet jumpsuit at convert baptisms to share a testimony of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  So we did that.  We had asked Bishop if we could, but turns out that he wasn't the presiding authority because a member of the Seventy was there--his granddaughter was one of the people being baptized.  He said yes, so we got to share our testimonies in front of a Seventy, and we invited anyone in the congregation who had felt the spirit to come and learn more so they could also be baptized like the Frost and Redford kids had been.  It was pretty cool.  I'm not sure if anything will come out of it, but you never know.

The biggest miracle of the week was with Fuzzy.  He is back from Europe, so we invited him to come to a new member fireside to listen to the testimonies of other recent converts.  Firesides are a more casual church meeting where people are asked to share experiences--I'm still not sure why it is called a fireside.  Maybe they were actually held around fires once upon a time.  Anyway, it's the day of, and last minute, we get a text from our Zone Leaders: "The assistants need one more recent convert to speak at the new member fireside.  Can you ask someone?" Sister Rogers says, "Let's call Fuzzy!" I was thinking "Are you kidding?  He's never been to one! He'll say no!  We can't ask him last minute".  But we did, and he said yes, even when we said, "wait, really?" in surprise.

The new member fireside was amazing, and one of the stories was perfect for Fuzzy to listen to, and Fuzzy did an incredible job.  He has such a sincere testimony, and I'm really excited to see where life takes him.  I'm glad that I get to be part seeing his testimony grow.  It is such a privilege to get to see that.  I wish everyone could have been there to hear the strength of the testimonies of the amazing people accepting the fullness of the Gospel in the Arizona Gilbert Mission.  That's all for this week.  I love you, Family!

Sister Emily

1001 N Burk Street
Gilbert, AZ
85234

The Petersons--they are in charge of Family Home Afternoon for Queen Creek Zone

Exchanges with Sister Sprouse

Once a Highlander, Always a Highlander

Happy Fourth!

Hi Family!!

I hope everyone had a happy Fourth!  I've officially decided that the Fourth of July is the worst holiday to be a stateside missionary during, but Sister Rogers and I still made a fun day of it.  We still went out and worked all day, and because it was the Fourth, no one was home.  But that evening, all the missionaries had to be inside by 6 P.M.  The Queen Creek Zone got together at our stake center, played basketball, and watched Seventeen Miracles.  We got to see some fireworks as we drove back to our house.  But now it's officially the time of year when the ward council (a group of leadership that correlates how to best help members of the congregation with temporal and spiritual needs) has started talking about doing a ward social for Halloween.  I'm so excited because I love Halloween.  I can't believe how fast the time is going.

Sometimes as missionaries, we get really bored, so we start rating the doors on a scale of 1-10.  There is one family in my area, and they are the first one I gave a 10 for their door (I guess I'm a tough judge).  They have a very nice door, but the family who lives behind the door is even better.  Their name is the Johnstons.  I like them a lot.  We had dinner with them last week, and it was one of the best member lessons I have ever taught.  We taught the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I always have a hard time teaching about Prophets and dispensations, but this last time it just flowed perfectly.  It was totally guided by the Spirit, and I'm actually upset that I can't remember how I said it.  But I know it was not me, it was the Spirit.  Anyways, after the lesson, we were talking to Sister Johnston, and she told us about something we hadn't realized the last time we visited.

Last week, the ladies in the area got together and had a game night.  Sister Rogers and I stopped by because we figured it could possibly be a good missionary opportunity--we weren't really sure.  We got there, talked to the ladies for a little bit, and shared a message before hurrying off to the next place we needed to be.  We just talked about how by small and simple things, great things come to pass, and Sister Rogers tied in some cute thing about M&M's with it.  I was thinking about it after, still trying to decide if it had been a good use of our time.  Flash forward to now having dinner with the Johnstons.  Sister Johnston said that she had appreciated our message so much, and we found out that one of the ladies had invited a friend of another faith, and the friend had really enjoyed our message.  Sister Johnston was so appreciative of how bold we were, and it was just a cool learning experience that I don't always realize the extent of what I get to do.

Sister Patrick came back out with us this week, and we had quite the miracle.  Last time Sister Patrick came over, she just had to sleep on the couch--I did not envy her in the least.  We felt bad that she didn't have a bed, especially considering how often she has to come over while her companions have leadership responsibilities.  Sister Rogers and I were biking around one day, and Sister Patrick was going to be coming that night.  All of a sudden, we notice a pile of furniture that someone had left outside including a mattress.  We had to get going, so we determined to come back.

That night just before we went to get Sister Patrick, we stopped by the house to knock on the door just to be certain we could have the mattress (I guess most people don't leave random mattresses they want on the curb by the road, but we thought we'd check).  Well, the family was home and they were members, one of which had recently returned from his own mission, so they were very understanding of our situation.  They questioned if we really wanted the mattress (it had been left by the previous owners).  We went and smelled it.  It smelled fine and looked clean, so the members even offered to bring it to our house for us.  It was a smaller mattress, but it still ended up working just perfectly for Sister Patrick.  She is very excited to have her own bed for when she comes to our house.

Unfortunately, Sister Rogers got sick later that week, so she had to stay inside.  Luckily, we had Sister Patrick with us, so the Relief Society President in one of our wards was kind enough to let Sister Rogers come stay at her house while Sister Patrick and I went out at work.  Jacqueline, a young woman from my second area in Bella Vista, also came out with us, and it was so much fun to see her again!

That was pretty much our week.  I think Satan is mad at us for inviting so many people to be baptized because there weren't very many people home and we definitely had a couple disappointments, but I learned something that helped give me an extra boost of enthusiasm for when it got hard.  I thought about how when someone says, "I give you my word", it's just like saying, "I promise".  In essence, that means that when we talk about God's Word, it's talking about God's Promises.  (If that's not a good motivation to really read and pray about the Book of Mormon, I don't know what is.  There are incredible promises in that book.) I found one such promise that was incredible to think about.

I was reading el Libro de Éter, and it was talking about how the people who inherited the Promised Land needed to serve God.  I started thinking about how we serve God.  Somewhere along this train of thought, I started thinking about how in America we have "In God We Trust" on all our money and how the Pledge of Allegiance says, "One Nation Under God".  Then I started thinking about how we are asked to do things, such as the sacrament, praying, etc., in the name of Jesus Christ.  I ran this by Sister Patrick, and she made a comment about how there is power in a name.  It just made me realize how much power there is in just saying the Savior's name--just saying the Savior's name can banish the influence of the adversary.  Then I started thinking about other times we take the Savior's name upon us, and it clicked: the reason we are asked to take His name upon us is because of the power that it gives us through Jesus Christ to withstand the powers of the adversary.  We can't do it without Him.  That is why we are asked to be baptized, take the sacrament weekly, receive temple covenants, and be sealed to our families.  Done under the authority of Jesus Christ, it protects us with His Saving Grace so that we can be with our families forever.  I'm glad that because of those covenants that I have made, as long as I continue to rely on and trust in my Savior, I will receive those blessing of having an eternal family.  The Gospel is really cool, Family, and I am so thankful for it.  Live it because God's Promises are the best.  I love you!!

Sister Emily

1001 N Burk Street
Gilbert, AZ
85234

Happy America Day

How I Feel about Weddings as a Missionary

Harry Potter

Start Inviting

Hello Family!

This has been the happiest week of my mission so far.  We got to celebrate Canada Day, so I took the opportunity to make copies of "Oh Canada" to give to all the Bishops and Ward Mission Leaders in my area.  Now we have no reason not to sing it in church.  Brother Godfrey, a member of one of our wards who is from Southern Alberta himself, announced to the entire ward that Bishop Bailey has a copy, so really, there is no excuse not to be patriotic.

But that's not why it was the happiest week of my mission (even though it was definitely a plus).  This week was the happiest week of my mission because I finally found my why.  President Nattress would talk about "whys" a lot.  There is your why for coming on a mission, a why for staying on your mission, and that why generally changes a lot over your mission.  I had general whys, whys that would help me get to the next day whys that kept me going.  But this week, I found a why that will allow me to "go to the edge where miracles happen", and I am so excited to do the work.

On Tuesday, we had Fundamental Meeting, and Elders Gressman and Holland (my zone leaders) committed us to invite one person to be baptized every single day.  We've been trying to do that, which I'll talk about in a minute, but here's the thing, Fam.  I've been trying to set that as a goal for myself for the last thirteen months, and it never stuck.  But during our meeting, I learned something that helped me find that sense of urgency that I couldn't figure out before.  I realized that I can only invite random people on the street to be baptized while I am a missionary.  I won't have that authority after my mission.  Conclusion: I need to get inviting.

This week was also Zone Conference, which seriously changed my life.  One thing President Wheeler has been trying to focus on is how to improve the way we find.  The Arizona Gilbert Mission is definitely a baptizing mission--1 out of 3 people that start investigating the church are baptized in this mission, but the trick is finding people to start teaching.  That is what we focused on this Zone Conference.  I realized something else.  I didn't know how to find, and finally after thirteen months, I learned.  

One thing that changed is I understand the role of testifying better.  Sometimes I get so caught up in teaching or trying to help them feel loved that I forget that testifying does both of those things.  The other thing was something known as the Rule of Seven.  On average, it takes a person at least seven interactions with the church before they are ready to be baptized because they realize it's true, and that's going from a range of knowing absolutely nothing about the church to being ready to be baptized.  I always thought of it in the way most members do:  if they aren't a seven right now then uhhghghh.... I don't know what to do .... but in Zone Conference, we learned to take a different look at it.  God's timeline is God's timeline, but part of God's timeline is the journey.  Every interaction we have can move people closer to being ready to make promises with our Savior through baptism. Instead of looking at it as "oh, they haven't had seven interactions, I guess I'll just leave now", I have an awesome opportunity to help them move closer.  Maybe this time they would have just told us go away, but we can show them kindness and testify, so maybe next time they will be like, "Oh, it's the Mormons.  I'll give them a water bottle", and so on.

After that, I wanted to be committed.  I finally knew how to do it, I knew that I could do it, and I knew that I needed to do it now, so Sister Rogers and I went and did this week.  Day one, we biked around and we had a great day, but by the end of it, we still hadn't found anyone to invite . . . and it was 8:55.  We started biking home, but still hopeful, we kept looking.  We biked past the public swimming pool, and we see two guys sitting on a bench outside.  We quickly went over to talk to them, annnnddddd they were members from the Elders' ward.  Okay, it looked like we weren't going to invite a non-member to be baptized, but that didn't mean we couldn't invite.  We asked him if weren't already baptized, if he would be.  And he said yes.  Was it a stretch? Yes, but we invited, and we got the words out of our mouth.

The next day, we actually had a cool experience.  Sister Rogers felt prompted to go visit a "part-member" family.  The husband hadn't come to church in years and the wife (Elizabeth) says her belief system is kind of like Star Wars.  We asked to share a message with them, not really sure what we were going to share, but the Lord was completely in charge.  Elizabeth's husband was thoroughly disappointed that she couldn't do better than saying her beliefs were "like Star Wars", so he started sharing what he believed--which he said repeatedly he hadn't done as much before as he shared that day.  It turned into a really great gospel discussion.  We didn't get to talk much because Elizabeth's husband had a LOT to say, but I did receive two distinct promptings of things to share.  "Talk about the Atonement" and "Talk about the First Vision".  Sister Rogers also was able to share a few things, and it was so cool because as she talked, Elizabeth was listening intently to what Sister Rogers had to say.  At the end of the lesson, Sister Rogers was so bold and invited Elizabeth right there to be baptized.  She told us she'll never say never!  It was incredible.

Day three of the commitment was absolutely nuts and we were running around like crazy.  We were trying really hard and having no luck.  We even went by our friend Jeff's home to follow up about his invitation to pray about July 15 as a baptismal date--he wasn't home.  It was getting late and we had to get going in, and once again, we hadn't found anyone.  Suddenly, Sister Rogers sees a boy, no older than 14 years old, riding his bike.  She stops, bikes right toward him and screams, "ARE YOU A MEMBER?" I about had a heart attack.  The kid was a member, but we still invited and even had a cool teaching opportunity.  Sister Rogers explained our commitment to him, and he probably thought we were crazy.  We invited him, and he said yes, but added, "but I've already been baptized".  (I was about to lose it because I get people who tell me that all the time and now I'm getting it from members too.)  So we change it up a little and ask, "well, will you renew your baptismal covenant by partaking of the sacrament?" He said yes, so we said, "We will be holding a Sacrament Service on July 2.  Will you prepare yourself to take the sacrament that day?"  He said he'd be out of town, but promised he'd still be going to church to take the sacrament there.  Maybe he didn't get anything out of it except for thinking missionaries are crazy (and he's not all wrong), but it was a good reminder for me that taking the sacrament has the same significance as a baptismal service--I just forget because I get to do it every week.

The next day was Saturday, and we were running around all day to try to correlate with Bishops and Ward Mission Leaders, and we didn't even have enough time to get that done.  It was a struggle, so that day, I invited Sister Sprouse to be baptized.  She said yes.

Then we finally got to Sunday.  We had planned appointments all night, but all of them cancelled.  I was pretty bummed, but it was a good opportunity to contact some referrals we had received.  First we met Ashley, and she just moved into the neighborhood.  She said she was just starting to develop her relationship with Jesus Christ and was attending Sun Valley, a popular non-denominational church in the area.  I asked her how she had started her relationship with Jesus Christ, and she said she had been going through a hard time and I friend invited her to church (see? it works!).  We told her about our message and invited her to be baptized.  She said not yet because she was still starting out and didn't want to overwhelm herself, but she did accept a Book of Mormon and said we could come back.

We also met Justin.  We had been meaning to contact someone else, but they were out of town.  Justin was there house sitting.  We talked to him for a while. He declined our invitation, but he did take a Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet.  While we were testifying, he was also listening intently, just like Elizabeth.

It was an incredible week.  I learned so much and I want to take the things I learned this week throughout the rest of my mission, then take what I learn from my mission for the rest of my life.  The Gospel is amazing, and I'm so glad I get to share it more effectively now.  I hope everyone is doing great!  I love you!

Sister Emily

1001 N Burk Street

Gilbert, AZ
85234

The Elders have picked up crocheting

We both wore red and white for Canada Day

Sister Rogers is really good at taking pictures

We tried . . .

In the Father's Hands

Hello, my AMAZING and WONDERFUL Family!!

It's been a great week of beautiful 110+ degree weather.  It's even hit 120 a few times.  It's my favorite when we will be biking along (drinking lots and lots of water) and someone will drive past and yell, "Go home! It's too hot!" It's never too hot when the work of Salvation must be hastened (unless it's over 125 just so you know, Mum--the mission is not going to kill me).

My favorite was when we biked up to a less active members house, and she throws open her door (she has a security camera) before we could even get our bikes locked up and yells, "Are you nuts???" and gets us to hurry inside her house.  Maybe people will get to the point where they think, "Well, if the missionaries are this crazy, maybe there is something to it".

We had another member, actually one of the ward mission leaders, cancel on us this week--that's always a bummer when we get canceled on (Don't cancel on the missionaries!!).  We were supposed to go visit some people in the ward with him, but he said that he couldn't do it because "he'd been out in the heat all day" . . . oh boy . . . but hey, I'm out enough that we can sit in the shade and that will feel like nice weather while everyone else is still running for cover.  Long story short, everyone thinks we are crazy, and I love it!

We got to do some service this week, and I've had this life goal of catching a lizard.  At the service, I was finally able to do that!  He was scurrying all over the place.  Life goal: accomplished.

I'm learning to see the subtle beauties of Queen Creek Zone.  I really enjoy going over to visit a convert named Brandy.  She's super funny because she takes every Mormon stereotype, completely destroys it, and then does so all while almost yelling her testimony of the Gospel.  I also had a fun experience with some of the Elders in my Zone.  I got a tennis ball to help me when my neck hurts, and I had it in my bag.  One day, there were a few Elders sitting on a couch at the church building, and I pulled the ball out of my bag and all of them, almost in unison, had their eyes light up and they just perked up as if to say, "Ball? Ball?"

I also had other learning experiences.  One thing Heavenly Father is trying to get through my head is that He loves me and is aware of me.  With transfers came another group of missionaries I had grown to love finishing their missions, and I was not having it.  I told Elder Geiselmayr, one of the departing missionaries, that transfers had been canceled, and he said that was okay as long as I let the airline know, but I don't think it worked . . . He still went home with all the other missionaries. I did not want those missionaries to go home, but I knew I had been through this before and survived. I tried to get ahead of the curve and just get everything that helped me be happy last time out of the way so I could just be happy.  My plan did not go as well as I'd hoped.  I was still devastated knowing I wouldn't see them around the mission.  But maybe Heavenly Father knew it needed to happen that way so he could remind me that He loves me and is aware of me.  Monday night, I was really sad, and I realized that the only thing I could turn to at that moment was prayer, so I decided to give it a try.  I told Heavenly Father what I felt, and as I prayed, I felt a huge surge of peace come over me--it felt like a dad hug.  That gave me the comfort I needed calm down that night.

The next day for studies, I decided I was going to reread my favorite talk, "Grateful in Any Circumstances" by Elder Uchtdorf.  I'd read it the last time I needed help letting friends go home, and I figured it was worth a shot, but I wasn't expecting much because I'd already learned so much from that talk.  Surely there was no more wisdom I could squeeze out of it because I'd already learned it all.  No, Fam, Heavenly Father is really good and He taught me more.  So if you'll remember from when Sister Burden, Sister Irvin, and Elder Green finished their mission, I talked a lot about how I learned about using the things I had learned from them to be a better missionary--which I have been, and I'm still so grateful for their examples. This time, I learned things I'd never thought before.  In the talk, Elder Uchtdorf tells a story that he can tell a lot better than I can, so I'll copy and paste that:

"There is an old story of a waiter who asked a customer whether he had enjoyed the meal. The guest replied that everything was fine, but it would have been better if they had served more bread. The next day, when the man returned, the waiter doubled the amount of bread, giving him four slices instead of two, but still, the man was not happy. The next day, the waiter doubled the bread again, without success.

On the fourth day, the waiter was really determined to make the man happy. And so he took a nine-foot-long (3-m) loaf of bread, cut it in half, and with a smile, served that to the customer. The waiter could scarcely wait for the man’s reaction.

After the meal, the man looked up and said, 'Good as always. But I see you’re back to giving only two slices of bread.'"

Every time I had read that, I would wonder "What does that have to do with anything?".  This time, instead of seeing the bread as bread, I was able to see it as time spent with people.  Maybe I got two transfers with some people, and others four. Maybe I even had just two transfers that were action-packed with so many wonderful things.  Heavenly Father can always give me more time, but what's the good of having it in the first place if I'm never satisfied?

The second thing I learned has to do with a saying my young woman's leader, Sister Richards would always say: "What's great about it?"  Elder Uchtdorf gave some examples, such as Nephi, Job, and the Mormon Pioneers, and illustrated how they were grateful in their circumstance that wasn't necessarily something they'd naturally be inclined to be thankful about. It gave me a chance to reflect and be happy that I did get to meet such awesome missionaries (all the incoming missionaries won't get to know them, so that means I win, right?), and it means they made it through an entire mission--and that's awesome!

 And finally, it taught me something really important about the will of our Father in Heaven.  I learned why it was so critical when Christ said, "Not my will, but Thine, be done".  I realized that in the case of Jesus Christ in His Great Atoning Sacrifice if He had chosen to let the cup pass and never atoned for each of us, it would have defeated the whole purpose of anything--to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man".  That's why Heavenly Father's will was critical.  His purpose is to help us progress--to become better.  I realized that if my dear friends, and eventually even myself, never finished their missions, that it wouldn't give us an opportunity for becoming even better.  I guess what I learned is that even though I don't understand or necessarily like it in the moment, there is a purpose behind everything our Heavenly Father does.  I'm hoping that now that I've learned this, I'll be a lot more prepared for future transfers, but if not, I know that I have a Heavenly Father that I can turn to who will continue to comfort me and pour out things to help me learn.

I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to learn to trust my Heavenly Father.  I'm grateful that in His infinite wisdom, He sent me to the mission with the best missionaries I could ask to serve with.  I'm grateful that He sent me to a mission where I have wonderful people like the Wheelers, who would literally do anything for me that is in harmony with God's will (trust me, I asked if they could bring some missionaries back and they said no to that).  And I'm grateful for a wonderful family who always supports me and loves me.  I love you!

Sister Emily
1001 N Burk Street
Gilbert, AZ
85234

My lizard friend

I was really tempted to keep him there all day

When you find a car from AMERICAN FOOOORRRKK!

Sweet is the Work

Hi Family!!

Transfer News: I'm staying, Sister Rogers is staying.  Now onto me telling you about my incredible week.  Last week, I went on RelativeFinder.org and tried to find where each line of my ancestors joined the church.  It was a little confusing, but I think I found it.  It was cool to look at all the names of those who first heard the gospel and faithfully raised children to gain their own testimony that ultimately resulted in me.  I think there were about 63 different people on my list, which comes to 126 missionaries. (Probably a little less since some of them were families, but still).  One-hundred missionaries that served faithful missions to find my family members so that I could have this great blessing.  It's definitely something that got me thinking.

At the start of the week, the weather here has been absolutely amazing!  I couldn't believe it was actually June.  It felt too nice.  I was grateful for the nice weather, but now the sun is doing it's job to bring that good old Arizona heat.  My members still think I'm crazy because I still tell them that the weather is great.  I'm just happy that it isn't cold.

We had the ultimate Arizona experience on Sunday.  We baked cookies.  But here's the fun thing: we did it while we were at church . . . by leaving cookie dough in the car.  We had bought cookie dough the week previous, and Sunday morning, we rolled it into balls and placed them on a cookie sheet.  We left the cookie sheet on the dash of the car, went into church, and let nature take its course.  At 5:00 when we finally got out of church, we got to come to a car with fresh baked cookies just for us.  This is the real reason why Arizona heat is a beautiful thing.

I also had a real putting-things-into-perspective moment this week.  We were doing service with our zone again, and we got to clean the playground at a park.  We were talking to one of the town workers, Mark, who was there to help us.  He was very nice and talked about how he knows the stake president of my area.  He sat and talked with us as we all worked.  At some point in the conversation, he made a comment about how he always has good things to say about missionaries (Side Note: Mark is not LDS), which made me smile to know we had that support.  And then he said, "I always see you going the speed limit in your little cars."  Mark notices enough to realize that missionaries are going the speed limit???? It was very kind of him, but it also made me realize that I do have a great responsibility to represent my Savior well because people are watching whether I know it or not.

We had a lesson with our friend Jeff this week.  He has been taking missionary discussions since last December, and he is committed to being baptized.  He has just had a hard time picking a date that feels right.  We committed him to pray about July 15, so if you could keep Jeff in your prayers, that would be wonderful.

Last night we were trying to find the motivation to go out and give it our all for the last few hours until P-Day, but after a frustrating lesson with a member (members are not supposed to be the ones saying no to our commitments, but such is life), I began to feel sick.  I was not about that, but I had to lay down for a while, but promised my Heavenly Father through prayer, "I'm going to lay down for 15-20 minutes, get some Ibuprofen, and then go back out to work, and I need Thy help to get me through it."  We went back out, had a great lesson with another member family, and by the time we came back in for the evening, I felt great!  It was a tender mercy to have the Lord answer my prayer.

And just to finish off, I want to share my favorite miracle of this week.  This week I learned that God is in the details of our lives, and that was a funny and miraculous learning experience.  Earlier this week, we were having a rough time finding motivation. No one was answering and we just didn't feel a huge drive to be out working--but we kept working.  And still nothing.  Eventually, we were at one house, and they still weren't answering.  I was just frustrated by this point, but I remembered Sister Wheeler saying that if we were having a bad day to just go get ice cream.  I turn to Sister Rogers and ask, "Where is the nearest McDonald's?".  She had no idea, so we were talking about other ways we could get ice cream.  Well, right then, we hear the familiar tune of the ice cream truck in the background . . . and it's getting louder.  Being mature adults, we ran to the ice cream truck with nothing but Sister Roger's $2 and my promise to pay her back.  We get to the ice cream truck just praying that we can both get something for less than $2.  We get to the truck, and Sister Rogers asks the lady at the window what we can get with $2.  She responds, "Don't worry about it.  You can get whatever you want."  Turns out this lady is taking the lessons from the Elders.  We tell her thank you and tell her how we had been just barely talking about how to get ice cream.  She laughs and says, "Ask and ye shall receive."  So we got to get Choco-Tacos (it's like an ice cream sandwich, but it's a waffle cone taco with ice cream inside and covered in chocolate--and if that's not Arizona, I don't know what is), and I swear, I have never said a more heartfelt thank you prayer to my Heavenly Father.  With a new perspective and chocolate covered faces (okay, hopefully not the latter), we went back to work and had a great day!  I was so thankful for a Heavenly Father who gave me a boost simply by putting ice cream in my path when He knew it would help me.

I think that is the best part of missions. You really get to see the Lord's hand in everything.  He is so very aware of us.  I am thankful for him and all that He has done for me, from the big things to the seemingly insignificant. And with that, Family, I love you!  

Sister Emily

1001 N Burk Street

Gilbert, AZ

85234

Queen Creek Zone

Me after getting ice cream: Did that really just happen? HOW?

Car Baked Cookies