November 11, 2011 (11-11-11)

Bonjour!

Obviously the titles of my letters are very exciting BUT this means that my companion speaks French! Now enters Sister Tahi from Tahiti! I can't wait to go visit all my old companions, just hand over the Credit Card Dad, I need to go all over the world to see my friends - yes I am that popular. But we had transfer conference on Monday to find that Sister Mata'utia and I were splitting. We were so sad to split because we had so much success and fun together but we knew that it was too good to last for 2 transfers. But my assignment for the rest of my mission is VIP bus tours. I guess I didn't do a good enough job last transfer so I am doing it again. But more specifically I am now training the Senior couples to do it so we will see how this ends up. They are all really funny and energetic so this could work, I am excited to have the Bus Tours start up for the Christmas season again. Let the insanity begin! We might have a meeting this Tuesday with Church Hospitality to confirm the transition from them to us to handle all the scheduling.

Other than that Sister Mata'utia said goodbye to everyone at Welfare Square. It was so sad because we have grown to love all the volunteers that work there. One of them even called President Holmes and said that she received a revelation from God that we needed to stay at Welfare Square... yeah I guess it didn't work because I am still not at welfare square. Brother Goodrich even came up to Sister Mata'utia and I and said that he would be sad to see us go, we worked really hard and he could tell. Aww I felt special.

But this transfer I am back on the Square! Weird... I haven't really been on the square in 5 months. It has slowed down a lot but in a few weeks the lights will turn on and it will be just as crazy as general conference! Sister Tahi and I get along great and I am excited to work with her. Ok well before I go one quick miracle story. So we were calling our investigators and couldn't get a hold of anyone! So we said, "Maybe we are supposed to do something else... lets do chat right now" So we logged into chat on mormon.org and immediately we get one. He is from Ghana and he found a book of Mormon and a restoration pamphlet on the ground. He read the whole thing and said, "I know that this church is Christ's church restored on the earth again!" We just stared at each other for a moment and then asked him... "sorry...what?" He said that he read the Book and that God told him it was true and he is willing to leave his family, friends, and home behind to follow Jesus Christ and be baptized. Ok... is this real?! Yes it is. But he is Muslim... so we can't teach him but he has a rough road ahead of him if he wants to pursue this. We keep in contact through e-mail and keep him in our prayers. One day everyone will be able to have the gospel without being hindered by biases, religions, or opposition. Until then, we just have to keep doing our best to help people overcome their concerns. Well until next week!

Loves.

Pictures on Temple Square Fall 2011

November 5, 2011 Temple Square

Hi Family!

Happy November! So this past Monday as you all know was Halloween and at Welfare Square it was crazy! All the volunteers there dressed up and were helping with food orders. They were even passing out candy and fake tattoo sleeves. On top of all that, we had a Polish journalist walk in (unscheduled) to do a story on the Church's welfare program and film the projects that go on here. Brother Goodrich, the main guy at Welfare Square, nearly died when he realized that everyone was dressed up like witches, vampires or gangsters. Talk about uplifting the image of the Church! All of the costumed individuals found a place to hide for a half hour then everything returned back to normal.

The Square closes at 5 p.m. because of all the creepers that come out so we had our mission party from 5-9. We ate candy, pizza, candy, candy and um... more candy. Wow thought my heart wouldn't slow down - how do little kids do it?! But we watched 2 movies: Despicable Me and The Best Two Years! Everyone started screaming at the sight of the second one. I was really excited to watch it as a missionary to see how my perspective has changed. It has - fyi. It is funny to see the same personalities of those missionaries in the sister missionaries that I serve with. It was just what we all needed; all of us are exhausted.

We also got permission to attend a session at the Bountiful Temple! It was BEAUTIFUL. We drove up as a zone and I am proud to say that the car I was driving was the only car that didn't get hopelessly lost. In their defense we were driving in a snow storm (yes, the snow has arrived... dang). Other cool moments of the week were seeing Elder Holland and then Sister Thompson from the Relief Society Presidency at the Church Office Building - just going to buy some stamps and look who we bump into! We aren't allowed to talk to them though but a sighting is still pretty cool!

This week we have been really busy at Welfare Square with tours. It has been great; hopefully it stays that way because the day goes by much faster with tours. Plus we get to spiritually uplift people and teach them the gospel via service and Jesus Christ - what can be better? When we come back from Welfare Square we usually just go straight to calling people in the RC and our investigators. We had an amazing lesson with one of our investigators, Andrew, who had some concerns on why drugs were bad and what was wrong with tattoos. As we were talking with him he explained that he does drugs to see why it is wrong. He has very valid reasoning - he tries things out to understand where everyone is coming from. The lesson was amazing because we truly taught a person rather than a lesson. We try for that every time but for him it felt like a perfect lesson. MTC DVD worthy. At the end he was like, "Stop making things make sense! Fine! I won't do drugs anymore and I wont get tattoos, happy?" Um... yes. It was a great experience to share my life's thoughts and experiences to help him understand why God gave it as a commandment. Best of all he understood. *sigh* I love teaching people.

Well, this next week is transfers so we will find out what happens to us Monday. I will be entering my 12th and final transfer as a missionary. I am excited to see what miracles and experiences the Lord has in store for me as I keep trying to be as diligent as possible. More updates whenever I write you next! Love you all!

October 29, 2011

Hi Family!

For the majority of this week we were at Welfare Square, taking tours and helping people fill their food orders at the Bishop Storehouse. I really love serving here; we meet so many people. And when you help with hosting (filling their food orders) you can be sure that you are going to have a great conversation with people because they always have a story on why they are coming in and how their life is going. It is really sad to see people going through hard times but it is such a testimony builder of what the Church is all about, helping one another and supporting ourselves through hard times. We personally go to church to be uplifted by the messages that are shared but we build relationships with our ward family for support. One such story was a lady who was less active for many years. Her husband left her but because her neighbors were always supporting her she came back to church and has felt such an outpouring of love. She knows this is where she is supposed to be. So whenever people say that they don't need church to worship God, tell them to read Moroni 6 for further explanation.

I also called a man who recently lost everything and is looking for a place to live. I talked with him about being physically set (house, job, food) before we are able to sit down and be spiritually fed. He paused and said, "You are the first person who actually understands what I am going through!" Wow. Yea, Welfare Square! That is what Sister Mata'utia and I have focused on this whole transfer, and I love when the Lord gives you people who need what you have really come to understand.

Welfare Square is slowing down but sometimes it is CRAZY. We sometimes have back to back to back tours and we have no time for anything. By the end we are dead.

Friday the International Missionaries came to Welfare Square. The MTC always sends them to the Humanitarian Center but after taking a tour, decided to switch to Welfare Square. It was so much fun! But they were more camera-happy than listening. That’s ok, the MTC people came up to us after and thanked us for a spiritually uplifting tour.

Oh oh! I forgot to write about this last week: The apartment complex next to the main Sisters’ apartments had a HUGE fire. I was sleeping and having wonderful dreams when I heard our doorbell going off. It took me forever to register what was going on. But I heard the door open and a sister yell "SISTERS, GET OUT OF YOUR APARTMENT; DA IS ON FIRE!" DA is our main apartment complex. My first thought, “I don't care. They are 1/4 mile away, not my problem.” But I stumbled out of my apartment and we watched the apartment NEXT to DA burn for about an hour. President showed up and cancelled our sacrament meeting since we had been up for over an hour at this point. It took us all at least an hour to fall back asleep. But nothing happened to the apartment complex-which was a miracle because there is a tree that touches both apartments and it was on fire. But if another fire happens over there, tough! I am sleeping through it.

That's my week! Until next Saturday!

October 22, 2011

Hi Family!

This week was gone in the blink of an eye, but we did have some cool experiences too! One of our investigators in Puerto Rico who speaks perfect English finally got in touch with the missionaries! She is awesome. She even stayed up till 2 a.m. watching On the Way Home and Together Forever... yeah, she must be golden if she still wants to investigate after watching those movies.

We also got in touch with a lot of old former investigators who ended up not getting baptized. So that is our goal get them back on the path, since they are not with missionaries anymore and get them wet! We have a new mission focus, baptisms, shocking I know. But in the past it has always been call them till they meet with missionaries but to help us remember what is the most important thing, which is getting them on the path to the temple, they need to be baptized! We called a recent convert in Liberia who has moved away from the Church and is trying to have us get the Church established there. I told him that the only way to get the Church established in his area would be for him to do lots of missionary work himself. So we are helping him out by calling his referrals so we will teach them and maybe we can be like the Sister here who spoke Swahili and a congregation put her on speaker whenever she called... yeah that would be cool. But we are helping him get a good spiritual uplift when we call by reading the Book of Mormon together. It just is so sad to see how these people struggle, yet they are pioneers paving the way for others to have the gospel.

Funny phone story: I called this lady and her phone connection was terrible. She couldn't hear a word I said but she heard “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” and “missionary.” So she asked when we were coming over. Why can't everyone be like her? Sure feels good to be a harvester again. Puts it into perspective on how people are genuinely seeking truth. All we have to do is go by the spirit and be there when our Heavenly Father needs us.

Took a man around today who is looking into the church. He is so worried about not knowing enough and is trying to understand EVERYTHING. We told him that it must come line by line. We took him to watch a clip from one of the Apostles and he picked President Uchtdorfs talk "The Road to Damascus." I was praying that he would pick that one; and it totally met his needs and concerns. He loved the analogy of how revelation is like a puzzle, we put it in one piece at a time and then take a step back to see it all come together. Hopefully he ponders what he felt here.

But everything else is going well! Still doing our time at Welfare Square and loving every tour we take, except when they come every hour and half hour... then you just start walking in a daze and forming complete sentences is not possible. Dinner breaks turn into naptime. Wouldn't have it any other way! Until next week!

October 15, 2011

Talofa!

Where to begin with this week!? It was one of my favorites in my mission thus far (and that is saying something). From when I last wrote we have mostly been at Welfare Square with a few hours here and there on the Temple Square. Sunday we were asked to help with "announcing" where Sisters stand outside that tabernacle and announce that there are tours in different languages. A man approached us asking if he could take a tour. We usually would say to join the group that is going with the English-speaking Sister but we decided we would take him around. He was awesome - searching for truth, really confused about all those churches out there. You know just a typical product of the apostasy and a shoo-in to accept the fact that a Restoration happened. The neatest moment was when we had him translate Moroni 10:4-5 from Russian for us (he speaks Russian so it wasn't completely random) so he had to really think about each word in the verse. We stood there as he pieced it together and we invited him to learn more, which he accepted. We will call to teach him more soon!

The rest of the week we were at Welfare Square, which isn't our typical schedule but they had meetings so life was crazy. Anyway we have made goals to help us make every stop full of the spirit and relate everything back to Jesus Christ, not hard to do when you are talking about welfare because Jesus Christ set up the perfect system. People (not members) have come through and asked, "How do you get your members to donate their time and money?" We simply say, "The Church just asks them to do it." Mouths drop. Everything runs so smoothly; there is no way it could have been conjured up by men but only through a perfect person with perfect motives, “To lift those that cannot lift themselves.” We have already seen so many hearts change (mean, grumpy people in the beginning to happy people by the end... I am sure the free samples of chocolate milk and cheese help). But when we don't have tours we help with "hosting" or filling their food orders. It has been so busy and tours are starting to be less and less so two days in a row we spent 12 noon to 4:30 p.m. running around and filling orders. We took naps when we got home instead of dinner. So we have made friends with all the workers at Welfare Square too. We watched as they filled bottles of cookies and cream milk and asked them if we could have one. Not only did they bring us bottles but offered to give us a personal tour of them making butter and cottage cheese! We didn't have time, but next time we will do it, hairnets and all.

We had an amazing morning today with alcoholics anonymous checking out Temple Square. We decided we love them all very much because they understand the atonement without understanding the gospel. All you need to do is testify and invite. We don't speak Spanish but managed to get three Spanish referrals in an hour! We felt grateful that the Lord put us in the right place at the right time. It was nothing we did; they were prepared; we were just the harvesters. Then we took a super less-active family around. Talk about awkward tour. We figured we needed to salvage it somehow so Sister Mata'utia had a great idea to take them through God's Plan for His Family. It did the trick and they were all crying by the end. Even if they didn't make the decision now to go back to church they felt the spirit and they know that it is true. The rest is up to them. Well, gotta run but until next week!

October 8, 2011

Hey Everyone!

How was conference? I bet it was great, can't wait to read it in the Ensign! What a welcome back to Temple Square, it was just how I expected life to be. The mission had set a goal of receiving 7,041 member referrals in two days. Thankfully the weather stayed nice for those two days. But Sister Mata'utia decided the day before that we were going to just work, work, work and get as many as we could get with the Lord's help. So we ran up the stairs that morning and hit the square. Sunday morning we had an emergency meeting saying that we had only reached 2,000 member referrals and we needed to step it up. Even though we felt really good about what we had accomplished the day before we felt we needed to step it up even more. By 10am we had surpassed what we had received Saturday. Funny, how the Lord blesses us according to what we expect of ourselves. If we shoot low, He will only give us what we expect. Now if only I had faith to walk on water...Anyway so we were able to attend the Saturday PM session and it was a great way to end the two days of swollen feet and happy hearts. We had a mission meeting at 9 to unveil what we had accomplished. As 8:15 rolls around we don't see any sisters and we said, "What slackers! There are so many people out here!" So we kept talking to people and then a member walks up and says, "Hey sisters aren't you supposed to be in that missionary meeting in the Tabernacle?" Uh... we book it over there and arrive a half hour late! Who changed the time?! Obviously the line of authority didn't work this time. But we got 9,222 member referrals!! Now it is time to call them all.

I thought life would slow down after that. NOPE! We are at Welfare Square 4 days a week with bus tours after that. Since everyone is still hanging around after conference we have tours every half hour. We scarf down food as they are watching their 15 min movie then run to the theater. When we finish with our time at Welfare Square we need to run to the Joseph Smith Memorial building to greet bus tours. We are their only contact with missionaries since they don't go to Temple Square and we make sure that all their needs are met. We had a great conversation with a bus driver who loves everything about Temple Square. It was great to tell him WHY we need Jesus Christ and WHY this church is the only authorized church on the earth. Not interested in missionaries but he will later! Another miracle we had was a tour at welfare square. We had these two ladies from Jordan (who now live in Australia, I swear I have met more people from Australia in this last week than my entire life) who loved everything about what the church does. It was such a spiritual tour and they were so open to learning more. They grabbed the cards themselves! Just goes to show how some people are just ready to hear the gospel, we simply need to invite them.

Life is such a blur and we go to bed exhausted every night. But we are working hard and loving life. Until next week!