Sister Liddle's Welcome to Lovelock: 4/20/15

I have almost no time to write, But I have to tell you about my week.

It's been a change not having Sister Harris here anymore. I've been amazed at the miracles the Lord has blessed us with from being able to fit everything into Sister Harris's suitcase to having a loved investigator progress to making the step of baptism and acknowledging how much her faith has grown. It has been a good week.

My new Companion is Sister Liddle from Texas. We were able to be friends from day 1. Mainly over the fact that we own a blue chair and... long story short.. "Blue Chair" is kinda a missionary joke due to our missionary training videos. We made a name tag for our chair and took picture. And thus we became great friends and the missionary work took off.

The craziest thing: we mucked a donkey and horse stall this week. I also learned how to makea T-Post fence, because I made one. Out of the three girls, I was the tallest and therefore the one to work the device. (What? Your a midget.) Yeah, guess not.

I'll write more and send pictures next week. Love you all!

Transfer Week: 4/13/15

Sister Harris was pretty convinced she wasn't leaving--gut feeling stuff. We are both in shock that she's heading off to Ely. Sister Liddle is my new companion. She came out right after I was sent home for medical leave. Other than that, I know nothing about her. I'm a little nervous to take over the area so quickly, but I know it will all work out. It's more than I've had for my double transfers! the only difference is this time I don't want to ruin anything the missionaries before me have worked SO hard to create. I know Sister Owen and Sister Harris have worked extremely to get the area where it needs to be. I've been on the other side of handing over Wells and Gardnerville to other missionaries--it's nerve racking. I just hope that I only build on what they have started.

The miracle of this week is much different than the miracle of last week. The miracle was that regardless of various sicknesses (a stomach thing on Wednesday, Sister Harris' hips, a strep like throat from allergies) we were able to get out and still work and see something incredible happen everyday after a lot of empty doors and cancelled appointments. We would get to 5 or 6 at night without seeing anyone. Then we would remember, someone is fasting for us; there will be something at the end of the day. And there always was. Seeing someone we haven't in a long time. Getting in with Less Active families the ward and we have given up on and getting them to commit to church after mentioning that they have a desire to come back. The younger children, Autumn's little siblings, understanding while we teach the lessons using the Children's Song Book. Meeting someone amazing, because they open the door right when you knock at their neighbors door. It's been a SLOW week thanks to Spring break, but it's been a good one.

Hope everyone is doing great! Love you all!

April Showers of Miracles: 4/6/15

Our mission has been starting "April showers of Miracles" Every day one ward member fasts for there to be miracles in the mission field (and, as we added, moisture). We have seen those miracles this week. We had exchanges in Elko-4 hours away. Between being out of town 2 days, Pday, General Conference, Weekly Planning, Studies, and Sleep--I calculated that we had 21 proselyting hours in our area. That is nothing. We struggle to get lessons here. We talk to a lot of people and do a lot of good. Let's just say, I had low expectations of much happening this week. The Lord had other plans. We have done more work, more lessons this week than in most of our full length proselyting weeks. I don't even know how it happened! One night, I was counting up how many lessons we had and that day alone we had five other lesson. With my hand stretched out with five fingers up, I literally slapped myself. We have been busy all week and it is awesome. It's been extra amazing because of the suffering and resurrection of the Savior and all that we have been able to say. I get overwhelmed by this scripture sometimes:

"And whatsoever they (the missionaries) shall speak when moved upon by the Holy Ghost shall be scripture, shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation." D&C 68:4

It intimidates me because I have to make sure what I say can fulfill that scripture. Then I'm always comforted by the next part:

"Behold, this is the promise of the Lord unto you, O ye my servants. Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come."

It has been amazing to see that fulfilled this week.

This week started with exchanges in Elko! I ended up going to Carlin with Sister Purcell who has been my mission friend since day one. It was amazing. I liked Carlin a lot.

Then this week has been amazing. The icing on the cake: General conference and Easter. We got to hear from the prophet and apostles on the most holy day of the year. My favorite talk was Elder Holland talking about how Christ will NEVER let us go and fall. I feel liike everyone should watched it and rewatch it.

Elder Holland's Talk

I know that Christ will not let go. He is our brother who loves us and sacrificed all. Love you all and hope you all had a great Easter :)

So yesterday! AKA Easter, we were driving this dirt road and had 10 minutes before our next appointment. I look out and see the lovelock L and said "Sister Harris, pull over. I need a picture." Sister Harris's response, 

"Well, you can tell that you serve in the desert!"

Anyway. I like it.

Last pday we took a trip to the lovelock caves. 

Here's right before we started the trek to the cave.

 

Matches, Hippies, and Toilets: 3/30/15

This has been a crazy random week of randomness! Kinda hilarious. My favorite story...

When we leave Walmart, there are always homeless people on the corner where we turn. Since we don't have much money, we always give them something from our groceries (usually an apple). That day we had Reese Mini Eggs. The pair of beggars on the corner were quite appreciative as I threw them for the catching shouting "EASTER BASKET!!!!!!". As one thanked me, the other shouted "MAAAATCHES!". I wish I could record it for you. It was less human and more of a screech from a baby bird. He repeated "MAAATCHES!" Random happenstance: we had just bought a ton of matches, because our last trip to Walmart the Elders couldn't find the matches and they were only a dollar. So I say, "Do you need matches? Are you saying matches?". The normal response would have been a yes or no. Obviously I couldn't understand him, but instead he just screeches again, "MAAATCHES!" with a little more vigor than before. So I respond, "Well, I can get you matches!" I get out to access the trunk where the matches. The other guy that actually spoke in fullish sentences walks up to get the matches. Suddenly he sounded like he was tripping out looking at the back of our car "Woooooaaaahhh... you guys are Hippies!"

Me: No.... We're MISSIONARIES!

Matches guy: SAME THING!!!

Other guy: Haha.. yeah.

Maybe a better missionary would have left them with a pamphlet or something, but we decided to cut our losses and head off with a brief Have a nice day. 

Other Random Things:

-Our toilet was from 1943, developed dementia, and forgot how to flush. It would instead just spin in circles. We got a new toilet this week after much frustration and a few references to the Bog of Eternal Stench 

-The new toilet works. It does however sound like the Lost monster is living in our pipes after every flush. Sister Harris speculates that we may have Jurassic Park down there as well.

-A baby danced while we sang Lead Kindly Light

-My MTC companion and another MTC college aka Sister Irwin and Rogers were hading to Reno and got permission to see me. As our district/zone waited for the mission president and wife to arrive, they ran out of nowhere, sister Irwin slipped and fell, and tackled me. I didn't understand why at the moment, but it made me so happy :)

-We ran a 5k as part of our interviews with president..on grass.. I died. Not realy. I actually ran most of it. The next two days were a wee bit intense.

-We waited two hours for the Swan Man with Al because he was going to buys us ice cream bars.. but the Swan Man never came. Bummer.

-Al goes by Alligator! Oh, the irony. One day we will show him our golden investigator. We are actually going back to teach him.

-His friend was named Skeeter. You'd think we were teaching in a swamp! They were super nice and awesome people.

- Last but not least, someone payed for our groceries at Walmart! It was very very nice. It did freak us out a little at first because his approach was "I don't mean to freak you out by following you, but are you about to check out" and we weren't done yet and we didn't understand what he was getting at. Awks. But he is such a nice guy and we were very grateful. His daughter had served a mission and he just wanted to do a good deed. He made us get something to treat ourselves. That's when I got the reese eggs. Side note: the white ones are delicious.

That's been our week! The work has been blooming and awesome as well. I cannot complain there :) The Easter season is awesome as a missionary. The church out out a cool new video about Easter called Because He Lives and the website explains all he did leading up to Resurrection Sunday. I fully recommend checking it out.

http://www.mormon.org/easter

I hope you all have a great week :) Love you!

Corned Beef and Cabbage: 3/23/15

We've eaten and LOT of corned beef and cabbage. I love it. Happy St. Patricks day and Happy Birthday Dad!

For the festivities, we took our Golden Alligator Nutcracker (that we inherited via white elephant game last Saturday) and gave him a top hat and vest. our conversation last week

Sis. Harris: If we put a vest on him, do you realize what it would be?

Me: AN IN-VEST-I-GATOR!

Sis. Harris: A GOLDEN investigator!

It was a really good week. It felt a little slow, but then we look back a realized we did almost the same amount of lessons as normal. We were able to do a lot of service. There was a big wedding reception on Saturday and we happened to be at the church making copies when we saw them starting to set up on Friday. Setting up wedding receptions: another random thing that I didn't expect to learn but did learn on my mission.

Fun story!

We got an awesome referral this week. We met her (A little worried she might yell at us given the info we had) and offered service; she practically said "I have a lot of questions for you. I'm looking for a church that tells me the truth and I'm wanting to get baptized again". Walking away, we had to hold in the excitement. Once we were in the car, there was much rejoicing. I did the only reasonable thing. I started singing the Lego Movie theme song. Let me tell ya. Everything IS awesome when you are part of a team! God is great! Glad he's a team member in all of this.

On a more serious note:

I love this time of the year. We get to talk to people about Easter all the time. I love talking about Christ and all that he's done for us. One time this week, there was this man who could not grasp "What is Easter about?". We would say it's about Christ and his Sacrifice and that he was raised from the dead. But he still couldn't figure it out. "But why? Why do we celebrate?" He finally understood we went back a few steps. When Adam and Eve came into the world and took of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, it introduced two things into the world: the ability to choose evil and physical death. Because Christ sacrificed for us, we are able to be cleansed from all the bad things that we do and we can be healed form the wounds that come from the poor choices of other. Through his resurrection, we too will be able to live again and death is not the end. Easter is the day we get to celebrate this. Then it clicked and he just started testifying of how he knows that God is real and Jesus Christ was sent here for us. Then he said "I understand. I understand." So simple, The words "I understand" and how much it means to truely understand what Christ has done for us. 

I hope everyone has a great week! I love you all!

This awesome sign. It kinda makes me look like a midget but I swear the sign is just tall!

So in my first week here we were street concting and suddenly there were giant rocks in the middle of the sidewalk. It real random so naturally I took a picture with them.

Sister Harris got some green mustaches and hats from the family. I think we put them to good use

A picture of the Lovely Thunder mountain

Our Golden Investigator

Love-a-mucca Mountain: 3/16/14

Guess what. My entire family wrote me physical letters this week. That has NEVER happened! Record set!

This week we drove to zone/district meeting. For who understand why this is crazy, our zone is also the district. It consists of 5 companionship. We meet in Winnemucca which is about an hour and a half away. There's us from Lovelock, 3 sets from Winnemucca, and one set from Battle mountain. Before I came they asked President if we could officially change the zone name from Winnemucca Zone to Lovamucca Mountain Zone. The answer was no, but the name remains.

 Second week back and it only gets better. I feel less like I'm here as the guest missionary, and more like I am here for good. It's still weird that my companion knows people I don't, but this week I know people too! I feel extremely blessed. It's a great place. When I was home and thinking about how easy it would be not to come back I kept on thinking about all the amazing people I've been able to help so far and knew there were still people for me to find and teach. I think I found at least one of them this week. I love our little Autumn. She is nine and she CRAVES the gospel. She has read all 6 pamphlets that she borrowed from her sister who is a recent convert. The pamphlets are so marked up and she asks us every time we leave "can you come back tomorrow" or if earlier in the day "can you come back tonight?". Even when her family didn't come, she made her brother walk her to church. On Thursday she ran up and clinged onto my arm and said "You are my best friend!".

Fun Things about the Lovelock area:

-We cover Burning Man! It should be a crazy summer if I am still here.

-The jail with OJ Simpson is in the area. Yes, we technically get revelation for him! That is, if we went to the prison which we are not allowed to do.

-Thunder Mountain: It's a nation park thing.... It's a house made out of "White Man's Junk" Look it up!

-Rye Patch: It looks like it should be a HUGE town but there is just roads and roads with nothing on them except a random house every once and a while.

-There is Sulfur mining here. Every once in a while it smells a little funky.

-There is a road in our area call "Horse S*** Canyon". Yes. That's a thing. 

Well, I hope you all have a great week. We are looking forward to Easter and being able to talk to people about Christ and what he did a lot more. I love it here. I hope everyone is doing great :) Have a great week!

Back Again: Lovelocked: 3/9/15

For those who may not have got the memo and have been wondering what happened to the weekly emails I was sending, I guess I should address that. I just re-read my last mass email and I laughed a lot. I briefly mentioned I wasn't feeling good that week. The next week was even worse, and I got sent home for exploratory surgery. They found out it was a bladder condition as well as another thing that cause my body to mimic labor contractions for two weeks. I got treated for both of them and after 4 and a half months, I'M BACK!

It was crazy getting back. I missed my connection to Reno and had to fly standby. The 5 o'clock flight was oversold and I was 10th in line for a spot. You could only imagine my surprise when I was watching the monitor after everyone was on and I see that I am #6 on the standby list and #5 had got a spot. As a shot in the dark, I walked up to the counter and explained I was next in line and asked if there was any point of waiting around while they finished boarding--there was one seat left on the plan. It was a weird mixture of excitement and disbelief and nervousness as the gate attendant handed me my boarding pass. I guess the Lord was watching over me and didn't want me flying until 10:30 that night.

Once we landed, it felt like coming home. At the transfer meeting, they reintroduced me and announced that I came back from a medical leave. I didn't think I knew very many people in the crowd, but enough people knew about me and it was one of the loudest cheers I've ever gotten in my life. Then they announced I would be companions with Sister Harris! Sister Harris was in the other district at the MTC and we came out together! We didn't know each other super well. Our relationship mostly consisted of seeing them and screaming "RENO SISTERS!" and going on our merry way. But I always though she was awesome. Now I know it. On the drive from the airport I discovered that Wells area was closed. It broke my heart. All my hopes of going back were crushed. So, when I leaned over and whispered in Sister Harris's ear "So... Where are we going?" and she said Lovelock, I screamed! 1,000 people living in a town in the middle of nowhere, nothing else for 45 mins away--I can do that! 

Lovelock is constantly reminding me of Wells. I've grown quite fond of it. It's not quite the same, but it's real close. I'm loving it.

It's weird being in an area where my companion actually knows people. It's weird not starting from scratch. I've never had a normal transfer. I like being double transfered place because everything that the area is, you have created. But I won't lie, it's nice coming in and already having lessons and appointments.

The first day back, I did wonder if I remembered everything and if I'd be able to just jump right back in. The first day was the acid test if I ever saw one. We had 6 appointments and 5 that went through. We taught someone with a baptism date, contacted people on the street, invited a lady to be baptized, saw a less active member, followed up on a referral, saw recent converts. The whole slew of people you interact with as a missionary, we saw and taught that first day. I was amazed to find that when the Lord calls, he qualifies. Everything just came back and it felt natural. If anything, I felt like because I was relying on the Lord even more, I was a better missionary than when I left! The rest of the week was more of the normal pace--lessons falling through, a lot of street contacting--but I was impressed that the Lord knew I needed that first day to regain my confidence.

Sunday was weird and threw us off. In planning the night before I jokingly asked Sister Harris if we needed back up plans for church. Then the electricity went off after the sacrament and we were told to go home! Awks. In addition, we had someone that was working towards baptism tell us that he no longer wanted to convert and essentially "See you never"! After some more messaging to figure out what happened, we told him we understand and asked if we could see him again just to get some feedback and say hi. He told us he had to "weigh the consequences"..... so that's weird. We think he may got some anti literature.

Other than that, life in Lovelock has been great. There is a motel whose main selling point is "COLORED TV!". I considered joking and saying that was where I loved, but we live a cute little apartment in town.

I have had no mail because no one had my address and it's been sad, so you should really write me family and (with less obligation) friends.

I guess I will see you all in 8 months! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LITTLE SISTER BAILEY!!!!!

Here's a picture of me and my new comp!