Bugs and Trucks

Crazy week.  I'll start with the fun stuff first and then get to the awesome stuff.  So.  This week we got new beds in our apartment that had been in storage.  With spiders.  We woke up the next morning and Sis Sweany had about 9 spider bites that were pretty nasty looking.  And then we had to spray our apartment to make sure all bugs and creepy crawlies were dead.  Let me tell you, the next night we did not want to get into our beds!  Then our car broke down.  Twice.  And it was Wednesday night so everyone was at meetings or activities so we were stranded.  But then someone came and saved us and had our car towed.  They have no extra cars in the mission and we live about 10 miles out of our area, plus having to do exchanges every week so President took away the APs truck and we get to drive it.  So I'm ok with our car being broken; we can drive the truck, it's so awesome.  And all the elders are super jealous :)  Welcome to the week of a baptism, they are always crazy.

But the miracles always happen!  So first off, Sandy was baptized.  She is so amazing.  She wanted to bear her testimony at the baptism and it was so strong and brought the spirit that much more into the service.  Everyone that came said it was one of the best baptisms they had been too.  It has been such a blessing for me to be able to be part of her life and being able to teach her.  I definitely learn more from the people I teach then they do from me!

Another cool story about following the Spirit.  So as you know, we took over the other side of the ward that I was in a year ago.  Well we were driving around past a street that I had tracked last year and we see a girl sitting on her front porch.  I get the strangest feeling that we NEED to go talk to her.  So we park the truck (yes!) and walk back to where we saw her.  And she was gone.  That's always depressing when you think you felt the Spirit so you follow it and it doesn't turn out to be what you thought.  We started walking back and we see a guy in his front lawn.  I was going to just walk past because I distinctly remember talking with him last year when he was very drunk and very not interested in organized religion.  So we start walking by and he calls out to us; he remembered talking to me from a year ago! He asked how we were doing etc. etc. and we end up inviting him to learn more and he says yes!  We continue talking and find out he has been working on getting clean and has been for a little under a year.  A week after I saw him last time, he went into rehab and had gotten all cleaned up and realized that he needed to make God a little more of a priority in his life.  Then he saw us walking around and wanted to learn more about what we believed.  So we set up another appointment and go back to see him and before we even start the lesson, barely even started the how to begin teaching, and he asks about baptism.  So we talk about what it means and why we do it and then invite him to be baptized and he said yes!  It was so amazing.  It was a great testimony builder to me that God cares about all of us and will always guide us to the path we are supposed to be, we just have to trust his timing.  Also that we should not give up on anyone.  I was going to avoid him because I thought that he was still the same person but that was definitely not the case!  Everyone can change and does.  Plus, the Spirit always knows what’s up and how to get us where we are supposed to be when we are supposed to be there.  Even if we don't always realize why.

Missions are amazing and the church is true!  I hope you all are doing great and I will talk with you again next week!

Love,

Sis Rae

Me and Sharron. Our mascot

Sis Catlett, Sweany and I at MLC

Sandy at her baptism!

Us and Sandy with our ward mission leader and the two elders that gave her the blessing

Miracles and Blessings

Happy 4th everyone!  Hope it was great.  We had a great show and were able to stay up and watch it.  A member always has a ton of missionaries over to watch them (she lives right by the casinos where they shoot it off) so it was a huge missionary party.  We got home super late though so it killed us the next day.  Used to be able to stay up till 12/1 every day and not have a problem but the mission wears ya out!  Too much to do not to get your sleep.  But it was worth it!  Good food, good company, and good fireworks.  One good thing about the casinos, they have good shows!
So this week I had the coolest experience of my life.  Well, let me start with another one first.  We have this investigator that loves what we are teaching him but has really been struggling to read the Book of Mormon.  Has trouble understanding it and staying focused.  Since the Book of Mormon is so key in gaining a testimony, we have really been talking to him about it but it didn't seem to go anywhere.  We'll we had a fast for a couple of our investigators and included him as well, that he would understand and want to read it.  Well!  He shows up on Sunday and tells us that he woke up that morning and just felt like reading it and got through TEN CHAPTERS!!!  It was so stinkin awesome.  When they catch the wave like that it just makes your life.  That what makes every single thing worth it!

Now to the coolest experience of my life.  So we have this investigator, Sandy, who is pretty much the most golden person I have ever met.  We only met her about 4 weeks ago and she is getting baptized on Saturday.  But Satan hates her.  She's had it rough.  But one of those things that happened was that she was in a pretty bad accident about two weeks ago.  We heard that she was in an accident and then weren't able to get in contact with her for a week (stress!!!) because her phone was off and she was always at the doctors.  Well we finally got into contact with her again this week.  Come to find out, the doctors had found a benign brain tumor when they were doing an MRI on her.  She had these horrible headaches and ringing in her ear that nothing was helping, even the pain pills the doctors had given her.  She was not in a good place when we saw her again.  So we offered a blessing and she almost starts crying she is so desperate for anything to help.  Well we couldn't get a hold of anyone from the ward so we call two elders that work in the area next to ours and they bike over.  So we explain the blessing and what they are going to do and then they start the blessing.  Coolest thing ever.  As soon as the blessing started the spirit just FILLED the room.  So much that it actually surprised me into opening my eyes and I had to look around to see if there was anyone else there.  No one was :)  But then I saw Sandy's face and the Elders faces.  They were completely changed.  Almost like all three of them were glowing.  And all the worry and stress from Sandy's face was completely gone.  You could definitional tell it was a blessing straight from God.  The blessing ended and we all just sat there.  Waiting for Sandy's reaction.  She was looking down at the floor and looks up and just says, "That’s scary".  I start getting nervous, what happened, I thought it was good!  Then she goes on to say that her headache and ringing are completely gone!!  It was incredible.  We started crying.  She has such incredible faith; it is such an example to me.  That was almost a week ago and she still talks about it all the time.  She even told her doctor about it when she went back in and EVERYTHING is completely fine now!!  The doctor was amazed and told her that it was a miracle from God.  Look at her being a missionary and she isn't even a member yet!  It just reaffirms to me how amazing the Priesthood is and how lucky we are to have it in our lives.  It is such a gift from God to have His power and authority on the earth once more. So that is my crazy life this week!  Oh, and I got a hug from a homeless man with no teeth and no shirt and a beer belly and was super drunk. It was great.  But I hope you all have a great week and enjoy the beautiful weather!

Love,
Sis. Rae

Sweany and I, you can't really tell but we have whipped cream all over our faces.  Surprise attack!

Fourth of July Party!!

Physics

I have come to the conclusion this week that the law of physics applies to God's work as well.  For every action, there must be an equal and opposite reaction.  The harder we are working and the more good that happens, the harder Satan is going to work on us and on the people we are seeing.  Good thing God is on our sides and He always wins!

So, best thing that happened this week was that one of my investigators, Elizabeth, from Eagle Canyon got baptized, and since I am never leaving Sparks, I got to go!  Her name is Elizabeth and she really is a miracle.  She met some Elders in Reno and talked with them a bit and showed some interest so they sent us over to see her.  Well she was dealing with some family and medical issues at the time so she was NEVER home.  We literally tried almost every day for a couple months to see her because her phone got disconnected so we couldn't reach her that way.  I don't know why we never gave up trying her house because we thought for sure she was avoiding us or something but for some reason we always felt like we should go back and try her house.  Something always took us down her street, until we had gotten that referral we rarely ever went down that way.  But we would knock every time we went by, might as well, right?  One day, she finally opened!  And this is like 4 months after we had gotten the original referral.  She was so open and wanted to learn so much.  She actually asked us if she could come to church and be baptized the very first time that we met with her!!  But she was still dealing with a lot of stuff and so we were only able to see her off and on for the next couple months because of circumstances, but she would always say, "don't give up on me, I'm a comin".  It was so stinkin cute.  It was actually the week that I left that things started calming down in her life and we met with her almost every day.  And now she is baptized!  It was so awesome, when I walked in to the church and she saw me, she yelled "baby girl!!" (she gives all of us missionaries nick-names) and ran and gave me the biggest hug I have ever had.  She's part-poly so she gives the best hugs :)  

The rest of the week has been pretty crazy like normal.  We had transfers and a sister that was going to the east side stayed with us for a day.  She was so much fun!  We are also getting used to the other side of the ward and are so stinkin busy!  There wasn't a whole lot going on over there but enough that it makes every day super super busy! That along with trying not to get lost in now unfamiliar streets.  I recognize some of them that we went to a lot but most of them are very new to both of us.  It brings back a lot of memories too because when I was here a year ago, we spent much more time over on this new side than we did on the other side that I got put into at first.  So it's a new adventure every day!  Also, we found this stuffed duck in the apartment (that was actually sis Verkist's from the first time I was here!) and now we hide him all the time in the most random spots trying to scare each other.  I got Sis Sweany good when I put him in the shower.  The littlest things entertain while out here on the mission.  Gotta make your own fun!

Love you all and have a fabulous 4th!

Love,
Sis. Rae

me, sis. Steavenson (going to Ely!) and Sis. Sweany

me and Elizabeth

Transfer 10

Transfers have come and gone and I am staying, yet another transfer, in Sparks.  Number 10!  Pretty sure it's a mission record, staying in the same stake for that long.  It's been great, I love it.  Sis Sweany and I will be staying together again, which will be boss!  She is such a great missionary and we have a good time together.  But President always has to mix things up somehow.  Since so many missionaries are going home in the near future, a couple areas are going to be closing.  So for the past couple months we have only been covering half the ward but now the Elders that cover the other half are being taken out and we are now going to be covering the whole ward.  Just like it was the first time I was here!  That's going to be weird.  I finally stopped having to say "yes, you have seen me before, I was here a year ago" and now I'm going to have to do it again.  They see a lot of the same people I did before but they never went to church so I haven't seen them since I've been here.  So that'll be fun.  Actually I am pretty excited.  We are going to be so busy which is going to be awesome!  I love being busy.

So.  Now onto the week.  The stake has started something called Why I Believe firesides.  And basically the idea is to have a couple recent converts come and share their testimonies and how their lives have changed because of the gospel.  Then we can invite all those that we teach to come and hear them speak.  It was so powerful.  A couple of the people that talked have only been members for a couple weeks so it wasn't very refined but you could feel the spirit so strong.  I think it's a great way to help them put into words why they joined the church and then to help those that are learning or coming back or recently baptized themselves to hear the experiences of people that were in similar situations to their own.  

Then!  We got to go to the temple and do baptisms with our recent convert.  Probably the best experience I have ever had doing baptisms.  There were a couple people that were also there for the first time in the temple and so it was just amazing.  They brought family names which made it even sweeter.  The temple is the best place ever; I wish I could just live there.  We also took someone up there to walk around the temple and then a member of the presidency came out and talked with him.  They are so inspired.  We didn't give him any background or anything but he addresses his concerns perfectly.  The church is true and the spirit is awesome!  That's the only reason we see any kind of success at all on the mission, because it is true.  Otherwise what we did would never work.  That's been one of the biggest testimony builders on the mission.  

Oh, P.S.  This week I went on exchanges twice, both to biking areas.  And I am a little sunburned and a little sore.  Life of a missionary! :)

Well!  Love you all and enjoy the warm weather!

Love,
Sis Rae

Keep On, Keepin' On!

That is the favorite phrase of Burt, the 96 year old that we are teaching. He's awesome.  

Story time!  We had a couple amazing miracles happen this week so you get to hear about them! :)  So we have been teaching these two girls that have been meeting with missionaries for years.  Their mom and dad are divorced and their mom is super active and their dad is kind of anti and won't let them be baptized even though they both really want to be.  So missionaries have been teaching them for forever.  Well.  We decided that it was time for it to end.  God can do anything, right?  Including softening hearts, which has been happening to their dad, slowly.  So last week we had this amazing lesson about the miracles that Christ performed while on the earth and the faith of those that were the recipients of those miracles.  Then we talked about how when we show our faith that God can really bless us and give us those righteous desires that we ask for.  So we had them select a date to be baptized; taking that huge leap of faith.  (Don’t worry, we cleared it with their mom first before we did it).  They surprised both of us by picking a date super soon, really relying on the Lord to help them get to that date! Then we had a fast with them and a couple members of the ward that their dad's heart would be softened and that they could be baptized on the date that they had picked.  Last weekend they were at their dad's house and had planned on asking for his permission then.  So we were nervous for them all weekend, we really didn't want them to be disappointed.  But we didn't have to worry, the Lord always comes through!  They got permission to be baptized!!!!  It was the best moment ever; they have wanted it so long and now they can finally do it!  With faith, all things are possible!

Our other miracle happened that same day.  We have been teaching this guy who really likes what we have to say but hasn't been sure if he really wants to commit to the kind of lifestyle we live i.e. church every week, reading the scriptures every night, completely giving up his tea etc.  Why can't we just mostly do what God wants us to do? was basically always his question. Well we taught him the Plan of Salvation and nothing really special happening.  Just ok, that's cool.  So we left him with the pamphlet and committed him to read it and pray about it and set up an appointment with him the next day.  The next morning we get a call from him and he asks us if we could come by any earlier because he had something he needed to talk with us about.  Uh-oh.  Never good signs.  We honestly thought he was going to drop us (you become kind of jaded as a missionary...) but thank goodness we were wrong!  Apparently he had had the most amazing experience while reading the pamphlet.  You know last time I mentioned that there is always something that just clicks with people, like the light bulb has gone off?  Well that happened for him.  It was awesome, he got emotional just telling us about it; we saw him almost every day this week and he brought his whole family to church and wants to be baptized in a couple weeks.  It's amazing the transformation that happened!  The gospel is true!

But those were our really neat experiences.  Sis Sweany and I have both been sick this week so the past couple days we haven't been able to do much.  We drag ourselves to maybe one lesson a day and then sleep, but we are finally getting out of it.  Opposition in all things, I guess.  But bring it on if awesome things keep happening elsewhere!

Hope you all have a great week and enjoy the sunshine!
Love,
Sis. Rae

Jackson and Katie's baptism

Me and sis. Sweany

This Girl Is On Fire!

What a week!  It's been a roller coaster ride.  So many good things and so many hard things.  So remember what I said last week about feeling like a bad luck?  Well, this week, almost everyone we teach has either been in the hospital themselves or had pets die or family get in serious accidents or lost their job.  It's been fun. BUT!  Besides that we have had some pretty amazing lessons and experiences.  I think when things get hard it allows us or reminds us to rely on the Lord that much more and because of that, we can have some pretty sweet experiences.  

We have had a couple lessons this week that the Spirit was so strong and that we were able to get to the heart of people's concerns and hopefully help them continue to build that relationship with their Savior.  So that has been really exciting and fulfilling.  Makes up for some of the craziness in other parts of the world ha-ha

We also met and have started teaching a Muslim this week.  He is super cool, from Egypt, and is super smart.  It's really fun to teach people with different backgrounds and find that common ground with them.  Also, it's interesting talking to someone who believes Jesus Christ is a prophet but not the Son of God.  It makes you think a little harder about how to approach them and you have to revamp your teaching a little bit.  Always an adventure!

Also, we had another baptism this week!  A father and his daughter.  They have been through 7 sets of missionaries and finally decided to take the leap!  It had been completely fantastic to see the transformation in their lives (they do not have it easy) and how they have changed their environment as they have learned about the gospel and the changes in themselves.  They are such a cute family and so on fire to learn and be a part of the gospel.  It’s interesting how certain things hit certain people.  His trigger was when he heard the phrase "come into the fold".  It really hit him and has encouraged him to make those changes and be baptized.  You can always pinpoint the time when the light flips on and it really becomes a part of the person.  Best feeling ever!

And I just realized that I forgot my camera so pictures will come next week! Well, I am running out of time so I will talk to you all next week!  Happy Father's day to all those out there!

Love,

Sis. Rae

Wack Attack

This week has been, yet again, an insane week.  Up and Down and then back Up again.  We had a baptism Saturday and then a couple more this next week so we are getting hit pretty hard by the adversary; us and the people we teach. Sometimes I feel like a bad luck charm, we show up and bad things start happening.  But there are amazing beautiful things as well so I guess we then would be good luck?  Opposition in all things I guess.  

We have had some of the most amazing spiritual experiences this week but we are both bone tired and so exhausted.  You really notice it when there is such a contrast between things that may be happening in their lives and the Spirit that comes when we bring out the scriptures and start talking about the gospel.  Such a cool thing and experience!

Well, like I said, we had a baptism this Saturday.  We have been teaching the Segovianos for a couple months, such a cute family.  Melissa was raised LDS but hasn't practiced for a long time and recently started coming back.  And then her husband, Marco, wanted to start learning and was able to be baptized this week.  So, I may have mentioned this before, but Marco works in the restaurant in two Casinos in Reno, and their hours are not very flexible, especially on the weekends.  So a couple weeks ago we had a fast, along with a couple people from the ward that Marco would be able to get Sundays off and come to church.  Well!  Since that fast, he has had every Sunday off and his boss is working it out that he can get every Sunday off.  So cool!  Prayers are answered.  And in a year, this cute little family can be sealed in the temple.  

But yeah, my brain is mush so that's all I can think of right now.  Hope you all have a great week and we'll talk to you later!
Love, 

Sis. Rae