Another Transfer Gone

So Saturday night, our Zone Leaders called us with our fate for the next 6 weeks and .....*drum roll*  Sis Ward and I are staying YET ANOTHER transfer together in Eagle Canyon.  Apparently we are doing something right (or have something more to learn) because 3 transfers together with the same companion is rare and 4 transfers NEVER happens.  We are excited though and the Holidays are going to be fantastic!!

This week has been great.  We have been working with our several families to get ready for the baptisms coming up.  John got the priesthood yesterday so he can baptize his family on Saturday!  It was such a neat experience, he said afterward that he felt like he had just gotten out of a nice hot shower--clean and refreshed.  It's been quite a journey to get there and so worth it!  We are excited for the rest of his family to follow him this Saturday.  Wooo!  They are such a great family, I love them.  

We also made a trip up to the Res this week and talked to an old Indian lady.  It was very educational.  I can now tell you what leaves, barks and tree saps are best for getting high.  And don't worry!  It's all natural so it's OK ;)  She was so funny.  She also invited us to a Sweat which is the Native American form of church I guess.  We told her we would go if she would go to our church!  She said she had to think on it but would get back to us.  I hope so, that would be an experience for sure.  There was also snow up on the Reservation!  Just a little.  But enough to make a snow ball and throw it at my poor companion!  And she is stuck with me for another 6 weeks ;)  

Hmmm....what other exciting things happened this week. ...I feel like I have so many stories and then I get to the computer and they all go out of my head!  Oh well.  

Welp.  I hope everyone has an amazing Thanksgiving and eats lots of food!!
Love,
Sis. Rae
ONLY 30 MORE DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!

Busy Busy!

This week was a blur.  So much going on that I can't even remember what I had for breakfast most of the time!  I have never had so many set appointments and been so busy during a week.  I love it!!  Down time is probably the worst thing ever as a missionary.  But none of that this week!  

So, forgive me if I already mentioned this, but about a month ago we had a special fast to find a family of five that was ready and prepared to hear the Gospel.  Then we went to work.  Then we met Karen (who we just committed to baptism on the 21st of December!) who brought her whole family of, you guessed it, FIVE to church with her this Sunday and two of her girls even participated in the Primary Program!  We talked with her husband and he said he wanted to learn more because he has seen the change that the gospel has made with Karen so we are teaching the whole family!  We have a lesson tonight and hope to invite the rest of the family to join Karen on the 21st for baptism.  It is so amazing to see how the Lord answers our prayers and our desires.  May not come in our time-table or how we want it but it always comes.  But yeah, so we are super excited about it and all the miracles that are happening in our area.  

We also got to meet (well, see) the local legend here in Sparks!  There is this major highway that runs through all of Sparks called Pyramid and it is the cleanest highway you have ever seen.  How the story goes, a veteran came back from service in the Military but was injured and couldn't find a job.  So he decided that if he could keep Pyramid highway clean, his life would still be worth something.  Everyday, he goes out and walks up and down the highway picking up trash and the other day we saw him!!  He is so respected that we have heard stories of people pulling others who throw trash out the window off the road and give them a good talking too.  And on national holidays, he carries a flag with him.  So that was my excitement for the day :)

Well, hope you all have a fantastic week and do good!

Love,
Sis. Rae

Happy Day!

It has been a week of miracles.  Just fantastic!  So.  For the longest time, Sis Ward and I have been praying and fasting to find some families to teach since our teaching pool is pretty slim of investigators (mostly less actives).  We have been asking for this miracles for at least 3 months now and this week it finally happened and is even better than we imagined!  Sometimes you just have to work a little bit before you can get the reward.  

Well, this week we started teaching two new families (families!) and BOTH families came to church and have accepted to be baptized.  Keep in mind that we just met them.  It's every missionaries dream.  

The fist family (the Inwoods) had a daughter that was writing a friend on a mission who asked her if she wanted to start learning from the missionaries and she said yes.  So the YSA Elders went over there and have been teaching Shay and recently the rest of the family has been sitting in on the lessons and want to learn more.  We get a call from the Elders saying that there is this family that wants to come to church with us and start learning more.  Happy day!!  So we go over with the YSA Elders (who are also the APs, talk about pressure) and teach this family and talk about being baptized and they all wanted to be baptized as a family and have the dad, who is a less active, baptize them.  

The second family (the Hintz) was a referal from the Stake President.  The mom, Karen, was the Special Ed teacher for the boy who was responsible for the Middle School shooting here in Sparks a couple weeks ago, and was struggling a LOT with the whole situation.  But we didn't know that going over there so it was a bit of a shock to us when we heard why we were asked to go see her.  We had a great lesson though and she was so receptive of the whole thing.  When we presented the Plan of Salvation, her comment was that she had never heard so much truth in all her years of going to church as she had in that hour with us.  It was just a reaffirmation of how easy it is for people to recognize truth.  We have already heard it once, we just have to remember.  So we set a lesson in two days to talk more.  When we saw her again, she had almost finished 1 Nephi, which never happens!  Most people barely get through the Introduction.  And to top it all of, she asked US if she could come to church and bring her family.  Another happy day!!  We have another lesson tonight at the Stake Presidents house (again, no pressure) where we will be able to talk with her whole family.  

Miracles are happening all over the place, we just have to look for them!

In other news, we found a Christmas tree and spent all of yesterday decorating it.  We cut out pictures of the million Ensigns we have and made ornaments.  Yes, it is before Thanksgiving still but we are giving thanks for having something to do with our P-days ;)

Have a FABULOUS week everyone!

Love,
Sis. Rae

It's Official

Pretty great week!  I don't know if I already said this, but our stake, for the months of November and December are doing a missionary fast.  Anyone feeding the missionaries that night, fast for missionary opportunities and then break the fast with us.  It only started this week but already miracles are happening!!  We have had so many referrals this week and most of them turned into something.  Which rarely happens (in my experience anyway).  So it has been pretty great!  If this is what's happening at the beginning of this fast, I can't wait for when it really gets rolling!

On another note, this month our miles were cut because we added some extra cars to our zone so we have been out walking a lot!  Which has been pretty great because we meet and talk with more people.  Well.  One such of these people were a group of Jehovah Witnesses, like 5 of them.  I was super excited because you aren't really a missionary until you have had a run in with the JWs.  So we say hi and start talking to them.  They were pretty nice but you could tell that they thought they were talking to 'competition'.  Pretty funny because it was a group of older (and much taller!) men who thought that us two girls were threatening their work.  Maybe it's bad of me but I loved it.  We can't help it if the truth always wins out ;)  When we walked away, I said 'good luck' because they ARE trying to help people and bring them to God and I know how much fun it is to knock on doors all day; you should have seen their faces!  They were pretty surprised that we would wish them good luck.  Like I said, pretty awesome.  

Also, I am officially a missionary for another reason (like I said, pretty eventful week).  I wore a hole in my shoe!!  Means I am doing more then sitting on my tush all week! ;)  Anywho.  Hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Love from Nevada,
Sis Rae

Halloween

So I know that it isn't Halloween yet but we were at our ward party so that's as much Halloween as we get out here ;)  We wanted to go 'tracting' on Halloween but President said no.  Sad day.  But the party made up for it.  Craziest, funnest party I have ever been too!  And every missionaries dream.  There were about 200 people there (yes, in a tiny ward building) and we didn't know most of them so we went around and just talked to everyone.  We were in charge of the doughnut game and it was so entertaining to see all the little kids trying the eat them without hands.  Some of them made me laugh so hard, especially the little little ones.  They looked like little birds trying to get to the food.  So cute!  Maybe I have just never really lived in a neighborhood but this area really gets decked out for Halloween!  Lots of people have sensor motioned creepy things on their porch so when you walk up things start wailing at you and moving.  Makes tracting a little more interesting!  There was this one skull that it's eyes turned red and it started laughing when we walked by.  It was funny, Sis Ward jumped out of her socks and was down the porch and out of there before you could even say boo.  

The rest of the week is a blur....it was kind of crazy.  If missions were a movie, they would not be G-rated.  Several things came up and a couple people we were working with either had family pass away unexpectedly or end up in jail or relapse while in treatment for alcoholism.  I was scared to go see anyone else because we would just hear more bad news!  Just kidding...but really.  

Anyway.  I'll end on a good note.  We went to see Susan (a less active in our ward) and her boys.  Ryan, who is 9 really wanted to have a sword fight with us.  So we told him that if he could tie it into the scriptures somehow then we would.  He was funny; told us all out David and Goliath and then got distracted and went onto Meshac, Shadrac and Abindigo, where they were tossed into the furnace and then to Ammon where he chops off all the arms.  Basically gave us a run down of all the 'little boy favorite' scripture stories.  So we ended up having a sword fight with him.  It was pretty fun.  

I think that's it for this week!  Hope ya'll enjoy your week and hopefully are having warmer weather than us!  (We woke up to snow on the hills by us)

My new best friend

Best costume award goes too....!

Can you tell what I was for Halloween?

Love,
Sis Rae

Well, this week has been a crazy week.  Everyone has been sick so most of the people we regularly visit canceled on us.  BUT that freed up some time so we were able to try to see some former investigators that we have been trying to get a hold of for the longest time.  That was probably the highlight of my week.  

One lady in particular, her name is Sue and has a 6 year old son named Michael.  Her boy has some severe developmental and health problems which is why it has been so hard to get a hold of her (and the reason she stopped taking the lesson from the Elders about 2 years ago) because they are always at therapy or the hospital.  It was a fantastic lesson though.  She has some issues with Joseph Smith and if he really saw what he said he did, which is understandable, but told us that she was willing to read the Book of Mormon and pray 'extremely hard' to know if it was true.  Which is all we ask!  During the lesson, it was so cute, Michael would scoot around and just giggle at us and then start signing.  Sue could continue the conversation with us AND sign to Michael at the same time.  It was really cool to see.  Michael has surgery this week though so we don't get to see her this week for a lesson but please send your prayers that it will go OK and that we can meet with her again!  

There are so many people just seeking for the truth and that peace that they are missing from their lives.  I love being a missionary so that I can help people find that!  Best feeling in the world.

So.  Crazy story of the week.  We were standing on the porch talking to Kelly (the bird lady up on the Res) and it was really hot outside.  Hotter than it should have been in October.  Well I was super hot because the sun was hitting me right on the back and as we were talking my vision went dark and I completely fell over on her porch.  So embarrassing!  I was fine once I got inside and had a glass of ice water but Sis Ward hasn't let me forget it.  Also, Kelly told us that she is having a hard time coming to church because she has to get up and feed her birds in the morning and doesn't have enough time to do that and get ready.  So guess what I stupidly did.  Yup, volunteered to come help feed her 11 crazy birds before church.  But I survived!  Usually the birds are in their cages but we showed up Sunday morning and ALL of them were out and flying around.  Luckily we were just in charge of washing dishes and cutting up fruit.  Kelly put the bowls in the cages.  She came to church though, so it was all worth it!  AND she said she wanted to get her husband to come as well.  Cha ching.  That would make my life.

Any who.  That's about it for this week!  Hope ya'll have a fantastic week and enjoy the small stuff.

Love,

Sis. Rae

Nice and comfy!

A downtown statue

 I forgot my nametag so I wore Sis Wards extra one :)

Another Transfer Gone

So this big news this week is....*drum roll*  Sis Ward and I are staying in Eagle Canyon together!  So tons of big changes haha.  This week was such a great week, end the transfer with a bang!  We had our highest lesson count yet and didn't even see a couple of our 'regulars'!  

General Conference worked some miracles and we had several people at church that haven't been in years including a couple families.  We also met with this family (Brent and Katie) we have been working with for a while.  She has been a member all her life but hasn't been to church since High School and he is a convert of about 3 years.  He told us his conversion story and it is the coolest thing ever.  So he was at work on the internet and saw a couple ads for Mormon.org.  One of them was advertising/explaining the Book of Mormon.  When he saw it, he heard a voice in his head, plain as day, say that he needed to read that book.  That was right before lunch.  Brent goes home to eat lunch and cannot get the thought out of his head that he needs to read that book.  Which he thought was ridiculous because they didn't even have a Book of Mormon!  He would get it later from someplace.  Then he heard someone telling him to go to a box in the garage and look through it.  He goes out and rummages through the box but doesn't see anything so he turns to leave and he felt someone turn him around and tells him to look in the box again.  At the very bottom is a Book of Mormon.  How cool is that?!  He was baptized in 3 weeks.  It gave (and still gives) me goosebumps.  The people that have gone before have such a hand in missionary work now and it is comforting to know that they are there helping us and guiding us.  If I can help this family get back to church and sealed in the temple, my life would be complete.  It's crazy how much love you can feel for people that you have only known for a short while.  It's my favorite part of being a missionary.  Seeing how much the gospel changes peoples lives for the better.  Lots of people have such good lives already but the gospel brings that much more joy and peace into them.

Ok, so crazy story of the week.  I found out why you and everyone else has been having such a bad week this week.  Apparently, Mercury is in Retrograde.  Let me explain.  We were at Kelly's house (she is the Pagan lady we teach) and she was having a really rough week.  Lots of things going on.  But she should have known because Mercury is in Retrograde!  It happens once a year when Mercury is in a certain position in the sky and anything that can go wrong will in the 10 days leading up to it and the 10 days following.  The apex of the 'bad luck' is on October 21st.  So stay in bed and don't do anything!  Don't say I didn't warn you.  The funny (well kinda) thing is that while we were there, Kelly had a gold crown pop out, her cell phone broke, and we were on exchanges and the sister we were with had a severe allergic reaction to the parrots and we almost had to take her to the hospital.  Insane! haha  But now anytime anything goes wrong, Sis Ward and I look at each other and say "Mercury is in Retrograde." Keeps us entertained.  

Well, that's all for this week and hope ya'll are enjoying the weather!

Love,

Sis. Rae