Happy Pioneer Day

Shoutout to the wonderful pioneers! To celebrate the holiday, Sister Gifford and I watched "Joseph Smith: the Prophet of the Restoration" before bed on Saturday, and it was a great reminder of the challenges and difficulties that attended the beginning of the church, as well as the miracles and tender mercies of the Lord. A thought that really stuck out to me was that the early Saints were spit on, mocked, degraded, driven out of their homes, and hunted down for their beliefs; if they could go through ALL THAT without their faith wavering,then I can go through an occasional door slam for my beliefs! The persecution of the modern day "mormon missionary" is NOTHING - NOTHING!!!! - compared to what the early Saints and the pioneers suffered - and gained!! I needed that reminder!

Alright so I don't usually ask for things but I'm doing it today... please please PLEASE keep Kayla in your prayers this week!!!!!!!!!!! Specifically that she will receive and recognize her answer about the Book of Mormon being true! Her baptism is scheduled for THIS Saturday, and she is RIGHT on the brink of making the final decision... We went through the baptismal interview questions with her yesterday, and the ONLY thing she is unsure about is Joseph Smith being a prophet. And that was a "maybe"!!!! She's never been this close to knowing the truth before.. this is such an exciting time, but such a critical one as well! She agreed to praying about the Book of Mormon again... please pray for her!!!!!!!

Church miracle! A summer sales guy basically tracted into a YSA girl last week and brought her to church yesterday! I can guarantee that if actual missionaries had knocked on her door, she wouldn't be interested in hanging out some more.... ahh, the flirt to convert strategy!!! Haha!! Her name is Danielle and she's adorable we're excited to teach her:) The power of members bringing friends to church is UNREAL!!!! I just hope she's wanting to learn more for the right reasons... I know she felt the Spirit during Sacrament meeting!!!!

Bailey continues to be... umm... the COOLEST PERSON EVER!!!!!!! Her boyfriend has come to church twice now and is on date to be baptized August 13th!!!!

We had interviews this week and President is JUST lovely :) A wonderful man and the Spirit is strong around him!

I think that's all! Hope you all had a great week too!

Oh wait, there's more---

We had some cool bus experiences this week! I was sitting in the back and praying for someone to come that I could talk to, or for me to be led to someone to talk to, and this cute blonde bespectacled YSA girl sat a couple rows away... I felt the prompting and went and tapped her on the shoulder and we had a wonderful chat about religion and travels and the Book of Mormon and our life stories... you name it! She's heading to Jerusalem in a couple weeks to volunteer at a library... SO COOL!!!!!! So nothing really came of our conversation as far as missionary "success," but I just want to TESTIFY that PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED!!!!!!!!!! 

We also met a cool older lady whose son lives in Utah and was super open to the Book of Mormon and learning more! Happens once in a blue moon so it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!

And that is all!!! :)

xoxo

Sister K.

More Blessings--

This week was WONDERFUL for so many reasons! Well, mostly one reason... I GOT TO GO BACK TO WAUKESHA!!!! On exchanges with Sister Wilkerson!!!! It was WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!! Out of the goodness of their hearts, the Waukesha sisters scheduled a dinner appointment with one of my FAVORITE families in the whole WORLD... the HASSELLS!!!!! (My biggest regret in life: not snagging a picture!) The Hassells have been SO ridiculously good to me. They even bought a six-string guitar and had a mini "concert" for me to play my songs... I just LOVE that they love me for who I am, they don't just love me because I'm a missionary. Ahhh it was too perfect. And it was so much fun to be back in my old stomping grounds - we got to do service at the Food Pantry, which I LOVE, and tried to see some of the people I used to teach. I don't know if you remember me talking about Mari, the teenage girl we tracted into in October who was a miracle? Well we tried seeing her, but her dad answered the door and told us she's on a service trip in Africa right now, but then we had a real positive experience sharing from the Book of Mormon with her dad! It was great! And then we proceeded to tract into an open and interested family of NINE. Haha, it was just a miraculous day!!!! Waukesha is my homeland!!!!

We also got to help out at the Stake Youth Conference on Friday and Saturday. It was SUPER neat because it was designed to be a mini MTC; everyone got a nametag and a companion and a mission call, and they were taught how to  prepare for missions and how to be missionaries (the Elders taught them how to teach the Restoration, we got to teach them how to teach the Plan of Salvation), and then they practiced teaching "investigators" (member volunteers) the discussions. (They also played games and did teenager fun stuff although I wasn't there for that part, haha.) We got to be some "investigators," and it was SO cool to see these youth bearing their testimonies of the Restoration and Plan of Salvation. The Spirit was so strong - they will be an INCREDIBLE generation of missionaries!

Interesting experience of the week: we met up with our potential investigator Rishan for lunch on Saturday... at a bar. Like a legitimate Milwaukee bar! I'm not a fan of the atmosphere... but the food was good! I'm not sure if Rishan is too interested but hey, it was worth a shot!

Anywho. That's all I can remember at this point. Kayla is struggling again... just needs a lot of love and prayers. I love her with all my heart.... she is truly wonderful. I will ALWAYS think of her when I think of my mission, THAT I know for sure!!!!

Hope ya'll have a great week! Love you!!!

xoxo

Sister K.

Blessings!

Well... Life is wonderful right now! We have been INSANELY BLESSED with miracles this week... let me share a couple!

FIRST OF ALL!!!!!! WE FOUND A FAMILY IN BROOKFIELD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know what you must be thinking... a FAMILY? in BROOKFIELD? Like, a real investigator family? Like, as in, they let us into their home and are genuinely interested in learning more about the gospel - that kind of family? YES! YES TO ALL OF THE ABOVE!!!!!! :D Their names are Erica and Arron, and we met them when we were walking around their neighborhood. There was one potential investigator we contacted there a couple months ago, and then she fell through... and then there was another potential who fell through, and then another, and then ANOTHER (literally!!!).... and we kept wondering WHY we were being led to that area again and again. Well, now we know why! Erica and Arron are so special. They are wonderfully kind and have been reading the Book of Mormon since we left it with them on Tuesday... we taught them a lesson on Friday and they want to come to church!!! They are so real and genuine and sincere... they believe Joseph Smith could definitely have been a prophet... everything they say shows us they are so prepared. I don't know why we are being so blessed to meet such wonderful people... it BLOWS my mind. God is far too good!

We also had a cool experience on Saturday! We had a phone cord in our apartment for the Waukesha sisters, and they couldn't meet us during the day to get it, so we drove to their apartment (MY OLD PEWAUKEE APARTMENT!!!) to leave it at their door. When we pulled up to the apartment complex, guess who was outside on her balcony?!?! It was WENDY!!!! I don't know if you remember Wendy from any of my emails last year... but she's the one who we met while helping her look for her cat and then taught her a little while. Well, the Sisters have had a hard time getting in contact with her because she is just so busy... but we saw her! And guess what? She had just gotten back half an hour earlier from HER SISTER'S funeral. :( She was obviously shaken from the experience... just very sad and subdued. But still the wonderful Wendy I remember. We had the privilege to teach her a little bit about the Plan of Salvation and pray with her... it was such a tender mercy for both of us, I think!!! And I'll be back in Waukesha this Wednesday on exchanges... so maybe we'll get to see her again! :) I love going back to Waukesha because that's the only time I really feel like I've changed on my mission.... and I LOVE getting the chance to talk about the Plan of Salvation. It's a life-changer!!!!

We also had Mission Leadership Conference in Oshkosh this week. It was WONDERFUL. President Williams's vision for our mission is JUST what we need!!! I know many miracles will happen as we follow the Lord's counsel through President Williams!

Love you all! Have a great week!

xoxo

Sister K.

Happy 4th!!!

Just want to begin with a shoutout to America!!!!! We've been singing the three patriotic songs from the back of the hymnbook every day for about a month now, and my FAVORITE FAVORITE FAVORITE thing ever is the third verse of the Star Spangled Banner: 

"Oh, thus be it ever, when free men shall stand/between their loved homes and the war's desolation. Blessed with vict'ry and peace, let the Heavn'-rescued land/ praise the Power that hath made and preserved it a nation. Then conquer we must when our cause it is just, and this be our motto: IN GOD IS OUR TRUST!!!!!!" 

I LOVE AMERICA! I love that my father taught me to honor and revere our Founding Fathers. I love that he served in the military, that he is so familiar with the history of the nation and that he teaches us to remember the sacrifices of those before us. I didn't realize until this year that I will always think of my dad on July Fourth. So I guess this is also a shoutout to my dad! :) (Also: Something I really missed this year: our special Passover-esque Independence Day celebration that has become a family tradition! I reflected on it often over the holiday!)

So! Back to missionary work! We've been doing lots and lots of finding... which is good! We've been so busy that I've gotten rather rusty. We're back on the streets of Milwaukee tracking down YSA aged prospectives... and it's fun! (P.S. Transfers are this week, but no fear! I'll be here for another round with Sister Gifford!) Also, in Brookfield we tracted into Mayor Steve Ponto and he accepted a Book of Mormon! So THAT was cool!

Highlight of the week! Exchanges with Sister Hall in Port Washington. She is wonderful and the day FLEW! Exchanges are incredible because I ALWAYS see myself in EVERY Sister I work with. They often are dealing with things I dealt with just the week before... SO cool how God prepares both of us so we can relate to each other on a deeper level. Half the Sisters in our zone are getting transferred out :/ This has been my favorite zone of Sisters yet on my mission... I will miss them!!!!!

ALSO! On Thursday night Sister Gifford and I had the privilege of taking out our new mission president's wife Sister Williams to work with us! We took her to see Maria (RC) and Bailey! It was wonderful! Sister Williams is a convert herself, and it was amazing to hear her experiences with finding the church. She is so sweet and lovable. So is our new President! Friendly and personable and a great leader! We are all sad to see the Cutlers go, but we love the Williams already!! :)

Can't wait to see what this next transfer brings!

Happy Fourth! Have a great week!

xoxo

Sister K.

We Found Somebody!!

I never know how to start these things. Haha.

Okay, so... LIA GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!! On Saturday!!!! And then confirmed on Sunday :) She is wonderful! I will send pictures! The service was small but somebody brought Costco muffins so it was great:)

Kayla's been hard to meet with lately. So that stinks. She is busy though... busy and overwhelmed. We don't want to add to her stress or to-do list, but THIS IS IMPORTANT! I hate feeling like a nuisance when we keep insisting on meeting with people, but at the same time... "sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven." If we all sacrificed a little more time to God... we would be so immensely blessed for it that we wouldn't even feel like it's a sacrifice! So my perspective on asking people for things has changed a lot on my mission. When we are asking families to make time for us in their schedules so we can come do an FHE or practice teaching, or when we ask members to come with us to lessons, or when we try to set up appointments with investigators even when they're busy, what we're really doing is giving them opportunities to sacrifice so that they can receive the blessings that the Father wants to give them. 

Anywho, I'll step down from my soapbox now! Haha. We've been doing LOTS and LOTS of finding in the Brookfield ward... tracting in "Babylon," as the mission so lovingly (and truthfully) calls Brookfield. Don't know why, but we've just felt really strongly that THAT's what we need to be doing here for now! So we'll keep doing it until we feel otherwise. Haha. Last night we came across a duplex with one door that said, "No soliciting - will call the cops" so we skipped that door and knocked on the next one, but the owner of the first door came out of the garage and started ranting at us. We were like, "Sorry! We knocked on the OTHER door!" and he was like, "I own BOTH sides of the duplex!" and it was terribly awkward. Haha. In an effort to console him I reached out my hand and asked what his name was, and he stood there with his arms crossed and said, "Somebody." I said, "Nice to meet you, Somebody," and he finally shook my hand. Then proceeded to rant about religion in general, but at the end he said he wanted us to come back next week and that he'd pull out his Book of Mormon and ask us some questions. Believe it or not, that's our most promising lead yet... so back we will go!!!!! 

But! The whole week was made so much better because the BYU Folk dancing team came to Milwaukee and we got to go see them play if we brought an investigator!!!!!!!! So we did, and it was WONDERFUL. They are incredible dancers! And they were all so excited to see missionaries. We felt like celebrities! It was nice to be loved and appreciated by total strangers. I got to shake hands with the guitar player and that was cool too. Most of the pics turned out super blurry because of the dancers' speedy feet, but I'll see what I can send!

We get our new mission president this week! WOW!!!!! It doesn't feel real!

Have a great week everyone!

xoxo

Sister K.