3/23/15

Hello! I enjoyed reading all y'alls letters and looking at pictures! So Sweet!

Man... I am really struggling to find out what to say for this week :)

Monday 3/16/15

On monday, after p-day was over, we went over to Ami's and she was babysitting her grandson. So, we put her grandson in a stroller and we had a nice walk. We talked about her experience at church and taught about her baptism. We had a good conversation and didn't teach her much. We just wanted to catch up on how she was feeling and she is doing great. She is still excited for baptism!

After Ami's, we felt Prompted to visit Alyssa and Randy who lived sown the street. When we got there, Alyssa was having a major hard time taking care of some life issues and also dealing with a pregnancy. So, we decided to help her out by making her dinner and bringing it to her on Wednesday.I am hoping that we were able to uplift her somehow.

Tuesday 3/17/15 (Exchanges)

We had exchanges and I went to Tupelo, Mississippi again! :) I had a blast. Something really funny and awkward happened while on our exchange.

On our Exchange, Sister Gibbs told me that the Jones' were going to feed us and that we had a dinner appointment with them at 5:00pm. So, we packed up our stuff and headed over to their home about 30 minutes away. While trying to figure out where they lived and getting wrong directions from the GPS, we got an unexpected call from the Elders. They had informed us that both the Jone's AND the Williams had signed up for us to go eat with them! Oh goodness...

So at the Jones (Our First Dinner Appointment) they had made this HUGE deluxe meal. They had rice, gravy, pork chops, vegetables, rolls, and last but not least a creamy and gooey caramel cake. It was so amazing and they had gotten out their China set and everything. Way good! But man.. I was stuffed. I am so happy for their Hospitality. They have such a great conversion story as well.

Soon after we ended that dinner date, we plugged the William's address in the GPS and headed over there to have another dinner date. We got there, I introduced myself, and they got really excited. These people are from Gilbert Arizona y'all! They told me everything about where they lived, how much they Loved living near the temple, why they moved, and how they want to go back. What a really cool thing. They prepared a really good vegetable stir fry and then their Daughters, (8 and 5 years old) showed off their guinea pigs and the tricks they could do. I didn't know guinea pigs could do tricks until now. One of them knew how to play dead. :) hehe. After the yummy dinner, We had blue bell ice cream in a cookie cup. It was way good. I felt like I gained 10 pounds this night.

Wednesday 3/18/15

**** We had a really Good Lesson with Sandy this day. We visited her at morning side because it was her BIRTHDAY and we wanted to quick wish her a happy day and give her a present. Well, what was planned to be a quick in and out, we stayed there for a good hour. We got there and gave her the present (Missionary Style: A picture of Christ and a Book of Mormon with our testimonies written in it) and she absolutely loved it! To this point, we haven't taught her the Restoration, so after visiting with her for a few moments we began to teach her about it. After telling her the background of the Book of Mormon, she asked us, "How come I have never heard of this? This just makes so much sense! I am going to read this as much as I could!" We were then able to testify about why we were so young and why we were dedicating our lives in the service of God. We told her how special the message we have is and then we watched at how amazed and interested she was. She is a sponge! Just soaking up every thing that we tell her. She is way golden.

**** On Wednesday night, we went on a team up with a member and went to go see a Less Active who was trying to get back to church. Well, we ended up having a really good lesson and listened to a talk by Brad Wilcox "His Grace is Sufficient." This talk CHANGED MY LIFE! I invite all to read it or listen to it. It has become one of my favorite talks out there.

Speaking of talks... I am so excited for general conference coming up! :)

Thursday 3/19/15

We visited Sister Bryant this day and was informed that she is moving to A nursing Home where she won't be living alone anymore. I am so happy that she made the decision to go there. Now we don't have to worry if she has fallen or is not feeling well enough to take care of herself. It is still close to where we live which is good because we could still visit her often :) She is moving in Today.

Friday 3/20/15 THE TEMPLE!!!!

We went to the temple this day! :) We had to be at the temple at 8:45am so we woke up at 4am to travel there. Once there, I met many other missionaries and had a ton of fun. This temple is teeny tiny and super cute! Wow!  President and Sister Hanks were there as well and they told me all about Kiersten Carr's visit! haha :) They LOVE her!!!!

After our session was over, we went outside to take pictures and I was reunited with some people in my MTC district! I got so excited! All of them were transferred and I wasn't. They told me that at transfer meeting they were wondering if I had gone home or not because I was not there. haha Nope! I am still here!!! :D ( I guess a lot of people who came out the same day I did went home because of sickness, and they were worried  I was one of them).It was way good to catch up with them :)

Sorry this email is a little short. Nothing else really happened this week. The work is going good and I am seeing miracles everyday!

I love y'all and I hope this is a really good week for everyone!

(: Missy :)

3/16/15

We have had an abundance of Sunshine today and it has been wonderful! The weather here finally matches up with the winter weather in Gilbert. Still a tid bit chili but not warm yet.

 

Monday: March 9th (Sister Bryant)

 

****We had the most wonderful opportunity to go over to Sister Bryant's home to visit with her and uplift her. She is such an angel let me tell ya. While at Sister Bryant's we were able to go on her Facebook and find the missionaries who baptized her. So wonderful! Since we were not allowed to type anything on Facebook or do anything on it, we had to tell Sister Bryant where to click and what to type in :) haha. It took a little longer than if we were to just do it our selves, however, she was tremendously happy that we had actually found them,. She kept looking at their profile pictures and repeated over and over, "I cannot believe we found them. I am so glad we found them!" She proceeded to send one of her missionaries a message reminding them of who she was and how much she missed them and loves them. She then told us all the details of how she ran into the missionaries, the stories that they shared, and the impact they had on their (Her and her families) lives. This moment was so special and I am happy to know that missionaries have the capability to change the lives of  precious children of our Heavenly Father. What a blessing it is to be serving on a mission. I also got a picture of me and Sister Bryant :) That itself is a miracle, for she never wants to take pictures! Score! :) 

 

Tuesday March 10th (Leah and Jacob, Ami and Kayla)

 

**** We had an AWESOME visit with Leah and Jacob this day. Every time we go visit them, it feels like we are visiting members of the church instead of investigators. The only reason why they have not been baptized yet is because Leah has been having a really difficult time quitting smoking. She is continuously pressured and influenced by the adversary and finds it hard to deal with most times. We went to go see Leah when I first entered into the field, but ever since that visit, she felt WAY too much pressure to stop smoking and began to ignore us completely. This unfortunately meant that she would ignore our texts, calls, and even her mother (who is a member of the church). Today however, she answered our text about seeing her 8 year old granddaughter Mikale that lived with her!!!!!! Yay! After a long while, she was finally able to let us come over. :)

 

While teaching the granddaughter and preparing her for Baptism, Leah told us that she was ready to get out the rut she was in and that we were an answer to her prayers that day. I am so happy that she is willing to get help from the Lord and is ready to move along. We made a ton of progress with her. 

 

While at her home, we taught her granddaughter and two other grand children the restoration and they LOVED it! They sat in a little circle, each said an opening prayer, and listened intently to the things we taught. They are too cute! It's fun to teach children :) Mikale was a little nervous for her baptism but we practiced how it was done and let her know what would happen on her baptism day. We also showed her a video of when Jesus was baptized and then she calmed down a bit. She is adorable and very intelligent :)

**** Also on Tuesday, we went to go teach Ami and her friend Kayla. We decided to reteach them the restoration with the use of puzzles. :) To begin, the investigators would help put both of the puzzles together. Welllllll......... While Kayla was putting the puzzle together, her one year old daughter wanted to "Help" but ended up mixing the two puzzles together. oops. haha :) I had to keep her daughter distracted and engaged in other things but she wanted me to pick her up the whole time. What an awkward situation, especially because we are not allowed to hold babies. :( Since I could not hold her she would cry and fuss, and it was even harder to keep her away from the puzzle. oh boy. When the puzzle was finished though, Kayla asked me to hand her daughter over and I become instantly hesitant. I did not know if I was allowed to do that and I quickly glanced over at Sister Merriam for approval. She nodded that it would be okay. So,  (Since I technically had permission) I picked her up and passed her over. I wasn't really holding her, rather lifting her over the table to her mother, but it was the best feeling ever getting to kind of hold a baby again! It was short but way awesome!   

Wednesday March 11th (Young Women's)

 

***** We went to the Young Women's New beginnings this night and I am so excited about the theme this year. The theme is "Embark" and I absolutely love it. We were given a CD with awesome church music on it and Sister Merriam and I listen to it a bunch. :) 

The theme reminds me of a scripture that we include in our daily recitations in companionship study. 

 

"Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men.

Therefore, O ye that EMBARK in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind, and strength, that you may stand blameless before God at the last day" (Doctrine and Covenants 4:2)      

Super Cool!

 

Thursday March 12th (Morning Side)

 

**** On this day, we got to sing and play piano at Morning side, the place that we visited Sandy at and committed to do some volunteering there. The elderly loved all the hymns, singing solos, and piano solos we played! I am glad that we were given the opportunity to share our testimonies through the powerful sound of hymns and music. Many of them were just so quiet and peaceful as we sang, "I know that my Redeemer Lives", "Savior Redeemer of my Soul", and other hymn arrangements. You could tell that the room was illuminated and completely filled with the peaceful presence of the Holy Spirit. Many hearts, including mine and Sister Merriam's, were touched. 

 

My favorite thing though was when we had finished up and I got the most wonderful compliment from an old woman. She told me, "You have a great voice and such a beautiful face!" haha :) why thank you!

We also got a few questions about "If the SEAGULL story actually happened in Utah and Why so many Mormons live in Utah." fun times. 

 

Most of the compliments went to Sister Merriam though haha :) she has a BEAUTIFUL Voice and I was so happy that she got the opportunity to use it to bless the lives of others.

 

Friday March 13th (Friday the 13th!)

 

Friday we had Zone Training and one of the topics the Zone leaders talked about was health and fitness. They told us that President Hanks is now requiring everyone to do P90X every morning and needs us to send a weekly report of what we ate to him. It is a new program that our mission is starting to help us be healthier. Especially with all this southern food. haha

PSYCH! Just kidding!

 

They mixed up Friday the 13th with April Fools day and decided to pull that prank on us! hahahahaahh :)  SO MANY people believed them! :) meanies

Saturday March 14th

****  PIE DAY! YEAH! 3.14.15 :) The Elders bought some pie and insisted that we eat a piece of pie at Correlation (A meeting with the Ward Mission President). We had a ton of fun and the pie was delicious! :D 

 

Sunday March 15th

**** I played the piano in Sacrament today. I did not know how to play the organ, soooo I played the piano instead and I was way nervous! It all turned out okay though.

Also, AMI CAME TO CHURCH TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She could now get baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited! :) 

Puppies/Dogs

**** These past two weeks I have had quite interesting stories about dogs.

 

1) Micha's dog: Micha ended up dropping us and no longer wants us to teach her  :'( The last time we taught her though, she had just gotten an 8 week old puppy who was really cute but was majorly teething! He wouldn't stop chewing on things and most of her attention was on her dog. man...

 

2) A recent convert was dog sitting a 5 week old black and white puppy who reminded me of Bo :) He slept on my lap the whole lesson! Super cute!!!! :)

3) This one is the scary one. While visiting a Mexican Potential Investigator last night, we had taken a member who spoke Spanish to help us translate. While we were walking towards his door, a dog was barking rapidly! He ended up charging at us and was going to attack us! ahhhhhhhhh!!! Not a friendly, I repeat! Not a friendly! Thankfully, he was on a chain and we were saved from this very vicious Labrador Retriever. YIKES! 

 

4) While knocking an another Potential Investigators door, the 4 year old daughter answered and accidentally let her 8 week old puppy out of the door. Well, the puppy was about to run away, so I went and chased it. As I picked up the puppy, it did what all excited puppies do.... It peed all over me! Gross! The person we wanted to go meet was having morning sickness so we left to go home so I could change. Yuck!

 

5) Our bishop now wants me to go visit their home so I could train their dog. haha! :) 

6) This one is not about dogs, but, while tracting, SO many cats came to our direction wanting us to pet them.

  

Other then that. this week has been way good and very busy. The work is picking back up again and I am excited!

 

I love y'all and enjoy all the emails and pictures that are sent. They uplift me in so many ways and gives me the fuel I need each week!

 

Y'all are awesome! Have fun and don't die!

Sister Ralph

3/9/15

ZAYLEE IS BORN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! CONGRATS AMANDA AND CODY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I AM SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HAVE A NEW NEICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SAY WHAT???????????????????????? I LOVE HER ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D

3/2/15

Wow.... This week has been a real kicker.... It has not been a bad week, however, it has been way stressful and the work has slowed down dramatically.

 

Monday and Tuesday

On Monday and Tuesday Sister Merriam was sick with a fever :( I felt so bad for her. During these two days, she slept non stop and to keep myself busy and going I read a lot from preach my gospel, the scriptures, and listened to a few talks. Even though i was not able to go out and do missionary work, I was able to learn more about the gospel and how to be a better teacher. I have really found the importance of the spirit and also using scriptures to help with conversion. I also did a few crafts and cleaned the apartment. :) 

 

Wednesday

 

Wednesday we had a extremely Awesome team up with a member of the congregation. It went so well especially when we went to go teach Ami. Her and Ami got along extremely well and I feel as though they could become best friends someday! Ami is doing so well. She is fixin to stop smoking and she is almost there! She has decreased the amount of cigarettes she smokes from a whole pack a day to only 3 a day. She really understands the importance of treating our bodies like a temple and even expressed how excited she is to go through the temple someday. She is adorable and was ecstatic when we showed her a video of President Monson. We showed her the "Dare to Stand Alone" Mormon Message and at the end of it she stated "I am proud to be a Mormon!" haha :) I love her so much. We unfortunately have to push her baptism date back another week because she was not able to come to church for some reason. I do not know where she has been but she has not been at her house this whole weekend. The note we put on her door on Friday is still there and has not been removed. Hopefully she is okay and well! We will try contacting her this week :) 

Also on Wednesday, we went to go see Frank and we were able to address some of his concerns about coming back to church. He has a lot of pressure and weight on his shoulders from the many different responsibilities that he has. We were able to help him and he seemed better and relaxed at the end of it. Sister Adams (Our Team up) once again saved the day and was really able to connect with him and the things he was going through in his life. 

 

ALSO on Wednesday it snowed! We ended up getting 8 inches of snow and we had the best time. Do y'all remember when it rained in Gilbert to the extent that school was cancelled? Well, snow here is like when it rains in Gilbert. Everyone goes crazy! It is all over the news, people stay off the streets, shops and stores close down, and schools are cancelled. haha :) Everything in Alabama just completely shuts down. It is pretty awesome. 

Sister Merriam and I (Is that better grammar dad? haha :) ) played in the snow, made snow angels, and took pictures. I had a blast! However, because it was snowing so much we had to stay inside for the rest of the night and could not do any missionary work. Bummer. So what we decided to do was to clean the WHOLE apartment and to de clutter everything. We also went through the area book (A book that has records of potential investigators, investigators, and former investigators) and called a bunch of people. It ended up not being too successful for everyone ignored our call, but no effort is wasted right? :)

Thursday

 

It was still snowy on Thursday so we did our weekly planning which took a while. Since we were in no rush to get that done, we were able to really focus our attention on what our investigators exactly needed, catch up on our progress, and figure out what to do for our area. This week has been so slow. With the sickness that went around, and being stuck in our apartment, we addressed what we needed to do to make next week better. I have been so drained and unfocused due to the lack of missionary work! haha. :) This next week though, we are going hard! Especially because we are both staying in this area and are not getting transferred! Yes!

Friday

 

Update on Micha: Micha is doing well especially the fact that she is way committed to reading the Book of Mormon and is reading a chapter each day. She is supposed to be baptized this week on Saturday but it is going to be postponed for a later time. She is not doing anything wrong, we just feel like she needs a little more time and she agreed to this as well. She is going to plan on setting a date in April and will let us know when soon.

Saturday

Saturday was a really tough day. All the people we went to go see were not answering their doors, no body wanted us to teach them, and it seemed as though all our efforts were not working. All our backup plans fell through as well. We seriously used an immense amount of brainpower this day as we were trying to figure out who to see next, what to do next, or what other place to tract. The one day we have to go out and do work ended up being really sad. Man.. Oh well, haha :) The good thing about this day was that we went over to a members house for dinner and we got the best pep talk ever and the food was really yummy. It made our day! :) 

 

Other than taking it easy, playing in the snow, and checking up on Ami and Micha, nothin else has happened. Even though this week has not been too eventful, we were blessed to have time to relax. The Lord knows that missionaries sometimes need a break and the snow was a great stress reliever and a blessing in disguise! :) I know this gospel to be true and I am definitely blessed to have the opportunity to serve Heavenly Father and his precious children. I am learning and growing so much in doing so. It's the best!

I hope y'all have a great week and stay warm! :)

Thanks for all of your letters, pictures, and videos! 

Tori 

2/23/15

This week started off pretty well. I had to go to Tupelo Mississippi again for another exchange and it was a blast! Instead of exchanging with Sister Alred like I did last time, I exchanged with Sister Gibbs. We get a long so well and it is so crazy because she has only been out for 6 months and is already a STL (Sister Training Leader). That is crazy to think about. Good for her :) she really is a great missionary!

 

While in Tupelo we were able to  teach a few people. 

 

This one person we went to go see was a recent convert to the church and we needed to go teach her the new member lessons. We did so and I learned a lot from Sister Gibbs. The way she teaches and brings the spirit into the home is inspiring. I feel like it was good for me to be taught from her and spend time getting to know other areas of the mission. 

She also stated something about how they needed to get me a cello while I am serving that way I could play in sacrament and other meetings. I got so excited about that! haha! I miss playing as much as I used too.

Wednesday

 

I had quite an interesting day on Wednesday

 

The day Started like usual, just me and Sister Merriam getting ready and having studies. In the middle of my training, there was a knock on our door and we were interested who it was because we usually don't expect anyone to come visit. We went to go answer the door and found out that our Team up had come 30 minutes early on accident. haha. We still had 30 minutes left of training so we finished that up and then went to go work. We originally wanted to go see Rachel (Another investigator) but it turned out that she was not there so we went to go see Ami instead. However, Ami was not home either. Man... I am So glad for plan C.

 

Hey... This reminds me of a quote "When plan A doesn't succeed, don't worry because you still have 25 other letters of the alphabet to go." I don't know why I just thought about that but it is so true. Something that I have learned while being out on a mission is that it is good to have back up plans and not get discouraged when things don't work out. The Lord has a perfect time for everything and it is important to trust that he will bring things to our path at the exact moment we need it. The same thing sort of applies to prayer. When your prayers don't seem like they are being answered right away, it could be the fact that the Lord is preparing us to receive the answer at the most absolute and perfect timing. It is always good to have faith and hope that he will answer our prayers.

 

Also something else I learned is Faith and Hope. I always knew that faith and hope go together but I never really knew why. After studying and researching about it I came to the realization that Faith is to BELIEVE that God will answers prayers and hope is having CONFIDENCE that he will answer. So, hope is way great to have along side of faith. 

 

So after Ami didn't work out, we decided to go see a man (Frank) who has been inactive for a while and touch basis on him and see how he is doing. This man makes denters and it is way cool to go visit him because he is usually in his shop which is filed with cool tools and teeth and stuff like that. Kind of interesting. :) When we went to go visit him we went to go knock on his shop door. Only, a man (probably a customer), answered saying "Oh it's the mormons!" and we went in and were able to talk to this man. 

 

I don't know why this week has been different but for some reason we have been placed in situations where many people want to argue with us about religion. This man clearly wanted to argue with us. This is a sticky situation. As missionaries, we want to expand upon what people already believe, but there also is a line that we need to draw whenever someone wants to prove they are right. We don't want to prove that we are right. Nor do we want to argue about religion. Instead we just want to take what a person believes and help them expand their faith in Christ. Whenever we are faced with a situation where it is likely to turn into bash between two beliefs, we have to back away from that situation as best as we can. Easier said than done I will say. 

 

We taught this man the restoration very simply but you could tell he wasn't interested and that his heart was hardened. Man... Hopefully we will have better luck this week when we go to check up on Frank again. 

We had fun this night as we went to Activity Days. The activity days teacher, who lives just a few apartments down from us, wanted us to come share a message with her girls about missionary work. What a fun night! The girls made heart shaped soap for a late Valentines craft and then we talked about how they were each a child of God and how he loves them. Then we talked about how their friends were also children of God and that we could help them realize that through missionary work. It turned out great and the girls loved it! :) So fun.

 

Also on Wednesday, we were able to go over to Alyssa and Randy to check up on them. They were home! yay! They had the best reaction to the restoration ever! :) This family is Golden. They have great faith and they are always really engaged learners. When we got done talking the husband, Randy, just looked up at us and said "That's AWESOME!" haha the way he said it was amazing and wow! What a great lesson.

 

We then went to go teach Brea at Walmart. She is a sweety pie let me tell ya. She really wants to learn but since she is so busy we have been teaching her at Walmart while she is working. She even expressed how she wants us to come teach her at the hospital while she is on her lunch break! How exciting! I LOVE her! 

Thursday:

 

Thursday was weird too. We usually have district meetings on Tuesday but it was switched to today. At district meeting, me and Sister Merriam along with the other two sisters decided to wear matching clothes for fun. It was a blast! :) Things ended up working out because two of the sisters (Sister Merriam and Sister West) had the same skirts so we borrowed them and we were able to match. 

 

While weekly planning this day, we got a text from the elders that they were in our area and they needed to know if they needed to go see anyone in particular. We suggested that they should go see Ashton and Annie (The cute newly weds that we met a couple weeks ago). They were able to do so and they said the lesson went great! They loved learning about the message we had to share with them. I am excited to go over there and teach them more. 

Friday: Elder Farrell's Birthday

 

Friday was Elder Farrells birthday so me and Sister Merriam made him Dump Cake (Pretty much Apple Cobbler) and made him a card. I love birthdays and holidays while on a mission. They are so fun and always interesting! :)

Also on Friday it snowed and iced! Thankfully we were given permission to do missionary work and weren't snowed in because we went to go see Ami and had an amazing lesson about the Word of Wisdom. She even took all of her cigarettes and tobacco and threw them away! YAY! I was so happy for her. She is going to do great and we have a plan written out for her for when she is tempted to light a cigarette. She is awesome! She wants us to come visit with her every day until her baptism just to check up on her and to make sure she completely prepared for this next step in her life. 

Saturday

 

We met Marissa on Saturday (while playing the color game) at Walmart and we are going to start teaching her and her family. :)  I have great hopes for her. She is really cute and bubbly and we got a long with her real well.  

We had a really good lesson with Micha as well to help her prepare for her baptism. We watched the Restoration video with her and she expressed how inspired she was to be baptized coming up pretty soon. We read a little bit of the Book of Mormon with her and she stated that she knows without a doubt that it's true. Yay!  

 

Sunday

Sunday was such a Sad but Good day all at once. 

 

Three of our investigators who committed to come to church ended up not coming. So sad. I really really hope they come next week :( Also, Sister Merriam caught a fever so we stayed in the apartment all day and rested. While she was resting and getting better, I made a lot of cute crafts and studied a lot. So even though we weren't able to go out and work, I still had a productive Sunday. :)

 

And that brings up back to today! :) We are going to take it easy today so that Sister Merriam could continue getting better. Thank goodness it is P-Day so that we could relax a little.

I hope y'all had a great week. I am glad that y'all are healthy and enjoying the birthday Celebrations! :) Transfer calls are on Saturday so we will see which one of us (Me or Sister Merriam) get to stay in the area or gets to go. Who knows, maybe we will both stay for another 6 weeks! I don't think I will leave this area quite yet and i don't want to either. I have grown to love Russelville AL and never ever want to leave haha! :)

 

Can you believe it? I have been out in the field for 6 weeks? Where has time went? haha :) 

I love you all dearly! Have a great week and thanks for all of your prayers! I am strengthened by them  :) 

~Tori 

2/16/15

Hello this week was pretty good I believe :)

We were able to visit sister Bryant in the hospital a few time this week and she seems in good spirits. I am happy for the decision she made to move to assisted living. I just feel better that she will be taken care of and that she could make new friends and in her words "share the gospel with everyone she meets" haha :) she was discharged from the hospital on Thursday and she is planning on moving on the 28th. The place she is moving to is near where we live so we could still go visit her and share messages with every one who wants them. 

One of our investigators is having a hard week this week. Her name is Alice and we met her once and she seemed pretty interested in our message. Whenever we tried to go visit her this week though she was never home and she never committed to the times that we have set up to go see her.  Super bummer. :( I hope we will get to talk to her again some day and go over some of the concerns she has. 

On Tuesday we had district meeting and I learned a lot. They discussed a lot about baptismal calendars and how to prepare our investigators for their baptism. Some things they brought up we're good to know like cleaning out the font before the baptism. I wouldn't have thought bout doing that until they told us what happens if you don't haha :) I am so glad they told us. 

Also on Tuesday we were ble to go to the library and have Mormon.org time and that was neat. I watched some Mormon messages and picked out what I was going to teach for family home evening. I decided to give my talk on "the importance of sharing our gifts with others". If you go to lds.org and search "the extraordinary gift" you could watch this beautiful message about a blind person who plays the piano exceptionally well! 

I have learned while on my mission that it is not okay to compare yourselves to other people who do things better then you. Each and every person has their strengths (in southern terms screnghths) and their weaknesses and it is best to utilize what Heavenly Father has given us in a way that will bless and enhance the lives of people around us. We are not good at everything and that is okay. In no way does Heavenly Father want us to dwell on how bad we did that or how much we failed at something. Instead, he wants us to thrive on the things we do well and try again if we mess up. That is why he provided a savior. If we mess up or completely do a wrong thing, we have the opportunity to repent and do better. Christ and Heavenly Father are waiting for us with outstretched arms waiting for us to come unto them and tell them of our concerns. They will help. If you read Ether 12:27 it states that "he will make weak things become strong" and if you feel like you are inadequate at something and am not professional at everything, Heavenly Father will help and make those things stronger. How amazing!!!! He can help all of us with things that we want to do better at and will help us remember how important and essential we are to him and his plan for us :) super cool

On Wednesday we had a good team up. We went to go see Amanda and we are back on track for baptism. It turns out that the friend she went to church with was her sister and her sister is a member of the church! So yeah we were worried about nothing. Haha :) we had no clue she was a member until that day. How funny. 

We also had another lesson with Michelle and she is doing so well! She unfortunately has been fighting off some sicknesses and I pray that she will get better soon.  She really wants to come to church with us! 

Also on Wednesday me and sister Merriam traveled to Florence to go sleep over at sister Haslams and sister Wests apartment. We had zone conference the next day and we decided to car pool with them. Before we went though we made this really yummy fruit dip that reminded me of the frosting on moms cupcakes!! Mmmmm :) it was so yummy. 

Zone conference was pretty amazing! President Hanks is the best and he gave us great insight about Christ and his Atonement and how we NEED him in our lives. I would go into detail but I don't know to. It was just really amazing and uplifting and wish that y'all were there to hear it. 

I even got to see my first companion at zone conference! Yay! I was so excited to see her and catch up. 

On Friday Sister Merriams family sent us a valentines box for "lock your hearts day". It was so cute :) they had a card in there and candy and it was so neat. Valentines day in Alabama is amazing! They go all out with decorations and balloons and cards and everything! Walmart was completely decked out with pink and red and they had balloons ALL oVER the place! Wow. It's so great and what a cool thing to reflect on Gods love for us. :) 

I don't remember which day this was but while we were tracting, we knocked on this one persons door and when we did the woman yelled from begind the door "who is it?" And we stated "the missionaries! " she then she proceeded to open her blinds to look at us and then she said  in a really loud voice "I don't know you!!! And then her phone rang and she closed the blinds again. That was the most interesting tracting experience I have had. Haha I just look back at it and ask myself, what just happened? Haha :) it was interesting. 

One last thing before I close up for the day. 

When we went to go teach Amanda on valentines day, her friends and all her kids were ther and so we had a movie party. We watched the restoration andThey LOVED it! You could tell that they were so interested in this movie and they even wanted a copy of the DVD at the end of it. Haha they expressed how they wanted to share the video with every one they knew :) it was way fun. 

We invited them all to be taught and they all accepted :) awesome!

Other then that I think that's all that really happened this week. Things are beginning to slow down a little bit. I hope y'all have a great week and enjoy the weather! We are in a freeze state right now so we can't go out on the streets at all until the ice clears up. Hopefully that will be soon because the mission president doesn't want us out there doing missionary work until it warms up. (Mainly because they don't do anything with the roads in Alabama when it snows and there are a lot of accidents. ) It will be interesting :) haha. 

I love y'all :) have a great week 

Sister Ralph 

2/9/15

This week was a little slower but nothing too bad happened So that is good! :)

Update on Amanda

So, this week me and Sister Merriam were debating if Amanda was really sincere about baptism and wondered if we needed to drop her or not. I thought that maybe we should but I felt as though we needed to give her another week and then we would decide. 

I am SO glad that we waited another week because we went to go see her on Wednesday and she is totally get her life in order! She is picking up her house and re doing it, she stopped taking drugs, she started going to school, and she is cutting back on smoking. What an improvement! I am so happy for her. We decided to push her baptismal date back to March 7th due to the fact that she hasn't attended church twice yet. :( We are still trying to figure out what we could do to help her strengthen her testimony about the church and so far so good. We re taught her the restoration and she is going to read and pray about it. So that's good. She is excited for her baptism and loves when her "New Sisters" come and visit to teach her because she loves the spirit that we bring into her home. (Or outside on her front porch: Southern Style ) :) 

I got my bike this week!!! The weather is warming up this week! It is not as cold and I am excited for that because bike riding will be much better. :) 

Michelle

Michelle is one of our new Investigators. :) The elders began to teach her but then passed her to us, so we only began to teach her this week. She is so steadfast and came to church with us last week. Yay! She was supposed to come to church yesterday as well but unfortunately she couldn't find a ride. She really wanted to go and felt bad that she couldn't but we reassured her that she tried her best and that we would help her find a ride next week. She was excited to know that we would help her out :)

Michelle expressed her love for us and love for the things she has learned and she has committed to baptism which will also be held on the 7th of March. I am so happy for her! I know that this step will bless her and help her with the struggles that she is currently facing. 

Christine

 

Christine is also one of our new investigators. It was so funny how we met her too. We were tracting some homes behind Walmart for about an hour and a half and we started to get hungry so before heading home we decided to knock on more house. We went up to the house, knocked on the door and something happened. No one answered... Man... So we knocked one more time just in case they didn't hear the first knock annndddd no one answered again. We were kind of sad but knew that we just had to get going. While we were walking back, a girl who was on the phone at the time, hung up, and called to us "Are you girls going to come over and talk to me about church!?" and we were like "Definitely!" and walked over towards her. She was so friendly. When we got over to her she told us to wait because she wanted to go grab her momma and her husband. haha she was so excited! She had told us that she was looking for a new church to attend and wanted to attend church with us! She was even doing all our hard work like getting our phone number, getting the church address, and asking us what to wear and when to come and everything. She is totally prepared! It is unusual to find someone who is greatly interested like she is. I believe we are going back to her home to teach her this week. I am excited! :)

 

First Store Contacting on my own!

After writing my letter last week, we had to go to the store to pick up some groceries and some pictures. Well, while Sister Merriam was getting pictures, an old elderly man came up to me and starting looking at my name tag and in my mind I was like "He is looking at my name tag! Here, let me dust it off for you. " haha. I got really nervous though in that situation because I had to talk to him about everything without the aid of Sister Merriam! Yikes! I was so happy that the spirit was guiding me and directing me because without it, I would have not known what to say. :) He took a Book of Mormon and a mormon.org card with our phone number on it, so that was great! :)

 

The Palace

 

There is this place called the Palace and it really is the cutest little Sand which and Ice Cream shop in the world. It is decorated like the 50's and the Harvey's Milkshake is to die for! It is on the top 10 foods to eat in Alabama and I believe it because it was so good!  Yum! If I ever visit Alabama after my mission, I am coming back to this place. :) mmmmmm

 

Pizza Party with Sister Bryant

I haven'y told y'all about Sister Bryant yet huh.

 

I have gotten so close to Sister Bryant this past 3 weeks. We go and visit her like 3 times a week because she is old, and can't come to church for health reasons. Her husband died and she lives on her own, so we go and visit her to give her company. I LOVE HER! She is my Alabamian Grand mother. I am so glad that she lives just a few apartments down from us because sometimes she will need us to come over for help.

 

The other night though, something was wrong. She called us and she was crying. :( nooo!!! So, we went to visit her and I guess she was just having a really hard day because she couldn't remember anything and she was frustrated because she couldn't remember the password to her email and aol account. She was saddened because her brain wasn't functioning like her old young self. So, while we were over there, we shared some scriptures to uplift her, and sung a couple of songs. (Totally inspired songs too for they were both her husbands favorite and he would sing them to her all the time. We had no clue!) We then proceeded to figure out the computer situation in which she told us that she had gone into kidney failure! :( what?! No! man...I was so heart broken. She continued to tell us that she had been in kidney failure for 4 years but refused to go in to get treated because her husband went through the same thing and hated the treatments. He died for the same reason. It wasn't until that day that they told her that she didn't have much longer to live. However, she did tell us that she was in good spirits because she was ready to go see her husband and she felt at peace with the songs we sang to her. I was happy that she told us that. She also wants to "Be a missionary like we are" and is excited to do that in heaven! haha she has a good sense of humor. I love her :) 

 

That night she demanded that we have a pizza party so she ordered pizza and we had a good night. :) Me and Sister Merriam had other plans that night but we both felt the Lord's approval to be with her at the time. It was like he was there the whole night singing songs, reading scriptures and eating pizza with us. haha :) It was a totally good experience.

 

Other than that

I don't have much else to say besides that one night we went to the palace to eat and they were closed :( aww. The good thing that came out of this though was that we were able to find this cute little case of books and written on the top was "Take one give one." So me and Sister Merriam decided to donate two Book of Mormons with our testimony written in it to the box. Hopefully someone was able to take them and read it :) 

 

Well, I am really having a good time in Alabama and came to the conclusion that y'all are going to have to pack up and move here because I never want to leave! :) It is so great! Y'all would have a blast here. 

 

Thanks again for all the letters! I have enjoyed reading them. :) Sorry this letter was a little shorter.

I hope it is a good week for everyone! The Lord loves all of you So very Dearly. Don't ever forget that! 

Southern Missionary In Training 

Sister Ralph

2/2/15

Hi family this week has been incredible! I do not know where to begin. I think I am just going to take it day by day again. haha :)

Tuesday: Exchanges

I was able to go on my first Exchange and I was exchanged all the way to Mississippi! What a fun experience. I was given a new Companion and her name is Sister Allred. She is such an amazing teacher and she has been to 18 baptisms while on her mission. Holy smokes, that's a lot! While on my exchange, we were able to teach two families. One family had three kids And we taught them the plan of salvation by using chalk and the kids got to draw it out on the side walk while we explained each step. They had a ton of fun. Afterwards, we gave Alauna (Who is turning 8) some cookies for her birthday. She totally wants to be baptized and I am so happy for her. 

The other family also had three kids and we taught them a little bit about repentance. We decided to have Jonah, Who was 8 and getting ready to be baptize, wear a backpack that was empty. We explained that he could probably hold the back pack on his shoulders for a while without getting tired because how light it was. However, as he sins the backpack gets heavier and heavier. (We used books to weigh the backpack down and to represent sin). Eventually, the guilt from sin gets so heavy and becomes too much of a burden that we could no longer hold ourselves up. Jonah was no longer able to hold himself up without falling down because of how heavy the back back was getting. Thankfully, through Jesus Christ and his Atonement, we can repent, and our guilt and sin is taken away. Which then we proceeded to take the books out and the backpack got lighter and lighter as he repented. 

It was so cute because the two other children wanted to try also, so we gave them a chance. I think it was a cute little object lesson for them.  They learned a lot. 

Other than those two lessons, nothing else really went on during exchanges. It was just relly cool to go to Mississippi and learn new things from Sister Allred. :)

Wednesday: New investigators!

On Wednesday we had the coolest experience as we met two people named Andy and Ashley. 

After dinner, we had about 30 minutes to tract and so we decided to knock on a few apartment doors around our own. The first door we knocked no one answered unforunately. But after that, the spirit told me "Knock the one next door!" I was like, Okay :) 

I am so thankful I did because we knocked and a really cute young girl Named Ashley answered and immediately let us come in before letting us introduce ourselves which was really not normal. Haha.

Anyway, we went in and she introduced us to her Husband named Andy and then we were able to introduce ourselves and tell them a little about the Book of Mormon.  They were totally interested! 

Andy and Ashley just got married in November and Andy's back story is just amazing. 

I guess he was a really big drug/alcohol addict when he was 18 and he got in trouble twice with the law as he was selling stuff illegally. I think after he was charged with 2 felonies he turned himself in and moved to Seattle where his mom lived. In Seattle he joined this church program that eventually made him sober and he believes that God gave him a second chance in life.

 Mainly because, after he changed his life, his two felonies were completely dropped and he has never turned to drugs or alcohol ever again. He believes that God heard how much he wanted to change and how sorry and guilty he was and because of this, God was able to forgive him and drop his two felonies. He was so grateful to Heavenly Father for everything and is way faithful to this day. Him and his wife go to church every week at a local Baptist Church and read the bible everyday. Super faithful people. 

The cool thing about this whole visit was when Andy told us "We let you guys come into our home because we felt like God sent y'all to us. There must be a message that he wants us to hear. If so, y'all are welcome to come over anytime and we will be willing to hear the things you share."

When me and Sister Merriam heard this our Jaws dropped and we were overcome with Joy. We have really high hopes for this couple and I seriously think they could get baptized and sealed in the temple. 

Thursday: The best day out of the week! 3 new investigators and a Miracle

On Thursday, we got to teach Amanda. If you go back a little, Amanda was the one that we extended a baptisimal invite to last week and she accepted! :) Well, we were able to go over again and have a porch lesson about the restoration. We focused mainly on teaching her about Joseph Smith and his Account of the Vision. We really wanted to emphasize what set our church apart from other churches and how our church is restored to full on this earth. I thought it was going great and everything especially when she let us know that she believed our church was true and told us she knew that because the spirit made it manifest unto her! Yay! I was so happy! :) SHE KNOWS THIS CHURCH IS TRUE! 

The only thing that we had to do next was set a baptism date (Feb 28th by the way) and have her come to church with us this week. When we asked her if she would come to church with us she said no.... and we were all like what? Why? 

She proceeded to tell us that she was fixin to go to the baptist church with her friend which then we continued to ask her "What about the true church? I thought you believed our church was true?"

She replied "I know y'alls church is true. I know it. But I also know that this other church is true. I think every church is true just as long as they worship Christ." 

So yeah... We went from yes! She knows our church is true! To man... Now she thinks all Churches are true. What are we going to do. 

I think we will talk more about the priesthood next time and pray that she will understand more about the Full restored church. 

After Amanda's lesson, we tracted around her neighborhood and found this old man in his 80's raking leaves. Seeing that he might have needed help, we offered to rake the leaves for him. He turned to us and politely rejected our invitation because he would rather us spread the word of Jesus around to his neighbors instead. haha :) what a funny man. He was so polite as well and he thanked us for the sacrifice we were making to share the message of Christ to everyone we could. However, after he was done talking, he wanted to say a prayer with us and wanted us to go to his two neighbors homes where they would accept our message. So, we said a prayer with him, gave him our number, and said goodbye to him and his well behaved dog.  

I am so thankful that he gave us those two referrals because they are now our investigators. 

One of them is Maryssa and she has a husband and two kids. She is totally up to having us come back to teach her and her kids about our church. She believes that it would be a great blessing for her family. 

 

The other family was just down the street. There names are April, Randal, Elijah, and baby Zoe who is going to be born in May. What a cute family! They are so humble and thank Heavenly Father for everything they have. We talked to them for about 30 minutes and even invited us to come back to teach them more about the Book of Mormon. Yay! :) I am excited. 

That night, a miracle happened. 

Me and Sister Merriam wanted to go visit a less active but for some reason the GPS took us to the wrong address. The house we arrived at was in this side neighborhood that was really creepy and scary. (It was also night time, cold, and really dark outside) We decided to pray to know if the neighborhood was safe to tract around in but the spirit told me, "You have to get out of here. It is not safe. Get out now. " We found ourselves really obedient in this moment despite the fact that I didn't even get out of the car to back out sister merriam. I was way to scared to do so. haha. 

We thanked Heavenly Father for the warning and after that the spirit told Sis. Merriam that we had to go to food land. We didn't even know where foodloand was! haha :) This was the crazy part. But she totally relied on the spirit. She felt like we needed to turn on this one street to knock at this one specific house. So, we parked the car, said a prayer, and started to get out. Perfect timing, too, because as we got out, a truck pulled up into the driveway of the house we were going to knock at. We went up to the two men who immediately told us not to worry about sharing them a message because they were atheists and they didn't believe their was a god. They also began to tell us how they grew up knowing their was a God however they never really experienced a feeling that God was actually there and how the earth was just built upon science and "The whole big bang theory". They were even saying that night that, "Until God shows himself to us and tells us that he is real I will not believe in him. However, if he does show himself to me and my brother, we will embrace it with all of our hearts and know that he lives."

That right there was a miracle. Me and Sister Merriam were able to testify to them that God literally directed us to them. We were completely blind in the direction that we were going and we just had this overwhelming feeling to go talk them. We were able to testify to them that God loves them. Especially because in that moment, I was physically trembling with the amount of love I had for them. I even had to stick my hands in my jacket pocket because of how much it was shaking. I KNEW, in that moment, that Heavenly Father was expressing to me how much Love he has for them and how much he cared for them. I do not think I have ever felt that much love in my life for a single person that I didn't even know. and I know that it was not just my love, it was his profound love that he has for each of his children here on earth. We were able to testify, with tears in our eyes, that God was looking out for them and that he planned for us to meet. 

 

The two men were speechless. They even accepted to read the Book of Mormon. What a MARVELOUS experience. I am overjoyed to know that they embraced that feeling that night. They now know that there is a God who would do anything for them.

 

I just think its crazy because the love I had for them was not mine. It was Heavenly Fathers. What a cool experience. 

 

The COOLEST thing though is that after we said goodbye to them, we got in our car and drove to the stop sign where to the right, we saw in big letters the grocery store "FOODLAND!"

SO AMAZING!!!! 

 

Sunday: Another miracle happened 

 

Me and Sister Merriam were driving to Family Home Evening this night but it was POURING!  When we started to drive, it was barely even sprinkling so we thought it would be okay and safe. But about a quarter of they way there, it starting to pour! It poured so much that we could not even see the road! We were seriously driving blind and the wind kept blowing us off the road. We were so scared and so I felt like I needed to pray. I prayed that we would be able to see the road, and that we would be able to get to the Nebekers safely. I prayed for protection and the ability for us to be okay. The miracle happened immediately after I said amen, for the rain just ceased. 

 

I didn't even pray for the rain to stop, but holy smokes the Lord is amazing and he heard our prayer! He stopped the rain and we were able to drive the rest of the 10 miles with safety. I cannot even express how scary that was and how thankful I am. The lord really does protect his children. 

I don't really have anything else to say. I mean I do, but if I were to do so I would take another 2 hours. But those were the highlights of my week. 

 

I hope y'all enjoyed it. 

 

I love everyone of you and hope life is great. And hopefully Bo hasn't forgotten me already. haha :) He better of not forgotten me.

I will talk to y'all next week and I am thankful for all your letters. They are great!!!!

Southern Missionary, (Still in Training)

Sister Ralph

Step Five! Farewell Talk

I was able to give my farewell talk on the 28th of December. I gave my talk on setting priorities and goals in life. As I think of this topic, I know that starting off the year with a mission is just fantastic! I am glad that I am able to leave during this time and am most grateful that I could have new obstacles to conquer this coming year. As I was giving the talk, I realized that it would be my last talk in that ward. I have lived in that ward for 18 years and have had 4 callings and given 4 talks. That ward has seen me through nursery, sun beams, primary, bee hives, mia maids, and now relief society. I have gotten to know the people in this ward to a great extent and I am going to miss them all dearly. It will be quite a change to go from the Bridlegate ward to other many wards on my mission but I believe it will be a good change. I am totally looking forward to setting new goals for this year to come and am going to enjoy this year as humanly possible. :)

Step Four! Temple Endowments

I was able to receive my endowments on Halloween 2014. I loved this experience SO much and I do not know if I could have felt the spirit so strong in my whole life. I cannot tell of everything that happened inside, however I will say that the temple is the most amazing place I have ever been in and I am glad that I was able to go through. I have never felt as much peace and comfort as I did then and this experience has strengthened my testimony in many different ways. The temple truly is the house of the Lord and holy smokes I do not think I could describe the immense beauty that lies within the walls of each temple. I was able to go through the Gilbert Temple and what a blessing that was. I knew after the cultural celebration that this temple would be the one I would go through for my first time. Also, all of my siblings were able to visit and were able to go through the temple with me. It was so great to see all of my siblings within the same temple walls. This was the most amazing experience and I am thankful everyday for being raised in the Gospel and am now more than excited to preach it to everyone. :)