5/20/13

I love you guys so much!  I am so sad I'm not going to be there for the Folk Dance team! So Rex has been taking Heidi Shepherd to Wild Country? Mom, I think you ment to say Amber. When I read that I started cracking up visualizing it. I bet Heidi would have a blast! lol!

This week has been good. We have been meeting with a lot of less actives in the ward. We met sassy Sis. Sawyer on Thursday. She is a firecracker! She told us not to call her a member, but said we can come back for visits. She lives on a huge farm with this massive red barn out front. Ohio is so beautiful when you get out of the city. I really love it! Then we met Sis. Barstow. I had an interesting experience as we walked into her house and I don't really know how to explain it or even why it happened. As we walked in it just felt like something was off, something wasn't right. She was in her pajamas, wet hair, and super blood shot eyes. She invited us to sit down at her kitchen table. It had cigerette ash all over it and there was a bag of cheap tabacoo, it looked like they rolled their own cigerettes - which is pretty common here, people can't afford regular cigerettes. But we sat down and I had this overwhelming feeling that things were not right and we needed to be very careful. I almost stood up and walked out, it was so strange. her husband was gone, she didn't know where he went, he had been gone for a couple of hours apparently. which added to the strangeness. I was praying so hard in my heart. As we started talking to her the spirit started leading the conversation. She has a lot of really hard things going on in her life. She also has a few illnesses, mental and physical. She just has a really hard life. But I think whatever made me feel terrified to be there went away once we began reading scriptures and talking about Jesus Christ. Powerful things happen when you are His representative.

We had a missionary musical fireside Friday night. It went so well! There were some non-members there and we are praying that they become interested in the gospel! The theme was "Prophets testify of Jesus Christ'. So we had lots of quotes from OT prophets and BOM Prophets. The primary, youth, and other talented members were all involved. The spirit was so strong! We ended with the story of Joseph Smith and then with the Mormon Message where Elder Packer, Pres. Uchtdorf, Eyring, and Monson testify of Jesus Christ. It was so crazy awesome! THen we had a member's daughter who is less active sing Savior, Redeemer. It was beautiful. She is an opera singer and did fantastic. She even got a little choked up at the beginning! Pres. Stacey, one of the counselors in our mission presidency was there. He loved it! After the fireside I felt like I should ask him for a blessing. Things have been really hard lately and we have been really discouraged. And with the prospect of possibly training I felt that I might need some council. (and sisters aren't allowed to get blessing of comfort and council from the elders) so I asked Pres. Stacey and he and my bishop gave me such a beautiful blessing. It was exactly what I needed. IT brought me a lot of comfort and peace about everything. I love the priesthood, it is such an amazing gift and blessing in our lives!

Saturday we had a lesson with Chucky at the church and we scheduled it for the same time that his baptism was supposed to be - on purpose. We asked him what he thought led him to not being able to get baptized right now. We pretty much had to have a DTR (Define the Relationship) talk. HE needed to understand our purpose and understand that we can not waste the Lord's time if he is not willing to do comitt to this. I definitely had some Darlene Chapman coming out. Chucky was playing games and was trying to blame everyone else except himself. He kept trying to get us to feel sorry for him and tell him that the little work that he has done is good enough. It made me think a lot about what the Lord expects from us and why. The Lord expects everything. He expects it all. But why? I came to the realization that if we only gave Him part of us, how can He help us change and become better? How can He help us become what He wants us to be. We are like little children who's parents are trying to wipe off our faces or get us dressed or something like that. He is trying to help us! and if we would just sit still and do what it is He asking us to do we would be so much better off! We would be clean and dressed instead of dirty and naked! He needs us to be submissive and meek. It was an interesting lesson for me to see this week. The Lord asks a lot of us, but He blesses us even more for it. I was reading in Mosiah 23 today. The Lord is talking to Alma and His people. They are a righteous people who are keeping their covenants. Yet in verse 21 it says, "the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people, yea he trieth their patience and their faith". The Lord chastens even His righteous people. And the people of Alma suffered in humility and CHEERFULNESS!  They were cheerful about their trials! I thought back about the trials that I have recently been going through and I was not cheerful! But we can be, if we want to be. The scriptures really do have all of the answers in them! I love the BOM!!!!

 

Things here are going great and I am loving Ohio! I love being a missionary!

Tell Stephanie Happy Be-lated Birthday for me!! I am so sorry I forgot! I love you!

And Happy Birthday to you mom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you guys have a fun time down in OK this weekend! Tell everyone hi for me!

 

love and miss you all!

Rachel

5/13/13

Mom thank you for that quote!!!! It was perfect! I loved seeing everyone yesterday!!!! That was SO amazing! I miss you guys all so much!!!!

Well I don't really know what to update you guys on, I told you pretty much everything last night. We still haven't heard from Chucky, and we are still investigator-less. But talking with our families has given us a renewed desire and work ethic!

This past week we had zone conference. It was so great! The Valinga's are such incredible people. I love them so much! Sis. Valinga gave a talk on covenants. It was so nice to be able to be reminded of the Temple and to focus on that for a little bit since we don't have the opportunity to go. Pres. talked a lot about what an excellent missionary is. I have a lot of work to do! All the missionaries from our zone that will be going home in the next 3 months bore their testimonies. Lately I have been receiving so many answers to my prayers through people's testimonies! It's awesome! One of the AP's said something that I don't think I'll ever forget. He said, "we come out here thinking we're just going to go with the flow and we don't really get it. And then we become something". It was so awesome! I am in the process of being sculpted by the Lord, He is helping me become what He wants me to be, the missionary that He wants me to be. I realized that I don't have to be perfect right now, I just need to do my best. I am new, no one is expecting me to have this all done immediately. I am becoming, I haven't become. It brought a lot of peace to my mind and comfort to my heart. I love that our Heavenly Father truly knows us and knows what we need. I love Him a lot. : )

 

I'm so glad you guys all got to meet the Rohrers! They are such an incredible family and they mean so much to me! They have become part of my family!

 

I love you guys and miss you all A TON!!!!

I hope all is well and that you guys have a good week!

Rachel

Cinco de Mayo Pictures

 

5/6/13

Mom you're the best! I really appreciated all of the encouragement. This week has been another tough one. But things are starting to get better I think. We have been tracting a lot - and that isn't very effective at all. but we don't know what else to do to try and find new investigators. We have been praying so hard that the Lord will lead us to people who are prepared to hear the gospel. So we decided to walk down this street, Smith, and try and find some of the elect. It was really awesome, every door that we knocked on someone answered the door! We talked to this guy, Nate, and his 3 kids. We told him about eternal families and he seemed really interested, told us he wanted to come to church on Sunday and then we set up an appointment to come back friday to teach him about the Restoration. Then we went down the street a little bit and knocked on this guy's door, Seth. He seemed to be about 20 years old and really nice! We left him with a Book of Mormon and set up a return appointment. Well they both canceled on us later in the week. We think Nate had some friends that gave him anti-mormon stuff and now he's not interested anymore and Seth didn't answer. So that was really disappointing. Then Tuesday night we had a lesson scheduled with Chucky. We were teaching the law of chastity. He is living with a woman, not someone he is in a relationship with, just a friend. He is helping her take care of her young kids while he is looking for a new place to live. We told him that he was going to need to move out and asked him if that was something he thought he would be able to do. He asked us if he didn't move out if that would effect his baptismal date. We answered yes. and everything went down from there. He got so discouraged and couldn't believe that we were going to have to push his date back again. He felt like he was doing something good and it was what the Lord wanted him to do. He felt like after all he has done and changed and improved, it still wasn't good enough. We tried to explain that this is just a trial of his faith and that it is something  that we're going to help him get through. We told him to think about the person he was when we met him and who is now and that he isn't the same person! He didn't care, he told us he was done. Like I said, it was a rough week. BUT then the next day we called him and he sounded like he was back to being great again! He said that he ended up staying with Rick and that he was thinking about moving in with them, and that things were going better. We sent him a few scriptures and he said they really helped. Since then we have had 2 more lessons with him and he is back on track for being baptized for May 18th! We are so happy that things are going well again. That was the first time I really had experienced that kind of disappointment and discouragement. It was really hard for me to handle, but we got through it and are tryin to keep moving forward. 

This weekend was stake conference. It was so great! Saturday we went up to the stake building in Talmadge and heard from the stake presidency. The 2nd counselor in the presidency's daughter was one of my teachers in the MTC! She was so awesome! I loved her so much! and then I recognized a younger guy that was there and he looked like he recognized me too and so we talked and it turns out he was one of the students I was in charge of for Get Connected! and then it turned out that he was my MTC teacher's little brother! They're all related!!!! IT was crazy - such a small world! They gave some really great talks! And then on Sunday we watched a broadcast from SLC. Elder Gay, one of the 70's gave a really great talk about service. He was a mission president in Ghana and he talked about how he only regretted accepting the call to serve once. He was on this road on the way to the major city. This road was one of the worst roads in all of Africa, full of potholes and such... It took them 5 hours on this road to get to where they were wanting to go. On the way, he received this phone call from some of his old business associates from the company he used to work for before he retired. The friend informed him about a business deal that he had been apart of and how much money he had made from it. Elder Gay began doing the math and realized how much money he had just lost. It was A LOT of money. He continued to think about this as they were traveling through the African brush. Then all of sudden they were involved in a horrible car accident. The car got stuck in a pot hole and did 3 summersalts. no one in the car was seriously hurt except for him. He had a lot of glass stuck in his head and a huge gapping hole in his arm. They made a turnequit for him and flagged down the nearest car and took him to the city that they had been traveling to. They got to a clinic and the doctor laid him down on his wooden operating table. The doctor noticed his name tage and asked Elder Gay if he knew how he had gotten most of their equipment and the gowns that they were all wearing. Elder Gay said he didn't. The doctor informed Elder Gay that most of the clinic's tools and resources were donated by a senior missionary couple from the church. Elder Gay said that he heard the spirit so clearly in that moment. When one loses his life, that is when he saves it. He was saved by the service of others who had accepted the call to serve. He had almost lost his life and because of the Lord, that is when he was saved. This story really hit home for me. I have been struggling a lot, as you have noticed, with being out here. This is so hard, and I wasn't quite prepared for it. I have been questioning whether I can do this or not. Elder Gay taught me that I have to lose myself here in the Lord's work and that is when I will be saved. As missionary we MUST suffer, that way we will be able to truly understand what the Savior went through during the Atonement. We are losing our lives for those we are trying to serve, and through that service we will find our lives again. It was a really great talk.
I received a package from Maggie on Saturday and it was full of Cinco De Mayo stuff! So Sunday after church we had a little party in our apartment! It was nice to be able to enjoy spending time with eachother being dumb. We took lots of pictures so you would be able to enjoy as well!

I can't wait to skype with you guys next week!!!! The Rohrers are letting us come to their house on Sunday at 2 our time and Skype! I am not sure what account I will be using to talk to you, but we will probably just have Brandon or Rick call you and let you know what it will be so that we can get that all figured out.

Well I'm glad to hear that you guys are all doing well and that the family is good too! I'm jealous you guys are going to OKC for memorial day!!! It's going to be so fun! Make sure you tell everyone hi for me!

I miss you guys and love you all so much! Can't wait for Sunday!!!!!