6/24/13

Last night was crazy!!!!! I am so excited about these changes that will be happening soon! It was really funny, last week at ward council we were trying to think of ways that the members could get more excited about missionary work and sharing the gospel with their friends and neighbors and then last happened! BOOM! That got taken care of! How could you watch last night's broadcast and not want to share the gospel?!?!? IT'S SO EASY!!! Just be a follower of Christ! It was awesome!

I enjoyed the update on the family! I am so jealous you got to spend all that time with the kiddos! I miss them so much! Keep sending pics! I love them!

The work here is going well! We have been teaching a lot of less actives and members this week. BUt we also set 2 baptismal dates! One with our new investigator James Jackson. He is this happy adorable black older man! We love him! He's pretty laid back and doesn't seem totally comitted, but we're going to change that! And then our other one is with a former investigator, Rachael Bennett. Her dad is inactive and so is her brother. The rest of the family aren't members. Rachael has met with 4 different sets of missionaries, but never sisters. So we are so excited to start teaching her again! She knows the gospel is true, she's just never been very dilligent with it. We're going to change that too!!! We haven't had too much success with our investigator Tom. He's SUPER insecure and doesn't like change at all. He smokes and drinks coffee, things that we will also be changing. He's such a great man and we know this is exactly what he needs right now, we are having a hard time getting him to understand that though. But we know in time he will get it. I think that's the hardest thing for people when they begin investigating the gospel - change! THat's what it's all about! Even though it is hard it is SO WORTH IT!!! I love change!

THings with my companion are going good. Sis. Astle is a hard worker! She's great. She has a lot of "19 year old" moments, but they usually make me laugh or I just ignore them... :)

So sis. O'Driscoll has had some breathing problems while on her mission. She had a bad attack in the MTC and they almost didn't let her come out. And then she had a REALLY bad one the night we got here. She started having one Saturday night again. It was kind of scary so we called Sis. Vellinga (she is in charge of all of the health stuff). She put President on the phone and we finally got her breathing calmed down. Then President gave a blessing OVER THE PHONE! it was so awesome!!!!!!!!!! THen he was kind of bearing his testimony to us. He told us that he knows that we are not alone in that apartment. It was great. The spirit was really strong.
I know that the Lord's hand is in this work. I know that this is His gospel. I feel His love for the people around us every day. It's incredible to be an instrument in His hands and experience the feelings of love that we do. It's one of my favorite parts of being a missionary. It's also one of the most frustrating things because people break your heart so much easier now! haha! But I love this work!

So I LOVED your package!!!!!!!!! The cookies are almost all gone! Thank you thank you thank you thank you!!! Just what we needed! I loved the cd! lol! That was great! Do you know what cd you sent me? You'll have to look at the pics to find out! lol! We were all laughing so hard! It was great.

THank you all so much! I love you guys and miss you all a TON!!!!

Rachel

6/17/13

I love getting the updates about the family! I hope Haleigh is doing alright! I was laughing out loud as I was reading this. The people in the library here are looking at me weird... but I thought that was hilarious! I'm glad to hear you guys are having some missionary opportunities! That's awesome!!!

This week has been great! I feel like I am finally adjusted and I'm really starting to love this! The Lord is blessing me in so many ways! Training is going well. Sis. Astle is great! We have had some opportunities this week to really bond. Nothing huge, I have just come to be very grateful for her this week. I really love her, she's awesome. I sent a pic of us - it's a bad pic, but it's a pic.

We have 2 new investigators this week! We met Diamond and her bf/husband? while we were out tracting last week. Diamond seems pretty interested! We are excited to start teaching her. We will go see her again on Wednesday. and then we met James! He is this old, adorable, tiny, black man who is the happiest person I have met in a long time! He requested a Bible back in 2008 and hasn't seen the missionaries since then, so we stopped by and he wants to come to church and learn more! We are excited. We are seeing him again tonight. We are also working with Tom Townsend. We met him a few months ago and started acutally teaching him a few weeks ago. He is awesoeme! He's an older guy in his 70's, he is really lonely. All of his sibbings and parents have died within the last 6 years and most of his buddies are gone too. So going to church reminds him of death and funerals - the church building, dressing up, and the organ. So we're trying to figure out a way to help him. He doesn't understand his purpose and why we are here. It's so sad and it makes me so grateful for the knowledge that we have as members of the church! People that don't know about the Plan of Salvation are so lost and confused and it's so sad!

We had a training meeting in Kirtland on Friday! I love Kirtland! It is such a sacred place and the spirit is ALWAYS there. I can't wait for you guys to see it and to be here. It's incredible. I never knew much about Kirltand or thought much of it, but it is such an important part of the church's history. This area is so important to the Lord. There was a general authority that came to the mission a while back and told the missionaries that Joseph Smith himself had a hand in picking the missionaries that would serve in this mission. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to serve in the Ohio Cleveland Mission. So many amazing things have happened here! This is where the Savior appeared several times! I love it!

This month we are having a Mission President's Fireside at our building! I can't wait! Pres. Vellinga and Pres. Talley (our stake pres.) are both going to be speaking! I can't wait for the stake and for all of our investigators to get to meet these amazing men! I love them both! and then 2 elders, another sister and I will be doing a musical number. I am excited for it - we are singing a beautiful arrangement of Be Still My Soul. It should be great!

Overall things here are great! I am loving being a missionary! I think one of my favorite parts is being able to feel the love that Lord has for His children every time we teach. It's incredible.
Well I love you guys and miss you all so much!

Rachel

6/3/13

SOOO much has happened in the last week! Wednesday was transfers. We got there early and I was able to see Sis. Dahle again!!! That made me so happy! I have missed her so much! Then all of the trainers (there were 23 of us) went into the nursery room in the Kirtland Stake Center and waited. and waited and waited. Then President walked in and told us all of our new companions had just arrived from the Kirtland sites and were about to walk in. I started hyperventalating! It was awful, I thought I might pass out. But then all 23 new missionaries walked in and stood at the front of the room. They all had pictures of their companions, so they knew who they were with and where they would be going. So President told them to go find their trainers and Sis. Astle came to me! Sis. Mayson Astle is from Provo Ut, is blonde, and is 19 years old. She is adorable! She makes me laugh - a lot. She is very smart, very sweet, and very genuine. She has a talent of connecting with people that I don't have the patience to connect with. She's great! She is very young, though. It's been interesting.

Also at transfers - they split my zone! It was crazy! They completely re-arranged who is in our district and our zone! It will be interesting to hang out with the elders later today and get to know the new ones!

It's been a long week - trying to get Sis. Astle acclamated. I can't tell yet if she likes me or not, which is difficult for me because I don't know if there's something that I need to change. But I realized that I just need to focus on the work. If I focus on the work I won't need to worry about anything else. I am not here to make friends - that is just an added bonus. I am here to bring His children unto Christ. And hopefully I can do that for Sis. Astle as well.

Yesterday was an awesome Sunday! Sis Bell is the sister that I replaced when I came to Massillon. She is still EVERYONE'S favorite missionary. And for good reason - she is an incredible missionary! I love her so much! But this was her last transfer and she is going home, so she came to the Massillon ward with her family to say goodbye to everyone. Because it was fast and testimony meeting, everyone got up and bore their testimonies about missionary work. The spirit was so strong! It was really exciting to see the ward's reaction to missionary work. Sis. Tribett - the relief society president - asked Sis. Astle and I to give the lesson in RS about fellowship and how important it is for members and nonmembers. It was a great lesson to prepare for and one that I feel this ward has needed for a while. The RS had a really great discussion about it and I hope to see them apply it! That's something that I have learned - becoming more like the Savior and truly becoming His is all in the application. That's how the change occurs!

It's been fun to hear Sis. Astle tell me about what she is going through right now because it helps me remember how far I've come. It's difficult to love this work right off the bat, it's hard to stay awake, it's hard to feel like you're here for a reason. I remember thinking the exact same things and wondering if I was ever going to make it home - a year and a half felt like an eternity! I don't know how to explain it, but one day I woke up and everything was different. I love this work. I can wake up at 6:30 and be excited about it! I know why I am here. I am so grateful that the Lord has answered my prayers and has helped me to get to this point. I would rather be here right now than anywhere else. Granted - there are bad times. I'm not saying everyday is rainbows and sunshine. This is still REALLY hard. But now I know that there will always be good days too.

Well I hope you guys are doing well! I hope the family is great and that you guys are enjoying summer! I hope the folk dance project went well and it turned out great! I can't wait to see some video!

Love you guys so so so much!

Rachel