7/29/13

It has been an okay week. Sis. Astle went to a Chiropractor last week and today to try and fix the headaches. I really like this chiropractor! He is way cool and definitely knows what he is doing. They keep trying to get me to become a patient - they are better salesmen than we are I think! haha! But they are really nice. It's always fun trying to explain to people what we do when they have never heard of Mormons before! Lots of different reactions...

 

Sis. Benson is still sick. It's been about 12 days now. She has been to a doctor and he thinks it's a virus but is still waiting on blood work. She is miserable. I feel so bad for her. We are trying to go on exchanges when we can so that they keep their area going. It's been crazy...

 

We did experience a miracle of sorts this week though! So Leilani Cain is the daughter of recent converts, the one I don't really have the patience for but Sis. Astle and her have really hit it off. Well things have been kind of progressing with her and she is warming up to us more and more. She has some sweet moments, which makes me start to like her more and more. But we were texting her on Thursday and out of no where she tells us she wants to get baptized. WHAT?!?!!?!? It was crazy! We were like, "really? that's awesome!" and she was like yah, for real, and I want to do it before you both leave. (there is a good chance I will be leaving on the 21st). so we told her that and she said I still want to do it. So Leilani Cain, the girl I always had a hard time with who I never thought was going to go anywhere anytime soon wants to get baptized on August 17th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As soon as Leilani texted us that we got our knees and said a prayer of gratitude. I was humbled. Leilani has been making a lot of progress. I just keep thinking about the day when her parents get sealed next year in February and now Leilani can be part of that day. SO AWESOME!!!! I'm so happy for their family. We are also trying to creatively teach her. She doesn't like school and doesn't like being taught so we are trying to figure out the best way to help her progress. Leilani is OBSESSED with rollercoasters and goes to Ceder Point all the time. She can talk about roller coasters for HOURS!!! So we are at the point where we teach the Plan of Salvation lesson. We made a plan of salvation roller coaster out of q-tips and toothpicks!!! It is SO LEGIT!  When we get done with it tonight I will send pics. It is pretty incredible. I am very proud of our roller coaster making abilities. I can't wait for her to see it tonight!

 

We had kind of a bold/serious lesson with Tome at the begining of last week. We told him that we had a purpose and expectations. We told him that he needs to stop "trying" and starting doing. We told him we need to see a little bit more commitment from him. We were also loving though. But we haven't been able to get a hold of him since... We are going to try stopping by tonight and see what's going on.

 

James Jackson is funny. The ward had a Pioneer Day barbeque and he came to it. He met lots of members and had a good time but then didn't show up to church on Sunday. WHAT?! I don't know what is going on with him... We might need to have a come to Jesus meeting with him too...

But we are trying to find some new people still. We are also trying to visit more less-actives and part member families and see what kinds of referrals we can get there a long with bringing them back to activity.

 

The weather here has been incredible!!! 70's for the past week or so! I AM LOVING IT!!!! We've even had to put on jackets a few nights! And a lot people have been telling me that the heat doesn't get close to St. Louis, so that made me happy too! I should be able to handle this no problem!

 

So transfers are coming up in about 3 weeks - the 21st. I am excited and at the same time not really. I am nervous to leave my first area. This is all I know and I don't want to leave the people here who I have come to love! It's going to be so hard leaving  Massillon. I am also so sad to leave Sis. Astle. I have really come to love her and I am going to miss her SO much. I am finally back in a companionship where I really enjoy my companion. I don't want to leave yet!!!! But I know the Lord needs me other places so I just have to trust in that.

 

I love being a missionary. There are some times when I think "why in the world did I choose to do this?" but most of the time I am so grateful I chose to do this. I love being a part of people's lives in a way that I would never have been able to. I love being a student in the gospel. I love LEARNING! I never thought I would say that. i love studies. I love being able to feel Heavenly Father's love for His children. I love being able to see myself change as I apply His gospel to my own life. I love that I love reading the Book of Mormon - also something I never thought I would say. I never thought it was something that I would be able to do and actually understand. I love being a representative of Christ. He represented me while He was suffering and now I have a chance to represent Him.

 

I love you all and miss you all so much!!!!!

Rachel

7/1/13

Sounds like you guys have been busy and are only going to be getting busier! sounds like its all fun though!

Things here have been a little crazy! Monday night Sis. O'Driscoll still wasn't better and so we took her to an urgent care and they told us we needed to go to the ER. So we got the ER around 7:00 and around 10:00 they finally took us back to see a doctor and then sent us back out to the waiting room until a room opened up. We had all 4 of us so we had a member come up around 9:30 and take our trainees home so they could get some sleep. I stayed with Sis. O'D. We finally got back to do some tests around 12. They had her do some chest xrays and made her hold her breath and she blacked out... So that wasn't good. Then we finally got back to a room and they couldn't figure out what was going on so at 2 in the morning they sent us home with an inhaler... We got home around 2:30 and our zone leaders came over and gave her a blessing. I love our zone leaders! THey are awesome! They stayed up all night talking to us and making sure that we were okay and didn't need anything. Then we had district meeting in the morning and they got up at 6:30 and had a regular day! I couldn't believe that they were working on less than 4 hours of sleep! They are incredible! Sis O'D and I slept in till 9 - probably never going to happen again! But it was nice. Sis. O'D is stilll having some trouble, but she is getting better. Her mom set up some doctor's appointments and is meetin with a specialist this week, so hopefully we figure out what's going on soon!

So that kind of through off the begining of our week. But we have had some great things happen! We met with James and he is doing great! Still reading the BOM! He would have been at church yesterday but went out of town for the weekend, hopefully he comes this next Sunday! We also had a great lesson with Rachael! Her dad was there, he is inactive, and 2 of her friends were there too - Cat and Brittany! Brittany said she wants to be Mormon! They all left Sunday morning for a trip and will be back next Sunday night, so we gave them all Books of Mormon. They said that all they do on family vacations is read so we thought that would be a great thing for them all to read together! We are really excited to see how it goes. Rachael's dad - bro. Bennett, said, "yah, if I get my act together, I could even baptize Rachael!" It was so awesome! He realizes he needs to do some work but he is willing to do it! I think this is going to be great! I can't wait for them to get back so we can keep teaching them.

Yesterday was probably the 2nd best day of my mission so far! (the first is the Rohrer's baptism of course!) Yesterday was the Mission President's Fireside for the Akron Stake. Let me just preface this whole thing by explaining to you how difficult it is teach our investigator Tom Townsend. Sometimes I feel like I am teaching nursery. His attention span is about 10 seconds - no exageration. We were teaching him the plan of salvation and he couldn't get past pre-earth life. We explained to him about 5 times that in pre-earth life we lived with Heavenly Father and that we chose to come to the Earth. He was so lost. We got to Adam and Eve and then just gave up. I have never taught so simply on my mission and he still wasn't getting it. He's really funny about it, after our lessons I tend to just laugh because I go away not knowing if understood anything we talked about. Anyway, we have been trying to get Tom to come to church for about a month now and we haven't gotten anywhere. He says church reminds him of funerals. But then we found out he LOVES church music and we told him about the Fireside and that we were going to be singing at it. He sounded more interested in that but I didn't know if he would actually come or not. But we called a member that he has met before and they got a long really well and we asked if he would pick Tom up, of course he said yes, so we were just waiting for Tom to say yes. So last night we called the member and he said that, after a little coaxing, Tom said that he was coming! I ALMOST CRIED I WAS SO HAPPY!  We have been working SO HARD to try and get Tom to the church or to progress in any way! And we were so close, we just had to make sure that he showed up! AND HE DID!!!! The Fireside was phenomenal! It was perfect! Pres. Vellinga and Pres Talley (the stake president) both spoke. Pres. Vellinga spoke about the Restoration and about Kirtland and how Jesus Christ has been here in Oho and how this is all in our back yards! It was great! Tom loved it! He can't wait to go to Kirtland! And then Pres. Talley spoke about the book of Mormon and how it needs to be a part of our lives. He talked about how Christ asked the Pharisees and Sudjucees and all of them "What think ye of Christ?" I love this question. Becase it makes me think about what I really think of Christ. and then Pres. Talley said the question he wished to pose to us was "what think ye of the Book of Mormon?" Before my mission I would have said not much, I knew it was true and I knew what it was about, but I didn't know the Book of Mormon or thought what I think about it now. I love that Book and I don't live a day without reading it. It is a road map of how to live my life so that I can be with my Heavenly Father forever, and why wouldn't we want to read that? Why wouldn't we want all the answers? It was great! THen they had recent converts bare their testimony and Brandon Rohrer was aksed to bear his. As he was bearing his testimony I just cried, the whole time. I was so grateful that I had been blessed to be a part of his story and to have been able to get to know them. It just made me so happy to hear his testimony and know that I had been a successful missionary, that I had been a tool in our Lord's hand. I know that none of what the Rohrers have accomplished is because of me. It has all happened because they chose to let the Savior's love into their lives and to choose Him. The spirit was their teacher and He is the one that converted them, I was just a long for the ride. It was an awesome moment to see Brandon up there! I love that kid! 

The music that night was PERFECT! There was a member in the Akron ward that sang this gorgeous medley of Lead Kind Light and I Need Thee Every Hour. Then I sang with Sis. Benson (sis. O'D's comp) and our old zone leaders before they split our zone. We sang Be Still My Soul. The arrangement was beautiful and the accompaniment was insane! It turned out really well! I wish you guys could have heard it! Then as the closing hymn they had all of the missionaries and the youth come up and sing I Know THat My Redeemer Lives. I'm crying right now thinking back on that moment. The spirit was incredible. Like POWER HOUSE levels of the spirit. It felt like a taste of Heaven - seriously. I want to feel like that all the time! After it was over we asked Tom what he thought. He LOVED it! He understood what was happening, he was paying attention, he loved the music, and HE WANTS MORE! I can't wait for him to come to church on Sunday! He got to meet Pres. Vellinga and our bishop and our ward mission leader and a bunch of members. Pres. Vellinga knows exactly what to say. It was perfect, simply perfect. We are teaching Tom tonight and I can't wait to go see him and find out more of what he thought about last night! I can't wait to let you know how it goes!

I love this gospel! I know it is true! It is a message of hope, peace, and change! I LOVE CHANGE! Change is the coolest thing in the world!

I love you guys all so much and I am so grateful for all of your support and love! It keeps me going out here!

Take another trip out to the lake for me!!!!