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

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!!!!!