Wa-hoo!

The manager at Qdoba's personally thanked me for bringing my whole church to his restaurant. I guess I have been going there at least once a month for about a year now and I seem to bring different missionaries every time I go, lol...

 

We made cupcakes for each member of our district. See pictures below.

 

This week has just been wonderful. It has been jam-packed with things to do and people to see with random little miracles all along the way. We met a cute 12-yr-old that might be the doorway to her whole family. Met Joan, who was super nice and strongly spiritual but has the strangest beliefs...I'm still trying to figure out exactly how to explain the precise reason fro Christ having to come and save us to someone who only believes that God loves us and would extend mercy to us under any conditions...complicated.

 

We had these crazy french toast banana things for breakfast with Elizabeth and Jess, now a part-member family. It was good stuff.

 

Blake is bringing one of our potential investigator's kids to church with him, and that kid says he is thinking about becoming a Mormon. Coolio. I've never had the privilege of bringing an entire family into the church all at once, but I'm starting to realize that this is how it normally happens. One step at a time. One person at a time.

 

The Yangs are the coolest Hmong family ever that are so nice and willing to consider our message. I feel like we hardly even know each other but when I told him and his wife that I'm leaving they were so loving and said to come to their house anytime and visit them :) Some people are just too cool.

 

We've been living the missionary life to it's fullest this week. And it's true that when you work hard it simply leaves no room for homesickness, or trunkiness, or anything. I don't even feel like the end is near, which is chill with me :)

 

We gotta run cause we're going to go party with our district and the Packers in GB and live up the time our district has left together :) I've never had a district that has been such a family as this one. We are very sad to be parting :(

 

Remember that the worth of souls is great in the sight of God. That's one thing I've learned big time on my mission. God loves all his children.

Also, spiritual experiences never have to end. A mission gets sad at the end because you're leaving the beautiful, happy world of a missionary, and for some reason it seems like the spiritual experiences have to go with it. But they don't. I will make sure of that :)

 

Sister Neal

Last Full Week :S

Is it weird to you? It's pretty weird to me.

 

This week was a party!

 

We had mission tour with Elder Martino and he was sooo great! As was President Cutler. And their wives. Everything was just great.

 

This sounds weird at first, but since I'm at the end of my mission it's probably the most important realization I could have had at that meeting: Elder Martino had President and his wife stand up and some of the missionaries talked about things they had learned from their example.

It hit me soo hard, something I'd never considered before but now I know to be true: a MAJOR reason I came to the Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission was because of President Cutler. When I reflect on the things I've done and the things he's done and all our interactions...no other mission president would have sufficed for me. He was the most perfect one. I totally never would have guessed it, but seriously--President Cutler has been a defining part of my mission experience.

 

My companion and I also realized that he favors us immensely. Her because she's Swedish (he's obsessed with Sweden, seriously) and me...I don't know why. But he definitely does.

 

I also learned in the meeting that the best people to teach and baptize are generally part member/less active people. We talked about all the work in all the areas that can still be done, and I was kinda laughing to myself because , in this respect, we have one of the hardest areas in the mission. We have about 15 potential elders in our area, all of which have zero potential (except for the recently baptized ones). Our part member families have a little potential, but the greater majority are less than interested. unbaptized children are about the same. Our numbers for these categories are the lowest in the entire mission besides, because our branch is so small. And yet here we are, leading the whole mission in baptisms (in branches, anyway). I don't know why the Lord loves us so much. He must love Sturgeon Bay as much as us and President do :)

 

We partied with the Appleton 2 Sisters (aka, spent the night at their house before mission tour). I love meeting new sisters!

 

This week we met a cool new investigators named Autumn. Pray for her :) We are also working on Elizabeth's daughter Jess, and I think it's working >:)

 

We also met the nonmember guy who drove the charter down to the temple for the stake temple trip that happened this weekend. That was cool!

 

New Relatively Useless Gospel Understanding for the week: In BoM class we were reading 3 Nephi 8 (I think) where it explicitly states that the last Monday of the Saviors mortal life, the day of the Triumphal Entry, was also his 33rd birthday. Cool right? HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Okay, it's not explicit at all, but I'll let you search it out :)

 

Sister Neal

Blake Got Baptized

The weeks go by so fast I can't even keep track of them! Which might be a good thing, cause I'm not trying to...

We met a cool new investigator named Jeff via a RC Sam, and member missionary work is just THE BEST

Tuesday we finally got Blake into the waters of BAPTISM. We also spent an ungodly amount of time making the lemon meringue pie he requested. Note to self: leave to members in the future. But we did it from scratch, and it worked out pretty good :)

We also went to a Swedish fiddling concert (like the last ten minutes of it) so Sister Karlsson could talk to them in Swedish. So I talked to probably the only one that was American, which was ironic. Gave her a Mormon.org card standing in the lobby on a nondenominational church. yay for missionary work anywhere :)

We had EXCHANGES this week, which I just LOVE! Sister Harris and I got to party like crazy in GB. She was MTC comps with my old trainee Sister Smith, so I was really excited to get to work with her, and we had an awesome time :) GB is still exploding, as always, and I contacted an awesome former that I'm sure will be able to be baptized soon (he would have been baptized by us a long time ago if he hadn't been in jail until last month) YAY!!

Sister Seymour is the missionary mom in SB. I'm so glad she moved here :)

We kinda had a rough ending to our week outside of Blake's great confirmation blessing. We struggled to up our number this weekend because we didn't have very many lessons during the week for some strange reason, but as it happened the Packers were playing! Which meant we got like nothing done. It's seriously impossible to accomplish anything in Wisconsin during a Packer game. State Religion.

But I have been finding out who some of the elder's I'm going home with are, and they're the cool ones, so that makes me feel better. It was gonna be really lame if I was the only sister in the mission home with a bunch of elders I don't even know. I'm pretty sure I'm the only sister going home this transfer...aghadkjngfsodsgk

We helped a new family move into the branch, who are just so great! I knew them well in GB, so life is good :)

Just realized today I only have one DTM left...BAH

Mission Tour is this Wednesday! Elder Martino from the 2nd Seventy is coming. It will be fantastic, and it might just get me out of giving a departing testimony, muahaha >:)

Party on. Missionary work is the best kind of party.

Sister Neal

Just Baptisms and Stuff

Our week has just been ridiculously busy and we failed AGAIN at the BoM giveaway commitment. Maybe next week...it seems to be an every-other-week thing.

Getting ready for baptisms takes so much work!! especially in the form of phone calls, which is one of me and Sister Karlsson's least favorite things to do. But because she doesn't like doing it, I've actually gotten really used to it. And there's something satisfying about just getting everything done!

We asked Nick, one of our recent converts, to perform Blake's baptism, and he was grinning from ear to ear :):) Yay for people moving forward in the gospel!! I LOVE this!

We barely squeezed in teaching the Laws and Ordinances (church rules were recently changed so that these have to be taught before baptism) to David before his baptism. Luckily he's had the lessons a couple of other times in his life, and he's been around for years as we've taught his wife. So he already knew them pretty well.

The BoM ROCKS. We just read some of Alma 36 to some of our more skeptical investigators and it was SO POWERFUL. They didn't react much to the spirit, but it was definitely flowing. Hopefully they'll have more of a desire to read now!

We met a sweet lady who is very committed to her own faith, but has Mormon friends in AZ and is very open to talking about religion. The members in AZ have been keeping close contact with us and her, but I think it'll be a slow process. She's not interested in converting, but that's how they all start :)

We had David and Blake's baptismal interviews and they both passed! PHEW. Not that we were concerned ;) Then the elders stuck around for a game of Apples to Apples and some Pizza Hut. It was lots of fun.

The Door County Fair was this week, and we've been helping out at the church booth. It wasn't a very big attraction, haha, but our awesome members the Maddens converted pretty much all the other non-religious vendors in the building. That's what happens when the other religious booths are being jerkwads and telling people they're going to hell for selling jewelry. We make friends :) I love the Joseph Smith quote where he said something along the lines of, "And if we are going to hell, we'll kick the devils out and make it into a heaven, because wherever the Saints are gathered there is joy."

Then we had the baptism of David Shepard. Judy bore her testimony and said, "There's been a lot of arguing between us to make this day happen, but finally it's here. So I guess I won." It was super funny. And David was just GLOWING after his baptism!! SOO happy for him. Judy had a picture of the elders who taught her about 6 years ago, and that was cool to see. The work goes on!

Church was just ridiculous yesterday. The testimonies in first hour were soo cool and all about missionary work, which makes us smile :) I was glad I was sitting at the piano where the tissues are because I could NOT control myself. It was my last fast and testimony meeting, which is probably why. Annoying.

Then we did more testimonies in Relief Society and I had one of the most tender moments of my entire mission. Catrina, who I failingly fought to reactivate in GB2, is moving here to Sturgeon Bay, and she got up and bore her testimony and explained everything about why she had fallen away and why she had stayed away even though her testimony is solid...she explained the things she never would tell us before, and my heart just exploded with love for this woman!! She looked at me and something passed between us that I couldn't explain...just a lot of gratitude and understanding. A determination to change. We are going to be working very closely to finally get her 10-yr-old daughter baptized. I think that little girl knows the BoM better than I do. :S

We went to dinner with a member family on Sunday and had a great time, and also stopped at their friend's across the street, who were really nice and have been considering coming and checking out our church. DO IT!

SAM GOT SUNDAYS OFF! Finally. I am dragging him into activity before I leave. He wants it, after all. Just needs a little help.

I definitely know that I was supposed to be here this last transfer. Blake's baptism was supposed to be on Sunday, but we last minute cancelled because his girlfriend couldn't make it...which is kind of important. We'll be doing it on Tuesday, regardless of whether she can make it or not, though. But we're trying to give her a chance to be there. It's gonna be AWESOME. Yay baptisms.

Sister Neal

Week of Sudden Things and Cave Point!

This week Dean, who we met on Sunday, was like, "Hey, I want to get baptized this Saturday!" Then he didn't make our appt, then he didn't get in contact with us, then he didn't even come to church on Sunday. Punk. Teaches me that just because a person thinks they are ready and they've been meeting with the missionaries for a year, does not mean they're ready.

Then Elizabeth got cleared for baptism on Wednesday and was like, "This Saturday!" and I wasn't about to get in the middle of stopping someone who is ready from getting baptized as soon as possible, but that meant we had like all of two days to prep, which is so not enough time for a baptism. But we did it, miracles occurred, we worked our tails off, and it was awesome. At long last, she has finally been able to be baptized :) And the Baker's came up! Oh, how I LOVE them!

In addition, we were stressed out all week about having to give talks in church yesterday. They went really well, actually. Now we have to give a lesson to the youth next Sunday. And I was studying it last night, and the church has totally made lesson planning easy! I love it!

Only in Wisconsin: our investigator has Dissociative Identity Disorder(also known as multiple personality disorder). Like, for reals. He called us and told us he was his own boyfriend, who he told us previously was rather controlling. It's like full-on Sybil. Only in Wisconsin. No wonder he keeps disappearing for days at a time without explanation.

We took a tour of the east coast of Door County last Monday. pictures below. It was the greatest thing ever. Today we're touring the Green Bay side of the penninsula. I love awesome members :)

In spite of being busy with a lifetime of other things, we had some really good lessons this week. We haven't seen Ron in forever, and he was really friendly toward us and is still willing to let us come back and share more. Same with Hilario. And Jennifer. Life is good.

Sister Neal

Last Transfer Begins

This week has been AWESOME. So many good things are happening. Yay!!

 

We started teaching this girl named Tierra. She really wants her life to be better than it has been. She's fresh out of jail (again) and those types tend to be really bad at keeping their commitments, which has been true so far (not that I'm being judgmental because I've also seen too many times the power prison has to change people's hearts) but we hope she will find her way. She really wants something better.

 

Tuesday we left home at 8 am and didn't get back until 9:30, and that's always fun. We went to ZTM, and I love our ZLs. Good mission leaders make a big difference. Then we heated up some leftovers and ate them on our way to Algoma, where we had several really good lessons and saw some people we don't normally get to see (Algoma's killer for our mileage). We also taught Robert...our awesome friend whose trying to prove us wrong. As it happens, we discovered the problem while discussing the Plan of Salvation. Robert's bible church doesn't believe in free will.

 

Yeah, you read that right.

 

Seriously. He said it himself. They don't believe in free will. They believe everything is God's will, and then he allows for like 5% 'permissible will', where he lets us choose stuff. It was ridiculous. So we sent him home pondering agency a little bit. It was been blowing my mind all week that people actually believe that way. It's so sad  :'(

 

We had a hugely successful lesson with Melissa again. They only happen once in a blue moon, but she was in a good mood and super honest with us. She's so close it's driving me crazy!!

 

We moved like 15 TVs again for service. The fun part is where you throw them in giant boxes and hear them crash. Lol.

 

And we did service for a fundraising project held at Hope Church, which is my favorite church around here (besides ours). The people are super open and nice. We got some new potentials out of it and I really hope we can find a way to do more service there...basically that whole church is ready to be converted.

 

Friday Game Nights, which used to be a relaxing, wind-down time have recently been some of the most tiring, service-oriented parts of my week. So many people come to the game nights just to get away from something or because they really need fellowship and we just spend the whole night trying to help all of them simultaneously. And make everyone else feel loved. It's totally exhausting but totally spiritually rewarding.

Then randomly a member who is a baker showed up at the church, left us a 2-foot loaf of cheese bread, and walked out. Talk about strange but perfect tender mercies.

 

We extended a baptismal date to our awesome 16-yr-old friend, who accepted. Fellowshippers are everything. He and Krystal have been having deep discussions about testimonies. What better way to help convert?

 

Then at church a LARCPM family came. The husband, who normally works out of state, is around for a few weeks, and has been studying with the missionaries for about a year. He's ready to get baptized here, so his family can be there. Free baptism. He's actually really cool and I think he will be an important strength for his family. He plans to get baptized this Saturday...so we have some preparations to do :)

 

I had a headache all day yesterday after church, and had to kinda sit out all day. I need to start bringing snacks places, cause I always seem to get these headaches after church if we stay too long, such as for branch council. It also happens when I fast. Bleh. But it was actually a good thing because Sister Karlsson got to watch The District 2, which was the last thing she had to do in her 12 Weeks. We're finished!!

 

And we're staying together for my last transfer. I think I couldn't ask for a better area or a better companion to end on :) And because of all this stuff that is happening, I know for sure that I was meant to stay. I kinda worried I was just being selfish, so it's good to know it's also the Lord's will for me :)

 

Sister Neal

4th of July (swedish style)

I went on exchanges back to my old area again this week! It was lots of fun. Sister Brandley and I went and saw several people I knew, and several newer investigators I'd never met, which was cool :) I love seeing that places still grow and change for the better. We also had the worlds best icecream for dinner.

Elizabeth broke down as she contemplated the 30 years she's been away from the church and what she has missed out on. It was a tender moment. She might be a little crazy sometimes, but she is really sincere. I love her :)

The Seymours are our adopted family here in sturgeon bay. Every area has the awesome member family that just reaches out to the missionaries and makes them feel at home. We haven't really had one here, and this one is lacking a solid priesthood holder, but we'll take them :) And Sister Seymour makes DELICIOUS food and just shows us so much love :):)

On the fourth of July we walked in a parade. That was fun. Threw candy to kids and stuff. Wisconsin goes all out for their holidays. It's the best. Sister Karlsson felt pretty weird saying the pledge of allegiance and waving an American flag, haha

We had a depressing lesson with one of our investigators and had to recoup for several hours. He's not lost, but it's really close. I will DESTROY all antiness when I get home. I really didn't think that it was that persuading...but apparently some people think it is. Fools.

We, after a long time in preparing, got a baptismal date this week! With David, Judy's husband. It's been over a year since he had a baptismal date. But this one will STICK!

Kaylyn, a now-8-yrs-old girl we've been teaching moves to Utah today. She came to church yesterday and bore her testimony and started crying and it was the saddest, cutest thing I've ever witnessed. I an going to hunt her down when I get to Utah. She's SOOO sweet!! All of the 4th-of-July-visitors were super jealous of our awesome branch, I'm sure :)

With our difficult lesson that ruined our week, not having the Bakers around was pretty hard. We have this entire penninsula to ourselves now...it's quite lonely. I hope we get more missionaries up here soon, but I don't know that we will. At least the work will move forward :)

Meekness is awesome. Learn it.

Sister Neal

Sorry This is So Long

You know that scripture that says "God's ways are not your ways, nor Gods thoughts your thoughts" or whatever? Well...it's true. Because I don't know what happened, or what we did to deserve it, or what initiated it, but suddenly this week, after like 8 weeks of being in finding mode, we're just teaching. All the time. every day. It's AWESOME

 

But the most important news of the week: I got the best outfit ever for a grand total of $2 exactly. Nothing compares anymore. (okay, jk, but it was pretty awesome)

 

We started the week with the most mature 12-yr-old recent convert ever requesting a blessing because he was a little nervous about getting the priesthood. Man, he's gonna be the best priesthood holder ever. (women's rights mormons have been getting on my nerves this week. They need to have some humility like he did!)

 

Then we met with the guy that showed up at the church out of the blue last week. He's still 50/50. He has a pretty cool story of finding God, but it seems that he got sucked right into one of those churches that has hardly anything right about Him. And although he probably wouldn't downright admit it, he's trying to prove our church wrong, because that's what they do. But hey, go for it, man. He might just prove it right :) That's what we're hoping for. He came to church yesterday, and it was tough to tell how sincere his search really is. Sometimes he's really nice and sometimes he's throwing anti stuff at us.

FOLLOW THE SPIRIT AND READ THE BOOK. That's all you gotta do. Just read the book. I don't get why people feel they need to read everything else. It's like going to all the secondary sources instead of the primary sources for a research paper. It just doesn't work that way. We might just see some sweet miracles with him :)

 

Then we helped a lady bake like 5 dozen peanut butter cookies. She says that a mission is to help us become well-rounded, so she's honing the skills that our other investigators might not help us with. Whatever, lol. It was fun.

 

For some reason, I was in no mood to go to one of our investigators houses cause she tends to be kinda negative. but we got there, and she was actually in a good mood, and our lesson ended up going really well. Missions are a roller coaster indeed.

 

Then we performed a missionary-stakeout. I would say it was a success, but I guess the stakeout itself wasn't really a success because we just ended up going and knocking on the door after like 15 minutes, and Sam was home! They are going through a rough patch--forever and always--but he might be seeing the whole I'm-not-going-to-church-and-life-is-getting-worse-maybe-I-should-go concept. Except he didn't show up again. Some people.

 

okay, so here's the story: The Bakers are getting Transferred!! GAHH!! It's breaks my heart because I love them so much, but I would be beyond pumped if I were them, getting to go into a new area that really needs them and will appreciate them more than they have been appreciated of late. We did an Ultimate Weekly Planning Session with them to cover all of our bases. It got us pumped.

We set a baptismal date with a guy over the phone (this was on Thursday) for Tuesday. He accepted the date, and we've been working with him constantly to see if he'll make it. It's been a crazy weekend. Turns out we're gonna have to push the date, but at least it gives us the chance to teach him for real. We hadn't taught him any lessons before Thursday...haha. Might sound hasty of us, but I promise we had our reasons :)

 

Elizabeth, who has been a constant at church for over 5 months now, was supposed to be able to learn a little bit more about how soon she could be baptized this week, but then on Saturday night she fell and sprained her knee and some other stuff so she couldn't make it to church...of all the weekends to do it. The Lord works in mysterious ways, and I guess all things are supposed to work out according to His timing. But we're praying for her.

 

We had a going away party for the Bakers, and a bday party from Bro Hohneke, and it was lots of fun. But things are so real now! They leave on WEDNESDAY! I can't believe it. Honestly, preparing for this change (and the changes following it) has been one of the most stretching experiences of my mission. I've never done anything like this stuff. Prepping an area for people leaving, plus, we are hoping to get another set of sister next transfer (in two weeks) so we are trying to prepare for that as well. I've always been on the other side of this stuff--either the one leaving the area, or the one opening it. Never the one doing the preparations and maintenance. It's exciting :)

The situation with the new sisters is really unique. It's main purpose is to occupy the Baker's old apartment as long as we still have to pay for it through August. The anticipated new sisters will only be here for one transfer, and they will not have a car, so we will be sharing ours. We're looking into getting some bikes. We might also end up living together in the Baker's apartment during that time, and we'll definitely be working really closely together. There's some things I'm really scared of about all of this, cause if we don't get along things could go bad really fast, but I'm also pumped. Good thing I can get along with pretty much anyone.

 

We had interviews with President this week! It was my last one :'( Well, you know, before the mission home, but that's not really something I'm looking forward to. Plus, President was pretty much telling me everything. He normally keeps a lot of things private, but I think cause I'm leaving soon, he was like, 'whatever, she can know'. So that was cool, to just talk and plan for this big change in Sturgeon Bay. Yay for changes :)

 

Blake knows the church is true. Rock on. But since he's 16, we have to get permission from his parents. I don't think that'll be a huge problem. Plus we actually have to teach him the lessons. But social conversion is GREAT. Spiritual conversion often follows :) This kid is awesome, he's one of my favorite people in Wisconsin. And he's gonna get baptized :)

 

We taught a bunch of people the Plan of Salvation, which is just the Lesson of Salvation because it has such a HUGE effect on people. We had some investigator family that virtually dropped us last week, but we managed to get this appointment and showed them the Plan, and they were blown away. Loved it. Still unsure, but were really impressed. And that happens every time we share the Plan of Salvation. I just love this lesson.

 

Church was MADNESS. Robert came, Blake came, a new part-family that needed fellowshipping--a family I taught in GB2, actually--came, and Tori and her investigating brother and sister-in-law came. I have to tell you, it's impossible to sit by that many people at the same time. But we tried our best. President Krehbiel and his wife gave AWESOME talks, and the Baker's gave spirit-powered testimonies. It was perfect. Second hour we fit 12 of us into a room that only should have fit 8 at most. Third hour was combined, but between technical difficulties and someone having a diabetic attack, things were pretty insane.  Somehow I loved it anyway.

 

We spent yesterday evening with the Baker's because I only get two more days of them!! It's so depressing. But exciting for them :) Who are we supposed to go to when we're depressed that our investigator is going all anti without them?

 

But anyway. This week was full of stuff that probably doesn't sound as exciting as it was. I love being a missionary.

 

Sister Neal

"Spiritual Power"

Do you ever feel like everything important in the world tends to just happen all at once, instead of spacing itself reasonably so you can work on one thing at a time? This week was the week that a bunch of things just happened out of nowhere, and we were like, SO MUCH STUFFFFFF! But it's great :)

Truth: awesome district leaders=awesome work. When I've had really great district leaders, it has done so much for our work. We love ours!

The mission has a goal to give out a BoM a day...which is great, except that we are down to about three. We only gave out two or three last week because we're saving them for the REALLY golden people, until we get more, hopefully at interviews this Friday.

Speaking of which, interviews are this Friday! This will probably be my last. Weird, right?  Interviews are fantastic. I am sad :(

We had a great week this week. We have been putting a big emphasis on getting to know the members and working with them more, which means 1) more missionary work, yay, and 2) better food for dinner, since they have us over :) People in SB know how to cook!

We taught the Plan of Salvation to one of our investigators who was BLOWN AWAY. She loved it. She has a lot of changes to make in her life, but a lot of potential, considering she's so willing to read the BoM and believe what we tell her. Love it! I absolutely love to teach the Plan of Salvation. It's got spiritual power like nothing else. This is the PLAN. FOR YOU. It changes lives.

There is great sadness coming to Sturgeon Bay, but they don't know it yet and we're not allowed to tell anyone. So...I'll tell you in a few weeks. But the night we found out was pretty epic. But this change might also be TOTALLY AWESOME, depending on how things actually end up happening. Yay for change. When did I grow to love change so much?

Then Sister Karlsson and I got a serious work out moving giant old TVs onto a moving van. Like 12 of them. The creativity of necessity involved in such work is part of what makes it so much fun. Chaos is great. Sometimes.

I'm still stunned as I notice the change that has come in the way people see me. Maybe it's just cause I'm a missionary so people automatically think I'm worth confiding in. But either way there are a whole lot of people that think I'm just the greatest person ever and I'm just like, When did that change? Normally I tell people how it is and they  stop trying to tell me things. But not recently. It seems like everyone comes to me to talk about their problems. Whaa? I'm horrible at this. I don't even have any sorta-good advice. Why they keep coming back...

The smaller the branch the bigger the drama.

It's incredible how little thoughts turn out to be intense inspiration. We didn't feel like tracting, so we decided to take a trip out of town to go see Shiela, one of our kinda-sorta investigators. Ended up being a super powerful experience. She has grown SO much since the last time I saw her, like a month ago. She has a friend who is falling into all of Satan's traps, and she turned to us to get help to know what to say. We gave her some scripture references at her request, and testified of the power of the Atonement. I couldn't believe the change in her. Spiritual power!

In the background, the TV was playing something about the popularity of plastic surgery. I'm a little bit appalled at the world I'm about to walk back into. Is that what the real world really is? UGH, I don't wanna go back!

Then church. Judy's super-shy husband David came again, which was great!! And he was clearly enjoying it. He's so close! It's hard to work with shy people...(and also jealous wives' husbands. long story)

Plus, one of our recent converts Krystal brought a friend from school, who was awesome, who loved church, ate lunch with us, had like a two hour lesson, and agreed to learn more if his parents allowed it. It sounds like he comes from a really good family. I SO hope they get involved. This would be the best thing ever for him!  MEMBER MISSIONARY WORK ROCKS

Funny story: Recently, a newly baptized 12-yr-old moved into the branch. Some of the kids asked him what the church back in Virginia was like. He said, "It's pretty big. We have hallways." I just about died laughing. I've forgotten what a real church looks like.

Other weird story: We were sitting in Relief Socety when a member tells us that there are some nonmembers outside that want to talk to someone. So we go out and meet Robert and his friend Rob (yeah) and they say they have a BoM and want to learn more about the church. They were acting kinda weird and being twerpy boys, but they gave us their info and later called us and set up and appt. So we'll fly with it. Bring some priesthood holders with us, of course. They might be crazy. But Robert might be golden. Who knows.

That was this week! Words to the wise: Don't hold grudges. It destroys people. And by people, I mean the one holding the grudge, not the one it's held against. People just don't seem to get how Satanic that stuff is. It's SO sad to see people drift away frmo the church or from people who care about them just because they're mad at them. What a dumb reason to pull away from salvation.

Stay strong! I love you all :) Serve the Lord first.
Sister Neal

We Are Sowing!

We had an epic Zone Training Meeting this week that set the foundation for everything.

 

First, President committed all missionaries to give out  7 BoMs a week, or 1 BoM a day. In some areas, this is really easy because there's a million people in your area. Others, it's a little harder when surrounded primarily by empty corn and hay fields. Ours is somewhere on the middle-lower category. We successfully passed out 7 BoMs this week, which brought us great miracles!

 

We followed inspiration to go see a part-member family that is moving away soon. They really needed the visit. It's hard to see people turn away from the church just because of offense taken. But they are moving to Utah, so hopefully I can see them more when I get there :) There are positives to living in Utah!

 

I discovered the best ice cream on the face of the earth this week. It's made in Madison, but we went to a little bakery in Algoma and they had some and it was DELICIOUS. I've never had anything like it. It was great :)

 

Phone lessons. Thank you, Sister Ipson. They are beneficial, sometimes. Maybe someday they'll upgrade us to Skype. Probably never.

 

We gave a BoM to a guy named Matt, who seemed super nice and open to reading it. We were really excited. Well, we went back yesterday and he was out playing frisbee with his girlfriend, and he was so not interested. I swear it's always the significant other. But the girlfriend seemed to like us, and we didn't give up in pressuring them to read the BoM, and their was an interest in his eyes that's pretty hard to hide. It was interesting because I was so excited to teach him because he seemed so golden, but then this happened, and yet we both felt really good about it. They didn't invite us back, but there was definitely a seed planted. Success!

 

Then we also had one of our golden potentials drop us by note-on-door. That was lame. She was super nice and friendly and interested and suddenly just said that she went to read the BoM and 'felt like it was wrong', so she didn't want to meet. Probably looked us up on the internet. GAH.

 

We met another super awesome potential named Jennifer, and she seems very open to letting us back, although she says she's not home super often. It's okay, we have faith :) That's something I've been working really hard to develop this week. I have kinda gotten cynical of people on my mission. But if you're faithful, things are much better.

 

We gardened for service this week, and had a good companionship chat. The Bakers were listening to For Eternity (about marriage) and it talked about how girls need girls to talk to because guys don't get it. It's SO true. Just being able to chat about memories with your companion does so much.

 

We kinda offended our investigator--cause we had to--and then came back the next day and laughed our heads off together. She's over it. I love when people can get over things.

 

We have lots of great potentials. I am excited to work with them. Although, Scott is avoiding us because HE KNOWS IT'S TRUE. This is a problem. You can't do that. It's not good for your eternity. Not good at all.

 

The Lord really blesses us in this work. He loves His children. He shows it. He wants this work to go forward, we are the ones that hold it back. But we are hoping to see the reaping soon. In the meantime, we continue to sow :)

 

Sister Neal

Back to Rhubarb

When your in a tiny little branch that's relatively un-missionary-work-oriented, it's AWESOME to have totally solid recent converts move in with their nonmember relatives that are already in your potentials list. The going for the family might be slow, but Tori is SO fantastic. I have high hopes for her personal missionary work, and her own conversion. Yay for more people!

...to cram into our tiny building! When you're stuffing like twelve people into a classroom with has a max capacity of 5, things get really exciting. But I do believe that the struggles of our branch and building help to increase humility and determination in the hearts of the members. So even though it's not ideal, it's a good thing :) And the weather this time of year is perfect for the several classes that prefer to take their lessons to the lawn. Whatever works :)

We went finding in a park and talked to this sweet old couple from Fond Du Lac and they invited us to sit with them and shared their picnic food with us. That was a tender mercy :)

We also had a long spiritual discussion with Vicki, who we do service for, over s'mores. We rarely get the chance to talk seriously to her because things tend to be really chaotic, so that was great. I think her heart is softening, although the social sacrifices she would have to make are probably the biggest things holding her back. How do you work with this? I'm so grateful to be somewhat out of the world for this short time. Life is WAY better.

It's rhubarb season in Wisconsin! Rock on :)

We went and hung out with the senior couple yesterday for like an hour, and we discovered what they do for fun. Someone gave them a free diabetic kit thing, so they check their blood sugar for fun. It actually was kinda fun, lol :) We all have good blood sugar! Even after the 5 cookies we ate that morning.

So basically this week was a lot of finding and scheduling appointments and rescheduling appointments. It's really hard to turn potentials into investigators, geez. But we try :)

Sister Neal

Training and Working

Transfers are this week, and neither of us are getting transferred. I actually get to finish training someone for once. This should be fun!

 

Sister Newton is going home...and that's kinda weird, because she came out one transfer before me. Bah, I'm next! I'm glad I have two more transfers, though, I need them :)

 

Our awesome possum district leader is getting transferred to the most ghetto-sketchy area in the mission. He's excited about that. Meanwhile, someone I came out with is going AP, my trainees are fulfilling challenging leadership roles, and life is good in Sturgeon Bay :) It seems like transfers are finally becoming *normal* after the age-change deal. No huge surprises.

 

It's true that you should always have ice cream in the freezer, because you never know when you will just need it. And we abided by that rule until we ran out of ice cream last week, and then we didn't buy more, which was not inspired, because Wednesday was one of the worst days of my mission. It was rough. People dropping us and not being happy with us and falling through. We did have cookies, fortunately, so we made them and ate them. Needed that.

 

Thursday we worked hard but it didn't come to much. We got in contact with a few of our potential investigators, but considering that we had a whole day, not many of them. We did get out weekly planning done though. First time since our companionship began that we got it done on Thursday!

 

In the evening, we drove to the GB1 sisters place. They live with Sister Bartell, who rocks my socks. We made up some beds in the basement and spent the night, because on Friday we were up and driving bright and early to Osh Kosh for the new missionary training meeting. It was really good! Both of our favorite parts were when we were separated and just talked about things. Us trainers talked about the challenges and demands of being trainers, and the trainees talked about their growth and experiences. It was a perfect time for the trainees to see that they weren't the only ones having a hard time, the only ones not having baptisms, etc, which is exactly what my comp needed, I think. When we were alone, we talked about how grateful we were that we are getting along so well when it seems like everyone else has their issues with their companionships. Even if we aren't having tons of success, at least we're having fun together and feeling the spirit :)

 

On the ride to and from the meeting, we listened to some awesome talks by Hank Smith, a youth speaker guy. They were super good. I need to look him up sometime later. Do it! ("Break Up With the World")

 

Saturday we crammed all of our lessons in to reach our weekly goals, including a lesson over the phone, which was fun. Said a prayer and everything. Love those. We helped Vicki weed her garden, then had a powerful lesson. Talked to several other LAs and investigators, and had a really good day, which seemed to make up for Wednesday.

 

SUNDAY. I have acquired a super strong testimony of the 3-hour-block. This Sunday was our first week of switching to the 3-hour-block. And 1) the Spirit was SUPER strong the whole meeting, 2) I wasn't even hungry at all the whole time, 3) we got a meal calendar passed around for the first time, and people actually signed up on it, and 4) we had AWESOME lessons in every class, and great testimonies. I am certain it was because the 3-hour-block brings POWER. It was so great. And one of the kids in our branch got his mission call to the Philippines, and I think he will be perfect.

 

Then we met Mary, whose been unreachable for about 5 months now, but we finally reached her. Super nice, and I think we got her way more interested than the last sisters did. We are praying for her.

 

We have lots of potentials that we are working with, but getting actual, regular lessons with them has been a huge struggle. Most of these people are FAMILIES, which I desperately want to help come into the fold. Pray for them! They just don't know what they don't have, yet :)

 

Mormon. It's like the most depressing book, but one of the most powerful, and it's pretty short, which is convenient. Read it for realz.

 

Sister Neal

 

5/27/14: It's Finally Spring!

The gospel makes everything more meaningful and everything more fulfilling. It's awesome.

Pat wasn't very happy with us for trying to extend commitments to him. Word to the wise: you will never get anywhere in life without commitment. Same goes for the gospel, Pat!

Our district leader is awesome. He gave a super good training on just loving people enough to follow up and testify of Christ. It was super good. Good district leaders are vital to this work, I've decided. They make a big impact.

Sam committed to come to church AGAIN, and didn't show up, AGAIN. I am seriously confused. WIsconsinites tend to be like this--"Oh yeah, that sounds AWESOME, I'll totally come to church! See you Sunday" and then you never hear from them again--but I expect better of Sam. We're GOING to find out what's up with him.

People just need to feel loved. Love is where it's at. It's also the thing I have a really hard time expressing.

We used a demo with plastic cups making a tower representing the Lord's church on someone's doorstep, literally. It was hilarious. But the ten year old enjoyed it.

We also had an exchange with the GB2 sisters and I got to go back to GB2 again. Love that place. I had forgotten how wonderful exchanges are, I just LOVE them. We had a great time and it was a good reminder, too.

The weather was PERFECT this weekend, which was great for Memorial Day Weekend proselyting. Except it wasn't as successful as we would have hoped because we know people don't really like being bothered on their holidays. Meh. But we took a fun trip north and met a lot of vacationers.

Some people are really blinded by beliefs that don't make sense. I don't get it. And then they won't even listen to us explain things for them! Geez. Perhaps one of the greatest traits for a person to develop in this life: that of listening. I've been absolutely stunned by how many people I've met--investigators, members, missionaries--that don't have that simple skill.

Pray that Amanda gets back in touch with us. She might also be a commitment-phobe Wisconsinite. But she would be great to teach!

We had a member dinner(doesn't happen often here), and now we're addicted to garlic spaghetti. Lol.

I've done a lot of reflecting the past 24 hours. I have a lot of improvements to make. But yesterday after a totally unsuccessful prime proselyting day, I felt the Lord's approval that we had tried. That's enough for me, for now. I love the scripture "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." I want to be meek and lowly in heart, too. And then I was overwhelmed as I thought of the character of Jesus Christ, and I saw all these ignorant houses around me and I wished they could just FEEL his character right then, like I did. They would listen to anything we said if they knew what He is like. What His loving friendship feels like. It such a good feeling! I love my Savior :)

Now, how do I get these people to listen to me??

Working on that.

I LOVE being a missionary. Hope it never ends.

Sister Neal

5/19/14: Goal Setting

Goal setting is one thing I have generally despised. I like to fly by the seat of my pants. Particularly in missionary work. But guess what? It totally works!
1) I set some New Years Resolutions that I actually have held on to for the past several months, and I feel like I've made substantial progress with them.

2) We made a goal on Wednesday to actually achieve our weekly goals (which we generally make on like Sunday) last week. We worked hardto achieve them, all the way until like 8:00 last night. And we did it(lessons-wise)! Although we also learned the importance on not putting numbers above people. It did get us to work harder than we might have been initially inclined to do. It was pretty sweet.

 

Konitchiwa to my extended family of friends! (Why Japanese? No reason.)

 

We started this week by addressing issues of both social and testimonial nature with one of our recent converts. I thought the issue was resolving itself until he didn't show up for church. AGAIN. And then I was stressed out all last night because of the lack of commitment. It drives me CRAZY.

 

We met with the husband of a family we are starting to begin teaching, and it went SUPER well. I think he is much more open now than he was initially. I have high hopes. One of my end-of-mission goals is to bring a complete family into the church. Maybe this could be it :)

 

We met an awesome young mom I also hope to be teaching soon. She was about to turn us away, but then we got talking, and I think she likes us! I love when that happens (I think I've become a people-pleaser on my mission. Not something I ever though I would be :/ But I like it, cause it makes people I can have an influence for good on actually want to listen to me!)

 

We had Zone Conference this week and I still love meetings. It was really good. Families, family history, something about the House of Israel (Prez likes the OT way too much sometimes), and getting to know sisters I don't know that well. It makes me want to be an STL again because I want to go on exchange soo bad with some of these sisters who are struggling! Instead I just do my best to encourage them and occasionally reprimand their companions--in the nicest way possible (remember, I'm a people-pleaser now;)

 

Brownie-batter custard.

 

We have lots of potentials to teach, and it's lots of fun, but lots of work. I love working with the recent converts. They have SO much potential. I can't wait to see the future of these incredible young people.

 

Next month we are switching to the 3-hour-block. SO excited for that. Complacency is the optimum way Satan reaches the saints. I won't let it happen here! No bueno.

 

This week we are taking an exciting trip north. I've only done that once before, and it was like 7 at night during the winter. This time we're taking a whole day, and expecting many mighty miracles :) Ferry our car to Washington Island? Thinking about it. I guess that depends on how much it costs. And what the spirit says :) Would go to Beaver Island and convert the Strangite apostates there if it was in our mission, but it's not :(

 

Funny story of the week:

We went to see some former investigators of mine that I've been a coward about going and seeing. They had company over, who told us that all mankind are descendants of Mars who came to Earth because we destroyed our planet and now we're destroying this one and will have to find another soon. Yeah. I was laughing my head off while he talked and looking at my former investigator who was also laughing--but in a more embarrassed way. I think she feels bad now and will have to let us back in someday. Muahaha.

 

Thinking about all of you and praying for you often :)

Sister Neal

5/12/14: Cheesecake and Family History

When you're on a mission, Heavenly Father provides birthday miracles, such as Walmart suddenly having in stock the no-bleed sharpies you've been looking for every single P-day since you got to your current area. Tender mercies :)

 

Then Crystal tried to drop us so we met up one last time, and I think she still plans on dropping us--and I feel like the Spirit would be okay with that, so whatever--but we managed to at least get her to let us come back again next week. We'll see how things turn out. Mostly I want to keep in contact with her because she's our only reliable connection to Sam, who is being a PUNK, but understandably overwhelmed by current themes in his life.

 

We were all told to learn how to use FamilySearch, so we went to the Bakers on my actual birthday and I started doing some family history work. And we accidentally killed off mom...don't worry, we adjusted the death date to "May 7, 2040" because it wouldn't let us take it off. You've still got plenty of time, mom.

 

We had brownies and ice cream for breakfast, which was the glorious celebration of turning 22. That was about it :)

 

Found out all the rebellious and/or commandment-breaking youth/YSA people in the branch really like me. Hmm. I'll attempt to use this to the advantage of the Work.

 

We've been doing lots of finding this week! Yay for tracting. We have met some good potentials, but really not that many. We took a trip down to Algoma, and met some nice people, but overall, I don't think we'll be going back down there. Neither of us felt very good about it. So next, we are taking a trip north! See if there's more real potential up there. Plus, there are lots of Swedish people, so Sister Karlsson can work her Swedish magic :)

 

Youth fundraisers are the bomb. We had a spaghetti dinner and desert auction and it was SO MUCH FUNNY. Ate too much cheesecake.

 

We did like half of a 1000 piece puzzle in like two hours at a sweet old lady's house for Mothers Day. And ate too much cheesecake.

 

How was the skyping for all you other missionaries/missionary's families?

 

Much love,

Sister Neal

5/5/14: Stop Being Drunk!

Seriously. Everyone's doing it. Just because Door County is the alcohol capital of America does not mean y'all should be drunk when we're trying to share the gospel with you.

 

Last week we were driving without a left blinker in front and I became acutely aware of how not-safe that is. You really don't think about it until you don't have it. Well, we assigned our district leader to replace the lightbulb, because you'd think that's an easy assignment, right?

WRONG. Not when you drive a certain Malibu. We took it to an auto center who told us to take it to the dealership. We took it to the dealership who had to remove the whole bumper just to change a lightbulb. That fun goose chase took up like two whole days of our week. Yay for problems that make carless missions seem like a good idea.

 

Then we helped a new family move into the branch! This branch could always use added strength. So this should be really great :)

 

Then we tried to visit a potential investigator and our relief society president answered the door. Little miracles.

 

We decided we really need new investigators so we went tracting for several hours this week, which was pretty fun. We met some really cool people including Tessa, who is a former JW. I so totally LOVE former JWs. Jaime, Quentin, and Sam were all former JWs. She's definitely getting baptized...except that she's moving to Colorado. Whatever. She'll get baptized in Colorado.

 

The miracles this week came in the form of sunny days. It was pretty much always raining everyday except when the elders were out working on our car, and when we were helping the new family with their moving van, and when we were tracting. Which were the exact times that it needed to not be raining :) You've just gotta be observant to see tender mercies sometimes!

 

Did all y'all catch the CES fireside last night? It was SO GOOD. Man, I love apostles. We NEED modern day prophets. I don't know how some people just can't see that. They're so fantastic!!!

 

In other news, I turn 22 in like a few days and I officially have absolutely no excuses whatsoever to consider myself a kid still. Darn it. I'll probably keep acting like one anyway :)

 

Sister Karlsson and I decided that someone needs to make a movie of the Book of Mormon. The war stories alone have way too many parallels with Lord of the Rings to not be a total success. Preferably not a Hollywood production, obviously, but also more legit that a Church production. "Seen the play, read the book, now watch the movie!" Bam.

 

All work and a little play :)

Sister Neal

4/28/14: Training < 3

We had a random miracle on Monday where some kid that hasn't been taught in months texted us asking us to come over. Wednesday is transfers. I call these "transfer miracles" because they always happen right before a different missionary comes in. I see them as a sign that that new missionary is supposed to be there working with them. It's awesome :)

Tuesday was basically another pday because we spent the whole day getting errands run for transfers! But we also saw like 5 people for goodbyes, and taught them of course :)

Then we drove down to Milwaukee on Tuesday night and got to spend the night at the WEST ALLIS APARTMENT. With Sister Tanner and Sister King, who currently serve there (Although Sister Tanner is going STL and SISTER NEWTON is coming into the area). It was the best night ever. I miss 'stallis so much. It was the hardest place in the world, but I loved it. We talked about all that's been happening in the year since I've served there, and it's incredible! The sisters just had a baptism, which is the first sisters baptism since my convert, Jaime, in the area 1 year ago. And this new girl sounds super solid. Jaime certainly was :)

I think we stayed up until way-too-late talking about it. Man I love that place. And I'm so excited that sister newton gets to see it!

Wednesday. Wednesday. Wednesday. We had a trainer's training in the morning and let me just tell you I was so nervous I just about died. I don't think I've felt that nervous about anything, ever, before, which is kinda dumb because I've already trained twice.
But it's been so long and my missionary work has changed so much that I just was freaking out!!
And I got to meet one of my great-granddaughters, Sister Packer, who was training right out of her own training. The Ipson legacy goes on :)

Then we got to meet our new trainees. You'd think I would have learned something the last two times I did this, but apparently not, because I was looking at their pictures earlier in the week trying to receive revelation on which one was going to be mine, and I found myself being really scared that I was going to get someone I didn't want.
But then, just like the other times, all the girls walked in and I saw them in person and it was like, "I would be totally thrilled with any one of them."

I have been called to serve with Sister Louise Karlsson, from Stockholm, Sweden. She is utterly fantastic. We've spent almost a week together now and I LOVE TRAINING. The miracles and tender mercies we've seen in just the past few days have left us pretty much speechless every night.
I remember this feeling; I had it when I was being trained--coming home every day and feeling like there were way too many miracles happening to fit in one day. It feels SO GOOD to have it happening again...being with experienced missionaries just isn't the same. Having a new missionary with so much faith and so much willingness has been the best thing ever.

Our first night together we had two lessons, and they were great. Our first full day together (which is technically weekly planning day, but no one believes in that stuff ;P) we saw Ron, who I haven't seen in over a month, chatted endlessly with Elizabeth and taught her daughter Jess the Restoration for Sister Karlsson's first time(it was 'for practice' but sneakily to get Jess more involved), had an awesome BoM class, hawaiian haystacks, and laughed more than I've ever laughed in my life. We have the same sense of humor, so we laugh a lot. That might not be the best thing...

We left our phone at Ron's by accident, which could have been a ploy to be able to see him again a day later, except it was actually just clumsiness. Heh.

We talked to Luke, who still has potential. Plus, NICK KNOWS HIM! I swear everyone in Sturgeon Bay knows each other. It's insane. But perfect.

We taught the Restoration to a potential named Kurt, and it was like the perfect atmosphere and he was the perfect listener, which was so awesome for Sister Karlsson's first chance to seriously teach the Restoration. Everyone we meet is going to get baptized, basically.

Met a Packer player. Might be teaching him in the near future. Too bad we didn't catch his name. Might be Donald Driver? :P

I hate misinformation. When people don't even give us a chance. It's ridiculous.

UHH, CHURCH. It was fantastic. Nick gave the opening prayer in sacrament, then he was sustained to be ordained to the office of Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood, then he was sustained to become a counselor in the Young Men's Presidency. BEST DAY OF MY LIFE. THIS IS GENIUS.

Sam hadn't showed up to church in two weeks. For Easter it was because he had a family thing. Then this week it was his third day at his new job. We went and visited him to do some reprimanding but it's impossible to reprimand that kid because he just proves you wrong every time! He's been reading the BoM for like an hour every day and is going to ask for Sunday's off.
His whole family is softening to the gospel as are most of his friends. We gave him 5 BoMs and he met us outside to take them over to his neighbors because he couldn't wait to give one to her. And [no one tell, but] Brandy is reading his old BoM. She would stop if she ever found out that we knew about it, and deny it if anyone asked her, so we'll just let her on her way :)
The BoM converts by itself. Yay for sneakiness on all sides >:)

Basically these next few months are going to be the best eva!! I am so excited. I love setting the standard for a new missionary, although it helps that she is eager to be obedient and diligent too :) Life is just too fantastic.

I love you alls :) Keep being missionaries wherever you are :)

Sister Neal

4/21/14: We Made a Watermelon Cake

For Sister Baker. She only eats healthy things. She found the idea on the internet; covering a watermelon in whipped cream and grapes, so we tried it. The internet people might have been lying. Whipped cream does not stick to watermelon very well. But it tasted good!

There is such a thing as having too many viewpoints on a situation. Particularly when those views are mistrustful and conspiring. I like to just expect the best of people :) And I'm normally right! So there. Believe in people.

Sam is alive and not Anti'd. Crystal is moving along.

I've never had a person get baptized that I didn't consider golden from the beginning. But Melissa is well on her way. If she does get baptized, she'll be one of those not golden people. We've had to work our tails off to get her to feel the Spirit. But I think it's working >:)

I don't know what happened to this week, but we had no time for anything!! We were busy from the start to the end of the day, but I hardly felt like we got anything accomplished. Maybe transfer stress caused us to work slower? I don't know.

My love for people has increased SO MUCH out here. There are so many people that I just can't do anything less than my all for, because I want them to succeed. It's exhausting, but I can't stop because...because I believe in them! I love the joy that comes to me as I watch out for others and make their concerns my concerns.

Little kids and pinatas. This game is very dangerous.

TRANSFERS! I had this feeling of what was gonna happen, and it was half fulfilled when transfer text told us that Sister Allen was leaving. But then the other half didn't get explained for like 24 hours, which was the longest 24 hours of my LIFE! I felt confident enough in what I expected to happen that I was sure it was the Spirit, but I still wouldn't let myself settle on the matter until I knew for sure. Cause if things didn't happen the way I expected them to...well, then I wouldn't know what to think about the promptings of the Spirit. It would have been like, "I must not know ANYTHING!"

But things worked out like I thought they would after all. I am training!! Yay for the Spirit :)

It's been making me sick thinking about it. I'm super nervous! I feel like I have so much more wisdom than when I trained at the beginning of my mission, but I also feel like I was a better trainer in other aspects back then. But I need this experience; maybe it'll whip me into shape, haha :)

BRANCH DRAMA HOLY COW

You've never been a missionary in a branch with this kind of nonsense. My trainee is gonna be like, "...this was not in my call packet." No, it wasn't. Wahoo!

Easter was fantastic. We ate way too much good food, but other than that it was pretty much a normal day being a missionary. Love it :)

Thinking of this Easter season, of the sacrifice of the Savior, and of my personal sacrifice to serve my mission, I've been making some really cool connections. Even though it was the Infinite and Eternal sacrifice, I suspect that when I get to talk to Him, He'll tell me that it was hardly a sacrifice at all. That seems to be the way sacrifices work. They never really seem like much when you can see the bigger picture. The times when I have sacrificed the most have also been the times I have reflected upon with the most joy and gratitude. Pretty cool, huh?

Sister Neal

4/14/14: Baptisms :D

Everything leads up to the baptisms out here. Thankfully that's not where it ends, but we spend SO much time working up to that point that...it's just ridiculous when it happens.

We also had exchanges this week, which were super fun! Taught some really good lessons with Sister Taylor, and hope to see eternigators start progressing soon. Sister Neal Strategem: I don't leave eternigators in my areas. They either figure out that they're supposed to progress, or they fall off the radar cause they're not willing to try. We don't just hang out in the middle.

You know when there is a list of people you know that just don't try very hard, or have some serious personality defects they need to override? And then there's moments when you sit down with those very same people and they tell you with all the energy of soul that they are trying. And the spirit is strong. And you believe them. And then it's like, "Well, now what am I supposed to think?"

It's a really nice moment and all, but it's also like GAAHHH

We planned the baptismal interviews for Friday evening, but our District Leader doesn't have a car and I guess borrowing one wasn't working out so he asked if we could do Thursday night instead. "Sure." Then he says, "Okay, then I can make it around 7:30." And we say, "Okay." and he says "I'm getting a ride up with President." and we're like "QEWEWBRLJ."

So then like an hour before the baptismal interview due to lack of communication, we have an emergency lesson based on some concerns that sound quite serious with one of the investigators. We eat dinner, then we only have like half an hour for the lesson. We address questions upfront and listen to the spirit and be direct and guess what? The Lord doesn't always cut slack when you have time to prepare for a lesson and don't, but if you legitimately didn't have any prep time, the Spirit is like TA-DA HERE I AM and your half hour lesson is amazing and you run to the church for baptismal interviews like fifteen minutes late.

Then your investigators pass their interviews with flying colors and you also get your own interview (which was supposed to be the following day) done and then you can go out to lunch with other missionaries the next day instead of having to wait for interviews :) Muahaha.

And also interviews just feel good when you are on Presidente's good side. My last interview he was kinda not in a very good mood so I was very grateful he was more himself this time :) I love our mission president!

Legit mexican food is...legit.

Then the baptisms happened and our font is very small and I never cease to be amazed by how many priesthood holders don't know how to stand in the water to give the baptism optimum space. So that they don't hit tall people's heads on the wall on the way down. but I guess that's what makes it memorable, right?

Branch Conference was AMAZING. It started for us at 7:45 am and ended at about 1:00 pm. It was the best thing ever. Our stake leaders are incredible!! I wish I had taken more notes...
The branch has had 6 baptisms in the last six months or so, which was a pretty huge change from the 1 baptism they had in the like three years before that. And ALL TEN of those people were at church on Sunday. This is called retention. We love it :)

Reeling that I'm going home in like four months. WEIRD. My whole mission has passed WAY too fast. But at the same time, I think I'll be feeling ready to step back into the world to a certain extent by then. Just cause there are some righteous endeavors like family history I would like to pursue, which is hard to do on my mission. And also seeing The Saratov Approach. And watching BYU-TV. And being a member missionary. Contributing.  And such things. But I am taking advantage of every second I've got to be out here :)

Sister Neal

4/7/14: Yay Conference!!

You know there's some serious congative dissonance going on when someone who is a member of the church will not let you leave them a BoM to read because they're protestant now, and then, as your walking out the door, they ask that you have someone come by and give them a blessing. PRIESTHOOD. AUTHORITY.

Speaking of which, did you catch Elder Uchtdorf's AWESOME talk in Priesthood session? I loved it!! And all the other ones in Priesthood session. Easily my favorite session--and the one that answered all my questions that I had come in with!

Our mission is taking the plunge on family history work. I fail at knowing my family history. I wish I had read that binder back home now! This stuff has been getting so much emphasis recently...I'm gonna have to get on it when I get home!

Okay, this is super dumb, but I'm never struggled with feeling like I can't actually reach perfection like I've felt the past few weeks. It's obnoxious. Cause I know that's totally unreasonable and totally SATAN, but I still just have these intense moments when it's just like..."Holy cow. That's really far away." And I feel like giving up. They last about four seconds. But they're four really not cool seconds. Why is this an issue now? Conference was good for it though :)

Correlating in the branch hardly ever happens. But when it does it's great. I don't know why I love meetings so much. They just make me really hopeful that things are actually happening.

Punks who are punks who are punks who are punks. I don't know how you can know this gospel is true and not abide by it!!

Anyone else catch Packer's AWESOMENESS? And also, how he's totally not making it to next conference? I thought he was gonna die right there! And it breaks my heart how old Monson has gotten in the past few years :( But the gospel is worth it!! :D I can't even express how grateful I am for these incredible men :)

Sam and Nick getting baptized this weekend :)

Sister Neal

3/31/14: The Book of Mormon

It's Another Testament of Jesus Christ. Which is totally sweet. You know you want it.

Walmart is becoming Mormon central. We do our weekly shopping and run into like 5 members of the branch! It's fantastic :)

Jacob 5 is fantastic. I didn't know it could get more fantastic. But every time I read it it does.

How is making people self-sufficient going?

It's going great! Although it also somewhat involves causing our investigators to relocate, which means we have to give referrals of these awesome goldens we've been working so hard with! But I threw out the importance of numbers like a year ago, so I don't mind, as long as they come to Christ :)

Had a DTR with one of our investigators. Went quite well. But she still didn't come to church. BAHHH

The Book of Mormon. Look at it. Read it. Use it. Pray about it. My work here is done. That's how awesome it is.

Some days all we meet are nice people and some days all we meet are mean people. I'm constantly confused by it.

We got in contact with Luke and he's not avoiding us. Good! And Kirt's still nice enough not to say go away. Royn and Shiela are alive still! They just need to read the BoM. PJ is a future Nick--we gave him a BoM and he's gonna read it and get converted and we won't even haveto come back. He'll come to us. yeesssss....

Yay for members who do missionary work!

Thoughts of the week:

BE THOU HUMBLE

Manual labor feels good once in a while.

No matter how active people are in their church, you know it's not the true church when they still swear every few lines. True conversion just doesn't happen in other churches, I think. Cause they don't have the FULNESS

General Women's Meeting? SUCH THE BESTEST THING EVA

King Benjamin was the best king ever, but I think it started with the fact that he was the best dad first. I think I'll just read his sermon to my kids then they'll be good. Who can compete with that awesomeness?

CONFERENCE IS COMINGGGGGG

Are you ready?

See y'alls! We are going on a hike cause it's like 40 degrees today. It's the BEST. Also gotta reconstitute the vegetable protein, organize the trivial pursuit cards, and possibly write some letters.

Sister Neal