9/3/13: Called to Serve in Thailand!

My mission went foreign this week. But only for a day. It was nice.

 

We got permission to go to the Hmong Tournament in Osh Kosh this week with a less active. It was crazy cool. We also taught lots of people :)

 

It's called a Tournament because there's lots of sports, apparently. I didn't see any of the sports though. We just looked and the clothes and the gifts and the food and everything besides the sports. That was PLENTY to occupy our time.

 

I ate purple rice. And green rice. And tapioka every color of the rainbow(in a cup). and pig intestine. and fruit with spikes. and dragonfruit. And Hmong food redefined 'hot' for me. It's HOT.

 

I also put on an awesome Hmong outfit. And I might have bought a Hmong skirt. Gotta have something!

 

The rest of this week was amazing. I don't know how we have three solid progressing investigators and a fourth on the way when hardly ever spend any time NOT in planning or on exchanges, but our area is exploding. We only had one exchange this week, and it was fun. I got to go to the Upper Penninsula of Michigan for a day. Lake Michigan is super pretty :) And Sister Reese is a fantastic missionary!

 

We had Zone Conference AND Mission Leadership Council this week. They were both SUPER amazing. I love President Cutler. He's a genuis. He's also like your best friend :) He really wants the prayers and consideration from the mission leadership in everything he does, which is actually quite different from our last president. I love it!

 

Lesson learned this week: Replace 'grace' in the scriptures with 'enabling power of the Atonement' and it makes like a million times more sense. And it's accurate.

 

I'm also reminding myself to stop worrying about numbers and care about people instead. I knew that forever, but I think I need to refocus on it. 'member present lessons' and 'less active and recent convert lessons' are key indicators, but they don't mean that we can't bring active members to less-active lessons or that we can't being less-actives to investigator lessons. Doing these things in genius. It all works together.

 

I love the Atonement. We teach it to everyone. Maybe that's why we're having such great success. It really is the best thing to hit the face of the earth for everyone, everywhere. Love it.

 

Sista Neal

8/26/13: Don't Tell--but it's Coming!

The title is pretty much for nothing. It may also be alluding to a certain Announcement at a certain General Conference about a certain Temple being erected in a certain Bay. a Green one. But don't tell. Stake conference is coming--I might be a little/lot more set on this after that...

It is also implying that most of what happened this week is rather confidential, so...I don't have that much to say. Suffice to say that the exchanges this week were wonderful, and I think we all learned a lot.

I also had a dream that my mission president was doing his own personal Finding by collecting all the generally anti-diety books in the world written by people from Wisconsin and making those authors his potential investigators. Don't ask me where this came from.

It should also be noted that a ukelele is a must-have on a mission. What am I going to do when Sister Erickson leaves? Where am I supposed to get one?

Cotton candy. Long story.

We should have stopped the wedding...but we didn't. What am I supposed to do, object? Maybe. But we got to walk around a rendition of olden-time little-house-on-the-prairie Wisconsin with a less-active. That was fun. Who knew that show came from here?

I LOVE HELPING THE SISTERS. Sometimes I wish exchanges were a week-long process though. And part of me just wants to be all of their companions next transfer so that we can work things out. But that's kinda impossible...

Lesson learned this week: Never lower your expectations of others. If people are acting like ten year olds, expect them to act their age--not like 'c'mon, your older than this', but honestly believing and having the faith that they can be, and assuming with faith that they will act in their proper capacity--and they will! this goes for investigators and companions and other missionaries and everyone you're around. Never think that someone doesn't have the willpower to quit smoking, or that living the law of chastity is going to be too much for them, because FAITH is POWER, literally, and without that power miracles don't happen. Someone has to believe in these people or they aren't going to change. These miracles have to happen 'according to [someones] faith' or they can't! So make it your faith!

end quote of my brain.

Love you all!
Sister Neal

8/19/13: Packerland!

People who live within 20 blocks of Lambeau field make a killing selling spots on their mowed lawns for people to park on during game days. You can cram like 4 cars onto a normal sized lawn. That's how crazy Green Bay is.

This week I got to go on two exchanges with the Manitowoc sisters. The first was in Green Bay, which was weird because 1) I don't know this area at all yet and I was in charge and driving for it, and 2) my companion actually expected to learn something from it...and she did! We both did!

The second one I went to Shawano which just got opened like a week ago, so neither of us had much of an idea what was going on there, either...yeah. But it was still extremely productive and we both grew so much! I LOVE EXCHANGES

Sister Erickson and I have been finding some cool ways to use reverse psychology on our sisters(and our investigators) so that we can help them focus on learning things without them knowing it...it's really fun when it works out >:)

This ward has some 200 less-active members in it, and we've been finding all kinds of success from working with them! It's awesome! We have so many families that we're working with and they all rock. It's pretty amazing to see :)

I got a little overwhelmed at the beginning of this week on monday realizing that I had 1) to do a training at DTM tomorrow 2) an exchange in an area I barely knew 3) while driving for the first time on my mission, then 4) another exchange on Saturday and still not sure who was going where, followed by 5) teaching Sunday school on Sunday, plus 6) we were trying to deal with a set of sisters that are not even slightly getting along, not to mention 7) regular missionary work. All crammed into a week. But as soon as Wednesday came i just kinda...forgot about it and it all worked out! It was super cool!

We did our service at Habitat for Humanity on Friday, and Sister Erickson wasn't feeling good and we ended up sleeping pretty much all day after service and lunch at about 3:00...it was much needed, and I think it helped a lot with the stress. Because we didn't get done any of the things we wanted to get done on Friday, though, it all got pushed to Saturdays exchange, and Sister Erickson and her companion for the day worked MIRACLES with it! God works in mysterious ways, it's true!

I got to hear Hmong people talk. I can't believe that's a language. I also got to see their festive clothes--super cool and colorful! It's awesome! And our ward got the Hmong elders back this week, and we had all kinds of things prepared for them to keep them busy :)

So I don't have a whole lot of eventful stuff from this week, but you should all know that Sister Erickson is FANTASTIC and I am learning more about the Packers every day...and about the area. I just hope I'll be ready for when Sister Erickson heads home :(

Funny story: On Saturday during the exchange in Shawano, we couldn't find ANYBODY home. It was ridiculous. Then I got back to Green Bay (about an hour and fifteen minutes away) and discovered that there had been a Packers game, the Big Ships festival, and the county fair going on...no wonder that guy watching sports didn't answer his door...[football watching gets obsessive around here]

But anyway, life as a missionary is great! I am struggling to help one of our sisters, but our exchange is this week and it was awesome to see our last few exchanges have their own sorts of miracles, even when we had no idea what we were doing! So I'm hoping that something miraculous will come out of this one!

Wish us luck!

Love,
Sister Neal

PS The halfway-point for our exchange with Shawano was Seymour. Home of Charlie, who made the first hamburger EVER! Super random...

8/12/13: GREEN BAY WHOO!!!!

So even though I was super sad to leave Waunakee, Sister Smith and I left it CRAZY BUSY. She and her trainee are going to have SO MUCH to do there!

 

News: my convert, Jaime, is ENGAGED!!! To a guy from the Racine ward. They met at institute. How cool is she? I'm SOOOOO happy :)

 

Our last few days in Waunakee together we met some AMAZING people. But I'm not there anymore so I won't go into them but when they get baptized I'll let you know!! Haha.

 

Wednesday (transfer day) was crazy! I went to Milwaukee and sat around for a few hours, then to Osh Kosh (where they're putting SISTERS, yeah!) then to Green Bay 2 with Sister Erickson. She is going home at the end of this transfer! What? That means I'll most likely be spending the rest of forever (meaning the Winter) in Green Bay. But I'll stop putting guesses on such things because clearly I'm horrible at it!!

 

We started talking about the sister missionaries that we are working with (there are 8 sets of them) and it made me SO HAPPY! Now it's Monday and I've been here for almost a week and I still feel like I'm on some sort of strange extended exchange because the ward doesn't quite feel like home yet and the investigators don't quite feel like mine, but these girls sure do! I love them all so much! Some of them are struggling, and I really feel like I can help! I'm hoping I'll adapt to the ward/investigators soon. This is my first time...not...opening an area, and it's way different! Strangely, the transition is actually harder!

 

We haven't actually spent hardly any time with members or investigators, which is probably why it doesn't really feel homey yet. We spent most of the past week planning exchanges. And on Saturday, we had a BAPTISM! Two little Hmong girls who are the sweetest ever :)

 

Also, you didn't hear it from me, but prepare to hear about a Green Bay Temple at Conference. It's happening. SOOO EXCITED!!!!!

 

Sister Erickson is already doing her own designs for it. She's really into architecture and stuff. We're making a finger-painting of it to put on our wall. It's going to be fantastic :P

 

Church was super good! We had tons of less actives there. Our ward is SUPER huge. Like, the chapel is pretty much full when the active people all come, but if all the inactive people were to start showing up, our ward would be split into three wards. SO MUCH INACTIVITY. So that's how we find out investigators :) It works pretty good!

 

In our ward we have English elders and sisters, and Hmong elders. There's Hmong people here. You know what that means. Well you don't, but I do.

It means I'm going to have to eat squirrel.

NEW ADVENTURES! I'll let you know how it goes when it happens. I hear...mixed reviews.

 

In more missionary-minded news, THE ATONEMENT. It's so fantastic. We're focusing on it with our sisters this transfer and I'm really excited! I LOVE THE ATONEMENT. The BoM is where we learn like...everything...about it. So it's also our focus this transfer. This is my first time with an experienced missionary who isn't my trainer, and I was so ready for it! Sister Erickson has so many different ideas and cool lesson plans and I'm learning a ton from her :)

 

Party in green bay! Lambeau field is right smack in my area. Muahaha. maybe I'll go convert some Packers :) I'm just worried the fans will kill us...

All for the Lord's work!

 

Love, Sister Neal :)

 

8/5/13: TRANSFERS WWHHHAAATTTTT???????

So 5 days ago I was going to open up this email with a comment about how all my investigators have a testimony of the BoM and yet none of them are willing to get baptized. But then something a little crazier happened.

So I'm in Waunakee. I opened this area with my trainee, Sister Smith. 6 weeks ago. We were positive that nothing special was going to be happening at transfers. POSITIVE.

So on Saturday we hadn't gotten the Phone Call (which normally happens on Friday) so things were moving ahead normally, role playing for our saturday activity. We got a text and I made the dumb move of reading it in the middle of the roleplay.

It was transfer text, where were find out who in the zone is getting moved. My name was on it. Suffice to say I barely finished roleplays.

So we were both freaking out because WHY would they separate us after only 6 weeks if neither of us were getting a special assignment? I was totally bewildered--not to mention TOTALLY bummed that I am leaving Waunakee. I LOVE THIS AREA.

I was on the phone at like 9:40 that night when President Cutler called. I took his call. Get this--he told me I was going to be going to Green Bay with Sister Ericksen as a sister training leader. I was like "Are you kidding me I just had the most deplorably lazy transfer EVER!" only...I didn't say that. But I was thinking that. I said "Wow." or something similarly eloquent.

Then he told Sister Smith that she would be training. So now we're both going a little crazy. 

We totally nailed that our zone leader became an assistant, though. Even he wasn't expecting that because at church he still hadn't gotten a call. But he is!

So, anyway. This week. My investigators won't get baptized. This is the problem we face.

That's only like 4 of them though. We have at least another 4 who are working toward baptism. And we got 9 new investigators this week, which is pretty uber high for us. So lots of potential to get Sister Smith on the right foot for training! I'm REALLY going to miss this area.

Green Bay. Right in time for football season. Pray that I don't accidentally knock on a door on game day.

So this week we had a great lesson in a member's home with Alison, Hunter, and their mom. We watched the Restoration and talked about it with their mom, Michelle, for the first time. It was great!

Wednesday was exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders. I got to go to Madison 2. It was a ton of fun and I learned a LOT.Mostly re-learned it. I needed that a lot.

Whose idea was it again to make me an STL? The assistants don't even have the excuse of 'she's way out there, we'll just assume she's a good missionary.' No--they know me. I served in Milwaukee with them. I'm so confused.

We met with Jim, our first meeting with him since the Elders used to teach him. We kicked him in the pants a little, but he's a stubborn one. He knows the BoM is true, though. So it'll work out.

Our members were awesome about putting on the luncheon in Lodi. Most of their nonmember friends didn't show, but there was still a really great turnout and it went super well. The ward is SO ready to do something in Lodi! The missionaries are doing one next month as well, I'm sure. This area wants this so badly. They are incredible :)

I was humbled in my Spanish this week, haha. I've been wanting opportunities to use it and boy did they come! I'm pretty bad with it :P But we met a miracle Spanish family! He believes the BoM-he's already read it--and he's currently reading Jesu de Cristo and Los Milagras de Perdon! I was like "What??" Then we bugged the Spanish elders like crazy about teaching him. They teach him like once a month or something, apparently. Can't blame them thoguh--they don't have a car and he's like 20 minutes away--driving--from the nearest bus. So members don't get super enthusiastic about driving them.

Transfer board is huge compared to what it's looked like before! I'm super excited to see the missionary work moving ahead :D

Love you guys!

Sister Neal

7/29/13: Waunakee is Fantastic :)

I am loving this area! We have so many incredible members and hard working people. They really want to do everything they can to get us new investigators!

We've met some strong potentials. Getting in to teach them seems to be the hard part.

The ward did this awesome combined thing where we watched some of the Work of Salvation and the Ward Mission Leader and Bishop talked all about the importance of member missionary work. It was fantastic. It kept on making me cry because of how dedicated this wonderful ward is!

Our 12 year old investigator texted us asking us to remind her how to pray. Super sweet :)

The main less active we've been working with is awesome. She really just wants to find the truth but is struggling with self-worth and her past mistakes. She also doesn't get a whole lot of testimony from her family, even though they're also members, and one of them is very active. He has a rather odd perspective on family and the gospel. It's kinda frustrating!

We met Jamal this week! Street contacting. He's looking for a change in his life after some bad stuff. Very open to everything we've taught him, and has a baptismal date. I really hope he makes it!

This week was Waunafest! (Apparently it's super popular from like all over Wisconsin? and beyond? I don't know if I buy that...) Wisconsin likes their fests. Waunakee is a very proud little village, haha. But we had lots of opportunities to talk to lots of people at Waunafest. So it was great!

We got in contact with a guy we totally weren't excepting to ever answer our phone calls. We taught him a lesson. It was...interesting. We'll see where he goes with it :)

Dewey! We had totally lost contact him! But Bro. Arthur got a hold of him! It was very cool. We taught him last night. He has some serious hold-ups, but he's just got to push past them! That lesson kept on making me want to cry too. It's so sad when people recognize but then deny the voice of the spirit!

We have some exciting stuff coming up this week! Hoping to have an FHE with our investigator family tonight. Saturday we're running a luncheon in Lodi primarily for members to bring their nonmember friends to that can be relatively non-threatening. Hoping to meet a lot of people and plant a lot of seeds at that! Pray for it!

New missionary scripture of the moment: Alma 26:22. That's who I need to be :)

Sister Neal

7/22/13: On FIIRREEE

I'm really super ridiculously horribly repentantly guiltily sorry to say that something has been going on these past few weeks, I don't know what, and Sister Smith and I have not been as good of missionaries as we should be. We were definitely getting lazy.

NO MORE!!!

We've been working with a few good people, but prospective baptisms are still being worked on. Everyone has been falling through our fingers because of sources in and out of our control...so we decided to fix it and be more 'exactly' obedient. Every moment, exactly.

Well it took a few days but the fruit of our labors is showing as of this morning!

We went to 1-6 week training for Sister Smith with the new president and it was fantastic!! There was a huge focus on finding techniques which was exactly what we needed and it pumped us up for some REAL missionary work! We proceeded to go back to Waunakee and teach some fifteen people on the streets over the next two or three days. I am loving meeting so many people! It also benefits hugely to be living across the street from the major city park :)

While we met a lot of people and influenced them, most weren't really interested in meeting again, but we got a few precious souls! And we are hoping to see some results of our faith in the next few days as we follow up. 

New food of the week: Rhubarb. It's really good! Why haven't I had this before?

We got soaked through in a sudden summer storm yesterday. I haven't gotten stuck n the middle of a storm in over a month! It was pretty funny. And the member we were visiting got a kick out of it too, although she wanted to slap us for not calling her when the rain hit :P

I bought some bug spray and visited the doctor. Everything with the mosquitoes is much better now! Long story short, my immune system cannot figure out what to do about these bug bites! It's learning though :D

Gonna have an exciting p-day at Lake Wisconsin today. Hoping to meet a million people :)

We're teaching our awesome neighbors. They are so prepared! They keep crazy hours though, so we'll only be able to teach them like once a week. But they are so cool!

I'm so glad I have this opportunity to be a missionary. I can feel how this calling gives me power I will never have again! Driving me to act. To testify. Let's all just serve missions forever, alright?

Love you all!

Sister Neal