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