Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Bye Bye Millersburg. Hello Johnstown! From November 6, 2017

Boy oh boy do I got a surprise for you.
I'm being transferred!!! I'm getting transferred to Johnstown! I'm
going to be in my first district. Which means I'll be able to go on
exchanges in somerset!!!!!! Haha I'm so. Flipping. STOKED!!!!!! Can't
wait!!!
Haha this past week I had been praying that I could get transferred to
somerset for my last run. I forgot transfers were this week and I saw
the transfer boards and I screamed. I absolutely went hysterical!
Can't wait to go on exchanges in somerset and see my people!
Haha I'm also very excited to be in Johnstown!
Man. Looking back at this area and the progress that's happened is
crazy. When I first got here (sorry Butikofer❤️) there was absolutely
nothing. No investigators or anything really. Elder Butikofer and I
worked our little booties off! Elder Butikofer and I labored with all
of our might. We would always talk about how hard we were working and
say how we have never been so physically, mentally, spiritually, and
emotionally exhausted. I can't describe how tiring it was! Haha but we
worked. And now we are starting to see the fruit of our labors. We had
a baptism last week. We have 2 baptisms coming up in 2 weeks. We have
been picking up awesome investigators. Members coming back to church.
So much goodness coming forth now! It's crazy!
So it's bittersweet to be leaving. Leaving all of this hard work and
fruit in the hands of others and not being here when it happens. But I
need a new scenery haha.
This week was pretty full of nothing. Lots of doctor appointments
because elder dey has been sick. But he's ok now.
So overall message of this email is that hard work pays off. And WE
CAN BAPTIZE ANYWHERE!!!!






More goodness!!! from October 30, 2017

Good things!
Yesterday Charlotte got baptized. It was so good! One of our
investigators, mike, was there and felt the spirit for sure. We talked
to him afterwords and he said he is super excited now to be baptized.
We handpicked 25 chapters from the Book of Mormon we want him to read
in two weeks so he can be baptized on nov 18. So sweet! So we will
have a double baptism on that date.
Mike went to the temple with the branch on Friday. We saw him Friday
night and asked how it was. He was speechless. He couldn't form words
to describe his experience. Even though he couldn't go into the
temple, just walked around it, he felt the spirit for sure. It was
perfect because it lead perfectly into us talking about how our bodies
are temples and we need to live the word of wisdom. So we committed
him to live it and he accepted. So things are going great here.
This week was pretty crazy getting things worked out for charlottes
baptism. Because we didn't even know for sure if she was going to be
baptized until like Tuesday night at like 9:30 pm. She was interviewed
and then president Bednar called us and talked about it and said she
could get baptized. While he was on the phone with us giving us a run
down he finished and said, "elders..... GREAT JOB!....... you have
done marvelous work" and then something along the lines that we
changed charlottes life. When he told us great job and stuff I felt so
much weight taken off my shoulders and I just felt soooo good! It felt
so good to hear president tell us that. It was indescribable how good
it felt. So we were setting up her baptism and such. We had to clean
the font which took a long time because this branch hasn't had a
baptism in years. But now they do. And they will continue to get them
as we are obedient and work hard! Got a couple more lined up so it
isn't stopping!!
So yeah, this week was us scrambling around getting ready for
Charlottes baptism.
During the baptism a video we were trying to play wasn't working, so
while trying to fix it I looked at sister kaiser(who sings
wonderfully), we make eye contact, and she nods her head, and I'm
like, "alright everyone we are actually going to hear sis kaiser
sing!!" Then she sang a song on the spot, man! She came in clutch!!!
She is the best!!! Haha it was so funny though. We both were thinking
the exact same thing! Haha.
Good things are happening. The field is white!


Perfect timing to catch some pics of the sunset over the Susquehanna river.
Also a bomb cheeseburger I made MYSELF!!






So much goodness!!!! from October 23, 2017

This week was bonkers!

First off we had 4 investigators, which 3 of them have a baptismal
date, and 3 members, who usually don't attend, come to church this
week! It was sooo sweet! It was so exciting and felt so good!

This week was good. We met a couple people that seemed pretty
promising. One lady was so excited after talking to us she told us to
come back the next day and she thanked us for stopping her. That was
sweet. Met this dad that said we could come back. Hopefully things
will go well there. We stopped by this lady we have talked to before,
she knows a member in my old companions (elder Butikofer) area. So we
showed her the prince of peace video and she liked it. She started
crying and told us she hasn't felt gods love or anything before and
always feels like she gets cold shoulders from churches. So we
promised our message would help and then we set an appointment for
Saturday. It's cool cause she told us in the beginning, "I wish you
guys were located down here." And we were like, ".... we are!!!!" Haha
it was great.

We texted a girl from last week that we met and we have been texting a
lot. She can't meet because she is a nurse person for someone and
literally works like 24/7 and lives with the guy she takes care of.
But she is so cool. She said she read every summary of each chapter in
the Book of Mormon and then read the chapter if it sounded super
interesting. So things are cool with her!

Friday as we were planning for our week elder dey and I had a super
strong impression we needed to move someone's baptismal date up. The
feeling felt super urgent. It was crazy because her previous date was
for nov 4. And that's already pretty soon. But we felt like we had to
do it. And so we looked at the next weekend and on Friday the branch
was going to the temple so that was out, Saturday was the branches
trunk or treat party. So we were figuring out what day and time. We
also had to figure how we were going to teach her everything we need
to teach her before her baptism cause we have to teach her a lot. And
it's one week away. So we set to have her baptism on the 29th. And we
made lesson plans and figured it out how we can cram it all in before
then and we pretty much have to go over every single day this week to
make it possible. But it's going to happen. As long as she passes her
interview all will be well!! So that was pretty crazy! That's never
happened to me before. The prompting was so strong and I knew we had
to.

Anyways. Our other 2 people with baptismal dates are doing awesome!
They are so solid!
So things are going so good here in Millersburg!
Anyways that's my week in a wrap.
Oh yea, Sunday elder dey and I gave talks. I gave a talk about faith
using the story of David and Goliath. I finished it literally like an
hour before I gave it. Anyways mom or anyone else that wants to read
it I can send it to you if you tell me.
Love you all! Miss you all!
Breakfast at the bopps!!!


Momentum - from October 16, 2017

This week was absolutely nuts.
Went on 2 exchanges. Elder Brooks and then elder Olsen. Elder Olsen is
a stud missionary. We killed it together!!!
Haha funny story. We went and got subway. As we were in subway elder
Olsen went first and got his sandwich. The lady at that was checking
him out started flirting with him so hard. While that's going on I was
sitting there waiting for someone to put condiments on my sandwhich. I
sat there for a good 4 minutes while elder Olsen gave her a Book of
Mormon and she googlaly eyed Olsen. A different worker came over and
out some people on hold to help me. She says I'm sorry that she isn't
helping. Haha I laughed. I got to check out and pay for my sandwhich.
That girl that flirted with elder Olsen says 2 things to me. 1. What
was your sandwich. 2. The cost of it. So we went back to the car and
we laughed pretty hard about it. When we parked and started eating
elder Olsen says, "she put god bless you on my sandwich!!" I was
like.. what. I don't even think she wrote on mine. So I looked and she
wrote nothing. Not even what my sandwiches were. Then Olsen again says
"she wrote it again on my other sandwich!!!" I checked my other
sandwich and there was nothing. I was like dude! She didn't even write
what my sandwich was. Not one drop of ink on that thing. Hahahahaha we
laughed about it pretty hard. That was super funny. Anyways.
We set 3 people with a date and got 10 new investigators.
We received a media referal and he said he has met with the
missionaries before and we set him with a date.
2 weeks ago a former investigator came to church and her grandma bore
her testimony and told us that she wants to be baptized.
We met someone who's fiancé has read the Book of Mormon and believes
if it. Crazy story with that person. I have felt like we should knock
that door before. We did and no answer. On exchanges another elder
wanted to knock on that door with me. We did and no answer. And again
on another exchange an elder wanted to knock it and we did, and she
answered!!! She was way cool! Hopefully something will get set with
her. But yea it's just been an awesome week!!!
Miracles upon miracles upon miracles.
Miss you all and love you!
Miss my family so much! My friends too.


The Holy Ghost - from October 9, 2017

So I'll tell for my weekly an experience I had a while ago that I keep
getting reminded of.
A while ago we were contacting some people we were about to see
someone but as we got to their house we realized that the reason we
thought we should see her was invalid. So we started to drive away and
I felt this constraining feeling that we should go see her. And I
really didn't want to go back, I just wanted to keep going. But I just
felt so strongly that we needed to go back so I stopped the car and
asked elder Butikofer if we should go back. He said yea. So we went
back and knocked on her door. She came to the door and we offered
service and she said no but thank and kind of said bye.
A week later she told us we were angels.  She told us about how she
was having a horrible day because the passing of her husband and she
was yelling and crying and asking why he left, that he said he'd
always be with her to help her, and where is her help and so on. Then
she heard a knock at the door and it was us. She closed the door
quickly because it again made her emotional because it was an answer
to her prayer. She has toLd that story many times. I finally told her
our side of the story recently and when we did she just broke down in
tears again and thanked us and thanked us and couldn't talk.
Follow the spirit!
Good week. Nothing new really to tell.
Love you all and miss you all.