The One Where I Got Proposed To... LOL

 HOWDY YALLL!!!! Happy late turkey day! Love ya'll sooo much and I'm so grateful for all of you and the influence you've had on my life! This week was crazy haha! 

Monday: PDAYYYY!! We went and did hot chocolate and card games at the Moffatts, it was a party! Then we had dinner with a member and it was soo good! Then we went to fhe and we were a tad bit late haha but all the ysa gave us a standing ovation when we came in! It was way cool haha 

Tuesday:  UNPLANNED OPPORTUNITIES! Our district set a goal this week to hand out 75 boms! So me and sister Ritchie decided we would try to hand out 3- 5 per day! We didn't have tons of time to go finding and we were kinda sad but then we just decided we would do all our stuff out in public and put ourselves in situations where we could share the gospel with people! We were able to talk to a couple people at the library, we decided to start paying inside when we get gas so we can talk to the workers and we had some cool experiences with that! 

Wednesday: DISTRICT COUNCIL! We talked about teaching with the spirit and how vital it is! Here some people will just try to bash you, really the only thing you can do is bear your testimony and dip. Because if there's no contention the spirit is not there so there's no point in trying to teach them if they aren't willing to actually listen. We had lots of member calls and they were way good! Then we had Bible study with the Moffatts, it was so fun! 

Thursday: THANKSGIVING!! So fun!!! We got to talk to our family's and do lots of fun stuff for Thanksgiving! We went and volunteered at the homeless shelter and it was so good! These people are so cool! You can never judge someone by how they look. Some of the kindest people i've every met live there! Then we had dinner with a member, it was so good! We did a spiritual thought after and for part of it we watched the because of him video. One of the kids parents was reading the words to one of the little kids and at he goes "wow Jesus really did all that for us?" The spirit was so strong! 

Friday: MIRACLES! We saw so many miracles on Friday!! Finding in the ysa is pretty brutal haha! No one shows up to their appointments or everyone straight up ghosts you. We've been doing more member work though and it's finally starting to get going! Ahh I love our members they are soo cool! These people drive over an hour for church and all the activities!!! They are so devoted and are huge examples to me! One miracle from Friday is we were out finding at Walmart and we were getting discouraged because there were 0 ysa. Me and sis Ritchie without knowing it both said a silent prayer at the same time and when we turned the corner we saw a worker and felt like we needed to talk to him. Turns out he's roommates with one of our friends who's on date! He was way interested and were hopefully meeting with him this week!

Saturday: EXCHANGES! I got to be comps with Sister Jillian for the day, it was so fun!! I had a full circle moment because my 1st ever exchange was w/ her! Crazy how much time flies haha! We met some cool people and visited an inactive. Then we went to the Hermana's baptism, it was soo cool! The spirit was super strong! Then we had a couple lessons thats went way good!

Sunday: soo good! Also very interesting lol! As you can probably guess by the  title I got proposed to... by a 60/70 yr old (not even sure)  via letter saying he had a dream about us and he said he thought it meant we were supposed to get married... he tossed me the letter and said let me know SOON and dipped. let me tell you I was fighting demons trying not to cry laughing during the rest of sacrament meeting! The joys of being a sister missionary! The rest of church was BOMB though! 

Challenge: share your testimony with someone this week! It can be super simple and a lot easier than we think! Pray for opportunities to share and then act when those opportunities come!  As you're talking to people things will come to mind that you can tie into the gospel! Even if its just telling people that God loves them! Doing this will build your testimony so much! "A testimony is better built on the feet bearing it rather than on the knees praying for it"

                                                my first proposal... LOL in the cringiest way

4 MONTHS!!

 HOWDY YALLL!!!  The past 4 months have been some of the hardest, best, most rewarding months of my life! This week was sooo good! 

Monday: PDAYYYY!! We went to a family in the wards house and played tons of games! Sister Ritchie absolutely destroyed me in bumper pool 5x but it's okay because apparently I'm good at corn hole so it evens out lol!  Then we had dinner and a bomb lesson with our friend! And then IT SNOWED!!!!!! 

Tuesday: BRUTAL LOL...  we tried to contact lots of our inactives but not a single one answered we also both got sick and it was absolutely FREEZING!  But we left them all notes so hopefully one of them will respond to us!

Wednesday:SERVICE! There's something soo cool about this time of year! Lots of people are more willing to hear our message or are just kinder in general! We do service at the food pantry and homeless shelter each week and it's absolutely incredible to see how these people will have nothing but they give what they do have to God and others! They are so loving and they go out of they're way to make sure we're okay and feel loved it's amazing! I love those people so much and they have taught me what selfless service means. We got to help them prep food for Thanksgiving! It's crazy how much food that they give out! It's cool to watch people come in and volunteer and make donations! God is so good!!

Thursday: ZONE CONFERENCE! Lol I got humbled so I for some reason thought our zone conference was at 9:30 so me not wanting to be late decided we would be 20 minutes early and then do some calls! Welp psych, it was actually at 9 so that's embarrassing! Got to sit in the middle of the 2nd row so eye to eye with President lol! I felt awful but it's really on me for making my goal this week humility  besides that it was absolutely amazing!!! I always feel so hyped after zone conference! I learned to be bold! And the importance of inviting people to sacrament! Here's a quote from President about diligence " Christ knows how to fix broken things. In order for the healing to take place  there needs to be an alignment "

We call the week of zone conference holy week because the miracles just flow! Literally during lunch for zone conference our friend who we thought dropped off the face of the earth called us and asked to meet with us!!! And then we had 2 BOMB lessons it was amazing!

Friday: MIRACLES!!

Miracle 1: we had a really good member check in call w/ a member! 

Miracle 2: We were able to find a member to come to our lesson 

Miracle 3: our friend has a few learning disabilities but he biked 30 minutes in the 20° weather to hear our message! We didn't think he was going to come so we apologized to the member we had brought and started to walk back to our cars. We saw a guy across the street at the park and all of us felt like we needed to talk to him so we did! It was crazy because that member needed to be there to share some things, we needed to be there as well and that wouldn't have happened had it gone the way we had planned. Then our friend pulls up and we were able to teach him the restoration!  We showed him the 1st vision video and after he said wow that really did happen!  It was one of those days where your heart is just so full it feels like it's going to shatter! It made me think wow am I willing to bike in the frigid weather to hear about the Book of Mormon? Do I value it as much as he did? I feel like sometimes it's easy to take the knowledge we have for granted!  There are people who aren't as luck as we are! We need to treasure the Book of Mormon and share that with others! 

Saturday: MONETT!

We got to go to Monett for a baptism! It was a really neat experience! And then we went to our inactives in the area! None of them answered but we left them notes and then we felt prompted to leave a bom on a random door so we wrote our testimonies and marked all our favorite scriptures and left it there! We had lunch and dinner with some members and we met some cool people when we were out finding!

Sunday: BEST DAY EVER!!!! We as a zone set a goal to invite 100 people to sacrament this week! Friday we had felt like we needed to go to see an inactive at work! We did not want to because last time it was way awkward but we decided to do it anyway! GUYS! We had a 2 hour long conversation with him at work and we were only interrupted 1x! And we have gone through a lot of similar things! I was able to relate to him so well and share how gospel had helped me and how and why I know it's true! We testified of the atonement and showed him the because of him video, the spirit was so strong! He agreed to come to church & he did!!! It was amazing! We had 3 non members and 2 inactives at church which seems small but last week we had 0 and the week before 1 so that was huge! And then our recent convert made me bawl my eyes out for 10 minutes straight when she told me she wants to serve a mission! If she is the only thing that happens my whole mission I will be more than happy! I know she is going to change so many lives and I'm soo excited for her! Watching her grow has been amazing! She is such a huge example to me & I'm so grateful for her influence in my life! 

Challenge: go into your scripture study this week with a question! Ive done it this week and it's strengthened my testimony of the Book of Mormon so much!!!!

Toil for the Oil

 HOWDY YALLL!!! Holy cow being a missionary is both so exhausting and the most fun thing ever! I feel like I say this every week but this week was insane so sorry but I'm not gonna spellcheck this before I send it lol! But for real you know that feeling when you're so tired that after your prayer you debate sleeping on the floor? That's been me every day this week lol! But you couldn't pay me enough money to be doing anything else haha! 

Monday: PDAYYYY! GUYSSS I'm actually getting lowkey skilled at pickleball! Me and sister Ritchie demolished the district except for the Moffatts... they are still undefeated lol! 

Then we played lots of card games, it was a blast!

Tuesday: UNPLANNED OPPORTUNITIES! We had weekly planning and we decided to do it at the park so that we could find while doing weekly planning.  we ran into a guy that we had found awhile ago! We taught him the plan of salvation and it was super cool! We're not sure he was all the way there... lol but it was still cool to see how God will put people in our path if we ask and are willing to act! We also had a bomb lesson with our friend Wes and were able to put him on date! So everyone please pray for him!

Wednesday: BIBLE STUDY! We got to teach Bible study this week! But we didn't end up having time to plan it until 30 minutes before... but it ended up being sooo good! Guys the spirit is soo sick! It's crazy how thoughts will pop into your head or scriptures that tie to what you're talking about!  We also had district council Wednesday.  We talked al ot about godly fear vs worldly fear. It was so awesome and completely changed my perspective on faith and acting on promptings! Something that we did is we listed all the things that fall under worldly fear & godly fear and then they erased godly fear and replaced it with faith.. crazy! I had never looked at faith that way!  

Thursday: ...our car broke lol... no I didn't do anything to it.  the guy at the car place pretty much told us he has no clue what's wrong with it and it's probably just because the weather here has been wack so that's fun! We also got a rock chip fixed so we had lots of time to go through our records! it was actually cool tho because we met people at both car places and had cool convos with them! 

Friday: FINDING GRIND!! We did a full day of finding and meet some cool people on campus! Send us all you're finding ideas because we're having a hard time retaining people we find. We also did some member visits and it was way good!  Something that I'm starting to realize is that EVERYONE is struggling with something! No matter who it is... the relief society president, the stake president, the person who everyone thinks has their life together- that person is struggling. This life is a test its not supposed to be easy breezy, don't get me wrong it's amazing and so joyful, but we're here together to help each other! I'm thoroughly convinced that if we all took 1 hour each week to have a real and raw conversation with our ministering sister/ brother and took the time to genuinely get to know them and ask how their really doing. LISTEN, emphasize with them and share a message that is tailored to their personal needs and not just because it's our duty or calling. I think we'd have very few people in this church become inactive! It absolutely crushes me when we talk to inactives and they say that they felt like people didn't actually care or that they just talked to them because of their calling. People can tell if our hearts are in it. Do the people you minister to feel like just another statistic or are they treated like who they really are? A son or daughter of God and our brother or sister. Christ's brother or sister. 

Saturday: FINDING GRIND PT 2 + TRYING TO ORGANIZE RECORDS!

We went finding at the mall and met some elect people! It's so cool to see how God literally has the whole day planned already we just need to act on where he tells us to go! After we went finding we went through our records. PEOPLE PLEASE PLEASE PUT YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION IN YOUR RECORDS! Half the people in our records are married or don't exist so we went through and now we get to play detective and try to find them lol! It took us hours but we finally have the list sorted through! 

Sunday: CHURCH!!!

It is COLD here! Not like oh its winter and there's snow cold. Like it looks warm outside and you go out and you can't breathe kinda cold! The humidity do be brutal! But on the bright side church was sooo good! Sister Ritchie gave a talk and it was bomb! And we were able to talk to the members and the ward council and work with them more! Then we had our scripture study call tonight and it was way good! Sundays are for real the best!!! I love church! It's just such a good way to start off the week! 

Challenge: 

Toil for the oil! 

This is something that me and Sister Ritchie have had lots of convos about lately! In her talk on Sunday she talked about how her fam always says this and how it's something that it sooooo important especially in today's world! The phrase comes from the story of the 10 virgins. They needed oil to keep their lamps burning, to get oil you need to press lots of olives. And the darker the world the brighter we need our light to shine and the more oil we will need. So when we do the little things daily it keeps our lamps burning bright! Although in the story of the 10 virgins it talks about how we can't share our oil with others. We can share our testimonies with people. This builds our own testimonies/ light and it shows others where they can find their own oil!  Sooo your challenge this week is to pray for opportunities to share your testimony with someone and then act! The first person who comes to mind! It can be super simple and casual! Satan will try to make it seem scary but it's not! Look for the people God is putting in your path! I promise that he is putting people in your path that are prepared and are waiting for someone to share with them! 

Love ya'll! God bless! 

Funny Quote from Sister Ritchie this week "Your a fetching queen and daughter of a king" LOL

smiling actually is my favorite

love sister Ritchie 

our truck 

Holy Guacamole

 HOWDY YALLL!!! This week was wayyy cool! But absolutely insane so sorry for the late email haha! Boy am i tired lol sorry this is gonna be a short and sweet one!

Monday: PDAYYYY!! The last one w/ our district  We carved some pumpkins and had a Halloween party! And the lady at the pumpkin patch gave us lots of free mini pumpkins

Tuesday: President Nelson toured our zone (not the prophet) lol, a member of the mission presidency! It was so sick!!! We saw so many miracles and the spirit was so strong! I really learned to trust in the spirit and act on EVERY prompting!

Wednesday : we had service at the food pantry w/ the district & it was a party! Then we had district council it was way cool! 

Thursday: we went around so sister lacey could said goodbye to all our friends and the members. it was so tender though, I'm going to be a mess when I have to leave this area lol!

Friday: GUYSSSS I'm a mom now!!! I'm training Sister Ritchie she's the best, I love her so much! She's temporarily resigned from Peru so I'm trying to learn Spanish w/ her so pray for us both! 

Saturday: 

We went to Joplin and contacted some inactives, had a couple bomb lessons! 

We also met a cool girl at Walmart and were hoping to start teaching her!

Sunday: fast Sunday! Oh boy the members made me cry in fast and testimony meeting lol! We have some of the best people on the planet in our ysa! These people will drive hours and spend so much money to come to church, lessons, activities! It makes me realize how much I took for granted living in Utah! These people are truly unshaken!!

Challenge: ACT! start taking steps of faith. Act on every prompting you get this week! One of my favorite quotes has been " Never suppress a generous thought" everything good is from God so if you have a thought to do something good JUST DO IT !! 

Love ya'll! God bless

Oh Boy Do I Need Some Sleep

 Wowza I'm tired! This week was crazy! But a good crazy lol! So I'm sorry if this email is a Lil all over the place! But it's a reflection of my week haha

Monday: PDAYYYY! A member let our district come over and use their house for pday, we played tons of games! It was way fun, I learned I'm trash at corn hole too lol! 

Tuesday:

We had a lesson, service, planned stuff for the baptisms

Wednesday:

Was pretty chill we just had service and planning

Thursday: ZONE BLITZ!  We had mlc review and then our zone blitz( pretty much a full day of finding) we went on splits and got new assignments for the day and it was sooo fun!!! I served with Sister Fyfe in Cassville! We're both pretty new and so that was fun and I had never been tracting before because we don't knock doors for ysa. It pushed me out of my comfort zone but in a good way! The people in Cassville are low key brutal lol. We got doors slammed and all the fun missionary things. It was low key hilarious though and made me feel like a real missionary.  We did meet some really cool people and even invited someone to be baptized and they accepted.  One of the biggest takeaways is to approach each person that we come in contact with as if they were a family member... because they are! We are all God's children and we should be striving to look at others with an eternal perspective! 

Friday:  We had brunch with brynn and saryah and a few people in the relief society! It was way fun and it was way cool to see how brynn and saryah clicked and just to hear both of their story's was way cool! We had a few lessons, they both were bomb! And then we got to go the the ysa Halloween party for a bit and say hi to all our friends which was way fun! 

Saturday: SARYAH AND BRYNNS BAPTISM!!!! Oh my Heavens Saturday was amazing! But boy I was dead after! Nothing is more stressful as a missionary than a baptism especially since brynn had texted us the night before saying that she was sick and had a fever! But we saw so many miracles! Brynns fever broke in 3 hours and she was able to make it to the baptism and felt great during it! She felt sick right after the baptism so couldn't make it to her confirmation but is getting confirmed next Sunday! The service was amazing though! Both brynn and saryahs faces when they came out of the water were just pure joy! Saryah came out of the water in tears which had me crying and it was so sweet to see brynn and saryah comfort each other after! Moments like Saturday make all the hard days worth it! It's been amazing to see their journeys and how far they have come! I'm so proud of both of them! 

Sunday: saryah got confirmed!!!! Me and sister lacey gave our talks that we were asked to give on Saturday, it was good though and the spirit was super strong especially after saryah got confirmed! It was way cool!! Also we got transfer calls and I'm staying and training! So send me all the advice/ any tips you have cause I have no clue what I'm doing haha!