General Conference is coming!

I totally jinxed the weather last week saying fall was here...
Everyday this past week was in the 90s with CRAZY humidity! I am so
sick of the heat...I want fall weather! This week looks more "season
appropriate" so I am excited for that :)

The best weekend of the month started with the general women's
broadcast on Saturday! I absolutely love General conference and
getting to hear the words of our beloved prophet. I can't wait for
this weekend! The general women's broadcast was amazing and I am so
grateful for the focus of Christlike attributes- faith, hope, charity,
diligence...I am grateful for our Savior who set a perfect example for
us to follow.

There's been lots of ups and downs this week for sure. For one, I got
my first chigger bites! Bound to happen being in Missouri for 15
months, right? ;) But the Lord is good to us and He continues to bless
us more than we deserve.

Nichole is doing so good! She went to mutual and she even went to
early morning seminary! That is dedication. She came to the general
women's broadcast on Saturday and to church again yesterday. She
absolutely loves everything and we feel like everything is going to
work out for October 15!

We made a lot of good contacts this week. I'm grateful for the spirit
and how he works. On Saturday, we were out tracting and I saw a car
with some Idaho license plates, so I needed to knock on their door to
figure out where they're from (Idaho pride). The spirit wouldn't let
me walk past those Idaho license plates and I'm so grateful! We met a
lady who was just moving in from Twin Falls! She grew up in Utah and
her mom and grandma are both members of the church! She said we could
come back next week!

Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting and I heard probably the best
testimony I've ever heard. A little 9 year old girl got up and said
"I've been thinking a lot lately about Jesus Christ in the Garden of
Gethsemane. When I was baptized, I didn't think much of the occasion,
I just thought about how my dad was going to dunk me in some water.
But now that I'm baptized, I have thought about the pain that Jesus
Christ felt just so I could be baptized. I love Jesus Christ." The
spirit was tangible. THIS is who Christ said was the greatest in the
kingdom of God (Matthew 18:1-6). THIS is what it means to become
childlike. To understand that Jesus Christ suffered for me. That He is
my Savior and because of that, I can be forgiven of my sin. No doubt,
no fear, just complete trust and faith. I am grateful for that
reminder.

One other cool experience is that I got to go through the liberty jail
twice this week. The spirit kept telling me that all of this really
happened. Joseph Smith really did see God the Father and Jesus Christ.
He really did restore Christ's church and His priesthood power. He
really did commune with Jehovah, even in the darkest 4 and a half
months of his life. He truly translated the Book of Mormon, which is
another testament of Jesus Christ. I KNOW all of these things happened
because the Holy Ghost has borne witness of it to me. I know this is
the Lord's church!


              

Exchanges with Sister Taylor!  Aftermath of being outside in the humidity allllll day!

Liberty Jail!  The Johnsons from our ward brought our investigator Connie!  Sister Hixon used to serve in this ward and she took us through the presentation!

Sunset in Weston, Missouri.... to die for!

I Love My Mission

Fall is my favorite time of year, especially in Missouri! The weather
is absolutely perfect and all the trees turn gorgeous colors. And it
lasts longer than a couple of weeks :) The Lord is oh so good to His
missionaries! I feel way too blessed! I am so grateful that He answers
prayers! We have been praying so hard for some solid people to teach
and He definitely provided! Ever since MLC, we have committed to
inviting someone to be baptized every single day and we have only
missed one day so far! Miracles have happened because of it!

On Tuesday we met this girl named Nichole. The elders had met her just
walking outside and sent us over to see her. She is 15 and absolutely
adorable! On Tuesday we taught her lesson one and put her on date for
October 15! We saw her again on Thursday and she is reading the Book
of Mormon! She always talks about how she hates her lessons at school
but she loves our lessons :) She also says the best closing prayers!
On Thursday in her prayer she said "thank you for these lessons and I
hope one day I can share them with someone". My heart absolutely
melted!

Plug in for members to go out with missionaries... We had Brynlee, one
of our ward missionaries come out with us to see Nichole! Brynlee is
16 and UNDERSTANDS missionary work! Brynlee invited her to mutual and
church and offered rides to both. Nichole's birthday is also coming up
so Brynlee said they could watch a movie at her house to celebrate! I
LOVE MEMBERS!

Nichole came to church yesterday and loved it! She loved meeting the
young women and making friends. She carried around her Book of Mormon
everywhere :) She also got her moms permission to be baptized!

Later Thursday night, we were trying a potential and we found an
apartment complex that we had never seen and there was nothing in our
area book from there. NEW PEOPLE TO TRACT! We knocked on 3 doors and
got return appointments with all 3 of them! We went back and saw one
of them, Kassandra, the very next day! She is a YSA which is a miracle
in and of itself! We taught lesson one and put her on date for October
29!

On Friday we went to see the Burley family! Shannon is dating a less
active member of our ward and we are trying so hard to work with them.
Shannon has two daughters, Lily and Zoe, who are 18 and 16. Lily is
the most interested and she is searching so hard for truth right now.
We taught them the plan of salvation and they all loved what we
taught, especially Lily! They loved the kingdoms of glory the most
which is way cool. While we were teaching the lesson, Lily could
hardly contain herself because she was so excited. Zoe asked how we do
baptism and we said we do it by immersion and Lily literally jumped
out of her chair because she was so excited and she said she wants to
be rebaptized so badly. We put all 3 of them on date for October 29!

Lily reminded me how exciting our message really is. It truly is
incredible to know that we have a LIVING PROPHET who directs the
church through the PRIESTHOOD. Everything He says is what CHRIST
Himself would say to us. We know our families can be together FOREVER
because of the TEMPLE and the sealing ordinances. We have ANOTHER
testament of Jesus Christ through the Book of Mormon. We know that
Christ is our SAVIOR and He paid the price for our sins so we could
return to live with Heavenly Father again. The gospel is so TRUE!

I discovered one of my new favorite scriptures this week. Alma 12:34.
"Therefore, whosoever repenteth, and hardeneth not his heart, he shall
have claim on mercy through mine Only Begotten Son, unto a remission
of his sins; and these shall enter into my rest."
To repent means to simple turn to Christ. Every time you read your
scriptures, you repent. Every time you say your prayers, you repent.
Every time you serve someone, you repent. When you choose Christ, just
like President Monson talked about in April, you are choosing to
repent. And when we do these things we are accepting the gift that has
been given to us- the Atonement of our Savior. He already paid the
price for our sins, but through our obedience and our repentance, we
truly accept this sacrifice and we receive a remission of sins. I know
that His rest is the peace that enters into our heart as we choose to
follow Him. I have experienced that as I have used the Atonement daily
in my efforts to follow my Savior. I am so grateful that He is the
way. He showed us what we need to do to receive all the blessings He
has in store for us. If we will just follow Him, we will be able to
receive His mercy.

          

Best dinner appointment!  We learned how to make sushi!  And you could say, it's my new favorite meal!

Exchanges with Sister Oldroyd!  She is absolutely incredible!

Platte City love with Sister Day

A little, tiny town called Farley.  Funny story, we actually got stuck on the hill because of a storm the night before.  Good times.

Obedience brings MIRACLES!

Hello from Missouri! This week was incredible. We had MLC (mission
leadership council) where all the zone leaders and sister training
leaders meet at the mission home with President and Sister Vest, the
assistants, and Elder and Sister Toronto. It is probably the most
amazing meeting ever! It was about 6 hours long and absolutely
revelatory. I was surrounded by missionaries I have looked up to my
whole entire mission and I felt so humbled to be there. And I know
that President Vest is called of God. It was incredible to be able to
watch the priesthood keys in action. All of the trainings were under
his direction and it was exactly what our mission needed. I know the
priesthood of God was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith.

We take those trainings to zone training and that, too, was incredible
experience. I had never trained at zone training before and I was a
little nervous and then President Vest showed up to ours! But it went
well and the spirit was so strong. I love meeting with missionaries
and feeling the special spirit missionaries carry. I'm going to miss
it...

CAMERON WAS BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY! I got to go out to his baptism! It
was SO COOL to see him be baptized just three weeks after we met him!
It's moments like that that make all the hard times of a mission worth
it! He had the biggest smile on his face and I knew that he had truly
repented of his sins and he was prepared to make special promises with
God.

Something I've been studying a lot this transfer is obedience. I felt
like I was supposed to focus on this attribute this transfer not
because I'm disobedient, but because obedience hasn't been my quest.
And President Vest's favorite quote says when obedience becomes our
quest and not an irritant, in that moment we are endowed with power. I
have been making obedience my quest and I have learned so much about
my Savior through it. Jesus Christ was perfectly obedient to the
Father. Because of Christ's obedience, He was given power to
accomplish everything He was able to.

We are asked to be obedient to the commandments, to our leaders, to
the prophet, to the spirit... I remember I would always use the excuse
that "no one is perfect" for my disobedience. But as I've been
studying obedience I have learned that we aren't perfect, but we
should strive to be. Christ commands us to be perfect like He and our
Father are (3 Nephi 27:27). We ALL have our favorite little sins that
we hold on to and justify, but that is us pitting our will against
God's! I have learned to truly let go of all unrighteousness and be
exactly obedient. And then when we mess up, we have the atonement to
be forgiven. But if we aren't striving to be perfect through Christ,
we don't receive that power.

I am so very grateful for all the lessons I've learned on my mission
and all that I will continue to learn. I am so grateful for my
testimony that has been strengthened through living the doctrine of
Christ. I know the gospel of Jesus Christ is real and true and life
changing.

     

My favorite view of Platte City

CAMERON IS BAPTIZED!
Get this...he was robbed and beat up the week of his baptism.  Cameron is too strong to let Satan stop him from getting baptized!

We went to a way cute mall today for P-day called Zona Rosa

My Heart is Full

Happy Labor Day! I hope y'all are enjoying your day off! This week was
kind of a crazy one. Pretty much everything that we didn't plan for
happened! But we saw some awesome things happen in both of our areas!

In the YSA, we have a recent concert named Aremondo and he blessed the
sacrament for the first time on Sunday! He is so awesome and it's
really exciting to see new members being able to use their priesthood
and experience the blessings that come from that.

We met with Lexi and her friend Katelynn and Lexi chose a baptism
date! She is on date for October 8! She has a lot of faith to start
living the commandments so we are praying things will work out for her
to be able to do so. And her friend Katelynn is now interested! She
came to church with Lexi and sat in on previous lessons but her heart
has been softened!

We have been placed in the right place at the right time so many times
this week and have been able to find a lot of people prepared to hear
the message of the restored gospel. Exciting things are happening
here! We also went on exchanges and I went to Cameron with Sister
Sargent. It was a really cool exchange and I was reminded that the
spirit is the real teacher. I didn't know any of their investigators
but as we followed the spirit we were able to give them exactly what
they needed.

I really wanted to share what's been on my mind this past week. I have
really thought about everything I have learned on my mission and the
change that I've been able to experience. And I have come to know that
the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real. His doctrine is the way for us
to access the power of the Atonement. As we exercise faith, repent,
keep and renew our covenants, follow the Holy Ghost, and endure to the
end, the atonement is able to come into our hearts and completely
change us. For me, the most important part is repentance. I have
gained such a strong testimony of repentance and truly humbling
ourselves and calling on the Lord to cleanse us. I love my Savior so
much. I am so grateful for Him and that He is always ready to help me
and change me. I have gained so much peace and happiness as I've
aligned my will with His and devoted myself to Him. I am so grateful
for my mission and all the wonderful things it's taught me so far. But
most importantly, I am grateful that my mission has brought me closer
to my Savior.

I love you all and hope you have a great week! Thanks for all your
support, emails, and prayers!

                 

Most awkward district picture I've ever taken.  Obviously Sister Day and I should be models for the missionary department though.  :)

One of the prettiest places I've seen so far!  Farley, Missouri....population 200

Exchanges with Sister Sargent

The YSA meets right by the temple so we had to take a temple selfie  :)