June 25th, 2013 - The Work is on Fire!

This last week has been amazing!! We have had so many blessings and miracles and I know the Lord is watching over us and guiding us the whole time.

On Thursday we had our first Zone conference and it was AMAZING!!! Our mission president and his wife both spoke to us and gave us lots of good advice and spiritual nourishment, then we had lunch and played a jeopardy game. They split us off into some workshops and taught us about intensifying and simplifying our lessons, good ways to find people and how to plan you time most effectively. The whole thing was awesome and the Spirit was so amazingly strong all day. The conference lasted over 7 hours but it didn't feel long at all. By the end, I was left wanting more! I got to see some of my friends from my MTC district which was awesome!

At the end of the conference, our mission president spoke to us and told us that he has a tumor and is going in for surgery in the next few weeks to get it removed which is so scary and crazy, plus they are splitting mission next week so we are slightly few in numbers for right now, and they said that right now we have about 130 missionaries still in our mission and by December of this year, there should be about 250 missionaries in our mission! It's insane because the work is booming so much and so many people are ready and willing to accept the gospel over here that they are responding and strengthening the Lord's army.

By December they will have a set of Elders and Sisters in each area which is unheard of. It will be difficult because we will have to coordinate and cooperate but it will also be so awesome because there are going to be so many blessings and miracles and new members because of it!! You add that with the awesome leadership meeting last night where they talked a ton about member missionary work and getting the entire church involved with the missionary effort!! They said countless times how missionary work ad spreading the gospel is one of the most important responsibilities for all members of the church right now!!

I don't know how many of you got to watch the broadcast last night but it was pretty amazing! They had so many incredible talks and changes made! I can't believe they announced that now missionaries will have access to the internet on a daily basis to use for missionary work. All missionaries will be using, email, lds.org, mormon.org, blogs and Facebook to speed up the work and find more investigators effectively. They are allowing the use of technology in the hopes of keeping up with the world and finding more effective ways to spread the gospel and find people to teach then tracting and knocking on doors all day long. Which I don't mind at all! :)

They also announced that there will be missionaries stationed at each chapel throughout the week to give chapel tours and keep the chapels open to any visitors who are interested! They made some pretty big changes and it is so exciting to be a part of the guinea pigs and the beginning of all these changes!! I love this work so much and I know that Heavenly Father is blessing Sister Mitchell and I constantly for our handwork, dedication and obedience to Him!!

We have had so many miracles this week but I will just share the top four. Firstly, we found a couple, Paul and Karen Tipple, just sitting on their front porch while we were tracting and they agreed to listen to us. They were quite interested and agreed to a return appointment and even invited us over for dinner this Saturday. We were teaching them and suddenly Paul stops and says "Now tell me why after ignoring and rejecting so many elders year after year, I decided to listen to you ladies and let you teach me?" And bore my testimony that God knows and loves him and knows his heart. Heavenly Father has been preparing him and knew he was ready to accept the gospel and He sent us over to provide that opportunity for them! It was so amazing and he agreed with me and asked specifically for a Book of Mormon to read.

Ok, second miracle, the other day, we had prayed for 2 new investigators and the first two people we talked to were both interested and we set up return appointments! Heavenly Father blessed us immediately and it was awesome. One of the ladies was Melinda and at first she was pretty standoffish and said she keeps her religion private but a few second later she was like an open book and told us everything! We jumped right into the Plan of Salvation lesson and she was very interested and said she has been looking for a religion and believes a lot of the same things we do! I am so excited to see where that goes with her!

Third miracle was on Saturday afternoon. We met with our progressing investigator, Kyle, for the second time and taught him the plan of Salvation. We brought a member with us, Sister Mathews, and she was perfect because she is a convert to the church and could relate a lot better to him than Sister Mitchell and I could. We taught him and the Spirit was so strong. He said he kept getting the chills and at one point even started tearing up. We let him know that that was the Spirit filling him up and testifying of the truthfulness of this gospel and what we were teaching him. We extended the baptismal date of August 10th and he accepted! We are meeting with him this Saturday and he promised to come to church on Sunday! He is already working on breaking his bad habits of gambling, and drinking and he is really trying hard to do what is right. I am so excited to work with him and I think he will be ready sooner and we will be able to move his baptismal date up a bit! I am so excited to see where this goes and I know Heavenly Father is blessing both him and us and it is truly amazing!

Ok, fourth and last miracle of the week. Yesterday, Sister Mitchell and I spoke in church and the Spirit was so strong. Everyone there could feel and I loved every second of that sacrament meeting. After sacrament, the Branch President came up to us and told us that this couple had showed up for church that weren't members and asked us if they were our investigators. We told them no and so he told us to go introduce ourselves. We did and their names were Derek and Destiny. They are both 17 and Destiny told us she Googled the church address and time and just decided to show up. A few months ago, she met a friend in Iowa who was Mormon and so she asked him about it. He told her a little bit and she was interested and downloaded the scriptures onto her iPhone.

She lives in our area here and told us she has been reading the Book of Mormon for the last few months and noticed a big difference in her life. She decided she wanted to come to church and she asked us if we could teach her! We were blown away because rarely do investigators seek out the missionaries and request to be taught. She quickly made friends with some of the young women and we set up a meeting with here and her boyfriend tomorrow! I am so excited and can't wait to solidify her faith and testimony and guide her towards baptism. The awesome thing is that she told one of the young women that she is ready to baptized, she just didn't want us to think she was crazy right off the bat! The whole experience was so miraculous and humbling! She is an amazing girl and she is basically converting herself and hardly even needs us. I am so thrilled to be able to see her grow and progress and I know that she will do amazing things and that Heavenly Father has been preparing and guiding her.!! I am so truly blessed to be a part of this amazing work and making a difference in other people's lives.

So the other day, I got a letter from someone in Elder Nelson's ward who had heard his mom's testimony when she mentioned me in it about my email about the blessing I got in the MTC. This man's name is Larry and his letter was so sweet. He told me about his conversion story and how the work and dedication of two sister missionaries impacted his life and his family's. He told me each of his kids and grand-kids and all the things they had done in the church and the fact that most of them are still active and strong in the church all because of that one conversion those sister helped take place.

He just told me how grateful he is at my decision to serve and how many people I will impact and influence through guidance of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and how amazing missionary work really is!!! The letter was so sweet but it was also accompanied by a card with a photo on it that he had taken himself and it was beautiful. It was of a river in Idaho that is close to his house. And he also sent a 20 dollar check which was so unexpected but sweet of him! A total stranger made my whole day and I am so grateful for that and for the strength and motivation it gave me. I am more than ready to teach God's children and spread the gospel all the world!!! :)

Lastly I wanted to say that the only people I have received letters or packages from for the last 2 1/2 weeks are strangers or people that I hardly know. I have gotten one from a friend's parent and a few emails from some friends but I would love to get more!! My companion averages 2-3 letters a day and 2 packages a week! I am not trying to sound like I am mad but I would just love to hear from all of you! I want to know how life is going and I would love more letters or emails or anything!!!! :)

The following is a list of stuff that I would love if anyone did want to send me a package:

• CDs - any church music like motab, EFY, hymns or pretty much anything you would find at Seagull Book- I only have one CD
• chocolate or treats/snacks
• sticky notes-I use so many sticky notes it's amazing!
• stickers or stationary
• letters or cards
• and lastly I would LOVE pictures!! I didn't bring any with me because I didn't think about it so I have nothing to remember anyone by and I am already starting to forget what people look like! :(

My address is: 1078 Claudia Drive Apt. E London OH, 43140

But you could also send stuff to mission home which is: 19 Clairedan Dr., Powell OH 43065 and they will make sure it gets to me!!

I love you all so much and I miss you! I am loving my mission and I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord and be involved in such great and marvelous work at such an incredible time!!! I know this church is true and this is the only true and everlasting gospel!!!! :)

A flower Sister Mitchell and I made out of Sticky notes with comforting scriptures for one of the Sisters in our ward whose younger sister died earlier this week

The beautiful clouds yesterday

One of the members was nice enough to lend me some sheets because Braden never sent me the package with my bedding in it! I don't mind though because I love Little Mermaid! :)