Missionary Maren: 8/24-8/30

Hello, hello!

Well--- Here it goes!

Monday-- We played volleyball as a zone and it was really fun! It felt SO good to get out there again and play a real game! It was awesome. :)

Sister Nowak fed us dinner that night, she's such a sweetheart we love her! We didn't have pie, but we did have giant empanadas though! Delicious! Haha!

We had a lesson that night with the Mayfield's and Mary Martin, a girl in the ward that just graduated from high school came out with us and it was so great! We taught the Restoration again and it was really good. They had good questions!

Tuesday-- Sister Long wasn't feeling good at all, so we ended up going to the Urgent Care. Germs everywhere! hahaha I was just content reading my little Conference edition of the Ensign. I got some great studies in while waiting! Poor Sister Long had sinus stuff going on and didn't feel good at all. We got her medicine and we were able to go out that day. What a champion!

We didn't have much success that day, lots of people weren't home and I remember saying a specific prayer to find someone to teach. We went and talked to this kid named Zack that we met and he was definitely not budging on his atheist beliefs. It was disheartening. He was like, "Wow I'm so sorry, you guys look so disappointed!" I told him, that obviously we are sad, because we know what we are teaching is true, that there is a God who loves him and knows him, and that Jesus Christ suffered and died for him and he doesn't give it enough time and thought to find out for himself. We continued down the street after that, and we had a few minutes left so we decided to go to one more door...

So, remember last week when I told you about the Atheist Native American descendant guy? Well we decided to knock on his door again to follow up and we met his fiance, Clarissa! She is awesome! And so open! We taught her the Restoration on the doorstep, gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to be baptized and committed her to a date in October! She said we could come back on Thursday, success! After we were walking away, we realized that we didn't pray with her! So we embraced the awkwardness and knocked on her door again and told her we are awful missionaries for forgetting to pray with her and asked if we could say a prayer with her. She was laughing with us and I think she likes us hahaha! :) PRAYER ANSWERED! We were totally guided to go back to that door and we found a new investigator!

Wednesday-- We did service for Sister Watson (the Elder's Quorum President's wife) because she has two young kids and just had twins! We helped deep clean her kitchen and dusted. It was fun! It was a really good time to get to know her and her family. :)

We had a meeting that night with Brother Bey, our Ward Mission Leader, and it went so well! We remade our Ward Mission Plan and it is so awesome! We are super stoked about the new goals! He's such a great WML!

Thursday-- WAS SUCH A GOOD DAY. MIRACLES ALL AROUND!

We had a lesson with Tim that morning and Brother Burdick came and it was just perfect. We were planning to teach the Plan of Salvation, but it took a turn of events and we talked more about the organization of the church! It was exactly what he needed.

After that we were able to bust out planning in 3 hours flat! It was a record breaking moment in my missionary career haha, planning always takes forever! So that was a miracle in itself.

Then, we went to Sholanda's! She works at the Senior Center, where we do service every Friday. It was super distracting in the lesson because of babies, TV and phone calls happening BUT we would NOT leave until we accomplished what we set out to do! We watched the Restoration video, and during it, Sholanda had an epiphany. She said she has been praying for guidance to know what church to join (she's been to a few different ones in the recent future) and you two keep showing up! :) We talked a lot about studying the scriptures and praying to find our answers. We committed her to being baptized on November 14th! She is really searching and we are hoping to get the rest of the family on board too! :)

Friday-- We had dinner at the Taylor's! It was so fun! They are the best and we were so stoked for them, because Cody was getting baptized the next day! Yayyyy!

Saturday-- We got transfer calls and we are both staying! Woot woot! :)

We are both SO happy we are staying. Things are just starting to get really good! ;)

We did the missionary moment at Cody's baptism that night and it was such an amazing spiritual experience. So many people came out for it, to support him and Brooke and it was so exciting to see him be baptized! :)

Sunday-- Church was awesome, Cody was confirmed, the spirit was so strong, and we had an amazing lesson for the last hour of church! Someone from another ward came in and talked about how they do Tuesday night splits to go out and minister to the ward members. They can account for EVERY member in their ward and they have seen so many miracles come from it! I'll have to send a little outline home if you guys want to know more. It was awesome, and this ward is going to FLOURISH with this new push for ministering.

Sister Burdick came out with us that night and we were able to get into one of our potential investigator's home! She connected so well with them and the husband actually is a less active member not on the records! So we are excited to see where this all goes. :)

Lots of great things are happening and I am excited to be staying another transfer. I've come to love these people like my family and I can't wait to work hard and see miracles every day for the next month and a half!

I hit my 14 month mark this week... Can you believe it's been that long already? I'm so determined to make these next four months the best yet. I love being a missionary. I love serving my Savior and my Heavenly Father. I love telling people about this gospel and seeing it change their lives. I love the scriptures. I love teaching from the Book of Mormon. It's the most powerful book we can read in our lives. It will change us, if we let it, and if we study from it consistently EVERY day. :)

A quick spiritual thought we had this week--->

In Preach My Gospel it teaches us how to Effectively Study the Scriptures. It says, "Effective daily study must always begin with prayer. Study is an act of faith requiring the use of personal agency." (pg 17-18) Before Joseph Smith received his answer, of God and Jesus Christ appearing to him and calling him to be the prophet of the Restoration, he studied and prayed in faith (Joseph Smith History 1:11-13). If he hadn't used his agency to have an effective study of the scriptures that day and live the teachings he learned, how different would all of our lives be? The impact we can have on the world, is determined by the spirit we obtain from our personal scripture study and prayers! Now go change the world! :)

Love and miss you all!

Hope you have an awesome week.

Love,

Sister Loar

xoxo