Letter #10 - Area Book Goals

September 26, 2016

Dear Friends and Family,

This past week, my companion and I spent a lot of time visiting less actives in the ward and cleaning out our area book. The area book is a record of all the people we visit and what we have been teaching and what they still need to learn/do before they can get baptized. I'm still not sure how things worked on paper, but our book has probably over 100 active "potential investigators". So we've been taking time to visit all of these people and find out if they are interested in meeting with missionaries (again). Unfortunately a lot of them aren't home and we have to find time to go back/get in touch. We do a lot of phone calling/texting as well. If they aren't interested, then we "drop" them and know that we don't have to spend time teaching/staying in contact. Our hope is that by the end of the transfer, whatever missionaries are in the area will know who we are working with and how they've progressed. It's a never ending cycle however as we continue to add to the list as we are out and about. You enter in anyone that you've taught a lesson to. Visiting less actives has been successful as well and ward council has been pleased with the people we have been able to visit and teach. Ideally we want to link members to our less actives and investigators, so that when we are gone, they will still have a support system. 

One of our members has been great and has taken one of our investigators to three church activities. The first was a "Sunshine Sisters" activity, which is an activity for all the 60+ year olds (or maybe 70+?). The second was Women's session of General Conference. The third was an awesome fireside called the "Why I Believe" fireside. This month's fireside was mostly musical numbers, but typically recent converts come and talk about why they joined the church. At the end of yesterday's fireside we had a missionary who just came out and who is a convert come and bear her testimony and then we had another missionary who is a recent convert speak about his conversion story. The spirit was very strong and it was a great event. Unfortunately this investigator has yet to come to church, but we're hoping the experiences that she is having with us is building her faith in Christ and building in her a desire to come. Until next time!

Love, Sister Prue

Letter #9 - Two Months, Tomorrow

September 19. 2016

Dear Friends and Family,

Tomorrow will mark two months since I got to the MTC. I wish I could say that I'm amazed at how fast time has gone by, but I haven't hit that point yet. #missiongoals. One thing I'm building a testimony of is that the Lord is in the details. I'm constantly amazed at how the members who go on transfers with us are the exact people that those we visit need to talk to and have contact with. It's amazing how the members are able to help meet the needs of those we visit. I have seen it time and time again as I have served here. The members here have been great to work with and have given freely of their time and resources to make missionary work possible in this area. We are always so blessed when the members involve themselves in our lives and in our work. If you ever have the opportunity to help out the missionaries or to go out on exchanges with them, do so! (Also, for those who might not know - Exchanges are when members come out with us and visit investigators or do whatever work with us that we have planned for that amount of time). Also, for you sisters out there, make sure to hug the sister missionaries when you see them. We need those hugs and support! 

On Friday we had a meeting for all the new missionaries and their trainers. The trainers were trained for a bit while the new missionaries had a Q and A with President Whitney. The stake center was over an hour away, so driving plus the meeting took most of the day. It's always nice when we get a chance to interact with the mission president. President Whitney is all about getting back to the basics and sticking to the rules and programs that the church has established for the missionaries and not adding to that for the most part. It's been really nice. He's a sweet man and just wants us to do our best. He's been a comforting mission president to have and it's nice to know that he and his wife are still learning just like we are. 

2 Nephi 2:24 "But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things." 

Love, 

Sister Prue

Letter #8 - Ready, Set, Go!

September 12, 2016

Dear Friends and Family,

I hate coming up with subject lines, it's probably the worst part of P-Day. Anyway, my companion and I had a really good day yesterday, because we finally have figured out what we are supposed to be doing here. It only took us four and a half weeks to do that. Luckily we should be here for another transfer because she is still training me. We met with the bishop and the spirit really thrives when we counsel with one another. Ward council, zone council, I love it. We had both this week and I learned so much from each one. The bishop told the ward council of the question that the stake president had asked him. In essence, it was "What is the desire of my heart concerning missionary work in this ward?" It was something that I hadn't asked myself and so I took the time to do so during church and throughout the day. We had dinner at the Bishop's house (tacos-my favorite) and afterward talked to him about what his vision for the work in this ward was. While he was talking, I found that my desires lined up with his own. I think a lot of what we are going to be doing in this area is to strengthen the ward and really reach out to the less active families here, a lot of which are part member families. There is so much we can do with what we already have. Of course we will continue to find and teach new investigators, but we are planning on shifting our focus quite a bit. 

Another opportunity we had this week was to attend a regional conference that was on Religious Freedom and what we can do to protect that. Elder Oaks was the keynote speaker (unfortunately he was at a stake center other than our own and we just watched the broadcast)  and he spoke on some of the doctrine/principles and then we heard from various other leaders who gave us more practical advice in how to have conversations with those around us about religious freedom and what that means and why it is important to protect. They also launched a new website that day: https://www.lds.org/religious-freedom. It was two hours long, but they talked to us about some good stuff including what currently is and isn't threatening our religious freedom. 

This week I've seen God answer my prayers, maybe not in the way that I expected Him to, but he has all the same. He also will give us multiple chances to learn the same lesson if we don't learn it the first time, haha. He makes up the difference when we try to do his will, but sometimes fall short. I know that He loves each and every one of us and is aware of our struggles and pains. He wants us to be happy, but getting there isn't always easy. I love you all and hope you're doing well. I love hearing from you :)

Love, 

Sister Prue

Letter #7 - Member Monday

September 5, 2016

Dear Friends and Family,

This one is going to be a short one since the libraries are closed and

I'm typing this in the most agonizing way on my iPad. I'm not

complaining though :) This week we've had some great experiences with

building a better relationship with the members, which I think I

mentioned is me and my companion's transfer goal. We took a member who

had never worked with the missionaries before on exchanges and she had

a really good experience. Her mom later told us that she had been

worried about going, but that she ended up having a great time. The

member even mentioned her experience during fast and testimony meeting

and there were also many other blessings we saw from that one

experience alone. We had another experience where someone called and

wanted to reconnect with missionaries. We brought members along with

us to that too and they were just the people that the woman needed to

talk to. The Lord needs all of our talents and what we have to offer

to help others. It was amazing to see how we were able to help bring

them together.

My personal transfer goal is to ask better questions, so I put

together a notebook with a principle from each one of the lessons on

its own page. Then during personal or companionship study we

brainstorm what questions would better help us teach that principle.

It has been a very enjoyable exercise. I also try to think of personal

experiences that I can use while talking about that principle. I also

am sure to write down questions that I am directed by the Spirit to

ask when I am actually teaching a lesson because, of course those are

the best kind :)

I hope you are all enjoying your three day weekend!

Love,

Sister Prue