Really the BEST week of my Life!

  This week has been the most AMAZING week OF MY LIFE!!!! But really!

    Better just give you the week according to my journal.

         Monday:
              Practiced, practiced and practiced some more. Finally hunted down the frozen yogurt place in Mentor (Sis. Johnson is obsessed:) Shopping: Almond milk, hummus, eggs and TONS of Vegetables. Went home and cleaned the whole house just in case Elder Holland decided to drop in and inspect any apartments. Thankful for...Cliff bars and Panera cups (it helps us drink more water:)

         Tuesday:
             Sites were really busy so Sis. Johnson and I had to split up and take separate tours. This was the first time and to be honest I was kinda excited..it just sounded fun to take a whole tour all by yourself! It was not even fun at all!!!! That first moment I went and sat in the theater with my group all by myself was soooo weird. I suddenly realized how much I love having a companion! Sigh...it was rough but I made it through;)
     Sis. Johnson's mom sent her some fake mustaches so today she ran around with it on saying "My name is Inigo Montoya...you killed my father...prepare to die" Bwah! I died laughing. Thankful for...friendship...its so good to have a friend with you 24/7:)
 
          Wednesday:
                 Playing for Elder Holland was the most incredible 15 minutes of my life!!!! AHHHH!!!! 
  We were at the Visitor's Center when he walked in. So we just crouched upstairs by the balcony eavesdropping. His voice is so deep and kind and loving. He was just talking to a million people "hi how are you? whats your name? etc.." so cool. Then Elder Sorenson calls us and says "head over to the house right now. We are coming over for lunch pronto" so we run over there and try and calmly wait...yeah right! They walk in, Elder Sorenson introduces us "these are our Sister Training Leaders, they are here to do a musical number for us!" So we meet them all, they ask us where we are from, what are names are again. (Inside we were just freaking out!!) Then we sing/play for them....so nerve wracking! It went really well though, the spirit was so strong and at the end Sis.Johnson was just crying...she could barely finish, it was so sweet. When we stopped Elder Holland said "that was perfect....just like you two" (best compliment ever!!!! An apostle told us we are perfect!!!!) We talked with them for a bit longer. Elder Sorenson asked "would it be appropriate to get a picture with these sisters" Elder Holland was like "Sure!" It was so surreal. Then we shook all their hands again (it was Elder Holland, Elder Hallstrom and Elder Seldon). They complimented us, told us we were wonderful and doing everything right and then we ran out! 5 steps out the door we realized we had forgotten our phone inside...turned around and then were like "ahhhhhh better not..." so we then ran off to the Stake Center so I could practice for the other musical number for the meeting.
     The next 3 hours we gathered with all of the missionaries to learn from them. They walked in and Elder Holland says "We are going to shake all of your hands okay:)" so row by row we all go up and shake hands with an apostle. (3rd time that day for me!) He said "thanks for playing earlier!"
     His talk was so powerful! I will just share a few of the best quotes but when I get home remind me to read them all to you!
       "I had a friend in High School who went on to win 4 olympic gold medals in swimming, I asked him what his secret was and he said 'Kick when you don't want to kick and stroke when you don't want to stroke'"
        "Everyone looks pretty good the first few yards...its the end that matters. They don't give the blue ribbons out at the start, they give them out at the other end of the Lake at the Finish"
        "We are God's Investigators"
        He was telling us how he feels about returned missionaries falling away and them saying "but Elder Holland...that's just real life!" he said "THIS (referring to a mission) is Real Life, capital R , capital L. This is it! This is the closest you will ever get to it Real Life and what its supposed to look like!!" he said "DON'T go back to your old life. NOBODY can be what they were before. You CAN'T go back to that!!"
         "Nobody, NOBODY on the face of this earth has a PARTICLE of the Priesthood, except us." (he pretty much yelled this)
     Aw man...he said so much and every bit of it was so good. I pretty much could take any sentence and cross stitch it on a pillow it was so good!
       He taught us a lot about teaching with Power and Authority. It was amazing! He said..."We need to go out their and Astonish them."
        I still haven't taken it all in!:D

   That night we were over at Elder and Sister Sorenson's when the Palmer's walk in with Cindy (their investigator) On Tuesday, she told us, she had apparently called the Palmer's and told them that she was done. That she couldn't do this anymore. Well they got here to meet with them one more time and then took her to one of the meetings with Elder Holland. Afterwards she goes up to meet him and says "Elder Holland, I need a favour! Can you extend Elder Palmer's mission so he can baptize me!" Elder Holland just grabs her face in his two hands and says "You need to be baptized now! Be baptized before he leaves!" And so she is going to be!!! Its so cool! The Palmer's leave one Tuesday and she got baptized on Saturday! Coolest story ever!!!

 Thankful for...Meeting an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.

           Thursday:
                District meeting...I made us sing a Christmas song for the opening hymn:) so fun! Had an awesome lesson with Susan. She says she believes Joseph Smith was a prophet and that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet today. WHY ISN"T SHE BAPTIZED?!?!?!?! She just says she isn't ready....we think its her husband. He supports her but just isn't into it and I think that scares her.
       We also saw Sandy, she is a recent convert and is so hilarious. She reminds me of Stephanie  a lot. Such a brilliant storyteller!
     Thankful for... Those moments when you and your companion have the exact same though and so you know it was inspired!!! Happens all the time! LOVE IT!

           Friday:
              Training meeting was so great! We had Elder Householder and the Palmer's bare their testimonies as their missions are all up! So sad. It was powerful to hear them testify of the power of the Gospel and what Kirtland means to them. It went way over though and then we were just about to announce that we would have to push the rest of our meeting to next week when Elder Sorenson pops up and says "This meeting is not about time....we will go as long as we need to" So we continued. Sis. Johnson and I got up and led a discussion about what we learned from Elder Holland. It was so neat. He had told us that "this mission is simmering...just under boil, and its just going to take a little extra push to get it to really explode!" So, we decided that to help the sister apply that we are going to start reporting Key Indicators (just like we do in our are with the number of lessons we teach) from sites every week (frankly, I am really surprised we haven't been doing it already)! Its going to be really fun and it will just gives us all more motivation to take tours and make phone calls and chat so that we can find more people to teach here at sites. Its going to be really powerful!
      Thankful for...Awesome tours.

      Saturday:
           Miracle day! We had some crazy bus tours coming through and the schedule got all messed up so Sis. Johnson and I actually went to serve at the Johnson Home in Hiram OH. I have been waiting my whole mission to go their and I finally made it!!!! I was sooooo excited! It is such a beautiful place! We first went to do some service for our Bishop in the morning, his wife sent us away with the most delicious salad with Spinach and Kale and Avocado and cranberries and sunflower seeds. yum. Then we headed down to Hiram. It was kinda crazy because I really didn't know the tour. We had gone over it a little bit because Sis. Johnson served almost her whole mission down in Hiram. It, just made it extra exciting though:)
    It is such a beautiful place and I loved being there for the day!
    That night our investigator Jason came down for a fireside with Bro. and Sister Dalton (recently release Young Women's General President) He loved it so much. Then we took him around to meet Pres. Haymond (Kirtland Stake Pres.), Elder Sorenson and the Daltons and they all were like "You need to get baptized...you are missing out on the blessings" it was perfect! Just what Jason needed. He is seriously considering it so really pray for him!!!!
        It was the perfect day!
 Thankful for.....The Spirit. What a special gift it is!
 
      Sunday:
            Kinda a so-so day. This week just wiped us out. Sis. Johnson wasn't feeling good and I just felt so lethargic. Just had to keep kicking and stroking our way through it even when we didn't want to.
    Thankful for... A companion. On days like this you just wouldn't have the will power to keep working unless you had someone right there to keep going with you.

       Well there you have it. I feel so uplifted and inspired! That truly was the best week of my life. I am so grateful to have been able to learn from an Apostle of our Savior. Life-changing!
    I love you all! Thanks for reading this forever long email!!
                  Have a super fabulous week!
         As President Vellinga says "Go, to Heaven:)"
                  Sis. Newren

Best week of my life!

THIS IS GOING TO BE THE BEST WEEK OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!
           
           But really. Not only is Elder Holland coming, but I get to be in the musical number for that meeting. AND even cooler then THAT....Sis.Johnson and I were asked to come and do a musical number in Elder Sorenson's (site director) home while Elder Holland, Elder Hallstrom and Elder Seldon are all there for lunch. Sis. Johnson is going to sing I believe in Christ and I am going to play the piano. It's the opportunity of a lifetime and we are freaking out just a little bit! It will just be so incredible to be that up close and personal with an Apostle of the Lord. We are so excited.

     

             So that's mostly what we have been preparing for. We also had to pull together a musical number with a bunch of missionaries for Zone conference. It was such a disaster! The song we picked ended up being harder then it looked and our pianist could quite master it and then we had NO TIME to practice! It sounded so awful when we ran through it just before and Sis. Johnson just kept saying "I am going to cry!!!" and I just kept saying "no you are not. Its going to be fine." Oh boy. It really was pretty bad. The Elders that sang with us had good voices but didn't really know how to read music and the flute and violin sounded sooo flat. Eeeeek! We did it though and it is what it is! Gonna practice more next time!

       
            We had a guy from the Church headquarters come and do some training with us this week. It was really neat. He mostly just talked about how important visitors centers are and how we need to apply everything we know about missionary work in our tours. It mostly  was just a good reminder to keep doing what we are doing (although we have alot to improve on!) Elder Sorenson said he told him two words referring to how we all were doing...perfect and spectacular. So..not a bad review.  Of course how could anyone come to Kirtland and not just fall in love with it. It is the most beautiful place on earth and we are all just so happy to be there!

     
       Then we had Zone conference too this week! It was powerful. Our Stake President (I am back in the Kirtland Stake by the way...first stake to be organized ever!!!), Pres. Haymond taught us out of the book of Ether. He pointed out how God told the Brother of Jared to make the boats "tight like unto a dish" (its say that phrase 5 times in one verse so it must be important) and then how that was the only reason they were able to survive all of the crashing waves and ferocious winds(trials) it took to get them to the promised land. He asked us "how tight are our vessels?" and then proceeded to help us understand that that is why exact obedience to all of God's commandments is so important. We don't want to leave any cracks for Satan to get in. It was so cool! Then of course President Vellinga got up and inspired us all to be better. He is the best mission president ever! 
 

        We had so much fun going to the Zoo on Monday! It rained and poured all day (good thing we had umbrellas!) our shoes were soaked (it took them two days to dry) but it was oh so worth it! Its a really nice Zoo! Then for dinner we went to Piada's (Italian Street food) it was delish, and for dessert...frozen yogurt! Yummy! It was such a fun day. and then we had three awesome lessons that night to top it all off!

       Kirtland is getting busier and busier and so its harder to get everything done in our area that we need to! I feel like we are always behind in everything! At Kirtand and in our area. Its so hard to keep up with it all but It is manageable and God is definitely helping us. One thing I loved that President Vellinga said in Zone Conference was "The Lord is the one who is Hastening the Work....we just have to keep up with Him." SO TRUE! GOD is just doing it! We just have to work hard enough and be worthy and keep going going going so that we can keep up with this great work! Its hard but so worth it!
 

 Funny story of the week:

          
So we had just finished up an awesome day in our area and were heading home. Usually Sis. Johnson knows how to get home but we ended the evening in a weird part of town so we used the GPS and I just clicked the "GO HOME" Icon. Well I had a thought pop into my head that maybe it wasn't set as our house in Kirtland so I double checked with Sis. Johnson "that go home button will take us home to kirtland right?" and here was our moment of miscommunication...in her head she heard "we are going home now right" haha so we go along our merry way. Half an hour later we pass a sign that says "Welcome to Aurora" and then just on our left appears the Barrington apartments. We drove all the way to her old home in AURORA!!!! which is like 50 minutes away from Kirtland!!!!!!!! AHHHHHH we just screamed and screamed for a second. "WHY ARE WE IN AURORA!?!?!?!" We had already been running late and now it was hopeless. We were supposed to go on Exchanges starting that night too! Ugh...we had to call and cancel and then start the long trek home! It was so horrible and hilarious. We laughed about it the whole way home...I still can't believe we drove all the way to Aurora! Oh boy.
  

      Side note: had a really intense Stake correlation meeting with The Stake president. Mission president and the zone leaders in the stake and the sister training leaders. The pressure was on! It was really neat though to see those men work together and to be able to counsel with them on how as the leaders we have to help this stake. It was so cool!
 
     Well all in all we had a great week. Not as many lessons as we would have liked but we did have 9 nonmembers at church yesterday! It was so awesome! 3 of them were our investigators. They all loved it and will hopefully be back!
       
 -Alexandria and Kayla are progressing very well and are excited to get baptized on June 27th.
      
  -We also have an investigator Jason who is going to go a fireside in Hiram, OH with Sis. Elaine S. Dalton and her husband and we are going to take him on a tour through the Johnson Home before it starts (this will be the first time I get to go there!!! finally!!!). It will be so good for him and we feel will really help him find his testimony.
   The work is going well and we are stepping up our game and really focusing on talking to everyone! Miracles happen everyday!
 

      I love you all so much! Have a fabulous week! The church is true!

                  Sister Hannah Newren

     

 

 

 

 

 

Change is good right?!

So....This has been the most suspenseful transfer call of my life!!!!! I will just tell you quick because its the only thing I can think about. I don't even remember what happened this week so it may be a really short email.

         Blah...okay. So Transfers are this week and that means we get the transfer call (to tell us if either of us are getting transferred) Monday night. Because its transfer week everyone's preparation day gets switched to Tuesday. So that way we all know before our pday so we can pack if we are getting transferred. But, Since we are scheduled to serve at Kirtland on Tuesday that means our Preparation day is today which means they would call us Sunday night. So we were really excited and nervous and going a little bit crazy as the time got closer and closer. Well, we finish planning, anxiously get ready for bed and start writing in our journals, Waiting any second for our District Leader to call. Now, Up till this point we always have fun trying to play the "transfer game" Where we try to predict who is getting transferred and where to. Now this would be impossible in a normal mission but as us sites sisters stay in the same area's around Kirtland we can sometimes get it right. Well There are still tons of options so its just fun to all see if we can figure out what is most likely to happen. Well we have two sisters going home this transfer and both of them are Sister Training Leaders which means they had to call two new ones. Everybody kept telling me they thought I was going to be the next Kirtland Sister Training Leader (their area is actually called Shaker Heights East but they are in charge of coordinating things at Kirtland as well as normal sister training leader responsibilities) Or "Kirtland Queens" as we all affectionately call them:) Well Of course there is no way so I just would brush it off whenever anyone said anything. It really is silly that we obsess over transfers, Its not like we can really figure it out. Its all based on revelation. Anyways. So here we are anxiously awaiting the call Sunday night and it never comes! We text our sister training leaders and our district leader who said he was still waiting on the zone leaders who said they were waiting on the AP's. We eventually got told (at 10:40pm)  we would find out in the morning..Well we tried to sleep, Got ready in the morning, headed over to district meeting, got all the way through district meeting and Elder Carr (our DL) had still not heard. Well District meeting gets over and we all get up to put our chairs away, chatting away and all of the sudden Elder Carr just looks at his phone and blurts out "Oh Sis. Newren you are getting out-zoned" We all just stop in our tracks and I think I almost fainted! Sis. Coontz and I just look at each other and I just wanted to cry. I made her give me a hug. We complained for a minute "wait, What??? I can't believe you just blurted that out! Are you SURE, let me see that text, I can't believe it. I can't leave!!!!"  yeah it was rough. And pretty hilarious. We then went out for breakfast as a district and the whole time I don't think it really hit me. It probably won't till Transfer meeting. So Sis. Coontz and I were still recovering from that shock. We came to the library to email, and somebody had texted us so Sis. Coontz was getting back to them when suddenly she looks at me with panic in her eyes, I look at the phone and President Vellinga is calling. OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!! We were freaking out! He only calls if something big is happening! Well yep. Shoot, We run out of the library and answer and he asks to speak with me alone. So I take it off speaker and he says
     
      "Sis. Newren, You two have been doing amazing work out there. You are two of the finest missionaries and I really hate to split you up but I need to transfer you."

     
      "okay" (already knew that so no surprise)

     
      " I want you to be a Sister Training Leader...do you accept the call?" (Biggest shock of my life...whaaaaaaattt???? I feel like I just finished training!!!!!)

     
      " ......of course President" (AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!)
    

     "Thank you, I trust you to be a good example"

      "I will do my best President" (what am I supposed to say to that????! also....still in a bit of a stupor at this point)

      "good, Alright, Let me talk with both of you now.....Sis. Coontz I just called your companion to be a Sister Training Leader."  (she laughs and says "President I think you are just having me train Sister Training Leaders:)" Her other companion got called to be a Sister training leader too..might actually be the one I end up being with)

      "Okay, The Ashtabula East area is going to stop being Full proselyting now. We need you back at Kirtland"

    
     "okay, sounds good"
 

     " Alright, Thank you Sisters for all you do!"
 

                  And that was pretty much it! And I am still freaking out! Sigh....I know it will be good for me, I just really don't feel up to par. So pretty much the most likely option is that I will end up being the Kirtland Sister Training Leader, There is one other option but we won't find out for sure until Wednesday at transfer meetings.

     Anyways...wow. Yup, Still recovering. Now I am just praying really hard that I will live up to God's expectations.

   Well, we had an amazing week, We got to milk goats with 4 of the cutest Amish kids!!!! They were so adorable! Rebecca is 13 and was so pretty and capable, She showed us how to do it and was really good at ordering us all around! The three younger boys, Eli, Andy and Henry just stared at us mostly and eagerly crowded around us whenever we snapped a picture. They can't have pictures taken of them but they were whenever we took one of us they were all like "oooh that is a nice one!" haha, So cute!

       After Church on Sunday we had a Linger longer/potluck with the whole ward to say goodbye to the Banks, It was so bittersweet, So fun to be with everybody but so sad because we knew it was likely goodbye for us too.

       Well I need to go pack asap so I will have to talk to you later. I have no idea about what time to skype on Mothers day because it will all depend on my new ward and companion. So let me know what times would be good. I love you all! Have a fabulous week!
    

“Never assume that you can make it alone. You need the help of the Lord. Never hesitate to get on your knees in some private place and speak with Him.”

—Gordon B. Hinckley, "Stay on the High Road," Ensign, May 2004, 114

Oh..boy am I learning that this week. Change is good, change is good!

           Sis.Newren

     

 

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everybody!!!
     
      Easter is one of my favorite holidays and this one was no disappointment! Sis. Coontz and I ran around all week telling everybody about the "because of Him video". It was such fun and so meaningful to spend the week teaching about what is possible in our lives through Christ!  I LOVE Him so much!!! We picked up two new investigators and are really excited about them. Things are going well here. Although progress is slow at times. We rejoice in the knowledge that we are helping people to take steps that will lead them to Christ. Even if they are baby steps...they are still heading in the right direction and that is the whole point!!
           
      I have been really trying to work on loving people harder as that is the revelation I felt I received from General Conference and it has been amazing to see how slowly I am coming to love the work more and more. Not that I don't love it! Its just hard to love the "hard" moments of it. But focusing on our purpose and doing it out of LOVE for my lost brothers and sisters has been amazing. I have been seeing a great change start to take place inside of me:)

         There have been a lot of ups and downs this week..kinda like a roller coaster ride...oh wait.. that's like, my whole mission. Haha! Well, Anyways. We have had a lot of good times this week but it was kinda all dashed when the Banks broke their bad news to us... to quote my journal: 

"We had a great day and had just sat down to plan for the evening when the Banks knock on our door. We let them both in. We are excited because we assume they have come over to talk to us about plans for the next day. We had been planning on going out with them and were  thrilled to tell them we had 7 scheduled appointments! (that's really good for this area). Well they just stare at us for a bit and then Sister Banks being the bold, matter-of-fact kind of person that she is just blurts out. "We have some sad news, We're getting transferred"........... Shut-the-front-door holdthehuhWHAT?????!!!! THE BANKS ARE GETTING TRANSFERRED???!?!?!?!"

   
        It is the most ridiculous thing and for awhile I was in complete and utter denial! How could this happen?! It was one of those things that we always laughed about as we jokingly said "What if the Banks get transferred?! hahahahahaha that would NEVER happen!!!:D" Well now it is and it is the saddest thing of my life! I love them so much! They are such pillars in this ward and I just cannot imagine it without them! I am pretty sure its just going to crumble and fall when they leave. In fact, the whole area is probably just going to go *poof* the second they step out of Ohio. They are getting transferred to Newcastle PA. Which apparently really needs them. I guess the ward is really struggling out there and the Bishop has been asking for some help. Pshw....I mean, I think it will actually be a really good thing, I just am going to miss them so much. Its just hard to imagine them anywhere else but Ashtabula, They have been such an integral part of the ward for over a year now. They only have 4 months left and Sis. Banks has been really emotional over the whole thing. Poor Sis. Banks. Well, God knows what He is doing.

          But, so yeah, while its been a really good week, at random moments we will both remember how the Banks are leaving and we will be in utter despair again. We rely on them so much!!!!
    

         Okay, Next interesting thing was...hmm...well really this week has just been kinda full of awkward moments. We went over to Cameron and Sis. Wiese's house to meet His kids that they have been fighting for in court and what not. Well we ended up just playing with them for an hour basically, sharing a quick message that they wouldn't listen to and getting out of there! haha. They were so sweet but crazy, hyper kids...and so funny but even as kids they were just as socially awkward as their dad. I love them all to death but oh man...so funny! I love that there are just all sorts of people in this world!

       

           We had a lesson with our investigator Christina and in walks her husband wearing a collar and busy tail. I kid you not. He had just come back from running some errands and seriously had a long, bushy tail attached to his pants...Then Christina is like "Oh Steffen show them your tail!"...uh no please don't, But after he saying it several times he is like "okay" and turns around. So we just stared at his backside for an awkward minute and tried to say things like "oh that's nice/cute/ (nervous laughter) busy...haha...whatever!" it was super funny. When we left their house and were walking away we finally were able to laugh about it. Well can't say we were really surprised... It is Conneaut:)
          

          Now to Easter:) We had such a lovely morning at Church. Went over to the Dickey's after for an Easter Lunch. Ham, yams, mashed potatoes, veggies, rolls and pie in the typical Dickey fashion (Remind me when I get home to try and describe what that means exactly:) "Slap a ham on the table and call everyone up!" as Bro. Dickey said. It was really fun and a great day followed...until we got home that is. We went back to our apartment for our dinner break and ended up having a little time to clean a little. So we start deep cleaning our fridge (we have to deep clean this week since transfers are coming up). Well I pull out the large pane of glass that is the bottom shelf and start washing it in the the sink. I have the thought, "man what if I broke this? that would be bad, I better be careful" So being as gently as can be I start drying it off and all I can say is one second I was holding a large pane of glass and the next I had in my hand only a few shards. I have no idea what the heck happened but yup...go figure. I would break the fridge while trying to clean it. Anyways. It completely shattered EVERYWHERE. Ugh, So annoying, it took us an hour to get most everything last night so we finally just left it and went to bed and finished up for another half hour this morning (which by the way was super frustrating because missionaries don't have that kind of time!!) Sigh...so we might be eating glass for awhile...haha. Luckily it only cut me a teeny bit (don't worry mom:).
 

        So yep that was pretty much our adventures for the week. We have some really fun plans today! Bro. Harper pulled some strings with his Amish friends and arranged for us to take a buggy ride!!!! Yipee! I'm a gonna be Amish! I will tell you all about it next week.

        I love you all and hope you have a fabulous week! Thanks for the package Katie and Lizzy. Happy Birthday Leah!!!!!
                 

        "If you don't like service, you won't like Heaven" So says President Vellinga:) So go serve someone today!
          

    Love, your favorite Sister Missionary;) SisN

Spring are you there?!

Hello Everybody!!!! Guess what?! I have officially been out for 8 months! Which means...my half way point is just around the corner. I think I will hit it the second or third week of April because with the way transfers fall I am most likely going to be gypped a few weeks:( Isn't that crazy though?!?!? I feel like I just got here!!

     Well anyways...it was a pretty typical week. Which equals AWESOME! Because pretty much every week on a mission is awesome, even if its hard. I say that because when you get to the end of the week, even if you felt like crap the whole week, You still can look back and see how far you have come and what the Lord helped you accomplish when you couldn't go any further. And It truly is amazing. God is so good!
     
       Monday we saw Barb for the last time. She's one that we had to give up to the Elders when we rearranged our boundaries, Which was several weeks ago, And we keep setting up appointments so that the Elders can come and we can have one more lesson with her to say goodbye and introduce her, The appointments have been canceled several times though and we finally got one more set up and because of some miscommunication the Elders didn't come! GAH! So we just shared our favorite scriptures with her, Testified and told her the Elders would be teaching her from now on. So the hand off didn't go as smoothly as we hoped but its all good.  It was nice to see her one more time.
  
       Tuesday we were on fire! It was such a good day! We got 2 Lessons with a member present, 2 other lessons, 1 new investigator, 1 Less active lesson and 1 member lesson. Awesome day for our area! One of those lessons was with Brian, (the Blind guy in Conneaut, as he always says when he calls us:) Walking up to his house we realized we have never had a lesson with him all by ourselves, We always see him when we are out with the Banks or Sis. Braden or another member. So suddenly we were slightly terrified! He is a hoot, don't get me wrong. He just is a hard one to teach. Because he is blind, he listens really intently and will call you out if you make the slightest mistake or say one thing wrong. He's not mean about it, He just likes to get really deep into things and is super inquisitive and if you don't have the spirit with you, you just can't measure up to his high expectations! Good thing we do have the spirit!!! The lesson actually went really well. He got off topic a few times but we pulled him back in. We realized though that he pretty much has the mindset of a Jehovah Witness...We were teaching the Plan of Salvation and he brought of the scripture from Revelations about only 144,000 making it to heaven (oh gosh). Well definitely going to have to make sure he understands that one better. It was a really good lesson though. He is such a character!
       Wednesday nothing really exciting happened, just went around teaching and testifying and inviting!
    Thursday we had a really good day with the Banks, at least the first half of it was good. We had dinner with Bro. Harper (which is always an adventure), Then, we were so excited for our next appointment which was with the referral we received last week. He totally flamed us though (wasn't home) Grrrr... I am praying he just forgot, He really is so awesome and I pray, pray, and pray m that he stays interested! 
      Friday was a bit of a flop day, we were really struggling that morning (had a huge melt down actually, we are calling it our "mid-mission crisis" :)  It was bad, But our saving grace was going to Sis. Braden's, Our only appointment that afternoon (which we had all lined up with their home teachers rushing home from work to come with us and everything!) canceled a half hour before (which is right when we were all on our way over)...sigh...so then we were really stressed out! But we had a stroke of inspiration hit that told us to call Sis. Braden, We asked if we could practice one of our Lessons with her and then help her with any service she needed. She told us "Come on over!" and put us to work. It was just what we needed. Sis. Braden is THE most amazing member of the church! She is the most energetic and cheerful grandma I know and LOVES missionary work, Pretty sure she would have served a billion missions by now if she wasn't still tied down with her nonmember husband (he lives in a nursing home nearby). So instead she is serving a family history mission right here in our ward comes out with us missionaries whenever she can! She is going straight to the Celestial Kingdom. I love her.
        Saturday was weird but ended with a women's social and the broadcast so that made up for everything! It was an amazing evening and one of the Less, Actives we have been working with surprised us and came! It was a miracle! She loved it though and Cried through every song.
        Sunday we had a great time at church. Sis. Coontz had to speak and was so nervous about it but did an awesome job, Then for Relief Society we had a combined 5th Sunday meeting all about Family History! I LOVE Family History, We try to find a little bit of time here and there to get more familiar with it so we can help investigators but its few and far in between. I can't wait until I can devote more time to it when I get home.
    We then had a missionary correlation meeting with our ward mission leader at the cast guard station where he works. He has been gone for a few weeks so it was good to see him again and catch him up with what has been going on.  He gave the new Elder such a rough time...poor Elder. It was funny, but we had to rebuke him a little after for it "Hey, be nice to the new Elder!!" haha  he was like "Whaat? What did I do?" Yeah right Bro. Hamilton. (ps, He is a pretty young guy and likes to joke around with us a lot, So lest you think I am disrespecting my elders or anything, just know, you have to be able to hold your own around Bro. Hamilton... Military guy ya know.)
         We had dinner that night with The Rossiter''s it wasn't done yet when we got there so we started playing some games with the little girls, well, Abby really really, really wanted to play Hide and seek so we finally agreed (is that allowed?) and ran off to hide. Sis. Coontz and I realized we aren't as small as we used to be and I pretty much ended up sitting in her lap while we squished into a teeny corner. Haha, We didn't last long in that game.
      And that brings us to today! Which is going to be a good one! Missionary work really is so fun! I hope you all take the time to make sure people know you are Mormon and to openly talk about it and invite people! It gets easier the more you do it I promise! One thing I realized this week is that you really find the most happiness in life when you choose to live in the moment. It doesn't come from looking back, it doesn't come from obsessing about the future. Its what you are doing RIGHT NOW that matters the most. So, Everyone go have an awesome day, Do something selfless! Go stop by the people you visit/home teach just to say hi! Go donate blood or Index or clean the house for your mom without being asked. Your day will be an extraordinary one I can promise you that. I love you all!

          God is sooo good to us!

      SisNewren

March 25th letter

Hey all!

       Had some crazy things happen this last week...We have been doing service for Sis. Wiese (Our favorite Less active and her son who is going through a nasty divorce.) Well, Apparently someone has been watching the house and have seen us come over several times (always in our helping hands shirts and name tags I might add)  and are now accusing Cameron of "Gross misconduct" or something....right, like anything inappropriate is happening with a crazy stressed out of their minds mother and son and two sister missionaries in the house.....sketchy....oooh....NOT! Its stupid. So for awhile we were super stressed out (for example: "WHAT IF WE HAVE TO GO HOME OVER THIS!!!!??!!!???" kinda drama, we kept it to our apartment though don't worry.) about it because they were using it to move a home visit date back, sending in paperwork about it, blah blah blaaah. Lets just say it kinda wrecked our week (okaaay...don't worry, we still went around pretending to be perfectly put together and sane..We are good at that....so it didn't really wreck our week completely) But, Its all going to work out and we aren't super worried about it anymore. We talked to our Bishop and President Vellinga about it, just to let them know. Now we just are being more careful and only going over with the senior missionary couple the Banks. So all in all, we are a bit frazzled that our reputations suddenly were so threatened but we are going strong again!! They both came to church again yesterday! And we were able to explain things to them and smooth it all over (Cameron was really worried we hated him for it or something ). So hopefully it won't even be brought up in court or anything. That won't be till April 3 though.  But we aren't worried about it. God has us in his hands.
  
  This week has been low on numbers and we were super frustrated about it! We tried out best. Its just so hard to get through those times when you feel like Satan is getting in the way of everything!!!!! But, I know he never really wins and we are doing what we can to help bolster each other, keep working hard, keep finding and teaching and with the Lord's help we are praying for a baptism.
   

    On a happier note!!!! We just received word that the apostle coming to tour our mission is.....wait for it...................(drum roll please).........ELDER JEFFERY R. HOLLAND!!!!!! WHAAAAATTT!!!!!!

 So that will be May 21st. We are SOOOOO incredibly excited/kinda scared....our mission must need some serious correction or something for them to send Elder Holland. It will be so good for us though, If anyone can bring down fire and brimstone from heaven and whip us all into shape in one afternoon it will be him:) Woot woot!
   

      So for some transfer news. We knew we weren't being transferred and were so happy but we hadn't received any word yet on whether we were going back to Kirtland or not. Well we still thought we would be going back for sure until President called us. I was laying on the floor after we were done exercising while Sis. Coontz took a shower. I had a random though come into my head "what if President Vellinga called right now and I had to go bang on the door to get Sis. Coontz out of the shower.! haha" Well, LITERALLY 5 seconds later the phone rings. I jump up and it was totally President!!!!! So, I had to run to the Bathroom door and bang on it and yell over the running water "SIS. COONTZ PRESIDENT VELLINGA IS CALLING!!!!!!" She had to jump out of the shower (haha) and poked her head out the door a second later with drenched hair and makeup running down her face (okay sometimes I exaggerate) while I answered. Well he hadn't even called us on purpose as it turned out but we were able to then ask him "Hey President thanks so much for keeping us together. We hadn't heard anything about whether we were going back to Kirtland or staying Full Pros though???!!!!" He said "Oh We are going to keep you out there Full Pros, We like the work you two are doing:D"  

     

     Sigh....We had been really wanting to go back. As sister Coontz' says "its not that I can't handle full Pros its just that I miss my HOME!!!"   We had to go drown our sorrows for a little bit in our heated blanket and some truffles.  It helped.

    Then though a few days later we found out they will actually need us a few days at Kirtland this transfer for some bus tours coming in. So are still Full proselyting but Father knew we needed to go home for a teeny tiny bit. Its going to be an awesome transfer.
  

      PS. I love love love love LOOOOOOVVE this the Ashtabula Ward. The people in it are just so comical and endearing. I wanna live here forever! After church yesterday we needed to talk to the Elders and ask them if they were going over to the Dickeys for lunch (they live on the boundary line so we switch off every other week) Well they were practicing with the men in the choir in the chapel so we nonchalantly slip in the back, Bro. Harper of course starts waving really big at us..haha, but so as to not disturb practice I start trying to mime/sign to them our question...they of course had no idea what we were saying but over in the other corner Bro. Findley starts busting out legit Sign Language back to us.... WHAT?!! haha.. of course he would know ASL. We had no idea. It was hilarious, Then Bishop comes over and asks if one of us can speak next Sunday, I quickly volunteered Sis. Coontz:) They Elder Pead comes down and gets off the phone with someone and says 


"Hey bishop, know any plumbers in the ward?" 
Bishop "What kind of plumbing problem? Waste?' 
Elder "yeah I think so...Bro. Fay said he has a flood....." 
Bishop "haha well I'm not available then but Bro Harper is a really good plumber!" 
Bro. Harper "Im an okay plumber, whats up?" (as he walks over to join the conversation) 
Elder "Bro, fay has a flood"
 Bishop "waste" 
Bro Harper "uhhh....I am a terrible plumber." 
         HAHAHA....It was such a funny exchange!

 

Well I gotta get going but here is a great quote from my friend Elder Harrison in Ukraine:

    "If any of you are struggling to know how to apply the Atonement of Christ more in your life, and take the next step of your Discipleship journey, I challenge you to take the next step, and go for the outcasts. Visit a less active, go sing in a hospital, take time to inconvenience yourself in order to bless somebody else. The spiritual rewards will be tangible"   

             Missions are sooooo fun! Even with all the stressedoutofmymindIdon'tknowhowtofunctionanymorekindamoments missions are just the best thing ever. Every day, every month every transfer just keeps getting better and better and better!!!!"  It just builds and builds and builds, the harder you work, the harder you pray the more your faith grows and the more those miracles come. One thing I have learned is to not settle for mediocrity, As we just do our very best.... God then makes you AWESOME!!!!!! As you go out and serve, truly serve with all of your heart, might, mind and strength. And trust me, everyday, you really do feel like you just gave ALL your STRENGTH, EMOTION and BRAIN POWER!!!! (Its Crazy!) I have seen how Father takes our little widows mite of effort and grows it into something so breathtakingly beautiful. And at that point, your mission becomes truly sacred to you. Not just a good experience, not just a fun time, not even just a learning period or a faith building journey....it is all that, but, to quote my mission president "Make your mission a Sacred one" Those are the very best kinds" My mission is becoming so sacred to me And RIGHT NOW, I get to LIVE It!  HOORAY FOR MISSIONS!! HOORAY FOR THE GOSPEL!! HOORAY FOR JESUS!!! 

       

    I love you all and will talk to you next week!!!! 

              SisN    

Transfers!

  I really don't like the anticipation of Transfers. Its fun do see a transfer winding down and see how far you have come. But then it comes to the point where its staring you in the face and you know anything could happen! I tend to get a bit overstressed at this point. I just hate the suspense!!!!! Well Elder Carr, our District Leader finally called us last night to give us the word....Sis. Coontz and I are staying together! We are so happy! We are also staying full Proselyting so really, nothing is changing...which is good and bad.  We were really excited about the possibility of going back to Kirtland but we know there must be a reason we are staying full proselyting and are anxious to carry out the Lord's will.
 
    This week has been wonderful. Sis. Schanfish (excommunicated member) got re-baptized and it was amazing. It has been a long road and she has had to fight really hard for this but it is amazing to see the power of the Atonement working in her life. They are the sweetest family and I know now that she has taken that step and is being such a good example that her husband (our investigator) will soon follow. Then will their son Ethan (also an investigator) He really is all ready to be baptized...We just are waiting now on his dad giving permission...Pray hard everybody! Their family has come such a long way and it has been such a privilege to learn from them.

    We also saw such a miracle with our investigator Michelle. She has 5 kids and wants to come to church but finding a ride for 6 people has been difficult. So we have been praying for weeks now that she would be able to get a car. Well on Friday we were on our way to an appointment while we were out with a member of our ward when we saw Michelle pull up in the same parking lot we were in! She was driving a car! So we ran up to her and excitedly asked if that was her new car! She said "yes its mine! Now we can come to church!!" We feel so good about their family! And were so beyond thrilled to see this miracle take place! Someone just gave here a car! How incredible is that! Prayer works!!
  
   We did a mini mission with a girl in our ward who is planning on serving a mission too. She became our 3rd companion for the weekend and it was so fun! She is going to be an awesome missionary and we loved being able to really show someone else how much fun missionary work is! We took her to several appointments with less actives and investigators. Did some service for a few hours and of course had to take her tracting. It went really well. I think it was really eye opening for her in many ways. She loved it!
 
   We had one last lesson with Barb this week before we gave her over to the Elders in our ward. With the recent boundary change she was one that we had to give up. It was sooo sad but we trust that the re-organization was inspired and that it will be for the best.
 
    Ooh! We got a Head quarters referral this week!!! I was sooo excited! Its the first time I have gotten one! We called him to set up an appointment and his kids answered and were like "are you a bill collector?" haha! "nope, We're missionaries!" We got to meet them and there seems to be a lot of potential there! He had just been searching online for free bibles because he wants to give them to people!" so he didn't really know what he was getting himself into I think but when we went he was really open and receptive. He is totally going to read the Book of Mormon I just know it. He even asked where and when church was! #prayingreallyhard#
    
   So on Wednesday, there was the biggest blizzard of my life!!!! And we were right in the thick of it! We had gotten a text in the morning from the zone leaders that said "if you can stay off the roads" It wasn't a direct order to stay inside and in the morning it was just raining, We had 5 awesome appointments in Conneaut (the farthest place we could have gone probably) and couldn't bring ourselves to cancel them. So we prayed about it, then decided to go out. Well, on the way there it went from rain to rainy hail then to rain/hail/slush then to slushy snow then to heavy/icy snow...ugh. We were stuck on the freeway though so we had to keep going! Well we made it Conneaut and to our first few appointments. A couple canceled/flamed us(which means weren't home)...go figure. At this point although we had a few more appointments it was really bad outside. We hibernated inside McDonald's for a little while for lunch and had to really re-evaluate our day. Mostly though we just were scared to go outside! It was freaky! We called the Banks to ask for their expert advice (at this point we were trying to decide if it would be better to get outa there and attempt the drive home or just finish up the day and hope it didn't get any worse) Well as long as we were in Conneaut we decided to stay and finish up our day...turned out to be another canceled appointment though (of course!). Then even though we were an hour early we turned up to our next appointment and begged her to take pity on us. She let us in of course and just kept saying "you girls are crazy to be out in this!" Yup....pretty much!. Well after an awesome lesson with them we ran out side, frantically scraped off the layers of snow and Ice that had accumulated on our car in the past 40 mins and drove off. We finally began the perilous journey home and all I can say is I am glad its over! It was the scariest drive of my life!! We could barely see 10 ft in front of us. Everything was just white, white and more white. Ohio drivers are really weird too. In normal conditions they tend to drive 5 or even 10 under the speed limit sometimes. Then in bad weather...they like to speed along like the snow and ice isn't even there! Crazy! I was going 30 miles an hour the whole way home on the interstate. Pretty sure I helped everyone behind me avoid a few accidents...at least that is what Sis. Coontz kept telling me. Not that we really could talk...we were both so stressed out all we could do was sing hymns the whole way home. It pretty much went like this...Me clutching the steering wheel like its a life raft, inching along at a heart racing 30 mile per hour crawl. Eyes peeled for ice and slush patches that would send us careening off the road (keep in mind we have already slid off the road once this winter and gotten stuck several times). Sis. Coontz singing a hymn with me joining in when I could spare the brain power. It was soooo scary. But WE MADE IT! When we got home we had to seriously evaluate if it had been wrong of us to go. If either of us had had any feeling that warned us not to. We didn't regret it though. It had been a good day minus the weather and we felt like even though it maybe wasn't the smartest thing we could have done, God really does bless us when we go forth to do His work no matter what. Whew.....never again though, Never again.

    The next day it almost looked like nothing had happened. So off to Conneaut again:) We taught Christina and afterwards helped her clean her bathroom. We used bleach and by the end of the 40 minutes I had scrubbed that nasty tub I felt so sick! Ugh....I got us out of there real fast and as we were driving away Sis. Braden (the member we were out with) Made me roll down my window "ex hail all the bad air out, then take in the biggest breath of your life....do it again...do it again." It helped at least!

    Well...Gotta go... the church is true! Love you all!
               
SisN