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