One week full of service and fun!!!!

So this week we have had many opportunities to serve a part member family in the cute little Hamilton Branch! We got to help them build a enclosed porch! (we were more the heavy lifers) We also played alot of softball with there 5 boys to keep them busy and out of the way! Goodness me am i sore from all of that fun work!!! :) We are going over again today to have Family home evening with them, we will be going on a Restoration treasure hunt!!! HAHA!!! Me and Sister Fausett are just a little creative :)

We also were kept very busy with teaching our investigators! WOW!!! We really dont ever have time to breathe! Between all the serves we do and the people we teach, I am honestly surprised that I can get up and walk everyday. We had a wonderful lesson with our some of our Less Actives about Temples and the Plan of Salvation. This week really was just full of all ups and lots and lots of spiritual moments!!! All I can say is I love being a missionary!!!

So this weeks email is a little short simply because I am a little short on time. We have lessons starting at 3 today and we have to also finish our Restoration treasure hunt. But being busy is a good thing :) Because that is a sign that people are truly prepared here in Hamilton! 

So this week we have been doing alot of focusing on the Doctrine of Christ. I absolutely love the Doctrine of Christ! There are so many chapters on the Book of Mormon that talks about the amazing Doctrine that Christ taught. My personal favorite chapter (even though i shouldn't have favorites) is 2 Nephi 31. Nephi teaches and testifies so simply the power of this doctrine! In verse 10-13 it reads; " And he said unto the children of man: Follow thou me. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, can we follow Jesus Save we shall be willing to keep the commandments of the Father? And the Father said: Repent ye, repent ye, and be baptized in the name of my Beloved Son. And also, the voice of the Son came unto me, saying: He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost, like unto me; wherefore, follow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism- yea, be following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, than shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the tongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel." I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is so simple and so wonderful! I know that as we live the Gospel of Christ and let it sink deep in to our hearts and be firmly rooted to the marrow of our bones that no temptations can over come our faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ and that we will be able to keep the commandments in which He has given us for we will truly know that Jesus in the Christ.

I love you all and I am so grateful for all your love and support :) I would like to invite you all to pray and ask God the Eternal Father if this gospel is true, I know and I can promise you as you do this you will see you testimony grow and you will feel the spirit of the Lord more abundantly in your life.

P.S. I met the Elder in my mission that is from my Grandma and Grandpa Loveland's ward! He is in my Distric :)

1 year and 3 days!!!

Well its offical i have hit my year mark!! Before I know it I will be home with my wonderful family. Goodness my mission has really flown by!!! There is nothing more rewarding then being on a mission at this time in my life.

This week we have been busy teaching so many people! We are trying to contact all the less actives in the Branch and some of the Former investigators that were taught in the past and WOW that is so much fun and alot of work! Because all at the same time we are trying to find new people to teach so we are trying to talk to literally everyone! But We are still having lots and lots of fun!!!!

We recently found a awesome New Investigator Dustin! He is the Boy-Friend of a Less Active. He is super nice and has just about finished the Book of Mormon. I am so excited we will be teaching him again on Tuesday and man his he prepared! Also we have found some new less actives that haven't been contacted in a while and the best part is they want us to meet with them and help them start coming back to church!! Oh my Goodness the Gospel is true and there are miracles happening here!!!!

So today I want to talk a little bit about the 2,000 stripling warrior. They are some amazing men with in the Book of Mormon the truly show that as you put your loyalty first to the Lord then to your families you will be able to see miracles! In the Book of Mormon it describes them as men with great courage, they did not fear death, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt God would deliver them. I want to focus on the first part they were men of Great Courage! I truly love the word Courage! My sweet family has a wonderful saying that is ," Courage not Compromise" I remember when i was young not knowing why we had this as our family saying. But now as I go though my mission often times I hear my sweet mothers voice in the back of my head saying those sweet word. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints we need to have courage to stand as a witness of God at all times and in all things and in all places. " be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest" The prophet Thomas S. Monson once said, "Dare to be a Mormon, Dare to Stand Alone, Dare to have a Purpose Firm, Dare to make it known." I invite you all to go forth and share the truth and knowledge that you know to be true. Have the courage to stand out and be a true decipcle of Jesus Christ!

I love you all and thank you so much for all that your have done for me and all your support in helping me be able to be on my mission. I am so grateful for all your loving support! My the Lord bless you in all you do!

P.s. it decided to snow Sunday!!! Oh what fun it is to be in New York!

A Fun busy Week!

So training a new missionary is fun and interesting, but the best part is seeing them grown in their ability to teach the message of the restored gospel.

So I am second transfer training, a wonderful Sister; Sister Fausett! She is amazing with her desire to share the gospel. We are working hard to organize our apartment and area. All I can say is it was a mess!!!! There are so many old records that are pointless simply because the people no longer are there and this a a college town so most everyone here are college students so year there are alot of people moving all the time. So we have spent many of hours going though finding the people that no long live her and just simply de-junking our area. Its super fun! Especially doing it with a new missionary because then you get to help them learn of how they can help future areas.

So the Hamilton Branch is so cute and tiny!!!! We have about 21 active families and there really isn't to many young families so we have about 35 active members with in the branch. Because it is so small we sadly dont have our own building we meet inside a chapel inside a medical building. All i can say is i have come to truly be so very very grateful for my cute church building back home. Truly the saints in the west are basically spoiled rotten compared to the east. But i have never met so many saints that have such a strong faith like i do here in the eastern part of the US. Goodness i love it here!!!! i truly cant believe that i am on my last stretch then i will be able to see my lovely family at the airport welcoming me home. 

Oh by the way Mothers day was wonderful!!!! It truly is such a blessing to have the amazing mother that i do! She has been such a blessing and a wonderful example of letting your faith be first in all thing that you do and that come your way. On Sunday I was able to speak in church on mothers as well and wow all i can say after writing that talk being a mother is truly the most divine calling any women can ever have. 

Sorry is this seems jumbled my brain is just going 100 miles a hour!!!!

Also we had a few changes in our mission, we are now able to go to the temple every 6 months or 1 time a transfer with new converts. So that is a hidden blessing! Because now I will have the blessing of being able to go the temple more then once before i go home!So yeah it is pretty sweet!!! 

Oh also I had cow tongue taco's one of my first nights here. And all i can say is Heavenly Father must bless his missionaries with a stomach of steel!! Because i have no idea how i ate them because they were so gross!!! But i did it!!!! 

I wont to share with you all one of the many women in the scriptures that has strongly influenced my life and helped so much to  gain my testimony of the Atonement. That person is Marry Magdalene. Her love for her savior and what he did for me truly inspired me as a young women. in John 20: 11-16 it reads, " But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.  Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master."

I absolutely love these verses because they have truly change my out look on how much we truly need to love our Savior. My first time reading this a thought came to my mind of, " how would i feel if i found my saviors tomb empty?" would i react as Marry did? I know that our saviors love is real and is around us all each and every day. Now its are job to let our love for our savior change other peoples live.

I love you all so much and thank you for the support that you have given me! Please stay strong and true to the promises in which you have made with your heavenly father. I know that it is through those sacred promises our testimonies that we have in our savior and his atonement we will be able to one day dwell with our Father in Heaven once a gain and have eternal happiness. i invite you all to go forth this day and again your one testimony of the Saviors Atoning Sacrifice.

Hamilton NY

So I am getting transfered again!!!! I will be 2nd transfer training Sister Fausett in Hamilton NY! I am so excited but nervous at the same time!!! It truly will be a great and wonderful experience!!! So you all know Manchester VT will be closing so that means no more missionaries here. It is sad but it is a good thing all at the same time. This is only happening because we dont have enough sister missionaries coming in to keep every sister area open. But that is ok I did what I was suppose to do here in Vt and tat was to find the sweet little Loveland Family that i emailed about last week.

So this week not much happened, We just cleaned out our apartment and said good bye to everyone so there isnt much to report. But we still had lots of fun. We found every opportunity to serve and that was tons of fun!!! 

Sorry this email is so short, I am kinda short on time sense today i will be going into my new area and we are traveling alot today! I feel that this is what is suppose to happen, I dont know why but I feel so much peace going into my new area so fast. 

So as I have been studying the Book of Mormon in depth I have come to understand alot and one of the things in which I have come to understand is the mighty faith and strength of Captain Moroni! In Alma 48: 11-13, 17 it reads, " And Moroni was a strong and a mighty man; he was a man of perfect understanding; yea, a man that did not delight in bloodshed; a man whose soul did joy in the liberty and the freedom of his country, and his brethren from bondage and slavery; Yeah, a man whose heart did swell with thanksgiving to his God, for  the many privileges and blessings which he bestowed upon he people; an man who did labor exceedingly for the welfare and safty of his people. Yea, and he was a man who was firm in the faith of Christ, and he had sworn with an oath to defend his people, and his religion, even to the loss of his blood. yea, verily, verily, I say unto you, if all man had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men." I would like to invite you all to strengthen you faith like unto Moroni's so then we will all be able to be strong saints and have a firm steadfast testimony of this wonderful and restored Gospel!

What a Wonderful Sunday!!

So this week was great and super super busy!! I truly cant believe this week is over already!!! 

Vermont is treating me well!!! Right now it is a continue struggle to find people to teach but i know that with the Lords help we will and we will see miracles!!! 

So Sunday was by far my favorite day this week... well every Sunday is my favorite day. So in Sacrament meeting I heard probably the best talk i have ever heard it was by the 1st counselor in the Branch presidency. Brother Vaughn told a story about a biking race he did and how through out this race he met and made a lot of friend. But also during the race he have alot of road blocks. Such as hypothermia and his knee starting to give out on him. He talked about Trail Angles and how as he hit the road blocks and was ready to quite there was always a trail angle there to help. As he had many people back home cheering him on he know that he need to make it to the end but the only problem was there came a time he needed medical help with his knees. He then tied the story to our journey here on Earth and how we have people cheering us one here on earth and beyond the veil. (i didnt tell the sorry to well sorry) And how no matter what we can return to our father because we will have our own trail angles helping us get there.

Then we had a wonderful Sunday school lesson on Covenants. We talked about how a covenant is a 2 way promise and the through our obedience to the promises we make we will be able to see wonderful blessings and be able to dwell with our Heavenly Father again! A great scripture that describe the importance of keeping our covenants is D&C 82:10, " I, the Lord, am  bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." We must always follow all that the Lords asked of us so then we can all receive all the promised blessings the lord has for us! Sister Linda K. Burton once said, " The Best way to Strengthen a home is to Keep Covenants! Promises we've made to each other and to God." Build your faith in the lord and please strive to keep your covenants with the Lord.

So now for amazing story time!!!! So after church on Sunday, Sister Thao and I were going around town called Dorset trying some potential investigators. I needed to pull over to find which person was closes to where we were. As i was driving i felt i need to pull into a Cemetery on the side of the road, me being stubborn I thought to myself, "no, i will pull into the restaurant up the street." So i did just that after we figured out where we were going. I ended up making a right instead of the left, so then i felt I needed to turn around in the Cemetery again. Me being stubborn again said to myself, " Fine Heavenly Father I will!" So as we drove though the Cemetery one of the last head stones we say said in big letters LOVELAND. I was so happy! After i took some pictures, I felt I need to write down their names, as i did so I heard a faint voice say, "you found us!" I was ready to cry! I know that Heavenly Father was leading me to them so then they can have the wonderful gospel. 

It is such a blessing to be a missionary!!! Thank you all for all your thought and prayers and all of your support!!

Crazy Fun Week!!!

This week has been full of adventures!!! And lots of gratitude for having the wonderful companion that i do. At the begining of this week it went by pretty slow, then on Wednesday we have a wonderful Zone Training Meeting were we felt the spirit so strong as we learned about the importantance of being a "Urgent Missionary". All i can say is WOW being a missionary is great!! I really do know that as we put the Lords work first we will be able to see so many miracles in our lives! Then after all that we went on exchanges with the Saratoga Sisters, man that was a gratitude experience! I am so grateful for Sister Thao!!!! The Saratoga Sisters house was a mess and they were just so lazy and taught as if they didn't really care about the people they were being unto Christ and more like they just wanted baptism! I am so so so grateful for Sister Thao and the fact that we truly love and care for those we teach!!

So awesome news!!!!! I got fresh milk!!!! there is a sweet member in the branch that goes to a local dairy and buys fresh milk and bless her sweet soul, we went over for dinner and she gave me 1/2 a gallon!!! with some home made butter!!! MHMM I was just on cloud nine!!!! I just love fresh milk!!! Then a sweet brother in the ward gave us fresh eggs! I was so happy!!! I just love when people help me feel a little at home :) 

So i have officially tried Shark meat...yes you read that right shark meat! its not that bad, it kinda taste like awkward tuna but with more meaty flavor. I liked it, but the real question is will i eat it ever again probably not. It wasn't my favorite fishy food :)

So the work is going good, we met a lot with less actives this week. And that was lots of fun! It truly is such a joy to share the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! This Sunday I spoke in church on the wonderful talk that Elder Holland gave i focused a lot about Gods love for us and how he will never desert us in our time of need. I share a wonderful story that i remembered hearing in a past General Conference its all Footprints, "One night a man had a dream. He dreamed He was walking along the beach with the LORD. Across the sky flashed scenes from His life. For each scene He noticed two sets of footprints in the sand. One belonging to Him and the other to the LORD.

When the last scene of His life flashed before Him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of His life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times of His life.

This really bothered Him and He questioned the LORD about it. LORD you said that once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed you most you would leave me.

The LORD replied, my precious, precious child, I Love you and I would never leave you! During your times of trial and suffering when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you." 

I truly love this story simply because i know that Heavenly Father does love us and care about us and he will NEVER leave us during our times of trial. 

We need to always remember if we want to be blessed awe much do as the lord commands and that is to "keep his commandments" even whent he going gets tough, the tough must keep going! We are all sons and daughters of god! We can not let the world over come our discipleship! Stand tall and know you are love and you will be blessed!

Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers!!!

Vermont Fun!!!!!

Well this week has just been so much fun!!! Sister Thao and I have probably laughed enough for all of Vermont! We truly are just having a blast! So this morning we had the best member ever take us out to Breakfast and a cute little diner! That was a blast, we talked about everything under the sun when it came do to topics about the Gospel!

So this week has full of spiritual highs and downs. We were super busy with many service opportunities and if anyone knows me, I am a service junky so we put on our service clothes and went to work! We first did our usual service which is at the Food bank, the Library, and at the Habitat for humanities here. Then there was my favorite part of our service! We helped so members that did lawn keeping do some fun hard work. We helped them gather up sticks and old broken branches for him to burn. I don't know why i think gathering stick to burn was fun but it was out side out in the woods and it was just beautiful to be there!

So all the people we are teaching are doing great!!! Larry is doing good, pray for him. He starts he radiation and chemo therapy this week so we wont be able to see him as much. He has such a heart of gold and it breaks my heart to see people go through this. But on the plus side, Larry watched General Conference all on his own with out us even inviting him to. He knew it was coming up and asked his son to direct him how to get there and he watched all 5 sessions (Saturday morning and afternoon, Priesthood, and Sunday morning and afternoon) Oh my goodness!!! It is truly amazing to see how the lords prepares his chosen people! All I can say is I truly love being a missionary during this time!!!

So recently I have been doing alot of thinking of why I am on a mission. As I have thought about this it it me that i have about 7 months left! Oh how i wish this time was longer. 18 months truly is not enough time. In this process I was continue deeply reading and studying the Book of Mormon for the first time. As I have been looking back on my study journal I noticed how the faithfulness of Nephi son of Lehi played such a huge role in the faithfulness of the future generations to come through out the Book of Mormon. I am not excitingly in Alma 34! and man there is so much i have learned!!! On of the major things i have learned over and over again in the Book of Mormon is Faith in your Savior and his Atonement = Everlasting and Eternal Life. Which truly is the greatest gift we have been given from God!!! I would like to leave you all this a scripture that has sunk deep into my heart and pray it will sink deep into yours Alma 33:23 " And now, my brethren, I desire that ye shall plan this work in your hearts, and as it beginneth to sell even so nourish it by your faith. And behold, it will become a tree, springing up in you unto everlasting life. And then may God grant unto you that your burdens may be light, through the joy of his Son. And even all this can ye do if ye will. Amen" I know that though our faith we will be able to see miracles happen and we will be blessed so very much!!!

Thank you all for all your thoughts and prayers!