Hot and Beautiful

Now you guys know what it feel like for me out here in the rain all the time! It makes me feel closer to you knowing you got so much rain in bear lake! It has been so hot and muggy this week! Wow! This is what a real Wisconsin summer apparently feels like. We have just been lucky up to this point! I'd wish for the cold but I might regret that!

Tuesday we finally got to teach a sit down lesson! We have been itching for one of those. It has been a while. No one likes to keep commitments. Sister Weaver may or may not have gotten chastised by the mission office for her driving...again... I do feel safer now, she has gotten better! Oh man I love her, it is good she can put up with my teasing. Tuesday was a food day. We stopped by the Stolls to invite them to a ward members potluck and we ended up eating pie with the Stolls. Then we went to the Sellars for dinner and ate dessert there too. Then we took the Madison sisters to the Fullmers to show off Brother Fullmer's BOM knowledge and art skills and we ended up having cake there. My tummy was not too thrilled with me by the end of the night. 

Wednesday we did exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders so I spent the day in Madison with Sister Martin. It was so good! It was eye opening to see a different area. We taught a family of theirs that is now living out of their van. It was so heart wrenching to not be able to do more for them. Oh boy were they so sweet. We taught them in the chapel while their 12 year old daughter was at mutual. Wow! They want the best for their daughter and they are trying so hard to get out of the cycle of past generations. They have made so much progress! It was impressive and humbling! We had a ton of appointments! I didn't know that was possible. They do so much good work in Madison! We also volunteered at Bethesda's which is basically the Lutheran version of D.I. It was fun! 

Thursday we visited a lot of ward members. We are trying to work smartly and get investigators into members home. We have yet for it to happen. I think once we can finally get it to happen it will be a domino effect. It will lessen the fear of everyone else and hopefully we will get more referrals. Everything works out so much better when you have a strong fellowshipper, I can testify to that after seeing the recent converts in Madison. We are trying. 

Friday the Stolls took us out for a delicious lunch and then we went to the church and I did a little recital for them. I played some songs from the books they gave me then some of my own and played the piece I played on Sunday. Then Brother Stoll requested I played "I Need Thee Every Hour" and oh boy! The spirit was so strong! We talked about receiving answers from the Book of Mormon. We talked about the story of the Brother Of Jared again but with another amazing insight we found this week. Brother Stoll asked last week as we taught the Brother of Jared why in the world did he choose stones and take all that work to molten them. We came up with some good answers and analogies. Then lo and behold! During studies we found a gem! In Genesis 6:16 it is talking about Noah's ark and how he had windows. In the footnote for window is the Hebrew word tsohar which can actually be interpreted as a shining stone! This means that Ether found his answer through reading his scriptures! Isn't that awesome! He didn't just come up with some random idea. He was reading his scriptures and knew what Noah did. I love it. It changes the whole story for me! 

Saturday was another food day. I think half of missionary work in Wisconsin revolves around food. There is just no way around it! We went to Harriet's and made manicotti so we can eat this week. Then after that we went to a potluck at the Millers. That was a lot of fun! The Stolls came and one of the Elders investigator and the Miller's non-member daughter and son-in-law. We ate a ton and threw around a football which was fun! We also haven't seen Alex in a while. Afterward's we went to her house with a plate of brownies. Their family ended up having us stay over and eat with them! Steak, shrimp fettuccine and tons of fresh produce! Wow! So nice! It was a feast! Food all day! 

Sunday was great! We were so close to having our investigator Gina at church! Oh boy! We got a last minute text saying she got called into work. At least she contacted us! That is a good sign! In Relief Society one of the sisters was complaining about how she couldn't keep doing her family history because she can't find her great-grandma anywhere. Luckily we were going to her house after and helped her out. We were able to find the great grandma PLUS four more generations back. I LOVE family history! It is SO important and there is ALWAYS more to be done. If you are ever stuck I will help you find something. The work is never done. Not until the great Jehovah says it is! 

It has been a great week! We definitely are seeing miracles come to pass! This area is getting ready for a harvest! We are doing our best to help God in this great and marvelous work! Again, there is always more to be done!

I love you more than I sweat in the humidity this week!
Anne!

Hold my leg! Hold it, hold it!

This week was Wundubar! Have no idea if that is how you spell it, I can't google it. It is week 5 in the transfer! Ah! We are really scared for transfer texts this Saturday. Our district is due for some major changes. We have all been here for quite a while. I hope I don't get transferred. It is really iffy. You should be fine sending to my address or to the mission home if you aren't sure. This is a fast transfer that is for sure.

Monday we finally got in with a less active that I have been trying to meet for the last 4 months. We brought her visiting teacher, Sister Edgar who is just boss. Such a good member missionary. She just sits down with Angela and straight up asks her how she feels about her testimony, what is keeping her from coming to church and reminded her of how much she loved church. It was boss. Then we went to the Millers and she always makes such good food! They gave us fresh cucumbers and zucchini to fry up. That is what I cooked in my healthy picture.

Tuesday/ Wednesday was awesome. We get a phone call from the Sun Prairie Elders. They told us they were just walking down the street when this lady pulled over and stopped them! She then asked if they were missionaries that left their home for two years to teach people. In shock they said yes and she asked if they would come over and teach her. Yes. But it is a woman and she lives in our area so they handed her off to us. She is really cool. The thing that got her interested is the Mormon bloggers. It is a running joke in her family that she is obsessed with Mormon bloggers. So we went and taught/ answered a ton of her questions. It was great. She wouldn't really commit to much, but if anything it planted a huge seed and she knows what she needs to do.

Wednesday night we had the Steven's Point sisters stay with us and we went to our mission tour together early Thursday morning. It was SO good. Basically a HUGE zone conference. There were 3 zones there and we heard from President and Sister Cutler as well as Elder and Sister Martino of the seventy. The first half was super uplifting. The Savior loves each of us and how his atonement is for each of us individually. It was great, some tears and all. And I happened to do a singing musical number because I know how to read music for alto. Is what just eight missionaries SATB two to a part. Oh boy I don't know what I got myself into there. But whatever, I didn't die. After lunch we got down to business. We all got kind of chastised a little bit on how we all need to use the members better. So we talked a ton about that. How in the story of Alma and Amulek, Amulek is basically a less active. Alma reactivates him and the teach all of Amuleks family. Then they go to the city and no one is listening. Zeezrom comes out and Alma tries to teach them. Then bam! Amulek comes out, member missionary, and astonishes Zeezrom. It wasn't Alma the amazing teacher. It was Amulek who was just gaining his testimony as well. Just good stuff. But man was it a long day. We were gone from 6:30 in the morning and didn't get back until 6 p.m.

Friday I just ate a ton of ice cream. There went all my healthiness. I think we had ice cream 4 times that day. It was great. Living the dream. Basically that is all I remember about Friday. We were spiritually hung over from Friday still. Saturday we sat down and had correlation over breakfast with our ward mission leader and discussed stuff from a missionary broadcast they had for the members here in Wisconsin. It was good. Our ward is feeling the fire. We brought Brother Sellars to our lesson with the Stolls this week so he could basically re-give his talk on Sunday about the Brother of Jared. The Stolls absolutely loved it! Then they pulled out this huge box for me filled with old piano music! It was awesome! They said take what you want, so I took some. It is really cool. One book that I love is from 1937, beautiful music. We also finally found an investigator that Sister Packer found but I never met because she was always busy. We sat down and taught her a lesson.

Now for the big day. Sunday. It was kind of crazy. I volunteered to do a piano number for sacrament meeting so we could get the Stolls to come. So of course they did. But 2 days before we also got a call from the bishopric asking us to give talks on Sunday. So we did that too. AND my favorite, Harriet. Her granddaughter was blessed today so Harriet, her daughter and her boyfriend and the baby all came to church today! It was great to see them there. Great church day. That night people were strangely rude to us. More so than usually and so consistent. Everyone gave basically the same answer and wouldn't give us the time of day. Then finally we put two and two together. There was a Brewers game on against the Dodgers. We need to get a game schedule or something. Oh man, too good. Baseball comes first. Then we went to Harriets to help her fold her laundry and wow. Harriet and Jim are so nice to us. The loaded us up with corn, cucumbers, homemade pickles and tomatoes. So good.

Anyways I am loving the life! I scored quite a few baskets in bball today! I feel good! We are trying to change a lot of things so we can get a baptism before General Conference. Something has to happen this week for us to make that goal. 30/125 areas have made it. Lots of prayers and lots of focus on being obedient. It'll be good. I know the Lord has a plan for us. I know I can rely on him, I just have to do my part.

Love you more than Wisconsin loves their cheese!
Anne

That's not all I can do

This week was grand! There is this older woman in the ward who calls me up every time she has computer problems. It makes me quite happy to fix her computer or internet! She calls me her little miracle worker even though it is a pretty easy fix, but any chance to touch a computer right? We did lots of service this week. We helped paint, cook, garden, weed, prune, it was fun!

The desert of the week was ice cream! I think at least 5 different people fed us either popsicles or just ice cream. So of course we had to go buy some too. We found it on sale for 3 bucks and we couldn't decide which flavors and almost got four buckets but we settled on only 2 though.

We met a lot of people this week. We did a lot of tracting. It is funny those moments when you realize what you are doing. You are in some random state far from home, going door to door and talking to complete strangers. Most of them just spill out details of their life that you would never expect and we are there to tell them about a book. But it makes you think, I better make sure I bare my testimony of this book by the spirit otherwise it is for not. There are so many moments where I open my mouth and start talking, having no idea what I am going to say or even what I am saying! Yet the spirit does it's work and the next thing you know the Book is in someone else's arms. I LOVE that feeling. We met this woman who wasn't too religious and never had really heard of the BOM and when we gave it to her, she just clutched it to her chest. If only she really knew the power that book had she'd never let go of it!

Cool story. Yesterday we were up in Marshall trying to find a less active I have never been able to have a sit down lesson with and we found one of them and he said their family would be home the next day and we could come! But it went faster than we had planned for and we had about 12 minutes to kill before we had to leave for dinner. So we found a less active on the ward list who no missionary has met for at least 7 months, somehow she had fallen between the cracks. So we go to the door doing a "Hi, we are the new missionaries in the ward" approach and without hesitation she tells us to come in! She clears off a seat for us and just starts talking and she gave us her cell phone number so we could call her to come again! It was wonderful! I have never been that well received. Sadly we couldn't stay long, but she asked what member's house we were eating at and she just raved about them! So when we went to dinner we asked about the less active and told the member what had just happened and they were in shock. They couldn't believe that she happily let us in! So apparently that was a huge miracle!

Sunday Brother Sellars gave a phenomenal talk about prayer! It was so good. He talked about how the brother of Jared is the perfect example of prayer. He asked God for 3 things. Air to breathe in the boats, how the are going to steer and how they will see. God then tells him exaclty what to do. To cut holes in the boat so they can breathe. For steering God says don't worry about it, I got you covered, don't be concerned about it. Lastly for the light, figure it out. So he did. He worked hard to figure out a plan and make some molten stones. Then he went to the Lord very humbly stating how great God is. Then he said "Lord touch these stones" not could you maybe please think about it. He knew the Lord had the power to. And notice that the Lord took care of all the life threatening situations but left the non-life threatening one "unanswered" It was an opportunity for the brother of Jared to grow and exercise faith. Next followed one of the greatest examples of faith and the brother of Jared saw the Lord's finger! How great is that! I loved it! I left church with a grin on my face.

Anyways, great week. We are working really hard to find someone to baptize before general conference. It will come. We have a mission tour this week so I am excited for spiritual experiences! I love you all! Stay smiling!

Love you more than I love ice cream! (feel special!)
Anne

C'mon with the rain, I've got a smile on my face!

This week was great! We started off by going to the Fullmers for dinner and FHE (the cool painting guy) It was great. My mind=blown when we go there. Who knew you could learn so much about the gospel. I don't know why there isn't more excitement about the Book of Mormon. This book is legit, I am growing a very strong love for it. I am in the middle of Alma and I think everyday after personal studies I tell Sister Weaver something from what I read that I have never noticed or even heard of. It is really fun getting to know the characters as real people! They are real and have very real personalities and struggles. I love that the church is finally making great videos, but I must admit there are still only cheesy BOM ones. I made a joke to Sister Weaver, and she loved it because I am funny, that we should raise tithing to 15% so we could get some legit movies :) That'd be great! The newest one has one of the actors from Kid History in it and it is pretty hilarious to see him playing a serious role. Anyways, that isn't of importance.

We did a lot of tracting this week, found a lot of people but none who followed through. Wednesday we went to mutual and they made this delicious heart clogging dessert. It was this like s'mores lasagna. So good, so deadly. And we had a delicious fruit pizza at a members home. I now am craving fruit pizza. Dang. Maybe next week. I don't know why I talk about food so much in my emails, I just enjoy this whole getting fed thing. We always joke about when we get home we are going to be weirded out when people don't just give us free stuff :) We will have to work for it! 

We had a great storm this week with hail pummeling us! Now it is raining again. Sadly Sister Weaver doesn't like playing in the rain, that is like the only downside though ;) She cares about her hair, who knew? We went and helped a member paint her bookshelves and she had a ukulele and let me play it! It brought joy to my soul. I am excited to cultivate my talents after my mission. 

One time when we knocked doors this week the Jehovah's witnesses had been there like one hour earlier because there were pamphlets of theirs in every door. I may or may not have done something with them as we knocked doors :) We did knock on this man's door and we got talking, had a really good conversation and he got talking about him and his partner and their family. We were worried he'd get upset at us but turns out he has walked the Mormon trail and really appreciates the Mormons and admires what they went through. He took a Book of Mormon and said he would read it. That was pretty cool. We also had a member in the ward call us up saying there were these men cleaning the windows and she felt prompted to give one of them a Book of Mormon but she didn't have one. So we ran over gave her one and briefly saw him. Not anyone you'd expect to want a BOM. Scraggly hair, tattoos and you could just tell he had a hard life. She called us after she gave it to him and said when she handed it him he immediately gave her a huge hug and expressed his gratitude promising to read it cover to cover. Great member missionary! Go you mom too! I am impressed you brought a BOM with you on your vacation! Our ward's missionary motto is "shot on goal" even if they don't except all that matters is that you tried! I am so happy you are being a missionary too! It brings joy to my heart, our work would double if every member did that!

Oh! Something else I have been trying to do is memorizing scriptures. I remember mom always joking with Molly to memorize the BOM and it would improve your memory. It works. I memorized 3 scriptures this week (not short ones I might add ;) and it is neat that I can even do that. I have never been able to easily memorize things. It has always been a struggle, but I just feel more aware now and clear. Elder Scott has a great talk called "The Power of Scriptures" It is a great talk! D&C6:34-37 has been an amazing comfort to me this week :) I love the scriptures!

Well I hope you guys take care of yourselves! Keep on being amazing! 

I love you loads!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anne