Gallivant as a Noun

Dear Family,

I don't even know really what to say about this week. It was interesting. We had a district meeting on the law of chastity, that was fun... We did find a new investigator this week named Tom. We met him at the begininng of the week and then taught him near the end. When we got to his lesson it was cool because he said he didn't feel like the Book of Mormon was false. Halfway through the lesson his son came out and said "Dad, the food is ready!" The dad started laughing because that is how his son saved him from the Jehovah's witnesses but he said he wanted to hear what we had to say.

So we went with one of our recent converts (who got baptized at BYU-I btw) to go help this old lady. She was on the 6th floor of an apartment building and is moving to the 2nd floor and just waiting to die. It sounds sad but she is pretty okay with it. She smoked for 50 years so she knows it's time. But anyways she had us clean her old apartment because she couldn't. She warned us before hand that she had Hepatitis C. Not good stuff, so we were really careful and had doubled gloves. We didn't have any cuts so all was good. But we had to clean the toliet and of course all of us being teenagers we were arguing over who had to do it, Sister Homan ended up doing it. After Jacob posted on facebook that we had cleaned an old ladies toliet. We had correlation that night so we were at our ward mission leaders house and his wife asked us what Jacob meant when he posted that. So we told her we had cleaned a ladies toliet who had hep c. She freaked out, hardcore. She made all her kids get away from us and had us sit in a corner and no one could give the sisters and handshake. She then went on a huge search on google to see if she was in any danger. She ended up coming to the conclusion that she wasn't. We didn't know what to do though, it was pretty funny because her husband was just laughing. She then spent the rest of the time upstairs. Fun times.

We went to dinner at the bishop's daughters house. It was great, they have 4 crazy kids that were just wrestling and teasing and beating each other up. And one point we heard a thunk that sounded pretty brutal when the kid walks in and tells his mom, "Mom, Jacob just hit me reeally hard in the head. It hurt, but not too bad. But it is all ok because I am ok!" Then gallivants back on in to wrestling. It was so funny, I have never seen a kid do that. Usually they cry or try to get someone in trouble. Nope, he just wanted his mom to know he was ok.

So Friday we held a fireside. Our mission has implemented a CD to help members be effective missionaries and it is called "The Missionary Next Door" So we held a fireside based on this CD and spent a lot of time putting everything together. We had 14 families helping. It was supposed to be awesome. Half the people dropped out less than an hour before and some others didn't even show up. Some people came, but then it was mostly put on by the missionaries and no one wants to hear from us. Well the lady who made the CD, her dad was there President Hassler. He is in the mission presidency. He told her we worked hard and it was good but we were kind of upset with how it turned out. The lady called us and talked to us, that was pretty cool. She is like a mission celebrity, but yeah.

So really not to much happened. I am glad you guys are doing the Book of Mormon challenge. I finally caught up the other day! It is pretty neat. I enjoyed 2 Nephi a lot with the focus on the atonement! It was super red and green! But today we hit Jacob 5... I still gotta finish :)
Well I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you loads!

Love you more than there are cows in Wisconsin!
Anne

Meet the Mormons

Dear Familia!

This week was pretty dang sweet. So we had zone training this week and we got to watch Meet the Mormons. It was pretty sweet. You all should have seen it already because I know it is playing in IF and in Utah, I don't know about Nevada. That was pretty fun! First movie in 6 months! I enjoyed it, it was a nice treat for the missionaries. Also at zone training they had Brother Fullmer, the awesome Book of Mormon guy from Sun Prairie, come and teach the missionaries about the Book of Mormon! It was so sick. Everyone was in awe and I just felt pretty cool because I already knew him and already knew most the stuff he was teaching, I'm not prideful at all. Anyways, it was a super good meeting and we didn't have to do any role plays which made it even cooler. 

We went to a members home who have been having a hard time wrangling in their kids and we did a little FHE, well they brought their little friend. He is a super polite kid and super awesome. He is 10 and he can break dance and rap and he knows a TON about the bible. We played Simon Says at the end of our lesson and all the kids wanted to take a turn so when it was his turn he was having them do all these dance moves like the coffee grinder and head spins. It was super funny. We also totally forgot it was one of the Elders birthday so we ended up building him a sweet cake.

Tuesday was a really slow day because we didn't have our usual meetings. Then a miracle happened. A referral from the Madison Elders called us and wanted to know if we could bring the Elders over to move her washer and dryer. So all 6 of us show up at her house 10 minutes later and the Elders move her washer and dryer/ almost die down the stairs. We shared a little message with her and invited her to church. She said she would if we could find a ride for her and her 3 boys. We of course say yes we will and go along on our merry way. Turns out it is really hard to find a ride for 4 people. Really hard. We'd gone through the ward list several times and made many phone calls and it is 8 Saturday night. Finally someone calls us back and who can give them a ride. During that phone call 3 other people try calling to say they can! Awesome! Everything thing went through and her family came to church! She has a 16, 13, 2 yr old and one on the way. It was hard to keep the 2 year old entertained during sacrament meeting, we may have had a little marker incident. It all worked out though, they stayed for all 3 hours and afterwards they all said they really enjoyed themselves and can't wait to come back! Super exciting! The bishop told us after that the boys had been really involved in priesthood too! So pretty solid! don't think anything is more stressful than having investigators come to church! I am always so worried. It is like when you show somebody your favorite movie and just sit there and stare at them the whole time to see if they liked it.

We also had Kevin, the deaf member come to church and Sister Homan interpreted for him during Sunday School. It looked pretty dang hard. Everyone was talking super fast and it looked hard to keep up. We had a lot of less actives come to church actually. Gospel Principles was pretty full, which is never is. 

We also met someone else awesome this week. So we went to contact a referral the Elders gave us. He opened the door and introduced himself as a Satanist........awkward..silence... then my comp asks what that means. Then we taught him the restoration and he loved it! He stopped us like 3 times to ask questions about our church and he was just eating it up. Finally HE just asked if we would mind if he came to church! Hallelujah! We taught him the next day too and he totally would have come to church but he got food poisoning, he is definitely coming next week though. So all that is fine and dandy! He seems to be super solid. He believes in God and he believes God is going to win in the end. That point of view got him kicked out of his church. He really wanted to be Christian at one point but all these churches were super mean to him and kicked him out. Not ours!

So yeah sweetness of a family coming to church! That is a first! I have never taught a family, I am uber excited. The gospel is meant to bless families. And as our awesome President Cutler always says "Exhaulted life if family life, God's life it family life!" It's so true! God is just waiting to bless us and families are where we see the most blessings! 

Love you more than all the colors in the trees!

Anne!

...Since Easters

Can I just call this week CRAZY! So Monday was just full of a lot of goodbyes as well as Tuesday. It was go go go. I only cried once and that was saying goodbye to the Stolls. That was rough. He of course says the closing prayer and he is crying so of course I start crying. Dang it all! Then I saaid bye to a lot of families in the ward. I also spent quite a bit of time packing. But I can proudly say I did not have to send one thing home! And I dare you to find another missionary here that can say the same! Granted, I need to send some things home. But it isn't because I got too many packages, because there is no such thing and I will take all the packages one desires to send me. But because members have given me a few gifts and I just have a ton of books which are not mission approved. I think one suitcase was mostly books. But I fit everything including bedding into my suitcases. So bravo to me! Transfers were super easy. So everyone who is going to be transferred in the zone meets at the same building then members drive missionaries to 1 of 5 transfer buildings and you just go from there. Because janesville is still in the Madison zone We drove to the building, talked a bit then I got in Sister Homan's car and went home! left at 8:30 from Sun Prairie and got to Janesville by 10. Our apartment is HUGE! Apparently the Sun Prairie apartment is one of the smallest apartments. I didn't know any better so I thought it was perfect. You could fit my old apartment into this one twice. We have a big living room and a whole kitchen and a spacious bathroom that you have to walk across to get to places. Two bedrooms. We sleep in the same one. The other room is Sister Homan's closet because she lives out of her suit case, the real closet in there is the community closet with a bunch of free clothes. Everyone who has passed through here though has been like a size 0. So no free clothes for me. And I already have all of my stuff unpacked and put away ever so nicely. Folded in the drawers and hung up in our bedroom closet. It is kind of nice that Sister Homan doesn't use the closet or the dresser because I get to use all of it. I can be organized and I am not cramped on space. The closet is about 4x as big as my old one. And I love our new car! It doesn't feel like a big bulky, jerky brick. But nice and sleek! I keep going on about our apartment because it is sick. I told Sister Homan she is just going to have to deal with me talking about it for another week. 

Let me tell you, replacing Sister Elkington is some hard shoes to fill! She was here for almost 8 months, the people love her. They work with a lot of less actives here. Wednesday night we teach a BOM class with the Elders at the church for parents waiting for their kids at mutual, at least that is what I assume it is for. That is who goes. Oh and I hit my 6 month mark! Wahoo! I thought it was the 8th so I didn't realize that I had hit it :) But whatever. Way to fast, I still feel like a newbie. Sister Homan has been out 13 months and she feels like a newbie. I will always feel like one. Sister Homan came out with Sister Morales AND was her comp in Gresham! How cool is that! She has been comps with the 2 people I know! 

Friday we went to a less active and she taught me how to knit! That was fun! Most less actives just need a friend, thats it. Someone to take interest in them. It's kind of sad that that is all it would take for someone to come back to church but no one will be their friend. Then coolest thing ever! We are teaching a less active in the ward who is deaf! And Sister Homan signs! So we can understand each other! And he is starting to come back to church (hopefully) he says he will. We are going to work on starting a signing class in the ward so he can have some people who will understand him. AND Sister Homan is teaching me ASL. And I must say I am doing pretty well. Let's see what she has to say. She says "You are doing great and you are learning very fast" So there you have it. I can fingerspell and sing a couple songs and say families can be together forever. Also to help me learn, I am learning our missionary scriptures in ASL. I have D&C 30:27 and the missionary purpose done. It was neat to teach Kevin because you could feel the spirit so strong! And I could understand him! Granted not communicate with him, I got kind of nervous. But next time I will have more to say to him! 

We are helping the Elders plan a wedding for their investigators so they can get baptized. It is pretty funny helping them. They are clueless. We went and raked for a really long time and we have blisters and sore hands. It is great though because it will prep us for shoveling this winter! I would much rather build up racking then shoveling heavy snow! It was great to have my first Sunday here be fast Sunday! They asked me and the new spanish elder in the ward to bear our testimonies and introduce ourselves. It is always the weirdest feeling for me to be in a new ward, It feels weird that I am the missionary. That I am the one the little kids look up to and sing about. I hope I can live up to their expectations. 

I love Janesville! I love the people here! I am excited to serve the Lord here! I hope to be a part of building up his kingdom here and finding prepared people to be strong valiant servants of his. The Millers in the Sun Prairie ward said something amazing before I left. They said they were talking about downsizing. We of course said oh thats a good idea, a lot of people do that. Then they said no, we want to so we are spending as much time on the house and cleaning as we could be serving and doing missionary work. Wow! That took me aback. I hope I can be that dedicated when I get home. To keep this relationship I have with my Savior and always strive to put him first!

I love y'all and hope you have a great week!

I love you more then leaves we've raked!
Anne

Conference time is a good time

Oh boy! Such a long crazy week! I am just going to go off my journal because I can't put it all together.

Tuesday. So we have passed this guy out smoking on his porch like 3 times and we both felt like we should talk to him. We did and it was awesome! We taught him about the Book of Mormon and set up a return appointment! We also had a lesson with an investigator we haven't seen in 2 months! That was cool! 

Wednesday, it was cold! Summer is gone! We went to mutual with the youth and they couldn't play mafia because that is appropriate. So they changed the characters and called it gadianton robbers. It was a pretty sick idea. Probably too many people but I kept the paper because I am so playing it again. We also visited Sister Pink. She is just a doll! I love her so! I am going to miss her. But she writes me every week so it is all good. We also taught Marie who we do service for. We taught her the restoration and she was super receptive. We invited her to baptism and she politely said she isn't ready yet. You never know until you ask. But I think Sister Weaver would agree in saying it is probably the best lesson we have taught together. Boy you can feel the spirit when you talk about the first vision out in nature and hear the birds singing and the leaves rustling in the breeze. Wow! 

Thursday. I made food! I made enchiladas and we went to Sally's and ate them! It was fun, she has been so sweet to me. We also went to see a referral from a couple months ago and she was so nice to us. She used to be a member so she likes the missionaries, just not our message. We ate dinner at the Sellars and it was so good and we had hot chocolate and no bake cookies. It made my tummy happy! It was the perfect fall dinner. I sure have appreciated the long skirts you sent me this week. They are just perfect for the cold wind.

Friday we did something cool. We helped an older lady in our ward with family history. She is a convert so we got the names of her parents and siblings all ready to go to the temple so she can be sealed to her family! How neat is that! We went and helped Sally's friend Marge clean her windows. She had a fancy window washing pole thing, it was lots of fun. I might consider doing that for a living. 

Saturday. We went to the Schroeders for General Conference. They are the funniest couple. They are like to children in love. Wow. Playing airplane and everything. Awkwardly greeting us at the door. I hope I am that cool when I get married. We got the transfer text while at their house. It came an hour late, I was just slightly dying. Conference was SO GOOD! It is so neat that the speakers got to speak in their native tongue! So monumental! Wow! All the talks were just so good! I loved Elder Uchtdorf's on light. For the afternoon session we went to the church. That night we had like 35 minutes to tract. We had a plan to go tract on a certain road. We went and stopped where a lot of lights were on and there were cars. We stopped where 5 houses looked like there was life inside. Out of that 5 we taught 4 doorstep lessons, 3 took a Book of Mormon and 2 set up return appointments with us and we got a Spanish referral for Madison. It was a HUGE miracle! We finally met our weekly goal with lessons taught and BOMs handed out. So cool! 

Sunday. We went to Harriet's and Jim had made us breakfast and they had bought us pumpkins to carve. I feel like their adopted child. She is my mission mom, she has just taken care of me. It was cool because we got to watch conference with her and Jim was Ok with it. She had a lot of questions which was good. We went and helped the Stolls set up general conference on their ipad. They have only watched part of a session because she was sick so they didn't get around to it :/ But I taught him how to catch up. Then we went to the church to watch the last session and a ward member ended up having us over to watch it in their home. It was so nice. Last conference I was leaving in 3 days to come here. This one I am leaving in 3 days again to go some place new! I better be careful of my subconscious will associate general conference with leaving places. It kind of made this weekend seem slightly surreal. Then we went to the Miller to pick up my dress that she fixed (I may have ripped a dress :) And they ended up feeding us. It was nice to see them one last time. Then we went to our ward mission leaders house for desert and a farewell. 

I am going to Janesville which is actually Lacey's last area. I am replacing her! How cool is that! Janesville is doing really well and I am super excited. And the best part is I will be close enough to Chicago to go to the temple! Hopefully my companion hasn't gone yet! Wahoo! I am so excited, we will see how that works out. I miss the temple a lot! It is going to be hard to say goodbye to Sun Prairie! I love the people here! I haven't cried yet though. It is probably good that we didn't have church on Sunday. It will be especially hard to say goodbye to Harriet. Well my time is running short. I love you all so much! I hope you enjoyed conference as much as I did! 

Love you more than the falling leaves!

Anne

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

This week has been CRAZY! It feels so good! My wonderful sister Lindsey sent me jump ropes this week! Oh boy! With a really hard (shouldn't be) routine. We did it everyday for 3 days. We were walking like pirated with peg legs. Both of our right calves just killed! We were just hobbling down the street pathetically. Then lo and behold, first day of autumn hits and BAM! Allergies. It was ridiculous! Nothing worked and I was just a sad looking/sounding wreck. Then of course all the snot build-up basically makes me sick. I was sneezing all night and cuddling with a roll of toilet paper surrounded by tissues strewn about. I know, it's a gruesome scene. The members took good care of me giving me many meds and remedies. It is a good thing you sent emergen-c. I was loaded up on that stuff just trying so hard to get better. So I really was a wreck for a few days. Hobbling and sniffing about :) But it is okay, I got through it fast. It was slow in the moment but looking back, I was fine.

Now for the good stuff, Tuesday we had our quarterly interviews with President Cutler. It was awesome! I asked him for a priesthood blessing at the end and oh boy! Wow! Just wonderful and perfect. I know the Lord definitely watches out for each of us and is mindful of everything. We had a lesson with a guy who had slipped Sister Weaver his phone number. We had it at the church and brought Sister Schroeder. It actually turned out really well. He actually seemed interested with learning more and not just flirting with Sister Weaver. Then we ate  with the Schroeders the next day. Oh boy! They are so funny! The Elders always say they feel awkward going there but I don't know why. It's probably because they don't get sarcasm and dry humor as Sister Weaver and I do! We had a member get us some chocolate cheese this week! That was awesome. that is what the picture is of. Thank you Wisconsin.

I am running out of time so I am going to have to cut some stuff out. Saturday was another running around day.Going going. We had a really good lesson with the Stolls because we were really bold with them. We figured out that they aren't actually asking to know if the church is true. So we promised them if they write down 3 questions, take them to the Lord and watch conference (all with sincerity) that they will receive an answer. Brother Stoll came to church on Sunday, partly because it was the primary program and who can miss that? It was so good! I love our ward, they are so neat. 

Saturday we watched the women's broadcast. Sally came to the potluck before hand, she wouldn't stay for the whole thing though. I went with a couple questions because I thought I better try out what I promised the Stolls would work. I went, had my 3 questions. I watched it, waiting. I thought it was over after all the women spoke and I was upset because not one of them had been answered. Then President Uchtdorf spoke and all were answered in like a minute! It was awesome! It totally works, I highly suggest it!

But this week we were really bold and were the missionaries we should be. We were talking to everyone, making those awkward street crossings to talk to people. Bearing testimony by the spirit. I love being a missionary and talking to people. I know we haven't had any baptisms in this area yet but I know we are being successful. We are doing what we need to be doing and it just feels good. The best feeling as a missionary is laying down in bed, exhausted, knowing you worked hard and you did all you could do. I hope you are all doing well! I love you guys so much and I am thrilled with the missionaries you guys are being! Thank you so much! 

ro

I love you more than food in our fridge!

Anne

Changing Times, Changing Leaves

Man! Weeks are fast but so long! We had exchanges this week and Sister Johnson came here to work with me. It was super fun! She is an amazing teacher! Just great! She pushed me out of my comfort zone and I realized I need to be more bold. I think I am getting to comfortable with this area. It feels like home. That's is going to kick me in the rear soon! We got to visit with a lot of less actives this week which I didn't even realize until we reported on Sunday.  We were a lot more successful than we thought! 

We go help Sally a lot and at first she was really apprehensive about church stuff. Now she is reading the Book of Mormon. She gave us her friend to go visit, Marge. She made it sound so delicate and scary for us to see her. She didn't want us to use her name when we went to her and she was nervous, therefore we were nervous. Our hearts were just pounding knocking on Marge's door. She was an angel! Holy cow! It was such a relief! We offered our service to her and she gladly took it and we are going back this week!

We had a family move in our ward several weeks ago. The mom was so excited they had sister missionaries! So she invited us over for dinner this Sunday. It was so fun! The kids are such good missionaries. Maggie gave a friend a BOM and now she is taking the discussions and going to church! (in Madison) The kids played guitar for us and sang together in harmonies. So fun! This morning her mom called us, I am pretty sure she was crying, just thanking us for taking the time to come over and how much it meant to her that her kids got that interaction and that they were able to be happy with the move. It was certainly humbling to hear that. I hope I can be that missionary kids can look up to. If I can just make a good impact, wow, that would be great!

I had my first mission migraine. Not fun! It happened in the middle of a lesson with the Stolls and I just could not read. I couldn't see. I leaned over to S. Weaver and told her and she did a great job just taking over and me just sitting there. I couldn't even think. I got to take a 20 minute nap which made it bearable but wow! I need to keep some Excedrin on me!

Funny story! So the Elders gave a BOM to a guy working out at a park about 2 months ago. It totally did not work out. Last week when we were emailing we happened to sit by him. He leaned over and asked me if we were from the church. I said yes and he was welcome to come, gave him our card. He said some Elders had invited him and he didn't know why he didn't go. After we told the Elders and they figured out who it was and told us his story and how he had thrown the BOM away. We went to the library again and he was here. He came up and slipped Sister Weaver his phone number! It was so funny! We didn't really know what to do. It was probably him flirting but what if he wanted to know more. So we called and set up an apointment at the church. We invited the Schroeders who are awesome. She can blaze a hole right to your soul and he is a 6'6 marine :) Our perfect back up!

But yeah, great week! I love the work and am happy! I ate salmon this week! It wasn't too bad, but I definitely won't be buying any for myself. I love you all a ton! We get to see our mission president this week for interviews so it should be good! Love you all!

Love you more than all the changing leaves on the trees!

Anne!

It's always darkest before the dawn

It is always so hard to recall the week. Pday to pday is so short but the week is an eternity! It got cold this week. Crazy! One day it was 84 and the next 42. Chilly! Broke out the tights, cardigans and jackets! Thankful it is supposed to warm up a little bit at the end of the week. Not winter yet. But winter is supposed to hit harder this year than last. Apparently bad winters come in pairs. 

We took Sally on a church tour this week. We went in the chapel and I played some songs for her, she felt the spirit and everything. We invited her to church and she just said no. She is so sweet though, I think something traumatizing happened and she has an aversion towards churches. She did feed us a lot of food though. We ate lunch at home when she called us and told us she just bought us a pizza. So of course we go over there and eat the pizza. Then we have dinner. Then we go to mutual where we got fed more. All in all, I became a beached whale. 

I am sorry to say I don't really have the best news to report concerning our investigators. We got hardcore, abruptly dropped by Gina. Patti also cancelled coming to church and our appointment and won't reschedule. She wants a break. Granted I am not giving up hope, especially for her. She has been amazing and kept all commitments up to this point. I know the Lord will strengthen her, she is going through some hard times. We also found out another investigator was meeting with us so she could get money from the church.. no bueno. And no new investigators. But the work still goes on. The members are working hard to help us teach and find people for us to teach. It is always darkest before the sun rises. It is funny though, me and Sister Weaver were talking about this. On paper we really did have a bad teaching week, if we are being honest. However, I feel like we have changed enough that it will not drag us down! We still have good attitudes and smiles! We know that God will bring to pass miracles! He is shaping and molding us, I wouldn't rather have anyone else mold me! I love this work and I love being a missionary! I love our ward, it really is a family. I love my companion, she is such an amazing example of courage  and pressing on! I started the Book of Mormon over again. I am doing a faster pace read this time where I have to read ten pages a day, so usually I have to read during meals and at night. I love it! I decided to study faith this time.It is interesting because it revolves so much around action words, and those action words revolve around keeping the commandments. Doing what the Lord would have us do. Like Nephi says  "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." The Lord will provide a way. Nephi didn't build a ship in a day.

Beside people are just so nice to us. We do get tender mercies all the time. We went to Harriet's yesterday and Jim printed out photos of us cooking together and gave us German chocolate. Then Harriet gave me some really nice flats that she had only worn once! Just a happy week. One lady opened the door BECAUSE we had name tags. It was so strange. She already had a Book of Mormon, but doesn't need us to come back because she has connections in Madison but she did ask for us to pray with her and was super nice. That was a huge tender mercy after tracting for an hour in the cold with not much success. But yeah, good week! 

I love you more than I love technology!

Anne!

More Than All the Corn

Guess who finished the Book of Mormon today! I did! And I LOVED it! I really read a lot this week! I had over 80 pages left on pday last. I don't know why I felt such a desire to finish it so fast. But now I can say it took me 4 and a half months which is sweet. I don't think I have ever sat down and read the Book of Mormon like that. And I am so excited to read it again! It is the best part about finishing, you get to start over! 

So let's see, what happened this week. Tuesday night we taught Patti with the Edgars and it was great! She agreed to take all the missionary lessons so we are teaching her tonight in the Edgar's home. It is lot of pressure teaching member's friends but it is the best because you get to see more people enjoying the joy of the gospel and sharing it. We didn't get home until later then we would have liked to though. This week was bad with getting home on time. Something always came up last minute. We are definitely going to do better about that. We need as much help as we can from the Lord.

Wednesday was Sister Weaver's birthday! I love birthdays while having companions because I get to enjoy it just as much! She woke up and I had decorated with balloons and a happy birthday sign. Then I made pancakes and eggs. Then pancakes turned out great even though I had never made them before, so wahoo! We may have eaten a donut too for breakfast. Sadly though Sister Weaver got sick on her birthday though. But it was good because she had to take a nap which is one of the best gifts you can get as a missionary. Therefore I got one too because we have to stick together! I just realized that is why I finished the Book of Mormon so fast! She had to rest a lot. Thankfully I haven't gotten sick yet... I am trying really hard not too. 

Thursday was a great day besides weekly planning and staying in sick most of the day. Sally made us lunch and she is just very adamant in making sure our mothers know we are getting taken care of! And oh boy are we! It is so humbling. Then we went to dinner at a member's house and their little girl had been excited about us coming all day. She made up a dance for us but her mom told her she couldn't because the music she picked was music we couldn't listen to. So she ran up stairs and came down all dressed up in her leotard and she had changed the music to a primary song so we could listen! It was so cute! It almost made me cry! Boy, am I going to be a blubbering mother when I grow up! 

We helped Harriet this week bake food for her husband's uncle's funeral and we finally are getting some spiritual progress out of her! Her husband, Jim who is a nonmember, also is really liking us being in their house. He doesn't do the spiritual thing, yet, but he is super friendly to us! I just love Harriet. I had a dream where a came to their house after my mission with a bag slung over my shoulder with all my stuff and I moved in. I told them my dream and they got a kick out of it. They said they would totally let me move in though! It was funny!  

Saturday we brought Megan, a "wayward" youth, to our lesson with the Stolls and she just loved it! The Stolls loved her too! We had a lot of cancelled appointments that day though so we, especially I, were kind of frustrated. So of course if appointments go through you go tracting which is not the best thing when you've had rejection thrown at you all day. BUT we taught four doorstep lessons and gave away 3 BOMs so it turned out awesome! 

Sunday was ward conference and they talked a lot about missionary work, which of course we love. Our bishop is very passionate about member missionary work. He feels a great responsibility to have 3 sets of missionaries in the ward. He asked each person to give us one person to teach. We have a great ward! Being a missionary is awesome! I love it! Again, our ward just takes care of us so well! Our investigators too. 

I hope my lovely fam has a fantastic week this week! I love y'all so much! I am glad you got home from your trip safely! I am glad you enjoyed your game dad after a long week of work! Yes we do have BYU fans out here. They are all pretty big cheesheads though. Occasionally you will find a Chicago fan too. It is a pretty big rivalry. And I loved your story mom, even if you think it is lame :)

I love you more than all the corn here! There is a lot!

Anne

Preparation Day on a Tuesday Throws Everything... All is Well

I have no idea what happened this week. It has been a long one! Tuesday pdays are just no good, it throws me off. All is well though! Sally gave us a ridiculously good and ridiculously easy peanut butter cookie recipe. So I ate a ton of cookies this week. We made them and gave them to a lot of people though. I think we made like 8 batches. It was fun! We street contacted this guy named Gary. It was one where he was sitting right there but it feels so impolite to interrupt someone in the middle of their smoke. Just kidding. So we go up the courage and went and opened our mouths. He had read the whole bible when he was locked up. So we gave him a Book of Mormon and got a return appointment for that night. We went back and this boy told us no one had lived in that house for a month. I love when that happens. I just hope he reads from the Book of Mormon. 

We did lots of service this week. We trimmed bushes and it was rather fun. I see why Molly enjoys cutting hair! It was fun chopping away. We got to meet the new missionaries in our district this week. I am starting to get old out here! Elder Stephens and I have been in Sun Prairie the longest now! Weird stuff. I am not the newbie. I got an awesome package this week! You guys just know me too well! I love this ward. I am already getting scared of leaving even though I am not at risk of leaving until October! 

We weeded Marie's yard for two hours in the warm sun. It felt good to be outside in the green grass. Getting your hands dirty. Sally, another lady we do service for, had us come over and unload her groceries because she just had surgery on her hand. She ended up giving us a bag of food. She said she was doing it because our moms would appreciate knowing we are out here getting taken care of! We sure are. We get way more than we deserve! She also finally read the Book of Mormon! It only took us 7 months to get her to touch that thing! She also accepted a church tour. Hearts were softened this week! 

Huge miracle! We visited a lady named Patti. She is a member referral from a year ago. They really want her to get the lessons and the last missionaries who taught her kind of dropped the ball. We have knocked on her home a million times! Monday she was there and let us right in! We couldn't stay long so we read a verse from the BOM and left her with the commitment to read 10 minutes everyday and she said she would! Well she invited us to dinner for today! Which is good and bad because we really wanted to teach her with the members and you can't exactly invite other people to dinner. Lo and behold she invited the members on her own! So that is what we have tonight. Extra prayers for tonight! This is my first time teaching a member's friend and it is nerve racking! Expect miracles! 

We followed up on several people who we gave BOMs to a couple weeks ago and they have been reading! So cool! They don't want to meet yet but still reading. 

We also did a lot of stuff this week with family history. We were able to talk to a part member family through it and we taught the 12 year olds Sunday School. We made them cookies, figures. Guess what we forgot. It was fast Sunday of course. We have ward conference next week so they moved it to this week. All was well though, we hid them in the kitchen. It is rather comical, there is a little cricket infestation in our church building. So there are crickets in the chapel now and you can totally hear them chirping! Not the best background noise for a meeting! We were a little early to a meeting at the church so Sister Weaver was crawling under the pews catching crickets and throwing them outside. It was funny. 

So overall a great week! Chuck full of miracles! The Lord is on our side. I still don't like working on holidays though. It makes me to nervous after losing our teaching pool over the fourth. But we are still intact. I am gaining such a testimony of the Book of Mormon! That is what it all relies on. Whether it is true. There is no way it couldn't be, it is a great reminder of me to keep going. It's purpose is to convince others of Christ. It brings us close to him then any other book. We can know of a surety of his love through this amazing book. I love the opportunity I have to read and study from it every day. Just beautiful! 

I love you all! Thank you for all your love and support!

I love you more than all the weeds in the world!

Anne

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!