The Spirit of God Like a Fire!

Dear Familia!

Oh boy! Was this week just sensational? Yes! My soul is just filled with delight, I have no idea how this works! But I do know it is the Spirit and that this is the Lord's work! How beautiful are the mountains we get to walk on? That probably made no sense because there aren't mountains here. Anyways! Lets start with an update on the wonderful people we are working with. We met with Barbara again this week. She is doing so well. She is reading the Book of Mormon and loves it. We haven't taught her the Word of Wisdom yet but she said as soon as she started reading she lost the desire to drink and she has been declining any alcohol given to her because she feels she just doesn't need it anymore. Okay. Without us even asking or talking about it she has already tried invited some friends and family to her baptism. Okay. It's so great! I don't even know what to do! Just teach her what she needs to know and help her be baptized! She had the flu on Sunday so she couldn't come to church but she is progressing so well!

Tina! This woman is so wonderful! She told us she knows God wants her to be baptized. She has been studying and marking up scriptures about baptism and prophets. We talked to her about General Conference, prophets, apostles, priesthood. I love it because she is the first person I have taught that understands that we have that authority, that Christ's church would have his authority and it is as the scriptures say "One lord, one faith and one baptism" It is so neat. We were worried this week because we had church at a different stake center because the other stake needed our bigger building. But she came! And it wasn't a problem! And she loved it! She brought a notebook and took notes in Sunday School! Isn't she just beautiful! The ward already assigned her home teachers and is working on visiting teachers. This gospel is changing her. She is so much more confident in herself and happy because she has been reading the Book of Mormon and being edified by her. It is definitely the power of God!

And this isn't where the great stuff ends! This Saturday we had a very special event! Our whole mission gathered together for a mission conference so we could hear special servants of the Lord speak. We had Elder Craig C. Christensen from the presidency of the seventy and Elder Daniel L. Johnson from the first quorum of the seventy come and speak to us with our area authority, Elder Jack Ward. It was so good! First off! Guess who I saw! Literally everyone! Sister Morales! That was an exciting moment! I gave her a special hug for you mom! It will be only a week old hug! I saw all of my old companions, all my old districts! It was almost a sensory overload! So many missionaries! It was so beautiful though! It was an empowering experience. President and Sister Cutler bore their testimonies than Elder Christiensen talked! He is definitely a special witness of Christ. The words he said were meant specifically for our mission, specifically for me (as well as everyone else). He talked about how there are four pillars of the atonement.

1. Christ overcoming death, we will all rise again. 

2. Christ helping us overcoming spiritual death, through faith and repentance we are all made clean.

The other 2 were r3ally good, and I have never categorized like this before.

3. Christ suffered all our pains and trials so he could heal us. As he said when he healed those during his ministry "By your faith, ye are made whole" Through him all wounds can be healed, physically, spiritually and mentally.

4. Grace, the the enabling power of the atonement that allows us to do things we could not do on our own. 

He then went through a question and answer session with him and all others there and it was a sacred experience. I am sure it was personal for all there. As I listened I had just a wonderful feeling of the absolute possibility that we can be steadfast and immovable in Christ. That we can make it home again. As we put Faith above all else miracles will happen. I am so grateful for my mission! It has put me on a path that I have no idea how I could have got on without it, nor do I want to know how I would have had to get here. I know that my Savior is therefor me. I know I can always have perfect hope in His promises because He will fulfill His word. I know that those God has called are all there for a reason to fulfill God's work and to bear witness of Him.

I just love you guys so much! It sounds like you had a fun week celebrating birthdays! I hope you all continue to be safe! I love you dearly!

I love you more than I love our car!

Anne

A week of miracles!

Dear Family! 

I can't even begin to express my feelings for the multitude of tender mercies Heavenly Father is pouring down! I am just going to start by tell you the story of Barbara and how the Lord has prepared her. 

So Barbara has been looking for a church for years. She has been baptized Lutheran and that one is the one she kept going back to but bad stuff just kept happening. In 1996 she requested a copy of the Book of Mormon from Salt Lake. She got the Book of Mormon in the mail along with a letter asking her to read the introduction, 3 Nephi 11 and Moroni 10:3-5. It also said two Elders would come, but they never came. Her best friend of 35 years was baptized in 2000 but left the church. She ended up coming back to church 9 years ago and has been sharing the gospel with Barbara ever since. 8 years ago Barbara has had several unexpected deaths in her family. Her friend, Karen, shared with her the importance of temples. Barabara has always been a little hesitant to learn from people other than her friend so it never went farther then their discussions as friends. Now 3 weeks ago the Elders had this strong impression to knock this neighborhood. They did not like this neighborhood. Everyone rejected them without fail. All they did was give away one passalong card to Barbara who was on the phone so she didn't talk to them at all. They had no idea what they did! She decided it was time! She requested the movie on the card and we brought it to her! We also gave her another Book of Mormon and gave her an assignment to read the introduction and 3 Nephi 11 and we read Moroni 10 with her and promised she could know these things were true. We came back the next week and she showed us that letter and we had given her the exact same thing to read. We also showed up and she had her member friend there. We taught the Plan of Salvation and oh boy! Karen's testimony made it so powerful because she knew exactly what Barbara needed to hear! Barbara also said she had been reading the Book of Mormon everyday! She was hugging and told us how comfortable she feels reading it! She love it! We felt the prompting to invite her to be baptized and she accepted a date for April 25th! Right after she accepted her friend said, "I knew you gonna get baptized! I already asked to give the talk on the Holy Ghost!" So we aren't going to have a hard time planning :) She also came to church this week and loved it! She is so amazing! You can just see God's love for her! 

Also Tina is doing incredible! She finished the Book of Mormon! She is just progressing beautifully, the gospel is changing her. She smiles more and you can see a light in her eyes, hope! We had a lesson on the Word of Wisdom this week! Her only hold up was coffee and she cut down this week from 1 pot to 1 cup which is so good! We had another lesson and went over Mosiah 18 and what baptism is about. She is so excited! She said a beautiful prayer about her baptism. It was probably one of the best moments I have had as a missionary so far. She has a testimony and she expresses it! She also is still coming to church and loves it! She said next week she wants to take notes! We are encouraging her to read some general conference talks and get excited about it coming up! We are so excited for her! She is excited! She gave us girl scout cookies too! What more could you want? 

I also got a pluthera of packages this week! That was exciting I couldn't believe it! Every sibling sent a package and I got a card from Valine! I can't believe I am 20 though. That isn't cool. Not cool.

I was 27 this week and looking for Faith. I think the people of Ammon had more than Faith they had hope. They had hope in the Savior. They KNEW he died for them and they KNEW that all would be well and made up to them. They followed Him with all their heart, all their souls.  

 28 And they did look upon shedding the blood of their brethren with the greatest abhorrence; and they never could be prevailed upon totake up arms against their brethren; and they never did look upon death with any degree of terror, for their hope and views of Christ andthe resurrection; therefore, death was swallowed up to them by the victory of Christ over it. 

 29 Therefore, they would suffer death in the most aggravating and distressing manner which could be inflicted by their brethren, beforethey would take the sword or cimeter to smite them. 

 30 And thus they were a zealous and beloved people, a highly favored people of the Lord.
These are just some of the most beautiful verses to me. I've read and read them but if you read along with True to Faith's definition on Hope it just gets so much more personal. I have been thinking a lot about what that kind of dedication would be. How we get to that. That is where I want to be. Nothing wavering. With such a trust in Christ that they would give their all. I love it. 

I hope you guys have fun celebrating together! Be safe! Be happy! I love you so much! 

I love you more than all the birthday packages in the world! 

Anne

Prayer Works!

Dear Family!

This was a week of miracles! Crazy, crazy stuff! So we were visiting someone and missed a phone call and we listen to the voice mail and it was this man that the Sisters found a while back. One of the Sisters was Sister Wu from China and they had found this other man from China and gave him a Chinese Book of Mormon. So he called saying he read the whole thing and had a few questions and wanted us to come answer them. Yes! So we are going there this week! I am pretty excited! We will see how it goes. We are trying to invite a member who also speaks Mandarin. 

Then later that day we get a headquarters referral. They are typically from mormon.org. Most frequently we get free bible requests then Book of Mormon and maybe missionary visits. This time it was my first ever one from a pass-along card for the Finding Faith in Christ dvd. That never happens! We hand out a bajillion but I have never seen anything come from it. So we went and contacted her! Her name is Barbara. Miracle! So the Elders had tracted into her a week ago and she was on the phone and couldn't talk so they just gave her a card and left. She actually called the number on the card! You want to know why? Because her best friend of 35 years is Mormon and has been trying to get her to investigate for years and she decided the time was now. I don't know how I controlled myself in the situation because she is inviting her member friend to her next lesson, so she already has her fellow shipper taken care of. She said she read the New Testament every night but committed herself to read the Book of Mormon instead! And she really wants to come to church. Just incredible. I can hear angels singing in the background. Just an absolute miracle!

We also when on exchanges this week. Sister Askerland came here, I replaced her actually so it was really helpful to have her here. She is just my hero. The greatest missionary I have ever worked with. She really inspired me just to be a better missionary. We had an awesome prayer experience. We were just all over the place that night and we got home and we couldn't find our phone. It's terrible for a missionary to loose their phone because there is so much on it! So we said a prayer and when we finished we got out of the car and this guy was getting in his car next to us and let us borrow his phone to call ours. The phone was gone. So we both felt like we should go back to one of the places we had been that night. We pull up and the phone just lights up on the side of the road. There was nothing on it, it shouldn't have lit up but it did! It was so neat! It reminded me of something a woman said in Relief Society a few weeks ago, she said she hope she was always humble enough to pray for the little things like finding something. That was a great experience. 

Saturday we went and taught Tina! She is SO amazing! I just love her! Her Book of Mormon is just all marked up and beautiful! She is so getting baptized. We taught her about prophets and the commandments which was pretty funny because all the sacrament meeting talks were on prophets! I told her we had no idea. We brought a member and she seemed to warm up to her just fine! We also set her baptismal date for April 11th and we are praying with her a lot about it and talking about it a lot so she can get excited and work towards it. 1 month! 

Also daylight savings is not a missionaries friend. I will just leave it at Sunday we were miserably tired :)

I about freaked out when it dawned on me my 20th birthday is this week. Ahh! I can't handle that. Can I just be a kid forever. It will be interesting. 

I hope you guys just a have a fabulous week! You are so wonderful! I don't have to feel jealous about your regional conference with Elder Perry because he may be the apostle coming next week to our mission! It is so warm today though! The snow is starting to melt! I love it! It is weird though because the last time I felt weather like this I was in Sun Prairie. So weird. I love you all a ton! Keep up the great work! You are just great! I love you so so much!

I love you more than I love this weather!

Anne

S'Wonderful!

My dear Family!

Can you say just marvelous? Because that is what this Sunday was. Wow! It was probably my best Sunday as a missionary. First of all the long and awaited Tina came to church! We were able to find out one of her setbacks in coming to church because the Spirit! She has some struggles with anxiety and we were able to figure out the 3 hours scared her and we set a goal to just come to the first hour. We had no idea that was holding her back but wow, the Spirit works. We also had a member of the bishopric give her a priesthood blessing to help and it was so perfect. She felt the Spirit and she drew power from it to come to church. During that visit we found out she had come across anti and anti people. She defended the church! She told us she knew what they said wasn't true and went and looked it up on lds.org. No way! So she came and we sat down with her in the back and so many people came in! Almost every less active we have been visiting regularly came. They just kept filing in and my eyes got wider and wider. Then! Trish and Callieblue walked in too! Trish also defended the church as well, she seems a little more wary about being a member but her daughter loves it. Her heart will continue to soften. We had 3 investigators at church! Then the Elders had 3 as well! It was a great Sunday! And Fasting is just great too! If I was capable I would totally do a 40 day fast because I can't imagine the blessings you would receive and power from the atonement. Anyways, after sacrament meeting I asked Tina if she had any questions and she asked "Was it okay for me to take the sacrament before my baptism?" Yes! All I focused on that was her talking about her baptism! So good! She is just doing incredible. 

I just want to end there! I guess I shouldn't have started with that but too late. In my district we have 3 Elders going home at the end of the transfer. So they are all just working hard and doing their best. We had a really, I wouldn't say heated, passionate maybe, discussion on how we can help the members with missionary work. We hashed a lot of things out and now we have a plan to go to every house on our ward list, talk about it and personally invite them to a fireside in April. It's going to be a lot but if we do it right I know we will see lots of blessings.

Our whole Zone is working hard to prepare for the apostle to come. We are working hard. Our Stake President set a goal of 70 baptisms this year so our mission president is really pushing us. It's so weird to be in Milwaukee in the center of all the mission stuff. The mission office is in our area which is strange. If we ever need Book of Mormons we just go and pick them up.

We had a crazy Friday and Saturday. Appointment after appointment. We were running from place to place. We met with our neighbor Vitahlese. He and his wife are from Africa. He taught us more than we taught him. He just went through the bible and kept asking do you believe this? Do you believe this? He basically pulled the law of chastity out of some verses and asked if we believed in that too. Yes, yes we do. It was crazy, he said he didn't study the Bible a lot but he was pulling stuff out right and left. They invited us over for lunch next Sunday and we will see how he accepts the Book of Mormon, because if he does he would be the most rock solid member ever. 

I can't even tell you how inspired your letters were this week! They were just what I needed! I just love you guys so much! This week I was reading the story of Abinadi and I realized how harsh his message would have been taken by the people of King Noah. He had quite the task given to him. But he did it! 100%! I think it is so neat that God could trust him enough to not shrink at the task he had to do. I hope I can live in that way. As our Zone Leaders said to us, #zoneofAbinadis :)

​Surprise! It's official!

I hope you all have a fantabulous week and stay warm! March is here!

I love you more than all the hot chocolate in the world!

Anne Goes Double Digits

Dear Family!

Wow! Life sounds so crazy! It sounds like you are doing great work as relief society president! Busy busy busy though! I guess you won't ever get to go with dad to byu-i. I am glad you had a kid to sit with in church though. This week has been great. I finally had the courage to start the Book of Mormon in ASL. It seemed like just a big task! 17 discs and 60 hours! But I did! It is incredible! I understand a lot more than I thought I could. 

We have a wonderful investigator named Tina, she is so sweet. She told us that she had read a little bit of the Book of Mormon, later we found out that little bit is clear through 2 Nephi. 2 Nephi! Can you believe that! She read the whole thing and loved it! She even marked passages. We were in shock! She is just doing great! We just have the struggle of getting her to church! Isn't that always the problem. We have some great recent converts and less actives we are working with though that ARE coming to church! It is kind of incredible! This being Sister Caramia's first ward, she sometimes get upset or frustrated that more people aren't coming but oh boy! It is quite miraculous. We really have a good ward. Almost everyone is a convert in this ward. 

Sister Caramia randomly turned to me in the middle of language study and asked "How you say 'I would like to order a hamburger" I about died! It was just like the Pink Panther! I explained to her why I was laughing and we sat there staring at each other going back and forth with the whole "er" "or". It was just like the movie. Hamburger! :)

This week has just been all over the place. I can't believe that it is Monday again. We have been so busy yet I have no idea what we have been doing! Isn't that a conundrum! Sundays are always the craziest. We had 2 investigators at church and a lot of less actives! It was fantastic! But it is always a frantic Sunday taking care of everyone! Sunday night we were in charge of a BYD about the Book of Mormon and missionary work. That was fun! I drew the Book of Mormon map to help the youth explain the Book of Mormon to their friends. Then we had them do role plays, which of course youth don't like because they are the worst but it was still fun. We made lots of cookies and treats for the activity. My peanut butter cookies were a hit. I will have to make them for you when I get home. I am pro. 

I got an awesome package from Harriet in the Sun Prairie ward this week. She made me cookie and sent gifts! It was so sweet of her! I just love her! She is the best! I can't believe I am in my 3rd area. Now when people ask me how long I have been out the say I don't have much time left! Yes I do! Almost half my mission! I am one of those missionaries that I saw when I first came out and just stared at with wide eyes. "You have been out for ten months?? I have only been out 10 days! How??" I love being a missionary. It is really fun especially here in Milwaukee. We are going to have to start riding the buses soon. That will totally be a different pace of missionary work. I am going to have to learn this area fast! 

I am so grateful for all of you! I love you so much! Thanks for all the love and support! This is the Lord's work and he has a great plan!

Love you more than I wish it was warmer!

Anne

Coraggio! Mama Mia!

Dear Famiglia!

Oh boy! This was an exciting week! Wow! I don't even know where to begin! This will probably be all over the place! I will start with my new companion because she is probably the best part. Sister Caramia is the nicest human being I have ever met. She is a missionary from temple square and is just here on her outbound mission. She is from Italy! It is crazy! We have language study everyday and I am helping her learn English! She is really good at English but has a heavy accent that everyone loves, I think it helps us because more people want to talk to her. It is a great conversation starter. She is so wonderful! She loves EVERYBODY! I think her most common phrase is, "So, so, so happy!" She loves chocolate, as do I, we work well together. She absolutely loves you already mom! I tell her what you made, or sent, or did for me and she always says, "I want to know your mama! She sounds so wonderful!" I have been thinking in an Italian accent though! Every time I introduce myself to people I start talking funny and then they think I am foreign too! She is 23 years old and she is a nurse! And just the best! But she has only been here for 3 weeks so we are kind of starting over in this area.

West Allis. Wow. It is quite different. Technically it is the size of Janesville but it is like Janesville on steroids. We cover Milwaukee too. We actually live in Milwaukee. We cover up to the sketchy part of the city. That is city branch, we don't go there. But our ward is wonderful! Most of the people are converts and are just so friendly. We have a TON of less actives but they are great less actives if that makes sense. We have like 7 coming back to church which is incredible! They are amazing. The traffic here is crazy! Not always the traffic actually just the drivers. I think after this I will be able to drive almost anywhere. Usually this is a busing area. The sister before me hurt her ankle so they got a temporary car, we won't have it for long. I think they will let us keep it until it gets warmer because the mission office LOVES Sister Caramia! Everyone does, you can't help it. Then we will ride the buses. The mission office is in our area and we live really close to President Cutler. They go to the same building as us so I have already seen him 3 times since being here. It is crazy to be in the center of things. I haven't been here since my first day! Lots of memories! 

So back to my week. Tuesday I got my cavity filled! That was fun, my face was numb most of the day. It was ok though because the first appointment we had was with Kevin, so I don't have to talk. He promised to keep coming and I promised to keep learning sign language. Which is really perfect because now we have language study time. Most of it for Sister Caramia is filling out a booklet and I just correct it. So I have about 5 hours a week I can study sign language! We found a deaf church too so we know there are deaf people in the area! Also I finished packing. That was crazy. I really have NO idea how it worked, but somehow it did. This is probably the last time I have to worry about fitting everything because in the transfers, May 6th I can send all my winter stuff home and I will be in the safe zone. I don't think I will have to worry about it because Sister Caramia leaves in 1.5 transfers. So we will be together hopefully until she leaves and then I will introduce someone else to the area. So I don't think I have to worry. 

We left Tuesday night for Milwaukee because Sister Plante is training. We stayed at Sister Packer's apartment! It was crazy to see her again! It was like a dream! We got to stay at transfer point and eat with the new missionaries and the leaving ones. 25 left! Our mission is shrinking. It was great though! I finally get to see the couple missionaries, they seem so fun.

I love our new apartment. It used to be the Elders apartment so it has a pull-up bar and weights. It is a good size too! I will send pictures next week. It is just a fun apartment.

We have been just trying to get to know the people we are working with. Meeting investigators, less actives, potentials, members. The nice thing about both of us being new is we can use it as an excuse to meet people. It is even better with Sister Caramia because as soon as we introduce ourselves they like her accent and let us stay. 

We had a semi-less active member bring someone to church yesterday. The Elders informed us that he used to play for the Packers, oh boy were they excited and oh boy are they trying to let us teach him! That was pretty cool, he made good comments in Sunday School. We had a lot of people show up to church. This ward just rocks! They actually do their home and visiting teaching! It is the best thing ever! I think that makes the difference. We can actually get less actives to come because of that. 

The Elders gave us a referral for someone in our apartment building, we knocked and it wasn't who were looking for. It was a very nice African family that of course bonded with Sister Caramia and invited us over this week for African food. We are going to eat dinner with our neighbors! That is a dream! I have always wanted to know our neighbors better! We have a ton! There are 68 apartments in our building. It is crazy. A maze, you could get lost. We did! 

For Valentines a member had us over so Sister Caramia could make an Italian dinner for her son who was going to propose to his girlfriend that night. We ate SO much food that day! It was great! Mostly :) It was with the Capps actually! They are from Idaho Falls too! They were pretty excited to see me. There home had a big picture of the IF temple which made me feel at home.

We had so much happen this week I can't write about it all! I gotta save some stories for home! Sunday school we had a really good lesson about the creation. At the end we all said things we were grateful for that God created and I had an epiphany. Everything everyone said they were thankful for made them feel good, it made them feel happy! That is just a testament to me that Heavenly Fathers purpose really is to make us happy! He created all these wonderful things for our happiness! It is just all a testament and witness of his perfect love for us!

I love being a missionary! I love this gospel! I love my area! I love my apartment! I love my companion! She is the most wonderful Christ like person! And I love YOU! I love my family and friends! You guys rock!

I love you more than I wish we had your weather!

Anne

It's a New Day!

Dear Family,

Well now! Saturday we had bishop's breakfast and we were all waiting for the transfer text. Oh man it was nerve racking and everyone there was waiting for it. The dreaded news! I am leaving Janesville! I think the hardest wait is finding out where you are going. So needless to say we rushed to the library this morning to check our emails for the transfer board. Sister Plante is training a new missionary and I am going to West Allis! Which is actually where I had my first tracting experience on my mission! I will just be busy packing! And also saying goodbye to members. I really don't want to make it a huge ordeal so we are really just going to a few people's houses and most of them invited us over to feed us so it is perfect. It is always sad to say good bye but I am curious and excited about what new things West Allis will bring. 

So Monday night was awesome! We went tracting! And we picked a really cold night to do it! Haha! We didn't come to prepared either, we didn't layer up enough. So we decided to do one more house then go somewhere else. We knock on this door and a cute old lady with her walker comes to the door and introduces herself as catholic. She was very nice though and she said we could pray with her before we went. She then noticed Sister Plante did not have gloves on and told us to come in while she got her some gloves. She comes out with these awesome bedazzled gloves with rhinestone skulls and hearts. She took them and we prayed with her and figured this meant we were supposed to go the the end of the street because we were warm again! So that night we taught 4 lessons, gave 2 Books of Mormon away and got a new investigator. It was sahweet! I love tracting! 

 Tuesday we had interviews with the mission president, that was good! He is a great man and an inspired leader. Wednesday we had exchanges with the Madison sisters. I went to Madison for the day. It was a typical day. Most people cancelled on us. It was fun though! It is always fun to see different areas. Here in Janesville they had a good day finding people.

Friday we went and saw a less active in the ward. She just loves us and she made especially for me some pumpkin bread! Oh boy was it good! I love when we get homemade stuff! Which speaking of! I got the best package ever this week! Your valentine's day package! Homemade deliciousness inside. Mmmmmmm. The cookies were so good! I ate them fast just for you! Sister Plante loved the valentine's cookie. I forgot how heavenly they were! Yummy! I loved the shirt too! I must say I look pretty fine in it! 

Sunday was great! I was really worried Kevin wouldn't come because we didn't get a chance to see him this week and invite him. But he came! It was good! And the ward is starting to show off their signing skills! They are setting up multiple translators and just taking charge which is good since I am leaving. I was really worried about him but I think he will be in good hands. I told him he need to come now and have patience and the blessings will come. I always just give him the look, "you know what you need to do and you need to do it" With the raised eyebrows! It was good. I am seeing him one last time. The ward will take good care of him.

Well I don't really have much more to write about. It was a good week and now I am seeing miracles of packing. Everything is fitting somehow. I had no space last time and I might this time. How that works I don't know. In the words of one of my favorite people, "I guess it is a God thing"

I hope you have a great week! I am sad the ward is split. I will come back to different people. Change happens! We will change together. Me in West Allis and you with the Village People! ;) 

I love you more than your homemade cookies!

Anne

Where two or more gather in my name there am I in their midst

My Dear Family!

This week was interesting. It was a wonderful growing experience. It was hard, but those are the best weeks aren't they?

We will start with a funny story first. So Tuesday night we stopped home before our dinner appointment to grab our grubs for ward volleyball that night. So I am sitting on my bed and Sister Plante is in the hallway grabbing her clothes from the dryer. I can see her and we are just talking having a good conversation when all the sudden she stops talking. She is frozen looking up above the door....Oh no. Her nervous "Sister Trent..." Told it all. Spider. Not any spider but of monster proportions. I don't want to come out of the room because I would have to come within in to close of a distance to this spider. But I did, I ran out of the room and I glanced up and kept running. I didn't have to look at it long to know that I didn't want anything to do with that spider. I've killed spiders on my mission but I refuse when it's bigger than my fist. The body wasn't too big but it's legs. Oh my goodness. They just stretched on into the great expanse of eternity. I am almost shaking thinking about it. I got to hurry so I don't dwell on this! So she sat mesmerized by it and I sat out of sight not wanting to have anything to do with it. We discussed many ways to kill it. Every way. All we knew is we couldn't leave this thing in our house. Much yelling and screaming later we attacked. I came at it from the farthest angel I could with steady streams of Lysol to either drown it or move it so Sister Plante could reach it with the vacuum. The worst happened though! It fell!!!! I bet you can imagine the screams! Sister Plante found it and sucked it up! Oh it was terrible! It took us 40 minutes to kill this thing. So naturally we were late to dinner. We told them what happened and they sympathized with us and enjoyed the story. We haven't told the Elders though because I cannot imagine the pranks that would commence. 

So this week was just typical rough missionary life. Cancelled appointments, investigators falling apart and nothing going according to plan. Hope is not getting baptized anytime soon. I think she will it is just going to take a while, and that is ok. We had a lot of less active this work but I just felt gross. Just gloomy. It was bad. Then after a stressful Saturday morning and afternoon with little motivation Sister Plante and I had a well needed discussion about how terrible we were feeling. That is what companion inventories are meant to be. We were both frustrated and just not feeling it. So we went and got a frosty cancelled a couple less active appointments for the day and went tracting. It was the best thing. Not that we were successful tracting but we just needed to do it. It was good and we both feel a ton better now and are going tracting for an hour and a half tonight. Now that may not sound effective to most but we need it. We one investigator and just a ton of less actives. We have to find so we can teach. And we are going to find! 

So Sunday morning we are both just ready for church! It's fast Sunday and we get to go take the sacrament! We are all getting ready and excited when the phone rings. It's the bishop, church is cancelled. What?.. We were so, I don't know what we were because we just really didn't know what to do without church. We both needed it. Plus it is super bowlSunday so we were hoping we could get member appointments instead of tracting. We made plans to go street contacting but in a middle of a blizzard, no one would be out. We had no idea what to do. Plus we really wanted the sacrament. President gave us permission to gather somewhere with the Elders and take the sacrament. So we decided to go to the church after studies. So it was just the 6 of us and we had our own little meeting. It was so good. We sang an opening song, had a message, sacrament song and then had the sacrament. We sat for about 5 minutes after it was passed to just ponder and pray. I was brought back to a childhood memory. When I was little I used to think that during prayers that if you kept your eyes close angels would come. You couldn't open your eyes because they would disappear. Oh man, that is what it felt like. Angels were in the room, no one can prove me wrong because you can't see them if you open your eyes :) Just one of the best spiritual moments. The Spirit was so strong. All I could think of was the scripture when two or more are gathered in my name there I will be in their midst. Oh boy, and it was great for silence too! No other kids or people making a sound. Then we all got up and bore our testimonies. I can't even express to you how great that was. 6 ragged missionaries, we all look great but boy you could tell we had all just felt so worn down. But because of our Savior's sacrifice for us, because of his atonement, we were all able to be healed through that sacred sacrament that represented Christ's gift to us. It was just wonderful. It is wonderful. That is the atonement. He is there always to strengthen and uplift us. I am so glad we had that opportunity to still partake of the sacrament.

So there you have it. It really isn't that bad of weather I think. I don't think I will ever be satisfied with the winter. I think I just want to see what it can give me :) I just love snow and I think it needs more snow! We got like a foot. I don't think it was enough to cancel church but it was snowing all day and our ward is probably over an hour driving distance from one side to the other. I have fun playing in it! 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Tell grandpa and Liam Happy Birthday! I am just forgetting everyone's. Sorry, I will celebrate them eventually! I forget my own parent's birthdays. I only know my own, which is coming soon ;) Stay safe and warm! 

I love you more than I love having a warm car!

Anne

It's so fluffy I'm gonna die

Dear Family!

This week went by fast. Sister Plante and I plan on setting up our own flood cleaning company. We are getting really good at it. We do our service at "House of Mercy" which is a homeless shelter for women. Well we are sitting there all calmly when the residence start yelling that there is water leaking out of the city. So we ran upstairs and the toliet was overflowing and the upstairs was badly flooded. So we turned off the water and called the manager. Which she then told us the worst thing. To make the residence clean it up... Oh boy. They are nice people who live there but boy they have attitude. Of course they refused to do it. Water is still leaking from upstairs and started to ruin things so we go clean the big puddle upstairs so it wouldn't leak down stairs but we didn't clean downstairs. I don't know why we keep getting floods. I think I will forever own a shop vac. I need one. Everyone needs one! 

So we taught Hope again this week. It was a really good lesson. We got to answer a lot of her questions and answer some concerns. We retaught the Plan of Salvation. You could feel the Spirit. So we brought a member to come a couple days later and she wasn't there! It's always difficult going out with members. I feel fine with people reject me, but when we get rejected with a member I just feel so bad. So if you ever go out with missionaries, be ok with rejection! 

So we brought the Elders and a member to our lesson with Kevin, the deaf less active this week. It was a good lesson. I had this whole plan on the Anti-Nephi-Lehis because he talks about how hard it is to read the Book of Mormon because it isn't in his language. So I start telling the story and he already knew the whole story! And before he had claimed to never feel the spirit but he told us he does when he reads! I think I communicated just fine me feeling about that just with my face! Haha! He knows more then he has let on. I gave him a lot of looks and I am pretty sure in the lesson he was told at least 10 times to come to church. For some reason I can be super bold with him. Probably because of the language barrier. I have to say what I mean, plus half of it is facial expressions so I really just show my feelings :) I do feel like I am getting better at signing! I was able to translate for the 4 people we brought. The Elders and Sister Plante all asked for name signs. There is now only one Elder who hasn't met him and gotten a name sign and he is pretty jealous. But the best part is, Kevin came to church!!!!! Wahoo!! We were thrilled! And his interpreter showed up too! (sometimes she doesn't). There was a new family that spoke in sacrament meeting and she came down after and started signing to Kevin! Sister Brabocion, she surprised us all! She has a deaf sister! A lot of people came and talked to Kevin actually! It was good. Now he can't use the no friends excuse! I had to interpret in Sunday School though. That was interesting. We basically just ended up having our own lesson. The teacher, Brother Lebeck tried teasing me and asking me questions but I couldn't really talk I was just in the mode. The whole rest of the day I was just in a different world it felt like. My mind can't switch back and forth too fast! Anyways, there is that! Exciting stuff. 

I made a really good pizza this week. So I have made quite a few pizza rolls on my mission, but then I discovered I like pizza better and the dough for that is the same price. So I have been getting creative and I made THE pizza this week. I got the thin crust and I put Alfredo Sauce on it and chicken and 3 kinds of cheese. It was SO good!! I am a big fan, and quite brilliant! If you want yummy goodness too you should try it. Also Yoplait yogurt has a caramel coconut flavor. You need to try it. 

I had a really good study this week on the family proclamation. I was reading a line from it that just stuck out to me.
"Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities."

If a prophet of God is telling me what to do to have a successful family I want to do it! So I broke down each principle and wrote how I could apply that in my family or a family. It was really good. Plus it has kind of confirmed all that I have been studying in my priority studies. The gospel is true! 

Well I love you all lots! I hope your week is awesome! 

I love you more than I love my brilliant chicken alfredo pizza!

Anne

The work will go forward!

So this week started off not too swell, it's probably because it just was so good last week. But it's all good now. So we thought we would help Hope take baby steps and come to a church tour so we would feel comfortable. We set one up and invited her, she said yes. Then we got a text saying she couldn't and needed some time and a step back. Of course we are in shock and trying our best to stay optimistic. We waited a few days and went back. Turns out the Elders had shown up right after we had and she felt pushed. But she still wants to meet and come to church and get baptized! We are just going to have to slow down a notch. 

We have been having referrals just rain down on us though. I do not know what is going on. I love it, but it is crazy. We haven't been able to contact too many this week though. Some actually have jobs! We don't know how to deal with that. One we met, Elizabeth. She is quite the character. 

We played volleyball twice as a ward this week. It was super fun. There is nothing quite like a ward coming together. I just love the church. It is a great place to be. I made a once in a lifetime hit though! I hit the ball a little too hard and it went directly to the ceiling but ricocheted right into the net for a perfect swoosh! You could even hear the swoosh!

I really don't know what to write you about too much this week. We did a lot of less active work and contacting people we haven't seen in a while. Nothing extraordinary happened though during the week. 

Sunday though as I am sure you were all aware there was a big football game. Tracting would have been the worst idea in the world yesterday. But we really didn't have anything to do. We had 0 appointments. We went to church almost ready to beg invitations out of people. After church God just poured out the blessings. The members filled our whole day! We also had candy and cookies blessed upon us at church too! It was a blessed day! On our way to our first appointment I had the funny thought that this was God's way of protecting us, it would have been dangerous to go out :) The first house we went to fed us lunch little did we know though, they were having a Packer party. So we were just kind of put into the back room with some food and a puzzle. It was rather funny, we did get occasional visitors taking a break from the excitement of the game. Then we went to our ward mission leaders house and practiced a little signing until the Elders showed up and they played ping pong while we shared a spiritual thought. The bishop invited us to Clinton to have dinner with them. A nice steak dinner. He then asked us to visit a old lady who just moved into the ward and we went and saw Peter, the 32 year investigator. 

Gas here is 1.89! It's crazy! We filled our tank for $18! Then at the Kwik Trip they were selling divine $1 pork sandwiches. I felt like I was in the wrong decade! Since when were things cheap? That was funny! I also really enjoyed your letter mom! We have had quite the empty mailbox since Christmas. I am working on writing thank you notes for that. It is a slow process. I hope no expects a thank you before July! 

It was a good week even though I don't have too much to say about it. I have been learning a lot about prayer this week! It has been wonderful. If we put ourselves in the right mindset, are sincere and pray by the spirit it can be a wonderful communion with God. I am so thankful for prayer!

I love you all more than Wisconsin loves their precious Packers!

Anne