Short Short, Oh-So-Short...

Monday, 13 March 2017

Dear family and friends,

Well, time keeps a-flyin'! I may have to make this email short...

One of our investigators that has been taught for a while now (before I came) has officially moved in with her boyfriend... I flipped the table when I found out ("flip the table" is a common missionary term to indicate that we are very upset)!

But besides that news... life is good! We had the amazing opportunity to attend the temple again this week! It was fantastic! Probably the best experience I've had. So touching and beautiful! :)

Copy-and-paste for y'all! (Sorry)

This week was jam-packed with appointments and things to do. I love keeping busy! And when we have the desire to follow the Spirit and trust in the Lord, He provides us with ways to fill our blank days. Our numbers may have been low, but our spirits were high as we trusted in Him! I am so thankful for this time to serve!

​We've been working hard and things are going well!

As a quick follow-up: How has it been for you to focus more on the Savior this past week? What are your experiences from applying the Savior's Atonement in your life?

My invitation to y'all this week is to STOP WORRYING! Give your worries to God. Remember that it's all in His hands. He will help you and He will guide you! Put your wholehearted trust in HPeachtreeim and remember that things will work out!​

Y'all are amazing. Keep smiling and remember that life is beautiful! I love y'all! :)

Pictures with my sweet sisters!  City and Sharpsburg :) We had an amazing time at the temple! :)

Soooooo...

Monday, 6 March 2017

Hello my dear family and friends,

...Okay, fine. I'll tell you! 

...

My hair has been chopped off. It's gone. About 12 inches of it. Now it's SHORT!

...Evidence to come.

And that wasn't even the beginning of what I was going to tell you! 

Guess what else?

We are teaching HIPPIES! Real, live, hippies! Ohhh yeahhh! :D

I'll tell you the miracle of how that came to be. ;)

​Yesterday, we had three back to back appointments​, and we had an awesome teamup with us! ​We were so excited for them! But all three fell through.​ But instead of getting discouraged and giving up, we kept going! We knew that there were a few potentials in the area, so we decided to go knock on their doors. Shortly ​there​after, we concluded a​ good​ lesson with​ our two new investigators (who happen to be the hippies I talked about earlier)​! They are so awesome and ​one of them, A​, has read parts of the Book of Mormon before and HE ASKED ​US ​for a copy! We hadn't even offered one yet! It was so awesome!!​ We are going to teach them this ​Wednesday, so please pray for them. They are amazing and have so much potential! We are so excited to teach them and help them come closer to Christ!

(Can you tell I'm in a good mood? ;))

Into a more spiritual note...

I've been thinking a lot about the Savior's hands lately. (Shout-out to Sister Leyba for that one!) He did so much for us. His hands were what lifted the weary, healed the blind, healed the ear that was cut off, broke the bread, and ultimately, were nailed to a cross. One of my favorite verses in the Book of Mormon says, "He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world, for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men to him." (2 Nephi 26:24)

Our Savior did everything FOR US. His hands did not injure. They did not abuse. They lifted. They carried. They healed. What our Savior did FOR US was out of a beautiful expression of His love. His sacrifice and the life that He lived was FOR US. He loves us. He wants us to turn to Him and apply His Atonement in our lives. 

Elder Bednar once said,

“Most of us clearly understand that the Atonement is for sinners. I am not so sure, however, that we know and understand that the Atonement is also for saints

​.​ 

… The Atonement provides help for us to overcome and avoid bad and to do and become good.

​...

It is … through the grace of the Lord that individuals … receive strength and assistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to [do]. … This grace is an enabling power …or heavenly help each of us desperately needs to qualify for ​[God's] ​kingdom.”

​This week, as you seek to become more like the Savior and be a better person, think about the Savior. That is my invitation to you. Apply His Atonement, His divine sacrifice, in your life. Repent. Stop rationalizing your behavior and turn to Him. He will bring you into His embrace and He will give you the comfort that you need. He will help you to overcome your weaknesses, your imperfections, and your frustrations. He will give you the strength you need to become like Him and ultimately return to our loving Father in heaven!

Keep smiling and remember that you are loved! 

Have a blessed week,​

Exchanges! With the Sharpsburg sisters!

​Oh hey, now you can know what my new companion looks like, haha! (sorry, the computer hasn't been letting me put pictures on it yet so I have to use Sister Dean's camera)

From left to right:

Me :)

Sister Dean (my new companion!)

Sister​ Maughan (from England!)

Sister Nelson (cute greenie!)

The sign outside our library! I absolutely love the South! :D

Check out this EPIC graffiti! We were out knocking and found it! SO COOL! The art is amazing! And there is more like it at the town square. We have a historic town square that is full of old buildings and alleys and it is so cool! I love it here!

You Can Be An Answer To Someone's Prayer!

Monday, 27 February 2017

Dear family and friends,

I completely procrastinated this letter today... Not because I don't like telling y'all about life as a "brownie" in the Georgia Atlanta mission, but because... LIFE IS CRAZY! haha :)

Anyways, we had a MIRACLE WEEK! I might have said that last week, but this week was even better! Every day is really busy and we do our best to talk with everyone, so it's hard to get trunky haha. ;)

​Here's a copy and paste for y'all. Just so y'all can catch a glimpse at our crazy, miracle-filled week!​ 

The Lord has been guiding us to those who need us. We have had several days this week where we have met people who needed prayers at that exact moment. All of them were struggling in some way or another with trials that recently occurred in their lives. I love how the Lord guides us to the right places at the right time! As long as we have been doing our best to follow the Spirit, we have found those who need us. :)

We went on exchanges with the Sharpsburg sisters on Friday,

​ and it was fantastic! T​

hey h

​ad​

 been struggling a bit with finding new investigators, so we centered our focus on finding. And because of our faith, the Lord again led us to those who needed us! (And we were able to have a fun time, too :))
Because I'm so new to the area, we almost got lost, but we stopped and prayed for guidance, and then the Spirit led us to a place we needed to go finding. We were blessed with two new investigators from it! :)

We followed up later in the week with them and one of them wants to be baptized! And when we finished the lesson with her, we were walking back to the car when we saw another woman outside painting and stopped to ask if she needed a prayer. She immediately said yes and opened up to us about how she was having a hard time with her family and really needed us at that moment! It was another powerful lesson and she was touched and wants us to come back!

​So y'all, as I've said before, life is beautiful. And we have the power to change lives. All we have to do it take the time to listen to the Spirit, and trust in the Lord's will. As we do so, the Lord guides us to those who need us.

My invitation to you this week is to be aware of those around you. Take the time while you're out and about to look up and appreciate God's children! Compliment someone, share a smile, and be happy. ​I promise that you will make someone's day and you might even answer someone's prayer!

Keep smiling, and have a blessed week. I love y'all!

...

Tuesday, 21 February 2017

Dear family and friends,

Well, I didn't really know what to title my email this time. My brain has basically exploded with new information to remember and new people to talk to and two different areas and a new companion and and and... Well, the list could go on haha. So my brain isn't working well enough to be creative right now...

Transfers came and went really quickly. I am now serving in TWO areas! Newnan and Summer Grove (we call it "double-covering" when we are over two areas). My new companion is Sister Dean. She's a twin, has red hair, and is really sweet! I am excited to serve here with her!

Guess what? MIRACLE! Sister Dean and I were talking about how we've seen a lot of tender mercies lately on our missions, but no miracles for a while. But then, Friday came along and the Lord decided to send us a MIRACLE! :)

​To explain, we ​

went to visit a referral which didn't end up working out. We were about to leave the apartment complex to try somewhere else, when we felt like we should stay. I kept denying the prompting (ugh the natural man in me really frustrates me sometimes...), but finally decided to say something. So we went knocking! :)After a few attempts, it was starting to get dark and we were again about to head back. But the Spirit told us to keep going. So this time we obeyed immediately. And within a few moments we met the most amazing family!!

A and L had both had an extremely hard day when we showed up. L had just been diagnosed with a seizure disorder that very morning, and her dad had been battling stage four cancer. They were both really stressed and needed the prayer. They welcomed us in and as we started talking, and shared Alma 7:11-12 with them. As we talked about the Book of Mormon, L commented that she had a copy of the Book of Mormon and that she had been meeting with missionaries in the past! The more we talked with them, the more excited they became and I could feel the Spirit leading the lesson. It was a powerful lesson and we are so excited to meet with them again! They are so golde​n​! A and L needed us at that very moment. And because we followed the Spirit's prompting, we were lead to them. I know that the Lord leads us to those who stand in need of it, and who are ready to receive the truth. :)

​Y'all, life is beautiful. God is good. ​:)

My invitation to y'all is to find joy in the journey. Start embracing life to the fullest and give God all you've got! I promise that as you do so, you will see life from a happier perspective. And most importantly, remember that "the greater our sorrow, the greater our capacity to feel joy" (Mormon Message, "The Refiner's Fire").

Keep smiling and have a blessed week!

I'm Such A Pile...

Monday, 13 February 2017

Dear family and friends,

This week was crazy! We had so many service opportunities, and then on top of it, we had a two-day visit to Peachtree City (two hours away from Snellville, center of the mission)! I am proud to say that my hands are blistered and my knees are bruised! ;)

Missionary slang! ;) Well, one of the words that we use to describe a missionary who is being lazy is a "Pile". Haha! We raked a yard that was loaded with leaves (in our beautiful 60+ degree weather haha), and decided it would be fun to be "piles". You'll see in the picture, haha. :D

This week we had a visit from Elder Maynes of the seventy! We had the amazing opportunity to attend two conferences that he spoke at! (Hence the two visits to Peachtree City.) All of the things he shared basically answered all the questions I have had lately, and they also helped me to see things from a different perspective. One of the biggest things I learned is to "filter". 

As missionaries, finding is one of the hardest things to do. Our mission president even said that finding is the work in missionary work. It can be extremely hard. And some missionaries spend most of their missions just finding! But the more we are out, working hard and seeking to find those who are prepared by the Lord to receive the gospel, the more we are helping the Lord to hasten His work. And the deeper our conversion becomes.

Filtering goes along with finding. Every day as we are out finding, we do our very best to find those who are prepared. When we find people who allow us into their home, we get excited and do our very best to keep them in our teaching pool for as long as we can, so that we don't have to go out and find nearly as much. (This is a general thing that happens to a lot of missionaries.) But the problem is, very frequently we end up wasting a lot of time doing this. Those who are prepared to accept the gospel will show it by keeping their commitments (such as attending church and reading the Book of Mormon). 

Filtering helps us to make sure we are keeping the honest seekers of truth in our teaching pool and "filtering out" those who aren't. (Hope that makes sense.)

We've found a lot more success as we've done this! Though it is hard to be finding constantly, it is so effective. And it doesn't mean that we just have to be out knocking doors all day. Sometimes it means just talking with everyone we see that day. :) The more we work, the more the Lord blesses us with mercies! :)

RAY OF SUNSHINE! 

-Cynthia was definitely a tender mercy for us, because we had been struggling to find investigators that were actually seeking the truth. She opened the door and immediately welcomed us in! And as we taught her the Restoration (on first contact!! :D), she had many questions and even told us that she had a copy of the Book of Mormon! She told us that she would read her book, and she was also excited to look up President Monson! It was an amazing lesson and we could feel that the Lord had prepared her for us. :)

Y'all, the gospel is true. Hard work brings miracles. 

My challenge for y'all is to do something for the Lord this week. Be hardworking and do your very best to achieve it. I promise that as you do so, you will feel closer to Him and you will see miracles in your life!

Keep smiling. Keep moving forward. Keep on keepin' on! Have a blessed week full of miracles! Y'all are amazing. :)

Beautiful Norris Lake :) We enjoyed a peaceful moment there, just sitting in silence and enjoying God's creations :)

#Immafaerieprincess

Spring is already here

Leyba's groundhog piles... ;)

Leyba Babe-a :D

Random fun stuffs :)

Bag of shame...

Pile selfie

40 Day Fast... Miracles Are Coming!

Monday, 6 February 2017

Dear family and friends,

Fasting brings miracles. I am a firm believer in that. As a district (all the missionaries from Snellville and Centerville), we decided to do a fast for our Bible Study that we started recently. And then, we all set to work to do our very best to help those miracles happen! (Well, we can't see miracles if we're just sitting doing nothing, right?)

Sister Leyba and I invited everyone to Bible Study. We kept it in our thoughts all the time. We even did our door approaches that way. Any time we knocked on a door, we invited people to Bible Study. 

Finally, when Bible Study came, we waited. We were blessed with an opportunity to do a church tour right before Bible Study for one of our investigators, Odell, and she enjoyed it. Then, people started arriving. People started coming in, more than we've ever had! We had a less-active family there, and another less-active sister. We also had Odell there, plus three other active members! It was amazing!

Fasting truly does bring miracles!

And now, the Snellville ward is starting a 40 Day Fast. Every day, for 40 days, members of the congregation will be fasting (not all at once of course). Sister Leyba made two awesome posters with the sign-up calendars on them! Everyone will be given an opportunity to fast for a day (or multiple days) on the calendar. It begins February 21st, and I am so excited to hear the miracles from it!

RAY OF SUNSHINE!

-We went knocking on Friday and met an AMAZING YSA! She is so cool! Her name is Nylah. We were sharing about the Plan of Salvation with her, and she was so excited about it! She said that that is exactly what she needed in her life. She told us that she had been searching for truth and she felt like we were going to help her!

Y'all, life is beautiful. :)

My commitment to y'all is to choose a day to fast with a sincere purpose. And then do it. And then write down the miracles that come from it! I know that they will come as you work for them!

Keep smiling,

Hastening and Bruised Knees

Monday, 30 January 2017

Dear family and friends,

This past week was so long I can barely even remember what happened. We had so much to do. Our days were all booked with different appointments and meetings. It was definitely a good week, ​and I've kept my knees bruised from it​!

​ (Prayer works, y'all!)​

I've seen a difference from when I am dedicated to the Lord versus when I am being more casual about my calling. Last week we were so busy with teaching appointments and situations that the Lord placed us in because we were dedicated to His work. I firmly believe that had we not recommitted ourselves to His work and doing His will, we would not have had nearly as much success. We have to show the Lord that we can be trusted. And as we do that, He will lead us to those whom He has prepared.

Something I've been focusing on lately is trusting in the Spirit. The Spirit is the one who will do the work. He is the one who will carry our words to the hearts of those we teach. The more I put my trust in the Spirit, the more I found that my words flowed naturally and I didn't have to worry about what to say next. It really is true that whatever we can't do, the Spirit will make up the difference. :)

​Well, y'all have probably heard by now, but​ the missionary daily schedule changed! And so did our key indicators (the goals we set each week)!  It was announced in a worldwide missionary broadcast that they were changing them. And wow, it is so much better! It's helped me to feel more confident in my work. I don't feel as stressed, because the schedule is more flexible and I don't have to worry nearly as much about being "exactly obedient" because it's easier to be obedient! :)

And I have always struggled with numbers my whole mission. Numbers just don't motivate me. It lifted a heavy burden off of my shoulders. Now I don't have to worry about getting so many Book of Mormons, so many Other Lessons, or so many whatevers. It is easier for me to just focus on the Spirit and letting God take the lead!

It's been a good week full of miracles. I'm excited to see where God takes us this week! :)

​My invitation to y'all is to make your prayers more meaningful. Talk to God. Tell Him everything. Keep a constant prayer in your heart. Thank Him for the little things. Take the time to listen to Him. He will answer. I know that to be true, for He is a loving God and I have experienced it for myself!​

​Y'all, God is good. Life is beautiful. Keep moving forward, keep your knees bruised, and keep on keepin' on! I love y'all!

Keep smiling,​

RAYS OF SUNSHINE (since so much has happened this week, haha)

-Two less actives came to church that normally don't! :)

-We are teaching an amazing family! And they're coming to Bible Study this week or next! And they had a friend with them for our last lesson so we're teaching her now and they're all on board! :D #Tendermercies

-WE ATE RUSSIAN FOOD! ...I don't think I like it... But it was still a cool experience! We are teaching another amazing family who is Russian and they invited us over for what we thought was a lesson and it turned into a whole meal with them! :) I love them, they are so sweet!

-We went to see a part-member family and ended up being an answer to their daughter's prayer (she's not a member)! She had been going through a really hard time with school and her friends. She opened up to us and told us that she had been talking to God lately instead of just reciting the Lord's Prayer, and she's been waiting for an answer. Her mom (non member) told her while we were there, "They could be your answer". It was so amazing! And now she wants to come to Bible Study, and they're warming up to us! :) God is so good!

PS Attached are pictures of the Russian dinner (And Abraham doing an accidental photo bomb) :)

Now this is what I call a "taste" of the South! :D

Zone Training--Wear Purple Day!

(The zone leaders texted us early that morning to wear purple, but I was already dressed and didn't care to change out of my comfy green shirt, haha. #ImmaRebel)