2/18/13

Annie’s Letter

"And from thence let my servants, Sidney Rigdon, Joseph Smith, Jun., and Oliver Cowdery,[and Annie] take their journey for Cincinnati;

So as you know I am in CINCINNATI! So now I have accomplished my goal of serving in Dayton, Columbus, and Cincinnati.

I'm excited to get your letters!

SO I am training again! And very excited about it! My new companion is Sister Bergeson from Boise Idaho and she is... 19 years old! How sweet is that!? She turns 20 on March 23. Man, I'm officially old. I'm in a different decade than my companion. haha. She is incredible. She is a very natural missionary. She is willing to work hard and just loves this work. I am very excited to get to work with and learn from her in the next months. Hopefully she'll learn something from me too. I'm glad you guys got that box and liked the pictures. I kind of miss them! haha. I'll just have to take lots more :-) Dad, sure you can send that movie to mormon.org. That would be fun. So Sister Bergeson and I were doubled into a new area! We are in Montgomery 2. There were already elders here (Elder Smuin and Elder Whiting) and they are the zone leaders. So now we have 2 sets of missionaries in this area! It presents an interesting challenge though. Typically when missionaries get doubled into an area they inherit the area book. But since the Elder's are still here... we didn't. So we got a map, a ward roster, and a blank area book and have been starting from scratch. The ward is super awesome though. This is the most missionary focused ward I have evern been in, on or off my mission. It's absolutely fantastic! We are working to get to know the ward and to find, teach and baptize! So we have had lots of time to find. My testimony has grown so much this week, I know that Heavenly Father really and truly blesses us as we are obedient to the things that He asks us to do. We prayed that we would be able to find a new investigator and that we would find someone that we would be able to take breakfast to. (Beacsue in this mission, we make breakfast for someone every Sunday to help them come to church). Saturday night rolled around, we tracted until 9:00 and the very last house that we knocked on was Jerry. He was very nice and we talked to him for just a couple of minutes and set up a time to come back next Friday. We asked if we could bring breakfast (and if he wanted to come to church, obviously) but his son had a basketball game on Sunday morning so he was not going to be able to go. So then we drove home. We had gotten 3 pretty solid potential investigators, return appointments with all of them for this week but no new investigators and no one to make breakfast for. So we were discussing what we were going to make for breakfast and who we were going to take it to because even though we didn't have any planned, WE WERE MAKING BREAKFAST! I do have a testimony of breakfast, I know it works. I know that sounds weird, but church attendance in this mission has just SKYROCKETED since we have started making breakfast every day. So we pulled into the apartment and got a phone call. It was Jerry. He didn't have a basketball game in the morning and so we were going back! Prayers answered! We had someone to make breakfast for! So Sunday morning we got up and made breakfast for Jerry! We had an awesome lesson. Unfortunately, he was not going to come to church that week but we were obedient and blessed. The Lord poured out miracles upon us! And we are so grateful! Last night we were texting another potential that we met on Saturday night, Kara. She feels like God is trying to tell her something. She told us that she wants to get closer to Him and wants to know how we are so close to Him. I was thinking about that during studies this morning. She is not the first person on my mission to comment on how close we are to God. It reminds me of James E. Faust's talk in October 2005 General Conference (which may be the best conference EVER!) about the Jerusalem Center and the "light" in the student's eyes. Sister Bergeson and I were talking about it and we determined that people can tell that about us because we have the Holy Ghost as our constant companion. How lucky are we! I am so grateful for that wonderful gift and for the opportunity that we have to share it with others. HOW GREAT IS MY CALLING! I think that may be the theme of my mission. I think that all the time! HOW GREAT IS MY CALLING! I love this work. I love my calling. I love my Father in Heaven and my brother and Savior, Jesus Christ. I have a testimony of the gospel. I know it is true. With every fiber of my being I KNOW it!

So a little about the ward. It is big and active! Which is awesome! They just got a new ward mission leader 2 weeks ago and they are just on fire! The ward missionaries are super on it! The Bishop, Biship Proudfoot, is from LONDON!, ENGLAND! SO he and his wife have awesome accents. Their kids have sadly lost theirs. This ward is very diverse. You have a lot of ethnicities and the economic situations are really diverse. You have the wealthiest of the wealthy and then not so wealthy people. All walks of life. It's really neat. The ward mission plan is exciting and is all based on inviting. Go buy Clayton Christensen's book "The Power of Everyday Missionaries" it's seriously amazing. I haven't read it, obviously, but the things I do know about it are just stellar. I want to read it when I get home. The part that I love, and really the only part that I know says:

Most of us fear failure. Once we have realized that we succeed as member missionaries when we invite people to learn and accept the truth, much of the fear that kept us from sharing the gospel vanishes. We gtive them the opportunity to exercise their free agency. Some will use that agency to accept the gospel and others will not, and that's fine. We succeed when we invite."

WE SUCCEED WHEN WE INVITE!

That is what missionary work is all about. Inviting people to come closer to Christ. So a challenge for all of you. Invite a nonmember, recent convert, or less active member to an activity, to church, or to the house for a family home evening or whatever. INVITE! DO IT! That is what the Lord expects us to do. Give people opportunities.

I love you guys and I hope you all have a great week! Keep up the good work! Thanks for all you do for me and Landon. We really appreciate your love and support. it means a lot. I am grateful to have such a wonderful family. Love you guys!!

Annie