Monday, April 25, 2016

Week 40: OH OH WE'RE HALFWAY THERE

YO I HIT MY HALFWAY MARK THIS WEEK. WHAT IS LIFE. my adorable mother sent me a package with things cut in half and I almost died laughing haha she is the best. I can't believe I just hit my 9 month mark. Time is flying way too fast. its crazy.
So this week was AMAZING. I love love love my new companion, Sister Kastner. We have so much in common and we love being companions! We had a class together at byu and have tons of mutual friends so its CRAZY. I love her!!! She is so amazing and I'm learning so much from her!
This week was awesome. we did a ton of biking because the weather was prime and it was awesome! we got 6 new investigators which was a miracle and we got a new investigator and committed her to baptism which was soo exciting!! Things have just been great.
we also got to go drop one of our sisters off at the temple who was going home and so we got to go to the temple which was awesome but we didn't get to go inside :( but we got to take some pictures which was fun!
funny story of the week:
so Sister Kastner's first night. We live in the country in the middle of no where. so we're going to sleep and suddenly we hear this scratching on our window. and we're like oh crap. we're dead. there's a murderer outside our window. oh my gosh. so we're just like WHAT DO WE DO. and I'm like I don't want to look through the blinds because I don't want to see a face there, that would be terrifying. so finally sister kastner works up the courage to peek through the blinds and we look out and see a DEER has its face pressed against the glass. I felt like I was at the zoo. we just stood there for like 5 minutes and had a stare down with the deer. it was so funny haahhaha good times.
but that's about it from here. I was reading a talk this week and it was talking about the best way we can be an example is to make others want to have the goodness that we do. I love that that we can really be an example as we just strive to make goodness look good and fun. #cantlose
have a great week, be good, and be happy!
love you all!
sister tracy





Wednesday, April 20, 2016

week 39: never been more grateful for L.L. bean snow boots

Well seriously, I've never been more grateful in my life for L.L. bean snow boots. It snowed for like 36 hours straight, like a ton. and we got like 2 feet of snow with like 4-5 foot snow drifts. it was CRAZY. but it was fun! we got to go out and shovel lots of snow and tract in the snow and it was super fun! it was the craziest. but once again, I'm so grateful for snow boots. SHOUTOUT to my Grandmother for getting them for me for Christmas. I'm so thankful at times like this.
We did a photo scavenger hunt with our sisters this week for p day and that was really fun! And we did a TON of biking. because it was in the 70s and then the next day it was a blizzard. #crazycolorado but before it snowed we did.
So coolest experience ever this week.
So we picked up these amazing investigators, Richard and Diane last week! and so we went and taught them lesson 2: the plan of salvation with their neighbor who is a member and holy cow it was the most spiritual lesson ever. And it was amazing. And then we're at the end of the lesson and the whole lesson, I was praying to know if we should invite them to be baptized. So sister Fa'amausili closed the lesson and at that moment, I knew there was no doubt in my mind that I needed to invite them to be baptized so I just blurted it out and invited them to be baptized and they both said yes! And so they'll be baptized on May 14th! We were SO happy! And then they came to stake conference on sunday, which was awesome!
speaking of stake conference, we got a new stake presidency because our current stake president got called to the quorum of the 70 at general conference! so we had 3 members of the 70 at our stake conference and the stake presidency got reorganized! and the bishop of our ward is in the stake presidency now so now we're getting a new bishop! big changes but it's awesome! so it was an AMAZING stake conference.
It was such a great week for me and Sister Fa'amausili.
Well transfers are this week and I'm staying but sister Fa is leaving :( but I'm getting an awesome new companion and we'll continue to be STLs together! So it will be an awesome transfer!
I started reading the Old Testament this week and I love it so much!
in geneis 18:14 it says, "Is anything too hard for the Lord? and that struck me so hard. That is so true! nothing is too hard for the Lord, just do His will and it will all work out!!!
Hope you have a great week and stay warm! love you all!
sister tracy





Monday, April 11, 2016

Week 38: laughing for days #whatelseisnew

Well this week was AMAZING. I can't even begin to explain how awesome it was!!
First of all, we picked up 4 new investigators which was such a miracle!
One of them is a former investigator who doesn't have a belief in God but she wants to know that He is there. I've never taught someone who doesn't believe in God but I'm excited for the chance to do it and to show her and help her feel the love Heavenly Father has for her.
We tracted into the other 3 new investigators. We tracted so much this week and it was seriously so fun!! I loved it! We picked up this amazing couple and they have so much potential! It was awesome. they let us right in and let us teach them the restoration so it was awesome!
We had zone meeting this week and we gave trainings in 2 zones which is always fun! I gave a training on patience, which is definitely something that I can work on so it was probably inspired that I was asked to give a training on that. Actually it definitely was inspired haha
We started teaching a guy named Todd a couple weeks ago and taught him the first couple lessons and he came to church with us which was awesome but we had to pass him off to different missionaries. But he got baptized yesterday which was awesome and he invited us to come and give talks at his baptism! It was the greatest! He was so happy and so prepared. I love baptisms. You can just see the happiness on his face. God is so great.
Oh also we went on 2 exchanges this week which was fun! We did service at one of them where we got to paint old ladies' nails and serve them ice cream and it was sooo fun!
So some funny stories from this week:
1. we knock on this door when we were tracting. we hear a little boy inside say: "i'll get it! it's probably my friends!" and he opens the door and he sees us, his eyes get wide and then he hides inside the house haha it was the funniest thing ever #whycan'twebefriends?
2. we knock on another guy's door and he's like hey I've seen the book of Mormon play! and we were like hey, the book is way better than the play. do you want to read it? and he was like, nah, i'm not a reader. and so I flip open the book of Mormon where they have pictures at the front and i'm like "but hey, there are pictures in it!" and you could tell he was just stumped and he was just like ummm no thanks and closes the door. but it was so funny and I laughed for days.

one last thought:
"the distance between you and heaven is the distance between your knees and the ground." #boom. that's so great. God is so great and He always wants to hear from us and help us so pray on!
love you all, have a great week!
sister tracy





Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Week 37: how is life going so fast?

I feel like time is just flying! It's so crazy. I love being a missionary. Every day, I realize more and more how blessed I am to be out here serving the Lord. Its such a unique and life changing opportunity that I will forever be grateful for. Thank you so much for all of you who have helped me to get here and supported me through these last almost 9 months! I sure do love you all!

This week was AMAZING. I love those moments that are just like, wow, I just answered someone's prayer. We went and saw this cute older lady in our ward on Monday and she had been telling everyone that we were going to go see her Monday, which of course we had no idea and never told her we were coming so when we show up, she is just SO happy and it was the cutest.
We had a conference this week with all the sisters in the mission and that was so fun! We talked about small and simple things that bring great things to pass. Me and sister fa were in a fashion show ;) and then we gave a training on having faith in trails. and last of all, we did a special musical number and I got to play the VIOLIN. I borrowed one from a member and I've never been happier. so great.
So general conference this week. If you didn't watch it, go check it out on lds.org because is was probably the greatest thing that has ever happened. The Spirit was just so strong when we watched it all and I could truly just feel God's love for each and every one of His children. One of my favorite talks was by Elder Holland who really just emphasized that we need God in our life and He loves us so much. The first great commandment is to love God with all our heart, might, mind, and strength and the first great TRUTH of the gospel is that God loves US with all His heart, might, mind, and strength. That just hit me so hard. Remember how much God truly loves us!
I sure do love y'all! Be good and have a great week!