Week 75: October 30: No letter.

This week we spent time going back and forth emailing Erin as she registered for winter semester at school.  We are excited that she is returning so soon that we need to worry about classes!  She also had a friend reach out to her that had a sibling die in a car accident and Erin needed help writing the friend and she her time doing that.  She ran out of time for a weekly email but she was doing lots of good in her life and for others.

Week 74: October 23: WE’RE STAYING TOGETHER!!! (Erin will be home at next transfer!)

Hey Hey

So lately we have been busy doing stuff on pdays and I have been trying to write longer group emails and, as a result, haven’t been able to write you individually. So...lo siento. But I’ll do my best today to get out some good emails.

After pday last week we had dinner with a member in the YSA named S and she took us to Spin! Pizza and it was way good. Their gelato was prime. After dinner we went to drop of a spanish bible and Book of Mormon to a lady in another ward who has a friend that wants to learn! He was at work though so we are going back on Wednesday night to teach him. After that we went to FHE and they built their own chariots out of cardboard and had to race around the gym, switching the person that was in the chariot ever lap. It looked way fun! We didn’t do it though cause dresses and running around don’t go super well together.

The AndersEn’s asked us to stop by on our way home so that they could give us something in preparation for transfers this past week and guess what it was.....a 25 lb bag of rice hahaha. Turns out that’s pretty much all he ate on his mission lol

We had a lesson with A on Tuesday and that went really well! We talked about the Restoration. We had a little puzzle of Jesus with us and talked about how when he came to the earth, one of the many things he did was establish His church. But, when he was crucified and his apostles were rejected, the church slowly changed and broke into a bunch of different pieces (like the different pieces of a puzzle, get it?). So people were lost and couldn’t get the whole picture but when God called Joseph Smith to be a prophet to restore the gospel, it was brought back without a missing piece. So cool and such a blessing to know. I think a lot of times we take for granted the knowledge that we have.

The past 2 lessons we stayed around for a little longer to do some crafts with A. She is super talented and cute and it has been fun to get to know her better and let share her talents with us (cause I am literally the worst at crafting).

We did service for Sister Dowling again and in return she made us apple juice and apple sauce from her juicer. Man, I want one of those things soo bad.

We had dinner with the bishop and his family and then afterwards his wife took us and M to the Historic Liberty Jail. It was seriously such a miracle that we finally got to go with her and she absolutely loved it!! She kept talking about how incredible it was to know that she was exactly where the prophet was years ago. She loved hearing about all the revelations that were received there and how it is a testament of Gods love.

Plus, sister Wimmer came in clutch on the drive home and was just like “M, we need your faith. When are you going to be baptized?” Way to go.

Oh and transfer calls came on Tuesday and WE’RE STAYING TOGETHER!!!

On the last day before transfers, we always have a zone get-together. So we met at the stake center at 8am to have a breakfast before doing studies. Super fun. I can’t believe how fast this past transfer flew by.

Even though neither of us got transferred, we still got to go to transfers cause we got a new car! Literally the best.

We finally got to actually meet with T!! He is doing awesome and actually is related to some of the members in our ward.

On Friday we got to meet with M and do some service for her! She was stressing because she has a haunted house in her basement and was supposed to open it up on Friday night but it wasn’t finished yet so we came over and helped her finish it! It was so much funnn!!!

Saturday was a little crazy because we were supposed to go to the Historic Liberty Jail with T (a recent convert) buuut we showed up to the members house and it took longer for the member to get ready so by the time we left we were already like 30 min late and then we had to go and pick up T and head to the jail and we got there with literally 15 min to spare before we had to be heading back to get to dinner on time. So we didn’t get to go on the tour but some other members from our ward had driven up with us in another car so T stayed with them and got to enjoy the tour... every day is an adventure lol.

We had a lesson with Y and D on Saturday night and that was crazy. They totally threw a curveball at us and Y told us that she doesn’t and wont believe that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith. She went on like this whole tangent about it and then didn’t come to church on sunday because she said she just felt like she wanted to be lazy. So if you could keep her in your prayers, that would be awesome.

I love you all lots ❤️❤️ thanks for sending me all those pics

Setting up for Halloween Haunted House in M's basement.

We made organic pumpkin cookies.  We also have a TON of pumpkin left so if you have
any good pumpkin recipes, send em my way por favor.

R and her blueberries.  But the blue on her face isn't actually the berries. She kissed a stamp.

M CAME TO THE HISTORIC LIBERTY JAIL!!!
It has literally taken a year to get her to come...and she LOVED it!

Zone breakfast b4 transfers

Reading N Driving

Free Donuts!

Making coffinssss

Prep for Halloween Party in M's basement. 

We are going to carve pumpkins!

Perfect pumpkin

Happy Harvest

Week 73: October 16, 2017: It was such a good week!!!

Hey Fam! So this week flew by.

Well, I already sent out pics and told you that we had a BBQ on Monday for pday but it was way fun! We all signed up to bring something and then went to a members home to grill and eat. Then we went to a nearby field where we played flag football.

Right near the end of pday, all the other missionaries had to leave except us and another set of elders so we volunteered to just go down the street to the McDonalds and finish emailing there. But guess what! There was a giant Greenwood sign right out front! So of course I took a pic with it :)

We have been thinking and praying a lot to know how we can make going to FHE have more of a purpose so we made a goal to talk with 3 new people cause we figured that since work in a YSA ward really only moves forward when you work through the members and get referrals. Well at the end of the night, one of them actually came up to us and asked us to have dinner with him and one of his non member friends! Such a huge miracle!

This week was really eventful though. On Tuesday we had MLC where a member of the 70 (Elder Echo Hawk) was there and he spoke to us and we had dinner with him and then Wednesday we got to have zone conference and hear from him, his wife, and president and sister Love. Both days were SOO GOOD!
In MLC he talked about how success is brought out by:
1. Knowing this is the work of the Savior Jesus Christ.
2. Having faith in the Lord. And letting Him become a part of me.
3. Being fiercely obedient. To the rules and to the Spirit.
4. Expecting miracles.

After MLC we went to the Websters (some members in our home ward that are so awesome) and we watched Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration with Yolanda and Daylan (some of our investigators). They loved it and Daylan was just begging to watch some more. He was like “can we do this every dayyy???” 

Then in Zone conference, one of my favorite quotes that he shared was from Elder Uchtdorf and says:

 “Faith is a principle of power. But that power

usually comes in a response to faith.

Some might say that baptisms are not determined

by the missionary because it is a moral choice that

every investigator must make. There is truth in that

statement, but there is also truth in this one: There is

a power that can cause things to happen that need

to happen. There is a spiritual force that can stir a

mortal soul toward the spiritual, motivating deeper

study into the Book of Mormon and more prayer

with real intent. Faith is a power, and it can cause

things to happen that need to happen. It can cause a

soul who is good but dormant to awaken to God."

Faith is something that everyone always talks about from like the first day in primary but I realized that it is one of those things that nobody really understands fully. It has been something that our mission president has really been pushing for us to study lately and it has been incredible. He wants us to have the faith to “see the end from the beginning”.

After zone conference we were just pumped up and ready to work. We had exchanges right after so Sister Sly and I (who I already was comps with in Kaw River) went back to KC1/Shawnee YSA to get work done. We had a lesson that night with Onna (I cant remember if I have told you about her yet) but she is incredible. We show up to the lesson and she’s like “ya, I’ve been reading! I hope you dont mind but I read a little more than you asked me to and now I’m in 1 Nephi 8”. She went on to tell us the whole story of Lehis dream and the meaning behind it and how she could apply it to her life...man, i love being a missionary. The spirit was so strong in her lesson and she is just killing it.

Not only did we have a member of the 70 come out this week but we had 2 people from SLC that came out to do a mission tour from Thursday to Monday morning. So we took out one of them with us on thursday night and she came to all of our appointments. It was so cool to have her there with us and our lessons all went so well! We met with C (who is literally incredible). She has been watching conference off of the gospel library app and reading and praying daily, plus she was reading a little extra in the gospel library app from the teachings of president hinckley and wrote a whole bunch about it and what she learned. She is doing great!

We taught A that night with J (the lady from SLC) that night too and neither her or Sis Bench speak spanish but they did their best to help me out. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and had her draw pictures of each one. She said that she has been reading and praying every night! And she is literally the cutest girl. And she is extremely shy but she is totally warmed up to us now and lessons are so fun!

On Sunday one of our lessons fell through so we decided to stop by M’s (another investigator) and it was perfect! We ended up watching Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration with her as well and it was so fun to just watch her face as we watched it. She was just eating it up. And afterwards she was like “How come y’all didn’t show me this earlier!? That was so good!” She has been being taught by missionaries for over a year and finally has a testimony of the prophet Joseph smith and the Book of Mormon. She has been reading it daily and knows that its true!

Well, I think that I have written sufficient for this week even though I could go on and on. It was such a good week! I love and miss you all :)))

Greenwood!

Becca and James with their prayer rocks

Becca and James with their prayer rocks.

Hermana Greenwood (aka Maddie)

Hermana Greenwood (aka Maddie)

Missionaries that have all served in Kaw River

Exchanges with Sister Pyne and Sister Sly

Exchanges with Sister Pyne and Sister Sly

Exchanges with Sister Pyne and Sister Sly

A man at panera gave us a free cookie-pure joy.

We went to Liberty Jail with Liz

For those of you that dont know, missionaries always try to find

the pull through spots so that their comp doesn’t have to back them

out. Well I literally got the work luck and chose the only spot in the

whole parking lot that the car didn’t leave. Dang...

Elder Echo Hawk

ARIELLE GOT BAPTIZEDD! I taught her in my last are (liberty 1st)

and she just got baptized on Saturday and confirmed a member of the

church on sunday! I was so glad that I got to go back, she is so

sweet!! She is engaged to a member and they are getting married in

like 4 days! So excited for her!

Arielle's baptism!

Week 72: October 9, 2017: Things are good here!

The week started out with exchanges! I was here in KC1/YSA with Sister Murphy and that was so great! We had a lesson that morning with a new investigator named O. Sister Murphy was really good at loving her and making her feel comfortable. She has such a strong testimony and is a powerful missionary. Then, we felt prompted to try another potential that was referred to us from the Raytown sisters. We went and when we knocked on the door but nobody was home. So we walked away, talked to the neighbor for a second and as we were getting into our car, he walked up to his house from the next street over! We ran over and talked to him and he is so prepared! I’m so grateful for the Lords guidance so that we can be in the right place at the right time.

We had a lesson with a lady named A and she is doing great! Her husband is in the Air Force and is in Germany right now. We taught her a little lesson and did some service for her! She has the cutest little girl named R and is pregnant with her second. She is an underwater photographer and literally the coolest person ever. Her husband is already Christian and getting baptized when he gets home from Germany and she literally grew up nothing about God so we are teaching her separate so she can understand better. But she is progressing really well!

Sister B got sick mid afternoon on Wednesday so we didn't get to do a whole bunch on both Wednesday or Thursday. Luckily Thursday is weekly planning day so we were going to be inside for most the day anyways. She couldn't even really walk to the bathroom without feeling like she was going to pass out. So she slept a lot and I studied a lot haha. It ended up being a really good day though!

This week, the sister that usually texts us about our dinners for the week accidentally told us the wrong family for one of the nights. So we contacted the family she told us (the Andersons) and they said it wasn’t them. But there is another family in our ward named Andersen so we thought that it could be them. It wasn’t them either but both families offered to feed us. We ended up choosing the Andersen’s and it was incredible. Turns out they are less active but want to come back!! We had a really good conversation with them! We all kinda talked about conversion stories and such. Bro Andersen brought up a good point that we will always be working to become more converted to the gospel. He said that its like a stock market graph (which I know barely anything about) but I do know that it is constantly changing. He said that every day we have to make the conscious decision to be a disciple of Christ and remind ourselves why we are doing it. Which made me think of Elder Bednar's talk from this conference when he said something like "don't forget where you are going and why you are running". We have to keep the eternal perspective. So cool. What made the night even better is that they want us to start teaching them lessons and stuff to help them get active and they invited us to do an FHE with some of their non member friends!! Then, at the end they were literally homies and basically sent us home with a Costco in our backseat ❤️ I love them so much! They fed us on Wednesday and then we had dinner with the AndersEn's again on Thursday (they really want to make sure you know that it's spelled with an e...). They are so fun! Literally had we not had the giant mix-up with which Anderson/Andersen we were supposed to eat with, we probably wouldn't have met them.

Y and D are doing great! S (Y's daughter) is now living with her aunt so we aren’t currently working with her anymore but we are going to try and set her up with missionaries there. Y and D are finally reading in the Book of Mormon!!! We read a Mosiah 4 with her the other day and she absolutely loved it! In the middle of reading it, she was like “oohhh this is juicy, I love it!” Haha

We had a great lesson with M this week too and she finally opened up to us about why she hasn’t been attending church. She said that she is just having a hard time leaving her friends at her old church because she feels like she is abandoning them. She shared her testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith with us. She said she knows she needs to be in the LDS church but she is just having a hard time taking that leap of faith. We fasted with her yesterday. The churches are at the same time so we feel that we may have her start coming every other sunday and really pray and fast that she will be able to notice the spirit more abundantly as she attends our church.

C B came to church this sunday and loved it! The lesson in gospel principles was on the Sabbath day and I think that was perfect for her. She commented in the lessons and everything. She has been reading in the Book of Mormon and keeping commitments!

Things are so good here! Thanks so much for the package mom! I loved it! And dad, I hope that you had a great birthday! I love and miss you so much. You are such a great example to me! I’m glad that you all had a great week!

Love you!

These pics are from the 2 nights that we ate with the Andersen’s and

all the food that they gave us! People are so sweet!

 This is Y rocking her Jesus shirt

 S had his birthday on Sunday so this was his birthday hat lol

(S is just a member of the YSA that is preparing to serve a

mission)

We had a BBQ as a zone today in a Members backyard and then played flag football and other sports.
So fun!!!

Our Happy Missionary

Week 71: October 2: Lots of photos of her week!

Exchanges with Sister Malm! We were feeding fish after dinner! It was so fun. She is a great missionary.

The family that we had dinner with had a really cool dog with 2 different colored eyes!

I was making breakfast and thought that this was just a fancy bowl with a cool layered design, lol, nope! So I ate oatmeal  out of 4 bowls! LOL

It was our investigators birthday so we baked her a cake and gave her the rest of the icing so that we wouldn't eat it all haha.

We watched part of conference at the church and part of it at a members home. IT WAS SO GOOD. I wish that I had more time to email today because I would talk on and on about all that I learned. One really cool thing happened though. I had been pondering about how I can make watching general conference a spiritual experience. I decided to write down 4ish questions before each conference and pray before each conference. Well guess what! Without fail, in each session, every single one of my questions was answered and it literally was incredible. I love how the spirit is the real teacher. I cant wait to go back and reread the talks!

I love my companion.

Sister Bench and I.

Oh btw: Y, S, and D watched all the sessions and loved it!! That was a huge miracle too!

The pest control aka "roach people" came to our apartment so we left them with a little library to choose from! They didn't take anything....but hey! At least we tried :)

While they were in our apartment, we were allowed to be there so we went out to a park to do studies and it felt SO GOOD. I may have gotten a little sunburned...

We met a really cool guy while we were studying though! We saw a guy sitting at a bench nearby so we went over to talk to him and turns out he was there because his daughter had been killed there a couple months earlier and he wanted to remember her. We sat down and started talking to him and he was literally the coolest guy ever. His name is D C aka "Duke Dawg". He's a rapper. He kept calling us "angels" and having us "hit" him so he could make sure that we were real lol. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said that he would read it and that he would love to keep meeting with us!
It was a miracle!

Visitor center with R and J

So every couple weeks our mission president holds a devotional for all

the recent converts in the mission where they can attend and share

their conversion stories and testimonies. Well, we went with R and

J and it was so good! They did a great job!