Ariel meets Uriel

My saying this week has been: "Imma kill you like Moroni."

And here we go.

Monday consisted of: letter writing; dinner & Family Home Evening with the Otts (their daughter is on a mission, serving with Sister Bown, my MTC companion going to Poland!); & "Mama drama" as Elder Jarvis calls it. 

Tuesday: New missionary training. Lesson with investigator Sister Chase, who loves to talk! She claims herself as a "Prayer Warrior." Totally amazing. 

That night, we went to a Relief Society activity in the 26th ward so we could get to know the women. There were 4 stations: Halloween, soup & social, Health & wellness, & General Conference. We stayed at the stations with the food & the socializing.

Wednesday: Visiting teaching with 2 sisters. 

OYMing a man named URIEL. I told him, "That's like my name, but with an A!" and then forgot all about it. We gave him a Book of Mormon and I wrote him a note & signed it from the Sister missionaries, leaving him our phone number. So later we got a text from an unknown number saying: "Hi, is this Ariel?" I was a little spooked because I always go by "Sister Wall"... Then we got another text, saying it was Uriel! He was thanking us for the Book of Mormon! 

I have been a little sickly this week, but the elders have been so good. They got me a giant bottle of Nyquil, emphasizing that "A little bit of Nyquil is good, so a lot of Nyquil must be great!"

Thursday: Zone meeting. Elder Clark brought back the "Boulder" mentality from the SLC South mission! I was cheering! Sister Talbert was a little bit scared about me getting an extra boulder.. haha. 

Sister Talbert and I were not having any luck contacting referrals, so we said a prayer, asking Heavenly Father where we should go. We thought about a referral for this man named Bob and decided to visit. His dear, sweet wife let us in. She is an active member. They are an older couple. They are so cute. Bob is SO stubborn... But so am I!!! We talked to him about church and he told us that he's been to the primary programs to see his grandchildren. I asked if he's ever felt the Spirit there and he said No. I asked Why not and he answered, "Because I don't want to." hahah. I loveee him! I just love him to death and it seems crazy, but I have so much faith for him. I SEE HIM IN WHITE. I see him as he can become. We continued to talk to him and I opened up to Alma 32. We talked about a Seed of Faith and he agreed to let us come back!!

That night, we went to a RS/YW/Primary meeting with all of the leaders. They had separate meetings and they were all decorated so adorably. I can't get over how crafty everyone is! You would fit in here, mom!

Friday: Raking leaves for a woman with an amputated foot. Putting our investigator on DATE for BAPTISM! Lesson with Recent Convert, Jacob. We asked, "Where do you think we were before we were born?" His answer was: "Ohio!"

Biking up a mountain to our dinner appointment!

Taking a caramel apple with Seeds of Faith to Bob! My favorite.

Saturday: We met a 100-year-old man! It was his birthday.

We met a depressed lady from Uruguay, who loved us.

TSHERING'S BAPTISM! It was so so so so good! So great. So wonderful. I absolutely love her. She is sweet and sincere and humble. There were so many people who came to support her!

Sunday: Tshering's confirmation! 

Teaching Primary to be "Boulder!" Doing roleplays, introducing them to missionary moments, letting them hold our boulders and be BOLD!

Bob came to church! He saw us and said, "These are my girls!" Love him!

Our stake president came up to me and said, "I talked to your mission president. He said that there is one stake president who is really mad at me for stealing you away." 

I know there isn't much substance to this email, but I am not very motivated to type at the moment. I love this work. I love the Lord. I love being a missionary. I am so glad I get to be on my mission for 3 more years! (Feeling...hopeful). 

Back on Bikes!

My new trainee, Sister Talbert!

Always an adventure! Always a gongshow. So... I am serving in Holladay! I am training! And I am on a bike!

On bikes again! 

Wild things... But! I have never had a stronger testimony. I have never been more bold. And I have never been more fearless. This is great!

Tuesday was our transfer meeting. Everything is a blur and nothing ever stops moving! Tuesday was our first day in the area. We met the stake president and we had a lesson with two investigators. They are 2 young girls whose mom doesn't want them to be baptized.. I've had so many experiences with this! I've seen hearts soften and I've seen hearts crushed. It is all in the Lord's timing! I keep praying that we will be able to teach and baptize them though. They are the sweetest girls. 

Wednesday we had interviews with our mission president. We just chit-chatted and then I told him all is well and that was it! haha. I think he might have been expecting me to be more overwhelmed but I am feeling completely wonderful! That evening, we had a lesson with our aaammaazing investigator, who the elders had started teaching. She wasn't on date for baptism, so we taught her a lesson about faith and how it leads to action. She said that she could tell we had the Holy Ghost with us. She's my favvvoritee! I love herr! So.. we put her on date! Woo hoo! October 26th!

Thursday: Sister Talbert had many FIRSTs! First: district meeting, weekly planning, tracting, and OYMing! And.. we saw chickens.

Chickens

And... these boys sang to us! They were 12 and 14, I think, and their mom played the piano and they serenaded us. It was so cute.

Friday: Elder and Sister West from the mission office came to our apartment to deliver furniture. We called Elder Jarvis, our district leader, to help us carry the dresser and things. He showed up with Elder Claybrook, his companion, PLUS four other elders! Feeling... dramatic! It was a party. 

Help moving in

Sister Talbert and I don't have a car, so we walked all over our area, discovering each ward. Miles and miles of walking.

We had a lesson with a recent convert that the elders baptized. He is 9-years-old and he has autism and ADHD. We played gospel memory with him and as SOON as we finished, he left the room. He came back in 2 seconds later and said, "Why are you guys still here?" 

Saturday: We had meals with our landlady, Cessie. She's from Chile and she's so sweet. She made us lunch AND dinner! She has always lived alone, so she is loving our company! 

Landlady and Alana

In the afternoon, we went to TEMPLE SQUARE with Tshering, who is getting baptized next Saturday. I LOVE HER! The Spirit was so strong. We had the best sister missionaries. Their names were both Sister Lee! Well.. Sister Lee and Sister Li! They were both Asian. Tshering is from Bhutan. It's right below China and near India. It was so good for those two sisters to be our tour guides! (I paused when writing that, because I never wanted to be called a tour guide when I worked at the Family Tree!! Oh well!) 

Temple Square with Tshering (pronounced See-ring) 

Ohhh my goodness. The rest of the day was wild! Sister Talbert and I were walking down the street and there was a car stopped in front of us. I looked at the driver and she looked at me, and then I realized it was Sister Smith, the Relief Society president of the 8th ward in Wasatch! I ran up to her car and was yelling and jumping. I reached in her car and hugged her! She told me that her husband's chocolate shop was right in the plaza we were passing on our way home! I just LOVE them! We went inside and Brother Smith talked with us and gave us free chocolate and caramel apples. What a blessing to see a familiar face!

And then, we kept walking and a girl yelled out the window of a passing car, "Hi Sister Missionaries!" and then I saw her and she saw me and the car kept going but she was hanging out of the window looking at me and I said, "I know you!!" ..It was Claira Toronto, a Return Missionary who lives in Cottonwood! Such crazy things!

And THENNN, on the way home.. A bird pooped on Sister Talbert's head.  

Sunday: Meetings and meetings and meetings. Cessie, our landlady, told us that she is inactive and so we got her to come to church with us on Sunday! Woohoo! And then, we taught the Gospel Principles class. Tshering was there and another non-member who we are going to start teaching the lessons to! Woo hoo! 

Ohhh my goodness. Another funny thing. This return missionary spoke in the 3rd ward sacrament. So when we were teaching the 3rd ward sunday school class, this non-member turned to Sister Talbert and went on and on and on about how much she loved her talk! And about how the things that Sister Talbert said were so inspired and she knew that she said them for her! Sister Talbert (obviously) wasn't the one who gave the talk, so we were confused for a minute and then realized the lady mixed them up. I was trying SO hard not to laugh and Sister Talbert just sat there and nodded her head. 

That night, we had dinner with the stake president and his family.

Our stake president

Tshering came and we talked more about her baptism. She is SO prepared!!

 Lastly.. I want to say that I've been feeling like Moroni! The first one. Captain Moroni! Moroni 51: 15. He tells the people to defend their country or he will put them to death! haha. He is just so passionate and wants things the Lord's way! I think that my bishops scared of me... haha! I am going to motivate them to ACT. 

My testimony has exploded since I've been on my mission. I LOVE THIS WORK! I absolutely love the Book of Mormon. I love the Lord. If I love these people, I will do everything I can to share the gospel with them. And I do! 

I never want to lose this enthusiasm for missionary work. I never want to forget my love for this gospel. I feel like Alma in chapter 29. O that I were an angel! I just want to be bold and declare what I know and help everyone feel the Spirit... because it's so good. It's just so genuinely good and wonderful!

Nielson's

MUCH LOVE!

Christensen's

 Trees

Another transfer... and carmel apples!

We have transfers tomorrow. We just got a phone call from President Eberhardt a few minutes ago. Sister Kiser answered the phone. President likes to do small talk, which drives us CRAZY, because we always know something's up! ...Just tell us! So he asked for me. And then he buttered me up a little bit and I closed my ears and waited for the real news. He asked me to be a trainer again. I said, "Ohh brother!" and then "Yes, of course." So I will find out at the transfer meeting tomorrow who I will be with. We haven't gotten a phone call today telling us who is staying in the area and who is leaving. Sister Kiser was crying when I hung up the phone. We hugged for like 5 minutes! Ahhh. I just love my little baby.

My week at a glance...

Our numbers were absolutely dismal, but there are things we did that weren't represented by our key indicators. We had 8 active member lessons. We did several service activities. We worked a lot with the leadership of each ward. We taught a lot of less-actives. We asked for so many referrals!! Everything we've done has been in faith that eventually they will result in non-member lessons. We are doing what the prophet and apostles have suggested. We are the generation of missionaries and members. I am starting to realize what kind of changes we are facing. We are putting our faith forward, decreasing lessons with people who aren't progressing, and focusing on helping these members be missionaries. 

Tuesday: We had a lesson with a less-active boy this week. He was telling a story and said, "and then I came out... Do you know what that means?" and I said, "..Like you're homosexual?" and he said, "Yeah," and I said, "Yeah, of course we know what that means. We're not martians." We all laughed.

That night, we went to a Relief Society activity. They gathered things for a less-wealthy elementary school to make a Christmas shop so the kids could pick presents for their families. Nancy and Noelia were there. We had so much fun. I love those ladies! (You HAVE to meet them when you come, Mom!) There were tons of cool beads and string so we all made little bracelets for the shop.

Wednesday: We went on exchanges with the sister training leaders. Sister Matherian came to my area and Sister Kiser went to another sister's area. Sister M. and I are probably the WORST combination, but that's just because of our dietary restrictions. She can't have gluten or dairy, and I don't eat meat!

Exchanges with Sister Materian

But miraculously, both of our meals were edible! 

We had a lesson with Nancy. I LOVE HER! She's so funny. She was telling us about how when she was growing up, she had a pet goat named Becky. "Bbbbb-ecky".. She would let Becky ride in the back seat of her car with some straw. She would take Becky to the drive thru and buy her an icecream cone. And everyone would say, "Here come Nancy and Becky." hahahah

Carameled

That evening, we made caramel apples with the Young Women. They turned out really good! I made one for me, and one for Sister Kiser. We ended up taking them to district meeting and the elders ate all of them! 

John, who gave us each copies of "The Infinite Atonement"

I am running out of time, but this member we are working with bought Sister Kiser and I each a copy of this book called the Infinite Atonement! 

Oh! And! Sister Kiser and I spoke in 3 meetings on Sunday! 2 sacrament talks (I talked about Shane in mine!) and we spoke in Priesthood in front of the high priests and elders. After every single meeting, so many people came up and told us how great we were! I love being a missionary!

Everything will be different next week! Wish me luck! Love youuu!

Conference week!

I am emailing at a snail's pace today! So many things to say and I have no idea how to say them all! I will try to write about the most significant parts of my week! Here I go...

Tuesday: Sister Kiser and I went over to see the triplets of the woman we've been doing service for. They are so tiny! 

There was a no-show for our dinner appointment, so we went to Zupas for soup! It's been very cold, so we are always craving soup!

Sister Kiser and I made a positive/negative list about our lives and threw away the negatives. We taped the positives on our bathroom mirror and wrote some positive affirmations on our mirror. 

Encouraging notes on the mirror

Wednesday: We contacted a non-member with an LDS boyfriend. She was super sweet and said she is really busy but would let us come back if she has time. Well, later we got a text message (long story) from the other sisters, giving us the number of her boyfriend and saying he wanted to talk to us! He is convinced that this is the perfect time for her to take the lessons! We are so excited for her!

All week, we didn't have any dinner appointments, so we asked Sister Bennett if we could have dinner with her family. She is remodeling her house, but she made us dinner and we ate outside, just the three of us! So sweet.

That night, Bishop Haslam set up a teaching appointment with a LA woman and her non-member daughter. He taught a simple lesson about the Holy Ghost being our personal compass. We explained about the Liahona in the Book of Mormon and the bishop asked if she would like us to teach her so that she can be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. She said yes! 

Thursday: We have been reading the Adjusting to Missionary Life handbook and it suggested that we drink 6-12 cups of water a day! So we have accepted the challenge! That day, I drank 11 cups of water! 

We got a phone call from a non-member we scheduled a lesson with. We thought she was very uninterested and was calling to cancel, but she left a message on our phone, rescheduling with a specific day and time. What a pleasant surprise!

Friday: Service for the triplet family. Cleaning out and organizing their closet.. So satisfying!

That night, we found out one of our recent converts had an opposite-sex friend coming in from out of town and was going to let him stay at her house. Sister Kiser and I went over and schemed with the Christensens, her fellowship family. Eventually, we had to let her use her agency, but we had so much fun coming up with ideas to kick him out. Before we left, though, we took a picture of all of us and texted it to her saying, "We are thinking of you! We love you!" Brother Christensen wanted to add, "Have an appropriate evening," but his wife wouldn't let him. hahahha.

Saturday: We watched General Conference! SOOOO GOOOOOOD. I love the prophet. I love the apostles. I love the Lord. I love the gospel. The Spirit was so Strong. Ahh.

We watched the morning session with members and the afternoon session with our LA sister who likes for us to sing. Her LA son joined us. After it was over, we shared a spiritual thought and her son sang a hymn with us and then he said the closing prayer! Miracles!

Sister Kiser and I contacted a referral that evening and she opened up the door, SOO uninterested. She said, "Why are you here??" and we explained. After a minute, she was being such a stinkpot and I finally asked, "Why are you so wary of us?" I wanted to tell her to chill out, but I stopped myself. 

We were contacting a part-member family. The parents are less-active and have 2 non-member children, both age 10. We stop by occasionally, always greeted with excuses as to why it is not a good time. We are always told to call, which never follows through with an actual conversation. Saturday evening, we stopped by and the husband told us they were eating dinner. We left and an hour later, we returned, telling him that we just needed 15 minutes and that now was as good of a time as any other. Finally, he let us in! We had a brief, simple lesson with the children about prayer and the Holy Ghost. We asked if they would let us come back to teach them and bring the Holy Ghost with us; both children shouted, "Yes!" We are persistent sisters!

Sunday: We went to the sassy Passey's for the morning session of General Conference. We ate waffles for breakfast. So yum!

Sunday afternoon session of General Conference with Syd Morrow, Nancy, and Noelia

Then we went downtown to watch Conference with Syd Morrow and two of our recent converts, Nancy and Noelia. Well.. Here is what I wrote from the Conference center: "What an adventure! We are inside the Conference Center with Syd Morrow, Nancy, and Noelia. In the car on the way over, I gave Noelia and Sister Kiser their tickets and kept 3 with me. I don't know why, but I just did it! Well one ticket was lost (Sister Kiser's ticket) so Sister Kiser and I went back to the car to find it, but we couldn't. We said a prayer and began to walk back to the Conference Center. We saw Elder Gonzales and his companion from the South Mission. We told them what happened and asked them if they had an extra ticket, but they didn't. Then a couple at the stoplight with us gave us an extra ticket! Miracle."

Tickets

Much loveee!