The Trunky life

(note: names have been changed)

For those of you who don't know what "trunky" means, it is referring to when a missionary is about to pack their trunks and go home. Usually it is used with a negative connotation when someone isn't focused. I'm not trunky at all and neither is S May. but I am definitely living the trunky life, sending home two people in a row. It's so hard not to make comments about it all the time. I always want to say "Can you believe you only have 3 weeks left on your mission??" etc. But I know that wouldn't be beneficial so I try not to say those things.

Great week again! We taught another 30 lessons and found a couple more investigators. But the best part of it was that we taught 12 lessons with a member present! That is my favorite key indicator by far. Member present lessons are the best way to get an investigator to progress. The most S M. and I had done before was 13 our last week in our previous area, so we have to try and top that again.

ON Monday all of our appointments cancelled. We had dinner with an investigator and they called sick and then everyone else cancelled. We had a member coming with us to 2 of our appointments and so since they cancelled we tried to visit a couple people. No one was home, we kept going from house to house until finally we went to visit a new investigator named Gary (not real name). He let us in and just like the first time we taught him, he made very clear that we "aren't going to save him" and he doesn't do religion. We sat down and began to teach him about the nature of God and the Restoration of Christ's gospel. It was hard to get past prophets because he kept telling us we were prophets but eventually he got the idea. The cool part of the lesson is that by the end of it, his heart was truly softened by the spirit. He wasn't trying to put up a fight and he just listened as the member we brought testified of the Book of Mormon. The spirit can change people!! Then we took the member to Valerie and taught her the plan of salvation. As we were leaving the member expressed what a wonderful experience she had. GO MEMBERS

Tuesday: So we have an investigator named Rhonda (60s) who has been meeting with missioanries for about a year. She has read all of the Bible, BOM, and D&C, believes it full heartedly and used to come to church weekly. Her only hold up is that she isn't married. A little while after I got to the area, her divorced was finalized so she would be able to marry her BF Courtney. When taht happened she just stopped coming to church. It has been a really touchy subject becasue I don't really know how to tell an older couple that has been divorced 3 times each, to get married. So we went into the lesson planning on reteaching the law of chastity and eternal marriage. I was sooooo nervous, I just didn't know how to tell them what they needed to do. As Sister May. said the opening prayer, I was saying a prayer in my own heart begging for the Spirit so I would be able to say the right thing. When it was my turn to talk I had a flood of thoughts enter and I testified to them that before they came here to the earth, they knew about everything they each would have to go through separately (many trials) but that they promised each other "It's okay, I'm going to find you and we will be able to live happily for all of eternity together. It will all be worth it."

Wed: Cici, the 15 year old girl we found last week, we taught her part of the Restoration with her best friend who is a member. It was kind of difficult because they weren't paying close attention so that is when having a member is counterproductive haha. But at the end he invited her to seminary and church all by himself so that was great! He said she came to seminary!

Thursday: We were on exchanges so I was in a different area. I wasn't feeling very well so it was hard because you have to be like 110% energy on exchanges. Sometimes they just wear me out. Actually all the time. This zone is harder because we have to do 2 a week since there are so many sisters. I realy do love getting to learn from all the other sisters though!

Friday: Weekly planning!!! Woot woot! Can you say party?? Then we did service at the Food bank with the Zone Leaders. That is always fun, the ZLs, who are also in our ward, think Siseter May. and I are ridiculous. They just laugh and shake their heads at us. The lady the runs the Food bank is always commenting "What is all this giggling about??" We have a great relationship with her, she really loves the missionaries.

That night we taught Valerie in a member's home about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.. She is so humble and excited to be baptized, we'll just see how the Word of Wisdom lesson goes tomorrow :/ But she is still set to be baptized next weekend!!

Saturday: We were on exchanges again and one of the spanish sisters came to our area with me. It was a SOLID day. We taught 8 lessons and 4 were member presents. One guy we taught the Restoration to on his doorstep. After that we were walking to another apartment and passed a group of 4 teenagers hanging out, they all looked like they were the kind who like to get themselves into trouble. We went over and shared a message with them outside. The 15 girl who was smoking said she was baptized Mormon and that her cousin is on a mission right now! So we found a less active. One of the girls had scars covering her arms and shared how terrible her life had been. It was somewhat difficult for them to believe in a loving Heavenly Father.

AHHH time is up. Mary and Sonny are still doing really well. They will be getting baptized the week after Valerie and they are being fellowshipped like crazy. Their neighbors the Jonses are starting to invite other members of the ward over for their lessons. We taught them the plan of salvation this week which was a sweet experience. They have been trying to have kids for 11 years and last year they finally got pregnant and ended up having a miscarriage. We were so happy to tell them "You will be able to live with your baby for all of eternity."

Sunday: Remember the teenage boy at the table last week? We went back and retaught the Restoration and invited them to be baptized March 29th and they said yes!

Good week!

Love you all so so much! This church is true and God loves you. Ask yourself, do I believe that through Christ I can be cleansed of my sins? Many people believe that that doctrine is true for others but don't truly believe it themselves.

Laughing out loud- all day, everyday!

(note: names have been changed) 

Another great week? yep, another great week!

I'm going to try and jam pack it into this email.

On Tuesday we were on exchanges and I was with a sister from Samoa, we came out the same day. We got an idea from some other STLs that before the exchange you have the sister you aren't exchanging with come into the car and say "OKay I'm about to spend a day with your companion. What should I watch out for? What does she need help with? what should I focus on?" It is so helpful! It's so much easier to pick up on their needs thoughout the day.

We taught a lesson to our investigators Jane (21) and Cindy (mom). At the end of the lesson Jane said, "You know I've been wondering about being baptized and getting my daughter baptized and then you guys showed up right after that. Isn't that funny?" It just shows how much God really does guide us. We found her because a month ago(?) we were going to an appointment and it was FREEZING outside (around 8 pm) but there was a guy outside scrapping his car. We offered to help and of course he said no but then I said, "We don't have an ice scraper, can we borrow yours?" So we scrapped our back window and then talked with him briefly. Later we were in the neighborhood, tried his house, and that's when we met Jane and Cindy!

Wednesday was Zone Conference and it was really cool, we had a lot of training on how to be more effective teachers and the mission totally caught on! Things have improved even within the week. S May (her Tongan companion three times) gave her departing testimony, I thought I would be sad but I really was just so proud to be her companion :) She is probably one of the most influential missionaries in the mission. Sometimes it's hard to be her companion just because it's easy to compare myself to her but she is humble and does a good job of boosting me up.

At ZC, President Toombs did a roleplay with his counselor and they were pretending to be missionaries planning and they said "I think we could get 10 lessons tomorrow" and all the missionaries looked at each other like "uhhhhh do they not know what missionary work is like? You don't get 10 lessons in one day" So we all chuckled a little like "silly President...." But the next day, We got 9 lessons! So close ;) At the beginning of the day it was kinda discouraging because we had planned for 4 member present lessons and they all cancelled. It was Thursday and we hadn't found any new investigators yet that week. I was only getting discouraged because I feel a lot of pressure from President, since he put us back together, I feel like he expects crazy miracles and success every week. I asked S May, "Are we allowed to have a bad week?" I wanted her to say, "yes of course, everyone has bad weeks!" But she said "Nope." Haha. The next house we tried was a potential (Donna) that we have been trying for 2 months. She was finally home and let us come in. We have been learning to always teach God's nature first, they need to understand that before they can understand the Restoration and the BOM. We testified to her and her husband about God and His love. We told them that He is her Father and that He has felt all of her pain and was there with them always. Donna's eyes were filled with tears as she listened to the Spirit. I walked out thankful that we didn't give up and that my companion had enough faith to know that we can see success every week.

Later that evening we found two more investigators from a lady that we had talked to outside a couple days earlier. We decided to see if she was home and she was! We taught her and her granddaughter.

Then after that we went to visit our investigator Yesi (was on date for baptism till she didn't come to church /:), while we were there, her two younger brothers joined in and said they would want to learn more so we ended up finding 6 investigators that day!

Saturday we were on exchanges again, I was with a Spanish sister who has been out for about 2 months. During her language study she helped me read the BOM in Spanish, she said I was pretty good! Thank goodness for living in Escondido and hearing the accent all the time ;) While we were planning the night before we included in our prayer "Heavenly Father, we are planning to see these people tomorrow, please prepare their hearts and help us find people to be baptized." In the morning we followed our plans and went to contact a referral a member gave us. Everytime we try we always try the apartment across the hall too. Neither of them have ever been home, but as we were knocking on the referral's neighbor a woman walks up the stairs carrying a 2 liter Dr Pepper and smoking a cigarette. I asked "Do you live here?? I love Dr Pepper!!" She let us come in, not to talk to her but she said we could talk to her daughter. Cici is 15 and she is going througha  really hard time. I'm pretty sure Cici sleeps on the couch. The entire lesson, we taught of God's nature and love, she would try to hold back her huge grin. Every now and then it would slip out as we told her "God has a plan for you. He is there for you to help you get through these trials" We asked how she felt and she said "I feel so comfortable." We asked, "have you been feeling that this whole time?" and she said "yes!" We testified that the feeling was the Holy Ghost telling her this message is true. We are coming back and bringing one of the Young Men who is her friend from school. I know that we would not have been at that apartment at the right time if we had not asked God to prepare these plans.

At the end of the day we had about an hour left and our appointment cancelled. We went to our scheduled backup and prayed "Please help us find those prepared to be baptized and help us know the opportunity when we see it" We tried a bunch of potentials in the complex and no one was answering so we went to try an investigator there. As we were walking we saw a boy sitting at a picnic table on his phone. I got teh distinct impression that that was who was put in our path. He started to walk away but we walk faster ;) His name is Andrew and he's 12 years old. He was really shy and didn't say much but we asked if we could walk with him to his apartment and pray with his family. He said yes so we went in and taught his mom and her boyfriend the message of the Restoration. The mom said she had mormon friends in highschool and they always broguht her to activities. (Thank you mormon friends from forever ago!)

On the way to exchange back Hermana Boston said "I don't want to leave!"

Sunday we had 3 investigators come to church. Valerie (I talked about her a couple weeks ago), went to a different ward because she can't make it to our time. She works Sunday and is trying to get it off so we told her in the mean time go to the other ward (which happens to be President Toombs's ward) He texted us letting us know that she was there and that he had a nice talk with her! She is set to be bpatized March 8th. Then our investigators Mary and Sonny came with their fellowshippers/neighbors. The ward was AWESOME everyone was talking to them and helping them feel loved. In our lesson that evening they said they felt so welcomed and they loved it! Melissa also showed us how she downloaded the scriptures on her phone! They will be getting bpatized March 15th.

Sorry this was so stinkin long, I just am sad you don't get to hear all the miracles we see every single day, literally. S May and I are still having the time of our lives. Did you know that I snort when I laugh? Well yeah, when I'm companions with S Mailau, I discover that. It's super embarrassing but it just makes me laugh harder. The Hansons who we live with call me "the giggle box." Their cleaning lady came down to our room while we were planning and said "I just wanted to say hi because your laughter fills the whole house!" haha oops...... I love you all so much and am tahnkful for your love and support. It helps me so much. I know without all of you I would not be enjoying my mission as much as I am.

Her Zone

A recent convert gave them the pillows for Valentine's Day

With a family she is teaching. Sad because her companion smashed a cupcake in her face

Love you!!!

Sister Knowlton

"baby it's cold outside!"

(names have been changed)

Miracle week! Well really, every week is a miracle week. That is one thing I love about being a missionary, I've learned to expect miracles. Mom, Dad, I am feeling a lot better. I was sick Tuesday and Wednesday but I couldn't stay in so we went out working anyways. It was hard because it was really really cold this week. S May kept telling me we should go home but I just couldn't do it and I know she didn't actually want to either. On Thursday I got a blessing from the Zone Leaders and it was so wonderful, I felt instatnly better. I think God knew that I wasn't going to take the time to rest and heal so He gave me extra help.

It is so great being back with S May (this is the third time that they are companions), we can laugh all day long but still feel the spirit and teach when the time comes. When we got out of our first teaching appointment she was like "yep, that's a familiar feeling." I was trying to describe what it's like when we are teaching and just came up with some analogies taht don't make sense: "It's like the room is filled we the spirit and we are just surfing on it! No, it's more like the spirit is in this flowy magical ball and it just gets tossed between us, the member, and the investigator." Does that make any sense? Probably not.

We found 9 new investigators this week. One evening our appointments cancelled so we prayed to know where to go. At around 8:40 we were driving to a LA, whenever I'm talking too much S May will jokingly turn the music up a little to hint she doesn't want to listen to me and I quickly turned it down and say "Shhh! I'm trying to listen to the spirit!" Then instantly we felt like we should go try a potential S West and I found. So we did, she opens the door and tells us that she was asleep and is sick but she let us come in and we shared a message with her about the nature of God and how He is her loving Heavenly Father. We'll be going back this week :)

The next morning we went to visit another potential and her 17 year old daughter answered. She let us come in and told us that she does not believe in God or a higher power, all she believes in is heaven and hell. (Don't ask me how that works). We shared a message with her and at the end invited her to say a prayer which she had never done before. It was such a sweet prayer, her heart was softened by the spirit and she prayed "Dear God, just let me know if you're there. I'm just wondering" We're going back tomorrow and bringing an 18 year old in the ward preparing for a mission :)

We had Missionary Leader Conference on Friday and oh my goodness I can't even tell you how many comments we got. When we walked in the APs just smiled and shook their heads.
"How are you two back together??"
"When I saw transfers I thought, now there's a dying wish"

"When we saw you two were together we screamed!"

"I did a little fist pump for you guys when I saw"

The best was President, "Who put you two back together? You don't know why I put you together because I haven't talked to you yet, but I'm going to have you train the whole mission" We still don't know what that means.... but hopefully he'll let us know this week.

Elder Best (my friend from BYU who is AP) came up and said "so do you want to know what went down when we were deciding transfers? President had said 'Nope, we are not putting them back together, I need them spread out.' so we had everyone transfered except we couldn't figure out where to put S May so President said 'Should we just do it?' " So that's the story of how we got put back together. And we are loving it :D

This mission is taking off. Everyone is getting really really good, with all this emphasis on planning for the past few trasnfers, the miracles are incredible. President Toombs will be getting released in July so he is at the end and he's just trying everything he can. It is so fun to be apart of this work at this time that it is hastening. We told the Ward Council yesterday, we really need help getting members at lessons because it can take up to 20 min of phone calls for just one member to come and we literally don't have time, we are teaching always. So the bishopric said, "So we need a new calling because the sisters are too busy!" Our ward is very supportive. Every member we take to lessons does a really good job witht he investigator. They all have wonderful testimonies. Mom and Dad, you both made comments about being in a new ward. I'm still in Roanoke (not the name), just finished my 2nd month here so yeah it is a little new but just in case you thought I got transferred again, I didn't :)

I love this work and I love the Savior. This week I have been really benefitting from the scripture Ether (actual name:))12:27. Often times it is very easy for me to feel inadequate and take note of the many many things I need to improve on but this scripture gives me so much comfort. I know that it's okay to have weaknesses because that is what makes us turn to the Savior. I know that He lives. I am grateful for the knowledge the Gospel gives me, that I will one day be able to see my Heavenly Father. His love is unconditional. He loves me when I'm keeping the commandments and He loves me even when I haven't done my best. That love is what makes me move everyday, He is the reason that I give this everything I have. People need to know their Savior and they will not come to that knowledge unless they read and pray about the BOM so go and share it! If you have the BOM in your life, you are accountable to make it known to the world.

Love always,

Sister Knowlton

Sister Knowlton and Sister May (not real name)