3 Great Events...Service, Easter and General Conference!

     Service was the name of the game this week!

Linda is moving next week to a house down the street, so we went over to help her pack up and get things organized.

Then we helped another family who will be moving later this month. We moved the little girl's room downstairs and packed up all the toys :)

The next day we painted a ceiling! Don't be fooled, it's not an easy job! But that wasn't the first time I have done it on my mission :)

       When we set goals at the beginning of the transfer, we were coming up with a plan on ways to achieve them and Hermana Fowers said, "Serve them!" and that is exactly what we have done. Every time that we are with a member, we are constantly looking for ways to serve and it has made all the difference. It has opened up doors that would have otherwise been closed. As a follow-up to all the service, we have been doing our best to express our gratitude to the members. A simple thank you can go a long way. Those 2 things (plus lots of team-ups due to having no car for the past 2 weeks....) have been the best tools for gaining the trust of the members.

       You members are incredible! You help us so much and even more than that, you are helping your friends and ultimately the Lord when you find one of His children to teach. 

Happy Easter everyone! We got Easter baskets from an adorable family in the ward. It was totally a surprise after our meal appointment with them! it made us feel so loved :) :) 

If you haven't seen it yet, watch the new video that the church just released titled, Because He Lives at helives.mormon.org. It will remind you of the true reason for Easter. And we have General Conference this weekend where we get to hear from our Prophet, Thomas S. Monson. Take the time this week to prepare yourself for the meeting. Take a sincere question and then expect to find an answer, because you will!

Razmatazz Rachel!

Her favorite word! "Razmatazz" popcorn!

Her emails this past week said a couple of things I have been thinking about this week, so I thought I'd include them:

We have been working with a Less-Active family in our ward who we have been struggling to really connect with. This past week we talked about how we need to become like Christ and strive to develop Christlike attributes, and then we gave them a worksheet to fill out as they studied and then chose a specific attribute to work on. The oldest daughter who is 19 really connected with it! She was even posting on Facebook about doing "homework from the missionaries.!" ha! And then the mother was at church on Sunday. We hope that this was a turning point for them in their activity in the church. Developing a Christlike attribute is really a form of repentance. We are acting on our faith and changing our life to become like the perfect example of our Savior. When we stick to the core doctrine and gospel of Jesus Christ, that is when people are most motivated to change.

Tori went home for her first time since being baptized. She was really nervous and didn't know how her family and preacher (who was also a father-figure to her) would take it. We have been receiving updates from her the past couple days and she is doing great. She had a 6-hour talk with her mom about it and it didn't end with any harsh feelings. Sunday she knew that her preacher's church conflicted with the time of sacrament meeting, but what a blessing that the churches were across the street from each other! So, even though she was scared to do it, she left her preacher's church and went to sacrament meeting and then went back after. She said that she found a wonderful family during sacrament meeting that helped her a lot. We are forever grateful for that family! Even though we don't know who they are, we are so thankful that they took Tori under their wing. They may never know how much good they did, but Heavenly Father orchestrated that perfectly. I don't know what happened, but I imagine that they noticed that she was new and simply went up and introduced themselves to her. Something as simple as that can go a long way.



Reading this experience of Tori, a brand-new member, reminded me that when someone we have never seen walks into church on any given Sunday, you don't know what their background is and what they need that day.  But if we reach out in love always to everyone, no matter what, our Heavenly Father will put people in our path who we can help. I hope and pray that I and my family can always be there for anyone who needs love, a smiling face and an invitation to sit with us when they come to church. It is so important.

Retainer Ruckus

We had a tender mercy today.  We got an email from Ken's Aunt Ruth on Sunday that Rachel's permanent retainer from after she gotten her braces off, was broken.  She had given her the name of a local orthodontist that her husband's kids had gone to, but we weren't sure how to handle the billing/getting her in for an appt., etc.  And we couldn't do much with it being the weekend.  
So, this morning (Monday), I started making phone calls and found out that this Dr. has several different offices in that area and are only in the Johnson City one close to her, every so often.  But they were there today!  When I talked to the receptionist and told her the situation, she said that they could fit her in, but only if she got there by 10 a.m. local time. And also, that next p-day (Monday) they would be in an office a ways away.  That was in a 1/2 hour!  So I quickly got an email together to her and Aunt Ruth hoping that one of them would get it right away.  But then, the internet stopped working on my computer for no reason, making it so the email wouldn't go through! Ken called his mom (at 6:30 a.m. her time!) and got his aunt's cell # so he could try and get a hold of her to talk to Rachel and hopefully they could go over right away.  It all worked out with divine intervention, and she got there right at 10!  Aunt Ruth was surprised because she later told us that it usually takes months to get into this orthodontist for an appt.  Heavenly Father loves His missionaries!  It turns out, it wasn't that it had just come loose, it was literally a broken wire.  It would have been pretty difficult for her to keep that in her mouth with it being broken!  Anyway, I felt the hand of the Lord in our lives today and feel very grateful.  Here is an excerpt from her email:

In a couple of days it will be exactly a year since I received my mission call. What an amazing day that was! :) and what a great year this has been! I absolutely love being a missionary and I continue to love it more and more each day. I love TN and know that this is where I am supposed to be. 

New companion this week! Hermana Kayla Fowers is from Farr West, Utah and just graduated this past summer. She is adorable and gets excited about the little aspects of missionary work. Helps me remember to not take things for granted. And she speaks Spanish! That has been a blast again. Nice to have someone to talk to and practice with :)

It's been a wild week, as transfer weeks always are. Had a lot of goodbyes and many hellos :)

But the missionary work rolls on!

Teaching at a dairy farm?? No idea...