Multi-Lingual Missionaries!

Jordan is preparing to be baptized May 30th! We are both slowly learning basic sign language so that we can communicate with him even when we don't have a translator. He is such an energetic, happy boy who loves sports. His understanding of the gospel comes in small steps, (but doesn't all of our understanding?) and teaching the gospel so simply can be a little bit of a challenge. It almost seems as though he has a built-in understanding of Jesus Christ though. His parents have taught him and we have taught him, but when we talk about Jesus, he just gets it and you can tell he understands it in his heart. We have learned a lot about becoming as a child as we have taught him. 

 A big focus this week has been on the temple. We are planning a temple trip for Tori, Linda, a returning family, another recent convert, Tina, and the YSA's! Baptism is great and an extremely necessary part of one's eternal progression, whether in this life or the next. It is also more likely that a person will stay active throughout his/her life if they go through the temple and make those additional covenants with God. Even if we already have, if we go regularly, it can greatly influence our spiritual growth and expedite change in our life. Starting these recent converts out by doing baptisms for the dead in the temple will, first off, get them to feel the spirit of the temple and then to look forward to the day that they can go in for themselves to make more covenants with God. 

Remember Jon that we were working with a couple of months ago?? He went to Utah, but things didn't end up working out. Which is actually an understatement. His life really took a hit from a whirlwind! But he is back in Tennessee for the summer. We are going to begin meeting with him again which we are all very excited about. It is interesting to see how the difficult events in his life could actually be springboards for progressing in the gospel. As long as he lets them become such. Some of the temptations that he had, have been removed. It is hard to have a dramatic lifestyle change, but if it helps him to better keep the commandments of God, then it is all for the better. 

Linda was able to go to the Family History lib. where her Home Teacher was able to set her up with an account and get her started! Each time we go over for a lesson, she shows us new family history that she found. She may have just found a new hobby ;) But It's true. Once you get started, it can be kind of addicting! ;) She is reading her scriptures everyday and is slowly getting her family involved with her. Because she is reading her scriptures daily, it brings a whole new spirit into the house and into her life. There have been other people that recognize it by saying, "Linda, you look really good lately." or "There is something different here than your old house." It is all the spirit. Living worthy of the spirit improves all areas of your life: physically, emotionally, spiritually, in every way. 

2,179 miles of Missionary Labor

Quick update on last pday. We went hiking with our Aunt Ruth (She is my aunt, but Hermana Fowers adopted the name and began calling her Aunt Bailey too :) ha!) up on Roan Mountain. We were literally hiking in a cloud. At times we couldn't tell if it was raining, or just incredibly humid, but that just added to the experience.

We hiked a part of the Appalachian trail and met 2 hikers who were hiking the whole thing! 2179 miles from Georgia to Maine. whew! Maybe one day when I have 6 months of my life to put on hold and a friend who is willing to hike it with me I'll take on that adventure ;) (Knowing Rachel, it won't surprise me at all when she actually does this!) It was neat to see that part of the area where we are serving and learn that it was there that the missionaries of long-ago walked and taught. Although, I am so glad we live in the city with cars and phones and (soon!) Ipads :) 

The Saturday before I came to Johnson City, there was a girl named Kricket who was scheduled to be baptized, but felt pushed and so she backed out. Since that time, we have been trying to get back into contact with her, but to no avail. This past week, she contacted us and told us that she was ready to come back into the church saying, "my life desperately needs it." We had our first lesson with her, and she has been through a lot! It truly is by the hand of God that she is investigating again. She is a friend of Tori and Sydney's and is involved with the YSA program here. She set a date to be baptized June 6th and will simply review the lessons until that point. 

There seems to be a recurring theme in Rachel's emails.  Because they are working really hard to be obedient, investigators and those wishing to return to church have been coming to them.  The Lord knows who is ready to embrace the gospel in their lives and He will put them in the path of members and missionaries who will open their mouths and invite.  Our responsibility is to be spiritually prepared all the time, and pray for those opportunities to come our way.  Having a missionary out is the most wonderful motivation of all!!  

 

They FINALLY got their car back, but it STILL was having problems, so they couldn't use it after all :(

The Future is Bright!

I'll start with the baptism first :) :) Linda made it! It has been a year of missionaries, and she is grateful for every one of them. I feel so blessed and privileged to have been with her in her final weeks before baptism and then for the actual ordinance. She said she was nervous, but very excited! It will be so good for her grandkids to have the gospel in their home now.

At one point, Hermana Fowers mentioned that it was the best day on her mission thus far!

 

Later that day, we found a Spanish investigator! Our first one for this area. We were at a YSA activity at the park, and stopped to talk to him. One of the YSA members served his mission Spanish-speaking, so he jumped right in and they are around the same age. Immediate fellowshipper! :)

At that same activity, we found a group of girls from Saudi Arabia who are at ETSU to learn English! I think they just wanted to practice their English with us, but we were happy to talk to them! They even fed us lunch! But we asked them all about their religion (Islam) and were able to connect on a couple different points.

We have had quite the variety of cultures and languages this week! There is a less-active family in the ward that has recently started coming back to church. They have a 9 yr. old son named Jordan who is deaf, but his parents want him to be baptized, and know why he is getting baptized. There is a sister in the neighboring ward who knows ASL and came with us for our first lesson with him. He was sooooo excited to talk to someone that could understand him! His parents are trying to learn, but since he learns mostly in school, it is hard for them to keep up. So this will make a huge difference for their family, and for him. We are going to try to learn a little bit so that we can talk to him, but we mostly will just teach and be translated.

I love you all and wish that I knew a better way to express that to you, but those words will have to suffice :) We feel the work hastening. It's exciting! Catch the wave! :) 

 

Bikes and Beekeeping!

Happy Easter with Family on a mission!  YEA!!

What a weekend this past one was! General Conference was INCREDIBLE!! I am sure that everyone looks forward to conference weekend, but for us missionaries, it is like gold! And not just one piece of gold, but a whole treasure chest full! Like the ones pirates find in the stories! Everything about it is just the best! Revelation for us and for our investigators as well as direction to go with the ward and the area. 
 

        Thomas S. Monson, Prophet and President of the

            Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

April 4th also marked a very special day for me. Exactly a year ago I went through the Bountiful temple to receive my endowment: 4/4/14! (That means this that I've been doing this blog for exactly 1 year too!  Wow!  I stuck with it!  A miracle :) 

As I reflected on that event I was overcome with gratitude for my Savior and His atonement, for those covenants I was able to make, for parents who prepared me well, and for the opportunity that I have to be a member of Jesus Christ's restored church. It's hard not having a temple in our mission, but one day, I know that there will be. And what a day that will be! The saints here deserve one and I want to play a part in making that happen. It also helped me to remember how important a goal the temple is for so many people we work with: essentially for everyone that we work with! 

 

Bountiful, UT Temple where Rachel received her endowment 

                                          last year.  

Nashville, TN Temple, her mission temple district (I think:))

Above: An adventure!  Below: I think these are Linda's grandkids.  She is getting baptized this Sat. 

                                                               

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...