I Try To Be Grateful In Any Circumstance, But This Week It Was Easy!!

This week was full of miracles!! It seems that all the hard work we have been doing for the last couple transfers has started to pay off! 

First things first: transfer calls. As you can tell by how I am emailing on Monday, I'm still here in Casper with Sister Woodbury!! We are so excited to stay together for this holiday season! We know there's a reason we are staying together and we are expecting miracles!! We are so pumped!!! It was very unexpected, because I was in Minot for 9 months, then here for 7 1/2 months, then my last area for 3. How weird! But hey, whatever works! The crazy part of transfers is the elders that we share the ward with both got transferred out and not replaced, so we are now the solo missionaries in the Casper 4th ward!! Our area just doubled, so we are going to be VERY busy, but we're excited! Now we have absolutely no excuse to not be finding people and teaching a whole bunch! So we're going to make it happen!! 

We found 2 new investigators this week, which was AMAZING and so unexpected. The first one we found, Chantal, we found while trying to find a less active. We thought she was a Young Single Adult less active actually, but as we talked with her more, she asked us, "What church are you from?" We responded, "The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints". She responded with "I've never heard of that one before." We then asked, "Have you ever heard of Mormons before?" and she responded with something we don't hear very often, "No, I don't think so." So that was a nice surprise! She has an open mind with no weird misconceptions!!!! She has a little 3 year old girl, Tessa and Chantal really wants her to be able to go to Primary, so she is going to come to our ward but we are going to involve her in Young Single Adult activities (she's divorced, so technically she is young and single and an adult, but because of her child she's going to come to our family ward). We are really excited to work with her more! She really wants to build her relationship with her Heavenly Father, which is exactly what this gospel will do for her. :)

The other new investigator we found this week was Pete, and his story is nothing short of miraculous. Thursday, we were on pins and needles because we heard that transfer calls were going on, which was weird because they are usually on Saturdays, so while we were eating our lunch and our phone went off, naturally we freaked out a bit. But when we answered it, Pete identified himself and told us he had gone to the Stake Center and talked to some of the ladies in the Family History Center and they had given him our number to contact. (so at this point we thought he was a member because he used the term 'stake center') He said he wanted to look into our church and come to church a few times and meet with the missionaries. We were shocked! (so NO, NOT a member!!) But, excitedly, we set up a time to meet with him the next morning. The lesson was so powerful! He said he had never felt so good in his whole life as when we were teaching him. He's very receptive to the spirit and recognizes it, which a lot of investigators struggle with. We are SO excited to meet with him! We also met with him before church and had another powerful lesson with the same member that came with us the first time, and he loved church! Gospel Principles went REALLY deep yesterday, which was really frustrating, but he did pretty good with it. He's so solid and SO prepared, so we aren't too worried. I have never, in all my time as a missionary, had an investigator call me!! Talk about the tender mercies of the Lord!!! He's on date for January 3rd and we are confident he can make that. :) To picture what he looks like, just imagine an Italian Tony Stark, haha! So he is BOSS and I can't wait to meet with him again on Wednesday! Maybe he's the reason I got to stay in Casper!! :) 

We also taught Tracy twice this week as well, so we had a lot more lessons then we've had since I got to Casper, probably. So it feels AWESOME to be seeing our work DO something!!! She continues to be well. :) 

Sister Mower and I had an exchange this week, which was super fun! She is AWESOME! We had a nice, busy day as well!! As part of the day, we went to the salvation army to do some service, and we met this man who calls himself Little John. Now, Little John has a pretty cool story! He used to be on of the Hell's Angels (motorcycle gang, apparently), and he did some crazy stuff! When he was our age, he said he lived in Mexico for 5 years to get away from the Feds. Sketch!! He is in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most skull tattoos: over a thousand. Wow, right?? But now he is a leader in the Salvation Army church and loves God and has completely turned his lief around!!! Isn't that sweet?? There are cool people everywhere, even in Casper, WY! We also went and helped Deb, a less active, shovel her driveway and sidewalk, and that was awesome because she let us in to give us hot cocoa, so we were able to have a short lesson with her!!! Bawm!!! SO that was really cool. :) Sister MOwer is such a happy, bright person and she is a great teacher. SO it was a great exchange!!! Love her to pieces. :) 

We talked to Jessica this week again!!! Well, we actually texted with her last night, and she was totally more open to us and she misses us! She moved, which was good to find out, but she still lives in our ward, which means we are destined to teach her! Haha or, that's how we're taking it. :) We invited her to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional on the 7th (which, by the way, you should ALL be watching that!!) and our ward Christmas party, which is going to be a night in Jerusalem, so it'll be super spiritual and awesome!! And she said she will for sure get one of those days off work so she can come to one of them!! We were SO excited to be able to see her again soon!! We've missed her a lot. We sent her one of our Halloween cards last month, and she said she put it up on her nightstand!! What a cutie!! So we are super pumped about that!! 

Also, Sister Woodbury and I wrote a SWEET, BOSS, Thanksgiving Rap for the season that is below! I hope you enjoy and it gets you into the spirit of the season!! :)

We met with Chris this week and got to talk to her about patriarchal blessings, and that really touched her. It was a really powerful lesson and she recognized that as something that she really wants and needs right now. SO yesterday she talked with Bishop and got the go ahead to receive her patriarchal blessing! We are so stoked for her! 

We have 2 dinner appointments for Thanksgiving, so we will be well taken care of!! We are excited!! I'm honored to spend Sister Woodbury's one mission Thanksgiving with her. :) And, family, you'll get to meet her!!! How exciting is that!!! Haha so Sister Woodbury and I are going to start fasting now so we can fit all that food in on Thursday!! I can't wait!!! :) 

Well that's it, I think!! This week was amazing and we're super pumped for how awesome this one will be!! 

sister leslie.

Sister Woodbury and I with Emily, the super cute 11 year old that invited us to her Activity Days party!

Sister Bentley is dying! :(

Us and Elder Price and Elder Schneringer before they got transferred. We shared the ward with them. 

Elder Noble, Elder Edwards, Me and Sister Woodbury for the last time!

The Casper Zone Sisters before Sister Bentley left this morning, we're all wearing the scarfs she gave us. :)

Sister Mower and I on exchanges shoveling Deb's driveway!

Livin' In The Frozen Tundra

Yeah, the WYoming wind is pretty bad!! I will NOT miss the wind in Utah, no siree-bob!

This week was full of a lot of planning for Zone Training Meeting, and it took a while because we didn't have MLC (where we get a training on what to train the missionaries on), so we had to write our own training. And overall, I think it went very well! It ended up being a really cool experience for all the missionaries that opened themselves to feel the Spirit. There were a couple that we were disappointed in, but what can you do? People have their own agency!! So that was a fun week.  We made these sweet handouts for integrity evaluations and I attached them here so YOU can use them! You'll just have to change some of the wording to apply it to you. Watch this sweet conference highlight before evaluating yourself: https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-10-340-president-dieter-f-uchtdorf-highlights?category=october-2014-general-conference-highlights&lang=eng. It's the "Lord, Is It I?" One from President Uchtdorf. Enjoy! It is AWESOME!!!!!! 

Most importantly, Sister Woodbury got ATTACKED by a dog and got BIT!!!! What a jerk of a dog!!! The worst part was, we were at a members house decorating her kids' doors for their birthday!! So that was NOT fun, and awkward because the member may or may not be mad at us now. So that's not cool. But an interesting experience for suresies. We went to the doctor like 2 days later because we thought she's be fine, but a member freaked out when we said we hadn't been to the doctor, so we went 2 days later. We went to Dr. Babcock, who's in our ward and she's fine. :) No rabies or weird diseases for her! It was quite quite fun. Just another day in the life of a sister missionary. Never boring for sure! 

One of the girls we teach Home Primary to came to church this week!!! She only stayed for Sacrament meeting because she was exhausted but she still came! It was a miracle because we arranged for a member to bring her, but when that member got to church, Destiny wasn't with them and we were so bummed out!! We talked to the member and they were like, "She said her dad's going to bring her." Then we were SUPER bummed out because her dad is super less active and we had doubts that he would come. But then Destiny's GRANDMA brought her!!! And they both came for sacrament meeting and it was awesome. :) 

Wow. Literally NOTHING exciting happened this week! I'm trying real hard to think of something else to write about! 

Tracy continues to do well! She is going through a really hard financial spot right now and she's super stressed, but she's still making time for us to come over and to meet with us!! So that is awesome! She really does want to come to know for herself that these things are true, and she's for sure on the right path to finding that out! So we love her lots and she's super cool!

It got pretyy cold this week, down into the negatives (feels like home sweet home! NOT!) And I am very much out of the "aww, the negatives aren't too bad!" How on earth did I survive -60?! That is SOOOOOO cold! Haha I'm such a baby. I'm workin' on it though! I'll figure it out. Layer up time! I finally got some fall boots last week (it's about time!) so that makes it nice since it's still fall-ish. 

Haha here's a funny story in closing! Last P-Day, we were out from 10 until 6, and we were late for our dinner appointment and super stressed out and everything and we walk up to our front door to unlock it and it;s already open!! It had been open all day!! So it was about 30 degrees (or colder) in there (we could see our breath), and we had a little baby snow drift inside our house!!! Yeah, NOT what you want to come home to for sure!! So we made sure the door was closed and went off to our dinner appointment with the Kler's. They gave us some more blankies so we weren't cold! They're so nice! So now we are making SURE that our door is actually closed.  Haha Joy to the world. 

Yeah so that's pretty much it!! Life is great! Cold, but great! Missionary work is awesome. :) Have a great week everyone and i"ll talk to you next week!

Also, this Saturday is transfer calls, so please send all letters to the mission office to make sure I get them. If I don't email next Monday, I got transferred and will email as quick as I can. 

Loves and hugs,

sister leslie.

The cute signs we made with Sister Maddison last P-Day!

 ZTM planning week is pretty rough...and nap time for the STL's companion!

Zone Training Material Handout

Do You Want To Build A Snowman?

Yes, I know I've never seen that movie, but all the little girls have sung that and "LET IT GO!!!!!" A whole bunch so I have come to know a few things. And since it is snowy and blowy and cold outside,  I thought it was appropriate. :)

So! This week  was MUCH better!! We got in with our main investigator, Tracy, FINALLY and she came to church!! She's coming to the Relief Society activity on Tuesday as well and her daughter, Raina,  loved Primary! So it was an awesome week! Tracy has such a sincere desire to know for herself that these things are true, and it is so fun to work with someone who has that desire. It excites us to do more and better work to find others who also want to know for themselves our message is true! Ha,ha she has a pretty normal face though when she's processing things, so we don't really know how well she liked church, but if she has questions, she will for sure ask them. She's really good at that. And we love questions because then we know what we can do to help her more. :) So! She's awesome. :) 

This week we attended a funeral for a lady, Mindy, who volunteered at the same food pantry we did. It was at the Church of Christ, which is a non-denominational Christian Church, and it was different for sure. I hadn't ever been to a non-LDS funeral before. I didn't feel bad or anything, but I didn't feel the Spirit, which was sad because that is SO comforting, especially when you have lost someone so close to you. Mindy's parents were just sobbing uncontrollably, and it broke my heart. It gave me a whole new appreciation for the Plan of Salvation and how we KNOW where we go after we die. The minister who spoke said nice things, but I still didn't understand where he thought Mindy was. I can't imagine not knowing about the Plan of Salvation and losing a child or close family member. It gave me a whole new perspective about finding "those that will receive you", which is what I as a missionary am called to do. We're not asked to convert the whole world, just simply to find those that will receive us and whether or not they accept our message, is up to them. 

We got to watch Meet The Mormons this week and it was AWESOME! Very inspirational! We had a mini-Zone Conference with it as well, which was fun. President and Sister Anderson as well as the Assistants to the President came down and watched it with us, as well as did a short training, and President Anderson did interviews with us. It was super fun!!! If you haven't seen Meet The Mormons, if you're a member or not, GO Watch it!! NOW!

It got chilly this week! We woke up to snow and all sorts of slush everywhere today. So winter is officially here! Yaaaayyyy....haha it'll be fun! This is a great time for missionary work, because the holidays soften people's hearts and they are more open to receive the gospel. So I'm PUMPED to go find who we need to find! 

We also found some young single adult women who want to come tracting and finding with us, so that is AWESOME! We are excited to go on splits to get double the amount of work done in a time span! We've been praying to find some tracting splits women, because our ward isn't up for it yet. But! They'll get there. One of them got back from her mission not even a week ago, so it will be powerful to go with her. :) Bawm!!''

They cancelled MLC this month (that's where I was supposed to be right now actually) so we are just makingour own training for Zone Training Meeting this week. Fun stuff! The elders spice things up so it's never boring! And we bring the hot cocoa and blankets and our cute slippers. Bahaha it's always a great time!

We helped out at mission prep again yesterday and that was fun!! I love helping out pre-missionaries so they can start better than I did!! The world needs more powerful missionaries! Oh, and more sisters in the SDRCM. So sisters, get signing up! You won't regret it! (Unless your heart's not in it). 

 

Casper Zone Sisters

Sister Woodbury and I with the beautiful Sister Anderson

All the Casper Sisters and Sister Anderson

Sister Woodbury and I with our SWAG

A better quality shot of our halloween costumes

(the Fairy Princess Sister Missionaries) :)

 

The vehicle we drive

Uplifted By The Spirit

Well, howdy hey there!!

This week was pretty good and I'm pretty excited to tell you about it! Probably the best thing that happened this week was our Quad Zone Conference. We drove up on Rapid on Wednesday and got there around 7, then got back to Casper at about midnight on Thursday. SO it was a quick trip, but so worth it!! Elder Nash of the 70 came, and he is BOSS! He actually spoke in General Conference in the October 2012 session (go look it up, it's great!!), and he had some great insights for us missionaries! Before the conference started, we all got to meet Elder and Sister Nash (turns out they live in Centerville. Go figure!), and it was awesome because When I got my 30 seconds with Elder Nash, he looked me straight in the face and said, "You have a good spirit about you." And that made a big impact on me. I needed to hear that, and that made me happy. The things that were taught in the conference were SOLID! There was a big focus on having integrity, on finding, having the Spirit to be with you, and how to combat anti-Mormon material. It was awesome! Sister Woodbury and I thought that he was speaking directly to us and our area, so we got TONS of good ideas of how to help the people we are working with and also how to build our teaching pool. SO it was a HUGE blessing and buoyed us both up a lot! Sister Woodbury sang at this conference (I'll send a recording today as well) and it sounded great! It wasn't us singing, you could tell! SO it was a really powerful, spiritual experience. Elder nash and President Anderson couldn't stop complimenting us on it. Haha President was like, "I wish you parents could have heard that!! It was beautiful!" And then in our heads we were like, "Yeah, about that.....they'll get to hear it!" Haha so that was fun. I wish the conference would have been longer! But, it wasn't. Driving home was a bit rough because my brain is now trained to turn off at 10 and we were only halfway home by that point. So that was a bit rough. but we blasted music and made it okay. :) SO now in my studies I'm focusing a lot on Integrity and how to build the attributes we discussed at Zone Conference. So I am excited to learn more about how to find people, integrity and how to recognize the promptings of the Spirit in my life. It's going to make a big impact on me, I think. I invite you to study these topics as well! They apply to you and I the same! :)

The Winterton's came to church this week!!! it was a different experience for sure, because Sister Woodbury and I sat with them and helped entertain the boys ( I forgot how busy a 4 year old, 3 year old, 2 year old and 1 year old are at the same time!) It was a an awesome testimony meeting though! Brother Winterton even bore his testimony, which was powerful. :) Our ward is really starting to unify together. The Winterton boys LOVED Primary (except Gerald went with his dad to Priesthood instead), which was great! Logan was singing all the songs we taught him and we got to help in Young Women to talk about conversion, so it was a solid meeting! We also got hit on at church by a 55 year old man. But that's a story for another time. Haha

We're going over this week t help a less active stop smoking, so that will be a really powerful experience. So that will be awesome! We're excited for it. And we're going to start serving at the Salvation Army tomorrow to help get Christmas stuff all ready and good to go!

We had a real lesson with Gregg yesterday, and he's being pretty stubborn. We brought the Klers with us (it was even their anniversary and they came with us!! SOLID!) and it was a pretty good lesson. Not our best by any means, but okay. Now it's up to Gregg to accept the Book of Mormon or not. It's in his court. So, we'll check back in a couple weeks or so. 

Halloween wasn't too exciting. We went to the ward halloween party, and it was very short so we had to get creative. We went to a member's home for the last hour and a half of the night and passed out Mormon.org cards with the candy (he,he,he), but they only got 6 trick or treaters in that time, so it wasn't super effective. :( But the members LOVED our Halloween costumes! Haha they couldn't get over it. Just goes to show how simplicity is always better! 

We attended the baptism of  Dylan Deru, an 8 year old, this past Saturday and it was POWERFUL! His family is returning to activity and his dad was able to baptism him! The confirmation was probably the most powerful one I have ever heard, which was cool.  It just goes to show that these younger generations are powerful spirits meant to come to earth at this time to accomplish great things. 

Also, Daylight Savings Time was BEAUTIFUL!! I got a whole extra hour of sleep and it was glorious. And we get to watch Meet the Mormons this week!! President and Sister Anderson and the Assistants to the President will be coming to Casper the end of this week to show it to us. I am PUMPED! I'll be glad to know what everyone is talking about! For once, I'll be in the know on something!!!!!!! Haha I don't miss being in the know, though. Not really at all. 

I think that's a wrap! Have a great week everyone and I'll talk to ya later! 

sister leslie.

 

Driving to Rapid!!

At Quad Zone, some missionaries I came out with! Back L to R: E. Johnson, E. Dibble, E. Bench, E. Mobley, E. Deihl and E. Cloward. Middle L to R: E. Eastin, E. Beazer, E. Rohwer, E. Child, E. Anderson. Then that's me and Sister Alleman! Fun!

 S. Woodbury, Me, Elder Nash (of the 70), President Anderson, S. Edwards, S. Stebbing (my "Sister"), S. Kitchen and S. Mansell (I think that's her name). :) 

S. Woodbury and I at Quad Zone. :)

Fairy Princess Sister Missionaries!

 

Happy Haaaaalloowwwweeennnn!!!

So this isn't going to be long because I am not in a writing mood. But, I'm still writing!!

So halloween is this week and it's weird because everyone thinks I'm old because I was on my mission LAST Halloween. So I am old (according to mission life), but that's alright! I'm fine with it! Sister Woodbury and I are "dressing" up as Fairy Princess Sister Missionaries for the ward party on Halloween night, so we're pretty much just adding crowns and wings to our normal outfits. It's gonna be so cute! I'll send a pic next week. 

Our main fun story of the week was that we raked leaves for a less active, Deb, and her non-member fiance mostly in the dark because it's the wintertime now...joy. After we finished for the night, she was driving us home when all of a sudden this car FLEW by us going 90 or something (speed limit is 40), bounced off the curb, went airborne, through someone's fence and into a person's HOUSE! It was so crazy!! We pulled over and went to go talk to the driver, and he stumbled out, definitely on something and not okay, when he just booked it as fast as he could. So when the police and everyone got there, we got to make statements and give the police a description of the driver and a whole bunch of stuff! It was so adventurous for us! And awkward because we were in our jeans. haha when they asked Sister Woodbury for her name, she was like: "Sister Woodbury". The officer asked again, and she replied, "Sister Woodbury. As missionaries, we don't go by our first names." "Ma'am, I'm going to need your legal name." She then sighed and told him. Haha it was funny. One of the perks of being a missionary. Haha. It was quite funny. Gotta love it!

We went on exchanges with 6th ward sisters this week and I got to go with Sister Curley in their area, and it was SO fun! She is just so cute. :) We were able to teach 4 lessons in a DAY and I felt so successful and awesome!! Sister Woodbury and I made it a goal to get our area to that point. So we're going to WORK HARD!!! 

This week, we are going to Rapid City for a Quad-Zone conferences. 4 zones will be coming together in Rapid City and have a Zone Conference by Elder Nash of the 70!! We are PUMPED! Its a 4 hour drive, which will be fun. Sister Woodbury and I are driving by ourselves as elders and sisters can't drive together and the other 2 sets of sisters are driving together. So today, Sister Woodbury and I bought dessert skittles (didn't know they had such a thing) and gardettos and popcorn. We are SET! It's going to be awesome! So we'll be driving up Wednesday around 2 and getting back Thursday around 10:30/11pm-ish. So it'll be a short, fun trip! So that's super exciting. :) 

So I know that picture with the dead deer is DISGUSTING, but I'm in Wyoming, so what else could I have done?? Haha This is the member that 6th ward sisters live with (so Sister Jensen lived with them when she was in the Casper 6th ward prior to coming to Minot with me!) So enjoy it. And don't gag, because you didn't have to smell it. 

This week was a bit rough again, a lot of emotional ups and downs, but Sister Woodbury is AWESOME and she helped me through it!! And I think I helped her a little, too. So we are continuing to do better and we are loving being companions! So practically I love her a lot and am so glad to have her!! Also, the Atonement is real! I kept feeling really stressed and all I wanted was a break, but I realized that no, I don't need a break. I just need a renewal through the Atonement to be strengthened to be able to do what is necessary. So I am a happy camper. 

I love you all!! Have a great Halloween! Eat, drink, and be scary!! 

 

sister leslie.

Me, S. Woodbury, S. Bentley and S Curley at Coldstone...yummers!

...and Sister Woodbury and I in a pile of leaves we raked up...why not?

Me with Sister Curley on our exchange!

Me with a dead antelope....only got the picture because I am

in Wyoming and that's what people here do. 

We're on the up and up!

I'm just going to jump right in!

Sister Woodbury and I are staying together another one!! Woohoo! We are so excited! But because of the sorry excuse for a holiday yesterday (Columbus Day), our pday was changed to today. So tah dah! Today we are emailing. I love Sister Woodbury a lot, she is a great help and comfort to me and we get along great, so it's going to be a great next 6 weeks!! 

This week, not much went down so I'm trying to think of fun stories.

Super Saturday was this week (craft day with the Relief Society sisters), and it was so much fun to get to know the great sisters in our ward!! We learned how to make homemade chocolate and dip it and everything! We made the nougat, weighted and melted the chocolate--we did it all. How nifty is that?? It was awesome!! And delicious. SOOOOO delicious. If it didn't take so much time/money/work, I'd make them all the time.

We found another solid investigator this week!! Her name is Dollie!! Remember a couple weeks ago how I told that cool tracting story about the man who doesn't believe in organized religion, but we were super bold with him anyway? Well, we went to follow up with him this week, and we got to talk to his wife as he really isn't interested. We pretty much taught the whole restoration lesson on the doorstep and she kept saying things like, "Wow, that makes SO much sense!" "Really? I've always had that question, but never found an answer!" It was so cool! She also told us, "The boy missionaries have come by so many times and tried to tell me this same thing, but they didn't pitch it like you did! You sold it!" Haha So she told us to come back. We came back 2 days later, gave her a Book of Mormon, taught her, and she is a new investigator!! She is so solid and has a lot of real intent! We are so excited to work with her more!!! She is concerned with her family, so we are excited to tell her that the gospel blesses families. :)

Sister Woodbury is officially TWENTY so now we're oldies together! Woohoo! In celebration, we ate at the Kler's last night for initiation burgers and tres leches cake and it was delicious! What are initiation burgers, you ask? Well, they are homemade, cheese stuffed burgers that are about the size of my hand that are at least 2 inches thick. They are to die for, but sooo filling. The first time you have burgers at the Kler's, you get a big one and then after that you get a normal sized one. So I got a normal sized one and it was just great. :) So it was a fun birthday celebration for sure!! 

The new sister that came to replace Sister Edwards is Sister Williamson, and she is so sweet! She is with Sister Mower now and they are going to get along great! Yesterday, all 3 sets of sisters went toGreat Harvest for lunch before doing service at Joshua's Storehouse and it was so fun to get to know each other a bit more. :) 

In past companions news.......Sister Manning is now training!!! WOOHOO!!! And Sister Jensen goes home on Thursday...WEIRD!

and I think that's a wrap! Sorry it;s so boring this week, it'll be better and longer this week. LOVE YOU!

sister leslie.

Home primary with the Wintertons and their friend! We were studying the evidence that the 

Book of Mormon is true, so we needed our detective mustaches! :)

Sister Woodbury and I with the BIGGEST chocolate bar I have ever seen

 So big you have to chisel it!

 So big you have to chisel it!

My district right before Sister Edwards and Elder Parrish left 

Sister Woodbury's initiation burger

Baawm!

If you couldn't tell, "baawm" is the word "boom" with an accent thing. That's how we say it here in Casper. And I was saying it a lot this week because of awesome things that kept happening. :)

OH MY GOODNESS!! Do you all remember Barbara, my awesome investigator in Minot?? Well, she is getting BAPTIZED this Saturday!! I am SO sad I won't be there, but I am seriously SO excited for her! I have been praying for her to find an answer, and she got it. It was in the Lord's timing and not mine, but she made it. :) I am PUMPED! Literally floating. :) 

This week, Tracy officially become a new investigator! We were able to teach her twice and she is awesome!! We already love her a lot. :) She has a lot of questions, which is nice because e know what she doesn't quite understand, but it's a bit hard too because she has a lot of DEEP questions about things that aren't necessary for her to understand right now (i.e. exaltation). None of that deep stuff makes sense unless you have a testimony that the simple stuff like the Book of Mormon is true. So that's a fun adventure. But we love her a lot though and she has a sincere desire to know more, so we are just going to keep working with that desire and do all we can to help her!

Obviously the main success of the week was General Conference. I kept receiving inspiration for me as well as those we are working with, and that was awesome. There were some very bold themes of Conference and that was so cool to tune into. For example, some of the main themes were obedience to the commandments and how NONE of the commandments are optional. They were put into place by our loving Heavenly Father and so who are we to say what is needful and what isn't? So that was bold and awesome. Another emphasis was the fact that everyone needs to build and strengthen their testimonies, that NOW is the time to find out for yourself if this message is true or not. That you will get an answer from God through the power of the Holy Ghost and that witness is essential to your conversion. I loved all the talks about following and sustaining the prophet. Not just sustaining the prophet with your hand, but with your heart, showing by your actions and obedience that you know he (in this case President Thomas S. Monson) is truly God's chosen prophet. And I loved through all of these themes that the way to be obedient, to build our testimonies and to receive our answers all come from doing the same, basic things. Elder Richard G. Scott laid these out for us in his talk. He gave 4 principles to do in our life that will help us to attain a testimony and keep us converted to the gospel: first, prayer. Having family and personal prayer morning AND night is a safeguard to you and your family as they are out in the world. Second, daily family scripture study. It further binds your family closer together and strengthens your testimony. Third, to make weekly Family Home Evening a priority. Fourth, to attend the temple regularly. We are told to do these things often because they are needful and necessary. At the end of General Conference, we have the opportunity to make a choice: will we apply what we have learned at conference to help us become better? or will we go on, living life as we always have, hoping to someday become close to our potential? If you think about it, the decision is really easy. Conference is inspired of God. If we have faith that Heavenly Father inspired the messages we heard, then it will be a no-brainer to follow the counsel learned and choose to become better. I know I learned a lot of things that I want to apply into my life and remember. I especially loved Jorg Klebingat's talk in the Saturday Afternoon Session. It answered many questions and I had and brought me peace. I know that listening to the prophet includes more than just hearing the words and then forgetting. Peace, comfort and happiness will be ours as we prioritize our lives and choose to apply conference to our daily lives.

Some other fun stories of the week:

We went on exchanges this week, and Sister Edwards and I went together in her area. It was super fun! We got to teach a lot of lessons and I learned a lot and we were able to get to know each other a bit more. :) We got to teach some less actives and recent coverts and it was awesome! They have some really cool people they are working with in their ward. :) 

Sister WOodbury and I should get the prize for Coolest Home Primary Lesson of the Week. For those who may not know, home primary means teaching simple gospel principles to children age 3-11 in their home when they miss church for a couple weeks in a row. This week, we went ot teach Destiny again and we taught her about the Book of Mormon and the evidence it is true. So we brought an evidence bag, all put on mustaches and investigated the situation. We read out of the Book of Mormon and discussed some things, and it was really fun!! AJ, Destiny's less active older sister was there in the room as well, so that awesome that she could be there! Tender mercies! 

So this Saturday is transfer calls, so if any of you send mail this week, please send it to the mission office, not to me in Casper. I don't think I'm getting transferred, but you never know. If I do get transfered, I won't be able to email until Wednesday probably because I would be leaving on Monday. But I want to stay in Casper, so we will see. :) 

Sister Woodbury is awesome and beautiful as always. :) I am so glad she is my companion. 

Well I think that is about all this week, so TTFN! Tah tah for now!

sister leslie.

 

Sister Woodbury and I as our detective selves

What?? We're all wearing the same yellow again! No way!

On exchange with Sister Edwards

Sister Woodbury and I at the meetinghouse after watching conference