This training we had this week was neat! It was the first world wide training the church has conducted in over a decade. There was an overall focus on "We preach repentace, and baptize converts." It was powerful, but we learned a lot about exactly what is in Preach my Gospel. Which means, we are probably not following and reading Preach my Gospel like we should. I know I try to follow it as best as I know, but I rarely read it. We should read it daily but I read it 1-2 times a week briefly. Which is a NO NO! So I have commited to reading it daily.

One cool experience we had, we were biking by this home and I felt prompted to knock, so we did, and he was super nice but he wasn't very interested. Which was sad seeing that he had a full family with kids running all around.  We left and 2 days later I felt another strong prompting, "Go to the house again and bring a Proclamation of the Family with your testimony on it." So I did, and we knocked on the home, and nobody answered. We were about to leave and he pulled into the driveway. And they invited us into their home and for dinner. We would have loved to stay for dinner but had another appointment we had to make. They would not allow us to share much of a mesage for fear of sharing "false Doctrine" to his children, but said he wanted to learn more. So hopefully he will allow us back some time!

Love you all and have a great week! Transfers are on the 2nd!

This week there isn't a whole ton. But we had a super good training this last week (9 hours about). We talked a lot about patterns of the Book of Mormon and the things we learned and were prompted to do. We talked a lot about following promptings of the spirit every time and well...it's hard to never deny a generous thought but I've been doing my best. :)

Then this Sunday I was at church and 3 minutes before sacrament the counsel pulls me aside and lets me know both adult speakers weren't going to make it... so he asked me to speak on the plan of salvation. Haha! I started shaking like a scared duckling! But I did it and they seemed to enjoy it. I got a few compliments. But you know how people are. ;)

But I enjoyed it and it gave me an opportunity to test my faith. :)

We have  a big world wide mission training on Wednesday and I'm super excited!

Have a great week!

This week was pretty good. We had quite a few members come out with us to some lessons and it was really good. :) They make such a huge difference! As for the baptism that was supposed to happen 2 Thursdays ago, but no it did not because of her parents. She has kind of given up even though we received revelation that she could be baptized this coming week. But she does have her free agency. Which is sad cuz the Lord was going to make things possible with her parents. But we will see.

As for things with my companion he is still very up and down. He is very rude when he is in his bad moods, which is quite often. Example: we have snow now so the sidewalks are icy and snowy and slippery and we are on bikes. We were just barely heading out to the library to email and he slips and starts yelling and says to me, "Why do we have to email? We should just stay inside and not leave today!" Then I respond with, "Because I have family and friends I desire and am supposed to talk with. (Well I'm supposed to email my parents, it's not required for friends). And he says to me, "Well, I don't care what you want!" And storms off. But oh well. He is slowly getting better. Anyways, this week was pretty good. Love ya!

Also, have you put any money in my account? My bike is having more problems. Have a great week!

Hey everybody! Sorry it's been so long since I have emailed. There has been a lot of struggles with my companion and it has made it super hard to get much time at all to email. But that is okay. 

So this last week our mission was told to stay in from Friday at 6pm till Saturday at 12 and work on letters that our mission president put together. And we opened our letter Saturday morning and it said, Today we are going to read the whole Book of Mormon in one day. Mark things to increase your faith and examples of Gods love to his children. And wow. It was HARD! But we did do it! And I finished by 10pm so it took me 12 hours and it was exhausting, spiritual, and amazing! It was neat to see the whole Book of Mormon unfold before my eyes, literally.  

As for our investigator, Jenny Gray, who was supposed to be baptised on Thursday, she is no longer going to be baptised because she needs to have her parents permission. She is 27 but her parents have partial guardianship because she was suicidal at points and the govt. gave her parents guardianship and they will not allow her to be baptised. So, for now, just keep her in your prayers that things will work out. She has such a desire to be baptised still and has changed so much!

ALSO! I have decided I'm going to be healthier. After a couple of weeks eating way to much junk I've decided it needs to stop! Haha! So I invite all to now send me potatoes or something healthy instead. ;) But I'm not going to take away anybody's agency. That would be Satans plan. Love you all!

Hey y'all! Sorry I haven't been able to do my group email much lately. I apologize. It gets hectic and I don't have much time to email these past few weeks! Things have been going great here though. Our investigator, Jenny, is getting ready for baptism on the 31st of December and has her baptismal interview tomorrow morning. We are super excited for that! It's great seeing how much happier she is with this gospel in her life. She has had a rough past for sure. But I just want you all to try and remember the true meaning of Christmas and try to find some way to serve God this season. I love you all and wish you a merry merry Christmas! :D

Hey Mom! So I got the crappy computer again, so it's harder to email. So I'm just not going to do a group email and try to respond to a couple people. And we have shorter time today as well. P-days are so hectic. I don't like it. I wish we got like 2 more hours haha! But oh well. Well, our mission funds haven't been filled for 3 weeks so we have barely any food this week but we will make it by okay.

We have a new investigator, Jenny, who is on date for the 2nd of January and she looks really promising so far! Super exciting! :) Elder Klingonsmith has been doing a lot better. He was really struggling for awhile but is doing much better. We are both staying here in Kettering so that will be great! I'm excited to keep working here. But if you could put some money in my account if possible that would be great! Unless we get a car at transfers (probably not) I will be biking a lot and will need a new inhaler soon. And possibly a bike too. Also, will you able to look up that nature path stuff?

Things are going real well here though. I'm doing great and loving every bit of it. I really struggle waking up and staying awake during studies these past couple weeks. My companion likes to take forever getting ready for bed. But we have to retire at the same time. So I get like 45 minutes less sleep than usual. So that's hard, but other than that it's good. We have the coolest members here. They are such solid families! But yeah, and I got your Christmas package! :D Thank you :) And I haven't tried on the rain coat you sent me yet but it's pretty sweet! We had record breaking temperatures this week. It was 71 degrees on Saturday. Haha! Supposed to be freezing by weekend though. :( 

Love you!

This week not too much happened but we had interviews this week which was pretty cool. Every 6 weeks we have either zone conference or interviews with President. And this week was interviews and it was pretty good! We get a 10 minute interview with him and Sister Porter, do an area book and planner check and do a 15 minute role play. :) But our mission has these sweet OCM pins that we can earn if we memorize and pass off 17 faith scriptures and 3 other things by past prophets and I earned my pin!!! I'm super excited! They have to order in some more though so I don't have it yet but I'll post a picture when I get it. Can't wait! 
So in this area I am in there is a lot of big long hills and it's been getting colder. So as you can guess, my asthma is really trying to murder me! I have been having to use my inhaler a couple times before lessons cuz I can't really speak cuz my breathing gets so bad. So it's kinda a pain right now. Not to mention my bike isn't looking so good... My first bike I borrowed before I got this one had a problem with a creaking noise when I pedaled and the whole pedal/arm fell off while the zone leader was using it on transfers. My bike I have now has been making those noises lately. So I took it in to the bike shop and they tightened it but said if it starts making the noise again it's going to cost anywhere from 30-70 to fix it. Not to mention I need new tires which are like 30 or so? And my brakes are going out and my front and tail lights have been broken so I had to spend 25 on those today... So I'm not sure this bike will be worth fixing soon and will probably end up talking to the mission office to see if they have a different one I could buy off them.
We have been working with a couple investigators though who aren't doing so good. This area has people to baptize, but it's a hard area to find the right people to teach that will keep commitments. It's just a super nice area so most people are happy and go to church and don't feel any need for change. So one of our investigators, that let us come back, and had a family home evening set up for today, (which would have been so great) dropped us yesterday... So the area is up and down. Haha! Our old investigator, Colton, who took the mushrooms, called randomly and just went off at us and was saying how he wants to come and protest at the church. :I    But yeah, things are good though :)