Westchester #7

Hello Family

I don't have much time to write today. We had transfer today. Luckily I get to stay here with Sister Awerkamp for at least one more cycle. :) 

Well This week was good. We taught the restoration to Carmalita, Talia and Keli (Israel's girl Friend) we have return appointments with all of them and it was so exciting to be able to teach so many! We are also meeting with a lady named Diane who has MS. She is very religious and always has gospel music playing in her apartment. She like to talk A LOT. Like the whole time we are there. But we get a word in every now and then. She said she already believes the Book of Mormon to be the word of God even though she hasn't prayed about it. She says she knows it is because as we read it she says it speaks God's truth and word so we don't have to convince her it is true. We will continue to meet with all these people next week :) 

Jessica (who is a less active) came to church this week! I was asked to give a talk on service so she got to hear me speak which was kinda cool. Her sister just got back from a mission and is coming to visit her in NY. So next week we get to meet with Jessica and her return missionary sister... How awesome!! I bet her sister was just so excited to hear that we had found Jessica and had started to meet with her. 

So another cool thing happened this week. We went to meet with Elizabeth who is another investigator at her house. When we got there she was outside eating with two of her friends. Elizabeth told us she wanted us to meet her friends and want us to tell them what we did. SO we got to tell them about what it means to serve a mission, what we do and why we wanted to do it. They were shocked to hear some of our rules (no tv, music, or phone calls home to family or others) They were especially surprised that at our age we were so committed to God. We got to share our testimony and how the gospel has blessed our lives and how it could bless theirs. It was so cool! And a lot of their questions they asked us, we asked Elizabeth to explain to them based on what we have taught her! She here are Elizabeth's friends asking questions about our faith and Elizabeth is answering them! All Elizabeth knows is that she feel good when she comes to church and that people are not judgmental at all. She also really likes how instead of being preached at, we have gospel discussions. Elizabeth invited both her friends multiple times to come to church and one agreed for sure and the other said she'd think about it. We also got to teach them the plan of salvation when Elizabeth asked if we had a message prepared. IT. WAS. AWESOME. haha we just had such a good conversation with them. We hope to meet later with Vanessa who was the most receptive. 

I got to the guitar at the Hippen's house yesterday and that was so much fun. I miss music so much! I don't really miss listening to it, but I sure miss playing it!!! Oh, another crazy thing that happened to us this week: we were driving in downtown Yonkers and we were stopped at a redlight. All the sudden there comes running about 30-40 kids maybe 20 and younger down the alley way right by our car! It appeared to be two gangs in a fight. One group was running and the other was chasing. They ran straight towards us and were grabbing bikes that were laying right by our car. Then they booked it down the street! our light turned green and we started driving. We could hear from our car all sorts of yelling. We couldn't see, but we think a big fight was breaking loose. In like 2 minutes there are 5 or 6 cops there breaking it up. It was crazy!! 

Well fam, I am out of time. I hope all is well. I am so sorry that the last two weeks I haven't been able to reply to emails from friends! But I will get to them!!

I love you all and keep you in my prayers :) 

          Love Sister Lounsbury

Westchester # 6

Hello lovely family!

Happy late 25th anniversary mom and dad!! You are so amazing and I love you both so very much! I am so lucky to have been raised by such wonderful people :)

Well let me tell you about my week. It was a really good one! We met Carmalita this week. She is a young lady from Jamacia who is ready to start a family and wants God to be a bigger part of her life. We promised her that our message of the restored gospel will strengthen family ties as everyone strives to follow Christ's example. We promised her the peace and happiness that comes from keeping God's commandments and doing His will. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she was very fascinated, particularly with the history of it.(She studies history in school). So she is a new investigator for us! We will meet with her later today and hopefully teach the message of the Restoration of the fullness of the gospel on earth today. 

We met with Israel this week who is a Less Active Member who last went to church when he was 17 and living in Mexico. He has a 9 month baby girl and is planning on marrying his girlfriend who is a non member. So we will reteach him the lessons and help him come back to church and we will also teach his wife the lessons and help her to be baptized. It was a miracle that the Elders found him because he was not on their records as less active member, they found him while tracking. We taught him that light of Christ will help him, his wife and his little daughter through the darkness of the world we live in today. We asked him if he wanted us to continue teaching him how he can come closer to Christ through prayer, scripture study, and keeping God's commandments. His response was so tender as he lovingly looked down at his daughter and said, "yes, of course that is what I want" So we will be reactivating him and his wife will be a new investigator for us! We are so excited to be teaching a family!!! We haven't met his wife yet but we will next Tuesday.

We met with Aileen this week who is a less active. In past visits she has really varied with how much interest she had shown in us coming. But this last time she was is a good mood and was happy to talk with us. She really opened up to us and told us that she wasn't as close to God as she was 5 years ago when she first was baptized into the church. We asked her if she wanted to come closer to God again and she said she would. I felt prompted to ask her what she remembered of the missionary lessons she was taught 5 years ago. She told us not much so I asked if we could meet with her weekly to reteach them to her. I told he that as we taught her we would help her to make commitments such as prayer or reading the scriptures or coming to church. I told her that she would slowly work on one thing at a time and that eventually she can feel as close to God as she did 5 years ago. She said that she would like that. So we will be meeting with her weekly!

We also met with Jessica for the first time this week. She was on our records as a less active member so we went over to find out her story and why she hasn't been to church. She is from Australia and moved here when she was 19. She has been to the Church building a few times but it was a lot smaller than her ward at home and she just stopped coming. She hasn't been to church in 4 years or so. We asked her if she would like to start coming back to church and if she would like to come closer to God. She said she would and wasn't opposed to coming to church this week! We really hope to see her there! We are going to reteach her the lessons as well. She is married and her hubby was away on a business trip but hopefully we can start teaching him as well as a new investigator! And Jessica's friend Rose was there the whole time as well and we invited her to come to church and to have the lessons. She said she is Christian but hasn't been to church in a while. She is married and is pregnant with her first baby!! She said she would come to church with Jessica if it didn't interfere with her class. So we are hoping to see both of them on Sunday! That visit was so awesome because we found a Less Active and 2 potential investigators! We hope the husbands are open to be taught!  

We taught Vasu again after he was gone for two weeks. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and really focused on repentance and how our sins can be washed away as we repent and are baptized. After we taught the lesson I recommitted him to be baptized. The Spirit was so strong in the room as I promised him that if made the decision to be baptized that his sins would be washed away and that as he took of the sacrament every week he could experience that same cleansing. He sent his own date for June 22. He said he would be ready for sure by then. He said he wouldn't get baptized into any other church. He is waiting on a sign to know if this is the right church. He told us logically everything we have taught makes sense. Logically he believes it to be true (he is a very intellectual man) but he wants to have a spiritual witness. I told him "God can't drive a parked car" and that sometimes it isn't until you make a decision and go forward that God can really lead you and guide you where He wants you to go. Sometimes he wants us to exercise our faith first. That made sense to him. We gave him a chapter to read from the Book of Mormon about baptism and we will continue to meet with him

Well that is a little more about who we've been teaching and how it's been going. These people are amazing! I have such a great love for all of them! It is so exciting to see them progress in the gospel, increase their faith in Christ and to make changes in their lives. it truly is amazing. We had Stake conference this week so that was cool. There was a heavy emphasis on ward members helping with missionary work because we truly are all missionaries! So that was cool. We hope to see our ward members become more involved with teaching and with finding people. OH! We saw something rather disturbing this week when we traveled to the Bronx for Stake Conference...We saw a white lady with long blonde hair walking down the street completely topless!!! No Shirt, no bra, no nothing! She was just walking down with a group of her guy friends.... Unbelievable! 

It's starting to get really humid...ugg. You just feel sticky and wet all the time... it is no fun at all. I will need to go shopping for some light weight shirts and ideally one that I don't have to wear a shades shirt. Because if I am dying right now... I don't even want to think about what July and August are going to bring... 

I went on a split this week. I stayed in my area in Yonkers and Sister Awerkamp went to Connecticut. I learned a lot from Sister Lotulele. She has been out 17 months so she is almost done! It is cool to see how other people teach and what they have learned from the mission so I really enjoyed it. But I also really missed Sister Awerkamp! I was happy to have her back :) 

Welp family, that is all for now. I love you all so much!!

Love, Sister Lounsbury

Westchester #5

Hello Fam!

It was so great see all your beautiful smiling faces on Sunday :))

Well since we have last talked, we now have a new investigator! The Spanish Elders in our area found her. We taught her with the Elders yesterday. They are handing her off to us becasue they focus on teaching only those who need lessons in spanish and Talia speaks english. She has a a hubby and a little boy who is 2 years old. We haven't met her husband yet but she is really nice. She is orginally from Jamaica. We taught her about how she is a daughter of God and that He loves her and all of His Children. We taught her that God has always taught His Gospel truth through prophets such as Moses, Abraham and Noah. But that unfortunately the people have time and time again rejected the prophets and rejected the message of the gospel. When people choose to reject and kill the prophets, the Priesthood authority is taken from the earth. We taught her that when Christ was on the earth he taught his gospel of Faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. But even Jesus Christ, the Son of God was rejected and put to death because of His message. We taught her that the death of Christ and his Apostles lead to another apostasy, or period of time when the Priesthood and the fullness of Christ's gospel was not upon the earth. We then told her of how God once again restored His gospel on the earth in these modern days through a young boy and prophet named Joesph Smith. We shared with her the Book of Mormon and told her it was another testament of Jesus Chirst. We promised her that if she would read it with real intent and prayed to God with a honest heart that she would receive an answer by the power of the Holy Ghost if it is of God or not. She said that she would and we are giong to meet with her sometime next week to see how it all went. :)

Something I have really learned as a missionary is that there is nothing I personally can do to convince people of the truth. We are all on a journey to find truth. Truth is something we all must learn for ourselves. As a missionary it is our job to invite others to come unto Christ and to recieve the truth of the restored gospel in their life. But the only way any of us can come to know truth for ourselves is through the Holy Ghost. In John we read that "the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance" (John14:26) The Holy Ghost is a gift given to us by the Father to teach us all things. "When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me" (John 15:26) The Holy Ghost will testify of Christ and will testify of truth. So as I missionary all I can do is invite others to come unto Christ but THEY have to have an honest and sincere heart and THEY have to put forth the effort to read the Book of Mormon and THEY have to ask in sincere prayer if our message is true. And God is anxiously waiting to answer their prayers for God has said "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeth findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened" (Matt 7:7-8) That is God's promise to each and everyone of us. We can all have the truth witnessed unto us by the power of the Holy Ghost. But we must do our part to ask, seek and knock.

It is so cool to be a part of this great work! It is so cool to present the gospel of Jesus Chirst to others and to help them to find truth in their lives. You just feel such amazing love for them and you want so badly for them to find the happiness you have! There is no other feeling like missionary work. It can be so exciting and amazing to witness others progressing in faith and testimony in Jesus Christ! And it can be so devestating and heart breaking to watch others struggle to understand and turn away from this message of hope, peace and happiness! I have only been out for about a month, but I have already learned so much! More than anything I have felt more strongly of God's love for me and of all of His precious children then I ever have before. Missionary work can be hard and discouraging at times but that feeling of pure joy when others listen and receive your message is totally worth it!!

I love you all so much! Never forget to put God as your first priority and that all else will fall into place as you do :) I love you all so much! Thank you everyone for the emails this week! It was so wonderful to hear from all of you! If you didn't get a reply from me this week, you will get one next week!

Oh and a shout out the Ellen Wynn, Gretchen Brock and Alex Morgan with your mission calls! Congrats ladies!! You are all going to do so great!! Alex, you are going to LOVE Brirmingham Alabama. You are going to laugh your head off because the people there are so darn funny and wonderful :) I hope all is well! I love you all so mcuh!

~Sister Lounsbury

This is a picture of Mary! We surprised her by bringing the APs with us to our lesson. 

She LOVES Elder Hajje so it was a fun visit

Pictures

 (Left to right) This is sister Johnson, Sister Awerkamp and me. Sister Johnson trained Sister Awerkamp and Sister Awerkamp is training me.So it is three generations of trainers/new missionaries :)

This is downtown Yonkers...we live in a nicer part of Yonkers though :)

Here is another picture of Downtown Yonkers. We do a lot of our less active work here.But we never go door to door and we never walk the streets after dark.

This is the H family. They are the greatest ever. The dad is an animator and they are both musical.Their children remind me of some of the little boys in our family and I just feel right at home with them. Sister H bought me flowers for the first time I came over because I was new! I played for them my song 672 days on the uke and they loved it. They request that I sing a new song ever time I come over. Too bad they move by the end of this month:(

CINCO DE MAYO CELEBRATION!! We ate at the McAllisters (senior missionaries) and we made a little celebration out of it just for fun. They made delicious mexican food and we had a really great time. My face looks really fat in this picture but don't worry, I haven't gained 30 pounds haha :) Oh and those are the Elders in our area and the girl in the center is Natasha. she was baptized 2 months ago :) 

Westchester #4

Hello my most wonderful family!!

I am so excited to get to talk to you on Sunday!!! We have the scheduled time from 7pm-9pm. My companion will skype first from 7pm to 8pm and then I will skype 8pm to 9pm. So I believe that is 5pm-6pm your time? It is a 3 hour difference from OR to NY and a 2 hour difference from UT to NY. I would love to do a google hangout so I can talk with zack and the fam. But probably no one else on the chat because it seems like their are more difficulties with more people on. And if skype or google chat is not working then they have a mission phone I could use to call on. Maybe I'll even call while we try to work the whole skype thing out haha :) I hope that all made sense.

Well. I will try to answer some of these questions. We have 8 people in our district. Sister Awerkamp and I are the only Sisters in our district. In our Zone we have 6 Sister and about 18 Elders I think? We meet with our Zone every Monday and talk briefly and then we break off into our district. In our district meeting we discuss any new investigators and if their are any needs and then we are taught a lesson by someone. Last time we learned about making and setting goals and following through with it. We report our number to our district leader every Sunday and share our goals for the upcoming week. Then we have a APF (Area Proselying Focus) every Friday. We go into a certain area and everyone goes out and street contacts or goes door to door. We will meet at least 2 times a week for District meeting and APF. And then this last week we had a Zone Activity on P-day (playing soccer) and we also had a special training So I saw them quite a few times this week. We also had a Zone conference (with 3 total Zones) so I got to meet some new missionaries in other areas.  

And yes there are new rules about emailing. I can email anyone I want except for males in the New York New York Mission. So send me some emails!! Send me steph's email and anyone else you can think of! I would love to be able to hear from them! My email is emma.lounsbury@myldsmail.net so feel free to post that so everyone can have it! I won't have time to reply to them all because I have a limited time on the computer. But I just might print off the email and write a letter becasue I have more time to do that. So yeah, send me some more emails for sure!!!

Yes I have been feeling healthy. The food at the MTC was pretty awful and my stomach hurt for a while even after being out here a week. But I feel much better now about what I am eating. We get fed usually 2 days a week, 3 on a good week. (By the same 2 or 3 families every week). I am kinda thankful we don't get fed more because everyone feeds us giant dinners and they always try some new dessert. It is just so much food! I hate when they serve you out because you can't control the portions. But I mean you can't really complain about delicious free food :) Our members are so good to us! But 4 of like 7 families in our branch are moving out this summer. Those families are the ones who feed us and the ones who have big callings in the branch and have all the children. We are a little worried about what will happen with our branch when they leave. And we love them all so much!!! We are so sad to see them go!!

Well let me tell about the highlights of my week. First of all we had a lot of training this week! We had district meeting, a special training meeting and Zone Conference. Zone Conference was from 10am-4pm which a breakfast snack when we got there and a lunch break. It was really long but it was sooo good! We heard from the President and his wife and some other speakers. Can I jsut say that I love my mission President and his wife? I never thought I would see him so much but since being here I have had and interview, got to talk for 30 minutes at a service project, saw him at the mission office and got to talk with him for another 30 minutes about personal concerns and issues and then we got to sit and eat with him at Zone conference and hear him talk. He loves us so much, you can just feel it as he talks with you. Every time I get to talk with President Morgan I jsut feel so loved and uplifted, encouraged, renewed and excited to go out and try again!! He is just so great! And his wife does all the meal prep for things like Zone Conference and gives us big hugs and jokes with us. They are both so awesome. My testimony of God's love for me has grown because every time I feel discouraged or things are weighing heavy on my mind I have training or zone conference or a meeting with President and I hear EXACTLY what I need to hear. It makes me realize that I truly do have a Father in Heaven who is very aware of my concerns, worries and frustrations and he sends answers and help in the form of other people.

So I think I have told you a little about Mary but she was recently baptized and we have been trying to get her to church on a regular basis. She and the Simmons family (who come once a month when they have work off) were able to come to church! We had meet with Mary several times since I have been here and I have just come to love her so much! The Simmons are an older couple and they want to come to church so badly but can't because of work. We meet with them once a week and have them ask a question they want answered and then we read the scriptures together to find answers and discuss what we are learning. They are alwyas so grateful for us. So they have a compromise with their boss that allows them to get one Sunday off a week so they can come. So this week Mary and the Simmons were at church and my heart was so full of joy I was about to burst! Bother Mary and Sister Simmons shared their testimony and I just couldn't stop smiling. It has amazed me how much I love these people that I have only met with 3 or 4 times. Oh and Mary came up with a nick name for me because Sister Lounsbury is just too hard to remember. She gave me the nickname of candy, which normally I wouldn't be thrilled to have this nickname...but she gave it to me because "You're just too sweet". So candy it is :)

This has been the most amazing thing for me on the mission so far. I get to feel God's love for these people. I know the love I feel can't be my own, it truly is Charity--God's pure love that I feel for them. I recognized this love again on Monday when I got to meet a lady named Mel for the first time. So let me tell you about Mel. Sister Awerkamp and her old companion were at a dollar store when Mel (who worked there) asked if they were Christian. They said yes and asked how she knew (they were turned so Mel couldn't see the name tag). Mel told them that she could just tell by the way they behaved and held themselves. They set up a time to met with Mel later but weren't able to get in contact with her until now. So here we are on the steps outside of her apartment building talking to Mel. It always amazes me how open people are with thier life story and what they have gone through. We had only known each other for 3 minutes and she is telling us about her addictions and her struggles and how she wants to give them up and be free but she can't. She told us of how her mother passed away 2 years ago but to her it always feels like it was yesterday. She told us how God has played a role in her life before but she kept saying "I'm done now". She talked to us and told us her story and as I looked into her eyes I just felt a burning love for her. If only she knew that through Christ she could overcome her addictions and be the good mother she wants to be!! If only she knew about the plan of Salvation and that although in this life there is death and sorrow, she can live with her mother and family for eternity!! If only she knew that we are never too far from God's reach!! There is nothing too bad, too horrible or too big that Christ can't heal us of and forgive us of!! If only she knew that despite her weaknesses that God loved her so much!!! I could feel how much He loved her as I listened to her and I wanted so badly for her to receive the blessings of the fullness of the gospel here on the earth today!! She mostly talked to us so we didn't get to share very much with her. She kept saying that she wanted to give money to our ministry. We told her we weren't looking for money but she kept insisting saying that "there is nothing you girls can do to help me but I would like to donate to your ministry". When we asked if she would like to hear what we teach first before she donated she told us that she can tell just by who we are and what we were doing that she wanted to give money to our ministry. It was a really kind compliment but we weren't able to teach her much. But we were able to at least give her a pamphlet on The plan of Salvation and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Mel is very knowledgeable of the Bible so she gave us some scriptures to read as well! We are going to meet with her some time next week to discuss and hopefully to help her do some painting or some other type of service. We left we gave her hugs and she gave me a kiss on the cheek. I told her that we loved her and she kept thanking us for meeting up with her. As we got back in the car I was jumping around I was so excited! She is the first potential investigator I got to meet with and talk with from the very beginning. And I was amazed at the love that I felt for her! I want so badly for her to be so happy and receive all the joy,happiness and peace that comes from following Christ. Sometimes it's a little scary to love them so much because it will break my heart if she rejects our message. I'll keep you posted with Mel :)

Ok so some funny things that happened to us this week:

1. Sister Awerkamp went to the bathroom, flushed the toilet and then bumped the shelf and a full tube of tooth paste was flushed down the toilet!!! There was nothing we could do to get it out because it went right down! So we had to call someone to get it out and they were rather confused on how we managed to flush a tube of toothpaste down the toilet hahah

2. We were stopped by to Jamaican ladies who were driving and we started talking to them on the road while they were at a stop sign. Cars were coming so they parked and we talked with them. They were Zionist and they stopped us because we were dressed modestly and wondered who we were. We had an interesting conversation with them. It started off really good but it went downhill fast.They agreed on almost all points of doctrine except for modern prophets and the role of the Holy Ghost. They believe that the Holy Spirit will over take you and you will be over come by the power of God and you will start talking in "the gift of tongues" and you'll be rolling on the floor and your legs will be burning with the "fire of God". They even gave us a little example and started talking in the "gift of tongues" to us. They were talking, very passionately for like 10 minutes straight about the holy spirit taking over you. It was hard to understand them with their acent and it was hard for us to find a way to leave without being rude. But finally I stopped them, summarized to them their beliefs, "So what you are trying to tell us is...." and they said yes that was correct and so I thanked them for talking with us and we left! Haha it was quite the experience!

Well I am out of time here! I will hear from you this Sunday at 8pm my time 5pm your time. I will either give you a call or try to google chat thing :)))) I Love you!!!!

~Sister Lounsbury

Westchester #3

Hello family!!

 

How is everyone!! I can't believe this is only week 2 because it feels like this is what I've been doing forever! The week flew by because we keep so busy all day from 6:30 til 10:30. Mom I can not believe that you witnessed a shooting!! That is so so crazy! And it was so close to our house!! So it was just you in the car when you heard the gunfire? Wow...I am glad you were kept safe! I'm glad you all are enjoying the weather and the bike rides! That sounds so amazing! We have really nice weather here as well. Last Pday after emailing you Sister Awerkamp and I got milkshakes at Stew Lenards and drove to a park to layout and enjoy the sun and I ice cream. It was so relaxing! Today for pday we have a zone gathering to play soccer and volley ball. I am so excited to play!! We have some really awesome pdays planned for the future. We are planning on going to the zoo next week and then the week after we wanted to go on some hikes and maybe go fishing if a member had some gear. It really is so so beautiful here. The trees are mostly bright bright lime green. Then there are some orange, red and yellow as well. It is just  so pretty and I am way excitedto go hiking! Then in the near future we want to make a trip into the city to go to the temple. So we have some fun plans ahead. We do a lot of work in the mission and it can be hard, but we sure know how to make it fun as well along the way. I love that I can have fun with my companion. :) Oh speaking of  fun times, this week Sister Awerkamp and I went out for dinner. We wanted to eat at a Mexican Restaurant but we didn't know of any. So we find a random one on our GPS. We can't even see the Restaurant from the street but we get out of our car to see if we can find it.We finally found it and walked in. It was completely empty and dead silent. We about walked out when a lady appeared behind the counter. She reassured us that they were open so we sat down at a table. She kindly turned on some techno music  of all things for us to listen to as we ate our mexican food. It was kinda fun being the only people there and we got a good laugh from it.

 

Well I took lead on all our lessons this week and of course my first real lesson was with Vasu about the Law of Chastity. Luckily I have got pretty comfortable talking about sexual intimacy from all my marriage classes for my major but it can still be an uncomfortable lesson. Luckily it went smoothly and the member helped us out and shared how the Law of Chastity has blessed his life and marriage. We only need to teach two lessons or so before Vaus will  have all of his lessons. I hope he feels ready to make the commitment to be baptized! I met Mary this week who is a hilarious black lady. She was recently baptized 2 weeksago but hasnb't been to church since because she doesn't have the money to get there.She loves joking with us and it is just so fun meeting with her. She gives everyone nick names. Sister Awerkamp is known as soulja and she said she'll have to think of a name for me but that it will have to do with my blue eyes. :) We meet with the Simmons this week as well. They are an older couple who moved from South America to New York. They can't come to church because of their work scedules but they want to so badly! Brother Simmons is trying to work a deal with his boss to give him one sunday a month off so he can go to church. The thing I have loved the most so far about the mission is getting to know the members and less activies. In many cases they are less active because due to circumstances they can't get to church. They all have such incredible faith and they just love it when we come into their home and read scripture with them and leave them with a mesage. But what I have found is that so many times I have come into thier home thinking I am going to teach them but really they end up teaching me. Their faith is truly inspiring. Some people have given up everything to be a member of the church because they knew in their heart it was true. After hearing their stories it just really makes me reflect on what I am willing to sacrifice for what I know to be true.

 

Well as usually we did a lot of less active look ups and it is so hard because people don't answer our calls or text messages or they cancel on us or they are never home. It can be so hard! Sometimes it feels like we are getting nothing done because it is so rare that we ever actually get to share a message or get a return appointment. Yesterday we had a less acitive sister to look up. we knocked on the door and she asked us who it was. When she heard it was the sister missionaries she opens the door and starts talking to us and I immediately notice that she is not wearing and pants. We just go on like normal and about 2 minutes of conversation she apologizes for not having pants haha it was pretty funny. And we got a return appointment too! Yaya!

 

Dad you will be happy to know that Sister Awerkamp and I tried your door apporach! I was so glad you sent it because tracting really did seem like a waste of time. No one has been mean to us or slammed doors but no one has been willing to listen either. This apporach wasa little scary for both of us because it was a little more bold and direct but we decided to try it.  We handed out two copies of the Book of Mormon to the first two doors that opened! We were so excited! I think mostly it was jsut exciting that we could share any message at all! Usually people kindly refuse before we even share anything. But with this approach quite a few would hear the whole message and they would be very engaged with the pictures and were fasinated with why we are called Mormons. Even if they didn't want a copy, we were still able to share some of our beliefs and it was so cool! We will keep trying it for sure:)

 

This Monday we were able  to do service in Danburg Conneticut at a Church owned camp site. We were there with maybe 40-50 other missionaries so it was really fun. We got so much done in onlya few hours. I got to meet some other missionaries including an Elder who plays on the BYU soccer team and another Elder who moved from Brazil who also played soccer. I had fun juggling an old basket ball we found with them. I love whenever we get to do service. We do service every week helping this lady with remodeling her house but this week we also got to clean the camp site. It was a lot of fun being out in the sun and working with other missionaries. Well, I can't think of much else to tell you all. Things are going good here, they really are :) I sure miss you all! Thanks for keeping me in your prayers!!

 

Much love, Sister Lounsbury