Week 8: Hey-O

It's been almost 2 months already! Can you believe how time flies!! We are already winding down and getting ready for transfers!!! But I'll 99% most likely be staying with sister Johnson because we are training, which takes two transfers. So unless something crazy happens, I should stay here in Hiram with Sister Johnson which makes me feel much better. But I will no longer be the newbie anymore because a wave of new missionaries will be coming this transfer. WHOA!! But there have been some super fun things that happened this week. I'll see if I can get everything in.

So first, an update on Michael. We told him we would get him the information on Elder Ballard the day he dropped us. But we didn't get it until Tuesday, and he texted us again asking for it before we had gotten back to him. So something is stirring in him. We gave him the info and then told him I was speaking Sunday, so we invited him to church and he said he would pray about it. Then a few days later he texted us and said "I think I want to go to church on Sunday. Can you get me a ride?" Ummmmm...YEAH. So that was awesome. He came and said it was "interesting" as in it didn't give him a sure answer. He wants this to be true, and I think he knows it is. Then he told us he wanted to come again next Sunday and give it another try - even though he just barely texted us last night and said he wouldn't make it. But he wants to watch general conference! I mean, how can you not feel the spirit when the prophet gets up? Sooo basically he will get baptized someday. I know it. Also we made it into his book Unrequited which comes out online only on Amazon in February. Michael Stephenson is his name. So you'll have to read it for me and tell me who I am because we're both way curious about it...

We also took some way awesome tours this week. We got to help out at the Johnson Farm on Sunday which is THE BEST EVER!!! But we took this family on tour - it was a mom and three kids. There's a room in the Johnson Home upstairs called the Revelation Room. It's such a sacred room where 17 sections were received from D&C including the vision of the three kingdoms of glory and the Father and the Son. So as you can imagine we try to maintain a spirit of reverence when we are in there (as best we can anyways... sometimes there are loud kids or whatever but that's ok. We try). So while Sister Johnson was telling the stories about that room, the mom lifts up her shirt and starts breastfeeding her two-year-old. I don't know how I missed that, but somehow I did and Sister Johnson started talking about it afterwards and I was like, wait, WHAT? Yeah. I'm oblivious. Elder Wells, one of the senior missionaries, said "Well...some things shouldn't be revealed in there." Haha. So the next day I was at sites and some other sisters took the same family on tour, and she did the SAME THING in the school of the prophets. Soooo I'm not really sure what more there is to say about that one. Except for WHY...?

But we also took some super fun Australians on tour and while we were in the Whitney's home we asked about what was different about the US and Australia. They said the toilets, and then she proceeded to laugh out this story about how she was in the temple in Palmyra(?) where the bathrooms had gaps in the stalls and everyone could see in. Then about how alarming it was to stand up and SEE everything (I guess their toilets are shaped differently so it all just goes right down before you even flush) And then her husband joined in and started talking about how before you were done the dang automatic toilets would flush and splash you in the bottom. I mean, they were bent over crying talking about it. Which of course made us laugh too. So...we took them on tour and they cried. But not from feeling the spirit--from talking about toilets. Yup. I just love people.

We also had a really great exchange on Monday. I went to sites with Sister Neslen who goes home this transfer. It's so great to learn more about how other sisters give tours because then it gives you some new ideas of ways to present rooms. It's really easy to get into your own routine, but it's so important to make sure you are fitting the tour to the group's needs. So to have other ideas of how to give the tour helps you have other things to draw from when you feel prompted in the future. Also she knows everything so that was nice :) If nothing else, I learned from her to appreciate my mission while it lasts, because it flies. I mean, I am already two months in and I feel like I just left. That's 1/9 of my mission, which seems like a small fraction but it is SO NOT. But we took some of the best tours I've ever taken that day. We took a girl and her parents. She reports to the MTC next Wednesday and they just wanted to come and do some church history stuff before she left. So they were so ready to come and feel the spirit, and those are the best tours. I can't remember everything we said, but the mom just said thank you and that something we didn't know was that she was struggling through some health issues and that it was really comforting to come here and remember the Savior, and that everything we said was exactly what she needed to hear. The best feeling in the world is knowing you are being an effective instrument in the Lord's hands. And that honestly is something that everyone can experience, not just missionaries. Just open your mouth once in awhile and you never know whose heart you are touching :)

I just feel like I can't stress enough how much you learn on a mission. From day one. It's amazing. Every week I look back at the person I was the week before and feel like I've changed a ton since then. But then the next week the same thing happens. This is the Lord's work!

Love you all and thank you for your letters/emails!!

Tayler

Week 7

This was a rough week. Also a really great week. But our faith has been tested a lot. We had a really good lesson with Michael last Tuesday that I didn't mention in my last email, but the lesson was on priesthood, so Brother Sears from our ward came and he was awesome because Michael always has a bajillion questions. So it was good that Brother Sears was able to answer them because I don't know if I could have. But because we know how important it is for Michael to feel the SPIRIT instead of hearing all this information that makes him have more and more questions (and his questions are deep) we each bore our testimonies to him and the spirit was definitely strong. We left the lesson feeling really good.

Then Friday happened.

That was an unfortunate day. We went to see a less active member and she asked for her records to be removed because she is atheist now and doesn't want anyone to waste their time coming around all the time. She was raised in the church and was very nice, but she didn't want anything to do with it. So there's that. Then we we went to see a media referral who wasn't home and we ended up having to tract her neighborhood. But after we did the first house Michael texted us (we had texted him to ask how he was doing). He said he was good and that he wanted to talk to us both. It was raining so we jumped in the car and called him asap. He said he woke up the last two mornings and his "intuition" was telling him that joining the Mormon church was not the right thing for him at this time... But he was our most solid investigator! He was reading and keeping all his commitments and everything! He just didn't know yet. So that was a huge thing we had been working on. We told him that he broke our hearts and he said "yeah that's why I didn't tell you yesterday..." So again we bore testimony and said he was still welcome to come to our stake conference (Oh! Elder Ballard is speaking! I forgot to mention that). He said we could give him the information in case he had a change of heart. Blah. I felt like I got punched in the stomach. 

Then the day didn't get much better. We went to see another media referral who had requested a Bible from mormon.org and so we taught him the restoration but he wasn't that interested. In fact, we ended up going back to our car to eat our lunches and we're 90% sure we saw the mom preparing to burn the pamphlets in the BBQ grill. That was actually kind of funny. But we also stopped by a potential investigator's house and he was NOT interested AT ALL. He was rude. So we walked away feeling awesome. Then because that didn't work out we had to tract. Except we were in the middle of Nowhere, Ohio. So we tracted for an hour and only went to like 4 houses because they were all spread out so far. We found one family though who we talked to for a little while. It was a father and son who were both older (it was the son's family's house). But we walked up this way long driveway and they offered us some water because I'm pretty sure it was close to a 90 degree incline. I almost had to start climbing with my hands. But they said we could come back and clean their house, so that was promising. Of course, he then called the next day and said his wife said we didn't need to come over. Which makes sense. 

We thought we could end the day on a happy note and go see Lisa and Jim, since their lessons are always great. We had a member drive us and it was a 45 minute drive from her house to theirs, so I felt bad enough already. But what made it worse is that we weren't even able to have a lesson because Jim had been drinking again and we spent the whole time re-setting goals and talking about why it was important to keep their commitments. Blah again. So then we drove the whole 45 minutes back and we were late getting home. So all around it was a GREAT day. 

The good news is the week got much better after that. The Stamms texted us and want us over for dinner again. We haven't heard from them in awhile. And we also got appointments with lots of people we have not been able to get in touch with in forever. AND Michael texted us yesterday. We hadn't sent him the address yet because we just barely got it that morning. But he asked us if we could send it to him, in case he had a "change of heart". But why would he ask us for that unless he was already beginning to have a change of heart? Hmm.

Anyways I don't want to focus too much on our bad day because those are going to happen now and then. It's expected. But we get to focus now on the future! It's going to be a great couple weeks. I'm speaking in sacrament this Sunday, which is a good thing. It's a chance to gain the trust of the ward and a sign that the bishop already has high hopes for us. Then the following weekend Elder Ballard is coming for stake conference. We have a LOT going on with him because it's part of the 10 year anniversary of the dedication of the sites at Kirtland. So there's going to be a VIP program for politicians and community people with Elder Ballard that we should get to go to because they want us to host. It's invite-only so that's pretty cool. It will be a much smaller crowd than stake conference.  Then that evening there is a fireside that everyone is invited to. Then the next morning there's a pancake breakfast and a walk around the sites and up to the temple with Elder Ballard, who will be passing out commemorative coins. THEN there's the adult session of conference in the evening, and then the general session in the morning. So we are typically at sites on Thursdays and Mondays, which means stake conference weekend we will probably stay there Thursday through Monday. Then the following weekend after that is general conference! Which I am stoked about. So things are looking up, regardless of how crummy Friday was :)

Love,

Sister Coontz

Week 6

Hey everyone! Life is SO GOOD right now! We have had such a big week. We didn't have a lot of proselyting time in our area because we had so many meetings! We had a really good meeting with our mission president on Friday where we were reminded how important our mission really is and how much there is to love about it. The meeting was for new trainers and trainees, so we also got to watch the fun biking and driving safety videos. But I learned so much there and left thinking...wow, I'm going to be such a hard-working missionary! Those meetings get you so pumped. We have also been preparing for Elder Shane Bowen from the first quorum of the Seventy (he spoke in conference a couple times recently. he also has a Mormon Message called "Reclaimed" in case you're wondering who the heck he is), so we had a Zone Training Meeting where we discussed the topics he had asked us to study (Abrahamic covenant, gathering of Israel, baptismal covenant, and the oath and covenant of the Priesthood). Pretty heavy stuff, but it makes so much sense when you understand it. I have seriously felt myself grow exponentially since even my last email. Sister Johnson told me that our missions are equal to 15 years of growth. I guess she heard it in a talk or something. But THEN Elder Bowen came to sites on Monday. Our conference was on Tuesday, but they took him on a tour of Kirtland sites while he was here in town. And guess what day is our sites day! Monday of course! So thankfully we didn't give the tour. Our stake patriarch Carl Anderson took them. He's the Kirtland expert around here, in fact he wrote a couple books on Kirtland (Joseph Smith in Kirtland and The Savior in Kirtland, I think. In case you wanted to read them) Anyways while we were on our way back to the Visitors Center with a tour group we ran into them all and me and Sister Johnson got to be the first to meet him and his wife. We felt super special. Sister Vellinga ran up and hugged me and said "come meet Elder and sister Bowen!" and then introduced me. Then the sisters on site all got to sing to him. And then Tuesday at the meeting we learned a lot from him. He talked about how not to set artificial limitations for ourselves, and how to plan better and find people to teach. Then he talked about our study topics because "When we know who we are, we act differently" and that was what it was all about. So then we all got to take pictures with him as zones, and he shook all of our hands. Then we had lunch, and he sat at our little table with me and five other sisters. So, you know, we were pretty much best friends by the end of the day. Haha. So our investigators came to church again! That's so huge! Especially since Lisa said she didn't even have to drag Jim. He was up and ready to go! They committed to finding a wedding date before today so we are hoping to be able to plan a wedding AND a baptism :) I just feel like I'm learning so much and changing so much! Sister Johnson and I studied the spirit world in depth the other day and both of us were so excited to find out how much there really is to know about everything. The veil is so thin and I'm so grateful to be able to serve in a place where Joseph Smith himself once stood, and surely still has influence there in the spirit world. I feel like I'm gaining a testimony of him and as I learn more about him and testify of him as a prophet, it's as if I know him personally. I've been praying for my testimony to grow about Joseph Smith, and to have experiences that will help facilitate that growth. And Heavenly Father has answered my prayers and continues to answer them. I think our mission song pretty much sums up how awesome my mission is. (it's to the tune of "Bring the World His Truth"...Is that what it's called? idk)
"We have been called and we will obey, repent and work with our might each day. We'll call on Him through fasting and prayer, and with His help we will be prepared! We are in the Ohio Cleveland. We have prepared since our youth. And we are in the Ohio Cleveland to bring Ohio His truth.
We have been called to serve in the place where Christ our Savior has shown His face. We know the words the Lord has proclaimed. 'Kirtland will be built up again!' We are in the Ohio Cleveland, we have prepared since our youth. And we are in the Ohio Cleveland to bring Ohio His truth."

It's awesome when you hear a huge army of missionaries sing this song. I can't wait to see what each day brings because each day is an opportunity for the spirit to speak to me.
Love, Tayler

Week 5

Ok first I'll give everyone the low-down about mail and email. Email is great and I'll have plenty of time to answer everyone back so please email. However, I get mail throughout the week and I love it so keep that coming too :) I understand email is easier though so it's totally up to you what you want to do. It's just way exciting to check the mail and see letters in there for me :)

 

Ok. So this week. It's always impossible to tell you everything that is happening here because 7 missionary days is a LONG time. So it's a good thing I keep a journal, let me tell you. I'll see if I can cover the important stuff.

 

Thursday was a sites day so those days are kind of weird. We can plan lots of stuff but it only sometimes gets done because as soon as we sit down to study or answer phones or whatever we get a call saying someone wants a tour. So that's usually how that goes. But Tuesday of last week we taught Norah outside and I got eaten alive by mosquitos. I'll send pictures - it was so bad. So that was a problem by the time Thursday came around because I was so itchy. So one of the senior couples on sites said she had always wanted to try this home remedy. So she made a paste out of meat tenderizer and put it all over my legs. I just went with it and it kinda worked...but not really. In fact it was kind of more of a nuisance than anything else. It ended up falling into my shoe as I gave a tour and I just had to deal with it. I mean I couldn't just stop in the middle of the tour to clean out my shoe.

 

Friday was a weekly planning day so we didn't get out of the apartment until after dinner. So that was no fun. But we had two really good appointments. One was with a less active member named Kathy. She's been coming back to church so she's almost active again. Her husband passed away a couple years ago so she stopped coming, but she's been much better. We talked to her about temples and how she could prepare to enter the temple for herself and even be sealed to her husband. She cried, and said it was something she had thought about before and was genuinely excited to go. So we committed her to talk to the bishop on Sunday to start preparing to get her recommend. She had referred her neighbors Lisa and Jim who we also love to death. They're the couple we taught chastity to for my first lesson. And right after Kathy's lesson we had a lesson with them, and invited her to come. The lesson was supposed to be on the Atonement, but it kind of started out more about the Word of Wisdom. Jim hadn't been drinking for THREE whole days. But he has issues with the smoking. He thinks that it's not bad for you and the warnings are not true. He says they "have no proof". Yeah. I'm convinced. So we discussed how it's a commandment that we don't do that, and Kathy talked about how she used to smoke and the things she struggled with when she was quitting. But then she kind of bore her testimony about how it has blessed her since quitting. It was SO good that she came. Then we kind of lead into the Atonement and how to access it, and that it could apply even to their attempt to quit smoking. They understood by the end of the lesson why it was important, and it was so spiritual.

 

Saturday I was sick for the first half of the day so we called Sister Vellinga (our mission pres. wife) to tell her and she said to lay down for awhile and see if I feel better. So after four hours of sleep I was good to go. We had to rearrange some things but it worked out that we could still do stuff. We ended up meeting a guy who was sort of interested. He said we could call for a return appointment after the holiday weekend so we will do that later this week. And THEN... We had our game night with the Stamms! It was so fun and they were all so great at friendshipping them. We had three other couples from the ward there plus the Stamms. We didn't really do this by the book, but we felt that the spirit was telling us that they really needed to be eased into it. So it's kind of in the ward's hands now. One day I think they will want to take the lessons, but that's not happening just yet. But at least they have lots of LDS friends and they all made plans to hang out again. So ward members are SO important!! We're all missionaries, don't forget that! Anyways we shared a thought at the end that was just so inspired. We really felt like the spirit has been guiding us so much with them, because that thought was so perfect. We used the Mormon Message "Waiting on our Road to Damascus" and then talked about testimony vs. conversion. Then everyone shared testimonies and comments that were so powerful! So great.

 

Sunday...LISA AND JIM CAME TO CHURCH!! Hallelujah. Testimony meeting was good and they both really loved it. I saw Kathy rush up to the bishop after sacrament meeting so I hope she's going to go to the temple soon! Then after church we went to a recent convert's house to talk to him about patriarchal blessings. He seemed so excited about it. He's a great guy. He's probably in his 50s or 60s and isn't married, but he is working on getting to the temple. He just barely received the priesthood and he passed the sacrament for the first time on Sunday. The young men in our ward are awesome, and they did so good to prepare him for that. But our lesson on patriarchal blessings was so good. I learned a lot about the importance of receiving a patriarchal blessing and reading it daily as we studied for him. I remember when I got mine, it was really a moment that impacted my conversion. It's personal scripture! And it's so amazing that we are given the opportunity to have them.

 

Monday we were at sites again and we gave tours to some people from Heber Springs, AR. They knew the Woffindens and a couple other people in Cabot. Small world! We also gave a tour to a family from Lehi. The daughter went to Westlake, so that was cool. I didn't know her though. She graduated two years before me.

 

Yesterday (Tuesday) was another great day. We took Lisa and Jim on a tour of the Johnson Home in Hiram (which isn't part of the village at Kirtland, so I haven't served there. It's in my area though so how that works is that the sisters assigned to the Hiram area--us--give tours there during the busy season. That season ended when I got here, so I haven't been able to give tours there yet, probably not till next summer, and then it depends on where I am assigned.) But that was an interesting tour. So spiritual, but the whole time I felt like I was going to throw up/pass out. that coupled with the fact that I knew nothing about the Johnson Home meant that Sister Johnson gave pretty much the whole tour. I was able to participate by bearing testimony, talking about principles, etc, but I was still woozy the whole time. The revelation room was especially spiritual. You guys need to come when my mission is over. So after the tour was over I was debating whether or not we should keep our appointments or not since I was sick. But thankfully we were in the right place at the right time, and I was able to ask some of the seniors for a blessing. It said that the sickness would not affect the work we had today, and although it didn't go away completely, it did happen as promised. It became bearable and we were able to do so much! We taught Michael and he opened up more than usual. He still doesn't feel like he is receiving an answer, so we talked a little bit about having a desire to know before we can truly receive an answer. I shared a personal experience and we were able to ask the right questions. So at the end of the lesson he prayed for a desire to know if this was the true church. I know that Heavenly Father will bless him with whatever it takes to gain that desire. I think he's going to progress a lot more after that lesson. It was way good.

 

Anyways. That's probably not going to be a regular thing for me to type out that much. Sorry that this was such a long email. There's just so much that happens as a missionary! It's so challenging every single day, but I love being a missionary.

 

Love you all!

Sister Coontz