Week 24

Sorry for the late email today! I've got to keep it pretty short today. We were at D.C. for most of the day! Our mission president decided that since we were being so good we get to go visit D.C. every single transfer now (if we desire), instead of it being every 3 months.

Lately we've  been having a ton of really cool experiences happen on facebook of all places. I've been teaching someone in Ghana and sister Wilcox has been teaching someone in Nigeria. Although...just as with anything, you always find a couple of weirdos. I started talking to a man that thought he was a prophet and that he needed to talk to the LDS church because he thought that we could get him to Jerusalem so that he could prophecy to people and whatnot. hmm...

We had exchanges with our sister Training Leaders this past Tuesday. There was a pretty big storm that was happening, but at one part we got out of our appointment and we were driving along right before it got dark and the sky all of the sudden got really light, and turned a bright orangey, golden color. It reflected off of the street and the whole ground looked like it was paved in gold! It was pretty neat!

We have an investigator getting baptized this Saturday! Also, I'm singing in church this coming sunday just for funsies. So that'll be interesting.

The other day we also ding dong ditched some cookies at one of the other sister missionaries apartments. They were thoroughly creeped out that someone had come to their apartment, banged on the door and left.

Something really funny happened the other day in relief society. We had a new family move in and one of them just graduated from high school and so she was filling out the "get to know you form" and I saw her birthdate and when I saw the year I realized that Im getting old;) hahahah

It's really cool how much we are taken care of by the Lord. Man I especially recognize how much we are taken care of when Im a missionary. The other day I decided that I will need a gps in the next few months since im transferring areas and then training, so I called up my Ward Mission Leader and asked if he knew of anyone in the ward that would be willing to let me buy a GPS off of them and all he said was, "Hmm..actually I have one that you can just have! Let me go find it!" So he gave me a GPS for free. CRAZY!! I was really grateful though!

buuuuuut that's about all of the fun stuff that I have time to talk about!! love you all!!:)

Week 23

hey! this week has been pretty interesting. There wasn't too much that went on!

 

But First off....I had the opportunity of touching a chinchilla. They're very soft and fuzzy.

 

We got to help paint a nonmembers house and the 18 year old girl started asking all sorts of questions about the church. She asked us about swearing and then after we gave her an answer she said, "hmm...well since you don't swear, that probably means you don't drink either, right?" We're hoping to start teaching her soon!:)

 

Our investigator Chris Maeger just had his baptismal interview and he is all set and ready to get baptized!

 

On the Fourth of July we did some fun things! We were able to stay out an hour and a half later than we usually get to, and after we ate dinner we didn't need to go out proselyting, so we went to hang out with Mary Eargle, a less active youth in a different ward. We made crepes, and went hiking! It was a lot of fun. We only got to see little baby fireworks.

 

Well.. That's about all that happened for the week!! Love you all!:)

 

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(Adding in more letter that Kali sent to Kara)

 

You're the Young Women's Secretary! I always loved hearing you teach. I was able to feel the spirit really strongly, more so than when other people were teaching. You always were able to relate to people really easily. Youre definitely going to knock their socks off! lol

 

so funny story...the other day I was doing something, I don't even know what it was and I reminded myself of you. lol and I have a picture from your wedding where its got all the kids and we're making funny faces and stuff and I showed that picture in a lesson I taught in the gospel principles class and everyone was like "whoooaaa!! You look so much like your sisters!!!" it was pretty funny. I really enjoy looking like you all and being so close with you!

 

My fourth of july was pretty fun!!! Sometimes I would be doing something then I'd stop and be like, "Well its my sisters birthday...soooo I've got to celebrate with her! and therefore....I should probably eat this ice cream..." haha :) It's so weird being halfways across the world and having it be someone birthday and not being able to say "Happy Birthday" on their actual birthday. But hey at least I get to celebrate your birthday down here! lol

 

It's so weird to think that I only have a year left!! In three months ill be half way! weeeeeird!! Each transfer flies by so fast, and so by the time 2 transfers are done, another 3 months are gone, it's a really odd sensation haha

 

Cutting up Fruit to Freeze since everything molds so fast here

Fourth of July

Reverse planking (for Dad.) For reference, I have included why below.

 

 

Drinking Coconut Juice

Mary Rose Eargle and I on 4th of July. (Apparently.. I'm really short in this picture)

Our Coconut.

(Missionaries and their Machetes)

(Let us teach you the Gospel, they said. It'll be fun, they said.) :)

Superman cracks the coconut

Fourth of July

 

Week 22

The other day during studies, my companion and I were able to piece something together. Last week I mentioned that I could recognize different feelings in homes, and I've come to realize exactly what The difference in the homes is, it's CONSISTENCE. Consistent scripture study, consistent prayer and consistent family home evening. THAT is what the difference is. We decided to research the reasons why this could be. And as we were doing so, it made us even more so realize the importance of our calling. Lately with the church, there has been a huge push for getting members and missionaries working together, and we understood that that was important, but we finally were able to realize the true magnitude of what we are doing.

In the scriptures it tells us to put on the armor of God. We need to put on the armor of God because without it we will not be prepared for the second coming. We will have no protection against Satan. A missionary's job is literally to prepare the ward members for the second coming...but how does that work? Well...repentance.

So what is the true meaning of repentance? Repentance is change. Any time that we are learning and growing, we are repenting, or we are changing. Repentance doesn't have to be some huge thing where we get down on our knees and beg for forgiveness. We are asked to repent daily. So how do we do that? We study the word of God. Every time that we open our scriptures and pray and go to church, we are changing; changing to becoming more like Christ.

So how does that tie in to members and missionaries working together? So many ward members are not doing all of the basic things (scripture study, prayer, etc.)  that they should be. There are a lot of members who never read their Book of Mormon. Who never have sat down and willingly opened the book themselves. Sad, right? Well that's where the missionaries come in. A missionaries job is to "invite others to come unto Christ", and the way we do that is by calling them to repentance; or by inviting them to change. The only way they can truly do that is by doing the basic things that we are taught from a young age.

As members are doing these simple steps, they then qualify for the ongoing companionship of the Holy Ghost. Which when felt, helps us to remember what it felt like to be in God's presence. It helps us remember what we have the potential to become.

Personal and family scripture study is SO important. It definitely makes me grateful that we did all of these things when we were growing up! :)

So that is the main cool spiritual experience that I had this week!

This week we also he the opportunities to have interviews with our mission president. The first thing that he said to me is, "well sister quinton, we need to get you out of the area! Your companions have
spoken highly of you. I think at the end of this transfer you'll be moving to a new area and well...I think you're ready to train! Although..once you move to the new area I'll give you one or two transfers to get to know the area before I give you a trainee so that you're not completely white-washed!". So apparently I'll be training soon! That'll definitely be an adventure.

This week we had an interesting experience. We were on the way to see an investigator, but ended up not going because their next door neighbor was in the process of moving in. I knew the previous owners and lets just say that previously the house was not the kind of house anyone would've willingly chose to live in. There was piles and piles of stuff all over the house, there was barely any room to walk. They had kept black garbage bags over the windows so it was always very dim
inside. One of the rooms was their, "smoking" room, and that wasn't all of the stuff that happened in that room. Different sorts of drugs were there and in the hallway outside the door there were stains of
the drugs that had literally leaked and oozed from behind the closed door. Gross right? And that's not all, the floors, walls, bathrooms and all other rooms has a layer of dirt and dust that was caked
everywhere.

Well...you could say that the new owner definitely had a LOT of work to do in order to clean the house and be able to move in, in a week and a half. By the time we met her they had been cleaning for a week, and were still no where close to finished.

Our phone was baptized this week and now is not working at all.. ha ha

 

So funny story...last night my comp and I were teaching a 15 year old less active and then she decided that she wanted to come out with us to teach people. We went to see if one of our investigators was home...she wasn't. So then I thought, "hmm...we should go to the foreman's house!" lo and behold...we get there and sister foreman says, "oh hey, I'm on the phone with your mother right now!" talk about perfect timing! lol

 

also, funny story about "may the force be with you" so when one of our investigators was getting baptized, she set the date for may 3rd, and so I said, "well hey! At least you're getting baptized then, because on may 4th I can walk up to you and say 'may the forth be with you'!" she just stopped for a second....and then she started laughing. Hahaha it works perfect! Everyone should be baptized on may 3rd lol

 Buuuuut anywho.....that's about everything that happened this week!! Love you all! :)

 

super random...I don't know if I told you...but the coat that Leedle and Kiwi got for me for Christmas was seriously the best thing EVER. literally haha I used it every single day during up until like a month and a half ago. so THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!:)

Week 21

Hey everyone! This week has been wonderful! Sister Wilcox and I are still having a ton of fun together!

We had an interesting experience this week. This past Saturday we had the opportunity to help decorate/clean up after 2 birthday parties. It wasn't until after the parties that I realized something. I love both families dearly, but homes where people are keeping their covenants and reading scriptures/ praying/having family home evening, feel completely different from the ones that aren't doing that. I hadn't recognized before that that was a lot of the difference. In the first home I walked in and immediately felt safe and comfortable and I could relax. The room felt like some kids had just played really hard, had a wonderful time and left completely satisfied. The decorations were simple and inexpensive.

 The second home was starkly different. A lot of time had been spent on putting decorations around the house so that the everything looked perfect, almost as if the room was taken straight from a magazine. Perfectly spotless, perfectly organized....perfectly....perfect. It was almost superficial. The house felt stressed, I felt on guard and my spirit recognized that something was off.

My brain hadn't realized any of this until after the fact, even though my spirit had unconsciously been recognizing it. And now that I'm aware of it, it makes me even more grateful for the priesthood and for growing up in a home that strived to do their best with scripture study, and prayers and family home evening.

 

We had another interesting experience this week. We were eating dinner at a ward members home and she was telling us about how she had been in a religion class once and the teacher had started talking about self esteem and how a lot of people nowadays do not have a good self esteem. It's because they base it off of things that they do not have control over. For example, they say that they have high self esteem because they are pretty. But...that isn't something that someone really has control over. If we focus our self esteem on things that we DO have control over, then we will be so much happier. The teacher suggested things such as, "I have a high self esteem because I keep the commandments" or "I have a high self esteem because I go to church every Sunday". I just thought it was a really cool way of describing self esteem and it makes sense when you look out at the world today and you realize that not many people are happy and its because they're focusing way too much on the material things.

 

Something kind of funny happened this week as well... we were out talking to a woman outside her house and we saw her teenage daughter through the window. Apparently the daughter thought that it was hilarious that we were talking to her mom because she started taking "selfies" with us in the background lol I thought that was pretty funny.

 

Well...thaaaat is about it!! Have a wonderful upcoming week!!! love you all! :)