Week #53: Transfer Week = An Emotional Week

Saying Goodbye to Sister Wood

Hello my loves!

I don't even know where to begin this week! SO MANY THINGS HAPPENED. 

But first of all, HUGE shout out to by SI GUY! Happy Birthday buddy!!! :)

This week was FULL of miracles. One right after the other, and boy, am I overwhelmed with gratitude! And I am SO grateful they happened while I was still with Sister Wood!!!

Sister Evans... the new companion

This week we got six, yes SIX new investigators, and they are all EXTREMELY prepared. I have been blown away by the guidance of the spirit this week. 

Ferdinand is from the Ivory Coast and truly recognized us as representatives of Jesus Christ as we taught the restoration. As we testified and promised blessings, he thanked us multiple times. He is such a sweet heart, and I am thrilled to be working with him!

Gregory is incredible. He had a buddy that passed away in a car accident that they were in a few months back, and he has an incredible testimony of prayer. We are so excited to teach him about the Plan of Salvation. What a blessing that knowledge is!

Victor is hilarious. He reminds me of all my boys back home! We were laughin the whole time. (Don't worry, the spirit was there!) But we are way excited about him.

Willie.. Willie is AWESOME. As we taught him the restoration, and he was overcome with the spirit. We had waited on him to get to his lesson for 25 minutes, debating on if we should leave, when all of the sudden he walks into the library. He had forgotten about our appointment and was sitting on the bus, when his alarm went off to remind him to meet with us. He got off the bus and ran to the library! As we taught the restoration, he got very emotional, and said that he knew God needed him to hear this message. It was a very powerful experience!

Christina is a family history investigator, who we are positive will come to love the gospel. She is SO sweet.

Fred we met while walking down the street. He was dozing off on a chair across the street, but I felt prompted to go talk to him. As we did, he opened up about the trials he is facing and said that God had sent us to him. Wow! 

Derek is still doing extremely well. We started reading the Book of Mormon with him, and man. The spirit was so strong. He fell in LOVE! we only read 1 Nephi 1-3, but he didn't want to put it down. He kept asking if we could keep reading to see what happens next, but we left him on a cliff hanger to see for himself on his own! It was a really neat experience.

We also set a baptismal date with our investigator Andrew for November 7th! We are SO excited about that!!! Please, please keep him in your prayers!

We also were able to meet with a lot of our recent converts, and that was a huge blessing. 

Transfers were Wednesday. I've said it before, and I will say it again, and I'll probably say it the next time as well... but I HATE TRANSFERS. 

Emotions. SO MANY EMOTIONS.

It was SO hard to say goodbye to my sweet Sister Wood! I hated it. haha SO. MANY. TEARS.

that's the mission life for ya.

 My new companion is Sister Evans from Wallsburg, Utah! Don't worry, I didn't know where that was at either... haha but it's by Heber. She is SUPER athletic and very, very, VERY hard working! 

I think I MAY have about killed her yesterday. We walked ALL day. She was pretty exhausted last night. It was awesome! Hard work makes for the best sleep ;)

I'm overwhelmed to be leading the area and getting Sister Evans adjusted, but I know the Lord qualifies those he calls. 

For those of you who asked, I am still on TCC campus and I am still a sister training leader! Everything's the same except my companion!

I'm so blessed to be serving as a missionary at this time in the world. I can't thank my Heavenly Father enough for the life changing experiences and testimony building moments He has given me. I'm grateful for prayer and the spirit, and I know that they work hand in hand. 

I just want to leave ya'll with this quote from Elder Uctdorf's talk in the Women's General Broadcast.

"As you walk along your own bright path of discipleship, I pray that faith will fortify every footstep along your way; that hope will open your eyes to the glories Heavenly Father has in store for you; and that love for God and all His children will fill your hearts."

I love you all SO much, and I am so grateful for your prayers, letters, support and love!

Until next time, 

Sister Holmes :)

 

Wk #23: Tribulation Builds Testimonies

It's definitely been a rough week in this neck of the woods. I want to start off by thanking everyone for the

sweet, sweet words about my very loved grandma! I've been overwhelmed with the love and support I have gotten. As hard as it has been for me out here, I know that she will be my extra companion in this cherished mission of mine.

I have been EXTREMELY grateful for Sister Rohwer this past week. She has done everything in her power to help me and make sure I'm okay. It's been a humbling experience as she has been so selfless. I had the incredible experience of being able to feel Heavenly Father and my Saviors infinite love for me through Sister Rohwer. It has been a week full of emotion and heartache, but one of overwhelming gratitude and love. She has truly shown many Christlike attributes towards me, and has taken me under her wing. She has the biggest heart, and has cried with me in times of sorrow.


The work has been a little slow this week seeing as how my cute companion and I have both been sick, but we did get two new investigators, and they are amazing. Walt has come from a very dark past, but has completely changed his life around and has an incredible testimony! The elders were working with him, and after scripture study Wednesday night that Sister Rohwer and I taught, him and his girlfriend (a member in our ward) came up and asked us to continue teaching them. We had a very powerful lesson after that, and we have felt so honored! And the other is Lacreesha! She is a SWEETHEART.

We are so excited :)

 

Sister Petersen & Sister Palmer. Both went home last week. My Sister Trainers. Very hard to see them go.

We are still working with sweet little Jazzanae for her baptism in a few weeks. She is a doll, and we love her to death! Keep praying for the 18th of April!

We also went on quite the bike ride on Saturday (both sicker than sick) and SURVIVED. 20+ miles in humidity ain't got nothin on us.

We also have discovered that the other two sisters have a little grill... so we have used it multiple times this last week! And no, I did not eat those veggies. haha

With General Conference fast approaching,  I would like to invite you to prayerfully think of questions you'd like to have answered. Search the scriptures, talk with your Heavenly Father, and write your special questions down. Ponder them over the next couple weeks and prepare your minds spiritually for the words the Prophet and leaders of the church will speak. Your questions will be answered!

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/live-according-to-the-words-of-the-prophets?cid=HP_Homepage-2015_3-18-15_dPTH_L1-C_762&lang=eng

LOVE YA'LL!

Sister Holmes :)

Week #13: MIRACLES! THEY'RE REAL!

Alexa & Sister Rohwer (Logan, UT) during Christmas day Skype

WHOA! Has this week been amazing or WHAT! Sister Rohwer and I are being SO BLESSED right

now. We've just been dying at how quickly the work has boomed this last week. My heart has never been so happy!
We got 3 new gators this week! Can you believe that?! THREE CHILDREN OF GOD READY FOR THE GOSPEL! And not only that, but we have 3 others that are pretty amazing potentials that we think with become investigators, and one little 7 year old girl we are working with for baptism! The Lord answers prayers, that's for sure! So all together we have 5 investigators! *insert the victorious butt scootch dance, screaming, and jumping up and down with all the excitement of the universe.*

Now here is a story all about how the work got flipped turned upside down. I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, I'll tell you all about how the work is hastening out here... I'm so clever.. ;)

 

So I hate to admit it, but my faith had been lacking a little. We had seen little to no progress on the people we were teaching, we were having a difficult time finding new people to teach, and our plans kept cancelling left and right. As one of the most frustrating days was coming to an end, Sister Rohwer and I decided to pull into a parking lot and say a prayer. We sat there for a minute and decided to go to a gas station to get a drink. (I may have told this story last week... so if I did, ssoorrryy. you get to hear it again. but stay tuned. There's more information!) There was one person in there. And he was the worker. His name is Peter and we shared the gospel with him! He was SO interested. So fast forward a few days, and we were able to take him on a Church Tour, and teach him about the Restoration. We gave him a Book of Mormon, and the spirit was extremely strong! He asks the most incredible questions and has such a strong desire to know which church to join. He is our age, and is from Egypt (the gospel will be shared with all nations!) and is such an amazing person. He is always telling us how good he feels when we teach him and how much he looks forward to our next lesson.

 

Then, Sister Rohwer and I went on exchanges. Our Sister Training Leaders are Sister Peterson (aka Sister Pete) from Utah, and Sister Palmer from Arizona. And WE LOVE THEM. They are the two funniest human beings on the planet. Sister Pete and I were able to talk to a bunch of people on the streets as we rode our bike in tundra weather, and even ran out of Book of Mormons to pass out! The spirit was so strong in each OYM we did (OYM = Open Your Mouth) and we had so much success. So much that we have a family we are going to begin teaching, and another man who has been looking for this gospel. Holy Miracles!

Not only those, but we had THREE investigators come to church yesterday! That is HUGE! One of them being a lady we met saturday while riding our bikes.

 

As I was riding my bike, I was praying so hard to Heavenly Father. I told him that I knew he would place those children who are prepared to receive the gospel in our paths. I knew he would guide us to where we needed to be, and that I knew he had a plan for our day. I asked to have my eyes spiritually opened, that I would be able to be aware of all those who surrounded us. So, silly me took the wrong turn on my bike. We laughed and just went with it, and that's where we met Cindy. I yelled hello to her as she was unlocking her front door. She looked at me, and started walking toward me. I turned my bike around and rode back to her to hear her say to me, "I know you. How do I know you?! Are you from around here? Have you worked in an office building here locally? I have seen you before. I know you!" I was like wwhhaatt.. So i went with it. She brought up the gospel, was asking questions, and asked if we had any literature for her to read. So, of course I whip out my handy dandy Book of Mormon and she was so beyond excited! I invited her to church for the next day, and gave her the card with the church address, time, and our number. We set an appointment to meet with her on Tuesday.

 

Now, while this was happening, another man came up to Sister Rohwer and started asking her questions! We ended up sharing the gospel with two completely different people, and gave both of them a Book of Mormon having two completely separate conversations, AT THE SAME TIME. What the WHAT!

Now, it's Sunday. We were ecstatic to have two of our gators at Sacrament Meeting. We went to Sunday School, and randomly got summoned out of class. Lo and Behold, Cindy had WALKED about an hour to church because she didn't have a car and she wanted to come see what it was like. SHE WALKED. My heart about leaped out of my body! She stayed for Sunday School and Relief Society, we ended up having a lesson at her house a few hours later, have another appointment set up with her for tomorrow, and she wants to come to scripture study on wednsday, and church again on sunday! we have found her rides, and she is so just crazy awesome!

THE WORK TRULY IS HASTENING! My faith has been increased ten fold, and I thank Heavenly Father every day, and all throughout the day for blessing Sister Rohwer and I with these opportunities, and trusting us enough to let us help these children of His!

Sister Rohwer and I couldn't be happier, and we have seen the miracles and blessings that come from prayer and companionship unity.

SO! This week, I want to invite YOU. I want to invite you to pray for a missionary opportunity. They surround you, and they are always available. Have the faith of Enos, and have the desire to bring one of Heavenly Father's children into the fold. Have a desire to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel, through Faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, Baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. I know with every ounce of my soul, that you will be blessed with such an amazing opportunity to share the gospel.

I am SO grateful to be a missionary! And to not only wear a badge on my chest, but a badge on my heart. This church is true!

LOVE YA'LL!

Sister Holmes :)

Week #5: Why is it COLD in FLORIDA?!

Um, if today's weather isn't a hurricane, I definitely don't want to experience one! HELLO RAIN! Luckily, it's been warmish rain... but anyway..

This week is a BLUR! I'm pretty sure that the world decided to skip Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday because this week FLEW by. Both my companion and I were sick... AGAIN. haha what the heck. But that hasn't kept us down! The work must go on! We have taken it easy though, she was much much worse than I was. So we've been getting back on our feet. It's been going around here though. Our whole ward has it I swear!

Speaking of our ward... We have dinner appointments EVERY NIGHT this week, and some lunch appointments! They llloovvee to feed us! So it's been awesome! We had chicken and dumplings the other night at a members house, and some delicious steak and potatoes another night. Also white chili? Thumbs down. But I was a big girl and ate it all... go me.

Our friend Ben brought us over two big bottles of Cranberry Sprite which is basically Christmas in your mouth. So that was heavenly. And we also got cupcakes from Sweet Grandma Nash :)

 We got TWO NEW INVESTIGATORS THIS WEEK! Daphne and John! John is 82 and rides a Harley around, and he's from New York. So his accent is hilarious. Southern and Eastern? So funny. But he is a stubborn old man. I guess he was raised by nuns and they beat him all the time? So he doesn't have a good view on religion. We're going to change that though. He is a sweetheart. So pray for him that his heart will be softened a little bit!

Daphne is our next door neighbor. She is so sweet, and a little crazy. But the other night I felt like we should go see how she was doing, and we ended up sharing a scripture with her and she was so overwhelmed by the power and "feeling" she got from just reading a couple verses. It was about the Atonement... so we gave her a Book of Mormon and told her to read Alma 32. Well, the next day she stopped us in the parking lot and told us that she LOVED the chapter! We were so excited! We are going back tomorrow to teach her some more.

Her grandpa has dimentia and was visiting her with her mom and son and her grandpa ended up running away (to the highway behind our apartment building) pushing his daughter into the road and to the ground, tried to get away, fell in the middle of the road, and caused a big big scene. So when we got home we pulled in to find a ton of police cars in front of our building. Daphne summoned us over to talk to the grandpa because he likes us (he thinks we are nuns...) so we talked to him, calmed him down, and then talked to the police a little bit. We were mostly there for Daphne, she has a lot going on right now. But we ended up meeting her son and he asked us for a Book of Mormon and a Bible! So we were super excited about that. She starts Chemo here (she's not very old) shortly, so pray for her too!

We went to go visit a family that we've been working with, but they weren't home, so instead we started talking to a group of 10ish kids... and I FELL IN LOVE. The s w e e t e s t little girl came over to me, so I knelt down to talk to her on her level, and she had the biggest, softest eyes, and told me her name was Bella. She spelled it for me and everything! She is probably 4? So cute. She followed me around everywhere and wouldn't leave my side. The older kids were riding our bikes around and thought my bike was the coolest thing they had ever seen. haha Right then the Elders showed up on their bikes, so we had a fun little time with the kids. Just then, a one armed man came up, showed us his nub (at the shoulder), showed us how he could dance with it and that that was why people called him "Lean wit it, Rock wit it." He grabbed change out of his pocket, put it in his cup, laughed at himself, and walked away. hahaha I about died. Then we raced the little kids on their bikes.

Speaking of bikes... Oh my gosh. haha biking in a skirt? Not my cup of tea. Heck. I don't even drink tea! ;) It's been interesting that's for sure! But, it gets us where we are supposed to be, and saves us miles on our car. It was freezing the other day though and I'm pretty sure my fingers were formed to the shape of my handle bars. haha

It has been a good week though. I will admit... you were right. I MISS THE SNOW! (what?!) it just doesn't feel like winter without it!

The scripture that I will share with you is D&C 8:8-12. It has been my favorite this week. 

Without faith, you can do nothing. Pray, act, and nurture your faith, and your testimony will grow ten fold. Be obedient and strive to do your best. The Lord will bless you!

I love you all!

Love from Callaway :)

Sister Holmes