Week 40

Dear Family,

No big letter AGAIN!  But she says she may be sending something snail-mail.  We will put it on the blog, if we get something.

Here's some bits and pieces of our e-mail correspondence; 

I wrote her about some missionary work we are trying to do and about Talitha's birthday, which is WEDNESDAY!  She turns 12 and is going to the temple to do baptisms for the dead that very day.

 I am glad that everything is going so well AND SO MUCH MISSIONARY WORK IS HAPPENING!!! AHHH! That is beyond exciting that Ford and Julian are teaching the New member lessons, we are desperately trying to get our ward missionaries to teach the new members. Ford and Julian are great examples! They are going to be blessed for fulfilling their callings.

Happy Birthday to Talitha! and What a birthday present! THE TEMPLE! :) :)  The temple from Kearney is over 3 hours away and the members do their best to attend once a month, our members in Spokane have no excuse. 

I asked her which temple the saints in Kearney go to. I asked her about her investigators and the sisters she works with;

The temple is in Omaha. :) They can go all the way down to Kansas but they prefer not too. Omaha is closer. I am not cold. :) We do service cutting wood and working on farms even in cold weather. We are struggling finding people to teach. Those that we are teaching right now are not progressing. :( Gretta, this lady from Norway has begun to read the Book of Mormon but she does not believe that we need to go to church to be with God. Lynn, this other lady we are teaching, has lots of physical problems, but wants to get baptized before her birthday in March! Which is exciting, but she is really struggling keeping commitments. A miracle that happened yesterday: a couple that the elders are teaching came to church! It was a miracle watching them walk in!! We were all so excited because all the missionaries and Veras (wml)  (I am unsure what this means "wml" I should have asked her) have been working with them for a while.

Neither of us brought our cameras today. :( Sorry!! I am mailing you some letters today though!! It is all apart of the plan. :)

The sisters are doing alright. Satan is so real and just pushes right at their weak points (I am included in this). We are all working on making our weaknesses strengths through Jesus Christ.

That is basically it.  I have mixed emotions about this whole e-mail process.  Michael and I didn't have it.  We took our letters around with us on Preparation Day, work on them, had time to write.  Lani only gets about 40 minutes on the computer to read letters/write letters.  Yet, Ruth and I can make this blog because of the internet.   SUCH IS THE TRIAL/BLESSING OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY

Love,

Sam/Mom/Sister/etc.
 

Week 39

Well our Darling Lani did not really send a letter this week :(

I did get to e-mail back and forth with her a little.  Something I hover around the kitchen doing every MONDAY morning.....Desperate moms!


I was telling her about my Gospel Doctrine lesson on Sunday covering Abraham 3 in the Pearl of Great Price and  the principle of Foreordination. Our family had just discussed the First Presidency's message this month, setting goals.

Her response:

I am so glad the lesson went so well! Those are really thought provoking questions. I feel like once again in my life I am finding out how much Satan wants our souls. He knows our weaknesses perfectly and wants us to fall and never reach what we were foreordained to be....I love the quote in preach my gospel...
“I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don’t set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life.”
–Elder M. Russell Ballard


Keep talking about goals as a family! I know that I need to get better about setting and reaching goals because goals are what keep us going and progressing. 

 I asked her some questions about where she eats, service and if she is staying WARM!

We are eating at members homes. I love the members. It is so refreshing being in a home where the spirit is present. We cut wood this week at the farm where we milked the cow. :) It was great!
I am staying warm. Thanks for checking mom!

She then just mentions that she and her companion are doing well, still traveling and going on exchanges with sisters.

I asked her for pictures, maybe next week.  Please keep up the letters :)  Love Samatha

Week 38

Hi Everyone!

So Kirsten was not baptized on Saturday. It is a long story, but really such a miracle.

So she was set to be baptized this last saturday. We had everything planned out until she called us that told us that she was moving to North Platte on Monday and she still wanted to get baptized, but she would just leave a couple days later.

It is amazing how Heavenly Father works. Things happen that make other things make sense and work out.

Anyway, we got to Thursday and we were still planning on Saturday, but then Sister Page and I prayed about it and felt sick. We went to our ward mission leaders home, discussed it with him and had Kirsten come over. We told her that we felt that she should wait. I was nervous because the last time we asked our investigator to wait, it blew up in our face. :)

It was a miracle, after we told her this, she said that she felt a weight lifted off. The spirit was very strong as it confirmed that she needed to wait to get baptized in North Platte, especially since her mother lives there. I am so grateful for answers to prayers. I know Heavenly Father answers our prayers and I especially know that Heavenly Fathers plan is SO much better then our own. I shiver to think what might have happened it we went through with the baptism here in Kearney because I know that was not Heavenly Fathers will and what Kirsten needs.

Needless to say, this week has been a bit of a roller coaster. We were sitting in Sacrament meeting, feeling discouraged. During the sacrament, the thought came to mind, "are you enduring well?" An hour later, our ward mission leader texted us D&C 121:

 7 My son, ^apeace be unto thy soul; thine ^badversity and thine afflictions shall be but a ^csmall moment;

 8 And then, if thou ^aendure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy ^bfoes.

 9 Thy ^afriends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands.

 10 Thou art not yet as Job; thy ^afriends do not contend against thee, neither charge thee with transgression, as they did Job.

1. We need to endure well because our trials will not last forever! And we need to be so grateful for a trials because without them, we could never become like our Heavenly Father. Our trials are essential for our salvation.

2. "Thy friends do stand by thee" I sat there, feeling alone. I thought of Jesus Christ and His mission.

Mosiah 14:3 He is ^adespised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 

I just know that when we endure well the hard times, that is was helps us become. We are not alone. Jesus Christ knows and understands and He can heal us.
We are blessed with standards and commandments because Heavenly Father loves us and He knows that it is only through living the commandments, keeping our covenants, that we can become like Him. It's all evidence of God's love for us.

I hope I don't sound preachy. I have had a lot on my mind this week. Thank you for sharing with my your missionary experiences. It gives me hope that we are all doing the same thing! It helps me feel like I am not so alone. Members and missionaries must be united because that is what Heavenly Father wants!
Thank you for making it possible for me to be out here. I love you all and hope you have an incredible week!

Also, that is so exciting to hear about Elder Anderson! Such a incredible experience.

I love you all dearly!

Love,

Sister Call

P.S. We just barely started teaching this lady from Norway, Gretta. She is sort of crazy! But we love her!

Week 37

Dear Family and friends!

I hope and pray that you are all doing well. Thank you for your testimonies.

Kirsten got up and bore her testimony with her best friend, Claire yesterday! It was a miracle. Kirstens testimony was short. She didn't tell a story, she just said, "I know these things are true because the Holy Ghost told me. I feel it." Sister Page and I were so happy! What a testimony! Our testimonies should be simple declarations of truth and straight from the heart. I love this girl and am so grateful I get to be her friend for the rest of our lives! Heavenly Father definitely has a plan for her.

It also just bore testimony to me that member missionary work is the Lords work. No matter how much we tract to desperately find people, our only success has come through the members. And that is how it is going to stay. Heavenly Father wants all of the tribe of Ephraim to fulfill our responsibility to share the gospel with the entire world and He is not budging on that. :)

This week has been wonderful. We had a great exchange with the Hermanas in Grand Island. It is always fun to try and speak spanish. :)

I hope you are all doing well! Sorry this is so short! I love you all and pray that you have an incredible week. Keep up the great work! Keep inviting people and I promise that the Lord with trust you with someone that is ready and prepared to accept the gospel.

Love,
Sister Call