Bye Bye Carmel

Sadly it is that time again... transfers.....and now I have to say goodbye to Carmel. It is going to be hard. I have learned so much here. I have had the opportunity to see so many people grow closer to Jesus Christ. Thank goodness it is the same work everywhere and I know I will be in for another fantastic adventure! But, I sure will miss Carmel, especially the ward and all of the members!!

This week it was fun to meet with Cory and Riannah post baptism and hear how much they loved it! We spent a lot of time talking with them about the gift of the Holy Ghost. Cory said that now with the Gift of the Holy Ghost that it is easier to say his prayers and Riannah said that she notices that she is nicer to her friends at school and has a better attitude. It is sweet to hear the simple testimonies and direct application of the blessings of receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Brother P came to church this week!! It was fantastic to see him there!! The first thing that the Bishop did (since he does his job oh so very well!) was to pull him into his office and give him a calling!! So now he is serving in the Young Men’s and is the assistant for the teachers quorum. As unenthusiastic as he pretended to be, we know he is totally excited! He loves those boys already! We pushed their baptism back to mid April so that Colin and Emma will be able to be baptized by their dad! It is so important that they make this step (this HUGE STEP) of coming back to church and reactivating as a family. Their ultimate goal is to be able to attend the temple together. When we first started meeting with them when I first came into the area, the spirit was not  abundant in their home. As they have made the changes that prepared them to come back to church, like reading the scriptures daily and praying as a family the spirit is now strong in their home. I am sad to leave because I love them! But I know that whoever teaches them next will be perfect for them! They are bound and determined and their family is moving in the right direction!

We were also able to meet with the Muttie and Sue this week! They have both had quite a few health complications... I mean they both are 80 years old... so not surprising. The Elders were able to give them both blessings of healing. It was super sweet to hear in their blessings just how much Heavenly Father loves both of them. They will be baptized pretty soon :) some of my favorite quotes from Muttie are

"Hello! Its my favorite girls!" (as he opens the door for us)

"I was praying so hard for those Elders the whole time. That the blessing would work."

"Bless her heart...."

"My wife Sue here doesn't know how good she is or just how much God loves her, but He sure does!"

As we are trying to shake his hand to walk out "Come on you can do better than that!"... then pulls us in for a hug. Had to get special permission from President Cleveland  o hug him after this happened 4 or 5 times in a row...... hahah

The converting power of the gospel is so real! The change that I have had the opportunity to see in individuals in Carmel is fantastic! The work here is amazing! We were able to see much success because of the members. Because of their love! They invited their friends to learn more and welcomed new and returning members with open arms. They understood and exemplified charity. They understand that it is through Christ that we are each made stronger and that we need each other in order to do so! I love Carmel so much and will miss it a lot, but I am excited for my next adventure!

Love,

Sarah <3

Bafetized

Our  dear sweet Cory and Riannah were baptized this week!!! ("Bapfatized is how Riannah says it:) The baptism was a little bit well, we are just glad that it actually happened! There were a lot of nerves and a lot of prayers involved. When we met with Cory and Riannah on Friday night, we were going over some of the logistics of the baptism and Cory announced that he no longer wanted to get baptized (yikes!) He just wanted to wait until he was about 20 or something so that he could wash away more of his sins. SO in a panic, we re taught baptism and confirmation and went over the blessings of being a member of the church. Turns out that he was just really nervous to be baptized in front of a lot of people (but talk about a good way to give the missionaries a heart attack!!). So the next day at the baptism we a running around a little bit like crazy people trying to make sure that everything is ready and good to go! Riannah puts on her jumpsuit and has a MELT DOWN. It was crazy! She was so excited until she put the jumpsuit on... then it was all downhill from there. Apparently the white jumpsuit that makes you look kind of like a marshmallow was not what she wanted to be wearing. I don't think she even smiled in any of the pictures that we took. At this point, Sister Barrett and I are basically panicking. I am just praying so hard that they do not let their nerves overcome them and keep them from making this sacred covenant. Turns out everything went well :) and they both decided to smile for us post baptism! BUT... it doesn’t end here. They were late to church on Sunday. The opening song starts and Sister Barrett and I run out of the chapel to call them and make sure that they are still coming to church!! They pulled up right as the opening prayer ended. We walked in and sat down with their family (their two older brothers came to see the confirmation..... they are next ;) Just as they sat down, they were called to go up to the front of the chapel to be confirmed. Talk about perfect timing!!!! Cory is now working on preparing to receive the priesthood. The change that has taken place in this 8 year old and 12 year old is amazing!! Before we met with Cory he had never prayed before and now in just a couple of weeks he will hold the priesthood!!!

I am sure that none of you really care all that much about the numbers in my area. But this week was the first week that we met the standard of excellence in its entirety! Actually we exceeded it in every standard :D We were so blessed! I would love to take the credit and say that it was my mad planning skills ;) But I know that it was Heavenly Father, he helped us be where we needed to be when we needed to be there!! We were able to have 12 member present lessons, 3 investigators at church (our prime two were no longer investigating at church.. so this really was a miracle!), 4 with a baptismal date, 5 new investigators and 29 total lessons!!! And we also had time to serve some of our investigators too. Talk about a fantastic week!!!!!!!! Oh and 2 baptisms and confirmations to top it all off :) Can I say I LOVE CARMEL!!!!

Colin and Emma are doing fantastic! They have a date now!! And came to church again (3 Sundays in a row!) They will be baptized on March 29th. Their mom gave us a call yesterday because she just wanted to express how grateful she was for all of the changes that she has seen in her family. Emma went to bed with a slight fever, and she said that on normal circumstances that she would have called off church the night before. She said that that thought to not go to church didn't even cross her mind! Instead she asked us to pray for Emma and that if she still wasn’t feeling well that they would just sit in the back for sacrament meeting and go home after (which is not the family that I met at all before!) Emma felt fantastic in the morning and they were able to attend all of the meetings :) The spirit in their home now is strong. They said that their

next goal is to go to the temple as a family :)

On Sunday, the E family brought their friend with them to church. Her name is Tealeigh. She is 18 years old and hasn’t been to a church since she was 11. She came a couple of weeks ago and we talked with her a little and set up a time to meet but she canceled when she got sick. We were happy and a little surprised to see her at church again! During Sunday school she leaned over and whispered to me that she felt really impressed that she should be baptized! We met with her after church and she now has a date for April 26th! Again another miracle from a member :)

This week was fantastic to say the least :)

Love <3 Sarah

Frosties and Mismatched Shoes

AHHHHH!!!!!  This week started out kinda of dumpy. Everything was falling through and we had no idea where the Lord wanted us to be and what we needed to be doing. On Wednesday after EVERY LAST appointment had fallen through, including our dinner appointment, Sister Barrett and I decided to take a dinner break, but we didn’t have enough miles to go all of the way home, so we stopped at a Wendy's at the area we were working in. Neither of us ordered Frosty's, because we decided that a Frosty was not going to solve either of our problems,...... though it would be pretty delish! So we sat down and started eating, trying to redo our plans for the evening, trying to figure out how on earth we were going to meet our goals and how on earth we could be effective, given our limited time and miles. So to paint the picture for you..... it’s cold and we are tired (probably have some sweet missionary bags going seeing as most of the day’s makeup was washed off) and we are whining to each other as we eat our french fries. Yes, I know, pretty pitiful. THEN, the Wendy's worker comes out with not one but TWO FROSTIES........ FREE FROSTIES...... Heavenly Father sure was aware of our needs ;) Turns out she was a member and they had to empty the chocolate frosty machine and switch it to vanilla (which is just wrong....) and she decided who better to give the Frosties than the sister missionaries! We were really excited, ate our Frosties while we read a couple of verses from the scriptures and then changed our attitude and the rest of our week was fantastic!!

This week was a miracle week as far as church attendance. We had 7 investigators and 2 less active members at church on Sunday!!!!! It was CRAZY! And so fantastic!!! Sister Barrett and I were running around like crazy trying to help everyone find their classes. We were a little late to Gospel Principles.. which was really a bummer because we were teaching the class! Ahh oh well, at least everyone got to their classes safely :)

There was only a little drama in getting everyone to their classes...

Riannah, in the rush that she had to get to church came wearing two different shoes. After sacrament meeting she hid in the coat closet with her Grandma because she was too embarrased. She said that there was no way that she could go to class with two different shoes on! Sister Barrett was talking to her and told her that no one would even notice. Of course, I had no idea this conversation had just occurred, because I was helping Cory find his class just down the hall. So I walk up and I say "Riannah, how come you have on two different shoes! You are so silly!" Ugggh.. of course her non-matching shoes just had to be the first thing that I noticed. Turns out that one of her shoes was exactly the same as my shoes. So I kindly offered her my shoe to wear so she could wear matching shoes to class. I wore her other shoe !! Haha I only got a few stares for funny non-matching shoes and on the bright side it was only about a size to small :) And Riannah really enjoyed primary :)

Muttie and Sue also came to church this week!! We think they were a little overwhemled because it was so different from what they were used too, but they even participated in class!! It was fantastic. They stayed for all 3 hours of church as well, but then again, that is the beauty of giving investigators a ride to church--  they can't leave without a ride ;)

Colin and Emma also came to church this week AGAIN!!!!!!! And they also stayed for all 3 hours! It was fantastic!! Tonight we are going to extend a baptismal date to them! Sister Barrett and I are so excited! We have taught them almost everything (Pretty sure the only thing we haven’t taught is the law of chastity and tithing.....) so we are thinking that their date will be about 3 weeks away-- gotta make church attendance a habit ;)

A few more things about my week..... but in a list so this email doesn’t get too crazy long:

1. We taught Cory and Riannah the Law of Chastity. It was only a little awkward! hehe.. Mormon Channel has some great videos that made it a whole lot easier!

2. Cory and Riannah PASSED THEIR BAPTISMAL INTERVIEW!!!!! It was so exciting!! After Riannah’s interview, she asked Elder Craven (side note--my District Leader from the MTC who is totally my District Leader now!) if he would baptize her!!

3. Sister Clerviox fed us delicious Hatian food! In the rice that she made, she used exactly 1 habanero to season it, which my companion dished onto my plate... the way it was cooked it looked like a yummmy cooked cherry tomato, so I popped the entire thing into my mouth, took a bite and started to cry. IT was SO SPICY.. and embarrasing. Pretty sure about half my taste buds are still missing... oh well :)

4. All of my texting in High School paid off :) As part of our Zone Training, we were asked to train on effective phone usage. Know that I didn’t do all that texting for nothing ;)

I am so excited for Cory and Riannah's baptism this weekend! It is amazing to see how the ward has welcomed them and how they are a part of everything! It has been amazing to see their testimony of the Savior grow and their love for the Gospel. It is going to be a fantastic week!!

Love you all so much! Thank you for all of your prayers :) They mean so much!

<3 Sarah

I took a nap and my companion made brownies as thank you's turns out it you add marshmallows to make them gooier they just butn before they get done. :(


Me and the mismatched shoes-- That's what I get for noticing everyone's shoes all  of the time.

Many are called but few are FROZEN!

Church was almost canceled.... AGAIN!!!! But,  thankfully we toughed it out even in the "snow-storm". What a blessing, especially since it was fast and testimony meeting and COLLIN AND EMMA CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!!!! It was so good to see the P family there! They haven't been to church in almost 2 years now. We have been working with them since I have been in Carmel, so almost 4 months now and they have said that they wanted to come to church for a while, but a member of the ward reaching out to them is what made the difference:

Her name is Elsa. She is a good friend of Emma's. They met a few years ago (I think they had the same 2nd grade teacher) Elsa found out that Emma was not active and invited her church. Her family would pick Emma up and for a few months Emma returned to church. A couple of weeks ago we had the opportunity to go into their family’s home for dinner. We were talking about the stake goals focused on missionary work, and in particular the one about extending a gospel invitation monthly. At the end of our short lesson we were helping brainstorm what kind of invitations their family could extend. Elsa decided that she would like to start inviting Emma again to activities, especially after she heard how badly she wanted to come back to church! So that is exactly what Elsa did! This week she invited Emma to activity day and gave her a ride. Sister P came to the church to pick Emma up. And this is where the story gets good. Sister P was welcomed with open arms. All of the members said hello and described how glad they were to see her there!! Sister P said when she got home that night that she now knew without a doubt that the church was where her family needed to be. She described how good it felt just to be back in the building and how she was determined that her family WOULD be at church on Sunday!!!! And that is exactly what happened--all because Elsa invited Emma to activity days. I am so grateful for her example of member missionary work and her true friendship. A 10 year old’s invitation is what made the difference in an entire family!!

This week we also had Zone Conference as well as Missionary Leadership Council. Two full days of meetings as well as an exchange seem like they might be enough to do you in for the week!! Again, Sister Barrett and I were so incredibly blessed and met nearly all of our goals this week!!!

Our mission has a new "official" baptism goal for the year. It is 1 baptism per zone per week!!! Seems easy right? We are so excited to have such a specific goal to work towards! If we are successful this will mean over 600 hundred baptisms this year in our mission!!!!!!!!!! (CRAZY!!!) Then again, the work is hastening!

The success that I have seen on my mission and the success that I have been able to be a part of is all due to the members. It is due to their willingness to come with us to lessons, their willingness to serve with us! Their willingness to welcome investigators with open arms and show their love and their care for them! This truly is a member led work and I am so grateful to be serving in an area where the members are so excited about missionary work!!

Thank you for your continued love and support! I am so grateful for all of your prayers and your letters....  I certainly wouldn't say no to more ;)

Love,

Sarah <3

More Blessings in Carmel

This week was fantastic!!!! So many miracles. We have been so blessed. But then again, this is the Lord's work, not ours.

Our mission for the past couple of months has had a standard of excellence. Part of this standard of excellence is teaching 20 lessons per week and since I am in a leadership position for our companionship some further standards are to teach 8 member present lessons with 2 of those lessons in a member’s home. Sister Barrett and I have been doing pretty good and most weeks we get somewhere between 18 and 22 lessons. BUT this week we had 34......... IT WAS CRAZY!!!! We were also able to have 11 member present lesson and we had 4 of those lessons in a members home. We were so blessed this week!! I am glad to be serving in such a fantastic ward with members who are so willing to have us teach in their homes. With members who care about who we are teaching and are so willing to come to lessons when we ask them too. And not that numbers by any means determine our success- but to think that each one of these numbers represent a person, a soul, someone who is precious to the Lord. This truly is His work.

Last week, I told you about Sam, and this week we started teaching his older sister, Sabrina! She is 21 years old and was just sworn into the Navy. She went to Catholic college for 3 years and has a strong roots in that faith. She is not sure that she wants to convert or that she ever will, but she is looking for more peace in her life (little does she know.... this is exactly what she will get ;) She came to church on Sunday and she is reading the Book of Mormon now!! She says that even if she doesn't convert, she has decided that these are truths that she wants to live that she wants to be able to be a support for her Mom, her Aunt and her Grandma who are all recent converts!

We had a lesson with Sabrina on Saturday night at 8pm. She told us that she was on her way out the door after to "hang out" with some friends, which from what she explained didn’t sound like she would be in the best environment. We ended up having a fantastic lesson on the Holy Ghost and how she can feel the influence of the Holy Ghost right now in her life and after baptism she can have the Gift of the Holy Ghost and that through the holy Ghost she can come to know whether or not these truths that she is learning are true for herself. We left this lesson excited about how well she received everything and how strong the spirit was and thought that she would just be on her merry way to go "hang out". We found out that after this lesson..... she decided NOT to go out!!! She told us that it just didn’t feel right and that she just wanted to stay in so she would be well rested for church on Sunday. Little does she know that staying home that night is applying exactly what we taught and acting on the influence of the Holy Ghost. The converting power of the gospel is so strong and so true! I love it!!!!!

 Here are some picture from my adventures in Carmel!!!

 We had a small ice storm on Monday of last week... and then I found this beauty

 We had dinner with R and C last night--Delicious Hatian food-  mmmmmm

The Indiana Temple is coming along

New Investigators with Baptismal Dates!!!!!

So many exciting things happened this week!! Again so many blessings :) The Lord never ceases to amaze me.

Transfers were this week, so we have another sister, Sister Ruth with us Monday evening and Tuesday up until transfers on Wednesday morning. There was also not enough room for the 10 new sisters who got to Indiana to stay in the mission home on Tuesday night, so we got to take 2 of them home with us :) Five sisters to one bathroom with only an hour to get ready is NUTs, but it was super fun to have all of them with us. It was so fun to feel these new sisters energy and excitment for the work. They really are so prepared to come out here and to serve!! One of them that stayed with us, Sister Clegg is getting trained in an area in our stewardship, so we will still get to see her and teach with her!!

So we have 3 new investigators with BAPTISMAL DATES!!!!!!!!!!

1. Riannah. She is 8 years old. Her parents are not members, but her less-active (but now returning member) Grandma, Sister Clerevoix is. She had come to church a few times, but never consistently. We went to meet with Sister Clerevoix a couple of weeks ago and BAM there Riannah was. We asked her if she wanted to learn more and she said yes. At the end of our first lesson we committed her to baptism. She said "Yes, I was to keep ALL the commandments of God!" She was at church this Sunday as well. She loves every minute of meeting with us. She ALWAYS has something to say though, it is kind of hilarious! Her grandma says that she is a 25 year old in an 8 year olds body. We were able to extend the date of March 8th to her just this week!!! (Which is a whole other story in and of itself!)

2. Cory. He is 12 years old and Sister Clerevoix's son. He came to church when his mom was active, but hasnt been for almost 7 years. We were having a lesson with Riannah and invited him to come and listen. It was so perfect because we were teaching the Restoration- specifically the Savior's Earthly Ministy to Riannah that night. He listened and asked so many questions!! He loved that the Apostles recieved the power and authority (the preisthood) to act in God's name. We talked about how when you are 12 years old that young men can recieve the preisthood. So then at the end of the lesson we committed Riannah to being baptized ont he 8th of March and Cory asked "Can I get baptized on that day too?" YES YES YES YES YES!!!!!! And they both came to church this Sunday and loved it! We are so excited to help Riannah and Cory prepare to be baptized on March 8th! (probably the highlight of my week!!)

But the excitement doesn't stop there!! Sister Barrett and I with all of these snow days have been calling lots of former investigators. Mostly we leave messages, but sometime they call you back and they want to meet again!!!

3. Liz. Liz is in her 30s and is from China. She moved to the United States about 10 years ago. She is super sweet but her English is not he best. She met with Sister in 2007, but when those Sisters got transfered she sort of feel through the cracks and hasn't met with missionaries since. She has read quite a bit of the Book of Mormon, but not all of it. She doesnt remember much of what she learned, but she remembers exactly how she felt. She came to church on Sunday as well!! It was a little bit awkward because she doesn't love talking to adults because of her English. She does understand almost everything, just has a more difficult time communicating back. In our very first lesson we met at the church and just taught the principle of prayer and God is our Loving Heavenly Father. She expressed that she hadn't prayed in years because she felt as if she wasn't worthy. The more we talked, the bigger she grinned. At the end of the lesson she exclaimed "I feel good! I feel good!" Though she does not understand the Gospel in its fullness yet, she is begining to experience and understand God's love for her! She loves how she feels when she comes to church, when she prays and when she meets with us. She accepted a baptismal date of March 29th. I am so excited to continue to teach her and watch her grow in her testimony and the gospel!!! This will be totally different then anyone that I have taught before. But so amazing :)

We are getting to know our land lord really well..... because surprise surprise our water heater went out....... for 3 days. This morning it was finally fixed. Never have I ever enjoyed a hot shower more :) (plus it lasted longer then 30 seconds......)

We have another investigator, Sam who is 9. (for some reason I seem to teach only kids.... hahah). Sam's mom and grandma just got baptized last fall. Sam attends church regularly with his Mom (well the weekends that he is not at his Dad's) and also comes to scouts. He loves primary, but he told us "I am just not sure how I feel about that Joseph Smith guy. Not sure it is true. I like the Catholic Bible." He told us this when we stopped by to teach his mom and shovel their driveway. We asked Sam if we could share a short lesson with him about the Book of Mormon. We taught him about Nephi building the boat and about how because he was obedient he was able to help his family. At the end of the lesson we asked him if he would like to know more about the Book of Mormon and the stories in it (becasue Sam LOVES his adventure Bible. He falls asleep reading it everynight.). He decided that he did want to learn more about what his mom beleived and more about the Book of Mormon. Just this week we taught about Joseph Smith and where the Book of Mormon came from. To our surpirse, HE LOVED IT!!! He retold his aunt and his grandma and his brother (who lives in NC :) the entire story perfectly! We gave him a Book of Mormon reader which he now reads every night. I just can't wait to teach Sam about baptism!!

Other adventures for this week:

1. We got grounded....again...

2. Got rear-ended in an intersection due to ice and snow. Thankfully no damage to us and only a small scratch on the car :)

3. Water heater went out

4. Have a new Elder in our ward who just came out. His uncle is our Bishop (SO EXCITING!!!)

5. Went to Sam's basketball game

6. Gave a talk in church about Missionary work (no surpise there....hahah) But more specifically it was about our new stake goal of 1 prayer focused on missionary work every day, 1 gospel conversation a week, and 1 gospel invitation every month!!

7. A member took us to eat at Chick-Fil-A and chick fila always makes me happy :)

8. Oh and weird... my trainer is now home

I love you all and hope you each have a fantastic week!!!

<3 Sarah

Brrrrrrrrr and tummy bugs

Last night we got our transfer calls and I am staying in Carmel, with Sister Barrett for the next 6 weeks :)

I caught a gross stomach bug earlier this week and got snowed in... AGAIN.

Considering the snow and the sickness and trainings and exchanges we still had a pretty miraculous week. We were able to teach a lot of members and meet with almost all of our investigators.

Ronnita has probably made the most progress this week. We were able to meet with her and talk about a baptismal date. She is going to get baptized on May 1st. She still has a long way to go, but she now has a testimony of her Savior, Jesus Christ. It is amazing to see the change that has come over her. While she has always had a testimony of God, she now better comprehends His love for her because He sent His son, Jesus Christ to atone for the sins of the world. We saw her on Saturday and she was a little distraught, because she found out that her sister had been stealing from her, but she expressed to us that this was an opportunity to turn to God and to rely on Him. She then said "I want to do it your way, I want to pray in the name of Jesus Christ now. I want to be baptized."!!!!!!! AHHH the spirit was so strong. It was so amazing to hear to her say this, because that was her biggest hurdle. She was Islamic before and didn’t understand the role of Jesus Christ. How amazing to be a part of this and to watch her begin to experience peace in her life. She has a lot to learn and quite a ways to go, but the journey has begun.

We were also able to share a picture of the temple with two of our other investigators, Muttie and Sue Fleener. They are an older couple (exactly.. I kid you not...like the couple from UP) but they are listening intently the to the discussions. They have started to read the Book of Mormon and are praying about being baptized. They are not sure that they want to change, but Muttie sure soaks up every word. They like the idea of priesthood authority, but need that confirmation of truth for themselves. It was awesome to see how much they lit up when we shared a picture of the temple with them this week. They know that it is a house of God.

This week it has been amazing to see how when those people are ready, the spirit can come into their lives and change their hearts. I am going to be honest, at first I doubted that Ronnita and Muttie and Sue would ever change. I love seeing the converting power of the Gospel come into people lives. I love being a part of that. It makes every second of this freezing COLD and SNOW worth it (cheers to the worst winter Indiana has seen in over 30 years)!

I love you all and thank you for your continued prayers. <3 Sarah