Tyler and McKenna get Baptized

I cannot believe how fast this past week went! Between Thanksgiving and going to Fishers for a specialized training and a baptism we stayed really busy! We really did have an amazing week!!! Tyler and McKenna were baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. What an amazing opportunity to be a part of their conversion! Theyasked me to give the talk on baptism in their baptismal program...and I am proud to say that I only cried a little :) some things never change! After they were baptized we asked them how they felt. To hear them describe the joy that they felt was priceless. I am so grateful for this gospel for the way that it changes hearts and helps us all draw closer to our Father in Heaven!

Serving a mission has been a wonderful opportunity. I have learned so much about my Savior, Jesus Christ and His Atonement as well as our Heavenly Father's perfect love for us! I could not think of a better way to spend this past year and half! I know that Christ's church has been restored to the earth today in its fullest and I will forever be grateful for this time that I have had to share this great message!

If you haven't seen the new Christmas video, He is the Gift... you have to see it! Here is a link for it :) 

http://www.mormon.org/christmas

Thank you so much for your continued love and support! I have been so blessed from all of your prayers. It has meant the world to me!

Love,

Sister Sarah Mumford 

The whole Eskridge clan at Tyler and McKenna's Baptism! 

Thankful for So Many Blessings

This week was fantastic!!! There were so many miracles it was unbelievable! We stayed super de duper busy, which makes things even more fun (well if you ask me!!). We were able to teach 27 lessons this week, 13 of which had members present.  We were truly blessed! What a great ward too with so many individuals who are always so willing to go out and to teach with us! We also received quite a few referrals as well this week, which was also awesome- its really fun when we have the opportunity to teach member’s friends-- it makes our job a lot easier :) 

This week Angie, a former member we have been working closely with was able to come to church! She was so excited to be back at church after having been gone for so long. She hasn't been to church in over 30 years. Sister Tanner and I sat with Angie during sacrament meeting and her excitement to one day be able to take the sacrament again reminded me why the sacrament is so important!  What a wonderful opportunity that we havet to renew our covenants that we have made with God every week.  It is the perfect time to reflect on our relationship with God, what we have done well that week and what we need to do better! I love the peace that is in the chapel as we take the sacrament and the opportunity that I have  to feel so strongly of my Savior's love for me every week. Angie's renewed enthusiasm for the gospel, especially for the sacrament reminded me of just how important the sacrament truly is! 

Tyler and McKenna are getting baptized on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!! They both had their interviews last Saturday and both passed- so now the baptism is officially going to happen :) The young women and the young men are both very excited for Tyler and McKenna. They both already fit in really well with the whole ward! It has been so fun to watch them change and to grow over the past month or so. They are truly amazing. We went over yesterday just after their family home evening and they had almost their entire extended family there as well! I know they are going to help the rest of their family come back to church. :) Ashlynn, Tyler's sister isn't going to baptized on Saturday- we had a few set backs with her, but she is working towards a new baptismal date of December 27th-- and is progressing well towards that!

Dennis is also doing well! He is praying about getting baptized on December 13th! I just hope he decides soon to take the plunge ;) But he will take that step when the time is right for him.

We contacted an awesome member referral this week! He is a recovering alcoholic and is looking for spiritual growth, but wasn't sure quite where to turn. We were able to share the message of the restorations of the gospel of Jesus Christ with him. Turns out that he actually lives in Warsaw, so the Elders there are going to be teaching him now, but it really was an awesome experience.

I am really excited for Thanksgiving this week and for McKenna and Tyler's baptism this weekend! It is going to be really good week! I am so grateful for all of your love and your prayers- your continued support on my mission! This has been a wonderful opportunity to share the gospel of Christ, which I love so dearly, an amazing opportunity to testify of God's love for all of His children and the hope that comes through his divine plan for us! I am so grateful for this gospel and for my Savior and his sacrifice for us! Have a great thanksgiving this week :)

Love,

Sister Sarah Mumford 

Snow!!!!

This week was pretty awesome! We had quite a few adventures.. that is for sure :) All of our investigators seem to be progressing really well-- there is a lot of work to do in this area, which I just love!! Worst part of this week is the nasty cold that Sister Tanner caught…. poor sister Tanner :( We are just praying I don't get it too!! 

IT SNOWED! Waayyyyyyyy too much!!!!!! But really. It made the traffic terrible and the roads were an ice rink, but we stayed safe. I thought that you would enjoy a little story about me falling in it. So we were on our way to zone meeting Friday morning (after the big snow on Thursday). Sister Tanner was backing me out and when she got in the car she said that there was a HUGE ice chunk kind of hanging off the back of our car that she didn't think was totally safe to be driving with. So we decided at the first stop sign not even a block from our house that we would jump out and try to kick it off. So that is what we did…. except the jumping out part didn't go so well.. hahah. The road was completely iced over. I got one foot out safe (or so I thought) and the next thing I knew I was lying flat of the ground, with one foot still caught up in the car. In the process of all of this I let out a pretty nice little yelp- but then busted out laughing. I was stuck.  Sister Tanner helped me up. I was laughing so hard! So funny…. and it only resulted in a little bruise on my arm and a scabbed knee and endless laughter!!!! (I love the snow!) hahahaha

Tyler and McKenna this week were in charge of their family’s  Family Home Evening. Their family loved it too! They found a scripture for everyone to read that was about them or something that they could work on. They also downloaded the scriptures onto their phones. They are progressing so well!! I love their enthusiasm for the gospel. Seriously, I do not know how I am so blessed to be a part of their conversion. They both LOVED church on Sunday this week as well. We went over to have a lesson Sunday afternoon and they couldn't stop talking about how much loved it! Tyler on the way home from church said "We sure need to do this church thing more often!" 

Ashlynn is struggling a little. She has some learning disabilities and is going through quite a bit of testing right now. She has not been making the best choices, and her family is sure how accountable she is right now. She is a sweetheart and we are going to be working with her a lot this week to see if we feel like she is ready to make this covenant with God or if now is not the right time for her. We shall see :) 

I also got to go on an exchange with SISTER CUTLER. Yeah it was pretty awesome :) But really!!! It was so fun and it reminded me of all of the good times that we had in Warsaw. Seriously though… I don't know how I got to be so lucky that I got to serve around her again! 

We have been working a lot with a former member. She is super sweet, but has a pretty serious word of wisdom issue. She smokes ATON! But now she is down to 2 packs a day and has stuck with that and is working towards baptism in January. She is a sweetheart. We have been reading the Book of Mormon a lot with her. As she has read on her own and studied the Book of Mormon, we have begun to notice a change in her. She is filled with so much more light!!! -- Conversion is a process of replacing darkness with light in our lives. It is learning how to find joy from living our testimonies of Christ! And what better way to invite light into our lives then by going to a pure source of light or a pure testimony of Christ! That is exactly what the Book of Mormon is.-- I know that Angie is changing because she is inviting the light that comes from reading the Book of Mormon, another testament of Christ, into her life and she is acting on the spirit that she feels as she reads it!

I know that the Book of Mormon truly testifies of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Every time I read the book, I feel my Heavenly Father's love for me. What an amazing opportunity that I have now as a full time missionary for the Lord to share my testimony and the light that I have gained from this book- this divine source of truth!!! 

Thank you for your love and support! 

Love,

Sister Sarah Mumford 

not the best picture… but hello snow!! 

Mishiwaka-flaka adventures

This week was awesome!!! We had quite a few adventures along the way. I think the highlight of our week was when Tyler, Mckenna and Ashlynn all came to church!!! Which means that they are right on track for their baptism on the 29th of November!! My favorite lesson with them this week was when we took them on a church tour! Their mom and dad and grandma and aunt all came as well. When we showed them the font they were all really excited about their own baptisms. I loved how when we described how they would be baptized, they all lit up. I am just so excited for them!!!! At correlation meeting yesterday we were talking about them with Bro Pretras, our ward mission leader. He was so excited about them as well-- he said that he has been trying to get something to happen there even since he was made ward mission leader. I am so grateful to be a part of all of this! They are so prepared! 

We also had a really sweet lesson with Dennis this week. In the middle of our lesson, he was like "I need to get baptized, I think that is the next step for me." It was all I could do to keep from grinning. He was also able to come to church this week! And he is praying about when he should be baptized. He said about Christmas time felt right.. which is exciting because that is soon! 

Sister Cutler (she was my companion about a year ago!) is serving in South Bend and on Wednesday we were able to go back to Warsaw together.  Someone that we had taught in Warsaw a couple of times-- (family to Shelby and Adam--Adam was baptized a year ago) Sister Cutler ended up teaching a lot who got baptized, passed away last week and we were able to go the funeral. It was sad, but Katie, who passed away, wanted it to be a celebration. So that is what it was. We remembered her life! I am so incredibly grateful for the gospel and for the knowledge that it gives us-- that families truly can be together forever!

And now for a list of funny things that happened this week:

-Taught a lady who is an excommunicated member working on getting re-baptized. We were trying to show her a video but the sound on her computer wasn't working... she really wanted to see it though so we just narrated it. Almost like just watching it ;) hahah

-Met an Indian family that let us right in. They were Muslim, but we shared a short message and they fed us pomegranates and were so sweet and sent us home with a bag of fruit. 

-Met a less active member who spent 45 minutes telling us every reason why we should not get married.. ever. Her reasons were pretty funny. 

-Went to a Relief Society Christmas dinner...... wasn't it just Halloween?!?

-Spent an entire lunch break seeing how big we could blow balloons until they popped... I so wish I could attach the video.. it was pretty great!!

Well that is all! I hope you all have a fantastic week. Thank you for your continued love and support! 

Love,

Sister Sarah Mumford 

Snow and Miracles

This week was fantastic!!!!! We had snow on Halloween! It was pretty crazy. Welcome to the lake effect, the chilly winters, the snowy tundra of northern Indiana. Thank goodness it hasn't snowed since, just a lot of rain!

What a fantastic week that Sister Tanner and I had in Mishawaka!!! It was awesome! We had several lessons and got to know a lot more of the ward and even committed 3 of our investigators to baptism!!! The 3 investigators we committed to baptism are Tyler, McKenna and Ashlynn Eskridge! They are 14, 13, and 12 years old. They went to church a lot when they were younger. Their grandma is a member and so is their Dad. We committed them to be baptized on November 29th! They are so excited! I love them so much already. They are so sincere in their desire to come closer to God and they are already reading the scriptures with their grandma everyday! They weren't able to come to church last week because a couple of them were sick and the car wouldn't start…. but they will be there this week! The ward just loves them too! I am so excited to see them grow over the next month as they prepare for their baptism!

Dennis quit drinking coffee!!! Which makes us so excited because that means that he is now that much closer to getting baptized. He said that he thought it was going to be a lot harder to give it up then it actually was. He said that the first couple of days were difficult, but now he hardly misses it. He is now praying about when he will be ready to be baptized! 

On Saturday, we had a little bit of time, so I took Sister Tanner tracting. She was pretty nervous, but by the end she was very confident in talking to anyone who answered their door! It was fun to watch her change over just two hours of trying something new. I am so grateful that I have learned how to open my mouth and how to testify of what I know to be true. The gospel is so exciting, how could we not share it with EVERYONE!!!!! God knows us all perfectly and He loves us unconditionally. He loves us so much that he sent his son, Jesus Christ to die for us! I know that through Jesus Christ we all can return to live with God again. 

Thank you for your love and your support!!!

Love,

Sister Sarah Mumford 

Oh and here is one last picture with some Indiana corn fields…. they look a little different when they are dead. hahah

Mishawaka

Hello Hello!!! I am in Mishawaka now!!!!! Which is all of the way up north :) technically this part of Indiana is considered Michiana. Our ward boundaries barely go up into Michigan! My companion is Sister Tanner. She is super fun and super cute!!! She is 19 and went to a year of school at BYUI before she came on her mission! She is wonderful and loves to work hard. I can not wait to see the adventures that this transfer will bring :) Oh it is also super fun because Sister Cutler in now one of my sister trainer leaders and she is serving in the ward right next to mine! 

We live in a cute little trailer :) It is actually one of the nicest apartments that I have had my whole mission! The worst part about it though is that our water is NASTY! It is very hard and has lots of sulfur in it..... it smells really bad... so showering is an adventure. Our ward mission leader told us that we can't drink it because that is how hard it is! So instead we buy water... so weird that we have to buy water. oh well :) it is an adventure!

The fall up here is beautiful! We spent the last couple of days trying to get to know our area and the members and the people the sisters before were teaching!

We met one of our investigators, Steve. He is pretty sweet! His wife is an inactive member and they live with his mother in law who is very active. We were able to read 3 Nephi 11 with him when we met with him and we talked about priesthood authority. He is so sincere in everything! We committed him to pray about a baptismal date. We can not wait to meet with him again this week to see what his answer was! 

We also met with Dennis. He is a funny man. He has been meeting with missionaries for a few months now. He understands and believes almost everything. He just isn't sure if he is willing to make the commitment necessary to be baptized and isn't sure if he is willing to give up coffee. I know though, that as we can help him understand how to apply the atonement more fully that he will have a desire to change and that the commitment part of the gospel will come more naturally! 

We also had the opportunity to give a church tour to one of the Bishop's coworkers, Eric! It was awesome! He loved being in the church and wants to learn more. We were able to invite him to baptism and he said "of course I would be baptized if I knew it was true! That would only make sense!" I am grateful that this gospel is so logical and that Eric was able to recognize the spirit as we taught him the restoration! 

This area has so much potential! The members seem very willing to share the gospel with those around them! I am so excited to be here and I am grateful for the opportunity that I have to first half train Sister Tanner. (even if it stinks that she has to kill her mom...) I know this church is true! Christ lives :) and I am grateful that is isn't freezing yet! 

Love,

Sister Sarah Mumford 

 This is the view from our street

Sister Tanner and Sister Mumford with a "sunday Selfie"

Moroni Files

We had quite a few adventures this week! But, I thought that first I would start with what is happening at transfers!! We honestly last night had no idea what was going to happen at transfers... Sister Hales and I were trying to patently await our call, or text! Well the verdict was not at all what we expected, but it was exciting!!! I am officially released as a Sister Trainer Leader and I have been called to train (only first half train) for my last transfer!!! It has been a while since I have trained, but I am super excited!!! A little nervous, because this means that I will get double transferred into an area, but it should be an adventure, that is for sure :) So next week I will get to send pictures of my lovely greenie! It will be really sad to leave the YSA branch. I really love it and it has been a lot of fun. 

We had a wonderful surprise this week when we got kidnapped by one of our members, Lita! Her fiancé, Logan, who is also our ward mission leader has been working on the temple. We had planned to contact on campus with Lita on Friday morning, so we met her at the church as usual and were getting ready to walk over to campus. Then she asked if she could share a big secret with us! And that secret was "at 11am, Moroni will fly!" She then asked if we had any set appointments (which our only scheduled one had just canceled) and then she asked if she could kidnap up!!! So we got to go to the temple in Carmel to see Moroni FLY!!!! The temple was beautiful and it was so much fun! I loved how I also got to see some old friends from Carmel who also went to the temple to see Moroni put on the top! And it was a beautiful day in comparison to our kind of dreary and rainy week!!! 

Sarah and some members after the angel is placed.  The girl on the right just got home from her mission to Utah last week and had dinner with Sarah's Mumford Grandparents and even got peaches form their orchard.  Sarah might be a bit jealous.

Sarah and Sister hales before the angel goes on top

Christian is still doing awesome! We had a lesson with him this week where we were able to invite him to be baptized and extend a baptismal date! He is getting baptized on December 13th! It is wonderful because he is reading the Book of Mormon everyday. He wasn't able to get off work this week- but sounds like he will be able to next week!!! So exciting! 

We met a really cool guy on campus this week- his name is Elijah. He is on IUPUI's basketball team! We kept seeing him EVERYWHERE, and on Friday, we finally had the opportunity to talk to him :) He was sitting outside of the bookstore. So we approached him and got to know him a little and we were able to then teach him about the restoration! We were not able to set up another time to meet because of how busy he is with work and basketball, but he was pretty receptive :) I think that the best part was is all transfer I have been telling sister Hales that I want to talk to him, since we saw him everywhere and we were finally able to say more then a hello in passing and actually share the message of the restoration with him! 

I am so grateful for the Atonement! I am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and for this message that we share! I love this gospel and I know that our Heavenly Father loves us! That is exactly why He sent His son to die for us! I know that through Christ's atoning sacrifice for us that we can return to live with God again. We can be cleansed from our sins and we can gain the strength that we need everyday to follow His perfect example!!! 

I hope you all have a wonderful week :)

Love,

Sister Sarah Mumford 

 One last "Sunday Selfie" with the beautiful Sister Hales

Enjoying the beautiful Indiana Fall