New companion--new area

Scripture I really like:  2Nephi 1:15 "But behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love." It is inspired from the song "Savior, redeemer of my soul" but I just love the wording of it.  I can just picture it so clear, the love that my savior has for me. I realized this week how grateful I am for my testimony.  That also reminds me of what my companion and I have been studying lately.  We have decided to study one christlike attribute per week out of chapter 6 preach my gospel (PMG) and study it every single day and pray to better inherit it.  If you have a preach my gospel (which I hope you do), you should try it.  It's nice to just focus on one attribute and really try to make it become part of my character.  This week we chose virtue, and I'll just share a passage right out of PMG .  Concerning virtue, it explained: 

"Your mind is like a stage in a theater; in the theater of your mind, however, only one actor can be on stage at a time. If the stage is left bare, thoughts of darkness and sin often enter the stage to tempt. But these thoughts have no power if the stage of your mind is occupied by wholesome thoughts, such as a memorized hymn or verse of scripture that you can call upon in a moment of temptation. By controlling the stage of your mind, you can successfully resist persistent urges to yield to temptation and indulge in sin. You can become pure and virtuous."

It made me realize how important it is that I continually have a scripture or hymn in my mind so that my mind is never left bare.You asked for an update about the area /companion.  I don't really know what your looking for but her name is Sister Danalyn Hatch and she actually goes by Dani.  Cool huh?  She's from Ogden, UT and been out for nine months.  She's a hairstylist, she's really sweet and been a really strong and faithful member her entire life.  She's knows the gospel SO well and has taught me a lot.  I really am so lucky to have her.  

I don't know if I ever told you that I was called to be a sister training leader meaning that Sister Hatch and I work with the sisters in our zone, going on exchanges, giving trainings at meetings, and just making sure that the sisters are doing well.  We have a fairly small zone which is nice because we get to work pretty closely with them and really focus on their needs.  There is 8 sisters in our zone and it's such a blast! I've learned so much from these sisters. 

As far as the area goes, I live in Ooltewah. The area itself is Seventh day adventist-ville because of the university here which is something I've never delt with before on my mission.  I'm used to the good old baptists so this is kind of new to me!  They're so strong in their faith, it's incredible. It feels like a whole different mission working with them because they're just so, different.  We have a big ward-- the biggest I've served in thus far.  We have about 180-200 active members and a lot of young families!  It's been so much fun and we're really spoiled here.  We have an amazing bishop who is 110% missionary minded which makes the members really excited and involved as well.  We don't go a day without getting fed and we have members come out with us daily.  

We've been teaching this guy named Ty, who is very knowledgeable and strong in his Methodist church.  This week was our third time meeting with him and we've really been involving President Brodniak (who is a member of our ward and also works with President Irion) to help us teach.  Sister Hatch and I were really unsure what to teach him because he got caught up on the littlest things such as the nature of God, and how we can't know of truth by the spirit or a feeling, but of the evidences and sadly, we weren't all that excited for our appointments with him just because we really didn't know how to help him. Much of our lesson turned into him and President Brodniak flipping through the bible going on a scripture chase and I noticed how inadequate I was feeling as I realized that I couldn't even comprehend most of what they were saying.  Throughout the entire lesson, doubts began to enter my mind about how my knowledge was so limited and how badly I felt like I should know more as a missionary and at the end of the lesson, I found myself bearing my testimony about how I know that the things we teach are true not because of how much I know, but because the Spirit has testified to me that they are and if my testimony was based on the knowledge I had of the gospel and the evidences it contained, that I obviously wouldn't on a mission right now.  I'm not even really sure if what I said effected him whasoever but I recognized that the spirit really taught me something that night.  I realized that I may not know the scriptures as well as I'd like and my knowledge of the gospel may be limited but I do know that this is the restored gospel without a doubt and that is enough.  I can still have confidence and say just as President Brodniak can that these things are true even with the little knowledge that I do have because I have received a spiritual witness that it is.

I've had many more learning experiences this week, and I'm so grateful that I get to work with so many incredible people. I hope that you too can sit back and realize how much the Lord blesses us, even with the simplest things, such as a testimony.

Love you!

week of miracles

 I got to go to my first mission leadership council and elder hymas from the 70 joined us and it was SO awesome!  I forget how lucky I am to have so many opportunities to council with and be taught by some of the greatest leaders in the world.  Anyways, here is the rest. It has surely been a week of miracles, so I'll just jump right in and tell you all about it. 

 

The newest member of the Harrison Bay ward, Hannah Abercrombie was baptized this Saturday!  Leading up to her baptism, everything that she couldn't possibly been attacked with struck in one single week.  Tuesday, she came home to find her brothers 1.5 year old baby who has major brain injury and isn't the highest functioning sitting on her front porch.  Wednesday, her house caught on fire and Thursday, she got in a fight with her family about the church and came to her baptismal interview dripping blood, from being pushed down the outside stairs of her mothers home and getting cut up from a barbwire fence.  Sister Hatch and I being a little overwhelmed, felt like we should ask her if she wanted to push her baptism back a little bit until things calmed down and she explained that it was entirely obvious how powerful Satan really is and how nothing he could do stop her from being baptized.  Hannah truly was our two week miracle.  I had always heard about missionaries finding, teaching and baptizing in 2 weeks but I never thought I would expirience it myself.  It was evident that the Lord had been preparing her but not only that, preparing the ward to recieve her in as a new family member to this ward because they honestly couldn't have been more welcoming as members and it couldn't have happened without them.  I am still amazed at the strength and courage that Hannah has, and also how quick the ward was to jump to her aid when she needed help. 

 

The actual day of the baptism another miracle followed.  Hannahs baptism was set to be at four, and loosing track of time and not thinking too much about it, we turned on the font around 2:55.  Hannah arrived at about 30 minutes later and we decied to go check the font to see the water had not even reached the top of the very first step, hitting just above my ankle.  We starting stressing a bit and decided we'd sit kneel down, right there on the bathroom floor and pray for a miracle.  Sister Hatch offered such a sincere prayer, pleading that the water would be high enough for Hannah to be baptized. We decided we'd move the program into the chapel allowing more time for the water to fill until the actual ceremony when bishop walks in, 2 minutes before four and asked us why we were having it in the Chapel when we explained to him that the water needed to fill.  He looked at us and said, "Sisters! I don't know how full you are expecting it to be, but it's fine!"  We ran in the relief society room, and sure enough, the font had been entirely filled.  There was no way on earth that in those short 27 minutes, the font had filled at the rate it was going without the Lords hand being in it all.  I KNOW that the Lord answered our prayers that day.  I know that it was by no chance or coincidence that there had been enough water for Hannah to be baptized.

 

I guess that about sums up the majority of our week.  I truly have seen the Lords hand in every aspect of our work this week.  To top it off, I was able to stay in my area this week for exchanges as a sweet sister joined me and when I woke up that morning, I realized how sick I was. I just prayed that we would be able to make it to all our planned appointments that day and I would have the strength to work.  Although the Lord didn't completely take away my sickness (and quite frankly, I didn't expect him too), he allowed me to be able to teach and go to every single appointment.  Somehow, everytime I walked into a home, it seemed as if it was all taken away for the time being, not even thinking about it again until we would walk out of a home and I was quickly reminded that I was sick as I threw up again.  It was incredible to me that the Lord allowed me to be well enough to teach and just forget about it long enough that his work may still be accomplished.  I love this work with all my heart and I know my feelings about it will never change.

Love you!

 

Love,

Sister Thiriot

spiritual slapping

If I could sum this week up into a few words, I'd say that it was a week to be taught.  So many great things happened this week!   We taught more lessons than we have any other week since I've been in this area and got to meet so many new people!  We also had so much member involvement which was fantastic!  To top it all of, the chapel was PACKED.   We had multiple less actives come again and had four investigators at church! We were surely blessed this week.

I witnessed once again the importance of members.  We've been stuck with our investigators Tammy and Andrew for the last few weeks and we felt impressed to take one of our members to teach with us to see Tammy's husband, Kim (who is a member) while she was at work.  Our intentions were to have the member give him a "spiritual slapping" and that's exactly what he did!  I'd actually call it more of a spiritual punching, but whichever works. (A little background; Kim can't provide for his family because of health problems which causes depression and is basically dying from heart failure) The member basically told him that he obviously can't be the financial provider anymore, but it's his job to be the spiritual provider in the home and he is failing drastically.    Exact words, "You can either sit in the corner and rock your life away or you can die trying to help yourself and your family."  It was so intense!! I was clinging on the edge of my seat the entire lesson but the spirit was so strong, that his boldness only shook him up enough to make him do something .  Kim is already being more of a positive influence for his family. 

There were so many other instances this week where the members made all the difference in our teaching. Sometimes I even think they're here to just teach me! 

 I've gained such a strong testimony of personal revelation and how the spirit truly works. As I was able to attend zone conference this week, I really prepared myself by coming with questions so that I could better be prepared to receive personal revelation and I surely did.  It's not about what is said, but what is heard and felt.  Enthusiasm and the fire of missionary work and working with members seemed to be a pretty big theme. Missionary work is seriously so exciting and it's my job to help the members realize that.  Hey, so you should be stoked about it, okay? Oh, and I guess I should mention that I'll be getting transferred this week.  It was completely unexpected and a pretty big shock, but I'm grateful for all the time I've spent here in Watauga, and excited for the many changes to come! 

Until next week... LOVE YOU!

Sister Thiriot

I love being a missionary

So, I'll just start off by letting you know that my companion Sister Walser is still alive.  She is obsessed with football and didn't know if she would make it through the super bowl but I did my best to make her feel at home by buying her a lot of junk food and turning on "The District."  She said it wasn't quite the same but she was grateful for the attempt anyway.  

Meet Sister Walser 

School has been out for 3 solid weeks here in Elizabethton and our mission went as far as taking a snow day.  We weren't aloud to drive our cars so Sister Walser and I hit the shops (AKA. Walmart) to try and find people to talk to!  It was somewhat of a success.  I had no idea a little bit of snow and some black ice could really make a city shut down!  We're praying for better weather this week so we can get something down.  

Week 10 of having no one at church.  We were both kind of getting frustrated, especially because we felt like we literally did everything within our power to stress the importance of church, get our investigators rides, etc. and still, no one came.  We were laying in bed last night and Sister Walser says, "Sister Thiriot, do you realize how many less-actives we have reactivated since I've been here?" In the past 3 weeks, we have had 4 less-actives come every single week solidly.  I guess it went right along with what Elder L. Tom Perry came and talked to us about this week.  (That's right.  He came and spoke to our mission this week)  He stressed the importance of our less-active work and how important it is that the Ward council step it up to help the missionaries and ward become more unified.   We have high hopes as both the missionaries and the ward takes steps of action in helping this marvelous work further along and excited to see the results! 

Agency is frustrating and although many of our investigators seem to be using it unwisely, I was in the middle of a lesson with one of the families we were teaching and even though they didn't keep any of their commitments and were listing off multiple excuses, I just felt so much love for these people and that is truly the hardest part of it all!  I'm just praying that I will know how I can better help these people that the Lord has placed in my path.

I wish I had time for more because there is so much more to say.  I love being a missionary.  I'm sure you haven't heard that before.

LOVE YOU
XOXOX, Sister Thiriot

"you just saw that, huh?"

This week was extremely humorous to say the least.  Friday morning, an awesome member picks us up to go on a team up.  With all the snow and rain, the roads were all wet and muddy!  We are going to this appointment of a part member family who lives in a small trailer on a dirty farm.  We pull up and I realize that our team up is waring nice shoes and clothes so I figured I'd go and make sure they were home and my companion said she'd stay back and watch as well.  I'm carefully heading down the hill to their home, and I'm sure you can only guess what happened.  The next thing I know I'm flat on my back on the ground in a pile of mudd, goat and chicken poop, and whatever else.  I look up the hill and my companion is basically peeing her pants.  I lay there for a minute trying to catch my breathe and I look over and Adam (the guy who lives there) is standing there filling up his pigs water just staring at me.  I just said, "you just saw that, huh?"  He smiled and said, "Yes.  I was just trying to figure out what to say."  Moral of story is he asked us if we could reschedule and I ended up riding home in my team ups car with only my tights and boots on.  I'd have to say that was one of the best team-ups thus far in my mission.  More good news- after finding a bug nest near our fridge, our land lord decided to bug bomb our apartment!  What a blessing that us.  We're seeing less and less friends around these days. 

More BUGS

Working with Sister Walser is going really well.  Our focus as a district is talk to absolutely everyone, so that's exactly what we've been doing.   We've met some pretty interesting people, most not interested, but we have received quite a few referrals from some people who weren't even interested themselves!  Our poor investigator Evelyn is basically on her death bed right now, so we're praying a lot for her and hoping that she will just get better already so we can teach her again.  We are working with another excommunicated member who came to church this week and is talking to the bishop about get re-baptized!  She has a less-active son who is really looking to change his life around as well and we've had some really powerful lessons with those two. 

I wish I had a whole lot to say this week, but most of the miracles and true joys that I have witnessed this week, words can't really describe anyway.  I was reflecting back on some of the notes I took in the MTC, specifically an activity we did out of Preach My Gospel about who we wanted to become, and what we wanted to accomplish and it's incredible to me the growth and change I've expirienced in these past 11 months.  Sometimes I forget how much I've really learned being here but it again reminds me how blessed I am to be a missionary.  There is nothing I'd rather be doing right now than this.
Love you!

Christmas season

Well quick update this week:  

This week was the Christmas parade for the city.  We decided we'd make it into a finding activity and take the Elders and each take a side of the street.  Sister Ison and I wrote our number on a bunch of mormon.org cards and decided we would hand them out as we stated our purpose as missionaries but had little success.  We met up with the elders after to find out that they were passing out Christmas cards and DVD's and even got on the news!  We learned two things: 1: That Christmas pass along cards even exists and 2: you'll have much more success talking to people about the holiday season rather than talking to people about being Mormon.  Lesson learned.

Can I just say how much I love teaching the Sugg children?  This week, we taught them commandments, specifically about following the prophets and they just soaked it all up!  We played a fun little matching game helping them to learn prophets and their roles (Example: Noah built the Arc) and they were so excited to tell us what each prophet did as the game went on!  It was such a blast! Unfortunately, we had to cancel their baptism date that we had originally scheduled for the 28th of December.  We're hoping to recommit them for the middle of January after we go to teach their mother this week!

I absolutely love the holiday season.  I know I told you last week how big of a blessing it is to be a missionary during this season because ALL we do is center our thoughts and actions on Christ and it just makes Christmas that much better.  I hope that you too will continue to have a Christ centered Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our Savior!

Love you!!!!

Love, Sister Thiriot

Thanksgiving

 Thanksgiving here went really well!  The food was great (almost as good as yours!)  We didn't really have anything unusual surprisingly.  The family we ate with is actually from the west coast, so they know whats up. I know we are not supposed to have favorites as missionaries, but I sure do love the Jones!  They actually have a daughter serving in Peru right now, so they made sure to take extra good care of us in hopes that someone would do the same for their daughter!  

Thats so cool about the sister missionaries! I'm glad that brought you some comfort being with them.  I sure will miss being home this holiday season, but I only have one Thanksgiving and Christmas to be out here serving the Lord, so I am really happy to be here and am already enjoying every second of it!  Just know that I'm well taken care of, and you have no need to worry!

I'm one blessed little missionary... enough said. 

So I know I've told you how cool our neighbors are in the past.   This week, Sister Ison and I were singing a hymn for companion study, and all of the sudden we hear this really loud, obnoxious singing.  Every time we would pause to listen, he would stop as well.  After a few minutes of entertainment, we finally came to the conclusion that our neighbor wasn't a fan of our singing and was making fun of us. Lets just say that it made a really good laugh and I'm grateful for cool people that make our days a little more exciting!

With the holiday season approaching, everyone seems to be busier than usual which has made it really difficult to make appointments and to teach, however, we have done our best to remain diligent in trying to fill our schedule. We found a lot of opportunities for service in place of our cancelled appointments which was such a blessing.  Each time we found ourselves a little discouraged trying to make the most of our time, there would be something placed in our path to keep us busy until our next appointment.  It was even more proof that the Lord provides as we are willing. 

I'm am loving the ward and the area more and more each day. Okay, so honesty time- I know you probably think that missions are all butterflies and flowers, and don't worry, they are for the most part! However, ever since I got to this ward, I have felt pretty unwelcome here and Sister Ison stated that she, as well as most of the other missionaries that have served here have felt the same. On top of that, it has felt as we haven't really been physically seeing much of the fruits of our labors and a good portion of our efforts have gone towards the elders in our ward but once again, Heavenly Father knew exactly what we needed to keep us going.  There were multiple members that mentioned in testimony meeting that were doing a good job and appreciated all that we are doing which is huge! There was even a few members that came up to us directly and told us how much they loved us and glad that we are serving in this ward.  I guess it was just another little tender mercy to remind me that I'm not a complete failure of a missionary and remind me how blessed I am to have this opportunity to represent Christ.    I really am SO grateful to be serving in this area right now.  I'm already seeing so many positive changes in this ward!

Thanksgiving was fabulous and I am so full of gratitude for the miracles that happen each week.  Yesterday we had a really powerful with a less active member that we have been working with a lot who thinks the world is literally out to get her, especially the church.  We've been trying for weeks to figure out how to help her but no matter what we do, she seems to come up with more and more concerns.  After church, Sister Ison went over to follow up with her book of mormon read and she had admitted that she didn't read it, so we decided to read it with her.  After reading about half of the chapter, Sister Ison and I both put down our books, and started asking her inspired questions which were clearly not from us.  The spirit was So strong and by the end of the lesson, she was speechless.  Even though she may have not committed to coming back to church, she was left with a lot to think about. My companion and I both walked out of her house and looked at each other and said, "What just happened?"  It felt so good to know that I was able to say the things exactly what the Lord wanted me to say by simply allowing the spirit to work through me. More than ever before, I was able to feel that I was truly being an instrument for God.

I really can't even put into words how much I love being a missionary, so I'll just leave it at that! Talk to you next week... LOVE YOU!