October 28th

Well my area is super awesome. Its like a non stop petting zoo. Ive petted a donkey, chicken, horse, and more its been super fun and my area is gorgeous!!!!! I seriously love my area!!!! So after I emailed you all last week we went to zone sports and I spent most of the time on the stage writing letters their all finished its just getting them sent off now. But afterwards we had dinner and the elders had the same dinner appointment so my companion and I were waiting for the elders when we saw a chicken at the church yard. My companion was bored so out of nowhere my companion started to chase the chicken it was hilarious. After dinner we tried a bunch of families but the hard thing of our area is most of it is dirt roads, with no address name and if you do find it none of the houses have house numbers so we tried a bunch of people but no such luck :(

 

Tuesday-  Super slow day :( We tried a bunch of people but literally no one opened their door it was super frustrating but we kept going we were able to share a message with a non member which was the highlight of the day but otherwise it was a super slow day.

 

Wednesday- Almost like Tuesday but better!!! We were able to go to a less actives house and share a message with the mom and while we were there her teenage daughter came home and talked to us. She was super cute and we found out later that the young women have been working with her to get her active again. But they were super fun and we found out that the daughter loves to cook so we working to find a way to help with that. On our way out we saw a guy outside so we stopped to talk to him but he turned out to be a bible basher  And he went on forever. We finally were able to get away but man he went on FOREVER!!!! We later went to a less actives house which was pretty interesting we had no idea what she was even talking about. She said her daughter was in the hospital but then her daughter walked in. We then found out that she has dementia and Alzheimer's which explained a lot. She talked about the Jehovah witnesses ALOT and told us that she said no to baptism with them. So it was pretty interesting... Later that night we saw a less active named Sister Hassel shes pretty awesome. we are going back for lunch tomorrow we are excited and we are hoping to get her back to church.

 

Thursday- So Thursday is set apart for planning but the elders showed up and asked if we could go with them to do service. We told them yes so we went with them to a less actives house. So we went and helped build a fence with them.

it was pretty fun. They had chickens, ducks, and horse that loves to follow you. I pretty much fell in love with their horse. After that we worked on our weekly planning for the rest of the day.But then we also saw a part member family. The wife who is not a member was really fond of us and told us to come back so on Halloween we will be teaching her the 1st lesson. Afterwards we went looking for some houses on our way we ran into people and were able to give out pass along cards it was pretty nice.

 

Friday- We had district meeting. My district leader gave us a topic and told us to talk about it. They gave the the holy ghost which luckily was my farewell talk so I felt pretty prepared but then our zone leaders and the assistants walked in. I was freaking out but it went well and they said I did a good job so phew. After that meeting we went and taught one of our investigators. Their names are Josephine and ross alredite. The elders found them 2 weeks before we came into the area. They told the elders that they are struggeling so the elders gave them priesthood blessings and they were super impress by it and have been doing better since then. When we got there ross had to sadly leave for work but we stayed and taught Joesephine the plan of salvation and she was super impress by it. She told us about her son who just got out of prison after 16 years!!!!! And she said that he wants to change his life and that might be the way so we are hopefully meeting her son this weekend. At the end we asked her about baptism and she said she wants to learn more before she decides.  Afterwards we went back with the member that went with us and she showed us her craft room and she shared with us her life story it was pretty cool. That night was pretty slow but overall pretty good day.

 

Saturday- was good. We had lunch with the RS president and we got info on our area. Afterwards we tried 2 less actives that let us in!!!! it was awesome it was the first time that we were let in everytime we knocked on the door. After dinner we went to a Halloween party where a bunch of less actives were and met and talked to them.

 

Sunday- meetings, meetings and meetings but it was good and we tried a bunch of people but no such luck :(. But we are going to keep going this week and make it good. I love you all and hope all is well..

 

But I want to write some advice to you all to help those who are preparing for missions

 

Weekly Planning- That I absolutely HATE. But there are ways to make it fun so some advice that ive heard from missionaries to make it fun is. 1) Food. Either go get some fast food from somewhere near by, get ice cream, my companion and I bake some baked goods during lunch and then eat during planning. Have a picnic..., 2) play church music as you do it that way your not completely bored.

 

Teaching people- Be Visual as you teach. Have pictures, if your teaching the plan of salvation MAKE SURE that you have some sort of visual to make it more understandable for example drawing it having cards. ect. Also videos help to Mormon messages are awesome so if you can buy the Mormon messages, or any other video that the church or your mission president approves USE it!

 

Preparation day- Make it fun!!!! A lot of missionaries sleep on it but seriously do something fun. if your allowed to spend time with other missionaries do it! Play sports with them, go to a zoo, just do anything fun.

 

Also missionary work is not just sitting and teaching you can do other fun things with it. Missionaries have birthday parties for members or investigators, there were some sisters that had a movie night with an investigator they watched Legacy and had popcorn and candy. Get creative and fun on your mission. Even our prophet laughs and has fun. So have fun I love you all. and have a great Halloween.

 

Sister Worthington's New Area: Valencia

October 21

So last week when I emailed you all I told you that I was starting a new area somewhere with a new companion. I was terrified and finally by 5:15 the missionaries that were down in Texas arrived and my area was the last to be announced. :/ They announced that my companion is Sister Moulding (which shes pretty awesome by the way) and then they announced that we were going to a place called Valencia County which is right next to Los Lunas. So they gave us our car (no more biking!!!!!! yay!!!!) and we headed off. It was only 20 minutes away from Albuquerque and we got there and ites pretty much a farming village!!!!!!! I was super excited when I saw it. We found our house and we live right next door to goats, Chickens, and roosters. And our neighbors are super nice they came up to us and said hi and introduced themselves and they said that they watch over the missionaries that live here and make sure nothing bad happens to them. So we feel super safe here. But we go in and the sisters before us left the place a mess!!!! I was super ticked off and my anxiety was all over the place to go along with that. But then the elders called ( we cover the south part they cover the north) and they said they were heading over to meet us. So then when they got there because of mission rules they told us to follow us to the church. Once we got there I asked them for a blessing after the blessing I felt a lot better. Afterwards they explained the area to us and we met the relief society.  So later we were back home when we heard a knock on the door. The relief society showed up and helped us clean our house!!! Bless their dear hearts :). The rest of the week has been pretty busy. Meeting the bishop, our ward mission leader, lots and lots of meeting with the elders and others. We did service, we also have tried some less actives. And we also got 2 new investigators on our first week here!!!! So so far so good were pretty excited!!! And we have also become super good friends with the elders their names are elder reams and elder reading and their both super awesome! Im super excited for this area!!!! Love you all :) Also heres a pic of sister Tompkins and I back in my old area with the Carillo family :)

October 8, 2013

So seriously what a crazy week!!!! We had 5 investigators that dropped us due to different reasons, 2 moved out of the state very quickly, and others asked us not to come by :( but overall its been good.

Monday night we saw one guy who was struggeling and we think he was drunk.... but we talked to him anyways.

Tuesday- We were going to see a less active but we didn't feel good about going so we canceled and she got really mad and called the mission office to tell them were terrible missionaries OUCH! but the mission office told us not to see her again and not to worry. Later we saw Silvia and shes doing awesome shes becoming a really strong member of the church again their working on getting her a calling. Later that night we saw a referrel named Natalie she let us in right away and we set another appointment with her. We then saw a less active and it was super sweet she told us that we made her night by coming over to see her.

Wednesday- We went and saw a less active named lucia and when we were there she told us the real reason why she doesn't come to church anymore. It was really sad (for confidential reasons cant say why but) we later saw another less active and shes struggeling with a lot of things mostly with her kids 2 of them are most likely going to jail so we helped as much as we could.

Thursday- I woke up in ALOT of pain and i couldn't even move so we tried calling some missionaries some elders finally picked up and we asked what it could be they said possibly kidney stones so they drove over and gave me a blessing. Later the mission doctor called and said it was probually a pulled muscle so i grabbed the heating things from my slippers and put them on and we were able to go out that night. It was super painful but we did get to go to a rs activity where we learned how to make fry bread which is super duper good. I loved it :)

Friday- Felt LOADS better :)  so we went to zone training which was good. We saw a few people afterwards but the best part was that we went back and saw the referrel and we taught her the first lesson and she said yes to baptism!!!!!!!! Im super excited shes awesome.

Saturday- General conference was incredible. I loved president Uchdorfs talk i want to print it off so badly and give it to all the less actives. And also Elder Hollands was incredible. and also did anyone notice the fly during one of the talks it was pretty funny.

Sunday- General conference was super awesome again. :)

Monday- Seriously best day ever!!!! After 6 months was finally able to go to the temple. It was super powerful and the new movie incredible!!!!! After we went into the celestial room we went into the sealing room where President miller, sister miller and the temple president gave a devotional it was awesome. Afterwards We went outside and took photos and they gave us lunch. We afterwards went to desert book. then afterwards we were chosen to clean the temple so we cleaned it. Then afterwards they showed us all these cool things. We got to walk where the oxen are in the baptismal font, got to see the waiting room for the kids getting sealed to their parents it was super cute. They had all these toys for them and all these outfits for them. and then we showed the elders the bridal room. Afterwards we went to chick fil a with some elders. It was awesome i also found out that one of my past investigators in white rock is getting baptized im super excited. I love you all and will let you know if ill get transferred or not. till then... LOVE you all and hope all is well

You can tell you're in New Mexico when...

Sept 30

What a week!!! Its been awesome though! I have become a Green chile fan my favorites are chicken enchiladas with green chile and pepperoni pizza with green chile its the best thing in the world.

Monday-  We tried to see a less active and she forgot that we were coming and we couldn't find anyone to go out with us so we stayed home and did weekly planning... :(

Tuesday- We got a phone call from our investigator Erin the one that was going to be baptized she told us she didn't want to get baptized anymore and that she doesn't want the missionary disscussions anymore :( ive never been so sad. She had no reason the only thing I could think of is that satan got to her. We tried a bunch of people and no one was home. But we finally were able to see a less active named Leah shes really awesome. Shes a convert of 3 years and we taught her about tithing she said shes been lacking faith about tithing so we helped her with that.

Wednesday- A member picked us up and we got straight to work. We first saw a lady whose less active and when she opened the door and saw us she told us to go away and not to come back. The member we were with got really scared and didn't want to see anyone else but we reassured her that its ok and that it happens so we saw another less active and she let us in and we were able to share a message with her. after that we got dropped off and got picked up by another member and we saw Silvia whose my absolute favorite. Shes a convert from Germany shes really funny and crazy but shes improved soooo much. She brings up the prayer now and we are able to teach the lesson without a disruption its amazing how the gospel changes people. Afterwards we tried to see more people sadly no luck :(. That night we went to a less actives house where she has a neice that's not a member so we went over and talked about god. The nonmember Debbie said that she felt disappointed in her parents for not teaching her more about god so we askd her if we could help her come closer to god and she accepted. Afterwards we went and tried a few people but no such luck.

Thursday- Back to weekly planning... icky and we now started a new way of weekly planning that we write down their commitment to follow up on, their next commitment, what were going to teach them, and how were going to get them to church. It takes FOREVER but it will be worth it in the end. That night we had the scariest dinner ever and im serious!!!!!! Shes this 90 year old lady who has completely lost her taste buds and has lost her mind. First she has this really scary dog that has sharp teeth and really scary eyes and it bites you every time you walk. Then for dinner it was this soggy broccoli and this really cold lasanaga and this jello with mustard on it. but I ate it all regardless of how scary it was. afterwards her dog was biting my companion and my companion started to kick it and the member couldn't see it and was telling us not to be scared of her dog that it only bites boys we both looked at each other and finally got out. We both felt sick after dinner but we went and saw a less active named Laura. Laura hasn't been active for 15 years. One excuse is that she doesn't have a dress to wear and the member with us said she would wear pants with her to church, so then she brought up that shes too tired to come to church so we told her about the later church but she still rejects them all its really annoying and we cant figure out the real reason. We then saw a lady named Laurinda shes less active and she comes to church every week but she struggles behind the scenes so we are helping her as much as we can.

Friday- We had district meeting and it was really good. One of the elders has a really rare disease called snails fever that he got from the Philippines so we said our goodbyes to him cause he went to slc to university of Utah to help treat it. so his companion is in a trio now so theres only 5 of us in our district but its really fun. Afterwards our district and the other district went to panda express for district lunch and this member that none of us knew paid for ALL of our meals it amazed us all. The total at the end was about 84.00 dollars!!! Afterwards we continued with weekly planning. That night we visited a referrel and she was really sweet she let us in and we talked for like an hour and she told me how much she loved Boise it really made my night she said that she might move there and I told her she should lol then afterwards we went and saw Debbie our new investigator we taught her the restoration and it was a very good powerful lesson overall.

Saturday-  We continued with weekly planning most of the day but saw people in between time. We saw an investigator named Robert hes a black guy from texas and hes seriously the coolest guy I have ever met. We answered a lot of questions about the blacks not having the priesthood, the role of a women in the church and more it was really tough but we made it through and we survived. Later we saw Silvia and we taught her the plan of salvation she couldn't remember what it was and it went really well. We then saw the relief society broadcast which was very very good. Silvia came and our investigator Debbie came and she cried the whole time and said she loved it :). Afterwards we went to a fireside of a man that is apart of the preach my gospel committee and turned out it was one of the assistants grandpa. To start out we sang called to serve and we were partially into the song he stopped us and told us we could do loads better so he had us stand up and sing as loud as we could. His talk really touched us all. It was a very strong talk that we all truly felt changed us all. Afterwards we sang Army of helamn which I absolutely love. We sing instead of we will be its we are NOW the lords missionaries. Afterwards I saw my mtc companion sister karl we both jumped up and down and cried and hugged each other. its been 6 months since I last saw her it was the best thing in the world to see her again. afterwards the sister got us home ass they were leaving we heard this skidding and we looked to see if they were ok. They luckily were we ran to see what was wrong. They ran over a milk carton and it got stuck. My companion craweled under the car and got it. I was pretty terrified for her to do that but shes ok. So something to laugh about. Oh also if any of you remember Debra that I use to teach that said yes to baptism but moved. I met the elders that are teaching her and they said shes getting baptized THIS SATURDAY!!!! I jumped up and down im seriously so happy to hear of one person that I have found is getting baptized.

Sunday- We went to church and it was good.  We continued with our weekly planning that night we tried a bunch of people we tried a potential investigator his mom answered the door and told us that their not Mormon and we told her we were looking for her son so her son came to the door looking terrified and he said one moment and closed the door and afterwards another girl came to the door and asked us to leave it was pretty akward.... Afterwards we saw a guy named Eugene. Eugene use to be a temple worker but he got married to a nonmember who is a pastor at an anti Mormon church. She stood at the door the whole time we were talking to him and she looked ticked but we continued on. Its really depressing to see him now. We tried others but no such luck.

Monday- this morning at the laundry mat there was this ugly bug and one of the sisters killed it with her shoe but for some reason it flew right towards me. It gave me quite the scare but a good laugh too.

This week will be awesome. Its hot air balloon season for Albuqurque so theres hot air balloons flying all over its really cool. And this weekend is general conference and my companion and I were chosen to clean the temple Saturday night which were both very excited for. And next Monday I get to go to the temple sooooooo excited. I hope all is well and love you all. oh heres a pic of my companion and I and sister mcshane and sister Rager at zone conference 2 weeks ago