After a Hard Fought Battle...

Madison will be coming home with an honorable medical release on Tuesday, November 12.  We are excited to welcome home our hero!

I saw two quotes today that made me think about our LDS missionaries.

The first was:

I don't know about never being missionaries, but I do know our LDS missionaries ARE messages!  They stand for truth and light in a world that is often clouded by sin and confusion. They are truly amazing!

The other quote is this:

I know we all wonder sometimes if our efforts really make a difference, and I hope Madison will take pride in knowing that hers have made a huge difference. Both in this life and in the next, for generations to come, I know the seeds she has planted will blossom. And I know she will continue to plant seeds in the future as well. We are excited to welcome her home after serving an honorable mission!  LOVE YOU MADDY!  WELCOME HOME! 

Oh Samson your handsome young pup with a lot fur

So the title of the email is a song that one of my investigators sang to one of her puppies. Its been a super good week with a lot of interesting things that have happened. I forgot my planner so I will write about what I remember to you all.

 

So my companion and I have become super good friends with the elders their hilarious and awesome. We have dinner with them at members almost every night and its super fun. and members really enjoy it and say its fun too. So the elders came up with a new dinner message which was pretty odd. So apparently if you turn a can on its side and smash it on your lower fingers it doesn't hurt. So they did that for the dinner message 2wice in a row and it worked so my companion and I had a brilliant idea. On Halloween we had dinner at a less actives house and they invited some recent converts to come over too so we told the member about it and we got a plan put together. At dinner the elders were doing the dinner message and so the member volunteered her hand for it. And the elders smashed the can on her fingers and she pretended that it hurt her really badly. And so she went into a corner and pretended to cry and the elders looked really scared it was really funny. And it was even better when she revealed that it didn't hurt at all. The elders decided to never do that dinner message again. It was super funny though.

 

So to finish about Halloween we spent the rest of the night with some ward members. They had a haunted house in their garage so we sat with them and we talked to parents of trick or treaters it was really fun and we got some good contacts.

 

So our first new investigator is named janet and shes a former investigator that the elders taught. Shes pretty awesome and she was pretty close to baptism but no one knows what happened, we are teaching her tonight and were hoping to get her on track to be baptized.

 

Our second investigator is a lady named Mirna. She owns a puppy mill and shes pretty interesting. Shes pretty odd. She showers about once a week. We think that she will be a super good member but we just need to get her to church. When we were there she asked us to sing her some songs. So we sang Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, Give said the little stream, and My heavenly father loves me. It was pretty fun and we got to hold some of her puppies (hypo allergenic by the way) And helped her take photos of them it was fun. The next day we did service for her and the elders came and helped, we put hay into her dogs dog houses for the winter and put clean water into their bowls. It was fun and it felt good to do service.

 

Our third is a boy named Nathanial hes a teenage boy whose friends with members. Hes super interested. He was adopted and is struggeling with details with that. But we taught the first lesson to him and it went really well. His mom was there and she felt the spirit but is sadly not interested. He also attended church it was awesome.

 

We also taught a part member family. The wife who is not a member became an investigator last week. Her husband tried to take his records out of the church in the 80's but it didn't go through and so we both know that hes still a member for a reason. We taught them the restoration and his wife accepted to read the book of Mormon. And also we could tell that the husband has a super strong testimony of the church but we know that theres a reason to why hes not coming to church anymore so we will be working with that to find out why hes not coming.

 

And those were the main people we visited this week. In total we taught 16 lessons which is really really good for week 3 of a new area so this area is spectacular and is going really well.

 

I look at the calendar and realized ive been out for 8 months *yikes* These 18 months are going by way to fast. Its now time to shine and make the rest of these months the best ever!!! Ive been trained, I know what im doing now, its time to get to work and find those who the lord has prepared for this gospel. I love you all and hope all is well :)

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...