I love miracles!!

There are so many people out here that I have met [and will yet meet] that I know Heavenly Father has sent me out here to find and to help. One of which being Sister Kane. I don't think I have told you about her before. She is a less active member that we have been meeting with for the past couple of months now. I met her last transfer when I was on exchanges with Sister Beaudoin. She was a new name on the ward list that no one knew anything about, so of course they send the missionaries to investigate! :) We stopped by late one night [well, late in missionary world...8:30] and she actually let us right in! I'm not sure who she thought we were because a few seconds later she sees our tags and goes, "Oh gosh...you're from the church..." Very reluctantly she let us sit down and we just visited with her for a little bit and got to know her more. Turns out that she had just moved there a couple weeks ago and this was her first time living alone, both of her daughters had been in horrible accidents on the same day, and so many other things in her life seemed to be falling apart. At the end of our visit the wonderful Sister Beaudoin asked if we could share a scripture. She shared John 14:27 with her. By the end of it she was in tears. We testified of how only Christ can give us that true and lasting peace in our life. The spirit was so strong during the whole lesson. She kept saying, "You girls have something. There's something special here." Yeah! The Spirit! So now fast forward to this past week. We have been meeting with her much more frequently since then. We stopped by one night this week and were discussing Elder Uchtdorf's talk with her from Women's Conference. We brought up the idea of teaching her all of the missionary discussions. I have NEVER seen anyone get that excited about it before! It was so amazing!! Her eyes got all big and she goes, "YES! That is such a genius idea! Why have we not thought of that before! Whose idea was that?? Let's do it!!" We were in shock! To see the change from when we first met to her to her now being overjoyed and thrilled with the idea of taking all of the lessons again is truly miraculous. I love love LOVE seeing how the gospel changes people. 

Another miracle this week: Jojo has a baptismal date!!!! Okay this isn't a huge shock because we know that she wanted to be baptized, but now it is more official! Her date is for December 25. haha I love it. She says that that is the date that keeps coming to mind when she prays about it! Sadly the Elders in Lorain will start taking over more of the teaching this week since she technically lives in their area. Jojo is definitely another one of those people that I know I was sent out here to help. I love her SO MUCH!! I can't wait to come back after my mission and hang out with her. She is so awesome. 

We had the ward Trunk or Treat this week! It made me miss Voyager Ward and our awesome Fall Festivals so much! There was no dunk tank and no ginormous water balloon sling shot this time. Someone needs to teach Ohioans how to throw a Fall Festival! Also we had the Primary Program yesterday! Which once again made me miss Voyager Ward. I couldn't help but think of little Becca Hernandez trying to choke herself the whole time up there. But of course there were some good laughs here as well. The whole theme was on families and so of course I got a wee bit choked up. I'm beginning to realize, I haven't seen y'all in a long time! 

I feel like a lot of times there will be different themes throughout my mission. Lately I have had a new one. "You can count the seeds in an apple, but you cant count the apples in a seed." [Nope, not that brilliant. I got it from a talk from Elder Maxwell] I have been noticing more and more [and I know that even more go unnoticed] that we truly never know what good comes from the things that we do. Just today I got an email from a friend who was telling me about how he was able to share with someone else the things that he had learned from me in order to help them. You just never know what ripple effect our good deeds, and words, can have. I know that there are a number of days out here where I ask myself if any good is actually coming from what I do, but there is!! There's tons of it! And even if I don't get to see what good does come from it, I know that I am a part of the Lord's work and that even the smallest of seeds planted helps to move it forward just that much more. 

I love my mission. 

Pictures

Sister Jarvis hit her 9 month mark!!!

I raked leaves for the FIRST TIME EVER this week!!!!! We raked for the Stoddard's and for the Francis' while I was on exchanges with Sister O'Banion and it was such a blast!! Sister Francis made me jump in them since I had never done it before. I had way too much fun. 

The Hook Family! They are the CUTEST family in the entire world. [Brother Hook is taking the picture]  I seriously just want to be them. So we got there for dinner and their little girl Elyse had a dress on and she told us, "She wanted to wear a dress to match the missionaries." How cute is that?!?! They are so great. 

This is Sister Kane's venus fly trap and it is awesome!! She catches flies to feed it. I keep telling her that we are going to come over some day and it will have gone all little shop of horrors on her and she is going to try and feed us to it.

That's Brother Olmsted photo bombing in the back. Yes. There is an Olmsted family in the North Olmsted Ward. Love it.

"All I know is that they bleed out of their eyes..." -Elder Miller

Clearly the Ebola virus is all the talk around here. Apparently there was someone in Cleveland who was in contact with it. Super. 

What an awesome week!! So much going on. So last weekend we had Stake Conference [yeah it was kind of weird having it right after General Conference]. But I LOVED it because I got to see all of my Lorain Ward Family!!!!! Oh man. I love and missed them so so so so much! It seriously was like a huge family reunion over and over again seeing everyone. And they all would get so excited when they found out that Sister Maddox and I are companions. It was so funny. I can't wait for you all to meet them when we come back. [Well, if they all stop moving. So many families have moved out from that ward. :( It makes me sad.] 

We had exchanges with the Strongsville Sisters this past week and the drive down there was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!!! We ran into President Kerr on the way down there and he had us go a different way to avoid construction and it was this long winding road through the Metroparks.  Honestly the pictures can't even do it justice. I felt like we were in a movie or something! The fall colors here are so stunning. They might be starting to steal my heart away from the beauty of the desert. We will have to come back in the fall so that you can all see them for yourselves. They truly are indescribable. 

Kirtland with Jojo!!!! I love Kirtland so much. [But I am SO happy that I am a full pros sister and not a Kirtland sister. I don't know how they do it! So busy all the time] It was such a great experience though! We were able to do the tour at the Kirtland temple as well as at the Historic Sites. So the Kirtland temple is owned by the Community of Christ Church and so they are the ones that do the tour. It was really interesting to us how they kind of brushed over all of the significant events that happened there. [i.e. Christ appearing in the temple to Joseph Smith, visits from Moses, Elias, and Elijah, the vision of the celestial kingdom and seeing his brother Alvin, etc.] Even Jojo noticed the difference in the feeling of the spirit at each place. She said how there was a feeling of love at the temple of course, but the spirit just wasn't there. It was a big difference to the feeling at the School of the Prophets though. That was her favorite part! It is an incredible experience and opportunity to be able to teach about the Word of Wisdom in the room where it was first received! The spirit was so strong. [Even though all of the kids were going crazy a little bit]

I can't remember if I told you about this before or not, but every Friday we go and volunteer at a nursing home and do what they call "Friday Flowers". A local wholesale florist sells them old or unusable flowers for super cheap and we get to help the residents put them into arrangements. It is so much fun and always a highlight of the week! So this past week I was helping a cute old man named Richard to put his flowers together. The whole time he just kept saying how all of the flowers were so beautiful. As I was helping him I snipped a little purple daisy and put it in his shirt pocket and he looks down at it and gets the hugest smile on his face, starts giggling, and then looks at me and pats me on my face. It was so sweet and so precious! It made me smile :)

Thank you so much for the package Momma!!!!!! I love it so so so much!! My favorite part was the talks that you sent me. They are SO AMAZING!!!! I have already read all of them and taken pages and pages of notes on them! Thank you so much!! Also my boots look super good now ;) 

So Elder Oaks talk, Good, Better, Best,  has been on my mind a lot lately for the past few months. As I have come to know Heavenly Father so much better on my mission, I feel like I have also come to know the adversary that much better as well. I have realized just how cunning he is. I think that this whole idea of Good, Better, and Best is one of his biggest weapons. So often he keeps people from reaching their full potential. You have no idea the number of people that we meet out here that say, "All you need is Christ and your good." or "Don't worry I believe in Christ. I'm good." I just want to grab them sometimes and say, "Why are you settling for good?!?!?" There is SO MUCH MORE! We can be our best. We can have the best. We can do the best. It breaks my heart to see how strong an influence Satan can have in peoples lives without them even realizing it, because they're "doing good". I am so grateful for this gospel that encourages us, inspires us, and teaches us that we can continually be better. I was reading a talk from Elder Neal A. Maxwell this morning, "But for a Small Moment", [thanks Mom:) ] and he talks about how time is non-existent to God. He sees who we were, who we are, and who we can become all in front of him. While sometimes we only see a few tiles at a time, He can see the whole mosaic of who He can shape us into. I know that the Lord has a perfect plan for me, and for all of His children. I am so grateful for this opportunity that I have to help more of His children to realize that there is so much more to life; that they have more potential than they ever thought.

Kirtland!!

We are so lucky that we got to go to Kirtland in the fall! It was GORGEOUS!!!

Like I said, pictures just can't do it justice.

Up, down, and all around.

1 Nephi 13:12 -Well, you can thank that inspired man that you didn't get an email from me yesterday. Sorry!

What a week, what a week. We had some awesome lessons, some hilarious lessons and some heart breaking lessons.

We'll start with the awesome though. We have been meeting pretty frequently with Jojo and it has been so great! She gets more and more excited about and committed to the gospel each time we see her. We are going to Kirtland this Friday with her and her son and the Wrights. We are so stoked!! Joseph Smith is kind of her biggest hold back right now. We are so blessed to serve this close to where so much church history was made. Pray that she will have an amazing experience!

So for our hilarious lesson: We meet with quite a few less active members that live in nursing homes in our area. We were meeting with Sister Blackmur one night and it was after she had just taken some pain medication or something. Ohhhh boy. Background info: she really really loves dogs. We were talking about general conference with her and how we can receive personal revelation. Towards the beginning of the lesson she stops us and says that she has a question for us. She goes on and on about God and animals for quite some time and we can't really figure out what she is saying. Then it clicked and I ask, "Oh! Are you wondering if God has pets?" Bingo. She was extremely concerned that Heavenly Father might not have any pets. We talked about the creation and since He created all the animals then we guess that all of them are his pets. That comforted her a bit.She started talking about seeing her pets in heaven again and how they will run across the rainbow bridge or something? I'm not sure. I kind of got lost in the middle for a bit. Then when we asked how we can receive revelation or guidance in our lives from Heavenly Father she pauses for a moment and then just simply says, "Dogs!" Oooookay. It was about time for us to go and let her get some rest. It was too funny though. She is so hilarious. I love her to death! [I actually met her on my first exchange on my mission. She was the one that asked me to get her some chocolates and reminded me of our dear sweet Gran.]

We had a lesson with one of our recent converts this past week who has decided that the church just isn't for him now. [He actually got baptized my first week in this ward and I got to go]. We talked with him for about 2 hours and the more and more we spoke the more our hearts broke. It is mind boggling to me to see how quickly Satan has gotten a hold of him and made him deny everything that he once knew. After that lesson Sister Maddox and I just went home and cried and cried. That was hands down the hardest lesson I have had my whole mission.

So I started reading "Our Heritage" last week and it is so good! Have you all read that book? If not then you should go read it! The strength and faith of those early saints is one of the most impressive things to me. I always wonder if I lived back then if I would have the faith necessary to endure all that they had to go through. I am so grateful that they did persevere and trust in the Lord through so much. The trials that I have had to go through in life seem like nothing at all compared to what they suffered through. It definitely puts things in perspective.

I love you all so much!! Thank you for your prayers. I hope you know that they truly do make a difference.

We went to the Art Museum again last week and so of course I had to get a pic with good ole stylin Grandpa Olds!

Also yesterday since we had so much extra time we went and walked around downtown Cleveland. We went to a little civil war memorial they have and look who I found! Thomas Olds! Do we have someone in our family that fought in the civil war that was from Cleveland? We have family all over the place here!

I love the art museum!!

The crew. Sisters Slade, Jarvis, and Maddox and Elder Biddulph and Taylor.

Found these lil buddies

Just chillin in the crosswalks!

I seriously love Cleveland SO MUCH!! it's my favorite. I love serving this close to it. 

We have faith in Cleveland too!!

Rock and Roll hall of fame

"Moral of the story...We got Zombies people!"-Roumanti

Well, I have no doubt in my mind that the Lord truly does bless His missionaries with strength and energy. Otherwise there would have been NO way that I could have made it through this week. It was so crazy. But also so awesome! So we had three exchanges last week since we had to squeeze the last ones in before the transfer ended. For one of them I was biking out in Lakewood for the day. It was SO FUN but also SO EXHAUSTING!!!! Holy cow. I am so out of shape. Those hills were killer. My whole bottom half was super sore for the next three days. But we were able to contact so many more people! I would actually love to be in a biking area someday. [But probably not going to happen with my diabetes. Sister Vellinga is very strict on that. That's how we got the Assistant's car before] 

We had Mission Leadership Council on Wednesday which took most of the day. It was awesome!! So many perks in this mission! Guess what...we saw Meet the Mormons!!!!!! It is amazing!!!! Oh my goodness. New favorite movie. You all have to go see it when it comes out. It is so inspiring, funny, awesome, and just all around wonderful. I can't even tell you what my favorite part was because all of it was my favorite. President is showing it to the whole mission during Zone Conferences next month. I can't wait to see it again! That night the Vellinga's had all of us North Olmsted Sisters over for dinner. I love them so much. They are so incredible. I asked President how he felt when he got called to be a Mission President and he said, "I was scared out of my mind!" Then he goes, "But if I knew you were coming Sister Olds..." and at the same time we both went "I would have been even more scared!" hahaha He is so great. I have loved serving in his ward for so long and getting to know him better. It is such a privilege. I asked them how they met [my favorite question to ask at dinners with members. It is so funny to see how couples respond to that question and hear their stories] Apparently President stole Sister Vellinga away from some missionary she was waiting for. Then President's brother got called to that same mission where the old boyfriend was serving and he was the one that picked him up from the airport! Too great. Then they went to his mission homecoming with their first born girl! 

So while I was on exchanges with Sister McIntire [LOVE HER! Can't wait to be her companion someday. We are creepy alike and both know Toree Day!! So fun!] we had this AMAZING lesson. We were going to deliver a gift bag from the Gladys Knight Fireside. I have never met someone so prepared for the gospel before. She absolutely loved the fireside and was so excited to get a Book of Mormon. She already loves it and hasn't even read a word of it! The spirit was so strong throughout the whole lesson and the things that she would say just astounded me. "I feel like there is more that we have to do in order to get to heaven. Like it is not all just based off of our good works." YES! "I think that sometimes God knocks in our lives when He knows that we are ready to learn more. I think you girls are my knock." YES! And so many other things like that. It was so awesome!! I am so sad that I won't get to teach her because she is in the Lakewood Ward, but I am still SO excited for her!! 

We all know General Conference was amazing. Not that I am biased at all, but President Klebingat's was by far my favorite!!! I couldn't even take notes fast enough! [Granted he was talking a million words a minute]. And so many other people here loved his too. It was so cool to be talking about his talk yesterday at District Meeting and just thinking, "He is still influencing SO many missionaries!!" I am still so grateful to him for allowing me to see Steph in Ukraine. I highly doubt that I would be out here otherwise. I mean, I'm sure the Lord would have got me here some other way, but I like the way it turned out. Also I absolutely LOVED Elder Scott's talk. I loved the focus all throughout conference on the small and simple things. I feel like that has been a common theme for me for the past few months. It truly is those small and simple things that can make the biggest difference in our lives. [Alma 37:6]

We got 2 new investigators this week!! They are both so awesome. So the first one was actually a former investigator that I had met when I served in Lorain. She actually lives in Avon Lake and I helped her move into her apartment when I served there. She is a nanny for a family in the ward here in our area and so we have gotten to know her really well cause she is almost always there when we are. She went to the Gladys Knight Fireside and now wants to get baptized!! So we started teaching her this week and she is awesome!! It is so neat to see the spirit work on people and help them to understand the gospel. I absolutely love Jojo!! She is so sassy. She is pretty much our best friend. Our other new investigator was a total shock to us and such a miracle!! So we only had a little bit of time before we had to head home for call ins Sunday night and we decided to stop by one of our less active members that we had been trying to meet with but hadn't been able to for a while. We knocked and were really surprised when someone answered. It was her fiance, Roumanti [not sure on spelling....], and he goes, "Oh...it's the girls again." And Sister Haithcock told him to have us come in. He goes,"What?! We're letting them in?!" It was actually really funny. We go and sit down with them and just start visiting a bit. We talked about conference and a few of the different things that we learned. Eventually the conversation turned to how they were having some difficulties in their relationship and wanted to know what would help. She mentioned how it kind of worried her that they had different beliefs. We asked him about what his beliefs and religious background was and he comes from almost everything! Catholic, Baptist, Jehovah's Witness. He kept saying how he has learned about so many religions and he's "studied them all!" I asked him if he had ever learned about ours and he goes, "Actually...no." We talked about how we could teach him about it and he could come to learn and decide for himself if it is true. We testified about how the gospel not only helps individuals but also families, couples, and all relationships. He brought up how he is doesn't like "titles" though. I told him about what William McDowell {Gladys Knight's husband} talked about at the fireside. He said, "I'm not a Mormon. I don't even know what a Mormon is! I am a follower of Jesus Christ." That did it for him. It clicked. He got real excited, clapped his hands, pointed at me and just said, "Yes! E-xactly!" We are so stoked to start teaching them together! She has told us before how she knows that she needs to come back and does really want the gospel in her life, but it is just hard for her to do. She is excited too and says how a refresher will be good for her. We left their home in awe! That was such an unexpected miracle!

Oh man, sorry this one is so long again. I think I get carried away sometimes and think that I am just writing in my journal or something. But I am just so excited about all of the things going on here!! 

So it has been interesting to me to see how many of the sisters that I have gone on exchanges with this past transfer are having struggles that either I have faced on my mission or am currently facing. I think sometimes the Lord gives us things to overcome and face so that we will be able to help others with those same challenges down the road. That clever guy...I truly am grateful for what I have been able to learn from the trials I have had on my mission. I think I am finally starting to see how the Lord is shaping and refining me. It has been an interesting and not always that easy of a process, but a wonderful one nonetheless. 

Our awesome district. [Minus Elder Anderson and Elder Miller]

I love Sister McIntire so much!!! She is so wonderful. 

Thank you for the Halloween package!!!! We loved it :)

Spiritual Overload

Even though I just wrote home a few days ago, I still have so much to tell you all today!!! Mission Conference was SO AMAZING!!!!! So I'll give you a quick play by play of the whole day.

We had a mission leadership meeting before the actual zones all met together with Elder Teh  [which consisted of the district leaders, zone leaders and sister training leaders]. He is so amazing. Down to earth, funny, bold, and just down right awesome! Considering he hasn't spoken a ton in Conference before I wasn't really sure what to expect. But it was all so great! [Stupid me forgot my notes today though so I will try to recall everything that he taught us as best as I can] He told us how we are responsible for the culture of the mission. Whether good or bad. I especially loved how he said that he recognized that there is a lot asked of us. Not only do we have to do all that we can to help to strengthen our individual areas, but now we also have to help so many other missionaries to strengthen theirs as well. "Whom the Lord calls He qualifies". I have most definitely felt and seen that over the past few weeks. I most definitely did not feel capable of being the sister training leader that these sisters deserved. However, Heavenly Father called me to this position and He most definitely has helped me to fulfill it. I am so grateful for that. For a majority of the time he talked about how he uplift and strengthen the missionaries that we serve. Of course a lot had to do with being humble and loving. Throughout all of the meetings, it was so cool to me to see how many scriptures he used and turned to. He was going so fast sometimes that I honestly had a hard time keeping up. He validated everything he taught us with references to the scriptures.

In the main Mission Conference meeting we had President Titera [the Cleveland Stake President] (we had dinner at his house this week:) ), President Haymond [Kirtland Stake President], Elder Anderson and Miller [the assistants], and President and Sister Vellinga teach us. EVERYTHING they taught was so amazing. Maybe they were all steppin up their game since it was in front of a general authority as well, but it was really all so incredible before Elder Teh even addressed us. One of my favorite things that Elder Teh talked about was missionary work vs. missionary things. Are we doing things because we are missionaries, or are we actually out doing missionary work? I have definitely been guilty of this at time on my mission. We just get so caught up in the routine of things sometimes that we loose the spirit, heart, drive, and purpose behind it all. We have to always be focused and centered on bringing people to Christ. Not just going through the motions. I took so many notes but honestly can't even remember now. I am so ridiculously tired today. These past couple of weeks are really starting to catch up with me. This week is going to be even crazier. [5 hour long mission leadership council, Zone Training Meeting, General Conference, and then 3 exchanges on top of that. Yay.] Although I do love staying busy much more than having too much time when things are slow. So I will promise to bring my notebook next week and tell you more about what he talked about. [Oh that reminds me! Transfers are next week. So Preparation day will be on Tuesday. So don't freak out and call the mission office again....]

So after all of mission conference was over President excused Elder Teh so that he could catch his flight really quick. Before we all got up to leave he quickly announced "I need to see a few missionaries really quick up front before they leave." He called my name first and I immediately freaked out. I don't know why but for some reason whenever something like that happens with President I get so scared that I am in trouble. It's like when Dad would calls our name across the house and tell us to come here. I just start racking my brain to think if there is anything I am in trouble for. Even if I know I haven't done anything wrong, I still get scared! So President called me and 3 other missionaries out and then told us that Elder Teh wanted to interview us. WHAT?! HOW AWESOME IS THAT!??! My heart started racing and I was the first one to go in and so I had no time to gather my thoughts at all [Or my tears. The closing song was "Lord, I Would Follow Thee." Gets me everytime!] So I was totally flustered when I walk in there and then he asks me to say the prayer for us. Thankfully I could calm down by the time we said amen. It was such a neat experience! He asked about my physical health, my spiritual health, my family, [If Erin is going to serve a mission. He said, "Well, if she feels that she needs to then she will" So there's some personal advice for you from a Seventy Erin!:)] He asked how long I had been a sister training leader, how that was going, how the work has been. I talked about how I had felt being called as a sister training leader and he goes, "yes, it is a very humbling experience. You can learn a lot from the sisters you serve. But no, Heavenly Father never makes a mistake." I immediately wrote down every thing I could remember about in my journal afterwards. I was so touched that he wanted to email you guys! That was a really nice surprise. That will most definitely be an experience I remember for a lifetime. I also was really excited that both Steph and I got to be interviewed by General Authorities on our missions :)

Saturday we helped out at a baptism for a little girl in the ward. We gave a talk and shared the "Because of Him" video while she was changing after the baptism. No matter how many times I see that video it is so powerful every time! No matter who it is that is getting baptized, whether I know them super well or not, I always get choked up at baptisms. And it makes me miss my Poppa Bear a whoooooooole lot. I am so grateful that Dad has the priesthood and was able to baptize all of his girls and help them to start their lives out on the right path back to our Father in Heaven. We are so blessed to know that we are an eternal family. 

How awesome was the General Women's Broadcast?! I thought it was really interesting how last April in the Women's broadcast they focused a lot on making and keeping our baptismal covenants and then this time was all about temple covenants. I miss the temple so much. That is the number one thing I miss most out here. I so badly wish that we had a temple in our mission. Well....a working one I suppose. The Kirtland temple is wonderful as well. I loved that video they shared of all of the different women that testified of the importance and blessings of the temple. Especially the last one that said that we should "never stop taking steps towards the temple". Even though I am a missionary and can't attend the temple right now, I still need to be working towards going back again and keeping my covenants. Also, that was really great of Elder Uchtdorf to write a talk just for me. I guess since Elder Teh and I are so tight now he put in a good word for me. ;)

Wow, this email is super long. Sorry! Promise I'm almost done. Yesterday the bishopric had asked all of the missionaries to fill in for the primary teachers so that they could attend the third hour meeting that was all combined. Oh my goodness. It was so much fun!!!! All the kids were together and we just had to sit with them and keep them quiet and well behaved. I was with the four year olds and they were the cutest things ever!! I had two super crazy little boys sitting next to me, but I pretty much just kept laughing the whole time I was trying to quiet them. They were hilarious. Then down at the end of the class Elder Anderson was sitting with the little girls and the one next to him just kept staring up at him and playing with his face. It was so great. The kids loved having the missionaries in there with them! I miss being a primary teacher so much! That was probably one of my favorite callings ever. Well, and being a missionary is pretty great too :)

I am so excited for General Conference this week!! As we have been meeting with members the past month we have been sharing Mosiah 1:2-3 and discussing how we can prepare for General Conference. Sister Maddox and I have been listening to last conference addresses in the car while we drive. Also I love studying the talks every morning during studies. You really do get so much more out of them when you ready and study them than when you just listen to them. 

I am so grateful for this gospel. Sadly sometimes I take this knowledge for granted. We have so many answers in life that some people have no idea about. And possibly never will. I know that this gospel is true. I know that it brings the greatest joy in this life. I know that Heavenly Father loves me. 

"Our grandpa died...now he's Tarzan."

Are you ready for this? This week was nuts!

So I will start with the most exciting and then go from there. [So that the skimmers can get the good stuff then move on with their lives]

Gladys Knight graced Ohio with her presence this weekend!!! Oh my goodness the firesides were AMAZING!!! There aren't even words to describe them. Not going to lie, the first 10 seconds I was super weirded out and just kept thinking, "What...is going on...?!" But then once I got used to the "Amen!"'s and dancing then it was great!! I so wish that you all could have been there! I kind of wish that I was baptist now....[Well, ya know. If they had the priesthood, restored gospel, and modern revelation and all] The music was incredible. Both her and her husband bore such bold and powerful testimonies. I was actually kind of surprised and nervous about them. Because they were really bold. But apparently that's what some people needed! We have seen SO MANY miracles in our mission so far!! We have 2 former investigators that want to be baptized. We were talking to some Elders out in Cleveland and they had gotten 3 new investigators from the gift bag deliveries and they all want to be baptized! And we got so many request cards turned in from the firesides that we haven't even gotten all of them yet because the mission had to order more gift bags! We got around 380 just from the two here in Westlake. And the 2 in Akron got about 220. And this is just the beginning! We are stoked to see the ripple effect from this event. 

Our mission is just full of Mormon celebrities lately! Our Zone Conference with Elder Michael John U. Teh is this Friday!!! I am so excited!! Especially since all of the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders get to have a special meeting with him an hour before Zone Conference. I am so excited. I can't wait to tell you all about it next week!

Last preparation day was crazy! [Sorry no one got letters last week.] We all went to the zoo with some Cleveland Elders and it was such a blast! It was so nice to get out and do something different for a change. There are tons of pictures coming this week from the zoo :) Also, we had to take our car into the shop last Monday to get some repairs done. [From when Sister Maddox was in that accident last transfer] And so guess what....we became biking sisters!!!! Biking home from North Ridgeville to our apartment in Westlake [from my last apartment in Lorain East to this apartment. Took us almost an hour] Monday night in pouring rain will definitely make you feel like a real hard core missionary! Thankfully though we had exchanges with both sets of Strongsville Sisters last week and so I was gone for three of the days. Then Thursdaynight at our coordination meeting the Assistants found out we were on bikes. They were like, "Wait...what? Why are you biking? You don't have to do that. You can have our car." They are SO WONDERFUL!! They really didn't have to do that. They are so kind. We were super excited though. Especially because they drive the nicest car in the mission! It was really fun. 

So both last night and this morning I got to go home!! Last night we were helping a less active member move her son out of his apartment up in Avon Lake and then this morning all of us North Olmsted sisters went and got haircuts from Sister Buchanan :) It was so much fun!! I miss that area so much. And it is so awesome that both Sister Maddox and I have served there and so we can reminisce together. 

Last Sunday we had this AWESOME lesson with some potential investigators that Sister Maddox and Sister Bakker met on exchanges. They said that they were interested in hearing more about Kirtland and wanted to visit there. So when we were planning for it were like, "Okay, so how do we tactfully yet sneakily teach the restoration with this?" Which of course wasn't hard at all. We sat down with the couple and right away the lady goes, "So we're Catholic. We aren't really interested in changing or anything." Haha ohh that's what you say now! But it was clear that she was nicely trying to tell us, "Don't try to convert us!" We were able to teach them the whole Restoration because it leads right into Kirtland. It was great. And they told us that they didn't really know anything about our beliefs anyways. It was so neat to see the spirit working on them during the whole lesson. By the end of it the husband was like, "Well I don't actually practice Catholicism much anymore. But yeah I have always wondered that ya know. I think that there was some truth lost along the way in the Catholic church. Not all of those popes were really great people you know?" Then we talked about the Book of Mormon and they both really wanted to read it and said that they would even pay for it. "Lucky for you! It's free!" Haha it cracks me up when people want to pay for the Book of Mormon. Seriously? We try everything we can to get people to take this book from us! You don't need to pay us! They are SO PREPARED!!! We are taking them each a Book of Mormon and a Restoration DVDtomorrow night and then going back this weekend to watch the Restoration with them. I am so excited about them!! Pray for Greg and Marylou!!

For the past month or so I have been reading a conference talk each morning during studies to get ready for General Conference. This morning I happened to read Elder Walker's talk called Live True to the Faith I love how he talks about everyone knowing their ancestors conversion story. So I went and reread Edward Bunker Sr's autobiography that Mom sent me. Not that I am biased at all, but I LOVE his story so much. He was converted right here in Cleveland!!!!! By Martin Harris of all people. Awesome. And by me serving my mission here I am fulfilling prophesy that the descendants of those early saints that were here will come back to build it up. Ooh! Just gives me chills talking about it! I love it!

Also random awesome side note. This Mormon Message is amazing. Thank you so much Mom for all you have done for your family. We really do appreciate it. I'm sure you have had a number of days like this in your life, but you have served and helped so many. Us as well as those around you who just need your help. You are an incredible example of service to all of us. 

(Then I asked Amber what her subject line meant and she said the following:)

hahahaha we met a little girl on the street. Probably like 5 years old and when we gave her  a picture of Christ she just looked at it for a minute.....then looked up and said that to us. It was HILARIOUS!!! We were so confused!! I wanted to say, "Well go give your mom that card and we can tell your where your grandpa really is!" hahaha SHe was so cute. 

2 pics from Sis Genster:

At the zoo:

"Ohhhh elders..."

Elder Mitchell is hilarious! He reminds me  a lot of Elder Bruce! Err....Chris Bruce. He's home now. Weird.

From riding bikes... to riding in style...