February 27, 2012

Sounds like Mom and Dad are having quite an adventure! I'm kind of jealous, but I love seeing the pictures. So this last week, oh! So Tuesday - we went to go visit a less active we didn't know, but instead we met her neighbor. It was a really interesting conversation. He said he didn't mean to bash with us, but he was really just curious, which I could tell. For a long time he hasn't really believed in anything. He's hoping that one day he'll find his faith again, but he's waiting for a miracle. At first he didn't realize we were "Mormons" - we starting talking about The Book of Mormon and he's like - "Oh, you're Mormons." Anyways, we gave him a copy of The Book of Mormon. At first, before I gave it to him, he wasn't going to keep it, but we told him he could. And after I handed it to him, he was like, "This is mine to keep?" Anyway, he wouldn't tell us which house was his, but we found out - a member lives on his street. He told us we could talk to him again if we could find him. And that he'd probably read from The Book of Mormon. So now we know which house is his, but he has a huge wooden fence surrounding his house. The fence is just a bit taller than I am. And we can't figure out how to open it. And there are dogs inside. They don't really scare me, but it's such so weird....we don't know how to get in to knock on his door. I hope, pray that we'll find him outside soon one day. Or I just want to climb the fence :) But that's kind of difficult in a skirt. Also on Tuesday we dropped a baptismal date (February 27 - today) and we have a new one. It's from the same family. It's a part member family. Dad's not a member (his date was for the 27th). The Mom is less active. The 9 year old son has wanted to get baptized for days and we set one for him, March 18th. But they didn't come to church yesterday :( In order to be baptized they have to come at least 3 times in a row. They have exactly 3 left.... I'm not so sure about this family... We'll see what happens. Our investigators really are kind of failing us...or we're failing them... None of them are really progressing. We feel as though our numbers are getting worse each week. But little miracles are happening here and there - like the man who took the Book of Mormon that I just told you about. One of our investigators that we met with - he did have a really good spiritual moment during the week. He thought about canceling because his girlfriend was sick, but because of his experience, he kept the appointment, thank goodness. It was a good lesson, but he didn't come to church either :( People should really listen to us sometimes, ah, but it is really up to them and their desire and willingness. Our ward (Paradise 2nd) and the Paradise 1st ward had a chili cook-off the other day. We missionaries were the judges. It was kind of a fun experience, but I was getting tired of eating cornbread and cobbler (that's what I judged. Some of the others judged the chili.) There's another part member family in our ward - wife member, husband non-member. He's getting closer to wanting to be baptized! And then before that we can teach him! So...that's coming up most likely. Sister Webb came home Friday. She had been gone the last few weeks with a new born grandbaby. It's nice to have her back. And it was Brother Webb's birthday. I met their youngest daughter. The 3 wards in Paradise had a talent show, which Sister Tubbs helped accompany someone on the piano, so we went to that. Yesterday, at church a member was being really great, trying to get people to feed us this week - and it's not even his job. Great guy, great family. They fed us yesterday and are going to fed us again this week. We have some really great members in the ward. Always willing to help out. Yep. So last piece of news.... something's wrong with my skin. Last week, bumps started appearing on my feet. Now they're all over my feet, my hands, my legs. It's spreading and it itches like crazy! Especially at night, so I didn't sleep well last night. But I called the mission nurse...I don't know if what she's suggesting is really helping. We'll see what happens. I feel like sometimes I have the weirdest things happen to me. Oh well...craziness. This week we have sister's training, so that will be fun. Good. Yep. Well, love you tons and bunches!!!! Have a good week everyone!

February 20, 2012

How are all of you? So I assume Mom and Dad that both of you have made it safely to New Zealand by now, hopefully. :D Hopefully you're getting lots of rest from all that flying. Well, this week for me... actually first off, we just found out that 2 days after my birthday, we get to go to a special meeting where L. Tom Perry will be speaking at it!!!! Anyway, that will be way exciting! The other day I was hoping for something like this since last year Elder Christofferson came. Anyway, this last week: I've been catching a cold, getting sick or something. But I'm going to be better. My voice just sounds funny and my nose is being funny, but besides that, all is well. :D Valentine's Day. How was everyone's Valentine's Day? For lunch we had a heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's. The Webbs gave us a gift card from there. And that was nice. We had dinner with some members - they were great. It was a good Valentine's, especially since when we went home and we both had a vase of red and white tulips from Brother Webb! That was sweet. (Sister Webb is out of town with a new born grandson.) Anyway, I love the Webbs. They are so great to us. We are kind of struggling to meeting with all of our investigators. They either get sick, or something happens, or they're making excuses. But we were able to meet with our one investigator (whose baptismal date is in June.) She's the only one we really meet with regularly. But she's doing well, not making any leaps or bounds yet, but I know with time she will come around. I just know it. Anyway, we met with a few of the less actives we are working with. And with our recent converts. Yesterday, we had dinner with some members. The wife, she lately has been frustrated with missionary work - it seems to me that she doesn't have enough faith in herself, that she's forgetting a few vital things, which I shall describe in a moment. The way she was talking reminded me of me in college, when I would get frustrated with my classes, with my tests, and then fail. I now realize it’s because I didn't have the right attitude towards those classes and I didn't believe in myself, didn't believe I could do well, therefore, I would usually do pretty poorly on those tests. What could have fixed my grades, what could fix that members frustration in missionary work, I have concluded, comes down to 3 questions, the 3 ABC's that President Monson talked about last month in the Ensign (-thanks Mom for pointing them out to me!) First, we need to have a positive attitude. If you have a positive Attitude about something, you will most indefinitely, yes, succeed in it. Also - in dealing with people - we need to have an attitude of love. If we are doing something out of love, miracles will certainly happen. If we don't, if we focus on the negative, nothing happens, if anything, misery will happen. So focus on the positive. Second, we need to Believe in ourselves. If we believe in ourselves, really, we can do anything. Don't doubt yourself, like I did in my classes, because then you will definitely not succeed. Having a belief that something can happen, that's when miracles happen. Anything can happen, if you only believe. Third is have the Courage. We cannot fear. So often in life I have feared. I feared those tests, I fear speaking out - nothing happens with fear. Miracles can happen when you have the courage to take them through. Courage takes you a long way. I love these 3 ABC's, I am going to make them into my motto of life. I will constantly ask myself, what is my attitude? Do I believe? Do I have the courage? I will hope that my answers will be. Yes! I am positive! I love this! Yes! I believe! Yes! I have the courage! Yes! This is the way!

Happy Valentines Day!!!

Happy Valentines Day!!! I remember a year ago tomorrow was the day I decided to go on my mission. Crazy! To think how I was home and just barely deciding and now here I am on my mission. Crazy crazy. Well, another transfer has come. We are staying the same. So that means I will be here next transfer as well, since this is Sister Tubbs last transfer. And then she goes home. Weird. Anyways, this last week, was interesting, slow, yeah... We had a really good lesson with our part-member-family. In the past the missionaries have been focused on the husband/father since he is not the member, but he pointed out how he'd really like the whole family involved and it was good. He's a ruff-tuff-ian kind of guy. Use to train cage-fighters or something of the sort. But yeah, his wife is not entirely active, would like to be, some days. But they are a good family. And the kids are cute. They have a 9 year-old boy, a 5 year-old boy, and a 4 year-old girl. Fun kids, full of crazy facts and just like the attention. We also had a lesson with our investigator whose baptism date in in June. She knows the gospel is true and she knows one day she will receive her answer, but right now she's not ready; she's not willing to be humble and accept some things she doesn't understand. She realizes she's not ready and realizes it might be a while until she receives the answer, but I don't think she realizes why. But one day, she will come around. I just know it. The first day I meant her, I wondered, Why isn't she a member yet? Today when I woke up there was snow on the ground! But by the time we left it had melted. Just so you all know, I have decided to come home in December. I realized that no matter the sacrifice, Heavenly Father will always need help in building up His kingdom and right now I have promised to do that. So I will stay a full 18 months in the mission field. So I will come home probably December 4 - but don't count down the days! Haha, but just so you know. Sorry if I ruined the Thanksgiving plans you had. I didn't realized until I got here that the transfer cycle would do that. Well, what else have I been up to this week...? Umm... I forgot my old planner, so I have to go off memory. Oh wait! Tuesday we had zone conference. It was good. It actually felt like that happened eons ago. We were the only 2 sisters there. We combined with the other northern zones, Anderson and Redding and there are no sisters in those zones. Just recently have the sisters, slowly been moving northward. So yeah, that was good. I got to see Elder Borrowman (from the MTC) and Elder Rast (who saw me as a greenie.) It was fun. And good. Learned lots of good stuff. The rest of the day we tried making visits. We also met with another of our investigators... the one who he and his girlfriend live together but are not married. It was a good lesson, spur of the moment since we just popped in on them since they hadn't returned any of our phone calls. We met with some other less actives. And yesterday we saw 2 of our investigators that we haven't taught since before I got her and we were finally able to set up an appointment with them. They have been going through a rough spot. Anyways, all is well. Well, I love you all bunches and bunches. Be safe. I love you all much. And remember, "You are not alone!" The Savior is always there with us, lending us a hand of support and love.
Love you!!!!
Sister Kristi Walston

Remember

February 6, 2012

Dearest Family, How are all of you? Things are going fine here in Paradise. We had a good week with lots of visits. We made contact with quite a few less actives. It's sad how many of them are not interested in coming back to church, especially when they have children. Oh well, everyone has their agency. Saturday we had a lesson with our investigator who has a baptism date for June 2. We got to know even more about her. She told us of experiences she has had with other churches and because of that, she is afraid her freedom to believe what she wants to believe will be taken away. Anyway, now that we know that, hopefully we'll be able to better help her. It was a good lesson. Also that day we had a lesson with our newer investigator. We found out that the last church she went to was an Agnostic church. This means that they believed in everybody else's religion or take parts that they liked...something like that. Now we have to be careful and make sure we help her see that this is the plain truth! Anyway, it still was a good lesson. We also met with our recent converts. One of them, her name is Stormey, is 15. She is really funny, crazy, spacey. But I love her. We were able to go over the Book of Mormon introduction with her. And with our other recent convert we watched the Joseph Smith movie. It was really nice to watch it again. It had been a while for me. As we were watching it, the thing that stuck out to me most was a scripture from Doctrine & Covenants 18:10, "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God." "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God." That sentence struck me with such great power the other day. I am out doing the Lord's work. In general we need to have our view in line with His. Especially when it comes to sharing the gospel. This is a serious business. It's important how you treat people. For me, especially in the lessons, I really need to concentrate on the people and their needs. I need to remember that their souls are of great worth to God. I need to make them just important to me as they are to God. This is a great, important work. I am striving to "remember the worth of souls is great." Well, I love you all so much. Tomorrow is zone conference! I'm sure I will learn great stuff there too! Yep.
LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!
Sister Kristi Walston