Apr. 25, 2017 "Training, Training and Wedding Bells"

Training Training and Wedding Bells

Happy Tuesday everyone! 

Time goes by too fast, it feels like it was tuesday just yesterday! 

Anyways, this week was crazy!! But super spiritually uplifting! 

The main events were first Training from the Missionary Department in Salt Lake!! 

Wednesday and Thursday morning from 7:30-11am we had Ben Metcalf from the Missionary Department train all the Visitor Center Sisters! Apparently this happens every year but basically they helped us know how to be better missionaries specifically at a Visitor Center! 

It was so cool. I literally am forever and always grateful for this unique opportunity to share the gospel to so many people all the time through this facility, both at the Independence Visitor Center and the Historic Liberty Jail. We get to teach repentance and baptize converst all day everyday! To nonmembers that wander in, or people who have been members their whole lives!! 

The biggest takeaways I had from all the training was just how to follow the Spirit and how to help those that come in, have a converting experice here. 

With this unique opportunity come unique challenges. As a Visitor Center missionary, we meet hundreds of people per day, and each time someone walks through the door, we have like the first 2 minutes to get to know them, discern their needs, and feel from the spirit where we need to go with the presentation. This is not easily done!! It requires a lot of focus and being intensely in-tune with the spirit! Something I know I have improved on, but still am working on! 

From there we have to give a presentation that has the perfect mix of history, doctrine, and relevance (relating it back to the people). AND THIS IS EASIER SAID THAN DONE.

The comforting thing that we can always remember, however, is that the purpose of visitor centers is the same as our missionary purpose. To invite others to Come Unto Christ. 

As we realize that each person who comes through the doors is a beloved son or daughter of God, whose only true wish for them is for them to have Eternal Life, then we are able to see them through His eyes and teach them what He would have them hear. 

Its easy to feel like just a tour guide, or to get stuck in the rut of saying the same thing over and over, and losing the true meaning of what we are there for. 

As I have gotten a better perspective of my purose as a missionary, especially at the Visitor Center or Liberty Jail, it has opened my eyes! We have seen so many miracles from this! 

We truly are God's trusted servants, and instruments in His hands, who must be in tune with His spirit so we can get His message (the Doctrine of Christ) across to them, and then help them LIVE IT. We talked a lot about what powerful teaching is and the importance of testimony. And I definitley have a lot to work on but I'm grateful for the opportunity to grow and strengthen others - members, non-members - all day everyday!! 

So those meetings took up a ton of time but a super cool experience we had was Thursday evening. We had taken over the Sister Leader's shift because the schedule got all messed up, and that night we were informed that a bunch of men from the Church History Department were planning to come in and wanted us to take them on a tour. 

We had just barely come up from having a one on one meeting with Brother Metcalf (who is super awesome by the way) - he was basically answering mine and my companions specific questions and role playing and helping to demonstrate how to be more effective - So yeah then he says all these people are coming and we need to just apply everything we'd learned. 

Now the past few days were basically like trying to drink from a firehose. We were drenched and somewhat filled, but still couldnt soak it all in right away. So yeah we were stressed. Plus he gave all these specifics like dont ask direct questions, dont teach all the history... etc. So we frantically went downstairs to prepare. But Ben is awesome and he came back like 20 minutes later and just said he was going to help us get ready until they came!

So he then spent another hour and a half helping us get the history more concise (which is really hard to do let me tell ya) and just critiquing us (in the kindest way) and helping us over and over! 

The Church History people finally came in and we were nervous but prepared! Lol but right when they came in theyre like oh yeah we decided we dont ahve enough time for a full tour so we're just going to look around. (im like R U FOR REALS) Haha but we were like okay no problem! But we will have you know that we practiced and we can give you all the history in 5 min :) j

So they were like alright, and so we gave our presentation, and it went so well!!! 

At the end one of the men just was like, "Wow I just want to give you both a high five because that was amazing!" Then another man was like "And you should be super proud of yourselves becasue that guy wrote the Site Guide that you study from everyday and where you get all your information.... and he wants to give you a high five!!" So yeah that was a pretty big deal.

After the history we didnt take them all the way through the rotunda (the actual jail part) but we just sat with them and answered some questions as they did their business looking at the jail, seeing what needed improvement, etc. So we totally got the inside scoop on the church history department of the church so that was sweet! We also realized how big of a deal these guys were because they were talking about how they had met with the Bishop Causse and all this stuff and we were like oh wow. These guys literally report back to the presiding bishopric! 

Anyway a day for the books for sure!!

Friday we had a lesson with Arielle! She opened up to us all about what she had been through and how bad she wants to have a happy eternal family. She was sharing just how much she loves feeling the spirit when we meet and she just wants to get married to Brett and then get baptized. She said that is what felt right to her. And we were like okay yeah thats awesome! (so her baptism would be posteponed for like a week or two because she would get married pretty fast and then baptized the week after) And the next day was hers and Brett's 5 year anniversary and she was all giddy and was SO hoping that he would propose to her tomorrow night. 

So we literally did a half day fast the next day that Brett would propose. We were dying the whole day just hoping beyond hope that would happen. Because if he didnt propose, and Arielle doesnt move out... that would basically halt her progression. So no bueno fo sho. 

In the meantime, on saturday we had was started as an okay lesson with our investigator Kayleen. Kayleen is a 14 year old girl who is the niece of a recent convert couple in the ward. She comes to church and YW every week. So naturally, we started teaching her. As i may have said before, teaching her is a struggle because she likes to give a lot of attitude and act uninterested. So we were struggling to teach her, and she wasnt focusing, and then we were trying to show her the video of the First Vision. The video wigged out and accidentally went to one of Sister Udall's vidoes of her on pday making homemade butter. That all of a sudden came on unexpectedly and so yeah spirit was lost immediately. Haha so then from that Kayleen wanted to know all about our personal lives and so we were sharing our favorite foods etc... And what we learned is that she opens up more, when we each share ourselves. 

Soon we had to leave so we left her with a pamphlet to read, and as we were getting up to leave, she is like "Oh yeah I am thinking about getting baptized." 

I was like WHAT?! AND YOU TELL US THIS NOW AS WERE LEAVING?! (we had to be home in like 5 minutes) Lol so that was a crazy miracle lesson

Sunday was Stake conference and it was awesome!! Vicki came and Kayleen, and Arielle!!
AND WE SAW THAT ARIELLE HAD GOTTEN ENGAGED!!! we were all freaking out. However, she said they decided on having a wedding on the 21st........ of OCTOBER.

Rip my heart out. 

But we were still excited for her! Just had no idea how all this was goign to work out. 

We talked to Brother Ames our ward mission leader and he was like okay you just have to be straight up to her and be super excited on her getting married but just be bold and say okay you committed to being baptized in May, how are we still going to make that happen? 

I had no idea how we could do that and still be sensitive to her needs and her nervousness with moving out from living with Brett (something that scares her because Brett is her rock) 

As we pondered that... we ran over to be on shift and to my utter delight Sister Bishop and Sister Brinegar came in with some of my favorite people!! The Cooperriders and Sarah my recent convert all from Crooked River!!! I literally cried when I saw them. I got to take them on a tour and it was so powerful! Wow i just love them so much!!! blessings!!!

Sunday night we had dinner with the Burch's and Millers and Arielle and Brett! It was a party. Afterward we had our lesson. We were super nervous because of what Brother Ames said and we hadnt had time to really prepare a lesson plan. So we had prayed really hard and then followed the spirit. GRATEFULLY Sister Burch stepped in right when the lesson started and asked about why she was going to wait to get baptized until after the wedding in October. Arielle shared her concerns but Sister Burch said how it is better to do things the Lord's way. She will have a better marriage, and will be able to get sealed sooner! So we discussed all that for a long time, and ended up teaching from the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine of Christ. We told Arielle that we love her no matter what and we are here because we love her. But we testified that sometimes it is hard to give things up for the Lord, but in the end, it is all worth it. 

So yeah Arielle could use some prayers real hard. 

all in all it was an amazing week!! We saw many miracles and found ourselves exactly in the place where we needed to be. 

With training especially it is easy to get down on yourself because you can see all the areas that you need to improve on. Sometimes we even feel that when we attend church meetings and conferences, but here is a thought I just want to end this email with: 

Elder Peterson (the VC director) shared this... He related the words of  1 Nephi 17:7 (7-13) back to us: God invites us to go to the mountain - to climb to a sacred, solitutde place, which requires effort, sacrifice, one step at a time. He wants us to come to the top of the mountain which could at first seem so overwhelming, but He doesnt want us to do it all at once); to rise to a higher plane 

We must Climb to the Lord. And as we climb and struggle, God says to us "I will show you." He will show us what to do, how to use the tools He has give us, to do the work He has called us to do (whatever that may be!)

And not only that, but we must be as Nephi and Climb OFT. (1 Nephi 18:1,3) We must be continually going to the lord for guidance and stretching ourselves as we strive to become like Christ. 

I love this work. I love you all. 

Have a blessed week!! 

Sister Bleak

1.     My bestie hermana Greenwood who I haven't seen in 5ever was at the
VC training!
2. District pic
3. Squad pic. Yes we matched bc the elders wanted too lol
4. Pic with Ben Metcalf after the craziest day!!
5. We went out to dinner Saturday night with the sisters we live
with!! Were one cute happy family 🤗❤
6. Crooked river fam! Minus George and Nina and Vayda
7. And 8. Bestieeeeee ❤❤
8. The happy couple Brett and Arielle!!!! I love them so much.