This is the measuring cup that our dishwasher demolished :( No bueno

This is a woodchuck! There are also squirrels EVERYWHERE and I saw a possum while riding my bike.

This is our plant Steve! Since we can't have pets. ;)

November 18

Hello everyone,

This last week has been great and an adventure. We found a few new investigators which is great but it seems too many of our new investigators don't turn into progressing investigators. That is a problem because if they don't have a willingness to change or a desire for the gospel in their lives they won't be good commitment keepers or covenant makers. And one of them who Sister Whitmer and I were really excited about, dropped us! I can't figure out why but it's sad. Oh well, we can't force anything on them and they need to use their gift of agency.

Hey guess what? This weekend I got to give my first talk out in the field. Bishopric called me just a few days before saying one of the speakers couldn't make it and if I would fill in. I said yes of course (I have a hard time turning that down). It was on Alma 32 and faith like a seed, just like Camille emailed me a little while ago. I wasn't too nervous. Actually, it's kind of funny. There's a lot of people out here who don't really know me yet because they think I hardly talk, including Brother Cabiri (this wonderful member from Ghana). Well, I think he was surprised when I gave my talk because after Sacrament, he turned to Sister Whitmer and said 'wow, Sister Rust can really talk! Just get her in her element and she really will talk.' Haha! I didn't think I was that bad about being quiet, but maybe I need to speak up a little more.

Oh boy, Friday night was an adventure. So I have allergies to pets right, and everyone owns at least one dog? Well, usually I come home each night with dog hair on my clothes and it's annoying but not too bad because the dogs are kept fairly clean. Well, we went to have dinner on Friday with a member and she lives out in the country, with four dogs and three cats and two horses. Yeah, I reacted a lot more than I thought I would to that many. I broke out and swelled up some and breathing was harder and ended up needing some Benadryl. Well, I was kind of out of it after a couple of Benadryl and ended up giving my companion and the member a scare. Don't worry, I am okay now.

Love,

Sister Amelia Rust

October 28

Hi y'all!

This last week was kind of a crazy one. We went down to Charlotte for meetings twice and we will again on Thursday. I guess usually there aren't this many meetings in one month but we have to get up an hour earlier than usual to make it to Charlotte in time and on Sunday for Ward Council or PEC, so that isn't super fun getting up earlier than 6:30 but sometimes we sneak a little 15 min of our lunch hour if we're home for a nap. I honestly don't have too much to say for this last week so it might be a very short email you get. We had to drop one of our investigators because he just wasn't ready for it come to find out and two of our other progressing investigators (maybe not so progressing) we have a hard time getting a hold of now and haven't met with in a week. So it's kinda back to square one in a way and more finding needs to be done. Here's the thing though, we'll have a much better time if we and the ward members are all doing finding and getting referrals. If you have any ideas on ways to build up the ward's trust in us or to get them more pumped and fired up to do missionary work let me know because Sister Whitmer and I want to get things rolling instead of just feeling like we take up space in the ward. :)

Some of our tracting has been interesting this last week.... we found a super sweet older lady who is Hmong (some sort of Asian nationality - I really have no idea because I haven't heard of that until I got out here in NC) and she hardly speaks any english but we showed her the pamphlets and she loved the pictures of Christ and was excited to pray with us. She has a Bible and goes to a Baptist church and we told her we'd get her a Hmong Book of Mormon and pamphlets in Hmong. Well, just yesterday, we sent the Hmong Book of Mormon over with the member who lives near her, and the member came back with a letter for us. I guess that this older lady had a friend over who could translate and supposedly she wrote a note for Yee (the older Hmong lady) saying that Yee didn't want to have us back. Sister Whitmer and I both as soon as we read the letter felt like those weren't Yee's real words and that even if she wasn't interested she wouldn't just tell us to stop coming back at all like that. So we had set up an appointment to come back tomorrow and we still are going to see what is up.

Also, we had a person who we knocked on their door and they were listening to us share our message. Suddenly, whoever else was in the house told them we were Jehovah Witness or something and so he shut the door and locked it without even glancing back at us or saying anything in the middle of our sentence. Totally caught us by surprise but I hadn't been rejected like that before. It's the worse because we get someone to listen to us but they are confronted by others and are convinced to not give us the time of day anymore. Talk about frustration! Oh well, this was prophesied about in 1 Nephi 14:13-14.

I am slowly starting to feel more and more comfortable leading out on lessons and talking with people but it is still hard, hard, hard! And it will probably never really come 100% easily. We do meet some great people though who value families and some of the recent converts and less-actives we work with are just fantastic and sweet. We're hoping to get a temple prep class going again in the Hickory ward because all the recent converts and less-actives we have met so far haven't even been to the temple for baptisms yet and that's so key in convert retention!

Well, the work is hard but it is great and marvelous that's for sure and I'm so glad to be a member of Christ's church and to help in the Kingdom.

Thank you for the prayers and if you could pray for those we are meeting with and finding too that would be so wonderful!

I love y'all so much,

Sister Amelia Rust

November 4

Hello Everyone!

I can't believe I am finishing up my first transfer this week!! Time flies out on the mission, but in a weird way. Your days feel like weeks and your weeks feel like days. It's been wonderful and in just this transfer alone we've had 13 meetings to attend which is very unusual and a lot! I love mission meetings though, President and Sister Craven teach a lot of great things and we've heard from several General Authorities. This weekend the Hickory Stake had stake conference and it was all about hastening the work and wow I was just so pumped and inspired to be a member missionary when I get home! I hope the members were as excited as I am. :) A couple of things I got out of it were that the members are promised an abundance and increase of the Spirit in their lives as they become member missionaries and most of the time being a member missionary doesn't involve some formal process or lesson but simply inviting others to come see how we live so they can feel the Spirit and goodness of the gospel. And there are so many church activities to provide opportunities for that or inviting them to FHE. In conference in the last year, it's been talked about the wave of missionaries, but now with church membership reaching 15 million it's time to combine efforts and start a tsunami effort for the Lord's work.
I extended my first baptismal invitation this week to Christina and she agreed! It was exhilarating and she is very ready for the gospel of Christ in her life and for her two boys. We also have invited two others to baptism and are just constantly trying to adjust and perfect our teaching so that we can be effective missionaries.