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.

Pictures

October 14

Hello everybody!   
     This week was kind of a crazy roller coaster week (ok I feel like that actually might be like every week on my mission). We car share with the Elders in Newton-Conover, the area right next to Hickory, and so it was there turn and we were on bikes. If you can help it, never ride a bike in a skirt. Luckily, I had the thought to pack some safety pins in my suitcase. There are many, many hills in Hickory so I sure am getting my leg workout especially with the 30 miles we put in and that was just 3 days. Sister Whitmer and I have been chased by 4 dogs so far, even though supposedly there is a rule about leashing them within the city limits. Seems like everyone here owns a dog. I can say that I dislike dogs more so now than ever before and I will never, ever own one. Other than the crazy four-legged beasts that chase us down, I don't mind the biking and can enjoy it. The elders in our ward are zone leaders so they have a car pretty much all the time, and I feel sort of bad because the ward members keep giving them a hard time about us being on bikes and in the dark on the busy roads. Except the elders can't do anything about it since we're not assigned to that car and if they could they'd hand the car over to us in a moment. Oh well, that's how the southern people are, wanting to respect women.

     Well, we have a couple of investigators but they're not really following invitations or commitments right now. One of them even practically invited herself to attend church before we could but for some reason didn't show up. And that little family I wrote about in my last email? We went back for a second visit and they weren't there and the girl who was, said she didn't know where they were exactly, but I think she really did. Now we'll have to find them and I hope we can because the boy showed a lot of interest that night and I think he probably felt the Holy Ghost at least a little. All three of them need the gospel.

So we're just left with a lot of finding new investigators and finding less-actives to visit. It's hard stuff - just knocking on doors, most people not answering and then the few who do open tell you they don't want to hear anything cause they're Baptist or whatever church or they are just so comfortable in their ways they don't want to give up their lifestyle now to change. I am doing my best to keep positive though, and I knew it would be this way, so hopefully I can learn to put more faith in the Lord and improve my prayers.

    This weekend, Sister Whitmer and I did have a fun opportunity. Every year, Hickory has Octoberfest and our ward sets up a booth there. We have pamphlets, pass a long cards, and family proclamations to hand out. Also the patrons can order posters of Christ (like the picture with Him knocking at the door, Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemene, appearing to Mary at the tomb, etc) and we'll have missionaries deliver it to them. I think we got lucky because we didn't run into anyone during our shift trying to give us a hard time, people were very kind. Also, I got some deep-fried oreos! They were yummy but most definitely not anywhere near healthy, but I had to try it while I had the chance. There were other vendors there and other religious denominations trying to raise funds for things and what not. Oh and guess what? We passed by a street preacher there. I have never in my life seen one except in a Joseph Smith movie haha, and there he was shaking his Bible in the air and screaming at the top of his lungs hellfire and damnation stuff. Literally, I thought he would lose his voice within 10 min. There were a couple others standing to the side too and Sister Whitmer said when we walked by they were just glaring us down, I didn't see them though. We met this sweet lady on sitting on her porch before she was going to Bible study and we got to talking with her a little about our favorite parts of the New Testament. Before we left we asked if we could pray with her and she agreed. You know sometimes when people say grace and they all hold hands? That's what she did with us and while Sister Whitmer was saying the prayer, this lady kept saying "amen"s and "praise the lord"s and I think even a "hallelujah". She sure was sweet and very kind. Definitely this is different culture than back home in Utah.

    Sunday evening, the elders and we were invited to the wards youth fireside that night. They asked if we would do kind of a missionary Q&A panel. The youth had some great questions and it was great to get to know some of them and hopefully now they'll feel like they know us and will want to come out on team visits with us.

    I think that is about it for this week. Thanks for the prayers and I will keep on praying for y'all! Tell everyone thank you for the letters I enjoyed reading them.

Love,

Sister Amelia Rust

First week In-field

Hello All!

I arrived safely in North Carolina on Monday and we all stayed overnight at the mission home for transfers on Tuesday. I have a picture of the missionaries who flew out to Charlotte that day that I'll attach to this email and a couple pictures of me with Kelsey too. By the way, so I sang on Saturday at the Relief Society broadcast and that was a really great experience. However, I don't think my face made it on camera (kind of a good and dissapointing thing). When they show the whole choir though I can point out exactly which one is me. Oh well, how many people get the neat experience to sit and sing where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir does? And not many people get to see the back of the prophets head during his talk haha. ;)

This week has been great. My trainer is Sister Whitmer and she is very fun and sweet so we get along well. We were assigned to Hickory which hasn't had sister missionaries in a number of years, so it's kind of like we're opening an area I guess. Brother and Sister Nielsen picked us up from Charlotte and drove us to Hickory. On the way there though the bike rack we had broke and my bike ended up dragged a little bit on the highway before we could pull over. It ended up wearing a big hole right through the tire. So I haven't even used my new bike yet, it's at the shop being repaired and I have a church loaner bike. I am just grateful the bikes didn't entirely come off and hit the car behind us. Sister Whitmer and I were positive about the whole thing though and we figure we'll have lots more adventures like that. :) The roads here are crazy and probably in Hickory they are the craziest in the whole state even with a GPS. I have never been more grateful for Brigham Young setting up the grid system back west at home. The members we have met so far (which isn't much because of Conference weekend) are very excited to have sisters again. Oh and they found out that we both like to sing so we've already practically been recruited to their choir. When I got here I just kind of jumped right into missionary work, there really isn't another way to do it. I have only been out a week and already I've taught lessons, door contacted, and we even have someone committed to baptism. Last night we were on our way to an appointment we tracted into on Friday, but he wasn't home. So our back-up plan was to stop by someone we saw in the area book. Well the address wasn't right or something, so we only had a little bit of time left and decided to just knock around the apts. the address had taken us to. We found a sweet family, mother, daughter and son, who let us in. Turns out they had a dear family member pass away just last month so we bore testimony that they would get to see him again and they agreed to pray and read the Book of Mormon together. We go back to see them tomorrow and we'll teach more about the Plan of Salvation. It was really neat to have been led to that family. That's one of the things about missionary work that I am learning and seeing unfold: you study and prepare to teach but you got to be open to the Spirit's promptings because what you originally have in mind might not be what they need to hear at that time so you take courage to let go of your outlined plans and follow the Holy Ghost. It absolutely happens and works, but I have to be willing to stop taking counsel from my fears and start taking counsel from my faith. Anyway, Sister Whitmer and I are excited about this family because just the night before we decided we wanted and prayed for to find a family we could help get to baptism and eventually temple covenants and then we found this family! President and Sister Craven call Charlotte, NC the mission of miracles and I know it will be.

Well, that's about all that has happened this week other than settling into our apartment. I hope to hear from y'all and feel free to write snail mail too. :) By the way I sent a card with our address on it, but I realized it was wrong. Our REAL address is 1209 5th St NE #240 Hickory, NC 28601.

My first week as a missionary! Whoot! Whoot!

Hello, hello, hello everyone!

Wow, I am so super excited to finally get my first P-day and email. There's so much I could talk about but I only have a small amount of time to be on the computers so I'll just cover what I can and y'all can email me back or write with questions if you want.

I arrived here at the MTC last Wednesday so I have been here exactly 7 days now and that is a very weird thought because I still feel like I was dropped off only 2 days ago at most. In fact, the newest arrivals are walking in as I'm typing so that makes me the oldie now. My companion is Sister Knight and here middle name is Amelia so that's cool. We get along well with each other and the two other sisters in our district. Oh yeah so my district is four elders and four sisters even and I am the oldest out of everyone, and sometimes that is very apparent when a bunch of 18 yr old elders get together for meals. :P

The first few days was rough mostly because of how much teaching and studying goes on and the newness of it all. I only almost cried once though and my branch presidency and teachers are looking out for us and making sure we are ok. I am just very grateful I am not trying to learn another language on top of all this, although if I had been called to speak another language I know the Lord would help me with that just like He is already helping me now with teaching and trying to love investigators and go with the Spirit. I knew it was going to be hard work, but boy is it hard work! This is not something that you can do right without diligence and obedience (and a whole bunch of other good attributes). I am not perfect but I am trying and desire to do my best and through Christ things are made possible for me.

My companion and I already have two investigators that we are working with (both of which are actually just role playing probably) but for all intents and purposes they are real investigators. And it's amazing to go in to teach them and just see them as real people who need to know the love of God and Jesus in their lives and to begin to love them myself. It's so cool too, because as we practice teaching them I am slowly figuring out how to as they say "not teach a lesson but teach a person". There isn't a specific way or order to teaching the doctrine which is why PMG (Preach My Gospel) is SUPER COOL since it allows you to really get to know your investigators and their current needs and find out what will be the best way to help them grow in faith.

The investigator is at the heart of things and the gospel is useless without people and God's work and glory is bringing His children to eternal salvation.

Anywho, I think I am running out of time so I need to hurry and tell about the rest!

I found out some of the sisters are singing in the Relief Society General Broadcast and I was picked to sing in it! So for anyone watching keep your eye out for me. ;) Also, I was hoping so badly to get to see Hermana Kelsey Rust while here but I am on the new west MTC campus and so I wasn't sure I'd get to see her. But miraculously she saw me at a rehearsal at main campus and we hugged and it totally made my day and my heart was happy! I ran into a couple others I know including Elder Adam Jardine who left for Oregon today.

I was going to try and send pictures but I forgot to bring my camera cord so Mom, if you could actually send that some time along with the camera instructions above the clothes washer (probably sending it later next week would be better after I've already arrived in NC).

I love you all!

Sister Amelia Rust

My First Addresses

Here's my MTC address

Sister Amelia Rust
SEP30 NC-CHAR
2023 N 900 E Unit 836
Provo UT 84602

I will only be there for two weeks so here is my mission home address too

Sister Amelia Rust
North Carolina Charlotte Mission
3020 Hilliard Dr
Charlotte, NC 28205
United States

And then once I get assigned to my first area I will probably have another address again.

Headed To The South!

Hello everybody!

I report to the MTC for my mission in exactly 7 days and then two weeks later I'll be off to Charlotte, North Carolina. :)
While I'm away I am letting my family be in charge of posting some of my letters home so y'all can know how I am doing. They'll do so here on this blog and possibly also Facebook.
Plus, whenever my mailing address changes you'll know about it on here so you can write me letters.

Well, this is it and I'm super excited! See ya at my farewell talk and then again in 18 months.