December 16

Hello there family,

So I am emailing you from the new iPad our mission just received on
Friday. PretTy neat buts I prefer a tangible keyboard that I don't
have to peck letters on. It's exciting though being the guinea pigs
for Salt Lake as a pilot mission for the iPads. They have made us an
app for our planner and area book, so gone are the days of agendas and
teaching records on paper. We do have to sync our iPads every night
though and other programs require wifi which we don't have in our
apartment but we have a grocery store about a mile away with free wifi
that we use for now and we are just working it out as we go. However,
I can now read emails every night though on my iPad, but won't be able
to reply until Mondays still. I super love handwritten letters the
best and you're always welcome to keep doing snail mail too. ;)

Transfers are tomorrow but Sister Whitmer and I are just staying here
in Hickory though, yay! My district leader, Elder Smellie is being
transferred though which is sad because he is a superb district
leader. :'( Oh well, change is a good thing and I think whoever is my
new district leader will be just as great.

One of our investigators, I have just really come to love so
much and she is slowly making her way toward joining the church so I
am very grateful to still be in Hickory and she really connects with
us as well. Our last appointment with her was wonderful because we
read from the Book of Mormon with her and for the first time she told
us she actually feels it drawing her in and like she can connect to it
some. I wanted to just jump up and shout when she said that! Can I
just tell you how relieving it feels to finally have someone show some
desire to actually change and then to start to take steps on there
own? It's like trying to teach a baby to walk- you can show all you
want and hold their hand but they just won't walk until they want to
walk. She is getting to that point where she could start walking on
her own and I just want it badly for her.

So having a birthday on a P-day was interesting today. We thought
about mini-golfing or bowling but we don't have the car this week so
we didn't. I got a surprise birthday call from the Statesville Elders
in my zone today as well as the zone leaders (who are also the elders
in our area) so that was nice of them and made my morning. I can't
believe I am 21 now, it is strange. And if it weren't for the age
change, I would probably just start getting ready for a mission at
this time.... Kind of a weird thought, but I am glad it worked out
like it did. We decorated our Christmas tree today and it looks great!
Yes, it is my first REAL Christmas tree. I'll try to send pictures
next week on a computer since I am very not tech savvy. :P

Hope all y'all have a fabulous week!
I love you. :)
Love,
Sister Rust

December Already?!

Dear family,

I can't believe we are already into the second week of December. So over the weekend we had our Celebration of Christ and it turned out amazing! In just the two nights there were 1,000 in attendance! Biggest ward Christmas party I've ever been to haha. Saturday night was the best because Sister Whitmer sang while I used ASL for a couple of songs and Brother Enders who was in charge of all the music said it was everything he hoped it would be and brought the Spirit in so well. He (and many others including our missionary zone) started to cry. Then our missionary choir finished off the night with a selection of songs which miraculously sounded beautiful after only 3 rehearsals. My favorite was that we included singing "This Is The Christ" though it isn't a Christmas song exactly but it's one of my favorites and really helped put the focus on our Savior and Redeemer. We started the song by reading the Savior's words in 3 Nephi when he invites the Nephites to feel the wound in His side and His hands, because Christmas for us is not just that a cute little baby was born -- for us it is Jesus the Christ was born and came to rescue a lost and fallen world out of love.

That was the big thing this week.... lots of singing practice and signing practice and then finally performing. We also helped bake sugar cookies as refreshments and serve them with wassail, yum.

Oh and we had a weird day this last week when it got up into the 60s and 70s outside. Crazy! No cardigan or coat needed that day and it felt like we had skipped a few months back to early fall. It got cold again since and there's a possibility for freezing rain tonight. Too bad we won't have snow that sticks like Utah, I like white Christmas.

We did buy our ornaments today for our Christmas tree that we are going to get. Thank you so much also for the advent chocolate calenders and the candy ropes, now it feels more like a real Christmas. ;)

That's all for now. Have a good week and remember: the church is true, the book is blue, and Moroni is still on the ball!

Love,

Sister Rust

November 25

Hi y'all,

Hm.... I don't have a lot to say this week I think. It's been a good, enjoyable week. We had some really great lessons where there was no doubt the Holy Ghost was present and I was able to be prompted to say things that just popped into my mind. Neat stuff for sure.

Also, we had a visit from none other than Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Twelve. I think he stopped by our mission on his way to somewhere else in North Carolina but it was neat. He took the time to shake the hand of each missionary in our mission because he said he likes to look into our faces and see who we are. So I have now shook the hand of one of the Twelve and can check that off my bucket list. The meeting was really great though because it was like we weren't just being taught in a meeting but more like a great conversation over lunch, he was just so personable. He left our mission with a great blessing too. Elder Cook told us to not underestimate the power of our faith as missionaries and so this weekend, Sister Whitmer and I, wanted to fast for our investigator, Cearra, and I had his comment about the power of our faith in my mind the whole time.

We've been getting ready for Hickory's Celebration of Christ the week after Thanksgiving and having choir rehearsals. It's been fun and reminds me of institute choir back home and singing at Temple Square and I loved doing it. We got permission to have our whole zone create a missionary choir to perform at Celebration of Christ since a lot of non-member community people come to the event. I am excited for it.

My companion and I also got a new investigator that the elders had been teaching but turned over to us because they felt like she could connect better to sisters. I think they were absolutely right, and already it's made a whole lot of difference. Her name is Kristina and she has a lot to overcome so if you could pray for her also, thanks!

I love all y'all and the church is true!

Sister Amelia Rust

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.