Hello y'all!
How was the week? Hm - it was slow and hard to get appointments. But
we had some good moments and they seem to outweigh the not-so-good
moments by the end of every week.
Saturday was our most eventful/productive day. We biked over for lunch
with Sheen and Pradha. They made us some delicious authentic Indian
food! It was very yummy and reminded me of eating with family at the
Bombay House in Provo. It is funny, their food is really spicy
normally and they just eat it all the time that when they sweat I've
been told you can smell the spices/curry and it just lingers in their
clothes and homes too. Pradha told us that because they grew up eating
spicy things all the time that American food is too bland and she
doesn't really like it. We had a good time eating and asking them
about India, just really taking the time to get to know them better.
We found out they are here on a work visa that expires after next
year. Maybe they'll be baptized and be able to build and bless the
Church of Jesus Christ in India. :)
After lunch we biked back home to wait for Sister Craven and Sister
Parker (Elder Parker, the area Seventy's wife). Elder Parker was here
training for bishops and stake presidencies so Sister Craven and
Sister Parker wanted to come out teaching with someone and it worked
out to be us. We were way excited but also very very very nervous -
nervous mostly just that our appointments would fall through. It all
worked out though and we got back to teach Sheen and Pradha. We
focused on baptism into the church and the Holy Ghost and by the end
of the lesson after Sister Craven's and Parker's testimonies, we set a
baptism date to work toward. July 12 is the date and they made it to
church again yesterday for the third time but this time they stayed
for all three hours. And we notice something different about Sheen, he
seems happier and more interested in the church. I think his desire is
growing! And after Saturday's lesson I noticed his closing prayer was
better and he was more confident about it, so I made sure to
compliment him about it on the way out the door and he lit up. :)
The only other thing I would mention is that a member just got a
little hedgehog and I got to play with it a little! Her name was Hazel
and she was so cute! I think Nat should get a hedgehog rather than
ferrets. They are cute and don't stink but Sister Gunther says ferrets
stink (she had one once). Just sayin. ;)
Love,
Sister Rust
Monday, August 4, 2014
June 16
Hello Family!
What an incredible weekend I have had! We had four of our
investigators come to church this week - Garrett and Jodi, Jeff and
Kim. The best part is the miracles that occurred to have these four
make it to church.
Ok let me start with Garrett and Jodi. So last week we had our
wonderful lesson with him on Priesthood and challenged him to pray
about being baptized so that he could have his answer by the time we
met again after church yesterday. Well, they haven't been to church in
a month because of having the baby and I knew it would take a while to
recover from a c-section but also some other surgery she had at the
same time. But yesterday morning Jodi woke up and just felt like they
should try to make it to church, but Garrett said she didn't look like
she had the energy for it, yet after a nap (we have 1:00 church block)
he said suddenly she looked better. Then get this, they show up to
church, we are happy, everyone is welcoming them again, and the talks
and lessons happen to be on what of all things? Priesthood! Haha,
Garrett was excited to tell us how it seemed to have been just for him
and since we went over it last week it wasn't all over his head the
whole time. I don't think Garrett realizes it yet but I know that was
part of his answer to his prayers! He still hasn't come to a decision
yet, but he knows he wants to be baptized and join The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints. And now he has a hard choice because it
is not one between bad and good, he is trying to choose between two
goods. Either way, moving forward now or waiting to be baptized with
Jodi, he is going to make the covenant of baptism but it is a matter
of choosing and timing. Do any of you have thoughts or advice?
Alright, now Jeff and Kim. I found them probably 3 months ago with
Sister Nielsen. We were knocking in a neighborhood and Kim happened to
be outside homeschooling her two boys. So we talked to her a bit and
introduced ourselves, we have gone back multiple times and met her
husband Jeff, but we just have not been able to get in and teach. I
just felt so strongly though to keep trying.... it's hard to explain
but I guess I just felt drawn to them.
Well we tried again Saturday afternoon with a member and caught them
at a good time and we taught them the Restoration finally! Great
lesson and we invited them to attend church with us. They agreed to
next Sunday because Jeff had a lot of mulch to move around his yard
that they needed to get done by Monday before the city got upset with
them. Without missing a beat, Sister Gunther asked them if we got some
hands over there that night to help with the mulch would they come
with us to church the next day and he agreed wondering if we would be
able to find anyone. I wish you could have seen the surprise on his
face when we show up an hour and a half later with four elders and
Brother Adams and his two eldest sons shovels in hand! :) Well you can
bet we finished off that pile of mulch and Jeff and Kim came to
church!!! It was nothing but a miracle and probably the best day of my
mission. Garrett later told us he sat by Jeff in Priesthood class and
when Jeff got up to introduce himself he told the whole story to
everyone. Garrett told us that Jeff had been SO impressed by our
service - that was what we were going for, Christ-like service that
leaves an impression they will never forget about the true church and
it's members.
Yes, that was the best part of the week. I have been witness once
again to the blessings of ministering with love and charity, serving
God by serving His children.
The rest of my week was same ole', same ole', getting used to the bugs
(so far I have found roaches, spiders, and centipedes in my apartment-
gross!), getting used to the heat.... Sort of...... we are hitting
90's this week. Oh and we have the best district ever with all four of
our ward elders and us! I will try and send some pictures to y'all.
Hope Melanie, Natalie, Camille enjoy girl's camp, Lake Powell is fun
stuff! Just remind them to always be reapplying sunscreen and please,
please, please wear some sunglasses.... Don't burn your retinas like I
did out there, you go sort of blind and it hurts BAD.
Ok well I sure love everyone and thanks for the emails that you send,
it's so great to hear from you.
Love,
Sister Rust
What an incredible weekend I have had! We had four of our
investigators come to church this week - Garrett and Jodi, Jeff and
Kim. The best part is the miracles that occurred to have these four
make it to church.
Ok let me start with Garrett and Jodi. So last week we had our
wonderful lesson with him on Priesthood and challenged him to pray
about being baptized so that he could have his answer by the time we
met again after church yesterday. Well, they haven't been to church in
a month because of having the baby and I knew it would take a while to
recover from a c-section but also some other surgery she had at the
same time. But yesterday morning Jodi woke up and just felt like they
should try to make it to church, but Garrett said she didn't look like
she had the energy for it, yet after a nap (we have 1:00 church block)
he said suddenly she looked better. Then get this, they show up to
church, we are happy, everyone is welcoming them again, and the talks
and lessons happen to be on what of all things? Priesthood! Haha,
Garrett was excited to tell us how it seemed to have been just for him
and since we went over it last week it wasn't all over his head the
whole time. I don't think Garrett realizes it yet but I know that was
part of his answer to his prayers! He still hasn't come to a decision
yet, but he knows he wants to be baptized and join The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints. And now he has a hard choice because it
is not one between bad and good, he is trying to choose between two
goods. Either way, moving forward now or waiting to be baptized with
Jodi, he is going to make the covenant of baptism but it is a matter
of choosing and timing. Do any of you have thoughts or advice?
Alright, now Jeff and Kim. I found them probably 3 months ago with
Sister Nielsen. We were knocking in a neighborhood and Kim happened to
be outside homeschooling her two boys. So we talked to her a bit and
introduced ourselves, we have gone back multiple times and met her
husband Jeff, but we just have not been able to get in and teach. I
just felt so strongly though to keep trying.... it's hard to explain
but I guess I just felt drawn to them.
Well we tried again Saturday afternoon with a member and caught them
at a good time and we taught them the Restoration finally! Great
lesson and we invited them to attend church with us. They agreed to
next Sunday because Jeff had a lot of mulch to move around his yard
that they needed to get done by Monday before the city got upset with
them. Without missing a beat, Sister Gunther asked them if we got some
hands over there that night to help with the mulch would they come
with us to church the next day and he agreed wondering if we would be
able to find anyone. I wish you could have seen the surprise on his
face when we show up an hour and a half later with four elders and
Brother Adams and his two eldest sons shovels in hand! :) Well you can
bet we finished off that pile of mulch and Jeff and Kim came to
church!!! It was nothing but a miracle and probably the best day of my
mission. Garrett later told us he sat by Jeff in Priesthood class and
when Jeff got up to introduce himself he told the whole story to
everyone. Garrett told us that Jeff had been SO impressed by our
service - that was what we were going for, Christ-like service that
leaves an impression they will never forget about the true church and
it's members.
Yes, that was the best part of the week. I have been witness once
again to the blessings of ministering with love and charity, serving
God by serving His children.
The rest of my week was same ole', same ole', getting used to the bugs
(so far I have found roaches, spiders, and centipedes in my apartment-
gross!), getting used to the heat.... Sort of...... we are hitting
90's this week. Oh and we have the best district ever with all four of
our ward elders and us! I will try and send some pictures to y'all.
Hope Melanie, Natalie, Camille enjoy girl's camp, Lake Powell is fun
stuff! Just remind them to always be reapplying sunscreen and please,
please, please wear some sunglasses.... Don't burn your retinas like I
did out there, you go sort of blind and it hurts BAD.
Ok well I sure love everyone and thanks for the emails that you send,
it's so great to hear from you.
Love,
Sister Rust
June 9
Hello!
I am going to tell you about my crazy, exciting, good week. (Hm, what
week isn't some sort of crazy? I don't think I have started any of my
emails with "yeah, it was just an average regular week". At least,
since my being a missionary, it seems like our regular is not what a
regular week used to be to me or most haha).
We had the car last week and it was so nice, but now this week will be
even harder to get back on the bikes because it has been getting
warmer and warmer - wait - I mean hotter and hotter. I have never been
terribly good at staying hydrated but I have to make sure now. Also,
we'll have to think of creative ways to be out of the heat as much as
possible like staying under the shade of trees along the Greenway
instead of on asphalt which reflects the heat twice as bad.
Ok, so on Saturday we finally had a solid service project to work on.
Brother Hansen's neighbors needed help with their bushes and creating
a garden area in the front of the house, and so Brother Hansen invited
us and the elders to help with that and to fellowship. So the four of
us with the help of two of the kids shoveled rocks for about four
hours and dug up the yard, clay and grass. Well, for Ostin, one of the
boys who is probably 6, we were just digging up dinosaur fossils of
course. It actually was a ton of fun - our elders are hilarious and
fun to be around, the kids said the funniest things, and (Camille and
my other siblings will like this) we tried singing the rap/song from
the movie Holes, haha! :) Ostin was trying to be all grown up and when
the Hansen's daughters, about the same ages, came over I just hear him
loudly say, "Ladies! This is a construction site, NOT a playground.
You need to go back for the playground" I laughed so hard and it just
made my day.
Gah, I am already tired of typing (pecking) because this teensy iPad
keyboard slows me down. :P Ok, I'll share just a couple more things
though, the highlights of my week.
I saw lightning bugs for the first time ever! They really exist, haha.
My whole life I have only seen them in animated things so it was
almost like they were myth. It is super neat, they really are
fluorescent.
We have a new couple we are teaching from Liberia, Africa. Louis and
Mirene, and our first lesson went well but then the second one was
crazy and somehow turned into us bearing testimony but Mirene was so
fired up about the Bible and wasn't open to the Book of Mormon that I
think everything we tried explaining or bearing testimony of went in
one ear out the other. I hope the next lesson goes over better, but we
do have a continuing appointment with them so that is good.
We had lunch with Sister Schilling this week, she is our stake and
ward Geneology person. And she was so wonderful to spend a couple
hours with us to show us the basics of family history and
familysearch.org. It was a good time and I found some fun stories that
someone put up of Hazelton and Maria Campbell.
And now my favorite part of the week: We got in with Garrett and Jodi
yesterday to teach! We explained for Garrett the what, why, how, and
who of the Priesthood. Our ward mission leader, Brother Arias was
there with us and contributed so wonderfully and shared how Priesthood
blesses his family and life. Then in the end we invited him to pray
about being baptized this month instead of waiting for Jodi so that he
can progress to being ordained to the Priesthood and baptize Jodi
himself and bless his little baby girl. He still is on the fence! But
said he would pray about it now that he knows about the Priesthood and
have an answer by the end of the week. If you would like to, please
pray that he can receive the answer that Heavenly Father desires of
him and that he will move forward.
That's all I got today. Enjoy summer break everyone, but don't have
too much fun! ;)
Love you all,
Sister Rust
I am in my 9 month!!! I can't believe it!!!
We have transfers tomorrow but Sister Gunther and I are staying, yes!!
:) We get so nervous as transfers approach because we love being with
each other and we work well together and we love University City ward.
We found out we are getting a second set of elders though so we'll be
back to three companionships again and then maybe we will all stay for
a while. I think the members are wondering why there have been like 6
different sets of missionaries come through in just 4 months, that's a
lot of switching around.
I am going to tell you about my crazy, exciting, good week. (Hm, what
week isn't some sort of crazy? I don't think I have started any of my
emails with "yeah, it was just an average regular week". At least,
since my being a missionary, it seems like our regular is not what a
regular week used to be to me or most haha).
We had the car last week and it was so nice, but now this week will be
even harder to get back on the bikes because it has been getting
warmer and warmer - wait - I mean hotter and hotter. I have never been
terribly good at staying hydrated but I have to make sure now. Also,
we'll have to think of creative ways to be out of the heat as much as
possible like staying under the shade of trees along the Greenway
instead of on asphalt which reflects the heat twice as bad.
Ok, so on Saturday we finally had a solid service project to work on.
Brother Hansen's neighbors needed help with their bushes and creating
a garden area in the front of the house, and so Brother Hansen invited
us and the elders to help with that and to fellowship. So the four of
us with the help of two of the kids shoveled rocks for about four
hours and dug up the yard, clay and grass. Well, for Ostin, one of the
boys who is probably 6, we were just digging up dinosaur fossils of
course. It actually was a ton of fun - our elders are hilarious and
fun to be around, the kids said the funniest things, and (Camille and
my other siblings will like this) we tried singing the rap/song from
the movie Holes, haha! :) Ostin was trying to be all grown up and when
the Hansen's daughters, about the same ages, came over I just hear him
loudly say, "Ladies! This is a construction site, NOT a playground.
You need to go back for the playground" I laughed so hard and it just
made my day.
Gah, I am already tired of typing (pecking) because this teensy iPad
keyboard slows me down. :P Ok, I'll share just a couple more things
though, the highlights of my week.
I saw lightning bugs for the first time ever! They really exist, haha.
My whole life I have only seen them in animated things so it was
almost like they were myth. It is super neat, they really are
fluorescent.
We have a new couple we are teaching from Liberia, Africa. Louis and
Mirene, and our first lesson went well but then the second one was
crazy and somehow turned into us bearing testimony but Mirene was so
fired up about the Bible and wasn't open to the Book of Mormon that I
think everything we tried explaining or bearing testimony of went in
one ear out the other. I hope the next lesson goes over better, but we
do have a continuing appointment with them so that is good.
We had lunch with Sister Schilling this week, she is our stake and
ward Geneology person. And she was so wonderful to spend a couple
hours with us to show us the basics of family history and
familysearch.org. It was a good time and I found some fun stories that
someone put up of Hazelton and Maria Campbell.
And now my favorite part of the week: We got in with Garrett and Jodi
yesterday to teach! We explained for Garrett the what, why, how, and
who of the Priesthood. Our ward mission leader, Brother Arias was
there with us and contributed so wonderfully and shared how Priesthood
blesses his family and life. Then in the end we invited him to pray
about being baptized this month instead of waiting for Jodi so that he
can progress to being ordained to the Priesthood and baptize Jodi
himself and bless his little baby girl. He still is on the fence! But
said he would pray about it now that he knows about the Priesthood and
have an answer by the end of the week. If you would like to, please
pray that he can receive the answer that Heavenly Father desires of
him and that he will move forward.
That's all I got today. Enjoy summer break everyone, but don't have
too much fun! ;)
Love you all,
Sister Rust
I am in my 9 month!!! I can't believe it!!!
We have transfers tomorrow but Sister Gunther and I are staying, yes!!
:) We get so nervous as transfers approach because we love being with
each other and we work well together and we love University City ward.
We found out we are getting a second set of elders though so we'll be
back to three companionships again and then maybe we will all stay for
a while. I think the members are wondering why there have been like 6
different sets of missionaries come through in just 4 months, that's a
lot of switching around.
June 2
Hi everyone,
So..... I think I must be too hard on myself. Because this week was
not looking like a good one as we went from day to day and I just kept
feeling worse and worse about myself. Maybe I had some unrealistic
expectations, maybe the sun was just too hot on my head. But looking
back now at our week and taken altogether it was a great week in many
ways even though it was completely not what I thought and planned it
would be. But I am grateful for so many things (too bad I just wasn't
grateful sooner- could have saved myself from an emotional weekend).
In my letter today I just want to share with you what I am grateful
for this past week:
I am grateful for all the many kids in our ward who surprise us with
pictures they have drawn for us. This is the reason for my subject
line of the email. It seriously is a tender mercy from God to have
these kids give us a gift even when I can't tell if the drawing is a
house or a really fat pickle. ;) It helps give me hope too that I
might be a good role model for them, a little hero in their eyes who
is doing some sort of good.
I am also super grateful for a lesson we had with a less-active mother
and her two nonmember children. She hasn't been to church in a long
time and her kids never, although they read from a children's Bible
occasionally. We really were hoping that her nonmember husband would
join too but he vanished once our appointment rolled around, so she
let us teach the kids anyway. Bryson is 10 and Brooke is 7 (Brooke
might be my favorite because she reminds me of Cassie) and we taught
them the Restoration and about the Book of Mormon. They were so
focused in the lesson and engaged, soaking up everything we said. It
was really beautiful how the Spirit was there because they were so
teachable and humble...... this must be part of what Christ meant when
he told people to be as little children. I have never seen anyone so
hungry and eager to learn about God and His words as Bryson and
Brooke. As we left Brooke even came out to say "thanks for learning
about God with us!" And her mom told us the next day she tried taking
her Book of Mormon that we gave each of them to school and show it to
her friends.
I am grateful...
Garrett, Jodi, and baby are all out of the hospital now!
For the new investigator we found outside cleaning his car, who just
quietly listened as we answered his question about President Monson
being the prophet today and Joseph Smith restoring Christ's church
rather than founding just any church.
For a ward mission leader who loves and tells us we are doing good
even when all our investigators who promised they would be at church
didn't keep that word.
For the testimony of a recent convert who has slipped up but wants to
do better so he introduced his Baptist girlfriend to us because he
knows that the message of the gospel helps his life and he knows it
would make a difference in hers as well.
For the opportunity I had to partake of the Sacrament yesterday and to
remember my Savior. And how He always reminds us to be of good cheer
and to be of good courage - used synonymously and interchangeably. And
His ultimate sacrifice on behalf of me and on behalf of you, each of
you.
Ok well, I kinda really liked that saying what I was grateful for to
sum up my week. :) I might just have to try that with my journal too
each day. That is my weekly goal this week is to write in my journal
CONSISTENTLY, haha.
I sure do love you all! Thanks for all you do and your prayers.
Love,
Sister Rust
So..... I think I must be too hard on myself. Because this week was
not looking like a good one as we went from day to day and I just kept
feeling worse and worse about myself. Maybe I had some unrealistic
expectations, maybe the sun was just too hot on my head. But looking
back now at our week and taken altogether it was a great week in many
ways even though it was completely not what I thought and planned it
would be. But I am grateful for so many things (too bad I just wasn't
grateful sooner- could have saved myself from an emotional weekend).
In my letter today I just want to share with you what I am grateful
for this past week:
I am grateful for all the many kids in our ward who surprise us with
pictures they have drawn for us. This is the reason for my subject
line of the email. It seriously is a tender mercy from God to have
these kids give us a gift even when I can't tell if the drawing is a
house or a really fat pickle. ;) It helps give me hope too that I
might be a good role model for them, a little hero in their eyes who
is doing some sort of good.
I am also super grateful for a lesson we had with a less-active mother
and her two nonmember children. She hasn't been to church in a long
time and her kids never, although they read from a children's Bible
occasionally. We really were hoping that her nonmember husband would
join too but he vanished once our appointment rolled around, so she
let us teach the kids anyway. Bryson is 10 and Brooke is 7 (Brooke
might be my favorite because she reminds me of Cassie) and we taught
them the Restoration and about the Book of Mormon. They were so
focused in the lesson and engaged, soaking up everything we said. It
was really beautiful how the Spirit was there because they were so
teachable and humble...... this must be part of what Christ meant when
he told people to be as little children. I have never seen anyone so
hungry and eager to learn about God and His words as Bryson and
Brooke. As we left Brooke even came out to say "thanks for learning
about God with us!" And her mom told us the next day she tried taking
her Book of Mormon that we gave each of them to school and show it to
her friends.
I am grateful...
Garrett, Jodi, and baby are all out of the hospital now!
For the new investigator we found outside cleaning his car, who just
quietly listened as we answered his question about President Monson
being the prophet today and Joseph Smith restoring Christ's church
rather than founding just any church.
For a ward mission leader who loves and tells us we are doing good
even when all our investigators who promised they would be at church
didn't keep that word.
For the testimony of a recent convert who has slipped up but wants to
do better so he introduced his Baptist girlfriend to us because he
knows that the message of the gospel helps his life and he knows it
would make a difference in hers as well.
For the opportunity I had to partake of the Sacrament yesterday and to
remember my Savior. And how He always reminds us to be of good cheer
and to be of good courage - used synonymously and interchangeably. And
His ultimate sacrifice on behalf of me and on behalf of you, each of
you.
Ok well, I kinda really liked that saying what I was grateful for to
sum up my week. :) I might just have to try that with my journal too
each day. That is my weekly goal this week is to write in my journal
CONSISTENTLY, haha.
I sure do love you all! Thanks for all you do and your prayers.
Love,
Sister Rust
May 27
Hey family!
We are having our P-day on Tuesday because it was a holiday yesterday.
I forgot to give you the heads-up last week, but hopefully it didn't
catch you by surprise.
Well it was Memorial weekend and it is getting hotter and hotter. :P
Everyone hit the pools yesterday.
This last week was pretty fantastic. We got to meet with our
Seventh-Day Adventist friends again now that they are home from
Thailand. We shared more about the Book of Mormon and it's history,
how it came about, and the chapter we left with them about Christ
ministry to His "other sheep" the Nephites. The Holy Ghost was strong
and they said a powerful prayer at the end as well to ask God if it
was true. Ryan is still a little iffy because he would like more
physical/archeological evidences (I guess that have that for the Bible
now), but we tried to explain that the most important evidence that
must come before all else is a witness from the Holy Ghost because
that is the most powerful assurance. Pray that they will have the
faith to be able to receive and accept their confirmation by the Holy
Ghost.
At our complex they are adding on so our workout room is under
construction for a month which means our workouts (if we are diligent
about it) are crunches and jogging around the complex. Actually Sister
Gunther showed me this great ab technique that you just need another
person for but don't need equipment and it hurts so good.
But they are adding an Internet cafe to our complex so that will be
super nice (they must have gotten sick of us coming in the office to
use wifi every day even multiple times a day ;) ).
We are trying to get more familiar with Facebook lessons so we
practiced with our recent convert Jen. It turned out to be a great
lesson even though it wasn't face to face, we went over covenant
keeping as part of enduring to the end. We read the Sacrament prayer
in Moroni because it reminds of what exactly we promise in our
baptismal covenant and is always a good review for anyone.
We had a little performance by a primary girl at our dinner this week.
Haha, she wanted to show us how she had the songs from Frozen
memorized and it was cute. All the kids in our ward are obsessed with
that movie - to the point where every dinner conversation with kids
includes Frozen and them spoiling it for us ha. Is it like that in
Utah? :)
Oh we have some new investigators who are Indian! We were looking for
a less-active sister who lived at an apartment complex but instead
this Indian family answered instead. Surprisingly this family wasn't
Hindu like the others we have met but were Christian so we asked if we
could share more about Jesus Christ and they let us in. We have been
back over a few times since and they came to Sacrament even! They are
cute - Sheen the father, Pradha his wife, and Evangeline their little
preschooler. Each time we go over Evangeline gives us each a juice box
or a fruit and it is adorable, she is this little nurturer. I'll have
to ask Peter how to say some things in Tamil so I can use it with
them.
Yesterday Sister Gunther and I went to go see Jodi and Garrett at the
hospital! They were expecting their baby right? Well, we have been
nervous all week because Jodi was having some other problems with
digestion or something so they went to the hospital Monday morning and
they decided to get her into surgery right away to try and see what
was wrong. Well, she ended up having two surgeries in one because they
just decided to take the baby out then too which caught both Jodi and
Garrett by surprise (they didn't have a car seat or anything yet). So
their darling Skyla came 4 weeks early but weighed 8 lbs 12 ounces!
The baby is well and healthy and has been released but Jodi kept
getting sick and having complications so she went for another surgery
Friday and then Saturday caught Pneumonia! So Even though the baby has
been released, she is with Garrett and they stayed with Jodi all week.
Since they didn't have a car seat yet and Skyla had to stay with
Garrett all the time, they convinced the maternity ward to send over a
little infant cart thing to the surgery ward, and Anytime Garrett goes
to the cafeteria he totes little Skyla with him. :) They are the
cutest thing! Oh it was SO hard not to be able to hold the baby though
as a missionary!!! We wanted to so so so badly. Actually anytime there
is a cute kid it is hard. But if things go well Jodi should be
released in a few days, we sure hope so.
We had a miracle story and it happened right before our interviews
with President Craven so we got to share it directly with him and
rejoice together. The Harrisburg sisters gave us a referral, her name
is Warnette. We finally got a hold of her and taught her the
Restoration. She told us she was just interested in learning about
Mormons at first but after a powerful lesson with her and introducing
the Book of Mormon she was just in awe! The look on her face as she
held the Book of Mormon in her hands you would think she was holding
the actual gold plates or something. She then basically bore her
testimony of how what we just shared she could tell was true and good
and then asked us if we could come back tomorrow as soon as possible
since she had to leave quickly. We thought we were going to cry we
were so happy to see someone receive and accept the witness of the
Holy Ghost so readily and fast!
I love you all! Until next Monday and have a great week.
Sister Rust
We are having our P-day on Tuesday because it was a holiday yesterday.
I forgot to give you the heads-up last week, but hopefully it didn't
catch you by surprise.
Well it was Memorial weekend and it is getting hotter and hotter. :P
Everyone hit the pools yesterday.
This last week was pretty fantastic. We got to meet with our
Seventh-Day Adventist friends again now that they are home from
Thailand. We shared more about the Book of Mormon and it's history,
how it came about, and the chapter we left with them about Christ
ministry to His "other sheep" the Nephites. The Holy Ghost was strong
and they said a powerful prayer at the end as well to ask God if it
was true. Ryan is still a little iffy because he would like more
physical/archeological evidences (I guess that have that for the Bible
now), but we tried to explain that the most important evidence that
must come before all else is a witness from the Holy Ghost because
that is the most powerful assurance. Pray that they will have the
faith to be able to receive and accept their confirmation by the Holy
Ghost.
At our complex they are adding on so our workout room is under
construction for a month which means our workouts (if we are diligent
about it) are crunches and jogging around the complex. Actually Sister
Gunther showed me this great ab technique that you just need another
person for but don't need equipment and it hurts so good.
But they are adding an Internet cafe to our complex so that will be
super nice (they must have gotten sick of us coming in the office to
use wifi every day even multiple times a day ;) ).
We are trying to get more familiar with Facebook lessons so we
practiced with our recent convert Jen. It turned out to be a great
lesson even though it wasn't face to face, we went over covenant
keeping as part of enduring to the end. We read the Sacrament prayer
in Moroni because it reminds of what exactly we promise in our
baptismal covenant and is always a good review for anyone.
We had a little performance by a primary girl at our dinner this week.
Haha, she wanted to show us how she had the songs from Frozen
memorized and it was cute. All the kids in our ward are obsessed with
that movie - to the point where every dinner conversation with kids
includes Frozen and them spoiling it for us ha. Is it like that in
Utah? :)
Oh we have some new investigators who are Indian! We were looking for
a less-active sister who lived at an apartment complex but instead
this Indian family answered instead. Surprisingly this family wasn't
Hindu like the others we have met but were Christian so we asked if we
could share more about Jesus Christ and they let us in. We have been
back over a few times since and they came to Sacrament even! They are
cute - Sheen the father, Pradha his wife, and Evangeline their little
preschooler. Each time we go over Evangeline gives us each a juice box
or a fruit and it is adorable, she is this little nurturer. I'll have
to ask Peter how to say some things in Tamil so I can use it with
them.
Yesterday Sister Gunther and I went to go see Jodi and Garrett at the
hospital! They were expecting their baby right? Well, we have been
nervous all week because Jodi was having some other problems with
digestion or something so they went to the hospital Monday morning and
they decided to get her into surgery right away to try and see what
was wrong. Well, she ended up having two surgeries in one because they
just decided to take the baby out then too which caught both Jodi and
Garrett by surprise (they didn't have a car seat or anything yet). So
their darling Skyla came 4 weeks early but weighed 8 lbs 12 ounces!
The baby is well and healthy and has been released but Jodi kept
getting sick and having complications so she went for another surgery
Friday and then Saturday caught Pneumonia! So Even though the baby has
been released, she is with Garrett and they stayed with Jodi all week.
Since they didn't have a car seat yet and Skyla had to stay with
Garrett all the time, they convinced the maternity ward to send over a
little infant cart thing to the surgery ward, and Anytime Garrett goes
to the cafeteria he totes little Skyla with him. :) They are the
cutest thing! Oh it was SO hard not to be able to hold the baby though
as a missionary!!! We wanted to so so so badly. Actually anytime there
is a cute kid it is hard. But if things go well Jodi should be
released in a few days, we sure hope so.
We had a miracle story and it happened right before our interviews
with President Craven so we got to share it directly with him and
rejoice together. The Harrisburg sisters gave us a referral, her name
is Warnette. We finally got a hold of her and taught her the
Restoration. She told us she was just interested in learning about
Mormons at first but after a powerful lesson with her and introducing
the Book of Mormon she was just in awe! The look on her face as she
held the Book of Mormon in her hands you would think she was holding
the actual gold plates or something. She then basically bore her
testimony of how what we just shared she could tell was true and good
and then asked us if we could come back tomorrow as soon as possible
since she had to leave quickly. We thought we were going to cry we
were so happy to see someone receive and accept the witness of the
Holy Ghost so readily and fast!
I love you all! Until next Monday and have a great week.
Sister Rust
May 19
Hello family!
Wow this past week was challenging but wonderful!
So on Tuesday we had a mission conference with President and Sister
Craven and they talked a lot about how we (all of our areas) are
losing too many of our baptismal dates and so we need to think about
what kind of changes we can make to be more effective and help people
make it to the baptismal covenant. We are trying to get back to the
basics and do more and to work our tails off.
And so because Sister Gunther and I were trying to do better this week
of course we'd meet some opposition, so there were moments that just
felt like failures but truly by the end of the week we saw the little
miracles that had been happening all along and we met some of our
goals that we hadn't done before yet.
I would say much of our success came via working with members this
week. We had wonderful opportunities to go out with the sisters in the
ward and to have them join us in lessons which, believe it or not,
makes a significant difference in teaching people.
The tender mercies of the week were:
Garrett and Jodi are expecting their first baby this week!! :) so they
just met with the bishop and we will teach them about the priesthood
so that Garrett can be baptized in a few weeks, work towards the
priesthood, and then when Jodi is ready he can baptize her. It will be
such a blessing for them as they are just starting their family and
the new baby. :) I love them!!!
We also just found a new investigator through a member this week. Her
name is Charlotte and she grew up here in Charlotte, ha! She was very
sweet and the first day we went over to contact her, she opened up the
door and invited us in right away, I mean we hardly introduced
ourselves before she warmly invited us in. I so hope she continues
meeting with us.
The Hansens had us over for dinner and also invited their oldest son's
best friend who is a nonmember. He was a very sweet kid and we are
trying to get with the rest of his family as well. We talked about
prayer and Brother Hansen shared a time when he had a prayer answered
as a teenager and it really set the tone for the Spirit to be there.
Also, we had dinner with the Souza family yesterday. They are a
Brazilian couple who are so kind and they have one son who is getting
baptized in two weeks. They asked if we would teach the son to help
him prepare for baptism and of course we were delighted to. The Souzas
both served missions themselves so it was fun to compare the
differences between then and now.
Well, I am about out of time but I think I covered the whole week.
I hope y'all are doing well! :)
Love,
Sister Rust
Wow this past week was challenging but wonderful!
So on Tuesday we had a mission conference with President and Sister
Craven and they talked a lot about how we (all of our areas) are
losing too many of our baptismal dates and so we need to think about
what kind of changes we can make to be more effective and help people
make it to the baptismal covenant. We are trying to get back to the
basics and do more and to work our tails off.
And so because Sister Gunther and I were trying to do better this week
of course we'd meet some opposition, so there were moments that just
felt like failures but truly by the end of the week we saw the little
miracles that had been happening all along and we met some of our
goals that we hadn't done before yet.
I would say much of our success came via working with members this
week. We had wonderful opportunities to go out with the sisters in the
ward and to have them join us in lessons which, believe it or not,
makes a significant difference in teaching people.
The tender mercies of the week were:
Garrett and Jodi are expecting their first baby this week!! :) so they
just met with the bishop and we will teach them about the priesthood
so that Garrett can be baptized in a few weeks, work towards the
priesthood, and then when Jodi is ready he can baptize her. It will be
such a blessing for them as they are just starting their family and
the new baby. :) I love them!!!
We also just found a new investigator through a member this week. Her
name is Charlotte and she grew up here in Charlotte, ha! She was very
sweet and the first day we went over to contact her, she opened up the
door and invited us in right away, I mean we hardly introduced
ourselves before she warmly invited us in. I so hope she continues
meeting with us.
The Hansens had us over for dinner and also invited their oldest son's
best friend who is a nonmember. He was a very sweet kid and we are
trying to get with the rest of his family as well. We talked about
prayer and Brother Hansen shared a time when he had a prayer answered
as a teenager and it really set the tone for the Spirit to be there.
Also, we had dinner with the Souza family yesterday. They are a
Brazilian couple who are so kind and they have one son who is getting
baptized in two weeks. They asked if we would teach the son to help
him prepare for baptism and of course we were delighted to. The Souzas
both served missions themselves so it was fun to compare the
differences between then and now.
Well, I am about out of time but I think I covered the whole week.
I hope y'all are doing well! :)
Love,
Sister Rust
May 12
Hello family,
Well this week has been one of those all over the place roller coaster
weeks where you have to look back to remember the little miracles and
good things that happened - they are there though. So let me tell you
about what went well this week. :)
We had a neat lesson with a man named Ishmal who we found at the house
of a less-active we were looking for. She wasn't there but he is her
nephew and was hanging outside with a buddy, so we introduced
ourselves and said we were from her church. He was actually interested
to hear what we go around telling people so we briefly went over the
Restoration, told him the gospel answers the questions of the soul
(where did we come from?, why are we here?, and where are we going
after this life?), and gave him a Book of Mormon. He actually wanted
to read from the Book of Mormon and asked where he could buy one! So
of course we gave him one for free with the invitation to read it's
message and pray to ask God about it.
We also taught another less-active couple who we hadn't seen in a
while and then yesterday they made it to church for Sacrament! I was
very happy to see them make it and see ward members talking with them
afterward.
Another family who hadn't been to church in a while, we taught about
CPR for the soul. It stands for church, pray, read the Book of Mormon
- and those are three essential things that we all need to be
spiritually nourished and for our investigators especially to receive
an answer from God what is the truth. We shared scripture passages for
each and bore our testimony of how much we need that in our lives and
their lives. It was definitely a lesson with the Holy Ghost present to
touch their hearts and I felt that they could feel that church and
daily scripture and prayer are important pieces missing in their
lives.
This how we can have the spirit of revelation in each of us to know
things. When members of the church share testimony of how they KNOW
certain things it comes by much praying as Alma says in Alma 5:45-46.
It is only by the Holy Ghost that we can know of spiritual truths and
we pray to receive that Holy Ghost.
I am excited for Garrett and Jodi, they are only a couple weeks away
from her due date so the baby could come any time now. We had a
spiritual lesson with them yesterday and taught about baptism and this
next week we will teach what the Priesthood is and hopefully with that
understanding, Garrett will desire to be baptized first and not wait
so he can receive the priesthood to later baptize Jodi. When we
suggested this Jodi started crying at the beautiful thought and said
she would love for it to work out that way. We think it would be great
too!
Well, the rest of my week was finding and trying to talk to people.
I was able to skype home yesterday for Mother's Day and it was so
great to see all of you! I am glad to see you are doing well. :)
Go forth with faith!
Love,
Sister Rust
Well this week has been one of those all over the place roller coaster
weeks where you have to look back to remember the little miracles and
good things that happened - they are there though. So let me tell you
about what went well this week. :)
We had a neat lesson with a man named Ishmal who we found at the house
of a less-active we were looking for. She wasn't there but he is her
nephew and was hanging outside with a buddy, so we introduced
ourselves and said we were from her church. He was actually interested
to hear what we go around telling people so we briefly went over the
Restoration, told him the gospel answers the questions of the soul
(where did we come from?, why are we here?, and where are we going
after this life?), and gave him a Book of Mormon. He actually wanted
to read from the Book of Mormon and asked where he could buy one! So
of course we gave him one for free with the invitation to read it's
message and pray to ask God about it.
We also taught another less-active couple who we hadn't seen in a
while and then yesterday they made it to church for Sacrament! I was
very happy to see them make it and see ward members talking with them
afterward.
Another family who hadn't been to church in a while, we taught about
CPR for the soul. It stands for church, pray, read the Book of Mormon
- and those are three essential things that we all need to be
spiritually nourished and for our investigators especially to receive
an answer from God what is the truth. We shared scripture passages for
each and bore our testimony of how much we need that in our lives and
their lives. It was definitely a lesson with the Holy Ghost present to
touch their hearts and I felt that they could feel that church and
daily scripture and prayer are important pieces missing in their
lives.
This how we can have the spirit of revelation in each of us to know
things. When members of the church share testimony of how they KNOW
certain things it comes by much praying as Alma says in Alma 5:45-46.
It is only by the Holy Ghost that we can know of spiritual truths and
we pray to receive that Holy Ghost.
I am excited for Garrett and Jodi, they are only a couple weeks away
from her due date so the baby could come any time now. We had a
spiritual lesson with them yesterday and taught about baptism and this
next week we will teach what the Priesthood is and hopefully with that
understanding, Garrett will desire to be baptized first and not wait
so he can receive the priesthood to later baptize Jodi. When we
suggested this Jodi started crying at the beautiful thought and said
she would love for it to work out that way. We think it would be great
too!
Well, the rest of my week was finding and trying to talk to people.
I was able to skype home yesterday for Mother's Day and it was so
great to see all of you! I am glad to see you are doing well. :)
Go forth with faith!
Love,
Sister Rust
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