LMP's!!!

Hello Everyone!

 So, this week was pretty good. We had 13 lessons this week with three lessons with a member present (LMP's), both of which are RECORDS for this area (since I've been here). Our goal is to keep improving. Transfers are next week, but I refuse to be transferred (I'd better not say that too loud, since every time I say something like that the Lord seems to know better than me...) because I love it here, and there's so much work to be done. 

Shonna is WONDERFUL!! We invited her to be baptized, and she said she'd think about it. She's reading the Book of Mormon-- no, STUDYING the Book of Mormon. We went to have a lesson with her yesterday, and instead answered questions for over an hour. I'm so glad we had a member there with us, because a lot of her questions were about hell (we taught her the Plan of Salvation last, which lacks a specific place called "hell", so when Nephi brought it up it confused her) and Sister Coffelt was able to help us a lot. Shonna loves us so much, it's crazy. She's older and sicker, and not very sociable, so we're some of her only interaction. Apparently, whenever she does go out, she talks about us a lot. She told us that one woman said she'd never listen to missionaries, and Shonna outrightly defended us! She's a really neat lady. We're hoping to take her to Kirtland this week, which would be AWESOME leading up to General Conference. I'm so excited to use that as a tool for missionary work! We actually taught Shonna three times this week: We read 2 Nephi 2 with her, then taught the Plan of Salvation, and then answered questions yesterday. She usually says, "OK, that makes sense," and asks a lot of questions. If only we all studied as well as she does.

 

Saturday was a CRAZY day. We helped the other sisters man a booth and the Norwalk Autumn Leaves festival. Members loaned us a table and chairs and a canopy and other stuff to make a really nice looking booth with posters about Christ and lots of materials to hand out, as well as cookies and dum-dums. Between us four sisters and the members who came to help, over the whole day, we placed 32 Book of Mormons. That's pretty cool. It was really good. It was funny to see the difference between the people who were really interested, those that wouldn't be lured in even with cookies, and those that knew the cookies were a ruse but didn't really care. :) We also had our first Bible study class that night. Only our ward mission leader's family and one of the sister's less-active members showed up, but it was fun. Sister Hawkins and I taught it on coming to know Christ, the difference between knowing about Him and knowing Him, and led into our weekly topic of Christlike attributes. It was cool. We didn't prepare nearly enough material to last 45 minutes, but we made it work; no one knew. :)

 

Today we spent a lot of time with Shawn, and awesome lady from the ward. She always calls us the "Stinky Sisters," but she calls everyone "stinky." She cut our hair today, and I cut probably five or six inches off, at least. It's right above my shoulders now (pictures attached). It was really fun. But, now we're running late and Sister Hawkins and I are ending our P-day early to go to a lesson. This is a weekly thing now, though, since it's the only day she can meet. She's practically a dry Mormon; her grandma just wont' let her get baptized, but we're meeting with her anyway to kinda revamp her conversion. It's all good.

 

I love being a missionary. Keep sending the letters and emails; I love hearing how you all are doing! I love you lots and lots; have a wonderful week!

 

Love,

Sister Richards

Picture 001 is me role-playing the Restoration to our "investigators"- Sister Hawkins' lopsided lion, my Hump-day camel, and my bendy missionary.

Picture 002 is after we all went out and played in the rain in front of our house one night. It was POURING, and we all had to change before we went to bed. It was really fun, though!

.Picture 003: My new hair! (You can see the difference in color really badly in the picture... Silly perm last summer changed it. It's almost gone, though.) The library is in the background.

Picture 004: Sister Hawkins and I helping Sister Tobey patch her giant bubble! I am inside. :) They have a bouncy house, and use that fan to blow up the bubble. Sometimes they put ball-pit balls in there and the kids play in it. They have the COOLEST toys. And, they're an awesome missionary family.

10 Lessons!

Hello Everyone!

We had 10 lessons this week! I know that's not a lot, but it is for our area! And, we set a realistic goal for 20 this week, so here we go!! The only problem is, we had an investigator drop us yesterday... that makes one gained and two dropped in two weeks, with another probably dropping this week. :( But, we're going to find 100 this week! Or, maybe 3, since that would be a miracle for us. :)

This week Elder Shayne M. Bowen of the Seventy came to talk to us! He met with the Youngstown, Akron, and Kirtland zones, and then with the Cleveland and Toledo Zones (me). (I guess some of you may be hearing from Elder Barnes about this same conference... It will have a different spin because it was the other session. :P) He talked about how knowing who we are influences how we act and think and work, etc. We talked about how we are of the House of Israel, and how we have a duty to gather Israel and help fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant. He also talked about the Priesthood, which I feel like I still don't understand fully. I just need a man to sit down with me and tell me EVERYTHING about the Priesthood, because I never feel like it's explained sufficiently for me. Anyway. :) He also spoke about exact obedience (surprise, surprise) and how Works+Faith+Obedience=Miracles. One of our mission "Standards of Excellence" is to goal for 10 baptisms over the course of your mission. I haven't had one yet... and I've been losing faith a little. His talk pumped me up, and I'm working on gaining the faith to get all 10! Even if I don't, if I gain the faith to, that's an achievement in and of itself. I loved his talk (it was more like a discussion, really) and it made me excited to be a missionary!

We saw our miracle investigator, Shonna, this week. We've called a few times offering to serve her, and she finally took us up on it; and boy, did she use us! We rearranged her living room, dusted, vacuumed, and listened to her talk. She doesn't get people visiting very often, I think, because she seemed to appreciate that more than anything. She can only use a quarter of her lungs, so the other stuff was very helpful, too. We taught her about the Book of Mormon, and after she'd promised to read it and born her testimony of how God answers prayers in His own way and timing (WOW!) she asked, "Will you stop visiting me if I decide not to be a Mormon?" We assured her that we would still come see her, but we're pretty confident she's going to be a Mormon. It's called faith. :) She then gave us some clothes she doesn't wear any more to try on, and then asked us what we do for the holidays, and if she can feed us for Thanksgiving. I think I've found a lifelong/ eternal friend. She is the sweetest lady with the strongest faith in Christ, and she loves us so much already. We're her "young'ns," and we're very OK with that, because we love her, too. :)

One last thing: Yesterday, we went to Bellevue with no lessons planned, and came home having taught a less-active, a member, and a part-member family. When you prayerfully set goals, the Lord helps you reach them!!

I love you all! The church is true!

Picture 001: Sister Hawkins and Sister Warden by our cart when the four of us missionaries went to Goodwill last P-Day. Most of that is Sister Warden's. :)

Picture 002: This is Sister Hawkins and I painting Sister Tobey's basement. She took the pic on her  phone and sent it to my email, so it's not great quality, but it works.

Picture 003Almost an entire MTC sister reunion at Elder Bowen's conference. Sister Caldwell, my old companion, was there but left before we took this. This is Sister Nielson and Sister Planer.

Pic 004: A BEAUTIFUL red sunset in Milan. The picture doesn't do it justice.-- 

Picture 005: a closeup of the sunset

***Sister McKayla Richards***

"For with God, nothing shall be impossible." (Luke 1:37)

9/9/13

Hello everyone!
(For those of you who don't know or haven't caught it, I'm quoting my character from "The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940" at the beginning of every letter. It fits, though. :) )

This week was pretty good! We taught 4 lessons to investigators/ potential investigators, which is more than we have since I've been in Sandusky! I told you about the two coolest ones last Tuesday (Shonna and Joshua). We haven't been able to meet with them again, but when Shonna left a message last night to cancel, she said she was calling for the "two sweet girls who talked to her last week" and she really wants to reschedule when she's feeling better. I'm thinking good things are still to come. :)

We've had some interesting tracting experiences this week. We tract WAY TOO MUCH in this area, but until we have other ideas, that's what we're going to do! Anyway, we talked to the SWEETEST girls who were practicing their baton-twirling in the front yard, then a nice woman who was walking with her grandkids, and then we met "The Pagan." Seriously, though, that's what he called himself. We knocked on his door, and he leaned around the doorframe awkwardly, like he wasn't wearing clothes or something. When we introduced ourselves, he started LAUGHING. Like, belly-laughing. As in, leaned on the table next to him and laughed for thirty seconds before explaining. Then he said, "You came to the wrong house. I'm not even a Christian; I'm a pagan!" And he shut the door laughing. We laughed when we walked away-- how could we not? The guy was crazy! I hope he departs from his "pagan ways" someday and finds the gospel. :) We also met a 92-year-old Pentecostal who said that as long as you believe in Christ you're good... until he found out we were Mormon. He was warning us to stay away from the Mormons and believe in Jesus. He also told us to join a good church with the Holy Ghost and the gift of tongues and such. Umm... He was cute, though. Sister Hawkins got kinda upset when he cut off her testimony (not to him, but she told me after). It just goes to show how hard Satan is trying to fight the work.

We also met another potential investigator (we're really bad at making them actual investigators, but we're working on it!) who actually knows Shawn, a member of our ward who own a barber shop. When he learned we were Mormons and we knew Shawn, he asked if she had sent us. :P He's really funny, though, and somehow the Spirit touched him and he said he'd read the Book of Mormon. He's met missionaries before, and talked to them before, and has one if not two copies of the BoM, but something in our situation made him promise to read it. I hope he really does. His name is Larry, he's retired, and so fun, and he needs to be baptized. :D

One last story: We had ward coordination on Saturday evening, and during it our ward missionaries (Shawn and the mission leader's wife, Sister Reel) got talking about "Brother Toft." When they learned that none of us sisters had been to meet "Brother Toft", they decided they were going to kidnap us. So, they skipped most of the ward indexing party, "kidnapped" us, and with Sister Coffelt (who had come to the indexing party but we kidnapped her as well) took us to meet "Brother Toft"... a.k.a, Toft's Ice Cream. It was a big shop, with good ice cream. Anyway, that wasn't the good part. There we were, four sister missionaries and three ladies from the ward, filling every seat in the Reel's rather messy van, talking and laughing for the rather long drive (longer than I had expected; probably 20 minutes) to Brother Toft. We were laughing so hard I could hardly talk! Then, less than a block away from Toft's, the road was closed. Instead of taking a detour, Sister Reel turned down a side street, pulled into a parking lot, then, with Shawn's encouragement and the rest of us dying of laughter, she drove over the grass into a neighboring parking lot, to the road on the other side of the construction, and onto Tofts! Of course, we took the same route back to the church as well. :D It was so fun, and a real stress reliever just to be with members, eating ice cream and laughing more than I have in a long time. It was wonderful. :)

Sorry the letter's so long today. I love you all! Have a wonderful week!



--
***Sister McKayla Richards***
"For with God, nothing shall be impossible." (Luke 1:37)

5 Months In!

Hello everyone!

Yesterday being Labor Day, the Library was closed, so we get to email during our lunch today! I have SO MUCH to tell, so I'd better type like the wind! (If you don't have time to read the whole thing, read the paragraph after the next. It includes a miracle. :D )

I'll start with yesterday. We went to the Melon Festival in Milan. Sister Frankenberry and I went there on Saturday for exchanges, but it wasn't a good contacting location. (Yes, her last name is Frankenberry. :D ) Sister Hawkins and I were IN the Melon Festival Parade on Sunday and gave out more than 500 pass-along cards. There were thousands of people there, that tiny town was PACKED, but we could only get the ones on the side of the road. It's the first time I've had so many people ask for a card, and only one gave it back to me. :) How many missionaries get to contact IN a parade? It was pretty cool. Then, yesterday, we went to the festival for P-Day. Our whole district ended up going, and it was way fun. We couldn't ride any rides or watch the shows, but we ate carnival food and talked and looked at craft booths. We had watermelon and cantaloupe ice cream, and it was really good. The festival is known for it. Anyway, it was the first excursion I've done on a P-Day since I came to Sandusky.

That night, we ended P-day at 4:30 rather than 6:00 because we were doing FHE with two families, the first starting at 5:00. It's a single mom and her two kids, and it was so fun. We played "Boula Boula", which is kind of like "hot and cold". After that we went to the Browns, a less-active family, for tacos and FHE. They have 7 kids, and all but the oldest are boys. It was CRAZY, but they are a good family. After that, we had time to do stop-bys and tracting. We stopped by a man we met last Monday (I'll tell his story later), and when he wasn't home I got kind of discouraged. I had made a deal with the Lord that morning, asking Him to bless us with an other lesson and a new investigator today because we were giving up part of our P-day. Not trying to be disrespectful, but asking for blessings for diligence kind of thing. Anyway, I was sure that stop by would be the one, but it wasn't. We were running out of daylight, and we prayed to ask who we should stop by to have that lesson and find that investigator. We felt nothing, and so we decided to go home and make phone calls, and maybe we'd set up an appointment for tomorrow instead of having a lesson tonight. On the way we passed a former's house, and their light was on. We decided to stop. The former had moved, but we set up an appointment with the new person living there. We weren't sure how interested he really was, but we counted it as a blessing and went to go home. But, Sister Hawkins decided to knock on his neighbor's door because their lights were on, too. So, we did... and we met Shonna. She let is in, we taught her about the Restoration, and we're seeing her again on Thursday. An other lesson, and a new investigator. THE LORD ANSWERS PRAYERS!!! We saw a miracle last night, and we didn't stop smiling until we were sleeping. We were late getting home, (we ended at 9:30 and still had to drive 20 minutes home) but I'm SO GLAD we met her. She told us we made her night- what she doesn't realize is she really made ours.

Also, while on exchanges with Sister Frankenberry, we taught Joshua, the first person I ever tracted into who let us teach him on the doorstep. We sat on his porch and taught him the Restoration. I'm not sure how much really sunk in because his attention span is a little short (he's 19) but we're going to text him on Friday and hopefully see him on Saturday, and then he would be a new investigator, too! Maybe we'll actually reach our goal of 3 new investigators this week!! Joshua has a lot of guilt that may keep him from being baptized right away, but he said he would if he felt it was right. He just needs to access the Atonement; he just needs to keep meeting with us to do it!! And he needs to read the Book of Mormon. I think that's what we'll teach him next! :)

S

peaking of the Book of Mormon, last Monday we met Mike (the unsuccessful stop by from yesterday). He was our third to last house, and when we knocked on the door he was on the phone inside. He hung up, though, and came outside to talk to us. He's a firefighter, works crazy hours, and has seen lots of hard things. He's Catholic, and talked about finding peace in going to church. I felt prompted to give him a Book of Mormon right there (which I've never done while tracting) and promise him that he would feel peace when reading it (like it says in the Introduction). We explained the book a little and testified of it, and he committed to read it ("rack reading", he called it, during his 36 to 48 hour shifts at the fire station). We keep stopping by him hoping he'll be home... Whatever happens, a seed was planted.

I know the Lord directs this work. It can be really frustrating to work hard day after day and see almost nothing come from it, but then we have weeks like this where the work wasn't any easier, but we saw results, or budding results at least. I love this work! I've learned that sisters really only get 17 months in the field, so I actually go home in a little over a year is all. :( I'm going to have to make the most of it!!

I love you all! Good luck! Keep the faith!

-- 

***Sister McKayla Richards***

"For with God, nothing shall be impossible." (Luke 1:37)