Texts from a member in Osceola

April 9, 2018

"Hello. I am Sister Olsen. Sister Girvin is in my ward. She is such an amazing missionary! We are so grateful she is here! Thank you for sharing her with us!

I am quite slow but I have a picture of dying eggs last week."

 April 10, 2018

"We fed them tonight! Great day."

One last week!!

I sat reminiscing with Sister Short last night about the last 3 months in Osceola. It was weird to think that there was ever a time before being a missionary, before knowing families like the Olsens or the Bairs... Before having investigators like Roy and Rita or Ulises and Oliver. A time before we knocked on random peoples doors, before we were in Iowa even. Yet, it has only been three months.

This week is transfers, which has everyone at a buzz. If you ask the right people, you can get some pretty good hints as to where you are going. So, Sister Short and I asked the APs, Elders Wood and Obray, and Sister Badger (MP's wife). My hints were 'baby balooka', 'Oreo Os', and 'Mt. Zion Baptist church'. So, what we got from that is that I am staying in Osceola haha! It was a long process to get to that conclusion. But, sadly, we think that Sister Short is moving 3 hours away to Clinton... We'll find out tomorrow though, so stay tuned!

Some of the highlights from last week, Sister Short and I offered to help out at a school carnival at the same time that her past investigator's baptism was (oops), so we went on exchanges with Hermana Tolson and Hermana Esplin. Tolson and I went to the carnival, where we helped kids pop balloons. It was crazy!! We were there for a couple hours, then went back to apartment and sat on the floor in exhaustion. But, we met so many people that I am sure I'll see again ;) 

Missionary work has its ups and downs, as most know. Yesterday was one of the 'downs'. Roy slipped again, so he can't get baptized this coming week, and Ulises and Oliver decided to go to a different church, and two other investigators, Mike and Christine, cancelled our appointment with them. We sat on the couch just thinking, well, what now?? But, there are always going to be miracles no matter what happens. And, today is one of those miracle days. It didn't appear so this morning when we woke up to find a layer of ice on everything, but since then it has been great. The other day, Sister Short and I were driving down the road when we saw a lady carrying a ton of bags full of cans, and she wasn't wearing a coat. But, she was smiling at everyone who passed. As it was 20 degrees outside, and super windy, we thought she was insane, but parked and ran down the street to help her anyway. We helped her to her apartment building, then handed her back the bags and a Book of Mormon with our card in it. As it was cold, we then took the trek back to her car, not sure if she was really all too interested. However, we couldn't get Tia off our minds. So, we found our way back to  her apartment building and knocked on every door there until we found her. She invited us in, and we talked with her about the Restoration. She told us that it made sense, so we invited her to baptism. She blurted out, "I gotta tell you something." Immediately, we were filled with dread that she would tell us no in some way, but it was quite the opposite. She told us about how she had a hard life, and had been arrested a few times, but had cleaned up, and how baptism was the first thought in her mind in the mornings. But, she hadn't been baptized yet because the churches she had tried weren't true. We wanted to jump up and down for joy!! We assured her that this church was true, and she assured us that as soon as she found that out, she would gladly be baptized. We left that visit being just overwhelmed with the Spirit, and so grateful that we had the opportunity to come and see Tia.

Me and Hermana Tolson at the Statue of Liberty!

Waffles and Butter!! #neverbeenhealthier #jkitsicecream

Destroying the ice on our car this morning

This week...

First off, General Conference was amazing!! It's a second Christmas for missionaries. 7 new temples! When we heard that, we were praying that one would be in Des Moines, but Layton got it instead.

I love all the chocolate that got sent my way (thanks Natalie :) and Sister Short and I had fun eating a lot of it watching conference. We were the only ones that watched it at the church on Saturday, so that was fun. Then, on Easter we went to the Ward Mission Leaders house - Brother Bishop. We watched the first session, then, while we were waiting for the food to finish cooking, we checked out their Easter present - an automated basketball game, like one you would find in an arcade. Now, I am quite terrible at basketball, but I can say with pride that I easily (ha) beat Sister Short. Well, we tied the first time, then I won by like ten points, then in the third round she won by ten points, so I guess it was even. Then, we went to the Bishop's house (yeah, Brother Bishop and Bishop Olsen... It can get confusing) and we dyed Easter eggs.

But, of course, Easter isn't about the food or the new basketball games. It's about Jesus Christ. He came to this world to show us the way to get back to our Heavenly Father. But, He knew we could not be as perfect as he was. So, He paid the price for all of us, so that we could make it back to live with Him.

When Elder Costa was visiting Iowa, he left us with a commitment that I'd now like to extend to everyone else. In the Topical Guide, there are tons of names of Jesus Christ, starting with the Bread of Life. So, each day look at the next name. Look up scriptures associated with that name. And then, throughout your day, think 'How is Jesus Christ the Bread of Life?' or 'Living Water' or all the other names given. As we constantly have our minds centered on Jesus Christ, we can be helped in our hardest trials, and find strength during the hardest of times.

Iowa may be close to perfect, but it does have a problem. It rains a lot. So my lovely companion got prepared...

Me and Sister Short with our investigator, Ulises, his mom, Marta (member), and our other investigator Oliver

Super Bleary Selfy of Sister Short and I with our investigators Lexy and Hannah! (Taken the same day, which is why I have on the same outfit haha!)

A picture I forgot to upload last week... oops. Before our fantastic activity, us missionaries decided to test out the boat races :D​

Work, work, work!!

Wow!! Two weeks into one.  I'll just go with some highlights...

First, Mission Tour!! Elder Joaquin E. Costa of the 70 came and spoke to us. He was mainly talking about mission statistics. In the IDMM, to every 40 investigators we find, 6 will come to church, 4 will receive a date, and 1 will be baptized. It was crazy to think of finding 40 people...

The other big thing that was going on was a ward activity!! Sister Short and I were very disappointed that the Osceola Ward only has an activity twice a year - the 4th of July and Christmas. So, about a month ago, we decided to make our own. It was mainly about the Book of Mormon. We had a couple members agree to act some things out, and we had a couple others help us run the games, but we did everything else. It was crazy. We invited everyone we could think of, from members to less actives to investigators to people we knocked into. Then, word got to our mission president. And, of course, he and Sister Badger wanted to come. So, then we stressed more trying to make it even more perfect. The end product, however, was pretty good. People later told us that it had a better turnout than any ward party that they had been to in this ward, so we were pretty proud.

Yesterday we decided to take it a little easier. A less active in our ward, Sister Brobst, offered to teach us how to make some delicious bread like how to Amish do. It was awesome, and it made some of the biggest rolls I have ever seen!! She invited her granddaughter to come learn too, and she isn't a member. But, she was stuck with us for 4 hours, so she asked questions about our life, and Mormon rumors. She lives outside of our area, but we are hoping to see her again...

Then, this morning was a whole other adventure. Mormon pioneers crossed through Iowa, specifically through a part now called Mt. Pisgah. It was found by a guy named Farmer Brown (yes, that is his name haha!). He was well witching when we found all these graves. Under further investigation, he also 'witched' up some cabins. The earth is magnetic, and disturbances in the soil disturb those magnetic waves.  So, you take a metal rod and it moves based on where the disturbance is. I didn't believe it would work until today when we tried it. Anyway, Farmer Brown basically found an entire Mormon civilization that was destroyed. Cemeteries, churches, cabins, everything. It was super cool.

Elder Rutledge, President Badger, and Elder Brown (back)

Sister Short, Hermana Tolson, Sister Badger, Hermana Esplin, and me (front) after the activity

Our rolls​ :)

At Mt. Pisgah

Monument for Mt. Pisgah

Pictures

So some highlights from this week... 

-We went to zone conference/mission tour! Elder Joaquin E. Costa from the 70 was there, so that was pretty cool. Had a lot of fun with a lot of missionaries.

-Our apartment is bed bug free! (We hope)

And that's the big ones! I'll expound next week...

The story of Nephi in Emojis for anyone who may have need...​

​Mission Tour!! #zonepicplussomemore​

My amazing attempt to photo bomb Elders Barney, Fuller, and Orme at Mission Tour!!

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My Beautiful Companion when she found a street named after her

The day of Dinosaurs!!! (Sorry, I did not take any with them...)​

Can't really think of one...

Man, it has been a busy week! On Monday, after P-day of course, we went and visited our investigator Kristi. She is awesome! Kristi lives with her aunt, Sister Watkins, who is one of the super solid members of the Osceola Ward. Her family, however, isn't super active. But, Kristi comes to church every week, and she wants to learn more. We taught her the plan of salvation, and she said that she believes that it could be true. We are definitely going to keep teaching her!

Tuesday morning bright and early Sister Short and I took our journey to the land of the Indianola Zone Leaders for interviews with President Badger. After interviews was over, I was hanging with some of the other missionaries; Hermana Esplin, Elder Lovin, Elder Barrett, and Elder Orme. The question came up of 'what should we do now?' Elder Barrett had the great idea of a circle of love. Someone sits in the middle of the circle, and then everyone in the circle takes a turn complimenting them. So, with a lack of anything better to do, we started the circle of love. Within the next 15 minutes, our entire zone had joined us. It was so much fun, rather than awkward like we all thought it would be. Then, we all went and got lunch and looked at pictures and played ping pong. When we got back to Osceola, we found... snow. But that's okay. Eventually it'll be summer and my hair will make the perfect afro.

On Wednesday we met with Roy and Rita again. Their date got pushed back again, to April 7th. Their very first date was April 8th, but 2017. They have now been investigating the church for a year.

Thursday Sister Short and I dedicated ourselves to our ward activity and planning that stuff.

Friday we took our business to Perry, Iowa to go on exchanges with our STLs, Hermanas Esplin and Tolson, while the bed bug exterminator sprayed our apartment. While with Hermana Tolson, we went to visit one of her investigators - Tina. Tina has two little kids who love to run around and scream and yell and have SOO much energy! Tina, however, was exhausted because these kids had been up all night sick, so she hadn't gotten any sleep. So, Hermana Tolson volunteered us to sing to her kids. So, we sang I am a Child of God, and they both quieted down, but then the older one started crying and ran upstairs, and the younger one, seeing that her brother was crying, started crying herself. We felt bad... Anyway, after that, we ran into a guy who turned out to be a member! He said that he hadn't gone to church since he was about 16 and his family moved to Africa, and went inactive since there was no church nearby. We asked what his name was, and he said Joe. Later, we asked what his last name was so we could get his records into the Perry Branch. He proceeded to pull out his licence and show us - Joe Joe. Yes, that was his actual name. It was really funny!

Saturday we got back to Osceola and hurried to go teach Ulises and Oliver. The member we were going to teach with cancelled, so we had to end up meeting in a Subway. However, we ran into another member who is a friend of Ulises, so he sat in on our lesson, and even bought us cookies! We taught the Word of Wisdom first, and found out that Ulises does drink coffee. So, we asked him if he would be willingly to quit, and he was like, well yeah. It'll be easy. Then, we taught the 10 commandments. We asked them if they knew what the first one was, and little 9 year old Oliver listed them all off! We were so impressed, and we are super excited for the two of them to be baptized. They are awesome.

Lastly, Sunday. Church was fantastic! 5 of our investigators came to church, which was a new record! And, to make it even better, we talked to all of them, and they all loved it! So, overall, a pretty fantastic and very busy week!

-My totally awesome zone at interviews.

In the back, Sisters Harmon, Esplin, Short, and Rath. Elders Clayson, Fuller, Williams, Orme, Stoddard, Barney, Brown (hidden in back), Hansen, and Lovin in the air.

In the front, me, Hermana Tolson, Elders Carver and Rutledge, and Elder Barrett in the very front.

Don't let the Bed Bugs bite!

This week has been insane! Half of my old district have moved on to other areas in the mission, and Sister Short and I are still chillin in Osceola! Continuing on with the work! Which, reminds me, we have a new investigator! His name is Ulises. He's a super chill dude. We ran into him when we went to visit his mom, who is a less active member. However, Marta speaks very little english, so she called him in to translate. We asked him if he would like to learn more, and he accepted! So, we have been teaching him the last few weeks, and he came to church! He described his experience as a Jacuzzi. At first, it was awkward and uncomfortable. However, after he settled in, it became more peaceful and he didn't want to leave. So, yes. Church is like a Jacuzzi. 

Another cool experience from this week was our service time at a thrift store called Cross Ministries. We got a call from Mike, the person who started it all, about if we wanted to come help load a truck (He hadn't realized that the elders left), but we accepted and went to help. We then found out that this thrift store was so much more. The truck we were loading up was being filled with tons of medical supplies that hospitals and clinics nearby no longer wanted/needed, and they were getting sent around the US to start up clinics. They also have contacts in third world countries that come about twice a year and pick up more supplies, or, if it is small enough, they mail it. The list goes on. It was amazing to work alongside them. 

On to a less happy subject... Bed bugs. No, they are not just some funny joke that you say before bed. They are real. It started a couple weeks ago when Sister Short woke up with a bump on her knee. We figured that it was just a spider bite, and went on with our day. However, then we got a call from Hermanas Esplin, Mora, and Monson. They had bed bugs, and we had spent the night over there just a week before. So, we looked all over, but we found nothing. However, every morning, Sister Short would wake up with even more bumps! (Luckily, I am not susceptible to the bites, though they could have been feasting upon my blood and I would never know.) Then, we walked into our room late Thursday evening and saw.... A bed bug crawling on the mattress. So we smashed it and flushed it down the toilet, only to find out that we have to have a bug to show the exterminator in order for him to really do anything. So, we prayed about it, then went to do our laundry. Lo and Behold, there was a bed bug in our dryer lint. So, Gary the Bug is currently hanging out in a nice plastic bag until the bug killer arrives, and we are having a sleep over elsewhere until that happens.

Elder Rutledge, Elder Alton, me, and sister Short hanging out by the non-existent lake.

My totally fantastic new district, Elders Lovin, Brown, Clayson, Orme, Fuller, Barrett, Hermana Esplin, me. Front Row, Elder Rutledge, Elder Williams, Hermana Tolson, and Sister Short

We found the home of a few more creepy mannequins... Iowa has an obsession.