Pictures!

Dear Familia Eternitas!

Dear Familia Eternitas!

I hope you all have had a fantastic winter break and New Year! Sister Burt and I sure did. We had to be in our apartment by 6 p.m. on New Year's Eve, so we had our weekly planning session and drank Martinelli's all evening. And then we went to bed at 9:30. I know, it sounds anticlimactic, but it was the most beautiful thing ever! Nothing says "Bring in the New Year!" like extra sleep when you are a missionary. :)

Sister Burt and I also brought out our lumberjack side this week. One of our friends, Tina, has been through a really rough time lately. To top it off, she got flooded in on Christmas and the tree in her front yard fell over. So we rounded up some of the ward members who burn wood in their woodstoves, brought them over, and helped them cut up the tree and haul off the wood. I didn't realize how much it meant to her until we started talking to her afterwards, and heard about the difference it made to her. Everyone always talks about the "warm fuzzy feeling" they get when they serve other people, and I usually kind of roll my eyes when that convo gets started up because I rarely experience that, but I really felt it this time. I would totally peel pine needles off of their branches in the frigid cold again to see look on her face and feel the feeling I felt when we told her we were going to clear away her tree because she couldn't and that she wasn't going to pay us.

We were also able to bring our other friend, (whose name also happens to be Tina) to church with us this week! It was a great experience for her, and very different from what she is used to. She told us afterwards that she's used to dancing, chanting, shouting, and being "slayed in the Spirit" when she goes to church. Gotta love these Holy Rollers!

I love you all, have a great week!

Love, Sister Ward

When it rains, it pours. And then it floods.

Dear Wonderful Family,

It was so good to see and hear ya'll over Skype on Christmas! It made me miss ya'll so much! I hope these next 5 months until the next Skype go quickly!

I already told you most of this week's stories, though, so bear with me repeating myself. Christmas time is such a great time to be a missionary! Sister Burt and I went caroling at the Wal-Mart in town, and it super fun! We were able to pass out a lot of the #ASaviorIsBorn cards, and brought some Christ into people's Christmas shopping, hopefully! (By the way, if you haven't seen the ASaviorIsBorn video, go google it, and watch it right now. It takes literally 2 minutes. And it's good stuff.) And for the rest of the week, tons of people recognized us from Wal-Mart! They would say, "Oh, you were the girls in front of WalMart right?" and we would say, "Yes! and we have a unique message, about Jesus Christ, that can change your life!" 

The members here in the Charleston 2nd Ward were so good to us on Christmas, too! It was like Thanksgiving all over again. And I was tempted to go into a food coma after dinner, and "fellowship the members." But Sister Burt and I decided to be diligent, so we went and had a lesson with a less active lady, Joe Ann, and it was probably the best lesson of the week. We we able to get to the bottom of lots of her concerns, and help her set goals. She wants to get to the temple as a long term goal, and come back to church as a short term one. The spirit was there strongly, and I could feel her desire to change, and I knew what Sister Burt and I could do to help her get herself there. 

We have this awesome investigator, Tina, who always makes my day brighter! She is hysterically funny, and oh so West Virginian. We taught her about the 10 Commandments last night, and she ate it up. Her mother was a preacher, and it reminded her of her mother's preaching. She tells us all the time that we are her little angels and that we are in her life for a reason. And we are like, "Yes, we know." It sure is hard to be humble when you're a sister missionary. :) Love her to pieces though!

I love you all so much, have a great week! Do some missionary work at home!

Love, 

Sister Ward

Hey Lovely Familia

Hey lovely familia! (Yesterday I ran into the first Mexican outside of a Mexican restaurant I have seen in all of West Virginia. It was so exciting! He didn't speak English, though, so we just gave him a pass along card.)

It's been another fantastic week. I'm blanking out though, I have no idea what happened to make it such...

BUT, I hit my six month mark tomorrow! So that's exciting. And I didn't get transferred either, so I don't have to deal with that hassle. 

And this morning, the Zone Leaders called us and told us we were getting a car upgrade, which is nice. (The senior couple in charge of the cars loves Sister Burt and I ;)) Sister Burt has started driving too, so I get a break from that. And it has been in the 70s all week long, so that's good too! But it's supposed to snow this weekend, so we might have a white Christmas, too. It's just been the best of both worlds this week.

Oh!  I remembered! Ora is going to be baptized right after the first of the year! It's so exciting! Satan has been working so hard on her-something always comes up to keep her from coming to church. But, she is totally conquering him! She has such a strong desire to be baptized and to come to church. We also have a lot of investigators who will (hopefully) come to church this Sunday, too! It's pretty exciting stuff.

I feel like I have been learning so much from our study times this week. I discovered this awesome obscure hymn that I love the lyrics to:

God moves in mysterious ways,

his wonders to perform.

He plants his footsteps in the sea,

and rides upon the storm.

Ye fearful Saints, fresh courage take.

The clouds ye so much dread

are big with mercy, and shall

break with blessings on your head. 

It's so true! Sometimes, I absolutely dread the challenges that life brings. But because of the Jesus Christ's Atonement, I know that I can get through them, and that they will "give [me] experience, and be for [my] good."  It is such a beautiful life! I love my Savior. I love that he has done so much for me, and I love the opportunities that this life contains. I am so grateful to have the gospel in my life. It makes me so happy!

Love you all to bits!

Ringalingalingadingdongding!

Hey Family!

I hope you all have been fully enjoying this wonderful Christmas season! I loved watching the Christmas Devotional last night, hopefully ya'll had a great time with that, too!

It was a really eventful week this time-literally lots of events. Sister Burt and I put on a family history event at the local library here, so that was pretty stressful. It was a small event, only a dozen or so people showed, but it was still a great time! I was so grateful for all the ward members in the area that are into genealogy, because I really don't know very much about it. They helped us out so much, teaching Intro classes and why genealogy is important anyway. We couldn't have done it without them.

We also attended the nativity display that one of the local wards put on, it was a super cool event. There was live music and everything, and it reminded me a lot of the Creche at home! The best part, though, was that our investigators, Debbie and Dillion came! We got to show them around the church, and they loved it, overall! They were not investigators that I was really expecting to progress, but after we taught them about the Plan of Salvation last week, they have been on fire! It's cool to see how knowing your purpose in life, and having goals to shoot for after this life motivates us to repent! 

Goal-setting is something I've been thinking a lot on, lately. Probably a good thing since the New Year is coming up! And President talked a lot about it in our Zone Conference this week (Which, side note, I performed a special musical number at. And which special musical number was definitely outside my usual repertoire because I sang instead of playing something. Be proud, Mom!  ;) I think that the very act of goals down helps us remember better. (Which is also why I have a sticky note saying "did you ask for referrals?" taped to our steering wheel) SO my goal is to start actually writing my goals down. Some general authority once said something like "setting and writing goals down will magnify your efforts and help you accomplish so much more in life than you could otherwise accomplish."  Good rule to live by, no?

l love you all so much! Have a great week!

Love, 

Sister Ward

Turkey, Turkey, Turkey

Dear Family,

Glad to hear that your all's Thanksgiving was sublime! It was pretty good around here as well! We ate like 3 different turkey dinners on the actual holiday, and at least 2 more during the rest of the week, so I'm pretty much turkeyed out. Probably for the rest of eternity.

Despite it being hard to catch people because of the holiday, it was still a great week! We have really seen some of our investigators make strides in the gospel. We just need to get them all to get to church now! For some reason, no one has transportation to church or church clothes around here! It kills me!

Ora is still doing pretty great. Her family has been giving her a really hard time for letting the Mormons in her house, but she is doing a great job staying strong in her faith. Over the Thanksgiving meal, they apparently were really starting to get to her, and make her doubt. But, the next day, during our lesson with her, we showed her the Restoration video, and it perfectly answered all of her questions and fears. It was so cool, because we didn't know what her specific concerns were, we just felt prompted to go over the Restoration again, and use the video, and it was exactly what she needed. She felt like she could relate to Joseph Smith-having questions, going out into nature to talk to God, and having people mock her for her spiritual experiences. And I think we all can relate to Joseph Smith on one level or another. At some point in our lives, we all have questions that other people cannot answer. But, just as Joseph Smith did, we can turn to God, the origin of all truth, and ask. And because He is our Father and He loves us, He will always answer us as we sincerely seek the truth. 

I also had a pretty cool faith building experience this week. We were out finding people to teach, and we ran into a lady who was having trouble starting her car. As we started talking with her, a little voice in the back of my head told me to try and start her car. At first, I was like "No, that's stupid, you know nothing about broken down cars." But, the little voice responded, "Come on, don't you have any faith?" And then I started to wonder if I had enough faith to bring about a small miracle for this lady. I honestly sincerely doubted it. But I decided to try, and on the second go, the car started! I was so relieved. Needless to say, I have a little more faith now. Faith does move mountains!

I love you all so much, and look forward to hearing from you all week!

The JWs, Spiritual Mediums, and Star Wars Spaghetti-Os

Dear Family,

Happy Thanksgiving!!!! I miss you! It turns out holidays aren't quite the same when you can't go home. BUT It's been a fantastic week, so I can condole myself with that. I really do have so much to be grateful for. A fantastic companion, a beautiful world, a supportive family, a Savior, a loving Heavenly Father, the Gospel, living prophets, and people to teach. It's a beautiful life! I love seeing what each day brings.

Ora is still doing super great! It's amazing to see the commitment she is already showing to the Lord. She receives and recognizes answers to her prayers all the time, and she acts upon those answers right away. She tells us all the time that once she is baptized, she will never miss a week! We just have to get her healthy enough to get there. We also were able to get another of our investigators, Tina, progressing in the gospel this week. She is West by gosh Virginian through and through, and so funny! We love to hear her stories, and helping her have those spiritual experiences that make all the difference. At stake conference yesterday, Elder Cardon, from the 70 spoke, and said something that I really liked- that "While knowing the gospel is important, we are all here because of the things we feel." That is so true! When you have a spiritual experience, it leaves a mark on your soul that surpasses anything you can see or hear. You are left with pure, simple knowledge, and it is the most real evidence of God's love that you ever experience. It is so cool to be a missionary, and help people find that.

We had some pretty funny things happen this week, too! Some Jehovah Witnesses knocked on our door during our study hour in the morning, and their eyes visibly widened when we opened the door and they saw our name tags. Haha they weren't expecting to hear about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the prophet Joseph Smith, but they did! After about 5 minutes, though, they told us they felt bad for keeping us in the cold, and that they'd "let us go." How kind. :)

Anyways, I hope you all have a great week, and a Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,
Sister Ward

That is Vonderful!

Dear Family,

This week has been quite fantastic, thanks to that care package! I'm glad to hear from ya'll, too!

We had the awesome privilege of being visited by one of our worldwide church leaders, a member of the quorum of the seventy, this week! His name was Elder Kopischke, and he was awesome!! I really loved his wife the most though. She has this awesome German accent, and a joy for life that was contagious. And that joy did not come because she had a perfect life. She had her tests and trials, just like we all do, but she chooses to see the beauty and wonder of life every day, and not dwell on the hard things. It made me resolve to be happier! Because I have so much to be grateful for, and I can be as happy as I let myself be!

We've continued teaching Ora, (It turns out her name is Ora, not Nora...I still haven't mastered the Appalachian accent yet, apparently) and she is making such great progress! It is so fun to teach people who have been prepared by the Spirit, and are willing to act on the true doctrine they are learning. It's such a contrast, how much happier they are. One of my favorite excuses received happened this week, too, though! This older gentleman told us he could not come to church because he does not know how to turn the ringer on his phone down. He was a little stumped about what to say next when we offered to turn it down for him :)

We have also begun teaching Takeema, and she is super fun! She is our bishop's recently adopted daughter, and it is definitely a different dynamic teaching children. It is fun though, and she has such sincere, honest questions, I absolutely adore her!

Sister Burt is turning out to be such an awesome little missionary. I was definitely not as adept at the whole thing two weeks in as she is! I feel bad for all the red-head jokes I've ever given out to anyone, though, because everyone is always making some sort of red-head comment to her. Probably 8 out of 10 people, with no exaggeration. So that's why I've sworn off red-head jokes for the rest of my life.

Love you all!

Sister Ward

Everyone is friendly here

Dear Family,

I hope all has been going well for you this week!

So Sister Campbell and I said our goodbyes! I was sad to see her go home, but I know she was really excited to be able to see her family again. On the other side though, I have an awesome new companion! Her name is Sister Burt, and she is so cool! She has red hair too, so that's pretty cool. She's from Idaho Falls, and she has been on her mission for 2 weeks now. I'm not the new missionary anymore!

We've been able to do so much teaching this week! It's been awesome! One of my favorite lessons was with a less active family in Nitro. They have these really cute, but really crazy, little girls who are always bouncing off the wall. We got them to sit down (for the most part) and read the scriptures together as a family. And by the end of the chapter, it was amazing the difference in the home. The screaming had stopped, and you could actually feel the Spirit. It made me so grateful that family scripture study was something that happened in our home, it really does make such a difference!

One of my favorite things about West Virginia is how friendly everyone is here! It's not very often that we get a cold, harsh rejection. Even the preachers from the other churches are nice-we talked to a lot of them this week! And a nice old man just walked up to us here in the library, gave us his card, and told us to call him so he could take us to lunch and hear our message. I love the people here! (Except for when they are a little too friendly, and we end up listening to them tell their life story for 40 minutes in the Walmart parking lot. But even then it's OK, I'll take it!)

So remember the whole story about Bobby last week? It turns out that he is elect, and not just a less active member pranking us! He and his family are so fun to teach, so pray they'll keep their commitments!

Love you all,

Sister Ward

I love the Atonement!

Dear Family,

Go Royals! It sounds like it was an awesome week for ya'll, all around!

This week has been a great one in West Virginia! We've been quite blessed! I loved daylight savings time. It was great!

Gabriel is continuing to progress! We committed him to be baptized on December 5th, (which is the same day as the family history fair we're doing, so it'll be a crazy awesome day!) and he is going to give the Word of Wisdom thing a shot! If I were a better teacher, we would probably already be at this point, but God's making up for all my weaknesses and imperfections, so it's all working out anyway! I love the Atonement!

We also were able to put our new-ish investigator Nora on date for baptism! She is just so cool. She was in a full-blown biker gang, back in the day, and she has some awesome stories!

Probably the weirdest thing that has happened this week was this bizarre lesson we had with a new investigator. We were taking the normal approach, teaching the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, when I noticed Sister Campbell giving me these weird looks and motioning with her head to the wall behind me. I finally looked back, and lo and behold, there was the classic 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ picture on the wall, with the Church's name beneath it. So we asked him where the picture came from, and he had no idea...apparently. And his wife did not either. And it was printed on this super old newspapery paper that was dated April 1983. They were really surprised, and they joked that it must have been old Auntie Hazel, upon whom they blame all the household mishaps. But we're a little suspicious because he has the same last name as some members in the area.  Either he is super elect, or we're being pranked pretty hard by some long-lost less active. I'll keep ya updated haha.

Welp, P-Days a-wastin! We're going to go party hard because it's Sister Campbell's last day in the field! Love you all!

Love, 

Sister Ward

Knee Slappers, Thigh Slappers, and Hip Slappers

Dear Family,

Guess what week it is?! It's week six of the transfer. That means next P-Day is next Wednesday, not Monday. Just a heads up :)

This week has been an awesome one! The work in _____ has continued to stay pretty busy. Our investigators, and especially Gabriel, are continuing to progress. Lee Mann passed the sacrament on Sunday, and life is just good in general. The one down side of life right now is that Sister Campbell is going home next week... She's done her time, and I will for sure be getting a new companion. We have had such a fun 4.5 months together, I don't want to let her go. It's kind of nerve wracking, actually. What if the new one turns out to be crazy?! Just kidding, I have hope that she will be great, whoever she is!

So this week, we went out on a limb and tried some new missionary work techniques! We decided to more fully utilize our awesome members, and we held a fireside for our teenage investigators at their house. It turned out really great (better than we expected actually) and the Spirit was so strong. Afterwards, Gabriel told us that he will "maybe consider the whole Word of Wisdom thing." Which is progress! The poor kid has been quite attached to his coffee up until now.

We have also been able to keep teaching quite a few people! One of whom is Betty Angel. She's this sweet 70 yr old lady, who has been investigating the church for 20 years. We may have found her hold up this week though! It turns out she is scared of water, which totally explains why she never wanted to be baptized! Haha we'll have to ponder the possibilities on how to overcome that one. 

The leaves (the few that were left) actually changed this week too! It is beautiful! I am actually excited for them to fall though, because here in WV we sometimes have the problem of there being whole entire neighborhoods of people being hidden in these hollers, and we have no idea they are there until we accidentally take a wrong turn up their little run down road. But now that the trees are a little more transparent, we'll hopefully be able to find the people!

Yesterday we helped a one of our member's, Karla Rae, help her friend plant a tree! She also took us on this awesome hike last P-Day. It's so beautiful here, I don't know why more people don't live here.

Hope you all have a great week, and a spooky Halloween!

Love, 

Sister Ward