One year mark!!

In 2 days I will reach my one year mark. I can't believe how fast time has gone by. In just 6 short months I will be coming home and this dream that I am in will all be over. 

All growing up I remember singing, "I hope they call me on a mission" Every time I hear that song sung now by little children I get emotional. I am living that dream. 

The last year has been the greatest life changing experience of my life. I have learned and experienced so many things I hope to never forget.

I have learned to have hope. I have learned to put my trust in the lord. Even though I may not know what lies ahead of me, what my future holds, I can hold fast to my Heavenly Father who knows all. 

I have learned the worth of souls is great in the sight of God. It doesn't matter if we like to cook, if we are good at sports, if we have the nicest, newest car, or if we got a 34 on the ACT. The Lord loves each one of us the same. We are all equally important to him. Therefore, I am not better than you, and you are not better thanmeI. The car we drive, or how good we are at sports doesn't give us lasting happiness. What if your car gets totaled or if you are put into a boot because you hurt you let playing tennis? Are you of no worth? Can you still have confidence? Of course. As we understand our relationship with our Father in Heaven; that we are all his children and that we are each important in the eyes of God- then our view of life changes. I know it does. It's changed mine.

I have learned the importance of daily scripture study, how to receive personal revelation, the power of prayers, and so many other things. I will forever be grateful for this opportunity to serve a mission!!

 

 Life really is this good. 

Hermana Warner

pictures:

matching shoes

when it rains... it pours. Everyone keeps telling us it has never been this mild(weather wise) in Arkansas. It apparently has never rained this much in the middle of July either! I am enjoying it as much as I can, because the heat, plus humidity is killer. We have been pretty lucky!!

Melinda was baptized!!

 

  

Melinda was baptized last week! AH!! We went over there on Monday night and she said, "Did I tell you why I decided to be baptized?" Ah.. nope... "While  I was in the hospital I had a dream and Christ came to me and said, Follow your people. Be baptized." She said it wasn't urgent, like "im not going to die or anything" but he told me to do it as soon as posible. She had been praying about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon for a while and she finally recieved her answer. The spirit was so strong as she told us that. I have never seen her so happy. She is on cloud 9. All of her worries just seem to be so small. She is so incredibly happy and thanks me all the time for never giving up on her. Beleive me. There were times I wanted to. There were times I thought I was wasting my time, but there was always something deep down inside of me that felt bad for her. A 64 year old lady that has absolutely NO FAMILY, has no contact with her 4 kids, has had abusive relationships, has fibromyalgia, COPD, and smokes while on oxygen. I couldn't handle having her be alone. I would have sister training leaders come and we would have an appointment with her so we would go and we would leave with them saying, Don't go back. She is not ready. She doesn't understand prophets. The elect will listen more than they talk. BlaBlaBla. I eventually learned to not take leaders there after that happened 2 times. (once with me and once with sister durfee)  I learned that the Lord knew I wouldn't give up on her and I have no doubt why I have been here this long. It was for her. As soon as she was confirmed, I kinda felt a feeling of ... You have done your job here.  I also learned to have patience and rely on the lord's timing of things. I can't force anyone to be baptized. They have to have the desire for themselves, and once they have that, the Lord's timing is perfect. Yeah, melinda was not ready 6 months ago, but the lord knows us all individually and knew she needed some company. In fact, we were the only ones that visited her in the hospital. We were the ones that gave her food while she overdosed one day. We were the ones that NEVER, EVER GAVE UP. It wasn't me though. I wasn't my companion. It was the Lord allowing us to be instruments in his hands!   She does have an aid that comes and takes care of her for 3 hours in the morning. The morning of her baptism, Melinda was getting ready for her interview and her aid goes, "Why are you getting baptized? Just be catholic." Melinda said, "I tried that and obviously it didn't work." She didn't let her aid stop her one bit. The next morning after she was baptized her aid was kind of mad that she was baptized... (is what melinda said) and so Meinda let her leave early. Other than that, everyone has been so supportive of her (ward members and people she tells!!) She completely feels like she has an extended family. That's what this gospel is all about! I love it!     My other recent convert Diana came to church last week and we went out and talked during sacrament meeting becuase she has been having suicidal thoughts. I talked with the branch president to see if we could maybe get people over there daily visiting her becuase she is on house arrest, (she runs away from her parents) and is just in her house all day every day without a phone. (they took that away. AND... presidente said "she only listens to you, so I don't know what we can do." AH!!! What are they going to do when I leave? Well, Tuesday morning she was taken by ambulance to the little rock primary hospital becuase she tried killing herself. She drank bleach and took extra pills. She is out of the hospital now and is in a clinic for 1 to 2 weeks and then will go to a long term clinic!! Her dad said he will put me and Sister goudie on the list so we can go and visit her. Poor girl.   Other news, you know you have been in an area long when 2 different people get up to bear their testimonies and they say they are moving and I'm sitting in the back holding back tears and thinking to myself, "They are leaving me." I feel like I am apart of this ward!! (and branch!!)   Other than that.. things are great!! the 4th of July was awesome! The fireworks were nothing compared to stadium of fire.. I didn't realize how much music adds to fireworks. However, they were still good.   The work is still great. We go on exchanges tomorrow. We are both staying in our area, and so both of the sister training leaders are coming to our area.   xoxo Ash

Where to start...

Where to start.... this week was crazy. There are things that I never want to happen again, and yet there are other things that happened that are a missionaries dream!!!

First the things I never want to experience again. We had 2 lessons this week where we taught for maybe 5 minutes and then the whole rest of the hour we were bombarded with questions and them telling us what we believe. It was nuts... Okay so the first lesson we sat down and he told us he had a few questions.... um 5 pages worth... like, "Have you fully repented of your sins?" "How come Brigham Young's doctrine of Adam is deemed no longer doctrine? Doesn't that mean Brigham Young was a false prophet?" "Are the answers you have shared today what your church believes or more just your personal standards?" OK I HOPE THIS IS MAKING SENSE... This is very hard for me to relive this. It was miserable. "Now before you go I want to share 2 more scriptures with you. 2 Corinthians 11:3-4 & 13-14. (he read them out of his bible and it was even more bold than the King James Version) Then he goes, "I love these people and I can't stand for them to not be saved. I want you to know I will stand before God with clean blood that I told you what was true." AHHHHH.... I simply just testified back to what we knew to be true and asked if we could have a closing prayer. We said we can still be friends. We can just agree to disagree. Good luck with everything... yadda yadda yadda. The next days lesson wasn't as bad. We met this lady in Goodwill, but when we went to meet with her she had to leave so we talked to her cousin and her cousins-wife. This family goes to the Luz del Mundo church. They believe very similar to what we believe with a few exceptions- one being they baptized in the name of Jesus Christ only. We baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. He tried to explain to us why we are wrong, and how Matt 28:19 is a mystery to all, and how come none of the apostles baptized others by all 3.... yadda yadda  yadda... skip forward to his next argument 10 minutes later and he was telling us we really need to research and investigate our church and how can we say the Book of Mormon supports the bible if the Book of Mormon says we need to be baptized in the name of all 3. He did agree however to read from the Book of Mormon but if he read anything that was contradictory to the Bible he would be calling us and be expecting an answer. We agreed!! 

We were tested lots this week. I re-read the talk given by Elder Holland last conference- "the cost and blessings of discipleship" to help me remember that ITS ALL WORTH IT. Even though some may tell us we are not Christian, that we are a cult, that there was no Egyptian language so Joseph Smith made up the Book of Mormon, that Adam and Eve were not the first people on earth and we needed to do more research on that,  ITS ALL WORTH IT!  As we all know... after the trails and tribulations... and after the many hours of hard work and faith, then come the miracles, and triumphs!!

Thursday night we decided to go to the hospital because Melinda was not answering her door or our phone calls and we were worried for her. She was checked into the ICU. When we got up there it was about 8:40 pm. Melinda was not in a clear state. She was not there and the doctors told us she had been like that for 2 days now.  She was hallucinating non-stop. The doctors said they had no idea what was going on and that they gave her enough medicine to knock a big-man out and she was still like that. They told us to go in and try talking to her. We went in and started talking with her. She calmed down a little and was answering me, but they were not all the way there answers. As we were leaving the doctors started asking me more questions. It was so hard for me to see Melinda in that kind of a state, however I knew she was being taken care of! They told us to come back tomorrow. Friday we went back around 1 and she was out of the ICU. She was totally coherent and was happy to see us. She had no idea that we came the day before. (Still does't know) She told us that she talked to the doctor the day before and asked if she could be baptized. He said there was no problem in that and so she said she wanted to be baptized. (I can't picture the state she was in on Thursday to ask the doctor if that was okay, but hey, I'm perfectly okay with it!) She said she has been procrastinating and wants to be closer to God. She had forgotten her glasses at her house (she was taken by ambulance to the hospital) and she couldn't read but wanted another Book of Mormon. We gave it to her and set a date for her to be baptized on July 5.The next day we went in there and there was a Hispanic couple in the room. As soon as we walked in Melinda goes, "I told you they would come" She then said, "Iv'e been testifying of this!" She held up her Book of Mormon that we gave her yesterday!! It gets even better!! This couple were former investigators to the Spanish Elders!! The Spanish elders hadn't seen this family in 2 months. The ladies husband was driving in Dardenelle (a connecting city) and the Elders were walking down the street as they see his car drive by. The Elders yelled heyyyyy. He stopped and said that his wife was in the hospital. The elders said they could go and give her a blessing... no less than 30 minutes later after talking to him in Dardenelle the Elders showed up in the hospital room. They came in just 10 minutes after us. NOT A COINCIDENCE. Long story short.... Melinda went through a complete change and is SO excited to be baptized. This couple said they want to come to her baptism on Saturday.(If the wife is out of the hospital) Melinda went home yesterday afternoon! 

I am so grateful to be serving a mission!! Yes, some moments it gets so tiring to prove what I believe, but every time I do, I am reassured how true the gospel is. I would rather have a few unanswered questions.. than live without the priesthood, doctrinal truths, or the sealing power that families can be together forever. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

Have a great week ya'll. Don't celebrate my favorite holiday too much without me!! 

con amor,

Hermana Warner

had a sleepover downstairs last night!!

this couple... is hilarious. I asked for a picture and she asked me.. your not going to give it to the cops are you? 

What a week!!

Monday and Tuesday Sister Durfee said a lot of good byes and then was transferred Wednesday to a town close to Little Rock. She is back English speaking, and is doing great! I had to wait all day Wednesday to get my companion coming from Memphis. While waiting Hermana Dube was also waiting and so we decided to go and work in her area. (She is serving in Little Rock) It was so great!! We were able to teach a lot of people in SPANISH!! I then got my companion HERMANA GOUDIE!! She is from Murray, Utah. We get along great! She can speak great spanish and we are loving it here! AH! I feel like I am back in the CCM learning spanish all over again. Hermana Goudie is teaching me so much! I am experiencing the gift of tongues everyday! We have found so many new spanish speaking investigators. I think in the last 4 days our teaching pool has gone from like 95% of english speaking people to 85% spanish speaking people!! It is great. I am really hoping I can continue to practice and learn as much as I can from her. The work is going great. We just got back from a lesson with a member and her boyfriend. He wants to be a preacher for his church, but wants to search other religions to make sure he is correct. He is super smart. He is going to be a senior too. He asked us some super good questions and we were asked to prove our answers in the bible. Yes, this happens a lot, but for some reason this one was more intense, but that just made us rely on the spirit even more. It was incredible. What was even better was just testifying of what I know to be true. I know without a doubt that this gospel is Christ's restored gospel here on the earth. I know this because I have searched for myself. I have received my own personal witness. It is not my parents, or grandparents, or my friends testimony I share with others... It is MINE! I have prayed to know, just like Joseph Smith did. However, I don't expect anyone to just simply rely on my testimony, or what I say. God is the source of all truth. I know if we ask him, with a sincere heart, with real intent, he will let us know!! This is exactly what we told this guy to do! This is what we tell everyone to do. Yeah, maybe we are not able to answer or back up every answer we give in the bible, but we are able to testify of pure truth. The spirit is always the strongest when we simply testify. The spirit was so strong today. We were able to teach him how he could receive his answer that this church is true. That's what matters. We don't need to know every detail, or have all the answers. I sure don't. But as we open our hearts, and have that desire to know, then ask God, he will answer us! He will answer any question we have, and then he expects us to have the faith to accept and act according to the answers we receive!  

Being a missionary is teaching me so many life long lessons! I will forever be grateful for this opportunity! 

I love you all! I have the greatest friends, and family in the world!! Keep sharing the gospel!! You can do it!!

con amor,

Hermana Warner

pictures:

Hermana Goudie, me, Hermana Dube, and Hermana Johnson (This was the first time I saw Hermana Johnson since I left Memphis in November. It was so good to see her!) 

Sister Dube and I getting free snow cones from a member that works there!

Sydnee made this for dessert last night. It was so good!! Plus, I can't wait for the 4th of July!! 

My companion and I matching our first Sunday together! (we didn't plan this)

Family email

Last night I kinda started to cry in bed as I was thinking about transfers this morning and the fact that I have been here since November and it's now June so I was probably going to get a call to be transferred. I was so sad and was just reflecting on how much I love it here, how I have changed, and how I will always remember Russellville. Well transfer calls came this morning and they told my companion that she is being transferred and I am staying. WHAT?!?!?! So, there you have it, I'm staying in Russellville for another 6 weeks!

This last week we have done so many things, but yet in very little time, since all day Wednesday I spent in my bed sleeping or watching church videos because I was sick. I still have a pretty bad cough, but I have regained my energy and don't have a headache anymore. So all is well!!

Tuesday we started bike week and it was super sunny outside and then within minutes a dark cloud came over us and poured on us for about 10 minutes and then was super sunny again. We were able to dry off mostly before we got to our appointment. (This elderly lady who just had 2 heart attacks and 1 stokes within the last 2 months.) However, this lady kept turning down her A/C. At one point she turned it all the way down to 64. She gave us an ice cream bar as we walked in, and then when we left she let us take another one for the road. We were sitting in there shivering. Yeah, that's probably what got me sick... but what can you do right?    

Thursday we had our last zone conference with our mission president and his wife. It was so good! Things I will always remember from them will be to look at the positive and love to repent! I also earned my hold to the rod award! YEA!! (picture to come) This includes doing every activity (personal and companion activities at the end of each chapter as well) and memorizing 42 scriptures. 1 for each of the 42 points we teach as missionaries! YEAH!! After the conference we came back up to Russellville and had dinner at a members home. They have a pool in their back yard that had frogs in them. I wanted to catch one, so i scaled along the side of the pool and finally caught one. It's a good thing I didn't slip. The water did not look very sanitary. 

Friday, ha, ok. We got a call in the morning from a member saying she had frozen chicken for us, and said she would bring it over a little later. Well not too long after she called us she came to our apartment and we opened the door to see the BIGGEST bag of frozen chicken I have ever seen. She was struggling to hold it, it was that heavy. AH. So we luckily fit it all in our freezer and then she invited us to go to lunch with her. We did. Ah. miracle right here. I was so nervous to go. I was still sick and didn't want to cough the entire time we were at a restaurant. I just prayed a few times before we went and while we were there, and those prayers were answered!! I survived without her even knowing I was sick!! Such a miracle. (maybe she did notice, because my voice did not sound normal... but didn't say anything.) We ended up giving tons of the chicken to the English and Spanish Elders because there is no way we could finish all that chicken, ever. So nice of her though! We have lots of chicken plants around this area and her daughter works at one, that's how she got it. So in another words we got all the reject chicken that didn't pass and cannot be sold, so workers take it home... I'm kidding. They have to take some of it sometimes just to check it and even if it is good, they can't put it back in. That is what we got!! NO WORRIES. 

Well everything else is going good. We are still teaching Jere. She was suppose to get baptized this last weekend, but wasn't ready. We are hoping in the next few weeks she will be!! 

Lastly, Happy FATHERS DAY yesterday  to the greatest dad in the world! MY DAD. I will forever be grateful to YOU! 

I love you all. Remember who you are!! 

Hermana Warner

Pictures!!

All the chicken! I had to get a picture. So after we got home from lunch we packed up all the chicken again and took a picture. Then we put it all back in the fridge. So worth it! 

Mom, I used those happy fruits and veggies for a lesson this past week! The kids absolutely loved them!! So, thanks!! 

Sister Peterson and I at Zone Conference with our Hold to the Rods!

FAMILY EMAIL!!!

What a rainy week it has been. It has rained pretty much all week, but that hasn't stopped the work from progressing or from us doing adventurous things, like making no bake cookies, dancing in the rain to music, watching church videos going to bed, watching crazy lightning storms, being answers to people's prayers, telling yourself your not going to eat ice cream and then 4 nights in a row for dessert at our dinner appointments we are given ice cream, and all that good, bad, emotional stuff that missionaries go through every single day! Gotta love it!!

 

This mission is doing something really cool for the last 9 weeks of our mission presidents service here. Each week (we started at the end of April) we work on 1 attribute and then we can report to our president what we learned that week, or how we have improved in that specific attribute. This is all found in Preach my Gospel chapter 6.

So, this week I worked on Humility. Yeah, just like with anything else.. as soon as you start praying to have more... you definitely get tested. However it was good.. besides the fact that the first sentence I said in a role play where my zone leader was watching, i was stopped and then critiqued for 5 minutes... (the entire time he was talking I was thinking...I'm working on Humility, I'm working on Humility.)  Anyhow, it definitely was good for me!

love ya all,

Hermana Warner

pictures: 

most of the women in the Spanish branch after choir practice!! Yeah, I'm like a head taller than all of them. No big deal! 

dancing in the rain!!!

eating cake after playing basketball... and yes... I did play in a skirt. We didn't have time to go home and grab our exercise clothes

'choose the bread of life, or you are toast'

I love the south! I will forever have southern pride!!

Mission life is the best! Yesterday was fast Sunday and it was amazing!! The spirit was so strong during all the testimony meetings. Most of the testimonies were about the power of the priesthood and the sealing power we have here on earth! I'm so grateful for a dad who always was worthy to give me blessings in the middle of the night while I was sick, or to give us all blessings before the start of school. I am also so grateful for the sealing power so I can live with my family forever. The words "for time and all eternity" are ETERNAL!! It doesn't have to be to death do we part! 

I'm so grateful for my parents who made that choice to be married for ETERNITY!! In fact they did it exactly 24 years ago today!!!!! I would not be here today, if it were not for them! They are the best examples to me!! 

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO MY PARENTS AND TO MY GRANDPARENTS!! (24 years and 59 years)

 

Love you all,

Hermana Warner