August 29, 2016

Hey!  

So this week has been fun! I learned how to can tomatoes while helping an Sister with her canning! I got to help out with the big ward service project they were doing here which was a food drive called Feed Ohio. We went around this one huge neighborhood with bags last week and this week we went to pick up all the food that people left out on the porches! It was a lot of fun because Sister Evensen and I helped do a last minute round up and drove around the entire neighborhood checking for any last minute bags. We ended up getting almost 2500 pounds of food for the food bank!! 

We did a few other service projects this week (we are supposed to do 10 hours of service each week) so we helped a lady weed and picked some pears so that was fun.

Not much else happened other than we walked forever in the extreme heat which was not fun. but we also had some major storm last night with flash flood warnings because of the major down pour. 

As for the missionary work not much exciting happened. We had one investigator drop us last Sunday and we are planning on dropping another investigator this week because she is not keeping any commitments. We got told that we aren't supposed to bein this one area that we were in while trying to contact a referral so we left right away instead of talking to some people walking around the area. 

Oh wait! One thing exciting happened this week! On Saturday we went on splits with two members to go talk with all the people that were planning on coming to church on Sunday. So I went out with a sister to talk with these two guys we had met while they were working in the yard of their friend's house and they wanted to come so we stopped by their house to make sure they still wanted to come but they weren't there so we talked to 4 of their neighbors and all 4 said DO NOT GO BACK. Apparently they did drugs and drank a ton and one of the guys actually stabbed his wife 8 times a few years ago!! So needless to say we are not going back. 

Other than that not much exciting happened. So until next week!

Love you all lots!

Sister Fox

Week 4?

I think this is week 4 but I'm not quite sure.  

It has rained SOOO much this week!!! It has been amazing!! When it rains here it dumps. There was one day that it was raining really hard for a good 2 or 3 hours. So many houses have flooded. We've gone to a couple apartments where people say that we can't come back soon because their apartment is torn apart to dry. 

We had stake conference this weekend and it was really great. The adult session was centered on temples and it was really amazing. Although now I really want to go to the Salt Lake Temple again. But I am glad to be here and excited to find out when I get to go on a temple trip here. I have really come to appreciate the examples of regularly attending the temples, especially my dad. His dedication to being at the temple 14 hours every Saturday has helped me to grow a deeper love for temple work. 

So one of our investigators, Melanie (came to church last week) had a great lesson this week and it was amazing but then she asked us to stop coming over text and it's really sad to think that she doesn't have the desire to have this amazing blessing in her life. But we are meeting with a new family now! well, sort of new. We had met with the twin daughters in the family a couple times befoer but we were able to meet the parents Sunday night and it was such a powerful lesson. Their whole family ended up in tears, the spirit was so strong. 

This week we had zone conference and new missionary training, which were both amazingly uplifting. I learned so much from President Welch. It was also a lot of fun to see Sister Winterton who I was in the MTC with. 

We met with a few new members/recently returned members and it was really amazing to hear what some of them went through to be able to find the truth of this Gospel. We also were able to mow one lady's lawn and she is just the funniest old lady ever. Every time we end a prayer she has this little "amen" song and dance that she does that is just adorable!

Other than that not much has happened this week because we had the two meetings which took up most of the day on Tuesday and Wednesday. But we are ready to start a new week and are prepared to share the Gospel with everyone we meet!!!

Lots of love,

Sister Fox

New pictures, YAY!!!!!

That's her right arm on the left side of the picture, we take what we can get..

Week Something

Hey everyone!!!!!!! 

So this week has been a little bit slower on the proselyting side of things but we did a lot of service. We helped an older couple with digging a big hole in their backyard so they can put a patio there, we helped a lady paint (the same one that sent pictures to you), and we helped a lady weed her front garden. It's been fun to be able to serve all of these people as I'm here sharing the gospel. We also serve a little old lady every week. We go to her house and make sure she eats lunch every Saturday. She has Alzheimer and her family has asked the ward to help with making sure that she gets fed so someone goes each day for lunch and sits with her while she eats. It's fun to go because she loves to tell you that "Gary moves my lawn. He rides the big tractor on the front field. I do the back field with a push mower cause I can't ride the tractor. I have a car but I'm not allowed to drive it because my feet can't touch the floor. " she is such a cute lady but takes forever to eat, and likes to feed her dog her food. 

So one of the ladies that we met outside the apartments came to church!!!!!!!!!!! she also brought 3 of her kids!! It was so awesome to have her there!! However we have not yet taught her any of the discussions. We had planned to go teacher her Friday night but they had a major family crisis so we were only able to leave a short message but they were still willing to come to church on Sunday!!

Both of the Ladies that we met who were having problems that night are doing good now. One of them was April who is a recent convert and she has been doing really good and has been excitedly working on her Personal Progress. The other lady has been having a little bit of a hard time still, though, because her dad is really Catholic and we think that he actually hid her Book of Mormon. But we are working with her and hope to have her at church next week. 

Sorry it's a short letter this week. Not too much has happened, but I can add pictures this week!!!!! YAY!!!

Cincinnati Week 2

Hello everyone!!!!!! 

So this is going to be a little bit of a short email today because I don't have a whole lot of time. This morning was eaten up because we had to take our car in to the mechanic because Sister Evensen drove into a ditch. She got the car stuck and two of the wheels were not touching the ground! But luckily there were some nice men out mowing a lawn that came and helped us get the car unstuck, but we had to take it in because it looked like there was a leak (it was just the AC condensation. but we are just uneducated girls who know nothing about cars.) Also I got my hair cut! and that took forever but now my head feels lighter. ( I only cut it to shoulder length so I can still put it in ponies.)

So this week has been really busy. We have met a lot of new people to teach but haven't had many follow up lessons. A couple really cool stories are to follow. 

So we were heading into an appointment with a little girl and her mom and there were these two ladies sitting outside of the apartment complex smoking and Sister Evensen decided to offer them a card because we are supposed to talk with everyone. So we started talking with them about their religious beliefs and both of them said that they worship God in their cars and that was good enough for them. We talked with them for about an hour just back and forth about Christ and it was amazing then when we had to leave we asked them if they would be baptized (because we ask everyone) and they were SOOo interested in being baptized!!!!!!!!! It was insane how much they changed in that short conversation!!!!! 

Then another time we were 2-2-5ing one of the ladies that we had met at that apartment complex but she lived at a different apartment complex and this lady opens the door and gives us a weird look. We gave her our whole schpiel about missionaries and she was sort of interested but said she smokes weed and didn't like to be told how to live her life. Then after talking with her for 20 min she always said she wants to be baptized!!!!!!! it has been so awesome!!

One other fun story is yesterday we were at a dinner appointment and the family had a non-member over. We had a nice conversation with him and shared a scripture and then he left. We later went to a less active member's home to visit them and ended up 2-2-5ing around their house and was referred to a different neighbor to see if he needed any service because his wife had died the year before. So we walk up the street to this house and knock on the door and the same guy from dinner answered the door!!!! It was so amazing!! we weren't able to set up a return appointment but did give him our phone number to call if he ever needs any help! 

I have really seen an increase in blessings this week and I realized that it was because my dad was back at the temple and was saying the prayer. It was really amazing to be able to see the difference in the work when my dad is also serving the Lord. 

Also this week we went on exchanges!! I went to a different area called Cherry Grove which is right next to my current area. It was a lot of fun! I was with Sister Peterson (the same one that everyone knows) and we met some great people!! 

My companion and I have started to read the Book of Mormon together starting today. We read 5 pages a day. It seems like a lot but it has been really easy. I would like to invite all of you to do this with us. Start at the beginning and read 5 pages a day. I promise you that as you do this you will be able to feel the spirit even more and will be able to focus better on everything. 

I don't have much more time so I'm going to cut it off here. I love you all!!

Lots of Love

Sister Fox

Paige's new Home, at least until she transfers...

3 beds 1 bath 780 sqft

Week 1 in Cincinnati!!!

Hey everyone!!!!  

So. The missionary life. It's tiring. Very very tiring. But definitely rewarding in it's own way. We wake up at 6:30 and go exercise for 30 min. then have 1 hour to change eat and prepare for the day. Then we do 1 hour of personal study and 1 hour of companion study which is basically reciting a million and a half things and then explaining what we learned in personal study and then discussing about our investigators that we are seeing that day. We then do 1 hour of what is called 12 week which is basically studying how to be a missionary. We eat lunch at home then hop in our car and head out. We either go to appointments or if we don't have appointments then we randomly (with guidance from the spirit) pick names out of a big book of names of people previously talked to (the area book) and go visit them. If they are home we introduce ourselves as the new missionaries in the area and talk with them for a little bit if they'll let us. If they are not home or they don't let us talk we will 2-2-5 which means we talked to the 2 neighbors on either side of them and the 5 across the street. We've had some success doing this which has been great. We never just randomly go door to door which has been nice. We will also visit referrals from people and we also offer our services any time we talk with someone. Around 5ish we eat dinner which is at a member's home, from a drive through, or something from our house. So far with member's I've been fed well. There has been an enchilada casarol, a BLT salad, and meat loaf. After dinner we do the same thing as after lunch. There is lots of talking to people, a little walking, lots of heat, and lots of sweat (it's gross). 

So far we don't really have any investigators that I could call mine, but we have several return appointments set up for this week from 2-2-5ing. So I'm really excited to be able to begin teaching someone. This week we visited a lot of less active members and recent converts (larc's). There were two really amazing lessons with two of the larcs we met. One was a single mom who has had a lot of problems and her mom is going in for open heart surgery on friday which has been very stressful on her and she was having a hard time with her kids that day and was in a really bad place spiritually and mentally. We had an appointment with her for 8 but she texted us asking if we could come over at 7ish so we did and we ended up being there at the time when she needed us the most. She was having a mental break down from all of the stress she was dealing with and because we were there at that specific time we were able to help her. We were able to help her to understand that it is OK to have hard times and that's how we grow and we were able to help her realize that she was being helped by the Lord at that moment. When we left her a little bit later she was a lot better, not completely but significantly. It was definitely a tender mercy that we were able to go to her at that time. 

Another amazing story was we went to visit this older lady who was having memory loss from an accident she had years ago. She couldn't even remember my companion who she has seen several times. While we were sitting with her she too talked about how stressful life is and how hard her life has been and I was able to share with her what I've been through and how I know that my Heavenly Father has blessed me in those hardest times. Sometimes in the weirdest ways. It was amazing to see how sharing my testimony of God and Christ can affect someone else so much. 

Church here was fun. I met a lot of new people as is expected when going to a new place for the first time. I was asked to say the closing prayer in sacrament and so that was weird. In Relief Society they had a visiting speaker come and talk about a charity group here called Catholic Charities Southwestern Ohio. He told everyone about how they help to establish refugees in Ohio and it was really inspiring to hear about all that they do to help these poor people who have had to flee from their homes due to persecution. It made me think of how the Saints had to flee time after time in order to escape persecution. 

It has been a long but amazing week and I'm thankful for everyday I'm here. I love the people so much and have already gotten used to the humidity but I can't wait for the winter when it will be COLD!!!!!!! I just can't say enough how much I love the people here. Each and every home I go into I come out loving that person in ways that I can't explain. I know that my Heavenly Father is blessing me with love for everyone and I know that without his help I wouldn't be able to do much of anything out here. I know that this is exactly where I need to be and exactly what I need to be doing. I am so excited to be able to help people become closer to Christ and understand how that can bless their lives because I know that it has blessed mine. 

I love you all so much!!!

Lots of Love,

Sister Fox