Week Nine--Chasing Chickens

1.   Updates on investigators or reactivation efforts?

Rhea- we started her new member lessons on christmas and she loves them we are going to start teaching her friend amy, so we were able to pick up a new investigator.

Lori- she is progressing, she wants to get baptized but she has chronic back pain from a tractor accident, but she is doing well.

Sister Harlow(LA)- still working on getting her back to church, she struggles with the WOW and we hope to see her next week 

sister daniels(LA)- she wont come to church because she gets easily offended but she is a wiz with the book of mormon, we always end up learning so much from her! 

Sister Chairadonna(LA) she is an amazing women she has been coming to church every week which is wicked good, she has been inactive for a long time but she loves the spirit that is felt at the church so she is doing really well

Sister Mel (LA) she feeds us like every other friday its awesome! we never go hungry her in new england, but she struggles with the WOW too so we had her set a new years goal to stop smoking and drinking coffee and so we have her on this program and it seems to be working!! yay!!

 

we picked up a new investigator in the elevator his name is Shaq or shaqeer haha we entered the elevator and he asked if we were part of a church and we said well yeah we are, and he said which one and sister blume said the church of jesus christ of latter day saints and he looked at us all weird and i said MORMONS??? and he said oh ya ya ya iv heard of you people, and he started asking us questions so i looked at sister blume and she gave me the okay to invite him to learn so i did and he said YES!!!! so we are going to call him to set up an appointment! how neat is that??

2.  What did you do for New Years?

New Years we had an appointment with sister harlow and then the ward has a party at the church so we went to that, we played volleyball and board games and had food, it was fun.

3.  How are you holding up in the weather?  Has it been cold?  It
snowed here quite a bit and the nights have been bitter cold.

doing pretty well, it snowed pretty bad on satuday and sunday, church was cancelled, that was weird but we got together with the elders and they did sacrament, with permission from bishop shaw! that was neat. this wednesday the high is supposed to be 10 degress and the low is -6 degrees! super awesome to see freezing rain, the snow looks like an ice sheet,its pretty neat

4. So who is in your district/zone?  Are you spread out quite a bit?

sister eddington and sister petersen are in somersworth 

sister blume and i are sanford 2 

elder lenning and elder whitehead are in rochester NH

elder walker and elder McCain are sanford 1 

we are all spread out, except sanford 1 and 2 are one shared area

5.   Most spiritual moment this week happened when?

even though church was cancelled due to the storm we were able to take the sacrament with the elders, that was a neat experience!

6.  Favorite companion moment this week?

sister blume and i were able to go on splits this week with members so that we could teach our investigators while i was sick and president stoker didnt want me to go out so i stayed with a member, but we still both prepared lessons together so that the spirit was able to help sister blume with the preparation that was behind the lessons

7.  Favorite scripture this week and why?

Isaiah 55:6 "seek ye the lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near." its a good one, i just needed to seek for my savior and call upon him when i needed the strength to press forward when the work gets hard, i need to strive to become 'the fourth missionary"
8. 5 things I am thankful for from this past year 2014?

Graduating high school and for all of the support that was there to help me all throughout the year. 

serving an LDS mission was the  best decision i have ever made,

my family and their prayers and support

my companions 

my mission president and his wife

the MTC 

and my ward family back home

Rapid Fire:

1.  What was the BEST part of your week in the field?

chasing chickens

2.  Favorite teaching moment of the week and WHY?
when we were teaching sister harlow about the word of wisdom cause the spirit was so strong and told us what she needed to hear

3.  Best service opportunity this week?
we did service on brother bentleys farm splitting wood and stacking wood and mucking stalls and cleaning the horses,and we chased chickens i caught one, i have videos and pictures i will send on a flash drive!

we split wood and stacked it and chased chickens it was AWESOME!!!!!!!! 

 brother bentley is the one who owns the farm we were doing service on

huge log we tried to split elder walker went crazy with it 

4.  Weirdest food eaten this week or coolest place went to eat?

nothing too weird, it was all soup and home made bread cause its been cold and we have been sick.

5.  The "MOST unexpected moment" I had this week was....

when we found a new investigator in the elevator which is explained in the beginning of this email!!

6.  My companion and I bonded over....

family and chicken soup and burping!!!!! hehehehehehe :)

7.  See as this is a new year 2015, 3 goals I have set for myself are:

1. Have a "Set-apart heart"

2. Gratitude prayers

3. to always be worthy of the second coming!

Forever & Always,

         Sister Stuart (riley)