Well, this wasn't the most exciting week because Sister Merrill and I were both sick almost all week. I had the flu (despite getting a flu shot a month ago. of course I'm that one person that still gets it) and Sister Merrill had a terrible ear infection. So, we were mostly confined to our apartment this week. The blessing of it all was that our ward really stepped up to the plate and helped make sure that everything got done that we needed to do this week. One member in particular, Kaiti, knew that we were sick and that we were supposed to meet with some potential investigators on Friday, so she went over to their house by herself and invited them to a movie night some other members were having. They both showed up, and made a bunch of friends as well as finding out that one of their coworkers was in our ward too.
It was just so awesome to see how willing the people here are to reach out to someone they don't even know yet. I'm so blessed to be in such a great area!
Sister Boll
December 8th, 2014
Monday, December 1, 2014
We had an amazing week of lots of miracles! To start, on Thanksgiving we weren't allowed to proselyte at all. We got picked up by Miranda, a girl in our ward, and she was taking us to Cracker Barrel to pick up the dinner and then to her family's house. Well, we were waiting for our food, and this guy wandered over and started making conversation about how they messed up his order so we should double check ours. Then he saw our name tags and asked where we were from and what church we were with. We told him and he said that one of his best friends was a member of our church. He said he and his fiancee had just had a baby and that they were looking for a church to raise their daughter in. We offered to send the missionaries in that area over to his house, and he just handed over his address. It was amazing. As we drove away, he texted us "by the way, if you ever want to get into the gated apartment complexes in to spread the word, my friends can let you in!" haha!
On a different evening, we were headed to a guy's house for an appointment we had made with him, but we realized the address he gave us didn't include an apartment number. We couldn't get a hold of him so we decided to find something to do around the area in case he called us back. We decided we were going to knock on someone's door and play "bigger or better", where you ask someone if they'll trade you something bigger or better for something you already have, like a paper clip or a nickel. We've found it's a really easy way to get people to lighten up so we can share the gospel with them. So we walked up to the complex, but realized it was totally gated and we couldn't get in. I saw someone out of the corner of my eye unlocking one of the other gates so we ran over and got in before it locked again. We knocked on the first door we saw and the guy that answered went and got something to trade us for our nickel. After he gave it to us, he kind of looked like he was going to be like, "welp have a good night! and shut the door", but he paused for a minute and said "...I feel like I should invite you in." So we went in and taught him all about the Book of Mormon. It's so cool to look back at the sequence of events that led up to that and realize that the Lord's hand really is in everything that we do here.
Love,
Sister Boll
On a different evening, we were headed to a guy's house for an appointment we had made with him, but we realized the address he gave us didn't include an apartment number. We couldn't get a hold of him so we decided to find something to do around the area in case he called us back. We decided we were going to knock on someone's door and play "bigger or better", where you ask someone if they'll trade you something bigger or better for something you already have, like a paper clip or a nickel. We've found it's a really easy way to get people to lighten up so we can share the gospel with them. So we walked up to the complex, but realized it was totally gated and we couldn't get in. I saw someone out of the corner of my eye unlocking one of the other gates so we ran over and got in before it locked again. We knocked on the first door we saw and the guy that answered went and got something to trade us for our nickel. After he gave it to us, he kind of looked like he was going to be like, "welp have a good night! and shut the door", but he paused for a minute and said "...I feel like I should invite you in." So we went in and taught him all about the Book of Mormon. It's so cool to look back at the sequence of events that led up to that and realize that the Lord's hand really is in everything that we do here.
Love,
Sister Boll
Monday, November 24, 2014
This week we started teaching a guy named Carsten. The elders met him while tracting and referred him over to us since he's a young single adult. We met him, and he had a lot of questions for us. He wanted to know why there were so many different churches. He was very open and interested, but told us up front that he doesn't like organized religion because he thinks the people are too closed minded. We didn't have a lot of time to talk because we were making him stand on his porch in the cold with no shoes on (we couldn't go inside since we didn't have another girl with us), but we gave him a Book of Mormon and read the third paragraph of the introduction where it says that the Book of Mormon outlines God's plan for us, and shows us how to gain peace in this life. His countenance changed completely as we read that and he told us that he has been going through a really rough patch in his life, having just moved away from home and made a lot of changes. He told us that he has looked for happiness in a lot of different places and that he would try reading the Book of Mormon if it really could help him.
We went back to Carten's apartment yesterday and his roommate Aaron was there. We brought Kaiti, who is preparing to go on a mission soon and sat down in their living room. We asked both of them if they knew or felt that God loved them and neither of them did. They both said that they didn't really feel like He was present in their lives, but that they did know that sometimes bad things happen in our lives and that it isn't God's fault because he lets everyone have free will to make good or bad choices. We told Carsten and Aaron that this life is all about faith, and if they wanted to feel God in their lives more, they would have to start to exercise their faith by reading the scriptures and praying regularly. They both wholeheartedly committed to start reading the Book of Mormon, and it was just so amazing to see the little changes that were already starting to take place in their lives. I don't know if either of them will get baptized in the near future, but I do know that their lives have already been impacted in a huge way just because of those elders that knocked on their door. And I don't know why, but for some reason I feel like the two of them are really special. I feel like I've met them before. And I'm excited to see where things go with them.
Sister Boll
We went back to Carten's apartment yesterday and his roommate Aaron was there. We brought Kaiti, who is preparing to go on a mission soon and sat down in their living room. We asked both of them if they knew or felt that God loved them and neither of them did. They both said that they didn't really feel like He was present in their lives, but that they did know that sometimes bad things happen in our lives and that it isn't God's fault because he lets everyone have free will to make good or bad choices. We told Carsten and Aaron that this life is all about faith, and if they wanted to feel God in their lives more, they would have to start to exercise their faith by reading the scriptures and praying regularly. They both wholeheartedly committed to start reading the Book of Mormon, and it was just so amazing to see the little changes that were already starting to take place in their lives. I don't know if either of them will get baptized in the near future, but I do know that their lives have already been impacted in a huge way just because of those elders that knocked on their door. And I don't know why, but for some reason I feel like the two of them are really special. I feel like I've met them before. And I'm excited to see where things go with them.
Sister Boll
Monday, November 17, 2014
We met with Charles this week, and invited him to be baptized on December 6th. He accepted! He told us he already considers himself a member of our church, but that he knows baptism is important.
This email is super short...but we had a good week. Sister Nelson is getting transferred to Springfield Missouri this week, and I'm staying here in Fayetteville. The weather is starting to get crazy here. It snowed yesterday! I love it!
Love,
Sister Boll
November 17, 2014
We met with Charles this week, and invited him to be baptized on December 6th. He accepted! He told us he already considers himself a member of our church, but that he knows baptism is important.
This email is super short...but we had a good week. Sister Nelson is getting transferred to Springfield Missouri this week, and I'm staying here in Fayetteville. The weather is starting to get crazy here. It snowed yesterday! I love it!
Love,
Sister Boll
This email is super short...but we had a good week. Sister Nelson is getting transferred to Springfield Missouri this week, and I'm staying here in Fayetteville. The weather is starting to get crazy here. It snowed yesterday! I love it!
Love,
Sister Boll
Monday, November 3, 2014
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| reunited with sister webb! |
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| sister nelson and I |
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| our sister training leaders sister youd and sister harris. |
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| this is one of sister wright's good friends that I met in bentonville. her name is lydia, I forgot her last name though. |
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| all the sisters in our zone! sister burt, sister valle, sister petersen (the sister that was in the car accident) and sister thomas |
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| and the whole zone! |
"I just want to share MY testimony that I know that God works in our lives. When we go through trials or anything bad sometimes it seems like God is not there but he is. When we look back in five or ten years we can see how that trial was for our own good. We just have to stay close to God and put him first and we can see his hand in our lives. For example, some girls knocked on my door a few weeks ago. They were there to talk to my roommate Simon. They ask me 'Is Simon home?' and I say no, he's not home. They come back four or five times and I tell them no, he's not home, he's not home. Then one day they came over and Simon still wasn't home. But they asked me, 'Do you go to church?' and I say yes. They say 'we are teaching Simon about Jesus Christ. Do you want to learn too?' and I told them yes, I do. And then they invite me to the church and here I am. And it's funny because I'm Roman Catholic, but the most important thing to me is doing what God wants me to do, and he led me here. And in a year from now, who knows where I'll be?"
Obviously we made a huge mistake not talking to Rick the first time we met him. He is extremely prepared. It's funny, because we thought we were there for Simon, but Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways.
Sister Boll
Monday, October 27, 2014
This week we met a less active member of the church named Matthew. He believes that the church is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet….but his attitude towards how that applies to his life is pretty skewed. He told us that he isn't interested in coming back to church, but that he wants to "stay in touch" by meeting with us so that when he meets his wife and gets married in the temple and raise his family in the church, he'll be ready to live the gospel. He said that his life was too far from where it was supposed to be to come to church, and that when he was ready to stop partying he would repent. It was really sad because we knew he wasn't as happy as he could be, and that the day he was waiting for would never come because he wan't preparing for it.
Well, we were sitting there thinking about what we would share with him and the thought came to my mind, "we need to get him reading the Book of Mormon. Really reading it." The Book of Mormon could correct his understanding of how the atonement, repentance, and living the gospel really work in our lives. We read him 2 Nephi 25:26 "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophesies that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins." We told Matthew that the Book of Mormon isn't just some boring "require reading" that his parents made him do as a kid. It is literally the source we can turn to to find out how we can receive not just a remission of sins, but for all the other blessings Christ has in store for us because of His sacrifice. Matthew was really quiet and we could tell he was actually thinking about and considering what we had told them. He promised that he would try to read the Book of Mormon every day until our next lesson.
We also saw Zach this week again! He is amazing. He keeps reading the scriptures and praying every day even though he doesn't feel like he's gotten an answer yet. But he knows it takes patience. We read with him the story of Aaron and the king in Alma chapter 22. In the story, the king desires so much to know that there is a God that he is willing to give up not only all of his sins, but all of his kingdom and worldly possessions. We talked about how we're not asked to give up all of our belongings, but gaining a testimony does require sacrifice and a willingness to keep the commandments. He believes that! He is really putting forth effort and we know he will receive an answer.
Sister Boll
Well, we were sitting there thinking about what we would share with him and the thought came to my mind, "we need to get him reading the Book of Mormon. Really reading it." The Book of Mormon could correct his understanding of how the atonement, repentance, and living the gospel really work in our lives. We read him 2 Nephi 25:26 "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophesies that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins." We told Matthew that the Book of Mormon isn't just some boring "require reading" that his parents made him do as a kid. It is literally the source we can turn to to find out how we can receive not just a remission of sins, but for all the other blessings Christ has in store for us because of His sacrifice. Matthew was really quiet and we could tell he was actually thinking about and considering what we had told them. He promised that he would try to read the Book of Mormon every day until our next lesson.
We also saw Zach this week again! He is amazing. He keeps reading the scriptures and praying every day even though he doesn't feel like he's gotten an answer yet. But he knows it takes patience. We read with him the story of Aaron and the king in Alma chapter 22. In the story, the king desires so much to know that there is a God that he is willing to give up not only all of his sins, but all of his kingdom and worldly possessions. We talked about how we're not asked to give up all of our belongings, but gaining a testimony does require sacrifice and a willingness to keep the commandments. He believes that! He is really putting forth effort and we know he will receive an answer.
Sister Boll
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