2/16/26 update

Tuesday: could not tell you what happened to be so honest, it was probably a good day.

Wednesday: I went to my first Zone Conference. It was so good! They had some really good trainings and sister Terry taught us about humility and she's such a good teacher. We ate pizza and I met a lot of really awesome people. But the drive to zone conference was 2hrs and 15min, so we drove a total of 4 and a half hours just for zone conference that day. But that's Kansas I guess. 

Thursday: we had our district council meeting and went to long horn steakhouse. I had a blast hanging out with the district and playing games while waiting for our food. 

Friday: This day was interesting… haha we did some service for a lady in our branch, she told us she needed help cleaning her house because she's trying to sell it. When we got there she gave us trash bags and broke the news to us that we would be picking up her dogs poop that was all over her house! Anyway, that was an experience, but I was trying not to laugh the whole time partly because the situation was just funny but mostly watching my companion try not to throw up was the funniest thing ever. But I love service and helping others. It was a fun change of pace I suppose. We also got to heart attack people's doors which was so much fun! And then a member took us out to dinner which was so nice! 

Saturday: we met with Jonathan and he's still doing so good! Pray that he will continue to have the strength to stop smoking. We also had stake conference and one of the speakers was a convert who was baptized 8 months ago and he is preparing to serve a mission! His love for the gospel is so strong and he made me so happy with the joy he had for missionary work. He made my day! 

Sunday: more stake conference. We tried to knock on Travis's door to hopefully wake him up for church, his sister answered and she said that she would go ask him if he wanted to go to church. but she left the door for probably 2 seconds and came back to say he said no. Anyway we texted Travis later and he said his sister never woke him up, so I guess pray Travis can make it to church next week and we can meet with him to teach him more! 

Today: 

We're planning on playing pickle ball (as always) and celebrating sister Larsen's birthday!

Fun things: 

♡ me and sister Larsen played a lot of card games 

♡ I am learning to crochet! So fun! 

♡ sister Larsen's parents door dashed us some yummy shakes for valentines day

♡ I almost caught a bunny… they are so fast haha. 

Cookies

Monday: we started the week off on our preparation day playing pickleball, BBall, VBall, and playing games with our district.   

Tuesday: lowkey a discouraging day, everyone we talked to that day was uninterested and kind of mean. and it was a super cold day! But! The good part of that day was making cookies with my companion and we got to deliver some to Jose. Jose is struggling because his friend recently passed away. We had a good visit, and prayed with him, he said he was so happy we could stop by and our visits always brighten his day!

Wednesday: Such a good day! We got to talk to so many people and hand out the cookies we made. People are way nicer when you give them a cookie! We brought our friend Denise some cookies because she just got knee surgery. She is having a hard time seeing God and others love for her. We got to share a message and a scripture with her. She was saying that she feels so distant from God, we talked to her about prayer, she said that she hasn’t prayed in a long time. We invited her to pray while we were there to help her. And SHE PRAYED! It was so sweet to hear her pray after a long time of not talking to God. I am so proud of her and she said she felt so much peace after praying. This is your reminder to talk to God, he wants to hear from you!

Thursday: BEST day yet! We had our district meeting in the morning, and went to Sams club for like the 3rd time since i’ve been here. Sam’s Club is like a Costco with cheap pizza and hot dogs, the elders are obsessed with it. This was the warmest day we have had yet! It was like 68° and everyone was out on the streets so we had so many people to talk to! Me and my companion also started a game to talk to as many people as possible and wave to as many people as possible and keep track. I lost track but we talked to a lot of people that day haha. When we were door to door contacting we were trying to decide which house to knock on when a truck turned down that street, I waved to them and they pulled over and asked what he could do for us (people don’t really wave in Kansas.) We said we were handing out cookies and sharing messages about Jesus Christ. He said that he believes in Jesus Christ but hasn’t gone to church in about 2 months. We invited him to church and gave him a cookie. Pray Josh can make it to church! Later that night we had about 10 min before we had to leave for an appointment and decided to knock on one more door, we decided to knock on a little white house on the corner. Travis answered the door and we got to talk to him and his dad for a little bit. We talked about God and Travis told us that he was just talking to his friend yesterday about how he misses having a church to go to and needs one to go to and then we showed up! He knows God sent us there! Also when we got to his house we had exactly 2 cookies left which was perfect for him and his dad. God is so good. Pray Travis and his dad can make it to church.

Friday: Nothing exciting but the highlight of my day was getting ice cream at a cute ice cream shop

Saturday: Jonathan is on date! I am so proud of him, pray that he can have the strength to stop smoking. 

Sunday: I gave a talk and it went pretty good, visited our friend Carol, did personal study in the sun, and ate yummy dinner with sister Davis. 

God is good all the time! 

Feb. 2nd update

 Well, I am currently writing this email from Kansas! So CRAZY. Last week got super crazy so I didn't have time to write an email. So here is an update from last week/ this week. 

21st-26th: Provo MTC

 

21st: This was such a good day, we got to go to the temple and do proxy sealings! This was my first time doing sealings and the blessings are SO SWEET! Something so cool was I got to help in the sealing of a family of 4, 2 sisters! (literally my family) I miss them so much! Something else that was super cool was the sealer in my session asked me where I was going, and he told me that he has a friend who would be moving to Kansas soon and had recently fallen away from the church. He prayed to Heavenly Father that morning how he could reach her and bring her back and there I was! God is so good! pray that I can find Lynell♡

22nd: This was also such a good day. I had so much fun hanging out with the people in my district and had amazing classes! Later that night all the girls in my district were getting ready for bed, we all braided each others hair and Sister Stewart played hymns on her ukulele. 

23rd-25th: Lots of classes, devotionals, playing volleyball and pickleball any chance we got, and I gave a talk on Sunday.

26th: This was my last day in the MTC. We had classes and I said bye to my district. I miss them already!

27th: I woke up at 3am, got ready and headed to the airport! They flew me to Georgia and then to Kansas... don't ask me why, I don't even know, but that made for a long travel day. I met my mission leaders at the airport (the Terry's are the best). Then we went to the mission office ate dinner, played games, and then we stayed in a motel for the night.

28th: I met my trainer! My trainer is sister Larsen, she is so awesome, I love her so much already. We ate breakfast and had an orientation and found out where my first area will be. I'm in Concordia Kansas! It's up by the boarder of Nebraska, we even have a little bit of Nebraska in our area. It's super cold and snowy, it's also pretty small but I'm learning to love it. We didn't do too much this day because we had a long drive to our area and the rest of the day was just me getting settled in. 

29th: I met my district at my first district meeting. They're all super fun! We ate at a restaurant called Braums. It's like a mix of Canes and Iceburg, it's all I had heard about since getting here. It was actually pretty good. We went knocking doors today, and it's absolutely freezing here right now. But I am still grateful because we have a car we can stay pretty warm in.

30th: This day was so fun! I had my first lesson with Mary B, she is the village crazy lady but I love her. She owns more cats than I've ever seen and more just keep appearing each day. She also owns like 20+ chickens, a few ducks, and a couple geese who all just roam in and out of her house. She loves God and sees miracles everyday. She has the strongest testimony and will do whatever it takes to get baptized. We just put her on date to be baptized! I am so excited for her. She talks a lot so hopefully we can get through all the lessons we need to in order for her to be baptized. Pray that we can finish all the lessons in time!

 

31st: Coldest day yet! The high was like 9 degrees. But we still had our outdoor lesson with Johnathan. The only thing holding Johnathan back from baptism is smoking. He has the strongest testimony and knows of God's love. He was able to quit smoking for a month with the help of promised blessings and Heavenly Father, but just recently relapsed. He is trying so hard and I am so proud of him. We are having him pray about a baptism date and believe he can be ready to be baptized by Feb 28th. Pray for Johnathan that he can have the strength to stop smoking. We got to visit Mary K., she's a part of another religion but she's so sweet! We got to pray with her and do some service. And then we Visited Helen. Helen is the most optimistic friendly person I have ever met. She lives in a old folks home and was so happy to see us! We got to read the scriptures with her, show her a video, and pray with her. She made my day 10 times better, I love her so much!

1st: Yesterday we went to church, and I have never seen so few people at church before! Our branch has a total of probably 20 and half of that group is the Anderson family. Lol we love them for populating our branch. We got to read the Book of Mormon with Darrell, we had ward council meetings, and we were fed by Sister Davis! 

Fun parts of the week: 

♡Sister Larsen took me for a sweet treat 

♡got some new dresses from "the sharing table" (where everyone brings the clothes they don't want anymore)

♡got to talk to a lot of fun people at the airport

♡got to pray with a lot of sweet/kinda crazy old ladies

♡The sunsets are SO PRETTY!

Sorry for the LONG email! But that was pretty much my last 2 weeks. I love you all so much!