All the Blessings

Hello family and friends!!

We have had SUCH a good week. So many miracles have come our way, and we're so blessed here. 1. Jodi!!! On Wednesday we were making cookies with our district for Sheridan's "Third Thursday" event in the kitchen (more on that later) and a member from one of the Elder's wards came in to talk with us! She told us about a friend living in a nursing home around town named Jodi who had a lot of really good questions about the gospel and wanted to know what we were all about. Member referral out of nowhere!!! Typically, Jodi should be taught by the Elders because she lives in their ward boundaries, but because she's older and prefers Sister missionaries... we get to teach her! We're so excited!! We went and saw her that same day and taught her the first lesson, when we went back on Saturday she told us that she had prayed about it and found it to be true. We're so happy!! She came to church on Sunday and she loved it - we're going back tomorrow to teach her the Plan of Salvation. She's so cool and we really love her. So that's a huge blessing. 2. Our sweet inactive family that I talked about last week came to church yesterday! #soblessed 3. Third Thursday! In this town, there is an event every third Thursday of the month during the summer where main street is closed and vendors and people and whoever can set up a booth and do their thing! So we set up a booth and gave out cookies to people that walked by. For the cookie they had to answer 3 true/false questions about common misconceptions of the restored church of Jesus Christ - aka: "Mormons" It was really fun to see all the things people think or don't know and then to help them understand better. I met a cute couple from Colombia who was on vacation that had met missionaries before in Colombia but hadn't understood very well what they were all about - it was really fun to get to use my Spanish again and help them understand what we believe. It ended with the man agreeing to, and excited to, read the Book of Mormon that had been given to him years ago. The work progresses here in Wyoming! I'm almost to the close of my first transfer outbound, and the time goes so fast...slow down! I hope you all have a great week I love you! --Sister Black  

Bites and Blessings

Hello Everyone!

It's been a pretty good week here in Wyoming! We've kind of been all over the place this last week and we've done a ton of driving, but we've seen little miracles throughout!

1. We had a Zone Conference on the west side of the state this week, we're in the east side so we had quite a drive to get out there. We went through the mountains and it was really pretty - fall has certainly fell in the Big Horns. A lot of the trees are turning colors, and you can certainly feel that fall is coming in the wind. We had a really uplifting Zone Conference. We talked a lot about the blessings of obedience and about how to find people to teach. It was much needed I think for all the missionaries there, the whole mission is struggling with finding and it was fun to get to throw ideas around each other and council on how we can be not just effective teachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but how we can be more effective finders of those who want to learn. 

2. We went to a place called Sanfords with some members this week, it's a junkyard themed restaurant. Super fun! Anyways, it was real good so we decided to go back for lunch one day and while we were there the manager came up to us and started talking to us - turns out he's an inactive member but that his mom is serving a mission at the family history center in Salt Lake! We talked to him a bit about going to church and it was really cool, he was just saying that he thought it was a sign from God that he met us there. We gave him a pass along card with our number, and we're hoping to see him at church. If we don't.. we know where he's at so we can go invite him again! ;) He works the bar.. we aren't 21 but we can get a root beer.. right?

3. There's a really sweet inactive family living here that we just love. They for years have basically refused to come to church, but they love the missionaries. So missionaries have, for years, been visiting them and trying to help them come back to church - but it's never worked out! Yesterday we went over and shared a 10 minute Restoration lesson with them. It started out a little crazy, but by the end they were all listening to us and Ken (the husband) even started talking about how he knows for himself that the Book of Mormon is true and about how he knows that God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are 3 different personages with the same purpose. This sweet family really does have a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but for different reasons don't live it. I felt the Spirit prompt me to invite them to church... again. But I did it anyways, and Ken pinky promised me that he'd be there! We left feeling so so happy... now we just have to see on Sunday if he comes!! (And hopefully brings his family with him!)

Well, I love you all! The mosquitoes are out in full force around here.. especially around dusk which seems to be when we're having most of our front porch conversations. So my companion and are COVERED in bug bites. But it's fine haha. It just means we're super sweet ;)

Have a great week!!

--Sister Black

Do You Love Him?

Hello Everyone!

It's been a great week here in Wyoming - it's honestly going so fast. I'm halfway through my first transfer outbound.. that's weird!

1. We had the privilege on Saturday of going up to Billings and having a meeting with all the missionaries in the mission and Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles! It was a really powerful meeting, before it started we all got to shake his hand and we took a mission picture with him. It was pretty cool! Elder Taylor from the 70 came with him, I had met him at Temple Square and when I told him I was from there, he seemed to remember me! He could of been pretending, but I felt cool either way.

2. Something he encouraged us to do is memorize 5 scriptures from the New Testament, as well as 5 scriptures from the Book of Mormon that we really, truly believe in. He asked us for some of our favorite scriptures from those books, and he asked me mine! I said John 14:15 - "If ye love me, keep my commandments" It's a short one, but a good one haha. I told him this scripture, and he looked me dead in the eyes and said - Do you love him? I said yes - he asked me if I kept His commandments. I certainly try!! It made me think about commandments and love for God. If I could only reflect my love for God through how I keep His commandments, would he really think I loved Him? Something to ponder on.

The work progresses her in Sheradin! I'm excited for the upcoming transfer, and I'm getting really excited for General Conference in a few weeks! It's been a long time since I've been able to watch all the sessions live! I hope you all have a great week!

-- Sister Black

HAY? Wanna Hear the Gospel?

Hey Everyone!!

This week has been so fun! We got our transfer calls this morning, and we will be staying together here in Sheradin! Neither of us are super surprised about it, we're happy!

1. Sister Gherkins and I have kind of been switching off with being sick - when I got here, she was sick, and then she transferred it to me, and now I'm sick. But it's good! We've been living off of Tylenol and cough drops, but we're happy! 

2. I'm starting to really love the look and feel of life in Wyoming. There is A LOT of hay - it's just everywhere. There's also a lot of corn! A member works on a ranch here in the area and he let us go out into his fields and pick corn - so fun! I can now say that I know the difference between feed corn and sweet corn - it's an important difference haha. Most everyone here smokes, but most everyone here is also really kind. There are a lot of sweet people that say hello and wave to us on the streets or in our car. Not many of them are super interested in the restored gospel, but at least they're nice about it. 

3. My companion and I decided recently that we wanted to make some changes in our lives to become more consecrated as missionaries so that we could receive more of the Lord's power into our lives and our teaching. As we've made really small changes that make us more obedient, I can really testify that we've been blessed and I've certainly seen and felt that the Lord recognizes our efforts and is blessing us for them. We found this week 2 really great potential investigators - Matthew and Jamison. Matthew we found when we went to see a member, the member was exceedingly inebriated, and Matthew was standing outside with him. He's a really sweet guy and we really have hopes that he'll accept the gospel. Jamison is married to a member and has been coming to church recently! We're excited to start teaching her. 

Other than that, not much is new! We've been loving this place and loving the people, and our God has certainly been showing His love for us. We have been so blessed in this area, and we're excited to see what happens with this next transfer. I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

--Sister Black