We Found the Most Interesting Investigator!

Okay first I'm going to start with some random information. President gives us two hours every week to use Mormon.org and LDS.org so we can be familiar with it and help investigators if needed. On LDS.org I can look up the ward directories for our stake in Las Vegas and you can see all the missionaries that are out. Not only from our stake but you can see the missionaries that are assigned to each ward. So I was looking at all of those as well seeing if I knew any of them from the MTC and I do! Elder Cook was in my district and he is assigned to our home ward! So you have to tell everyone there that I know him. Sister Brog also had people in her district in the MTC and so she was looking at them with me. Elder Patterson is in the Arbor View ward and knows sister Brog so you have to tell Allison! Here is the list of all the Elders in Las Vegas right now: Elder Walker, Elder Schlesinger, Elder Peterson, Elder Browning,and Elder Cook. Lastly, you can look at a map of all the mission boundaries on a map and my mission borders Blake Truman's. Depending on what area he is in right now we could be like 30 miles away from each other.. kind of crazy!

Last week I told you how President really wants us to take time to get to know the ward. So we have been trying to visit families every night and I love being in their homes. It is so nice to feel the sweet spirit in the members homes but it also a cool experience when we teach them. Everyday we make choice that determine if we are going to move toward God or away from him and as we talk with these members we help them find ways where they can improve each day. We commit them to doing things that will help them improve and then one of my favorite parts about being a missionary is promising blessings. We give a challenge and then always testify of the truth and blessings that will come from being obedient. And the spirit is always backing us up as we make those promises. It is the Best! 

Tuesday we were driving to a small town, Hooks, that is in our area and about 10 minutes away from home I realized I didn't have my name tag!!! I felt so stupid, but we were already so far away we didn't want to turn back and waste that time so for half the day I didn't have my name tag on. Anyway we went and saw an older lady in the ward who hadn't been coming to church. She was the sweetest lady ever and the reason she hadn't been coming is because she had been with her daughter in North Carolina all summer. And then she also had to find a ride because she can't drive anymore. So we called Bishop and let him know. They found someone to pick her up but didn't get a hold of her soon enough so she wasn't ready Sunday morning. But now she has a ride every Sunday and she will be coming! We visited with her for a while and then took her little dog on a walk. It was a good time and she was so thankful we offered because she can't do it herself anymore. 

We also started running this week. I hate running! and sister Brog loves it so at first I wasn't so sure but we found out that the high school keeps it's track open to the public so we go there and she can run at her pace and for as long as she desires and I can do what I want. It is really nice. I am soooo out of shape though! I thought I was going to die on Tuesday. And running in the humidity is the strangest thing hahaha In the mornings when we run it is so humid we have to drive with our windshield wipers on so we can see. By the time I'm finished with my first lap every part of my body is dripping wet. Gross! 

This week we started doing this thing we call Chalk Talk. It is so fun! There is a park we go to that has a walking path and we bring chalk and write inspiring things. The first night we didn't see anyone but we have gone a total of three times and have talked to people about what we are doing! It's pretty cool.

 

Tracting this week was rough and there weren't a ton of people interested. But we tracted into one of the members and she has been awesome! Her name is Sister Ward. She is an older lady and her 20 year old daughter was over. Her daughter isn't active and I made a total fool of myself! We left them with a scripture and sister Brog asked me if i wanted to shard one. I was all excited because I had one to share from my study that morning. As I began to share it I realized how bad of an idea this was. I had read in Alma chapter 41 I believe. And it is all about how Alma is calling his son to repentance and that he needs to remember the things he was taught as a child. I had already started sharing the scripture and so i just kept going with it. Her daughter didn't say anything but hopefully she doesn't hate me now and hopefully it was what she needed to hear and will start coming to church again. Sister Brog after was like that was a brave scripture to share.. hahaha 

Wednesday night was went over to a families home for dinner. Our GPS got us lost so we had to call her and ask for directions. Before she hung up she said, "See you soon, I have dinner ready on the stove." When we get there we see that she has boxes of pizza on the stove, we were laughing pretty hard! But their family is awesome. The wife is a convert and she has got a crazy background, I never would have guessed. But we enjoyed visiting with them! They have two little kids. A 7 year old boy and a 5 month old girl.  She is a ward missionary and we are excited to work with her. 

Friday we did "Thirsty Thursday" again and I now know that my blue skirt is not a biking skirt! It was such a bad idea!! Sister Brog kept laughing at me. And then it started raining, that made things even worse! 

Saturday night we had a ward ice cream social. We show up and they have removed everything from the chapel and set up chairs like a gym. Well it isn't actually a chapel, it is called a multipurpose room. Me and sister Brog were a little skeptical at first but there isn't any where else to do it. The young women sponsored the activity but because there are so little youth me and Sister Brog helped scoop ice cream. My fingers were so numb by the end. When everyone had finished eating they had minute to win it games. It was a really good activity and the ward seemed to all enjoy it. One of the games was to keep a balloon of the ground but you could only use your head. They did a group of adults and one of the men in the ward was trying to be funny, jumped really high, and came down and sprained his ankle... It was one of those things I probably shouldn't laugh at but it was funny. Later that night they did the cookie challenge where you have to place it on your forehead and then try and get it into your mouth. They did a couple rounds of that and so there were random cookies all over the room. The wife of the man who sprained his ankle got up toward the end of the party and started walking to the back of the room. She then stopped, took two steps back to a random table, broke one of these random cookies in half (she has no idea where that cookie has been), and ate it! Me and sister Brog just stared at each other. The only other weird thing that happened at the party was that one of the primary aged kids was having a birthday party that night so the mom just brought all the kids from the birthday party to the ward party. Our ward is definitely one of a kind and I love it. 

At the end of the party we had to set up for church service the next day. Our bishop is so particular on how he wants the chairs. He steps off how far apart each row is and he had this laser pointer thing he puts on the ground and lines up each chair just perfect.. It was stressing me out. I couldn't help or I would do it wrong. 

Sunday was a little more normal this week. The only strange thing they do here in the south is that you don't have to go to the pulpit to share your testimony. You can if you want but a lot of people just stand where they are and give their testimony from the congregation. 

The last thing I want to talk about today is the investigator we found while tracting. His name is Joey. He is a single man and so we have to find a woman to go with us when we teach which has been nice because it allows us to work with the members. But Joey is this really depressed guy. He says he has been looking for the truth in all things and hasn't been able to find it. He has created this theory that God hates us and that agency is a curse instead of a blessing. At the end of his first lesson he asked what we wanted him to do so he could get these answers. So we challenged him to start reading the BOM. We scheduled an appointment for the next day. We came back and he had listened to it and read all the way to 2 Nephi 16. We were so excited!! We kept talking to him and he had kept all his commitments and had lots of questions. But the more we talked he gave us his theory. He has mental problem called solipsism. Basically he thinks he is the only thing that truly exists in this world. And he thinks he is God.. Yeah me and sister Brog were like.... uhhh you aren't God. we didn't say that but we have a return appointment on Tuesday and we are going to say it.. in a nice way. So please pray for us. He is really sad and depressed and we feel like we can really help him be happy in this life. We are meant to be there! 

I love you all so much! Thanks for the prayers and support! 

Love, Sister Erika Kelly 

News from New Boston, TX

Okay... where do i start...

Sister Brog is the best. We have had a good first week together. She is the second oldest of 9 kids! But she loves sharing the gospel and i want to be able to teach like she does. At this point i have done a few door approaches and i give a couple comments during the lesson but mostly she does the talking and i love being able to learn from her. Everyone in the South is so open to talking about Christ and God. We say prayers on people's door steps probably 8 times a day and no one thinks twice about it. The hard thing about that though is they all think they have been "saved" and that's all the need. NOT!! but that's okay everyone has their agency. We met a lady by the name Lawanda our first day out and have a return appointment with her tonight. She loves Christ and seemed pretty interested. So im excited to teach her. We also met a lady named Samantha. She says she has been searching for the truth for quite some time and right now is studying with the Jehovah's Witnesses. We have had two lessons with her and are going back later this week. Tracting is fun, well in a sense. I love meeting all these people! and i want to share this gospel with all of them so bad!

We have found 8 new people to teach this past week and we are really excited about it. The elders before that didn't have a ton of luck finding new people so we are off to a good start. On Saturday we found a lady named Brooke. She is a single mom of a two year old boy, she had such a light about her. We feel really strongly we need to definitely keep teaching her. She is busy with school so we have an appointment with her next week.

At the beginning of each transfer we have meetings with the President so we had ours on Thursday. and then we had district meeting after. President McDonough is soo nice. He had surgery on his lungs a couple years back and so now he talks in a soft, high pitched voice. I was not expecting it the first time i talked to him. but now i can't see him with any other voice. Usually at district meeting we will switch the car with the other elders in our district but because we are both new to the area and have no idea where we are going, they are letting us have the car for the first two weeks. It is so nice! But one thing the mission does is "Thirsty Thursday's". Even if you have the car,  everyone bikes on Thursdays because that is the day that the Prophet and his councilors go to the temple and pray for the missionaries. I thought that was pretty cool. Because we had meeting's in Texarkana on Thursday we biked on Friday. It was interesting! haha i haven't rode a bike in a long time and it was even harder in a skirt but i'll get use to it fast enough. The bike works great! When i first went to put my helmet on i couldn't figure out how to adjust it to fit to my head and thought you had sent the wrong size... But i figured it out eventually. 

It has been interesting being fed by the members. Growing up whenever we were feeding the missionaries we would have them over to eat but the first family took us to a Mexican restaurant. The second lady bought us Chinese take out, dropped it off at our apartment and then left. But we ate with the bishop's family last night and they made us dinner. We had tacos and that was pretty good. I haven't had anything crazy yet. Thank goodness. 

Well Sunday was probably the most interesting day of the week. Our ward is tiny! we had 100 people in sacrament and that was a good day. Our building is the smallest thing i have ever seen. haha there is no gym and because there is no gym there are no side doors, just front and back ones. There are no benches, just the fold chairs in the chapel. The stand only has one step so you are basically at the same level as everyone else in the congregation. They do things a little different.. so we were singing the sacrament hymn, and we finish the full song. (mind you we sing really slow) and so i shut my book and then realize that they are still singing. So i look over to see if they are still preparing for the sacrament. They aren't! they just sing every verse in the book, even the ones that are written at the bottom of the page. different! 

We sat on the second row and in front of us was an old couple. (most of the people in the ward a really old) They had a grandson with them and he kept playing with his grandpa's hearing aid. He would put it in his own ear and then was playing with the wrinkles on his grandpa's face. And then he looks says, "Papa, take out your teeth!" me and sister brog were trying so hard not to laugh! it was awesome haha 

This ward hasn't had sister missionaries in a reallllly long time so everyone is so excited. Which is good! we need all their help. But because we are new they had us introduce ourselves in sacrament and bare our testimonies. 

After sacrament we went to the gospel principles class and the teacher wasn't there so guess who taught the lesson.. We did! It was on being honest and actually went pretty well. I was surprised we made it last the full hour. Because it was fifth Sunday we were combined and the lesson was on family history work. They had a big projector and anyone could ask questions. By the end of the lesson half of the ward had left and gone home.. weird! hahaha

Our main focus in this ward is to help it grow specifically in priesthood and by January. Our ward boundaries go into Texarkana, which is about thirty minutes away so they have talked about splitting the ward and making New Boston one by itself. But if they do that then we would become a branch. So we really need more priesthood holders. 

While we were at the bishops house he went through the ward directory and told us who was active and inactive. The whole directory is 15 pages but you could fit all the actives on probably two pages. So we are focusing a lot on the part member families at first! 

Well the only other weird thing i should tell you is that the street lights are side ways here. the poles are a lot lower and so they have to post them horizontal instead of vertical. They also have so many random dips in the road! the roads here are really bad because of weather and then they don't really fix them.. 

Oh a little about New Boston. Sorry i feel so scatter brained when i write emails. The town is really small. Most of the houses here are old and falling apart. But that also means the people are quite humble. excited to work with them! 

Oh!! one night we were finding things to do so we went and introduced ourselves to everyone else living in the building. One of our neighbors lives there alone and she cooks. so later that night she came over and gave us her left over spaghetti. It was soo good! and so kind of her. We are hoping that turns into a teaching experience. She said she will bring us food whenever she has leftovers. Score!

Love you all. Thank you for all the support and love. Remember that God loves you always and you have never gone too far down the wrong path. A lady in sacrament shared this story. "if you were running a marathon and half way through realized you were running in the wrong direction you would not keep going in that direction. You have been training and working for the finish line so you would stop wasting your energy and turn around." The same is in life. If you find yourself on a wrong path you are never too far off that the atonement doesn't apply. That is the beauty of the Atonement. It can help us through any trial we may have.

Love, Sister Erika Kelly 

A Few Pictures

19 New Missionaries in the Mississippi Jackson Mission

Sister McDonough, Sister Erika Kelly, President McDonough

 

These pictures were sent to us by Sister McDonough shortly after Erika's arrival.

Two in One Week!!! What??!!

Okay so im in Mississippi... What!!!! this is so crazy. Yesterday we got off the plane and they were all waiting for us right outside the gate. We loaded up a trailer with all our luggage and then drove to the church just a couple miles from the airport. We had an amazing meal! We had homemade pasta and we were all saying how it could have been roadkill and we would have still thought it was amazing because we were so hungry, especially for homemade food. After we had a meeting just going over some of the mission rules. After we went back to the Mission house and it is sooo pretty!! We had some more food, the President did some interviews and we all got to know each other a little more. The president and his wife are amazing! They are the kindest people. That night all the elders stayed at the mission home and us sisters stayed at some members homes. We stayed with the Boone family and they were so kind. The houses out here are so pretty and i love all the trees. It is really humid but ill get use to it.

This morning we got to sleep in and we were so grateful after being up since three in the morning. We had breakfast and then met up with everyone else at the church down the road. So right now we are all emailing and separating luggage and finding out where we are all going. I am going to Texarkana and me and my companion are opening an area! Everyone who finds out who my trainer is keeps telling me she is amazing and so im soooo excited.Her name is Sister Brog! It is a six hour drive so ill be driving lots today. NAP time!!! I will send pictures later today! Love you lots. Thanks for all the love and emails!!  

Jackson- i loved! your letter. Me and my companion were laughing soo hard. I am glad you are having so much fun and are not being scared of girls lol i can't wait for you to be in high school and seminary. Make the best of it.

Harrison- im so sorry you didnt get to go cliff jumping. I would have been soooo annoyed too! Good luck with everything in Stuco and being the amazing person you are. Prepare as much as you can now for your mission. Start reading, studying preach my gospel. it will be a blessing to you! 

Mom- i love you! your emials are amazing and are just what i need to read. I am feeling a little overwhelmed right now and i can't really figure out why. But the plane rides weren't bad. thank goodness! it is weird being outside the MTC! lol 

Dad- your the best bishop ever. Keep up the good work and god will bless you. I love your email! and can't wait to see the video of you doing the ice challenge. 

Tess- PDays are the best! im gladd you are being prepared :) 

Love you all i have to go. 

Sister Kelly

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Okay! so travel day was crazy.

We split into travel vans (TVs) and then headed on our way. There were ten missionaries in my van. We drove two hours and then dropped off two people. Drove another hour and a half and dropped off two more people. Drove an hour dropped off two people. And then drove another hour, that was our last stop... in the vans. We all got out there, unload luggage and bikes and then reloaded them into me and my companions car. We loaded our luggage plus three other elders into our car. It was packed to the top! when we were done loading we went and got subway. By this time is was like 7:00. We drove another two hours (following another car of elders) and ended up in Texarkana. We stopped at walmart and bought a GPS so we could get around our new area. We had no idea where we were going. My companion had a GPS but it stopped working and she didnt want to buy one because she will be leaving soon. So logically i bought one, ill use it more. anyways, we got out of the car at walmart (after driving for two hours) and the back tire of my back had fallen off the bike rack. We don't know how long it was like that but it was barely off the ground and so nothing happened to it. MIRACLE!  After getting the GPS we drove to the nearby church where we met up with another car of elders. We unpacked our car of the elders things and then left for New Boston, Texas... another 40 minute drive. So we didnt get home till late last night. We drove up to our apartment complex and had no idea which one was ours. Sister Brog was going to get out and go find which one (our building has two floors and only one side with doors) a man came down the stairs and approached the car. He is a member of the ward and lives next door to us. He is married and two little girls. They had waited up for us and he was so kind to help us take our luggage up to our room. Their daughter also made us cookies. We already feel welcomed by the ward!

We didnt stay up late last night. We unpacked what we needed and then went to sleep. This morning we had studies and then unpacked! it was nice to be able to set everything up today. you know how i am haha our apartment has two rooms but with the rules our beds have to be in the same room. So one is our room and the other is our office. we each have a desk, it is really nice! The bathroom isn't very large and the washer and dryer are in the bathroom... apparently it is a southern thing.. kinda weird. lol but whatever. All the appliances are oldddd. haha but whatever works works right.

We went to walmart and bought some food and then she didnt email yesterday so we are today! two emails in one week. lucky you hahaha We are meeting the bishop tonight and are also teaching a BOM class. I guess they havent had success with people showing up so it will be interesting to see what happens tonight. There wasn't too much going on here. The elders that just left the area said they had a hard time finding people. So hopefully me and sister brog will have more success than they did. She is a really hard worker and is also really obedient so i think we will have a good time here!

I love you lots! and will try to send some pictures right now. (she needed a cord to send the pictures but has to buy one so we will have to wait until next week for pictures.  :(  )

Sister Erika Kelly

1 Week at the Provo MTC

Yay it's PDAY!!! okay, where to begin?? I have only been here a week but every day feels like a month! I have learned so much, it is amazing to see how far me and those in my district have come in such a short amount of time!

 
Well I was able to see Kaiden Thursday night and talk to him. I saw him a couple times but he left on Monday! Sunday all the sisters meet for Relief Society and Sister Eddington found me. It is so nice to see a face that I recognize sometimes. Sunday night we had a devotional and Mackenzie (or sister Bruggeman) found me in this huge crowd of missionaries. We got to talk a lot before the meeting and then got to take a picture afterwards. Soo kind of crazy I was in the cafeteria a couple days ago and the elder standing next to me looked really familiar. When I looked at him closer I realized it was Ryan Meservey! We were able to talk for a little bit. He has been her for 6 weeks and still has 3 weeks to go, I felt bad. Missionaries are so sick of the MTC by that time and I could tell he was ready to be done here.

Sister Bruggeman & Sister Kelly

Our district it awesome! We have all become really close and really do treat each other like brothers and sisters. Me, Sister Garner, and Sister Johnston all get along really well and teach really well. We have definitely been blessed.  We are all going to Mississippi except for Sister Johnston. She is going to Independence Missouri, visitors center. We have another district in our zone and guess where they are going... Las Vegas! So you have to look for them. I have a picture attached and I will get all of their names before we leave so you can look for them. They are all way awesome! Our Branch presidency is amazing as well. The second councilor introduced himself and said, "I would kill tigers for my wife." It was adorable! hahaha

Elders headed to the Las Vegas West Mission

MTC District

MTC Zone

Sister Kelly, Sister Garner, Sister Johnston

 

My time here has been so awesome. The only time I was really struggling was on Saturday morning. I just felt like this was going to be too much and I wasn't suppose to be here. But after personal study I was able to refocus and get past it. They really kick you into teaching as soon as you get here! So we have already been teaching two women. The first one is Cindy. Now Cindy isn't actually an investigator, she is actually our teacher but she is pretending to be an investigator that she taught while she was on a mission. So even though she isn't actually going to be baptized it is a good practice and we have really come to love Cindy as a real investigator. She has started praying and our last lesson we invited her to be baptized and she said yes! yes, it's not real, but still exciting we were able to get to a point of baptism. 

The second lady we are teaching, her name is Sarah Mae. So the MTC has workers who are either recent converts, inactive members, or non-members that we have the opportunity to teach. At first me and my companions thought that she was just playing a role and was actually a member but after the second lesson we found out she really isn't a member and it has been so fun teaching her. We were really struggling teaching her but she started eating lunch with us and our relationship with her has been growing. We actually taught her today and it was the best lesson ever. She has been having a hard time trusting God and so hasn't been praying. She was refusing to move forward. We found out she loves to sing and that when she is singing she feels like God is actually listening. Long story short we got her to commit to pray and today she finally did! AND she felt the spirit. Then we were talking about baptism, challenged her to baptism... she didn't say no or yes, but that she wants to know more. So we are really excited! 

Me and both my companions were called to be the Sister Training Leaders in our branch and so we were able to meet the new missionaries yesterday. They are all going to be amazing missionaries and I am so grateful for the chance I have to be able to help them with whatever they need. 

 

I loved all your letters!! Harrison i am so excited that your retreat went so well and can't wait to hear about how amazing your senior year will be. I am glad you are still rocking the pink phone case ;) it's like a part of me is with you hahaha  

Jman... You're going into hs... that is still hard for my brain to comprehend. But you are going to love it! you're way more confident then I was at that age. 

Mom!!! i love you lots and loved reading about all your adventures. I miss being home and hanging out with you. And YES i get to call home at the airport. I have already bought my calling card. We leave here at 4 in the morning so i am not sure what time i am going to be able to call but it will probably be around 6:30 your time. Can't wait to talk to you all!! 

Tess... i like you! and love you! you better say it back ;)

Dad! I am loving the MTC just like you did. It is such a spiritual place and i can't believe how much i have learned. 

I attached some photos! The big group is my zone. The small group is my district. The group holding up LV are all the Elders going to the Las Vegas Mission. Of course me and my comps. And then Sister Garners family each sent us a bag of candy.. so good!! The picture of the door is of the sisters that came in yesterday. haha we are crazy. I feel like i have left so much out but i love you all so much and know that our Heavenly Father loves you too!! I just want to leave with you all with a quote, "The Lord doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies those He calls." I know that is true. I know without Him and the Spirit there is no way I would be able to learn as much as I have in such a short time. I am so grateful for this work and that I get to be a part of it.

Love you all,

Sister Kelly 

Mmm, Sugar from the Garners

 

 

 

 

It's me!!!

Hey, things are going soo well. I am loving the MTC and i have only been here for a day. My companions name is Sister Garner and she will be going with me to Mississippi. Im actually in a trio because another sister in our district, her companion never showed up on Wednesday. Her name is sister Johnson. She is from Illinois and is going to Missouri. There are two other Elder companionships in our district and they are all awesome. 

 

Last night we were able to split into groups of about 50 and teach some investigators. It was the coolest experience and i am so excited to continue to learn and grow. I was surprised at how much i have already learned. The spirit is so strong here and it is the best environment to learn how to teach the true gospel of Christ. 

 

Quick stories because i dont have a ton of time... while i was walking up to enter the MTC with my host i ran in to Elder Demill (Idk if that is how you spell it) anyway got to talk to him for like two minutes. I still havent seen Kaiden though so that is kind of crazy. As for Sister Winkle (the one from Snow) i saw her today for the first time. We aren't in the same district which is weird but im still so excited to get to know her!! 

 

I met someone that knows Madi, another girl who was roommates with Mikaela Winterton and Mislan. And then this girl who knew a ton of people from snow.

 

We arent allowed to call each other "guys". We are suppose to call each others elders and sisters. One Sister on the MTC presidency said that the "guys" aren't in the MTC, they are all at home dating your girlfriends. It was pretty funny! 

 

I have to go and won't be able to write till next Thursday. So i love you all!!

 

Sister Kelly (still getting use to that)

 

sorry the letter is so crazy! 

 

Picture Day!