“How great shall be our joy in the Celestial Kingdom, if we bring one soul unto Christ”

Dear Friends and Family,                                                           11-17-14

I don't know how life can get much better than this past weekend! I am so grateful we were able to have the miracle filled week that we did for Sister Howell's last full week in Kansas. I remember thinking that our three months together was going to be a long time, but now here I am at the end looking back wondering how it went so fast! I am incredibly grateful she was my companion, I was correct in feeling I would learn a lot from her our second transfer together. Sister Howell, RaCail, and Jenaya have become the greatest friends I have had in a long time. When we felt the need to have RaCail be Jenaya's fellowship, I don't think we had any idea how close the four of us would become. The scripture that states “how great shall be our joy in the Celestial Kingdom if we bring one soul unto Christ” and are able to be with them in the Celestial Kingdom, has become very real to me, especially with Jenaya. I can't imagine being there without her and her family as well. Seeing 4 people become members of Christ's true church yesterday was one of the most amazing things of my life. I really believe this past weekend was an experience that will have changed my entire life. There really is something to be said about being someone's "missionary" and being privileged to have a front row seat to how the Gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives. These changes are really and truly what our entire life is really all about. Without them we would never make it back to our Father in Heaven. I love this Gospel, and I love being a missionary of Jesus Christ!

This weekend was so packed; by last night I thought I was going to fall asleep during dessert at a Members house! Friday was a party at the church as Adrian, Leigh, and Rachel, plus Jenaya came to have their baptismal interviews and to fill out their baptismal forms. They all passed their interviews, which was good! Then on Saturday we had Jenaya's baptism and sadly her husband didn't come. She was irritated about that and was really missing her father who passed away a couple years back. It was about time to start and she was sad and nervous, Elder Wilson and the Zone Leaders came and talked with her and us and they offered to give her a blessing which she accepted. The blessing given in the peace of the chapel was beautiful. After she calmly and excitedly got changed and was ready for her life to change! She was irritated Elder McKeller didn't have to wear the "ugly jumpsuit" she did, but we thought she looked great in it!

After the baptism she was so happy, she couldn't stop smiling and laughing she was so happy! She seemed to just glow! RaCail, and Jenaya went with Sister Howell and I to lunch at IHop to celebrate and we got some delicious hot chocolate (which was our 3rd time this week getting hot chocolate... I feel a tradition beginning). After lunch Jenaya and RaCail came with us to visit some Less Active members. Yup, that's the way we do it in JC!

Sunday was just as amazing and crazy! Jenaya was so nervous to go in front of the entire congregation and be confirmed, but she hid her nervousness well! The blessing was beautiful, and she came back with the biggest smile! After Church was the baptism for Adrian, Leigh, and Rachael. It was so cool! Jenaya stayed for a picture of all of them together, all 4 of those who became members of Christ Church on November 16. The baptism went well, and it was so cool to see how much all three of them have changed and grown closer as a family as we taught them. We really just got to catch the end of the process since the Wells have been sharing with them for months. Families who bring their friends into the church are the best! It makes our job as missionaries so much easier and we get to share the joy with those families as well! I couldn't have asked for a better week! 

Love you all!

Thanks for all the prayers in my behalf and on behalf of those we have and will continue to teach! 

~Sister Blood 

                              Hot Chocolate at IHOP

Jenaya & Sister Howell

Sister Blood & RaCail

RaCail, Sister Blood, Jenaya, Sister Howell

Sister Blood, Sister Howell, Jenaya, Elder McKeller

Sister Blood, Sister Howell,  Leigh, Adrian, Rachael, and Bro Wells 

Adrian, Rachael, Leigh, Jenaya, Sister Blood, Sister Howell

Preparing for Baptisms like crazy!

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been great with lots of wonderful weather! 

The bulk of the week has been teaching and preparing for Baptisms like crazy! Trusting no complications come up we should be having a family of three be baptized along with Jenaya! It has been so cool working with all of these people. All are working really hard to make sure they can be baptized before Sister Howell leaves for home. I can't believe I only have around 11 days left with my wonderful companion! I am going to miss her so much!

Funnest part of the week was playing tag football as a zone on last p-day. After playing and doing pretty well at catching and running I suddenly am beginning to understand why people like football! As long as the guys you are playing with will pass you the football it is actually a lot of fun to play! Who would have ever guessed! The downside is that Sister Howell and I were really sore for the first few days after, apparently we don't get enough exercise walking places.

love you all!

Sister Blood :)

Junction City Zone

Halloween this Year Was Pretty Cool

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was pretty good! It started out a little bit rough, but with some divine help we were able to pull though and end the week successfully! The weeks continue to fly by which is kind of a relief after they dragged by during September. It really is interesting how as you work harder time goes faster, so the harder you work because you want to make use of all the time you can because you see how fast it is flying by!

This weekend was Stake Conference up here, and it was by far the smallest Stake Conference I have ever been to in my entire life. Only a third of the Stake goes to the Stake  Center because they broadcast it to the other two buildings in Junction City and Manhattan. Our Stake is huge geographically. It takes 3.5 hours to drive from one side of it to the other side. 

Halloween this year was pretty cool, not as fun as being able to actually dress up, but still fun! I think the best costumes at the combined ward and branch Trunk or Treat was. 1. The family that dressed up as Candy Land Characters, 2 Anubis, Egyptian God of Funerals, 3. One of the Pregnant sisters of the Branch, who dressed up as a whale with a felt Jonas on her tummy. Oh how Halloween is fun! We helped RaCail decorate her trunk and hand out candy which was fun. We even were forced to take a bunch home with us that were left overs! So that combined with the fun packages I got the last few weeks makes for a very "sweet" Halloween on my mission!

A member told us about this video yesterday when we were at dinner with them and I decided that it would be cool to share. I really enjoyed the perspective they put on it, and how they explained it so clearly. I know sometimes I get weirded out when people asked us about garments and I have no idea how to respond. 

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/temple-garments

Other fun things from the week, we heart/candy attacked Jenaya's door.

And enjoyed the many colors of Fall! 

Love you all so much! Have a wonderful week!

Sister Blood :)

We heart/candy attacked Jenaya's door

 The family that dressed up as Candy Land Characters

Awesome Sauce and Cool Beans = MIRACLES!

Dear Family and Friends,

Sorry this is shorter, I forgot I hadn't finished it until now when I am almost done with e-mailing... oops!

This WEEK was AWESOME! There is a lot to be said for choosing to be happy and work hard. Miracles happen and we get to taste what it feels like to have Heavenly Father backing us %100!

Earlier this week we decided we wanted to do something for Jenaya because she has been sick, so I got the brilliant idea to take our vacuum to her house and vacuum it since they don't have a vacuum yet. It was awesome to have her open the door look at us, look at the vacuum and then say. "What is That." 

"Our Vacuum, we came to Vacuum your house since we love you, you are sick, and you don't have a vacuum!" She let us in and let us clean all the while shaking her head saying "you guys are crazy!"

Yesterday we were talking to our investigators Sean and Josephina and we told them how we had vacuumed her floors and how after the office lady saw us and had a "panic moment" when she saw the vacuum thinking we were soliciting it. They told us they actually had an extra vacuum someone had given them and they asked us if we wanted to take it and give it to her! I was in totally shock and I couldn't quite believe it! We will be giving it to Jenaya later today and I can't wait! It really is so cool to see moments when you recognize there are still really good people in the world today! 

Like I said this week was amazing but sadly I don't have time to share more of the many miracles we saw this week. Love you all and thanks for all the love and support I got this week! I haven't gotten this many letters and packages since I was in training! You're all the best!

Love,

Sister Blood, the 1st :)

Fall in Milford

Week 40! Half Way!

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was good with the usual up and downs of missionary life! We didn't have a lot of success finding new investigators but we did have some awesome lessons with Jenaya. She didn't make it to church which was sad, but Adrian, Leigh, and Rachel came again! Adrian, Leigh, and Rachel also came to the Spanish baptismal service which was awesome! Adrian speaks a little Spanish so he got a lot more out of the talks then we did since we don't understand Spanish. Best part about when the Spanish branch has a baptism... they always have lots of good food after! Haha just kidding, the best part is that they have another soul who has come unto Christ in their branch!

Yesterday in church during Relief Society we talked about prayer and the sister teaching in the branch shared this awesome video from Mormon Channel so I decided I wanted to share it! We all made our own "I pray" Signs so I included a picture of me with mine! I am challenging you to make your own I pray sign and post it and/or the Mormon Channel video on your Facebook; and send me a picture.  http://www.mormonchannel.org/more-videos?v=3738361705001

Perks of being in the Bible Belt, you get things like the 10 commandments posted outside of the City Building! We decided it was a must to take a picture with it :)

We got to go to Manhattan Wednesday to do some service with the bishops storehouse and we drove by Kansas State. I must say I think they have the coolest looking football stadium I have seen so far! 

All of the English Speaking Missionaries in JC at FHE up on Post. 

The Kansas State Institute building, it's an old home that was donated to the church and then converted into the institute building :)

So in the mission world your trainer is your Mother if you are a sister and your Father if you are an Elder. For Sisters your "Dad" is your first District Leader, and for Elders your "mom" is the mission age oldest Sister in your First District.I ended up being the oldest mission age Sister while Elder Mitchell was being trained so he is my first "son". Haha, so we took a family picture. He is in the middle and the Elder on the far left is Elder Boman his trainer. Missions are funny, especially when you make faces!  

Love you all!

Sister Blood

Rain, Miracles, and Military

Dear Family and Friends,

Jenaya is progressing fabulously! We introduced her to family search this past week and she loved it. The coolest moment was when after almost an hour and having not found anything yet we ran across her grandfathers draft record from WWI. This spirit was so strong as she read out loud the information on the record I am positive some of her family where there and may have had a part in leading her to find that record, which lead to her finding many others. Her heart was softened, which was great because she is quite the coffee drinker (She was drinking between 2-3 POTS a day), and we had to break it to her about the word of wisdom; but she took it really well and actually quite her coffee and tea the next day after she told us she was going to go home and drink 6 pots that night (friday) before she had to stop on Saturday

. I am pretty sure she wasn't entirely joking, luckily her husband was home and wouldn't let her drink that much. He was pretty irritated when he found out she had 4 pots one day last week when he was at work, that is roughly 40+ cups of coffee, to say she was hyper is an understatement. 

After Church when she was talking to the Branch Presidents wife after she told her she was hoping to be baptized in the next few weeks! Another miracle was how many people, especially sisters, in the Branch came up and talked to her during church and told her how excited they were to see her back! She commented her first week how surprised she was how few people talked to her the first week she came, which is why it was such a miracle the branch sisters reached out to her so much. Testimony Meeting was fun, it was interesting to have to explain to her why their are children in sacrament meeting, the churches she has attended in the past all had childcare so just the adults went to the sermon. She was really surprised when I told her that even primary children will bear their testimonies, then 6 or 7 primary kids in a row got up and bore really sweet testimonies. As surprised as she was at first I think they really touched her heart too! Miracles are happening in JC! 

Another really cool experience this week also happened while we were on Family Search with Jenaya, I got on to my tree to show her how you can include pictures, I went to my Great Grandfathers Royal Oscar Heiner and clicked on a picture I hadn't seen on their before, on the back of the old picture was the note. "Taken in Kansas City MO, While on an LDS Mission." That was so neat to realize my grandfather served a mission in roughly the same area I am serving! It really helped me to feel even more connected to my ancestors! Turning hearts in both directions, thank you Elijah!  

Love you all!

Playing with Balloons

The awesome-ness that is the Junction City District

Elder Boman, Sister Boman, Sister Howell, Me, Elder Lorado, Elder Jacobson, Elder Carlson, Elder Bohman (the District Leader), Elder Hulse, Elder Mitchell.

We all were supposed to wear Yellow... I don't own yellow so it was decided my hair was "yellow".

Another zoo picture

"Thanks so much for the Ball! It was fun and odd to come home one day and find it sitting outside our door. I had no idea you could send balls in the mail! "  Ball Sent to Sister Blood from Harmonie Wheeler

Conference was AMAZING!

Dear Family and Friends,

Sorry this is going to be a really short one, I am not sure what to write about, haha. 

Conference was AMAZING! I was so excited when Elder Bednar started speaking, as soon as he said he was directing his message to non-members I was literally bouncing up and down because I was hoping and expecting him to share the story about his two little boys. He shared it with the Derby Stake back in March and I loved it so much I have shared it multiple times with people here in JC since they obviously weren't in Derby. We had three investigators come to the last session with their back door neighbor which was awesome! They had come to church a few months ago but their neighbor had gotten busy and hadn't invited them back again, then we happened to tract into them earlier in the week (we chose to knock on their door because it was completely dark and they had a well lit porch). We invited them to conference and to let us come back again, he didn't have his schedule but said he would talk to his back door neighbor about coming to church, and they actually did! 

We also passed a Less Active member who just moved from AZ. We were walking opposite directions and we tried to say hi but they didn't respond, we got about 15 feet apart and Ikea (the LA) spun around and yelled to us, "Are you guys Mormon?!" We said yes. She was really excited and really surprised to hear we had a church building "clear out here". She gave us her info and we were able to stop by and see her yesterday. She is awesome, she moved to JC to start over and is very excited to get back into Church. God is aware of us all. Even if we aren't aware of the fact his restored church is all over the world. We are never completely out of it's influence! 

We went to the Zoo last Monday with Jenaya and RaCail, it was a blast. Little Zoos are a lot of fun! 

Love you All!

Sister Blood 

We went to the Zoo last Monday with Jenaya and RaCail 

Little Zoos are a lot of fun!