Kimber mail 9-26-2016: "Your Mission is Like a Roll of Toilet Paper..."

   Hands down best quote of the week was from Zone Conference and it went a little something like this: "Your mission is like a roll of toilet paper...when it gets closer to the end, the faster it goes!" So stinking true! I still have a good while left on my mission but man are the weeks whizzing by! This week I have been reminded time and time again to really soak up all these "gem" mission experiences before I get to the end of my "tp roll!" Ha,ha :) From inspirational conferences, to hoarders homes, to salt guns shooting flies and bonding with members, to laughing so hard tears form, to tearfully bearing testimony that the Atonement alone is enough to one fighting suicide. Every day is a roller coaster but I am learning more than ever to enjoy the ride and make the most of the moments. It's the best! You ready for some highlights?! They are gems for sure!!

   🗯 Zone Conference was SO good. I love getting to see so many missionary friends and hear from President and Sister Johnson. Here are some things that stood out:

- Sister Johnson shared a parable about a cracked watering pot and talked about how our flaws can become strengths with the Lords help.  Favorite quote: " I have always known about your flaws and took advantage of it”

- Pres. Whalstrom (1st councilor): "Study it out, pray really hard and put it in God's hands"

- President Johnson: "Make watching general conference for the rest of your life a priority now and follow the teachings!"

- President Murray: "Come unto him with full purpose of heart and be healed"

- AP's: "Our ability to teach improves as we study and ponder...in studies ask questions and have a specific topic to study for"

   🗯 Hoarders- Buried Alive: Man oh Man. We helped out this Less Active lady hang up a shelf this week and it was by far the worst hoarding house I've seen yet on my mission.  It was so rough and poor sister Jacobson was in shock I think. Ha, ha. Oh man! But it was really humbling too. In the crazy mess of her home we had a lesson and I was reminded that the gospel really does fit every life, every situation and every heart if we will let the words in!

   🗯 Teaching by the Spirit: This week a couple lessons in specific stand out that were super powerful- I thought. The first was to one of our investigators we haven't seen in a while. She finally got back to us and we talked about the power of the gospel. She had been missing the Spirit we brought into her home and we talked about doing everything we can to bring the Spirit in daily on our own. By the end she excitedly committed to come to our Book of Mormon Class and to come watch General Conference. The next lesson was with our investigator Frank. He is my favorite! He is so funny and so smart! We were finishing teaching him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Sister Jacobson invited him to be baptized. He started in with the whole "oh girls...I've already been baptized I'm set!" spiel...or so I thought. Sister Jacobson looked at me like "Ahh! What do I do?!"  Ha, ha, ha, I remember those days all too well.  So I opened my mouth "You know Brother Jackson, we understand where you are coming from but..."  And the Spirit boldly shut me down and said "No! Ask what concerns he has," so I did. He opened up and told us he had none. He explained that his sister was a member of our church and how everything we've told him he feels like he's heard before. He said he's more than willing to work toward baptism and really loves what we've shared so far! So sister Jacobson extended a baptismal date to work toward and it was powerful!! I probably won't be here to see him get baptized but just the fact that we were able to find and invite and help prepare him, is something I will always cherish. :)

   🗯 Service and Food: we did a ton of service again this week but my personal favorite was helping the Sikoles with their Halloween trail again. Oh man this is coming together so well! It's so exciting. They also moved the party back before transfers because they want to be sure I'll be there. They seriously made my day,  that was so sweet. I just love the Sikoles!

   🗯 Awesome Members: there are so many gem members that really help lighten our loads and I couldn't thank them enough for the food, laughs and sacrificing their time to come out and teach and visit with us! Shout-outs this week include but are not limited to:

- The Zanes, Fusselmans, Lawsons, and Olivers for making our grumbly tummies happy

- Sister Lawson for helping us heart attack (like a champ) our investigator's door (our investigator just had surgery!)

- Brother Orum, Sarah, Dave and sister Folmer for hosting FHE and providing taco bell tacos to break our fast 😍😆🎉

- And my favorite of the week: shout-out to Sister Stansell for showing up to drive us to the Women's Broadcast Saturday. We thought she was coming later than she ended up coming.... so that meant quickly changing out of our comfy planning clothes. Special shout-out to my companion for bringing me my outfit to change into so I didn't have to streak in front of the Relief Society President standing in the hallway! Ha, ha, ha, ha 😂

   Basically this week was great! The church is true. The book is blue.  And I love you!!

   I invite you all to watch General Conference with a specific question in mind this upcoming weekend. I know that my questions that I had for the Women's Session on Saturday were answered and I know that the answers will come to you too! I would love to hear what you all think about it and any cool experiences you have, quotes you love or answers you get! Feel free to email me/ send me a letter about it! I'm not the best of responders but I'll try my best if you do :P !  Conference times: Saturday and Sunday 10-12 and 2-4 or for those East Coasters 🙌 we get to watch it Saturday and Sunday 12-2 and 4-6! Happy conferencing!

💗Sister McD

Commitment: "Picture yourself in the temple!" ~ Elder Cook and "Desire, hope and Believe" ~ Pres Uchtdorf

Ponderize: "...Declare these glad tidings unto this people and prepare their minds...for his coming" ~ Alma 39:16

Kimber mail 9-19-2016: "Temple Power"

   What's up everyone?! Hope you've all had a good week- if not...well hey it's a start to a new week so that's just peachy, huh? J Okay this week was awesome but the highlight was for sure this weekend! Why, you ask? Well I'll tell ya - hang tight!

   Okay so Saturday night was the Cultural Celebration for the Philly Temple.  For those that don't know what that is: basically it's just a big celebration for the temple being completed, there's lots of cool cultural dances and it gets you pumped for the dedication! So earlier in the day Sister Jacobson and I had this prompting to invite one of the less-active members we've been working with to come.  So we called him.  He was having a pretty crummy day and was telling us all about his current stresses (have I mentioned how much I love the rambles?! #SoMuch).  But seriously- so I finally reined the ramble in and we said a prayer with him over the phone. We had a good talk about faith and putting our trust in the Lord. We were able to testify to him that any time we sacrifice for the Lord we are blessed more than we could ever expect or imagine. We told him we felt like coming to the celebration would be something good to get his mind off his stress - and there would be food (which makes one happy) so....long story short, he came! And he loved it! He said that it was just what he needed and was somehow able to figure out solutions to the majority of his problem. How? Not sure. But the Lord works in mysterious ways folks! But the celebration was super interesting and cool! It was legit how they were able to tie the founding fathers and significant Philly events into significant church events going on at the same time. It was just really cool! It brought back great memories of when I was able to participate a few years ago in the Boise Cultural Celebration! Good times :P

   And then came the Philly Temple dedication (the 152^nd temple!) on Sunday! I felt so blessed to be able to attend all 3 dedication sessions that day. Each had things that were different and things that were the same and the repeated messages were powerful. I was really reminded that as more and more temples are dedicated the closer we get to the 2^nd coming of our Savior and the harder we need to work. It was also a great comforting reminder that temples are safe havens, refuges and peaceful places to escape from the world's storms for a time.  Elder Perkins (who came to our mission a few weeks ago) was there along with Elder Christofferson and Pres. Eyring! They all seemed to be beaming from ear to ear and it made me think of how I felt when I got to finally go to the temple again last month, for the first time in the last year! Temples truly bring pure joy! Some things that I loved that Elder Perkins said were that "we need to sacrifice ourselves to be like Christ - to be in world but not of it."  We can go to the temple to receive much needed peace!  He also said "If we want to be happy, try to be a little more holy every day."  Bam! Isn't that just so great?!  And so true!  I want you guys to think - when was the last time you were able to go to the temple?  What's keeping you from going as often as you can? (Unless you’re a missionary - then that struggle is real, HA!) But I want you all to reflect on what the temple means to you. Most of us have a temple close. If for one reason or another you can’t enter into the temple right now, that's alright!  Keep working at it.  Keep your sight always on the temple.  We all need the peace the House of the Lord brings. Even just walking on the temple grounds can be a powerful, peaceful experience. I hope we can all take full advantage of being at the Lord's House as often as we can. I know it will bring you peace, guidance, comfort and the healing that you seek. Keep enduring and keep pressing forward with the temple in your sight! :)

💕Sister McDonald

Ponderize: Psalms 91:11-12 "For he shall give his angels charge over thee...they shall bear the up in their hands"

Commitment: "Press on!" And "Look to father's example" ~ Elder Christofferson

Kimber mail 9-12-16: "Comp Unite!!! 👊(AKA - most productive week EVER!)"

   Okay seriously guys this week was AMAZING! I'm honestly sad that it had to end. It was probably my most productive week of my mission so far! Ha, ha, at least it felt like that. There were so many awesome things that happened each day. I truly know that the Lord helps us and is always with us. Sometimes we have to wait long for those great things to show up but they are always there and always come if we do what we need to and rely on the Lord. Some main themes that stood out this week were: being bold, following inspiration and turning outward to serve and love others to the best of our ability.  I hope you are able to see those as I tell you some snippets of the week  J 
   P-day power: So there was something that happened while we were out bowling with the Elders that caught me kind of off guard and I honestly didn't know what to do or how to respond all I could do really was say a little prayer. The Wintersville Elders were there with us and I stinking love them! They totally boldly stood up for me and had my back and it was just the greatest tender mercy. I never would've thought I'd make so many close amazing friends out here and man, am I thankful for them.
   Tuesday throw-down: We were able to have 7 powerhouse lessons - which is a ton for one day. I think that's the most lessons I've had in one day my whole mission. I just want to share a few of those powerful lessons:
   🌀As we were driving to an appointment we felt like we should try to contact a less active member and so we pulled over and did. She wasn't home but her boyfriend answered. Normally he's not the nicest to us but today he was SO nice. It was another tender mercy. We had made a goal to knock at least one house around any house we try this week.  So after we left their house we prayed to know which house to try. I felt like we should try the house at the beginning of the street so we did and turns out the lady, Shirley, had briefly talked with missionaries a while ago.  She had the 1st of 3 pamphlets that they left with her but didn't have a Book of Mormon. She had been waiting to read more, so we talked about it with her, left her one and promised to come back soon! Then Sister Jacobson felt like we should try the house across from Shirley.  We knock and Katherine and John were just chillin’ watching some Family Feud on the couch and shouted for us to come right in.  So we do and end up having this awesome lesson with them about the restoration and Book of Mormon. As soon as I asked if they would like a copy- they exclaimed "YES!" Ha, ha, I haven't had anyone that excited to have their own copy it was awesome J So moral of the story…  follow the Spirit.
   🌀Next story: our last appointment of the day was with Sister Patterson. We are trying to find her house walking up and down this street (because there is no rhyme or reason to how houses are numbered out here!!)   Any-who we walk up to this house with things ALL over the lawn and house and it was crazy.  Sister Jacobson is the cutest! HA, HA, she's like "um...look at that house!" And I laughed a bit and said "it's normally these unique houses that hold the miracles..." And sure enough it was the right house! Well she comes out and talks to us for a good hour. At first she started rambling about all these bad experiences she's had with the church and how she has gone to another church for the last year.  Well...long story short the more she talked the angrier I got and the harder it was to love her.  Not Christ-Like right. Ha, ha, well once I realized I needed some serious help I prayed hard. I prayed to know what to say, to love her and to do what Heavenly Father needed me too. Then the coolest thing happened. I felt overwhelming love for this woman and got the distinct prompting to "testify, listen and be bold!" So I testified. I acknowledged her feelings of hurt and related how our own Savior felt the same way and still forgave those who were so rude to him. I don't remember exactly what I said to her in the "bold" part but I do remember the gist of it telling her to get over the hurt, let Christ heal her and get back to Church. I felt prompted to ask if she still had a Book of Mormon. She remarked that she didn't. We ran back to our car, wrote our testimonies in it and gave it to her committing her to come to church.  So yeah I don't want to bore you too much but basically today was da bomb.
   Wonderful Wednesday: It was Sister Jacobson's b-day and our last district meeting of the transfer.  So it was a party all around! Our Zone Leaders Elders Hummer and Hatch came too and it was fun to see them! Oh man, it was so fun. Then ba da da daaaa: EXCHANGE POWER! We got to go back to my old area (P3) to do exchanges with our STLs - Sister Taunima and Sister Bartlett. They are killin’ it! I got to be with Taun again one last time and it was awesome. We got to have dinner with the RITZES!! Oh man I miss Chris and Mike so much. They seriously take such great care of us. They have been going through lots of trials.  And I mean LOTS but they are the perfect example of endurance and perseverance. So if you could keep the Ritzes in your thoughts and prayers it would be greatly appreciated. We also got to teach BOM class. It was really cool because we finished the book of Alma and I was there when we started it. So it was awesome to finish out with the good old P3 homies.
   Top it off Thursday: We finished out our exchanges by visiting good ol’ Char and by doing some service for Sister Eichenmiller!! Man it was just awesome to be back. Oh how I've missed it. We had a less-active member family take us out to dinner and then we went back and taught Frank again. It was SO AWESOME! We taught him the restoration and really focused on the need for prophets and the Book of Mormon and he loved it!  Stay tuned for more!
   Fabulous Friday: We went back and helped myrtle (Sister Collin’s sister that we tracted into) clean her house and carpets. It was great! Then we had our Relief Society activity on communication and it was surprisingly really awesome. We talked a lot about empathy and turning outward which was much needed.
   Sikole Saturday: Service is da bomb! I have really come to just love serving my fellow brethren and sisters. We went out to help the Sikoles put together their Halloween trail and put up corn stalks and clear weeds and stuff out and put little scraps of fabric in the mummy area. It seems like it's going to be so legit! They are expecting like 200+ people this year to come through. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger! Hopefully I'll still be here to see the finished product :)
   Sweet Sabbath: So Sunday rolls around and with some doubting Thomas' in the ward not thinking Sister Patterson was coming, we prayed harder… and she came.  It was awesome!! Who knows if she will come again or what is in store for her, but God. I am grateful we followed promptings and helped her out just a little bit at least. I also reflected all day just how grateful I am to live with as many freedoms that we do have.  I'm grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and Savior that made a plan all centered on our freedom of Choice. Freedom to accept the wonderful gift of the Atonement and the full Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I know this gospel is truly the way back home and that if we choose to follow our Savior and do all we can to live up to the promises we make in this life, we will be prepared to see him again and to live with them forever.  I love you all and hope you have a great week  J  

💗✌ Sister McD

 

Ponderize: Alma 26:30 "we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some."

Commitment: "Think of Jesus often!" ~ Elder Waddel

Month #13 - done and done! #missionnotes

Way to Go Month #13 Done and Done! 

Kimber mail 9-05-2016: "Follow Those Promptings"

   Hello everyone! Hope you're all enjoying life and finding the good in every day! And most importantly following the promptings that you get.  That sure was the theme for my week! I've found that it's so easy just to push aside a prompting because we feel like it is inconvenient or silly or out of our comfort zone. But, just as President Monson has said "never postpone a prompting!" I really love sister Jacobson. She is a pro at following inspiration and has taught me so much, especially this last week about doing so! It's a good thing the Lord gave me a great companion!! Here's a sneak peek into our crazy week of following promptings:

   Tuesday: Last week during weekly planning I had the thought to ask the Relief Society President, Sister Stansell, if she needed any help with anything this week.  I kind of started to push the thought away because we had just asked her a couple days before and she was good. But I set a goal this week to "follow inspiration courageously". So we called her and she told us she actually did need help with her weeds! Holla!  So we went over and helped her out and it was really cool to talk to her and listen to her life stories.

   Wednesday: Every Wednesday we go paint nails at a rest home and this time we were talking to one of the receptionist there, Kerri, who is super nice to us!  Well I talked to her before and she mentioned how she “used to be a member but wasn't active.”  So anyways we are talking to her and she goes: "Girls you called me a few days ago and it made my day to be remembered and to know the sisters have the same number that they had 10 years ago. You're still saved in my phone!!" She showed us and told us about all these experiences she was having recently running into the church: the call from us, old memories of when she first joined, and she even found her Book of Mormon on top of her fridge! She told us she wants to have us over for dinner sometime soon. J   We also were able to invite our investigator Emma in our lesson last week to come to Book of Mormon Class. Well we got the prompting to follow up once again with her this morning to see if she would come to class tonight and she said she had an awful day and had some good excuses for not coming but said she knew she needed to come and be uplifted.  So she came! It was awesome and she loved it!

   Thursday: Okay so remember the story about how we were out tracting a couple weeks ago and this man came out and talked to us and gave us Gatorade and paper towels ‘cuz we were sweating so bad! Well his name is Jerry and he's awesome.  We felt like we should call and follow up with him and ask if he needed help with anything.  He said he needed help playing with and weighing his puppies (he's a breeder.)  So, we went and helped him and it was  not only the best service ever but it also helped us build trust with him and see that we are normal people serving the Lord and helped to soften his heart.

   Friday: Weekly planning days are always so longgggg. Ugh! Ha, ha, but Sister Jacobson and I have worked on making them more inspired.  Just like Elder Perkins told us to make meetings (and I added planning to that) a "revelatory experience" we have tried to follow inspiration better. It's been amazing! After we say our long opening prayer we take a few minutes to write down any names of people that come to mind that we could reach out to specifically in the upcoming week. Sister Jacobson is super great at this! Last week she had thought of Kerri (see Wednesday highlight) and this week she had 3 less actives come to mind. So we called them up during planning and 2 of them answered and we set appointments with them!  See- isn't she just the best?! She definitely inspires me to be better!!

   Saturday: Okay let me just tell you more of Sister Jacobson's awesome example. So our plans fell through:/ joyssss.  But we decided to follow up with some people. Surprise they weren't home.  So we pray to know what to do.  I feel like we should try a referral we got a couple weeks ago that we hadn't been able to contact. So we do and turns out he just recently died from cancer. But we left a little note on the door reminding the wife that she's loved. Walking back to our car, Sister Jacobson goes "hey do you see that guy up there?" *points to guy washing car up this giant hill...* I respond that I saw him. She energetically says "Sweet! Let's go ask if we can help!" Panting as we got to the top of the hill she asks this man if we can help wash his truck. He laughs, kind of confused - probably because we just came out of nowhere and were in dresses- but tells us to knock ourselves out.  We drop our bags, grab sponges and get to work! His mouth drops open and he runs over grabbing the sponges from us exclaiming how he didn't think we'd actually do it. We told him what we do and had a great conversation about why we love to serve and about the savior. He invited us to come back again and even gave us a referral for the widow lady next door. We go knock her door and she lets us right in.  She tells us she's one of our members that’s in the long-term care at the hospital's sisters. She gave us a huge snack bag because she couldn't believe we were so far from our mothers and families! We had a great conversation with her too and the spirit was strong. She told us that her daughter is also a member of the church and is so impressed at how kind the members are. She agreed to let us come back next week and help her clean her carpets! 2 miracles right there under an hour just because Sister Jacobson followed a prompting!!

   Sunday: my last prompting for the week happened all through church. It was simple but powerful- just listen! As I listened, I realized the simple truth of "trust God and everything will work out in his time" repeated over and over again. It was just what I needed to hear!

   I am so grateful to have the gift of the Holy Ghost to constantly be with me to prompt me and guide me if I keep myself worthy.  I know that following promptings is not always the easiest thing or most comfortable. But like they told us way back when I was in the MTC (that sis Jacobson reminded me) "there's no growth in comfort zones and no comfort in growth zones". This week I want to invite you all to really follow those promptings and let the Lord help you stretch and grow!!

~ Sister McDonald

Ponderize: Acts 17:27 "that they should seek the Lord... he be not far from every one of us"

Committment: Stand Strong! ~ Sister Oscarson