MARCH 24, 2014
Letter to Mission
President:
Well, this week has been crazy! Zone conference was indeed a day of Pentacost. I have never received so much revelation for my area before. I think that's a combination of how awesome the conference was and also of my increased sense of responsibility for my area now that Sister Organista is gone. I got a lot of answers for a lot of my investigators. The next day (Sister VanWie's birthday) we got two surprise calls. One from Sister Peters, our training sister, telling us that due to scheduling difficulties, our exchange for next week had to be moved to that night! And also from Sister Crandall (she just was a Coordinating Sister, like an Assistant to the President, and she's travel training her last transfer of her mission), telling us that she would be with us from Saturday night until Tuesday afternoon! So we were a bit stressed, but it has really been the most de-stressing experience. I went to Chowchilla that night and for the first time in a long time just felt completely at peace. I wasn't stressing about our members, our lessons, finding the new investigators... because while I was in Chowchilla there was nothing I could do besides pray. It was the closest thing to a weekend I have experienced in my mission. Not that we didn't work hard in Chowchilla, because we really did work hard. It just was a lot more peaceful. It was really what I needed. Sister VanWie did really well leading the area while I was gone as well. She is just so great! Then we have had Sister Crandall with us for the past two days. Wow, she is so amazing! She really has built up my confidence since she has been here, she has really been nothing more than compliments for us and it just helped me realize that I am doing the right thing and that I shouldn't be so stressed about it all. Sister VanWie and I are a solid team, and I just need to trust in the Lord and do my best. Sister Crandall is also amazing at talking with everyone. Both Sister VanWie and I are learning a lot about that from her, and we are excited to put that into practice more. That's a weak spot for both of us as missionaries. So we are excited to make weak things become strong!
Just a cool story for you this week. I don't remember if I told you about our mystery man last week, so I will tell you from the beginning. Last week in weekly planning, Sister VanWie and I prayed to know how many people we were going to baptize this past Sunday. We separately distinctly felt that we were going to baptize a man. Well we had no men in our teaching pool. So we figured, he could be like Jose Luis, who we taught and prepared up to baptism and then he moved ready to baptize to a different ward. So we were determined to knock doors every where to find this man. We really focused on making time to find. Every door we went to we were extremely blunt and bold with because we were looking for a man that was prepared enough to recognize us as representatives of Jesus Christ and was ready to be baptized. Well, the moral of the story is, we didn't find him. But we did find about 4 other families and got return appointments with them for the coming week. From this we learned a few things. One was a chastisement. We hadn't been making time for Harvesting Blessings or finding because we were teaching so many people. We also had got into a "rhythm". Searching for the one who was prepared made us bold, direct, and powerful. So we are going to make every week's finding something like this past weeks. Searching for the one. We also learned that both of us are extremely ready to follow every prompting from the Spirit, even if it is crazy. We know that God knows from this that He only needs to give us the feeling and we will do everything we can to follow it. So this experience has changed us as missionaries. We can't wait to go out and find those prepared people!
Well, this week has been crazy! Zone conference was indeed a day of Pentacost. I have never received so much revelation for my area before. I think that's a combination of how awesome the conference was and also of my increased sense of responsibility for my area now that Sister Organista is gone. I got a lot of answers for a lot of my investigators. The next day (Sister VanWie's birthday) we got two surprise calls. One from Sister Peters, our training sister, telling us that due to scheduling difficulties, our exchange for next week had to be moved to that night! And also from Sister Crandall (she just was a Coordinating Sister, like an Assistant to the President, and she's travel training her last transfer of her mission), telling us that she would be with us from Saturday night until Tuesday afternoon! So we were a bit stressed, but it has really been the most de-stressing experience. I went to Chowchilla that night and for the first time in a long time just felt completely at peace. I wasn't stressing about our members, our lessons, finding the new investigators... because while I was in Chowchilla there was nothing I could do besides pray. It was the closest thing to a weekend I have experienced in my mission. Not that we didn't work hard in Chowchilla, because we really did work hard. It just was a lot more peaceful. It was really what I needed. Sister VanWie did really well leading the area while I was gone as well. She is just so great! Then we have had Sister Crandall with us for the past two days. Wow, she is so amazing! She really has built up my confidence since she has been here, she has really been nothing more than compliments for us and it just helped me realize that I am doing the right thing and that I shouldn't be so stressed about it all. Sister VanWie and I are a solid team, and I just need to trust in the Lord and do my best. Sister Crandall is also amazing at talking with everyone. Both Sister VanWie and I are learning a lot about that from her, and we are excited to put that into practice more. That's a weak spot for both of us as missionaries. So we are excited to make weak things become strong!
Just a cool story for you this week. I don't remember if I told you about our mystery man last week, so I will tell you from the beginning. Last week in weekly planning, Sister VanWie and I prayed to know how many people we were going to baptize this past Sunday. We separately distinctly felt that we were going to baptize a man. Well we had no men in our teaching pool. So we figured, he could be like Jose Luis, who we taught and prepared up to baptism and then he moved ready to baptize to a different ward. So we were determined to knock doors every where to find this man. We really focused on making time to find. Every door we went to we were extremely blunt and bold with because we were looking for a man that was prepared enough to recognize us as representatives of Jesus Christ and was ready to be baptized. Well, the moral of the story is, we didn't find him. But we did find about 4 other families and got return appointments with them for the coming week. From this we learned a few things. One was a chastisement. We hadn't been making time for Harvesting Blessings or finding because we were teaching so many people. We also had got into a "rhythm". Searching for the one who was prepared made us bold, direct, and powerful. So we are going to make every week's finding something like this past weeks. Searching for the one. We also learned that both of us are extremely ready to follow every prompting from the Spirit, even if it is crazy. We know that God knows from this that He only needs to give us the feeling and we will do everything we can to follow it. So this experience has changed us as missionaries. We can't wait to go out and find those prepared people!
Kelsie’s
letter to her mom:
Yup. So we had Zone
Conference last Thursday and literally it was like trying to drink from a fire
hydrant... it was exhausting. But so good. I felt really good and ready
afterwards. We also had FIO time (figure it out) with
our patriarchal blessings.... I got so much more from it than ever
before! It was just so good.
As far as the work in my
area. This has been the single most busy time in my mission. We taught 7
lessons our first day together, including 4 member presents. Then a few days
later we taught 6 in one day. Normal is 3, 4 is pretty good. It was ridiculous.
Member trust is through the roof. There was a ward activity while I was in
Chowchilla, and so many people panicked that I had left for good. A lot of
people came up to me Sunday and told me they had missed me and were really glad
I was still serving in Kerman. I love those people. Sister Molloy actually told
me I'm the reason why they started feeding missionaries again. (And by feeding
them again, I mean every Sunday night that is where we go, not just once in a
while on the calendar.) She told me she almost throat punched Elder Benites
Saturday when I was gone... haha! She said she panicked when she saw different
sisters without me and then went and asked Elder Benites "Where's Sister
Zollinger?! She's just on exchange right, she's coming back?" And he jokingly
said "Nope. She's gone." Haha, she almost killed him hahahaha...
yeah. Moral of the story I love my ward and they love me. We are currently
preparing for General Conference weekend. So excited!
Well, I love you! I miss
you a lot! Please send pictures of the basement, it sounds incredible!!!!
<3 Hermana Zollinger
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