April 1st Post and Pics from Sister Randall

This week has been pretty great! After the "snow storm" on Sunday we had a pretty good p-day. It was super relaxed and we pretty much just did laundry, grocery shopping, and letter writing. Then that night we taught a recent convert her first new member lessons. i guess technically she isn't a new member it's been 4 years but no one ever taught her so we get to. She is a 14 year old girl that I'm pretty sure joined because she was pressured by some of her (adult) friends. So we are working really hard to help her build a testimony of her own about the church and it's teachings.We've taught her the first lesson and visited with her a ton this past week to try and build that trusting relationship she needs. That night we were supposed to go and teach a fhe lesson to a less active family and eat dinner there but they all got sick and had to cancel. So we at with the senior sisters for dinner that night.

On Tuesday we went to eagleville and saw a member up there (when i say up there i mean UP there!) the country up there is super pretty and we must have made an impact on the less active we visited because she came to church yesterday. after eagleville we went to grant city where one of our new investigators live. His name is "E". I'm not sure about him yet he is looking for something but not willing to make the changes to better himself. We are planning on meeting with him again this week sometime to see if he has progressed any, but we'll see.  Before dinner we were able to visit a part member family and talk with the husband (the member) he was a great guy and really enjoyed us being there. For dinner we went to the "H" family. They are a great young family that has just become active again. It was so great to spend time with their family before the move to Utah this week.

Wednesday, we had zone conference! Zone conference next to general conference is the best! We spent the entire morning and afternoon learning how to better ourselves as missionaries. We got to hear from President Keyes, his assistants, and his counselors. Lately Sister Grange and I have had the impression that we needed to work more with the less actives in our branch to strengthen them before we add to it. But that's not really part of our calling.  Our motto pretty much sums up what we do. "In the Missouri Independence Mission we find, teach, baptize, confirm, and retain" Well at zone conference we watched a video from the quorum of the twelve that told us, now that there are so many missionaries in the field our calling has broadened. They want us to focus on reactivating members and help them become temple worthy member. Our motto now is "In the Missouri Independence Mission we find, teach, baptize, confirm, retain, and reactivate" It's so exciting!  Zone conference was absolutely amazing and i can't wait for another one. oh and i got to see all of my MTC sisters so that was super great too!

Thursday, we went to see "C" today and found out that her husband got a welding job in Utah so they are moving tomorrow :( I'm super sad to see her go but she is going to do so much better out there. We sat down with her for a while and talked to her about her BoM reading. Man is that girl dedicated! It's crazy how easily you call tell if someone is reading the book of Mormon or not. Her whole demeanor has changed for the better. She is doing so great. That night for dinner we were fed by a family that lives about 45 min away so they brought the food to the church so that was fun. But besides "C" it was all just trying to contact people to teach.

Friday, For our service (we are supposed to do 4 hours of planned service a week) we performed a Easter program at a care center here in Bethany. We performed a bunch of baptist hymns that we had only heard once the night before so it was interesting. But is was cool to sing with Sister Montierth since she had sung with Grandma Mahaffey in a trio some time ago. Regardless of how the program sounded they loved it, thankfully because it really wasn't that good. :) After the Care center we tracked down a few other members then went to this 89 year old women's house for dinner. She cooked us a FEAST. We had ham, potatoes, vegetables, the works. it was our Easter feast. We had a great time the rest of the night with her and some other branch members.

Saturday, Friday night I began to get a little sore throat, by Saturday morning i had a full blown cold. Not fun at all this dang weather can't make up it's mind on whether it wants to be cold or hot outside. Because missionary work is go go go all the time i stayed in with Sister Montierth and had a sick day so i could get better quick, and besides who wants a stranger in a skirt (a very uncommon thing here) with a cold coming into their house. That night i did go out because of the Young Women's broadcast. A couple of weeks ago we had told the young women's president we would come and bear our testimonies on personal progress. That all went really well, and we got a dinner out of it :) We went and saw "C" again and she was still doing great! She told us that her and "A" were going to come to church!

Sunday, a couple of weeks ago the first councilor here asked us to speak in church on Easter Sunday. Super intimidating. i really hate speaking in church but you can't say no as a missionary :). I was still feeling super sick so i basically shared a thought and bore my testimony, then Sister Grange took up the rest of the time. I'm so grateful for that because i was in no shape to talk for too long. After Church we went to a members home and had another Easter Feast. He had most of his extended family over and "C" and "A" as well so it was super great to see her. We were teaching the plan of salvation when Cherish asked if we were still going to go to Adam Ondi Ahman. We had talked about it earlier that week but she never said anything about it later so we had assumed we weren't going. But she wanted to go. So we called Sister Angle and off we went! it was so fun and special to be able to take her there before she leaves there really is a special kind of spirit and reverence you feel there and she could defiantly could feel it. I'm really going to miss her but she is moving to Richfield, Ut so when i get back i'll be able to visit with her.

How is everything going back home? It's nice to hear that the weather is finally warming up there, wish it would here we got snow again last night... but it seems to be warmer today. I'm eagerly anticipating getting mail from home soon. It takes me 8 days to get things here. Love you all dearly and can't wait to hear from you again.

-Sister Randall