Youngstown!

Hey Parents! How are you doing? I hope that you are safe and healthy and corona free:) Mom! How is Abby? Did she seem legit like she was doing better? I hope so! She seemed like she was doing a lot better when I talked with her on the phone so I hope that the treatment keeps on working. 

So, little did I know that last pday would be my last pday over in Gahanna. Usually, the transfer happens on a Thursday and we find out the board on Tuesday and then we have a Wednesday pday to do all of the things that we need to get done. This time around we just got a random email on Thursday night that said the transfer board would be out the next day at noon and that transfers would be on Saturday. Everyone was shook. On Friday we were looking at the board and when we saw that neither of our faces were in Gahanna we started flipping out. We scrolled all the way down to the bottom of the transfer board to see that we were both being transferred all the way up north to the Youngstown Zone. We have three states in our zone! Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. I am a Sister Training Leader (STL) over here in the Warren area! The good news is that Sister Mahan is also in the zone so I will still get to see her and I get to even go on training visits with her this transfer a few times. That was for sure a tender mercy. 

Obviously, I was sobbing about Gahanna getting shotgunned and all that stuff, but it would have been much worse if Sister Mahan wasn't anywhere around me and I wouldn't have been able to see her anymore. Seriously, she is one of my best friends. That is how I feel about pretty much all of my past companions, even the hard ones! They are just all my best friends! That is one reason why I like having new companions, it is just another person to learn from and grow from and become bffs with. It's always sad to have to get split though. Literally, it is always so bittersweet. 

My new companion is Sister Johnston. She actually knows Sister Rowberry (as in Joey's cousin that serves with me at Temple Square) from the MTC! They were in the same zone, isn't that such a small world? So we have been out for the exact same amount of time which is pretty cool. She has been serving in the Youngstown Zone for her entire mission. Seriously parents. For all of it. So she knows this area and the stake and everything super well which is kinda crazy. It's so weird to me that she has been out for so long and has only been in this one place, kinda crazy. She is like the ultimate Preach My Gospel missionary. She knows her stuff you guys. It is so cool because every night we say something that we learned from one another and we say a tender mercy and she said to me that I was a Preach My Gospel missionary and a powerful teacher and she was excited to learn from me and I was like SISTER JOHNSTON HAVE YOU EVEN MET YOURSELF?!?! She is really cute. And she is from St. George Utah! Now I have someone that I can visit and we can go to national parks together which is super fun! 

The last few days in Gahanna were good. The only thing that I can really remember is that we taught Nancy and she is super solid for her baptism. She still texts us good morning and good night, I really hope that she will just keep progressing with the new sisters. When we told her that we were both leaving and that two new sisters were coming in she started crying. Isn't that so tender?! We told these two guys that we were teaching and they were so mad because they just wanted to learn about Jesus from us but we told them that no worries because the new sisters shared the same message and they were just like "well then why can't you just tell us it if it is the same message". One of them then proceeded to ask me if I could date. Kinda funny. We told Latisha. Oh my beautiful Latisha. I love that woman and I am going to miss her so flipping much but I know that God has got her and that she will get baptized one day. I know that she will for sure. We told all of the favorite members, we told all of the rest of the people that we are teaching and all of our friends, and it was basically just a sob fest. I cried saying goodbye to like every single one of them. Oh, how I am going to miss Gahanna. It is such a blessed area and I LOVE all of the experiences and memories and people that I got to meet. 

I was really hardcore struggling because I just felt like we must have done something wrong because we were getting doubled out, but I got a blessing and I felt a lot better after that. In the blessing, it said that Heavenly Father was proud of the work that I had done so far and that He had more work for me to do in other areas here in Ohio and that He needed me to keep serving. That was good to hear because I was fine with not going back to Temple Square if I could stay in Gahanna, but once I got the news that I wasn't I was like oh my goodness get me back to the Square right now. It was good to hear that He needs me in Ohio and that He was proud of the work that I had done so far. I hope that I can keep making Him proud. We have been doing some good stuff in the one day that I have been in Warren. And keep in mind that this includes having some of the sisters in our zone come over because of a death in the family of one of them and President Stratford told them to come and stay with us. Oh the life of being a STL. I don't think that I am very good at loving others. I just feel awkward and like I don't know what I am doing so yeah. Pray that I can do better at that. 

This past week while still being in Gahanna, we had the Book of Mormon challenge and we were supposed to read the entire thing in 24 hours. You guys, we went HARD on that challenge. We read and read and read and read to each other and listened and we finished it on Friday morning. Considering we didn't read for ten hours, we actually got in done in like 15-18ish hours so that was pretty good. Every single other person I talked to didn't really do it and are still working on finishing it. I am so grateful that we were able to blaze through it so fast because I was able to see the central themes all throughout it that I would have missed if I didn't read it so fast. Also, it was just so peaceful to read it and to listen to it. My entire day I could feel peace and calm. The next day, after we had finished it, we were listening to Ed Sheeran and the only thing that I could think was that I wished we were listening to the Book of Mormon because the feeling I had listening to the Book of Mormon was so much better. Isn't that so crazy?!?!?! Jesus really does change our hearts and our minds. Also, for part of the challenge, we went on a four-mile walk at this park and we listened to the Book of Mormon as we walked in our skirts and dresses. Also, we bought energy drinks (why you may ask? because we were bored and we wanted to see if they would actually make us wired. They did and we were up all night by the way) and that was quite the experience and it was good that we were walking when we started drinking them because we were just walking fast and listening and just everything was great. 

Basically, this week has been super crazy. From moving three people out of the apartment to updating and setting everything up for the new sisters so they can have success when they got to Gahanna to cleaning the entire apartment so the new sisters would have a clean spot for everything to saying goodbye to everyone we were teaching and all of the members and my beautiful dear sweet Sister Mahan, it has just been a little tough. But, I am still a missionary and I am still doing missionary things but now I get to learn from a new companion and I get to be a leader and hopefully help other sisters and I get to meet all new awesome people to teach so that is a tender mercy for sure. Life is just going on. I hope corona blows over soon so we can go out and proselyte. We are betting that we will be out and about by April 14th. What do you think? 

I love you both! Thanks for being so supportive, I'll talk to you soon:) 

Love 

Em 

Self Isolation in Ohio

Hello there parents. Honestly, this email is probably going to be a little bit shorter because there isn't as much variety going on in my day to day life as there has been before. Why you may ask? Oh, because we have been in self isolation. I'll say it a little louder for the people in the back WE ARE IN SELF ISOLATION AND ARE NOT ALLOWED TO LEAVE OUR APARTMENTS NEARLY AT ALL. I know. Life is crazy around here and I feel like it could potentially just get crazier because now apparently the entire state of Ohio is in a don't leave your house stage of life and our self isolation was only supposed to go for two weeks, but now that this thing came out who knows how long we could be stuck like this. 

Anyway, Tuesday was business as usual and we were getting ready and we actually had a super awesome day planned when all of a sudden we get this email from President saying "all missionaries are now under voluntary self isolation and should not go out and proselyte". So awkward. Sister Mahan was freaking out a little. She had a tiny panic attack and was talking about how this was her first transfer and they were in quarantine and she just didn't want this to be happening and how are we supposed to work? I literally just sat there and I smiled at her and I said, "I'm not bragging or anything, but you have the perfect trainer for this moment." She was like "uh, how" and I told her that at Temple Square we teach online and that now we would just call all our lessons and it would be the same as in person, just over the phone. I told her that we could be more effective with our time and instead of driving out to appointments for them to not be home, we can just call from here and not waste the time and the miles. She calmed down a little bit after that. Our first day of self isolation went super awesome. We had a bunch of lessons and we even but someone on date for baptism!!

Wednesday we had district council over Facebook chat and that was kinda weird because we weren't all there in person and because every time you would ask a question everyone would just be silent because they were on mute and yeah. Just so awkward and kinda funny. The downside of proselyting online is that if your appointment cancels you can't just be like oh that is okay we are in this area for a reason, let's just knock and do some finding. Nope. If your appointment cancels online, then you have a full hour and nothing much to do to fill it. We have been calling members in our spare time and sharing scriptures and going through all of the inactive "stopped teaching" records in our area book though and calling all of them to fill in some of the gaps. I will say, even with all of that to do, we do have free time. So, we have done various activities such as watching corny church movies, learning how to paint, drawing, having Taylor Swift dance parties (that is mostly just me and my companions watch), getting really pretty for no reason, baking (that one is dangerous), building a robot out of all of our recycled stuff (that one was also just me), learning how to do handstands, making parodies of songs, and so much more. We are almost a week into the isolation so I am excited to see what we come up with the more and more bored we get. 

On Thursday we had a zone call with President Stratford and the Assistants to follow up on what we had learned during Zone Conference. We ended up not talking about Zone Conference at all and just talking corona and different things to do with that. Basically, President said "some of you are looking at this like it is a vacation, it is not. There are still a lot of things to do. If you are not working, repent and get to work". Big roast right there to most of the missionaries in our district. We share the ward with the Zone Leaders and we have heard them and they have told us that they are not really doing much all day because they think there isn't anything to do, which is FALSE. There is so much to do!! I literally told one of my Zone Leaders to stop being lazy and to call some people and he just shrugged his shoulders. Oh well. I guess boys will be boys. Also, just a side note, there are people going home left and right here in the mission and that seems wild to me. Seriously, people are going home everywhere. I haven't heard of any sisters going home early though so I think mostly this whole "some missionaries will get released from their service early" just applies to the dudes because they serve for longer anyways. 

Okay, I don't even what even happened on Friday and Saturday because everything is blurring together, but one of those days we had 9 mmv (member missionary visits) in just one hour! Yay for online work, am I right? It's SO effective. Honestly, for all these missionaries that are saying that it doesn't work and it isn't the same, don't knock it until you try it. We have been having more success and have been seeing more progression in our people since we have been in self isolation than before. We have put two people on date for baptism this week via technology and one of them is super solid!!! Her name is Nancy. We knocked into her a few days before the isolation thing came out and she was just a normal door honestly. We shared a scripture with her and she was totally open for us coming back. We called her instead and we taught her the restoration over speakerphone and she literally said that she believed that Joseph Smith was a prophet and kept her commitment to download the Book of Mormon and start reading it. She said that she felt bad because she wasn't understanding what she was reading on her own but then she proceeded to tell us the whole story of Nephi and it all made sense and she even had some of the names down so we were like, uh Nancy, you totally got it. We video chatted her for our second lesson after adding her on Facebook and she is so cool!!! We taught her the plan of salvation and we taught her about baptism. She didn't seem too sure about it at first but she did tell us that she had been thinking that maybe she should be baptized again because her first baptism was a long time ago. We talked about priesthood authority again and we talked about getting the gift of the Holy Ghost after she was baptized and we asked her to get dunked on April 18th to which she replied "that is my birthday!" and we were like "NANCY THAT IS A SIGN ARE YOU KIDDING ME" and she was like "yeah, I will get baptized then" and we were like yasssssssss. She is super prepared. And boom. All done over the phone. Don't knock it until you try it. 

Yesterday, we had four people attend church digitally and everyone loved it. One of the people that came was Crystal who we have been teaching for fiveever and has never been able to make it to church but was able to this time around because it was virtual. Nancy came with her daughter Olivia and that was awesome. I think potentially Olivia could get baptized too, we just need to establish more of a teaching relationship with her. Also, Cynthia Poole was there (it was at Brother Poole's house). We got to take the sacrament when we were there and I seriously almost cried when they were blessing the water and man I just really needed the sacrament. It was super quick but I loved how I could feel the spirit even though it was fast. I love Jesus. Man. 

Basically, this week has been good and full of some dope miracles. I'm grateful to be a missionary!!! Also, I will be in Ohio for at least one more transfer because of corona so that means when I go back to the square (or if I go back) I will only have one transfer left when I get there which is not what I like. I would rather just finish my mission here than just to go back for one transfer, but I guess I just need to go do what God wants me to do. I feel like I probably will go back to be honest, so I should really prepare myself for that. Kinda funny how conflicted I feel about everything right now. I'm just going to try to not think about it and trust in the Lord and know that wherever I serve is where God wants me to be. Also, if I go back to the Square, all of my friends will be gone and that is that. 

Okay parents, I love you and I miss you and I will talk to you soon!!!! 

Love 

Em 

Another Pday, Another Email

Hellllooo Parents! It is me again. Another pday another email. Let me give you a rundown of our super eventful week. 

Monday: pday. We went bowling with the Elders in our district. Us Sisters had a lane and then the Elders shared two lanes. I got 101 one game and then 109 the other which means I won two of the three games that we played. I know, I'm a legend. We then went to Family Home Evening at our ward mission leader's home and we played frisbee with a bunch of youth in the ward. Overall a really good day besides my small emotional breakdown that I had. My period started the next day so that explains a little bit why I was freaking so much. 

Tuesday: We had interviews with President Stratford. I literally love that guy so much. My interview was close to 20 minutes and we talked about a bunch of stuff. We talked about my cute little comp SISTER MAHAN. Have I mentioned that I love her? President told me that our companionship was made in heaven and that it was crazy how many strings Heavenly Father had to pull to get us in the same mission at the perfect time. I agree. Kinda crazy to think that I had to come here at this time (so late in the mission to go outbound) just so I could be companions with Sister Mahan. I'm grateful that He made it happen though! When Sister Mahan had her interview, President talked about me and told her that I was an "angel" and that Sister Mahan had nothing to worry about because she had Jesus on one arm and Sister Moran on the other. ISN'T THAT SO TENDER?!?!! Man, I just love President Stratford. We talked about the fam bam and about the things that I had learned in Ohio and about the Square and about (you guessed it) super quick at the end Elder Thomason. Ew. Basically, he told me that I was innocent and anyone could see that. He told me that both of us (Elder Thomason and I) had very bright personalities and have fun together but he knew there was nothing going on. He told me that he had talked to him and he said the same thing. He told me that this whole situation had come up because of jealousy on the part of others (there is a Spanish speaking sister that has been making me feel quite bad and I'm pretty sure he meant her). He told me that I was pure (that is when I started to cry) and that I didn't need to change a thing about myself. Those two things are what I needed to hear at that moment. I had been feeling so bad and I was feeling like I couldn't be myself anymore because I would just get in trouble for it so I am grateful that President could discern what was actually going on and could comfort me about it. 

After interviews, every single one of our appointments fell through. This has been a pretty normal thing as of late. We have been finding a lot of new people (we found literally 20 last week) but nobody really progresses and we just have to drop them really fast which is sad. We have set goals to have better retention with the new people we find and to spend less time finding and more time working with the seemingly endless people that we have already found. That night, we went with Adrina (recent convert from last transfer) to a Relief Society birthday party. It was fun and it was good that we could go because otherwise, we would be tracting all night long haha. Adrina had a good time which was an answer to prayers because she had told us on Sunday that she didn't want to go to church anymore. The member that drove us all texted her and told her that she would drive her to church on Sunday and Adrina said yes so that was a huge miracle!!! I swear, that woman requires so much love and care to keep her going. Hopefully, the members don't get too fed up with how much they have to put out. 

Wednesday: This day I remember because it was pretty rainy and we went on a bike ride. The Elders had sent us a referral a few weeks before and we hadn't been able to go out yet because the busses didn't go there, so we just decided to bite the bullet and bike there in the rain. It was only a little scary. We made it there and talked to a bunch of people on the way there and back and even found some cool new ones! When we got to the referral's house the door was open (a very promising sign) and we talked to her sister. The referred lady wasn't there, but the sister said that we could come back later that week so we set a day a few days later. When we texted to confirm our appt, she said that her son's girlfriend's grandpa had the coronavirus and the girlfriend was staying with them and that they were in quarantine so we couldn't come over. DUDES I WAS SHOOK. This pesky coronavirus is really messing with my brain right about now. More on that later. But yeah! That afternoon we actually bussed an hour to the church to get the car. I repeat, we got the car. I feel like Nephi, the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those that do keep the commandments. The grass is always greener though because now I see busses everywhere we go and I am always bummed that we can't be on the bus. But life is good and having a car makes things a lot more convenient. We then DROVE to some appointments that we had set up from people we found last week and all but one either were not home or told us that they were not interested when we got there. Bummer. The good news is that the guy we taught the restoration to last week was home and we could give him a Book of Mormon. Bad news: the lady Emerald that was supposed to be there for another lesson and to be our third female was not there so we couldn't go in and teach him, we just bore a quick testimony and then went on our way. Still, cool though. 

Thursday: Today was a day where a lot of our lessons actually did go through. We started off the morning by going to this lady's house that we have been teaching for a long time. She switches between not trusting us and thinking that we're a cult and loving us to death. We showed up and she wasn't answering her door so we called and she was like "oh I am so sorry I am at the store with my mom blah blah" and were like yeah no worries we will come back another day. So, we had an hour to kill and we had already driven all the way out there so we decided that there must be a reason that we were in that area so we knocked on some doors and we found two awesome people!! One is this guy that lives in Reynoldsburg (out of area:() but he was still cool to talk to. At first, he wasn't interested at all but then the longer we talked to him, the more excited he seemed about us talking to him and we shared a verse from the Book of Mormon and we were like would you like a free copy and he said sure and at first he was hesitant to give his address so we chatted some more and we were like "dude, you are so cool, can some of our friends come and visit you sometime?" and he was like "oh yeah for sure here's my address" Parents. I was dead. His name was Richard. We sent the referral to the Reynoldsburg elders and they told us that he had given us a fake number... but they still stopped by and they met him and apparently he is SUPER COOL. Miracles. We also met this other lady who we shared a scripture with about Jesus and His Atonement and she dug it a lot. She told us that there had been a time in her life where she didn't believe in God or depend on HIm but now she had started to and she could see the difference. And now she is going to see even more of a difference! It was pretty cool because we texted her a few days later and she actually responded (that doesn't happen often). Then, we talked to this lady whose dog was named Zion and she had written on her wall that "God is Love" and when we knocked and told her we were missionaries and asked if she had a belief in Jesus Christ she was like "oh I don't" and were just like "como?" She literally could just tell us she didn't want to learn about our church but she was like Peter and she denied God and Jesus Christ. Kinda funny how people are that way. Then, we were walking back to our car and we saw Crystal! The person that we are teaching! She was with her mom unloading groceries so we helped out, said hi to her mom, and then had a lesson with Crystal about the word of wisdom. She is trying to stop smoking. We then set up a time for the Elders to come and give her a blessing to help with that. We then went home and then biked four miles to this lady named Cassandra. The Elders had also referred her to us and she is straight up crazy. We went over and taught her the restoration a few weeks back and she was talking about how her house was possessed and there were spirits that were trying to kill her. We told her that we would come back with the Elders to dedicate her home and get the spirits out. When we came back this past time, I am 99 percent sure that she had been snorting something right before we came. She was holding a knife with white powder on it and she had white powder under her nose and on her cheek and chest. I was highly suspicious. She lives in quite the rough neighborhood. Like for reals rough. The Elders were really concerned for us after the fact because we were biking in this rough place but we were okay don't worry. Anyways, Cassandra was telling us all about how the spirit that bothers her is named Fred and how he was sitting right next to her on the couch and even though she was serious it was hard not to laugh because the whole situation was just comical. You should have seen us, we were trying so hard to stay serious. One of the Elders dedicated the home and in the middle of the prayer, we heard this crash in the kitchen but nothing had fallen and dude I  just KNOW that it was Fred leaving this creepy house. It was soooo crazy. After that, she got a blessing of healing because she has various health problems. I love the priesthood. Seriously. My love for it has just grown so much. I feel like I say that every week but there you go again. We are going back to see this crazy lady a few more times just to give her a chance. ugh. Also, she has been taught by missionaries before, she requested a bible online and that is how she was introduced to the church. I was dying to hear about that because of course, she was a Bible request. I can't tell you how many weird people I have met over the phone and now I got to go and see one in person. Kinda hilarious. We biked home where a member picked us up and we went to a lesson in the exact same neighborhood with this dude that we have been teaching for a hot second. His name is Jordan. He is so cool! He is super pessimistic and he had some bad experiences with religion in the past and now is just trying to get to know God again. We have been working with him a lot on the basics. We went over prayer and the restoration last time and this time we just read the Book of Mormon with him because he won't read it by himself. It was cool to see and to read together how much good stuff there is in 1 Nephi 2!!! You can literally apply the Book of Mormon to anyone and everything that chapter said was perfect for him. I love the Book of Mormon. That night we went to the church and we played some basketball. We invited a bunch of our friends... and none came. Bummer. But our whole district invited people and so there were a bunch of nonmembers there. There were mostly just straight ballers. Like for reals, these guys were all huge and good at basketball. We rotated with the other set of sisters and we played some games and the first game I was trash but the second I actually got some rebounds and I dribbled the ball a bunch and people on my team that were good were passing to me and I passed to them and I even made a basket. An elder that was on the sidelines that round told me that I was really fast which made me feel good! It was a fun activity. An Elder told us later in the week that all the guys (the huge nonmembers) all loved that the sisters were there and that we played... if you know what I mean. Boys are gross. Side note: we have had a lot of dudes hit on us and check us out quite obviously this week and it is really disturbing. The most blatant one was when we were biking and there was a guy going the opposite way on the sidewalk and we smiled and said "hi" as we were getting close to him and he leaned in close to us each individually as we biked past and smiled so creepy and winked at us and man that one really rubbed me the wrong way. The funniest check out was when we were waiting at the bus stop and there was an ambulance going by with lights and sirens and everyone stopped and they went past and literally as they passed the stop the driver and the passenger both looked at us and they drove by and gave us an up and down and were smiling and were just like "really??". Man, there are so many I could tell you that are crazy and funny but for dad's sake, I am going to stop there;) 

Friday: This was the chillest day so far of the transfer. A member wanted us to come and help her make paper flowers for a choir concert that she had coming up so we did that and then we had weekly planning and got organized and then in the evening we visited some members way out in the boonies. One was the Relief Society President and the other was this super inactive family. We were able to talk with them about the Book of Mormon and everything. The wife (who doesn't hardly go to church) mentioned that the missionaries had always knocked on their door when they always needed it most and that tonight was no different. They have a daughter that had a lot of things going on and they think that us Sisters could help her out. So, we are going to be going over there and helping more! We are pumped and that was a miracle for sure. The exciting thing about today was that we had a mission wide phone call where I found out that they had closed Temple Square and now I'm concerned that they are going to send me back to a mission that is closed and that would trigger me to no end. Coronavirus you are truly killing me. 

Saturday: Today was also super chill. There was a service project in the morning so we went and collected bags of food to give to a local food pantry. We then came home and did studies and then we all realized that mentally we were struggling. So, we all hyped eachother up and went out and did some work! We got Crystal her blessing and she was acting sooooo funny. She was talking about how she didn't want to turn into a werewolf or a vampire and how the virus was out to get her and all that good stuff and the Elders were like "what is this chick on" and were just dying. After the blessing and the Elders left, Crystal asked us what was so funny and we told her that she was acting wild and she just smiled and said that she knew. Man, we just died. We visited some members that day too and Adrina the recent convert and it was a pretty chill and fun evening. 

Sunday: After doing personal study and everything like that, we drove to our ward mission leader's house to do a lesson with his sister and to a little church! The Elders came too and we talked with Cynthia about the Book of Mormon and we all ate and then we did a Come, Follow Me discussion. We then went around to this SUPER inactive lady and her nonmember family and chatted with them and told them about Come, Follow Me and how the prophet is always right about food storage and having a home centered church. We visited this super cute family with crazy little kids and shared a message with them and then we went to this lady from Haiti's house. She had been living with members for a few months and has been coming to church for forever but lately hasn't. We had tried in the past to have a teaching relationship with her but it has been difficult. We finally got over a few weeks ago and taught the restoration and gave her a French Book of Mormon and we went over today and got halfway through the plan of salvation. She had just moved into her own place and she and her son have basically nothing in terms of material items but she was so generous! She made a cake for us and gave us ice cream, even though she has nothing. It was so beautiful. She really likes the Plan of Salvation, especially when we talked about how Jesus Christ knows what she going through and can help her. 

Honestly this week was good! I am stressing big time about the Square and if they are going to send me back to that place. I am also stressing if they keep me here and I never go back to the Square. Basically, I am one big anxious ball of energy and I  need someone to talk me down and just tell me what the future is going to look like because it is wigging me out. (Emily was informed later that day that she'll be staying in Ohio for the time being and her flight back to Salt Lake has been canceled. She's also been told to stay in her apartment except for daily exercise for next two weeks and has been instructed to avoid personal interactions with other people and teach through phone calls or other technology. I ordered her and her companions Papa John's to soften the blow.) 

I love you both and I'll talk to you soon!!! 

Love 

Em 

Ridiculous Fast

Hey there Parents! 

This week seriously passed so ridiculous fast it is ridiculous. 

Lemme start off with some drama that was going on in the district. Last transfer, this Elder told my companion that he had a crush on me and made her swear not to tell but of course she told me sooooo I knew but he is LITERALLY an 18-year-old boy so I don't care. Don't get me wrong I like him and we are friends but ya know not like that. Plus, I am not here to flirt ya feel? So, it wasn't a big deal. Then, this transfer, it was still not a big deal. New companion and everyone was aware, but no biggie. This past week though, it just seemed like it all blew up. Everybody knew and everyone was talking all about it and the Sister Training Leaders (and one of them is Sister Reese, my companion from last transfer) were like freaking out about it and telling President and I was like "wait, what?" And I am right at the center of it. I feel terrible and honestly, I feel like a ho. I know that I haven't done anything wrong but I still feel bad. We have interviews with President this week and I am wigging out because I don't want him to think that this is me because this isn't, but I don't want this Elder to get in trouble either because he's a good kid and he doesn't deserve all of that. So, it's super messy. Pray for me please. 

This week we have been super duper busy. I feel like I blinked and now we are done. We found not one, not two, but TWENTY new people everybody. #buslifebaby. We met some standouts! There was this one kid that we found on Saturday and he was like "oh I think that I have been to your church before" and we were like "oh do you want to come again?" and he said "sure!" He is sixteen years old. We will refer to him as Malan. That was Saturday afternoon. Obviously, we had faith that he would show up but we didn't really think that he would. We texted him and he was like "hey I am running late but I am coming" and we were shooketh. He showed up right around 9:33 and caught the tail end of Sacrament meeting and he went to priests quorum and he had a great time! WHAT A CRAZY HECKIN MIRACLE!!!! We met this guy a few days ago named Deuteronomy and he was cool. He wanted to go to church but he actually had to work. BUT he has been texting us back. He for sure is flirting with us and asked us if we were single and we explained that yeah but nah and he said "but God said that we are supposed to leave and get married" and we were like "yeah of course but not right now for us" but we told him that we had single ladies at church and he had to come and see and meet them. What a funny guy. 

Wednesday we had like just a giant miracle day. We were in a trio with good old Sister Reese and we were going around. We had found seven new people the previous week and had set up seven return appointments. Literally, every single one of them fell through. LIKE ARE YOU FOR CEREAL?!  It was worse too because we were on training visits so we were trying to have way more to do to be super-duper productive and now all of our plans fell through. I felt pretty crappy I won't lie to you. I wanted it to be a really good day and it was looking like it wouldn't be too good. BUT it ended up being one giant miracle after the other. We were in this neighborhood and we started knocking and after we knocked on this one door (new person found) and this lady pulled over in her minivan with her window rolled down. She was giving us this intense look and we were like "hey!" and waved and everything and she didn't respond. So naturally, we said hi again and then she just yells out "well hello sisters" and then we ran over to talk with her at her car window. She is so cool. Her name is Emerald and basically, she had met with missionaries before and she even knows our ward mission leader which was wild. She gave us two referrals for people that lived on that street and was like "yup they need Jesus" and basically she just loves the sisters. We went to one of the referrals and she was there and she invited us in to teach them. She was trying to be tricky like she didn't know who we were and was like "oh Jesus people come on in share a message" and she was winking at us and I was so dead. We shared the restoration with them. When it got time to share the first vision she was messing around with this rubber glove she had on but then as soon as I said "I saw a pillar of light" she stopped and it was SO COOL. We set up a return appt. for both of them and it was just this giant miracle basically. All in all, we found seven new people in that area. The exact same number as appointments that we had missed. 

When we got home, we had one more hour so we went back out there into our apartment complex and we met this guy named Wes. When we asked him if he had a belief in God he was like "kinda, it's 50/50 right now" and we were like oh why and he told us that it is because his 19-year-old cousin died. He asked us "what does God need with a 19-year-old boy". We took a second and then we just bore testimony of the plan of salvation. We talked about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the Spirit World and the resurrection and the spirit was STRONG. In the end, we said that we wanted to talk with him more and he was excited about that. Such a cool guy! Right after that, we knocked on one more door and we ran into this Hindu couple. She invited us in and we taught them all about who Jesus Christ was and His Atonement and our purpose here on earth. Parents. They loved every single thing that we said. The husband was more on edge and not super about it but he still liked it, but the wife was just so cool and loved it. She told us that she had questions about her purpose and this helped her. At the end, we offered a kneeling prayer with them all together. We asked them how they felt after the prayer and the husband said that he felt good. We told them that it was the spirit and as they pray for themselves that they could still feel that way! It was AMAZING. Basically, Wednesday started off rough and I was feeling down because all of our plans got trashed, but God had a much better plan in store for us and He just wanted us to exercise a little bit of faith and patience and then He just blessed us beyond belief. 

Tuesday (backtracking lol) we had zone conference. My last zone conference in the Great OCM! Not gonna lie that was kind of sad to think about but whatever. We focused a lot on becoming master teachers. They had this giant roleplay in front of everybody and they called on like seven companionships to do it and you guessed it Sister Mahan and I were called on. Go figure. BUT they ran out of time so we didn't have to go which was awesome because I was nervous and sister Mahan was FREAKING out. I guess it is her first transfer and doing a roleplay in front of everybody at zone conference wouldn't be the most fun thing for her. We also talked a lot about the morning routine and how we need to get up on time and exercise and do what we are supposed to do in the morning. President invited us to repent if we weren't doing the morning routine well and said that us not following it was, in turn, allowing the devil to lead our souls to hell. Wild. I do the morning routine and I do what I know I am supposed to do during the day so I didn't feel bad at all during that part. Sister Richardson, our Nepali trio sis, did feel burned and was like "dang". But has she changed? Nope, not really. Kinda funny how humans are like that. Sister Mahan and I talked about it and we are going to have an intervention because she won't change by herself. We will let you know how that goes next week. 

Another big theme was having a fat pature. (Any guesses on what she meant to type here? I'm totally stumped) He wanted us to dive really into our studies and prepare ourselves and everything like that and it was funny to talk all about it and see President get so passionate and goofy. At the end of zone conference, President pulled a fast one on me and made me give a departing testimony because I going to be leaving the mission... even though I still have some mission left. It was kind of sweet that he let me do that honestly. I appreciated feeling like I was loved and that I would be missed and that they actually saw me as part of the mission. My testimony was good and just like that, I'm out! I got my travel plans earlier this week and they had me email my testimony to put in the big mission newsletter and they want me to send pictures for it too. I feel very loved here and I am grateful that even though it was for two transfers, they are treating me as one of their own! They are going to miss me! That is wild to me. President Stratford said that he was going to email President Fisher and tell him to let us stay. I told him to do it! I love it out here! Also, I love Sister Mahan. I don't want her to get a second trainer, I think that is stupid. I want to be her only trainer. I know that is super prideful and selfish because she is cool and she should share the love but I am already super jealous of her next companion. Ugh. This is a problem. And, it's super lame because I won't be able to see her again. It isn't like I won't see her around NO I am changing missions. Even if she served on the Square I could come and visit but I don't think that I will be visiting Ohio for a hot second so it is just kinda dumb. Whatever. I guess if God wills it then it is fine. 

Do you all remember the lady from the bus that we put on date that lives super far away? Good, me too. We set up a time to do a pass off lesson with the Marble Cliffs sisters. We bussed into her neighborhood and literally she wasn't home. It was so weird because usually she is home and she texts back and everything and she was solid yesterday for this time today but she didn't come to the door. Sister Mahan and I were actually pretty worried about her. So, we traveled three hours total to go see someone that wasn't even home. She texted us the next day and apologized and everything which was nice and said that she had some family things going on. But, the sisters in her area texted us and told us that she came to church this past Sunday!!! So yay! We are hoping that she stays solid for her date on the 21st and that we can go because we would just love to see her get baptized. 

Saturday was just a super lit day. We had a service project in the morning and then we had a lesson at 12. We took the bus there and on the way we found this little Spanish pocket in our area. There was this food truck and it looked really sketch but also really good so naturally, we said that we would be back after our lesson. The lady that we were supposed to meet with was in the bath so she texted us and asked us to reschedule. We did some knocking in her complex and found a couple new people but it was kinda dead. We walked back to the bus stop and went to this food truck and it was SO COOL AND SO GOOD. Everyone was speaking in Spanish. It was legit. We told the Spanish sisters about it because they have seriously zero people that they are teaching and they seemed excited about this new place that they could go and find. Speaking of the Spanish sisters, we are good friends with them! So, we decided that we should get together and do a fun finding activity. We made hot chocolate and bought a bunch of doughnuts and we set out some Books of Mormon and pamphlets and things and we went to downtown Gahanna in this nice little square and we gave out free doughnuts and hot chocolate. We were able to have some good conversations, find two new people, and give someone a Book of Mormon and he was SO EXCITED to get it you should have seen his face. It was a good couple of hours spent. We didn't see a single Spanish person which was kind of a bummer but they didn't seem to mind the change of pace. The pretty much just tract all day every day. And tracting is fun! I love tracting! But I can imagine how they feel when they go every day and don't meet a single Spanish person and just no one opens up for them, it's killer. 

Sunday we had a big miracle with Malan coming to church. We were also asked by the bishop a few weeks back to come to ward council and to tell the ward council about what was going on with missionary work. That is actually a really big deal. Missionaries before have tried to go to ward council and asked if they could share some things but literally, Bishop has said no and just to tell the ward mission leader and that the ward mission leader could pass it on. So, this was kind of huge that we were invited to go. We talked about what our main priorities were and we talked about how members were helping and when we visited members what our focus what and we were teaching them. We showed them where the ward progress record was so they could see the most progressing people that we were teaching and the members that we had visited. They had no idea where it was or what it was before and we have been filling it out for two months... what a waste. But now they know! We told the Elders later on that Sunday that we had gone and we were invited and they were like "what?! Why didn't they invite us" and we were like "well we don't know" and they said "wow it just goes to show that they really do like the Sisters better" and we were like nah but actually, this ward really does like the Sisters more which is kinda funny. I feel like all growing up we (and by we I mean dad;) never super loved the Sisters and liked the Elders more (but still didn't like them too much either lol) so it is funny to see the other side of it and hear how the Elders think everyone likes us more...which they kinda do around here. 

Well, I think that is all I have for you. This week was wicked fast so hopefully this next one is slower so that way I don't feel so flustered writing an email and like I don't actually remember anything that is going on. I want to know what is going on in your lives too! I know about mom but I don't know about dad. That's right dad. I would like for you to email me at least once, please?? Anyways. I LOVE YOU BOTH AND MISS YOU SO MUCH!!! Have an awesome week and I'll talk to you soon:) 

Love 

Em 

A Wild Week in Gahanna

Hey Parents! Every week is a wild week here in Gahanna. 

So. Tuesday. We started off by bussing to some members and we ended up getting there about an hour late. Classic Sister Moran and Sister Mahan. We really determined that we just need to go waaayyy earlier to get there on the bus and we are still learning that haha. BUT while we were on the bus we met this super cool lady named Tonya! She was super about our message and she told us that she only lived right down the road so we were so pumped! Afterward, Sister Mahan was like "I think we should invite her to get baptized when we go see her on Saturday" and I was like "okay yeah for sure why not". More on that later. We get to the members and we do a little visit and they give us s'mores girl scout cookies as we are leaving which was exciting. I honestly don't know how I feel about them, I think I just prefer Samoas. But it was still super nice of them! Members are very generous. The rest of the day we had a few more lessons planned but we needed a third female and the lady that usually takes us bailed and I was QUITE worried because I didn't want to cancel this lesson with this progressing person, ya know? So, we prayed and started calling some people. This awesome lady Sister Frazier ended up coming to the rescue and taking us and we will be forever grateful. The lesson was with our pal Jordan. He has had some negative experiences with God and church in the past and even has a hard time praying, so, we focused on that. We gave him some tips on prayer and told him that reading the scriptures is a great way to receive answers. We also taught about Joseph Smith and his experience in the sacred grove and we KNOW that he felt that one and how God answered his prayer. Cool stuff. That night we bussed out to these girls that we are teaching that have come to church a few times. It had been a while since we could go out and formally teach them so it was really good to go. We had made a visual restoration to help keep them engaged earlier in the week during comp study so we used that to teach and then drew pictures of Jesus together and said a prayer. It was a nice little activity! On the bus home, we got lost (go figure) but the bus driver was super cool and helped us out. She told us "Sisters, I always want you on my bus, you put off such a positive vibe and you both are so kind" and we were like aw thanks! This was after we shared some scriptures from the Book of Mormon with ladies that were there on the bus with us. One of them ended up being a solid new person and had met with missionaries before! What a miracle! We then met this guy named Tom from Nigeria. He is a born again Christian. You know what that means..... we told him about the apostasy and the priesthood and we even invited him right there on the bus to be baptized by someone that has priesthood authority. And he didn't even say no! We called him later in the week for an over the phone lesson and that was cool. He wants to preach to us though so we think we might need to drop him. So yeah, Tuesday was a solid day and it was great! 

Wednesday we started off the day with scrambling to find a ride to district council but lo and behold we found one! Yay! Honestly, we had a bunch of lessons set up for that day and all but one of them canceled on us. That was okay though because it took way longer to ride the bus than we thought it did so we would have been late for a bunch of them anyways. We did have a lesson with Crystal though! We have been teaching her for a while but it has been hard to get in contact with her because her grandma was in the hospital all last transfer. Well, her grandma passed away right around last week and now Crystal has a lot of time to meet with us. When we went over last week we just served her and cleaned her house and did everything for her in that way. This week, we went over and taught her about the Plan of Salvation and she loved it. Of course, she loved it, it's such a dope plan! We invited her to be baptized and she said that she needed to think about it more. We tried to put her on date, you know to set a goal to work toward, and it's okay if it changes and she was very opposed to that. She said that basically she just needs time to read the Book of Mormon and to know if it is true and to see what we believe before she decides on a day which is fair I guess. She did commit to coming to church in the next few weeks though so we are really excited to see her there!

Thursday was kind of a crazy day. We have our weekly Zumba and Yoga (but has now transitioned to just yoga) activity at the church every Thursday. We actually asked Latisha to pick us up and it was super sweet of her that she did! So, we go. We had made muffins the night before to give to all of the people that went to yoga and some of the other people that we are teaching so that was a hit. We had yoga and some of the other missionaries in our district brought people that they were teaching which was awesome. We ended up having right around seven people there which is an all-time high so whooohoooo! Hopefully, next week can be even better! After yoga, we did our weekly study with Latisha. Man, I always love doing those. We watched the Ask of God video that talks about Joseph Smith's first vision and of course she loved it. Basically, Latisha believes that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and believes that the first vision happened and understands why we get baptized but doesn't understand why her baptism was different. Don't worry though, we are going to hit that next time if the spirit is telling us to. We found this awesome video that talks about Wilford Woodruff and his search for the truth and for a church with prophets and apostles like in the bible and the correct authority. We all know how that search ended so we are pumped to see what goes on with that. After the lesson, we went and visited with Adrina and taught her one of the recent member lessons, the restoration. She is just chilling and she is so happy about her decision to be baptized and we are super happy for her. Kind of crazy that everything with her went down in just a six week period. Mindblowing honestly. Then, we took the bus (crazy, I know) and it took us literally SO LONG TO GET HOME. Over an hour. That drive is usually 15 minutes. It was ridiculous. But we met some cool people so we can't complain. The thing that I hate the most about the bus is that we have to walk so far to get to places still so it just takes forever to get from point a to point b. It is great for talking to people and we find so many people there, but it just is also a huge time sucker so we can't schedule as many things in a day because of that. We were supposed to see Reesie and Aaleah after that but they couldn't meet. They are quickly falling off and not progressing which is super sad. Pray for them and for us to know what to do with them!

Friday was crazy but also not. Our mission had the opportunity to have a zoom call with President Ballard! President Ballard was President Stratford's mission president years and years ago and it was awesome to get to hear from him. Some of my big takeaways were that we need to become better teachers. Second, we need to be constantly purifying ourselves so our countenances glow with the light of Christ. When people meet with the missionaries, they don't necessarily understand what they are learning, but they do remember how they feel when the missionaries are speaking with them. We need to be able to have the spirit with us and we need to be able to radiate that positive light of Christ so people can remember that and have a desire to talk with us more. Also, the morning routine is so important! We must get up on time and exercise and start our day off right to have a good day. Parents, I am super good at the morning routine and I always wake up and exercise and get ready and get a full hour of personal study in there. Sister Richardson, our trio sister, sucks at the morning routine and never gets up and never exercises and writes letters home during her personal study. Sister Mahan and I already talked though and we are going to have an intervention because she is dragging the companionship down. Honestly, I love Siser Mahan a lot and she is a miracle and the best person ever. Sister Richardson, I have a hard time with. She is just super frazzled and she leaves everything everywhere and forgets things all the time and isn't very obedient with getting up or going to bed or studies or technology. I don't want to correct her on 20 million things though so I am in the process of choosing my battles. Pray for me to have charity and patience toward her, please. 

After President Ballard, we went home and then got on the bus to go out to visit this lady that the Elders found earlier in the week and referred to us. Her name is Cassandra. She is CRAZY. We started to teach her the restoration and she went off about how she had evil spirits living in her house and how one was standing right in front of me and "don't you see it?" and that these spirits tried to kill her multiple times and we were like uhhhhh what? And then we come to find out that she had been taught by the missionaries before! She was actually an online Bible request at comeuntochrist.org (go figure) and missionaries had tried with her for a little while. Kinda funny to see a real-life example of the crazies that I get on the phone that want a copy of the Bible. Long story short, she was wild and we are going to get the Elders to dedicate her house because she was trippin. I love the priesthood. Her house was straight in the hood and Sister Mahan wasn't feeling too good there, especially because we had to wait at a bus stop forever in the dark in the middle of the hood and there were some questionable people around. Honestly, it isn't safe in a lot of the places we work, that is the truth. I don't know why they made us in a car share because the bus isn't always safe either! I don't know what the thought process was but I don't super love it. But yeah, we got home safe and sound so it was fine, but just a little too sketch for my companion's nerves. 

Saturday was absolute madness. Here goes nothing. Sister Richardson is usually never with us during the day, but, the senior couple that she is usually with said that there was no Nepali work that she was needed for so she could just stay with us. Then there was the question of "well we are taking the bus and she doesn't have a pass" so we had to buy her a bus pass. We had some lessons set up for that morning and honestly I was terrified because we had been taking turns reciting the points to the lessons in Preach My Gospel a few nights previous and Sister Richardson literally knew none of them and there is no excuse for that. So, I was terrified to teach specifically with her in a trio because she doesn't even know what the doctrine in the lessons are. She has been out for almost six months mind you. Anyways, we are heading out of the apartment to take the bus and we need to book it to the stop to make it there on time to make it to the appointment on time and Sister Richardson forgot her nametag so we had to go back and then we missed our bus literally by a minute. It seriously drove past us as we were running up to make it. I was mad, I won't lie to you. So, we do some contacting while we wait for the next bus to come in 20 minutes. It ended up being okay (even though we were an HOUR LATE FOR EVERYTHING THE REST OF THE DAY) because we met this guy named Armani at the stop. Sister Richardson had met him when she was serving in Dublin for a little while and the Dublin sisters sent the referral over for him because he moved and his phone got shut off so we were never really able to teach him so we dropped him a few weeks ago. It was crazy because out of all the bus stops in all of Ohio we were at the same one at the same time and we ended up being able to talk for right around 30 minutes and have a good lesson with him and set up a time to meet that he is solid for. What's more? HE LIVES IN OUR APARTMENT COMPLEX. Like what? It was madness and it really goes to show that God knows we don't have a car and He is preparing people that live close by. We have found two other people this week that live in our complex while we have been riding the bus so that has been some major tender mercies. Anyways, it ended up being a good thing that we missed our initial bus but it was still a little frustrating because we had to move all of our appointments back an hour or more because of it. 

Our first lesson was with Tonya, who was the super elect lady that we had met on the bus earlier that week. We thought that she lived in our area but she actually lives wayyyyyy outside of it. We got permission to go this one time though and we went and it was miraculous. It took us 1.5 hours to get there and we got to stop in the city and take some awesome pics (tender mercy) and then we finally made it to her and taught her about the restoration. She ate it all up. When we told her about the Book of Mormon we were showing her a copy and she said "what do I have to do to get a copy of that book" and were like "oh this one is for you" and she got up and gave us all hugs and it was so tender. She had just moved into her place so she didn't have any furniture, so we sat on her bed up in her room and taught her. We all marked our favorite verses and then we invited her to be baptized and she said yes!!! She is on date for March 21st and we could not be more excited for her. She looked up the bus route to make it to church tomorrow and she actually came! She traveled over an hour on the bus to come to church. What an example to us all! The problem is, is that she lives way out of our area. We found the sisters that are in her area and we told them the situation and we told them that she came to church with us today but that we explained that there was a church closer to her and more missionaries there that would sit with her! Honestly, she wasn't too thrilled about that, but we are going to do a pass off lesson with them later this week so that she is comfortable with them. And then, we are going to go to her baptism! We will text her still and make sure she is doing okay. It is really kind of sad that she doesn't live in our area but I guess it's whatever. Sister Mahan is more devastated than me because we found her and invited her to baptism. But, we talked about how it's okay because what matters is that she does get baptized eventually. We had another appointment with a lady that we had met on the bus earlier that week and it went well! She didn't have a lot of time (because we were almost two hours late, come on) but we were able to give her the Book of Mormon and tell her our testimonies and she was excited for us to come back next week! She was seriously so cool and I'm excited to start teaching her more. We texted her a scripture yesterday and she said thank you so we are already off to a positive start! 

After that, we dropped Sister Richardson off with the Nepali senior couple and we needed to be on our way for another appt. At this point, it was three and we hadn't had lunch. We didn't feel like going all the way out if they weren't actually going to be there, so we decided to give this girl a call. She did not answer the phone.... lol. BUT it was cool because the person on the phone is a 19-year-old minister and he lives in our complex and we set up a time to go and meet him so that was super cool! A new person found and we didn't even have to leave our home! We did weekly planning and companion study and lunch after that because we really needed to get ourselves together and organized. Honestly, we have been super go go go! This entire week. I think that it is the bussing. Before, we would drive places and relax. On the bus, we can't relax and we are constantly talking to people and there is no time to slow down because once we leave the apartment we are on and ready to go and smiling the whole day. It reminds me of Temple Square honestly! I'm grateful for Sister Mahan, she is honestly a really good missionary that is here to work and not to mess around and I appreciate that. We were going around and sharing different miracles that had happened during our lives during Family Home Evening on Monday and Sister Mahan seriously stood up and talked about how it was a miracle that she had a good trainer and how she had heard all of these stories about how other people's trainers were the worst and they didn't work and they hated the mission and she was so nervous and she really wanted someone that was going to love the work and would actually work and that she was sooo grateful that she could have me and that I was everything she wanted in a trainer. It was so tender you guys. And she said it in front of everyone!! Aw so sweet. She is the best and I am grateful that I was able to be companions with her. Kind of funny how it had to happen at this specific time and how I had to come all the way here to Ohio to do it! President Stratford said when we were getting our trainees, that this was a moment we had talked about in the premortal existence. I believe it to be honest. This companionship is Godly. The trio? Not so much. Thank goodness we hardly ever do work with Sister Richardson or I might hurt her lol. 

Sunday was good. We had a lesson with Cynthia Poole and we basically just did our priesthood plan that we had for Latisha with her. She loved it! We have talked with her about the priesthood before and she said that today she felt like she finally understood it! She has been taught this soooo many times but it clicked with her today and we are so grateful for that. She hasn't been reading her Book of Mormon and praying about it but she said that she knows that she really needs to and that it is the key to her answer. We set up some times to call her during the week and read with her over the phone to help her get into the scriptures. We invited her to get baptized by someone with priesthood authority once she came to know that the Book of Mormon was true and the things we have been teaching her were true and she said yes!! Yay! Also, she gave us a ride home which was super nice of her. It has been cool to see how over the past 7 weeks she has gone from not being to taught to talking about baptism and her being open to it. That is a miracle for sure. 

Honestly, every single day, Sister Mahan and I just talk about all of the miracles that we are experiencing. We don't know why God is just deciding to bless us with so much because we really don't deserve all of the wonderful amazing blessings that we are being given. Ugh. Being a missionary is just so good, ya know? I love it out here and I love the people and I love to just live my life around them 24/7. Seriously, all day every day we live and breathe and plan for our people and it is SO FUN!!!! 

Anyways, I love you guys and I think you are super cool. I am praying for you every day! Talk to you soon!

Love,

Em