Buckle Up

Okay, buckle up this week was pretty wild. 

Monday: It was just a normal pday. We emailed and we had a good time. 

Tuesday: This was my first real training visit as a Sister Training Leader (STL)! I have been on Training Visits before as a District Leader on the Square but for some reason, I was just so nervous about it. I guess at this point I just don't really think that these Sisters can learn anything from me. I'm just a lowly missionary. I just put a lot of pressure on myself for the days to be good so I hope that it was. I went with Sister Poulsen, she is in her third transfer and she is training a brand new missionary and she is really having a hard time. She has never struggled with anything like anxiety and depression but now she is dealing with it and she is just always feeling anxious. She is saying that is started when she was in self-isolation so I hope that is true. I went to her apartment in the Youngstown area (which is Ohio) but she lives in the part of the area which is in Pennsylvania so I was in Pennsylvania for the day! It was so fun! I wanted to get a picture with the Welcome to Pennsylvania sign but Sister Poulsen was really having an emotional day so I decided that it wasn't a top priority. Basically, I just let her talk and vent her feelings to me all day long. She doesn't want to let her trainee know how bad she is struggling because she thinks that her companion deserves better as a trainer. I just listened and listened and comforted. And then at the end, I said "thank you so much for telling me, I am going to be honest Sister Poulsen, I don't know how you feel so I won't pretend to, and I don't know what to do to help you so I won't give you suggestions. The only thing I know is that Jesus Christ knows how you feel and at this point, you need to depend on Him so He can help you" And she was like, "I really appreciate that you didn't pretend and just give me advice, thanks for being honest." and then we just talked about things that she had seen that did help or that did make her happy. We brainstormed some action items because if she is going to be inside all day with her trainee, she might as well put all of her energy into training her companion and helping her become the best missionary that she possibly can be and setting her up for success. We are going to go on more exchanges with that companionship though because they are both struggling. At the end of the night, I was happy to be home to Sister Johnston and Sister Nicol. 

Wednesday: We had Zone Conference via Zoom! Let me tell you, things are way more effective and efficient over technology. Sister Johnston and I led a training and I think that it went pretty well. She talked about Nephi and the Bow and the Liahona and having faith and making the best out of bum situations and following the spirit. I followed it up with 3 Nephi 19 where we talked about prayer and how "faith has feet" or in our current situation, "faith has fingers". We invited everyone to change how they pray and not just say okay give me something and then not do anything to get it but to pray and tell Heavenly Father your plan and ask Him to confirm it. Ask Him, "whither shall I go to obtain miracles" and then get going and get them! Faith has feet people!!! I think it went pretty well. At the end, President was going to go over some things in 3 Nephi 19 but he was like "the Sisters already gave us some fantastic things to work on in there so we are going to go to 13 instead" and that made me feel good! Overall, the training I think went well. I hope that the Elders and Sisters in the Zone liked it and learned what they needed to from the spirit. 

Also on Wednesday, we had a lesson with our good friend Wanda. Wanda is probably around 70-something or 80ish and is the worst at technology. We spend every Sunday on the phone with her helping her set up the Zoom to tune into church. This day, we tried to get to her Facebook messenger call us but she couldn't get that so we just talked over speakerphone and taught her the Plan of Salvation. We have talked to her a lot about baptism and she is super close. She is praying and trying to find an answer. She says that she loves talking with us and she always feels so good when she reads the Book of Mormon, so she already knows the truth, she just needs to recognize that she has already found her answer. We are hoping that May 9th will be her special day. Please send some prayers her way that she can figure out her answer!! By the way, this is one that called us after the Keeffer Family Easter service! 

Thursday: Yet another training visit! Okay, our Zone only has 8 companionships and 5 of them are sisters, so we are going to be going on a lot of training visits. Thursday we went with the Rootstown Sisters. Rootstown has a reputation for being a really dead area and they haven't had a convert baptism in I think close to four years. These Sisters were doubled in and they are a trainer and a fresh trainee. They are on FIRE though. They love the ward and the ward loves them (which is awesome because that ward has a reputation for being a bad one) and they have someone on date for baptism! When they got to the area, they had maybe three people that they were teaching and it was not very promising for any of them, but, these sisters had so much faith that lo and behold, a call from TEMPLE SQUARE comes in telling them about someone that wants to meet with missionaries. They put him on date almost immediately and he sent the sisters a video of him throwing away his coffee to live the word of wisdom. He LOVES the church and everything about it and he is going to live it for the rest of his life. It is so amazing to see how many miracles are coming to Rootstown all because of the missionaries that are there. I got to go with the trainer and she is so sweet. She is a little softspoken and wouldn't really say much in lessons, but I'm going to guess that is because we were on training visits and we had never taught together before and that can always be nerve wracking. She is so awesome though and it was a miraculous day. We called a referral that they had to do a Bible study and it was like I was back in Salt Lake on the phone doing a Bible study and then introducing the Book of Mormon! I realize how easily I can do those things and I am grateful that serving at Temple Square has given me so many great ways that I can contribute to the digital work here in Ohio right now!

Also on Thursday, we had a great lesson with our good friends Eric and Emily. They are the ones that we called and weren't too interested and then we talked about temples and now want to get baptized! We got to teach them the Plan of Salvation and it went great! We drew pictures in our notebook of the different parts as we went through the plan. When we were talking about the celestial kingdom and being with our families forever, Eric and Emily were just like man that sounds so good. So, we said we can get you to the temple, but how is praying about May 16 for your baptism date going? And they said that they both felt good about it and they had even talked to some family members about it. It was sweet! I tried to move it up because this past Sunday was their third time at church so they could get baptized sooner, but they said that the 16th was good. I'm okay with it, I'm just bummed because I won't be here because I'll be back in Salt Lake. But, I can hopefully just video call in. What matters is that they get baptized!! We also taught the law of chastity twice to some of the people that Sister Nicol was teaching. It was so funny because Sister Nicol had never taught it before and Sister Hortin had only done it twice and they were both so awkward. Sister Nicol at one point just looked at me desperately because she didn't want to have to explain it, so, I just said it, and the guy took it in stride and wants to live it! It was awesome!

Friday: Friday was a good day. We had some awesome lessons with some awesome people. On training visits, Sister Johnston had found two people in a Dairy Queen parking lot (always follow your cravings people) and we got to teach both of them! One had met with missionaries before and always liked how we were so healthy. So, we naturally taught her the word of wisdom and committed her to live it. The other was trying to find a church for her family with good youth and children programs for her kids. My oh my, are we the right church for her! It was awesome! We got to teach her the restoration and she loved it. I don't think she really understands the magnitude of it yet, but that is okay because neither did I until I came out on the mission. But it was great to tell her about it. We are going to be stopping by her house today with some Bibles and Books of Mormon for her and her kids. She even (we think) tuned into church on Sunday which is awesome! 

Also on Friday, we had a great lesson with our good buddy Tyler. He is the one that called us and asked about God and cried when we invited him to be baptized. We called with some members over Whatsapp and taught him the Plan of Salvation. He just said the entire time "wow this is amazing" and "wow I never knew that before" so he seems just super prepared. Sister Johnston still gets weird feelings from him and now is refusing to call him unless there is another male present. I don't feel weird about it but I trust her so we are just going to have a lot of member present lessons which is ideal anyway. We called him just over the phone the other day for daily contact and talked about how he was feeling after praying about the Plan of Salvation and he said that he knew it was true and that he loved the Book of Mormon and then proceeded to tell us all about Laman and Lemuel and Laban and we were like "what? how does he remember all this stuff?" and then we talked about his family and asked if we could teach them and he said sure he just needed to ask but that he wanted his family to know about all of this stuff which is awesome. We talked about baptism and he was like man I am so excited and we were like us too! And then we asked if we could have his address so we could drop off a physical copy of the Book of Mormon on his porch and he was acting all weird and saying that he didn't feel comfortable with the virus and everything and we were like it's all good we won't even talk to you, we will just leave it there and he still didn't give us his address. Kinda weird. Then after that, he was like "is it normal to be nervous about baptism" and we were like "where is this coming from because two minutes ago he was gucci about everything" and we just told him that yeah it is but the closer he gets and the more that he reads and prays, the more that he will feel peace and not nervous. What a funny dude. 

We got Chickfila for dinner and watched Maddy and Carson get married after that and it was magical. Sister Moran loves love. 

Saturday: Man this day was crazy. We got a call from President Stratford early in the day saying that Sister Nicol would not be with us anymore, but that they were getting her a comp all the way from Columbus and that she would be going back to New Castle. That was sad for us because we love Sister Nicol, but it was super sad for her. She was just crying and crying. The poor thing, this is going to be her fourth companion this transfer. We decided to just do everything for her and make her feel better, so, naturally, during lunch, we went to Walmart and got ingredients to make a cake. I forgot to mention, it was also Sister Nicol's 4-month mark. 

So, we went and we experienced so many miracles in that stinking Walmart. We met this lady named Emma while I tried on a dress over the clothes I already had on. She said that it looked nice and I said thanks and we started chatting. We started talking to her and told her that we were missionaries. She is very active in her own church. I started talking about her relationship with Christ and shared Alma 7:11-12. She asked where it was in the Bible and we told her about the Book of Mormon. At first, she was not interested but then we explained it more and asked if she would download it and she said sure! She invited us to her church and we invited her to ours. It was sweet.

In the middle of the contact, we were getting a phone call so Sister Johnston went and took it and it was this mean guy that threatened to kill members of our church and burn down our churches and kill our families back at home. It was some bad juju. We called President who told us to call the police. This guy called again later and I talked to him and he gave me his name... it was Legion. So there was something seriously wrong with him. The police said they couldn't do anything, which was to be expected, but they took his number and told us to block it so we did. Kinda a crazy day and a little freaky. He called us again but he started talking about demons and dogs and I just hung right up.

Also in Walmart, we met this member that hasn't been to church in about seven years because his wife who he was sealed to in the temple, went super against the church and won't allow any contact anymore. It was so sad. But, he still reads his scriptures and prays and does everything that he can which is awesome for him. We read him a scripture and told him that we loved him and that God loved him and he started to cry it was so tender. That was a super huge miracle actually because there is no way that it could have happened by accident. Plus, we were just going to go to Giant Eagle because it is right across the street, but God just knew that we had to go to Walmart. So cool. 

We also met this guy named Greg that drove a motorcycle. He wasn't interested but he was cool. We also met George who is from Greece originally and has a dope accent. He told us that on Sunday it was Greek Easter and he taught us how to say it in Greek! We got his phone number so we could pray with him the next day.. he didn't pick up and the voicemail was a lady talking but you never know it could be his wife! So we will just keep on trying.

 

After our miracle filled time at Walmart, we came home and did some contacting while Sister Nicol packed up her stuff and we then headed off to New Castle for her to get her new companion. Sister Jackson just came from being an STL down in Marble Cliff (the area right by Gahanna) and she is so cool. She is 27 and this is her last transfer. After chatting with her she is exactly what Sister Nicol needs. She is someone that will just love Sister Nicol to death and will help her with the work and show her how to improve and be better and I love it. We got Raising Canes (an east coast chicken place that is famous amongst the missionaries) and I made Sister Johnston take my pic with the drive-through sign for the memories and we were back to our house. So crazy. 

Sunday: We FINALLY got to take the sacrament. We had our church service and we had five people call in (whoohooo!!!)! I really hope that they weren't bored and confused because all of the speakers were super old and complex and I was a little bored... so hopefully they were engaged. Sister Johnston in the middle of the zoom church said "wow. our church is really old fashioned, isn't it?" and I was just like, you know it actually really is. With the organ and hymns and the quietness. It isn't bad! Just super traditional! But yeah, we had the church and it was good and then we wrote up some stuff for the new Youngstown area Facebook page. This is a new Facebook initiative that the First Presidency is moving out so I am in the process of inviting every single one of my friends to like the page. We send in content to the Technolgy Specialists for this area of the mission, and they then post it. The idea is that the page will trend for the area and all of the members will join in and such and that everyone will just see it and then join in and like it. In the test mission where this was done, the page got 1,800 likes and 180 people started to get taught in just one zone. Not too shabby! So, like the page if I invite you to like it please! 

After this, we went to the Stake President's house 40 minutes away to take the Sacrament. We are only allowed to go to a Bishop or the Stake President's for the sacrament and if they don't want us to come, then we are just out of luck. Our Bishop's wife is out of town so we couldn't go, but President Connor heard and made sure that we could still have it and I am just so grateful. It has been right around a month since we had the sacrament last so I was just so happy to do it. It was so special and sacred to do it in a member's home and to feel how sacred of an ordinance that was. This time around, the spirit impressed to me that I would need a worthy priesthood holder in my future home to do this and how special that is and important it is to me personally to have a priesthood holder in my future home. Priorities people. They had asked President Stratford if we could share a message when we came and he said we could and that we could all have a meal together and that was SO AWESOME. I loved it. The Connor's daughter Sarah is a Senior and is really having a hard time with going to BYUI because all of her friends got into Provo and she doesn't know anyone in Idaho so we got to share a thought based around relying on Jesus and knowing that she will be in Idaho for a reason. She started crying during the discussion and in the end she said that she felt a lot less nervous which is good. 

The Connors have this tradition with the missionaries when they come over where they have to join "The Team". To join the team, you have to sing all of the verses to your favorite hymn or Primary song and then they will measure you and put your name and where you are from on the wall. I sang a lovely rendition of High on the Mountain Top and then I was measured. I didn't know where to say I was from on the wall so I just asked her to put USA there because I just didn't know. Kinda funny. They sent us home with all of this food and kindness. Such a good Sunday. 

On our way home, we dropped off a facemask at the New Castle Sisters Apartment (because the mission had all of the Amish members of the church make us facemasks), and then we drove back through Youngstown so we could take pics with a building that said Ohio at the top. Sister Johnston and I are in agreement that I need to do all of the outbound and Ohio things because this is my last month here (weird). Plus, she only has one more transfer after this too so she will need to experience this stuff as well!

We had a Mission Leadership Council (MLC) call with President on Monday and we talked about the missionaries that were thriving and the missionaries that were struggling and what we could do to help the missionaries that were struggling. We have a little less than two weeks of this self-isolation left (if we get out on May 1st like the governor of Ohio says and we think that we will) but missionary work is never going to be the same after this and President wants the missionaries to be okay right now and be able to thrive in any circumstance. Honestly, I am working on developing more empathy for the sisters that are having a hard time because I am chilling with isolation, we are working hard and seeing so many miracles every day! But not everyone is. Right now the mission is like half and half on doing well and struggling.  Sister Johnston and I brainstormed on what we could implement and we decided that with the struggling companionships we would do daily planning with them because if they could plan their day more effectively then they could feel more purposeful and happy. We also came up with doing fun things with all of the sisters in our zone! Movie nights via zoom screen sharing, doing Come Follow Me together, doing cross-zone secret sisters, etc. The sisters seemed excited about it so we are excited to see what will help all of the sisters!!

Last but not least, we had an awesome miracle with Asia this week! She ghosted us for a hot second but then resurrected and now she is going strong to get baptized!! We went over to her house and taught her the entire restoration again through the snow and sleet from six feet apart and since then, we have been calling her every single night and reading understand before her baptism. She should be getting her marriage license this week and then interview next week, and then marriage with the baptism right after on May 2nd! Pray that things will work out with the courthouse and that she will be able to stay strong! We also called on Sunday night this guy that I met on the Square a hot second ago! We have kept kind of in contact and I have tried to start teaching him for a while but he never really was interested but I reached out again this past week and asked if he wanted to call and read the Book of Mormon that I gave him and he said sure! So, we called and we had a dope lesson with him. We talked about everything because he just had so many questions. Finally, I was like Ben, you have asked us so many things, but what do you believe? And he was like "well I grew up Catholic but that stuff just doesn't make sense to me so I just don't really believe in God anymore." We bore some powerful testimonies and we invited him to read the Book of Mormon and to pray with just the slightest glimmer of hope and faith that God was there. We told him that it would change his life and that He would feel happier and more peace and he was like "sure, I'll give it a go. If this is true, I want to know if it is" and I am SO EXCITED FOR HIM. Oh man, pray that He will feel the love of God and find answers and more importantly, RECOGNIZE the answers when God is doing it. We talked about recognizing the spirit but it is always so different for people how they feel the spirit that I never know exactly how to teach that, so we did our best and just pray that he will find what he needs and hear the voice of JESUS. 

Okay really this time, last but not least, the Assistant to the Presidents (APs) called us and said that they were going to be in our area on Tuesday and President had asked them to give us blessings when they were up in Youngstown and we were like "what really?" and they were like "yeah so when works for you?" and it was so tender that President has been thinking about us and wants us to have blessings. It has been an exceedingly crazy transfer so I am glad about it and I think that it'll help. I have been feeling a little in a funk since Thursday which is weird, so hopefully, this will help with my funk. And trust me, I'm fine, I've just felt a  little more down than usual. 

Okay, this was a super fat email. I hope that I didn't forget anything. Oh! I dyed my hair, my companions convinced me to do it. That is what I forgot. Anyways, I love you both so much and I hope that you have an awesome week! Stay Safe! 

Love,

Em 

Absolute Insanity

Hello Parents! This week was absolute insanity from start to end and was so full of miracles I am just so grateful to God. Let's just dive right in. 

Monday: It was just a normal pday. We had a good day and we put our friend D'aallann on date to be baptized along with two of his kids! We have a time every day to call him at 1 pm. After further study this week, he is actually going to have a hard time progressing because keeping commitments isn't exactly his jam. We are up for the challenge though! He has the desire, he just needs the follow-through. Anyway, that was a good time. We were going to have training visits with the Sisters serving in Youngstown the next day. They were supposed to drive over in the evening. We got a call from them at almost 11 pm and basically, this is what happened. Because self isolation makes everyone go crazy, we are allowed to be with other missionaries on pdays. We let the Newcastle and Youngstown sisters go together because they live super close. We also had permission to be with other missionaries for General Conference so these sisters were together from Saturday to Monday night and then Sister Nicol had a mental breakdown. Sister Nicol is in her third transfer and is training a new missionary. We had no idea that she had been having such a hard time. The other companionship was in the same boat. Third transfer trainer and wasn't feeling too hot. Basically, Sister Nicol had a mental breakdown when it came to them leaving and it was 11 pm and the Youngtown sisters didn't want to leave her in that state. So, we told them to stay the night and we said that we would be over first thing in the morning. 

Tuesday: At 7ish we left the house to make the 30-minute drive to Newcastle to check in on all the sisters. Initially, they seemed to be doing okay but then we split the trainers from the trainees to just see how everyone was holding up and then four hours later of crying and comforting we were getting lunch at 4 pm. Then, we helped facilitate some companionship inventories. I have facilitated a few of those in my day so it wasn't bad. Actually, this one was the tamest I had ever seen. The companionship that I was with really loved each other and I just had to tell the trainee that she needed to listen to her trainer because the trainer was scared to give correction etc. But yeah, it went super well. The other companionship? They did okay but they didn't do as well. We had to leave because the Alliance sisters (Sister Mahan and her new comp) called and said that they needed blessings and that some elders were meeting them at the church and we had to meet them and be the third female. So, we left all of the sisters with instructions to go to the church building and get blessings from the one set of Elders and then to go to their own apartments with strict orders for no more sleepovers, and then we drove 40 minutes to our church building. We get there and Sister Mahan gets a seriously DOPE blessing and the next time I want a blessing, I am getting that one elder to do it. 

Then, we went and got some sugar with the Alliance sisters. I knew that Sister Mahan was having a hard time, I didn't realize how hard of a time until we saw them in person and she said to me "Sister Moran, I think that I need to go home" and I was like what why? Basically, her anxiety has been super killing her and she spent that entire day before her blessing freaking out and crying. She decided to just pour out her heart to God. She told God that she was going to stay in Ohio and keep being a missionary. She felt nothing. She told God that she was going to go home and she felt peace and she heard a voice in her head say "you can go home". At this point on Tuesday night she still wasn't sure about what she was going to do, so, we just did our best to love her and to take her mind off of things and to help with her anxiety. She told me that being with me helped her a little to not feel so anxious because she is used to me. 

Wednesday: I woke up and Sister Mahan's bed mat thing was right by my bed on the floor. I look down to make sure I don't step on her and she isn't there. I was like "Whoa, there is no way that Sister Mahan actually woke up before the alarm and before me because that is something that she had a really hard time with when we were companions. So, I didn't even pray, I just kind of had this panicked feeling like I needed to go find where she was and make sure that she was okay. I go out into the living room and I see her sobbing on the couch in the middle of a panic attack. So, naturally, I cuddled her and just held her on the couch. She calmed down after a few minutes and our companions came in and just sat and supported and watched and Sister Mahan said that she needed to call her mom. So, she calls her mom (bear in mind it is like 4 am Idaho time and her mom picks up, what a stud) while Sister Johnston and I make pancakes and Sister Atkinson washes the dishes. We have breakfast all together and then Sister Mahan says that she feels even more like she needs to go home and that talking with her mom confirmed it. So, she went into the other room and called President. We couldn't hear the specifics, but the walls are thin so we could hear them talking and her crying. After about 30 minutes, she comes out and she is crying and she says that she is confidently going home and that President Stratford is going to work on the paperwork and everything. She seemed to be doing a lot better after that. I didn't want her to go home, I really felt like she could stay! But I wanted to trust her revelation that she needed to go home. So, we all just supported her and told her that she was amazing and strong (which was all true). 

We were having a training visit so I was with Sister Mahan one on one the rest of the day and Sister Johnston was with Sister Atkinson (who she trained, fun story) and we went about doing our work. Sister Mahan and I saw some awesome miracles!!! The guy, D'aallann, wanted some physical materials. So, we went over with a Bible and a Book of Mormon and a Children's Book of Mormon and a Family Proclamation and a restoration pamphlet. We taught him the restoration over the phone before we brought him all of these things and it went pretty well. We asked him what he thought and he said that it was good but that he would need to do some more studying to really understand and absorb. So, we went and gave D'allann all of the things during the afternoon and we invited him to do the worldwide fast with us on Friday and he said that he would! Sister Mahan was happy as can be and was talking and teaching like nothing had happened. We called some super inactive recent converts, as in no one had been able to get in contact with them for the entire year after they had been baptized. We got to talk to the wife and then the husband popped on which was a huge miracle! We shared some scriptures from the Book of Mormon and we set up a time to video call them later in the week. They didn't pick up when we tried the video call a few days later, so I think we might just need to stick with the wife's cell phone for right now. But that was pretty huge. We also called someone that the Elders (Elders were doubled out of this area this transfer so we got their areabook on top of the people that the sisters had been teaching) were teaching and he was busy and driving but we got to call and set up a time for later in the week. That was awesome and the lesson we had with him and his wife was a huge miracle, more on that later. 

We got back together with our companions and Sister Johnston said that President and Sister Stratford had called and had talked about how they wanted Sister Mahan to stick it out and wait a while longer and that they needed us to do everything that we could to keep her on the mission. So, then we had to change our entire approach. Up until this point, we had been saying how proud we were of her and how she had done what the Lord wanted her to do and now we were like "But wait Sister Mahan are you sure? Jesus can help you through this!! Can you just wait until the end of the transfer and isolation and see how you feel then?" and we did it super lowkey and she was like "I really appreciate that you sisters want to help me but I just know myself and I know what anxiety is and I can't keep doing it out here. I need to go home and get better." We called President later and talked about Sister Mahan and some of the other sisters in the zone that were struggling majorly and he said that he would do some praying and he would do what he could to get Sister Mahan to stay but ultimately, it was up to her parents. I was and still am so sad. Wednesday was a super hard day for me. I just love Sister Mahan so much and I know how strong she is. She is capable of doing anything that she puts her mind to. She has such a strong relationship with her Savior so I knew that she could get through this and it was hard for me to accept that maybe God's will was for her to do it at home. I don't want her to go home. So all of Wednesday I was sad but I did a pretty good job of hiding it until it was right at the end of the day and she was going home sometime in the near future and there was nothing that I could do about it. 

Thursday: Sister Mahan and Sister Atkinson left around 12 and then it was just me and Sister Johnston! We did the math and we discovered that it had just been us working in our area for only two days out of the two weeks that we had been together. The sisters in the zone have just been really struggling and we have basically been living for them. Parents, it has really been insane. But Thursday, we got to work because our people had been perishing in unbelief because we were making sure that the Sisters in the zone didn't perish. We saw that we hadn't changed our voicemail yet, so we decided to listen to our voicemail and then change it. When we were listening, we discovered a week old message from this guy named Tyler. He had gone onto comeuntochrist.org and had found our number because he had recently moved to the Warren area. He wanted to know more about what we believed. So naturally, we called him immediately and he didn't pick up. But then five minutes later, he called us back!! We started to talk to him about his beliefs in God and basically he knows nothing. BUT this coronavirus is killing his vibes and he feels scared and he wants to come closer to God and know God better now. It was so cool! We told him about the worldwide fast and he said that he would do it. We shared with him our purpose as missionaries and promised him some blessings and all of that good stuff and he was like the entire time saying "Wow this is amazing" and it was surreal because he was so interested and prepared. We called him at 8 and we taught him how to pray and invited him to pray for us and he did. He said the most tender prayer and he asked God if he was there and if He knew who he was. He just stopped after that and was like "I feel so much peace and love right now" and Sister Johnston and I were in awe. He was kneeling when he was praying. We told him that he was a son of God and he was like "Wow no one has ever told me that before, I didn't know that, that is so amazing" and he just kept talking about how he felt so much peace. It was so crazy because we haven't been able to do any finding or anything this week because it had been so crazy but God literally just plopped this super elect dude right into our laps and all we had to do was check our voicemail. God is so good.

 

Also on Thursday, we got a call from President saying that Sister Mahan would be going home on Saturday and that she was going to be picked up by the sister training leaders (STL) in Dublin by the mission home the next day. Sister Atkinson, her companion would be taking the trainer that was really struggling earlier in the week (Sister Nicol's) companion and training her because Sister Nicol just didn't feel like she could, and Sister Nicol would be in a trio with us. She wouldn't be an STL though, she would just be with us. Sister Nicol would keep the area of Newcastle so the three of us would take on two areas. I was okay with it but kinda disappointed because this was another wrench thrown in the transfer and I really love Sister Johnston and I didn't really expect being in a trio and here we were. oh God really has a way of making you uncomfortable so that way you can grow. Plus, it was official. Sister Mahan was going home and it was going to be very soon. We made all the arrangements for a meeting place though so that way everyone could meet and swap people and luggage and everything. I know, a wild week. Also, we went out to eat (I know that we do that a lot) and we met this girl in our apartment complex, her name is Amanda. She has lived here for like seven months and has seen the missionaries a lot. She has always wondered what we do and what we are about so we explained to her everything. We come to find out that she went through a divorce where the guy actually pulled a gun on her. She is super religious and actually teaches a Sunday School class but we told her that we would love to video call and do a Bible study and she agreed!!! God is just making us crave Mexican food so we can meet elect people. 

Friday: We had a zone call with President (he started doing these like a week ago and we have one a week just to stay connected and everything) and we talked about the work and about technology and the miracles that we have been seeing with referrals!! We received two referrals that morning before the call so we knew from firsthand experience that they were just rolling in. We also talked about how the church is putting out a new initiative for Facebook and a more aggressive way to campaign on Facebook. It is going to be done by stakes and we are basically going to be posting a bunch and doing all of these things and getting the members involved so more people in our designated stakes will want to know about the church and start learning more. So cool! They have made two elders the designated technology elders and they are receiving training from the missionary department and how to do this and in the next few weeks, we are going to be in full swing. I am excited to see the miracles that come from this!! 

After the zoom call, we did some contacting and then we were on our way to a sketchy gas station to say bye and move luggage. We then had to drive to Tallmadge because we discovered that the one car didn't have space for all of the luggage and people so we had to drive and then say bye again and move even more luggage. Was I heartbroken? Yes. Did I cry in front of Sister Mahan? No. Do I miss her dearly? Yes. Am I in a trio? Yes. Is the trio going to be a blessing for Sister Nicol because she is having a struggle fest? Yes. Anyway, we went back home in our trio and then we were unpacking and weekly planning and figuring out how to best do the whole two area things so all of the people that we are teaching would be taken care of and both wards would be okay. Basically, we have been super busy but we are going to get even busier in the upcoming weeks and I am PUMPED about it. In the evening, after Sister Nicol had unpacked, we broke our fast and we got some Chickfila. 

That evening, we called Eric (you may remember him from up at the more top of the email). He and his wife were on the phone (and his cute 7-year-old son) and we talked to them about everything the Elders had taught them and basically, they were like "Yeah it was cool but we aren't really into organized religion and everything and we aren't looking for a church and we aren't too interested" but we just kept our cool and sure enough God had a plan for that phone call. We shared a scripture with them from the Book of Mormon and we talked about what they had read and what they thought about it. They had been reading about when Jesus comes to America and they liked it so far. We talked about Joseph Smith and the translation of the Book of Mormon and we talked about how we had a living prophet today. They were like "Oh yeah we watched him and the 12 this past weekend" and we were like "what?!" because we texted and invited them to watch General Conference but we didn't think that they had actually done it. So THAT was so cool. And then Eric was like "yeah that really big pretty church in Salt Lake was so cool" and I was like I have heard someone ask me about that pretty big castle church before, he means the temple. So then we talked about temples and how they are different from churches and how they can be with their family forever inside of the temple because of the priesthood and they were like (Emily and Eric) dang we want that. That sounds amazing! We were actually thinking about doing another marriage ceremony thing and we were like dudes do it in the temple and then your kids can come inside too and you can all be together forever. We told them though that it required some steps including faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, coming to church. We asked if they had been baptized before and neither of them had but then we talked about why it was important and we asked if that was something that they wanted to do and they said YES. So, we gave them a soft date for May 16th. They wanted to do it in late November because that is when their anniversary is but we were like uhmmm, maybe earlier because then you can have the Holy Ghost and they were more like "okay yeah we can try for the 16th and see if corona has blown over by then and do it". So it was miraculous. My mind was just blown that their hearts were changed in the course of an hour long phone call so much that they went from not really being interested to wanting to go to the temple and accepting a baptismal invitation. God was so good to us.  It was the perfect end to a day of fasting and prayer. 

Saturday: Wow. That day was crazy. We had a lesson with Tyler. He had read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and we taught him the restoration because he wanted to know about Joseph Smith. He LOVED everything about it. At the end, we extended an invitation for baptism and he accepted for May 2nd. Parents, homie was CRYING he was so happy and he felt so much peace and love. We are a little wary because it seems just too good to be true... but maybe we just lack faith, I don't know. But yeah! So cool! We ended up calling a person that had been marked as not interested and she was super depressed because of isolation and that made her want to meet with us and pray with us again and we were like YES CORONA MIRACLE and just a bunch of other stuff happened where we called some awesome members and some other people that we were teaching and we had SO MANY people agree to come to church and it was awesome. That was the first day in a long time that we had just 24 hours of work in our area. And it wasn't even a full 24 hours because we had to drive to Youngstown because the sisters needed blessings so we had to go to that! But our day was still super miraculous. We had a lesson with Adam and some members and the guy member was so good and literally just taught the whole lesson for us and dang. Adam is now hopefully understanding the restoration better. We taught him about temples too to see if that would motivate him. Also, he has committed to living the word of wisdom, but he hasn't even committed to baptism. He is a weird guy. Keep praying for him because we love him dearly. 

Sunday: I loved Easter Sunday. We had a church service with the Newcastle Ward over zoom at 10:30 and one of the friends that we are teaching was there and in the middle of the service, he lit up a cigarette and went to the bathroom so the bishop had to turn off his camera so no one saw. He gave us a call about it later and said that he was happy Jim had tuned in and maybe to let him know that next time he could just leave the phone in the living room when he went to the bathroom. So fuuny. We called Jim later and explained that and he was like oh my bad and then we taught him the word of wisdom and my it was emotional to me. Jim is a smoker (obviously) and he used to be an even bigger one. He is down to three a day but as we explained the Word of Wisdom to him and asked him what he was going to do he just said "I am going to stop smoking" and it was beautiful. He was talking about how he felt happier since he started learning about Jesus and he was going to do this now. It was amazing for me to see how Christ was changing Jim's life and how Jim was going to start making choices to be better and to do differently, all because he was coming to love His Savior and wanted to do what He wanted. Wow, it was so cool. 

Church with the Keeffers was a GIANT MIRACLE!!! Eric and Emily tuned in and Wanda (the one that will now be getting baptized here soon we hope because of what Don said) was there which was actually a miracle because she is seriously old and can't do technology so we were on the phone with her for an hour trying to teach her how to use zoom so the fact that she could get on there and it worked was insane. After the church service, she called and said that she loved it and she appreciated it more than we know. She said that she was crying because she loved it so much and was so grateful. That is when she started talking about how the guy at the end talked about baptism and she realized that in order to be part of this she needed to be baptized and she wanted that. We invited her to pray about it and we set up a time for Wednesday to call her, but that was super awesome. Anthony also tuned in which was cool because he had been ghosting us all week and finally he responded. Hallelujah. He loved it! Tyler came to church and he even wore a white shirt and tie and that was super cool. We sent the finished live version to one of our friends that we are teaching in Africa that couldn't tune in live and he loved it and Adam also watched it later. That church service brought miracles into the lives of the people that we are teaching. Plus, I had never really heard all of my uncles bear their testimonies like that so it was super cool and inspiring to see all of these men that I have known my whole life share what they knew to be true about the Atonement. That was really touching for me. I'm grateful that I could tune in. 

The rest of the day was awesome. We got permission to go with one other companionship in our zone for four hours to celebrate Easter. We drove about an hour up to Rootstown to be with them. A member in their ward gave them dinner so we had that with them and we played Book of Mormon baseball and just had a good time. We have nightly district devotionals and this one was one of my favorites because we just got to hear everyone's testimonies about the atonement and we discussed Jesus Christ and His life and His example and the spirit was present. This entire day and actually this whole outbound experience I have been able to feel the spirit more abundantly. I can really recognize when He is speaking to me which is so awesome because up until now, I could sometimes recognize and understand, but usually not. I feel a lot more spiritually sensitive and I can feel Him with me always leading me and guiding me which is amazing. I'm grateful that I have been able to learn this while I was here on the mission because it is something that I have struggled with before. 

I got a voice memo Sunday night from Sister Mahan and wow I just love her and I wish that she was still here but hopefully she can come back. Usually she wouldn't, but because a lot of this is stemming from corona the missionary department is giving everyone that goes home at this point the option to be reassigned in a month or in a year to a year and a half so she could come back out! I hope that she can find the right answer for herself! 

Well, this email was super long but this week was super eventful. I have been able to see God working miracles all throughout it. He knows that Sister Johnston and I are just doing our best and trying to magnify our assignment as STLs and help the sisters and that leaves less time for our people and to do our own work. He is making it happen though and we aren't even doing anything. We are just trying our best to keep up. Isolation isn't keeping us from doing anything so nobody should ever feel bad for us. We are THRIVING and God is providing miracles for us every single day. I love Him and I know that this is His work. 

I love and miss you both so much! I'll talk to you soon!!

Love

Em

I'm Alive!

Hey everyone! 

I honestly have no idea how long it has been since I have sent one of these, sorry about that! Good news: I'm alive. Also, I'm still in Ohio!! I was supposed to go back to Temple Square a few days ago but because of the virus, I get to stay in Ohio for another six weeks. Lucky me! 

I figured that I would stay in the same area and finish training Sister Mahan. Wow was I wrong. We actually both got taken out of Gahanna and transferred up three hours north to the Youngstown Zone. My new area is Warren, Ohio!! I am so sad to leave Gahanna because of the wonderful people I got to meet there. I love all the people we are teaching! We had one lady named Nancy who was going to be baptized in a few weeks so leaving her was really hard because we came to be really good friends, but I know that I need to be in Warren for a reason. 

My new companion is Sister Johnston, she is from St. George, Utah! So fun! She is seriously amazing. I miss Sister Mahan but we are in the same zone so I get to see her every once in a while when we go on exchanges so I look forward to when we can do exchanges with her and her companion. 

Just like the rest of the world, we are in isolation but surprisingly I'm not going too crazy yet. We are doing all of our work online. It is a huge tender mercy that I have been teaching online for my whole mission at Temple Square because it made it so easy to just start doing lessons over the phone and facetime again. 

Basically, life is great even though isolation can be hard sometimes. I love being a missionary and the work moves on. We can see the miracles every day coming from the effort that we are putting in online. We are teaching some awesome people here in Warren and we have faith that we will see people enter the waters of baptism despite the virus. Stay safe out there! 

Sister Moran 

p.s. I would talk about General Conference but then this email would be 12 pages long so just know that I loved every single second of it! 

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Hey Parents! Are you ready for a fat update of my week? Be prepared! It is a little heftier than the past couple of weeks. 

First of all, General Conference was seriously legendary. I don't know about you guys, but I was receiving revelation right and left and up and down and I probably have to read and listen to them all again just for the other half of information that I didn't comprehend enough for it to sink in. Here are some of the answers that I got! 

One of my big questions was about what I should study when I go to BYU this fall. I kept looking for God to just speak the major that I needed but absolutely nothing was coming. So, when I was listening I realized that all of the speakers were telling us how to receive personal revelation and how we could Hear Him better. Now with these tools on how to better receive revelation, I am ready to really study it out in my mind and go and really work for that revelation. That was a cool answer to my prayer. My mission ends in 81 days. Time has flown. I have been thinking a lot about if I am the person that God wants me to be, if I have done everything I needed to or if I wasted my time. I was actually super kinda panicky about it. Elder Holland's talk comforted me when he said: "I didn't come this far just to come this far". Life goes on after the mission! I think that is something that I forget a lot. I didn't serve 18 months and give myself to the Lord just to stop there, I keep on going after. There were more answers but those were just two big ones that I thought I would share. 

I got an email this week from President Fisher back on Temple Square square. Probably you got the same email (we did not get the same email so this was all news to us). He was talking about how there was lots of work to do there, especially with food production at Welfare Square and the online teaching program that we use over there. He talked about how we would all be coming back on May 13th unless something really crazy happened. But we can also choose to go home on May 13th if we feel like we need to be with our families. I have to let President Fisher now my decision by Wednesday of this week. I won't lie, when I got that email I was really not feeling too good about going back. I didn't really and still don't want to spend the rest of my mission making food at Welfare Square. I really want to teach. I have taught my whole mission and thinking that I would go back to a mission that is so different scares me. As for online teaching, I passed off all of the people I was teaching three transfers ago when I left the square and that would leave me six weeks to build up a new teaching pool just to go home and have to give them all to other people again. Plus, I feel needed here in the Ohio Columbus Mission. There are just so many sisters at Temple Square that I sometimes feel lost in the crowd. I have felt so welcomed and so loved when I have been here and I am so grateful for that. Anyways, long story short I was not very excited about going back to a Temple Square that was so different from the one that I left. The good news is that I was praying for Heavenly Father to soften my heart and to help me and General Conference did it. President Eyring was talking about how we all have roles to play in the ongoing restoration and they are all going to be different. I realized that my role this next transfer is quite possibly going to be making bread at Welfare Square, and why not? I am not above that. Thinking that I was entitled to something else was really prideful of me. I think that I am becoming sufficiently humble to just do what the Lord wants me to do, even if it isn't what I want to do. Oh how the Lord can soften even the hardest of hearts;) On the real though, I seriously love Temple Square. Watching General Conference and all of the talk of the Salt Lake Temple and all of the videos and pics of Temple Square before, during, and after the sessions made me miss it so bad. It got to the point where I was actually kind of bummed that I wasn't there for it. But, then they talked about Kirtland and Ohio too and I was like wow. How dope is it that I have gotten to serve in two seriously restoration filled locations! Did you hear how many times they talked about Kirtland?! For crying out loud the first temple of our dispensation was here!! How blessed am I to get to serve in two missions that are just so special:) 

Now to update you on the people that we are teaching. 

We have this lady named Asia who is on date to be baptized but she hasn't responded to us the entire week that I have been here. Not to our texts and calls and we even went by her house (within six feet of course) because we were getting pretty desperate to get in contact with her but nothing. We texted her I think three or four times about General Conference and we texted her one more time before the Sunday afternoon session. Then she FINALLY texted back and said thank you for not giving up on her and that General Conference had really helped her. It was the hugest miracle!!! I am grateful that she finally reached out so we can help her be baptized this transfer, all she needs to do is get her marriage license done! Easy peasy, right? 

We are teaching this SUPER Catholic dude named Adam. Seriously, it is unreal how Catholic he is. He shows us his rosary and he loves the Trinity and all of that good stuff. We have been working on getting him to baptism. We had two lessons with him this week. The first one was 1.5 hours long and seriously, Sister Johnston and I were on fire with the spirit. When we finished the call we were literally exhausted because we had been laboring in the spirit so hard and so long. We started by teaching the plan of salvation and we only got to our life on earth because we talked about what we need to do in this life, namely, baptism. We explained the entire restoration to him again, we explained priesthood authority four times, we explained the apostasy like none other, but Adam was just not getting it. He feels like the Priest that baptized him when he was a baby had authority and that it is what God wanted for him. The whole time it was just really cool to see how God was putting scriptures and passages into our hearts and mind that we needed to share with him. Because here is what is cool and confusing about Adam: he believes that the Book of Mormon is true and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the Kingdom of God here on the earth, just like it says in the intro to the Book of Mormon, and he believes that Joseph Smith is a prophet. But homie just won't leave the Catholic faith! It seems to me as if he is stuck in his ways a little bit. Anyways, after an hour and a half of a super intense and bold lesson, we invited him to be dunked on April 25th and he said no but that he would pray about it and we promised he would get an answer that he needed to be. Well, the next day he texted (or two days later maybe?) and said that he got his answer and that he didn't need to be baptized again because his first one was good and we were like, uh no. So, we had another lesson and we pulled out the big guns. We read Moroni 8. We knew that this chapter was pretty fiery because it talked about people being thrust down to hell if they thought that you need to baptize children and so we were really nervous to share that, but we skipped the really roasty toasty verses and read the ones where is explicitly said that little children need no baptism. You should have seen his face when we read that. He knew that it was true but again didn't want to deny what he was raised with and had stood by for so long. We asked lots of inspired questions to no avail. He watched almost all of General Conference this past weekend and he keeps all of his commitments and LOVES  meeting with us. He remembers all of the Sisters that he has ever met with which is super cool. But he just won't change in a way that will change him in an eternally. Any suggestions? 

We are teaching this other guy named Anthony. He is a single dad and he loves the gospel. He has said that after he prayed that he would be baptized if he knew that this was true. So cool right!! So we called him the other day to see what his answer was and to teach him about temples because he really loves his daughter and we knew that he would love everything that we do inside the temple. So, we call, during the call, he starts driving but it's no biggie because he is still paying attention. He parks somewhere and talks about how much he loves the idea of temples and families being together and right as we are going to get to the climax of our lesson #getbaptized because you already know that you know all of this good stuff is true and from God, he was like "I am so sorry sisters, but I have to get going, I just drove myself to urgent care because I am really not feeling well" and we were like oh no and it turns out that he has had a fever for a hot second and been pretty sick and we are pretty sure he has corona. Side note: we were calling some members in our ward and they have a friend that just died from corona and there have been a bunch of cases all around, it seems bigger in this part of Ohio which is a little more country than where I was before in Columbus so that is interesting to me. Back to Anthony though, we had to let him go and we said a prayer and everything. That was Friday and we haven't heard from him since and we are worried about him and that he actually has corona. He would probably be okay because he is young, but still, it's scary. It was really cool though because even though he was super sick he made time to call us, even as he was driving to urgent care. He could have said no and that would have been totally understandable, but he is just such a solid dude that he made the gospel a priority. Isn't that awesome?? 

We have been just working hard and helping the people that we already have progress. We had some miraculous experiences with people that haven't answered in a while picking up and being able to get in contact with them and set up teaching appointments. Plus, there were Elders in this area last transfer but they got doubled out and they weren't replaced, so we were able to call a bunch of the people that they were teaching. One of which was an online Bible study request. The Elders had been doing studies with him every day over the phone and we get to continue that now! Online referrals do work! And on the same note, some sisters in our zone got a Book of Mormon referral from some sisters at Temple Square and this guy is like super elect and prepared and seriously they put him on date already. Isn't that crazy!!! Online teaching for the win! We have also been working on calling inactive members in our ward. There are so many. Almost triple the amount of the active members. We have seen some cool miracles in reaching out to them in being able to set up return appointments. And some of these are for people that haven't been in contact with the church for years. I love getting to see the work progress! 

A lot of missionaries are really struggling with this whole we can't leave our apartment thing, I haven't had too much of a problem with it yet. I know that God is doing this for a reason and I know that He has huge miracles in store, all we have to do is try. Sister Mahan who is in our zone is having a really hard time though. We got permission to go watch General Conference with them and we were talking and she was very open about how she is thinking about going home. Then again, she has anxiety and she is in a bad spell so she knows that she shouldn't be making big decisions right now, but still. That was really eye-opening to me. To see my past sweet companion that loves the work and loves being a missionary seriously contemplating going home because she can't do the self-isolation. She got a counselor though and that seems to be helping. Plus her comp this transfer is super awesome so she is going to be just fine. That didn't stop her from crying when I had to go back to my area though. To be fair, I was about to cry too, I love that woman. Her counselor told her to draw pictures to remind her about why she loves the work, and she drew a picture of me and hung it up on the living room wall and parents, it was so tender to see that. Just send some extra prayers her way. 

This past week we have actually been able to be with almost all of the sisters in the zone because we went and spent General Conference with them (don't worry, it was totally allowed). We are starting training visits literally tomorrow and I am super nervous because I don't know why anyone thinks that I am qualified to train someone else on how to do missionary work. Pray that these sisters will be patient and that I'll just be able to follow the Spirit on what they need and how I can help. And that our schedules will just be super full and that we can find lots of people to talk to and help online. 

Okay. I think that is all. There is more that happened but I am just going to leave it at this. Sister Johnston is awesome and I am learning a lot from her about powerful teaching. We both can get pretty bold with people. I have learned a lot from her good example of being a Preach My Gospel missionary. Plus, she is a super good listener and will just let me talk out all of my thoughts which is so nice of her. She kinda reminds me of you mom! Anyways, love you guys so so much!!! 

Love 

Sister Moran 

p.s. I only have 11 more pdays after this... only 11 more FAT emails from yours truly;) Time goes by way too fast.