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
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