Hello. Hello.

Hey everyone! This week my companion and I are planning on sewing our outfits so she is chompin at the bit to email quick this week. I am sorry that this email is going to be really short. The weather here is freeeezzziiinnnggggg!!!!!!!! Seriously! I realized that I haven't been on my mission without it snowing. They say mid May it starts to creep up into the 40's. My snow gear is nice and warm so I can make it to May. I am still in Painesville. I am thinkin that it's about time for me to get transferred. I will be so sad but I've been in my area about as long as President keeps people. I love my companion Sister Gee. So fun! Transfers aren't until the middle of April so I've still got time. Thanks for all the pictures this week. I loved them all. It sounds like Temple Square was so fun! Just so you don't get confused: Kirtland missionaries are better then all other Visitors' Center sisters ;) This week Sister Gee was sick so we spent two days at home. It gets boring real quick when you're stuck at home. We tracted for 6 hours on Saturday. It was a lot of fun. We were following a group of J-Dubs. Each door they put up one of their flyers and I would take it down and put up one of ours. We collected about 100 of their dumb little flyers. We didn't get anyone to talk to us but at least the J-Dubs didn't get their flyers out! haha. Everything is really good here. Thanks for the emails this week. I miss you all. A year from yesterday I will no longer be a missionary and all ya'll will be out here trompin around with me in the snow! Yippeeee. On Saturday I am making the girls in my house have an Easter egg roll. That should be fun. Have fun in warm St. George! I am jealous. I loveyou all!!!!

Lacee

Week 22ish

Thanks for the emails this week everyone. Mom- your sewing cabinet looks way nice. My companion graduated from BYU with two degrees, one is in civil engineering and the other is in clothing construction. Today we are going to the fabric store and getting fabric to make a top and skirt. She is a pro so hopefully I can figure out what she is teaching me. To answer everyone's question: yes I wore green yesterday. I have a bright green sweater that I wore! My companion didn't have any green so I let her borrow this other light green sweater that I have. I'll see what outfit I can round up that are the wedding colors and I'll take a picture of it and send it. Kinda fun. I got a really random email today from someone telling me that someone they know is coming to this mission and that they know Jake Airhart..? They also said that Missy Airhart's sister is coming here. I was really confused because the email wasn't from someone that is actually coming here. I emailed the person and said that the person they know can totally email me. I guess if anyone has any info on that you can tell the girl to directly email me.

 

This week was good. We were able to have 9 lessons. That is a lot for our area. We also tracted 5 1/2 hours. Basically that means that we were busy this week. Sister Gee and I have been trying to think of really good ways to talk to people when they open the door. We decided just to be frank and if they aren't interested then move on. When they open the door we say "Hey we are teaching people about this book. It's called the Book of Mormon. It's a book about Jesus Christ that can bring you peace and happiness. DO you want to learn more about it?" It has been quite successful. We also decided that in the nicer areas (which by nice I mean that it's not government housing) we are going to pass out flyers for people to volunteer at the Bishop's Storehouse. Hopefully that will drawn some peeps in. Most of the people that we taught this week are people that we had taught in the past- Cynthia, Marcos, Fatima, Markiesha (her little brother is in our ward) and Alex Telegdy. Alex is someone that we first taught when I got here. We found out that he is on parol for the next 5 years. Well we decided that it will probably take him a few years to change and stop smoking so we might as well start now. The work has been really slow for the mission. No one can figure it out. We had a zone training meeting this week and we went over numbers. No one is having success. Our goal for this year is 557 baptisms. The mission is at 13. Nice! Probably not going to make out goal! We are told that prepared people are here in our mission just waitin for the gospel but where the heck are they? It has been crazy in our ward because this transfer they added missionaries to the ward. There are 8 missionaries and a sr. couple. Ward council can no longer be held in the Bishop's office because the missionaries take over.

 

Ok so has Austin gotten any of the letters that I've sent? Tell him that I love him and that he needs to write me. Tell him to make a video for me and to send it to me. Sister Gee will make him a video this week and send it next Monday. Did Dallin ever get the funny book that I sent him? I saw it for like 75 cents at the Painesville library. Such a gem. Remember how I told ya that my companion doesn't like to stay long and email? Well she is standin over me ready to go. Sacrafice brings forth the blessings of Heaven. Right? Hey if anyone has anything they could send me that would be helpful to me as a missionary send it my way- techniques that worked on your mission, ways that you found people to teach, cute teaching aides that I can print off and color... anything. Send this to all the cousins and see if they have any tips that would help me out.

 

I love you all and miss you like crazy! Oh ya so my release date is March 24th, 2014. Most likely it won't be exactly on that date but a few days either before or after. Start getting work off so ya'll can come out here. No excuses! :) Thanks for everything.

 

Sister Frampton

A new transfer begins!

So my new companion hates staying for a long time at the library to email so it looks like this transfer I will be sending home short emails. Oh well. Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven. 

This week was transfers. I was stressed. Sister Gee was told that she wasn't leaving our house so she didn't need to pack up. Sister Bell and I were getting split and each taking over the freshly split Painesville. I had a 50/50 chance that the old Geezer would be my companion. Morning of transfers I moved all of my stuff upstairs and Geezer just decided to move her stuff in too. We just assumed that we would be companions. I squweeeeaall a little when the Zone Leaders announced that Gee and I were companions. One of the pictures is right after we found out we are companions. She is so great! I  have lived in the same house my whole mission and we have come to be best friends. 

My district leader let me choose if I wanted to work in Painesville East or Painesville West since I have been here the longest I would know which area everyone would work better in. I chose Painesville West- the ghetto!!!! Sister Bell and her comppy got the really nice area out by Lake Erie. You can see in the pictures I sent how big Painesville is and then the next picture is our tiny tiny area that we now have. Weird!

Oh ya so another Sister Frampton is here from Utah. Her name is Shelby. Will someone find out how we are related? Thanks.
 
Before this transfer our ward has a set of sisters and a set of elders. This transfer they split our area and the elder's area. Now there are 8 missionaries in the ward. Holy freak!!! It is so many. We take over the ward. Our ward is already tiny and then add more missionaries. Both of the elders got fresh out of the mtc companions. It's fun to see them wandering around clueless. I cannot believe that I was once like that. I am so old!

The other picture I sent is so funny. The one with the keys under the driver's wheel. This is how people in Ohio hide their keys when they are at church. Pretty safe right? Might as well just leave them in the ignition. 

On Saturday we had a huge ward activity. The missionaries put together a ward talent show. We have been working on it since January. It was a huge hit! Tons of non members and less actives came out for it. Everyone was really impressed with us. We had so much fun.

So I have some sad news to report about Tommy. We dropped Tommy this week because he was being really rude to us and not wanting to schedule with us. His baptism was suppose to be on the 16th. I called him yesterday to check up on him and he had blocked our number. So sad! Oh well. It's out of our hands now. Mission break ups are so hard!! Oh well. The Lord had to have us drop him so he could make room for us to teach other people. 

Thanks for all of the emails this week. Thanks for the letter Austin. I loved it. Thanks for the package mom. The cards are so cute!! I love you all!!!

Lacee 

I am almost 5 months old!

Hello Family! Thanks Mom and Dad for the emails and for the testimonies for Tommy. Those will really help him. You will find out later in the email what his problem is. I had a really good week! This week the transfer is only 5 weeks so it is coming to a close. There are 6 Visitors' Center sisters coming out which means 6 sisters will be training. Trainer calls were made yesterday and I won't be training (yay!). Kiley Neslen is training!! YAY for her. It's so exciting. She told me not to tell you all because she wants to tell her parents first so don't tell her family that I told you. OK? Sister Bell and I HAVE to stay together for one more transfer- so that we can both help Tommy make it to his baptismal date March 16th. I am up for transfer so hopefully President just leaves us how we are. We wont find out transfers for another week. 

Feb. 18th:
After PEEE day we stopped by a few less actives in the ward. We have about 25 families that are in our area. That is a ton! Our ward basically wants the missionaries to stop by each family and get their story and offer them the options of: 1. Weekly visits from missionaries 2. Weekly visits from HT or VT 3. Leave me alone get off my porch or 4. To have their records removed. We stopped by 5 house. 4 of them weren't home and 1 of them hid in their living room and didn't answer the door. That's my favorite when you can see them hiding. HAHA!!! We were getting pretty bored doing stop bys so we called Tommy and we were like hey no one is home and people are hiding from us can we come hang out with you? He said that he just got off work and he was about to go eat. We met him and we got a drink while he ate. It is really important that we spent some time with Tommy not talking about church. It is important for us to be interested in his life and get to know him better. He has a lot of trust issues and we figured out that the more we just "hang out" with him the faster we gain his trust. We had a lot of fun talking with him and finding out more about his family. He told us that he saw on the news that there are speculations about the government putting a chip thing in people's hands so that they can keep track of people and so that no one can still your identity. It sounded ridiculous to me until he showed us a video from CNN of them talking about it. CNN is a pretty reliable source right? Can anyone fill me in on this chip thing? Sounds a bit fishy to me. Tommy expressed to us that he is really nervous about finding a "good girl" to marry. He always says "Look at me. I'm all tatted up. What girl would want to marry me?" It then hit me that he wasn't have "Tommy issues." He was having age appropriate issues. Everyone that is in their mid 20s starts to freak out a little about who they are going to marry and if they actually will get married. I told him that it's totally normal for him to feel this way (Hello pretty sure Sister Bell and I both feel that way). It calmed him down a bit and made him feel like he wasn't a loser for thinking that way. He really wants to move out to Utah. We encouraged him that it would be easier for him to find a Mormon girl to marry. The singles branch out here is about 40 minutes away and it only has maybe 20 members. Maybe Tommy will be our neighbor in a few years. 

Feb. 19th:
We had to leave at about 7:30 AM and drive an hour and half to the Doctor for my prescription refill. It was really funny. I get into my appointment and he was like "What can I do for you?" I said "Well I have already been diagnosed, I already have a medicine and a dose that works for me, all I need for you to do is write me a prescription." It was really funny. He said "I went to years of school and studied like crazy and all you want me to do is write on a piece of paper for you?" I said "Ya basically" and he was like "Ok cool!" He called Probst to verify my dose and stuff and that was that. He had a medical student in the room and the student said "Well since I'm not going to learn anything about how to be a doctor from this appointment can I ask you some questions about your church?" Of course you can!!!! I told him all about what a missionary does and how the program works. It was cool. I gave him the number to the Elders that are in his area if he had anymore questions. I guess it was worth driving all that way. When we got back to the Visitors' Center we had a lesson scheduled with Tommy. We took him up to the School of Prophets (if you don't know what that is then stop reading this email and google it right now!) in the Newell K. Whitney store. We first stopped in Joseph Smith's office and told him the process Joseph went through to receive revelations for the Doctrine and Covenants. He totally understood. When we got in the School of the Prophets we taught him all about the Word of Wisdom. It was really powerful. He was like "Wow they quit smoking just like that?" Tommy doesn't smoke and rarely drinks so those wouldn't be an issue for him. We didn't really think that he would have a problem with the WOW but when we told him about coffee he flipped. I hate seeing Tommy flip. He is actually really scary sometimes. I was holding my breath that he wouldn't walk out of the room. He very calmly asked "Why no coffee?" I wanted him to teach himself so I said "Why do you think no coffee?" He sat for about 5 minutes and then said "Because Heavenly Father said so." YES!!!!!! Exactly Tommy!!! We asked him if he will commit to live the WOW and he said yes. He was totally calm about it. We asked him to bear his testimony. He bore the most pure testimony I have ever heard. I started to cry. I don't cry when I feel the spirit. That's just not what I do. I was so happy for him. I was so happy that he finally gets it. He knows with out a doubt that this is the true church. We asked him to say the closing prayer. We knelt down on the original floor boards in the School of Prophets and he said such a great prayer. I was bawling during the prayer. He is such an example of faith to me. After he prayed I had a thought that he should have a minute alone in the room. I told him that he would have a minute to say his own prayer and we would wait outside. He was in there for about 10 mins. When he came out he told us that he kept hearing "My son, My son!" YAY!!! Heavenly Father loves him!!! I love seeing happy Tommy!! He was literally skipping off to his car. For the rest of the day we spent chatting and calling people at sites.

Feb. 20th:
Because Sister Bell was sick last week and we had to leave Zone Conference early President made us make it up at another Zone's Conference. We had to drive 2 hours in a blizzard to Youngstown, Ohio. It was a really good conference. An elder that was in my ward was transferred to that Zone so it was fun to catch up with him and give him the details of the Perry ward. We are only allowed to drive about 1200 miles a month and so between my doctor appointment and Zone Conference we are about out of miles. Yikes! After Zone Conference we went to sites and had a few hours to chat with some folks.

Feb. 21st:
Tommy came to sites again and we taught him about tithing. We were really nervous to teach him this. This is a common lesson that people freak out on and then peace out. He freaked out a little but we did a really good job of keeping it together. By the end of the lesson he committed to paying a full tithe and fasting. Tommy is so great. After his lesson we went back home and prepared for our Book of Mormon class. I don't know if I had told you but the missionaries in our ward have been teaching a Book of Mormon class every Thursday. We switch off with the elders teaching it. We were teaching about the Iron Rod. Last week I randomly went through the contacts in our phone and I called a girl named Jaime and asked her if she wanted to meet with us. She said yes!! We had an appointment with her at 4:15. When we got there she wasn't home and her brother said that she was working and wouldn't be home until 8. It is so frustrating when people do this to us. All they have to do is tell us they aren't interested or that they have to reschedule. So weird. We called her and she didn't answer and wont call us back. Oh well. We are looking for people that want to learn. We aren't going to beg people to listen to us. We tracted a bit and then we had dinner at a members house. We rarely get dinners so it was fun to interact with this family. they are great. After dinner we taught an amazing lesson about 1 Nephi 8. It is so cool how the spirit just takes it away. We taught things that we didn't plan. By the end of the lesson we had charts all over the board of how we can make praying, scripture study and church attendance easier. It was awesome because a less active that we have been working with was there and I think it really helped her. After BOM class the elders hold a free spanish class. My spanish is getting really good. I have been able to ask people in spanish if we can pray with them, I can pray with them and then ask them how they felt when I was praying. I can also tell them that there are spanish missionaries that they can meet with. It's cool how Heavenly Father has helped me learn these simple phrases to help people learn about his gospel.

Feb. 22nd:
We had Visitors' Center training (we have it each Friday). It was really good. Kirtland has 2 sisters that are basically girl Zone Leaders. They are called Training Sisters. They put on each training. Our scripture for the transfer talks about light. Each training meeting they have been teaching us ways that we can literally light up Kirtland and more people will come visit it because they will recognize that their is something there that they need. Sister Bell was sick again with gluten so we stayed home all day. I was able to clean up and study a bit. I called a bunch of people but no one was interested in meeting with us. Bummer. The training sisters asked if we would go on exchanges with them. Scary!! I would be going with Sister Larson to Shaker Heights. I packed up all my gear and went over to Sister Larson's house to sleep their. Sister Hillman came and took my place.

Feb. 23rd:
 I was a bit nervous to work with Sister Larson. She is an awesome missionary. We had a really good day together. Shaker is not like Painesville. It is really nice! Tons of cute Sugar House like houses. Darling. We met a lady named Rachelle. The first thing I said to her was "We are out here today telling people that there is a prophet on the earth today, a prophet like Moses and Abraham." She said "Oh I've actually been looking for a church that has a prophet like the ones from the Bible." I almost passed out. We got her info and the Shaker sisters will be calling her soon. I loved working with Sister Larsen. It was great to have a different view on how I can help Painesville. It was a very successful exchange! She is a super hard worker. We tracted 6 and 1/2 hours. I was dead by the time we got home!!!!!

Feb. 24th:
Tommy came to church today!!! When he got there I could smell coffee and I got a little nervous. yikes! In the middle of sacrament he took my scriptures, opened them and handed them back to me. He pointed to Ether 12:27 and said this is my favorite scripture.  27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their ^aweakness. I ^bgive unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my ^cgrace is sufficient for all men that ^dhumble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make ^eweak things become strong unto them. So cool!! We are going to put that on the front of his baptism program. After Sacrament we took Tommy out to the couches to have a lesson with him. We taught him the law of chastity. It went really well. He totally understood everything. I felt a little awkward talking to him about it but whatever. After the lesson I said "So... how is the whole no coffee thing going?" He said "Well I've still been drinking it but I have been trying to resist and I want to stop." I was taught from my trainer that they have to be living the WOW for 3 weeks before they are baptized. I started out by tell him that I understand how hard it is for him. I told him that if someone asked me to stop eating something like cereal or bread that I would probably have a hard time giving it up. I really wanted him to not feel like we were getting mad at him for slipping up. I felt like I handled it really well. I told him that in order for him to get baptized he needed to be living the WOW for 3 weeks and that since he has still been drinking we need to change his baptismal date. I was really nice in telling him all of this. I told him that it's no big deal to change it and because he slipped up that wont stop him from getting baptized. I didn't think he would flip oh but he did!! BIG TIME!! He said doesn't God know that I am trying? I feel like nothing I do is good enough. We tried everything to calm him down but nothing worked. Sister Bell said to me "Do you think President would make an exception to the 3 weeks if Tommy commits today to stop drinking?" I said "Probably." We snagged the Elders' Quorm President (who happens to be about 29 and is Tommy's friend) and asked him about the 3 week rule and if he had that rule on his mission. He told us that in the baptismal questions it doesn't ask "Have you been living the WOW for 3 weeks?" It just says "Are you committed to live the WOW?" That got us thinking... Where did the 3 week rule come from? Is it just a myth that has been passed down from trainer to trainer? We told Tommy that we would talk to our district leader and that everything would work out. We told him that we were so proud of him and he has come so far. Tommy was really, really mad. We sent him to Elders Quorm and hoped for the best. After church we couldn't find Tommy and turns out that he peaced because he was so mad. We talked to Elder Meza and he said that President doesn't go by the 3 week rule. That was the old President's rule. That's great news right? Tommy can get baptized on the date that he prayed about. On the way home from church we called Tommy 10 times and he didn't answer. Oh no! He can't go into hiding. Finally he answered and we had an hour long talk with us. He said that because the 3 week rule can just change he is now uncertain about everything else we have been teaching him. He is concerned that because we didn't know the 3 week rule that how can he be sure that we didn't understand anything else that we have been teaching him? YIKES!! I told him that he has been praying about it and that he has felt the Spirit testify to him that the things he has learned are true. He told us that we had broken his trust in us as missionaries. That broke my heart. I have done so much to build trust with Tommy. I started to cry and Sister Bell had to talk to him on the phone. He said that he doesn't want to learn from us anymore and he wants to learn from someone that he can trust. He said that he is going to start learning from Kevin (The EQP). I seriously felt like I was getting broken up with. My heart was broken. I would never want to do anything to someone that would take them further away from Heavenly Father. I felt so bad. After we hung up the phone Sister Bell and I just laid on the floor crying. We decided to say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father for advice. We called Kevin and he is going to have lunch with Tommy and explain to him that we have been called as missionaries by a prophet of God. We wouldn't be allowed to be missionaries if God knew we were going to go out and lie to people. He is going to tell Tommy that it is not his calling to teach Tommy the missionary lessons. Kevin is so great. This will work out. Heavenly Father will take care of Tommy. 

That was my week! It was full of ups and downs. We are having a really hard time finding people to teach. No one wants to listen to us. We don't know what we are going to do after Tommy gets baptized. We will have a lot of free time. haha! Please pray for Tommy. Also will you pray that this week Sister Bell and I will find someone that is prepared to hear the gospel? I love all of you and thanks for everything that you do! I love being a missionary. It is so great! I love you all so much and I miss you. 

Sister Frampton!

four months!

Ahh I have basically no time this week. Yikes!! Thanks for all the emails this week. I love hearing all the updates from home. Since I have zero time to write here are the highlights from this week:

Tommy has been in Hawaii all week. We have been really nervous for him to go there so we ended up fasting a day for him. We don't want him to go back to partying and girls. We had his friend Abinadai constantly watch Tommy's Facebook and give us updates on anything shady that he sees. So far he hasn't seen anything yet. No pictures of Tommy drinking or nasty girls hanging all over him. Yay! We are so proud of Tommy!! He gets home tomorrow. I'll be able to relax after tomorrow. The ward assigned him home teachers to get him ready for after he is baptized. He is excited about that. His baptism is March 16th. I am so excited!!!!  

I have a stalker named Theo. We met him at the library. We taught him twice and he came to church last week. He has been texting me 40 times each day. He is crazy. He gave me a present and professed his love for me. It was a wooden box with a huge bible in it. haha. Every time we go to the library he is always there. Creepy. I have our new Site director call him and we haven't gotten any texts from him today so it seems like he has gotten the message. Oh the people you find when you are in Painesville Ohio.

We started setting up a table at Lake Erie College. It has been really fun to talk to college kids for a few hours each day. We went to the craft store on Saturday and we bought bright paper and a foam board to make a huge wheel that will have all types of questions about Mormons on it. The kids can spin and win prizes. We think they will love it. Our ward is having a talent show coming up so we are presenting it to the college as a "community" talent show. Hopefully we can get people to come to it. 

My companion is great! I love her so much. We have a lot of fun together. This week the prize goes to Aunt Cari. She is the only one I got a paper letter from this week so thanks Cari. I am not sick anymore and life is really good here. I love being a Visitors' Center missionary. I am currently teaching 2 people over the phone at the center. Will you all please pray for Tommy this week? I love you all so much!!! Thanks for the support!

Lacee

Transfer #3

Hello Family! I am so happy that I heard from EVERYONE this week! Tell Austin that I got his letter and his picture. Thanks so much dude! This week has been really great. Change is good. I've taken on a lot of responsibility this week. Sister Hansen got transferred to Kirtland and Sister Bell is my new companion. I love her so much. I knew her from working at Sites. She is from Utah as well. Her and I get along really well and she is a hard worker. Since she is new to Painesville I was the one that took over. I am now the driver of the car (kinda scary when there is huge sheets of ice covering the roads). It is up to me to decide who we are going to stop by and who we are going to schedule with (since she doesn't know anyone). Also with Sister Hansen she has a GPS that got us around. I don't have one so I have been relying on my memory to get us around Painesville. Painesville is 30 minutes away from Kirtland. I've been way impressed with myself that I have been able to get us to and from Painesville without getting lost. This is going to be a really good transfer. It is so weird that I have been out 4 months. 

On Monday after our P day ended we went around Painesville saying bye to people in the ward (because Sister Hansen was getting transferred). The members seem glad that I am staying in the ward.

On Tuesday we were at Sites. We spent the day emailing and calling people. No tours came in.

Wednesday was transfer day. I was so nervous to see who my new companion was. I know all of the Site sisters and they are great but it is scary to see who will come to you. I was worried about who would be best for Tommy since he can be a stinker sometimes. We went to transfer meeting and they go over all of the missionaries that are going home. Sister Tok was going home. I cried the whole meeting because I love her!!! PS she will be contacting you when you go to Hawaii so she can meet you all. Her phone number is: 808-276-1840. She knows all of the secrets of the Island so maybe she could take you all on a cool hike or something. I was happy when I was announced that I was taking over the area and Sister Bell was my new comppy. She is great!!!!!!!!!! We were at Sites on Wednesday so we took some time for me to explain the area to her and who is who in the ward.

Thursday was our first day in the area together. It was great. We did some stop bys so she could get to know the people. We ate at this authentic Mexican restaurant. Everyone is Mexican in Painesville. We have actually been asked to start learning Spanish. I can hold a small convo with someone I meet on the street and I can pray in Spanish. It's been fun to learn. Last week we met a rapper named Nino. We taught him at the library. He seems pretty cool. He is studying to be a J dubbb but we are showing him the truth. He is 21 with a 3 year old son that lives in Cali with the mom.

On Friday we spent most of the day helping a member named Rosa move. 

On Saturday we spent a good part of the day stopping by potential investigators. We had to run to the library to print off some things and we came across a kid named Theo. We took him up to a study room and taught him the first lesson. He is kinda crazy. I think he is 20. He didn't really understand what we were saying but he committed to come to church. We went out to eat with Tommy yesterday just to further build that relationship with him. It was a lot of fun to get to know him better so that we would know how to teach him better. We also had a lesson with Tommy and taught him more about baptism and about the Holy Ghost.

Yesterday we had Tommy and Theo come to church. So Tommy is doing amazing. He got up yesterday during Sacrament Meeting and bore his testimony. It was like a 10 minute testimony. It was sooo good!!!!!! He said that he has never felt this way before in any other church and that he knows that this is the true church and that the Book of Mormon is true and he announced that his baptismal date is March 16th. His testimony seriously made my mission. I am so proud of him. 

Everything is going great here! Thanks for all the support. I love you all so much.

Lacee

A week of miracles

Hello everyone that I love. It sounds like Dallin's gym opening went really well. Congrats everyone. Wow Dall! Big business man! Ya I got my meds. Crazy mix up but I finally got it all taken care of. This week was really good. We didn't tract as much as we did last week. We need people to teach!!! We were really able to see the Lord's hand in work this week. 

Monday January 7th

After P-day we had a lesson scheduled with Thomas at the library. We tried calling his phone to make sure he was still going to come but it said that his phone was disconnected. Something really weird about Ohio is that everyone has these phones called Obama phones. I have no idea what requires them to qualify for an Obama phone but everyone has one. It basically is a cell phone that has a preset amount of minutes and then when the minutes run out then you're on your own. That's the problem we see with a lot of people. They run out of their Obama minutes. Thomas didn't show up to the library so we went to his house. When he came to the door he was super confused. He had no idea that we were meeting. Weird because we clearly told him on Sunday that we were meeting. I felt really weird about it. He also told us that he is on probation and doesn't know when he will be off. Also he told us about his love for smoking pot. He also said that he is planning on moving to a state that has laws that aren't strict on marijuana. Nice! Pretty classy Thomas. We CLEARLY scheduled with him to meet Thursday at the library.

Tuesday January 8th

We were at Sites all day. No tours. We spent a lot of time calling people and emailing. We had 2 different people come onto chat. First Eric came on. He is taking a religion class in Alabama. Last week they had different religions come in and talk to the class. 2 elders came in and handed out Book of Mormons. Eric was really interested in learning more. We talked to him about our church and we scheduled to teach him the restoration over the phone on Wednesday. Cory was the 2nd person we chatted with. He used to be a Mormon but struggles with some doctrine. We also scheduled to teach him over the phone on Wednesday.

Wednesday January 9th

We were at Sites again. We had a really good phone lesson with Eric. We taught him the restoration and we committed him to going to church on Sunday. He said he would and he was excited to go. We scheduled to teach him again on Sunday when we were at Sites. We also talked with Cory. It went pretty good. I think he is just wanting to argue but we have to give him a chance.

Thursday January 10th

First thing this morning we had interviews with President. He is a funny man. Mine literally lasted 5 mins long. He looked at my planner and was impressed with all of the plans that we have set. He randomly picked a name that was in my planner and asked me to tell him as much as I knew about them. I was able to so I guess I passed. After that we tracted for a  bit. We didn't really find anyone that was interested. We stopped by some less actives to check up on them. We had a dinner appointment!!! We rarely get fed by the members. It was nice. We had an appointment scheduled with Thomas. Since he doesn't have a phone it is really hard for us to confirm appointments with him. We decided to go stake out at his house and watch and see if he gets in the car and goes to the library. It was actually really funny. We parked down the street and turned out lights off. It was a legit stake out... possibly boarder line stalking (?). He was outside piling wood or something. We waited until 10 mins after he was supose to be at the library and we drove off and then came back down and parked in front of his house. We knocked on the door and he said "Oh ya I thought I saw you guys down the street watching me." YIKES!!! Not good!!!! We were like uh...uh... no. He again was confused that we were meeting that night. He is really sketchy. Dang we thought he was so ready!!!!!!! We've decided that if he wants this he can come to us. We aren't here to beg people to listen to us. We are looking for people that are responsible and that will help build up the ward and be an asset to the people in the ward. 

Friday January 11

My companion has been having really weird stomach pains for the past week. We have no idea what is going on . She's been talking to President's wife and we think that it is time for her to probs go to the doctor. She spent most of the morning sleeping while I went though old teaching records and calling people to see if they were interested again in taking the lessons. I found a half filled out baptismal record. Weird!!! His teaching record was two full pages. I read that in between his baptism on Wednesday and his confirmation on Sunday he broke the law of chastity. After that he basically just dropped off the face of the earth. I had a good long conversation with him over the phone and he agreed to meet with us later that day. After my companion woke up I told her about Cameron and we went to his house. He came outside and we immediately felt the devil. He was telling us how he sold his soul to Satan and all of this weird stuff. We just turned around and walked off. See ya later Cameron. We've been staying in contact with Tommy still. He went to church last Sunday and he told us that all week he was reading the Book of Mormon and praying. We decided to call him when we got home. When he answered the phone he was screaming and swearing. He told us that he just got finished at CrossFit and he had thrown his back out. He said that he was laying on the floor face down. We decided to just say a prayer with him and we would call back in the morning. I said the prayer. I asked for his back to please be healed so that he could keep working this week. At the end Sister Hansen and I said Amen but he didn't. We were like uh.. Tommy, you are supose to say Amen. He said I am in shock! I am in shock. He said that during the prayer he felt a warm tingling in his body and felt all of his pain taken away. He said that he was jumping to see if his back still hurt and he said the pain was 100% gone! How cool is that? My prayer healed someone. I told him that because he was reading every day and because he was praying that Heavenly Father blessed him. We asked him if he would pray about a baptismal date. He committed to doing that. So cool!! 

Saturday January 12

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! YOU SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN SOMETHING IN THE MAIL FROM ME. IF NOT THEN IT IS COMING! We spent some of the morning putting a package together for Tommy. We wrote down tons of scriptures that would help him. We wrote our testimonies and put those in. I included Hilary's husband's conversation story. To be funny we put in these coloring pages of Joseph Smith. We also put together a Book of Mormon studying kit. We wrapped it up and put a huge bow on it. We have a really good relationship with Tommy. When we gave it to him he started to get teary eyed. He hasn't ever had anyone show that they care about him before. It was so awesome. We had a really good lesson with him. He loves reading the Book of Mormon. He knows that he is getting blessed because he is doing it. We asked him if he prayed about a baptismal date and he said he hadn't. He said he was scared of getting an answer. Come on Tommy! We recommitted him to praying about a baptismal date. He told us that he couldn't come to church because he was working.

Sunday January 13

We watched the CES devotional at sites. We invited Tommy to come and he did!!!!!!! If you didn't see the devotional then I ask you to read it right now. I swear it was tailored just for Tommy. President Uchtdorf talked about casting out our doubts and turning to the Lord. That was exactly what Tommy needed to hear. Lately as a missionary I have been really bold with people. People need to hear it straight up. After the devotional we sat out on the couches with Tommy. I asked him "So did you pray about a baptismal date?" He said that he did. He said that he was confused because he didn't get a specific date but he got the number 16 in his head. We opened our planners and February 16th is the day that we had been hoping Tommy would get baptized. We told him that and he was so happy. He was beaming. I asked him if he would prepare himself to be baptized February 16th. He said yes and the spirit was so strong. He kept saying I get it now!! A really cool senior couple came and sat by us (the ones you met over skype. The prison warden). We told Tommy to tell them his good news and he said " I am getting baptized February 16th." He was stoked!! He really is gonna do it now. He finally gets it. Please keep praying for Tommy that his desire to be baptized won't go away!

My week was really good this week. I love you all so much. I guess since I'm a missionary I can hop up on my box and get mad at everyone that doesn't read the Book of Mormon every single day. Here is a really good quote that I heard last week in church: 

 “I feel certain that if, in our homes, parents will read from the Book of Mormon prayerfully and regularly, both by themselves and with their children, the spirit of that great book will come to permeate our homes and all who dwell therein. The spirit of reverence will increase; mutual respect and consideration for each other will grow. The spirit of contention will depart. … Faith, hope, and charity—the pure love of Christ—will abound in our homes and lives, bringing in their wake peace, joy, and happiness. Marion G. Romney 

Since a few people that get my letters aren't parents you can tailor it to your life. If you want to be happy READ THE BOOK OF MORMON. If you want peace in your life READ THE BOOK OF MORMON. How simple is that? Just 5  mins. a day.

I love you all and miss you so much!

Lacee Rae