The coolest thing that happened this week was we gave Tami and Mat a tour of the church. We do this in order to help people feel more comfortable coming to church. In Tami's case she says she is nervous being around a lot of people. So for her coming to the church when there's nobody in it helped because now the building is no longer unfamiliar, just the people are. But we've been taking members to her home so she already knows some of them. Basically we teach them the message of the Restoration (found in Preach my Gospel) while giving a tour of the building. The Spirit was SOOOOO strong, their 7 year old son Michael was there and he was so stinkin cute!!! We showed them the baptismal font at the end and Michael said, "I wish I would get baptized!" Mat also said that he wants to get baptized! Another miracle is Tami quit her job (which was a roadblock for her coming to church) and Mat didn't have to work so they were able to come to church for the first time the next day! So Mat is praying about a baptismal date in January.
And of course the First Presidency Christmas Devotional was great. If you missed it you can still check it our on lds.org I'm sure! :D
If you want to know when my homecoming is just ask my mom, for she'll know before I do...
Love,
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Late Happy Thanksgiving
It's been a long time since I've written, the time that we have on the computer just seems to slip away from me...
Any who, we have taught Dr. Shull a couple of times, he has a great attitude about life. He says, "People ask me, 'Do you ever have a bad day?' and I say 'Yep, but you'll never know it.'"
We've been busy visiting our less actives that live in New London...or I should say former less actives because when I got to Mt Pleasant they weren't really coming to church at all, but they did have strong testimonies about the truthfulness of the gospel. Now they both are pretty regular fixtures at church and they both have callings, it's amazing! We've also been teaching this woman named Shirley, her heart is definately softening. When we first started to visit her she said she could not be part of a church that has 12 men calling the shots. Since then she has come to General Conference and since then she hasn't said anything against the leaders of the church. She comes to all of our church activities too.
Probably the most amazing thing that has happened this transfer has been a series of events rewinding back to about a month ago. We were walking outside and I gave a card with our phone number on it to a man talking on his phone and took it and went on his way. Well to our surprise he called us that night (that doesn't usually ever happen to us :O) So he told us he didn't know that much about Mormons and if we could explain it to him, it was late so we couldn't really talk to him then but he said he'd call us the next day. He didn't, but the amazing thing is that 2 weeks later I tried to give him another card. He said, "I think you already did" Well oops, we didn't recognize him. We asked him if he'd ever wondered where we came from, where we're going after this life and why we're here. He laughed at us...he said that he wasn't trying to be disrespectful by laughing but those were questions that he wonders all of the time. He didn't want to set an appt though because he was really busy with school and work. About a week after that I was thinking about him when we were in the car and about how it wasn't by accident that we ran into him twice and I told Sis Hancock that and she said "We should call him" So I did, but I really didn't think he would answer because he had told us the time before that his phone was shut off. Well, surprise surprise, he answered! He said that he had a little bit of time right then to talk so I taught him for about 20 min on the phone and asked him if we could just come to his house and teach him and he said yes. The next miracle is that we saw a less active member ride by on her bike and we yelled out her name and she said she's come with us to Nicks house (since we can't go into the home of a single man without the presence of another woman.) So we were able to go inside and teach him. We taught so much, he has SOOOOOO many questions and is a really deep thinker. He has a hard time believeing in God, he said he really wants to believe but sometimes when he prays he just feels like he's wasting his time and nobody hears him. He told us that he almost wants us to convice him that there's a God. That really reminded me of what it says in Alma 32:27. "But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than adesire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words." We talked about his faith being a seed and the things he needs to do to help it to grow. He's a great guy with tons of potential!!!!
We had a really great Thanksgiving at the Akers, very more traditional than the Thanksgiving we had last year.
Yesterday we were teaching a lesson to a less active woman and her kids. The little 5 year old girl said this, "If you be nice to God and Jesus, they'll give you stuff that's really expensive." We talking about Nephi getting the brass plates and we said, we don't have to go get brass plates though right? And she said "No, but we get paper plates or plates from the kitchen."
Well, until next week,
Any who, we have taught Dr. Shull a couple of times, he has a great attitude about life. He says, "People ask me, 'Do you ever have a bad day?' and I say 'Yep, but you'll never know it.'"
We've been busy visiting our less actives that live in New London...or I should say former less actives because when I got to Mt Pleasant they weren't really coming to church at all, but they did have strong testimonies about the truthfulness of the gospel. Now they both are pretty regular fixtures at church and they both have callings, it's amazing! We've also been teaching this woman named Shirley, her heart is definately softening. When we first started to visit her she said she could not be part of a church that has 12 men calling the shots. Since then she has come to General Conference and since then she hasn't said anything against the leaders of the church. She comes to all of our church activities too.
Probably the most amazing thing that has happened this transfer has been a series of events rewinding back to about a month ago. We were walking outside and I gave a card with our phone number on it to a man talking on his phone and took it and went on his way. Well to our surprise he called us that night (that doesn't usually ever happen to us :O) So he told us he didn't know that much about Mormons and if we could explain it to him, it was late so we couldn't really talk to him then but he said he'd call us the next day. He didn't, but the amazing thing is that 2 weeks later I tried to give him another card. He said, "I think you already did" Well oops, we didn't recognize him. We asked him if he'd ever wondered where we came from, where we're going after this life and why we're here. He laughed at us...he said that he wasn't trying to be disrespectful by laughing but those were questions that he wonders all of the time. He didn't want to set an appt though because he was really busy with school and work. About a week after that I was thinking about him when we were in the car and about how it wasn't by accident that we ran into him twice and I told Sis Hancock that and she said "We should call him" So I did, but I really didn't think he would answer because he had told us the time before that his phone was shut off. Well, surprise surprise, he answered! He said that he had a little bit of time right then to talk so I taught him for about 20 min on the phone and asked him if we could just come to his house and teach him and he said yes. The next miracle is that we saw a less active member ride by on her bike and we yelled out her name and she said she's come with us to Nicks house (since we can't go into the home of a single man without the presence of another woman.) So we were able to go inside and teach him. We taught so much, he has SOOOOOO many questions and is a really deep thinker. He has a hard time believeing in God, he said he really wants to believe but sometimes when he prays he just feels like he's wasting his time and nobody hears him. He told us that he almost wants us to convice him that there's a God. That really reminded me of what it says in Alma 32:27. "But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than adesire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words." We talked about his faith being a seed and the things he needs to do to help it to grow. He's a great guy with tons of potential!!!!
We had a really great Thanksgiving at the Akers, very more traditional than the Thanksgiving we had last year.
Yesterday we were teaching a lesson to a less active woman and her kids. The little 5 year old girl said this, "If you be nice to God and Jesus, they'll give you stuff that's really expensive." We talking about Nephi getting the brass plates and we said, we don't have to go get brass plates though right? And she said "No, but we get paper plates or plates from the kitchen."
Well, until next week,
Monday, November 7, 2011
We were able to teach Diana's (less active) daughter, Becka, this week. It was good, we talked about the Tree of Life.
We don't have very many investigators now because we had to drop them. It's sad when that happens, but when they're not keeping their committments you have to. That's what's starting to happen with the Mangolds. :(
He says he wants to know if what we're teaching is true or not, but his actions don't really match that. They used to be really good at keeping the committments we left them but now they're starting to stop doing that and they're not coming to church as much.
It's also been hard to talk to people on the street because they're all inside because it's cold now and it's getting darker later. But through it all we are keeping a positive attitude. I love talking to people about the gospel!!!
We were teaching a less active member, Sister Frank, and her 8 year old daughter Kassie who just recently got baptized. We asked them if they would think about the baptismal covenants they made at baptism during the Sacrament and Sister Frank said yes but Kassie said, I don't know. Her mom said, "What do you mean you don't know." Kassie: "It's not like I know the future."
We had interviews with President Jergensen this week and something really funny happened during the interviews. We were all just talking and I said "Hey, you should put on a skit or something." So they actually did! They started acting out Pres and Sis Jergensen dating and their proposal. And then they started acting out Book of Mormon stories. Nephi and his brothers going to get the brass plates from Laban. It was so funny, I played Lehi and the Elder that played Nephi started singing, I guess he wanted to turn it into a musical. I wish I would've recorded it and then you all would be rolling around laughing!!!
Well...I must go now, love you!
--
Hermana Jilyn Hepworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322
We don't have very many investigators now because we had to drop them. It's sad when that happens, but when they're not keeping their committments you have to. That's what's starting to happen with the Mangolds. :(
He says he wants to know if what we're teaching is true or not, but his actions don't really match that. They used to be really good at keeping the committments we left them but now they're starting to stop doing that and they're not coming to church as much.
It's also been hard to talk to people on the street because they're all inside because it's cold now and it's getting darker later. But through it all we are keeping a positive attitude. I love talking to people about the gospel!!!
We were teaching a less active member, Sister Frank, and her 8 year old daughter Kassie who just recently got baptized. We asked them if they would think about the baptismal covenants they made at baptism during the Sacrament and Sister Frank said yes but Kassie said, I don't know. Her mom said, "What do you mean you don't know." Kassie: "It's not like I know the future."
We had interviews with President Jergensen this week and something really funny happened during the interviews. We were all just talking and I said "Hey, you should put on a skit or something." So they actually did! They started acting out Pres and Sis Jergensen dating and their proposal. And then they started acting out Book of Mormon stories. Nephi and his brothers going to get the brass plates from Laban. It was so funny, I played Lehi and the Elder that played Nephi started singing, I guess he wanted to turn it into a musical. I wish I would've recorded it and then you all would be rolling around laughing!!!
Well...I must go now, love you!
--
Hermana Jilyn Hepworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322
Living Without Jesus
"Living without Jesus is like dribbling a football." ~This was on a church marquee.
Since it hasn't been too long since my last pday not too much has happened, here are the highlights:
So, this week I cut a woman named Debbie's hair. It's funny how we met her, she's the mother-in-law of an inactive woman. Her daughter, Krista, has no idea that we're teaching her mom, so it's pretty funny. She saw us walking on the street a couple of months ago and told us to come over for dinner and she's been feeding us every other week since then. She's also going to make us hats and scarves...she's an awesome lady full of lots of energy!
We also met this less active, Wade, who has never been to church before. We met him a couple of weeks ago and invited him to church and guess what? He came!
I read Pres Monson's talk from Nov 2010 General Conference, I believe. "The Divide Gift of Gratitude", here is an except that I loved,
"Who was this “man of sorrows, … acquainted with grief”? “Who is this King of glory,” this Lord of lords? He is our Master. He is our Savior. He is the Son of God. He is the Author of Our Salvation. He beckons, “Follow me.” He instructs, “Go, and do thou likewise." He pleads, “Keep my commandments.” Let us follow Him. Let us emulate His example. Let us obey His words. By so doing, we give to Him the divine gift of gratitude."
Love you all!
--
Hermana Jilyn Hepworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322
Since it hasn't been too long since my last pday not too much has happened, here are the highlights:
So, this week I cut a woman named Debbie's hair. It's funny how we met her, she's the mother-in-law of an inactive woman. Her daughter, Krista, has no idea that we're teaching her mom, so it's pretty funny. She saw us walking on the street a couple of months ago and told us to come over for dinner and she's been feeding us every other week since then. She's also going to make us hats and scarves...she's an awesome lady full of lots of energy!
We also met this less active, Wade, who has never been to church before. We met him a couple of weeks ago and invited him to church and guess what? He came!
I read Pres Monson's talk from Nov 2010 General Conference, I believe. "The Divide Gift of Gratitude", here is an except that I loved,
"Who was this “man of sorrows, … acquainted with grief”? “Who is this King of glory,” this Lord of lords? He is our Master. He is our Savior. He is the Son of God. He is the Author of Our Salvation. He beckons, “Follow me.” He instructs, “Go, and do thou likewise." He pleads, “Keep my commandments.” Let us follow Him. Let us emulate His example. Let us obey His words. By so doing, we give to Him the divine gift of gratitude."
Love you all!
--
Hermana Jilyn Hepworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322
Halloween
Well, much has happened since I last wrote. We've been able to teach Mat (investigator) and Tami (less active) a couple of times. It's amazing to see how much growth Mat has made since we've started teaching him. When we first met him he only believed in God when things were going good in his life. He never prayed or read in the scriptures. But now he is praying everyday and he says that he feels better after he prays and he knows that there is a God. The scriptures in Alma 30:44 is perfect evidence that there is a God. "All things denote there is a God; yea, even the bearth, and call things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its dmotion, yea, and also all the eplanets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator." So now that his faith is growing the next step is repentence and so we invited him to repent in preparation for baptism and he said he would. :)
We had a lesson with Diana (less active) and Becka (investigator). We talked about the people of Ammon and how they repented (much like we did with Kami and Seth.) But instead of making big sword we just made little paper swords and wrote things we wanted to repent of on them and then tore them up in little pieces and "buried" them in the garbage. When we first told Becka about it she acted aprehensive about it and for a while she just sat there and didn't do anything so I was thinking in my mind that she just wasn't going to do it. But then she started writing things down and she was really getting into it and taking it seriously.
We went over an article in the October Ensign "How to study the Book of Mormon" by Elder Christofferson with some people this week and this is a part that I really liked in it.
"The Book of Mormon authors wrote with future generations in mind, specifically the latter days. In abridging the Nephite records, Mormon said he could not include “even a hundredth part” (see 3 Nephi 5:8; see also Words of Mormon 1:5). Moroni commented, “I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing” (Mormon 8:35). These two authors and others, acting under inspiration, wrote what would be of greatest benefit to us in these latter days.
"The Book of Mormon authors wrote with future generations in mind, specifically the latter days. In abridging the Nephite records, Mormon said he could not include “even a hundredth part” (see 3 Nephi 5:8; see also Words of Mormon 1:5). Moroni commented, “I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing” (Mormon 8:35). These two authors and others, acting under inspiration, wrote what would be of greatest benefit to us in these latter days.
We should therefore study with these questions in mind: “Why was this included? How does this apply today and to me?” President Benson observed, for example, that in the Book of Mormon we find a pattern for preparing for the Savior’s Second Coming. We learn how disciples of Christ live in times of war, deal with persecution and apostasy, do missionary work, and respond to the dangers of materialism.2 As Nephi did, when we study, we should “liken” the scriptures to ourselves—that is, try to discover how to apply what we find in the Book of Mormon (see 1 Nephi 19:23)."
We had a branch Halloween activity and I put on my haircutting apron and went as a hairstylist and Sister Hancock didn't dress up as anything but I told everyone that she was a teacher. (Which she actually is in real life :D) On Halloween we had to come in at 6 and so we carved a pumpkin and played speed scrabble, it was super duper fun. :D.
LOVE YOU ALL!
Hermana Jilyn Hepworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
October 17, 2011
Wow, the weeks seem to just be flying by! We've been teaching this cool woman from Guatemala, Marina. We haven't been teaching much in Spanish here so I can definitely see that I am forgetting it as I've been trying to teach Marina...it's SOOOOO sad! :( But I'm so happy that we've been finding more hispanics to teach so that I can get it back!
I've talked about a less active, Stacy, in the past. (She's the one who was drinking to numb the pain) We got in contact with her again and she's so super busy we were having a hard time coming up with a time we could come visit her until I was blessed with the amazing idea to make her dinner. So we did, we made her tacos and she's on her way to the right path again. She was telling us about her friend that was really religious and really happy and she just wanted to be really happy like that. Then wham, it hit me, The Tree of Life. The fruit "was desirable to make one chappy...., most sweet, above all...and white, to exceed all the bwhiteness....And the fruit thereof it filled [Lehi's] soul with exceedingly great ajoy." 1 Nephi 8: 10-11. The fruit is what she's after in order to obtain that happiness. Later on in the lesson Sister Hancock was telling Stacy how she didn't want to go on a mission and was resisting what God wanted for her and Stacy was like "Whoa whoa whoa, I just had an epiphany! I've been resisting what God wants me to do because you girls keep coming over here wanting me to come to church but I just keep thinking, no not yet, I'm not ready. But I need to do what God wants me to do. Whoa" It was a definate break through. :)
We drove up to Cedar Falls (2 1/2 hour drive) to do exchanges with the Sisters up there. I had a lot of fun I really like the sisters up there, Sisters Whitaker and Cuny. On Friday night I was walking around the college campus with Sister Whitaker talking to people and there was nobody and Sister Whitaker almost started quoting Little Mermaid on accident "I want to be where the people are..." We were also talking about finding joy in the work. An Elder said in a meeting, "If you're not having fun doing missionary work then you're doing it wrong." I liked that so much. Since I know that all of you reading this are not full time missionaries you could apply it to yourselves by saying: If I'm not having fun in life then I'm doing it wrong.
I must go, love you!
Hermana Jilyn Hepworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322
Wow, the weeks seem to just be flying by! We've been teaching this cool woman from Guatemala, Marina. We haven't been teaching much in Spanish here so I can definitely see that I am forgetting it as I've been trying to teach Marina...it's SOOOOO sad! :( But I'm so happy that we've been finding more hispanics to teach so that I can get it back!
I've talked about a less active, Stacy, in the past. (She's the one who was drinking to numb the pain) We got in contact with her again and she's so super busy we were having a hard time coming up with a time we could come visit her until I was blessed with the amazing idea to make her dinner. So we did, we made her tacos and she's on her way to the right path again. She was telling us about her friend that was really religious and really happy and she just wanted to be really happy like that. Then wham, it hit me, The Tree of Life. The fruit "was desirable to make one chappy...., most sweet, above all...and white, to exceed all the bwhiteness....And the fruit thereof it filled [Lehi's] soul with exceedingly great ajoy." 1 Nephi 8: 10-11. The fruit is what she's after in order to obtain that happiness. Later on in the lesson Sister Hancock was telling Stacy how she didn't want to go on a mission and was resisting what God wanted for her and Stacy was like "Whoa whoa whoa, I just had an epiphany! I've been resisting what God wants me to do because you girls keep coming over here wanting me to come to church but I just keep thinking, no not yet, I'm not ready. But I need to do what God wants me to do. Whoa" It was a definate break through. :)
We drove up to Cedar Falls (2 1/2 hour drive) to do exchanges with the Sisters up there. I had a lot of fun I really like the sisters up there, Sisters Whitaker and Cuny. On Friday night I was walking around the college campus with Sister Whitaker talking to people and there was nobody and Sister Whitaker almost started quoting Little Mermaid on accident "I want to be where the people are..." We were also talking about finding joy in the work. An Elder said in a meeting, "If you're not having fun doing missionary work then you're doing it wrong." I liked that so much. Since I know that all of you reading this are not full time missionaries you could apply it to yourselves by saying: If I'm not having fun in life then I'm doing it wrong.
I must go, love you!
Hermana Jilyn Hepworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322
Sunday, October 16, 2011
October 10, 2011
Some of our members are starting to get excited about sharing the Gospel...it's exciting!!! Full-time missionaries and member-missionaries working hand in hand! Some new potential people are coming out of the wood work. We've tried the last 6 months to teach a less active's (Diana) daughter, her name is Becka. But Becka has been super busy and has never been home when we come over. But this week we went to see Diana after being there 5 min she got a phone call from Becka saying that she ran out of gas at Walmart...so we told Diana we could come back in a couple of hours. As sad as it sounds it actually turned out being a blessing that Becka ran out of gas and that we came back later because that made it so that Becka was there for our appointment. Her adoptive grandparents were members and so she knows quite a bit about the church. She told us that she's actually afraid to recieve an answer about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon because if it's not she'll be disappointed. She looked up to her grandparents so much and that will mean that everything they stood for and believed in was false and she doesn't want that to happen. It's funny, I've never had somebody be afraid to get an answer before. But she's so awesome and she's got lots of potential, we'll keep teaching her.
A sad thing happened. Ian told us that he doesn't want to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it to know if it's true. He read the chapters we gave him to read last time and he feels like it's just saying the same thing that the Bible says and he even thinks that the Bible says it better. :( (I knew at that moment how committed I was to the Book of Mormon because I felt very defensive about it.) I used the example that was given in General Conference, if there's one dot (the Bible) and infinate number of lines can be drawn through it. But when there are 2 (the Bible and the Book of Mormon) How many can be drawn through them both? Only one. He didn't want to accept that. He just wants somebody to talk about religion with and that's not our purpose. It's to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored Gospel. So I was pretty sad about that because we found him in a super cool way. (see past emails)
We've been able to find a lot more Hispanics which makes me super happy because I'm so afraid I'm going to forget my Spanish. Plus I just love the Hispanics people so much. They are so loving and welcoming! We found this lady Marina and I said "Somos Las Misioneras de la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias" and she said "pasale" which means Come in! We talked to this guy from guatemala. "Do you believe in Jesus Christ?" "Yes, see I have a tattoo of Him." :) In Spanish naturally.
Something cool happened on Sunday! We haven't been able to teach Santos for a long long time, about 3 months. She was progressing really well, she was coming to church a lot and the Arguetas (members) even took her to Nauvoo and Carthage and she said she knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet. But then....Satan got her and all of these trials started coming her way all at once and so she stopped coming and got super busy. We had tried to see Santos on Sun afternoon but she wasn't home. Flash foreward to that night, we were going to see Stacy but then I started thinking about Santos. I said something about her and Sis Hancock said, should we see her now or later. Now. I know it was an impression from the Lord because she was home and we had a really great lesson with her. I had the distinct impression to ask her if she was happy. And she said no, I was definately directed by the Spirit in that lesson because I felt like I was on a mission, I knew exactly what I needed to say and I knew I needed to say it. We talked about how Jesus Christ knows exactly how she feels because He's felt it before. And Sis Hancock was inspired to share Helaman 5:12 with her. I feel so sad for her.
Although I don't like feeling sad for these people, especially when they don't want to accept the gospel. I'm glad that I do because it shows me that I really care about them. I'm so grateful for the chance to come and love these people and to see them as God sees them, and to feel the LOVE that he has for them.
LOVE YOU
--
Hermana Jilyn Hepworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322
Some of our members are starting to get excited about sharing the Gospel...it's exciting!!! Full-time missionaries and member-missionaries working hand in hand! Some new potential people are coming out of the wood work. We've tried the last 6 months to teach a less active's (Diana) daughter, her name is Becka. But Becka has been super busy and has never been home when we come over. But this week we went to see Diana after being there 5 min she got a phone call from Becka saying that she ran out of gas at Walmart...so we told Diana we could come back in a couple of hours. As sad as it sounds it actually turned out being a blessing that Becka ran out of gas and that we came back later because that made it so that Becka was there for our appointment. Her adoptive grandparents were members and so she knows quite a bit about the church. She told us that she's actually afraid to recieve an answer about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon because if it's not she'll be disappointed. She looked up to her grandparents so much and that will mean that everything they stood for and believed in was false and she doesn't want that to happen. It's funny, I've never had somebody be afraid to get an answer before. But she's so awesome and she's got lots of potential, we'll keep teaching her.
A sad thing happened. Ian told us that he doesn't want to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it to know if it's true. He read the chapters we gave him to read last time and he feels like it's just saying the same thing that the Bible says and he even thinks that the Bible says it better. :( (I knew at that moment how committed I was to the Book of Mormon because I felt very defensive about it.) I used the example that was given in General Conference, if there's one dot (the Bible) and infinate number of lines can be drawn through it. But when there are 2 (the Bible and the Book of Mormon) How many can be drawn through them both? Only one. He didn't want to accept that. He just wants somebody to talk about religion with and that's not our purpose. It's to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored Gospel. So I was pretty sad about that because we found him in a super cool way. (see past emails)
We've been able to find a lot more Hispanics which makes me super happy because I'm so afraid I'm going to forget my Spanish. Plus I just love the Hispanics people so much. They are so loving and welcoming! We found this lady Marina and I said "Somos Las Misioneras de la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias" and she said "pasale" which means Come in! We talked to this guy from guatemala. "Do you believe in Jesus Christ?" "Yes, see I have a tattoo of Him." :) In Spanish naturally.
Something cool happened on Sunday! We haven't been able to teach Santos for a long long time, about 3 months. She was progressing really well, she was coming to church a lot and the Arguetas (members) even took her to Nauvoo and Carthage and she said she knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet. But then....Satan got her and all of these trials started coming her way all at once and so she stopped coming and got super busy. We had tried to see Santos on Sun afternoon but she wasn't home. Flash foreward to that night, we were going to see Stacy but then I started thinking about Santos. I said something about her and Sis Hancock said, should we see her now or later. Now. I know it was an impression from the Lord because she was home and we had a really great lesson with her. I had the distinct impression to ask her if she was happy. And she said no, I was definately directed by the Spirit in that lesson because I felt like I was on a mission, I knew exactly what I needed to say and I knew I needed to say it. We talked about how Jesus Christ knows exactly how she feels because He's felt it before. And Sis Hancock was inspired to share Helaman 5:12 with her. I feel so sad for her.
Although I don't like feeling sad for these people, especially when they don't want to accept the gospel. I'm glad that I do because it shows me that I really care about them. I'm so grateful for the chance to come and love these people and to see them as God sees them, and to feel the LOVE that he has for them.
LOVE YOU
--
Hermana Jilyn Hepworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322
October 3, 2011
Seth got baptized, Yay!!! The Spirit was there so strongly! It was also his birthday. In the baptism talk they talked about how it was his birthday and today he was going to have another "birthday". Today he was going to be spiritually reborn. In the Holy Ghost talk they talked about how today he was going to recieve a gift on his birthday, the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I reflected on that and had an spiritual insight. The Holy Ghost is a gift given to us for our spiritual "birthday". I thought that was so cool and something I would never have thought about had Seth not been baptized on his birthday.
Another thing I could feel the Spirit strongly General Conference! I've said it before and I'll say it again, I always took conference for granted growing up. Watching it now as a missionary has opened my eyes and I have a greater appreciation for it. After it's over I feel sad because I have to wait 6 whole months before the next one. We watched it Saturday, my favorite was Elder Carl B. Cooks experience on the elevator after being called as a General Authority. He was looking down because he could feel the weight of his calling and didn't know how he would be able to do it. Pres Monson comes in and asks what he's looking at. "Oh, nothing" Pres Monson's reply "It's better to look up." I loved that. It shows us that when there are things we are called to do that we feel we cannot, we must remember to who we should turn to, and look up. Another thing I loved that he said, "Most of what we worry about is not of eternal signifigance, and if it is, the Lord will help us. " So true!!!
We taught a lesson to a woman named Shirley on Saturday night. Shirley does not like men, and she told us she has a problem with "12 men running the show." I had the distinct impression to invite her to come to Conference the next day. At first she said she couldn't but I told her that there were women who spoke as well (and I hoped and prayed there would be another woman speaker on Sunday...luckily there was :D) She came to the Sunday morning session and it was interesting to watch conference through her perspective. I hope she was able to see that these are humble men called of God, because that's what I saw as I watched them speak. I know that they are Special Witnesses of Jesus Christ.
Until next week,
--
Hermana Jilyn Hepworth
- Show quoted text -epworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322
Another funny thing from conference: We pray for patience, and we want it now. :)
- Show quoted text -
Seth got baptized, Yay!!! The Spirit was there so strongly! It was also his birthday. In the baptism talk they talked about how it was his birthday and today he was going to have another "birthday". Today he was going to be spiritually reborn. In the Holy Ghost talk they talked about how today he was going to recieve a gift on his birthday, the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I reflected on that and had an spiritual insight. The Holy Ghost is a gift given to us for our spiritual "birthday". I thought that was so cool and something I would never have thought about had Seth not been baptized on his birthday.
Another thing I could feel the Spirit strongly General Conference! I've said it before and I'll say it again, I always took conference for granted growing up. Watching it now as a missionary has opened my eyes and I have a greater appreciation for it. After it's over I feel sad because I have to wait 6 whole months before the next one. We watched it Saturday, my favorite was Elder Carl B. Cooks experience on the elevator after being called as a General Authority. He was looking down because he could feel the weight of his calling and didn't know how he would be able to do it. Pres Monson comes in and asks what he's looking at. "Oh, nothing" Pres Monson's reply "It's better to look up." I loved that. It shows us that when there are things we are called to do that we feel we cannot, we must remember to who we should turn to, and look up. Another thing I loved that he said, "Most of what we worry about is not of eternal signifigance, and if it is, the Lord will help us. " So true!!!
We taught a lesson to a woman named Shirley on Saturday night. Shirley does not like men, and she told us she has a problem with "12 men running the show." I had the distinct impression to invite her to come to Conference the next day. At first she said she couldn't but I told her that there were women who spoke as well (and I hoped and prayed there would be another woman speaker on Sunday...luckily there was :D) She came to the Sunday morning session and it was interesting to watch conference through her perspective. I hope she was able to see that these are humble men called of God, because that's what I saw as I watched them speak. I know that they are Special Witnesses of Jesus Christ.
Until next week,
--
Hermana Jilyn Hepworth
- Show quoted text -epworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322
Another funny thing from conference: We pray for patience, and we want it now. :)
- Show quoted text -
September 26, 2011
My new companion is, (drumroll)............................................Sister Christy Hancock!!!!!!!
She's pretty cool, she was my companion my first 2 transfers I was in Des Moines. She was being trained then.
Since Hermana Hancock arrived on Thursday we've been having a pretty great week! We took birthday cards to Tami (a less active) and Diana (also a less active) It was a great way to stop by and see them cause we're teaching Tami's fiance Matt and Dianas daughter Becka so they were happy we remembered their birthday and it gave us an opportunity to teach them.
Last week we ate with this woman named Debby, her daughter and son-in-law are members. They're actually inactive and have never shared anything about the gospel with Debby so we decided to stop by and see her on Thursday and we started talking about the Plan of Salvation with her. We have an appt to see her again tonight, we're going to show her how to listen to the Book of Mormon on lds.org because her eyesight isn't very good. We also had an appt with the Orrs that night and he also had his baptismal interview this Sunday and he passed which means he's ready for baptism this Saturday right after conference. YAY!!!
On Wednesday we taught Paula and Scott, we taught read from the talk about revelation from Elder Bednar, April 2011 General Conference. I think that I've mentioned using that talk before with investigators but it's only because I love it so much! I love the analogy of the light. We were teaching them that most likely their answer will come slowly over time. They don't feel like they've recieved an answer yet and so I'm having a hard time knowing what we need to do for them. We've come to the conclusion that we just need to help them recognize the Spirit at every lesson. That's what we did at this lesson. The Spirit was there really strong, especially at the end and so we asked if he could feel it and he said yes. We taught them again on Sunday and they said they felt good....the Spirit!
We taught Ian and Danielle, which was an interesting lesson. Mostly because we feel like he just wants to compare what we believe and he also told us that by us coming over it's helped him to have a desire to become stronger in his church. But they still want us to come over and talk to them about the scriptures. So we're going to teach them at least one more time and establish our expectations.
Saturday night was fun because we got to see the Relief Society General Conference. I loved listening especially to Pres Uchtdorfts talk. I felt (as I'm sure many others did) that he was talking to me. If any Relief Society sisters haven't seen it yet, you still can and I would strongly encourage that you do because it was simply amazing!
Well, this has been an Hermana Hepworth missionary report. I hope you enjoyed. :)
Love,
--
Hermana Jilyn Hepworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322
My new companion is, (drumroll)............................................Sister Christy Hancock!!!!!!!
She's pretty cool, she was my companion my first 2 transfers I was in Des Moines. She was being trained then.
Since Hermana Hancock arrived on Thursday we've been having a pretty great week! We took birthday cards to Tami (a less active) and Diana (also a less active) It was a great way to stop by and see them cause we're teaching Tami's fiance Matt and Dianas daughter Becka so they were happy we remembered their birthday and it gave us an opportunity to teach them.
Last week we ate with this woman named Debby, her daughter and son-in-law are members. They're actually inactive and have never shared anything about the gospel with Debby so we decided to stop by and see her on Thursday and we started talking about the Plan of Salvation with her. We have an appt to see her again tonight, we're going to show her how to listen to the Book of Mormon on lds.org because her eyesight isn't very good. We also had an appt with the Orrs that night and he also had his baptismal interview this Sunday and he passed which means he's ready for baptism this Saturday right after conference. YAY!!!
On Wednesday we taught Paula and Scott, we taught read from the talk about revelation from Elder Bednar, April 2011 General Conference. I think that I've mentioned using that talk before with investigators but it's only because I love it so much! I love the analogy of the light. We were teaching them that most likely their answer will come slowly over time. They don't feel like they've recieved an answer yet and so I'm having a hard time knowing what we need to do for them. We've come to the conclusion that we just need to help them recognize the Spirit at every lesson. That's what we did at this lesson. The Spirit was there really strong, especially at the end and so we asked if he could feel it and he said yes. We taught them again on Sunday and they said they felt good....the Spirit!
We taught Ian and Danielle, which was an interesting lesson. Mostly because we feel like he just wants to compare what we believe and he also told us that by us coming over it's helped him to have a desire to become stronger in his church. But they still want us to come over and talk to them about the scriptures. So we're going to teach them at least one more time and establish our expectations.
Saturday night was fun because we got to see the Relief Society General Conference. I loved listening especially to Pres Uchtdorfts talk. I felt (as I'm sure many others did) that he was talking to me. If any Relief Society sisters haven't seen it yet, you still can and I would strongly encourage that you do because it was simply amazing!
Well, this has been an Hermana Hepworth missionary report. I hope you enjoyed. :)
Love,
--
Hermana Jilyn Hepworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322
September 21, 2011
Transfer News: I'm staying in Mt. Pleasant again. Wooohoooo, now I won't miss Seth's baptism. All we have to do now is prepare the Mangolds (who have been coming to church!!!) and Dr. Shull to be baptized! And when I say "we" I mean my new companion and I because Sister Dalton is being transfered. Whoever she is, she's been my companion before, I've already served with the other 4 Spanish speaking sisters before.
It's been a good week! Well, actually, it didn't start out all that great. Monday night we had some investigators drop us :( (Which I'm not all that used to working with the Hispanics and they never drop you. They keep letting you come back but never keep any of the commitments and you eventually drop them. But in Mt. Pleasant we are teaching a lot in English...too much. We hardly have any Hispanic investigators and that makes me sad.) But then we both started feeling sick that night. I ended up throwing up all night and all the next day I was in pain!!!!!!!!! That day (Tuesday) was an awful, horrible, terrible, bad, bad, bad day! Something cool that happened was we got a Priesthood blessing in Spanish and before and after the blessing I was in a lot of pain, but during the blessing I could not feel any pain at all! And in spite of the pain I'm actually glad I got sick because the next day I didn't feel sick, I felt amazing and revitalized. I told Sister Dalton I wanted to yell from the rooftops how good I felt. So I'm glad because I had a new appreciation for my health. Like the scripture in 2 Nephi 2:11, "It must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things." Anyways, we are both healthy now, we don't know what it was that made us sick...I guess we'll never know.
We've had some fun lessons with Kamrai and Seth. The funnest being on repentance. We read Alma 24: 10-19 and Helaman 15: 7-10 about the people of Ammon who buried their weapons of war. We made swords out of cardboard and tin foil and we wrote on them things we need to repent of and then we buried our swords in their backyard. :) It was really fun!!!
OH, we made calzones with the Akers and they loved them!
Also, we were sitting in the park last week planning and Lorenzo came walking by and started talking to us. We had an appt to get to so we set up an appt and invited him to church and something amazing happened...He actually came to church. Which I don't know if I've mentioned much about Lorenzo but he's in his 20's from Guatemala. We taught him about 3 months ago but he just really wasn't acting (see above description of Hispanics) so we had to drop him. Also a couple of months ago he was only calling us when he was drunk. Not good. So anyways, this time he seems more serious about it, he told us he wants to be baptized and he actually remembered our appt with him.
Annnnnyways, friends and family,
I love you and until next week,
Hermana Jilyn Hepworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322
Transfer News: I'm staying in Mt. Pleasant again. Wooohoooo, now I won't miss Seth's baptism. All we have to do now is prepare the Mangolds (who have been coming to church!!!) and Dr. Shull to be baptized! And when I say "we" I mean my new companion and I because Sister Dalton is being transfered. Whoever she is, she's been my companion before, I've already served with the other 4 Spanish speaking sisters before.
It's been a good week! Well, actually, it didn't start out all that great. Monday night we had some investigators drop us :( (Which I'm not all that used to working with the Hispanics and they never drop you. They keep letting you come back but never keep any of the commitments and you eventually drop them. But in Mt. Pleasant we are teaching a lot in English...too much. We hardly have any Hispanic investigators and that makes me sad.) But then we both started feeling sick that night. I ended up throwing up all night and all the next day I was in pain!!!!!!!!! That day (Tuesday) was an awful, horrible, terrible, bad, bad, bad day! Something cool that happened was we got a Priesthood blessing in Spanish and before and after the blessing I was in a lot of pain, but during the blessing I could not feel any pain at all! And in spite of the pain I'm actually glad I got sick because the next day I didn't feel sick, I felt amazing and revitalized. I told Sister Dalton I wanted to yell from the rooftops how good I felt. So I'm glad because I had a new appreciation for my health. Like the scripture in 2 Nephi 2:11, "It must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things." Anyways, we are both healthy now, we don't know what it was that made us sick...I guess we'll never know.
We've had some fun lessons with Kamrai and Seth. The funnest being on repentance. We read Alma 24: 10-19 and Helaman 15: 7-10 about the people of Ammon who buried their weapons of war. We made swords out of cardboard and tin foil and we wrote on them things we need to repent of and then we buried our swords in their backyard. :) It was really fun!!!
OH, we made calzones with the Akers and they loved them!
Also, we were sitting in the park last week planning and Lorenzo came walking by and started talking to us. We had an appt to get to so we set up an appt and invited him to church and something amazing happened...He actually came to church. Which I don't know if I've mentioned much about Lorenzo but he's in his 20's from Guatemala. We taught him about 3 months ago but he just really wasn't acting (see above description of Hispanics) so we had to drop him. Also a couple of months ago he was only calling us when he was drunk. Not good. So anyways, this time he seems more serious about it, he told us he wants to be baptized and he actually remembered our appt with him.
Annnnnyways, friends and family,
I love you and until next week,
Hermana Jilyn Hepworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322
This is Jilyn's mother. I have not posted for her for a long time because of computer problems. I am going to post her blogs for the last month. I hope you read and enjoy.
September 12, 2011
This week got really interesting when we decided to stop by and visit a less active girl who was progressing so nicely. She really had expressed desire to change...and she was. And then she started avoiding us, we went by for several weeks and we knew she was home and was just ignoring us but we kept going by anyway because we don't want to give up on her. We decided to stop by on Friday and she actually opened the door. She was really tipsy and was telling us that she was drunk and to come in and come in and see the real Stacy. She was doing so great and she seemed so happy when she was trying to follow God but I guess Satan just got ahold of her because she told us she was drinking to numb the pain. She told us all about the awful things that have happened in her life. It was so sad, to see somebody in that much pain who thinks the only place they have to turn is alcohol. It was so sad to be around her and to see what alcohol does to people. We set an appt for the following day but she wasn't home so we stopped by on Sunday night and she was drunk again. We want to help her so much, but was can't make her do anything and that's the frusterating part.
On a happier note...We did service for the Mangold family on Friday. We painted their barn with them and then we had a BBQ afterwards. They're 2 year old grandson was there and he was hilarious! He loves cows! He kept singing this song "I am cow, here me moo...." They didn't come to church on Sunday but they're making progress because they got up early and thought about coming, that blasted Satan just got in the way so they didn't. Speaking of Satan, Sister Dalton and I decided to make a sign that says "Live today so that Satan says: Oh no, she's awake!" We put it up in our room.
We also had some great lessons with Kamrai and Seth this week. To help him gain a testimony of President Monson we decided to watch a talk by him. "Priesthood Power" from April 2011 Priesthood Session. We taught them at a members home, the Lance's, and afterwards we each shared our testimony of when we came to know that Pres Monson is the Prophet. I reflected on when Pres Hinckley died it seemed that nobody would be able to take his place. As I thought of Pres Monson being the prophet it just didn't seem to fit. But then the following General Conference when he stood up to speak and we all sustained him as the Prophet I knew that he was the Prophet.
Love,
--
Hermana Jilyn Hepworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322
NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.
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Forward She was
September 12, 2011
This week got really interesting when we decided to stop by and visit a less active girl who was progressing so nicely. She really had expressed desire to change...and she was. And then she started avoiding us, we went by for several weeks and we knew she was home and was just ignoring us but we kept going by anyway because we don't want to give up on her. We decided to stop by on Friday and she actually opened the door. She was really tipsy and was telling us that she was drunk and to come in and come in and see the real Stacy. She was doing so great and she seemed so happy when she was trying to follow God but I guess Satan just got ahold of her because she told us she was drinking to numb the pain. She told us all about the awful things that have happened in her life. It was so sad, to see somebody in that much pain who thinks the only place they have to turn is alcohol. It was so sad to be around her and to see what alcohol does to people. We set an appt for the following day but she wasn't home so we stopped by on Sunday night and she was drunk again. We want to help her so much, but was can't make her do anything and that's the frusterating part.
On a happier note...We did service for the Mangold family on Friday. We painted their barn with them and then we had a BBQ afterwards. They're 2 year old grandson was there and he was hilarious! He loves cows! He kept singing this song "I am cow, here me moo...." They didn't come to church on Sunday but they're making progress because they got up early and thought about coming, that blasted Satan just got in the way so they didn't. Speaking of Satan, Sister Dalton and I decided to make a sign that says "Live today so that Satan says: Oh no, she's awake!" We put it up in our room.
We also had some great lessons with Kamrai and Seth this week. To help him gain a testimony of President Monson we decided to watch a talk by him. "Priesthood Power" from April 2011 Priesthood Session. We taught them at a members home, the Lance's, and afterwards we each shared our testimony of when we came to know that Pres Monson is the Prophet. I reflected on when Pres Hinckley died it seemed that nobody would be able to take his place. As I thought of Pres Monson being the prophet it just didn't seem to fit. But then the following General Conference when he stood up to speak and we all sustained him as the Prophet I knew that he was the Prophet.
Love,
--
Hermana Jilyn Hepworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322
NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.
Reply
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Tuesday, September 6, 2011
WARNING
WARNING" YOU'RE GONNA WANT TO GET OUT YOUR SCRIPTURES. I haven't been able to teach our recent convert Skylar for a very long time. 2 months in fact. So we've had this super awesome lesson planned for him and we were actually able to teach it. There's a cool story in ALMA 47:1-19 about a man named Lehonti. We read those scriptures with the Crossetts and talked about what Lehonti's downfall was. I invite you all to read those scriptures and ponder what Lehonti's downfall was. He should've not come down the mountain at all but stuck with what he first said in verse 6 because by coming down the mountain it is eventually "ministered poison by degrees" verse 18 and dies. We compared that to how Satan tempts us. He doesn't tempt us to go out and rob a bank but he gets us with small things and gradually works up to the bigger things. We compared that to how Amalickiah (the bad guy) killed in ALMA 51:34. Teanum puts "a javelin to his heart". I think I scared sister Crassett to death when I pulled out a mini nerf gun and shot her with it. This is how we should kill Satan. We should get him out before he has any power over us. Then came the fun part of the lesson, we acted it out. Everybody was reluctant to do it and we heard some groans, "I don't want to act it out" But they did it anyway and it was REALLY fun! Everyone was laughing and they all had a great time. We asked them to read ALMA 47-51 as a family thoughout the week. Sometimes as you read the war chapters it can be hard. I know for me I've thought "When are these wars ever going to end?" But in reality there are a lot of really cool things in the war chapters. A lot of great comparisons between the wicked people and Satan. I especially love ALMA 48: 8-9. This is how we should prepare ourselves against Satan.
The rest of this week was kinda hard, mostly because from September 2-5 there's something in Mt Pleasant called the "Old Thresher Reunion". Everyone has been at that this week. We were able to do some service there this week taking tickets. We met some interesting characters....
We were able to teach Tami and Matt this week. We also have been plugging away teaching Kami and Seth. We've taught him all of the commandments now and he doesn't seem to really have a problem with any of them. WooHoo! We had a super fun lesson on following the prophet/apostles about commandments we've taught them found in the last conference Ensign, April 2011. After we heard the Prophet's council Sister Lance read a scenario where Kami and Seth would have to decide whether they would choose to follow the Prophets's council or not. They made the right choice everytime. Even when I was "Satan" and tried to entice them with candy. I asked Seth if he liked chocolate and he said no, he likes carmel. I told him that's what I had (even though it wasn't) because believe it or not Satan lies sometimes. If they went against the council they had to go to the right of the chair we had set up and we had lots of obstacles. But if they followed the council the pathway was clear. I forgot to mention they were blindfolded. As their reward for Following the Prophet they got a great big candy bar. We've been working with another parmember family. The Mangolds, last Sunday we taught them and invited them to church and they actually came this week. Paula is a less active member and her husband Scott is a nonmember and he needs to gain a testimony of Joseph Smith being a prophet. He says when he prays about it he doesn't feel any different afterwards.
It's time for me to sign off now friends and family.
I welcome your questions and comments with open arms! :)
Love
Hermana Jilyn Hepsworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa 50322
PS Here are some picturesSister Rippenkroeger and I teaching Dr. Shulls a lesson about faith.
The rest of this week was kinda hard, mostly because from September 2-5 there's something in Mt Pleasant called the "Old Thresher Reunion". Everyone has been at that this week. We were able to do some service there this week taking tickets. We met some interesting characters....
We were able to teach Tami and Matt this week. We also have been plugging away teaching Kami and Seth. We've taught him all of the commandments now and he doesn't seem to really have a problem with any of them. WooHoo! We had a super fun lesson on following the prophet/apostles about commandments we've taught them found in the last conference Ensign, April 2011. After we heard the Prophet's council Sister Lance read a scenario where Kami and Seth would have to decide whether they would choose to follow the Prophets's council or not. They made the right choice everytime. Even when I was "Satan" and tried to entice them with candy. I asked Seth if he liked chocolate and he said no, he likes carmel. I told him that's what I had (even though it wasn't) because believe it or not Satan lies sometimes. If they went against the council they had to go to the right of the chair we had set up and we had lots of obstacles. But if they followed the council the pathway was clear. I forgot to mention they were blindfolded. As their reward for Following the Prophet they got a great big candy bar. We've been working with another parmember family. The Mangolds, last Sunday we taught them and invited them to church and they actually came this week. Paula is a less active member and her husband Scott is a nonmember and he needs to gain a testimony of Joseph Smith being a prophet. He says when he prays about it he doesn't feel any different afterwards.
It's time for me to sign off now friends and family.
I welcome your questions and comments with open arms! :)
Love
Hermana Jilyn Hepsworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa 50322
August 22, 2011
We have had the most amazing lesson planned for Dr. Shull....the problem is our appointments keep getting cnacelled. We think it's Satan. He does not want us to teach this lesson to Dr. Shull.
We taught Danielle and Ian last Monday. Ian still hasn't read from the Book of Mormon so we had him pull it out and he said, "Alright, so how do you operate this bad boy?" We taught them the Plan of Salvation. I don't want to go into too many details...but he's got a lot of INTERESTING ideas. We had Family Home Evening with the Rippenkroegers (returning to activity in the church!) It was really interesting because they have a fella named Raz living with them. He's had a hard life, ran into a lot of problems with the law and we think he has some mental problems as well. I don't think I've ever had a lesson with so many cuss words in it before. He was telling us how when he was 19 he was traveling from California to Wisconsis and on his way he was walking on a highway in Utah. A man picked him up and took him through all the buildings on Temple Square and they spent the whole day doing things there. At the end of the day the man offered for him to live with him and take care of him and he would help him change his life or he could take $100 and get out of the car and keep walking. Raz decided to take the money and he never made it to Wisconsin. He ended up committing a crime that landed him 25 years in prison. Talk about a decision that could have changed his life. He kept telling me he had a feeling I was related to this man that could have changed his life. He doesn't know his name so I guess we'll never know.
We had an awesome lesson with Kami and Seth on the Word of Wisdom. The best part was that before the appointment we had a meeting with our Branch mission leader, we had a little misunderstanding with his wife last week and she has been mad at us so we were hoping the Lord would touch her heart. Well it turns out he did because she was a lot friendlier to us and Sister Dalton even had the impression to invite her to come to the appointment with Kami and Seth, which turned out to be amazing because Seth has no issues with the Word of Wisdom. It's actually Kami, who is the member that has a problem with coffee and tea. Sister Larose was able to relate SO well to Kami because those were the hardest things for her to give up whe she joined the church. She still craves coffee but her desire is stronger to live the Word of Wisdom. Another amazing thing is that Seth received an answer that he needs to be baptized!!!!! It's so exciting, we've been praying so hard for that! He wants to be baptized on his birthday. October 1st. That's conference weekend so we';ll probably do it in between sessions.
We helped Sister Sanchez teach her lesson to the Young Women on scripture study, she told a personal story and I'd like to share it with you. "When do we have to read the scriptures everyday?" I would answer their questions with another question. "Do you have to eat everyday?" "Yes, if we don't eat we'll die." Well that's how it is with the scriptures. We need to feel ourselves physically AND spiritually. I really enjoyed that story, so I thought you would too!
Be sure and write and keep me in touch with you.
Love you all
Hermana Jilyn Hepworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa 50322
We taught Danielle and Ian last Monday. Ian still hasn't read from the Book of Mormon so we had him pull it out and he said, "Alright, so how do you operate this bad boy?" We taught them the Plan of Salvation. I don't want to go into too many details...but he's got a lot of INTERESTING ideas. We had Family Home Evening with the Rippenkroegers (returning to activity in the church!) It was really interesting because they have a fella named Raz living with them. He's had a hard life, ran into a lot of problems with the law and we think he has some mental problems as well. I don't think I've ever had a lesson with so many cuss words in it before. He was telling us how when he was 19 he was traveling from California to Wisconsis and on his way he was walking on a highway in Utah. A man picked him up and took him through all the buildings on Temple Square and they spent the whole day doing things there. At the end of the day the man offered for him to live with him and take care of him and he would help him change his life or he could take $100 and get out of the car and keep walking. Raz decided to take the money and he never made it to Wisconsin. He ended up committing a crime that landed him 25 years in prison. Talk about a decision that could have changed his life. He kept telling me he had a feeling I was related to this man that could have changed his life. He doesn't know his name so I guess we'll never know.
We had an awesome lesson with Kami and Seth on the Word of Wisdom. The best part was that before the appointment we had a meeting with our Branch mission leader, we had a little misunderstanding with his wife last week and she has been mad at us so we were hoping the Lord would touch her heart. Well it turns out he did because she was a lot friendlier to us and Sister Dalton even had the impression to invite her to come to the appointment with Kami and Seth, which turned out to be amazing because Seth has no issues with the Word of Wisdom. It's actually Kami, who is the member that has a problem with coffee and tea. Sister Larose was able to relate SO well to Kami because those were the hardest things for her to give up whe she joined the church. She still craves coffee but her desire is stronger to live the Word of Wisdom. Another amazing thing is that Seth received an answer that he needs to be baptized!!!!! It's so exciting, we've been praying so hard for that! He wants to be baptized on his birthday. October 1st. That's conference weekend so we';ll probably do it in between sessions.
We helped Sister Sanchez teach her lesson to the Young Women on scripture study, she told a personal story and I'd like to share it with you. "When do we have to read the scriptures everyday?" I would answer their questions with another question. "Do you have to eat everyday?" "Yes, if we don't eat we'll die." Well that's how it is with the scriptures. We need to feel ourselves physically AND spiritually. I really enjoyed that story, so I thought you would too!
Be sure and write and keep me in touch with you.
Love you all
Hermana Jilyn Hepworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa 50322
Lots of Weeds
August 10, 2011
We still haven't been able to contact David and Stacy and I'm pretty upset about that because Stacy was starting to change her life and you could just tell she was happier and now she's avoiding us. I've grown to love her so much so it makes me very sad!
Probably the coolest things that have happened this week...
We started talking to this Hispanic lady in the park but it soon became apparent that she only wanted to bash. Well bashing never brings the Spirit (who is the REAL teacher) so there's no point in it. I wanted to tell her that we didn't want to argue with her, we could only invite her to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and decide for herselp if it was true or not. Well, I didn't know the word for "argue" so I asked Sister Dalton but she didn't kinow either and so I just started saying it even though I didn't know how. The most amazing thing happened. I said the right work for "argue" in Spanish and I didn't know it. It was pretty much a miracle. That woman was very aggressive, she was up in our faces talking very, very loud.
We have been teaching Kami and Seth for the past couple of weeks and it's been going pretty great! At first we thought he was learning for Kami's sake, but we now think he's felt the Spirit in our lessons. (I know I have) This last lesson we had with them I had the overwhelming feeling towards the end that he would be baptized and after the lesson, I found out that Sister Dalton had the same feeling at about the same time.
Probably the coolest thing that happened was our experience with Dr. Shull. We have not been ablt to contact him for forever but it so happened that in the middle of last week we were driving to an appointment but Hermana Dalton had taken the wrong road so she had to turn and go down another one. Well it so happened that we drive past Dr. Shull and he stopped and talked to us. It turns out his daughter has been having chest pains so that's why we haven't been able to catch him. We set an appointment and it was an AMAZING lesson. We went by his Chiropractic office to teach him during his lunch break and we have been teaching him these past 4 months but had yet to invite him to be baptized. I think it's because he has so much potential. He's got great values and he's basically like a dry mormon so we didn't want to scare him off. Well, the tim had come that we had to establish expectations and find out WHY he wants to learn from us. The lesson was very spirit guided and we finally invited him to be baptized. It went like this. "IOf you found out the Book of Mormon was true and this church was true would you be baptized? ME "Well I'd have to be! Yeah" We haven't met his wife yet so we told him we want to and he said he didn't know if she'd accept it and so we are praying really hard that he reads and prays and finds out that the Book of Mormon is true and talks to his wife about it and she has a soft heart.
I saw these sayings on churches around here and I thought they were funny. "Friends, don't let frineds die without know Jesus." "Forgive your enemies, it will mess with their minds."
Gotta go!
PS We pulled a LOT of weeds this week FYI. I'm an expert at it now.
We still haven't been able to contact David and Stacy and I'm pretty upset about that because Stacy was starting to change her life and you could just tell she was happier and now she's avoiding us. I've grown to love her so much so it makes me very sad!
Probably the coolest things that have happened this week...
We started talking to this Hispanic lady in the park but it soon became apparent that she only wanted to bash. Well bashing never brings the Spirit (who is the REAL teacher) so there's no point in it. I wanted to tell her that we didn't want to argue with her, we could only invite her to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and decide for herselp if it was true or not. Well, I didn't know the word for "argue" so I asked Sister Dalton but she didn't kinow either and so I just started saying it even though I didn't know how. The most amazing thing happened. I said the right work for "argue" in Spanish and I didn't know it. It was pretty much a miracle. That woman was very aggressive, she was up in our faces talking very, very loud.
We have been teaching Kami and Seth for the past couple of weeks and it's been going pretty great! At first we thought he was learning for Kami's sake, but we now think he's felt the Spirit in our lessons. (I know I have) This last lesson we had with them I had the overwhelming feeling towards the end that he would be baptized and after the lesson, I found out that Sister Dalton had the same feeling at about the same time.
Probably the coolest thing that happened was our experience with Dr. Shull. We have not been ablt to contact him for forever but it so happened that in the middle of last week we were driving to an appointment but Hermana Dalton had taken the wrong road so she had to turn and go down another one. Well it so happened that we drive past Dr. Shull and he stopped and talked to us. It turns out his daughter has been having chest pains so that's why we haven't been able to catch him. We set an appointment and it was an AMAZING lesson. We went by his Chiropractic office to teach him during his lunch break and we have been teaching him these past 4 months but had yet to invite him to be baptized. I think it's because he has so much potential. He's got great values and he's basically like a dry mormon so we didn't want to scare him off. Well, the tim had come that we had to establish expectations and find out WHY he wants to learn from us. The lesson was very spirit guided and we finally invited him to be baptized. It went like this. "IOf you found out the Book of Mormon was true and this church was true would you be baptized? ME "Well I'd have to be! Yeah" We haven't met his wife yet so we told him we want to and he said he didn't know if she'd accept it and so we are praying really hard that he reads and prays and finds out that the Book of Mormon is true and talks to his wife about it and she has a soft heart.
I saw these sayings on churches around here and I thought they were funny. "Friends, don't let frineds die without know Jesus." "Forgive your enemies, it will mess with their minds."
Gotta go!
PS We pulled a LOT of weeds this week FYI. I'm an expert at it now.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Hi Everyone,
Oh my goodness it is so hot and humid here! But I really don't mind. It's better than the bone chilling cold that makes you lose the feeling in your toes. I'd rather feel like I'm melting any day! And it does feel like you're melting!
We were able to meet with a less active girl, Stacy. She is so different. She's been changing so much...and for the better. She wants to come back to church and have God in her life. It's so amazing to see somebody go through that change. We talk to people all of the time and see the potential that they have, but so few live up to that potential because they don't want to change. So to actually see somebody making those changes brings such great joy to my life!
We had some lessons with Santos. She's been going through a lot of hard tings in her life right now. She told us that it seems like whenever she's trying to get closer to God it is when life seems to get harder. Is it any wonder why, when to get closer to our Heavenly Father is the last thing that Satan wants. He doesn't want us to be happy. Santos is making lots of progress, she just lost her job and so she told us she wasn't going to be able to make it to church this week because she had to make tamales to sell so she would have money. She had to make them on Sunday because she wouldn't have enough money to buy the meat for the tamales until then. So we thought she wouldn't be there...but something miraculous happened. She came to church! All on her own too, usually we call her in the morning to wake her up and she has to get a ride from the Arguetas but none of that happened and she just showed up! We were happy, she wants to get baptized but she's marred to a man in Guatemala and living with her not husband but she can't get a divorce for a couple of months.
We've been working with a less active, Sister Rippenkroeger and her daughter Debi. I love them so much!!! They're starting to return to activity and they just gave Sister Rippenkroeger a calling. It's like wha I was talking about before with Stacy. It's so awesome to see people take those steps to come back.
When we've been going to Nauvoo, we offer the people we talk to the opportunity to send the soundtrack of the music from the pageant to their nonmenber friends or if they themselves are nonmemberw we offer to have missionaries bring it to them. So we carry around forms for people to fill out for that and because it's so hot we've been fanning people with papers. It's fun, they like it! We were finally able to actually see the pageant this Saturday. The Parkers (members) drove up down to Nauvoo and we spent the night with them. It was really fun!!!
I told you about Mariah last week. Well...she dropped us :( It's really sad and it hasn't happened to me that much on my mission because the Hispanics are so nice they never drop you. You have to drop them if they're not progressing.
Kamrai (LA) brought her nonmember husband to a lesson again at the Lance's yesterday and they came with us to the Pioneer Day Broadcast from Salt Lake (even though it really wasn't about the pioneers like we had thought it was.)
Well, I love and miss you all! Write me a letter, it's my only line to the outside world:)
Plus it's my birthday next week.
Oh my goodness it is so hot and humid here! But I really don't mind. It's better than the bone chilling cold that makes you lose the feeling in your toes. I'd rather feel like I'm melting any day! And it does feel like you're melting!
We were able to meet with a less active girl, Stacy. She is so different. She's been changing so much...and for the better. She wants to come back to church and have God in her life. It's so amazing to see somebody go through that change. We talk to people all of the time and see the potential that they have, but so few live up to that potential because they don't want to change. So to actually see somebody making those changes brings such great joy to my life!
We had some lessons with Santos. She's been going through a lot of hard tings in her life right now. She told us that it seems like whenever she's trying to get closer to God it is when life seems to get harder. Is it any wonder why, when to get closer to our Heavenly Father is the last thing that Satan wants. He doesn't want us to be happy. Santos is making lots of progress, she just lost her job and so she told us she wasn't going to be able to make it to church this week because she had to make tamales to sell so she would have money. She had to make them on Sunday because she wouldn't have enough money to buy the meat for the tamales until then. So we thought she wouldn't be there...but something miraculous happened. She came to church! All on her own too, usually we call her in the morning to wake her up and she has to get a ride from the Arguetas but none of that happened and she just showed up! We were happy, she wants to get baptized but she's marred to a man in Guatemala and living with her not husband but she can't get a divorce for a couple of months.
We've been working with a less active, Sister Rippenkroeger and her daughter Debi. I love them so much!!! They're starting to return to activity and they just gave Sister Rippenkroeger a calling. It's like wha I was talking about before with Stacy. It's so awesome to see people take those steps to come back.
When we've been going to Nauvoo, we offer the people we talk to the opportunity to send the soundtrack of the music from the pageant to their nonmenber friends or if they themselves are nonmemberw we offer to have missionaries bring it to them. So we carry around forms for people to fill out for that and because it's so hot we've been fanning people with papers. It's fun, they like it! We were finally able to actually see the pageant this Saturday. The Parkers (members) drove up down to Nauvoo and we spent the night with them. It was really fun!!!
I told you about Mariah last week. Well...she dropped us :( It's really sad and it hasn't happened to me that much on my mission because the Hispanics are so nice they never drop you. You have to drop them if they're not progressing.
Kamrai (LA) brought her nonmember husband to a lesson again at the Lance's yesterday and they came with us to the Pioneer Day Broadcast from Salt Lake (even though it really wasn't about the pioneers like we had thought it was.)
Well, I love and miss you all! Write me a letter, it's my only line to the outside world:)
Plus it's my birthday next week.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Looking for the hand of the Lord
We had a really cool week! Remember the video I told you about last time by President Eyring? Well we've been asking the question each night to ourselves. "HOW DID WE SEE THE LORDS HAND IN THE WORK TODAY? " And we've been able to see lots of miracles. It's amazing, when we recognize the Lords hand in our lives it's almost as if He blesses us with even more. I was talking about it with Sister Dalton and she said, "Its like He's saying "Good job!" Here's some more." :) Here are some examples: We had an appointment with a less active girl named Stacy. She's awesome and super nice, really we love her to death...but she's never home for the appointments we make with her. Well, last MONDAY we had an appointment and she and her nonmember boyfriend (David) were actually home! They're actually the ones I talked about last week who we ran into at the gas station.
Okay, there's more:
TUESDAY: We've been working with another less active girl, Danielle. She's so awesome too but she's been offended at church and is apprehensive to come back. Well I don't rememeber if you remember me writing about an experience I had a couple of months ago about her and her non member boyfriend (Ian) I'll give a summary of it just to refresh your memory. We found Danielle's informantion and we decided to stop by and see her one day but her parents told us she had moved and gave us her new address. We didn't feel like we should see her at that moment (even though we had time) We had the impression later that night to go see her. What happened was she was at home and invited us in and 2 minutes later her boyfriend came home and we ended up teaching them. He told us that he was looking for a church to go to. End of that story. So months pass and we're able to visit with Danielle but not Ian...he's always working. The miracle on Tuesday was that they were both there that day and we watched the Restoration movie with them. (If you haven't seen it it's basically Joseph Smith's story searching for the true church.) Something cool that happened afterwards was we started talking about prophets and Ian told us he didn't like that word, "but you never know, something could change...I just watched that movie and something just changed", he said he hadn't read in the Book of Mormon before that but he said after watching the movie he felt "a stronger desire to read it." The Spirit was there really strong for that lesson.
WEDNESDAY was a day of finding people at home that I've been trying to meet for the past 3 months and was finally able to! The Mitchels: a less active family with an interesting story (I'll save that for another time" and a woman named Mariah the other Sisters had tracted into before I got here. It was just about time to go home that night but Sister Dalton said, "Who else can we go see?" I felt an impression that we needed to see this woman. We tried her and she was home and invited us back the next day!
THURSDAY I titled in my planner as "MIRACLE DAY" We taught a hispanic woman named Tomasa. We've been teaching her for a couple of weeks. We met her while doing service at a restaurant in town called Little Mexico. She told us that she's already been baptized before in another church and if that was okay. We taught her about the Priesthood and invited her to be baptized and she said yes :) She also invited herself to church (I hate it when that happens:)
Miriah was home for our appointment with her and she's got lots of potential! The Spririt was strong at the lesson, we have another appointment with her for Wednesday. I'll have to let you know what happens with that. When we went down to the pageant on FRIDAY, we got to talk to some Hispanics and they gave us a referral...amazing!
SATURDAY something interesting happened, we had some time at 6 pm and decided to see a referral the Lances (members) had given us. But when we got there it just didn't feel right. (even thought we knew she was home) So we went to dinner with a less active (Todd, the same one that told us to make pigs of ourselves) and he also finally admitted to us that he had been praying, when before he always told us "that's for me to know". We've been sending him texts morning and night to remind him to pray for the past 4 months. After that we decided to try the referral again. Susana is her name, but the Lnaces were outside (they're her neighbors) and they told us she wasn't home. They invited us in and as we were talking to them Sister Dalton and I both received revelation at the same time that the Lances's were the ones wo needed to invite Susana to learn.
We had a lesson with a less active named Kamrai on SUNDAY who has just moved into the area with her husband...who is a nonmember. We were supposed to meet with her at the Lances house and we did. What ended up being really cool was she unexpectedly brought her husband. We made an appointment with her for next week and he's going to come to that as well.
So many other amazing things happened to us this week and I'm so glad that we took the time each night to recognize how much the Lord has truly blessed us!
Love you All!!!!!!!
Okay, there's more:
TUESDAY: We've been working with another less active girl, Danielle. She's so awesome too but she's been offended at church and is apprehensive to come back. Well I don't rememeber if you remember me writing about an experience I had a couple of months ago about her and her non member boyfriend (Ian) I'll give a summary of it just to refresh your memory. We found Danielle's informantion and we decided to stop by and see her one day but her parents told us she had moved and gave us her new address. We didn't feel like we should see her at that moment (even though we had time) We had the impression later that night to go see her. What happened was she was at home and invited us in and 2 minutes later her boyfriend came home and we ended up teaching them. He told us that he was looking for a church to go to. End of that story. So months pass and we're able to visit with Danielle but not Ian...he's always working. The miracle on Tuesday was that they were both there that day and we watched the Restoration movie with them. (If you haven't seen it it's basically Joseph Smith's story searching for the true church.) Something cool that happened afterwards was we started talking about prophets and Ian told us he didn't like that word, "but you never know, something could change...I just watched that movie and something just changed", he said he hadn't read in the Book of Mormon before that but he said after watching the movie he felt "a stronger desire to read it." The Spirit was there really strong for that lesson.
WEDNESDAY was a day of finding people at home that I've been trying to meet for the past 3 months and was finally able to! The Mitchels: a less active family with an interesting story (I'll save that for another time" and a woman named Mariah the other Sisters had tracted into before I got here. It was just about time to go home that night but Sister Dalton said, "Who else can we go see?" I felt an impression that we needed to see this woman. We tried her and she was home and invited us back the next day!
THURSDAY I titled in my planner as "MIRACLE DAY" We taught a hispanic woman named Tomasa. We've been teaching her for a couple of weeks. We met her while doing service at a restaurant in town called Little Mexico. She told us that she's already been baptized before in another church and if that was okay. We taught her about the Priesthood and invited her to be baptized and she said yes :) She also invited herself to church (I hate it when that happens:)
Miriah was home for our appointment with her and she's got lots of potential! The Spririt was strong at the lesson, we have another appointment with her for Wednesday. I'll have to let you know what happens with that. When we went down to the pageant on FRIDAY, we got to talk to some Hispanics and they gave us a referral...amazing!
SATURDAY something interesting happened, we had some time at 6 pm and decided to see a referral the Lances (members) had given us. But when we got there it just didn't feel right. (even thought we knew she was home) So we went to dinner with a less active (Todd, the same one that told us to make pigs of ourselves) and he also finally admitted to us that he had been praying, when before he always told us "that's for me to know". We've been sending him texts morning and night to remind him to pray for the past 4 months. After that we decided to try the referral again. Susana is her name, but the Lnaces were outside (they're her neighbors) and they told us she wasn't home. They invited us in and as we were talking to them Sister Dalton and I both received revelation at the same time that the Lances's were the ones wo needed to invite Susana to learn.
We had a lesson with a less active named Kamrai on SUNDAY who has just moved into the area with her husband...who is a nonmember. We were supposed to meet with her at the Lances house and we did. What ended up being really cool was she unexpectedly brought her husband. We made an appointment with her for next week and he's going to come to that as well.
So many other amazing things happened to us this week and I'm so glad that we took the time each night to recognize how much the Lord has truly blessed us!
Love you All!!!!!!!
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Nauvoo Pageant
July 11, 2011
Hi Everyone,
This week has gone by so fast!!!!!! A lot of it has been in the car, driving back and forth to Nauvoo to help with the pageant. We actually haven't seen the pageant yet. We talk to people who are playng 1840's games in the County Fair nearby the pageant grounds and then we leave right before the pageant starts. We'll be able to see it at least one time though :) The Arguetas (members) took Santos and Orlando (Investigators) to Nauvoo this last Saturday. They also went spontaneously to Carthage and miraculously made it in the nick of time for the last tour. They said they could feel the Spirit really strongly there and they had a really great experience. They want to go back again in a couple of weeks.
I watched an awesome video on Mormon messages. It's called "O Remember, Remember." by President Eyring. I encourage you all to watch it! He talks about when his children were small he would take time at the end of each day to review it and see how God had blessed him. He encouraged all of us to ask this question, "Did God send a message that was just for me?" As I've done this I have been able to recognize more fully how much God's hand is in our lives and in this work!
One of those miracles being that we drove up to a gas station and whose car happens to be on the other side but a family we've been trying for forever to get in contact with. Coincidence? I think not!
Funny things:
We were in the car talking about an investigator, I said "I don't know what to do about Lorenzo?" and then we heard a voice saying "Hello" (Hispanic accent) It was Lorenzo. I had pocket dialed him and he probably heard me..It's a good thing he doesn't speak English. Ooops!
"What do you think of when you hear the word prophet?" said Sister Dalton Brittney responded with "Money"
Hope you all have a great week!
Love
Hermana Hepworth
Hi Everyone,
This week has gone by so fast!!!!!! A lot of it has been in the car, driving back and forth to Nauvoo to help with the pageant. We actually haven't seen the pageant yet. We talk to people who are playng 1840's games in the County Fair nearby the pageant grounds and then we leave right before the pageant starts. We'll be able to see it at least one time though :) The Arguetas (members) took Santos and Orlando (Investigators) to Nauvoo this last Saturday. They also went spontaneously to Carthage and miraculously made it in the nick of time for the last tour. They said they could feel the Spirit really strongly there and they had a really great experience. They want to go back again in a couple of weeks.
I watched an awesome video on Mormon messages. It's called "O Remember, Remember." by President Eyring. I encourage you all to watch it! He talks about when his children were small he would take time at the end of each day to review it and see how God had blessed him. He encouraged all of us to ask this question, "Did God send a message that was just for me?" As I've done this I have been able to recognize more fully how much God's hand is in our lives and in this work!
One of those miracles being that we drove up to a gas station and whose car happens to be on the other side but a family we've been trying for forever to get in contact with. Coincidence? I think not!
Funny things:
We were in the car talking about an investigator, I said "I don't know what to do about Lorenzo?" and then we heard a voice saying "Hello" (Hispanic accent) It was Lorenzo. I had pocket dialed him and he probably heard me..It's a good thing he doesn't speak English. Ooops!
"What do you think of when you hear the word prophet?" said Sister Dalton Brittney responded with "Money"
Hope you all have a great week!
Love
Hermana Hepworth
Happy 45h of July
July 5, 2011
Hi Everyone,
For the past month I was companions with Hermana Draney and Sister Whitbeck and we were going back and forth between carthage and Mt. Pleasant. Sister Whitbeck is English speaking only. We had our transfer meeting on Thursday and now Hermana Dalton is my companion in Mt. Pleasant and we're no longer going back and forth. But we sort of will be because we're helping out with the Nauvoo Pageant this month. We'll be going down there Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. That means we're going down there today. It's the first night of the pageant tonight :) It goes until July 30th.
Hope you all had a fun and safe 4th of July. Love all of you!
Hermana Hepworth
Hi Everyone,
For the past month I was companions with Hermana Draney and Sister Whitbeck and we were going back and forth between carthage and Mt. Pleasant. Sister Whitbeck is English speaking only. We had our transfer meeting on Thursday and now Hermana Dalton is my companion in Mt. Pleasant and we're no longer going back and forth. But we sort of will be because we're helping out with the Nauvoo Pageant this month. We'll be going down there Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. That means we're going down there today. It's the first night of the pageant tonight :) It goes until July 30th.
Hope you all had a fun and safe 4th of July. Love all of you!
Hermana Hepworth
Monday, June 20, 2011
SOOOOO Busy!
We have been SOOOOOOOO busy!!! We are splitting our time between 2 areas, Mt. Pleasant and Carthage. We stay in Mt. Pleasant Mon-Wed and Carthage Thurs-Sat, alternating Sundays. It's mostly been fun but it feels like we never stay in one area for very long. In Mt. Pleasant we are trying to teach Brother Arguetas' nephew Lorenzo but it has been very hard to get an appointment with him. He's been coming to church pretty regularly which is awesome! We ask him if he reads The Book of Mormon and he says "si". We say "What did you lear?" and he says. "Muchas cosas" translation: many things. We've been teaching a chiropractor named Dr. Shull, we taught him about the Doctrine of Christ and basically the history of the Book of Mormon until Joseph Smith receied the plates. He was blown away that Jesus Christ had come to the Americas. You should have been there to see. He was like "Wow, wow, wait! Are you telling me that Nephi knew about Jesus coming 600 years before he actually came? Wow! Are you telling me that Christ actually came to the Americas as a resurrected being?" He was so funny but it was really cool to witness. It was fun to see it through a different light though, since I've grown up in the church, it's not new information to me. But Dr. Shull had never heard of it before and he was so excited.
In Carthage we snuck attack taught Erin, she's the nanny of a member. The parents went to Italy and they told us to stop in while they were gone and tell her that we wanted to come and watch a movie with the kids. We watched the Testaments with her. We have been teaching the 11 year old named Chris, he's being adopted by a member and they just found out the adoption will go through the end of July so that's when he'll be able to be baptized! We were able to go watch the BYU folkdancers in Nauvoo with some of our investigators as well. It was super fun!!! I'm about out of time.
Until next week
Hermana Hepworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322
Please write to me I love letters or email me at
jilyn.hepworth@myldsmail.net
In Carthage we snuck attack taught Erin, she's the nanny of a member. The parents went to Italy and they told us to stop in while they were gone and tell her that we wanted to come and watch a movie with the kids. We watched the Testaments with her. We have been teaching the 11 year old named Chris, he's being adopted by a member and they just found out the adoption will go through the end of July so that's when he'll be able to be baptized! We were able to go watch the BYU folkdancers in Nauvoo with some of our investigators as well. It was super fun!!! I'm about out of time.
Until next week
Hermana Hepworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322
Please write to me I love letters or email me at
jilyn.hepworth@myldsmail.net
Sunday, June 19, 2011
No Subject
June 13, 2011
There are some really cool things that happened this week. We had our district meetin in Nauvoo and at the end we watched the end of the Joseph Smith movie where he goes to Carthage. It was really cool that we were right in the place where it was taking place. It's really awesome to be here, we went to church in Nauvoo as well and they have some performing groups coming here and we get to go to them with investigators. So this Thursday we're going to watch thi folk dance ensemble with some investigators. Also we can tour the Carthage Jail with investigators.
I Love you All
Hermana Hepworth
There are some really cool things that happened this week. We had our district meetin in Nauvoo and at the end we watched the end of the Joseph Smith movie where he goes to Carthage. It was really cool that we were right in the place where it was taking place. It's really awesome to be here, we went to church in Nauvoo as well and they have some performing groups coming here and we get to go to them with investigators. So this Thursday we're going to watch thi folk dance ensemble with some investigators. Also we can tour the Carthage Jail with investigators.
I Love you All
Hermana Hepworth
Updates
June 10, 2011
Hey it's me again! I wanted to tell you a little about some of the experiences we've been having. We usually go eat at this restaurant for lunch on Wednesday called Little Mexico and it's owned by a less active member. Usually we do service afterwards, we've usually grated a giant mountain of cheese. We want to teach all of the workers there!!! But this last Wednesday she didn't want us to help but that was okay because on the way walking back to our apartment we met this guy sitting in the park named Edgar and we sat down and taught him right there. Hispanics are just cool like that! I read this quote in conference in Elder Nelson's talk. He quotes President Monson "Fear not. Be of good cheer. The future is as bright as your faith." I really liked that!!!
Gabriel is a 9 year old we are teaching in Carthage. He remembers a lot that we teach him! His parents are members but less active and he's at his grandpas house every weekend so we teach him there. His grandpa is active. His grandpa reminds me a lot of Clarence. We tried to sneak attack mow the lawn of a less active but they caught us and the mower died yesterday.
We had fast and testimony meeting and the spirit was realy stron there! Sister Sanchez (whom I love with all my heart!!!) tried to bear her testimony in English and I didn't really understand most of it. All I remember is that the spirit was so strong and she crossed the language barriers for those who couldn't understand.
Oh, I forgot to tell you that when we were teaching Gabriel we asked him what lawyers did and he said "Make millions!" It was pretty funny. On that note I gotta go
Love Ya
Hermana Hepworth
Hey it's me again! I wanted to tell you a little about some of the experiences we've been having. We usually go eat at this restaurant for lunch on Wednesday called Little Mexico and it's owned by a less active member. Usually we do service afterwards, we've usually grated a giant mountain of cheese. We want to teach all of the workers there!!! But this last Wednesday she didn't want us to help but that was okay because on the way walking back to our apartment we met this guy sitting in the park named Edgar and we sat down and taught him right there. Hispanics are just cool like that! I read this quote in conference in Elder Nelson's talk. He quotes President Monson "Fear not. Be of good cheer. The future is as bright as your faith." I really liked that!!!
Gabriel is a 9 year old we are teaching in Carthage. He remembers a lot that we teach him! His parents are members but less active and he's at his grandpas house every weekend so we teach him there. His grandpa is active. His grandpa reminds me a lot of Clarence. We tried to sneak attack mow the lawn of a less active but they caught us and the mower died yesterday.
We had fast and testimony meeting and the spirit was realy stron there! Sister Sanchez (whom I love with all my heart!!!) tried to bear her testimony in English and I didn't really understand most of it. All I remember is that the spirit was so strong and she crossed the language barriers for those who couldn't understand.
Oh, I forgot to tell you that when we were teaching Gabriel we asked him what lawyers did and he said "Make millions!" It was pretty funny. On that note I gotta go
Love Ya
Hermana Hepworth
No Subject
May 31, 2011
A Whole lot has changed this week just by one little phone call. President Jergensen called on Saturday morning with some news. One of the Sister's who was in Carthage went home early for health reasons and so now the other Sister is here with us in Mt. Pleasant and we will be spending half of the week in Carthage, Illinois and the other half in Mr. Pleasant, Iowa. So it's gonna be pretty interesting for these next 5 weeks splitting our time between the two areas. Nauvoo is in Carthage's area but we can't proselyte there, we can visit members who live there and referrals and we'll go to church there too every other week. Sister Whitbeck is the name of the Sister who is now here with us. She was called to speak in English. When they put a Spanish and English together we call it a "zebra" since there's 3 of us (2 Spanish and 1 English) we're calling it an "Oreo")
Oh I don't remember how much I've told you about our investigators here. The main ones are Kat, she just got married to a member who's been off from his mission for about 2 years and he's now less active. It's pretty sad, we have a lot of RM's here who are less active. Kat brings up baptism every time we go and teach her but we think she wants to wait for Adam (her husband) to baptize her. He can't for now. We're teaching Santos (Spanish yay) she's not married to the man she's living with and her husband lives in Guatemala. Lorenzo is Hermano Arguetas "nephew" that we're teaching. He's in his 20s and is from Guatemala.
Other exciting news! I hit my year mark on May 26th, Thursday. It was pretty exciting. I felt like it was my birthday!!! The time has flown by so fast!
Love Hermana Hepworth
A Whole lot has changed this week just by one little phone call. President Jergensen called on Saturday morning with some news. One of the Sister's who was in Carthage went home early for health reasons and so now the other Sister is here with us in Mt. Pleasant and we will be spending half of the week in Carthage, Illinois and the other half in Mr. Pleasant, Iowa. So it's gonna be pretty interesting for these next 5 weeks splitting our time between the two areas. Nauvoo is in Carthage's area but we can't proselyte there, we can visit members who live there and referrals and we'll go to church there too every other week. Sister Whitbeck is the name of the Sister who is now here with us. She was called to speak in English. When they put a Spanish and English together we call it a "zebra" since there's 3 of us (2 Spanish and 1 English) we're calling it an "Oreo")
Oh I don't remember how much I've told you about our investigators here. The main ones are Kat, she just got married to a member who's been off from his mission for about 2 years and he's now less active. It's pretty sad, we have a lot of RM's here who are less active. Kat brings up baptism every time we go and teach her but we think she wants to wait for Adam (her husband) to baptize her. He can't for now. We're teaching Santos (Spanish yay) she's not married to the man she's living with and her husband lives in Guatemala. Lorenzo is Hermano Arguetas "nephew" that we're teaching. He's in his 20s and is from Guatemala.
Other exciting news! I hit my year mark on May 26th, Thursday. It was pretty exciting. I felt like it was my birthday!!! The time has flown by so fast!
Love Hermana Hepworth
This is an email about food :)
May 23, 2011
I honestly can't believe it but I have almost reached my year mark! May 26 marks the day, ooh, I feel like it's my birthday or something! We have been eating at this restaurant owned by a less active woman every week. It's called Little Mexico and it's so good!!! She's actually NOT from Mexico but Guatemala. We went to her house afterwards and were about to help her with her garden. The Laroses took us out to a restaurant to eat and we had fried pickles..it sounds weird but SOOOOOO good!!! They're from North Carolina and so they LOVE fried foods. They have fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before. They said they'd make us some one day. Sister Larose also made this dip called Chicken Lip Dip. Sounds weird but it is so tasty! We also went to see this Vietnamese lady and she gave us eggrolls. She wrapped them in lettuce and we dipped them in this sauce. I've learned from past experiences NOT to ask what things are, Just eat it, if you like it you can ask what it is so you can eat it again, that that's the rule. I think after we had eaten the eggrolls her daughter told us the soup stuff was fish oil. Yep, I wouldn't have eaten that if I knew what it was! Her name is NAHN! and she doesn't speak any English, her daughter Anh translates for us. We invited her to church and a miracle happened..she came!!! Lots of people tell you they will but they never actually do. We heard somebody in the hall during the Sacrament speaking Vietamese and we got so excited! NAHN! She didn't bring her oldest daughter so she didn't understand anything. We were praying the whole time for her to please feel the Spirit!
Hermana Rojas' husband has been living in Peru for the past 5 years waiting for him to be living in the US legally. He finally arrived last week and we taught them the Doctrine of Christ. The Spirit was so strong in their home and we're so happy that they can finally live together as a family!
Not much new. I'm starting to really love Mt. Pleasant! The people (especially the Hispanics!) the member, and investigators, I have the best job in the world!!!
Hermana Hepworth
I honestly can't believe it but I have almost reached my year mark! May 26 marks the day, ooh, I feel like it's my birthday or something! We have been eating at this restaurant owned by a less active woman every week. It's called Little Mexico and it's so good!!! She's actually NOT from Mexico but Guatemala. We went to her house afterwards and were about to help her with her garden. The Laroses took us out to a restaurant to eat and we had fried pickles..it sounds weird but SOOOOOO good!!! They're from North Carolina and so they LOVE fried foods. They have fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before. They said they'd make us some one day. Sister Larose also made this dip called Chicken Lip Dip. Sounds weird but it is so tasty! We also went to see this Vietnamese lady and she gave us eggrolls. She wrapped them in lettuce and we dipped them in this sauce. I've learned from past experiences NOT to ask what things are, Just eat it, if you like it you can ask what it is so you can eat it again, that that's the rule. I think after we had eaten the eggrolls her daughter told us the soup stuff was fish oil. Yep, I wouldn't have eaten that if I knew what it was! Her name is NAHN! and she doesn't speak any English, her daughter Anh translates for us. We invited her to church and a miracle happened..she came!!! Lots of people tell you they will but they never actually do. We heard somebody in the hall during the Sacrament speaking Vietamese and we got so excited! NAHN! She didn't bring her oldest daughter so she didn't understand anything. We were praying the whole time for her to please feel the Spirit!
Hermana Rojas' husband has been living in Peru for the past 5 years waiting for him to be living in the US legally. He finally arrived last week and we taught them the Doctrine of Christ. The Spirit was so strong in their home and we're so happy that they can finally live together as a family!
Not much new. I'm starting to really love Mt. Pleasant! The people (especially the Hispanics!) the member, and investigators, I have the best job in the world!!!
Hermana Hepworth
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY
May 9, 2011
I've never been so grateful for Mothers Day in my life!!!! I'm grateful for my family and the opportunity I had to speak with my mommy! :) HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all mothers!
Love Hermana Hepworth
I've never been so grateful for Mothers Day in my life!!!! I'm grateful for my family and the opportunity I had to speak with my mommy! :) HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all mothers!
Love Hermana Hepworth
Hello
May 2, 2011
We've been confined to our apartment for most of this week due to a severe back pain I've been having. We had a couple of interesting lessons this week though on the days we were able to work. One with a girl named Kat who just married an RM. We had a lesson with a cool guy named Eric. I went to the chiropractor and we taught him a little bit, his name is Dr. Shull. We ate lunch at a restaurant named Little Mexico and the owner is a less active member. We wanted to do service for her and so we grated a giant mountain of cheese. We helped a little with the yard sale the branch was doing this weekend. I've had a lot of time to read this week. I read in Jesus the Christ about The Restoration and The 2nd Coming. I'm just about done with that book...well kind of, I didn't exactly start in the beginning. I like it a lot! I read about Ammon and King Lamoni. I love reading that from a missionary perspective. I get so many insights. We got a referal from Hermano Argueta yesterday, his nephew (Lorenzo) has come to church a couple of times and we've asked Hermano Argueta if there was a time we could teach him at his house and so while we were eating our usual Sunday lunch at the Arguetas Hermana Argueta tells us that Lorenzo called him that morning and wanted to know if he'd pick him up for church and he also said "I was waiting for you last week, where were you?" He said it is Spanish of course though, he's from Guatamala. So Lorenzo agreed for us to come over to the Arguetas and teach hime there Sunday night. It went really well, our branch mission leader came too. The amazing part was mty back didn't hurt very much while we were teaching him but after the lesson it hurt SO bad! It was a miracle. We hopefully get to go to the Nauvoo temple tomorrow.
Love you all
Hermana Hepworth
We've been confined to our apartment for most of this week due to a severe back pain I've been having. We had a couple of interesting lessons this week though on the days we were able to work. One with a girl named Kat who just married an RM. We had a lesson with a cool guy named Eric. I went to the chiropractor and we taught him a little bit, his name is Dr. Shull. We ate lunch at a restaurant named Little Mexico and the owner is a less active member. We wanted to do service for her and so we grated a giant mountain of cheese. We helped a little with the yard sale the branch was doing this weekend. I've had a lot of time to read this week. I read in Jesus the Christ about The Restoration and The 2nd Coming. I'm just about done with that book...well kind of, I didn't exactly start in the beginning. I like it a lot! I read about Ammon and King Lamoni. I love reading that from a missionary perspective. I get so many insights. We got a referal from Hermano Argueta yesterday, his nephew (Lorenzo) has come to church a couple of times and we've asked Hermano Argueta if there was a time we could teach him at his house and so while we were eating our usual Sunday lunch at the Arguetas Hermana Argueta tells us that Lorenzo called him that morning and wanted to know if he'd pick him up for church and he also said "I was waiting for you last week, where were you?" He said it is Spanish of course though, he's from Guatamala. So Lorenzo agreed for us to come over to the Arguetas and teach hime there Sunday night. It went really well, our branch mission leader came too. The amazing part was mty back didn't hurt very much while we were teaching him but after the lesson it hurt SO bad! It was a miracle. We hopefully get to go to the Nauvoo temple tomorrow.
Love you all
Hermana Hepworth
Bautismo de Skylar :)
April 25, 2011
Skylar is 15 and his dad and stepmom are members. He's really cool and he got baptized on Saturday. We are trying to teach Dr. Shull (he's a chiropractor that Hermana Dalton had gone to see a long time ago and he was pretty interested. I got to meet him for the first time and he's really awesome. We watched some clips from mormon.org with him at his office. We really wanted to go to his home and watch the Joseph Smith movie with him but we don't think he's told his wife about us coming to visit him and we don't think that he really wants to tell her about us. He's been reading in the Book of Mormon so that's cool. He's got lots of potential and we've seen pictures of his family and they are so stinkin cute. He's got really good morals, if you didn't know any better you'd mistake him for a Mormon. Another cool person we're teachin is Kat. She just got married to a member, Kinda sad situation, he's a less active returned missionary. But she came to church for the first time yesterday so that was awesome!!! We don't have very many miles we can use on our car so we've been walking a lot. As we were walking Ian stopped by in his car (he's the one that was a miracle last week) he wanted to know when we were coming over again so that was pretty awesome that he stopped by to talk to us. We're also teaching this cool guy named Eric. He has an amputated leg. We send him reading assignments every night via text message and so he's been reading every day. Pretty cool. Highlight was the baptism, the Spirit is always so strong at baptisms.
And I almost forgot to wish a Happy Easter! I hope everyone remembers the reason why we celebrate it and to celebrate Easter and Christmas all year round!
Skylar is 15 and his dad and stepmom are members. He's really cool and he got baptized on Saturday. We are trying to teach Dr. Shull (he's a chiropractor that Hermana Dalton had gone to see a long time ago and he was pretty interested. I got to meet him for the first time and he's really awesome. We watched some clips from mormon.org with him at his office. We really wanted to go to his home and watch the Joseph Smith movie with him but we don't think he's told his wife about us coming to visit him and we don't think that he really wants to tell her about us. He's been reading in the Book of Mormon so that's cool. He's got lots of potential and we've seen pictures of his family and they are so stinkin cute. He's got really good morals, if you didn't know any better you'd mistake him for a Mormon. Another cool person we're teachin is Kat. She just got married to a member, Kinda sad situation, he's a less active returned missionary. But she came to church for the first time yesterday so that was awesome!!! We don't have very many miles we can use on our car so we've been walking a lot. As we were walking Ian stopped by in his car (he's the one that was a miracle last week) he wanted to know when we were coming over again so that was pretty awesome that he stopped by to talk to us. We're also teaching this cool guy named Eric. He has an amputated leg. We send him reading assignments every night via text message and so he's been reading every day. Pretty cool. Highlight was the baptism, the Spirit is always so strong at baptisms.
And I almost forgot to wish a Happy Easter! I hope everyone remembers the reason why we celebrate it and to celebrate Easter and Christmas all year round!
Good times in Mt. Pleasant
April 18, 2011
So more about the church tour we had with the youth last Sunday. I don't know how many of you are familiar with what a church tour is but they are amazing!!! It's always amazing to me how much stronger the Spirit can be when we teach our investigators in the chapel. It also helps the investigator be able to see the actual building without having to worry about meeting new people. We teach them along the way basically the message of the restoration. About how God has given us prophets because He loves us. We turn out all of the lights while we're in the sacrament meeting room and tell them that in times when there is no prophet it's like we're in darkness and we don't know the way to go. We then turn on a flashlight and show them pictures of times when God has called a prophet to guide the people and show them the way. Then we turn off the flashlight and talk more about apostacy. I think it's a really effective way to talk about apostacy and help people see that when we aren't guided by a prophet who receives revelation from God then it's the same. we're in spiritual darkness. We then talk about the Saviors life and all that He's done for us. Leading up to when he was rejected as well which resulted in the great apostacy. We take them into the room with the baptismal font and have 12 chairs lined up with the names of the original 12 apostles on the chairs. The authority (priesthood) has been restored and now we can do valid baptisms. (show them the font) It's a really special experience and my words can't do it justice. It was just really neat to be able to share that with the youth and I know that they could feel the Spirit there.
As for this week, we've been teaching our baptismal dat (Skylar) a lot. He's going to be baptized this Saturday. I cut Sister Coffins hair and she fed us strawberry shortcake for dinner. Something gross that happed to me..I got pooed on by a bird! Bleh!
We're also teaching this cool guy named Eric. We're wworking a lot with the less actives cause there a a LOT here! Pretty much, it's all going great. I still wish we taught more in Spanish :( Hispanic people are so much nicer!
Oh, I found out yesterday that this girl in our branch, Hermana Parker is from Tehuacan (where I went and taught English at in 2009) So she knows all of the people that I know from there. We think that we may have been there at the same time too! I also have the best companion in the world too FYI
Hermana Hepworth
PS I also wanted to tell you about a miracle we had this week. We had some old teaching records we have and we decided to see this girl named Danielle. We stopped by in the afternoon but her parents said that she had just moved out a couple of weeks ago so we got her address and we just felt like we shouldn't stop by at the moment so later on in the day we stopped by and she was home. She invited us in. We found out that she's actually a member but she's become less active. 5 minutes later her boyfriend walks in who isn't a member and keeps telling us how crazy it is that we stopped by because he's been looking around for the past week trying to find a church. He doesn't live there with her (which is good) So we were really lucky to find him at that time. We taught them about the Restoration and he said he would come to church. I just thought it was really neat because there was a reason why we felt like we shouldn't g by earlier in the day. The Spirit was whispering that we needed to go by later so that we could contact him. His name is Ian, he's got some interesting ideas. So anyway, that was one of the many small miracles we see each day.
So more about the church tour we had with the youth last Sunday. I don't know how many of you are familiar with what a church tour is but they are amazing!!! It's always amazing to me how much stronger the Spirit can be when we teach our investigators in the chapel. It also helps the investigator be able to see the actual building without having to worry about meeting new people. We teach them along the way basically the message of the restoration. About how God has given us prophets because He loves us. We turn out all of the lights while we're in the sacrament meeting room and tell them that in times when there is no prophet it's like we're in darkness and we don't know the way to go. We then turn on a flashlight and show them pictures of times when God has called a prophet to guide the people and show them the way. Then we turn off the flashlight and talk more about apostacy. I think it's a really effective way to talk about apostacy and help people see that when we aren't guided by a prophet who receives revelation from God then it's the same. we're in spiritual darkness. We then talk about the Saviors life and all that He's done for us. Leading up to when he was rejected as well which resulted in the great apostacy. We take them into the room with the baptismal font and have 12 chairs lined up with the names of the original 12 apostles on the chairs. The authority (priesthood) has been restored and now we can do valid baptisms. (show them the font) It's a really special experience and my words can't do it justice. It was just really neat to be able to share that with the youth and I know that they could feel the Spirit there.
As for this week, we've been teaching our baptismal dat (Skylar) a lot. He's going to be baptized this Saturday. I cut Sister Coffins hair and she fed us strawberry shortcake for dinner. Something gross that happed to me..I got pooed on by a bird! Bleh!
We're also teaching this cool guy named Eric. We're wworking a lot with the less actives cause there a a LOT here! Pretty much, it's all going great. I still wish we taught more in Spanish :( Hispanic people are so much nicer!
Oh, I found out yesterday that this girl in our branch, Hermana Parker is from Tehuacan (where I went and taught English at in 2009) So she knows all of the people that I know from there. We think that we may have been there at the same time too! I also have the best companion in the world too FYI
Hermana Hepworth
PS I also wanted to tell you about a miracle we had this week. We had some old teaching records we have and we decided to see this girl named Danielle. We stopped by in the afternoon but her parents said that she had just moved out a couple of weeks ago so we got her address and we just felt like we shouldn't stop by at the moment so later on in the day we stopped by and she was home. She invited us in. We found out that she's actually a member but she's become less active. 5 minutes later her boyfriend walks in who isn't a member and keeps telling us how crazy it is that we stopped by because he's been looking around for the past week trying to find a church. He doesn't live there with her (which is good) So we were really lucky to find him at that time. We taught them about the Restoration and he said he would come to church. I just thought it was really neat because there was a reason why we felt like we shouldn't g by earlier in the day. The Spirit was whispering that we needed to go by later so that we could contact him. His name is Ian, he's got some interesting ideas. So anyway, that was one of the many small miracles we see each day.
Dear World
April 11, 2011
I am writing you today from Mt. Pleasant Iowa, this is where I have been transfered to. I really like it a lot so far but we don't speak much Spanish here. But before I go into that let me tell you about the past 2 weeks. Back on the last Monday in March we taught this lady named Rosie. We really actually wanted to teach her brother who when we taught him the week before was telling his sister about the first vision and remembered that Heavenly Father said "This is my beloved son, hear him" for parts of that lesson I felt like he was our member at the lesson. But sadly he was busy painting and so we taught her and then we had this strange experience with this 20 year oldish boy outside of her tralier who was telling us that you only had to repent one time for all of the sins that you've committed and will committ because Jesus only suffered one time on the cross. We felt kinda yuucky after we left him so we sung some hymns. We had one of the most amazin lessons with a man named Mario who happens to be the brother of one our members. The Sprit was really strong and he had so many really good questionsm, he told us he would have lots of questions the next time we came back. We taught our baptismal date some more (Francisco) Oh and he quite drinking coffee!!!!!!! On April Fools we made the other missionaries believe that we weren't doing any missionary work. (We really were though) We also watched a Catholic baptism on video from Mexico..then we invited them to one of our baptisms. I hope they come Oh, and the CONFERENCE!!!!! It was so awesome! After the morning session on Saturday we found out that were both being transfered and so I was really sad after that, which was a little strange because I was kinda expecting it. I was in Des Moines for 6 months after all. On Sunday morning I was thinking on the different ways that we can receive revelation. Especially as a missionary I feel like I should be receiving all of this revelation but I guess I just haven't realized that I am, little by little, like a sunrise. I also really enjoyed the talks about desires. (Especially since it's so stinkin hard for me to wake up in the morning and I've got to overcome my desire to sleep) I also enjoyed the talk about the "being" and "doing" I can't rememeber who gave it but I enjoyed it a lot! For the rest of the week we said goodbye to everyone and it was sad! Especially with Esmerelda. She's like my best friend. I love her so much and we shed a few tears together. I cut some members hair this week. Hermana Crespo's and her kids. Debbie and Kevin and Hermana Tristan's.
Then we packed up all of our stuff and now I'm in Mt. Pleasant with Hermana Draney. She's the MTC companion of my greenie that I've been training these past 2 transfers, Hermana Rials. Hermana Draney grew up in Kansas and now her parents live in Wyoming. She's so stinkin awesome!!! We've been enjoying this weather a lot!!! We have a car but we don't have very many miles we can use so we're glad for this good weather cause we've been walking around a LOT in it! We had a church tour with the youth in ur branch last night and it was so awesome. I'll tell you more about it next week cause I'm outta time. I love you all!
Hermana Hepworth
I am writing you today from Mt. Pleasant Iowa, this is where I have been transfered to. I really like it a lot so far but we don't speak much Spanish here. But before I go into that let me tell you about the past 2 weeks. Back on the last Monday in March we taught this lady named Rosie. We really actually wanted to teach her brother who when we taught him the week before was telling his sister about the first vision and remembered that Heavenly Father said "This is my beloved son, hear him" for parts of that lesson I felt like he was our member at the lesson. But sadly he was busy painting and so we taught her and then we had this strange experience with this 20 year oldish boy outside of her tralier who was telling us that you only had to repent one time for all of the sins that you've committed and will committ because Jesus only suffered one time on the cross. We felt kinda yuucky after we left him so we sung some hymns. We had one of the most amazin lessons with a man named Mario who happens to be the brother of one our members. The Sprit was really strong and he had so many really good questionsm, he told us he would have lots of questions the next time we came back. We taught our baptismal date some more (Francisco) Oh and he quite drinking coffee!!!!!!! On April Fools we made the other missionaries believe that we weren't doing any missionary work. (We really were though) We also watched a Catholic baptism on video from Mexico..then we invited them to one of our baptisms. I hope they come Oh, and the CONFERENCE!!!!! It was so awesome! After the morning session on Saturday we found out that were both being transfered and so I was really sad after that, which was a little strange because I was kinda expecting it. I was in Des Moines for 6 months after all. On Sunday morning I was thinking on the different ways that we can receive revelation. Especially as a missionary I feel like I should be receiving all of this revelation but I guess I just haven't realized that I am, little by little, like a sunrise. I also really enjoyed the talks about desires. (Especially since it's so stinkin hard for me to wake up in the morning and I've got to overcome my desire to sleep) I also enjoyed the talk about the "being" and "doing" I can't rememeber who gave it but I enjoyed it a lot! For the rest of the week we said goodbye to everyone and it was sad! Especially with Esmerelda. She's like my best friend. I love her so much and we shed a few tears together. I cut some members hair this week. Hermana Crespo's and her kids. Debbie and Kevin and Hermana Tristan's.
Then we packed up all of our stuff and now I'm in Mt. Pleasant with Hermana Draney. She's the MTC companion of my greenie that I've been training these past 2 transfers, Hermana Rials. Hermana Draney grew up in Kansas and now her parents live in Wyoming. She's so stinkin awesome!!! We've been enjoying this weather a lot!!! We have a car but we don't have very many miles we can use so we're glad for this good weather cause we've been walking around a LOT in it! We had a church tour with the youth in ur branch last night and it was so awesome. I'll tell you more about it next week cause I'm outta time. I love you all!
Hermana Hepworth
I have not posted for Jilyn for quite some time because I lost the info to sign in. Anyway I am attempting to up date you on her mission. I hope you will keep visiting this site because I will be updating it regularily now.
March 7, 2011
This week we met Korihor. He was hispanic but wanted to speak to us in English, he knows that God exists but doesn't think he loves us. If he loved us, he would show up when we needed him so he chooses to serve the other guy. He said lots of creepy things to us and said he was a witch. All we could really do was bear our testimony to him because he really didn't want to learn. Oh! And I accidently rear ended somebody...oops. I was only going about 2 MPH though. It didn't do anything to the other car but one of our headlight covers broke. We taught our first English class and we had an investigator (Josephina) and a member family (the Arguestas) come. It was fun. We taught getting to know you questions and numbers and colors. We played lots of fun games with it too.
We had Stake Conference and it was transmitted from SLC. Elders Cook and Eyring spoke. I didn't get as much out of it as I would have liked because it was in Spanish. We watched it in Spanish because one of our super cool investigators (Julia) came and so we were in the Relief Society room watching it in Spanish with her and the rest of the branch.
No more time gotta run!
Love Hermana Hepworth
BIPOLAR WEATHER
March 28, 2011
Good week! It always goes by so fast and I realized on my 10 month mark (we call them click days :)) that I only have 8 months left and that's not very much time! After that I'm not going to be on a mission anymore so I want to work as hard as I can to find all of the people my Heavenly Father wants me to find. So our baptismal date Francisco is an interesting fellow. He LOVES to talk, talk, and talk. And Also another thing that he likes is his coffee. He told us that he's going to pick a day and on that day he will drink lots and lots of coffee and from that day forward he won't drink anymore coffee. (That's what he did 10 years ago when he stopped drinking alcohol) So we proceeded to helping him pick a day, we kinda settled on the first Sunday in April. We also ran into this really interesting man named Pablo, he knows a LOT about the Bible and he agrees with us on a lot of stuff but he was very set on the sabbath being on Saturday. Nothing we said could convince him other wise. He is an honest seeker of truth though, I believe. He'd learned with missionaries a long time ago and he even remember that Joseph Smith had the first vision in 1820. He also thought that that's when the church was established as the "Mormon Church" being it's official title. We committed him to read it and pray about it and I believe he will because he sincerely wants to know the truth. He was really interested when we told him about conference. I'm so excited for General Conference. I love hearing from all the General Authorities who have prayed for inspiration on what they should talk to us about.
Oh and that night (Tuesday) there was a tornado..we heard sirens but I think it was quite a ways away from us.
I don't know if I told you about Irene. She's the sister of a member, she's so cool and we're hoping to set a baptismal date with her soon. So our Spanish area covers 3 areas..does that make any sense. There are English Elders in each of these 3 areas and when they find Spanish people they'll give them to us as a referral so we only teach the Hispanics (they're a lot) I can't remember why I was telling you this...oh yeah. We teach an English class on Saturdays and the Elders were having a baptism right after it so we invited one of the men who comes (his name is Pablo as well) to come to it and he did. He really liked it! The Spirit was so strong there. It was a mom and her 3 kids. We taught this lady named Jessica about 4 months ago and then she got super busy with her work and it's been so hard to get back in contact with her but his week we were close to her house and I felt like we should see her...and she was home!!! It was awesome. I missed her a lot and she still wants to get baptized but she's still really busy with work thought so that makes it hard.
Oh, I almost forgot to tell you something crazy that we did. Well, we kinda stole a cat. There's this cat that we always see and it's such a sad looking cat, so skinny and weak and sick. Well this particular day we saw this cat and Hermana Rials says to me "We should take it" and I was like "WHAT?" even though I had the same thought, it was crazy. But we felt good about it so we took it to our apartment and gave it a bath and Esmerelda said we could take it to her house. She's taking care of it until it gets better and we can find it a home. If we can't find a home I'll just have to send it to Utah.. how do you mail a cat? Just kidding...kinda. Well I love ya but I'm outta time, read your scriptures and pray and go to church!!! And also our weather is crazy. It snowed one day and then was warm the next.
Love Hermana Hepworth
March 7, 2011
This week we met Korihor. He was hispanic but wanted to speak to us in English, he knows that God exists but doesn't think he loves us. If he loved us, he would show up when we needed him so he chooses to serve the other guy. He said lots of creepy things to us and said he was a witch. All we could really do was bear our testimony to him because he really didn't want to learn. Oh! And I accidently rear ended somebody...oops. I was only going about 2 MPH though. It didn't do anything to the other car but one of our headlight covers broke. We taught our first English class and we had an investigator (Josephina) and a member family (the Arguestas) come. It was fun. We taught getting to know you questions and numbers and colors. We played lots of fun games with it too.
We had Stake Conference and it was transmitted from SLC. Elders Cook and Eyring spoke. I didn't get as much out of it as I would have liked because it was in Spanish. We watched it in Spanish because one of our super cool investigators (Julia) came and so we were in the Relief Society room watching it in Spanish with her and the rest of the branch.
No more time gotta run!
Love Hermana Hepworth
BIPOLAR WEATHER
March 28, 2011
Good week! It always goes by so fast and I realized on my 10 month mark (we call them click days :)) that I only have 8 months left and that's not very much time! After that I'm not going to be on a mission anymore so I want to work as hard as I can to find all of the people my Heavenly Father wants me to find. So our baptismal date Francisco is an interesting fellow. He LOVES to talk, talk, and talk. And Also another thing that he likes is his coffee. He told us that he's going to pick a day and on that day he will drink lots and lots of coffee and from that day forward he won't drink anymore coffee. (That's what he did 10 years ago when he stopped drinking alcohol) So we proceeded to helping him pick a day, we kinda settled on the first Sunday in April. We also ran into this really interesting man named Pablo, he knows a LOT about the Bible and he agrees with us on a lot of stuff but he was very set on the sabbath being on Saturday. Nothing we said could convince him other wise. He is an honest seeker of truth though, I believe. He'd learned with missionaries a long time ago and he even remember that Joseph Smith had the first vision in 1820. He also thought that that's when the church was established as the "Mormon Church" being it's official title. We committed him to read it and pray about it and I believe he will because he sincerely wants to know the truth. He was really interested when we told him about conference. I'm so excited for General Conference. I love hearing from all the General Authorities who have prayed for inspiration on what they should talk to us about.
Oh and that night (Tuesday) there was a tornado..we heard sirens but I think it was quite a ways away from us.
I don't know if I told you about Irene. She's the sister of a member, she's so cool and we're hoping to set a baptismal date with her soon. So our Spanish area covers 3 areas..does that make any sense. There are English Elders in each of these 3 areas and when they find Spanish people they'll give them to us as a referral so we only teach the Hispanics (they're a lot) I can't remember why I was telling you this...oh yeah. We teach an English class on Saturdays and the Elders were having a baptism right after it so we invited one of the men who comes (his name is Pablo as well) to come to it and he did. He really liked it! The Spirit was so strong there. It was a mom and her 3 kids. We taught this lady named Jessica about 4 months ago and then she got super busy with her work and it's been so hard to get back in contact with her but his week we were close to her house and I felt like we should see her...and she was home!!! It was awesome. I missed her a lot and she still wants to get baptized but she's still really busy with work thought so that makes it hard.
Oh, I almost forgot to tell you something crazy that we did. Well, we kinda stole a cat. There's this cat that we always see and it's such a sad looking cat, so skinny and weak and sick. Well this particular day we saw this cat and Hermana Rials says to me "We should take it" and I was like "WHAT?" even though I had the same thought, it was crazy. But we felt good about it so we took it to our apartment and gave it a bath and Esmerelda said we could take it to her house. She's taking care of it until it gets better and we can find it a home. If we can't find a home I'll just have to send it to Utah.. how do you mail a cat? Just kidding...kinda. Well I love ya but I'm outta time, read your scriptures and pray and go to church!!! And also our weather is crazy. It snowed one day and then was warm the next.
Love Hermana Hepworth
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
feliz dia de amor
This week has been so CRAZY! I got a call on Tuesday after we had just gotten back from taking Hermana Rials to the chiropracter from the assistants. Basically, they wanted me to take 6 sisters and give them stuff to do while their companions were in meetings. Well okay...but we've been inside for a week and have no appointments set up. It was really stressful but it was all good because we had lots of people to check up on. We had one of the sisters "babysit" Hermana Rials and we split into 2 groups of Spanish speakers. I was with Hermana Draney (cute little greenie :) she was Hermana Rials MTC companion. We found 2 brand new people (that's how friendly the Hispanic people are, they let you in right then :)) That night we had even more missionaries to give work to..there were 9 of us. The next 2 days (Wednesday and Thursday) we had Leadership Training. We have this once every 3 months I think and usually it's the Zone Leader, District Leadrs, and trainers that go to it but President Jergensen thought it would be good if everyone had a chance to go. It was AWESOME to see all of my former companions!!!!! Hermana Guthrie, Dalton, Hancock and McGuire...I love them! So on Wednesday basically all of the sisters in our mission were at this training (there were 11 of us) after the training all of them were working in my area, so we split into 3 groups of 3 (Hermana Rials was getting babysat :)) I set up 3 dinner appointments so that everyone would get dinner. The best part was that we got to check up on people that we hadn't been able to for a long time and I just loved seeing everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We learned lots of good stuff from the training too.
I'm sure it was kinda weird for the English sisters though, they had no clue what was going on. We translated for them for a couple of lessons so they could understand. So if you couldn't tell Hermana Rials' back is still hurting her a lot.
We're teaching this interesting lady named Jovita that Esmerelda referred to us. She's interesting.
Hermana Hepworth
Ps I almost forgot
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!!!!!!
I'm sure it was kinda weird for the English sisters though, they had no clue what was going on. We translated for them for a couple of lessons so they could understand. So if you couldn't tell Hermana Rials' back is still hurting her a lot.
We're teaching this interesting lady named Jovita that Esmerelda referred to us. She's interesting.
Hermana Hepworth
Ps I almost forgot
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!!!!!!
Monday, February 7, 2011
Stir Crazy
Well, it's been an interesting week...yes it has, yes it has. Actually we only really were able to work for 2 days this week. :(
We had a giant blizzard on Tuesday and our vehicles were grounded. There was another time about a month ago when the vehicles were grounded and we asked if that meant we were supposed to stay inside or walk and we were told to walk...so we did. Well, we asked the Zone Leaders what were supposed to do and they told us to walk again. Welllllllll, we did and our appointments were really far away and there was LOTS of snow coming down. This lady passed us and told us she was a member and wanted to give us a ride. She was really nice and she even had her scriptures in the car so we knew she was legit. We got to our appointment and they weren't home so we started walking to the next one. Next thing I know Sister Jergensen is calling us and asking us why we're out in the snow. She had just gotten a call from the woman's father that gave us a ride because she was really worried about us. Sister Jergensen told us that everyone was supposed to be indoors. It turns out that 3rd Ward Elders stole the Zone Leaders phone and they were the ones who told us to walk. I guess they didn't actually think we would do it but....I was just doing what I thought we were supposed to and Sister Jergensen wasn't very happy when she was talking to me. So the next day, Wednesday, they had us stay in all day as well.
In other news, we were able to work on Thursday. It was a pretty good day. We taught Jovita. She's a referral from Esmerelda (one of our members) She has LOTS of questions, which is good :)
Hermana Rials hurt her back when she was in the MTC and she reinjured it on Thursday so the next day we were stuck inside all of Friday...as well as Saturday, we went to the doctor that day...and Hermana got some medication that made her VERY sleepy! She's in so much pain that we weren't even able to go to church. We were just inside all day! We've been going a little crazy. (We made a really funny tape yesterday :) ) I think I'm a little bit crazier than she is though because I've been awake the whole time and she's been sleeping a lot. I've read almost all of conference, there were so many talks I loved! "Receive the Holy Ghost" by Elder Bednar. I love it when he tells us that we need to invite the Holy Ghost. It says, that the Holy Ghost will "avoid us" if we don't properly invite him. I had the thought that the reason why he'll "avoid us" is becuase he's not comfortable there. It makes me so excited I just want to share it all with you, but I can't so just read it yourself :) I like how Pres. Monson says in "Till we meet again" he was comparing the words from Conferences with the sermon of King Benjamin "We could echo the words, found in the Book of Mormon, of those who heard the sermon of the great King Benjamin and cried with one voice, saying, Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us, and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent." He also tells us "take time to read the conference talks...they are deserving of our careful study." Awesome, I always wish for more time to study because it goes by so fast and now I've got it...lots and lots of time to study.
We went to the chiropracter today to see if he can heal my companion so she's no broken anymore. So that we can start working again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Pues. I love you all!
Hermana Hepworth
We had a giant blizzard on Tuesday and our vehicles were grounded. There was another time about a month ago when the vehicles were grounded and we asked if that meant we were supposed to stay inside or walk and we were told to walk...so we did. Well, we asked the Zone Leaders what were supposed to do and they told us to walk again. Welllllllll, we did and our appointments were really far away and there was LOTS of snow coming down. This lady passed us and told us she was a member and wanted to give us a ride. She was really nice and she even had her scriptures in the car so we knew she was legit. We got to our appointment and they weren't home so we started walking to the next one. Next thing I know Sister Jergensen is calling us and asking us why we're out in the snow. She had just gotten a call from the woman's father that gave us a ride because she was really worried about us. Sister Jergensen told us that everyone was supposed to be indoors. It turns out that 3rd Ward Elders stole the Zone Leaders phone and they were the ones who told us to walk. I guess they didn't actually think we would do it but....I was just doing what I thought we were supposed to and Sister Jergensen wasn't very happy when she was talking to me. So the next day, Wednesday, they had us stay in all day as well.
In other news, we were able to work on Thursday. It was a pretty good day. We taught Jovita. She's a referral from Esmerelda (one of our members) She has LOTS of questions, which is good :)
Hermana Rials hurt her back when she was in the MTC and she reinjured it on Thursday so the next day we were stuck inside all of Friday...as well as Saturday, we went to the doctor that day...and Hermana got some medication that made her VERY sleepy! She's in so much pain that we weren't even able to go to church. We were just inside all day! We've been going a little crazy. (We made a really funny tape yesterday :) ) I think I'm a little bit crazier than she is though because I've been awake the whole time and she's been sleeping a lot. I've read almost all of conference, there were so many talks I loved! "Receive the Holy Ghost" by Elder Bednar. I love it when he tells us that we need to invite the Holy Ghost. It says, that the Holy Ghost will "avoid us" if we don't properly invite him. I had the thought that the reason why he'll "avoid us" is becuase he's not comfortable there. It makes me so excited I just want to share it all with you, but I can't so just read it yourself :) I like how Pres. Monson says in "Till we meet again" he was comparing the words from Conferences with the sermon of King Benjamin "We could echo the words, found in the Book of Mormon, of those who heard the sermon of the great King Benjamin and cried with one voice, saying, Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us, and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent." He also tells us "take time to read the conference talks...they are deserving of our careful study." Awesome, I always wish for more time to study because it goes by so fast and now I've got it...lots and lots of time to study.
We went to the chiropracter today to see if he can heal my companion so she's no broken anymore. So that we can start working again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Pues. I love you all!
Hermana Hepworth
Monday, January 31, 2011
Chinches AKA: Bedbugs!
Yep, we have bedbugs in our apartment. The Hermanas before us had problems with them and Hermana Rials has found quite a few bites. Elder Bee (Senior missionary) has a bedbug killer, it heats the apartment up to 150 degrees (that's the only things that kills them) but he didn't want to do that yet. He told us to vaccuum our entire apartment and the mattresses too and put all our clothes and bedding in the dryer on the highest heat. We spent the whole day doing that...I'm not so sure if it worked. We have a theory that the whole apartment complex has them and that's why we con't seem to get rid of them because Elder Bee has heated up the apartment before and it obvisously didn't work.
We've also been pretty sick so this week has been kinda slow with us being inside a lot and all. It kinda makes me really awnrey, onrey, awnery... I don't know how to spell it. Anyways, when we're indoors a lot I start getting kinda stressed and discouraged thinking about how much easier it would be to quit...but that doesn't ever last very long because we go out and start talking to people and that makes me really REALLY happy and I couldn't imagine doing anything else. I LOVE IT!
We've been teaching this couple, Ana and Aldo, since November and they're awesome but they have to wait until summer to get married in Mexico. It's sad because we love them so much and know all of the blessings that they can receive. They have a daughter that's old enough to get baptized so we're going to work on that :)
Esmerelda brought a lady to church last week named Jovita, and we've started teacher her. She's in her 40's and she's learned before back in Mexico when she was 20. I LOVE IT! when we get member referrals!!!!! Marcella just turned 8 so she got baptized the Saturday, the Spirit was really strong there, we invited our investigators to come but nobody showed up :( She sang "Baptism" afterwards and the Spirit was just really strong.
Well not much to say except...no WAIT, I just thought of something! I finished the Book of Mormon this week. Yea!!!!! And then I got to ask if it was true again and guess what? It still is!!!! So now I'm starting over again, who wants to race me?
Love
Hermana Hepworth
We've also been pretty sick so this week has been kinda slow with us being inside a lot and all. It kinda makes me really awnrey, onrey, awnery... I don't know how to spell it. Anyways, when we're indoors a lot I start getting kinda stressed and discouraged thinking about how much easier it would be to quit...but that doesn't ever last very long because we go out and start talking to people and that makes me really REALLY happy and I couldn't imagine doing anything else. I LOVE IT!
We've been teaching this couple, Ana and Aldo, since November and they're awesome but they have to wait until summer to get married in Mexico. It's sad because we love them so much and know all of the blessings that they can receive. They have a daughter that's old enough to get baptized so we're going to work on that :)
Esmerelda brought a lady to church last week named Jovita, and we've started teacher her. She's in her 40's and she's learned before back in Mexico when she was 20. I LOVE IT! when we get member referrals!!!!! Marcella just turned 8 so she got baptized the Saturday, the Spirit was really strong there, we invited our investigators to come but nobody showed up :( She sang "Baptism" afterwards and the Spirit was just really strong.
Well not much to say except...no WAIT, I just thought of something! I finished the Book of Mormon this week. Yea!!!!! And then I got to ask if it was true again and guess what? It still is!!!! So now I'm starting over again, who wants to race me?
Love
Hermana Hepworth
January 24, 2011 Hace Frio?
First of all let me just say Bahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Because there have been so many ups and downs this week. We've had to drop some people and that's always hard. Especially when you know that you've had lessons where they've felt the spirit but they just don't want to change.
I'm really excited about this family we've been teaching for a while. They were progressing really slowly until a couple of weeks ago when they came to church. They've started reading in the Book of Mormon, Ana even reads it with her children sometimes (we read the story from the Conference talk by Sister Wixom about the family. We had their children repeat a verse. She really liked it and so she's been doing that) they haven't been to church since then but they've had some pretty good excuses. They're not married...yet. But they want to be so we're going to plan a wedding! :) Ana loves that she can have an eternal family. A couple of weeks ago we tracted into a lady named Soraida. We set up an appointment and in the middle of the lesson we found out she was a member. She hasn't been to church in a really long time and her husband isn't a member...yet. So basically it was a miracle that we found her, really though, the hand of the Lord is everywhere.
We've started teaching something called the promise pattern. We share 1 John 2:5 and talk about how we're messengers from the Lord and when they make a promise with us (to read the Book of Mormon or what ever committment we've left like coming to church, baptism) they're making it with the Lord. Our part of the promise is to come back and teach them more If they haven't kept the committment we can't teach them more because they're not ready. So we teach more about making a promise and how when they keep their promises with God they are able to have the love of God. (Like it says in 1 John 2:5) It's really cool! We were having trouble with it at first because we wanted to ask the question, It is better to make a promise and not keep it or to not make promises? I think we've got it all ironed out now.
Hermana Rials is doing great, I like training. It's just a lot of stress and pressure. But my Zone Leader Elder Poulsen said "There's not comfort in the growth zone and there's no growth in the comfort zone."
Love
Hermana Hepworth
Because there have been so many ups and downs this week. We've had to drop some people and that's always hard. Especially when you know that you've had lessons where they've felt the spirit but they just don't want to change.
I'm really excited about this family we've been teaching for a while. They were progressing really slowly until a couple of weeks ago when they came to church. They've started reading in the Book of Mormon, Ana even reads it with her children sometimes (we read the story from the Conference talk by Sister Wixom about the family. We had their children repeat a verse. She really liked it and so she's been doing that) they haven't been to church since then but they've had some pretty good excuses. They're not married...yet. But they want to be so we're going to plan a wedding! :) Ana loves that she can have an eternal family. A couple of weeks ago we tracted into a lady named Soraida. We set up an appointment and in the middle of the lesson we found out she was a member. She hasn't been to church in a really long time and her husband isn't a member...yet. So basically it was a miracle that we found her, really though, the hand of the Lord is everywhere.
We've started teaching something called the promise pattern. We share 1 John 2:5 and talk about how we're messengers from the Lord and when they make a promise with us (to read the Book of Mormon or what ever committment we've left like coming to church, baptism) they're making it with the Lord. Our part of the promise is to come back and teach them more If they haven't kept the committment we can't teach them more because they're not ready. So we teach more about making a promise and how when they keep their promises with God they are able to have the love of God. (Like it says in 1 John 2:5) It's really cool! We were having trouble with it at first because we wanted to ask the question, It is better to make a promise and not keep it or to not make promises? I think we've got it all ironed out now.
Hermana Rials is doing great, I like training. It's just a lot of stress and pressure. But my Zone Leader Elder Poulsen said "There's not comfort in the growth zone and there's no growth in the comfort zone."
Love
Hermana Hepworth
January 18,2011 I had a baby...........
Well in the mission at least, her name is Hermana Heather Rials and she's from Idaho. I was pretty nervous to be the one in charge and not have anybody to lean on when I don't understand the Spanish. But something miraculous happened....all of the sudden I can understand everybody's Spanish. It's a miracle! Her Spanish is about as good as mine was when I got out here, meaning she's got a ways to go. I like seeing the comparison and how far I've come. She'll learn though, especially in Des Moines where all we do is Spanish.
Not much to report.
Love
Hermana Hepworth
Not much to report.
Love
Hermana Hepworth
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Where do I begin.....
It's been really busy, but alway fun.
Transferes are this week. I am staying in Des Moines and training. I'm a little scared. I feel like I just left the MTC. But I know that President Jergensen receives inspiration from the Lord so I know that is what the Lord wants me to do. Last week at church we had 0 people come to church and we were really sad because there were some that we really thought would come. This last Sunday we made pancakes at Ana and Aldo's and afterwards they followed us up to church. We had a train of cars follow us, it was awesome!!!!! So Ana and Aldo, their two kids.
Aldo's brother Ricado, and Ana's uncle Guzlavo all came to church. There was still a lot of other people that we really really wanted to come to church and didn't but still we were so excited. It turns out they already have people they know from a long time ago in our branch.
I'm amazed all of the time of the Lord's hand in this work. Like...one time we were in our car trying to decide what to do so we prayed and when we opened our eyes we saw Rosio drive up in her car. So we got out and taught her. The Hispanic people are so amazing! They will let you into their home right when they meet you. We were walking around outside and started talking to this man, Nicolas. We asked him if he'd want to learn and he told us we could teach him right then. So we followed him to his house and started teaching him and his wife. They have such an adorable famile. I LOVE it when the parents have the kids sit down to listen with us. I definately think it's something that I should do more, inviting everyone to listen. We started teaching Diavid and Jessica and she called her 3 kids to come sit down and listen and we taught them all about faith. We read in Alma 32 abnout the seed and had the kids pretend like they were growing a plant with their arm because they were "feeding" it by praying and reading the scriptures. Something else we've been doing that I think is really cool is a lot of times the parents are afraid to pray but somehow it doesn't seem as scary if they're helping their child pray.. so they've done that a couple of times. It's really cute!
Well, I love you all!!!
Hermana Hepworth
Transferes are this week. I am staying in Des Moines and training. I'm a little scared. I feel like I just left the MTC. But I know that President Jergensen receives inspiration from the Lord so I know that is what the Lord wants me to do. Last week at church we had 0 people come to church and we were really sad because there were some that we really thought would come. This last Sunday we made pancakes at Ana and Aldo's and afterwards they followed us up to church. We had a train of cars follow us, it was awesome!!!!! So Ana and Aldo, their two kids.
Aldo's brother Ricado, and Ana's uncle Guzlavo all came to church. There was still a lot of other people that we really really wanted to come to church and didn't but still we were so excited. It turns out they already have people they know from a long time ago in our branch.
I'm amazed all of the time of the Lord's hand in this work. Like...one time we were in our car trying to decide what to do so we prayed and when we opened our eyes we saw Rosio drive up in her car. So we got out and taught her. The Hispanic people are so amazing! They will let you into their home right when they meet you. We were walking around outside and started talking to this man, Nicolas. We asked him if he'd want to learn and he told us we could teach him right then. So we followed him to his house and started teaching him and his wife. They have such an adorable famile. I LOVE it when the parents have the kids sit down to listen with us. I definately think it's something that I should do more, inviting everyone to listen. We started teaching Diavid and Jessica and she called her 3 kids to come sit down and listen and we taught them all about faith. We read in Alma 32 abnout the seed and had the kids pretend like they were growing a plant with their arm because they were "feeding" it by praying and reading the scriptures. Something else we've been doing that I think is really cool is a lot of times the parents are afraid to pray but somehow it doesn't seem as scary if they're helping their child pray.. so they've done that a couple of times. It's really cute!
Well, I love you all!!!
Hermana Hepworth
Feliz Ano Nuevo sent Jan. 3, 2011
I hope everyone had a Happy New Year! We sure did. The Des Moines Zone went to the Jergensens (Mission President) to play games and it was really fun. We were allowed to stay up til 12 but we still has to wake up at 6:30, so we decided to not do that. I've got the rest of my life to stay up til midnight, for crying out loud I need my sleep!
Our weather has been really crazy here too but it's been a great blessing. On Thursday we only could use 8 miles on the car so we had to walk and use bikes to whole day...but oh it was such a beautiful day at 53 degrees. Since all the snow had melted, it was super muddy so by the end of the day, WE were really muddy. We were so glad we had our boots! We reached the New Year and have lots of miles now and the weather is TERRIBLE. Lots of wind and it makes it a million times worse, but it's okay because we're safe in the warmth of our car.
We've been teaching the COOLEST people!!! I think I told the story about how we were singing Christmas Eve and somebody came out to listen...well that somebody was Raul and he's soaking up everything we're teaching him. His dad passed away 6 months ago and he's still really sad about it. We taught him the Plan of Salvationa and the Spirit was definately strong there. We gave him an assignment and when we came back the next day he had read Alma 40 and up to Nephi 7. We're also teaching Maria and I think I've talked about here too. We found her in a random way but I know it wasn't by accident. We watched the Restoration movie with her and when we testified afterwards the Spirit was so strong again. It's so awesome, it makes me so happy just thinking about it. We are still teaching Gladis and Eder, and Eder started reading in the Book of Mormon and even bought highlighters so that he could mark the stuff that he likes. He also told us they would come to church...but we were sadly disappointed. We thought they would because church changed to 1 so they would be off work. I really felt like crying and Magdalena, a less active who said she would start coming back in the New Year...didn't come either. So many disappointments but I've learned that if there were no bad, there could be no good and we wouldn't realize how great things are if we didn't ever feel bad. So we're just gonna keep working hard to find the people who are looking for the truth.
Love
Hermana Hepworth
Our weather has been really crazy here too but it's been a great blessing. On Thursday we only could use 8 miles on the car so we had to walk and use bikes to whole day...but oh it was such a beautiful day at 53 degrees. Since all the snow had melted, it was super muddy so by the end of the day, WE were really muddy. We were so glad we had our boots! We reached the New Year and have lots of miles now and the weather is TERRIBLE. Lots of wind and it makes it a million times worse, but it's okay because we're safe in the warmth of our car.
We've been teaching the COOLEST people!!! I think I told the story about how we were singing Christmas Eve and somebody came out to listen...well that somebody was Raul and he's soaking up everything we're teaching him. His dad passed away 6 months ago and he's still really sad about it. We taught him the Plan of Salvationa and the Spirit was definately strong there. We gave him an assignment and when we came back the next day he had read Alma 40 and up to Nephi 7. We're also teaching Maria and I think I've talked about here too. We found her in a random way but I know it wasn't by accident. We watched the Restoration movie with her and when we testified afterwards the Spirit was so strong again. It's so awesome, it makes me so happy just thinking about it. We are still teaching Gladis and Eder, and Eder started reading in the Book of Mormon and even bought highlighters so that he could mark the stuff that he likes. He also told us they would come to church...but we were sadly disappointed. We thought they would because church changed to 1 so they would be off work. I really felt like crying and Magdalena, a less active who said she would start coming back in the New Year...didn't come either. So many disappointments but I've learned that if there were no bad, there could be no good and we wouldn't realize how great things are if we didn't ever feel bad. So we're just gonna keep working hard to find the people who are looking for the truth.
Love
Hermana Hepworth
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