Pre-Mission Conference!!!

Last night I went to a Pre-Mission Conference and I loved it so much! As I walked in I was givin an envelope w/ my call in it...I was so excited and nervous...it wasn't even a real call but I was pretendin that it was. I opened it and I was called to the Chinese speakin mission. I was excited. I wrote Sister Winterton on my mission tag and proudly put it on. It just felt so natural to have it on. I loved it so much. We did an opening, we had a musical number that was so amazin, prayer and then they told us how the night would work. My first work shop was called Member Involvement. It was taught by the full time missionaries that work w/ the College wards. It was so great because they had Kyle Fink come in who was baptized about a month and a half ago. She was there to answer questions and things on how members helped her. They were tellin us that we have responsibilities as members of the church which are:
WORKING WITH THE MEMBERS:
Finding:
They have Non-Member Friends
Gain Trust
Be Examples
Teaching:
Experiences
Testimony
Retention:
Friends in the ward
Trust:
WORK-DO IT!!!
Contact
Tract
Share the gospel w/ members
Spirit
Invite:
INVITE-EXCITEMENT!!!!

As missionaries sometimes we have to knock on doors in order to find investigators and we need to get the wards/members excited and once they are excited then missionary work will continue. As members we need to find investigators for the missionaries to make their job easier and if the members find people to teach its better because then they will have support and fellow ship. Missionaries are in an area up to about 6 months and can't continue to help the new member active. A member will most likely live in an area the rest of their lives. Its up to us as member missionaries to help the Full time missionaries. WE CAN DO IT!!!!!!!!

The next work shop was on Conversion Process. They had a man come in that was not always a member and he told us his conversion story. He started out as a devout Catholic then not believin in God and then he married and LDS woman. It took him 6 yrs to become a member. He would let the Elders talk to him but then would ask questions they had to look up and then he never saw them again...he knew this would happen and he loved sendin then on wild goose chases.LOL. He then told us some Sisters showed up and he tried the same thing w/ them and they always returned w/ the answers in the scriptures as well as from the apostles. Because of these wonderful Sisters he joined the church. The help of his wife, and supporting 2 step sons on a mission helped his testimony of the church. its amazing to me how things work when its time and in the Lords time. He sang us a song he wrote for his wife one Christmas. This song is called "I finally found the one" he said that he finally found the one...his wife but also he found Christ. It was such a great and heart warming song and his testimony was amazing. I love this gospel. He said something that touched to so much "We can not change anyone but we can help them find them selves" -Dr. Tom Sullivan-
It was so cool and touched me. I believe that we can not make a person join the church but help plant that seed and help them find out who they are and who they can become. It was an amazin testimony.
Some one asked an question on how we as missionaries could introduce the gospel to investigators and he told us "Share testimony and then listen to them and really listen to them"
I loved this because we can't just teach and then hope they get it, we need to let them know how strongly we believe in the gospel and then let them talk to us and let them tell us how they feel.

It was such a great conference. The last work shop I went to was called Game ON! 3 Return Missionaries taught it and explained to us what a missionary did on a daily basis. They would let us ask questions and they each would answer w/ the experiences that they had. I loved some things that they said
"Never get discouraged" -Cheston Thatcher-
"The Spirit will come if you are ready and willing" -Sean Crockett-
They gave really good advice about nasty foods...."tell your self that you like it and you will like it" -All 3 boys-
They told us to Prepare Spiritually, Pray, Read Scriptures, and Build a testimony. As we do these things out Testimony will be stronger.

IDK if I have a favorite work shop because they all were so amazing. Im getting so EXCITED for the day that I am able to open my Mission call and when I can actually can go out and serve the people and the Lord!

SO EXCITED!!!

I just submitted my papers to my Bishop. I need a Hep A shot and my wisdom teeth pulled then I can see my Stake President. After I see my Stake President my papers will be sent to SLC!!!! Im so excited and can't wait!!!!! I will get my teeth pulled on April 8th and hopefully a shot soon. :)

Update

Its been a long time since I have posted so it may be a little long but I will try to update Ya'll on my life up to this point. SORRY SO LONG! Here goes:

So I have decided to serve a mission for the LDS church and I am so EXCITED and can't wait! I was tryin to figure out my life and was depressed all the time so one day I was thinkin and decided that I was goin to see the Bishop and start my papers. I am now almost finished w/ my paper work. I need to be cleard by the doctor still but until my blood preassure becomes normal he won't clear me. I will see him again monday hopefully and hopefully all will be good. I then need to get my wisdom teeth out and then I can continue the process by seeing my Bishop for an interview and then seeing the Stake President. Then I will move home for the summer and get ready some more and hang w/ the fam for a while til I leave. My papers will hopefully be submitted to SLC in like September if not before. So I am hopin to get a job to help pay the rest of my mission. My mom and dad are gonna pay $100 a month plus pay my student loans while Im gone. My Gma is gonna help w $100 a month as well, and this amazing family in my home ward back in Yuma are gonna help me as well w/ $100 a month startin the day I enter the MTC. I am so thankful for all the support that I have recieved during all of this. Thanks Everyone!

During the 3 day weekend for Veterans Day, Wendy (My roommate) and I took an adventure to Prtales New Mexico where Wendy is from. We left that Friday Afternoon at like noon. We were havin fun singin lud and talkin. All of the sudden we saw some rubber fly and we had to pull over. A little background.....Portales is an 8 hout drive, and when the tire blew we were in the passing lane. Anyways we pulled over on the wrong side of the road as far off the free way as we could. We got out and the tire was shreaded. Here we are two girls not knowin what to do. We jacked up the car and took the tire off...but to out dissmay the donut tire didn't have enough air to drive on...we really didn't know what to do know. Wendy called her dad and he told us to hitch hike to the nearest town to fill up the tire. We were a little scared, we had never hitched hiked before. So I tried to flagg someone down while Wendy tried to get someone we knew to come help us. I finally got someone to stop but by the time she could turn around to cross traffic she just took off. Now we were back to the begginnin. Finally an nice guy in a beautiful truck pulled over and came to help us. We later found out he was a Boarder Patrol Man off duty. He took us to the town over the hill and we got our tire filled up w/ air. Now this man couldn't stay cause he was headed the wrong way to take us back and he had to head to camp...some kind of trainin. So we waited for the Sherriff that was there at the towin place gettin his oil changed. Well we waited like an hour for a ride. The sherriff finally called a New Mexico State Police to come and take us back to the car. Now this was an experience all of its own. I got to ride in the back of a State Police car and I didn't break the law.....how amny people can say they have done that. Well this man was a good man and had interestin stories. He knew where Thatcher or EAC was. He had buddies there and went there him self. He told us that he hung out w/ all the LDS kids and had read the Book of Mormon like 3 or 4 times and believed it but didn't want to give up his coffee and didn't want to get married. He wanted to stay single for ever. It was an interestin conversation. He said he knew he needed to be married in the temple but didn't want to. I think that one day he will beocme a member when the Lord knows he is ready. It was a cool experience. Well it doesn't stop there. The officer put the tire on for us and we had to go back into town for a new tire. We eventually found a place that had a tire. Wendy went to go pay for it and couldn't find her card.....the whole time we were laughin and tellin each other it could be so much worse.....but by the time we finally found the tire and my mom and dad payed for it we were hungry and tired so we weren't laughin anymore. I was glad that I grabbed the Discover card in case of an emergancy. We finally got back on the road and had fun. Singin real loud and laghin. we made it to Portales about 11 that night. We arrived about 2 or 3 hours later than we wanted but we learned alot from this experience. We learned that there are good people out there that are willing to help us. And that in a rough or buppy part of life we can laugh and make it seem better than it is at the time. Well we had a lot of fun w/ Wndy's family and helped her mom out alot. We had to leave Lex there (Wendy's puppy) so we made here a pen so that she could be in it durin the day til someone could train her and play w/ her. It was so fun. We enjoyed no school for a while. It was so fun!

Lately I have been thinkin alot bout my mission and all kinds of things. I realized that I was so excited bout serving the Lord that I FORGOTT bout the blessins before I go on my mission. I forgott that I will enter the Tempe before I will ever go out into the mission feild. So I change my way of thinkin alot. I have started not only preparin for my mission but preparin my self to enter the Lord's house. I can't wait til I can make those covanentst w/ the Lord and recieve the WONDERFUL and AMAZIN blessins that are waitin for me in the Temple. Also I have been thinkin about Service and Sacrifice alot. I prepared a lesson for Sunday on those two wonderful topics. I have been thinkin that if it weren't for these two Amazin principles of the gospel I wouldn't be where I am today. I asked my mom if she could help me w/ an experience from her life and I was not prepared for what she shared w/ me. I will share it w/ you....I cried the entire time I read it. She basically shared her testimony w/ me and that was so wonderful and what I needed. Its kinda long so bare w/ me. A little background my dad has a disease called Seriousis and its deadly and that is what my mom is sharin in this email.

As far as a story there are many, and they seem to have always been helping someone who is extremely ill or has a disability. And sometimes just the regular take a dinner or clean someones house. But mainly the terminally ill or disability. I think they have all helped me get to this point in time with your dad. He can't do some of the things he used to do and he gets warn out very easlily these days. First of all I have always been afraid of people with terminal illnesses. Not the people persay just the illness. The illness scares me in sense because of what it can or is doing to them, and I get all emotional to watch them go through what they are going through and I stay away or shy away. Not a good thing to do. I guess it all started when Sister Hammond was my visiting teacher, she was the greatest lady. I learned alot from her, She was diagnosed with ALS She taught me not to be afraid, and that was the time too that grandpa was diagnosed. That was the most devastating time in my life and in others as well. She helped me through that. Soeven though she was my visiitng teacher I would go over and help her clean her turtles, hlep her sort beads,cause she was making watches and braclets at that time. She taught me not to be afraid, I always thought I was a compassionate person but, I was not.She taught me how to love the disease and not to be afraid of it. Going on the trips I took with grandpa and doing a service for him was the greatest of all. I learned alot about the man who was a stranger to me. I learned that even the strongest of a man can become weak physically, but strong spiritually, I learned things about myself, how grandpa and I hold the steering wheel the same as we drive, how he loves family, grandpa was always about family, that is why it is so important to me to have my family around because you don't know how long you have with them and to cherish evey moment together. My cousin Byron in colorado who has ms taught me many things also. He taught me to laugh at my self, he would screw up things all the time cause he didn't at the time move well at all could barely feed himself and if he missed his mouth he would laugh and say this time will be the one, he told me to laugh at the mistakes I make because we can always fix them, and it is not the end of the world. Then their is your dad, he can't open water bottles or candy bars, cause his hands won't let him, he gets tired really easy and can't do like he did. I have learned not to take things for granid, and to just go with the flow of things. I still take things for grandid but then I stop and think about things. I have learned and benefitted greatly for know these people in my life that have taught me to love and to live and love life to the fullest, and to always thank my Father in Heaven for the life that I have and for the people that has loved me to the fullest. I always wondered why I always had had the visiting teachers that would seem to get the terminal illnesses, or be put in a situation where I had to be with or watch someone who is terminally ill. It is so I can understand what your dad and other people are going through. Could this disease kill your dad? Yes, could it put him in a wheel chair Yes, The things I have learned will hopefully make me a stronger person so if that happens with your dad I will be able to face the things head on and be ok.

My mom is a great woman for sure. She is the greatest example to me about Service and Sacrifice. Well other than My Savior Jesus Christ of course. She has taught me so much and I am thankful for her in all the she does. I am thankful that she shared so many personal things and special experiences w/ me. This helped me prepare my lesson so much. I am thankful for all that people do for me and my family.

Another Awesome Expereince. On February 20th I was able to go to a baptism of this amazin girl. She started investigatin the church when a friend invited her to attend Mission Prep w/ him. She loved it the first day and told him she wanted to go on a mission. He simply told her well you have to be a member first and she said "well get those missionaries over here right now" thats how it all started and now she is a member. As I sat there at her baptism I had this HUGE rush of PEACE, JOY, LOVE, and EXCITEMENT to go on my mission and be able to help change other people's lives like this amazing girl. It was so wonderful, I loved it.

Thats about it for now. I am just workin hard in school and lovin every minute of it. I am still currently servin as the 1st Councelor in the Relief Society and love every minute of it and love those I serve and serve w/.