Happy End of June Week

Good afternoon everyone!!  

Wow this week has been insanely busy for us!  We have done a ton of contacting this week and as a result, we found 5 new friends to teach!! That's really good because most of the time it's a struggle to find 2 or 3 new friends.  Hopefully we can keep it up!

Philip is still praying about a date but he wants to get baptized in July!!  We are getting really excited because he said he would find someone to take over his job at his other church so that he could be baptized into Jesus Christ's true church!

Service this week was really fun! We went and picked up meat and bread for one place and in return they gave us Venison! It was awesome!

We had a really neat experience the other day.  We have been handing out pass along cards with our number on them and we got a text Wednesday night from a man named Aziz who wanted to know more!! He was moving to New York though so he asked if there were missionaries there that could contact him.  We said yes and found his missionaries! Hopefully they were able to contact him!

Funny story, we were street contacting and ran into a kid named Jimmy.  He was really nice but high so we gave him a pass along card with our number on it and told him to call us to hear a message. Well he actually followed us around asking us if we had boyfriends, if not would we like to go out, etc. It took about three times of telling him that as missionaries we don't date before he actually got the message.  We've actually gotten asked out 2-3 times this week so that's kind of funny!

We taught Molly and Christian about the importance of reading and praying daily and Christian wants to be baptized eventually!! We are really excited!

Friday was really fun but also a little sad.  The Duckworths hosted a farewell devotional.  We got to hear from them and take pictures.  It was really fun because I got to see a lot of my old companions and old friends from past districts. The Duckworths spent a lot of time mingling with us and that was really fun too! They also fed us Cafe Rio which I haven't had since the night I got to VA!!

We met a new friend, Brother Adade, he seems really solid and wants to take the Book of Mormon with him in his car so that he can read the word of God.

We also found Hawe, she is Muslim but a sweetheart! We taught her about the Book of Mormon and she was very eager to have us send her the link.  We had another call right after her and literally 3 minutes after we had gotten off the phone with her she called us back and said she hadn't gotten the link yet.  We figured we had better send it right there and then so we did!

Sunday night was exhausting because we had a ton of calls from people, numbers to gather and report and just a bunch of other things so we were pretty excited for Monday to come! Today we got to have our district activity.  It was 82 degrees by 9am with 87% humidity so that tells you the kind of heat we were playing in but it was a good time!

Pictures:

Sister Ray and I eating popsicles

Us being exhausted and silly Sunday night/me being tired and in a mood

Sister Ray and I on a walk with the trees!

Flowers that I liked

If you want to know what kind of a jungle VA is, just look at the trees

I was annoyed with my straw so I bit it off

Elder Pavia and I with Elder Schumann in the back

Our zone plus a few more at the Duckworth's farewell, good luck finding me

Our district 

Well I think that is it!! Ta ta for now!

Sister Creager

Last Transfer!

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well!

This week has been good! Today is the start of my last transfer so that is a little sad.  I got a new companion, her name is Sister Ray which I think is hilarious because one of my trainers was a Sister Ray! I am excited because we are really similar already and we already love each other! Ugh she is the cutest and the best!

We have a new mission president coming July 1st so the Duckworths gave us a little bio on the Crankshaws! It was really fun to learn about them and I'm excited to meet them!

We got to go on exchanges this week and that was really fun! We taught a few of our friends and some members. We also found out that our friend Philip isn't in our area so we are going to have to give him to other missionaries. We are pretty sad about that.

Charlie and Natalie dropped us this week, it was sad.  They decided they just wanted some things that our church doesn't do.  But hopefully they will come back!

We have had quite a hard time with the friends we are teaching this week, our friends Thomas, Patrick, Sarvesh, Hanna, El Vee, and a few others all dropped us this week but we did find a new friend! We call him Brother Parker. He is a sweetheart and we are going to work to get our area back up and running!

We got to go tracting a few times this week but they are pretty strict with what we can do.  We literally can't plan it at all. It has to happen by chance.  So that makes things a little difficult but we understand why they are being careful so that's okay! Things will open up more I'm sure.

Pictures this week:

A cute part member family we visited

Sisters time!

Sister Eller and I before we went with our new companions

Sister Eller is from Oregon so I was teaching her how to pump gas

Our friend Sinceri who is a sweetheart!

We made a few videos with the elders so we got  picture together

Elder Cook's dying picture, he leaves in two days

Service picture

Park picture

Love you all! 

Sister Creager

We Went Tracting!

Good morning everyone!! This week has been really busy so I have a lot to say today!

Monday night: We have been working for soooooo long to get ahold of a referral, Linda, and we FINALLY got ahold of her!! We also got ahold of a ton of people and set up so many lessons this last week. So that was awesome!

Tuesday: We contacted SO HARD! We heart attacked 3 people, and had a few lessons then worked through our contact book and set up even more lessons! Since I know how to knock doors, Sister Eller had me role play with her on how to knock a door.  This week has been pretty fun because I've had 2-3 companionships asking how to knock doors! 

Wednesday: We did service at Rising Hope.  We worked so fast we were done an hour and a half early.  So we went to go get lunch with the other sisters at a place called Taco Bamba.  It was sooo good! 

After district council we stayed with a few other elders to make a video about pre-mortal life. We had to redo it so many times that we made a blooper video after we were done.  But it was a lot of fun!

Thursday: I got to talk to Sister Boll and hear updates on Garrett!! He is doing well, he broke up with his girlfriend which is a good thing because she was holding him back.  ANND he decided to try and live like a member for two weeks!! I'm so excited!!

We also got a call from our friend Zamal who we had on date and he was pretty upset.  He had a really bad day and he called really just to vent about it but it was a little scary for us because he was yelling and we couldn't really make out what he was saying.  We did manage to get him calmed down but he told us the next day that he didn't want to be baptized and to stop contacting him.

Friday: So yeah, Zamal texted us and told us not to contact him anymore and that he wasn't going to be baptized, that was pretty sad. 

We had an in-person lesson with our friend Patrick that went okay.  He told us he wasn't really interested, he just wanted to see if we were as weird as everyone thinks we are.  He is really spiritual though so we think we can get him interested!!  His lesson was a little longer than we planned so we were running late in getting back home to join the Book of Mormon class so we joined in the car and put it in the cupholder so that we were just listening to it. Well, President Brandenburg called on me to say the prayer and we mildly freaked out because we were driving and we can't touch the phone unless it's at a stop light.  Well it was just getting to the point of an awkward silience when our light turned red so I said the prayer really fast and we put ourselves back on mute and the light turned green. Backstory, the AP's are in charge of letting people know AHEAD OF TIME, who is going to pray.  They didn't ask me, or warn me. So that was fun.

We found a new friend named Hamza!! He is so great! He is going to come to FHE tonight! We are really excited that we met him.

Saturday: Saturday was crazy busy.  We were on the go from 8:30am-9pm.  So we were really tired. We got to go to a service project and help put bunkbeds together.  It was so fun!! I got to use a drill and teach my companion how to use a drill.  In case you all haven't been able to tell yet, drills are my favorite tool to use. My second favorite is the drill press which they had but we couldn't use that sadly.

We do lots of pass off lessons with another set of elders and we got to see them at the service project so we took a "squad" picture, it was so fun!

We had a TON of lessons that all went really well and were fun to teach so that's good!

Sunday: So we share a ward with the AP's and we both got there early to contact and remind our friends about church.  We got done early and got out of the car and started walking to go inside when a huge cicada flew right at our faces.  We freaked out, did a 360 spin and ran away.  Then after we were sure we were safe we ran inside the church building.  We hadn't even been inside for 5 minutes when the elders texted us laughing at our misfortune. But they came in a door that wasn't cicada infested so hah.

We got to go tracting and street contacting!!!! It was terrifying!  We said a lot of prayers asking God to give us courage and help us know what to say, and which doors to knock.  We aren't allowed to knock a ton so we only did 3-4 doors.  Sister Eller was really really nervous (which I was too when I first came out) so after I had knocked a couple doors that didn't answer, I asked her if she wanted to knock, it was a quick no from her haha! We made a deal, she would knock, I would talk.  So that's how that worked. We also did a little street contacting.  The first person Sister Eller tried to street contact completely ignored her, little rude but oh well! I was starting to remember why street contacting isn't my favorite thing. The next person we tried didn't speak good English but our last street contacts were a family who we set a return appointment for tomorrow!  They were so cute!! They all wanted their own Jesus card so we gave it to them and we are so excited!

Pictures this week: We went to Olive Garden with our friends Hanna and Harry

Our district photo

Cool rainbows in the parking lot

Anyways, love you all!

Sister Creager

COVID Restrictions Lifted!! (Ish)

Guess what everyone!!! A TON of our restrictions got lifted on Friday!!!  

We can eat in member homes and accept food if there is a friend/less active there too!

We can eat in restaurants and with other missionaries.

We can tract/street contact but its very limited. Example, if we go to a members home, we can knock a few doors before or after the appointment but it can't be planned into the schedule.

ALSO we can go without masks in church!!!! 

We are SO EXCITED! There was a lot of screaming and cheering when our district leaders called us and gave us all the new guidelines.

No masks at church!!

Okay, we got our friend Zamal on date!! He is going to be baptized June 19th!! We are really hoping his health will allow it, he has some physical restrictions that prevent him from coming to church in person so we are really hoping he will be able to be baptized!!

We got a member referral this last week for a sweet sweet couple, Charlie and Natalie.  They are incredible!!  Charlie has actually met with missionaries before! He used to be atheist but found Christ through the missionaries and is so eager to learn about the gospel! Our first lesson he was asking us questions about what it would be like to be a "Mormon" if he got baptized! We are working on teaching him the Plan of Salvation.  Natalie is still an atheist and isn't very comfortable taking the discussions but she does like to talk with Charlie about what he's learned after we have left so we are hoping to get her to join us soon!!

We have been sooooo busy this week! Every day has been filled with service and lessons starting in the morning going to night so it has been really fun!  

At service, I accidentally stepped in Poison Ivy.  Luckily I was wearing longer sweat pants and I was able to wash my hands pretty fast so I didn't get a rash!

The cicadas are really obnoxious.  They are quite loud and like to fly towards you.  Sister Eller and I aren't really scared of them but we definitely don't want them on us so it's not uncommon to see us being a little jumpy or running away when they come at us. A lot of people want us to eat them.  Our comeback right now is that if they will eat pork rinds (pig skin) we will eat the cicadas.  So far that is a deal that has not been taken so I will continue to use it! If someone does take it, I'm changing it to pigs feet!

Pictures this week include:

Breaking our Sunday fast with our friend Philip! It was his first time!

The AP's and zone leaders were gone so it was just us and the district leaders for district council, that was fun

Sister Eller using her face mask as a sleeping mask

We wanted pizza and 7 layer bean dip at 9:30am this morning so we did!

Love you all!

Sister Creager