August 26th, 2013

What a week!!

So, my testimony of priesthood blessings, the power of obedience, and the powerful love of members GREATLY increased this week! So... where to start?

 

Well, a week ago today. Sister Thomas and I had been feeling the need to ask the elders in our district for priesthood blessings. We had been feeling like even though we had been working hard, there was so much more we wanted to accomplish and could accomplish if we set our minds to it. So we set very specific goals, practiced perfect obedience, and received priesthood blessings. What an amazing thing. We now have 3 new people who are taking the lessons and interested in the gospel of Jesus Christ (3 new investigators).

One of them, his name is Mikey, came to church on Sunday after only taking one lesson. He came to church and felt so welcomed and loved, he was greeted by so many kind people in our ward who were sincerely interested in him and wanted to make his experience wonderful. This week in sacrament meeting, a boy in our ward was giving his homecoming talk since he had just returned home from his mission in Brazil on Tuesday. He gave a fabulous talk and when the meeting was over, Mikey turned to us and said, "wow that was so amazing." :) It was incredible to see how quickly he was able to feel the Spirit, and how touched he was by the kindness of everyone there.

On a different note, there is a lady who we have been in contact with for a while now and I'm not sure if I have ever mentioned her. Either way, I wanted to share an interesting experience we had with her. This lady, Terrianna, is very interesting. I met her about a month and a half ago and she loves the missionaries. We have taught her all the lessons, but she won't come to church. She has told us many times that she would come, but always ends up dropping off of the face of the earth Sunday through around Tuesday and then we get a call about some crazy experience she had that prevented her from going to church. We were really frustrated, but could tell that something else was going on behind the scenes. We would continually ask her if there was something holding her back that we didn't know about and she would always quickly say no. Sister Thomas and I were become more frustrated with every lesson/meeting with Terrianna because we could feel the Spirit and knew that she could feel it too, but yet she wasn't taking the necessary steps to do what she knew was right and follow her Savior. So, we decided that it was time we needed to tell her that we couldn't teach her any longer because we only have so many hours in the day and as missionaries, we have the responsibility to find all those who are ready to learn about their Savior. When we got to her house, she told us that she had bad news for us and that she only has 3 weeks to live. She told us that her doctor had given her the wrong medicine that she normally receives for headaches and now she is going to die.... holy cow. We didn't know how to take this information. Terrianna just broke down and kept saying how she doesn't want us to leave her, but that she loves us so much. So, we had a to change our plans and instead of telling her we couldn't come to teach her any longer, we just talked to her about how she can obtain peace.  When we left that night, Terrianna kept expressing her deep appreciation for us and how much love she has for us both. I'm not sure why I wanted to share this story but I feel like we can learn at least one simple lesson from it~ we don't know the problems that people around us are dealing with.. but, we can do our best to love everyone, no matter what, and do our best to lighten someone else's load.

 

I love you all so much. This week was a tremendous week and I'm sorry I shared the one sad thing that happened, I'm not sure why I felt the need to share that. Well, I'm so grateful for all of you! I hope you have the most amazing week!!

 

Love, Sister Walborn

 

p.s. Pictures: Sister Thomas and I with Terrianna, a picture of Sister Thomas and I in the car after the most wonderful day of our week where we saw so clearly the hand of the Lord leading us along, and a picture of the beautiful Susquehanna river.

August 19th, 2013

Holy cow. Missionary work is the best.

I'm not quite sure where to begin.... umm... I'll start with Ciara.

Two weeks ago, I wrote home with the most incredible experience about a girl named Ciara. She wrote on the Ward Facebook page and we tracted her house, etc. Well, we have been meeting with her consistently ever since we first came in contact with her and she is phenomenal. Our first time meeting with her was such a special experience because we automatically felt this amazing love for her and she felt the same for us. She told us that she felt like we were, "kindred spirits" and that she just knew that, "we are going to be best friends forever." It literally melted our hearts.

So anyway, last week on Monday (yes we met with her in the middle of our Preparation Day - we love her THAT much) we talked about baptism. She said she knew that she felt it was right but she was nervous about what her parents would think. We bore testimony that if she knew this is the path that God wanted her to take, then he will help her get through any obstacle that came in her way- including angry parents.  So, she committed to talking to them about her decision to be baptized. On Tuesday we got the chance to meet with her again - I was with Sister Berry because we were on exchanges - and she had not talked to her parents yet, and also seemed a little downhearted. We had felt impressed in our preparations to teach about the Holy Ghost specifically as a comforter and it was incredible to see how her countenance changed as she learned about this special blessing available to her. She renewed her promise to speak to her parents and we left with an abundance of care and concern for her. Wednesday night we received a text from Ciara right before "lights out time" (10:30pm) saying that she was so overwhelmed because she talked to her parents and they were totally supportive of her being baptized!!! We screamed with joy and quickly called her - all three of us squealing with joy together - to let her know how happy and proud we were of her. :)

Thursday comes along and we had zone training, in which President Topham came and spoke to us. It was such a wonderful lesson, we studied from 1 Nephi 3, and Jacob 5-7 and discussed the lessons that could be learned and applied in our missionary work. The greatest lesson I learned is how important it is to have a non-murmuring attitude, but always be positive no matter what hard things come our way. This was specifically important immediately after the training was completed because President Topham told us that Ciara is not allowed to be baptized with us in the Elizabethtown ward... He said it is more important for her to move (oh I forgot to mention she is moving this coming Saturday back to Pittsburgh for school - she attends Penn State-Altoona) back to her other ward, make friends, and be baptized where she will be planted. This was really heartbreaking because we have developed such a deep connection with her that we wanted to be with her through this wonderful step in her life. But, applying the non-murmuring attitude I had just learned the importance of, I thanked Heavenly Father for allowing me to have whatever time I have been given with her.

We got to meet with her again on Friday (the day after the zone training) and told her the sad news.... She said that even though it was disappointing, she knows that our friendship will last way beyond our missions so it will all be okay. She is so flipping awesome. :) Being with her, ever since our first meeting with her, I have felt that Heavenly Father has a very special purpose for her. She is so in tune with the Spirit and open to the guidance that Heavenly Father sends her (that ultimately sent her to us) and I could easily see the tremendous potential that she has as a daughter of God. One of her biggest goals in life is to be a mother and she said she has always been confused why she has never had a steady boyfriend, but that she just has never found one that she could see herself settling down with. AH! I know it is because Heavenly Father needs her to find a boy who will take her to the temple, so they can raise a righteous family in the ways of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Ciara came to church with us yesterday and everyone in the ward thought that we had become a trio because she fit right in with us. :) I love her so dearly and I feel so blessed to be in this area, at this time, with the opportunity to meet her and be a part of her journey towards eternal life.

 

I love you all so much!

 

Love,

Sister Walborn

 

p.s. Pictures this week: Sister Berry and I in the car before tracting... she is SO HILARIOUS!! haha Sister Thomas and I outside of a really popular restaurant in our area that was recommended by a member of our Stake Presidency - which we thought was funny because of the name of the restaurant. And a picture of us yesterday at the church with Ciara :) (sorry it's a little blurry) LOVE YOU!

August 12th, 2013

I am continually amazed at the miracles our Father in heaven performs in our lives if we have the FAITH necessary to make them happen!

This week, Sister Thomas and I had a lot of failures but also some of our greatest successes. One of the days this week we had almost everything on our schedule not work out. It was rough, and we were both feeling a little frustrated with ourselves. So, that night we determined that the next day would be the best yet and began a fast. We fasted the next day and by the end of the day, we could see all of the blessings that came our way because we sincerely desired to do our best and put that desire into action!

 

One of the biggest blessings that has happened thus far on my mission happened yesterday. The little 10 year old girl that I have been teaching for the past few months (since I arrived my first week in E-town) was baptized!! It was so humbling to look back and see how the Lord worked in her life as well as her mother's life, so that all of this could happen. Athena is the name of the little girl I was able to teach, and her mother is an amazing woman. She has been through SO much in her life and simply wants more for her daughter. I was able to bear testimony over and over that I KNOW this gospel will help Athena achieve that happiness that her mother desires for her so greatly. Also, because of the openness of their relationship, Athena is able to see the choices her mother has made and been able to recognize that she can be better, that God can help her be better.

The most amazing part about this whole experience with Athena and her mother, is that there is so much working against them. They are moving later this week and just about everything that could go wrong for them in preparation for the move has gone wrong. So, Athena was feeling tense going into yesterday and it was very apparent how nervous she was to be baptized. Sister Thomas and I asked Athena if she would like to pray with us before we head into the Relief Society room for the baptism to start and she said yes please. So, we went into an empty classroom and knelt down to pray. Little Athena felt so nervous that she couldn't collect her thoughts and asked if I would pray for her. I said a simple prayer asking Heavenly Father to give her peace and comfort. Afterwards, I felt prompted to ask her if she would like to say a prayer in addition to mine. She timidly said okay, but asked if I would help her. What I would say, she would repeat. Towards the end of the prayer, instead of giving her a line to repeat, I said, "Now tell Him how you feel," and she said, "I feel scared." Then I continued, "Tell Him how you want to feel..." and she said, "I want to feel not scared about being baptized." We ended the prayer and went into the Relief Society room. As Sister Thomas and I led little Athena back to the steps where she would enter the font, she turned around and gave us a big hug and whined a little, making us very nervous that she was going to decide this wasn't something she wanted to do. But she turned around and took the hand of our bishop and went into the water. When she came up out of the water, she turned around and smiled at us. As soon as we wrapped her up in a towel and led her back into the restroom, she said, "As soon as I got in the water I was totally fine!" Sister Thomas and I just beamed at her and each other. Heavenly Father answered the prayer of that little girl, and helped her feel peace and comfort because that is a decision He wanted her to make. :) That was such a wonderful experience!

 

I feel so blessed to be serving in the Elizabethtown area. This ward is amazing, it smells like brownies all the time because of the MARS factory 2 miles(ish) from our apartment, everything is green, I have a wonderful companion, and most of all - I know that the Lord wants me here because there are people here who need to learn of Jesus Christ from ME.

 

I love you all so much!! I need to give a special thanks to my adorable little cousins David, Ammon, Sydney, Katelyn, Seamus, Layla, and Genevieve(sorry I'm not sure how to spell it haha) for sending me those special pictures and letters. They are pasted on my wall above my bed :)

 

Love,

Sister Walborn

 

p.s. Pictures: Little Athena and I at her baptism, me posing in a random person's yard one day while tracting because of the random group of ducks waddling around (so goofy but reminds me of the turkeys in MI), and just a goofy picture of Sister Thomas and I one night after planning - I think we were really excited for the next day! haha LOVE YOU!!!!! 

 

August 5th, 2013

Ahhhhhhhh! I'm so filled with joy!

Okay..... so, I have received the biggest blessing this week, and her name is SISTER THOMAS!!! Kind of weird since my first companion was Sister Thompson, but anyway, she is so amazing!! :D Sister Thomas is from Payson, UT. She has 2 little brothers and is the only active member in her family! So amazing right?! Yeah, she has such a fire for the gospel missionary work that, coupled with my still-burning greenie fire (haha), we have been able to work our butts off non-stop! It has been such an amazing week! I feel SO BLESSED!! And on top of it all, we have a lot in common and have become instant buddies :) She is so receptive to everything I have been teaching her about our area and about the work, she just absorbs it all and then turns around and applies it right away. I LOVE IT! Sheesh, Heavenly Father was looking out for me- I got the best one! ^_^

So, I wanted to tell you about the most amazing experience we had this week! Friday night at around 8:40pm, Sister Thomas and I were driving to our last planned visit for the evening and she asked if we could stop really quick to grab a Dr. Pepper. We were right next to a Turkey Hill (really common gas station here) so I said of course, no problem!  So we go in and grab a Dr. Pepper, no big deal and then continue on throughout the night. The next day we get a call from an awesome member in our ward who frequently lets us have lessons in her home. She calls and lets us know that a girl named Ciara posted on the ward facebook page that she was home for the summer, had previously investigated the church off and on, saw the missionaries at the gas station the night before, and took it as a sign that she needed to restart taking the lessons! So practically everyone in the ward responded with our phone number! So exciting right?! So Sister Thomas and I are so stoked to get the news and were anxiously awaiting contact from this girl. We go throughout the day not having heard from her, which wasn't a big deal because it hadn't even been 24 hours since she had received our number. So that evening we felt prompted to go tracting on a random street in Elizabethtown that an older potential investigator lived on. We were tracting for a little over an hour before it was time to head home. One of the homes we tracted, a family was sitting on the couch watching TV with their house door open and just the screen door was separating us from them. As soon as we approached it and made it known who we were, the father immediately said, "We're not interested." So that was that and we continued on our way. We only had success with one really nice guy named Rob, but that was the extent of it. As we headed home and began our planning session, we received a text message from a random number that said, "Hi my name is Ciara, I'm the one who asked for your phone number on the facebook page because I saw you at the gas station. Thank you for trying to come and see me tonight so quickly after me asking for your number, my parents don't know I am investigating the church and that is why my Dad turned you away so quickly! I would love to meet up with you guys sometime this week if that is okay? Ah, I'm a mess! haha"

......Sister Thomas and I about started crying with excitement and gratitude!

We asked Ciara if we could give her a quick call and she agreed. We told her right away how happy we were to hear from her! We also told her that we had no idea where she lived and that it was not intentional for us to come visit her that night. She paused in awe and said, "Oh my gosh that is so amazing.." I felt prompted to tell her that her Heavenly Father loves her dearly and is desperate for her to learn of the plan He has for her. She agreed to meet with us on tuesday at the local park and told us how excited she is to meet us in person.

This increased my faith and testimony that Heavenly Father is so mindful of each of us. I know now with all my heart that the Lord is preparing the heart's of the people in this area and it is our job as missionaries to be in the right place at the right time in order to find them. Obedience and faith bring blessings into our lives and as a missionary it is impossible to do this work without them. I love each and every one of you! 

Love you!!!

Sister Walborn

p.s. The 2 pictures this week: 1 is of Sister Thomas and I being goofballs... I love her! And the other is a panoramic picture of Pittsburgh that I got to take monday night before heading to the Pittsburgh 7th Sisters apartment to sleep. Hope you all are doing wonderful!!

July 29th, 2013

My wonderful family and friends~

I have exciting news! I am going to be a "Mama" as of tomorrow!! President Topham called Sister Thompson and I on saturday night with some very surprising news- Sister Thompson is being transferred and I have been called to train! At first I was a little sad for Sister Thompson because so many exciting things are happening in our area, but we both feel confident that whatever comes our way will be exactly what the Lord needs.

So this week was absolutely wonderful. We currently have 3 progressing investigators! Ah! We are seeing the results of hard work and I feel SO blessed! Our newest investigator is a 16 year old girl who comes from a really rough home life. She said the first day we met her that her only 2 emotions are anger and sadness (my heart broke at that moment). We explained to her that she can find lasting happiness through coming to know Jesus Christ and accepting His gospel. So, later in the week we were able to teach her in the home of one of the greatest young couple's in our ward! Dalitza (our investigator) was very shy and didn't talk very much, but the member who we were with completely enveloped her in love and really helped us in explaining the lesson in such a way that allowed her to understand. Dalitza agreed to coming to church and even though half of our ward is gone on vacation, she told us she felt very loved and welcomed :)

I have to say.... the hardest thing about being a missionary is not being able to hold or play with children! Uh! There are some of the most ADORABLE little kids in my ward and they all come to me wanted to show/tell me everything that is happening in their lives and my first instinct is always to scoop them up and run around with them! But... I am a missionary. So, I just listen intently and give them the attention they need. One little boy in particular is the cutest thing on the planet. His name is Will, he is 5 years old, and in front of my zone leaders and his parents he turned to me after the spiritual message was given and he said, "Hey sister missionary - when we get big enough I wanna marry you!" Haha I just giggled, smiled at him and said, "okay!" He beamed and my zone leader Elder Morris decided he thought it was time to make an intervention and came over to stand between us. Little Will definitely made my day :)

So those are just a few little tidbits from my week. I hope everything is going great for all of you! I am so happy to be here and I feel so blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family supporting me.

LOVE,

Sister Walborn

p.s. The pictures this week are: a picture of my goofy district at our last district meeting (sad), a picture of Sister Thompson and I one night after tracting- I don't remember why we took it, and a picture of Sister Thompson and I in front of our quote wall (a tradition that I asked her if we could start and she loved it so much she is going to start it with her next companion ^_^). Love you all!

July 22, 2013

Holy cow!!! I can't believe that this is the last week of my first transfer! It is so cool for me to look back on the past 5 weeks I have been here and see all that has happened, it also makes me extremely excited and anxious for the next 6 weeks I will most likely have here (after the last week of this 6th week of this transfer). There is so much progress that can be made in this area, so I am very excited to see what more I can do and then put it into action!

So, I wanted to of course tell everyone about a wonderful experience we had this week with a person that I have come to love very dearly, Deb. This week she agreed to have a tour of the church, followed by a lesson in the building. A member from our ward came with us and the lesson was amazing! She said she felt such peace as she walked through the building, looking at the pictures of the Savior and said she could feel God's presence(the spirit). We then taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ and invited her (for the second time) to be baptized by the priesthood authority of God. When we invited her, she scrunched her face, not wanting to give us an answer, and then asked if she could pray about it. We quickly said yes and then asked if she would like to pray about it right then. She agreed and offered the most beautiful, sincere prayer. She began to cry at the end of the prayer when she promised her Heavenly Father that if He allowed her to know if this is true, she would be baptized into His church. When she finished, she looked up at us and with tears in her eyes simply said, "yes". All three of us (Sister Thompson, the member, and I) were all wiping our eyes free of tears from the beautiful prayer and the power of the Spirit we felt present. It strengthened my testimony of the power of prayer. :)

That was such a powerful experience and I know Heavenly Father allowed us to have that experience at the beginning of the week so that we would be able to get through everything that happened to us throughout the rest of the week. One situation in particular, we witnessed a member who is seriously struggling with many different things. Because of everything going on in her life, she has stopped keeping the commandments and her faith is wavering. She has begun to question her decision to join the church. As Sister Thompson and I came home very hurt and saddened by this news, we began thinking about what could have led her to this point. We went through our records and found when she stopped coming to church, which led to her stopping her diligent scripture study, then she stopped praying, and from there more and more commandments were broken. Following this experience, I came across a talk given by President Uchtdorf. There is a specific quote that I wanted to share with all of you, it reads, "Diligently doing the things that matter most, will lead us to the Savior of the world."

I know that at the top of the list of the things that should matter most to us in our daily lives are praying and reading our scriptures. When we are keeping those simple commandments, we will want to obey ALL of God's commandments and do everything in our power to follow Him. This was something I really needed to hear this week, I hope it will mean something to you too. :)

I love you all so much!!!!! Thank you for being such a wonderful support system for me. It is much needed and GREATLY appreciated!

Love,

Sister Walborn

p.s. The pictures I am sending this week are: Sister Thompson and I at a beautiful memorial in our area for those who have served our country- part of the Masonic Village, and a picture of Nicole Brown at the Hill Cumorah Pageant!! A less active family that we teach went to the pageant and when they were showing us some of the pictures they took I saw the picture of Nicole and said, "wait! I have to take a picture of that picture - she is from my branch!" Haha, fun coincidence. :) LOVE YOU!

 

 

July 15, 2013

Hello everyone!

This week has been pretty great! We had another lesson with the wonderful lady Deb that I told you about before, SHE IS SO AWESOME! We invited her to be baptized and she said that she wants to, but she wants to talk to "Him" a little more about it. :) We said that is great, and we were able to both bear testimony that she will receive the answer she is looking for! So cool.

So on Wednesday, I was able to go on exchanges with the Sister Training Leader of my area. Her name is Sister Maddox and she is so great!! She goes home in September and spending just 24 hours with her helped me so much! I learned more effective ways of starting conversations when finding and so many different ways to plan the day to get more done. While I was with her we had the opportunity to visit a middle-aged less active man named Greg. He has multiple health problems and so he shared with us that he is angry with God. He seemed so friendly and kind and he absolutely LOVED having company (he also seemed really lonely). We set up a time when the sisters could come back again and tried to leave several times. He kept offering us different things because he really didn't want us to leave and even though we declined all of them... he gave them to us anyway. Haha First he gave us ginger ale, then he fed us tacos, and then took us out to his garden and made us goody bags with tomatoes, onions and potatoes. I felt so bad leaving, but I am hopeful that he will realize the love he could feel if he came back to church. Later that night, Sister Maddox shared with me different things she had learned over the course of her mission and she promised me that when I am out as long as her, I will be able to look back and point out all of the amazing miracles that happened- "enough to fill this whole room" -in her words :)

The rest of the week has gone by pretty slow, lots of appointments fell through and we had to spend multiple hours on multiple days tracting.... ugh. But we came across a few people who, although they weren't interested in hearing more about the gospel, we so kind to us and said multiple times how much they appreciate what we are doing. That was nice.

So I spoke Sunday! I forgot to tell you last week, but the Bishop asked us (Sister Thompson and I), and the other Elders in our Ward if we would speak. One of them, his name is Elder Morris, he is going home the end of this month. He is one of our zone leaders and everyone is going to miss him! But anyway, we all got the chance to speak on Growing Closer to the Savior. It was wonderful and it really opened my eyes to what I can be doing every day to grow closer to Him. After a ton of pondering on the topic, I felt the need to talk about doing the basics. Reading, Praying, Attending. When we are reading our scriptures and praying daily, and attending church each week we can feel the presence of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ more abundantly in our lives. I promise that is true! :)

I love you all so much and I am SO grateful for all of your love, letters, and prayers. 

Love, 

Sister Walborn

p.s. The pictures are of Sister Maddox and I with the veggies we got, and the other is of Sister Thompson being silly because we found a random area with a plant growing that looked like bamboo! haha She thought it was awesome so we took a picture. :) LOVE YOU!