August 29, 2016

Hello Everyone!!!!

This week was pretty great. We had a ton of super good lessons with some of our less active members. On Tuesday it was incredible! So we have been working with this one returning  member. The week before we taught him all about prayer and had a pretty bold lesson with him on the importance of it. He has never prayed vocally before, saying how he relates it to public speaking and it freaks him out soooo much. We committed him to say a vocal prayer in preparation for our next visit where he would hopefully say one of the prayers, either the opening or the closing. The next lesson we had with him we asked him who he would like to say the prayer and he thought about it, then volunteered himself to say the opening prayer!! It was simply amazing!!  It is so incredible to watch people have a change of heart. Also on Tuesday, we were able to visit a less active member that we just recently found. He lives with his girlfriend who is not a member so we were able to have a great visit with them and teach a super powerful Restoration lesson! They weren't able to make it to church this week, but we are planning on them coming for next week! Jonathan and Aidan (recent converts) are doing better. Right when I got into this area Jonathan's mom was put into hospice and she ended up passing away last week. It was pretty sad, a lot of the members have been worrying about them but things are starting to get back to normal, and they are getting better, so that is great! We were able to start teaching them the new member lessons this week- so that has been pretty good. One little miracle I want to share with you before I go. On Saturday we felt prompted to visit this less active ysa member. We have thought a lot about trying her these past couple of weeks but we have never caught her. On Saturday she was home!! She was only home for Friday and Saturday then she was going back down to Lincoln to finish school. We were able to get her information to give to the missionaries down there and get her the information so she can contact the missionaries and start going to church! It was so great! 

During my studies this week I was reading in Alma 49, where the Lamanites are fighting against the Nephites, the Lamanites are traveling to the city of Noah because it is supposed to be super small and weak... little did they know that it had been strengthened, so in verses 13-15 it says," 

13 For they knew not that Moroni had fortified, or had built forts of security, for every city in all the land round about; therefore, they marched forward to the land of Noah with a firm determination; yea, their chief captains came forward and took an oath that they would destroy the people of that city.

 14 But behold, to their astonishment, the city of Noah, which had hitherto been a weak place, had now, by the means of Moroni, become strong, yea, even to exceed the strength of the city Ammonihah.  15 And now, behold, this was wisdom in Moroni; for he had supposed that they would be frightened at the city Ammonihah; and as the city of Noah had hitherto been the weakest part of the land, therefore they would march thither to battle; and thus it was according to his desires." We can liken this to ourselves by knowing that Satan tries to get us down by focusing on our weaknesses, and the only way that he is not able to get to our weaknesses is if we strengthen them. How have you seen Satan try to get to you by using your weaknesses against you? Will you all think and pray about one of your  weaknesses, then act to strengthen it? I can promise you guys that as you focus on strengthening one of your weaknesses that weak things will become strong unto all of you guys! I love you all so much!   Well I think thats pretty much it! Have a great rest of the week!!

Love,

Sister Rook

August 23, 2016

Hey Everyone!!  

This week was pretty hard. Our 2 investigators dropped us.... and the part- member family that we are working with had decided that they want to go back to their other church... so that was sad, but it's okay!! They may not be ready to hear the gospel at this time, but sometime in their life they will receive it!! Since they dropped us, we just have more time and room to find and focus! 

On a more positive note....this week we had Zone Conference!!! It was so great!! President Gardner talked a lot of getting a "Mighty Change of Heart" and how we can have that change, and how we can help others have that change as well, it was so incredible!! The AP's (Assistants to the President) gave a training about how we need to relate everything we do back to the Book of Mormon, all the commitments we extend, each point of the lessons we give, if someone tries to argue with us we just need to relate to the Book of Mormon! It was super good! Sister Gershin and I have started doing that with every person we talk to and it is incredible the difference that it makes! Well I am running short on time!! I love and miss you all so much!! I'll talk to you later! Bye!! 

Love,

Sister Rook 

Omaha and Omaha West Zones!  

We got to play Softball after Zone conference! It was so great! 

President Gardner up to bat

This is Elder Henry! He is over all the cars in the mission, he saw us taking a selfie and decided he had to take one with us.

Selfie!!! 

This is Megan Cooper. She was one of our ward missionaries but they were only here for the Summer selling pest control, it was so sad to see her go!  

Visiting with Bishop Deford

August 15, 2016

Hello Everyone!!! 

This week was definitely not as miraculous as last week but it was still pretty good! I have learned sooo much this week! Sister Gershin and I have really been focusing on how to improve our teaching, it has seriously made all the difference! It is so great!! One of the most crazy things that I finally realized  this week... now that I'm four months in... is that I really do represent Jesus Christ in all that I say and do, and that every idea I get really comes from my Father in Heaven and I need to be more confident in acting on those promptings that I receive from him. Well I am out of time... sorry for the super short super random email this week! I love and miss you all! I hope you all have a great week this week!! 

Love,

Sister Rook

We got caught in another rainstorm....

Silly faces!!

Super pretty sunset!!

For p-day today we hung out with Genevene!! She is our bishop's granddaughter and she is preparing to serve a mission!! She is the absolute best!!

August 8, 2016

Hello Everyone!! 

Oh my goodness... This Week has honestly been incredible! There have been so many miracles within the past week that I don't even know where to begin! I guess I'll start with the Miller family. On Wednesday Sister Gershin and I wanted to do a small finding activity to prepare us for the big mission wide find that we had. We got to one of our appointments about 20 minutes early and set some goals that we wanted to achieve during that time. We ended up starting to talk to this girl who was riding her bike. Her name is Jayden and she is 12 years old and way prepared to hear the gospel!! We were able to teach the Restoration, set her for baptism (soft set), and set up a return appointment for Friday!! It was so great!! On Friday we went back and Megan (mom), Josh (dad), and Jayden were all prepared to hear the Restoration! It was so powerful!! We were able to give them all a Book of Mormon, commit them to read and pray, and set all of them for baptism-soft set again. It was so cool during the lesson because Josh was confused about having to be baptized again, so we were able to clarify that you need to be baptized with the proper authority, and he goes, "That makes so much sense now!" And we were also able to clarify that baptism is by immersion, and Josh says, "That is the way I've always thought it should be done!" The Miller Family is sooo prepared and I am way more than excited for them!! Oh! I almost forgot they are preparing to be married so that they can be baptized in the catholic church... but now they just have to pray and know for themselves which church has the Priesthood Authority!! So we might be able to be a part of a marriage-baptism!! So exciting!! 

Alrighty, now onto Jessica and Olivia! We found Jessica and Olivia as we were walking out of our apartment one day and we asked if we could help her carry groceries inside. She said no but said we could open the door for her instead. We started talking about who we were and what our purpose was, and she turns to her daughter Olivia and says, "We love talking about Jesus!" we were able to set up a return appointment with her!! On Saturday we were able to meet with her and it was incredible! We were able to teach her the Restoration and set her for baptism on August 27!!! We felt prompted to talk about the Atonement and afterwards she just said that she loved that so much, and she loved how it wasn't just focused on Christ's Crucifixion. She wasn't able to make it to church on Sunday... but we were able to see her later that night, she said she wanted to come so bad but so many things got in the way- then she reminded us of our next appointment! It was so great! I am way excited for her as well!!

Lastly, with the mission-wide finding activity! President Gardner wanted to have this huge finding activity with all the missionaries. We couldn't have plans between 6-9pm on Thursday, he wanted us to all be outside talking to as many people as we could. The mission set some goals. We have 90 companionships, and he wanted all of us to to set 1 person for baptism, give away 2 Book of Mormons, and teach the Restoration 3 times, if everyone did that then we would have 100 baptism sets, 200 BOM's given away and will have taught the Restoration 300 times!!! It was so miraculous! As a mission we were able to set 109 people for baptism, place 281 copies of the BOM, and teach the Restoration 308 times!! Right at 6pm it started raining SOOOO hard!  We were drenched within the first 20 minutes! Sister Gershin and I were walking so fast from house to house- it was so much fun! No one was letting us in... because we were soaked and no one was listening to us at all... Then we tried one more house before moving to our next area! As soon as we started to teach the Restoration the rain stopped!! We were able to teach it to a guy named Griffy- we were able to set him for baptism and give him a Book of Mormon! It was so cool! We have a return appointment with him, he was so prepared!! It was great!! We are pretty sure we will have to pass him to YSA sisters so that is kind of sad but super exciting!!

We have honestly been working sooo hard! There is just so much work to be done! Every night I am exhausted and so ready for bed- but that is how it should be! The miracles that we have seen in this area definitely make up for the tiredness I have felt! Well I think that's pretty much it! I love you all so much!! I will talk to you next week! Bye!!

Love,

Sister Rook :D

Twinning at District Meeting!!

We stopped an ice cream truck so that I could say I bought something from one before!

We taught a lesson sitting on the floor... it was so funny! We have a ton of people who are from Micronesia... a place near Guam. They are so cool!

Us... being soaked from the rain... it felt like we just got out of the shower haha!

We had a tornado warning!!! Super Cool!!!

August 1, 2016

Hey Everyone!

 This past week was transfers... and guess what?! I got Transferred! Well actually both Sister Wininger and I did... we had to close the area which is super sad... but hopefully in 6 weeks there will be missionaries in the Pacific Ridges ward again! With that being said I am now in the Chalco Hills ward and my new companion is Sister Gershin! She is great, she is a little loud and crazy but that's okay because I'm kind of the same way :) Sister Wininger got transferred to Phillipsberg, Kansas and she is with my MTC companion Sister Draney! I am so excited for the both of them! I absolutely love them both to pieces! It was so sad having to say bye to sister Wininger, I love her so much, but we'll see each other again! Since getting here on Wednesday, we already set 2 people for baptism! It was literally the most exciting thing ever! I loved it! We have seen sooo many miracles as well! Yesterday we got a media referral and it said to call them before we went over but it didn't give us a number to contact them, just the number of the people who gave us a referral, so we called it and it ended up being some Elders in the Oregon, Salam mission! And guess what?! His cousin is in the Pacific Ridges ward! It was so cool! We are super excited about the referral, Dave and Kelly Lonas. From what the Elders said they sound super solid so Sister Gershin and I are so stoked!! The Chalco Hills area is a lot more humbled than Pacific Ridges... so I had a bit of a culture shock... but that's okay, I'm pretty much used to it now! For P-Day today we are going to the zoo! So that will be super fun! Well I can't really think of anything else to say! I love you all so much!!! Talk to you later!! 

Love,

Sister Rook :D

P.S. I got a new address! You should definitely write me!! My new address is....

Sister Rook

7007 S 145st #12

Omaha NE 68131   

Our ward mission leader and his family! I absolutely love them to pieces! They are incredible!!

Our last night with Sister Gudjenov, the member who we were living with.

Transfers!!!

Sister Wininger!!

Of course we had to be twins and take a twinning picture!!

My new companion-Sister Gershin!!

More pics of my cute companion and I!