November 28, 2016

Hey Everyone!!! 

How was your thanksgiving?! I hope it was good! In Nebraska it was so good! Holidays on the mission are so much fun! I definitely ate waaaay too much, but what's new? haha Transfers are this week and Sister Bengtzen and I are freaking out... since I don't know if I am being transferred or not, here is the mission office address, and you can send letters there! 

Sister Kelsey Rook

11027 Martha St. 

Omaha, NE 68144    

Miracles:

1. On Monday our car broke down again... but luckily we are working with this returning member, whose husband is not a member and he LOVES working with cars! So we called him and he was happy to help! His heart has softened so much, he used to hate missionaries, but after seeing the effect the missionaries had on his wife- he loves them now!! He is the absolute sweetest man ever! I know that one day he will be baptized! 

2. We have this potential investigator who we have been trying to get in contact with, we didn't have any luck until last week! It was going to be the last time we tried them and guess what happened?! They answered!!! They are the Ritonya family, Lydia- the mom, is from Peru and she is the cutest thing ever! Right before we taught her the Restoration we asked if there was anyone in the house who would like to listen to this message and she laughed and said yes. She thought it would be funny to invite her husband and her son who were in no way interested... she thought it would scare us off and we wouldn't come back.... little did she know she was wrong! So the whole family listened to us, the spirit was so strong in their home, it was incredible to watch their hearts soften as they listened to the spirit testifying through us. They all accepted a Book of Mormon and committed to read and pray about it, and they also accepted the invitation to be baptized!! It was so happy! It just filled our hearts with joy!!

Funny Moments:

1. Obviously Thanksgiving was this week!!!! We ate at Jonathan Robbins' (Recent Convert) sister's house! His whole family are nonmembers so it was incredible to get to know them and talk to them! I just love them so much! So Jonathan and Aidan, his son, have this thing where they make fun of me and call me "Princess" because I guess I am "proper"  when I eat... really I am just the messiest eater, so I have a napkin on my lap, they don't believe me though. Well on Thanksgiving I was bumped up from "Princess" to "Pie Queen" because I ate so many pieces of pie... On my mission I have gained this incredible talent where I can eat SO MUCH FOOD. It is pretty ridiculous... I never stop eating... its really a problem, Jonathan and Aidan are amazed by how much I eat, Sister Bengtzen makes fun of me all the time.. haha I guess its pretty funny. 

2. Sister Bengtzen is allergic to corn... You know how last week we took a pic in that cornfield? She kind of broke out in hives... it sounds sad, but I promise she is okay, its just funny because it's corn, and we are in Nebraska. 

Spiritual thought:

I want to start off with the scripture Mosiah 16:9 " He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death." This verse is talking about Jesus Christ and how he is the light of the world. He is a light that can never be darkened. I love that!! It gives me such comfort knowing that whatever we are going through we can always turn to Christ and he will be our source of light when we are going through dark times. Being human, everyone goes through dark times in their life, but being followers of Christ we can be a light to someone who is in need. The church every year puts out a new Christmas video. This one is all about Jesus Christ and how he was a light to so many people, and how we can be that light for other people!! You can watch it on mormon.org . It is so good!! My challenge for everyone this week is to pray for opportunities to where you can be a light to someone, I can promise you that as you are serving others, you will be able to feel the joy That Christ felt as he was serving people!

Well I got to go!! Love you!!! Bye!!! 

Love, 

Sister Rook 

November 21, 2016

Hey Fam!

So... I thought I should probably give you all a 7 month update... here it goes!

The weather is kind of strange... I'm still not used to the food... just kidding! I'm in Nebraska! I absolutely love it here! The weather finally did get cold though! Thursday it was absolutely perfect! It was around 73 degrees, then on Friday it was 20 degrees! It was so crazy! I was not expecting it at all.... It hasn't snowed yet... so we are still waiting for that.... today we are going on the hunt for hats and gloves.  :)

Alrighty, this week was pretty insane. The miracles that happened were off the wall.

1. On Saturday, right before we went in for our lunch break we went to a park to do some contacting. While we were there we met a man and his two adorable kids. He wasn't interested, but he did take a card with our number on it, in case he needed anything or knew of anyone that did. After he was done talking to us, he went home. So we talked to this other cute family who wasn't interested either... but that's okay! One day they will be. After talking to a few other people we headed back to our car, and guess what happened?! Our car would not start. It was so dead. It was bad.  So we look all over our car for jumper cables and we did not have any! We got back in the car and we were about to say a prayer when suddenly the first man we talked to was back! He got out of his car and told us that his daughter wanted to talk to us, she was about 4 years old- she was so cute, but she was so shy. We tried starting our car again... and it still didn't work. Long story short, we tried calling everyone we knew, no one answered. He ended up buying jumper cables to start our car, he said he needed them anyway. Afterwards he told us that he felt like he needed to come back to the park... he was a literal answer to prayers!!! We explained our purpose as missionaries again, and we left him with a copy of the Book of Mormon! I am just praying that he will read the Book of Mormon and call us!

2. Yesterday, Sunday, we went to this same park again on our lunch/dinner break to take a picture. You would not believe what happened. Our car would not start again. This time there was no one at the park so we couldn't share the gospel with anyone, and no one was there to help us! We said another prayer, and right after we were done this man and his family show up. We tried starting our car again, and he immediately looks at us, goes to his car and pulls out jumper cables! While he was hooking everything up, he told us he would have been at the park and hour earlier but he felt like he needed to go back and make sure he had jumper cables in his car. It was so crazy. It was an absolute miracle and answer to prayers! He accepted a Book of Mormon, and told us we could come back and teach his family!! We think we found a new way of finding people to teach... haha. Just Kidding. We are getting the car checked on for a second time today.

3. So you know how I mentioned last week that Chris brought his brother-in-law to church with him? We taught Jacob and his girlfriend Kortney yesterday!!! We taught them the restoration!!! They are so prepared!!! They had so many of their questions answered and they said they have been trying to quit smoking and drinking, and they know this is what they are supposed to be doing!!!! They are set for December 17th!

4. Kelly and Dave committed to stop smoking!!!!! It was so crazy! They both received a priesthood blessing, and they haven't smoked since! :D

There have been sooo many other miracles this week, and I wish I could share all of them with you! Since it is Thanksgiving in a couple of days, I thought this scripture was fitting. "Live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessing which he doth bestow upon you." Alma 34:38 It doesn't say that we should only be thankful once a year, or a couple times a week, but it says we should be giving thanks daily. I just want you all to know how grateful I am for my Savior, Jesus Christ. I am so grateful that he suffered for my sins so that I am able to return to live with him, and our Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for this gospel, and all the blessings that we receive from keeping the commandments. I am just so thankful for everything! I love being a missionary, I have truly never felt more happiness and joy than I have felt here in Nebraska. Well, time is out, I have to go. I hope you all have the best week ever!! I love you all to pieces!

#sistermissionaries #NebraskaOmahaMission #bestmissionever #happyearlythanksgiving #havethebestweekever #loveyoualltopieces  

It pays off running in the morning... because you get to see this!

We went with Miguel to the trail center and passed him off to the Spanish Elders.

our first reaction to having our car die... to take a selfie.... #wehaveapicturetakingproblem

You have to have a picture in front of a cornfield if you serve in Nebraska... #missionprobs

Missionaries of the Corn? hahaha Sister Bengtzen is so cute! I can't get over how much I love this picture!

November 14, 2016

What's up Fam?! 

This week has been so good!! Chalco Hills is so amazing, The work is moving forward, miracles are being wrought, crazy things are happening, and I just love Sister Bengtzen so much!! Being a missionary is just the best thing ever!!  

So you know how last week I talked about how we taught someone from doing service? Well, we had lunch with Shannon and we taught her the Restoration! She loved it, and she especially loved the Atonement!! We are going back this week to do a little bit of service, then to ultimately share another message with her! She is so sweet. We are so excited!! 

Also, the guy who poked his head out of his door and started asking us questions, Chris, came to church!! We saw him Saturday night, his wife wasn't feeling too well so she did not listen, but we taught him the restoration! He said he would read the Book of Mormon and pray about being baptized! Then he came to church the next day, and he brought his brother-in-law with him!! They both loved it, Jacob (the brother-in-law) also lives in our area so we are going back to teach them on Tuesday! I am just so happy! 

Alrighty, last miracle!! Miguel is from Panama, and he is the greeter at Walmart, and he is the most incredible, prepared person ever! I can't remember if I have talked about him or not, so I will just start from the beginning! So we met him at Walmart, and we snuck him a card... because he can't accept anything at work. He said he wanted to learn more and that he would call us.... he never called us that week... so we went back the next week and he said he thought that the number we gave him was church head quarters. We explained that it was our number and he said he would call us. He ended up calling us!!! We set up a time to meet with him and we taught him the restoration. He is a talker! He has had so many incredible experiences and he just wanted to tell us all about it! We gave him a Book of Mormon, and he said he would read and pray about it. We also set him for baptism and he said he would like to be baptized!!! Since then he has called us multiple times with so many questions! He is reading from the Book of Mormon and he is loving everything about it! It turns out he does not live in our area, and we feel it would be better if Spanish missionaries taught him, so we had a joint lesson with the elders and they made such a good connection! Miguel wants to go to the temple super badly so sometime this week we are going to the trail center and see the temple and that will be the official pass off lesson. Miguel is so incredible! I just want everyone to meet him!!  

Alright, time for a hilarious thing that happened. So... it sometimes gets boring knocking on doors... so Sister Bengtzen and I wanted to make it more fun. Everyone in Nebraska has the huge blow up decorations in their yard, Sister Bengtzen thinks they are so tacky... which they kind of are, so what does she do? she imitated one of them on this person's porch! She is so funny! This is how the conversation went...  

Knock on door...

Sister Bengtzen: Imitating blow up turkey. 

Sister Rook: Hey! How are you?! 

Grumpy Man: What do you want?? 

Sister Bengtzen: Im imitating your turkey, don't I look just like it??

Sister Rook: Suppresses giggling. 

Grumpy man: No, you look nothing like it

Sister Bengtzen Really? I thought we could have been twins! 

Sister Rook: full on laughing

Grumpy man:.... 

Sister Rook: Well, we are your missionaries in the (gets cut off)

Grumpy man: Slams door

We thought it was so funny, when you are on a mission your sense of humor goes down the drain and pretty much anything is funny! He was a potential that we were in the neighborhood of... one day his heart will be softened! 

Well... I'm kind of out of time for a spiritual thought this week... I am so sorry!! But Yesterday Sister Bengtzen and I taught gospel principles and it was on the Sacrament. We read 3 Nephi 18:12 and it talks about being built upon a rock. Then president Applegarth, 2nd counselor in the mission presidency, referenced Helaman 5:12, and that describes what or who that rock is, it is Jesus Christ! So as long as we keep on building our faith in Christ, by reading our scriptures, praying, partaking of the sacrament- if we do all of these things consistently, then we will be able to withstand the temptations and any hard trial or tribulation that we will go though.

Well, I love you all so much! I hope you all have the best week ever!

Love, 

Sister Rook 

Last week for P-Day and for Sister Yancey's birthday we played Laser Tag!! It was so much fun!! 

Sister Bengtzen decided that my spirit animal was a flamingo... then we saw a flamingo and this kind lady let us take a picture with it.... she wasn't interested though... I decided that Sister Bengtzen's spirit animal was a chicken... hahaha  

Exchanges with Sister Yancey!!  

We are so funny! Sea-goals... Bay-goals... hahaha 

After planning shenanigans 

   

November 7, 2016

Hello Everyone!! 

 Oh. My. Goodness. Congratulations to one of my MTC teachers, Sister Brock, for getting engaged!!!!!! I am so extremely happy for her!! I can hardly contain myself right now!!! 

 Alrighty....  This week was a little hard  because Sister Bengtzen didn't feel too great on Tuesday, so we had to stay in for a couple of hours,  and I was so sick on Thursday so we had to stay in for pretty much the whole day. It was t.e.r.r.i.b.l.e. Being sick = no bueno. But! We are both feeling sooo much better! So don't anybody fret about us :) 

 Nevertheless us being sick... we still saw miracles this week! One day while we were out finding we used the referral question of service. If they knew anyone who needed it or if they needed it themselves. Every single person rejected us, so we decided that we were going to switch up our question a little bit. The very next house we went to we had this overwhelming feeling to ask about service. We decided to ask the man who lived there even though we thought it might've been ineffective, and he accepted!! No way right?! He accepted us raking his leaves up for him! So we went back the next day and did, after we were done we knocked on their door and his wife answered, her heart had softened so much and she was just so happy! We told her that as representatives of Jesus Christ we shared a message about how our families can be eternal, and she was so excited to hear that! She wants to learn more!! This week we are having lunch with her and sharing the message of the Restoration. We are so grateful that we followed that prompting, and that we have this opportunity to teach her, I just love her and her family so much and I hardly know them at all!! Another miracle that occurred this week is that we were in an apartment complex where so many of our less active members live. We were knocking on one of their doors and they did not answer but this guy named Chris poked his head out the door across the hall and started asking us so many questions about our religion! He invited us inside and we taught him and Fallon, his wife, the message of the Restoration, and we answered so many of their questions and concerns they had about the gospel. I was so happy! It really just showed Sister Bengtzen and I that we should never judge anyone. We thought this man was the creepiest man ever and last transfer we made a promise to each other that we would not teach him. We were soooo wrong and we felt soooo bad. So now we are teaching him and his wife, and I absolutely love them to pieces!!  

 This week in my studies I came upon this verse.... It's pretty common... but I love love LOVE it! it says.... "Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." With my companion and I both being sick this week, this was a good reminder to be happy, and to not complain! If we give any burden we have to the Lord, he will be able to help us through it and we will be able to feel the joy!! My challenge for you this week is to give any burden or trial you are going through to our Savior, Jesus Christ, and I can promise you as you do so, that you will be able to feel the joy and the love our Heavenly Father has for you!  

 Sorry this email is pretty short...and not all that descriptive about my week.... haha I'll try to be better next week! I love and miss you all so much! Have the best week ever!! 

Love,

Sister Rook

A visit with sister Gardner

Last week on Halloween we went to the pumpkin patch and of course had to take a picture in a HUGE chair :) 

In Nebraska... you obviously have to have a corn pit... and of course me being Sister Rook I fell hahaha 

A picture of me falling :D 

We got to speak at Young Women's in Excellence! I love all of these young women so so SO much!! 

November 1, 2016

Oh my GHOSTness. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!! 

ok, that joke was just a CATastrophe! 

oh no! WITCH one was worse? 

I can't decide... BOOth are just bad.

ok I'm done.... I can SCAREcely contain myself!

Alrighty, I'm done for reals now! My companion is so funny, she always thinks of the most clever things! Well, I hope everyone has such a Happy Halloween today!!! Sister Bengtzen and I get to spend the night with one of our members and her non-member family at a pumpkin patch tonight! We are so excited!! We aren't allowed to proselyte, so that's a bummer... but It will be so much fun!! 

Well this week as usual... there have been so many Miracles! 

 "Wherefore, my beloved family, have MIRACLES ceased because Christ hath ascended into heaven, and hath sat down on the right hand of God, to claim of the father his rights of mercy which he hath upon the children of men?"

 "And because he hath done this my beloved family, have MIRACLES ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angles ceased to minister unto the children of men."

This week was filled with such incredible things, I will try to keep them short because if I write down every single thing that has happened... this email would be waaaaay to long :) 

1. We tried this new thing this week where we would set aside specific finding time. We would pick an area, find 1 or 2 people that we wanted to try, then drive to that area and just walk and talk to everyone we saw! It was so amazing to see how many people were outside- it was so effective, we absolutely loved it! 

2. Last Monday at Walmart, one of the workers came up to us and just told us that he was so proud of the work we were doing and how he could tell we were representatives of Christ by the light that we had around us, then he proceeded to say that he wanted to learn more and wanted the missionaries to teach him. It. Was. So. Cool. He was the sweetest little man ever!! 

3. One night all of our appointments had fallen through... and we had 30 minutes left. We felt prompted to try this one street, so we drove over there and pulled over and said a prayer. Right as we got out of the car, a person walked out of their garage. His name was Karl. We taught a super super quick resto and gave him a Book of Mormon. He was so prepared!!! He is so excited to come to church next Sunday!! And he is reading the Book of Mormon!!! 

4. We had dinner with Kelly and Dave this week... they called it their "celebration dinner" of starting their journey to prepare to be baptized!!! When they said that Sister Bengtzen and I could hardly contain ourselves! We were practically screaming all the way to our next appointment... it was a good thing no one could hear us... they would've known we were crazy! 

5. During weekly planning we had no idea what we should teach a former investigator that we had an appointment with... so we said a prayer and opened up our Books of Mormon... we both read completely different verses but they were both on repentance, and it was exactly what he needed to hear that day! 

6. We quite literally chased a girl down because she needed to hear the gospel.... Here's the story. We were driving on this pretty busy road, and we saw a girl just standing on the side of the road. We pulled into the nearest parking spot available and started walking to the place where she was.. except she was gone.. then we saw this other girl a couple streets down... we walked as fast as possible...and ran when it was appropriate... to catch up to her. We ended up walking her to her house as we taught the restoration. She was the sweetest human ever. Her name is Morgan and I absolutely love her to pieces!

Well that is all the miracles I am allowing myself to share because there are so many more that have happened! 

Love,

Sister Rook

. We tried making a Nebraska cookie....

Happy Halloween! 

BIG spider!! :)  

. Islander family!! 

Dinner with Kelly and Dave!! 

Trunk or Treat! I was sister Bengtzen and sister Bengtzen was meeee :)

So much fun!

Dave... he was Wolverine!