Sister Kelsey Rook: Nebraska Omaha Mission

June 12, 2017

Hermana Rook?

Hi Y'all!

I wanted to start out by giving a shoutout to all the Fathers out there! Happy Father's Day!! And a special shout out to my Papa for being the bomb.com!

So this week has been absolutely crazy! I feel like so many things have happened this week and it has been so great! We found 6 new investigators! It still blows my mind that that happened! So you know how I mentioned Jeff last week, and that he dropped us? Well...he became a new investigator again! Yesterday before church he called us and he said that he wanted to meet with us, and he explained that the people he was living with were pressuring him not to be baptized and that he wasn't good enough. He told us that he was tired of them and that he actually does want to be baptized and he is tired of all the peer pressure that he was having, so he is just going to worry about himself now and no one else! So that was a happy thing! We found 2 new investigators on Friday- one was a former investigator, Lanie, and the other is Joshua. Joshua is Atheist but he is super interested in Joseph Smith and the message that we shared. We are going back this week and his fiance should be home then- and she is more religious so that should be great! As for Lanie, her big hold up is science. She believes more in science than she does a God. She still believes in a high power but that is about it. So we are going to be working on that with her and helping her to realize that there is a God! Tammy is an almost referral from Jeff. We asked him if he knew anyone in his building that would be willing to hear our message and he named off a couple of rooms. We were determined to try them right then and there because his apartment building is usually locked. So we tried one of the referrals and they didn't answer so we went right across the hallway and Tammy opened up and we were able to teach her and set her for baptism! It was so awesome!! We found Melody when we were out finding and she let us right in! It was so neat! Right before we shared the first vision her friend's husband got home (She lives with them) and we had to leave- we have been trying to see her ever since but she has been pretty busy. Hopefully this week we will be able to see her! And lastly Margaret- she is a former investigator but also a referral from the Capital Sisters. She had been coming to church quite a bit with her husband and their daughter, but just recently the husband passed away and so they stopped coming to church. Her daughter Sharon is one of the Capital Sister's investigators as well. She has been pretty busy as well with funeral arrangements so we hope that we will be able to see her this week!

One of our part-member families, the Loehr family, had us over for dinner (they have been having us over now about once a week) and we were able to teach a great lesson to them about faith, and how they can really strengthen their faith by doing the basics,: prayer, scripture study, and going to church. The husband is not a member but for the last couple of months he has stopped going to his Catholic church and has been attending all three hours of our church- it has been really cool! He has great fellowship in our ward and we are just hoping his heart will soften a little bit more so that he will have a desire to become a member and make and keep sacred covenants with our Heavenly Father.

These past couple of weeks we have been running into SO many Hispanic people, and somehow we have been able to speak enough Spanish to introduce ourselves, and the message we share, ask if they are interested and then get their information to give to the Spanish elders. It has been crazy but it has been so cool to see Heavenly Father help crazy Sister Rook and Sister Bringhurst in speaking just a little Spanish! It has also been so much fun. One day I'll be a Hermana haha!

We had Zone Conference this week and it was so good- it was exactly what I needed to hear. It was able to learn how to know what I can do to become better, not only in planning for our investigators but just in missionary work over all! One of the lines that stuck out to me the most was, "Make the choice everyday to become more like Christ." It is such a simple phrase but it has become one of my favorites because it shows that you have to work at gaining the Christlike attributes every single day. It is going to take a long time but all it takes is consistency, and being diligent!

In my studies this week, it was super cool! I was able to find the Doctrine of Christ in the war chapters in Alma, but not only that- I drew a diagram of the doctrine of Christ and related it to a softball game! So the first base would be, Faith. The second base would be Repentance, and the third would be Baptism/Confirmation, and home base would be Enduring to the End! Since there are multiple innings in a softball game it shows that we have to be working at living the Doctrine of Christ every single week, day after day. Heavenly Father is the pitcher of the game, and we are the people up to bat. He knows what we can hit and what we can't- sometimes it will be easy to hit and other times we will miss, but that doesn't matter because Christ is the catcher, and he is able to make up the difference. If we miss the ball he is able to throw it back to our Heavenly Father and he is able to help us again and again. Instead of having, "Three strikes you're out!" We are able to have multiple tries at hitting the ball and striving to live the Doctrine of Christ. It was super cool to diagram it, especially since we had played softball the day before!

Well, I think that is it for now! Sorry this email is all over the place and a little long! But I just wanted to thank y'all for the support you continually show me! Y'all are the bomb.com! I miss and love you so much!!

Love,

Sister Rook