March 13, 2017

Hey Y'all!!!

Holy Moly. This week was absolutely crazy! We had so many appointments we were literally running around every single day, it is definitely  teaching us to be more prompt so we can get to all of our appointments on time! This week is going to be like that as well. It is so exciting! 

Monday: We had dinner and had a Family Home Evening with the Guerrero Family! Sister Guerrero literally invited her whole entire family to be there with us! It was awesome! She had her 2 sons that live with her there (they are active) and then two of her less active children were there as well. Sariah, her daughter, had just gotten a priesthood blessing two days before from the Elders, and she was so interested in hearing the FHE that was given! Unfortunately she does not live in our ward boundaries, she lives in Bennington, so hopefully the missionaries will start working with her! Aaron, her other son that was there, is in our ward. I don't think missionaries have visited him before so we set up an appointment to go see him! After we set the appointment we realized he was a single dad with 3 kids!! We always come so close to finding our family!! We have the faith to keep on searching and eventually find them!! Then we also realized that Aaron's daughter has not been baptized yet, she is almost 10, I think. So we are going to work on that with him. Later that night we visited with Tatiana. We had planned this super good lesson- we were going to be talking about the Doctrine of Christ with her- one principle a lesson, then at the end how they relate to each other and to her, but she was so distracted the whole entire time! We had to constantly keep telling her to put her phone away and pay attention... so this week we are going to try to make our lessons more interactive and hopefully that will help!    

Tuesday: This day was crazy! We found two new investigators and a solid potential investigator! We are so excited to be working with Bobby, Blanca, and hopefully Ann. They all have so much potential. We also visited with  our investigators Carrie and Candi. They are both doing alright. We are working with Carrie on loving herself more, and we are going through the lessons with Candi again. We are hoping to set her for baptism the next time we see her. She also told us she is moving at the end of this month, so we are praying she will still be in our ward! She is an incredible person! 

Wednesday: The big miracle of this day was that we found a lost sheep!!! His name is Charles Shouvellier! He was baptized about 4 years ago into I'm not sure which ward. Soon after the boundaries changed and he was moved into the Fontenelle ward. Then I think Eagle Run was created so he was moved again and he didn't know about it! We ended up knocking on his door and he didn't answer so we left a card with our number on it and he called us back! We ended up passing him off to the Elders because he is a single man, but we are still so excited for him!! 

Thursday: We met with Carrie and Tatiana again. They were both doing a little bit better. This week we are going to try making their lessons more interactive either with coloring sheets or word searches so they will understand better! We went out and tried to find families on the more west part of our area and it wasn't too great. Our ward council keeps on telling us to go finding over there but the people just aren't as receptive, but we have the faith that we will find someone over there!! 

Friday: Weekly planning. It takes us a little bit longer than the normal 3 hour block to finish it but it is surely getting better! We always go into such detail about planning but then it really makes it a lot easier through out the week rather than the other way around! We tried some less actives... it was so awkward. The daughter was home and she was in the process of saying her mom wasn't home... then I glanced behind her and I made eye contact with the less active who "wasn't home". It was so awkward, she ran away as soon as she could... right after we left she texted us with this big long excuse... then set up a return appointment.. So we will see how that goes!  

Saturday: All of our appointments fell through, which was slightly disappointing, but some days that happens! So it is all good! We were able to get a list of members that our ward wants us to focus on as well as a list of the unbaptized children. Eagle Run is crazy! Half our time is with our investigators and the other half is with less active members- there is just not one focus, this ward is so diverse and there is so much work to be done, and we are ready to do it!

Sunday: We had Stake conference and it was so good! Dusty and Brother Warren (recent convert) loved it!! Brother Warren is actually going to do some family history later this week so he can find a name and take it to the temple for baptisms! He is so excited and we are so excited for him! He was going to do baptisms for the dead on Friday but he wasn't able to meet with the bishop in time, and the temple will be closed for a while so he is a little sad about that, but now he will just be extra prepared to go on the week of April 5th when it is opened again! Paula Rohl (recent move in, Sandi's bestfriend, Sandi is an investigator) is also going to be doing family history as well!! She is so excited to go back to the temple! She has done baptisms once, and hasn't had the opportunity to do them again! We are crazy excited for her as well! And it was my birthday! We had so much fun celebrating!! On the mission, Sunday is the best day to have a birthday!!!! 

I think that is about it for our week! It has been so great and this upcoming week will be even better! Sorry for the super long letter this week! Thank you for all the support!!! I love y'all!! 

Love,

Sister Rook

My crazy companion and I!

No surprise here... we love taking pictures! 

My cute companion decorated our study room!

Blowing out the candles on my cake!

My fam know me so well... Taki's are still my fav!! 

This is Dusty... she insisted that she had to take a picture with Pres and Sis Gardner. They are so kind to do so- they had a billion other things to do! Also... surprise!! I chopped my hair!! it's pretty short now!! .... jusssst kidddding! it was my shorter layers in front. :D

Crazy pics again 

I just love Sis Monroe so much!! 

FHE with Guerrero fam! 

This is the Mattson family!! We are working on getting them back to church! 

I had to... 

Texas Roadhouse! 

Nebraska has these HUGE murals all over town! 

This is Tracy! I will tell you more about her later :D 

Yay for jumping pics!! 

20 years old!  

March 6, 2017

Hey Fam!!

  This week was interesting... basically every single appointment that we had set up fell through... we had confirmed all of them three or four times through out the week and on that day as well and they just forgot about it and were busy or just didn't answer. We tried all we could to help them, I don't know if we could have done anything else but we just had to have patience and be bold and loving to them. I felt so bad. I feel like that is all Sister Monroe has experienced since being on her mission is all the rejection. I just want her to have the best experience of missionary work! I have to keep in mind though that she will experience rejection some point in her mission and sometimes you will have better days than others! I'm trying so hard to help her see the miracles that are going on around her, so she doesn't focus on all of the negativity. 

   Our goal for this transfer is to find a family of four that consists of a single mom with three kids. We have been asking everyone we see if they know of a family that meets this description or any families in general! We started contacting all the single ladies in our ward and we got in with a less active member named Katrina Beck, she hasn't been visited in quite a while and she was quite surprised that we came to visit her instead of her sister (her sister is in the Winter Quarters YSA ward.) it was a good visit and we were able to set up a return appointment for later that week! We went back on Friday and sadly, Katrina is just so set in her ways, she has had so many hard things happen to her in her life and she is just not willing to make any changes... so we are going to hold off on visiting her because we don't want to waste the Lord's time with people who aren't going to progress! It was a nice visit and we helped her a little bit, but we just pray that her heart will be softened these next couple weeks and months before we try her again. 

   I don't know if I have mentioned Dusty or not. She is a less active member in our ward and she is so funny! She definitely has a lot of mental illness, depression, ptsd, bipolar, and so much more! She is working on not smoking right now so that's going pretty good! She came to the relief society activity that we had (celebrating the relief society's 175th birthday) and she absolutely loved it!! She was just going on and on about how much fun she had and how excited she was to come to church! She ended up getting pretty sick so she wasn't able to make it to church, so that was super sad, so we are praying that she will get better and make it this week!

   Our investigator Sandi is also doing better with not smoking! She is down to one every couple of days or so, which is a lot better than a couple every day! She is still planning on getting married in October, so we have a goal to have her be baptized right after! She is so excited! It is incredible to see her make the necessary changes so that she can be closer to her Savior. 

   We saw Candi this week. She is one of our investigators!! She is absolutely incredible!! She also has a ton of health issues, she is on the wait for a heart transplant... her heart works at about 8% while the normal human heart works at 80% but she has such a strong desire to be baptized to come closer to our Savior, Jesus Christ. As we were planning her lesson I realized that she was a single mom and she had three kids living with her! We were in absolute shock and we both felt that this was our family of four! We know that it is going to be super hard for her but we also know that as she continues to trust in the Savior she can be baptized, she can so do this!! I just love Candi so much!!! She is an INCREDIBLE human that everyone needs to know!!! I am so excited for y'all to get to know her one day! 

    We also saw Tatiana Jackson this week.When we got inside (we brought her visiting teacher, Sister Clark with us) Tatiana was on the verge of having a breakdown because she was just getting so down on herself about how messy her house was and that she wasn't going to church anymore and all this other stuff. Sister Clark had the marvelous idea to just start cleaning her house! So we started cleaning. we cleaned for about an hour and I don't think her house has ever been so clean before! We left her the talk to read, "Am I Good Enough, Will I Make It?" and right before we left Sister Clark and Sister Monroe and I bore our testimonies of the Savior's love that he had for her, and how she can feel that in her own life. It was so powerful, and Tatiana actually stood still and listened to us! She recognized herself feeling the spirit and she was comfortable with it! It was incredible! Usually she is so uncomfortable with feeling the spirit, but she stood still and listened to us! It truly made my heart so happy!

   Holy moly, this is a long letter I am so sorry! Sister Monroe is doing alright. Yesterday she had a bit of a break down and she opened up to me so much. She is so worried about her family back home. She is so scared that something is going to happen to them and she won't be there to help. She wants to help her siblings so much, she knows that it is hard because she is all the way in Nebraska and she doesn't have daily contact with them. She also keeps on thinking what she could be doing instead of being on a mission. She could be on a family reunion, helping her sisters with prom and seeing her sister graduate. She told me she hasn't had the confirmation that she needs to be here yet, but she can't imagine herself being at home or at college or anywhere else besides here. She doesn't want to go home she wants to be here so that's good, I don't  think she realized how much she would miss her family and everyone back home. It's getting better, she is so strong, and incredible and I love her so so much!! Training is so much fun! It is so hard, I have such a big responsibility to help Sister Monroe as much as I can but at the same time it is just the best thing ever! I am learning so much from her and I hope she is learning things from me! 

   Well I think that is pretty much it for this week! Thank you for all you do President!! I love you so much!! 

Love, 

Sister Rook  

P.S. You can either send mail here... the home I live in... 

15872 Farnam St.

Omaha, NE 68118

Or you can send it to the Martha street building (mission office) 

11027 Martha St

Omaha, NE 68144

It will get to me either way! 

My greenie is teaching be how to be thug... I don't think it's working hahaha  

For our five minutes of fun (little break) we decided to take a picture, a random lady offered to take it for us... she's not interested...

Relief Society Birthday Party! 

Katrina Beck and her sister Karla and all of their animals... :D 

Yes... This is Sister Rook attempting to hold a ferret. Obviously I was laughing too much so I needed to have help... :D

Eagle Run Missionaries! 

February 27, 2017

Hey Y'all!!  

   Holy Moly. This week has been absolutely crazy!! So transfers were this week and guess who became Mama Rook?!?! I did!!! I am training a brand new missionary, and I am now full proselyting!!! I am so stoked!! My companion's name is Sister Monroe, and she is from Gilbert, Arizona!!  She is absolutely incredible! It's almost as if she's training me! It has been less than a week of us being together and we have already seen so many miracles!! It is the absolute best! 

   On Tuesday it was so fun! Sister Preator and I got the opportunity to take out the new missionaries, and we took Sister Monroe out!! It was awesome! We prayed to find a family of 3 who lived in a blue house and had a gray car, and we found them! We also found the sweetest lady and we taught her the restoration and invited her to be baptized, the spirit was so strong, and Sister Monroe has such a powerful testimony! It was just simply incredible to follow the promptings of the spirit and to watch Sister Monroe on her first day to have the faith to find, or not to find! She is such an incredible sister and I am so blessed to have the opportunity to be her companion and to try my best to train her at this time! On Wednesday we saw a ton of miracles as well. The Winter Quarters sisters gave us a referral named Kenuatta and we are teaching her now. She is such a sweet lady but the only thing is she has pretty much been addicted to drugs her whole life, so we are trying to work with her on that. The other huge miracle that happened that day was Zach! We went to go try a former investigator named DJ who lives at a group home. Turns out DJ is in jail right now... but one of the other people who live there (Zach) was taught the gospel a long long time ago. He went to the Trail Center quite a few years ago and when we knocked on his door he told us that he was just thinking about our church and the different missionaries that he met and he wants to learn more! Unfortunately he wasn't able to make it to church yesterday but I have the faith that he will come next week! Sister Monroe and I are super excited for him!!  

   As for the ward, we are trying our best to get to know everyone! I feel like I barely know anyone and so this is the perfect opportunity to try new things to get the missionary work in this ward going. This area has so much potential and I am so excited for this to be a full proselyting area! 

   Sorry for the short email this week, but I am pretty much out of time! Thank you for all the support y'all give me!! Y'all are the absolute best!! I love you to pieces!!! 

Love

Sister Rook 

Transfer Day!

New missionaries being welcomed by a chorus of Called To Serve

Waiting to see who their new companion will be!

Me and my new companion, Sister Monroe!

Hurrah for Israel!

Sister Preator and I with Sister Monroe on her first day!!! 

Sister Preator and I! It was our last picture together. 

Sister Monroe and I!! 

A generation picture!! Sis Wininger (grandma) Me (mom) Sis Monroe (baby) hehe 

The traditional new sister missionary photo in front of our host mom's zebra!

All the Sisters at the Trail Center!! I already miss them so so much!! 

Saying goodbye to Sister Cope! She is the cutest senior sister missionary ever!!! 

Saying goodbye to Elder Russell... it was so sad!! I love him so much! I can't wait for y'all to meet him one day! Sister Russell wasn't there so I didn't get to say bye to her D: 

Last Week I saw Tiana!!! It was so crazy and it made my day!!! 

It snowed!! It felt sooo good, it was like 70 degrees, then all the sudden it was snowing! It was crazy!