APRIL IS ALMOST OVER!
This week has been great even though nothing big happened. The work is always wonderful and I love these people! Scott and Scott Jr as well as JB are all progressing towards their date for baptism!! We will have three recent converts here pretty soon. It is just so wonderful to watch people change their lives. It doesn't get better than this :). I love you and wish all y'all a BLESSED week!
NORMAL WEEK
So besides Elder Cook coming to the mission and doing a mission wide conference on Saturday it was a normal week. The conference took place just about 10 miles from where we live. It was AMAZING! We got to shake hands with and hear from a member of the 12 in person! The spirit was so strong in that room with over 180 missionaries sitting together to hear his words. He talked a lot about repentance throughout life, not just repentance to baptism. I loved it! So we are really working on helping those that we teach understand the process of repentance. Truly learning how to use the atonement of Jesus Christ will carry us through life. Then what better way to end the week than with Easter! The entire weekend was focused on Christ's atonement and of course because we are missionaries we had been sharing an Easter message all week and the weeks leading up to it. Needless to say this was a spiritually powerful week. The chapel was packed for Easter and we sang at the top of our lungs the songs of our testimonies. Sister Dudley taught a wonderful lesson on why the atonement was needed, how we all chose to come here, and because we did we will get to live again! I just love Easter and sharing this joyful message. I invite all to write down their testimony of the resurrection and how they felt this Easter. Then next year you can do it again and look back on this year to see how you have changed, how you have used the atonement of Jesus Christ throughout the year.
I love you all and wish you a very BLESSED week!
NO MORE TORNATOES PLEASE
This week has been pretty good, not a lot happened but we did still have some crazy storms. We did have more tornadoes but none that came super close to our house. We had so stay in for a bit but not too long. We did a lot of service this week. Also I cant remember if I told all y'all that Scott and Scott Jr have baptismal dates!! They are set to be baptized on May 13! It is so exciting. They are showing many of the signs that they are really ready for baptism. We went through the baptismal interview questions with them last night and they did great! Scott even bore a very simple but powerful testimony of repentance to us. Man I just love the Geigers! That was probably the most exciting thing that happened this week. But the work is great and the mission is awesome! I love it here in Virginia and just being a missionary is so wonderful. We truly get to see the gospel of Jesus Christ change peoples lives. I wouldn't change this time for anything :) I know that going on a mission was the right choice for me, I will never regret it. And I still have three and a half months! It will be great. I love all y'all and wish you a blessed week!
TORNATO WARNSINGS?
This week has been so crazy! Monday we went to kittie hawk, and Sister Jones had to get all packed and ready to leave on Wednesday. Tuesday we saw so many people for Sister Jones to say goodbye to but we also just had a lot of lessons! It was so good. And we did one of my favorite things, I call it member hopping. Where one member picks you up for a lesson and then hands you off the the next member for another lesson. This happened twice that day! ahhh I love member hopping it is so fun. You feel like you are always going and just getting to spend more time with those we love. Wednesday was the big day. Sister Shields took us to the Portsmouth chapel only after we had figured out that we were headed to the wrong building and had to turn around! haha So I was late to my trainers meeting but it ended up being okay.
President Weed shared his thoughts on what a trainer is. He said that some people when they think of the word trainer they think of a guy with a chair and a whip taming a lion! Then said that our kind of training is more like training wheels on a bicycle. We let them use their own power but we prevent injury and any accidents that may occur. After our meeting we got to go in and meet the new missionaries. Sister Hadlock is amazing! She is just such a good missionary. Her desire to be obedient and do the work is wonderful.
After we got home we got to work. We saw some people and taught some lessons and met a lot of members and some investigators at the church. Thursday was her first weekly planning and her first baptismal invitation! She did so good asking Brian to be baptized and he said "YES". It was such a spiritual moment and he commented on it when he had to reschedule with us later in the week. Spiritual powerhouse I'm telling ya.
Friday was kinda interesting. It started off normal with district meeting, studies, and we taught JB. JB is also now set with a baptismal date! Then we tried some other people and came home for dinner. There had been off and on rain storms all day but as we were getting ready to go back out after dinner we got an emergence alert on our phone. I looked at it and read "Tornado Warning find shelter immediately until 7:15" so we did. A tornado was the farthest thing from my mind that day but I calmly showed Sister Hadlock to the closet under the stairs and that is where we stayed for about an hour until the "Warning" was over. A tornado warning means that a tornado has been sighted in our area. After the time was up we got ready to go back out. We got in the car and realized we didn't have the phone. So we ran back inside just in time for the phone to go off with a "flash flood" warning.... I wasn't sure if this would ground us or not so we called the district leader and then the zone leaders. Just after that the sister training leaders called us and told us that a tornado watch was issued until 11pm that night. A tornado watch means that atmospheric conditions are favorable for a tornado... okay so we were grounded. How we ended up spending our evening was watching the district DVDs on my bed :) haha it was a strange evening. Later we found out that the tornado had destroyed a church building less than five miles from our house, no one was killed but there were some homes that will need repairs in our area.
Saturday and Sunday were just wonderful because it was conference!! Plus on Sunday we set Scott and Scott Jr with baptismal dates! Scott even put his last cigarette on the fridge to show his commitment not to smoke! He is so wonderful! Man life is good when you are a missionary! I hope all of you have a blessed week and enjoy the wonderful messages we received from this conference :) love you!
GET OFF THE ROAD!
Hide your kids! Get your family! Stay off the road! Because Sister Black is driving!! bahhh. There is no hiding from the car now because I have been called to train a new missionary, she wont know the area so I have to drive... send lots of prayers my way please! This week was pretty good. Scott Jr came to Cub Scouts and Scott went to the family history center to get his family tree started! So that was awesome. We were talking to Scott about his baptism and he said he was excited to get his work done so he could help his brother who had passed away. Man, Scott is the best. He is understanding the importance of temple work and helping your ancestors :) I just love them. Scott also was telling us that we just always look happy. To really show us just how happy we are he told us that we just "have that pregnant woman glow".... that was funny!! We also got to do some service helping a woman in the ward bathe and groom seven puppies to get them ready to be sold. That was super fun.
Today we got to go to Kittie Hawk. Its in the Outerbanks where the Wright brothers flew their airplane! It was super cool. The visitors center was closed so we didn't get to see the airplanes but we did get to walk around the field and go to the monument. Sister Dudley took us and the Great Bridge sisters. Sister Dudley is so knowledgeable and was sharing a lot of fun facts about the Wright brothers with us.
The womens' session of General Conference was also this week. I just love to think that as I am sitting there and singing the hymns that all my family is doing that same thing with me just back in Utah. I love General Conference! We have been sharing with people the story of King Benjamin and how the people pitched their tents towards the temple. But how they were also there for quite a while, they built a tower while they were there! It was no quick click of the TV remote to turn on the Prophet! These people prepared and got ready for this moment to hear the words of the chosen servant of God. So as General Conference day comes think about how you can prepare yourself.
I love all yall and wish you a blessed week!
THIS WEEK
This week was a little less eventful than last week but it was still great! Some miracles were when we went to Scott's lesson we had really struggled to find a member to go with us so we asked Sister Bell. She thought it would be a good idea to bring her nine year old son along to meet Scott Jr. Deacon, her son, and Scott Jr go to the same school we found out. Around the beginning of the lesson Scott noticed Deacons cub scout uniform and asked what it was for. Well long story short Sister Bell offered to have Scott Jr ride the bus home with Deacon, help him with his homework after school, feed him dinner and take him to cub scouts on Wednesdays! Man members are awesome! So now Scott Jr has a friend at church and will hopefully be going to cub scouts. Deacon was so cute on Sunday he waited by the door at church for Scott Jr to arrive! It was adorable :). Also we got to see one of our investigators who just had surgery and had been recovering for a few weeks. So that was really great to see him. This past week has been wonderful and I look forward to even more miracles coming this week. I love you all and with all y'all a blessed week!
WOWZER
Wowzer so this week was awesome!! Some random stuff that happened... the GPS broke but its okay because Sister Jones worked some missionary magic on it and fixed it! We had deep clean so now our apartment is nice and organized, at least for a little bit. We did a lot of service this week and got to paint cabinets and clean out parts of someones house, cleaning is great! We had an amazing zone conference which I will tell you more about in a bit. And we had FIVE investigators at sacrament meeting!!
Okay so now for the cool stuff. Tuesday we had lunch with an investigator named Mary. Mary is awesome, she has been investigating for a LONG time and her boys go to scouts. We got to know her a lot more from this meal that we shared. She told us all about her family situation and her kids, her beliefs and how she knows that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true! She basically told us she and her boys will be getting baptized it is just a matter of when. Man we just love her so much, we left her with some "homework" to do, she is so excited to learn and study for herself. I love her. I have new respect for Mexican food.
Our next miracle was JB. Also on Tuesday we met with him at his house and got talking to him about baptism. Well we had originally thought to set him with a date of April 1st but that just seemed to soon... so not April 8th, it just didn't feel right... okay April 15th! So that is what we did. He was so excited he said so many historic sports events happened on that day and that “it should be a day in the Bible"! haha So we pointed out that it would be a very special day for him as an individual now. He was beaming with joy!
Next thing happened on Wednesday. We had just finished dinner when our appointment fell through for that evening. We didn't really want to drive all the way up to that area now. So we decided to go see the Fords, a part member family, we are teaching Lamont. When we got there we prayed and got ready to knock their door when we looked over at the neighbors. They were acting kinda strange with the dog that was with them. That is when we realized it was the Fords dog! haha So we helped get the dog back to the house and called Rachel (the wife/ member) they said that they were on their was home. That gave us an excuse to wait around till they got there. When they did Lamont took the dog inside. it gave us the opportunity to do what missionaries do best. We invited ourselves in :) we followed Rachel downstairs where we normally meet with them. We had a great conversation about what he had thought of church the past Sunday and a little about music. Then he looked over at his wife and whispered to her (we could hear) and asked her about that one question he asked her the other night.... hmm okay? Finally he just said his question "what do I need to do to be converted?"!!! What! That is the kind of question we like to hear! So we told the air all the baptismal requirements and then Lamont agreed to start taking the lessons and he is excited to set a baptism date! Miracles really do happen! He had been investigating for a long time before they moved here and just always liked his elders. But he told us that we were just about as cool I guess that is one way to describe the spirit! Man I just love their family!
The rest of the week was pretty normal, we met some interesting people and taught the gospel! Scott and Scott Jr are progressing really well. They have stopped drinking tea and are close with coffee, Scott is really working on smoking and reading. They are just so awesome! They have much desire to get baptized and they know that they need to. I love being a missionary!! There really is nowhere else I would rather be at this time.
I love you all and wish you a blessed week! But I can tell you it wont be as good as mine!
Oh ya the zone conference... one of the stake presidents spoke about OODA loop. It stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. I just loved it as a pattern to live our lives. It came from a man who flew plains for the navy. That was his thought process when it came to enemy air crafts.
Pictures:
We made cookies and had to protect our nice clothes
We ate at Flaming Wok!!
Our sad missionary fridge at almost the end of the week
We wont 3rd place for cleanest car at zone conference
Pretty field during a storm
Little Julia McIntyre had on her future missionary badge do we HAD to take a picture!
We made cheezeee bread!
shamrock shakes for saint Patrick's day
Pie for Pi day
The sweetest test we got from Sister Plymate
Kittie Hawk
Puppies!
Saying goodbye to sister Jones
Sister Hadlock
Watching the district during the tornado warning
Brother Nighthawk
More puppies!
Driving home from the mission conference with sisters Page and Smith
Easter package full of candy! too much candy!
Watching the district DVDs
Out working
WAWA run (its a gas station)
This week has been great even though nothing big happened. The work is always wonderful and I love these people! Scott and Scott Jr as well as JB are all progressing towards their date for baptism!! We will have three recent converts here pretty soon. It is just so wonderful to watch people change their lives. It doesn't get better than this :). I love you and wish all y'all a BLESSED week!
NORMAL WEEK
So besides Elder Cook coming to the mission and doing a mission wide conference on Saturday it was a normal week. The conference took place just about 10 miles from where we live. It was AMAZING! We got to shake hands with and hear from a member of the 12 in person! The spirit was so strong in that room with over 180 missionaries sitting together to hear his words. He talked a lot about repentance throughout life, not just repentance to baptism. I loved it! So we are really working on helping those that we teach understand the process of repentance. Truly learning how to use the atonement of Jesus Christ will carry us through life. Then what better way to end the week than with Easter! The entire weekend was focused on Christ's atonement and of course because we are missionaries we had been sharing an Easter message all week and the weeks leading up to it. Needless to say this was a spiritually powerful week. The chapel was packed for Easter and we sang at the top of our lungs the songs of our testimonies. Sister Dudley taught a wonderful lesson on why the atonement was needed, how we all chose to come here, and because we did we will get to live again! I just love Easter and sharing this joyful message. I invite all to write down their testimony of the resurrection and how they felt this Easter. Then next year you can do it again and look back on this year to see how you have changed, how you have used the atonement of Jesus Christ throughout the year.
I love you all and wish you a very BLESSED week!
NO MORE TORNATOES PLEASE
This week has been pretty good, not a lot happened but we did still have some crazy storms. We did have more tornadoes but none that came super close to our house. We had so stay in for a bit but not too long. We did a lot of service this week. Also I cant remember if I told all y'all that Scott and Scott Jr have baptismal dates!! They are set to be baptized on May 13! It is so exciting. They are showing many of the signs that they are really ready for baptism. We went through the baptismal interview questions with them last night and they did great! Scott even bore a very simple but powerful testimony of repentance to us. Man I just love the Geigers! That was probably the most exciting thing that happened this week. But the work is great and the mission is awesome! I love it here in Virginia and just being a missionary is so wonderful. We truly get to see the gospel of Jesus Christ change peoples lives. I wouldn't change this time for anything :) I know that going on a mission was the right choice for me, I will never regret it. And I still have three and a half months! It will be great. I love all y'all and wish you a blessed week!
TORNATO WARNSINGS?
This week has been so crazy! Monday we went to kittie hawk, and Sister Jones had to get all packed and ready to leave on Wednesday. Tuesday we saw so many people for Sister Jones to say goodbye to but we also just had a lot of lessons! It was so good. And we did one of my favorite things, I call it member hopping. Where one member picks you up for a lesson and then hands you off the the next member for another lesson. This happened twice that day! ahhh I love member hopping it is so fun. You feel like you are always going and just getting to spend more time with those we love. Wednesday was the big day. Sister Shields took us to the Portsmouth chapel only after we had figured out that we were headed to the wrong building and had to turn around! haha So I was late to my trainers meeting but it ended up being okay.
President Weed shared his thoughts on what a trainer is. He said that some people when they think of the word trainer they think of a guy with a chair and a whip taming a lion! Then said that our kind of training is more like training wheels on a bicycle. We let them use their own power but we prevent injury and any accidents that may occur. After our meeting we got to go in and meet the new missionaries. Sister Hadlock is amazing! She is just such a good missionary. Her desire to be obedient and do the work is wonderful.
After we got home we got to work. We saw some people and taught some lessons and met a lot of members and some investigators at the church. Thursday was her first weekly planning and her first baptismal invitation! She did so good asking Brian to be baptized and he said "YES". It was such a spiritual moment and he commented on it when he had to reschedule with us later in the week. Spiritual powerhouse I'm telling ya.
Friday was kinda interesting. It started off normal with district meeting, studies, and we taught JB. JB is also now set with a baptismal date! Then we tried some other people and came home for dinner. There had been off and on rain storms all day but as we were getting ready to go back out after dinner we got an emergence alert on our phone. I looked at it and read "Tornado Warning find shelter immediately until 7:15" so we did. A tornado was the farthest thing from my mind that day but I calmly showed Sister Hadlock to the closet under the stairs and that is where we stayed for about an hour until the "Warning" was over. A tornado warning means that a tornado has been sighted in our area. After the time was up we got ready to go back out. We got in the car and realized we didn't have the phone. So we ran back inside just in time for the phone to go off with a "flash flood" warning.... I wasn't sure if this would ground us or not so we called the district leader and then the zone leaders. Just after that the sister training leaders called us and told us that a tornado watch was issued until 11pm that night. A tornado watch means that atmospheric conditions are favorable for a tornado... okay so we were grounded. How we ended up spending our evening was watching the district DVDs on my bed :) haha it was a strange evening. Later we found out that the tornado had destroyed a church building less than five miles from our house, no one was killed but there were some homes that will need repairs in our area.
Saturday and Sunday were just wonderful because it was conference!! Plus on Sunday we set Scott and Scott Jr with baptismal dates! Scott even put his last cigarette on the fridge to show his commitment not to smoke! He is so wonderful! Man life is good when you are a missionary! I hope all of you have a blessed week and enjoy the wonderful messages we received from this conference :) love you!
GET OFF THE ROAD!
Hide your kids! Get your family! Stay off the road! Because Sister Black is driving!! bahhh. There is no hiding from the car now because I have been called to train a new missionary, she wont know the area so I have to drive... send lots of prayers my way please! This week was pretty good. Scott Jr came to Cub Scouts and Scott went to the family history center to get his family tree started! So that was awesome. We were talking to Scott about his baptism and he said he was excited to get his work done so he could help his brother who had passed away. Man, Scott is the best. He is understanding the importance of temple work and helping your ancestors :) I just love them. Scott also was telling us that we just always look happy. To really show us just how happy we are he told us that we just "have that pregnant woman glow".... that was funny!! We also got to do some service helping a woman in the ward bathe and groom seven puppies to get them ready to be sold. That was super fun.
Today we got to go to Kittie Hawk. Its in the Outerbanks where the Wright brothers flew their airplane! It was super cool. The visitors center was closed so we didn't get to see the airplanes but we did get to walk around the field and go to the monument. Sister Dudley took us and the Great Bridge sisters. Sister Dudley is so knowledgeable and was sharing a lot of fun facts about the Wright brothers with us.
The womens' session of General Conference was also this week. I just love to think that as I am sitting there and singing the hymns that all my family is doing that same thing with me just back in Utah. I love General Conference! We have been sharing with people the story of King Benjamin and how the people pitched their tents towards the temple. But how they were also there for quite a while, they built a tower while they were there! It was no quick click of the TV remote to turn on the Prophet! These people prepared and got ready for this moment to hear the words of the chosen servant of God. So as General Conference day comes think about how you can prepare yourself.
I love all yall and wish you a blessed week!
THIS WEEK
This week was a little less eventful than last week but it was still great! Some miracles were when we went to Scott's lesson we had really struggled to find a member to go with us so we asked Sister Bell. She thought it would be a good idea to bring her nine year old son along to meet Scott Jr. Deacon, her son, and Scott Jr go to the same school we found out. Around the beginning of the lesson Scott noticed Deacons cub scout uniform and asked what it was for. Well long story short Sister Bell offered to have Scott Jr ride the bus home with Deacon, help him with his homework after school, feed him dinner and take him to cub scouts on Wednesdays! Man members are awesome! So now Scott Jr has a friend at church and will hopefully be going to cub scouts. Deacon was so cute on Sunday he waited by the door at church for Scott Jr to arrive! It was adorable :). Also we got to see one of our investigators who just had surgery and had been recovering for a few weeks. So that was really great to see him. This past week has been wonderful and I look forward to even more miracles coming this week. I love you all and with all y'all a blessed week!
WOWZER
Wowzer so this week was awesome!! Some random stuff that happened... the GPS broke but its okay because Sister Jones worked some missionary magic on it and fixed it! We had deep clean so now our apartment is nice and organized, at least for a little bit. We did a lot of service this week and got to paint cabinets and clean out parts of someones house, cleaning is great! We had an amazing zone conference which I will tell you more about in a bit. And we had FIVE investigators at sacrament meeting!!
Okay so now for the cool stuff. Tuesday we had lunch with an investigator named Mary. Mary is awesome, she has been investigating for a LONG time and her boys go to scouts. We got to know her a lot more from this meal that we shared. She told us all about her family situation and her kids, her beliefs and how she knows that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true! She basically told us she and her boys will be getting baptized it is just a matter of when. Man we just love her so much, we left her with some "homework" to do, she is so excited to learn and study for herself. I love her. I have new respect for Mexican food.
Our next miracle was JB. Also on Tuesday we met with him at his house and got talking to him about baptism. Well we had originally thought to set him with a date of April 1st but that just seemed to soon... so not April 8th, it just didn't feel right... okay April 15th! So that is what we did. He was so excited he said so many historic sports events happened on that day and that “it should be a day in the Bible"! haha So we pointed out that it would be a very special day for him as an individual now. He was beaming with joy!
Next thing happened on Wednesday. We had just finished dinner when our appointment fell through for that evening. We didn't really want to drive all the way up to that area now. So we decided to go see the Fords, a part member family, we are teaching Lamont. When we got there we prayed and got ready to knock their door when we looked over at the neighbors. They were acting kinda strange with the dog that was with them. That is when we realized it was the Fords dog! haha So we helped get the dog back to the house and called Rachel (the wife/ member) they said that they were on their was home. That gave us an excuse to wait around till they got there. When they did Lamont took the dog inside. it gave us the opportunity to do what missionaries do best. We invited ourselves in :) we followed Rachel downstairs where we normally meet with them. We had a great conversation about what he had thought of church the past Sunday and a little about music. Then he looked over at his wife and whispered to her (we could hear) and asked her about that one question he asked her the other night.... hmm okay? Finally he just said his question "what do I need to do to be converted?"!!! What! That is the kind of question we like to hear! So we told the air all the baptismal requirements and then Lamont agreed to start taking the lessons and he is excited to set a baptism date! Miracles really do happen! He had been investigating for a long time before they moved here and just always liked his elders. But he told us that we were just about as cool I guess that is one way to describe the spirit! Man I just love their family!
The rest of the week was pretty normal, we met some interesting people and taught the gospel! Scott and Scott Jr are progressing really well. They have stopped drinking tea and are close with coffee, Scott is really working on smoking and reading. They are just so awesome! They have much desire to get baptized and they know that they need to. I love being a missionary!! There really is nowhere else I would rather be at this time.
I love you all and wish you a blessed week! But I can tell you it wont be as good as mine!
Oh ya the zone conference... one of the stake presidents spoke about OODA loop. It stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. I just loved it as a pattern to live our lives. It came from a man who flew plains for the navy. That was his thought process when it came to enemy air crafts.
Pictures:
We made cookies and had to protect our nice clothes
We ate at Flaming Wok!!
Our sad missionary fridge at almost the end of the week
We wont 3rd place for cleanest car at zone conference
Pretty field during a storm
Little Julia McIntyre had on her future missionary badge do we HAD to take a picture!
We made cheezeee bread!
shamrock shakes for saint Patrick's day
Pie for Pi day
The sweetest test we got from Sister Plymate
Kittie Hawk
Puppies!
Saying goodbye to sister Jones
Sister Hadlock
Watching the district during the tornado warning
Brother Nighthawk
More puppies!
Driving home from the mission conference with sisters Page and Smith
Easter package full of candy! too much candy!
Watching the district DVDs
Out working
WAWA run (its a gas station)