9/28/2015: One more transfer left.....Nosah

Good morning :)

This week was very different. But good of course. :) 

So it was just Sister Schwendiman and I on Monday, Tuesday and partially Wednesday before they came and picked her up to take her to Kingston for her flight on Thursday and all the exit stuff..... poor kid..... Haha.

Monday was a lot of packing and cleaning and such. Much needed.

Tuesday we helped a member with her visiting teaching which was great that she had asked us to help! That's something that we have definitely been working on with members, and her visiting teaching partner is less-active at the moment and moved all the way to Maidstone.... So we were ecstatic when she asked for our help! I've really learned how important visiting and home teaching are and how BIG of a help they are to the Branch President. 

We went to see Kelly up in Sunset as well but...She wasn't there and so we ended up seeing Christopher who works in the shop right next door. I can't remember exactly if I have talked about Christopher before but his is an interesting story. I guess when the sisters first met him he was trying to convert Kelly to a Jehovah's Witness... So it was hard for her but.... She actually came through it with an even stronger testimony that the Book of Mormon is true as well as Joseph Smith and Thomas S. Monson. haha! So it worked out I guess you could say. But every so often he will join in on our lessons. The last lesson we had with Kelly he was in there, then left and then eventually he was standing at the open window looking and listening in through the grill. I handed him a Book of Mormon and he wouldn't take it but I insisted, and he took it. And then eventually he found himself inside near the corner and eventually in our circle asking questions. haha! He can see the truths that we are sharing but it's hard for him to leave what he already knows and has grown up knowing. We talked a lot about the Plan of Salvation. Which I just ABSOLUTELY love. But anyway, the lesson we had without Kelly on Tuesday was great. We talked more about the Pre-Earth life and how we lived with God before we came here and that this really is not our home. But we are just here to prepare to meet God. He's always bringing up Jehovah's Witness Doctrine which is helping me with my patience..... ha....He soon come round though. I've already seen the little changes. :)

That night as well Sister Schwendiman had her exit interview with President Brown, which she said after when we were driving home that it was finally starting to feel real to her... Man that's such a bitter-sweet thing. I just remember starting her last transfer together and now it's over. It went by so fast! And now I'm in the same shoes... No man! I don't know what to think. Besides Go hard, work hard, all day, every day. haha. :)

On Wednesday, yes, my 17th month mark. Jeez am peas..... We had the opportunity to take Sister Spencer out with us to see Jmoy and Nikki. Jmoy's lesson was fantastic! That boy is great! It's just so cool to get to see the light come on in him. He didn't read the Book of Mormon again though but he said that he prayed to know if it was true and that he was looking for a voice to tell him that it was... So we talked about how the Spirit works with us and how we receive our answers to prayers. It also led more into the Restoration which was great. We committed him to be baptized and he said yes. He understands  partially now that Christ's church needed to be restored and that the priesthood authority is back on the earth. It's just getting him to see that it was done through another prophet, the prophet Joseph Smith. But the sad part is that he is in the Elder's care now. I no longer have that area. He is in good hands though. It's not the servant/missionary that matters but the message. It's the same from every servant in the vineyard. :)

After meeting with them we drove to the Hopeton sisters house which was our meeting place where the Elder's would take Sister Schwendiman and I would stay with the Hopeton sisters until Thursday. It was very sad..... They took sister Wint and Schwendiman. Some of my GREAT friends! It was great to spend some time with Sister Slater and Brown though.

So transfers were moved to Thursday because the trainees weren't coming in until late. It was a good transfer meeting. And I'm so excited and have loved so far getting to serve with Sister Lewis! ha! We just work so well together! 

Saturday I didn't get to watch the Women's Conference no...... It was sad.... We tried. They had said that we were all to meet at the church at 7 to watch the broadcast but... no one showed up to set it up... and no one came later... so Sister Lewis and I luckily had the church keys and tried to watch it on the computers but... We probably got a few sentences... It didn't work. So we'll read it later, or watch it today if we have time. :) Thank goodness for technology though. That's all I have to say. Even if it doesn't work sometimes. It really is a blessing from the Lord and should be used righteously!! :)

Yesterday was awesome!! We had received a referral awhile ago and finally got in contact with him! He let us know where he lived and man is it way up in the bush! He literally lives on the side of a mountain and down at the bottom of the ravine they somehow built a road. haha! So we hiked up the mountain to his home and were able to visit with him and his wife. They are the Denton family. It was SUCH a great lesson too! They had been given a Book of Mormon and a Restoration tract from the Santa Cruz Zone Leaders who contacted him in their area. The lesson jumped right into the restoration and everything and the spirit was SO strong and testifying and they said that they want to come to church and to the Book of Mormon night as well and they also committed to be baptized! But his wife Marva has a broken leg. So that's the other thing.... But man they are just so prepared! I can't wait to see them again! :) I love them already.

Well... I've gone on long enough I guess. Thank you for your emails. I hope you all have a great week! Know that I love you and pray for you daily. This work is the best work in the world and I have the privilege of wearing Christ's name and teaching others this His church is back on the earth. What could be better than that? Mi nuh no. :) I love you all. Be safe. Be good. Keep on Keepin' on. :)

Love,

Sister Mouritsen

9/21/2015: Beginning of a new transfer.... Soon. Thursday. haha.‏

Good morning! :)

This was kind of a rough week this week. We had a lot of appointments falling through but it was still awesome! :) Haha! Good things happened as well! 'Good' and 'bad' things happen every day. I guess it just depends on what ones you CHOOSE to see. 

Last Monday was cool! We drove to Junction, St. Elizabeth, to see Lover's Leap about an hour away. I'll send you pictures of what it's all about. It was beautiful and SO great to get to see my ocean! I wanna see it again!  I miss it. 

Tuesday was an interesting day. One reason why I love Tuesdays, Thursdays,and Saturdays is because they are full proselyting days. And Tuesday all of our appointments fell through for the day.....haha. So we left the apartment excited to see where the Lord was going to lead us that day. We felt like we should drive to a member's house, Sister Ranger, and we did. All was well with her and she was really glad that we had stopped by. We then hiked back down to the car wondering where to go next and so we said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father to help us know where he wanted us to be. We decided to write down the answers that we received and then show each other. It turned out that all three of our answers were different, but in the same area. Lancaster. Whoa. Haha. At first we were like, 'oh no, they're all different... ' But then realized that was the area to be in. So we drove on out there and then felt inspired to go and see Sister Mclean. A less-active sister. And man she is so sweet. She always gives us the best juice. But anyway... We had decided that we wanted to talk about faith with her. The first principle of the gospel. We started the lesson with a prayer and she just seemed really scattered and off. It wasn't the same Sister Mclean we all know and love. So we said, 'Is everything okay Sister Mclean?' She said she was fine, we paused and then asked again and she began to cry. God really does love all of his children. haha. It's funny the realizations you get. No matter how small they are, they are testimony builders. 'Knowledge is contained in truths which are eternal. So where is truth to be found? Truth is knowledge.' I can't remember who exactly said that.......that's bad of me...... 

We had trade-offs this week with Sav, which was cool! Sister Thompson came with me to Mandeville and Sister Schwendiman went to Sav with Sister Loveland. Who by the way said that she is from Tremonton and totally knows the Jensens. :) It was a great trade-off though. Those sisters are fantastic! Long drive though.. It's took us about 2 1/2 hours to get there as well. But it's beautiful! Got to see the ocean once again. :)

Friday. We had another cool experience with a member this week named Sister Bodley. We had prayed after our appointments fell through and felt that we should go look for her.We have been trying to call her but she never seems to answer. So we called someone else to get directions to where she lives exactly. We found it easily and were able to sit and talk with her and answer some questions she was having and we were also able to talk about Patriarchal Blessings, and that she was inviting people to learn about the church and we didn't even know! So she's going to set up an appointment with them for next week. It was awesome, and then we left haha.

Then at church yesterday, she came up to me and told me that she was so glad that we had just come and stopped by. She said that she felt like if she had answered the phone then she probably would have said that she didn't want us to come because she was gardening and would be tired. But we did come and she found out that after we left that she really needed us to be there. She said she was needing something uplifting. It was just a sweet experience with following the Spirit once again. Blessings really do come from being obedient. :)

Saturday we had the opportunity to give out transfer calls to the sisters. Yes, Sister Schwendiman and Bogle are leaving. Sister Bogle actually had to go yesterday. She got transferred to Montego Bay to be with Sister Garrett because Sister Garrett's companion Sister Dill had to go to the self-reliance seminar in Kingston today because she goes home as well. But Sister Schwendiman will be leaving to Washington back on Thursday. And I will be receiving Sister Lewis! Yes, the one I served around in Nassau! It'll be great! It am super excited for that! 

Yesterday, we had a cool experience. We went and saw a new investigator, Collin, who we hadn't seen in a while because he has been in Mo Bay.We got there and he said the people he lives with were home. So we asked him if they'd like to join us. So timidly said he'd go ask and then came out saying that she said she was cooking. Cha. So we began the lesson and as I was saying the opening prayer, she came out loudly wondering what we were doing. So... Awkwardly we stopped, told her about us and our message and then asked if we could say a prayer and share a message with them haha. She said yes and then we were able to have a GREAT lesson on the godhead. It was so awesome. We also talked about the Book of Mormon and she was very interested in that. She said that her mother has told her about it before but she was never a member. This lady's name is Paisley and she goes to the Moravian church but she said she'd love to come to our Book of Mormon night on Wednesday. Too bad though that for the next transfer she'll be in the new elder's area. Here in Mandeville there is going to now be 4 elders and 2 sisters. Its' cool. :) But that was an awesome experience to have. Now we just need her husband to join. A family!

Well... I love you all and thank you for your emails! Have a great week! Don't forget to read and pray daily. ;) This truly is Christ's church and we all have the responsibility to be missionaries and share the gospel with our brothers and sisters around us. Whether we have a nametag or not.

I love you again!

Love,

Sister Mouritsen

 

9/14/2015: Another great week! :)

Good afternoon my family :)

I don't have much time today because we are going to Lover's Leap near Junction in St. Elizabeth. I'm excited to see the ocean again! I'm going through withdrawals still... I'll hopefully send pictures next week... If I make time... sorry... I'm so bad at that... Anyway!

These past couple weeks we have been really trying our best to work with the branch members even more than we have been and it has been going well! Seems like a little spark is happening with them. :) Their conversion is deepening. When we have good, righteous desires, set achievable stretching goals and put in the full-hearted work AND faith needed, the Lord works miracles. (1 Nephi 7:12, Alma 26:12 etc... haha...) 

On Tuesday we had a lesson with a lady named Leena that we met last week and her family joined in as well out in Lancaster. It was great! We talked a lot about Christ and how our purpose is to help them to gain better relationships with Him individually and as a family. They were really into the lesson and it was just great all together. :) Most importantly the Spirit was strong in testifying. I never get tired of that feeling!

Also on Tuesday out in Lancaster we got to see a less-active named Claudine and her son Tremaine, who is also a member. A few of her other kids are members as well but they didn't choose to join in... :( But we first talked about if they were able to read the Book of Mormon and they told us they didn't along with some excuses.... and we discussed the importance of reading and then watched the Restoration with them and MAN! was the Spirit strong in their home as well. Claudine who hasn't been interested in really coming back told us that they would definitely be coming to church on Sunday and that she could just feel that the Restoration is true and the Book of Mormon is the word of God. Sad part is though that they weren't able to make it yesterday..... I'm praying for next week though. 

We had trade-offs with a companionship in May Pen this week on Wednesday. Sister Schwendiman went with Sister Dasha in May Pen and Sister Lewis came to Mandeville with Sister Bogle and me. It was great and awesome to see Sister Lewis again. Last week on Sunday we were driving towards the church and there was a guy walking and I thought I recognized him but I didn't. So we got to the parking lot and  got out and we saw him and were hoping he would come through the gate but he walked past and Sister Bogle yelled out to him, "Hey! You're going the wrong way!" So he stopped and we ran over there to talk to him and invited him to church and he came with us and thought it was great! Well we were able to have a lesson with him on trade-offs and he has so many questions! Good questions too. We had given him a Book of Mormon after church last week. Then yesterday he came to church AGAIN! His name is Dwight by the way. But we have an appointment with him Wednesday and will be extending a baptismal date. I'm excited! This work is so cool. :)

Friday we did trade-offs with Montego Bay with Sister Garrett and Dill. We felt as though Sister Schwendiman should go there as well with Sister Garrett. It was good to see Sister Garrett again! Holy cow she's awesome and we got to catch up a little about Cayman. I love that girl! She is a fantastic missionary! Along with Sister Dill. It was good to get to know her as well. :) Those were some long driving days.... haha. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get to Montego Bay.

We had another great lesson with Jmoy as well! He hadn't read 3 Nephi 11 though and so we read it with him. He loves learning and said he loved the lesson. It was definitely spirit-filled and powerful! He said he likes meeting with us and we are going to see him again Wednesday.

Well, I have to go now. I love you all so much! Thanks for everything! Keep on Keepin' on!

Love,

Sister Mouritsen

9/7/2015: Life is Good!

Good afternoon my Family :)

We had a really cool experience this week! So one of our investigators, Mr. Wright, has been in the hospital. We went and visited him and read a story in the Liahona with him. It was about a man who had lost his wallet after visiting several branches, I think in Austria, and he had just come off the last train and was home when he realized that he didn't have his wallet. His wallet had all his cards, money and (most importantly) his temple recommend. etc. So he prayed and couldn't find it. The next morning he prayed and the impression came to read the Book of Mormon but he shrugged it off and said, 'No. The Book of Mormon doesn't have my wallet!' The impression came two more times until he decided to follow it and he opened it up and read the first scripture on the page that he saw and said it comforted him so well. So he let it be. The very next day, he got a call from the train station that they had his wallet and he found that there was nothing missing from it. 

Immediately Mr. Wright was excited about that and he grabbed his Book of Mormon and opened it to read a scripture. The scripture he turned to was kind of random talking about some blood shed and wars haha. The look on his face was priceless. So we were like, well it's probably good to pray first. And all of the sudden he was praying haha! After the prayer he opened the Book of Mormon once again and it opened to 3 Nephi 18. Man! It was awesome! So then we talked about Baptism and in the state he is in, he can't get baptized until like November... But he cannot wait until he can get baptized! It was cool to see his testimony strengthened and his faith build through the Book of Mormon and an interesting experience. He has a lot of faith. It was awesome though. He has the greatest attitude in his circumstances. The Atonement will never cease to amaze me. It really is the Infinite Atonement. :)

We have been meeting with a less-active named Fiona and we met her son a few weeks ago and were able to have a lesson with him. Wow he's so awesome! He is an avid church goer at the New Testament church. His name is Jmoy. And when we had met him, we asked him to find his Mother's Book of Mormon. When we came back he actually did it (not that my faith was small haha...) and he had SO many questions! Good questions too! We talked about the Book of Mormon specifically but we didn't have long to meet with him though so next time we see him we are going to share the restoration with him! Man I can't wait! :)

Thursday Sister Schwendiman and I had to opportunity to go to MLC again! Wow it was awesome once again! We dropped Sister Bogle off in May Pen with Sister Judd and Frey and picked her up after. It was an awesome meeting though. I've turned into one of the oldest ones there now..... Nosah....

We had the greatest lesson with Demarce on Friday! WOW! We felt inspired to talk about the priesthood with him. We read Moses 1:39 with him and linked it to the importance of the priesthood and then we watched the video 'Sanctify yourselves' and had him imagine the football team has his family. Man was the Spirit so strong! We extended September 26th as a baptismal date to him. He said he would pray about it. So we'll see. He's awesome though! Goodness. The Spirit was just so powerful in that room. We were able to have Sister Spencer there with us to testify to him of her experiences with the priesthood as well. Jeez I love this Gospel and I LOVE  being a missionary. :)

We had a really cool lesson with Kelly this week as well. On Saturday we went up to her little bar to see her and man was the lightening crazy and LOUD! It was just snapping in the air and then the rain was POUNDING. Oh my was it cold.... But we had an awesome lesson with her about the Book of Mormon and following the prophet. She told us that she knows the Book of Mormon is true. Sister Schwendiman extended her a baptismal date by saying, 'when you come to know that these things are true, will you....' And then Kelly says, ' Wait. But I already know that these things are true!' haha. It was so funny. :) We felt inspired to extend to her October 3rd and 10th and have her pray about them. She just loves the gospel. She said she loves that she can come to church and actually learn something. haha. I agree with her for sure. I've seen some crazy things on the mission.... hahaha! This church is true. :)

Things just seem to be going really well. I had some amazing experiences with the Spirit this week. I definitely have a testimony of fasting and prayer. I've been praying and fasting about several things and some big decisions and I never cease to love the feeling of the Spirit and receiving answers. I also received a priesthood blessing this week. Things were going pretty rough and I received a lot of help. I know Heavenly Father loves us all so much and is so mindful of every single person. 

For the most part those are the highlights of the week. The work is marvelous. The gospel is true. And He is Risen. ;) 

I love you all and hope that you have a great week! Always strive to be worthy of the Spirit. I love you all again! Have an awesome week.

Love,

Sister Mouritsen

        

8/31/2015: A week in the life of a missionary who doesn't wanna stop missionary work. Okay... Full-time missionary work. Cause we're all missionaries and this is the longest subject ever. :)‏

Hi Family! 

We had interviews with President Brown this week on Tuesday. Man it was weird...... Let's just say we didn't talk about mission life for most of it. But as he called it.... the 'after life'. haha. "It soon reach".... But it was a great interview. He helped me to know what I need to start doing now to prepare for it because seriously... "It soon come"...... I just love that man. :)

We had a cool experience while we were out finding this week on Tuesday. So we were walking to go and find a referral for a Rasta man named Concrete but he wasn't home. So as we were walking back out to the road we ran into a man and we started talking to him. He told us that he had seen us walking up to the street in the first place when he had headed towards the shop to buy something. But when he got to the shop, he had forgotten his wallet so he had to turn back and go get it and he was on his way back when he ran into us. We had a great conversation with him. He said that he used to go to the Adventist church and almost got baptized a couple times but ended up backing out of it because he was feeling forced. So we discussed how the message we share is to invite and to help people to come unto Christ. Man it was a great conversation. The Spirit was just flowing. :) We were able to have a lesson with him on Wednesday about our purpose and he really opened up more to us. He is so humble and willing to learn. Then yesterday we went on splits with one of the members so Sister Bogle and the member Sister Thompson, who actually came off her mission here in April, went and visited him and had an awesome lesson about the Godhead. I am excited to see him again soon!

We had the opportunity to visit a less-active named Keisha out in Lancaster and had a great lesson with her. We just met her and she is really sweet! The Spirit was strong which is what matters most and we talked all about Christ and his Atonement. Man I don't think I will ever fully come to understand the Atonement...... But I have definitely grown in that knowledge. It's so funny because I thought I at least kind of knew the Gospel before but.... No way... My eyes have been opened and my knowledge expanded. Once again, I will never regret coming out here and getting to grow closer to the Savior and my Heavenly Father by helping others do the same. But anyway! She said she wants us to teach her daughter and someone else this week! And hopefully that will spark her again and she'll come back! We'll see though. Man this work is awesome. Sharing the Gospel is something else. :)

Well.... Those are some things that happened this week. I never have much time sorry... But I love you all and am SO grateful for the emails. Keep on keepin' on. 
No regrets. 
Make sure every step and every decision you make is toward Eternal life. Just immortality is not good enough. ;) So don't shoot for anything less.

Love,

Sister Mouritsen

Sister Wint and I on Trade-off in the bush in Hopeton! :)