Aug 19th 2024

Tuesday- My girls 

We spent the morning at the library doing so much contacting and social media. Drove an hour back to our area for some lessons. It was a real treat even found a new friend without knocking since we were banished from that. Saying goodbye to Ali and Tabitha was deadly. I love those woman, they're a part of my family now. They bore their cute little testimonies right before we left. Made me cry seeing the effect the gospel has had on them. Pbz came out and I about passed away seeing that me and sister Hadley were doubling in again as stls, but this time reopening an area… Cleveland….

Wednesday- Bye Clearfork

Spent the morning with the Hermanas! We went on a little run, went crazy at the library doing contacting and such. Made some delicious chicken with yum Yum sauce. Bussed out to our area and got our apartment checked. Did lots of stop bys and nothing exciting happened. Came home and repacked. Ended the night dyeing my hair. It was a super late night! 

Thursday- Transfers to Cleveland 

Woke up and got all ready. Sister Zwahlen did my hair. She's so cutesy. We finished packing ourselves up and then helped the Spanish sisters because they're switching apartments with the Spanish elders. Makes no sense. Went to go say goodbye to my bestie Sister Reed. Took some photos and then got lunch one last time at Brassica together. A real treat. Went to transfers and loved seeing everyone. It's always good to be surrounded by people you love and who are doing the same thing as you. After Some moving around stuff and helping other missionaries we headed for Cleveland. We will be living outside of our area in Strongsville. We arrived and the apartment and it was completely trashed. It took two hours to clean before we could begin bringing in our stuff. I was ready to strangle some Elders. We are three levels up and after carrying everything in I about passed away. We Spent the remaining time doing social media work and cleaning. We had no area yet! 

Friday- Blessed land? 

Pretty zonked but did our best to plan with 5 dots lol. The cute senior couple the Campbells came to inspect our scary apartment. They were so upset with the Elders that trashed it. They fixed our stove and unclogged our sinks for us. They're so precious, they then called the mission office and ratted the Elders out. They really have our back. Then all our dots flooded over so we replanned the day. Had the most buss personal study. It was quite spectacular. We went to a park and did a ton of calls. We had over 30 self referrals to go through. However we did put someone on date over the phone! She was way about baptism and wanted it so who was I to hold back. BANG. We then had a great time doing stop bys and met some elect people who wanted The Book of Mormon??? Absolutely jaw drop when they open the door and tell us they've been waiting for us and takes a bom right away. Had to pinch myself to make sure it was all real. We had some fun in the rain and just went crazy today. 

Saturday- Grind continues 

We had a good ole stake activity. We ran a missionary booth. It was good to get to know our zone a little minus a few people weren't there. It was really sad our bishop wouldn't talk to us ://// Theres a lot of work to be done. We then had a quick lunch and then headed out to knock and some church calls. Found a really cool lady and her cute kids. Taught them and committed them to church. 

Sunday- Death

Wowza. So our church is at 11:30 which lowkey is nice because we get to do personal study before church. Church was mmmm not it. Our ward is very hard hearted, antisocial, anti missionary work. I thought tallmadge was bad but boyyyy is this way worse. We have swahili and English Elders that have been here trying to fix it. Our Bishop said hi and then darted, nothing else. Had a friend leave half way through the first talk….. Hard day. Comp had a not so fun melt down. Very valid though. Our life has been nothing but crazy for two weeks. Here we are again with 0 friends having to open a new area and work with a ward that despises us and what we stand for lol. Hahaha and I thought God was gonna hand me a break. He knows best and knows I need this and I can do this with his help. Fully relying on him and nobody else has been such a blessing. I really needed to learn this lesson. Its interesting I don't know a single soul in my zone. Fresh, fresh start. Spent the night doing sync ups by myself:/ and then phone calls by myself :// Definitely pray for us to find friends 🙏🙏🙏 also pray that our ward has a change in heart. Also maybe throw in a few prayers for my comp. 

My new motto for this transfer is “ Ambitious for Christ” it is pulling me through. I've also been focusing on FERVENT prayers. How awesome is it that we get to literally communicate with our almighty father in Heaven?? I think we forget what a privilege it is, and how much comfort can be found through it. Sometimes I get too casual with prayers. This transfer I've really decided to buckle in and take consecration to another level. I am deciding to only listen to Hymns and spend all extra time in the scriptures. I'm really excited to see what miracles can be found. Lots of fasting for this area these next 6 weeks. Missing my dear friends in Clearfork so, so badly. Cute Ali, Tabitha, Tristen, and Ronda went to church. Tristen is one of my social media miracles there. He walked 40 minutes to church. That's dedication. Sad I won't be the one teaching him. 

♡ These last few weeks have been the most “not my will but thy will be done” it's really hard to put your selfish desires on the altar and humble yourself to do God's will and trust he will take care of everything. I deeply desire to fully submit and trust more fully in Him and His promises.