More Than Maybe

HA! This week was amazing! So many things happened!!! On Tuesday we had exchanges! I loved it.  At one of our lessons a dog stole Sister Perrin's and my shoes! When we finished the lesson and went to put them on they were out lying in the garden!!! So funny! I laughed so hard.

With Sis Perrin on exchanges

Then I lost one of my earrings in the other sisters' car. Sad because they were my fave ones and it was tiny!   So Wednesday night I was praying and I lifted up my blanket while I was still on my knees.. boom... there lying in my bed was the earring!!!! It must've gotten stuck in my shirt or something and fallen out while I was sleeping. So it fell into my shirt and not the abyss of the car seat!

She's still cutting her hair!!!

BANGS!!!!

We taught 27 lessons this week and met 2 new investigators!
We got Bible bashed! It was so great! Nothing he said made sense, and I actually used one of the scriptures he used to disprove something, to PROVE the exact same point in my talk on Sunday! Context is everything my friends.  When we use the scripture in the correct context, ie. what it's actually talking about in the story... it makes perfect sense, and actually was just the thing I needed for my talk. Thanks Satan, you idiot!!

So... what are my two least favourite things?!

That's right!! Speaking in public and Being Late!! So let's combine those two things and you have my Sunday morning!   15 minutes late for Sacrament meeting because we went with a member to pick up an investigator, who is super old, and she still was curling her hair when we got there.
 #sisterbottsisstressingherselfbald!

Stress!!!!

 But it was a good day. I got to do the short talk... 15 minutes!!!!!!!!! Agh! haha  Terrifying!

We had a baptism on Saturday. A little girl, who is friends with a member and comes to church every week with their family, was baptised! I was so happy for her. She's great! It was an amazing day! Besides the baptism on Saturday, we did 1.5 hrs of service and taught 8 lessons and got home at 8 pm. It was a full and amazing day!! Loved it!!!

Baptism :)

 We had dinner at the the Winklers after church.  They've had a door that sticks for a while...I finally decided to look at see what the deal was. As I was coming out of the bathroom I asked Brother Winkler for a screw driver... he had the same thought because he pulled out from behind his back a sweet drill! Nice!! POWER TOOLS!!

With Sis. Aukuso and the Winklers

Happy days! So we got to fixin' the door...
Jesus did service on Sundays. It's all good!
Couple'a newly drilled holes, plugs and big fat wood screws... door fixed.

Jill of All Trades

Me happy.  I miss doing that kinda stuff! I'm so glad I grew up with the best Dad in the world who actually taught me to do that stuff, and let me!  I enjoy it way too much!

So yesterday I read this scripture... I'd seen and read it before and even highlighted it as a teenager but I never fully knew what it meant...
Hebrews chapter 11:1

Just think about that for a second.
"The EVIDENCE of things not seen"
When we have faith it's because the Holy Ghost has revealed to us the truthfulness of those things that we have faith in.... so faith is not hoping for things we have no evidence to prove.  Faith is EVIDENCE of the things we can't see.

Do you get it?!

FAITH IS EVIDENCE!!!!!

My Faith in the Saviour is evidence that He is and that He died for me.  I can't pretend it's just a "maybe" just because I haven't seen Him.

I KNOW!

I hope you know.

I hope you all have a great week! I Love you all

Inclined to Succeed

So... this week was interesting!!

I dyed my hair again... surprise!!  Haha  but I just wasn't me with light hair.  So black is back!

Not herself with light hair

We killed a squirrel on the way to church yesterday... ... It was so darn sad!! We named the dead squirrel Timothy. Morbid right?!

Not 'Timothy'- this little guy visits their back garden

One of the Elders lit my companions hair on fire... so me, being my patient self, hit him. You know.

Now we's good haha.

We were tracting and went up to a house with an Irish "failte" sign on the door. She was about to close the door when I mentioned that I was just excited about her ‘Welcome’ sign... boom!!! Opens the screen door and has a 10 min conversation with us and we read some scriptures from the Book of Mormon. Pretty awesome!

We did the Incline this morning. Look it up so you can feel sorry for me. I think my lungs exploded in the altitude.

At the top of the Incline

Also... Blisters everywhere! I'm sure it was invented by Satan himself!! Seriously!!

The ' Incline'

There was a cute little chipmunk that ran alongside us for a good bit of the Incline. He made it look a lot easier than it really is!! But it was cute... and he looked nothing like the annoying things on TV!

Wildlife along the trail

Chipmunk hiking companion

The weather has been amazing! Hot, hot, hot all day and then a thunder storm late in the afternoon! I Love it!

Stormy afternoons

We taught 19 lessons this week, so that was good!

I miss my drums!.... just thought I'd put that in there.

Her drums - she plays really well :)

I'm teaching my companion to speak Afrikaans. It's going ok. She tells me she's hungry.. a lot. And that she's gonna bliksem me.  We'll work on more vocab! Haha

We made our own dinner on Friday night! It was amazing! I miss cooking for myself! We ate it outside in the sun! Great!!

Made dinner for themselves for a change

We have 3 investigators with a baptismal date. One is on Saturday! Woot Woot!

The work is going well!

I'm so happy here! I just love everything... It's quite obnoxious actually.  I'd slap myself if I saw me 2 years ago.

Friday night there was an awesome storm and the road we usually take to go home goes through a dried up river... which is not so dry when it's stormy... so we had to turn around and take the long way.... but we took pictures first! Hahaha

The 'dried up' river

So this has been my week! It's been great! It's been fun, and filled with teaching! I've loved it!! 

On to a new one. 

3 weeks until transfers. How did that happen so fast??!?!

Anyhoo... keep on going!

Life sucks sometimes, like the Incline... and we're rather disinclined to go through it.  But the view is pretty great when you get to the top...not that I've made it to the top of life yet.... hahaha

The view from the top

The Church is true!

I love you!

Sister Botts! 

My mom says she's not here!!!

This week has been Wunderbar!!
We had no car again up until Friday but we like walking! Especially when the sun is either beating down or the rain is pouring! Best times to walk!
On Thursday my companion got to go to the temple because she's reached her half way mark so I stayed in our area with two other sisters whose companions also were going to the temple.

Denver Colorado Temple

It was pretty cool having 2 new companions for the day. I don't hate new people as much as I used to... haha. We had a pretty good day that day!
On Friday we got back to driving which was great... we still walk a lot though because we've realised how much more awesome it is! We get to stop and talk to a lot more people when we walk.

On Friday Sister Grow and I taught District meeting... We talked about how sometimes we have faith in the blessings that Heavenly Father has for us but sometimes it's fear that stops us from doing those things required to gain those blessings.  D&C 67:1-3   read it!

 1 Behold and hearken, O ye elders of my church, who have assembled yourselves together, whose prayers I have heard, and whose hearts I know, and whose desires have come up before me.

 2 Behold and lo, mine eyes are upon you, and the heavens and the earth are in mine hands, and the riches of eternity are mine to give.

 3 Ye endeavored to believe that ye should receive the blessing which was offered unto you; but behold, verily I say unto you there were fears in your hearts, and verily this is the reason that ye did not receive.

We had service at a thrift store again on Wednesday! It was pretty great.  I talked to so many people (just random convo, no proselyting allowed during service) but usually I'd just run and hide instead of talking to people. It was good! :)
We had Stake Conference this weekend! It was pretty cool! The Stake is so big that they assign wards to buildings and then broadcast it from our building! Cray cray!

Tuesday we had Zone Conference! It was pretty great also!

Zone Conference

Thursday we went shepherding and got to stop by and see a few people... so... awkward story about that...
We get to this one house. The husband tells us the wife (who's a member) is not home. So we ask if there's be a better time to come by... he says  I don' know... sometimes she's here and sometimes she's not... well... I guess that's accurate about most people so... ok?!   Then as we are leaving the little girl runs into the back garden and called her mom's name and her mom replies... ahahaha

You just have to laugh at stuff like that... So as we drive away she appears out of the back thinking we're already gone... I just waved.. "Smile and wave boys, smile and wave"  Too funny!!   I wish people would realise how much easier it'd make it for both us and them if they just said "No, don't come back"
Rejection! Hallelujah! Now we don't have to waste your time or the Lord's by coming back every time... JUST SAY NO!.... anyway.  People are funny. I appreciate the no's...
Every no is a yes to not wasting time!

Means we can focus on the people who care about the salvation of their families! For real though!

EVERYONE IS HAVING BABIES!!  I'm scared to drink the water! Haha

Not being allowed to hold babies is probably the hardest rule out here... Rivaled only slightly by the 6:30am mornings. Those too are killing me hahaha!

Anyway... This week has been great! We've talked to a lot of people. We spent 30 minutes last night talking to a man on his porch about the Gospel. He seemed happier after we talked to him. He had sad eyes.

I still love this work!! It's not even work. It's just great!!

Loving the work.

I love you all! I hope that you know that!

Keep going or I'mma hunt you down when I get home!


LOVE YOU!

Sister Botts

Soaking Sisters

So this week was pretty much just amazing!! We've spent a lot of time walking in the rain and praying not to be hit by lightning... seriously! One day we walked everywhere and it was so sunny, as we left one appointment to head to another it started lashing... and thunder and lightning everywhere! So we're in an open field and we decided that it was a good idea to stop and pray... picture how awesome that would look... two soaking sister missionaries in an open field surrounded by lightning just being cool, praying in the middle of it all.  Pretty awesome is all i'm saying!!

Soaking wet Sisters

We found so many people to teach last week, either less active members or investigators.  We should lose our car every week!!!

We had some fun times this week for sure! And Sis Grow and I made mustaches hahaha! It was great! We have some fun times together!!

Silly Sisters

On Sunday our recent convert who was baptized at the end of January received the Priesthood!!! How great is that?!  I was so happy!
Sis Grow and I taught the Gospel Principles class on Sunday too. Fun fun.

Saturday morning we spent like 4 hours doing service for a member's neighbour... 5 sisters and 4 elders... we moved like crazy! We are pro movers at this stage!

Today we had Zone Conference which was pretty flippin' great!

Zone Conference

I love being a missionary!! I love this work and sharing the gospel! I want to just stay here forever! Seriously!

Miracles every day! It's so great!

So it's been a really amazing week! Although we've been walking and I thought it would be a hard week and we wouldn't get much done but we one day... the day we stood in the field praying... got 6 lessons in a day... walking across 2 areas! !! It really was wonderful!

I wish I had more time to email because I have so much I wanna say but since this Monday was a holiday we are emailing now at a members home and it's almost time to go home!   Sad days!


But...

Remember that the church is true.
Remember that I Love you... most of you anyway! hahaha
And make good choices! haha

Bubye!! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!

Sister Botts

Awesome!!!

Sisters at Mission Conference

So... This week was pretty eventful to say the least! It started off slow but it ended off a li'l cray!
We did a good bit of teaching which is always good right?!
Since I've stopped writing down stuff to remember to say in my emails I kind of forget pretty much everything except the real exciting parts.. sorry! Haha! So I'm just going to skip to the exciting parts ok?!

Friday afternoon we realised that Sis Grow had lost her wallet... and that someone had been using one of her cards... so we have no license to drive... so we're back to biking and walking! HAPPY DAYS!  Seriously though! So for the rest of Friday we spent the day cancelling cards, and then walked to our evening appointment which, luckily, was on the border of our 2 areas so it was only like a 20 min walk! I miss walking and being out!

Saturday... OH SATURDAY!!!

With Sis. Aukuso and Sis. Bentham at Mission Conference

We woke up and went to morning sports at 6 am...  being smarter than the previous week, I sat out and didn't play... after that we got ready and fixed our faces... or did as much as make up would allow anyway... and then went tracting for like an hour! It was great! No one was interested the entire time! Then we walked back home and stopped by this one house we always wanted to stop at cuz the kid has cool hair. The father answered, he was super friendly, talked with us for about 15 minutes about church, work and so on... and we made a return appointment to go back and teach him about the gospel! Freaking sweet right!  After that we headed home and prepared our stuff for the next 30 mins to go and see ELDER HOLLAND! WHUUUUUUUUUUT!!!  Yeah! So we headed off to Mission Conference! It was pretty great seeing Sis Aukuso and other people we don't see often!

Happy to see Sis. Aukuso again :)

After chilling, and talking to people we went in and sat down and waited for Elder Holland to get there! When he got there he wanted to shake everyone's hand and have them tell him their name and where they're from... Dilemma... I still don't know how to answer that damn question! So anyway... we all did it.. me being me, couldn't even look the man in the eyes. Eye contact is weird ok!

So after that we sit down and he tells us he interviewed us... phew! Good thing I looked at his shoes!! Or... maybe that told him more than looking in his eyes would have! Haha... I didn't burst into flames straight away though so I think I'm safe for a little longer! I HOPE! Haha

It was pretty awesome getting to actually see him! He walked around and talked to us. He is hilarious! Seriously! laughed so hard! But he's also just so freaking awesome!  And it wouldn't be 'An Elder Holland Talk' if he didn't shout a little!! It was great! Taking notes is hard when your eyes are glued to someone... but I took a load of notes! It was pretty awesome... I've said 'Awesome' way too many times in this post already but whatever... there you have it!

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Sunday...  :/ Sis Grow and I sang in Sacrament meeting... I will never get used to that. I will be terrified of doing that until the day I die! For reals! It went alright though!

Sis. Botts and Sis. Grow

Some of the things I loved from Elder Holland's talk

"Stop assuming you know who will accept the Gospel!"

"We only have words to work with... if you've only got one weapon USE IT!"

And my FAVE... "You can only do what you can do but YOU'VE GOT TO DO THAT'

So yeah! It was pretty epic! He's great! It was definitely something I'm happy I got to experience! I feel sad for all the missionaries coming in today because they missed him by only a few days... SUCKERS!!!

Anyway...  I will start being better at keeping notes again of stuff that happened this week!!

She did build a shelf this week!!

Hope you're all good!
Love you all


Make good choices!!!!!!!!!

Seriously! DO IT!

Short and Sweet

This is going to be a short one!! Sorry!!

But this week was no better than last... although I feel 300000000 times better about it! I guess it's all about attitude right?!

This week was full of rain and hail and thunder and lightning!! It was so freaking great!! Sometimes the thunder rolls for a good 30 seconds! And the lightning lights up the entire sky! Nature is pretty much the coolest thing ever!!

Lightning over Colorado Springs

So wanna know something funny?! It had been almost 2 weeks since injuring my ankle... I figured it was ready to play some soccer... it was... but I clearly wasn't! Ended up doing the exact same thing to the other ankle that day except worse!! GENIUS!!! Pretty sure someone doesn't want me to go anywhere!!

This week the weather was so bad we had 3 flood warnings, and one of the days we actually had to park our cars and not drive! It was so exciting! I just love it!

We had 2 days of service at the Thrift Store... I enjoy it!

We had about 14 lessons this week and did some tracting! None of the tracting was very fruitful but that's pretty much how it goes, so no surprise there! I'm ok with that! That's life!

We've had some really great teaching opportunities with people this week... they may have been few but they were great!

I just love this work! Seriously! I may just never come home!

Loving the Work

We got to call home this weekend too... that was weird.  Haha! Seriously! It kinda felt like I never left and my monkeys have gotten so big!! It's crazy!

Dad and the Monkeys - taken a while ago

This week I also got a package from SARA JANE!!!!!! GIIIRL!! You are so great and I wanted to publicly say that! THANK YOU!

The sun is currently shining outside and so that makes me even happier!!

I LOVE THIS GOSPEL!!! I know I say this all the time but I love it more today than I did last week!!!

Every day I see it change either someone else or me a little bit, and it's just more amazing than the day before!!

The Scriptures are so great too! There's so much to learn from even the smallest, shortest verses!!   Once you really study them and try and figure out what they mean... agh! So GREAT!

Also this week I had the most amazing burger... which always helps.  I dream about that burger all the time!

Well, I'm short on time today! But I want you to all know that I love you and that I Love the Gospel!! SERIOUSLY!!

It's so great!!! Have a great week! I promise to take more pictures this week!!

LOVE YOU!

Sister Botts

Trips and Treats

This week started off with me leaving my memory card in the library and then ending up in the emergency room after tearing the ligaments in my foot.

OW!!!

So... for the sake of honesty I shall tell you that this week has sucked!

We went from 2 weeks of teaching 22 lessons to only teaching 13 lessons this week. Not great!  At least 2 appointments a day cancelled on us and it was just fairly crap!

But there were some good parts... as always!

Monday after shopping we met this homeless Veteran on the corner of the road. We pulled up next to him and handed him 2 Rice Crispy treats... he said "Oh! Thank you! These are my favourite!"  So I said "Wow! Mine too!" So he says... "Well then... we were destined to date!" Ahaha!  So cute!! It made me sad! He had the most amazingly blue eyes I ever saw!!

Also after one of our appointments cancelled we decided to go visit a neighbour of one of the members... As we got there she explained that some bees had swarmed and landed in her trees and these bee people were coming to take them away! Scary! So as we're sitting chatting with her and her mother, the bee guys come.

The Bee Guy (well A bee guy, not the one in the story!!)

"Hello Sisters" one of them says! D: Huh!!! How do you know we're sisters we ask. He explains that he saw the bike rack and knew we were missionaries... then he leaves and tends to the bees while we sit there shocked cuz only members really know that the bike rack is a missionary thing! So when he comes back in we ask him! He tells us he's a member and we realise that he's the brother of less active members in BOTH wards that we work with!!! So then the other bee dude walks in and says how the first dude is his home teacher!!! Ha! So 4 Mormons just chilling in the living room of our investigator!! How's that for timing?! And so from those two Brothers we were able to find out ways to help the one dude's sisters and then the other guy gave us information of someone, who was being taught by Elders, that he wanted us to meet!! How flipping sweet is that?!?

It was pretty great!

We had specialised training this week which was also great!

And someone handed my memory card in to security at the Library and so I have it back... and even though the last week seriously sucked, I'm so happy to be here and to start the week over again!

Smiling through adversity

The church is true, and nothing else really matters when you're doing what you should!!

I don't care if it's hard! If you know it's right then DO IT!!! Even when you're living the Gospel, life sucks sometimes, but if it was easy there would be no point!!

1 Peter 1: 7!!! Read it!! Trials are more precious than Gold!!!

Yesterday there was a baby blessing at church, and the father... super young and first child... blessed his son saying "I bless you with all the trials and tribulations that will help you to come to better know the Saviour"

Whoa!!!!   Trials are a blessing!!

JUST LIVE THE GOSPEL!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love you all!!!

And you better make good choices or I'mma come back for ya!!! Seriously!!!

LOVE YOU!!!!!!

xXxX