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

Girly Girls and Biker Dudes

Hola peoples of the world... and by "World" I mean.... the few people that read this...

This week was great!

Once again we taught 22 lessons this week, despite being cancelled on more times than we can count! We had interviews with the Mission President on Thursday. After that we had 2 hours of service at a thrift store. It was pretty fun actually! Then we had a day full of cancelled appointments... it was great! Seriously though!! We got to talk to some other people that needed us that day a little more than the people we had planned to see! It was a great day!  We've been teaching so much again this week! I love being kept busy.  We also had to clear out the furniture from the old apartment... that was so sad I could have cried! Seriously! So sad! We've had a lot of fun this week too!

  The best thing about having a car is that you can joke around and laugh like an idiot without looking crazy ... most of the time! Haha I feel like this blog is going to be super short because I actually cannot remember a single thing from this week!  Shame on me!  My brain is fried!

Friday we had this amazing lesson on the Restoration with this big biker dude! He's such a nice guy and he's read the Book of Mormon, Pearl Of Great Price and Doctrine and Covenants!

LDS scriptures

My eyes almost popped out when he said that!  He is part of an organization called B.A.C.A which is Bikers Against Child Abuse.. so cool!!

Saturday we had a lesson in the same area, and as we were leaving we saw these people loading stuff off of their truck! We walked over and offered to help. Usually people take one look at us and think we're too girly to help

Too girly??

... but they said yes.. so we carried sofas and all sorts of stuff for them to their new apartment! They were really grateful! It was nice!

I've learned a lot this past week! It's really been a good one!

The Gospel is so flipping great! Seriously!!!!!

I keep learning new stuff every day! I still struggle with READING the Book of Mormon and not just skimming it... So I've started reading it in Afrikaans to make sure I'm paying attention to what I read!! It's great!! There is so much in there to learn!! And every time it's different!! The other day during our companionship study I came across a scripture and was like... ahh... I never thought about this... and then realized I must have because I'd highlighted that same scripture when I was in seminary and yet I had forgotten about it! That's why it's so important to carry on reading! Once is not enough!!!

Spiritual and temporal feast

 I love you all so much! And I love this Gospel! It's the greatest and truest thing on the freakin' planet ok!!! 

Well... this has been my week. Slightly shorter and possibly less interesting but still enjoyable!!

Elder Cook's birthday poster

Have a great week!

Make Good Choices!!

<3

Sister Botts

By His Grace - In the Right Place at the Right Time

Jakob 4:7 Desnieteenstaande, die Here God toon aan ons ons swakheid, dat ons mag weet dat dit deur sy genade is, en sy groot neerdalendhede aan die kinders van mense, dat ons mag het om hierdie dinge te doen. ( Book of Mormon Jacob 4:7)


This week has been amazing!  We have had so so so much work to do that I won't, or rather have no time, to give details about all of the lessons that we taught! We taught 22 lessons this week as well as putting in a couple hours here and there of service... and going to the Chiropractor... Flip! Weirdest feeling ever! But yeah! Busy week!

My companion, Sister Grow and I have fun together. We work too... I promise!

Sis. Botts and Sis. Grow

We taught Seminary this week again! It's so much fun! I love teaching Seminary!

We also had Exchanges this week! I stayed in our area and Sis Glew came here! We had a good day! None of our plans went as they should have but it was a good day!

Sis. Botts and Sis Glew

As we were stopping by a less active member... she turned us down and we were heading back to the car when from down the road we hear "Sister missionaries!! I need you! I'm so glad to see you! I prayed for help and here you are!" Haha it was a less active sister that we had been planning on visiting later in the day. She needed help with a very high ladder and a very heavy mirror... I was so happy! Haha I love that kinda stuff! So we went in and helped around there and then shared a short message with her!

High on a ladder top!

The rest of the exchange went well too!

Another night we went to visit a sister and she had a bunch of light bulbs that needed changing! Happy days! I will take anything that I can get! Haha even changing light bulbs! :)

This week we also got to do some gardening and help a sister from another ward move some stuff.
I love hard physical work!! I miss it sometimes!
This week has just been full of situations where we find ourselves in the right place at the right time!

We were visiting with one man on his doorstep and we had passed the home of someone I thought I knew... I couldn't remember if it was the right house or not, when Sis Grow said... 'Let's stop at that guy', it was someone they'd spoken to before. As we were finishing  talking with him, the lady that I thought lived at the house across the road came home! So we got to visit with her for a little bit too! If we hadn't stopped at the dude's house we would have missed her! Schweet!


So it was a very busy and productive and fun day!

Saturday night we mixed almost an entire gallon of milk with the chocolate milk powder I got from Mom!   We were only using the milk for that anyway so it seemed smart!  It was the night before Sis Grow's birthday so we sat drinking chocolate milk out of very tiny cups!! It was great .... 21 and 25 years old, and there we are giggling on the floor drinking tiny cups of chocolate milk!!

Chocolate Nesquik in tiny cups

Sunday we had Ward Council at 7am... and then church from 9 til 12 and from 1 til 4... We were so tired by 3:30 that we had to go home and take a quick nap before our dinner and lessons in the evening! But it's a good kind of tired because we know we worked hard this week!

Oh.......

We have a Baptismal date set! May 16th! We had a lesson with our new investigator at 10 am on Saturday morning and she wants to be baptised! Awesome! She's so lovely, and excited about the gospel! We are excited for her!

So all in all it's been an amazing week!!


We also found out that the apostle coming to our mission conference is


dun dun dunnnnn

Elder Holland!

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland - Member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles

Schweet!

Although they all hold the same priesthood... so it doesn't really matter who comes. They would all have told us the same thing!

But I'm excited!



Have a great week!!

Die Kerk van Jesus Christus van die Heiliges van die Laaste Dae is die enigste kerk op die aarde wat 100% waar is! Ek weet dit! Ek weet dat die  Priesterskap waardeur Jesus gedoop was is dieselfde Priesterskap wat ons nou in hierdie Kerk het!! Wonderlik!!!

Today we baptize with the same Priesthood authority that Jesus was baptized with

 

Love you all! The Church is true!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Byeeeeeeeeeeee