Sunny and 75

Well this week we have seen the sun so I'm feeling good! We had a lot of awesome things happen this week! We were able to to drive to some nearby communities to visit a returning member and referral! I was able to see green grass, cows, horses, fences, and beautiful Louisiana homes. I was in heaven and Sister Bender said, "Look at all the tender mercies the Lord is given you!"

 

Sister Davis has been in the MJM about 11 months and her visa has not come for Brazil. A few days ago she comes into the study room and says, "Sister Hartley, I know what we need to do to have my Visa come. I need a miracle and I need all y'alls help. Obedience brings blessings, but exact obedience brings miracles. This next week we and the Elders have to be exactly obedient. I have never felt so strong about anything in my life, we have to do this." Well what could I say to that, but "I'm here for ya Sister!" So on Saturday night we had the Elders give us blessings and yesterday we had a fast. We need miracles in this area, for Sister Davis, and are investigators, and finding. We have so many who are so close to baptism, but they each have things that are holding them back. We need miracles. I loved my blessing Elder Bradshaw gave me. It was the first one I have had since the MTC. We call our District leaders are dad so when it was my turn to have a blessing they asked who I wanted to give it. I looked at Elder Bradshaw and said, "I need my dad to give it." It was a beautiful blessing and I felt that the words he spoke were the words Dad would have said if he were here. It was beautiful. I love the Elders and the priesthood. Well after that we are all on each others tails and doing everything in our power to be exactly obedient. We went to the Pearcy's after. They are  blind. We try to see them once a week. They are an inspiration to us all and we love them with all our hearts. We prayed in the car that we would be able to serve them in some way. While we knock on the door and before we can say Hi, Sister Pearcy explains that she has bad allegrys and she needed us to go to WalGreens and get some medicine. Boom. Miracle #1. Love Miracles! Love Them!!

 

Well, that's all for this week. Life is good here in the MJM.

 

Sister Hartley

 

Scripture: The last two verses in Enos. Written Beauitfully!

Churches, Rednecks, and Camo = The South

Janice just came from square dance class

Valentine's Dinner

Hello Dear Family!

 

I loved all the pictures, thanks so much for sending them to me! Well a lot of crazy experiences have happened this past week. I cannot count the number of times I have been told that this is the coldest winter Louisiana has had in years. I literally haven't seen the sun for two weeks. It has been overcast and cold cold cold. I've worn thick tights, leggings overtop with socks and I finally decided to wear my hoodie under my coat because I never take my coat off! On Tuesday we heard that an ice storm was rolling in. It got really cold and then it started to rain and then it turned into snow/ice pelts. It was crazy. It was silent and all you could hear was the sound of the ice pelts bouncing off the sidewalk. We went to Janice's for dinner that night and the drive back was very slick. I felt right at home. Well because freak things like this don't happen a lot the entire town shutdown. We woke up Wednesday morning to ice everywhere. On the car, road, roof, grass...it was everywhere. We were cautioned to stay in are apartment so we didn't go out to work until about two. I was going crazy. Then the power went out for a while. My companions wanted to go out and deice the car - they thought it was a hoot. Well the ice eventually melted and now this week is supposed to be nice. No tights, and we can actually dress cute. The grass is starting to get green as well.

 

Our Area has been struggling, we are working hard and increasing are faith in finding the elect here in Ruston.

 

That's all for this week. Love y'all and I'm enjoying my time here in Ruston Louisiana!

 

Sister Hartley

 

Scripture: 1 Nephi 13: 41-42 (we have to work to be saved!)

Ice Storm

Thank you for your prayers

This week we have seen many miracles and tender mercies from the Lord. On Thursday it was soooo cold! We had planned to do two hours of tracting. We were all bundled up and out knocking doors. We were all freezing, but we all knew we needed to do it so we wouldn't get behind. Well we knocked on a couple doors and got some pretty harsh words spoke to us. We were pretty taken back and frustrated that we were so cold and hated. Well we mustered up some faith and knock on the next door. It's a family and they let us in right off the bat and have a great conversation with them. It was amazing, the spirit was really strong. Then the next door we knock on we were able to give a Book of Mormon to a man who was excited to read it (Thank-you for your prayers, they really work!) after that house we knocked on another door and they let us in as well! We were so grateful to the Lord for blessing us. It was a testimony to us all of diligence and persistence. My testimony has really been strengthened from opposition we have had. It is how we grow.

 

On Saturday we had an awesome day! It was a day full of members and missionaries coming together. In the morning we helped Sarah, an investigator, move. It was amazing, us and the elders were there along with the bishop and a few other members from the ward. It was so fun to all come together and help a family out who needed it. In the afternoon we had three member present lessons in a row! It was amazing and really strengthened my testimony of members in lessons. One of them was a church tour. The spirit was so strong as we showed an investigator around the church and had her look at all the paintings. The spirit was powerful. 

 

I have a strong testimony that this work will hasten if the members jump on board.

 

We have a busy week ahead of us, but it's full of service to our Savior and bringing souls unto him. Can't get any better than that.

 

Love y'all and have a joyous experience at the temple!

 

Sister Hartley  

How we stay warm.

Eating at Subway just for Melissa!

We both are twins, and our other twin is serving a mission also.

"Not my pig, not my farm"

 A returning member in our ward took us to get pedicures! It was so great! My toes have a French tip! I was worried about my ticklish problems, but I did pretty good!

I had a great week! Even though we are at the library late, two of are investigators happened to be here so we could set up appointments with them! Yeah!

 'm learning a ton from my two companions. They are awesome and good missionaries.

I watched this video the other day and you all should watch it for family home evening. 

http://www.lds.org/training/wwlt/2013/hastening/special-broadcast?lang=eng#media=47537905441776330780-eng

 Love Sister Hartley!

Scripture: Alma 13:10 (the whole chapter is good)

Southernism: Leora, a returning member, said this today in response to something that wasn't her worry, "not my pig, not my farm." haha

We're a tall companionship

Leora, she spoiled us with our pedicures, so nice and thoughtful.

Sister Davis, she has a twin on a mission.

Love Sister Hartley!

Scripture: Alma 13:10 (the whole chapter is good)

Southernism: Leora, a returning member, said this today in response to something that wasn't her worry, "not my pig, not my farm." haha

New companion has arrived.

My new companion, Sister Davis from New Mexico.  She is a twin! Her sister is serving a  mission in Washington. 

Sister Sharay, our recent convert.

Love all the beautiful wreaths people have on there houses.

Hello family!

Sorry it has taken me so long to email. It has been cold down here and many places in our mission have experienced snow and ice storms so transfers got switched to today. I am staying in Ruston with Sister Bender and we are getting a new companion. Sister Davis is her name, she's from New Mexico and has been out nine months. She's waiting for her visa to come for Brazil. We pick her up this afternoon. All I've heard about her is that she is a work horse so I'm excited. Sister Dailey is off to Red Star Mississippi. It is the most backwoods/redneck of the mission so I'm pretty excited for her to go there. It sounds sweet. We will email again when Sister Davis gets here because she most likely hasn't emailed so I will be back sometime tonight if you need to tell me anything.

It snowed last Thursday! It flurried for about an hour but nothing stuck to the ground. It was pretty cold. We happened to be tracting at the time so we were all bundled up pretty good. Sister Dailey and I felt like we were right at home! It was fun! People thought we were crazy to be out!

We've had a slow week. A lot of people we were teaching either dropped us or we dropped them and we haven't found anyone who is interested. It's hard. The south is tricky. I can't tell you how many different churches are here. People are so confused. We tracted into a paster from a big church down here called The Bridge. He was kind and let us in but it turned into him basically preaching to us. He is a good man, but interprets the bible so differently. It's just hard. People are stuck in their ways.

There is a man in our ward who is so good to us missionaries. His brother past away who isn't a member. Janice wanted to take us to his viewing so we could show are respect to Brother Randell. Brother Randell always says that you'll know who your true friends are by who stands by you in tough times. He appreciated having us there, it met a lot to him. It was in a place called Haynesville. It is southern than southern. A real small town. We went to a Baptist church for it, and it is an old church just from the movies. We were a minority that's for sure. The sky was dark and cloudy, and it was cold. I was in the deep south.

Lately at dinner appointments we give a card with are investigators names and needs and ask the members to pray for them. We had a lesson yesterday and one of the needs got answered! We asked the members to pray that there would be no distractions while we taught so the spirit could be there. Well the prayers were answered and we had an amazing lesson with the spirit! I am so grateful for faithful members and their faithful prayers!

Anyways, that's all for now. Two transfers down and on to the third. What a blessing it is to serve here in the MJM. I know I'm needed here, haven't quite figured out why yet, but I'm working on it.

Love ya'll

Sister Hartley

Scripture: Acts 1 (This is how an apostle is called!)

Southernism: down here rednecks are called "Good Ole Boys" haha

I have been out 3 wonderful months

A lot happened this week! I'll start with something pretty exciting. On Friday the Elders and us went to Monroe for  specialized training. I had a meeting with President and Sister McDonough. It was for all those in our zone that have been out less then six months. It was such a good meeting and I learned a lot! I was very humbled. Let's just say this week has been very humbling. Dang pride!

After the meeting the Elders wanted to go to this Wing place that is really good so we did. Well Elder Bradshaw says, "Hey sister Hartley want to go to Duck Commander?" I said that we should check to see how close it is. Well he puts it into his GPS and we come to find that it's only a few miles away! When it hit me that we were actually going I started to cry, and maybe scream a little bit?!?! I was freaking out! Elder Mower is like, "Sister Hartley, It's like you're going home or something?" I was like, "Elder, you have no idea how much this means to me!" Anyways when I saw the sign I just started screaming and crying, and laughing! It was awesome! Seriously so cool! None of the guys were there, but we got some pictures and went shopping in the store they have there! Everything was on sale so I got a t-shirt. Oh and we met some members there from Dallas. It was pretty cool!

Like I said earlier I have been humbled ten fold this week. I had a huge learning curve. We had a situation with are Recent Convert and welfare and it was just confusing. But the Bishop and President McDonough helped us and taught us so much. I'm so grateful for them!

The Lord truly works in miraculous ways. Remember last week I said that Sister Zemp and I went to Wal-Mart to talk to people. Well we had a return appointment with someone we met there the next day. We went and no one was there so we started to knock on the doors beside his. We ended up meeting a couple college kids who are amazing! They invited us to there bible study so we went and ended up meeting a ton more college kids! It was the best! After the bible study (I've been to three in the past week!) a girl came up to me and said that her brother is dating a Mormon and she wants to learn about Mormons! Her name is Hannah and I'm pretty sure we were best buds in the pre-existence and we made a deal that I would come to Lousiana to baptize her! She's fixin' to be a teacher and is doing a practicum at a preschool. She's from a ranch so after we taught her we were swapping stories. She told me a crazy story about a bull they have so I told her about how I almost died from a bull because I ran into the fence! The spirit was strong as I testified that God protected me. I just love her!

Another neat thing that happened this week with a investigator named Melissa. Her son has to get an operation in a few weeks on his heart and they were really nervous so the Elders came over and gave her son a blessing, he's almost 11. After the blessing we asked him how he felt and he said, "I feel really, really good." Melissa was crying and the spirit as strong. The dad is a southern devoted Baptist, but he was present for the blessing and I think it softened his heart towards us. I'm so grateful for the priesthood.

I'm the driver now. It feels so good to be driving! I love it! It's a good stress reliever.

Yesterday we visited a returning member, it was are first time visiting her. We were there for 45 minutes and she talked the entire time! Southern people can talk and talk and talk! We all had a good laugh after!

Anyways, that's all for this week! Love my companions, love Ruston, love the ward, love my investigators, love my mission president, love my fellow missionaries, love the prophet, love the scriptures, love my Savior Jesus Christ.

Sister Hartley.

Scripture: 2 Nephi 27-29

 Valentine tree with a picture of Elvis as the star

I worked with Sister Zemp!

Well this week has been pretty good! It was a week of learning and coming closer to our Savior. On Thursday the Sister Training Leaders came to do exchanges with us. Sister Zemp and Sister Smith. I think I've told you this before, but Sister Zemp is from Calgary and her uncle is the Brother Zemp that is the temple recorder. Sister Smith is from Montana and her dad is a cattle broker. My package came a few minutes after they arrived so I was able to show them the pictures and they both loved them because Sister Zemp has been to Waterton and Sister Smith could see ranch work. Sister Smith is legit. She's been in the army and plays rugby and is just super cool! Sister Zemp is legit as well, she's a miracle worker. My prayers were answered because I got to go out with Sister Zemp and Sister Dailey and Sister Bender went with Sister Smith. I was excited to be in a duo companionship and to be working with another Albertan! We did a lot that afternoon. I learned so much from Sister Zemp! She's such a great missionary! We went to Wal-mart and talked to people and it was awesome!

 

Friday morning the Sister Training Leaders discussed with us what they learned at mission leadership council and what not. Well the mission theme this year is "Perfect Use of the Lord's Time." So many beautiful things have happened in our mission in the past couple months. When Elder Zwick was here he made a promise to our mission that we could triple are baptisms in the coming year if we would sanctify ourselves, use the Lord's time perfectly, work hard, and be faithful. Having Elder Zwick say that is literally fulfilling prophecy about the south. (Remember President Kimballs quote?!?) Anyways as the STLs were saying all this the spirit was so strong! I guess our mission is the lowest baptizing mission in the states. The STLs were telling us what a great honor we as missionaries have to be placed in the MJM mission at this exact time and that Heavenly Father knew we were the ones he needed to bring this forth. It is so humbling to all of us. It made me realize that I was supposed to wait and leave in October instead of May because now I will be here for the entire year of 2014 and see all the miracles that will happen. To make things even better, on Sunday they announced that the stake theme is "Hastening the Work" and to sanctify ourselves. So the two are the exact same! Elder Zwick said the only way we can accomplish the goal of tripling our baptisms is working with the members.

 

Anyways it is so exciting and humbling! The south is a really hard place to serve. So many people already have a church and are very committed and comfortable.

 

Well, that's about all I have for this week! I am doing good, starting to get into the routine of it all and my teaching is slowly improving. The Lord truly qualifies those he calls.

 

I love ya'll!

 

Sister Hartley

 

Scripture: D:C 88:68-69

Southernism: We were tracting and Sister Dailey and I didn't have our coats on. We were at this door and I could tell Sister Dailey was cold so I said, "Don't worry Sister Dailey, after this door I'm Fix..." Then I stopped mid-sentence and realized that I was going to say, "I'm fixing to go get my coat." We all had a good laugh.