Happy New Years!!‏

"Humility is not a sign of weakness; it is a sign of spiritual strength." I love that. Sometimes we think being dependent is a sign of weakness, (at least I do) however, as we are dependent on our Heavenly Father in our lives it truly is a sign of strength. My New Years Resolution is to be more humble and pray more sincerely. I encourage you all to make New Years Resolutions that are spiritual, and will help you grow.

This past week has been wonderful! Christmas was so fun to skype the family. Even though I sometimes think skype is awkward when you don't know what to say. but that is ok. I could probably just sit there and let you talk, but you all wanted the opposite. ha

So Saturday, Samantha was baptized and that was amazing!! She was so nervous but you can see the difference now. She wants to start to prepare for a mission now. She is only 16 but she made it one of her goals. For the baptism it was family only, and then lots of missionaries that have helped teach Samantha. Afterwards they took us all to dinner at one of the only restaurants in Greenfield call "three spoons" so that was the picture you saw mom. Miracles happen!! It is amazing to see how blessed I have been this past year as I prepared for a mission and now that I am here. Everything just has fallen into place how it was supposed to. I know that our Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us and when we follow that plan we are going to find the most happiness...

Yesterday in Church The Elders and Us, gave the talks in Sacrament, about what inspired us to serve missions and what we had learned since we had been out. Everyone said they loved hearing from us. but i'm pretty sure my talk was jumbled. but I still get so nervous speaking that I don't even know what I said ha

Today we are going to be going to Bainbridge to get an Amish Pretzel sandwich! Yum im so excited it is like pure heaven to be with the Amish people! ha Oh and our landlord is putting hardwood floor in our dining room and kitchen today!! Yay!

Well I know that this is short but that is really about all that has happened especially since I talked to you just a half a week ago. Just a reminder Transfers is next week and so my P-day will be on the 8th and not on Monday!! Thank you to everyone who sent cards and packages. They were wonderful. I am working to write everyone back but it may take awhile. I did get a letter this week from Bob and Vicky West and the envelop was so torn up they had to rubber band it onto the card ha ha it was really funny to get. I love you all. I hope you had a Merry Christmas and that you have a Happy New Year.

Sister Zwahlen

Merry Christmas!

Because of Christmas this week, Ashley will not have a regular P-Day to write a letter.  She sends her love and a Merry Christmas wish to all.  She is so blessed and has received many letters, cards and packages from loved ones at home! Thanks to all for sending your love to her!  Merry Christmas!

Chester

Family and Friends,

"In a world ever more dangerous.. The Book of Mormon: Another Testiment of Jesus Christ has the nourishing power to heal starving spirits of the world." President Packer. As sister Love and I read 10 pages from the Book of Mormon, i had seen this in my own life, we may not have a lot to "heal" but it is making a HUGE difference in our relationship with each other and those we teach. I have also seen how the Book of Mormon helps those who are in a time of trial or in need of help in there life.  I was talking to Roy this week about what change he has seen in his life since he started reading the Book of Mormon and his response was that his life feels balanced. Simple but so true as we accept our Heavenly Fathers will our life is going to balance out and everything will work out for the good. 

Hello from a White day in Greenfield. It has been snowing all this last week. It is kind of fun. I like the snow, and we have enough miles on our car right now to drive so it isnt bad... when we run out of miles though.... uh that will be a sad day.

Last Monday, we were at the computer lab and I mentioned to Grandma my email to her that I was sitting next to a man who smelled like pickles and was talking to himself. (Im still working on the not judging people) Anyways. This man started talking to me and I was trying to help him put a picture on his computer from his phone. We he started asking what church we were from and asking where it was because he might like to come. Excellent, missionary dream come true... We got his address and gave him the address to the church and left. Well Later that day we got a call from our Branch President, telling us to stay away from him. Apparently, this guy went up to some people asking where the church was and saying  really vulgar things about me, and telling them how he was going to "get me". Needless to say we are not going to see him. And we went and found pepper spray, and there he was at the store we went to. Ahh scary, and now here I sit at the Library and who is sitting next to me? Him. Yes We call him Chester, because it was the scariest name I could come up with. But the reason I tell you this story is not to worry you. It was a testimony to me of how aware my Heavenly Father is of me. Turns out he walked up to random people to talk to and it was a husband of one of our members, so they knew how to warn us of what had happened. I am so grateful. We probably would have gone to visit him and we could have gotten our self in a really scary situation. I also was able to get a priesthood blessing from a member, for protection and comfort. I normally would have freaked out(and I might have for a couple hours) but I now feel very safe. I know it is because of the blessing and that I am being protected, not only from the Holy Ghost, but also from our members. Please pray for Sister Love and my safety, we could really use it:)

This week we have been teaching a lady named Kara and her family, They are wonderful and I love them, There are like 12 people living in this house and it is so much fun to go there. And also we are teaching a 13 year old girl, who is going through a really hard time in her life right now. Oh and a miracle this week is we were able to get Samantha on date for this month! Yay we are so excited. She is the only one we have with a baptism date, but we are working on Kara and Gaby for January.

This week has been a really good one. Of course I cant remember what has happened but I remember it was good, and kind of scary ha, but thank you for the packages, I am loving the 12 days of Christmas, it is so fun to read a letter each day, Today was my favorite to read about John Zwahlen. I never really knew much about my ancestors and I never really felt a connection to them but today as I was reading his conversion story, I did. What a blessing and how grateful I am.

I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to serve a mission, I know that I was prepared for this time in my life. Some days I feel like I could be the Elders Mother, but I know that I needed to come at this time and not when I was 19 or even when I was 21. I love you all and I am so grateful to all of you! I love you and I pray for you.

Love ,

Sister Zwahlen

Happy Birthday Jesus

Our District!  Aren't we cute?!

“True happiness comes only by making others happy—the practical application of the Savior's doctrine of losing one's life to gain it. In short, the Christmas spirit is the Christ spirit, that makes our hearts glow in brotherly love and friendship and prompts us to kind deeds of service.”-David O McKay. This was said at the Christmas Devotional last night. May we all try to serve more and focus on others rather than ourselves. This Christmas season and throughout the year. I am grateful for my savior and his selfless example.

This week has been coooollld, brr. It has been so cold and icy. Everyone stays inside  and hates the missionaries when its cold out. ha ha Not really, but it has been one of those trial of our faith weeks. There is just something about the cold that makes every ones hearts harden, but the good news is that the Christmas Spirit unites people. Here in Greenfield they only plow the more major roads to all the other ones are icy and then there is a layer of snow on top of the ice. Its funny though because everyone here was panicking and going to the store because they heard they might get 3-9 inches of snow. I guess they dont normally get that much. but the Ice here IS bad, It coats everything. I cant tell you how many times I have had to scrap ice off of our car.

This week has been really fun though, We had our mission Christmas devotional/party, where Sister love and I shared our piano flute talents.but it was a lot of fun, we had a nice Christmas dinner and Christmas musical numbers, We also got letters from our parents!! Thank you mom and dad for the sweet letters.. Then we got little goody bags with snacks and more snacks. Afterwards, we got permission to go and see Grace at the hospital, she is doing so well, she is basically back to how she was before the accident, she was sitting up and talking!! She is a miracle, I cannot believe how good she is doing, they think that she will be coming home today!! Ahh I cant believe what a miracle it is to see her and to get to talk to her, and know that she went from "not going to make it through the night", to "she will have serious, permanent brain damage" to "Coming home as though she never left". That my friends and family is a testimony of prayer and fasting, it works!

Then on Saturday we had our branch Christmas party and it was just a dinner and it was fun. Everyone brought something to share and there was a lot of food. I ate way too much.. as always, but it was a really fun. We were visiting one of our older ladies who is a member and talking to her about the Christmas party and she asked us if we would sing Happy Birthday, and we were like "of course, whose birthday is it??" and she said "Jesus" uhh.. do you sing it like a normal happy birthday song. Yes. Awkward. I dont know if we should sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, Im not sure that is appropriate. ha ha we didnt end up singing it but it was funny. I had never actually heard someone sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.

An update on Reynold, is he is still wonderful, but he wont come to church so, we have to stop seeing him so much!! It was quite sad but maybe without us he will realize what he needs to do in his life, or maybe he will never but he is an amazing and I know that he will accept this gospel one day, whether it is on this side of the veil or on the other side. 

Cynnie is having a lot of health concerns right now so she isnt really progressing right now either. We will continue to see her, but she needs to show us that she is going to keep progressing. Basically this week has been a hard one. We dont have anyone to teach, so we are working on finding, which is slow going, but I am not worried, I know that we will be guided to who is prepared and ready to accept the gospel!

Yesterday we were at the Waltz home for dinner, and as we were leaving a bird flew right inside and into the living room!! We were all screaming and Brother Waltz was laughing and so we trapped him in a room and finally he flew out but that was a lot of fun and lots of laughs. The Waltz Family, is wonderful! I love them, being with them is like being home. So whenever we have bad days we go there and Sister Waltz feeds us chocolate and cheers us up. Also She is taking us to go and find some warm winter clothes, There is never enough layers here. You are always cold when you walk outside.

Well I dont know, this week has been really slow so I dont have much to say. I love you all, keep our mission in your prayers, so that we will be able to have 500+ baptisms this year. We are so close and with faith all things are possible. Have a great week!!

Love,

Sister Zwahlen

Beginning the Season with a BANG

"Regarding ones testimony, remember, that which one willingly shares he keeps, while that which he selfishly keeps he loses... Teach and testify there is no better combination." President Monson.
 I encourage you all to have the courage to testify, especially this holiday season, remember what it is really about. If Christ is the center of our message and our beliefs, shouldn't he also be the center of our lives and our actions? Yes is the correct answer in case you didn't know:)

So this week started out with a Bang... Literally. It has been the talk of the town and the concern of our members for us. We had a shooting two houses down from us, at 6:30 in the morning. We didnt hear it, but lucky for me I got to see them wheel the man that got shot into the ambulance.  Then today, at the same house we, saw the ambulance pull up and put another man in the ambulance, we dont know for sure why, but most likely  it was because  he overdosed on drugs, because of how he was acting on the little stretcher thing, we came to that conclusion. Drugs was the cause of both trips to our neighbors. It is really sad how many drugs are in this town and to make it worse the police force is really corrupt here so they dont really do anything about it. AND if they know you it is really easy to get away with things. Anyways it is sad but it was the exciting thing for the week.

This week we only got one member referral, because we didnt have time to ask for more, we had to contact the ones we already got. It has been a long week of trying to contact everyone. and we only contacted 20 this week, which really is a ton but not enough. We did have some awkward stories out of our contacting though. The first one, we had a lady answer the door and she was hiding behind the door and she said "Im sorry Im not dressed right now".. Oh ok awkward, then her dog ran out of the house and so we were trying to help her get her dog inside, and she couldnt come out because she wasnt dressed. Some people make me wonder, why would you even answer your door if you werent dressed?? I dont know it doesnt make sense. Then we were going to contact a lady, and as we pulled up to her house there were 3 people on the porch just watching us an as we got out and introduced our self and asked if Bea (that was the referrals name) they said "No, she died a couple months ago." Ahh ok well we are sorry, have a nice day. Ha no we didnt say that but it was awkward too. Oh the awkward moments of being a missionary:)

Thanksgiving was good, we saw lots of members but we didn't eat too much food. Which was fine since we eat to much every other day. but it was a lot of fun to meet members family's. and then on Saturday we had another Thanksgiving meal with another family so It was nice. Just think, just one more thanksgiving on my mission  ha ha Also we got to put up our stockings and Christmas tree this last week. They are so cute and our apartment is all festive and adorable.

This week we have a branch Christmas Party and also a mission Christmas talent show and guess who got roped into being part of the talent show. Yep this girl. Ew. ha I am playing the piano, sister Love is playing the flute and then two other sisters are singing. So at least the attention wont all me on me.

Missionary work is going, We are working hard to find someone to be baptized this month. We have a couple people who could be ready, we just have to ask them ha ha simple right??

Well I love you all, I hope you enjoy the fact that it is already December. Have a great week.

With love,

Sister Zwahlen

Happy Thanksgiving‏

Hello Family and Friends,

"We must develop the capacity to see men, not as they are at the present but as they may become." -President Monson
Everyone is a child of our Heavenly Father and each and every person no matter what mistakes they have made, have the CHOICE to become something great. Lets be honest, I judge, people bother me.. Im working on it but here more than ever I am starting to see people and the potential they have. I love the people of Greenfield, in fact I was at the Halls  ( a members) house, and I love them, They are like my adopted family, but she prayed and by the end of her prayer I was in tears. I am so nervous for transfers and we haven't gotten the call yet. I dont know how to leave these people. Hopefully I wont have to. Anyways. AHHHH WE just got the call and WE are staying in Greenfield!! Yay!! :)

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving this week.  How blessed we are and how much we have to be grateful for!! I never realized how amazing it is to have such a wonderful family. I didn't know it was so rare to have a complete family. So many here, and companions as well don't have that in their life. I am so grateful to have each of you in my life, your prayers, letters, and support mean the world to me!

This week has been pretty uneventful but we did have our branch talent show. It was a lot of fun and Reynold came!! Ahhh what a huge step to have him come, next step is church. I know he will come eventually, he just is going to need some time to get there. Oh so at the talent Show us sisters and the Elders and then Brett, who is a 16 year old boy from our branch, did the thing where you flip upside down and glue eyes on your chin and sing a song ha ha it was funny. I will have to send pictures and videos to you so you know what I am talking about!!

 Also we have been teaching a woman named Cynnie, I cant remember If i have told you about here, but she is wonderful. I had a really neat experience, We were sitting in her small, smoke filled house and I got the prompting to tell her about the atonement and how it isn't just for the sins or mistakes that we have, Christ also has felt every doubt, sadness, and hard time. Cynnie has been through a lot in her life and she blames herself for things that have happened to her. I know that as we continue to see her that she will have the desire to quit smoking and be baptized. She knows it is true and she has seen the joy that comes from coming to church and reading her scriptures. man oh man do I love her!! She even got us Christmas presents!! Yay!! It is a cross bracelet ha ha. People have a lot crosses here! Even if they are LDS ha  they have them everywhere in there homes, its kind of weird to me.

Oh and guess what Sister Love and I got 33 member referrals this week. Which is way way high!! President Nilsen almost fell off his chair and died when he heard that we have gotten 53 referrals in two weeks.  He wants to implement what we are doing throughout the mission. Neat huh? We are still continuing to have success in Greenfield and we are being so blessed!!

Man I know that this is a lame email. Nothing really happened this week so I guess that is it. Can you believe December is a week away!! Man where has the time gone. I will be home before you know it!!

Love you all

Sister Zwahlen

Tornados‏

Hello everyone!!

"You haven't failed, until you have quit trying." a result of diligence...

Sister Love, Jaden and I

This week was one of the best we had 3 BAPTISMS!! Roy, Nicole and Jaden were all baptized this week!! Such a miracle!! It was beautiful and we couldn't be happier. Greenfield has been so blessed this last transfer! Transfers is next week, we will find out Monday what is happening, Pray I stay in Greenfield. I love these people and I am hoping to stay. Pray I am needed here most. but obviously I will go where ever I am needed most!

Sister Love, Roy, and Nicole, oh and me obviously

Yesterday Sister Love and I were able to do our musical number in sacrament meeting. (I on the piano and Sister Love playing flute) It was perfect, the spirit was so strong and It was great!! I am grateful to have the talent of playing the piano so many here dont, well most ha also I am playing for the primary program next week. Pray for me! I need all the help I can get.

Also yesterday we had a tornado warning, So we had to go in early, it was raining so hard and the winds were crazy too!! but dont worry there wasnt a tornado that I know of, just the warning! So that is fun. I quite enjoyed that.

We also had Sister Specialized Training this week, It was a meeting for only sisters!! It was wonderful. President Nilsen talked all about marriage.. awkward. you should never talk on marriage to a room full of sister missionaries. They all want to be

married and its hard to focus. ha ha just kidding but it really was so good, I am learning more and more how important it is that I take advantage of every moment I am here. Time flys by and the things I learn here are going to stay with me and help me throughout my whole life. Its amazing how when i turn outward and focus on others, how much I learn about myself. I am finding out I have talents I never knew I had before and one of those is I have the gift of making people feel comfortable and people trust me. Its a really great asset to have on a mission as you can imagine. ha I still have a lot of work to improve on but who doesnt??

I dont know what else happened this week but I just wanted to leave you all with a challenge, As a mission we normally read 5 pgs from the Book of Mormon as a companionship, however as of November 1st we have started to read 10 pgs everyday. We will finish by Christmas. I challenge and encourage you all to do this. If you make time to read 10 pages everyday you will be so blessed. I have seen the difference it has made for Sister Love and I. The book of Mormon has such a power to it. It changes lives!!

I love you all,

Sister Zwahlen

Happy VeteransDay‏

Hello family and friends,

I dont have a lot of time today because we are driving up to Columbus for a Zone Fun Day. We are going to meet up with our zone for lunch and then we are going to play volleyball, basketball, and scratch?? Something like that! ha it should be pretty fun, but it takes away from everything we really need to be doing on our p-day. We live so far away from everyone else that we are driving most of the time. ugh ha but that is alright.

This week has been good we have seen blessings continuing to bless us. We have worked harder to be more diligent and I have seen how blessed we have been because of it. We have been teaching lessons like crazy, I think we ended up this week with 25. Which is a  huge improvement from what we have done in the past, but we have been getting the members involved, which had made all the difference. Please help the missionaries. Go out with them. Pray to have missionary experiences and then have the courage to act on the prompting when they come. The Lord is hastening HIS work and HE will guide you and lead you to someone who needs the gospel in their lives. 

This week wasnt too exciting. Sister Love and I did get hit on this week. Well actually we got chased down ha ha he was just asking us questions but he kept saying "dang you ladies are sexy." "All girls from Utah are good looking." stuff like that, so I asked him if he wanted to come to church and If we told him we were missionaries. He said no, but hey I dont mind he would have come for the wrong reasons anyways. but he asked us for our number and I was like "Why?" and he said "well because you are pretty?" I said "well you know we dont date on our missions" Man you should have seen how fast he ran the other direction when he learned that we werent going to date him. Ha it was awkward but hey it happens. 

Also I have adopted a lot of people this week. Reynold is one of them. I now have a third grandpa. He is amazing. I just feel like I was sent here to Greenfield to teach him. I have never felt like that with anyone here yet, and Reynold hasn't even come to church yet.. but he will. He is wonderful and I really just love him. He is going to put up a picture of sister love and I on his wall by his grandkids and I was joking and asked him what he would do if I brought him a lifesize picture of me and he told me he would take down the mirror in his hallway and put it there. ha ha funny man, and the sweetest old man you will ever meet, he will be the best temple worker in the world one day!

We still have 3 of our baptisms this saturday. Pray that Satan is busy elsewhere so that they all make it to Saturday. They will they are all strong and wonderful!! I am so excited for Roy, Nicole and Jaden. We also were teaching Roy and Nicole and Nicole had a friend there and the friend asked to be baptized ha ha so we are going to start teaching here. and the great news is that we taught the law of chastity and word of wisdom and she committed to live them. That is impressive. We havent even taught her any of the other lessons yet. 

Anyways this week has been great, Congrats to Kaydon on his mission call!! He will do great in Mexico. Happy Late Birthday Dad. 

Love you all.. Have a great week.

Love Sister Zwahlen

Skunk in the Barnyard.‏

This week is a quote from Elder Holland, in one of the talks I was reading he was talking about how people say, "What I don't know wont hurt me." and he says " I can assure you that nothing will hurt you more than what you don't know." I love this quote and I don't know why exactly I just know that I do. I guess I took it, that we cant just sit back and not take responsibility because we "didn't know any better", we need to be active and accountable. I am working on being more accountable this week. I have noticed that sometimes I like to blame things on everyone else instead of taking responsibility. Not any more. I am going to be accountable from now on. So watch out world. or Ohio. Which ever.

This week was wonderful like usual, First off to answer the big question that is on everyone's mind. Sister Love, Sister Love is from cottonwood heights Utah. Surprise, surprise. we are all from Utah here. ha just kidding but a huge majority of the missionaries are.

We had another miracle this week. We have been praying to teach Jaden a 9 year old boy since I got here. and FINALLY after much prayer we got permission from his parents and started teaching him yesterday!! He is awesome and he is going to be baptized on November the 16th. We have 3 people on date to be baptized that day so we are so excited. And if all goes well for us and the Elders there will be 5 baptisms for the Greenfield branch, which basically doubles our numbers. haha just kidding. Also Roy (Our father in the father/daughter investigators) came to church all by himself this Sunday!! It shows how committed and how willing he is to learn and be baptized. He is wonderful and we are so excited for them!! Sister Love and I have been truly blessed here in Greenfield. which is a "hard area", a "doesnt get a lot of success area" Well watch us prove that wrong. There is no such thing as a bad area. The lord will bless us according to our faith. 

YEs our house is Giant. We dont need all the room we have, but im not complaining, we can actually run in our house for exercise it is that big ha  and Yes we share clothes. Mostly, she borrows my clothes but I dont care. ha it makes in nice to have more options. 

To explain the title of the email. I held a skunk this week. Never did I ever think I could say I had done that in my lifetime. Nor did I ever care if I had, but we were in exchanges with our sister training leaders and they have an investigator who has three pet skunks so I couldnt say no to holding it so that I could get a picture and then I was done. ha but how many people can say they have done that.  Also I ate frog legs this week. That was neat, tasted like chicken. 

Hurry take the picture so I can put the skunk down

Also Sister Love and I have been practicing for a musical number, that we have been asked to play in sacrament meeting in a couple of weeks and then the week after that I am playing the piano for the primary, for their program. They don't have a piano and they use cd's to practice so they wanted an actual piano for the program. Tell the Warners thanks for preparing me for this. I wouldn't have guessed that I would be playing the piano for the primary program but i am glad I was able to practice at home before I came here.

This week we had zone conference and a clean car check and we won a key chain!! Awesome I always wanted one of he key chains you get when you have a clean car. ha the conference was a lot of fun!! and the Greenfield branch feed us. I was so proud of them and I was telling all the missionaries that they were my branch!! ha It was a lot of fun to have them there. 

Us and some of our branch at zone conference.
(Sister Evans, Bro and Sis. Borsini, Sister Malloy, Sis Posy, and her daughter, me, sister love, elder jacobson, nelson, and shields, and in the front president and sister Snavely)

So let me tell you that I have become someone I didn't know I could be. Apparently I am bold. and I tend to get along with people ha ha but I might be getting a little out of control. The other day we were talking to a man and his neighbor was in his house playing the guitar and singing. He was really good. So as we were leaving and walking away. I turned around and knocked on the mans door. and when he answered I was like " Hey you are really good. I just wanted to let you know." Ha and that was it and then we walked away. um awkward sister Zwahlen. Good one. ha I didnt even bring up the gospel. ha that man probably laughed about me for days. ha but no big deal, just planting seeds here in Greenfield. Who am I? Who just knocks on peoples doors and tells them that? Oh well ha ha I laugh when I realize the things I do without thinking about it. 

Also we are teaching a man named Reynold. He is wonderful! I am going to adopt a 3rd Grandpa. He is so sweet and reads the book of Mormon like crazy. BUT he wont come to church because he doesnt like to be around people. ha I like him more and more. He tells me I'm persistent and he is stubborn so we are never going to get anywhere, but shhh dont tell him that I am winning. He will come to church sometime soon. I just know it.  Also He told me that I was going to make a wonderful wife one day because I was going to tell my husband exactly how it is and get what I want. ha ha darn right I am! ha just kidding.

Well anyways things here are really great!! We have a zone fun day next p-day so I dont know when I will be able to email or if I will be able to. So I love you all and I hopefully will email you next week. I love you all, congrats to Courtni on her mission call she will do amazing!!

Love you all,

Sister Zwahlen

Happy Halloween

The beautiful Ohio

" If you really concentrate on trying to walk the way He walked- loving, caring, serving and obeying each step of the way- one day you will look up and discover that His path has lead you directly to the throne of God." -Elder Ballard. I LOVE this quote. I have been sharing it with families this past week. It is so true. Christ was that perfect example and if we follow that example he is going to lead us back to our Heavenly Father.

 

First off thank you family for the Package. The caramel apples were perfect and so delicious!! I am a huge fan of the Sister Zwahlen inspired apple!! yum! and the hat is adorable I love the color and I have been wearing it everywhere because it is freezing here and the wind just freezes my ears off!! Sister Love wants a bow on her hat and she wants the color purple or gray or black ha ha she isnt picky so any color works wonders. All the candy I already ate. ha just kidding. I havent but mmm the reeses are amazing!!  Sister Love and I have been practicing a musical number for a baptism for the Elders but it got canceled so now we are practicing for sacrament meeting. Oh and I made the pumpkin bread and added chocolate chips and it is delicious! I have been eating it for breakfast and throughout the day too!!  Heidi's family also sent me a package with some witch fingers and brownies and barbie bandaids. It was great!!

last weeks Hayride

 

In Ohio they dont celebrate Halloween on Halloween they just do it on Thursday, so obviously since it is on Thursday they do it on Thursday but normally they just do it on the week of Halloween. but yes we do work on that day but we are in our apartments early that night I think we go in at like 7. So that will be fun. We can eat candy and make ourselves sick. Oh yea and we can study and all that spiritual stuff. ha ha

 

This week we were able to put two people on date for the 16th of November. They are a Father and Daughter, and they are progressing so much!! We love teaching them and they have been coming to church and driving to members houses to have lessons. Its wonderful! We are even starting to kind of teach the son, He believes in Greek Mythology and isnt religious but he doesnt run out of the room when we pray now so that is good. Anyways, we are way excited for them. We are also teaching a man named Reynold he is probably in his 70's but he is stubborn but so wonderful. All we can see is him working in the temple one day. He is progressing but he wont come to church because he doesnt want to be around people ha so we are working through that one.

 

This week I have been reading chapter 4 in PMG and it is all about recongizing the spirit. It is an amazing chapter. I have been working on listening to the promptings and as I have listened I have been blessed with amazing experiences. I am also finding out what it means to "feast upon the words of Christ." I cannot get engough study time. I love reading the scriptures and studying for the resources I have. I hurry and eat lunch so that I have extra time to study!! It is so unlike me to like to read but I have been so blessed to have the desire to learn. I am finally really understanding the things I am reading in the scriptures! ahh missions are the greatest. I have only been here almost 2 months and I have learned so much. I am grateful I have 16 more months to continue to learn. I sometimes pray that they extent the time sisters can serve so that I have extra time here on my mission. ha ha

 

So Sister Love hasnt been sleeping ever since she got to Greenfield so that has been really hard. She functions amazing without sleep by the way. I wouldnt be able to do it. but anyway it is really starting to take its toll on her so we are going to see the doctor and see if we can figure things out, she has been having other health concerns too. I am probably the worst companion, because I just want to go, go go  and she just wants sleep ha so we are working on it but I am grateful that we have such an amazing mission president and his wife. They are always there and they remember what is going on with each of us to they check in on Sister Love to see how she is doing. I am amazed how they remember so much!! Man they are so inspired it is amazing.

 

Oh and I saw the first snow for the season here. It didnt stick but I didnt like it. I told the branch that I was being transferred to Hawaii. Ha I wish right? Well anyways this week I have really learned that I didnt really have the talent of loving people. infact I didnt really love people at all. but I will just tell you I love these people. Its overwhelming the amount of love I have for them. The brach is my family and I love being around them. turns out im a people person! Its a miracle what happens when you push your self out of your comfort zone. "There is no learning in the comfort zone and no comfort in the learning zone."

 

I love you all!! Thank you so much for the prayers, support, and letters!!

 

love,

Sister Zwahlen

Sister Leaman & Sister Zwahlen

Shelby and I  (shelby is a branch missionary, she is wonderful and planning on going on a mission next year when she turns 19)

The lady in Purple!‏

"The word hope is sometimes misunderstood. In our everyday language the word often has a hint of uncertainty. For example, we may say that we hope for a change in weather... In the language of the gospel, however, the word hope is sure, unwavering, and active."  I love that. I am studying Chirst-like attributes and hope is one of them. Also I am reading "our search for Happiness" by elder Ballard and it is wonderful!! Everyone should read it.

This week has flown by. I cant even tell you how fast time moves here. They all say that by my half way mark it will go fast. Well if time moves any faster, I wont make any progress because I wont have time to even blink. Its crazy. This week has been calm and mostly drama free. Completely drama free is not possible here, but things have seemed to calm down so its really nice.

Grace is improving. She is responding and she smiles so that is a pretty good sign, I dont know what they think will be her final outcome, but for her circumstance I would say she is doing pretty well. Samantha isnt progressing right now. We arent allowed to teach her or ask about baptism until we have been given permission from her mom. So we just continue to pray and we know it will happen one of these days. 

Transfers was fun. Sister Leaman is gone like we said and so now it is just Sister Love and I, and let me tell you I am moving up in the world, not only am I not the greenest of the missionaries, I moved from the cot to the bed, I have a desk, I sit in the front seat of the car, man life is good!! ha ha I cant even imagine moving up anymore in the world. This is the life. :) Oh also at transfers we role play (ew) but anyways we role play all day, everyday. and so we were playing a game where you have a list of ideas that you had to use to try and get someone interested on the " door step". It was just fun and funny like I told them that I liked the picture they had hanging in their house and they would say that their ex wife forgot to take it with her. Awkward, but anyways we had to try all the suggestions on our list until we guessed the one that they had picked to let someone in. So sort of like trying to guess the right pass code to get into their home.  Well of course I get picked to be the missionary and role play in front of a bunch of missionaries. Then President Nilsen is standing beside me and teaching us how to do door step approaches. Unfortunately he didnt know what we were doing and just thought I was terrible at door step approaches and so he made me practice like 12 thousand times in front of everyone!! Ahh it was embarrassing. After wards the AP's came up and apologized that that had happened to me. ha that was a bad explaining of the story but I don't know how to tell it through an email.

This Saturday the branch had a hayride at one of our members farms, it was a lot of fun. It was potluck and then they told the history of the farm and there was a bon fire and they told a story about a lady in purple standing in the cornfields and then they had the youth dress up as ladies in purple and walk around as the hay ride was going by so it was a little creepy. The next day me and sister love accidentally wore purple, and members said they saw an Amish dressed all in purple with her purple cap at Walmart and  so they were telling all of us at church about it. It was funny we got a good laugh out of it. 

Jimmy is amazing and he is working on his family history so that he can do their work at the temple. He is totally going to go through the temple a year from now and I am so excited for him. He is dating a girl that is in another state and she doesnt really like us so much because she feel threatened by having two girls with him teaching him about the gospel. Sounds threatening right? ha anyways she calls him constantly while we are there and he is getting so annoyed with her. but I tell you this story only because he has started calling her "dragon lady" haha I think that is so funny. I mean really its quite sad but I laugh every time I hear him say it.

This week I have helped members make salsa and applesauce. It is wonderful. I am learning so many skills and I am going to be the best homemaker you ever met by the time I leave Greenfield. Dont worry I am still doing missionary work and we are only helping as service, not for fun although it is fun.

This week has been wonderful we are teaching a father and daughter and son and the father and daughter came to church this week which is a huge step!! I am so excited to keep working with them. Also we found 2 new investigators this week and they are both named Carl. go figure. then we flipped open our sex offenders list and the first name I saw was carl. Ahh what is with all the carls?? I dont know but hey its fun and I dont mind. I taught RS this week on the work moves forward and the spirit was so strong all the ladies were crying and it was great. I think it was good because sometimes our lessons go a little off topic so it was nice to keep them on track. Also the Elders have a baptism next week and sister love and I are doing a musical number!

Well I guess thats it for this week. I love all of you. Thanks to the young women and primary for their packages and letters. although the young womens note didnt make any sense it was kind of a disaster by the time it got to me but I ate all the candy already. Also if I gain weight here on my mission I am going with the excuse of proverbs 28:25:)

Love you all

Sister Zwahlen

Happy Columbus Ohio Day

Hey family, because the libraries are closed we are emailing at a members dr. office. and there is only one computer. So this is going to be a really short email because of lack of time. I dont have an hour to email like usual! 

We just got our transfer call and drum roll please... ha ha I am staying in Greenfield. which is good, I am excited, Sister Leaman is being transferred and Sister Love and I will be here, most likely just us two. So it should be fun. Me and Sister Love get along really well. There is a lot of drama that we get dragged into here so I am hoping that it changes because I dont do drama! ha but I am loving it and I am excited to stay here, we have a lot planned for this next transfer. I guess the lord needs me here to make sure they happen huh? 

Jimmy was baptized this Saturday and confirmed yesterday so I had my first baptism and it was wonderful since I was here to start teaching him as well. So I have been here the whole process to see how much he has changed. He really is so smart and He has grown tremendously since we started teaching him. He is going to do great things so we are excited for him. 

Life is good, and I am loving life still. Well I love you guys!! I will have to email you everything else later. Also, apparently animals are my best friends, I cant even count how many cats I have had on me this week. 

Love, sister Zwahlen

"I don't do politics"

"You come unto Christ to be yoked with him and with his power, so that you're not pulling life's load alone. You're pulling life's load yoked with the Savior and Redeemer of the world, and suddenly your problems no matter how serious they are, become lighter." Amen to that!! As Blaine said "I'm in the real world now" and let me tell you Satan he is such a trouble maker, but I have seen how my problems have been made lighter as a turn them to Christ and rely on him. I have been studying hope and faith this week. I encourage you all to read about them in PMG and in True to the Faith they are amazing. 
Coming to you all from the Greenfield Library. So to answer your questions we just come to the library to email. In our branch there are five missionaries. Two elders and us three sisters. We are in different areas though, but we work with each other in all of the areas of our branch. Our tiny branch is made up of one of the biggest areas in the mission. There is a ton to cover so a car is a nice thing to have or we would spend almost all day walking to one place. 

Pretzel Sandwich
This week have been amazing. why you ask? Well let me tell you its because of the Amish! They are amazing and their food is spectacular. We went to Bainbridge last week and we went to some Amish stores and I was in heaven. They make these pretzel sandwiches that you could die for, oh and their donuts. I could go on for years about how good their food is! Also it is more in the country and the leaves are all starting to change and so it is beautiful. but anyways we were driving along and all of the sudden a deer jumps out in front of us across the road and then jumps right into a tree. and back across the road. ha ha I got the biggest kick out of that. ha ha I am still laughing thinking about it. I cant believe he hit the tree. It was bizarre. Needless to say I am going to live in bainbridge next to the Amish the rest of my life. I guess I am going to need a horse and buggy! 

This week also we were visiting with a Less Active, and she has her grand kids that live with her, and this lady LOVES politics and she could sit and talk about Obama all day long. She is funny but we were telling her that Conference was this weekend and as we were about to leave we asked the little grandson who is seven years old if he is going to watch conference and his responds was "oh no, I don't do politics" ha ha We explained that it wasn't politics, but it was funny to hear out of the mouth of a seven year old ha

So this next weekend we have a baptism for our investigator Jimmy and this week was wonderful. We have been working with him to stop smoking and he had been having a hard time with it so we asked him if we could see his cigarettes and he was hesitant, but he finally did and then we did the math of how much it costs him to buy a pack vs. having eternal life and being baptized and he of course picked baptism. So then we went with him outside and crushed up his cigarettes. and took his lighter. He would crush up his own cigarettes but then he finally did crush up his last one. It was fun for everyone. (well he probably didn't think it was fun) but hey now he isnt smoking and he is so ready to get baptized. He is amazing and he wants all the blessings so he realizes what he needs to do to get them. He is working so hard to live all of the commandments and we are so excited for him to get baptized on Saturday!! 

We have an interesting experience this week as we were tracting we ran into a man named Buddy. He told us that we were just who he needed since he was probably going to jail soon for have cocaine in his house. We talked a little about how through our Savior all of our wrongs can be made right. It was neat. So we made a return appointment with him and unfortunately he wasnt home, but all of his "friends" (about 7-8 of them)  were sitting in his backyard smoking and drinking. They were not such nice men.  We asked them if Buddy was home and they were telling us he was one of the biggest drug dealers in greenfield and that he was inside. So we went and knocked on his door. and the men were telling us things like " hey, I will be buddy for an hour if you want" and really disgusting things. So we ended up leaving without talking to Buddy which was probably a good thing since, we cant go in his house if there are drugs in there and also we weren't so comfortable with his friends. We are going to try another time when his friends aren't there and hopefully he isn't in jail so we can teach him. The thing is we are so protected here on our missions. We are smart about what we do and we are protected for doing the Lords work. 

Oh and one our investigators boyfriends told us that if we ever came back he would call the cops on us. So hey that is pretty neat. We are just going to have to work through that one ha ha

This week has still been a little stressful but conference ended it on a good note. We watched conference at the church and the sessions are from 12-2 and 4-6 so it was different but it was wonderful to hear such good messages that will help us be better missionaries. The last session we watched at the Hall's house they are amazing and they fed us after, but while we were there a severe thunderstorm ran through and so  conference kept turning off. Let me tell you when it rains here it rains. We were grateful to be inside. They said we got like 3 inches of rain from the one storm. it was a lot of water. no wonder it is so green here!! Well I guess that is all for now!! I love you all!! Thanks for all your letters, emails and prayers!! They mean so much!! 

With all my love

Sister Zwahlen

Peeling apples with "big mama" so she could make pie filling and apple butter and apple sauce. 

A rough one

his week I really liked the quote my President Monson " the greatest single lesson we can learn in mortality is that when God speaks and a man obeys, that man will always be right." Its so true, if we ask our selfs daily, am i doing what God would do? and would He be pleased with me? and if the answer is yes then we will ALWAYS be right! I love that.

This week my friends and family has been a long and rough week. Tuesday we had specialized training, which was so good, we learned to be more effective missionaries and push through the false yes's we get with commitments. Amazing. We then had exchanges so we were with our sister training leaders in their area all day and we slept over there as well. We went to their investigators house and her mom was there and they were very defensive about their religion. Everything we tried to teach was bashed by what the bible say.. (if you can even do that) Anyways the power of Satan was there and we were getting no where and they don't think we are supposed to be happy in life. That God doesn't want us to be happy. Uh ok, that is really sad but I told them that I knew our purpose in life is to be happy but also to learn and to grow so that we can one day become like God. the mom wasn't happy I said that she was like " I cant believe you think you can be like God, that is what Satan wanted, you are a child of the devil. I can feel the presence of Satan right now." Well you  could feel the presence of Satan but I can assure you it wasn't coming from me. It was amazing though because Sister Mitchell was like "I am a representative of Jesus Christ. I wear his name on me and I am here to represent him. I can assure you that if we were from Satan, I wouldn't be able to sit here and say that." The spirit was off the charts. It was amazing. The lesson ended up going pretty well and you could see the moms heart being softened. It was neat. Although I still cant believe she called me a child of the devil. so that is always fun ha

Anyway, that night when I met back up with Sister Malloy she told us that our investigator Grace, and her husband Brother Dudley had been in a serious car crash and that Grace wasnt expected to make it through the night. It was a hard night. I love Grace and she has been like our mother I cant remember if I have told you about her but she is a Philippino woman and she is tiny and always making us food and sending us home with things and we have been working with her to get her on date for baptism. Grace did make it through the night but she has a lot of internal bleeding and probably some brain damage. She is in the Intensive Care Unit still. As a result though Samantha postponed her baptism. Brother Dudley and Grace are her grandparents so they have been at the hospital, and dealing with that so Its understandable but still its hard to see your baptism pushed back. We have a couple on date for the 12th of October so hopefully we can work and have those. 

Then lets keep going with the stress shall we, Thursday we had new missionary training at OSU and let me tell you that campus is amazing. I would like to live there. ha just kidding but really that campus is wonderful. We were on the campus talking to people and it was fun. Afterward we got to go see Grace at the hospital and that was nice. On our way home from Columbus we got a call that there was an Emergency Transfer and sister Malloy was leaving us in 3 hours. Ahh we had to rush home and get her packed up and we went and saw as many of the people we could so she could say goodbye to.

Sister leaman and I thought that it would just be us to, but suprise we have new sister here in Greenfield her name is Sister Love and she is amazing. So we love her and its been nice but the dynamic of our companionship has changed since sister Malloy is gone and we are working on figuring out how us 3 will teach and work together. but its way fun and we still all get along great.

Lets just say this has been a crazy week. Full of trials of our faith but we know that trials come before great blessings and I look forward to the blessings as we press forward with faith.

Oo fun story, we have had about 4 brown recluse spiders hanging out by our outside door so we have been trying to figure out how to kill them. We had a member and her son come kill them. ha ha so we are once again safe.

The RS broadcast was amazing. I wish we would have had investigators there because they talked so much about covenants it would have been perfect for them, but also because they could have seen President Monson speak! That's ok though because general conference is next weekend and I am so excited!!

Everyone here feeds us and then they feed us and desserts are wonderful and I am loving every minute of it. We just got a meal coordinator for us so they assign who we eat with so it will be a great opportunity to get into less active and part member families. I am excited for the month of October. Transfers are coming up on the 15th of October, and i'm already really anxious to see what happens.

I love you all and I love getting letter and emails from you, thanks for all your prayers and love and support!!

Love Sister Zwahlen 

Miracles‏

Hey y'all(they say that here),

I have decided that I wanted to share one quote or scriptures that have strengthened my testimony each week, so hopefully they can have a similar effect on someone else as well. This week during personal study I was reading a talk by Elder Holland and he said

" there are several reasons for bearing testimony. One is that when you declare truth, it will bring and echo, and unconscious memory to the investigator, that they have heard this truth before- and of course they have... Investigators are not only hearing our testimonies of Christ but they are hearing echoes of other, earlier testimonies, including their own testimonies of Him, for they were on the side of the faithful who kept their first estate and earned the privilege of the second estate. We must always remember that these investigators were among the valiant who once overcame Satan by the power of their testimony of Christ" Sometimes its easy to forget that each of us here on this earth had strong testimonies, We all knew that Jesus was our Savior and our brother. I love that I can be that instrument to be able to help them recall what they once knew so well. Ah missionary work is the greatest.

This week has been a week of miracles. We have had mission fasts to be able to reach our goal of 50 Baptisms this month of September, but we didn't have anyone on date for this month so we have been working hard to find someone to have on date. In our district meeting we learned to pray for miracle in fact to expect miracles. So that is what we did. We prayed for a miracle. "ask and ye shall receive" We have a baptism next Saturday, for our investigator . She is 15 and her parents are converts, but when we first extended the date the family said they couldn't because they have 5000 things going that day, plus its the RS broadcast that night. and when this mom says no, she means it and she doesn't change her mind. Well we pressured her and she was not having it. So this week as we went into the lesson we prayed that we could figure out a time that she could be baptized. (and we had already put her as a no for the 28th of this month) and as we asked what date she could the mom was like " the 28th of sept. seems like the best day" WHAT?!? ahh something had been canceled and they are planning on this Saturday even though it is still a busy day for them. We saw they Lord prepare a way. What a testimony builder that like it says in Alma 26:12 "in his strength we can do all things!

Investigator 

The second miracle we had was I taught my first law of Chastity. We have a girl who is 22 on date for baptism, but she is currently living with her boyfriend. They are sleeping in different rooms but whatever he still needs to move out. but we were terrified to go in and teach this to her because we knew that she wouldn't want to have him move out. We prayed and prayed that she would remember the testimony she has already and not forget just because she didn't want to obey all the commandments. Well we showed up this week and she was limping and had bruises all over and she told us about how she was being abused by him and she has internal bleeding. Now this is a really sad miracle but we were able to teach the law of Chastity and she understands the importance of it. It was truly a blessing in disguise. The boyfriend is still living there because his name is on the lease but we are working hard with her to help her. We are just trying to do it in a safe way so that she isn't put in danger, as she figures out how to get him out of the house, but we know that the Lord will provide a way and she will be able to be baptized on the 12th of October.

Oh ok so that's the miracles that I can think of but i'm sure many happen every day. but anyways we were tracting yesterday and we met some people that are probably on every drug possible they were so stoned, and drunk and whatever else. They were dancing on their porches to techno and there responses to our questions were way delayed but this man was so funny. He was laughing at everything. He kept ringing his own doorbell and laughing like he was being so sneaky. Ha I got the biggest kick out of talking to them. I feel really sad for the choices they are making but hey maybe they will remember us when all is said and done and they we one day accept the gospel. ha who knows. The people here are funny and I wanted to get called to a foreign country, well guess what i'm in one. they are not like a people I have ever met before. but its amazing how much love I have for them.

Driving the mission car!  Ha ha  jk

Soybean Fields

The members here are amazing we had a man in our branch buy us all nice winter boots and he wont let us pay him, so we are going to repay them in service. We are helping weed and clean with the wife. Also we went to a birthday party yesterday and they have a zipline in their backyard that we did. oops I dont know if that is ok in a skirt but I think it was ok. It is only like 20 feet long and 8 feet off the ground but it was fun and the whole branch was taking pictures and they got the biggest kick out of us sisters doing it ha 

Riding the Zipline!  

Also I always get people telling me I have a look alike but none of them make sense I have been told I look like and actress, a dancer from "dancing with the stars", and Celion Deon. ha ha dont ask me how they think that. but hey I dont mind they compliments I suppose.  Well I guess that is all for this week. I love you all, Thank you for all the prayers and support!! 

Love 

Sister Zwahlen

Temple Day

Hey sorry you didnt get to hear from me yesterday!! We got to go to the temple today so therefore our p-day was switched to today!! AHHH I cant believe I am going to have a NEPHEW!! Ahhh I am so thrilled!! I Did get your "greenie package" It was wonderful!! I loved it!! I am eating too much here but I dont mind:) The little packages of almonds are the best thing in the world!! I am in a branch and it is really small, but a huge area that is in the one branch. So I am just assigned to the one branch. I will be in a tri-companionship atleast until transfers but it could be longer than that I suppose, but I love it! Its really fun! I cant believe baby Nixon hasnt shown up yet!! Thats crazy! Fall has decided to come this week and we are freezing our bottoms off, we are all dreading winter if fall is this cold already! Ha I broke out the scarfs and coats and sweaters, not my boots yet but I think I will still be fine. I havent gotten cold at nights yet. So that is nice!

It is funny how the people watch out for us here. A ton of people are always warning us about the "crazies" in Greenfield, but I often wonder if they are one of the crazies, I havent figured it out yet. but we dont walk around after 8:30 here because there are a lot of meth houses and it gets kind of dangerous when it get dark out so if we arent in an appointment we go to our car and read scripture until 9:00. My favorite thing that we do in a week is service. I love being able to go and help people. We have helped people move or clean and its great. but we also are working hard tracking. Its fun to go around and talk to people. We hope to leave a good impression with them whether or not they choose to accept our invitation or not. We just smile to whatever they say and then relate it to the gospel.

Neat story about this week is we went to a womans house, she has a grandson who has a lot of mental and physical problems and she says he should have died but he is living and she loves to share her miracle with everyone she sees. Well I was able to bear my testimony on how we are sent to this earth to be tried and everyone that is here for a reason and I told her about marissa and how even though she is missing her leg, she is such a strong person and has an amazing testimony. She really seemed to respond to that and we have now taught her the restoration and she wants to hear about the plan of salvation. It is really great. She has a strong belief in God and Jesus Christ, and its fun to teach her because it she understands and believes what we are saying. I was reading a talk and It said the Holy Ghost helps people remember what they once knew so well and it helps them remember the testimonies they once had in the pre-earth life. I love that. All of these people had strong testimonies of what we are teaching them they just have the veil to blind them from what they once knew so well. I love being that instrument that helps them remember and draw closer to God! 

Also we are teaching a Philippine lady and she is the sweetest, but very strong Catholic so its been really hard to teach her because she has to forget all that she has grown up believing but we watched the restoration movie with her this week and she felt the spirit so strongly! She wants to get baptized so we just need to figure out a date for her. She also always cooks a huge meal for us even if we arent there during meal times and she is an amazing cook. Plus then she sends us home with tons of food and always ice cream and pepsi! Ah I love her. 

Well I havent had a real p-day in 2 and a half weeks because we have been traveling to and from columbus which leaves little time to do what we need so sorry its short today. but I love you all!! Keep in touch!! I will try and write later today if I have time!!

love,

aunt sister zwahlen