Everyone and their DOG........Old fashioned missionaries for Halloween and a funny Door knocking day.....

Sister Chizzy is doing great!

She got a new companion, got to dress up like olden day missionaries for their ward Chili Cook off and Halloween party and is, happy it's almost Halloween because she gets to eat all the Halloween Oreo's she can stuff!

Hey everyone!! I hope you all had a great week! So the title of this week, I bet you all are curious, hahaha. let me just tell you something. In Utah the saying "everyone and their dog" really IS just a saying, but here in Michigan it's real life!! EVERYONE and I mean it everyone has dog and they love them so much! Quick little story we were out door knocking on Friday and we knocked on this door, no one was home but their dog sure was he jumped up on the door and scared me and Sister Smith almost off the porch. So yeah, next time you say that.. Think of us out here with seriously dogs all around us!
Anyways... This week was great! My new companion is Sister Smith, she is from Gilbert Arizona, loves oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and makes me laugh like non other! She has a transfer and a half left on her mission and she is teaching me so much. I love her already! :) 

One of the highlights from this week was teaching our lead progressing investigator, we taught her with one of our ward members , and then we also had two recent converts at the lesson. The lesson was on Small and Simple things so we were talking about reading scriptures, saying our prayers, going to the temple and having family home evening like how Elder Ballad talked about this past conference. We talked about this for a couple minutes and then our two recent converts that were there bore their testimonies of how this has changed their lives. We didn't ask them to or anything but that's just the way the spirit led the lesson. It was really powerful to hear two recent members of our church testify of such strong truths. I loved it. The spirit is so important while teaching people about Jesus Christ without it, we would be nothing. 

Another great blessing from this week is our investigator Audrey, we met her just last week and she asked if she could have a Book of Mormon she has been reading it and came to our lesson with questions in mind. It was really neat, again another moment that I realized without the spirit I would be nothing, that and the Book of Mormon. I know it is the word of God. 

Sorry this email is so short but I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween week!! I love Halloween so you better all eat some Halloween Oreos and dress up like something, we even had the chance to dress up like olden day missionaries this week! :) Keep smiling, do the small and simple things because I know those are the things that build our foundation, without them we will falter and we will fail but with them all things are possible.
Love Sister Chisholm! <3 

Oh my goodness, heres a pretty funny story but all good stories start with.. "We were out door knocking....."
So we were our door knocking, and we had been door knocking most of the day it was Saturday so we only had two appointments and one of them was at night. So we were door knocking not tons of success but people were talking to us a little bit, we met these two people that had just moved from Shanghai and I was convinced we were going to teach them but they said right then they were still set on being buddist but that they would look up mormon.org so that's a start at least right?! So then we keep walking and we knock on this door and this guy opens the door, without a shirt on...... :O talk about awkward!!! (AND..he was kinda cute) hahaha me and Sister Smith were kind of tongue tied for a second and finally we were able to spill out who we were and what we were doing there and he just started like being all weird and trying to flirt with us and we were like, ummm you can check outmormon.org if you have any more questions. See ya!! It was SO awkward, but also really funny, we laughed for probably the next half an hour about it. People are funny, why would you come to the door without a shirt on?! Anyways that was pretty funny! :) Then we met a potential, he said he would want to know more about The Book of Mormon so we are teaching him on Thursday, that will be really good I think! Blessings all around! 

Sunday was great! Just like normal, I love Sundays so much. It was the primary program and oh man... we were even singing along, we decided if we just sang childrens songs at doors maybe people would listen. We haven't done it yet but those songs are powerful, no wonder we are supposed to be like a child! :) also I kept thinking about Jaemon, Grace and Ej!! AHH!! They are always the cutest in Primary Programs and I missed seeing their adorable faces and hearing their voices during this one! We had dinner with the James family last night and it was great, their son he's like 5 told us this joke... What is red and can kill you?! A Poisonous strawberry! hahaha, he was killing us while we ate and the member told us funny stories about his mission. I love eating with members, it always is really neat to be in a home where the spirit is so strong! I learn more and more about how I want my family and home to be each time I go to one of their homes, but don't worry I always compare it even more to my home! I love my family so much!!!!!! :) 

Things out here are going great! I am totally missing you all with this whole Halloween fest, but we are buying halloween oreos today and we are definitely enjoying knocking on doors that are literally DECKED out in halloween stuff! It's insane actually, also on Halloween we get to rake leaves all day for members in our ward and make pizza so it will be pretty fun! :) I am excited about that! Service is the best! 

Love Sister Chisholm! <3 

Rainbows, running and saying goodbye to a wonderful trainer!

 "Fishing" at Dow Park-the colors are beautiful!

 With their friend and investigator at the park! Look at the gorgeous colors!

 Sister Chizzy says after the rainstorms it is so beautiful, and this gorgeous rainbow proves it!

 I love this picture! Out they go....off to teach the gospel!! AND THOSE LEAVES!!!! Gorgeous!

 A new member family Sister Chizzy is teaching.

 Another gorgeous "after the rain" picture.

 Sister Chisholm and her district.

 FROYO!

As a mom I prayed that my girl would get a wonderful trainer who would be patient, kind, sweet and helpful. Sister Nuttall has been amazing and Jen has learned so much from her. She can't say enough good about her and absolutely LOVES her. She is coming home on Wednesday, so she will get a new companion. We are so grateful to this sweet Sister missionary for training our greenie missionary and for loving her! She loves you, and so we do too!

Here is an excerpt from her letter this week!

This week was just dandy! :) It was transfers and I am super excited to get my new companion Sister Smith! She is going to finish training me and it's going to be great! We had some super cool experiences this week, here's just a couple to sum it up!

While door knocking the other day we knocked into this girl named Mattie, she was having a pretty bad day but then we started talking to her and she opened up a little bit and guess what? She is a runner, she runs cross country and track at her school so I related praying and coming closer to Heavenly Father to running, it was pretty cool! I didn't know that it could relate but guess what the spirit prompted me to go that way and it made sense to her! The spirit is so awesome, just saying but we had a really great conversation with her and talked for a while and then I invited her to look up Mormon.org and also to look up the song Blessings by Laura Story one of my favorites and that night she texted us telling us she had. That was definitely a cool experience. It's little moments like that that show how we are all looked out for a watched over.

Another one was on Friday we had dinner and FHE with the Lui family which they are already pretty close to my heart because they are from mainland China, but we had dinner, pizza, macaroni and cheese, pears, carrots and then pot stickers, definitely an interesting combo but super good  and then we had prepared to teach them about Moroni, definitely one of my favorite stories in the Book of Mormon but lets be real all of Alma is my favorite. I love it. Go and re read Alma its just the best way to be uplifted and also teach us some epic stuff like faith, how to be missionaries and how to be leaders. Anyways we were teaching them and they have this girl Audrey that watching over them and we invited her to come over and be part of the lesson, so Sister Nuttall gave her, her Book of Mormon to look at and her Book of Mormon is super colorful and very used cuz she goes home on Wednesday and Audrey loved it. She was super involved in the lesson and after I gave the lesson she said so what is this book and while Sister Nuttall helped clean up and everything I taught Audrey about what it was and had her read the intro and everything and she said she was going to start reading it right then and we set up an appointment with her on Tuesday. That was such a blessing! :) It was really cool, Heavenly Father places people right where he knows they need to be! I know I am where I am needed, Midland is incredible and being a missionary like my heros, Ammon, Alma, Aaron and Moroni feels like I am living in a movie. The gospel is true. I love you all! Have a great week, also here's a scripture if you are ever having a rough day, Alma 50:23!

Love Sister Chisholm

Meet the Mormons!

Sister Chizzy had another great week in Midland. She is excited to get transfer calls tomorrow. She will get her new companion probably on Thursday of this week. She will miss her trainer, and we are so grateful she had a great Sister to help her learn the "ropes" of being a green missionary! In her personal letters to us this week she told us how she is happy to have a GPS in her car (they rotate between cars and bikes) it is easy to get lost there because she is used to mountains to guide her and South and North named streets. She also told us that for Canadian Thanksgiving she had stir fry at a members house and was thrilled to have had that! She LOVES getting mail and packages and said she finally got our MTC package that we sent the day she left for Michigan...only a month late....I thought mailing packages would be easier this time around hahaha!
She was able to go see the new movie Meet the Mormons "like a real normal person" with her district. She loved it and said she cried during the part of the missionary mom story. She told me to bring lots of tissues when we go....and that she loved it! She thinks its a great missionary tool!
We are proud of her and her happiness and excitement about the gospel and missionary work! No pictures this week, she forgot her camera plug, so she said she'll send extra next week!



Hey everyone!!! :D I hope you all had a wonderful week! To start honestly check out that scripture, Hebrews 10:35 then check out the talk called Cast not therefore your confidence by Elder Holland. It literally changed my life this morning. After we have a testimony that something is true, we must build upon it! :) 

That's my little insight for the morning, just do it. I promise you will be uplifted! haha :) 

So this week was great! 

We got to watch Meet the Mormons and it was incredible!!! Go see it, seriously I cried, laughed and just all around loved it. It will uplift you. That was one of my highlights this week for sure! :) 

Another high light was Alex, we door knocked into him a couple weeks ago and invited him to watch conference and pray to know if Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ and then we went back on Wednesday which was trade offs, I have a testimony that miracles happen on trade offs.. haha but anyways he told us that he knows that Joseph Smith was a prophet and he wanted to know more about the Book of Mormon, he also told us that he wants to learn more and wants to come closer to Christ, wow... that was incredible. Then Friday we had the chance to go back and he had prayed again and he again testified to us, know isn't that a little backwards but yeah he testified to us that he has prayed and knows it's true!!! WOW.. We then invited him to be baptized and he said he wants to make that covenant with his Heavenly Father. People are prepared to hear the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. They really are. I can testify of that. What a blessing for us over here in little Midland, I am so grateful for the chance to be a missionary, it's the best decision I have ever made. 

Another great thing that happened this week was with our investigator Valerie she met with the bishop and is praying for a baptismal date this week. That was an answer to our prayers, we are not perfect teachers and we had not the greatest lesson with her on Thursday but then she had a change of heart and is more on board with everything then ever before. I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us. He loves us and wants us to come closer to him. 

Transfers are this week.. so wish me luck!! My companion is actually going home next week so I am getting a new companion no matter what! Crazy stuff! Well I love you all! Have a wonderful week, don't forget to pray, study and come closer to Christ. It's worth it. I promise! 

Love Sister Jenica Chisholm 

Cinnamon Challenge, Conference and a BIKE!

 Our girl has always had a favorite cookie.....it was one of her first words when she was a baby....OREO. And Halloween ones are her favorite!!!

 Sister Chizzy and the Elder on her right were in the MTC together and wore green in honor of them being "Greenie" missionaries in their district in Midland!

 I sent Sis Chizzy and her companion Conference Journals that we made in YW last week. They loved them! YAY conference!

 This is a famous NBA stars sister. She said they played ball with her this week, and she was "PRETTY DANG GOOD!"

Well, we didn't know our girl would be on a bike, but apparently, she will be. I am nervous....I have a thing for bikes......but she is very excited about it! Even in the rain....and she looks so cute!!!

Don't Let What you know to be true..become hazy.......

Hey everyone!! :D First off a little background on the title, President Uchdorf said that this weekend in conference and it was just so wonderful! If you didn't get the chance to watch conference you better go right on LDS.org and watch it because holy cow it blew my mind! 

This week was so good! Being a missionary is so great, it's definitely the best decision I have ever made so far. 

Here's a little overview of my week! 

Monday: P-day those are always fun! In my ward there is a girl in my ward whose brother is a famous NBA LDS player, and is super good! We played basketball with her last P-day that was pretty awesome! :D Practically famous! haha We also had a really great lesson with one of our investigators, he wants to hold the priesthood for his family which is so wonderful. Hopefully he decides to be baptized. It's a big lifestyle change but we know he wants it. 

Tuesday: We did service and that was great! Serving others helps me at least come closer to my Heavenly Father! We also met with some of our recent converts, they are so great! Reach out to the recent converts in your ward they need your help! :) We also got to teach our progressing investigator ! She is so wonderful! She will probably be baptized this month which is super exciting! I am so happy she is making changes in her life to make that covenant! 

Wednesday: We did service again and met this lady named Jess she takes care of disabled ladies and she was probably the sweetest most patient person ever, I loved being around her because she just had such a wonderful spirit about her! 

Thursday: We had Zone Training!!! I love it when we get together with giant groups of missionaries, it's so incredible! It was so uplifting and it gave us a lot of advice on what we need to do to help our investigators!! We also got BIKES!! yay!!! I love biking! It is so much fun, it definitely is hard when it's raining and it's pretty odd in a skirt but it is super great! I just sing Come Come ye Saints the whole time and it's wonderful! :D haha 

Friday: We went finding and had dinner with one of our recent converts we actually did the Cinnamon challenge which was so SO funny! I don't recommend it to anyone but it made for a pretty eventful night! 

Saturday and Sunday.. Conference!!!! Definitely the highlight probably of the next three months!!!!! I loved listening to the prophet and his apostles, they are truly inspired and know exactly what we all need in this day and age. I loved how they spoke so much on having a firm foundation on Christ. I see this more and more everyday that we must have our foundations built on Christ and if they aren't, we will fall. Helaman5:12, definitely one of the best scriptures out there. the gospel is true and I am so grateful to be a missionary here in Midland! I hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Love Sister Chisholm! <3

As a side note,  I am able to email chat with Sister Chizzy for a little while. She is so full of enthusiasm and excitement. She literally reminds me a little of Tigger (her favorite Disney character) she is so bouncy, jumpy and full of life about being a missionary. I love it and couldn't be prouder of her as her mom. I miss her, and still can't go into her room without getting choked up and teary eyed, but I wouldn't want her anywhere else. She is truly loving her experiences as a missionary and we are so happy for her! Missions are the best!