First baptism, snow and being GRATEFUL!

11/15/2014

Well hey everyone!! :) If you couldn't tell from the subject.. This week I had my first baptism!!!!! :) :) :) YAY!! Let's do a little happy dance, I mean missionary work isn't all about baptisms but let me tell you why they are so amazing.

1.It's amazing to see someone that you love so much decide to make that covenant with God. Last year at this time I spoke at my little sisters baptism about the Holy Ghost, I realized at that moment how excited and how much I knew that going on a mission was something I needed to do. I was so grateful for my little sisters choice to follow our Savior, and that from that day on she would have the Holy Ghost to guide, support, lead and comfort her. Watching someone that you teach, learn to love, and someone that you want to progress in the gospel is incredible. The feeling is indescribable.

2. Seeing how many members and people love your investigator is also amazing! Valerie became friends with the people in our ward and that's how she found the gospel. She sometimes would even set up our member present lessons! Isn't that cool? She made sure that in her program everyone that maybe had affected her in some way was a part of it. I challenge everyone to become involved in doing missionary work. Have the missionaries over for dinner, give them referalls, help them move along The Lord's work. Without the members missionaries really can't do that much. Valerie was a great example of this.

3.I have learned so much about the Atonement from teaching Valerie. she has shown to me the exact example of having real intent to follow Jesus Christ. She has grown to love the small and simple things, like praying and reading the scriptures and has helped me understand even more why they are so important. She also has taught me that everyone is important. Val has had a lot of really hard things in her life but to see here decide to follow her Savior Jesus Christ and enter the water of baptism and receive the gift of the holy ghost has been a moment that I won't soon forget. You know those chills that people talk about? Yeah, I had them the entire day.

I want to testify to you all that this gospel is true. After the baptism we taught one of our recent converts about the gospel of Jesus Christ, Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end. We are mostly all on enduring to the end. Continue to endure, I promise you that it will all work out. Life was never meant to be easy, if it was easy we would never learn. In the Book of Mormon it tells us that the greatest missionaries ever were depressed and ready to turn back, but right when they felt that way they turned to the Lord and he strengthened them. I promise that if we pray to God with full purpose of Heart, and that we do what we know we should he will bless us.

The Book of Mormon is the word of God. It helps me help others every single day. It has changed my life. READ IT!!!! :)

Love Sister Chizzy! <3

 Happy Happy day for Valerie!

Sis Chizzy and Sis Smith sent us a cute Thanksgiving card about "feasting on the word"!

 Snow, wind, hats, boots, layers, tights, snowman, snowball fights, and best of all... Come back after the holidays!!! Tis the season of being a missionary in the Michigan Lansing Mission! :) 

Don't you all fret though, we are working hard and having a blast while doing so! This week has been awesome, in all honesty though being a missionary is just awesome. If any of you ever get the chance to go on a mission... DO IT and to all my missionary friends, keep working hard and bringing those people to Christ! :) You are all my inspiration! So here's some awesome updates from this week! 

We had a 1/3 mission conference this week and it was fantastic! Our mission leaders are called of God that is for sure. Sister Smith and I and some of the other elders and sisters in our zone had the chance to sing because I have been given much in the middle of the meeting, it was really great. We even added my favorite vs to the end, "because of thy lives mission Lord, I too will serve, I'll leave the comfort of my home to teach thy word. I'll seek thy sheep who've gone astray and those who've never known the way, I will make thy work my work today." It brought the spirit into that meeting and helped us all I think realize again why we are here and why we are missionaries. The gospel is true! 

That night we taught our investigator Hunter! He is awesome, he loves the whole Light of Christ idea and wants to have the Light of Christ more fully in his life. We have seen a change in his countenance already from him reading the Book of Mormon, that book is true, and it will change your life. If you don't believe me.. Well just do it! I promise it will change your life. It has changed mine. We also had dinner that night with the Bowmans, Brother Bowman has been a MTC president and also the president of the Peru mission! He is great, I love hearing his stories. 

Wednesday all 3 of our appointments canceled on us but we did get to have one appointment with Bonnie it was all on prayer, I love the scripture Alma 37:37 one of my favorites. Prayer is the way we come closer to our Heavenly Father. So then we went door knocking in the snow for like 3 hours!! It was a blast! Sister Smith and I make everything fun, I am so grateful for her as my companion. She teaches me so much! I can't believe she goes home at the end of December! Crazy stuff! We had dinner with our recent converts the Cormiers that night, they are also feeding us thanksgiving! happy day!! :) It was super delicious and Kurt he has actually met Chuck Norris! Cool stuff right? Oh the people you meet on missions. It's great! :) 

Thursday at dinner one of the members told me this quote, I love it. "You can be motivated by love or you can be motivated by fear, you choose." That is something to really live by. It's amazing how much love our Heavenly Father has for us. Look for the small and simple tender mercies he gives each day. That was mine for that day! We also got to help one of our investigators set up for Christmas!! What in the world?!? is it really Christmas time already?!?! WOW! 

On Saturday we got to walk in a parade!!!! That was an adventure! :) It was super douper fun! We are having this super cool nativity exhibit in a couple weeks so we got to pass our invitations and tootsie rolls for that! :) People were super nice and it was fun to be able to walk and invite people to come to the Nativity, everyone is getting super excited about it! It's going to be great! :) 

Sunday was amazing as always. I learned a lot about reverence and also about how we must always stand in holy places. As we do the small and simple things we will be closer to our Savior Jesus Christ. I love this gospel. I know it's true. Life is good! :) I hope you all have a wonderful thanksgiving and that you always remember to be grateful! :) 

Love Sister Jenica Chisholm! <3 

This is us at the parade! :)

The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway!!!!!

So in this weeks news, with Valerie things are going well there! We are now teaching her the new member lessons which is great! It's hard cuz all of our numbers went down but hey I am so glad she is baptized! The elders also had a baptism this week and that was really neat too! I played the piano! I love the piano, man it's like my release every time I get to play I LOVE it! Tell the kids they better keep playing because it's like the best talent ever, especially as a missionary! 

This week we had an awesome 1/3 mission training that was so GREAT!! We sat in the chapel from 9-4 and to be honest I never thought I would love a meeting so much I learned so much and now it's all about applying it to my everyday missionary life which has been going pretty well! :) Here's some highlights from it.. 

Sister Jacobesen taught us all about being happy especially with winter and stuff coming missionary have a hard time I guess in the winter, which I can see it it is literally freezing cold and we are out door knocking a lot but the great thing is we are doing The Lords work so in all honesty the cold will be fun, and soon enough it'll be spring! Everyone is getting super excited out here for Christmas like lights are up and all that jazz already! I am pretty excited for it! It's going to be fun! :D I will definitely miss being home but then I get to call home and that's going to great!!!! :D So she talked with us a bunch about exercise and how it helps us be even happier which I know is true! I run every morning for at least 10 minutes so that's been good and then sit ups and all that jazz too! I love being happy, I am very thankful for my positive attitude towards stuff, it's a blessing from Heavenly Father that is for sure! 

President Jacobsen taught us about obedience which I loved as well, he said that " we can all be exactly obedient to the white book." I loved that because it is so true. I am striving everyday to be exactly obedient Sister Smith is doing her best too, she isn't as exactly obedient as sis nuttall which sometimes is definitely hard but I still love her and pray for her everyday! 

My favorite part of our whole meeting was when we had a talk about being excellent, Heavenly Father didn't call us to be just great he called us to be excellent. Which I loved that, so then he actually had some missionaries read the scripture in 3 nephi 5:13 out loud, I had the chance to read it and it hit my heart so strongly. I am a representative of Jesus Christ and I am here to do his work. I loved it so much. Being a missionary is great, I am not perfect nor will I ever be but I am doing my best to become the type of missionary Heavenly Father wants me to be, that's all he asks! 

So on Wednesday it was FREEZING!! It snowed all day long, like literally all day, and it was like 17 degrees all day,  we had 3 appointments and they all fell through so what did we do? We went door knocking! :) So we were out door knocking and the first two doors we knocked on both people told us that our church is completely false and that prophets aren't real and that there isn't such thing as a book of Mormon, talk about anti.. but as missionaries all we can do is testify and so that's exactly what happened. It was amazing, I testified that I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God and also that Joseph Smith was a prophet. My testimony grows everyday as people anti what I know with all my heart to be true. It's so important to stand up for what we believe in. That day was actually one of my favorites this week, we didn't see tons of success but it's always great to talk to people and to share my testimony. Someone will be ready, people are prepared everywhere, we are here to harvest the seeds that have already been planted! :)

Have a great week and remember to be grateful!

Search. Ponder. Remember....and moving big stuff is GOOD!

 Should I tell her that looks suspiciously like her rival high school's hoodie??? Hahahaha.

 Happiness is conference Ensign's!

Apparently, they like to make notebooks in Sister Chizzy's mission....she made a Star Wars one...may the Force be with you Sister!!!


Hey everyone! I hope that all of your weeks have been as great as mine! :) Here's some of the highlights! 

We had a really great FHE with Sister Skog this week, she actually taught us and she went over the B's by President Hinckley. If you don't know all those here's one for us all to work on, "Be Faithful." That's what she talked with us about and I started to understand even more fully how important it really is for us to be faithful to the name that we bare and also to be faithful to what we know to be true. Make sure you all are having family home evening, it's an amazing tool in bringing families even closer together. Also did you know that families are ordained of God and that they are central to His plan? Don't forget that! :) 

We had a really incredible couple lessons with our investigator,  that is actually being baptized THIS Saturday, we are really excited for her to make this covenant with God. She has shown to me how much the Atonement of Jesus Christ really changes lives. In just this short 2 months I have been teaching her I have seen her countenance change and also her hope for a better day. The gospel is true, it is here today and it can and will change lives. All he asks is that we follow him. 

We had stake conference this weekend and it was all about hastening the work. I hope that you all are doing your best as members to help hasten the work. The gospel of Jesus Christ is being spread by missionaries across the world but along with that it is being spread even more from the members of the Chruch. Invite your friends and families to learn more about the gospel. It may be scary but Heavenly Father promises us blessings. I have seen it in my own life, it's scary to open your mouth and talk to someone but by doing so we are able to understand our own testimonies more fully and also come closer to our savior. I hope you all have a wonderful week! Here's a scripture that I just love, it's 2 Nephi 4:16, make sure that you hope for things to come and have faith that it will all work out! 

On Wednesday my companion got sick.. :( It's been going around here like non other, everyone is sick., Don't worry I am getting my flu shot hopefully today, and I haven't gotten sick yet. Yay for Vitamin C! You taught me well! So anyways she was not feeling good at all, and we also got our bikes that day so I was pretty nervous we weren't going to get like anything done because she wasn't feeling good, it was cold outside and we were going to have to bike. So we decided to try and find a ride to our appointment with our recent convert. So after calling like 3 people I said, what if you call someone maybe they will be able to come. So she calls one person, Tilah and Tilah is all yep I will be right there. It was a total miracle. So then we get over to our recent converts house and she is just getting over sick and my comp is  coughing and she did not feel good at all and she really needed our help moving her stuff around, so guess what I did? I just started moving stuff for her. I started moving the couch to the over side and moving the big dressers and doing everything that neither of them could do. A couple minutes in, I started thinking about being at home and how many times we hauled up those giant buckets from the basement for Halloween and Christmas and I was very thankful that you made us work. It showed me that hard work is important and that as we work hard we gain muscle and strength. So this is a totally weird story but while sitting here I just thought about the gospel in this way. As we read each day, pray always and as we attend the temple and partake of the sacrament we are building spiritual strength and muscle. As we exercise our faith we come closer to our Heavenly Father and we are able to do things more fully and then we can step back and see that what we have learned and what we are continually learning is helping us in the long run. 

Anyways that was my little story. I am loving it here in Midland, my companion is so awesome, we are working hard and trying to figure out the formula to go tracting or finding because it is hard. The key is to use scriptures and bring up restored truths but it's still hard work! 

Love Sister Chisholm <3 

Halloween in Midland!

Sister Chizzy had a great week! She got to rake leaves and have a Halloween party at members houses..she said "it was SUPER weird to wear a hoodie!"

 Apparently the Halloween pillowcases I sent them were quite terrifying......

 Cold enough for a warm wool headband!

 Making cupcakes for their district...I think their apartment looks great!

Sister Smith and Sister Chizzy in their little witches hats and light up jack-o-lantern necklaces....as spooky as they can get! I love sending packages and of course...I couldn't resist the hats......Check out the first presidency watching over them up there.........I'm sure they'd approve!!

Hey everyone! I hope you all have had a fantastic week, I know I have and especially that it was Halloween! One of the best holidays out there! It even snowed for a bit here so that was an adventure especially because we spent Halloween raking leaves! Oh the joys of Michigan, literally there are so many leaves its insane! I thought Utah had a lot of leaves but no, there are like 2 billion more here in Michigan, also lots of leaves means for lots of giant piles which means I want to jump in them all! We will have to do that before the leaves turn to snow! :)

In other new this week was great! Here's a couple super cool stories,

On Wednesday we went to grab the mail after eating lunch and district meeting, so I got out of the car and looked to see if there was mail, ps thank you Sister Sessions for the postcard, it even had a cat on it. I loved it. :) Anyways, there was this guy smoking a cigarette grabbing his mail and so of course I decided to say hi. So I told him that I am a representative of Jesus Christ and that we share a message about how Jesus Christ is our savior and that he loves us. This guy looked at me and said, "So." and I said I know that he loves you and he looked at me again and said, "There is no Jesus Christ." and then without even thinking about it I looked at him straight in the eyes and said, " I know Jesus Christ is real, and I know that he and our father in heaven love you." He just shook his head and walked away. Now don't worry I don't tell this story to be a damper. I tell this story because it was amazing to me how quick I was able to testify of my Savior Jesus Christ. I know that He lives, I know that he loves me and that he loves each of us. He performed an infinite sacrifice for each of us and because of the atonement we can repent and come closer to Him. That moment was defining, I know that this is The Lord's work and I am blessed enough to be an instrument in his hands.

Another really neat thing that happened this week is our investigator Jason, he is so great! This week we had a really powerful lesson about baptism and it actually ended with him committing to pray about a date to be baptized and he also received a priesthood blessing from Brother Jones, the members home we were at. Members are essential to this work. I hope you all have the chance to go out on splits with the missionaries or even have them over for dinner. We have been sharing with families the scripture D&C 4 each time we go over for dinner, so today I would like to challenge you all to read over D&C 4 and apply the attributes in verses, 5 and 6. I have been striving to apply charity and patience more fully and I have seen the change in my life already. It's incredible what The Lord can do with us when we turn ourselves over to him. The gospel is true. It's a beautiful day and I know that our Savior Jesus Christ lives.

Have a wonderful week everyone! Keep smiling, also here's a quote from President Uchdorfs "Hope in Gods light" talk that he gave in the past April conference! "Darkness will not gain victory over the light of Christ, Gods light is real. It is available to all, it gives life to all things." :)

Love Sister Chisholm <3  

We love hearing from our cute girl and are so glad she's doing great! We are thankful she is loving being a missionary and the people of Midland!