Bye Bye Midland....Hello Lansing!

February 16

Hey everyone!! This week was amazing!! :D I mean every week as a missionary is amazing but this week was seriously just great! :) Here are some of my highlights! 

We were able to go to the temple this week with our recent convert, and can I just say there is no better place in the entire world than the temple! :) I am so thankful for the House of the Lord. I felt so much peace and felt that everything in my life was just right. If you ever have a question about anything go to the temple. I promise it will lead and help you through anything you may be going through! :) I loved being able to see Nancy all in white and to share that incredible experience with her. She is so strong and I look up to her so much. 

This week we had to say goodbye to some of my favorite people in the world. Alicia and Anna our two wonderful girls from Germany went home. We had the chance to teach them all of the lessons before they went home, I am so thankful for the chance we had to meet them, love them, teach them and feel of their incredible spirits. They have changed my heart, and now part of me goes with them to Germany. As a missionary I feel like my heart is all over the entire world, is that even possible? :) I have decided as a missionary it is! :D 

We had Elder Nash of the 70 come to our mission this week and it was awesome!!! :D I mean meetings are missionaries are so SO great, we learned all about being better missionaries and something that I loved that we talked about is how angels truly do guide and direct us. I love the scripture in D&C 84:88, it made my whole week. 

Well everyone this week Valentines Day and for all of you that don't have Valentines or you are away from home I just want you to know that us missionaries are praying for you and also that you Heavenly Father loves you more than anything! He truly is always there and answers all of our prayers. I hope you all have had a wonderful week and I hope that this week is even better wherever you may be! :D 

I love this gospel, it is true. It changes lives and hearts and it has and continues to change mine! 

Love Sister Chisholm <3 

 Valentine's pancakes....she's a little like her mother.....

 Roses from her daddy on Valentines! 

 Gong to the temple!

 A wonderful day being this sweet ladies escort at the temple!

February 23

Well hey everyone! This week has been such a whirlwind! :) The crazy news is that I am leaving Midland, the city of churches and heading on down the main city here in Michigan... Lansing!! :D I am so excited for this new adventure that is set before me! I know that the Lord has a plan for each of us and that transferring is all part of our learning and progression. 

This week has been great! We have been able to teach our investigators and they are seeing progression. I am really excited for them all to move forward and continue in their testimonies. We found this amazing less active women this week that is just the sweetest lady. She is just a little lost, but I know that Heavenly Father lead up to her so that she may feel the spirit again. 

In other news I have loved serving here in Midland, and I am so excited to go and serve in Lansing. There are so many lessons and people that I have met here that have changed my life for good. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, our Redeemer and that he performed the Atonement so that we all may be able to become better. I know that through a prophet of God the gospel has been restored. I love my mission. I love the people here in Michigan and I am thankful for the support I receive and prayers that are said back in good ole Utah and all around the world. 

This week a scripture that has truly helped me out this week is Alma 17 vs 2-3. It is all about when Alma gets to see his friends again and he is so thankful because they are still firm in the faith. We must all strive to continue in our faith, become better disciples of Christ and to press forward. I love this work! 

This was from her letter to me this week, I had to put it on here because it was so sweet and I know she'll want to remember writing it.......

 I have loved meeting people that have such different types of backgrounds then me. They have truly changed the way I look at life. It makes me think of the song from wicked, " I heard it said, that people come into my life for a reason, bringing something we must learn, and we are lead to someone who helps us most to grow, if we let them and we help them in return... I have been changed for good." I truly feel that way right now, I am excited to leave and have adventures and to see who else I can love in Lansing but I will always have part of my heart here in Midland. <3 

My best memory of Midland, man that is a tough question. I have so many of them. Here's one that just came to my mind though, the first time we taught Jason, we had a really neat lesson with him and found out that his issue was with the priesthood, he just didn't understand that we needed authority to act in Gods name. At that moment I realized how important truly the priesthood is. Ever since then I have had such a strong testimony of the priesthood. I know that we are blessed by the priesthood and that through the priesthood we are able to receive eternal life. I have loved being able to testify of that and help others understand the importance of it. There are so many memories here in Midland though, they range from riding bikes in the pouring rain, to having hot cocoa at the jones, to teaching incredible lessons that make me cry and to feeling the spirit help lead and guide me as I am an instrument in the Lords hands. I have become a missionary here, and will take the lessons I have learned throughout the rest of my mission and for the rest of my life. 

This week I definitely felt the spirit the strongest during my blessing. It talked about angels again, which I loved and he talked about how I need to have faith to walk the unseen road. I truly loved that. This transfer I am going to work on my increasing faith and try really hard to put my full trust in the Lord and in his timing. It also talked about having courage, and that I have been a impact on my area. It also talked about my leadership here, I feel like it also was a be at peace blessing that helped me know that whatever happens is all in the Lords plan. 

So funny story from the week is Sister Lau has started calling me district mom, she keeps calling me that because she says I have a lot of love for everyone around me. I laughed but I sure do love these missionaries!

Love Sister Chisholm <3 

A satellite picture of Michigan.....chilly!!!

We received a pkg from her this week. How funny.....if you know us, you know how they butcher our name ALL THE TIME...but it's funny when the church does it too!!!!

 A great district of wonderful missionaries in Midland.

 Thanks to this great Elder for giving her a blessing she really needed this week!

Goodbye to wonderful friends who have taught her so much!

A new door approach, a funny note on her door and lots of Service!

 So this was on a doorstep this week! :O we just laughed it off, don't worry though we didn't get a "sue happy" lawyer called on us! #thisismidland 

 I finally got to make the brownies you sent me! They were a little gooey in the middle...perfect!

 Brother Pennock had a stroke last week and we had the chance to visit them and help them a little bit before they had to move to go to rehab! I LOVE this family! I will miss them so SO much! 

 This is the Hemingways! I love them! #snowbirds #goingtoflordia #maybetheywillseesistermalm

 I may or may not use a golf ball to knock on doors...........

 hahaha maybe I posed with my golf ball knocking on our apartment door.. :) Good times! :D 

Sometimes we like to take selfies in the mirror during lunch.. :) haha 

2/2/15 I LOVE my ward, seriously I will cry when I leave Midland. They are literally the best, we had dinners every single night this week and we have one every night for this upcoming week too! #fatfatfat actualy I am trying to cut down on bread, so I haven't been eating it very much at all! :) But yeah they are awesome, we had Ward Conference yesterday and it was INCREDIBLE!!! Members out here are just so strong. Our theme for this stake is 2 Nephi 31:20 which is one of my all time favorites, I am going to talk a little bit about it in my other email but yeah, the members are great! We had dinner last night with the Smith family, oh this is funny! So Alex is their daughter, she is 13 and she totally loves my box that I made, it holds my scriptures to protect them, but so she saw my family cuz you are all on the front and she was like you have super cute brother, when you come back to michigan after your mission you have to introduce me! hahaha Oh man.. She was talking about Brennan too.. That boy he just has all the girls flocking over him even the girls here in Midland!! haha :) So that was funny! We have some good times with our members, they really like having us come over and every time I feel like I am back home again because half the time the families are so darn hilarious!! :D Especially cuz like three families here have a girl that is 9 and looks just like Gracie! I can't wait for you all to meet them when we come! 

This week it hasn't been too cold, actually on Saturday, our day without a car it was almost 40 degrees! I was actually hot in my coat and scarf! We talked to 21 people that day, it was pretty great! :D 

Oh mom guess what?!?! We had a lesson with stephanie, and it was INCREDIBLE!!!! Listen to this cool story, so she has been looking for a church right? And so we came knocked on her door and stuff and then that night she was telling her husband about us and he is like is that the church that doesn't believe in Jesus Christ? And she was like oh my goodness I hope not because I won't join it if it is.. So then she said that all night she was up thinking about it and then when her husband woke up for work she sat up and was like no, they definitely believe in Jesus Christ because the church is called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, it was so awesome. We had a great lesson with her and she is reading the book of mormon, and already downloaded the Gospel Library app. She is amazing. I am so SO excited to continue to teach her! We also taught Jason a great lesson this week, he is so incredible. I feel like they both are just so prepared it is so amazing to see! 

So here's some awesome updates!

We had district meeting on Wednesday and we got told to start using the approach on door steps of We are Your Missionaries and we are here to serve you and to invite you to learn about Christ! Okay, I LOVE!!!! Sister Lau and I have been using it all week. It just makes me think of the song Called to Serve we literally have been called to serve and now we are being told to use that as our actual approach! I love it! The assistants came to our district meeting as well, that was interesting. I know it is because of our district leader, but anyways we also learned about how we should our pamphlets more often on the door steps and in lessons! Elder Green one of the assistants talked with us about using them and I learned so much! Elder Nash is coming to our mission next week which is going to be awesome! I always learn the best when people teach me! It's great! :D 

We taught a lesson to our kind of investigators but they are Snow birds.. haha that means they leave Michigan in the winter, great name right? And so they are leaving this week.. :( They weren't really progressing but they are seriously the sweetest people ever!  I will send you some pics of them today! They are so SO sweet, and she totally has the Michigander accent. I love Michigan! :D 

We had a chance to help out at a baby shower this week! It was a members, non member sister! She is so sweet! But we got to help Sister Wheeler make the drinks, help with the games and then just be there to help set up and stuff! It was awesome! I just kept thinking about how we truly are called to serve. It makes my whole day, when we are serving others we completely forget about ourselves and it is just the best way to live life, and it helps me have true happiness! :D We also helped jump start Valerie's car! That was great!! :D I was so happy that dad taught me how to jump start cars last year! Our recent convert Patti,  had a problem with her Kidney this week, so she had to go to the doctors and get everything checked out! So she wound up calling us and we headed right over, Missionaries to the rescue! haha :) She needed to clean her house and everything so we made her dinner, cleaned, and vacuumed her house! Another time we were able to just serve. Last night we taught Heather but her little sister wouldn't go to bed so we wound up reading some bible stories to her and she just loved it! This morning Heather sent us the sweetest text about how much she appreciated it, it truly was such a great week full of service! :D There were some major ups and downs of this week but these were some of the highs! 

2/9/15  We Are YOUR missionaries, and we are here to serve you and invite you to learn about Christ.

Hey everyone! This week was amazing! :D Also that heading is totally the new way we talk to people on doorsteps, it has made me really think about why we are here on our missions! We are here to serve! It's really helped people want to talk to us a little bit more as we have been more willing to actually serve them! 

We had such a blessing this week!! We have these two girls in our ward that have been living with our Bishop and his family since I got here in September and they have been attending seminary, church, reading and everything. (Awesome right?!) So anyways Bishop didn't want us to teach them (Alicia and Anna)  out of respect of their parents in Germany and so they had just been going to seminary and doing all the things that members do and this week after having a great dinner with them and teaching their family about faith Bishop said that we could teach them!! :D For all of you on missions, this is like the best blessing ever! Investigators right in your laps! So we were able to teach them 6 lessons this week, which has been a blessing of itself to finally get to teach some lessons past the first 2 lessons! :D They are incredible, and I can't wait for them to join the church in Germany when they go home. We had a lesson with them about the commandments and we gave them these cute little heart puzzles with all of the commandments on them. It was pretty cute! :) 

We have been also working a lot with less actives and recent converts in our ward! We were able to go to dinner with a family in our ward this week the places and they had actually invited a part member family to dinner with them! It was great, Julie has been saying she is planning on coming back to church and her husband (the nonmember) Robert wanted to know when we were going to be able to have dinner with them again! :) It was such a blessing to be able to be there with them that night and to hear how they were doing and to share the "missionary" spirit with them! 

We had a great lesson with our investigator Jason this week, he is progressing so well! We actually taught him the Plan of Salvation since that last time he was taught it was back in like 2011 and he loved it! I made the cute little layout of it all and he loved all the visuals! Visuals are the best way to teach, I love the Plan of Salvation our Heavenly Father truly has given us a perfect plan and all we have to do is follow it and we will eternally happy. I am so thankful for the knowledge of this plan, families are forever! :) 

Last but not least, yesterday we had a fantastic lesson on the Book of Mormon with our investigator Penny, we hadn't been able to teach them for a bit but last time we saw them they had made the goal to read the Book of Mormon before the year was over and Penny was already to Words of Mormon! It was amazing to see her progression! :) 

I love this work! The gospel is true, the Book of Blue! Have a great week! :) 

Love Sister Chisholm <3

This is us and Anna and Alicia! 

I love them!!