A new companion, staying in Wyoming area and.....keep track of your keys girl!

Sept 28
I am so thankful for prayer!!!!! :D I love this quote, it says.. Prayer is not a negotiation process it's an alignment process! I have always loved prayer but something that my mission has really taught me is that we can't live without prayer! :) We truly need to converse with our Father in Heaven every single day. He wants us to talk to Him, just like our parents want us to communicate with them. He loves us more then we can even understand. My mission has truly been teaching me the power of prayer and that it's not a "shopping list" but truly it's striving to align our will with Gods. I do know that there is so much power in prayer, we can pray for anything at any time but what is even greater is that we are able to repent when we pray and we are able to change and become stronger disciples of Christ! :) Our Father in Heaven loves us so much! I know that is true! :) 

We had a super great week!! We walked and knocked a TON!! Like 17 hours worth, 100 people later we are still living breathing missionaries! :) We had some amazing miracles this week too! We met some awesome people door knocking, here's a quick story for you all.. So a couple weeks ago we met some potentials on this one street and wrote down their house numbers because they pretty much just told us to come back another time. So on Wednesday we go to this place to follow up with these people and we knock on this one door and it was one that I had written down, however we totally had never met the girl before! So we start talking to her and she was totally interested in meeting! :) It was such a tender mercy to me, obviously we needed to talk to her or I wouldn't have written down her number! We have to be willing to follow any prompting that the spirit may give to us! :) 

On Monday we had a great YSA FHE where they talked about how we all have goals and that if we write them down and look at them we are so much more able to accomplish them! :) So they had us make these cool dream boards, so I wrote down a bunch of my goals whatever they may be, like getting married in the temple, finishing my mission, running a half marathon.. being a mom all those great things.. and then all week I have been thinking more about goals and how truly goals are never accomplished if we don't work at them or for that matter remember them! :) haha I was studying more about goals this morning and check out this awesome pattern I figured out.. 

Hopes are transformed into action and then we accomplish our goals. This could relate to anything, whatever your future goals may be.. What are you doing today to achieve it?! One that always comes to my mind is running a marathon.. So first you have the hope that you can run it, but does that mean you can just go out and run right then and there 26 miles?? I sure hope not.. you might kill yourself.. it means we have to plan out what exactly we need and want to do! We first hope to run the marathon and then we plan out all the things that will help us achieve  the goal, you probably need some good running shoes, you probably need to have like a running buddy or something to keep you motivated and then we also need to have something to be accountable to. Then soon enough you will be running everyday, working hard and that hope will become more then just a hope it will be a goal accomplished! :D I have been thinking a lot about my goals and my dreams, and I have really learned that as we strive to work hard to accomplish our goals, as we rely on prayer to help us through and as we do everything we can we honestly will achieve our goals.. When our eyes are focused in on something we won't let them diviate! :) We must keep our eyes focused on our eternal perspective of living with our Father in Heaven again, some days it's easier than others, just like some days it's easier to run then others but as we push ourselves and keep our faith strong and high we truly will be able to recieve the joy that comes from accomplishing our goal, and just think about the true goal that each of us are trying to accomplish each and everyday. Eternal life with our families. 

The gospel is true! :) I know this for myself, the plan of salvation was given for us because we truly are children of God. I know that Jesus Christ truly did die for me, that he overcame death and that I will be with my family forever. Missionary work is truly the Lords work and I am so thankful for the chance I am to be an instrument in His hands!! :) Have  a wonderful week to you all!! ;) 

Sister Chisholm! <3 

 Transfer day! The one second from the end was her companion in the MTC, Sister Kloch.

 I love this pic of a little girl wanting to talk to the missionaries....they make a huge impact!

 The STL's and Zone leaders in the Wyoming area.

 Such a fun pic!!!

 Sister Steele is Sis Chisholm's new companion! They are going to go get em!

  Even Sister Missionaries can get a tan......hahaha

The trees are starting to change in Michigan!

 We sent her some of her piano music and she was SO excited to play it!

 Gooddbye Sister Guest! Good luck in your new area!

 Our cute sweet girl!

 Zone pday activity.

 Clean up service day at Lake Michigan.

This is from my personal email and I couldn't resist.....she is still our girl......

Okay something you can relate to or something that is just me.... Let me think!! :) Well today we are going to the Holland state park again!! Which you know me.. I am just super excited to play in the sand and to laugh!! It's going to be awesome! Pdays.. they are always just the best! :) So here's a pretty funny story.. Sister Steele and I went to womens conference and here its at like 8 till like 930 but since we didn't have a car we got a ride home, so we were leaving and Sister Steele totally left our keys sitting there at the church so we get to our apartment and the outside door is open so we walk into the apartment complex and then she is all.. umm.. and so it's like 950 at night.. we are late home cuz of the womens conference and now we are totally stranded outside of our apartment!! haha So we call the wyoming 3 elders cuz they are super close to the church and they run over there and there is just all the spanish branch still there so they can't talk to them cuz well they don't speak spanish so we just hear all this funny stuff on the phone! Oh my gosh.. then come to find out someone had grabbed them and was bringing them to us, but the elders were so happy to be the heros for the night.. :) haha they remind me of brennan and tyler! so then we just plan sitting outside our apartment.. it was quite the adventure and we were so stinking tired! haha oh gosh.. So that was one adventure from this week! :D I would say that should remind you of me.. because oh man.. things that like are always pretty funny! We laugh a lot that is for sure! :) 

Our sisters are doing well!! We are going on 2 trade offs this week which I am super pumped about!! I love going on trade offs! They always teach me a lot, and I come away just desiring to be even better! Our sisters are awesome, and just so willing to learn and grow! We will be driving a lot to see them all but it will be good! We get our car back on Wednesday which takes away some of the stress I have felt this week!! haha :) I am happy about that! Our new zone leader is great, he actually came out with me, Elder Tabagus and Elder Clark and me all came out together.. it weird and totally crazy to me to think that we aren't like the baby leaders anymore.. I am getting to be one of the older sisters.. How insane is that?!?! I don't even feel like it at all.. So weird! They are awesome though, I am excited to work along side them!! :D 

Sept 21

Hey everyone!! :D Well happy news of the week is that I am staying here in Wyoming for another transfer!! I am so excited! :) my new companion is Sister Steele, she is from Idaho, has super cute curly hair, loves the gospel and has such a desire to serve the Lord!! :) I am so excited to serve with her! I know we are going to see so many miracles this upcoming transfer and it's going to be great!! :) It should be awesome! 

This week we had the opportunity to have a training with Elder Andersen and it was absolutely amazing! The spirit was so strong and he taught us some incredible things. He actually came and taught at our MLC as well which was amazing! :) The things he taught us there were probably some of my favorite things. He talked about how we need to have the faith to reap. He compared between Lamen and Lamuel and how they had enough faith to actually leave and follow their father but they didn't have enough faith to do all the things they were commanded to do. It's amazing how truly the Lord has given us commandments to help us not to make us restricted. There is a quote that I found this morning by Elder Perry he says, "A useful way to think about the commandments is they are loving counsel from a wise, all-knowing Heavenly Father. His goal is our eternal happiness, and His commandments are the road map He has given us the return to Him, which is the only way we will be eternally happy." I know that is true. I have seen so many blessings because of obedience in my life and also in the lives of people I love. Keep the commandments, in this there is saftey in this there is peace! <3 He then talked about how Nephi had the faith to reap, and how we need to strengthen our faith so that we can produce miracles. We must strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ and by doing so we will be able to strengthen others! :) That was such a great training he then trained us on pride as well, which lead me to a long study and introspection on pride this week. I have really noticed how easy it is for us to become prideful even in the smallest things, we must always recognize the need we have for a Savior and truly the need we have for all of the principles of the gospel. Repentance is the way out of that terrible sin. 

We had some incredible experiences this week as well!! :) after that training I felt my missionary spirit come back in crazy amounts and it's just kept going! We found some really neat people, and it's been because of the spirit. There is a scripture in D&C 3:3 which says, Remember, Remember that it is not the work of God that is frustrated by the work of man. As we are striving each and every week to become more like our Father in Heaven we just need to be obedient to strenghten our faith more completely and to strive each day to be a little bit better. 

I know this gospel is true! I know it with my whole heart and soul, I am thankful for repentance, for the sacrament and for the blessings the Lord bestows each and everyday upon those who are faithful! :) I hope you all have a wonderful week, keep looking for missionary opportunities! Last night we watched a mormon message with a member and it was exactly what she needed.. Even little things like that helped others to feel of Gods love. To strengthen yourselves, strengthen someone who needs more then you! Have a great week!! 

Sister Chisholm! <3 

Faith, courage and a little bit of pixie dust!!!!

September 8 "Faith, principle of Power"

Hey everyone!! I hope you all have had a wonderful week! :) I cannot believe it's been another week, seriously does anyone else feel like time is just flying by! It's September already! :) I hope that school, work or whatever you all are doing is going well! :D 

Another week in Michigan Complete!!!!! It was amazing!! :) Here were some highlights!!! 

We had an awesome zone pday on Monday!! I love this zone! It's amazing to be surrounded by 40 missionaries and to be able to to have fun with one another! They all truly are inspirations to me!! 

We had a great dinner with some members and we were able to help them respond to anti, actually cool story! They have a girl that worked with Brother Hannibal and she came up to him after she had read a bunch of the Book of Mormon and had tons of questions, we taught her a lesson a couple weeks ago and then she moved to Indiana, but then she actually came back this past week and came to church with us! :) She plans on getting baptized later this month!! It's amazing how the Lord prepares people, she searched it out herself and then knew he was a member and she was able to ask him questions! I am so excited for her, I am blessed to have been able to be even a small part of that process! :D We talked with them that night about how to answer questions especially the hard ones! 

On Tuesday our sister in ludington called and had just had an amazing miracle! They met this lady and she told them that she was interested and they came back with a Book of Mormon and as they gave her the book the lady started to cry! That was such a tender mercy for those sisters, for her and that they told us! It's amazing how the Lord truly will place us where we need to be! :) We also had a cool expereince that morning where we prayed specfically to be able to meet someone and invite her to be baptized.. it's been a zone goal to invite people to be baptized more often, we had about 10 minutes to knock and on the last door we met this girl that we were able to invite her to be baptized and she invited us back! Miracles are real! :) We taught some great lessons that day as well, our invesitgator Fernando who we just gave over to the spanish elders is amazing!! We taught the word or wisdom and he already is striving to live it, he just quit smoking and drinking.. It was amazing! :) I think he will get baptized soon! 

Wednesday we had a great district meeting, the assistants and the zone leaders were there which made it even more awesome! We have some great leaders in our mission! I am so grateful to be able to serve around them, Elder Bloskas one of the assistants shared a great scripture with sister guest and I after we pratice taught, he asked me to tell him the story about the women at the well, which is in John 4 and then he said the part that has always stood out to him is how the women leaves her water pot and goes to follow Christ and tell others about Him. I loved that. As we come unto Christ it often means that we have to leave something that we love. It means that we have to repent and change, it probably wasn't easy for her to leave the water pot because that was what she was using to get water and had been for so long but she had full trust in the Lord. Faith, it produces miracles!! :D We lost our car on wednesday so we biked and walked and knocked a lot!! It was great!! :) We also taught our new investigator Melissa who cool story was actually found a year ago by my trainer who served here!!!! That was so SO awesome!! We taught her and now she is super interested in learning!! It was amazing! Finding through former invesitgators is real.. especially when they were your companion!!! :) :) We had a lesson with the pendergrasses as well which was great! they are so awesome, I can't wait for them to come to church, it should be soon! It would be hard I think to come back after it's been so long but I think they can do it, faith and courage.. That really is what it takes! 

Thursday we weekly planned... :O :O haha I love planning and I know it's important but let me tell you one of my weaknesses.. being in the apartment for longer then like 3 hours is way way way too long!! haha :) We made it through though and planned a lot of good stuff! and Then we taught our investigator Micheal, he has all sorts of doubts but we watched the Restoration video with him and I think it helped. We just aren't sure exactly how much of a desire he has, but he wants to meet with us.. it's such an odd situation! haha Then there was a guy there that the elders were teaching and he almost hugged me.... Awkward...... Boys.... :O :O I was really embarressed and probably turned red like a tomato! haha 

Friday we found a lot and then also had a lesson with Melissa again! :) haha our tender mercy was that Sister Pawson came and picked us up for our lesson!! that was great! We thought we had asked her to come get us before we went to teach her but we totally forgot with everything else going on! Sometimes little things like that truly are answers to prayers! :) Everything always works out, I am such a firm believer of that! 

Saturday we found all day and biked like 12 miles!! :) It was great! We were so SO tired but we were happy! Those days are the best most of the time you know that you truly did work hard and you feel accomplished! We found some great people as well which was awesome! Miracles are everywhere!!! :) 

Sunday was my favorite day, it always is!! :D I LOVE sundays if you don't.. Well I would just say find a way to love them. It was fast sunday, our testimony meeting was amazing, we learned about forever families in gospel principles, and then about diligence in relief society.. It was so wonderful I truly had tears in my eyes all day, and I had a burning in my heart. The gospel is true, I know that it was restored through a prophet of God. I love my Savior and my Father in Heaven. I am so thankful to be a part of His work. It truly is the greatest work on this earth!!! :D We went door knocking with a member on Sunday as well, Sister Vanhorn and it was GREAT!! She was awesome we met 2 people that had the same name as her too and she just rocked it! :) We had dinner with our ward mission leader and man.. he is just amazing! We talked about staying close to the rod and staying strong in the gospel always, he shared about how often we are holding onto the rod with just 2 fingers and that is enough. The spirit will always help us to get a firm hold again, just keep holding on. Never let the tree out of your sight. Keep pushing on, even if you don't need a boost here it is anyways, you are not alone. You are never alone!! :) 

I love you all! I hope this doesn't bore you.. but I thought you may like to hear about my daily life a little bit!!! Keep smiling!!! The gospel is true!!! 

Sister Chisholm! <3 

Me and Sister Weeks!! It was her birthday 2 days ago!! :) 

 A very fun P-day activity at their Stake Presidents house!

 Peace out man....

 We sent her a back to school package. Each little item has a letter of the alphabet associated with it, it was a fun pkg to put together and she said it came at a good time with things she needed....I LOVE making packages for her and her companion!

This is Ian. She's been teaching him for quite a while and recently had to turn him over to the new elders in the area...she is SO hoping he gets baptized while she's still in the Wyoming area, she has really come to respect him and he is learning so much! And so is she!

 Apparently DL's and STL's need a little rice krispie treat every now and then.

A sweet giro

September 12 2015 "Repent, it's that simple."

Aloha!!!! :D Okay, I am not in Hawaii and it's not that warm here either.. but I just think that is a super great way to start an email!! :D I sure hope that you all are having a great day and that you are happy! Life was meant for us to be happy! Oh also.. I am emailing today because we are having Elder Andersen of the 70 come to our mission on Monday!! It's going to be great, I am going to copy his talk from this past conference in this email because it is super douper good.. and you all should read it!! :) https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/the-music-of-the-gospel?lang=eng

Check it out!! :) 

So last week I named my email faith, and this week it is repentance! :) I totally didn't plan that at all.. but in reality we are always striving to live the gospel of Jesus Christ. Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End. It's a consistent pattern and we must be continually living it! If we let ourselves slip for even just a minute we could fall into a trap and it will be much harder to get out! That is why we need Jesus Christ. We will all stumble at one point or another, we will all make mistakes at some point and that was part of our Father in plan. There truly is no way for us to become like Him if we don't have moments that are hard, or if we are tried. However, we can always come back to Him. We must Let Him In. This is something very profound that I have started to understand a little bit more about the Atonement. Jesus Christ suffered for our sins. He died for us and He made it possible that we can always have the spirit to be with us, however we have been given agency or the ability to choose and we decide what we do with it. We cannot deny the Atonement. If we don't give our hearts over to our Father in Heaven and if we don't let Jesus Christ in then we will never receive the joy of the gospel. We will never be able to change and we will stand still. Doesn't that sound awful...??! It sounds pretty terrible to me. That is why we must accept the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we must be willing and desire to change and then move forward with faith accepting that our Father in Heaven truly does have a plan for us! :) 

I know that you are loved! I know that we are all children of God, He has  perfect plan for us we just must be willing to let Him in and desire to change!! :) We were able to teach repentance to a less active family this week and it was incredible! I love the defintion of repentance in the bible dictionary! One of my favorites for sure, it means that we have a new view of the world, of ourselves and of God. It truly is incredible that we are able to repent, one of my favorite quotes is, "Repent joyfully" As we repent we change and we start to love ourselves again! :) 

Life is good! I love being a missionary, I have the great opportunity of inviting people to completely change and to repent, so that they can be happy, so that they can feel the joy of the gospel and so they can feel love! This work truly is a mighty work of love!! I am so grateful to be part of it!! :D Search for those opportunities to be a missionary, share your testimony or just smile at someone! They truly will desire to know what you carry within you!! :D 

Have a great week!!! :D 

Sister Chisholm! <3 

Oh.. only the greatest district ever!! :) haha 

 Their district!

During a pretty crazy rainstorm a member saw these two cute girls outside on their bikes without an umbrella, they turned around and gave them theirs. People are so good and so kind, thanks for helping our girls stay a "little" drier!!!