I am being transferred!

What a week! I am leaving this area and being transferred down to Colorado Springs tomorrow! I am really excited. It's going to be an awesome experience. It will be very different than things here in Parker, but I am ready for change! So we kind of knew this would be my last week here in Canterbury, so I decided to make it the best! And boy, it was a good week.

I probably only have time for the highlights but everyday was so awesome. 

We did a lot of service this week for a couple non members and some members in the ward who needed help. One lady we did service for is not a member but she is friends with a sister in our ward. After we did service with her and shared a message, we heard that she had been posting on facebook about Heavenly Father which she hasn't done before. That was really cool to hear. It's nice to know that our message sunk in and she took something away from it.

We also had a lesson with the S family! They are the family with an unbaptized child who we've been trying to teach for almost 3 months now! They had us over for dinner and then we taught the first lesson. They have never even let us in the home and I've only seen the mother once before. But they were all there and they were welcoming and so excited to have us there. We taught the little boy and he was so receptive and excited to have the lesson. We asked at the end how he felt and he said he felt very warm. He smiled literally through the whole lesson. He's so excited to be baptized! And the whole family came to church yesterday. That hasn't happened in the 6 months that I've been here! And probably longer than that! It was great to see them there. We set a date for his baptism and unfortunately I won't be there since I'm being transferred. But, I can hopefully get permission to come back for the baptism!

We also had a lesson with M this week! It had been a long time since we have seen her. She has been very busy and out of town a lot, but she had still been reading and praying! We recapped what we talked about last time and then taught her all about receiving revelation and how to recognize answers to prayers. I could tell she really needed to hear that because she has been really trying to find her answer to her prayers about baptism. It was so great to see her and teach her one last time before I left! I feel so much love for these people that we teach. I  can feel Christ's love for them as we sit there and I try my hardest to let them feel of the same love I feel. It's amazing how much Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us all.  I have gotten a glimpse of that as I teach His children.

We had a few lessons with some less active members who we've been working with as well. Recently they have vocalized how much our visits help even if they do not outwardly show it. They still have their struggles and we help in all the ways we can, but I can tell that the spirit they feel when we meet with them is the biggest help. After all, we don't do anything. It's the spirit that teaches and converts the people.

It's been funny this week because there are a million RM's running around parker trying to sell pest control. Almost every street we go down, there's a pest control guy! They always run up to us all excited because they were missionaries once too. It's fun because we ask them where the nice people live then we go try and teach them the gospel. One guy this week got really really excited to see us. Then his mother in law called and he answered and goes "Anne! Guess what!!! I just ran into the sisters! So cool!!" it's hilarious.

So much more has happened this week, but I am just happy to be doing the Lord's will. No matter where I go, there will be people who are prepared to hear the gospel and if I am obedient, I will be led to them. It's not that easy on the mission, but it's so worth it. I was reading in Alma 24 this morning about how the Anti-Nephi-Lehi's buried their weapons of war as a representation of their testimony. It got me thinking about my life and I asked myself the question: What would I bury to show my testimony and love for Christ? Many things came to mind of what I have already buried, and then my  mind was flooded with things I have yet to bury to show my testimony and dedicate myself to the Lord. There is always room for improvement and things to learn. I love the person the Lord is showing me that I can become. And, by burying these things, I can get one step closer to becoming that person.

I'm excited for my new adventure in Colorado Springs and the things ahead! I love you all and I love the Lord.

xoxo

Sister Hoer

Celebrating sister missionary training leaders's Bday

Cutest lemonade stand ever!

Sis. Moss & I enjoying our lemonade

Making cakes for the high priest group social

Saying goodbye to YW that taught many lessons with us.

Goodbyes to ward mission leader & his family~He made us milkshakes!

PS~~ oh, I forgot to tell you some funny stories.

Being a missionary is so great. The littlest things can sometimes be the biggest successes. This week, we had a lot of good appointments set up! But unfortunately, life happens and most of them cancelled on us. That was a bummer but sometimes it was a blessing in disguise! Because as we adjusted our plans to make up for the cancelled appointments, we were led to be in the right places at the right times. 

One day, we were walking down to visit a less active lady. We had just enough time to get there and back before our dinner appointment. But on our way to their house, we ended up talking to a man who was searching for the truth. Our neighborhood is growing and a lot of houses are being built. We walk past the construction workers every time we leave our house and we are very friendly to them. They say "hi" to us and we ask how they're doing. So this day, we were walking past and one of them came to us and was like "are you testifiers? Are you of the Jehovah’s Witness?" We got a good laugh out of that. But, he said he has seen us walking a lot and his buddy told him we were Jehovah's Witnesses. We then were able to explain to him who we were and all about our church. We pretty much taught him the first lesson...all about Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the restoration. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he committed to reading it and praying every single night. He told us that he knows God exists but he is searching to find the truth. It was so awesome to have that opportunity to teach him and lead him to what he is looking for! It was also a testimony to me that if we go out and work, the Lord will make sure we are in the right places. Even though we had planned to go see this less active family, we really needed to be walking that way to meet this man. Since he is a worker, he doesn't live in our boundaries, but we gave him our phone number so if he desires, we can find the missionaries in his area.

We have been focusing a lot on a few less actives in our ward. We meet with a few of them weekly and it's interesting because this past week, two of them mentioned to us that our visits really fill them with light and with the spirit. They are still a little apprehensive about coming to church and making the commitment to change, but they definitely feel the spirit when we visit with her. One lady we meet with every Thursday night has to work this week. And in the past, we would just not meet that week. But she told us she needs the visit because her week goes a lot better when she has our message to think about when she gets down. So we are meeting with her a different night instead! We decided we need to let her know that our visits are great, but she can get that same spirit at church and the messages at church will help her even more throughout her week. Hopefully she will realize the truth of this and have the desire to make church a priority! It's interesting to work with these less actives because they know what they need to do...they just have a problem making those changes. But thank goodness for the atonement because it allows us to change! We can have heavenly help and assistance to change and become better through the atonement.

Our investigator, M, has been so busy! She's been out of town and then this week she has another camp. So unfortunately another week has gone by that we haven't seen her! But, we set up an appointment for this weekend, so that will be great. These people here are so busy! There are some families in our ward that my companion hasn't even met yet because they've been out of town so much! And it's week 6 of the transfer.

Speaking of transfers, they are coming up! We won't know until next week what will happen, but I have a feeling my time here in Parker is about up. So I am determined to make this week the best week ever because it very well may be my last week in this area. I am going to work as hard as I can and give it my all. My mom always said to leave things better than you found them...so I need to finish strong and leave this area better than I found it!  And when we work hard and are obedient, we are so blessed. I have seen this to be so true in my mission so far. The Lord loves his missionaries! And He will do all he can to help them accomplish His work.

Keep on keepin on everybody.

Love you!

xoxo

Sister Hoer

PS~~ oh, I forgot to tell you some funny stories. So the kids we live with...I always tell them goofy things to do and sometimes their parents don't love it!

One day they were playing with twigs they found and pretending like they were Harry Potter wands. I told the youngest boy, Cannon, he should put a zig zag on his forehead then he'd have real powers like Harry Potter. Lo and behold he runs inside and draws a lightning bolt on his forehead and runs back out yelling new spells on me. Hilarious. Then his dad was like "oh Cannon", then wiped off the marker. Oops!

And then last night, they were all playing pool and I told the kids that the blue chalk for the pool sticks is perfect for your nose. So, they all stuck the blue chalk on their noses and ran around with smurf noses. I'm sure their parents weren't too fond of that either. Maybe it's a good thing we're moving out...I keep getting these kids in trouble! LOL

Cool Tunnel

I got a new bike! LOL  jk

Where we have been living!

Me and mah boiz!

Sunflower Love  <3

The wild flowers are absolutely gorgeous!

The wild flowers have come out to let us know that summer is here! They are absolutely gorgeous. I love looking at the yellow flowers as we walk around. I even picked one to bring to a member in our ward who recently had surgery! You sure don't see stuff like this in Vegas haha!

It's been a really good week. We've been super busy and worked super hard this week. Sometimes I get impatient because we don't see immediate results for all the hard work that we do...and sometimes we put forth a lot of effort and don't see the results we wish to see. But the most important thing is that we are here and we give everyday our best efforts. Our new mission president is consistently reminding us that baptisms or "stats" do not determine if we are successful as a missionary. Just the fact that we are here sacrificing our time and money is a huge way to show our efforts. And every day that we get out and do our best to fulfill our purpose...we are successful. Our new mission president is so great. He is very encouraging and motivating!

One day this week, we were at the community food bank doing service. The lady asked my companion and I to keep an eye on her kids so she could fill out the paperwork. While we were sitting there, a nice man and his wife starting asking us lots of questions about being missionaries. He said they lived in the same apartment as some elders (in the other mission) and they used to talk to them all the time! He told us that he really respected us for what we do and he has a great appreciation for the LDS people. The conversation was going great and my companion and I were able to teach him many gospel truths as we talked. His wife then started to tell us about their daughter. She began to cry and told us that her daughter has a special relationship with the Lord and she is "lost" in her life right now. We told her that the gospel can really help those who are feeling lost and how her relationship with the Lord will bless her life. Then the husband says "You need to teach my daughter the word....The Lord just told me that." Woah. I had to take a second to comprehend what he was saying! This couple was so receptive to the spirit and they acted on the promptings they received. Even though there was so much going on around us, we were able to have a sweet spirit there in the food bank. The couple asked if we could meet up again, but next time they wanted to bring their daughter so we could meet her and share "the word" with her. That was an awesome experience. We have arranged to meet tomorrow and hopefully things go as we have planned! This experience let me know that we were in exactly the right place at the right time, and these people were put in our path by the Lord. We were able to tell the couple that this was not a coincidence that we met and they completely agreed.

Another cool, but small, experience this week. We were walking around trying to visit less active members in our ward and talking to everyone we saw. One girl was walking her dog and we stopped to talk to her. We started just asking her about her adorable dog, and then she goes "I believe in God! My heart was pounding and I was very happy the first time I learned about God...and I know He is real!" She is a cute girl from Ukraine who has been adopted by an American family here in Parker. But the neat thing was that she recognized us as representatives of Jesus Christ and began to share her belief in God before we even said anything about religion at all! She said she is grounded so we couldn't get her phone number, but she said she'd call us soon if her dad is okay with her learning more! People really are put in our path. And maybe they won't get baptized immediately, but we still teach them and share the gospel with them.

Our investigator, M, has been so busy that we haven't been able to see her! And she goes out of town again this week. But, she is still reading the Book of Mormon and praying! Summer will be over soon and then we will be able to meet with her regularly again. But we have kept in touch with her and shared some inspired scriptures with her via technology. Thank goodness they give us cell phones!

And the S family who has an unbaptized child reached out to us this week and said they would like to start the lessons next week! Finally!!!! I am so excited to start working with their son.  He is so so excited to be baptized. Things are moving along here in Parker! I've almost been here 6 months which is crazy. Hopefully, I can see some of these miracles through the end.

So yes. Mission life is great. And great things are happening here. The work really is hastening! And it's all about the members in areas like this. They are our main resource for finding people to teach! The Lord really has blessed us this week. He blesses us every single day! I have come to know the Holy Ghost on a more personal level this week as I have sought after inspiration and prayed more than I have before! I am just continually amazed at how the spirit will comfort and inspire us to make his work move forward. I am so happy to be here and love sharing the gospel! It's exciting to see the Lord work through us as missionaries and to see the spirit work on those who we teach. Life is so wonderful! yayayay.

xoxoxo

Sister Hoer

A member gave us these Capri Suns

Wild Flowers

I love wild flowers

Seriously...Love these flowers!

Summer Storms

Allie & I still have the same clothes~ twining across the US of A

Happy Birthday America!!! I love the 4th of July so much! It was a great week. I wore red white and blue everyday to prepare for Independence day. It was wonderful! We had an awesome ward BBQ with delicious food and fun people to talk to. Then we spent the evening with some families in our ward eating and enjoying the blessings of living in the promised land! We are so blessed and fortunate to live in a land where we can enjoy freedom and peace. Especially freedom of religion- the restoration literally would not have been possible if we did not have freedom of religion in America! It was all part of the divine plan.

So yes, the fourth of July was wonderful. We live in such a patriotic community so there were flags and BBQs and block parties and everyone was just so happy to be an American! In other news, we got to meet our new mission president this week! He is a special man. At the end of our meeting with him, he gave his closing remarks and the spirit witnessed to me very strongly that this man is called of God to be our mission president at this time. He is quite different than our last mission president, but I think he is exactly what our mission needs at this time. At least he is what I need right now! He is a very genuine man who is really focused on helping us grow and become better missionaries by relying on the spirit. I am so excited to see how things will change in our mission and also how I will change as a missionary! It's really exciting.

We have continued trying our hardest to talk to as many people as we possibly can! We teach everyone we see and testify to them of the restored gospel. We talked to a man yesterday who thought he knew a lot about our church, but as we talked to him, we revealed things that he had misunderstood. It was funny because we taught him about the restoration, the priesthood and the Book of Mormon and then we offered him a copy of the Book of Mormon! But then he says "woah. I've learned so much already in our short conversation, I think I need to soak all this in before I take your book!" It made me chuckle. But we left him with our phone number for when he's ready to accept the book. I love talking to people! It's so interesting and I learn a lot about people. The people in our area are so friendly and very nice to us. We've been offered a lot of water and even though it's really hot, it's a blessing because people have sympathy on us! They are just polite, friendly people and I love them all!

We've also been focusing a lot on family history lately. We've been trying to talk to people more about their families and if they have done any of their genealogy. It's interesting how people are much more willing to talk to us about their family history. And we have invited many of them to come to our family history center to learn more! My companion and I were doing family history one day and turns out we are related! She was doing some research on some Utley's in her family line and I glanced over at her screen and saw the name! We went back and we have some of the same ancestors many generations ago. What a crazy connection! But I have had a lot of fun learning about my family history and my ancestors. I think this family history push is really a great way to get people introduced to the church and interested in the gospel.

Well, of course I am just loving it here. The people are great, the missionaries are great, our ward is great, and of course the gospel is WONDERFUL. It is the true church! And I could not be happier because of my knowledge of the truth. I hope you all have a fantastic week!

xoxo

Sister Hoer

Our Mom's sent us packages with CANDY!

Playing with the kids we live with!

Ward BBQ on the 4th of JULY

Artsy Anna pictures

Me and my comp on a wooded trail

Me and my comp. ~ Sunset

Sunset in Parker,  Colorado

All hail broke loose this week! Hahhaha! But literally. The craziest hail storm hit Parker this week!

Hail

Hand fulls of hail

All hail broke loose this week! Hahhaha! But literally. The craziest hail storm hit Parker this week. We were not outside when it hit- thank goodness! But when we got home, it literally looked like it had snowed, but it was hail! There were piles everywhere and the roofs were all covered. It was quite the sight to see! Other than that, we've had some beautiful, sunny warm days. It's about time!

We had a really good week. We are making a strong effort to talk to more people because we need to do more finding. There is a statistic that out of every 1,000 people, one of them will accept the gospel. So we decided we just gotta talk to 1,000 people, and we will find the one. It's been fun and discouraging at the same time. We are talking to a LOT more people and knocking on a lot more doors. Some of them are not so pleasant. But the good moments outweigh the bad here on the mission! And it's interesting how the Lord will bless us. I've noticed a definite pattern. Whenever someone gets upset and slams the door, the next person we talk to is usually very friendly and nice to us. The Lord must know I need nice people because they make me forget all about the slammers. One guy we talked to this week was very interested in the gospel! We taught him quite a bit there on his doorstep then he said he would love to take the missionary lessons! So we asked when we could come back and teach him...then he says "Well I'm just visiting here. I actually live in Aurora." COOL. He's not even in our mission. But we still planted a seed and told him how to get in contact with the missionaries in his neighborhood! He is still a precious child of God.

We were able to meet with M this week! We had a good lesson. We talked about her baptismal date which has come and gone and why she didn't feel ready. We decided to go back to the basics. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. She said she didn't know for sure if Joseph Smith is a prophet. After teaching about Joseph Smith, we asked what it would mean to her if Joseph Smith really was a prophet of God. Her response was awesome. She says "Well if he's really a prophet, then I definitely want to be baptized" YES! So we challenged her this week to read Joseph Smith's history and pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I am really happy that she still wants to learn and progress towards baptism. It will all be when she becomes converted and learns for herself that these things we teach are true. She is now diligently reading the Book of Mormon and praying, so her answer is more likely to come!

We also finally had a lesson with the E family!!! We have been trying for 6 weeks to set up an appointment with them and we finally did it. They are a part member/ less active family. The mom has only been a member for 3 years as well as her daughter. The mom was the only one who we taught, but she definitely needed it. We taught her the lesson of the Restoration. She really opened up to us and explained that she has been feeling promptings to start reading and going to church again. That is probably why she was willing to let us teach her. She even asked if we could continue to teach her. It was awesome to see that her desire to come back is really there. We just gotta help her and continually encourage her! We challenged her to read every day and come to church on Sunday. We'll see what happens there!

A lot of things have been happening in our ward lately. A lot of families moved out, but we also had a lot move in! It's exciting to see new faces. A lot of the youth are also moving away for college or leaving on missions too! It was tender to say goodbye to them. Sometimes I feel like they don't care about us missionaries, but one of the young men told me that he has really learned a lot from me and my example. He has come to many lessons with us to teach M so he's been teaching with us for a while. I'm excited for him and happy that we actually do make a difference!

Our new mission president got here this weekend! I am excited to meet him this week. It will be a good chance for all of us as missionaries to step up our game and become who we really want to be. He emailed us today and told us that each of us have a new slate with him. I haven't been here too long...but I am excited to really start today to become exactly the missionary I want to be. And better yet...the missionary the Lord wants me to be. The Lord really does bless us as we serve Him! I have little moments multiple times a day where I stop and say a little prayer of thanks because the Lord was watching out for us. Even with the smallest things. He is there for us every second of every day! And as we are obedient and worthy of the spirit, He will only bless us more. He will give us what we put into this work. I am determined every morning to give it my all and do everything I possibly can to accomplish the Lord's will that day. This is such a great opportunity to dedicate all my time to the Lord and helping my fellow children of God find the light.

Go share your testimony with someone today! It could change their life.

Love you all!!!

xoxo

Sister Hoer

P.S. I hit my five month mark yesterday! Is that crazy or what!?!

Sis. Merritt visited the mission!

Me and Jackie at Froyo

Sis. Hoer and Sis Ercanback hiking Castlewood Canyon