tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51842800430766338772024-02-06T23:32:46.854-08:00Sister Lauren HolbrookSister missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Utah Salt Lake City Mission from October 2013 to April 2015Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.comBlogger89125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-84802210627703699872015-06-12T18:53:00.001-07:002015-06-12T18:53:48.773-07:00a final noteThe time has come to return to reality.<div>
And a normal blog.</div>
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Please keep in touch or continue to silently stalk at <a href="http://lauren2hearts.blogspot.com/">my blog of normality</a>.</div>
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The gospel of Jesus Christ is true! </div>
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Forward, and on, on to the victory!</div>
Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-72920083526736745382015-04-23T18:42:00.001-07:002015-04-23T18:42:56.062-07:00Week 80: The Final Farewell<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Well, I'm officially home.</span><br />
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Weird.</div>
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As a final email out, here's a recap of the final week as a full-time missionary.</div>
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<b>Monday</b></div>
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Our final P-day activity of the usual basketball at a church building.</div>
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Two family home evenings with some amazing members in the wards.</div>
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Finally finished our task of delivering neighborhood directories and met two fantastic people because of it!</div>
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<b>Tuesday</b></div>
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Had my departing interview with President Spendlove. Some key points from there:</div>
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-Always live the standards of <a href="https://www.lds.org/youth/for-the-strength-of-youth?cid=YS-M-youthstrength&lang=eng" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">For the Strength of Youth</a></div>
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-Because of my time in this mission, I have come to know and understand our Savior, Jesus Christ, even more.</div>
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-CTR now means current temple recommend</div>
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-Serve WITH the Savior, not just for Him.</div>
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-Always live your life for others. Think about the effects your decisions will have on your family, children, Relief Society, etc.</div>
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Sister Spendlove joined us for a lesson with the Myer's. Her testimony was perfect for the questions that Sister Myer asked. I love seeing how the Lord brings specific people together for specific reasons!</div>
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The Lord is good to me: we had several inches of snow that day which is just gorgeous on the mountains of Bountiful.</div>
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<b>Wednesday</b></div>
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Departing temple day! We went to the Bountiful Temple in the swirling snow with the 19 of us heading home. Crazy.</div>
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I love the peace the temple brings. It truly is the house of the Lord. Before going in, Sister Spendlove shared some thoughts with us that really struck me. She told us to spend time in our true home after we returned home. If the temple is our Heavenly Father's home, and we are His children, then it must be our home, too.</div>
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Lunch downtown with everyone, rides to some Sisters, and then back just in time for dinner and evening appointments with my sweet companion.</div>
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<b>Thursday</b></div>
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Final zone lunch and district meeting. Mo'bettah's one last time. District meeting was all about the attribute of patience, which has been extremely helpful the past several days.</div>
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Contacted several people with entertaining stories from it all. Had one last lesson with the Vita family. Love them to pieces.</div>
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<b>Friday</b></div>
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Things got real that day. I finished up basically all of my packing. Crazy stuff.</div>
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Had a short, powerful training on the importance of testimony.</div>
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Won candy while playing bingo with the people in the care center that our stake covers.</div>
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We had one of the most spiritually powerful experiences of my mission later that night. We had dinner with the former stake president and his wife. Shortly after he was released, he was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and given between 6 and 15 months to live. He's into month eight, and seems to be doing pretty well. We talked about Food network, family, health struggles, and how the gospel brings it all together. As we were preparing to leave, they asked about our appointments that night. We had a lesson with the Myer's set for right after. He looked at us and simply told us to tell the Myer's, "Russ and Pauline know it's true." Tears came to his wife's eyes, and I nearly started, too as the power of that testimony hit each one of us.</div>
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I know this gospel is true. I know our families can be together forever because of the ordinances of the temple. I know that no matter the challenge we face, the gospel of Jesus Christ can and will bring us the peace we are so desperately seeking.</div>
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<b>Saturday</b></div>
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Phone calls, laundry, packing, early morning meeting with some people in one of our wards, and a final apartment inspection before a final trip to Nielsen's for some custard. Paperwork, more laundry, more visits, and final packing. An accidental door contact with the wrong address led to a fantastic conversation about heart and health stuff. Our final appointment of the evening also had some heart problems. The Lord gives us the exact trials we need to help both us become more like Him and to help His other children. </div>
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<b>Sunday</b></div>
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The final day. We were in church meetings from 8am til 3:30pm. Final correlation meeting, taught a youth group the Restoration and practiced teaching with them, joined the Myer's at church for a few hours, helped with a youth sunday school class, visited Relief Society, and raced home to finish packing before a final dinner appointment. Crazy day. </div>
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The drive down to Salt Lake was surreal, sitting in the Whittier chapel for the departing testimony meeting was even moreso. We each bore our final testimonies as full-time missionaries, took pictures and visited with all the people who came to visit, and then we were off. Crazy. Fun fact: I got to drive the luggage minvan down to the mission office haha.</div>
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We received a final training from President Spendlove, saw the transfer board, had a little performance and visited with everyone. The Elders spent the night at the mission home and the Sisters packed up down to the Bishop's home in the Spendlove's ward. Approximate bedtime: 1:00am</div>
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<b>Monday</b></div>
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Due to early morning flights, we were up at 4:40am to head off to the airport by 6:30.</div>
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It's been surreal. It's still weird to be home. But I am forever grateful for these eighteen months that have changed who I am. I am so grateful for the relationship I now have with my Heavenly Father and with my Savior. I am so grateful for the firm testimony I have that these things are true! I know the gospel of Jesus Christ is the way for us to experience true joy in our lives. I love His work. I love His plan. And I know it is true.</div>
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I love you all so much. One of the greatest blessings has been to meet each of you. Your faith and examples have changed my life. Thank you for your goodness and love for the Lord. Keep smiling. Keep living the gospel. Keep loving every moment.</div>
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I know our Heavenly Father is there. He lives! He answers every prayer. Our Savior is Jesus Christ. He lives and He loves us. He will never leave us alone. Turn to Him and He will always answer.</div>
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Remember to smile :)</div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Holbrook</div>
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(Lauren)</div>
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Please keep in touch on email or Facebook!</div>
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<a href="http://lauren2hearts.blogspot.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">lauren2hearts.blogspot.com</a></div>
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On the plane with Sister Fluegel!</div>
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Our departing group!</div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-24265382906441733182015-04-15T19:18:00.002-07:002015-04-15T19:18:23.410-07:00Week 79: Invite Other to Come Unto ChristCrazy how the time flies, isn't it?<br />
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We had a busy week! Paperwork, practicing a song to teach to a young women's group, lots of visits to lots of people, teaching lessons to members of the wards, ward mission leader visits, getting our oil changed and a Buick for a day, writing final letters, spending time with our sister training leaders on hikes and exchanges, helping investigators with a yard sale (meaning we showed up and said hi), crashing several different ward activities, and a million other things.</div>
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We're tired. And it feels so good.</div>
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<a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/enos/1.26-27?lang=eng#25" target="_blank">Enos 1:26-27</a> currently describes my attitude toward my mission.</div>
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<span class="im">I have loved every single moment of these past eighteen months. I love sharing what I know to be true. I love focusing completely on the gospel of Jesus Christ, on those things that truly matter from the eternal perspective. I love these people with all my heart. Heavenly Father has put some of the greatest souls to ever walk this earth into my life. I am so grateful for that. I have never been happier, healthier, or more tired. I love the lessons, the trials, and the refinement my Heavenly Father has given to me and taught me these past months. I'm different because of it, and I never want to go back to who I was before.</span></div>
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There's one comfort in going home: the purpose stays the same. </div>
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Our purpose as missionaries is to <b>invite others to come unto Christ</b> by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. </div>
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That is our Heavenly Father's purpose, and all that we do in the Church is geared to that end. To invite others to come unto Christ. That is what we all must do every single day of our lives, whether by example, word, or invitation. It must be a part of who we are. That is what my misison has taught me. To invite others to come unto Christ, with or without a nametag.</div>
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Faith in Jesus Christ.</div>
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Repentance.</div>
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Baptism and eternal covenants.</div>
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The gift of the Holy Ghost.</div>
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Enduring to the end.</div>
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That's what this is all about. Nothing else really matters. It is just that simple. This is how we return home to Him.</div>
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I know this is the true church of Jesus Christ on the earth today. This is His gospel. This is His plan for us. This is a plan of joy! I know He loves each one of us. That includes you. He has done everything He possibly can to help us get back to Him without taking away our ability to choose. Oh, how He wants us to choose His path! </div>
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I know the Book of Mormon is true. It testifies of Christ in every single page. I know daily reading of the scriptures and daily prayer will bring us closer to our Father in Heaven and invite the power of the Spirit into our lives. I love the scriptures. I love the time I get to spend on my knees each day. I love our Father in Heaven and our Savior, Jesus Christ. I know They live!</div>
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I love you all more than you know. Thank you for your love, letters, prayers, pictures, and general support these eighteen months. It has meant so much. </div>
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Remember to smile! The gospel is true!</div>
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I'll talk to you all soon.</div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Holbrook</div>
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Keep in touch: <a href="mailto:lauren2hearts@gmail.com" target="_blank">lauren2hearts@gmail.com</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: start;">P-day hike with Sister Johnson!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: start;">Snow on Mom's birthday :)</span></div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-23120151563123238222015-04-08T05:21:00.001-07:002015-04-08T05:21:25.197-07:00Week 78: I Know That My Redeemer Lives<b style="font-size: large;">Sister Holbrook will be returning home on Monday, April 20th and speaking in church on Sunday, April 26th at 9 am!</b><br />
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Happy birthday Grandma Hyde and Hermana Juarez!! I love you two :)</div>
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Quotes of the week:</div>
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"All roads lead to a church building. "Sister Hay</div>
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"You're a polar bear because you're white." Hermana Tranchina</div>
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"That's because the Lamanites rock." -Mitch, a recent convert in response to our daily scripture text</div>
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"If you can't bring someone else to Christ, bring yourself." Sister Hay</div>
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<b>Precious moment</b></div>
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Sister Allen received her patriarchal blessing this week!</div>
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Sister Soelberg and I received permission to attend, and what a highlight that was. It was one of the most spiritually powerful experiences of my mission.</div>
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I know the power of the Priesthood is real. I know that Heavenly Father speaks to us today. He will give us specific, personal direction when we ask for it. Patriarchal blessings are powerful, personal scripture for us to use, study, and apply throughout our lives. I know that as we live the gospel, Heavenly Father will pour out His blessings upon us. </div>
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<b>General Conference</b></div>
We spent conference as such:<br />
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Saturday morning with the Compton family, a recent convert.</div>
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Saturday afternoon at the conference center with a woman who's been coming back to church for several months and her daughter.</div>
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Sunday morning with Sister Skaggs, our landlady who is just the best.</div>
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Sunday afternoon at the conference center with the Myers and the Vita's!</div>
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The miracle of conference for me was being in the conference center with Sister Myers, who is from Spain, and having two of the talks be in Spanish. That was powerful.</div>
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Other thoughts that stood out:</div>
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<li>Make the Sabbath more holy. Elder Nelson</li>
<li>Eliminate distractions from the world and media. Basically everyone</li>
<li>Build our lives on our covenants. Elder Pearson</li>
<li>Help others to hear and feel the music of the gospel. Elder Andersen</li>
<li>Defend the family. Elder Perry and several other people.</li>
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I am grateful for the questions I took to conference, for those are the answers and direction I received. I know that what was taught this past weekend comes from our Heavenly Father. If we will study and apply those things the Spirit taught us, we will be able to feel the joy and peace that comes from living the gospel.</div>
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Despite it being spring break with 90% of our area in St. George for the vacation, we had miracles this week: someone let us do service and paint their bedroom, we were able to visit a former investigator who agreed to have us come back, our investigators readily accept everything we teach them, a member took us to visit two of the people we had planned to see, Priesthood blessings answered questions, and the Lord simply took care of us and let us know that He is there. </div>
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Sister Hay and I are working on faith and hope, trusting that God's promises are certain, and moving forward with an increased enthusiasm for the work. I love this stake. I love the people we meet each day. I love being able to serve here. I love being able to feel our Father in Heaven's love for His children. I love learning more of His gospel and coming closer to Him each day. </div>
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I am so grateful for the time I have had here to become more like Him, to learn more of Him, and to draw nearer to Him. I love the Lord. I know this is His work. I know it is a work of joy, not of fear! I know He is always with us and will never leave us. If we will turn to our Savior, Jesus Christ, He will lift us, heal us, and embrace us. I know He lives! That is the greatest miracle of this life: that because He lives, we too will live again. That is the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ and I know it is true.</div>
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I love you all. Remember to smile!</div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Holbrook</div>
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I love General Conference :)</div>
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I love Temple Square :)</div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-87380373836212339742015-03-31T18:28:00.002-07:002015-03-31T18:28:38.662-07:00Week 77: #BecauseHeLivesSounds mind is to have common sense, which is the less common of all the senses.<br />
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Quote courtesy of our ward mission leader.</div>
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Also this one:</div>
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"Take your pirate shirt and go away."</div>
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I love people and the funny things they say :)</div>
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We had a very slow week with another one ahead. Everyone and their dog is out of town for spring break, and every school has a different week for spring break. So it's been rough trying to see people or contact new people. BUT the Lord has a plan, and Sister Hay and I have been growing in ways that haven't been stretched before.</div>
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This area is causing me to literally grasp at straws, to use everything I've learned these past several months, to pray more than I ever have before. I am so grateful for that. It's a mountain to climb, but I know it's forcing me to become even more of who Heavenly Father needs me to become. And that's what this work is all about: becoming like Him.</div>
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I know Heavenly Father answers each of our prayers. It's not always in the way we are expecting, but He does answer. I know He will always be by our side, no matter what we go through. </div>
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<b><a href="http://www.mormon.org/easter" target="_blank">Because He Lives</a></b></div>
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If you haven't seen the video yet, go watch it.</div>
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I just want to add my testimony that our Savior, Jesus Christ lives! I know that to be true. Because He lives, we all will be able to live again. We have the opportunity to become perfected if we will repent, change, and strive to be like Him. Because of His sacrifice, we can have confidence that He understands every pain, sorrow, trial, joy, and light that we will ever experience. Because I know He lives, I want to help others gain that testimony for themselves. This is the center point of all hope: the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I know that as we turn to Him in faith, we can feel of His power in our lives.</div>
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<b>The Stake Vision</b></div>
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We were able to meet with our stake president this past week and understand a little more of his vision for the stake: to improve the three-hour meeting block. And it all starts with talks in sacrament meeting and the lessons taught during the other two hours. Here are just some key points from some of the training he and his wife have given us:</div>
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<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Ask inspired questions. No one wants to listen to a lecture. As we engage through the right kinds of questions, others share testimony, and all are uplifted and edified.</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">It all starts before the meeting. We must give ourselves time for the Holy Ghost to tell us what needs to be shared. That comes as we prepare to the best of our ability, using every resource the Lord has given to us.</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">This isn't about you. The Holy Ghost is the only one who can carry the message to the hearts of the people (2 Nephi 33:1). Our job is to create an environment where the Holy Ghost can testify and teach.</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Remember: people usually come hoping to gain something. Some people may be giving church one last chance. If we will ask our Father in Heaven what His children need to know, He will help us to give the lesson that He would have us give. </li>
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I love you all! I know this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth today! I know the Book of Mormon is true. I know that as we read from it daily and ask God if it is true, we will become more deeply converted disciples of Jesus Christ. I know Heavenly Father wants each of His children to come back to Him - that's why we share the gospel, why we gain our own testimonies, why we teach each other each week. This is a work of love. He loves each one of you. As we shepherd people to the baptismal font, to the sacrament table, and to the temple, the Holy Ghost will fill our hearts and homes, and we will feel just a taste of the joy our Father in Heaven feels in the soul that comes back to Him (Doctrine & Covenants 18:15-16).</div>
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Remember to smile! Miracles happen - we just need to take the time to look for them.</div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Holbrook</div>
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PS It's spring break and the family history center is open for less time, sorry I couldn't respond to everyone!</div>
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<a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/pgp/moses/6.34?lang=eng#33" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">Moses 6:34</span></a></div>
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PICTURES! Your favorite part, I know :)</div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: start;">I love my Texan companion :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: start;">General Women's Meeting with Sisters Hamblin and Johnson!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: start;">I <3 my companion!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: start;">Flowers just for mom :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: start;">I love the temple so much.</span></div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-84267087611646011062015-03-28T14:29:00.005-07:002015-03-28T14:29:55.719-07:00Week 76: Break-Ins and Full Circles<div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
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<b>Mom's Note:</b></div>
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We have been out of town in Hawaii for Spring Break, so sorry this letter is late. </div>
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Tia, who Lauren mentions in her letter is a woman Lauren started teaching back in November 2013 when she arrived in her very first area. Tia was baptized in March of 2014, so it is really exciting that she has now gone through the temple and that Lauren and her 1st companion (Candice) were able to be there with Tia.</div>
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She comes home in 23 days!!!!</div>
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<b>Lauren's Letter:</b></div>
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Once upon a time, two sister missionaries were planning for the next day when they heard someone banging on their basement window well cover.</div>
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Naturally, these two poor missionaries thought that someone was trying to break in.</div>
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Lock the doors. Turn all the lights on.</div>
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Sister Hay looks out the window and sees three men. </div>
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So we call our district leader to ask if they're outside. </div>
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But the men start laughing, so I open the door in frustration.</div>
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And there stood three BYU friends to drop off a package and say hi.</div>
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I know the best and craziest people in this world.</div>
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Two topics for this week: temple and sacrament.</div>
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Saturday was one of the happiest days of my life. </div>
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Tia went to the temple to receive her endowment.</div>
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Walking into the celestial room, giving her a big hug, and seeing all of the members from her ward.</div>
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That was the best moment.</div>
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I was bursting with joy! To see all of these people I love in the best place possible. </div>
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I know the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real. I know we can repent, change, and become clean. I know the temple is His house on the earth. I know we can be families for eternity because of the power of the Priesthood and because of the ordinances of the temple. I know this is His work. I know He loves us. Heavenly Father has done everything possible for us to return to live with Him. He only asks that we keep His commandments. </div>
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We had a fireside with one of our wards last night. </div>
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<span style="color: black;"><a href="https://www.lds.org/church/leader/david-l-beck?lang=eng" target="_blank">President Beck</a>, the General Young Men's President, and his wife spoke.</span></div>
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They gave us the assignment to share <a href="https://www.lds.org/youth/article/always-remember-him?lang=eng" target="_blank">this video</a> on the sacrament. </div>
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In <a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/3-ne/18.7,8,9,10,11,12?lang=eng#6" target="_blank">3 Nephi 18:7-12</a>, Christ instituted the sacrament among the people in the Americas.</div>
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It was one of the last things He did before He was crucified.</div>
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It was one of the first things He did after He was resurrected.</div>
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How important is the sacrament to the Savior?</div>
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How important is the sacrament to you?</div>
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How will you always remember Him? </div>
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I am so grateful for the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for us. For you. For me. I know that as we strive to always remember Him, we can feel of His strength at all times. </div>
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<a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/124.44?lang=eng#43" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">Doctrine & Covenants 124:44</span></a></div>
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What places have become holy in your life because of your labor there?</div>
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Each of these areas has become a holy place for me. I love these people.</div>
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I know this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth today! I know He lives! I know His plan for us is perfect, even if we don't always understand it. I know He answers every prayer.</div>
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I love you all. Remember to smile, and go out and be the answer to someone's prayer!</div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Holbrook</div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: start;">Candice, Tia, me, and Sister Moore and Sister Wilson at the temple! Best day ever.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: start;">Me and my sweet companion after a very long day.</span></div>
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The wall of sand-dirt in our basement. Sister Skaggs and her mom have collected dirt from all over the world.</div>
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Kind of cool.</div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-66631414491092302102015-03-19T03:22:00.002-07:002015-03-19T03:22:32.522-07:00Week 75: Hay Ho!<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">The North Canyon stake has been absolutely amazing! There is so much work to be done here. It's been awesome to see how the experiences the Lord has given me this past year or so are helping me to have all sorts of things to apply here now. I absolutely love this stake and can't wait to see the miracles that lie ahead!</span><br />
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Sister Hay is absolutely incredible. She acts like she's been out forever when she's really only been here for six weeks. She loves this area, too, and she's so excited to see the miracles that the Lord has in store for this stake. She works her hardest and is always trying to find ways to be better. She's just an angel. I love her to pieces. She's from Dallas, Texas and loves it there - as any true Texan would :) She has a gorgeous voice and loves piano. She's the youngest of four (three girls and a boy) and just loves the gospel!</div>
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We are currently teaching the Myers - they are a middle-aged couple who have lived in the stake for several years. They sought out the missionaries to learn more about the church, and they just eat everything up. Sister Myers is from Spain, so we had a little connection on speaking Spanish (mine is awful by the way). They love learning and coming closer to Christ. Brother Myers needs to quit smoking, but they are so prepared and want to be baptized! </div>
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This area has shown my mission coming full circle. </div>
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I'm currently serving in the stake just south of my first area. As in if we go too far down one street, we're in my first area. Pretty cool. Same view of the temple, too :)</div>
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We had a lesson with the Vita family. Their kids, Wes and Emma, were baptized 3 weeks ago. The mom has started coming back to church and went to the temple to do baptisms for the dead last week. They are absolutely amazing! We were visiting with the mom and Emma while we waited for the boys to come in, and here comes Wes with his friend, Garrett. As soon as they walked in, I recognized the two boys.</div>
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Garrett's mom was not active for a long time, and we had been teaching her and her family to help Garrett prepare to be baptized. This was a year ago in my first area. Garrett, being the awesome missionary he is, had invited his friend to join in on the lessons with his family. That friend was Wes. Now here we are, over a year later, and both boys have been baptized and are helping their families become more active in the Church. It was incredible.</div>
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Garrett didn't remember me at first, but Wes remembered us teaching them how to pray using the prayer sandwich. Then Garrett remembered that delicious lesson :) </div>
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The Lord is aware of His children - including you. I know He will always put people in our path who will touch us forever. I love this gospel. I know His plan for us is perfect, though we may not always understand it. I know He will always give what's best for us. I know trials are the way we can truly come to know our Savior. How grateful I am for those mountains to climb. I love my Father in Heaven. I love my Savior. I know They live!</div>
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Remember to smile!</div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Holbrook</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: start;">Me and Sister Hay on our first day together!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: start;">Us with the Vita family and their friends after our lesson. Wes is on the far left and Garrett is on the right. I love those boys and their families.</span></div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-55742236803621822612015-03-10T18:26:00.000-07:002015-03-10T18:26:04.716-07:00Week 74: Change is a part of the gospel of Jesus Christ<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Just when you think you've mastered change.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">President Spendlove called us <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1658238156" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Saturday</span></span> night with transfer information.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Sister Soelberg is going to Tooele North Stake.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">I'm going to the Bountiful North Canyon Stake to finish training Sister Hay.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Sisters Poppleton and Armstrong will be whitewashing our area.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Bittersweet transfer. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Centerville South and Bountiful North have become my home. Leaving these people will be one of the hardest things. They're my family now. But there's comfort in knowing that this is Heavenly Father's work. He will take care of these people more than I ever could.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">At least I'll see them in a few months, right?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Time flies far too quickly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">New address:</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">967 Chelsea Drive, Bountiful UT</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Joshua 3-4</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">The children of Israel had seen miracles and had been wandering in the wilderness for years. They saw Moses part the Red Sea. And here they are faced with crossing the river Jordan.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">However, this wasn't the miracle they expected. The river didn't part on its own. We learn that they had to get the soles of their feet wet before the water stopped coming, before they were able to pass through on dry ground.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">What kind of faith do we have? Do we wait around for miracles? Or do we go out and get our feet wet? Do we show Heavenly Father that we will do everything we possibly can before we expect His help? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">What can you do to get your feet wet?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">The amazing thing in this area has been seeing people choose to get their feet wet.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">For example, the Alan family. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Sister Alan is absolutely amazing. We stopped by a few months ago, and since then, she's been coming to church, bringing her boys, and doing everything within her power to get to the temple. She called us the other day to tell us about how she's working towards receiving her patriarchal blessing and her next step is to go to the temple. Her husband isn't too supportive. But she will do anything and everything within her power to live the gospel of Jesus Christ every single day. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Her faith is incredible. And because she got her feet wet, miracles are happening.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">I love this gospel! I love this work! I know it is His. We wouldn't be able to do it otherwise. I love you all so much. Sorry this is short - time is short. Just know that I know the gospel of Jesus Christ is true. I wish I could share all that I've learned and experienced here. I love the Lord and I know He will always help us. He loves each one of you so much. He answers every prayer. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Remember to smile!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Love,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Sister Holbrook</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">#timetopack</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">#idespisepacking</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Matthew <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1658238157" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">19:20</span></span> Ask Christ for your next step in changing, but be willing to make that change and give your whole self to Him.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: start;">Me and Sister Soelberg with Tom! He is just the best. He was [in]active for a long time and has been coming to church for almost a year now! We're helping him to keep building his faith.</span></div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-72259781798392048852015-03-03T13:50:00.002-08:002015-03-03T13:54:41.013-08:00Week 73: My fro wasn't big enough, so they didn't send me to AfricaTitle courtesy of Rachel (see picture below).<br />
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Our new mission president is officially here! <div>
We'll meet him tomorrow for the first time.</div>
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Headaches resolved: it's a sinus infection.</div>
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So grateful it's nothing major.</div>
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Antibiotic power now.</div>
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We did a lot this week, and I'm really struggling to remember it all.</div>
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One of the most frustrating things is when you know you've done everything you possibly could have done, and people still won't keep their commitments. We've been coordinating with members, showing up at doors, and inviting and texting and calling to get our investigators to come to church. The only thing we haven't done is take away their agency which we can't do. It's frustrating, but mostly heartbreaking. You know how much it will bless their life if they will just do it! It takes faith to put aside everything and go to church, but the Lord always gives us tenfold for the sacrifices we make for Him.</div>
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It's interesting to see how hard Satan works on these people, how much he will throw at them so they won't keep these commitments and feel of that joy. We have to be out daily, finding them, helping them, texting them, sending members to visit them. They need that daily contact to build up an armor against all the temptations that are in the world today. Heavenly Father's power and love is so much stronger than anything else - we need to help them feel that constantly.</div>
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<a href="https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/continuing-revelation?lang=eng" target="_blank">President Eyring's last General Conference</a> talk about continuing revelation really struck me this morning. I love his comments about "confirming revelation." We need to ask for and receive that witness from the Holy Ghost that the direction from our leaders is what God needs us to do. I know that as we listen and follow the words of the prophet and apostles, as well as our leaders in the Church and at home, we will feel our Heavenly Father's love and His Spirit in our hearts and in our homes.</div>
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Zone Conference this week was incredible. Saying goodbye to President Hansen was hard, but I know that the new mission president has been called of God to help us at this time. Heavenly Father directs us as we seek His help in planning for all we do. As we work with members and leaders more effectively, more of His children will be able to experience all the gospel has to offer. This is about helping all of God's children get to the temple to be able to experience all the blessings of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It's not something to just check off a list - this is the eternal salvation of the children of God.</div>
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I love you all! I testify that Heavenly Father is aware of each of His children. He knows them individually and perfectly. If we ask for His help in those opportunities to teach, serve, and love, He will lead us to them. I know this gospel is the greatest source of joy! </div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Holbrook</div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: start;">Dinner with the Stenquist's!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: start;">Me and Rachel!! She's getting ready for her mission in Louisiana! She leaves April 22nd. Crazy, right? Anyway, she's our adopted third companion and is just the best.</span></div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-37964307654524921162015-02-25T05:16:00.003-08:002015-02-25T05:16:29.526-08:00Week 72: What percentage of your mission is little awkward moments?<br />
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One hundred percent, sir.<div>
Best question ever.</div>
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Other awkward question from our youth fireside last night: Are you less attracted to guys now that you're missionaries?</div>
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Yup.</div>
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I just love the youth.</div>
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Alma 59:1-2 When we experience joy, we naturally want to share it with others! Captain Moroni is one of my heroes. He's an expert planner, follows the Spirit, and loves to share the gospel!</div>
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Andy was baptized <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1558705625" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Saturday</span></span>! It was amazing to see all of his friends and family members attend. There were powerful messages about Christ and the importance of daily habits.</div>
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"Our habits determine who we will become." -President Hollingshead</div>
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"God is bilingual." -Hermana Dickson when I was on exchanges in the Spanish program for the day! Yes, I survived because everyone would start talking English when they saw me haha :) But I got some good Spanish practice that day.</div>
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Alma 58:11 is a wonderful verse about the Lord giving us peace in the hardest of trials.</div>
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This week, I simply want to bear my testimony of God's promises. They are sure. One of the best feelings in the world is to do everything within my power, ask for His help, and then step back and watch Him make everything work. There are no coincidences. Ever. His hand is in every moment of our lives, if we will just look for it.</div>
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I know that the blessings He promises will always come to pass. We simply need to do what He asks us to do. In Preach My Gospel we read, "When you have done your very best, you may still experience disappointments, but you will not be disappointed in yourself. You can feel certain that the Lord is pleased when you feel the Spirit working through you."<br /></div>
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We can feel that power every single day as armor up, prepare for the daily battle against Satan, and rely on His strength. This week has been a week of giving everything I could but it not being very much with various problems of being sick. And yet, as Sister Soelberg and I have given everything possible, the Lord has placed us in people's paths. We have two new families to teach. We have a less-active man who wants to come back to church. We have a woman who came to church on her own for the first time even though she felt sick. We have ward mission leaders finding people for us to teach. It's incredible.</div>
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This is the Lord's work! I know it is true. I know that as we ask specifically for the answers we seek, Heavenly Father will be specific with us. He loves you. He wants to pour out blessings upon you. Ask for His help, and He will run to give it.</div>
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I love you all. Thank you for your prayers and support. It has meant so much, especially the past few weeks. There is strengthening power in prayer. Keep smiling and look for those miracles!</div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Holbrook</div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: start;">Our district! Elders Siebert, Perkis, Bishop, Smith, Sisters Sammartano, Armstrong, Soelberg, Cox, Stratton, and me :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: start;">Exchanges with Sister Fluegel. Love that girl. We were trying to get the horse in the picture, too, but epically failed. Oh well. </span></div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-84807423601019550462015-02-17T18:45:00.002-08:002015-02-17T18:45:09.139-08:00Week 71: Yearnings and DiligenceMigraines are basically the worst things ever.<br />
I love Chik-Fil-A peppermint shakes.<br />Missionary variety shows are the greatest inventions ever.<br />
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Alma 57 talks about how the army of Helaman was doing everything they could to prepare to go to battle to take back one of the cities they had lost to their enemy. Amazingly, while they were preparing, the people in that city just left and the city fell back to the army of Helaman.</div>
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If we will do everything within our power, Heavenly Father will pour out blessings upon us. Often times they can be pretty big ones that just fall into our laps.</div>
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On Wednesday we got a text from a Bishop asking about a baptism in his ward the coming Saturday. After many texts and phone calls, we found out about <b>Andy, </b>a sixteen year old kid who lives in our area who's been taught by the Elders in a neighboring stake. He will be baptized this coming Saturday!</div>
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Sister Soelberg and I have been working and praying to be able to see miracles in this stake, and we have. Every single day. It has been amazing to see the fulfillment of the promise in my favorite scripture, Doctrine & Covenants 123:17:</div>
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"Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power. And then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for His arm to be revealed."</div>
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As we work and pray our hardest for those yearnings of our heart, we see miracles. I know that is true. </div>
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I love my mission for the <b>clarity of an eternal perspective</b>. Everything makes sense. Of course we should pray and read our scriptures. Of course we need to go to the temple. Of course baptism is important. Of course we should open our mouths to share our testimonies with others. I am so grateful to have this time where the distractions of reality can fade to the outside for a bit. To focus on the things that matter most is something I will forever treasure. I hope that perspective can stay with me for the rest of my life, that the distractions and clouds of Satan won't bind me down.</div>
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I love serving the Lord. I love being in this mission. I love being a missionary! I love opening my mouth. I love teaching. I love acting on the Spirit. I love being with these people and feeling Heavenly Father's love for them. This is a time I will forever treasure. I am so grateful Heavenly Father has let me stick around on earth at least long enough to have served His children during this time.</div>
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I just want to share Alma 29:9 in closing.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, Pahoran, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 25.2000007629395px;">I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do </span><span style="font-family: Palatino, Pahoran, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 25.2000007629395px;">not</span><span style="font-family: Palatino, Pahoran, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 25.2000007629395px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Palatino, Pahoran, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 25.2000007629395px;">glory</span><span style="font-family: Palatino, Pahoran, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 25.2000007629395px;"> of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and <b>this is my joy</b>.</span></span></div>
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I love you all! Remember to smile :) Thank you so much for your prayers, letters, and general awesomeness. I have the best people in the world surrounding me. Thank you for being those people!</div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Holbrook</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: start;">In the ER getting a CT scan to check for blood clots - btw it came back clear :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!! Our ward mission leader brought us the cutest cookies ever :)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">AMAZING THINGS. Hopefully you can follow the chart. That's been the topic of every meeting for the last 2-3 months: faith, obedience, and diligence (notice the emphasis on yearnings)</span></div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-58461643357362364742015-02-12T19:37:00.001-08:002015-02-12T19:37:20.025-08:00Week 70: New mission president and responding<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
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Mom asked a bunch of questions and since I only have a few random things to share, I'm going to respond to those questions at this time.</div>
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Any interesting people in those lessons to tell us about? Are they all to less-active or new members or who?</div>
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Well, they all are interesting. Most of them are to less-active members. We have one couple who was married in September and they want to work towards going to the temple! They are amazing. Then we have a bunch of newer people that we're teaching in the Bountiful stake. One family, the mom is so excited to be coming back to church! She invited us over last week when her kids were blessed. That was such a sweet experience. We have a government-subsidized housing complex where we're working with a bunch of less-actives. That's always an adventure. We have a few new investigators this week, and one solid girl who is so excited about learning about the gospel!</div>
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How are the new members doing - the 2 young women and the one boy?</div>
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Amazing. The boy is teaching us the new member lessons, and his mom is starting to be more involved which is amazing! The young women are so good. They made us cookies during the last lesson. Their mom has been so touched by the Spirit the past several visits. </div>
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Do you ever dance around aimlessly for exercise (Nathan's question)?</div>
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Um.... possibly... :)</div>
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How do you train the sisters? Do you get inspired about what they need and have a class with them or is it all done during splits in an informal </div>
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kind of experience? How many splits do you do each week?</div>
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So splits are with active members in our area, but we do exchanges with each companionship of Sisters. We have one or two exchanges each week. That's usually when we talk about struggles and how we can continue to improve. We meet with them all pretty regularly and talk to them via phone almost daily. We do receive a lot of revelation on what will best help the Sisters, and we work a lot with the zone leaders in deciding the direction we want our zone to go in. We use district and zone meetings as our priority training meetings with exchanges and other visits as secondary opportunities for training.</div>
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We are on splits with members multiple times per day. We have too many people to see</div>
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Sleep - how many hours of quality sleep do you get per night? (Nathan says quality sleep begins before <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_45260005" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">midnight</span></span>)</div>
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Um probably 60 minutes... since we go to bed at <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_45260006" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">10:30</span></span> and I still take forever to fall asleep.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;">We liked the pic of your district - when do you have those meetings? </span></div>
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Every Thursday at 1:30pm. Zone meetings are every first <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_45260007" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Thursday</span></span>.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;">Who always drives the car?</span> </div>
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Usually me. If we're on exchanges or if Sister Soelberg wants to get to know the area better then she'll drive.</div>
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Since you are over 2 stakes, do you have 2 correlation meetings per week? </div>
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Yep! Every <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_45260008" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday at 6:45 am</span></span> and every Wednesday from 7-9pm.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;">Is the 1st counselor who is currently taking over for Pres Hansen a local man - anything about him? </span></div>
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Not sure. He might live in Salt Lake? We're currently on hold for the new mission president coming at the end of the month. President Hansen is still our acting mission president.</div>
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You must get time on the computer to do family history and to find the links you send to us.... Is that all on P-Day or do you have other times you get to do things like that?</div>
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Typically we get paper copies for trainings or for personal study. Then I just find the link on <a href="http://lds.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">lds.org</a> to send it to you.</div>
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Our sister missionaries are always showing videos on their ipads. Do you ever show videos and know all the great ones that are out there - do you just borrow the computer of the people you are with or how do you do that? In my day, we used to bring a filmstrip projector and find a spot on their blue walls - it gave a cool background:)</div>
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YES! We love the videos that are out there. We just ask for an iPad or computer to show a video on. We typically use the Because of Him and Origin videos. We also use them for dinner appointments, lessons, youth events, and trainings with missionaries.</div>
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<b>We will be getting a new mission president!</b> <div>
President and Sister Spendlove are from Texas, have five kids, two of whom are 16 and 13 years old. Sister Spendlove grew up in Beaverton which is pretty fantastic. They should be coming at the end of the month. </div>
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I have been treasuring every moment we have with President Hansen. I love being able to go to all the extra leadership meetings where he continues to teach and encourage all of us. He gave us incredible training on the spirit world this past week, and the power of living righteously in order to have our covenants sealed in heaven as well as on earth.</div>
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Desire leads us to action, but as our desires grow into stronger yearnings of our soul, that will lead us to diligently act for the rest of our lives.</div>
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I love you all! Keep on smiling. Life is good. The gospel is true!</div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Holbrook</div>
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<b>Pictures</b>!</div>
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Me, Sister Soelberg, and then our zone leaders with President Hansen! Love that man.</div>
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Also I don't have any other pictures... working on it.</div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-80176729937150520522015-02-03T16:00:00.002-08:002015-02-03T16:00:45.896-08:00Week 69: Family History, are you doing it?<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>From Renee - </u></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I have been worried about how Lauren is doing after losing Sis Hansen. </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">She says “I'm ok. Promise. The peace has been incredible. The gospel is true! Through and through. It's just amazing how the Lord gives us exactly what we need. The hardest part will be saying goodbye to both President and Sister Hansen. But all will work out. It really will and I really believe that.“</span></div>
<b><span style="background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Then some other cute things she included in a note to me:</span></span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">We had almost 40 lessons this week:) We had a baptism postponed this week. Yup. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I heard about the snow this morning by a nice lady at Target! My mission has scarred me from ever going to Walmart ever again by choice. You should be proud :) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">It is totally crazy how time flies. All these kids have been saying they're 14 and 18 and I'm like wait... that's how old my siblings are. Weird. </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I'll send Megan a bday note today! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Thank you for teaching me organization - we're working on that with Sister Soelberg :) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Actually, I figured out yours and dad's secret to life success: you're expert planners. It's that simple. I love you too :) You're just the cutest :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Lauren's email</u></span></div>
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Lots of coordinating emails today, so I'm just going to share a brief testimony and procedural information about family history work!<div>
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Family history is what we do when we are researching the information and stories of our ancestors. It has the power to link us together, to bring us closer together, and to invite the Spirit into our homes even more strongly than before. Most people are interested in talking about families. As we focus on the family, the Lord will help us find even more people who are prepared to receive the restored gospel.</div>
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Temple work is made possible through the Priesthood, the power and authority of God on the earth given to man to bless His children. We research our ancestors, find their stories, learn of their struggles, all so that we can help them have the opportunity to choose to accept the gospel. We take the names we find to the temple, so that acting as proxy, we can perform the ordinances for them to ultimately go to the celestial kingdom and to be eternal families.</div>
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That is the power of family history. It opens hearts, strengthens bonds, and invites the Spirit to testify of the truth of the restoration of the gospel!</div>
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Some resources to check out once you're on <a href="http://familysearch.org/" target="_blank">familysearch.org</a>:</div>
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<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Pandora's Hope Chest - available through Google Chrome, allows you to easily find those people who are ready to have their names taken to the temple or those who need more information.</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Puzzilla.org - you can view the descendancy easily to see where work needs to be done</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><a href="http://rootsmapper.com/" target="_blank">rootsmapper.com</a> - View where your ancestry comes from and see who else is from those areas</li>
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Challenge for this week: Get on familysearch and feel of the power that comes as you work on finding your ancestors. I know that the Spirit will touch your heart. The joy of the gospel will fill your heart! You will gain a better understanding of what it means for us to be eternal families. Our Heavenly Father's plan will take on new meaning. </div>
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What an amazing gift from our Heavenly Father.</div>
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I love you all! The gospel is true! Miracles happen! Our Savior, Jesus Christ, lives and loves us. He will always help us. As we live worthy, the Spirit will lead and guide us in every aspect of our daily lives. As we follow those promptings, we will always know that we are doing what God needs us to do.</div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Holbrook<br /></div>
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This is an <a href="https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1999/04/find-the-lambs-feed-the-sheep?lang=eng" target="_blank">amazing talk by President Hinckley</a> about the importance of our role as members in sharing the gospel.</div>
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PICTURES!! Your favorite part :)</div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Our fantastic district: Sisters Goormastic, Sammartano, me, and Soelberg. Elders Isufaj, Brown, Chang, Siebert, Clark, and Bishop.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: start;">Making Pho (Vietnamese soup) with the Pham's, Sharp's, and Bradley's! Best dinner ever.</span></div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-22898994103480530562015-01-26T17:14:00.002-08:002015-01-26T17:14:40.326-08:00Week 68: No Empty Chairs<div class="adM" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
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My mind is in a million places right now.</div>
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Big announcements this week. <div>
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First off, we found out that our mission will be getting iPads in the next two months!</div>
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Craziness.</div>
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Secondly, Dylan was baptized on Saturday!! And he invited all of his non-member and less-active friends. He's basically the best missionary ever.</div>
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<b>The power of covenants</b>.</div>
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Thursday morning our zone leaders were calling and texting us telling us to call them as soon as possible. I'll never forget standing in the laundry room next to Sister Soelberg with our zone leader telling us that Sister Hansen, our mission president's wife (also known as our mission mom), had passed away Wednesday night. </div>
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I burst into tears immediately. We knelt and prayed. Then we opened our companionship study by singing Sister Hansen's favorite hymn, "<a href="https://www.lds.org/music/library/hymns/behold-a-royal-army?lang=eng" target="_blank">Behold, A Royal Army</a>." You can just picture her up there telling us to get to work, to be better, to drink some Gatorade, to polish our shoes, and to give everything over to the Lord. Words can't express how much I love Sister Hansen. </div>
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That was probably the most shocking news I had ever received. But I'm ok. We're all ok. The peace that has been present is most definitely due to all of your prayers. Thank you. Those have strengthened me and others more than you know. </div>
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The following several days have been interesting, controlled chaos, but also a converting experience.</div>
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Logistical details: We will be getting a new mission president. The first counselor in our mission presidency is currently taking over until that point.</div>
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Beyond that, we have transfers tomorrow and the work carries on.</div>
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We had a special memorial service on Saturday specifically for the Hansen family and the missionaries. That was a powerful, sacred meeting that I will always treasure. The funeral today was also powerful, but I won't go into details on that. There are other thoughts to share.</div>
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I love President and Sister Hansen. They have become my second parents. They are disciples of Jesus Christ through and through. They have consecrated everything to the Lord. Everything. Their total trust in God leaves them to fear no man. They always do His will. They always seek to teach through example and every interaction with them. I will miss them more than I can possibly express.</div>
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But there is great comfort in the gospel. President Hansen held up his and Sister Hansen's temple sealing certificate. That is the power of covenants. Only once did we see that man cry this week. He has been smiling, holding up all those around him, and reminding us of the power of living the gospel in our lives. He and Sister Hansen have been sealed for time and all eternity. That is possible because of the Priesthood power restored to the earth through the prophet Joseph Smith. That is the authority Christ gave to His apostles, and it is the same authority that leads the Church today. They will be together for eternity not only because of that covenant with God, but because of how they lived their covenants daily. They both give everything they can to Heavenly Father every single day.</div>
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At the end of the funeral today, Elder Oaks turned to the missionaries in the back - all 220 of us - and said with great power, "GO and do thou likewise."</div>
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This has been a refining six weeks. I know the Lord strengthens, magnifies, and comforts us in all things. Everything truly is possible with His help. I have given everything I possibly could this transfer. I'm exhausted and incredibly motivated. I love these people more than I ever thought possible. I hope I can be half the woman Sister Hansen is. The Hansen's have shown me the power of an eternal family. They taught us how to live, and Sister Hansen went right ahead to show us how to die. They taught me how to truly rely on the Lord in everything. And that is the power of eternal covenants.</div>
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I know we will live again. I know that is only possible because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He lives! And if we will live our lives according to the promises we have made and will yet make with our Heavenly Father, we can live with Him again. I know we will see all of our loved ones again. I know I can give Sister Hansen a big hug again one day and tell her how grateful I am for her influence on my life.</div>
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I have just one invitation to each of you.</div>
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I could not have made it through these past weeks without a testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Without knowing that He will strengthen me. </div>
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<b>Get on your knees</b>.</div>
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<b>Ask Him</b>.</div>
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He is there. He is watching and waiting to comfort and to bless. </div>
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He loves you. </div>
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The Spirit will touch your heart if you will ask with a sincere desire to know if these things are true.</div>
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I know it's true. And I invite each of you to come to know that, too.</div>
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Sister Hansen always talked about having <b>no empty chairs</b> in heaven. When we all sit down together in heaven, let there be no empty chairs because one of us didn't act as we should have or do what we knew we should. Let us do all in our power to fill every single chair at the table of our Heavenly Father. There will be no empty chairs in the celestial kingdom as we all strive to do our very best to be ready to return to Him at any moment.</div>
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I love you all. Remember to smile! Miracles happen every single day! Prayers are powerful. Covenants are powerful. But the greatest power comes from our Savior, Jesus Christ, and our Heavenly Father and Their love for us. I love this gospel. I love this work. I know that as we give our very best, there will be no empty chairs.</div>
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Sister Holbrook</div>
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<a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/40.12?lang=eng#11" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">Alma 40:12</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/philip/4.7,%2013?lang=eng#6" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">Philippians 4:7,13</span></a></div>
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With Sister Hansen near the beginning of her mission. Here is the article about her death </div>
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<a href="http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865620132/LDS-mission-presidents-wife-dies.html?pg=all" target="_blank">http://www.deseretnews.com/<wbr></wbr>article/865620132/LDS-mission-<wbr></wbr>presidents-wife-dies.html?pg=<wbr></wbr>all</a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: start;">President and Sister Hansen at our last Christmas party :) Aren't they just the cutest?!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: start;">Dylan's baptism!!! I love these people with all my heart.</span></div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-31187751012460963012015-01-20T11:18:00.003-08:002015-01-20T11:18:20.795-08:00Week 67: Small and Simple Things<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
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I am grateful for chips and guacamole.</div>
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And mini chocolate cadbury eggs.</div>
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Today, I just want to bear my testimony of a few principles:<div>
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<b>Faith</b>.</div>
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We had a training by Elder Kacher of the Seventy on Tuesday. He talked about the role of faith in our lives. Faith is our trust in God. Obedience allows God to trust us. It's a cycle of trust that we influence completely. He also talked about one specific aspect of faith: mindset. </div>
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We get our mission calls or assignments to callings, whatever it is, and immediately have preconceived notions. Salt Lake City is full of members, we'll never baptize. You'll freeze in North Dakota. You get the idea? That affects our mindset. Faith requires that we overcome that mindset of man and put our trust in the mindset of God. God's mindset says that our mission can double baptisms. God's mindset says that there are people prepared to receive the gospel in all parts of the world. That's what we need to start believing in and acting on.</div>
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How can we change our mindset? What miracles will we see if we switched a little more to God's mindset?</div>
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<b>The worth of a soul</b>.</div>
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We had a great talk by Sister Bourne in Stake Conference about this, and then we were asked to talk about the same subject in sacrament meeting right after. </div>
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I know we are of infinite worth to our Heavenly Father. He loves us. He has done everything possible for us to live with Him again. I love the phrase in Preach My Gospel "do everything within your power." As we come to realize our own potential and worth, we gain a stronger testimony of the worth of each one we meet. CS Lewis said, "It is something to live in a society of potential gods and goddesses... No one you have ever met is a mere mortal." <i>or something to that effect</i>. </div>
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When we realize just how important we are to Heavenly Father, we want to be sure others feel of that same worth. We stop putting single-word labels on complex children of God. We stop turning people away. We stop distancing ourselves from situations we think we already know. Instead, we seek to love, to give generously, and to lift, serve, and strengthen.</div>
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What will you do this week to let another know of their eternal worth?</div>
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<b>The Lord knows us personally</b>.</div>
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<span style="color: black;">Thursday night we went on splits,<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.8999996185303px;"> and we just had an hour of miracles. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.8999996185303px;">We found a man who hadn't been to church in years who had prayed three days before we came and talked with him. He was just sitting outside on his motorcycle and we felt to go talk to him. He offered a prayer and the three of us were just in tears as he poured his heart out to God. He knew this was an answer to his prayer. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.8999996185303px;">We got to talk to our investigator's mom about her own baptism and Word of Wisdom struggles finally. She wants to be in the temple with her family one day. Her daughter is being baptized next Saturday. I just love that family.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.8999996185303px;">We met a less-active woman who wants to work towards the temple since her daughter is being sealed in the Salt Lake temple in June. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.8999996185303px;">It was incredible. The Lord knew that I needed to know His Spirit was still working through me. He knew I needed to go be the answer to a prayer that night.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16.8999996185303px;">I know He is aware of our needs and the needs of all those around us.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16.8999996185303px;">Will we go out and be an answer to someone's prayer?</span></span></div>
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Favorite quote of the week: <b>The gospel is the best part of me</b>.</div>
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How true that is.</div>
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I love this gospel! I know Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I know this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth today. I know that by living it, we will become closer to and more like our Heavenly Father every single day. I know He loves us. I know our Savior understands all that we experience. He will support us in everything.</div>
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Remember to smile and expect miracles!</div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Holbrook</div>
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<a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/48.11-18?lang=eng#10" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Alma 48:11-18</a> How can we be an example to others? How can we develop these qualities in ourselves?</div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">Correlation in the Centerville South stake! I love our ward mission leaders. These are some of the best men this world has ever seen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">Me and Kaidence - an eight-year-old girl from Farmington who has had 2 heart transplants! She is my new hero. And she wants to go on a mission :) And we're having a sleepover in the summer haha. It was so fun to meet her and her family!</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">Sister Soelberg and I color coordinated on Sunday. Precious :)</span></div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-7458802713539707822015-01-14T17:30:00.003-08:002015-01-14T17:31:17.597-08:00Week 66: I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22First off, thanks for all the birthday wishes and birthday packages! I am so far behind on letters and thank you notes - sorry about that. Know that it has all been so appreciated.<br />
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There are so many things that happened this week, I don't even know where to begin.<br />
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<b>Monday</b> </div>
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Typical P-day events of running errands, then Zone activity at a member's home, then splits all night to cover our appointments. </div>
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<b>Tuesday</b></div>
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Mission leadership council meeting started at 7am with Elder Arnold of the Seventy. Thoughts from that:</div>
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<li style="margin-left: 15px;">God asks Adam in the garden of Eden "Where art thou?" (Genesis 3:9). In Moses 4:15, the wording is changed to say, "Where goest thou?" The Lord asks Adam these questions to give Adam an opportunity to account for his actions. What will we saw about where we are and where we are going?</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Do everything in your power to help, lift, love, achieve, serve, etc.</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Go out and be the answer to someone's prayer.</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Every family has a bullseye target on them from Satan. We must do all in our power to help build multigenerational families of faith.</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Obedience = joy. True story.</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Motivated by covenants is a sign of true conversion.</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Revelation comes when you're on the move. If that's what you want, then there's always help from above. The happy ones care more about the people than themselves. Connect then convert. -Gift of Tongues training videos</li>
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The rest of our day was followed by appointments, splits to help out some Sisters, and lots of phone calls.</div>
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<b>Wednesday</b></div>
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The day I turned 22! Man, I'm old. </div>
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As Sister Allen said, "Oh you're right! I can see the wrinkles!" Love that woman.</div>
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Other quote of the day: "Birthdays are weird. Don't congratulate me, congratulate my mom." -Sister Dickson</div>
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Accountability interviews with the zone leaders and President Hansen. I love that man.</div>
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Lunch with the Allen's!</div>
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Lots of appointments at our retirement/disability branch. Gotta love it.</div>
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Correlation meetings!</div>
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My companion made the cutest birthday card EVER. And the other Sisters decorated our apartment with sticky notes and got peppermint ice cream!! </div>
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Best birthday ever :)</div>
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<b>Thursday</b></div>
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Best zone meetings ever. We're pumping some enthusiasm into this place!</div>
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Appointments all day and night and on splits and had a lunch and correlation and just a bit of typical craziness.</div>
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Woman calls because she saw the video my sisters made and wants to take us out to lunch. Her daughter has had 2 heart transplants and wants to serve a mission :) #happyheart</div>
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Started exchanges with the Spanish Sisters.</div>
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<b>Friday</b></div>
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Sister Soelberg got food poisoning so we came to rescue her, but then Sister W had some weird heart things, so we left Sister Soelberg at home sleeping and took Sister W to the hospital. More craziness ensues the rest of the day.</div>
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Sister Bill and Sister LeSueur came up from Provo to take me out to lunch!!!! BEST DAY EVER. Where it all began in the heart of Bountiful: Nielsen's.</div>
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Awesome lesson about prayer with one of our less-active members. </div>
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Last minute interviews with President Hansen.</div>
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Slightly distracted lesson with Ashley who's getting baptized on January 31st! </div>
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<b>Saturday</b></div>
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Housing inspections, Sister Soelberg still has some stomach issues, took care of an emergency transfer, had a couple of lessons, went to dinner where their sister who hasn't been to church in years was present and we had a fantastic lesson with her!</div>
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Stake Conference was incredible. Always seek to be the person who will do everything possible to change someone's eternity.</div>
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<span style="color: black;"><a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/88?lang=eng" target="_blank">Doctrine & Covenants 88</a>. Incredible section about light, teaching, learning, the temple, and just about everything else.</span></div>
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The FOUR KEYS to sharing the gospel as taught by Elder Peter F. Evans of the Seventy:</div>
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<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Love is something you DO. </li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">The answer will come through the Spirit, but you've got to go. Act on promptings.</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Pray with faith, meaning you're willing to go forth and act.</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Never ever give up on these people. How long would you keep trying for your own family?</li>
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<b>Sunday</b></div>
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Young Women's lesson, four ward councils, taught a Young Men's lesson, went to part of sacrament meeting, almost got lost on our way to stake conference but President Hansen gave us directions, had an amazing Stake Conference (testimonies of Joseph Smith, tarry in the temple, the hastening on the work is real, the family is where the gospel must be taught, we choose what comes into our family), the Pham's taught us about the Word of Wisdom, lots of contacts, and rounded out the evening with some paperwork.</div>
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<b>Today</b></div>
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Left at 7am to take another Sister to meet with President and then to the airport. She's headed home early for medical reasons. So hard to say goodbye. She is an incredible missionary! BUT we did see a mass migration of about 50 missionaries come in from the MTC :) Baby missionaries! Then picked up Sister Weber to come to our zone! And we're finally emailing.</div>
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I know that God supports us in all that we do. He magnifies our capabilities beyond what we ever thought possible. I have seen that every moment of every single day this week. There is no way I could have done this on my own. He lifts, guides, strengthens, and comforts us as we continually give our best. I know He loves us. I know our Savior lives! I know this is His work. As we choose to come unto Him, the greatest joy will fill our hearts and minds and homes.</div>
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I love you all! Remember to smile! Miracles happen every day!</div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Holbrook</div>
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The <a href="http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=1737858986001" target="_blank">Patterns of Light</a> video series is a great training by Elder Bednar in helping us to learn how we can recognize the Spirit in our lives.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333339691162px; text-align: start;">Happy Birthday to me!! Sister Jolley brought me a cake, the Sisters got me cupcakes and ice cream. It was quite the celebration :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333339691162px; text-align: start;">At the hospital with Hermana W. Oh the adventures.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333339691162px; text-align: start;">Goodbye Sister Tipton!! We love you! Me, Sister Tipton, Sister Cox, Sister Soelberg.</span></div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-9660337391693227612015-01-07T10:10:00.001-08:002015-01-07T10:10:17.651-08:00Week 65: Bronchitis<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">This week I got bronchitis. hooray.</span><br />
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BUT thanks to modern medicine I'm cured! </div>
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It was interesting week due to having to stay in for most of it.</div>
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BUT we still saw miracles!</div>
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And my amazing companion just went out and contacted everyone like a boss.</div>
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In preparation for my email today, I thought I would do a little "grateful for" list.</div>
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<b>Things I'm grateful for as of 5 January 2014:</b></div>
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<li style="margin-left: 15px;">We received a letter that the temple is now cancelling all ward and stake assignments for youth to go to the temple together. Instead, they are encouraging youth to find their own family names to bring and for families to come together to perform the ordinances for those ancestors. I am so grateful for the emphasis the Church is placing on families going to the temple together because that's what this gospel is all about - families being together forever!</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">A small child went up to the pulpit to bear his testimony yesterday. He started by saying, "I'd like to bear my testimony like I did last month because no one else is coming up." It was adorable! And a powerful reminder that if we have a testimony, we must share it in order for it to grow.</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">One of the priests was blessing the sacrament and didn't say the prayer exactly. The Bishop asked him to do it again. I am grateful for those moments because we pay more careful attention to the words and the sacredness of the ordinance of the sacrament.</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">I love the eternal perspective of always seeking to bring souls to Christ, even if it is just one soul. In Alma 45 and in Moroni 10, even though these two prophets know their people will be destroyed, they do all in their power to share the gospel in the hopes that even one person will come to Christ. I am grateful for their example of giving everything they could for helping "the one" return to live with Heavenly Father.</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">We are sleeping over with some other Sisters due to some health problems, so it's been a little crazy having our clothes and life in two different homes. This has forced me to be more organized and focus on what I really need. </li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">We had two Young Women be on splits with us yesterday from 8:30am until 4:00pm so we could cover as many wards as possible. I am extremely grateful for Young Women and older women who have a desire to serve the Lord. There are so many here who will drop literally everything to help us out in our work. </li>
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I love this gospel! I love our Savior! I know He lives! This is His gospel! We can live together as families for eternity as we keep our covenants. I know the Book of Mormon is true! I know this is God's plan for us to experience true joy now and forever.</div>
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I love you all! Don't freeze, remember to smile, and continue to #SharetheGift!</div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Holbrook</div>
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The <a href="https://www.lds.org/youth/theme/2015?lang=eng" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">new youth theme is "Embark</a>." This is a powerful video and song as an introduction to how we can serve more fully in all that we do.</div>
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<a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/46.11-21?lang=eng#10" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Alma 46:11-21 </a>If we will pour out our whole souls to God and follow the guidance that He gives, others will come running to make the same covenants we have made! </div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333339691162px; text-align: start;">We helped a lady with her groceries on Monday, and then she asked us to take the cart back for her. That was a thrilling cart ride :)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333339691162px; text-align: start;">Sister Shrock came to visit at P-day activity!! Also, I have the best shirt ever :)</span></div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-69294630117449947672014-12-30T16:39:00.002-08:002014-12-30T16:40:26.549-08:00Week 64: White Christmas dreams do come trueWe're going to do some daily play-by-plays for you all to enjoy.<br />
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<b>Christmas Eve</b></div>
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Delivered packages to all of the Sisters in our zone while wearing our santa hats :)</div>
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Yes, we're adorable.</div>
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Left our mail bag at one of their homes which created some delivery issues... and then the zone leaders dropped off more mail for the ones we had already delivered to... </div>
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All mail was delivered at some point during the day.</div>
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Went to the Arbuckle's for family brunch.</div>
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Met with a Bishop and his family.</div>
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Caroled for Grandma Morgan.</div>
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Made cookie jars with other ladies at the rest home.</div>
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Picked up, packed, and delivered Sub for Santa presents. Best thing ever!</div>
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Dinner with the Bradley's where we met their daughter going on a mission this week and the foreign exchange student from Norway. Good times.</div>
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Second dinner with the Moriyama's where I saw people who knew Sister Lwin again.</div>
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Finished up the night with a part-member family and their kids' adorable puppet show.</div>
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<b>Christmas day</b></div>
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Woke up to a WHITE CHRISTMAS! Finally! It was fantastic and snowed all day :)</div>
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Brunch with the Holbrook's and Vogrenic's. 'Twas a blast.</div>
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Skyped with my adorable family at the Morris's! I have the best family in the entire world. For real.</div>
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Stopped by another part-member family we've been trying to get in to for a while. They let us right in, we crashed some family videos, watched He is the Gift, and got a return appointment. </div>
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Waffles, Alfie Boe, and a Christmas message with the Randall's.</div>
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Picked up snow shovels from our senior couple then proceeded to shovel their driveway.</div>
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First time shoveling a driveway for Sister Soelberg :) So we shoveled a few others.</div>
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Dinner and Christmas message with the Grant's! </div>
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Went with the Grant's daughter to the Klein's for puzzles and another Christmas message! Love them.</div>
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<b>Miracle of Christmas:</b></div>
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We decide to drive up to our Stake President's house. However, his house is at the top of the mountain, it's been snowing all day, but the plows had been good at getting everywhere.</div>
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Needless to say, we got stuck.</div>
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Sister Soelberg got out and was shoveling tire tracks to finish getting up. Not the most successful attempts though.</div>
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One of the neighbors came out in shorts with a shovel and asked where we were going. We said we were about to turn around, and he refused to accept such an answer. He pushed, we shoveled, I floored the gas, and ultimately, we got up the hill. </div>
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This whole time Sister Soelberg was able to talk with him. Turns out he's been inactive for years but is good friends with the Stake President's family. He accepted a return appointment, we said a prayer with him, and thanked him with some pie. </div>
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As we told our Stake President about this experience, he was shocked. The family had had no interest for a long time and so they had never thought to send us over there.</div>
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Getting stuck in the snow isn't all that bad.</div>
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<b>Exchanges with Sister Fluegel on Saturday</b> was just a party. Everyone asked where we were from, then if we knew each other before, and then how we met. It was great! We had an amazing experience with a recent convert who asked us to come over out of the blue. She had been feeling depressed and didn't feel like she was feeling the joy anymore. We talked about going to the temple, and she and her husband are going at the beginning of the year! It is absolutely amazing to see how far this family has come in just a few short months.</div>
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THEN we had a lesson with Dillon, our investigator who is on-date to be baptized. He wants to move his baptismal date up and is completely prepared to do so! Why, you might ask? So he can go with the youth to do baptisms for the dead at the temple. This kid is just the best.</div>
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<b>Sunday</b> went like this.</div>
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6:45 Stake correlation meeting in Bountiful.</div>
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8:00 ward council in Bountiful, after getting lost in Bountiful church buildings and finding out about potential investigators</div>
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9:00 spoke in a Bountiful sacrament meeting</div>
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10:15 met with Centerville Stake President</div>
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10:50 spoke in Centerville sacrament meeting</div>
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12:20 taught Gospel Principles class in Bountiful</div>
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1:00 ward council in Bountiful and ran into someone from Mueller Park who moved to this stake!</div>
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phone calls and planning exchanges and such until</div>
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2:30 Young Women's class in Bountiful</div>
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Then the evening we had dinner with a less-active family and our ward mission leader before going on splits for two hours to meet amazing people. I was with Tori who is just the best person ever. We went to an appointment with a member's family members who are visiting for a few weeks. Their family is completely non-members, and they all accepted a return appointment and to take the lessons. It was absolutely incredible! We are seeing them again on Tuesday.</div>
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The storal of this mory is: miracles happen in every single day as we live worthy of them. Our Heavenly Father truly loves us! Remember to smile! Expect miracles! #ShareTheGift</div>
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I know Christ is our Savior. I know that because of His love and His Atonement, we can become perfect. I know that as we do what He has asked us to do, we can feel of His peace at all times, no matter our circumstances. </div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Holbrook</div>
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John 6: 5-13 Are we like the little lad who will faithfully turn over all their loaves and fishes to the Savior? The promise is that if we do so, He will magnify our offering more than we can imagine.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333339691162px; text-align: start;">Merry Christmas from Sisters Soelbrook ;)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333339691162px; text-align: start;">Exchanges with Sister Fluegel (also from Chicago)! Awful picture, but it's whatever.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333339691162px; text-align: start;">White Christmas love.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333339691162px; text-align: start;">BEST SHIRT EVER.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13px;">Skyping with the family :)</span></div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-52067506993315306722014-12-23T06:32:00.001-08:002014-12-23T06:32:44.960-08:00Week who cares it's CHRISTMAS!!!We're skyping on Thursday which means this may be short.<br />
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Mom can put up the details from Skype on the blog.<br />
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<i>Instant replay</i>:</div>
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<a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/34.31?lang=eng#30" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">Alma 34:31</span></a></div>
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This scripture hit me this morning. I love the promise that the Lord will <b>immediately</b> make His plan of redemption available if we will but do as He asks. All that He asks is that we have the faith to take the first steps toward changing, repenting, and becoming more like the Savior. His love is perfect, His blessing come with time, but His plan can take affect immediately for us as we put our faith into action.</div>
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<b>Sister Soelberg</b> is a living, walking Preach My Gospel. It has been an incredible week. I could not have handled taking over two stakes without her. She is coming from Rose Park where she's been over two wards for six months, but she's taking to having seventeen wards quite well. She is from the bay area of California, loves sports and horses, and her favorite breakfast food is breakfast burritos. We are having a blast and getting so much done. </div>
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Miracles of the week: Got new member lessons set up with two of our recent converts who have been avoiding us. One of our new investigators accepted to have regular lessons and not just work on quitting smoking. Mormon Messages answered an investigator's prayers. A referral contacted last night led to an inactive single mom accepting regular lessons because the gospel is all she has to hold on to right now. Most of the referrals we contacted accepted return appointments. We've met most of the new ward mission leaders in the Bountiful North Stake. Our Stake open house wasn't a huge failure and we had leftover cookies that saved an investigator from having to take the time to make some for Santa. Our former investigator accepted to have us come back. We had an incredible service project for four hours where we contacted about fifty different people and gave out tons of He is the Gift cards. I got to practice my Spanish way more than I ever thought possible. We had several potential investigators come to church who accepted a return appointment. Lots of little moments that made the craziness worth it. </div>
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<b>The Widow's mite</b> has taken on a whole new meaning. President and Sister Hansen at our mission Christmas party talked about how the members all around have been donating things to our mission so that each of the missionaries in our mission could receive a Christmas gift. It was incredible to see how many donated and put their faith in the Lord that as they helped the missionaries, they would be blessed. </div>
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President Hansen held up an orange shoe box and proceeded to tell us this story: One woman came in with her two little boys. One of the boys was carrying a shoe box. The woman told of how the two boys had emptied their piggy banks to purchase a gift for the Elders. President Hansen opened the box and inside were a few pens and a stack of Post-it notes. Those boys gave all they could simply because they loved the Lord and His servants. The box was given to one of the Elders there who could barely hold back tears as he accepted the gift. </div>
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I know the Lord blesses us for every sacrifice, no matter how large or small. He is aware of us. He knows our needs. He knows our hearts. As President Eyring said, giving the gift of money is giving much, giving the gift of time is more, but giving the gift of self is giving all.</div>
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I love you all! Have a very merry Christmas as you continue to put God first.</div>
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Remember to smile!</div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Holbrook</div>
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Alma 35:15 Are we offended by the commandments of God? Or do we accept them with a willing heart?</div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333339691162px; text-align: start;">The most adorable opening to a Christmas party.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">I have the cutest mission president and his wife EVER. They sang "I'm gettin' nothin' for Christmas" together." </span><span style="font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">Just saying.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333339691162px; text-align: start;">After the mission Christmas party with my new companion, Sister Soelberg!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333339691162px; text-align: start;">The CUTEST stocking ever!! Promise I didn't peek :) But look at that. Completely adorable.</span></div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-56407439485683049082014-12-16T19:42:00.001-08:002014-12-24T07:12:45.670-08:00Week 62: Transfers<div style="background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm staying!!!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Sister Blankenship is leaving :( Saddest day ever. I just love her so so so so much :) You just have no idea. Pray she gets accepted to BYU so we can be roommates at least for summer :) Everyone here has commented on how well we get along - it's been great :)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">She's whitewash training in Rose Park!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Which means she is going into a new area that she doesn't know anything about and she will have a companion who just came from the MTC.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">She's just the best.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">On my end, I will be with Sister Soelberg! <span style="background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial;">She's from California, she's leaving her first area in Rose Park, and </span></span><span style="background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; font-size: 10pt;">she is a brand new STL.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">And...</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">we're now covering two stakes. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">BUT we only have five companionships of Sisters!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">10 Sister missionaries and 17 wards to watch over.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/philip/4.13?lang=eng#12" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #196ad4;">Philippians 4:13</span></a> is taking on a whole new meaning right now.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">We had a leadership meeting this morning so I don't have much time.</span></span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Quick recap:</span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Everyone here is loving the video that Rachel and Megan put together about being grateful. They are sharing it amongst themselves and with others as they feel inspired to do so. It's been cool to see how it's become a tool in the Lord's hands to help others feel of the Spirit and of their Heavenly Father's love for them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Carl</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> is a new investigator. He is currently living with his less-active girlfriend, and they just accepted to take the lessons! The missionaries have tried to meet with them before, but they have new jobs with better schedules, and one of the families in the ward has agreed to have the lessons at their home. It's an incredible miracle to see how this ward's friendship toward this couple has helped them in their desire to learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The <b>Fenker</b> family has a dad and a Young Women's age daughter who were baptized last summer. Their mom had a serious accident this summer and has had a ton of health problems since then. We're finally getting back in there to do new member lessons and help them get on family history!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">We went to the last <b>five ward Christmas parties</b> on Saturday and one on Wednesday. They were SO FUN! It's cool to see how everyone does it so differently, and yet the Spirit can be felt as everyone strives to turn to Christ and remember the true meaning of Christmas.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">We had our best <b>Youth Chat </b>yet last night! 36 youth came including one of our new investigators, one of our recent converts, and one of the youth brought his less-active friend. It was incredible to see how the youth are getting more and more excited about sharing and inviting everyone they know to learn about the gospel they love. We invited four youth to come dressed as Mary, Joseph, and two wisemen to share what they learn from those characters in the Christmas story. I am always astounded at the faith, diligence, and exact obedience of each of these people. We also read from <a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/3-ne/1?lang=eng" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #196ad4;">3 Nephi 1</span></a> in the Book of Mormon about the experiences of those who believed in Christ and held to that belief, no matter the worldly consequences. We watched "He is the Gift" and answered some fantastic questions about different principles of the gospel. I LOVE the youth here! It's absolutely incredible to see how strong and prepared they all are to share their testimonies with everyone they know.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Family: I LOVE the family Christmas card!!! You win all awards for that one :) And I'm sending you a legitimate Christmas package (hopefully today... but it may get there the day after instead). Be excited :)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I love the Christmas season. I love feeling of our Heavenly Father's love so strongly. I love knowing that because of Christmas - because of Christ, we are able to return to live with Heavenly Father. I know the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real. I know we can be fully healed and forgiven. What greater gift could our Father in Heaven have given us than the opportunity to choose to live with Him? I know the Book of Mormon testifies of Him in every single page. I love studying the Book of Mormon looking for the character of Christ. I love my Savior!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I love this gospel! I love the joy that it brings to all who choose to discover, embrace, and share it. I love you all. Thank you for your support, love, and prayers. It has been much needed. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ LIVE and love each one of you! I know it to be true.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Remember to smile! Share the Gift! Merry Christmas!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Love,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Sister Holbrook</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/31.34-35?lang=eng#33" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #196ad4;">Alma 31:34-35</span></a> I love the contrast in this chapter of choosing the way of the world or the way of God. </span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Inspiring thought courtesy of Rachel: Christ's mission lasted for three years, but without the last week, none of it means anything. </span></span></div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-3052428578883935562014-12-10T05:22:00.005-08:002014-12-10T05:22:57.795-08:00Week 61: Weeeee wish you a Merry Christmas!<span class="im" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Christmas comes fast around here, doesn't it?!</span><br />
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<span class="im">Thank you so much everyone for your prayers! Sister Blankenship and I are both back on top of life, totally organized and healthy and attacking the world. Yesterday we received four referrals for families who are ready to hear the gospel, and we'll be contacting them today! Miracles happen every day! The Stake has been fasting together and you can just see the miracles fall into their laps.<br /><div>
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How has it been watching He is the Gift? Did you see YouTube yesterday?!</div>
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I just love the gospel :)</div>
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And the <a href="https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/archive/christmas-devotional/2014/12?cid=HPSU120714547&lang=eng" target="_blank">Christmas devotional</a> last night. Incredible.</div>
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I love the inspiration, upliftment, and general spirit of love that is just everywhere at Christmastime.</div>
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It's the BEST! :)</div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The new place we live is AMAZING. We live in the basement of a member's home. The ward is SO EXCITED to have us. The ward mission leader lives down the street. We live right behind the apartments so we ALWAYS have people to visit. It's amazing. We are so blessed. We are finally organized and settled as of Saturday.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">We are doing an open house on the 18th!! We're super excited and advertising it to everyone!</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">We are reading the Book of Mormon as a mission looking for the attributes of Christ. It is INCREDIBLE. I love the Savior. I also read the Christmas story this past week and was just amazed at the exact obedience of Joseph and Mary. I am so grateful for their examples and their character.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.3333320617676px;">As for the video, I saw it on Monday. Pres Hollingshead (our stake pres) saw it on Tues. H</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.3333320617676px;">e enjoyed it and wants to use it for missionary work here! Just not sure how. But the stake is quickly finding out about my health history. ha ha</span></span></span></div>
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<b>Study thought of the week:</b></div>
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<a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/john/1.35-42?lang=eng#34" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">John 1:35-42</span></a></div>
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When Andrew heard the testimony of John the Baptist, he immediately left John to follow the Savior. That is the miracle of this work - seeing people rely on their own faith and testimonies to follow Christ in all things. THEN Andrew, after spending time with Christ and gaining his own witness that He was the Messiah, goes and brings his brother to Christ. That brother was Simon Peter, the president of the church after Christ had been resurrected. </div>
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<i>Who will we bring to Christ</i>? We do not know their future, but we can know that the gospel will bless their lives more than anything else in the world!</div>
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We had <b>Zone Conference</b> this week! The mission is just flying by - I only have one left! Crazy stuff. Bullet point thoughts from that:</div>
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<li style="margin-left: 15px;">We do only one thing in this Church: shepherd people to the temple.</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Read Mosiah 23-Alma 40 and BE ALMA. We now refer to each other as "Alma" instead of "Elder" or "Sister" on occasion.</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">"My religion is to know the will of God and do it." Brigham Young</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">We are in the business of saving souls, not increasing numbers.</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Unity with leaders and members is the only way we will ever accomplish anything in this work.</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">The Lord is pleased with our efforts. But He is not satisfied. There are people to find that we are not finding. They are His children. He knows where they are, and He knows who He has prepared. We must exhaust every resource and turn every corner until every person has the opportunity to receive the restored gospel. </li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Senior couple missionaries are just the best. True story.</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Steady progression and fire in the bones!</li>
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<b>Other highlights:</b></div>
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<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Exchanges with Sister Silva (my MTC companion)! It was so fun to reminisce and see ho much we've both grown on our missions.</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Our recent convert family is going to start teaching (well, they think it's quizzing) us on the lessons. It should be a blast!</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">FIVE out of eleven ward Christmas parties down! Mom received several texts of the two of us in our Santa hats :) </li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Little Samuel after a meeting with our ward mission leader gave the closing prayer. He asked for the ward to have experiences in sharing the gospel. It was so sweet to see this little 4 year old praying with such great faith for the ward members to have missionary experiences. Do we realize the faith of these children and how simple this gospel truly is?</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Lots of gift wrapping with one of the families we are working with. And talking about the gospel too :)</li>
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We had a fun lesson with Tom - an older gentleman who has been coming back to church for about a year now and really wants to strengthen his testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. He has such great faith, but has a very analytical mind, so he doesn't give his faith much credit. He is willing to keep every commitment and comes to church every week. He's this adorable, slightly grumpy man who just wants to know that his Heavenly Father loves him, and that the Plan of Salvation is real. We testified and were talking for a bit, and he said to see our confidence in our faith was comforting for him. He knows he can gain a witness for himself and wants to work towards that. </div>
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I love when people choose to truly exercise their faith by keeping commitments and obeying the commandments of God. We will not receive a witness until we live His gospel.</div>
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I love you all. I hope you all are feeling the spirit of this Christmas season. If we will choose to look past all the commercial hustle and bustle of this time of year and really focus on the why of all of this, the power of the love of the Savior will fill our hearts and homes.</div>
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Remember to smile and #sharethegift!</div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Holbrook</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">Fluffing a Christmas tree!! </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333339691162px; text-align: start;">Best. Mission. President. Ever. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333339691162px; text-align: start;">For real though. We have to have all of our skills in the same bag if we ever hope to be successful in the "game" of the Lord's work. We can't just focus on finding or planning - they all must work together</span></div>
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Cute Christmas Nativities :)</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">With the most epic gingerbread house ever at one of our ward Christmas parties.</span></div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-43476089997209254902014-12-03T14:30:00.002-08:002014-12-03T14:30:22.381-08:00Week something: #SharetheGift<div class="adM" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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We moved this morning.<div>
I'm exhausted. </div>
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BUT it should be permanent. HOORAY!</div>
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Therefore, this email will be quite short.</div>
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New address is 35 S Cara Vella Lane Centerville, UT 84014</div>
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So Thanksgiving happened. We had 2.5 dinners, all delicious. It was a fabulous day to give thanks and to practice our abilities to eat large quantities of food. We enjoyed it quite a lot :)</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: medium;">#SharetheGift</span></b></div>
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If you haven't seen <a href="http://www.mormon.org/christmas" target="_blank">this video yet</a>, you definitely should. </div>
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Similar to the "<a href="http://easter.mormon.org/" target="_blank">Because of Him</a>" video, the Church is really pushing to have this video shared with as many people as possible. Next Sunday, all of YouTube advertising will be this video. The video will be playing on the Times Square jumbotron. Temple Square is playing the video constantly as people come from all over the world to see the lights. The goal: everyone in the world is touched by the spirit of Christ this Christmas season.</div>
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The message shared is so powerful: what is the meaning of Christmas and how can we better remember that reason? I love the three invitations at the end:</div>
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<b>discover</b> the gift,<b> embrace</b> the gift, and<b> share</b> the gift.</div>
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I invite each of you to personally consider what you can do this season to discover, embrace, and share the gift. These are invitations to everyone, not just members of the Church. We all need to feel of the love of our Savior in greater abundance. What better way to feel His love than to share it with others.</div>
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We ran into a group of three older gentlemen walking their dogs this week. We went to talk to them about "He is the Gift." One of them was uncomfortably avoiding us. The other just looked at us and said religion tears apart people and walked away. But the third guy just started talking with us - he told us he wasn't interested and never has been and that he would smoke while he talked with us, but that he appreciated what we were doing. We asked if he knew of anyone who needed help, and he asked that we go share some holiday cheer with one of his friends in the area. He gave us the name and address for his friend and we parted ways. </div>
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It's amazing to see how there are so many good people in the world. As we all work together to share the love of our Heavenly Father with others (and maybe they do it without knowing), miracles happen. We all need the gospel of Jesus Christ and the ordinances of salvation, such as baptism and the temple ordinances, but we can still love and respect each other and work together to make the world a happier place.</div>
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Man, I just love the gospel! I love being able to interact with Heavenly Father's children every single day! </div>
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In closing, here's how our <b>Sunday </b>went:</div>
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-combined meeting where the Bishop unknowingly called us up to share the "He is the Gift" video.</div>
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-meeting where we left not feeling the best...</div>
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-homecoming talk for the Smith's! The housing coordinators who continually saved my life down in Salt Lake. We are so blessed to have them in our area. Elder Smith shared how they actually did learn a new language - Tiwi, pinkwash, textis, etc. Sister Blankenship and I were dying laughing, and the rest of the congregation was quite confused.</div>
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-another ward's guest speaker totally forgot, so we got to take over the meeting for thirty minutes with technology problems, spur of the moment scriptures, and Sister Blankenship and I having way too much fun with the whole situation. </div>
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-one last sacrament meeting where the sandman decided to continually poor sand on poor Sister Blankenship's head. </div>
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-talked about family history and were fed plenty of pie and popcorn</div>
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-visited with our ward mission leader and helped his family put ornaments on the Christmas tree :)</div>
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-Sister Blankenship and I talked with President Hansen for our BYU endorsement interviews!</div>
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I love you all dearly! Thank you for your faith, love, support, prayers, tears, laughs, and everything you've been through with me! I am so grateful for my friends and family who have been there with me every step of the way.</div>
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Remember to smile!! and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! hehe we can say that now :) </div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Holbrook</div>
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Alma 26:22</div>
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If you haven't seen the video my family made, you definitely should. Just ask Rachel about it. (The link is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC8OzfiFNdo" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/<wbr></wbr>watch?v=XC8OzfiFNdo</a>)</div>
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Ok, this email was far too long.</div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">Merry Christmas everyone!!! We love helping put up Christmas decorations :)</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">Goodbye to Grandma Stratton's home. Our heaven on earth.</span></div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-85702849133443420932014-11-29T06:42:00.002-08:002014-11-29T06:42:36.669-08:00Week 59: Swigget!<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">We played switcheroo this week.</span><br />
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Sister Blankenship got a milder form of what I had last week.</div>
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Which means I had a minor relapse into the world of Kleenex.</div>
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But she had ibuprofen.</div>
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So we were mostly productive this week.</div>
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We had two investigators (people learning about the Church) drop us (they don't want to meet with us anymore) this week. Sad face.</div>
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Our Stake is doing a 40-day fast for missionary opportunities. We have one family (or more) fasting every day starting last week and going until two days before Christmas. It has been amazing to see how the members of the stake are receiving promptings for who and how to share the gospel with their friends and neighbors. </div>
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We came across a mom this week who told us she has twin daughters who aren't baptized and she wants them to be taught and baptized... by the end of the year. Miracles? They totally happen.</div>
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<b>Baptism is just the beginning</b>. Baptism is an ordinance, which is an outward expression of us making a covenant, or promise, with God. Sometimes, we run across parents, family members, or friends who think that those they have been sharing the gospel with have to be perfect and know everything before they can even think of making such a commitment with God. While wanting to be prepared for making that promise is important, there comes a point where faith must take a role. </div>
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We can't know everything - even in our entire life here on earth. We just can't. But we can feel the Holy Ghost testify to our hearts that this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ. And when we feel that testimony grow, that is when we begin to be prepared for these covenants with our Heavenly Father. We cannot afford to put off such important commitments. When we are living the gospel, when we feel the Spirit, and when we have gained that witness of truth, that is when we are prepared. We don't need to know every story in the Bible, or know every detail of Christ's life, or completely understand the words of Isaiah. It all comes down to one question: </div>
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"When you are baptized, you covenant with God that you are willing to take upon yourself the name of Christ and keep His commandments throughout your life. Are you ready to make this covenant and strive to be faithful to it?" -final baptismal interview question</div>
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<b>Baptism is the gate on the path toward the temple</b>. We're not done until we reach the celestial kingdom, sealed together as eternal families. Baptism is the first step along that path. We continue learning and growing along that path. We ultimately go to the temple and make more covenants to lead us to the celestial kingdom. </div>
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I love the simplicity of the gospel!</div>
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Pardon my soapbox. </div>
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If I had time, I would go on another soap box about obedience.</div>
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98% of problems in missionary life are due to obedience. </div>
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It's a simple principle: do what God asks you to do, whether that's in the scriptures or as revealed to His modern-day prophets and Priesthood leaders, and He'll bless you with miracles.</div>
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#liveworthyofmiracles</div>
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Sister Blankenship told me about a Young Women's leader whose family had a vase of rose stems - the flower removed and the thorns very much still on the stem. Each person would then take a stem and share the thorns of the year that they were grateful for. <b>How grateful are we for the thorns in our lives?</b></div>
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There have been so many hard moments and so many miracles this past year. I still can't believe I've been a missionary for so long! Thanksgiving last year seems like it was just a few weeks ago. I am so grateful for who my Heavenly Father is shaping me into. <a href="http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=3897359657001&cid=HPTU111814487" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">It's been a refiner's fire,</a> but I will forever treasure these moments when I had to completely trust in Him. He has taken care of me and blessed me beyond measure. I know this is His gospel! He is in charge! When we turn ourselves over to Him, He will lead us in the path that is best for us.</div>
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Isn't it funny how day by day nothing seems to change, but looking back everything is different? #missionmotto</div>
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Love you all like a turkey loves to see the sunrise on black Friday! -Sister Blankenship's mom</div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Holbrook</div>
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<b>Spoiler alert:</b> </div>
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Go to <a href="http://christmas.mormon.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">christmas.mormon.org</a> on November 25th and watch the video on the 28th. </div>
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Be excited :)</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">This is the Muddy Gutter band. Fabulously classic bluegrass entertainment at the High Priest social in one of our wards. Basically, a dinner for all the people over the age of 50. It was a blast.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1QWfqPHf6FWWaDz9jRcm6DFmBy4Vr8GDnSYnyuIQj5s3M6sSlEQDXbJnazDRWlPHt4OAtkhUTIKnMs5kSnhAJoUy-qW0ppSddpwrTHsokefQUY-gmT-bQy0DFsDn_pNhmBWUFMuLSDJo/s1600/P1130664.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1QWfqPHf6FWWaDz9jRcm6DFmBy4Vr8GDnSYnyuIQj5s3M6sSlEQDXbJnazDRWlPHt4OAtkhUTIKnMs5kSnhAJoUy-qW0ppSddpwrTHsokefQUY-gmT-bQy0DFsDn_pNhmBWUFMuLSDJo/s1600/P1130664.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">This is my little corner of life!</span></div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-13802477392661834192014-11-18T16:27:00.004-08:002014-11-18T16:27:36.141-08:00Week 58: Wassail and Coughing<span class="im" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Top of the temple, Moroni speaking.</span><br />
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<span class="im" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Not fun.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">And so it is with a manly voice, a throbbing chest, and a British accent (because it's easier to talk in a British accent that uses the front of your mouth than an American one that uses your throat more) that I come to you all today for a short note to say I'm alive.</span><br />
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Wednesday I was feeling quite ill, so I called the heart doctors and they told me come in via emergency room so they could make sure my heart was fine. Five pokes, 12 vials, and liter of fluids later, they came in to say they wanted to watch me overnight just to be sure, but that the blood tests were positive for paraflu, or the croup. hooray....</div>
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So Sister Blankenship and I called our mission president. And then I called my family. Which was super awkward - how on earth do you announce yourself to your own family?! And then I got a blessing from the greatest mission president on the face of the earth. And Sister Blankenship and I had some bonding moments. And we went to sleep. We were out of there early the next afternoon. </div>
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Sister Blankenship and I became pretty good friends this week, if you couldn't already tell. Mostly because, you know, we only have each other. Weird to be in a normal companionship. We had some good contacts and discussed what movie characters we would be. We've come to the general consensus that we're the awkward ones in the background that everyone loves. <i>Beware the grooove....</i></div>
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<i>Other highlights:</i></div>
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We went to the temple yesterday!</div>
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We found <b>the best</b> hot chocolate this side of the Mississippi or really on any side of the Mississippi and it's only 99 cents. #happinessinacup</div>
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A dog sang "Silent Night" to me. Not well, but still. Impressive.</div>
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Wise turtles. Man. They are the best.</div>
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IT SNOWED!!! YAY!!! #almostchristmas</div>
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We also had a 10-Stake Training with Elder Chidester of the Seventy and President Hansen, our mission president. Wow. They talked about the roles of high councilman and of ward mission leaders. They also talked about how our focus must be on ordinances and covenants for people. Sometimes, we all get too caught up in the programs and details of the gospel. This gospel is simple. We need to help people understand the basic doctrines of the gospel so they can progress in making covenants and receiving ordinances so they can return to live with their Heavenly Father. It's that simple! </div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">We're doing a 40 day fast in the stake to find 2 families who can be baptized by Christmas. It's been cool to see each ward take it a little differently - we have a few wards who are doing the whole 40 days with just their ward and a few wards who are having lots of families on their assigned days. It's awesome :) #whitechristmas</span></span></div>
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The gospel is true! I love you all! Remember to smile and find the good in every situation. </div>
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Miracles happen!!! </div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Holbrook</div>
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PS I'm fine now. Promise.</div>
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3 Nephi 26:9</div>
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Man, I love my companion and her southern ways.</div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">Our lovely hospital room.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">After the temple!!</span></div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184280043076633877.post-35518628084436496032014-11-11T10:34:00.003-08:002014-11-11T10:34:29.319-08:00Week 57: What just happened?<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I have literally no desire to email today. </span><br />
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It's almost Christmas!! That's exciting.</div>
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We did a lot of family history this week. </div>
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We raked leaves with a lot of people too.</div>
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We took Sister Schrock to the airport <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_998104624" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Saturday</span></span>. It was a little weird</div>
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<b><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_998104625" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span></b> was full of craziness. We went to a ton of meetings for different wards, then there were two Primary Programs that were fabulous and adorable :) One kid's line was "I love my dad because he gives me treats and teaches me Primary songs." Then we had double booked appointments all night. And we had a Veterans' Honor Fireside which was pretty incredible. </div>
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All right, since I literally have nothing to share right now, I'll tell you all about my companion! Sister Blankenship is from the south, she LOVES Christmas, and she is just a ball of sunshine :) She served in this area a year ago and is having a blast reconnecting with people she taught last year. She's the youngest of 5. And basically, she's a boss at being a missionary. She's better at quoting movies than I am, and she appreciates the Amy Grant Christmas CD as much as I do.</div>
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Thought for this week: <b>You never know when a church meeting will change someone's life.</b> It could be a Relief Society lesson, a sacrament meeting talk, a comment made, or a hug. Some people are at church for the first time. Some are going through the motions. Some love every single second of it. And some are giving church one last shot. What will we do to create the environment where everyone who enters a church building will feel the love of the Savior? What preparation will we put in to be sure that the Spirit touches their hearts?</div>
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I love you all!! Remember to smile and expect miracles :) Because they really do happen!!</div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Holbrook</div>
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Hebrews 6:10-13</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho1T9kzrF0qi_9VeqPJN12O-Ch2P0ENDH1kTsVpyGTmKm1hqO2wTZT_ri7YS-fFC4clyAGJ_hbmXaYyKEsVQblYK10d3H5dGQrNCpYMrXe8zl6prEa1fPaw48i15Aq_cG4LKy2fJYOlWM/s1600/P1130562.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho1T9kzrF0qi_9VeqPJN12O-Ch2P0ENDH1kTsVpyGTmKm1hqO2wTZT_ri7YS-fFC4clyAGJ_hbmXaYyKEsVQblYK10d3H5dGQrNCpYMrXe8zl6prEa1fPaw48i15Aq_cG4LKy2fJYOlWM/s320/P1130562.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">Last companionship picture before Sister Weber headed to Layton and Sister Bill finished!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRuyjrrGmVAUp4kA7QUaOde4KnfAVHd0wGLK2gFI3TvTpP5fangynYazuTNn1lL3wHJOJXuSsjMWVoOcWoM2cMFLTJRQF1DNdIvPirWsyGbGcQNYeVWe-hihvP_AxVCAFGgFQWbR5QS2A/s1600/P1130578.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRuyjrrGmVAUp4kA7QUaOde4KnfAVHd0wGLK2gFI3TvTpP5fangynYazuTNn1lL3wHJOJXuSsjMWVoOcWoM2cMFLTJRQF1DNdIvPirWsyGbGcQNYeVWe-hihvP_AxVCAFGgFQWbR5QS2A/s320/P1130578.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">With Sister Schrock just before we took her to the airport. We went to Temple Square with her for a few minutes. Oh, and Sister Blankenship, my current companion :)</span></div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091033770000836864noreply@blogger.com0