Week 22 - Can't Escape!

Hey all y'all!

We finally got a new interested person this week! We finally got a new interested person this week! Her name is Kirsten. She is a total hippie and I love it! She is the sweetest, most tenderhearted soul, and is truly searching for God. She became interested in the church because of the unique way that Sister Antonucci and her family have influenced her. She said that they are so genuinely loving and caring, as well as true to what they believe. Our time with Kirsten was an extremely tender and spiritual experience. As we answered her questions and shared, we all couldn't help but feel the Spirit's influence. We all became emotional at one point. We are so thankful for Sister Antonucci's willingness to share her beliefs with those around her through her actions and who she is and providing us with this sweet experience.

Members of the church are the greatest influence we have for bring others unto Christ! The way that you lead your lives and carry yourselves can change everything for someone else. Live boldly by our religion! Don't be shy to share the light and love of Christ in any form! It makes ALL the difference.

That is not what matters though. This past transfer has been tough and I have honestly felt uninspired to write for you all --not because of a lack of love for y'all, but because it has been more uneventful of late, yet so busy and time seems shorter!

This past transfer, as well as the start of my 3rd transfer, has changed my perspective on missionary work and life immensely. It is not quite what I thought it would be! It's funny too because my first transfer was not far at all from what I felt the mission would be like. I'd thought that the following transfers would help me really get in the hang of things; get missionary life down and know what to expect. No way! It keeps changing and I have a feeling that I'll always be trying to figure out how to be a missionary (as well as a disciple of Christ). God has got to keep me on my toes, right? If I'm not on my toes, I'm pretty short heheh. All in all, it has been a struggle to write weekly's. As I've gone forward in the mission, I've become more and more consumed in it and focused -- trying to understand what God would have me do with all He places in my path. Plus, I might overthink things by trying to make perfectly inspiring and entertaining updates for y'all heheh. Whoops!

Anyway, through my recent experiences I am relearning that as long as our desires and strivings are centered around Christ, whatever we do is right. This is not to say that we won't make mistakes and need correction but we will be pointed in the right direction. God will not let us stray as we rely on Him.

As we come to know better, we will do better. We can not be truly perfect in this life, so STOP TRYING TO BE PERFECT.

Being a christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously being out and actively doing God's will!

Sometimes we can get caught up in avoiding sin and doing things wrong. The problem is not necessarily in those things alone -- it is in the very moment that we decide to dwell in them! We have to be okay with being vulnerable and susceptible to the possibility of making mistakes, trusting that God will correct us. Correction is not a negative thing! Rather, it is an opportunity for us to escape dwelling on false ideas or mistakes! Allow God to be your guide by courageously moving forward and actively doing God's will!

Mistakes are part of the process. They are not bad, allowing them to change us for the worse or becoming stuck in them IS. It is necessary for us to fall, for that is the only way we can then rise to our fullest potential and return to live with our loving Heavenly Parents and family in the highest degree of glory!

KEY POINTS:
Things will not go according to YOUR plans and expectations. This is HIS plan. BE OKAY WITH THAT. He is perfect after all.
Know that vulnerability is KEY to growth and progression.
Don't allow yourself to dwell in sin, and mistakes (or sorrows).
Ask for help and RELY ON HIM.
Move FORWARD with FAITH.

CHALLENGE:
Pray to God asking Him to reveal your weaknesses, your complexes and loops, beliefs that are founded on false ideas etc. -- ANYTHING that may be stunting your progression towards Him and reaching your full potential -- and be READY and WILLING to accept and follow His guidance.

I am working on this too. I have been for a while and it is amazing what can happen! If you truly want to move forward, always come to God with a plan including your end; humility, openness, willingness, and conviction.

All of my love,
Sister Alger (:

Our awesome district!

A cool quote on my herbal tea!

This was a white elephant gift from Christmas and we keep sneaking it back and forth between us and the elders. It's been a lot of fun!

Sister Egbert straightened the Elders hair on Pday.
Elder Steelman and Elder Helms both have super curly hair.

 

We have such great elders!
They are wonderful missionaries and take good care of all of us sister missionaries.

Week 21

Dearest loved ones,

This week has flown by, my goodness. It seriously seems it disappeared before I could comprehend it! It has been a fun and spirit filled week, I would say it's probably the best week that Sister Egbert and I have had together yet!

Last preparation day, Sister Egbert and I did still-life painting with an investigator's mom! (I think I had pictures in the last email I sent.) She is an incredible artist and has her work displayed all over her home. I connected with her over the theory of art. It was wonderful to get to know her better, she is about the kindest soul you could meet! She even gave us oil paints and brushes to continue working on our paintings.

We finally got into contact with Jared and Elizabeth again! Jared was so sweet and said that he had just been talking to Elizabeth about us, wondering when we would meet again! He said that we are always welcome in their home and they would like to meet again soon since Elizabeth has been feeling better. Hopefully that means they'll be able to get to church soon too!

We have had a few blizzard-like storms this week! Sister Egbert and I LOVE the snow, it is so fun!

Deep thoughts
Why do people insist on only worrying about themselves? Often I hear people say that if they can't love themselves, how can they ever love someone else. Ah, it's not about self love! The problem is fears--of not being hurt/mistreated, and of not being enough in the eyes of those they love and respect. We can't ever find what we're looking for or fill the hole we have without opening ourselves and being vulnerable. We have to take the risk of being hurt and NEVER stop trying, NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER CLOSE OFF! (As Elder Holland said, this does not mean to place ourselves in harm's way,  stay in "a toxic relationship or return to an abusive, destructive circumstance.”) Happiness is only found OUTSIDE of ourselves. Christ never stopped giving of Himself, and He suffered the greatest pain, that none of us will ever have to suffer because of it! I won't stop loving!

Here's a scripture challenge to go with that. Start with 1 Corinthians 13:4 "Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up," then in the Gospel Library app, click on suffereth. Read through the snips of scriptures connected with this one, especially those in the New Testament, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants. Below, you can see I highlighted the ones that hit me most deeply.

Those who become like Christ will have to suffer long like He did. If you are experiencing opposition, know that you are on the right path.

Randomnesses:
So Aaron Eckhart, the actor, attended our ward's sacrament meeting yesterday. He is a returning member and that is pretty dang cool! Apparently his family lives here, wow.

Our zone leaders bought Sister Egbert and I stickers because we got them pens because we noticed they didn't have a SINGLE WORKING PEN. Heheh

We got given a creepy baby doll in a white elephant gift exchange so we are now passing it back and forth with the elders. It's pretty hilarious!

We had to go all out "mom" on Sister Anderson because she's been having nose bleeds that last over 30 minutes. NOT OKAY.  We made her come into Bozeman, she got a priesthood blessing from the zone leaders, and we took her to the doctor!

Week 20 - A Stressed Saint = A Straint

Hello there world!

This week… ahhhh. Wow. Holy cow. I survived how? Okay, that is enough of that, but it has legitimately been one of the hardest weeks I have had thus far on the mission.

Anywhooooo, our area is doing better! We are getting more into the swing of things. We're getting our regular appointments back, after the crazy holidays, and trying to find those who have disappeared lately. We should be able to have someone on date for baptism in the next week or so, and that is exciting!

My companion and I are doing well. Seasonal depression is real, lots of people have been experiencing the effects! I have never had an issue with it, but it is a challenge to help others cope with it. We are both trying to be there for others. Sister Egbert and I are very empathetic and it is hard to not to be able to make things magically better for everyone. It is NOT our job to fix people or this world, we can't! Rather, we are meant to LOVE, be an example, keep moving forward, and most of all, to point others towards Christ -- He is the ONLY one who can truly heal this world and truly heal us!

We had a wonderful time with the Billings Sister Training Leaders (STL's) on Friday! Sister Egbert and I were a little stressed about doing exchanges with the Billings STL's because we were going to blitz the area. When the day came, it all worked out beautifully and we had MORE than enough to do and work with. We will even be using some of the leftovers for this week too! We had a blast and love those sisters to pieces!

We are aiming to get the people we were teaching back and to get members more involved in lessons and fellowshipping! We are also working on facing our fears together, and only focusing on pleasing God. The only judge that matters is always watching! In the end, it doesn't matter if we have made a fool of ourselves in the eyes of the world, it only matters that we were following God's will and working to please Him above anyone else.

CHALLENGE:

When we talk with others for the first time, we introduce ourselves and ask about them. We can do the same with God through prayer. As we honestly evaluate who we are with the Father through prayer, we can come to know Him more personally and more fully recognize His hand in our lives.
Please, remember what a precious and beautiful gift that prayer is! Don't let yourself go through the motions, speak with Him as you would your parents and your best friends! After all, He is the literal Father of our spirits. Although He is all-knowing, He is also ALL-LOVING! He may know what His plan is for you but He wants you to let Him into your hearts and lives. He wants to build a relationship with YOU!

I love you all!

Sister Alger

Just so y'all know, our days are full of spiritual experiences and deep conversations. We just don't usually pull out a camera and document them. That would be a little distracting, heheheh! We do know how to find joy in every moment. We have a great time while working hard together! My Ma loves the pics, so we keep them coming.

We made banana pancakes for our district council meeting. 

Our day with the STL's

Sister Chase and Sister Esplin

More fun in the evening with the STL's!

One of our interested friends, has a mother who is a painter. She invited us to come learn to use oil paints! We did still life paintings. Sister E's is on the left, mine on the right.

Week 19 - Back in the Game!

Hello loved ones!

I just have to say that this week was AMAZING! It was the first week that Sister Egbert and I could really get doing the work and it felt fantastic!

As I said before, I and/or Sister Egbert had been sick for most of the first 3 weeks of this  transfer. We had too much time to overthink things and little to no human contact, on top of being ill. Nothing is worse as a missionary, at least in my experience thus far, than to be stuck at home going crazy!

As a result of all of this, our excitement and eagerness to the Lord's work has been greatly deepened! Our first real day back in, the day's work was not one of particular success. Nonetheless, we were filled to the brim with joy by simply doing it! We went door to door facing rejection and did other means of contacting without receiving  responses. It didn't matter how our efforts were being received --of course we would've loved to have been received well, or had some grand miracle-- the fact that we were able to get out of the apartment and be where the people were, made all the difference!

We did have a few little miracles later that day though. One was when we were sent on a wild goose chase with a wrong address! When we finally found the right place, we discovered that the people we were trying to contact had barely gotten home. We knocked on their door and they were very kind, but made it clear they were not interested. What a miracle right? Hahah, well I actually think so! This is because we were able to contact them, be bold with them, and truly know if they were interested or not so we knew how to best use our efforts. If we hadn't been randomly sent to the wrong place in the beginning, we would have gotten there before they were even home and spent a longer time trying to contact them. It was a sweet moment even though we weren't received as we hope to be.

The other little miracle was when we co-taught the Cossins family, with the zone leaders. Brother and Sister Cossins got into a bit of a heated discussion over past offenses regarding bishops. We as missionaries would try to chime in and provide a way out bit they KEPT GOING. Sister Egbert and Elder Steelman were stressed out, and Elder Helms and I were just patiently waiting for them to finish heheh. When it was clear they would keep going, Sister Egbert finally squeezed her way in and was amazing! She channeled her energy from being stressed (through prayers in her heart to God) into a powerful spiritual discussion which changed the whole course of the debate between the Cossins! Elder Helms finished it off very nicely with a talk by Elder Holland (The Ministry of Reconciliation) and a challenge. It turned out beautifully!

Another blessing that has come from the interesting start to our transfer, is the special bond that Sister Egbert and I have developed. She and I were talking, just the other day about how we couldn't have gotten so close so fast without what we've gone through together. We have made many discoveries together that will change our lives forever. I adore her with all of my heart! She believes in me, she pushes me, and she loves me! She makes life so bright and wonderful!

We have many plans and goals for our friends of the church and ourselves! Sister Egbert even mentioned how we have new opportunities to find with our being out of touch with the world, as well as everyone disappearing for the holidays. We have a 10 year old who has just gotten permission from her dad to be baptized and we will be helping with preparations for that! We also have many new potential investigators. Life is good!

Other little miracles from this week:

We found three people that we have been teaching that went off the grid for weeks! Some of them are very ill, so we won't be able to teach them for a bit. At least we know that they are alive, for reals we were so worried about them!

I have been sight reading opening hymns daily in our companionship study! It is a goal I have been working on to get over my piano complexes. I even sight read in front of random people sometimes… for those who know my piano fears / complexes this is a big deal!

We have had lots of people showing up at our game nights and been able to get to know them better!

Randomnesses:

I dislocated Sister Egbert's shoulder! Whoops…

I was sleep talking again and somehow sent an emoji on our zone chat and typed in my notes, all while I was asleep still!

The district leaders helped us contact some sketchy places! At one of them, the person peeked through their blinds, made eye contact with us, and never answered the door… we even knocked one more time! It was super funny and awkward when we made eye contact heheh.

Elder Helms was trying to try new things and ended up breaking his knee by playing basketball… poor thing! He never plays basketball and the one time he did, that happened!

Thank you for your continued love and prayers. I love you all!
Sister Alger

Lots of silly, missionary fun!

 

Panda express for New Year's Eve dinner, sponsored by Sis Egbert's parents!

Straight hair pics!

Fake 12am New Years kiss

More straight hair pics

It's fun to have a fellow cosmetologist as a companion. She's been having fun doing my hair.

Beautiful sunset pics

Sis Egbert's parents treated us to panda again!

Morning pic

Me in the morning on pday with my curly hair back!

Sis Egbert with a giant koala

Morning pics

Snow in my hair!

Sis Egbert and her two loves: me and her oatmeal cookie

With the Livingston sisters before district council

  

In the car with the Livingston sisters on our way to hike with our district + some from our zone

A billion pics on our way to the hike, during our hike and the way back