I have been thinking about what the highlights of my week have been. I was trying to think of funny things and some awesome things that have happened.That was easy.

 1- Sister Roberts and I found a free store and got new outfits!! They were so awesome! I actually really liked mine! haha Yes they were a little out of date some may think but it is definitely something I will wear fairly often because my blue dress is so COMFY!!!

2-I FED A SQUIRREL!! How many people can say they fed a squirrel by hand?? I can!! After one of our lessons our investigator gave me a cracker with peanut butter on it and was like here feed it to the squirrel and it just came up and took it! It was so cool! The Lamanite squirrels aren't as friendly! They have little black Squirrels around here and we call them Lamanite squirrels! Haha yup! They are cool looking! I haven't seen a squirrel like that anywhere else! 

3- I saw a dancing box! You find weird things down town! There was this kid in a box (Kiera and Keldon you could probably relate...but I did not have this kid race anyone) and he was dancing around! I asked him if I could take a picture of him and he was like "yeah" then he posed for me. It made me laugh. It was perfect for the end of a long day!

Although all of these things were awesome they definitely were not the highlight of my week! I will tell you what was though because I know you are all dying to know.

Sister Roberts and I were walking to one of our investigators houses and on the way we see a member driving and he pulls over and was like "Girls I am so glad  I see you." Haha this guy is a convert to the church. He is an older guy and used to be Amish and he talks like he is just learning English and he has the coolest accent. He is white and has only ever spoke English! Man he is so great. So he pulls open his van door and starts giving us all these little muffin cakes his wife makes then he grabs some apples. After that he looks at us really seriously and says "If  I give you tomato will you throw it at people?" Haha we assured him we wouldn't so he adds 4 tomatoes to the bag. then he gets in his van and drives away. We then walked to our lesson looking like we had just been grocery shopping.

After our lesson he were heading home and a Less Active calls us and asked if we could come over. We agreed and started heading to their house. We kept hoping we would have time to drop the food off at our apartment before we had to go to our next lesson. When we got to their house they expressed some trials they had encountered part of it being financial. We talked and tried to uplift them. I love seeing them! They are fantastic! The time soon came where we needed to head to our next appointment and it was clear as day who that food was meant for. It was not meant for Sister Roberts and I! they needed it far more than we did and we were meant to deliver it to them! That was the coolest feeling ever! I was so excited that I was able to be that instrument in God's hand! The Lord works in mysterious ways!

Next, we got in contact with a potential investigator! his name is Keith and he has been investigating the church for a very long time and has recently moved to Centreville! He has a really cool story! So he was living in Iowa I think and he has just gotten out of jail and was working for a calling center place and he called a church in Chicago! He didn't realize that he had until they answered and they politely said that they were not interested in buying what he was selling. He said he was in a very low point in his life and needed help so he asked this guy if he would pray with him. So he did and then gave him the address to the church by him. That is how Keith got into the church. Cool right??? So he moved to Michigan with his Girlfriend and the relationship went sour in his words so he is currently staying at the Keystone. The Keystone is a homeless shelter. Keith is one of the most humble people I have ever met and he is so positive! I was uplifted by being around him! He is sharing the gospel at the Keystone and said we should try to meet with people there! HE IS SHARING THE GOSPEL!! It is so cool! He wants to get baptized and I think he will decided he want to do it sooner than later! 

Something I have discovered on my mission is that the people are uplifting me and helping me grow far more than I could ever help them!! It is the coolest thing ever!! I am so grateful for these experiences!! I look at people way different than I ever used to! I LOVE MY MISSION!! I just can't say that enough! I also have realized how blessed I am! When we went to the Keystone there were little kids running around and they were wearing really dirty clothes and they looked as if they haven't had baths in a long time! It was so sad! I then looked at my own life and I began to count my blessings and I came to the conclusion that I am so spoiled and I need to be more grateful for what I have! my mission has been an incredibly humbling experience!! 

I hope you all have had a fabulous week! I challenge you to look at your life and count your blessings! I promise you the Lord has blessed you in so many ways! Even in ways you may never be able to see!! 

I love you all!! 

Last though. Mosiah 2:41

There are no happy-endings because true happiness never ends!!

#1 missionary

So... I have been in this weird kick where I hash tag all of my life...I am not sure where this came from. Maybe it is me trying to make my like have some sort of technology in it...wait that doesn't make sense! Haha I cannot explain myself! It is great because it has rubbed off on Sister Roberts as well!(: We are really becoming insync it used to freak us out but now we are used to it! I am excited because we will be staying together for one more transfer!!!(: Woot Woot!! We are having a lot of success right now so we didn't want to ruin that by getting split up! We are now teaching 8 investigators! 2 of them are girls!! haha we were pumped about that! for some reason we have only found guys who are 44+ who want to learn. So finding girls was exciting!

So I would like to explain life on a mission in the United States...

Sister Roberts and I prefer walking because it is easy to talk to people who are like out on their porch or walking as well. Door Knocking is not very productive around here. So we decided to walk to our dinner appointment which was 4 miles away. Not bad right? It took us about an hour to walk there. We were not very smart and we wore our Sunday shoes which equaled BLISTERS!! It was not to delightful quite the opposite actually because I have not had blisters for like a month! So we eat and chat with the family and when we were finished Sister Roberts did not want to walk home she made that very obvious! Haha She kept making comments about us walking in hopes that they would take us home! It was getting close to 8:00 and I was like come on we got to start walking or we will be walking in the dark!!! She leaves a couple more hints and nothing! So I get her out the door and we start walking! OH YEAH they made us plates of food to take home so we wouldn't have to cook on our P-Day! How kind right? So we are walking and doing so fairly awkwardly to avoid the pain of our new blisters! Haha so we are like waddling with these plates of food in our hands! Haha we looked completely ridiculous!! We got so many weird looks as people drove by. But you know we are fat and happy!!;) 

We had the golden words come out of one of our investigators mouths this week!!! We were asking Alexza what some of his life goals were and he said:

1-Finish School

2-BECOME A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH

3-Get a career

4-GET MARRIED IN THE TEMPLE

5-Have a family!!

WHAT? This guy isn't even baptized yet!! Haha but don't worry we will fix that!! He is doing so so good! he has actually started sharing the gospel with his friends and co-workers!! That is HUGE!! We wanted to jump for joy when we heard that!! It is fantastic!! We had a lesson with him in Indra's store the other day. Indra owns Amber Myst Alternatives a wellness store (I LOVE IT) and she joined in on the lesson and she gave us the biggest compliment. She told Alexza that he should really listen to what we say because we walk the talk and we know what we are talking about!! Indra is fantastic she has a lot of questions about the church and she loves to talk about it! SEEDS ARE BEING PLANTED!! One day we will have a branch in Three Rivers I can feel it!! We really need one! it is just to hard for people to get to Sturgis! They either don't have a car or they don't have the money for fuel! It is really sad because they have that desire to go!! Baby steps we will get there!! 

There are a lot of Amish people around here and I love it! I am learning so much about them! 

Did you know:

-Amish men who are not married are not allowed to grow beards...only married men have beards and they are intense beards! I saw one man who looked like Abraham Lincoln!! 

-They do use lawn mowers. I saw them mowing their lawn.

-They make amazing cake donuts!!! Seriously though! Brother Garner (Our Ward Mission Leader) Brings them for us every time we have correlation! (No he is not amish)

-They have awesome buggies that we get stuck behind sometimes! I want to ride in one! 

On a more spiritual note:

I was reading in the Book of Mormon and in 2 Nephi 29 verse 1 and 2 really stuck out to me. 

"But behold, there shall be many-- at that day when I shall proceed to so a marvelous work among them, that I may remember my covenants which I have made unto the children of men, that I may set my hand again the second time to recover my people, which are of the house of Israel."

"And also, that I may remember the promises which I have made unto thee, Nephi and also unto thy father, that I would remember your seed; and that the words of your seed should proceed forth out of my mouth unto your seed; and my worods shall hiss forth unto the ends of the earth, for a standard unto my people, which are of the house of Israel;"

There are so many good things in these scriptures but the one thing that came to my mind do I remember the promises and covenants I have made with God? He will always remember them and keep them. But if I don't remember them how can I keep them?? It is so important that we remember what promises and covenants we make with God!! There is an incredible reward if we will! I am so grateful for a loving and patients Father in Heaven because we can always improve and keep trying. Just because we mess up once or twice or a million bajillion quadrillion (That is a lot in my mind if that doesn't really exist) times and he will still forgive us that many times and help us to improve! I love that! I have never been more aware of my weaknesses than on a mission. Some days I am like "Man I am so human" haha seriously though as a missionary I feel so stretched some days and like I am not strong enough. I feel like Peter when he is walking on water and being all awesome and stuff and then he gets scared and starts to drown! When I feel like that the coolest thing happens to me. Heavenly Father reaches out to me and pulls me up just like he did to Peter and I am no longer drowning! It is the coolest thing ever! Even cooler than the newest iPhone. Heavenly Father can do so much more than any silly phone ever thought of doing! 

I want you all to know that I have a testimony of this gospel! The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church! Those words used to come out of my mouth because that is just what you say but I now know without a doubt that it is true! I have seen the power of the Atonement and I know that we have a very loving Heavenly Father who loves us so much he would do anything for us and he is just waiting for us to allow him to do so! When we do incredible things happen! I have seen it in my life and in so many lives around me! Change is good and change is possible! We can all do hard things with God!! 

I love being a missionary it is exactly what I needed in my life! I can already see the blessings of serving a mission! The world is crazy and we need a firm foundation to withstand the crazy storms of the world!! 

Don't let the world get you down! You have the power to withstand all that comes your way! 

I love you all and I hope you have a fabulous week! Don't forget to read your scriptures and pray!! By small and simple things are great things brought to pass!! 

Favorite quote of the week from my 71 year old investigator, Ken.

"Do I sound tall on the phone?"

#

"Your happiness can be contagious. As others observe you, they may desire to know the source of your joy. then they can also experience the happiness that comes through living the gospel of Jesus Christ."

-True to the Faith

I had the wonderful opportunity to speak in sacrament for Mother's Day. Haha you know that is just cruel make a missionary talk about family and mothers...it made me a little homesick! But I had a lot of things stick out to me this week. Happiness is the key one! I love that quote because I always looked at other Sister Missionaries and I was like man you are so happy! I want to be that happy and so I would try to find that happiness in my life before my mission. Now that I am in their place I am so happy. Why am I so happy?

1-The spirit!! As I follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost I am lead to where I am suppose to go and I experience incredible things!! I see miracles every single day!! No joke! I promise that if you do the same you will see miracles as well! They are all around us! we just have to have our right eyes on. Our worldly eyes will block things like that out!!

2-I am including God is every aspect of my life! Ok I was one of those people who was careful about what I prayed about. I thought some things were silly to pray about and so I avoided that! Now I pray for everything!! Haha I have been really tired and one morning the alarm went off and I could not get myself to get out of bed! I seriously just layed there and prayed for the strength and desire to get up until I had that strength and desire. I prayed for like 5 minutes! My prayers were answered though! 

3-Obedience! Before my mission everyone I mean EVERYONE and there cat tell you that you have to be obedient! Well I am joining the ranks! Obedience is key! As I am obedient miracles come! I have learned that rules are not the lock on the door but the key to the door. Took me 19 years to figure that out but I got it! Haha I know my parents are wishing I would have figured that out before I moved out! Haha all well better late then never I always say eh? (Thats off a movie I know it I just don't know which one! Whoever can identity that movie gets extra prayers from me!) 

4-I CHOOSE!!! In 2 Nephi 10:23 it talks about choosing what you do! Often when people are forced into things they are not happy about it! We have a Tri- Mission Conference in Lansing on Friday and we talked a lot about how we choose to handle everyday missionary trials! The other day we were door knocking and I HATE door knocking and we knocked on this door and they informed us that no one else was home on the whole block...that did not put me in a very good mood! I was over door knocking! We went to a new area and I was like ok I have a bad attitude! I told Sister Roberts I was changing my attittude and that the next door a lady was going to answer and she was going to talk to us and invite us in! That exactly happened! I am not even kidding! It was a miracle! No one wanted to talk to us at all that whole day and we go in and set a return appointment!!! Attitude is key!!

5-How can you not be happy when you are a Sister Missionary!! Being a missionary is one of the best things in the world! Sister Roberts and I are not perfect and sometimes our imperfections open up doors! So we were 20 minutes late to a lesson...I know shame on us! To make it worse I forgot the phone as we were walking. Haha I hate carrying the phone around with us! Haha who am I? I always had my phone at home...oh yeah I can't text Skyler anymore thats why;) So we show up and we were meeting with an Investigator, Less Active, and a Member! (coolest thing ever) and they were giving us a hard time and so Josh (Member) offers to say the opening prayer!! HE PRAYED FOR OUR FORGIVENESS! What better thing than for others to help you in the repentance process right? So we were like ok how can we make this up to you?? They all wanted cookies, each of them different kinds...NEVER TRUST A RECIPE ON A FLOUR BAG!! So when we delivered the cookies a couple days later they weren't very good but they thought it was funny! We  wrote the scripture Ether 12:27 and put that he shows sisters that they have weaknesses and he gives sisters weakenss so that they may be humble haha  and at the end when it say he will make weak things strong we put that he would make late things early! It was funny and we had an opportunity to contact them again which is important! 

As I thought about that, we can go to God with any of our weaknesses and like we switched the words at the end, you can do the same with any words! God is there to help us with EVERYTHING!!

Those are just a few reasons why I am so happy! It is amazing what putting a name tag on does for a person! I love it!!!

I got to talk to my family yesterday!! That was the best! Family is so important! "Family time is sacred time and it should be respected and protected" Never take your family for granted! They are always there for us and we need to treat them better than we treat anyone else!! 

FUN FACT: We have a tornado watch today! Haha I don't know what is happening! These things don't usually happen in Michigan! Don't worry though I am safe! I know what to do in the event of a tornado! That is when you jump in the bath tub and put the matress over you!! Don't worry I got this!! 

I love you all and appreciate all your love and support! I know I say that a lot but I truly mean it! I can feel all your prayers! I am strengthened everyday! I can't imagine serving without the prayers and the spirit! It would be an epic fail! So thanks for making it an epic success! you are all incredible!! 

BE HAPPY!! And have a fabulous week!!

SO... I experienced my first earthquake this week! It was terrifying but the damage is minimal thank heavens! Sister Roberts and I were sitting at our table waiting for our fired rice to get done cooking when all the sudden everything started to shake!! The table was moving like crazy! I fell off my chair and in our panicked condition we started running around falling to the ground not sure what to do!!!! I remember from my young years that at some kind of natural disaster you jump in the bath tub and put a matress over top of you!! So I imediately grabbed my matress and drug it to the tub and pulled it over me! I was feeling very strong!! Sister Roberts just ran around in circles screaming!!! When all was said and done we only had part of our roof cave in by our front room! 

JUST KIDDING!!!

But there really was an earthquake! A 4.2 20 minutes of us! Haha we were sitting at our kitchen table and we both panicked haha and thought about packing our bags! Hahaha we were not sure what to do!! Haha we seriously were like should we stand in a field?? Haha but that is about all!! Haha Goood did come out of it! Our neighbor came and knocked on our door and we talked about it! He was keeping us updated on the news! He calls himself Earthquake headquarters! It is pretty comical!! We actually met up with him later that day and we ended up giving him a book of mormon and he has started reading it!! Sometimes people need an earthquake to bring them to their senses!! 

We got a referal the other day and this man asked if we could take his friend a book of mormon. SO we walked over to the Flea Market and found Chris! Chris took the Book of Mormon and then asked me  how long I had been a member. After I told her I had been a member my whole life she asked me a question no one had ever asked me before. She said, "Do you plan on staying a member?" I was able to answer her question with a confident Yes! She then asked me why! 

I plan to stay in this church because it has brought me so much happiness and without the gospel I would not be the person I am today! Being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ is not just a religion! It is a way of life! It is what I have built my foundation on and if I will continue to set my foundation on Christ I will be successful because with God I can do hard things!! And with this gospel I  have felt so much JOY!! 

2 Nephi 2:25 "MEN ARE THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE JOY!"

That is what this life is all about and we can find that joy by following Christ and allowing him to help us in our life! I have felt so much joy since I have been on my mission! It is weird because I have no time for myself! By the worlds views I should be miserable right? WRONG!! The more I look to help others and the more opportunities I get to life those around me the happier I am! We are on spiritual highs often! I LOVE IT!!!

"Your happiness can be contagious. As others observe you, they may desire to know the source of your joy. Then they can also experience the happiness that comes through living the gospel of Jesus Christ."

One of the best ways you can be a missionary is to be happy! We live in a world of unhappiness and when you are happy others want to know how you can be happy!! It truly is contagious!!  SO be hapy! If you aren't happy look to Christ because he can make you happy and you can feel that joy! I promise you that!! 

After Chris talked with us for a while she looked at me and said you look really happy! I am really happy!! I hope you all know that! This Gospel brings so much happiness I am like exploding with happiness over here in Michigan!!! 

Haha I was in Wal-mart today and Breakaway by KElly Clarkson came on and I love that song so I am just singing it while we shop haha and I didn't realize how loud I was singing and this man walks past and he was like Sing Louder! haha it made my day!! I love Church music but I love being able to sing other things too! Haha our music collection is a little limited! Haha BUt yeah! Haha 

I hope you are all having a fabulous week! BE HAPPY!!! God wants us to be happy and he has provided a way for us to be happy!! 

I LOVE YOU ALL!!