Hello All! Another week, more mission drama.  This weekend was probably the best yet because Orrin was FINALLY baptized and confirmed. It was the cutest thing ever. Originally after he had committed to be baptized on November 16th he told me that he only wanted it to be me, him, and Brother Stephenson (the man who fellow shipped him) at his baptism. That's it. Just three people..... My response to that was: "uhhh yeah, no. We are inviting the whole ward." Which we did, and a ton of people showed up.  When Orrin was in the baptismal font, about to be baptized, he started crying like a little baby. I started crying too and so did my old companion Sister Fairbanks. BEST TEARS EVER. I was able to give a talk, as well as his good friend Melody.. and Orrin gave a talk too. He mainly just bore his testimony and it was so great because even our Bishop, WHO NEVER CRIES, started tearing up. Priceless.  Orrin is going to receive the Aaronic priesthood this next weekend.  

I've been having some health problems, mainly just terrible headaches which have been getting progressively worse over the past two months. But I was able to finally see a Neurologist and I will be getting an MRI this Wednesday. So hopefully that helps.

hmm... Transfers are coming up and I am praying that me and my two other companions can stay together. My companion got grounded from driving because she hit a pole (don't ask me how) and so I was given the keys to the car:) let's just say... Scottsdale is not the same. Anyway, our two sibling investigators Sam and Wesley are getting baptized this Sunday which is exciting.

Love you all, have a great great week! 

sister healy 

Hello everyone! Just another sunny monday morning in Scottsdale. this week was a whirlwind to say the least.  Where to begin...

 

Well let's start with the AMAZING NEWS. We now have 5 scheduled baptisms in the next 3 weeks. Yes, we had 1 and now we have 5. SO EXCITED. Orrin is going to baptized this saturday, and let's just say I've really taken the reigns on this one. I made sure to individually call every member of the ward council (Relief society prez, Elders Quorum prez, ect.) and made them promise me (literally I made them verbally promise me) that they would announce orrins baptism in each of their meetings. I even stood up in the third hour and announced it again... so the whole ward better show up to his baptism. or else. The other people we have on date are: Wes and Sam Louis (11,13 year olds whose mom recently started coming back to church), Steve Rhoads (this super swanky man in his early 60's, looks like a stake president, just saying), and finally good old Paul Dewitt. Paul, like Orrin has a baptist background and actually used to be a minister himself. He had a falling out with the baptist faith when the Reverend above him started doing some things that were morally not right. we had a great lesson with Paul yesterday and he committed to be baptized. So Im SO SO excited because we are leading our zone in baptisms now. YIPPEE.  

 

Other things this week: hmm, well I share a more than awkward experience haha. We were trying to contact this woman who is less active. We showed up at her house after eating the classic dinner which includes potato salad, and beans of some sort.  Well that food never sits well in the stomach of sister fisher, so mid conversation, as we are talking to this woman on her porch, sister fisher just rips one. and i mean rips one. we all kind of just stood there.... not knowing what to say. the woman says "well mother nature calls to us all." let's just say that was probably one of the funniest experiences of my life. seriously. so funny. sister fisher is just classic. 

 

Now on a more serious note: 

 I've decided that because we leave commitments with our investigators and less actives every appointment, I should do the same with all of you. So this week, I commit all of ya'll ( the amazing people who read these GREAT emails) to write down three things that you are grateful for everyday. I promise that if you do so, you will really see how lucky and blessed you are:) have a great week and know I love and care for you all.

 

love your fave,

sister healy 

 

Happy November! Here's the latest from Morgan. Pictures are posted on her blog:  www.missionarymorgan.blogspot.com

 

And.... IT'S NOVEMBER. another week has passed here in scottsdale and we had some great peaks and a few pits this week.

I'll start with the saddish stuff, Hattie is being a bit of a pill and is impossible to contact at this point. We know that she really does want to be baptized but I'm not so certain about her willingness to committ fully to gospel principles... so we will see what happens with her this next week.

We did have a couple miracles this week. I'll start with the best one. So as I HOPE you all remember we have been teaching a man named Orrin Billy ( he used to be a baptist and his dad is a hard-core, Mormon-hating pastor)... anyways we have been teaching him the past 2 months and extended an invitation for him to be baptized about 5 weeks ago. He told us that he would pray about it... and he did... for the past 5 weeks... well yesterday I was sitting next to him in sacrament meeting and I of course was blabbing on and on about something (honestly don't even remember exactly what) but then there was a pause in the conversation and he just looks at me and says "So i want to be baptized". I kind of looked at him in shock for a second because IT JUST DIDN'T SEEM REAL. I then pulled myself together and asked him when. We've set the date for November 16th! SO SO EXCITED.

Also a less active that we have been working with since i got here committed to prepare to go to the temple and take out his endowment and become worthy to recieve the Melchizedek priesthood! that was also so exciting.  

SO FUNNY. due to the fact that we are now in a car, we are limited on how many miles we can drive a month... we have exactly 1000 miles a month to use. anyway, last week we ran out of miles and had to use the bikes and can i just say... it was probably THE FUNNIEST THING seeing us three sister missionaries biking down the street. Sister F and A HATE THE BIKES, actually they both started crying after the first day of using them... so that was an experience to say the least.

Still don't know how sister fairbanks and i survived that first transfer together as newbies; fresh out of the mtc with no trainer, crappy bikes, and absolutely no idea what to do at first. the fact that i'm still alive & kicking is in itself a miracle.

Love you all! have a great week. all my love,

sister healy

 Halloween party with families from the stake.  Morgan ran into the Forkners!!!!

Ward baptism

The sisters looking oh so disguised.

Happy Halloween.

I tried to think of a clever hook line for this email, but i couldn't think of anything so.....Sassy sister healy is here to give you an update on this past week in good ol' Scottsdale!

My great companion sister fairbanks and I departed ways on Wednesday and now I have two new companions, sister alexander and sister fisher. Sister alexander is this sweet, tiny little, curly-haired blonde from Virginia and Sister Fisher is a slightly awkward, but great sister from Canada (who took creative liberties and drew me as a horse yesterday. yes, i'm a horse).

  I'm still covering all the less-actives and investigators that I taught before and so it's kind of strange now because essentially I'm doing all the planning each morning and night ALONE. I go on splits all the time too because sister A and sister F still teach who they had been teaching prior, as do I... so I feel like a solo missionary which is interesting! 

On Wednesday, Elder Teh of the Seventy came to our mission and gave us a training and gave a number of different talks as did the stake presidents and mission presidents. President Sweeney, at the end of the day, provided 6 missionaries with the opportunity to speak one on one with Elder Teh and I WAS CHOSEN TO BE ONE OF THE 6. IT WAS SO EXCITING. I think he chose me mainly because I'm (a bit too) confident at times so during Elder Teh's training, I put my MTC memorization of scriptures and quotes to good use and kept answering the questions that he had for us:) Anyway it was great!

We also had great progress with our investigators Megan (the Jew) and Orrin (the Baptist)! The Barron family who has been inactive for over 5 years came to the Halloween party and then to church this sunday! And the husband and wife committed to preparing to return to the temple. CHUCHING!!! We are also teaching a man named Paul, he is this big African-american guy who used to be a member of the baptist church, but says that that church just no longer felt right to him. Anyway,  I had my first lesson with him and at the end of it I asked him if he would be willing to be baptized.... AND THE MAN SAID YES. YES. YES. I was pretty shocked when he said that and then kind of stared at him dumbfounded, so great.

Last little thing, at the ward halloween party on saturday the primary presidency thought it would be HILARIOUS to put us sisters in charge of the kissing booth. yes you heard that right. So we gave kisses out to everyone (they were on a rubber stamp I promise). Definitely the most popular station.

Have a great week and just know that there are so many great missionary opportunities everyday, where we can share what we believe in and serve others. Great scripture that I COMMIT you all to read: D&C 100:5-8. Love you all!

Sassy Sister Healy  

 

BECAUSE its past mid-october, you know what that means..... IT'S CHRISTMAS MUSIC TIME. you should hear me singing on my bike, it's just glorious. i know the residents of scottsdale really look forward to it! This week we had more less active/recent convert lessons than ever before, as well as more investigator lessons than ever before, so that was GREAT. my companion is getting transferred this wednesday to serve in the papago zone of arizona on the native american reservation. Word on the missionary street is that the native americans feed the missionaries dead dog on special occasions, so that should be interesting for her haha! I'm still staying in the scottsdale tempe area of arizona, now working with two other sisters in a tri companionship until the next transfer. Yes we are still waiting on the visas.

 

quick update on this week: hattie is still struggling with the WOW (word of wisdom) so we pushed her baptism back a few weeks so that she can get things into check.  Another one of our investigators, Megan,  wants to committ to baptism but feels like she needs to be perfect before she committs.... MAGIC IS GOING TO HAPPEN WITH HER THIS WEEK. i can feel it.  our work with the less active families is also going really well. One family who hasn't been to church in at least 5 years came this sunday; which was exciting. we're going to help them prepare to go to the temple.

 

This week we are having what's called "mission tour" which just means that a member of the Quorum of the 70 is going to come in and teach and train us; which should be pretty cool! The mission president said that on halloween we are supposed to go in at 6pm; so my comp and i were thinking of just being super creative and throwing candy at people from our apartment balcony with the lds.org card attached. we think that will really get the message across! haha.

 

The weather is beautiful here. the other day I actually said i was cold when it was 60 degrees! which is wrong i know. WHAT HAS ARIZONA DONE TO ME.

found a new favorite scripture this week in D&C 78:17-18. SO PLEASE LOOK IT UP and apply it to your lives.

Love you all so so much! Have an amazing week and know that you are always in my thoughts and prayers.

 

Love,

 

Sassy sister healy

with member of ward; super sweet lady

at the temple with her comp

 

Additional stories:

so we have been teaching this less active for a while who went inactive when he was 18. He never believed in the church he said and thought it was just something that people used to fill that "void" they have in their hearts... that void can be filled with other things like their job, money, community service, ect. anyways, in the past missionaries have tried to visit him but he has always rejected them. well we have not only gotten in his house, but we've been teaching him about the restoration and he actually is softening, its pretty great. he's single in his mid thirties and he is becoming a changed man which is super exciting:)!

Morgan wrote a few other funny stories in her letter home, but I'll include those another day.

 

  Please pray that Morgan's visa gets approved soon!

AND.... I'VE BEEN OUT FOR THREE MONTHS!

This week, because of the emergency transfer, we were in a tri-companionship... and WE GOT TO USE A CAR! it was so so great! The sister we were with this week, is named sister alexander. We were super busy and had a number of super cool experiences this past week.

 

sister A and her companion had been working with this one man named rick who has been investigating the church for the past 3 years. he has a bit of a drinking problem so he would never committ to baptism... but sister fairbanks and i had a bit of the magic touch this last week. so in the lesson we were talking about the significance of having faith and how faith is a principle of action. We then used that to segway into a more open discussion about baptism, and guess what?! Good Ol' Rick committed to be baptized on november 25!!!! YAHOOOOO. The next day we had a similar experience with Fran, who for the past few months has profusely refused to be baptized... well last week when we asked her to prepare for baptism, she miraculously said yes and committed to a date. it was GREAT! what else....we've had a couple set backs with a few of our investigators this week but we are going to keep pushing forward.

 

due to the fact that i didn't ride a bike this week, I don't have any near death experiences. yipee!

 

Favorite scripture this week:

 "For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for"(Romans 8:24). 

 

Keep on HOPING AND BEING AWESOME!

 

side note: we played flag football as a zone this last week and lets just say that those elders were owned by all the sister. GO US. 

                                                 Meetin' with the members in Scottsdale!!