Another Wonderful Week!

Dear Family & Friends:

This week was another wonderful week in Mount Vernon!

So you may or may not be curious of the latest update on Karin and Anthony!  Ever since the Mount Vernon Heritage days they have been coming to the church on Wednesday evenings to work on their family history! This past Wednesday, Anthony worked on family history as we had a lesson with Karin at the church!  She was so cute and excited to learn, that you can't help but be extremely excited for her!  At the beginning of the lesson we were asking her what her expectations were and she said that "she was like a dry sponge ready to soak in all that we can teach her, so that she can have a strong foundation, because you wouldn't build a house just on dirt."  Later on in the lesson as we were teaching the message of the Restoration we asked her how her reading of the Book of Mormon was going, since we had given her a copy last week.  She said "The Bible and the Book of Mormon are just a powerhouse!"  The entire lesson went very well and she was excited as we extended the invitation to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized!

 

Nauvoo

Wednesday night the family history consultant Sister Beeks invited Anthony and Karin to the pioneer day activity that would be at the church the next night!  Anthony and his Sister Angela came to the activity, but Karin wasn't feeling well.  

Saturday night we went and visited with Karin, Anthony, and Angela!  Karin said that they had been excited for us coming over, that that was all that they could talk about.  When we arrived they had just finished reading the Restoration pamphlet together as a family and then they showed us a Nauvoo brick that they had in their house.  Karin said "see it was meant to be that we meet!"  We taught a lesson on the Book of Mormon and the role it plays in gaining a testimony of the restored gospel! When we were done that evening Karin walked us out to our car and said "Did you see how happy Anthony was?  He didn't stop smiling the entire time!  This is just so wonderful for our family!"  

Sunday, Karin and Anthony came to church dressed up and everything!  Now whenever an investigator comes to church, as a missionary you feel like a mother hen and you are constantly worrying about the investigators, but what a huge relief it is when the members reach out with love, and make everyone feel welcome!  Like after Sacrament meeting when we were showing Karin and Anthony where they would be having Sunday School, we told them to follow us and as we started walking, we looked back behind us and there Karin and Anthony were talking with many of the Branch members. 

They enjoyed church and are looking forward to coming again, and when they were leaving Karin, with a huge smile on her face, said that they were going home and reading the Book of Mormon together as a family!

Many other tender mercies and miracles happened throughout the week as well!

- We were able to have a lesson with Paula who is a recent convert, but battles depression and so she hasn't made it to church consistently.  She was at her mom's house when we had the lesson, and we talked about service and the way service makes us feel.  We then asked if she and her mom would be willing to help us out with the Pioneer day activity.  They immediately said yes.  We can do that! And sure enough on Thursday, Paula and her mom were at the activity!

-Wednesday, we found ourselves back at the Offen's, where Sister Porter and I were able to help lay the brick around the arbor that Sister Stoffers and I had helped build my first Friday in Mount Vernon!  

-Thursday we saw Mickey at 8:00 a.m. and then had breakfast with the Eskelsen's at 9:00!  I absolutely love morning appointments because you feel so accomplished early on in the day! Because by 10:00 that morning we had already had two lessons!  

Corn-Bob Pinata!

-We had our last Anamosa District Meeting of the transfer and we each had been asked to prepare a 5 minute talk on a Christlike attribute!  We then had  a potluck lunch together, and Sister Bingham and Sister Murphy had made a "Corn-Bob" Piñata!  Anyways back to the Christlike attributes, Sister Murphy had trained on Diligence, and how when she was serving here in Mount Vernon, she and her companion were meeting with a member at the church, but that they had arrived 10 minutes early.  So Sister Murphy and her companion decided that they would go and try the red house by the church. They went and knocked on the door, and Mickey answered and talked their ear off, but told them that she would never join and didn't want to talk religion.  The sisters now being late for their appointment with the member, then asked Mickey if they could come back and help weed her flower beds . . . Mickey later on was baptized and is now preparing to go to the temple!

- Sister Porter and I had an appointment right after district meeting in Clarence, with a referral from the Davenport, IA missionaries.  We showed up at the house and knocked 6 times, and were stood up. We were trying to think of what we wanted to do to fill in the time, because we didn't have very much time before we needed to head back and help with the pioneer day activity since our branch mission leader was in charge of the activity.  Anyways, Sister Murphy's training kept replaying in our heads, so we went finding. The first home we stopped by the whole thing was just awkward, but the lady was nice and said that we could come back.  We continue on and there were 3 people sitting on a porch, and we started talking with them.  They see our name badges and weren't interested, but we continued to talk with them.  We then asked if we could come and pet their dog, and they continued talking with us.  They then invited us to sit down.  We talked with them for approximately an hour.  And it was so neat because Don kept saying "I had no idea.  I thought that I knew everything and I am learning so much from you.  You are normal people." They even told us that had they not been sitting on the porch and we had just knocked on the door, they would have told us that they were just getting ready to leave, but how grateful they were that they were able to visit with us and how we are welcome to stop by anytime we find ourselves in Clarence! Diligence is wonderful even if it makes you late to the branch activity.

-Friday, we helped Dawn and her daughters move into a town home in Solon.  They are former investigators from Iowa City.  Missionaries were helping them load the truck and trailer in Iowa City and we were helping unload in Solon.  Mike, who was helping Dawn move, said "some of those missionaries are professionals at moving people!  They must do it a lot!"  haha

 

Sister Call & Sister Porter in Nauvoo

- Saturday we were able to ride down to Nauvoo with Sister Beeks, Sister Yancey, and Judy Askew, so that we could attend the session that Heidi was going through!  It was my first time back to the temple since I have been in Iowa and oh how wonderful it was to be back!  The temple truly is a source of strength and peace and what a wonderful experience it was to go through the Nauvoo temple and reflect on the sacrifices of the early saints and the importance of the temple to them!  Last night I was reading a family history of Anson and Mary Call and how important the temple blessing were for them, but how Mary had been bed ridden, so Anson carried her when she was able to receive her endowment in the Nauvoo temple!

Sister Porter, Heidi, Sister Call at the Nauvoo Temple.

Well I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Call

A Week Full of Miracles!

Dear Family & Friends:

So much happened this week!

On Tuesday we had exchanges with our Sister Training Leaders (STL) Sister Hill and Sister Alston!  Sister Porter was with Sister Alston for the day and I was with Sister Hill. Sister Hill was my STL when I was in Dubuque, and so it was a lot of fun to spend the day together and see how much each other has grown in the past 9 months!  During the exchange Sister Porter and Sister Alston were doing service at the Lisbon History center when Karin and Anthony (from heritage days) came into the history center to find information about their families so they could bring it to the family history center at the church on Wednesday night!

Wednesday morning we started out by visiting Mickey (a recent convert).  She is preparing to go to the temple on her one year mark from her baptism, which also happens to be what would have been her and her husband's 50th wedding anniversary.  So she is really excited that she will be able to be sealed to her late husband on that day!  It was a really neat visit with her because she feels comfortable enough to ask questions to us and not feel 'stupid' and the spirit was really strong as we helped her!

Shortly after the visit with Mickey, Jeff drove up from Tipton, and we had a church tour with him and Sister Askew.  It was my first church tour since the one that we had in Carthage like a year ago, when our investigator had major anxiety and ended up throwing up in the church building. . . luckily as part of our exchanges on Tuesday the STL's had us practice giving a church tour to them, plus Sister Porter has given plenty of church tours.  Anyways, what a wonderful opportunity it is to help people to feel the Spirit that is in the building, and to feel more comfortable for when they do come to church.  

Shortly before our dinner appointment we tried by Brooke's (a less active), but no one was home and so we decided to try a former investigator who lived in the same trailer park as Brooke.  We located the former's trailer and knock.  Some one yelled from inside "Who is it?"  and then a man answers the door. Stacie wasn't home, but Fred who had answered the door asked if we were the Mormons.  He and his cousin stepped outside and it turns out that Fred had met with the Elder's in Davenport about a year ago and he really liked it and would go to church and to the ward activities.  Anyways, he wanted us to come back the next evening because Stacie would be home then!

The Spirit of Elijah is real and it prepares people for the gospel as they are drawn to find information about their ancestors!  Wednesday evening we headed to the church and sure enough Karin and Anthony were in the family history center having a lot of success finding ancestors! Now our branch's family history consultant Sister Beeks is wonderful at relating family history work to the gospel and not being shy of sharing our beliefs.  So by the time we dropped in the center to say hello, Karin asked if she could have a Book of Mormon to start reading that night and if we could make it a standing appointment to meet with her every Wednesday, because she wants to be baptized and go to the temple to have her family sealed together. . . Miracle?  I think Yes!  

Our week continued to be full of miracles and exciting things!

Thursday we had zone conference in Iowa City!  I absolutely love mission meetings and especially ones that our mission president and his wife are at! We were able to meet the new 2nd counselor in our mission presidency, President Rick O'Neal.  Turns out he is from Columbia, South Carolina and has known the Jensen's for many years, but a year ago he got a job transfer and moved to Iowa!  He seems like a great person, and he gave a wonderful training about missions and how each missionary is assigned to a specific mission by revelation for the people/area, but more importantly each missionary is assigned to the specific mission president whom he or she will need! And how true is that statement!  I am so grateful for the mission presidents that I have had and the influence they have on my life!  We had many other wonderful trainings during the day as well!

Thursday evening we had dinner with V and then went and had a lesson with Fred, Stephen and Stacie! The lesson went very well, the only downside is that they are in the process of moving, and right before we came they sold their trailer, and will be moving by the end of the month. . . But, they told us that we could stop by Saturday to see if they needed any help, and then Stacie told us to come by this week because she and Fred will be there.  Also, Fred said that they have to go to church here before they move!  

Friday we were able to help Karin and Anthony with a yard sale that they were having!  Karin was saying that she and Anthony haven't stopped talking about Wednesday and how happy they have been and how excited they are to come to our church.  They were going to say their goodbyes at the Methodist church this Sunday.  

While we were helping Karin and Anthony we got a text from the Eskelsen's saying that they were thinking of going to the British Pageant in Nauvoo that night and were wondering if we wanted to go.  We called president and got approval so by 4:30 p.m. we were on the road headed to Nauvoo.  It had been exactly one year from the day that I left Carthage and opened Dubuque with Sister Whipple.  How wonderful it was to be back!  After dinner we headed to the pageant grounds and one of the first people I saw was Brother Hunt from Hamilton, IL!  I got really excited and he sort of recognized me, enough to know that I was only in Carthage for a short amount of time and that I had been with Sister Thompson! Anyways, we walked a little further and I saw Sister Whipple!  She had come from Des Moines to see pageant as well!  Our one year mark from when we became companions!  It was so good to see her!  The Davenport Stake youth were at pageant and so Sister Whipple and I saw Sister Barton who had been the Called to Serve young woman that was our companion for a weekend last year.  President and Sister Jensen, as well as many other missionaries were at pageant that night!  It was so much fun!  Right before pageant started they had all the missionaries meet at a little kiosk where they told us that near the end of the pageant that we needed to be a part of the ending.  Anyways, pageant was wonderful!  It was the story of the gospel going to the early saints in great Britain and the testimonies that they had that led them to following the Prophet's call to come to Zion!  Near the end when the saints were sailing off to America they had all the missionaries in the audience come up while singing Called to Serve Him, and once all the missionaries got on stage they lit up the temple and we sang Redeemer of Israel!  What an experience!  

Saturday was also another great day besides for the fact that we were running on a few hours of sleep, because we got back to Mt. Vernon around 1:00 a.m!  Luckily we stayed busy throughout the day so we couldn't tell how tired we really were.  We had lessons with a recent convert, some members, and a referral from a member.  So it was a great day.

Sunday Jeff came to church and afterwards he said that "the experiment was over," which is sad, because how can you really do an experiment if you don't complete the necessary steps for the experiment to work.  Anyways, we bore our testimonies to him of the things that we have come to know because of our willingness to experiment.  

Anyways that basically sums up our week, which was full of miracles and tender mercies!

I love you all!

Love, Sister Call

Nauvoo Pageant with Sister Whipple, Sister Barton, and I

This Week's List

Dear Family & Friends:

Here are the highlights from the week!
- Dinner with the Branch President's family and hearing all their crazy emergency room stories over dinner time.
- Pulling up to our apartment the same time that one of the member's daughter and grandson who live in our apartment, and being able to help carry her bicycle up to her apartment.  Then the grandson, wanted to show us some of his toys, and so we were able to visit with them for a little while, even though the daughter isn't the biggest fan of religion :)
- Calling a volunteer coordinator for Heritage days this past weekend, and having the coordinator get really excited because we were missionaries!

- Helped weed Heidi's garden

- Had an amazing lesson on conversion and Alma the younger's story in Alma 36 with Judy

- Had an amazing district meeting training from Sister Murphy on strengthening our relationship with our Father in Heaven, by overcoming our fears with help from prayer
- Helped clean the church building
- We were finding in Solon one evening when we decided to run to Dairy Queen for a blizzard. While we were there we saw their bulletin board and asked if we could put up some Nauvoo pageant cards on the board.  Before we were finished at DQ someone had taken one of the pageant cards!  (Sometimes cravings are inspired)
- Helping with Heritage days on Saturday.  It was so hot and humid, that you were just dripping standing in the shade. During the afternoon our family history consultant had set up laptops in the Mt. Vernon visitor center for people to come and find their ancestors, and there were people there the entire time as we helped them find ancestors on familysearch.org!
- While we were in the visitor center a woman came in and said that she was from Washington D.C. and wanted to treat the missionaries to lunch.  She had come for her husband's 50th high school reunion, and she had joined the church 2 years ago!  
- Saturday, out of the blue Chris texted us!  He has been ignoring us for like 6 weeks and then he was the one to text us!  He had Sunday off finally and was going to try and talk his  cousin into coming to church with him, but neither one of them came :(
- Two weeks ago when we were helping with the storm clean up, we had told our landlord that we are willing to help him, but he said that he hates asking for help,  but on Saturday he called us and asked if we could help him!
- For the past week we have been trying to contact Martha, who is a referral from Sister Cardon, but Martha lives in a retirement place, so we could never get in because it was locked, and the codes to call the rooms, weren't working.  Anyways we went in through the care center that was attached to the retirement facility and one of the CNA's took us to Martha who was in the dining room.  Martha gave us a puzzled look when we said that we had come to visit her, but then she warmed right up to us, gave us the code to get in, and told us to come back!  She was such a riot and Sister Cardon told us yesterday to not be shy in sharing the gospel with her, so I look forward to meeting with Martha this week!
- So the sisters serving in Iowa City, that found Jeff, had made a deal with Jeff that we would attend one of his worship services if he would attend one of ours, so last night Sister Porter and I attended our first apostolic service.  It was our first times attending a different worship service, which was neat, but it made me think about how grateful that I am to have been raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and to have the fullness of the gospel!  Anyways, Jeff will be coming to church next Sunday!
Anyways, I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Call

A Few Highlights

Dear Family & Friends:

Last week after emailing we stopped by a little small town shop here in Mt. Vernon and within minutes of being in the store the storm sirens went off and we headed back to our apartment.  The sky was so eerie and it was the calm before the storm,  luckily it remained calm until we were back in our apartment, but as soon as we got in our apartment the sky and all of outside was green, almost like a swampy-green fog.  It was really weird.  We were in the process of gathering a few of the things we wanted so we had things to do as we waited out the storm in our bathroom, when our power went off . . .  Neither Sister Porter nor I had unpacked our flashlights or knew where they were at.  So with the light from our phone we went searching for our flashlights.  I had flashlights with no batteries, and Sister Porter had batteries, so we made a good team.  There were no tornadoes, but because of the water and wind, there were many trees down, basements flooded, and roads that were washed out.  So we spent Monday evening, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoons helping people clean up from the flooding!

Wednesday we had a great zone training meeting in Cedar Rapids and the Assistants were in attendance!  The trainings were on bearing testimony, and how a testimony is our constant in the ever changing world, and one of the most powerful ways to bring the Spirit; obedience: a Christlike attribute;  and the importance of commitments and following up on commitments.  

Thursday was Sister Porter's birthday and it was a great day!  The highlight of the day was when we received a text from the AP saying that one of Sister Porter's investigators from Macomb, IL was going to be baptized on Saturday and that if we could get permission from President, and find a ride with a member that we could go!  After President gave us approval we literally called almost every member in our branch, but since there was a wedding in our branch on the 4th and most of the branch members were going to be in Nauvoo on Friday, and at the reception on Saturday, we couldn't find anyone to take us.  

Another highlight from Thursday is that we had decided to go to the city hall to see if we could find out any information on things that we could help out with on the 4th of July.  Since it was a beautiful day we decided that we would walk, since we don't live very far.  The people at city hall told us to go talk with Joe who works at the visitor center, but as we arrived at the visitor's center it was closed.  Deciding that we would go on with our plans for the day we went to the library to have our mormon.org time for the week.  After the library we stopped back at the visitor center, but it was still locked.  Heading back down Main Street we came across two people that were attempting to put up a canopy all by themselves.  Immediately we asked if we could help them out and without even looking to see who we were they said "yes please!  You came at just the right moment!"  Once the tent/canopy was set up, one of the guys looked at our tags and said "Are you the Sisters?!  I have your number in my phone!  Elders and Sisters have helped me out so much! . . .  I am Joe. ..  ”  The very person that we had been looking for!   He then asked if we could help him out since they needed to close Main Street at 2:00 p.m. in preparation for the Antiques Extravaganza that would take place on the 4th!  And we were able to meet a lot of people as we helped close the streets! And then the following day when we were able to help one of the vendors who had Parkinson’s load up their trailer after the show!

We had a birthday dinner at Elder and Sister Templeton's which was our last time being in their home, because they conclude their mission and are heading back home today :(   but what a joy it has been to serve with another wonderful senior couple!  

Saturday was an interesting day, because it started out kind of somber, since Sister Porter really wanted to go to the baptism, but the chances were getting slimmer as the moments ticked by. We had lunch with our Branch mission leader's family, and we were supposed to roast hot dogs over a fire, but the rain decided that we would do otherwise.  Anyways, around 2:00 we thought that we should call one last member to see if she would be willing to drive us to Macomb for the baptism that would start at 6:00.  Much to our amazement and as an answer to prayers she said that she would, and by 3:00 we were on the road.  The people in Macomb, didn't know that we were coming, so when we walked in the doors at 6:00, Carrie (who was being baptized) saw Sister Porter and just started to cry! What an exciting and special experience it was to witness Carrie's baptism and to hear her sweet testimony after she was baptized. 

 

Anyways, I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love, Sister Call

Sister Porter, Carrie, Sister Nye

The clouds when the siren went off.

Cedar River

There is a home right behind that tree.

closing Main Street!



Cedar Rapids Zone