Wonderful Walnut Hills Ward

Dear Family & Friends:

We had another wonderful week in the Walnut Hills Ward!

Monday was Sister Chirinos' Birthday and that evening we were able to have dinner and our monthly missionary coordination meeting with Bishop!  

Rene called us and said that she had ordered lunches for us so when we came to call Bingo that we could come a little bit earlier and have lunch, and visited with the seniors!  

We were able to meet with the Relief Society President and go over the ward list with her and see who she would like us to focus on and help!

Sister Call & Sister Chirino

Brooklyn, who is one of the young women in our ward, came out with us for a few hours, and she said that while she did the mini mission earlier this summer that her favorite part was tracting!  So we'll make sure to allow some time for tracting each time she comes out with us!

We finally were able to meet with Greg and his wife Amy.  The Elders had met with them a few times in the past few months and they are Evangelical Christians, but love talking about God and learning more!  The lesson was such a neat experience.  At first they were talking about grace and how they feel that we think of grace and works differently than they do, but then Sister Chirinos said "I don't think it is grace that differentiates us.  The one thing that does differentiate us is the Priesthood."  It was so neat, because the Spirit was really strong and you could see the wheels turning as pieces were starting to come together for them.  They then asked what they could read that would help them understand the Priesthood better!  And really if they can just understand this important piece, that indeed Christ's church has been restored through a modern day prophet, then the rest will fall into place for them!

Olivia went to mutual again this week and fits in so well with the young women!  After mutual we were able to have a short lesson with her and her grandma!  They mentioned how Oliva and her dad want a stronger relationship, which will come through the gospel, because the gospel is about relationships!  Relationships with our Father in Heaven, relationships with our Savior, relationships with our family, and relationships with others.  And if we are willing to apply the principles and teachings of the gospel we can have stronger relationships!

Thursday we were out tracting and at one of the homes that we stopped by, it was a Chinese family and their sons answered the door.  We introduced ourselves, gave them a mormon.org card with the address to church and invited them to church.  Which they said that they would be there and they asked if we would be there.  So yesterday we were at church and David and Ming did not show up for Sacrament meeting.  So Sister Chirinos and I were in the Gospel Principles class when one of the missionaries from the ward that meets at 11:00, came and got us from class saying "your investigators are here"  Sure enough, David, Ming and their cousin Oliver were sitting in a pew with another missionary.  The pew in front of them was open so, we went in and said hello and then attended the Sacrament meeting of the Raccoon River ward with them!  They don't have much/if any religious background and so we pulled out a pamphlet that talks about the Sacrament that we gave them during the Sacrament so they knew what was going on.  haha anyways, despite it being their first time, and having only introduced ourselves briefly at the doorstep a few days earlier, they seemed to have a good time, and want to keep coming to church!

Saturday was wonderful as well!  Since the Shelley's are still in Utah, we were able to go and help the Stringham's in the mission office again!  Saturday afternoon we were working in Grimes and had tried a part member family, and were walking towards the next place, when Rene drives by and waves, and then the next thing we know, she has turned around and pulled over.  She asked if we had been to the ice cream shop yet, and that she would like to treat us to ice cream!  We had a wonderful visit with her and invited her to church, so hopefully in the next while she will come to church with us!

I LOVED the women's broadcast!  And am so excited for General Conference!  I think it is amazing how when we are prepared with questions or things that we want to know, that the Spirit touches our hearts and lets us know the answers!  One of my favorite parts was when they showed the video of women all around the world testifying of the blessings of the temple.  And it was in all different languages, but the Spirit was SO strong!  And it goes to show that it doesn't matter what language we speak, or how well we speak it, but that it is the Spirit that touches hearts!

Anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful week and enjoy conference!  What a wonderful opportunity we have to listen to our Prophets, Seers and Revelators!

Love, Sister Call

A Week Full of Miracles!

Dear Family & Friend:

We survived our first full week in the Walnut Hills West area!  And a huge accomplishment is that we are not getting lost near as often, despite the fact that most of the subdivisions are new enough they aren't on my GPS.  But this week was full of miracles!

- Had a wonderful dinner with the Rundall family where Sister Rundall invited us to come to mutual on Wednesday with the Laurels.

- Dropped by and met Ken, a person that the Elders had been working with!  He is from Kenya and has done very well professionally and despite being busy he allowed us to come and share a message with him!  He had started the Book of Mormon, but hasn't read for a little bit, so we invited him to begin reading again.  He has a wonderful faith in Jesus Christ and understands that the greatest thing we can do in our lives is to follow Him!

- We were able to do service and help mow an older gentleman's lawn, which the elders had been doing this summer.  

- We have continued to meet many members and others that the Elders before us have met!

- We went side walk chalk finding for Sister Chirinos' first time!  

- We met the most amazing couple ever!  The Stout's!  Sister Stout is battling brain cancer and isn't expected to live much longer, but her testimony and the experiences she shared with us were so inspiring and their home emulated the Spirit that is in the temples.  Sister Chirinos said it best when we were there she said "Sister Stout, if you were the only person that we met on our missions, then our mission would be worth it!"

- We had dinner with the Wadsworth's.  She is the Relief Society President and was good friends/roommates with one of the Heather Thompson's sisters!

- We went to mutual and were with the Laurels!  We decorated notebooks in preparation for General Conference!  There were two non members there including, Olivia who lives right across the hall from the Elders!  She fit in so well and it is fun, because we are working together on helping Olivia.  Like the Elders are focusing more on Olivia's dad, because they can relate better with him, and Sister Chirinos and I get to work with Olivia!  We are so excited!

- We had an appointment with Margarita, who she and her husband are not members, but almost all of their kids are!  We were the first set of sister missionaries they have ever had in the many years of missionaries going over there, and Margarita asked while we were there if we could come back each week and help her read/teach the Book of Mormon to her daughters!

- Friday we had a shortened zone conference here in Des Moines!  I cannot adequately describe how much I love President and Sister Jensen and how grateful I am for the opportunity to be serving in the Iowa Des Moines Mission under them!  They truly are inspired in their work and in their trainings!  President Jensen trained on our mission vision and it was really neat he taught about the importance of always looking to the scriptures and to the prophets and apostles for direction!   Sister Jensen trained on the revelation that takes place during transfers and how President Jensen receives a spiritual confirmation for every companionship.

- Friday night we went to contact a former that lived in a town home.  They were a family of 6 kids.  We knocked on the door and a man answers and says "Sisters!  Come on in!  Have you had dinner yet?"  We asked if there was a female present before we went in and then the kids introduced themselves.  And Sister Chirinos and I weren't sure what was taking place finally I asked "Are you members?"  And they started laughing. . . . Umm ya, the Pokuk family, who are in our ward, now live where a former once lived! Haha, anyways it was a pleasant surprise that allowed us to get to know the family and have dinner with them!  

- That evening we continued to contact potentials and we went to meet Rene, who it said loved missionaries and wanted them to call Bingo at the Community Center.  It was after 8:00 pm when we knocked on her door, so it was already getting dark out.  She answered the door and asked who we were and what we wanted.  We introduced ourselves and said how the Elders had met her, and that we would be happy to help out with BINGO.  She proceeds, in a very professional way, that here were her business hours and we could stop by there and she would tell us more about helping with BINGO.  We gave her our card and then we talked just briefly.  She then says we should go get coffee sometime.  We mentioned that we didn't drink coffee, but would love to go get hot chocolate or something of that sort.  Then we continued on with our evening.

- When we got back to our apartment that night we noticed that we had a voicemail from Rene saying that she was free for lunch tomorrow!!!!  

-Saturday morning we went and helped the Stringham's in the mission office, since the Shelley's are in Utah right now.  And then we headed to lunch with Rene!  She was so excited that we were girls and we had a wonderful visit over lunch.  She introduced us to the owners of the little bistro where we ate, and the owners when they found out that we were Mormon's they got really excited and said "we would love for you to come and visit with us!"    Rene then proceeded to show us a few different places here in Grimes and introduced us to several more people!  

- Sunday was a beautiful day as well and we had a wonderful time at church!  Our ward mission leader passes around a calendar for the Young Women/Relief Society to come out with us and we have 5 different laurels that are coming out with us in the next two weeks!  And one laurel who is really excited to serve a mission said "Sisters I only have two nights that I can even come with you, Wednesday and Saturday."  We thought that she would have signed up for like one of the days. . . nope, she signed up to come out with us for the next two Wednesdays and Saturdays!

- We had both a lunch appointment and a dinner appointment!  One was with an active family and the other was with a less active couple that we met last Sunday and they invited us for dinner!  

- Sunday evening we had been in Dallas Center and then felt like we should come and try a former and a less active in Grimes.  The former wasn't home, so we tried the less active.  He answered the door and we talked briefly with him, then his almost 3 year old son said "Are you going to come in?"  Haha, oh how we love little kids!  So his parents let us in!  Kylie (the wife)  is not a member, and Tommy hasn't been to church in quite a while, but they are such an adorable family and we very welcoming to us sharing a message, leaving a Book of Mormon and offering to bring a children's Book of Mormon the next time we come!  Also, it was really cute because as we were trying to keep their son focused and were showing him the pictures at the front of the Book of Mormon, Kylie said in regards to who Jesus Christ is "He is the greatest Super hero ever!"  and little Jackson got way excited!  But it was neat how parents truly are the best teachers and know how to relate to their children so that they will understand!

I love you all and love the opportunity I have to be serving a mission here in Iowa!  To help others to strengthen their relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ!

Love, Sister Call

Where is Sister Call? PINK WASHING!!

Dear Family & Friends:                                             

Oh the week of transfers. . . You love them and you hate them.  

So as you all know last Monday we got our transfer calls in the morning letting us know that I would be leaving Mount Vernon and Sister Porter would be staying and training. . .  they forgot to mention one slight detail that day that I didn't find out until my name was called at transfers! 

The last frog Sister Porter & I caught.

Now you may be wondering where I am right now, who my companion is, or what the slight detail that they forgot was, but I didn't find out until Thursday, and many things took place before Thursday.

So let's start with Monday!  Monday was by far one of the best days I have had in Mount Vernon!  When we were done emailing we went and had lunch at the high school with Kelbie, which was a lot of fun and her friends love the missionaries so it is a win win situation!  That afternoon we went and spent some time in Clarence and Stanwood before heading to Tipton for the evening.  We had an appointment with Jeff and right after with Chris (who we haven't seen since the middle of May), and then FHE with Karla.  We had about 10 minutes before the lesson with Jeff so we decided to run into the grocery store to get a treat that we could bring to Karla's.  As Sister Porter and I were standing by the door looking through the ads, a man walked in and stopped, he gave us the look of "I know you" but Sister Porter and I did not recognize him the slightest bit.  We start talking with him and it turns out that he used to live close to the church in Mount Vernon and the Elders have helped him with several projects.  He then said I'm going to buy you dinner, so we went to the little buffet in the grocery store and there wasn't much there, so he says "go on over to Hardees and your dinner is on me."  Which as missionaries this makes your day.  We headed to Hardees, and called Jeff and Karla and rearranged times that evening, and Tony bought us dinner and told us that if we were ever in Tipton in the afternoons to give him a call and lunch would be on him, because he had gained so much respect from the service that the Elders had given him and his mom!  Also, another crazy thing was that Tony had gone into the grocery store for just a bottle of water, and we didn't even end up getting treats for FHE. . . coincidence that we ran into each other?  I think not!

When we were done eating we went to Chris' and it was by far the best appointment we have had with him since I have been in Mount Vernon!  We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and when we got to baptism he said "The Elders asked me if I would be baptized if I knew it was true and I said yes, so I'm fine with being baptized."  Also, his girlfriend Alexis who hasn't had much interest at all, she sat in on the lesson and when it was time for the closing prayer, Chris didn't want to say it, and Alexis was like "it's easy!  It has the outline on how to pray right here."  and then Alexis ended up saying the closing prayer!  Also, I just love the Spirit, because as we were teaching about faith and repentance Chris said "Can I ask a question?  I know this may be stupid, but what are the commandments?"  And then without us evening saying what the commandments are he turned to Alexis and said "We would have to get married, because I'm pretty sure that is a commandment."  Anyways, it was an amazing lesson and I am excited for Sister Porter and her new companion to continue to work with Chris and Alexis!

After Chris's we were able to read from the Book of Mormon with Jeff before going to Karla's!  Karla is a single sister in our ward and the only active member in Tipton as of now. She is so in tune with the Spirit and we had a great lesson with her as we read 1 Nephi 1 and compared it to Joseph Smith's experience!

See Monday was a great day and you are probably still wondering where I am, but let's talk about Tuesday first :)

Tuesday morning we visited Grandma Mickey who is one of the many people in the Mount Vernon Branch that I have grown to love dearly!  We then had service, had a lesson with Karin, Anthony, and Angela, and visited Sister Askew.  We had dinner with the Yancey's, but they had forgot that we were coming over, so it was quite entertaining, but at the same time Sister Yancey handled the situation so wonderfully!  You could tell that she had raised 5 kids and so she didn't even seem panicked or anything as she gathered some things together from her fridge!

The Eskelsen Family

Wednesday was our p-day so we packed and cleaned, had lunch with the Eskelsen's, and went to Cedar Rapids to play basketball with our zone.

Did I ever mention that I have the hardest time sleeping for the entire week of transfers?  So I am exhausted right now, but no worries!

Thursday came and Sister Young picked us up to head to Iowa City for the meeting!  I love missionary meetings and seeing many of the missionaries!  When it came time for President to read off transfer assignments he was going along, and then I hear "Sister Call"  but it took me a little while to register that my name had just been called, because my name was first and usually the person staying in the area is read first. . . anyways, I stood up and met my companion Sister Amy Chirinos from Salem Oregon!  The only thing is she was being transferred from Dubuque. . . We sit down and then it finally dawns on me that we are pink washing the Walnut Hills West area. . . . hahaha so the little detail that the Assistant's forgot to mention was that we were pink washing. . . which is where the set of elders leaves and sisters take over the area.  But besides that I was so excited because I am back in Des Moines!!  Not only was I way excited to be coming back, but the office staff was really excited!  We rode back in the transfer van that Elder and Sister Shelley were driving, and as we were getting in Elder Shelley said "you know the only thing missing from Des Moines was Sister Call!"  

Since Thursday, life has been a little crazy trying to get adjusted and figure out what is happening in our area and trying to find homes.  We live in Grimes, Iowa, but do a lot of work in Urbandale which is a suburb of Des Moines and it has subdivision after subdivision of beautiful large homes.  It is funny because in some areas you feel like shopping at the good will and wearing frumpy clothes because you can and you don't stick out, but here you almost feel like you need to put on your best outfit just to walk on the sidewalk!  We are excited to be in the Walnut Hills ward. 

A tender mercy though is that one of the medical student families in the Des Moines ward now is in the Walnut Hills ward and a family that Sister Chirinos knew in the Perry branch is in our ward as well.  So we knew two families!  

We have been meeting different members and trying to get into contact with each of the investigators that the Elders had been working with, so it has been an adventure every day! We are so excited to be here and the ward is really excited to have sisters! 

I guess that Hayden Heap (a family friend that served in the Iowa Des Moines Mission) served in this exact ward.  It was fun because when one of the members heard I was from Star Valley, they came up and said that their favorite Elder was from Star Valley and that he grew up on a dairy farm and would tell his family that the mission was great because he got to sleep in until 6:30 every morning! 

Sorry I don't have any pictures with my new companion.  Will be better this next week!

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

Love, Sister Call

You may have moved into an Elder's apartment if you find a jar full of dead crickets in the tank of the toilet. . .  joys of pink washing!

Last Week in Mount Vernon

Dear Family & Friends:

Transfers are this week and this morning President Jensen called to let us know that Sister Porter will be training a new sister here in Mount Vernon and that I will be going to another area!  

 

Anamosa District:  Sisters Call, Porter, Bingham, White.  Elders Jentzen, Smith, Brown, Hoskins

We had a good week this past week!  On Monday we had a zone p-day at Palisades Kepler State Park, which is a few miles outside of Mount Vernon!  It was so much fun to be with our entire zone and we played football, and hiked and ran the trails!  We then joined the Cardon and Eskelsen families for a Labor Day BBQ!  Funny story from the zone p-day is that the Cedar Rapids 1st Sisters White and Bingham locked their keys in their truck at the park.  Since we had left before everyone else and lived the closest to the park, the Elders called us to see if we had a hanger they could use to try and unlock the truck.  After an unsuccessful hour of trying to unlock the truck, they called Elder Shelley who is the vehicle coordinator.  Elder Shelley has the spare keys to all of the vehicles, so he said that he and Sister Shelley would drive from Des  Moines (2-2 1/2 hours)  to unlock the truck for them.  The sisters waited patiently for the Shelley's to arrive. . . When the Shelley's got there they started looking for the key in the box of spare keys . . . and the only key that was missing was the key to the sisters’ truck. . . Elder Shelley had pulled it out when they first called, but had left it on his desk in Des Moines.  Whoops!  So the truck remained at the park overnight and the Shelley's came back the following morning with the right key!

Some highlights from this past week include

Sisters Call & Porter

- Karin, Anthony, and Angela:  We met with them twice this week, and Karin and Angela came to the Relief Society activity on Wednesday, and then asked if we could reschedule our appointment that was supposed to be on Friday.  On Thursday we went to their home and another crisis had happened within their family, but they still wanted us to have a lesson!  Karin mentioned how whenever a crisis happens we tend to just "pop up."  They then were excited to let us know that they had completed the assignment to read Alma 32 as a family!  When we had assigned the chapter for them to read we were hoping that they would notice how it talks about faith, but one thing we learned was that the Spirit talks to each person individually and will help a person recognize truth in a way that he or she will understand.  So Karin talked about how, as they were reading she noticed about prophets and how she knows that our church is true!  By the time we left she talked about how at peace she felt despite the crisis that had taken place an hour earlier!

- Beverly who the Elders have been working with was baptized on Saturday and Karin, Anthony, and Angela came for the baptism!  What a wonderful event that was because Beverly just glows and was so excited for her baptism!  When she came up out of the water she had a huge smile on her face and said "I did it!  I finally did it!"  

- We were able to drop by Brooke's, a less active young woman we have been working with, we are really trying to help her to come to young women's and back to church, so we had a lesson on our Divine Nature where at the beginning we each drew a picture of a wall in her room, and then mixed them up and had to identify who drew what picture.  We each could identify our picture even if all of them had a TV, and a book shelf, because we had drawn them.  Just like Heavenly Father knows each of His children because He created each and every one of us!

 

Frogs #9 & #10 caught the same night

- Thursday evening we had dinner with the Hunt family, who are an active family and Sister Hunt helps with running club as well.  They have 3 sons and a daughter under the age of 12 and last time we were at their house we tried an object lesson that was a disaster, quite entertaining, but a disaster.  So this time we taught the message of the Restoration.  The following morning I was running with their son Ethan (6 yr) at running club and he said "I really liked the lesson last night.  I'm going to read the pamphlet for gospel study tonight."

- This week we have been doing some sidewalk chalk finding which has been fun.  The day we went to Stanwood it was a beautiful day and right as we finished we looked up at the sky and this wall of black clouds was coming our way . . .  :(  So, that one didn't last very long.

 

Chalk Finding

I love this Gospel and the joy and happiness that it brings to all who live it!

I love you all!

Love, Sister Call

Another week in Iowa!

Dear Family & Friends:

Exchanges L-R  Sisters Porter, Hill, Call, Despain

We had exchanges on Tuesday, but this time we changed things up a little bit and so instead of having the Sister Training Leaders come to Mount Vernon and we all work in our area, we went to Cedar Rapids and were able to spend the day in their area!  It was a lot of fun because I was able to spend the day with Sister Despain who was in my MTC district!  Their area reminded me a lot of Des Moines where we saw and taught people of all nationalities so that was a little change from good ole' Mount Vernon!  All of Sister Despain’s and my plans were falling through, but we decided to go and try by their investigator Heather's, who lives next to a recent convert that has not even answered the door since her baptism when the missionaries have tried by.  Right when we knocked on Heather's door, the recent convert neighbor walked out of her door to grab something from her car.  Sister Despain had never met her, but knew of her so we were able to talk with her and set up an appointment for the Sisters to see her the following day!

Wednesday, we were back in Mount Vernon and after studies we were heading to our car when Sister Porter asked if we could drop by Karin and Anthony's place, which we did and they were so glad to see us and Karin said that we came at just the right time!  Her brother is in town for the week and they had had a little argument the night before and so she was a little upset from that situation.  We were able to share a scripture with them.

We then were able to help V, meet several less actives, have a lesson with Bruce and Gerry, and see Dawn (who we had helped move in about a month ago).  

Thursday, we had district meeting and then were able to see a few people before dinner at the Cardon's.  Sister Cardon is the Young Women's president and asked if we could see some of the young women and help encourage them to come to activities/church.  Right after dinner we went to see Brooke and it was neat because she said that whenever people come and talk about young women's she gets excited, but then when Wednesday night rolls around she forgets, or doesn't have the motivation to come, so we talked with her on ways that we could help her make it to the activities!  She enjoys art and cooking, which they have a cooking activity every month and they are planning on going over to Mickey's and have Mickey show them some of her artwork, so hopefully we can help Brooke come!

Thursday evening we went to see Karin and Anthony again and were able to share insights from our study as well as from their study.  Karin had read Acts 3 and she said that the importance of prophets stuck out to her, which was perfect for testifying of a living prophet on the earth today!  We were disappointed that they haven't been reading from the Book of Mormon, so we specifically committed them to read at least a chapter together as a family!  Also, there is another Relief Society activity on Wednesday so Karin and her daughter Angela are excited to come to that!  Also, another exciting thing is that before this week Angela wouldn't sit in when we were over, but now she is sitting in and then on Saturday when we saw them and we were asking to set up a return appointment, Karin said Friday, and Angela said Tuesday!  So we are going over tomorrow! 

Sister Porter with Toad #2

Friday was another good day!  We saw Mickey and had a new member lesson with V, helped paint a shelf, had dinner with the Offen's and Shelbie who is their grandson's girlfriend was their so we were able to teach the Restoration, but as we were halfway through Ken and Apple (who were married the other week) showed up and joined in on the lesson, so we are getting Apple a Book of Mormon in Thai!

Saturday we saw Jeff and he is continuing to make good progress in his reading of the Book of Mormon! Then we had lunch with the Griffith's and helped paint their bathroom!  We saw Karin and Anthony again that day, afterwards we were heading to check on a potential and there was a couple sitting on their porch with their dog.  We started talking to them and I asked what kind of dog they had.  They replied "a Rhodesian Ridgeback" haha I immediately said no way and got all excited and asked if I could pet their dog, because it was the first Rhodesian Ridgeback that I have ever seen in real life.  We ended up talking to the wife for 20-30 minutes so that was fun!

Sunday was Fast Sunday for us and after church we had dinner with the Yahr's.  Brother Yahr is the High Priest Group Leader, and is battling brain cancer, but they are such an amazing couple! We showed the new Mormon message "The Hope of God's Light" and were talking about prayer and Brother Yahr said that we should read President Eyring's talk from this last General Conference "The Priesthood Man" and focus on prayer and the things that President Eyring says will happen as we pray more sincerely! Afterwards we saw Carina who was recently reactivated, and we were able to meet another one of the less actives in the branch.  But when we met David, he was one of those that you immediately say to yourself "he would make a wonderful young men's president."  We'll see what we can do there!

Our Sister Training Leaders gave us a seal that we named Bruce and we are supposed to take pictures with the seal.  Thus, "Bruce" (the seal)  riding the bike!

Today was a fun day as well!  We had a zone p-day and went to the Palisades-Kepler State Park just west of Mount Vernon and played games, and went on hikes.

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

Love, Sister Call