Week 23 Who ever said I was a Burly girl!? 5-12-14

So this past week has been...eventful and hard as usual.

On MONDAY

we went to the park and played kick ball (I actually hit a home run, but I think they went easy on me) and then an Elder made a piñata that we all hit and hung it from a tree. He had no candy to stick in it so all it had was missionary materials. ha-ha. We had dinner with a family that had a bunch of soccer players from the high school over for dinner too. With hopes they would ask questions about us. Not sure if they did.

TUESDAY

We taught Karen with Sister Galloway.  I am afraid she was a little too bold with Karen.  We tried our best. She had bought more coffee because going without it gave her headaches.  We encouraged her to pray for strength. She said she kept praying and knew she needed to get baptized.  And that the church is true. So that was awesome.  We tried a part member Mexican family in our ward since Sister Nash has decided to find like the five Latino families hear and teach them so she can practice her Spanish.  It makes me laugh. But I can at least say  "I know it is true" in Spanish so if we ever do teach anyone I will do just that and nod and smile! hahahaha

Wednesday

AHHH! So long. SO MANY MEETINGS!  But one good thing is this tiny little old guy who works for the city of Goddard texted us and told us to come to city hall and have lunch with him so he could thank us for helping out at the pancake breakfast.  So we showed up, and it was us, and the senior club of Goddard! hahaha. He wanted us to sing for them. He seems to think I have a great voice...hope I don't let him down?  He is super funny.

But Wednesday night, Karen left us a note telling us to never come back, never teach her again, she changed her mind because she can and to leave her alone. I was crushed. I know she knows it is true, she is just scared.  I just can't give up on that woman!

Thursday

Karen knocked on our door to see if we got the note. ha-ha. We did. She said good and then left.  We tried a bunch of people who were not home. Had an apt with brother Faber and his daughter, but they were not there when we got there, so we called and found out he had a blood clot in his leg and they rushed him to the hospital to have heart surgery! We asked if the elders could come give him a blessing and his wife said yes.  We then taught this guy that the elders had a problem with because he had a problem with priesthood.  We tried our best, but he is a spunky guy who just shot deep doctrine questions at us, but he didn't understand our answers because they were deep doctrine but he wouldn't let us teach him a basic lesson that would have answered all of his questions!  I though he was tough, but sister Nash though it was fun.

Friday

Zone training. It was good. We talked about how to teach people BETTER. Which I needed.  We then went and taught one woman who thought we don't believe Jesus is the son of God, which we told her we did and explained our basic beliefs to her.  We also taught someone who seemed like they might actually be interested. And a nice catholic man whose wife was baptized in the church, but she doesn't consider herself to be a Mormon. She is catholic but he was nice.

Charee cancelled on us because she was sick.  We then went to this house waaaaay out there and they had a no trespassing sign, but we figured if we went all the way out there, we would at least try knocking.  So we did, she didn't answer so we left a note. Five minutes later, she texted us (because we left our number) and she was angryyyy. on the bright side, she actually used the phone number we left on our card! Never seen that happen before.

Saturday

WE got DOWN AND DIRTY!  Goddard was having its city wide clean up, and we were told everyone would be down there helping and throwing stuff away and they could use our help. So we though "why not?" So we went there. But, we showed up and there were a bunch of big, burly city worker men there who were putting old doors, chicken coops, trees, wood, pigeon houses, tractors, you name it, that people brought in these giant tractors that then dumped it in this GIANT dump. So then we show up "here to help!" and they were all "uhhhh...okay" us scrawny girls. hahahahaha.  But, I think it went well. it was fun! It was hard work though! I SO wanted a nap after that because I was pooped, but we just don't have time for that!  I felt like such a stereotype American out there with tractors and construction men throwing away farm supplies!

Here we are at the community clean up.  With all the Burly Men.  We totally fit in.  NOT

SUNDAY

CHURCH! It was so good. They gave all the mom's mother's day candy bars and they had extras so they pawned them off on us even though we are not moms.  Maybe because they realize how much we have to mother the elders! hahaha. But really,. They never know what's up.  We then gave away a Book of Mormon to a woman who seemed to have great potential and then went over to the Hanna's to Skype our families! That was so weird but I loved getting to see my family :)

So that was my week. It was rough.  But I love being a missionary and I know without a shadow of a doubt that the Book of Mormon is true and I invite anyone who ever wonders to read it for themselves and pray about it. Because I started reading it back at the beginning of April and I am only about a third of the way through it, but it has really helped me a lot this past month (give or take)

Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Robyn Cramer

Week 22 A new Companion! 5/5/14

This week has been interesting! BUT AWESOME!

Monday was all about getting sister Taylor ready for transfers.  That sister has SO MANY Clothes! AND THEN THE TINIEST SUITCASES EVER!  So that was an adventure for sure!

Tuesday

More packing. But we also taught Karen, the word of wisdom AGAIN! She just loves to ask us questions about it. She told us how much she LOVED church and that she didn't know why she was so scared to go before, because it was awesome!  We asked her if she would be willing to be baptized and she told us for sure she would now that she has seen the font and been to church!

We also taught Charee and her kids the plan of salvation and about how God loves us! They had some crazy questions!  Charee's son thought we believed in reincarnation because one day he wants to be a monkey or something. Which we told him we do NOT believe in. hahaha. but it went over pretty well.

Saying Goodbye to Sister Taylor.

Wednesday

CRAZY TRANSFERS.  Sister Taylor loves to be on time to things so she made sure we got there almost an hour early!  But I got to see Sister Payton, so that was nice to see her before she goes off to Colorado!  I met my new companion, Sister Nash. She is super nice and it's weird because she is almost as tall as me and is about the same size so technically we could share clothes! I’m so not used to that.  Sister Nash came in to the ward right after Karen got super solid so she doesn’t quite get why I get in such a panic every time! I keep telling her "sister, you just don't know!" hahaha. She thinks I am quite the hoot, so we get along great! She is kind of touchy feely and stuff, so that's different for me, but she's super awesome!  She totally knows her stuff!  She just came from western Kansas where it is like a bunch of Latinos, very humble people living in shacks and everyone speaks Spanish! (she's an Hermana) so it's a quite a shock for her to be back in the suburbs! hahahaha.

Me and Sister Nash  2 tall skinny girls!

Thursday

We taught Karen and she gave us her coffee!  When we asked how we could help her to keep the word of wisdom she said it would help if we took her coffee away from her. so, we did!  We taught the Faber family and we invited them to church but they just are not ready for that yet. One day though, I think they will be.

throwing out the Coffee!

Friday

We went to go contact the one Hispanic family in our ward because Sister Nash really misses Hispanics from the wild west.  This area is a so weird to her. I think it's funny.  So we went and tried to meet with them. I guess that didn't go over too well. But oh well! We then taught Charee where she talked about why she is happy to not be baptized but study the church.  It's super hard because she is complacent with just reading the Book of Mormon and hearing about the blessings of living the gospel, she just...won't live it!  She is too scared. And so is her husband.

Saturday

Saturday was the Goddard wide garage sale. We went and served at the Lion’s Club pancake breakfast because we thought it would be hoppin'. Well, it wasn't. Then we went with Karen to go teach a  less active. Karen loved it! Especially since she used to be a nurse before she retired and Sister Henderson is in a nursing home. We then went with Karen for her to get a blessing at a member's home. She really liked that. And THEN we took her to go see a baptism! They put it in this super tiny room and she got claustrophobic and left as soon as he was baptized. And she got a little scared because she had to be baptized 3 times because his foot kept popping up.   But she still is super solid so we hope all is okay!

Sunday

Karen got a ride to church from Sister Galloway and they became the best of friends!  Seriously. It was so great! Karen asked if it was okay that she sat with Sister Galloway and not us and we were all "uh YEAH! Do that!" So that was awesome.  We had dinner with the Adams whose son is in Ghana and she was talking about how hard it is for her and stuff.   It was interesting to see the other side of it since I never had siblings or cousins serve missions.  So I never really have had anyone I have been close with leave.  So that was interesting, I hope she is able to keep going because she gets worried about him being in Ghana

That's all! Not much of excitement this past week!   I know the church is true and Jesus is our Savior!  Love you all!

Sister Robyn Cramer

Week 21 A Super Roller Coaster of Emotions 4/28/14

So this week has been an insane ROLLER COASTER OF EMOTIONS! Why? 
KAREN. Love her, but she makes me crazy!

On Monday, right after we got home from emailing, we found a note in our door, from Karen. Saying she didn't want to be baptized because her family had talked her out of it and reaffirmed her in her catholic faith. But she still loves talking with us about religion so feel free to stop by whenever we are bored.  I WAS HEART BROKEN! We both knew it was a very plausible thing because she was spending Easter with her very catholic family for Easter, but it still made us sad.

Tuesday

We talked about charity and loving those we teach enough to want to give them every opportunity to accept the gospel. As an example of charity Elder Every(yes, that is his name) shined all of our shoes. I know he shined mine because they are shiny material, some of the other sisters have cloth shoes so that's where I am stumped...but whatever!

What the Kansas wind does to my hair.

We then knocked on some doors in Wichita.  A fancy neighborhood. But let's face it, ALL the neighborhoods we cover that are in Wichita are fancy! Because most of the people on this side of Wichita are plane engineers for Cessna and own their own planes.  And...not very humble. But hey! You work with what ya got!  So we tried doors and there was a giant spider on like every door! And who got to knock on them? Me. Who didn't get bit? Thankfully neither of us got bit! Whew!  While we were walking this man pulled up to us and was all "hey Sisters!" and we got super excited because he wasn't a member of our ward, and hoped he was a non member, since  people only ever stop the Elders because they don't recognize cute girls in dresses as missionaries. So we were like "yes! SOMEONE!"  Turned out he is a member who works for Vivint and lives on the east side.  Excitement for nothing.  THEN a woman pulled up to us, waved and almost rolled down her window. But didn't L  THEN when we were driving and at a stop light, this woman in the car next to us was looking at us funny so I waved! She then got super excited and was telling her husband or something and pointing at us. I almost rolled down the window and chucked a pamphlet at them! I wish I had, because then they took a picture of us in the car! Why? NO CLUE!  But definitely was super funny though!  We then knocked on this army guy's door (he told us what branch he is in, but I don't remember. (National Guard I think) and talked with him for about 30 minutes! He had TONS of questions about differences about us and missionaries and stuff. So he said he will talk with the Elders. So that was  legit.

WEDNESDAY

We taught Karen. She admitted that she let her family talk her out of baptism and we invited her to pray about if it is something God wants her to do. But then when we invited her to pray (after reviewing how) she prayed in a way that you can't even tell she is praying. But...hey give her an A for effort! We also set up a church tour with her so she would get comfortable with the idea of church.  Then we went to Golden Corral for dinner! While I ate their rolls I knew it would make my whole family jealous.  :D it was great.  We tried a potential investigator but she just had eye surgery and told us to come back.

THURSDAY

We did service for some members which was yard work. And we mowed the lawn. Sister Taylor comes from a well off family where they just hire people to do things. Which is why she doesn’t know how to cook and I learned she didn't know how to mow a lawn either. Notice the past tense of didn't. CUZ I TAUGHT HER! Granted I had only mowed the lawn like 2 times before...so it was an interesting experience either way. HAHAHA! I hope they aren't mad that it wasn't the BEST job.  BUT WE TRIED!  We then went out to Cheney to have dinner with Sister Galloway and her daughter who is technically active but HATES the church. So, I used my people skills that I am grateful for more and more every day that Heavenly Father gave me, to be nice to her and get her to like me so she would be willing to listen to a message. She actually seemed to almost like the lesson and made eye contact with me when I spoke Sister Taylor said it went 20 times better than last time. Apparently she started an argument about Joseph Smith or something? Dunno, that was before I came here.  And then Sister Galloway said she would love to come with us to the church tour with Karen and would give us all a ride because she was raised Catholic too! We were so excited.

FRIDAY

We went to go see Karen and tell her about Sister Galloway and the ride to the church tour. Right off the bat she told us she wasn't interested in our church anymore because she is too old to change and it scares her. I had no idea what to do! Sister Taylor was amazing and just pretended she said nothing and went right into talking about the church tour with Sister Galloway! Karen was all excited to meet her and then we taught her the Word of Wisdom which she has always asked questions about since she is a recovering alcoholic and used to smoke. She loves that we don't do either.  Coffee took her aback though.

We then went to go teach a less active man who live in the sticks of Goddard and he wanted his daughter (who is in her 20's) who never got baptized to learn from us as well. So we taught both of them the first lesson and she wants to learn more, and for us to teach her 9 year old daughter and he wants to pay tithing! He still won't come back to church though. But hey, it's a step.

We then went to go teach Charee (who is not a member) and her husband Matt(who is a member but won't come to church). They have been taught by missionaries for over a year and I was to the point where I was wondering if they are even worth our time because they both know it is true just won't come to church.  But when we came Charee just had some drama and she wanted us to tell her scriptures that would give her peace. So we did. And then they both told us that they are really grateful for Sister Missionaries being patient with them because is they had pushed too far they would have wanted nothing else to do with us and if we had stopped they would have wanted nothing to do with us either.  But it has been just enough. And Matt said that the commandments make him angry but he realized he needs to start at least doing "good by his wife" because she really wants to get baptized and not worry about the commandments. So good and bad I guess. He wants to slowly maybe start coming to church but not keep the commandments...one step at a time I guess? But I think it went pretty well!  They really praised Sister Missionaries, which I thought was cool because most people when they think of missionaries, they think of Elders. Sisters they think all we do is give hugs and cry.  So I found that refreshing.

SATURDAY

Karen Knocked on our door at 11 and said she is not interested. She doesn’t want to meet anyone. And to stop teaching her. We were so depressed. THEN while we were eating lunch she knocked on our door AGAIN and said that ever since she told us that,  she had been sad and she didn't know why.  She didn't understand why she would feel so good when she was with us and then get so scared. We told her it was Satan, he doesn’t want her to keep meeting with us and he plays on her fears. She understood that and wanted us to go over the word of wisdom again but we had to leave. Then we did a lot of tracting. WENT TO NORWICH!  That was cool. That place is TINY! We only went there for dinner though. That family has 12 kids! Insane.  They made good hamburgers so that was nice. I hope they didn't notice I didn't even touch the chips since I don't like chips.

SUNDAY

We had just had Ward Council when Karen called us. She told us that she read the B.of M. for 3-4 hours yesterday and while she did that it had made her so happy!  She then mentioned that if we were not already at church she would want to come. Then we were like "it starts at 1:00 and it's only 11:30! We will come back there so you can follow us here!" She was game for that.  What we didn't tell her is we had not had lunch yet so we then proceeded to stuff pb and j sandwiches in about 5 minutes (which is HARD) and drive to go get her! She was at church for 2 hours and would have stayed for relief society but she had plans with her sister.  But she said she LOVED church and will come next week! 

Is she on date for baptism again yet? No. But we plan on changing that!

After church we taught a woman who is a TOUGH COOKIE! She threw out all the responses I had been warned of happens here in Wichita, but I had not experienced yet. It was terrifying! Luckily, Sister Taylor is an experienced Sister who knew what to say.

Today we received transfers, and I wasn't worried I knew I would stay.  Sister Taylor is going to the middle of no where Kansas and she has always been in the city. That should be fun for the end of her mission J  my companion used to be a sister training leader so she is experienced so that should be nice. Sister Payton is going to Colorado! Her dream come true!  It is true that  Karen is driving us insane but we keep going back because we love her and see her potential. I am excited to get a new companion who isn't so burnt out. That has been hard. Really hard.  But now it will be intimidating to have a super good sister as a comp!  Everyone says she is super awesome.

I KNOW that Heavenly Father gives us miracles when we feel beaten down. I KNOW that when we have doubts, when we feel sad, when we just don't know what's up, the Book of Mormon and prayer can help with that.  This week was a test of SO MANY THINGS. When I was ready to stick my head in the sand, when I was ready to tell Karen peace out, it turned around. For now at least. J But Heavenly Father is there and the Book of Mormon is true. I hope you all have a great week!

LOVE

Sister Robyn Cramer

week 20 Ahhh fire! 4/21/14

This week has been INSANE! BUT! GUESS WHO IS NOW ON DATE FOR BAPTISM? You will just have to wait to read it in the email. BUT SO EXCITING!

Monday- I did three traumatic things all within ten minutes while I was in the kitchen.  I was boiling eggs for a sandwich so the eggs were on the burner, and then I was cutting an apple for lunch but the counter space we have is limited so there was just enough room for the cutting board next to the burner which was on. SO, while I was cutting my apple, I accidentally shoved the corner of the cutting board onto the burner! I was like "why do I smell smoke? AHH FIRE! AHH THE CUTTING BOARD IS ON FIRE!" Then I moved it away from the burner and blew out the tiny flame.  You can barely tell that a corner was melted. 

THEN I was cutting my apple and cut my finger (no big deal no need to freak out)

THEN I was putting PB on my apple and accidentally flung it all over the kitchen!

Sister Taylor says she can't trust me in the kitchen anymore. Not so sure I blame her!

TUESDAY

ZONE CONFERENCE!  We won clean car. We da bombs.  Which is funny because we took our car through this rink a dink car wash in Goddard, and the water dried funny and I thought there was NO WAY we would win.  But we did.  BUT THEN they made us and the three other winners show if we know how to take care of a car by doing a race of taking tire pressure and other things. Not sure what else there was because we never got past that point.  Guess I should learn how to do that ;-)

BUT ZONE CONF WAS SO GOOD! They talked about how our mission is really hard because most people won't let us in, and most people are not home. Most people may not even exist in the itty bitty towns with all of 6 houses.  President Bell said he didn't have to give himself all over to the Lord on his mission because he was having too much fun going around baptizing people who basically lined up to be baptized, but here?  It is hard. You have to give your whole self to the Lord and keep going.  But he said to be the best missionaries and the best people we possibly can be, we have to do that.  Happily, without complaints. Because that is how we can try and show our love and devotion to the Lord. 

It was just the kick in the rumpus I needed!  And then we had testimony meeting and I was well..me. And while I was just bearing my testimony I made everyone laugh and I worry they didn't pay attention to the testimony.   Problems of being quirky.  They were all laughing at how I was wearing two sweaters and so on.  You know me.

WEDNESDAY

Weekly Planning.  Then we went to go teach a less active man with a non member wife out in the middle of nowhere. And I was driving because I had just FINALLY gotten my driving privileges the day before.  I accidentally tried to drive it like a clutch and it took my 5 minutes to figure out why I was stomping on the brake. Because I was driving it like a clutch. Oopsies.  She was terrified I would crash because I hadn't driven in forever so she kept freaking out for no reason! We had no problems Thank you! 

The less active was nice but he said he doesn't want to come to church because then people would talk to him and ask him to do things and he doesn't want to do that. Never heard of someone being so shy they won't come to church.  It’s a work in progress.  Especially since he live out in a giant field out in the sticks, gotta love Kansas!

We had so many appointments that night but they all fell through!   So, we went and taught Tyrell, our nice investigator who lives near some members and told us their Tyrell’s family was strange because "it's a mixed race family" (the couple is super old. so I guess that's weird to them) so naturally it caught our interest!   He is super nice and so is his wife. They said we can come back anytime and they will try to read the Book of Mormon.

The elders gave us a referral to a family so we went and talked to them and they are SO awesome!  We gave the father (the mom was at tea ball practice with a kid) a Book of Mormon and bore our testimonies and you could really tell it touched him and he is super interested! Unfortunately, their whole family is athletic and he doesn't know when he will be home for us to teach his family. So nothing solid...yet J

THURSDAY

We were going to do service in a garden, but it was raining.  So we said no thanks, clearly.  BUT we taught one of our less-actives in a assisted living home! She is super nice. We are helping her understand the Book of Mormon better. We then taught our 86 year old investigator, Frances, with Sister Robbs ( a sweet old lady who just battled cancer and won!) and we finally had the chance to teach Frances the first lesson! She says she thinks it's true, but I am not sure how much she understands.  We asked her to get baptized and she said she already was (she's catholic) so when we explained the difference, and  she just went back to talking about her great grand children.  

We tried a potential investigator and her husband was there and he came right on out to the porch and goes "I know where you are from" because the elders have dropped by a time or two. We talked about Jesus and Joseph Smith and prophets. He said he doesn't know why Joseph Smith couldn't be a prophet but be wants to direct his worship at Jesus. Which makes sense. So we talked about the Book of Mormon, which he already has a copy of.  And I gave him the challenge to read in 3 Nephi 11 and I told him what it is about and it caught his interest and he said he might give it a read.  I told him we will be back to see if he did! :D

FRIDAY

So, Sister Taylor has been on her mission for 14 months. And she is TIRED. Just TIRED.  And when she gets tired, she gets loopy. In a way that she laughs manically and gets a crazed look in her eye that makes me fear for my life!  NO JOKE!  Well, she had been getting more and more and more like that for the majority of the day throughout the week and Friday was the worst! I was worried. And when she gets tired, she just shuts down and won't do work.  She doesn't want to walk places. She doesn't want to knock on doors and she doesn't want to try people. But she knows she needs to do the work. SO we end up just stuck, sitting in the car while I try to motivate her.  Because I don't want to drag an unhappy sister around Wichita and Goddard.  Literally drag.  So Friday was fun. We had an appointment. They cancelled. So we walked around and knocked doors. One lady was nice. She said that when she thinks of Mormons she thinks of Donnie and Marie Osmond. ha-ha made me laugh and think of my mom. And we walked some more. Then we had a meeting with the Elders. We thought. They cancelled on us too. Then we tried more people. But no one was home the Friday before Easter. And no one would talk to us. By 3 she was delirious and laughing like a maniac. so...we got a priesthood blessing then had to go to dinner. We thought. They cancelled on us. But they sent us pizza. Then we went to our apt with Matt and Charee.

WENT SO GOOD! She said she wants to come to Sunday School (not sacrament. weird but I will take it) next week. And her son said he wants to be Mormon. So we are going to teach him the basics. Matt even showed him how you get baptized with a dry run. And then said he hadn't done that in a while.  But he seemed totally on board with his step son getting baptized so we are hopeful this will be a step to him coming back to church so his wife will feel comfortable getting baptized!

SATURDAY

I felt like the primary song. "Pioneer Children Sang As They Walked and Walked and Walked" except it was "Missionary Sisters sang as they walked, and knocked and walked and knocked". Story of our day. BUT, in that day we taught some sort of hippie farm girl moving to LA who was trying to convert us to her way of thinking, but she is super awesome!  We hope we planted a seed in her while we talked on her porch for an hour. And she hopes she made us more of broad thinkers. hahahaha.  Then there is this guy in the one other apartment complex in our ward who was super golden, except he might have some problems with the law of chastity because his son said he has two dads who both live him. *shrug* We gave him to the elders so they can worry about that.

Then we saw a guy in Subway who Sister Taylor had wanted to teach for a while. We taught him! And he hit on me the majority of the time. Good thing I am used to that from serving in the university ward and didn't even bat an eyelash and just kept teaching him! We got his phone number for the elders (and he knew we were giving it to the boys, so no worries)

I ALMOST FORGOT!

We taught Karen FINALLY the first lesson and she agreed to be baptized!  On may tenth. SO EXCITING!  We know she loves coffee so we could have a few hiccups, but she basically has accepted we are "ladies of God" and so she knows that if we teach it, it has to be true.  We keep asking her to pray to know for herself if it is true. But I don't know if she has yet.  But we went over the Book of Mormon and the introduction page and she was so interested and is now reading it! SHE IS SO HUNGRY FOR THE GOSPEL I LOVE IT!

these are my Easter baskets.  One from Mom. One from a ward member

SUNDAY

EASTER! I love our Savior and all that he has done for us. Remember, if the Savior hadn't willingly come down here and taught us and completed the atonement, there would be no real reason to be here. We would be stuck. Only through him can we be saved by His and Heavenly Father's mercy. I am forever grateful for that.

Karen didn't come to church because she was with her family.  We spent Easter dinner with some members and then had an Easter egg hunt! So much fun!

Me blowing bubbles at the Easter Egg hunt

I LOVE YOU ALL! MIRACLES HAPPEN! Even though it often feels like they don't, turn it over to the savior and the rest falls into place! And don't set your cutting board on fire!

Love, Sister Robyn Cramer