Where He Leads Me, I Will Follow

Family dear,

 

Hello! How is life? Man do I miss the cool Utah weather! it's not too hot yet, but it's starting to get worse. It's so funny because everyone we meet (that isn't a member) just tells us "just stay inside with the air conditioning and you'll be fine" unfortunately that is not something we can do. Hopefully we won't scare people when we knock on their door and they see two melting young girls on their front porch. Maybe they will have more sympathy... or maybe they will still not open the door :)

 

This week was incredible! I have so much to say! Me and Sister Schellhous saw so many amazing miracles!

 

At the beginning of the week we had our interviews with the President! He is amazing. He told me everything that I needed to hear! He's so funny. He told me that he put me and Sister Schellhous together because we both have such pure hearts. He said the only thing he was worried about with us is that we'd get translated and wouldn't be here anymore. I had a good laugh at that! He kept repeating that he felt strongly that the Lord is so happy with the work that we've been doing which is something we needed to hear. He knew that me and Sister Schellhous had been a little discouraged because we've been working SO hard and not really seeing much success. But he made me read a part in Preach My Gospel that says, "your success as a missionary is measured by you commitment..." It was something I needed to be reminded of. He was so kind and expressed so much love and confidence in us. He told me he's already seen a lot of growth in me, apparently I'm a lot more confident haha! I'm so grateful for him and all that he does for our mission. I'm lucky to get to be a missionary under his counsel.

 

In that same meeting the AP's did a lot of work with us on how to contact and also how to involve members. Elder Myers (AP) watched both of our practice teachings and afterwards came up to us and gave us some really kind compliments. He said we teach as if we are seasoned missionaries and he said he can tell that we're out here for the right reasons and we love the people we teach. Were were so grateful for the things he said. 

 

Like I said a lot of our prayers were answered that day. We were so worried that we were doing something wrong or that we weren't very good missionaries even though we'd been putting all our efforts in the work and it was humbling to have those things said to us. It made us want to work harder to live up to the kind things they said about us.

 

One of the challenges the AP's left us with was to contact 10 people a day outside of tracting and use a list of questions they gave us which has some really great ideas! We've been doing it as best we can everyday since and we've seen many miracles! We've been able to teach the first lesson to so many people outside of our investigators because of it! I always thought it would be so scary just to walk up to people but it's incredible how easy it really is! The Lord makes us the servants he needs us to be.

 

One of our favorite moments this week we were out contacting and in our neighborhood there is this huge bayou and there's a trail that goes around it that's probably about a mile around and as we were walking back to our house this woman was coming from the bayou trail and coming towards us on the side walk. As soon as she saw us she stopped and turned around to go back around the bayou again! haha can you believe that. She didn't want to talk to us so much that she straight up turned around and walked around it again. Well at least we can say we helped her live the work of wisdom a little better by forcing her to walk another mile around the bayou. At least her dog was happy :) She kept looking back to make sure we weren't following her. We had a good chuckle about that.

She's missing out!

 

This week we've started to see some of the fruits of our labors!

 

First we got to teach Melissa the first lesson in more detail. I don't know if you remember me talking about her but we tracked into her a few weeks ago and she was the first person we met that was willing to let us teach her right there and then on the porch. She's fairly young and has one daughter who is probably about 6, and she also has a few foster children. She is active in her church and has great faith. We found out (long after we met her) as we were looking through our area book that her husband met with missionaries back in 2010! coincidence? I think not! definitely a miracle! He didn't progress because he struggled to understand why there is a need for a modern day prophet, and Melissa has had some of the same questions but she is really open to it all. It's amazing that she is the one the Lord is working through this time and it's a miracle that she was the one who opened the door and not her husband. They are amazing though! It seems as though they are already members of the church! We can't wait to go back and teach her more! What was cool about our visit with her that day though is that we stopped by at random to see if she was home and she mentioned how that morning she actually had picked up the pamphlet we left with her that morning! coincidence? I think not! She's awesome and y'all would love the way she decorates her house! I plan on taking pictures so you can see!

 

We also got to FINALLY teach Dolores! and it was great! She was really receptive to the first lesson and she wants us to come back. She's really impressed that we would leave our homes for 18 months to be here and it made me realize just how crazy I am! :) She is wonderful though. She said she loves us because we remind her of her daughters! We are so excited to go back and teach her more!

 

Joan is doing great as well, she wants to get baptized! So we're going to do all we can to get her ready! We're still not sure that she understands everything quite yet, even when we are pretty direct, but we'll keep working on it!

 

What's cool about these three investigators is that we found them all through tracting! So like I've said before, anyone who says you don't see much success with tracting Joan, Dolores, and Melissa are your proof that you can! What President Pingree told us at the beginning of them mission (that tens of thousands are ready) has been proven to be true. We've met quite a few people who we know are ready, it's just a matter of them choosing to accept the message!

 

We taught Jerry again on Sunday and he is so great! He knows the Book of Mormon is true and he wants to be baptized but like I mentioned before he has a few things to take care of before he will be able to so we're doing everything we can to help him. What's great about Jerry though is that we can be pretty blunt with him when we need to be and he takes it so well. He knows what he needs to do.

 

I don't remember if i told you about Amador already but he is a referral we received from some of the Elders who basically stopped him in the parking lot and asked for his address so he really had no idea who they were or what they were all about so when we visited him the first time he wasn't even really sure why they wanted to send us there. But he is really cool he was willing to let us come back and the first time we talked with him we saw so much potential in him. Sister Schellhous actually envisioned him getting baptized, sealed, and coming to church with is family in the few short minutes we met with him. We felt such promise with him but when we tried to visit him the next week he didn't answer the door and we knew he was home because his car was there. We tried back again a few days later and same thing he was home but he didn't open the door. We were so sad. That was one of the things that happened that made us discouraged. So we went back last week and he opened his door! We straight up (but in a loving way) asked him if he really was interested to know more of if we were just going to be a bother to him and he stopped us pretty quick and said he really was interested he's just had a rough week. So we get to go see him this week and we are really excited!

 

We've seen a lot of blessings and our prayers have been answered. We're starting to realize the miracles that have happened and are happening and people are finally opening up to us! I guess the trick is to not give up on them when you see that promise in them. It might take them a while to see that they need what we have to share, but many of them do see it!

 

This week has been really fun because me and Sister Schellhous have been trying to implement family history in our tracting and contacting and it's amazing how many people get really excited about talking with you when you bring up family history. The spirit of Elijah is strong in the world today and we seen that proven through the people we've talked to about it.

 

Life is great in Texas! Love you all!

 

The Kingdom of God or nothing!

Love, Sister Gregson

 

PS here are some weird things I've learned about Texas...

1. Every ones front windows are always covered, it makes it awkward to knock on doors because we can ALWAYS tell when they are staring at us through the window...

2.  Men (even the very unhealthy heavy ones... in fact I would say mostly the very unhealthy heavy ones) never wear their shirts(except for the members). I can't tell you how many times we've been put through a little bit of a shock when a shirtless man opens the door... OH MY put on a shirt! haha

3. everyone, and I mean EVERYONE has dogs, which I'm fine with because i love dogs, but poor sister Schellhous hates them...

4. everyone in Texas has a second living room in their garage. They will have like full on couches and a flat screen TV, some of them a bar. And they'll all sit out and chill in their garage. So I think we should turn our garage into something cool like that when I get home. We could start a new trend in Utah.

5. THE BUGS ARE HUGE! Literally they are dinosaur bugs. We killed a nasty cockroach today. It was gross. Really gross. What's worse is that most of them fly too. Gross.

It's HOT in Texas!

May 20, 2013

Dear family,

Hello!! How are y'all doing?

Life is good here in Texas! this week was amazing! It was a hard week.

We have found SO many potential investigators since being here and almost every one of them has not showed up or been home when we scheduled an appointment with them. It was starting to get really hard because we started to just expect our investigators not to show. At one point we were really low. We were talking about our goals and we just weren't sure what to change because we've both been working SO hard. We've been putting in every effort and not really seeing any success.

I knew that we needed to push through the difficult times but we have been pushing through it since we've been in this area and I guess our strength to keep pushing through was depleting. Because of the discouragement we were feeling I knew we didn't have the spirit with us and we had a lesson to teach that we were about to head out to. So we stopped and said a prayer.

I laid it all out to Heavenly Father. I told him all the reasons we felt discouraged and how tired we were of pressing on without any success. We ask for forgiveness because we knew that as missionaries we needed to have faith in the Lord and in our Investigators, and in the work. And we asked for help. We felt better as we drove to our lesson.

Here comes the miracle...

We were teaching Jerry (our new investigator) his girlfriend is a less active member of our ward but she still fully believes the gospel. The lesson was great, but little did Jerry know he answered our prayers.

At one point he started talking about his great desire to follow Christ and always follow him despite the low times and the walls that come. He talked about how God is always there for us and that we should never give up but keep on going. It was amazing, me and Sister Schellhous almost cried. We knew the Lord was answering our prayer through Jerry and it was exactly what we needed to hear.

Jerry is incredible. He has a great love and faith in the Lord. He wants to be baptized but there are a few things he has to work through first so we're doing all we can to help him.

I know the Lord heard our prayer and he knew how to help us. We've felt so much better since that experience. We're trying hard to focus on the little daily miracles and still working our hardest. We're not going to give up!

Joan is wonderful. She believes everything we say which is great, but it is also not so great because in order for her to fully be converted she has to put what we tell her to the test and find out and receive a witness if it's true. She's awesome though, she has such wonderful input and she is probably the happiest person I've ever met! We're excited to go and teach her again this week!

I think I've already told you about Lorena and Patrick. Basically they are our favorite people! She is a recent convert and Patrick is a less active member who has recently been reactivated! Lorena is Hispanic so she makes the best Mexican food I've ever eaten in my life! Plus their just hilarious so we always have a good time with them! But sadly they are moving out of the ward this week! We've been going over to teach them and also to help Lorena pull weeds so we've really come to know and love them so much.

One of the reasons I have loved me mission is because everyone I have come in contact with (that hasn't shut the door in my face) I have grown to love so much more than I ever imagined in the short time I've gotten to know them. It's strange to think I would never have met so many of them (Lorena, Patrick, Sister Ruhlman, Joan, the Thayers, Marla) if I hadn't come here. But I know these are people I'm meant to meet! They've all blessed my life in so many different ways. I've never felt so much love for others as I have since I've been on my mission. The Lord puts us where we're supposed to be and it's no coincidence that we are around the people we are with. I will always love the people I've met on my mission, even if I never get to see them again on earth. There are so many good people out there and I know there are so many more that I'm supposed to meet! I can't wait!

I'm so grateful to be out here! I don't want to be anywhere else!

I know there are good things to come and I'm going to keep pressing forward!

I love you all so much and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Go find someone to share the gospel with! I PROMISE you won't regret it!

Love y'all!

Love Sister Gregson

**This week at Stake conference they showed a video of all the missionaries who have gone out since Pres. Monson's announcement last October. It includes Emilee, Izzy Healy and Bailey Roquemore. You can view that here.

Fried Bananas

Hi family!!

 

I know I just barely talked to you but you get to hear from me again! It was so good to see all your lovely faces (the loveliest being Marcus's of course)...

 

Things are great here! I'm not as tired today so hopefully this email will be a little more exciting!

 This week has been so wonderful!! We started teaching Joan! She is the older woman we tracted into last week. We got to teach her the first lesson and she enjoyed it so much! She is amazing. It was neat because when we first met her we learned that she had lost her husband about a year ago. When we closed up the lesson i had the impression that Joan's husband was there with us and that he needed us to keep teaching Joan so that he could be with her forever. After we left her home I told Sister Schellhous about my impressions and she was so happy because she said that the whole time we were teaching Joan she was praying that her husband would be there with us to help us know what to say and to help us touch her heart. It was a really neat experience. We left Joan with a Book of Mormon and she was so excited to read it. We stopped by her home the other day and she said she's reading it but it's hard for her because the writing is so small so today we're going to go pick up a larger print for her. I can't wait to meet with her again this week!

 

As you already know on Saturday Marla got baptized!! It was so wonderful! She and Gabriel were so happy. I had the opportunity to speak about baptism before the ordinance was performed. It has been so amazing to see the change in Marla. Two years ago to the day Marla came home after having lived in Africa while serving in the peace corps. She explained to us that when she came home from that she was a broken person, but since she's met us and learned about the gospel she has become whole again. And you can see that joy and happiness in her face. She just glows! I can't wait for the day when she and Gabriel can be sealed for time and eternity. She is amazing and I love her so much. I have learned so much from her about having trust in the Lord, and being patient with the answers we receive. I remember me and Sister Jones fasting and praying so hard for Marla and the Lord truly heard those prayers.

 

We are still teaching Melanie and it's going well but because she's so young I don't think that she will really have the desire to get baptized until she can start coming to church. Right now she can't come because she has communion classes at 9... BUT their over in June so were hoping she will come then!

 

It was funny that you asked me yesterday what the weirdest thing has been that I've eaten because last night we had some of the strangest things. We had dinner with this member family and the mother is Russian and the father is Peruvian. She fed us this Peruvian root and it was definitely different. We also had fried bananas which were actually really good!

 

The ward is great, with every week that goes by we feel better and better about the area. Now that we know more people in the ward we are getting a lot of referrals that we're excited to meet, and like I said we're weirdos and we love tracting so we do that as much as we can and we've seen some really amazing blessings come from it.

 

PS you never told me the story about Abby cutting her hair, I'd love to hear it sometime!

 

I'm sorry that this weeks email is so short but know that everything is great!

 

I have loved being on a mission! I can't believe that I've almost been out for 3 months it is all going by way too fast! 

 

For the past few lessons we've have with members we've been reading in 1st John 4:9 and then asking them what it means to them to know that Heavenly Father would sacrifice his son for them, and that Christ would willingly sacrifice himself for them. It's amazing to hear their responses and have the opportunity to hear about their testimonies and their gratitude to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

This gospel is amazing and it's so wonderful to have the chance to completely focus on it 24/7. It's the most wonderful opportunity in the world.

 

I love you so much and I'm so grateful for all y'all!

 

Hope you have a wonderful day!

 

Love you!

Love, Sister Gregson

Week Two in Parkway and Still Alive

Dearest family,

 

How are y'all doing? How is the weather? How are the animals?

 

This week was a great week. There were a lot of ups and downs as is usual with missionary work, but we've seen many miracles!

 

First I will tell you about Dolores! (She is the one who has an autistic son that we found while tracting) We've visited with her again and plan to go see her tomorrow! We've talked a lot about Christ with her and we were able to introduce her to the restoration. She has been so kind and said she loves talking with us! I am praying hard that as we begin these lessons with her that she will be ready to hear it.

 

Chine was one of the potentials we found while tracking and we went to visit her again. She was really kind but she talks so much me and Sister Schellhous couldn't get much teaching done so it's not looking like we'll be going back. Hopefully someday she will be ready!

 

One of our investigators - Melanie, is 9 years old. She is the sister of Lorena (who I love to death) who is a recent convert of almost a year. Because she's young we've had to come up with creative ways to teach her the lessons and we've been having a lot of fun with it. She wants to be baptized but she needs to ask her mother's permission first.

 

Angela is our other investigator. We had lessons set up with her this week but she didn't show up and

she hasn't been responding so we haven't actually met her yet but as always we will keep trying!

 

We have a few new potential investigators we met while tracking this week that we're going to go see this week!

 

Joan is an older woman who loves God and was more that happy for us to come back and talk to her. She is very open to hearing about other religions so I don't know how it will go but she was really kind.

 

Ezela is a former investigator that we visited. She works a lot which is why she lost contact with the missionaries but we're hoping to meet up with her and teach her more.

 

The greatest miracle came yesterday when we were tracting. The day before we had had a really rough day. Everyone we had planned to visit ended up not being home so of course we tracted. It was a little discouraging this time because a few of the people we talked to instead of just saying they weren't interested they decided to tell us what was wrong about our church. It made me really sad! It's hard when people are so against what we believe because I know what their missing out on and I just want to grab then by the ears and make them listen! So that day ended on a rough note. The next day (or yesterday) made up for it! We were tracting and we came up to this door and a woman named Melissa opened the door. We started to talk to her about Christ and she has a great love for him! When we told her what our purpose is she said she would love to hear about it because she is very open to learning about other peoples faith and she doesn't know what Mormons believe. Well we started teaching her the first lesson right then and there. We were taken by surprise at first because we're so used to people either not being interested or telling us to come by another time. It was so funny! But Sister Schellhous jumped right in! She was so kind about it and wanted us to come back and tell her more about it!

 

Then a few more houses down a young man probably about 20 opened the door and as we started talking about God he invited us in and we saw that it was him and two other girls (also about 20). We let them know why we were there and they were really cool about it. None of them go to church but they all wanted to learn more about what we believe. They invited us to come back and teach them next Sunday!

 

So we have a lot of new people to teach and I really  hope they'll be ready to accept it. Knowing how missionary work goes I'm sure there will be disappointments but this could be the beginning of them becoming familiar with the church.

 

So I got permission from Pres to go to Marla's baptism this week! I am so excited! Also good news remember Deborah? She's getting baptized!

 

So now for my funny story...

So we went to visit this woman who we had on our records and when she opened her door out came their dog who is still a pup (although it is the size of a horse) and you know what happens when dogs get excited? Well if you don't I'll tell you.. it started peeing right there on the front porch so of course both me and Sister Schellhous got sprayed! Oh the wonderful things that happen on missions...Miracles, blessings, and getting peed on. It was gross at the time but we've been laughing ever since. First thing we did when we got home was wash our feet very thoroughly.

 

Anyways that's all the excitement I've got for the week!

 

I'm more tired that I've ever been but I came across this scripture in my studies the other day, it's Alma 37:34 and it says,  "Teach them to never be weary of good works, but to be meek and lowly in heart; for such shall find rest to their souls."

 

I'm trying my hardest to put in every effort, and I've seen a lot of blessing from it!

 

Things are still going well in our area we're getting to know the ward well and we've met a lot of people.

 

I am so grateful to be here on a mission! I still can't believe sometimes that I'm actually out here! It's definitely exhausting, but it's all worth it and I love it!

 

Hope all is well at home!

 

Love, Sister Gregson