November 17 Weekly Update and Pictures

Hello again! It's been quite the week!

This week we received and taught a referral from the White River Elders named Antonio who is amazing!! His friend was living in Indy, where the Elders found and were teaching him. The friend moved to Georgia, and he actually lives in our area, so that's some of the back story. He is super chatty, and Brother Baumgartner who we brought with us could hardly stop talking to him! It was a Hoosier lesson! He was already reading the Book of Mormon, though, and when we invited him to baptism he was so excited! He called his friend to tell her he was getting baptized soon and would let her know when he was put on a date! AHH he is so ready!!

Adam, Zach's brother, got approval from his parents for his baptism to be December 13th!! We are still working with Timothy but are so excited about how excited Timothy is! We also were able to get a Book of Mormon to an investigator that is super hard to get a hold of and have finally been able to set up appointments with her! I think she is going to progress really quick!

I got to call Ed this week and we were so excited! He is doing so well! He told me about how he had born his testimony in church and even wrote President Cleveland about how much the gospel and Sister Clegg and I meant to him, he is amazing! When we had interviews this week with President I told him about it and he was so excited to read the letter! Interviews were so great, I am so grateful for President Cleveland! Him being my mission president was definitely inspired!

One tender mercy we saw this week was one day Sister Ostler got a migraine that was much worse than most that she gets, and was having a hard time driving, but our dinner that night was with a member who is a nurse, and she let us come over early so Sister Ostler got to lay down and get feeling a little better. We also had a member drop us off a bunch of cuties and a card when we were feeling a little overwhelmed, and it made our day! Also, today I went to Physical Therapy which was pretty exciting! Hopefully I'll be in and out in 4 weeks!

One of my favorite scriptures this week is 3 Nephi 13:24 because all we need to do is take life one day at a time and trust in our Heavenly Father! He is so caring and loving he takes care of what we cannot!

FHE at a member's house with Tori (recent convert) Marina (member), Emory (investigator), Zach (recent convert) Austin (investigator)

The first snow that stuck (and first snowball fight!)

Favorite Quotes!

"Baptize nations with this!" Elder Buchanon during a training in Zone Meeting

"I wanna baptize the President!" Sister Ostler

"President Cleveland is already baptized!...oh wait..." me

"How old are you, Sister Evans?" Elder Mills

"5 Months!" me

"No, how old are you?

"Oh...19" me

"Oh life saving day! There are ear muffs in here!" Sister Ostler

"It looks so warm but feels so cold it's like so facade-ish!" Sister Ostler

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Have a great week! Thanks for reading!

November 10 Weekly Update and Pictures

It's been another eventful week!

First off, we had a baptism!! His name is Zach and he is 17, and his parents were converted and baptized years ago. He is a senior and now preparing for a mission, and is so excited about the gospel! There were tons of people there to see his parents who haven't been to church in a while, and it was great! Zach's brothers, Adam and Timothy, are a hoot! We went by last night for the parents to sign the baptismal record and they talked our legs off, we barely got out in an hour! We talked about finding answers through fasting and prayer, camping, trick or treating, and many other things, and it was a great time.

We taught JoAnn again, who we found before District Meeting last week and she already knows the Book of Mormon is true! She is 85 and Methodist, though, and before we could invite her to baptism told us she doesn't want to change. Hopefully we're taking her on a church tour today and the spirit will keep working on her--along with us and the members, of course:)

We had a pretty exciting experience the other day when we were short on miles and getting rides from a ward missionary, Sister Chapman! We were at her house looking for addresses of less actives we were going to visit when her husband came home and was telling us about their neighbor, Brian, who was very religious. He said we should go talk to him, before deciding he wanted to go with us right then! We went over to Brian's house, and when he saw we were Mormons had a lot to say about how he felt about our beliefs! He went on and on and we were starting to freeze, but we listened and waited until we could bare our testimonies. After we did, he said we'd come closest to converting him than anyone ever had.
On Sunday the Chapmans were very excited to update us! They said a half hour later, Brian ran over to their house to talk to them about their beliefs, and did so in a very civil way, until Brother Chapman said he needed to get going to do some Home Teaching, which Brian was curious about. They talked about home teaching, and how he taught the addiction recovery class and Brian thought it was so cool! He ended up having dinner with them and they invited him to church! He was worried he wouldn't be allowed to come in as a Catholic, but we invited him on a church tour which we'll hopefully be taking him on today! Crazy story, right??

Last week I also went to the doctor, which I was pretty nervous for! We were in the waiting room and I was getting more and more nervous when I got the prompting to just read until I was called back. I only got to read a couple verses about the Nephites being taxed by the Lamanites, but the spirit was overwhelming and so comforting! It strengthened my testimony of the Book of Mormon so much! After a blessing of a visit we found out I have Patella Femoral Syndrome, IT Band Syndrome, and Patella Tendonitis, which we will be treating with Physical Therapy. The spirit stayed with me the rest of the day and continued bringing comfort, and hope, which was amazing! I sure love the gospel!

Us with Zach!

Sister Olsen, Sister Ostler's previous companion and my MTC companion got to come to the baptism! Here we are with her and Tori, their recent convert of a few weeks ago

Favorite Quotes!

​"I like your jacket--it's pretty and awkward" Tori

"I think we should give frozen hot chocolate to girls that wear short skirts and Uggs" Elder Clark

"They just need me, the spider whisperer--I just whisper before tours and they leave the font" Sister Ostler

Thanks for reading! Have a good week!!

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Hello! Crazy week report time!

One highlight of this week was going to see an investigator named Chris. We were getting ready to leave the apartment and Sister Ostler asked how the Halloween cookies looked that we were gifted, and they were a little sad and crumbly, but she kept looking. She was looking around at our treats, asking if we could take some of my muffins to her, and I was so confused what was going on. We put together a bag of candy and left. When we knocked on her door she said she hadn't been feeling well and was living on Gatorade, when we gave her the bag of candy she was so excited! I was so excited about the lesson plan we'd made for her and inviting her to baptism, but because she was sick I felt like we could at least share a scripture with her, though I wasn't even sure which one until I opened up to Mosiah. We shared one about the atonement and invited her to baptism. ON HER PORCH WHILE SHE WAS SICK. It was crazy, but the spirit was amazing! She was telling us about how she had been baptized and received the holy ghost before, when we were talking about it she practically quoted scripture when she was saying how she thought it was so silly everyone debates about how to be baptized, "Just do it like Jesus!!" she said.

We also talked to some amazing families this week! One we found trying to find the house of a less active, and they had dinner burning and kids running around like crazy but we shared like a five second message about modern day prophets and the anchor that they can provide families in such a changing world and they seemed really interested! Once we found the less active she said she'd be having a barbecue and inviting them over, soon! On another door we knocked we talked to this 14 year old girl who said her family had been looking for a church and kept making this face like she couldn't believe we were there when they were looking for a church, which was way cool! We got to try them the next day when she said her parents would be home, but talked to another sister who was going to college and super busy. We shared a scripture with her about continually reading and enduring to the end and it was so sweet she said she was excited for her mom and sisters to learn more about our message, because of the great experience they were about to have. She said that!!

This week we taught Adam and Timothy the restoration with their dad who works on Sundays but was baptized years ago. The first vision was amazing with them, they all felt the spirit so strongly, and the dad was in tears! We invited them to baptism, and Adam said yes, and wanted to meet every day until he learned all the lessons to be baptized. Timothy was more hesitant, but we helped resolve some concerns in our lesson after church, yesterday. Since then they've been to church, scouts, and reading the Book of Mormon! Hopefully their parents will agree on a baptismal date of December 13th!

We also got to go to a fireside called "Why I Believe" last night, which was amazing! Tori, who was baptized maybe a month ago, was one of the speakers and did so well, we were so proud! There was an amazing spirit there with so many recent converts and missionaries super excited about the gospel! It was also fun to see some missionaries I have worked with before.

it was a sunny day and we weren't wearing coats!!

We borrowed rakes from a member and left a note (John 13:34-35) with a potential after raking her yard. There are SO many leaves in Indiana! In parts of Plainfield there is a service where the city picks up the leaves if they are raked out to the street!

Favorite quotes!

"I'm really sore here!" Sister Ostler
"Maybe too many high fives?" me
"But I never high five with this hand!" Sister Ostler

"I see you put Jesus on your car" Tori, after we taped Mormon.org cards in our window

"Good luck with your harvest!" me

"Do you get to watch church produced films like Napoleon Dynamite?" member daughter

Thanks for reading! Have a good week!!