He Gives Us What We Need

                                                 Happy Mother's Day, y'all (:

It was so good to see my family, and see how much all the kids are changing.  I'm sure Christmas will be here before we know it! Also, Happy cinco de mayo to everyone who cares.  Sadly, I don't think anyone in Georgia knew about it, but I celebrated it proudly and ate a burrito. 

                                                          Ole! Feliz cinco de mayo!

This week was another great one! We have so many progressing investigators right now, but we just can't get hardly anyone to come to church! Faithful Sister Campbell came, and she even stayed all three hours.  We just need to help her with the word of wisdom and she'll be awesome! 

                                              Found this little fella outside the church

We did some service for her with the Benich's this week, and that was way fun! We painted the trims all around her house while Elder Benich mowed all of her lawn and Sister Benich played with her granddaughter. We just painted and enjoyed her crazy stories (: 

                                                         Our first 100 degree day

                                    Yep, we have red dirt!  This is the back of our apartment

The primary kids sang a song for Mother's day, and I played the piano for them.  Sister Call and I even got a flower at the end of sacrament meeting :) I guess I'm somehow qualifying as an official mother now… We got to give the lesson in the gospel principles class, and it was totally last minute, but it went great! It's cool that I've finally reached the point that I don't freak out about giving lessons in church anymore.  Just keep talking and ask questions, and they'll think you're doing great. Oh, and probably teach with the spirit, too.

                                                 We're starting a church scavenger hunt.
                                         This is probably the biggest baptist church around.

                                                                 Good intentions.

We had awesome lessons this week with four of our investigators.  One is struggling a bit committing to another date since he's had a few before.  We just went back to the basics and taught him the restoration using our cups object lesson, and he asked a ton of deeper questions, which was great.  We feel that he's making progress again.  

                                                Just a little nature walk last p-day 

We taught our little investigator the 10 commandments, and even added hand signs so he could remember them all. He's so excited to be baptized, but the only thing holding him back is getting to church!  Every week it's another excuse, but we're not giving up! 

                                                The one not-ghetto place in Barnesville 

Another investigator is.. haha. Well, she's quite the talker.  We were there for like two hours, and we only got through about two points of the first lesson.  She said it herself, her brain chases squirrels. Of this I can testify.  She's awesome though! Her fiance has been less active on and off for like 20 years or so and is now just starting to come back.  She has even been reading a kids Book of Mormon with her kids at night.  She's great! 

                                                             Pet goat?  I like it!

We taught another amazing investigator, a member's less active son's fiance.  She has been so prepared! We taught the POS (plan of salvation) to her, and she loved it all.  She even wants to start doing family history so she can take some names to the temple! She loves the Book of Mormon, and was ready to be baptized since before we even met her.

                                                     Our handywoman masterpiece

I think it was on Saturday when we had the worst luck! We taught one lesson in the morning where they weren't even interested, and then throughout the day appointment after appointment cancelled on us or they weren't there.  We were tracting in an apartment complex, and we got kicked out haha.  It was the worst! 

                                                 7 months later, I feel truly welcomed.

We had one appointment left of the day, and we went not knowing what to expect because there were probably 10 people present when we had originally met the family.  Well, we went to their house, and there was Mary, the mom, and a pastor.  I think that meeting may have been more for us than for him, and it was quite humbling.  It's always weird when other people preach at you, but you just kind of take it and try to be loving.  But this guy was so loving and genuine; I couldn't help but think that this was to humble us and to encourage us.  He didn't bash or anything, but he encouraged us to stay strong in the faith and keep spreading the gospel.  He'd even read the Book of Mormon before and knows about Joseph Smith, and said he knows it's all true... he just doesn't see a reason to act on it. 

                                                My first real alley--not too creepy.

 It wasn't a waste of our time though. The Lord always knows what we need, and he was watching out for us all throughout the day.  The tender mercies of the Lord are truly over all those whom he hath chosen, BECAUSE OF THEIR FAITH, to make them mighty unto the power of deliverance. This is true, my friends.

Love, Sister Facer

MAY DAY, MAY DAY!!

That was what our last minute zone training was about this week.  We've got to find those people that are crying out for help! We focused on increasing our faith to find miracles that we deserve by being exactly obedient.  Everyone knows this - obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles. It's that easy! You can expect them and pray for them, and they will come. We talked about getting rid of any barnacles, and that we're all sailing our ship of life in the salty water of the world. Sometimes barnacles stick to the bottom of our sailboat and slow us down; whether it's pride, contention, false traditions, etc.  But we have to sail upstream to the freshwater in order to get rid of those barnacles! Well, it makes more sense if you know about that stuff because I didn't explain it very well haha. But that's what we're focusing on this week!

                     Karen's daughter, Jersiah.  She's the little doll who painted our nails last week 

We really had an awesome week though.  It was our sacrament summit, and we found so many miracles.  Let me start off with the fact that we had 17 people set for church! That's unheard of! Okay, so only 3 actually made it.  But 3 souls actually made it to church! That was amazing.  Especially because Keegen came! and Tia! Keegen looked so cute with his hair all combed and his little button up shirt (: He's been such a good example lately.  Tia and Jenny are struggling a bit, and Keegen has been so good to make them read with him and say prayers at night.  One day he came home from school, and he had looked up 'missionary', 'god', and 'baptism' in the dictionary and circled them.  Atta kid (: The Deal's also came to church, too! They come on a whim, but it's nice when they do come.  Really, the only thing that's holding Chris back from being baptized is that he won't quit smoking.  He knows everything about Mormons though, since his wife is a less active member. One day.. 

I love walking into church and seeing Lucille there! I always try to make a point to talk to her, and she always tells me how grateful she is for everything that me and "Ciara" did. Haha it wasn't too much, but I'm glad she recognizes that this is a big deal.  I can't wait to meet that woman in the spirit world as a young lass. 

Well, Carlos finally moved.  We made him promise that he would talk to missionaries if he ever saw them.  I know how Heavenly Father works, he's gonna see them all the time! 

Sister Campbell continues to crack me up. Every time we go over there, she's got a new saying or two.  This week in response to our asking her if she would be at church was "If God be willin' and the creek don't rise!" Last week she didn't make it, and she was gave us, "Well squashbuckle that idea!" Haha she even explained it.  You squash the idea, buckle it up, and throw it away.  Makes sense. 

                       The ONE stoplight in town, and I got pulled over.  Not cool, Police...
Uhh so I got pulled over.  Haha it wasn't anything bad, I promise. I was already pulled out in the intersection because the car in front of me was going left, and I was just going straight.  The light turned red, I drove through, and the copper had a front seat view. No worries, he just wrote me a warning.  He said he's seen our car before and knows that we're with 'the church' so that's why he just gave me a written warning.  Praise the heavens! Another miracle.

                                       Said good-bye to Ashley, for probably the last time :(

We said our good byes to Ashley this week because she'll be home for the summer :( I really hope she'll keep going to church and stuff without our encouragement.  It's hard because she's in a different ward than us, and the elders in her ward aren't that involved with her. We're praying for more miracles! 

Well, that's about it for this week! We didn't have legit lessons with our main people on date for baptism, but we'll see them all this week.  Montavious, Keegen, Neosha, Jackie, Roy, the Stowe's, and CJ. Oh yeah! Bran and Marsha called.. haha they're awesome.  They asked us the steps for prayer, and wrote them all down! I have no idea how to go about things with them, and we're trying to get in contact with President to ask for his advice.  We'll see! We've got high hopes (: 

Canyon, I'm so glad that you made the choice to get baptized! I'm so sad I couldn't be there to see it but I'm proud of you buddy! I'll see y'all next Sunday! 

Love, Sister Facer

A Miracle-Full Week

Greetings, friends and family!

What an amazing week. It was quite eventful! We stayed so busy and literally had appointments every hour for a 9 hour block most of the days! Crazy stuff.  The Lord provides (: Oh mom, so I dived more into my package, and I found the vocal point CD with money! Best day ever!Thanks so much! Seriously, we needed new music haha.  The stuff we have is great, but it was time for a change. Just so you know, we can listen to hymns/nashville tribute band during the week, and EFY on p day/during exercising. 

                                                            Sis. Mahone and me

We had exchanges this week, and that went really well! Sister Mahoney came down from Peach Tree City, and we had a miracleful day! She's from Nova Scotia (Scott's mission!) and she's actually serving on temple square, so this is just her outbound mission.  

                                              I made a holder for my cups object lesson

But we found the most amazing family in our old complex! Who would have thought? So it's Kenny and Bridget, and their kids SaRhonda, Jordan, and Kyle (7, 8, and 9. Two baptismal age!) They've been wanting to get back in church and we just had the most amazing lesson with them! We taught the restoration with our new cups object lesson, and they loved it so much! Even all the kids were attentive, and when they'd talk or get up, the parents would shush them and make them listen haha. It was great though! They all accepted our invitation to baptism, and they would have come to church this week, but they already planned a trip to 6 flags, haha dang it.  Next week! They asked for our numer when we originally met them, and I gave them a pass along card with our number, and it was the one with the SLC temple on it.  He asked about it, and they're pretty much preparing to go to the temple right now! They're so prepared, it's crazy. FINALLY WE FOUND A FAMILY!!!

 We also had zone training, which means we got to go to the temple! It's been like two months since we went! Temple craving = satisfied. President Harding pretty much did the whole training, and it was awesome! Every week this transfer, we're working toward different summits.  We've had baptismal dates, member presents, and now this week is church.  President is a little intimidating, but he's the kindest, most Christlike, faith-filled, diligent, and motivational man. You just have to know he's called of God.

Before we went to the temple, me and Sister Call had a Pearl of Great Price party! We read through it all in preparation for the temple, and I didn't realize how much stuff I don't know! Seriously, Heavenly Father is so cool! We literally had to break it down sentence by sentence to understand, but it was sweet. Kolob, post-earth life and such. Good times.

                                                           Elder Facey and me 

We finally got to teach the lesbian couple, Bran and Marsha! They're the coolest! For some reason, I just kept feeling like we need to keep trying, because we went by so many times to set a return appointment, and then they weren't there but we just kept going back.  They appreciated that we were genuine, not just trying to see how they live and what not.  We taught them the restoration with cups, and they were reading the Book of Mormon before we even left. Something Marsha said about our missionary work made me respond with "Sacrifice brings forth blessings" and she loved that! Haha we're going to really nail that into their mind (:

All our other people are doing great from what we've seen! Roy is just sucking up everything that we give him and loves to learn and ask questions.  Montavious, we actually haven't seen all week, but we'll see him on Wednesday and make sure he's still progressing. We couldn't see Keegen either, but we're having FHE with them tonight and he's excited for that! I still have no idea how to get that family to church. Satan's powerful, let me tell ya. 

                                                              I love exchanges! 

I was thinking of my setting apart blessing during church yesterday as we were talking about the priesthood, and moved along to priesthood blessings.  Someone said you just know that it's not them talking when they pause for a minute, and let the Spirit work inside of them to know what to say.  I know dad's blessing he gave me was definitely not his own words.  I've just been waiting for some things to be fulfilled, and to recognize those angels that I helped, when they help me. Things are really going great.  I'm excited for an awesome week this week, and we're hoping for many more miracles to come.  I know that this is the Lord's work, and that we cannot do this alone. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ revealed themselves to Joseph Smith that spring morning in 1820 in an answer to his humble prayer.  I'm so thankful to be a servant of the Lord, and I wouldn't want to be doing anything else at this time in my life.  I love my Savior, and because He lives, we have this wonderful opportunity to partake of the many blessings in store for us. 

Have a blessed week, y'all (:

Love, Sister Facer

 

                                           Train selfie-I had to include the train...

G'dday, chaps!

I can't believe it's already Monday again.  This week went by so fast! It rained a ton, so that kind of slowed down the work, but we still worked around it and found so many miracles! This transfer we're doing a few summits. So this past week, we tried to get as many referrals from people as possible, next week will be church, baptismal dates, etc.  We prayed specifically to find more new investigators from referrals as we had been lacking quite a bit, and it was amazing! We went to see Jessica but she wasn't there, so we went and talked to a woman named Neosha, who was out smoking on her front porch.  She pretty much asked us if she could come to church! She referred us to Shaquita, and her sister Tisha was there as well, who referred us to a different Neosha (what are the odds?), who referred us to Alysha.  That was so cool! Me and Sister A had even tracted through there, so it was cool to see God's perfect timing in all of that. Later, we accidentally parked a ways away from a potential investigator we were following up with, so we prayed that if there was anyone walking down the street that we'd be able to talk to them.  We knocked on the door, she wasn't there, and we turned around and this guy comes out of nowhere! We stop him and offer to pray, and we got a return appointment.  Specific prayers work! The Lord will provide!! 

So remember how we had like 12 people on date for baptism? Haha yeah that didn't happen.  We lost contact with almost all of them.  No one has phones here! It's rough.  But Keegen, Montavious, and Roy are still legit and working towards baptism.  Finally we'll get some priesthood holders in Barnesville! I realized the other day that there's only one guy in all of Barnesville who has the priesthood, other than maybe some kids at the college.  Where are these men?? 

                   Oops, someone fell asleep in ward council. (That's my shoulder, by the way)

Keegen is doing great though, we taught him about tithing and he was so excited to fill out the slip and come to church to pay tithing! Unfortunately, we couldn't get a hold of them, and I'm sure something came up that made them not get a ride.  We'll try again next week. 

Montavious is solid, too! We went through the baptismal interview questions, and we realized we need to help him get a solid testimony of Joseph Smith, so we'll watch the resto DVD tonight and it will be great! He always works on Sundays though, so that's his big trial.  

Roy is so excited to be baptized! He's a little newer, but he loves whenever we come by.  He got shot in the head like 30 years ago, and has recently started to become paralyzed from it.  He's the most amazing man. We got him a wheelchair that could stay at the church from the Dukes, and he was so excited to go with his mom, but I'm guessing the rain yesterday kept them away.  Darn. We'll try again next week with him, too. 

Good news though! Carlos came to church!! Hurrah for Israel! He even came to the ward activity on Thursday! The ward loved him, and they were so excited to see how amazing he was.  Unfortunately, he's moving to San Diego this week to be closer to the border.  NOOO!!! I'm praying that the missionaries there will find him. He WILL be baptized one day, I know it! 

Sister Campbell also came to church too!! She finally saved enough to buy her neighbor's car and get tags and insurance and everything and she was so excited to tell us that! FINALLY!! The Lord will provide (: I'm noticing a pattern... Anyway, I love her to death.  Haha Sis Campbell is hilarious! She always tells us stories of things they did with the missionaries (which definitely aren't allowed nowadays) and random tidbits of her life.  She was at the DOT the other day, and they told her that her birth certificate was too old.  She replied, "So. Am. I." and they were able to work it all out. Hahah she's a crack up. 

                                                           Sort of sums up Barnesville... 

So we got to meet the new family that has moved in. That was quite the adventure. They live out in the woods, and they've got 92 acres behind them, so it's a big place.  The new family that moved in painted it red so it looks like a creepy barn, and we're pretty sure they're vampires! They have this creepy zombie car with handprints on the windows and the words, " when hell is full, the dead shall walk the earth", bloody dummy heads, and even a hearse with skulls all over! Haha we met the lady though, and she was pretty nice! She could still be a vampire though, and Sis Call calls her Sister Munster hahah. She said we could come back later so we can investigate... I mean teach her (:

                 The Munster's!  Complete with a creepy house, zombie slayer car, and a hearse

We went over to Shira's the other day, and she taught us how to teach the apostasy and resto with cups! It's pretty sweet.  That's how her missionaries originally taught her. It's a bit awkward at first, but I'm excited to get good at it and really help people see how Christ's church has been restored! Have a blessed week, y'all!

Love, Sister Facer

                                                            Cups!  This is so legit!