My last email.......I'M COMING HOME

Hello from Virginia!! For the last time!!!

Holy Moly, what has happened to my mission? I feel like I really just left, but at the same time it has been forever....weirdest feeling. I am doing really, really good. I am EXCITED!!! I am sad at the same time. I will really miss this place and the memories that I have made here....one minute I am excited and the next I am really sad and crying. I have been kind of an emotional mess. My poor companion..haha. I am excited to be able to see Megan, Eric, Kaylee and Colton today! I have been given permission to have dinner with them tonight. I am sure they are so big since I saw them last. I can't believe they can talk now! It will be really fun!

I am glad mom and dad that you had fun with Ryan in California for Thanksgiving! I am super excited to see him and all of you at Christmas! Christmas will be sooo much fun!!! Our Thanksgiving was...so much food. We had 4 Thanksgiving dinners. I wanted to die by the end of the day and actually the next day I was pretty sick. It was rough! It was a really great day though. We had dinner with 2 less active families, and investigator and a member. So we got to see so many people that day! I am just warning you I have put on a few pounds here. I can't wait to work on that when I get home. It is really hard to be skinny and be a missionary! People feed you and feed you and feed you until you want to die! Haha!

So Sister Bennet is transfering out of this area too. Yeah, how crazy it that? So the other sister are taking on our area and theirs too! So we have been introducing them to our investigators and less actives and such these last few days. It has been insane these last few days! I am exhausted..haha, but at first I was a little nervous to have them take over, but I am excited and think it will be good for the people we work with to have a fresh start and fresh eyes on them. Sister Bennet and I are pretty sad though, but excited at the same time. This ward is sooo sad to be losing a set of sisters. They announced it yesterday over the pulpit and there was a gasp...haha, but it will be good for the ward and the other sisters will be very, very busy!!!!!:)

So weird that my MTC companions get home earlier than me. I think the other sister and I here in Virginia that were supposed to go to Brazil will be the last sisters to come home.

The Temple was sooo good! I loved going to the DC Temple. We met up with the Mission President at 8:45am and all the sisters drove up in a 15 passenger van with the President, which was sooo fun! I didn't realize how close I am to the temple...but that was fun! These last 7 1/2 months I have been so close but so far since it is outside my mission boundries. We went up and had a special meeting with the Temple President. That was really special. It was so cool to see all of the missionaries going home in the temple dressed in white. When they prayed they said a special prayer for the missionaries in the room that were going home. Also when we walked into the Celestial room President and Sister Wilson were standing there and gave us big hugs. It was soooo coool!:) I just cried and cried. Then we went and ate lunch in the visitor center and walked around the visitor center. It was really fun! Then we had our adventure in D.C. That was really fun.! President just drove and told us what everything was. It was really fun! Then of course we got to run and take a picture. It was just an all around good day! :) I loved it!!!

The Missionaries that are heading home in front of the DC Temple with President and Sister Wilson. There are a lot of missionaries heading home this transfer!

Another picture of the departing Missionaries with President and Sister Wilson in the Visitor Center.

Sister Romney and me. She was one of my first companions here in Virginia!

Sightseeing in DC

President Wilson had to park kind of crazy and told us to run up to the Lincoln Memorial to take a picture. People were like what is happening when a van full of missionaries ran up the steps:) So funny!

This week has been a week of hard work and having so much fun! I am really going to miss this place and miss being a missionary. It has been so good. I have changed and grown so much. I have finally become that person I think I have always wanted to be all along. My testimony started as a little seed of just Jesus Christ and now has grown into this huge testimony of all the important things in the gospel. I know that this Church is true and that the true gospel of Jesus Christ  is on the earth and it is right here in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know that the Book of Mormon  and the Bible are the words of God and will bring us so much closer to him if we take the time to really read and pray. I know that the simple things: praying, reading the scriptures and going to church really brings pure peace. I know that the Plan of Salvation is given to us so that we can have peace. I love teaching that to people and I am excited  to continue sharing it when I get home. I am forever a missionary and so excited to be! I am so grateful that the Lord prompted me to come on a mission because it has been the best 18 months of my life and the best 18 months FOR my life. I will be forever changed because of the changes that I have seen Christ make in the people I love and have worked with here. I love this gospel and I love Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father.

Thanks for letting me come. I know it is a had thing to let your daughter go for 18 months and you don't even really get to talk to her, but I am so grateful that you had the faith to do it. I love you both so much and can't wait to see you and give you big hugs! I can't wait also to tell you all about my adventures and funny stories!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!! SEE YOU ALL SOOO SOOOON!!!!

Sister Siepert :) 

Greetings from beautiful Virginia

Hello,

 It has been such a good week! even though I am still sick....yeah, coughing my lungs out. I hope it will end soon! I am sure it will:)

Well funny story to start my email this week. We were out tracting last Monday at like 6:30 pm and it was getting a little dark. We talked with this lady for about a half hour at her house. She was not interested, but told us all about her Jewish faith and it was very interesting. By the time we left it was pitch black out. As we were leaving she told us about her neighbors spotting wolves and a fox with rabies. That was very comforting since she lives at the end of a very long driveway and of course we walked all the way up to her house. So we stood there like 20 minutes taking a few steps then running back. Remember a couple weeks ago we were chased by coyotes. We tried to sing a Hymn and pray....yeah, we were just so scared, so we call the B family and asked them to tell us a funny story as we walked down this long winding driveway. We have Sister B on speaker phone and we get halfway down and just ran like crazy! So then of course Sister B meets us somewhere just to give us a hug. Haha, it was pretty funny...I just love the B's. I would love to come back and visit them someday after my mission! They are the greatest! Sister Bennet and I have been really good at embarrassing ourselves lately, but whatever!

We have such a great investigator named B. She is so golden and doing so good. We had two lessons with her this week. One of them we came in and she was like I need to show you a scripture I really love. (one of the scriptures we assigned for her to read). She pulled it out and explained all about how this was how she felt and how she knew that God was going to help her with her Word of Wisdom problems. So awesome! Then we also did a church tour with her. She has really bad anxiety, so leaving her house is hard for her. We ended the tour in the chapel. You could really see the calmness that she felt. Sad part of the story is that she didn't come to church :( Her anxiety just held her back. please pray for her. We want to see her tonight and adjust her baptism date.

Wednesday was Trunk or Treat! That was soooo fun! We had a really good turnout and someone that we had tracted into and invited the week came with her daughter! So cool! We didn't really expect that to happen, but it did and the members were so great and invited her to church. Soooo cool! Hopefully we can start teaching she and her family soon! I have a lot fun trunk or treat pictures to send soon.

Thursday was fun because we helped a less active set up a haunted house in their home. It was super creepy but super fun.  I will send pictures of that soon too! On Halloween we were on exchanges and we were able to stay out til 9.  We weren't allowed to tract after dark. We went and saw some less actives and did service for the family with the Haunted house. It was just a fun day! I am grateful for exchanges because I really learn a lot from Sister Taylor and we had a really fun time together. We will finish our missions together and it was fun to talk about that! It was just a good holiday for me.

Church was kind of crazy yesterday...we were walking to Gospel Principles a little late and one of the primary workers comes out really frantic and asked us to go help in nursery, so we did. It was really fun, but crazy....my heart goes out to the people who have that calling......haha, but the kids really loved us and they always love the missionaries, so that was fun.

Do you realize that yesterday was my last Fast Sunday as a missionary? Of course I bore my testimony because one of the recent converts asked me to push her wheel chair up to the stand....haha, but it was really cool. I just love bearing my testimony! I talked all about how much is possible because of Jesus Christ and about the power of repentance. I also talked about how many people in the world need the Gospel. We need to do Missionary work because people need the peace and joy that comes from the Gospel. It reminded me that we do missionary work not for numbers but we do it for the love of people. It is simple. We had dinner at a members home after church. Their parents were visiting and his dad happened to be a former Mission President in India and Nepal. I just love Mission Presidents! He knew the guy from the movie "Meet the Mormons" So Cool!

So this week I got a letter from the Mission Office telling me about my departure plans....so weird! It kind of freaked me out:) In the letter it told me that I get to go to the Temple on the 25th! I am so excited! I will be sending a box home soon. Watch for it next week!

Well I love you so much! It has been a good week and I know that the weeks to follow will be just as great! :) I plan on working hard everyday until I come home! It is coming fast but I will put my head down and finish strong:)

LOVE YOU,
-Sister Siepert :)

Fall is here!

***Note from Katie's mom- So sorry I am way behind. I have decided to let Katie catch up what I missed when she gets home December 3rd****

Hellooooo!

I got an email from Ty and he sounds so happy!! That makes me so happy that he is happy! I am so proud that he is a District Leader. That is so cool! What I really can't believe is that he leaves for Canada tomorrow! Good for him!

This week has been good. Lots of finding and searching for those who are ready to receive the gospel. It has been tough with not finding people after we have tried so hard. We have been tracting more than I have my whole mission. I am actually starting to get good at it. I have finally realized that if we are happy and nice and invite and people reject us, that is okay because I know that I was doing what I am supposed to do.

We did have a cool experience with a less active 11 year old girl this week though. She had told us a while ago that she had a friend that she wanted us to go meet and that she wanted to introduce us. we have been trying for like a month to get that all worked out so that we could go,  well on Friday we went by and she actually could go, so we walked to her friends house and met her mom. We set an appointment to go back this Friday, so hopefully it all works out! But when we were walking back to her house a man was outside and we went and talked to him for a bit, he wasn't interested, but he told us to go see some people and so we did. They weren't interested, but D really enjoyed it and she was telling us to go to this and that house and such. We tracted with her and she loved it! She came to church this last Sunday (YAY!) and came up to us and asked us when we could go see some more of her neighbors. It was sooo cool! We are going with her again later this week! So despite the fact that we didn't get to teach anyone it was still really cool for her to experience! :)

We had a Sisters meeting this week and that was really fun to go down to Richmond. The theme of the meeting was the Young Women's Theme and we had classes on all the Values. I loved it! The only weird thing was that I am one of the older Sisters now. All the Sisters that I have been so close with are going home or are home now. It was so odd....but I loved the meeting!

We had dinner with a family this week that had a son just get back from his mission to Brazil. It was really fun to talk to him about Brazil since that is were I was originally assigned. I hope I can go there someday to check it out myself. It is so awkward to talk to returned missionaries of the opposite sex. I guess I better get used to it soon I will have to do it all the time. He is really great and wants to help us out. We are grateful for his help.

We met with a less active and his wife this week. They raise show cats. The cat shows are just like Dog shows. Who knew there was such a thing. If you know me very well, you know how much I loved this! He is also a Ballroom dancer and is really good. So that was so fun for me. We got to share a message with them. The spirit was so strong. We know they felt it but didn't say anything. I guess all I can say is it made us sad that they didn't say anything but we know they felt it.

It is starting to cool down now and that is really nice! I love fall here in the east! I am also really excited for the mosquitoes to go away.....I have so many bites and they itch like crazy! my legs look like a mess with welts all over them....haha

This week I have been really reflecting on my mission and all that has happened. I got a little discouraged. I haven't had as much success as I have prayed for and worked for. I haven't seen as much success bringing less actives back as I would like. It is really hard to watch missionaries having tons of baptisms and going to the Temple with less actives. One day I just kind of cried to my companion about it and then I realized that the Lord created my mission just the way that I needed to learn. He knew that I would have the trials I have had on my mission and he created those specially for me to learn and to grow. It has been a tough 15 or so months, but I am grateful that I had to go through them because as I did I became to really know my Savior and to really understand the power of the Atonement. He has never left my side and is always going to be there no matter how hard or dark the situation. He has knocked on every door with me. He has felt the pains of anxiety with me. He has felt the pains and darkness of depression with me. He knows how it is to work so hard all day and have nothing to show for it except my dirty shoes and my worn out body. He knows! As I get closer to the end I am sad to leave and sad to take my name tag off, but I am also so proud to say that I have really tried my best and I have really changed. I have grown a testimony. I have really become a disciple of Christ.

I am happy to be here! I love the people in Virginia! I feel the time to come home is coming soon and I am excited about that too, because seriously I am exhausted! I am determined to endure and work hard to the end! I love you all and thank you so much for being great examples in my life!

Have a great week!

I love you,
-Sister Siepert :)

My amazing Companion Sister Bennett

My Trainer Sister Nelson just before she went home! I love her so much!

These are the crazy girls I live with! One of them just transfered:( 

Transfer week!

Hello,

Mom thanks for sharing my story in Young Women's on Sunday about the lady last week that invited us in and yelled at us and our reaction. It is so funny how moments like those just are forgotten and the really good stuff are remembered. Heavenly Father is cool like that. Can you believe next week I hit my 14 month mark. Crazy how fast time is flying!

Oh, by the way I a STAYING in the Woodbridge Ward! I am so happy to stay here for another six weeks! I will be here until Ty leaves on his Mission. Do you realize that is really only a transfer away for him!? All four of us are staying and we are happy about that. I love the Sisters in our house, so it will be fun and crazy to have us all stay! :)

This week has not been all that exciting. We are just working on keeping the people that we are working with excited about the gospel. The R family are doing so great! We had a lesson with them on faith and they loved that. Their 17 year old went to mutual this week where they had a whip cream fight and she had a lot of fun. We got to be there and introduce her to lots of people. I think she really likes the youth programs of the church. We had a lesson with them on Wednesday.  Then they went to the Ward Swimming Party! That was really fun! We went for a little bit because I mean it is kind of awkward for us to go to a swimming party. To top off a great week with them two of the kids went to church on Sunday! They read the Book of Mormon this week too! They are progressing and August 30th is getting closer and closer! I really, really pray that I get to be apart of their Baptism! It is so cool when you have investigators, they like become a part of you. I mean I just love them so much that when they are alone at an activity or something it makes me soooo sad. They are almost like my children…..weird as that sound, but I just love them so much and I know that this gospel will bless them and their family. :)

One sad thing happened this week J said he doesn't want to meet with us anymore:( I think the talk last week kind of freaked him out. I literally wanted to cry when I heard that, but we just know he will come around. Maybe it was something he needed to hear? Who knows, but God. There is a plan and a purpose we met him and maybe soon he will come around. We don't really have any other really solid investigators in the works right now….we are in the process of finding them.

We have an appointment tonight with a cute young family. We met them a couple of weeks ago. We invited them to the ward swimming party and the were like "yeah, we were invited already!" So come to find out they are friends with someone in our ward! They came to the party! They also live across the street from a less active family we are working with currently. So crazy huh? We are so excited to meet with them. They also have triplets girls. They are so cute. We are praying that it goes well and the spirit is there. Also the less active across the street from them that came to church on Sunday! They even stayed all 3 hours! Their kids hate us because we talk about God and stuff and act like they aren't interested at all. They however are going though lots of hard stuff. Their parents are divorced and their mom is currently not living the gospel standards at all. They get a lot of mixed messages, but their step mom really wants them to have the gospel in their lives. That way they can choose what they believe in. She is also talking about going to the Temple, so I hope she does and I hope she invites us so we can go through with her. :) We only get to go when people we are working with go through for the first time since it is out of our mission. We will see what happens there.

 Miracles are happening all over the place. We are trying our best to be obedient and to do the Lords work the way He wants it to be done and it is working out here. People are popping up and we are teaching more with the spirit. I have learned so much from Sister Bennett. She is a bomb missionary! She just works until she can't work anymore. She is helping to push me beyond what I thought was possible. We are doing so good together and I m trying my best to make it fun along the way! I make the fun and she makes us go-go-go, haha. I feel so blessed that we are staying together another transfer! I will learn soooo much more!

Love you so much! Thanks for all the prayers I can really feel them and I really have needed them! :)

-Sister Siepert

Well I think I am going to cut off my long hair this week. I wasn't going to cut it while I was on my Mission, but the heat and humidity is killing me! I may have a new look next week! We will see! :)

 Nothing like a BBQ in the summer!

 Pineapple party at night!

 Sister Bennett walking a bunny! Haha

My District!

Sometimes things get CRAZY!!!!!

This week was much better. It is kind of funny Sister Bennet and I tag team having hard days. We laugh we really should schedule our hard days on the same day. We are working on that! We just get along so well. I really love her! We seem to teach really well together too which is so nice. I have learned so much from her and I hope she has learned something from me. We try to laugh a lot and enjoy the ride!

This week has been quite hilarious. We ran into this crazy lady who so kindly let us in and then proceeded to tell us "everything that we be believe because she knows about our religion." She had so many things wrong and when we said that it was wrong she wouldn't believe us. It was crazy, we just sat there and took it because we were trying really hard to be Christ-like. It was quite hilarious. I don't understand people who say that they are Christian and they follow the Bible and invite us in to YELL at us. I just don't understand those people, how is that Christ-like at all: Whatever, haha.

We found a really awesome guy before her who had met with missionaries in the past but was going through really rough divorce and had to move out and lost all contact with the missionaries. It was really cool to talk to him about God and how much he loves us and he wants us to come back, so we are excited about him. We also taught the R Family this week and it was great as always! We taught the Plan of Salvation and they really seemed to enjoy it. We also sang, "Families can be together forever" and the mom started to cry. It was cool she said her husband asked, "why do they keep coming over?" and she told us that she just feels good when we come over and that she really enjoys the time we spend together. That was sweet time, we got to testify of the spirit and how it bears witness in our hearts what is true and what is good. She liked that! The kids came to church yesterday too!!! The mom had to work:(, but the 4 kids came to church. I even gave one of the daughters a skirt of mine to wear and to have. So, we get to church and we are excited to have them there and their fellowshipper is being awesome and introducing them to everyone. We are really exited, right? Come to find out it is Ward Conference and we are like okay, well that is fine. The Stake President gets up and what is his topic?……of course it was a super bold talk on chastity…..Sister Bennet and I were sweating and so nervous the whole time. In the end the kids were fine. The kids in the ward were great and just took them under their wings. It was a good day!

We also had a really funny experience this week while we were in a trailer park seeing someone. This hispanic man was yelling at us and was asking us if we had a lawn mower. We talked to him and said no we didn't have a lawn mower. He asked us where we were from. I told him I was from Oregon and he got really excited and was like, "LET'S CELEBRATE!" Then he proceeds to jump out of his car and hugs me. We ended up getting his information for the spanish missionaries. Whenever we would say something he liked he would always say "LET'S CELEBRATE" and proceed to hug us.  He was hilarious! I love the Hispanic people.

We helped a less active with a garage sale, it made me never want to have one ever again…..so much work! I was exhausted from that, but I did get a free guitar for helping. Cool, huh? It has been a good week, with hilarious things mixed in because Heavenly Father loves me! I loved the Otter Pops from home. Who knew amazon delivers otter pops! Thank you for all the mail this week!! It really helped after the hard week I had last week!

I love you all lots! Thanks for believing in me!!!

-Sister Siepert

My free guitar

P-day's are fun!

The sisters that live with me! Minus Sister Bennet:(

Helped make this at Pappy and Sue's woodshop! I love it!

Some weeks are harder than others:) 7/14/14

This has been a good week. To be honest it has felt like it was a year long! I don't know why but this has been an emotional week.  I don't even remember everything that happened. Even through it all I know some good stuff happened.

The family we met with last week are doing so good. We showed the restoration movie this week to the mother and her oldest son. They were the only ones home. She said she loved the faith that Joseph Smith had. They are excited to get toward their baptism date, yes I said BATISMAL DATE and it is August 30th right now. That is just the mom and son, but we plan on putting the rest on date by the end of this week! Yay! It was a really cool experience. I just love the family! They want to come to church too, but the mom works every Sunday, so that might be hard, but we are praying really hard that she will be able to get off work and come! I also am so very blessed that we have other sisters living with us because Sister Bennett didn't feel good, but we just went on splits and one of the other sisters came with me. We also met with our other investigator K and we taught the Plan of Salvation. She loved it and that me me really happy because you never know what yoga re going to get with that one. People either love it or they hate it…but she loved it! She thought it brought her so much hope in knowing that God loves her and would want the best for her! So that was cool, but last night we over and she didn't seem as excited, so hopefully she will make her baptismal date August 9th….we are praying really hard for her to quit smoking and stuff, so that would be nice if you could pray with us. August looks to be an exciting month! YAY!

Hopefully next week will be easier…I am sure it will. I guess everyone those kind of weeks from time to time!

I love you all,

-Sister Siepert

Happy 4th of July and Hitting my 13th Month! 7/7/14

This week, This week, THIS WEEK! This week has probably been the best week in Bristow in a long time! So many miracles happened this week!!! I don't know if I mentioned in my last letter that I was focusing on "perfect love castieth out fear" this week? I am and it has really helped. I also think that you and the families prayers on us finding new people really helped too! Monday night after we had dinner with a member we went to see a less active/part member family. What we didn't know is that it would take us all the way to the other side of our area. We knocked on their door and they weren't home. So we decide that we would look throughout he potentials in our area book and go see some of them. Well, this first one wasn't interested, so we went on to the next one. The next one was a family, the R family. They were a big family! We talked to the dad for a bit then talked to their mom for a bit and she said that we could come back and tech their family about Jesus Christ. We were pumped! so, on Wednesday one of the Sister Training leaders and I went to go see them (we were on exchanges). I was sooo nervous for some reason and I don't know why…but we went and had probably the most powerful lesson I have ever had on my mission. It was really good. They accepted to be baptized if they prayed and it was true and then as we left the daughter prayed that "we are excited to learn more and thank you for sending these girls to us." What a miracle! We plan on seeing them this Wednesday too! :) Then we also had another miracle on Saturday night. So, like 8:30 is always an awkward time to be out because like it is late-ish and some people get really mad when you knock on the door, but thank goodness it is summer. Well, we went to see a less active. His son (a former investigator) and his friend K were there. He let us right in and we talked for a bit. K then just broke down about how her day had been really bad and she felt that we were sent to her from God. It was awesome! We taught the restoration and promised her blessings. We are teaching her this Saturday. Look at both of those huge miracles!!! PERFECT LOVE CASTIETH OUT FEAR1 :) It has been really good week and things are really starting to happen in our area. On the 4th of July we were in a parade and that was a huge success. Our whole district came and members came too! They were handing out cards like crazy!!!! We handed out all of our cards before we were even at the end of the parade route! It was awesome to see all of the members being brave and handing out cards. It was really fun also and that day was a really good day to see people. I did get really sun burned…..Mom, I put sunscreen on but forgot my neck and the back of my neck, but don't worry. It's going away.

Well I love you a lot and I love all your prayers in my behalf. Things have really started to happen! I am scared though that I will get transferred right when things get really good….but we will see! Transfers are coming up….crazy, huh?

-Sister Siepert

The Parade Banner!

Another Banner Shot!

The Parade!

Look at those missionaries go in the 4th of July Parade!

Can you find me?

Ok this is a really awkward picture of me! You know me Awkkkkwardddd!

Sister Bennet! 

The Sister on the left is Sister Bunnell my old companion!

My house mates!

This is how Sister Missionaries celebrate the 4th!

We didn't see fireworks but we did have glow sticks!

Evidence of the sunburn! Oops!

Transfers 6/23/14

So this week has been really great!

Monday: My companion literally packed all day…haha, she has so much stuff. I am not sure how she fit it all., but she did. I think the Lord blesses missionaries with hat because that happened to me too!! haha, she was sad, but mostly excited to start somewhere fresh.

Tuesday: Sister Taylor and I dropped off Sister Webber and Sister Christensen in the morning at the church and then they went down to transfer meeting in Richmond together. We don't all go, just the people who are being transferred and if you live close  then you can go. But, it was a really fun day because Sister Taylor and I got to be companions for the day! It was wayyyyy fun because I just love her a lot! I just put something interesting together the other day: Sister Taylor and my sister Megan are the same age……hahaha, how crazy is that? I love her so much, she is hilarious. So that day we did a ton, A TON, of cleaning because our house really needed it! We didn't want our new companions to come into a dirty house. Then at 5 that night we went and picked up our new companions. My new companion is Sister Bennet and she us from…..guess…..Utah! Surprise! She is so sweet and actually came out with me, but is a transfer behind me because I was in the MTC learning Portuguese for 6 weeks. So that's kind of cool!

Wednesday: We just went around and met people and stuff. Nothing to exciting:)

Thursday: We did a ton of cleaning out our area book because it was a mess…but we got it all cleaned out Hallelujah!!! We also contacted a lot of referrals from our blitz that we had a week ago. Nothing really came from it….but we did meet an older woman named Mary that is sweet!  She can't meet for 2 weeks because she has family coming to town.

Friday: We didn't have to much going on this day other  than we met with a lady named Christina who had been really hard to connect with. She is super busy. We had a great conversation with her. She asked us why we believed in our church and stuff and said she would read the Book of Mormon! I tell you Sister Bennet is a miracle! Christina loved her and loved everything she had to say! It was really cool!

Saturday: we went and helped Pappy and Sue in their wood shop and that was really fun as always. They asked what they would have to be members. They are former investigators. We then had a member go with us to meet with another investigator. We got there and there was a sign on her door. it wait "sorry I can't meet with you anymore, but you are both so sweet." Then she left us a bag of presents. She put some cool Virginia souvenirs and wrote both of us a little note. Then she enclosed $50 dollars. $50 Dollars! Who does that? That was the nicest drop we have ever had:) We tried and tried to meet up with her to return the money. Come to find out she moved, so we could give it back. The member that went with us felt really bad. She took us to Chpolte for lunch. Then that night we had Stake Conference and guess who spoke? Sister Bunnell the missionary I trained. She did great:)

Sunday: It was Stake Conference, it was great and crazy! I love this Stake because it is so diverse! There are Africans, Hispanics and basically every ethnicity. It is so cool! I love this Stake! We had a Young Woman come out with us that night and it was a really good day!

This week was good and the new Sister have brought a fresh, new spirit into the house. We are really starting to work hard, which is so great! I am so happy with transfers and I am so happy with the area! I love you guys  a lot! Have a great week!

-Sister Siepert

Sister Bennet and Sister Siepert

Happy Fathers Day! 6/16/14

This is Katie's mom. Sorry I am about a month behind. I will try to catch up…….

I have had quite a week to tell you about. Full of funny stories and MIRACLES! Yay! It has been really good week! :)

Monday: We came and emailed and did all the things we have to do and then a person we are working with took us to this sweet SWEET grocery store. It is the biggest store I have ever seen! I literally could live there and be happy forever. It is called Wegmans and has like a food court in it and stuff. On fridays they play movies upstairs so that parents can shop and the kids can watch a movie….yeah, that is how awesome it is. Then we had dinner with the C family and that is always fun. We didn't do much that night, I think we mowed the lawn and almost died because of the humidity. It his horrible:)

Tuesday: We had district meeting and it was pretty good as always. Then we went out to eat at he best pizza place with the other Bristow sisters. Then we went and helped a lady clean her house because there was going to be a reception at her house that weekend. We then went over to Sister B house. She recently went to the temple because. She recently has been having some heart pain and we wanted to make sure she was ok. I love her so much! Every time we ask who she wants to say the prayer she says, "who is the smartest?" haha, but she is feeling better and hopefully will be at church next week! :)

Wednesday: SISTER MEETING! It was the Best! Some members from our stake took their huge van and all the sisters in our district down to Richmond. We had it at the church that I used to attend!!! It felt so good to be back and I got to see all of my old companions and such! It was a good meeting too! It was all about spiritual gifts and I learned a lot! It was so great to see President and Sister Wilson. :) It was an all around good day! I didn't realize how far I am from Richmond. It was like a 2 hour drive from here. It was pretty much our whole day. It was just a fun and good day!

Thursday: The grossest and funniest thing happened to me. Well, we went out after lunch to see a returning member. She lives in this trailer park and we like to call it "little Mexico" because she is like the only American in there. The Hermanas and Spanish Elders call it golden, holy land. Haha, but she lives in this trailer that has some steepish steps to get to her door and there is really only room for one person on the porch. Sister Christensen was up there and I was standing a few steps below. Well, the door opens and her 6 month old Rotweiler comes out to greet us. He is a really nice dog and not mean, but he is a puppy and gets really excited….really excited. You know what excited dogs do, right?!?! They Pee! So he peed right next to Sister Christensen's foot and then his lovely tail gets in the pee and soaks it up and when he turns to leave the tail went straight across my face. ACROSS MY FACE! So, I was freaking out in my head because I have dog pee on my face. It is literally dripping down my face, but I try not to make a big deal about it because I am a Missionary. But the minute we left I started freaking out and we had to go home so we could shower and wash out clothes. It was sooo gross and hilarious. That is basically how the whole day went….

Friday: It was kind of a rough day….I wasn't feeling very well. It is great having other sisters to be around on days like these.

Saturday: We did a big blitz in our area because we needed help finding new people to teach! HUGE SUCCESS! We have a ton of potentials to visit this week! :) We also got to teach a lesson! This sister that the Elders found told us to come back and so we did. She fed us lunch and let us teach her. It was so good and she was so nice!:) It was a miracle! :) Oh, and then we got transfer calls and I am staying but Sister Christensen is leaving:( Sad!

Sunday: We had our regular meetings and such. We spent the rest of the day visiting people so Sister Christensen could say goodbye.

It was a good week! :) We really needed that week! This work is really hard here. Sad to see my companion leave but excited to have a new companion. Thanks for all the prayers and such! I love you all so much and I feel so blessed to have so many people cheering me on! :)

Have a good week! LOVE YOU! :)
-Sister Siepert

Goodbye Sister Christensen:(

Sister Weber who is in the middle also got transferred. She lives in our house! I will miss her too!

Sister Christensen saying goodbye to everyone!

A bomb-tastic Sister P-day!

Dear Family and Friends,

I have to say I thought about home a lot this last week, with Ty graduating from High School. I can't believe my little brother is all graduated and stuff! He is old...haha. But I am so happy and excited for him to get to the next step of college and a mission. Both are so great! :) I loved seeing the pictures and I am super jealous that Ryan got to go. I felt bad because no one was going to be there, but I am glad Ryan and Grandma and Grandpa Siepert came! I have to admit I cried a few tears yesterday knowing that all this was going on at home and I wasn't there. I soon realized that it was all okay and just felt close to you guys because God is so good and he loves me. But Congrats Ty!

We had a pretty good week!

Monday: We went and had a sisters P-day and that was bomb-tastic! We went to a national park and played in the sand and walked across a dock that is half in Virginia and half in Maryland. Pretty Cool! It was also so fun to be with all the sisters because they are the best! :) So, that day was Great!

Look how happy I am!

I love it here!

Look I am in Maryland! The dock is half in Virginia and Half in Maryland:)

Sister P-day

 

Sister Bunnell and Me:) 

Sister Missionaries are the best!

Tuesday: We got to help a recent convert paint her bedroom so that she can move. It was really fun because all 4 of us sisters got to go and painting is fun, also exhausting, but mostly fun! We also got free lunch out of it and that is always great! Then we had a lesson with our investigator H and guess what!? She is on date for baptism! She is so awesome and really wants to be baptized for the right reasons, to be closer to God and to promise God all those wonderful things that we promise when we are baptized. It is great! Her date is kind of far....November 15th. But that is due to her father and she is going to Sweden for a million years this summer, but she will make it! :) It will be awesome to end my mission with this! :)

Wednesday: We had a district meeting and we were supposed to go on exchanges with the Sister Training leaders. One of them was supposed to come here with me and Sister Christensen was supposed to go with one of them to their area, but I wasn't feeling very well so we had to change things up a bit. We taught someone that night in their house and it was sooooooooooooooo hot, SOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOT! I almost seriously passed out and then when we got out of the lesson there was one of the classic Virginia down pours and so we had to run in that back to our car. Lots of fun, eh? Haha, but it was good:)

Thursday: MY YEAR MARK!!!!! That was an exciting day and also a really weird day.....I just could not believe that I was out a year. That just seems crazy to me! The Eng's were home this week and because Sister Eng is AMAZING she got us Cafe Rio! Yes I said Cafe Rio! We have it here, but it is right outside of our mission.....so members of the ward offer to get it for us and I had it! It was a nice treat!

I Love Cafe Rio!

Sister Christensen Loves it too!

Friday: I don't really remember much from this day...haha, I assume it was good:) That was the night that I got to burn a shirt for my One year mark! It was really fun because I got to do it at one of my favorite members house! The Hafleys! They take super good care of us and sometimes we make up excuses to go over and see them because we just love them so much! It was fun though and we got to make s'mores! It was a really fun night!

Saturday: This was a crazy day. Well, we found out in the morning that the Sisters said that we would sing the next day. So, I had the music for "come unto Christ" because I wanted to learn how to play it on the piano. We practiced it for like an hour and then sang it with the piano 4 times. It was really fun  to practice singing again and we all had solos. Sister Weber and I had more solo parts because we felt more comfortable singing alone. You would be so amazed how comfortable I now am singing solo's in front of people.  We had a lesson that night That Sister Chrisensen found on exchanges. It felt so good to teach again. Except this man was not interested in hearing anything we had to say. Those Catholics get you every time. Haha, He was so nice and I was super proud of myself because I just basically told him what our purpose was, and we did not want to bible bash. I just flat out asked him to get baptized, which he declined and then he invited me to be baptized into the Catholic Sacred Heart Church which I kindly declined. He was really nice, but didn't turn into a new investigator, which means we are still looking. 

Sunday: Well we sang in church. That was fun!  We found out that one of our investigators mom is having a really rough pregnancy. There is a really big chance that the baby or her mother won't make it through the delivery. It is really a hard time for her and our investigator is only 13. Please keep her family in your prayers. People have hard lives. That is one thing I have learned on my mission is that I have nothing to complain about. Other people have far worse problems than I do. Oh Sister B was sealed to her deceased husband and her deceased twins. That was so cool! It was a pleasure to help her prepare their names for their temple work. Kind of inspired me to want to do family history work! ...I know, weird right? But we are really happy and excited for her! :) Good week, right?! I have nothing to complain about!

Love you! Have a great week! :)

-Sister Siepert :)

ONE YEAR!! YEAH!!

This is Katie's mom- Sorry I have gotten behind on her blog and will now attempt to catch up:)

ONE YEAR!!

The Sister's I live with are the best!!

One Year!

Did I tell you One Year?

OOPS I MESSED UP THIS IS A PICTURE FROM NEXT WEEK:) KATIE LEFT THIS TO ME HER MOM AND I MESSED UP:) HAHA

Keeping the tradition! Burning a shirt for the one year mark!

Burning a shirt and a smore:) Can't ask for anything more wonderful:)

Can you believe it has already been one year? When in the world did that happen!?!? I am still in shock. I bore my testimony yesterday and I talked about how I had no idea what I was getting myself into...haha. But that I was so grateful to be a missionary and it's true! I had no idea that my mission would be the way it is! I had no idea I would be re-assigned forever and that I would meet the wonderful people that I have on my mission, but when I look back, my mission has been even greater than I could ever imagine. I mean I have had some of the craziest weirdest, trials, but I have also learned so much from them and I think that a mission was the only place I could really understand what I needed to learn. I still look down at my badge and think, What the heck? I am a missionary? I am that primary kid that sang "I hope they call me on a mission" and never really thought I would be a missionary. Now I am one of those missionaries. Did you ever think that I would be a missionary? I sure didn't......look at me now:) I have been gone from home for a year... I haven't died yet! That's a good sign right? I may have gained a few pounds but I am still here!

Let me tell you about my week. I got sick and we had a sick day. It was kind of an uneventful week.  There is this virus going around that feels like strep throat, but without the fever and it's the devil.! It lasts like for five day, but I am officially almost over it, so that is good. One day it was so bad,  I literally slept all day. Three of the four sisters that live in our house were sick. We probably looked like we were playing hooky, but I promise we were sick. I guess the one bright thing is that we were all sick together.

With the sickness and stuff we only had one lesson this week. How lame is that? I really miss teaching more....but we will find more and get down to business. We taught H this week and we accidentally brought 2 youth with us. It was good but we decided that it was probably to many people and H seemed a little intimidated by so many people there. It was cool to have them there to explain things and answer her questions. They basically taught the lesson. In the long run it ended up being a good lesson. Then we helped Sister B with her family history, by the way it is a lot HARDER then it looks to do family history, but the church is so helpful. There is a lady in our ward that helped us out a bit, so that was good! We got her two deceased twins into the program and their information and then her husbands work is all done, se we set an appointment for the 4th (Wednesday) and she is being sealed to them! We wish we could be there, but we can only go with the converts when they go for endowments....lame! But when we went by yesterday to tell her the time and such, she almost started to cry. She was so happy and was like, I feel like I am getting married again, but to the same man. She was so happy:) It was a cool process to be apart of! :) Then Friday we had a zone meeting and our zone is soooo much bigger than my other zones and we have like 6 sets of sisters and it seems like we have 8 or 9 sets of elders. But President Wilson started this new thing where we have to prepare a spiritual thought for each meeting and, of course I forgot and then of course I get called on to do one. Oh, and I am going first! I prayed really hard and I was able to pull something out of the air and it was not all that bad, I think! So that was good and I will always be prepared from now on...haha, this week has been really good. The house has been great and I love all the sisters. I have felt like this week I have been trying to lead by example in the house by working hard. I have been out the longest and try to motivate and uplift the sisters I live with. I absolutely love the companionships in our house and will be sad if we get split up at transfers. It is so wonderful to help the other sisters  through this whole mission thing. We all get along so well and it is so good to be there for each other when we need each other.

So, yeah! That was my week! It was different and good! I still can't believe I have reached my one year mark. It kind of freaks me out talking to the recent High school graduates. Some of them talk about going to BYU-Idaho next winter. I realized I will be there too! How weird it that? I was thinking when I get home from my mission I just want to sleep. I am tired, so tired. I sometimes fall asleep during lunch, I don't mean to, but it happens sometimes. I am trying so hard to work hard  and be an example. I have faced a lot of fears on my mission and it has made me grow! Hey, remember when I hated talking to people? I love it now! I love talking to the kids the most though....so I am still working on the adult part. I love when the little girls come up to me in church and hug me and invite me over. There is a recent convert family that have not let the sisters in for a while and we went over last week and I played with the little girl and she LOVES me. So, she keeps inviting me over which is really cool! The way to the parents hearts is through their kids:) I guess that is how Christ did it, right? Well anyways, I love my mission and I am trying to work hard to the end. Hope you have a great weekend! It will be a busy one for sure with ty's graduation. please send me lots of pictures and know I will be there in my heart! :) Love you all soooo much! :)

Love,
Sister 1 year old Siepert

BIG NEWS!!!

HELLO!    IT'S ME!    THE OFFICIAL VIRGINIA RICHMOND MISSIONARY!!!

Let me tell you, I am SO relieved to finally know my final missionary destination. I will be here in Virginia until December and that feels so good! December 2nd to be exact (Mom insert).  Let me tell you about the craziness of the week….well, it started off on Wednesday by getting a call from the mission office telling me that I had to do the FBI clearance over again. I had just done a FBI clearance in January and it took 12 weeks to get it back (if I had to wait that long again that would leave me only three months left on my mission and they still needed to apply for the visa). Well I guess that it is now expired and needed to be done again. Craziness! I felt bad for the lady from the mission office that called because I immediate burst into tears. She was really trying to help me feel better. Haha so it was a really rough day! I ended up getting a blessing that night from one of my favorite members, Brother H. It was a really good blessing that gave me peace. In the blessing I was told to pray more and listen more to what Heavenly Father was saying. So I did, and basically Heavenly Father and I had this conversation about how I didn't want to be the one who made the decision to stay because I really was scared to let someone down. Like if I went and really there were people here waiting for me or vice versa. How sad would that be? So I told Heavenly Father that I really didn't want to make that decision. I felt really impressed to just keep moving forward and so I did. Then Friday afternoon we get a call from President Wilson and he is the sweetest man and the first thing he says is, "Sister Siepert, what is in your heart?" So I just poured my heart to President about how hard this process has been and how I was not sure what to do and then we made the decision together to just let me stay. :) I was so happy the rest of the day! I think I made the right decision. I mean, Brazil will always have a special part in my heart, but I am happy to stay. Maybe Brazil will be in my near future? I guess, all I know is that everything happens for a reason. I am so happy to not do language study anymore! So, I might send all my language stuff home. That was pretty much the highlight of my whole week! :)

This week has been a pretty good week as a whole. We had some pretty spiritual moments and some hilarious moments. One of the best moments of the week though was a lesson we had with H. She is 15 and wants to be baptized so bad. Her father wants her to take the Catholic Confirmation classes before she gets baptized. So hard for her but understandable from her fathers standpoint. We have literally taught her everything and like any normal 15 year old gets distracted real REAL easily! School, boys, drama….haha, but we decided to read Enos with her. We learned something at Zone Conference on Tuesday it was to read a scripture and ask the investigator to tell you what stands out to them or what they like and that is when the spirit can teach them. That is what we did and it worked! She went off on faith and how important it is in life and how she feels sad for people who can't have faith. It was so cool. She was really taught by the spirit and she did't get distracted!

We also saw a lady that just went through the temple and is getting ready to go through and be sealed to her husband and twins who died. She is so funny and is hard to understand. When you first meet her you think she may be a little handicapped, but she is really just a little older and a little slow:). Be we came to her door and knocked and waited because it usually takes her a while to get to the door and she opens it and the first words that come out of her mouth are "she tied me up". The dog she had been dog sitting had wrapper her up in his leash. So we laughed and tried to untie her. It took a while because the dog is CRAZY, be we got her free. She then proceeded to tell us that we were a miracle and that she would have been stuck for hours if we didn't come…haha, that was fun!

This week was fun and it was so nice to have the Eng's at home. Felt like we had a family again! :) And having the dogs around was a lot of fun! I think I am turning into a dog person and not a cat person anymore…..Virginia is changing me….haha. I asked about my Aunt and Uncle coming and going to lunch or dinner (they only live like 20 miles from me) his first response was "no." Then he laughed and said of course, but please have them call me before they come. So they can!! They just have to call President Wilson first! I love my Mission President, he is the man! I also realized that since I am staying I get to go home with Sister Romney! How cool is that? :) So happy about that!

Keep me in your prayers and that we can find some new investigators! :)
Love you all!!!
Have a good week! :)
-Sister Siepert :)

Loved having the dogs around for the weekend:)

I am becoming a dog person here in Virginia:)

Our investigator Hannah:)

We made this for Hannah :) 

A little girl did my hair this week:) What do you think? I never thought of using stickers to decorate my hair:)