tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11023576254217991512023-11-15T22:39:20.235-08:00My Journey: Virginia Richmond MissionI am serving the Lord for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Follow me on this Journey if you would like! :)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.comBlogger64125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-71776386239099574172014-12-01T10:14:00.000-08:002014-12-01T10:14:08.946-08:00My last email.......I'M COMING HOMEHello from Virginia!! For the last time!!!<br />
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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!<br />
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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!<br />
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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!!!!!:)<br />
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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.<br />
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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!!!<br />
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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!</div>
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Another picture of the departing Missionaries with President and Sister Wilson in the Visitor Center.</div>
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Sister Romney and me. She was one of my first companions here in Virginia!</div>
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Sightseeing in DC</div>
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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!</div>
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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.</div>
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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!</div>
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I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!! SEE YOU ALL SOOO SOOOON!!!!</div>
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Sister Siepert :) </div>
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<span id="goog_1121580080"></span><span id="goog_1121580081"></span><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-37183513164709289872014-11-03T16:25:00.001-08:002014-11-03T16:25:35.105-08:00Greetings from beautiful Virginia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hello,<br />
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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:)<br />
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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!<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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!<br />
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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!<br />
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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:)<br />
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LOVE YOU,<br />
-Sister Siepert :)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-10988990852533754872014-09-22T17:53:00.001-07:002014-09-22T22:34:00.924-07:00Fall 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****<br />
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Hellooooo!<br />
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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!<br />
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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.<br />
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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! :)<br />
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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!<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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<br />
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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 fel<span style="text-align: center;">t 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.</span><br />
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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!<br />
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Have a great week!<br />
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I love you,<br />
-Sister Siepert :)<br />
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My amazing Companion Sister Bennett</div>
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My Trainer Sister Nelson just before she went home! I love her so much!</div>
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These are the crazy girls I live with! One of them just transfered:( </div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-89215804626032134842014-07-29T09:55:00.002-07:002014-07-29T09:55:42.203-07:00Transfer week!Hello,<br />
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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!<br />
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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! :)<br />
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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. :)<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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!<br />
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Love you so much! Thanks for all the prayers I can really feel them and I really have needed them! :)<br />
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-Sister Siepert<br />
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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! :)<br />
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Nothing like a BBQ in the summer!</div>
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Pineapple party at night!</div>
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Sister Bennett walking a bunny! Haha</div>
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My District!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-83728926490258756472014-07-22T16:15:00.000-07:002014-07-25T10:53:33.353-07:00Sometimes 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!<br />
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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.<br />
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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!<br />
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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. <br />
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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!<br />
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I love you all lots! Thanks for believing in me!!!<br />
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-Sister Siepert<br />
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My free guitar</div>
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P-day's are fun!</div>
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The sisters that live with me! Minus Sister Bennet:(</div>
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Helped make this at Pappy and Sue's woodshop! I love it!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-30186366314610772192014-07-22T15:45:00.002-07:002014-07-25T10:54:34.490-07:00Some weeks are harder than others:) 7/14/14This 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.<br />
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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!<br />
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Hopefully next week will be easier…I am sure it will. I guess everyone those kind of weeks from time to time!<br />
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I love you all,<br />
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-Sister SiepertAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-40177504774709810952014-07-22T15:27:00.003-07:002014-07-22T15:27:52.784-07:00Happy 4th of July and Hitting my 13th Month! 7/7/14This 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.<br />
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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?<br />
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-Sister Siepert<br />
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The Parade Banner!</div>
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Another Banner Shot!</div>
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The Parade!</div>
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Look at those missionaries go in the 4th of July Parade!</div>
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Can you find me?</div>
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Ok this is a really awkward picture of me! You know me Awkkkkwardddd!</div>
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Sister Bennet! </div>
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The Sister on the left is Sister Bunnell my old companion!</div>
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My house mates!</div>
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This is how Sister Missionaries celebrate the 4th!</div>
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We didn't see fireworks but we did have glow sticks!</div>
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Evidence of the sunburn! Oops!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-42325480110896149132014-07-22T14:52:00.001-07:002014-07-22T14:54:12.100-07:00Transfers 6/23/14So this week has been really great!<br />
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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.<br />
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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!<br />
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Wednesday: We just went around and met people and stuff. Nothing to exciting:)<br />
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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.<br />
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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!<br />
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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:)<br />
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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!<br />
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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!<br />
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-Sister Siepert<br />
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Sister Bennet and Sister Siepert</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-86982887569804142752014-07-22T11:40:00.000-07:002014-07-22T11:45:49.055-07:00Happy Fathers Day! 6/16/14This is Katie's mom. Sorry I am about a month behind. I will try to catch up…….<br />
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I have had quite a week to tell you about. Full of funny stories and MIRACLES! Yay! It has been really good week! :)<br />
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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:)<br />
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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! :)<br />
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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!<br />
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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….<br />
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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.<br />
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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!<br />
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Sunday: We had our regular meetings and such. We spent the rest of the day visiting people so Sister Christensen could say goodbye.<br />
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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! :)<br />
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Have a good week! LOVE YOU! :)<br />
-Sister Siepert<br />
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Goodbye Sister Christensen:(</div>
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Sister Weber who is in the middle also got transferred. She lives in our house! I will miss her too!</div>
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Sister Christensen saying goodbye to everyone!</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-77478991956667474032014-06-12T21:22:00.000-07:002014-06-12T21:22:03.234-07:00A bomb-tastic Sister P-day!<div>
Dear Family and Friends,</div>
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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!<div>
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We had a pretty good week!</div>
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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!</div>
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Look how happy I am!</div>
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I love it here!</div>
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Look I am in Maryland! The dock is half in Virginia and Half in Maryland:)</div>
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Sister P-day</div>
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Sister Bunnell and Me:) </div>
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Sister Missionaries are the best!</div>
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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! :)</div>
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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:)</div>
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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!</div>
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I Love Cafe Rio!</div>
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Sister Christensen Loves it too!</div>
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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!</div>
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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. </div>
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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!</div>
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Love you! Have a great week! :)</div>
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-Sister Siepert :)</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-66733063037657087222014-06-12T16:54:00.002-07:002014-06-12T21:26:57.910-07:00ONE YEAR!! YEAH!!<br />
This is Katie's mom- Sorry I have gotten behind on her blog and will now attempt to catch up:)<br />
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ONE YEAR!!</div>
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The Sister's I live with are the best!!</div>
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One Year!</div>
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Did I tell you One Year?</div>
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OOPS I MESSED UP THIS IS A PICTURE FROM NEXT WEEK:) KATIE LEFT THIS TO ME HER MOM AND I MESSED UP:) HAHA</div>
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Keeping the tradition! Burning a shirt for the one year mark!</div>
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Burning a shirt and a smore:) Can't ask for anything more wonderful:)</div>
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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!<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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! :)<br />
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Love,<br />
Sister 1 year old SiepertAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-9421658062977163912014-05-27T09:56:00.003-07:002014-05-27T12:35:57.476-07:00BIG NEWS!!!<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>HELLO! IT'S ME! THE OFFICIAL VIRGINIA RICHMOND MISSIONARY!!!</b></div>
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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! :)<br />
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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!<br />
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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!<br />
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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!<br />
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Keep me in your prayers and that we can find some new investigators! :)<br />
Love you all!!!<br />
Have a good week! :)<br />
-Sister Siepert :)<br />
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Loved having the dogs around for the weekend:)</div>
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I am becoming a dog person here in Virginia:)</div>
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Our investigator Hannah:)</div>
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We made this for Hannah :) </div>
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A little girl did my hair this week:) What do you think? I never thought of using stickers to decorate my hair:)</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-48700371805103097072014-05-19T22:08:00.001-07:002014-05-20T15:07:14.878-07:00I am so excited my brother got his Mission Call!!!Hey, Hey,<br />
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I AM SO EXCITED FOR TY!!! When I found out where he was going I was actually at a festival where we had a booth. I listened to the voicemail from Sister Chuntz. When she said where he was going I just started to cry! Haha, we were walking through a huge crowd of people and I just couldn't keep it in! I AM SO HAPPY FOR TY!! The Halifax Canada Mission is so lucky to have him! Missions are the greatest and the hardest at the same time. I know he will make an awesome missionary! I got kind of sad because he is leaving in September and I come home in December....But I got over it super quick because I know this is what he is supposed to do. I am SO proud of him. I wish I could have been there when he opened his call. in church yesterday I just sat and cried because I felt the spirit so strong when I was thinking about Ty going on a mission. We were pretty good friends and I would probably call him one of my best friends. Anyways, I am excited! :)<br />
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We had a really good week! I am so happy here and I just love everything about this area. members want to work with us, The bishop is soooo nice, we don't have to tract because the member do all the finding for us, and the list goes on and on. I feel so blessed to have been put here and to be experiencing the things I have so far.<br />
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Last Monday (Pday) we went to the mall. Basically it was heaven!!!! It is huge and has everything I have ever wanted! :) They have a Vera Bradley store. I bought the cutest bag for $30 it was originally $70. Steal! Huh? We also had a lesson with an investigator that night. Her name is H. She is awesome! She has been a long time investigator but has to wait to be baptized until her father gives her permission. She is 15. She really feels the spirit and is so strong. She is so sweet and so fun to be around! We have another investigator that is names N and is 14. She is sooo great too! We had a fireside with the youth last night and she came to it!! I find it interesting that my whole mission I have taught either the youth or young adults. I love it! They are young and seem to be able to feel the spirit so strong. It is so cool to see it in their faces. On the flip side it is so hard to see them feel it and deny it. On Tuesday we went to the church and played volleyball with the youth and that was so fun! The bishop's son here is exactly like Ty. He even looks like him! It kind of freaks me out sometimes. It is really fun to spend time with the youth. Sometimes I have remind myself I am not one of them! Haha!<br />
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We had a really cool experience this week when a member invited her neighbors over for dinner and she invited us too. She is a returned missionary and so is her husband. Her husband is no longer active but she comes to church and is one of the greatest members. At dinner she taught her neighbors the restoration. I loved it! :) She just did it and we didn't really have to do anything, but testify. It was so cool to see a member take the lead though and be a missionary. Afterwards she felt really good and was like, I have been wanting to tell them that for a long time. Sure , we aren't teaching them, but they did feel the spirit really strongly and it will happen again one day. :)<br />
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Saturday was really interesting. We went to the "Nokesville Days" which is a like a little festival. It is in the area the other Sisters we live with serve. It was in our Ward boundaries. It is really interesting because it is like 30 minutes from D.C. and it is country! Not as country as Goochland but pretty close. There was a tractor parade and stuff....haha. But it was fun! Our ward mission leader set us up with a booth. It was a good idea, but it was awkward. I mean our booth was between two home improvement places that were trying to give away like $15,000 and other stuff. We kind of sat there and waited for people to come to us because it felt weird about going out and yelling at people because we are not trying to seel the church or anything...but it was interesting because the men working the booths on either side of us kept yelling, "this will change your life!" and it made me think. I love Heavenly Father because he doesn't force us to do anything. He wants us to choose him and doesn't yell at us or force us in anyway to change, we have to do that on our own. Ironic that they were yelling that and that we were right next to him, eh? It was a good experience for me and for us! We at least got out in the community, right? SEE! It was a great week! :)<br />
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Well I love you all and I am glad to hear that this week was so great! :)<br />
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-Sister Siepert<br />
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We mowed the lawn at our house! Exhausting:)</div>
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Our Festival Booth</div>
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Cat Power.....meow</div>
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The train tracks are literally the border of our mission.........So close:)</div>
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We got caught in a rainstorm. The members that live at this house fixed us up in rain apparel.</div>
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Sister Christensen and I (My companion)</div>
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Companions (I look a little bald) Haha</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-16743207157361356312014-05-12T16:05:00.001-07:002014-05-12T16:23:00.268-07:00Transfers last week.............Yep I transfered!Since we got to google hangout with Sister Siepert her email was rather short! I decided I would just put together a blog post for her using her email and our conversation with her yesterday:)<br />
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Marianne Siepert (Katie's Mom)<br />
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Well yep it was a week of changes. I was sad to leave the countryside of Virginia. I was in Goochland for a long time. six months. I met and became friends with so many nice people there. I will miss serving them and serving with Sister Rushton. I left a piece of my heart there and many fond memories! Many life long friends!<br />
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I am now living and serving in Manassas Virginia. I serve in the Woodbridge Stake. Manassas is located just outside of Washington DC. In fact most of the people that live here commute into DC for work. I am so close to my sister and even closer to my Aunt and Uncle. I think they live less than 30 miles away. To bad they live outside the Virginia Richmond Mission. So close but so far. I will probably never see them:( In fact My area is probably the furthest north I could serve and not be in the DC South Mission. Last week we accidentally crossed the boundary into the other mission. It really was an accident. It is that close.<br />
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My new companion's name is Sister Christensen from..........Utah. Surprise......not:) She's great! All my companions except one have been from Utah. Haha It's kind of fun to be different and be from a different place. We live another Sister companionship that also serve in our ward. We (the four of us) live in a rather large nice home. They owners are living in New York and have let the Missionaries live in their home while they are gone. So it's really beautiful! We each have our own bathrooms and I get to sleep on a queen size bed. Just like home:) I will send more pictures soon! My brother Ryan told me he is fancy now that he has graduated from college. Well guess what I'm fancy now too! Haha I love living here! <span id="goog_176219845"></span><br />
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Pretty Nice huh!</div>
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My new ward is really nice and really love and take care of the missionaries! That makes me so happy! In fact on Sunday they introduced me from the pulpit! Never had a ward do that before! They love to help the missionaries here and support them so much! We don't have a lot of investigators but we have quite a few inactives to work with. I guess watch out Manassas Sister Siepert has arrived! Haha</div>
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I am so excited to be serving in the same District as Sister Bunnell. I trained her in the Richmond YSA ward. I love her so much. Today our zone is spending our Pday together and going to a huge mall! Should be fun, I haven't been to a mall in awhile! </div>
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I loved talking to the family yesterday. It truly felt like I never left. Thanks for making it so fun and filling me in on all the good stuff going on in the family and with friends. Our family is at an exciting time right now with Ty graduating in a few weeks. Ryan starting his new job. Megan and Eric's kids are getting so big. At home you are doing a remodel to the house. So exciting! I love it. It feels unreal that this is the last phone call home until I come home. It really blows my mind! I am still trying to figure out how that happened.</div>
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This has been such a good week! My stress level went way down. The weather has been beautiful and it's beautiful here. Great combination! Thank you for all your prayers on my behalf, I feel them and feel all your love. Heavenly Father sure loves me. I know that because he sent his Son for me. He loves all of us!</div>
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I miss you all!</div>
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Love, </div>
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Sister Siepert :)</div>
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Someone in my new ward has a wood shop and we got to help out there last week! It was so fun!!</div>
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<span id="goog_176219844"></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-18966019671851479202014-05-05T10:09:00.002-07:002014-05-05T10:09:52.452-07:00A fantastic week full of Elder Bednar and rain storms!Hello everyone,<br />
It was a fantastic week!! Full of rain storms and Elder Bednar! Woot Woot! First the bad news, I am getting transferred. Transfer meeting is tomorrow and that is where I will find out who my new companion is and where my new area is. Let me tell you how transfers work: Well, on Saturday night we have transfer calls. So, if you get a call from President Wilson or the Assistants that means that one of you is leaving. They also tell you if you are training or are going to be a training leader and such, but that is all they tell you. Then on Tuesday we have a big transfer meeting and over the pulpit President Wilson tells you where you are going and who you are with. Then after the hour long meeting you go! It is an anxiety filled day, but so exciting! But here is a fun fact: I only have 5 more transfers left (not counting this new transfer I am about to start!) Soooo weird..but anyways!<br />
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On Saturday we were able to go and see and hear Elder Bednar speak. It was so incredible! We had to be there at least by 8:15am, so Sister Rushton and I decided to leave early because we wanted good seats. We got there at 8 and still had didn't get to sit in the pews. However, we sat in the chairs right behind the pews. So we weren't that far back. Crazy thing is the meeting didn't even start til 9 am. It was sooo cool, when he came in the spirit was just overwhelming. Our AP (my old zone leader!) got to sit right next to him on the stand. How cool was that? Bishop Davies (of the presiding bishopric) and Elder Robbins (quorum of the 70) came with him. They were both great! The first speaker was Sister Bednar and she actually called some missionaries out of the audience and talked to them about their missions. It was so cool and kind of nerve-racking…but then Bishop Davies went ups and he started off by singing the James Brown song, "I feel good" and it was hilarious. He talked to us about opening our hearts and minds for the meeting. And about being all the way there as the meeting goes on and not thinking about everything else that you have to do. Then Elder Robbins got up and he just talked about how a mission is like going to college. He said that we were taking some really hard classes such as: Charity 505 and humility 505. But he talked about how those classes will help us in our lives. He was a Mission President so it was cool to have him talk about his missionaries like they were his children. my favorite quote from him was: "That which is bitter to endure, is sweet to remember." He was awesome and also very funny. Then the humble Elder Bednar spoke. Let me tell you, he is hilarious! He had us laughing a whole lot. It was really interesting how he lead the meeting. We were given three talks on Faith from him to read before we came to the meeting and he asked us to say what we learned. Then off of what we learned he taught. It was so cool, he didn't just lecture us about being better, he just personally talked to us about what was important to us. Basically what we talked about though was moving forward with faith and how faith is action. This is a quote I loved from him though, "We don't have to be perfect, we just have to be good and do our best and better each day." It was cool because he was talking to the sisters with that and said that we are too hard on ourselves and the Elders are not hard enough. Haha, one funny thing he also said was about the leadership positions of the mission (such as AP's, Zone Leaders, District Leaders, etc) and how he believes that people get this e positions sometimes because the mission president needs to keep a better eye on them and because he doesn't trust them. Haha, he was so great. After we talked about what we learned for like two hours, he then did a question and answer session. My absolute favorite part of the conference was when a sister asked, "How can we better sustain you in your calling?" And he took a second to think and the two simple words he said was, "Love Him." That was just so powerful to me. He is such a humble man and he knows his purpose. It was really touching to me. He also talked to the senior couples which is cool because they get overlooked often and told them that their absence in the lives of their children and grandchildren will be the most meaningful memory for them. And that their grandchildren are more likely to go on missions because of it. It was really cool. Another part I liked was when an Elder asked how he could stay converted when he went home. Elder Bednar said that we can when we become missionaries. He told us to go home and feel weird because that is when you know you really became a missionary. Then he left us with a blessing that we keep working on our conversion here and at home then we will never fall away, ever. So cool! The last thing they did was all of them bore testimonies of the Savior. It was so powerful and I have never felt the spirit any stronger in my life. It was a long three hour conference, but it was a really cool conference. On of the best experiences of my mission!:)<br />
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This week we also did a blitz in our area. Which is when we get a ton of missionaries to come and take over Goochland. We planned it out really well and we had members from our ward driving the missionaries out here and some even tracted with them. It was a miracle because we had 9 sets of missionaries out here. We have a few people that look super promising that we need to visit, well I guess Sister Rushton and her new companion need to visit…but it was really good! :) We had a few lessons this week and nothing to exciting with them other than we got dropped :( That is always hard, but we know she will come back in her own time. Then we almost got dropped by a recent/less active member…she can't drop us! but we went over and talked to her about her concerns and are working with her and helping her through it. It was an eventful week. Friday night after our blitz we were at the church helping clean because of Elder Bednar coming and because my companion and I signed up to help. We vacuumed the chapel…that takes forever! But I vacuumed the chair Elder Bednar sat in!!! Oh Yeah! We had to leave a bit early I wasn't feeling very well. I hadn't eaten very much and was dehydrated. I got really pale. We went home and ate and I drank a ton of water. I was feeling much better the next day.<br />
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I am so excited that Ty's mission papers are in and it sounds like everyones life is crazy. That is so good to hear! I am sooo excited to talk to you in six days! I feel like I just talked to you though on Christmas…but that was like five months ago. I will be google chatting with you from a new area, so I have no idea where and when. I think we can text you the day before to let you know. It will workout though so don't worry.<br />
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Well, I am really sad to leave this area because it has become my home. I also really love Sister Rushton. Goochland and I got off to a rough start but I really honestly love is so much here. I have had a lot of trials here and I have overcome a lot of trials here. I love the people and I am so grateful to have gotten to know them all. They will forever be in my heart! I am excited and scared all at the same time to move forward, but I will just move forward with faith I guess!!<br />
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Well, love you!!!! :) Family, I will talk to you SOON!!!<br />
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Love,<br />
Sister Siepert :)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-50137704901294822762014-04-28T10:34:00.001-07:002014-04-28T10:36:59.384-07:00AWESOME MIRACLE WEEK!!!Hey, hey, hey!<br />
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Sounds like there was a lot going on at home this week. I have to say I knew I was missing a good week, but that is ok! Ryan is all graduated from BYU and all grown up. Megan ran a half marathon in DC, Ty went to Prom….well you know what? We had a good week too! We have worked hard and the miracles and blessing have followed. Let me tell you all about our AWESOME miracle this week!!! It was Thursday and that day we usually go all the way up to the farthest part of our area and see 2 investigators and we have some less actives over there. They are usually really productive days, but literally everything fell through…everything, back-ups back-ups, everything. So we prayed about where we should go and both felt prompted to go tracking along this really busy road near a members home. We went and tried to be as gung-ho as possible (tracting is not my favorite…), but we came to this long gravel road and prepared ourselves to walk down a mile driveway because that is very normal out here in Goochland. We started walking down this road and a man with a huge beard, long pony tail, earrings, and all together scary looking man came into view. I have to admit I got a little scared, but Sister Rushton is great and was like it will be okay, lets just talk to him. So, we did. We taught him the first lesson and about the Book of Mormon. He said that it all sounded sooo beautiful. The he told us that because we came down his road today that he knew that God loved him and answered his prayers. He said that we had great energy about us and we told him that was the spirit. He became our new investigator and said that he would be baptized if he knew it was true! What a miracle!? I was starting to think that no one is prepared in Goochland, but the Lord proved me WAY wrong. After this miracle we went off and prayed to thank Heavenly Father for this experience.<br />
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It was a good week and hard work really pays off! I am so grateful for that! How great is that? It was soo cool! We tracted a lot this week, so I am pretty sure the Lord was like, okay here you go! But I am determined to like tracting by the time my mission is over. Also this week something really funny happened…so, I have been writing my friend Haden N. a little bit lately and he sent me a letter with some pictures in it from his mission. Well, my companion, being as hilarious as she is, steals the pictures without me knowing. We were visiting with this older lady who can't come to church because she is home bound with memory problems. Sister Rushton pops those pictures out and starts telling this lady that I am getting married and that my CTR ring is really an engagement ring. Hahaha, so this poor lady is falling for it and I am dying. She has done that a few times this week…that bum! It was pretty funny!<br />
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We also went to volunteer at this retirement home like we do every week and this lady told me I looked like a dog and that I looked stuck up….this week has been really funny!! Good memories of this week! I have been doing so much better, soooo much better! We worked hard this week and it felt really good to do so. Goochland is still Goochland. Hard in ways, but the thought that I could be transferred next week makes me almost want to cry. I mean I have been here forever, but I love it here. I love the people. I love my companion. I love the area. I love how nice everyone is. I love it! Goochland and I had kind of a hard start. I think I finally know how to be a missionary in Goochland and I hope they don't take me away from that. :( But who knows!<br />
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This week the Richmond Mission and the Chesapeake Mission get to meet together to listen to Elder Bednar. We can't wait. That means there will be over 500 missionaries meeting together. I can't wait! I love Elder Bednar! <br />
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Thanks mom for the new music you sent me. I was getting a little tired of the music I have been listening to for the last 11 months! Can you believe that!? 11 MONTHS! Next week I will have been on my mission for 11 months! Where has the time gone? I am officially an old missionary. Sometimes we will be driving down the road and it will just hit me that I am in Virginia and that I am a missionary. It still all seems so new and stuff, but in reality it has almost been a year. I can honestly say now, that I love being a missionary! I have to say the thought of going home and being normal kind of freaks me out. Oh no, I am going to be a weird returned missionary…haha<br />
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This week has been so great! Sister Rushton and I had a really good companionship inventory and it had really brought us even closer. Our communication has grown and so our love and our companionship unity has increased. It feels so good!! I can honestly say that I LOVE MY COMPANION! She has helped me so much! YAY! I am finally getting back to myself after having some difficult times! I am so happy for that! I still have some anxieties but I won't let it define my mission. I know this trial will help me with life and with helping other people and missionaries. One other thing that I have learned this week is really how if you prepare yourself in the morning (studies, pray, act.) and then when you go out and you trust the Lord to put you in places to talk to certain people, he will be there. He will give you the right words to say and the right things to do. I love that!<br />
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Well, I love you all a whole lot! I am so glad the the weekend was great at home! just 2 weeks until I get to Skype and I can't wait!!!<br />
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LOVE YOU!:)<br />
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Sister Siepert:)<br />
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They Love Jesus in Goochland:)</div>
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Tracting in Goochland…you notice no houses? The squirrels used to listen, but every since I ran over their grandpa they hate us and throw nuts at us. The snakes are just mean. The bunnies are nice if you can catch them, but basically everything is Baptist!<br />
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Look I got an English Name tag now I fit in Virginia!!<br />
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Happy Easter From the Gooch!!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-78299337356059334872014-04-14T10:40:00.000-07:002014-04-14T11:16:25.806-07:00Happy Easter from the Gooch!Hello Everyone!!!<br />
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HAPPY EASTER!!</div>
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We helped at the retirement/rehab center this week. I love volunteering there so much. It is so fun to go there because they recognize me and that makes me so happy! We helped hide eggs for an Easter Egg hunt this week. We then sat back and waited for the little kids to show up. It was so sad because not one child showed up to hunt for eggs. Kind of awkward:( I however had a great time sitting and waiting and talking to the cute residents that live there. I have been officially adopted by an older couple there. Their names are Hazel and Bill. She is 84-ish and he is almost 90. She doesn't act 84 at all, her husband has really bad memory problems (I can't remember the medical name for it). It makes me so sad because he just pushes her around in her wheel chair. He only knows her, but doesn't recognize anyone else. But they said that they would adopt me because their daughter died not to long ago:(. I love that place, but sometimes it makes me really sad because their families never come to see them. Some are blessed with great families, but most of them are just there alone and will die there alone. Breaks my heart:( I love being there with them. It has to be one of my favorite parts of the week. They all think it is hilarious when Sister Rushton and I start dancing:). In fact, I started to dance and some old man started to rap. Hahaha, I have a lot of fun stories from from that place:)</div>
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Well we had a three hour lesson this week. A new record for me!!! I have learned that some people love the "Plan of Salvation" and some do not. I have to say she was one of the nicest Bible Bashers I have met. It was actually interesting because she kept contradicting herself….nope it didn't shake my testimony. I love her, but we may have to drop her soon which makes me sad. She just isn't moving forward and tries to pull us back. Breaks my heart but we may have to step back:)</div>
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We participated in the Ward Talent show this week. We were asked to do a song doing the cup thing (kind of like the cup song from pitch perfect). It was really fun and a couple of the Boys from the ward that live out here in Goochland helped us. It's interesting that most of the kids in our ward that live out here are home schooled. Almost everyone. I haven't been around that very much in my life. We sang "Nearer my God" while doing the cup thing. I actually sang the second Verse in Portuguese. Yep, that is the most Portuguese I have used on my missions so far! Haha! It was such a good night a Couple from the ward took us and we had dinner before and Ice cream after with them!! They are the best! They actually fed us twice this week! We live so far out we just don't get fed very often so every dinner appointment is so appreciated! We survive but it is a bit hard on our small weekly money allotment:) Roger and Belynda take good care of us. I love them a whole lot! The people of Goodchland are really good people. I am really enjoying the country life! However I am getting a little skeptical that there are people here that are being prepared to be taught. I just need to have faith that they are here………somewhere! Haha</div>
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I was just thinking that Mothers Day is just a month away!! I get to call home!!! I am not excited at all or anything…..YEAH RIGHT!!!! I am so stoked!! I could still be here in Goochland or I could be off to a new area! Who knows?:) Or I could be in Brazil, I guess!! Sometimes I forget that is my final destination….well, maybe.</div>
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We have interviews with President Wilson this week. I am so excited for those! I Love President and Sister Wilson so much. They help me in so many ways.. Oh we found out who is coming to our mission. Elder Bednar is coming in May to talk to our mission and also the Chesapeake mission. We get to meet together with the other mission. I am super excited! </div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">We are all so blessed because of HIM… I am a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints because of HIM!!! We all have Easter because of HIM. Please watch this because of HIM:) I love my savior Jesus Christ!</span></div>
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I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week and a beautiful Easter,</div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Siepert</div>
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A member of our ward had pigs. </div>
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This pig is named after me:) Isn't she cute????</div>
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Ok, who knew that Virginia had huge spiders, huge lizards and snakes? I thought that only happened in places like Mexico:) Think about it two Sister Missionaries in the country with spiders, snakes and lizards! We may or may not shriek from time to time!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-2558853523725744412014-03-31T20:29:00.000-07:002014-04-01T00:18:31.636-07:00This was a pretty great week:)The Sisters meeting was pretty great wasn't it? I have to say though, that it made me a little homesick because we went to the church and all the moms and their daughters were there, but I survived. I love that we sang "Teach me to walk in the light" there. That is what we sang with those two little girls in church last week. It made me realize Heavenly Father really is looking out for me. He knows me and he knows you all too! We went to the broadcast with one of our investigators and her daughter. She has been investigating the church for about 4 years and is probably more active than most of us active members:) We love her!<br />
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This week has been pretty great! We had an incredible miracle! Sooo the mother of the family that came to church last week and the two girls that sang with us, called on thursday morning during personal study. She was asking about getting the Elders number to help her move some stuff and such, but then she just started talking about church. She told us that she had been really nervous to go to church last week because she was afraid it had been so long since she had attended and that she was going to feel out of place, but she said, "you know what, I felt so comfortable! I felt like I had gone home again" :) She wants to come back to church and she wants her daughters to be in primary and young women's. How incredible is that? I mean, I didn't even ask and she just told me. She had no idea how many prayers and fasts had gone into that! I am so excited to see where this all goes. It was a huge miracle!!<br />
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Other than that we didn't have much of a teaching week. We really had one other lesson this week. All of the others fell through. That made the week a little bit hard. Saturday we helped a member take down wallpaper in her kitchen. I have learned I really don't like wallpaper. I am not sure who the genius was that came up with that stuff, he obviously liked to watch people suffer:) Hahaha We had fun though because we just love her so much :) She is the best!<br />
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We did have a funny thing happen this week though. We had been praying to get a referral and we got a media referral. They are the best referrals! They are basically people reaching out to us!!!! We were so stoked. We went to the house with the movie and Book of Mormon and some lady answered and let us in. She gave us Girl Scout cookies, told us all about her life....we were actually looking for her son (he requested the visit), but he was not there. She was not interested, but it was hilarious. She had Obama everywhere in her house. When I say everywhere, I mean framed pictures and bobble heads. Hahahaha, it was a really funny experience because she showed us her wedding album and tried to give us tickets to a concert. Haha, it was a good laugh that we needed and tonight we actually have an appointment with her son, so that is good!!! :)<br />
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President Wilson came this week and had companionship study with us. Which was soooo intimidating...but sooo good. It felt so good to talk to him and it kind of felt like I was talking to dad:) I love than man, he is so amazing! Mission Presidents are the best!<br />
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That is so crazy that Ty started his mission papers!!!! Yay!!! I am really jealous that spring break was great! I want to go snowboarding! Actually, I want sunshine! Today it has been a lot nicer than it has been lately. Yesterday it rained ALL DAY LONG!!! It is getting better at least there is no snow:)<br />
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Lately, I have finished the gospels in the Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) and it has changed my life! First off, Jesus Christ is incredible and second off, there is so much we can learn from his life. His life applies to everything. Lately I have been thinking about my favorite story. It is in Mark 5:25-34, is says:<br />
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25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,<br />
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26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,<br />
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27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.<br />
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28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.<br />
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29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.<br />
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30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?<br />
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31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?<br />
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32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing.<br />
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33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.<br />
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34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith had made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.<br />
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What I love about this story is that this women just touched his clothes and didn't expect him to even know or talk to her. But Jesus Christ is so loving that he took the time to love her and to talk to her. As a missionary, I think others get super caught up in getting baptisms and getting numbers that they forget the people behind those numbers. I have decided that sure baptisms are great, but our purpose is to bring others close to Jesus Christ. If that is by baptisms awesome! If that is by saying hello or doing a little service for them, awesome! This story taught me a lot about my purpose as a missionary. I am supposed to represent Jesus Christ. I am supposed to act like he did. Cool, huh? I love being a missionary! It is so cool to see people as Christ sees them.<br />
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Well, I love you all so much and I miss you a whole lot! Have a great week!<br />
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Love,<br />
Sister Siepert :)<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-20444217369916176062014-03-24T23:50:00.000-07:002014-03-25T09:30:23.233-07:00Happy Birthday to ME!Hello,<br />
I did have a good birthday and I loved all the birthday wishes! I have to say the best birthday present wasn't a present at all:) (Cheesy I know) But we had a crazy, miracle happen. Our investigators C and B came to church with their mom and dad and three cute younger siblings. They Came! Sister Rushton and I sang with them in sacrament meeting. We sang "Teach me to walk in the light". They sang the first verse and we sang the second verse then we all sang the third verse together. Nothing to complicated but it was soooo good. They did soooo good! The spirit was so strong and it was so awesome to see them all taking the sacrament together all dressed up. They we all glowing when they left, the mom mostly. She wants to be sealed to her husband so bad, but he is not interested in the church and his father is a pastor of another church. They talked about coming again even if their dad will not come. Yay!! It was such amazing opportunity and it was great how much the ward supported them. They all were so nice and kind to them. They all said hello and made them feel like they belonged. It was really a dream come true moment! :) Oh and funny thing was that after we sang, when we were walking back to our seats B says, "They didn't even clap for us". Hahahahaha, Heavenly Father sure does love them and loves us too!<br />
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Saturday we spent the whole day with the training sisters. They helped us out with the new planning guidelines because the mission department just came to our mission and introduced some new things.They are mostly a new way/better way to do things. It was great I got to talk to Sister Romney (my old companion). She helped me a lot. The last few weeks have been a bit rough for me. I have the best companion, she has helped me so much too! It is so cool how everything is such an inspiration even companionships! Sister Rushton is such a blessing to me!<br />
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Even when things are hard Heavenly Father blesses us with funny moments. One night while we were planning I looked down and there was a spider and we screamed. Then we ran back and looked by the front door and there was another spider and it was HUGE! When I say huge I mean HUGE! I have a picture and will send that to you....so we are screaming and jump on our coffee table and were fighting over who is going to kill it. Well, while fighting over who was going to kill it, we lost BOTH of them. So we cried and got the mop and we were pushing the couches with the mop and the mop broke. we then got a little more brave and go over to the shoes and look in them. Sister Rushton shakes my boot and the HUGE SPIDER COMES OUT OF MY BOOT!!! The I start spearing it the broken mop and I hit it probably like for 5 minutes because I was not going to let that thing live! We killed three more spiders that night and our spider count is now up to 6. Yes it is so gross! But it was a funny moment that I needed because Heavenly Father loves me! :) Haha, we now call the mop the spider spear and my Companion calls me the Spider Slayer. :)<br />
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Devil Spider!</div>
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My Birthday was good and we had a mini birthday party in the morning for our studies and I opened my presents. I LOVED THE BLANKET!! What a great idea! I also loved the new clothes. Mom you did good! It was a good birthday and had a good birthday dinner at the A's house. They are AWESOME!! So that was really fun and spent the night with some members and finished planning. Yesterday was great! Kind of didn't feel like my birthday, but it was okay because it was like it didn't really matter all that much:) I love being a missionary because those things that used to matter so much don't really matter anymore!</div>
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Oh I almost forgot to tell you. I am staying another transfer and so is Sister Rushton! Yay! We are both so excited! Oh they changed the way they tell us about transfers. They now call us on Saturday nights and then the transfer happens on Tuesday. I like it way better!! But yes six more weeks in good Ol' Goochland! I am really happy about that! :)</div>
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Love you! :)</div>
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-Sister Siepert</div>
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Happy Birthday to me!</div>
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This picture makes me so HAPPY! My sister emailed this to me! My niece Kaylee and I in matching shirts!</div>
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My Birthday blanket from my family!<br />
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Sweet Sister Rushton and Me:) Love her!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-63745899617591166932014-03-10T10:21:00.003-07:002014-03-10T14:47:35.589-07:00NINE MONTHS!! How did that happen?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I hit my Nine Month mark this week:)</div>
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Hello Friends and Family,</div>
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I hope you are doing well. I am doing sooo good! I am so happy and mission life keeps getting better and better! This week we had a successful week, with more teaching, zone conference, NEW INVESTIGATORS, mini splits with the training leaders, and lots of good stuff!!</div>
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Let me tell you about my week! March 5th (my 9 month mark), was probably the funniest day of my whole mission. So, we did all of our normal stuff with personal study, companionship study, language study and lunch. Since we didn't make time to clean our car on our last p-day we had to get our car washed for the car inspection at Zone Conference. All of the mission cars have these (dumb) bike racks on them and you can't have them on while going through the car wash. So, we were like we will just go take if off and it will only take a minute to take off. Well yeah it was a little longer than a minute. 2 HOURS, later we got it off. But is was so funny because we took the pin out and were just trying to pull it out of the hitch. Seemed easy enough, but it would not come out, we sprayed pam on it, we put hot water on it, I drove and Sister Rushton held on to it to pull it off. Basically we are sweating and no one was answering their phones to help us out. We are so frustrated, but then the Zone leaders finally called us back and were like, all you need to do is unscrew the cap on the front and what do you know. We did and the bike rack literally fell off. IT FELL OFF! We laughed sooo hard. It was a great day! Then as you know we ended the day with burning the skirt and the M's house. (FYI when Sister Missionaries hit the 9 month mark. We celebrate by burning one of our skirts. Just to celebrate the halfway mark) It was such a good time! I love the members out here in Goochland! They are so fun! well, that was great!</div>
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One night while we were planning the Sister training leaders called us to go on a mini exchange that night. I was a bit stressed because our appointments that night had fallen through and we had not planned out what we would do next. But when we both got back together that night we both had a new investigator! How awesome is that! We were so stoked about it! :) Then we went and taught this guy that I had talked to in the grocery store about a month ago, but we had not been able to see him ad it was sooo awesome! one of the best lessons I have ever been in. We taught with the spirit and he listened and loved it. I was so excited! He also has a sister he takes care of who is special needs and she is the sweetest thing! You could tell that she felt the spirit also. So, funny story, while we were teaching, they live in a trailer and Sister Rushton was talking about the First Vision and had just started to recite the First Vision and all of the sudden the lights went out in the trailer. Hahahaha, but we kept going. It was so great!</div>
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So 3 new investigators this week! We were so stoked because we have not had that many in a while....we also may have three more new ones. tonight because we may have found a new family! :) The work is going and it is so cool to see that people are coming unto Christ. One thing I have really learned this week is that you are the most happy on your mission when you are out there teaching. When we go and we try to find people to teach it can be so discouraging, but in the end it makes me so much happier to know that I am trying. Now people are coming out of the woodwork!</div>
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Can you believe that we are almost done with this transfer? I can't believe that! My mind is blown that I have been here in Goochland since Thanksgiving and now it is March! But I love it! It has been such a good week and I have been having a lot of fun while we have been working hard!</div>
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Mom, Dad and everyone. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! I can't believe that I have been doing this for nine months now and that is is halfway over. It has made me work harder to know that I am on my last half of my mission. I have to make the best of these 18 months! I think you would be shocked on how much I have changed. I mean I am still Katie and yes, I am still hilarious, but I have changed. I have learned so much about the gospel and about Heavenly Father. He loves me and I know that he is proud of me. He has always been there and is always going to be there. He wants me to be happy and he wants all of is children to be happy, so he has sent me here to tell the people in Virginia. He wants all of us to return home to him. I have thought a lot about the pre-earth life recently. I am pretty sure when he was presenting his plan he was like "this is the plan and in the end I want you all to return to me. I want you all to be with me again. It is hard for me to let you go into the world and I know for all of you it will be a bit hard sometime, but I know it is worth it. I want you to experience it all and I know it will be for your own good." I am sure he cried letting us go too because he knew. He knew it all, but was so proud of us to be so willing to go.</div>
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Well, I love you all! I hope you have a great week! :)</div>
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Sister Siepeeee :)</div>
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Just burning my skirt with these lovely ladies:)</div>
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Happy, Fun night!</div>
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HALFWAY THERE!!!!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-12140104371985702132014-03-04T11:06:00.000-08:002014-03-04T11:06:17.904-08:00Snow Snow SNOW! Well sorry I didn't write yesterday but our cars were grounded due to the darn snow! It was so funny because on Sunday it was like 70 degrees and I was so pumped because we were finally getting warmer weather and that spring was coming. On Sunday night is started to snow and it didn't stop until about one on Monday afternoon. So we had to stay in last night and all day yesterday. It was so funny because it was p-day so we can do whatever we want, so we did all the normal stuff, like writing letters, and doing laundry, but it came to be about 3 and both of us looked at each other and we were like WE ARE SO BORED! We then watched the district...and watched some Mormon messages that we had on DVD, but really I don't think I have ever been that bored in my whole life. Haha, we were just trying to figure out anything to do. We came up with races across the tile and found some odd things to do. I also read the entire March Ensign. The whole thing. We were so bored...I also have a cold, so it was probably good for me. Now it is all in my forehead, so I hope I can get over this soon because I hate being sick. But basically yesterday was pretty funny and if you would have watched what we did you would of thought that we had no lives. Haha, but that is mission life!<br />
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Our week has been great and slow. Not to much happened this week, because we came home a few nights early so that I could go to bed so that I could get over this cold. It helped a little bit, but it just won't go away. One of our investigators tried to drop us this week, but you know that we would not let that happen...goodness. I hate when people do that, but we are getting her back on track and giving her some time to think and such. But after she called us and told us that she just couldn't read the Book of Mormon anymore because it just doesn't work for her, I hung up. I just started to bawl. I had no idea what to do or how to help her, so I just prayed for like 20 minutes and Sister Rushton and I talked about it. She came to church on Sunday like she always does and talked to our Ward Mission Leader. She opened up to him and he filled us in. I know that she will basically be Okay. She has a strong testimony and we hope to see her moving and acting upon her faith soon! :) That was a definite answer to our prayers.<br />
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We also went and saw a recent convert and it was a good lesson. We helped her set up mouse traps......that was hilarious. Sister Rushton and I are such babies. Haha, but we figured it out and still have all our fingers.<br />
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Another great experience this week. A member came out with us and we really didn't have any set plans, but we made a list of people we wanted to stop by and we did. we ended up being invited into an investigators home. We had a lesson with her. The member that came with us was so awesome and helped us so much! She created this beautiful relationship with her and she opened up to her. We are excited to see where things will go. The investigator is such a great person and is slowly letting us into her heart! :) So that is so exciting!<br />
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We had a Zone meeting this week and guess who showed up? President Wilson! Haha, it was great and very unexpected! It always is so good to have his presence in our meeting and for him to bring such a strong spirit. We also get to see him again this week at our zone conference, so that will be fun! I just love him!<br />
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These are basically the highlights of the week. I have been feeling a bit stressed this week trying to plan what we are doing. It's okay though, because I know I am trying my best and that is all that matters.......<br />
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I love mom, that you were told that the long term Brazil Visa waiters were going to have a 2 week refresher language course at the MTC when the Visa comes. Sounds like it may even be at the Brazil MTC!!! That makes me feel so much better because I feel I have lost so much of the language.<br />
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I am excited for Ryan and Ty. Both graduating, Ryan from BYU and looking for a real grownup job and Ty graduating from High School. I still can't believe my baby brother will be 18 years old this week! So many crazy thing happening...without me...Haha but that is okay because in 9 short months I will be home. Can you believe it? I CAN'T BELIEVE IT ALL!!<br />
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I have been thinking a bit about what I want to do in college when I get back to BYUI. I definitely think I want to get back to dancing. I just don't have a clue what I want to do with the rest of my life....but that is okay! I have plenty of time to figure that out. I am so excited for Ty to go to college before his mission even if it is only for the summer. I will miss seeing him by probably 4 short months. It's ok Missions are the best! College really teaches you a lot about being on your own and companions (roommates). I am thankful I had those experiences before coming out on my mission.<br />
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I love my companion to much and I also love this area!!! :) I feel there is definitely a reason why I am still here and I have work to do.........<br />
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Love you all and have a good week! :)<br />
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Sister Siepert :)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-29963602507972060762014-02-24T10:18:00.001-08:002014-02-24T10:18:17.780-08:00Two posts for the price of one!Feb. 17, 2014<br />
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We had a solid 12 inches of snow and were very snowed in. I was sick though so it worked out well. I had a fever...we didn't have to much food, so it was kind of funny to find what to eat, but we ended up eating eggs and old pancake mix. Thank goodness we didn't lose power because I am not sure if I could deal with that.<br />
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I have a new companion! Her name is Sister Rushton and she is from....guess....it's not to hard.....Utah! Haha, almost all of my companions have been from Utah...but it's great! I might end up moving there sometime because now all of my new friends are there. I was kind of relieved she was from Utah with all this snow because I haven't really driven a lot in the snow. However, she doesn't have a drivers license, sooooo I have been sliding around and all that fun stuff. Haha, she is 21 and the cutest thing ever. She is just so NICE!!! I was kind of scared to take over this area because I don't know it as well as my last area. A member in our ward loaned us their GPS, that is so nice of them. We are doing it together! She is so great, we just talk and talk and sometimes forget what time it is....Oopsie. Sister Gale was transferred up closer to DC (big change for her). Sister Rushton has been out 6 months. I got to see Sister Bunnell at transfers and now she is training. My child is training! I am one proud mom! It was so fun to see her and be around her. Both of my trainers are now Sister Training Leaders. It is so great!<br />
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This has been kind of a crazy week. we were supposed to have transfer meeting on Thursday, but ended up having it on Saturday because of the snow. We set 3 baptism dates this week. That is so exciting for us. Please pray for our investigators.<br />
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I am so excited that my new companion loves tracking. I have a goal to not hate tracking. Maybe she can help me gain a love of tacking. She is so positive, so I am sure it will happen.<br />
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I love being a missionary. I love helping people feel Heavenly Fathers love because I know that love can change someones life. I know that because I have felt it. My testimony of this gospel has grown in ways I didn't even expect it to. I am so grateful for that, my life will be different because of my mission.<br />
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I love you all,<br />
Sister Siepert<br />
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Sister Rushton and Sister Siepert</div>
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Snow, Snow, Snow is everywhere!</div>
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Feb. 24, 2014</div>
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My FBI Clearance came?!?! I have to admit that when I read that I wanted to cry...the thought of leaving here first, makes me sad because I have so many great friends here and have had so many experiences that I won't ever forget and second, it makes me a bit scared. I am just going to forget about it since it now has to go to the Brazil Consulate and could take awhile. I just have to trust that Heavenly Father has it all in his hands and to be patient with his timing. Also aligning his will with my own will is pretty hard, but it has taught me a lot. So you better send my Birthday stuff soon:) Hah, what has happend to me? I am going to turn 20 in a month.....WHY AM I SO OLD?! </div>
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This week was great!!! I forgot to tell you that we had a sisters meeting this week on Wed. Can you believe that it has been 6 months since the last one? But it was great! I saw everyone and it was so happy. It made me realize how many fiends I have made here in Virginia and how I not only love the people in Virginia, but I also love the missionaries of Virginia!!! They are so fun! There were a lot of good speakers and a lot of good food.:) So that was the highlight of that day, but then Sister Rushton came home feeling a bit sick, so she went straight to bed. So Thursday was great we saw several of our investigators. They were all great!!! We had a great time with them like we always do but, came home early because Sister Rushton wasn't feeling well. The next day she felt really sick and spent the day in bed. I had to find something to do. It was actually a funny experience because I always dreamed of the day my companion would be sick and we could take a day off. I was so bored, which led me to be homesick. I wrote you a letter that day by the way. It was so funny how that all happened. I read out of the Book of Mormon and ended up finishing it again and then there was nothing to do. I learned a lesson, I don't want another day like that! </div>
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So on Saturday we had a baptism. Her name is Mary and we all call her Momma Mary. She is the sweetest lady who has been wanting to be baptized for a long time., but because of health reasons could not be. When the Elders picked her up out of her wheel chair and carried her into the water to be baptized I just was so overcome by the spirit. She came out of the water with tears in her eyes. I just felt so much love for her and knew that Heavenly Father was so proud of her because that was not an easy thing to do. After she came back into the room she couldn't stop crying! She was just nonstop with tears running down her face. It was such an awesome experience. She has been taught by 14 missionaries and she calls them all of her sons and now she has 3 daughters. she remembers all of their names. she loves the missionaries and they love her. I could really just sit and talk to her for hours. Someday I would love to come back here and visit her. She is sooo great!!:):) </div>
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On Sunday we taught the Young Women again. We taught them the first lesson that we teach investigators because before I was a missionary I didn't know the lessons. So we taught it and talked about sharing the gospel. It was a lot of fun and it was fun getting to know them. Also it is cool because I was basically in Young Womens not to long ago....So you can see it was a good week!</div>
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It is weird to think I am just a few weeks short of nine months. I can't believe it!!! I remember the first night in the MTC I was so concerned how I was going to do this for a year and a half. Haha, but now I have almost made it halfway, so I think I can make it now! Haha, well I love you all and hope you have a great week!</div>
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Love you,</div>
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Sister Siepert</div>
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Momma Mary on her Baptism day!</div>
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Sister Siepert, Sister Bunnell and her new Trainee!</div>
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Grandma, mom and child:) Haha</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-92070298781807225702014-02-10T13:51:00.001-08:002014-02-10T13:51:20.568-08:00EIGHT MONTHS:)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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EIGHT MONTHS!</div>
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The transfer call came last night and the verdict is......I am staying:) Sister Gale is leaving...we won't know where she is going until transfer meeting on Thursday. I will take over this area A little scary but a little exciting too! I used to hate change, but now I think I like it a little bit more than I used too.</div>
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We had a great week!!!! We also had a few funny moments.... We had an investigator answer the door naked. Yes, that really happened. Yep, it was really funny! She has this window on her door and she poked through it and was like, honey, we can't have our lesson right now. I am about to get in the shower and I am naked right now and cold. So let's do it another day. Hahahahaha, we laughed so hard. These are some of the moments I will remember the most, sooooo funny! </div>
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We have a new investigator named R and we met him last Pday at the grocery store. He is the cutest older black man. We called him to meet with him and invited him to church and he said, "ma'am I can't go to church. I got a problem." We were like oh no "what's the problem?" He was like "diareha is my problem ma'am" This caught us off guard. It was hard to keep a straight face and not laugh, but we held it together because we are real mature now.....JUST KIDDING!</div>
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I am not that mature....but we did have a really good week! We taught some lessons, which is a HUGE miracle. Everyone here is just very set with what they have and don't want to try anything different. Which is fine because I mean I understand. It is what they have grown up with and how they have lived their whole lives. On the other hand it is really hard for us. I just love to become friends with everyone. You know me, I hate contention, so if it is headed that way I steer clear of that. We feel so blessed to have found a new investigator named M. We met her while we were volunteering at the retirement home. She is young and so fun! She is a Baptist, but loves to learn, so we are teaching her and she is wide open. I love people like that. They are so soft and willing to hear us out. I think people get so freaked out about missionaries and seem to think that we are just here to convert the whole world to be Mormon. Haha, sure that would be great:) I feel like a lot of my purpose of being a missionary is to love people. Just to make sure people feel the love that Heavenly Father has for them. We are here to show people who Jesus Christ is, by acting like him. </div>
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Like I said we had a great week!! Out investigator L has set a baptism date!!!! The date right now is March 30th. We are praying and hoping she can make it by that date. She is so crazy busy all the time. We are hoping we can help her get there. She feels the spirit so strong and is soooo awesome! We love her a whole lot and actually have special permission to teach her because she is technically not in out area. She requested Sisters. So we feel so lucky to be able to teach her:) We are super excited for her because she has made so many steps forward. I love when we get to watch people change and to grow closer to Christ. It feels so good to know that we have helped her through all of this. </div>
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The Elders in our ward are teaching someone named M. We all call her Momma M and she is getting baptized the 22nd. She has been through 12 sets of Elders and call them all of her adopted sons. Now she finally has 2 adopted sisters too!:) She is sooo sweet and has so many medical problems and is in a wheel chair, but is so excited to be baptized. She has invited so many people in our ward to her baptism. She is so great, I love her!:) There are so many great people here. I feel so blessed to be serving in an area where we have grown a trusting relationship with them. It feels good to see all the progress we have made with so many people. Missionary work sure is hard, but it feels good! It is all worth it!:)</div>
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The coat situation is fixed! Sister Jepson is so nice and said to keep it here because she doesn't have room in her bags to take it home. She told me to pass it on to another missionary when I leave. She is so nice. What a blessing:)</div>
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We had something really sad happen in our ward this week. A young mother in our ward had her 4 month old baby pass away. She suddenly had trouble breathing and passed. It was her first child. It made our whole ward sad. However, it was so cool that yesterday that all the lessons were on the plan of Salvation. Everything is inspired! Heavenly Father loves us that way:)</div>
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Well, I Love You all so much and i am finally figuring this whole mission thing out, now that I have been out for EIGHT MONTHS!:) at least I think so! I Love You All!!!! :) Have a great week!!</div>
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-Sister Siepert</div>
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HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!</div>
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BEAUTIFUL DAY!!</div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-29831995889033143132014-02-03T10:23:00.002-08:002014-02-03T12:00:19.036-08:00A week of miracles + a visit with the Mission President + exchanges with a former companion and friend = a really good week:)Herroww,<br />
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I am still here in good ol' Virginia and thank goodness it didn't snow this week! (At least that I can remember?) Haha, sorry the weeks go by so fast, but they are so packed that I can't even remember what we did last week...Haha, we are finally figuring out how to be busy! This week has actually been a really good week! We have been working hard and actually this has been a life changing week. We had interviews with President Wilson and can I tell you that he is so inspired. He is such a great Mission President. I cried to him all about what was going on and about my Visa and it was like he already knew. He told me to just keep loving and to love with all my heart and not be afraid because I am leaving. He told me that he wanted me to be completely devastated when I got my visa and that we would cry together. When we got home I told Sister Gale that I thought that I had just talked to the Prophet. Haha, he is sooo inspired and so uplifting! Then we had exchanges this week and I got to be with Sister Romney!!! It was the best!! She was one of my companions in the very beginning and it was so cool to see how we have both changed and grown!It is so cool she really understands me:) It is hard to believe there is only one more week left in this transfer....I can't believe it....it blows my mind.<br />
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We had an awesome miracle this week with a former investigator. She was just not ready the last time we met with her, but felt a prompting to go and see her again. So we did and she was home and let us in. She said that she had been thinking about us earlier that day She has been through a lot with her family and her husband is in prison (he is a member). She is so lonely in her little trailer home, but we finally had a lesson with her and she felt the spirit so strongly and even cried. She is ready for change and we are ready to help her get there! She almost came to church yesterday, but was not feeling all that great so she didn't go. :( But I did give her one of my skirts because she said that she would not have anything to wear.) I just love her sooo much! She is so precious and I just almost cried when she didn't come to church because I knew that she would feel God's love for her there. It was so cool. We also had another miracle where we were looking through the potentials in our area book and randomly picked one to go see. We went and she was home and we had a bomb lesson with her! We even got a return appointment with her! It is sooo sweet! We are being extremely blessed out here in Goochland. I cannot believe this last week and all the things I learned! Man...I wish I could just write it all down in words what I learned.<br />
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We just found out that WE CAN NOW GO TO THE TEMPLE.But there are restrictions..haha, we can only go with our converts who are going for the first time and we can go at the end of our missions with President Wilson. Cool, huh? We were all so excited about the change and I hope that I get the opportunity to go!<br />
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I heard that someone in my old YSA ward mentioned me yesterday in testimony meeting and that they had received a letter from me. A while ago I just felt like I needed to write her a little note and so I did. I love the spirit and when it directs us to do stuff and then when we do it, it is for a purpose! I think that is my favorite thing about being a missionary. I don't think I have ever let the spirit guide so much in my life. I also think that I have felt so many promptings in my life. You get them all the time and about lots of different things. I think I am finally learning to discern the spirit now. It is just so cool how much you spiritually grow as a missionary. I am also working on finishing the Book of Mormon for the second time now on my mission. My companion and I were talking this morning about how we wish we had more time to study in the morning. Mom, have I ever said that in my whole life? no, I have never really enjoyed studying:) Missions are cool! Haha, I am glad I came on one even though it is definitely really hard. We put these black name tags on and it is like immediately we are targets. Immediately people try to tell you all these things that they think are wrong with what we believe (most of those are not really what we believe by the way...) and satan tries sooo hard to get us. He gets in our heads, but is is also cool how I feel like doubts as a missionary don't stay long. Just because we feel the spirit so strongly and we see how this gospel can effect peoples lives. We see the change it makes and how much joy it can bring. Satan sure is a dumb smart guy. Haha<br />
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OH MY GOODNESS I FORGOT MY FAVORITE PART OF THIS WEEK! This sweet older lady made a cat sweatshirt for me. A CAT SWEATSHIRT! It is the best ever! I will take a picture and send it to you:)<br />
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Good news also I haven't gained a single pound out here on my mission. That makes me sooo happy!<br />
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Well, I love you all sooooooooo much! Have a great week! I miss you, but will see you in a short 10 months:)<br />
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-Sister Siepert :)<br />
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Everyone has dogs here!!! I love it!! Some have Labs but mostly they are pitbulls. I am finding out they are the sweetest dogs. I really love Pitbull puppies:) The dog in this picture reminds me of my dog Duke at home:) I really love him and really loved him as a puppy:)</div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14139287674069470971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1102357625421799151.post-87768661497643915472014-01-27T10:02:00.001-08:002014-01-27T11:49:20.450-08:00Snow in Virginia!Hi Everyone,<br />
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We got snow this week and it has been super cold. The kids here were out of school for a whole week. A WHOLE WEEK! It was finals at a lot of the schools, so they were super lucky kids:) It was interesting, we really didn't get that much snow. It is a lot like Oregon here they just don't get a lot of snow so it kind of freaks everyone out:) This kind of threw our whole week off. In fact the cars in our mission were grounded on Tuesday so we had to stay home and we watched "The Testaments" It was kind of fun:) The rest of the week we had people cancel on us like crazy and no one wanted us out in the snow. The roads were a little icy, but definitely not as bad as we thought they would be. I used this time to catch up on letters. I am glad to hear that people got them already. I had quite a stack to catch up on.<br />
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To answer a few questions:<br />
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I still don't have my own money card due to me being a Visa waiter. They put my funds on my Companions card. I get my money every two weeks and we get $69. I wish I had my own card but I guess it helps me keep track of what I spend.<br />
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My testimony has certainly grown while on my mission. I think the greatest thing I have gained a testimony of is that I can rely on Heavenly Father. Out here we don't have the normal things like music (the music I used to listen to), tv, movies (other than church movies) to help us cope with things. It gets pretty quiet. We have to get over it with the help of the Lord. He is always willing to help us out. It is cool because I feel like my testimony has grown on the little things that as members we take for granted. Like the Sacrament. I was watching the Young Men pass the sacrament yesterday and there was this new Deacon passing who was SOOO excited to pass it. He was basically running down the isles. Haha, but the thought came to me that those young men should all be doing that. They have the opportunity to pass a sacred thing around to remind all of us about sacred ordinances we had made at Baptism and also in the Temple. Those sacred ordinances sometimes get over looked, but they are so beautiful and such a wonderful gift from our Heavenly Father. He has taken a time in the meeting for us to think about them for a reason!<br />
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The things I have enjoyed the most on my mission is that I get to take time to read the scriptures every morning and I get time to focus on what is important. I get time to also serve others in ways that I have never before. I get to tell others about Jesus Christ and introduce another testament to them so they can grow even closer to him. I also have had time to really think about life and about what I want in life. Who I want to be, what I want to do as a career, what kind of person I want to be. It has really been life changing!<br />
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Like I said this week have been a little messed up due to the weather. We did get to meet with one of our investigators L, who told us she is really trying to quit smoking and we haven't even taught her about the word of wisdom yet!! She is so prepared and you can see a difference in her countenance! She loves the gospel and loves how is can help her raise her children. She has two busy little boys. I played the game dead deer with them (when you tell them to be still and the one that moves first loses) My cousin used to play that with all us younger cousins. Haha I have to say Alison that is an inspired game! Haha<br />
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This week we also got a ton of referrals which is sooooo good! We are excited for it to help us out! We have had a good week, but I am glad it is over and I am glad to be starting a new week. Week four of the transfer! I can't believe it is past half way done!!! Whatttt? Time is starting to run away from me and I am now coming up on my 8 month mark in a week and a half. I am not sure how this all happened, but I am grateful for it. Read Hebrews 12:1-2, it is really good! Heavenly Father loves us and is proud of who we are all becoming! just keep enduring! LOVE YOU ALL!! Have a great week! :)<br />
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-Sister Siepert<br />
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We got Pedicures this week at a place in Goochland at a place called "Beyond Spa." They did a really good job! It was kind of funny there was a TV basically right in front of us. We tried not to watch it, but it was right in front of us. It just reminded me that I actually don't miss TV that much. It is kind of terrible sometimes....the standards of the world are changing and changing and it is getting sad. Satan is really good at his job.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq-Lzaqkx5l3Rqw7xj0WP8WT8R8yYTEc2welBPk9ANWeSaxjncuIQc5ELwHoZXvJct90c1lBamUWyw4CoKgrHlxFA_LZ1W0CD3eIAEbMUgG440G_NtbS3rjE06_sHe1xphhnuM8JRkq_A/s1600/DSCN2722.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq-Lzaqkx5l3Rqw7xj0WP8WT8R8yYTEc2welBPk9ANWeSaxjncuIQc5ELwHoZXvJct90c1lBamUWyw4CoKgrHlxFA_LZ1W0CD3eIAEbMUgG440G_NtbS3rjE06_sHe1xphhnuM8JRkq_A/s1600/DSCN2722.JPG" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
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Yep it is snowing here in The Gooch. No I haven't gained a ton of weight I just have many many many layers of clothes. Yes Katie did say that:)<br />
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More snow in the Gooch:)</div>
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