Sister Ariel Dearden: January 2014

Mom was busy and tied up, so you get two of her letters this week.

January 13, 2014

So this week has been pretty great. Not too much has gone on but it has been very productive.

Monday was p-day of course and it was really nice. That evening we spent family home evening with the Rs and all their extended family. It was really fun with all the grand kids there. We tried to visit a few people but no one was home. Oh the Rs took us out to dinner that night. They made me get a Slurpee as a drink. I was joking with the waitress to make it festive so she put a super cute gummy bear on the top. It was fun.

Tuesday was zone training. It was really good this transfer. A lot of things were pointed out to us as to how we can improve. So we are going to try and apply everything we learned more into our daily lives. Tuesday we also got to meet with this older couple that is preparing to go to the temple and we are only going to have one more lesson and then they are off soon. It is exciting. We also go to meet with a less active family. They are pretty much amazing and told us all kinds of stories. It was a really funny night but we had some good spiritual time to. I also took Sister Vere to Reeds Dairy for the first time so she could enjoy some real ice cream. I think I may have ruined her because now she is going to get crap ice cream compared to Reeds. Oh well though.

Wednesday was great. We got to go to the temple that day. We wanted to go before it closed for 2 weeks. It was really great. We got to go with Sister A who said she was planning on going soon anyways and really needed the invite. So it was great. We went out to lunch at my new favorite sandwich shop that I can’t remember right now. We also got to see J that day. And then that night we had our first lesson with G. He is a 9 year old boy who really wants to get baptized. Sister R came with us and it went awesome. His parents are inactive and really want to start coming back. It has been great to teach them.

Thursday was weekly planning which is always fun! That afternoon we got to meet with another little girl who wants to get baptized. They are super cute her sister is 8 and wants to also. Their date is set for the 25 of January. We are trying to get the family to start coming back to church to. That evening we had dinner with the Js and they made Grandma's Noodles for us. It is my all-time favorite food. Mashed potatoes with Chicken Noodle soup over it. YUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMM! That night we met with T who we have been working with for some time now. She is supposed to be getting baptized this week on the 18th so we are really praying that it will go through.

Friday we had a really productive day. We got to meet with a lady named M. She is physically disabled and in really bad health but she just got to go through the temple again in 20 years. She is awesome too! Anyways that day we also got to see J again and our friend G is back. Friday night we got to go visit the less active family that we saw on Tuesday. It was a blast and a half. Our object lesson totally fell apart but they got the idea which is what matters. We were troopers about it to.

Saturday we tried to contact a lot of people but again no one was home. It was sad but it’s okay because we got to visit a lot of member's and get some referrals.

Sunday was great. We had 2 investigators come to church which is awesome! The sacrament meetings were really good too. That night we got to meet with G and his family again. It was awesome. His dad wants to be a part of all the lessons and the lesson we gave last night was the Plan of Salvation and after the parents told us that they learned a lot more than they thought they would. They are also keeping all of their commitments which is AWESOME!

So this week has been really good. We had a lot of lessons that went really well. The sad news is that we are getting our car taken away so no more driving. It has been fun while it lasted but hopefully they will see that we get a lot of work done when we have a car. Let’s hope at least.

Anyways I love you all and I miss you all but keep on doing your missionary work and reading your scriptures every day.

Sister Ariel Freaking Dearden.

So I lost my name tag probably about 3 months ago and we were just strolling along and we found it. We probably walked past it a million times.

Just taking a quick break.

A little taste of home.

Just warming up in our nice car.

Lots and Lots of snow! Sister Vere is loving it! ;) NOT

Blue Skies!!!!

Temple Day! It was dumping snow!

My festive Slurpee!

January 20, 2014

Hello Everybody!

This week has been AWESOME! We have had a very productive week.

So Monday was great we got to have a very fun Zone activity. We played volleyball and a little bit of basketball. Then that evening we had a great lesson with a less active sister. We went over to Sister R's house and she had mentioned that she was talking with a young sister who is completely inactive. She wanted us to stop by. So a little back story this last week I have been thinking a lot about the spirit and if I am willing to follow every prompting I have. I think I am one that just pushes some stuff off in my head thinking it’s just me being weird. Any who so I have just been kind of keeping that in the back of my mind. We drove past the house and it looked like all the lights were off so I just said let’s go home we have to be in in 10 minutes anyways. So we passed that street and seriously as soon as we passed the street I got this prompting that we should go back. It wasn’t a huge prompting like the car just stopped or anything but I could tell it wasn't me. So we turned back around and went and knocked on the door and sure enough she was home. She has been wanting to come back to church and anyways we totally know that it was a prompting from the spirit. It was crazy because I was praying for an opportunity to act on a prompting and sure enough I got that one. Kind of AWESOME huh?

So Tuesday was great, we had a fantastic District meeting as always. We had some really good practices that day. We had to give our car up that morning so it was kind of sad. Then we went over and had our last lesson with this older couple that is preparing to go to the temple. They are loving the lessons and were really sad that we are stopping but invited us over for dinner so we will still get to see them. We then went and had a lesson with a less active brother and his family. He has had a pretty rough life but had an experience that really freaked him out and he realized how much the church means to him. So we are starting to teach him. He is AWESOME!

Wednesday was super awesome. We finally met with a sister that was supposed to be getting baptized on Saturday but she said she didn’t feel ready and we didn’t feel like she was ready either. So we called it off. We got to see a less active family that night and set a time for the little boys baptism so that was really AWESOME. They are loving church and so excited to be coming back. We also got to give a Church tour to a kind of less active family. It really let them feel the spirit and they participated a lot.

Thursday was good. We had a lesson and it cancelled so that was unfortunate. The Sisters who's date we dropped, her sister met with us that night. And we taught her the plan of Salvation and it was super awesome because that is exactly what she needed to hear she said. She loves knowing that Heavenly Father has a plan for her. It was a really good lesson.

Friday was really good. We got to meet with 6 of our less active or inactive families that day. It was AWESOME to work with them and feel the Spirit.

Saturday was pretty great. We had a fantastic lesson with a less active family who really wants to start coming back. That afternoon we finished our lessons with the T family who are less active but their girls want to get baptized. So we are working with them. Their baptism is coming up pretty soon. That night we had dinner with a sister who is working towards the temple. It was awesome to work with her. And she had a non-member friend there that goes by the name of S and it was super fun to be with them. They are from the south so it was really good food. We had ribs with this super amazing coleslaw. Yyyyyyyuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmyyyyy!!!!

So Sunday was great. We had amazing talks in all the sacrament meetings and all of our investigators with dates came to church. It really ended this week well and I wanted to share this story with you. I love it and I think that it applies to all of us.

I love and miss you all stay warm and bundle up!

Love Sister Ariel Dearden

January 6, 2014

Ni Bula Kece! (That means Hello)

Happy New Year!

Can you believe that it is already 2014? I honestly can’t. Where did 2012 go? So this last week has been fantastic! Monday was a pretty big day. We went shopping and got to hang out with Kelsey all day long and it was awesome! That morning we went out to breakfast with a recent convert, Sister KD. She is pretty much one of my favorite people ever. She cracks us up and is so excited about the gospel. She knows how to make life fun. We went to this little famous restaurant, Smitty's, and they are famous for their pancakes. So of course we got pancakes and they basically kicked IHOP out of the boat. It was AWESOME! anywho that night after spending all day with Kelsey we went out to dinner with the Js! Yup more J time! It was really fun. Then we ended up having to go home so sister Halbison could pack some more.

Tuesday was kind of scattered. We had a morning of cleaning and packing and packing some more. But we got to go out to lunch with Sister R for some tacos. If you don’t know I am really missing the good tacos. So she took us to this one place that was a little sketchy but they had the best tacos i have had since we have been here. Then after lunch we had to rush over to an appointment and it went really well. We are working with a couple that have been inactive for a long time and are now preparing to go to the temple. They are loving it and I don’t know if I have ever seen anyone work so hard to catch up for the years they have lost. They are on fire. That night we had a lock down party. We had to go to the church and watch some movies because of New Years. It was really fun though. We watched Brave which was just adorable and then The Croods. I didn’t care to much for the Croods but it was cute. Then that night we wanted our companionship to go out with a BANG so we went over to the Bs and watched them send off some fireworks. :) It was pretty fun.

Wednesday was a start of a new year and a start of a new transfer. I got my new companion and Sister Halbison fed me to the wolves. My new companion is fantastic. She is from Fiji and speaks great English. She isn't afraid of anything and just wants to get some work done. At the transfer site this sister just came up and hugged me and I had no idea who she was. It was Sister Meredith's old companion and she knew who I was. It was really funny. Her name is Sister Tipton and her great uncle or something like that is Kent Tipton in Sonora. Isn’t that funny? Well Wednesday was all P-day so we went shopping and got Sister Vere all unpacked and stuff so that was really fun. Sister Halbison left almost immediately. It was sad but exciting at the same time to get a new companion. That night we had set it up to go over to dinner at the A's and we had Wendy’s. It is going to be a new tradition now that every new missionary that comes to this area will have Wendy’s over at the A’s for their first meal. It’s just kind of a super funny inside joke.

Thursday was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! We set 2 dates and got 2 new investigators. We made sure that Sister Vere would have a great first day so we worked super hard and got 2 dates set and 2 brand new investigators. We were super excited. It also helped that we got a car too. But we have the car for a few weeks. So we showed them that we get stuff done when we have a car. So yeah Thursday was great.

Friday was slow. That morning we had a Train the Trainers meeting and that was really fun because we got to see President and Sister Brinkerhoff. It is always great to see them. Nobody was home on Friday so we only got 2 lessons but it was fun because we got to visit with KD that night. She got to meet Sister Vere. KD is preparing to go to the temple so it was been really fun working with her and answering all of her questions.

Saturday was pretty slow to. It seemed like everybody has been making last minute trips for Christmas break. But we got to go to Reeds Dairy and have some real ice cream. I will try not to mention how good that place is. But while we were there we saw a less active family we have been working with. The kids were so excited to meet the new sister. We also got a mini lesson in so it was really good.

Sunday was great. We had a 6:30 am meeting so that was not fun at all but it was a good meeting. The times of the wards were all switched up so we were super confused all day. We then had meetings straight from 2:30 - 4:30 so that was really fun! We had an investigator at church too and that is AWESOME! We also got to bear our Testimonies twice on Sunday so that was really great.

So this week has been really interesting. As Sister Halbison and I separated we were talking about all the good times we had as a companionship. That caused me to reflect on my entire mission so far. It has been great to look back and see how much we have accomplished and to see how much I have personally grown. I took it a step farther and reflected back on the last year and I realized how oblivious I am to the preparation i have had in my life to serve a mission. He has prepared me in tons of ways to come here and serve. I have been completely oblivious to those trials and tests that he has given me to grow and to become the person he needs me to be. I am so grateful for those trials that he has given me because without them i wouldn't be here i know that for a fact. I am so grateful for this gospel in my life and for the opportunity that I have to share it with the wonderful people here in Idaho. It has truly been the best 3 months of my life but also the fastest 3 months of my life. This next year is going to go by really fast but it is also going to be the best year. I can just feel it. :)

Alright well au lomani iko ( that means i love you!)

I miss you to and make this next year the best year yet!

Sister Dearden