May 5, 2014

We've been given homework!!!  LOL

5/5/14

Wow this week has been so BEAUTIFUL!!!! The weather here is so nice. I have to say Iona is just amazing too. It is the perfect little city. I think my favorite part though is the people. They are seriously just AWESOME! They are so down to earth and so friendly. They are also really ready to do missionary work. 

Not to much has happened this last week. We were able to attend Missionary Leadership Council. It is when all the Sister Training Leaders and Zone Leaders get together and council over the mission with the president and his assistants. It was really fun because we were able to reflect on this last months push to reach the Standard of Excellence. Really good stories and lessons have come out of this. 

This week we also were able to find 3 new investigators. We have been trying to meet this family the whole 5 weeks we have been here and finally mom was home and we were able to visit. It was great to see them and set things up. They have 3 daughters that are all young women age and they all want the discussions. It was amazing to see them get excited about the gospel. The spirit really guided us there and we were able to show them that we really do love them. Something they all said is that if we do this they don't want to feel like a number they are real people and we made that really clear. So hopefully they feel comfortable with us. 

What else this week? Not a whole lot has happened. We were able to reach most of our goals. 

So I have wanted to follow up with you on something that was said in General Conference. Do you remember Elder Ballards talk?

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/following-up?lang=eng&query=elder

So now that you have read the talk you know the 2 things I wanted to talk about. The first main thing is do you have a Preach My gospel? and if not go get one or it's free online. Second thing is are you studying it? I think your answer was probably not. So I'm telling you to start right now. I want you to go to page 172 and we are going to do an activity together. The second bullet point down is the one I want to do. So get a piece of paper and write down 5 names of people you want to help introduce to the church. 

Now pray as a family to know who each of you can help. I want an email next week from each of you telling me what your answer was and what you are going to do within the next week to help them come closer to their Savior, Jesus Christ. It could be anything such as invite them to mutual, invite them to family home evening, invite them to read the Book of Mormon, or invite them to a church activity. Whatever you and the spirit decide to do i want to hear about it. And don't think I'm not going to follow up because that's my favorite thing to do. :) Alright well im excited for this and I will keep you updated on what I plan to do in my missionary efforts back home. 

I love and miss you! Keep on being amazing! 

Sister Dearden

April 28, 2014

Crazy how time flies.  This week has literally slipped away. I can't believe I have been in Iona for 4 weeks now! And transfer calls are this coming week. Crazy stuff!

This last week was really good. We were able to reach a lot of our goals and improve a lot with everything. It is nice now because we are working on finding more people to teach and let me give you a little insight. Finding is not the missionaries job. We are set apart to teach, its the members job to find. So find people and the missionaries will be happy. :) The members here are great though they are really working hard on finding us people to teach. Seriously Iona is amazing!

This last Saturday I was also able to go back out to Eagle Rock and see Lindsay H be baptized. Lindsay was our Golden Contact about 2 months ago. She had a few questions and was convinced that maybe in 5 or 10 years she might be baptized. She even said our first visit with her that when she knows the Book of Mormon is true she wants to be baptized. And 2 months later she was. It was so amazing to see her and her family come together over this. Her husband is a return missionary and went inactive for a few years. But this has brought him back. It was so cool to see them all together and happy. And in 1 year they can go through the temple!!!!

This week we also finished our exchanges. It was kind of weird being with Sister Barnett on Friday. But it was awesome at the same time. Can I just tell you I think we have the best sister missionaries in the world serving here. Especially around us. They are just incredible and I love them so much. 

What else can we report on! Oh okay so we spoke in a sacrament meeting with our ward mission leader. First thing you have to know about him is he was in the band Cheap Trick before he joined the church. That explains a little bit about him. He is a amazing guy, very expressive. So he decided to write a 22 page talk and it was amazing then he limited it to 8 pages and then when he got up to speak he didn't even use his talk. It was one of the most amazing talks I have ever heard. He got the ward fired up and it was one of the best sacrament meetings I have ever been to. Also he brought us lunch and gave it to us over the pulpit. He told everybody we need help and more help than just lunch we need people to teach. Anyways it was just amazing and we will see good results we think.

So I don't have to much else to say. This week was just really busy but super awesome! This area has so much potential and I'm so blessed to be serving here.

I know that this church is true and that Jesus Christ really is our Savior. I know that he is with us every step of the way and that in our hardest times we can lean upon him. I know that Heavenly father wants us to return to him so he gives us every tool we need. If we read the scriptures and pray and follow the prophet we will receive eternal life with our families. I know that this time on earth and the trials that we go through is just a blink of an eye of eternity so there is no reason to not repent and come unto Christ. I love you all so much and i miss you greatly!

Quote of the week.
"As we read and ponder the scriptures, we will experience the sweet whisperings of the Spirit to our souls. We can find answers to our questions. We learn of the blessings which come through keeping God’s commandments. We gain a sure testimony of our Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ, and of Their love for us. When scripture study is combined with our prayers, we can of a certainty know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true."

• —Thomas S. Monson, "We Never Walk Alone"
  Topics: Prayer, Scripture Study

Sister Dearden

April 21, 2014

April 21, 2014

Hello everybody! This week has been amazing. It has seriously been so beautful and everyone seems to be happy!  Maybe because it was the week before Easter but I think it was because the weather.

 

Anyways Iona was fantastic and I absolutly love it here. We finally were able to meet our goals this week so we are hoping the work will pick up a little now. It has been really slow finding our way around and meeting new people. But we are working on it.

 

This last week we had a fantastic baptism of SF. She is 11 and acts like a 21 yr old. I love her to death. She was literally counting down her days till she was baptized and she posted it on facebook i guess. It was awesome. The more awesome part of this whole story is that through out this last week we have been meeting with her and her grandparents. Her grandma Sister S is one of the funniest most down to earth people i know. She is a tough little thing to. I'm scared she might beat me up even thought she is 2 feet shorter than me. Anyways she is inactive but lives the gospel like no other. She is a pain in my neck too because she won't come to church and I have told her that, LOL  (For some reason I can hear Ariel telling her that). But the amazing story is is that her husband isn't a member and unfortuanltly has had some hard times with missionaries in the past but he is warming up to us. We get hugs from him and when the missionaries that were at the baptism saw that that knew him freaked out because I guess he has never even spoken a word to them. So we were stoked when we heard that.

 

So he came to the baptism and it was amazing. I don't know how you wouldnt be able to feel the spirit there. It was so strong and I know that he felt it. So we go about our day and then Sunday we pull up and our other investigator pulled up also so we screamed and were super happy. So we go in and then walks in Brother S with SF and we almost peed our skirts we were so happy. I guess that is the first time ever that he has gone to church. We almost died with the joy we were feeling. It was an amazing Sacrament meeting too and he mentioned after to someone that he needs to get Sister S out to church more. And maybe he will come again. It was a miracle and we were so excited.

 

So what else happened this week. On exchanges we held a baby goat and chicks. That was pretty fun! Oh we also were able to share the Easter video with a ton of people. It was amazing! If you haven't seen it then you have to. And to those that think it's going to be all about Mormons it's not.It is just an amazing video of Christ and all that he does for us. the website is mormon.org/becauseofhim

 

So I will just share a short little quote I heard that I thought was perfect for Easter

"Should we scold a toddler for stumbling? No! Neither does our Heavenly Father." Dieter F. Uchtdorf

 

I loved this because I think it applies to all of us at one point or another.

 

Anyways I love you all and I miss you!

 

Sister Dearden

 2 day old baby goat.

 My amazing companion that tends to steal my camera on occasion.

Sister Ikimau from New Zealand.

This is Sierra. Love her to death!

The S clan. Grandma said she has never seen Sierra Smile so big.

This is what one of our wards did for their ward parties. This is only half the fire.