Monday, November 25, 2013

Give Thanks :)

Hello all:)
 
First off, I hope ya'll have a tremendous Thanksgiving! It's going to be a different one out here, that's for sure, but you can bet your bottom dollar that we WILL be getting fed... holy cow are we going to get fed... We have a Thanksgiving on Wednesday night, 2 on Thursday (one of which we are helping to serve at the YMCA here in town), and 1 on Friday.  YAY FOR FOOOOOOD.
 
This week has been good! They are always good! There are always miracles:) It has been a slower one though. We weren't able to see as many people as we had planned.
 
Monday, we made orange cookies! Sister Carpenter has an awesome recipe! We always take the cookies we make around to all our people, and they all just loved them. YAY for orange chocolate:) Also, Monday, I chopped my hair off-- like for real this time. It's short:) CRAZY.
 
We did a lot of service this week. INSIDE service as it is getting SO COLD!!! -10 wind chill the other day. Yikes. So we hung pictures, helped cook, and painted inside-- helping out our investigators and less-actives.
 
We are teaching this AWESOME FAMILY!!! We started teaching their 14 year-old daughter before I even got to this area. She is such a great little girl. The more and more we went over to her house, to more comfortable her parents got with us, and NOW we're teaching them!! They are a family of 6, without a car, so it's a little tricky trying to figure out how to get them to church. They probably won't be able to come till the beginning of the year, but they both have church hopped for YEARS trying to find the right one. When we began teaching them, they were amazed at how our doctrine lines up EXACTLY with things that they have come up with on their own after jumping from church to church. She mentioned that our doctrine is what they have always believed- wrapped up into one church. They love it! As of now, they are taking the gospel VERY logically, but we're focusing on how we can get them to FEEL it. To recieve answers from the Holy Ghost and to have it revealed in their HEARTS that this is true. They are great though and I love them:) They have their daughter and 3 other little boys.
 
There are 2 boys here that have cute little crushes on me... hahah they're the cutest. :):)
 
We made a couple of CD's this week for our young women investigators. We put a playlist together and had a member put it on a CD for us to give to them with some uplifting music and a little note from us. It was fun! And in the process, this member made US some CD's-- so we're loaded with a few new songs which is ALWAYS a plus out here :)
 
Speaking of music.... we got roped into singing in the ward choir for Christmas! I don't have a problem with it.. but Sister Carpenter isn't too fond of the idea ;) She claims she can't sing. We'll also be singing for the ward Christmas party. Us, with the Elders are putting something together, but we're waiting till after this week to figure it out because of transfers.
 
WE FIND OUT ON THANKSGIVING MORNING. I'm hoping and praying that I don't get transfered. I'm not ready to leave these people yet!!
 
It's going to be a crazy beyond crazy week... This morning we cleaned like crazy and started packing because ALL this week we will be staying with the Glenwood Sisters. Our members that we live with have a daughter that is flying in tonight, so we're getting kicked out this whole week. So we'll be driving back and forth all week and it's going to be crazy. Then with transfers we might be driving all the way back to Omaha. LOTS of driving. So we have word searches to keep us busy in the car:) I've fallen in love with word searches:) hahah lame, I know :)
 
We will also be driving back to the trail center tomorrow! I love going back to the trail center. Heavenly Father blessed me SO MUCH by allowing me to serve there my first transfer. I love going back to see the sisters and senior couples:) And tomorrow we're taking an investigator and her husband up!! We love them so much. She has claimed she will NEVER become a mormon, but it's been SO amazing to see Heavenly Father working and preparing her. She doesn't see it, but BOY do we see it!!! She's amazing! Just stubborn ;) We're STOKED to both be able to take her on a tour:):) Gotta LOVE the trail center:)
 
So I had a HUGE surprise yesterday!! Holy cow, yes. We had a few meetings before church and then we were outside the chapel chatting with the 1st councilor and the Elders when I see a familiar face walk in the door. And NOT familiar from mission life-- but from home life. JULI WEBB walked in the door. Hahah I was speechless. Apparently her aunt lives in the ward and her and her husband and family are here for Thanksgiving. Umm.... WHAT ARE THE ODDS??? In Shenedoah, Iowa... who'da thunk?? She didn't know I was serving here. So they were there for sacrament and then we chatted after sacrament and we got a picture. We have plans to go to her aunts house for a Thanksgiving dinner on Friday to share a little message with them. Sweet!  Totally blew me away, and confirmed even MORE how much I LOVE being out here on a mission and how BLESSED I am. I'm a huge believe in there are no coincidences. So it's been awesome to see why Heavenly Father has put me right here right now and what surprises he ALWAYS has in store for me. :)
 
I absolutely love this ward... we're like one big family and they make me so happy. I'm nervous for transfers this week. I don't know what I am going to do if Sister Carpenter leaves :(:( And if I leave?? ahhhh we'll see!! Heavenly Father is always good about tricking me ;) And I love Him every day for it:)
 
Love is the greatest. It's the absolute best and I am SO GRATEFUL for the charity that he has given me for all of the people that we meet every single day. Charity never faileth!! And is the greatest of all the gifts of God.
 
I thank Heavenly Father from the deepest parts of my heart for all the things he has blessed me with in the past and present and future. I've never been able to, and never WILL be able to comprehend the love that He has for me. He has given me sooooo much!! SOOOO many miracles.
 
Count your blessings <3
 
I am so grateful for you all. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU has made an impact in my life. I hope you all can understand how much I love you. We are all placed in certain positions for a reason, and you all are part of my life for a reason. I thank you sooo much.
 
Have an amazing Thanksgiving!!
-Sister Checketts

Monday, November 18, 2013

Laughing with Heavenly Father

Hello everyone!!!!
Here's the report of the SUPER FUN week in Iowa!!! :) Seriously, my stomach is like quenching because I'm trying so hard not to laugh in this silent library and I can't wipe this grin off my face. Haha MOST FUN I've had in a little while. I absolutely love it here:):)
First off... I want to talk about how DUMB I am from my last email... I told one of our investigators what I had said in my last email and now she won't let it go:) Hahaha so embarrasing. I said Labor day.... and it was indeed VETRANS day... So sorry... also, I had a spell check! I typed 'couch' instead of 'coach'. So yes, I have a super good friend out here that we are working with and he is a COUCH.... haha I'm so dumb. So excuse my mistakes as I am typing a mile a minute:)
I THINK I AM SUPER JUMPY LATELY!!! Not sure why. So last night I woke up at like 1 cause I had to go to the bathroom. I came back in the room and heard Sister Carpenter stirring an knew that she was awake. I turned around and she was standing up right next to me and I screamed. At 1 in the morning. The people we live with were proabably so confused... haha THEN this morning, we were doing laundry and pacing around the hallway trying to clean when I walked past the bathroom and totally JUMPED when I saw Sister Carpenter going in to get her towels. She has scared me SO BAD this morning and hasn't even meant to! I'm such a scardy cat! We were laughing so hard.
Then the other night, I again woke up at like 1, and got on my knees and said a prayer because I thought the alarm had gone off. Then, super confused I started to get up and ready and I looked at the clock... it was one. So Heavenly Father just got a random little prayer from me at 1 in the morning:) Ahhhh I love Him. He has been laughing with me A LOT this week:):) I'm sure He's just shaking His head and smiling at me cause I'm such a dork sometimes... :) We have a great relationship Him and I:)
WE MADE GINGERBREAD HOUSES THIS WEEK!! Definately a tradition I am carrying on every december. LOTS of work, but super fun! Our ward is giving a gingerbread house to the Mormon Trail Center and Kanesville Tabernacle for the Gingerbread Festival and it is SO CUTE!! We met with the Young Women and Relief Society on Wednesday to decorate it. I just about died because it is so cute:) We're taking a few investigators down to the Trail Center and Tabernacle to see all the Gingerbread here in the next couple weeks, I AM SO EXCITED!!! :)
We've been having a TAD more member involvement lately!! Our ward still needs to get on the wagon of Missionary Work Excitement!! But we've been working with a few less-actives that the ward is starting to get excited about:) We're trying to get them to go out of their way to fellowship!! WE LOVE THESE PEOPLE AND WANT THEM BACK!!! The Lord wants them back and the members are starting to catch on:)
We did lots of service this week too! The weather has been SUPER nice and we've put on service clothes and gone out to rake leaves. LOTS of leaves. This WHOLE town is trees and it was BEAUTIFUL and now the leaves are all over. So it's a WONDERFUL opportunity for service and we've met lots of people through it. I love raking leaves.
One of our investigtors invited us to the Soup Kitchen this week for dinner. She volunteers at the local church every thursday for the soup kitchen and so we went and met with her and many of her church friends. They are all adorable and although they make fun of us "mormons" a lot.... we love them. We just ache for them to UNDERSTAND!!
WE HAD EXCHANGES THIS WEEK!!! With Sister Call and Sister McMaster! Sister McMaster was one of my companions in the MTC so it was SOOOOOO fun to go out with her again on Friday. She's the best:) Her and I went with one of the members in our ward ALL DAY to the little towns all around Red Oak and Shenendoah that we haven't even been able to make it to since I've been here. There are so many less-actives out there and so much work to be done!! We met with a few less-actives and they want us to come back! So we just have to figure out times in our schedule and figure out our car miles so we can get back down there again. We seriously need more missionaries in this area. We're praying, and President agrees that we could use them. All in the Lord's timing:) These little towns that we went to thought are SOOO small. Each town is like a half our drive away from the next nearest town. Sister Call asked our member "What do people DO in these small towns?!" our member goes "Drink and do drugs..." haha so that explains a lot:) it's a crazy experience:)
One of the couples in our ward went out on a trip to Hawaii this week! So we got to go over a couple times and help feed there dogs. They live on a huge farm, so we had a little photoshoot while the dogs were eating. Fun stuff:)
WE HAD AN INVESTIGATOR AT CHURCH YESTERDAY!!! It's been a looooong time coming. She's been wanting to come forever but she hasn't been able to. She's 14, so we were able to go to young women with her and yesterday was the primary program. It was SUCH a good day:) We gave her a tour around the building and when we got to the baptismal font, I opened the curtain and the spirit was SO STRONG. We asked her how she was feeling and she said "I feel totally comfortable here". <3 THAT'S THE SPIRIT!!!! The members were SO wonderful to reach out to her and it was just a great day:)
Ahhhhh smiles all around:) On exchanges, Sister Carpenter was able to do A LOT as she and Sister Call stayed in Red Oak. They found a new investigator who is TOTALLY PREPARED and a while back we found this young lady that has 3 kids and her husband and she has been jumping from church to church. When we taught her the restoration she literally grabbed the Book of Mormon out of my hands and has intensly been reading it <3. Then a pipe burst in her house and they had to move. So we offered to help them move and then she never contacted us. We tried calling and could NEVER get ahold of her. We were SO SAD. But on exchanges this week, Sisters Carpenter and Call FOUND HER!!! She was SOOO glad that they found her because she had broken her phone and lost all contacts and had moved. BUT THEY FOUND HER! We're now meeting with her every week and she is SOOO going to get baptized. I KNOW IT. Miracles <3 So many of them!
I love it here... Thanksgiving is going to be CRAZY. We have no idea what we're doing... haha We are getting kicked out of our house because our family has their kids coming back home. So we'll be staying with the Glenwood sisters and HOPEFULLY having enough miles to drive here every few days. The family that we had planned to eat Thanksgiving with has 2 daughters that are having to work all of Thanksgiving day, so they are doing dinner another day. Then we had an investigator invite us over and another member, so we're still working out the kinks. It's gonna be a strange one.
Missionary life is crazy fun.... Every day is an adventure and I'm trying to SOAK UP all my time as much as possible!!!!
Life Of A Missionary:
-You NEVER stop thinking. Seriously my mind just goes and goes. SO MUCH TO DO:)
-Constantly passing mormon.org cards out. My bag is FULL of them.
-Missionaries have WAY too many journals. Daily Journal, People Journal, Comp Journal, Address Book, Study Journal, it's the best:)
-We're always baking. Everyone here loves cookies and I'm becoming a pro:):)
-We have sticky notes EVERYWHERE!!!! I have to have my sticky notes. Just bought some more:) Always writing notes and promptings
-We rate how SOLID doors are. "Ehh.... I give this one a 3 1/2. Love the color, but there is tape on the windows"
-Having bruises on our knuckles!:)
-And coming up with clever knocking songs
-Pulling out your best Happy Dance when we get to wear jeans!!
-Saying prayers at 1 in the morning ;)
-Getting the strangest stares and glares when I stand behind the car to back up my comp.
-Getting flustered when the mailman is late.
-LOVING Mondays when everyone else is hating them.
-Seriously laughing with Heavenly Father <3-- it's the best
-Obsessions with pens
-Laughing our hardest and crying our hardest all in the same day. <3
I LOVE IT!!!!!!!
I think I'm going to cut my hair again. Chop it off. I think I am. Today. I need a change and it's SO DEAD.
Guys, I love this work. I PROMISE that if you dedicate yourself to missionary work and sharing the gospel- going out with the missionaries as often as you can- That you're happiness will GROW IMMENSLY!!!! Serving others is true happiness. I promise you. Heavenly Father is SOOOOOO real. He's my Father and he gets me. Understands me. And it's the best feeling in the world :):)
I love you all! I think of you often and pray for you always:) PLEASE write! I love hearing what ya'll are up to!! Life is amazing! Face it with a smile. God ANWERS PRAYERS and just know that alllllllll the hard things you're going through and will go through.... You'll GROW through. Seriously, it's hard in the moment, but have FAITH AND HOPE and HOLD ON!!!!!!! Because you will never regret it :)
I hope you all know that I KNOW this church is the truth. It is it. Christ is THE WAY and only through our devotion to Him and His gospel will we EVER be able to attain TRUE AND ETERNAL happiness. It makes me laugh when people ask "why are mormons so happy all the time" IT'S BECAUSE WE HAVE AND LIVE THE GOSPEL TO IT'S FULLEST!!!!!! I promise that THIS is happiness. THIS is ETERNAL happiness!!!!! Just do it. *nike swoosh*.
Have an amazing week!!
-Sister Checketts:)
 
picture: EXCHANGES!!:) SO FUN

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

GRACE

Hey everyone!
Sorry you missed me yesterday. LABOR DAY!!! Library was closed.
Oh boy, another tough week in the mission field! Tough but GOOD all at the same time.
Guess what.... we have bats in our walls. They creep us out at night, but we named them Boo.. not quite sure how many there are, but they're fun.
So I gave a training in District Meeting last Wednesday!! It was "Why must our prayers be ones of faith?" Holy cow is FAITH so important. The Lord only works by our faith and we NEED to trust him. When we act on our faith, it shows that we love and support our Father and that we are on HIS team. I hope it went well:)
I don't know if ya'll remember be telling you about Jeremy? He was a miracle find. We found him one night at 8:50. Ten minutes before we were supposed to be home and we did a "Heavenly Father, where do you need us to be for these last 10 minutes??" We drove around town and I saw a man out sitting on his porch. HIM! We stopped and were able to teach him about the BOM. He said he'd tried different churches before, but none of them could he ever FEEL anything. So we gave our testimonies and he said we could come back. This was probably about 5 weeks ago..?
So we went back and he was SUPER busy with football stuff. He's a couch at the High School, so he again said to come back in a couple weeks. Well we went back this last week and he is the nicest man ever. His wife and kids go to a baptist church and because of us, he went to chuch with them last sunday for the first time in YEARS. He said they were comfortable where they were, but he appreciated us showing up that caused him to reflect on what he can do better in life.
He's the nicest man. Probably in his mid 30s and it didn't quite seem that he was interested in learning more, but EVERY meeting that we had this week, we were told to seek out those who will one day be stake presidents and bishops and our mind always wanders to Jeremy. We have a couple of members that work at the high school, so we're asking them to fellowship and befriend him. I pray so hard that we can teach him. We're going to go over in service clothes this week to see if we can do anything for him.
IT SNOWED YESTERDAY!!.... okay, like less than a half an inch. There was frost on our car, and that's about it. But it is getting colder and colder! We're listening to Christmas music now:)
One of our investigators works at the food pantry here in town on Wednesdays, so we went to go visit her this week. We met up with a lot of her friends and invited them all to attend the Gingerbread Festival that is held at the Trail Center and the Kanesville Tabernacle.
HOLY COW I AM SO EXCITED FOR THE GINGERBREAD FESTIVAL!!!!!! So all the wards around here go ALL OUT to create these massive gingerbread houses and then they display them both at the Mormon Trail Center and the Kanesville Tabernacle. We have plans to go with MANY of our less-actives and investigators up there and I am so excited to see it! It's all anyone around here talks about at Chrsitmas time.
We were able to go to Shenendoah this last week and help the Red Cross set up for a fundraiser they were doing. Set up and take down chairs. Made me REALLY miss my days in the Clinton City Youth Council... holy cow I'm so glad I got involved in that in high school. Tell Julie hi for me and that I miss her!! Service is seriously the best, you guys. DO IT. The ladies running the red cross are ADORABLE!! They are super active in their church but we gave them some great sunday school activity ideas and we believe the Elders are working with them.
On Wednesday night we were able to attend our ward combined YM/YW/RS activity where they made ornaments. We were there to help set up and the ornaments they were making were going on a ward Christmas tree that will also be displayed at the Trail Center. While setting up, I was in charge of fluffing the big Christmas tree-- momma, you would have been proud of me:) Alllllll those years of fluffing our alpine trees have paid off :P hahah It was fun. I love our ward.
We also attended the viewing of the woman who passed away last week. So sad :( I hate funerals..... but how much HARDER they would be if we didin't have the knowledge that we'll be together forever:):) <3 We got to pass that along to the family who aren't members.
Sister Carpenter was sick on Sat and Sun. We had to come home early from church and stay in all day on Sunday because she was extremely dizzy. I got a lot of studying done and wrote some letters. I was able to chat a lot with the family we live with. Holy cow I love them:) She made us soup and pudding and sandwhiches Sunday night and it was nice. It's hard not being able to get out though.
I did have a miracle on Sunday though. I love little kids and my biggest miracles come through them.
Sunday, as we were partaking of the sacrament, I was just pleading with the Lord to know that what we were doing was acceptable. It was a really slow week and I felt like we didn't see a lot of progress. As soon as the sacrament was over, a little girl named Grace (the name is no coincidence) tapped me on the shoulder to show me a picture that she had drew during sacrament. She drew two sister missionaries with her standing inbetween and says "that's us!! See! You two and me!!"
I started crying... I hadn't felt like we did a lot that week, but Grace was just a reminder and tender mercy from the Lord that we're doing well. Even if we're just being examples to the little girls around us.
This gospel is true. No doubt of it will ever cross my mind. We cannot do everything, but we can do a LOT just by being examples. Let your friends know that you are members of this church. Invite people over to your homes to feel of the spirit that is in them! I know the Lord lives and that He loves ALLLLL of His children, even when we have a hard time loving them. Pray for guidence and pray to be humbled. We have the greatest gift this world will EVER offer--- the restored gospel and the full knowledge of God's plan for each and every one of us. SHARE IT.
I love you all!! I hope you all are well and wish I could extend to you how much you truly mean to me. I'll never be able to express my love and gratitude.
Have an amazing week! You're always in my prayers.
-Sister Checketts
(The picture is Grace:))

Monday, November 4, 2013

Kelly and Elder and Sister Haworth

Find Out For Yourself!!

Hey Crazy Cats!!!
How are all of you doing? I miss you! I love you! Never forget that!!
 
So seriously, this has been one of the most exciting weeks on my mission yet. SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED AND SO MANY SURPRISES!!!!!!!! I literally don't even know where to begin.
 
First off, CONGRATULATIONS TO MY SISTER-IN-LAW KELLY!!!! I found out last Monday after I sent my last e-mail that she recieved results from her tests. HER TUMOR HAS SHRUNK!!! I was jumping for joy and now all the members of my ward out here know the good news:):) I love you, Kelly!!
 
Second off, I recieved my winter clothes this week THANKS MOM AND DAD!! I'm roasty-toasty now!! I've just got to buy some thermal socks while I'm out today... the wind picked up pretty bad last night. Have a mentioned how much I dislike wind? And I thought I disliked it in Utah.... uhhhh now it's even worse. Welcome to Iowa.
 
I also now have boots!! A wonderful member in our ward in whom I love so much works at the Kmart here in town, she used her discount to get us some boots, so I'm ready to go pretty much for the winter! Which is good because we're expecting snow this week.
 
Update on the health of the area:
Monday night we went over to a members house for dinner and Angie informed us that Lanny, an elderly man in our ward was in the hospital. His heart was having pauses and they needed to shock it to get it back to normal, but it ended up getting worse.. later throughout the week though, we went over to Lanny and Ramonas house to see how there were doing and Lanny was happy as ever!! SO much energy! They had taken him off of the meds that he was on and found out that that was what was causing the pauses. So he's feeling like he's 30 again!
 
Yesterday, Sunday, we went to church and was informed that an active couple in our ward had an inactive daughter that had passed away in the morning from a heart attack. All the testimonies were so amazing. The worst part? This father had asked us about 2 months ago (before I came to red oak) to go and visit this daughter. She used to be a super strong member and then she just lost it. He wanted us to go and visit her, but she lives in a town that's about a half hour away from us and we had never gotten the chance. And now we can't... that was a hard realization. :(:(
 
This morning we got a call from one of our friends (she reminds me SO much of grandma zuech. Her house just feels like home) informing us that her son-in-law had a heart attack this morning and was being flown to Omaha for tests. He is in investigator of ours and we just saw him two nights ago. So we're waiting for updated info.. :(
 
Lots of crazy stuff going on....
 
Okay, so cool stuff. THIS WEEK WAS ZONE CONFERENCE. BEST HALLOWEEN EVER!!! It was allllllll the way in Sioux City. Like 3 hours away from Red Oak. We drove to Glenwood so we could ride with the Glenwood sisters and then they drove us to the Trail Center parking lot where you're never going to guess who picked us up to give us a ride to zone conference..... PRESIDENT AND SISTER WESTON!!! Haha so the four of us sisters got in the Weston's car and rode with them the other 2 hours to Sioux City. Holy cow it was a blast. I love President! He is SOOOO intimidating and Sister Weston is like the sweetest person on planet Earth. The whole way to zone conference he was quizzing us on how well we know Preach My Gospel. And can I just tell you, he has like the WHOLE thing memorized word for word. CRAZY stuff. We all felt stupid. But it was so good and he was giving us all these cool insights while he was driving.
 
Then we got to zone conference. AMAZING!! It was so good to see so many faces! All the trainings were SO inspired and so many prayers answered. For lunch we had soup in BREAD BOWLS!!! I love bread bowls. And LOTS of candy-- ummm it's halloween, what else are we going to have?
 
After conference was over, we had to wait for President to do all the stuff he had to do because he was our ride. So we played some bball in our skirts in the gym with Sister Weston. We all jumped in the car and started heading home and the Pres asked us if they could take the 4 of us out to dinner... HECK YA!! So they took us to Chilis on Halloween night. We went it in and RIGHT off the bat our waiter asked us who we were. Pres told him what we were doing and he was all "Hey, i've been to a mormon service before! When I was in the army!" And by the time we left, we gave him a BOM and had him all set up with the Elders in his area. It was so funny. President is the best. We told him how our area was going and he said "Well, if the Lord wanted you to have baptisms, He would have sent you to South America!" Haha
 
So then we headed home! But it gets better.... we got a text while we were in the car from our zone leaders that said "Hey Zone! We have a temple trip TOMORROW!!! Meet at the temple at 1!" WHAT?!?! Zone conference with pres and a surprise temple trip? Yes, it has been the best week ever. We spent Halloween night with the Glenwood Sisters again and they took back off to Florence. We got to the trail center/temple early so we decided to get on the computers and get on lds.org. I wanted to test my luck with FamilySearch.org.
 
Before I go further, I want ya'll to know that growing up, my parents ALWAYS told me that we didn't have any pioneer ancestors.
 
You know how TV and entertainment and everything now adays pretty much TELL you what to believe??
 
Well... I was looking down my grandmothers line and I decided to click on a random ancestor. Her name is Sarah Jenkins James. Someone has done a lot of work and her whole story is posted under her name. I got to reading about her when I realized she was born in Wales, and died in Providence, UT. ..... So i looked further! She had joined the church in Wales, sailed across to america and left from FLORENCE, NEBRASKA with the 9th handcart company where they settled in Providence. Here I am reading this and I'M SITTING IN FLORENCE, NEBRASKA!!!! I have pioneer ancestors and it was TOTALLY spirit directed that I found Sarah Jenkins Jones-- my great great great grandmother. I was running around the trail center telling all the sisters and senior couples my discovery and saying "I KNOW WHERE I CAME FROM!!" hahaha they all probably thought I was crazy:):) (The thing I miss most about serving at the trail center is seeing all the sisters and senior couples 24/7:(:(:( ) It was so amazing. The spirit in the trail center is the BEST and it is totally holy ground. I knew then that this was part of the reason as to why I am serving in the Nebraska Omaha mission. I love the pioneers <3 They are my ancestors..
 
Lesson from this? ALWAYS FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF!!! Don't believe what the world says (unless it has to do with the Word of Wisdom and dangerous stuff.. then it's just common sense) But discover things for yourself! That's what we, as missionaries get to go around and tell people to do. WE know that this gospel is the truth, but you get to FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF!! And that's one of the greatest gifts that our Father in Heaven has given us. Don't take my word for it. You can read the Book of Mormon and pray and ask GOD and Feel and understand it all for yourself.
 
Anyway, this week was like a total mini-vacation. I don't feel like we've been in our area that much, but now coming back, we're realizing how much work needs to be done and we're prioritizing the activities that we're involved in so that we can make the best of our time. Our schedules are always SO FULL!!!
 
Saturday, we had a baptism!! So do you remember that last baptism I told you about-- the one from the Elders that happened about 5 weeks ago? Well, his mom came to our ward from Mason City Iowa to get baptized here in our ward. SHE IS AMAZING!! I love her tons and she wanted our ward to be a part of it! We got to meet with her senior couple missionaries from the Des Moines Iowa mission-- they are from Las Vegas. I love chatting with other missionaries <3
 
I love you guys.... SO MUCH and this work IS led by amazing leaders and people who are inspired by GOD. Heavenly Father is in charge and if we're just obedient, and if we're searching for Him, He will show us the way. I love the people in my area and I pray for them everyday-- and I also pray for you because I love you all. Thank you for your love and support!! Letters are ALWAYS appreciated as I don't have much e-mail time. Especially when I write novels like this... haha
 
Stay true!! And as my cousin cole once wrote on my pillowcase.. "LIVE IT UP THE LORD'S WAY!!" No effort is wasted <3
-Sister Checketts
 
P.S. Happy B-day to Shayla this week! Love you girl!