Our Booth:)

Karen's Baptism!

We brought Arlys to the baptism!

We made cute decorations!

The Kearney Crew!

Mission Mamma <3

ANOTHER TESTAMENT OF JESUS CHRIST

Hello everyone:):)

 

Another week... time is WAY TO CRAY-CRAY!

Perks of YSA branch.... we don't get glares if we use slang terms... haha But I promise I really don't use it a lot.... #hipster

 

It's been a great week. Mostly because it started off with ZONE CONFERENCE!!!! One of my favorite things about missions. I love President and Sister Weston SO MUCH!!!! I knew when I first received my call and found out that they were from Logan, UT, that there was definitely a reason as to why I would need to meet them. They have changed my life. I love them so much and seeing them always brightens my life.

 

 It was another incredible ZC. As a mission, we are focusing on the BOOK OF MORMON even more-so than we ever have before. As Presdient Weston has said, we're "flooding the missions with the Book of Mormon" My testimony of this book has increased sooooo much stronger after this week. It's been insane.

 

I'm only carrying a Book of Mormon with me everywhere I go. No longer carrying around my quad. Which was difficult at first, but really the BOM is all you need. President has asked us to get our own brand new copy of the book and start from he beginning again as a mission. Reading at least 5 pages a day and focusing on any mentions of our Savior Jesus Christ, and the word HEART. Because we're focusing on the atonement and how we can receive a change of heart through the Book of Mormon. So just like he's challenged all of us... we're challenging the branch to do it with us..

 

and... I'M CHALLENGING YOU!!!!! If you start today- reading 5 chapters a day. You'll finish with us around the first week of December. Right before Christmas and soon before my return back to the land of Utah. DO IT!!! I can PROMISE that as you focus on these things, the Book of Mormon will continually refine you and change your heart to be one with His. I challenge you!! I will be sending updates weekly on about where you should be at in the book and we can do it together.

 

This is what President sent us today: "Today is our start of reading the Book of Mormon together! Please invite all to read with us (your family, friends, members, part member families, investigators) 5 pages per day ending on December 8, 2014. Center your reading on The Atonement and having a change of HEART! I know our Mission will be drawn nearer to God as we abide by its precepts. "

 

Really, I'm not kidding... do it with us! Start over:)

 

I had the strongest urge to go up in zone conference and share my testimony of the Book of Mormon when they opened it up at the end for testimony meeting. The spirit is incredible.

I love the missionaries here so much!! It freaks me out that at each end of the transfer, some of my best friends are heading back to their home-lands.... oh my..... SO SAD. BUT It's incredible to see them!!! I heard from the sisters that re-opened my Yankee Hill!! They are doing incredible. I am SO GLAD that that area re-opened since we left. It was so great to hear about all those I love that are there:)

 

Jose called us this week... he got challenged to do the "ice challenge" and made us come dump a bucket of ice water on his head... haha it was fun:) They we urged him to start reading the Book of Mormon with us as well. He is progressing a lot more than he has in the past. It's so great:):)

 

We helped Sister Hall can jelly this week. EXCITING! Learning life skills and all...

And then we helped Sister Robinson pickle cucumbers! WHOO for canning season!

 

School at UNK starts TODAY!!

We helped move in all the new freshman this last Friday. Spent ALL DAY on campus carrying totes and refrigerators and all that jazz into their dorm rooms. hah made me think of my first move to college. How grateful I am for my fam that I had to help me!!

There was this one family in particular that we helped. they were from Grand Island and the girl, Amanda, is a freshman. Her dad was sick, so it was just her and her mom. Keep in mind that the floors in these dorm rooms are CEMENT. Well, we helped them haul a LONG actual role of carpet up 3 flights of stairs and we laid carpet for them in this tiny dorm room. It was CRAZY!! Hah So all those just moving off to college... I hope you didn't forget your carpet! We stayed with them for an hour building all her furniture and lugging up a futon as well. It was crazy:) So hopefully we'll see her around campus!

Later that night was the "Blue and Gold Banquet" and all the clubs and teams had different booths set up. We had one as well!:) We handed out over 500 pass along cards and gave away about 17 Book of Mormons! YEAH! I talked to this guys from Brazil who has only been in America for about a week and was able to place him a Portuguese Book of Mormon. FUN STUFF!!

 

The Family Sisters had a baptism this week! For Karen:) We were teaching her daughter Kendyl. It was incredible! When we were on exchanges one time, I had the opportunity to teach Karen and it's been so amazing to see her growth in the gospel. She had been SO PREPARED and she was BEAMING as she came up out of that water. She thanked me especially for reaching out to her daughter. We both know she'll come around one day. :) I love them tons!

 

We also went to a funeral this last week... man, looking back, it's been the CRAZIEST week... hah

An old man from the family ward, Brother Phillips passed away :( He was the sweetest! He always stood at the entrance to the chapel on Sundays with his HUGE glasses (he was pretty-much blind). He'd grab your hand and do his best to stare into your eyes and he listened to your words SO deeply. I love him lots.... we had to opportunity to sing his favorite song, "I Believe In Christ" at his funeral. It was really good. Is it weird to say that I have really  NEVER been to an LDS funeral... ? Brother Phillips I think was one of my first.

 

We served at Goodwill this week and as we were sorting through and putting away books, there this young girl with this giant stack of books. She LOVES to read. She's a sophomore in HS and I talked about how my mom was a librarian, and began to tie in the Book of Mormon, she desired to have one, so we ran out to the car to give her one. You NEVER know who is searching for the truth. I love YOUNG WOMEN soooooooo much.. And I'm grateful that my Father in Heaven has given me the ability to be able to connect with them. They answer so many of my prayers.

 

Yesterday at church was exciting! One of my besties in the ward- Marleyna Dinkle submitted her mission papers<3 and we found out that one of the kids in the branch that never really had the desire to go on a mission, was influenced by the spirit and one of the members and has also decided to serve. That makes about 6 or 7 from the branch that have decided to serve or have started their papers since I've been here <3 It's the BEST!!

I feel so blessed that my father in Heaven hast trusted me enough to allow me to serve in a YSA branch. There are so many miracles and it's incredible to serve with the young adults in this world. Their testimonies are SO STRONG and many of them are way more prepared than I ever was to serve. I would never trade this experience for anything!!

 

The Book of Mormon is our shield and our sword.... I didn't have a solid testimony of it before my mission, but I urge all of you to get one. NOW it the time. We cannot wait. The prophets have commanded us to read it every day. Only through reading it will our hearts and souls be changed. Mormon 10:3-5. The Book of Mormon brings the spirit to us and the spirit will tell us the truth of all things. Will unfold the mysteries of God unto us when He wants them to be unfolded. This is the time to Prepare to meet our Father in Heaven. We aren't on this life to EARN Heaven, we are here to LEARN heaven. Learn as much as you can so that we will be more prepared to meet Him. Make the scriptures and prayer your #1 priority. Even if you've read the book, read it again. We will NEVER be finished reading it. I promise that the Lord will bless you with the things He sees you stand in need of. Our weaknesses are shown unto us the more that we learn, but our Savior only shows us our weaknesses so that we can, through Him, make the stronger. (Jacob 4:7) I KNOW without a doubt in my heart that this book is true. It's what we use to FIGHT and to DEFEND. Two in one!! I know that it testifies of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and I know that ONLY through his name, will we make it to live with our Father in Heaven again.

 

This is my testimony, In the name of my brother and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

 

I love you all! I'm excited to hear your experiences if you choose to start the book over with our mission:) I KNOW miracles will happen and missionary opportunities will come your way!!

KEEP GOING STRONG!! keep on Keepin on!!!

-Sister Checketts

 

A poem that was sent to me: MY FAVORITE!!

 

A mission is a strange experience
It is a trial and a test.
A mission throws at you the worst
Yet, teaches you the best.
I've never been so happy,
I've never been so depressed.
I've never felt so forsaken,
I've never felt so blessed.
I've never been so confused,
Things have never been so clear.
I've never felt my Heavenly Father so distant,
He's never been so near.
I've never been so discouraged,
I've never been so full of hope.
I feel I could go on for forever,
I think I've come to the end of my rope.
I've never had it quite so easy,
I've never had it quite so tough.
Things have never been so smooth,
Things have never been so rough.
I've never traveled through more valleys,
I've never ascended more peaks.
I've never met so many nice people.
I've never met so many freaks!
I've never had so many ups,
I've never had so many downs.
I've never worn so many smiles,
I've never had so many frowns.
I've never been so lonely,
I've never had so many friends.
BOY, I hope this is over soon,
GOSH, I hope this never ends.

 

... it's true.

 

Pic: the crazy branch that I love so much!!

 

REST.

Hello Everyone:)

 

I hope this finds ya'll in good spirits! Seems like Satan can cast the gloom on us super easily.

 

Lift up your hearts and rejoice!!

 

I need to be taking a taste of my own medicine as well:)

 

This week has been hard.... Not for any one particular reason... just hard. Sometimes a missionary has just got to BREATHE, ya know? People sometimes forget that we are human too... I never thought missionaries were human when I was younger. They were SUPERHEROS, but guess what..... we're human.

 

There isn't a ton to say that we did this week. I've just been getting all these thoughts from Heavenly Father that I need to slow down and take care of myself.

 

Having Sister Muasau leave was HARD. Not only for me, but for the whole branch. She was AMAZING at spreading her love to EVERYONE and getting everyone to open up to us. I think it's just a Polynesian thing.. that's what my zone leader thinks too... haha they just have the sweetest culture. And I've been trying to keep up with everything and it's wearing on me.

 

School is starting here soon and so we've been saying goodbye to all those who are heading off to Provo and Lincoln etc for college. We have a huge lack of investigators. They all started dropping us about a week ago. We're doing our best to find, and we have a lot of activities in the upcoming weeks to get out and involved with the "Welcome Back" activities at UNK. We'll actually be setting up a booth and such at their "Blue and Gold Night" when all the clubs come out. So we'll have a lot more college students to try. We're helping them all move in this week as well. Like all day on Friday- we're a part of the "Loper Move-In Crew". So we'll be up and going again with all that soon.

 

I've been receiving the messages from my Father in Heaven lately that "We need to take care of ourselves before we're able to help others"... which is funny, because that is what we have been trying lately to teach allllll of our members for the past month... they easily forget about themselves... and while teaching them, I didn't take a taste of my own medicine, so now I'm paying for it.

 

Sister Goldsberry has taught me a lot lately about the POWER that is behind the Book of Mormon, and she's teaching me how to slow down and take time to REST.

There is a HUGE power behind the Book of Mormon. Somehting that I even have a hard time explaining. It feeds not only our soul, but it gives us power physically. Satan is CONSTANTLY throwing stuff into our heads, and it's when we are TIRED and sick of fighting him back, that he is able to get in. The Book of Mormon is a way that we can continually fight back. We are memorizing scriptures left and right so that we can constantly keep them in our brains and FIGHT BACK. We taught one of our LA's who I love so much!!! He found out that he will be spending time in Jail for 3 months for something that he is totally innocent of. He was just taking care of his kids, but he has to serve his time. He doesn't yet have a firm testimony in the POWER that comes from the Book of Mormon, so before he goes behind bars in November, we're helping him to gain that testimony and he is memorizing scriptures with us, so that he doesn't change into someone he doesn't want to become while he is locked up. I love him.... he can do it...... I know he can. The word of God is powerful!!!!! (Alma 5:5)

 

We've been learning to play some more piano this week.... Our Piano player left to move to Provo yesterday, and no one else knows how to play.. except Lane- one of our LA's. So we're trying to get him back to come and play during sacrament and he said he'd think about it. But in the meantime... we're practicing a few songs every so often... Why in the heavens did I complain about my piano lessons so much when I was little that my parents said I could stop.... DON'T QUIT PIANO LESSONS. Haha

 

We played softball on Saturday and the first time I was up to bat and ran to first that day... I pulled my quad.... Yeah.... So there was another sign that Heavenly Father is all "Sister Checketts, slow down!!" It's been bothering me, but it is getting better, so no need to worry!

 

I've realized the importance of taking care of myself lately.... so I've taken extra time to think more about me- how I gained my testimony of the gospel and what the main desires behind my actions are. It's hard because I don't like to think of myself.... I've been fighting that my whole mission and now it's time to remember who I am. Subconsciously, Satan has been getting in my brain and giving me anxiety about things that are to come.

 

Heavenly Father NEVER ceases to show his love to us though even when we are in the tough times. He has surrounded me with people that know exactly what to do to help us. Sister Goldsberry has so much knowledge that she has shared that is helping tremendously. I have learned so much. And the 2nd councilor in our branch presidency talked to me for a long while yesterday about what I can do to push through. He's AMAZING!!!!!!

 

Don't be afraid to ask people for help. And most importantly, BE GRATEFUL IN YOUR CIRUMSTANCES!! Sometimes I have no clue really what's going on, but I do know that I will learn from it, and I do know that this is for my good-- for whatever reason.

 

Just NEVER GIVE UP!!!!

 

I've been reminded of a lot of cool things lately.

 

First off-- my FAVORITE scripture cluster Matthew 11:28-30 says "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you REST"

 

And by no coincidence, I have heard a LOT lately that "Just do your best, and Heavenly Father will do the REST"

 

Those two ideas have been mixing in my mind lately. And again, by no coincidence REST is also in the word RESToration.

 

There are no coincidences in the gospel. Heavenly Father knows all and He knows what He is doing. Take the time to take care of yourself. Take time to think and ponder about life. "BE STILL and know that [He] is God!" The Restoration of this gospel is the greatest thing that could ever happen to us. It is the ONLY constant thing that WILL help us through ANY and EVERY trial we face. TURN TO THE GOSPEL, and you will find REST in Him.

 

I love you all. Keep your heads high. LOOK UP, and I'll try to do the same <3

 

It is hard--- but it IS worth it. Don't give up.

 

Love, Sister Checketts

Deja-Vu!

Talofa!!!

 

Hello everyone:) Soooooo this week has been crazy, THEY ALWAYS ARE!!!!

First off, Happy Birthday to my sweet Sister, Kelly!! And to my dear niece, Annelise this last week:) I'm sorry if I miss birthdays, people... I'm so bad with dates... hah

 

AHHHHHH Sooooooooooooooo many emotions this week....!!! I've been on a major roller coaster. I'll start off by just somewhat going through the week:)

 

Monday we were able to teach our dear friend Kylee's best friend Jordan, the restoration. Kylee is on her mission in Ohio, so she gave us Jordan as a referral and it's soooooo great being able to teach one of our friends, best friend!! Jordan really enjoyed the restoration and we have another appointment with her this upcoming week:) WAY TO BE AN EXAMPLE KYLEE!!!:):)

 

That night we had FHE, Oh man, Muasau and I were SOOOO EXCITED for FHE!! We'd planned this AWSOME lesson:) A lot of the members in the branch have been holding onto drama and things lately and we just want them to LET IT GO --- yeah, you're probably singing the song now ;)) But, we asked them what the difference was between a trial and a burden.... Burdens are something that we hold on to, something that weighs us down. When we hold onto our trials rather than just growing from them and moving on. We need to let our trials go. So my dear friend, Eliza gave me some advice one time to write a letter to myself as if it was from my Heavenly Father, so we had them all go off into separate places at the park and write a letter to themselves. It REALLY helped out one of our members, Andee and she came crying on my shoulder because she had extremely felt the love from Father. (Thank you Liza <3) Then I was able to read a poem that my dear friend, Chakell had written to the whole YSA and they all loved it and wanted a copy of it (So thank you, Chakell) So YA'LL ARE CHANGING LIVES OUT HERE IN NEBRASKA!!! yay for friends <3 But then at the end of the lesson, Muasau and I had purchased some balloons and we had them go up to the top of this SUPER tall tower at the park here and we all tied our "burdens" to the end of the balloon and let off our balloons. It was SO GREAT:):) And we found out that another church had found out about the idea and they were doing it for an activity this week... haha sooooo we pretty much rule Kearney... lol jk:) But it was an awesome experience. One of our LA's that hasn't been in FOREVER was there and he really enjoyed it.

 

Muasau cut her long beautiful hair this week!!! She's crazy:) But I love her SO MUCH.

 

We got a text from Ruben this week..... it was so sad.... he said he wanted to stop investigating because he didn't feel welcome in the branch. He said if it was any other ward/branch, he would probably still be investigating, but for right now, he has stopped. It's because of a bad break up that he had with one of our members... SO SAD. We love him so much!!! But he'll start again once things cool off. He really is doing this for him, it's just hard to be around the branch members that are such good friends with his ex. #datingdrama #welcometoYSA

 

We had dinner at our friend Kaylie's house this week.. her husband is in the Navy, so she's by herself A LOT. She had us over for dinner, fixed us alfredo, and when I went to put pepper on it (yes, I'm my mothers daughter) the grinder broke and all the pepper kernels went all over my plate.... needless to say I smelt like pepper for a good while... haha and it was a VERY seasoned meal. Musasa was laughing so hard.

 

We got a call from one of our dear friends, Cornell who is now living in Lincoln. He called one of our members so he could talk to us. He hasn't been going to church again lately because he is having really  small issues with the commandments that are holding him back from agreeing with the church... We explained to him that the commandments aren't "rules" to follow, we know that Heavenly Father has a MUCH greater knowledge than we do, so we should trust him and so what he asks us to do. We keep the commandments because it shows how much we LOVE our Father in Heaven, and it shows that we know that they prophets are true. I miss that kid...

 

Then we got transfer calls.... Dun Dun Duunnnnnnnnn.

 

We got a call Thursday morning, we both pretty much knew that Muasau would be leaving:(:( We had anxiety about it all week! Haha. Our Zone Leaders called to let us know that Sister Muasau was moving to Sioux City, Iowa and I would be staying in YSA with........ SISTER GOLDSBERRY!!!!! Yes, my MTC companion!!:)

 

I was SHOCKED. Literally. And I know I was shocked because when the conversation was over.... I was all "Thanks elders! Love ya!"....... then all we heard was LAUGHING on the other end...... had I seriously just said that????? HAHAH we were laughing so hard..... Muasau goes "To make this less awkward.... I love you too, Elders!" hahahahha #MostEmbarrassingMoment Yeah, I'm gonna hear about that forever.

 

So yes, Sister Goldsberry and I are together again! She was my MTC companion for 5 days and then she went home from the MTC because she twisted her ankle.. She came back out about 4 months later. So she's accident prone and she laughed sarcastically when she realized how many sports we play.. haha She gets sick a lot, already lost her cookies once... but we're doing good:)

 

I had never cried so hard when I had to say goodbye to Sister Muasau.... :(:( She became my best friend and I totally miss her lots. The YSA is NOT the same without her. The YSA actually threw her a little surprise party at Sonic that night. It was the FUNNEST thing ever!!

But not only did she leave. BOTH of the Elders did too :(:( Our whole group got separated and we found out today that this is the biggest change in transfers that has taken place in this mission. So we have 2 new elders who are white-washing, and one of them is a greenie. Kearney is SO different!

 

Sunday was soooooo funny yesterday though. Our branch is the BEST!!! Our YSA does NOT know how to manage time... they show up late to EVERYTHING, so we're trying to work on that. We were supposed to have 3 speakers yesterday, but the first two speakers each went OVER 10 minutes in their talks, so not only did our third speaker not get to speak, but we went over 15 minutes after sacrament was supposed to end.... hahah

 

And #onlyinYSA do you hear the gospel compared to Star Wars, Goonies, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings and then have the next speaker stand up and call the last speaker a "gangster" and "thug" in a good way OVER THE PULPIT. hahahahhah

 

Yup, #WelcomeToYSA Sister Goldsberry!!

 

This has probably been one of the hardest changes for me to go through on my mission so far. Which is surprising to most, because I've opened 2 areas, trained, and then had to switch areas in the MIDDLE of the transfer. YSA is intimidating and now I'm having to do it without Muasau-- EEEEK. She was just MADE for YSA.

 

So this will be fun:):)

 

Sister Goldsberry told me this awesome quote though this morning that goes:

 

"Life is like a piano, the good times are the white keys, the hard times are the black keys, but a lot of times we forget that it's BOTH the white and black that make the music"

And not only is the piano ALWAYS there and ALWAYS playing, but if we play it well enough, in the next life, we'll have an ORGAN. :):)

 

I love you all!!!! I thank you so much for all your love and support. I LOVE GROWING and CHANGING and I know each of us do that every single day.

 

Good Luck to those starting school again! Remember to always make the gospel #1 in life and your studies will come sooooo much more clearly. I PROMISE!!

 

Love you all!!

Stay sweet!!

Love, Sister Checketts

 

#LETITGO

So Far Apart!

#BESTFRIENDS

Bye Sister Muasau:(

We Make Life Fun:)

#favoritemissionaries!

#Service

Service with the Elders. This is Elder Tatafu and I. HIs video on youtube is viral.... hahah :) #MissionariesLipSinging

For service, we tossed like 2,000 bags of clothes from one Semi truck into another.... it was PACKED FULL!!! Crazy stuff:) My arms were so sore....

#MARLEYNA

One of my most favorite members EVER!! She puts in her papers this month <3 She's changed my life!!!

PARTY

That's truly what serving in YSA is. A party! Haha but like with every party, there is good and bad and fun and sad! So in that case, I guess LIFE could be a party.

Anyways...

We had a MUFASA PARTY this week!! My dearest, loveliest, bestest friend companion, Sister Muasau turned the magic 22!! "She's feeling twenty-twooooooooo" Bust out some T-Swift for me!

We had a lot of fun:) She said her prayer in the morning by her bed and I stood behind her with my hands full of confetti. When she finished "POOF" HAPPY BIRTHDAY to her:) We took a special dinner out to Flippin' Sweet for her and had lots of fun stuff planned. ALSO, that night, for FHE, we had planned the "Shai-Palooza" with Shai.

There is a park here nearby that has an AWESOME stage, so we'd planned with Shai, to put on a real life concert for her that we could invite EVERYONE to and help her get her name out there even more and that would be our FHE activity. Her mom said I should come back after my mission and be her manager. Haha I'm totally down with that:)

So we had a sweet concert that night that SO MANY of our Less-Actives came to. So we got to help them get fellowshipped and many of our potential and real investigators came too. It was a perfect turnout!

Shai had a bake-sale going on also to help her raise money to get out her new CD and so we made a huge batch of my famous pumpkin cookies (Thanks mom ;)) and gave those to her. EVERYONE was going crazy about those cookies... haha We took the leftovers to District Meeting the next day and the Elders freaked out and ate them all.

So the concert and Muasau's birthday was the best day ever!:)

So, can I just bear my testimony to you about fasting for second?? When we first got our new branch presidency a couple of months back, we did a branch fast that we would be having more strong members come join us at church. FASTING + PRAYERS ANSWERED!!!! A new kid moved in this week. His name is Luke! His on a full-ride scholarship to UNK for wrestling and he returned from his mission 6 months ago from Argentina.  He is SO missionary minded and has the craziest personality! So he fits right in with the branch!! He was best friends with everyone by his 2nd day here! And the first day here, he came out on team-ups with us! He's a LIFESAVER!!! It's incredible!:) Not only did Heavenly Father send us someone, but he sent us someone PERFECT for this branch. He's bringing everyone even closer together!

Now, you have to remember, we're in a  Young Single Adult ward.. so all the girls have been after the new kid. haha it's quite humorous to watch, but wonderful:)

One of our members who left our branch here a few months ago to serve her mission in Ohio, sent us a referral last week for one of her best friends, Jordyn that she is writing, so we kept that referral very special, because it's our dear Kylee's best friend and went to go meet her this week.

We first knocked on her house, and no one answered. We were sad, because she lives an hour out of town, so we were hoping we could see her and not have to drive back again for another attempt. But there was no answer, we started to drive away when we saw a kid out working on his car on the other side of the house. So we pulled over to go talk to him. He was Jordyn's boyfriend.  He said that she WAS home and went inside to go and get her. So Kylee's friend came outside and by golly, we are SUCH good actresses:) Kylee didn't want us to tell Jordyn that she sent her, so we had to pretend we were just tracting into her and we did so well! We ended up "figuring out" that we all knew Kylee and she is just SO proud of Kylee and her dedication. We invited her to take the lessons to learn more about what Kylee was teaching and SHE SAID YES!!! So we actually have an appointment with her TODAY, we'll be leaving around 2 to drive an hour out of town to go teach Jordyn the restoration. THANK YOU KYLEE!!!!! We are so excited. It is soooooo fun being able to teach the members that we love so much--their best friends, because we feel the love that our members have for these people and in turn, we feel a greater love for them right off the bat! She's in good hands, Ky <3

We taught one of our Less-Actives, Alex this week. He is such a great kid! He grew up in the gospel, but is struggling to find a testimony of his own. He knows he needs to, but doesn't make the effort to. He's at that point in his life that I think a lot of us have been through, where nothing is really WRONG in life, but he isn't truly HAPPY either. So we talked to him a lot about that stage in life and how he needs to just make the effort to try to understand Jesus Christ better. He said that nothing is really holding him back from trying, he just usually won't do it. There is nothing there stopping him though. So we explained about Satan and how he always places just little excuses in our life so that we won't take that one more step forward to try the gospel. So we committed him to read and pray every day, and come to church and all activities for ONE week, and see if things change. To just TRY out the gospel. He came to church yesterday!!!!!:):) He has a hard time opening up to people, so it will take some more time, but he's getting there <3 We love him!

We are also teaching this kid named Eli-- one of our recent-converts new boyfriend. He isn't too interesting in CHANGING because of the things he's learning, but he's mostly just listening to gain knowledge. Which is a start:) And the way he talks, the father and husband that he wants to become one day, is exactly what the church can give him, so he'll understand:)

Ruben-- he's still doing well:):) He's still recovering from Surgery, so we haven't seen him in a while, but he's still reading the Book of Mormon.

Our investigator, David, I'm not sure if I've talked about him a lot. He's great:) He's a crazy kid.. hah LOVES to tease us.... but he comes to all our activities. He was going to be baptized right before I came to YSA but then his family said he couldn't because he had been lying to the missionaries. He was still smoking and wasn't really keeping commitments like he said he was. Well, he has improved A LOT in the last few months. He's been reading at least a verse in the Book of Mormon every day and has QUIT SMOKING for 4 weeks now:):) He was at church yesterday, and went up to bear his testimony. It was the best thing ever <3 <3 It's been amazing to see him progress and to be able to witness his testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon and how that book helped him overcome his smoking was incredible!! He's set for baptism on January 2nd, so we're still working towards that, but he's coming:)

Lately, we've been teaching a lot about self confidence and independence. I am so blessed to have been raised by a family who taught me a lot about independence. I'm grateful to be an independent person. Many people here have a hard time when they don't have someone to rely on. The gospel teaches us to seek for others help, but only after we do all we can. We must strengthen our independence and in doing so, we come to realize more fully the power of the Atonement in our lives and come to appreciate our Savior.

I encourage you all to take time to feel the spirit EACH day. Take time for yourself. Show yourself that you love yourself, build that self-confidence. When you take time to have just you and the spirit, your independence will strengthen and your relationship with our Savior will increase. HE is who we should rely on. Never settle for less than you deserve.

Romans 8:16-17 We are joint-heirs with Christ. And with Him, we can reach the potential that Heavenly Father sees in us, which is MUCH greater than the potential we see for ourselves.

YOU ARE WORTH IT!!!

Transfers are this week. Pretty POSITIVE I'm staying and will be helping another sister adjust to YSA life and Sister Muasau will be leaving me :(:( I am so brokenhearted.... she's the BEST and we have so much fun together :(:( Everyone is so sad.... she has taught me communication, boldness, and confidence, and SO MUCH MORE. She's has literally changed my life....... I'm nervous to train another sister for YSA. It's an adjustment!! Muasau will do awesome in a family ward though... she has been in YSA her whole mission so far. So we're both nervous! BUT WE CAN DO HARD THINGS!!!

My mission mamma, Sister Brough goes home this week.... HOLY COW!!!!!!! Bye bye trainer :(:( That is crazy.

I love you all!! Have a great week!!

-Sister Checketts

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#Shai-apalooza