Monday, August 4, 2014

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
Pic:
#Shai-apalooza

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