It's supposed to snow next week.  That's what I'm told.  Tracting in the snow....hmm....

Who loved conference?!  MEEEEEE!!!!!!!

I could write a whole post about the different talks, but I shan't.  I just talk about a few.  Who didn't love Uchtdorf's talk?  I think it should be a requirement for all investigators to read it.  And Ballard's talk about missionary work?  I know what you're thinking, "well you're a missionary.  Of course you're going to love it."  True, but it was so fresh and new.  And EVERY MEMBER A MISSIONARY!!!  So what now?  Read it, study it, apply it.  Faith is action!!!!

The list goes on, but I'm going to say just go watch conference yourself.

Last week was a slow one so not a lot of exciting new people, just some exciting old people!

First, Glennis has been calling us with daily updates on her reading.  Then on Friday she called us and told us she was halfway through Mosiah and, get this, that she's starting to believe that the Book of Mormon is truly the word of God!  She told us that it's been staring her in the face this whole time.  LOVE IT!!!

Second, Claudia.  Oh Claudia.  So we haven't taught her in about a month and a half and haven't had contact with her in over two weeks.  We were worried.  Now she was out of town for a while and then trying to catch up on clients (she's a massage therapist), so she was busy.  We stopped by her house on Saturday to let her now that conference was going on.  She invited us in right away and told us she had just finished watching the Relief Society broadcast and how much it choked her up and that she was recording conference and she was coming to church next Sunday.................. Yah, that just happened.  We were floored.  And so excited!  Her trip was to Arizona and she stopped and saw her member son for a brief moment and told him that she was meeting with the missionaries and had tons of questions for him.  So even though we weren't in contact with her, she still had the church in her life. 

Until next Monday,

Sister Trop

James, an investigator let me ride in the firetruck.  He is a captain at the Edwardsville firestation.

Fall Is In The Air 9/30/2013

I feel like I begin almost everything with a comment either about the weather or time.  I will try to abstain.  At least until the middle of this post.  Things are progressing in Edwardsville.  I find with every two steps forward, you take one step back.  I have to keep reminding myself that we still have people progressing and we are still helping people.

First up, the Relief Society Broadcast.  If you missed it go to lds.org and watch it!  Right now!  Stop reading this!  It was so amazing and exactly what I needed.  The whole time I was thinking that my friend Michelle (our upstairs neighbor) needs to hear this.  She was supposed to come, but some stuff happened and she couldn't.  But we called her before we went in and tried to help her and told her to read Jeffrey R. Holland's talk Broken Things To Mend.  After the Broadcast we called her to see how she was doing and told her we were buying a pizza and coming over to help her.  She told us that she had something she wanted to tell us, but it needed to be done in person.  We told her to start watching the Broadcast online.  When we got there she told us the most exciting news ever!  She had been trying to really focus on God in her life because with her being so busy with school and work, she's neglected him.  She said that she had been thinking and praying about this decision and when she read Broken Things she knew it.  She wants us to start teaching her!!!!  Sister Felt and I were so excited but had to play it cool.  It was torture!  She got all her concerns out and we tried to help her the best we could.  She came to church yesterday and she liked it.  I hope she comes to know this gospel is true and love it just as much as I do.  And Michelle, I know you stalk missionaries, so if you find this and don't want your name on my blog or to be written about, I'm sorry, just tell me.  I'll change your name or just not write about you!.....LOVE YOU!

We had a lot of lessons this week and they've all been amazing!  We met with Alex and we found out that the house she is living in, which is very nice, she owns.  Let me tell you a little about Alex.  For one, she's 19 and for another, she's 19!!!  What?!  I'm 22 almost 23 and I don't feel like I'm old enough or mature enough to be a homeowner, let alone live by myself.  She's crazy awesome and way mature and smart and independent.

Glennis came to church yesterday and because she's not been doing very well health wise, we asked Bishop Ryan to give her a blessing.  She wanted one so bad, but didn't want to bother anyone with it.  You could see the desire in her eyes though when Bishop came up and asked her if she wanted a blessing.  So we went into his office and he talked a little about the priesthood and how blessed we are to have.  He then gave her a blessing and the two of them talked for about 30 minutes about Christ's sacrifice for us.  It was so wonderful to be able to be there and hear the blessing.  It was so wonderful and Glennis was so grateful.  Seeing someone receive a blessing for the first time and the beginning appreciation they have for the wonderful gift of the priesthood is such a testament to me.  I think because I've been a member all my life and have always had that in my life, I have definitely taken it for granted.

It was a pretty amazing month and I can't believe it's October tomorrow (thought I'd forget, did ya?).

Until next Monday,

Sister Trop

End of First Transfer 9/23

Wait, what?!  It's already the end of my first transfer!  That has got to be the quickest 6 weeks of my life.  And I'm only told it gets faster from here.  Pretty soon, I will have been out here 6 months, then a year, and before you know it I'll be coming home.  It will be kicking and screaming, I'm sure of it.  Gah!  I don't even want to think about it!

The work is hastening!!  You hear that so many times as a missionary and boy is it true.  We are finding more and more people to teach each week.  Glennis is doing wonderful.  She is almost done with 2 Nephi.  She is just chugging along in the Book of Mormon and absolutely loving it.  She especially loved the Isaiah chapters in 2 Nephi.  Maybe I can get her to explain those to me.  We're also teaching a couple from Iran.  They know pretty much nothing about Christianity except that Jesus was a good guy.  And I thought teaching the Plan of Salvation to someone with a Christian background was hard!  But they are really great, and truly want to understand.  And let me tell ya, hearing stories about their lives in Iran really makes me grateful I was born here in the States.  We don't have to worry about being thrown in jail for attending a different church one week.  One of their questions for us was what was going to happen if they went to one church one week and another church the following Sunday.  You don't do that where they are from.  They've been living here for 9 months and they've never attended church because they were afraid of what would happen.  We assured them they could go to any church they wanted and that hopefully they would be welcomed in all of them.

No exciting adventures to talk about this week.  Well, I think missionary work itself is an exciting adventure.  But I mean I haven't done anything too exciting on p-day in a while.  Glennis wants to take us on the Old River Road up to Grafton when the leaves start changing.  I love fall!  It's going to be so awesome here!

Another fun story:  we went and visited a member in the ward, Brother and Sister Cookson, to drop off a copy of Preach My Gospel.  We got talking to them about missionary work and Brother Cookson started telling us stories from his mission.  He served on Navajo and Hoppi Indian Reservations.  When they first showed up the Elders of the tribe were astonished with the information they were telling them because that's information that only tribal elders are supposed to have and here are two young boys that have all this wealth of information.  So because of that they were welcomed into the tribe and they told them their personal stories and such.  So the Hoppi Indians, what they tell visitors about their "creation myths" or how they got where they are is that they came up from ant holes or something like that.  Or they say they came from the Grand Canyon, I don't know.  But apparently their real story is more like the story of the Jaredites and coming over water in a boat that is "tight like unto a dish."  How crazy is that?!!!  Bro Cookson also said that some of their ceremonies are similar to endowment ceremonies in the Temple.  Once again, how crazy is that!?!

It has definitely been fun.  Until next Monday!!

-Sister Trop

This is my first district out in the Mission field.  From left to right:  Elders Fisher, Voorhis, Bessendorfer, me, Sis Felt, Elders Pack, Eidam, and Christiansen.

Blog Post Whatever 9/16

We had another baptism this Saturday!  Once again, it was the elders', but I'm still excited about it!  Tommy asked me to speak about the Holy Ghost.  I hope I made sense.  I talked about how our sins go into remission like cancer and the Holy Ghost is like a pill to help us get better and keep the symptoms under control.  It sounded a lot better then, trust me.

We've been working a lot on making sure we encourage the members to do missionary work of their own.  We've been helping them brainstorm ideas of how they can share the gospel with their friends, neighbors, and family.  I hope they get as excited as I am about sharing the gospel.  We've also been continuing seeing less actives.  We found one who actually lives around the corner from where I live.  He's older and lives in an assisted living, or group home.  He was happy to see us and let us share a message with him.  He was originally a convert to a church and we asked him why he joined.  He told us it was because of the testimony of the missionaries and the Book of Mormon.  I then asked him if he still had a copy of the Book of Mormon which he said he did not.  I gave him a copy and the look on his face when he held it was priceless!  I know it's going to be a journey and a struggle to get him to come back to church because it's been seven years, but I'm not giving up on him!  He still remembers a few people in the ward.  We went and talked to those few people on Sunday and they were shocked!  One of them had been trying to track him down for years.  Another one was so overjoyed she almost started crying.  She had though that he had died a few years back.  It's kind of crazy and sad how these people can fall through the cracks.  We made sure that he now has home teachers and we're going back this week to visit him again.  

In other news, our 70 year old investigator dropped a bomb on us the other day.  Apparently she can speak in tongues.  She also has a hard time understanding that even though she think she did, she did not get baptized with the proper priesthood authority.  It looks like we didn't go over the apostasy as well as we should have.  But she came to church on Sunday and is excited to come back!  The ward members were so great and welcoming with her.  The Bishop made sure he came right up and introduced himself to her after Sacrament Meeting.  She couldn't stay for all three hours but plans on staying next week.  Well two weeks from now.  Next week is stake conference, which she wants to come to as well.

I also have a new best friend in my upstairs neighbor.  She first made friends with the elders who lived in my apartment before sisters were whitewashed in.  She's super funny and really smart.  She's my age and a grad student in some sort of complicated branch of market research.  I think it's called syndicated data analysis.  

We play volleyball every Friday together with the elders in my area, a few ward members, and some investigators.  We all suck really bad so it's kind of hysterical to watch.  It's a nice change of pace when Elizabeth Hampl, who's an athlete at SIUE, comes and plays with us.  Suddenly we do a lot better.  I'm pretty sure she'll be an olympic athlete.  She's way talented when it comes to sports and is a nationally ranked shotputtter.  Is that the right term for that?  Don't know, don't care!

And thus ends another exciting report from the sleepy town of Edwardsville.  Until next Monday!

-Sister Trop

P.S.  I'm SUPER excited for fall!  There are so many trees here, it's going to look awesome.  And I'm told I have to go drive the Old River Road in Alton because it's beautiful and bald eagles nest there!!!

Blog Post 9/9

Hello from Illinois!  Boy is it humid!  The past week was not bad at all.  Kind of hot, but not as humid as the previous week.  Today though we've had a few storms so it's like I'm walking through a vat of pudding.

Sister Felt and I have really been working on improving the area.  We've been trying to contact more less actives to help build up the ward.  We've decided bringing them some sort of chocolatey goodness was the way to go.  So far, we don't get in much.  But we did just find out that some less actives have actually requested missionaries!  Woo hoo!  We also do a lot of member visits.  Just trying to build up relationships and trust with the members of the ward.  (P.S. give missionaries referrals!  They love it!!!  Member referrals are always the most effective because they have an automatic fellowshipper in that member.)

We have a new investigator and she has the strongest testimony ever!  I don't remember if I wrote about her, but we found her tracting in a trailor park.  We knocked on her door and she said that she wasn't feeling well.  She was about to shut the door when we told her we were missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  She opened her door, came out, sat down on her steps, and asked us if we prayed for people.  We told her that we do and with tears in her eyes, she asked us to pray for her.  She continued to explain that she had had cancer twice and that she noticed a new lump forming and also that she had hurt herself earlier that day trying to move something.  She was having a hard time breathing.  She then went on to bear her testimony to us about how God knows us, loves us, and how we have a purpose on this earth.  About how our purpose here is to align our will with God's.  I have never heard a stronger testimony.  We prayed together and she stood right up and took a deep breath!  She was amazed as were we!  We've gone back multiple times to teach her and each time, I am amazed at how close of a relationship she has with Heavenly Father.  On Sunday the 1st, I invited her to be baptized.  Eek!  My first invitation to be baptized extended!  I was so excited and knew that I was supposed to ask her.  She said, holding the Book of Mormon close to her chest, "As soon as I know."  We go back regularly not only to teach, but also just to read the Book of Mormon with her.  The amount of personal revelation she receives is astonishing.  I'm so excited for her to read more and to learn that this is the true gospel restored to this earth.  She told us the other day that she had been praying recently to know the truth.  She's read so many different versions of the Bible and has been to so many different churches, but none of them have fit.  She truly has been prepared.  It's amazing to see it the Lord's work unfold.

Last Monday was Labor Day and we decided to have a big zone p day!!  We went into St Louis to the City Museum.  For those of you who have not heard about the City Museum, go look up pictures right now!  It's basically a giant jungle gym for people of all ages!  It was built in an old building using only recycled materials.  They have slides made out of old air conditioning duct work, walkways out of rebar, and walls made out of old railroad spikes.  They also have to fighter jets outside that you can climb through.  The slides were probably my favorite part.  There was a ten story slide and one outside that went really fast.  They had an outdoor part that reminded me of the Lost Boy's treehouse in Hook.  I should be getting pictures that other missionaries took at a later date.  I'll make sure they get posted.  It was so much fun, if you are ever in St Louis, go there!!  Then we went and got smoothies and there was a big group of teenagers outside.  One of the sisters I was with started talking to them and telling them about the church.  They weren't really interested, but then they saw my shirt (I was wearing a Doctor Who tshirt) and they thought that was pretty cool.  Then as we came back out the asked us if anyone one of us was into anime.  I told them I used to really be into Full Metal Alchemist.  All of a sudden I was being bombarded by youths.  They were hugging me and then wanted to get a picture with me.  It was the funniest coolest thing.  I then told them by and told them to check out mormon.org.  They were a lot more eager that time to find out about the church. 

So basically, this mission is awesome.  I'm loving it, even on the days when we don't really come into contact with anyone who's interested.  It's all about planting the seed!!

Until next time,

Sister Trop

P.S.  I've been told a few times I do well in East St Louis.  I definitely don't think so and luckily I won't find out because they don't send sisters there.