April Showers!!

Hello everyone!!

This week has been packed! I feel like it went so fast but at the same time it feels like Monday was a month ago!

On Monday, after our preparation day hours, we went to the Temple Visitors Center with the Knight family and another family in the ward. The Knight kids were going to be baptized on Saturday, but their older brother couldn't make it that day so we postponed it. We are hoping
for this Saturday! It was so much fun to ride in the car with those two. They love to talk! :) The Visitors Center is so beautiful and the video presentations are great! And of course I got a little teary-eyed when we watched the missionary story from the District series. Ayden and Caitlyn had a great time. I love seeing their family embrace the gospel and how they have grown closer to Heavenly Father. They are just so happy!

 We had an exchange on Tuesday and Wednesday with the Sister Training Leaders! Sister Gray came and stayed with me for a night. She is absolutely hilarious! She served in this area about 6 months ago so it was fun for her to be back. We have been working with all the members in the ward with creating a family mission plan so it was fun for her to say hi to a few families. I also invite all of you to make a family mission plan! Focus your goals on invites! (The things YOU can control). :)

 On Thursday we had Zone Conference with President Riggs and the APs. Everyone came prepared with a 3 minute talk on the role of the Holy Ghost in conversion... And I totally knew that I would be one of the 4 people chosen last minute to share it! That was great. :) Speaking in church last Sunday helped me feel more confident and prepared. I'm so grateful for all the opportunities I have to learn and grow! I am so grateful for the role the Holy Ghost plays in my personal conversion as well as in those I teach.

Note: On Friday I had an awesome personal study on grace in the morning. If you can find the talk "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox, READ IT. It is fantastic!!!

On Saturday we had a stake Relief Society activity! It was awesome!! Jenny Oaks Baker lives in our stake, so she spoke and played her violin for us. It was beautiful! She is absolutely amazing! She is such a great speaker too! She is just so real. She says it how it is! Being famous does have some (mannnny) stresses added onto it! ;)
In the afternoon we got to go to Whitney's baptism! (She is a 17 year old girl Sister Thomson taught in one of her previous areas). That was so powerful! The Spirit was so strong there. What an incredible experience!!
That night we went out checking on potential investigators. Boy, did it rain!! We were soaked! Water dripped all over my face as we talked to this man on his porch. It was awesome! He accepted the Book of Mormon and said he would pray about it! We are excited to follow up with him in a couple weeks. By the end of the night, my hair was a curly mess! Gotta love April showers :)

Sunday morning we had a Regional Broadcast at the stake center. Elder Neil L. Andersen gave a great talk! He talked about how we must stand as a witness of God at all times and in all things and in all places. We must be a light unto the world! We must do our best to keep that light shining bright. Pray that your light will shine on those searching for the truth!
That was awesome! We can all share the gospel just by our examples. It is so important to keep your light shining bright! Always remember to do so by reading from the scriptures daily. The Book of Mormon has POWER!

I am so grateful to be out here in the blossoming Virginia! I am starting to get to the point where thoughts of going home scare me! I have too much to accomplish in so little time! I'm so grateful for the experiences I'm having out here.
Thank you all for your prayers and love!
I hope you all have a great week! Start May with a bang!
♥Love you all,
Sister Winterton



Pictures:
1- Sister Thomson and I working in the rain!!
2- The affects of rain on my hair!
3- Sister Gray and I on exchange. We visited Sister Johnson (one of the ward missionaries!)

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Testimony Builders

Hello everyone!!!

This week has flown by!! We have been busy getting everything figured out for two baptisms that will happen this Saturday!

I completely forgot to tell you all about them! There is a family who has been less-active for a very long time and have decided to come back to church! Their two youngest kids (Ayden age 11, and Caitlyn age 10) have decided to get baptized! Woo!! :) The Sisters here in this area have been teaching them. They are so smart! It has been amazing to see the gospel change their family. They all seem so happy!! I have loved teaching their kids. We are going to the Temple Visitors Center tonight with them too! I'm so excited!

Last Monday we had a great time exploring DC again! It has been so great to enjoy the beautiful weather around here all week! The trees are all bloomed, and the green is starting to take over! It is amazing!!!

On Tuesday, Sister Thomson and I visited a less active woman who is from Jamaica! She is an older lady, and super fun! The only down side of the visit was her offer of "Bun and Cheese".... It was disgusting! It is a Jamaican Easter tradition... It is pretty much really gross, thick, dense fruit cake with a slice of cheddar cheese in the middle. Yucky! ;) Haha! I just had to tell myself the whole time: "This is just such a great experience! Mmm mm!" ...Just to keep my gag reflex from acting up!

Wednesday night we had the opportunity to go visit the Activity Day girls to see Caitlyn! She was having a blast over there! She was telling all the other girls, "those are my missionaries" after she said "hi" to us. :) So cute!!

On Thursday I had a moment that shows how hard being a missionary is! We were out checking on potential investigators, and one girl (probably about 20 years old) let us teach her a little bit. We stood there on her door step testifying of the Book of Mormon, and pouring out our souls to her! But she didn't even accept the book. As we walked away I couldn't help but start crying! It is so sad to see people reject the most important thing on the earth. She had to have felt something, you know? It just breaks my heart. But how awesome is it that I have this opportunity to go out and share my testimony with others! It only makes it stronger! :)

On the way home from a very powerful lesson on Saturday night, I had the biggest ah-ha moment of how important it is to have an eternal perspective.

On the drive home I felt the Spirit so strongly as I sat and pondered the feelings I had. We taught a 17 year old girl and her mom (former LDS) about the power of prayer. One Sister from our ward came with us. Her testimony was so powerful! I just couldn't help but think about how grateful I was to be a missionary and to feel the Spirit all the time like that. I also kept thinking about how life is just a blink of an eye compared to the joy eternity will bring. Serving full time has helped me understand eternal perspective so much better.

Anyway.. I hope that all makes sense! I like to ramble a lot.. ;)

On Sunday I spoke in Sacrament Meeting! Like always, I was very nervous! (It doesn't help that some members brought their Preacher and Minister friends from other churches who's interrogating eyes seem to pierce your soul as you stand at the pulpit!!) It was a great experience though. :) I always learn so much when I give a talk!

That night we met with a potential investigator named Deb. She is absolutely hilarious! She went to BYU when she was younger! ...We definitely see her getting baptized sometime soon! She is also a dog breeder! She had a ton of super cute 2 week old puppies that we got to hang out with! So fun!!

Well, I hope you all have a great week!!!!! Don't ever underestimate the power of prayer. :)

I love you all!

♥♥Sister Winterton

DC Lovin'

Hello everyone!!

This week has been crazy!! So many changes, and so much fun! 

Last Monday we went to DC!! It was so fun! Sister Johnson totally got sunburned..which means it was great weather! That day we didn't see much, but we did walk around the WWII Memorial. Beautiful! We spent the day with our Sister Training Leaders and another set of Sisters in the Zone. What a great day. That evening when we went tracting, we found a really nice Asian teenager who let us show him the Because He Lives video and got his number! What an exciting moment! We never get that...so it was great! 

Tuesday night I began saying possible goodbyes! (We don't know for sure who leaves until Tuesday nights, but we were pretty sure I was leaving). It was unreal saying goodbye to my Ward Mission Leader, Brother Fisher, and the Taggart family! I'm going to miss them! That night I officially got the call that I was being transferred! It never felt real until Thursday at the transfer meeting. 

Wednesday was great! I got to say goodbye and take pictures with a lot of people!! A few investigators, the Suttons, Sivleys, Salisburys, Parkers, Cananns, and many more... :) I'm going to miss them all so so much!!!  

I also packed up all of my stuff I've collected over the past 4.5 months! I can't believe it all fit! :) 

Thursday was the big day!! I was so nervous sitting there waiting for President Riggs to call my name and new companion! I am now serving in the Rolling Valley Ward in Springfield, VA! My new companion is Sister Thomson from Cottonwood Heights, UT! (And Riverton) She is great! So sweet. She has been out for 14 months. I am learning SO much from her. It is absolutely wonderful! Being in a new area is intimidating, but also a lot of fun. I get a fresh start! New Ward, new investigators! I'm so excited! We are teaching a FAMILY who is investigating the church! How fun is that?! The mom is so sweet, and really searching and reading. She read all of 1 Nephi from the last time they met with them!! Her husband is very nice, but he doesn't seem as open to change. We had one lesson with them on Sunday night. So awesome!! I'm starting to feel a little better about teaching now finally. Being a missionary is hard, but so GREAT! I cannot tell you all how much I am learning and growing! 

Something different... our ward meets at THREE! Kind of nice as a missionary actually, but very different. :) I love the ward here so far! They are awesome! The Ward Mission Leader is super great! Totally on top of things! I'm so excited to get to know everyone and serve here!!

Today we went to DC again!!! :) We went to see all the Cherry Blossoms before they all fall off. It was beautiful!! Such a great day! We went with our STLs again this week too. It's so fun to have a sort of vacation on my mission! I can't wait to take my family someday!

Well, I don't have much time left... But I'll just close with telling you all that I'm so grateful to be a missionary. Life is good!! Heavenly Father knows us so perfectly and He loves us so individually.

Thank you all for your love and support. Have a wonderful week!!

Love you all,

♥Sister Winterton

Happy Easter!!

Hello everyone!!

Hope you all had a great Easter! I sure did. General Conference was amazing! This past week has been great!!

On Monday we had a Sister's sports activity with all the Sisters in the mission! It was so fun to play some basketball and ultimate frisbee! That night we had a mini miracle! We found a new investigator tracting! After 2 doors of Catholic "anti-" old men who brought up women and the Priesthood, we found Tom! He is in his 80s we're pretty sure... And when he opened the door, he was in his bath robe..... Kinda awkward!! At first he wasn't interested, but we invited and enticed! He let us in! We showed him the Because He Lives video, and taught him most of the Restoration. It was great! We haven't been able to meet with him again quite yet..but we'll see him soon! Such a great night!

On Thursday, we did our usual weekly service at the Alternative House for Teens. We organized the donated foods in the basement. ...I happened to find some mouse-bitten granola bars.. yuck! That is always fun to do, though! That day was just extra special! ;)

Saturday and Sunday were wonderful!! We spent all four General Conference sessions in different members' homes. They are all so nice! ♥ It was definitely different listening to conference with a missionary perspective. Most of the family/marriage talks were "love your companion" talks for me! It was great!

On Saturday evening, our investigator from Iran came with her husband and daughter to the Suttons' with us! Yay! They loved the Suttons! Brother and Sister Sutton even made Persian food for them. They are awesome!! They will be major contributors to helping our investigator along the way.

On Easter, Sister Johnson and I were so spoiled! The Easter bunny even left us baskets full of goodies outside our bedroom door! (Sister Conley, our downstairs neighbor, is so nice!!) We also received many more treats and things from people. What are we, queens?? ;) Haha! More like chubby queens!... (not only do they make mission life bliss..they make it awfully hard to stay thin around here!)

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed conference this past weekend. It was wonderful! I am so excited to go back and read all the talks again. I am so grateful for the Prophet and for the Apostles and their inspired words. It's amazing how they can say things that you needed to hear!

One of our potential investigators had a miraculous experience with conference! She is older, and has cancer. She wasn't able to figure out how to view it on TV, but after looking it up on lds.org, she came across Uchtdorf's talk from last year. It was exactly what she needed to hear!! How amazing! Even though she didn't watch this year's conference, the Spirit guided her to the talk she needed to hear most.♥

 

I wish you all a great week! Thanks for all you do.

Love you all,

Sister Winterton

♥

Picture: Sister Johnson and I with the Hartts! Bethany just got home from her mission a couple months ago. So fun to spend the first session of conference with them!