Change in Season!

The weather around here seems to be cooling down a bit!! Finally. We have been loving it!! Tracting hasn't felt this great in a while.. ;)

Last Monday tracting was great! Sister Hansen and I are enjoying all the toads and lizards that seem to be everywhere! We even got to see a stick bug! (Exactly like the one on Bugs Life!!) ..I thought that was pretty cool. Ha! One lady we met was also super sweet. She offered us umbrellas and it was barely sprinkling! [we were tracting in a super fancy neighborhood]. Gotta love Virginians!

We had District Meeting on Tuesday - like usual. ...But we have an entirely new District! Our District Leader is from China! He is so great and doing very well with his English. We also have a crazy Elder from Russia too. Let's just say he keeps things interesting... Another funny aspect of my District is that I am one of the "oldest" missionaries!! Only one Elder who has been out longer than me. Weird!

That day we met another nice lady tracting! Of course she brought up the Pope being in town. It is pretty cool to be in a place where a lot of action happens! She was pretty stoked about it. She also asked to give us hugs before we left! Tender mercies.

Later that night we took a plate of cookies to some families in the ward who have fed us dinner. They were thrilled! I challenge each of you to look for one way to serve someone this week! It will make your day!

On Wednesday we had a Sisters Meeting with our Sister Training Leaders and a few other Sisters in the area. It was a lot of fun! For the meeting I was asked to speak on Obedience. :) I love having the opportunity to share my thoughts with the Sisters here! I was so humbled. Obedience is such a wonderful Christ-like attribute! I know that as we give our will to Him, He will bless us immeasurably!

While we were out tracting that evening we decided to count the number of rejections we get - and try to get as many as possible! It made it so much more fun when someone rejected us. Haha! Getting 20 rejections never felt so good.. ;) We just laugh at every one! Our cheeks hurt by the end of the night!

We had interviews with President Huntsman on Thursday! He is so great. I feel so appreciated and loved whenever I speak with him and Sister Huntsman.

We went to the Relief Society President's house for dinner that day. Sister Jensen. She is SO sweet. She cries when she prays for us before we leave. She may or may not be getting too attached... I've been here so long! ;) I love it.

We have had more success with our Atheist investigator Matthew! He is reading the Book of Mormon and now asks the question, "why should I join the Mormon faith?" instead of "why should I believe in God?" It has been amazing to see the progress of him over the past few months. Miracles!

Friday was our usual weekly planning day. Sometimes it is hard to focus when you have so much fun chatting with your companion.. ;) What a great problem though! Don't worry though, we came up with some great ideas!

That night was our ward chili cook off!! So fun!!

The General Women's Session on Saturday night was amazing!! The Spirit truly does teach us exactly what we need to hear. I loved all the speakers! I am so grateful for the opportunity we have to listen to our General Authorities! General Conference is this week!! I am thrilled!! :D We get to listen to the Prophet speak! What an amazing blessing it is to have inspired leaders who lead and guide Christ's true church.  WE are a part of that! :)

I am so incredibly grateful to be serving on a mission. I have been able to witness so many miracles! Lately I have been feeling a little inadequate as I am staying in this area and training again, but I know that God is with me. I was reading in Alma 36 the other day and found a gem! In verse 27 Alma is telling his son Helaman about all the hard times he had in his youth and then states "and he will still deliver me". I have gone through some difficult times on my mission and God has delivered me! I know that He will STILL deliver me. I love this gospel! I love our Heavenly Father! I love the strength we receive daily from our Savior!

Love you all!! Have a fantastic General Conference weekend!!

Love,

Sister Winterton

Sister Meeting

Cookie baking!

We are pretty tired sometimes.

Getting ready to "heart attack"

Breaking News!!

Wowza!... What a week! :)

First of all, last Monday was quite the crazy day with getting Sister Makowa's hair done. :)

On Tuesday we had our last District Meeting before Transfers. We had 2 Elders who finished their missions! It is pretty crazy how many missionaries I am seeing go back home. At the beginning of my mission I didn't know any "old" missionaries...but NOW I am seeing good buddies leaving to college and real life! So crazy how soon it will come for me. I am just enjoying my time right now! :)

On Tuesday afternoon I got a call from the AP's telling me that I AM TRAINING ANOTHER NEW MISSIONARY!!! I had so many mixed emotions. First of all, I was excited to bring another energetic, bright Sister into the field...but I was nervous that I'd be doing it in another area that I had no clue about. BUT later that night we got the email telling us where we would be transferred, etc.. and I'M STAYING IN MY AREA!!! The Rolling Valley ward might start getting tired of me... Ha! I've been here since April 9th! Gotta love it. :) Sister Makowa was freaking out that she was leaving her first area already! She is now in Leesburg! I bet she's doing amazing things!

Wednesday was FILLED with visiting and saying goodbye to members and investigators before Sister Makowa left. It was so cool to hear all the members tell Sis. M how much they've seen her grow during this short time. It was like hearing people compliment my daughter... ;) haha! I'm going to miss Sister M's big smile and African singing around the house.

On Thursday morning I had a Trainers Meeting... then met my cute new companion!! Sister Hansen from Sandy, UT!! She is ADORABLE. I absolutely love her!! We bonded right away. I am THRILLED for the next few months I get to spend with her! She makes me think of how I was when I first started my mission. Nervous to knock doors.. ;) It is definitely a whole new experience training her compared to my last one. I'm so excited to learn more! Sister Hansen has SO many amazing ideas for working more with the members. She is awesome!

Friday was filled with planning and teaching the ways of missionary life. I cannot even believe that I've been doing this for this long... ;)

That night we also got to go to a member's birthday party at a restaurant and talked to some non-members! I love having those opportunities. Much better than approaching people on their porch. :)

On Saturday night we had the adult session of Stake Conference! Our Zone Leader got to speak!... He is BOLD. He pretty much told all the members where they are failing in their missionary work and how they can better help contribute! Only he could get away with it... haha! The members loved it though!...at least the ones that I've talked to so far.. They thought he did an excellent job!

That evening I got to see President and Sister Huntsman! (They are in our Stake). I was able to express how much I love Sister Hansen and even had a few tears of joy... :') President Huntsman told me that when he met Sister Hansen he KNEW that I was supposed to train her. He knew I was in my area for a long time already..but he made sure I was able to stay to train. What a blessing! I sure love Sister Hansen.

Stake Conference yesterday was wonderful!! The speakers all spoke about keeping the Sabbath Day holy. It is so important to remember the sacredness of Sunday! It truly is the day that we show God how much we love Him. It is His day. The promised blessings that come from keeping the Sabbath Day holy are endless! I love how one sister spoke about how that day is a reflection of how much we love God and the Savior. She explained how a reflection is PERFECT. It was such a great talk!  

Sister Hansen has had a bad cold ever since she got here. Poor girl. We've been taking things slow - which is pretty nice. Hopefully she can get better soon!

I seriously love this girl. I am so excited for the weeks ahead!

Long story short....

Hello everyone! Wow!!! What a CRAZY preparation day!!!!

I'm so sorry that I don't have ANY time to write very much today. Just
barely have about 30 minutes left of prep day to email. Yikes!

Pretty much being from Africa is pretty exciting! It takes about 7
hours to get your hair done.... Yep. I'm counting my blessings for my
hair! So I woke up around 4:30am today and went to an African member
from another ward's house for Sis. Makowa to get her hair extensions
done! She is so happy! That's what makes me happy. :) So pretty much
I've spent the day catching up in my journal, writing a couple
letters, and taking a short nap. I'm going to be exhausted tonight!

So my week in a nut shell....
Monday: Zone activity! Basketball and volleyball and ping pong! We
found a former investigator family who was super receptive and might
be ready to receive the gospel now!:)
Tuesday: Zone Training!!
Wednesday: Tracting in the HEAT..and in a no soliciting or canvassing
neighborhood... Police car came and stocked us! But don't worry.. He
didn't talk to us. And we left soon after we saw him!
Thursday: met a pretty cool single 34 year old guy who seems pretty interested!
Friday: Our Ward had a BBQ for the new families and Sis. M had her
first s'more! :)
Saturday: we had a tracting blitz with our Sister Training Leaders! Fun fun!
Sunday: Jessica came to church again!!:) Sister Makowa sang
beautifully in Sacrament Meeting.

Whew! That pretty much sums it up.. Something that I've loved during
my studies has to do with faith and Alma 32. I love that it talks
about how we need to be continually nourishing our faith otherwise it
will be scorched by the heat of the world. Keep that in mind! I know
that by reading our scriptures and praying sincerely every day we can
help our faith sprout and bring forth delicious fruit! :)

This week is the last week of the transfer! I can't believe it. I'll
miss Rolling Valley! (I'm guessing I'll be transferred.) Change is
good!!

I love you all so much and wish you the best this week!!!
Much love,
Sister Winterton



P.s. The last picture is of the room I have spent this entire day in! ;) haha!
More pics from this past week to come next Monday!

Kurikupisa!

Joy always comes after sorrow. :)  This week was wonderful! 

On Monday I got to go visit the Battle of Bull Run battlefield site with Sister Stewart!! (Another Sister who lives in our apartment complex. --We did a mini exchange.) That was so cool! It's amazing how reverent those fields were. It was very interesting to see the uniforms they wore and learn more about the life of those soldiers. I'm so grateful for them! They went through so much for us.

 It was so nice to get out and see some history! I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve here in Virginia! 

Tuesday afternoon was our usual transfer exchange with our Sister Training Leaders! SO FUN! Sister Kennedy came to work in our area and Sister Makowa went to work in the Langley YSA ward for the day and night. I love Sister Kennedy! She is so fun! We had a blast teaching together. There are always miracles that happen on exchange! We got in contact with an old former investigator who set up a return appointment! Woo! Also, can't go wrong with ending the night with frozen yogurt from Sweet Frog! (Frog stands for Fully Rely On God! How cool is that?!) 

We switched back on Wednesday morning. Sister Makowa and I got "pranked" by our hilarious next-door neighbor Bill.. He is quite the character!! He made a toll "EZ Pass" bar on our apartment entrance. HA! They have those on the highways out here. So funny! We will forever remember him! He is always joking and teasing us. Gotta love it! 

When we were on our way out we were so excited to get a picture of him with his creation that we left our keys in the apartment... And locked the door knob on the way out! AHH! We had to get a ride from some Elders to the Mission Office to get the spare key. How embarrassing! It made for a good laugh. :) What a crazy day! 

On Thursday it was kurikupisa!!!! (that means HOT in Shona -- Sis. M's native language). Tracting in the afternoon is always a fun time... Let the sweat drip!! 

Later, we had a great dinner at the Knight's. They are so fun! Caitlyn and Ayden love to play Pictureka with us after the lesson. So great! Afterwards, we had planned to stop by one of our investigators with a member in our ward (Bro. Bold). Of course when we all showed up, our investigator didn't answer. Brother Bold decided to take us to an old friend who lived close. He was so BOLD to take us along to this friend he hadn't seen in ages. We ended up sharing the Book of Mormon with them (olderish couple) and they agreed to have us come back sometime! So cool. Members just don't realize how many of their friends truly would be open to learning if they invited us to meet them! Seriously.. who could deny Sister Makowa's funny and enthusiastic personality?! ;) 

Friday was great!! We finally had a lesson with Jessica!! She is the investigator who has come to church 3 times already but we've only been able to teach her once! She is SO PREPARED. She knows that the church is true already. She feels and recognizes the Spirit! She was telling us that she was asking her husband "how do you think it would be if we became Mormon?" What! I'm so blessed to be able to witness Jessica's conversion. She is so great! I have SO much love for her. She has no idea! She did bring up a concern about her strict Catholic mother-in-law... Jessica said that she told her husband to be sure their baby is baptized Catholic when she found out they were investigating. Jessica said that it would all work out though because Tom (her husband) said she would either have to accept it or not be a part of our lives. Wow! I'm so grateful that they are able to see the blessings and truthfulness of the gospel. We haven't even done hardly anything! It is all the Spirit. My testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel is strengthened every day! The church is so true! I l o v e missions! 

Saturday was a great day of tracting as well. :) The usual. In the evening Sister Makowa and I were tracting and saw the Elders drive by! We literally see them everywhere! Holy cow! We must be tracting in the right areas because wherever we go, the Elders end up there either that night or the next week! Ha! They keep calling us saying everyone they meet says that they just met some "girl" missionaries. So funny! Working in the same ward with Elders is a lot of fun! It makes me realize more fully that we're not the only ones out there getting doors slammed in our faces. In fact, there are others all over the world doing the same thing!! What a marvelous work! 

--On a side note, Sister Makowa totally cracked up when I said "holy cow!" She then went on saying, "holy pig! holy chicken! holy beef!" Hahaha!

Yesterday, Sunday, was great!! I love Fast Sunday. The testimonies shared were so powerful! I know that my Redeemer lives. He loves us so much! Because of Him we can live again and can be renewed each week. The Atonement is real! I know that He loves me so much and that He loves all of you!! What a blessing it is to have this knowledge. 

Last night Sister M and I had a fun time out tracting in the mansion neighborhood. :) One lady had already read the Book of Mormon because of a coworker! Right on!! Way to go friend! I love it when we meet people who already have a knowledge of the gospel because of members!! Who knows, maybe that lady will call us one day! 

The weather last night was actually starting to get cool! YAY. We are so excited for Fall! 

Well, the work moves on! Happy Labor Day! Right now I am emailing at a member's house! They are so nice to let us use their computers ..and feed us a BBQ! ;) Later we will be going to play some sports with our Zone! Super fun. I hope you all enjoy your holiday! 

I love you all so much. Thank you for praying for me!! 

Hugs,

Sister Winterton

Picture: Sister Kennedy and I :)