Hello, Hello

Hey all!!! Once again I have like zero time to write! Ha I wish they'd give us missionaries more time to write! Just a reminder, if you want to write to me, please, please, please send me dear elders. I have no time to look at emails!

So I got my flight itinerary last week! I fly out on Wed June 22 at 10:30 am. I cannot believe I've already been out here for 3 weeks. Starting tomorrow I have visitors center training and my whole district leaves at 3 am to go to Tulsa, Oklahoma. I'm really going to miss those boys. They're like my brothers. It's amazing how close you come to everyone when you're all focused on one thing, the Gospel! How grateful I am for this Gospel and what a blessing it has been in my life!

I'm really excited to get out of here and get to work. I'm also really excited to be eating different food, don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for what I have but our district motto every time meal time comes around is, "Don't ask questions, just eat it." Ha ha. Yesterday we had in-field orientation, which just teaches us how to talk to people effectively as missionaries and prepares us for the field. I was able to learn a lot of techniques and get excited to teach. I won't lie, I'm a little nervous, but with the help of my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ, I can do anything, so I'm super stoked, pumped, and ready to go! There will be lots for me to learn, and I can't wait.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE being here and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I already feel like a changed person because I have just learned and grown so much I astound myself. Ha ha. Even though it's tiring sometimes and it takes a lot of work to focus, I know that this work that I am doing is true and I cannot wait to share it with all those who come to Independence Missouri. I've realized that it doesn't matter where you go! The work is still the same.

I've also learned a lot about how important it is to have an eye of faith. Alma 14:9-11 talks about that. Read it! If you have faith in all things, the Lord will grant unto you your righteous desires. Never say you cannot do something. There will be people in your life who will tell you you cannot accomplish a certain something, but pray to your Heavenly Father, exercising REAL faith and He will allow you to do that whichever you desire to do. Don't you dare give up!

I had the opportunity to listen to a talk that Elder Holland gave at the MTC a couple years ago. Boy, he is certainly a powerful leader. I love what he had to say! He talked about how much he truly loved his mission and it was because of his hard work and dedication and obedience to the rules. One thing I've really learned is that obedience will be my successor throughout my entire mission. When you are living your life accordingly, the Lord allows you to have His Spirit to the fullest and to be a successful and powerful teacher. Elder Holland said, "You better not wish for your mission to be easy. Salvation is NOT a cheap experience."

He said you better hope that you have challenges and struggles so that you can have at least the tiniest bit of feeling of how the Savior felt when he suffered for us. He said very boldly and powerfully, "Don't you dare give up, don't you dare!" Gosh, when he said that I just wanted to be like, "OK, OK, whatever you want. I'll do whatever you want." Ha ha ha, it just really taught me how crucial is it to stick through the hard times, and to do it with a great attitude. That's another thing I've really learned this past week...enduring to the end, and doing it gladly.

On Sunday, I got randomly called up to speak about enduring to the end- luckily I had a talk prepared and I talked about how patience is enduring delay (PMG Ch.6 read it Bryan). Enduring delay... isn't that  interesting. We must have patience in all things and endure whatever the Lord gives us and endure it well. How baby are we if we whine and complain. How great will be your joy if you endure happily and receive Heavenly Father's promised reward? It will be more than you can imagine. Another thing that has really hit me this past week is how stinkin' awesome the Book of Mormon is. Man, that book is the most true book in this world. I just know it without a doubt. Everything in that precious book can be applied to any situation today.

 I was teaching a man who was wondering why people suffer, and he was talking about world war 2 and things like that. So I opened up to Alma 11:14 and it talked about how sad Alma and Amulek were that all these women and children were being burned but the spirit constrained them not to save them because the Lord had already received these poor innocent people into His glory. Then it said, basically, don't worry those wicked people who allow others to suffer will have their just reward at judgement day. How cool is that??! They will get their come up its. 

Anyways, I gotta go because time is running out, but I love all of you so so so much. Thank you for everything you do for me. I love this Gospel, I love being a missionary and I wouldn't trade this experience for the world! The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church of God!

Love your guts!

Sister Conrow :)

Second Week

Hello hello all! I{m sorry I dont really have much time to write today so my letter will be brief. I just want every single one of you to know how much I love all of your guts and how thankful I am to all of you for all the love and support you have given me. I don{t know where Id be without you! Time here is finally starting to speed up a little bit, but I still feel like Ive been here for months and not just 2 weeks. I have learned so so so so much about this Gospel. I know it is true without a doubt. I know that Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us so much and he wants to hear our voice. He wants to see us again. He truly does miss us. I know that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ atoned for all of our sins and I know that He lives! He conquered sin and death for us so that we can return to him.

One thing I've really been learning a lot about this past week is having patience and enduring to the end. Sometimes it is so hard to have patience when we can{t see whats at the end of the road. But I know that if we can have faith in our Heavenly Father and know that he sees all things, that not only will we be able to endure patiently but we will be able to endure all gladly. Ya know, a mission is hard work. I don{t think Ive ever prayed so much in my life, but Ive also never felt the Holy Ghost so powerfully in my life either. It{s amazing what you can do and teach when you are on the Lord{s side. We watched a cool video clip the other day about a man who was investigating the church. He had a desire to be baptized but was struggling to give up smoking. However, the Elders were able to give him a priesthood blessing and this man was able to quit smoking and joined the church. How awesome is that! The power of the priesthood is truly power from God. It is through Him that we can do all things. How wonderful the Book of Mormon is and how true every single word that is within it is. I love this Gospel. I love it with all my heart and I don{t know where Id be without it!  

Even though I have so much to learn still and there is always studying to be done, I know that the Lord watches over me and helps me to carry on through the day. I gladly welcome my bed with open arms at 10 30 and hate to see it go at 6 30. Haha, however its starting to get a little easier to get into this routine. Im so thankful to all of you who have written me and sent me packages. Thanks fam for the yummy cookies!!! My whole district loved them and so did I! Its nice to know that I have such a loving family who is always thinking about me. I{m sorry I dont have time to write all of you individually. Believe me, if I had the time I would definitely do it! The church is true!!! Be patient in all thine afflictions and the Lord will bless you! I pinky promise. 

Love all of your stinkin guts! Id love to hear from you all!

Love, Sista Conrow!

  

First Week!

Hey everyone! Oh my goodness. I cannot believe that I have already been in the MTC for almost a week! Time certainly does fly, ha OK that is a total lie. I feel as though I've already been here for weeks and weeks and weeks.


My companion's name is Sister Lisonbee she is 24 and from Scipio Utah. We get along pretty well so thank goodness for that. I'm in a district with 8 Elders and 2 others sisters. All of the Elders are going to the Tulsa, OK mission and Sister Jeudy is going there as well. Sister Hudson will be serving in the LA visitors center (S. Hudson and S. Jeudy are comps and are living in the same dorm as S. Lisonbee and I) and my companion and I are going to the same mission. We won't fly out until June 22nd so we will be here for a total of a month.

I have mixed feelings about the MTC. It's great because everyone is so nice to you! But....I feel as though I'm in the compound. My brain wants to explode every day because we do A LOT OF STUDYING! All you future missionaries, start studying the heck out of "Preach My Gospel" and get to know each and every lesson very well. This last week has also felt really long because I got sick the night I got here. I'm still a little sick and lost my voice but I'm on the mend. I feel so full all the time. All we do is eat, sit, eat, sit, eat, sit. No wonder people gain a gazillion pounds when they're in the MTC!!!! I swear I have never eaten so much in one day in my life! Mom, isn't good to know that you're daughter is getting well fed!


It's definitely an adjustment to the strict schedule we live by. Every single minute of every day is planned out. No time for Independence here (lame pun on my mission). Ha ha. I won't lie, it's tough having someone with you 24/7. Bathroom breaks are your friends.. but because we all have one goal in common it's really easy to love everyone. I love everyone in my district. They make me soooo happy and they are all such good boys and girls. In class I'm known as Sister Conrow, the one who comes up with all the good analogies because for everything we learn, I seem to always have an analogy pop into my head. I don't know why that is, but I suppose it's the spirit teaching through me to help teach other people in my class. This work is definitely inspired, and the Lord does know who to pair you with. I never realized how disobedient I was until I met Sister Lisonbee. She is always keeping me on task because I really like to joke around a lot and laugh. Not that that's a bad thing, but it is definitely my release and I'm really learning how to discipline myself a little better.


I thought for sure when I got here that I would struggle with the whole 10:30 - 6:30 thing but I promise you, by the end of the day I am exhausted and 10:30 seems so late to me. Mentally, emotionally, and spiritually exhausted is insane!


Even though it has been extremely hard to be here and I miss everyone like CRAZY! I know it's such a wonderful thing. On Sunday we had an amazing devotional by one the missionary leader guys. He talked about burying your weapons of war. So basically anything that is holding you back from the work. I realized then I needed to let go of my pride and stubbornness and realize why I came here. He also talked a lot about how giving up this time to be a missionary is only an investment in your future. Your future spouse, kids, everything. I won't lie I've thought about coming home and how nice that would be, but I would never be able to live with knowing that I have been called to this work, to serve my Heavenly Father and to be an instrument in his hands.


Yesterday I had a very interesting experience with my companion. We were asked to go teach in what is called the TRC. This is like a "fake investigator" teaching center where people come to volunteer and you have to teach them whatever the spirit prompts you to do. S Lisonbee and I were definitely not prepared so I told her before we got to the door that we were going to have a prayer immediately. So we did, we prayed to have the spirit to know what it was that HF wanted us to teach these investigators.
When we got in the "house" we were both a little nervous but the spirit calmed our nerves and things went smoothly. We just got to know the people we were teaching and eventually asked them about the church. This lead into a lot of questions and concerns. It was like opening up a can of worms.
We realized there is SO MUCH to know about the church but there was no way we were going to be able to teach it to John and Chris (the people we were teaching) in one lesson. So I decided to just ask Chris, the daughter, how she felt about her own father which led to me bearing my testimony about the Love Heavenly Father has for all of his children.
The Spirit was so strong I could almost see it. It was AMAZING! All of us that were in the room started crying, and I knew at that moment why I was here.
Why I came to do this work.


I love this Gospel so incredibly much and even though this is the hardest thing I have ever done and probably will ever do in my life. I know it'll be the worth it. The experiences and stories alone are what motivate me to work harder.
After we left that lesson my comp and I could not stop smiling, we were laughing and experienced the most joy we have ever experienced. If any of you ever get the experience to serve a mission, just do it. I promise you that it is definitely not easy in any way at all, but the Lord will bless you with his spirit as long as you have EXACT OBEDIENCE. Not just obedience, but Exact Obedience. You cannot teach with the spirit if you are not following the rules and commandments that the Lord has asked you to follow. There is a reason for everything. I could go on and on and on, but I am running out of time!


Everyone please please please dearelder.com me. I cannot tell you how depressing it is not getting letters. I would love to have your support!

My Address is:

MTC Mailbox #148

MO-INDE 0622

2005 N 900 E

Provo, UT

84604

All you have to do is go to dearelder.com and type in that information and I'll get that letter the very same day. It's much easier for me to read and respond to letters that way because I only have a half hour to write and I'm just about out of time right now! I love all of you guys so much. Thank you all for your love and support.