April 18, 2016

It's finally warm!! Ok except we totally skipped spring and just went right to summer. Literally last week there was a blizzard and now it's been like 80 degrees the past few days. Insane.. but oh well, It's so wonderful having people outside to talk to! And lots more people open their doors and are willing to come out and talk to us in the nice weather so that's definitely a blessing! 

With warm weather comes yard work! On saturday we helped Mama B (the lady we live with) outside. She had a HUGE tree cut down this winter so the Elders came over and we all helped clean up and move most of it. There is still a lot left though! We made 3 huge piles of all the twigs and smaller branches that Mama B is just going to burn so we are going to have 3 huge bonfires soon! That should be fun(; hahah. It was hard work to move huge chunks of the tree but it was so nice to be outside and get work done. Her less active daughter even came and helped so it was a good opportunity for her to be around the missionaries. Then right after that we went over and helped a lady in our ward clean out the garage. That was a lot of work too, but I love organizing so it was wonderful helping her do that. Her neighbors aren't members so they came over and helped too and grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for all of us as well so that was great! Then her neighbor had a lot of questions about the gospel and stuff and the Elders were sitting with him at the table and we were on the ground so we were looking at them and telling them to teach the 1st vision and they were just taking forever but finally they did and they set up another appt with him and he wants to learn more so that was awesome! Service brings great opportunities! 

Also we met this really cool couple tracting a few weeks ago- we went and taught them during a blizzard and they said they knew we were determined because we still showed up! The lady had even read 6 chapters in the BOM! We had another lesson with them this week and it was amazing. We set baptismal dates and we kept answering their questions and they were like wow that makes so much sense and they were so excited to come to church on sunday. We sent them a church reminder saturday night and then sunday morning they texted us and said they decided this church wasn't for them and they didn't want to meet with us anymore :( so that was really a bummer, but people have agency!! It just means we need to get out and find other people! Hopefully someday they will come around and meet with the missionaries again. 

The Bairds are still doing amazing. They are so excited to start temple prep and go to the temple soon. They are still growing so much and noticing so many blessings coming from getting baptized. It's so wonderful (: I just love that family so much. 

We have another investigator that we were thinking of just dropping bc she has been taught since last summer and is reading the BOM and everything but isn't progressing other than that. She is catholic and her family is all super catholic, and active catholics at that. She just doesn't want to change her religion bc she is worried about what her family will think. We decided to have one more lesson with her and see what we should do. We had a recently returned missionary from this ward come to the lesson with us (well I wasn't actually there bc we did a quick exhange-we had 2 lessons at the same time so I went to the other) and the lesson went great! We are having an FHE with her and this RM at the RM's families house tonight and we are super excited. The RM's mom was a convert from being a very active catholic so she just said a lot of really great things that helped her and we think it will be great for our investigator to meet her mom! 

I can't really think of anything else but it was really a great week. I love Green Bay Wisconsin so much! It's a great place. (: And being a missionary is still the best thing ever. We see the Lord's hand in our work every single day and it's amazing what He does for us. I love this gospel so much and I know it's true! I hope you all have a wonderful week, I love you all tons(:

April 11, 2016

So the Bairds got baptized on Saturday!! Oh it was so wonderful. They are so amazing. The stake president came and he asked Sister Baird to share her testimony and she just talked about how thankful she is to be active again, and how she can't wait to go to the temple and be sealed together with her family. She talked about being a pioneer family (bc none of their other family are members) and how excited she is to be back in the church. I love that family so much! The cute Baird kids got scriptures from their parents and so they came to church with their new scriptures so excited and they were just so happy and their confirmations were wonderful and Brother Baird got to baptize and confirm them and it was amazing! They are starting temple prep in 2 weeks and then they get to go to the temple as soon as that's over! I am hoping I'll get transferred to an area closer to the temple bc if you're within 3 hours of the temple you can go with them to the temple, so I really hope that i will get to go with them when they get sealed. They are just the best! So that was a great weekend.

Also miracle yesterday! So we were tracting and we met this guy who has a cute little family, and he let us in and we shared the first vision with him and he was like wow that's a cool story, I haven't heard that before, I really like that! So we gave him a restoration pamphlet and a BOM and he said he is going to like basic training or something for 2 weeks for the army but he wants to take the BOM with him. So we set up a return appt, said a prayer with him and left, and about an hour later he called us and said he had already read through the pamphlet (He actually read it!!) and he wanted to know where he should start in the BOM!! Oh my, so wonderful!! He is excited to take the BOM with him while he is out of town and we are so excited to meet with him again! Too bad he will be gone for 2 weeks, but still! That was just such a miracle. This gospel is so cool.

Also it was a blizzard on Friday and I am oh so sick of this weather. Seriously- it's April.. snow should not be a thing anymore. Whatever, I said I wanted cold..... bahah.

Also we had Zone Training Meeting this week which was really good and we talked so much about the first vision and just really making sure that we share that with everyone bc it really brings the spirit and people need to hear that story! It can really soften hearts, it's so cool. So yeah we were all recommitted to teach 2 first visions every single day, so we are working our butts off to make sure we do that! Oh also for ZTM the other elders in our district won that march madness workout thing so we still got pizza and it was great. (the winning district got pizza) And then they got to pie the ZL's, who are also in our district. Hahah, so they did that! And poor Elder McDermott got a bloody nose. hahahahah.
Oh and the Sabourin's who are like my favorite family ever had us over for dinner and we made stuffed burgers and oh my they were so delicious! They always ask us what we would like to eat and then they go all out and make sure we are fed a good, delicious meal. They are awesome. And we wanted good hamburgers so bad so that's what we had and dang were they good. This family is seriously the coolest! 

That's really all I can think of, oh tranfers are this week and I am still here in Green Bay! Thank goodness. I love this place so much(: And I am glad to be with Sister Gifford another transfer! 

I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week!!!(:

love, Sister Killian 

April 4th 2016

This was such a great week!
I loved general conference. Seriously every minute of it was so amazing. I am so thankful for all of the wonderful counsel we got! It was so fun to watch it at the church with the missionaries. We had a potluck with the missionaries in our area between Saturday Sessions and that was a ton of fun! I made grilled cheese, bc we had so much cheese and grilled cheese is the best!! For the Sunday Morning session we watched it at the Sabourin's house, which I love them tons. And the Bairds came! Bro Sabourin made the yummiest breakfast in the whole world. It was good to have the Bairds watch there! Their baptism is this weekend and I am so excited!! So are they(: They went to a baptism of a family friend on saturday so that's awesome. It'll be a good week(:

We also had exchanges this week so that was fun to work with Sister Nixon in her area. Exchanges are fun to switch things up for the day. Although we all stayed at their apartment so I slept on their couch and had a terrible night sleeping. It was not comfortable at all! So I was tired all day, exchanges kind of just really wear you out! New people all day, a new place and just wow they are exhausting. But it was good. Oh and Mama B (we live with her) had us over for dinner that night and she made soup and she told us that it was porcupine soup and I was so scared to eat it!! I was seriously freaking out but then she told us she was just kidding, thank goodness!!! 

Wow I can't even think of anything else that happened this week. I am so sick of the cold weather, I just want it to be warm already! But summer will come soon enough and then I will be wanting the cold back. 

We have been finding so many cool new people to teach lately as we have been making sure we teach the first vision to everyone. It's been so cool. We are finding those that really want to learn more and have sincere intent and desire. It's so cool. I can't wait for people to really start progressing! We have a lot of people that we are just starting to teach so good things are coming soon! Green Bay is an amazing area, and seriously I wish I could just stay here forever. This transfer ends next week and I bet I will be here for one more but then I will probably be transferred and that makes me so sad. I just love the people here so much! Too bad you can't just stay in one area your whole mission. Although I know I will love my other areas just as much. Green Bay just has so much growth happening, it's amazing! 

Oh and also our investigator that has been out of town for a month and a half is finally back so hopefully we can start teaching her again! She is the one that we had a church tour with and she wanted to do the lessons at the church so that she could feel the spirit there so I hope she still wants to learn!! 

I love you all so much, and I hope you have the best week!