Mini MTC

Hey y'all!

We had a lot go on this week!

On Monday we got to have dinner with Sister Pearson and her grandkids! And she started telling them about what we do as missionaries, and they thought we were pretty cool! She told us that she had been ripping apart her house trying to find her patriarchal blessing and her old scriptures and that was awesome! She hasn't been active for so long! If her darn car would make it to church I think she would have come yesterday, but she's having car issues!

Tuesday we went to help a recent convert clean her house (that's what we thought anyway) but then we ended up helping her spray for bed bugs.... yes, BED BUGS! The hugest no no. We were tempted to burn everything once we got home, but we did good getting our clothes in the dryer and keeping everything quarantined. And we don't have bed bugs so far, I think we would have known by now! So that was a huge blessing.

We had Zone Conference on Wednesday and it was good! Sister Pankey and Sister Calhoun are in my zone so I got to see them! We really focused on the power of the book of Mormon. At one point they asked us to share a scripture that has really touched us, and it was cool to hear all those scriptures said and how they have helped each person. The scriptures are alive, and they speak differently to everyone, and I just loved that that became so apparent as missionaries shared scriptures that touched their hearts.

After Zone Conference we got a little lost on the way home and travelled down some weird highways... oh! I had to drive through Louisville y'all! I didn't think I could do that. I don't want to do it ever again. But anyway we were on some weird road and we passed an old log house and it said it was Abraham Licolns birthplace! And you know what I didn't turn around because I'm a fool! It was so cool though! It was down in some holler and I don't even know how we found it.

A week ago they told us we were going to be a part of some "mini MTC" thing that the stake does. So that's what we did Friday and Saturday. We got a ride up to Elizabethtown and we met with 24 other missionaries in the E-town zone and some from Louisville. There was a ton of youth that came and that was awesome! They got calls and they put me and Sister Young and our companions in the Brazil mission! I LOVED that! 😆 They gave each missionary 2 or more youth, cuz there were so many... in our separate "missions" they asked us to give trainings so Sister Young and I talked about preparing for a mission and how to adapt to the mission life. It was fun, I think. We were very real with them, and I think it helped some of them realize that yes, it's hard, but you have so much help and support.

We spent the night in Bardstown with the STL's and the Lebanon sisters (I slept on the floor cuz that place is tiny!) And the next morning we studied with our girls, prepared a lesson, and went to teach people we had been assigned. We taught a member who has pancreatic cancer. It was a sweet little lesson and afterwards one of my girls said, "I don't know how missionaries don't cry all the time." I said believe me we do! But we have hope through the Savior. So when you feel the pains and weight of the world, you know you can turn it over to Him and He can ease your burdens and make them feel light. When you see people in pain, you know they don't have to bear it forever. And then getting to tell them that they don't have to is just so sweet. The message of the gospel is joy! It's happiness! It's freedom! I think the mini MTC helped some of those youth want to go serve a mission. It was cool!

Yesterday, we went to visit an inactive sister we saw a few weeks ago. She was very standoffish last time, so we weren't real sure this time visiting her. As we got to talking with her and she opened right up and actually let us in! She told us her whole life story, her concerns of coming back to church, and how scared she was of the way her life is right now. It was amazing to have her be so friendly and open, and at the end of our visit she accepted a Book of Mormon and gave us her number so that our branch president could contact her! It so sweet, and we really think she wants to come back and that she will. Please pray for Sister Hersey! She's scared, but she can do it!

So yeah, that was the week. It's been dumping for days, but today is sunny and beautiful. There's flowers coming up y'all! There's buds on the trees! Spring is coming!

I hope you have a fabulous week! Love y'all!

With love,
Sister Wilcox😘

The little girl on the bottom is Ron and Madonna's granddaughter- and her name is Kinzley! How cool is that? She is such a cutie too!

Also, the Fabush fam left us a nice note on our car while we were out and about

Sister Wilcox, I need more snacks.

Hi everybody!

We're back to p day! Whoo!

So, Thursday, craziness happened. We tried finding a member who had zero information on her and lived way out in the boonies. We pulled up this super long driveway up a hill and the further we went, the more scared we got. We got to the top and there were a bunch of people outside and this guy came up to our car and we asked him if the people we were looking for lived there or not. He was like nope never heard of them they probably moved out a long time ago, yeah. But then he inches closer to Sister Young and sees what's written on her nametag and goes, "ohhh you're Mormons!" Then a lady came out from behind him and told us her name and she was the member we were looking for!😂

They turned out to be real nice, they just don't trust people. Understandable. They told us how they were working on building up their homestead to become self reliant and go off the grid. Pretty cool stuff! Well then we were there for 3 hours talking to the member,  who was also the mom of the first guy we saw and her daughter lives by her too. They were all baptized, they just don't come because of some negative experience they had a long time ago. And apparently it was out of character for the daughter to talk to us and INVITE US IN, so that was awesome! We're eating dinner with them tonight. Hopefully we can help them want to come back to church ;)

That night we had an awesome lesson with Madonna and her husband Ron! We were so worried that he just wanted to bash us, but he was so sweet and so open! By the end he was like, "I need to come visit your church" and we were like yessss!!!! Then Madonna said she felt like she needed to sing us a song, so she and Ron sang us a gospel song and it was awesome!

Friday we had district council and weekly planning, so I felt like we were just in one big meeting all day long, but that's okay!

Saturday we cleaned up our area book notes and had a great lesson with Marie. She just got her knee all fixed up so we were finally able to see her. She told us that she appreciated the space we have given her to ponder on the things she had been taught and to read from the book of Mormon and make up her mind on things. She told us she wants to come worship with us once her knee is fully healed, and that's not what I was expecting her to say! She said it's hard to go from one way of doing things to learning another completely different way, but she is amazing and we really think she will get there and make the change.

We also drove around Greensburg to try and find people. Man, if people don't want to be found they make your life so much harder as a missionary! There are some folks that just vanish, and nobody knows where they've gone!

Sunday Sister Young and I sang an Irish hymn for sacrament meeting called 'Be thou my vision' and people actually liked It! One sister told us we sounded like the Celtic Women and that made Sister Youngs' day! We also taught combined primary with all the other teachers about baptism. They were cute, but a little squirrely. This is where I got the title of my email actually. I miss being in primary!

Later we went over to the Veneys and made brownies and talked about missionary work. We did role plays with the kids and helped answer some questions Alyssa had while filling out her missionary papers- cuz she wants to serve a mission! So that was fun!

While we were out we decided to try by this one lady the previous sisters called the 'mystery woman'. Her name is Denise, and she has had some strange coincidences with missionaries in the past. We stopped by and met her, and she told us that this was the first time she had been home in months because she had been at her daughter's house. And we just happened to show up on the right day. It was way cool, and she told us she had been reading from the book of Mormon and she wanted to be taught the lessons. I'm real excited to see where this goes!

It's been a good week. It's felt very long, with Elder Gong coming and all the busy little things we've been doing. It's good to be busy! This upcoming week we have Zone Conferesnce and then this thing called 'Mini MTC' and Sister Young and I have been asked to go! I'm excited but I don't actually know what we're supposed to be doing, so that'll be interesting! Road trip to Elizabethtown! Oh, and Zone Conference is in Hurstbourne! I have to drive in Louisville! Please pray for us!😓

Seriously, thank you for all the prayers. None of this is possible without prayer. None of this is me. The tender mercies and miracles I've seen here and over the course of my mission were not brought about by me or my companions, but by those praying for us and for missionary work, so thank you! There's a saying going around the mission that God loves answering prayers, He especially loves answering prayers said for other people. God's answering your prayers! Y'all are amazing!

I love you all and I hope your week is beautiful!

And Happy late Valentine's Day!

With love,
Sister Wilcox 😍😍😍

The Week that Seemed to have No End...

Hey y'all,

There's a lot that's happened, and I was trying to figure out why that was, and then I remembered! It's cuz we had to move p day to Wednesday again! Because Elder Gong came on Monday!!!! I seriously think my body has gotten used to Mondays as p-days cuz when Monday came around I was like "2 more days to go!" Which isn't a lot I know, but I'm feeling dramatic. Also, I wouldn't have p day over Elder Gong... So yeah.

I'll get to Elder Gong in a sec.

Last Tuesday we tracted a lot up in Columbia, which is about a half hour from here. Not bad. We found a guy who was friends with Brother Mann, a member in the branch, and this guy was uplifting US! He was like, "I know it's hard to do what y'all are doing, but don't give up! You are touching people's lives!" And we were like ohhh my goodness this man! But he is very firm in his religion😢. Esta bien! One day!

On that same day, we decided to try and find the Johnson's who are pretty much inactive. Well, we pulled up to this janky looking drive and had to put the car in a ditch basically cuz we knew the little Mailibu wasn't going to make it on that driveway! Then, we decided it would be totally worth it to walk it so we did! We walked 3 miles to find their house! Out in the middle of no where! We did not realize it was that far!😂😂😂😂 oh well, we found them! And talked to some of their neighbors, so it was good. They were so sweet, but said they make it to church basically when they feel like it, sad day. They wanted to have us over for dinner one of these nights though so I think they liked us! When they drove us to our car, they didn't realize we walked as far as we did and they thought we were crazy!!! 🤣 I had bloody heels when I got home, but it was all good.😊

Wednesday we had dinner with the Crenshaws! We haven't seen Faun in forever cuz everybody has been so darn sick! But we got to show her the 20 minute Restoration video. It answered some of her questions, and gave her a lot to think about. She has started to read from the book of Mormon! Woohoo!

Thursday. All I remember from Thursday was being out in the boonies of Greensburg. And it was raining. Ohhh and we met this massive golden retriever who was like, the size of Clifford the big red dog. He was cute.

Friday was finding and tracting.

Then on Saturday we really wanted to tract by the spirit. So we did. Sister Young had a specific street she remembered seeing the week before pop into her head. We decided to go there. We wore PANTS that day cuz it was FREEZING, but totally worth being out. First, we met the neighborhood dog who had been run over by a truck before. I wasn't sure about her at first, but then she warmed right up to us and hung out with us while we tried talking to people. Most of them already had a church, and that's cool and stuff, but then we met Madonna. Madonna said she would have invited us in, but everyone in the house was sick with either the flu or strep, so that was sad. They are very religious, and she seemed genuine and friendly. She said we could come back (awesome) and we started walking down the road again. Well, she came running back out and said, "girls girls! You absolutely have to some back next week! My husband wants to talk to you!" I've never had that happen before, it was really amazing! We're going to see Madonna and her husband tomorrow!

Sunday was busy. We got in contact with a bunch of people and we had to talk in church! Ahhh! It went pretty good, and I was worried about not talking long enough but then I went a minute over! 😆 I talked about family history through the book of Mormon. 👌

On Monday we woke up at the crack of dawn to get to the Hurstbourne building by 8. We were half an hour early, so we helped tidy up the building. That Hurstbourne church gets a lot of traffic, so we vacuumed a lot. It was weird being back in the building I spent six months around, and back in my baby area. Elder Gong wanted to take a picture with us! So we got all set up and when he came in, he dropped his jacket and stuff on the gym floor to shake people's hands! So cute! Then he shook all of our hands, wanted to know our names and where we were from, and it was just a real neat experience. I was so nervous the whole time, but he was really chill! I guess I wasn't expecting that! One of my favorite things he talked about was that we are sent on missions for not one reason, but many, many reasons. Each day you could fulfill multiple reasons pertaining to why you were sent here. So each day you need to try your very best! I loved it! It was everything I needed to hear, and it really made me think. Coming down on the end of my mission has been weird, and I've felt like a little psycho, but I know it will all be okay.

Monday night we met Tequila, a gal the sisters taught before us. She was so cute and actually wants us to come back to teach her! Her little 3 year old girl was a little distracting, but that's no biggie. I got the full treatment. She brushed my curly hair, moisturized my hands with sparkly gel, and painted my thumbnails pink. It was fun! 🙃


Yesterday I was feeling the crazy. I felt like there was something more we needed to do, or someone we needed to see, and I didn't know what or where or how, and it was driving me nuts. Also, it was pouring and freezjng cold outside. We got blasted with what felt like an arctic cold front or something, and I was not feeling all there in the brain. My wonderfully patient companion just went faithfully forward and said, "why don't we just try the plans you already put in, and see how we feel while we're out." We went out, and we did some good tracting, met and got to talk to this sweet sweet man who's very inactive, got soaked, and then we met Rachel! We were trying to find the brother of a member, but instead we found Rachel. She had an incredible addiction recovery story, and she's already such an amazing missionary to her family, and she accepted a Book of Mormon. She even punched our number into her phone! It was such a blessing to meet her, a blessing I did not deserve with how negative I had been.

She also had an 8 week old black pitbull pup who played with me the entire time we talked, I think I need a pitbull now. 😣

That night we ate dinner with the younger Rodenbergs and it was a blast! They both served in Japan and boy they had some insane stories from their missions! The GKLM doesn't even compare! We thought it would be fun to all pretend like we were all teaching the Restoration lesson to someone, and at first they were freaking out cuz they were a little rusty, but then they loved it, and I got a fresh view on how to teach it ;)

That's all I really have to report on folks.

A scripture that really touched my heart this morning was in Helaman 3:29+30

"Yea, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across that everlasting gulf of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked—
And land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the right hand of God in the kingdom of heaven, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out."

The word of God, the scriptures, is POWER. Power sufficient to "divide asunder" Satans evil designs. Power that will protect and guide you right back to the presence of God. Thats pretty incredible.

I love you all! I hope you find Satan Slaying scriptures that make your week that much better! 😎

With love,
Sister Wilcox❤

I'm sad cuz our picture with Elder Gong is a little blurry, but that's okay I guess :)

Top right is nearly all of Sister Mitchell's companions!

Second right, creepy face masks. I didn't like those.

 

 

Frog Legs 🐸

Hey y'all,

So, this Oregonian girl said to herself this morning, "wow, it hasn't rained in a while." Well, Kentucky was like, "OH REALLY??" Some clouds came in and now we got rain folks. I shouldn't have said anything.

Not a whole lot has happened since Wednesday. I've baked a bunch this week cuz we did more cookie runs. I've been labelled "the frosting queen" by my district, I definitely need to chill on the frosting.

We met with Jack and Renee, oh and I finally got to meet Angie!!! The sisters taught her in the summer, but she's just been so darn busy! We got to meet her for the first time and we get to see her again on Thursday! Woot woot!

I straightened my hair today people, what was I thinking??

We worked at the archive center again and Susan, one of the volunteers, said that we should be getting an early spring! Yay! I walked out the door one morning and it even smelled like spring was coming and it's WARM. What's happening? It was freezing a couple days ago and now it's perfect!

We had district lunch at this out in the middle of no where barbeque place in Sulfer Wells and it was so good! And guess what? They had frog legs! You better believe I bought me some frog legs to try, and they were pretty tasty actually! Sister Young literally bought half of a roasted chicken for lunch. It was cut in half. She had one wing and leg and I just though it was the funniest thing! The next day I asked if she wanted chicken for dinner and she said, "I don't think I can eat chicken for a couple of days." 😂😂

We've gotten in contact with a few more people this week, and one was a couple who aren't members, but they attended the Lebanon branch last week and we got to meet them! They were sweet, and they plan on attending the Campbellsville branch the week after next. We'll see how it goes, maybe they'll want to become members?? 🙄

We ate over at the Fawbush's house Saturday night, and I cannot express to you how funny those people are. They are amazing! I can't keep a staright face when I go over there! Brother Fawbush used to be in the military, so he's kinda intimidating and hardcore and all that, but they were telling us that one day they were out shopping, and there was this giant rainbow colored sfuffed llamacorn (unicorn/ llama?). Brother Fawbush was like "that's the coolest thing ever!" So Sister Fawbush got it for him. A rainbow llamacorn. For brother Fawbush. I thought it was funny. And Sister Fawbush is expecting their first baby!

Sunday was Sister Youngs birthday and it was the most relaxing birthday ever. We went and tried by people, then she felt like we needed to go see sister Gribbins. So we did. She wasn't at the house, but her son told us she was out walking in the woods with her grandson Roy. He said we could just go out and find her, so we did. It was so cute because when we found them, sister Gribbins said she and Roy had just prayed together, and then we showed up. She got a little emotional, and it was real sweet. I don't feel like we do much, but comjjng when we did really seemed to mean a lot to her.

We had transfer calls on Saturday, but nobody called us... at all. Usually you get some kind of notification, even if you're staying together. But we got nothing. We finally saw the transfer boards and we found out we get to stay together for another 6 weeks!!! I am so happy right now! And our district stayed the same too, except we're getting a new elder to replace elder Olsen, cuz he's going home. It's exciting stuff!

We finally had time to get pants today! Mine are actually alright, I was worried I wouldn't find anything. But for the most part I think I'll stick to dresses. 😉 We also went to an Amish store and I tried liver cheese! It was pretty darn good!

It's already February folks!

Elder Gong is coming to speak to the mission on the 11th, so my p day is being moved to Wednesday. I'm pretty bad at giving heads up so I'm trying to be better about that!

A quote I read at the barbeque place (because there are religious things everywhere, it's the south) said, "If you are not hungry for God, then you are probably full of yourself." And at first I laughed, but then I really thought about it and I thought am I full of myself? Probably. Thats not good, we must always be looking to God, searching for God, drawing closer to God. When we get too absorbed in ourselves and what's going on with us, we lose sight of what really matters. We lose that eternal perspective. That's dangerous. I have had low points, we all have, but I know that when I turn to God instead of turning inward, I can get out. I can be set free.

We can endure pain and suffering and heartache, when we know that this is not the end and this is not all there is to life, we can do hard things! God is our Heavenly Father. Jesus is the Christ. We can be forgiven. Families are forever. All suffering will come to an end, and we will have eternal rest. I can't help myself. I can't figure this out on my own. I need God, I need my Heavenly Father. And I know He is there. I know He loves each and everyone one of you, and if you reach out to Him, He will be ready to lift you up. Don't ever stop reading your scriptures, don't stop praying, don't stop coming to worship. In these things you will find hope. And I know that hope is something we all need in order to keep going.

I love you all, have a wonderful week!

With love,
Sister Wilcox 😙