March 28, 2016 "All Smiles"

This week has been so full of good things. I would call it the calm after the rain. I don't know what we have done but Heavenly Father is very alive in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

This week we met a guy named Daniel. He just moved here in January and is going to school at OSU. The first time we knocked on his door was quite humorous. The door opened and he was shirtless. Sister Liddell half giggled from shock and said hi. He soon realized and said "hi.... (looks down) ....oh uh let me go put a shirt on." As he walked back he said "I thought you were Kenny, I am always giving him rides when he's drunk" We could not help but bust up laughing. He came back and we set an appointment with him. When we went back he was excited to talk to us. He has explored many churches. He was once, Baptist, Catholic, and Pentecostal. He told us that he had never been to a church that he could feel that all they taught was true. Reminded me a lot of Joseph Smith. As we taught the Restoration he was awe struck. He told us that he had never understood the apostasy so clearly. This boy is very much book smart and clearly not a crier. The spirit tends to break the barriers though. He had a dear friend that died in a car accident 2 years ago to the day before we were there. We asked him about what happened. We told him a bit of the plan of salvation. He shed tears. Yesterday he came to church and told us that he was very interested in learning more. Also that he had never been to a church so welcoming.

Easter as a whole was great. Sister Liddell and I made cupcakes to take to people and had a blast doing it. Although Jody Hannant for the record I still suck at frosting cupcakes :p

Here is a funny story for the week. 

Saturday night, I went to bed at 9:30 because I was sick again. 10:45 Sister Liddell wakes me up in dead sleep and says someone knocked on our door. I swear if I get woken up one more time on my mission in the middle of the night by unknown events it will be too soon. After we had a cardiac arrest we went to the door and she peeped through the blinds and the person said someone ordered a pizza for Abbi (my comps first name). We were then way spooked but after saying a prayer she kept knocking. We answered the door and it truly was pizza. Sister Liddell's mom ordered us a pizza and told the delivery people to keep knocking til we woke up. Good thing the pizza was delicious :p Happy Easter Eve.

I have been able to reflect this week on how much I love being a missionary. I am trying my best to give each day all I have.

Please watch the general women's conference if you hadn't already. It gave me so much hope and helped me to see that I can be on the front line of helping other people be ready to help refugees :D

https://www.lds.org/general-conference?lang=eng

Love,

Sister Engelbrecht

March 21, 2016 "Stilly is Back!"

Well.....let's just say we are happy that Stillwater has decided to come alive again :D

Let's also just say we are happy that my body decided to come alive again. I had a bit of a flair this week so unfortunately I spent a lot of time in bed. I really gained a deeper testimony of the enabling power of the Atonement though as I stretched myself as far as I could and then allowed the Savior to step in.

I was able to learn something this week that I would not of any other way though (isn't it awesome how God works in mysterious ways). While I was laying in bed Sister Liddell asked if I wanted to watch a movie and I would usually say no but I was getting pretty stir crazy. The movie was Ephraim's rescue. I had never seen it and so I wasn't really sure what to expect but it completely gave me an appreciation of the easy access that the gospel is in my life.

Our investigator Tuan who's baptismal date is this weekend has been in Vietnam for spring break so we are praying that he is ready when he comes home!

This week we had a couple really neat miracles.

Last minute our member came out with us and was the reason we were able to get our less active moxie, to church in the first time in 3 years. She got up and had to leave early because of anxiety but it was a big step.

Our Savior really knows His brothers and Sisters more than we know. Watching all the speakers yesterday at church helped me to realize that we are all on the same journey with one big coach who knows all the rules!

THANK GOODNESS!

For funzies: the pics

When sister Engelbrecht gets stressed we just decide to move the house around...thanks mom you definitely cursed me ;) and it was way cold this week!!!

March 14, 2016 And Stillwater goes pretty still!

What happens when 20,000 people get up and leave? That just happened here at OSU! Everyone left for spring break. We are bout to get real creative in our little corner here. Service anyone?

This week was well....wet. Lots of rain. Seattle weather 100% I was loving it. We went to do service on Tuesday and we were helping a guy move. It started dumping and thundering and lightning and all his stuff was soaked pour guy. On our way there we found a statue of a little girl standing on a globe. I fell in love with it and had to take a picture!

The easter initiative came out this week and we as missionaries are stoked. It is just like the Christmas one but a 2.o version. Please share it and watch it. I cannot get over the sincerity of the words spoken at the end are; "Hallelujah". We truly can have a new life in the Savior.

Last night we had quite a cool experience. We went to check on a less active in the middle of nowhere (surprised? I am not, we are in Oklahoma people). We accidentally took the wrong turn and went down a dirt road. Okay well we slid down a dirt road. We had a big thunderstorm yesterday and so the mud was slush. We got in a mile and a half and then got to a bridge thinking we were done. Surely we weren't there was a much worse road to go on right ahead of us. We said a prayer and went for it. I kid you not there is no way we should have made it but we did. Our lesson with the less active went phenomenal and it was a miracle.

Wish us luck cleaning the car today, we practically went mudding!

Love,

Sister Engelbrecht

March 7, 2016 The temple is literally the best place in the world!

​It has been a bit of a strenuous week and I think because it has been really slow here. Every night we have been searching for things to do and its been not successful but I have faith that the Lord will help it all be worth it, the blessings will come soon I just know it.

We had a couple miracle lessons this week.

The first one was on Thursday. I was down sick in bed for the day. I wanted to go to this lesson with Kymesha but I just couldn't get up without getting dizzy. SO the Hermana Ryan went with Sister Liddell. They taught her the Word of Wisdom and as it turned out, Hermana Ryan because she is a convert she struggled with the Word of Wisdom and was able to testify powerfully to Kymesha. It was an awesome lesson and it was inspired that Hermana Ryan was supposed to be there.

Then we brought in the big guns on Tuan, another one of our investigators. We have been worried about the word of wisdom lesson with him for weeks. We taught it and after explaining it all to him he was on board. We were so stunned and excited. There is no other way something like that would have happened without the power of the spirit.

How grateful am I for the gospel! IT WORKS! We went to the temple with a convert in our ward Hannah Mills and it was the most incredible experience. We were able to do baptisms. The way that the light shined in on that room from the stain glass helped me to remember how sacred and important this work its! GO, if you haven't been in a while!!!!

Love you all,

Sister Engelbrecht

Feb. 22, 2016 Spiritual Feeling

​It has been another incredible week. I think God might have the wrong daughter to be blessing because I do not know what I did to deserve this.

The highlight of this week was going to Tulsa to hear from Elder Christofferson. Here we are with all of our mission and half the Bentonville Ar mission and in comes Elder Christofferson. We all stood up and the whole room went so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The spirit felt like it washed over the whole audience. As he spoke to us I felt like I was sitting at the Savior's feet. The humility that was there blew me a way a bit. He was so real and human but completely showed that He knew the Savior. Heavenly Father wants us to be the best version of ourselves not some robot. That is something I am learning a lot lately. For a while I thought (I might have talked about this before) if I am trying to become like Christ won't I lose my identity? The truth is though, as we come to know our Father who created us as divine beings we understand ourselves better and we become more of ourselves than we were before.

During that time we got to hear from an apostle Heavenly Father answered questions that I have had for months that I quite frankly stopped praying for. It really helped me realize that even when we don't see the immediate answers we need to not give up on reaching out and expressing our thoughts.

Mariah our recent convert who was baptized last Sunday is doing incredible and we are continually blown away with her. I love my mission and most of all I love the Savior so much.

Love you all,

Sister Engelbrecht

Feb. 15, 2016 Something Happened this week~

Feb. 15, 2016

​This week has literally been such a whirlwind of miracles. I cannot even express how humbled I am to have been able to be the Lord's instrument this week.

I don't even know where to start. This week we were able to start teaching 3 new investigators one of which accepted to be baptized in a month. One less active out of no where texted us and asked if he could meet with us. We have never met him before. Another less active that we have not been able to get a hold of set up an appointment and when we went over to teach her, her non member boyfriend was interested. Sister Liddell and I just had wide eyes this week as everything unraveled.

Along with that we were able to go to the temple which was such a great experience. The peace that I could feel when we walked in was tangible and I really think that made a difference in our week too. Sister Liddell and I started this thing this week with street contacting. She gets nervous to talk to sorority guys because they are punks sometimes and I don't really care so we set up a system. She talks to ALL the girls we see and I talk to all the guys we see. It works out perfect and there are no more excuses. Missionary work is scary sometimes okay :p Heavenly Father really has made our efforts count.

I definitely laughed more than ever this week and thanks to my companion I peed my self twice. No shame people no shame....okay a little shame. It was such a bummer though. I should probably get that checked out :p Being able to teach so many lessons this week has helped me to see how powerful God's hand is in each one of his children's lives (that grammar though).

For dinner yesterday we had salmon and I just about cried I was so excited. AND it was actually good salmon. I sure miss me so good Northwest food but I get to have other delicious things that y'all are missing out on like chicken and biscuits. Thank you YSA ward :)

Mariah Cooksey's baptism was last night and was the best valentines day present anyone could ever ask for! It was crazy chaotic all day getting everything set up but it turned out to be beautiful. My mom would be so proud of my decorating skills. We thought about using the relief society room instead of the chapel but I am SO glad we chose the chapel because it was full. Mariah's whole family was there and it was the coolest sight. As I watched the way she looked at her non member family and how they embraced her I felt the power that a family has. That can be nothing but divine love. 

We were able to have two of our investigators Tuan and Kymesha (who has a date for March) at the baptism and if they did not feel the spirit there then I quit ;) It was so strong and such a good thing for them to experience. As Kymesha was leaving she said "so March is mine right?!" It was so great to hear her excitement. Some people are just prepared and we have to invite.

I can't tell you enough how grateful I am to Heavenly Father to have given me that boost this week :D Hope your valentines was as good as mine ;)

Love,

Sister Engelbrecht

Feb. 8, 2016 Happy Valentines Day!

Feb. 8, 2016

​I am sorry this is going to be a shorty!

This week has been a blast and busy as ever...again. We got our car back so that is good. Sister Liddell is shocked at how bad I am at getting around but hey what is new?!

We have had a blast at the booth lately and even met with a girl this week whose friend is on a mission in the Philippines. She was such a sweetheart and agreed to meet with us this week.

I just wanted to share a little thought about conversion before I go,

Discipleship is all about learning to become as the Savior is. The Latin root of disciple is learner and as such we are on a pursuit to simply learn and act as the Savior would. That pursuit is a lifetime one and because of that it has the greatest rewards. It is all worth it and way simpler than we make it out to be. Satan wants us to look at the gospel and feel that it is all too much and so many little things but in all reality it is the clearest way of life we could possibly live.

I love the gospel and I know it truly works.

Love you all so much

Sister Engelbrecht

Feb. 1, 2016 No Fear of Man

Feb. 1st 2016

​Hello peeps <3 It is February :)

It's been a crazy busy week and then Saturday and Sunday extremely slow and I think it got to us because Sister Liddell and I have this crud: sore throat and congestion junk. Fun right?! That thing called IBS though, it is not kicking my butt this week so at least I am not on double duty with being sick.

The area here is a blast. It is super easy to get distracted with all the cute stores. I am college age living in a college town but a missionary so I kind of feel like "ooh shiny" at times. It is so good for me though to learn sacrifice. That is something that has been focused on a lot here lately just in lessons and in my studies. Heavenly Father I am sure is trying to tell me something. It is really easy for me to be intimidated by so many people my age but I am trying to get over it and remember my purpose is to share the gift of the gospel. I have found myself at times thinking "man I just want to get on with my major and go save the world :p" but then every time the spirit reminds me that sharing the gospel right now is the best way anyone could ever start to change the world. In Helaman it talks about how if Sodom and Gomorra even had 10 people that were righteous, God would not have destroyed the city, but it didn't even have that. It taught me that each individual righteous person really does make a difference in a world of shifting values. Every righteous decision we make REALLY does matter.

There are a couple people that displayed this to me this week. There is a recent convert here who is in a sorority. She had a huge initiation meeting on Sunday for all the girls coming  in and it was a big deal for her to be there. She told us that she would be going to an earlier service of church instead of ours which was at one. We show up to church and here comes Sydney, this girl, walking in at the one o' clock time and so we asked her what happened. She told us that she was asked to teach Relief Society last minute and so she figured God wanted her at church more. We were amazed at the sacrifice she made just so she could teach Relief Society. I was really inspired by her faith. Mariah is another one that has been teaching me so much recently. She is an investigator who is getting baptized on Valentines Day. She is so ridiculously excited to go to the temple, she could skip baptism as a whole. It is the most precious blessing to see people follow God and as a result make you better. I love being a missionary! Those good times make up for the hard times 100 fold.

Love,

Sister Engelbrecht

p.s. the pic is of Mariah (she is a little peanut)

Jan. 11, 2016 Reflecting

Hey everyone!

It has been another really really good week. It is such a blessing to see the Lord's hand in this area because I did not do anything to make it happen. ​

Michael and Chelsea are doing so good. We had two lessons with them this week and we realized that one of the biggest things holding them back was that they did not have a faith in Jesus Christ. Without that very first basic step the Gospel will not make sense. After all it is the gospel of Jesus Christ. We decided to dedicate a whole lesson on Him and why it is important that we have a Savior. As we were testifying of Jesus Christ, Michael lit up and started giggling and smiling. We asked him what was up and he told us he just felt like crying, like a huge wave of peace washed over him. The spirit truly does testify of Jesus Christ. It was another reminder of my testimony and it was so refreshing to see that the gospel REALLY does work. Sunday they came to church and they were determined even after they had to get their car jumped. The sacrament talks could have gone a bit better but I had to remind myself that all those things are in God's hands and I am merely his instrument. 

We also had Anna come to church another one of our investigators and I was so grateful!! 

I have been reflecting lately on how easy it is to get frustrated with people....because we are human. Jesus Christ tells us that we will be judged how we judge. As I was thinking about that I thought that often times when we judge it is because there is more that we do not understand. We must look inward to see what it is that we can change first, sometimes that is the hardest thing but I feel like that is when we become better. 

I am really grateful for this gospel and the peace that it TRULY brings in to my life. It really works we just have to ACT on faith. Here is a really good video that has helped me a lot this week. 3 minutes that will be worth it :)

https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/patterns-of-light-spirit-of-revelation-1

Love you all!

Sister Engelbrecht