The Lord takes care of His missionaries even when they are IDIOTS. (Oct. 12th)

​Hello World,

 

I hope you are all doing well. This week just FLEW by. I am pretty sure Sister Erickson and I just laughed all week. We had to, to liven things up. Things here are really slow BUT at the beginning of the week we were pumped to just jump right in.

We were on role visiting people and then Wednesday hit and we got into a car accident. We are okay, it was a miracle. 'nuff said.

 

We will be on bikes here for a bit...meaning a stinking while. I am just so grateful that we were okay. The Lord takes care of His missionaries even when they are IDIOTS.

 

The people here in Oklahoma are the kindest people. I feel blessed to be able to learn from them. I love that there is so much interfaith interaction here. Just the fact that we meet at the Methodist church on Sunday. I know that things are going to work out and if we are having fear for our world then we are not having enough faith. It is WAY easier to say than do, but it has been something I am working on.

 

This week I have received a lot if revelation on things that I could be better at. I know that that was a result of me asking. Its all the little things and I have just been taking it one step at a time.

 

I love y'all and hope you are doing well :)

 

p.s. we saw an armadillo this week...he was dead.

Love,

Sis E

God knows us! (Sept. 28th)

Hey Y'all​

God knows us and will grant us tender mercies every day but especially when we need them. THey might be as small as having a really hard night and to cheer you up, your companion is inspired to play ping pong with you and totally cheer you up. Everywhere we went there seemed to be dogs and I stinking love them. I am a huge dork but they just bring me so much happiness. This week has been really good for me to look inward. I have had a lot of time to reflect on my mission so far and why certain things have happened the way they have. I can say that I know that I was prepared to hear certain things at Zone Conference with our mission president this week as well as the General Women's conference. Can I just plead with you all to watch General Conference next week? I know, I know, I know that it can be boring if we just sit there. But if you go in with a specific question the spirit will cleanse you and you will feel a deeper love from your Heavenly Father because it becomes clear that He knows you. Your question will be answered. I have a huge testimony of that.

Just some thoughts that stuck out to me this week:

"Eternity is made up of nows"

“Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father and how familiar His face is to us.” - Ezra Taft Benson

                  *That makes me want to strengthen my relationship with Him now because I know that when I get there I will be thinking, "man why did I not trust you more! You are my father, of course you wouldn't lead me astray.

 

There was a particular day this week that was really hard as far as health goes. I was able to get up and do my studies and it was such a good one. I don't usually to the Preach my Gospel activities, but this particular day I decided to. I ended up reading D&C 138, which I had never read before then. When I read it the spirit touched me so much and my testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith was strengthened as he testified of the Savior. He also talked a lot about the spirit world and I loved it. Well that night I wanted to try to go out. I said a prayer and told Heavenly Father that I wanted to go out and I would but I really needed Him to give me the strength to do it because I didn't have any at that moment. We got up and left. That night was the General women's conference and so we went to go invite less actives to come. We knocked on a couple doors and they did not answer. We decided to try one more. We stop in on a woman on our list. She invited us right in. We sat down and chatted with her for a few moments and she ended up telling us that her daughter died of ovarian cancer when she was almost 15. They were all converts to the church and right before she died was the happiest most spiritual time of their life. I felt impressed to share that section of Doctrine and Covenants from that morning. I read it to her and while I did I could feel her daughter there with us telling me that her work had not been done. It was such a precious experience. When we stopped reading she asked us to mark those verses. Her eyes swelled up and we told her that her daughter needed her to get to the temple and get her work done. It was very bold but it was what the spirit needed her to hear that. She said "I have never thought of it like that. I really do need to get there" We asked her what we could do to help her and she said "you know I really need to be better at reading my scriptures. Do you think you could come and help me?"

The humility she showed was inspiring. As we walked out of there we had huge smiles on our faces. How incredible was it that God had prepared us that day and especially in my studies. I did not think I was going to be able to go out that day but God had hope in me and provided a way. That was such a sweet reminder that God knows what we can be. He knows our potential and will give us the strength to get there.

 

Sister Erickson told me an analogy last night that goes right along with this:

The moon was created by lots of asteroids bumping into it, which is why it has so many craters. Even though the moon is not perfect it was created to shed light in the darkness and it can even with imperfections. The craters were trials in the moons life that shaped it to be the magnificent light that it is today.

I know that I am no perfect missionary x100 BUT I can still be light to those I serve. Give yourself more credit because we touch more people than we know.

I am so grateful for the Savior, it is because of His light that we can shine. I pray that we can all have an incredible conference experience.

Love,

Sis E.

"God brings us down, just so He can lift us higher."

Oh Ardmore,

What do I even say :) It is quite different than any of my areas so far. Pretty sketchy BUT a lot of people that need the gospel. The work here is pretty slow but that just means I need to square my shoulders and knock on doors. The members and people are really nice haha but all they have said is how sorry they are that we have been sent here. I just find it hilarious. Time to turn things around, the question I ask myself is "Do I have the faith sufficient?" YES Lets do this. It is definitely going to be a challenge. 

Let me just tell you though, God does reward us for our diligence. There is a quote I found in my studies this morning:

"God brings us down, just so He can lift us higher." 

That is my motto for this transfer and I saw that fulfilled this week.

Here we are day 1 going to see 4 different people and they all fell through, several doors tracted, and less actives checked on- no answer. Day 2 just about the same. Day three, a mimic of the day before. They felt like the longest days of my life. Day 4- THE MIRACLE

Our whole day looked about the exact same and then the evening hit.

We went to go check on a woman and there was a girl sitting on the porch who we asked "Is Debra home?" She went and looked and while she did that the little boy on the front porch was trying to get his brother to play football with him. He wouldn't and so I told him to throw it to me. MAN, I love kids, I think sometimes I forget being on a mission because there are so many restrictions on how we interact with them. Then the dad came out and we started talking about the Book of Mormon. He was really open minded and we gave him one. He read several scriptures from it and overtime 5 or 6 more people came out on the porch and joined us. When we brought up being able to be with our families for eternity their eyes were opened and they wanted to know more. We ended up giving out 3 Book of Mormons. 

That night we went to dinner and once we got in I realized I did not lock the car. We went back out and as I locked it, a man in a truck was calling for us. We walked over and he told us he saw the elders get out of the car earlier and so he put his information on a sticky note and stuck it on our car. He used to go to church because his ex wife was a member and he ended up reading the Book of Mormon and felt it was true but was not ready to change. He told us he wanted to meet with us. HOLY MOLY!

Had we not come to dinner at that very specific time, we probably would not have met that man. 

The lesson learned is that- when you are doing things in your life that feel like they are tedious, keep going. God blesses us for our efforts and really does make the difference. We had tracted all week and it was doing nothing, but out of no where the rewards were there. 

I am so grateful that God works in very specific ways in our lives. I am excited to be here in Ardmore but I have a feeling this is going to be a transfer to remember :)

For our crazy moment of the week:

We went to volunteer at the humane society and walked dogs. I picked a pit bull (I love them) and she was pulling on me real hard, I have got marks on my hands from the leash still. When we got done with the walk I went to put her back in the kennel and she launched at another dog and they got into a fight. My adrenaline was pumping. Thankfully someone came and helped us, but there was blood everywhere and on my shoes. That was quite the experience. The next time I just chose a small little harmless puppy...

For anyone that would like it, here is my new address 

1210 10th Ave NW

Ardmore, OK

73401

Hope you are all doing well, would love to hear from ya ;)

Love,

SIS E

Hornets nest

Y'all ready for this :)

Remind me to stop buying ANYTHING. I hate having to get rid of stuff and pack for new areas. ALRIGHT so I am headed to Ardmore Oklahoma Wednesday Morning.
There were plenty of tender mercies this week. I was dealing with body issues again....the email I don't say that in will be a cause for celebration with ice cream...probably not cake that has gluten in it.

I am going to miss everyone here quite a bit. I really do love Texas but God has a plan for me that I am allowed to shape. My missi0n has taught me so much about being positive about situations. I remember growing up and when hard things happened I was so so bogged down by them. I felt miserable a lot when those kind of things happened. BUT that is life right? Hard things are just bound to happen. I have finally started to learn that what mom said about choosing to have a good attitude is completely true. Situations are going to happen and we can either choose to have a good attitude or a bad one. We are going to have to handle it either way so we might as well let it change us. When trials feel unbearable it really is because we are not letting the Savior take enough of the weight. How do we do that though? SIMPLY let go. There is a story of this little girl and a hornets nest, a member told us this week I would love to share.

A little girl is walking down the street and she sees a little puppy following her. She is so enthralled in this sweet little brown eyed puppy following her and so she keeps walking waiting for him. As she looks back he falls into a big hole with a hornets nest in it. The poor puppy is yelping and is being stung all over. She knows that if she were to go get help then he would be stung too much by the time she got back. Instead the little girl bows her head to pray and just begs God for the help. She says she cannot stand to see the puppy suffer and so she is going to save him, but she needs help. She leans down puts her arm in and grabs the puppy out. Her arms are not stung at all. God helped her with something that she KNEW was impossible to do on her own. This actually happened and the woman that was once this little girl made the connection to the Atonement later in her life.
If we walk forward in faith, letting all our fears go, the Lord will carry them and we will come off conquerer. I absolutely KNOW this to be true. Try it this week. One thing that you need to change but you just don't want to or think you can. I know that you can.

I am so grateful for the people in this area that have helped my spiritual growth and my physical growth (from my belly out). I am going to miss them. My district leader goes home this week and poor kid is struggle bussing. I am grateful that I still have a while!!!
Love you all,
Sister Engelbrecht

Shorty

Hey everyone :)
A shorty today. It has been a good week but I thought I would let you know I am being transferred back to OK, not quite sure yet where but I will let you know when I do find out :)
If you have not read the story of Alma the younger lately (Alma 26) take a look, the Lord really does love everyone!
LOVE,
SIS E

A lot of times you get to see Heavenly Father's children for who they are.

Hello :)
It has been quite the week. Honestly it has been one of those weeks where I really don't know what to tell ya. Lets just say, we did not burn up in flames, our area did not burn up in flames, and that was probably due to the surplus of fake tears that we were too stressed to cry. HOWEVER, there was no boring part this week.
We could say that the highlight of our week this week was Wednesday night. It was another really tough day with many things coming up unexpectedly and so at the end of the day my sanity was pretty much gone. I was craving a cookie dough brownie blizzard from DQ (Shoutout to BRADY). We typed in the gps Dairy Queen and the only one that popped up was in Holliday Texas 10 miles away. I WANTED ONE and so did Sister Esplin. Well we pull up to this dinky little dairy queen at 9:00 pm btw our curfew dont judge and then we headed home. It was quite literally in the middle of nowhere. We got home and the next day we told the elders what we had done. They said " you know there is one right across the street right?" OH MY GOSH....I am such a ditz. There definitely is one that you can see from our apartment. ONLY me. I just have to accept it I guess, and pray hard for my future FUTURE husband.
Even though it was a really hard week I had a moment this week where I was sitting with a 62 year old man and as he was crying I realized how special my calling is. The walls are able to be broken down as a missionary. A lot of the time you see Heavenly Father's children for who they really are. That is the greatest gift of all.

Here are some other not AS amazing gifts but maybe PRETTY CLOSE :)
It was a fun morning.

He KNOWS your name

Well my friends I am super excited because I got me some boots this week and they are wrapped up for my Birthday next week. There is a fair in town and I LOVE fairs so we are going to see if it will be open for Monday- pday. I totally lucked out because my birthday is on a Pday. Okay now enough of completely vain thoughts.
This week has been another really good one. It went by quite a bit slower but nonetheless it was a good one. The highlight of this week was definitely going to the temple in Oklahoma City on Wednesday. Can I just say God protects his missionaries. Mom and Dad I drove 2 and a half hours and we did not die! It was nice though to be there. The temple is such a blessing. It never seems easy to get there but I have a testimony that the peace we feel there is worth every trial we face to get there.
Miss Emily (deaf)! We were able to teach her on Tuesday and it actually worked. It was not without struggle but the spirit was there so we did something right. However, the whole time Sister Esplin would say something and Emily hardly understood her so then I would have to sign what it was and clarify and it went like that back and forth until we could get a sentence out. Well, when we got to the first vision it landed on Sister Esplin to say it. She looked a bit panicked and I was on the edge of my seat waiting to have to clarify things. You will not believe it but: She said the whole first vision and not once did we have to stop. She understood EVERY word. The church is true :) The spirit taught her in that moment and it was a miracle.
Yesterday at church I had a really neat moment.
I was sitting in the relief society and on my left was a deaf woman, on my right was a schizophrenic, and in front of me was a recovering meth addict. I was struggling to help the two on both sides of me and Sister Esplin was helping the woman in front of me but after a few minutes the spirit opened my eyes and whispered to me how blessed I am to be able to minister to them. I have the opportunity to be Christ's hands as I sign and his voice as I clarify to my right. Goose pimples (as they say in texas) filled my arms and I could not be more at peace. The savior will give us strength to do the things we think we cannot do on our own. I love Him, he is my saving Grace :) Turn to Him, HE KNOWS  YOUR NAME. YOU ARE NUMBERED AMONG HIS FOLD.
In the name of Jesus Christ Amen
Love
Sis E