New companion! (Nov. 2)

Hey!

Such a crazy good week. I know that I am doing alright at something because I keep hitting the pillow hard each night. This week my baby came! Her name is Sister Cook. She is from Mapleton Utah and is a babe. She is definitely prepared for a mission. She is also a fashionista so that is a blast. She is doing really well. I am pretty overwhelmed but its so good for me. I know that the Lord knew that I needed this. There are three new missionaries in our area and I am the only one left who knows the area so that has been a bit of a pressure.

We got two new investigators this week and so that was a HUGE miracle. They live in humble circumstances and so it was really good for Sister Cook and I to let all the discomfort go and just focus on the Savior's love. The one lady's name is Shiree. She is in bed a lot and she has many "sons" she has taken in. The one that we met actually had been taught by missionaries and then moved. It was a huge miracle.

Halloween was really fun :) Definitely not the same as my house BUT we made it fun. During the day we went to the dog shelter and played with the cutest puppies. Can I just say male dogs are gross though...flip. Then we had a couple appointments also in humble circumstances...that is Ardmore. That night we went around with cards and candy and gave them out to people it was so much fun. There was a teenage boy we gave a card and candy to and when he grabbed it he said "THANK YOU JESUS!" It was so funny :) We got our car back on Halloween too and then managed to get it stuck in the mud. I'm good guys, SO good. Halloween night we carved our pumpkin and then roasted the seeds YUM. I painted our faces and then we painted our nubs (toes). It was pretty good for a makeshift halloween. We had to be in by 7 that night.

I am ready for another really good week. Trying to remember all the little things but also just to LOVE people and really help them. Ardmore is looking up :)

I hope everyone had a great holiday. Miss you guys!

With Love,
Sister Engelbrecht

Keep Calm and Pray on! (Nov. 23)

Hello my friends :)

you know I am really not sure all what to say this week. It has been a bit off but we relied on the Lord a whole lot.

Monday was a ton of fun. We went antique shopping which was really nice. I finally felt that I was rejuvenated for the week. Something that we have been doing a lot this week is working through our ward lists. President told us that if we did that we were promised a baptism. I absolutely have seen miracles this week, as always of course. We were supposed to move out of our house on wednesday, then friday, then Saturday, and now today so that occupied a lot of last minute plans this week. We mostly drove o the outer cities in our area and stopped and talked to a lot of people.

One particular night we went out to Healdton and went looking for a man. We had to talk to a neighbor and of course he knew about all the extended family of the man. I love that about OK, the people have lived here for quite some time usually, which makes our job a lot easier. We set up a time to come back and meet with him. Then we were able to find this mans relatives and set up an appointment with them as well. The coolest part was that as we were coming to a stop sign to leave, a less active member walked right in front of our car. I totally was a creep and yelled at her to "come here" but it turned out alright and we set up an appointment with her as well. I had only met this girl once several weeks ago and she is not even on the ward list. It was such a tender mercy that we would be thirty miles out of our town and at the precise moment God would put her in our path. As we drove home Sister Cook and I were saying "man I really wish we had a dinner" sure enough 5 minutes later the elders said the bishop invited us over. That day I was having a pretty down day and cranky out of  my mind. However after getting out and just turning all I had, no matter how small, over to God, He magnified my  efforts. I felt so much better when I could look back at how much love He had for me and His children. If we will just give every ounce of ourselves and give up things we struggle with He will make up the difference. We JUST have to DO it.

This week we also went to  sit by the lake and breathe a bit :p OH the water. Then lightened up things with a little prank on the elders. We put a plunger on their porch that said "plunge into the work!!!" OH it was soooo funny.

Happy Thanksgiving and I hope you have a great week. Keep Calm and Pray on :)
Love Sister Engelbrecht

Little miracles (Nov. 9)

Hey everyone,

I really do have an awesome companion. She likes to sing Ariel to me in the mornings. Our neighbors on the other hand not so awesome. We found out yesterday that they are using our water and they have been putting their trash in our garbage bin. Also, did you know that cats sound like babies crying when they are arguing? That woke me up last night! Oh the joys :)

No but really, this week has been a time for enduring to the end. Isn't that just how life is. Up's and down's. We saw a lot of miracles though as we pushed through and still kept our booties out working.

The coolest thing happened this week when we were out street contacting. We walked up to a lady sitting on our porch and she immediately said "Okay, I know who you are, you don't even have to do your shpeal, I have found Jesus and I do not plan on be converted to Mormon" We were a bit stunned as we had only said hi. Instead of walking away though we continued to ask her about her relationship with God and offered to at least share a card with her, she of course said "I already have them all" but MWAHA we had a new one from the Because He Lives video. She accepted and we began to walk away. As we did she started talking to us again and I could tell as she looked at the card the spirit literally softened her heart, you could see her whole demeanor change. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. Those are the things you only hear about right? UMM NO, it really does happen. We were not able to set up an appointment but I know one thing is for sure. She felt the spirit.

Another miracle that happened this week is that we were able to teach an investigator who is really close to being baptized but just needs to quit smoking. We have tried and tried to make an appointment since I have been here but it hasn't worked. Finally after this whole time we sat down with him and talked about baptism. Joey is SO ready to be dunked. We are just working with him on addictions. Those are SO hard and it makes me SO grateful that the Savior knows EXACTLY how to help him even if we don't perfectly.

Okay so want to hear something funny now, but not so funny in the moment?
Here we are at the house taking a BREATHER and all of a sudden the door handle starts rattling really hard. Sister Cook and I's heart started racing and we really had NO idea what to do. We call the elders immediately and they were like "oh no one is breaking in, it's probably just two nice guys" OH WE COULD HAVE KILLED THEM!!! It was them at the door. They totally saved their butts though because they had brought us chocolate cake and potato chips and sprite. The day before we had been talking about things we crave. It was SUPER funny later but my gosh, today we are getting pepper spray for our bags!

Well I hope you all are doing really well. Don't forget to pray :)
Love,
Sister Engelbrecht
p.s. it is starting to get REAL chilly here! We were wearing COATS INSIDE!

Heavenly Father wants us to have all (Oct 19th)

Another slow slow week but it was an awesome week. I definitely went hard on junk food....oops, I guess that is what stress does to you though.

I have been studying a ton this week about the Plan of Salvation. This talk I read just blew my mind, it is by a previous mission president. As I read it my understanding and peace of God's plan for us grew so immensely. I was thinking later how much I felt peace just from something written by man. If I could feel that much peace just from a talk, the amount of peace that I could feel hearing it from the Savior would be so much greater. It gave me hope and reminded me that even though I do not know the meaning of all things I do know that Heavenly Father loves His children (anyone recognize that scripture)? I kept thinking that if we REALLY understood the amount of love God has for us than we would completely jump in a heartbeat and do what He asks of us.

I have not always been one for rules and doing things that I don't understand. I have never thought it really was a big deal, but lately my testimony of the commandments have grown immensely. Heavenly Father wants us to have all He has, EVERYTHING. Why? Because it makes us happy! That is literally all. He doesn't send us to earth and say okay now figure out how you can make it here, He  says "Look this is literally the path to get the most joy ever, there is no other way." You can try it your way but I promise it won't work" How amazing is that? He literally hands it to us. Heavenly Fathers mercy is that He gives it to us and the justice is that we must follow that plan. I don't know if this is hitting you like it did me, but I feel like my eyes have been opened. I want to be better at keeping the commandments. There are so many things I don't understand especially as a missionary and having to keep rules BUT I know that I can show my love for God by following them. The mission is such a preparation for me to follow the bigger rules "Commandments." AHH, I just have to have enough faith to just do it. One day when we get to Heaven, we are going to say, "is that really all we had to do to receive this" I guess the thing that has helped me is praying for the desire and the help to do it. My nature is absolutely not to follow every rule, I like to tip toe just a bit over the edge.....I hate that but it is true. One thing I know though is that if I can pray for that help my nature can completely change and I am trusting that I really will be happier. I saw this in a woman's eyes yesterday when she cam e to church for the first time in 4 years. I could tell that she was an amazing person just got tired and as a result fell away. Her demeanor just changed at church and you could tell that she had felt the spirit. The spirit can change us if we let it. Our motivation has to be our family and our Savior.

Anyways that is enough for my rant this week ;) Now do y'all want to hear about a funny experience?
Here we are getting ready to go to a progressive dinner for the ward and I left the keys in the house but we locked the door...therefore 2 + 2 = we were locked out of our house. We got back with the elders that night and they tried everything to get us in. Card's were broken, bobby pins scrounged for in our purses, and a companion who is going to pee her pants, literally. We called the members that own our house and they came by with a box of keys....long story short, they did not have the keys. We were mega stressed out especially because it was after 11 pm. Sure enough we get a call from the AP's saying that Sister Erickson and I both are training this next transfer, she is leaving and shotgunning a new area. CRAZY night. We ended up staying at a members house that night and we got in the next day by demantling a window. Are you even surprised :p

AHH good times.
I hope y'all are doing fantastic!!! Keep going strong <3
-Sister E

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