Group E-mail 9/2/13

Well not much happened this week. It was really, really slow with school starting for everyone and Labor Day weekend. But this week will be really good and busy, filled with lots of appointments.

However we do have a baptismal date set for September 28 for a girl named Thi (pronounce like tea) in the Singles ward. She is really awesome! And totally ready to get baptized and she knows it!

Transfers were this week. I am training this transfer. My new companions name is Sister Stepp from West Jordan, Utah and she is 22. She is really sweet and excited to work hard and be obedient which is very important. We are still in the same area and this next transfer is going to be a great one.

Not much to say besides that. I will send more next week. God is good! The Lord will always give us the strength that we need if we follow Him and keep His commandments. All is well!

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail 8/26/13

Well I haven't written a group email for two weeks now. Sorry. The first week it was because their was absolutely nothing to say and the next week it was because we went to the zoo for P-day and we didn't have much time to email. But the zoo was really fun! Some members in the White Oak ward took us and the elders. The Elders in our ward are hilarious and so fun to hang out with! 

But you will never guess what has happened in the last two weeks: we found a new investigator, taught him all the lessons, and...

HE GOT BAPTIZED!!!!

Oh Yeah! Boo-Yah!

Let me explain. First of all the whole thing was a huge miracle!! (obviously). Sister Garlick and I were working really hard and trying our best to do what we were supposed to do and be good missionaries. And the Lord blessed us. At zone meeting this month, we set our goals for the month. Sister Garlick and I set a goal for 1 baptism/confirmation for the month of August even though we had no idea how that would ever happen. But the Lord has His plan. 

In our mission we have this thing called "Power Hour" where from 6-7pm Monday-Friday, we just go finding. It is a full hour set aside for finding new investigators. Sister Garlick and I have done it a few times, but a lot of times other things come up, so we don't do it as much as we should. However, about two weeks ago, we decided that we should do it. Sister Garlick was reading a paper that talked about how power hour works and noticed that it says to start power hour by going to a member's house, sharing a quick message with them, and then having the head of the household say a prayer and specifically ask for us to find those who are prepared to receive the gospel. So that night we went to Happy and Michael's house. Michael said the prayer -- the first time that we have ever heard him say a prayer. We ended up going to visit an inactive recent convert in the singles ward who we have been trying to meet with FOREVER and so we didn't actually go finding that night. However, the Lord still blessed us and answered Michael's prayer. That night while we were planning, some elders from another ward called us with a referral. They told us that their area had just been combined and they were going through the other area's area book and just calling all of the former investigators in there. They called this guy name Marcus. He didn't answer, but called the elders back a few hours later and said that he was glad they called because he has been trying to get baptized since last summer. The elders found out that he lived in our area now, so they handed him off to us. We were really excited and called him right then and set up an appointment for the next day. 

Pretty much what happened last summer was that Marcus met with the missionaries and took all of the lessons. He had a baptismal date, but something else was going on that night and it got cancelled. Then that happened a second time. And then both of the elders got transferred and nobody got in touch with Marcus after that. But he kept reading the Book of Mormon and going to church when he could. He is 18 and his mom lives in our ward. He was in the other ward last summer because he was with his dad. By the time we met him, he had been coming to our ward for a few weeks -- he had actually sat in front of Sister Garlick and I in sacrament meeting the Sunday before. Everybody recognized him and remembered him coming, but we all thought that he was a member. 

So we retaught him all of the lessons and he got baptized on Saturday! He is really awesome and a great kid. He was so excited to get baptized and was beaming at the baptism and on Sunday when he got confirmed! Also, he has a 14 year old sister who has sat in on a couple of lessons and we are going to start formally teaching her the lessons this week. She has already started reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church with Marcus and is really excited to learn more. 

Besides that we have an awesome new investigator in the singes ward and everything is going really well. Sister Garlick and I have a had a great last two weeks. We have been working really hard and have been really dilligent about planning and setting inspired goals and that has made a huge difference. We've been looking forward to transfers this week and wanted to go out with a bang. Transfers happen Thursday. We already know what is happening because we met with President Pingree last week, but I will just wait to tell you until next week after it officially happens, in case anything changes. The Lord is good. His work is rolling forward!  All is Well!

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Sister Sylvester and Sister Garlick's 1st Baptism!

Group E-mail 8/5/13

This week was one of the weirdest weeks of my whole life. So much stuff happened. I wish that I could tell you all of it, but I can't, so I will just tell you the really great stuff and try to help you understand why it was so great. 

First of all, Michael and Happy got married this weekend! They are the couple we have been teaching, that just started coming back to church after being inactive for pretty much forever. They are completely different people since I first met them. They used to be on the Do Not Contact list. But they had diligent home teachers who dropped off a message at their door every month. Eventually they started opening the door for their home teachers. They listened more and more until eventually, a couple of months ago, they started coming back to church. Now they are totally dedicated to the church, the gospel, and most importantly, the Lord. They are doing everything they can to become temple worthy. They were technically married under Texas' Common Law, but they wanted to make it more official to show the Lord, and everyone else, that they were serious about following Him and working towards being sealed in the temple. So the wedding happened on Saturday and it was great. It was really small and didn't take very long, but everyone loved it. Everyone was just so happy that this finally happened and were reminiscing about the long journey that has happened with Happy and Michael. Happy looked beautiful, thanks to my awesome companion, Sister Garlick, who did her hair and makeup. She was so excited and was on cloud nine all day long. We can't wait until they go through the temple!

And then there is Deborah... So last Sunday, Sister Garlick and I decided that it was time to drop Deborah as an investigator. She loves the Book of Mormon and meeting with us and has a testimony of pretty much everything, but she just wouldn't come to church, which was keeping her from progressing. We hoped that by dropping her, it would help her in the end. So Thursday (I think -- all the days blend together) we went to her apartment. A ton of her grandchildren were there, both teenagers and little kids, and there was so much stuff going on with so many people. While everything was calming down, Sister Garlick and I decided that we couldn't drop Deborah that night--not with all of her family there. So we were going to share a short message and then drop her another day. 

We shared a scripture in Mosiah about how God has given us everything and all He asks of us in return is to keep His commandments. Deborah was talking about all of this stuff that she had read in the Book of Mormon, and the whole conversation wasn't really going anywhere. Then Deborah said that she had had a conversation with her daughter, Montrice, a few days earlier. Apparently Montrice has a testimony of our church and knows that it is true. Montrice pointed out all of these things that she had seen Sis Garlick and I do, and all of the things that the church does and said that all of these things were things that Christ would do and how she didn't see any other churches doing it ("Ye shall know them by their fruits" Matt 7:16). Deborah said that this whole conversation made her realize that this was Christ's true church and that everybody else only had bits and pieces of the truth, but we had all of it -- the full truth. She told us that she had been trying to hold on to her Baptist church and beliefs and her old life and hang on to what we were teaching her at the same time, but now she realized that she couldn't hold on to both. She said that she was ready to give up her Baptist church and her old life. And she told us that Montrice said that if Deborah went to our church and joined our church, she would join, too. So we might just have two baptisms on our hands! Anyway, that lesson didn't go at all how we had planned. Deborah said that she would come to church when all of her grandkids leave next week. I really do think she will come. Also, Montrice will hopefully come. 

Sister Garlick walked out of the apartment and just looked at each other and said "What just happened! I'm so confused, right now!" Then we got really excited and freaked out. And we got frosty's from Wendy's to celebrate. So we are continuing to meet with Deborah and we will see what happens from here. The Lord has His plan. 

And we also got two new investigators in the singles ward that we started teaching yesterday. They are 18 year old twin girls and they are really awesome! 

I love this gospel! It is true and everybody can know if for themselves. The Lord knows each of us and our circumstances. He knows what is best for all of us, individually, and if we trust Him, we can have peace in our lives. Christ is the only sure foundation. 

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail 7/22/13

This last week was a really weird week and not much changed since the last email, so I am just going to write about a few things that I have been learning about lately.

I have really gained a strong testimony of how fear and faith can not coexist. On the 4th of July we had a specialized training meeting and our mission president talked about this. Ever since then I have really noticed the truthfulness of this saying. When we have fear, it holds us back from doing the things that the Lord needs us to do -- and the things we KNOW the Lord wants us to do. Fear holds us back from reaching our full potential as children of God. So we have to get rid of fear and have more faith, which is ridiculously hard sometimes, but always possible. 

A week or two ago, I had a dream about the Second Coming. It was not doctrinally correct, at all, but it was a really. cool. dream. Ever since then I have thought a lot about the 2nd Coming and how awesome it will be. It is crazy to think that Christ will walk on the earth again and that we will see Him. However, as great as it seems, it is also a little intimidating and scary to think of everything that will happen and how the wicked will be destroyed. Not that I worry about any of you guys, but I think that it is important to remember that every. single. day. counts. We need to always be trying to become better people. We can't ever think that we can just slack off this one day and not read our scriptures and/or say our prayers. If we give Satan an inch, he will take the whole mile. Pride and wickedness come on little by little. I want everybody to be in the Celestial Kingdom and it is going to take a lot of work to get there, but it will be so worth it! I am just so flipping excited. 

In Relief Society yesterday, our lesson was about how with God, all things are possible. I started rereading the Book of Mormon when I was in the MTC and as I have been reading it this time, I have come across a phrase that I had never notice before: "His MATCHLESS power". This phrase is used over and over again through out the Book of Mormon. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ's power is MATCHLESS! Nothing else could ever even come close to it. They really can do anything and all things are possible with Their strength. Why would we ever want to trust in anything else? Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ always win. Also in our specialized training, we talked about a story in the Old Testament about Gideon fighting the Midianites. Gideon needed to go to war against the Midianites who were a VERY large group of people -- innumerable. Gideon gathered together an army of 32,000 people to fight against them, but the Lord told him that that was TOO MANY people. He needed to make his army smaller. Gideon trusted in the Lord and eventually cut his army down to 300. Then the Lord was satisfied and told Gideon to get a bunch of lanterns and pots for his army. These 300 men surrounded the Midianite army, banged their pots together, and flashed these lanterns. This loud noise and bright lights confused the Midianite army and they ended up fighting and killing each other. The Lord works in mysterious ways. With Him all things are possible. Trust in the Lord and lean on His strength. 

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail 7/15/13

She seems to be doing well. Hasn't complained about the humidity yet.

This week was a really good week! We made lots of progress with people. 

We focused on Deborah this week. Sanderryo had a really rough week and kind of closed us and everybody else, out. But we talked to him yesterday and he is doing a lot better. We committed Deborah to baptism for August 11th. The hardest things will be getting her to church, but it is in the Lord's hands and all we can do is do our best. We went to her house on Thursday and read 2 Nephi 31 with her -- about the Doctrine of Christ. She LOVED IT! And when we finished that chapter she wanted to keep reading. We read all the way t Jacob 4. She kept saying "Let's just read one more." Sister Garlick and I were taking turns reading the chapters and at one point we were switching and Deborah was totally glued to the book. We asked her if she wanted to read another chapter and she said "Oh yeah! But skip the first verse because I've already read that one... Now I'm done with number 2. You got to keep up girls!" It was hilarious! We had companion exchanges on Saturday and I went to another area for the day, but while I was gone Sister Garlick read in 3 Nephi with Deborah because she wanted to keep reading, and they taught her the Word of Wisdom. Deborah totally understood and said that she would live it. When we visited her yesterday, we asked her about it and she told us that she hadn't drank her coffee that day and she hadn't had any headaches that day even though she hadn't taken her medication. It was awesome! She is really progressing!

We also got a new investigator named Cindy. She was a referral from a girl who lives in California who used to be in our YSA ward. Cindy is 20 and is ready to change her life and become a better person. We met with her on Thursday and talked about God's love for her and the Atonement. We gave her a chapter to read in the Book of Mormon and planned to meet with her again on Saturday. Afterwards she texted us and said that she really loved meeting with us and was really excited to talking with us again on Saturday. She also texted her friend who referred her, and the friend told us that she said she thought we were legit and she was really looking forward to meeting with us and changing her life. Unfortunately she ended up having to work on Saturday and so we couldn't meet with her, but we are going to get together this week and we are really excited to teach her!

I just want to say that I know that the Lord has a reason for everything and that His plan is the best plan for us. He loves us so much and he only wants what is best for us. A lot of the time we don't know the reason why we are in a certain situation, but if we put our trust in the Lord and rely on His strength, we will be blessed and we will be able to have inner peace.'

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group Email 7/8/2013

Update on people: 

We focused on Sanderryo this week. He really opened up to us this weekend and really likes us now. We have formed a friendship. One night we were over at Deborah's apartment and she was really exhausted, but she still had to make dinner. So we let her rest and made dinner for them. I think that was a really big deal to Sanderryo and ever since then, he has shared a lot more with us. We invited him to the YSA ward for church. He said yes, if we could get him a ride because he doesn't have a car and he was really excited. We asked a guy in the singles ward who just got off of his mission in May and he was totally excited to pick Sanderryo up for us even though it was kind of out of his way. But when he got there, nobody answered the door. We had been trying to text Sanderryo all morning, but there was a problem between our phones and neither him or us were getting each other's texts (he had been trying to text us, too). And he can't call anybody right now. So we couldn't communicate with him. Zac (the guy from the YSA ward) pounded on his door for a few minutes. So Sanderryo didn't come to church. We were all really bummed. We saw him that night and we think that Zac went to the wrong apartment complex. Apparently there are two right next to each other and most people get them confused. Sanderryo said that he was all ready to go just waiting for Zac to get there, but nobody ever knocked on his door. So next time, he will come :) The Lord works in mysterious ways. 

We got a referral from mormon.org for a lady named Brandy. We called her and found out that she is a member. She was baptized when she was 13 but has been inactive for 18 years. She wants to come back to church, now. She went last week with a friend of hers, but decided that she should come to her own ward. So she came to church yesterday and we met her. She is really nice and we are going to start teaching her this week to help refresh her memory and things. We are excited about that. 

This week, my testimony of Joseph Smith was strengthened. I already have a strong testimony of Joseph Smith and I think that he is awesome! But, this week I went through the Restoration lesson a lot and thought a lot about his life. He was an amazing man who had so much faith and trust in the Lord. When I read through the First Vision this week, I started tearing up a bit. The Spirit was so strong! Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and I know that he restored Christ's church on the earth and that through the power of God, he was able to translate the Book of Mormon. He is such a great example for us to look up to.

I also gained a stronger testimony of trusting in the Lord. He has a plan for all of us and His plan is waaaayyyy better than our plan. Everything that happens to us, is for a reason, and it can help us grow and become more Christ-like. I know that when we trust in Him and in His plan, that we can truly be happy and feel at peace with life. I love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and I love this gospel!

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Some photos of Sheridan's 1st Texan 4th of July:

Group E-mail 7/1/13

Well this week was just one of those weeks that was not very good and not much happened so this email will be pretty short. 

Deborah and Sanderryo didn't come to church this week and are really busy so it is hard to get togther with them. We taught Deborah the Plan of Salvation and her and her other grandkids, who were there, too, loved it! The little kids thought that it was awesome that they could be kings and queens one day. (We shared the Carrie Underwood song "There's a Place for Us" that is at the end of one of the Narnia movie). We gave Deborah one of those Book of Mormon Stories books that have the simplified stories in them with pictures and it is kind of in a comic book format. She LOVED it! And she was really, really excited to read it with her grandchildren. They only have one picture book for them to read, so it was great for them to get a picture book filled with lots of stories for them. 

Happy and Michael are the inactive couple that have recently come back to church and whom we have been teaching. We went to their house a couple of times this week. They are awesome! They are totally different from the first time I met them. They are always in such great moods and they love talking with us. We are going to their house again tonight for family home evening and will teach them the Gospel of Christ. We love going over there just as much as they love having us there! We just found out that they never got married. They are technically married because of Texas' common law marriage rules, but they want to really get married before they get sealed in the temple. And they invited us to the ceremony, whenever it is, so we are excited to go to a wedding! They are working really hard to become temple worthy so that they can live in the Celestial Kingdom (we taught them the Plan of Salvation this week, too). 

Speaking of Temples, my mission is really lucky because the Houston Temple is in our mission, so we get to go once a transfer (or every 6 weeks). So we went on Friday and it was beautiful. It was an amazing experience. I was having rough morning that day and was really anxious and stressed out about a ton of things. There were so many emotions and thoughts in my head that I LITERALLY thought my brain was going to explode! I was on the verge of a mental breakdown, but I didn't want to do it in front of my companion, so I held it in. We went through an endowment session, and the whole first half I was totally unfocused because my brain was reeling. I finally was able to focus and then I finally felt calm and peaceful. It was exactly what I needed. All of my emotions and worries just kind of melted away and I felt the Spirit so strongly. It was an answered prayer. I was sitting in the Celestial room and I thought about how I wish I could just sit in there all day long and never leave and how all the stress and emotions I felt before were worth it to come into the Celestial room. Then I realized that that is totally true about life and the Plan of Salvation. One day I will be able to hang out in the Celestial room forever, but it will be even better because it will be the Celestial Kingdom, and all of the stress and trials that we go through in life will all be worth it once we get there. 

Anyway, this next week hopefully will be better and will pick up more. 

Love,

Sister Sylvester