August 25

Hello!

Well this week was another crazy one. It was great though. We had Zone Conference which was absolutely incredible. We had trainings on Christlike attributes, being dignified, helping people get to church, bicycle safety, goals and planning, and Jesus Christ. It was beautiful and inspiring. We have a long way to go to reach our goal of 1000 souls for the year of 2014. Will you continue praying that we will reach that goal? 

We also went on 3 trade-offs this week. Sister Earl and I weren't with each other very much! It was fun though. I got to get to know some amazing sisters! Going on trade-offs is so fun because I get to realize how different every single sister is and how they work and are so completely fit for their areas and this mission. This work would not be successful if we were all the same!

This week one of our investigators ended up in the hospital. And a member of the ward is also in the hospital. Visiting teaching is a beautiful thing. Sister Thomas went to visit this sister and she didn't answer. She had a feeling later to go back. The sister's car was there but she still didn't answer. She was very worried about her so the maintenance man who was there that day opened the door. They found her on the floor with no strength and was not coherent. It was definitely a tender mercy that Sister Thomas went that day. Moral of the story, do your visiting teaching, you never know when you will truly make a difference.

Two of our investigators who have baptismal dates kind of dropped off the face of the earth for a few days! But we were miraculously able to get back in contact with both of them. We also helped a ward member with some cleaning in her house. She is so amazing. She has four sons and really goes through so much. She was so grateful that we were there to help her. I love service so much.

We had a ward activity on Saturday. It was a Emergency Preparedness carnival. It was so much fun! Sister Earl and I got to be in charge of the apple coring contest. It was the kind of apple corer that we used to have that peels, cores and cuts the apple into a spiral. It was so fun. Someone was able to core an apple in 5.9 seconds! There were some other games and informational booths about different aspects of food storage and emergency preparedness. 

Yesterday in Sacrament meeting we had two wonderful speakers. One sister spoke on tithing and it was amazing. We are seriously so blessed that the Lord lets us help him build the kingdom by commanding us to pay ten percent. All that we have is a gift from him, and giving him ten precent back is a small price to pay. The other man who spoke is a FLETC (federal law enforcement training center) man. He is only here temporarily. He spoke on being in the world and not of the world. He told a story that happened to him while he has been in FLETC. He said that he is the only member of the church in his group and they found that out and at first they started teasing him. But as time has gone on they have started respecting him and even standing up for him. He had to do a simulation where he had to report back what happened to his drill instructor. As he was quoting the simulation he didn't want to swear so he substituted a different word instead. The drill instructor asked "What did they say?" His buddies in the group said, "Johnson doesn't swear, sir." He received a lot of respect and admiration from his instructor. Sometimes it is so hard to stand up for what you believe in but, wow, it is so important. People notice what we do. We have to be on top of our game. I know that it is worth it.

Always, 

Sister Kasteler