heart attacks

This week was......

Heart-attacks: So our ward really needs strengthening. A lot of it. In the past Char has bee known for it's crazy high baptism numbers but the retention is terrible. We have 100's of inactives. So Sister and I decided to Heart-attack some members and less actives. we cut out tons of hearts and put scriptures and nice things on them and then tape them all over their door. And the results have been miraculous! I cried like a baby during sacrament yesterday because almost all of the people we had heart attacked had shown up to church dressed as nicely as they could afford. They were sooooo happy! Hugging and kissing us and best of all sat through sacrament. What a miracle. I cannot tell you the joy I felt yesterday. Sundays are really rough for missionaries. I think I can speak for most missionaries by saying that. But I loved yesterday! The Lord really is helping us tremendously.

Investigators: Our investigator couples came to church yesterday!!! And we even got some members to be nice to them and sit next to them! It was truly the best Sunday ever. One of our Investigators (I'll call her M) is in the Book of Ether!! We've only been meeting with her for a few weeks! She thinks it's really interesting but she is having a hard time seeing why we need the BOM. She's really amazing.

One of my favorite scriptures is in the New Testament in Matthew 28:19-20:

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Teaching them to observe al things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway even unto the end of the world. Amen."

Sometimes you just need the little reminders.

Love you all,
Sister K

Lamb chops

Momma!!
This week was a great week!

Sister L: So I'm really sad that I cannot say names. But our Branch Presidents mother is the person that I will refer to as L. Mom, I have always felt your love for me. I've never doubted your love. But..... This lady might love me more than you do. Let me explain myself: when she sees us she says, "My sweet dear! My little doll! My kitten! My cherry! Oh, I will eat you up! There is not a candy in the candy shop sweeter than you! I love you!!" All the while she is pinching my cheeks and kissing me and hugging me and I'm never quite sure if I'll make it out alive. I love her!
She just has the BIGGEST heart and I know that she is going straight to the Celestial Kingdom.

Locked out: Yes, again. This time the lock wouldn't just hammer in easily like last time. How many Armenians does it take to break in a door? Well, apparently 1 and 10 to stand by and watch. It took a good couple hours to hammer the darn lock in again. But we finally got in. And the solution to the gaping hole that is now in our door is....a bandaid.

Lamb: So we were at our missionary coordination meeting with our Branch President and the elders when two girls from our ward walk in. Our BP said, "These girls just slaughtered a lamb and you are going to buy 4 lbs of it." I guess you could say that our Branch President thinks that we have a lot more money than we actually do. So we now have 6000 dram worth of bloody lamb in our freezer. Bless his heart.

Investigators: We have picked up 2 families and 2 couples in this past week! We are so excited! The two coulples are especially exciting because the men are awesome and we could use a few more strong preisthood holders in our little branch right now. I can count right now on one finger how many priesthood holders don't have a word of wisdom problem in our branch. So this will be great!


Love, Sister Mads

P.S. Don't forget to pray! And read your scriptures! And go to church! Those are all commandments you know, not just suggestions :)

Fruit drying season

Wool beating season

count carefully

One of the surprise pictures my comp took

On our way to Kate's old companion's house

Long day - so pathetic

This picture is one of my favorites - so middle eastern looking

P-day hike to an old church

Great family

So this past week everything fell through. We had appointments lined up with members, investigators and less actives and all week they fell through. We were so devastated. But as we were walking yesterday we started talking to a tatik and her grandkids. She eventually invited us in and we did how to begin teaching points. Her hars then came in and we taught most of a first to all of them. Some how it got brought up that the husband is agains the church so we got a little nervous. Right as they said that, he walked in the door. He came in and sat down and started to kind of pick at us a little bit. And then the tatik and hars started defending us! We had to go shortly after that. But the dad was joking and laughing with us by the time we left and we think that we won him over. They are a great family. We have another lesson with them tonight so we will see how that goes. Anyway, that lesson made the whole week worth it.

Today we got locked out of our apartment (typical Armenian missionary problems :)) We went and got our groceries and then went home to put them away and our key wouldn't work. We called our landlord who is a recent convert and then we waited outside our appartment for like 45 minutes surrounded by our groceries snacking on anything we could for fear of starving... and then he finally came. He couldn't get the door open either so he ran down the stairs and then came back up with a hammer. And then the most Armenian thing happened: he just hammered in the door. I mean, it worked. The door opened after a few swings at it. But now we need to get our door repaired. I thought it was hilarious but I think sister was a little annoyed..

So I just wanted to say that sometimes email time stresses me out because there are so many people that I love that I would love to write long emails to but time is very limited. So I hope no one is offended when I don't send very detailed emails. I love you all so much and appreciate and feel all of your support. I wish so badly that I had the time to email everyone.

Love, Sister K.

The language will come....

momma,

I am so sad I missed Jilly's baptism but I am so proud of her!

This week nothing happened really just because we are still pretty new to the area. We have been meeting with a lot of potential investigators.
We are teaching two very elect ladies right now that are both so ready for baptism. We are so excited. The spirit is so strong in our lessons and I can't wait to see them as members.

Fast sunday: Again?? Wow. I love this privilege that we have to fast once a month. I definitely had plenty of things that I was fasting for. I hope everyone took advantage of the great opportunity to fast yesterday. I can testify of the many great blessings that we receive from fasting.

Language: So you probably all know by now that this is a touchy subject for me. My mind doesn't seem to retain things very well therefore making learning a language very difficult for me. But I am going to swallow my pride for a minute for the sake of some people that I know will be learning a new language very soon. I feel that in the English language I am able to speak well. I am able to bear my testimony and say the thoughts of my heart and express myself well. Here in Armenia speaking the Armenian language has taken that from me. I cannot say everything that I want and am forced to say very little of what I actually feel and want to say. But I know that the gift of tongues is real. Learning a language is the most humbling, hard, frustrating, annoying things I have ever had to do. But it's worth it, because it is through this language that I will be able to help bring these people closer to their Savior. My companion is so amazing and takes the time to help me with the language. I have learned so much from her in the week that I have been with her. The language will come. To the person that I have in mind, I hope you know who you are, you are about to be an incredible missionary. You are about to be humbled more than you wish to be by the hard language you are about to learn but trust me it will be worth it and I am so proud of you.

I love my family, this gospel, my Savior and Redeemer and my Heavenly Father.
The church is true. I bet my life on it.
Love, Sister Mads
xoxoxox