Happy Camper!

July 18, 2016

Hello Beautiful and Wonderful Family!!!!

SUCH A GREAT WEEK PEOPLE.  Every week as a missionary for Jesus Christ is a great week.  Another super duper busy week, driving all over the Zone.  Full of 2 Full day Exchanges with the YSA Tuscaloosa Sisters and the Lorna Branch Hermanas, a blitz with the Hoover Sisters, and another blitz with the Bessemer Sisters.  SO FUN.  We have some incredible sisters in the ABM. 

One of my absolute favorite parts of being able to travel and do missionary work with other sisters in the zone is getting to know their investigators and members in their areas!!  Being able to teach with them and be able to know who they are teaching and how we can help.  We went on exchanges with the Lorna Hermanas in the Lorna Spanish Branch and it took me back to my home, Huntsville Spanish Branch! Sister Benioni and I were companions once again! #REUNITEDfromthemtc We had a dinner appointment and I was on cloud 9.  Eating one of my favorite dishes, Flautas. Ahh!!  When I speak with Hispanics and enter their home the scripture in Mormon comes to my mind, "and there was not a happier people"  so true!!

T____ Is doing ALOT better! Remember him and his brown recluse spider bite??  Fortunately it looks a lot better and all our freaking out about him dying from it was unnecessary UN-fortunately that was not the end of his health problems! He texted us Tuesday and told us he was in the hospital for gout! So while we were on exchanges, Sister Raddigan and I went to the hospital in T-town and visited him. Gout is a disease that causes crystallization at the joints, his, specifically is in his ankles and they were HUGE. I kinda wish I took a picture of it because they literally looked like tree trunks. 

Long story short with T___, we met with him and had a wonderful lesson about the truthfulness of the RESTORED gospel, emphasizing the Book of Mormon and that this church is the Lord's kingdom once again established on the earth.  T___ was so funny during the lesson and said " I might as well get a tattoo on my arm that says Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, that's how much I believe it!"   hahaha gotta love T____.

He believes everything and has a strong testimony of the th Book of Mormon but is still having a pretty tough time living the Word of Wisdom, mainly because smoking helps him with his narcolepsy (staying awake on the roads, etc)  We had some pretty straight forward conversations with him and he understands the importance and committed to quit smoking last Sunday for GOOD! He is on date to be baptized on the 30th of July if all goes well!!! 

EMMAUS EXPERIENCE:

On Exchanges in Lorna with S. Benioni, we went to go store contacting at this Hispanic chain tienda called "Mi Pueblo"  When we pulled up we saw this lady unloading groceries in her car with her kids.  She was kind of staring at us so we both felt prompted to talk to her.  As we did we found out that she is a member of the Church! Her name was C______ and she was baptized 11 years ago in Mexico. Upon moving to Hoover, AL she tried to find a Mormon church here but failed to find one! Ever since then she has been attending a Christian church with her non member husband and children.  We happily told her that there is now an LDS Spanish branch down the road that was not established when she first moved here.  She was so happy to see us and meet us and we invited them back to church.  Emmausing....had we both failed to act upon the prompting to talk to C______ we would not have known that she is a member and had been looking for the church ever since living here.  I love the spirit!!

There is much more that happened this week but I wont make yall read a novel.  I love this gospel and the way it makes me feel and grow!  On Sunday we got to listen to a Mission President from a ward in the stake that was returning from their mission in the Lima West, Peru mission.  He said  "The Lord works through weak vessels."  I am a 20 year old girl, I dont know the scriptures as well as I should, and I sure as heck am not a perfect teacher.  There are many times where I have felt inadequate for this work, but I know that the Lord can use me, a weak vessel, through the spirit and work His miracles to bring others to come unto Him. D&C 1:23 says"

"That the fullness of my gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and sthe simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings and rulers."

I know this is His gospel.  I LOVE MA LIFE.

Keep staying steadfast in HIM.

Con mucho amor,

Sister living the mission life Moline

 Giving Coach Nick Saben a Book of Mormon. (This man is the equivalent to a god in this town!)

 R____'s baptism with his wife, ward mission leader, Sister Merrill and me.

 The Lorna building near Birmingham.  This where the Lorna Spanish branch meets.

 University of Alabama football stadium.

 President and Sister Sainsbury.

 Roll Tide Lane!  

 My old STL Sister C____.  I LOVE HER SO MUCH!!

 Sister Hildago and I.

 Sisters in our zone.  Sister Benoni my MTC companion!

 The green of Alabama is so real!!

 University of Alabama.

All the Spanish missionaries at leadership council.

The Plan of Hope!

7-11-16

The Plan of Hope!

This week was SO CRAZY as are they all, nothing new I guess. 

We went on a few Blitz's with some sisters in the Zone along with an exchange! And it was so fun!  I absolutely love working with some of the best missionaries in the mission.  All of the sisters in our zone are currently training new sisters! And let me tell you, theses sisters are incredible.  I realized how much of a baby I was when I was in their shoes and they really are teaching me things that I need to learn.  I love it.  I love it. I love it.  

We started off in Bessemer where Sister Mitchell (my trainee from Huntsville!!!) and I visited a less active, D______ who we challenged to increase his already large amount of faith in Jesus Christ by reading the Book of Mormon on his lunch breaks at work!  Next stop was Lorna where we went on a blitz with the Hermanas there (the Lorna branch is one of the 3 spanish branches in the mission)  Where Sister Sheffield and I had an AMAZING lesson with one of their investigators, E______ who is from Honduras.  She is one of the sweetest most open and loving people I have met.  We had a lesson on Faith and how we must act on our faith and experiment upon Gods word.  We invited E________ to be baptized and she accepted!!!! MIRACLES HAPPEN.

That next day we went on Exchanges with Sister Hidalgo and Sister Chavez  in Hoover.  S. Hidalgo and I drove back to Tuscaloosa to work there.  Sister Hidalgo is so AWESOME. We had a BLAST!!!!  She is 22 and has been through alot in her life and never thought serving a mission was for her.  We stayed in Tuscaloosa and I got to show her around the University of Alabama and talked to some elect people! It got up to 111 degrees AND MAN WAS IT HOT. We also taught T___Sabbath Day observance and tithing and Fast offerings. I think I told yall that T___ got bit by a brown recluse spider and gave us a few scares regarding his health haha but he is doing so much better!! SO YAY!  He is still doing wonderful and loves learning more.  He is still really struggling with quitting smoking but doesn't think he has a problem and wants to quit cold turkey this Wednesday. So we are praying for him!

The biggest highlight of the week was R____ baptism!  Another child of God enetered into the waters of baptism, following the example of Jesus Christ. This has been a long wait for his wife V______  who was so excited for R____ to make this step.  They are both such wonderful people, so fun and loving. They are already a part of the ward and have been for the past year (since Vanessa was baptized) so naturally the entire ward showed up for R____ baptism. It was the largest turn out I have ever seen at a baptism!  Everything went so smooth and the spirit was so strong.  R___ even bore his testimony at the end! He talked about his relationship with God and how much it has grown since opening his heart to the gospel and the missionaries. So much happiness was in the room!! I was beaming ear to ear. 

Quick story! Sister Merrill and I were tracting and going through the roster one day when we both felt that we should go see a recent convert in the ward, B_____.  She's an older black lady with some mental problems but is so cute and always at church ready to help.   She told us she had a friend over but that we were more than welcome to come over, so we did.  Turns out her friend is a Jehovah's witness who just earlier that day was watching an anti-mormon show on tv and came over to convince her to leave the church.  This man was so mean, disrespectful, and just awful.  He even called us devil angels!  We did our best to share our testimonies with him and told him that we respect all religions and just invite others to learn more truth by reading and praying. I then asked B_____  how she came to know the gospel is true, she bore the strongest most humble testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it changed the way she thought about her Father in Heaven.  He quickly got angry and you could feel the lack of the spirit in the room. He continued preach at us for a good 20 minutes.  Although I am sure that nothing of what we said meant anything to this man, I know that it was the spirit prompting us to go over and see Barbara at her apartment that day. 

After R_____ baptism we went to try and visit some potentials! We saw this lady sitting on her deck and felt prompted to talk to her. We yelled up to her and asked if we could come up and share a message! Her son let us in and we started to get to know her. Her name is M______, and as it turns out her brother just passed away a few days before. We had the opportunity to share with her the Plan of Salvation. She kept telling us how much hope that gives her. I thought that was fitting- the Plan of Hope. I'm so grateful for the knowledge we have, so that we can have hope for ourselves and for our loved ones who have passed on.

In studying I came across Moroni 7! Verses 40-42 say:

"40 And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope?

 41 And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.

 42 Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope."

The Gospel of Jesus Christ brings a message of hope to our lives.

We are about to leave right quick to take a tour of the University of Alabama Stadium for FREE. holla holla!!  Thanks to a member in our stake who knows some high up people.  So be excited for pictures next week!  Love you all!!! Have a great week!!!

Fun fact of the week! 

University of Alabama's original mascot was "Crimson Tide"  not Big Al the Elephant which is what most people think.  The word "tide" actually means a heard of Elephants and in the 30s after a crazy football game  against Ole Miss a reporter referred to the distant rumble of the football team running onto the field and said "Hold your horses, the elephants are coming." and it stuck!!! That is why Big Al the elephant is now Alabama's mascot!

Love,

Sister Crimson Tide Moline

Steadfast in Christ

 July 4th Freedom Festival in Hoover.

I love every single one of these sisters!

 Sister Merrill and me.

 Sister Merrill and me at "Meet the President."

Alabama Avenue!

God Bless the South

7-5-16

God Bless the South

Happy 4th of July friends and familyyyyy!!!  Such an awesome time for the whole country to come together and celebrate this beautiful nation we live in! I am grateful to be in a mission that gets to celebrate it!!!

This week was cuhrazayyy!!  I felt like we have not been in our area in a very long time! We have just been running around this whole week going to meetings and going on exchanges left and right.

We went on Exchanges (switching companions with a set of sister in our zone for 24 hours. each in a different area)  with sisters in the Demopolis area!  I went with Sister Hintze in Demopolis. S. Hintze is from Clearfield, UT. Demopolis is the CUTEST tiniest little town with a small branch of members.  Only about 30 are active.  Their building is a teeny tiny little thing! With a normal Relief Society room as their chapel and very few classrooms. Such a muffin little Church building. I will just share a few highlights from our exchange! 

        -First,  we had Book of Mormon study with the cutest old member couple and a sassy black Less active lady who I later got to be best friends with!  As S. Hintze and I were tracting in the ghetto one time during the day, we got escorted by this nice man on a bicycle back to our car because he thought it was too dangerous for us to be there (it was 11am and we were fine but it was so cute!!) haha

        -We went all over Demopolis with the Senior Couple in the branch, Elder and Sister Jones to find Less Active Hispanic families in the branch, because both the Senior Couple and regular sisters in Demopolis are english, so we went all over so I could communicate with them and have a lesson! It was so fun!

        -  Getting to know S. Hintze was so awesome.  She is seriously an amazing person and missionary.  She has been through ALOT yet is still extremely  ARROWS OUT and has an awesome attitude.  It was so fun to work with her. 

Lately we have really been working with our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Corbridge, who is the BOMB! He is young with a wife, no kids, going to graduate school at Alabama. We love him so much. He has been such a blessing to all the missionaries that have served here.  He is by far the best WML I have ever had.  Our goal this transfer is to really work through the members and to do that we need to build trust with them and build strong relationship with them.  He really wants us to be a part of the ward family. 

Remember Miracle T___! We taught him this week about the Word of Wisdom and the blessings of being obedient to God.  The lesson was kinda all over the place but the point got acrossed and he understood.  He smokes and drinks coffee and tea but he agreed to live the Word of Wisdom and told us that quitting smoking will not be a problem for him so we will see! Keep him in your prayers! 

    I cant remember if I told you that he has narcolepsy pretty bad haha He falls asleep during our lessons quite often.....I was laughing alot during his first Sunday at church  when he was falling asleep but when we were teaching him you could really tell its hard for him! Its a real struggle.  He blinks alot, moves back and forth, pulses his hands for blood flow.  And so instead of laughing I got really sad for him!! haha this is really something he cant control and its really hard for him.

After that lesson I was really overcome with love for T___!!!  I really really care about him and just genuinely want this Gospel for him because of the blessings he can receive.  I knew that that was charity from Heavenly Father.  Ted is a wonderful person.  If more people were like T___, alot of the corruption in the world would be gone.  I cannot wait for his baptism coming up soon!

We got to meet President Sainsbury and his wife!!  I love them!  They are great and wonderful people, prepared and ready to serve the Lord.  They both spoke to us, introduced themselves and shared their story and testimony.  President Sainsbury laid down some expectations of his missionaries, He expects us to 1)Love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ 2) Be obedient. 3) Be Happy! 4) Follow the Spirit.  He said that their love is no performanced based.  And that Our companion is your best progressing investigator which I loved.  They are wonderful people.  They are not the Hanks! But I can feel that he is the right man for this job.  It is exactly what we as a mission need.

On the 4th of July all the leaders in the mission got together for MLC (Missionary Leadership Council) with President Sainsbury so we got to see him up close and personal! We set some goals for the mission for the next 3 years and talked about them and how we will achieve them(no biggie, just a little intimidating)  It was soooo wonderful.

Quick funny story hahahahaha

               After MLC we were driving to have a blitz with some Sisters in Hoover, AL and we were in stop and go traffic for a solid 3 hours. Unfortunately S. M had to go to the bathroom really bad and we were going literally -2 mph... it was awful. So we pulled off, hopped out, and ran into the woods (thank you AL for being so foresty everywhere) and Sister M peed in the woods!!!! hahahaha I went with her to keep a lookout.  Hahaha I was so proud of her.  It was a memorable time.  Anyways thought I would share that with ya’ll sorry if it was too much info but it was the best thing of my life.

R___ is doing so amazing! We had dinner and a lesson at their house this past week and he is so incredibly ready.  If there was anyone so ready for baptism its R___....He told me that he and V____ did a background check on the last name Moline because R___ has ancestors with the name Molina, and they found out that its French for Miller! And Molina is Spanish for Miller. Fun fact.  Who knew???

We taught a Hispanic family last week and it was so awesome.  I have forgotten how much I love the Hispanic people.  They make my heart melt with love!!!!!  They are so charitable, lovable , and HAPPY.  Its always a bit toasty at first but once you speak Spanish to them, BOOM you’re family. 

For Pday today we got together as a Zone and watched 17 Miracles.  There was not a dry eye in the Relief Society room!  With Pioneer day coming up we all thought it would be nice to get in the mood.  That was a wonderful film that brought so much emotion to us.  MISSIONS ARE NOTHING FOLKS. Those pioneers sacrificed everything to get to Zion.  How grateful are we to have the gospel now and in a time where religious freedom is on the earth. 

D&C 136:17 " Go thy way  and do as I have told you, and fear not thine enemies; for they shall not have power to stop my work" 

I love my mission!!!!! I love Alabama! I love my Savior.  I am so grateful to have this time to get to know Him better and who He is to me personally.  This is His church.  In the last days.  The gospel is perfect and true.

Have a great week! I love you all!!

love,

Sister Southern Squished Moline

rolllllllll tide roll