Something I didn't realice before August 22, 2016

Hello there!

Shout out to my adorable little cousin Katelyn who got baptized on
Saturday! What a day to remember! Also thank you to her mom Cheryse
who is posting all of these letters on my blog. If you've missed some
of my emails or if you're crazy enough to read them again you can find
them on lavieencorn.blogspot.com.

Fun fact of the week: Sister Gurr and I found out we have the same
ancestor that's buried in the pioneer cemetery and we share the same
great great grandpa which means our family is having a party up in
heaven because their long lost granddaughters found each other! :)

Zone conference was such a spiritual blast! We've been studying what
it means to have a change of heart. These are the steps President
Gardner talked about:
1. Hearing/studying the word
2. Actions of faith
3. Being humble to repent
4. Righteous desires
The more our heart changes to become more Christlike, the happier we
will be! Commandments will seem less like rules because we will want
to do what is right. We all made diagrams on our own interpretations
of a change of heart and I'll have to send a picture next week because
President wanted to look at them. However, Sister Preator and I did
get to share them with Bob and Lucy and they thought it was pretty
cool! ♥ - Alma 5:26

Three quick miracles...

The Trail Center is slowly starting to die down so we have more time
to do online chats and calls! We had an AMAZING lesson over the phone
with this girl named Julia who's been researching the church for THREE
YEARS! We had an opening and closing prayer and taught the
Restoration. She asked a lot of great questions and believes
everything is true but has been hesitant to meet with missionaries
because she didn't think her parents would approve. Since she's now
away at college she agreed to have them stop by and she totally wants
to be baptized!!

We have been working with this hilarious couple, the Prusias, for a
while now and we just started going through the 12 step program to
help them quit smoking. I love them so much and they really do want to
change their lives around. Just when we thought they'd never commit,
they finally came to church yesterday for the first time in almost a
year! :)

After 7 loads of laundry, 18 trash bags, and 24 hours later...we are
lice free! Let's hope our testimonies are the only thing we share...

Love,
Sister Irwin

P.S. Softball with the gang at zone conference, ward party Mexican
style with our Methodist parents, rewarding ourselves after the
"ordeal"

Hope this isn't too corny August 15, 2016

Psalms 65:13 is one of my new favorite scriptures! :)
...the valleys also are covered over with CORN; they shout for joy,
they also sing."

This past week we had a relief society activity and Carrie and Kathy
were both able to pop up there! They enjoyed it and were able to make
friends and field the Spirit. :) That same night we also had a great
lesson with Ricky and the YSA sisters! We went over to baptismal
interview questions and all of his answers were so amazing. He's
definitely been lending an ear while he's been taught and he is
changing. :)

Some people just crack me up when they make up excuses for why they
don't want to meet with us anymore. Sister Preator and I have a few
favorites:
"Sorry I can't I'm sick" *proceeds to walk outside to the pool*
"I'm just so sleepy I need to go back to bed" *at 6:50pm*
We also started teaching a referral from the elders and it turns out
the man was really only interested in the elders and not what we had
to teach him...shucks
At least we can laugh about things instead of getting creamed haha!

Something President Gardner is having us work on is relating every
question/concern/objective back to the Book of Mormon. Even if
someone's question doesn't seem like it would relate to the
scriptures, it does because there's really a deeper concern that needs
to be addressed. If a person gains a testimony of the Book of Mormon,
they will know that Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith is His prophet,
the true church is on the earth once again, the priesthood has been
restored, and we have a living prophet today! It's the best domino
effect in the world! I have come to love the Book of Mormon and gain a
deeper understanding of it on my mission and it's something I
definitely include in my prayers every night before bread.

Have a top of the crop week! Eat some chips. Don't get stalked. Am I
driving you nuts yet?

Love,
Sister Irwin

P.S. We caught them all

If you're not winning, you're learning August 8, 2016

That's a quote from one of the new Meet the Mormon videos at a
visitors center near you!

Hey y'all. The most insane thing happened at the end of last week's
district meeting, a lady walked into the room and said she passes the
church almost every day but it's always locked. She asked if she could
learn more about our church and wants to start going and I think all
of us almost fell out of our seats!

Something I've learned and am still trying to learn on my mission is
to follow through with promptings - without delay! On exchanges with
Sister Strong we were about to drive out of a parking lot when we saw
a man sitting on the curb and felt like we should go back and talk
with him! The man's name was James and it turns out that his brother
had just passed away the day before and he was grateful we came to
talk with him and share an uplifting message about Jesus Christ with
him. He said he never cries and he started to when we were there with
him because he could feel the Spirit.

We had a mission wide finding activity on Thursday night from 6:00 to
9:00. The goals were to invite 1 person to be baptized, hand out 2
BOMs, and share the Restoration 3 times. There are about 90
companionships in the Nebraska Omaha mission, and even the rainstorms
and TWELVE mini tornadoes around the area couldn't stop us. As a
whole, we invited 109 people to be baptized, handed out 281 BOMs, and
shared the message of the Restoration 308 times in just three hours!

One last miracle: The day after Christmas I took a family on tour and
got one lady's information because she was interested in learning
more. Lo and behold, she lives in the Eagle Run area but the
missionaries here haven't really been able to get a hold of her. We
stopped by her house last night and she and her husband were home!
Their names are Kojo and Gwyne and they are the nicest people I've
ever met! They're Baptist and have a strong belief in Jesus Christ and
are really intrigued by what we had to share that they invited us back
for next Sunday! At the end of the lesson I asked Kojo who he wanted
to say the prayer because it was his house. He said we were more than
just guests now and that their home was now ours too and that I could
say the prayer. Wow I love them.

Have a gorgeous week. :)

Love,
Sister Irwin

P.S.
Rare photo evidence of me driving Sister Strong on exchanges!
Sweet 15 year old Ashley that I took on tour and we talked for over an hour
Gaga for Gaga's piano

IT'S A GIRL! August 1, 2016

Hey y'all :)

I have another cute sister to train! And my first companion who's not
from Utah what! She's Sister Preator from TEXAS! I took her around
while knowing I was going to be her companion the next day...best kept
secret ever! She is awesome and so ready to be here and work hard it's
insane, she's basically training me. I just love her already!

This week some fun stuff happened and ironically enough I happened to
take this couple, McKell and Kendall, on tour for a second time! They
came to the trail center a few months ago because they had just moved
to Omaha for an internship, but now they're already moving back home.
They were so sweet. I can't believe the summer is already basically
over! Where did the time go?!

Happy birthday this month to Gillian, Jessmin, Shyann, and Savannah!
Party hardy my friends.

Most importantly, s/o to XAVIER for getting BAPTIZED last month!!!
Heavenly Father is so unbelievably proud of you for taking this step
of faith and I know you can really have the Holy Ghost as your
constant companion if you keep choosing the right.

Have another great week!

Love,
Sister Irwin

P.S.
1. Proud mom :')
2. Sister Cope and her famous waffles!!