Eye love the clinic September 12, 2016

This week we served at the free clinic which is so much fun because we
get to be little receptionist people and schedule appointments in the
computer. Dr. Fischer informed me that I have blue sclera which just
means that the whites of my eyes have a slight blue tint to them.
Apparently in ancient Egypt if you had it your were considered
royalty!

Great things are happening in the trail center! I don't know why I've
never really made a lesson plan or thought of the commitment before a
tour. I always just rely on the Spirit in the moment, which isn't bad
I guess, but thinking more beforehand on their needs is so important.
Sister Svennson and I had the opportunity to take two members on tour
together and after we put them in the video we walked around the
gallery to pick out a spot for a specific principle. We chose the log
cabin and compared it to the brother of Jared boats that were "tight
like a dish" and how we need to serve our
family and keep them close together so that worldly influences don't
have any room to come through. It was a neat experience and we both
felt more prepared because we had taken the time to think about what
to share.

Sister Preator and I went to visit some of the less active girls with
the young women for mutual! The elders and us formed a youth challenge
that has them all pumped to do missionary work and it's so awesome. :)

Last but not least, for ward coordination meeting we had a member from
the stake come and share what they want each of the ward's mission
plans to include. One easy thing he mentioned is that everyone who
speaks in church should invite nonmembers to come and hear them! I
thought that was such a good idea because it's less intimidating for
both people. We're also encouraged to have the ward pray for specific
ways they can share the gospel in whatever situations they are in and
that God may place prepared people in their path! I hope y'all can do
the same!

Have a gorgeous week!!

Love,
Sister Irwin

P.S. Sister Jones (the bishop's wife) gave us early Christmas presents
since they're moving and they are the most comfy socks ever! :)
P.P.S. After cleaning the temple this morning (the sun was so bright)

Parting is such sweet sorrow September 6, 2016

Hey y'all. :)

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day! I'm emailing now because the
library was closed yesterday and Bob and Lucy took us to the zoo!
There's not a ton of things to report on this week, but Sister Preator
and I taught the Restoration in the mall to one of the workers at a
little kiosk. He tried selling us this really nice lotion, and
succeeded, but we just wanted him to take a Book of Mormon! He ended
up not doing it because he was already really strong in his faith but
it's okay because a lot of people walked by and saw two strange girls
adamantly bearing their testimony about Jesus Christ and we got a
stellar deal on some body cream. ;)

Fun fact...Did you know that the lead singer of Imagine Dragons was
originally Elder Reynolds in the Nebraska Omaha Mission?? In fact, he
even served in this same area. Wow! I love them!

Back to things of more importance - yesterday was the day I said
goodbye to my trainer. :'( Ugh it's like part of my heart is leaving
the heartland with her. Along with Sister Strong, Slater, Laumua,
Murphy, and Robertson are all going home too. My group is the oldest
at the trail center now and it's weirding me out! I still don't know
what I'm doing half of the time. But I do know that God knows what
he's doing ALL the time! Always remember to trust in Him. Proverbs
3:5-6.

I'm going to start a special "40 day fast" for this transfer. Starting
next Monday I will just be writing my group emails and no personal
ones or letters for 6 weeks, also I may or may not read any as well I
haven't decided that part yet. I thought I'd try something out to give
even more up for the Lord's work because no sacrifice is too great!
The missionaries in the scriptures and the early days of the church
sometimes wouldn't have contact with their people for years and they
had a lot of success. Just know that I love all of you and appreciate
your love and support!

Til we meet again :)

Love,
Sister Irwin

P.S.
District pic
Artsy district pic
Temple day
Ward mission fam
Too many goodbyes

Bittersweet August 29, 2016

Hey y'all!

So it turns out that we had our last lesson with Ricky and he's
officially the YSA sisters' investigator to teach. It was sad but I
know this is the right thing for him because they can have better
fellowshippers for him and involve him in church and activities with
people his own age! The handover lesson went great and he actually
agreed to work towards a baptismal date on Oct. 5th, which is his
birthday!! :) Hopefully that goes through because it will be the
happiest day ever.
Another happy thing is the amazing progress that the Prusias are
making! They've been studying the scriptures every day and are finding
things that apply to them. I wish I could better explain the
experience we had at our lesson the other night but the Spirit was
just so strong. Sister Preator and I felt prompted to invite Brother
Prusia to search for the answer himself to one of his questions in the
scriptures, and also to read a specific conference talk. What none of
us knew was that the place where he was reading in Matthew 5 was
exactly what was mentioned in the talk and he knew, without a doubt
that this was true and that things from the past shouldn't control his
life. No matter what happens with people in the church, whether you're
offended or feel lonely or anything, the gospel of Jesus Christ is
100% true. People may not be perfect but the gospel is. It's not about
the social aspect as much as understanding the importance of the
promises you can make with God and the blessings that come into your
life from living in a way that is harmony with His teachings. Only you
are in control of the latter. Don't let others take away that
happiness!

One last thing, the Egberts in our ward should be the poster family
for member missionary work because they are so willing to help out and
introduce their friends. Sister Egbert gave us the address for a
friend's mom from her kids' school and her name is Michelle. We
stopped by her house and she invited us inside right away and was so
friendly. She let us wash her dishes and help her with dinner while we
taught her the Restoration! We also tried helping her unlock the
bedroom door that her little boy had locked with no luck...(she texted
us later that she fixed it) But the best part was she literally took
the Book of Mormon from my hands and asked if she could have it. YES!

Love,
Sister Irwin

P.S.
My diagram from zone conference
10 months with squad
Adventures at Boys Town

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!!