Time Traveling pt. 2‏ March 14, 2016

Hello all! :)

Daylight savings happened again...I still don't get it but it's fine! #AZprobs
I have like no time to email because we're going to OrangeLeaf with
Bailey in like five minutes (one of the young women in our branch,
also featured in the Brendel family pic)!

This week we had a special training meeting for all the sisters in the
mission which was way fun! I felt like I was back at girls camp. Also
our zone went to the temple on Friday! Oh how I have missed the
temple. I'm grateful to have one in my mission! I know that they are
truly the house of the Lord, and I'm grateful that because of them and
the priesthood power on the earth that we can be with our families
forever. :)

I promise to write more next week!

Love,
Sister Irwin

P.S.
...the best/funniest district ever, I love the Brendels, and I love to
see the temple!

Stay out of trouble, and eat your veggies!‏ March 7, 2016

...That's a quote by Harold who is my first ever PROGRESSING
INVESTIGATOR!!!! Oh my lanta this is so exciting you guys you have no
idea. Even though he's in Cottonwood we're still claiming him as ours
(maybe Walnut Creek will get a break one day). Ahh he is just so
awesome! We've had three lessons with him, he's come to two firesides,
we got to take him around the trail center, and he's accepted to be
baptized! I love him!

Zone training was the best one yet! We talked about this new website
JustServe.org if you haven't been on it yet you should totes go check
it out. It has a bunch of service opportunities in the community where
you live and it's nation wide. We get to use it which is exciting! Our
stake president, President Derrick, came and talked with us about
working more with the members, being like a firework in the mission
field, and just making the most of the short time we have to be
representatives of Jesus Christ. It was super spiritual but then at
the very end when he walking out he yelled "Go kick butt!" It was
great and got us all super pumped. :) I love being a missionary!

Something else super exciting coming up is the church has a new video
campaign for Easter that's being released on March 13th! We already
got to watch it. ;) It's so awesome but all I'm going to say is
#Hallelujah.

Other highlights from the week:

1. We served at the free health clinic and Dr. Fischer took us out for
dinner afterwards at this delicious pizza place!
2. We took a tour that lasted for almost three hours with some elders
from Sioux Falls, South Dakota and their investigator! It was so so so
good.
3. Some sisters who went home from their missions came back to visit
which was fun!
4. The Tervorts, aka my favorite senior couple ever, are leaving and
my heart is breaking but we've already talked about meeting up later
when I'm off the mish!
5. We got to clean the temple this morning!

Until we meet again! :)

Love,
Sister Irwin

I leap you leap we all leap for Leap DAAY‏ February 29, 2016

Hope everyone is having a happy February 29th!
S/o to my bff-since-swim-kids Lauren! She had a birthday last week :)

So I don't have a ton of time but this week was good! We found a new
investigator named Harold who we met for dinner last Friday and taught
him. He suffered a heart attack not too long ago but he's doing a lot
better now and thanks God every day that he's still alive! He feels
like there's something he still needs to do in this life (obviously be
baptized haha). He has a strong desire to go to church but has worked
on Sundays for the past two years. I hope he can either switch his
schedule or job so that he can come.

On Saturday night we had a musical fireside that a lot of us
missionaries put on. Hutchison, Orton, and I sang a really cool
version of I Am a Child of God for the opening number! A lot of
nonmembers were there which was awesome. I don't think anyone could
have been there and not have felt the spirit.

Acts 3:8. Leap on.

Love,
Sister Irwin

P.S. Missionary style parking in the empty church lot

P.S.S. You're a wizard Harry! - with the cute Van Haaften kiddos

Here comes the sun!‏ February 22, 2016

It's been SO beautiful outside! Last Thursday it even got up to 73! I
hope this keeps up for a while because it makes trying people and
tracting so much more enjoyable when you feel like you don't have to
run for shelter from the cold. :)

Something cool from the trail center...Sister Young and I took Bonnie
L. Oscarson's nephew on tour! He was here on a business trip and
decided to stop by.

Something funny from tracting...We knocked on a door and an old man
wearing just a towel opened and said "WHAT? I'm getting cleaned up
before I go to dinner" We said we'd come back later and had a good
laugh as we walked away!

Zone Conference on Wednesday was great! We had a competition to see
who had the cleanest car so a bunch of us met at a car wash early in
the morning. One of my favorite things we talked about was that the
most happiness comes from keeping God's commandments and He wants
nothing more than for us to be happy! So many people think that rules
are restricting but they are there for our safety and protection. I
know that as we are obedient we will be blessed.

On Friday we went with the Brendel's to a fireside on temples where we
listened to the Okiishi's (the temple president and matron) speak and
they loved it! They are so awesome. Brother Brendel is a recent
convert and his wife Amy is working towards baptism. They both have
such strong testimonies and know that even though it's a long time
down the road they have made the goal to have their family sealed in
the temple!

That's it for this week! :)

Love,
Sister Irwin

P.S. We love our laurels!

P.S.S. 4 months with the squad

Your parking sux‏ February 15, 2016

So we needed to get our car washed for the longest time and before we
had the chance, someone wrote that message on the side! It was
probably one of the young men when we parked at the church but whoever
it was we had a good laugh...Mom and Dad I promise I know how to
drive!!

On Tuesday we had district meeting and I led one of our training about
having faith to find people and not getting discouraged. I think it
went well!

We met a lady when she was walking into her house and we stopped to
ask her if her daughter Madison was home. Turns out we had the wrong
address but the lady's name was Megan and she was the nicest person
I've ever met because she said we could come back to teach her and she
offered to feed us dinner some time!!! Who does that?? Megan does
because she's awesome!

Last night we were supposed to be at the trail center but some other
sisters needed to switch us so we had to replan our evening and ended
up having a lesson with new investigators Steve and Michelle who
invited us inside! We were probably there for about an hour talking
with them and answering questions and we set up another appointment.
If we were at the trail center that wouldn't have been the case!
Everything happens for a reason. :)

Love,
Sister Irwin

P.S. This is the Maloney family visiting from Kansas City - we had
such a fun tour with them!

Hope everyone had a sweet Valentine's Day!

I have a young daughter! ‏ February 8, 2016

Okay, so the blizzard last week was a little crazy but not nearly as
bad as everyone made it seem! We still got grounded from our car
though which was bummy but Sister Strong and I deep cleaned for a long
time last Tuesday so that kept us busy. We also built a snowman! Later
that night we were itching to get out of the house so we decided that
we would be "real missionaries" and go walking out in the snow to some
peoples' houses! It took us almost a half hour to get all bundled up
haha but at least we stayed warm the whole night.

The next day we decided to shovel Sister Broomfield's driveway for her
and we literally were at it for over TWO HOURS because we only have
one shovel so we had to take turns, plus it was super icy underneath.
She ended up coming home while we were still there and she invited us
inside for a lesson! She was so funny when she got out of the car and
told us to be careful walking on the ice, "take baby steps and walk
like a duck".

Transfers were on Friday and my mom got moved to the young single
adult ward. I'm going to miss her. :( Now I'm a MOM! It's crazy
because I just got done with my twelve weeks of training and now I'm
training another brand new sister. Sister Young! I love her so much
already and we have a million things in common! It's a little scary
because I still feel like I sometimes have no clue what I'm doing and
now I have to be the one in charge. The fun thing is that the other
Nebrasquad sisters are all training too! So at least we can all
experience this new adventure together. :) We went to new sister
orientation and had lunch at the Crandall's just like our first week
which was way fun!

Sister Young and I found a new investigator by finding out their
little girl was in Girl Scouts! We taught the dad a little about the
Restoration and eternal families. Then we bought some Samoas! The
little girl was so cute because she explained how she takes her wagon
around the neighborhood to sell the cookies and if someone isn't home
they make sure to go back because it's not fair if everyone else has
cookies and one person doesn't! I told her it's kind of like what we
do as missionaries because the gospel makes people happy too just like
cookies. :)

Have a great week everybody! Eat a cookie!

Love,
Sister Irwin

This is from our district meeting last week. Just a bunch of goofballs!

Honey, you got a big storm comin!‏ February 1, 2016

People have been talking for a week about this blizzard that's
supposed to hit tomorrow like it's the end of the world! At first they
said only a couple three inches but now they're saying it's going to
be a foot and a half and that the winds will be crazy. Ahh!

This week for service we helped the LeGrow's clean their house because
they're moving. I feel like people are constantly moving in and out of
the area because there's so many families in the military.

On Friday night we had a musical fireside at the trail center that
members and investigators could attend! For those of you who don't
know what a fireside is, there isn't actually a fire, it's just a
fancy term for a devotional. I found that out when I went to my first
one when I turned 12...sad day. However, the Spirit of God burns like
a fire so maybe that's how they got the name! :) I didn't perform that
night but the next morning at training I sang Love One Another while
Sister Durrant did sign language which was cool.

Transfers are this week!! Brower, Durrant, Powell, Trusty, and
Togisala are all going home. :( But 6 new sisters are coming which is
so exciting! Big changes are to come.

We had exchanges this week with Sister Johnson and Sister Yancey! It
was so fun I love them. They are the bees knees. We didn't get a good
picture on Saturday so we just took one now in the library! My
favorite thing from exchanges is when Sister Yancey and I visited with
an elderly lady from her ward that's in a care center because of her
dementia. It was hard for her to grasp what we were talking about
because of her mental state but we sang I am a Child of God with her
and she knew all the words! I love the power of music. I know that all
of us really are children of our loving Heavenly Father. When we come
to understand our divine nature there is nothing we can't do when we
rely on Him.

Love,
Sister Irwin

One more thing! The Hettinger family is my all time favorite I feel
like I talk about them so much. Yesterday in chuch, Brother Hettinger
let us borrow his ipad to read a talk on and we took a picture of us
to set as his wallpaper for funsies. We get to their house for dinner
and our picture is taped to the front window. We walk inside and see
our faces everywhere! The kids had fun putting the pictures in random
spots like this one haha. :)