Monday, March 28, 2016

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everybody!

This has been a CRAZY week full of many busy and cool things! Transfers occurred and I am so LUCKY because I get to be with Sister Conrad for another transfer!!! Woot woot!

At the park...

We had the wonderful privilege of helping assist with a move...

We are young and we are STRONG!
Service with the elders :)
...And we know how to have a little fun along the way!
Serving others is THE BEST!!!

We also had some cool miracles happen this week...

On Wednesday we visited this semi-sketchy apartment building to visit some formers, and we had no luck it seemed! Some people were even rude and slammed their doors in our faces... you know, the classic missionary tale. We got to the point where we were like, "Okay, one more. One more door and then we are outta here." We knocked on the door of a former, but he didn't live there anymore. However, the lady who resides there now, looked at us and asked what church we were from. And then she asked if we had one of 'those books' on us that Mormons hand out. Anyways, she ended up inviting us in and talking to us for a while, and she became a new investigator!! We will be meeting with her again later this week... she is awesome and we are so excited to share the message of the restoration with her.

Friday, I went on exchanges with my new and lovely STL, Sister Baker! We were trying to contact a referral and a former but had no luck. We had started walking back to our car when we ran into these two ladies. The weather was particularly beautiful that day, so we started to talk about that! And as we approached them, one lady looked to her mom and was like, "Oh, it's the Mormons." And we were a little surprised by that and then she began to apologize and said she didn't mean it in a bad way! BUT GET THIS. She had investigated with missionaries before!! She has never been baptized and wants to learn more about our baptism!! How cool is that!? Her mom was also very kind and invited us back.... holla.

Saturday our mission had a social media split (SMS)  which is where you involve as many members as you can to join you with your missionary work and then they take pictures and post them!!! One of our members, Sister Myrah Sullivan, baked cookies with us and accompanied us to go deliver them!

Making cookies with our favorite Myrah Sullivan... our SMS pal!!!

She is a GEM! She isn't too much older than us so it was like we were in a trio or something! And we were able to visit a lot of people and do a lot of service and it was an incredible day :).

Having fun sharing the gospel on our SMS with Sister Sullivan

And then it was the wonderful Easter Sunday!!!! Sister Sullivan was SO NICE and brought us Easter baskets in the morning (: and then church was incredible.

Sweet Easter basket from Sister Sullivan... Happy Easter Everybody!!!

I honestly feel so blessed to be a member of this church, and to know about the real reason for the season... which is the Resurrection of Christ! He is Risen. Because Christ rose from the dead, and has a glorified, resurrected body, we will too! And our families will! And we have the hope to live with them together for all eternity! Through Christ, we can have new life. John 16:33: "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In this world ye shall have tribulation. But be of good cheer: I have overcome the world."

I am thankful for my Savior and the incredible example He is to me. Because of Him, I can be cheery(: because He has made it possible for me to have eternal life one day. That is a blessing that is available to all of us if we follow His wonderful example. Because of Him, death has no sting. Because of Him, I have peace and I am happy :).

I love you all! Have a blessed week!

Love Sister Feil

PS. I got to hold a dragon this week!!!!!

FAMILY!!!

Monday, March 21, 2016

Always keep His name on your lips...

Wow... this has been one of my favorite weeks of my mission!

Wednesday we had a super cool opportunity for service! A lady in our ward wanted some help with weeding her garden, so we were outside in the BEAUTIFUL breezy sunny weather and it was so fun! It reminded me of doing that at HOME! HaHa. Never EVER thought I would say this but
I. MISS. GARDENING! (It's true mom...)

We had a cool workshop with all the missionaries in our stake on Thursday. We had trainings from the assistants and practiced teaching and whatnot!

We have still been meeting with "A" quite often, and we have a new investigator, "B". We also have two cool other investigators, a mother and son, who seem quite interested! The work is going well here in Eastgate, and Sister Conrad and I have continued to work hard and we are seeing great things happen! We went from having 0 progressing investigators to four within two weeks!! WOO HOO!

Saturday was one of my most favorite days of my mission. Our entire mission got together and we heard ELDER ANDERSON SPEAK! Before the meeting started, he shook all of our hands. He talked about how the best missionaries are sent to the US :). He also said we were his favorite group that he would be speaking to, and he told us some hilarious stories and was cracking jokes the WHOLE time! It was really cool because sometimes you forget that the Apostles are normal people too! He was just so real and down to earth! One of my favorite things that he talked about was how we must always be prepared to testify of the Savior. We bear His name more than anyone else, and we know more about Him than anyone else, and so He must always always ALWAYS be the focus of what we teach. Like he said at the Missionary broadcast, "Always keep His name on your lips." It was so good to hear him, I could just listen to him speak all day!

Yesterday we had stake conference, and both "B" and "A" came!! It was totally PACKED but luckily we got some pretty decent seats. It was yet another incredible message that we were able to hear from Elder Anderson! Also... Happy 29th Anniversary (yesterday) Mom and Dad! You guys and Elder Anderson and his wife share the same anniversary day :). He had to leave Stake Conference early so he could catch a plane to make it back in time to see his wife!

I am so grateful for the leadership of this church. I know that President Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet, a man called of God, and I know that the Apostles are true representatives of Christ, and I feel so honored to be an apostle with a little 'a' and help them and God with this incredible work. Joseph Smith was and is the prophet who, under the direction of the Father, Restored this church back to the Earth in this modern day. As I listened to an Apostle of God speak, I could feel the Spirit telling me what he spoke was true. And I am so blessed to have that gift in my life.

Have a great week!

Love, Sister Feil

P.S. Watch the new Easter video!! #hallelujah

My Decatur Grandparents!!! (Elder and Sister Ellinger!)

Monday, March 14, 2016

Privileges.

This week was crazy incredible! One of the main highlights was.... OUR INVESTIGATOR "A" IS ON DATE! Yep  — that's right, we met with "A" on Tuesday and extended a baptismal date to her... AND SHE ACCEPTED!!!

After we asked, she's all, "What do I need to do?" And we were like, "Oh... we will tell you!" and we made a little calendar with her and we will be working with her a lot these next few weeks. (: The soonest she can be baptized is April 16th (family    please keep her in your prayers…)!! Sister Conrad and I are really excited about this!

"A" is awesome and it's been cool to watch her change and become more accepting of the gospel. She even came to church yesterday and is planning on coming to stake conference next Sunday!! BTW, Elder Anderson will be speaking at that stake conference, and the Saturday before he is going to be speaking to our mission! SO our entire mission will be gathering together and I am so excited to hear him speak!!!!

Friday we had the privilege of attending the Cincy North Stake's Zone Conference... and ALL of my companions that I have served with are currently serving in that stake —  so I obviously had to get a group photo!! It made me so happy to see them all, and there is a special place in my heart for each one of them. I have truly been very blessed with some awesome companions!!

ALL of my companions and me... Sister Bluder, Sister Creager, Sister Clark, Sister Conrad, Me, & Sister Nicol :)
We are silly... 
Sister Clark, Me, and Sister Slavens (We were MTC buds)!
Me and Sister Slavens!
Anyways, at that Zone Conference, Brother Cutler, one of President Porter's friends and a previous Mission President in Texas, quoted Julie B. Beck and said, "The ability to qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill you can acquire in this life."

Hello, hello! God loves us so much that He has given us many tools to help us receive personal revelation, and this gift is available to us ALL. THE. TIME. Literally. We just need to do the things that qualify us for it, and as a missionary I have been learning how to recognize revelation much more frequently and it has been the greatest blessing.

I love you all and invite you to ponder what you need to do to recognize revelation, or God's hand, in your lives.

Have a blessed week!

Love, Sister Feil

Monday, March 7, 2016

New companion!!

So I don't have time for a big letter, but I do have some news... I have a NEW COMPANION and we have so many similarities it's insane! Her name is Sister Conrad and she is AWESOME!!!

Sister Conrad and I!!!

 She has been working as an office sister and has had the same comp her whole mission so —  I am only her second companion! No pressure. (:

At Jungle Jim's

Sorry my general emails have been kind of short lately, but I just simply run out of time... Hope to have more time next week to write and share more details about how the work has been progressing here in the Eastgate Ward in BEAUTIFUL Cincinnati!

Me and my MTC peeps at Zone Conference!
Sister Bluder and I with Sister Moring at the office. (:

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Feil