Pobody's Nerfect!

My email title this week was inspired by one of our branch members, who said this to Sister Nicol and I. We cracked up — and thought it was super funny! Haha and so true!

So this week, we had exchanges on tuesday, and I was with Grandma Jones in Huntington and it was awesome! We had a few appointments and most of them fell through, but we were able to find a new investigator who has two little daughters and he was so excited to hear our message... WAHOO! He wanted us to come back the next day, so I will have to follow-up with Sister Jones and find out how that meeting went.

'Grandma Jones' and I in Huntington

Wednesday was one of the greatest days EVER. We got to go to the INDIANAPOLIS TEMPLE! And it was incredible. Our entire zone met up there and it was THE BEST. I love temples. So much. They are awesome. Enough said.

The Sisters in my zone at the Indianapolis temple (:

I LOVE the TEMPLE sooooooo much!

Thursday was amazing because we had a meeting with our branch mission leader and we have so many great ideas to help reactivate members of our branch! Like I am sooooo pumped! And right after that meeting, we went home to weekly plan and there was a package waiting for me with a bunch of fun halloween stuff inside, including cool bats that we hung on our wall. Yeah, we festive. Haha 

Happy Halloween everybody!

We festive...

got bats?

Friday night we had a dinner appointment with a recent convert, and afterwards we visited her cousin next door who just so happens to be Sister Linksy, the family history person. She was so excited to look up Sister Nicol's and my family history to try and connect us to people in the branch! It was so cute! She is seriously the best though... and we did find some connections - SO COOL! We are helping her with a family history event next friday and I am definitely looking forward to that.

Saturday, we went to Ft. Wayne (just the south part because that is in our area) for the first time and it was wonderful! It's slightly ghetto but there are some really beautiful neighborhoods! And I pretty much saw my dream house. Or my top five dream houses. For reals. We ended up going to this place for dinner called Azar's Big Boy's where one of our branch members works. They had the best pancakes in the WORLD and I dream about them now — they were THAT good.

Anyways, funny story about Ft. Wayne! There are so many one way streets there, we accidentally turned down one going the wrong way and freaked out as soon as we realized it. Thankfully, we were able to quickly turn down the next street to safety. And we are still alive. (:

This morning we drew 'The Plan of Salvation' on the sidewalk with chalk because there is a huge parade going on tonight and we are going to take complete advantage of that! It should be a great night.

Preparing for the parade

Love you all! I just want to end by saying how much I love the temple, and I know that it is so important to always remain temple worthy because the temple really is a safe haven. And the work we do there is so important. I have grown to love the temple, and it really is my favorite place to be. 

I LOVE to see the temple...

Have a great week all!

Love, Sister Feil

feelin' a lil' batty - lol

One Month Old!

Hi everyone!

So I am officially one month old... Yay! Sister Nicol and I celebrated my "birthday" on the 16th with some ice cream and fries from McDonald's. It was awesome!

Last Tuesday, we went to a new missionary training in Muncie, where we were able to meet with the mission president, his wife and the Assistants — they are all such amazing people! That was SUPER cool.

New Missionary Training... In Muncie, Indiana!!!

Then on Wednesday we visited a town in our area called Berne (just like the 4th most populous city in Switzerland) and it literally IS a little Swiss town! ALL of the buildings look like little chateaus, even the subway and the post office and there are some very cute boutiques and thrift shops!

There was also this cool bell tower that looked very Swiss, and there was even a bear statue, as well a post office with a bunch of flags from the various cantons located in Switzerland.

Anyways, it is just the cutest town, and the whole time I was there, all I could do was to think of my dad because he served in the Switzerland Zurich Mission and we have a lot of relatives who actually still live there! I will definitely need to take my dad to Berne, Indiana someday haha.

Sister Nicol and I determined that Berne would be a great place to spend our p-day today, but we found out when we got there that most of the shops we wanted to visit are closed on Mondays... Like whatttttt!? Who does that??! So unfortunately, we weren't able to go to them after all — but hey, I suppose we saved money that way... LOL!

Thursday we visited a small neighboring town, named Bluffton, and that is also a very cute place! We had a very successful day there because we found four new investigators! One guy was a referral from Ft. Wayne, and his big concern is about why different churches teach different things and I was so excited when he told us that because WE HAVE THE FULLNESS OF THE GOSPEL RIGHT HERE MAN! I am very excited to continue working with him. I have a great feeling that he will come to know of the truth of this gospel.

Friday and Saturday weren't very eventful. Sunday we FINALLY had church in our building (last week was Stake Conference and the week before that was General Conference) and so we got to meet more people in the branch...YAY! Sister Nicol and I also gave talks and that was awesome.

Today after we went grocery shopping, we were still a little sad about not being able to shop in Berne so we went to the Salvation Army and found some fun things! I bought these cool boots and some skirts that I will use some of my time on future p-days to alter and fix up. We also got some Graeter's ice cream (which apparently is Handcrafted French Pot Ice Cream and supposedly THE BEST in the world) and I will be trying that as soon as we get back to the apartment. (:

Well, that was my week in a nutshell! Love you all and hope you have a fabulous week! The church is true and the book is blue!! Open it everyday and you will come closer to Christ and be blessed as you study His word.

Love you!

Sister Feil

Cute Cafe/Bookstore in Decatur

A Week Full of Miracles!

Hello everyone!!!

I just want to start off by saying that I LOVE being a missionary! It is hands down the coolest thing I have EVER done. I am so happy to be here in Decatur right now teaching God's children the gospel of Jesus Christ. I haven't even been out a full month (almost though!) and I have already learned and grown so much! Looking forward to see how much I will grow in the next 17 months!!! So last P-day, our zone got together for a zone fun day and went bowling in Huntington. It was so much fun... the missionaries in my zone are the BEST! I seriously just love them so much.

The leaves are changing and its beautiful...

So last monday night, Sister Nicol and I went to teach our new investigator and her sister. They seemed to really like the message of the Restoration! Her sister was like, "Why have I never heard this before?!" It was so awesome. They even invited us to go with them to teach their friends! Apparently, once a week, they all get together and talk about religion. And they were so excited to bring us with them! It was such a miracle. Unfortunately, we were unable to make that appointment because we already had another appointment scheduled at that exact time, but hopefully we will be able to teach this group sometime this week.

OH MY GOODNESS!!! We have a mission temple trip next week so we get to go and do a session at the INDIANAPOLIS INDIANA TEMPLE! I am so pumped!!!! It's going to be awesome!

Okay, so friday was one of the greatest days. We had exchange with our STL"s (sister training leaders) and so we got together and in the morning we went and helped a less active member move in to her new house.

Me and Grandma Jones (she trained Sister Nicol) while helping that member move

That was awesome because we got to know her and what she has been through, and it really was inspiring. This sister is probably one of the strongest people I have ever met. And she fed us afterwards so that was amazing, too. Love food. So much. Afterwards, we split up. I went with Sister Lovell to teach one of their investigators, 'J'. 'J' was not in a great mood because her boyfriend left abruptly and she couldn't get a hold of him and didn't know if he would be coming back. We started teaching her, and she said the opening prayer and asked God if He would bring her boyfriend back home safely. Then we asked her about prayer and she said that she didn't feel like God has answered any of her prayers! And then in the middle of the lesson, her boyfriend came back. We were so excited because we told her, "Hey! God just answered your prayer!" She was so happy, and I was so happy to tell her that the gospel can make her feel that happy and joyful every day of her life!! She seemed to really like the lesson of the plan of salvation. It seriously was a great lesson!! Sister Lovell and I felt so good about it. That night, Sister Lovell and I went to Peru to see a baptism that was happening and it was way cool to be able to experience that.

Me and Sister Lovell "blinging" a sign as part of a service project!

We had an insane miracle happen to us yesterday. Sister Nicol and I were with a member and we went to see an investigator, who ended up not being home. We were on our way to see a less-active when the member that was with us said, "Oh... actually her mother actually lives close to here." So we decided to go and visit that less-active's mother. She was a very nice lady! We were so excited because she said that she and her daughter (who we were originally planning to go see) were talking about coming back to church! We were so excited! We told her that we (Sister Nicol and I) were speaking on Sunday so she should totally come haha! She also has a son our age named 'R'. He is her only child who has not been baptized, and so we asked her if we could get together with her and 'R' to introduce him to the Book of Mormon and start teaching him the lessons. She said okay, but said that it is hard to get a hold of him because he doesn't have a phone. He has been living with some friends in Decatur, trying to "find himself." Anyways, we left her house and were planning on doing some street contacting when Sister Nicol had the feeling we should go visit a potential investigator. We did, though she wasn't home... so we knocked on her neighbors door. They weren't home either. We went across the street and decided to knock on one more door. We did, and the guy who answered said he wasn't interested in our message, but right then two boys came up to the front door. We started talking with them, and one guy wasn't interested at all but the other guy was. He introduced himself as 'R' and said he was 19 years old, and then sister Nicol asked him what his last name was. It was 'M'!!! He was totally the son of the lady we had just been talking to 20 minutes before! And he is interested!!! We were so happy, and we even told him, "Hey, we just met your mom and were talking with her like 20 minutes ago!" Anyways, we picked him up as a new investigator and will be meeting with him on tuesday(:

The church is true, and God's hand is in our lives every single day. There is no such thing as coincidence. Coincidence just means that there is a bigger plan that you don't know about. We have been put into 'R's life for a reason, and we are so excited to help him turn to God and to Christ's gospel. Anyways, I encourage you all to strive to recognize God's hand in your life because it definitely is! He helps us EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. We just need the eyes to see that He is there. Every day. For us. Always.

Love you all! Have a great week!

Love, Sister Feil

Key Indicators in Decatur...haha!

Hello Everyone!

Here are a couple more MTC photos that I came across today and I thought I would start off by sharing them...

Part of my MTC zone... We are being jelly fish

Last temple walk before leaving

My roomies and I at the temple on our last p-day at the MTC

Everybody has to get one like this :)

Classic shot with my MTC companion Sister Clark (sorry this is SO BLURRY!)

So I'm FINALLY in the mission field! I flew out with 21 other missionaries last Monday to Cincinnati Ohio, and the flight was great! I sat by an elder and a lady named "Ruthie" and she was pretty cool. We had great conversations. Sister Clark (MTC companion) and I gave away a book of mormon in the airport right before we got on the plane (SCORE!).

WE'RE HERE!

We were greeted by President and Sister Porter and all of the APs at the airport and then had dinner at the mission home (it was so nice to have real non-MTC food!). Then two of the APs (Pope and Seegmiller) took all of the sisters on a drive. We went to a lookout point where we could see the entire city of Cincinnati, and the view was BREATHTAKING. Cincinnati is a very beautiful place! They read us a scripture in D&C 60: 6-7 where it talks about when Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and Sidney Rigdon were called to this very mission! I feel so blessed to be serving in the best mission EVER. :P

YUMMY!

So... Tuesday was my very first transfer meeting; There I met my trainer, Sister Nicol, and then we headed out to DECATUR, INDIANA (pronounced de-cay-ter) hence why I think my title is so funny—lol)!

Water tower

I LOVE my companion—she's super awesome! We totally get along... we have fun, we work hard, and we are very excited about this transfer!

Smile!

Our area is HUGE! We can only go so many miles/week in our car so this will be a challenge because we have three towns all approx. 20 minutes away in DIFFERENT directions that are all in our area. As a result, we will have to use our miles very wisely and be cautious about how often we visit the neighboring towns. But the houses here are literally so cute and there are so many ridiculously beautiful green fields that it's crazy.

Me by an open field outside a member's house

The member who drove us here from the transfer meeting was Sister Gimbel, and she has literally been saving mine and my companions lives since we got here.

Sister Gimbel - She's the BOMB!!!

So, Sister Nicol and I were 'doubled in' to this area, and because we had General Conference this past weekend and we have stake conference this coming weekend, we basically don't know ANYBODY and are having a bit of a hard time trying to meet and getting to know the branch members. We have been working really hard to rectify that, but it has been a challenge! We have tried to call members and set appointments to meet with them, but It has been difficult to get a hold of many of them—plus we don't have a GPS so we are still struggling with learning how best to get around.

The BRANCH we are serving in IS VERY SMALL... but the members we have met are GREAT! It's been a little stressful, but Sister Nicol and I have learned so much and we are getting to know this town better and better everyday. Plus we have the Lord on our side, and He has helped us so much! He's the best.

 So, some highlights from the past week... Sister Nicol and I went to Huntington for a district meeting, and our district is awesome! Sister Nicol's trainer, Sister Jones, is our sister training leader (AKA my GRANDMA) and she is literally the coolest! Oh! oh! oh! A miracle happened to Sister Nicol and I a couple nights ago! We had worked all day until about 8pm at night and we had no idea what to do for the next hour. We called the STL's and they told us that faith is a choice and that we should pray. So we did. And afterwards, we tried calling members and less actives and couldn't get ahold of anyone. We then walked on the main street for about thirty minutes searching for opportunities to help something happen. AND THEN IT DID. We ran into this girl and started sharing our message with her. As we got to know her, we found out that she has a desire to be baptized. In fact, she had just found out that she had never been baptized as a child so she has been actively looking for a local church to be baptized in... DING! DING! DING! We were like WE CAN HELP YOU WITH THAT! haha. We set up an appointment and will be meeting with her tomorrow. MIRACLE!!! It probably doesn't sound that awesome but I felt soooo soooo soooo good after that. I knew that the Lord was with us the whole time, and that we were guided to that specific place at that specific moment to meet that sweet girl. I love this gospel everybody! It is so so true!!

SO. GENERAL. CONFERENCE. WAS. AWESOME. I especially loved the concept of "ponderizing" and I am definitely going to implement that into my life. I honestly learned so much from each session of conference and I feel so spiritually fed—Like I'M SO FULL and it's INCREDIBLE! haha.

Sister Gimbel made us General Conference goodie bags!

Oh, so apparently BED BUGS ARE A THING here. eewww. The sisters that lived in our apartment before us had to deal with a HUGE bed bug infestation, and so far we haven't had any issues, but we have to vacuum all the time and spray this diluted chemical all over our apartment to subsist the bed bugs. Yeah. Gross. Hate bugs.

My side of the room

So it's been a great first week in the field. And we have another great week ahead! I love you all! And now I am going to quote a sister in our branch... TEAM JESUS! All the way. Haha. I love my Savior and am so grateful for His sacrifice and His example. I would be so lost without the gospel. I can't wait to help others have that peace and comfort in their lives!! Yay! #225 (the number of baptisms we want by the end of the year).

 Anyways, have a rocking week!

 Love, Sister Feil

Greenie package