6-14-2010

Hey fam and friends,

We had zone conference this week! I love love love it! It was super powerful, but so sad. It was our last zone conference with President and sister Summerhays. I will miss them terribly. They really are beautiful people, who will forever hold a special place in my heart. Zone conference started off pretty cool. It focused on the power of the atonement. One thing president said "He doesn't plan for abuse or bad thing. He plans for our escape! Bad things do happen to good people." He shared in 2 Nephi 2:1 which talks about who Jacob suffered at the hands of his brothers. They were the people who were suppose to love him and yet he suffered greatly because of them. Lehi was acknowledging his love and understanding to Jacob. Lehi had a special love for Jacob because of what he suffered. The question is "How much more does god know how to give good gifts to those you suffer?" In 2 Nephi 2:2 "thou snowiest the greatness of god, and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain." The Lord will make up for ALL the tragedies that happen in our life. He will use our afflictions for our gain and more will be available to you because of them. President concluded with this very powerful statement "The lord did not create the abuse, but the lord uses every difficult circumstance to our advantage. He makes us more then we could have been. He makes us WHOLE and MORE. I seal that upon your heart right now as an infinite promise." WOOH! Talk about powerful. It touched my heart, it was really powerful. It was perfect timing too.

We have a new approach that we are going to start to use as a companionship. We are not just sitting and waiting to be acted on; we are acting!

HEY Family,

THANK YOU So MUCH for the package. I loved it! It was perfect! I did open it very first thing when I woke up on Saturday! Sister Richan set her clock to Arizona time and would ask me "what's your sister doing now?" So thank you for the play by play. We were home for a good part of the day cause we had a weekly planning session. It was a good thing too, because I wouldn't have gotten the flowers. It was perfect! I loved them! They were beautiful and I did feel apart even though I was so far away. The pictures were so cute! I haven't gotten to watch the DVD yet. The notes were tender and I appreciated them! It was funny cause as I was reading the last card from Roni; I laughed cause I was thinking the same exact thing she had written! Also, Sister Richan sported her clip in her hair all day and loved it.

We had Miss Brannen's baptism on Friday night. It went really well. Miss Brannen has a lot of health problems and struggles to make it through all of church. She usually makes it through sacrament meeting, so she doesn't have the fellowshipping that she needs. We were nervous that she wouldn't have very many people there to support her at the baptism. Well, Lynn Haven pulled through for us and we had a full R.S. room. It was awesome! The spirit was really strong and it was a sweet baptism. Her son, Chris, baptized her and he's the only member in their family and there are six kids. It was powerful! Miss Brannen was so ready to be baptized. She had been waiting for years for this moment. She had the faith, but wanted it all! She's amazing! I know that her example will impact her family in a powerful way. I mean she is about 80 or 81 years old and has found the complete truth that she has been searching for. She KNOWS with all her heart that the gospel is true. Miss Brannen is truly and amazing women. I know that on June 4, 2011, Miss Brannen will be in the temple and getting sealed to her husband who died 2 years ago. Miss Brannen always told Chris when she dies she wants to be sealed to her husband. He always replied you don't have to wait until your dead to do your work, you can do it yourself. Now, she will be doing it herself. It was a sweet experience. Her confirmation was perfect as well.

The work here has come to a complete stop! We literally have no progressing investigators, and no less actives we are teaching. We are spinning our wheels and making no progress. It's sad our numbers and productivity have hit an all time low.. On Thursday, we were at the library doing service. We were doing some stuff and it really was only a two person job, so we told sister Grampp to role play and teach us lesson one. We set up a situation and ran with it. Basically, the role play crashed and burned. We got started talking about having confidence in the message and not yourself. We got into not saying "I guess" after every phrase and with your body, because it takes all the power out of what you are saying. For example, we said here is what it sounds like "Heavenly Father loves me, I guess." All the power and truth in the statement is destroyed. The conclusion that it came to by the end of the session was "never give up!" It was exactly what she needed to hear. Sister Richan was really inspired and said one phrase that got to the core of everything. She said " What you do will change everything!" I felt the spirit feel the room, I almost broke into tears. it was so strong that I KNOW that those were NOT her words. It was a really powerful moment.

The timing the book,"you are special," you sent me was perfect! It was way cool you sent that because Sister Richan thought that I had asked for it and I said no. Well about a month ago in district meeting one of the elders was talking about this book. We had had a really good talk cause of it. The book went perfectly with the talk that we had the night before. When I pulled the book out, Sister Grampp said that's one of my favorite books. We had her read it to us. We asked "why it was her favorite book?" She said because I relate to the main character and that I am special to my Heavenly father. It was sweet and really important to everything that we have been talking about with her that she remembers that. Thank you for sending that book. I did have a strong impression that night as I was writing about that experience that I didn't need to be at my sister wedding, but right there for that moment. It was a powerful realization.

Love You!!!

Sister Whipple