Week 82-The hardest thing I've ever Loved to do

I pray that this doesn't sound terrible, but over the past year I've often thought about what this email would consist of. All those wonderful times my mom and others would get up during testimony meeting growing up and make the statement "My heart is full," (I know we've all heard it before) well, I really do know what she was talking about now. 

Everyone, the Savior lives. 

I have perfect faith in that statement. 

There are so many things that I could say right now. Perhaps a lot of returning missionaries write a list of 50 things that they've learned on the mission in their departing email, including other things. I just know that with every experience shared, lesson learned, it all goes back to that beautiful truth for me and my mission.  

Back to accounting real quick, this week was wonderful. The Lord blessed others and us so much! The Lord helped us have an incredible lesson with Tonya. The spirit was wonderful and she finally committed to a Baptismal Date. Sisters have been working with her for months now and she has so many other distractions in her life that taking this step will require a great deal of faith on her part. 

We had another lesson with the Alcorte family. They are not active and Sister Alcorte has had some hard things take place for their family, but the spirit was such a great teacher in boldly telling them that if they put God first, then everything would start working out. They would start feeling more peace. 

My companions are wonderful! I LOVE how obedient they want to be and diligent and LOVING.The Lord has blessed us because of it. Goodness, they're such a perfect mixture of all of that. We all balance each other out. 

It is interesting how I put Moroni 8:16 on my mission plaque, "...Behold, I speak with boldness, having authority from God; and I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear." This gospel is the single most important thing. In fact, it is the ONLY thing. It is the plan. It is why we are here. There is absolutely NO need to fear in this life. We have a Savior. And all is well because of that, no matter what comes. That is the message that we have for the world. 

I'm grateful to have been blessed to have such an incredible foundation for my testimony. My parents began it, and the mission has truly solidified it for me. This is one missionary that Heavenly Father is never going to lose.

I love you all very much. Thank you so much for the prayers and support over the past year and a half. They have helped. 

Not only keep the faith, but share it. I will. :)

Sister Call

1) A wonderful recent convert named Deb. One out of many who's 
life has changed because of this gospel. 

2) My beautiful Okla'Home'a.

Week 81 My Savior's Grace

What a great week. 

So there is this incredible thing. It's called the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And you know, it has the power to change lives. It gives us a certain perspective on life that brings such hope, peace, and makes us want to happily carry on. For we know we have a Savior who will make up that difference for us. He IS the difference. (Brad Wilcox's "His Grace Is Sufficient" READ it..please of course)

We met with this man the other day. His name is Ty Smith. Brother Smith (loves when we call him that) has gone through every possible wrong thing that can happen in this life. He's been out on the streets, in and out of jail three times through drug sales and addictions, beat as a child, lost his wife and only child, every friend has been killed, the list goes on. We spoke with Him on the street about a week ago and invited him to the church for a lesson. Everyone, I just have to tell you that that has been one of the most humbling experiences of my life. Seeing this scraggly, tatoo'ed, ear-ring man sitting across from us in the Relief Society room, with tears streaming down his face as the spirit touched him. It told him that he DOES have a purpose, and that he has a Father who cares. There is a very good reason for all of this. 

That is the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. "So glad I had this opportunity" doesn't explain my emotions very well right now.

Veronica and Isaiah have decided that they are getting baptized on September 3rd with the rest of the primary aged kids which will be for the best. 

And then we also learned that Brother Jack Deaner slipped up and had some coffee yesterday morning and so will now be getting baptized on the 27th of Aug. I was sad at first, but this is completely best for all three of their conversions. I love them so.

Well folks, that sure isn't all for this week..but for this email, yes. 

I love you. God lives. And so does His love. Know that and feel that more for yourselves through CPR (church, prayer, read)

Have an incredible week, and we will too :)

Sister Call

Week 80

 

(The last weeks have been crazy here at the Crazy Call household, Cub Day Camp, Family Reunion and Girls' Camp,  sooooo I got behind on the blogs, I am caught up now.  This is all Priscilla had today :(..... but at least we know she is busy building the Kingdom, serving and making every moment count of her mission!  We are so proud of Priscilla! Love, the Mom)

 

I feel absolutely terrible that I cannot write today. We spend the morning studying and doing some service for investigators who are getting married and then we have an STM to leave to in just 2 minutes.

This week was incredible because I'm coming to feel more and more of just how much I'm loved up there because I am simply His daughter. And that I really mean the world to Him.

I love you all. Very much.

Sister Call

Week 79- Boy Howdy, what a week!

First off, this beautiful lady was baptized!

Sister Teria Turner, what a wonderful lady. She has such a funny lady! AH! I wish you could hear her speak. Sister Chamberlain calls them 'Ism's' (mannerism's). When she is sitting down she is always bouncing her legs. And that's just one. She is one quirky lady.

Teria's a miracle though. The sisters have been working with her for years now and she finally decided to be baptized. We had to get permission from the first presidency because Teria mentally has a condition where she is, well, just too nice! She really cannot say no, including to those times when she especially needs to.. eech.

I really don't want to say this for lack of cliche'ness, but she really was glowing in a sense yesterday when she was confirmed in Sacrament meeting.

Super neat thing about Teria as well. She has short term memory loss, and Sister Dobb and Chamberlain (before I got here) promised her that she would be able to remember the more of the Book of Mormon that she reads.

Guess what.

Teria knows and remembers more about the Book of Mormon than Sister Call does.

Let's just take a second and realize the reality of that miracle.

The Purcell kids are also doing so well! We love those crazy kids, Isaiah and Veronica and all their cousins! And miracles, Veronica told us yesterday that she is wanting to get baptized! Before hand, Isaiah was mainly on board. One of their 4 year old cousins, William, who is the son of Sister Smith, Sister Purcell's active sister, ( sorry, I know that's super confusing) told me that he was going to marry me when he was 14. He couldn't wait till 16 though because then he would be too old and dying soon. Well..okay William. :) They're a cute family, I'll make sure to send a picture next week of them.

So my companions are incredible. Sister Chamberlain is from Salt Lake with about 5 kids in her family. She is a 'hipster' and feels the music of the gospel! She is a complete goober and is working on a few lightness and frivolity toning downs but in all reality, is helping Sister Call stop being such a stick in the mud. :) When she opens her mouth and teaches, it's so personal and applied to them, the spirit so easily fills the room. I love her.

Sister Sorensen is go and do. She is extremely diligent and is here to work. The 3 months she was home re-committed her so much to the work. It's pretty inspiring. :) She's from Spring City, Utah and has 5 kids in the fam-bam. They were both born into the church. She is also SO humble. Really wanting to be better and improve.

I love the work. Dad, I had an incredible experience during Sacrament yesterday that had to do with the scriptures in 3 Nephi that you put into the front of my quad right before I left. I'll share a little bit in next week's email but make sure to share the details with you..soon enough I guess :)

I love you all! Keep the faith,

Sister Call

1 and 2) The night before her baptism and her baptism

3)So we were out tracking in about 110 degree weather or so, not having too much success. Well, I am here to testify of the Lord's humor. At the end of this long street, there was this random trophy just conveniently place right dab in the middle of the sidewalk. "Good job my kiddos" We all busted up laughing and had to take some dumb photos. What a loving and REAL Father in Heaven we have. :)

Week 78 Nothing but Blessings!

Where to start where to start..

Holy Okie smokers! (sorry, that's probably not too appropriate, everyone smokes here though)

This week has been so incredible! We have Teria who is getting baptized on Saturday and we're SO excited. Be praying for Teria this week. :)

We then received another miracle with the Purcell family. This less active sister moved in with her active sister in our ward and she has two children who want to be baptized! We set baptismal dates with them yesterday. They're so cute and excited. 

Thomas came up to us yesterday when we were going over for a lesson, an investigator we have who is catholic and Hispanic but speaks fluent English, had a huge grin on his face. "Sisters, I did what you challenged me to do. I talked to my manager and asked for every Sunday off so that I could go to church, and he said yes! You can expect me there every Sunday"! Oh goodness. He is the happiest most humble 25'ish hispanic man I know. What a blessing to be a part of his life at this time with him. He is getting baptized on the 27th of Aug but we feel like it could be moved up. He needs to stop drinking and smoking. He knows he needs to though..so that's where it starts. 

Enid is incredible. There are a great deal of Marsheilles up here (since the islands are sinking) they all congregate to certain spots in the US all together. For the most part they're all family. They attend a branch after our ward meets and if we make a Marseilles contact we send it over to the four Marseilles elders. 

We also serve on an air force base here. We're not on it as much as we were in Ft. Sill or teaching but it's still neat. There was a HUGE airshow yesterday that they only hold once every couple of years. The Thunderbirds came and performed (exactly like the BLUE ANGELS father! Was it "A kind of magic" yesterday? Yes. yes it was ;) ) Ha Aaaaanyways. We went for a quick minute but the proselyting wasn't as good an opportunity as we first thought so we left. But you could see the stunts from the planes all throughout Enid. SO neat. I'm sorry this is a rather apostate email, but I can't help but feel like I'm living in Top Gun every day for a minute. There are SO many soldiers in their air force jumpsuits with aviators, driving around. (some on motorcycles..perhaps)  It's rather funny. 

So now to bring the spirit back, just a thought for the day. We were listening to "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox the other day with some recent converts. In it he states that he knows that it'll be Christ at that judgement bar, pleading for us to apply His Atonement and choose celestial glory. In Mosiah 26: 26-27 It says "And then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, that I am their Redeemer; but they would not be redeemed.

And then I will confess unto them that I never knew them.."

Does that not just break your heart a little? I know that Christ is more than with us every step of the way out here. He IS the reason that we can take steps forward here, and it breaks His heart when we choose not to see how much those steps of humility and progression with his Atonement will make us happy. I want to commit all of us to be more committed to that wonderful messenger, the Holy Ghost and his promptings. It's truly those little things that will bring us lasting happiness and take us home. 

Love you all!

SIster Call

Priscilla, Sister Sorensen and Sister Chamberlain

Priscilla and Sister Chamberlain and field....

Week 77- Enid time

Enid is the land of miracles!!

I'm SO excited to be here! Sister Chamberlain is one incredible missionary. She has such a great testimony of this gospel! Together we're going to..'tear' it up with the Lord's help! (sorry, that language was dumb) SO excited though! 

We are teaching this fellow Jack. Started just last week. He lives in a bus and we love him for it. He has been to church twice already and we're SO excited for him! He will be getting baptized at the end of this month, or first week of next. He is Albert Einstein from Oklahoma. That's what he looks like. 

There's also a woman named Teria who will get baptized the weekend that we receive permission from the first presidency because she is on probation. :( It'll happen though! She is prepared and wanting it so badly and the Lord knows it. 

Sister Chamberlain is such a wonderful human. What a great missionary. I know that the Lord knows. He knows what little Sister Call needs, especially this transfer. 

I love you all. 

I want everyone to think about the story of Alma and Amulek. They not only watched individuals who they taught and baptized, burned to death because of it, but those women and children willingly did it. Just perhaps weeks or days after they had even heard about this gospel. How in the world could they do that? Well, they had a certain perspective on everything. They knew just how much more there was to our existence than just this life. Just something to think about.

Have a wonderful week.

Sister Call

1) This is Jack here. We love him

Week 76-New President going Hamm with the Spirit

The Oklahoma City mission is up in ca-hoots right now! (in all the best ways)

President Mansell has been having those poor AP's over at his house until who knows how long (1, 2 in the morning) completely diving head on into everything and changing it ALL up. About half of leadership, the STL's and Zone Leaders were dropped (including yours truly), almost EVERY companionship has been switched, and there are also some new callings in the mission, traveling stl or zone leader, who goes and stays with a different companionship every two days or so. (Those are Sister Ryan (from Spokane!) and then previous AP Van Halder)

I will be going up to Enid, I've never served up north before, always south or central, and I will be training Sister Chamberlain for her 2nd transfer in the mission. I'm excited to be that normal missionary again, completely focusing on proselyting. I know this is the Lord's will and I'm excited to go out and apply those lessons I've hopefully learned and hit the ground running with Sister Chamberlain! :)

OKC 2nd has been a blessing for me. Sister Jensen and Washburn have taught me a great deal. I love the city. Pretty excited to go to boonies again though.

Miracle time. What a blessing. Sister Washburn and I set a goal to be exactly obedient for a week and see what the Lord will do with that. I hope that doesn't sound hypocritical. We were being obedient before, but just taking extra care to follow everything, and well, we received a call on thursday of this lady, Debra Kimball, who has a lot of family who are members. She asked us "what do I have to do to do to be baptized"? I was on the phone with her "Well, you will meet with us and take some lesson.." She interrupted "Yes yes I know honey, I'm 61 and not getting any younger. My time is ticking. I know Christ is my Savior and I need this. Now."
...

Even as I'm writing this out I still can't believe it. Debra will be getting baptized. And just like that, Heavenly Father showed both us just how in charge of all of this is. I have such a testimony of Obedience. It truly is the first law of Heaven.

I'm sorry that I haven't spoken much about people this transfer I feel like. It has been a great deal of finding and then dropping in two weeks or less, but alas, it's progressing!

I love you. Keep up sharing this gospel.

Sister Call

1) Carla. She was incredible! We knocked on her door and she felt so strongly that this was all true. But then the father at the catholic church she did attend rather put an end to it all. Father Jorge rather ruined our morning :/

She's wonderful though!