The Epistle of Karlee

Hi Friends! No, nothing is broken. We were having a lesson with Ana and her granddaughter was there drawing all over a piece of paper and she'd take a pen out of the pile, draw for maybe 3 seconds, decide it was broken, throw it and grab another. quite amusing.  The other night we heart-attacked the door of a less active member we're working with and he heard us, I guess he's bionic or something cause we were SILENT, and he whipped open the door and bout gave us our own heart attacks! Not. fun.  We  had exchanges this week on Wednesday: so good. I was with Sister Wadman and we had a blast. she is so powerful, especially on the doorstep, she literally echoed down the street. We went to Good Samaritan and played games with some old folks, and Jesse totally smoked us at Uno. It was sad to see how my skills have gone down lol. We went to visit some potential investigators later and it was raining and Sister Wadman was THRILLED. She's excited about everything even remo...

Hi Friends! Fun Story: we went to visit a  man named Jose to whom we'd given a Book of Mormon and he said we could come back and talk more about it. It had been a while since we'd seen him, he wasn't home usually and we knocked on the door and I could not tell you what he looked like, so he could have answered the door and I wouldn't have known it. Well... a man answered the door and the conversation went as follows: Me: "Hi! Is Jose here?" Him: "No." M: "Oh, okay." *I extend my hand* "Well, I'm Sister Shuldberg, what's your name?" H: *no reaction to my outreached hand* "Jose... but I'm not interested.." We still don't know if that was the Jose we originally met, or if there are multiple Jose's living there, or what, but we laughed about it. In other news, we almost hit 60 degrees on Saturday! This isn't winter! And poor Arizonian Sister Fleming still wears her coat all day every day.  ...

Hi Friends! Its so weird on Pdays to try to remember the things that happened throughout the week. Mission time is seriously warped, man. It feels like last Pday was two days ago, but last Thursday was a week and a half ago. Basically, wish me luck as I try to communicate. We have had some really wonderful conversations with people this week. When I first came out(says the 4 month old missionary), I'd feel super discouraged when we walked away from a door without them being interested or us planning to come back, but now (after all my weeks of experience lol) it's easier to recognize that we can be fulfilling our purpose in that moment simply by bringing the Spirit into the conversation. We talked with a man yesterday who was totally drunk, trying to numb the pain of recently losing his dad and his grandma and we talked about better ways to cope and about Heavenly Fathers plan for us. I don't know if we'll ever see him again, but it was at least a reminder for him t...

Hi Friends! Getting a new companion is the weirdest thing. At first it just felt like an extended exchange, but then she stayed and stayed. Every once in a while, I'd look at her and be like waitttt, somethings not right here, just because I'm so used to Sister Zollinger. But Sister Fleming is seriously amazing. She's so sweet and understanding and she just jumps right in to everything. I'm so excited to work with her. In the last 4 1/2 days, she's already taught me so much about missionary work in general and about the kind of missionary I want to be. Change breeds growth am I right? This week was a lot of try-bys and working with Less Active members. It felt like my week of major Personal study too. Its so powerful! Guys seriously, daily study and prayer make all the difference. Anything that's on your mind can be resolved, any questions answered, and just oh my gosh. I gained a lot of new favorite scriptures this week.  I don't have a whole lot of t...

Hi Friends! So.... Sister Zollinger is being transferred to Wenatchee, like forever away. going to miss her so much, but Terrace Heights is seriously on fire.  We saw so many miracles this week! The other day, Sister Zollinger remembered how President Lewis once said to ask Less Actives if we could practice lessons on them because lots of times they don't feel like they need lessons but its a way to help them feel the Spirit, so we figured we'd give it a shot. IT TOTALLY WORKED. We taught the Plan of Salvation to a less active elderly couple who hadn't been to church in a few years and halfway through the lesson, Sister Weldon was crying so hard that she couldn't read the scripture we gave her. It was so powerful to see the change in their countenance as we talked and afterward (and since) Brother Weldon has thanked us profusely for coming over. Its a really good feeling to be able to see people open their hearts to the Spirit. We also "practiced" th...