"It's Time To Change"

Firstly, I'm sending you the email I sent President this week.  

"This week this week turned out ok. The start was good, then appointments fell through, it got hot, we were getting exhausted, nobody was interested, and everyone we went to see wasn't home. So towards the end it got a little hard. Yesterday was the most exhausting. We finished our tea appointment with the Mases which was lovely, then walked what seemed like 38489032 miles to a less-actives house, she wasn't there, then tried to find another less active's house but we kept getting lost so we took it as a sign to go elsewhere. So we did our 2 hours of companion study and our nightly planning which followed. We had a great testimony from bishop yesterday during church. He's doing a big 'IT'S TIME TO CHANGE!' campaign sort of thing in the ward. We've heard his speil about it about 3 times now but I love hearing him talk to the members about how it's time to change everything we do when it comes to missionary work. Sister McReynolds and I spoke to each other a lot about what he said last night and came up with the brilliant idea that instead of us trying and trying and trying to find investigators and not having any success when it's really the member's job, we're going to strengthen the members and get them excited and confident about missionary work! We shared our vision with the other sisters in our flat and they're pumped too. We're all excited and ready to work with the members to get them excited to do missionary work and show them how easy it is. I went from being tired and exhausted and stretched to the maximum from the week of having not much success to feeling like Heavenly Father has lifted me up and dusted me off and given me a boost of energy and faith and motivation. It's exciting! Sister McReynolds and I are calling it 'Member Month July 2013' :) it's written on our white board. So that's the news! My week has turned around in the last week. It's exciting and I can't wait to keep working hard to strengthen the members so they can strengthen each other and reach out and do missionary work."

I'm also sending you a part of the email I sent some friends…

"I am LOVING being a missionary! Last week was really hard in the way of finding investigators and all our appointments were falling through and nobody was home. I had a really good first week being out, we committed 2 people to baptism and finding people was no problem. I think Heavenly Father was easing me into missionary work lol it was all really easy. So I knew that something hard was right around the corner. And that hard thing was last week. We currently have 4 scheduled for baptism, we have about 6 or so investigators but they're all a bit non-commital at the moment. My trainer and I are basically whitewashing the area...which means starting from scratch and finding new investigators etc. Last week went down hill about Wednesday…nobody we went to visit was home, it started getting really hot, we were exhausted, tired, nobody wanted to talk to us, we didn't know what we needed to work on to be successful. We prayed a lot for answers but for the whole week nothing came…it was hard! But then on Fast Sunday we had one of the (church leaders) Elder D visit and he unofficially spoke to all of us missionaries. There are 2 sets of sisters and 3 sets of elders (the ZLs, the DLs and the APs are in our ward lol). He spoke to us and basically said that he was reading Helamen 3 and how tens of thousands were baptized and he stopped reading and got revelation that missionary work for members and missionaries was soon going to explode in the way of people joining the church. He said the time is closer than we think and we need to be working hard and be ready. … it was way cool what he said to us. And then…the OTHER cool thing that happened was that the bishop in the ward is doing this campaign thing at the moment called 'IT'S TIME TO CHANGE!'. …I love the bishop, his love of the Saviour is so strong and so inspiring. And the reason why his vision of the ward is cool is because after his testimony, Elder D spoke to all the missionaries about HIS vision/revelation he had about basically the same thing as bishop. It just confirmed my testimony that leaders of the church really do get inspiration from God and they are just His instruments used to help us all. And after Elder D spoke to us, at nightly planning my companion Sister McReynolds and I (who's great by the way - she's so smart and patient and always has my back) were talking about everything that happened at church and then we were talking about what we need to do this week to get investigators...and then it dawned on me, why aren't we strengthening the members and getting THEM pumped up about missionary work and about change, then they'll find us people to teach and those people will be more likely to be retained converts because they have good fellowshipping! Missionaries are basically just consultants, it's the members who should be finding people for missionaries to teach. So we're turning our attention to the members starting with the presidents of quorums and RS and YW/YM etc and then working our way to the other members."

And that is that! :) so yes, very pumped at the moment! Basically, whatever England does when it comes to missionary work, the rest of Europe follow. So we have a lot of pressure to always be working hard so the rest of Europe can prosper! It's good pressure though :)

As you read, my week has been a bit rubbish mid-way towards the end…but it got better yesterday and now I'm feeling GOOD. It's a huge lesson for me and built my testimony so much that Heavenly Father will give you trials so you learn something, but when you've learnt the lesson, he'll lift that burden and make it light and he will make you strong enough to bare whatever burdens he places on you. I was pushed and pushed…nothing worked out, we were hot (it's been hot these past few days!) exhausted, tired, sore feet, feeling pretty defeated…but then we were lifted up, dusted off, and strengthened 1000%!

We had a good lesson with Frank on about Friday though. We didn't have a member with us so we taught him outside. It was a beautiful blue skied day with the sun out. Perfect! We talked with him for like half an hour, tried to teach him the Plan of Salvation but it didn't sink in. He's tough… So instead of teaching him doctrine, we asked about his childhood … He's been through a lot. His Mum put him in a care home at 14 ...he did a lot of bad things, but he loves his wife and family…and he got married to her just before she was baptized... So he's changed a lot. He's got such a soft heart, he just hides it and acts tough all the time. We asked him inspired questions…listened to the Spirit and went with whatever we were inspired to do. There was this one point, we asked him a question, and we know he felt the Spirit. He looked like he was going to cry. But he shrugged it off and distracted himself with his grandson he was looking after at the time. We made progress. Slow, slow, slow process. But he's so worth it. The atonement would help him so much. He's been through so much pain and heartache and problems that knowing what the Saviour did could lift those burdens from him. He'll be a long project…but we're willing to work our hardest. Because we know he can be humbled by the Lord and he can have a change of heart. I believe that.

Love you so much! Thanks for keeping me updated!

Sister Kuhn    xxxxxx