13 Solid Lessons This Week

So this week was amazing. Top notch. We had solid 13 lessons this whole week. We met with Tito twice, and we have been getting him to meet with people from the ward. We talked about the word of wisdom and the law of tithing with him. Each time we asked him if he would live this commandment, he said yes and was so happy about it. He told us that if God has commanded us to do something, we should do it, no matter what it is. He kept telling us he is so excited to be baptized, and that he is ready to start a new chapter in his life. He even invited all his family and friends to be baptized. He has a very thick African accent, so when he talks you have to listen really hard to what he says. I love it. We rescheduled his baptism date for the 28th of May, a Saturday morning. He is so ready to be baptized, he is so ready for the gospel. He is so willing to keep all the commitments we have asked him to keep.

.... Too bad I'm getting transferred out of Lincoln before his baptism.

Yep, I'm leaving Lincoln. Here's a funny story to go with that:

transfer week always makes me anxious and on edge. I was talking to Sister Singer about it and she told me that if I was really struggling and stressing that I should just text president Marston and ask him if I was leaving or staying, as she had done that before and he told her if she was staying or leaving in an area. So I did, I texted him Thursday night and asked him if I was staying or leaving. He texted back saying "Not quite done yet." Which to me, means I'm staying. Ok.

Well I was kind of in denial, as I am stressed out double covering two wards. So I went through a lot of prayer and pondering and asking the lord to please help me to accept what I was supposed to do. I honestly did not want to stay. I love the area and I love the people, I am just tired of talking all the time with sister smith not speaking. But, through lots of prayer, I came to terms with the idea of me staying in an area for six months. I accepted what president wanted me to do. So I texted him and asked him that if I was going to be staying in Lincoln for another transfer of I could get a priesthood blessing to help me not be so stressed and/or area trunky.

Lesson learned: never ask president Marston about transfers. Just leave the poor man alone and accept whatever the lord is giving you without complaint.

And then I found out I was leaving. I was really surprised, mostly because I had come to terms with me staying. I had not prepared to leave mentally at all. Saturday night we got the email, and all the missionaries were anxiously waiting to see who was leaving and who was going. I flipped a lid when I saw my name. The AP's of course already know everything, and they are in my zone, those little punks, so they just sat there and watched me freak out.

In Preach My Gospel, there is a chapter that talks about doing all you can to leave your area better than you found it. I personally feel like I have done that, in both wards. I have found new people to teach in each ward in the last six weeks I have been here. I have out someone on date for baptism. I have served and done what I could to strengthen the relationships with members and missionaries. I guess I'm done, according to the lord. I've done what I could do for the Lincoln 3rd and 6th ward.

CAN I JUST SAY I AM SO HAPPY TO BE DONE DOUBLE COVERING.

Ok here's a spiritual thing, we had a member of the Seventy come to our mission to train us in being better missionaries. It was Elder Packer and his wife. They toured the mission and helped us to know what we can do to help our investigators be converted to the gospel instead of just having testimonies. When you have a testimony, you feel and believe something, but when you are converted, you act on and know something. That is why we strive to baptize converts, not investigators.

All in all, a great week. I said goodbye to so many people this weekend. I think I am ready to leave Lincoln. I've done what I could, and I am now ready to go to Auburn with Sister Wall. I've served around sister wall already in my mission when I was in Corning and I love her. We will get along fabulously. I'm still a sister training leader, and so is sister wall now. I'm excited. Auburn is only like thirty minutes from Lincoln, so I am still in the south part of the mission. I love the south.

I love you all! Thank you for your prayers. Pray I don't melt as the heat starts to get unbearable here in California.

Love,

Sister Ginn

These are some of the awesome people I had to say bye to, and then there is elder Forson in the bottom, my best friend in the CRM mission.

My Mission President Can Read Minds

This week was interviews.

Oh. My. Gosh.

I have never felt so vulnerable in my life. My mission president wrote down a list of strengths of mine and with each strength described a bit of my personality down to a T. He described my soul perfectly.

I've had this armored shell wrapped around me safely, and I've been snug and comfortable inside that shell. Within an hour of this interview, my shell shattered. I don't even know who I am anymore, holy cow. I am so mind blown. He told me things about myself I've never told another living human being. Only God knows certain things, and then president Marston spoke it out loud. I didn't even talk about the things I wanted to talk to him about, I don't think I was supposed to anyway. What a man. He is a man of God. It makes me slightly uncomfortable for him to pick me apart in minutes. I feel lighter though. So that was fun.

Thursday was MLC, and I got to see everyone again. I saw sister Morrison <3 and="" aren="" as="" back="" be="" best="" both="" changed="" close="" companion.="" companions="" cool="" drove="" easily="" eternities="" forever="" friends.="" friends="" gotten="" greatest="" grow="" have="" how="" i="" in="" included.="" it.="" it="" joking.="" last="" life="" lincoln.="" make="" mean="" mission="" missions="" mtc="" much="" my="" of="" on="" one="" our="" over="" p="" people="" really="" s="" say="" see="" serve="" serving="" she="" since="" singer="" sister="" so="" some="" started="" t="" the="" then="" they="" three="" to="" together.="" together="" transfers="" us="" ve="" we="" when="" will="" with="" you="" your="">

Friday was a good day as well, we had district meeting Friday morning and our district leader told us that president Marston was going to be coming in an attempt to make us get there on time. It worked, and we got ticked cause president wasn't actually coming. K elder Sampson I'll remember that one.

We see this less active named April Thornburg every week. We saw her Friday as well. She is one of the best people we are teaching right now, holy crap we have some of the best gospel conversations I've ever had on my mission with her. I love less actives. She has been trying her best to come back to church recently. It makes me so happy so see the people I'm teaching coming to church and making that effort. I love it.

Judy, one of our investigators, wants to see us twice a week now. I feel like she is getting closer and closer to baptism. She's amazing.

She's like a second mom to me. She is always asking if we need anything and is willing to give us her entire fridge of food if we need it. I love her. We are teaching her a lot out of the Book of Mormon and she loves it. She reads it on a regular basis and told us she knows it's true, and that the people who don't believe it's true are stupid.

We have not been able to meet with Tito for a while, but he is off of work all next week so we are going to try him every single day, gosh dangit. Whether he wants to or not.

We had a good Saturday too, I was asked to play the piano at a convert baptism and that was fun. I love playing for anything, and I'm glad people ask me to do that. We saw president Marston at the baptism and he showed us a picture of him and sister Marston holding up balloon people of themselves that sister smith had made on Wednesday while we were at interviews. I love my mission president. I love sister smith.

She taught us all how to make balloon animal monkeys.

I GOT TO TALK TO MY FAMILY OH MY GOSH THAT WAS THE BEST THING EVER. IM SO HAPPY.

Transfers are this week, we find out Saturday who is leaving. I have no idea what's going to happen. I'm always anxious transfer weeks.

It's awful, I hate how my life is controlled in six week periods. But it's amazing cause change is cool.

Missions are hard as heck, but are totally worth it. I love all of you. Thank you for all the support you give me. You're all amazing.

Love,

Sister Ginn

5,4,3,2,1 Continue

Sometimes I wonder if it's worth writing so many people in my big email because most of them don't email me at all. I feel like I'm just annoying those people with my emails. But then I stop caring, you're all getting my big email until the day I come home, too bad <3 p="">

I don't feel like typing at all. This one will probably be short.

So this week we did manage to find two new investigators. We had a good time just being missionaries and teaching. We have our black investigator Tito on date for the 14th of May. I am praying and hoping he can make it that far to baptism. I've never exercised so much faith in my entire life on something like this. God, please let Tito be baptized.

We had a great time with one of our investigators named Judy, she is one firecracker for sure. She has expressed desires to be baptized, and while I don't think she will be baptized while I'm in Lincoln, the next missionary after me is gonna get one golden investigator. I don't think I've ever met anyone in my entire mission more prepared and ready for the gospel. The spirit truly does convert people to the gospel.

Sister Smith and I are getting along more, it's week five now of the transfer. I made her talk more this week cause I am sick of talking so much.

Sunday was a fun day, (hehe that rhymes). We had some investigators come to church which was great, and we got to teach a mission prep class. It was just young men attending, but I thought it was a lot of fun. These young men try way too hard. I remember those days. Teaching a lesson is definitely not as hard as people make it look like. I bore my testimony in one of the wards, and I really felt the spirit when I did so. It was nice, I tried to talk about missionary work and get people excited about it.

We have had a good week, it's been a spiritually uplifting week for me. I am doing my best to feel the spirit every day. Something I've been thinking about it any responsibility as a missionary. I am in charge of two wards, I'm covering two areas. It is my responsibility to take care of those areas while I am here. That is incredible. The mission teaches us so much about love and being Christlike. It's such an amazing experience. It's hard as crap but it's amazing.

That's all for this week, I love all of you. There is no way I could do this without any of you. I am so excited for Mother's Day, you people don't even know. I miss my family. I miss my mommy.

Have a fab week, talk to you guys l8r.

Love,

Caroline Ginn

If Your Stressed Out and You Know It Scream Really Loud

Hello one and all.

Ok let's get down to business.

This week was slow yet fast. I am stressin a little because covering two wards is making me extra tired. We flip flop every week, one week we go to 6th and the other week we go to 3rd because the times clash.

Well, people make little comments all the time about how one ward is our "favorite" ward and how we are less active when we don't come to their particular wards sacrament meeting. At first it was funny but the last two weeks have been rough, people are always asking us why we can't be at sacrament meeting and no matter how many times we tell them we double cover, we can't seem to make people happy. Hence the snarky comments about us not doing enough in the two wards we cover.

So I'm about ready to punch some teeth out.

But besides that we are good!

This week we did some more contacting, we mostly just go through lists of potentials we have in our area book and knock on the door and see if that person still lives there and is interested or if it's someone completely new and they are interested. We also work with the ward council and get lists of less actives and part member families to go see. Something that I HATE is when it's 8:30 at night and we have no one to see. At that point we try to find a nice member with no small kids that wouldn't mind us stopping in and sharing a little message.

Please, PLEASE be that member who lets us in so late at night. We are just trying to be diligent, and door knocking that late at night is the worst idea ever and any missionary that does that is asking to be yelled at. It's also a way we ask people for referrals.

I'm gonna focus this email more on what exactly missionary work is when you are called and set apart to be a missionary. These are some points I've learned over the last few weeks that I would like to share with you guys.

First off, you don't just tract. Yeah you knock doors, but tracting is one of the most least efficient ways to do missionary work (at least in the states) Yes, we do it when we have no one to teach and when we are out of ideas, but it's not done all the time. It's so much more than that.

Secondly, you get scared sometimes and that is ok. I get scared. I get scared to knock some random strangers door and tell them about the gospel. I get scared to get rejected, this week was one of those weeks where we got rejected pretty harshly left and right. It's tiring when that happens and you get discouraged and scared. That's completely normal. It happens to every missionary. What you do to fix it is pray.

Fast and pray that the lord will take away your fear to be a missionary. When you are set apart, you are given to authority to preach and to tell people about the gospel unapologetically. Don't be scared to use that authority. That authority is from God. In time, the lord will take away your fears. I am slowly feeling that. I've been really having a hard time these last few weeks with depression. It's been hitting me in waves. I'm tired, I'm discouraged, I'm scared, and I go through the motions. I am working on getting myself out of that through talking to my mission president and prayer.

Thirdly, MISSIONS ARE NOT EASY. They were never meant to be easy.

Salvation ain't cheap, people. For me or for the people I'm teaching.

This is easily the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I've never been more emotionally, physically, and mentally exhausted than I have been on my mission. But it is soooo rewarding. Nothing good ever came from being lazy. You have to work for the good things in life. I hate society and all that it stands for, yet I'm doing my best to talk to so many people throughout the day. I am very much an introvert. So talking to people all day long is tiring and I sometimes want to curl in the fetal position and not move. But I don't, because I know the lord is on my side.

Fourth, DO NOT COMPARE YOURSELVES WITH OTHER MISSIONARIES WHO SERVED PREVIOUS TO YOU. I find myself doing that all the time. People love other missionaries more than you. It's going to happen, especially when missionaries baptize someone. Then they REALLY love that missionary. So when you get to the ward, you are doing your best to find, teach, and baptize, yet you yield no results. The members think you don't work hard enough as a missionary and compare you to other missionaries who baptized three people within six months. That is not how the work of the lord works. People are ready when the lord has them to be. It has nothing to do with the missionary not working hard enough. I work my tail off every day, and I am barely seeing results.

Members see baptisms and investigators to church as results. So they judge us and compare us to those missionaries in the past who had the most numbers. who cares. The lord knows you're working hard, that is all who should matter.

That's just some stuff I've learned over the last few weeks.

We met with some more of our investigators, we weren't able to meet with Tito cause of work but he is still on date for the 7th of May. We may have to push it back to the 14th due to the 7th baptism times are all taken up in the morning when he is available. Our ward mission leader for the 6th ward, Brother Merrill is amazing and is working hard to do that for us. He's awesome, let me tell you. He's been one of my favorite ward mission leaders to work with.

How is April almost over.

I am so grateful to be a missionary today. It's hard, yeah, and sometimes I find myself simply wanting to curl up in a blanket and watch Netflix. But the work of the lord is far more important than watching Netflix or reading a book. So I'm here and I'm doing the best that I know how. I love all of you. I have a testimony that this church is true (haha that rhymed) and I would never trade my relationship with the savior for anything.

Thanks for being homies.

Love,

Sister Ginn

I Love Black People

Guess who has a date for baptism? Tito. Guess who invited him to be baptized? I did. Guess who is so stoked out of their mind she can't even function properly? Sister Ginn.

My first investigator I invited to be baptized ever on my whole mission is black. What more can I ask for? I am so happy you people don't even know. IM GONNA HAVE A BLACKTISM EVERYONE.

I should seriously just leave my email at that because who cares about the rest of this week, I was used by God to invite someone to be baptized and they freaking accepted. Amen to the gospel and all its teachings. Yes.

Sister Smith is still quiet. We don't say much to eachother. Sometimes I really miss sister Morrison because conversation with people is just me talking. I get tired of talking all the time. She's a sweet girl though, she's very good at math and is gonna let me go vacationing with her family on a house boat down by lake Powell. Heck yes.

Anyway so this week we went out with an investigator to dinner. We went and got sushi and it was sooooo good. We're going again this coming week to eat more sushi only with a different investigator. The 6th ward is really picking up, leaving 3rd Ward in the dust. We meet regularly with most of the people we are working with in 6th ward.

There's this one investigator named Judy, she is such an amazing woman who will definitely be baptize soon. We see her every Tuesday and Thursday just about. We love her to pieces. It's people like her that make it worth it serving a mission.

My friend Olivia Tilini came home from her mission this week! Congrats to her! You didn't die those last 18 months my friend! Yay!

We did a zone service project refurbishing a park. I got to do yard work and until now I haven't realized how much I have missed doing hard work. I miss cutting grass and pulling weeds and being outdoors.

There are so many things I'm going to change for the rest of my life when I'm home. For instance, I'm gonna practice the piano so much more than before my mission. When stuff gets taken away you realize what you need to work on and what you need to change. I'm going to be the best member missionary I can be for the rest of my existence.

I'm so excited for Mother's Day you people don't even know.

I have seen myself become closer to God. I have seen changes in me that have truly converted me to the gospel. I can't go backwards, I can only step forward even when I can't see what's in front of me. I have come to truly trust God and rely completely on him. He's in charge. I have to keep reminding myself that, every time I go to knock on a door I get nervous but then I remember who's on my side. The talk from elder holland at conference where he said heaven is cheering us on really helps me to know what is important and who is helping me out. Before my mission I only believed in certain things. Now I can say I know the gospel is true, for a fact. Through diligent study and prayer, I found this out. Something I thought about this week was why we serve missions. I honestly think the church wants us to serve because of the testimony builder that it is. Missions help us not go less-active.

I love all of you. Have a great week.

Love,

Caroline

Four Zone Temple Trip

Sister Smith's Peacock

Random act craziness

Internal Screaming

Hello. Hope you're all good.

I don't even know what happened this week but I hit my 9 month mark on Friday.

This email is gonna be short because WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE AS A MISSION TODAY YEAH a I got up at 4 am and drove all the sisters in Lincoln all the way to the temple. It was amazing. I got to see sister Morrison. Plus I got to see president and sister Marston. Huge plus.

Saying goodbye to sister Morrison was awful. I lost it. I cried for a while and then I had to see her go.

Enough of that.

Anyway so now that I am an stl I went to MLC this week or missionary corrdination meeting. We talked about how the mission was doing as a whole. It was long but I got to see some of my favorite missionaries, sister Morrison included. We are basically still companions.

I am stressin taking over the area but it's fine, it's only the first week. Five more to go. Interviews are also this transfer and I am SUPER excited. I actually really hate driving all the time.

Anyway so I am freaking busy as heck today, it's elder argyles birthday and I'm making him a pan of brownies and I have no time to breathe so sorry.

This week sister smith and I got to know each other. She makes balloon animals which is cool. We were pretty busy all week, it went by really fast. We knocked on this one lady's door and she told us her husband was a member and she was interested in becoming a member. I almost died. Guess where we got that info from? A REFERRAL. THEY WORK PEOPLE.

YEAH WE GOT SOMEONE NEW TO TEACH.

What else is important.... Oh yeah so it was my little sisters birthday yesterday. She is ten now. HAPPY BIRFDAY KIMBERLY STOP GROWING UP PLEASE.

Sister Smith is really quiet. It's fine though. I can deal with quiet.

She's super sweet and is pretty funny, she says things so out of context it's hilarious.

The church is true and stay in school and don't do drugs.

K I love you all! Bye! Sorry for such a short email, hopefully my pictures make up for lack of words.

Love,

Sister Ginn

Sister Smith makes balloon animals

They all live in the same complex

Last hug from Sister Morrison

Shortness

Transfers!!!!

So guess who is leaving? SISTER MORRISON IS. I am not thrilled about it at all but at the same time I know transfers are God-inspired so it'll be fine whatever happens.

I don't like taking over areas and it stresses me out but I'll get over it. Also I'm now a Sister Training Leader, or STL. STL Ginn. I do nothing as an STL, I just have to go to more meetings.

Oh yeah I'm also a tech missionary now, which means if people have a problem with their iPads they call me and I'm supposed to fix it. I've been junior companion for my entire mission so far and suddenly I have all this responsibility. GOSH DANGIT.

Ok so this week was ok, I am always anxious transfer week. I love Sister Morrison so much, let me tell you. She is amazing. Yes she has her flaws and he's there are things she does that I get irritated with. But you learn to look past those things as companions. You learn to love them for who they are and focus on the good things. We work well together, we get along, and we are already planning what we are going to do after the mission, which I have 9 months left by the way.

What. Sister Morrison is easily one of the best companions I've had so far. I freaking love her so much. I'm gonna miss her guts. My new companion is Sister Smith. I've met her twice and I don't know her from Eve. Should be fun.

Anyway we had a great couple of lessons with some investigators this week. We had a lesson with Judy, one of our progressing investigators.

She really loves what we have to teach and she loves hearing about the church. She's gonna get baptized one day. We also picked up a new investigator last week, her name is Patty. Her husband is a member and she's not, but she does want to be baptized into the church soon. She told us when she feels ready she will be baptized. I don't even care if that means she's ready in five years, I'm taking it. I'm glad I can be a part of her conversion. I love teaching the lessons by the way, the basic missionary lessons. They are so simple and true and there is no way you could over complicate them unless you are a terrible teacher. So don't be a terrible teacher. I just teach from the pamphlets that the missionaries give out. Future missionaries, read the pamphlets. They are so simple it's ridiculous.

Ok so we had the greatest April fools joke of all time pulled on us.

Friday morning we went to plan for the week, and Elder Bernhisel came into the room and told us he had received an email from president Marston that said the whole Lincoln zone had been emailing home during the week and that we need to stop. Elder Bernhisel told us to quit and had to all the whole zone to let them know. So everyone is freaking out and feeling guilty because 90% of the missionaries email home during the week at some point in their mission. We were all repenting and praying for forgiveness. We all went to lunch together and all the missionaries were talking about it. Elder Bernhisel was confused because the email sent to him was from a gmail account, had president Marston's name spelled wrong, and HAD HIS DADS PHONE NUMBER AT THE BOTTOM OF THE EMAIL. COME ON ELDER BERNHISEL HOW DID YOU NOT CATCH THAT. So yes we all got called to repentance by elder Bernhisel's dad.

The funny part was elder Bernhisel forwarded the email to president Marston because he saw it was from a gmail account. So president mar song knew about the whole thing. All pranks after this one will suck.

That was amazing. I've eve laughed so hard in my life. Elder Bernhisel was just ticked for the rest of the day. We will never let him live that down.

General conference was great. We watched all the sessions at the church with all the other missionaries. This is my second conference in the mission. One more left before I go home. I think Elder Hollands talk blew everyone out of the water. What a perfect way to end general conference. President Monson looks so frail, oh my gosh. He is amazing. I am so glad he was able to speak, even if it was only for a few minutes. The thing I got from conference was that we need to remember the savior daily and draw closer to him as much as possible.

I love how simple the talks were. I can't wait to read over them all again. When President Utchdorf started to speak, I turned to Sister Singer and said "get ready to hear spotless about planes" AND NOT EVEN

30 SECONDS IN HE STARTED TALKING ABOUT PLANES, I LOVE THIS MAN.

After the Sunday afternoon session of conference we went to the elders apartment with he entire Lincoln zone and ate ice cream the AP's had.

We of course sat outside the door. It was a nice way to end general conference.

Sister Morrison wanted to say bye to our black investigator, Tito. We went over to his house and there were about 50 cars lined up all in front of his house. They were having a huge house party and everyone was black. I have never seen so many black people all at once in California. It was amazing. They had all sorts of African foods and most of the people there were either from Liberia or Nigeria. They were so nice to us. We were some of the only white people in the room.

It was hilarious. Everyone was dancing to African music and having the best time of their lives. They were so happy. I want to be as happy as African people. That's my new goal in life.

I am sad that sister morrison is leaving, there are only two missionaries leaving our zone. It won't be the same without sister morrison. We saw president Marston on Sunday, he came to a session of conference with us. Both Sister Morrison and I had emailed him and told him we wanted her to stay. So of course he blatantly ignores our email and does what he wants like usual. He told us "You both will be fine." And I believe him. It will be ok. That's a mission for you.

I love you all so much. Thank you for the prayers and constant encouragement. I would probably die if I didn't have you guys in my life.

Have a good week! Enjoy April! It's starting to get hot here in California. I'm gonna melt into a puddle if it was as hot as last summer.

I am glad to be a missionary right now. I'm glad to be in Lincoln.

Thank God for life.

Love,

Sister Ginn