Transfer Ahead! November 4, 2013

This week was pretty exciting! We found a couple of new investigators and had some fun! On Tuesday we taught Angie, and Brother Becker came with us. That was the first time he'd ever come out with the sister missionaries! Go us! On Wednesday we spent over 2 hours just walking around in this one neighborhood and talking to a TON of people. It was ridiculous but I loved it. We also taught a new investigator that day. Her name is Penelope and while we were there her friend Ernesto walked in. Ernesto speaks really fast and was really excited to see us. "Oh, you missionaries? You share the word of God? I need the word of God today man, I'm so stressed out." He helped us move Penelope's couch out to the curb and then started asking if we knew what scripture he had been looking for. He started to describe it and I went "Wait, I read that this morning!" It was Luke 11:13 - "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?". Ernesto was blown away. He asked me to read it again and again, and he asked if he could bow down as I prayed. We were like, "Uh, no, how about we all kneel and pray together." It was a little weird, but super amazing because that really opened the door for him to want to meet with missionaries too! He lives in another ward, so we passed him on to those missionaries.

On Halloween, we did service at the food bank because they called in desperate need of help! So we did that, then we taught Angie again, but this time we gave her roommate a Book of Mormon. Melanie (roommate) always sits in and listens to our lessons, so we figured she was ready. Then we went to a member's home for Halloween dinner! We were there for SO LONG, but it was okay because we weren't supposed to be out unless we had set appointments anyways (which we didn't). We helped the teenage son decorate/dress up his car to look like a pinata, we made pizza and "monster finger" breadsticks... fun all around.

On Friday, we got some very sad news... Sister Noakes is leaving the Grand Junction 1st ward :( Yep, I'm outta here! Sister Masima will be follow up training someone she came out with (they'll be training each other). I'm not training this transfer, and I have NO IDEA where I'm going. Ahh, mission life. Anyways, I'm pretty bummed about it but I know that the Lord needs me elsewhere (If only because somewhere around 20 different people have told me so. Hahaha.) So then on Saturday, we had to go to a training on training for Sister Masima, run by President and Sister Murdock. I showed Sister Murdock our newspaper article and she was so excited! We taught a couple of people that day as well. We had fast and testimony meeting on Sunday, and all the missionaries in our mission were doing a mission fast, which was really cool. And, Angie came to church!! We were so excited, since she promised last week and didn't come. She stayed for all 3 hours and really liked it. All four of us missionaries bore our testimonies, and the ward always appreciates that. Oh, and in elder transfer news - Elder Austin is staying and training a new missionary, and Elder Jacobson is leaving and becoming a zone leader somewhere out west.

So that was our week! Eventful if a little sad.

Love you all SO MUCH!

Sister Noakes

I asked Sister Noakes about the singles ward sister that she often does service with; Sisters Cope and Joslin are staying in the single's ward. They're pretty bummed because they'll be there over Thanksgiving. Hahaha. (They don't get fed terribly often in the single's ward, ya know.) Some other sisters are moving around but I don't think I've really mentioned any of them to you. If I end up in GJ 5th ward, I'll live like 3 doors down from the single's ward sisters though. Hahahaha. Who knows!!

Asked her if she wanted me to dig out her Christmas stocking (which I made years ago, it's a counted cross-stitch stocking based on The Nutcracker, which we love. I would love to have my stocking!! I'll mail it back to you post-Christmas :)

OH! So yesterday I bore my testimony, right? I started it off by saying "I'm Sister Noakes..." etc. ANYWAYS, after sacrament this lady I don't recognize comes up to me and asks me if I'm from Washington. I say yes and I'm trying to remember if I said that in my testimony or what. Hahaha. The next thing she asks is "Do you know Jen Throolin?" Immediately I go "YES! I love Sister Throolin!" This lady introduces herself as Lori Jacobson, and she just moved into 1st ward from 2nd ward, where the Throolins used to live. Apparently Sister Throolin told her to keep an eye out for a sister missionary named Sister Noakes from Kennewick. We talked for a couple of minutes and I am just amazed at our small Mormon world. The craziest part to me is that if they had started coming to this ward one Sunday later, they never would have met me or seen me! Timing is everything!

Love you!!!

These pictures are me and Kaleigh. Kaleigh is in 1st ward and is leaving for the Russia Vladivostok mission on January 1st! She's pretty awesome and has been coming out with us to lessons. (Kaleigh was also mentioned in the newspaper article in the Grand Junction Sentinel a couple of weeks ago.)

So, one of these is me and Angie and her roommate Melanie. (Angie has the long grey hair and Melanie has the long brown hair.)

Another is me and the Greens! They're the best. Brother Green is in the bishopric and we had dinner with them last night.

And the other is me and the Stacys. Brother Stacy is the EQ president and we've been teaching his family for practice like we were doing with the Beckers. Their kids are TOO CUTE. Parker, the one in glasses, just started passing the sacrament a couple of weeks ago and we love watching him do it in his little suit. Hahaha. Too cute.

A couple of pictures of me and the Beckers! Gotta love that family. Too adorable and sweet.

And me and Sister Larson!

(Sister Larson has taken the sister missionaries under her wing. I really appreciate her being a second mom to my sweet Sarah!) I'll miss Sister Larson too! But she'll always know what I'm up to since she's friends with you! She gave me some advice last night: 1) Look down when I walk (so I don't trip/fall) 2) Be careful on ice and 3) Marry the right person. Hahahaha. I just love the combination of advices.

Sarah and her companion, Sister Masima.

October 14, 2013

Dear Family,

So this week was a tough one. Isn't every week with me though? Hahaha I feel like that's how it's going. But Sister Masima and I are going to keep working hard and hopefully things will perk up a bit around here, eh?

On Saturday, do you know what happened? People actually let us serve them! It was great! Usually people tell us, oh no, but thank you. But on Saturday we actually got to do service! First of all, Sister Masima and I were finishing up our morning studies when I looked out the window to see a woman struggling to carry a heavy box down the stairs. We waited to see if she would bring out another one (since she was at the bottom when I saw her), and when she did, we ran out to help. Turns out the guy directly across from us was moving out, so we helped him do that! Him and his two friends were amazed at how quickly we were able to get stuff done. Then, we went to visit that less active woman whose two children we've been teaching. She wasn't home, but her friend across the way was! Sister B had brought this friend to church once, so we went and talked to her and helped her do dishes and clean house. Sister B showed up and was talking to us about how she was for sure coming to church tomorrow (finally haha), how she was bringing her friend Katie (I changed the name don't worry), and about her children's baptism (WHICH IS ON THE 26TH YAY!!!). Anyways, before we left we asked Katie if we could come teach her some more about our church and she said yes! So we're dropping by later this week on her day off to do that. Finally, at dinner with Sister Atkinson, she put us to work flattening boxes to go to the recycle. It makes me happy when people let us serve them. They should do that more often.

On Friday, Sister Masima and I were tracting and this guy let us into his house. We talked with him for a while and we were going to say a prayer with him. WELL he brings up out of nowhere that there's a ghost in his house. He's telling us about all the creepy stuff that goes on and I REALLY don't like hearing about it and it just feels different as he's telling us this. Well, guess who gets to say the prayer? Me, naturally. When we pray with people as we're tracting, we say "In virtue of our calling as missionaries, and as representatives of Jesus Christ, we ask for the Savior's peace and blessing to be on this home and this family." and then you add whatever else you want. The elders say something about the priesthood which they hold (I haven't really heard them do this, for obvious reasons hahaha). So anyways, I got to pray that the ghost/spirit/whatever was troubling them would leave in peace. I have never wished so much that I had the priesthood so I could have the AUTHORITY to make it leave. Maybe we'll send elders by there later on.

Hey so fun fact: Elder Jacobson, the new elder in our ward and our new district leader, has the same birthday as you mom! We found that out because we had dinner with them one night, and because my birthday, Sister Masima's birthday, and Elder Austin's birthday are all within about two weeks of each other. So we thought it'd be cool if all four missionaries in the 1st ward had birthdays around the same time, but Elder Jacobson had to go and ruin it for us. Hahaha.

Anyways, still loving being a missionary and still missing you guys! We're looking out for people to teach and opportunities to share the gospel with more people.

I love you guys so much!!!

Love, Sister Noakes

 

Sister Noakes with member's dog

Sisters Noakes and Masima at ward trunk or treat

Mom note: We are having a special stake conference on 10/27/2013, with Elder M. Russell Ballard as our special guest. Turns out Elder Ballard is also visiting Grand Junction, Colorado! He’ll be there on 11/17/13. Sister Noakes is pretty excited about that!

Our stake is supposed to read Elder Ballard’s last General Conference talk (http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/put-your-trust-in-the-lord?lang=eng), and also read about his trip to Rome in September (http://www.lds.org/church/news/apostles-organize-stakes-in-rome-paris?lang=eng). 

Sarah said: We're (I say "we", but the letter from the stake presidency was addressed to the families/members in the Grand Junction West Stake) supposed to ponder and pray about how we can increase reverence before and during the meetings. That way we can be more prepared to hear the message he'll be bringing. It's at OUR building too, because that's the stake center, and I imagine we won't be allowed to save seats either. But I also think he'll probably talk to just the missionaries out here as well. We'll see.