Last Time on Sister Lives

Hi family,

This week went by so fast...

Cool miracle to start out - last week the Assistants to the President sent out a blast to remind everyone to update their headquarter referrals in the system. After we updated ours Heavenly Father blessed us and we got two more HQ referrals. We are teaching one of them right now and are trying to figure out a time we can meet with the other. But referrals are the best!

We also had zone conference this week! Wow, the spirit was so strong and I loved it. The topic was the Faith to find and baptize. I really understood faith to find more. The spirit taught me, having faith in Christ and trusting in the spirit by acting on promptings will lead us to those who have been prepared. I also learned to have more faith that our investigators will act in faith to keep commitments and progress. At zone conference during the lunch break President said "Sister Wynder, I need to show you the text I just got from my daughter." Turns out his daughter was at Deseret Book and Mason was her cashier. 

Sister Peterson and I have a goal for this week to have 3 people on date for baptism. We have made plans and I know that as we find with faith the Lord will bless us. This week is going to be crazy because it is Sister Peterson's LAST WEEK!!!! AYYY! She has been such a champ and is working so hard. 

I also went on exchanges with Sister Sellers - this is her first transfer. She is from Bear Lake, Idaho and guess what? Her family loves MADDOX! We have already planned out our trip to Maddox when she gets back from her mission. She is a stellar missionary and has such a strong desire to do the Lord's will. We saw miracles on our exchange and had two lesson with Jasmin a less-active we just discovered from Guam and Brother Jones. Brother Jones has been taught by missionaries over a year...I prayed really hard to know what we could teach him. As I looked at his teaching record I noticed he hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon and never really started. So we read from the introduction with him to teach him why we read/study from the Book of Mormon. During the lesson he had solid questions and at the end he said he felt that the spirit touched his heart and that his mind was enlightened! That is what the power of the Book of Mormon does! Wow, so cool. 
 

Sunday, Sister Golden opened her mission call. She invited me to attend at the mission home. She is going to the Ohio, Cleveland mission and enters the MTC August, 16th! The spirit was so strong as she read her call. I know that is where Heavenly Father needs her next. She is such a dear friend and I have loved serving with her.

I have been reflecting a lot on my mission this week and last week Annie Rees sent me an email and shared with me something her mission president would say to her- "you only have 18 months to serve a mission, and an eternity to reflect on it!" I loved that and it is so true. I am striving to do my best and finish strong! I love my mission and wouldn't trade it for the world.

Much Love,

Sister Wynder

Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel

Hi Family, 

 

Happy 24th of July! 

 

It has been sunny and hot in Star Lake!  

 

Last Monday Sister Peterson and I went to the beach and wrote letters - so relaxing! We also had FHE with the Peters. They have 2 students for Taiwan staying with them for 6 weeks so we were taught about faith in the lesson and then played volleyball. They are such a great family!

We also found a new investigator, Jimmy. Please keep Jimmy in your prayers. We really want to help him progress!  He was a potential that we found with Sister Rasmussen.

 

We also were able to have a lesson with Brother Sione he is the dad of the Samoan family that we also found with Sister Rasmussen. He is so genuine and is really interested in learning more. His wife just had a baby, so give it a week or two and we will be teaching them :) 

 

This week I studied "The Challenge to Become" by Elder Dallin H. Oaks (thanks mom for sending it). I learned so much from the spirit. Really the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most important thing along with our families. It really does challenge us to become who God wants us to be. During the talk the spirit prompted me to "Keep seeking, keep striving, and keep becoming" on my mission and after. We all have the potential to become and that is the purpose of this life. I am so grateful for my mission. I know it's not the mission that changes someone - it is the Atonement of Jesus Christ! However, the mission is what has allowed me to access the enabling power of the Atonement more than I ever thought I would. No experience is like it! 

 

The youth challenge is going great! We have heard from the youth and a lot of them are anxious to know what the next week's challenge is. They are awesome. They just got back from youth conference. One of the young men in the ward is from Africa and speaks Swahili. At youth conference they were all gathered around the fire and he started playing his guitar and sang "How Great Thou Art" in English and Swahili. All the other youth in the stake joined it. We saw a video of it at church and it gave me goosebumps. The youth are awesome. I remember as a youth I thought the missionaries were pretty cool and now as a missionary I just think the youth are so cool.
This week the challenge is to invite a friend to our combined youth activity on August 2nd! We are going to have water games and pizza + their reward for participating in the youth challenge. It is on the down low right now but the reward is pretty sweet if you ask me. 

 

There are a lot of families that are hosting Chinese students for a week. So on Sunday we had dinner with all the host families and the Chinese students - probably about 30ish people. The women in charge of the program were there and they made authentic Chinese pot stickers -  AMAZING!!!! It was so cool to meet all the Chinese students. 

 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! 

 

Much Love,

 

Sister Wynder

D&C 100:5-8

The Youth are the Best!

Hi Family, 

 

Thank you for sharing with me the highlights from Spencer and McKay's homecoming talks! I feel so blessed to have such amazing friends. It is so cool to hear about how they have really been converted to the Gospel.

 

This week we had a lesson with Khoa. He doesn't have a Christian background like most people do and his English is still a little difficult to understand sometimes. However, we taught about faith and he understood completely. He even asked us "If you don't have a lot of faith what can you do to help it grow?" What a golden question. He is such a sweet man and is excited to learn more. He also prayed at the end of the lesson and it was so sincere. 

 

This week Sister Rasmussen came out with us on Wednesday night. We planned to have a lesson with one of our investigators on the Atonement. We were really excited about the lesson but when we got there he wasn't home...classic moment in missionary work! So we went finding with Sister Rasmussen for 3 hours. She is a rock star. She is not shy at all and loves to teach! We saw so many miracles with her including finding a Samoan family. We also found 3 others that said we could come back and teach them more. It was such a fun night to be with her. 

 

 I went on an exchange with Sister Wilkinson this week. It was so fun to be with her again. We enjoyed taking it back to the good ole days while watching Meet the Mormons during dinner - haha. She is such a hard worker and loves the work. I love going on exchanges, I learn so much from the other sisters! 

 

So this week's youth challenge for "Instruments in His Hands" is "Spread the good word of God by sharing a copy of the Book of Mormon with a friend or introducing them to the Book of Mormon app. #OtherSheepIHave." We passed out 21 copies of the Book of Mormon to the youth on Sunday and not even 5 hours after church we got a text from one of the young women that said they highlighted some of their favorite verses and invited their friend to read it, and their friend said yes! Sister Peterson and I were so pumped. It is such a blessing to work with the youth and their leaders. We love to hear about their experiences sharing the gospel. The Star Lake ward is the best!!! 

 

I love the Gospel, it brings so much peace and joy! I am grateful for an amazing family and the best mission ever!

 

Have a wonderful week.

 

Much Love, 

 

Sister Wynder

 

Free Slurpees on 7/11

With Sister Rasmussen

Exchanges with Sister Wilkinson

Amazon Pantry Delivery

Sister Peters from the Star Lake ward sent these pictures to me last Friday!

And Sister Miller from the Star Lake ward sent a text with these pictures on Sunday!

Crab Got My Tag

Hi Family,

 

Last P-day the Hermanas, Sister Peterson, and I went to the Puget Sound! It was so much fun and let's just say I wrestled the crab and got my tag back...

 

I learned a lot this week. Let's begin . . .

 

At the beginning of the week I felt like we were going out and working hard but we weren't finding new investigators. It was a little frustrating because I know there are so many prepared people in Star Lake. At interviews this week I talked to President Rasmussen about it. His response was look at the sons of Mosiah! As I studied about them this week it helped me understand my purpose better as a missionary. The sons of Mosiah desired the salvation of the people and served diligently for 14 years spreading the Gospel. As I read about how they served and how much they truly wanted to help others learn about Christ my faith grew! Funny how the scriptures do that :) I love the sons of Mosiah so much and as I was studying it I received the revelation focus on the sons of Mosiah in our youth lesson on Sunday.

 

The Fourth of July was fun. We had district meeting early and we made an American flag cake. We did some weeding, and had dinner with the Hamptons! President asked that we do studies from 7-9 p.m. So we heard a lot of fireworks from our apartment :)

 

During MLC (mission leadership council) this week there was a big focus on FINDING! In the new mission president's seminar Elder Andersen gave an amazing talk about finding investigators. As the training went on the Assistants to the President led a discussion - they asked two questions, "what does your baptism mean to you?" and "what does it mean to you to help your investigators be baptized?" We all pondered on those questions and discussed. The spirit was so strong and half the missionaries were crying because we truly know that it means EVERYTHING! There is no greater work than this. This is salvation and we are the ones preaching the gospel in our assigned areas! The spirit taught me how important finding is. 

 

In D&C 60:7 it teaches about declaring the Gospel and not doubting. I already have been given what to preach (the Gospel of Jesus Christ) so I don't need to worry about what to say. The spirit always guides me how to transition from a "Hello" to teaching about the restored gospel. As I have been applying what I learned from that scripture - "Don't doubt, just declare," I have felt the spirit guide me as I exercise the power and authority of my call, and I am happier! 

 

I also went on an exchange with Sister Golden! She is the best and I was blessed to served with her for 24 hours. I learned so much from Sister Golden.  We saw so many miracles including teaching an Arabic family who became new investigators for their area. Also there is a young woman in their ward who got her call to Korea and leaves in a month - so she came out with us for a few hours. It was so much fun!  

 

On Sunday we had the combined lesson with the youth. The youth in this ward are so amazing! We read about the sons of Mosiah and talked about how they truly became "instruments in his hands." The spirit prompted me to share Brooke's conversion story with the youth. As I started to tell them about it my eyes were filled with tears. I couldn't hold them back and I was filled with the spirit. Sister Peterson bore powerful testimony and the spirit was so strong. At the end of the lesson we left time for the youth to bear their testimonies and a lot of them did. The young men just got back from camp Helaman (basically a multi-stake mission prep camp) and some of the young women got back from EFY. They have such strong testimonies! The youth really are so important to missionary work!!! 

 

This really is a marvelous work and a wonder. 

 

Much Love, 

 

Sister Wynder

 

 Puget Sound

 

 

This is apparently the crab that got her tag (it looks to me like she was trying to get a picture and gave her tag to the crab . . . )

Mission Leadership Council

4th of July

Exchanges

My cousin Lisa lives in Federal Way in Bryn's stake (but is moving to Idaho this week) and they went to Bryn's ward on Sunday. Lisa sent me these pictures -