Find Joy in the Journey

Hello All! 

It's been such a crazy and great week! TRANSFERS ARE THIS WEEK! We got our calls yesterday, and then a call from President for a special little instruction... Sister Bench is staying in Harpers Ferry and training a new Sister Missionary! And... I'm leaving... I'm going to be serving in Martinsburg AND I'll also be training a new Sister! New Sister and a new area!!! I'm freaking out... a lot. AHH!! Poor little missionary.... we're just going to be so lost together. But I just have to have faith. Heavenly Father is going to make it possible. I don't know how I will be able to do this, but I do know that I can do this with His help. It might not seem like a big deal to y'all, but I have no idea what I'm doing still ha-ha. I've only been out 4 1/2 months. I'm still new. So this will be an adventure! If you want to send me any mail, wait until I can get you my new address next week, or else I won't be getting any of that mail anytime soon. Thank you!

Now that my little freak-out moment is over, let me tell you about our week! We now have a total of EIGHT investigators! I'm going to have to say goodbye to all of them today and tomorrow :( But they're all doing so well! We had a zone training this last Tuesday and we really hit hard on inviting people to be baptized! By inviting someone to be baptized, we're fulfilling every aspect of our purpose... SO Sister Bench and I invited 34 people to be baptized this week and most of them were random people we talked to on the streets! AND we've been able to find new investigators because of it! It's been so cool! It's really made me want to be more bold and loving when I talk to everyone, because that's really what we're about! Our purpose is to bring people closer to Christ and the best way to do that is by helping them be BAPTIZED! And it's not about the numbers that come into the church, but it's about the people who get to grow and progress and find that eternal joy and happiness that only comes through this gospel. And it's awesome. 

One of our investigators and her daughter fed us dinner twice this week, so that was pretty cool! I'm going to miss them a lot. I'm known as the crazy cat lady at their home :) 

Although I'm leaving my area, I am going to try so hard to be a challenging and testifying missionary. I know that the Spirit is the only way to teach these people, so I'm going to invite it by testifying and help them act on it by challenging, and it's going to be great. Let's hope my new missionary has lots of faith, because we're going to need it! I'm going to learn so much from her! 

So, my favorite part about this week was SISTERS CONFERENCE! And I have a billion pictures, so sorry, but not really. The theme of Sisters Conference was "Find out Why" And we talked lots about why we are in the Maryland Baltimore Mission and why we are on the earth at this time. We really got to talk about our potential as women and we read over President Nelson's last conference talk "A Plea to My Sisters" and I encourage all you women out there to read it. It's our time to "speak up and speak out" and I know that we are the ones who will change the future and influence generations to come for the better. And because of this conference, I'm now starting a "Reasons Why" journal where I write down one thing each day that I think is a reason why I'm here right now. So, I'm going to give you some quotes from the conference that I just loved:

This first quote is from a book Sister Bench and I gave Sister Christiansen, "Life can be tricky, there isn't a doubt. You'll skin your knees trying to figure it out. But life works together, the good and the bad, the silly and the awful, and happy and sad, to paint a big picture we can't always see... 

"Remember that next time a day goes all wrong... to somebody else, you will always be STRONG.

"you're here for a reason. If you think you’re not, I would just say that perhaps you forgot-a piece of the world that is precious and dear would surely be missing if you weren't here. If not for your smile, and your laugh and your heart, this place we call home would be minus a part." AWE! How adorable :)

"I just love when the Elders tell me how stellar the Sisters are. I smile and think, 'Yeah, I know.'" -Sister Christiansen

"Sometimes I wish we ONLY had Sisters..." -President Christiansen

"Breathe in Faith. Let out Fear." - Sister Moore

"You are the reason Christ came to the Earth. You are wanted by your Heavenly Father." - Sister Moss

REJOICE IN HOPE

"We grow as we serve. There is no growth in a comfort zone; there is no comfort in a growth zone." - Sister McCabe

"Be like a cork! Pop right back up!" and "Don't forget to tell your face you're having fun." - Sister Wright

That's all for now :) 

I also wanted to say congrats to my awesome investigators! So many of them are working through such tough times and I've been able to witness them truly relying on the Savior and doing things they never thought they could! And I'm so happy for them! 

Also, Happy Late Halloween! I hope you all had fun :) I got to go to a couple trunk or treats with our investigators :) Lots of them came and it was a blast! I have so much candy... people literally throw candy at the missionaries during Halloween time... it's the best ;) 

I also got to see my Favorite Mission Family yesterday to say goodbye! We had another Nerf Gun war ;) I'm going to miss them like crazy! 

Lastly, I want you all to know how grateful I am for my family. We've had a rough few years, but I couldn't be more grateful for them. They helped me feel important. They helped me know I was loved. And I couldn't have asked for anything more than that.

Thank you for all the love and support! I've definitely been able to feel your prayers! I hope you have a fantastic first week of November! I love you all! 

Shout-out! Happy 23rd Birthday to my big sister Karli on the 7th!!!! YAY!

#YouKnowYou'reAMissionaryWhen your knees are constantly bruised from praying.

P.S. Training a new missionary in a new area is also known as "a fate worse than death"... Wish me luck! 

Love, 

Sister Humphrey

Also, my scripture of the week is 1 Nephi 3:7

and quote, " You become who you want to be by consistently being who you want to become each day."

Love, 

Sister Humphrey

The Miracle that Rescues You and Me

Happy (early) Halloween! I hope you all have a blast this Halloween! Don't forget to send me pictures! 

So, today I just realized that's it's been a year since I decided to go on a mission. ONE YEAR! So, most of you who know me know that I never wanted to serve. Ever. I never thought of myself as a missionary, nor did I ever want to be, but a year ago Heavenly Father told me that this is what I needed to do, whether I liked it or not. And from the moment I decided to follow Heavenly Father's counsel, my life has been changed forever. I'm not to the point in my mission where I can say that I never want to leave, but I have gotten to the point where I can say that my mission has forever changed me. I am a different person. I am not the person I was when I left. And that's okay, because I'm growing, changing, and becoming (hopefully) the person Heavenly Father knows I can be.  And I just hope I'm doing Him proud. 

So, this week we had a lot of stuff happen! And I'm basically on cloud 9! Two of my investigators accepted the invitation to be baptized on Nov 21st this week!!! YAY! Due to Satan's attacks, however, they're not sure if they can still do that day, BUT they definitely still want to be baptized :) All in the Lord's timing, I guess. And all 6 of our investigators are learning and growing and The Lord is just blessing us immensely! 

Also, the 8 year old daughter we're teaching (who was on date for baptism) has officially given me the nickname of "Crazy Cat Lady" and I think I proved my point today when I bought myself a 2016 Kitty Calendar. I'm in love. Ha-ha. 

So, I got to go on exchanges again with Sister Jeppson in Hagerstown! She's going home next week, so she got to be my first exchange and I got to be her last :) How precious ;) Anyway, she's awesome and I always learn so much from her! I never feel judged, only loved, when I'm with her and she makes my life so much better. I'm sad she's leaving me, but I'm also excited for all that she has in store for her! 

So, I have a cool story that has totally just made my entire mission....

DAVE WAS BAPTIZED!!!! Dave is the husband of a recent convert in our ward, Holly, who is basically like my missionary mom. She's awesome and we're over at their home at least once a week. I just love them both and Dave gives me ice cream :) This last Saturday was the day Dave committed to be baptized and it actually happened! I got to speak at his baptism on Baptism (go figure) and then sing with a couple of the other sisters, "The Miracle". Beautiful song. Dave cried. I cried. Sister Bench cried. We all cried, let's be real. And Dave is seriously just so awesome. When I found out why he decided to get baptized, my respect level for him went SO high (not that it wasn't super high before), but he told us he decided to get baptized the day that his son Jake told him he loved him, which doesn't happen all the time; and he knew that he needed to get baptized and start living the life that was going to help his son. And he knew this was it! Because it is! And it's just the beginning for this family :) In a year, they can go to be sealed for time and all eternity!!! I hope I get to be there to witness that :) It was basically the happiest day of my life. I'm just smiling from ear to ear! GAHH!!! I love that family, :) and I'm so proud of them! That definitely was a miracle :) And it's because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ that we can all be changed for the better. 

I love this Gospel :)

So that is that. The Church is True. The Book is Blue. Go tell somebody ;) 

Quote of the Week: "I am confident that an even greater harvest will be achieved now as righteous, committed missionaries fulfill the Savior's commandment to preach His Gospel." -Elder Cook

Scripture of the Week: D&C 6:36

Love, 

Sister Humphrey

Miracles Come After the Trial of Your Faith part 2!

Hi all! I just thought I'd let you know that I love you! I promise this week's letter will be better than lasts! So, I'm going to quickly catch you up on some things that happened last week:

A nonmember husband of a member of our ward told Sister Bench and I that we were the most intelligent missionaries he's talked to in the last 50 years... (He was trying to argue with us and we just weren't taking any of it).

Our investigator asked me what my first name was and Sister Bench told her, then she promised to always call me by my last name....a few minutes later we hear her shouting from downstairs, "TERILYN!! How do you pronounce your last name!?!?" Hahaha, we couldn't stop laughing. No one has called me that in a REALLY long time! 

We taught a lesson on the streets to this teenage boy who is totally interested in the church and wants to read the entire Book of Mormon to find out if it's really true. 

Sister Bench and Elder Tharp prophesied my future husband... Let's just say I'm going to be one lucky girl ha-ha.

We picked up THREE new investigators last week and TWO new investigators this week! Four out of five of them have already accepted the invitation to be baptized!!! God provides after the trial of our faith. 

I just found out that because of a commitment I left with a member that my companion was a little hesitant about, two more nonmembers watched General Conference! Sweet! 

Our two new investigators are a mom and a daughter and they both LOVE this Gospel already and have been defending it from their family! 

Okay, now more from this week:

Sister Bench's mom gave awesome words of advice: "Converts are only happy bonuses of missions; the true harvest is from the strength provided to the church from the experience the missionaries gain by doing hard things. It pays off for the rest of their lives and beyond."  So cool. We also taught in District Meeting last Tuesday with the Zone Leaders there and it went really well! We taught about teaching for understanding which was great! We also got to go to our investigator's daughter's track competition this week! So fun! 

"First I do, then I understand" - words of advice from Sister Hinckley. SO perfect when thinking about the commandments and this Gospel. 

So, this week I learned that God will not depend solely on me to help His children find the Gospel. Sister Bench and I basically taught THE WORST restoration lesson ever. It was awful, BUT the Spirit was SO strong there and our investigator could feel the Spirit so much and she accepted the invite to be baptized! Heavenly Father will not depend on young teenagers to bring these people to Christ! We have a huge responsibility. We have to go out and work, but Heavenly Father will make things happen as long as we're trying. Talk about stress-relief. So that was cool. 

We also got to go to a Young Women's choir concert and we watched their show choir... oh my goodness, not appropriate at all. I just keep thinking about the world and the way society is going and it scares me. 

Also, go look up Christian Busath on FB and all his videos on YouTube. I know him and he's hilarious. Apparently he's an actor in "Inspired Guns" also. So, our investigators are doing awesome :) My friend Dave is getting Baptized next week and I'm speaking. One of our investigators was hugging her mom after our lesson with her and she just kept saying, "Momma, I wanna feel it. I wanna feel it." AWE! The Church is True! She knows it! She just wants to feel it now! Alma 32:27! If you just have a desire to know, that is enough. So awesome! I love seeing how the Gospel changes people and their lives. It happens every day. And I am privileged enough to be a part of it. 

We had a huge ward Festival on Saturday. Our investigator totally won the pie eating contest and she's stick thin. Seriously. She's the bomb. And it was Social Media Split Saturday! So hopefully there are picture of us online. We played Ultimate Frisbee and tug-a-war and a whole bunch of other games. It was a blast! Oh, and Utah doesn't have this amazing thing called Sheetz, but it's seriously the best gas station food ever. And they have Hot Chocolate that is TO DIE FOR! Peanut butter hot chocolate... I just can't get enough of it! 

Speaking of Hot Chocolate, two nonmembers invited us into their home last night as we were walking in the freezing cold and offered us hot chocolate. It was seriously the best thing ever. 

And a young boy spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday and he said something SO profound! "God gave all of us something special and we may not know what it is, but I know what mine is. It's that I'm a child of God." WOAH! We're children of God! ISN'T THAT AWESOME! He loves us and that makes us special. Something to think about. And I had to mention the Awesome Liddell Family! We were over at their home yesterday and we watched the new Mormon Message and their son Alex had some profound words! He talked to us about how it was like Heavenly Father talking to His son. It was amazing. Watch it. And don't get depressed.... it does seem depressing at first, but think of it like Heavenly Father talking to you, then it's SUPER cool :) 

So, to end the email, I want to share with you a text message our investigator sent us after our last lesson with her. She's learning and growing and it's just more proof that this Church really does have something that people are looking for. She said, "Thank you girls so much. You guys are so awesome in what you do and what you try to teach me and J (her daughter's name's been changed) about the church. Every time we have met I learn more about you guys and the Mormon religion and the more I learn, the more I want to become one because it seems like you guys have given me something that was missing from our other church." SHE'S GOLDEN! The Church is True! The Book is Blue! Now go tell somebody :)

Ponderizing scripture of the week: D&C 24:8

Quote of the Week: "Sometimes it may feel like no one can understand the depth of your despair, but Jesus Christ, Our Savior, understands." -President Utchdorf

I love you all! Send me your Miracles! 

Love, 

Sister Humphrey

Miracles Always Come After the Trial of Your Faith

Another crazy week here in Harpers Ferry! Sorry this email won't be as detailed as previous weeks! I only have about 5 minutes to write it. Let's just say that the beginning of this week was really rough. No appointments. A lot of trials of my faith. A lot of asking why. BUT we saw miracles after the trial of our faith! We had interviews with our President this week and that was great, then later that day, after working super hard, the Lord provided us with THREE NEW INVESTIGATORS!!!! And they're GOLDEN! Absolutely GOLDEN! And I can't wait to teach them! They all have crazy stories and they need the Gospel in their lives. Seriously. But it was great, and I just can't wait. We also talked to 150 people this week! Which is a record for me and it's the most anyone has talked to in a week in Harpers Ferry for over a year! The Lord provides! Well, I've got to go. Sorry it's not as long this week. :( Hopefully next week it will be better!

Quote of the Week: "By taking part in the Lord's glory, you become glorious yourself." - Hank Smith

Scripture of the Week: Alma 34:32 (Check it out!)

Also, I've been out for four months now, and I just think that's crazy!

I love you all! SO MUCH! Remember that God really is listening to your prayers. He's just waiting to answer them.

Love, 

Sister Humphrey