New Surroundings

This apartment is so nice! I can definitely feel the spirit more here. There's more sunshine, less bugs, it's super clean. It's great! It was a miracle to find it. Dave, our landlord, is super nice! He's neighbors with the Hirschi's in our ward and has had missionaries over. He offered a furnished villa for us to stay in while we moved back and forth. He owns/works at a funeral home and our neighbor Todd works with him. We love Todd! And his little girl, Morgan, is so cute!!! We played outside with her last night and she loved it! We are seriously so lucky and blessed to be here. I couldn't be happier!

We found an actual bed bug at our last apartment. We were studying and he was trying to get under the carpet. They are tiny! We put him in a bag and let him die... I named him Chester and he's going in my journal. We've been so careful about bringing stuff in. We have two kinds of bug spray that we've used on our new apartment and luggage and dressers etc. I hope they're gone. Dave was a little worried with letting us move in knowing our other apartment’s situation. But Dave is so nice!!

Donnie did great this week! He has been keeping the Word of Wisdom but he says it's hard. Especially when his family does all of it. His Step-Dad is always rolling cigarettes and his Mom smokes. He has a weird situation... His parents are divorced but still live together with their new significant other... Different, right? Anyways we saw him 3 times and he went to Mutual. He said someone gave a really powerful testimony that touched him. Turns out that testimony was from a boy who has been struggling with his testimony. Awesome right? For some reason Donnie didn't come to church yesterday. He probably woke up late. So, we'll see him tomorrow. Pray that he can get baptized. We have a goal of a baptism every week in April, but we want him to be ready.

Katherine, Donnie's sister, also came to Mutual and then she went to pre-camp registration. She has made a friend in the ward with a girl named Sarah. Sarah has some handicaps and needs friends so I'm so happy! Katherine came to the church after for the Women's Broadcast and she made 2 temple plaques for her parents. It was a craft we did. She's doing so well. We haven't actually taught her yet but she loves coming to church.
                                                                             

This is the Temple plaque we made.

I don't remember if I've told you about Jeff. He lives with Abbie and they are both investigators. So Jeff washes cars for his job and he said when people ask what church he goes to he says "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." Jeff tells people he's Mormon! And he wants to give the Book of Mormon to his friends. Jeff is a fabulous missionary don’t ya think?

Our Zone Conference was so good! We are starting to use a new tactic.. Pamphlet lessons. We use the pictures of the pamphlet to teach the lesson. This way we can teach them online and in person fast! We taught the Restoration in under 10 minutes!! Crazy right?! It's the most effective way I've seen. I think one of my friends wrote about doing it too. It's awesome!

 Ok cool fact time. The maker of the Fatboy ice cream  bar... (An ice cream bar I'm sure you're very familiar with) has a last name of Merril. Well in our ward we have a Merril family. There is a dad raising his five kids alone and his parents are living with him to help. Well we had dinner there Tuesday night and after dinner we had Fatboys. Brother Merril (the Grandpa) showed us the back of the box where it has a little history story. His Dad invented them! So I know the Fatboy inventor's son, grandson, and great grandsons and great granddaughters! Jealous much? I'll get a picture with them sometime.

I have a challenge for you.... So me and Sister Ferrin are working to get involved in our member's missionary work. It's their work! We're just here to help! We are setting dates with them to have them give us a referral. Also we are going to get them involved online. So, here is the challenge - Create a Mormon.org profile. You can share it with your nonmember friends and I can share the link and it's great! So for Family Home Evening, you can all create one and share a spiritual thought on your wall once a week. Challenge accepted?

I had quite the revelation last night while dozing off in bed.. Best place to receive revelation. I really struggled with my fast yesterday. I was starving! But I did it... I made it. And now I'm stronger. But the realization I had in bed is cool.. My mission is one big fast... It will be about 10% of my life lived so far. I'm sacrificing not food, but time, friends, family, education, etc. My mission is one big fast!!! It may take my whole mission to really gain a strong testimony of fasting.

Well... that's about it.. It was a long week.. Not much progress.. But lots of work with moving. Never ever move a missionary. They have so much random stuff that gets collected by missionaries through the years. They all say "oh someone else might use this". Not! Haha Anyways.. It's been good. I thought the other day that I truly love this ward! I don't want to leave! I thought when I left Nashville that it was the best and that Illinois would be a good experience but not the best. Well.. I love this ward just as much as the YSA. I love my mission! Thanks for continuing to encourage me to go. You've helped change my life. I love you so much! Have a great day!!!

~Sister Rokovitz~

Larry Got Baptized

I feel like I have so much to tell you. First of all.. I miss you. I just kind of miss my family this week. Our Bishop’s daughter came home from her mission last week and she gave her homecoming talk in church yesterday. To see her home and adjusting and talking about things makes me think about a lot. I miss you so much because she talks about getting to spend time with her Mom and shop and just talk and be with her Dad. I miss you! Yet... I just can't let this time go by.

Larry got baptized and that's all I can think about. He came to church in a brand new SUIT! And he was smiling and said he could hardly sleep the night before, he was so excited! You could tell there was a change. The one where he's dressed in white is before his baptism and when he's in a suit is after. He is amazing! He couldn't stop smiling. His baptism was right after church and he changed and just looked great. His cousin,
Brother Fulgham and best friend for life got to baptize him. Brother Fulgham cried when he started saying the words. It was so sweet! Larry said he told Brother Fulgham his back was hurting before the baptism and he was worried... But when he came up out of the water he felt fine! I got the opportunity to speak about the Holy Ghost. It was special! We had everyone there write him a letter while he changed and then we put them in a folder for him and gave it to him at the end.  He was the easiest person to teach.

                                                                                                                                                               

Larry with his cousin and best friend, Brother Fulgham.

Sister Ferrin, Larry and Sister Rokovitz

Sister Ferrin, Larry - after his baptism, and Sister Rokovitz

We also had a miracle at the baptism and church. We have an investigator named Donnie. He is very smart and is searching very diligently for answers. The sad thing is his living situation. He has a rough life. He is 16 and he smokes and drinks alcohol. It's normal for him. It broke my heart to see him smoke 2 weeks ago when we visited him. His mom was yelling while we prayed saying that we were bringing devils into the home. His sister also listened in on the lesson. He and his sister both came to church last Sunday and to Mutual on Wednesday. Donnie came to church this Sunday and it was Jessica's (The Bishop’s returned missionary daughter) homecoming talk. It was powerful. I could see a change in Donnie's face. Something clicked for him. It was incredible. He goes to Sunday School and Priesthood on his own and participates and comments and then he came to Larry's baptism. It was such a special experience. He leaned over to Brother Harrelson at the end of the baptism and asked what he had to do to get baptized. Donnie has had a lot of questions and concerns and has been taught a lot! This is huge!! They went and talked for a bit about the Priesthood and baptism and then he came to us and we set a date for April 6th and set up 6 times to meet with him. It's such a miracle! It's unbelievable because he lives in the middle of no-where and members still pick him up, he has experienced the Holy Ghost , and now he's going to get baptized! Words cannot describe this. It's what every missionary prays for! Please include Donnie in your prayers so that he can stay on track to get baptized.

We didn't see Zach this week... He bailed on our appointment and won't email us back. Oh.. and Cathy finally contacted us back. She sent a text yesterday saying: "my daughter is dead!" We tried to meet up with her but it didn't work out. We have no clue what to do. It's a shock to us.

Noel and Nanette are still doing good. They asked about General Conference coming up so hopefully they will watch it. We were only able to visit them last night and we just had a friendly chat. This week we are going to get them to set a date to get married! We want them back in church!!!

Guess what?? WE'RE MOVING! I have still been getting bit by bed bugs and so Sister Johnson in the office told us to look for a new place. We searched and searched and couldn't find anything. We enlisted the help of a few members and one of them called us and said she found a place. It's basically like the one we're in now but better and bug free. It has nicer paint and baseboards, a deck, a huge kitchen and laundry closet, 2 rooms.. Yeah, it's perfect! And the guy who owns it loves missionaries! He's neighbors with our members and he invited us over for dinner sometime! President approved it for us to move in today and so we have to have our Bishop’s wife inspect it and then we can move in. Sad thing is, we have to deep clean everything and trash our beds, couch, recliners, possibly desks, cork boards, a lot of stuff . Anywhere a bed bug could hide. And they can hide anywhere. Nasty. So wish us luck and no stress as we move and also that we'll still be able to work hard.

I love you so much. Like.... A lot! I hope you know that. Have a great week.

~Sister Rokovitz~

I Feel Truly Amazing!

I have just been so excited to tell you about this week! It was week 1 of the new transfer and we were pumped. So Tuesday was filled with miracles and they all happened because our schedule got messed up.

We left the house to go sync our iPads and we passed 4 guys walking. They waved to us and then Sister Ferrin saw them wave us down in the rear view mirror. We decided to go around the block and pull over by them. We hopped out and said "hey we have something for you!" They were super friendly and really curious about what we had. We gave them each a pamphlet and a Book of Mormon and talked to them a little bit about it. Two of them were really receptive, one was semi receptive and the last one wasn't really interested. Well we gave them our number and invited them to church and then went merrily on our way. We wouldn't have seen them if our morning schedule didn't get messed up. Later we went throughout the day and we got back late from an exchange and dinner was pushed back so we ran to the library super fast to use their computers. We heard behind us "I didn't think I'd see you here!" The semi receptive guy was there and he was all dressed up so we had no clue who he was! Soon we realized and he sat down and we talked. His name is Zach and he is in a halfway house right now. We were able to teach him the whole restoration! All because our schedule got messed up again! We taught him again on Wednesday and will teach him tonight. He has a baptism date for April 27th. It was such a huge miracle!

Wednesday we had zone meeting. We learned all about Less-active work. Our zone leaders gave us a challenge to go outside, knock on a door, say "Hi does a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints live here?" And then see what happens. So we all jumped up and ran outside and knocked on random doors! We found a man who was Baptist who had read the Book of Mormon and believed a lot of it was true. He was really sweet and accepted a new Book of Mormon and the invitation to read it. His name was Bobby. He accepted a return appointment and so that turned out to be a potential investigator for the Zone leaders.

Larry is getting baptized this next Sunday the 23rd! HE is so ready! And his cousin/best friend, Brother Fulgham, gets to baptize him!

Ok now.. Skip to Sunday - we went to our meeting with the Bishop and... We got railed on. The Bishop asked for our update and we only had two people to update. He asked what our plan was for the area and we told him how we divided it up into areas and assigned days to the areas. He got after us for spending time in areas with no active members. He said it was a waste of time and that we weren't doing our job by not working in the areas with active members. We were floored. We tried so hard to be happy but it wasn't working. We both had to step out of Sacrament meeting for a period of time to let a few tears drip. Members could tell we were struggling. They would say "Don't get discouraged! We love you and the work you're doing!" It was still so hard. We went home for lunch and just.. Let it out. We cried and ate and wrote in our journals. We decided to call the Sister Training Leaders and ask for their help. Sister Ferrin was talking to them and I just listened and cried. Sister Tenny talked about a talk an apostle gave and said "I know this doesn't apply to your situation but, repent!" I immediately got up and went to the bedroom. I knelt by the side of my bed. I felt hopeless, meaningless, lost and forgotten. Trodden down. I started what felt like my most sincere prayer. I confided in my Heavenly Father. I told Him exactly how I felt. I cried unto Him. I envisioned in my mind, me, standing in front of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I held each of my burdens. I took the first one, looked at it, and it said "disobedience." I held it in my hands, disappointed that I carried such a thing. I told the Lord about it. All about how it made me feel. I then handed it over to Christ. He was ready to accept my burdens. I took the next burden, looked at it and repeated the process. I saw “lack of motivation”, “seemingly inability to think about the work 100% of the time”, “lack of action to pray”, “my old human self....” When I got to my 6th and 7th burden, the thought that I can't become better than I am and learn more than I have, and allowing myself to listen to Satan, I wept. No .. I sobbed. I cried so hard!!! Everything was soaked in tears. I felt heavy. So heavy. Pressed down. I was so humbled though. I felt real Godly sorrow. I just cried and cried as I handed my burdens to Christ. I saw that they were getting heavy for Him. Heavenly Father watched and looked sad yet He also looked so glad that I was being relieved. Christ continued to silently insist that I hand my burdens over to Him. At burden 8 and 9 - looking down on myself, not obeying the word of wisdom through overeating and not eating healthy, I felt relieved. Calm. I could breath. Finally, I handed over my last burden. It weighed an incredible amount. It read "my will". I repented for allowing my will to drag me down. To slow my steps. For being so blind and selfish as to carry that. As I tried to lay it upon Christ's shoulders.... It was too heavy. Heavenly Father reached out his hand and helped me place it upon Him. Christ turned to face me. He stood up tall and smiled. I felt literal physical and spiritual relief. I felt new. I felt I had a purpose. I am a missionary and I serve the Lord. I serve Him. I envisioned me and my companion walking hand in hand with Christ and Heavenly Father and the spirit dwelt in all of us. It was glorious. I will work. I'm so grateful for the Atonement that allowed me to get on my knees, talk to my Father in Heaven and lay my burdens on His shoulders. I wrote the experience down and then I prayed again. I repented for EVERYTHING!!! Act upon act upon act flooded my mind and I repented for it all. I asked for forgiveness for every sin I've committed my entire life! I spilled it all out. I know I am forgiven. Heavenly Father is so merciful! And He was merciful to me. When I finished, I was just exhausted but so happy and relieved. It was the most incredible experience I have EVER had with prayer! I know what repentance means now!

Then, we went and taught Noel and Nanette about repentance. Nanette was smiling the whole time and looked like she had tears in her eyes. Noel was asking questions because he couldn't believe that we had to repent. He wanted to repent and change so much!! We showed them the Mormon message called "The Will of God" and then committed them to take time to repent! They both sincerely agreed! Sister Ferrin said she had never ever ever seen them like that. It was truly amazing!!! Repentance works!!! IT WORKS! I know what it means to TRULY repent and I studied about it more this morning and I'm so overwhelmed with JOY! This is the best experience I have had so far. It is definitely number one!

All I can really say is how amazing I feel. I feel like I have been elevated to a new level! I am allowing myself to become sanctified and to become exactly who Heavenly Father wants me to be. I love being here and I love working. It's super hard.. but I'm learning to control my body. My spirit is becoming more powerful than my mind. I have been able to turn my attitude around so quickly if I ever get offended or mad. OH MAN! HEAVENLY FATHER IS AMAZING!!! I don't know how to describe this!! I wish you could see me now. You probably wouldn't recognize me. I love who I am and who I am becoming. I cannot wait to apply the principles I am learning out here to normal life. I have learned what it truly means to live a principle as a missionary and then be able to teach about it. I never knew what real repentance was or what it meant. Now I can teach it. I KNOW what it is and what it means. I have lived it and experienced it for myself. As I continue to learn about faith and other principles, I will live them so that I can truly testify of them. I have also found myself to just enjoy where I'm at. We had a lot of driving to do Saturday and it was just beautiful!! We sang and had the windows down and laughed and it just felt great to enjoy everything.

I love you more than words can express. That's a fact. I hope you have a great week.

~Sister Rokovitz~


                                                                         

I've hit my 6 month mark.

We made treat bags with cards about Christ in them and handed them out to unsuspecting people all day. It was fun to see their reactions.

Town Square of Benton. There are little shops like this all over our area.

Noose stand. The last hanging in the US was done here.

Another gorgeous sunset in Illinois

Sister Ferrin with a puppy dog that kept trying to get in our car.

Nasty Bed Bugs - A Lasting Mission Memory

Oh it was a rough week. Really rough. Not a lot of missionary opportunities. Friday and Saturday we were able to do a lot of missionary work though. We had to heat dry every clothing article we owned this week to kill the bed bugs and then put all of our things in plastic bins. That task actually took all week. We just finished a couple hours ago. We had to clear out our room and vacuum everything and clean out the exercise room and a lot of stuff was in the kitchen and our beds were in the family room... it was chaos!!! But it is going to be a lasting mission memory. That's actually the first thing I thought of when I discovered we had bed bugs. "This is going to be a great memory!" Our exterminator came today and so we should be good to go after that. After 2 weeks we finally get to sleep back in our room again! It seems like no one really knows anything about bed bugs out here. We've heard so many different things!!

Holly... She texted us saying she got a second job and was really sorry but she couldn't meet with us anymore. She said she would be working all the time. We stopped what we were doing, got in the car, and drove all the way out to her house. She was just pulling out to go to work. We jumped out and told her we would meet during her breaks or any little time she had and gave her a scripture to read. If we hadn't listened to the spirit right then, she would have left for work. We felt pretty good after. We're not giving up on her. We've talked to her and there still isn't time for her to meet but we will figure it out. Even if we just drop by for 5 minutes every now and then.

Brian. We were going to meet with a potential investigator and commit him to baptism... but we couldn't find his house. So at 8:30 we called Brian. He was at work but had a second to talk. We shared our testimonies with him and asked if he would prepare to be baptized on April 6th, .... he said he would think about it. We got a half commitment - haha.

Matt. We met him at Arby's. Good ol Arby's. We were eating dinner there because we were working in the farthest north part of our area. Sister Ferrin said he kept looking over at her and she just wanted to say something to him. Sister Ferrin asked if we could sit by him and he said yes. We got to know him a bit. He is a farmer and very religious. We shared the Book of Mormon with him and showed him a video of the prophet and apostles testifying of it. The spirit was so strong!! He was totally fixed on the video! He accepted the Book of Mormon and said he would come to church!! (which he didn't) We plan to meet with him again this Thursday.

We had an amazing experience last night! We visited two less-actives and had powerful lessons. The first was Kelli. She is almost 30 and single and just hasn't been to church in a long time. She tries to laugh it off a lot and say "I know I need to come back". Well.. her non-member boyfriend was down for the weekend and we all got to tell him about the church. She was explaining a lot to him and he was very interested. We talked about prophets and the God-head and the Book of Mormon and church, etc. Then... Sister Ferrin pulled up a scripture that was about comfort. I immediately thought "what scriptures bring me comfort?" D&C6!! verse 20 about Heavenly Fathers arms encircling us. I read it. It says: "Be faithful and diligent in keeping the commandments of God, and I will encircle thee in the arms of my love." I looked at Kelli and said "Kelli, I have felt this. I have literally felt His arms around me before. Heavenly Father wants you back at church. He is just waiting to bless you even more than He already has! Will you keep the commandments and come back to church?" She wasn't laughing... she was crying. She said yes. Her boyfriend was fixed on her! My heart was pounding!! It was incredible! She committed to taking the lessons and having us over once a week to discuss them. She even invited her boyfriend to attend them! He lives far away though.

Well after that amazing lesson... We went into another amazing lesson with Noel and Nannette. They are an older couple, both members, not married who have been living together for 13 or 14 years. We started off a normal conversation and talked about Alma 7, the chapter they had read after we left last time. Then Noel randomly started talking about how he and Nannette want to get married and once they do they were positive they would come back to church... they just didn't know why they hadn't been married yet. Immediately I knew what I had to do. I pulled up a Mormon message entitled "Choose this day" and showed it to them. The spirit was strong. My heart pounded again. When the movie finished, I read the scripture from D&C 6 to them and said "Heavenly Father is waiting to bless you. Please Please Please do not put off getting married and coming back to church. Now is the time. Keep the commandments so He can bless you." They were silent. Sister Ferrin testified and we left with a prayer. Sister Ferrin said "I'm so glad you pulled up that video. I knew we needed to show them that and I was just about to turn to you and ask if you had it." I then told her how amazing it was to speak to them. The words did not come from me. They came directly from the spirit. I had no thought beforehand what I would express to them, but the words flowed right out of my mouth. I experienced fully for the first time what it feels like to have the spirit fill your mouth. It was incredible. With my renewed determination I feel like Heavenly Father blessed me with that experience to tell me that this transfer will be amazing. It will be phenomenal! I told Sister Ferrin that it was going to be a miracle filled transfer and one of the best we will have on our mission and she just cried and agreed. The gospel is true. I know that. I know that with all my heart! And I want to shout it from a mountain!!! Can you send me a mountain? I don't have any out here. It's all true!!! Man, I feel good right now!

After church on Sunday we asked Brother Samples in our ward to give us each a blessing of comfort and strength for the new transfer. We have made enormous goals this transfer and we are going to need extra help from the Lord to accomplish them. So anyways.. Sister Ferrin gets an awesome blessing where Brother Samples told her it has to be NOW to work! Then it was my turn. Brother Samples went on to bless me with strength. He told me that Heavenly Father knows my desires and that I need to not doddle the days away. He also told me to use discernment in the work to discern the scriptures and the souls of those we teach. Cool right? He told me to be busy and engaged. He promised me that generations will call me blessed because of the work I do. He blessed me to serve my mission so I can return home with no regrets. We rode home in silence soaking in everything he had said. I had a new motivation. A renewed determination to serve the Lord. Sister Ferrin and I can't help but just KNOW that this transfer is going to be one of the best of our entire missions.


Well that was basically the week. The next transfer starts tomorrow. It was the first transfer call I wasn't nervous for. I didn't think about transfers at all. We knew we were staying and we are. It's a good thing too because we have made MASSIVE plans for the transfer and we plan to accomplish every single one of them! Wish us so much luck!!


~Sister Rokovitz~

 

Stuck Inside

Finally I get to email you! Man the past 2 days were so long being stuck inside!! I can't stand it! But we have REAL snow here! Not ice... SNOW! Well there's an inch of ice under all the snow.. but still.. SNOW!!!!! We were getting up to 70 degrees and then BAM ... SNOW! Hahaha ok ok I'm done with the whole snow thing.

On FB.. I have some sad news. President suggested we don't be friends with people from home because it's distracting. So I'm opening up my account for people to follow me. They can still see everything I post and I'll make it so that they can make comments too. They just won’t be friends with me and won’t appear in the chat box, etc. So could you make a post on my FB and tell people to follow me? Ward members, everyone. Their opinions do matter and I want their participation. I decided to follow presidents counsel and delete all friends from home. It was hard!

Guess what. The most depressing thing ever happened. We had 9 investigators ready to come to church and then it got cancelled! Everyone had a ride ready to go and everything!!! We were so mad! Now we have to push the ones with baptism dates back a week because they need to come to church 3 times before baptism. I was so excited and we fasted for it and then... nothing. They will all come next week though!!

So Holly is doing great this week! She said the prayer at the end of our lesson and it was the sweetest prayer I've ever heard! She is so ready and searching for truth. She was going to come to church.. but couldn't because of the snow. We were also going to have a dinner and lesson with her at a members home tonight and that fell through. And she can't meet with us today. She's still doing great but the meetings are just caving in all over the place!

We haven't really met with any one else. This week we did a lot of Less Active work. But this next week we will be doing a ton with our investigators! Cathy was able to meet a member of ours and they became friends. Yay for fellowship!!

Oh! We got a new investigator too! BRIAN! He works at Walmart in the produce section. We've seen him every week and both thought we should talk to him. Well last Monday he approached Sister Ferrin and started talking. We told him about the Book of Mormon and he was so excited!!! He said "Something told me to come talk to you." We explained that it was the Holy Ghost! He is amazing! He was also going to come to church. He just couldn't stop smiling. Oh my goodness, he is the sweetest man ever! I can't wait to teach him more and help him come closer to Christ. The spirit was so strong as we taught him in Walmart. Who knew... the spirit, in Walmart, right in the produce section. Haha We saw him again in Walmart on Saturday and he's excited to read the Book of Mormon.  Oh he's just so prepared!!!

I realized on Sunday that I am really loving my mission during this transfer. I've had a bigger desire to work and serve. I've gotten over trials quicker and come closer to the Savior. And as a result, the transfer has gone faster than I can even comprehend. It's like I was placed in a sling shot, and then pulled back........ and then shot off at a million miles an hour! Transfer calls are this Saturday! NO! Well.. They don't mean anything because we're both staying... (knock on wood) but still.. another transfer. Gone. I hit 6 months next Tuesday and then the week after that I will have exactly one year left. And honestly, it makes me sad. We stayed at the bishop’s last night for their daughter’s open house of her homecoming. She came home on Saturday. I got sad. I know it will be exciting to see family and friends again, but I don't want to go back to real life, I don't want to wear jeans, and not have ALL day to work and serve and study. This time really is precious. I can't get enough of it. PRAY FOR ME THAT IT SLOWS DOWN! I love this time. I love it so much! It's helped me just focus on loving it more rather that thinking about the hard times and stuff. Man. Life's unfair. Even on a mission.

I opened up the February ensign today that Mom had sent me and I read the first article by President Monson titled "Serve the Lord with Love" it was like a smack in the face. I learned that I need to do ALL I can do right now. Then it said this "If you have Christlike love, you will be better prepared to teach the gospel. You will be inspired to help others know the savior and follow Him. Consider praying for charity for those you teach. As you develop Christlike love for them, you will be better able to serve in meaningful ways both the Lord and those you teach." That's it! I knew that charity was an answer for how to desire to serve the people, but it's also how I can serve the Lord! Charity is the answer for everything! So... I prayed for Charity and I'm working on developing that. Within the 6 hours that I've been studying/planning/working today, I have been so happy and alive! So awake and ready to go! I have a massive migraine from who knows what, but I'm still happy and ready for the day!

I love using the iPads for studying certain topics! I find so much that I end up book marking it to read later because I don't have time. Send me good ideas of study topics. I'll do one a week or longer depending on the subject. It's going to be awesome. Next week or this week I might study the Holy Spirit of Promise like you suggested. Also with the iPads I've made a "study journal" where I can put scriptures that relate to the lessons and pull them up quick during the lesson. We can also make slide shows with pictures for each lesson to use.

I miss you like crazy. I really do. But I'll see you soon enough. I love you!

~Sister Rokovitz~


                                                                           

My "weather girl" outfit. I went out in the snow every hour for 2 days to check the weather.

Using a debit card to get into our apartment. Sister Ferrin locked our keys inside.

Sister Ferrin dancing with Abigail, our Bishop's youngest daughter.

We had bed bugs and had to stay up very late washing all of our sheets and bedding....Sister Ferrin was SO tired the next day.

Choices, choices....which egg to eat?