Love Y'all

I have just been so excited to talk to you today! And I'm even more excited to skype you next Sunday!!!!

We met for Ward council this week. It made me realize too, how much responsibility leaders have. I honestly didn't know ward councils happened until my mission.. and then I thought they only happened outside of Utah. We have a member named Sister N. She is the best! She is so sweet and funny. She is divorced and all her kids are less active. She just recently reached a less active status. She slowly stopped coming to church. She was called as a ward missionary but she hasn't done anything. She is slipping away FAST. The ward was discussing her in ward council and her temporal needs. They have tried helping her find another job. I said "We visited her this week and she just needs a lot of support..." I got cut off and was told, "we have supported her for years!" I bit my tongue.. and said no more. As I thought on that during the week, and as we visited her this week, I noticed she needs a lot of spiritual support. She said her testimony wasn't the problem, but her kids were there so she didn't say what the true problem is. She's mentioned before having no friends and feeling lost there. She needs spiritual support. The members can give someone temporal support for ever! But that will do nothing. It doesn't strengthen their testimony. It doesn't increase their desire to fulfill their calling. It doesn't do much. They may come to church for financial help at first, but our job is to keep them there because they understand the importance of church and have a strong testimony. One visit to a person who is struggling doesn't cut it. Brother Hirschi here home taught a less active member for 20 years faithfully... She just recently started coming back to church. Twenty years is what it took and it's still not done!! I have to do all I can to spiritually strengthen others.

President Andersen sent me this amazing letter about being called as a trainer. I got it and it just made my day. I'm trying so hard to be obedient. Sister Schenk and I just started the 40 day fast together today and it is going to be great! I have a lot to work on, but it's amazing what strengths Sister Schenk points out when we do companion inventory. She said I'm not afraid to talk to anyone and I was like "What?!" I guess I'm not. Sometimes I still am but not compared to at the beginning of my mission. It's awesome!!!

President Andersen gave us a challenge as a mission to read the Book of Mormon in the next 2 transfers. Thirty minutes a day and he said we will see a great increase in baptisms! I'm so excited. I'm just going to read a plain unmarked copy and I'm just going to read read read! I can't wait!

At the beginning of this week we rode bikes for 3 more days... every time we got back on them we just kept saying "ow. ow. ow. ow" haha my butt = mega sore!! We biked over 10 miles on Tuesday. Towards day 4 of bikes, we were riding pretty slow everywhere. But yesterday our plans were all close by and it was a beautiful day! So we biked all over. It was hot though. We were so sweaty and our hair was matted down by our sweat and helmets. Summer is going to be ... a blast.. I do love biking though. Yesterday I had on a skirt that was not bike compatible. Sister Schenk had heard of a trick where you take a clothes pin and pin your skirt between your legs. It didn't work. So then I got smart. I put the pin on the break cord that runs to the back tire and pinned the front of my skirt there. I looked like a total idiot but hey, my skirt didn't ride up.

So things with Terry went a little weird. We taught him lesson 1 on Monday and it went great! Then we couldn't get him to respond to texts. Finally Saturday he said he was at the hospital with family and that he wasn't sure if he could make it to church... and he felt lost and falling apart. We were worried!!! Well we finally got to talk to him on the phone last night. He's ok and we are meeting with him tonight and committing him to baptism!!!

This week we were out tracting and we came to a house. An older man answered and we proceeded with our little speech. He let us know he went to another church already and that he had a good faith in Christ. I started to ask "That's great! How did you gain your faith in Christ?" He was slowly closing the door the whole time I was asking him. He just looked at us and closed the door! Haha I tried so hard not to laugh walking away! Hey at least he was nice and didn't slam the door. He was very gentle with that door closing.

We got in contact with a lot of referrals this week too! Yesterday we had 2 referrals. The first was a referral from a member who met a lady in the park and shared the gospel with her. We tried 4 times to contact her with no luck. We went one more time yesterday after church with the member. Then I was bound to give up. As we were waiting for our member after church, we were hot, hungry and anxious to get home. I kept remembering times in the past where I've sacrificed something I wanted for the work. Our member came out and he followed us to her place. After 3 LOUD knocks, she answered! We went in, talked about the Book of Mormon, gave her one and set up an appointment! It was worth the extra hour of hunger sacrifice. And I wasn't even hungry while we were there!

The second was a headquarters referral. Brittney had referred herself on Mormon.org but she said she had just filled out a bunch of stuff online for help in the area. I was thinking "Dang it! A dead end." Well, I kind of nudged Sister Schenk to start teaching the restoration. Her son was outside playing with blocks and riding his trike but she was focused. She listened and asked questions. She is going to read the Book of Mormon and at the end, she said a prayer to ask if what we had taught was true! It was a picture perfect lesson! We have another appointment with her on Saturday.

Oh and also yesterday as we were strolling into the neighborhood for dinner, noticed our neighbors outside that we've met. They said "Hey girls!" We stopped and talked. Four houses of neighbors were all over at Shawn’s house. Shawn is single and has a really well trained dog named Rugar. Gail has grandkids that stay over on the weekends, Karen has a REALLY FLUFFY lassie dog named Bo, and Janet loves riding motor cycles. We were playing with the leaf seeds that had fallen to the ground. You can stick them to your nose if you do it a certain way. That moment was picture perfect too... the whole neighborhood knows each other and loves each other. Classic southern neighborhood. Oh... and I say y'all now. A lot. Oops.

                                                                           

Leaf seeds that stick to your face.

We taught Noel and Nanette, and once again we were bold. We showed them a video that talks about not procrastinating. I said "We need you now. We can't wait. We need your talents, your testimony, etc. Now." They are getting so close to getting married and coming back to church!!!

Friday we saw the Hamiltons again. I think I've told you about them. They are the best!!! Brother Hamilton asked for the missionary pamphlets so he can learn how to teach individuals simply. He went to the hospital and now has to have therapy at the nursing home, but his therapist almost was baptized years ago! He's so excited to work with her and hopefully have us teach her! His face was like a little kid’s who just discovered the Easter basket when he told us about this opportunity!

We also taught Peggy. Missionaries were teaching her a long time ago, before I got here, and then she dropped them. I met her just before Sister Ferrin left. Now we are teaching her again. We taught lesson 1 and then did a scripture study. That's how she wants to do it. A lesson, and then read with her in the Book of Mormon. She hasn't come to church yet because she gets harsh pain in her face and a few days before a storm comes in is when it's the worst. And we've had storms on Mondays and Tuesdays which means Saturdays and Sundays she's knocked out in pain. But she will get there one day!

Lastly, we had Stake Conference this weekend. All the missionaries were told to attend the Priesthood Leadership meeting on Saturday afternoon. We could not find a ride. Friday night, we were desperate. We texted our District Leader and asked what we do if we couldn't find a ride. They were going to drive themselves because no one in their Branch could take them. They got permission for us to ride with them, but later called us back and said their Ward Mission Leader and his wife would take us and they would go with their Branch President. We drove to their area and they took us to Paducah. The Saturday afternoon session was so good! I was taking good notes. It was all on missionary work. Then they fed us dinner. They fed only the missionaries, haha and it was good!!! The evening session was even better, but it broke my heart at how few people attended. In the evening session they talked about numbers... why are we decreasing? Over the last few years our numbers of baptisms have gone way down. This year it’s predicted we will baptize only 20 as a stake. The number is linked to how many lessons are taught with a member there. When the members were more present, the baptisms were higher. When less members helped, the numbers dropped. I wish they had shown the graph Sunday so everyone could have seen it. It hit me. Members ARE the KEY!!! We CANNOT do the work without them. It's impossible. The prophet COMMANDED members to work with missionaries. Are you keeping that commandment? People don't understand that missionary work is incorporated in every calling. You don't have to completely shift gears to be a missionary. There was a story told about someone who saw a big problem and said "Lord why don't you do something about this?" The Lord replied "I already did. I created you" Powerful right?! We have had 0 exchanges with members for the last month. Our weekly goal to have members present has decreased from an average of 11 to 3. And we can't even get 3 in a week. So... CHALLENGE TIME! At least once a month, go out with the missionaries, if you can. I know the missionaries there are swamped, but fight your way to help them. They need it. I loved stake conference. All I hear coming from church leaders now is missionary work. The Lord is coming. SOON! He is coming and we need to do EVERYTHING we can to prepare. Dan Clark said we need to wear ourselves out doing missionary work. If I arrive in front of the Lord on my hands and knees, dragging myself because I've worked so hard that I can no longer stand, then I will be happy. I couldn't help but smile during every activity yesterday! I looked like the biggest idiot biking yesterday in a helmet, with my skirt pinned to my bike and smiling from ear to ear. But I felt great and I was happy because I was doing everything I could to share the gospel and do the Lord's work. It was truly amazing. I want to do all I can because I love the Lord. What about you?

Lastly in this novel, I wanted to share a special miracle. Sunday, Stake Conference consisted of testimonies and stories from returned missionaries all across the stake. Mostly people who had been home for a LONG time. I was kind of bummed because the members didn't get to see the graph or be taught about needing more member missionary work, but for me, it was still special. They had a couple people bear their testimony in their mission language. There was Chinese, Italian, Korean, Sign Language, and English. Each time, the spirit flooded me. I had no clue what they were saying, but they said it by the power of the spirit which bore witness to me that it was true. It was so powerful and cool because I have never experienced that before. The gospel is true. No matter where you are or what language you speak. It's true.

I love you and I can't wait to talk to you. My mind is blown that I'm almost half way finished with the best year and a half of my life. I can't believe it's week three of the transfer! Time is going faster than before! But I'm excited to keep working hard. I love you! Or should I say.... Love y'all!!!

~Sister Rokovitz~

                                                                           

The bishop's youngest daughter, my little buddy, got baptized this week.

It's getting SO green here.

All the pollen on our car.

Jeff and Abbey caught 4 of these baby turtles at the lake. 

Sister Schenk with the larger turtle that was trying to get in the church last week. 

Training Highlights

So where do I begin?? Well.. I think I have to begin with the sad news. We were having very stormy and windy weather last night and we noticed that Mama Robin's nest was tilting a little... We were both prompted to push it back up with gloves on or something but we didn't do it... This morning her nest had blown off and all the eggs were destroyed. I felt like crying!! Mama was sitting in the middle of the road not moving... She looked like she was trying to commit suicide. We're going to try to carefully put the nest back. Maybe she'll lay more eggs or another bird will use it.. It's devastating though.
                                                                         

The nest on the ground with tiny broken blue egg shells - so sad.

So I was thrilled when I was called as a trainer! I knew I had finally worked hard enough to show Heavenly Father He could trust me with that responsibility. I knew I could do it. When I got to the meeting for the trainers, I saw that there were only 7 of us that would be training. Only 7 missionaries came in and only 2 sisters. The Lord chose me. From over 150 sisters, He chose me. I was floored. I kind of sat in awe thinking how special that was. How trainers are chosen is the Assistants and other leaders suggest trainers. President prays over that list and chooses from it. I was recommended and chosen! Others in this mission and Heavenly Father all see my potential. It made my day!!!

Ok here's the scoop:
My companion's name is Sister Schenk (Shank). She is from Twin Falls Idaho. I love her! She has a twin sister that looks nothing like her, who is serving in Frankfort Germany. She is 21 and she went to BYU for 3 years. She wants to be a biologist. She plays the viola and piano. I will write about transfer day later in the email. We worked so hard every day that we literally dropped into bed. I fell asleep at 10:00 p.m. last night and the other night we felt like zombies. It's so awesome!! No wonder trainees are worn out... trainers go crazy and do all sorts of hard stuff! Now I get it!
                                                                         

Sister Rokovitz and her new companion, straight from the MTC, Sister Schenk.

Brother Fulgham and his wife gave us a ride to transfers. We called him at 8:45 p.m. and had to leave at 5:00 a.m. My first week has gone pretty good! I still need to be way more obedient and set a better example for her but it has been fantastic. We have worked our butts off! We are practically out of miles and so we went tracting a lot and also, we rode bikes!!! First mission biking experience. Sister Schenk got a bike from a sister who went home and I borrowed a members. We loved it. It's so fun to just ride around and stop and talk to people. I'll tell you about who we met later in the email.

So, transfer meeting changed my life. Well, I feel like in the moment it did. I'm still trying to apply what I learned so it can change my life even greater. Dan Clark was our guest speaker. He was hilarious, bold, and amazing! He talked about missionary work. How it's about us!! He said someone received his patriarchal blessing after he was baptized at the age of 70. He got up at some meeting, pulled it out and started reading. It said "you would have joined the church many years ago but the missionary who was supposed to teach you decided not to go on a mission." Um... Whoa. What the heck am I doing when I take 5 extra minutes to get out the door?! What am I thinking when I focus only on grocery shopping on Monday instead of the people around me?! There are people here that HAVE to hear the gospel from me. He talked about making a covenant with the Lord to do something during your mission that no other missionary in the Tennessee Nashville Mission has done!!! I am determined to do that. I haven't done it yet. But I will. He pounded us with the spirit. Several times I was zoned into just him. I was fixed. Sometimes I would glance around and see the Assistants on the stand, with jaws dropped and wide eyes. I want to do everything I can to make my mission a success!! He said if we are not absolutely bawling our eyes out on the last day of our mission then we have failed. Dan Clark changed my whole perspective.
                                                                           

President and Sister Andersen with Dan Clark

I gave a training the next day in district meeting on becoming a successful missionary and how it's measured by your commitment! I want to be a successful missionary. No regrets. It's hard though. Especially at 6:29 a.m. when the bed is just so perfect and the floor is the easiest spot to exercise. Man.. I just have to master my body.

Anyways, so about that person we met. Terry. We were riding our bikes to the square, about a mile or two from home, just for fun. We get close and these really cool cars start coming out from the square. There was a car show!!! I wanted to go for 2 reasons: 1. I love cool cars and 2. People!!! The car show had ended and people were lingering. We started around the square and I saw a group of people on the opposite side. I wanted to go by them. We started over there and right before we crossed, a guy on the corner asked if we were just out for a ride. He was probably wondering why we looked so stupid! I mean really... skirts, bikes, helmets... Yeah. Dork status = 100%. Anyways, turns out he heard the engines from his house and came to see what was going on. We started talking and ended up talking for over an hour! He used to go to church but now he doesn't. He's trying to find what's right and figure out his life. He's 35 and single and just working. He has a lot of faith. We taught the Plan of Salvation and the Gospel of Jesus Christ and baptism and Holy Ghost and so much more!!! He has such good questions. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he would start that night. Well the next day he texted us before our meeting and said he wanted to come to church but didn't have a ride. So we frantically texted everyone in Marion. Finally a member responded. He picked Terry up and he came to church!!! Terry's first experience consisted of a testimony meeting, learning about the priesthood, priesthood meeting, a baptism, and a lunch afterwards. Haha full experience right? Five whole hours of it. He said "I have never been to such a long church service before!" Haha he's amazing! And we're meeting with him tonight at 6:00 p.m.! Baptism date set tonight?! I think so!!! The Lord totally gave him to us. Now I want to show the Lord that we'll take care of him.
                                                                             

Sisters in helmets!

Oh and guess who we had trying to come into church yesterday... A turtle!!! He was right at the door just waiting for someone to open it so he could go inside! He had a yellow face and when we picked him up he folded all up. His shell folds! It's like a door for his face. Coolest thing ever!!!!
                                                                             

Mr. Turtle in his shell, wanting to come to church.

Donnie came back from his vacation and was so sad that he missed the temple trip. We're planning one for him though. We want him to go! And he has names he wants to do but he has to get permission. But he is
working on getting the priesthood and Larry will get the priesthood on Mother's Day!!!

We had thunder all night long last night. Sister Schenk was feeling sick and she got up about 3 times. I woke up countless times.. I would wake up, shift and then wait for the thunder. Without fail, each time I woke up, it happened. And every time it shook the entire house. I thought man.. it must be getting close to 6:30 a.m., it's been a long night!! Nope... 1:30 a.m. It was a rough night. And we're suppose to have severe storms tonight and tomorrow. I love it.

Less than 2 weeks till Skype!!! Have a great week!

~Sister Rokovitz~

I'm Going To Be A Trainer

Guess. What. I'M GOING TO BE A TRAINER!  Yeah!!! I'm going to train a newbie. We could kinda feel that it was going to happen but I didn't want to get my hopes up because I've been wanting to train every transfer and now I finally get to do it! This is my chance to prove I can be exactly obedient and show Heavenly Father He can really trust me! Ah!!! So this means we have to get up at 4:00 a.m. tomorrow so I can be at the trainer meeting at 9:00. Oh, and guess what? Sister Ferrin gets to go be companions with Sister Giles!!!!! I was so excited I accidentally pushed her. Right now I'm super stressed about it, but eventually I will over ride all that stress with excitement. I kinda knew it was coming. It was weird. I feel like... Heavenly Father has just said "you're ready and I know you can do this". I feel extremely blessed and honored to be trusted with such a responsibility. I feel like  Heavenly Father can trust me and He has seen my efforts and He knows that I really wanted to train. Now I just can't mess up. I have to be exactly obedient. I have seen missionaries who weren't trained obediently and they have the hardest time changing the smallest things and they don't have the miracles and success. I don't want my trainee to have to go through that. I want her to be exactly obedient and have her mission change her and others. Transfers are going to be exciting! If we can find a ride.. our ride cancelled this morning. So other than that, we're pretty excited.

I had a bit of a chastening study at the beginning of this week. I was studying humility and pride and I had an awakening. At the beginning of my mission Heavenly Father gave me a pat on the head and said "there there". He told me I was doing okay and that I was just learning and I could try again. This time, Heavenly Father said, "I love you and you can repent and try again, but you know better." The area is in a ditch right now because for the past two weeks I really failed with exact obedience. And finally Heavenly Father said I had to stop. I have to feel remorse, but I can repent and try again. So, I  feel like I have a new start with a trainee. I can just be obedient and that's all she will see me as, an obedient missionary.

So... Easter. It was the best Easter I have ever had. I woke up and we went to church and practiced a hymn called that Easter Morn. I looked up the scriptures to all the Easter songs and they were incredible. I kept thinking about the Because of Him video (it's so powerful! I love it!) We've been showing the video all week and watching it over and over and it's been all over Facebook. Christ went through so much for me. I kept thinking about that. I tried to truly repent of all I've done Saturday night and right before the sacrament and really focused on what it meant. Have you ever heard the primary song called Gethsemane? I heard it on Sister Hulmes CD and I love it! It's powerful too. So in class, Gospel Principles, we had a handout that just sucked me in. I felt bad because I wasn't participating as much because I was super busy reading every word of the handout. Well, a quote by Elder Neal A. Maxwell hit me: "In Gethsemane the suffering Jesus began to be 'sore' and 'astonished'. Imagine, Jehovah the creator of their and other worlds 'astonished!' Jesus... had never personally known the exquisite and exacting process of an atonement before. Thus, when the agony came in it's fullness, it was so much, much worse than even He with His unique intellect had ever imagined! The cumulative weight of all mortal sins - past, present, and future - pressed upon that perfect, sinless, and sensitive soul! No wonder an angel appeared to strengthen Him!" Isn't that powerful? Easter had a whole new meaning for me this year. It was truly incredible. We went over to the first counselor in the bishopric's house for dinner and he showed us a 13 minute Because of Him video. Then they made Easter baskets for us, their 2 daughters, and Brother and Sister Goble who are a young couple with a baby. They made us go outside and then they hid them. We then had to hunt them down! Haha it was fun to run around like a little kid looking for candy.

So as of right now we have no progressing investigators. We have people to teach, but no one wants to come to church or they say they do and they don't come. I have a feeling me and my new companion will be doing a lot of tracting her first week. This area needs a huge kick start. It also needs exact obedience. We are missionaries. We work for The Lord and we work on His time. We don't have time to chat for a couple hours. I plan on kicking it into gear... which is going to be very difficult. I know it won't change overnight (as much as I would like that) it's going to take hard work, determination, and a lot of faith. I want this area to be so obedient that miracles happen. There will be referrals coming from everyone. I'm going to train how I was trained. To be obedient. Not just obedient, exactly obedient.

I can't remember what I told you about the song but we were going to do a duet at the transfer meeting tomorrow, but I couldn't create one. It's hard. Sister Ferrin told me she would be totally okay with not playing in front of 260+ people. Haha so I created an arrangement of Redeemer of Israel and More Holiness give me. It's good. I'm excited but I know I'll be nervous.. I recorded it so when I send pictures home this week or next week you can listen to it.

We have birdies! Well.. they're not our pets but they built a nest on top of our light outside. At first there was a dove in there and she laid two eggs, but now there is a robin that sits in there and there are now a total of 4 eggs!!! Yay!
                                                                         

Looking at the eggs in the nest that's on our porch light.

See all those cute little eggs?

I can't believe Donnie's family wanted to come to his baptism too. We took a member with us to meet his parents and she just softened them right up by showing them love. She was only there for about 10 minutes but it changed everything!!! Donnie went to his grandparent's house for Spring/Easter break. He's coming back today though! I'm so happy!!! He's doing so well. He said his grandparents are anti-Mormon but that doesn't matter to him. He's so excited to tell us about his "experience" that he had with his grandparents.

I invite you as a family and all who will read this to work. Help the missionaries. There is always work to do, even in Utah. Missionary work is not a casual hobby that we go do as teenagers because it sounds "fun" or it's the "cool" thing to do. Help your missionaries. Help them obey so miracles can happen. Give service. Visit the Less-active members of the ward. Take a Book of Mormon every where you go because you never know who you will meet. Do not make us do this work by ourselves, we're running out of time and we have to warn everybody!!! I don't want to be the person standing in front of the Lord telling Him I was planning on sharing the gospel once my life settled down or once I found some free time. I want to stand in front of the Lord and tell Him I worked my hardest. I did everything I could to tell the people, to help them repent and come to know Him. I want to say I died trying.

Well.. I don't know if I have much more to say. I've done some learning this week and I want to try my hardest to be obedient now that I have to set the example. I'm grateful for your knowledge, testimony, support and love. You're one of the best things that keeps me going. I hope you have a great week. I love you so much!!!

~Sister Rokovitz~

P.S. I need mail. I'm suffering in that department. Once you hit 6 months on a mission people forget about you. All my friends that were writing me stopped. It's sad.


                                                                             

Yum!

Wonderful missionaries

I got a haircut....several inches. It should be better for the Summer.

Donnie Got Baptized

I could hardly wait until studies were over so I can email you and tell you about everything!!!!! Ok ok where do I start... Hmm. Maybe... DONNIE GOT BAPTIZED!!!!! Best weekend ever? I think yes! His family was all going to come (which is huge) but just a few hours before the baptism his little sister had a seizure. He found a ride anyways and he just looked a little bummed. Once he got changed all you could see in his face was anticipation! Finally he reached the water and was baptized by his new friend in the ward, one of the priests, named Griffin. He's 16 too. After, he said he felt so much better. Talks were given and then he asked to bare his testimony. He told about Katherine's seizure and how he immediately dropped to his knees to pray for her. That blew me away because they are not close siblings at all. His testimony was tender and heartfelt. He then said, after the closing prayer, that he would be leaving the next day for his grandparent’s house for a few weeks so he couldn't be "affirmed." We talked with leaders and the bishopric and they said he could be confirmed that night. And the man he wanted to confirm him was in attendance. He is a sweet 80+ year old man who gives Donnie rides to church. The confirmation was beautiful.... or in Donnie's words: Divine. He enjoyed laughing with all the members after and sharing testimonies with each other. Our ward members kept telling us no one would come since his baptism was on Saturday ( they like to do it on Sunday) but his baptism had the highest attendance! 40+ people were there! Donnie is now anxious to take the next step to receive the priesthood and we are trying to get in contact with him and convince him to come back for the youth temple trip on Saturday. It was the best weekend ever! He's mentioned going on a mission before... I think he will.

                                                                             

Donnie and Griffin, just before Donnie was baptized.

We were all super pumped that Donnie got baptized. Sister Ferrin, Donnie and me.

We just received permission to have all friends and family on Facebook. I think I want to convert my home Facebook into my missionary one. I would just hide my photos and previous posts, etc. until I get home. I have to unfollow all friends and family but can still be their friends.

Just so you know... to correct any confusion, I still desire to chase tornadoes!!! I get all excited for storms and then... they happen, sirens go off, and I get a little scared. Just a little though! I haven't cried yet.

An inspirational speaker is coming to our mission next Tuesday. I love inspirational speakers! The duet for the next transfer meeting is not coming along. I am stuck in my ways! My mind creates solos across the whole keyboard. I've composed a song, but it's not a duet and I don't know how to turn it into a duet. I have no clue how it will work out. I hope Heavenly Father can give me the talent to create a duet.

I have a funny story to tell you. You thought you were proud of me for eating fish? You will NEVER guess what I ate this week!!!!! I still can't even believe it myself! (And I have video proof) So at Zone meeting we were told who lost a Zone challenge. The challenge was to see which District could contact the most less-actives. The losers would have to eat yucky stuff. Well they announced the winners and we thought only the last place District would have to eat the yucky stuff... Nope! All the losers had to! So they told the winners to buy yucky stuff. They laid it out on the table. Jabenero peppers, caviar, and.... octopus. The majority of people took the jabenero pepper dipped in caviar. I knew if I took that I would be having stomach pains for a week. My only choice left was the octopus and I was not about to be "that sister" who is the only one who doesn't do it. I was one of the last ones. I stepped up and said "someone has to take a video!!" I poked it... and then Elder Carlson started counting down from 60..... I was thinking 2 things at that point: 1- This is going to be such a good mission story!!! And 2- My dad will be beyond proud of me! Everyone started counting at "6" and then at "1"..... Without even thinking I threw it in my mouth! It was horrid!!!!! It was chewy and a little pokey... And I started gagging!!! Way bad! I thought I was going to lose it. I ran to the trash can and grabbed it and Elder Loveless said "don't you puke!" I was so determined not to lose it! I finally swallowed! And opened my mouth.. And the crowd went wild. I SWALLOWED A FLIPPING PIECE OF RAW OCTOPUS! And then I kept sorta gagging after... And I had to get a smoothie for the ride home so I wouldn't get sick... and then I laid in bed for 3 hours feeling absolutely awful with a pounding migraine but I kept smiling the whole time because I did it! I still did what work I could from bed and then we went to dinner. I ate almost all of it before I felt the gags coming again. Then we went to mutual and the elders came to interview Donnie and we all talked about it and laughed and I still felt terrible - and a good nights sleep did nothing for it! Every meal I ate made me feel awful. I just had to wait it out. And I now live to tell the story! I ATE OCTOPUS! Aren't you beyond shocked right now?!

                                                                           

My Octopus snack.

Ok.. now on to the more spiritual side of things.. I have felt very disobedient this week. Just not getting out on time, we spent forever at a members house and I didn't try to suggest we leave, Facebook is hard... I was just struggling. I've been trying all week to be obedient but it seems like nothing was working. We even had a Zone meeting training on obedience and I got all pumped up! Yesterday I was in deep thought mode all throughout church. I just wanted to figure it out! Little things just kept coming up about God's will... His will... In sacrament meeting, someone who was giving a talk said "Do EVERYTHING He asks!!" Then, I have no clue how, but I found an amazing scripture. Hebrews 10:32, 35 & 36. The Lord asks me if I remember my first greatest struggle on my mission.. I do. It was a long time I had to work that one out. He tells me "you overcame that! Now be confident. You can overcome this. Your confidence is what will bring you blessings." Then in verse 36 The Lord is really blunt and straightforward with me, "for ye have need of patience." Yeah I know... Then He says, "after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." Ah. He wants me to do His will first! Then I thought of how I got through that first great struggle on my mission. I remember being on the phone with President Andersen and we read 2 Nephi 4 together. Read it! The whole thing is basically all my thoughts! I have labeled it the best "punch Satan in the face" chapter ever! I was reading it as part of my studies today. I just kept getting farther on the edge of my seat because it applied so well to me! Nephi exhorts me to pray and ask Heavenly Father some very specific questions. A few were to be encircled about in the robes of righteousness, ask to be redeemed and delivered from Satan, and (this is my favorite) to shake at the appearance of sin (disobedience). I got down on my knees and prayed. Now I might add that for a while my prayers have felt different.. Not close to Heavenly Father and I didn't like that. I wanted to feel close to Him again. When I prayed, I felt that. I focused everything I had in picturing Him, looking into His eyes and speaking to Him. At the end of my prayer I was caught up in my thoughts. I thought of the day when I will stand to converse with Heavenly Father. Then after talking with Him, He will look at me and say "I know that was hard (meaning life and the trials and challenges), but you did it. Well done, thou good and faithful servant." Then I'll get to hug Him. Words cannot describe how close I felt to Heavenly Father. I know I can be obedient. I listened to a CD talk entitled "Sleeping Through Gethsemane" by Diana Hoelscher (YOU NEED TO LISTEN TO THIS it will change your life!) and she said she was praying and saying she couldn't be perfect. She heard Heavenly Father tell her "I never asked you to be. I asked you to die trying". That's what I want to do. And that's what I realized. I still have almost a year to become the missionary I want to be. I have time to correct myself and I can become the person I want to be for the rest of my life! I will die trying to be obedient and perfect. It was such a special experience to have this morning.

Well.... I think that's it for my long email of randomness! Not much happened this week. We're searching for new investigators to build our teaching pool again! It's getting late and we need to buy food! I love you so much. So much! I love my mission!

~Sister Rokovitz~

                                                                           

Thrift Store fun.

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Crazy Storms

I was going to send home tons of pictures this week but I forgot my camera. So you will have to wait another week on that. I have some really cool videos of the storm this week! It started raining a bit on Wednesday and then Thursday it just took off! We were 30 minutes away from home all day and knew there would be a storm so we mapped out safe spots at members homes and told them we might be dropping by if it got bad. Tons of streets were flooding and there were flash flood warnings for over 24 hours. Fields were just flooded and trees were in standing water. That night it started getting really bad. We were outside teaching Donnie (He doesn't like to be inside anymore because his family mocks him) Oh also he didn't get baptized last week... but he is scheduled for baptism this Saturday, confirmation on Sunday, and then hopefully temple trip with the youth the next Saturday! So we were teaching him and the lightning was like a strobe light... it was so often and the lightning always lights up the whole sky... it's not just in one spot. I had a feeling we should leave but we were having such a good conversation! Finally we both thought we needed to leave. So we got in the car and looking towards Marion was the worst! The lightning was huge! We called our Bishop's wife and she answered and said "Hi where are you?" Haha our mommy out here. She told us not to come home. The sirens were going off. So we called a member in West Frankfort and went to their house. They had the news on and there were storms everywhere! Tornadoes were forming and there was baseball sized hail just south of Marion. It was crazy! We called President to tell him we wouldn't be home by 9:30 p.m. The Eldorado Elders were stuck too. All streets to their house was flooded and their house was right in the path of a tornado. At 10:30 p.m. we called President and asked for permission to stay the night at the members home. He said we could. We borrowed pj's and had to share a bed. The storm lasted all night. The elders made it home about 11:15 p.m. and didn't sleep at all. It was crazy!!! We also had a river flowing down our backyard!

For General Conference we went to watch it at the church and we had no way to get Donnie there. We showed up and no one even arrived to set up the projector. So we went to watch it in the family history center and the computer wouldn't load it. So we watched Saturday's conference on my iPad Yay! Sunday the projector was set up so we watched it in the chapel.. alone. I loved conference!! I just thought in the middle of it... Man... we are SO lucky to have a prophet on the earth. People are missing out!! The theme I got from conference was faith, love, and obedience. I'm taking my obedience one hour at a time. It's so much easier! I'm going to make some goals for myself because I haven't had some in a long time. I cannot wait till the conference ensign comes out!! I'm so ready to re-read all those talks!

Speaking of conference, they told us that we all need to study Preach my Gospel! Do you have one? If not, get one and study it. You will love it! Study it as a family and make a family mission plan. We are starting to get really involved with our members. That's the one true way to be successful as a missionary. We are setting dates with members to have a referral for us. The work is starting to slowly progress. The members call us with referrals! We got 2 from a couple on Thursday and we're having dinner with a non-member at a member's home on Thursday and Friday. I'm so excited! Get going.

This week was pretty slow otherwise. Just a lot of hunting for less actives. OH! Speaking of, we only got in contact with one. But this one man is amazing! He and his wife are in a nursing home. They are the chaplains for the Sunday services over there because no one else will do it. Brother Hamilton has been teaching our doctrine! He uses Preach My Gospel, the Book of Mormon, and we are going to get him a Gospel Principles book. He told us last night that he figured if he was going to be stuck in there, he had to do something! He had the biggest smile on his face! Could there be a better missionary out there? This couple is amazing! They love the Lord and they cannot get enough knowledge! Brother Hamilton said all he wants to do is study and learn more!! I love them so much! Soon they will move into an apartment and they will be able to start coming back to church!

Thank you for the suggestions for studying. I'm keeping a note of things I want to study. Lately in my study of the bible dictionary I've been learning about the Abrahamic Covenant. I LOVE IT!!! I have almost 3 pages of notes so far! I now understand what people mean when they say they were "born into the covenant" or "brought into the covenant" It was promised over and over to Abraham and to his descendants. Studying it also helped me know what the pictures mean in the Book of Abraham. I KNOW WHAT THEY MEAN!  I feel so smart because of that! I read the stories that explain them and I know what they depict and I can see similar drawings of some things in other pictures. Ah! I can't get enough out of my studies each morning! There is 4 full pages in one of the Ensigns you sent me about the Abrahamic covenant. I've been using that and also True to the Faith.

I finished the Book of Mormon again on Saturday right before conference started. I restarted today. I read the title page and used the institute manual to help and I'm taking notes. I learned something cool! I read today that Joseph in Egypt was told of a branch of the house of Israel that would be broken off and go far away. In the title page it says it it a record of the Lamanites of the house of Israel... the broken branch that went far away! Connection! WOW!! Now I KNOW that the Book of Mormon and Bible totally work together to testify and confound confusion. I've been on fire this week with my studies! When I hear Sister Ferrin get on her knees to finish studies I just think "OH MAN!!! I'm not done!!" I LOVE THE GOSPEL AND I LOVE STUDYING THE SCRIPTURES!!!

Oh!! Dad is going to be so proud of me. (I feel the need to type a lot in caps today. It kind of gets across how excited I am) I TRIED FISH AND I LIKED IT!!! We were still at the church on Saturday when the priesthood leaders came to start their fish fry. They invited us to stay and eat with them. All of them were shocked when they found out I didn't like fish. Brother Elimon said "Everybody likes my fish. You have to try it" I got brave... and I did. I have a picture of me getting ready to eat it with 4 priesthood holders watching me all with their sunglasses on. I'll send it next week when I have my camera. I ate 3 pieces of blue gill, 1 piece of catfish, and 1 piece of flat-head catfish. It was honestly all the same to me but I liked it! Maybe frying it makes the difference.

Want to hear about the game Sister Ferrin and I play in the car? It's called Road Kill. We look for road kill and then call it out. The other person has to yell or imitate what they would have screamed as they got ran over. Oh and for living animals we just make the sound they make. It's really entertaining because we'll be talking and one of us will yell "ROAD KILL" and the other one will stop mid sentence, yell, and then talk again  Haha.

Well, that's about all. It was a good spiritual week and also an adventurous week trying new things. Oh... I also got us stuck in a ditch on Thursday. We were turning around and Sister Ferrin said "am I going to make it?" Me... being all confident and also not wanting to get out in the rain to direct her to back up said "Oh yeah! You've got plenty of room!" She made the turn... and the tire went right in the center of the water/mud filled ditch and the tires spun.. She said "You're pushing!" Just then a guy came around the corner in his truck and hopped out. I pushed the gas and steered while they pushed the car out. It made me laugh for so long!!! I have pictures of that too that I'll send next week.

Oh I am just smiling right now. I had a lot of good laughs this week. Oh ok one last one. I took a video of the storm Thursday morning, and I was talking about the lightning and thunder and then a huge lightning happened and I got all excited for the thunder.... it shook the whole house and window and I dropped to the floor screaming!!! Haha and then the tornado siren went off... Oh man it was hilarious! You're going to love the video! Now you have to be patient till next week to get it.


Anyways... I love you! 7 month mark on Friday?.... NO . I refuse to accept it. I shall call it... my 1 month mark. Yes. That shall be good! Haha I love you.

~Sister Rokovitz~

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~