Chris Was Baptized

Oh this week has been CRAZY!! So odd! Ok so here's the transfer info! So I felt impressed 3 weeks ago that I was leaving. I didn't tell anyone. I eventually cracked and told my companions. They freaked. So we planned the week for Sister Oldroyd and I was getting ready to pack up and I was saying goodbye to everyone. Saturday night rolls around... NO CALL,!! No call came!! So we went to bed... The next morning. NO CALL!! Finally at 8:00 a.m,. the voicemail came through!! And...... IM STAYING!!! Hahaha can you believe it! This will be my 5th companion in this area!! I'm getting Sister Hargadon. She trained Sister Frampton. Sister Oldroyd is going to Nashville and Sister McDonald is going back to CV1 Ward. I'm happy though because I don't feel my work here is done.

Anyways... Now onto the crazy week!

Monday.
After FHE, we were headed home and the car in front of me was swerving all over!  Then he pulled over and we passed him. He started following us!! So I didn't go to the apartment. He tailgates me and flashed his brights the whole time! I lost him at one point and then he found us again. He followed us for 15 minutes! So we called 911.We pulled up to a stop light and they asked where we were. So we told them and the guy was diagonally across from us just staring us down! The emergency people stalled the light... for like 6 1/2 minutes! The car in front of us ran the light haha. So finally it turns green and we headed to Walmart. The guy left because he saw where we were going. A cop found us and he said the guy was probably drunk. So he gave us an escort halfway home. As soon as he waved bye, one of our YSA was next to us! And they pretty much drove beside us the whole way home!! It was such a tender mercy! So we had to call President and explain why we were late. He sounded worried haha. Once he knew we were safe, he hung up. We did our planing and then we got a phone call from Nathan..... He said "Hey I just wanted to call you and tell you Chris wants to get baptized on Saturday." I thought "Does Chris know this?" Haha then he said "Tell them Chris." So Chris got on and proceeded to tell us the whole thing. We accidentally didn't schedule a lesson with him on Sunday and he realized he really missed it. Then he realized he knew it was true and he didn't need the lessons to get that joy. So we SCREAMED AND JUMPED AND LAUGHED!!! I'm still shocked! It was supposed to be a surprise for y'all but I guess Facebook ruined that, so we set the date and called President back. President went to bed less worried and more happy that night. Miracles do happen! (We saw a picture on Facebook on Sunday that Amber was tagged in for Chris' baptism, so we knew before she emailed us.)

Tuesday
I went on an exchange with the Princeton sisters. I went there with Sister Nielson. There is still not much going on in that area. At 8:00 p.m. she asked a member if we could come over till 9:00 p.m. I had no clue what to say because our only option was tracting and it was so bitter cold that it made my back seize up and shake and it was painful.....But I heard Sister Hargadon is good at correcting kindly. So I'm going to learn that skill from her.

Wednesday
I went to Cadiz with Sister King. I served around her a lot in Nashville. She is a rock star. She is white washing her area. The work is going well but her companionship is struggling. Her and her companion aren't mad at each other and nothing is bothering them... But they have nothing  to talk about and Sister King feels so lonely. Every suggestion I had was already tried.

Thursday
I got back to my area and boy did I miss my companions! We went to teach Aaron and his brother walked in right as we were doing the closing prayer. His brother is against it all and so we all just awkwardly left. Aaron texted us later and told us he didn't feel right ending without a prayer... So he said his own and he said the most amazing thing happened! But he won't tell us until we're all in person! So he hasn't told us yet.

We also had our last lesson with Chris. Sister Oldroyd told me something though... Chris had a cup of coffee the day before. I was trying to teach him the Word of Wisdom and he wasn't on Facebook. So Sister Oldroyd felt prompted on her exchange to take a pamphlet to him and he wasn't at work. That’s when he had the coffee... Someone offered it to him at the car dealership. But he hadn't had a cup for like 6 months. So he had to have an interview with President on the phone. And he passed! Haha obviously.... He is just a whole new person! More happy, funny, confident, awake, ready, just everything! He's like the new and improved Chris!

Lastly we saw Emily. She is doing so good! She's studying the scriptures with her husband over Skype every day! And they decided they're getting sealed in Utah next year! So we'll all be there! I’m so excited! That was a good day. Oh and Chris planned his whole baptism on his own!

Friday
We met with Calvin! I thought he had disappeared. He's been reading like crazy so he's in Helaman! Crazy right? He's doing good and is feeling like the church is true. Oh it was so good to hear! So now we just have to keep on top of him!

We needed to go to Nashville because Sister Oldroyd had a doctors appointment. So, since we were in Nashville ... I got permission to go see Emad and Cha. Emad wasn't home but I left a note. We saw Cha afterwards. but only for a few minutes because we were late. She is doing good! She is getting back to church. I love that girl! You could tell by her smile that the visit meant the world to her!
                                                                                 

Sister Rokovitz and Cha

It was weird to be back traveling the old roads of Nashville! I miss it so much! As we headed back, we had 29 miles till our exit and 20 miles of gas left and no gas stations around. So we kept chugging along. We made the exit and had to travel 3 miles down a barren road and we had 1 mile till empty. We started praying real hard then! That mile seemed to last forever! It hit 0 and we kept going for 2 miles. Finally... A gas station came into sight! And then the CD we had in started singing:
"God is good, yeah God is good
We've come so much farther than we thought we would
Keep [driving] now
God is good, yeah God is good
One more mile behind us God is good!"
We started laughing and crying and singing! Oh it was a good night!! We went to Chris's interview.. He totally passed. So we joked about celebrating with coffee haha! He tried on his jumpsuit.. Over his clothes. He just cracks me up! He is so funny! He was walking around in it and his "elf" shoes. He is just a happy human!

                                                                             

Sister Rokovitz with Chris, trying on his baptism suit over his clothing with his "elf" shoes.

Oh. We also met up with Keith earlier this week and he gave us a TON of food! $122 worth of groceries! Ravioli, lasagna, cereal, milk, veggies, oatmeal.... He said he asked God what he could do to help and the spirit said to buy groceries. He said he was the happiest guy in Walmart walking down the aisles buying food for us! He is the perfect member! And he's teaching Elders Quorum next week... He's been baptized for 2 weeks and he's teaching!! Miracles!

Saturday
So during my studies I read about Consecration and Sacrifice and it said money... Sacrificing money, I realized we were still being blessed for the money Sister Stucki and I sacrificed. It was an incredible feeling. I had to get on my knees and thank my God for that one!

We went to a chili cook off/turkey bowl and it was cold! Tennessee has frozen lately! So bitter and wind... yuck. But it was a fun activity. We had just enough time to fill up the font and get everything ready. The musical number bailed... So I filled in last minute. We took photos and then I was trying to get Skype to work for Sister Stucki. She was so excited! She was red-eyed the whole time. As I was walking to the piano for the musical number I had 2 in mind. I had no clue which one I could play. So I sat down and asked God to help me. I picked one, on the spot, and then I played it. Chris was baptized and after, he bore a powerful testimony. For the first time I heard Chris say he knew the church was true. Sister Stucki teared up. It was a beautiful day. He took us out to Subway afterwards. It was so good! I love Chris! He's just amazing!

Lastly we attended a Nashville/Clarksville YSA gathering. I knew almost everyone there. It was so much fun! Chris was still on fire just smiling and laughing! We visited a Less-active on the way home and anxiously waited for the transfer call that never arrived. That was killer....

                                                                           

Nathan and Chris

Sister Oldroyd, Sister McDonald, Chris and Sister Rokovitz

Nathan, Chris, Sister McDonald, Sister Rokovitz and Sister Oldroyd

Chris and me with my iPad with Sister Stucki watching the baptism. (Sister Stucki and Sister Rokovitz spent a lot of time teaching Chris before Sister Stucki ended her mission. She was able to watch the baptism through Skype.)

Sunday
As I was getting ready for church, I just started crying! I never want my mission to end. Bringing people like Chris into the church is truly incredible. I love the spirit and I love the hard work everyday! It's just the best thing. I can't describe it and I never want to leave. We were a bit late to church because we were freaking out with transfer calls. Church was interesting. It always is. One YSA gave a talk on gratitude and it was a very detailed and gory description of Christ's atonement. And the next YSA testified and then sobbed through his whole talk.  Haha the YSA is such a great place.

We then attended 2nd ward where Chris was confirmed. (Technically he's not YSA so he had to get confirmed in the family ward). He was still just smiling away. One of the best miracles I've seen on my mission is the baptism of Chris. The Southern Baptist youth pastor is a Mormon.

I just wanted to take a minute to say how much I love my mission and my Savior. I cannot describe the amount of love I have in my heart for Him. He did an incredible amount for me so I can have His help throughout my life. It's incredible. That's why I love the new Nashville Tribute Band CD because it's all about the Savior and I just get to sing praises to Him when I listen to it. I love this work so much!

I love you! Have a great week!

~Sister Rokovitz~


I have to tell you a quick funny story. So yesterday night we were in the church at night waiting for Keith. Alone. I left the door unlocked for Keith and then we went to the Relief Society room to play the piano. Then the breaker flipped a couple times and we heard someone walking around in the halls... and since there has been so many creepy things happening at the church we freaked out, and hid behind the piano.. hahaha I've never been so scared in my life! After praying, we felt we needed to call the cops... again... they are always near our church anyway. So I called and I was whispering and the lady got mad at me and so I talked normal and told her everything. She asked how old I was. Haha 20. And then she asked if we had any weapons. She was asking for an address. She told us someone hit a power pole.. She asked if we still wanted someone to come check on us. We said yes because we still heard someone. So an officer came over and guess what? As he got here Keith was walking up.. and the cop almost arrested Keith! So that was bad! He came in and walked all around, but whoever was here, left.. so that was creepy. The cop just laughed and walked us out. It was terrifying though! I was going to have to defend my faith and die in the church! Haha anyways. That's it. It was funny.

Two Baptisms - Emily and Keith

Oh goodness. We've been having so much fun today! We've made mission plaques!
                                                                         

So here goes my week!

Monday:
Remember how I told you that Sean brought a friend named Wayne to church? Well we taught him on Monday night and it went so well! We sat down and asked if he had read the pamphlet and he said he did! That's a missionaries dream! No one ever reads the pamphlet. We asked him if he had any questions and he said "Yeah... I was just wondering, why Joseph Smith? Like I believe it, but I'm just curious why it was him." We all just kind of looked at each other in awe..... He's the prefect investigator. So we taught the Restoration and it went so well! Ah! He said he'd take a Book of Mormon and pray about it. And then he stayed for FHE! We ended up playing board games and catch phrase. And it was a lot of fun!

Tuesday
We had MLC. So we dropped Sister McDonald off at the Ft. Campbell sisters apartment last night. We left at 6:30 a.m. and drove down to Nashville. They had breakfast ready for us at 8:30 and it was yummy. Then onto 4 hours of training. I loved it! It was just basically a role play forever and we paused to discuss things. I learned so much! And I've really been trying to improve my teaching skills and teach in unity with my companion and focus on the spirit and plan more. It makes the world of difference.

So during the first... maybe 2 hours, I had quite an experience with Mr. Spider. He came out of nowhere and was MASSIVE! Like the kind that makes me want to barf when I look at it! It ran and hid by my bag by my feet and I was feeling like I was going to get sick. My heart was pounding and my face was red and I was sweating! Then... it starts walking towards the chair in front of me which happened to be Sister Dixon’s. The spider crawled up her purse handle and I was freaking out inside!! I was thinking "OH NO! This is so bad! So bad! It's going in her purse!!" Thank goodness it didn't... But it crawled up the handle onto the chair!! It went onto the bottom side of the chair and then was trying to get up to her... I didn't know what do! No one had shoes on, and if I told her, she'd flick it onto me... So I just sat there, freaking out inside! I lost it... I could not focus and I had no clue where it was! Then 15 minutes later I see it sitting on the tag of the chair! And it was letting itself down by its web. It crawled back around and ran towards me! I almost screamed! I picked up my water bottle and tried to slaughter the sucker!! It didn't work! He ran around all confused and went and hid at the end of the hall. I check for the spider every 17 seconds to make sure it didn't move or disappear. Then... I prayed my heart out! I asked Heavenly Father to make the spider go around the corner so I wouldn't have to freak out and so I could focus! A few minutes later,.... He was gone. Heavenly Father answers prayers and cares about the little things haha. I gained so much knowledge and inspiration from the meeting! I'm pumped now! I wish everyone could receive the trainings the way we do.

Wednesday
We skyped Emily for a lesson and talked about the Law of Chastity and Word of Wisdom. She said she started living the Word of Wisdom months ago... Ok, perfect? Holy moly! The lesson went so well! She's so close!

We also taught Ebony, and a guy named Rainan. Have I told you about him? He is Ebony and Steven's neighbor and he is super curious about it all. He wants to order a quad scripture set. He's super into learning about it and has been on the gospel library app for days! We started teaching the Restoration, but he had so many questions, so we didn't get very far.

Next, Sister McDonald went with a member to visit people and Hermana Capener came with me for an exchange to see a less active. She was really sweet! Her name is Julieann and she was baptized when she was 14 and hasn't been active... But she knows she needs to be there. She just can't tell her mom that she doesn't want to go to church with her anymore. But she's sweet and when she's not sick she's going to come to activities. We had dinner at a Spanish member's home which Hermana Capener loved because they were able to speak Spanish to each other. And I know the member liked it too because she was in the Spanish branch, but that was dissolved and so she's in a regular Ward now and doesn't speak a ton of English. So it was a relief to speak Spanish to a sister missionary.
The rest of the night we tracted and we met a cool guy and he listened to us... But we think he was pretty high.

Thursday
We finally got to see Emily in person! And we met her husband. It was so good to see her! We put together the program for her baptism and figured out everything. She's so excited! She's also terrified of drowning... Like legit terrified.

Next we met with Yuri and Gabbi. They set up little finger foods for us! It was so sweet! So we had some snacks.. And then we talked about the Restoration. Yuri had to leave, but we got to talk to Gabbi. She was adopted when she was 12 and got baptized right before that in her foster family. Her adoptive family didn't like it so she never went to church again. She is now at school and has the choice so she really wants to get back into it. So we're teaching her the lessons because she really doesn't even know that much about the gospel. They are super sweet girls.

A member took us to dinner and it was at Ruby Tuesday where Richard works. We haven't seen him for so long. I laughed as we walked in and said "what if Richard was working tonight!" Haha open door, walk in, see Richard. His jaw dropped and he's like "it's the Mormons!" Hahaha he was so shocked but happy to see us! He says he's on some great medicine now that helps him and he just wants to come back to activities now. So I'm going to text him tonight to come to FHE. We taught Chris before Sports Night and he is doing better. He is reading scriptures and really studying them! It's incredible! Still no baptism date for Chris.

Friday
We had Zone meeting and it went well. Our Stake President came and spoke to us and I loved it. It was so inspiring and uplifting. The rest of the meeting struggled. No one participated in the training and when we were role playing for them everyone was asleep. It made me kind of mad... Oh and President Craig (stake president) bought us all pizza for lunch.

Next the baptism interviews happened! They both went so well and we got their suits ready and showed them the font. Lastly we had a lesson with Wayne. Keith stayed for it and it went so well! We asked if he prayed about it and he said yes and we asked how it went and he said "I'm here aren't I?" Haha he admitted he knew it's true, but he can't figure out why.

Saturday
Baptisms for missionaries are exhausting. We were at the church from 10 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. It was so crazy! We had to make the programs and fill the font and make copies and set up chairs and text people. Finally it was all complete. Keith's was first and it started out so well. I played the piano for a musical number that sister McDonald did. I had only played it twice before for practice and somehow the Lord still helped me do it right! It was incredible. The spirit was so strong! And then.... the  water was too hot and Elder P. started laughing and running around and eating cookies and being so loud! Spirit. Gone. It was awful. I was fuming. Good thing I was behind the piano or else I would have strangled him. Finally we fixed it and Keith was baptized. He bore his testimony at the end and it was the sweetest thing ever! He's the perfect member.

                                                                               

Sister Oldroyd, Sister Rokovitz and Sister McDonald with Keith at his baptism. (Elder unknown)

So then Emily came and she was nervous yet excited. She looked so cute! Her husband and two step kids were there. We took pictures and then had some time to just sit and listen to the prelude. We had a good turn out! The program went along great and I played a musical piece for her. It sounded pretty good. When she was baptized she was freaking out... Elder Schnell told her he'd give her a thumbs up. He did and then he dunked her FAST! She was so grateful for that! And then her husband spoke. He got re-baptized a year ago and so she thinks it was really good for him to speak. He did a really good job too! The whole thing was just so good! She has a countenance that is just glowing! I know she's going to be such a strong member of the church for the rest of her life.

                                                                               

Sister Oldroyd, Emily, Sister Rokovitz and Sister McDonald at Emily's baptism.

That night we tried to teach Aaron, but we were all practically falling asleep in his lesson! We talked about baptism a bit and he thanked us for helping him understand why he needs it. He's totally going to be baptized one day!

That night we were hysterical for planning!!  We were laughing so hard at everything! And then as soon as it was done I crashed in bed. I was out! It was a long day for us! But a very good one.

Sunday
Church was sad... Hardly anyone showed up. Austin was supposed to speak but he disappeared for his talk... He said he was sick. So Sister Bolos and I ended up bearing our testimonies. Sunday school... Eternal marriage. Haha I zoned out of that one.... Doesn't apply to me right now.

We watched Emily get confirmed and you can just see the change in her! She is so incredible! Her husband deploys again on Thursday so they're going to spend some time together and she's super good at scripture study with him and prayers. She's so good! And we're going to help her prepare for baptisms at the temple! Ah I just love her!

Amanda messaged me. She's been reading the Book of Mormon with your testimony in it, Mom! She's loving it too! Dad, I saw John in Walmart this week. He said he's been reading and he's cherishing that book for both you and me. He loves it. He's such a sweet old man!

Sorry. Rushing again.
I love you!

~ Sister Rokovitz~

                                                                             

This man was outside the grocery store today.

Some Rough Lessons

I have just been dying to email you this week! This week has been extremely hard! But things have worked out. So, here goes.

Monday:
We had a fun p-day watching Elder Schnell stuff 58 cheese balls in his mouth! Haha and then for FHE we got to paint pumpkins and gourds. I painted a gourd to look like me. It was a really fun activity! Also, Sister McDonald taught Keith. They found him outside one day and he wanted to be baptized that day. He's been so solid ever since then. He's getting baptized Saturday and once they asked him to stop smoking he just quit. He's incredible!! He came to Stake Conference and a baptism and is going to help clean the temple before his baptism and he's ready for a calling. He's even having his priesthood and temple interview before he's baptized!! This guy is every missionaries dream!

                                                                                 

Elder "cheese ball" Schnell

The gourd that I painted to look like me

Two very talented pumpkin painters - Gabbi and Teresa.

Tuesday:
At morning we taught Emily. She informed us that her step father was dying.... So her husband and brother-in-law both came home from deployment. Her husband has only been gone for a month and her brother-in-law only for 1 week. They all flew to Utah to see him. We were bummed because she said she was leaving and wouldn't be back till November 5th. I don't know if I ever told you, but we set a goal to have a baptism on November 8th and we were so hopeful it would be her! We've prayed for that every prayer for the whole transfer so far. She left the next day.

We then drove to Russellville for an exchange with the Hartford sisters. Sister Aiono came with Sister McDonald and I. I just love her. We went to see a few people and then taught Keith again. He's just so solid. After dinner we tracted and we found a member! He just moved in and is Less-active and he said he wouldn't mind having the elders over! We also met a lot of atheists. One told us to keep our testimonies to ourselves. Inside I was like "NO. I will not! God gave me permission to share it with everyone on this planet!" It was so sad to see them and how miserable their lives must be.

We saw Dre. He is doing so good! He had read the intro to the Book of Mormon and he has so many questions! We talked for an hour and a half! He's just so curious! And at the end, we asked him to pray. We all got on our knees and he was so nervous... We explained how to pray and he thought about it... And then he said the sweetest prayer I have ever heard an investigator say. He prayed for us and for knowledge and answers and all sorts of things! It was really thought out and not just short. I just wanted to hug him!! He's the best!

Wednesday:
We got to dress up for District meeting. I was an old grandma, Sister Aiono was a grandpa, and Sister McDonald was our granddaughter that had to wear my clothes and stay with us always. Haha we tied a balloon to her wrist so we could tell where she was at! We also have two Elder Harris's in our district.. And their costumes made them "tourist" Harris and "terrorist" Harris. Haha

                                                                               

Happy Halloween from the Clarksville district.

The rest of the day was absolutely nuts. We taught Keith and then a member took us to "dinner" at 3:00 pm. It was super far away and then we had to order and eat and drive back. We were 45 minutes late to our ride to switch back from exchanges. Then we rushed back and we were supposed to get a ride from the Bolos's to Institute but they forgot there were 3 of us. So Mia, our member, took us. After the  Institute lesson about the Law of Consecration, Keith came up to us and said "Why don't we live that? That would work!" Haha, the Law of Tithing the next day was super easy for him to accept.

Thursday:
We discovered a problem. We added our math wrong and we had gone 75 miles over our limit. Big mistake. So we parked our car and walked everywhere! We had some cool miracles. We met a lady who always wanted to talk with us. She had a Book of Mormon and was super interested so we got her info and we're going to meet with her this week. We met a guy who was interested and we followed up but he was busy. He is still interested though and we thought he wouldn't be!

While we were walking, Emily texted us. She said she felt like the 17th was her day!! We were a little bummed because it was so far away and that's a Monday... But she wants to be baptized!! Miracle!

Lastly we met a girl with a dog that looked like a mop! He has natural dreds! Haha, his name was Maximus Mopsimus.

We had dinner with a member and it was alright. Some form of tacos. I liked it but not enough to eat two. So I sat there while everyone ate more.. It was awkward. We then went to Sports Night and it was fun! Well we taught Chris first. Chris hasn't read or come to church for a couple weeks. No wonder he's not getting an answer. I read the quote from conference that scriptures are more important than sleep and food and work, etc. It hit him... and he said he wanted to read and pray so he could get answers. He's getting back on track.

For Sports Night we played chair soccer.. and had a hand-stand contest against the wall. Bad idea. I've been practically dead in the back for a couple days now. Emily texted us while we were there.... And .... She said...... "I've been thinking about the 8th actually. I still like the 17th but that's a Monday." Ok.. Wait what??? WE THREW THE PHONE AND STARTED JUMPING UP AND DOWN AND SCREAMING!!!! It's a miracle!! We've been praying for that day for 4 weeks!! So she's getting baptized Saturday! We've been teaching her every day over Skype. She gets home Wednesday night and she'll have her interview and meet with us and get baptized!! GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS!!!

                                                                               

Skyping Emily - Sister Rokovitz, Sister McDonald and Sister Oldroyd

Friday:
We had a rough day. It was beyond freezing and our car was at the church, 10 miles from home. We walked to an Investigator, Rainan's place, and he has SO many questions. He is really reading and taking notes. It's so awesome! So we're going to answer his questions throughout the lessons. When we left, Austin was supposed to pick us up and take us to the church... But he was late. So we went next door to see Ebony. Finally he came and then we taught Keith.. And Dre. Oh... for Dre, the last lesson he was dying to know where we go after we die. We said if he read the Book of Mormon we would tell him. So he sat down and we asked if he read it. He said no and we pretended to pack up and leave and he said "where's a Book of Mormon?!" He read his assignment and then we taught the Plan of Salvation. He loved it. I just love Dre and his sweet spirit. I know he'll get baptized one day.

Saturday:
The whole day wasn't going as planned. We were late to a few things because YSA cancel and reschedule nonstop. We skyped Emily for the first time that night. Her sister-in-law was there. She was serving a mission in Colorado Springs but came home for her father’s funeral. In that family there are 10 siblings so they were all there with their spouses and stuff. But Emily got to be taught by 4 missionaries. I asked if I could play a musical number at her baptism and she said yes! Whoo HOO! I'm excited.

Sunday:
Church was good. We got 2 new Investigators from church. Two members had brought their friends and they were both interested. Wayne and Yuri are the two new ones. We taught Wayne that night at 6. It's not every day that you have 12 YSA at church and 2 new Investigators. Miracles!!

The rest of the day consisted of visits, and follow ups. Sister and Elder Bolos fed us dinner and it was so good! I don't know if y'all knew this... But I am known for my cereal and milk obsession here. Elder Bolos always has a glass of milk ready for me. And they joked that the funeral potatoes were special for me because they had corn flakes on top... Cereal haha.

That night we taught Chris who is still just chugging along. He really wants to know and desires to get an answer. We're doing something now where we'll send him a Book of Mormon scripture and he'll send us a Bible one. Next week we'll switch roles.

We also taught Emily on Skype and her sister-in-law was there again as well as her husband. She's just so prepared!!  Everything is so easy and not a problem. She's getting baptized!!

It was rough. But because of Christ, I made it. I just wanted to email you all week. I just had a lot of tears and trials. Lots of pleading prayers.

This is kind of hard to talk about, but I want to tell you about an experience I had this last week. I accidentally blew up at Sister Oldroyd last week. Ever since then... Things have been awful!! Oh my heck it's bothered me! It's gotten to the point where she would blame me for so many things. I was trying to stay calm and see her side of things and not react and not bring it up so things wouldn't get worse.... But things got worse anyways. I cried each night as I knelt and plead for help from God. I literally was brought into the depths of humility in order to ask for help. I cried and prayed and wrote down impressions. Nothing I tried worked. It got to the point where I was considering emailing President and saying I couldn't be her companion anymore. I do feel like I'm getting transferred which kills me though. So. As I knelt in prayer last night I just told Heavenly Father that I was having a really hard time loving her. I couldn't. I asked for His love and to help me put aside my selfishness to be able to overcome the trial.

I woke up this morning still sad as every morning. Avoiding eye contact and looking at the ground. I felt as if I had forgotten how to be happy. She finally noticed something was wrong,.., she wanted to talk about it but I didn't because I knew she'd get upset. She did. She left the room and I just cried. Sister McDonald talked me through it and helped me form my thoughts into words. Sister  Oldroyd came back down and we all talked to overcome the problems. I've never felt the atonement work more in my life. I felt literal relief as things were discussed, walls were broken down, scars were healed. I knew it would work out. I think the study of prayer lately has really helped me out lately because in this trial I just prayed my heart out and I KNEW He heard me and would help me. I tried not to complain to Him, but rather explain how I felt, and explain I understood He loved her too... And there was a way to get through it. This took so much faith and trust and prayer and study and courage. But we've been laughing today, finally. Things are still slightly awkward ... And tonight Sister McDonald is staying somewhere else because we have a big meeting all day in Nashville tomorrow. So it will just be Sister Oldroyd and I tonight. I'm not worried about it. We can talk more and just rest. The atonement is so real and so is God. I had to fight with everything I had to resist Satan. He wanted to put anger in my heart. I now understand the phrase "tugging at my heart strings." Because Satan was. I tried not to boil over and react or yell. I tried to be calm and speak with love... That's the way Christ would do it. I tried to understand Sister Oldroyd's feelings and where she was coming from. Wow. It was incredible what Christ did for me. I immediately knelt and thanked my Father in Heaven for that. For the help and the love and the courage. The gospel is just real. This has been such a major testimony building experience. I was ready to email y'all today and just complain and murmur. Glad I didn't have to! I'm so glad I got to be happy instead! I love you so much!! I have to go, but I hope you have a great week!

As time goes on... It just keeps getting shorter and shorter. Two elders were saying:
"I go home next transfer"
"And then it's me"
And then I said. "And then it's me........"
Transfers... Only 3 more left and then I come home that 4th transfer. I can’t be this close to being done! I'm not done growing and learning and serving and studying!! I don't want to ever end this! Please understand... I have to stay here forever.

We'll have a great week! I love you!

~Sister Rokovitz~

Keep Calm and Pray On

I feel like some weeks I'm so caught up in the mission and I'm just like "eh... emailing...." But there are other weeks where I'm just like "OUTTA MY WAY! I HAVE TO TALK TO MY FAMILY!!!"

So I have to tell you this ... Yesterday was Stake Conference here. Let me just tell you... I think it's the best Stake Conference I've ever been to! Elder Giddens from the Seventy came. He is really amazing! Well on Sunday morning, our Stake President got up to start. The theme the evening before had been the hastening and all about missionary work (because it's the greatest and most important) so I figured that's what we'd hear. No. He gets up and says "Brothers and Sisters I would like to speak today on the power of effective prayer." Jaw dropped. Um.... Hello. That's something I've been concerned about and working on for quite a while now. Ok so Heavenly Father prepared all of Stake Conference this whole time just for me. I don't mean to be selfish, but that's just amazing! I almost wanted to ask President Andersen afterwards if he had told President Craig to speak on that for me.... So I took a ton of good notes and I just really thought a lot about it. It was almost like Heavenly Father was saying "Hey this is really important. I know you've been thinking about this, but you need to put some more thought into it." As we were singing the closing song I was just so filled with the spirit and I just thought in my mind "the church is so true."

I came home and that night I really thought about my prayer. I have a notebook that's says "Keep Calm And Pray On" on the front. It's my prayer notebook. (Serving in the South = awesome gospel notebooks).
                                                                               

                                                                       

I wrote down 2 questions and then prayed. I thanked Him for everything and then I prayed for all my leaders. I then asked a question and waited.. And then I asked the second one and waited. I received a simple answer for each of the questions that I'm now going to study more and work on. It was a really cool experience for me.

I love the talk Elder Klebingat gave in General Conference! I want to read it again with the "prayer" perspective. I never thought that talk would help with that. So I'm going to read it this week and let you know how it goes. Thanks for suggesting it.

Things with Chris did go pretty good this week. We finally saw him last night. He didn't get baptized Saturday because he's been so busy with work but he said he's feeling better about baptism. So he's praying about a day when he can be ready.

Monday we found an awesome place to tract. We found a few good potentials. For FHE we did skits but they weren't funny at all... They were so lame. So then we played chair soccer. That was fun.

Tuesday we had interviews with President and he gave me some great prayer advice. Afterwards, I went up to Sister Andersen and said I had a migraine for 4 solid days... Should I be worried? We talked about solutions and then she asked if I would like a blessing. I said yes, and she got President and the two AP's. It was amazing to feel the true power of the priesthood at that moment. I know those 3 men are definitely worthy and exercise their priesthood righteously. I knew they were hard working missionaries. I knew they could heal me. I went home and took some meds and passed out for a few hours. They said I just needed a day to rest up and get back on track. I woke up and still had it.. I was disappointed, but prayed and asked Heavenly Father to heal me. I expressed my faith in Him and really tried to believe in the blessing. It took work... water, no sugar, being careful, not stressing... But now it's gone and we've been exercising really good this transfer. I've actually lost 4 pounds WHOO hoo!

Wednesday I trained at District meeting about finding. It went pretty well... But no one laughed at my jokes! They all liked my role play though. We summarized the Restoration in 4 sentences to practice simplicity. Then we went on an exchange with the Russellville sisters. I went there with Sister Miller. They have a lot of good things going for them but we didn't have a lot of work to do that night because they had seen everyone the day before. All of Russellville stinks too because of a dog food factory where they burn cows. The smell is so bad it makes you want to gag. Sister Oldroyd found a lot of cool people in the "miracle" complex. They found 2 less actives with non member roommates who are interested. One of them, Sean, and his roommate Chris came to Sports Night.

Thursday I came back and the day was a little long and rough. It was tough to fill up our schedule. That night Sister Oldroyd got a little frustrated with planning.....

Friday she apologized but things still weren't the same. I really had to use the Atonement big time to get through that one. When you feel so low, the only thing you can do is pray. That's the only way out of it. We're ok now. We went tracting at the "miracle" complex and someone got mad for us giving them a picture of Jesus, and soon after, the office staff came and kicked us out.

Saturday we had Stake Conference at night and it was so good! Spirit filled! Elder Giddens had a question/answer session about the hastening. It was cool.

Sunday was the other part of Stake Conference. I already told you about that. It was so good. We met with Chris that night which was good too. Oh and I'm in a trio now. Sister Fairborn went home today and Sister McDonald is with us and we're managing two areas now.

This week has been hard, but good. I'm still learning about prayer, and trying to immerse myself in the spirit. It's coming along. I feel better about it. I whisper my prayers so I can concentrate more and I'm really making them a great experience. Thank you for your advice and help.

Sorry this was extremely lame! We just had a busy p-day with a lot of stuff and rearranging the whole apartment for the three of us. I'll be better next week! I love you!

~Sister Rokovitz~

                                                                             

We both have footie jammies (Can't figure out why they have a Christmas tree up in October. We'll have to ask about that next week.)

For those who have lived in the South, you know the rest of that sign should say, "ya hear?" after "Y'all come back now"

Just hangin' out in Kentucky

Sister Oldroyd and Sister Rokovitz

Hangin' With David Archuleta

Oh this week has just been a good one. Things are still amazing with Sister Oldroyd! I just love her so much! She is hard working and fun. She just goes out there and gets it done. She's taught me to just talk to people. We'll just walk up to random people and ask if they want a picture of Jesus and that slips into a conversation. We contacted 75 new people this week which was pretty awesome to see that number tally up! It's not as hard as it seems. Some days are more difficult than others. But it's good.                                                                              

Sister Oldroyd and Sister Rokovitz

We haven’t seen Brandon either. He got called into work Sunday so he couldn't come. He did come to FHE though. We are yet to teach him the lessons. It will happen though. We also haven't seen Jennifer or Amanda. Amanda is out of town but I have her on Facebook so I can message her about the Book of Mormon.

So here's about the week:

Monday:
We left the house at 6 pm and the sky was just dancing with lightning! It was so cool! Then our phone freaks out with a tornado warning. We decided to brave it out and drive the 15 minutes to the church to tract around there. Five minutes down the road... Too much rain! Can't see the lines and the elders called us saying the tornado was spotted and it was about to touch down in downtown Clarksville.. The opposite way we were going. Campus was on lock down, yet somehow our Samoan YSA got off. Probably cause no one dared try to keep him there. He'd just squish them! We hydroplaned our way to the church and made it safely. Getting from the car to the church was like jumping in a pool! We were soaked!! Sinclair and Annalee were camped out there and they said Austin got stuck in Walmart. They were on lock down too. The tornado never hit, just crazy rain storms all night long with power lines down. The Zone shut down, but since we made it to the church, we still got to have FHE. I thought no one would come, but we had a great turn out! We had a waffle night and played a lot of games that resulted in laughing so hard. Brother Frogue was snorting watching us play! Good night!

Tuesday:
Monday night we stayed up till 11:30 pm trying to figure out an exchange. We had planned one with the CV1 sisters but they asked to reschedule. (Again). They texted us and asked if we had really prayed about it. Ouch. Of course we did! So we stayed up stressing and praying and thinking. If we let them switch, we'd show them it doesn't matter and its according to what's best for them. If we don't let them, it's almost like we're trying to have power over them. We called the Zone leaders in the morning and asked their opinion. They said to just do it. We did. The only reason they wanted to stay was because of their dinner appointment. They both wanted enchiladas. The exchange was good. Awkward at first, but it turned out ok. It was hard to have to just make the decision, but we're the leaders and we had to trust that the Lord knew we would make the right decision.

We met a lot of really cool people. Oh and we saw Calvin! Finally! He disappeared for almost a month. He said he was just having trials and he didn't want to drag us down with him. We just talked him through it and really testified of the Atonement and God's love for us. It was a powerful lesson.
We met a couple cool people that couldn't even wait for us to talk about Joseph Smith before they were inviting themselves to church. That was a first.

And we taught Tori. We taught the Restoration outside and during the First Vision she interrupted and said "Wow! That's amazing!" Darn right it is. That lesson was cool! That whole night was good. Sister McDonald wrote down a lot of things she learned from the exchange. She even took pictures of our walls with our goals on them because she liked it so much. It turned out pretty good.

Wednesday:
We had a pretty sweet District meeting. I learned a lot from the trainings. My companion gave a training on companion unity. It really helped us to sit down and focus on what we needed to do to be unified. I brought up that it bothered me to see little info in the records of teaching appointments and not real addresses on their pages. So we're working on keeping the area book really updated. She brought up that we need to be so strictly on time. So we're also working on that.

We taught Aaron more about the Book of Mormon and he is doing great! Let me give you a brief rundown of Aaron. He was found tracting and we invited him to church and activities but he was always busy and never home. Finally he came to an activity and then we taught him, but he just acted like a punk. The companion I had at the time asked if we could meet up one day and he texted back "no because I'm really attracted to you and I don't want to do anything stupid." Awkward. So we sent the elders over. They weren't really trying with him. Then Aaron just showed up at an activity. And our YSA loved him! So he came to church! We asked the elders to send his teaching record back to us. We've been teaching him a lot and his whole countenance has really changed. He even told us yesterday that he didn't really care about it the first time we taught him, but now he really cares about it. It's so amazing! And when we taught the Restoration he teared up and told us his mom passed away a year or two ago. Then when we taught the Plan of Salvation and we taught about the Spirit World, he loved it because we explained that his mom was there, learning about the gospel too just like him. He thought that was neat. He's so amazing! He is just prepared now.

Lastly we set up to meet with a member, Sean. We were going to implement a member missionary plan with him, but he brought his friend John with him. John is not a member but he's come to some activities before. So we sit down, and we are mentally communicating, freaking out what to do because we can't just talk about inviting friends in front of his friend! So Sister Oldroyd whips out the Bible and says we're going to read in Matthew about when Christ walks on water and having faith. We read it and talked about it. John was really talkative... And I don't think I've really heard more than 3 words out of him. I heard what his voice sounded like! It turned out alright... Sean looked a little confused about why we would have him travel across town to sit and read a chapter with us though.

Thursday:
Exchange #2 with Fort Campbell sisters. I stayed and Sister Peterson came with me. She's really chill and I'm so glad because all our afternoon plans cancelled. So we did finding and tracting for 4 hours! We did have two cool miracles though! First we were visiting Nick who we tracted into ages ago! I was going to contact him this last time and then drop him. He answered and I asked him if he was still interested and he said he wasn't positive because he hasn't had the chance to read the Book of Mormon. So I asked if he was on FB and he said yes and that I could add him and keep in touch with him easier on there! Miracle because I thought he wasn't interested.

Second we had a guy named Ruben Jr. in our area book. The sisters found him and he said he wasn't interested but his YSA age son would be. We tried back one time and asked for Ruben Jr... Well that's the dad. So I figured we would try one last time to figure out if he's interested and then pass him off to the elders. Someone opens the door and his name is Ruben. Ruben Jr is his dad. Ruben is YSA and was interested in activities. The miracle part was that he doesn't live there, but was just there for a bit feeding the dogs while his parents are out of town. Perfect timing! God is so good at what He does.

That night we taught Chris the Plan of Salvation. He hadn't really known much about it but this was the first time we had seen him since our great lesson. He's still set on the 25th but wants to really make sure it's right. At the end of the lesson we asked if he had comments or concerns, and he just pointed at the Spirit World and said softly "I like this." And then we all sat in silence.... For like a whole minute!! If you sit in silence for 10 seconds, it's awkward. 20 is maybe feeling the spirit, 30 is feeling the spirit, and a whole minute is like... SPIRIT PUNCH TO THE GUT TELLING YOU THIS IS THE TRUTH AND THE WHOLE TRUTH AND THE ONLY TRUTH!!! It was just amazing. After about 20 seconds I just sat there until someone else talked. I wasn't going to ruin that moment. He just sat back after that minute and said "yeah." Oh my - Chris. The perfect investigator.

Friday:
We got back from our exchange and we had to book it to the church. I accidentally double booked us. So we ran to the church, taught Aaron, ran to another appointment who wasn't home, and then grabbed lunch at Wendy's and ate it on the way to our appointment with Calvin.

We taught Aaron the Plan of Salvation and that's the day he just liked the Spirit World because he knew where his mom was and that she was safe and learning just as he was. Oh we all teared up in that lesson.

With Calvin we read Alma 24 about the people of Ammon. We talked about what had happened the past 3 weeks and told him to just bury those weapons of war. He is going to think of something and then we're all going to bury our weapons at the next lesson. He liked that idea.

Saturday:
We did weekly planning this day instead of Friday since we were so busy. I had the most crippling migraine and I just couldn't focus. I laid on the floor for most of planning and Sister Oldroyd got me snacks and made sure I was still living. It was a long 3 hours!

Then we met with Austin, and he hung out with us the rest of the day! From 2:30 to 9:00. We did Facebook and then tracted for a couple hours and visited people and it was just fun! Safe from guns and got a ton of member present lessons. It was a great night.

Sunday:
We had a long day at church. Seven hours because we got there early, and then we had church and then we met with Aaron and then we went to another Sacrament meeting because we had another investigator there. (Her name is Emily. She was a referral from the elders and we’re teaching her because her husband is deployed. She is pretty golden. Her husband is a member and so is her brother-in-law.)

We hopped on Facebook and saw that the Nashville YSA was posting that David Archuleta went to church there today. And he will for a while because he is getting back on his feet there.

After church we had lunch and then we headed to the Orr's house for a ride to Madison. We got there and the whole mission was there. We were told to be there and to wear red or white. All matching. Christmas photo? We all were guessing the Prophet was coming or the mission was splitting. Nope. We're sitting there singing waiting for it to start and David Archuleta walks in. Every sister missionary in the room freaked out and started smiling and laughing. And me... -_- I was like... Cool ... He's a cool guy but not to be obsessed over.

So he gave a really good devotional. He sang a couple songs for us throughout it. The first one was Glorious which is my favorite EFY song. He sings it at the end of Meet the Mormons. He also sang Hark All Ye Nations and I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus. It was cool! And he talked about how much music has an impact on others and it brings the spirit so fast. It made me really think again about my music and the things I do with it. He did a question and answer and one elder asked for a hug... All the sisters were freaking out about the microphone to ask questions. He gave some good answers and strong testimony. He became human to me. He's just been an obsession of all the other girls around me in the world. He has struggles too. He was inactive at one point before the mission. He has had bumps and trials just like I have. It was really cool. And then he was in our Christmas picture.

                                                                               

You might need to click on the picture to see it bigger, but do you spy David Archuleta? There are about 4 rows of elders standing up on the stage down to the floor, then the sisters and a few elders are sitting down. If you look at the row right in front of the standing elders, about the middle of the row, next to President and Sister Andersen, you will see David Archuleta sitting next to Sister Andersen. (If you count six elders from the left on the front row, you can see me in the white blouse above that elder's head.)

It was fun to see all my companions. I finally saw Sister Schenk after forever! And a lot of the Nashville YSA were there! It was so cool! I died later with a migraine. And we went to bed.

                                                                             

I got to see Sister Frampton! (2 companions ago)

I loved seeing Sister Jarvis (my 2nd companion - 2nd from the left) and so many of the Nashville YSA from my first area.

This week has been really good. I've had just a great view of my mission and how wonderful it is! I love serving the Lord. This time is the greatest time on the face of the planet. I cannot express the desire I have to serve the Lord and spread His gospel to everyone. In the store today a lady let us go in front of her because she had SO much stuff. I thanked her as we left with a picture of Christ and she gave me a hug and wished us a good day. It made my day and helped me realize that there are so many Christlike people around us. It melted my heart and made me want to be kinder and more loving. I love this gospel so much!

I love my family too and I hope y'all have the best week ever. I wish you could be here to meet all the amazing people I meet. It's incredible. I love you!

~Sister Rokovitz~

P.S. I want you to meet John! [the photo]
He was in Walmart today. We were printing photos and I hear from behind me "Is Sister Weeks still around?" John was at the electronics computer behind me. I said no and that she left two weeks ago. He was bummed and said she'd always say hi and promised to give him a Book of Mormon but she never did. He explained that he was Catholic and loved collecting Bibles and reading. I asked if he wanted one and he said yes and proceeded to tell me when he worked. I told him I had a copy in my bag and he could have it if he wanted. He got real excited and so I pulled it out and he came to my photo stand and I told him that it was a very special copy because my Dad had put his testimony in it and sent it to me to give to him. He was very touched and said "Well you better sign it". So on the back side of where Dad wrote his testimony I wrote a little note saying how precious the book was to me and that it was all about Christ and had the words of eternal life. He was so happy to get it and even more happy to take a picture with me. He promised to read it and then he passed me a couple more times and he had that book tucked under his arm each time he walked by. Thank you Dad for sharing your testimony.

                                                                               

A Great New Companion....and More Guns

Wow.. Where do I even begin... I miss Sister Stucki so much. She was the best missionary. My new companion is Sister Oldroyd and I love her! She is from Farmington and she is the oldest of 4 kids. She has been out for 8 months and this is her second area! She is just on fire 24/7 and I can't explain where all that energy comes from! She is super good about remembering our goals and striving to reach them each day. We made a goal to contact 10 new people a day which means 70 per week and 420 for the transfer. So last night we were syncing our i-Pads so we could report accurate numbers, and Sister Oldroyd says "we need four more for the day" so we trekked around and gave pass along cards to those we found. She cracks me up. When we set our goal and figured it would be 420, she said "Someone HAS to be baptized!!!" We have become super busy and we're tracting like maniacs and we are seeing a lot of miracles. We have 4 set appointments on Tuesday!! Miracles! So I'm pretty stoked for this transfer. I'm going to be tired each night.. Scratch that, exhausted, but it's so worth it! I love working with hard working companions! This was inspired.

So we decided we will not knock on doors after dark anymore. I don't know what's going on in the world that's making everyone so defensive, but... We got two more guns pulled on us this week. And out of the four that have been pulled on me I got one pointed straight at my brain. And I didn't even really freak out. I just said "Whoa hey, we're just missionaries!" Haha my heart didn't pound or anything! Is that bad?! Guns are now a regularity..... Yikes.

My lesson for FHE was brilliant. I had a lot of people thank me with tears in their eyes saying it was just what they needed and they needed to work on being nicer to others. It was the neatest thing. Then for Sports Night everyone was so cautious about what they were saying. I only had to sing my “kind words” song once. It was awesome!

We did get to go back to our friends from Kenya! We went in the afternoon and they had made us tea... And we had to refuse. But they understood because they don't eat pork. They were sad that we couldn't come back that night because they wanted to feed us and have us meet everyone else. We couldn't break their hearts.... So we went back! They had African music playing and they were making food. I sat by Valery and started talking to her. She's my age and she just came here two months ago for school and her whole family is still in Kenya. She told me she likes singing and so we opened the hymn book and she picked songs she knew and we sang them and took turns singing alto. I love them! They fed us "chapate" which is like a tortilla/pancake and it's so good! We had a blast over there and we are going to get bracelets from them.

                                                                               

Meeting with our friends from Kenya

We haven't seen Chris this week. He forgot about our appointment Thursday because work has been crazy. But we do have an appointment set up with him for this Tuesday. We are going to get him baptized! I would appreciate it if y'all prayed for him. He's strong but we don’t want to lose him.

Here's about the week:

Monday:
We just had a lot of fun taking pictures and relaxing. We accomplished a lot and Sister Stucki packed so fast. It makes me less worried for when I go home. She left behind a lot and she was WAY under weight with her luggage for her flight home.

For FHE we had that awesome lesson and it went super well. After my lesson I made them team up with people that I knew they didn't necessarily get along with so much. I assigned them, and then I said: "Wrists up" and we taped them together, haha it was awesome! We also had everyone secretly sign a card for Sister Stucki and we gave it to her with some brownies.

Tuesday:
That was a rough day. We bawled all through transfer meeting. It was so sad! I kept trying to say goodbye and I would cry and then we would just follow each other around. She's been home a week now. I never want to go through that trial. Missionary for life.

                                                                             

With Sister Stucki at transfer meeting

I love Sister Oldroyd! She is just so much fun and hard working and full of so much energy! We had Stake Correlation that night and I'm glad President wasn't there because we were late and we got locked out. But it went so well and I liked it better than last time. I've also had fun trying to explain the military to Sister Oldroyd haha.

                                                                               

With Sister Oldroyd, my new companion

Wednesday:
Today was rough... plans falling through like water in a strainer. We did see Brandon though. I can't remember if I told you about him. He was a referral from the elders. He is looking for a religion because he's getting back into it now. He's SO SINCERE!!! He is just really searching for the truth. Good news: We have it! We are hopefully meeting again with him this week.

We did a lot of Less Active hunting and then we went to Austin Peay to scout out complexes around there. We found a ton and I'm a little overwhelmed with how many YSA there are to find. Then Gwen texted us and asked if we were on campus. Lucky.. we were. She wanted to ask us to pray for her fiance’s grandpa who has bad cancer and probably won’t last much longer. I thought it was so cool that she trusted us and asked for help. I was able to suggest a conference talk for her to read. She even told us she watched some of it on her own... amazing! That night we also met Tori. She is 20 and goes to Vanderbilt a couple times a week to do Chemotherapy. She is so sweet and was so interested in the gospel! We left her with a pamphlet and have an appointment again with her tomorrow night.

Thursday:
Busy day. We met SO many awesome people tracting! Jennifer is one. She is married and she is looking for a new church and let us right in. We shared the whole Restoration with her and she loved it. She said she would come to church (she didn't) but we will go back this week. She was really sweet.

We also met with Austin and discussed how to get the new member lessons going to help him retain his testimony. He told us how he wanted us to teach him and so we did that later this week and it was a really good lesson! We had him match principles with scriptures and he did pretty good. That kid's testimony is solid!

Friday:
We set some crazy goals! We set a goal to contact 10 people a day which is 70 per week and 420 per transfer. We also set a goal to have a baptism on November 8th and we are praying for it in every prayer together!

We later met up with a member, Aaron, and talked about missionary work. He actually got really excited about it! We came up with a "program" to help our YSA's do missionary work and bring friends to be taught. It’s working pretty good so far. This is the day I had a gun pulled at my face... that was fun. And we stopped by 2 less active’s homes.

Saturday:
We attended the baptism of the daughter of a YSA and it was so cool. We also met some really sweet other people from Kenya from tracting. She is really sweet and she wants us to come back .

We also met with Aaron, our investigator! Remember him? From a while ago? He was given to the elders because he had a crush on Sister Frampton, but she's gone so we taught him the Restoration again and his countenance was so different from the first time. It was so cool! And he came to church and then he said he had more questions. It’s awesome!

Sunday:
This day was crazy! We had Dre, and Aaron at church. And then we met someone named Brandon. He came and we were combined with the First ward for Sacrament and we went to talk to him afterwards. He is in the military and his wife is in Ohio with his kids. She got baptized 1 month ago and he decided he wants to check into it! It was a miracle! Crazy miracle!

Mom I gave your Book of Mormon to a lady named Amanda. We were just going back to see if she read the pamphlet and she did and she said "I liked it and it’s something I'm interested in." What?! Ok... so we taught her the Restoration and I gave her your Book of Mormon and I told her how special it was to me and that you had written your testimony in there for her. It was so cool! She was really appreciative of it.

We lastly saw Dre. He came to church and he was kind of falling asleep but he said he liked it. Then we saw him that night and I gave him the Book of Mormon with Cory's testimony in it. He thought that was the nicest thing in the world for my brother to write his testimony so I could give it to him.

                                                                           

Dre with the Book of Mormon that Cory wrote his testimony in

Well I have to go, sorry I'm rushing the end of this! I love y'all so much and I can't wait to hear back from you!

~Sister Rokovitz~


                                                                                 

Locked the keys inside.....but Kevin will get us in!

A Fantastic Week.....Even With Guns Pulled On Us

I would just like to say... This week was fantastic. I just have to tell you about it!

So it all started out with FHE last week... We got permission from President to watch 17 Miracles with our YSA group. It was so good! And it really hit me. It made me want to work hard and just keep going no matter how hard it gets. Because those people had it pretty hard. I had started out the week by praying that I would be able to make this week the best for Sister Stucki. I was pleading for ways to do that. But nothing was coming to me.

So on Tuesday, we spent the majority of our afternoon calling Less-active's or trying to find them, finding people we had previously met, and doing Facebook. It was a long day. We showed up for dinner at an investigator’s home, and she informed us she forget about a meeting, and handed us something, in a Tupperware. It had shrimp in it so I knew I wasn't eating it. So we went to Walmart and bought dinner! I had a frozen dinner, and Sister Stucki had a bag of steamable broccoli... Haha
That night we went tracting and we found 2 golden people! Seth and Dre. Seth is African and he was pretty interested in our message. He is in the military. He had a couple of really good questions for us and we set up a time to come back. Dre is in the military and he is so amazing! He seems like a huge scary guy but all he can do is smile! Sister Stucki was telling him about how we believe the church was lost but it's restored through a living prophet, and he said "Wait. Hold up. You said prophet?" He was so interested in learning about the prophet! He had so many questions and they were all so sincere! It was amazing!

Wednesday we had Zone meeting. I gave my first training as an STL and it went so well! I had plenty of time to prepare and rely on the spirit. I trained on teaching for understanding. I used a phrase from Elder Kapische, our area 70. He said "What doctrine do they need to understand to change their behavior." I’m going to focus on teaching this to sisters as I go on exchanges this next transfer. President Andersen also gave a training about resisting Satan and it was just what I needed! It was so powerful!

Next, we got to watch...... Meet the Mormons! We got to screen it before it comes out! And let me tell you, it was so good! So I'm going to encourage EVERYONE to go see it! Whether you're a member or not. Go see it. I can promise it will strengthen your faith. I was tearing up towards the end. But my favorite story was the one about the football coach. Oh and when you watch it, there's a girl named Kate Hargedon who speaks about the man in Nepal. She's another STL here in our mission.

Later I had fried Oreos at lunch. Y'all should be jealous. I had to put that in there! Then I took Hermana Reed back with me for an exchange. She goes home tomorrow and she is terrified. She couldn't stop talking about it. I love that sister so much! She has been such a huge example to me. She has been my good friend since the very beginning of my mission.. I'm going to miss her.

All of our plans fell through... Except one. We met up with Isaiah who is from American Samoa. He is a member and is here playing his 4th year for APSU football. He is awesome! He's hilarious too! He was telling us stories and we were practically rolling on the ground laughing so hard! His story is inspiring! He came here on a scholarship and has seen his family once in four years. He sends home a lot of his money to help his family, who lives off their land. He loves his family so much and will do anything for them. He also loves the gospel and wants to serve a mission. He doesn't know when or how yet, but that's a desire of his. He feels like family to me. I just love his testimony.

So Thursday rolls around and no wonderful miracles have happened yet... So we start our day and go visit Ebony and Steven. On our way up to their apartment some guy outside talking to Steven said "Hey I want one of those books!" He looked like a real rough dude and I couldn't tell if he was just making fun of us... He was actually sincerely interested. He loves learning about religion. He said "Steven won't let me have his" haha yeah Steven! So we gave him one and he was excited to read it. We went inside and Ebony told us Steven’s uncle died so he's been a little down... Steven came in and we figured out he needs to go way back to the basics... Like, he doesn't even feel like he's a child of God. He feels like God is a spirit. So we had a really good lesson with him and he actually made eye contact with us and he thought out his responses first. It was so good! Then we had a huge chunk of time until an appointment. We had put in our plans to contact a Less-active but I had tried her so many times and she never answered. We pulled up and her car was there, and she was home!!! We went in and she was pretty open. She lives a rough life and has strayed from the gospel.. But she was put in jail last week and it hit her that she needed to straighten out. We showed her Because of Him and she loved it. It really brought the spirit among the beer boxes taped to the wall. She thanked us and we left. It was such a good experience and she said she'll come to Sports Night next week!

We taught Chris that night outside the church and it was a disaster! We were not unified in teaching for some reason and our members kept interrupting us to unlock the church and tell us random things. It was frustrating.

We also tracted that day and we knocked on a door and a girl answered and said she was Jehovah's Witness and she wasn't interested. We moved on to the door behind us and she reopened her door and said, "I guess they want to talk to you..." We went in and it was her and two guys. Mike was the most interested. The others were Josh and Ashley. Mike had a lot of sincere questions. Sister Stucki is going back tonight with Sinclair to teach them. And I'm going to be on splits with Sister Frogue setting up for FHE. It was so cool that something prompted them within a few seconds to tell her to invite us back. God works mighty miracles.

Friday:
I woke up feeling not so great. I was exhausted and just feeling sick. So weekly planning was a long experience for me. I really had to apply "endure to the end" on that one! Haha I ate a bunch of jelly beans to wake me up and it gave me a migraine.... But I was awake! Haha It was a rough day. I had gotten upset over something that really didn't matter. The thing that eats me up though is I'm too prideful to just apologize and let it go. It's something I'm still learning.

We met with Dre and Seth and Annalee came along with us. First was Dre. We knocked and I was worried at first because I heard a loud and almost angry sounding "Who is it?!" I thought maybe he was drunk... The door flies open and it's his dad! Haha he thought we were Dre's sister and so he was playing a joke and it was us! Haha well his sister arrived too and then we all sat down. His dad kept going off on random things explaining them to Dre and his kids would yell to be quiet, all in fun though. They are a very smiley family! Before the First Vision we told him to pay attention to how he feels. We recited it and then his dad went off on something. Then Dre says playfully "Dad shut up! I want to tell them how I felt!" Hahaha I was dying! So then he turns to us and said "I felt amazing!" And proceeded to tell us why. He kept saying "Dad this is about me!" Haha they were cracking me up! Dre said he's coming to FHE tonight.

With Seth the lesson was way different. It was quiet and focused and his roommate Alonzo sat in on it too. Seth's phrase that he says all the time is "too easy" in his African accent. So we asked if we could turn off the TV and he said "too easy!" And leaped for the remote! They both agreed to be baptized! We didn't set a specific date though. They were supposed to come to conference but didn't make it.

Saturday and Sunday: Cue miracles.

Saturday Chris came to both sessions of conference and Ebony and Steven came to one! Ebony loved it! Steven.. Not so much. But their twins were really good throughout the whole thing and Ebony went home and watched all the rest!

Let me just tell you.. Watching conference with other missionaries is the best! We all said "YESSSSSSS!!!" When they said Tad R. Callister and Jeffrey R. Holland would speak. I was so full of the spirit! More than ever! And this whole week has really been a week of strengthening my testimony of prophets. It's incredible! I KNOW that God has called a prophet to lead the Church on earth just as He did in times of old. It ALL makes sense! How can this gospel not be true? It just is!

So that night we bundled up and went to contact Less-active's. It was pretty successful! And we got a gun pulled on us! Hahaha by a member! We knocked and the mom yelled "Who is it?" We responded saying it was the sister missionaries Back Up: I don't think she heard us... It got silent for a while and Sister Stucki said "Maybe she went to get a gun" next thing we hear is a gun clicking the bullet into place.... And the dad opened the door and started laughing because they had pulled a gun on the missionaries! Haha they have had a few robberies lately so it's understandable. But that's quite a mission story!

Sunday: Cue mighty miracles
Chris watched the conference sessions at his house and they were so perfect for him! We went tracting in between sessions and ran into a YSA member! He's Muslim now, but we found a YSA member!! Ok miracle! Well back up. We were done and Sister Stucki said, “let’s do one more.” So we went upstairs and both of us looked at door 13 but we knocked 12. No answer. Knocked 13 and found him. Um.... Major miracle!

Then after conference we went tracting again and knocked on a door and there was no peephole and we heard a gun click again and a guy answered the door and just kept the gun behind his back the whole time and then rejected us and sent us off... But here's the next miracle. We knocked on a door and a guy answered and invited us in. We walk into a room full of people just staring at us. They are all from Kenya and the military brought them here. They all had so many sincere questions! They said we could come back next Saturday and they would cook us food and said there would be even more people!! We're going to baptize all of Kenya!

Now. Drumroll...
This made this transfer worth everything.
We taught Chris and we brought a member with us, Garrett, and his roommate Nathan was there. So we started with talking about conference and everything he liked. He then said "All I need to know is if Joseph Smith is a prophet and if Thomas S. Monson is a prophet. Then I can be baptized." It was weird. His whole countenance changed! I always felt like in the past, everything was not right for him, and then he just says willingly something about baptism! After all our discussions of baptism and why it's necessary and after many conversations about various topics. We then showed him a video of Elder Holland’s testimony of the Book of Mormon. Powerful. We bore testimony and Sister Stucki teared up and was very bold with him because it was her last time. I then told him that we wouldn't be here if we didn't know it to be true and we wouldn't be asking him to join us in this marvelous truth if we didn't know God would support him. I then shared how much time Sister Stucki has devoted to studying for him because she really desires his salvation and that's a testimony to me. We testified some more, and then Sister Stucki asked him to be baptized on November 25th. I thought "hmm... That's far away!" Our member told us that was a Tuesday, and she said "Oh I meant October!" So Chris asked her to say it again, and she couldn't even finish before he said yes! Chris said he would be baptized!!!! Sister Stucki and I bounced up and down the whole way home! Something changed him. I think a lot of questions were answered and a lot of things clicked for him during conference. We challenged him to read Joseph Smith's testimony out loud and to pray about it. I know he'll get baptized.

God works great miracles! He works such amazing miracles!

Now I wanted to tell y'all quickly about my favorite talk in conference. Mine was Elder Christophersons, Here's what I got from him:
The previous night I just cried in my prayers and told Heavenly Father I couldn't do it and I needed His help. These words came to my mind: "Study the atonement." The next morning I did... It's a subject I once studied over and over and I felt I couldn't learn anything new... Because I studied it, it stuck out to me in conference. He explained how Christ didn't die to save us, but to offer repentance. Then it clicked. So often we are told to apply the atonement. But what does that even mean!! It means, to repent, change and become better through Christ. Apply the atonement. Take advantage of the opportunity He gave you to repent.
That was my favorite talk! I had many others... But that was my all time favorite!

You asked why we've been so hungry and couldn't tell you the reason. We were struggling with our area and we had fasted and needed ultimate help and so an elder suggested giving all our money to fast offerings... And so we did! We gave $60 each from what was left on our cards to the Lord. And miracles came. Miracles in the sense of gaining 3 boxes of crackers from an exchange in which we survived off for a week, miracles in gaining a bag of food from someone and leftovers from dinners and lots of pizza from YSA and the boxes of food you sent. And the Lord made these last two days so great! It was all worth it!

Well that's my week! I have to go! I love you so much! :)

~Sister Rokovitz~

P.S. Oh and transfers, I'm staying in Clarksville and training a new Sister Training Leader, Sister Oldroyd.

                                                                         

Welcome to Kentucky!

Tennessee welcomes you!! I live right on the boarder of Tennessee and Kentucky and am often crossing over the boarders back and forth.

I Love Tennessee!!!

Yay Clarksville! I get to stay another transfer!!

Piggly Wiggly.....Only in the South haha.

Good bye Sister Stucki. I'm going to miss her soooo much!!!