Hakuna Matata :] October 21st 2013

This week was a good one for Sister Young and I. We are going about missionary work a little bit differently this transfer. We are meeting with a lot of the younger people that are having a hard time getting themselves to commit to the church, but they are some pretty awesome people!!!! I love them! We have been working a lot with Isaac and Megan! ISAAC is a convert, he converted when he was 18 and went on a mission at 20, he has been home for about a year and kind of fell in a rut of missing church and hangin' around the wrong crowd, but his desire is real and he wants to come back, last week he bore his testimony is sacrament and he said he has been happier the last few weeks that he has been meeting with us and living the gospel more fully, it's really awesome to hear! This week we had a lesson planned with him and he had to cancel due to family things, so we rescheduled and he had us meet him over at his parents house who are both very less active and his sister was there also, she is not a member and has taken the discussions before, but she said she would pray with us next time , so that was great because we didn't even ask for a next time! We are really hoping to begin teaching her and see their whole family at church soon :] they are really great! MEGAN, is so great! She was raised in the church and became a bit rebellious in her teen years, she has tattoos and piercings and enjoys all of them, she likes to be artistic and different, her mother still lives in the ward and is a ward missionary, super awesome family! Megan is improving leaps and bounds!! She is reading the scriptures everyday, and her faith is so strong! She has a real desire to work at her salvation, she just needs to let it stick this time around! But we love her and we love meeting with her, this week she even brought a friend from work to church and he was really interested!! It's been really great seeing the rewards that come from working with these people!! :] We had a Relief Society lunch today and Peggy, Robin, Cindy and Ashley were able to come (I'll explain all of them later) but it went so well and everyone fellow shipped them so quickly, we really couldn't have asked for more from the ward! It was incredible! So PEGGY... she is awesome, she is engaged to Dave, who was born and raised in the church but hasn't been since he was about 20, he has a strong testimony of the truth of it all though. He loves that Peggy is taking the lessons because he is so proud of his beliefs! I love it! They are the cutest couple! They are probably in there late 50's and they are just spunky and fun! Peggy came to the Relief Society broadcast, she came with Sister Chong and she loved it! We accidentally knocked into her a couple of weeks later and she accepted the lessons, so we have met with them twice and things are going great! We love her!! ROBIN has a son on a mission, he converted at 18 and went out at 19, she has not joined the church yet, but we are working on loving her into it! She comes almost every week and to all the ward activities, she loves missionary visits!! There are some health (mental) things that are stopping her from joining, but I wouldn't be surprised if she is baptized by her son when he gets home! CINDY is our recent convert who is still just doing awesome!!!! ASHLEY is another recent convert who is doing so great! She is getting her patriarchal blessing this Sunday, we are so excited for her! She called us last night to tell us a few things and one of them was pretty funny so I wanted to share it with you. A little fact before I tell, in this mission we knock on doors from 5pm-7pm with no excuses except for with presidents permission. Ashley was over at her friends house in the other ward and the missionaries were over. They had been there for a while (longer than the allotted hour) and it was almost 7pm and she knew that we are supposed to be tracting so, she simply looked at them and asked, Aren't you elders supposed to be knocking on doors right now? Hahaha I love that she called them out on it! She is a hoot! Well, that's a good note to end on! I love you all! Love, Sister Falkner

Oh How Lovely Was the Morning :] October 14th 2013

To all my family and friends! Oh how I love you! It is a beautiful day here in Washington!!! This week was good, I got sick Friday night, that was no fun, but the work goes on!! I am feeling a bit better today but still not up to par yet! Anyways, that's not important! Although, our sweet ward mission leader and his wife rushed over to our apartment Friday night when they found that I wasn't feeling well and they brought me medicine and vitamins, it was very kind of them! This week we knocked on Peggy's door. Peggy came to the general relief society broadcast with a friend a couple weeks back. We knocked on her door not knowing she lived there and she gladly welcomed us in, she brought down her husband (even though we found out they aren't actually married...yet) Dave, He is a less active member that believes it all and loves it, just struggles with keeping the commandments! But they are great! We visited and got a return appointment for Thursday, on Thursday we went back with the Frei's because they already knew each other and were friends. Peggy and Dave had read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and the testimonies in the beginning, she had some questions that we were able to answer and then we taught the first lesson, it went so well! We asked her what her idea of a prophet is and she said “well, Joseph Smith. Right?” she is so receptive and open to learn. She is a “cradle catholic” as she says, and she says we are “cradle mormons” hahah she is so cute! We are really excited to continue meeting with them! We had Mission Leadership Council this week. That's always a really spiritual meeting because it is filled with very respectable missionaries that all have such a reverence and strong spirit, I loved it! Sister Young and I did a training at the meeting and it went well, we talked about working with the members and having them help with the work. As President Weaver says, the church has 15 million missionaries, not just 80 thousand! Then later that night we had a lesson with 3 less active people, it was GREAT!!! We sang an opening song and taught the restoration, then we had a little testimony meeting at the end and they all shared their testimony, the spirit was so strong and then on Sunday, 2 out of the 3 of them came to church! The one that didn't make it had work and it was too late of notice to get it off, but he is doing great! Those were the highlights of my week, I would love to hear about yours! I love you all! Love, Sister Alie Falkner

Back On Two Feet! :] October 7th 2013

Hello everyone!!!! I went to the doctor this week and my ankle is healed! Yay!!!! :] its great to walk around like a normal person! I love it! I cant run or jump or anything, but I can walk and tract, so its good! So this week we met a really awesome guy named Gary, he was not interested at first but he just said that because he didn't know how much our message could bless his life, we talked to him for a while and he was very receptive but still not super interested. He loves the Lord and goes to church already, but he admitted to us that he was struggling with overcoming alcoholism. At this point we had asked him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon twice and he said no both times. I felt like we couldn't give up on him yet though, so I shared a scripture with him (Alma 17: 2-3) and promised him that if he studied the Book of Mormon with the Bible that he would be able to gain the spiritual strength to overcome his addiction, at the end of my promise I asked him again if he would read and pray about the Book of Mormon, and he excitedly looked me in the eye and said “ABSOLUTELY” it was really great to see the spirit touch him and see his heart changed, I am excited to begin teaching him! GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!!!! Ahhhhhh. What a marvelous weekend! Its like Christmas as a missionary! I loved it so much! Sister Young and I had a goal of watching conference in 4 different homes, one for each session, and to have someone we are working with in each home. We don't have a lot of people we are teaching right now because they are all recent converts now, but it was great because we accomplished our goal. We watched the 1st session at the Hatch home with Ashley and Cindy, it went really well, we had some yummy homemade cinnamon rolls. Sister Hatch is the Relief Society president and she makes everything handmade and its all so yummy! I love that family! The 2nd session was at Sarah Chamberlin's home she is working on coming back to church and she is just really awesome, her husband is not a member but we are hoping to start working with them as a family real soon! The 3rd was with the Johnson's and a less active Jessica Furby was there the Johnson's are awesome, they had two nonmembers at the 4th session but we weren't able to stay for that one. And 4th we watched it at the Bohl's and we are working with her daughter Megan Bohls she is really great and has such a strong testimony and desire to come back to the church. It was so awesome to watch is so many different environments but to see how each session was such an answer to these peoples prayers! I loved it so much! Some of my favorite things that were said are... God is perfect, His doctrine is pure. But he works through imperfect people. -Uchtdorf The world has enough woman of fame and fortune, we need woman of faith! -Christopherson Opposition in all things is not a flaw of God's Plan of Salvation. -Dyches Patiently enduring is part of our mortal existence. -Holland Joy is guaranteed to the Faithful. -Eyring There is not ONE of us that He has not desired to save. -Eyring Mans law cannot make moral what is immoral in God's laws. -Oaks You must become the rock the river cannot wash away. And of course the one everyone remembers... Doubt your doubt before you doubt your faith. -Uchtdorf. Take these things into your life and apply them!!! I love you all! Have a blessed week! Love, Sister Alie Falkner!