Carrot Juice! Bottoms up!

 Penny, the love of my life.  That woman is the most selfless person I know.  She is so wonderful! n OH, how I love her. She made us these cute Valentines and I got my Valentines kiss from her adorable grandson! Woot! 

Sister Schwendiman!!

2-16-15

This week was so crazy! It went by so fast, but at the same time it feels like it has been 3 weeks in one. We had MLC ( mission leadership council)  in Helena on Wednesday and zone conference on Thursday. Elder Holland, myself and Sister Glenn all gave our departing testimonies, with many others at MLC. (and yes mom he is staying in Great Falls) That was probably the hardest thing for me to do this week. It was such a privilege to be among so many faithful and strong missionaries and know that I am among them. Their testimonies and their faith have strengthened mine. The rest of MLC was very enlightening. We split up into groups and each group was assigned to focus on either the strengths, threats, weaknesses or opportunities of the mission and we came back together as a council and discussed each of the areas. I was thinking about how powerful that was to think of all these distinct areas of the mission and recognizing the threats, weaknesses but also the strengths and opportunities for growth. I had an opportunity to do that on a much more personal level and think of my strengths, weaknesses, threats and my opportunities of growth. How grateful I am for the gospel that constantly is my motivation to become and to change into something better. 

I will always remember what Larry said about how he was tired of not progressing and living the gospel has allowed him to stretch and to grow. And how important it is to take time in our life and sit down and really think of where we are, and where we want to be and who we can be through our Savior. 

We spent the night in Helena and I got to be with a sister I was an STL over here in Great Falls as well as another Sister I came out with.  It was so much fun! Oh! I just loved being able to see the sister I was over. It has been close to 6 months since I have seen her and it is incredible how much she has grown and changed. I was so impressed with her ability to bear sincere testimony and do the hard things. I wonder if that is how it is with our father in heaven. Obviously on a much larger scale, but when we go home to Him, will he be so proud of the person we allowed ourselves to become? Will he be able to see how we used our weaknesses to become some of our greatest strengths? I often wonder about that. Will I be confident with who I have become in God's presence, or will I still have regrets. Luckily, that is why we have a Savior who allows us to be enabled and become. I have gained such a powerful testimony of the potential we have. God always sees us for who we can be, not who we are, or who we have been. He knows us perfectly and knows exactly what we are capable of. That is why our life here on earth was so vital, because only through he stress and complexities of life would we be stretched and tested and ultimately through much pressure be refined into incredible, changed beings.

Thursday was a zone conference type deal...but it wasn't really zone conference. It was a mission leadership training. But something that was said was really interesting. President Mecham talked about the weight and magnitude of our calling as missionaries and how we are all leaders. He said that if there was a branch in this mission that didn't have any worthy priesthood holders, he could call one of the missionaries in that area to become the Branch President, he would pick his 2 counselors and they would be set apart.  But the missionary called as the Branch president would not have to be set apart for his calling because as a missionary he has  already been set apart to lead and to guide. Isn't that nuts? I never knew  that. But I don't think that missionaries in general really understand the name they bear, and what authority they carry with them. I joke that I feel like I haven't changed all that much, because I have been with me the whole time so it can be hard to tell. It's hard knowing your imperfections and weaknesses and to be able to really see yourself as a physical representative of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. What an incredible opportunity we have to serve as the Lords servants for such a small amount of time. It reminds me of one of my favorite scriptures from my mission in D&C 15:6. " behold, I say unto you that the thing which will be of most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people that you may bring souls unto me."  There is nothing that brings me greater joy than to know that I am doing the work of God right now. I am fulfilling his work here on the earth. No other time in my life will I be certain that I am doing what is pleasing to God. 

After our meetings in Helena we drove back to Great Falls and had yet another meeting with our Stake President. I LOVE THOSE MEETINGS.  Basically he calls random people to bear their testimonies on a specific topic and that is the meeting.  But I have never been in more spirit led meetings.  All things that are spoken are from the heart and from people's experiences.  I had the opportunity to bear my testimony at that meeting.  How grateful I am for opportunities to bear my testimony.  It allows me to seriously reflect on the things I truly know and it allows the Spirit to witness to me as I speak that I do indeed know this gospel to be the gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ.  I love this work! 

Facebook miracle!!! Get this. Get this!! So I was facebook tracting....yes that is a thing,  and I added  some random guy and he accepted. HOLLA! I started talking with him and come to find out he had been meeting with missionaries in October.  But because of some legal complexities they had to stop teaching him. We talked with our stake president got the clear to teach him and baptize him in our ward. And Boom! Next lesson we had we put him on date, and gave him a tour of the church. But listen here  this is where it gets crazy. We were in the primary room and there was a picture of a recently baptized father. They had been a part member family for years, and then after meeting with missionaries Nathan, the father decided to be baptized.  Keern, our investigator, looked at it and was like, "no way! Nathan got baptized!? I went to college with him." Shut up! not even real. And Nathan is THE BOMB! Such an incredible member. And lo and behold who was speaking In Sacrament the following day? Only Nathan and his wife. Keern came to church and listened to probably the best sacrament meeting he will ever have in his life and stayed and participated in the rest of church. Golden? Yes. I think so. But real talk. What are the chances that Keern would know Nathan and that he would be speaking....let's get real people. NO COINCIDENCES. I don't believe it.  Also did I mention that Keern is very good looking? And that all the women in the ward were very thankful he came to church. Haha We invited one of our ward missionaries to a lesson with us and the first thing she asked was, " is it with Keern???" When we told her no she said, " oh darn, he sure isn't hard to look at. " oh dear. Hahaha what have we done...haha but we are excited to see what happens. 

Also this week was confession session.  It seemed like with everyone we met with told us all their deepest darkest secrets.  There is something about wearing a tag that says Jesus Christ that makes people really open up....a lot.  We met with a new investigator this week.  He approached Sister Storrs and I last week and said he needed guidance and needed to find a church to join because he was so lost.  We met with him and it was AWESOME! We had a recently returned missionary come to the lesson and oh! I loved it! We extended the baptismal invite and without hesitation, Nathan said yes, of course.  He was very open and candid about some of his addictions and struggles he faces on a regular basis.  It just built my testimony that there comes a time in our life where we hit a wall and God is the only way out.  Nathan recognized that his addictions and ways of coping with family struggles were not giving him the help he so desperately desired, so when he saw us and our name tags he reached out for help.  I am so excited for him and his progression. Sadly both Nathan and keerns dates are after I leave.  I hate it.  

The work is going great! I have been a lot more bold within the last two weeks than I have since being here and it feels great! I have worked so hard to develop a relationship of love and trust with these people that now is the time to lay down the hammer! Wish me luck! I don't have very long, I have to leave here knowing I said and did all that I humanly could do to help these people come unto Christ.  

I love this gospel. I love my life and my opportunities that God has given me to grow. My mission is the BEST decision I have ever made.  I LOVE HIS WORK! 

I love you all! Talk to you soon! 

Sister Moliney

 HAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!!

 Rhenon at the temple!

The Bozeman Crew!

It was Penny's year anniversary of her baptism.

February 9, 2015

GUESS WHAT! 

EVERYONE JUST GUESS WHAT I GOT TO DO ON SATURDAY! 

Elder Holland, myself and our companions drove down with our Bishop to Billings to go through the temple with Rhenon! Sister Bonn is serving in Rhenon's stake and got to come up as well.  When we got there and got to go behind the desk at the temple Rhenon and Sister Bonn were dressed in white waiting for us. I immediately burst into tears when I saw the two of them.  Good friends from the ward in Bozeman came with Rhenon as well and we all got to be apart of her going through the temple for the first time in 11 years.  I cannot explain the love that filled my heart and the spirit that I felt as I got to see her enter into the temple.  Words cannot describe.  And to top it off my ward mission leader's wife was the ordinance worker for our session.  She saw me and gave me a big hug. Her son is working with Saryn at the creamery. Small world! OH HOW I LOVE THESE PEOPLE! Rhenon's son was shot and killed by a cop about a month ago.  Elder Holland and I got permission to skype her.  It was incredible to see how the Lord has prepared her for these things coming her life for a long time.  I was thinking about last year, if her son had died, there would have been no way that she would have been able to cope and to deal with it.  But The moment she got out of jail, the missionaries were there and have helped her in the gospel to prepare her for that moment.  And the fact that so soon after her son's death she was able to go through the temple again.  Incredible.  Such a special moment.  

Earlier this week Sister Storrs and i had a meeting with Kandace. Which by the way Dad! She was so excited to text you a picture and your response was SO LAME! Text her back something cooler. Haha, but she lives in a locked apartment building and we were waiting for her to come let us in when a guy smoking outside asked if we needed to be let in.  We said yes, and he asked if we were the missionaries that come around every once in awhile.  We said yes and he let us in.  I got the feeling that we needed to talk to him but by the time he let us in it was too late.  LAME excuse. I know.  But we go inside and there was a table of checkers and Sister Storrs challenged me to a game while we waited for Kandace.  So we played and I  got demolished.  But the man outside came in and approached us and asked if we teach classes or something and if he could join them.  DO WE TEACH CLASSES!?  We jumped on the sucker. Gave him our number a Book of Mormon testified and set up an appointment.  He told us that his parents were going through a divorce and it was really effecting him and felt like he needed to find a church to be apart of.  COME my friend. Come.  hahaha But it really hit me after he left that never again will I have random strangers approach me and ask me about baptism, or about God and ask me what they can do to find him.  Never again.  It gave me perspective of how I want to leave my mission. Knowing I gave everyone an opportunity to learn about the Restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Okay, I know Dana sounds crazy! But he is great! We taught a lesson with the elders this week to transition him over and it went really really well. Although he loves sister missionaries he does have a pure heart and has a desire to do good. 

Dion is another investigator and guess what! HE BROUGHT HIS GIRLFRIEND TO CHURCH! WOOT! We are starting to teach her this Friday :)

Also some more exciting news! A less active family we have been trying to work with FOR AGES invited us over for dinner this week! NEVER HAS THAT HAPPENED.  They want to be sealed in the temple and know they have to come to church in order for that to happen.  But we had a really good discussion with them about the gospel blessing our families and they loved it. I finally feel like our relationship is getting somewhere with them.  

I was reading back in my old MTC notebook and something that one of our teachers said was that we don't teach.  The Spirit does, it is our job to love them.  And I have definitely seen that take place here. You say what the Spirit leads you to say and you just love the heck out of them....maybe that's where things went sour with Dana...BUT! it is good advice nonetheless. 

LARRRRYYYYYYY! I know you all were waiting on an update with the Lar Bear! We had two solid lessons with him this week.  And he put his fist on the table and looked me right in the eye and said, I am doing this Moline.  And I can't promise I will get the Priesthood before you go, but if I do, I want you to be there with me.  He also said that even when we as missionaries leave, he will never forget what we have done for him and that we will always have a special place in his heart.  I almost started crying right then and there.  he kept comparing the person her was now compared to the person he was before. He kept saying that he has not made any progression for months and months and months and the gospel has helped him get somewhere in his life and make some sort of progression toward becoming something.  The Gospel gives meaning to our lives.  It does.  It gives us a reasons to live and to become.  This life is for us to become something greater than what we were before and the gospel allows us to become that.  

I LOVE the gospel. I LOVE the church.  I am who I am today because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is all that I am and all I that I hope to become.  The gospel is the good life.  I know that it doesn't matter what others say or do, as long as I can look in the mirror each night and know I am straight with my Savior, nothing else matters.  My Savior means everything to me.  I owe him all that I am.  I love you all! Talk to you soon!


Sister Moly Moly 

 Penny Burkstrand, Myrissa, and her two little boys

 The Whitneys, the couple we live with have a son and his six daughters that live in their ward.  LOVED THESE GIRLS!!

This is dear Sister Tamara Bosh

February 2, 2015

Oh what a week! 

GLORY BE! I AM STAYING WITH SISTER STORRS IN GREAT FALLS! WOOT! WOOT! Nothing brings me greater happiness and joy.  YESSSS!!! 

I will start off with the most interesting news of all.  Dana May our recent convert came up to me the other day and gave me a note.  A note that it a page and a half long.....it is of him confessing his undying love for me.  He said that he wanted to move to Texas and start new life with me.  My heart just sank. NOOO! And then I remembered that he was all about Sister Storrs and Sister Major, I ain't going to be no one's 3rd choice! But in all reality it broke my heart. We had already been through this once.  I pulled him aside at church and was very blunt and straight forward with him. I told him that his feelings for missionaries was inappropriate and that there was no way he would be able to be with Sister Storrs or me or any other missionary for that matter. I explained our purpose and that his feelings was why we were wanting him to meet with the Elders.  He took it pretty hard and wouldn't take a ride home. He walked home and we saw him smoking.  UGH! Love hurts. But we still have an appointment with him and the Elders are coming. Hopefully that transition goes well....pray.  Ha

Lar Bear! Oh that man! So Sister Storrs and i went on exchanges and she had a lesson with Larry without me.   But from the sounds of it, it went extremely well! I have mentioned this a couple of times but he lives in an awful place.  People are constantly coming and going doing meth and other drugs. Even his wife is a meth addict.  He expressed to us that he loves meeting with us because he feels the Spirit, but the spirit he feels doesn't stay with him and sustain him.  He told Sister Storrs in their lesson that that lifestyle and those people were on one side and the church and the gospel was on  the other and he was stuck in the middle. The whole lesson was of him talking and venting.  He got teary eyed as he told Sister Storrs that 9 times out of 10 when he prays he knows he needs to leave that house and never look back.  He needs to make his decision. He got tears in his eyes because he knows that if he moves out of that house, he would be permanently leaving all of those people...his family.  Another hard aspect of that is part of his pride. He is leaving his native family to be with a ton of white people.  But he knows. He also told Sister Storrs that after that meeting where I laid down the law he got really upset with me.  But later realized that he knew I loved him and that everything I did and said and have pushed him to be was because I loved him.  He said he has never made so much progress before until he met me and my companion and knows that me pushing him was because I understood where he could be and what he was capable of doing.  I was reading in Alma 13:10 and it says, " it was on account of their exceeding faith and repentance and their righteousness before God, they CHOOSING to repent and work righteousness rather than to perish.  Larry sees both sides.  He sees the side of comfort that he knows will continue to lead him to unhappiness and he sees the side of the gospel, that takes work and it takes effort but that he knows has brought him the peace of the Spirit.  In that verse the key word is choosing.  They chose to repent and have faith and be righteous rather than to perish.  They saw both sides, they had to actively choose. Larry is at this point of choosing.  And that is how it is for us.  We can't just sit and watch. We have to actively choose.  It is up to us what we choose.  And the choices we make will either lead us down a path of pain or a path of the Spirit.  Larry has developed a really good relationship with a couple in our ward. They picked him up for church on Sunday and I talked with him. I joked with him and said I was waiting for him to bear his testimony.  He grabbed my arm and looked me straight in the eye and said, " I will.  I will one day. I promise you that I will."  He then told me that he was sorry and said that I was very important to him.  Oh LARRY! How I LOVE YOU! He called the Elders and said he wanted to learn from them more about the Priesthood.  He also had a really good meeting with the Bishop.  Oh things are happening! Things are happening! I will cry my eyes out when I leave.  There comes a point, like Larry, when we have to make difficult decisions.  And many times those decisions will either enhance the Spirit in our life or take it away.  And Larry although extremely difficult has come to a point in his life where he knows where he wants to be and who he wants to be in the eyes of God and is willing to make the hard choice to make that happen.

Another lesson we taught this week was with Tamara.  We had such a spirit led lesson on the Restoration. We were able to address many of her concerns.  We talked about the temple and how she can do work for her mother who has passed on and for her son who committed suicide and give them the blessings of the gospel.  It got really quiet as she wiped away tears and softly whispered, "I can do that?"  She went on and said that she has always wanted her family to be in the gospel with her.  It hit me so hard at that moment that what we have is incredible! What we have is HOPE. The gospel brings hope to those who have none. I am so thankful to my Father in Heaven because despite what is thrown my way I know I will always have the hope of the gospel to anchor me.  

Sadly Kirby and Leann were sick this week and we couldn't see them.  

Yesterday in church we sang hymn #185 and I have never had the words of this song stick out to me as much as they did yesterday.  It goes, "  Reverently and meekly now, let thy head most humbly bow.  Think of me, thou ransomed one.  Think what I for thee have done.......I have ransomed even thee....Bid thine heart all strife to cease; With thy brethren be at peace......In the solemn faith of prayer Cast upon me all thy care and let Spirits grace shall be Like a fountain unto thee."   I know that my Savior is Jesus Christ.  He lives.  He loves me.  I know that through him I can do all things.  I know that like this song says that I can cast upon him all of my cares and struggles and through His Atonement I can be healed.  His Atonement is hope.  I love this gospel with all of my heart. I know that this is the true church once again restored on the earth.  I know that God loves us enough to give us a living prophet. Thomas S. Monson is God's prophet on the earth today!  We can choose who and what we become in this life. And I know by living the gospel I can and will be confident in the presence of my Heavenly Father.  He is my everything.  

 I love you all so much! Here we go! Last transfer! I am ready to show my Savior how much this gospel means to me!

Love you all and miss you! 

Sure love ya! Moline's Rock! Missionaries rule! 

Sister Molinsky