He Knows ME!

Hello!

So I had a major reality check this week on what it means to experience that painful work side of missionary work. So far, not going to lie, it has been basically rainbows and butterflies out here on my mission. The sun is always shining, people are usually pretty nice and willing to learn more, and people practically ask us if they can be baptized. I'd always heard of missionaries experiencing really challenging times and having discouraging days on their missions, but I never really knew what they were talking about...until now. It is continuing to get hotter here, my new companion and I are still working on teaching in unity (so sometimes lessons don't go quite as smoothly as they could) and.. I the highlight of the week.. I threw up all of Saturday night. yay me. I have had to learn very quickly what it means to push through and keep a positive attitude even when you don't really feel like it. Not going to lie, I was pretty much having a little pity party all day yesterday at church.

 However, our new investigator Randy came to church and we were able to have a lesson with him on the Plan of Salvation right before sacrament. He is SO STINKING EXCITED about this gospel and all of these truths that he never knew before. He has had one of the toughest lives I've ever heard of, but he shows incredible faith and always has a cheerful attitude. He says he prays for a couple hours a night sometimes and can really feel Heavenly Father's love for him in his life, especially since both of his parents died a couple years ago. What an incredible example he has been to me this week. I'm pretty sure most of the people we teach are teaching teach us more then we teach them. 

Going along with that, I was able to listen to part of the talk given by Jeffrey R Holland talking about how missionary work is not going to be easy. He talks about how some of his missionaries got discouraged when things would've happen when they wanted them to happen, and how they wanted to only have to worry about having pneumonia from being in the baptismal font all day. He then goes on to say, missionary work is not easy, and never will be easy, because the sacrifice our Savior made for us was in no way easy for Him. He even called out to His father "Remove this cup from me." Needless to say, my pity party stopped after that. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have of my Savior Jesus Christ, and I am so grateful that He endured to end, fulfilling His atoning mission. 

This gospel is truly life changing and I have no greater desire then to share the happiness it brings to me with my fellow brothers and sisters. 

Alma 36:24*1 Nephi 15:36

Have an amazing week and look for opportunities to share this gospel with others!

Love you all,

Sistah Kraus

Oh and the pictures are of my planner.

Feeling The HEAT!!

Wow what a week! Probably the hardest since I've been out in the field..but everything is still going great :) So my new companion came in on Wednesday afternoon, so all of Tuesday and half of Wednesday I was with a different sister named Sister Jenkins. She is friggin awesome and I learned so much! It was seriously a tender mercy being with her because it got me all hyped up and excited to try out the things I had learned, as well as be even more excited about missionary work with my new companion! 

So the new companions name is Sister Robbins and she is fresh out of the MTC! She is ready to work and excited to be here, so we are going to have an awesome time together :) She already encountered her first scorpion (on the toilet paper roll in the bathroom.. yeah..random..) so I told her she's now ready for anything Vegas has to throw at her. She is not a huge fan of street contacting yet, but we're working on it :)  It's really made me have to be excited and confident about talking to completely random people..and I am, because It's pretty much the besssst, especially since everyone here is so friendly! (welll just about everyone...)

Soo it is definitely summer here in Vegas now.. it hit 105 a couple times this week, so we are getting used to feeling sweaty all the time. Our watch tan lines are looking pretty legit...Luckily everyone sympathizes with two little white girls out walking around in the heat, so they usually offer us water, or at least let us talk to them :) We got a lot of return appointments this week just from street contacting! Awesomeee. Also, the song "Carry On" page 255 in the hymn book has become my theme song as of lately.. it even talks about walking around in a dessert and what not.. very fitting.

So this is going to be a bit of a short letter because this last week honestly feels like mush in my brain.. but I'll leave you with some closing thoughts that really impacted me this week :)

* The miracle of the atonement is not only that we can go home, but that we can feel at home there! -Brad Wilcox

*The end product will be better, as long as we always give our best.

*I am here to share the best thing of my life with others. How lucky am I? :)

Favorite scripture of the week: 2 Timothy 2:1-4

I always want to be a good soldier of my Savior Jesus Christ!

Ohhh and last thing... everyone should find one friend and do something called the Willing and Brief invitation. "Hello so and so, would you be willing to listen to a brief message from two of our (insert awesome adjective here) missionaries?" You can text it, you can email it, you can put it on face book, or you can do it face to face.. but just DO IT. It works :) 

We heard a testimony last night about how a guy joined the church because someone finally got up the courage to walk across the street and hand his friend a book of Mormon.. all he said was "Hi, heres a Book of Mormon; if you have time, you should read it. If you have any questions just ask me." Boom. And he was baptized 4 months later, and now has affected loads of peoples lives. It's that easy :) 

Sistah Kraus

#ItwasMOM

Happy Mothers Day yesterday!!!

I for one would just like to take a moment to talk about how amazing my momma is. She has ran 6 marathons, raised 6 kids (well mostly raised.. some of them still have some growing up to do.. namely me..), she is a full time cook, taxi driver, cleaner, secretary, troubled teen counselor, musician, personal trainer, you name it.. she's done it. There is not a single person in this world I look up to more.. Hope you all had the chance to tell your mom how amazing she is! Also, if you didn't get the chance, watch the church's video called It was mom on youtube. It is AWESOME. Pretty much moms are just the best and I can't wait to be one! (but in due time of course). 

This week was a blur (just like all the others) but I'll try to touch on the highlights! We are teaching like cuhrazy! There are so many people here that have been prepared their whole life, and the time is now for them to accept the gospel! A couple days this week we taught 6-8 lessons each day and it was the best! I really am starting to feel Heavenly Father's love for each and everyone of His children. Homeless people, drug addicts etc.. He loves us all!! And knows us all perfectly. Someone the other day said during his lesson that Heavenly Father even loves Satan (which totally blew my mind.. ) and that if He can love Him, how much more does He care for each and every one of us. His love is unconditional.. and that is why He has given us this gospel. He wants the best for us. He wants us to be happier then we could even imagine... and that happiness and joy is possible BUT, only when we are living in accordance to the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ and obeying with exactness. Anyways, I'll stop ranting now, but I just have really come to realize that more and more on my mission.

SO Ceairra got baptized on Saturday!! She was quite literally glowing when she got out of the font! Ahh I stinkin love that girl. She is going to be a great leader in the church!! We got to go to the temple grounds afterwards with her and some other new converts and it was a super special experience. I have a strong testimony of the temple and the wonderful spirit that is felt there can not be felt in any other place in the world! Go to the temple this week if you can! It will bless your life sooo much!

So Christian has been having a few set backs, but he still wants to be baptized just not quite this week. He is awesome though and knows that it's true! Stephen is a great example to him and they have really been helping each other out through the whole process. They are such cool guys :)

Soo some other big news.. Sister Crane is being transferred....AND.. I'm training a new missionary! I am quite literally shaking in my shoes over here just thinking about it.. but I know the Lord qualifies those whom He calls so I will just have to buck up and do the best I can! Heavenly Father is already helping me feel more confident and comfortable with the idea...I'll let you know how it goes next week! I really am going to miss Sister Crane though! We'll be besties after the mish for sure.

Sunday was a very special day! First off we had 3 of the sweetest girls on the planet come to church with us! Ma-Elena, Daniela, and Anna. They all loved it! Daniela we have been teaching for a while, but she has just been building up the courage to tell her dad she wants to be baptized. Turns out she found out her dad was baptized a member of the church when he was younger and just never told her! Super cray cray drama going on at that household.. but she is such a solid girl and wants to do what Heavenly Father wants her to do, which she now knows is to be baptized into this church. I"ll let ya know what all goes down next week! 

So life is great over here in paradise! The weather is still beautiful for now, though it should start to get in the upper 90's here in a week or two. Bring. It. On. Have an awesome week and look for missionary opportunities! They're all around us :)

Ohh and favorite scripture of the week. 2 Nephi 33:10

Sister Kraus

Scorpions!!!!

Hola! Happy Cinco De Mayo! 

Ohh and shout out to my madre who turned 49 yesterday!!.. dang she still looks good ;)

Sooo it's been another week. Just as fast as all the others, and just as crazy! It seems like miracles happen everyday now, so I started writing them in a little book so I don't lose track.

First things first, we have 2 investigators getting baptized this coming weekend! Christian (friends with Stephen) and Ceairra! They are both so excited and so ready for this change in their life. Christian let us rip up his last 3 cigarettes and said he was ready to change and be completely clean. I've never held a cigarette so that was a new experience on it's own.. haha..nasty looking little cancer sticks. But yeah, he came to church Sunday and felt the super strong and is looking forward to his big day! 

Ceairra has been ready from the first lesson we taught to her. She is such a fun spunky girl and totally has jumped in with both feet! She loves everyone in the ward already and even went to a big YSA (young single adult) conference this weekend on her own. She loves how many cute guys there are, and not only cute but GOOD to the core. Her family totally doesn't support her, but she knows it's true, and she is not letting anything hold her back. She also bore her testimony during Sacrament meeting yesterday and totally made everyone bawl like a baby. She has song a strong conviction of the truthfulness of this gospel, the Book of Mormon, and she has already seen a huge difference in her life just from meeting with us for the past few weeks. She is going to be such an amazing addition to the church with her spunky personality and her love of the Savior! I just love this girl! I'll send pics next week :)

So a few days ago we were trying to find an address, but we didn't have the exact street name, just knew the general area where it was. We finally just decided to knock on this certain apartment with the same number to see if it was the guy we were trying to visit. Turns out it definitely wasn't, but we met a guy named Dreemer (name was tattooed on his chest so we had no questions about spelling). He talked with us for a minute, then said he saw a light surrounding us and in our eyes. He was on his way out the door, but he eagerly invited us to come back and talk with him more! It was a super cool. The gospel is true guys :)

Another crazy miracle....so we got a referral from some other sisters a couple days ago and tried to visit her on Friday. We knocked on the door and her mom screamed through the door "who is it??" We said in our sweetest voices possible... the sister missionaries! Is Erica home?! She then proceeded to scream at us again and said to never ever come back. Shoot dang. The other sisters had told us that Erica was super sweet and seriously interested in learning more..but just that the mom was a little crazy. (noted). Sister Crane and I were back in the same area on Saturday and both felt prompted to knock on her door again. We were scared to death, but, went for it anyways. After a couple knocks, Erica opened the door and greeted us with a huge smile and hug! We went out and talked on her front steps for a minute, and then the mom came out. Duh duh duh. Man did she let us have it. She screamed at us and chewed us out (I won't go into detail, but it wasn't pretty). The saddest part is that Erica (who is 23 and has been home schooled her whole life) was so embarrassed and upset at her mom that she just sat there and cried. Her mom was like,"You don't even know her, why are you here??" We weren't sure what to say, so I just said, well we love her, and Heavenly Father loves her. That is why we are here. We ended up getting to talk with Erica a little while longer down the side walk a little ways, but we had to leave for another appointment. She asked if we could come back the next day at the same time and meet her at the same place, so we could teach her more. She is so thirsty for knowledge and wants to know how she can grow closer to her Heavenly Father. She had never prayed until that day we met her. My heart just aches for this sweet girl who has never been given the chance to learn about the gospel. I am also incredibly grateful for parents who aren't extremely rude and embarrassing... We didn't end up getting to see her yesterday, but we will keep trying! 

Sooo for the freakiest part of the week... Sister Crane and I saw 3 scorpions in our apartment, all within a few days... yeahh,, I about peed my pants all 3 times. We killed 2 of them with a frying pan.. but one of them escaped under the fridge. We are pretty sure there is a whole colony living under there, so that's a little scary.. or a lot.. but on a good note, we are basically expert scorpion killers now. Sister Crane catches it in a tupperwear container and slides a paper under it, then I wack it with the frying pan about 100 times. Yeah, we're sort of hardcore, it's whatever. 

Oh last thing! We went to the M. Russell Ballard broadcast last night which was the last part of the huge regional YSA conference that happened over the weekend. Ceairra came, as well as our newest investigator MaElena, Stephen, Rudy and a lot of other cool people from the ward. I ran into Daniel Sleet from St. Louis so that was crazy, as well as a kid who was in my Calculus class at BYU. Super small world! Also, if you didn't get a chance to listen to the broadcast.. do it! It was awesome and something I think we all need to hear! We are the future of the church so we better be bringing our A game. 

So in summary, the biggest miracle I've realized throughout the mission so far is just how much Heavenly Father loves us all individually. I never thought my heart could expand this much, but i seriously feel so much love for all of the people we teach and all of the ward members, sometimes I think my heart might explode. It's a crazy feeling. I know Heavenly Father knows us each individually and cares about every detail of our life. Have an incredible week and never forget that! Love you all :)

Sistah Kraus