Going to Kingman!‏

Welp first things first...I got transferred and I'm going to Kingman, AZ! Apparently it's hotter then Las Vegas (not sure how that is even possible) but I am so excited for this new adventure! Definitely had a hard time saying bye to people here though. It's been a week of mixed emotions, but hey.. welcome to the mission life! 

This week was super sweet as always! Ohh my goodness my heart is filled with so much love for the people we are teaching right now... Especially Ashley and Benjamin!

Ashley is just incredible. She has been having some conflict from her mom and Grandma concerning her decision to be baptized...(unfortunately we sort of new this was going to happen). However, after she had talked to her mom one night she had the impression to drive up to the temple (where she had never been before) and say a prayer. She drove up and realized the gates were locked due to cleaning/remodeling.. but she said a prayer, and just like Heavenly Father always does for us, a man came over and happened to be opening the gate right at that moment. As she prayed, she was filled with feelings of love and peace and knew that everything she was doing was right. There will ALWAYS be opposition to the truth.. but Heavenly Father blesses those who keep His commandments and do His will. And not only that, but we are able to feel peace and joy in our life knowing that we are living exactly the way our Heavenly Father would have us live! What an amazing feeling that is. 

Benjamin (who we met last week) is also such a solid kid! Man has he had a hard life.. but he was able to read the Book of Mormon and came to know it is true. Since the day we met him, he has come to every single baptism we've invited him to, to church every Sunday, and to every other church activity. He LOVES feeling the spirit and even said he wished he could be in church all day everyday. I for one began to feel a little guilty at this point because I used to be a little relieved when church was over so I could go home and eat and sleep.. However, because he is not yet baptized, he isn't able to have that peace and comfort from the spirit at all times and  he does everything he can to feel that. He has really taught me to never take the spirit for granted! We are so blessed to be able to feel of Heavenly Father's love for us, pretty much whenever we ask for it if we are living righteously. 

Also, we were able to go up to the temple grounds on Saturday night with Ashley, Benjamin, our new convert Cody, Kenny, and my girl Erin Cranor. Man do I love this group of people! We talked about how we can find joy in the journey and compared the beauty of the temple, then looked behind us towards the strip and looked for beautiful things over there as well. We came to realize that there will ALWAYS beauty and joy in our lives, as long as we take the time to look for it.  Psalms 118:23-24. So I challenge you all this week to be happy and don't let the little things get ya down! Today is a gift...that's why it's called the present ;) 

Ohh also, shout out to Sister Hunsaker for bringing back fresh homemade bread from my lovely mama and my violin from home!!! Woot woot!

Have an amazing week! And be happy! :D

Sharing the love!‏

Hello!

And yet another miraculous week (as in..full of miracles) has flown by. I'll just share the highlights because as always, I am low on time..

First things first! Cody got baptized on saturday!! It was truly amazing to see how much he has changed and how he was glowing. His grandma was able to come and support him and we also had a surprise visit from our mission president, President Snow, and his lovely wife! I had to give a talk and also perform a musical number with Sister Robbins, so obviously I immediately got nervous when I saw them. but it went well and the spirit was so strong! Baptisms are the best :) 

Ashley also decided that she wants to be baptized on August 16th and our investigator Charleston also accepted the date of August 23rd! They are both so humble and sweet and have truly been prepared by our loving Heavenly Father. It has been a pleasure teaching both of them! (hopefully I don't get transferred this week so I can continue meeting with them!)

We also met a new guy named Benjamin who read the Book of Mormon when he was in prison and has truly changed his life around. He came to Cody's baptism on Saturday and church on Sunday and is so grateful to have the opportunity to turn his life around. He is amazing!

We met a guy named Steven on the street on Thursday (practically chased him down) and he seemed a little hesitant to meet with us at first.. but he ended up showing up at church on Sunday and stayed for all 3 hours! He also knew one of our members Daniel from work so that was another huge blessing! 

Spiritual thought for the week: missionary work is all about receiving our Savior's love and sharing it with others. When we engaged in missionary work, we feel feelings of love from our Heavenly Father and in return want to act and share that with others. So this week, I challenge you all to send a message of "I love you and I care about you" to EVERY person that you see...2 easy ways to do this. Hello, what is your name? and What can I do for you? 

Alma 30:5

Love you all and have an incredible week!

Still in Paradise!‏

Hey Hey!

Another week down in Paradise NV. It is getting hot hot hot, but the work is still going great! Pray for the elders here.. they don't have cars :/ Good thing Sisters are spoiled.. because I don't know if I could survive being out in 115 degree heat all day long..we've heard that you can leave cookie dough in the car for a bout 2 hours and you'll have cookies! Now that is crazy. 

So this week was sweeeet. I'm still trying to remember what happened.. i'm not kidding when I say it flys by. I"m really short on time this week, so i'll just do the highlights!

Sister Robbin's face got attacked by a sugar glider (look it up on google). One of the families of a girl in our ward has 6 of them (all named after Sherlock characters). They are pretty stinking cute..until they jump on your face from 2 feet away. yeah, I quickly gave the little devil back to the owner and evacuated the area so the same thing wouldn't happen to me. 

We are now teaching this girl named Ashley!! Oh my goodness has she been prepared by Heavenly Father. Her friend is on a mission in Chile and she recently decided she wanted to investigate the church. However, she has read up to Alma 16 in the Book of Mormon, listened to several talks by the prophet and apostles, and gone to church a few times before. Needless to say, we were verry excited during our first lesson. Sister Robbins and I probably freaked her out because we kept looking at each other in the lesson with huge smiles, talking to each other with our eyes 'oh my goodness is this really happening.' She asked us if she could meet with us again and asked about any activities that she could come to. In case you were wondering.. usually we are the ones who do the asking/inviting/pleading with people. She is truly elect and even though sacrament meeting was all on the Law of Chastity (in quite detail might I add.. which is very good don't get me wrong) she said she loved it and felt the spirit and can't wait to come next week! 

We rescued/kidnapped a puppy and named her Abish. Our investigator had to move suddenly and had left her outside of his house in the heat. We were able to help her get adopted into a good family.. though we both were quite sad to see her leave. 

Our investigator Cody is getting baptized this Saturday! We recently discovered also that we are teaching 2 investigators who have something called Schizoeffective disorder.. apparently only 1 percent of the population has this and we are teaching 2! Definitely not a coincidence..we're not really sure why Heavenly Father trust us to teach these two individuals, but it has been a pretty neat experience for us :)

Annnd unfortunately I am out of time.. but spiritual thought for the road:

In Alma 23:6-8 we learn about how the Lamanites were so converted to the Lord that they NEVER fell away and they covenanted to lay down their weapons of rebellion forever. What caused them to be so converted and how can we be that converted in our life?? I've realized that it all comes down to the spirit and how often we are feeling it in our life. Do the things that help us feel the spirit at least once a day!! Also, what weapons of rebellion do we have in our lives that we need to lay down??

Love you all and have an amazing week!

ps. also, Sister Neider has been going through treatments for cancer this past few weeks adn she was able to get a blessing from President Monson. How amazing is that????

Sister kraus

I have no idea what I want to put here this week‏

Hello!

Ok. Crazy. awesome. week.

I'm low on time, As always, but I shall touch on the high lights. 

First: some funny/crazy experiences: 

A guy in the car next to us held up a bag of marijuana and asked us if we would like to partake. We kindly turned down the offer and went on our way. However, I wish I had a squirt gun with me in the front seat. He would've been a goner. 

Second: We left a law of Chastity pamphlet on a 60 year old prostitutes door clip. I won't give details.. but yeah.. she needs help, and we thought that could be of assistance. However, there probably won't be any follow up. 

Ok, now on to spiritual experiences! We went on exchanges on Thursday! Exchanges are the best and are always filled with miracles (even more then usual). First off, every single person we had written down in our planners ot try and visit pretty much came to us within a period of like 15 minutes. One was walking through the parking lot, another came out to talk to us on her balcony when she saw us walking her way, another was on the side walk, and the last lady was on her front steps. That was amazing. Heavenly Father is incredible. 

Second miracle, we ran into this guy named Josh (who I had met about a month ago, but he said he lived too far away for us to visit him). He was the only guy out walking in the neighborhood we were in and I happened to know him! THEN, when we were exchanging back later that night, we saw him AGAIN in the Wal-mart parking lot. I was freaking out. It was so stinking cool. Definitely not a coincidence. Heavenly Father is aware of all of us and orchestrates the circumstances in our lives so we can see and meet those whom He has prepared for us. Needless to say, we will be visiting Josh this week to share the message of the restored Gospel with him!

And now for the greatest miracle of all (Besides almost meeting Zac Effron's uncle.. some other sisters in our area are teaching him right now, and Zac goes there in the summer quite often to hangout and play golf..we may be street contacting a little more then usual in that area..)

So we went to teach this guy named Peter and his wife. Words cannot even describe the meeting we had withe them, but I will do my best! 

Peter said he had been wanting to find Jesus again and feel more peace in his life. His bible was on his table one day, opened up to Proverbs 2, and he learned about how and where he needed to find wisdom. His wife had also prayed about what could help them and heard a voice telling her that they needed to seek wisdom. A short time after this, one of Peter's friends who was LDS introduced him to the church. He loved the idea of families living together forever so he ordered a Book of Mormon off of the TV commercial (apparently they have those now?) The sisters then brought him the Book of Mormon, taught him about the restoration and Joseph Smith, and invited him to read and pray. Since the first lesson (about a week ago) he has read about 100 pages and said that he feels God inside of him everytime he reads (what we know to be the spirit). He also said he wanted to learn more so he looked on Mormon.org and discovered the word of wisdom. For some reason over the past few months he had felt like he needed to stop drinking alcohol, coffee and tea. He said when he knew that God had been preparing him to receive the truth. The spirit was so thick in the room I thought my heart was going to burst. I found my eyes leaking several times throughout the lesson as I felt the spirit confirm to me once again, that this church is true. His wife also said she knew we were sincere and had Jesus Christ inside our hearts (had the spirit with us). They showed so much love and respect for each other and were so excited to hear that they could be sealed in the temple and live together forever. They both know this is the truth without a doubt and want to be baptized on August 2nd.

And that is why I love being a missionary. 

One last thought: Abish is amazing! (Alma 19: 16-17) She was truly converted, and in the time of need, she was able to act without fear and bring many unto the gospel! Look for those Abish opportunities throughout your week :)

Love you all! Have a great week!

Sister Kraus

Pic: Sunsets here are amazing! 

Tender Mercy: it´s only 90 degrees today!‏

Happy Monday and Happy belated 4th of July!

So It´s been a super sweet week!

I seriously never know what to say..do you know how hard it is to summarize 7 days of miracles and crazy experiences in like 15 minutes? yeah. its hard. But as always, I shall do my best, and will hopefully inspire whoever actually reads this.

So Cody (the very interesting guy we met a while ago, who was and is a practicing monk) got an answer to his prayers about the Book of Mormon and about Joseph Smith and knows this is the true church! He wants to be baptized even though his parents are completely against it (they kicked him out of his house on the 4th of July and called the cops on him... :( but we sat outside with him and read 1 Nephi 8 with him... cheered him right up!)  He knows that the only thing that really matters is if he is doing what is right in the sight of the Lord.. even if his family disowns him. This seems to happen a lot to the young adults we teach.. but without fail, when they know it´s true, they act! They are such champs!)

Daniela (our recent convert) joined us in a lesson this week with an awesome girl named Cherell. We taught her the restoration and when Daniela double testified that she knew the things we talked about were true, the spirit was so strong and lets just say there was not a dry eye in the room. It truly was amazing to see how strong her testimony has grown from the time we first met with her. I absolutely love this girl! On the same note, Ceairra also joined us in a lesson on Sunday and I felt the sincerity and conviction in her voice as she testified about how the gospel of Jesus Christ has changed her life. She says, it doesn´t change who I am, it just makes me better. I´m like myself, but better. And ohh how true that is! The atonement of Jesus Christ is there so that we can get rid of the parts of ourselves that we´re not really fond of, and develop Christ like attributes that allow us to become the person we want to be! The enabling power of the atonement is incredible! If you have any habits or things about yourself that you don´t really like, then pray to allow Heavenly Father help you change! We are the captains of our destiny (not to get too cheesy or anything) but seriously, we get to decide who we are, and how we act and react, all through the help of our Savior Jesus Christ. What an incredible gift. 

The 4th of July here was pretty sweet! We rode our bikes for about 4 hours and talked to what seemed like everybody in Vegas! It was awesome. Street contacting is like my passion I swear. It´s better then amusement parks, video games, sporting events (except maybe BYU football..). But seriously, we get to talk with complete strangers and most the time they open up to us and tell us their life story! It´s such a rush every time. My favorite part though is when we get to testify that Jesus Christ´s church has been restored on the earth today and that we once again have a prophet called by God to lead and guide us throughout our lives! What. a. blessing! Also, telling people that their is a book, a small blue book, the testified of Jesus Christ and answers every question of the soul.. why are we here? where did we come from? where are we going? This is like huge! It should be on the news in my opinion.. people NEED to know this. So yeah. Street contacting, and being a missionary in general are pretty much the best. things. ever. 

Anddd, i´m out of time.. but one last thought: How amazing is it that we get to partake of the sacrament every single week and be forgiven for things we have done throughout the week that we may not be super proud of. This is huge! The sacrament meeting is the most important meeting in the entire church! Some questions to think about that will make this more meaningful to you: 1. What have I done to please God this week? 2. What can I repent of? 3. Who can I serve? The sacrament is like that parent that pulls us out of the street when a car is coming that we can´t really see yet. It is what saves us and keeps us on the right track! Don´t miss it and Do not take it for granted. 

I love this church. It is perfect. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. He is perfect, and I want to become more like Him everyday. 

Love you all! Have an amazing week. 

Sister Kraus

pics: tan lines and selfie with our sexy helmets.

Applied knowledge is power‏

Ohh Heyy!

What a week! It's been a hot minute since I last wrote! (Las Vegas lingo).  The 

internet was down this week so we are emailing at the O'briens house (best members ever!) so this will have to be semi short. Man I hardly even know where to begin..i'm serious about this mission amnesia thing. It is getting HOT out here.. 113 was the high temp yesterday.. it basically feels like a hot blow dryer blowing on your face. All. day. long. But good news is that we're getting pretty used to it! I haven't felt anything under like 80 degrees (except in the church where they crank the AC) for like a couple months now.. pretty sure I'm going to freeze to death when I get back to Provo/Colorado! But yeah, life is good!!

So several miracles happened this week, I'm starting to realize it's pretty much the usual for mission life. We are able to see God's hands literally everywhere. It's incredible. First cool experience: 

We felt prompted to go try to visit someone named Celia we had met the week before. As we parked, we walked towards a group of people standing on the sidewalk (homeless people's usual hangout place). One of them named Cortez we had met a few months ago. He is so tight! He always asks us for more things to read and loves talking with us.. he loves gaining knowledge and always says that applied knowledge=power. Anyways, he is pretty stubborn and won't ever agree to meet with us at a specific time or come to church, but always thanks us for our service and sends us on our way with a big smile. This time however, as we talked, a few other people came over and joined us. We ended up scheduling a time to meet with 2 of them in an hour and teach them more about the restoration of the gospel. We taught them (Alphonse and John) and they loved it and agreed to be baptized! The best part was when we taught them about the first vision, when Joseph Smith had Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appear to them. We left a little pause so the spirit could testify to their hearts...and John said shortly after, "Well what did they say to him?? What church is true??" It was awesome!! After we told them that none of the churches on the earth at that time had the full truth, he said, "Ohh so we don't need to go to church then because none of the churches are true??" haha well.. hold up just one minute. It was hilarious.  Alphonse was especially interested and we met with him a few days later to teach him about Heavenly Father's plan for him. Here comes the cool part so keep reading..

As we invited him to pray after the lesson to know for himself if these things were true, he simply said "Well I"ll pray but I already know they're true! I feel something good and warm in my heart. Also, you're going to think I'm crazy, but I see and feel angels floating above you guys in the air."  I immediately had a waterfall pouring out of my eyes as I bore testimony that that feeling he had was the Spirit of God telling him that the things we had taught him were absolutely true. I also testified that I knew their were angels in the room as well and felt a feeling so strong in my heart that what I had said was true. I knew right then and there that this work is God's work and He sends His angels with us everyday to keep us safe, to teach those we come in contact with in a way that we can't, and also to comfort us when we feel down. It solidified my testimony of this gospel even more and made me so happy that I am able to be an instrument in the Lord's hands for just this small amount of time. I will never forget that feeling. This church is sooo true!!!! I know that if we just had the self discipline to live everyday with this knowledge at the front of our minds and let it guide every choice we make, we would be happier then we can even imagine and be filled with the Spirit. Applied knowledge is power right? Testifying with the spirit and living each day with the spirit as our guide.. now that is powerful.

There were lots of other little miracles, but due to little time, I will only share those with those who choose to write me letters ;) haha love you all and have an incredible week!!

Sister Kraus

ps. Well we have been scorpion free for 14 days now.. but wait..something even better decided to enter our apartment last night..dun dun dun.

5 months already say what??‏

Ahh this week was a blur, but I'll do my best to get my thoughts out!

First thought: The Lord loves us soo much!! It still blows my mind when I really sit down and think about it and also how He intimately knows each and every one of us. I know as members of the church we hear that a lot and kind of take that knowledge for granted.. but if we really sit and ponder on that concept, it blows.your.mind. Also, we all have a very specific and important role in this work! With the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, that is a sign to all that He has started the gathering of the tribes of Israel just as He promised Abraham, and we get to be in the middle of it! This is HUGE. Like most important thing in the history of the world huge. And we can either jump aboard and do all we can to contribute, or we can "sleep through the restoration" as we heard in the Conference session in May. I for one, know that I do not want to be caught sleeping when the Savior comes again!

Alright, now that I got that off my chest...:)

Miracles of the week:

We met a guy named Don at the car wash last week..(and quite frankly I thought he was only interested in us because he thought we were good looking..at least that's what his eyes and body language was telling us..haha) but as we talked with him a little he said he had been wanting to find a church lately and would totally love to come to ours. We took down his number and gave him ours. Later in the week we felt impressed to call him, and believe it or not he answered and wanted us to come by for a lesson! We brought a ward member with us and went to his place. He was home waiting for us and invited us in. We taught him about the restoration of the gospel, about Jesus Christ and what He means to us and about the Book of Mormon. He was so excited and said he would read and pray about it tonight. Low and behold, he came to church and loved it and even shared his experience in Sunday School (we were teaching about member missionary work). He said he had prayed that morning for God to give him a sign or lead him to a church, and later that night is when he met us. He said he knew right away when he saw the name tags and, well, what I hope at the time was a happy smiling face, that we were his sign and that he needed to come to our church. It was amazing!! I felt quite guilty for thinking he just wanted to flirt and learned yet again: the Lord works in mysterious ways :)

So we taught Edward again and I stinking love that kid. Ahh he is so cool! We taught him about the Plan of Salvation and at the end he kept saying how much he wanted to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in the Celestial kingdom and that he would do anything to get there. My heart wanted to explode.. seriously. Explode. He said he wants to feel like him and God are totally good and we talked with him about the importance of baptism and how it WILL make him perfect in the sight of the Lord. He was so shocked but so excited about this and expressed concern about not being able to forgive himself. It got me thinking that that is one of the hardest things for us here on earth. We know that Jesus Christ has suffered the ultimate sacrifice for us and that we can be made clean through Him if we repent, but when the time comes to forgive ourselves, we don't really remember this part and we tend to be hard on ourselves. This is ok as long as it keeps us from doing the sins again.. but it isn't good if we stop ourselves from progressing when we remember past things and guilt that we have. Just a thought. Forgive yourselves and forgive others!! Mosiah 26:29-31

Also, some other missionaries and I put on a musical fireside called "Because of Him" this Sunday that testified about Jesus Christ. Music is definitely one of the ways I am able to feel the spirit most strongly! It was so much fun and so cool to see the whole chapel be filled with people eager to feel the spirit and learn more about our Savior. It was awesome :) Also, after the mish me  and a couple other missionaries are planning on starting a band.. it's gonna happen, so feel free to send me some band name ideas.. that's always the toughest part. 

Last thought: The best mission president in the world, President Neider, and his sweet sweet wife are going home this week. Sister Neider's cancer has returned and she needs to go home for treatments. Please please pray for her!! She is one of the most Christlike women I have ever met. Her last day with us, she told us that if the Lord thought that she could do more missionary work for him on the other side of the veil, then she would go willingly to do His will. What an inspiration to us all. Remember, the Lord's way is the only way! 

Love you all and have an amazing week.

pics: the future band.

My obsession in food form.