SARAH’S BAPTISM, WESTERN LEGENDS FESTIVAL!

 WITH AVANA...

Hi all,

I don’t even know where to start! This was a crazy week here in KANAB!
First of all..we got our transfer calls and me and Sister Pugmire are
both staying in Kanab together J I did not expect that because this
will be my 4th transfer in Kanab and my 3rd transfer with Sister
Pugmire!  Which is really rare in this mission!  But I know I’m here for a reason!

This week we received a phone call to visit someone...Ayana. She was
driving though Kanab and got in a car accident here. One of the members
stopped and helped her. Then the bishop came and helped as well. She
was stuck in Kanab for a few days...So these members got her what she
needed and even put her up in a hotel. And they gave her a Book of
Mormon. Because of the their kindness, she began to be
interested in the church. So, that’s when we were called!  We went  to
the hotel and  taught her about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We were able to teach her that day, we spent
about 2 hours talking about the gospel. She has been through so much
in her life and now she is so ready to learn more. It was no coincidence that she
ended up here in Kanab. The Lord definitely has a plan for her! She
went back home to Wyoming and is meeting with the missionaries there.
It’s amazing to see the Lords hand in this work!

Saturday was a crazy day!  The morning was spent doing service at
Western Legends (which is this big festival on main street celebrating
all the western movies that were made in Kanab) they had a bunch of
booths and singers and a cattle drive. We helped fill tons of balloons at one booth.
Then they had a parade which started by herding a bunch of longhorns
down the street! Ha it was crazy because one could have easily run
into the crowd...There were a ton of people and we were able to talk to a
lot of them!  That day I felt like I was back home in Texas!

Then after that...it was Sarah's baptism! She is 11 and she moved here
a few months ago. Her parents are not members of the church,

 so moving to Orderville, and being around a lot of members
really exposed her to the church. She lives here with her mom and her
stepdad now.  Her baptism was really great... her mother was feeling
the spirit and now she is thinking about joining the church!  They are a
really special family and Sarah is a great example to them!  I know
there are good things to come and I’m glad I’m staying so I can watch
them grow in the gospel!

The Lord is so aware of everyone and it’s amazing to see that. And to
feel just a portion of the love that God has for his children is
something I will always treasure.  Serving a Mission is not always easy...but there are
always the small and simple things that make it worth it!  I LOVE MY JOB!

Sister Titensor

SARA'S BAPTISM

CATTLE DRIVE IN FRONT OF THE CHURCH...DOWN MAIN STREET

BLOWING UP BALLOONS WITH SISTER PUGMIRE FOR FESTIVAL

MIKE WAS BAPTIZED!!!! GREAT WEEK IN KANAB!!!     8/24/15

Elder Bednar came!

Mikes Baptism

This was another great week here in Kanab. Mike got baptized!!!! It was an
amazing and spiritual baptism. He has such a great ward/congregation that just
loves him to death!  It a was great day.  I have never seen anyone so happy...he
just couldn't stop smiling! 

One of the people we are teaching, Sarah, came to
Mike's baptism and now she is getting baptized this Saturday!

 It’s amazing how the spirit works.

On Sunday Mike was confirmed a member of the church, received the gift of the
Holy Ghost, and then he received the priesthood and he will be and passing the sacrament next week!  A wonderful new member of the church!

We also had a zone conference this week in St George. It was an all
day meeting and it was fun to see other missionaries that I normally
don’t get the chance to see.  It was a really uplifting meeting!

 
Transfers are next week... our mission is only losing 1 missionary
but we are gaining 20 missionaries!  So President said he will be
opening a bunch of new areas. It will be an exciting time to further
hasten the work!

We started teaching this older man who grew up in Colorado City (the
polygamist town) so that has been interesting!  He believes in a lot of
same things that we do.  And he loves to read the Book of Mormon so we
will see how that goes!

The other day we stopped by and visited our investigator, Reed. He is
a really spiritual man and he loves to write. Something he said to us was
“I don’t let the past remind me of who I am not now" and I thought that
was so true because he has really been through a lot in his life, but
through Christ and this gospel he has literally felt that change of
heart. And that is what this gospel can do... help us find joy and
peace now.  This gospel is true and I love my job!

Sister T

Hiking at Zions National Park.

  “DID I NOT SPEAK PEACE UNTO YOUR MIND          CONCERNING THE MATTER?” D&C 6: 22-23

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        8/17/15              

Well we just got back from hiking at Zion National Park all day so I don't have much
time to write. I’ll do my best… it was a busy week here in Kanab. I was able to go on
exchanges with Sister Lipke and that was way fun to be with her again...she is just about through with her mission which is crazy!  She will be headed home to Germany!

Mike, the man we have been teaching, is doing really well.

We have had some really great lessons with him
this week.  In fact, there was a point this week when he was starting to doubt
if he should get baptized. But, we had a really great lesson and I shared
one of my favorite scriptures that I turn to when I start to doubt...
D&C 6:22-23 "did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the
matter?" And the spirit was so strong and he knew Satan was trying to
make him doubt! It was amazing!

We had quite a few meetings this week and we also got to do allot of service,
one was tying quilts. We have quite a few new investigators we are teaching.  We are

excited to work with them and get to know them, so we have a lot of work to do
this next week.

Oh and funny story...on Sunday....we were singing the
sacrament prayer and this man behind us tapped on our shoulder and
said "hey the bishop just texted me and he needs you to speak because the
guy that was supposed to speak didn't show up" so right after
sacrament ended we had to get up and speak in sacrament meeting. Ha! Thankfully it was only
for 5 or 10 minutes each...well that was fun for sure! J

Sorry so short…

 
Things are going well and I'm looking forward to this next week :)

Love

Sister Titensor

                                                                                                                                

ELDER BEDNAR CAME!!!        8/10/15

This was a really good and busy week here in Kanab! We started off by going to Bryce Canyon last P-day and it was beautiful!!!  Then we got an opportunity to tract in the other Sisters area in the small town of Fredonia, Arizona. That had some interesting people for sure...but we met people who were prepared to hear the gospel and we had some really great experiences there and we were able to help them find more people to teach!

Then Wednesday we drove to St. George, because our car part finally came in so we had to get that figured out. We ended up waiting in the lobby for 3 and half hours!!!!

And then they told us that it was going to take even longer so they ended up giving us a loner car. Then we had to get home because we had appointments to get to… so that was a hectic day for sure!  But we made it back for our appointments that night J

Thursday we had our lesson with Mike who finalized his baptism date for August 22!! He is so prepared! He lives on his own and he doesn't have much family. He has a good relationship with his mom, but she is REALLY against the church. It is hard on his relationship with his mother by being baptized. He had a really hard time with that at first, but now he has so much faith that if he follows Christ, things will work out for him. And he loves his ward family so he will never feel alone! He is super strong and a great example of faith. 

Friday night, we spent the night in St George because ELDER BEDNAR came Saturday morning! Before this meeting , we were asked to read 3 of Elder Bednar’s talks.  Saturday We arrived there early and took a group picture with him. Then we sang an opening song and then Elder Bednar led the discussion from 8:30 to 12:00!  It was the most spiritually uplifting meeting I have ever been to. It was just us missionaries with Elder Bednar.  He started out by asking questions about using the ipads as missionaries, he then asked us what we learned from reading those 3 talks. For some reason I was the first to raise my hand and answer.  He had asked me to stand up with a microphone (now keep in mind that I am telling Elder Bednar what I learned from reading one of HIS talks ha!) I told him that I learned that no matter how much teaching and explaining we as missionaries do, our investigators will never receive a witness of the truthfulness of the gospel unless the keep their commitments. They need to ACT for themselves to know the truth. Elder Bednar then looks at me and said "can I ask you a few questions?" I say yes and then I can’t remember exactly what he asked me..but he asked me a couple of questions and we got on the subject of faith. As I sat down, he continued to talk about faith and he was directly talking to me and then I felt like he was looking at me for the next 5 minutes.  It was one of those moments where I knew that this is exactly what I needed to hear. The spirit was so strong. Throughout the rest of the meeting I learned so much. Faith is ACTION. We should "never put off what we KNOW we should do"

 I know that Elder Bednar is that special witness of Christ and that he had been called by the Lord to be one of his servants. This gospel is so true! It’s not only changing the lives of people we teach but it’s also changing mine!

Love,

Sister T

Pictures from Bryce Canyon

    IT’S AUGUST!!                          

Well another week here in Kanab just flew by!

We had an alright week... A lot of appointments canceled and a lot of people still on vacation.  It's a real struggle for missionary work!   Mike is doing Awesome!. In fact he was going to share his testimony on Sunday at fast and testimony meeting!  But so many people got up to share their testimonies that he never got a chance!

On Tuesday, our whole district came and tracked in our area. (Our district just has us and 2 other companionships) We all split up and they actually found some great people for us to teach!  And, while we were knocking on doors,  we met this one lady who had not come in much contact with the church.(which is rare in Utah) So we were talking to her, and then out of the blue she asked how we came to know this gospel was true for ourselves!  It was the perfect opportunity for us to bear our personal testimony and the spirit was so strong!  She even asked if there was anything we could leave with her! Score!! And of course I had A Book of Mormon in my hand :)

This next week will be exciting because Elder Bednar is coming to speak to our mission on Saturday!!! So the whole mission is traveling to St George for it!! Super excited!!

Well I am really learning the importance of the trials of our faith. I was reading in Alma, when Alma and Amulek were not delivered from prison until after the trial of their faith...not until after beaten and spit upon and they STILL did not deny their faith!  It was after all their afflictions that the Lord " granted unto them power according to their faith which was in Christ and they straightway came forth out of the prison" I have learned that trails of our faith our unavoidable! They will come and they can either break us down or make us stronger. Especially with people who are moving towards baptism, because many trials come to them …but when they rely on Christ and continue to build their faith...that's when they make it!! Having faith in and trusting in Jesus Christ is key. The gospel is true and I love my job!

Sister T

7/27/15

WE WERE IN THE PARADE IN KANAB,

BOOK OF MORMON IN THE PARK,

 MIRACLES HAPPEN

Well this week was all over the place!   We spent the entire day on
Tuesday in St. George because we were supposed to get our car fixed.
And… it was transfer day so we drove the other sisters with us and had
to wait the whole day for the other Sisters new companions to get there.
Thenn we finally drove home that night.  The next morning we had to
turn around and drive right back to St. George again because the car place messed
up on fixing our car... So tons of driving and waiting this week!!!  But as we were waiting
for our car we started talking to this super nice lady who was waiting as well, so
we got to share the gospel with her while we could!

So then Pioneer Day came!!! And we got to help out with the parade! 
In fact WE WERE IN THE PARADE!!! All the missionary moms have a float and
they dress up as their missionaries. It was super cute and they
invited us to be on the float with them. So we got to throw candy and it was super fun!

That evening we went to the park and helped cut a bunch of watermelon.
And then we had a really cool missionary experience at the park. There
was a group of 30ish guys and girls at the park. They were a group of
tourists from Europe and they were cooking at the park. It was
the perfect missionary opportunity. We felt that we needed to talk to
them! So we went and got all the book of Mormons we had in the car
(which was only 4) and decided to talk to them. It was super awkward
at first because they were all at different picnic tables. But they were super
nice!!  So we kind of explained what Pioneer Day was and we tried to give
out book of Mormons. Most people were not interested at all...they
really didn't even have a belief in God! But one lady took one. So after a
while we started to walk away. Well, we thought, at least we had tried!   But just then
this guy walked over and asks me if he and his friend could have one of our books!!
And of course we gave him two and then we explained what it was and I
said "this book will change your life!" Then five minutes later, he
came back to us and asked for 2 more books for his friends! Ha! it was
awesome! We even got a picture with him! And later in the park, we saw
them going through the restoration pamphlet we had given them!! It was
a seed well planted!!! Great end to pioneer day!

So then yesterday…an absolute miracle happened! So, this month our
entire mission has fasted and prayed that every area in the mission would have a
baptism in August. And honestly, I have been worried because we don't have
a baptism for August. I didn't want to be the only area that
didn't baptized in the month of August!!!! Well yesterday we went to
church in Alton and we had a lesson with one of our investigators,
Mike. He has investigated the church for a longggg time. Well, we sit
down and he tells us this amazing spiritual experience he had and how
he KNOWS he need to get baptized and SOON!!! WHAT?! I was literally
amazed. I couldn't stop smiling when he was explaining to us how the spirit
felt!!  It was one of the coolest experiences I have had so far.
I can't even explain the joy I felt for Mike. And now he is going to get
baptized in August!  Words can't even describe how true this gospel is!
Prayers are answered and the Lord is aware of his children. Times like
that are what make all the hard times worth it!! I LOVE MY JOB!

Sister Titensor