April 6 2015

Hello Family and Friends,

This last Monday we were privileged to go on a tour of Epic with a member. Epic is a company that does some sort of health care stuff...but their office building is amazing and has nothing to do with the company...just the name. Look up the company and they can explain what they do, but here is the fun part. The buildings are like going to Disneyland (not that I would know what that is like...yet) but seriously it was so incredible. I will just have to show you pictures. I am actually really surprised that Adam isn't doing work here...He totally should!

Anyway, Sister Osmond and I really had an awesome experience on Friday I believe. We were walking down the street in Verona and were kind of down because of stressful things going on and such. We were trying hard to get evening appointments so we wouldn't have to be outside in the dark, but people kept cancelling and such. Sister Osmond was getting a little discouraged and I was trying to tell her that things happen for a reason and maybe we just need to walk on this street before it gets dark. We saw this little Chinese woman walking towards us and we both had the same thought that maybe we could share something with her. As we walked past her and then offered a Mormon.org card to her she gladly took the card and then we were able to strike up a conversation with her. We ended up walking to a pavilion with her and showing her the "Because he lives" and "because of him" video. She said she felt at peace and we then started talking to her about the Book of Mormon. She didn't get some of it just because she doesn't have a Christian background, but she was able to understand most of it. We just had to teach simple. We actually happened to have a Simplified Chinese Book of Mormon in our car..for some reason. So we walked back to our car with her and were able to give that to her. We exchanged numbers and set up an appointment to see her again. It was such an amazing experience and it was a huge testimony builder for both of us. Through this, I know that God knows my situations and I know he is aware of me. I am so grateful for this gospel and to have such a great family to help strengthen my testimony of families. I love you all so much and I am so happy to have you in my life. I also really enjoyed General Conference. It was so awesome and the talks we so inspiring. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend and I hope this week goes well too! Please be safe!

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

March 30 2015

Hey Family and Friends,

It has been a really crazy week. I got transferred on Wednesday and now I am in Madison. It is a cute place. It looks like Daybreak only 10 times bigger. So i really enjoy the houses here and such. The ward is great. Full of returned missionary newly wed couples. They are all so fun to be around. There is actually a guy (picture attached) in the ward that was Aaron's friend in high school. I ran into him at church yesterday. He said his brother also worked for you Dad a while ago. I can't remember the last name though haha 

I think I have talked to more people in these past few days then in my whole life! It has been a great experience and its not as scary...i wouldn't say I am completely comfortable with it yet though. But it is getting easier. We had two great lessons last night. We talked about the Restoration on the porch and it was just so powerful. Who knew the porch could be a spiritual place haha 

Overall, things are going well. I like this new area, but just kind of struggling to adjust to a few things. Please just pray for me. I love you all and hope you have a great week. Sorry this is so short.

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

 

 My new address! 

6702 Schroeder Road #11

Madison, WI 53711

Please send me mail! haha i miss getting letters. Also during transfers please send mail to the mission address. i know i told you other wise but its just better that way. sorry for all the confusion. 

thanks love ya!

March 23 2015

Hello Family and Friends!!

I am being transferred just like I predicted! I can't believe it has already been 6 months since I got to Elkhorn. I am going to really miss it here, but I know I am needed elsewhere....which is.....DRUM ROLL PLEASE.....MADISON 4 WITH SISTER OSMOND! Yep that is Sister Osmond who is Donny and Marie Osmond's niece :p crazy huh?!

I will be leaving on Wednesday and will most likely ride from Milwaukee to Oshkosh and then to Madison. I can't believe I am going to Madison! It is going to be such a blast! Please remember to not send anything to the Elkhorn address now. If you must send anything send it to my mission office address and it will get forwarded to me. I will know my current address in Madison when I get there and I will email it to you next pday. Sorry you have to wait so long...I don't understand the rules either sometimes...

It has been a great week though. We were able to have a huge mission conference on Saturday and we got to hear from Elder Christiansen from the Seventy Presidency. There was also Elder Ward from the Area Seventy and Elder (err sorry i don't remember his name :/). We were supposed to have Elder L. Tom Perry come but he was reassigned to a different area, but that is ok. It was such a powerful meeting and it was so fun to see all the missionaries in my mission. We don't have a ton, but when we all got in for a picture it sure seemed like a lot more than I thought. Our meeting was mostly on the Atonement and then the last hour Elder Christiansen told us we could ask questions we wanted to know. They turned out to be really good and deep questions and it was fun to hear a lot of people's insights and such. I really learned so much and I was able to receive a lot of helpful revelation for me, my mission, and my future. One thing that really stood out to me that was said by Elder Christiansen was, "Heavenly Father never forgets His missionaries!" It definitely brought tears to my eyes. Being out here can get discouraging sometimes and you can feel like you have been forgotten so hearing that really helped and it was a good reminder that God knows our situation and knows our needs. I have really been able to have a deeper understanding of the Atonement also. Not just on Saturday, but throughout my mission. It has been such a great experience and I am really beginning to see that the Atonement is so important in our lives. Without it we would really be nothing. It is truly the center and we could not do anything without our Savior, Jesus Christ. I have had my testimony and faith in Christ really strengthen out here and I am realizing that in order to have success or be able to get through trials I need to call upon Him. I know He is just waiting to pour out blessings for me. I just need to ask and line my will up with His will. I know these things are true and I know that this is the true church. I have 7 short months to make it real for others so I better get out and do that! I love you all so much and I am so thankful for the support and love you all have given me. I truly couldn't have done anything without my family and friends and Heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ. Have a wonderful week and wish me luck as I am off to Madison...maybe my last area?! who knows!

xoxo

Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

P.S. it totally randomly snowed this morning :/ grr

March 16 2015

Hello Family and Friends,

This week really flew by! I think because of Daylight Savings time. Who knew an hour would make such a difference! 

Sister Wood and I did a lot of street contacting this last week. We have a goal this week to find 1 solid investigator. We need to build up our teaching pool again so pray that we can find more people that will progress and so this area can be a baptizing area again! 

This last Monday we had a wonderful lesson with a part member family. The wife had 5 kids with her previous husband and they are all unbaptized so the sisters have been working with this family for a while. They do struggle as a family and do have a lot of contention in the home, but it actually went pretty well. We explained to them where the Book of Mormon came from and we have an awesome demo we use. We draw a map of the world (I always end up drawing it because my comps say i get all the countries right :P) and then talk about how the Bible was revelation given to the prophets at that time in Jerusalem. Then we introduce a family who was living in Jerusalem around 600 B.C. and the father, Lehi, was also a prophet. Him and his family were told by God that they needed to leave Jerusalem because it was going to be destroyed. We go over how they left and traveled in the wilderness. We draw it on the map and show that they built a boat and sailed to the Americas. Then we briefly talk about that since Lehi was still a prophet he could receive revelation anywhere he was so when he did it was written down and all those writings were made into another book. We ask them what they think that book could be and most people don't know. We then present the Book of Mormon to them and people are surprised. Then we talk about that Jesus' birth, death, and resurrection are talked about both in the Bible and the Book of Mormon and how God loves all his children and He wouldn't leave any of them out. It ends up being a really cool lesson and people are able to see the Book of Mormon from a different perspective. Most people can understand it more since they have a visual now. I really like using this way to explain it because people seem to be more receptive of it and it helped me a lot to know what it is about too. 

After we explained it a lot of the kids and even the parents looked like they finally got it. The parents really liked that way of explaining it and thanked us for showing it to all of them. They said they were going to start reading the Book of Mormon again now that they understand it better. It made me feel really good inside :) I felt like I actually taught something right haha.

On Wednesday, we went to Lake Geneva and had a fun time as always.  You all know how I love Lake Geneva. We were able to talk to one of the volunteers at the food pantry a little about the gospel and she seemed a little interested. We will talk to her more this Wednesday :) We also ran into this black lady that was such a crack up. We were just giving her a card about the new video coming out for Easter (By the way, watch that on March 28th when it comes out! helives.mormon.org ) and she immediately gave us a hug and asked if we were Mormon. We said yes and she shouted, " I love Mormons!". haha her name was Bobby and was just the best. She said she knew Rick Elliot, the organist for the Tabernacle Choir, and was so happy to see more members from his church. We had a great visit with her, but she said she would never join because of our past with blacks and that she thinks we don't need a prophet to tell us what to do...we kind of froze and didn't know how to respond to that so we just smiled and were friendly with her. We weren't able to get her info but i know that she will be baptized one day! She was awesome. 

On Friday we went to Burlington and had a blast with Susan Claeys (the member that drives us around in Burlington on Fridays). We were able to find a family who are less active but are so sweet and really want to come back to church. Susan owns Vezsla dogs (Hunting dogs) and were driving down a highway with her when we saw a lady walking her dog and Susan saw that it was a Vezsla breed of dog so she rolled down her window and yelled to the lady if it was a Vezsla. Then she started doing a sale across the street because Susan has Vezsla puppies that she is trying to sell. It was just so hilarious. Sister Wood and I were laughing hysterically and we could not stop. Susan then pulls into a gas station and the lady walks across the street and they start talking. Susan asks us to give her a He Lives card so she could put her info on it and also share the video with her. Man, someone give Susan a name tag! She is missionary quality! It was a fun day :) 

Saturday we went back to Lake Geneva to visit another part memeber family. The husband in a less active member and then the wife and kids are not members. We showed Chris (the wife) the Book of Mormon map and she loved it! it was an awesome experience and we will be going over there again next Wednesday. It was a good week overall and i think part of it is because of the sunny warm weather! yay!

please remember to not send anything to my current address after today. I will get the info of if i will be transferring on Saturday and i will let you know where i will be going next monday! i love you all! hope you have a great week! sorry for no pictures this week. the computer wont read my camera again. next week i will send them though.

love you!

love sister emily sarah eaton

March 9 2015

Hey Family & Friends,

It has been quite a week! We had Zone Conference on Tuesday in Kenosha and it went pretty well. The Zone leaders, APs, and STLs had great trainings. President Cutler trained on the Plan of Salvation and it was so fun to go into dept. The Plan of Salvation is always my favorite topic to talk about and discuss. I love talking about families and eternity with people. I have such a strong testimony about that so it is a little easier and I feel more comfortable talking about it and sharing my testimony about it. On March 21st we will be gathering as a whole entire mission to Milwaukee for a special conference with an Apostle and one of the seventy. We are all so excited and none of us know who it is going to be yet. It is going to be awesome and I hear that Apostles are what brings the iPads....haha but that isn't what is important here. So missionaries from the Yopee, which is the upper peninsula of Michigan, all the way down to Platteville, Janesville, Lake Geneva, and Kenosha will all gather at the Milwaukee South Stake center to come hear an Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints speak to us! Its pretty exciting :) but with that comes less miles for everyone! We had a huge cut on our milage so that everyone can make it to this awesome conference. We went from 1350 to 975 haha so we are doing our best to use the members for rides. So far it hasn't been too bad, but its only the beginning of the month. Pray for us :)

We were able to get back in contact with one of our investigators, Brittney, on Friday and it was awesome! She is so sweet and so ready. Remi dropped us this last week so we are sad about that but not trying to dwell on it too much! there are plenty of other people out there who are ready to jump in the font!

I am sorry this is so short this week!

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Remember that transfers are the 25th of March so dont send anything to the apartment after about the 14th of March! love you all!

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

March 2 2015 Frozen Lake Geneva

Hello Family and Friends!

It was a pretty crazy week like always I guess. Remi decided to kind of disappear again and he just seems to want to be distant. Sometimes we have to give them their space and let them think about things though. So that is rough. He isn't going to be able to make his baptismal date, but that is ok. He isn't ready and he needs to build a better belief of God anyway. The last time we met with him it was kind of contentious and he started to just debate with us about dumb stuff that really doesn't matter. The spirit wasn't there so we just needed to take a breather. 

This last week I went on exchanges again. I went to Kenosha with Sister Wilson. She is from Southern California. It was pretty fun, but I don't usually look forward to exchanges. We were able to see a lot of cool people though, especially a lot of black people. That's Kenosha :) Everyone we talked to was nice though. I got to see Sister Fort who actually was found by Sister Barnes (My trainer) when she was being trained in Kenosha. Sister Fort is so sweet and really loves when I visit her when I am on exchanges. She just got her Patriarchal blessing and it was so awesome to see how happy she was about it. She has been a member for about a year and a half now i think. Her testimony is so strong!

Sister Wood hit her year mark this last Thursday. She has grown into such a great missionary. She really can't believe she has 6 months left! She will get home a week after Cody does! Crazy! We went tracting that day and I tried my best to have a good attitude about it. It didn't go too bad. People were pretty nice. We were able to pray with a few people so that was good. I kept telling myself that I need to just go out and do it because tracting is where you get all the crazy weird stories that you get to tell everyone! So I need to get a few more of those stories. But of course bring others unto Christ first. :) 

Friday, we were able to see Stephanie again and she was in a really good happy mood. She ended up coming to church and really is starting to enjoy it and is seeing the need for all of this in her life and kids lives. She wants to start on quitting smoking and we are going to help her in any way we can. Pray for Stephanie. 

We also went to Lake Geneva to see a less active named John. He is 17 and has been less active pretty much since he got baptized at 8. Its sad. We will go visit him at Starbucks from time to time. It is a tradition to go and walk to Lake Geneva in the winter because it is so frozen and solid that cars will drive up and down it. So we decided to go do that and it was pretty fun. We didn't go out very far. It was cool to see Lake Geneva from a different perspective.
I can't believe it is already March! Next month I will hit my year mark. crazy right?! I hope you all have a wonderful week and enjoy that awesome weather in Utah! Love you all <3

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

Feb 23 2015 God's Love

Hello Family and Friends

I hope this week has gone well for everyone! Remi decided to disappear this last week, but we got back in contact with him and we will be meeting with him tonight. Hopefully we can resolve more of his concerns. He is almost finished with the Book of Mormon so that is pretty cool! He enjoys it, but there is always something he tends to disagree with. Sometimes we are able to fix it though. 

Friday was pretty crazy. On Fridays we go out with a member, Susan Claeys, and she drives us around Burlington to go see less actives and investigators. She is such a great fellow shipper for everyone. Her smile is seriously brighter than the sun! I told her she and my mom would be great friends because they have similar interests and they both are super super positive all the time!

In Burlington we visit a lady named Stephanie. She was a member, but she got her name removed when she was a teenager. Now after many years of drugs and alcohol she has a desire to change her life around and come back to church. She loves when we all come over and we will often talk about the Atonement with her. I always try my best to bear my testimony about the Atonement and help her know that it is so real! I don't bring tears to her eyes, but I know she hears what I am saying. She went through a lot this past week and we were able to be there for her just at the perfect time. Stephanie has been having a lot of issues with her 13 year old daughter, Lexie, and it has been a huge strain on her. Lexie has been hanging out with the wrong crowd and ended up running away last Monday or Tuesday. They were able to find her within 2 hours, but she had gotten into a lot of things a 13 year old should not get into. When we got there on Friday we talked to Stephanie and had heard the whole story. She said Lexie was up in her room and wouldn't talk to her. We offered to go up stairs and try and talk to her. I was a little hesitant because I didn't know what I would say, but then I thought "Duh! you were 13 once!"

We went upstairs and found Lexie watching TV in her bed. She paused her show and we started telling her that she is loved so much and that her mom is only trying to protect her...As I was standing there I realized all this talk sounded quite familiar. I had heard it all as a teenager growing up. Lexie just stared at us blankly like a 13 year old does. I was worried that nothing was getting through to her and that she just letting it brush off her shoulder. I still hadn't said anything yet, but I knew I needed to. I had felt the things she was feeling. I had wanted to runaway at her age. I could almost completely feel what she was feeling. On top of that, I could feel the strong love slipping into my heart that Heavenly Father has for her. It seriously hit me like a ton of bricks and I couldn't hold my tears in. Things started to get quiet and Sister Wood and Susan were about to start leaving, but then I stopped them. I told Lexie that I knew what she was feeling. I couldn't completely relate, but I had gone through those rebellious stages as well. I told her that she can't hold things in. She needed to talk things out and that her mom was there to listen. I wasn't sure if any of this was getting to her but I figured it was worth a shot. That love that Heavenly Father had for her just wasn't leaving so I needed to let her know. When I ended we all gave her a big hug and told her she is loved. I might never find out if any of that did anything, but I know that Heavenly Father loves that family so much as does he love all of his children. Stephanie ended up surprising us by coming to church this last week! She hasn't been for a really long time and it was so good to see her there. She got a priesthood blessing from the bishop and we hope she will she that she is blessed. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week. 

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton