Week 11 Christ has been there

Hey everyone!

I hope you all had a good week this week and I hope everyone is doing well. This week wasn't the best. Sister Barnes and I had a lot of let downs and cancellations. Plenty of opportunities to tract then, but still it was a really hard week. We started out really positive and we had a lot of lessons planned out. We were meeting with Heather and her family and we were very excited to meet with the Gillis couple who seemed extremely excited and wanting to be baptized already. Biking everywhere wasn't too bad either. There were time where the hills were painful but it was nice to be outside and enjoy the nice weather. I did get a lot of mosquito bites on my legs and one look kind of severe and big as it started to swell and everything. We just watched it for a few days and I pretty much coated the gigantic bite with Tiger Balm (This is the best stuff ever) every morning and night. That seemed to help a lot and now it is pretty much gone and doesn't itch at all. I have pictures of that :) The last few days of the week I wore my tall boots to protect my legs from being eaten alive and that helped too. 

One morning as we were starting our bike trip out to the church one of our neighbors stopped us and asked us where we were going on bikes and where was our car. He told us we were crazy for riding our bikes when it was going to rain. He told us we should just go back home because we weren't going to get anything done on bikes...ha well we just laughed and wished him a good day and continued our voyage. It didn't rain that day. :)

Well as I mentioned the two families for this last week, they ended up both cancelling on us. Heather and her family were ok because her son, Clayton, has pink eye so we totally understand there. But Linda and Jeff Gillis were the ones that genuinely broke our hearts the most. They seemed all pumped and excited about it on Tuesday, they called and said they would be there. Friday came and we went to the church to meet them there. It was 3:00 and they still hadn't showed up so we called them and Linda apologized and said they weren't coming today. They told us that they decided they didn't want to go through with it and that it wasn't the right time for them. Our hearts shattered as our golden investigators just broke up with us...darn it...So we sat in our car (Got our car back on Thursday which was a blessing) and just didn't know what to do next. We were too depressed to go teach other people for it would bring more rejection. We opened up Preach My Gospel and turned to the "A Successful Missionary" section. We went over things that maybe we could be working on and doing better at. It was hard to not be able to know why Heavenly Father gave us this trial. There were a few things that we will be working on to become better missionaries, but overall we felt that we were good people and good missionaries. We drove home to go make dinner and things kind of just got worse. The member we live with wasn't very happy with us and started pointed things out that we have failed at or done wrong. She got mad at the things hung on our walls, but we tried to explain that those have been there the whole time and we didn't put them up. Just a lot of things we weren't even aware that bugged her and she kind of just blew up about everything. We felt even worse and just were so confused. It has been a big challenged the past few days with the member (Sister Bartell) and we have talked to our sister training leaders about it. They notified the President and now we are just waiting to see what happens. Sister Bartell isn't a bad person, she can be a really nice and sweet lady, but she is just really difficult to live with and we have tried to settle things with her before and nothing really works. But I guess on the plus side, it makes us stay out and work because we never want to go back to the house...Well sorry to leave on this sad note. We are still waiting to hear what is going to happen. I love you all though and I hope this weeks goes better for all of us. I am looking foreard to today though because we are going to go to a Target! :) I am having major Target withdrawals so I hope this helps haha

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

A cute yogurt shop 

Week 10 Golden Investigators

Hey Family and Friends!

I Hope all is well and everyone is feeling better. Seems like there are a few people getting sick and stuff. Well this week was good as usual. Sister Barnes and I were able to give out 4 copies of the Book of Mormon! That was awesome and we cant wait to go and follow up with those people. We had a Zone training this Tuesday and they all challenged us to give out one Book of Mormon a day so we were close to making that goal with 4. We have had pretty good success in one of the neighborhoods and we were able to meet Paco who seemed so excited about family history and the importance of families so we will go back and see him this week hopefully. We had a lesson with some twins that are 8 years old and we are preparing them for their baptism, but they haven't been coming to church so that makes us sad. Hopefully they will start coming next week.

Mom, you will be so proud of me this week! So a member in our ward (Sister Roberts) asked us if we could come over to help her plant some flowers. We of course said yes and both figured it would be easy anyway. Well we had no idea that she didn't really know how to plant things in the ground, and Sister Barnes didn't really even know either so I thought back to what my wonderful gardener mother has taught me :) We planted two Hydrangeas and several Geraniums. The work took longer than we all expected so Sister Roberts offered to take us to Culvers for dinner and dessert. We graciously accepted :) So thanks Mom for the lessons, see I listened :)

We also received an awesome media referral and went out to visit this older couple. They were super interested and have been looking for a church to support for quite a while. so perfect! during our lesson on the Restoration, Linda and Jeff has numerous questions and basically asked what they needed to do to be baptized! Ah I love these kind of investigators! :) I see a baptism happening shortly :)

Last night we turned in our car to the auto body shop because it needs a new paint job. We are going to be depending a lot upon some bikes that a member has let us borrow. We biked to the library today actually. Haha so please pray for Sister Barnes and I and we work our legs a lot this week. It should be raining this week too haha. Well I love you all so much! The Gospel is true and I know it brings so much happiness! Have a wonderful week!

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton 

All the girls in the Green Bay South Zone 

Chicken Rolls

2 months down! 

New Sunglasses 

"9 months down for my sweet missionary!" 

9 weeks down and TIRED

Hello everyone!

Oh man this week has been soo busy! It went by really fast. On Monday after emails, Sister Barnes and I went to the small amusement park in Green Bay called Bay Beach. They have a few rides, but it isn't too big. We had fun there though and it felt good to just relax and have fun on rides. They have a famous roller coaster called the "Zippin Pippin"! It was named by Elvis because it was his favorite ride. Well, the dumb thing is we weren't able to ride it because you have to be super small to fit in the seat. Sister Barnes is a bigger person so she wouldn't be able to fit. We both thought this was dumb since most roller coasters are benches. But oh well, we just rode other rides. 

That night we had family home evening with our investigator, Heather, and two of her children, Clayton (12) and Abby (9). We taught them the Restoration using an object lesson with cups. (I did this lesson with the kids in my Sunday school class). I love this object lesson because it makes sense! They loved this lesson and we asked them if they would be baptized. Clayton and Abby seemed really excited and said they wanted to. Heather seemed a little more hesitant, but said she would pray about it. We have Clayton and Abby each their own Book of Mormon since Heather already had one. I had Clayton read Joseph Smith's words about the Vision and the Spirit was so strong and powerful! It was so amazing and it felt wonderful. After he finished reading it, Sister Barnes asked how they each felt about that. They all said happy and good, which was so amazing! Clayton offered to say the closing prayer and then we ended with Monopoly and some treats. Their family so sweet and we love them all. They also have 2 boys that are 17 and 18 who are autistic, but they are always in bed when we come over. 

Tuesday we went tracting a lot and didn't have much luck but we found a Utah avenue! and took a picture of course! :) 

Wednesday we did our usual Volleyball with the nonmember ladies and volunteering at the St. Vincents store. We met one of our ward missionaries to go tracting on a street near the church. There we met a new investigator,Crystal. She was so sweet and loved our lesson about families. She asked us to come back and teach her and her family more so we will be doing that this week and I am very excited. Then we went to visit a less active and found out she is too busy for us so we tracted the rest of her street and found a new investigator named Bruce. He told us that him and his wife would love to hear our message and that they have the Jehovah's Witnesses over every week too. Our goal is to lead them over to our side haha. We haven't been able to meet with both of them yet though so we have yet to do that. 

Thursday we went to help one of our investigators, Ellen, with setting up a garage sale for her. She is the one moving to Florida which makes it hard to teach her since she will be leaving soon, but we do our best to still teach her things while we serve her and bring the spirit in. She was so grateful for our help and before we left, asked to say a prayer with us to thank God for our help. She loves us very much, but I don't think she really wants to join the church...we will see. So we helped her set up and got it all ready for the weekend. When we got home Sister Barnes and I were exhausted and hurried and went to bed quick after planning.

Friday we got up and went to Ellen's again and opened up the sale. There weren't too many people, but we got some sales. We were there all morning and then we had to go to some appointments later in the afternoon. We had a dinner appointment with a family that are strong members. We were going to teach a less active in their home but she cancelled so we just had dinner with the family. They have a daughter that is leaving for her mission to Guatemala City tomorrow and so we talked to her about what to kind of expect and gave her some good advice. It went so well and I just couldn't believe that I was in her seat about 2 months ago! It went by so fast!

Saturday was another day at Ellen's and she was able to sell a lot of her furniture and big items. We had some appointments earlier though so we left a little after lunch time and went to see some families we met before. None of them were home unfortunately so we went to a auto body shop to get an estimate for our car. A while ago someone keyed our car so the mission office told us we needed to get it fixed. We will probably have that done with week so we will be riding bikes a lot this week!....ha I still don't know how I feel about it.
Sunday went well and Malia Torbenson (The missionary going to Guatemala) gave her farewell talk. It was so good and I teared up a lot. After church they had an open house and we went and socialized there. By the time we got home last night we were soo tired and pooped from this week. I slept very good last night.

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

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

Week 8 "Costco"

Dear Family and Friends,

How is everyone doing? I am doing well and this week went pretty good too. We gained two new investigators and are very excited to teach them. Their names are Jon and Sarah and they have a few kids so that is a plus! They go to the celebration church, but we hope to get them going to our church soon. We don't really like the celebration church up here, we lose a lot of our investigators to that church haha but that is ok.

Tonight Sister Barnes and I are going over to our investigator's (Heather) house and going to have a family home evening with her and her family. I am so excited and I know her kids will love it. We are going to teach them the restoration and then play a game that they choose. Heather is really good at baking cakes so she said she might make one :) She showed us her the cakes she made in the past and they were really cool. She makes them like Ryley does. So I am excited to see how tonight turns out and we hope they will commit to going to church and baptism.

This last Friday was the new missionary training for all of us that came in April so we drove down to Oshkosh and had a good meeting. I learned how to tie family history and the restoration together a lot better. We had delicious food and I actually ate like everything that was on the table lol They made like a lasagne casserole with penne noodles instead of lasagne noodles and they had french bread and some yummy key lime bars. I was full. 

We also found a Costco and were so excited because we hate Walmart's prices. I kept forgetting that we need a membership to get in though so Sister Barnes is going to buy one maybe so we can save more money. Sister Barnes is going home in July anyway so we will get to use it when she goes home also. We decided it was a good plan. While trying to find Costco we found a town litterally named Eaton Town! So so weird. I took some pictures though.

Sorry this email is super short. I forgot my old planner that has all what happened :/ So I am trying my best here to remember haha 

Transfers are this Wednesday but I am staying of course because I am being trained.

Thank you for all the letters and cards this week! I love you all. Have a good week!

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

My last district. Everyone stayed except one sister

Eaton Truck and Auto 

If you want to see more pictures visit the mission blog at

 wisconsinmilwaukeemission.blogspot.com

Week 7 "Oh my gosh I'm 20!"

Sorry a week late! 

Dear family and friends,

Wow this week has gone by really fast, but that is a good thing!

Well first off, I finally got ear plugs and I sleep great! So that makes a happier Emily :) We had a great district meeting about following up on members, and anyone else we teach on the commitments we have made for them in the past. That went very well and we have been able to practice and apply those things to the people we talk to. We were able to teach one of our investigators, Cathy, this week and we did an object lesson using cups to teach the Restoration. She loved it and said it helped her understand things a lot better. We asked her if she came to the conclusion that she knew it was true would she be baptized and she said yes! so I are exited about that and are going to move forward with the rest of the lessons and invite her with a specific date soon.
Sister Barnes and I went on exchanges for Wednesday with our sister training leaders. I went with Sister Arnold and we were able to find a lot of people to teach. She helped me teach better and feel more confident so I was grateful for that. We exchanged back Wednesday night and Thursday and Friday, Sister Barnes and I were on fire and a great spiritual high. It was the best feeling and we were able to teach many more people and be more effective in our missionary work.

Sister Barnes and I have an amazing investigator named Renee and we love her so much. We had a lesson with her on Thursday and we invited her to be baptized and she said yes! It was such an amazing feeling and the spirit was so strong there. We know she is so ready and I love that Heavenly Father has sent her to us at the perfect time. We will get to meet with her this Thursday again and we are going to ask about a specific date so be praying for us :) Friday was so busy but it was awesome! We had committed to making a dessert for a baptism that was going to happen that night so we baked those and then we had a couple lessons after that. We started teaching an investigator's two 8 year old daughters and they really want to be baptized. We got a baptismal date for them on July 19! yay! we are so excited and cant wait to teach them more. After that lesson we went to the baptism. It was for a couple that the elders taught. We all love the Browns so we were all so excited for them. It went so well and the spirit was definitely there. 

My birthday went alright. No one really knew about it so I didn't expect anything. It was honestly just a regular day which was fine. Thank you so much for the Lindsey Stirling CD and the skirt and book! I loved it all and it was nice to get lots of love from home since I was feeling kind of down here...but I didn't let it ruin my day! I still smiled! haha But yesterday I couldn't hold in my sadness anymore. haha so I blurted out to my companion,"I just really want a birthday cake...". oh my I didn't mean to sound all poor me and stuff but it just felt weird! No cake or ice cream for my birthday...out of my whole 19 years and then this year just nothing...lol so Sister Barnes got up and said, "WE ARE GOING TO GET YOU A CAKE!" So we went over to the store and I bought myself some candles, a few cupcakes, and a small chocolate cake. We went to the church and had a small party. So i did get my cake :) and that made things better! 

For the Memorial celebration we got invited to a members house for a party. They have one every year and it is quite a big party! It was awesome and we ate good food and played fun games. It was very hot though and lots of knats that love to fly into my face and nose! but took in that heat and enjoyed every second of it! haha I love you all and hope this week goes well for you! Thank you again for all the things you have sent me! If I haven't gotten something you sent yet, I am sure it will be here this week since most people send it to the mission office first and then they forward it to my actual address. Keep sharing the gospel as much as you can! 

Love,

Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

Week 6: Miracles

Hey everyone!

This week has been such a wonderful week and I have really seen the miracles happen. Monday didn't start out the best and I found myself really cranky and down. I had a bad attitude and didn't have the spirit with me. So horrible I know :( I was really tired so I ended up taking a nap when we got home from emails and grocery shopping. One thing that is frustrating to me is my companion snores like crazy so I can't ever sleep. I probably get like 4 or 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep so then it makes me more cranky in the mornings. We have thought about getting me some ear plugs or something, but I totally feel bad for even telling her about it because I know she can't really help it. Anyway so I just never look forward to sleep unless she is out of the room. My pillow and my zebra pillow pet have become my best friend with blocking out sound haha

Tuesday we had a lot of people fall through, but we were able to get a lot of the paper work part done with updating progress records and all that stuff you never hear about unless you come on to a mission lol and we decided to go down the ward list and call all the less active people and set up a day to go visit them...that makes this week become super busy! but that is good. I was actually surprised at how many less active members were really nice about us coming over...its not like they dont know we are there to teach them stuff. So that just lifted my spirits at how people were all nice and welcoming. 

Wednesday is always our busy day. We play volleyball with the less active members and then go volenteer at St. Vincents store. I was the cashier this week and it brought back many memories of working at Aeropostale haha I messed up a few times....its ok though, its not like I am dealing with money or anything haha

Thursday we had our zone conference and that was pretty cool! I got to meet my friend I met through Facebook on one of the "missionary girlfriend" groups. Sister Hatch is so nice and I hope I will be able to be her companion during my mission. She started her mission in January and her boyfriend is serving in Georgia! So funny how close Cody and her missionary are and we are in the same mission. Zone conference went very well and I was able to get to know my mission president and his wife a lot better. Haha Sister Cutler will never stop reminding me of my mom! she seriously looks just like her! its so crazy. And she is the sweetest just like you Mom :) 

Then we had dinner at the bishop's house and i had the best burger ever! It is a burger with cheese in the MIDDLE and Bacon coats the burger i think...aw the best! :) you know my love for meat :D

Friday was the really really good day! We had a few appointments and in between we kept getting media referrals sent to our phone...2 in a row and then some elders in our area sent us one! it was such a blessing and I wondered what we had done right that day. We made sure we thanked Heavenly Father and we went to contact those people. Sadly 2 of them didn't work out...the addresses were not correct, but we were able meet other people that we could teach. We ran into a lady that spoke Spanish and Sister Barnes was able to speak a little Spanish to her and ask her if she would like to be taught more about the gospel. We referred her over to the Spanish Elders. We hope that goes well for them. 

That night there was an 8 year old girl that got baptized and even though her family mostly members and they are all very active we were able to meet the girls spanish teacher that she invited and talk to her and her husband about the gospel and about baptism. We hope for them to become our new investigators soon! :)

Friday was just such a good day and I slept pretty good that night.

Saturday was kind of a more relaxed day. nothing really marvelous happened, but we met with Ellen again and I just love her so much! she is amazing and so we decided to start teaching her because she needs to get baptized. the sad thing is she is moving because her husband and daughter live down in Florida and our plan is to baptize her and have Cody baptize her husband and daughter then she will move down there and she and her family can live together forever haha just kidding, her husband is in Tampa but it was a good thought i had :p but we want to have her be baptized before she moves so that she will be able to have an instant family down in Florida and then she can help the rest of her family join...haha Ellen is great though. She gave us some presents and some nail polish and eye shadow yay! My nails are pretty again. 

This next Saturday there is a baptism. The browns are investigators of the elders and they are so nice! we are all excited for them to be baptized because they are so solid and strong in the church! 

I am so grateful for my mission and I am so grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow. I love this gospel so much and I know it brings true happiness :) I want to share it with everyone. I know that when you follow Heavenly Father and be Christlike that you will truly be happy. I love you all and I will talk to you later :)

Go check out my Mormon.org profile! http://www.mormon.org/me/F2ZH/Emily It is up and it looks good! Share the gospel any chance you get!

Also next week since it is memorial day my Pday will be on Tuesday so dont panic when i dont email on monday:) love you all

Love,

Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

ONE MONTH DOWN! 

 The Eaton road I was trying to show you guys before. Just kind of funny and there is also a Taylor st. and a Wisconsin and Florida Ave. haha My companion and I are planning on going and getting pictures at the state name streets because we thought it was funny and so perfect! 

Green Bay Packers stadium

Happy Mothers Day and 1 month down!

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope all of you had a wonderful week this week and that your Mother's day went well! It was so good to be able to talk to my family after a month on Skype. The family in my ward, the Sabourins, were nice enough to let my companion and I come over for dinner and Skype our family. I made sure I thanked them a lot! This week was kind of crazy and we had a lot go on. Tuesday we had a lesson with Cathy, she is an investigator that the Spanish Elders referred to us. She lives in sort of a group home for older disabled people and so sometimes it is hard to have a discussion with her when there are a lot of other people walking around and asking who you are and what you are doing there, but the lessons are going well and she seems interested in it all. She is really nice and loves Christ and loves talking about religion, but for now she keeps saying she just wants to be educated about our religion so we pray that her heart will change soon as we continue to teach her. Then we had a district meeting and it was about an hour drive so we had to make our lesson with her short. The meeting went well and we just made new goals for this week. After we got home we had another lesson with Anna (investigator). She is the one that goes to the Pentecostal church so it has been interesting to teach her. She is a sweet girl and really wants to serve a mission like we do, but we keep reminding her that she needs to be baptized and read the Book of Mormon first. So that is the biggest challenge we have right now with her. She won't even touch the Book of Mormon because she says she will get a bad feeling about it. We just keep praying that she will learn to listen to the Holy Ghost and not whatever else she is hearing. The one thing that was kind of scary but funny was she brought up the Gift of Tongues...oh boy was that weird haha luckily she didn't start doing some voodoo tribal thing and we were able to get back on track with our lesson about the Plan of Happiness. 

Wednesday we went and did our weekly service at the local Catholic thrift store. Sister Barnes and I just stay up at the front and ring people up. She does the cash register and I am the bagger. Brings back the very few memories I have working at Aeropostale lol Guess that was good for at least one thing. I know how to bag things really quick and say, "Thanks have a great day!" haha. and No I don't say would you like a BEG with that!!! After that we go visit a less active, Sister Watson. She kind of frustrates me because I feel like there is nothing more we can do for her. She still won't go to church because she has all her excuses so I feel that our visits are just a waste of time, but we still keep going anyway. She needs a lot of praying for her haha

We had another lesson with Anna and we attempted to finish the Plan of Happiness with her. I think we finished it. That went well but she still won't read the Book of Mormon. So we just keep praying for that and I think we will meet with her again soon.

Thursday we had a lesson with Judy (investigator). She is Catholic and a lady in our ward referred her to us because it is her mother. Things have been going well with Judy, our lessons end up going longer because she has a lot of questions. We can really see that things are kind of "clicking" to her as she will compare her religion and our religion and the Bible all together. The other day she asked about why Catholics don't have prophets but in the Bible there are prophets and the LDS church has them too...That was cool because it was like a big epiphany that just happened! So she is doing well. We are inviting her to be baptized sometime in June. 

Later that day we got a call from a less active member asking us to help them move. We thought it was a perfect opportunity to maybe help me want to come back to church. The elders and us all helped them, but it ended up taking the whole rest of the day and luckily we got everything in the moving truck before it started to rain. 

Friday we also go and do service for a non member helping her with her non profit business. She has an organization that helps welcome newcomers in Green Bay. We will just put the folders and information together. Then we went and visited a less active couple. The Augustines are probably in their 70's and they really aren't that inactive. They come to Sacrament meeting and Sunday school but then they will go home because they don't want to leave their cats home alone  for a long time...that is kind of frustrating. Brother Augustine still doesn't have the Melchizedek priesthood so that is why we still visit them. But Sister Barnes has told me that the whole time she has been there nothing has changed. Praying for them a lot. They have 3 cats...which is fine but it isn't my favorite house to go to because it really reaks...sorry but its true.

Robert and Samantha are our other investigators. They have been for about a year  I guess. They need to be married before they get baptized so we are helping them work on that. We have a baptismal date set for them in July.

Saturday was the worse and also the best day (besides Mothers day of course) this week. I woke up feeling really sick and so I stayed in bed until about 11. I felt really bad that we didn't stay on the study schedule, but Sister Barnes was nice and told me not to worry. She said it was fine and that I needed it. So we didn't get going until about 12:30. But once we got out things really picked up and I really got to feel the Holy Ghost with us as we did our best. We tracted down one street and were able to talk to many people. We met a cute little family that seemed interested in family history and then we also gained a new investigator and we will be returning to teach him more about the gospel. I was so surprised at how many people didn't just slam their doors on us. They acutually would let us speak after saying "We are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". haha So that was a big blessing and it really pumped me up more as I didn't have the best beginning of the day.

Sunday was awesome and I am so glad I got to talk to most of my family! I was so happy to see Grandma Strebel. I wish I could have seen Bernie. Totallly forgot to ask about her haha oops. But so glad everyone is doing well! I love you all! I do have my countdown pictures for my 1 month down and for Cody's 8 months down! BUT sadly I left my camera at home this time so next week I will send out the pictures :) Thank you Rachel for distributing out my weekly emails and being such a great sister! I am sorry I didn't get to talk to you Adam and Le'a and Family but know I still love you all and miss you so much! Yay it is pouring outside :) :) Have a wonderful week everyone and pray for me and the people I teach! Teach the gospel any second you can and help the missionaries in your ward! It makes things a lot easier. Our members don't help us much so it is sad. Ok love you!

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton