August 25, 2014

"If you do not believe that hearts can bloom suddenly bigger, and that love can open like a flower out of even the hardest places, then I am afraid that for you the road will be long and brown and barren, and you will have trouble finding the light. But if you do believe, then you already know all about magic."

- Lauren Oliver

So I realized that I failed to give you an update on my new companion!!! SISTER DANA!!!!!! She is from San Fransico, California, and she has been out on her mission for 10 months. She loves to dance, and she wants to be a wedding planner. She has done a year and a half at school both in BYU-Provo and BYU-Hawaii (thought you would love to hear that mom), and she is awesome! She loves talking to people, so you better bet that everyone that passes by us hears about the gospel in one way or another! :) She is awesome, and I love her so much!

Selfie with Sis. Dana

This week we have been working mostly with the less-actives by bringing them back to church and also with strengthening more of the members by getting them more involved in missionary work. We have been working on setting up a less-active plan in our ward to help the less-actives come back to church. Once a month, all six of us missionaries will be taking a member with us on splits to visit two or three less-active families. Not only will it help for those inactive families to see a familiar face, but it will also get the members more involved. Right now we have enough less-actives to make a ward, and if they all started coming back to church, we would have enough people to form two wards and a branch. That's great motivation! Sometimes you have to start small in order to get big. 

My companion and I have gained a lot more trust from the ward members this week. Every house we go in we like to leave a spiritual bomb (which is a short but strong spiritual message), and then we leave. It gets them thinking about wanting us back over.

This week Tae dropped us. :( He brought the Book of Mormon home to his Baptist family. They threw a fit, and when he tried defending us, it resulted into a big argument. So we've decided to leave it alone for awhile. On the bright side, we were able to find 5 new people to teach this week; that is super exciting!!! The Lord has been helping us every step of the way!

Sister Dana and I are gradually finding the missing pieces and putting the puzzle back together. We have been finding more people to teach, we have also been figuring out who most of the previous Sisters' potential investigators were and started teaching some of them.

On Wednesday we went to visit an older less-active. He was telling us about his new wife that he recently married in the Philippines. He had to come back to the States and is working on the paperwork to get her back here with him. He mentioned that she was from Manila, and Sister Dana has a really good friend serving down there. So, we got her information and are going to be sending her friend down there to teach her and his children because she has expressed interest in learning about the church so that she can ultimately end up being sealed to him for time and all eternity. 

Sis. Dana and Sis. Gale

A similar experience happened to me that I don;t remember if I mentioned or not... there was a lady in our ward that was doing some family history work, and she found out that she had some living relatives in Billings, Montana. WELL... I have one of my best friends there, so I was able to get the information for this relative and send it out to Elder Organ so that he could potentially find this person and share the gospel with him. Through both of these experiences, it has definitely showed us that we were called to come here by inspiration and revelation.

We had exchanges this week, and I stayed here in Mansfield while Sister Dana went to Marion. I was able to visit with a part-member family and talk to the daughter. We invited her to learn more, and she said that she wanted to think about it. Well, Sister Dana and I went back to talk to her, but we ran into the mother instead. She let us come into the house, and we discovered that she is currently looking for a church and has never talked to missionaries before about the Mormon church. So we got to share the first lesson with her and give her a Book of Mormon. After we finished, her husband came home. Both Sister Dana and I were a little scared about the encounter that we were about to have. We were able to befriend him though, and we had a great discussion. As we were leaving, he looked at us and told us that we were welcome to come back anytime. It was such a great time.

After leaving that appointment we only had a few minutes until we had to leave for our dinner appointment, and we didn't have time to go to the place that we designated for tracting. We both felt like we should drive back to our place. We were able to meet our new movie-in neighbor and talk to him. During our conversation, we were able to come to the knowledge that he had been meeting with Elders before but had lost contact with them because of work, but he was interested in learning more. Well, in talking to him, we were able to invite him to take a chapel tour, and he said that he wants to continue learning. Once we finished talking, we looked at the clock, and it was just enough time for us to get to our dinner appointment on time. It was the craziest experience because we both felt like we needed to go back to the apartment. I feel so grateful for the Spirit and the guidance He provides us.

I want to say that I know this church is true. I know without a shadow of a doubt that I am here on my mission to invite others to come unto Christ. I know that since Sister Dana and I have been here, we have been able to help many people come to the knowledge of their Savior, and we have been able to make a small difference in this ward. We are super excited to see what the rest of this transfer brings, and we have goals to find more this week than the last. I love it so much, and I will never stop loving my job!

- Sister Gale

August 13, 2014

"Well, we all make mistakes, dear, so just put it behind you. We should regret our mistakes and learn from them, but never carry them forward into the future with us."

- L. M. Montgomery

Ok, so the subject line is a funny story that happened today and a blessing as well. But first I have to tell you that I got transferred to Mansfield, Ohio (also known as the country). It is such a crazy difference from New Albany or Dublin, so I am still in the process of adjusting. My new address is:

Sister Erin Tiffany Gale 

1578 Sassafras Dr. 

Mansfield, Oh 44905

Personally I think the address fits me well, but that’s just me. :)

So the story now... We have to budget our miles a lot more than I have ever done in the past because we have one of the biggest areas in the mission, and there is a lot of territory for us to cover; we only have so many miles that we can use. So we figured that it would be better to go grocery shopping before we went to the library. So that is what we did this morning, and I was looking at certain kinds of seasonings. While I was doing that, we got a text. I was trying to figure out a ride for our meeting this Wednesday, and after I did that, I put the phone back in my bag. We finished shopping and headed out to the car, and our phone beeped again. When I went to look at the phone, I saw one of the seasonings in my bag. I quickly pulled out my receipt and noticed that I hadn’t paid for that. Man! I can’t even make it a week in Mansfield, and I'm already shop lifting. I quickly ran inside to return it, and while I was doing that, a man came up to my companion and told her that he was watching us and was very proud of my decision to return that. I thought that was awesome that someone saw that, but it was also very interesting to see how many people are watching us without us knowing. 

After 6 months in Dublin with Sister McIntyre, I was transferred into the country. My companion's name is Sister Dana, and she is from California. She has been out for 10 months, and I think we are going to have a great time getting this area up and running. Get this... I get to drive a Jeep! I love it here already, and I love talking to people. They are so much more receptive here than the people in the city! We have found some investigators already but not as many as we could have. The reason being is that we got doubled into Mansfield, and the previous missionaries hadn’t really kept accurate records of people. Out of all 50+ names written on their board, we had about 4 addresses and phone numbers. Out of all the teaching records (there are a total of 7), only 3 were completely filled out. So I would venture to say we basically are opening a new area. We had a lot of plans to go out and find people, but I can’t stand coming home to a messy apartment. I think that many people have a different standard of "clean" than I do, and it wasn’t up to my standard. Sooo, we spent the first day and a half cleaning the apartment. Yes, it was necessary. 

There has been a lot of trust issues between the ward and the missionaries here, so there has been a lot of work going on in gaining that trust back. I think we have done a great job so far, and we are just working with as many people as we can. There are a total of 3 sets of missionaries here in Mansfield, and we are all working together to make the work go forward here. I love the members we have talked to, and so far they are on board with helping us out. :) 

We have already met with one investigator who is awesome! We have taught him the restoration already, and he said that that brought him so much peace. He is only 21 years old, but he knows that he needs religion in his life and is so grateful that we came knocking on his door. We have another appointment with him in a couple of days, and I hope that we can teach his girlfriend as well! 

Other than that, there is a lot of work to get done. OH! I forgot to mention that 70% of the mission was changed during this last transfer, and we were told that the Mission President is making some more changes next transfer. It’s pretty crazy, but we know that he is called of God. He has a vision, and he will do what he needs to do to make that happen. I am so grateful for his service and for all that President Daines does for us.

I know that this is the work of the Lord. I see how much the mission has changed in just a short couple of months, but it is moving forward as he asks us to partake in this "great and marvelous work." There will be a time when the gospel is shared with everyone on this Earth. Who better to share it than us ourselves? I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I love it and the teachings that are taught in it. I love giving it to people because they can feel of its truth as they read and pray about the good word! I know that this gospel is true with all my heart! I love this work, and I love my job!!!

-- Sister Gale

August 06, 2014

"And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ."

- Colossians 3:23-24

It is already August... Can you believe it?! I can’t believe how fast 2014 has flown by. Before you know it, it’s going to be Christmas, and that is just insane to me! 

We are still teaching Emily, and things are going great with that. We were able to take her to a baptism, and she felt the Spirit so strongly! It was so great to talk to her about it and the feelings that she felt while she was there. We asked her if that was something that she wanted to do, and she said, "Eventually." Although that is a great response... I just want her to say "YES! Is the font back in Dublin filling up for me?!" ...but then again, everything has its own time and place. As we were travelling home, it started to pour rain! Everyone was in shock
at how much is was raining, but I just turned around and said, "It's Heavenly Father crying tears of happiness because someone chose to follow Him today?" Everyone got a good laugh out of that, even myself! 

On Sunday she was totally planning on coming to church, and we dropped the ball on having a set ride for her. We had someone lined up, and then we got a text message at 11:34pm saying that they weren’t able to go to church. We texted another family that never responded back to us. We just simply assumed that she would pick her up.... Rule #133: Never ASSUME as a missionary. Man, she was totally ready to go and everything, and nobody came to pick her up. She said that it was actually good because her dad had some things for her to do, but still.... Lessons you learn out on the mission!

Unfortunately there has been a bad case of the summer cold going around here in Dublin. Did you know there was such a thing?! Ya, me neither. My companion was one of those unlucky people who caught it, so we had to stay in the apartment for 2 days straight while she slept. I got so much reading done from Jesus the Christ and Preach My Gospel; I also got to listen to some John Bytheway CD's, and everyone knows that he is just fantastic. And then I just did whatever else I could to help the time pass by. It is super hard when your abilities are limited to the mission rules, but I made it work. Thankfully she was only out for 2 days, and we were able to get up and get to work the following day.

Something that we have been able to do a lot this past week is Family History Work. We helped Cynthia with the work that she has been trying to do so that she has names to take to the temple. We spent about three and a half hours with her, and we got 8 names for her to take when she goes. We were also able to help a less-active in our ward get signed up, and we showed her how everything works out. She was so grateful, and in about an hour and a half we got 6 names done. I feel like our time is getting faster because we are becoming pro family history searchers! 

Lastly, Sister McIntyre and I were on our way to an appointment with an investigator, and the member that was coming with us needed a ride. So we went to pick her up. We got to our appointment a little late because of traffic, but when we walked in, we saw that there was dinner on the table. I thought that we had interrupted dinner! They informed us quickly that we hadn’t. In fact, they were planning on having us eat with them. Well, we had a dinner appointment scheduled with a member right after this appointment, but we didn’t want to say no sooo... we had a double dinner. I will say, I have to start watching what I am eating because of stomach problems, and the 2 meals that we had were not meant to go together. We had Chicago dogs with the investigator and then Japanese food with the member. It was so sweet of them, but Sister McIntyre and I suffered hard core when the night was finished. I was jokingly saying, "I was trying to make it a whole year without eating 2 dinners, and I am just shy of that..." To which Sister McIntyre replied, "I could even make it 6 months.... man I'm in trouble!" Haha we got a good laugh from that!

Well, the time has come where we need to get going, but I wanted to let you know that I love being out here. There are so many great experiences that we are having, and bringing every person closer to Christ has increased my testimony so much. I thank my Heavenly father everyday for allowing me to take on this responsibility of helping His children. I know the church is true, and I know that the Book of Mormon was translated by our beloved Prophet, Joseph Smith. I know that it is true! I love you all so much, and I love my job!

-- Sister Gale