Hey Ya all!
Well this week was really, really busy;
It is very amazing when you see the change of an area from being a dead area to a very fruitful area! I am so lucky to have been able to watch the changes in this area for the last six months. It’s crazy how a little hard work and the spark of the gospel can set a fire under a ward, and it’s amazing what’s happening here in California
I can’t believe how busy we were this week! It has been just amazing to see the miracles that have come to pass this week! Well first of all a less active lady that we teach, she has invited her nephew and niece to take the lessons!! So know we are teaching an 11 year old a 14 year old and a 7 year old! I love teaching kids they are so cute!!! One of them the 11 year old boy, loves the church and the gospel, he answered all the questions when we were teaching the restoration, it is way cool to see how the lord prepares all people to hear the gospel, not just adults!!!
On Wednesday we taught our miracle investigator at a members house, also with her children, before our lesson we talked a little bit about the word of wisdom, we told her about the coffee thing which we worried was going to be a very big issue, but she was completely fine with it, and told us she would defiantly be able to be baptized on the 22 of February! It was such a great lesson!!!! The West lake sisters had a baptism on Saturday, and we were able to go with all of our investigators!! It was so great to watch them all feel the spirit!
We also taught sweet lady this week and we have seen so much progress in her in the past few weeks, and it’s amazing to see her progress because the first day I got to California she dropped me and my trainer. She didn't want us to come teach her anymore, and now she is going to be baptized soon! It’s AMAZING how the lord softens people’s hearts!!
This week, thanks to some amazing members, we got a referral, we went and visited him on Saturday, he is an atheist but he is truly searching for god. Which I know sounds funny, but he is, he felt something as we talked to him in his garage, and we set up a meeting for that Sunday. We had a brother in the ward come with us, he is one of his very best friends and we had an amazing discussion on god and how we know the book of Mormon to be true. He is a very facts related guy and he was hung up that the book of Mormon says that there are horses and he said that there is no evidence backing up that statement. My first thought was, why does that matter? It really doesn't matter, but what we figured out was, he needs to find out if there is a god first before he figures anything else out.
We are also teaching this great young, she is in her teens. The former young woman’s president set it up, it’s so great, she loves learning and she is now coming to church! It’s great what a friendly face and an invitation will do for someone who has lost their way!
Sunday was awesome! We had lots of people at church including this man who is our very depressed investigator that we teach, after we taught him on Thursday, he started to cry and we were worried that we were too hard on him and that he would not want to meet with us anymore. Friday morning he left us a voice message saying how grateful he is for us taking the time to talk to us and how he is starting to see a change in his attitude and life and he knows what we share with him is helping him!! So great to hear that!
I love this work and I love how it’s all falling into place and how even though it took a lot of hard work, tears. A lot of the time I felt completely discouraged and wanted to give up, but heavenly father is preparing people, he will bless us for obedience. I am here in sunny California for a reason, even though I don’t know exactly what that is yet! It’s just great! I know that this church is true I love this wad here in Agoura hills and it’s just so amazing to see the progression!!!!
Some funny things have happened this week. I was running to catch a dog, I ended up belly flopping on the dog, and I scraped up my knees, I have bruises in places you shouldn't get bruises. My body looks like I spilled yellow, blue and purple watercolors down my legs. My companion still tries to explain to me how funny I looked while landing belly first on the surprised dog. I think she will be reliving it and laughing at me forever.
Later this week we both were seen running from a pack of wild coyotes, we could hear them. They were getting close so we didn't even stay around to see what would happen, we just took off running!
Then later that day we were Sprinting to our car for our next appointment, and we both tripped and ended up laughing for the next solid 45 minutes.
Missions are the best things ever! I really can’t believe it’s already been 6 months!
Love to you all and have a great week!
Sister Proctor!
Monday, January 27, 2014
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Hello Everyone,
So this week was a really amazing week!
We saw so many miracles in just a few days, it was crazy!
We saw our investigator, on Monday, the one that came to church unexpectedly last Sunday. We had dinner with a member and told her how amazing our new investigator is (she has a baptismal date by the way and her 1st lesson was amazing) It turns out she was out of our mission boundaries and we had no idea!
We decided to be obedient and tell the zone leaders even though our investigator said that she had typed in her address to find the nearest ward building to her, and it was our building. Well the elders told us that we needed to contact the referral lady and send in the referral and make sure it is in our ward. So we contacted her and she was like, I’m pretty sure it is not in your area or even in your mission but if the referral happens to come to your phone its yours.
So we were already super stressed that we were not going to be able to teach her! As we were waiting for the text we got a call from a sister in our ward that knows our new investigator!!!!
She told us that after the bishops meeting in church about hastening the work in our ward, she had prayed that she would be able to find someone for us to teach and baptize by February 5! When she saw Mindy she freaked out and new that the Lord had answered her prayer! We didn’t tell her she might not be in our area.
While we were waiting to see if we would actually get to teach her, we went tracting for 45min to get our minds of the subject! Can I just say that was the longest 45min of my life! We said a prayer to be okay with what we knew was going to happen (the elders in Calabases would teach her and she would still be baptized). When we got to our car and started driving, we both pretty much accepted it... but when we looked at our phone, there was our referral!!! So crazy! The referral lady called us and said, “I put in that address in four times and it shows that she is in your ward each time, so she is yours!!!”
The church is true! It is so amazing to see how a member’s desire to do missionary work really comes to pass!!!
We also met with a less active, she is really cool and is now coming regularly to church! Can you believe she gave us two new investigators this week? So cool!!
Ximena is doing well we had the gospel of Jesus Christ lesson, she loved it! She loves church, she feels the spirit so strong and loves the way it is changing her family! She is still hesitant on baptism but she is definitely getting closer!
The week went really good! It was so great to see that God truly does answer prayers and if you work hard and have faith you are able to see the fruits of your labors!
Sister Hiatt and I are getting along really good! It’s great to be together again for another 6 weeks, it’s the first time that sister Hiatt or I have had the same companion for more than 6 weeks!
The work is good, moving along more rapidly, and we are working together so great! This area has really turned around! It is so great!!! I am having a lot of fun in Agoura hills and we are so busy its crazy.
We also had stake conference and it was a live feed from Salt Lake City and President Eiring spoke it was so good. Elder Neil Anderson spoke as well! It was just a really fun day full of awesome things!
Today was fun we went shopping and the cashier saw my badge she said “It’s so cool your Sister Protector bringing the gospel to California”. We giggled for a while over me being a super hero with super powers and saving people with the knowledge of eternal life!
Anyway hope you all have an awesome week love you all and please continue to pray for missionary opportunities!!!
Love sis proctor
So this week was a really amazing week!
We saw so many miracles in just a few days, it was crazy!
We saw our investigator, on Monday, the one that came to church unexpectedly last Sunday. We had dinner with a member and told her how amazing our new investigator is (she has a baptismal date by the way and her 1st lesson was amazing) It turns out she was out of our mission boundaries and we had no idea!
We decided to be obedient and tell the zone leaders even though our investigator said that she had typed in her address to find the nearest ward building to her, and it was our building. Well the elders told us that we needed to contact the referral lady and send in the referral and make sure it is in our ward. So we contacted her and she was like, I’m pretty sure it is not in your area or even in your mission but if the referral happens to come to your phone its yours.
So we were already super stressed that we were not going to be able to teach her! As we were waiting for the text we got a call from a sister in our ward that knows our new investigator!!!!
She told us that after the bishops meeting in church about hastening the work in our ward, she had prayed that she would be able to find someone for us to teach and baptize by February 5! When she saw Mindy she freaked out and new that the Lord had answered her prayer! We didn’t tell her she might not be in our area.
While we were waiting to see if we would actually get to teach her, we went tracting for 45min to get our minds of the subject! Can I just say that was the longest 45min of my life! We said a prayer to be okay with what we knew was going to happen (the elders in Calabases would teach her and she would still be baptized). When we got to our car and started driving, we both pretty much accepted it... but when we looked at our phone, there was our referral!!! So crazy! The referral lady called us and said, “I put in that address in four times and it shows that she is in your ward each time, so she is yours!!!”
The church is true! It is so amazing to see how a member’s desire to do missionary work really comes to pass!!!
We also met with a less active, she is really cool and is now coming regularly to church! Can you believe she gave us two new investigators this week? So cool!!
Ximena is doing well we had the gospel of Jesus Christ lesson, she loved it! She loves church, she feels the spirit so strong and loves the way it is changing her family! She is still hesitant on baptism but she is definitely getting closer!
The week went really good! It was so great to see that God truly does answer prayers and if you work hard and have faith you are able to see the fruits of your labors!
Sister Hiatt and I are getting along really good! It’s great to be together again for another 6 weeks, it’s the first time that sister Hiatt or I have had the same companion for more than 6 weeks!
The work is good, moving along more rapidly, and we are working together so great! This area has really turned around! It is so great!!! I am having a lot of fun in Agoura hills and we are so busy its crazy.
We also had stake conference and it was a live feed from Salt Lake City and President Eiring spoke it was so good. Elder Neil Anderson spoke as well! It was just a really fun day full of awesome things!
Today was fun we went shopping and the cashier saw my badge she said “It’s so cool your Sister Protector bringing the gospel to California”. We giggled for a while over me being a super hero with super powers and saving people with the knowledge of eternal life!
Anyway hope you all have an awesome week love you all and please continue to pray for missionary opportunities!!!
Love sis proctor
Monday, January 13, 2014
Hello Everyone,
This week was really good!
I have had a little bit of back trouble for the last few days, I went to a chiropractor. I was able to get some things to help my back. I had a beautiful blessing and the President put me on low duty for this week. At least it is not stopping us from seeing miracles!
On Thursday we went to an investigator that we just found. We had a less active give us her address a few Sunday’s ago. We went and knocked on her door, turned out that she gave us the wrong address, but that’s okay, we had a nice man open the door and he said we could come back. Well we did and set up an appointment with him for this last Thursday. We taught him on the grass by his apartment. We taught the whole restoration, it was the most powerful lesson I have ever been a part of. He was so interested and he just wanted to know everything about what we have been teaching. When we were finished teaching, we asked him to be baptized in Feb. he accepted!!!! He told us that he is so grateful that the less active gave us the wrong address because he has been looking for the truth for a long time!
Unfortunately he is 24 so we might have to hand him off to the YSA elders, but at least I got to see the most amazing miracle. Not going to lie but I was a little bummed by this. Sister Hiatt told me it’s hard but if you are obedient and you do what you are told I will be blessed.
This Sunday, as we were sitting in the chapel we saw this woman that we have never seen before. A member asked if she was visiting, and she said no, I’m interested in joining! Sister Hiatt and I were over there in three seconds flat. It turns out she has a friend who is a member in our ward and wants what she has, so she decided to take it into her own hands! So she decided to come to sacrament meeting! So awesome! She loved church and said everything was wonderful, and said that it all makes since to her! We have an appointment tonight, and she wants us to teach her two daughters who are 9 and 11! Just in case you didn’t know the church is true!
I have been blessed to see how much an area can grow when you put love, hard work and prayer into it! I’m also super blessed to stay here another transfer with Sister Hiatt!
Another one of our investigators is so fun to watch, she just loves church! She has been out of town for two weeks and she told us that she has missed church so much! She said she can completely tell how much this church has changed her life!
Well I just love this work! I have been so blessed being here and serving the lord for these short 6 months! I am grateful for all the support my family and friends have given me and I am so grateful to the lord, the church is true!
Love Sister Proctor
This week was really good!
I have had a little bit of back trouble for the last few days, I went to a chiropractor. I was able to get some things to help my back. I had a beautiful blessing and the President put me on low duty for this week. At least it is not stopping us from seeing miracles!
On Thursday we went to an investigator that we just found. We had a less active give us her address a few Sunday’s ago. We went and knocked on her door, turned out that she gave us the wrong address, but that’s okay, we had a nice man open the door and he said we could come back. Well we did and set up an appointment with him for this last Thursday. We taught him on the grass by his apartment. We taught the whole restoration, it was the most powerful lesson I have ever been a part of. He was so interested and he just wanted to know everything about what we have been teaching. When we were finished teaching, we asked him to be baptized in Feb. he accepted!!!! He told us that he is so grateful that the less active gave us the wrong address because he has been looking for the truth for a long time!
Unfortunately he is 24 so we might have to hand him off to the YSA elders, but at least I got to see the most amazing miracle. Not going to lie but I was a little bummed by this. Sister Hiatt told me it’s hard but if you are obedient and you do what you are told I will be blessed.
This Sunday, as we were sitting in the chapel we saw this woman that we have never seen before. A member asked if she was visiting, and she said no, I’m interested in joining! Sister Hiatt and I were over there in three seconds flat. It turns out she has a friend who is a member in our ward and wants what she has, so she decided to take it into her own hands! So she decided to come to sacrament meeting! So awesome! She loved church and said everything was wonderful, and said that it all makes since to her! We have an appointment tonight, and she wants us to teach her two daughters who are 9 and 11! Just in case you didn’t know the church is true!
I have been blessed to see how much an area can grow when you put love, hard work and prayer into it! I’m also super blessed to stay here another transfer with Sister Hiatt!
Another one of our investigators is so fun to watch, she just loves church! She has been out of town for two weeks and she told us that she has missed church so much! She said she can completely tell how much this church has changed her life!
Well I just love this work! I have been so blessed being here and serving the lord for these short 6 months! I am grateful for all the support my family and friends have given me and I am so grateful to the lord, the church is true!
Love Sister Proctor
I got this sweet letter about Mady...
"Here is a photo of twin girls (Sophie on the left and Nati on the right) Your beautiful daughters are teaching Giovanni and Ximena Rossel, their parents. The little girls are not ready to attend nursery so your daughters entertain them so their mother can listen to the lesson in Relief Society. One of the things the Sisters miss are weather forecasts so our family likes to give them a heads up. This week it will be 80 degrees Tuesday through Thursday. Your daughters are obedient, hardworking and very loved here in the Agoura 1st Ward! With love, Sister Brown"
.JPG)
"Here is a photo of twin girls (Sophie on the left and Nati on the right) Your beautiful daughters are teaching Giovanni and Ximena Rossel, their parents. The little girls are not ready to attend nursery so your daughters entertain them so their mother can listen to the lesson in Relief Society. One of the things the Sisters miss are weather forecasts so our family likes to give them a heads up. This week it will be 80 degrees Tuesday through Thursday. Your daughters are obedient, hardworking and very loved here in the Agoura 1st Ward! With love, Sister Brown"
.JPG)
Monday, January 6, 2014
New Years Week
Hi all!
Well this week with New Year’s missionary work was a little bit difficult. It was hard to make appointments with anybody!
We prevailed! We were able to meet with our new investigator on Thursday. He is super depressed. He asked us if there was a way that he could change his life, and of course we said the gospel will change his life! We have learned we have to be very straight forward with him or he won’t keep his commitments.
So A little funny for you, on Thursday night we were driving around looking for people to teach and we drove past one of our potential houses. All the lights were of so we thought that he was not home. So sister Hiatt goes “just go knock real fast just so we can say we did it…”
So I did…and guess what he opened the door!!! Crazy, and I was all by myself! I declared by myself while sister Hiatt was in the car Giggling and struggling to get to me in time!!! So this was the end of my day...we laughed and laughed all evening. We both will remember this forever! You never know what will happen on a mission.
We visited a cute less active who turns 99 this month, her testimony of the church is so strong, we now take one of our less active recent converts to visits with us, and it has slowly strengthening his testimony and has caused him to have a greater desire to hold the priesthood. Yippy!!
We were able to do service for a lot of people. Service softens the hearts of people that would not otherwise let us in. We folded laundry for this one lady, who was really sick and we took food to one of our investigators who had no food in her fridge, (she is great now) she also came to church with us, so service does soften the heart! It is so great!
We tracked a lot and found a lot of good new people to teach!
We found that a lot of people were home on New Year’s; it was great we had the opportunity to teach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ to a lot of people!
It was a very good week!
Love Sister Mady Proctor
Well this week with New Year’s missionary work was a little bit difficult. It was hard to make appointments with anybody!
We prevailed! We were able to meet with our new investigator on Thursday. He is super depressed. He asked us if there was a way that he could change his life, and of course we said the gospel will change his life! We have learned we have to be very straight forward with him or he won’t keep his commitments.
So A little funny for you, on Thursday night we were driving around looking for people to teach and we drove past one of our potential houses. All the lights were of so we thought that he was not home. So sister Hiatt goes “just go knock real fast just so we can say we did it…”
So I did…and guess what he opened the door!!! Crazy, and I was all by myself! I declared by myself while sister Hiatt was in the car Giggling and struggling to get to me in time!!! So this was the end of my day...we laughed and laughed all evening. We both will remember this forever! You never know what will happen on a mission.
We visited a cute less active who turns 99 this month, her testimony of the church is so strong, we now take one of our less active recent converts to visits with us, and it has slowly strengthening his testimony and has caused him to have a greater desire to hold the priesthood. Yippy!!
We were able to do service for a lot of people. Service softens the hearts of people that would not otherwise let us in. We folded laundry for this one lady, who was really sick and we took food to one of our investigators who had no food in her fridge, (she is great now) she also came to church with us, so service does soften the heart! It is so great!
We tracked a lot and found a lot of good new people to teach!
We found that a lot of people were home on New Year’s; it was great we had the opportunity to teach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ to a lot of people!
It was a very good week!
Love Sister Mady Proctor
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Christmas week
Merry Christmas Everyone!
My week was great, it was awesome to feel the Christmas spirit everywhere!
Everyone was friendly and willing to listen to our message! It was great!!!
Tuesday we visited some less actives and gave them homemade cupcakes that we had made for them!
We also visited the retirement home and visited an amazing member of the church! She is 98 years old and has the strongest testimony of the church I have ever heard. We brought one of our less active recent converts with us to visit her and it really made him stronger as a person and strengthened his testimony! He is now on a mission to get permission to take her the sacrament! So hopefully one day soon he will be able to get the priesthood!
On Christmas day we went to district meeting, it’s always nice to be spiritually fed, the zone leaders had some very inspired things that they said that really touched me on such a special day, as Christmas!
I had the wonderful opportunity to talk to my family! It was so great! I loved to see them and hear their voices and bear my testimony both in English and in Portuguese! I can feel that my testimony has grown so much when you compare it to before my mission and now almost 6 months into my mission. I can hardly believe it has been that long! Time is just going by so fast it scares me!
The rest of the Christmas was interesting, we got food poisoning and we were out of commission for the rest of the day.
We went out for a little bit on Thursday and we found 2 new investigators! One was an accident we were trying to contact a less active who came to church that last Sunday, they had no record of her, but she had given us the wrong number, but the apartment we did knock on, turns out to be this man that just lost everything and is looking for a religion!!! So awesome!!
We also contacted a referral that we got from a street contact that also became a new investigator, but she gave us him, he is really depressed and he asked, “Can the thing that you claim to have really change my life?” I was able to testify that I know that this message of the gospel can bring happiness and change his life for the better! He wants that! So cool!
We had exchanges on Friday! I was able to go to Ventura! It was so cool! We did service for this lady that has alpacas! Those are some interesting animals, she is a little bit of a hoarder and wanted us to help her clean out her soap barn (where she makes soap) after we had gone about half way through the barn, we got to share a message. She was a former investigator and did not quite understand why she needed this gospel. Sister Stoker and I explained what our purpose as missionaries are and how Satan tries to blow us down and if we don’t have a firm foundation in Christ, Satan will more easily have control over us.
Sunday was good, our street contact that we actually invited to church came! It was so awesome, we had no idea! She loved it.
This week has gone so great!!! I love it here in California and I just love seeing the growth in this area!
Hope you all have a wonderful year!!
Love you all
Sister Mady Proctor
My week was great, it was awesome to feel the Christmas spirit everywhere!
Everyone was friendly and willing to listen to our message! It was great!!!
Tuesday we visited some less actives and gave them homemade cupcakes that we had made for them!
We also visited the retirement home and visited an amazing member of the church! She is 98 years old and has the strongest testimony of the church I have ever heard. We brought one of our less active recent converts with us to visit her and it really made him stronger as a person and strengthened his testimony! He is now on a mission to get permission to take her the sacrament! So hopefully one day soon he will be able to get the priesthood!
On Christmas day we went to district meeting, it’s always nice to be spiritually fed, the zone leaders had some very inspired things that they said that really touched me on such a special day, as Christmas!
I had the wonderful opportunity to talk to my family! It was so great! I loved to see them and hear their voices and bear my testimony both in English and in Portuguese! I can feel that my testimony has grown so much when you compare it to before my mission and now almost 6 months into my mission. I can hardly believe it has been that long! Time is just going by so fast it scares me!
The rest of the Christmas was interesting, we got food poisoning and we were out of commission for the rest of the day.
We went out for a little bit on Thursday and we found 2 new investigators! One was an accident we were trying to contact a less active who came to church that last Sunday, they had no record of her, but she had given us the wrong number, but the apartment we did knock on, turns out to be this man that just lost everything and is looking for a religion!!! So awesome!!
We also contacted a referral that we got from a street contact that also became a new investigator, but she gave us him, he is really depressed and he asked, “Can the thing that you claim to have really change my life?” I was able to testify that I know that this message of the gospel can bring happiness and change his life for the better! He wants that! So cool!
We had exchanges on Friday! I was able to go to Ventura! It was so cool! We did service for this lady that has alpacas! Those are some interesting animals, she is a little bit of a hoarder and wanted us to help her clean out her soap barn (where she makes soap) after we had gone about half way through the barn, we got to share a message. She was a former investigator and did not quite understand why she needed this gospel. Sister Stoker and I explained what our purpose as missionaries are and how Satan tries to blow us down and if we don’t have a firm foundation in Christ, Satan will more easily have control over us.
Sunday was good, our street contact that we actually invited to church came! It was so awesome, we had no idea! She loved it.
This week has gone so great!!! I love it here in California and I just love seeing the growth in this area!
Hope you all have a wonderful year!!
Love you all
Sister Mady Proctor
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