Tuesday, April 29, 2014

The ups and downs of missionary work!

I will work hard even if people cancel
appointments all day!

4-28-14
Dear Family,
Well...life is missionary work all day long. 
     Yup. This week has been another hard week. Sooooo many people canceled on us or won't respond to our phone calls or won't open the door even when we know they are home. Yup another one of those weeks. But...it's still good. I still love this. I love every. Single. Moment. Sometimes I have to remind myself of that, but other times that thought is constantly in my head, just like how my brain constantly tells me to breathe. 
    Often times I wake up in the mornings feeling like I've been hit by a truck. (Seriously every new day on the mission it gets harder and harder to wake up...you just feel this pleasant exhaustion all the time...unless you’re waking up...thus you feel like you've been hit by a truck) I fumble into the bathroom and take myself in, through the mirror....My hair is a horror-- kinked and rumpled from yesterday’s thrown- together hair style and a night of being crushed on my pillow. My eyes are puffy and red rimmed from the much crying-in-prayer on behalf of the salvation of the families we teach, my companion, my ward mission leaders, my family. My lips are chewed and dry from the climate and little constellations of acne have begun to pock my skin from stress.
    I see it all and think to myself: "Lenise Diane Volmer, what on earth do you think you are trying to accomplish?" But then--probably out of guilt or habit-- I go back and tack the title "Sister" before my name in that little rebellious sentence in my head. That little title has become infinite in regards to naming myself. And in that sense, the title "missionary" has become an engraven and infinite part of who I am. I can't separate that from myself anymore. I can't. I'm not Lenise anymore. I dread the day I go home and am called that every day. (No offense) Myself, as Sister Volmer, is an entirely different person than the one I left at home; littered with negativity, angst, selfishness, and a longing to know who she was. So when I ask myself that little question the answer pops out in the words of Moses 1:39 "(I'm trying) to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." I have accepted God's purpose and have made it my own. I have accepted His will and have made it my own. There is no greater joy than that that is found in serving the Lord with all your heart might, mind and strength. No matter what role you hold in life, if that concept is the basis and foundations of what you live, you will find true, real, blissful, consuming and heaven-like happiness.  There. 
    Just thought you'd want to know (Read that last line in a professor Quirel voice from Harry Potter)
    There have been some serious rough parts to this week, but I shall not dwell upon them. I shall dwell on the awesomeness of it. 
    We are  working with this older couple named T and J. They are the funniest couple. T is a less active but has a powerful testimony, and J isn't a member. I think dad would like them...they are super funny. J has this awesome smoker’s laugh and a raspy voice. T is pretty much the same and she has the best stories to tell. Even though she has this degenerative bone disease, she still insists on being active and gardening, and we always see her out and about when we drive by.  Its super fun to see them...except they are one of the families that keeps canceling because J always gets called into work whenever we have a lesson schedule. Man Satan is a punk, and likes to play dirty...so we just show up a lot there in hopes that J will be there. 
    Thursday was fun because we got to have dinner with one of our favorite families, the Smiths. They have two teenage kids named Brooke and Jeff (Who are freaking hilarious! and let me snap chat their friends super ugly pictures of my face...that backfired once...one of their friends screen shot it and posted it on facebook...no Bueno...) and they have a little daughter named Lily. We watched conference at their house for one of the sessions. They are the best! We love them and we even helped their daughter ask a guy to a dance back when sis Jones was here. Saturday was a bum day. There was absolutely NO ONE who wanted to see us. So we went contacting a bit and then went around offering service...except we forgot our service clothes and it was raining buckets and buckets outside! We tried to do service at the Fausetts house (the Fausetts are another of our favorite families! Their daughter Misty goes out with us a lot on visits and is planning on going on a mission. She’s the BEST!) And we tried to convince them to let us wash their dog...but they said no they couldn't make us do that. haha Then we went to the Eddingtons. Bro Eddington is one of our ward mission leaders and his wife and family are great. When we got there to offer to do service we heard a buzz saw going really loud inside the house. When Sis Eddington opened the door it was almost deafening! We came in and it smelled like saw dust and smoke and the whole house was hazy! She has this island with a wooden counter top that her grandkids keep running into because the counter top sticks out so much! So she was letting her teenage sons shorten it...I thought that was pretty brave. But wait it gets better! So while we are talking to her in the other room about possibly singing in her ward, we hear shouting and suddenly the boys burst into the room yelling "The saw caught on fire!!!!!" We all ran in and it stunk really bad and we all looked at the counter and it was like 3/4 the way cut. Then Sis Eddington touched it and it splintered off and crashed to the floor...the whole edge was rough and splintered and terrible...then we all started laughing. Really hard. The whole situation was hilarious. So we did service by helping clean up all the saw dust and fold laundry. When Bro Eddington got home we all kind of freaked out because we thought he would get mad...and then Sis Eddington and her daughter Kiana (who is our age and engaged) they blamed us!!!  Then we all couldn't stop laughing, even Bro Eddington. It was a great adventure...
    Sunday was fun. We sang in two wards. First with Summer Wilda, (The Wilda Family is another of our favorites. They are AWESOME! And he's our Ward Mission Leader too) We sang Draw Near Unto Me (maybe I'll send you our rehearsal video) and then later in the day we sang Come unto Christ in another ward. It went really well and everybody was like "you two blend really well for only having been companions for a few months." and we were like "Um...we've been singing together for four years..." haha it's so fun to watch people's faces when they hear that we knew each other before the mission.  Dinner Sunday night was the BEST! We met this family named the W.   They were hilarious the entire time we were with them and we couldn't stop laughing. Their food was good too! The entire time we were there I kept thinking "I wish I could spend more time with this family!" It felt like home. But with them all being members, it's doubtful that we would get to see them very often...then out of nowhere, the mom pointed out one of her daughters (Who happened to NOT be her daughter,  just a friend of the other daughters living with them while she worked) and said that she wasn't a member and was interested in the church. YAY!!!! We got so excited! I love that family, and that girl is super prepared for the gospel.  I'm excited to teach her this week! Especially since I'd been praying for new people because we are running out of people to teach. Prayer answered!!!! :)
     We also spent time with the Wilda's and heard a bunch of stories about their mission in Guatemala (they met on their mission and got married after)...they told us about the scary spiders there and Bro Wilda even had a smashed one that he had found in his bed on his mission in a zip lock back that he kept!!! EW!!!! We laughed a lot with them after hearing all their crazy stories!...
     Also Sunday evenings, they do this thing at the Eddingtons house where they invite all the youth, whoever wants to come, and they all just sit around and sing church songs! A ton of them! They all come in Sunday clothes and sing and hang out. I wish I could have done something like that back at home!! That would be the best! Well we went and shared a spiritual thought and that was a lot of fun to just sing and feel the spirit and ask the youth about missionary work and encourage them to be examples.
     Well I love you all and hope life is going well! I miss you all so much! Thank you for all the letters and support! and Thanks to Sis Aichele  for the Easter package! :) It was great!!!!! I love you all!

Love Forever,

Sister Lenise Diane Volmer 

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

It's been one of those days....all week long.

4-21-14
Dear Family,
Where to begin... I have no clue
First time eating Cadbury eggs....the deprived missionaries.
     Last Monday was transfers, which you already know. But yeah. Elder Mateer got transferred to the Wasatch front, along with Sister Barden, and Elder Page our zone leader. So Monday afternoon we went bowling and signed journals. (Every transfer it's like the end of a school year and everyone gathers together and signs journals like yearbooks. It's actually kind of fun)
     Then Monday night we finally met up with the J family again after like a month! They are one of my favorite families that we teach and it was Sis Balero's first time meeting them. They are less active and want to make it to the temple and they have the cutest little kids. I always feel the spirit so strong when we go there and I feel like I'm really making a difference. Whenever I go to teach lessons at houses with little kids there I always get super emotional. The whole time I watch them I think "I want your parents to accept the gospel SO BAD so that you can be raised in the church and have a good and happy life..." It's the same for the R family I told you about. The husband L isn't a member but his wife is less active and they have a little boy named K who is one and he is SO cute! And every time I go over I just want to say "PLEASE be baptized so K can be raised in the church and have a father with the priesthood as an example!" Same goes for another family we are teaching called the Cleggs. They have a bunch of little boys and I'm teaching B who is 10 and T who is 8. They have another little brother who is six. They are so cute and so fun to play around with and tease. Their parents are great but have no drive to go to church and I just look at all their kids and wish they understood the blessings a temple marriage could bring their family and also how it would change their lives...
      We read once a week at the Villa, which is this old folk’s hospital place and all the patients there are great and funny! We started reading a new book called the Ultimate Gift (There is a movie based off of it that I loved!) and it is so good! Both Sis Balero and I can't wait until Tuesdays because then we can find out what happens next!
       We had a lot of cancelations again this week with it being Spring Break here and Easter weekend. 
       On Thursday we got to go to the temple, which was great!!!!!!! One of our Less Actives who I taught back with Sis Jones got to get sealed to her parents and husband so we were able to go and watch and it felt SO good to be able to go back into the temple again! I need that place! It makes me sad that don't get to go there as often any more.
Leslie & Lon,  Lenise has
been with them since day one.
Cattle blocking the road.  I don't think she got
too close.
      On Saturday was the Lon and Leslie Hackford’s Baptism! It was great and super spiritual! They are a missionary's dream come true! They are so golden and they are so faithful. Whenever we went over a new commandment it was always "So how soon can we start paying tithing?" or "Oh I heard about that before, so I stopped chewing and drinking coffee a few weeks ago." PERFECT MUCH?? Gosh I love them! They have two little toddlers who are hilarious and cute! Junior and Gentry.  Adorable! I felt so amazing watching them go under the water. I've been with them from day one, and I was the one who invited them to be baptized at their first lesson. So it was so humbling to be there and watch as they both entered the water and then got confirmed in church yesterday. They are in the Whiterocks branch on the reservation here in Roosevelt. The Ward Mission Leader Brother Crozier is a little older and super funny. He tells us lots of stories about Vietnam and stuff and his wife is a sweet heart. They take us out to dinner every once in a while. But He has been on fire lately finding us people to teach out there in WhiteRocks. Also it was funny because Friday he was like "Can you guys sing in church on Sunday for Easter" and we were like "Um...we only have three days’ notice and we need a pianist..." So he set up a pianist and got it all ready for us and we ended up singing Come Unto Christ for the WhiteRocks branch. It felt good to sing again. We are singing with our other Ward Mission leader's wife named Summer this upcoming Sunday and I'm super excited for that! 

Thanks Leisha!
      Oh crazy thing happened this week. So because I live in a hick town, I came over a hill on a back road and there was a ton of CATTLE in the road and they wouldn't move and they just stared at us... I was scared I would get rammed by them....
     Yesterday for Easter was CRAZY stressful. On holidays nobody wants to see us and we didn't have any lessons. We mostly visited different families and left the Because of Him Easter message with everyone. We had lunch at one of our fellowshipper’s home with her family and had fun watching the little kids Easter egg hunt. 

Visiting with Margie
      Shout out to Leisha for the Easter package that got here on Saturday!!!! I was super excited for the white chocolate bunny! Cool cakes! :) And some of those jelly beans tasted funny... I got one that tasted like popcorn and another that tasted like a green pepper....
          Well I hope you all had a fun Easter and felt the true spirit of Christ. I know I did. I know my Savior Lives and loves me so much. He is so mindful of us and aware. I love you all to death. I may have forgotten some things in this letter...I will try to remember later. I love you and miss you all! Thanks for all the letters and prayers.



Love forever,

Sister Lenise Diane Volmer
Note:  Lenise gets letters each week from Sharee, and Kayla just sent her some new earrings to change up her wardrobe choices. 
 
 
 
 

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Never STOP loving!

The sign has been altered to say
"never STOP loving"

4-14-14
Dear Family.
Not much happened this week.  But still a lot happened.  If that makes any sense at all.
It does to me.
So, #1
It's true, It's true. My 6 month mark is this Wednesday. Wednesday the 16th. I'll have been out for a third of my mission...crazy. In some ways it seems like it has flown by soooooo fast. In others, I feel like it has dragged on forever. But it's true: that one myth that everyone talks about? The older you get, time seriously speeds up. Same goes for the mission. The longer you've been out , the shorter it feels! This last month flew by! And it only gets faster...Sis Balero tells me this all the time...and it kind of scares me. The longer I'm out, the more I never want my mission to end...I love you all, I really do.
So #2
No transfers for us! Yup! You heard right! Sis Balero and I are staying together for at least another 6 weeks in Roosevelt! This will officially become the area I have spent the most time in! (Well I've only ever been in just Orem and here...but still!) 
 Which means:
- we get to accomplish all of our silly side tasks on our mission bucket list.
- We can actually sing in sacrament meeting together in a few weeks!
- We can go on more adventures and birth more animals!!
- I can get back at her for all the times she has popped out of no-where and scared my skirt off! (Almost literally once!) 
- We will have an Easter egg hunt together on Easter!
- We will be able to talk to our families together on mother's day!
- And we shall BAPTIZE ALL THE ATHEISTS IN THE WHOLE WORLD.....(A sister missionary can dream
So yes. I'm stoked. This shall be stupendous!
But the phone kept going off this morning which scared us to death! So for transfers, they only call and tell you if you are being put in a leadership position (AP, ZL, DL, STL, or trainer) and then they post a list on our emails and we get it when we go to emails monday morning. Actual transfers don't happen until Wednesday, and they take place in a stake center right next to the Provo Temple. We gather there and they announce the transfers in the chapel. But no Provo trip for us!
So #3
The weather has been soooooo bi-polar!!! No joke. It was 75-80 degrees all week long! We even did weekly planning outside on friday and came back inside because we were getting too hot! and then this morning I woke up and guess what??...an inch of snow. For reals. Make up your mind!!!! Geez!
Sore throat = no fun!
So #4
I've been super sick this week. Gah. Lame. I've had a slight cold and an ultra-bad sore throat that wouldn't leave me alone. I sucked on so many cough drops I think I got a few sores on my tongue...but yeah. Thursday night I stayed home while Sis Balero went on splits and I watched Legacy with Sis Brighton and wrote in my journal. Being sick as a sister missionary is the absolute WORST! You can't do anything and you feel so unproductive! Sis Balero thought I had strep, but we got it checked by one of our ward mission leader's wife, Sis Corzier, who is a doctor on the reservation, and she said it wasn't. So yep. It's not so bad anymore, but it was not fun!  Goodness.
So #5 
I have the coolest sisters in the world!!!!
Thanks Sharee for the cards!
Thanks Kayla for the earings!!!!! LOVED THEM!
Thanks Leisha for the letter and poem!!! :) Awesome sauce!
Thanks Riley for all your cute notes!
And thanks Kelsy for not dying. I know it's hard to write letters when you're in pain. So you get a rain check!
And I guess I love Carl too. Haha (he hasn’t written in the last few weeks)
So #6

Lumberjack bathroom stalls.
 
I hurt my finger a lot this week. I slammed it in the lumber-jack bathroom stall doors in Neola...only in Neola would they make bathroom stalls out of lumber! And I almost cut it off with some scissors...and I hurt it trying to open some propel...and I got a paper cut...and I banged it on a door. Yup. We were running out of food at the end of this week so we made orange rolls for dinner last night and I burned my finger a little then too. I just haven't been very nice to my hands lately....yup.
So #7 
It's Easter Week. I've decided Easter is my favoritest holiday of all time. But not necessarily for the candy or bunnies or eggs, or even exactly for Christ's Resurrection (though that is SUPER important and I'm so glad that He was able to do that!) but I celebrate it for the act that He did that made Resurrection possible. I am infinitely and overwhelmingly grateful for the atonement. It has been all I can think about lately. I've always had a very personal and soft spot for the Atonement. I think at the beginning of High School was when I started studying it in depth and pondering it a lot. There are so many aspects of it that interest me, sadden me, and make me so so so happy. Because of Him, I can be so much more than I ever thought I could be. I never have to be alone. His atonement makes me want to try my very hardest to make sure that the pain He felt for me was the least amount He could have felt. And when looking back I see so many times where I made Him suffer unnecessarily, I just have to try so much harder now. Gosh. I do. I love Him so much for it. So if you get the chance-- either personally or as a family for Family Home Evening--- watch or read Jeffrey R. Holland's "None Were With Him" He gave that talk my freshman year and it forever changed the way I saw my Savior or even understood the Atonement. It led me to write so many poems, stories, and snap-shots of my life where His sacred act of love came to play in my life. Also go to mormon.org and click the Link Because of Him. The church is trying to flood the internet with that link and show the world the importance of His sacrafice. It is so important. I can't say it enough. His love is so beautiful and I've never felt it more than I have as a missionary. I love you all so much. Happy Easter. I hope you all have a great week, and remember what truly made all the blessings and happiness we experience in this life possible.

Love Forever,
Sister Lenise Diane Volmer

Monday, April 7, 2014

General Conference is the Mormon SuperBowl and Lenise has picked her team!


4-7-14
Dear Family,
Her Dad's favorite thing is his Mom's rice
pudding - she says she's never had it!
Yup.  Long week.  Shall I tell you about it?  Yup.  I shall.
So I shall start at the beginning of the week.
     So, not gonna lie. We got canceled on again...every. single. day. Yup, but alas this week shall be very busy and we won't have prime teaching time taken over by conference and temple trips!
    So this Tuesday, random thought moment. There is this amazing girl named Misty who goes out to lessons with us all the time. She is our age, has bright red hair, and is hilarious! I'm pretty sure we'd be great friends and hang out a lot if I wasn't doing missionary work. But she's working on her mission papers right now. So Tuesday we went to her house to find a new book to read at the old folks home that we do service at (the one we've been reading is sooooo boring and has the lamest plot line in the world!) and while we were over there we saw this funny looking rice on their kitchen counter. So I asked what it was...then they made me EAT IT! It was rice with cinnamon and sugar on it and raisins and milk...It tasted funky, and kind of like oatmeal, but I ate it anyways. Yeah. Random. Whatever. See the pics!
     Then this Thursday we had a zone temple trip! Which was amazing. I love the temple. I love it I love it I love it so much! And I felt really blessed that we got to go every two weeks!...until when the session was over, the zone leaders gathered us all around and informed us that that was our last time at the temple for the next three months. They changed the policy so that now we can only go every quarter of a year and just with our companionships...We were all really sad.  
     But while in Vernal we are allowed to go shopping at Walmart! So we got supplies to make General Conference T-Shirts! Mine was EPIC! I sent pictures, but mine has a picture of Jeffrey R Holland on the front and says "Team Jeffrey R Holland" and then a picture of Dieter F Uchtdorf on the back and says "Team Dieter F. Uchtdorf" and then on the sleeve it has a small picture of President Monson and says "Pres Monson is #1" it was awesome... I shall wear it always!
The Mormon Super Bowl is General Conference
And she has picked her team!
     So Saturday morning for conference we watched it Glenda's house with our new recent converts, Robert and Remo. It was a bunch of fun, and we kept trying to get them to pay attention to the talks. I think Robert got more out of it than Remo...but Robert is 15 and Remo is 9, so that's normal...I loved Holland's talk about the sister missionary and defending our beliefs... so true in our world today, it is only going to get worse. I also loved Elder Andersons talk to about trees and whirlwinds and how they just make us stronger.
     Saturday afternoon we went to the Smith's (This amazing less active family that has returned to activity and is taking temple prep classes!) They laughed a lot at our general conference t-shirts and we had a BBQ with them before conference. I loved Richard G. Scott's talk on helping others feel loved and introducing them to the gospel.
   So funny story! So we went to the stake center to meet the other sisters going to conference the next day so that they could travel to Provo that night and I could also meet up with Sis Christensen who would be my companion while Sis Balero was gone. So we walk in and we totally forgot it was priesthood session...and then I looked down at myself and realized I was wearing purple!!! (The color that the women protesting priesthood stuff were wearing!) We hid really quickly and were laughing really hard. We hid out in the mother’s lounge and listened to the priesthood session while waiting for the other sisters to show up! It was really good! I loved Elder Oaks talk, it was great!
     Then I got to hang out with Sis Christensen for a day! She is this super happy-all-the-time missionary who is really bubbly and pretty! She could talk your ear off but it was fun hearing all her stories and laughing with her. At night we talked a lot and she said she loved being a missionary because it was like a sleepover every night because she never got to do sleepovers when she was growing up, haha!
The next morning we went to one of the Stake presidency's house and watched conference with their family. They have this huge at-home theatre and we watched conference on a big screen! It was pretty cool. I think the Sunday morning session was my favorite! I loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk on gratitude during trials, and then I loved the talk by M. Russell Ballard on Following up! And I loved David A Bednar's talk on being happy even while carrying loads. 
    Then in the afternoon we went to the Felkins (This member family that helps us out a lot and goes out to lessons with us all the time.) We had fun playing conference bingo and throwing Jelly beans at the kids laying on the floor when they fell asleep. It was a good conference weekend.

     You know that song you sent me, called "His Hands". Well I've pretty much become obsessed with it lately and thinking about it a lot. I think a lot about the fact that because He can't be here, I am Christ's hands. I'm representing Him. And as that song talks about healing and lifting others and teaching and helping and pointing to heaven, I realize that that is what I'm trying to do. But when it talks about His hands being clasped in agony, pleading, bleeding in the garden ...and then other hands betraying Him... and then His hands trembling to carry the beam that he would be nailed to...and then his Mighty and gentle hands being pierced by the nails of hate...it made me realize that I need to be those hands too...willing to go through anything, willing to plead, bleed, and tremble in the work of bringing to pass God's great purpose of eternal life for His children. I have to be willing to go through trials, pain, and everything hard to make it possible for others to come unto Christ. And though my hands will never be tied with ropes and swollen, or pierced with nails, I still need to remember the sacrifice of those hands continually and let them lead and heal me so that I can lead and heal others in His name. I'm so thankful for this opportunity to be His hands. I love you and miss you all! I pray for you every day!

Love forever,

Sister Lenise Diane Volmer

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Faith thru trials


Sister Volmer Selfie
3-31-14
Dearest Family,
     I'm not gonna lie. This week was pretty rough.
     We had a bajillion people cancel on us. No joke. We had at least 2-3 lessons a day call us and need to reschedule. So our numbers were  super low...So needless to say I felt pretty discouraged. But it also makes me want to push that much harder to do better this next week. Even though this next week will probably be crazy too. 
     So turns out I'm not going to General Conference this next weekend. I'm actually the only sister missionary in my entire zone who won't be going. I'm not gonna lie, it made me really bummed, especially since I'd been told all week long by everyone that I had a really high chance of being able to go and I started getting really excited about it. Lucky, Sis Balero gets to go for her second time, Lucky duck!
     I have no idea what I'm supposed to do though if I don't have a companion.... All the sisters told me I'd probably be on the other side of the mission for the day and spend it with some other sisters,...We'll see what happens and I'll have to explain it all next week.
So along with all that, I also gave myself a heart attack. 
     I lost my ipad.  Yup. I couldn't find it for a solid three and a half days.  Talk about prolonged hyperventilation! We looked everywhere! and I retraced my steps a billion times. 
      But it wasn't until Mom's voice popped into my head from when I was really little and said "If you can't find it, pray about it, and heavenly father will help you find it."
     So Sis Balero and I did just that. We knelt down at the church and said a prayer. And then we remembered that we had gone to the old folks home Parkside Manor. 
     So we went there and asked the head nurse lady if she had seen my ipad and she said no. But then we got stopped in the hall by one of our elderly less actives who we teach regularly. I think I've told you about Lynn before. He is this hilarious old man who tries to get girlfriends at Parkside and likes to tease us to death. But he stopped us and said "Well if it isn’t my preacher girls! One of ya left your notebook in my room so I saved it for you on my bed-stand. You can go look if you like."
    So we booked it down to his room and found my iPad sitting next to his alarm clock!  Goodness I was so relieved! After stressing about it every day and struggling to plan for our appointments and then having so many cancel, it felt like a huge weight off my shoulders after days of stressing. 
We also had Mission President Interviews this last Saturday. It was great, but also frustrating because they went waaaaay over the scheduled time and we ended up canceling our own appointments to get our interviews done (super frustrating when you already had other people canceling on you)
     But interviews went well. Idk why, but my interviews with president are always way shorter than anyone else's are. They seriously last 5-10 min when everyone else takes like 20 min. But at the end of everyone he always tells me I'm doing a really good job and that I'm super low maintenance. So I think that's good. He always says things to me that are so inspired and help me to not worry about things.
     Well we got to watch the Women's conference and it went really well! I loved the music and every single time the choir started singing I kept wanting to choke on a sob but I pushed it back and was fine. Idk why the spirit talks to me so much through music, but it is seriously the strongest when I sing or listen to singing. I loved the conference and it was great because one of our investigators came! Her name is Vanessa and she is hilarious and awesome! She was on date a few months ago but she canceled it because she was super pregnant! She has her baby now and she's had some adjustment time so she let us start teaching her again. She has the cutest kids! I'm excited to keep teaching her.
     We also spoke in church yesterday, which went ok. We didn't remember that we even had to speak in church until the in the afternoon the day before, so Sis Balero and I freaked out for a while and had to write 20 min talks super-fast! 
     More of our appointments canceled yesterday so we ended up going to our Ward Mission Leader's house (Bro Wilda. He is the BEST! Such a great ward mission leader!) and we love his wife named Summer! They are great! But Summer invited us to sing with her in her ward after she overheard us singing along to the Law of Chastity song together at a lesson. So we are learning this amazing song based on D&C 88 and it sounds so good! I'm excited to sing it! Hopefully we'll be able to sing it before transfers and one of us might get moved away...scary...but we'll see!
     This week has been stressful, but I'm learning more and more to lean on the Lord, His will, and His timing. I read the Fourth Missionary again this week and it opened my eyes all over again to how much I am in charge of myself, how I can change myself, and how I need to put my will into the hands of Heavenly Father. I'm not in control. This is His kingdom. And I'm accepting it more and more every day! Being a missionary is so humbling. I am constantly being reminded that he is in control and that the end result is always happiness for those who choose to accept His will and make it a part of everything that they are. I'm glad for challenges. I'm glad for trials. I'm glad I have these opportunities to learn, to grow, and to see myself the way my heavenly father sees me. I love Him so much for giving me this opportunity. The more I'm on my mission, the more I see that this decision and these events were always in His plan for me, I just didn't know it. And I've become so much happier as a missionary, and I'm stoked and ready to see what else he has in store for me to shape and mold me into somebody new and better every day. I love you all and I miss you all. Thanks for the prayers, letters, and emails. I love you (can I say it enough?)

  Love forever,

Sister Lenise Diane Volmer